Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Role Of Faculty In Fostering Psychosocial Wellbeing Among University Students, Kelley Wick

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The transition to college represents a major life event, and successfully navigating this shift has implications for students’ psychosocial wellbeing. While there is ample support for the idea that social relationships can facilitate student wellbeing during the transition to college, there is limited understanding of the unique role faculty may play in supporting students. The aim of this study was to determine the relation of faculty support to student wellbeing and self-efficacy, independent of peer support and student level of stress. Additionally, the primary questions were to examine whether self-efficacy mediated the relation of faculty support to student wellbeing, and …

The Day-To-Day Impact Of Nighttime Noise Disturbances On College Students’ Psychological Functioning, Jack Peltz

Articles & Book Chapters

Objective: To understand environmental predictors (i.e., nighttime noise disturbance) of sleep health (i.e., restedness) in residential college students and its potential mental health consequences, this study examined daily variation in restedness upon awakening as a potential mediator between nightly environmental noise disturbances and daily fluctuations in depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Participants: The sample was comprised of 283 college students (M age = 19.9, SD  = 1.9; 79% female).

Methods: Multilevel structural equation modeling was conducted based on an initial self-report, online questionnaire and an online 7-day daily sleep (morning) and mood (evening) diary.

Results: Daily fluctuations in college students' reports …

Historical Trauma Response Scores As A Function Of Unresolved Grief And Substance Use Disorder In American Indian Populations, Andrew R. Saunders

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Abstract

Researchers are interested in the outcomes of interventions, specifically, measuring historical trauma (HT) among American Indian/Alaska Native communities and the long-term distress and substance abuse as a result of historical trauma response (HTR). Previous literature has implicated limitations in the clinical conceptualization of the relationship between intergenerational transfer of HTR and substance abuse. The aim of the current study is to examine treatment efficacy of 50 homosexual, American Indian males randomized to a culturally-adapted juxtaposition of (1) Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), (2) Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and (3) Historical Trauma and Unresolved Grief Intervention (HTUG), or (4) waitlisted on …

Mental Health Literacy In A Diverse Sample Of Undergraduate Students: Demographic, Psychological, And Academic Correlates, Rona Miles, Laura Rabin, Anjali Krishnan, Evan Grandoit, Kamil Kloskowski

Publications and Research

Background: Investigating variables associated with mental health literacy in the college-age population takes us one step closer to providing intervention for this vulnerable group, where growing rates of psychological disorders are a serious public concern. This study adds to the existing literature by incorporating, within a single model, multi-faceted variables (demographic, psychological, and academic) that contribute to mental health literacy in demographically and ethnically diverse college students.

Methods: Participants were undergraduate students enrolled at nine different colleges that are part of a large, urban, public university system. A total of 1213 respondents (62.0% female, 73.3% non-white) completed an in- person …

Psychiatric Medications And Stigmatizing Attitudes In College Students, Benjamin T. Johnson, Peter Philip Grau, Stephen M. Saunders

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Research suggests that biological explanations of mental illness include the promotion of the effectiveness of medication, and that such explanations lead to greater attributions of responsibility and potentially greater stigmatizing emotional and behavioral reactions. This study examined whether college students' attitudes toward a fellow student with mental illness are affected by whether the latter is described as having benefitted previously from medication. Results suggest that the promotion of psychiatric medications as helpful may increase stigmatizing attitudes by peers against fellow students with mental illness.

First Responder Mental Health, Kira Swensen, Timothy Keady, Maren Wright Voss

All Current Publications

Communities spend thousands of dollars on first responders to protect them physically: body armor for law enforcement officers, heat resistant gear for firefighters, gloves and reflective clothing for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel. Supporting and investing in programs related to first responders’ mental health is equally important in keeping their minds safe. First responders train long hours each year to stay prepared for almost any situation. In the past, training has centered around physical safety and job efficiency. In recent years, efforts have been made to include mental health training and reduce the stigma associated with mental health for first …

A Call To Revitalize Mental Health Wellness Practices For Black, Indigenous, & College Students Of Color, Tyra Jean

Population Health Research Brief Series

Given the challenges faced by the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities within the U.S. this year, it is more important than ever to ensure BIPOC college students are provided with access to mental health care.

Optimism And Risk Of Incident Hypertension: A Target For Primordial Prevention, Laura D. Kubzansky, Julia K. Boehm, Andrew R. Allen, Loryana L. Vie, Tiffany E. Ho, Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald, Hayami K. Koga, Lawrence M. Scheier, Martin E. P. Seligman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Aims

Optimism is associated with reduced cardiovascular disease risk; however, few prospective studies have considered optimism in relation to hypertension risk specifically. We investigated whether optimism was associated with a lower risk of developing hypertension in U.S. service members, who are more likely to develop high blood pressure early in life. We also evaluated race/ethnicity, sex and age as potential effect modifiers of these associations.

