BACKGROUND: Social isolation and loneliness (SIL) worsens mortality and other outcomes among older adults as much as smoking. We previously tested the impact of the HOW R U? intervention using peer support from similar-aged volunteers and demonstrated reduced SIL among older adults discharged from the emergency department (ED). Generativity, defined as \"the interest in establishing and guiding the next generation,\" can provide an alternative theoretical basis for reducing SIL via intergenerational programs between members of younger and older generations. The current protocol will examine the impact of younger intergenerational volunteers providing the HOW RU?
METHODS:
METHODS: In this randomized clinical trial, we will compare the following three arms: (1) the standard same-generation peer support HOW R U? intervention, (2) HOW R U? intervention delivered by intergenerational volunteers, and (3) a common wait-list control group. Outcome assessors will be blinded to the intervention. Trained volunteers will deliver 12 weekly telephone support calls. We will recruit participants ≥ 70 years of age with baseline loneliness (six-item De Jong loneliness score of 2 or greater) from two EDs. Research staff will assess SIL, depression, quality of life, functional status, generativity, and perceived benefit at baseline, at 12 weeks, and 24 weeks post-intervention.
CONCLUSIONS: We hypothesize participants receiving the intergenerational intervention will show improved outcomes compared to the control group and peer support HOW R U?
METHODS: We also hypothesize that participants with higher perceptions of generativity will have greater reductions in SIL than their lower generativity counterparts. Aging is experienced diversely, and social interventions combatting associated SIL should reflect that diversity. As part of a program of research following the Obesity-Related Behavioral Intervention Trials (ORBIT) model, the findings of this RCT will be used to define which intervention characteristics are most effective in reducing SIL.
BACKGROUND: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05998343 Protocol ID:21-0074E. Registered on 24 July 2023.

Behavioral neuroscience has dealt with short-term decision making but has not defined either daily or longer-term life actions. The individual brain interacts with the society/world, but where that point of action is and how it interacts has never been an explicit scientific question. Here, we redefine value as an intrapersonal driver of medium- and long-term life actions. Value has the following three aspects. The first is value as a driving force of action, a factor that commits people to take default-mode or intrinsic actions daily and longer term. It consists of value memories based on past experiences, and a sense of values, the source of choosing actions under uncertain circumstances. It is also a multilayered structure of unconscious/automatic and conscious/self-controlled. The second is personalized value, which focuses not only on the value of human beings in general, but on the aspect that is individualized and personalized, which is the foundation of diversity in society. Third, the value is developed through the life course. It is necessary to clarify how values are personalized through the internalization of parent-child, peer, and social experiences through adolescence, a life stage almost neglected in neuroscience. This viewpoint describes the brain and the behavioral basis of adolescence in which the value and its personalization occur, and the importance of this personalized value as a point of interaction between the individual brain and the world. Then the significance of personalized values in psychiatry is discussed, and the concept of values-informed psychiatry is proposed.

We examined whether a virtual intergenerational activity was feasible and effective for reducing ageism among older (OA) and younger adults (YA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. OA (n=16) and YA (n=15) completed a virtual intergenerational activity, and analysis was conducted for a subsample (n=5 OA, n=10 YA) who completed pretest-posttest ageism surveys. Paired samples t-tests showed no significant ageism change in attitudes towards OA. OA\'s ageist attitudes towards YA (p=.012) were significantly reduced. Open-ended responses revealed several themes (e.g., challenging stereotypes). Preliminary evidence demonstrated the feasibility of this activity. A larger sample size is needed to better determine efficacy.

