Articles from:March 2025

• Brock gains Canada Research Chair in Social Psychology of Aging

  Thursday, March 20, 2025 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE – March 20, 2025 – R0037

  Family and friends who provide long-term care for older adults face many challenges, including widespread perceptions on how they should, or shouldn’t, care for their loved ones.

  This internalized public perception of caregiving — and a lack of awareness about caregivers’ experiences — may impact how older adults are cared for, says Larissa Zwar, Brock University’s new Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Social Psychology of Aging.

  “Informal caregiving is still a very invisible area,” says the Assistant Professor of Psychology. “I hope by shedding more light on the perception of caregiving and its connection with caregivers’ and care recipients’ experiences, decision-making and well-being, we can provide better support programs for them.”

  Zwar was among 179 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs announced March 13 by then-Federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne. Her award brings the number of active Canada Research Chairs at Brock to 13.

  “Ensuring the health and well-being of older adults, and those who care for them, is a growing priority as our population ages,” says Acting Vice-President, Research Michelle McGinn.

  “It’s gratifying to see the Canada Research Chairs Program recognize Dr. Zwar’s scholarship, which will have significant impact on the ways we care for the caregivers.”

  As a CRC, Zwar will be pursuing her research on how different forms of stigma impact informal long-term care for older adults.

  Zwar defines care-related stigma as the stereotypes, attitudes and discrimination people encounter — either from society, their families or their own beliefs — as they care for older adults.

  She says her research aims to better understand how stigma associated with informal long-term care for older adults contributes to caregivers’ and care recipients’ risk, resilience and decision-making about caregiving.

  “Understanding these mechanisms is essential to support caregivers’ well-being and ability to access and integrate support,” says Zwar. “These findings will help us to develop care concepts that are sustainable and sensitive to these beliefs and different needs.”

  Her research will explore how care-related stigma intersects with other forms of prejudice, such as racism, ageism and sexism, to influence how much caregivers rely on outside help and how it relates to the often-reported stress and guilt experienced by caregivers, says Zwar.

  “Some people think, ‘I should restrict my hobbies and free time so that I can spend more time providing care,’” says Zwar. “Caregivers don’t really put these stereotypes into words, but in conversation with them, it becomes clear that they have an idea of what they believe they should do, and that they often feel like they’re not fulfilling those criteria.”

  Zwar’s work also looks at the experiences of caregivers who are themselves older adults, and on other systematically marginalized and minoritized groups.

  “Dr. Zwar’s research is particularly relevant for the Niagara region, where almost one-quarter of our population is over the age of 65 years,” says Vance Badawey, Member of Parliament for Niagara Centre.

  “It’s vital we give older adults the best and most compassionate care possible when they need it,” he says.

  Chris Bittle, Member of Parliament for St. Catharines, says those who provide informal long-term care for older adults are often overlooked or misunderstood.

  “Through Dr. Zwar’s work, we’ll better understand the experience of caregivers, which can lead to supports for them and their families,” he says.

   

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  *Sarah Ackles, Communications Specialist, Brock University [email protected] or 289-241-5483

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  Categories: Media releases

• ‘Elbows up’: Brock experts weigh in as national pride swells 

  Tuesday, March 18, 2025 | By Brock University

  EXPERT ADVISORY – March 18, 2025 – R0036

  As trade war tensions wax and wane, people north of the 49th parallel aren’t meeting U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs and annexation with their characteristic politeness.

  “Canadians are justly reacting to the imposition of tariffs with outrage, recognizing that they are aimed at their prosperity and quality of life,” says Brock University Associate Professor of Theory and Rhetoric Andrew Pendakis.

  Assistant Professor of Sport Management Taylor McKee says many Canadians are responding to these threats by tapping into the use of traditional sport language and doubling down on the connection between hockey and national identity.

  “The use of common sporting cliches — we’re going to fight hard; we’re not going to back down; the Gordie Howe ‘elbows up’ reference — are being articulated even by politicians, and it is highly resonating with people,” he says. “The national sporting character is also tied to this ‘anxiousness’ of how Canadian identity is being performed through hockey. In the recent 4 Nations Face Off game between Canada and the U.S., for example, that was married with a real and somewhat credible anxiety about national sovereignty that fans perceived as playing out on the ice.” |

  This also ties into Canadian “myths of identity,” he says, where “Canadians viscerally connect their identity as being in opposition to America.”

  Professor of Marketing and Consumer Psychology Antonia Mantonakis says this phenomenon of “dissociative identity” is also influencing purchasing and marketing behaviours in the country.

  Her research in the Journal of Business Research shows that consumers are more likely to purchase something tied to an “associative” identity and less likely to buy products that have a “dissociative” identity.

  “Canadian consumers, now more than ever, have a strong dissociative identity from the U.S.,” she says. “It’s not just that they’re choosing the Canadian option, it’s that they’re not choosing the American products.”

  Mantonakis, who is also a Fellow at Brock’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI), says the beverage alcohol industry is capitalizing on the current lack of U.S. competition on store shelves by loudly and proudly sharing the stories behind its “Made in Canada” products.

  She says the changes in consumer behaviour occurring as a result could be permanent, too.

  “We’re seeing a lot more people using their platforms to shout out ‘I am Canadian’ in whatever way they can,” she says. “When we think about consumer preferences and longer-term purchasing behaviors, we’re now seeing consumers picking Canadian wines when they may have been choosing California wines. They enjoy that new product, choose it again the next time and that forms a purchasing habit — which is how brand loyalty is created.”

  McKee says sport ownership is also likely to continue to capitalize on the rise in Canadian sentiment.

  “It certainly is changing the way games are being sold to Canadians, and I think you’re going to see this notion of ‘Made in Canada’ sport be very popular this summer,” he says.

  He also cautions that continued uncertainty could negatively impact “the long-term partnership structures of Canadian and American sport ventures.” That could include a variety of ways leagues conduct business on both sides of the border, he says, such as impacts on market expansion initiatives, stadium renovations or the allocation of working visas for players.

  Pendakis says the current climate is also sparking conversations about future allyship with the U.S. and what the “us versus them” way of thinking truly means — even beyond the relationship with Canada’s southern neighbour.

  “Our own government has placed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, copying the policy of the Americans. These are cars we desperately need in the context of a climate emergency and that help to employ people — far poorer than us — in the industrial heartlands of China,” he says. “Why is the livelihood of a Canadian more important than that of someone in China?”

  It also marks an opportunity “for Canadians, and everyone else, to begin reflecting on the logics of global capitalism and on the limits of zero-sum thinking,” Pendakis says.

  “It’s a chance for us to re-think the way we distinguish between political friends and enemies.”

  Brock University Associate Professor of Theory and Rhetoric Andrew Pendakis, Assistant Professor of Sport Management Taylor McKee, and Professor of Marketing and Consumer Psychology Antonia Mantonakis are available for media interviews on this topic.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  *Sarah Ackles, Communications Specialist, Brock University [email protected] or 289-241-5483

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  Categories: Media releases