Aging in Place Since the COVID-19 Pandemic Onset: A Qualitative Study of Neighborhood Engagement

The COVID-19 pandemic may fundamentally change neighborhood environments and ways of aging in place. This research aimed to investigate perceptions of and engagement in neighborhoods since the pandemic onset among online survey respondents of the COVID-19 Coping Study. We analyzed a random stratified sample of 500 open-ended responses collected July-September 2020 with quotas for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and education to match the US population aged 55+. Qualitative thematic analysis identified both increased and decreased local activity and varying levels of social interaction, support, and civic engagement. Community characteristics including age structure, socioeconomic diversity, density, housing patterns, weather, and social infrastructure were related to neighborhood perceptions. These interacted with personal characteristics such as duration of residence, living arrangements, family closeness, health status, and preferred lifestyle. Results highlight coping strategies among aging adults and their neighbors, sources of individual and community vulnerability, and opportunities to strengthen social infrastructure and resiliency within neighborhoods.

Open-Mindedness: Report on the Study of Social and Emotional Skills of Chinese Adolescents (IV)

As one of the five dimensions of social and emotional ability, open-mindedness is derived from the openness factor of the "Big Five Personality", which describes one’s willingness to try and accept novel experiences. People with a high level of open-mindedness are more creative and artistic, while those with low level of openness are more obedient to tradition and pragmatic, but lack of innovation. According to the OECD research framework, open-mindedness includes tolerance, curiosity and creativity. This study is based on data collected from 10-year-old and 15-year-old students in Suzhou city participating in the OECD social and emotional ability assessment. It uses descriptive statistics, difference testing and regression analysis to present the performance of Suzhou students’ open-mindedness. This allows the study to provide reference for the accurate assessment of teenagers' social and emotional abilities, in addition to further developing the quality of education in China. The study presents data results from the following three parts: the first part presents the overall score of open-mindedness, the correlation between open-mindedness and other sub-abilities, and the age difference of open-mindedness (comparison between 10 and 15 years old group), gender difference, urban-rural difference, and the difference between general high and vocational high; the second part presents the factors influencing open-mindedness through regression analysis, including background variables, individual factors, family upbringing, teacher factors, and school factors; the third part presents the effects of tolerance, curiosity and creativity on academic achievement (Chinese, math, art), educational expectation, global consciousness, closeness to family, closeness to others, health, life happiness, life satisfaction, test anxiety and other life outcome variables of 10 and 15 year old students through regression analysis.

Reframing the Narrative

The authors apply a positive youth development (PYD) approach to examine self-descriptors of Roma adolescents in domains of positive self-appraisal, self-knowledge and goals, and positive interpersonal relationships. They first quantitatively explore the relationships among self-esteem, ethnic identity, and self-description domains, then use qualitative content analysis to explore youths’ sense of self across domains including future orientations, relationships, and personal characteristics. Intragroup comparisons of self-esteem revealed more positive, less critical self-references among youth with high self-esteem. Additionally, youth with higher ethnic identity scores invoked more descriptors that involved culture or group differences. Despite experiences of isolation and negative self-evaluation, self-descriptors also depicted a deep sense of family closeness and meaningful friendships with peers. The conclusions of this study underscore the existence of positive self-systems among Roma youth despite complex life challenges.

Impact of COVID-19 on resource families: Unique challenges and strengths

The emergence of COVID-19 forced significant adaptations for families worldwide. Children and youth in foster care and their caregivers or resource parents experience unique stressors. The current study aimed to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and “Safer-at-Home” orders on resource parents in Los Angeles County. Resource parents (n = 648) were surveyed about COVID-19 concerns, positive impact and strengths, access to and helpfulness of provided resources, visits with birth parents, children joining their families during the pandemic, and transition to telehealth. Between one-third and half of resource parents with foster or foster-adoptive children in their home reported significant anxiety about issues such as getting infected, uncertainty about the future, and financial hardship. In contrast, most resource parents reported some perceived benefits, such as increased family closeness. The most helpful resource reported was video visitation by social workers. A quarter of resource parents experienced in-person birth parent visits. Developmentally, parents with a foster or fosteradoptive child 0–5 years old reported significantly more worries related to COVID-19, while those with children of multiple ages reported feeling less valued as a resource parent and expressed more concerns about children falling behind with school, mental health and developmental services, birth parent visits, and delayed reunification. Lastly, younger parental age, fewer foster children in the home, and the less negative impact from COVID-19 a resource parent reported having were associated with an increased likelihood of resource parents welcoming a child into their home. Implications for policy and recommendations for practice are discussed.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity of Retrospective Assessments of the Quality of Childhood Parenting: Prospective Evidence From Infancy to Age 26 Years

