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The intention to promote voluntary product recommendation by individuals in the community during online social contact has aroused more and more interest. At present, in a network community composed of consumers, the reasons for personal active product recommendation by consumers are not obvious. In order to further explore the personal active product recommendation behaviour in the community during online social contact and the key factors that influence this behaviour, we have developed a model that, based on the Cognitive Emotion Theory, examines the reciprocal relationships in the community environment and the emotional impact of community homogeneity on the sense of community belonging and community receptivity, which ultimately influences the subsequent active product recommendation behaviour of individuals. The SEM-PLS technique was used to analyse the data collected from a questionnaire survey of 480 WeChat community users. The results of the study show that good community reciprocity and homogeneity have a positive impact on a sense of community belonging and receptivity, and these factors in turn have a positive impact on active product recommendation behaviour. The implications of these findings for both theory and practice are discussed, including the importance of fostering positive reciprocity and homogeneity in online communities to increase individuals' active product recommendation behaviour. The findings provide insights for online community administrators on how to foster a sense of community belonging and receptivity, which can ultimately lead to a more active and engaged community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comparative approach is a crucial method to gain a better understanding of the behavior of living human and nonhuman animals to then draw informed inferences about the behavior of extinct ancestors. One focus has been on disentangling the puzzle of language evolution. Traditionally, studies have predominantly focused on intentionally produced signals in communicative interactions. However, in collaborative and highly dynamic interactions such as play, underlying intentionality is difficult to assess and often interactions are negotiated via body movements rather than signals. This "lack" of signals has led to this dynamic context being widely ignored in comparative studies. The aim of this paper is threefold: First, we will show how comparative research into communication can benefit from taking the intentionality-agnostic standpoint used in conversation analysis. Second, we will introduce the concepts of 'intercorporeality' and 'bodily affordance', and show how they can be applied to the analysis of communicative interactions of nonhuman animals. Third, we will use these concepts to investigate how chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) initiate, end, and maintain 'contact social play'. Our results showed that bodily affordances are able to capture elements of interactions that more traditional approaches failed to describe. Participants made use of bodily affordances to achieve coordinated engagement in contact social play. Additionally, these interactions could display a sequential organization by which one 'move' by a chimpanzee was responded to with an aligning 'move', which allowed for the co-construction of the activity underway. Overall, the present approach innovates on three fronts: First, it allows for the analysis of interactions that are often ignored because they do not fulfil criteria of intentionality, and/or consist of purely body movements. Second, adopting concepts from research on human interaction enables a better comparison of communicative interactions in other animal species without a too narrow focus on intentional signaling only. Third, adopting a stance from interaction research that highlights how practical action can also be communicative, our results show that chimpanzees can communicate through their embodied actions as well as through signaling. With this first step, we hope to inspire new research into dynamic day-to-day interactions involving both "traditional" signals and embodied actions, which, in turn, can provide insights into evolutionary precursors of human language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional methods of rat social behavior assessment are extremely timeconsuming and susceptible to the subjective biases. In contrast, novel digital techniques allow for rapid and objective measurements. This study sought to assess the feasibility of implementing a digital workflow to compare the effects of (R,S)-ketamine and a veterinary ketamine preparation Vetoquinol (both at 20 mg/kg) on the social behaviors of rat pairs. Historical and novel videos were used to train the DeepLabCut neural network. The numerical data generated by DeepLabCut from 14 video samples, representing various body parts in time and space were subjected to the Simple Behavioral Analysis (SimBA) toolkit, to build classifiers for 12 distinct social and non-social behaviors. To validate the workflow, previously annotated by the trained observer historical videos were analyzed with SimBA classifiers, and regression analysis of the total time of social interactions yielded R² = 0.75, slope 1.04; p < 0.001 (N = 101). Remarkable similarities between human and computer annotations allowed for using the digital workflow to analyze 24 novel videos of rats treated with vehicle and ketamine preparations. Digital workflow revealed similarities in the reduction of social behavior by both compounds, and no substantial differences between them. However, the digital workflow also demonstrated ketamine-induced increases in self-grooming, increased transitions from social contacts to selfgrooming, and no effects on adjacent lying time. This study confirms and extends the utility of deep learning in analyzing rat social behavior and highlights its efficiency and objectivity. It provides a faster and objective alternative to human workflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 outbreak has brought to the forefront the importance of predicting and controlling an epidemic outbreak with policies such as vaccination or reducing social contacts. This paper studies an SIHR epidemic model characterized by susceptible (S), non-seriously infected (I), hospitalized (H), and recovered (R) subpopulations, and dynamic vaccination; vaccination itself and H are fed back, and its dynamics are also determined by a free-design time-dependent function and parameters. From a theoretical analysis, the well-posedness of the model is demonstrated; positivity and the disease-free ( P d f ) and endemic ( P e e ) equilibrium points are analyzed. The controlled reproduction number ( R c ) is proved to be a threshold for the local asymptotic stability of  P d f  and the existence  P e e ; when  R c < 1  ( R c > 1 ), then  P d f  is (not) locally asymptotically stable and  P e e  does not (does) exist. Simulations have been carried out with data concerning COVID-19 where the importance of keeping  R c < 1  to prevent the disease spreading and future deaths is highlighted. We design the control input, since it can be easily adapted to match the user specification, to obtain impulsive and regular vaccination and fulfill the condition  R c < 1 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Networks allow us to describe a wide range of interaction phenomena that occur in complex systems arising in such diverse fields of knowledge as neuroscience, engineering, ecology, finance, and social sciences. Until very recently, the primary focus of network models and tools has been on describing the pairwise relationships between system entities. However, increasingly more studies indicate that polyadic or higher-order group relationships among multiple network entities may be the key toward better understanding of the intrinsic mechanisms behind the functionality of complex systems. Such group interactions can be, in turn, described in a holistic manner by simplicial complexes of graphs. Inspired by these recently emerging results on the utility of the simplicial geometry of complex networks for contagion propagation and armed with a large-scale synthetic social contact network (also known as a digital twin) of the population in the U.S. state of Virginia, in this paper, we aim to glean insights into the role of higher-order social interactions and the associated