Chrononutrition: A Beginner’S Guide For Mental Health Professionals, Jerrod Brown Phd, Ma, Ms, Ms, Ms, Ms, Ms, Jeremiah Schimp Phd, Ma, Lpcc, Leanne Skehan Dcn, Msacn, Mph, Mba, Shelley Mydra Dmft, Lmft, Jonathan Ward Dc, Phd(C), Ms, Dibcn, Kelly Rain Collin Ed.M.

Nutritional Neurocriminology Today

Chrononutrition focuses on how nutritional timing influences biological rhythms (Castro-Mata et al., 2025; Kim et al., 2025; Raji et al., 2024). This includes examining how dietary patterns (e.g., timing, frequency, and regularity) affect the circadian system and metabolic health (Cart & Pauling, 2025; Juliana et al., 2023; Negri et al., 2025). Sleep schedule, shift work, substance use, malnutrition, and other external factors, which will be discussed in this article, can disrupt the circadian rhythm. This disruption increases the risk for serious mental health problems (Baron & Reid, 2014; Castro-Mata et al., 2025; Franzago et al., 2023). Alternatively, consistent and nutritious …

Exploring The Well-Being Of Students: Mental Health Symptoms And Help-Seeking In Students With And Without Disabilities, Delaney M. Havrylkoff

LSU Master's Theses

Students with learning-related disabilities (LRDs) are a growing population in schools worthy of more holistic attention. This vulnerable population often receives support for their academic needs, while their mental health needs tend to get overlooked or untreated. Students with LRDs often face more negative experiences (e.g., lower academic performance, bullying, and peer victimization) in school compared to their peers without disabilities. As a result, they may experience higher levels of mental health issues. The purpose of this study was to examine the mental health status and service utilization of students with LRDs in schools compared to their peers without disabilities. …

Beyond The Badge: How Internal Culture Contradicts External Service In Urban Police Departments, Rowan Bari Eiselman

Educational Studies Student Papers and Posters

This ethnographic study examines how gendered workplace culture and mental health culture shape officer retention in two urban police departments: the Orange Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th District. Through ride-alongs, observations, and informal interviews with nine current and retired officers (four female, five male) across various ranks conducted between March and April 2026, this research reveals a troubling contradiction: departments tasked with serving diverse communities struggle to support diversity within their own ranks. Female officers navigate professional isolation, prolonged competence-proving expectations, and implicit career-versus-motherhood choices, with experiences varying significantly between the more supportive Orange PD and …

A Multidimensional Framework For Burnout Resilience In Adults, Anthony Martinez

Distinguished Student Scholarship Collection

This paper explores burnout as a growing public health concern and argues for a multidimensional framework to build resilience in adults. Drawing on contemporary research, the paper defines burnout as a response to chronic stress that undermines emotional, mental, and physical well‑being. It examines how the integration of physical, mental, and spiritual practices can mitigate burnout and enhance long‑term resilience. The analysis highlights the role of physical activity in regulating stress responses and improving mental health, the importance of mental health practices such as self‑regulation, cognitive reframing, and meditation, and the impact of spiritual practices, including prayer and positive religious …

Exploring The Impact Of Mental Health On Academic Performance And Engagement: An Interpretative Phenomenological Study Of Title I High School Upperclassmen In Northeast Alabama, Nataysia A. Holloway

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the intersection of student mental health and academic success within a Title I school context, particularly the lived experiences of students navigating mental health challenges while facing psychological, social, and educational barriers. Drawing on qualitative data, the study explores how mental health challenges influence student academic performance, engagement, and overall educational outcomes. Chapter one introduces mental health as a prevalent concern for adolescence, and chapter two examines existing research and details the methodological approach and supporting frameworks for this study. Subsequent chapters are devoted to the lived experiences of students and their perception of support and resources …

Behind The Suit: How Recovering A Biblical Worldview And Implementing Spiritual Formation Practices Can Improve The Mental Health Crisis In The Legal Profession, Makayla G. Johnson

Senior Honors Theses

A Biblical worldview is the foundation upon which the United States government and legal system is built, however in recent years the understanding of a Biblical Worldview has been in decline. This shift has had a profound impact on the legal field, causing a loss of purpose and meaning in the profession, which research asserts has in part caused many mental health issues found in the legal field. With this in mind, the following study will include information regarding the extent to which the implementation of spiritual formation practices, when practiced specifically by those in the legal profession, could impact …

