Feelings Of Connectedness Research Articles

Rebuilding human-nature connections in children and adolescents: insights from a meta-analysis

Beyond correlational studies exploring the benefits of nature exposure, there have been studies assessing interventions that aim to improve nature connection in children and adolescents. A feeling of connection with nature or ‘nature connectedness’ describes our attitude towards nature, primarily reflecting the emotional, cognitive, and experiential aspects. This meta-analysis of 29 studies explored the impact of experimental manipulations on nature connection in young people (less than 18 years old). The results showed that such interventions had a significant positive effect on nature connections in children and adolescents. The presence of environmental education programmes, the quality of engagement with nature (passive or active), and the duration and frequency of intervention (one-off, repeated, or residential) were predictors of effect size. The quality of engagement, such as active participation in environmental education programmes or an intensive residential experience, may be more important than the type of natural setting. Several important implications for future research and practice are suggested by the results, including the need to understand the factors that contribute to improved nature connection, to examine different nature engagement activities, and to develop interventions with regular nature engagement.

‘Making a connection’: a qualitative study of experiences from a cancer telerehabilitation program

PurposeSpecialised group-based exercise rehabilitation is beneficial for cancer survivors but access to these services is limited. Telerehabilitation provides an opportunity to expand reach, but we do not know about the experiences of those who participate in this way. This study explored participant experiences of an exercise-based telerehabilitation program for people with cancer.MethodA qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was completed. Twenty-two cancer survivors were purposively sampled from the experimental group of a randomised controlled trial evaluating exercise-based cancer telerehabilitation delivered in groups using synchronous videoconferencing. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were coded independently by two reviewers and analysed inductively by thematic analysis.Results‘A feeling of connection’ was the overarching theme. Participants perceived they connected with the health service, expert health professionals, and peers through participating in the telerehabilitation program. These connections provided a personalised rehabilitation experience and improved perceptions of physical and emotional well-being. Two subthemes suggested connection was facilitated by (1) the acceptability of telerehabilitation and (2) enhanced accountability to exercise. Participants felt disconnected when they were unable to participate in the program due to cancer treatment and side effects (e.g. fatigue), feeling unwell, and co-morbidities.ConclusionWe identified that telerehabilitation facilitated connections that enhanced the reach of exercise to cancer survivors. Our findings support using telerehabilitation to deliver specialised group-based exercise programs alongside more traditional models of care to increase participation in exercise among people with cancer.

If I Don’t Laugh, I’ll Cry: Examining the Mechanisms and Gratifications of Humor in Eudaimonic Entertainment Experiences

ABSTRACT Humorous and eudaimonic entertainment are often treated as theoretically distinct media experiences. Prior research has examined unique outcomes of meaningful entertainment, including making sense of difficulties (MSOD), connectedness, and helping intentions. The present study (N = 275) experimentally manipulated the presence of humor in a film about cancer to examine how humor relates to these outcomes. Results show that, through the mechanisms of character identification and cancer anxiety, humor experiences positively predict MSOD and feelings of connectedness. This study also presents preliminary findings on a new measure of character coping humor that may be more suitable for use in poignant or somber message contexts. Future research directions concerning the role of moving humor are discussed.

Relationship quality perceived by family caregivers of people with dementia in the context of a psychoeducational intervention: A qualitative exploration.

Caring for a person with dementia can be a challenging experience, often associated with chronic stress and a heavy burden on family caregivers. Dementia also impacts the relationship between the caregiver and the person with dementia. The quality of this relationship is, in turn, an important factor influencing the well-being of both dyad members. The psychoeducational intervention "Learning to feel better . . . and help better" has shown positive results regarding family caregivers' subjective burden, psychological distress, and self-efficacy. However, relationship quality has not been addressed in the context of this intervention. A longitudinal constructivist grounded theory approach was used to explore relationship quality as perceived by caregivers, possible changes and intervention components facilitating or preventing such changes. Three qualitative, semi-structured interviews (before, during and after the intervention) were performed with 13 family caregivers from three different intervention groups. The resulting 39 interviews were analysed regarding individual caregiver trajectories, per time point for all caregivers and regarding specific caregiver subgroups. A model focusing on sustaining relationship quality in dementia was developed. It shows strategies that family caregivers develop and apply to facilitate positive interactions and feelings of connectedness with their family members with dementia. It also indicates that mastering such strategies requires reflective skills based on specific knowledge of dementia and coping strategies, which can be enhanced through active skills training, in which caregivers are guided to work on their individual stressful situations. Factors hampering change included difficulties in accepting dementia-related changes. Findings suggest that psychoeducation, with active skills training based on caregivers' current daily life situations, providing systematic procedures to handle daily challenges and specific knowledge about the impact of the disease, could support them in developing and applying supportive strategies to sustain or improve their relationship to their family member with dementia.

