Digital Commons Network^™

Development Of A Multidimensional Index Of Fall Risk For Older Adults: The Cache County Study, Alexandra G. Hammond

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

One out of four adults over the age of 65 are estimated to fall each year in the U.S. alone, with that number expected to rise to 52 million falls per year by the year 2030. Improving accuracy for identification of older adults at a higher risk of falling is increasingly important and may be integral in informing the distribution of limited resources and assist in preventing falls in older adults. This project examined the relationship between previously identified risk factors and fall risk to create multidimensional fall risk indexes for older adults, specific for each sex.

Factors best associated …

Experimental Evidence That Activewear Retail Imagery Elicits Physiological, Attentional And Self-Reported Markers Of Body Image Threat In Women, Ross C. Hollett, Muna Bhusal, Syed Zulqarnain Gilani, Craig Harms, Scott Griffiths

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Online apparel retail imagery is a prominent threat to women's body image, particularly segments such as activewear which emphasize the value of women's bodies. In a within-subjects experiment, we exposed women (N = 128) to imagery randomly selected from activewear, casualwear and homewares websites and measured their gaze behavior, physiological arousal, as well as subjective emotional states and body image ratings. Exposure to activewear retail imagery elicited significantly lower body image ratings, a higher negative emotional state, and a lower positive emotional state compared to the other website imagery conditions. Physiological arousal was significantly higher for both apparel imagery conditions …

Script Fading And Training: Evaluating The Necessity Of Visual Cues To Teach Contextually Appropriate Play Commenting, Devanio J. Cousins

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is marked by many areas of need, including play and communication. These areas of concern can have a negative impact on a child's development. Applied behavior analysis, specifically script training and fading procedures, has shown promise in teaching communication during play to young autistic children. However, traditional script training and fading methods have some limitations, including the skills the children already possess to learn the scripts and the resources needed to teach the scripts. Recent studies have shown that script frames can be taught without using traditional training formats (i.e., text, auditory) but by using generic …

Course Of Disease Progression And Time To Death Among Different Dementia Types In A Population Based Study, Kaitlyn E. Kauzor

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia, Other types of dementia include vascular (VaD) and mixed forms, like AD with VaD, other mixed forms of dementia or dementia of unknown etiology (DUE). Research has focused on factors that may increase risk of developing dementia, with less understood about disease course. Factors associated with risk for developing dementia onset include age, female sex, family history of dementia, genetics (e.g. having the ε4 allele of the Apolipoprotein E or APOE gene), and various health conditions. This project used previously collected data from the Cache County Study on Memory and …

Personality Dynamics Turn Positive And Negative Mood Into Creativity, Ronald Bledow, Jana Kuhnel, Julius Kuhl

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Introduction: Research on the link between affect and creativity rests on the assumption that creativity unfolds as a stimulus-driven response to affective states. We challenge this assumption and examine whether personality dynamics moderate the relationship of positive and negative mood with creativity. Theoretical Model: According to our model, personality dynamics that generate and maintain positive affect and down-regulate negative affect energize creativity. Based on this model, we expect high creativity in response to negative mood if people engage in self-motivation and achieve a reduction in negative mood. We further derive that individual differences in action versus state orientation moderate the …

The Informal, Non-Prescribed Use Of Antiretroviral Medications For Prep Among A National Us-Based Sample Of Gay, Bisexual, And Other Men Who Have Sex With Men: A Cross-Sectional Study, Mance E. Buttram, Matthew S. Ellis, Krishen D. Samuel, Matthew Hayhurst

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Faculty Publications and Presentations

This brief report presents findings on informal, non-prescribed PrEP use among an online sample of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (n = 196). Mean age was 33.4. Participants were Hispanic (13.3%), African American (15.8%), white (63.8%), and other race/ethnicity (6.6%). Informal PrEP users (11%) more frequently reported past year sexually transmitted infections (p < 0.001), group sex (p < 0.001), sex in public (p < 0.01), transactional sex (p < 0.001), ever receiving a formal PrEP prescription (p < 0.05), and ease of finding diverted HIV medications on gay dating/sex apps (p < 0.05). Formal PrEP uptake should be encouraged to mitigate potential negative consequences of informal use.

