Emmanuel Pascua
Pronouns: He/him
Research Mentor(s): Angela Ebreo
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Center for the Education of Women+ (CEW+) / Other
Program:
Authors:
Session: Session 7: 4:40 pm – 5:30 pm
Poster: 7
Abstract
Loneliness is a prevalent issue affecting individuals of all ages, significantly impacting mental and physical health (e.g., Murthy, 2023). Loneliness predicts various effects such as impaired memory performance and heart disease risk (e.g., Kang & Oremus, 2023; Valtora et al., 2016). Influenced by individual circumstances and societal changes, loneliness varies among subgroups (e.g. elderly, ethnic groups, and immigrants) (Park et al., 2020). Murthy (2023) notes that, “…Illness, moves, job transitions, and countless other life events, as well as changes in one’s community and society, can all impact social connectedness in one direction or another.” Elderly immigrant populations lacking familial support in the U.S., may be particularly vulnerable to loneliness. I examined this issue by conducting a literature review of 30 articles on Asian Americans, with a focus on Filipino elders. I found social isolation to be particularly related to loneliness while family support was negatively correlated among East and South Asians, primarily Chinese elders. Loneliness is correlated with adverse psychological effects such as anxiety (Sandeep et al., 2019), low self-esteem (Poulin et al., 2012) and most notably, depression (Chang et al., 2014). However, many studies (De Guzman et al., 2012; Gan et al., 2015; Holroyd et al., 2001; Carandang et al., 2020; Cheung et al., 2019; ) call for further research due to mixed findings, leading me to suggest neuroscience approaches to explore a less utilized research approach while avoiding biases. Also, few existing studies focus on Filipino elders