Connecting work teams in a remote workplace: an identity leadership perspective

ABSTRACT Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, a shift towards remote and hybrid working practices is currently taking place in organizations worldwide. This transition creates an important challenge for workplace management to ensure that remotely working employees feel connected to their team, and the organization at large, despite the loss of frequent in-person, face-to-face interactions. We propose that identity leadership behaviours from workplace supervisors are key to ensuring such feelings of connectedness among remotely working employees. We conducted two studies among working adults in the United Kingdom to demonstrate the importance of identity leadership in a remote working context. Our first study showed that employees preferred identity leadership behaviours from their supervisors more in a remote versus an on-site working context. Results of our second study showed that identity leadership behaviours mitigate against the detrimental consequences of remote working on team connectedness and on various work-related outcomes for employees, such as their work engagement, job satisfaction, work stress and absenteeism. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings as well as directions for future research.

Engaging Undergraduate Nursing Students in Collaborative Research.

Nurses are expected to base practice on evidence from research, which requires an understanding of the research process. However, baccalaureate nursing students may find research courses uninteresting or feel unprepared to conduct research. Participation in experiential research projects may affect their research attitudes, knowledge, and skills. Nursing investigators engaged nursing students in an experiential, active learning research project centered on the effects of pet interaction involving university students. Faculty mentored and partnered with nursing students, immersing them in all research processes. Students confirmed that participation in the project enhanced their understanding of research, improved their clinical and communication skills, and fostered professional growth. Students presented results in a scientific poster at the University's research event. Collaborative faculty-student research projects enhance students' interest in and appreciation of evidence-based research, and support professional development, confidence in assuming research roles, and feelings of connection with faculty, each other, and the university. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(10):713-715.].

In Their Own Words: How Adolescents Use Social Media and How It Affects Them

The aim of this qualitative study was to uncover homogeneity (commonalities between adolescents), heterogeneity (differences between adolescents), and duality (differences within adolescents) in the relationship between adolescents’ social media use and well-being. To do so, 8 focus groups with 55 adolescents aged 14–17 were conducted. Anchored in the differential susceptibility to media effects model, we examined adolescents’ (1) individual motives and (2) moods leading to social media use, (3) the nature of this use, (4) their affective responses, and (5) perceived longer-term effects. Through deductive thematic analysis, we noted large homogeneity in motives for social media use but heterogeneity in moods leading to social media use. In addition, our findings revealed heterogeneity and duality in the affective responses and the perceived long-term effects of social media use. This duality, where the same individual is affected in both positive and negative ways by social media use, appeared in various forms: concurrently, when adolescents experience conflicting feelings simultaneously, such as feeling both envy and inspiration; alternately, when adolescents shift between experiences, such as feelings of connection and isolation; and sequentially, for example, where initial enjoyment gradually turns into boredom. Furthermore, duality appeared across different cognitive and affective aspects of well-being. Directions for future research are provided on how to examine the role and meaning of various forms of homogeneity, heterogeneity, and duality in the relationship between adolescents’ social media use and well-being.

The Aptly Buried “I” in Experience: Experiential Purchases Promote More Social Connection Than Material Purchases

ABSTRACTExperiential purchases (focused on doing rather than having) provide more satisfaction than material goods. Here, we examine a different downstream consequence of spending money on experiences: fostering social connection. Consumers reported feeling more kinship with someone who had made a similar experiential purchase than someone who had made a similar material purchase—a result tied to the greater centrality of experiences to one's identity. This greater sense of connection that experiences provide applied even when someone else had made a similar, but superior purchase. Participants also reported feeling more connected to others in general, not just those who have made the same purchase, when reflecting on experiential consumption—and these feelings of connection were expressed in a greater desire to engage in social activities when participants considered their experiential purchases than when they considered their material purchases. Together, these results demonstrate that experiential consumption enhances people's social connection quite broadly.