Investment By Maternal Grandmother Buffers Children Against The Impacts Of Adverse Early Life Experiences, Samuli Helle, Antti O. Tanskanen, David A. Coall, Gretchen Perry, Martin Daly, Mirkka Danielsbacka

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Exogenous shocks during sensitive periods of development can have long-lasting effects on adult phenotypes including behavior, survival and reproduction. Cooperative breeding, such as grandparental care in humans and some other mammal species, is believed to have evolved partly in order to cope with challenging environments. Nevertheless, studies addressing whether grandparental investment can buffer the development of grandchildren from multiple adversities early in life are few and have provided mixed results, perhaps owing to difficulties drawing causal inferences from non-experimental data. Using population-based data of English and Welsh adolescents (sample size ranging from 817 to 1197), we examined whether grandparental investment …

Utilizing Self-Management Strategies To Increase Staff Productivity In An Aba Clinic, Jasmine Margarita Hernandez-Morris

Theses and Dissertations

In Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), self-management is defined as an individual's behavior change strategies and tactics implemented to achieve a desired behavioral outcome. Both clinicians and researchers aim to develop and implement efficient self- management strategies that enhance staff performance, ultimately driving positive outcomes for the clients they serve. At this time, the research regarding the use of self- management strategies to increase staff fluency is limited. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of using self-management strategies to increase fluency in administering a verbal operant card set. Six staff members from an ABA clinic in Central Florida were recruited for …

Influence Of Officers’ Race, Suspects’ Characteristics, And Arrest Contexts On Police Homicide Victim Risk Factors, Dominique Damon Block

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Media attention on the fatal use of force by law enforcement personnel has worsened the divide amongst the police and minority communities, intensifying the lack of confidence between groups. Further research is called for to understand how the fatal use of force by law enforcement is influenced by officer race, suspect race, and characteristics of the alleged crime. Implicit bias theory and procedural justice theory were used as theoretical and conceptual frameworks. The three research questions examined the extent to which characteristics of the officer, characteristics of the alleged perpetrator, and circumstances of the homicide predicted (a) perpetrator mental illness, …

Study Abroad Angst: A Literature Review On The Mental Health Of International Students During Covid-19, Daisuke Akiba, Michael Perrone, Caterina Almendral

Publications and Research

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic presented unique and unprecedented challenges for international students, those studying at institutions of higher education outside of their home countries, due to their distinct circumstances and vulnerabilities. This literature review examines the multifaceted mental health burdens they experienced and highlights the need for targeted support and interventions. Methods: A rigorous search across three databases (i.e., PubMed, PsycINFO, and ERIC) yielded 50 empirical studies for inclusion in this literature review. A six-phase thematic analysis framework was employed to identify and synthesize key themes. Results: Seven prominent themes emerged: (1) academic and professional disruptions; (2) challenges navigating international …

Religious Attitudes And Fear Toward Traditional Biomedical And Psychological Services Among People Of The Christian Faith, Brennan Cackett

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adults who identify as Christian often seek help within their religious communities for mental health issues. Research suggested that religious counseling services may discourage members from reporting mental health issues to traditional biomedical and psychological providers. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the extent to which people who identify as Christian in Southern California seek help outside of the Church and whether their help seeking is influenced by their religious attitudes and perceived fear of traditional psychological services. Southern California was chosen as it is where the Christian Counseling movement was started and has a large population …

The Effect Of Call Center Agent Burnout On Employee Engagement, Shyriah M. Marshall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Call center organizations have become important contact centers for various fields to conduct customer service. Within the automotive industry, call centers are used for emergency roadside assistance. The customer service representatives who are responsible for handling roadside assistance may be managing various issues, including burnout, which may carry over into their performance and ability to properly service customers. The relationships between burnout and employee engagement for inbound emergency roadside assistance agents were not well understood. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between customer service representatives’ level of burnout and employee engagement. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design …

