Social Intelligence Training in Midlife

Does Resilience to Childhood Adversity Improve With Social Intelligence Training

Childhood adversity leads to social difficulties, chronic illness, and early mortality for many, but not all adults: Some are resilient. The investigators will test whether an on-line program focused on enhancing social relationships for people in mid-life can increase the odds that those with a history of a troubled childhood will not suffer a greater loss in mental and physical health than those without those histories. The investigators findings will bring the field significantly closer to the day when low cost interventions can be offered that work to strengthen the capacities of people to overcome the challenges that arise from adverse treatment early in life.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Social Skills; Social Interaction
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Social Intelligence Training; Behavioral: The Healthy Living Program

Detailed Description

It is indisputable that health declines with age, and that the rate of decline is not the same for everyone. Many sources of accelerated risk of illness have been identified in prior research, and among the most reliable predictors of ill health are social stressors, including abusive social relations in childhood. Early life adversity may lead to poorer mental health and physical functioning in midlife through various pathways; among the most likely paths are social in origin, including troubled family relationships, heightened sensitivity to interpersonal stressors, and social isolation. Is it possible to interrupt this cause-effect pairing between early adversity and illness in later life? The investigators examine that question. Specifically, the investigators address whether the individual differences in risk attributable to childhood adversity are reversible through a social intelligence (SI) intervention for an established cohort of community residents who were part of a comprehensive study of biopsychosocial markers of resilience at Mid-Life. The investigators have three primary objectives in this research:

1. To examine whether an SI intervention can enhance the capacity for rewarding social relations, especially for individuals with a history of early life adversity.
2. To examine evidence for the investigator's hypothesis that intervention-related gains in the quality of social relationship will be responsible for the improvements in psychological, and physical functioning, and influence two bio-markers of health risk and resilience: interleukin 6 (IL-6) and DHEA-S.
3. To probe for individual differences in age, gender, history of abuse, personality, and genetic markers of risk that identify participants most responsive to the intervention.

To address these questions, an SI intervention will be delivered to a random-selected half of 220 middle-aged participants: Half with a history of child abuse and half who did not report abuse. The program is an on-line self-instructional series of videos with awareness exercises and behavioral practices designed to enhance fund of knowledge about relationships, increase skills, and enhance motivation to engage socially. In addition to charting social relations with daily diaries, the investigators will assess participants' social, psychological, and physical functioning at pre-test, post-test, three months, and six months following the intervention. The investigators hypothesize that the SI intervention will prompt lasting improvement in the ability to establish, maintain, and benefit from social relations in comparison to controls, which will lead to better psychological and physical functioning. The investigators will examine evidence for the hypothesis that the benefits of the intervention will be largest for individuals who have experienced greater early childhood adversity, as well as probe other individual differences in receptivity to the SI program that will inform future efforts to refine, test and disseminate this innovative program.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 240
• Phase: Phase 2

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 38 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adult living in the US age 40 and older

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Social Intelligence Training; The social intelligence training is delivered online to individuals in midlife (ages 40 and older). This is the sole active treatment condition within this RCT.	Behavioral: Social Intelligence Training; The social intelligence training consists of short 5-10 minute sessions organized into 7 modules designed to raise awareness of human nature and social relationships. The approach is based on evidence that social intelligence training is best advanced through interventions that modify key social cognitions regarding social engagement and enhance efficacy expectations regarding performance in social situations.
Placebo Comparator: Attention Control; The attention control condition, known as The Healthy Living program provides information about different aspects of health.	Behavioral: The Healthy Living Program; A placebo condition delivered online which presents health-related information only.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in social socio-emotion regulation.	Measured by standardized instruments in daily diary entries	Change will be assessed from baseline immeidately post intervention. This will be measured with four separate items that are on the same scale.
Change in social intelligence	Measured by a standardized instrument in the self-report questionnaires. We used the Tromso Social Intelligence Scale to assess social intelligence. The scale is comprised of 3 factors (social skills, social information processing, and social awareness). Each scale ranges from 1 to 5.	Change will be assessed from baseline immeidately post intervention, as well as at 3, and 6 month post intervention.
Change in social support and strain.	Measured by a standardized instrument in the self-report questionnaires. We used the assessment tool described in Walen and Lachman (2000).	Change will be assessed from baseline immeidately post intervention, as well as at 3, and 6 month post intervention.
Change in well-being	Measured by standardized instruments in daily diaries	Change will be assessed from baseline immeidately post intervention. A composite score will be created based on 16 items.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Arizona State University
• Collaborators: National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Castro SA, Infurna FJ, Lemery-Chalfant K, Waldron V, Zautra E. Can an online curriculum improve the daily socio-emotional lives of middle-aged adults exposed to childhood Trauma? Behav Res Ther. 2019 Jul;118:65-76. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2019.03.012. Epub 2019 Mar 24.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 30, 2014
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 30, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): April 30, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 28, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 30, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): January 31, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 1, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 30, 2019
• Last Verified: January 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: R01AG048844 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: Undecided

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No