Mental and Social Health Commons^™

Symptom Patterns Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Deaf Trauma Survivors, Melissa Anderson, Amanda Sortwell, Kelly Wolf Craig, Douglas Ziedonis

Melissa L. Anderson

Details about Deaf people’s pattern of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms remain relatively unknown due to inaccessible methods used in most epidemiological research. We conducted semi-structured American Sign Language interviews with 16 trauma-exposed Deaf individuals to explore their PTSD symptom patterns. Half met criteria for current PTSD, a rate higher than the general population. Underlying this disparity may be heightened rates of dissociation and psychogenic amnesia reported by many Deaf trauma survivors. Future research with large samples of Deaf survivors is needed to clarify this hypothesis, and to inform interventions that more accurately target Deaf people’s pattern of trauma symptoms.

Symptom Patterns Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Deaf Trauma Survivors, Melissa L. Anderson, Amanda Sortwell, Kelly S. Wolf Craig, Douglas M. Ziedonis

JADARA

Details about Deaf people’s pattern of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms remain relatively unknown due to inaccessible methods used in most epidemiological research. We conducted semi-structured American Sign Language interviews with 16 trauma-exposed Deaf individuals to explore their PTSD symptom patterns. Half met criteria for current PTSD, a rate higher than the general population. Underlying this disparity may be heightened rates of dissociation and psychogenic amnesia reported by many Deaf trauma survivors. Future research with large samples of Deaf survivors is needed to clarify this hypothesis, and to inform interventions that more accurately target Deaf people’s pattern of trauma symptoms.

Sex Offending And Serious Mental Illness: Directions For Policy And Research, Andrew Harris, William Fisher, Bonita Veysey, Laura Ragusa, Arthur Lurigio

Arthur J. Lurigio

Over the past decade, two rapidly evolving areas of criminal justice practice have garnered increasing attention from policy makers, practitioners, and researchers: the management and treatment of justice involved individuals with serious and persistent mental illness, and the challenges of managing the perceived societal risk presented by sex offenders. Yet, whereas each of these issues has independently attracted significant attention, the nexus between them has remained largely unexamined. Matters of concern include the manner in which individuals with serious mental illness may be disproportionately affected by the expanding range of restrictions placed on those with sexual offense histories, the demands …

Better Cognitive Control Of Emotional Information Is Associated With Reduced Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine Reactivity To Emotional Stress, Grant S. Shields, Shari Young Kuchenbecker, Sarah D. Pressman, Ken D. Sumida, George M. Slavich

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Stress is strongly associated with several mental and physical health problems that involve inflammation, including asthma, cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and depression. It has been hypothesized that better cognitive control of emotional information may lead to reduced inflammatory reactivity to stress and thus better health, but to date no studies have examined whether differences in cognitive control predict pro-inflammatory cytokine responses to stress. To address this issue, we conducted a laboratory-based experimental study in which we randomly assigned healthy young-adult females to either an acute emotional stress (emotionally evocative video) or no-stress (control video) condition. Salivary levels of …

Access To Care And The Impact Of Inequality Among Individuals With A History Of Mental Illness, Heather Atyeo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Using an Intersectionality framework, a secondary analysis of pre-existing data from the CURA2 Poverty and Social Inclusion study (Forchuk et al., 2010-2015) was used to explore the relationship between experiences of oppression and self-rated health among a cross-section of 293 community dwelling participants with a mental illness. Binary logistic regression was used to estimate the association between self-rated health and social identity (gender, ethnicity, education, homelessness, employment, disability); health care access was tested for both mediating and moderating effects. The final model explained between 18.9-25.2% of the variance in self-rated health; four independent variables made unique statistically significant contributions to …

The Glenn Lab: Associate Professor Melissa Glenn's Hub Of Neuroscience Research Turns Students Into Colleagues, Jenny Chen

Colby Magazine

Associate Professor Melissa Glenn's Hub Of Neuroscience Research Turns Students Into Colleagues. This is the behavioral neuroscience lab of Associate Professor of Psychology Melissa Glenn, where she and her students conduct cutting-edge research on the dietary causes of schizophrenia and mood disorders.

