Clinical Psychology Commons^™

Poly-Strengths Skill Building For Urban Teens At High-Risk For Violence Exposure: Leveraging Community After-School Programs To Promote Youth, Kelly D. Cromer M.S.

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Violence exposure increases teens’ risk for emotion dysregulation, anxiety, depression, and aggression towards peers. Urban teens are disproportionately more likely to be exposed to violence and less likely to receive mental health services. Community after-school programs can help to reduce these disparities by offering opportunities for skills development and mental health promotion to mitigate risk associated with violence exposure.

The current study examined the implementation and promise of brief meditation and sleep health journaling activities infused within a pre-existing parks-based after-school program for black and Latinx teens. Data include pre-/post-measures of violent and non-violent adversity, emotion regulation, anxiety, depression, and …

Reducing Risks For Anxiety And Depression Among Urban Youth: Leveraging After School Programs To Promote Emotion Regulation, Erin R. Hedemann

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rates of internalizing disorders in childhood are around 10% and higher among racial/ethnic minority youth and youth living in poverty. Targeting empirically derived processes associated with anxiety and depression may be an efficient and effective way to minimize risks for internalizing symptoms and impairment. Deficits in emotion regulation (e.g., increased use of emotional suppression, decreased use of cognitive reappraisal) are associated with anxiety and depression in youth and improve with treatment. The current study examined the acceptability and promise of an intervention targeting these emotion regulation strategies in the context of an after-school music program. Reflecting a community-based participatory research …