Health Psychology Commons^™

An Examination Of The Interactive Effects Of Mindfulness And Stress On Negative Health Habits In A Primary Care Population, Christina J. Dichiara

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The overarching goal of this study was to better understand relationships between health habits, stress, and mindfulness. In doing so, this research examined the interaction of mindfulness with responses to stress as it affects negative health habits. There was also a psychometric development study conducted, using confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) to test the applicability of the two-factor model of the PHLMS to a primary care population. Data were collected from 198 adult patients in a primary care medical practice. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 89 years old, were 51% female, and 92% Caucasian. For CFA analyses, three fit …

Health Effects Associated With Foreclosure: A Secondary Analysis Of Hospital Discharge Data, Nancy N. Menzel, Sheniz Moonie, Melva Thompson-Robinson

Environmental & Global Health Faculty Research

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the health effects of high home foreclosure rates in an area of the United States of America and the utility of hospital discharge data for this purpose.

Methods: We analyzed hospital discharge data from three postal zip codes using the principal diagnosis for 25 Diagnostic Related Groups associated with stress. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize hospital discharge rates for each condition by year and zip code. To test for differences across time, the Cochran-Armitage trend test was performed.

Results: Most conditions did not demonstrate a statistical change between 2005 and …

Death Anxiety Amongst Medical Facility Staff Working With Medically Fragile Individuals, Jacqueline Anne Chambers-Klein

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Death, an inevitable concept that connects us as humans, can cause significant anxiety in individuals. Literature suggests that some medical professionals choose the field because of their own inner struggles with death (Neimeyer et al., 2004). Archival interview data were utilized in this action- oriented research to explore the notion of death anxiety in professionals who are working with medically fragile children. Twenty-six employees were individually interviewed at a residential medical facility. Additionally, a retrospective journal was utilized to understand the author’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences during internship. In order to examine the potential categories and themes that the author …

Functional Outcomes In A Postacute Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program, Esther Brahmstadt

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate functional outcomes among individuals with acquired brain injury who received treatment at a postacute brain injury rehabilitation program over a 3-year period (2008 to 2010). Participation in community and/or social roles, supervision required, and adaptive functioning outcomes were evaluated in a sample of 109 adults (71% male, 29% female; 88.1% White, 11.9% non-White; 67.9% injured at 18 years of age or older, 32.1% injured at under 18 years of age). Contrary to the hypotheses, there was a statistically significant increase in adaptive functioning and supervision required scores, suggesting increasing impairment over time. …

Traumatic Stress Responses In Mothers And Fathers To Pediatric Intensive Care Treatment: The Role Of Beliefs, Carla Cirilli

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of traumatic stress responses in parents of children treated in a pediatric intensive care unit, specifically parental beliefs about their child’s illness and their own coping self-efficacy as related to the severity of parental acute and posttraumatic stress. Archival data from a study conducted August 2004 through July 2005 in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia PICU were used. Two hundred and forty-five parents were assessed at 48 hours after admission, and 180 parents were assessed 3 months postdischarge. At Time 1, parents completed a screening measure assessing psychosocial factors and …

Effects Of Childhood Family Dynamics On Body Dissatisfaction In Adulthood, Adrienne F. Kerbs

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"Past research has identified many singular components of family dynamics that affect body dissatisfaction in adulthood, but have not studied the effects of many different family factors simultaneously. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of multiple early family dynamics on body dissatisfaction in adulthood using a sample of female college students. It was expected that the nature of parental bonding, parental comments, and lack of parental acceptance during childhood would have negative effects on body image in adulthood. A sample of female college students completed self-report questionnaires about their parents from the perspective of when …

Fruit Of Faith, Fruit Of The Spirit, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

As contemporary behavioral scientists living and working within an often secular, scientific, and empirically focused world as well as being affiliated with rigorous academic institutions and research programs, we wonder if the fruits of the spirit have any empirical and scientific basis. Does engagement with religion and spirituality make us better people or make us worse?