varying social group determinants on COVID-19 propagation and mitigation measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the "calm contact" technique: an imaginative scenario where someone is in gentle contact with a loved one where the essence of the experience is to enjoy safety and calmness in peaceful social contact. The theoretical background is outlined by combining the brain mechanisms of stress reactions and hypnosis. In addition to the ancient stress responses (flight or fight or freeze), there are oxytocin-based options at the human level: tend and befriend behavior and the state of calm and connection, which is not a stress reaction but a resting reaction. These social-based reactions could prevent the organism from the primitive freezing response. Some studies proved that "hypnosis" as a setting reduces cortisol levels and could raise oxytocin levels. The beneficial mechanisms of the "calm contact" technique are analyzed in relation to "social support" and the psychoaffective effects of central oxytocin. The subjective effects of the proposed technique are outlined based on reports of healthy volunteers. The "calm contact" technique could be an alternative or adjunct to the "safe place" technique, applying the recent findings of endocrinological brain mechanisms of hypnosis. Clinical implications and limitations are briefly summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summer camps have proven effective in providing opportunities for social contact, personal development, and the improvement of the problem-solving and critical-thinking abilities of the students. However, significant findings about head campers' lived experiences in the field are scarce, especially in the Philippine context. To provide a groundwork of the phenomenon, this study delved into the head campers' lived experiences in preparation and implementation phases using the descriptive phenomenology of Husserl. At the same time, Colaizzi's seven-step method was used in thematic analysis. Individual guided interviews were utilized to gather participants' responses. Nine head campers who were active participants from the beginning up to the end of the program served as the participants of the study. Based on the participants' narratives, the following themes were generated: a) preparation phase: triumphs in camaraderie, teachers are willing to learn new subject matter, time constraints in preparing the resources, and no ample time to review new subject matter; b) implementation phase: develop students' positive learning behavior, develop students' thinking skills, Students unable to master the fundamental knowledge, and teachers are struggling to integrate higher order thinking skills. The findings implied that despite the sector and participants' efforts to make the program successful, there were still untoward instances that are beyond the program's expectations. Therefore, mentoring sessions and feed-backing activities all throughout the implementation must be strengthened and closely monitored by higher authorities so they can provide immediate and practical assistance for the head campers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central dopaminergic system is implicated in the regulation of various physiological processes and behavioral responses, including social behavior. Although long-term individual housing of rodents is well known to alter their behavioral and neurochemical parameters, data interpretation remains ambiguous. In this work, we studied the effects of long-term social isolation on the behavior and state of the central dopaminergic system in male C57Bl/6 mice. The animals of the experimental group, aged 40–42 days, were housed singly in individual cages for six weeks, while the age-matched mice of the control group were housed in a group. Isolation did not affect locomotor and exploratory activity in the open field test compared to group housing. At the same time, singly-housed animals demonstrated a longer duration of social contacts in a resident–intruder model, as well as a weakened stereotypical behavior in the marble burying test compared to group-housed rats. These behavioral changes were accompanied by an increase in striatal mRNA levels of the genes encoding dopamine D1 and D2 receptors. Moreover, the level of the dopamine metabolite 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) decreased in the hypothalamus and increased in the frontal cortex in singly-housed compared to group-housed mice. The results provide a better insight into the effects of long-term social isolation on the behavior and dopaminergic system in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With restricted face-to-face interactions, COVID-19 lockdowns and distancing measures tested the capability of computer-mediated communication to foster social contact and wellbeing. In a multinational sample (n = 6436), we investigated how different modes of contact related to wellbeing during the pandemic. Computer-mediated communication was more common than face-to-face, and its use was influenced by COVID-19 death rates, more so than state stringency measures. Despite its legal and health threats, face-to-face contact was still positively associated with wellbeing, and messaging apps had a negative association. Perceived household vulnerability to COVID-19 reduced the positive effect of face-to-face communication on wellbeing, but surprisingly, people's own vulnerability did not. Computer-mediated communication was particularly negatively associated with the wellbeing of young and empathetic people. Findings show people endeavored to remain socially connected, yet however, maintain a physical distance, despite the tangible costs to their wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In 2021, there were 4 million tuberculosis (TB) cases that were not detected by health systems, globally. Many of those cases are among hard-to-reach populations or key population groups. An Optimized Case Finding (OCF) strategy was introduced in Ukraine to enhance case detection and identify those "missing" cases. OCF included screening of up to eight referred household and social network contacts of an index TB case. Following the OCF project implementation, TB detection and characteristics of index cases and contacts were assessed. Methodology: A cohort study using project data (July 2018 - April 2022) was conducted. Results: In total 7,976 close contacts were engaged in the project from 1,028 index TB cases. Among the contacts, 507 were diagnosed with TB. The TB case detection was 6,356/100,000 and the number needed to investigate was 16. Multiple factors were identified as associated with TB detection including smoking, HIV, poverty, etc. About 90% of cases were identified at the initial screening of the contacts. OCF was proven to be 5.8 times more effective than the standard active case finding using household surveys and 106 times more effective than passive case finding in the general public. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated the effectiveness of OCF in detecting cases among key population groups and their social networks. We encourage adaptation and use of OCF by civil society organizations that already work with key vulnerable populations around the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the multifaceted process of aging well in place, conceptualizing place across various scales, encompassing the body, the most intimate scale, the home, and the neighbourhood. