SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS OF EXPERIENCE CORPS

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The Experience Corps (EC) represents a new model of senior service, designed to create new, generative[unreadable] and productive roles for older adults to address unmet needs of public elementary schools, and to provide a[unreadable] social model for health promotion among older adults, aimed at improving their social/psychological,[unreadable] cognitive, and physical functioning. In conjunction with a proposed 5-year randomized trial of the EC, with[unreadable] older adults randomized to participate in the EC or other volunteer opportunities, the primary goals of Project[unreadable] 4 are to, first, test for hypothesized greater "gains" in social and psychological functioning among older[unreadable] adults randomized to the intervention [EC] arm; and second, test whether hypothesized benefits in social and[unreadable] psychological functioning mediate hypothesized benefits of EC participation for cognitive and physical[unreadable] functioning and health status. Expected social and psychological gains for EC participants derive explicitly[unreadable] from core features of the EC program which include placing trained teams of volunteers in schools (providing[unreadable] a critical mass of volunteers and promoting a sense of collective "team" efficacy), having them fulfill[unreadable] meaningful roles to meet school needs, requiring a commitment of 15hours/week and providing an incentive[unreadable] reimbursement to offset volunteer expenses (e.g., transportation, meals). As a result of these program[unreadable] features, we expect that participation in the EC will result in gains with respect to important aspects of both[unreadable] social and psychological functioning among the older adults, including greater social engagement and[unreadable] development of new relationships, increased feelings of usefulness and worth, greater sense of generativity,[unreadable] self-efficacy and self-esteem. We expect that gains in these domains of psychosocial functioning will in turn[unreadable] confer benefits for cognitive and physical functioning in older adult volunteers. A secondary goal of Project 4[unreadable] is to test the impact of the EC program on the broader school community. Specifically, we will test that[unreadable] hypothesis that presence of the EC teams in elementary schools results in development of more positive[unreadable] attitudes toward aging and of older adults capabilities among other adults in the school community (e.g.,[unreadable] teachers, staff).