Examining the Mindfulness – Stress Resistance Relation: The Mediational Role of Autonomy

Mindfulness – a receptive attentiveness to present experience – has been shown to promote more adaptive emotion regulation (Brown, et al. 2007) and predict autonomy - motivation to behave in a self-directed manner. In turn, autonomy has been shown to predict self-regulation (Ryan & Deci, 2000). This suggests a psychological pathway from mindfulness to autonomy to emotion regulation. To better understand the regulatory potential of a mindful disposition and the possible mediating role of autonomy in healthy adult participants (N = 69), a laboratory social evaluative threat was used called the Trier Social Stress Task (Kirschbaum, et al., 1993). Results showed that mindfulness predicted lower self-reported anxiety but not lower negative affect or endocrine levels. State autonomy during the stressor fully mediated the inverse relation between mindfulness and anxiety. These results support the theory of the emotion regulatory potential of mindfulness, and suggest one means by which this quality may improve well-being

Cyberbullying Victimization: Associations with Other Victimization Forms and Psychological Distress

Cyberbullying has gained increasing attention over the past decade, in part driven by significant media coverage on this topic.\u27 While media attention has increased, prevalence rates derived from national and local surveys indicate that cyberbullying is a less common experience among youth than traditional bullying. Nonetheless, a significant number of youth experience both cyberbullying and its deleterious effects, and additional research is needed to guide nascent prevention and intervention efforts. In particular, existing research does not clarify the extent to which cyberbullying overlaps with traditional bullying or other forms of victimization that children might encounter in their schools, homes, and communities. Further, few studies have focused on the extent to which cyberbullying contributes to psychological distress when combined with other victimization exposures. To that end, the goals of the current investigation were to, (1) assess rates of cyberbullying victimization by sex, age, and race/ethnicity; (2) examine the overlap between cyberbullying victimization and traditional bullying; (3) evaluate the overlap between cyberbullying victimization and other victimization forms, and (4) determine the extent to which cyberbullying victimization alone and in conjunction with other victimization exposures is associated with psychological distress. Given the limited research base on these issues, and at times divergent findings (e.g., with respect to sex differences), the investigation was largely exploratory. However, we expected to find a significant association between cyber and traditional bullying

Improving Psychosocial Distress Screening: A Quality Improvement Project Using Staff Education

Background/Purpose: Evidence shows that psychosocial care can improve cancer outcomes. Distress screening (DS), Standard 3.2 of the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, provides oncology practices with a method of identifying their patient’s psychosocial needs. This Quality Improvement (QI) project was implemented at an academic cancer center in the southeastern US. Planning meetings with administration identified problems impacting DS implementation, one of which was a need for education. The purpose of this project was to educate clinic staff on engagement strategies and the importance of DS to promote improved psychosocial care. Methods: The Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Model for Improvement guided this project, which was focused on the staff employed in the Adult Oncology Clinic. Staff members were surveyed pre- and post-intervention. The intervention used education and coaching sessions that focused on how to engage with patients, the value of DS, and the importance of psychosocial care. A patient educational handout was created for staff to use as a tool when engaging patients in screening. A chi-square test was used to analyze responses reported from pre- and post-intervention surveys. Results: A significant difference was found in 2 survey areas: the staff’s perception of the importance of DS to patients, χ2 (4, N = 38) = 10.41, p = .03, and the comfort level of staff in engaging in DS, χ2 (4, N = 38) = 9.82, p = .04. Staff shared the following: they lacked comfort in DS on the first visit, the patient handout helped make engagement go more smoothly, and the training helped improve their ability to talk with patients about distress. Conclusions and Implications: Cancer centers should not assume that their staff understands the importance of psychosocial care or is comfortable with how to screen for psychosocial distress. A QI process can identify staff learning needs to improve outcomes

