Digital Commons Network^™

Storytelling To Promote Mental Health: A Conceptual Analysis And Application With Acceptance And Commitment Therapy For Depression, Carter H. Davis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Mental health treatments can be delivered in many ways. One approach is to use storytelling to communicate healthy practices. While societies across the world have engaged in storytelling for thousands of years, these practices have been used less in the mental health field. The aim of this project was to study the overlap between the areas of mental health and storytelling. We also tested how a storytelling-based mental health treatment could help solve a particular clinical problem. In this case, the problem of people who receive inadequate help for managing depression through medication alone.

We examined one particular mental health …

Risk Factors For Early And Late Onset Depression And Subsequent Risk For Alzheimer's Disease And Related Dementias In An Older Adult Population, Jordan Kugler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Cache County Study on Memory in Aging (CCSMA) was a research study that followed 5092 participants aged 65 or older over the course of 12 years, examining risk and protective factors for dementia. One of these factors was depression history, which has evidence for a connection with dementia, such that those with a history of depression are more likely to develop dementia later in life. However, the existing literature has yet to examine sex differences, genetic and psychosocial factors that contribute to earlier or later onset of depression and how these factors in turn might later increase risk for …

Bibliotherapy For Depression: Evaluating Cognitive Behavioral Therapy And Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Approaches And Examining The Role Of Client Choice, Carter H. Davis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An alarming number of college students suffer from depression, which is often accompanied by struggles with anxiety and feeling inadequate compared to others (i.e., stigma). Seeing a counselor in person is challenging for many students due to wait times or feeling embarrassed or shameful. Using self-help books may be a helpful alternative for depressed students, but these books are not often tested in formal studies, and getting students to use self-help books over time is also difficult. Therefore, this study examined whether self-help books accessed online could help students with depression. We tested two books which use different approaches to …

The Effects Of Ethnic Identity And Family Obligations On Somatic Symptoms Among Latinx Emerging Adults, Jazmin Lara

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Somatic symptoms have been associated with psychological distress across different cultures and are used to diagnose depressive and anxiety disorders in the U.S. Across cultures, individuals with internalizing disorders may present with somatic symptoms outside of the diagnostic criteria, emphasizing the importance of these physical concerns. For example, Latinxs tend to endorse more somatic symptoms than White Americans, suggesting that different cultural aspects may contribute to the higher endorsement of somatic symptoms among Latinxs. However, not many studies have examined specific sociocultural factors that may be influencing somatic symptom report. This is especially true among emerging adults who are in …

Comparison Of Public Mental Health Stigma In Youth, Desiree A. Clarke

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study looked at mental health stigma in youth. Mental health stigma is devaluing, disgracing and disfavoring individuals with mental illness. Participants aged 11-14 completed a measure to rate their stigmatizing beliefs toward peers with either ADHD, depression, or asthma. Their ratings were compared for significance between genders and for the three different conditions: ADHD, depression, and asthma. Significant differences were found between the stigma ratings for asthma, depression and ADHD. ADHD had significantly higher stigma ratings than asthma, and depression had significantly higher stigma ratings than ADHD (on some, but not all, areas rated) and had consistently higher …

Depression Mediates The Association Of Disordered Eating Behaviors And Sexual Function In Female Service Members And Veterans, Whitney S. Livingston

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Poor sexual function is comprised of diminished sexual desire and arousal, presence of sexual pain, inability to reach orgasm, and low satisfaction. Worse sexual function is associated with disordered eating behavior; however, the mechanism through which this association exists remains unclear. Theory of sexual function suggests that depression mediates the association of disordered eating behaviors and poor sexual function in female service members and veterans, but this has yet to be tested empirically. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether depression mediated the association of disordered eating behaviors and sexual dysfunction.

Participants (N=511) were partnered …

Utilizing Act Daily As A Self-Guided Mobile App Intervention For Depression And Anxiety In A College Counseling Center, Jack A. Haeger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

College counseling centers (CCCs) have experienced funding and staffing setbacks in recent years, resulting in higher caseloads, counselor burnout, and bloated waitlists. Mobile Health (mHealth) interventions may offer a cost-effective and innovative solution. The authors developed ACT Daily, a prototype mHealth app based in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). This study examined the feasibility and possible efficacy of ACT Daily as a brief intervention for individuals placed on CCC waitlists.

