Seligman has long argued that the human mindset during unavoidable, perilous events is not one of giving up and giving way (1, 2). People also have the capacity to see them as neither permanent nor beyond their capacity to deal with. Everyday people can and do see “the positive side of life” (2, p. 231) and so do positive things. They might engage in activities that ideally hold them captive or find some sense of meaning through being of service to individuals or to contribute to a larger cause. What each element looks like is determined by the person living that life. In theory, people are also motivated to accomplish things, to get things done and as best as they can, regardless of whether their acting on these motives benefits other aspects of their well-being such as their relationships with other people, their health, or their capacity for positive emotions (1, 2).

Research studies before COVID-19 speak to older people’s capacity to see the positive side of life. Older Japanese people embracing rather than fearing what the future holds were seemingly staving off losses in their physical and mental functioning over four years of time (3). Older Turkish people who were doing things that are meaningful and gave them a sense of purpose appeared to be less prone to depression (4). Older Spaniards more inclined to see opportunities for own-growth and to have a sense of purpose in life (5) were reporting lesser symptoms of anxiety. Norwegian contemporaries taking part in activities when they wanted to (6) and Thai older adults doing what they wanted to the best of their ability (7) appeared to stave off depression and anxiety. Some older German people believing that they were actively contributing to society in some way reported lower depressive symptoms (8). A meta-analysis across 10 countries revealed that older people with similar mindsets were generally better able to persevere through adversity (9).

A pandemic can put anyone’s mental resolve to the test and is fertile ground for learning what everyday people in situations beyond their control are capable of (10). In a pandemic like COVID-19, people live with very real threats to their health and safety, connectedness to others, and paid and/or unpaid occupations (11). Early on in the pandemic, it was public knowledge that it was largely older Canadians (12) and older people abroad (13) who were dying from COVID-19. Older Canadians were also being stereotyped as vulnerable in outlets such as government documents (14) and newspapers (15). Aligning with Seligman’s sentiments (1, 2) however were older Canadians’ statistically significantly lesser likelihood of perceiving COVID-19 as a negative event (16) and fewer symptoms of depression (17) than midlife adults, and lesser anxiety symptoms (18) as also compared to younger adult counterparts. Similar patterns were reported among older Americans (19) and Brits (20). Older Canadians’ capacity to take action to manage a wide range of anxiety with more success than indifference led to their being characterized as perseverant (21). These findings support others’ observing that as people get older, they can also get better at regulating negative emotions (22–24).

Seligman theorizes that people’s seeking to be of service to others is not contingent upon it being self-beneficial (1, 2). Recent research also tells us that some older people find some semblance of meaning in being of service to others, and perhaps even better health and relationships with others. Older people in Czechoslovakia, Germany and Hong Kong were putting their knowledge and skills to use through volunteering and mentoring simply because it was a meaningful thing for them to do (25). Across 16 European countries, non-partisan volunteers stepping out of their comfort zones were also learning new things and trusting others again (26). Older Brazilians were reporting higher mental health than self-oriented age-peers, and over one year of time (27). Self-worth among Canadians in their 50s has been linked to opportunities for setting a good example for others and passing on the benefits of their life experiences (28). Serving communities in some capacity can have snowball effects on older people’s lives (29). Volunteering has given some 13,000 older Americans a greater sense of purpose in life over 4 years of time (30).

Mayr and colleagues also point out that everyday older people who engage in work for others’ benefit likely do so from a genuinely good place (31). Before COVID-19 and across 16 countries, being a volunteer or a mentor in later life was also associated with emotional fulfillment, and more so than one’s own notoriety (32). Among some 109,000 Asian and African older adults, a desire to help others in need with everyday tasks and providing emotional support was negligibly associated with social status, including how wealthy or educated you are (33). For some older Italians, happiness was not statistically significantly associated with putting yourself first, but rather with helping others and seeing someone other than yourself prosper (34).

Well-intentioned older people also want to do things that make a difference in others’ lives in the here-and-now (35). During the first year of COVID-19, some older Canadian women equated being happy with doing something good for others now, such as picking up the phone rather than waiting for them to call you (36). Focusing on getting by one day at a time helped Americans in their early 60s feel less mentally distressed when COVID-19 lockdowns ended (37). When physical distancing ended, older people across Canada advised age-peers to focus on what they could do to safely re-enter open spaces, not what they would not be able to do if they caught COVID-19 (38).