Heroic Virtues In Space Exploration: Everydayness And Supererogation On Earth And Beyond, John N. Nielsen

Heroism Science

The space environment poses significant dangers and difficulties for human explorers—difficulties so great that it has been argued that space exploration should be exclusively conducted by automated spacecraft. The possibility of space science conducted by human astronauts in spite of these dangers presents the opportunity for individuals to exhibit traditional heroic virtues—presumably, supererogatory forms of prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice—in the pursuit of science. In particular, the difficulties of pursuing science in the hostile conditions of extraterrestrial environments will call for physical courage in the face of personal danger, patience with the painstaking procedures of technically difficult scientific experiments performed …

Ioc Consensus Statement: Interpersonal Violence And Safeguarding In Sport, Yetsa A. Tuakli-Wosornu, Kirsty Burrows, Kari Fasting, Mike Hartill, Ken Hodge, Keith Kaufman, Emma Kavanagh, Sandra L. Kirby, Jelena G. Macleod, Margo Mountjoy, Sylvie Parent, Minhyeok Tak, Tine Vertommen, Daniel J. A. Rhind

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Interpersonal violence (IV) in sport is challenging to define, prevent and remedy due to its subjectivity and complexity. The 2024 International Olympic Committee Consensus on Interpersonal Violence and Safeguarding aimed to synthesise evidence on IV and safeguarding in sport, introduce a new conceptual model of IV in sport and offer more accessible safeguarding guidance to all within the sports ecosystem by merging evidence with insights from Olympic athletes.

Autopercepción De Envejecimiento A Temprana Edad En Pobladores De Escasos Recursos Económicos, Luis Hesneide Morales López

The Qualitative Report

Un buen número de personas que viven en condiciones de pobreza se consideran personas de la tercera edad a pesar de que no están en esa etapa de sus vidas. Además, afirman con nostalgia que todo tiempo pasado fue mejor en comparación con la situación actual en la que viven. En este estudio cualitativo de enfoque fenomenológico participaron 181 pobladores que viven en precariedad económica de las tres regiones del Perú: Chimbote (costa), Juliaca (sierra) y Pucallpa (selva), quienes participaron en el estudio a través de entrevistas a profundidad y grupos focales. Se puede aseverar que tales percepciones afectan sus …

The Psychological Effects Of Discriminations In Sexual And Gender Minority Individuals: A Qualitative Analysis, Kameryn S. Freeman, Konrad Bresin, Julia Nicholas

The Cardinal Edge

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals experience minority stressors (e.g., rejection, discrimination, and victimization) that may negatively impact their mental health. This study used a mixed-methods approach to identify common themes across minority stress experiences and explore whether reflecting on these themes elicits changes in effect.

N = 25 undergraduate students with an SGM identity completed the study for course credit. Participants wrote about an instance of SGM discrimination that they experienced, witnessed, or heard about. Participants self-reported their positive and negative effects before and after writing. Participants’ stories were analyzed qualitatively to identify common themes. Correlations were calculated between …

Exploring Mental Health Providers' Willingness To Integrate Digital Applications For Gen-Z Students, Chanlinee Karawek

Undergraduate Research Symposium Lightning Talks

Mental health services have expanded significantly throughout recent years, alongside the virtualization of said services since the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, digital mental health applications (DMHAs) are now widely available. Generation-Z college students are a demographic that both grew up with this technology and is associated with a high risk of mental illness development during their time in higher education. Integration of familiar technology and necessary mental health services could potentially help address their unique psychological needs. This study explores mental healthcare providers’ perspectives on incorporating DMHAs into their therapy services to Gen-Z college students. An anonymous survey was …

Climate Change And Its Effects On Maternal Mental Health, Sara Cordero

Undergraduate Research Symposium Lightning Talks

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns primarily caused by human activities, which have facilitated more climate crises, such as floods, wildfires, hurricanes, etc. They tend to have the greatest effect on vulnerable populations, such as women and children. This study is aimed to view how climate change-related environmental stressors impact the mental health and well-being of mothers. A scoping literature review approach was used by analyzing scientific databases (i.e. APA-Psycinfo, Scopus, PRIMO) to find peer-reviewed papers that studied the effects of extreme weather events and climate change on maternal mental health. Results suggest that hurricanes, …

