Digital Commons Network^™

Dementia Diagnosis And Personality Change, Molly Pavek

Counselor Education Capstones

The diagnosis of dementia is typically overlooked when thinking about mental health. It has been around for over a century, yet there have been minimal breakthroughs in research. This diagnosis is quite complicated, given the unexpected and sometimes abrupt nature of symptoms. There is still no cure and there are no medications that stop, slow down, or reverse the diagnosis. Several cognitive and behavioral symptoms accompany a dementia diagnosis; a change in personality being one of the most apparent. Researching personality changes over time, allows researchers discover patterns among the diagnosed and medical professionals, the diagnosed, and caregivers of the …

Engaging The Church Body Of First Baptist Church Of Baldwyn Through A Ministry Placement Process, Jonathan Haley Uhrig

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Churches often struggle with finding enough volunteers to staff their ministries fully. The church staff and a small percentage of its membership usually does most of the ministry. Instead of pleading for more volunteers and putting pressure on those already serving to add additional ministries, churches can equip their current membership to serve in the church as they are gifted. When someone comes to Christ, God gives them at least one spiritual gift. Believers also have ministry passions and talents that can be leveraged for building and growing the church. Churches can help their members discover their spiritual gifts and …

Exploring Artist Residencies For Academic Libraries, Jenne M. Klotz

Libraries

This white paper describes the results of a research leave that explored artist residencies and considered their potential in academic libraries.

How Covid-19 And Racial Justice Protests Influenced Social Workers’ Perceptions Of Policy And Political Participation, Amy Krings, Maria V. Wathen, Teresa Kilbane

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Drawing on political opportunity theory, this study examined how the political context created by the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests influenced social workers’ perceptions about social welfare policy and political participation in the summer of 2020. Authors conducted a thematic analysis of the open-ended survey responses of 120 social work practitioners. Regarding perceptions of policy, respondents reported that they experienced new awareness about the breadth and depth of structural racism in the United States; that they held pessimistic views of the government’s ability to mitigate harm associated with the pandemic or racial injustice; and that structural change, including …

Electronic Resources Updates - 2023 Q4, Melanie Mcgurr, Gregg Harris

Electronic Resources Quarterly Updates

No abstract provided.

Determining The Health Literacy Skills Of Extension Audiences In Maryland, Beverly Jackey, Heejung Song, Lisa Mccoy, Virginia Brown

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Strong health literacy skills empower people to make informed health decisions, especially those with chronic health conditions striving for positive health outcomes. Half of all people living in Maryland report having at least one chronic disease. Research examining the health literacy of Marylanders is limited. This paper reports how establishing a baseline for health literacy levels of Marylanders can identify major factors affecting the health literacy skills of Extension audiences and lays the important groundwork to develop Extension programs and explore the best delivery methods tailored to the needs of subpopulations. Using the Newest Vital Sign, a …

Impact Of The Built Environment On The End-Of-Life Journey, Kelechi Akwazie

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

Several research studies and personal anecdotes show that home-based hospice care patients report better quality of life than their inpatient care counterparts – suggesting that the location of care/built environment is a critical component of hospice care. As a result, other research studies have attempted to provide evidence-based design recommendations for inpatient hospice facilities; however, several of these recommendations either conflict with each other or are vaguely prescribed – which may dull any attempts to implement them.

This literature review takes a unique approach to the provision of evidence-based design recommendations for inpatient hospice facilities by holistically assessing hospice care, …

Project Silverlight: Community Based And Participant-Led Initiatives To Increase Civic Engagement Among Older Adults, Paulin T. Straughan, William Tov, Wensi Lim, Rachel Ngu, Yan Er Tan, Mindy Eiko Tadai

ROSA Research Briefs

Project Silverlight was a year-long project aimed at redefining social engagement and participation of older adults in the community. In this report, we share our findings from the project and key recommendations to community partners who are looking to adopt a similar model of participant-led programs. Our study found that by engaging student volunteers as a key partner in this initiative, participants showed a significant improvement in their perceptions of youth, and that participants derived a great sense of satisfaction from being involved in the curation of their activities.