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with elderly women residing in Barcelona (N= 30), we investigate their daily needs and strategies for cultivating wellbeing within their immediate environments. Despite facing health challenges and mobility limitations, the study reveals that these women have developed daily routines to care for themselves, maintain activity, and sustain social connections. The findings underscore the significance of local social contacts in providing social, emotional, and instrumental support, both within the home and the broader community. Notably, the research shows the pivotal role of the neighborhood as a space contributing to a positive sense of belonging for the elderly. The participants value walkable, accessible, and secure environments, considering them as conducive spaces for social interaction and physical activity. This nuanced understanding is crucial for addressing the social and emotional needs of the elderly. These factors can be taken into account in the design of policies and programs that address the social and emotional needs of older adults, promoting their autonomy and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to identify the perception of parents of students attending private schools in the city of Tubarão, SC, Brazil, about the influence of community-wide quarantine due to COVID-19 on the interactions with their children. This exploratory and qualitative field research included semi-structured interviews held with ten families. Several aspects related to the quarantine were investigated, such as changes in the families' routine, feelings the parents experienced in the interactions with their children, difficulties faced in these interactions, and positive aspects. The interviews were assessed according to content analysis, from which categories of research emerged. The results revealed changes in the families' routine caused by distance education, less social contact, task overload, and impacts on professional life. The feelings the parents experienced included fatigue, guilt, stress, and emotional responses, adaptation to the change of roles, difficulty in implementing distance education, and more dependent children. A few positive aspects were mentioned: closeness, more mature children, and more affectionate interactions. A few families did not identify positive aspects. The results show the parents' lack of preparation to deal with the new contingencies, the importance of providing preventive parental guidance, and the need to assess the impact of the methods adopted to implement distance education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed identify the perception of parents of students from private schools in the municipality of Tubarão (SC) about the influence of quarantine due the COVID-19 pandemic in their interaction with their children. This is an exploratory and qualitative field research in which several aspects related to the quarantine period were investigated. The results were obtained through content analysis, which showed changes in routine related to distance education, less social contact, overload of activities, and professional impact. As feelings experienced by parents, fatigue, guilt, and stress were mentioned. As difficulties encountered, emotional reactions, adaptation to the change of roles, difficulties with distance education, and increased dependence were pointed out. Few were the positive aspects mentioned. Based on the results, the unpreparedness of parents to deal with new contingencies, the importance of preventive parental guidance, and the need to reevaluate the way distance education is applied were highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Experiencing sexual assault is associated with a significant increase in risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder and related concerns (e.g. alcohol misuse). Crosssectional and longitudinal evidence suggests that social support may be both broadly protective against and eroded by posttraumatic stress symptoms. However, little is known about how different aspects of social support and posttraumatic stress symptoms influence each other in the weeks and months immediately following sexual assault, when posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms first emerge. Objective: The present study assessed the day-to-day relationship between social support and PTS in a sample of distressed, alcohol-using, recently-assaulted female survivors participating in a clinical trial of an app-based intervention (N = 41). Method: Participants completed 3 weeks of daily diaries starting within 10 weeks of sexual assault. Mixed-effects models were used to examine prior-day and same-day relationships between PTS and four social support constructs (social contact, emotional support, pleasantness of social interactions, and talking about sexual assault). Results: Results indicate that higher quantity and pleasantness of social interactions over the full sampling period was associated with lower PTS symptoms on any given day. Experiencing better-than-typical social interactions on one day was associated with lower than typical PTS symptoms on that day and the next day. On days when participants discussed their sexual assault with others, they tended to be having higher than usual PTS symptoms. Conclusions: Findings suggest that increasing the quantity and pleasantness of social interactions soon after sexual assault might protect against worsening posttraumatic stress symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In non-indigenous Chilean university students, this study examined (1) the two-dimensional structure (quantity and quality) of social contact with the Mapuche people, and (2) the associations of these dimensions with stereotypes attributed to this group in a context of interethnic conflict. A purposive sample of 332 participants reported on their contact with the Mapuche, both in quantity and quality, and their adherence to various positive and negative stereotypes about this outgroup. The results supported an oblique factorial structure of contact (quantity and quality), revealing significant correlations between these factors and the stereotypes. Importantly, the quality of contact demonstrated more intense associations with stereotypes compared to its quantity. The latent interaction between quantity and quality did not significantly impact stereotypes. The study highlights the need to differentiate quantity and quality of contact when examining their relationships with other psychosocial constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: This paper is the second of two (Briggs et al., 2023) detailing the outcome of a mixed-method study examining the mental health and wellbeing of a randomised sub-sample of 60 clients who attended the Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust Counselling Service following the earthquake that struck Christchurch on 22 February 2011. METHODS: This paper focuses on the results from semi-structured interviews with the study participants. Open-ended questions explored: 1) secondary stressors that impacted participant wellbeing; and 2) experiences of counselling at the CCHT. FINDINGS: The findings highlight several secondary stressors for participants including practical and financial assistance, social contacts, and disrupted employment and education, all of which continued to impact on their wellbeing. The experience of counselling varied with mixed views on its value, the skills of the counsellors, and the benefit of having counselling with a practitioner who had also experienced the traumatic event. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the initial counselling was viewed as a positive contributor to the participants' recovery, however practitioners, including social workers who offer counselling services, must be mindful of shared trauma, demonstrate emotional regulation, and have relevant knowledge and strategies for a range of client interactions. Continuing professional education, such as webinars and involvement in communities of practice on post-disaster social work practice, are recommended so social workers can better understand the longer-term impacts of disasters and equip themselves for future disaster-related practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Lubelski Rocznik Pedagogiczny is the property of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to manage the risk of infection, which is caused by social interaction, particularly in school events. Thus, the principals had to face the dilemma between avoiding the risk and favoring educational opportunity brought by school events which produce close interpersonal contact. The aim of present study is to reveal school principals' risk management of school events under such dilemma. Five school principals participated in the semi-structured interview and were asked how school events were administrated from 2020 onwards, including the cases in which the events were cancelled. The obtained data was analyzed through SCAT (Otani, 2008). As a result, 325 concepts/theme and 124 theoretical descriptions were obtained. The main findings were as follows: the policy focused on maintaining education opportunities was found to be the same for each participant, however, the actual risk-taking policies differed depending on each interviewee and activity. On risk management, the factors such as the thought of