Latina Maternal Anxiety And Early Child Development: A Scoping Review, Micaela Gigena

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Latina mothers' mental health struggles, particularly anxiety, can significantly impact their children's development. In Latino culture, stigma and shame surrounding mental health discussions often prevent individuals from seeking help, which can exacerbate effects. This scoping review aims to examine currently available research on the impact of maternal anxiety on early child development in Latina populations across North America, South America, and the Caribbean. A literature search was performed to find relevant peer-reviewed and grey literature through five electronic databases. Out of 469 results, 33 relevant studies were identified for full-text screening. Data will be extracted to explore the association between …

Navigating Crisis: The Intersection Of Politics, Culture, And Suicide In South Korea And Japan, Natasha A. Burke

Honors College Theses

Suicide is an important global issue, and there need to be measures put in place to help prevent such a problem. Existing literature finds that culture and politics do significantly impact suicide rates. I assess how the perceptions of suicide differ from culture to culture and how culture plays a role in the rates of suicide and reasons for it. I also examine at how socioeconomic status, unemployment, and economics affect people as well. In this study, I research how politics and culture affect suicide rates in Asia, specifically how politics and culture influence suicide rates in South Korea and …

Volunteer Perceptions Of Commitment In A Humanitarian Organization Involved With Nigerian Community Development Projects, Olaitan Ojuroye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research has shown that output from volunteers is unpredictable and uncontrollable, rendering strategic planning futile for organizations. This study explored adult volunteers' lived experiences regarding their perceptions of commitment to a humanitarian organization involved with Nigerian community development projects. Identifying why volunteers adopted attitudes was essential to support the organization's development and promote the community's development by helping practitioners better understand the volunteers and deploy them more appropriately. The framework that grounded this study included psychological contract theory, organizational commitment, and social undermining. This interpretative phenomenological analysis study involved a purposeful sample of 10 adult volunteers who participated in semistructured …

Perceptions Of Effectiveness Of Eye Movement Desensitized And Reprocessing For Those Diagnosed With Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Megan C. Stefanelli

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a short-term psychotherapy approach first introduced in 1987 by Francine Shapiro. Currently, EMDR is only a first-line treatment to relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, this treatment modality could be expanded to generalized anxiety disorder if additional research was available. Further, research has demonstrated the effectiveness of EMDR from a quantitative perspective; however, there has been scarce research supporting the use of EMDR as a first-line treatment approach from a qualitative perspective. This hermeneutic qualitative study aimed to explore the psychological and physiological effects of EMDR on the brain from a …

The Role Of Uncertainty In Illness: Insights Into Psychological Adjustment In Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Theresa A. Skojec

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

There are currently few studies that directly explore the relationship between uncertainty in illness and psychological adjustment to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), highlighting a critical gap in understanding how patients cope with and adjust to the emotional and mental challenges posed by this chronic condition. This dissertation comprises three manuscripts focused on filling this knowledge gap. The first is an integrative review guided by Mishel’s Uncertainty in Illness Theory, which examines how uncertainty affects patients' psychological and emotional well-being during illness and explores strategies to manage or reduce this uncertainty. The integrative review included 27 publications that examined uncertainty in …

Initiation Of Hearing Aids Use And Incident Dementia Among Mid-To-Late Life Adults: The Health And Retirement Study 2010-2018, Jingkai Wei, Kun Li, Youngran Kim, Rahul Ghosal, Donglan Zhang, Anwar T Merchant, Casey Crump

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Hearing aids may reduce the risk of dementia among individuals with hearing loss. However, no evidence is available from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effectiveness of hearing aids use in reducing incident dementia. Using target trial emulation, we leveraged an existing longitudinal cohort study to estimate the association between hearing aids initiation and risk of dementia.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: The Health and Retirement Study was used to emulate target trials among non-institutionalized participants aged ≥50 years with self-reported hearing loss, without dementia at baseline, and without use of hearing aids in the previous 2 years. …

