Tell Me about Loneliness: Interviews with Young People about What Loneliness Is and How to Cope with It.

BACKGROUND: loneliness is a common experience for adolescents, yet the voices of adolescents are missing from current conceptualisations of loneliness. That means, measures that have been created based on current conceptualisations may miss important contexts of adolescence, such as the roles of friendships, that determine the way loneliness is experienced. The current study aims to centre adolescent voices to identify how they conceptualise loneliness and what strategies they consider to be useful for adolescents to cope with loneliness. METHOD: thematic framework analysis (TFA) was conducted on qualitative interviews with young people aged 8-14 years in Belgium and Italy to identify salient themes in their conceptualisations of loneliness. RESULTS: Loneliness was conceptualised as a negative emotional state involving negative thinking patterns that occurs when an individual perceives they are missing out on a desired aspect in their social relationships. Coping strategies related to alleviating negative affect, and aiding social reconnection. CONCLUSIONS: friendships with peers were understood to be central to adolescent loneliness experiences. In line with that, loneliness was seen to be experienced at school. Age-related differences in friendship expectations were identified, highlighting how developmental needs relate to the loneliness experience.

Sources of well-being for older adults with and without dementia in residential care: relations to presence of meaning and life satisfaction.

OBJECTIVES: To explore what sources of well-being are rated meaningful by older adults in residential care and how they are related to two important well-being outcomes. METHOD: Two cross-sectional questionnaire studies were conducted in a sample of care residents without cognitive disability (n = 329) and with Alzheimer's disease (n = 104). Structural equation modelling was used to test a hypothesized and exploratory model of different sources as predictors of presence of meaning in life (POM) and satisfaction with life (SWL). RESULTS: Family and Health were rated most meaningful by residents with and without dementia. In both studies, the hypothesized model showed adequate fit with the data. For cognitively intact residents, Personal Growth, Spirituality/Religion, and Interpersonal Relationships predicted POM, while Family and Leisure predicted SWL. Exploratory testing identified Leisure as a possible additional predictor of POM. For residents with Alzheimer's disease, Personal Growth and Society/Community predicted POM, while Family predicted SWL. CONCLUSION: For older adults in residential care, many sources of well-being remain highly meaningful and some are directly related to the experience of meaning and life satisfaction. Both for residents with and without dementia, continued or increased investment in moments that foster personal growth and family relationships might be especially valuable.

Continuing to Participate in the Dance of Life as Oneself: The Lived Experience of Meaning in Life for Older Adults With Alzheimer's Disease.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Meaning in life is an important aspect of positive psychological functioning for older adults. Limited work suggests the relevance of the experience of meaning for people with dementia, but research into this experience from their personal perspective is lacking. The current study provides an in-depth investigation of the lived experience of meaning in life for older adults with Alzheimer's disease. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: The study was conducted following the phenomenological reflective lifeworld approach. In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 older adults (+65) with Alzheimer's disease living either at home or in a nursing home in Belgium. Data analysis was an iterative process aimed at illuminating the constituents and essence of the phenomenon. RESULTS: The essence of the experience of meaning in life for participants was understood as "continuing to participate in the dance of life as oneself." This experience was further clarified in four closely intertwined constituents: (a) feeling connected and involved, (b) continuing everyday life as oneself, (c) calmly surrendering and letting go, and (d) desiring freedom, growth, and invigoration. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of meaning in life as experienced by older adults with Alzheimer's disease themselves. They emphasize the relevance of the concept for psychological dementia research and offer original insight for the inclusion of meaning in life as an important aspect of holistic dementia care.

Precocious Downregulation of Krüppel-Homolog 1 in the Migratory Locust, Locusta migratoria, Gives Rise to An Adultoid Phenotype with Accelerated Ovarian Development but Disturbed Mating and Oviposition.

Krüppel-homolog 1 (Kr-h1) is a zinc finger transcription factor maintaining the status quo in immature insect stages and promoting reproduction in adult insects through the transduction of the Juvenile Hormone (JH) signal. Knockdown studies have shown that precocious silencing of Kr-h1 in the immature stages results in the premature development of adult features. However, the molecular characteristics and reproductive potential of these premature adult insect stages are still poorly understood. Here we report on an adult-like or 'adultoid' phenotype of the migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, obtained after a premature metamorphosis induced by the silencing of LmKr-h1 in the penultimate instar. The freshly molted adultoid shows precocious development of adult features, corresponding with increased transcript levels of the adult specifier gene LmE93. Furthermore, accelerated ovarian maturation and vitellogenesis were observed in female adultoids, coinciding with elevated expression of LmCYP15A1 in corpora allata (CA) and LmKr-h1 and vitellogenin genes (LmVg) in fat body, whereas LmE93 and Methoprene-tolerant (LmMet) transcript levels decreased in fat body. In adultoid ovaries, expression of the Halloween genes, Spook (LmSpo) and Phantom (LmPhm), was elevated as well. In addition, the processes of mating and oviposition were severely disturbed in these females. L. migratoria is a well-known, swarm-forming pest insect that can destroy crops and harvests in some of the world's poorest countries. As such, a better understanding of factors that are capable of significantly reducing the reproductive potential of this pest may be of crucial importance for the development of novel locust control strategies.

[Forgiveness as a psychological resource in late life]. / Vergeving als psychologische sterkte op hoge leeftijd.

Late life is a period during which individuals are increasingly confronted with challenges and losses. These challenges can have a negative impact on late life functioning, which is often reflected in poor well-being or an increase in depressive feelings. Current research points out that positive psychological resources might enhance coping with late life stressors. Forgiveness is a variable that has received increasing interest as a positive psychological resource and is linked with several aspects of late life health and well-being. The idea of forgiveness being pivotal in late life can be framed within the life stage theory of Erikson. Erikson's psychosocial crisis in late life consists of finding a balance between feelings of despair and the achievement of ego-integrity and it is considered as a potential explaining process in the association between forgiveness and positive late life functioning.  The results of three quantitative studies in older adults (75+) provide indeed preliminary evidence that forgiveness is a resource in late life. They show that the relationship between forgiveness and late life well-being can be partly explained by the developmental task of finding a balance between integrity and despair.