children and parents or school size affected. In particular, the school trip was the most difficult activity to manage. Moreover, in case of an out-of-prefecture trip, it was considered that a certain policy and scheme such as involving students education to risk management and close communication in/out of schools would make it possible. Through risk management, results on positive/negative outcomes, such as the improvement of school systems or the loss of social relationships, were obtained. Through consideration of these findings, a future direction of risk management in schools was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global economy has been profoundly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This impact is particularly evident in the restaurant industry, where restaurant traffic has dropped significantly, leading to a decline in revenue. In response to the impact of the pandemic, non-contact services, such as overseas delivery and door-to-door delivery, have been implemented to reduce interpersonal contact and minimize the spread of the virus. Contactless service not only provides consumers with more choices and convenience but is also an important means of livelihood for restaurant service staff during the pandemic. This study takes the Taiwanese chain restaurant Kura Sushi as an example to explore the impact of service contacts on authenticity consumption and experience value in the context of non-contact services. A total of 318 valid responses to a questionnaire were collected and analyzed using IBM SPSS 25.0 and IBM AMOS 25.0 software. This study made the following findings: (1) service staff performance has a significant positive impact on authenticity perception; (2) the physical restaurant environment has a positive impact on consumers' perceptions of authenticity; (3) active interactions with other customers significantly enhance the sense of reality; (4) experience values significantly promote real consumption; and (5) experience values also significantly affect consumer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research studies the peculiarities of public sector employee motivation in Israel in relation to their job position and education. This empirical research (585 participants) shows that management personnel are characterized by a strong need for power and the need for a sense of demand. Non-managerial staff has a stronger need for good working conditions, structuring of work, and the need for social contacts. There are significant differences in motivation depending on the level of education of the employee. The need for good working conditions is stronger in the groups among employees with secondary and junior engineering education than among employees with an academic degree. The need for a structuring of work and social contacts is stronger among employees with a junior engineering education compared with the employees who have an academic degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the closure of educational centers, forcing the teaching–learning process to become virtual at all levels of the educational system. The main objective of this study was to describe and analyze how students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their parents perceived their quality of life and the educational response offered during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was conducted with 50 students with grade 1 ASD, aged 8–11 years, and their parents. The methodology used was qualitative and descriptive, with semi-structured, individual interviews. The data were analyzed using the MAXQDA 2020 program. The results show that students with ASD state that they need social contact and that the fact of not experiencing it, as occurred during the COVID-19 situation, had a negative impact on their perception of their quality of life, as well as the perception of their parents, significantly affecting their emotional well-being. Likewise, it was detected that both students with ASD and their parents perceived that the educational response was inadequate during that period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Interventions Économiques is the property of Association d'Economie Politique and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Heart failure (HF) is characterized by a progressive clinical course marked by frequent exacerbations and repeated hospitalizations, leading to considerably high morbidity and mortality rates. Patients with HF present with a constellation of bothersome symptoms, which range from physical to psychological and mental manifestations. With the transition to more advanced HF stages, symptoms become increasingly more debilitating, interfere with activities of daily living and disrupt multiple domains of life, including physical functioning, psychological status, emotional state, cognitive function, intimate relationships, lifestyle status, usual role activities, social contact and support. By inflicting profuse limitations in numerous aspects of life, HF exerts a profoundly negative impact on health-related quality of life (HRQOL). It is therefore not surprising that patients with HF display lower levels of HRQOL compared not only to the general healthy population but also to patients suffering from other chronic diseases. On top of this, poor HRQOL in patients with HF becomes an even greater concern considering that it has been associated with unfavorable long-term outcomes and poor prognosis. Nevertheless, HRQOL may differ significantly among patients with HF. Indeed, it has consistently been reported that women with HF display poorer HRQOL compared to men, while younger patients with HF tend to exhibit lower levels of HRQOL than their older counterparts. Moreover, patients presenting with higher New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class (III–IV) have significantly more impaired HRQOL than those in a better NYHA class (I–II). Furthermore, most studies report worse levels of HRQOL in patients suffering from HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) compared to patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) or HF with mildly reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF). Last, but not least, differences in HRQOL have been noted depending on geographic location, with lower HRQOL levels having been recorded in Africa and Eastern Europe and higher in Western Europe in a recent large global study. Based on the observed disparities that have been invariably reported in the literature, this review article aims to provide insight into the underlying differences in HRQOL among patients with HF. Through an overview of currently existing evidence, fundamental differences in HRQOL among patients with HF are analyzed based on sex, age, NYHA functional class, ejection fraction and geographic location or ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airborne viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 are partly spread through aerosols containing viral particles. Inhalation of infectious airborne particles can lead to infection, a route that can be even more predominant than droplet or contact transmission. To study the transmission between a susceptible and an infected person, we estimated the distribution of arrival times of small diffusing aerosol particles to the inhaled region located below the nose until the number of particles reaches a critical threshold. Our results suggested that although contamination by continuous respiration can take approximately 90 min at a distance of 0.5 m, it is reduced to a few minutes when coughing or sneezing. Interestingly, there is not much difference between outdoors and indoors when the air is still. When a window is open inside an office, the infection time is reduced. Finally, wearing a mask leads to a delay in the time to infection. To conclude, diffusion analysis provides several key timescales of viral airborne transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie ( KZfSS) is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Since the late 1980s, legal writing (LW) professors have been disproportionately white women because the LW field has been stigmatized as "women's work." As a result, these teaching positions typically have been low status and afforded with less pay and job security in comparison to tenure-track doctrinal law professor positions. Compounding-or intersecting-with the stigma of teaching LW are LW professors' social