Initial research has indicated that college students have experienced numerous stressors as a result of the pandemic. The current investigation enrolled the largest and most diverse sample of college students to date ( N = 4714) from universities in New York (NY) and New Jersey (NJ), the epicenter of the North American pandemic in Spring 2020. We described the impact on the psychological, academic, and financial health of college students who were initially most affected and examined racial/ethnic group differences. Results indicated that students’ mental health was severely affected and that students of color were disproportionately affected by academic, financial, and COVID-related stressors. Worry about COVID-19 infection, stressful living conditions, lower grades, and loneliness emerged as correlates of deteriorating mental health. COVID-19’s mental health impact on college students is alarming and highlights the need for public health interventions at the university level.

Technology has the ability to foster social engagement, but a sizable divide exists between older and younger adults in the use of social communication technologies. The goal of the current study was to gain a better understanding of older adults' perspectives on social communication technologies, including those with higher adoption rates such as email and those with lower adoption rates such as social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Instagram). Semi-structured group interviews were conducted with either users or non-users of social networking sites to gain insight into issues of adoption and non-adoption of social communication technologies. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT) was adapted and used to categorize the interview content. We found support for a benefit-driven account of social communication technology acceptance and usage, with participants most frequently discussing the degree social communication technologies would or would not help them attain gains in social connectedness, entertainment, and/or information sharing. However, the UTAUT was not sufficient in fully capturing the group-interview content, with additional categories being necessary. For instance, trust in social networking sites (privacy and security concerns) was frequently discussed by both users and non-users. The current results broaden theories of technology acceptance by identifying facilitators and barriers to technology use in the older adult population.

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Delay discounting refers to the tendency of individuals to subjectively devalue rewards that are to be received in the future, with high rates of delay discounting being associated with a variety of maladaptive life outcomes (e.g., unhealthy dietary and exercise behaviors). The current study explored the psychological and social processes involved in adult age‐related differences in delay discounting of monetary rewards. Younger adults exhibited higher levels of delay discounting than older adults. This increased level of patience in older adults was found whether smaller‐sooner rewards were to be received immediately or in the future. However, there was an interaction with reward magnitude, whereby younger adults exhibited higher levels of delay discounting for smaller reward magnitudes but not larger reward magnitudes. Social influence on delay discounting was investigated by having participants complete three phases of the delay‐discounting task: an individual precollaboration phase, a collaboration phase in age‐group‐matched dyads, and an individual postcollaboration phase. A convergence effect was observed in that dyad members' postcollaboration choices were significantly more similar compared to their baseline choices during the precollaboration phase. Moreover, levels of convergence were comparable between younger and older adults, suggesting age invariance in social influence on delay discounting. The current results demonstrate a degree of malleability in delay discounting that extends into older adulthood, making interventions targeting the construct a promising avenue for future research.

People encounter intertemporal decisions every day and often engage in behaviors that are not good for their future. One factor that may explain these decisions is the perception of their distal future self. An emerging body of research suggests that individuals vary in how they perceive their future self and many perceive their future self as a different person. The present research aimed to (1) build on and extend Hershfield’s et al. (2011) review of the existing literature and advance the conceptualization of the relationship between the current and future self, (2) extend and develop measures of this relationship, and (3) examine whether and how this relationship predicts intrapsychic and achievement outcomes. The results of the literature review suggested that prior research mostly focused on one or two of the following components: (a) perceived relatedness between the current and future self in terms of similarity and connectedness, (b) vividness in imagining the future self, and (c) degree of positivity felt toward the future self. Additionally, differences in how researchers have labeled the overall construct lead us to propose future self-identification as a new label for the three-component construct. Our research built on existing measures to test the validity of a three-component model of future self-identification. Across three samples of first-year undergraduates, this research established the psychometric properties of the measure, and then examined the relationships between the components and four outcome domains of interest: (1) psychological well-being (self-esteem, hope), (2) imagination of the future (visual imagery of future events, perceived temporal distance), (3) self-control, and (4) academic performance. We demonstrated that the three components of future self-identification were correlated but independent factors. Additionally, the three components differed in their unique relationships with the outcome domains, demonstrating the utility of measuring all three components of future self-identification when seeking to predict important psychological and behavioral outcomes.