Clinical Psychology Commons^™

Co-Occurrence And Non-Overlap Among Behavioral And Health-Related Problems In Preschool Children, Chandni Patel

Theses and Dissertations

Integrating mental health and healthcare services increases the reach of healthcare while reducing costs and stigma associated with seeking mental health services. To provide such services for preschool aged children we must first understand how behaviors related to healthy lifestyle and mental/behavioral health overlap. This study examined the relationship between behavior problems, sleep duration, screen time, and eating patterns and assessed the frequency of co-occurring problems in these areas. Because of the importance of parenting across these domains, the association between parent disciplinary strategies and the co-occurrence of behaviors in the different problem areas was assessed. MANOVAs revealed that there …

The Impact Of Sexual Assault Disclosure Reactions On Interpersonal Factors And Mental Health, Lindsey Chesus

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Sexual victimization is experienced by about 20% of women and two percent of men (Black et al., 2011). Disclosure of these incidences is high, with about 90% of survivors speaking out at least once about their assault (Ullman & Peter-Hagene, 2014). Though disclosure rates appear high, common reactions given by formal (e.g. law enforcement) and informal (e.g. a friend) sources are negative and counterintuitive to survivor growth (Ullman & Brecklin, 2002). Often studied with military veterans and suicide, perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belonging are tied to social disconnect and perceived rejection from interpersonal support systems, and often follow stressful life …

Examining Non-Targeted Effects Of The Connect Through Play Project: Implications For Addressing Mental Health Of Underserved Middle School Youth, Jessica Dandan

Theses and Dissertations

Early adolescence is a developmental phase accompanied by several changes occurring in various biopsychosocial domains, associated with an increased vulnerability to mental and physical health problems. Youth of minority status and/or low socio- economic status have been shown to be more susceptible, as they are more likely to incur greater exposure to stressors accordingly. Coincidently, as psychological problems emerge such as internalizing disorders, physical activity engagement declines; those trends seem to persist into adulthood and have been associated with numerous negative health outcomes. Evidence points to the direct impact of physical activity, as well as, social variables such as social …

Examining The Relation Of Psychological Distress To Shift Work In Firefighters, Lindsey Marie Lilly

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Firefighters experience stressful job demands. Many of them work in shifts that can extend to 96-hour rotations. Firefighters also tend to suffer from poor sleep quality and psychological distress; however, there are conflicting findings on how these factors may relate to each other. The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to examine the relation between symptoms of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and alcohol abuse to shift duration in firefighters who work 24-hour shifts compared to those who work 48-hour shifts, with sleep quality as a mediating variable. The repair and restoration theory of sleep was the theoretical …

An Evaluation Of Preexisting Psychiatric Diagnosis: Patient Outcomes In An Intensive Care Setting, Nicole R. Ryan

DNP Projects

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual is able to acknowledge ability levels, cope with the normal stresses of life, be a productive member of society and contribute to the community. An important consideration for DNP prepared nurses is implementing principles of the Collaborative Care Model as a guiding framework to improve access to evidence-based mental health care in a medical care setting.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this DNP project was to examine the demographic, clinical and treatment characteristics of patients with both medical and psychiatric diagnoses admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) …

The Role Of Social Comparisons In Perceived Parental Competence, Mental Health, And Relationship Satisfaction, Sarah T. Caverly

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The theory of social comparison suggests that all individuals are naturally driven to evaluate and compare their opinions and abilities with those of similar others to varying degrees. Social comparison behavior is associated with negative outcomes impacting mental health and relationship satisfaction, with the prevalence of social-media use providing an increased opportunity to engage in social comparisons. Most of the research on the impact of this behavior has been conducted with young-adult populations, overlooking other populations, such as parents. The limited research in this area suggests that parents, particularly mothers, who engage in social comparisons experience increased depression, are less …

Internalized Homophobia Of Lgb Emerging Adults: Identity Complexities And Mental Health, Emily Christine Newbury

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Meyer’s (2003) minority stress model explores the relationship between the social stress of sexual minorities and mental health. Internalized homophobia is linked to feelings of shame, guilt, and worthlessness, and contributes to the development of mental health problems (Ramirez-Valles, Molina, & Dirkes, 2013). The present study examined the relationship between internalized homophobia and mental health in young adults who identify as LGB. Participants (N =130) were recruited from universities in Connecticut and Georgia, as well as from the Amazon Mechanical Turk website. It was hypothesized that higher levels of internalized homophobia would be related to higher levels of self-reported anxiety, …

Women’S Lived Experiences Of Gender Microaggressions: Dental Hygienists’ Stories, Karin E. Hovey