statuses as women and/or other marginalized statuses. These statuses intersect and influ.ence how and what they teach and the legal academy's attitudes toward them. Although previous scholarship has briefly addressed legal skill classes' stigmatization, no scholarship to date has applied a systematic, feminist sociological approach to this problem. The benefit of this interdisciplinary approach is that it unveils not only the gender equity but also the health equity aspects of this issue in law schools. Using sociological conceptspublic stigma and self-stigma--this Article examines the stigma associated with LW within the U.S. legal academy and outlines possible negative consequences on LW professors' health. Public stigma refers to negative views the legal academy attaches to LW professors because of what they teach-legal writing-and any other devalued statuses whereas self-stigma refers to negative views LW professors attach to themselves. Additionally, this Article proposes social contact-the only proven method for lessening stigma-to lessen stigma against LW and LW professors, More specifically, this Article recommends that the American Bar Association and law schools facilitate social contact among LW and doctrinal professors and the law school community by changing their policies so that LW and doctrinal professors enjoy the same rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large amount of research is dedicated to the measurement of immigration trends and integration processes, but comparative studies of the components of immigrants' well-being are rare. This paper investigates the link between the length of stay and the subjective well-being (SWB) of immigrants. A step-by-step regression method is used to understand interactions between different individual- and macro-level factors in the life satisfaction of immigrants. The results of the European Social Survey (ESS) show that the effect of length of stay on SWB is mitigated by numerous individual- and country-level variables. After all background variables are considered, newly arrived immigrants and those who have been in the new country for more than 20 years had a similar life satisfaction to that of the local-born population. Immigrants with 10 to 20 years' experience in the country seem to have lower life satisfaction than the local-born population. The SWB of different immigrant groups is shaped by cultural background, economic coping, number of social contacts, perception of discrimination, and democracy. These factors influence the life satisfaction of migrants with different lengths of stay differently. The most vulnerable immigrant groups in Europe are those from Africa region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modern era, cyberspace has an impact on every facet of human connection. The Internet, which offers forums for people to connect, engage, and work with one another in all facets of life is transforming the world in many ways. In a sense, it has developed into an additional setting for social contact between people, much like their homes, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, etc. This also has a direct impact on mental and emotional well-being while blending their personal, social, and professional spaces with cyberspace. Hence, it is important to create awareness about the impact as well as the ways and means of maintaining a balance in cyberspace to ensure healthy mental and emotional well-being. Nurturing mental and emotional wellness through various strategies is essential. By fostering awareness, embracing digital wellness practices, and advocating for a more empathetic online culture, we can harness the potential of cyberspace while prioritizing mental and emotional health in this rapidly evolving digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics of infectious disease transmission depends on social contact patterns and the precautions people take to minimize disease transmission. The social contact pattern varies depending on the community at large age distribution at work, school, and recreation. Consequently, knowing the age-specific prevalence and incidence of infectious diseases is critical for predicting future disease burden and the efficacy of interventions like vaccination. In this study, we use an SEIR age-structured multi-group epidemic model to understand how social contact affects disease control. We construct location-specific social contact matrices to observe that how social mixing affects disease spread. For mathematical analysis, we compute the basic reproduction number (R 0) and exhibit the global behavior of the system in terms of R 0 . We also estimate the transmission rate using the empirical data of COVID-19 for India from 1 September 2020, to 31 December 2020. We simulate the lifting of non-pharmaceutical interventions by allowing people to return to work in phases and investigate its impact. Our findings imply that raising awareness in symptomatic infected individuals aged 20–49 years can help in reducing the number of infected individuals. When some schools are partially open, awareness in symptomatic infected individuals in school-age groups also plays a significant role in reducing disease cases. The simulation results also suggest that limiting contact at school and other gathering places could significantly lower the number of instances. Using the least square approach, we show that the time-dependent transmission rate is more realistic than the constant spread rate for COVID-19 in India. To reduce the COVID-19 burden, we obtain that gradually loosening control measures could flatten and lower other peaks. Our findings may help health policymakers to decide on timely age-based vaccination distribution strategies and control measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban designers often aim to reduce the subjective feeling of loneliness through more opportunities for social interaction in (semi-)public space. These approaches may benefit people who feel lonely because they are socially isolated, but they neglect a wide range of other loneliness experiences. Indeed, there are various reasons for feeling lonely, which can often not (quickly) be erased by more social contact. Strikingly, many lonely people have even been found to prefer, and sometimes benefit from, spending time by themselves. This does, however, not imply that they necessarily prefer to remain in private space. Trying to 'plan away' aloneness and negative feelings – as visual representation of loneliness – from public space may then exacerbate loneliness: it signals that lonely people are alone with their experiences and can exclude them from the community of people using the same space. We therefore propose a 'paradoxical loneliness intervention', where more space for loneliness eases its painfulness. More specifically, we offer ideas for spaces that cater to the diverse needs of lonely people by (1) de-stigmatising loneliness, (2) providing opportunities to reflect on loneliness, (3) allowing the development pf a sense of belonging and (4) allowing a mental escape of loneliness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: A shift of Latino voters to Republican Party candidates has been observed in recent years. Past research on presidential elections supports the idea that borderlands counties vote differently than other counties in borderlands states and tend to favor Democratic Party candidates. This study explores congressional voting patterns in the Texas borderlands. Methods: Using county‐level data for Texas counties in 2010 and 2022, this study examines Republican congressional voting as a function of (1) borderlands cultural and economic context, (2) economic conditions, (3) social contact, and (4) religious adherence. We contribute to existing scholarship by proposing that there are three district border subregions. Results: Overall, this study finds increased levels of support for Republican congressional candidates in the borderlands region. However, when subregions are compared, those counties with economic linkages to Mexico and rural Tejano counties are more likely to vote for Democratic Party candidates in 2010 and 2022. The West Texas borderlands region, however, is no longer distinctive from other Texas counties in terms of voting patterns in 2022. Conclusion: Voters in the predominantly Latino Texas borderlands are increasingly voting for Republican congressional candidates suggesting a change in