Neural and affective responses to prolonged eye contact with parents in depressed and nondepressed adolescents.

Eye contact improves mood, facilitates connectedness, and is assumed to strengthen the parent-child bond. Adolescent depression is linked to difficulties in social interactions, the parent-child bond included. Our goal was to elucidate adolescents' affective and neural responses to prolonged eye contact with one's parent in nondepressed adolescents (HC) and how these responses are affected in depressed adolescents. While in the scanner, 59 nondepressed and 19 depressed adolescents were asked to make eye contact with their parent, an unfamiliar peer, an unfamiliar adult, and themselves by using videos of prolonged direct and averted gaze, as an approximation of eye contact. After each trial, adolescents reported on their mood and feelings of connectedness, and eye movements and BOLD-responses were assessed. In HCs, eye contact boosted mood and feelings of connectedness and increased activity in inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), temporal pole, and superior frontal gyrus. Unlike HCs, eye contact did not boost the mood of depressed adolescents. While HCs reported increased mood and feelings of connectedness to the sight oftheir parent versus others, depressed adolescents did not. Depressed adolescents exhibited blunted overall IFG activity. These findings show that adolescents are particularly sensitive to eye contact and respond strongly to the sight of their parents. This sensitivity seems to be blunted in depressed adolescents. For clinical purposes, it is important to gain a better understanding of how the responsivity to eye contact in general and with their parents in particular, can be restored in adolescents with depression.

The Effects of Australia's First Residential Peer-Support Suicide Prevention and Recovery Centre (SPARC).

Aim: This paper reports preliminary evidence of the impacts of Australia's first residential peer-support service for people at risk of suicide. Methods: Psychological distress was measured preintervention, postintervention, and after 3 months and analyzed using paired t tests. Interviews were held postintervention and were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Psychological distress significantly improved from preintervention to postintervention (n = 16, d = 1.77) and at follow-up (n = 5, d = 1.12). Interviews (n = 10) indicated that participants experienced improvements in mental well-being and feelings of connectedness, respite, and confidence to engage with other services. The peer-support workers were key. Some participants felt that the location was too remote, too little information was given, and a longer stay would have been preferable. Limitations: The study did not include a control group, the sample was relatively small, and participants may have been subject to socially desirable answers. Conclusions: These findings indicate that residential peer-support services potentially offer a valuable alternative to conventional inpatient treatment for people at risk of suicide.

Trauma-informed ideas and trauma interventions when working with older people

Trauma and traumatic experiences can have a negative impact on people’s wellbeing, quality of life, their social interactions and feelings of connectedness. This paper introduces the Trauma-Informed Wales Framework (2022), highlight some of the opportunities and barriers in embedding trauma interventions and trauma-informed ways of thinking and acting when working with older people in mental health services, and, to stimulate further discussion.

Building connections in health and wellbeing education: Qualitative findings of a study with New Zealand agricultural students

Background: As the burden of mental health challenges increases globally, delivering mental health education programmes to at-risk groups is critical. Important factors governing the success of health and wellbeing education include the relationships and connections formed between students and those delivering the education. This article reports on the qualitative findings from a mixed-methods study evaluating a mental health wellbeing programme delivered to first-year agricultural students across two universities in New Zealand. Design: The qualitative data that formed the basis of this article involved an exploratory approach utilising semi-structured interviews with participants who had attended a mental health wellbeing programme. Findings: The study found that feelings of connectedness in relation to the programme and the educators, as well as the material provided, improved engagement. In particular, connection was improved through the use of peer educators from within the target community, alongside considerations of timing, promotion and incentives in the delivery of programmes. Conclusions: Relationships and building connections are crucial when delivering health and wellbeing education. These findings have implications for those developing and delivering educational mental health interventions at tertiary institutions in terms of the mechanisms used to support engagement, learning and integration of knowledge.

