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The Role Of Community Belongingness In The Mental Health And Well-Being Of Black Lgbtq Adults, Keith Justin Watts

Theses and Dissertations

The impact of racial and sexual minority stigma, prejudice, and discrimination on the mental health and well-being of Black and LGBTQ individuals, respectively, has been well documented in the literature. Research on these relationships for Black LGBTQ individuals who are multiply marginalized due to their position at the social intersections of gender identity, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity is less common. Belongingness to identity-based communities can protect against the negative impact of these minority stressors for Black and LGBTQ individuals and aid coping processes. However, Black LGBTQ individuals often experience stigma and discrimination in their racial, sexual, and gender minority communities …

Access To Behavioral Health Services: Supply, Coverage, And Health Insurance Literacy, Heather Saunders

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines policy and individual barriers to behavioral health (BH) service utilization. The full reach of federal policies like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) may be limited by state policies and the supply of the workforce available to deliver these services. Further, individual factors, such as low health insurance literacy, may influence patterns of behavioral healthcare utilization. Despite efforts to increase access to behavioral health services, treatment rates remain low, suggesting that barriers remain. To explore the effectiveness of these policies and examine remaining barriers, this dissertation explores three main research …

Modeling Substance Use And Mental Disorder Comorbidity Using Latent Variable And Network Approaches, Courtney T. Blondino

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction. Substance use disorder (SUD) is a common condition that affects millions of Americans. Addressing SUD has been complicated by comorbid mental disorders and co-occurring substance use. Consequently, detailing and addressing SUD and comorbid SUD represent an important goal to improve the health of Americans.

Objective. The research goal of this dissertation was to characterize the comorbidity between substance use, including tobacco use, and mental disorder symptoms measured as negative affect and externalizing symptoms in a population-based sample using latent variable and network approaches.

Methods. Waves 1 – 3 from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study were used. …

Strengthening Mental Health Diagnostic Detection In Integrated Primary Care, Julia Brechbiel

Theses and Dissertations

Primary care behavioral health (PCBH) is crucial for providing mental health treatment to underserved, minority, and uninsured populations. There is a lack of knowledge about accurate mental health diagnoses at PCBH. Underdetection of mental health symptoms has the potential to worsen racial and socioeconomic disparities. Using an expert review process, I developed an abbreviated diagnostic clinical interview (ADCI) for integrated primary care. Next, patients (N = 82) completed the interview after attending PCBH appointments. According to the interview, 63.4% of participants met criteria for a diagnosis, while 64.7% received a diagnosis from their provider. A large portion of patients …

Interpersonal Trauma And Mental Health Among Lgbq+ College Students: Examining Social Support And Trauma-Related Drinking As Mediators, Eryn Delaney

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the increased risk of childhood, adulthood, and lifetime interpersonal trauma among LGBQ+ individuals, existing research that has examined the influence of interpersonal trauma on mental health has primarily focused on LGBQ+ adolescents and samples of LGBQ+ community-based adults, and less on LGBQ+ emerging adults in college. Additionally, limited work has focused on mechanisms that might explain the relations between these variables. Thus, the current study tested the relations between interpersonal trauma (i.e., childhood sexual abuse, adulthood sexual victimization, and lifetime physical assault and IPV) and mental health outcomes (i.e., anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and PTSD symptoms), and examined social …

The Student Experience Of Higher Education During The Covid-19 Pandemic: How Class And Race Shape Socially Distanced Learning At A Public University, Alice M. Quach

Theses and Dissertations

While prior research has examined trends toward growing uncertainty and precarity for young adults within the economy and higher education, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be exacerbating these existing inequalities and risks. Drawing from 30 semi-structured in-depth interviews with college students at a large Southern and urban public university, this study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting students’ learning experiences, and how those experiences are differentially shaped, in turn, by their class and race. This exploratory research illuminates our understanding of the multiple mechanisms by which the COVID-19 pandemic is shaping existing inequalities in the higher education system, mostly …