Implementing And Evaluating A Mental Health Education And Mindfulness Program For Police Officers, Patricia Lynn Young

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Background: Police officers are routinely exposed to occupational stress and trauma, contributing to an increased risk of anxiety, depression, substance misuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Targeted mental health interventions are needed to proactively address their mental health. Purpose: This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project implemented and evaluated a mental health education and mindfulness program designed to reduce operational stress and increase knowledge and use of departmental mental health resources and mindfulness techniques among police officers. Methods: A pre–post intervention design was used over a 10-week period. Participants (n = 14) completed the Operational Police Stress Questionnaire (PSQ-Op) and …

Comparison Of Levels Of Bmi, Stress, And Depression Of Women During The Prenatal Period Relative To Their Activity Levels, Kalayna King

Honors Theses

This study aimed to analyze the relationships between activity levels, Body Mass Index (BMI), stress levels, and depression symptoms in obese pregnant women in Arkansas. Two separate exercise intervention studies were combined in this analysis to ultimately give a sample size of 293 pregnant women who were randomized into standard of care group (control) and an exercise group (treatment/experimental) (n = 115 and n = 178, respectively). Women in the control groups were instructed to independently continue to follow the physical activity guidelines recommended by their gynecologist, whereas the experimental groups participated in a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise …

Physical And Behavioral Health Diagnoses And Comorbidities Associated With Transition From Military Health System To Veterans Health Care Among Post-9/11 Veterans, Nikki R. Wooten, Megan E. Amaun, Madeleine Myers, Price N.O. Addo, Jeffrey Bowers, Felicia R. Carey, Rudolph P. Rull, Edward J. Boyko, Nathaniel Bell Ph.D., Ana Defede-Lopéz, Mary Jo V. Pugh

Publications

Objective

To identify factors associated with transitioning from Military Health System (MHS) to Veterans Health Administration (VHA) care in post-9/11 veterans.

Study Setting and Design

Retrospective cohort study from the Long-Term Impact of Military-Relevant Brain Injury Consortium Phenotype Study.

Data Sources and Analytic Sample

Population-level data were analyzed from MHS and VHA electronic health data (FY2000-2020). Participants received ≥ 3 years of MHS care and separated from the military before October 1, 2016. The primary outcome was transition from MHS to VHA care after military separation. Covariates included demographic, military, and deployment characteristics at military separation; physical, mental, and substance …

Navigating Digital Margins: Folk Theories Of Content Moderation And The Information Practices Of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Communities On Tiktok, Valerie Angela Vera

Theses and Dissertations

Content moderation can reinforce stigma and limit access to much-needed information, including information on nonsuicidal self-injury. Despite its prevalence, the behavior remains highly stigmatized, prompting individuals to turn to social media platforms like TikTok for social support and harm reduction information. However, as algorithms are known to disproportionately moderate stigmatized content, users must navigate a careful balance between visibility and concealment, altering their information practices to avoid detection. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, this study explored how users navigate content moderation, negotiate visibility, and adapt their information practices in anticipation of and in response to moderation to create …

Exploring The Psychological Health Of First Responder Women And Their Children, Shelby S. Deschepper

Honors Thesis

Abstract

First responders (law enforcement officers, firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians) often face occupational stressors and may have exposure to traumatic events. As a result, they are at risk for developing mental health conditions. Although there is substantial research on first responder mental health, potential gender differences within this population have received limited attention. The existing evidence suggests that first responders who are women encounter an even higher risk for adverse mental health outcomes than first responders who are men. Additionally, few studies have explored the mental health outcomes of children with first responder parents, and even fewer have …

The Impact Of Mindfulness Strategies In An Elementary Classroom, Trinity Lawless

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

School districts across the globe have adopted social-emotional initiatives throughout their schools to better the mental health of students and instill crucial soft skills within them. Implementing mindfulness strategies is one way that teachers are helping their students become more emotionally self-regulated learners. Although there is a plethora of research surrounding mindfulness, research on the specific mindfulness strategies that work best and the ones that students prefer is missing from the existing research. To mend this research gap, the current researcher sought to discover how mindfulness strategies impact students’ overall mindfulness score, what strategies are most beneficial, and which strategies …