A realist interview study of a participatory public mental health project “#KindnessByPost”

Background#KindnessByPost (KbP) is a participatory public health initiative in which people anonymously send and receive cards containing messages of goodwill with others also taking part in the programme. Quantitative evaluations of KbP consistently find evidence of improvements to people’s mental wellbeing and feelings of loneliness after participation and three months later. Our aim in the present study is to develop a programme theory of KbP, which describes for whom the KbP intervention improves mental wellbeing, other reported impacts, in which contexts it has these effects, and the mechanisms by which it works.MethodsWe use a realist interviewing methodology to develop the programme theory. We conducted a focus group with the KbP executive team, and 20 one-to-one interviews with KbP participants. During analysis, a co-production working group iteratively developed a Theory of Change model comprising context-mechanism-outcome statements [CMOs] to map out the mechanisms present in KbP.ResultsWe developed 145 CMO statements, which we condensed and categorized into 32 overarching CMOs across nine thematic topics: access to scheme; pathways to involvement; resources; culture; giving post; receiving post; content of received post; community; long term impact. These CMOs set out pathways through which KbP benefited participants, including from doing something kind for someone else, of receiving post and appreciating the effort that went into it, and from the creative process of creating post and writing the messages inside them. Effects were sustained in part through people keeping the cards and through the social media communities that emerged around KbP.DiscussionBoth giving and receiving post and the sense of community benefited participants and improved their mood and feelings of connectedness with others. Connection with a stranger, rather than friends or family, was also an important feature of the initiative for participants. Our wide range of CMO pathways by which KbP produced positive outcomes may mean that the intervention is applicable or adaptable across many communities and settings. Taken together with evidence from the quantitative evaluations, KbP is potentially an effective, low-cost, and highly scalable public health intervention for reducing loneliness and improving wellbeing.

Joy, Jobs, and Sweat: Older Adults' Physical Activity During COVID-19 Lockdowns in New Zealand.

This qualitative narrative correspondence study investigates older adults' experiences of physical activity (PA) during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in Aotearoa, New Zealand. This paper presents a reflexive thematic analysis of 501 letters received from 568 participants that discussed PA. Participants described PA as bringing joy and rhythm to daily life under stay-at-home measures. The most frequently discussed forms of PA included exercising, gardening, and housework. Four interconnected conceptual themes identified were as follows: (a)renegotiating environmental relationships, (b)social connection, (c)pleasure and PA, and (d)navigating active aging discourses. This paper emphasizes the important environmental and social motivations for becoming and remaining physically active despite restrictions on movement. Older adults' understandings and performance of PA were heavily shaped by active aging discourses. As such, we suggest that initiatives seeking to promote PA should foreground older adults' feelings of connection, productivity, and pleasure and recognize their diversity. This is contrary to current recommendations focused on duration or intensity of older adults' PA.

Humanising Online Pedagogy through Asynchronous Discussion Forums

Humanising pedagogy has been a focus of recent research as more universities move to online and blended models of instruction. Online learning has been linked to feelings of isolation, disconnection, and depersonalisation of the learning experience for many students. In South Africa, the shift to online instruction took place in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and recent student movements that brought attention to how the country’s violent history resulted in structural inequalities in terms of race and class that affect learning environments. Thus, humanising pedagogy also meant recognising and addressing how students’ contextual challenges might affect their feelings of connection in the learning environment. In this article, we present a case study of a first-year course at a South African university where we used online discussion forums that required students to engage with weekly forum tasks. Through thematic content analysis of students’ dialogic responses on these forum tasks, we demonstrate how the tasks facilitated humanising pedagogy by allowing students to use their authentic voices, to form social connections, and to reflect their affective and personal experiences. We argue that interactive, asynchronous online forums can be effective tools to facilitate humanising online pedagogy when these forums are designed in ways that encourage dialogic learning, use content that is relevant to students’ contexts, and give students agency by allowing them to select texts for discussion and share their diverse perspectives. Our analysis also showed limitations to forum discussions which include students echoing responses and instances of silencing and unsupportive group dynamics.