Methods

Participants were 103 486 hypertension-free U.S. Army active-duty soldiers (mean age 28.96 years, 61.76% White, 20.04% Black, 11.01% Hispanic, 4.09% Asian, and 3.10% others). We assessed optimism, sociodemographic characteristics, health conditions, health behaviours and …

The Relationship Between Religiosity And Mental Health During The Covid-19 Quarantine, Luisauny Gomez, Jeremiah Sullins

McNair Scholars Research

Social isolation has become a public policy under the current circumstances. This isolation can lead to a life imbalance that is believed to affect physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being. Previous research shows that both, a defined sense of religiosity or affirmative secularity, can yield progressive emotional outcomes due to multiple factors such as community support, sense of structure, life guidance, mindfulness and a sense of unity with the world. However, a gap exists in the extant literature regarding the relationship between mental health and religiosity during global pandemics. In order to address this gap, this study sought to answer the …

Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders: A Musical Adaptation, Krista Connelly

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is an original song cycle for soprano and baritone voices with Pierrot ensemble (flute/piccolo, B-flat clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion), utilizing poetry taken from Autumn Slaughter’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders-Poetry. Of Slaughter’s poetic interpretation of 35 of the diagnoses within the psychiatric manual (the DSM-5), eleven poems/diagnoses are used for this musical work. This document is an analysis of the theoretical constructs of each movement and the musical representation of the poem and diagnosis.

Advisor: Tyler G. White

Community-Engaged Development Of A Parent-Child Book Reading Wise Intervention, Po-Hun Chou

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Children living in communities with high rates of poverty experience significant detriment to their academic skills and social, emotional, and behavioral health. Though a range of evidence-based interventions exist that aim to reduce these disparities, they face substantial barriers (e.g., related to financial and human resources, opportunity cost to target families, variable fit across the diverse populations in low-income households). In contrast, wise interventions use psychologically precise pathways to produce small, recursive changes that result in significant benefits. As such, they represent a resource efficient strategy with the potential for considerable impact with contextual adaptation. The current study utilized social …

Testing Traditional Machismo And The Gender Role Strain Theory With Mexican Migrant Farmworkers, Laura M. Acosta, Arthur R. Andrews Iii, M. Natalia Acosta Canchila, Athena K. Ramos

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The current study examines the moderating role of traditional machismo on mental health outcomes. We hypothesized that machismo would enhance the effects of stressors that are incongruent with traditional machismo beliefs (discrimination, adverse childhood experiences [ACEs], and fear of deportation) on depression and anxiety outcomes but would not enhance stressors that are congruent (harsh working conditions and poverty) on depression and anxiety. Participants were 190 male Mexican migrant farmworkers. As hypothesized, endorsing high traditional machismo was associated with stronger effects of fear of deportation and discrimination on depression outcomes compared with low traditional machismo. The interaction of machismo and …

The Links Between Locus Of Control, Trauma History, And Death Anxiety In Cancer Patients, Joanna Mallary

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis project used cross-sectional survey data from a larger longitudinal study of cancer patients' psychological adjustment to analyze correlations between a history of traumatic life experiences, personal control beliefs, and death anxiety in cancer patients who had been diagnosed between 1 and 3 years prior. Contrary to hypotheses, lifetime trauma history was not found to predict an external locus of control in patients but, in fact, was related to greater feelings of control over the course of their illness. However, results did confirm the hypothesis that control beliefs would be related in specific ways to anxiety about cancer-related death. …

Promoting Resilience In Self-Management (Prism): Adverse Childhood Experiences And Impacts On Emotion Regulation, Kasey Ann Macedo

Honors Scholar Theses

PRISM (Promoting Resilience in Self-Management) is a mindfulness-based intervention that aims to strengthen emotion regulation skills among individuals by employing cognitive behavioral therapy components. The purpose of the current study is to identify the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and depression, as well as to examine the changes in emotion regulation strategies of participants by comparing pre and post test data. The participants were voluntarily recruited from the Cornerstone Foundation, a homeless shelter, food pantry, and community center in Vernon, CT. The 13 participants completed PRISM through four weeks of two-hour workshop sessions in a small-group format. Results indicate …

Community Psychology's Impact On Public Health And The Experience Of Marginalization, Katie Hudick

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

Vulnerable and marginalized populations face a series of risks and dangers throughout their daily lives. This is not simply limited to explicit forms of discrimination and hatred, but systemic forms of oppression and discrimination which limit those not belonging to more privileged and affluent socioeconomic or sociocultural groups. Community psychology operates as a means of analyzing how environmental and social factors impact specific demographic groups within a larger population and by extension the experience of mental health specific to these groups (Townley, Brown, & Sylvestre, 2018). In the application of this field, it is critical to understand the dynamics of …

The Effects Of Childhood Adversity, Juvenile Arrest, And Self-Regulation On Adults With Delinquency Histories, Michelle Ann Rhoden

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies reported that childhood adversity has debilitating effects on adult well-being. A high prevalence of youths with delinquency histories experience childhood adversity and are at high risk for lasting negative outcomes. Research identifies that the disruption in self-regulation (SR) development explains the effects of childhood adversity on well-being outcomes.

