Digital Commons Network^™

Feasibility And Acceptability Of Perioperative Application Of Biofeedback-Based Virtual Reality Vs Control For Pain And Anxiety In Children And Adolescents Undergoing Surgery: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial, Anna Lin, Brenna Rachwal, Lindsey Asti, Zandantsetseg Orgil, Isabela Santiago, Lili Ding, Susmita Kashikar-Zuck, Christopher King, Sara Williams, William Black, Peter Minneci, Vanessa Olbrecht

Department of Anesthesiology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: The impact of biofeedback-based virtual reality (VR-BF) on pain and anxiety in pediatric surgical patients remains unexplored.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of perioperative VR-BF use in children and adolescents.

METHODS: We performed a single-blind, 2-arm, randomized pilot trial. Children aged 12 to 18 years undergoing surgery with expected moderate-to-severe postoperative pain and more than 1 overnight admission were randomized (1:1) to the intervention or control group. Participants in the intervention group received VR-BF using ForeVR (functional outcome response to engaging virtual reality [VR]), a novel, gamified digital intervention that integrates …

The Role Of Resilience Among Emergency Medical Service Personnel And Its Relationship With Their Adaptive Performance In Riyadh-Saudi Arabia., Abdullah Alabdali, Majed Althagafi, Malak Alharbi, Amera Almutere, Alanoud Almawzan, Nourh Aljaber, Reem Muafa

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: Healthcare workers, particularly Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel, are frequently exposed to traumatic physical and psychological events. EMS personnel regularly encounter critical incidents that challenge their resilience, adaptive performance, and overall quality of life. Understanding the factors that support resilience is essential to maintaining workforce well-being and performance. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 348 EMS personnel employed by the Saudi Red Crescent Authority (SRCA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between September 2020 and October 2021. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire assessing resilience, adaptive performance, coping mechanisms, and demographic variables. Results: EMS personnel demonstrated higher resilience levels …

Coping Beyond Cancer: Exploring Fear Of Recurrence In Colorectal Cancer Survivors—A Pilot Investigation, Emily M. Su, Steve Paciorek, Erica L. Laipply, Anuja L. Sarode

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Background

Evidence is limited on the fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) among colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors in the US, especially regarding patterns and trends of post-recovery coping mechanisms. This pilot mixed-methods study quantified FCR, examined its associations with Brief COPE domains, and contextualized coping through qualitative analysis.

Methods

Twenty-three patients who successfully underwent CRC surgery were included in this pilot study. Fear of cancer recurrence was measured using the FCR Inventory (FCRI) Short Form, and coping strategies were assessed with the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE) survey. Descriptive statistics summarized participant characteristics, FCR, and COPE scores. Spearman correlation …

Adolescent Depressive Symptoms And Adult Functioning Within Major U.S. Racial Groups, Summer N. A. Millwood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Depression is the leading cause of disability among adults in the U.S and is associated with negative short- and long-term social, emotional, economic, and physical health outcomes. Notably, rates of depression among children and adolescents are rapidly increasing across the globe. Depression in youth disrupts crucial developmental processes that can adversely affect concurrent and longitudinal socioeconomic and health outcomes. Although extant research delineates the consequences of adolescent depression for adult functioning (e.g., lower educational attainment, fewer economic resources, worse physical health), studies that examine these associations within racially minoritized populations are scarce. This gap in the literature is especially striking …

Biases Toward Threat In Categorization And Attention Allocation When Evaluating Static And Dynamic Emotional Crowds, Delaney Mcdonagh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Visual representations are often biased, and these biases can manifest across many different stages of perception. For example, when categorizing nuanced, ambiguous, or fleeting emotional expressions, most perceivers are biased to interpret expressions as negative. Biases also manifest at the level of attention-allocation as observers dynamically examine and attend to expressions as they visually navigate a crowd. To comprehensively understand biased emotion perception, it remains critical to understand how bias manifests across the process of making emotional judgements, both as observers gather information about faces over time and as they make a final categorization of what they see. Biased patterns …