The broader message from this literature is, as Seligman (1, 2) believes, that everyday people can see the positive side of life and to act accordingly, such as through being of service to others (1, 2). Some older people have reported finding some sense of meaning, chances to get to know others, and perhaps even less anxiety. In our eyes, older people serving their communities in some capacities are also doing things that defy vulnerability stereotyping. Older people are not all the same; they contribute to society through a variety of activities and for the collective good (39). After public health measures were lifted, older Canadians shared social isolation remedies for peers nationwide and for a knowledge mobility product, despite a good number feeling severely anxious (38). This past year, Taiwanese people seeing themselves as influencers, positively emotionally connected to people and to places across 17 districts, reported living more satisfying lives (40). People who seek out opportunities to do and to see what they are capable of, albeit as a volunteer or a companion, position themselves for better mental health (41).

Pandemics can limit and interfere with how any of us typically serve our communities, such as through mandated public health measures, and can be anxiety provoking (11). This study explores pandemic-related anxiety management among two groups of older people, when mandated COVID-19 public health measures were lifted. With this in mind, we use network analyses to describe how average older people were managing their pandemic-related anxiety. Variable systems or networks of nodes and links can help researchers describe mechanisms behind how people may go about protecting their mental health (42). A second network analysis among a generally older, healthier, and more educated peer group gave us some context within which to better interpret average older Canadians’ observed coping strategy networks.

Univariate statistics were generated for participants’ self-identified personal and health characteristics, anxiety levels, and coping strategies using SPSS V27.0. Statistically significant between-group differences across all such categorical variables were identified using Bootstrap for Independent-Samples Proportions Tests (51), with Phi as a measure of effect size (52). Network analyses were conducted using R Version 3.3.1 with the bootnet, ggraph, and NetworkComparisonTest packages. We wanted to describe and compare networks of strategies for managing pandemic-related anxiety between average and seemingly advantaged older Canadians.

Our study is a descriptive network analysis of e-survey data collected from older Canadians when mandated COVID-19-related public health measures were lifted. While the COVID-19 pandemic has ended (61), there are lessons to be learned about what every day older people can be capable of when our mental resolve is put to the test. At the heart of any large-scale traumatic event like a pandemic, threats to our physical safety, particularly when self-relevant, frighten us most (62). During the COVID-19 pandemic, how old you were largely determined your risk for receiving urgent, intensive, and end-of-life care after catching COVID-19 (16). Older Canadians were categorized as most vulnerable to all such risks (17). They were most afraid of lingering physical threats even after the pandemic (63). However, in having practiced the lion’s share of COVID-19-related public health measures (64), they ended up being the least likely age group in Canada to be in physical harms-way (15).

Likewise, researchers in large-scale studies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic were deeming age a factor largely determining a person’s prospects for good mental health (19–23). Both CS and NS responders were using all 16 coping strategies, albeit variably frequently. NS responders were also using the very same strategies most often to manage pandemic-related anxiety. For example, both most often accepted that some fear and anxiety was normal or were kind to themselves. Just like CS responders, NS responders found parting from their electronic devices and relaxing and meditating least appealing. While challenging worries and anxious thoughts figured more prominently in the anxiety recovery work of CS responders and remembering that you are resilient was most central to NS responders, both groups undertook a wide array of anxiety recovery work. Challenging and remembering appeared to function as strategic stepping stones. Hence the greater presence of connections between challenging and remembering and many other coping strategies. For the NS, for example, remembering that you are resilient was connected with taking a break from COVID-19 news and dealing with problems in a structured way. For CS responders, challenging worries and anxious thoughts was connected to feeling that some anxiety was normal, and to remembered resilience. We saw more common than different recovery work, particularly with all coping strategy difference effect sizes being small.

All such common ground meant that NS responders’ self-identified networks of coping strategies were as predictable and as stable as CS responders’ networks. And while the strength of connections between strategies made NS responder networks appear denser, the connections between them were not remarkably stronger than CS responders’ network connections. The connection between staying active and getting enough sleep and rest is another case in point.

In having described and compared coping strategy networks among two different groups of older people to manage pandemic-related anxiety, we share some thoughts that could inform future research. First and foremost, everyday resources like advanced education enhance anyone’s capacity to earn money to be able to live in safe spaces and have enough food to eat (41). Education and income are things that largely determine our being in good health, particularly for marginalized groups (65). In Canada, older people have the lowest annual incomes (66) and are the most likely demographic to have less than secondary school education (67). Our NS responders were more likely to not have a diploma, degree or certificate (21% versus 0% in the CS). Differences in the proportion of CS (89.6%) versus NS (20.8%) responders reporting university education were large. NS responders were more likely to self-identify as being poor or fair and less likely to perceive their health as good to excellent, but to a much lesser extent. Despite these differences, NS responders fared as well as CS responders with respect to pandemic-related anxiety. While our CS responders were more likely to self-identify as being minimally anxious, a similar proportion of NS responders self-identified as mildly anxious, and far more of them reported having no anxiety at all. Our NS responders were significantly more prone to severe anxiety; however, this difference was the smallest observed difference.

