Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Health-Based Wellness Programs On Employee Productivity, Brittany Holcomb

The Corinthian

Purpose: Stress is an inevitable part of an employee’s life. A majority of employees do not know how to properly handle stress and keep it under control. Having high level of occupational stress can lead to detrimental physical habits, such as poor nutrition, smoking, a sedentary lifestyle and substance consumption. The purpose of this study will be to take an in depth look into how employees take advantage of wellness programs offered to them, whether or not these programs have a direct impact on productivity and the levels of employees that take advantage the programs. Methods: Participants of the study …

Stressful Life Events Correlate With Depression Symptoms, Michelle Mercedes Meng

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Stressful life events, such as abuse, divorce, or spending time in jail have been known to cause psychological and physical symptoms (Billings, 1982). Previous research has examined the association between the amount of stressful life events and the onset of depression(Kendler, 1999). The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between stress and depression in a sample of college students. As a part of a larger study, participants (N = 223) completed online questionnaires that measured their exposure to life stressors on the Life Stress Checklist - Revised (Wolfe and Kimerling, 1997) and depression symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory …

Evolution Of Brain-Wide Activity In The Awake Behaving Mouse After Acute Fear By Longitudinal Manganese-Enhanced Mri, Taylor W. Uselman, Daniel R. Barto, Russell E. Jacobs, Elaine L. Bearer

Pathology Research and Scholarship

Life threatening fear after a single exposure evolves in a subset of vulnerable individuals to anxiety, which may persist for their lifetime. Yet neither the whole brain's response to innate acute fear nor how brain activity evolves over time is known. Sustained neuronal activity may be a factor in the development of a persistent fear response. We couple two experimental protocols to provoke acute fear leading to prolonged fear: Predator stress (PS), a naturalistic approach to induce fear in rodents; and Serotonin transporter knockout mouse (SERT-KO) that responds to PS with sustained defensive behavior. Behavior was monitored before, during and …

Culture Stress And Difficulties: Lived Stories Of Teenaged Mothers In Macau, Luis Miguel Dos Santos

The Qualitative Report

The traditional Chinese culture influences perspectives toward family, marital status, and living style in Macau SAR, where Eastern cultures meet Western cultures. Although the Western living styles and standards highly influence the daily practices of residents; broken marriage, single parenting, and divorce are considered taboo in the community. The purpose of this study was to understand how teenaged single mothers describe their sources of stress and difficulties in the city. Eight single mothers, who were at different stages in single parenting and broken marriages, were interviewed and asked to share their lived stories. Guided by the Ecological System Theory, analysis …

Thriving, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is thriving?

Thriving is defined as “a positive psychological state in which individuals experience both a sense of vitality and a sense of learning at work” (Spreitzer, Sutcliffe, Dutton, Sonenshein, & Grant, 2005, p. 538). Vitality refers to feeling energized, and learning is about experiencing personal growth and development (Spreitzer et al., 2005). The most popular measure of thriving includes ten items, with instructions to think about the questions in relation to work (Porath, Spreitzer, Gibson, & Garnett, 2012). Examples of vitality items include, “I have energy and spirit” and “I feel alive and vital,” and examples of learning …

Benefits Of Therapy Dogs Among College-Aged Communication Sciences And Disorders Students, Allison Szramek

Graduate Independent Studies - Communication Sciences and Disorders

There are many current strategies and techniques proven to help college age students reduce their stress. However, there is limited research about the use of therapy dogs to help reduce stress among this population. This literature review investigates the relationship between therapy dogs and the power to reduce stress among college students, especially those majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD). The analysis shows a strong correlation between utilizing a therapy dog and the reduction of stress for college students. Further research and implementation should be done to determine the effectiveness of therapy dog interactions with college student and the …

Depaul's Academic All-Stars

DePaul Magazine

Profiles of four faculty all-stars at DePaul University: Associate Professor Kelly Richmond Pope, a forensic accountant who has made several films capturing accounting fraud, including "All the Queen's Horses"; Research Professor of Law Patty Gerstenblith, who founded DePaul's Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law and concerns herself with the problem of cultural heritage looting; psychology professors W. LaVome Robinson and Leonard Jason, who created the Success Over Stress Violence Prevention Program for youth exposed to violence; and Nezih Altay, a professor of operations management, who conducts research on humanitarian supply chain management.

