Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Community Psychology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Community Psychology

The Intersection Of Religion And Mental Health Help-Seeking: Themes Within Youth Experiencing Early Psychosis, Breanna Nichols Dec 2022

The Intersection Of Religion And Mental Health Help-Seeking: Themes Within Youth Experiencing Early Psychosis, Breanna Nichols

Student Theses

Little research has examined the intersection of religion and mental health among predominantly conservative communities – where religion tends to weigh heavily. It is known from the literature that religion and spirituality play a role in influencing treatment pathways and views towards mental health. The primary aim of the present study was to explore via secondary thematic analysis, the intersection of religion and mental health within a conservative Midwestern community of youth who are receiving treatment for early psychosis, with a secondary look at family dynamics. Seven participant transcripts were analyzed from the Narrative Enhancement and Cognitive Therapy-Young Adult (NECT-YA) …


Predicting Therapists’ Intentions To Use An Innovation: The Role Of Innovation-Specific, Individual, And Organizational Factors, Jonathan KuʻUhoaepilipono Ahuna Oct 2022

Predicting Therapists’ Intentions To Use An Innovation: The Role Of Innovation-Specific, Individual, And Organizational Factors, Jonathan KuʻUhoaepilipono Ahuna

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding factors that contribute to an individual’s decision to use an innovation can increase the public health impact of innovations in children’s mental health services. Objective. This study examined whether and to what extent therapists’ innovation-specific judgements (e.g., innovation is easy to use, socially desirable) were associated with intentions to use an innovation using constructs from one of the most robust theories of innovation use–the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Method. Two aims were addressed using data collected from 95 therapists and 28 supervisors who participated in a multi-site cluster randomized trial. Therapists used either a …


Belonging In Context: An Exploration Of Sense Of Belonging Among College Students, Ladonna L. Gleason Oct 2022

Belonging In Context: An Exploration Of Sense Of Belonging Among College Students, Ladonna L. Gleason

Theses and Dissertations

Feeling a sense of belonging is essential to human health and functioning and has been well documented in the literature. However, questions of context remain. Research in belonging has focused on social aspects of belonging, leaving broader contextual frames unexplored. There has been little work in identifying and differentiating the contexts in which belonging is experienced or in developing an understanding of how the experience of belonging differs across contexts. Current belonging theory lacks this important contextual perspective that could inform the ways in which belonging is constructed and reconstructed through disruption. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, new …


An Intersectional Lens To Covid-19: Promoting Youth Well-Being In The Midst Of Social-Political Stressors, Magdalena S. Moskal Oct 2022

An Intersectional Lens To Covid-19: Promoting Youth Well-Being In The Midst Of Social-Political Stressors, Magdalena S. Moskal

Theses and Dissertations

Guided by interpretative phenomenological methodology and intersectionality theory, this thesis aims to uncover the mental health experiences of youth surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also seeks to situate these experiences with the subsequent stressors that young people face in the current social-political context (e.g., witnessing trauma in the media, uprisings to address racism and the resulting backlash, rhetoric of the 2020 presidential election). Furthermore, this thesis aims to give insight and voice how intersectionality shapes the COVID-19-related experiences of youth in South Carolina. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 23 participants aged 16-21 years old in South Carolina. …


The Impact Of #Metoo On Reasons For Sexual Assault Disclosure, Cheryl H. Tien Aug 2022

The Impact Of #Metoo On Reasons For Sexual Assault Disclosure, Cheryl H. Tien

Doctoral Dissertations

Sexual assault is a long-standing widespread problem. Yet, despite the high prevalence of sexual assault, it is the most underreported crime of all crimes reported to the police (Bureau of Justice, 2018). The #MeToo movement has had a significant impact on the way in which sexual assault survivors disclose their experiences and the reasons they disclose. Disclosure appears to be an important factor in survivors’ healing from their assault, with increasing coping, greater attachment to others, and positive growth cited as effects of disclosure provided that the response to the disclosure is positive to the survivor (Ahrens & Aldana, 2012; …


Distress And Growth In The Black Community, Devin A. Noel-Harrison Jul 2022

Distress And Growth In The Black Community, Devin A. Noel-Harrison

Research Psychology Theses

Racial discrimination is an unfortunate reality that people of color regularly experience. This leaves lasting impacts on the health of individuals and communities. With the increased use of social media, videos depicting violence against black bodies are widely circulated. The consequences of being exposed to these race related traumatic events online (TEO) can be damaging to the mental health of the black community, maybe even more so if one’s racial identity is important and salient to their overall wellbeing. Though witnessing these race related TEO often lead to posttraumatic stress, positive change may also be possible known as posttraumatic growth.


The Moderating Impact Of Gender And Friendship Quality On The Effects Of Interparental Conflict On Adolescent Internalizing Problems, Jessica Dandan Jul 2022

The Moderating Impact Of Gender And Friendship Quality On The Effects Of Interparental Conflict On Adolescent Internalizing Problems, Jessica Dandan

Theses and Dissertations

In response to escalating concerns about the increasing incidence of adolescent internalizing disorders, several mechanisms have been investigated to understand their etiology. Though genetic predisposition contributes to the risk for psychopathology, its interaction with environmental stressors such as interparental conflict appears to further increase this risk. Girls are more susceptible to stressors and twice as likely as boys to develop internalizing problems. However, friendship quality may buffer some of the adverse effects incurred from exposure to interparental conflict. A recent review of proposed mechanisms through which conflict is associated with youth psychopathology pinpointed the need for further adolescent-focused research including …