Pushing Forward: The Dialectical Experiences Of Apida Psychologists In Predominantly White Counseling Settings, Shaun A. Fossett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans (APIDAs) are the fastest growing racial group in the United States, yet they remain significantly underrepresented in the field of psychology and notably absent from research examining the professional experiences of racial and ethnic minority clinicians. Existing scholarship has documented the prevalence of racialized organizational structures, microaggressions, and the enduring “model minority” stereotype that both obscures and exacerbates APIDA challenges in professional environments. However, no known published studies have investigated the non–client-facing experiences of APIDA psychologists working in predominantly White counseling settings. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) study was to explore how …

Examining Intimate Partner Violence After Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury, Rebecca R. Suzuki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) is linked with social problems in peer relationships that can last into adulthood. Little is known about how social problems impact the development of intimate relationships as pediatric TBI survivors grow up. This study addressed this gap by examining risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) in a sample of 50 young adult survivors of pediatric TBI prior to age 13 (M age = 22.96, SD = 1.70, 60% women) and tested social information processing (SIP) as a potential process through which TBI influences risk for IPV. Participants were recruited via Prolific and social media …

Initial Pilot Test Of A Single-Session Social Support Program For Increasing Social Approach Behavior And Social Support In Emerging Adults, Emily L. Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emerging adulthood, the developmental stage between adolescence and young adulthood (Arnett, 2000), is marked by increases in autonomy, changes in social dynamics, and identity exploration (Arnett, 2015). During this stage, social stressors may trigger or exacerbate preexisting mental health problems (Slavich & Auerbach, 2018), though few emerging adults seek or receive mental health support (Zhao et al., 2025). Single-session interventions, or “specific, structured programs that intentionally involve just one visit or encounter” (Schleider et al., 2019), may present an opportunity to provide some support to those who face barriers to participation in traditional forms of treatment (Janota et al., 2022). …

From The Traditional Role Of Motherhood To The Creation Of Ritual Fertility Dolls Among The Ashanti People, Youssoupha Mane

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This article explores the art and traditional sculpture of the Ashanti people of Ghana. The study delves into the symbolic, spiritual, therapeutic, and psychological implications of ritual fertility dolls known as Akua’ba, which serve as a means for infertile women to experience the joy and delight of motherhood. The study will also focus on how accessing motherhood is highly esteemed and regarded as a social obligation in most African cultures. The psychological burden and pressure associated with the social duty of bearing children to avoid ‘‘social death’’ or being ‘‘the dead end of human life’’ is undoubtedly at the root …

Understanding Factors Associated With 911 And 988 Use In Mental Health Crises Original Paper Open Access, Michiko Ueda, Colleen M. Heflin, Yanhong Liu, Qingyi Yu, Seethalakshmi Ramanathan

The Lender Center for Social Justice

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline was launched in July 2022 as an alternative to 911 for mental health crises. However, little is known about the factors influencing decisions to use 911 or 988 among individuals most likely to benefit from 988, including those with suicidal ideation. This study analyzes individual characteristics associated with the likelihood of calling 911 during a mental health crisis and examines awareness of, willingness to use, and concerns about 988. An anonymous online survey was conducted in early 2024 with 1,894 U.S. adults aged 18–50, oversampling racial minorities. Logistic regression models were estimated for four …

Corazón De Nopal, Alma De Monarca: The Invisible Workforce, Vanessa Estrada Garza

McNair Summer Research Program

In many parts of the United States, Day Laborers, people who work for a daily wage, congregate in front of home improvement stores in the hopes that the customers buying materials are also in need of labor. Day laborers, who are mostly Latino men, experience a plethora of adversities (e.g., wage theft, discrimination based on status or race, on-site injuries). However, it is also important to understand day laborers’ experiences within the current sociopolitical climate (Fernandez-Esquer et al., 2022; Ramirez, 2011; Ordoñez, 2015; Walter et al., 2004). At times the stories and humanity of these individuals outside of their labor …