partisan attachment. The effects of foreign‐born arrivals and rising economic optimism in the borderlands may lead to more voting for Republican candidates. However, current economic realities and linkages as well as past social and political marginalization may continue to make borderlands voters distinct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fancy‐dress skating was originally a comprehensive cultural activity integrating entertainment, social contact, and sports, introduced to China from the West in modern times. Since its introduction in China, it has spread widely throughout Beijing, and has undergone considerable variations. Taking Beijing as an example, this study systematically analyses and explains the development and variation of fancy‐dress skating in China which was introduced by the West from the perspectives of public social opinion and organizational participants. Its dissemination and variations are typical examples of cross‐cultural communication of the Western culture in the context of modern Chinese mass communication. It is also the epitome of the diversified interactions between entertainment and society. In modern Chinese history, fancy‐dress skating gradually resonated with historical themes and finally took a new cultural form similar to, but different from what was originally based on the Western contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hiking has become an increasingly popular activity for all age groups and can be seen as one of the major nature-based tourist activities. As in other areas of tourism, a trend toward a growing emphasis on quality is identifiable in hiking tourism. To better address the needs and demands of hiking tourists, knowledge of motives for hiking is crucial. Focusing on the context of hiking tourism, the aim of this study is to examine the motives of hikers and to identify possible underlying individual differences in motives. By using an adapted questionnaire based on the existing inventory 'Bernese motive and goal inventory in leisure and health sports' (BMZI), hiking tourists at three different locations in the Black Forest in Germany were interviewed. A total of 113 questionnaires were used for statistical analysis. First, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was applied to classify motives for engaging in hiking, resulting in five motives: 'experience of nature', 'health', 'distraction', 'social contact in sport', 'physique', and 'competition'. Second, further analyses revealed significant differences in terms of gender, age, educational level, frequency of exercising, frequency of hiking, and type of vacation regarding single motives for hiking, with the motive 'health' showing most differences according to sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics (i.e. gender, frequency of exercising, frequency of hiking). The results of this study provide a better understanding of hiking tourists and their motives. Furthermore, the results are useful for organizations, marketing, destinations, and networks in the field of sport and tourism to promote hiking tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering population ageing and a housing system in crisis, new residential responses for older people are being sought and claimed. To meet their needs for social contact, empowerment and mutual support, while considering affordability and sustainability, older people are increasingly considering cohousing options. However, to successfully develop a cohousing project, several factors, including the architectural design process, are decisive. Yet, few studies have focused on the design phases of such projects, especially when including an older users' group. In this article, we therefore focus on a specific real-life case study (i.e., a Belgian cohousing project that supports ageing), in order to "open the black box of architectural work" and to understand both the design process and the design solution in that regard. During 10 months, we did meetings' observations, stakeholders' interviews and documents collection, throughout the early design phases. The results highlight the diversity of stakeholders involved and their impact; the architectural features addressed in the design and their interrelationships; the methods used for the project development; and the temporal factors that were associated. Finally, the study reveals the project's multi-level complexity and points out dual poles that emerged during the design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We aimed to examine the association between social media use and loneliness two years after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Methods: Participants were 1649 adults who completed a cross-sectional online survey disseminated openly in Norway, United Kingdom, USA, and Australia between November 2021 and January 2022. Linear regressions examined time spent on social media and participants' characteristics on loneliness, and interactions by motives for social media use. Results: Participants who worried more about their health and were younger, not employed, and without a spouse or partner reported higher levels of loneliness compared to their counterparts. More time spent on social media was associated with more loneliness (β = 0.12, p < 0.001). Three profile groups emerged for social media use motives: 1) social media use motive ratings on avoiding difficult feelings higher or the same as for maintaining contact; 2) slightly higher ratings for maintaining contact; and 3) substantially higher ratings for maintaining contact. Time spent on social media was significant only in motive profile groups 2 and 3 (β = 0.12 and β = 0.14, both p < 0.01). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that people who use social media for the motive of maintaining their relationships feel lonelier than those who spend the same amount of time on social media for other reasons. While social media may facilitate social contact to a degree, they may not facilitate the type of contact sought by those who use social media primarily for this reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the cognitive function trajectories associated with prolonged social isolation, while distinguishing between a lack of informal social contact and a lack of formal social activity as the source of social isolation. Data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing spanning 12 years between 2006 and 2018 were analyzed. A lack of frequent informal social contact or formal social activity was used to assess social isolation, and cognitive function was measured by Korean Mini-Mental State Examination. Fixed effects regression models were used to account for unobserved individual-level confounders. A prolonged absence of frequent informal social contact was linked to a decline in cognitive function up to the three waves of exposure (b = −2.135), but cognitive function has not declined further since then. A persistent lack of formal social activity was associated with a decline in cognitive function up to the fifth and subsequent waves of exposure (b = −3.073). No gender differences were observed in these relationships. Prolonged social isolation, particularly a lack of formal social activity, can pose a significant threat to the cognitive health of older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intervention methods to establish commitment to (collaborative) action are of potential interest to researchers and policymakers intent upon including stakeholder perspectives in natural risk governance (Scolobig, Nat Hazards 81:27–43, 2016). In this paper, a 6-step co-design method for engaging with local people in collaboratively envisioning nature-based solutions for flood defence is described. The problem structuring base of the participatory method is extended to accommodate the multi-actor situation and the local context of flood risk management. The intervention method is applied in a workshop in the Houston–Galveston Bay area in October 2014. At that time there was strong contestation surrounding the proposed Ike Dike with alternative combinations of nature-based and smaller conventional engineering solutions being proposed. The results indicate that the local participants were able to envision a wide range of future outcomes for the bay and were able to use the insights on nature-based solutions and the social contacts that they acquired at the transdisciplinary workshop to mobilize commitment