Using Robot Animal Companions In The Academic Library To Mitigate Student Stress, Autumn P. Edwards, Chad Edwards, Bryan Abendschein, Juliana Espinosa, Jonathan Scherger, Patricia Fravel Vander Meer

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the relationship between self-reported levels of acute stress, perceived social support, and interactions with robot animals in an academic library. The authors hypothesized: 1. participants would report lower stress and higher positive affect after their interaction with a robot support animal; 2. perceived supportiveness of the robot support animal would positively predict the amount of stress reduction the participants reported.

The authors hosted a robot petting zoo in the main library at a large Midwestern university during finals week. Participants were asked to rate their stress level prior to interacting with the …

Does A Good Advisor A Day Keep The Doctor Away? How Advisor-Advisee Relationships Are Associated With Psychological And Physical Well-Being Among Graduate Students, Monica Becerra, Emily Wong, Brooke N. Jenkins, Sarah D. Pressman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

It is well established that graduate students face large amounts of stress during their education. Despite this, little research has focused on factors that can help this high stress population maintain well-being in the face of numerous challenges. One potentially important but neglected probable wellness determinant is the advisor-student relationship. This study explored to what extent advisor and department characteristics related to advisor selection are associated with student well-being and examined whether a positive advisor-advisee relationship can reduce the negative effects of stress on student well-being. Four hundred and forty-six graduate students from Ph.D. programs across the United States completed …

Psychological Stress, Its Reduction, And Long-Term Consequences: What Studies With Laboratory Animals Might Teach Us About Life In The Dog Shelter, Michael B. Hennessy, Regina M. Willen, Patricia A. Schiml

Psychology Faculty Publications

There is a long history of laboratory studies of the physiological and behavioral effects of stress, its reduction, and the later psychological and behavioral consequences of unmitigated stress responses. Many of the stressors employed in these studies approximate the experience of dogs confined in an animal shelter. We review how the laboratory literature has guided our own work in describing the reactions of dogs to shelter housing and in helping formulate means of reducing their stress responses. Consistent with the social buffering literature in other species, human interaction has emerged as a key ingredient in moderating glucocorticoid stress responses of …

Lowering Perceived Stress Levels In Undergraduate Nursing Students, Caitlin Dodd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project analyzed the effects of guided meditations and a stress management class on undergraduate, prelicensure nursing students’ perceived stress levels. College students and professional nurses are both susceptible to having high stress levels. Mindfulness activities have been shown to lower stress levels. Undergraduate, prelicensure nursing students participated in this project determining the effects of guided meditations and a stress management class on perceived stress levels in a quantitative, pre- and postinterventional study. Participants in the project completed a stress management class and 18 guided meditation sessions in an undergraduate classroom setting. The researcher used the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10) …

Framework For A Community Health Observing System For The Gulf Of Mexico Region: Preparing For Future Disasters, Paul Sandifer, Landon Knapp, Maureen Lichtveld, Ruth Manley, David Abramson, Rex Caffey, David Cochran, Tracy Collier, Kristie Ebi, Lawrence Engel, John Farrington, Melissa Finucane, Christine Hale, David Halpern, Emily Harville, Leslie Hart, Yulin Hswen, Barbara Kirkpatrick, Bruce Mcewen, Glenn Morris, Raymond Orbach, Lawrence Palinkas, Melissa Partyka, Dwayne Porter, Aric A. Prather, Teresa Rowles, Geoffrey Scott, Teresa Seeman, Helena Solo-Gabriele, Erik Svendsen, Terry Tincher, Juli Trtanj, Ann Hayward Walker