Small But Mighty: How Can Pediatric Psychologists Harness The Power Of Digital Single-Session Interventions?, Christina Amaro, Alexandra Monzon, Melissa Alderfer, Kimberly Canter, Michael Amylon, Stephanie Fooks-Parker, Jessica Schleider, Susana Patton, Katie Devine

Department of Pediatrics Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVE: Single-session interventions (SSIs) are an innovative, scalable approach for addressing the unmet behavioral and mental health needs of pediatric patients and their families. Specifically, digital SSIs, which are self-guided and delivered online, offer a low-cost and accessible approach but are currently underutilized in pediatric psychology.

METHODS: This topical review aims to describe SSIs broadly and the specific need for digital SSIs, explore potential applications within pediatric psychology, outline future directions and considerations, and present two examples of community-engaged digital SSI design.

RESULTS: SSIs evidence small to medium effects across a range of mental health concerns, including distress, anxiety, and …

Social Psychology, Justin Storbeck, Justin Storbeck

Open Educational Resources

The document is a syllabus for a Social Psychology course. The course is designed as an introductory course to Social Psychology. The course consist of OER materials and designed to place no financial burden on the student. The major topics of social psychology will be covered using an OER textbook accompanied by lecture materials, assignments, videos, and learning objectives.

Infant Hippocampal And Amygdala Volume In An Observational Follow-Up From A Randomized Clinical Trial For Maternal Prenatal Depression, Catherine H. Demers, Benjamin L. Hankin, Lillybelle K. Deer, Robert J. Gallop, Mercedes Hoeflich Haase, M. Camille Hoffman, Martin A. Styner, Nancy K. Grote, Elysia Poggi Davis

Psychology: Data Sets

Prenatal maternal depression may have intergenerational effects on offspring brain development, with potential socioemotional consequences. In an observational follow-up of a randomized clinical trial of a prenatal depression intervention (the CARE Project; ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03011801), brain development and subsequent negative emotionality were examined among 109 infants born to mothers randomized during pregnancy to brief interpersonal psychotherapy or enhanced usual care. These data include MRI-derived hippocampal and amygdala volumes at approximately 6 weeks of age and a laboratory-based assessment of infant negative emotionality at 6 months.

Resulting Publication: Infant hippocampal and amygdala volume in an observational follow-up from a randomized clinical trial …

Book Review: Don’T Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning And End Of Suffering, Monique Salcido

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

This book review examines a recent publication on how individuals can learn to end negative thinking and spend more time living in abundance, peace, and joy. The review summarizes the central themes, highlights strengths and weaknesses, outlines contributions to mental health literature, and offers recommendations. Particular attention is given to how the author conveys his message, and examples from the book are provided. Although the book has several limitations, the review underlines how it can be incorporated into the mental health field through contributions to clinicians and their clients. Overall, the book provides a beneficial resource for social workers, counselors, …

Application Of Virtual Reality To Alter Sweetness Perception, Serena Wellbelove, John Gieng, Valerie A. Carr, Kate Mcleod, Xi Feng

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Regular consumption of excess sugar is linked to nutrition-based diseases, including gut problems, Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Increasing sweetness perception is a novel technique to decrease sugar consumption. This experiment compared the sweetness perception of sweetened and unsweetened almond milk in response to different virtual environments with music and visuals. Two music types, the classical song Goldberg Variations, BMV. 998-Variation 13 and a jazz song generated by AI were used. Additionally, fall and spring forest backgrounds were generated by the Blockade Labs 3D image generator. Each participant tasted sweetened and unsweetened almond milk in music-only, …

Childhood Development Podcast Assignment, Masha Komolova

Open Educational Resources

The assignment asks students to analyze how a particular aspect of their childhood has shaped them into a person they are today. Students will use literature review, interview with a caregiver, and their own reflection to analyze their childhood development and its effects on them. The assignment will be in the form of a podcast.

