An interventional study of Mental Time Travel Group and Social Engagement Group Activities in Aging and Loneliness, sponsored by Baycrest. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in Canada. Open to participants aged 65 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-28.
Sponsored by Baycrest · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
The goal of this clinical trial is to examine whether updating fundamental beliefs about self, others and the world using a mental time-travel group program can reduce loneliness and improve well-being in older adults when combined with multimodal social engagement opportunities. Over the span of eight sessions, participants within the experimental group will be guided to complete autobiographical simulations grounded in therapeutic techniques including reminiscence, imagery rescripting and positive future thinking. Participants within the active control group will be instructed to continue with their usual social group activities.
Older adults (≥65 years) from the Kimel Family Centre registry will be recruited based on a pre-specified score of loneliness. Recruitment will occur on a rolling basis through email and telephone contact, in-person booths, and information sessions. Kimel members who express interest in participating will then be emailed to schedule a time to be screened for eligibility via telephone.
Prior to the telephone screening, consent forms will be sent via email for participants to review. The details of the study will be explained at the beginning of a telephone screening process. Participants will be given the opportunity to ask questions and to indicate whether they wish to continue, whereupon the screening questions will be administered to those who agree. Those who meet the eligibility criteria and provide informed consent will be scheduled for randomization into one of the two groups. Randomization will be computer-generated, stratified by baseline loneliness severity, number of other social groups taken at Kimel Family Centre, sex and gender.
Participants will be randomly assigned to either: (1) Experimental condition: mental time travel protocol (reminiscence induction + imagery rescripting + positive prospection) or (2) a time-matched control condition: Kimel Centre group activities (see Arms and Interventions). Both groups will be encouraged to continue engaging with existing Kimel Centre programming throughout the study period.
Both groups will complete the scheduled outcome assessments at baseline, 1-month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-up. The experimental group will complete additional assessments throughout the experimental sessions (see Outcome measures).
After completion of the main study, participants assigned to the time-matched control may be offered an opportunity to receive the structured experimental protocol, provided that the study remains active and the investigators determine that offering the protocol is appropriate.
Baycrest is the lead sponsor of 33 studies on the registry; 7 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Participants in this arm will participate in the 8-session Mental Time Travel group in addition to their regular social programming at the Kimel Family Centre at Baycrest.
Behavioral: Mental Time Travel Group · Behavioral: Social Engagement Group Activities
Participants in this arm will participate in their regular social programming at the Kimel Family Centre at Baycrest.
Behavioral: Social Engagement Group Activities
12 groups of six participants each. Groups will attend two 90- minute therapeutic sessions per week over a four-week period. A structured protocol session format will be used, including a short check-in, brief-assessment (i.e., PANAS and BCSS), the core session activity, a second brief-assessment (i.e., PANAS and BCSS), and a closing reflection. The primary session activities will consist of reminiscence induction, imagery rescripting, and positive prospection. In all these sessions, participants will be asked to write down their thoughts in response to the session prompts/exercises which they will not be required to share with the rest of the group. In addition to these sessions, participants will continue their usual weekly social group programming at the Kimel Centre.
Participants in this condition will continue engaging in their usual weekly social group programming provided at the Kimel Centre. The Kimel Centre offers over 300 group-based programs across multiple categories, including Fitness \& Aquatics, Lectures \& Continued Education, Mind, Body, and Soul Wellness, Performing Arts, Nutrition \& Cooking, and Fine Arts \& Crafts, with offerings varying seasonally.
UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3)
Items are scored on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = Never, 2 = Rarely, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Always). Items 1, 5, 6, 9, 10, 15, 16, 19, and 20 are reverse scored. Total scores range from 20-80, with higher scores indicating greater levels of loneliness.
Time frame: Baseline, 1-month post baseline, 3-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-up
Brief Core Schema Scale (BCSS)
Four subscales measure: (1) negative self-belief ("I am bad"), (2) negative other-belief ("Others are bad/hostile"), (3) positive self-belief ("I am good"), and (4) positive other-belief ("Others are good/trustworthy"). Items rated on 5-point Likert scale. Higher scores indicate greater endorsement within the subscale.
Time frame: Baseline, twice at each of the eight experimental group sessions, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)
Two 10-item subscales measure positive affect (e.g., interested, excited, proud) and negative affect (e.g., distressed, fearful, guilty). Items rated on 5-point Likert scale (1 = Very slightly or not at all; 5 = Extremely). Subscale scores range from 10-50, with higher scores indicating greater positive or negative affect.