Sequence Analysis Of Cardiometabolic Multimorbidity And Association With Subsequent Dementia, Corey Nagel, Heather Allore, Anda Botoseneanu, Jeffrey Kaye, Jason Newsom, Nicholas Bishop, Ana Quinones

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sequence analysis is used in the social sciences to examine patterns of events occurring across the life course, but there are few examples of its use in multimorbidity research among older adults. We used sequence analysis to identify longitudinal patterns of cardiometabolic multimorbidity over a five-year period among participants in the National Health and Aging Trends Study (N=5,218). Multimorbidity sequences were constructed using self-reported diagnosis of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and myocardial infarction (MI) assessed annually. Death was included as an absorbing state, yielding a total of 281 distinct sequences. We calculated sequence dissimilarity using optimal matching then used hierarchical …

Age Differences In Emotion Regulation And Executive Function, Wei Xing Toh, Hwajin Yang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Age-related improvements in emotion regulation (ER) are thought to account for the relatively healthy levels of well-being observed in late adulthood. However, extant laboratory-based evidence on age differences in the effective implementation of ER strategies―such as reappraisal (i.e., reframing the meaning of an emotion-eliciting event) and distraction (i.e., redirecting attention away from emotional to non-emotional information)―remains equivocal (Isaacowitz, 2022). Moreover, developmental differences in ER monitoring (i.e., adjusting regulatory approach as needed, such as maintaining or switching strategies), and factors that underpin such age-related differences, are poorly understood. Therefore, we investigated how younger and older adults (N = 335) differ in …

Exploring Aging Using The Selection, Optimization, And Compensation (Soc) Framework In Conjunction With Kinematic Gait And Verbal Fluency Task Analysis In Healthy Adults, Emily Ann Chavez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This multi-study dissertation examined dual-task performance in young and middle-aged adults using verbal fluency tasks (VFT) during different walking scenarios (baseline, performing a VFT, walking narrowly, and performing a VFT while walking narrowly) as well as the Selection, Optimization, and Compensation (SOC) model. Thirty adults (15 young adults (YA; 19-44 years) and 15 middle-aged adults (MA; 45-65 years) participated in this study. Overall, there were no significant differences between groups when data was examined in short (means of means approach) and long-form (incorporating all data), when analyzing clustering and switching strategies, gait speed variability, or dual-task costs. Overall, these three …

The Use Of Deception In Dementia-Care Robots: Should Robots Tell "White Lies" To Limit Emotional Distress?, Samuel R. Cox, Grace Cheong, Wei Tsang Ooi

ROSA Journal Articles and Publications

With projections of ageing populations and increasing rates of dementia, there is need for professional caregivers. Assistive robots have been proposed as a solution to this, as they can assist people both physically and socially. However, caregivers often need to use acts of deception (such as misdirection or white lies) in order to ensure necessary care is provided while limiting negative impacts on the cared-for such as emotional distress or loss of dignity. We discuss such use of deception, and contextualise their use within robotics.

Projecting, Persuading, & Protecting: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Adult Children’S Predictions Of Parents’ Quality-Of-Life Valuations In Serious Illness States, Jessica Hahne

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Older adults often face complex serious illness decisions and involve their adult children as shared or surrogate decision makers. However, previous research asking family members to predict older adults’ treatment preferences in serious illness situations typically shows poor concordance with older adults’ actual preferences. In the current mixed methods analysis, we surveyed older adults (n = 38) on their health state valuations in five serious illness scenarios. Two of their adult children (n = 76) predicted their parent’s preferences. Families also participated in a semi-structured conversation to discuss their preferences and predictions. Quantitative analyses showed that parents’ average valuations were …

Relationship Status And Psychological Well-Being: Initial Evidence For The Moderating Effects Of Commitment Readiness, Kenneth Tan, Daniel Ho, Christopher R. Agnew