Retrospective self-report assessments of adults’ childhood experiences with their parents are widely employed in psychological science, but such assessments are rarely validated against actual parenting experiences measured during childhood. Here, we leveraged prospectively acquired data characterizing mother–child and father–child relationship quality using observations, parent reports, and child reports covering infancy through adolescence. At age 26 years, approximately 800 participants completed a retrospective measure of maternal and paternal emotional availability during childhood. Retrospective reports of childhood emotional availability demonstrated weak convergence with composites reflecting prospectively acquired observations ( R2s = .01–.05) and parent reports ( R2s = .02–.05) of parenting quality. Retrospective parental availability was more strongly associated with prospective assessments of child-reported parenting quality ( R2s = .24–.25). However, potential sources of bias (i.e., depressive symptoms and family closeness and cohesiveness at age 26 years) accounted for more variance in retrospective reports (39%–40%) than did prospective measures (26%), suggesting caution when using retrospective reports of childhood caregiving quality as a proxy for prospective data.

Technology Makes the Heart Grow Fonder? A Test of Media Multiplexity Theory for Family Closeness

Technology can be helpful for family relationships. Media multiplexity theory illustrates that the more technological connections (i.e., multimodality) an individual has with their family members, the stronger that relationship. Yet, this theory assumes that spending time face to face (FtF) is equitable to multimodality for relationship quality. The goal of this study is to examine the impact of online and offline interactions for the quality of family relationships. Data are from undergraduate students completing an online survey (N = 154). Results reveal that spending time FtF is better for the quality of relationships for one parent, but not the other. Although FtF was not significantly different for grandparent and sibling relationships, participants felt closer to siblings when they texted. Correlational analyses revealed that individuals scoring high in collectivism report that spending time FtF is associated with higher relationship closeness and love, particularly with parents, but not other family members. These results provide some evidence for the importance of spending quality time with family members, particularly for those who identify as collectivistic.

Formative Development of a Technology-Based Physical Activity Intervention for Grandparents and Grandchildren

Physical inactivity is a major public health issue among older adults and children. This study presents preliminary results that will inform the development of a technology-based physical activity intervention for grandparents and grandchildren (ages 6–12 years old). The authors used an iterative user-centered design framework to gather quantitative data from grandparents (n = 35) and subsequently invited a subset of 12 of them to engage in qualitative interviews. Participants were 63.1 ± 9.8 years old, 80% female, 64% U.S.-born, 43% Hispanic, 66% single, and 40% <$15K income. The majority of grandparents reported mobile device proficiency, very close relationships with their grandchildren, and interest in participating in an intergenerational intervention. Four key themes related to family closeness, dynamics, routines, and technology informed intervention development. Next steps involved a pilot trial using Fitbits and a fully functioning technology-based prototype. Grandparents are uniquely positioned within their families to serve as agents of change in health-promoting interventions.

The Sunrise Model Approach to the Nutritional Status of Toddlers at the Kupang District Primary Health Center

Nutritional problems in toddlers are still a major problem in East Nusa Tenggara Province. The 2018 Basic Health Research results show the percentage of malnourished babies aged 0-23 months in Indonesia was 3.8%, and malnutrition was 11.4%. East Nusa Tenggara is the province with the highest percentage of malnutrition among children aged 0-23 months in 2018. Nutritional problems have broad dimensions, such as socio-economic, cultural, educational, and environmental issues. The research objective is to determine the correlation between the sunrise model's factors and the toddler's nutritional status in the Kupang district. This study is a quantitative observational study with a cross-sectional design. The sampling technique in this study used accidental sampling. The research sample consisted of 169 people at 26 health centers. The results showed that there was a relationship between the use of health technology with the nutritional status of children under five (p=0.023), religious beliefs with family philosophy (p=0.024), family closeness (p=0.005), cultural and lifestyle factors (p=0.007), family economy (p=0.015), parental education (p=0.026), all variables have a significant relationship with the nutritional status of infants/toddlers (p=<0.05). It is concluded that there is a significant relationship between the factors in the sunrise model and the nutritional status of children under five in Kupang district. It is suggested that the sunrise model approach can be used to fix nutritional problems in children under five in Kupang Regency.