PSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AMONG THE CHILEAN AND SPANISH ELDERLY: A STUDY OF SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS

Between 2020 and 2023, the world population experienced the Covid-19 pandemic, in which Chile and Spain developed different strategies to deal with this crisis. When considering mortality rates, the elderly population was the group most affected by Covid-19. Social Representations (SR) are therefore a tool for understanding how this group has experienced the pandemic. The aim was to understand the SRs of COVID-19 among Chilean and Spanish elderly people. This was a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study with cross-sectional data and a non-probabilistic convenience sample. There were 184 participants in total, aged between 60 and 101 (M:66.69 SD: 6.66), living in Chile and Spain. The instruments used were: I) Socio-demographic questionnaire; II) Semi-structured interview. The data from I was analyzed using SPSS v. 26, while II was analyzed using Iramuteq v. 0.7. As a result, the SRs mainly showed the group's fear, insecurity and uncertainty in relation to the pandemic period. Thus, the study's objective was achieved and it is hoped that it will contribute to the development of post-pandemic public policies that bring real improvements to elderly populations.