Adult Relationships In Multiple Contexts And Associations With Adolescent Mental Health, Gordon Capp, Ruth Berkowitz, Kate Sullivan, Ron Avi Astor, Kris T. De Pedro, Tamika D. Gilreath, Eric Rice

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose: Adult relationships provide critical support for adolescents because of their potential to foster positive development and provide protective influences. Few studies examine multiple ecological layers of adult relationships in connection with well-being and depression. This study examines the influence of relationships from multiple contexts for adolescents and their mental health.
Method: Data from the 2011 California Healthy Kids Survey was used for this analysis; a sample of 7th-, 9th-, and 11th-grade students (N = 14,931) was drawn from 6 school districts in Southern California.
Results: Regression analyses revealed that parent, teacher, and community adult support were …

Family-Based Music Therapy: Family Therapists' Perspectives, Beth Nemesh

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

ABSTRACT The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the use of musical interventions borrowed from music therapy in a family therapy context. Furthermore, the study aimed to move beyond current application of family-music therapy that focuses on a child, a member with special needs, or families with additional diagnoses to non-clinical families seeking therapy, focusing on the family as an entity. This research was based on the premise that engaging in musical activities is a natural, common endeavor that does not require special musical skills. This does not replace the immense body of knowledge needed for conventional …

An Evaluation Of A Developmental Individualized Relationship (Dir®) And Creative Arts Therapies Program For Children With Autism, Faith Thayer

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This study evaluated a Developmental Individual Differences Relationship-based (DIR®) creative arts therapy (CAT) program for children with ASD. The study was intended to assess whether the program met its stated goals to stimulate individualized social-emotional growth for children with ASD. The study was motivated by a central research question: Do DIR®-based creative arts therapies promote the social-emotional growth of children with ASD? A summative, longitudinal program evaluation research design was used to examine the program’s fidelity and outcomes. The evaluation included assessments for pre- and post-test quantitative standardized measures for data collection and analysis. The study also collected data from …

Farmer Perceptions Of Climate Change Risk And Associated On-Farm Management Strategies In Vermont, Northeastern United States, Rachel E. Schattman, David Conner, V. Ernesto Méndez

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Little research has been conducted on how agricultural producers in the northeastern United States conceptualize climate-related risk and how these farmers address risk through on-farm management strategies. Two years following Tropical Storm Irene, our team interviewed 15 farmers in order to investigate their perceptions of climate-related risk and how their decision-making was influenced by these perceptions. Our results show that Vermont farmers are concerned with both ecological and economic risk. Subthemes that emerged included geographic, topographic, and hydrological characteristics of farm sites; stability of land tenure; hydrological erosion; pest and disease pressure; market access; household financial stability; and floods. Farmers …

The 12 Steps Of Addiction Recovery Programs As An Influence On Leadership Development: A Personal Narrative, Mitchell Friedman

School of Education Faculty Research

My participation in a 12-step addiction program based on the principles and traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has been critical for my leadership development. As I worked to refrain from addictive behaviors and practiced 12-step principles, I experienced a shift from individualistic, self-centered leadership towards a servant leader orientation. I thus consider the 12-step recovery process, which commenced in 2001, a leadership formative experience (LFE) as it had the greatest influence on my subsequent development. My experience of thinking about and rethinking my life in reference to leadership and followership lends itself to a personal inquiry. It draws on work …

Do We Choose What We Desire? – Persuading Citizens To Make Consistent And Sustainable Mobility Decisions, Christopher Lisson, Margeret A. Hall

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

A dilemma in urban mobility with tremendous effects on citizens’ wellbeing is the unconscious antipode between their short- and long-term goals. People do not anticipate all consequences of their modal choices and thus make decisions that might be incoherent with their desires, e.g. taking their own car due to convenience but causing a congested city. Omnipresent Information Systems on smartphones provide the necessary information and coordination capabilities to support people for sustainable and individually coherent mobility decisions on a mass scale. Building upon extant work in travel behavior and social psychology, a framework is proposed to coordinate research efforts in …

A Randomized Controlled Trial Of A Videoconferencing Smoking Cessation Intervention For Korean American Women: Preliminary Findings, Sun S. Kim, Somporn Sitthisongkram, Kunsook Bernstein, Hua Fang, Won S. Choi, Douglas Ziedonis

Publications and Research

Introduction: Korean women are reluctant to pursue in-person smoking cessation treatment due to stigma attached to women smokers and prefer treatment such as telephone and online smoking cessation programs that they can access secretively at home. However, there is some evidence that face-to-face interaction is the most helpful intervention component for them to quit smoking.

