[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/7188\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003ESocial skills begin to decline in late 30s and early 40s, study finds\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s part of a field of work to collect long-term data on how social skills develop \u2013 or weaken \u2013 and what can be done about it. While a wealth of research exists on how humans and other animals socially bond, the difficulty of tracking how this changes over the course of entire lives, or even between generations, means studies on that are rarer.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat we\u2019ve known until now has often been in \u2018isolated snippets\u2019, says Professor Heather Ferguson, a researcher in cognitive psychology at the University of Kent in the UK. That means it\u2019s been hard to pinpoint exactly when age-related changes in different social skills take place. But as societies age, it is increasingly crucial to know what these changes mean for wellbeing, according to Prof. Ferguson. \u2018Once social abilities decline, people can start to feel lonely and depressed, which can then have a big impact on physical health,\u2019 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Ferguson is principal investigator on \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/636458\/reporting\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003ECogSoCoAGE\u003C\/a\u003E, a wide-ranging project conducting in-depth studies on hundreds of people aged all the way from 10 to 90 years to see how social skills change over time. \u2018It\u2019s basically a huge \u201cbattery\u201d of assessments to look at different aspects of social and cognitive skills in a really diverse way,\u2019 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese cover both lab tests and real-world interactions, ranging from questionnaires to measurements of brain activity and eye movements using glasses fitted with video cameras. Prof. Ferguson is currently repeating tests with people who first did them a couple of years ago to see if there are any changes over time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of the key focuses of CogSoCoAGE is to assess the link, as we age, between social skills based on the ability to infer information about others \u2013 termed theory of mind \u2013 and more general cognitive skills known as executive functions that involve control of behaviours.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOld age\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Ferguson\u2019s team has already found that a decline in certain social and related cognitive functions, such as memory, planning and the ability to inhibit impulses, actually begins much earlier than generally thought \u2013 in one\u2019s late 30s and early 40s, rather than in old age.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018(Our results suggest that) if there are training programmes developed (to improve cognitive abilities or well-being), they should be starting earlier than old age,\u2019 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFrom tracking eye movements, the team found that in one-to-one conversations, older adults tend to spend less time looking at the other person\u2019s face and, instead, look at the background \u2013 indicating difficulty engaging with demanding social information.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018That\u2019s quite important, because if you\u2019re not looking at someone\u2019s face, you\u2019re missing a huge amount of cues about their meaning, intentions and emotions,\u2019 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESimilarly, Prof. Ferguson says that older adults tend to spend less time looking at other people when walking around in the everyday world, which could make them less able to interact with others. \u2018They\u2019re sort of subtle differences in the way you experience life that can have a massive impact on opportunities to engage in social interaction,\u2019 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESo far, the overall results are, perhaps unsurprisingly, complex. Social abilities that rely less on memory or inhibitory skills \u2013 such as the ability to understand someone else\u2019s viewpoint \u2013 see no decline with age, while others \u2013 such as empathy for physical pain \u2013 actually show an improvement, says Prof. Ferguson. Conversely, empathy for social pain reduces with age.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers\u2019 studies also looked at whether it\u2019s possible to train underlying cognitive skills to enhance social abilities. They found that any improvement in one type of task had limited correlation with improvements in others.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe project findings could eventually lead to more tailored programmes and apps for well-being, says Prof. Ferguson. At the same time, she says, it should be kept in mind that altering one type of social interaction could also have unanticipated effects on others. In fact, negative impacts could arise from measures such as forcing a person to look at someone else\u2019s face if they find that hard when interacting.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018Once social abilities decline, people can start to feel lonely and depressed, which can then have a big impact on physical health.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProf. Heather Ferguson, University of Kent, UK\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAdolescence\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen looking at someone\u2019s lifespan, one particularly defining period is adolescence. While it\u2019s easy to imagine that adolescent experiences can affect your social behaviour as an adult, could your experiences as an adolescent also affect the social skills of your children?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan style=\u0022font-size: 13.008px;\u0022\u003EThis is something Dr Tina Kretschmer, a behavioural and social scientist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, is exploring in a project that she leads called \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca style=\u0022font-size: 13.008px;\u0022 href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/757364\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003ECAPE\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan style=\u0022font-size: 13.008px;\u0022\u003E. Through it, she is investigating the impact of adolescent social relationships on adult ones.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Kretschmer says that the idea for CAPE stemmed partly from watching a\u0026nbsp;TV programme called \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.channel4.com\/programmes\/the-secret-life-of-4-and-5-year-olds\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe Secret Life of 4 Year Olds\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E.\u003C\/em\u003E The programme showed how different children at that age already act and integrate very differently into social situations and form hierarchies \u2013 suggesting there\u2019s ingrained behaviour even before preschool age.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe got to thinking about how much kids\u2019 social interactions might be affected by parental influence and how much by genetics, and what the long-term effects might be. \u2018We see already at that age that some children are outsiders and some are more popular, but we don\u2019t know how it gets there,\u2019 said Dr Kretschmer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe is building on the extensive data from the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.trails.nl\/en\/hoofdmenu\/over-trails\/trails-team\/researchers-2\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003ETRAILS\u003C\/a\u003E study, run by a group of researchers from different Dutch universities since 2001, tracking a range of social, psychological and biological information at regular intervals on more than 2,500 young people since the age of 11. Now nearing 30, these former adolescents have themselves started having children, who are being included in the follow-on study, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.trails.nl\/en\/hoofdmenu\/participants\/trails-next\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003ETRAILS Next\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECAPE is carrying out a variety of interviews and interaction tasks with participants in these initiatives, looking not only into intergenerational effects but also how the parents\u2019 own social experiences in adolescence have affected their relationships in later life. This also includes collecting DNA to test genetic transmission of certain traits.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition, Dr Kretschmer\u2019s team is planning tests using radio frequency identification, or RFID, trackers to examine how young children interact with each other at a party. These could be used to track, for instance, how long children spend alone, in pairs and in larger groups.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWith CAPE currently in the data-collection phase, there are no results yet; however, the team will begin analysing the data later this year.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Kretschmer says the aim will be to ultimately answer questions such as: does genetic predisposition towards social anxiety help explain why both a parent and their child have been bullied at school?\u0026nbsp; Or is this more influenced by a parent who previously experienced bullying becoming overprotective? \u2018We\u2019re trying to disentangle that and find out what\u2019s playing which role here,\u2019 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I\u2019m so curious to see what it will be. Will it be more genetic or more about parenting? And how will it all play together?\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe research in this article was funded by the EU. 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