Making A Change: Motivational Interviewing In A College Group Setting, Hannah Jo Culbertson

Honors Program Theses

Motivational interviewing is a client-centered counseling style that aims to help reduce ambivalence and create a behavior change. It is typically done in a one-on-one setting. The purpose of this research was to test a group educational session based on motivational interviewing strategies, for its effectiveness in evoking an individualized behavior changes in a group of college students. The session utilized several techniques specifically chosen to be most effective in reducing ambivalence and helping students discover their own individual solution to a problem in order to more successfully make a health related change in their lives.

Social Connectedness And The Impact On Chronic Illness, Tara L. Hatchcock

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Having a chronic illness may feel alienating, yet examination of the literature shows limited research on social connectedness and health. In order to contribute to the understanding of this impact of illness, I examined perceived levels of social connectedness in persons with chronic diseases (CD), functional somatic syndromes (FSS) and medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). A major focus of this study was to investigate the association of social connectedness with depression, anxiety, and general health in patients with ongoing symptoms of illness. Data collection was obtained through the use of four online surveys collectively known as VOICE (Verification of Coping, Illness …

Increasing Parity Is Associated With Cumulative Effects On Memory, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this investigation was to determine if reproductive experience is associated with cumulative effects on human memory performance during pregnancy and if these effects persist into the postpartum period.

METHODS: Verbal recall memory performance was assessed in 254 women four times during pregnancy and at 3 months postpartum. The relation between parity and memory function was evaluated with hierarchical linear modeling and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).

RESULTS: The data indicate that the previously documented adverse effects of pregnancy on memory performance are compounded with successive pregnancies. During gestation and postpartum, multiparity was associated with poorer memory function, …

Utilizing The Standard Trauma-Focused Emdr Protocol In Treatment Of Fibromyalgia, Tricia L. Teneycke

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome characterized by chronic pain and fatigue. It notably impacts individuals and their families, creates notable opportunity costs for society, and places heavy demands on the medical system. Fibromyalgia has no cure. Its etiology is uncertain but likely biopsychosocial. In a subset of individuals experiencing Fibromyalgia, the experience of one or more traumatic experiences precipitates the onset of symptoms. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based treatment for traumatic stress injuries. None of the handful of published accounts of EMDR treatment of Fibromyalgia have utilized the standard evidenced-based, trauma-focused EMDR (TF-EMDR) protocol, opting instead for …

Getting Back To My Life: Exploring Adaptation To Change Through The Experiences Of Breast Cancer Survivors, Charles A. Foster

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The holding environment concept, developed by Donald Winnicott, has been used to represent the type of support that encourages adaptive change during psychosocial transitions. The leadership and change literature posited that the holding environment had the ability to shape the trajectory of the transition, yet did not test this empirically. The psychosocial breast cancer literature empirically researched support during and after treatments ended, but did not incorporate the holding environment concept. This presented the opportunity to inform both the leadership and breast cancer fields by studying holding environments in the breast cancer setting. This study had a twofold purpose: 1) …

Positive Religious/Spiritual Coping Among African American Men Living With Hiv In Jails And/Or Prisons, E. James Baesler, Valerian J. Derlega, James Lolley

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Digital Video: Engaging Students In Critical Media Literacy And Community Activism, Jessie Daniels

Publications and Research

This article presents a strategy for teaching health communication that fosters critical media literacy through the strategic combination of digital video, documentary film, video worksheets, and peer-reviewed journal articles. Given the media-saturated environment in which notions of health are shaped, critical media literacy skills are crucial to students in health-related fields. Cases of key concepts illustrated through documentary films and the peer-reviewed literature are presented. The article then explores how one class took the lead in designing a community event that critically engaged both a YouTube video and a documentary film about police brutality as a public health issue.

