Narrative Identities of Early-Return Missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Leaving home to become a missionary is important for many young adults in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (CJC). Some missionaries return home from their missions before their anticipated return date and struggle to make sense of who they are while facing judgment from members within the church communities and families. Little is known about the experience of identity development for early return missionaries (ERMs). There have not been many chances for ERMs to share what it means to them to have come home early from their mission. This study investigated the process of how ERMs make sense of who they are after returning home early from their mission. One goal of this study was to find a broad and unifying understanding of how ERMs make sense of who they are given their experiences from their own perspectives while also honoring unique experiences. The second goal was to learn of specific ways to help ERMs feel satisfied and connected to who they are after their ERM experience. Two interviews were completed with each of six ERM participants. Transcripts from interviews were analyzed for common themes across participants and unique experiences. Each participant’s story was rewritten in order of what happened before, during, and after their mission, careful to include the most important parts of their stories. Then stories were analyzed for growth-promoting endings and negative endings based on the participants’ descriptions. Stories with good endings indicated more contentment with the ways they saw themselves. From the interviews, specific actions and helps were identified to help ERMs find happy endings to the stories they tell themselves about who they are after having returned from their mission early. The findings were compared and discussed in light of existing research. Lastly, the trustworthiness of the conclusions and ideas for future research questions were considered

Emotional Support Animal Partnerships: A Multimethod Investigation

Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) are increasing in prevalence and awareness, though not all the publicity and attention have been positive. Many people, including housing officials, persons with disabilities, health professionals, and the general public are confused about the roles and rights of ESAs. Misunderstandings, lack of awareness, and fraud have led to dangerous and inappropriate situations for humans and animals alike despite overwhelming evidence of powerful therapeutic benefits of the human animal bond. Three studies provide insight into various perspectives involved in ESA partnership experiences and development. Each study provides a theoretical, quantitative, and qualitative approach, respectively, to explore the interactions between persons with disabilities, animals, health professionals, and policymakers/enforcers. Special attention is given to animal welfare, professional involvement, and protecting rights of persons with disabilities. Study I provides a decision making framework that helps health professionals make thoughtful and ethical ESA determinations and facilitate compassionate and competent conversations with clients about ESAs. Study II explores of the current contexts of ESAs in the Unites States. Understanding more about ESA partnership situations and behaviors can focus efforts for education and research that can best support safe and effective ESA partnerships. Study III shares the narratives of three students with ESAs on a university campus and highlights the interactions between persons with disabilities and university setting policy and policy enforcement. A greater understanding of each stakeholder and their impacts on each other could reduce fraud, animal welfare concerns, problematic ESA behaviors, and disability discrimination. Awareness, education, and compassionate dialogue may be the key to using the powerful human-animal bond to help better support persons with disabilities and their animal partners

Emotional Support Animal Partnerships: Behavior, Welfare, and Clinical Involvement

The present study gathered information about the characteristics of individuals and dogs in Emotional Support Animal (ESA) partnerships, instances of service-animal misrepresentation, animal welfare and behavior, dimensions of bond quality, and health professional involvement. Seventy-seven adults (53 female, 24 male) with a canine ESA were surveyed via Qualtrics panel services. Data were analyzed for descriptive data, as well as correlational analyses among variables. Participants reported high frequencies of misrepresentation of emotional support animals, access law violations, and problematic instances including ESAs with a history of aggression and times when participants were unable to care for their dog. The majority of participants reported mental illness diagnoses, seeking ESA documentation from mental health providers; however, levels of health professional involvement in the ESA-procuring process were varied. Several dimensions of bond quality between participants and their ESA were reported to be consistently high across participants. Correlational data brought forth questions about the roles that health professionals and animal welfare could play in preventing harm to clients, animals, and communities, discouraging unlawful and problematic behavior, and strengthening the human–animal bond between their clients and ESAs. For example, welfare concerns were correlated with problematic animal behaviors and perceived costs to the participants. Additionally, as professional involvement increased, so too did rates of misrepresentation of ESAs as service animals and access law violations. These data provide a first picture of ESA partnerships and can be a springboard for future research toward protecting individuals with disabilities, their animals, and communities

Psychological inflexibility and stigma: A meta-analytic review

Stigma is known to have major impacts on the physical and psychological health of many groups. Psychological inflexibility is a psychological process that may help explain the impact of stigma on both self and others. Accordingly, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which targets psychological inflexibility, has been researched as a potential treatment for stigma. In order to provide a comprehensive overview of these issues, this paper offers a systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between psychological inflexibility and stigma, as well as a systematic review of ACT interventions for stigma. The results of the meta-analysis showed a positive, medium-to-large association between psychological inflexibility and stigma measures aggregating across 16 studies. The systematic review of interventions identified 15 studies on ACT interventions for stigma. Initial findings indicate consistent reductions in stigma following ACT interventions, as well as improved outcomes relative to active controls. Data on mediation and moderation, as well as long-term outcomes, are also presented. Implications for conceptualizing and treating stigma, and limitations of the research, are discussed

Extracellular electron transfer powers flavinylated extracellular reductases in Gram-positive bacteria

Mineral-respiring bacteria use a process called extracellular electron transfer to route their respiratory electron transport chain to insoluble electron acceptors on the exterior of the cell. We recently characterized a flavin-based extracellular electron transfer system that is present in the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, as well as many other Gram-positive bacteria, and which highlights a more generalized role for extracellular electron transfer in microbial metabolism. Here we identify a family of putative extracellular reductases that possess a conserved posttranslational flavinylation modification. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that divergent flavinylated extracellular reductase subfamilies possess distinct and often unidentified substrate specificities. We show that flavinylation of a member of the fumarate reductase subfamily allows this enzyme to receive electrons from the extracellular electron transfer system and support L. monocytogenes growth. We demonstrate that this represents a generalizable mechanism by finding that a L. monocytogenes strain engineered to express a flavinylated extracellular urocanate reductase uses urocanate by a related mechanism and to a similar effect. These studies thus identify an enzyme family that exploits a modular flavin-based electron transfer strategy to reduce distinct extracellular substrates and support a multifunctional view of the role of extracellular electron transfer activities in microbial physiology

Can stress promote the pathophysiology of brain metastases? A critical review of biobehavioral mechanisms

Chronic stress can promote tumor growth and progression through immunosuppressive effects and bi-directional interactions between tumor cells and their microenvironment. β-Adrenergic receptor signaling plays a critical role in mediating stress-related effects on tumor progression. Stress-related mechanisms that modulate the dissemination of tumor cells to the brain have received scant attention. Brain metastases are highly resistant to chemotherapy and contribute considerably to morbidity and mortality in various cancers, occurring in up to 20% of patients in some cancer types. Understanding the mechanisms promoting brain metastasis could help to identify interventions that improve disease outcomes. In this review, we discuss biobehavioral, sympathetic, neuroendocrine, and immunological mechanisms by which chronic stress can impact tumor progression and metastatic dissemination to the brain. The critical role of the inflammatory tumor microenvironment in tumor progression and metastatic dissemination to the brain, and its association with stress pathways are delineated. We also discuss translational implications for biobehavioral and pharmacological interventions