Resilience in Adolescents Who Survived a Suicide Attempt from the Perspective of Registered Nurses in Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities

The number of deaths by suicide has increased over the last few years. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore components of resilience in adolescents who survived a suicide attempt from the perspective of nine psychiatric nurses. Resilience was used as a guiding conceptual framework which proposes that resilience is the interplay between risk and protective factors. Three categories emerged including risk factors, protective factors, and future recommendations of suicide prevention strategies. The perspectives gained from this study will help develop nursing interventions for adolescents to overcome risk factors and to build on their protective factors

Risk and Protective Factors in the Lives of Caregivers of Persons With Autism: Caregivers’ Perspectives

PURPOSE The purpose of this descriptive exploratory study is to understand the experience of being a caregiver of a person with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the light of the resilience theory. METHODS Qualitative data were collected as a part of a larger quantitative study. Ninety-three caregivers completed this qualitative study and responded to the two open-ended questions. In the parent study, subjects were recruited by convenience sampling from the Interactive ASD Network (IAN). FINDINGS The identified categories appeared to reflect three distinct categories consistent with the resilience theory, labeled as follows: risk factors, protective factors, and overlapping factors. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS These findings help to inform the planning of tailored interventions to enhance caregivers’ resilience

Mediating Effects of Positive Thinking and Social Support on Suicide Resilience

Suicide has been the second leading cause of death for 18- to 24-year-olds in the United States since 2011. The stress experienced by undergraduate college students has the potential to increase one’s risk for suicide. Resilience theory was used as a theoretical framework to examine the interplay between risk and protective factors. A cross-sectional and correlational design was used to assess the mediating effects of positive thinking and/or social support on suicide resilience in 131 college students 18 to 24 years old who completed an online survey. The study found an indirect effect of self-esteem on suicide resilience through positive thinking and social support indicating that as self-esteem increases, positive thinking and social support also increase, which leads to an increase in resilience. The study also found a direct effect of self-esteem, positive thinking, and social support on suicide resilience. The findings inform the development of tailored interventions to build suicide resilience in college students

“There Was More Out There than Our Street”: Exploring Summer Camp Programming as a Context to Foster Social Capital and Civic Engagement after Camp

The social capital and civic engagement literature indicate a similar concern: Americans today are less connected to their communities than in the recent past. The purpose of this study was to explore intentional summer camp programming as a possible avenue to engendering social capital and civic engagement in campers\u27 home communities. Eight campers and their parents were interviewed at least three months after the campers participated in a structured camp program designed to increase campers\u27 civic engagement and social capital. Campers experienced post-camp gains in their motivation for civic engagement and their bonding and bridging social networks; however, not all of these gains were sustained after the camp experience. Further, the camp program displayed some of the features recommended in the civic engagement and social capital literatures for contexts wishing to foster those outcomes. Practice implications and future research directions are explored

Psychometric Properties of the Positive Thinking Skills Scale among College Students

Suicide continues to be in the top leading causes of death among college students. Positive thinking has been linked to increasing health outcomes and decreasing the effects of stress. The psychometric properties of the 8-item Positive Thinking Skills Scale (PTSS) has not been tested in American college students. The study used resilience as the theoretical framework. In 131 students, internal consistency and construct validity was supported. The Cronbach\u27s alpha of 0.86 and significant correlation with measures of suicide resilience, perceived social support, and self-esteem demonstrated good reliability and validity. The findings of the study provide directions for future suicide prevention efforts

Impact of a novel after school program: Smart Fit Girls

Individuals who are highly physically active are more likely to have a greater self-esteem, better body image, and increased physical activity self-efficacy. Currently, the average PE program provides less than 12% of the recommended daily amount of physical activity, with adolescent girls being the least active. The primary purpose of this research is to explore the efficacy of an after-school program, Smart Fit Girls (SFG), which aims to improve adolescent girls physical activity habits, self-esteem and body image. A secondary purpose is to examine how physical activity and mother/daughter relationships affect adolescent girls physical and emotional health. Girls attending Riverside Middle School in Pendleton, SC and their mother or female guardian were recruited for this study. The girls were 10-14 years old, in good academic standing, and were not involved in school athletics. To explore the impact of SFG all participants and their mothers will complete two rounds (pre/post) of questionnaires and focus groups. A control group of daughters and mothers at R.C. Edwards in Clemson, SC will participate in quantitative and qualitative data collection as well. Preliminary data demonstrate an 11% increase in self-esteem in mothers and statistically significant improvements in body image between pre and post measurements in girl participants

Rehabilitation Counselor Competency When Working with SCI and Physical Disabilities

