Winter 2023 Newsletter

By Dr. Jennifer Peszka, Professor, Psychology
Dr. Anne Goldberg, Professor, Sociology/Anthropology
and Dr. Pete Gess, Professor, Psychology
Hendrix College

During the past 5 years, Hendrix faculty and students have collected data with the goal of understanding variables associated with healthy aging by studying older adults in areas where people live extra-long/healthy lives (Blue Zones).  Through this work, it has been identified that many healthy ageing adults participate in gardening.  In collaboration with AGEC, we sought to implement a gardening intervention that would increase time spent gardening as well as socializing with a Hendrix student garden partner for eleven low-income older adults. During Spring 2022, through collaborations with two living facilities in Conway, and AGEC funding, nine Hendrix students partnered with eleven older Arkansans to provide raised bed wheelchair accessible garden bed kits. Students met with their garden partner one-on-one twice weekly for a month. They spent this time gardening and socializing with their garden partner.

Assessment

Pre and post whole program assessments were designed.  While the sample is very small, for this project we had nearly 100% participation in the assessment component. The goal of this assessment was to understand enjoyment of garden activity, as well as feelings of belongingness, satisfaction with life, and perceived stress before and after the month-long program.

At the start of this program, no more than 1/3 of the participants identified plants or social activities as a relaxing activity, a hobby, or an activity that aided in their feelings of productivity.  Following the program, we asked participants whether they found their garden stressful (1) or relaxing (7), whether working in the garden felt more like work (a chore) (1) or a hobby (play) (7), and whether working in their garden made them feel productive (1=never to 5=always). As can be seen in Figure 1, after the program, working in the garden was perceived by the participants as relaxing, a hobby, and producing feelings of productivity that most of the participants were not experiencing before the project began. 

Before the program, all participants strongly agreed that they enjoyed spending time outside. Therefore, the program could not have increased this enjoyment.  However, it is likely that the program increased the time that they were able to spend outside.  We found that when the program started at one facility participants were not allowed easy access to the out-of-doors and that access was made easier once the program began and they had reason to go into the backyard of the facility.

Our pre-program assessments of enjoyment of life, belongingness, and satisfaction with life for these eleven participants were nearly at the top of the scales and their stress levels were very low.  Therefore, it would have been unlikely that these measures would show improvements in these variables as there was a ceiling effect. We do have anecdotal reports from students that their garden partners did enjoy the activity and some students even reported they continued to visit their garden partner and tend the gardens after the month-long program completed.

Summary:  There is a good deal of psychological research suggesting that engaging in nature can improve well-being and gardening provides an accessible outdoor activity for many older Arkansans. This project increased outdoor activity in these older adults. Hendrix students are currently planning for the next iteration of this program which will involve indoor gardening through the winter when access to the out-of-doors can be limiting for many older adults.

Figure 1.  Experience of gardening time in program as a relaxing, hobby, that produced feelings of productivity.

Fall 2022 Newsletter

By Dr. Jennifer Peszka, Professor, Psychology
Dr. Anne Goldberg, Professor, Sociology/Anthropology
and Dr. Pete Gess, Professor, Psychology
Hendrix College

Previous research shows that loneliness is detrimental to healthy aging.  When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, it led to early calls for strict limitations to in-person social interactions (lockdowns and social distancing).  During Spring 2021, Hendrix College and AGEC conducted a telephone survey of nearly 867 older Arkansans to examine social connection and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those data indicated that during the early part of the pandemic, in person social interactions and satisfaction with social interactions declined. While not a completely satisfying replacement, supplementing lost in-person social interactions with technology facilitated communication did help buffer some of the negative impact on satisfaction for some participants. During Spring of 2022, we conducted a follow-up survey to replicate previous findings, look for changes as social interactions began to shift back to normal, and to add additional questions to probe further into findings seen in the original survey data. 

About the participants

603 older Arkansans completed the automated telephone survey.  68.3% of the participants were between 65 and 74 years old, and 31.7% were 75 years old or older. 86.5% identified as White, non-Hispanic; 8.0% as Black; .2% as Hispanic; and 5.3% as other, preferred not to answer, or mixed. 65.9% identified as women, 33.2% as men, and 0.8% as preferred not to answer.  To examine economic status, we asked them to indicate how often they worry about paying their monthly bills. 8.1% said always, 15.0% said frequently, 34.9% said seldom, and 42.0% said they never worry about paying their bills. 

What they told us

Frequency of interactions:  In the 2021 survey, 76% of participants reported curtailing their in-person social interactions since the pandemic began at least some, 41% were curtailing a lot. Now, when the virus is waning and vaccines are widely available, curtailment was not as widely spread with about one half reporting they were curtailing their in-person social activities at least some (50.4%) and substantially fewer were curtailing it by a lot or completely (27.6%) (See Figure 1). For in person activities, in 2021, only about one-third (31%) of the sample was engaging in in-person social activities multiple times a week, but in 2022, we saw that double (63%). 