Changes In Spirituality Partly Explain Health-Related Quality Of Life Outcomes After Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction., Jeffrey M Greeson, Daniel M Webber, Moria J Smoski, Jeffrey G Brantley, Andrew G Ekblad, Edward C Suarez, Ruth Quillian Wolever

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is a secular behavioral medicine program that has roots in meditative spiritual practices. Thus, spirituality may partly explain Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction outcomes. Participants (N = 279; M (SD) age = 45(12); 75% women) completed an online survey before and after an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis that, following Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, the relationship between enhanced mindfulness and improved health-related quality of life is mediated by increased daily spiritual experiences. Changes in both spirituality and mindfulness were significantly related to improvement in mental health. Although the initial mediation hypothesis …

Facial Expression Discrimination In Adults Experiencing Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, Brian N. Lee

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The present study examined the impact of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) on adults’ ability to discriminate between various facial expressions of emotions. Additionally, the study examined whether individuals reporting PTSS exhibited an attentional bias toward threat-related facial expressions of emotions. The research design was a 2 (expression intensity) x 3 (emotional pairing) x 2 (PTSS group) mixed-model factorial design. Participants for the study were 89 undergraduates recruited from psychology courses at Western Kentucky University. Participants completed the Traumatic Stress Schedule to assess for prior exposure to traumatic events. A median split was used to divide the sample into two groups …

Comparison And Correlates Of Three Preference-Based Healthrelated Quality-Of-Life Measures Among Overweight And Obese Women With Urinary Incontinence, Angela Marinilli Pinto, Miriam Kupperman, Sanae Nakagawa, Eric Vittinghoff, Rena R. Wing, John W. Kusek, William H. Herman, Leslee L. Subak

Publications and Research

PURPOSE: To compare three preference-based health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) measures and examine independent correlates of HRQL among overweight and obese women with urinary incontinence (UI) enrolled in a weight loss intervention trial.

METHODS: Participants completed baseline questionnaires, which included the Health Utilities Index 3 (HUI3) and Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36). The SF-36 was used to derive SF-6D and estimated Quality of Well-Being (eQWB) scores. Height, weight, medical history, incontinence measures, and level of physical activity also were assessed. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was computed, and differences in mean scores across HRQL measures were examined. Potential correlates of HUI3, …

Effect Of Environmental Conditions On Perceived Psychological Restorativeness Of Coastal Parks, J. Aaron Hipp, Oladele A. Ogunseitan

Brown School Faculty Publications

We investigated the hypothesis that perception of psychological restorativeness during visits to coastal parks is modified by objective and perceived environmental conditions. Visitors (n=1,153) to California beaches completed a survey on perceived weather, environmental quality, and perceived restorativeness. We used generalized ordinal logistic models to estimate the association between environmental parameters and odds of perceiving higher levels of restorativeness. Visitors perceived greater restorativeness at beaches when ambient temperatures were at or below mean monthly temperatures and during low tides. The odds of perceiving the environment as more psychologically restorative were three times greater when visiting on days defined by government …

The Influence Of Ethnic Identity And Family Support On Posttraumatic Symptoms In Maltreated Youth, Harpreet Kaur

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Maltreated children are at greater risk of developing PTSD than nonmaltreated children (Ackerman et al., 1998; Epstein et al., 1997; Famularo et al., 1996; Kilpatrick et al., 2003; Widom, 1999). This study sought to assess the role of ethnicity, ethnic identity, and family support on the effects of maltreatment and trauma in adolescents. Participants (n=145) included adolescents from Child Haven, a Department of Family Services (DFS)-related site in Las Vegas, and youths in foster care assessed at the offices of Dr. Stephanie Holland. The first hypothesis was that non-Caucasian youth would have higher levels of PTSD-related symptoms than Caucasian youth. …

Pain Tolerance And Thresholds In Women With Dyspareunia: Do Pain And Sex Primes Have Differential Effects?, Lea Thaler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Dyspareunia, defined as recurrent pain in the genital/pelvic region during sexual intercourse, is one of the most common types of female sexual dysfunction, affecting approximately 15% of women between the ages of 18 and 24. Women with dyspareunia display similar cognitive and emotional styles evidenced in other chronic pain conditions (e.g. hypervigilance for pain information, catastrophization, and negative affect); however, dyspareunia is a unique pain disorder in that it directly involves sexual functioning. This pairing of pain and sex raises the issue of conditioning. Is it possible that because intercourse is painful for women with dyspareunia, the presentation of any …