The Roles Of Shame In Ex-Christians' Personal Experiences And Deconversion Journeys, Anaya Bruno

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

Although the benefits of religion on individuals’ mental wellbeing have been well-studied, research exploring aspects of religion that may prove harmful to mental wellbeing is limited. This study explores the roles of shame in the experiences of ex-Christians that led to their deconversion. The study’s results have implications for understanding the experiences of religious trauma, considering that chronic shame has been linked to the development of trauma. Respondents, recruited via Reddit, answered survey questions about the ways in which they perceived shame to influence their religious experiences, personal experiences, and religious deconversion. Inductive thematic analysis was utilized to derive themes …

Wooster Magazine: Summer 2026, Caitlin Paynich Stanowick, The College Of Wooster

Wooster Magazine: 2021-2030

 The summer 2026 issue of Wooster magazine explores the role of mentorship in shaping inquiry, confidence, and lifelong learning at The College of Wooster. Features examine how personalized guidance supports student research through Independent Study, including projects by psychology and music, classical studies, physics, and computer science and neuroscience students that explored music cognition, ancient texts, consciousness, and distant galaxies. Additional featured stories highlight a faculty professional learning community focused on strengthening mentoring practices across campus and alumni Amber Rice ’01, Austin Russell ’19, Marcel El Kouri ’21, and Emily Beuter ’20, who carry forward the lessons and values of …

Interview With Orca Award Winner Ross Thompson, Unl Psychology; Childhood Emotional Development, Mark Griep, Ross Thompson

UNL ORCA Interview Series

Ross Thompson was awarded the ORCA in 2000. He was born in 1954 in Madison, Wisconsin. He traveled nearly 2000 miles west to earn a bachelor’s in psychology magna cum laude from Occidental College in Los Angeles. Then, he traveled east over 2200 miles to earn a master’s and doctorate in psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 1981, he joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as an assistant professor of psychology and rose quickly through the ranks while studying childhood emotional development. In 2003, three years after earning the ORCA, Ross left UNL to join the psychology …

Recurrence And Reflection: Psychological Insights From Repetitive Dreams, Annika Cale

University Honors Theses

The most widely reported but least appreciated aspects of human experience are recurring dreams, or those dreams that happen repeatedly with similar themes, imagery, or emotional tone in each episode of the dream. This literature review was based on five relevant psychological sources to explore what common dreams tell about what is going on in the inner psyche of the person having the dream. The synthesis of the empirical literature on recurring dream frequency has been associated with weakened psychological well-being. Longitudinal studies were conducted to show the relationship between recurring dreaming and associated decrease in well-being. These theories are …

Mothers’ Childhood Maltreatment And Developmentally Appropriate Attributions Of 12-Month-Old Infants, Katelyn M. Lamberton

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This study examined associations between developmentally appropriate attributions (DAAs), an understudied construct, with maternal history of childhood maltreatment and maternal reflective functioning (RF) with their 12-month-old infants. The study examined if 1) DAAs at 12 months were concurrently associated with parental RF at 12 months for construct validity, and 2) higher levels of maternal childhood maltreatment were associated with lower DAAs for predictive validity. Participants were 156 mothers (40.0% White, 25.5% Latinx, 14.9% Black, 5.5% Asian, 2.1% Native-American, 12.0% biracial/multiracial) and their 12- to 15-month infants. Childhood maltreatment and RF were assessed by parental self-report at three-months and 12-months postpartum …

Regulating Psychological Wellness Grifters, Jennifer D. Oliva

Georgia State University Law Review

The rapid expansion of social media has transformed the delivery of psychological wellness advice, shifting mental health guidance from licensed professionals to digital influencers operating outside of traditional regulatory frameworks. As the global wellness industry surpasses $2 trillion, millions of Americans—particularly adolescents and young adults—consume mental health content from uncredentialed creators who often monetize psychological distress without professional oversight. Documented harms include misinformation about psychiatric medications, improper management of suicidality, unqualified diagnostic claims, and the migration of disciplined clinicians into unregulated “life coaching” roles.

