Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Impact Of Teacher Cognition On The Implementation Of Social- Emotional Learning Practices For El Students, Madeline Bliske

Theses and Dissertations

There is a well-established achievement and graduation rate gap between English Learner (EL) students and their monolingual English-speaking peers (U.S. Department of Education, 2020). The current study focuses on teacher cognition and characteristics that may impact the likelihood that they will implement culturally and linguistically sustaining (CLS) social-emotional learning (SEL) practices for EL students within their classroom. Specifically, I descriptively analyze whether personal, professional, or school characteristics are associated with teachers’ perception of EL students SEL competencies or implementation of CLS SEL practices. Utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), I evaluate whether teacher cognition (i.e., behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, …

Anxiety And Social Withdrawal Among Children: Associations With Emotion Awareness And Emotion Regulation Strategy Use At The Intra- And Interpersonal Levels, Janae Ellen Teer

Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety and social withdrawal are two frequently experienced internalizing conditions among children. These early-onset challenges are associated with numerous maladaptive outcomes in the academic, social, and psychological domains (Levitt & Merrill, 2009; Long, 2018; Sanchez et al., 2018; Shernoff et al., 2017). While identifying anxious and socially withdrawn children in the classroom is difficult as symptoms generally occur internally, distinguishing between the conditions is perhaps more challenging as the two are closely associated, oftentimes overlapping constructs (Barzeva et al., 2019; Rubin et al., 2009). Particularly, it is unclear whether anxiety and social withdrawal are similarly or differently associated with key …

Adoption Of A Self-Care Therapy Mobile App: Application Of Uses And Gratification Theory, Self-Efficacy, And Response Efficacy, Sue Lim

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines factors that influence people’s decision to adopt a self-care therapy chatbot utilizing the uses and gratification theory, self-efficacy, and response efficacy frameworks. Existing literature has shown a large gap between supply and demand of mental health services as well as major barriers that prevent people from seeking services. Therapy chatbots offer the potential to address the gap and the barriers. This research used Woebot, a widely used and clinical evaluated therapy bot, and examined the influence of 6 uses and obtained gratification variables, two self-efficacy scales, and response efficacy on intentions of use. Quantitative analysis of the …

To Meme, Or Not To Meme: Applying The Theory Of Motivated Information Management To The Provision Of Support After Depressed Individuals Share Suicidal Memes, Jacki Paige Willenborg

Theses and Dissertations

Social media sites are increasingly where individuals seek and share information on a range of topics. The focus of this thesis is on suicidal memes and how individuals interpret them. Suicidal memes are memes that suggest suicide through either text or visual images. No research has investigated interpretations of suicidal memes to date as well as why individuals post them. It is important to study such issues as the interpretations of these memes can mean the difference between depressed individuals, for example, receiving the help they need or those same individuals alienating themselves from their loved ones. Informed by the …

Trans In Higher Ed: Understanding The Experiences Of Transgender And Nonbinary College Students, Katherine Cochran

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study sought to further explore the lived experiences of trans and nonbinary college students, in attempts to address the empirical gap contributed to by conflation of sexual and gender minorities’ experiences in research. The focus is on the lived experiences of trans and nonbinary college students to explore identity development, their experiences on campus and with mental health services, the nature of help-seeking behaviors, and their recommendations for mental health professionals, allies, and college staff. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews addressing the following research questions: (1) What are the lived experiences of trans and nonbinary college students; …

Critical Illness Survivors’ Perceptions Of Their Recovery: An Interpretive Phenomenological Inquiry, Kelly Calkins

Theses and Dissertations

Surviving critical illness with its physical, cognitive, and psychosocial morbidities is a growing clinical and research challenge and an important public health concern. Currently, there are few interventions for survivors of critical illness after hospital discharge. Potential interventions include rehabilitation services, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) diaries and ICU follow-up clinics, however, most survivors do not have access to these post-hospital interventions.

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how critical illness survivors experience their recovery, interventions they use, and what they perceive as facilitators and barriers to their recovery. A better understanding of these factors, …

Using Photovoice To Understand The Meaning Of Social Participation As It Impacts Transitions For Student Veterans, Caitlin Gene Dobson

Theses and Dissertations

Student veterans encounter a variety of social pressures that civilian students do not, making the transition from military life to student civilian challenging. The issue of military personnel transitioning to roles as student veterans is one that is relevant to occupational therapy, as the profession promotes social participation as a meaningful occupation. It has been found that veterans find social relationships to be a critical challenge in the process of transitioning to the university and the civilian world (Plach & Haertlein Sells, 2013).