Experience Of Stress And Coping Among Male Police Officers In Trinidad And Tobago, Coryse Penco

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Police officers in Trinidad and Tobago face highly stressful environments due to increasing violent crimes and threats to their lives. Organizational stress contributes to emotional exhaustion, highlighting the need for research on stress and coping among these officers. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore job-related stressors and coping strategies that male police officers in Trinidad and Tobago use to deal with their everyday job demands. Han Selye’s theory of stress and Lazarus’ transactional model of stress and coping were used as theoretical frameworks for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 male police officers from …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Job Stress And Its Meaning On Intent To Remain At A Title I School, Salmata Saaka-Lyons

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The shortage of teachers in Title I schools undermines educational equity and quality in underserved communities, necessitating concerted efforts from educators, policymakers, and local communities. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of Title I teachers regarding job stress and its meaning on their decisions to remain in the profession and within Title I environments. Grounded in Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional theory of stress and coping and Bakker and Demerouti’s job demands-resources model, the study explored how perceived job stress shapes teachers’ commitment to their roles. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to analyze …

Motivational Dysregulation With Melanocortin 4 Receptor Haploinsufficiency, Alex M. Steiner, Robert F. Roscoe, Rosemarie M. Booze, Charles F. Mactutus

Faculty Publications

Obesity, by any standard, is a global health crisis. Both genetic and dietary contributions to the development and maintenance of obesity were integral factors of our experimental design. As mutations of the melanocortin 4 receptors (MC4R) are the leading monogenetic cause of obesity, MC4R haploinsufficient rats were fed a range of dietary fat (0–12 %) in a longitudinal design. Physiological and motivational assessments were performed using a locomotor task, a 5-choice sucrose preference task, an operant task with fixed and progressive ratios, as well as a distraction operant task. Dendritic spine morphology of medium spiny neurons (MSNs) of the nucleus …

Leveraging Feedback From Older Adults To Enhance Patient-Centered Engagement In Healthcare Services, Erica Susan Sappington

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of an introduction to the topic, three academic papers, and a final chapter discussing the implications of the findings. Its primary objective is to examine strategies to engage older adults in proactive health interventions, enhancing their participation and satisfaction within healthcare systems. Each academic paper utilized distinct data sources and research methods. Paper 1's survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlations to understand older adults' engagement with academic medical centers. Paper 2 used thematic analysis of focus group data to identify key themes in older adults' perspectives on novel health services. Paper 3 used …

Moving From Traits To The Dynamic Process: The Next Steps In Research On Human Resilience, Yannick Hill, Michael L. Dolezal, Patric C. Nordbeck, Ruud J. R. Den Hartigh, David Pincus, Adam W. Kiefer, Bernard P. Ricca

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The current literature on resilience shows a trend toward a dynamic process conceptualization, moving away from the previous trait-approach. However, the term “dynamic” is increasingly treated as a buzzword and is thereby oversimplified in the literature. The aim of this article is to develop a unified language pertaining to resilience as a dynamic process, so as to ensure progress in this field. First, we briefly introduce the traditional trait approach alongside the implicit assumption on which it is built. Next, we contrast this approach by discussing what dynamics entail and how this approach differs from mainstream psychological approaches. Specifically, dynamics …

An Exploratory Study On The Impact Of Vicarious Trauma On Physician’S Psychological Flexibility, Distress Tolerance, Perceived Social Support, And Self-Care, Ramya Kantharaj

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

There have been increased rates of depression, suicide, and burnout over the last several years among medical physicians. In fact, in most healthcare systems, physicians report greater incidences of depression and anxiety compared to the broader population, as well as compared to others within the medical field (Gerada, 2018). Their rigorous work style and various risk factors predispose this population to worse mental health outcomes. Additionally, societal stigmas may cause many physicians to avoid mental health treatments (Mehta & Edwards, 2018). Ultimately, poor mental health outcomes can impact physicians' clinical work with patients. On the other hand, when physicians can …