A sample of 11 depressed/anxious clients waitlisted at a local CCC enrolled in the study, which followed a pre-post, open trial design. Participants received a brief online training that covered …

Latent Classes Of Self-Reported Adolescent Depression In A Clinical In-Patient Population, Jonathan F. Doti

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The depressive disorders are among the most common mental health problems with substantial financial and quality-of-life costs. Depression has generated considerable debate as to the underlying structure/taxonomy and continues to be frequently debated. Adolescents who meet diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder often experience anxiety (and vice versa). Therefore, understanding the underlying structure of depression as well as the co-occurrence of anxiety in a population of adolescents adds to our conceptual understanding of these disorders and facilitates treatment clarity.

This investigation sought to investigate the following research questions for adolescents’ self-reported symptoms of depression, and self-reported symptoms of depression and …

The Relationship Of Acculturation And Acculturative Stress In Latina/O Youths’ Psychosocial Functioning, Marsha Tafoya

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was conducted to better understand how acculturation and acculturative stress are related to self-esteem, depression, substance use, and substance use problems in 206 Latina/o youth. Acculturation is the social and psychological process of change that occurs when an individual or group comes in contact with a different culture. The acculturation process can be positive, improving one’s life chances in the new culture, or it could be negative due to the challenging nature of change and adaptation to new cultural and social expectations. This difficulty creates a type of stress, called acculturative stress that has been found to be …

The Male Gender Role And Depression, Tom Liljegren

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Although depression is a common mental health disorder, less research has been devoted to men's experience with depression compared to women's experiences. Although men may exhibit similar patterns of depression as women, men often have unique pattern of exhibiting depression characterized by substance abuse, irritability, aggression, and interpersonal conflict. The paper presents a review of the relevant literature on male depression and, in particular, how it is potentially affected by male gender role factors. Biological, psychological, social, and artifact theories have been proposed to explain gender differences in how depression is expressed. It is hypothesized that the male gender role …

The Ability Of The Coping Competence Questionnaire To Predict Resilience Against Learned Helplessness Among Undergraduate College Students: An Experimental Study, Cindy L. Ollis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Coping Competence Questionnaire (CCQ), based on the reformulated learned helplessness theory, was designed to assess a general stress resistance versus a propensity towards learned helplessness with a brief, 12-item self-report questionnaire. In this study the CCQ was administered to 247 undergraduate students, who were then paired, in groups of around 24 at a time, and then randomly assigned to either success or failure conditions on the computer game TetraVex. Mood was pretested using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) depression subscale; the experimental condition, success or failure at TetraVex was conducted; then outcome measures including 20 five letter anagrams …

Taste Sensitivity To 6-N-Propylthiouracil (Prop) As A Biological Marker For Vulnerability To Stress In Mothers And Children, Deann Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Some people are genetically more vulnerable to stress than others, leading them towards poorer outcomes following stressful events. Mothers' vulnerability to stress may, in turn, influence their children, leading their children towards poor outcomes as well. A biological marker of vulnerability to stress may indicate mothers who are at greater risk for experiencing parenting stress, depression, and less support of the infant's emotional development, and infants who are at greater risk for development of poor emotion regulation and behavior problems. Taste sensitivity to propylthiouracil (PROP) is proposed as a biological marker of stress vulnerability in mothers and children. This research …

Technologically Assisted Intervention (Tai): Are Clients Satisfied With Online Therapy?, Jennifer A. Morrow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the level of satisfaction reported by participants of a technologically assisted intervention study (TAI). TAI is a type of teletherapy done through online, live video conferencing. Satisfaction was examined at three different time points, post therapy, 3-months post therapy, and 6-months post therapy. Analyses examined if there were any changes in reported satisfaction over the three time periods. Participants received cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) targeted at reducing symptoms of mild to moderately severe depression. A satisfaction measure was developed for this study, and included quantitative and qualitative items which were analyzed to determine participants' level of satisfaction. …

Therapeutic Processes In A Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment For Depressed Adolescents With Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Meredith Brent

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Youth with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have higher rates of depression than healthy youth. A cognitive-behavioral treatment, primary and secondary control enhancement training-physical illness (PASCET-PI), for depressed adolescents with IBD was associated with reductions in depressive symptoms. The purpose of this study was to examine the salience of nonspecific processes (factors inherent in any human relationship) and specific processes (factors related to therapy content) during PASCET-PI sessions and their association with improvements in psychological functioning.