Faculty Publications

© Copyright © 2020 Sandifer, Knapp, Lichtveld, Manley, Abramson, Caffey, Cochran, Collier, Ebi, Engel, Farrington, Finucane, Hale, Halpern, Harville, Hart, Hswen, Kirkpatrick, McEwen, Morris, Orbach, Palinkas, Partyka, Porter, Prather, Rowles, Scott, Seeman, Solo-Gabriele, Svendsen, Tincher, Trtanj, Walker, Yehuda, Yip, Yoskowitz and Singer. The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) region is prone to disasters, including recurrent oil spills, hurricanes, floods, industrial accidents, harmful algal blooms, and the current COVID-19 pandemic. The GoM and other regions of the U.S. lack sufficient baseline health information to identify, attribute, mitigate, and facilitate prevention of major health effects of disasters. Developing capacity to assess adverse human …

Reduced Environmental Stimulation In Anorexia Nervosa: An Early-Phase Clinical Trial., Sahib S. Khalsa, Scott E. Moseman, Hung-Wen Yeh, Valerie Upshaw, Beth Persac, Eric Breese, Rachel C. Lapidus, Sheridan Chappelle, Martin P. Paulus, Justin S. Feinstein

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST) alters the balance of sensory input to the nervous system by systematically attenuating sensory signals from visual, auditory, thermal, tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive channels. Previous research from our group has shown that REST via floatation acutely reduces anxiety and blood pressure (BP) while simultaneously heightening interoceptive awareness in clinically anxious populations. Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder characterized by elevated anxiety, distorted body representation, and abnormal interoception, raising the question of whether REST might positively impact these symptoms. However, this approach has never been studied in eating disorders, and it is unknown whether exposure …

Cesarean Delivery And Infant Cortisol Regulation, Leticia D. Martinez, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman, Deborah A. Wing, Elysia Poggi Davis

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background:
Cesarean delivery reduces the risk of infant and maternal morbidity and mortality when medically indicated, however, the cesarean delivery rate is estimated to be two to three times higher than medically necessary. The World Health Organization and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have expressed concern over the high rates of cesarean delivery, citing evidence that cesarean delivery has negative short- and long-term consequences for the health of the infant, mother, and for future pregnancies. Infants delivered by cesarean are at an increased risk of metabolic disease and immune dysfunction throughout the lifespan. Preliminary research suggests that the …

Understanding Youth Worker Job Stress, Anne White, Alexandra Demand, Gina Mcgovern, Thomas Akiva

Journal of Youth Development

Work in out-of-school learning programs can be stressful, and job stress may have cascading effects for the children and youth that attend. Fortunately, workplace supports can help decrease this stress. In this study, we aimed to understand how youth workers’ personal and work-related demands as well as supports predict on-the-job stress. We used multilevel modeling to investigate the demands and supports of a sample of 111 youth workers nested in 25 programs. Results suggested that job stress systematically varies at the program level. We found that stress at home and a negative staffing climate is associated with higher stress and …

Blue-Collar Job: Stress And Job Satisfaction., Andressa Mesquita Cabral Silva

Business ETD Collections

The purpose of the following research is to analyze the effects of motivational factors on blue-collar job satisfaction and also present factors that play an important role in increasing employee satisfaction at the workplace. In return, satisfied employees can help improve organizational performance. The review of the academic literature showed that motivation at work is motivated by the level of job satisfaction of employees. Therefore, organizations that recognize the importance of satisfied workers are more probable to create a flexible, loyal, and creative workforce. To assess the levels of stress and satisfaction in the workplace, a questionnaire was applied among …

Effects Of A Physical Activity Intervention On The Stress Reduction Of Underserved Adolescent Youth, Gwenyth C. Asbury

Senior Theses

Stress levels of American teenagers are rising. Studies show that teens are reporting higher stress levels than what they perceive to be healthy and that these levels are higher than the levels of perceived stress reported by adults (APA, 2013). In addition to reporting unhealthy levels of stress, adolescents are reporting feeling overwhelmed and depressed due to their stress (APA, 2013). These findings are especially true for underserved adolescents who are more likely to have exposure to violence, discrimination, racism and conditions of poverty in addition to experiencing the typical stressors associated with adolescence (American Academy of Child and Adolescent …

