Digital Commons Network^™

Impact Of Combat Stress On Mental Health Outcomes: Brfss Survey Data 2006, Emily Pedneau

Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: This study sought to determine the relationship between combat experience and mental health outcomes. The study sought to determine whether age was a significant factor in poor mental health outcomes. Methods: Multiple logistic regression (n = 195,048) and multiple linear regression (n = 264,154) were performed on the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey. Veteran status and a host of demographic and health status questions were analyzed in relation to diagnosis of anxiety or depressive disorder (multiple logistic regression) and to number of days poor mental health (multiple linear regression). Results: Diagnosis of anxiety or depression was …

Posttraumatic Growth Among College Students At A Large Urban University: The Role Of Social Support And Unsupportive Social Interactions, Wendy E. Balliet

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to investigate the association between both social support and unsupportive interactions and psychological outcomes, in a sample of college students who recently had experienced a stressful event. The research design was cross-sectional, and data were collected from 142 college students. As hypothesized, a significant positive association was found between unsupportive interactions received by participants and depressive symptoms. Contrary to hypotheses, no significant associations were found between unsupportive interactions and positive emotion or posttraumatic growth. Additionally, no significant relationship was evident between received emotional support and the outcome variables. Exploratory analysis revealed that positive reappraisal …

Structure Of Aggression Among Urban Youth: Competing Factor Models Of Subtypes Of Physical And Relational Aggression, Sarah W. Helms

Theses and Dissertations

Aggression has been demonstrated to pose a serious threat to the adaptive development of youth, with decades of research demonstrating the negative associations between aggression and other problem behaviors, both concurrently and predictively. However, despite this body of research, the current psychological literature continues to suffer from a lack of an overarching organizational framework from which to structure the construct(s) of aggression. Furthermore, existing discrepancies across the literature, particularly in the definitions of and outcomes associated with non-physical forms of aggression (e.g., relational aggression, social aggression), exacerbate the complexities facing prevention and intervention specialists. Insofar as research can isolate the …

Binge Eating In Ethnically Diverse Obese Adolescents, Clarice K. Gerke

Theses and Dissertations

Rates of pediatric obesity in America are reaching epidemic proportions. Studies using both community and treatment-seeking samples of obese adolescents indicate that a subset engage in binge eating behaviors. This study investigated the prevalence and severity of binge eating behaviors among 86 primarily African American 11 to 17 year old adolescents seeking outpatient treatment for obesity. This study also examined the associations of stressful experiences (specifically, weight-related teasing, trauma, and daily hassles) with binge eating, as well as potential mediators and moderators of these relationships. Twenty-eight percent of the sample reported at least one episode of binge eating in the …

The Impact Of Stress Management On Nurse Productivity And Retention, Tammi F. Milliken, Paul T. Clements, Harry J. Tillman

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

Throughout the history of nursing there is a seeming legacy of personnel shortage, lack of funds, and, based on the nature of the role and related services, heightened levels of stress involved in patient care.

The future of the profession and more imminently, patient care and the health of nurses, may be significantly impacted by repeated challenges where current levels of stress and burnout are contributing to organizational problems, burnout, and attrition.

Employee stress and burn out commonly lead to myriad health-related problems that result in significant organizational consequences.

There are many methods of stress management, and sometimes the best …

Perceived Stress Among First -Year Students At A Private, Faith-Based College, Ron L. Coffey

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines stress in first-year college students at a faith-based institution and to determine whether social support, gender, involvement in intercollegiate athletics, academic achievement, or religiosity were factors that affect or buffer the negative effects of stress. Using data collected from approximately 200 first-year students at a Midwestern faith-based institution, the study investigated particular student and social support factors that may be associated with the kind of stress that can prevent students from achieving to their potential. Internal-reliability tests and factor analyses revealed two distinct forms of stress, one labeled internally-sourced stressors and the other externally-sourced stressors. Regressing the …

Aged Rats: Sex Differences And Responses To Chronic Stress, Rachel E. Bowman, Neil J. Maclusky, Samantha Diaz-Weinstein, Mark C. Zrull, Victoria N. Luine

Psychology Faculty Publications

Cognitive, as well as physiological, sex differences exist in young adult rats under both basal conditions and following chronic stress; however, few studies have examined whether sex differences remain in aged subjects and whether responses to stress are altered. We compared aged male and female Fischer 344 rats (21.5 months at testing) without stress and when given 21 days of restraint for 6 h/day on locomotion, anxiety-related behaviors, object recognition (non-spatial memory), object placement (spatial memory), body weight and serum steroid hormone levels. Control (unstressed) females had lower levels of estradiol and testosterone and higher corticosterone than males, and stress …