Participants included 10 adolescent patients with IBD with mean illness duration of 31.9 months. At intake, eight participants qualified for a diagnosis of major depressive …

Parents Of Children With Severe Disabilities: Parental Stress, Depression, And The Marital Relationship, Melinda W. Christensen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper provides an overview of parental stress and depression in families with children diagnosed with severe cognitive disabilities. Previous research on parents with children with disabilities was reviewed. Studies were selected from peer-reviewed journal articles that specifically included children with an IQ below 70 or a noted cognitive impairment of a severe degree. Children in the study had to be living at home and below the age of 21. Significant levels of stress and depression were not found consistently in the studies reviewed. Parents of children with disabilities did report levels of stress and depression above the control groups …

Testing Models Of Depression And Paranoia In Men And Women: The Role Of Cognitive Style, Guilt, Shame, And Defense Mechanisms, Chad Sombke

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Gender differences in psychopathology have long been of interest in the fields of clinical, developmental, and personality psychology. Lewis proposed two models to explain the emergence of the development of gender differences in depression and paranoia. Lewis stated that gender differences in depression and paranoia can be traced to corresponding gender differences in cognitive style, guilt-proneness, shame-proneness, and the use of specific defense mechanisms. Although research evidence has validated certain components of these two models, neither model has ever been tested in its entirety. This research project intended to test Lewis's models in their entirety by utilizing structural equation modeling. …

Factor Structure Of The Anorexia Bulimia Inventory, Anne C. Dobmeyer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Anorexia Bulimia Inventory, a recently developed self-report questionnaire for the assessment of eating disorders, addresses two major limitations found in existing self-report eating disorder inventories. First, it comprehensively assesses the diagnostic symptoms of both bulimia and anorexia nervosa; and second, it assesses the frequently cooccurring problem areas (e.g., depression, anergia) that may be targeted in treatment planning for eating disorders. Although initial research on the psychometrics of the instrument appears promising, no research has yet investigated its factor structure. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to investigate the factor structure of the Anorexia Bulimia Inventory.

Principal axis …

Gender And Depression: Analysis Of The Effects Of Sex Roles, Sex-Role Self-Discrepancy, And Attributional Style, Scott V. Cutler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of attributional style, sex roles, and sex-role self-discrepancy in the relationship between gender and depression. Epidemiological studies report a higher incidence of depression among women then men (approximately 2:1). Among the various theories suggested to explain this gender difference, sex roles, attributional style, and self-discrepancy have been conceived as possible explanations. The relationship between gender and depression may be better understood through examining the possible contribution of these three independent variables.

To examine these theories, a sample of 130 subjects was drawn from clients at the USU Counseling Center, the …

Personality Factors Associated With Negative Affect: Application Of The "Big Five" Taxonomy To Depression And Anxiety, Kent W. Anderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the patterns and discriminant utility of the five-factor model of personality ("Big Five," consisting of neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness factors) with depressed and anxious outpatients.

One hundred two outpatients seeking services at a community mental health center in a small western community participated in the study. Subjects were 41 clients with a depressive disorder, 31 with an anxiety disorder, and 30 in a mixed clinical control group. Subjects completed the Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness to Experience Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI).

Results indicate that both depressed and anxious clients score in the "very …

The Role Of Gender Differences In The Relationship Between Guilt- And Shame-Proneness And Depressive Symptomatology, Julie Bingham Shiffler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the role played by gender in the relationship between the degree of depressive symptomatology and levels of adaptive guilt-, maladaptive guilt-, and shame-proneness in a college population. A measure of depressive symptomatology (the Beck Depression Inventory) and a measure of guilt- and shame-proneness (the Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory - Revised) were administered to 299 college students (113 males and 186 females). Females reported higher total levels of depressive symptomatology than males. Statistically significant gender differences were found for nine BDI items. Females also had higher levels of adaptive guilt-, maladaptive guilt-, …

The Relationship Of Depression, Gender, And Sex Roles, Scott V. Cutler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between gender and depression as a function of sex roles. Four hundred twenty subjects were recruited from two introductory psychology courses at Utah State University. Subjects completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).

