Effects of maternal social isolation on adult rodent offspring cognition.

Prenatal experiences can influence offspring physiology and behaviour through the lifespan. Various forms of prenatal stress impair adult learning and memory function and can lead to increased occurrence of anxiety and depression. Clinical work suggests that prenatal stress and maternal depression lead to similar outcomes in children and adolescents, however the long-term effects of maternal depression are less established, particularly in well controlled animal models. Social isolation is common in depressed individuals and during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, for this study we were interested in the effects of maternal stress induced via social isolation on adult offspring cognitive functions including spatial, stimulus-response, and emotional learning and memory that are mediated by different networks centered on the hippocampus, dorsal striatum, and amygdala, respectively. Tasks included a discriminative contextual fear conditioning task and cue-place water task. Pregnant dams in the social isolation group were single housed prior to and throughout gestation. Once offspring reached adulthood the male offspring were trained on a contextual fear conditioning task in which rats were trained to associate one of two contexts with an aversive stimulus and the opposing context remained neutral. Afterwards a cue-place water task was performed during which they were required to navigate to both a visible and invisible platform. Fear conditioning results revealed that the adult offspring of socially isolated mothers, but not controls, were impaired in associating a specific context with a fear-inducing stimulus as assessed by conditioned freezing and avoidance. Results from the water task indicate that adult offspring of mothers that were socially isolated showed place learning deficits but not stimulus-response habit learning on the same task. These cognitive impairments, in the offspring of socially isolated dams, occurred in the absence of maternal elevated stress hormone levels, anxiety, or altered mothering. Some evidence suggested that maternal blood-glucose levels were altered particularly during gestation. Our results provide further support for the idea that learning and memory networks, centered on the amygdala and hippocampus are particularly susceptible to the negative impacts of maternal social isolation and these effects can occur without elevated glucocorticoid levels associated with other forms of prenatal stress.

Navigating the COVID-19 pandemic together: Discussions between persons with early-stage dementia and their adult children.

OBJECTIVES: Studies have separately examined the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on persons with dementia and their caregivers. Less attention has been paid to the social and emotional impacts of the pandemic in this population or how these individuals are mutually coping with the pandemic. Guided by the social citizenship theory, this qualitative study sought to characterize how persons with dementia and their adult children are coping during this time with a focus on the strengths demonstrated by persons with dementia. METHODS: Participants were 43 dyads of individuals aged 55 and older with early-stage dementia and their adult children. Discussions between parent-child dyads were recorded. Using reflexive thematic analysis, themes related to social and emotional impacts of the pandemic and coping strategies were identified. RESULTS: Adult children shared with their parents how the pandemic resulted in reduced social engagement and challenging work arrangements. Dyads described how the pandemic positively impacted their relationship, allowing some of them to spend more time together. In coping with the pandemic, adult children provided instrumental support to their parents and parents reciprocated with emotional support. Participants also coped by making meaning of their situation during discussions. CONCLUSIONS: Findings characterize the resilience of persons with dementia and the mutuality of the relationship between both members of the care partner dyad, as both parents and adult children offered support to one another. Facilitating dyadic discussions may be a cost-effective way to sustain social connections and offer ongoing coping support through the pandemic or other challenging circumstances.

Family caregivers' responses to a visitation restriction policy at a Korean surgical intensive care unit before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, restricting family visits in the ICU has increased concerns regarding negative psychosocial consequences to patients and families. OBJECTIVES: To compare the quality of life, depressive symptoms, and emotions in family caregivers of ICU patients before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to explore families' perceptions and suggestions for the visitation. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted in 99 family caregivers of adult surgical ICU patients from an urban academic medical center in South Korea (February to July 2021). The WHO's Quality of Life-BREF, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression, and Visual Analogue Scale were used to assess quality of life, depressive symptoms, and emotions, respectively. The Family Perception Checklist was used to assess families' perceptions and suggestions about the visitation restriction. Results were compared with the data from our previous survey (n = 187) in 2017. RESULTS: Family caregivers were mostly women (n = 59), adult children (n = 43) or spouse (n = 38) of patients with mean age of 47.34 years. Family caregivers surveyed during the pandemic reported worsening sadness (54.66 ± 28.93, 45.58 ± 29.44, P = 0.005) and anxiety (53.86 ± 30.07, 43.22 ± 29.02, P = 0.001) than those who were surveyed in. While majority of families were satisfied with the visitation restrictions (86.9%), only 50.5% were satisfied with the amount of information provided on the patient's condition. CONCLUSIONS: Visitation restriction is necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic despite sadness and anxiety reported in caregivers. Hence, alternative visitation strategies are needed to mitigate psychological distress and provide sufficient information to ICU family caregivers.

