Social Cognition and Mental Health in Aging: Research, Practice, and Interventions for Older Adults and Caregivers

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit your manuscript to the Special Issue, ‘Social Cognition and Mental Health in Aging: Research, Practice, and Interventions for Older Adults and Caregivers’ in Healthcare.

Social cognition is a relatively recent subdomain of widely recognized cognitive functions, such as memory, language, and executive functioning. It is an umbrella construct that encompasses several components, including theory of mind, facial emotion recognition, and empathy, all of which are essential for social relationships. Since the publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), social cognition has been increasingly investigated across diverse populations, including older adults, and has also gained prominence in research involving caregivers of older adults.

Furthermore, older adults and caregivers represent populations that may be particularly vulnerable to changes in social cognitive processes. Age-related changes, neurodegenerative conditions, caregiving burden, psychological distress, and burnout may influence the ability to recognize emotions, adopt others’ perspectives, and engage in empathic interactions. Given the central role of social cognition in interpersonal relationships and care provision, a better understanding of these processes may contribute to the development of interventions aimed at improving mental health, quality of life, and caregiving outcomes for both caregivers and care recipients.

The number of older adults has increased substantially worldwide due to population aging and the concomitant rise in chronic noncommunicable conditions. As a result, the demand for both family and professional caregivers has also grown considerably. Within the caregiver–care recipient dyad, social cognition plays a fundamental role; however, impairments in this domain may negatively affect caregivers’ daily activities and the caregiver–care recipient relationship.

This Special Issue aims to publish original research articles, study protocols, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and qualitative and/or quantitative observational studies (e.g., cross-sectional and longitudinal studies). Submissions are expected to focus primarily, although not exclusively, on studies examining empathy and its domains and subdomains, facial emotion recognition, and theory of mind. Understanding the relationships between these variables and mental health outcomes among caregivers and/or older adults may provide valuable insights not only for health care professionals and researchers working with these populations but also for policymakers.

Dr. Madson A. Maximiano-Barreto
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.