This Article argues that state professional licensing regimes—governing psychologists, clinical social workers, professional counselors, and marriage …

Addressing Mental Health Issues And The Effectiveness Of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy And Mindfulness-Based Interventions Among Athletes, Shelby Jones-Stachnik

Dissertations

This literature review identifies mental health concerns among competitive athletes and evaluates psychological interventions to address these challenges. Specifically, the review explores the mental health concerns experienced by athletes engaged in high-level sport. It examines whether cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness-based interventions are effective approaches for improving psychological outcomes in this population. A systematic review of peer-reviewed research was conducted, and findings were synthesized to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness-based interventions. The review included randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies, and meta-analyses examining psychological interventions in athletic populations. Findings across the literature indicate that both cognitive behavioral …

Imagination And The Self: A Cross-Cultural And Cross-Disciplinary Study, Qianyi Qin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary investigation of the imagination and the self that engages with cognitive science, philosophy of mind, Buddhism, ethical theories, and a variety of perspectives from Asian and Western philosophy. I address the following questions in three interrelated chapters. First, what does it mean for the self to appear in imagination? In Chapter 1, against certain narrow understandings of the self in philosophy of language, I build a multidimensional model of the self in imaginative experiences to capture the rich phenomenology, drawing on empirical findings on memory and imagination. Second, can the self be removed from imagination? …

Investigating Potential Bias In Public Acceptance Of Restorative Justice: The Influence Of Situational And Offender Characteristics, Kiara Haynes

Student Theses

Restorative Justice has been an emerging justice mechanism in the U.S. since the 1970s that advocates are working to expand more widely throughout the justice system. Due to victims and the broader community of the offender being an integral part of the Restorative Justice process, it is critical to consider the general public's support of this novel justice mechanism, as well as the influence that social biases among the public may have on the experience of defendants going through the system. The study conducted examined the effect that social biases toward an offender's personal characteristics have on attitudes and opinions …

Legends, Lies, & Rewritten Lives: After The Little Bighorn: Forgotten Struggles Of Those Who Walked Away, 2nd Edition, Thomas B. Davidson

DU Textbooks

This Story surrounds an event that occurred one summer on June 25, 1876, along the banks of the Little Bighorn River in what is now the state of Montana. Seen from a 21st century perch, it is a story of a collision between two very different civilizations or empires. Both empire’s military fought in the manner of their society. This narrative will attempt to balance the believable truth of what happened in that contest between the military representatives of both societies while also trying to tell an engaging story, without drifting into naked partisanship, purple prose, or sensationalism. The narrative …

Applying A Neurodiversity-Informed Approach To Understanding Resolution In Families Raising A Child With Autism, Emma Manole

Honors College Theses

The first known documentation of the syndrome we today refer to as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was published by Austrian psychiatrist Leo Kanner (1943), who identified a cluster of disordered symptoms among 11 young children, which he termed “early infantile autism”. Consequently, the psychiatric world became aware of autism as its own disorder separate from schizophrenia or “childhood psychosis” (Wing, 1997). Since then, the ways in which autism is studied, diagnosed, referred to, defined, and treated have seen drastic changes (Blacher & Christensen, 2011) over the course of almost a century. It is only natural that the perceptions held by …

Ministry Leaders Applying Psychological Theories To Overcome Apathy: A Case Study, Glen A. Bowman

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

This case study examines the persistent challenge of congregational apathy and the efficacy of integrating psychological motivational theories to revitalize a stagnant church culture. The research focuses on a congregation in California’s Central Valley characterized by a "lukewarm" spiritual atmosphere in much of its leadership and membership. The case study follows a newly appointed minister—representing a different age bracket and cultural background—as he navigates the resistance of an entrenched, change-averse leadership team. The researcher evaluated the practical application of three psychological frameworks to combat complacency and found that the Action-Trait Theory proved itself as the most successful method. The theory …

Cultivating Resilient Leadership: Strategies To Reduce Burnout Among Behavioral Health Professionals, Danielle D. Davis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.