Social satisfaction: 93% of the participants rated themselves as satisfied with their social connection before the pandemic, that number reduced to 67% during the pandemic in 2021, and this has started to recover now in 2022 with 78% of the participants rating themselves as satisfied with their social connections now.   

Social technology use: In 2022, we investigated a specific kind of social technology: the video chat.  Video chatting was prevalent in this sample even before the pandemic, with about 40% of the sample engaging in video chatting multiple times a week before the pandemic began. About one-quarter of the participants (22.8%) reported using video chat even more during the pandemic. 

In 2021, during the pandemic, 60% of the participants said they felt socially connected when engaging in online social interactions.  In 2022, after an additional year of these sorts of interactions, it seems there has been a slight increase in satisfaction, with about 10% of participants being less likely to disagree with this and 10% being more likely to agree, with 70% of participants reporting feeling socially connected when engaging in these online interactions (See Figure 2). 

Summary:  In person social interactions and satisfaction with social interactions are still lower than during pre-pandemic times, but they are starting to recover. Nonetheless, some older Arkansans find themselves experiencing loneliness and isolation even when there is no pandemic.  These findings suggest that with practice and motivation older Arkansans can increase their technological interactions and that these can serve as a reasonably satisfactory replacement to in person social interactions when necessary.  We should work to develop programs to increase fluency and availability of social technology for older Arkansans.   

Fall 2021 Newsletter

By Dr. Jennifer Peszka, Professor, Psychology
and Dr. Anne Goldberg, Professor, Sociology/Anthropology
Students: Lauren Allen (Anthropology), Noura Musallam (Psychology), and Chloe Cunningham (Anthropology)
Hendrix College

Prior research has shown the importance of social networks in healthy aging.  And yet, one of the hallmarks of the COVID-19 pandemic has been calls for limiting social interactions (lockdowns and social distancing).  During Spring 2020, Hendrix College and AGEC conducted a telephone survey to examine social connection and isolation in older Arkansans during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

About the participants

8745 Arkansans answered the automated phone call and 867 completed the survey.  41.5% of the participants were between 65 and 74 years old, and 58.5% were 75 years old or older. 83.4% identified as White, non-Hispanic; 9.2% as Black; .3% as Hispanic; and 7.1% as other, preferred not to answer, or mixed. 60.2% identified as women, 35.9% as men, and 3.9% as other or preferred not to answer.  To examine economic status, they indicated how often they worry about paying their monthly bills. 7% said always, 17.6% said frequently, 35% said seldom, and 40.4% said they never worry about paying their bills. 

What they told us
Frequency of interactions:  In-person interactions during COVID (the 6 months prior to survey completion) were low, 39.4% of participants reported seeing friends and family living outside of their homes in person twice a month or less.  And only 30.8% of them were seeing friends and family in person multiple times a week. These older Arkansans interacted specifically with younger generations of family and friends less frequently during the pandemic than before. 41.1% reported either a lot less frequent or completely stopping social interactions during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic activities, and only 23.7% reported either the same or even more interactions than before.  Despite this reduction in social interactions,many of these participants (88.4%) indicated they had a good deal of social interactions through some form of technology (online, on the telephone, or using some other technology). And that 59.7% of them felt that seeing friends or family on-line (e.g., Zoom or FaceTime) did make them feel connected socially (See Figure 1). 

How the pandemic changed social interactions:  Before the pandemic, 26.1% reported that they were spending time online or in-person with organized social groups multiple times per week, but during the pandemic this number fell to 14.8%.  Before the pandemic, 31% were rarely spending time with organized social groups (less than once a month), but during the pandemic, this rose by 10% to 40.7%.    

Satisfaction with social interactions: Before the pandemic, 93% reported they were somewhat or very satisfied with their level of social connection, while that number reduced by a third to 67.2% during the pandemic (See Figure 2).  Findings showed that before COVID-19 people were happy, but became less satisfied with their social connection during the pandemic. This decline occurred whether or not participants knew someone who was severely impacted by the virus.  People with more technological social interactions, which augmented declining in-person social interactions, had greater satisfaction with their social connectedness compared to people with less technological social interactions. This relationship occurs regardless of the respondent’s level of extraversion.  Women were more likely to use technology for social interaction than men during the COVID-19 pandemic, and yet, women were less likely than men to be satisfied by their social interactions during the pandemic. Last, people with the least financial security were using technology to interact socially at a lower rate and were less satisfied with their social interactions during the pandemic than people who had more financial security. 

Summary:  In person social interactions and satisfaction with social interactions went down during the pandemic.  While not a completely satisfying replacement, supplementing lost social interactions with technology did help buffer some of the negative impact on satisfaction for some participants.  Therefore, making sure that technology interactions are accessible to all older Arkansans is a worthy goal.