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Adolescent Executive Function As A Resilience Factor In The Family Stress Model Among Mexican-Origin Families, Su Yeong Kim, Yayu Du, Tianlu Zhang, Jingyi Shen, Kiera M. Coulter, Lester Sim, Wen Wen, Belem G. Lopez, Maria M. Arredondo, Shen Yishan, Hou Yang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Mexican-origin families often face economic hardship due to systemic oppression, increasing the likelihood of adolescent marijuana use. While the family stress model provides insight into the mechanism of the association between family economic hardship and adolescent marijuana use, resilience factors are relatively unknown. The present study uses a three-wave longitudinal data set of Mexican immigrant families in the United States (Wave 1—adolescents: Mage = 12.29, SD = 0.93; mothers: Mage = 38.57, SD = 5.71) to investigate the mechanism underlying the association between family income and adolescents’ likelihood of marijuana use, guided by the family stress model. The protective role …

Parent Perspectives On Contemporary Adolescent Concerns, Allyson Worthy

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescence is a critical developmental period that marks the transition between childhood and adulthood. Psychopathology is known to emerge during this time, in which many internalizing and externalizing disorders have their onset. The assessment of adolescent psychopathology involves use of questionnaire measures to obtain perspectives from the adolescent themselves, their parents, and their teachers. Parents have been found to be especially important informants of adolescent functioning. With new challenges that arise for present-day adolescents (e.g., social media use), parents can provide insight into the different areas that need to be evaluated when assessing domains of contemporary adolescents’ development and psychopathology. …

The Role Of Prelimbic Projections To The Rostromedial Tegmnetal Nucleus In Cue Discrimination, Emma Lane Carlson

Theses and Dissertations

Maladaptive decision-making, such as persistent reward seeking despite negative consequences, is a hallmark of substance use disorder (SUD) and related psychiatric conditions. These behaviors are thought to arise from impairments in aversive learning and disrupted neural signaling that normally supports behavioral inhibition. The prelimbic cortex (PL) plays a critical role in encoding cue–outcome associations and exerting top-down control over behavior, while the rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg) serves as a GABAergic inhibitor of midbrain dopamine neurons in response to aversive stimuli. Although both structures have been implicated in reward and avoidance processes, little is known about how direct PL-RMTg projections contribute …

Hungry Minds: Analyzing The Impact Of Food Insecurity And Food Assistance Programs On Neurocognitive Development And Childhood Mental Health, Kayla A. Davenport

Senior Theses

Introduction: Food insecurity affects millions of children in the United States and is increasingly recognized as a significant risk factor for poor nutritional intake and adverse health outcomes. However, less is known about how the experience of food insecurity disrupts healthy development and well-being, particularly among American youth. This thesis had two aims: (1) to examine the relationship between household food insecurity and children’s neurocognitive and mental health outcomes and (2) to evaluate how major food assistance programs address, or fail to address, these developmental risks.

Methods: This thesis uses a mixed-methods approach, integrating a narrative literature review, a cross-sectional …

Paws And Effect: Canine Companionship And Outcomes In The Chronic Health Condition Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Kimberley C. Schenke, Joanna Foster, Danielle Stephens-Lewis

People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice

Emerging research suggests canine companions may support the management of health conditions, yet evidence within complex, long-term conditions like hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) remains limited. hEDS is a multifaceted condition often associated with social withdrawal. Thus, the current research provided a high-powered investigation into whether the nonjudgmental support of canine companions could improve health and well-being outcomes for individuals with hEDS. An online survey of 401 participants was utilized to compare differences in health and well-being among individuals with hEDS who have a canine companion to those who do not. Results revealed that participants with canine companions experienced fewer difficulties …

Qualitative Evaluation Of Eeg Neurofeedback For Anxiety In Adults, Leah M. Jones

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders globally, yet many treatment options are inaccessible, ineffective for some, or lack long-term efficacy. One treatment for with substantial research support is neurofeedback, though it remains categorized as an experimental treatment and is underutilized in clinical practice. The qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of adults who received neurofeedback treatment for anxiety. The purpose was to understand participants’ perceptions of neurofeedback’s efficacy and the interactive effects of neurofeedback and psychotherapy. Data were collected from two Oregon clinics that offer Neurofeedback and from students at Liberty University. An open-ended survey …

Adverse Childhood Experiences: How They Shape Employees' Perceptions, Experiences, And Performance In The Workplace, Marcia A. Beasley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The influence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) has been well researched, and the lifelong consequences of medical conditions have been documented. Recently, research has linked mental health concerns to ACEs, including depression, anxiety, and health risk behaviors. ACEs occur during important stages of childhood development and can disrupt these stages, leading to children learn maladaptive coping skills. The resultant maladaptive behaviors that are developed as a response to maltreatment may also hinder social relationships in adulthood. Given this, research is lacking on the influence of ACEs on perceptions in the workplace, especially from the employee’s perspective. This qualitative phenomenological study …

