Interdisciplinary Social Studies
Vol. 5 No. 2 (2026): Interdisciplinary Social Studies

Educating Seniors Against Dementia Through Knitting Skills and Crossgenerational Collaboration

Andhini Winariyanti (Universitas Paramadina, Indonesia)
Deta Anggraini (Universitas Paramadina, Indonesia)
Tatik Yuniarti (Universitas Paramadina, Indonesia)



Article Info

Publish Date
17 Jan 2026

Abstract

The Rajut Asa Program is a community-based empowerment program aimed at improving the psychosocial well-being and cognitive health of the elderly while simultaneously engaging youth through intergenerational collaboration. Implemented in RW 01, Bidara Cina Village, East Jakarta, the program involved 16 elderly women and 4 Karang Taruna youth members. This initiative integrates three main components: craft-based therapy, intergenerational interaction, and local economic empowerment. The program's effectiveness was evaluated using a mixed-methods approach that combined pretest-posttest quantitative assessments with qualitative observations. The results showed significant improvements in the elderly participants' self-confidence, social support, and cognitive engagement, with an effect size of . The youth also demonstrated substantial increases in intergenerational empathy and leadership readiness, with an effect size of . Overall, the program effectively enhanced participants' cognitive activity, social involvement, and fine motor skills while laying the foundation for a sustainable creative economy model. This study contributes a novel holistic integration of therapeutic intervention, intergenerational collaboration, and creative economy development within a single community program. The findings hold significant public health policy relevance by demonstrating that low-cost, community-asset-based interventions can effectively address the escalating dementia crisis in resource-constrained settings. They offer scalable alternatives to expensive clinical interventions and contribute evidence for age-friendly community development strategies aligned with WHO guidelines on dementia risk reduction. This low-cost, asset-based program design—utilizing local skills and community assets—can be replicated in similar urban communities to promote elderly well-being and intergenerational cohesion.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

iss

Publisher

Subject

Environmental Science Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Public Health Social Sciences

Description

nterdisciplinary Social Studies (ISS) is an interdisciplinary publication of social studies and writing which publishes papers to international audiences of social researchers. ISS aims to provide a forum for scholarly understanding of social studies and plays an important role in promoting the ...