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation presents research involving women’s subjective experiences of gender microaggressions. The introduction includes a review of the literature on microaggressions: (a) the types of microaggressions, (b) the emotional and psychological cost to those who experience microaggressions, and (c) how gender microaggressions against women work to maintain oppression and sexual objectification of women in American society. This current research addresses the knowledge gap created by little research on women’s lived experiences of gender microaggressions they encounter in their everyday lives, particularly in the workplace. The population studied was dental hygienists. This population is unique because of the disproportionate number of …

The Experience Of Relapse After Long-Term Sobriety And Subsequent Return To Sobriety, Bahram Edward Kaikhosrow Shahrokh

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

While psychiatric medications have been categorized as the same as substances of abuse in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), medications for common medical disorders were not affected by this disapproval of medication. It may be time for a new dialogue (Woody, 2015). According to Gjersing and Bretteville (2018), there has been a concerning increase in overdose deaths in the last decade. This includes a threefold increase in overdose deaths from prescription narcotics and six-fold increase in overdose deaths from heroin in the United States. When prescription opioid users find difficulty in obtaining pills, they may move on to heroin, which is much …

Masculine Norms, Psychological Symptom Severity, And Intentions To Seek Formal Help In Male College Students, Zahra S. Shine

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Research has consistently found men to be less likely than women to seek help for mental health symptoms. Additionally, greater symptom severity is related to higher levels of help seeking, although this relationship is less clear among men. Greater conformity to masculine norms may help to explain the relationship between symptom severity and help seeking among men. The present study aimed to further research on men’s help-seeking by examining whether conformity to masculine norms would moderate the relationship between symptom severity and help-seeking intentions in male college students (N = 89). A multiple regression analysis was conducted with all …

Mental Health Stigma And Help-Seeking In A College Sample: Barriers And Potential Motivators For Action, Christina H. Morris

Honors College Theses

Stigma surrounding mental health is one of many barriers impeding help-seeking behavior. This study had two aims: (1) to examine the relationships between mental wellbeing, internalized stigma, help-seeking attitudes, and demographic variables such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, and marital status, and (2) to explore what hinders students in the help-seeking process and determine what would make students more likely to seek psychological help if they perceive a need for it. It was hypothesized that the relationship between internalized stigma and help-seeking attitudes would be moderated by gender, and the relationship between mental wellbeing and help-seeking attitudes would be mediated …

Predicting Weight Loss Following Bariatric Surgery: The Impact Of Stress, Depression, Social Support And Patient Gender, Erica Ahlich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The buffering effect of social support against a range of stress-related health outcomes has been well-documented in a variety of research areas; however, no previous work has examined the applicability of this model to bariatric surgery outcomes. Additionally, based on previous evidence and relevant theoretical work, the stress-buffering effect of social support may show important gender differences. The current study examined stress, depression, social support, and patient gender as predictors of curvilinear weight loss trajectories during the first year following surgery. Data were collected using retrospective chart review. The buffering effects of three types of support were explored using growth …

Substance Abuse Treatment In Prison Settings: A Systematic Review, Emilee Cline

Psychology Capstone Projects

A significant relationship between criminal behavior and substance abuse exists, which leads to a large proportion of individuals in the prison system who meet criteria for a substance use disorder. This review compares empirically-supported treatments for substance use disorder to current substance abuse treatment programs offered in United States prisons. A review of current literature indicates that Therapeutic Communities are the most common form of substance abuse treatment provided, and often these are combined with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy groups. Special treatment considerations are provided based on the type of substance used, gender, and ethnicity. Empirically-supported treatments are currently being implemented by …

Examination Of A Screening Tool For Athletes’ Mental Health And Its Direct Implications To Sport Training And Competition, Jesse Scott

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Sport Interference Checklist (SIC) is a psychometrically validated instrument designed to assess how often cognitive and behavioral factors interfere with athletes performance during training and/or competition as well as the extent to which athletes are interested in pursuing sport psychology to address these problems. The success of this scale inspired an interest in developing new items that assess the influence of specific mental health concerns on sport performance using the SIC format. The Sport Interference Checklist’s Sport Specific Screen for Mental Health (SIC-SSSMH) was empirically developed using 259 athletes to assist in the identification of mental health problems explicitly …

Athletic Identity And Mental Health: The Experiences Of Black Male Former Student-Athletes, Miguel Frank

Doctoral Dissertations

On college campus across the nation, student-athletes represents a unique group among the student population. Black male student-athletes are an overrepresented group among the student-athlete population, representing more than a quarter of all student-athletes. Previous research has explored the impact of athletic identity on student-athletes, as well as the academic success of Black male student-athletes. Due to the high number of Black males participating in intercollegiate athletics and the lack of research related to their mental health experiences, the goal of this study was to examine the impact of athletic identity on the experiences of Black male student-athletes and the …

