JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Intergenerational friendship, a mechanism of social support can reduce the risk of social isolation in the older adult population. COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity to examine the psychosocial intervention of befriending via technology use as a primary form of contactless socialization.

Objective:

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of virtual intergenerational service-learning interactions on the psychosocial wellbeing of older adults and its impact on the development of intergenerational companionship.

Methods:

Data was extracted from the survey of older adults and reflections of undergraduate students in a healthcare administration course. The impact of service learning on social isolation was assessed, measuring the attributes of boredom and loneliness among 46 older adults during the Spring 2022 semester. Students were paired with older adults and instructed to have at least a 30-minute weekly conversation. Students were asked to write a half-page diary after each interaction and a one-page reflection at the beginning and end of the service-learning project. Simultaneously the older adults were also surveyed by the researchers to assess the impact of the project. Following a heuristic approach, student artifacts (10,970 words; 118 pages, single-spaced Microsoft Word document) and the senior survey were analyzed using MaxQDA 12.

Results:

Three major constructs were identified: (1) meaningful engagement, defined as (feeling safe, increased confidence, and reduced boredom); (2) internal motivation to participate in the weekly interaction, defined as (discussion of daily life experience, level of happiness, and ability to exert personal control of the situation); (3) intergenerational befriending, defined as (perceived benefits from the friendly nature of the interaction, ability to comfortably connect with students, and positive feeling and attitude towards the student).

Conclusions:

An intergenerational approach to befriending has higher chances to reduce boredom and loneliness and augment the quality of life for the socially isolated older adults. Our findings indicate the effectiveness of intergenerational service-learning on older adults with respect to social isolation reduction as well as increased positive attitude towards the younger generation.