An Awareness, Courage, and Love Intervention to Help Chinese Older Adults in the Post-pandemic Era

N/ANot Yet RecruitingNCT06524206

Caritas Institute of Higher Education70 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this study is to explore the potential effectiveness of a one-session online Awareness, Courage, and Love intervention for reducing loneliness, depression and anxiety symptoms, and enhancing social connectedness and subjective well-being among older adults. the study also aims to estimate the effect sizes of the Awareness, Courage, and Love intervention.

The recruitment process will commence with referrals from local community organizations. Eligible individuals will be provided with detailed information about the study, and informed consent will be obtained from those willing to participate. After the confirmation of participant recruitment, a randomization process will be implemented to ensure the equitable distribution of participants between the intervention and waitlist control groups. An independent researcher will generate computer-generated random codes for group assignment, and these codes will be securely sealed in opaque envelopes. The envelopes will be sequentially numbered, and the randomization process will remain blinded throughout to prevent bias. Participants will be notified via email or text for the details of the condition they are assigned, and their willingness to engage in both the intervention and data collection will be confirmed.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Loneliness

Interventions

The Awareness, Courage and Love InterventionBEHAVIORAL

Derived from Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP), the Awareness, Courage, and Love (ACL) Intervention brings the FAP principles to a broader population. In the ACL model, awareness is defined as engaging in mindful awareness of one's self (feelings, needs, values), other individuals, and the context in which interactions are taking place. Courage is defined as engaging in authentic, vulnerable self-disclosures (e.g. struggles, appreciation), and asking for what one wants and needs. Love is defined as providing empathically accurate responsiveness, including provision of safety, validation, and giving the other person what they have asked for when possible.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 60 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: 1. aged 60 years or older and dwelling in the community; 2. able to communicate in Cantonese; 3. have access to the internet and videoconferencing devices such as a mobile phone; 4. able to give informed consent to participate. Exclusion Criteria: 1. severe emotional distress based on PHQ-4 screening assessment or presenting an imminent suicidal risk; 2. known history of autism, intellectual disability, schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, Parkinson's disease, or dementia/significant cognitive impairment; 3. illiterate; 4. difficulty in communication.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Changes from Baseline on the Inclusion of Others in Self (IOS) at Immediately post-intervention and One-month post-intervention follow-up

The single-item Inclusion of Others in the Self (IOS) scale is to measure how close the respondent feels with another person or group. Respondents choose a pair of photos from seven with different degrees of overlap. Possible scores range from 1 (No overlap) to 7 (Most overlap).