Stress Reduction: A Neighborhood Introduction, Barbara D. Johnson

Master's Projects

Responding to reported health concerns a stress reduction program was developed for residents of an urban Latino neighborhood struggling with poverty, crime, and limited access to healthcare. The revised Health Promotion Model (HPM) was used as a framework (Pender, 1996). A qualitative study testing a 5-week Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) intervention was imbedded into the program 18 months after its implementation. Utilizing a pre/post test design participants were predicted to demonstrate significant reductions in post-intervention mean scores for 3 self-report measures, the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale, General Sleep Disturbance Scale, and a modified Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale. A 91% drop …

Hope As A Source Of Resilience In Later Adulthood, Anthony D. Ong, Lisa M. Edwards, C. S. Bergeman

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

This research provided a preliminary investigation of how variations in trait and state hope are associated with positive adaptation to stress in later adulthood. Trait hope and neuroticism were measured by questionnaires and state hope, stress, and negative emotions were assessed daily for 45 days. Results from multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses suggested that daily hope provides protective benefits by keeping negative emotions low, while also contributing to adaptive recovery from stress. The dynamic linkages between daily hope, stress, and emotion were further moderated by individual differences in trait hope. Compared with those low in trait hope, high-hope individuals showed …

Technology As A Cultural Force: For Alena And Griffin, Albert Borgmann

Philosophy Faculty Publications

To various degrees, the citizens of the advanced industrial countries are suffering from a crisis that is as profound as it is vague and therefore hard to deal with. The problem is particularly acute in the United States, however, and in what follows, some of the illustrations pertain particularly to that country, the one I live in and know best. In any case, though vagueness obscures the crisis, there have to be symptoms of some sort; otherwise we would not feel troubled. What are the signs of trouble in the culture of technology and democracy? First there are economic problems …

Taking Care Of Your Nutritional And Physical Needs, Joan Hegerfeld

SDSU Extension Extra Archives

When asked what they value most, many people will say their health. However, when faced with a stressful situation that will not go away, the same people forget all about their health and start worrying. Farm and ranch families struggle with extreme stress from uncontrollable forces such as weather, low market prices, or farm machinery breaking down. For many farmers, ranchers, and farm workers, decision making and adjusting to the extraordinary stress consumes their whole thinking, their whole days, their sleepless nights. Their livelihood is dependent upon forces over which they have no control. Eating right and getting adequate amounts …

Possible Undue Stress Factors On Graduating Seniors, Steven L. Hahne

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the hypothesis of the experiment is true, which was to find if the student body thinks that a policy to which the graduating seniors must turn in all graded work two weeks before the final exam is fair. It also offers a chance for the student body to voice opinions or suggestions in an open and anonymous questionnaire format. Fifty students chose to partake in a questionnaire that included questions about the university’s policy. They were divided into two groups: one group had twenty-three students [freshman and sophomores] of Human Subject …

Labor Stress And Nursing Support: How Do They Relate?, Lubna Abushaikha, Eileen P. Sheil

Journal of International Women's Studies

Selected aspects of the phenomenon of labor stress including the relationship between labor stress and nursing support were explored using a correlational design with 85 postpartum women who delivered vaginally and were recruited from a Midwestern general hospital in the United States. The Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire measured labor stress while the Bryanton Adaptation of the Nursing Support in Labor Questionnaire measured nursing support during labor. Significant positive correlations were found between number of labor hours and labor stress (r = .25, p = .020) and number of labor hours and number of labor procedures (r = .23, p = …

The Mind / Reproduction, Stress, And The Death Drive: Go With The Flow (Detail), Matt Weir

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

A Framework For The Representation Of Cohesion In Small Combat Units, William Eugene Warner

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Current combat simulations deal well with large unit formations, weapon systems, and physical effects such as attrition. Human factors such as morale, cohesion, and effects of stress are modeled much less adequately. Of the human factors affecting the psychology of a combat unit, military psychologists have identified cohesion as one of the most important. The concept of cohesion, referring to both the interpersonal relationships between soldiers in a military unit and to the morale solidarity of a military force, has been central to military analysis for many years.