Making Mental Health A Priority On College Campuses: Implementing Large Scale Screening And Follow-Up In A High Enrollment Gateway Course, Flora-Jean M. Forbes

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Objectives: A universal mental health screening program for undergraduate students was implemented using graduate student clinicians and online interviewing tools. Participants: Participants included 455 undergraduate students at a large Midwestern University enrolled in introductory psychology. Methods: Participants in the experimental group first completed an in-class self-report mental health screening questionnaire. Based on subscale elevations, students scoring in an “at risk” range on any subscale were invited to participate in individual online follow-up interviews to assess risk level and provide referral information. Results: Results demonstrated that a majority of undergraduate students scored in an at-risk range on at least one subscale …

Mental Health & The Modern Educator, Samantha Nousak

Honors Projects

Mental health issues are far more prevalent than most are aware; according to the National Institute of Mental Health (2017), 49.5% of 13 to 18-year-olds will qualify for any mental illness. Mental health concerns will impact students in every single classroom, yet curriculum for Education majors does not include more than rudimentary information on this topic. This presentation aims to provide basic facts pertaining to mental health (including incidence rates, educators' responsibilities, and the impact mental health issues can have on students), discuss broad strategies to employ with students with mental health concerns (basic do's and do not's), and provide …

Mental Health In U.S. Prisons: How Our System Is Set Up For Failure, Katherine Daifotis

CMC Senior Theses

During the past 60 years, United States prisons have become one of the primary institutions caring for mentally ill individuals. Factors such as privatization of mental health care with a focus on profit-maximization, ineffective jail diversion programs, and unsuccessful mental health courts have contributed to prisons having an increased population of mentally ill inmates. In fact, about 20% of people who are currently incarcerated suffer from a major mental illness (Mason, 2007). Other elements outside of the justice system such as a lack of mental health awareness and a lack of resources have led to damaging interactions between the mentally …

Log Kya Kahenge: Psychological Well-Being And Perceived Stigma In The South Asian American Community, Khushboo Jain

Pomona Senior Theses

Current research has independently studied depression, stigma, and coping mechanisms in relation to culture, yet the effects of perceived stigma on the relationship between depression and control coping are heavily understudied. Typically, studies have broadly focused on comparing eastern and western cultures, but have not analyzed how populations with mixed cultural influences experience depression and stigma and further engage in control coping mechanisms. This study thus explores how perceived stigma moderates the relationship between depressive symptoms and control coping mechanisms for South Asian Americans. The study hypothesizes that the level of perceived stigma will moderate the relationship between depression and …

Evaluating The Attitudes And Practices Of Exercise Prescription Among Psychotherapists, Igor Vasilj

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Exercise has been shown to improve mood, anxiety, stress, and promote neuroplasticity (Conn, 2010; Donaghy, 2007; Josefsson, Lindwall, & Archer, 2014; Silveria et al., 2013; Stathopoulou et al., 2006). However, limited research on the topic suggests that many psychologists and mental health providers are not incorporating exercise into psychological treatment, and many lack the confidence to do so (Burton, Pakenham, & Brown, 2010; Weir, 2011). The purpose of this study was to evaluate current exercise prescription trends among practicing psychologists and trainees, including identifying their current beliefs, attitudes, training, and the perceived barriers hindering psychotherapists from recommending and prescribing exercise. …

Examining The Interacting Effects Of Marital Role Salience And Satisfaction On Mental Health Trajectories Of Female Expatriates, Kaitlin M. Patton

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Expatriate populations encounter significant change throughout their expatriation experience, yet little is known about the individual expatriate’s mental health changes throughout the first year of this process. Even less explored is the impact that marital satisfaction and marital role salience have on the mental health trajectories of this population. Using hierarchical linear modeling, this study examined the mental health trajectories of a cohort of females (N = 32; age M = 38.63, SD = 2.65) moving with their spouses to Turkey. Further, the moderating effects of marital satisfaction (KMSS; Schumm, Milliken, Poresky, Bollman, & Jurich, 1983) and marital role …

A Meta-Analysis Of Video Based Interventions In Adult Mental Health, Lauretta Kaye Montes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Symptoms of mental illness such as anxiety and depression diminish functioning, cause distress, and create an economic burden to individuals and society. This meta-analysis was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of video based interventions (VBIs) for the treatment of adults in mental health settings. VBIs comprise four different ways of using video in mental health therapy, including video modeling, video exposure, video feedback, and videos used for psychoeducation. Bandura's social learning theory, Beck's cognitive theory, and Dowrick's theory of feedforward learning form the theoretical framework for understanding how VBIs work. The research questions were: (a) what is the range of …

