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This study examined the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns and physical distancing requirements on engagement with and sense of connectedness to social activities among older adults. Community-dwelling cognitively healthy older adults (N = 126) completed self-report questionnaires post-lock down (November 2020 to February 2021) assessing participation format (face-to-face with restrictions, online), frequency of attendance, and connectedness with a range of existing social groups. Thirty-two percent of participants stopped and had not re-engaged with social activities post lockdown. These participants reported the lowest connectedness ratings and quality of life related to psychological health than compared to those who continued to engage with social groups, albeit in a controlled format. Adapted face-to-face formats were associated with significantly greater connectedness than engagement via online methods for hobbies, cultural activities, meal entertainment, and other social activities, but not for sporting, community, religious, or volunteering activities. Qualitative data suggested online social participation was not as enjoyable as adapted face-to-face formats. For older adults who attended social activities via online formats, sense of connectedness was reduced for some activities. Given the importance of social connectedness for well-being in late life, interventions may be needed to help older adults re-engage in face-to-face formats without restrictions. What is already known about this topic: Poor social connection is associated with reduced mental well-being and physical health in older adults. Local lockdown orders in response to the 2020 wave of the COVID-19 pandemic led to temporary closure of community activities groups, suspension of religious, sporting, and social activities. and restrictions on face-to-face contact with family. Many community organisations, social groups, and families adapted activities to online formats. What this topic adds: Older adult who stopped attending and did not re-engage in social groups had the lowest connectedness ratings and quality of life related to psychological health, compared to those who continued to engage with social groups in some format. Face-to-face engagement, even with restrictions, was associated with significantly greater connectedness in older adults than engagement online for hobby, cultural activities, meal entertainment and other social activities besides sporting, community, religious, or volunteering activities. Qualitative data suggested that online social participation was not as enjoyable as adapted face-to-face formats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Alcohol use and anxiety often co-occur, causing increased severity impairment. This protocol describes a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that aims to test the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a web-based, self-guided alcohol and anxiety-focused program, compared with a web-based brief alcohol-focused program, for young adults who drink at hazardous levels and experience anxiety. It will also test moderators and mechanisms of change underlying the intervention effects., Design: This RCT will be conducted with a 1:1 parallel group., Setting: The study will be a web-based trial in Australia., Participants: Individuals aged 17-30 years who drink alcohol at hazardous or greater levels and experience at least mild anxiety (n = 500) will be recruited through social media, media (TV, print) and community networks., Intervention and Comparator: Participants will be randomly allocated to receive a web-based, integrated alcohol-anxiety program plus technical and motivational telephone/e-mail support (intervention) or a web-based brief alcohol-feedback program (control)., Measurements: Clinical measures will be assessed at baseline, post-intervention (2 months), 6 months (primary end-point), 12 months and 18 months. Co-primary outcomes are hazardous alcohol consumption and anxiety symptom severity. Secondary outcomes are binge-drinking frequency; alcohol-related consequences; depression symptoms; clinical diagnoses of alcohol use or anxiety disorder (at 6 months post-intervention), health-care service use, educational and employment outcomes; and quality of life. Mediators and moderators will also be assessed. Efficacy will be tested using mixed models for repeated measures within an intention-to-treat framework. The economic evaluation will analyze individual-level health and societal costs and outcomes of participants between each trial arm, while mediation models will test for mechanisms of change., Comments: This will be the first trial to test whether a developmentally targeted, web-based, integrated alcohol-anxiety intervention is effective in reducing hazardous alcohol use and anxiety severity among young adults. If successful, the integrated alcohol-anxiety program will provide an accessible intervention that can be widely disseminated to improve wellbeing of young adults, at minimal cost., (© 2024 The Authors. Addiction published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for the Study of Addiction.)

Adolescence is a time of heightened vulnerability for both peer victimization (PV) and internalizing symptoms. While the positive association between them is well established, there is little understanding of the mechanisms underpinning this relationship. To address this gap, the current study aimed to investigate sleep hygiene and school night sleep duration as individual and sequential mediators of the relationship between PV and both depressive and social anxiety symptoms during pre- to mid-adolescence. The study drew upon a community sample of 528 Australian youth aged 10-12 years at baseline ( M age = 11.19, SD = .55; 51.1% boys) and data were collected over five annual measurement occasions. Direct and indirect longitudinal and bidirectional associations were examined using cross-lagged panel analysis. There was no evidence of sequential mediation through both sleep hygiene and sleep duration to depression and social anxiety. Instead, the findings show that sleep hygiene mediated the prospective association between PV and both depressive and social anxiety symptoms, and between PV and sleep duration. Overall, sleep hygiene represents a modifiable transdiagnostic factor that can be targeted to break the cycle of PV, inadequate sleep, and internalizing symptoms.