A difference was found in the rate of depression between females and males that exceeds the generally accepted 2:1 ratio. There was a female to male ratio of approximately 4:1 in the group of subjects who indicated a high level of depression on the Beck Depression Inventory.

Multiple Regression Analysis was computed …

Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Of Adolescent Depression: Effects On Multiple Parameters, Steven E. Curtis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Clinical depression is the most frequently reported mental health problem for adolescents. Previously studied psychological treatment approaches for adolescent depression have recently been combined and packaged into a comprehensive psychoeducational intervention titled the Adolescent Coping With Depression Course (ACWDC). This study investigated whether treatment of clinically depressed adolescents using the ACWDC resulted in significant emotional, behavioral, and/or academic performance changes as reported by the adolescent, and observed by the parents and teachers.

Nineteen clinically depressed adolescents were identified by screening 876 students in a local high school, using a multistage screening procedure. All selected subjects met the DSM III-R criteria …

Cognitive And Attributional Correlates Of Depression: An Analysis Of The Redundancy Between Beck's Cognitive Triad And Seligman's Attributional Styles, Kent W. Anderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the degree vi of redundancy between two prominent cognitive theories of depression: Beck's cognitive triad and Seligrnan's attributional triad. Three hundred and eighteen subjects were recruited from nine different psychology courses at Utah State University and affiliated locations across the state. Subjects completed the Cognitive Triad Inventory (CTI), the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).

Results indicate that the three CTI subscales (self, world, and future) and the three ASQ subscales (internal, global, and stable) did not correlate sufficiently to merit integration across measures. However, factor analyses reduced …

The Effects Of Diary Writing Support Groups On Women's Depression, Self-Acceptance And Well-Being, Linda Elaine Barnes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was conducted to determine whether learning specific writing techniques and discussing them in a small group is more beneficial to women than writing a journal using self-taught techniques, or not writing at all.

Instruments used included the Beck Depression Inventory and the California Personality Inventory (Self-Acceptance and Well-Being scales).

The literature review covers four general areas: a brief discussion of the impact of contemporary feminism on traditional therapy; an examination of feminist therapy, specifically its advocacy of consciousness-raising groups as a therapy alternative; women's self-reports on diary or journal writing; and information on modern non-literary journal uses including …

Factors Influencing Grief Adjustment In The Elderly, Jo Anne Pauline Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this paper was to attempt to identify variables which may enhance the ability of older widowed persons to adjust to viii bereavement. Depression and perceptions of physical health were the two aspects of adjustment selected for study. Several variables which current literature suggests may mediate grief adjustment were examined for their potential relationship to bereavement outcome. These were gender, level of grief, anticipatory grief and social network. The possible relationship between depression and perceptions of physical health was also examined for.

Subjects were 75 men and women, age 55 and over, who were recently widowed, and 29 …

The Psychological And Social Consequences Of Htlv-Iii Infection: Homosexuals In Orange County, Ca, Kenneth Burton Kaisch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to identify the psychological and social consequences experienced by homosexual men who learn that they have positive results on the HTLV-III antibody test, but who have not yet developed AIDS or ARC. Employing a census survey of the membership of three California homophile organizations (n=1905), 30 HTLV-III positives and 55 negatives completed a biographical questionnaire, the IPAT Anxiety Scale Questionnaire, the IPAT Depression Scale, and the Coping Strategies Inventory. Results indicate that HTLV-III positives show considerable disorganization after hearing test results, have clinically high levels of anxiety (n=10), and clinically high levels of depression …

Beta-Endorphin And Running Addiction: Use In The Treatment Of Schizophrenia, Mania, Depression, And Anxiety, James Glenn Rogers

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Neither Glasser's (1976) survey data nor popular magazine articles (which seldom cite references) have provided conclusive evidence regarding the existence of running addiction or established causality between this addiction and Beta-endorphin. An integration and summarization of research on the effects of opiates, Beta-endorphin and running will answer the following question, or indicate where evidence is insufficient and explore avenues that require further research.

• Question 1: Is distance running addictive and if so, what is the role of Beta-endorphin in this addiction?

Secondly, prior reviews of research of the effects of opiates and Beta-endorphin on psychopathological illnesses will be combined with …