Acculturation, Biculturalism, And Familistic Cultural Values' Relationship With Latino Mental Health, Nathalie Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As the Latino population increases in the United States, mental health professionals encounter mixed research findings on immigrant mental health. There seems to be an epidemiological paradox in relation to Latino mental health and the effect that acculturation has on anxiety and depression symptoms among this minority population. One discernible research limitation in the existing literature is that researchers measure acculturation as a unidimensional, rather than multidimensional, construct. The present study examined not only acculturation, but also biculturalism, as correlates of depression and anxiety symptoms in a Latino population. Additionally, the present study identified potential Latino cultural buffers against depressive …

Psychometric Properties Of A Modified Moral Injury Questionnaire In A Military Population, Abby L. Braitman, Allison R. Battles, Michelle L. Kelley, Hannah C. Hamrick, Robert J. Cramer, Sarah Ehlke, Adrian J. Bravo

Psychology Faculty Publications

Moral injury (MI) results from perpetration of or exposure to distressing events, known as morally injurious events (MIEs), that challenge moral beliefs and values. Due to the type of involvement in recent military conflicts, many veterans report MIEs that may cause dissonance and, in turn, MI. Although 2 existing measures assess MIEs, neither currently assesses the defining characteristics of MI (i.e., guilt, shame, difficulty forgiving self and others, and withdrawal). The present study reports the initial psychometric test of a modified version (Robbins, Kelley, Hamrick, Bravo, & White, 2017) of the Moral Injury Questionnaire—Military version (MIQ-M; Currier, Holland, Drescher, & …

Reintegration Among Combat Veterans Suffering From Psychological Conditions, Virginia Falck

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Active duty personnel as well as combat veterans of the United States often engage in military operations during their service that require deployments to participate in missions, which may lead to extended periods away from home. When active duty men and women are appointed to combat zones, they may return with psychological burdens such as post traumatic stress disorder, which can complicate their reintegration into civilian life. This study explored the experiences of combat veterans who faced challenges when returning home from a war zone, along with the experiences of their family members. The study involved 26 combat veterans, spouses, …

Men's Receptivity To Mental Health Help Seeking Intervention Messages: The Effects Of Message Sender Gender And Message Content, Faye Lafond

Scripps Senior Theses

Men are much less likely to seek out mental health care services than women, despite having equally significant mental health related needs. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the construction and delivery of intervention messages designed to encourage men to seek help for mental health concerns. 225 men in the United States were randomly assigned to one of 4 vignette conditions featuring a pro-mental health help seeking message, varying based on the gender of the sender of the message (male vs. female) and based on the inclusion of information concerning misconceptions about therapy (inclusion vs. …

Therapeutic Alliance Through Person-Centered Therapy: An Influential Factor In Long-Term Utilization Of Mental Health Services Among Asians In The United States, Lahela Ashlee Rice Jorgenson

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

While the Asian population in the United States is growing vastly and there is an abundance of literature regarding barriers to utilization of psychological services for this population, there remains minimal research on positive or facilitative factors for those who do utilize services and do not prematurely terminate treatment. The purpose of this study was to explore possible factors that promote clients' utilization and commitment to mental health services, as reported by Asian clinicians working with an Asian American population. This study was performed through a descriptive qualitative approach consisting of semi-structured interviews with four clinicians providing mental health services …

What Is The Role Of The Community? Examining Minority Stress Processes Among Gay And Bisexual Men, Brian Salfas

Theses and Dissertations

This work examines factors affecting the mental health of gay and bisexual men drawing on minority stress theory. Results indicate that community involvement has a positive effect on the mental health of men impacted by minority stress and show a significant interaction between community involvement and internalized homonegativity.

I Can Thrive!: Fostering Well-Being In Adolescent Girls Via The Unified Approach, Jennifer L. Mills

Dissertations, 2014-2019

With the rise of positive psychology as a subfield of psychology, there has been increased focus and attention on the construct of well-being. Unfortunately, lack of agreement regarding the ultimate goal of positive psychology has contributed to fragmentation within the field of psychology. Thus, literature on well-being has not been integrated into a broad model for understanding psychology and human nature, as is the case with much psychological research. Connecting such research to a deep theoretical and philosophical model is important with a construct like well-being, as it is a complicated and central construct for the field, for both practitioners …

Relations Between Adverse Childhood Experiences And Current Maladaptive Beliefs In A College Sample, Ilana Starr Berman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cumulative childhood trauma has been associated with both symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. However, few studies have examined these relations with normative young adult populations nor have they explored the relation between childhood adversities and cognitive distortions as an outcome variable. The current study aimed to: 1) replicate and extend research on the relations between cumulative adversity, using a broad measure of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; Felitti et al., 1998), which assesses both maltreatment (e.g., physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect) and exposure to elements of household dysfunction (e.g., caregiver substance use, witnessing maternal abuse), and mental health …