Reevaluating Pediatric Concussion Recovery: The Need For Comprehensive Psychological Assessments, Jolie L. Slobodin

Senior Theses

Pediatric concussions represent a significant public health concern due to their complex and often long-lasting effects on the developing brain. Although concussion is classified as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), growing evidence indicates that children and adolescents experience psychological, cognitive, and academic difficulties that extend beyond physical symptom resolution. While somatic and cognitive symptoms often predominate in the acute phase of recovery, emotional and behavioral concerns frequently emerge or persist later, yet remain inconsistently evaluated in standard concussion care. This thesis examines the psychological, cognitive, and academic outcomes of pediatric concussion and evaluates whether current assessment practices capture the …

Mood Monitoring In Schools: A Promising Alternative To Single-Time-Point Screening, Shane L. Rogers, Brown, Kathryn Campbell, Matthew Goulding

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

School-based mental health screening typically relies on single-time-point assessments, which assume that students’ emotional well-being is sufficiently stable for classification based on a single measurement. The present study examined this assumption by evaluating the stability of emotional well-being classifications under repeated mood monitoring. Students from two secondary schools (United Kingdom, n = 413; Australia, n = 354) completed the Brief Emotional Experience Scale weekly across six to seven weeks. Emotional well-being classifications were examined relative to a predefined low well-being threshold to assess stability across time, and a post-monitoring survey examined students’ self-reported perceptions of the monitoring experience. Most students …

A Mental Occupation, Emmah Schuster

Night Flight: Online Literary Journal

“A Mental Occupation” is a poem that explores the psychological toll of constant body scrutiny and self-comparison. Through stark imagery and confessional voice, the speaker reveals how mirrors, photographs, and social expectations transform the body into a site of surveillance. The poem examines how internalized criticism can consume attention, confidence, and joy, portraying body image not simply as insecurity but as an exhausting mental conflict between identity, perception, and self-worth.

Prevalence And Determinant Factors Of Depression Among Pregnant Women In Poned Health Center In Tangerang City Area, Dian Geumala Hayati, Sudijanto Kamso, Popy Yuniar, Yuli Puspita Devi

Jurnal Epidemiologi Kesehatan Indonesia

According to World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 10% of pregnant women experience mental disorders, with depression being particularly prevalent. In developing countries, this rate is was even higher, reaching 19.8% after childbirth and 15.6% during pregnancy. Various studies conducted in Indonesia show that the prevalence of depression among pregnant women ranges widely, from 21.4% to 26.2%.This study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors associated with depression during pregnancy in pregnant women at the PONED Community Health Center in Tangerang City Area. A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted with 105 pregnant women attending antenatal check-ups at the 17 PONED …

From Arrival To Opportunity: A Policy Analysis For Supporting Newly Arrived English Learners In California, Valeria Gabrielli, Stephanie Mendoza Hernandez

School of Public Policy Capstones

Newly arrived immigrant students, commonly referred to as “newcomers,” represent a notable portion of the English Learner (EL) population in California’s K–12 public schools. As of Fall 2023, the California Department of Education reported that newcomers comprised 3.27% of total student enrollment. Although enrollment is projected to decline in the near term, the potential for future increases highlights the need for sustainable, evidence-based support systems. This study examines how California K–12 public schools with large EL populations provide academic and trauma-informed support services to newcomer students, with a particular focus on early intervention in grades K–5. Using the Bardach policy …

Clinically Aligned Long-Context Transformers For Cross-Platform Mental Health Risk Detection, Aditya Tekale, Mohammad Masum

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Social media platforms contain rich but noisy narratives of psychological distress, creating opportunities for early mental health risk detection. However, existing datasets capture heterogeneous constructs such as suicide risk severity, depression diagnosis, and DSM-5 symptom presence, and most prior models are trained and evaluated on a single corpus, limiting their clinical alignment and cross-dataset generalizability. In this study, we fine-tune a domain-specific long-document transformer, AIMH/Mental-Longformer-base-4096, for binary mental health risk detection (risk vs. no risk) using two clinically aligned Reddit datasets: the C-SSRS Reddit corpus and the eRisk 2025 depression dataset. To handle long user histories, we introduce an LLM-based …

