key: cord-0857316-ys538ug1
authors: Cavallini, Elena; Rosi, Alessia; van Vugt, Floris Tijmen; Ceccato, Irene; Rapisarda, Filippo; Vallarino, Martine; Ronchi, Luca; Vecchi, Tomaso; Lecce, Serena
title: Reply to the Letter on “Closeness to friends explains age differences in positive emotional experience during the lockdown period of COVID-19 pandemic”
date: 2021-09-08
journal: Aging Clin Exp Res
DOI: 10.1007/s40520-021-01974-0
sha: 9ef38d19dcf4cacd7bb0236f2b7da31346c88a41
doc_id: 857316
cord_uid: ys538ug1

nan

We would like to thank Dr. Rujittika Mungmunpuntipantip and Prof. Viroj Wiwanitkit for their interest in our manuscript "Closeness to friends explains age differences in positive emotional experience during the lockdown period of COVID-19 pandemic" [1] . In our article, we investigated age differences in positive and negative emotional experiences and whether the perception of closeness to family/friends and the engagement in daily activities during pandemic explained such age-related differences. We found that the perception of more closeness to friends, but not the engagement in daily activities, explained differences in positive emotional experience.

Dr. Rujittika Mungmunpuntipantip and Prof. Viroj Wiwanitkit questioned about the difficulties in using social network in some areas, such as those in Asia, because of limited infrastructure [2] . We would like to specify that we used the expression "social network" referring to its original meaning that is social contacts with friends, family, or colleagues. We asked participants to report their perception of closeness and, given its critical role in promoting emotional wellbeing, especially in older participants and according to the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory [3, 4] , we suggest increasing the closeness to social network. This is possible through phone calls or video chats, during the pandemic period, or encounters in presence, during the "normal" life. Hence, we do not consider the social network as a dedicated website or another application which allows users to communicate and share information. Instead, we refer to the social network as the different groups of people that individuals know.

Funding This work was supported by funding from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN 2017 no. 201755TKFE) and from Italian Ministry of Health (Ricerca Corrente 2020) to Tomaso Vecchi. The authors did not receive support from any other organizations for the submitted work.

Closeness to friends explains age differences in positive emotional experience during the lockdown period of COVID-19 pandemic

Closeness to social network and COVID-19

Taking time seriously: a theory of socioemotional selectivity

Selective narrowing of social networks across adulthood is associated with improved emotional experience in daily life