Tv Versus Video Games: Their Distinctive Effects On Adolescent Behavior And Academic Achievement, Faiaz Rahman, Kathy L. Schuh

Mid-Western Educational Researcher

The current paper uses data collected from a publicly available, nationally representative data set to examine the effects of TV viewing and video gaming on adolescent behavioral problems and cognitive achievement. Results revealed that extended hours of TV viewing were associated with greater anxiety/depression and antisocial problems. On the other hand, extended hours of video gaming were associated with higher reading comprehension scores. Differing effects of TV viewing and gameplay by an individual’s sex was also found during the analysis. It is also important to note that the opposite effects that the two media has on outcomes, indicate that, although …

Exploring Underrepresented Stem Undergraduates' Stem Identity Development: The Role Of Social Partners, Sandy Cerda-Lezama

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation employs a three-study qualitative design to investigate the role of mentorship and social interaction in the identity development of racial minority undergraduate students in STEM disciplines. Grounded in Communities of Practice theory, this research amplifies student narratives to elucidate the relational and contextual factors that inform science identity, belonging, competence, and persistence in higher education. Study One draws upon interview data from fifteen participants in the BUILD program to analyze the role of recognition, particularly from expert scientists--in students' science identity development. This study aims to understand how racial and ethnic identity intersections influence the processes and impact …

Bard College: An Ecosystem Of Engagement, Jonathan Becker

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Despite its moderate size and rural location, Bard’s civic engagement efforts resonate locally, nationally, and internationally, and have significant public policy impacts. Bard has achieved success by making engagement central to its institutional mission, viewing liberal arts and sci-ences education as both a means and an end of civic engagement efforts, and forging an “ecosystem of engagement” that encourages organizational engineers, links student-led and in-stitutional initiatives, and unites a network of partners across the globe.

Community Engagement: It Is All About Relationships!, Jennifer June Anderson

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

The ability to generate sustainable, mutually beneficial, interprofessional teams becomes a critical skill for today’s emerging professionals. Interprofessional teams can be developed among community-university partners to bridge the intellectual resources of academe through a model of scaffolding interrelated paradigms. This work will provide a conceptual framework for enhancing community engagement through interprofessional collaborative practices for continuing education programs.

Our Work Is Not Done: Advancing Democratic Engagement As Purpose And Product Of Higher Education, Christopher N. Poulos, Cathy Hamilton, Spoma Jovanovic, Kristin Moretto

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Infusing civic learning into higher education often requires negotiating among competing discourses. In this essay, we argue that our work to advance democratic engagement as the purpose and product of higher education depends on how well, how deeply, and how courageously we can engage with each other and these discourses to meet the many demands that the mandate for civic learning now shoulders.

Everyone Has Humanity In Them: Multidimensional Teaching And Learning Through Philosophy-Based Discussion, Jennifer Cutler Merritt, Loren Intolubbe-Chmil

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

While many K-12 alternative education programs use innovative pedagogy and practice, the students who attend them often remain educationally marginalized. Simultaneously, in higher education, experiential learning courses grounded in the theory of engaged scholarship have frequently cast alternative K-12 students in roles subordinate to those of their college student “helpers.” This paper sets forth a preliminary analysis of a community-university positive youth development model as an asset-based approach promoting mutuality and transformation, in the spirit of Freire’s conscientização.

Interdisciplinary Community-Based Research: A Sum Of Disparate Parts, Nancy Watterson, David Dunbar, Melissa Terlecki, Caroline Nielsen, Lisa Ratmansky, Amy Persichetti, Kristen Travers, Susan Gill

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

For faculty committed to socially responsible community engagement, the process of interdisciplinary course design and assessment can be charged and challenging. At Cabrini College, faculty are involved in precisely this kind of work as part of the College's new core curriculum, Justice Matters. Our study of two connected interdisciplinary courses marks a shift in conceptual models: how we developed from a “community service learning (CSL) approach into a participatory, collective process that embeds community based research (CBR) protocols more intentionally and explicitly. Additionally, the two linked courses illustrate how interdisciplinarity, when combined with CBR best practices, can offer powerful solutions …

Issues With Implementing Service Learning Into An Agricultural Sciences Equine Program, Aleta C. Overby, Erin Tucker, Aaron Lusby

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

In the spring of 2007 service learning classes were implemented in an equine science program after being funded for animal evacuation and recovery grants. This program was met with great student enthusiasm and participation; however, the authors raise questions about some of the obstacles they have found while implementing this program. The three major areas of concern include the optimum class size for service learning, transportation, and the depth of responses to student reflective pieces.