How Does Striving Against Adversity Impact Emotional Well-Being And Cardiovascular Risk In Children?, Brooks B. Gump, Stefanie Pilkay, Xiafei Wang, Sara Vasilenko, Nader H. Attallah-Yunes, Sarah Woolf-King, Stephen Maisto, Edith Chen, Craig K. Ewart

Population Health Research Brief Series

Working hard and persisting through challenges (i.e., striving) are often encouraged for children who face adversity.  But for children facing severe adversity, striving can come with hidden costs. This brief summarizes findings from a study using data from the Environmental Exposures and Child Health Outcomes (EECHO) cohort (N=283, 2013-2017) of children ages 9-11 in Syracuse, NY. The authors find that children facing adversity who strived harder reported lower depression and hostility. However, high-striving high-adversity children also experienced significantly higher blood pressure and enlarged heart chambers than their lower striving peers, both risk factors for future heart disease.

Pressed For Time: The Role Of Time Pressure And Attentional Awareness On The Mental Health Of Employed Informal Dementia Caregivers, Kate Bishop

University Honors Theses

Informal caregivers for individuals with Alzheimer’s and related dementias (ADRD) experience increased time demands and poorer well-being, especially when caregiving is combined with paid employment. Subjective feelings of high time pressure, which include feeling rushed and short on time, relate to poorer self-reported measures of mental health more than objective task load. Attentional awareness is one of the fundamental components of mindfulness alongside nonjudgmental acceptance; it has been linked with more optimal mental health and feelings of having enough time. This cross-sectional study examined whether higher levels of perceived time pressure would relate to poorer self-reported mental health functioning and …

Encouraging A United Response: A Systematic Review And Mixed-Methods Collaborative Evaluation Of Co-Responder Model Effectiveness In Florida, Kelsey Greenfield

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Even before the deinstitutionalization movement caused the influx of state hospital patients into communities ill-prepared to navigate their needs, law enforcement has been responsible for responding to persons in crisis (PIC) due to mental illness. In response to the high rates of incarceration for persons with mental illness (PMI), a growing number of law enforcement agencies have adopted diversion strategies referred to as police-mental health collaboration (PMHC) models to divert PMI away from the criminal justice system and towards community mental health services. Despite nearly forty years of research, there are still considerable knowledge gaps regarding who benefits from PMHCs …

Impact Of Depression And Anxiety On Outcomes Following Muscle-Preserving Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody And Fusion., Sahil Garg, Sean M Muir, Kyle Jamar, Alexa Dietrich, Patrick Young, Sonny Gill

Surgery Articles

Background: The impact of concurrent diagnoses of anxiety and depression has not been extensively studied in spine surgery. We hypothesize that a muscle-sparing technique may be associated with decreased postoperative pain and improved strength postoperatively compared to open techniques, decreasing the stress of the postoperative recovery process. Therefore, this study aims to assess the benefits that a modified muscle-preserving lumbar fusion technique (Wiltse transforaminal lumbar interbody and fusion (W-TLIF)) would have on this subset of patients.

Methods: One hundred twenty subjects who underwent a single-level W-TLIF were identified with a recorded diagnosis status associated with mental health. The subjects underwent …

The Impact Of Linguistic Discrimination On The Mental Health Of International College Students: A Systematic Review Protocol Design, Isabella G. Hausladen, Chinarah D. Winston, Maria Kondaurova, Lidiya Grote

The Cardinal Edge

The analysis of education data from the National Foundation for American Policy demonstrates that between 50% and 82% of the full-time graduate students in STEM fields at United States universities are international students who provide a wide range of expertise, knowledge, and skills needed to participate in the STEM workforce (National Foundation for American Policy, 2017). One of the challenges international college students face is self-perceived linguistic discrimination, defined as a person’s individual experience of feeling unfairly treated due to their accent, proficiency, or choice of language. The objective of this study is to develop a protocol for a systematic …

The Perspectives Of Mental Health Providers Concerning Public Personnel Management And Staffing Shortages In The Navy: A Qualitative Multiple-Case Study, Shauna L. Turner

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The federal government's public personnel management policies, established over a century ago, may now be ineffective in addressing twenty-first-century problems. The Navy faces an unprecedented global staffing shortage in the mental health career field. To address the problem, the Navy implemented human resource strategies to improve personnel quality of life and invested in improving service members' mental health. The problem is that the Navy’s existing personnel management policies may be ineffective at retaining clinical counselors at Fleet and Family Support Centers (FFSCs), contributing to persistent staffing shortages that undermine service delivery and warrant an evaluation of alternative retention strategies. This …