Integrated Behavioral Health And Primary Care: Refining A Determinant Framework, Ariel Michelle Domlyn Jul 2022

Integrated Behavioral Health And Primary Care: Refining A Determinant Framework, Ariel Michelle Domlyn

Theses and Dissertations

The integration of behavioral health and primary care is a best practice to improve patient outcomes and achieve health equity. However, the process of integrating is opaque, requiring organizational change and sometimes a complete system overhaul. Implementation science offers useful ideas for helping healthcare organizations to implement care. This field has identified potential environmental conditions and determinants of successful implementation; however, much is still unknown about how these factors may be relevant for organizations seeking to integrate care. To address the limited existing knowledge in this area, this dissertation gathers practice-based evidence using exploratory methods. Results are translated into an …


Apoyo Deseado: The Role Of Parental Support For Latinx First-Generation College Students, Grevelin Ulerio May 2022

Apoyo Deseado: The Role Of Parental Support For Latinx First-Generation College Students, Grevelin Ulerio

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Underrepresented groups, including ethnic and racial minorities as well as first-generation college students (FGCS), are less likely to attain a four-year college degree than their white counterparts. This is particularly true for Latinx youth that are often the first in their family to go to college. Existing research on the role of parental support in promoting retention among Latinx college students is mixed. The current study used a qualitative, longitudinal method to examine the perceptions of parental support among nine (9) Latinx FGCS attending a medium-sized private university in the Midwest region of the United States. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) …


Moderating Effects Of Parental Feeding Practices And Emotional Eating On Dietary Intake Among Overweight African American Adolescents, Mary Quattlebaum Apr 2022

Moderating Effects Of Parental Feeding Practices And Emotional Eating On Dietary Intake Among Overweight African American Adolescents, Mary Quattlebaum

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects of parental feeding practices and adolescent emotional eating (EE) on dietary outcomes among overweight African American adolescents. Based on Family Systems Theory, it was hypothesized that parental feeding practices, such as parental monitoring and responsibility, would buffer the effects of EE on poor dietary quality, whereas practices such as concern about a child’s weight, restriction, and pressure-to-eat would exacerbate this relationship. Adolescents (N = 127; Mage = 12.83 ۫.74; MBMI % = 96.61 ± 4.14) provided baseline data from the Families Improving Together (FIT) for a Weight Loss trial and an ancillary study. Dietary outcomes …


Trajectories And Psychiatric Consequences Of Inhibitory Control In Young Males With Fragile X Syndrome, Erin Hunt Apr 2022

Trajectories And Psychiatric Consequences Of Inhibitory Control In Young Males With Fragile X Syndrome, Erin Hunt

Theses and Dissertations

Inhibitory control (IC), the ability to suppress inappropriate responses, emerges late in the first year of life and improves across typical development, concurrent with brain maturation. The development of IC is critical to various social-emotional and behavioral functions, with IC deficits being linked to numerous psychiatric conditions, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a single-gene disorder characterized by IC deficits, and elevated rates of ADHD and ASD, making it a useful model for understanding the early development and consequences of IC. In this longitudinal study, we characterized IC trajectories across multiple time …


Race, Racial Matching, And Cultural Understanding As Predictors Of Treatment Engagement In Youth Mental Health Services, Wendy Chu Apr 2022

Race, Racial Matching, And Cultural Understanding As Predictors Of Treatment Engagement In Youth Mental Health Services, Wendy Chu

Theses and Dissertations

Racially marginalized youth experience barriers that impact their ability to maximally benefit from mental health services; thus, efforts to identify strategies that support youth treatment engagement may address mental health and treatment disparities. This study examined the role of youth race, youth-therapist racial matching, and youthreported therapist cultural understanding on youth’s early treatment engagement in mental health services. The youth sample (n = 1159; Mage = 13.8 years, SD = 2.9; 52.1% female) comprised of 778 (67.1%) Latinx, 221 (19.1%) African American, 139 (12.0%) White, and 21 (1.8%) Asian American clients. The therapist sample (n = 126; Mage …


Testing Barriers To Non-Suicidal Self-Injury With College Students: Narcissistic Traits As Moderators, Philip Stoner Feb 2022

Testing Barriers To Non-Suicidal Self-Injury With College Students: Narcissistic Traits As Moderators, Philip Stoner

Dissertations

Research on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has produced mixed findings, resulting in a lack of clarity regarding these behaviors (Klonsky & Meuhlenkamp, 2007). To address this, Hooley and Franklin (2018) developed the Benefits and Barriers Model (BBM) to provide a comprehensive understanding of NSSI, in which they identified the barriers that commonly prevent people from engaging in these behaviors (e.g., self-esteem, shame, and peer-bonding motivations/social norms). They also identified adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as a distal predictor of NSSI, which aids people in overcoming the barriers to engaging in these behaviors. Recent NSSI literature has shown that college women in the …


Ethnic Differences In The Way College Students Cope With Stress, Temavulane N. Motsa Jan 2022

Ethnic Differences In The Way College Students Cope With Stress, Temavulane N. Motsa

Masters Theses

Stress is one of the key concerns for students and has also been labelled the highest factor impacting students’ academic performance in colleges. A student’s ability to adequately cope with their stressors could determine their academic success or failure. This study examined whether there are any ethnic differences in the way African American and Caucasian American Students cope with stress. Data were collected from Students at Eastern Illinois University which included 45 African American Students and 40 Caucasian American students. The results revealed no significant differences in the way Caucasian American and African American students cope with stress. This paper …