Visiting parents in times of COVID-19: The impact of parent-adult child contacts on the psychological health of the elderly.

Using the 8th wave of the SHARE and the SHARE Corona Survey, we investigated whether the disruption of parent-adult child contacts due to social distancing restrictions increased the symptoms of depression among old age individuals during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. We model the relationship between the disruption of parent-adult child contacts and the mental health of the elderly using a recursive simultaneous equation model for binary variables. Our findings show that the likelihood of disruption of parent-adult child contacts was higher with adult children who do not live with or close to their parents (i.e., in the same household or in the same building) for whom contact disruption increases about 15 %. The duration of restrictions to movement and lockdowns also has a positive and significant effect on parent-child contact disruption: an additional week of lockdown significantly increases the probability of parent-child contact disruption, by about 1.5 %. The interventions deemed essential to reduce the spread of the pandemic, such as the "stay-at-home" order, necessarily disrupted personal parent-child contacts and the social processes that facilitate psychological well-being, increasing the probability of suffering from a deepening depressed mood by about 17 % for elderly parents.

Daily Reciprocity and Well-Being: A Diary Study of Intergenerational Support Between Mothers and Adult Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Intergenerational support between aging parents and adult children is important to the well-being of both groups, especially during public health emergencies. However, few previous studies have examined the effects of daily support between parents and children on their well-being during public health emergencies. To fill in this gap, we examined the association between daily support and well-being in mothers and their adult children during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. METHODS: Seventy-seven pairs of mothers (aged 44-80 years, M = 53.78, SD = 9.57) and adult children (aged 18-54 years, M = 26.61, SD = 9.46; 19% male) in mainland China participated in a 14-day daily diary study during a stay-at-home period. All of the participants reported the daily emotional and instrumental support they had given to and received from their mother/child each day for 14 consecutive days. Their daily positive affect and negative affect were also measured. RESULTS: Receiving more support on a given day was associated with providing more support on that day, suggesting a daily reciprocity. This finding was consistent across mothers and children. A lower level of being underbenefitted on a day was associated with better daily well-being of children, but not that of mothers. Providing support, but not receiving support, was positively associated with mothers' daily well-being, whereas receiving support, but not providing support, was positively associated with children's daily well-being. DISCUSSION: This study provides evidence of daily intergenerational support during a global public health emergency. The findings shed light on the importance of daily reciprocity and its implications for well-being.

"Web-based, second-best togetherness": Psychosocial group intervention with children of Holocaust survivors during COVID-19.

Evidence from multiple samples of trauma-exposed populations across the globe suggests that intergenerational trauma constitutes a biopsychological risk factor which manifests itself throughout the life cycle of offspring of trauma survivors. Prior empirical studies have shown that adult children of Holocaust survivors (OHS, also referred to in select quotes as 2G for "Second Generation") are vulnerable to life-threatening situations. This study aimed to examine the reactions of OHS to the COVID-19 pandemic, which posed a serious threat to the lives of many, in particular to older adults. As they enter middle age, OHS were observed to have more medical health issues and less positive perceptions of their own aging relative to peers. Less positive subjective aging was associated with more negative psychiatric symptoms in relation to Covid-19-related loneliness, further suggesting that OHS are a group of aging adults with particular vulnerabilities to negative mental health effects of the pandemic and of the social distancing and isolation it imposed. This study is a qualitative report of experiences expressed by over 1,200 participants in several web-based interactive webinars for OHS during the period of "shelter at home" in March and April 2020. It is proposed that this format of "web-based, second-best" way of being together, an intervention that emerged spontaneously in response to the coronavirus and social distancing, offers a novel, nonpathologizing, effective form of supportive psychosocial intervention uniquely suited to the unprecedented challenges experienced during times requiring social distancing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Adult daughters' emotional response to COVID-19: the role of worry, solidarity, conflict, and ambivalence in the relationship with the mother.