Service-Learning Pathologies And Prognoses, Roy Schwartzman

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This essay diagnoses and suggests treatments for several pathologies that afflict service-learning. Structural challenges include geographic isolation and optimization of institutional administration. Student challenges include reinforcing stereotypes, deficiencies in practical skills, elitism regarding suitable service, underdeveloped empathy, and excessive focus on time spent in service. Community partner challenges include appropriately defining student labor and systematically under-reporting negative experiences. The prognosis explores how service-learning projects could instigate student engagement with the systemic nature of social injustice.

One Is The Loneliest Number: The Impact Of Social Isolation On Blaberus Discoidalis, Jaden Jackson

Student Theses and Dissertations

Isolation in humans and its consequences has been documented by researchers as early as the 1700s (McNeil et al., 1984). More recently, interest in the impact of social isolation has been renewed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the studies covering social isolation and the COVID-19 pandemic rely on self-report measures obtained through questionaries or interviews. Studying social isolation experimentally is difficult due to risk factors associated with isolating one from conspecifics. This is particularly true when studying humans. Animal models of social isolation are important as they allow for implementation of necessary controls needed to establish …

Comparative Neurobiology Of Vigilance And Stress Adaptation Systems In Wild And Laboratory Rodents (Rattus Norvegicus), Molly Kent, Brendan Crockett, Aditya Narayanan, Isabel Dilandro, Andrés Mauco, Gabriella Handford, Paean Luby, Troy Richter, Jonatahn Richardson, Olivia Harding, Joanna Jacob, Sarah Hartvigsen, Kelly Lambert

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although chronic stress is typically associated with disease and negative outcomes, wild animals often survive—and even thrive—in environments marked by recurring threats. In this study, we investigated neurobiological differences in vigilance-associated and stress-coping systems, as well as resilience, in wild and laboratory-bred rats (Rattus norvegicus) to explore potential survival-related adaptations in wild populations. Consistent with previous findings, wild rats exposed to chronic environmental stressors exhibited heightened hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, evidenced by enlarged adrenal glands and elevated fecal metabolites of glucocorticoids. Brains were processed using thionin staining for neural and glial cell counts and immunohistochemistry for immunoreactive targets. Wild …

The Potential Benefits Of Co-Design In Dog-Assisted Treatment Programs For Veterans Seeking Mental Health Care, Parvin (Pary) Bahmanyari, Pauleen Bennett, Tiffani Howell

People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice

Veterans are more likely than the general population to experience a range of mental health problems. While many veteran mental health support programs are available, veterans may struggle to access and engage with these services for various reasons (e.g., a stigmatized perception of mental health disorders, mistrust). Animal-assisted services have become more popular in civilian and military health care settings where traditional therapies (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy) may not always be effective. Assistance dogs, for example, which live with veterans to provide disability support, have been successfully employed for veteran mental health. Unfortunately, a subgroup of veterans may miss out …

Will Anyone Play With Me? Building Resilience Through Community Play With Transgender And Gender Diverse Young Adults, Lee Lebeda

Expressive Therapies Theses

The recent increase in anti-trans legislature in the United States has negatively impacted the mental health of transgender young adults nationwide. Current research suggests that creative expression in a group setting may be uniquely suited to help transgender people combat the negative mental health effects of internalized anti-trans messaging. Based on this research, a community engagement project was designed for transgender young adult participants to explore resilience building through drama therapy-informed community play. Three play-based support groups, facilitated by a drama therapy graduate student who identified as a peer to the participants, were offered to transgender young adults in their …

Biophobia And Pet Ownership: Can Having A Pet Mitigate Our Fear And Aversion Towards Nature?, Alexia Barrable

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

Biophobia, which we defined as fear, disgust, or aversion toward natural environments or organisms, has received little empirical attention when compared to biophilia, despite its implications for human and planetary wellbeing. This mixed-methods study explores the relationship between pet ownership, biophobia, and nature connectedness among 373 English- speaking adults. Quantitative findings reveal that (M = 26.4) exhibit significantly lower levels of biophobia than non-pet owners (M = 30.1; U = 5179, Z = -2.95, p = .002, R = 0.27), although no significant differences in nature connectedness were found across pet ownership (U = 7033, Z = 0.31, p = …

Book Review Matthew Pearl’S Save Our Souls: The True Story Of A Castaway Family, Treachery, And Murder (2025). Ny: Harpercollins, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

Like many works of the fiction genre Robinsonade (castaway drama and/or comedy on a deserted island or distant planet), Matthew Pearl’s well-researched narrative written in an authoritative archival prose, describes the actual fate of the Wandering Minstrel shipwreck and its survivors in 1887 in the Midway Atoll.