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Past research has suggested that the association between romantic relationship status (i.e., single vs. coupled) and well-being can be dependent on different aspects of an individual's personal life. In the current research, we examined whether commitment readiness (i.e., the subjective sense that the current time is "right" to be in a committed romantic relationship) moderates the link between current relationship status and psychological well-being. With correlational data obtained from three independent samples (two from Singapore, one cross-cultural comparison between Singapore and USA), we found a significant moderating effect of commitment readiness. Coupled individuals higher in readiness reported greater levels of …

Food Insecurity And The Experiences Of Adults Aged 65 Years And Older, Yvonne Mannings

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Ms 176 Guide To Cheves M. Smythe, Md Papers (1924-2013), Cheves M. Smythe (1924-2020)

Manuscript Finding Aids

The Cheves M. Smythe MD papers has been arranged chronologically according to titles held, and additional items were placed at the end of the collection. This collection consists of research documents, correspondence, and publications. Highlights of the collection include information from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. The Collection comprises of 10 boxes and is 9.5 cubic feet. See more at MS 176.

Ageism By A Community Sample Of Young Adults: Expanding The Contact Hypothesis To Explore Ageism, Helena Lucia Swanson

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Aging demographics globally are changing rapidly, resulting in the category of “older adults” (65 years and older) growing to eventually become the largest age demographic (United Nations, 2022). As our world gets older, ageism is a growing concern given its health, societal, cultural, and political consequences (Chrisler et al., 2016; Bugental & Hehman, 2007; Levy et al., 2020). Following Allport’s Contact Hypothesis (1954), this dissertation empirically analyzed predictors of ageism, including contact with older adults, for younger adults (18-26 years old) residing in U.S. communities. Participants were recruited using Prolific Academic, an online crowdsourcing platform and responded to five scales …

ความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างการเติบโตทางเศรษฐกิจกับอายุคาดเฉลี่ยในกลุ่มประเทศ Clmv (C: ราชอาณาจักรกัมพูชา L: สาธารณรัฐประชาธิปไตยประชาชนลาว M: สาธารณรัฐแห่งสหภาพเมียนมา V: สาธารณรัฐสังคมนิยมเวียดนาม), มณิภัทร์ ไทรเมฆ

Journal of Demography

บทคัดย่อ

การศึกษาครั้งนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อศึกษาความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างรายได้ประชาชาติต่อหัวของประชากรกับอายุคาดเฉลี่ยด้วยวิธีการทดสอบความสัมพันธ์เชิงเหตุและผลของ Granger Causality ข้อมูลที่ใช้ในการวิเคราะห์เป็นข้อมูลทุติยภูมิ (Secondary data) ของประเทศในกลุ่ม CLMV (C: ราชอาณาจักรกัมพูชา L: สาธารณรัฐประชาธิปไตยประชาชนลาว M: สาธารณรัฐแห่งสหภาพเมียนมา V: สาธารณรัฐสังคมนิยมเวียดนาม) เป็นประเภทอนุกรมเวลา โดยมีลักษณะเป็นรายปี ตั้งแต่ปี 2000-2018 ผลการศึกษาอายุคาดเฉลี่ยของกลุ่มประเทศ CLMV ทั้งประชากรชายและหญิง พบว่า การทดสอบความนิ่งของข้อมูล ค่าสัมประสิทธิ์ของ ADF test และ KPSS test ณ ระดับนัยสำคัญ 0.05 ที่ระดับต่างๆ และทำการทดสอบ Residual Tests พบว่า ไม่พบปัญหา Autocorrelation และไม่พบปัญหา Heteroscedasticity หลังจากนั้นได้ทำการทดสอบระดับความยากของค่าล่า (lag length) ที่เหมาะสม ผลการทดสอบสมมติฐานเชิงเหตุเชิงผล (Granger Causality) พบว่า การเติบโตทางเศรษฐกิจเป็นต้นเหตุของอายุคาดเฉลี่ยของประชากรชายหญิงของประเทศราชอาณาจักรกัมพูชา และสาธารณรัฐแห่งสหภาพเมียนมา ประชากรหญิงของสาธารณรัฐประชาธิปไตยประชาชนลาว และประชากรชายของสาธารณรัฐสังคมนิยมเวียดนาม แต่ผลการศึกษาที่ผลกลับกัน คือ อายุคาดเฉลี่ยเป็นต้นเหตุของรายได้ประชาชาติต่อหัวของประชากรชายหญิงของสาธารณรัฐประชาธิปไตยประชาชนลาว ประชากรหญิงของสาธารณรัฐแห่งสหภาพเมียนมา และสาธารณรัฐสังคมนิยมเวียดนาม