Additionally, this issue is important to occupational therapy as a factor in promoting mental health. Mental health …

A Feasibility Study Of Using Headspace For Mindfulness Among Individuals Undergoing Surgical Repair Of The Rotator Cuff, Hanna Rae Paul

Theses and Dissertations

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been found to help reduce psychological distress and pain in chronic musculoskeletal conditions. However, very limited evidence exists determining the impact of mindfulness on psychological distress and pain in acute musculoskeletal conditions including rotator cuff tears. Among individuals undergoing surgical repair of a rotator cuff tear, it is not clear how mindfulness may be combined with usual care, given the requirement of intense training as part of frequently used MBI protocols. The purpose of the present study was to determine if it was feasible to combine Headspace, a mobile application for mindfulness training that can be …

Is The Therapeutic Alliance Associated With And Predictive Of Treatment Retention And Outcome Among Latinos?: A Secondary Analysis Of An Rct Of Behavioral Activation For Latinos With Depression Versus Treatment-As-Usual, Maria Magdalena Santos

Theses and Dissertations

A robust association between the therapeutic alliance and various forms of psychotherapy outcome has been demonstrated. The therapist-client alliance has been shown to be associated with and predictive of dropout and depression symptom change with primarily U.S. White samples. The current study examines whether the alliance is associated with retention, as measured by dropout and session attendance, and depression change in a sample of low-income Spanish-speaking Latinos in the U.S. who received Behavioral Activation for Latinos (BAL) with depression or treatment-as-usual (TAU). Given the proposition that BA treatment fosters the alliance systematically throughout treatment, and that usual treatment was not …

A Brief Rational Disputation Exercise Enhances Cardiovascular, Anxiety, And Affective Recovery Following Worry-Recall, Michelle Rosalie Di Paolo

Theses and Dissertations

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) (Ellis, 1958), educates a client on the relationship between one’s irrational beliefs (IBs) and the dysfunctional emotional/behavioral consequences of maintaining those beliefs such as symptoms of anxiety, depression, and sleep dysfunction (Ellis, Gordan, Neenan, & Palmer, 1997), symptoms also commonly correlated with high trait perseverative cognition (PC; Verkuil, Brosschot, de Beurs, & Thayer, 2009). In addition to symptoms of anxiety and depression, high levels of PC, a construct comprised of measures of trait worry and rumination, have been linked to acute cardiovascular (CV) health concerns that overtime when left unmitigated may lead to chronic conditions …

Improving Mental Health Literacy: A Single-Subject Design Experiment Examining The Effects Of Text Messaging On Adolescent Mental Health Literacy, Emma Coffman

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to determine the feasibility of delivering a text-based mental health literacy intervention for adolescent children who have family members with mental illness. The effectiveness of the text message intervention was measured using a single subject, multiple baseline study design. Each participant received three text messages per week for a total of 6 weeks, containing information regarding mental illness, managing crisis, resources, stigma, and assertiveness. The subjects were evaluated using qualitative and quantitative measures at multiple periods throughout the study. Assessments utilized include: Schizophrenia Vignette quiz developed by Jorm et. al. (1997), Perceived Stress Scale-14(PSS-14) …

Mentally Disordered Or Culturally Displaced? How The Ptsd Label Transforms Personhood In Us Military Veterans, Katinka Hooyer

Theses and Dissertations

Medical experts claim that Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among United States military service personnel, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan has contributed to an “epidemic of suicide” in the U.S. However, veterans, military commanders, and mental health providers argue that feelings of grief, guilt, mistrust, rage, and alienation are actually normal moral reactions to the abnormal situations that war creates. Furthermore, they argue that these normal reactions are currently transformed into a psychiatric diagnosis that promises clinical solution – a cure. Recent epidemiologic studies suggest that evidence-based clinical treatments are ineffective for a majority of veterans with PTSD and that the …

Memory Retrieval Is Maintained By Intrinsic And Synaptic Plasticity In Prelimbic Cortex, James Otis

Theses and Dissertations

Abnormally strong memories underlie common disorders including addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Memory disruption would therefore be beneficial for treatment of these disorders. Evidence reveals that cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP) memories are susceptible to long-lasting disruption during memory retrieval. For example, inhibition of β-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) activity within the prelimbic medial prefrontal cortex (PL-mPFC) prevents cocaine CPP memory retrieval, and this retrieval impairment is both long-lasting and prevents subsequent reinstatement of the CPP. Despite this, whether PL-mPFC β-AR activity is a fundamental mechanism required to maintain retrieval of other memories is unclear. Furthermore, how PL-mPFC β-AR activity maintains …

Women's Experiences Living With Depression, Susan Marie Jarchow

Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, depression affects many Americans at different levels. Depression among women is a major public health problem. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness), about 1 in 5 women develop depression at some point in their lives, and are nearly twice as likely as men to have depression. Much of the research about depression in women are quantitative studies aimed mostly at collecting epidemiological or survey data that focus on rates of mental illness, while not taking into account the qualitative subjective and contextual illness perspectives of women living with depression.

The purpose of this study …

Feasibility And Preliminary Outcomes From A Pilot Study Of The Smile Curriculum For Mother-Infant Co-Occupational Engagement And Maternal Self-Efficacy, Emily Whitlock

Theses and Dissertations

OBJECTIVE: To report on the feasibility and preliminary outcomes from a pilot study of the SMILE curriculum, a new educational program designed to enhance the mother-infant relationship by focusing on improvement of co-occupational engagement within daily routines.

METHOD: Six mothers, each with an infant diagnosed with special medical needs who received services in a local birth-to-three program, participated in an exploratory design study. Each mother was assigned to a SMILE curriculum intervention group or a waiting-list control group. Mothers were evaluated pre- and post-intervention using the Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy (PMP-SE) Scale for measurement of maternal self-efficacy and the Center …