Objectives: Older adults' greater susceptibility to mortality from COVID-19 may have meaningful psychological implications not only for them, but also for their children. In this study, we focused on daughters of older women and examined the intergenerational relationships as a correlate of daughters' anxiety, depressive symptoms, and psychosomatic complaints.Method: Data were collected from 456 daughters of older mothers (M(age) = 40.82) during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in Israel, when a relatively strict lockdown was enforced, separating mothers and daughters.Results: Findings suggest that while mothers' objective risk factors (age and morbidity) were mostly not associated with their daughters' distress, the daughters' concern about their mothers, and their perceived ambivalence in the relationship with the mother, as well as structural and affectual solidarity, were.Conclusion: We conclude that the mother-daughter relationship is an important correlate of daughters' reactions to this health crisis. Practically, it suggests that some daughters to aging mothers could be at a greater risk for emotional distress following the COVID-19 outbreak.

A qualitative study on parents' concerns about adult children with intellectual disabilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to understand parents' concerns about their adult child with intellectual disabilities due to the restriction of community-based services amid the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea. METHODS: In-depth interviews were conducted face-to-face or by telephone with 19 parents of adult children with intellectual disabilities who had to stop using community-based services. RESULTS: Participants worried that their adult child was not aware of the seriousness of COVID-19, was more susceptible to the COVID-19 virus, could not recognize self-infection and could have fatal consequences of getting infected with COVID-19. They expected challenges in their adult child's life (losing a daily routine, being isolated, regression in skills, becoming bored, lacking physical activities and increased behavioural challenges) but also experienced adjustments and hopes. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated parents' worry about their adult child becoming infected with COVID-19, highlighting the urgent need for community-based services to address psychosocial challenges during the pandemic.

Parental PTSD and psychological reactions during the COVID-19 pandemic among offspring of Holocaust survivors.

OBJECTIVE: Previous evidence suggests heightened sensitivity to life-threatening challenges among offspring of Holocaust survivors (OHS). Therefore, this study examined the psychological reactions of aging OHS during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: A convenience sample (N = 297, mean age = 66.85) of North American Jews rated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms for their parents and for themselves. They further rated their psychological distress, COVID-19-related worries, loneliness, and social support. Respondents were divided into four groups: OHS with two parents with probable PTSD, with one such parent, with no such parent, and comparisons whose parents did not undergo the Holocaust. RESULTS: OHS with two parents with PTSD reported the highest levels of PTSD symptoms. Controlling for respondents' own PTSD, OHS with two parents with PTSD reported higher psychological distress relative to comparisons. Moreover, OHS with parental PTSD reported higher loneliness relative to OHS without parental PTSD or comparisons. The groups did not differ in COVID-19-related worries or social support. CONCLUSIONS: The distress experienced by OHS with parental PTSD seems more general, and is possibly related to the multiple coalescing crises that occurred since the pandemic began, rather than to the health risk associated directly with COVID-19. Moreover, while OHS acknowledge having good social support, some of them nevertheless feel lonely. This possibly reflects unique interpersonal difficulties characteristic in Holocaust survivor families. These findings suggest that OHS with parental PTSD (especially when both parents had symptoms) represent a group of older adults who are relatively susceptible to negative psychological effects of the current pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Caregiving in Times of Uncertainty: Helping Adult Children of Aging Parents Find Support during the COVID-19 Outbreak.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which is especially dangerous to older people, has disrupted the lives of older people and their family caregivers. This commentary outlines the adaptive and emerging practices in formal supportive services for family caregivers, the changing types of support that family caregivers are providing to their older relatives, and the ways family caregivers are seeking informal caregiving support during the COVID-19 outbreak.