Interview With Dr. James Paruk, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

Dr. Paruk is an associate professor in the Biology Department at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, in Standish, ME. He is a senior scientist at the Biodiversity Research Institute’s Loon Center for Conservation.

American Letters: H. L. Mencken, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

American Letters: H. L. Mencken. From Prejudices (Fourth Series). 1924 NY: Alfred A Knopf XI. On The Nature of Man (1, pgs. 197, 198), The Animal That Thinks.

American Letters: Will Cuppy, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

American Letters: Will Cuppy. From How to Become Extinct. 1941/1983 Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. How to Become Extinct (pgs. 102, 103) The Dodo

Bonding With Earth: Hyperbole, Metaphor, Or Fanciful Teleology?, George Conesa

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

At a mere glance, the notion that humans could (should strive for?) bond emotionally with an entire planet, Earth, sounds hyperbolic at best and psychologically unsound at worst. For although humans might be motivated to act in ways that pass for “bonding,” perhaps assisted by intentions and sentiments to care for a whole planet, the question remains: Which notion of Earth are they really investing all their emotions in? Important to psychologists would be to inquire whether incomplete, idealized, oversimplified, or fantastic notions of “Earth,” or bonding, turn out to be transference-love-like, platonic, overidealized forms of affect, which seldom develop …

Table Of Contents September 2025 Vol11/1, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Self-Transcendent Experiences As Promoters Of Ecological Wellbeing? Exploration Of The Evidence And Hypotheses To Be Tested, Amy Isham

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

In recent years, much has been written on the role of different mental states and their potential to influence our way of thinking and, perhaps more importantly, the way we act. With the recent acceleration of environmental and mental health issues, alongside the limited effectiveness of existing interventions, an exploration of new approaches to deliver transformative change is required. We therefore explore the emerging potential of a type of mental state known as self-transcendent experiences (STEs) as a driver of ecological wellbeing. We focus on four types of STEs: those facilitated by experiences of flow, awe, and mindfulness, as well …

Ptsd Symptoms Moderate Predictors Of Psychophysiological Arousal During Fear Inhibition: Evidence From A Fear, Reward, And Neutral Discrimination Task, Jacklynn M. Fitzgerald, E. Kate Webb, Kaley Davis, Meghan Bennett, Tristan Benjamin, Boiana Pegau, Susan Sangha

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

The ability to distinguish between threatening, rewarding, and neutral cues is adaptative and crucial for survival. However, individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often show poor knowledge of cue contingencies and heightened fear responses even in the presence of cues that signify safety, potentially due to atypical perceptions of neutral cues. We investigated whether perceiving neutral cues as more rewarding or threatening influences conditioned inhibition of fear and whether PTSD symptoms moderate this relationship. Trauma-exposed adults (N = 84; 64 % female; 76 % non-Hispanic white) completed a Fear, Reward, and Neutral Discrimination (FRND) Task involving geometric shapes paired with …

Preclinical Perspectives On Disorders Of The Temporomandibular Joint: Tracing The Past, Navigating The Present, And Shaping The Future, John K Neubert, Kyle Allen, Tamara Alliston, Alejandro J Almarza, Kyriacos A Athanasiou, Basak Donertas-Ayaz, Bruna Balbino De Paula, Roxanne Bavarian, Nidhi Bhutani, Brian E Cairns, Robert M Caudle, Yang Chai, Jian-Fu Chen, Yong Chen, Glenn T Clark, Yenisel Cruz-Almeida, Alexandre F Dasilva, Paul L Durham, Airam Vivanco Estela, Millie Embree, Roger Fillingim, Fernando Guastaldi, Shruti Handa, Sunil D Kapila, David Keith, Keith L Kirkwood, Phillip Kramer, Katherine T Martucci, Niall P Murphy, Andrea G Nackley, Richard Ohrbach, Benedikt Sagl, Shad B Smith, Feng Tao, Beth Winkelstein, Hai Yao, Simon Young, Michael S Gold

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are complex conditions characterized by orofacial pain and dysfunction, affecting a significant portion of the population. TMDs may involve joint and/or muscle pain, dysfunction (e.g., noise, limited or altered jaw movements), or both, leading to a marked decrease in quality of life. Patients often experience functional limitations that hinder eating, speaking, and daily activities. Additionally, TMDs are frequently associated with psychological distress, including anxiety and depression, which further impacts overall well-being. Despite the profound individual and societal impact of TMDs, effective therapies remain elusive, partly due to deficiencies in translational research. A primary limitation in the TMD …