During maturation oocytes undergo a recently discovered mitochondrial proteome remodeling event in flies1, frogs1, and humans2. This oocyte mitochondrial remodeling, which includes substantial changes in electron transport chain (ETC) subunit abundance1,2, is regulated by maternal insulin signaling1. Why oocytes undergo mitochondrial remodeling is unknown, with some speculating that it might be an evolutionarily conserved mechanism to protect oocytes from genotoxic damage by reactive oxygen species (ROS)2. In Caenorhabditis elegans, we previously found that maternal exposure to osmotic stress drives a 50-fold increase in offspring survival in response to future osmotic stress3. Like mitochondrial remodeling, we found that this intergenerational adaptation is also regulated by insulin signaling to oocytes3. Here, we used proteomics and genetic manipulations to show that insulin signaling to oocytes regulates offspring\'s ability to adapt to future stress via a mechanism that depends on ETC composition in maternal oocytes. Specifically, we found that maternally expressed mutant alleles of nduf-7 (complex I subunit) or isp-1 (complex III subunit) altered offspring\'s response to osmotic stress at hatching independently of offspring genotype. Furthermore, we found that expressing wild-type isp-1 in germ cells (oocytes) was sufficient to restore offspring\'s normal response to osmotic stress. Chemical mutagenesis screens revealed that maternal ETC composition regulates offspring\'s response to stress by altering AMP kinase function in offspring which in turn regulates both ATP and glycerol metabolism in response to continued osmotic stress. To our knowledge, these data are the first to show that proper oocyte ETC composition is required to link a mother\'s environment to adaptive changes in offspring metabolism. The data also raise the possibility that the reason diverse animals exhibit insulin regulated remodeling of oocyte mitochondria is to tailor offspring metabolism to best match the environment of their mother.

Depression, suicidal behavior, excessive alcohol intake, and tobacco use are the main mental health problems in adolescents. To address these problems, it is necessary to understand the many factors associated with them, including parental factors. The aim of this study was to assess the associations between parental behavior and mental health problems in adolescents in Mexico. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT) 2018-2019, representative for Mexico, were used. Households in which a parent-adolescent child pairing was identified (regardless of family type) were selected; n = 8758 households. The four outcomes of interest that were measured in the adolescents were: excessive alcohol intake, tobacco use, suicidal behavior, and depressive symptomatology. Logistic regression models using the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were estimated. Adolescents whose parents used alcohol or tobacco and reported depressive symptoms and suicidal behavior were more likely to present these behaviors themselves (AOR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.17-1.85; AOR = 2.26, 95% CI: 1.51-3.39; AOR = 2.61, 95% CI: 1.88-3.61; AOR = 1.74, 95% CI: 1.16-2.61, respectively). Child sexual abuse was also strongly associated with the four outcomes of interest in adolescents (AOR = 1.89, 95% CI: 1.06-3.36 for excessive alcohol intake; AOR = 2.97, 95% CI: 1.49-5.91 for tobacco use; AOR = 5.15, 95% CI: 3.27-8.09 for depressive symptoms; AOR = 6.71, 95% CI: 4.25-10.59 for suicidal behavior). The family constitutes the central nucleus of care for children and adolescents; therefore, any effort to promote adolescent mental health must necessarily involve their parents and family.

Although females are at relatively greater risk for a variety of disorders, including depression, the biological mechanisms underlying this striking health disparity remain unclear. To address this issue, we highlight sex differences in stress susceptibility as a key mechanism potentially driving this effect and describe the interacting inflammatory, hormonal, epigenomic, and social-environmental mechanisms involved.
Using the Social Signal Transduction Theory of Depression as a theoretical framework, women\'s elevated risk for depression may stem from a tight link between life stress, inflammation, and depression in women. Further, research finds hormonal contraceptive use alters cortisol and inflammatory reactivity to acute stress in ways that may increase depression risk in females. Finally, beyond established epigenetic mechanisms, mothers may transfer risk for depression to their female offspring through stressful family environments, which influence stress generation and stress-related gene expression. Together, these findings provide initial, biologically plausible clues that may help explain the relatively greater risk for depression in females vs. males. Looking forward, much more research is needed to address the longstanding underrepresentation of females in biomedical research on the biology of stress and depression.