What is the relationship between spontaneous interpersonal synchronization and feeling of connectedness? A study of small groups of students using MIDI percussion instruments

What is the relationship between spontaneous interpersonal synchronization and feeling of connectedness? A study of small groups of students using MIDI percussion instruments

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from the Ground Up: Evaluating the Impact of a Community-Based DEI Intervention

This study presents an evaluation of a film screening and interactive panel created and presented in cooperation with multiple community stakeholders. This program, which we are labeling a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) intervention, was designed to open channels of discourse with and about the local Somali population in a rural, predominantly White midwestern region to disrupt the pervasive and negative depictions of Somali Muslim immigrants that dominate mainstream media. Our goal for evaluating the intervention was to better understand its effectiveness in increasing understanding and empathy for the experiences of Somali immigrants and for increasing the potential for positive interactions between county social service employees and their Somali clients and neighbors. Our analysis showed the intervention effectively raised the largely White audience’s consciousness regarding their own perspectives and biases. This led to increased perspective-taking and feelings of connection, which can be key antecedents to increasing positive interactions.

Benefactor- versus Recipient-Focused Charitable Appeals: How to Leverage In-Group Bias to Promote Donations for Out-Group Recipients

Charities often feature their recipients as protagonists in fundraising appeals (i.e., recipient-focused appeals), and considerable research has examined the best way to portray recipients to generate more donations. However, recipient-focused appeals have been accused of being uninclusive and manipulative, stereotyping or even exploiting groups they seek to help. Strategies like using an identified victim and highlighting their neediness may not always be efficacious or desirable (e.g., when donors experience emotional fatigue or when victims wish to remain anonymous), and some techniques that work for in-group members are less effective for out-group recipients. To offset in-group donation biases and promote equity, the present work proposes that charities use benefactor-focused appeals featuring people who carry out the charity’s mission. Drawing on social identity and self-categorization theories, we generate hypotheses about how an in-group benefactor-focused appeal enhances donations for out-group members and equalizes charitable giving across in-group and out-group recipients. Four studies and a supplemental study involving both donation likelihood and actual donations find that the effect of charity appeal protagonist (recipient versus benefactor) is moderated by recipients’ group membership and mediated by feelings of connectedness. Together, the results support an in-group favoritism account for both benefactor- and recipient-focused appeals on donation behavior.

“It’s a lot more like family Sunday dinner than people think”: Community, pleasure, and other motivations for group sex

Group sex (i.e., sex involving four or more simultaneous partners) is a prevalent but stigmatized sexual behaviour. People assume that group sex centers around self-focused pleasure/physical gratification and that accordingly, this must be the primary motivation people have for engaging in group sex. Yet emerging research on group sex, as well as broader sexuality research and theory, suggests that group sex motivations are multifaceted and, for many, tied to community and belonging. In the present study, we focus on people’s reasons for engaging in group sex. We recruited twenty participants of diverse genders, sexual identities/orientations, ages (≥18 years), abilities, and group sex communities for individual interviews in southwestern British Columbia. We found that participants had engaged in group sex for a plurality of reasons, including their desire for novelty, sexual exploration, spirituality, and their upbringing. Importantly, many were motivated to have group sex by their belonging and acceptance in communities of like-minded individuals that embraced sex-positive principles and values. Pleasure was also an important motivator and was described in multifaceted ways and was intertwined with sexual empowerment, emotional vulnerability, and feelings of connection and intimacy. These findings shed light on an understudied aspect of group sex – that is, why people have it – and challenge the assumption that group sex is entirely motivated by self-focused desire for physical pleasure/gratification. Instead, they highlight how group sex motivation can be multifaceted and community focused.

“It Really Put a Change on Me”: Visualizing (Dis)connections within a Photovoice Project in Peterborough/Nogojiwanong, Ontario

Photovoice is an arts-based participatory action research method that uses photography as a means for individuals, usually those facing marginalization, to document and foster group dialogue around the stories of their valuable lived experiences. This paper details a photovoice project run under the participatory planning project NeighbourPLAN, in Peterborough, Ontario, with the residents of the Downtown Jackson Creek group. The focus of the photovoice project was working with residents facing various forms of marginalization and barriers to reflect on what (dis)connections look like in their community. The findings conclude that photovoice generated new subjectivities, as residents reported feeling more connected to their community after taking photos. The process was generative in that it reminded residents of other creative outlets that they enjoyed doing and inspired them to engage with creative reflection in other ways. The findings also determined that green spaces, non-judgmental institutions, accessible amenities, safe housing, and well-maintained streets were critical for resident researchers’ feelings of connectedness. I conclude with recommendations from the residents’ feedback on the method and project, along with highlighting the promising potential of arts-based and storytelling methods when conducting research with marginalized groups.