Men’S Sheds: An Outlet For Engaging In Creative Activities, Melinda Heinz

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

This research highlights the purpose behind creating an art exhibition featuring work made by Men’s Shed members, many of whom are older adults. Publicly displaying their creative works demonstrates the creative capacities of these older men and counteracts the negative narrative that older adulthood is a time when individuals experience declining abilities. The exhibition also inspires older adults to consider what they can create, experiment with learning new mediums, and provides them an opportunity to connect with others who may share similar interests.

The Ritual Of Therapeutic Artmaking In Long-Term Care, Melinda Heinz Dr., Elissa Wenthe, Alexis Schramel

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

The transition to long-term care settings can be difficult for residents and feelings of loneliness, depression, and anxiety are not uncommon in these environments. However, participating in therapeutic artmaking rituals creates opportunities for residents to process their feelings, experience states of flow and mindfulness, engage with others, and focus on their own psychological growth. In long-term care, the physical needs of residents are often prioritized, but psychosocial needs also require attention. For this project, therapeutic artmaking rituals were created at a long-term care facility in three levels of care over 12 months. Older adults engaged with clay, paint, raw fiber, …

The Covid-19 Crisis And Intergenerational Relations : The Case Of Hong Kong Families With Older Parents Ageing In The Greater Bay Area In Mainland China, Bowen Zhou

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been developed by the Chinese central government since 2016. Driven by the development of the Greater Bay Area, the well-developed transportation has further provided chances for Hong Kong older people to reside in the mainland GBA cities. The relevant Hong Kong government departments have made a comparison showing that the number of Hong Kong older people (aged 65 and above) who are ageing in the Greater Bay Area of mainland China has increased to around 90,200 in 2019, a 33% increase from 2013. Given the most updated situation, these Hong Kong families with …

Age & Dementia Friendly Plymouth: A Community Needs Assessment, Caitlin E. Coyle, Beth Rouleau, Ceara Somerville

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

This report describes research undertaken by the Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging (CSDRA) within the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston, on behalf of the Town of Plymouth. The goals of this project were to investigate the needs, interests, preferences, and opinions of Plymouth’s residents age 55 or older in support of the Council on Aging’s (COA’s) objective to identify and serve the needs of all Plymouth citizens 55 and older. The contents of this report are meant to inform the Town of Plymouth, the Plymouth COA, the Center for Active Living, and organizations that …

Economic Equity And People With Disabilities: Development And Characterization Of A Novel Index, Bhavneet Walia, Katherine Mcdonald, Joy Hammel, Lex Frieden, Michael Morris, Barry Whaley, Vinh Nguyen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Here we develop two new social indices: The ADA PARC Absolute Economic Opportunity Index and the ADA PARC Relative Economic Opportunity Index. These indices allow us novel examinations of economic equity between people with and without disabilities within a U.S. State and between people with disabilities in different states using aggregations of multiple component economic indicators. These represent the first efforts to offer U.S. indices of this focus, an important development given the distinct economic needs of people with disabilities and the value in accounting for distinct national policies. The indices rely on U.S. Census and other data on economic …

Using The Five Ps: Conceptualizing Covid-19-Related Mental Health Concerns, Christine D. Gonzales-Wong, Scott Peters

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in rising mental health concerns. As individuals experience loneliness, anxiety, and depression related to the pandemic, counselors-in-training navigate their treatment of clients while also living through the pandemic and its polarization. The authors present the Five Ps, a case conceptualization model that supervisors can use to help beginning counselors consider the history and context of the presenting concerns of clients, in addition to utilizing clients’ strengths in treatment. The authors provide a case illustration using the Five Ps in a supervision setting and discuss implications for supervision and future research.