UNASSIGNED: The death of a parent is considered a normative event in midlife, but little is known about how this loss could affect the relationship between bereaved middle-aged adults and their grown children.
UNASSIGNED: Family systems theory postulates that the death of a family member can have a significant impact on the individual and other family members. The death of a parent is one of the most common types of loss in adulthood, which may signal a final transition into adulthood. The death of an older parent may lead to a reevaluation of one\'s own relationships with grown children.
UNASSIGNED: By using prospective data from the two waves of the Family Exchanges Study, the authors examined middle-aged adults\' experience of recent parental death and its impact on relationship qualities (i.e., negative, positive, ambivalent) with each of their grown children.
UNASSIGNED: When compared with the nonbereaved, bereaved participants who experienced the death of the last living parent reported increased positive relationship qualities with grown children. Among the bereaved participants, having more positive memories of the deceased parent was associated with decreased ambivalent relationship qualities with grown children.
UNASSIGNED: The findings suggest that the death of an older parent is a significant turning point in the life course and highlights the role of positive reflection in the context of intergenerational ties.

Although decades of research documents powerful associations between parents\' characteristics and their children\'s marital behaviors, the role of parental mental health has largely been ignored, despite the high prevalence of mental disorders and their strong potential to shape multiple dimensions of family life. Many studies examine other consequences of mothers\' mental disorders, particularly for young children, but rarely do studies investigate the consequences of fathers\' mental disorders, especially the potential for long-term consequences. We construct a theoretical framework for the study of intergenerational influences on family formation behaviors, integrating parental mental health, and emphasizing the potential for father\'s disorders to shape their children\'s lives. To investigate these associations, we use new intergenerational panel data featuring clinically validated diagnostic measures of parental mental health for both mothers and fathers, assessed independently. Results demonstrate that fathers\' major depressive disorder is associated with significantly earlier marriage timing among sons. These important new findings provide insights into key priorities for social research on family formation processes and intergenerational influences across many domains.

UNASSIGNED: The Communist Party\'s reign in Czechoslovakia (1948-1989) saw the persecution of thousands of individuals. The State Security campaign \"Asanace\" (meaning \"sanitation\") was conducted to expel critics of the regime from the country using psychological and physical terror. Although stories of dissidents are frequently presented in public spaces, little is known about the experiences of their children.
UNASSIGNED: To address this gap, we conducted interpretative phenomenological analyses of semi-structured in-depth interviews with five adult descendants of Czechoslovakian dissidents.
UNASSIGNED: Our analyses revealed that while participants appreciated and were inspired by their parents\' dissident activities, they tend to distance themselves from it in order not to live in their parents\' shadow. Furthermore, for them, the \"Asanace\" campaign primarily meant emigration, which in turn affected their sense of self and (national) identity dispersion. Consequently, they experienced feelings of being uprooted and different. Furthermore, they faced challenges acculturating. However, they also recognized their resilience as being rooted in their migration experience and the legacy of their parents\' dissidence.
UNASSIGNED: By highlighting intergenerational differences and the impact of family legacy on individuals\' strengths and weaknesses, this study contributes to our understanding of the psychological consequences of living in, escaping from and adjusting to life beyond oppressive regimes.

Youth with mental health needs face barriers in seeking and accessing help, especially in resource-constrained settings in Majority World Countries. Community engagement is thus important for mental health promotion, particularly in addressing stigma. Engagement can be enhanced by involving peer educators and by relating to intergenerational experiences in the sociocultural context of the community. The aim of this study was to explore how intergenerational experiences and perspectives can inform the co-production of youth-led mental health promotion in a Majority World Country, Pakistan. We recruited 11 families (one grandmother, mother and granddaughter in each family) as advisers from two disadvantaged areas of Karachi, and 14 peer educators. Training for peer educators included seminars, experiential activities, three participatory workshops with family advisers and supervision. A sub-sample of family advisers and peer educators attended four focus groups, and peer educators completed reflective diaries following each activity. Data were integrated and subjected to thematic codebook analysis. The three themes related to enabling and hindering factors towards co-production of mental health promotion, incorporation of intergenerational resilience and cascading knowledge to communities. The findings highlighted potential benefits of youth-led mental health promotion that contextualizes intergenerational experiences for those communities. Peer educator roles should be supported by training, and mental health promotion should be integrated within local service systems.