The Mechanism Of The Old-help-old Model

The number of old adults aged 60 and above in China is 264 million,of which over 130 million are empty nesters and 44 million are disabled;while at the same time,the number of active volunteers in China is 669,000,of which only 21.33% serve the old people,showing a serious imbalance between supply and demand in the relationship between volunteers and recipients.On this basis,encouraging older people to become volunteers and help their peers is one of the effective ways to alleviate the tension of this human resource.For the above reasons,this study explores the differences and potential mechanisms of action between the old-help-old model and the traditional youth-help-old model at three levels: psychological,behavioral and cerebral.Aiming to uncover the utility of the old-help-old model in real-life situations and from a scientific perspective,current research uses questionnaire survey,behavioral experiment,and NIRS-based hyperscanning,this study to investigate 1)the cross-population and cross-task acceptability of the old-help-old model;2)the actual effects of the old-help-old model versus the youth-help-old model and how the effects are moderated by task characteristics(cognitive vs.emotional);and 3)the differences in interpersonal neural synchronization(INS)between the old-help-old and youth-help-old models and the effects of these differences on teaching effectiveness.Study 1 examined the preference for volunteer age in two types of tasks(cognitive-related vs.emotion-related)among three groups: older adults(n = 210),family members(n = 567),and community workers(n = 108).The results showed that in the cognitive-related task,both older adults and community workers preferred the youth-help-old model,and family members showed no significant preference;in the emotion-related task,family members preferred the old-help-old model,while older adults and community workers showed no significant preference.The findings suggest that the choice of volunteers is moderated by the population and the task;overall,The findings suggest that the choice of volunteers is moderated by the population and the task,and overall,the families were more receptive to the old-help-old model when the population factor was considered;when the task factor was considered,the old-help-old model was more receptive in the emotion-related tasks compared to the cognitive-related tasks.Study 2 examined the differences in the effect of youth-help-old and old-help-old models through behavioral experiments and the moderating role of task type in this.The study prepared two types of video materials,emotional counseling and smartphone application teaching(task type: emotion-related vs.cognitive-related),each with either young-volunteer-led or older-volunteer-led versions(volunteer mode type: youth-help-old vs.old-help-old),to examine the changes in indicators such as emotional change and smartphone usage after watching the video materials with different condition settings.The change in indicators such as mood and smartphone use mastery after watching the video material in different condition settings were recorded.The results showed that in the cognitive-related task(smartphone application teaching activity),youth-help-old was more effective,as shown by a higher correct rate of using smartphone applications;while in the emotional-related task(emotional counseling),old-help-old had a more pronounced effect on improving older adults’ emotions,with lower negative emotion scores and higher positive emotion scores.The results suggest that the actual effect of the old-help-old model is moderated by the type of task,which is better than the youth-help-old model in the emotion-related tasks and weaker in the cognitive tasks.Study 3 explored the effects of volunteer age characteristics on the learning performance of older adults and their neural mechanisms by comparing the interpersonal neural synchrony(INS)and behavioral performance of volunteer-recipients in both youth-help-old and old-help-old conditions.A teaching task of wooden block puzzles was used to compare the behavioral differences between the youth-help-old and old-help-old models in completing different difficulty tasks.This interactive learning process was observed using NIRS-based hyperscanning to compare the INS differences across volunteer mode and difficulty conditions.The results showed that youth-help-old and old-help-old did not show significant differences in learning effects in the easy task;in the difficult task,the old-help-old group showed significantly higher learning performance than the youth-help-old.The same patterns emerged at the neural level.In the easy task,there was no significant difference in INS between the youth-help-old group and the old-help-old group;in the difficult task,INS was significantly stronger in the old-help-old group than in the youth-help-old group.The mediation analysis indicated that the age characteristics of volunteers influenced the behavioral performance of older adults in the learning task through INS.The findings suggested that the teaching effect of the old-help-old model was moderated by the difficulty of the task,and was more prominent in the more difficult tasks.Meanwhile,the NIRS-based hyperscanning results showed that INS between the volunteer and the learner could partially explain the effect of volunteers’ age characteristics on their teaching effectiveness.In conclusion,this study examined the actual effects and psychological and physiological mechanisms of the elderly care model.The results indicate that at the psychological level,different populations have a certain degree of acceptance towards the elderly care model,but this attitude is regulated by the characteristics of the population and the task: From the perspective of the population,the family group has a greater preference for the elderly care model;from the perspective of the task type,people are more likely to choose the elderly assistance mode in emotional-related tasks;at the behavioural level,the actual intervention effect of the elderly assistance model is also regulated by task characteristics,specifically manifested as the elderly assistance model having more advantages in emotional-related activities,while the young assistance model has more advantages in cognitive-related activities;at the level of interpersonal neural synchrony,the teaching effect of the elderly assistance model is regulated by task difficulty.In more difficult tasks,the teaching effect of the elderly assistance model is better,and the effect of this model on the teaching effect can be partially explained by the interpersonal neural synchronicity between teacher and learner.This study attempts to analyse the mechanism of the elderly assistance model,to provide a basis for its promotion and application,and to support the construction of innovative community elderly assistance services.