Using data from Add Health, a national study, this dissertation (1) developed a valid and reliable measure of adult SR deficiency, (2) assessed the mediating effects of adult SR deficiency on the association between childhood adversity (i.e., child maltreatment [CM], violent victimization [VV], and economic hardship [EH]) and adult well-being …

Husker To Husker Nightline: A Peer-Run Warm Line Texting Service Development At University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Audrey Wilhelm

Honors Theses

A desire to develop a service where students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) could reach out to their fellow students in search of improving their mental health and well-being laid the groundwork for this project. After reviewing various ideas, a peer-run warm line service best matched the goals of the project. After completing preliminary research, costs and benefits of warm lines were compared to determine the operations and best practices for warm line services. Obtaining funding for the development of this service was another main focus because funding is required for this idea to become a reality. Consequently, this …

Supporting Student Mental Health During And After Covid-19, David Bryant Naff, Shenita Williams, Jenna Furman, Melissa Lee

MERC Publications

This report by the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) in the VCU School of Education offers a rapid review of research about supporting student mental health as they return to school during COVID-19. It pulls from literature on natural disasters like hurricane Katrina, the psychological impacts of quarantine, and emergent research on the mental health impacts of the Coronavirus. The report is structured to answer three overarching questions: 1) Why is it important to address the mental health needs of students in schools? 2) How can we expect COVID-19 to impact the mental health of students? 3) What are some …

Comparing Web-Based Mindfulness With Loving-Kindness And Compassion Training For Promoting Well-Being In Pregnancy: Protocol For A Three-Arm Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial, Amy Louise Finlay-Jones, Jacqueline Ann Davis, Amanda O'Donovan, Keerthi Kottampally, Rebecca Anne Ashley, Desiree Silva, Jeneva Lee Ohan, Susan L. Prescott, Jenny Downs

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© Amy Louise Finlay-Jones, Jacqueline Ann Davis, Amanda O'Donovan, Keerthi Kottampally, Rebecca Anne Ashley, Desiree Silva, Jeneva Lee Ohan, Susan L Prescott, Jenny Downs. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 14.10.2020. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Research Protocols, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.researchprotocols.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. Background: Promoting psychological well-being and preventing …

Preparing Student Paramedics For The Mental Health Challenges Of The Profession By Using The Wisdom Of The Experienced, Lisa Holmes, Natalie Ciccone, Lynne Cohen, Richard Brightwell

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Given the significant mental health issues affecting our paramedics, there exists an urgent need to promote positive mental health and well-being among future cohorts of student paramedics. This study investigated the preparedness of student paramedics for the mental health challenges of the profession and explored the coping strategies used by experienced paramedics. The study was conducted in two parts. Part A comprised of two surveys which were developed and administered to 16 course coordinators and 302 students of the 16 accredited undergraduate paramedicine courses across Australia and New Zealand. The survey aimed to identify the perceived need for preparation within …

Somatic Symptoms And Binge Eating In Women's Daily Lives, Kelly A. Romano, Kristin E. Heron, Kathryn E. Smith, Ross D. Crosby, Scott G. Engel, Stephen A. Wonderlich, Raina D. Pang, Tyler B. Mason

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective

The present study aimed to determine whether the momentary severity of women's somatic symptoms was concurrently and prospectively associated with their engagement in binge eating in naturalistic settings.

Method

Thirty women (M_age = 34.13, SD = 13.92) who had engaged in binge eating at least once over the month prior to study entry completed a 14-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol. During each of the 14 days, participants received five semi-random surveys via text message that assessed momentary somatic symptom severity (i.e., headaches, stomachaches/pain, chest/heart pain, faintness/dizziness, shortness of breath, fatigue) and disordered eating behaviors. Generalized estimating equations …

An Exploration Of Overparenting And College Student Ability To Manage The Stress Associated With College Life, Isabelle Creste

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

There has been an increase in the level of anxiety, perceived stress, and mental health problems among college students. An examination of the contributions of parenting to these increases may help in improving college student mental health; however, research is limited in this area. This study examined the associations between overparenting, and other types of parenting including, authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting, and differentiation of self, cognitive emotion regulation, perceived stress, and state and trait anxiety. The participants were 163 undergraduate college students (74.8% identified as cisgender women, 25.2% identified as cisgender men). The participants completed questionnaires that described their …