SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS OF EXPERIENCE CORPS

体验团的社会和心理效益

• 批准号: 7114752
• 负责人: Teresa E SEEMAN
• 金额: $ 5.76万
• 依托单位: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-04-01 至 2011-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7114752
• 关键词: academic achievement; aging; behavioral /social science research tag; clinical trials; cognition; community; educational resource design /development; elementary school; functional ability; human old age (65+); human subject; longitudinal human study; mentoring /mentor; middle childhood (6-11); psychological aspect of aging; psychological tests; quality of life; questionnaires; retirement; role model; social model; social psychology; social support network; volunteer

The Experience Corps (EC) represents a new model of senior service, designed to create new, generative and productive roles for older adults to address unmet needs of public elementary schools, and to provide a social model for health promotion among older adults, aimed at improving their social/psychological, cognitive, and physical functioning. In conjunction with a proposed 5-year randomized trial of the EC, with older adults randomized to participate in the EC or other volunteer opportunities, the primary goals of Project 4 are to, first, test for hypothesized greater "gains" in social and psychological functioning among older adults randomized to the intervention [EC] arm; and second, test whether hypothesized benefits in social and psychological functioning mediate hypothesized benefits of EC participation for cognitive and physical functioning and health status. Expected social and psychological gains for EC participants derive explicitly from core features of the EC program which include placing trained teams of volunteers in schools (providing a critical mass of volunteers and promoting a sense of collective "team" efficacy), having them fulfill meaningful roles to meet school needs, requiring a commitment of 15hours/week and providing an incentive reimbursement to offset volunteer expenses (e.g., transportation, meals). As a result of these program features, we expect that participation in the EC will result in gains with respect to important aspects of both social and psychological functioning among the older adults, including greater social engagement and development of new relationships, increased feelings of usefulness and worth, greater sense of generativity, self-efficacy and self-esteem. We expect that gains in these domains of psychosocial functioning will in turn confer benefits for cognitive and physical functioning in older adult volunteers. A secondary goal of Project 4 is to test the impact of the EC program on the broader school community. Specifically, we will test that hypothesis that presence of the EC teams in elementary schools results in development of more positive attitudes toward aging and of older adults capabilities among other adults in the school community (e.g., teachers, staff).

Experience Corps (EC) 代表了一种新的高级服务模式，旨在创造新的、富有创造力的体验 老年人的生产性角色，以解决公立小学未满足的需求，并提供 促进老年人健康的社会模式，旨在改善他们的社会/心理、 认知和身体功能。结合 EC 提议的 5 年随机试验， 老年人随机参加 EC 或其他志愿者机会，该项目的主要目标 4 首先，测试假设老年人的社会和心理功能是否有更大的“收益” 成人随机分配至干预 [EC] 组；其次，检验假设的社会效益和 心理功能介导 EC 参与对认知和身体的假设益处 功能和健康状况。 EC 参与者的预期社会和心理收益明确得出 EC 计划的核心特征包括在学校安置经过培训的志愿者团队（提供 足够数量的志愿者并促进集体“团队”效能感），让他们履行职责 满足学校需求的有意义的角色，需要每周投入 15 个小时并提供激励 报销以抵消志愿者费用（例如交通、膳食）。由于这些计划 特征，我们预计加入 EC 将在双方的重要方面带来收益 老年人的社会和心理功能，包括更多的社会参与和 发展新的关系，增强有用感和价值感，增强创造力， 自我效能和自尊。我们预计心理社会功能这些领域的进展将反过来 为老年志愿者的认知和身体功能带来益处。项目 4 的次要目标 目的是测试 EC 计划对更广泛的学校社区的影响。具体来说，我们将测试 假设小学 EC 团队的存在会导致更积极的发展 学校社区中其他成年人对老龄化和老年人能力的态度（例如， 教师、工作人员）。