A model framework has been developed that can operationalize the concept of …

Social Supports Among Parents Of Children Recently Diagnosed With Autism: Comparisons Between Mothers And Fathers, Aaron Deris

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Parents are best able to identify their own support needs, and professionals can assist parents in receiving supports to assist with these needs. There has been an increase of children diagnosed with autism, which has resulted in a major concern for education professionals. Teachers, therapists, and medical personnel are better able to assist families of children with autism in obtaining supports because they are able to view the family and child objectively and are not emotionally tied to the situation. The focus of this study was to identify the forms of social support that mothers and fathers of children recently …

Monitoring A Potentially Stressful Situation In Captive Western Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla) Through Analysis Of Behavior And Urinary Cortisol, Douglas Skurski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The concept of quantifying animal welfare has received much discussion, in various industries such as agriculture, laboratory, and zoological facilities. Behavioral, physical, and physiological indicators of welfare have previously been used to assess animal welfare; each having advantages and disadvantages, ranging from the practicality of data collection, to the validity of the data and how it is interpreted. Concurrent assessment of multiple measures is a more robust way to examine animal welfare, which utilizes the advantages of each measure, and provides additional information on which to base conclusions and animal care management decisions. This study used measures of behavior and …

Ethics And Welfare: Pain Perception In Fish, L. U. Sneddon

Aquaculture Collection

Fish welfare is currently a controversial subject with many scientific studies now demonstrating the possibility for fish to experience negative events such as pain, fear and stress. This has important implications in the treatment of fish during commercial and experimental procedures in terms of ethics and welfare. In this review, the evidence for pain perception in fish is considered and the repercussions for the use of fish as a research model as well as in aquaculture and largescale fisheries. These issues are discussed briefly from a welfare and ethical perspective.

Organizational Stress In Social Care, Brian Mccarthy

Other resources

The aim of this research project was to develop a model of understanding, coping with and preventing work-related stress in social care organizations. The research was framed conceptually in a model of organizational stress developed and adapted from Beehr’s (1998) integrative model of organizational stress. The first two stages of the research project explored by interview and survey staff and management perceptions of stress in their organizations. It was found that both acute and chronic stressors occurred and were seen to have increased; organizational stressors were also likely to be more persistent and chronic when they occurred. Interviewees were
concerned …

An Assessment Of The Levels Of Stress Among Beginning Counselor Education Graduate Students, Students Beginning The Counseling Practicum And Students Graduating From Their Program Of Studies, Richard Christian Hoffman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following study examines stress among graduate level counselor education students at different stages during their training program. The students were assigned to three groups according to training level: (1) beginning, (2) practicum, and (3) graduating. The Stress Profile (Nowack, 1999) was administered to the students (N= 58). Three constructs were chosen from the survey: (1) stress, (2) cognitive hardiness, and (3) psychological well-being. The constructs were developed using the theoretical framework of Lazarus's (1999) theory of appraisal and stress. These variables were compared among the students to determine if a difference in stress levels exists at different times during …

The Impact Of In-Service Training On Burnout At The Institute Of Public Administration, Maghram M. Al-Amri

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to assess the effects of training on burnout and job satisfaction by conducting pre- and post-tests of participants in various training programs provided by the Institute for Public Administration (IPA). This study used a Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) modified survey. The results suggested that the burnout levels among trainees after the professional in-service training program were not significantly different from the burnout level before the professional in-service training. At the organizational level, the findings supported a relationship between burnout and promotion, departmental and organizational tenure, age, and changing jobs and organizations. This study provided some valuable …

Does Culture Matter? : Exploring The Relationships Among Parenting A Child With Disabilities, Cultural Identification, And Stress In A Group Of European American And Immigrant Latino Families, Ximena P. Suarez-Sousa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this correlational exploratory study was to delve into the experience of raising a child with disabilities by investigating the parents' level of stress and the role played by culture, acculturation, and various demographic variables suggested by the literature to influence stress were included. A purposive sample composed of 38 primarily undocumented immigrant Latino parents and 32 European American parents of children with disabilities was recruited from community agencies in a Midwest state. The most frequent disabilities were orthopedic impairments, pervasive developmental disorders, and mental retardation.