Multi-Stakeholder Perspectives On Barriers To Mental Health Support For Informal Caregivers, Maria Lizette Rangel, Donaji Stelzig, Cassandra Martinez Enriquez, Hoda Badr

Department of Medical Oncology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Informal caregivers experience elevated psychological distress but face substantial challenges in accessing mental health support. Prior research has focused primarily on individual or interpersonal determinants, with less attention to how organizational, community, and policy contexts shape access and contribute to inequities in service availability.

METHODS: Fifty-one stakeholders, including 17 informal caregivers, 23 community health workers (CHWs), and 11 mental health professionals, completed a demographic survey and 60-90-min semi-structured interviews in English or Spanish. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, combining deductive coding guided by the Socioecological Model with inductive identification of emergent themes.

RESULTS: Participants identified both barriers and …

No-Show Characteristics Of Rural Clients With Mental Health Conditions, Christy R. Collins, Jose Carbajal

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

The purpose of this study is to report demographic characteristics and appointment compliance factors associated with no-show appointments in a rural clinical setting in East Texas. Describing these variables will expand the existing literature and offer greater clarity not only on why appointments are missed, but also on who is missing them. Therefore, understanding how sociodemographic variables relate to missed appointments may enhance appointment adherence and improve healthcare outcomes for individuals. This study used cross-sectional archival data specifically collected to examine missed appointments among clients at a rural clinic (N = 134). The results indicate that Hispanic/Latino individuals, clients aged …

When Stress Matters Most: Developmental Timing And Socio-Ecological Stressors Among Mexican-Origin Adolescents From Low-Income Immigrant Families, Ka I Ip, Wen Wen, Sujin Lee, Wei Xiang Sim, Su Yeong Kim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study investigates the dynamic, time-varying associations between multiple socio-ecological stressors and internalizing symptoms among Mexican-origin youth from low-income immigrant families. Grounded in a socioecological framework and employing time-varying effect modeling (TVEM), we examine how stressors at the interpersonal, family, and neighborhood levels differentially influence anxiety and depressive symptoms across early adolescence (ages 11–13), middle adolescence (ages 14–17), and late adolescence/emerging adulthood (ages 18–20). Participants included 604 Mexican-origin adolescents (54% female) from low-income immigrant families, assessed across three waves spanning nine years. Five distinct stressors were identified: discrimination, foreigner stress, economic stress, language brokering stress, and neighborhood violence/non-safety. Results from …

School Climate As Primary Prevention: Mental Health And Violence Outcomes Among Lgbtq+ Youth In The U.S. South (2015–2024), Latarsha H. Michael, Brieah D. Hudson, Kenya T. Horne

Journal of Public Health in the Deep South

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) adolescents in the U.S. South experience disproportionately high rates of bullying, discrimination, depression, and suicidality. Supportive and inclusive school climates are identified as key protective factors that can mitigate these risks and function as primary prevention against violence. This systematic narrative review synthesizes peer-reviewed research and high-quality survey reports published between 2015 and 2024 that assess school climate, mental health, and violence-related outcomes among LGBTQ+ youth with representation from Southern states, including Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, 1,167 records …

“I’M Going To Get Help”: Violence Prevention And Response Assessment In Higher Education, Leah B.P. Pylate, Lindsey D. Knight, Sristi Subedi, Earnestine Y. Roby

Journal of Public Health in the Deep South

Background: College-age students are at risk for violence, and these victimizations can affect academic performance and outcomes.

Purpose: The purpose of the current project was to gather information about violence prevention and response in higher education to inform resources and programming delivered to students through an institutional office in the Division of Student Affairs.

Methods: The project was guided by a social-ecological framework. Seven focus groups were conducted with 31 students.

Results: Students identified key issues affecting violence prevention, including personal and relational barriers; limited awareness and access to campus resources; emotional and mental health impacts; and the need for …

"The Only Place I Feel Understood": A Mixed Methods Survey Of Adolescent And Caregiver Perspectives On Social Media And Parental Controls, Melanie Watt Ramos, Constance M Wiemann, Lauren A Bretz

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Purpose

Methods

Results