With respect to managing anxiety, CS responders were significantly more likely than NS responders to seek support from loved ones. For both groups, however, seeking support from loved ones was connected with seeking credible information about COVID-19. This common ground makes sense given that authoritative health messaging is more often than not risk-elevating messaging that can heighten anyone’s anxiety (68, 69). Differences in either group’s propensity to seek support or credible information were small. Self-compassion seems to deter older people from gravitating toward unsavory coping behaviors like self-deprecation, and from negative emotions and mental stress (70). While being kind to yourself figured more prominently in CS responders’ anxiety management repertoires, across both groups, being kind was associated with dealing with problems in a structured way. Other older people who settle on dealing with problems as they surface, one at a time, report fewer symptoms of depression (71). Differences in either group’s propensity for being kind or dealing with problems in a structured way were very small.

Our findings as a whole suggest that NS responders were engaging in anxiety recovery work that was as diverse as a somewhat older and generally healthier, more educated group of peers. Observed differences in the central importance of “Remembering self as resilient” and “Challenging worries and anxious thoughts” were not sufficient enough to make the strength of connectedness or the overall configuration of either group’s coping strategy network remarkably different. One need only overlay the two networks to see such common ground. Observed differences in proneness to no anxiety at all or to severe anxiety between NS and CS responders were also small. Our NS responders’ observed capacity to manage pandemic-related anxiety was in keeping with a somewhat older, and generally healthier, more educated group of peers.

These findings have important implications for researchers inquiring about older people’s pandemic-related anxiety management, and for older people themselves. Mentally healthy recovery work in the aftermath of COVID-19 is likely as complex and long standing (72). While it is beyond the scope of a cross-sectional network analysis to infer cause and effect linkages between strategies (73), evidence of replication of how people cope during large-scale disasters can be compelling (5). A strength of this study is its comparison of the anxiety recovery work of two different groups of older Canadians, using the same survey data collected at the same key turning point in the pandemic.

Our study has limitations, however. Our comparison sample was recruited by convenience, through an e-blast. Convenience samples are systematically biased samples and researchers who primarily rely on them are said to end up with findings of limited external validity (74). Convenience sampling is also a timely and cost-effective method for learning about anxiety recovery work. Practically speaking, convenience sampling provided us with a feasible frame of reference in which to situate and to make sense of our NS findings. We were able to observe two different groups of older people adeptly managing anxiety within the context of a pandemic, and at a similar time.

Along with other older volunteers (25–27, 30, 32–34) and mentors (28, 32), average older Canadians in this study were sharing what managing anxiety looks like for them when mandated COVID-19 public health measures were lifted. Researchers studying people’s experiences across some 49 life years describe older people seeing whatever life throws at them as a chance to grow as flourishing (75). In contrast, negative emotions like anxiety can limit a person’s new experiences and ideas, which limit their social interactions and ability to acquire new skills and knowledge, negatively impacting overall well-being (76). So, to have a fulfilling and flourishing life it’s essential to experience more positive emotions and fewer negative ones. The presence of mental health characterized by high levels of emotional, social, and psychological well-being is considered a state of flourishing. Mental illness symptoms such as anxiety are inversely related to flourishing (77, 78). Some older Australians have conceived of the absence of hard-to-manage worries and anxieties as an element of flourishing (79). People who flourish are also said to be enterprising people working for the collective good (80, 81) using their resources at hand (31). Our somewhat younger, and less educated and healthy NS responders were also helping us to develop Cooking up calm, and to enhance public awareness in other ways such as through Global News, Renaissance Magazine, Good Times Magazine. However, because we did not directly measure flourishing, we cannot claim that our responders were. Any claims that we make here are purely interpretive and speculative.

Another important limitation concerns the lack of statistical control for demographic covariates such as age, education, and health status. The nationally representative and convenience samples differed substantially in these variables, which could partly explain observed differences observed in the network structures. Although widely used Ising model implementations and network comparison tools currently do not support covariate-adjusted estimation, a limitation noted in network methodology literature (82). Future studies could address this through matched subsamples, stratified analyses, or Bayesian approaches that allow for the inclusion of covariates (e.g., BGGM) (83). Until such methodologies become standardized in network science, interpretations of between-group differences should remain cautious and situated within the broader demographic context of each sample.

This descriptive network analysis study revealed that everyday older Canadian people were putting an equally broad repertoire of coping strategies to use at a particularly frightening time in the COVID-19 pandemic, and as predictably and as sufficiently stably as a somewhat older, and healthier and more educated group of peers.