to joint action. This action focused on collaboration rather than specifying ecological or technical infrastructural requirements and was instrumental in initiating more open discourse on flood defence options for the Houston–Galveston Bay area. The paper concludes that the generic applicability of the co-design method is limited by the requirement to understand and accommodate local circumstances and participants' insights within the workshop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telepresence robots are increasingly used in schools as a way of including students who are unable to be physically present in the classroom with other students. The use of such robots is intended not just to help students follow their education but also to serve a social purpose. However, the extent to which the robots actually afford socializing needs to be explored further. This article analyzes how, to what extent, for whom, and under what circumstances the telepresence robot AV1 affords social contact for the heterogenous group of homebound Norwegian upper secondary school students. Building on Jenny Davis' mechanisms and conditions framework of affordances, we focus on how AV1 affords for different students in specific circumstances. Our analysis draws on interviews with 11 upper secondary school students in Norway and finds that individual traits and circumstances such as health issues and social networks are important aspects when assessing whether a technology affords socializing. Based on our findings, we argue for expanding the mechanisms and conditions framework to include not just its current focus on perception, dexterity, and cultural and institutional legitimacy, but also the users' emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emigration is an important part of Slovak history. From the second half of the 19th century, a significant part of its population emigrated from the territory of today's Slovakia. Slovaks in their new homeland did not forget their roots. It was faith that was the characteristic feature of a Slovak in America. Gradually emerging Slovak associations were predominantly confessional in nature. After the arrival of the first Slovak „pioneers" in the 70s of the 18th century, a lively religious life started very quickly. The first thing the new settlers decided to do was to build their own church. The church did not only fulfill a religious function, it also had a practical meaning. Associations and settlements emerging around Slovak churches rehabilitated the non-existent social system. They were a meeting place for the local community, social contact, entertainment and social gatherings. Such an association based on a purely confessional and national principle was the Slovak Catholic Sokol in North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore the experiences of older migrants' (70+) access to and participation in different meeting places. Qualitative interviews were conducted with participants originating from Finland and four countries in the Western Balkans: Bosnia- Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The participants used everyday places in the neighborhood, which were not primarily meant to be meeting places, to create and uphold social contacts. These meeting places contributed to experiences of community and trust. Both everyday meeting places and organized meeting places were used to establish and develop relationships that could result in an exchange of both practical and emotional support. Perceptions of "not belonging", limited proficiency in Swedish, and a strained financial situation created barriers to accessing some meeting places. The results of this study demonstrate the significance of meeting places that are not purposefully aimed at older people in general or older people from a specific country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study group consists of a total of 61 patients who underwent fibula flap and iliac flap surgeries to repair mandibular defects. Patients' Quality Of life (QOL) at 6 and 24 months after surgery is investigated and compared by the EORTC-QLQ-H&N and OHIP-14. The base data of the two groups of patients are collected and analysed by the SPSS 20.0 statistical software. Independent sample t test was conducted for EORTC-QLQ-H&N and OHIP-14 scores at two time points in each group. The 61 cases of free flap all survived and the difference in the location of the primary tumor between the two groups is statistically significant. The EORTC-QLQ-H&N showed that the score of speech, diet, social contact, and teeth all went up at 6 months after surgery, but went down dramatically at 24 months after surgery. The OHIP-14 showed that there was significant reduction in functional limitation at 24 months after surgery, with statistical significance (p < 0.05) between the groups of iliac flap (19.16 ± 5.33) and fibula flap (33.77 ± 7.71). Therefore, it is suggested that patients suffering from mandibular defects receive surgery utilizing the iliac flap, while those with a larger range of defects or lesions involving the condyle and chin should receive corrective surgery utilizing the fibular flap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the introduction of remote work as one way to ensure employee safety and reduce the amount of interpersonal contact while continuing business operations. Knowing the degree of prevalence of remote work and its establishment are considered to be important factors in future policies and urban planning. We applied non-negative matrix factorization to population-change data obtained from a mobile phone network to extract the component of working people, and analyzed the changes pre- and post-pandemic. Using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, we confirmed that the number of people working in office and residential districts has significantly changed at a significance level of 1% in urban areas centered around Tokyo and Osaka, the two largest cities in Japan. Time-series data show that the number of workers is decreasing in office districts and increasing in residential districts, suggesting increased prevalence of remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that it has become established. In addition, in urban areas centered around Tokyo, we confirmed that there is a moderate correlation between the changes in the number of people working in office districts and the capital size of corporations in the same area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ensemble of classifiers combines several single classifiers to deliver a final prediction or classification decision. An increasingly provoking question is whether such an ensemble can outperform the single best classifier. If so, what form of ensemble learning system (also known as multiple classifier learning systems) yields the most significant benefits in the size or diversity of the ensemble? In this paper, the ability of ensemble learning to predict and identify factors that influence or contribute to autism spectrum disorder therapy (ASDT) for intervention purposes is investigated. Given that most interventions are typically short-term in nature, henceforth, developing a robotic system that will provide the best outcome and measurement of ASDT therapy has never been so critical. In this paper, the performance of five single classifiers against several multiple classifier learning systems in exploring and predicting ASDT is investigated using a dataset of behavioural data and robot-enhanced therapy against standard human treatment based on 3000 sessions and 300 h, recorded from 61 autistic children. Experimental results show statistically significant differences in performance among the single classifiers for ASDT prediction with decision trees as the more accurate classifier. The results further show multiple classifier learning systems (MCLS) achieving better performance for ASDT prediction (especially those ensembles with three core classifiers). Additionally, the results show bagging and boosting ensemble learning as robust when predicting ASDT with multi-stage design as the most dominant architecture. It also appears that eye contact and social interaction are the most critical contributing factors to the ASDT problem among children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has limited social activities in public spaces because transmission originates from physical contact. The impact of activity limitations affects the