A photo used in storytelling. Image courtesy of University of Missouri - Columbia
Nearly 16 million Americans will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia by 2050, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Symptoms include mood and behavior changes, disorientation, memory loss and difficulty walking and speaking. The effects of anti-dementia drugs on patients’ emotions and behaviors are inconsistent. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that participation in TimeSlips, a drug-free, creative storytelling intervention, improves communication skills and positive affect in persons with dementia. [continue reading…]
Only in very few life phases do individuals face as many life transitions in such a short time as young adults at the age of 19-30. The transition from adolescence to adulthood is characterized by frequent changes in status or social roles, such as leaving the parental home, starting a career, entering into working life, forming a partnership and becoming a parent. Assuming civic and social responsibility is also an integral part of the lives of young adults at this particular life phase.
Professor Katariina Salmela-Aro’s research team has investigated the transition from adolescence to adulthood through key changes in social roles. Funded by the Academy of Finland, the longitudinal study has investigated how young adults have found their place in the different life domains of education, employment, residence, partnership and parenthood. This is a complex set of domains involving a number of different overlapping phases and transitions.
Salmela-Aro’s team has identified six different pathways to adulthood among Finnish university students. The largest group is formed by those with a career and a family (referred to as traditionalists, 24% of respondents) who experienced all key life transitions from adolescence to adulthood in an expected order. Fast starters (15%) were characterised by a fast transition in all of the key life domains (studies, work, partnership, parenthood). People in the fast partnership and late parenthood pathway (15%) started their partnership early, already during their university studies, but became parents relatively late. [continue reading…]
Credit: University of Nottingham
exuality and religion are generally considered uncomfortable bedfellows. Now, for the first time, a team of researchers from Nottingham have carried out a detailed study around these issues and how they affect and influence the lives of British 18 to 25 year olds.
Led by The University of Nottingham, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, experts spent two years investigating the attitudes, values and experiences of sex and religion among young adults.
The study, which involved nearly 700 young people from six different religious traditions; Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism as well as young adults of mixed-faith, highlights the challenges they face in reconciling their sexuality and their religion and the concerns they have about the stigmatisation of religion and the increasingly sexualised culture in British society today. [continue reading…]