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to address the gap in knowledge of the perceived competency of rehabilitation counselors when working with patients with a spinal cord injury (SCI) and/or a physical disability. The factors that influence the mental health needs of person with SCI and the understanding of how rehabilitation counselors view their competency levels with supporting this population were explored. Selection criteria included licensed or certified rehabilitation counselors actively providing care for persons with SCI and/or a physical disability applying a theoretical framework. A qualitative descriptive phenomenological approach was used to address the central research question of rehabilitation counselors perceived competency when working with SCI and/or a physical disability. Semistructured interviews were conducted with six rehabilitation counselors. I applied the six steps described in the data analysis method, based on principles of phenomenological philosophy (see Broome, 2011; Giorgi, 2018). The following five major themes emerged: (a) clinical factors and certified rehabilitation counselors, (b) mental health and environmental concerns of clients, (c) necessary clinical skills and practice requirements for rehabilitation counselors, (d) supporting certified rehabilitation counselors in training, and (e) impacting social change for clients with disabilities. The implications of this study for positive social change include increasing the professional knowledge of how counselor educator programs can implement specific courses to prepare future rehabilitation counselors for working with SCI and persons living with a physical disability

Resourcefulness Training Intervention: Assessing Critical Parameters from Relocated Older Adults’ Perspectives

The population of American elders is increasing rapidly and relocation to retirement communities has been found to adversely affect their adjustment. This pilot study of 38 relocated elders evaluated, from elders’ perspectives, six critical parameters of a resourcefulness training (RT) intervention designed to help elders adjust to relocation. Within the context of Zauszniewski\u27s theory of resourcefulness, a pre-/post-test design with random assignment to RT or to diversionary activities (DA) was used. Objective questionnaires measured demographic and relocation factors. An intervention evaluation questionnaire was designed and given to the relocated elders in order to assess the six critical parameters—necessity, acceptability, feasibility, safety, fidelity, and effectiveness. Data concerning the critical parameters were collected during structured interviews within a week after the intervention. Seventy-six of the elders who scored less than 120 in the resourcefulness scale indicated a strong need for RT. While all non-white elders reported needing RT, 43% of white elders reported the same need. Elders indicated that learning about the experiences of others and taking part in discussions were the most interesting part of the RT. Approximately 95% of participants mentioned that they learned all parts of the intervention; few suggested having a stronger leader to keep the group on track. The qualitative findings from this pilot intervention study will inform future, larger clinical trials to help recently relocated elders adjust to relocation

Context matters: Construct framing in measures of physical activity engagement among African American women

Assessment of psychosocial factors influencing health behavior typically privileges conceptual consistency (framing constructs similarly across contexts) over conceptual specificity (context-specific framing). Modest statistical relationships between these factors and health behaviors, and persistent racial disparities in health outcomes raise questions about whether conceptually consistent framing fully captures relevant predictors. Ethnographic studies suggest not - that perceptions influencing health behaviors are multifaceted and contextual. To test this, we added items querying contextualized predictors of intention to engage in leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) to a Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)-based survey and examined the psychometrics of the adapted subscales. We measured internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) and construct validity (exploratory factor analysis using polychoric correlations for ordinal data). Participants were a convenience sample of 200 African American women in a Midwestern, suburban University-affiliated family medicine practice. Reliability of the adapted subscales was notably lower than the original subscales. A two-factor model fit best for the attitudes subscale, but explained slightly less than 50% of the variance. The new items loaded strongly on one factor. A three-factor model best fit the norms subscale and accounted for around 57% of the variance. Two of the three new items loaded strongly on one factor. Factor analysis for the perceived control subscale was not possible due to low number of items; however, two of the three new items were highly correlated (.73). Including context-specific factors may improve assessment of intention to engage in LTPA. Further study of this question with a larger, representative sample is warranted

A New LC-MS/MS Technique for Separation of Gangliosides using a Phenyl-hexyl Column: Systematic Separation According to Sialic Acid Class and Ceramide Subclass

A LC-MS/MS technique separated the bovine and mouse brain gangliosides monosialotetrahexosylgangliosides (GM1), disialotetrahexosylgangliosides (GD1a), trisialotetrahexosylgangliosides (GT1b) and tetrasialotetrahexosylgangliosides (GQ1b) using a phenyl-hexyl HPLC column and employing a linear methanol gradient in water, which is 0.028% in ammonium hydroxide. The gangliosides were separated according to sialic acid class, and within a particular class, gangliosides having different ceramide carbon chain lengths were also separated. All gangliosides of a particular sialic acid class eluted in characteristic retention time windows in the order of GQ1b, (earliest), GT1b, GD1a, and GM1 (latest). Within each specific retention time window for a particular ganglioside class, gangliosides were separated in the order of increasing ceramide carbon chain length. The phenyl-hexyl column separation of gangliosides is advantageous over established hydrophilic interaction and conventional reversed-phase chromatography techniques, in that the former separates gangliosides according to sialic acid class but not ceramide composition and the latter distributes all the sialic acid ganglioside classes throughout the entire chromatogram. The mechanism of separation of the ganglioside sialic acid classes is proposed to be a p-electron repulsion of negatively- charged gangliosides by the column phenyl moiety