Exploring Race: The Collaborative Inquiry Experience Of A Group Of Black Social Work Faculty, Lusta Phanord, Amber D. Bell, Deneen Harris, Crystal George-Moses, Erica Bosque, Carla Fagan, Bianca Brandon

Title III Professional Development Reports

Through a partnership presentation, presenters discussed the co-inquiry group process through which they explored their experiences as Black faculty who teach race based content in social work programs. They shared insights into what it means, what it takes, and what it costs to teach such content, and the benefits of the group process.

Transportation Planning In An Aging Society, Shengxiao (Alex) Li

PSU Transportation Seminars

By 2030, all Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) will be 65 and older in the U.S. However, the understanding of how Baby Boomers travel differently from the previous generations, and the opportunities and challenges of older people's travel, do not keep pace with the increasing number of older people. This presentation starts with an overview of transportation policies for older people and challenges, followed by several empirical studies investigating older people's generational travel differences, vehicle ownership over the life course, and the interaction of technology usage and travel among older people. It concludes with a policy agenda …

Tuberculosis Presentation And Outcomes In Older Hispanic Adults From Tamaulipas, Mexico, Belinda A Medrano, Miryoung Lee, Gretchen Gemeinhardt, Javier E Rodríguez-Herrera, Moncerrato García-Viveros, Blanca I Restrepo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Older people are at high risk of developing and dying from pulmonary infections like tuberculosis (TB), but there are few studies among them, particularly in Hispanics. To address these gaps, we sought to identify host factors associated with TB and adverse treatment outcomes in older Hispanics by conducting a cross-sectional study of TB surveillance data from Tamaulipas, Mexico (2006-2013; n = 8381). Multivariable logistic regressions were assessed for older adults (OA ≥65 years) when compared to young (YA, 18-39 years) and middle-aged adults (40-64 years). We found that the OA had features associated with a less complicated TB (e.g., lower …

Economic Equity And People With Disabilities: Development And Characterization Of A Novel Index, Bhavneet Walia, Katherine Mcdonald, Barry Whaley, Vinh Nguyen

Burton Blatt Institute

Here, we develop two new social indices: the ADA PARC Absolute Economic Opportunity Index and the ADA PARC Relative Economic Opportunity Index. These indices allow us novel examinations of economic equity between people with and without disabilities within a U.S. state and between people with disabilities in different states using aggregations of multiple component economic indicators. These represent the first efforts to offer U.S. indices of this focus, an important development given the distinct economic needs of people with disabilities and the value in accounting for distinct national policies. The indices rely on U.S. Census and other data on economic …

Neurological Disability Perspectives On Sexuality Through Social Media Platforms, Heather Tillewein, Norah Chen, Hana Choi, Margaux Kraemer, Laeek A. Siddiqui

Summer Sexuality Fellowship

ABSTRACT:

As part of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) Human Sexuality Summer Research Fellowship, the Neurological Disability group collected social media data regarding the intersections of neurological disability and sexuality. For the purpose of the database, neurological disability is determined as self-identified neurological disorders and mental health diseases that can be congenital or acquired, including but not limited to: autism, depression, anxiety, traumatic brain injury, etc. (Wade, 1996). Key terminology for neurological disorders included both a review of literature focusing on biomedicalization of terminology and social justice terminology, as well as a practical review of the efficacy of …

Environmental Loss, Displacement, And Anxiety In Portugal: Analyzing News Articles To Differentiate Manifestations Of Environmental Distress, Robin Greene

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Expressions of environmental distress can take different forms, with different symptoms, causes, and treatments. Existing literature generally identifies three primary categories of environmental distress responses: environmental grief, solastalgia, and eco-anxiety. This paper explores these distinctions and identifies words typically associated with each category in Portuguese news articles using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). LDA is a Natural Language Processing (NLP) technique that groups words into topics and identifies connections between those words based on how often those words appear together in sequences. This paper uses a modified LDA algorithm called GuidedLDA to identify additional keywords within topics defined by a list …