Data were collected with the Parent Survey, comprised of the Questionnaire on …

The Relation Between Optimism And Job Performance: An Applied Setting, Mary Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research on cognitive ability measures consistently concludes that they are predictive of employee performance. While accounting for only about 9% of the variance in performance, however, cognitive ability measures are not sufficient. Alternative measures, such as measures of personality constructs, must be included to fully predict employee performance. The research on personality measures suggests that they are marginally predictive of employee performance. Research also suggests that predicative accuracy of personality measures can be enhanced when the measure is specific to the situation (i.e., stress measure are more predictive of performance in high stress situations compared to moderate or low stress …

The Relationship Between Self-Reported Chronic Stress And Divided Attention Performance, Diane Petrac

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While previous research has extensively examined the effect of acute stress on cognitive performance, relatively little research has explored the relationship between chronic stress and cognitive performance. The current study aimed to control for current state anxiety to better isolate more chronic stress, when examining the relationship with performance on divided attention tasks. Fifty-four university undergraduates, who self-reported a wide range of perceived chronic stress (10-item Perceived Stress Scale), completed the Trail-Making Test and a dual (auditory and visual) Continuous Performance Test (CPT). Hierarchical regressions were performed to explore cognitive predictors of chronic perceived stress. After covarying for state anxiety …

The Relationship Between Parenting Stress And Family Cohesion In Non-Abusing Parents Of Sexually Traumatized Children, Danielle Marie Bronk

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

.

Psychological Symptoms, Marital Quality, And Environmental Stress In Newly-Married Couples, Constance B. Sharp

Theses and Dissertations

Cross-sectional relationships between psychological symptoms, marital quality, and stress experienced over the past week were explored using data from 310 newly married couples. Couples were recruited through newspaper ads and paid to participate. Couples were eligible if they had been married for less than six months and were not receiving therapy when they contacted the researcher. The Global Severity Index (GSI) of the Brief Symptom Inventory measured psychological symptoms. The Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) measured marital quality, and scaled ratings of 11 types of stressors experienced over the previous week measured stress. Husband and wife measures were taken of each …

The Predictive Relationship Of Inhibitory Control, Emotion Regulation, Moral Emotions, And Life Stressors On Behavior Problems In School-Aged Children Of Incarcerated Mothers, Geraldine M. Lotze

Theses and Dissertations

Children whose mothers go to prison are at high risk for poor outcomes of many kinds,including externalizing behaviors, internalizing disorders, school dropout, and eventual criminal activity. Inhibitory control, moral emotions, emotion regulation, and stressful life events were examined as predictors of externalizing and internalizing behaviors in children of incarcerated mothers. Participants were 50 children age 6 to 12 years (M = 9.77 y, SD = 1.54) with mothers currently in prison who attended a faith-based recreational summer camp. Inhibitory control was not impaired in these children, showing that their brains were functioning appropriately in this area of executive functioning. Inhibitory …

The Long-Term Effects Of Direct Verbal Victimization And Family Support On Anxious And Aggressive Behaviors In Urban Adolescents: Do Mean Words Have A Lasting Impact?, Amie Bettencourt

Theses and Dissertations

Stressful life events that occur within the context of interpersonal relationships are problematic for adolescents. Peer victimization, a stressful interpersonal event, involves acts of both physical and verbal harassment, and can contribute to psychosocial maladjustment among youth. Direct verbal victimization is a specific form of peer victimization involving name-calling and teasing that is particularly prevalent among adolescents, but has rarely been studied separately from other types of victimization.This form of victimization is associated with adjustment problems, including anxiety and aggression among adolescents. Despite the significant association between direct verbal victimization and negative adolescent adjustment outcomes, not all youth who experience …

Psychological Stress Among Family Practice Patients Visiting A Teaching Hospital In Karachi, Waris Qidwai, Malika Kassamali

Department of Family Medicine

Objective: To study psychological stress among family practice patients to highlight its importance.
Design: A cross sectional study. Setting: Family Practice Center of Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi - Pakistan, in July 2003. Patients and Methods: Family practice patients were interviewed without using any systematic randomization. A questionnaire was developed that included data on demographic profile of the patient and questions on patient perceptions whether they were in stress or not, the degree of stress if perceived to be present and its causes including need to seek medical help. They were simultaneously administered a stress screening questionnaire that …

Investigating Stress Related To Beginning Teacher Standards, Michelle Dupree

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of stress experienced by novice special education teachers related to The Council for Exceptional Children national standards for beginning teachers. The Participants in this study were novice resource room and novice self-contained teachers in the Clark County School District. Data were collected using the Teacher Stress Survey. This survey measured levels of stress experienced by novice special education resource room and self-contained teachers at the beginning and end of the first semester; There was no statistically significant difference in total reported stress between self-contained and resource room teachers. There was …