Indicators Of Psychological Distress And Body Image Disorders In Female Patients With Breast Cancer, Helena Van Oers, Lourens Schlebusch

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Breast cancer patients are vulnerable to elevated stress related to receiving the diagnosis, unfamiliar and invasive treatment, and coping with the side-effects of treatment, which may find various forms of expression. Another common feature of this patient population is body image dysphoria. Both the disease and treatment lead to impairments in physical appearance and general bodily functioning. This study aimed to explore the differential manifestations of stress and the nature of body image dysphoria within a sample of female breast cancer patients (n=80), compared to female patients with other sites of disease (n=80) in order to examine differences in the …

The Association Between Depressive Symptoms And Accumulation Of Stress Among Black Men In The Health And Retirement Study, Roland J. Thorpe Jr., Phd, Ryon Cobb Phd, Keyonna King Drph, Marino A. Bruce Phd, Msrc, Mdiv, Paul Archibald Drph, Lcsw, Harlan P. Jones Phd, Keith C. Norris Phd, Keith E. Whitfield Phd, Darrell Hudson Phd, Mph

Office of the President Faculty Publications

Background and Objectives: Among the multiple factors posited to drive the health inequities that black men experience, the fundamental role of stress in the production of poor health is a key component. Allostatic load (AL) is considered to be a byproduct of stressors related to cumulative disadvantage. Exposure to chronic stress is associated with poorer mental health including depressive symptoms. Few studies have investigated how AL contributes to depressive symptoms among black men. The purpose of the cross-sectional study was to examine the association between AL and depressive symptoms among middle- to old age black men. Research Design and Methods: …

The Association Between Depressive Symptoms And Accumulation Of Stress Among Black Men In The Health And Retirement Study, Roland J. Thorpe, Jr., Ryon Cobb, Keyonna King, Marino A. Bruce, Paul Archibald, Harlan P. Jones, Keith C. Norris, Keith E. Whitfield, Darrell Hudson

Publications and Research

Background and Objectives: Among the multiple factors posited to drive the health inequities that black men experience, the fundamental role of stress in the production of poor health is a key component. Allostatic load (AL) is considered to be a byproduct of stressors related to cumulative disadvantage. Exposure to chronic stress is associated with poorer mental health including depressive symptoms. Few studies have investigated how AL contributes to depressive symptoms among black men. The purpose of the cross-sectional study was to examine the association between AL and depressive symptoms among middle- to old age black men.

Research Design and Methods: …

Exercise Behavior And Mood During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Taiwan: Lessons For The Future, Yu-Kai Chang, Chiao-Ling Hung, Sinika Timme, Sanaz Nosrat, Chien-Heng Chu

Publications and Research

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its associated governmental recommendations and restrictions have influenced many aspects of human life, including exercise and mental health. This study aims to explore the influence of COVID-19 on exercise behavior and its impact on mood states, as well as predict changes in exercise behavior during a similar future pandemic in Taiwan. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between 7 April and 13 May 2020 (n = 1114). Data on exercise behavior pre and during the pandemic and mood states were collected. A cumulative link model was used to predict changes in exercise frequency …

The Relationship Among Perfectionism, Perceived Stress, And Coping In Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Amanda Finley

Dissertations

Perfectionism in nursing students is an understudied problem that may affect student and workforce success. Perfectionism has been linked to increased stress and less effective coping styles, as well as depression, anxiety and other psychological alterations. However, it has rarely been studied in nursing students. Studying perfectionism in this population is important because it may increase the likelihood that new nurses will struggle with the stress of practice and it could be a significant factor in early career attrition. The purpose of this descriptive, correlational study was to gain a better understanding of the incidence of perfectionism in a nursing …

Mental Health Characteristics Of Pre-Licensure Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Melissa I. Owen

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Mental health issues in college students are on the rise. Nursing students may experience higher stress and anxiety levels in relation to general college students. This descriptive study describes mental health characteristics and stressors in pre-licensure Baccalaureate nursing students using the Perceived Stress Scale and the Psychological Distress Profile.