Time frame: Baseline, twice at each of the eight experimental group sessions, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)
Items rated on 4-point Likert scale (0 = Not at all; 3 = Nearly every day). Total scores range from 0-27, with higher scores indicating greater depressive symptom severity. Severity categories: minimal (0-4), mild (5-9), moderate (10-14), moderately severe (15-19), and severe (20-27).
Time frame: Baseline, 1-month post-baseline , 3-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-up
Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale (OASIS)
Each item is rated on a 5-point scale (0-4). Total scores range from 0-20, with higher scores indicating greater anxiety severity and impairment. A score of 8 or higher is recommended as a cut-off for clinically significant anxiety.
Time frame: Baseline, 1-month post-baseline , 3-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-up
Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS)
Items rated on 5-point Likert scale (1 = Almost never; 5 = Almost always). Six subscales measure: (1) non-acceptance of emotional responses, (2) difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior, (3) impulse control difficulties, (4) lack of emotional awareness, (5) limited access to emotion regulation strategies, and (6) lack of emotional clarity. Higher scores indicate greater emotion regulation difficulties.
Time frame: Baseline, post-intervention, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up
Social Connectedness Scale (SCS)
Items rated on 6-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree; 6 = Strongly agree). Total scores range from 20-120, with higher scores indicating greater social connectedness and sense of belonging.
Time frame: Baseline, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up
Mini-Social Phobia Inventory (Mini-SPIN)
Items rated on a 5-point Likert scale (0 = Not at all; 4 = Extremely). Total scores range from 0-12. A score of 6 or higher has been proposed as a screening cut-off for social anxiety disorder.
Time frame: Baseline, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up
Relational Needs Satisfaction Scale
Items rated on Likert scale reflecting degree of satisfaction with each relational domain. There are five domains each ranging from 4- 20. Higher scores indicate greater satisfaction of relational needs.
Time frame: Baseline, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up
Object-Spatial Imagery Questionnaire (OSIQ)
Items rated on a Likert scale reflecting the degree to which each imagery style describes the respondent. Scores on each subscale range from 15-75 with higher scores on each subscale indicate greater reliance on the corresponding imagery style (object or spatial).
Time frame: Baseline
Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ)
Items are measured on a 5-point scale with higher scores indicating greater imagery vividness. Scores can range from 4-20.
Time frame: Baseline, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up
Brief 5-item "Core" Social Isolation Measure
Items are measured on a 2- or 3-point scale with higher scores indicating greater social isolation. Scores can range from 0-8.
Time frame: Baseline, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
The IAT measures the strength of automatic associations between concepts (e.g., self vs. other) and evaluative attributes (e.g., positive vs. negative). D-scores quantify the magnitude of the implicit association, with positive values indicating stronger association of self with positive attributes or other with negative attributes, depending on the specific IAT variant administered.
Time frame: Baseline, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up
Healthcare Utilization Questionnaire
Items are tabulated to produce counts or frequency data for each category, which can be aggregated to calculate total healthcare service utilization and associated costs if applicable.
Time frame: Baseline, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up
Narrative Identity Self-Evaluation scale (NISE)
Items are measured on a 7-point Likert scale. There are four subscale, autobiographical reasoning, desire for structure, positive themes and narrative disturbances. Higher scores indicate higher endorsement of the subscale.
Time frame: Baseline, twice at each of the eight experimental group sessions, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up
Thinking About Life Experiences Scale (TALE)
Items are measured on a 5-point Likert scale with higher scores indicating greater frequency of talking about their life
Time frame: Baseline, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up
Plan to share: Yes — De-identified study data may be shared through the following mechanisms: i) Direct sharing with collaborators: De-identified data may be shared with external collaborators for secondary analysis purposes ii) Posted online in open science data repository such as the Open Science Framework. (b) Personally identifiable information, the participant code linking document and signed consent forms, will not be shared under any circumstances. (c) Given that participants disclose sensitive mental health information and personal autobiographical memories, re-identifiability is a meaningful concern. Prior to any data sharing, the dataset will be reviewed to ensure no combination of variables could reasonably identify.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan, Informed consent form, Clinical study report, Analytic code
Time frame: De-identified data and supporting documents will be made available on the Open Science Framework (OSF) upon publication of the primary study results, with no end date.
Access criteria: De-identified quantitative outcome data from self-report questionnaires, along with the study protocol, statistical analysis plan, and blank informed consent form, will be stored in a controlled-access component on the Open Science Framework (OSF). Qualified researchers may request access by contacting the principal investigator with a brief description of the intended use. Requests will be reviewed for scientific merit and consistency with the original participant consent, and access will be granted subject to Research Ethics Board approval where required. Memory narratives will not be shared due to the risk of participant re-identification.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Aug 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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