Methods: This study is a pilot clinical trial that examined the acceptability and feasibility of a videoconferencing smoking cessation intervention for Korean American women and compared its preliminary efficacy with a telephone-based intervention. Women of Korean ethnicity were recruited nationwide in the United States and …

Within-Person Associations Between Daily Motivation And Self-Efficacy And Drinking Among Problem Drinkers In Treatment, Jon Morgenstern, Alexis Kuerbis, Jessica Houser, Frederick Muench, Sijing Shao, Hayley Treloar Padovano

Publications and Research

Gaining a better understanding of the change process holds promise to improve alcohol treatment. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) coupled with intensive longitudinal data (ILD) approaches have been proposed as promising methods that can advance change process research but have been used infrequently in AUD treatment research. The current study used these approaches to examine the within-person associations of motivation and self-efficacy and drinking among treatment seeking problem drinkers. Participants (N=96) received daily EMA surveys before, during, and after treatment for seven weeks spread over a nine month period. Multi-level modeling was used to test the within-person relationships between the change …

Addressing Unhealthy Alcohol Use In Maine: Provider And Practice Attitudes Towards Integrating Alcohol Screening And Brief Intervention Within Rural Primary Care Practices, Mary Lindsey Smith Phd, Jennifer Pratt Aa, Rachel M. Gallo Mph, Katie Rosingana Ba, J Keller, Mark Richards Bs

Substance Use Research & Evaluation

No abstract provided.

The Cost Of Alcohol And Drug Abuse In Maine, 2015, Marcella H. Sorg, Jamie A. Wren

Health & Public Safety

No abstract provided.

Walk A Mile In My Shoes: The Social Construction Of Mental Illness Among State Administrators And Consumer-Advocates, Paul Arthur Dragon

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

From 19th century insane asylums to state sponsored eugenic programs in the 20th century, the state has been an incongruous leader and provider of mental health policy and practice. Current practices that include such treatments as confinement, restraints, forced medication and electro-convulsive therapy continue to raise issues of social justice and humane treatment.

Since the 1970s a diverse group of consumers of mental health services from political and radical emancipatory movements to consumer and family initiatives have emerged to question, inform and influence federal and state policies and services. Today state administrators and consumer-advocates meet in formal settings in which …

Care Team Education On The Use Of Sensory Resources In Inpatient Psychiatry, Salsabil Hoque

College of Nursing and Health Sciences Nursing Master Project Publications

Sensory processing is the way the nervous system receives, organizes, and understands sensory information gained through our body’s senses and physical environment. The deprivation of sensory processing, or the inability of one’s nervous system to use meaningful sensations, can lead to negative outcomes such as anxiety, stress, depression, withdrawal and reduced motivation, or agitation and disturbed behavior. Dr. Ayres' Sensory Integration Theory was used as the guiding framework for this project. Research literature indicates that sensory modulated approaches are an effective treatment approach for patients who are distressed, anxious, agitated, or potentially aggressive, and can be used as an alternative …

How One Life Coach Attempts To Inspire Mindful Music: The Morality Of The Soul, Jared M. Ford

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis will be to examine one student's personal struggle in life and how those events have helped him to find his purpose and reason for being. This examination will be done by using a Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) approach to explain how music has been at the forefront of all moral and ethical decisions ever made in his life in order to find his true calling or vocation. This thesis will be broken down into 3 main chapters with several sub chapters taking the reader though the life of Jared M. Ford. This thesis will then …

Determinants Of An Individual's Suicide Intention In South Korea, Nam Keun Choi

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

This study has examined a variety of variables that influence an individual’ s suicide intention, and analyzed the impact of these variables. The data are from the 2014 wave of the Korea Welfare Panel Survey (KoWePS). I analyze data on 13,687 out of 17,134 survey participants.

The dependent variable of my study is suicide intention such as suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The independent variables are classified into three categories: socio-demographic, psychological and mental health. Socio-demographic variables are gender, age, education, marital status, and income. Psychological variables are self-esteem, satisfaction with life, and religion. Mental health variables are depression, alcohol use, …