Prevalence Of Depression, Anxiety, And Stress During Covid-19 Pandemic, Ram Lakhan, Amit Agrawal, Manoj Sharma

School of Public Health Faculty Research

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has greatly affected human lives across the world. Uncertainty and quarantine have been affecting people’s mental health. Estimations of mental health problems are needed immediately for the better planning and management of these concerns at a global level. A rapid scoping review was conducted to get the estimation of mental health problems in the COVID-19 pandemic during the first 7 months. Peer-reviewed, data-based journal articles published in the English language were searched in the PubMed, Medline, and Google Scholar electronic databases from December 2019 to June 2020. Papers that met the inclusion criteria were …

Stress Among Adolescents: A Review, Rupinder Deol

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

The changes of adolescence has implications for understanding stressors , health enhancing and risk behaviors in which they engage, and the major opportunity for health promotion among these individuals.This review discusses about adolescents, their stressors and scales to assess stress and it's nursing implications.

Memory Bias Toward Emotional Information In Burnout And Depression, Renzo Bianchi, Eric Laurent, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Lucas M. Bietti, Eric Mayor

Publications and Research

A sample of 1015 educational staff members, exhibiting various levels of burnout and depressive symptoms, underwent a memory test involving incident encoding of positive and negative words and a free recall task. Burnout and depression were each found to be associated with increased recall of negative items and decreased recall of positive items. Results remained statistically significant when controlling for history of depressive disorders. Burnout and depression were not related to mistakes in the reported words, or to the overall number of recalled words. This study suggests that burnout and depression overlap in terms of memory biases toward emotional information.

Happiness Audit Among Female Students In A Higher Education Institution, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, India, S. Poulpunitha, K. Manimekalai, P. Veeramani

Journal of International Women's Studies

Students can play an important role in improving and strengthening their society. During college, women gain vast amounts of knowledge and experience, and it also provides them with the best opportunity to prepare for their careers. Students are powerful human resources who are destined to decide the future of any country. In this modern era, the lives of students have become more competitive and they have become mere athletes in an academic race. There is an increased emphasis on measuring the talent of a student primarily through academic outcomes. The mental health of students is an important and necessary factor …

Mindfulness: A Promising Practice To Reduce Accountant Stress, Abigail Anderson

Marriott Student Review

This article considers the practice of mindfulness as an approach to reduce stress within the lives of accountants. Mindfulness has existed for centuries as a Buddhist tradition and has only recently become popular in the Western world as a stress-reduction technique that can lead to improved mental and emotional well-being. This article also examines the prevalence of mindfulness within the Top 10 accounting firms in the United States and some results regarding employee performance. As more and more firms begin to utilize mindfulness as a low-cost method to better employee performance and well-being, university accounting programs should consider incorporating the …

The Effects Of Adolescent Chronic Mild Stress: In Female Wistar-Kyoto Rats, Anna Hallowell

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Despite years of research to understand under-lying mechanisms and develop more effective treatment approaches for mood disorders, numerous challenges exist. Many chronic stress models are used to study mood disorders, how-ever the majority have been established with adult males. This is problematic considering that affective disorders are more common in women, and generally develop during late adolescence. Studies have indicated fundamental behavioral, physiological, and neural differences between males and females in response to the same external stressors, furthering a need to develop sex-specific paradigms to accurately model the etiology of mood disorders in females. The Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat strain is …

Esport: Fortnite Acutely Increases Heart Rate Of Young Men, Silvio Valladao, Jake Middleton, Thomas Andre

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 13(6): 1217-1227, 2020. Esports has rapidly increased in online play and viewing. A myriad of literature focuses on heart rate (HR) during traditional athletic competition, little research has addressed the HR responses of individuals playing esports and none in the esport: Fortnite. The purpose of this study was to compare the HR response during a 3-hour seated session of the esport: Fortnite to resting HR. Male college students (n = 23; age = 21 ± 1.8 years; BMI = 25.7 ± 3.9; Esport mean hours per week = 13 ± 8.7) were recruited to …