The COVID-19 pandemic entailed restrictions that hampered face-to-face interactions and social gatherings. In this paper, we examine whether loneliness increased to different extents among age groups due to these restrictions, and if these differences were mediated by specific life course conditions. Based on longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel, our results show that loneliness increased disproportionately among younger individuals during the pandemic. This finding aligns with the social convoy model and the socioemotional selectivity theory, which postulate a decline of social network size over the life course. It also corresponds to findings indicating a decrease in contact frequency with increasing age. Individuals aged 30 years and above experienced a lower increase in loneliness when they lived in shared households; however, this protective effect was not observed for younger individuals. Living together with a partner, being male, and not anticipating health complications in case of a COVID-19 infection moderated the increases of loneliness, but they were independent of age.

COVID-19 大流行带来的限制阻碍了面对面的互动和社交聚会。在本文中，我们研究了由于这些限制，不同年龄组的孤独感是否有不同程度的增加，以及这些差异是否是由特定的生命历程条件介导的。根据瑞士家庭小组的纵向数据，我们的结果表明，在大流行期间，年轻人的孤独感不成比例地增加。这一发现与社会护航模型和社会情感选择性理论相一致，该理论假设社交网络规模在生命过程中会下降。这也与表明接触频率随着年龄增长而减少的研究结果相符。30岁及以上的人住在共同的家庭中时，孤独感的增加幅度较小；然而，对于年轻人来说，没有观察到这种保护作用。与伴侣同居、身为男性以及未预见到感染 COVID-19 时出现健康并发症会缓解孤独感的增加，但这些影响与年龄无关。