nursing profession's practice learning system. The blended learning model is used to achieve the learning process. This study aimed to identify the effect of blended learning on knowledge of competency tests for nursing students at the mental health nursing station. Methods: The study used a quantitative study approach with a quasi-experiment design. The number of respondents based on the calculation of the total sampling amounted to 77 people. It used research data collection with the pre and post-test procedures, which arranged the questions based on the style of competency tests. The data analysis used a parametric Paired T-test. Results: The results showed an effect of blended learning on knowledge of competency test questions for nursing students at the mental health nursing station with a p-value < 0.05. There is an increase in the average knowledge of nursing students before and after the blended learning process. Conclusion: This study provides recommendations for approaches related to methods and evaluation in blended learning in each subject taught at the professional stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social and spatial organisation of avian societies is often complex and dynamic with individuals socialising with others in a local population. Although social interactions can readily be described in colonial breeders through the location of nests, social interactions regularly take place in other contexts that are often not considered. Social behaviour in the colonially breeding zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata, has been the focus of much work in the laboratory, but very little is known about their social organisation in free‐living populations, especially outside the breeding context. Here we characterise semi‐permanent gathering locations, or 'social hotspots' in the zebra finch in the wild. We determined the use of such social hotspots and the resulting group dynamics by quantifying movements to and from these locations through direct observation and by quantifying the vocal activity at these locations using acoustic recorders. We show that, throughout the day, zebra finches regularly visit these hotspots, and the hotspots are occupied for a substantial proportion of the day. Individuals typically arrived and left in pairs, or small groups, indicating that these social hotspots do not function just for flock formation. Instead, the high levels of vocal activity at these hotspots indicate that they may potentially function as local hubs for socialisation and information exchange, whilst also perhaps providing safety‐in‐numbers benefits to individuals during periods of resting. These findings characterise an important component of the natural social life of one of the most widely studied birds in captivity. The characterisation of these social hotspots highlights the use of landmarks by birds to facilitate social contacts, cohesion, and behaviour, in a social bird. Similar hangouts and social hotspots may be a feature of social behaviour in other multi‐level aggregative species in which the fission and fusion of groups is an important component of daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does visiting Mainland China alter Taiwanese students' evaluation of Taiwan's democracy? This question greatly concerns democratic supporters globally. Therefore, 477 Taiwanese young adults participating in Mainland China exchange programmes were recruited for this study. Social contact, social identity, political socialisation and rational choice theories were introduced to formulate four hypotheses. The results indicated that, among the three dimensions constituting the democracy evaluation following their exchange to Mainland China, the Taiwanese students showed increased positive evaluations in democratic support and degree of democratisation. Furthermore, positive evaluations for satisfaction with democracy decreased. The evaluation of Taiwan's democracy, formed by aggregating these three dimensions, indicates that this index decreased in 27.54% of students, increased in 29.24% and remained unchanged in 43.22%. After visiting Mainland China, students exhibit a tendency towards ethnically identifying as Taiwanese, or have a worse impression of China, or have greater political trust towards Taiwanese officials, or show a lower preference for the strongman rule, leading to a more favourable evaluation of Taiwan's democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A model for SARS-CoV-2 with spatial heterogeneity, mobility, variants of concern, seasonality, and vaccination is built. • The model can be used to generate projections for policymakers and to study the influence of mobility on SARS-CoV-2 spread. • Incorporating mobility is not necessary to obtain an accurate description of the 2020–2021 SARS-CoV2 pandemic in Belgium. • Adding spatial heterogeneity to the model results in greater uncertainty on the model projections for policymakers. • Lowering social contact is a more efficient strategy than lowering mobility to contain an epidemic in a given spatial patch. In this work, we extend our previously developed compartmental SEIQRD model for SARS-CoV-2 in Belgium. We introduce SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, vaccines, and seasonality in our model, as their addition has proven necessary for modelling SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics during the 2020–2021 COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium. The model is geographically stratified into eleven spatial patches (provinces), and a telecommunication dataset provided by Belgium's biggest operator is used to incorporate interprovincial mobility. We calibrate the model using the daily number of hospitalisations in each province and serological data. We find the model adequately describes these data, but the addition of interprovincial mobility was not necessary to obtain an accurate description of the 2020–2021 SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Belgium. We further demonstrate how our model can be used to help policymakers decide on the optimal timing of the release of social restrictions. We find that adding spatial heterogeneity by geographically stratifying the model results in more uncertain model projections as compared to an equivalent nation-level model, which has both communicative advantages and disadvantages. We finally discuss the impact of imposing local mobility or social contact restrictions to contain an epidemic in a given province and find that lowering social contact is a more effective strategy than lowering mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives We examine the relationship between social isolation, poor health behaviors, and the perceived worsening of older adults' health behaviors following the coronavirus outbreak. We assess the extent to which psychological pathways mediate the relationship between social isolation and worsening health behaviors. Methods Drawing on data from the National Social Life Health and Aging Project Round 3 (2015) and its coronavirus immune disease 2019 (COVID-19) substudy (2020; N = 2,549), we use generalized linear models to explore how indicators of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic—infrequent in-person contact with friends and family in 2020 and decreased in-person contact with friends and family since COVID-19 started—are associated with (1) poor health behaviors (low physical activity, drinks per week, smoking, and poor sleep) in 2020 and (2) perceived worsening of health behaviors (reports of decreased physical activity, increased drinking and smoking, and feeling less rested) since the pandemic started. Results Infrequent in-person contact was not associated with poor health behaviors. Decreases in in-person contact, on the other hand, were associated with worsening health behaviors. Older adults who reported decreases in in-person contact were more likely to perceive a decrease in physical activity, an increase in drinking, and feeling less rested. Emotional well-being, particularly loneliness compared to anxiety or depressive feelings, partially mediated the relationship between perceived worsening of health behaviors and a decrease in in-person contact with friends, and to a lesser extent, with family. Discussion Our study suggests that in-person contact may play a distinct role in shaping older adults' well-being during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]