Valuing Older Individuals’ Climate Engagement (VOICE): A participatory intervention to reduce loneliness in the context of climate change

• Applicant: Samia Christina Akhter-Khan, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine ; Developmental and Educational Psychology ; Biogerontology and Geriatric Medicine ; Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 577172282

Our world is facing three converging global challenges: climate change, population aging, and social disconnection. While each has received growing policy attention—through the Lancet Countdown, the UN Decade of Healthy Aging, and the WHO Commission on Social Connection—their intersections remain underexplored. Visualizing Older Individuals’ Climate Engagement (VOICE) addresses this critical gap by investigating how climate change impacts the social well-being of marginalized older adults and by developing theory-informed interventions to reduce loneliness while strengthening climate resilience. Guided by participatory action research (PAR) and realist evaluation, VOICE pursues two objectives: (i) to visualize older people’s perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, and contributions to the environment by leveraging the participatory photography research method photovoice, and (ii) to evaluate an intergenerational, personalized intervention to reduce loneliness and improve climate adaptation with students and older people using photovoice in the context of climate change.The project is theoreticaly grounded in the Social Relationship Expectations Framework, which emphasizes the importance of generativity and respect in reducing loneliness. VOICE will apply a mixed-methods realist trial, comparing photovoice to active control groups among older Myanmar migrants and low-income Americans. Primary outcomes include reduced loneliness and fulfillment of social relationship expectations. Secondary outcomes include improved climate engagement, knowledge, and emotions. VOICE supports inclusive green transitions and healthy aging by positioning older people not as passive recipients but as active agents in climate action. Ultimately, VOICE can offer an innovative and scalable intergenerational model to tackle loneliness and climate change.

• DFG Programme: Fellowship
• International Connection: USA
• Hosts: Professor Brian McAdoo, Ph.D.; Professorin Eve Puffer, Ph.D.