Sext Education: What Parents Need to Know About Teen Sexting and the Law

Sexting is the act of sharing explicit photos or videos via text message, email, or through apps. Teen sexting, in particular, is cause for concern because it can be classified as child pornography if it depicts a person under 18 years old. For years, teen sexting rates were relatively low, however, teen sexting is becoming a more commonplace behavior due to several factors, including increased access to smartphones and the rise of technology use during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Many teenagers do not understand that teen sexting, even when consensual, has potentially serious legal consequences such as criminal charges, jail time, and placement on the sex offender registry, a life-altering punishment. Unfortunately, research shows that even when parents know about these potential legal consequences, they often do not talk to their teenagers about them due to discomfort with the subject and/or with technology. The purpose of this project was to explore the prevalence of teen sexting, identify the legal consequences of teen sexting, and discuss teen sexting prevention and interventions to create a centralized resource for parents and guardians about teen sexting. This type of resource is important, not only to help parents and guardians understand teen sexting, but to have better conversations with their children about it. Qualitative, structured interviews with three legal professionals and three law enforcement officers were conducted to gather the information parents and guardians need to know about teen sexting. Throughout the interviews, two things became clear: (1) Parents must talk to their teenagers about the potential legal consequences of sexting; and (2) Parents must attempt to understand and use the technologies their children are using.Master of Arts in Digital Communicatio

Dispositional Mindfulness and Cardiovascular Functioning Under Stress: Predictions of Social Evaluative Stress Reactivity and Recovery

Mindfulness – a receptive attentiveness to present experience – has been shown to promote more adaptive emotion regulation (Brown et al. 2008). Additionally, dispositional mindfulness has been shown to predict reduced cortisol response to social stressors (Brown et al, in press) and mindfulness training has been shown to promote more adaptive cardiac functioning at rest (Ditto et al., 2006; Tang et al., 2009; Telles et al., 2005; Zeidan et al., 2010) and in response to social stressors (Kemeny et al., 2012). To better understand the regulatory potential of a mindful disposition on cardiovascular functioning in healthy adult participants (N = 63), the study examined the role of dispositional mindfulness in predicting cardiovascular responses to a laboratory social evaluative threat called the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST; Kirschbaum, et al., 1993). Repeated measures multilevel linear modeling tested main effects of a mindful disposition on a variety of cardiovascular outcomes as well as interactive effects between mindfulness and time on these outcomes. Results showed that mindfulness predicted increased heart rate variability (HRV) across the time span, from baseline to recovery. There were also interactions between mindfulness and time on several dependent variables. Specifically, higher mindfulness predicted decreased heart rate reactivity during the TSST, faster recovery in total HRV, as well as reduced rebound effects during the initial recovery phase for high frequency HRV, low frequency HRV, and the LF/HF ratio. These results, however, were not significant above and beyond the significant relations between rumination, depressive symptoms, and trait anxiety and cardiovascular function. The results lend support to the stress-related regulatory potential of mindfulness, and suggest that this quality of attention may enhance cardiovascular functioning under stress. Further research is needed to examine how mindfulness may buffer the role of such vulnerability factors as rumination, depressive symptoms, and anxiety in predicting stress-related cardiovascular responses to social stress

Texas School District Liability in Pupil Transportation: A Legal Analysis of the Texas Tort Claims Act and Sovereign Immunity

Despite information and research being available in the area of tort liability, including relevant topics in public school law, there are limited resources on the topic for school transportation litigation. The question arises with the motor driven vehicle exception of sovereign immunity and how this may pertain to litigation involving school bus services

A systematic review of primary prevention strategies for sexual violence perpetration

AbstractThis systematic review examined 140 outcome evaluations of primary prevention strategies for sexual violence perpetration. The review had two goals: 1) to describe and assess the breadth, quality, and evolution of evaluation research in this area; and 2) to summarize the best available research evidence for sexual violence prevention practitioners by categorizing programs with regard to their evidence of effectiveness on sexual violence behavioral outcomes in a rigorous evaluation. The majority of sexual violence prevention strategies in the evaluation literature are brief, psycho-educational programs focused on increasing knowledge or changing attitudes, none of which have shown evidence of effectiveness on sexually violent behavior using a rigorous evaluation design. Based on evaluation studies included in the current review, only three primary prevention strategies have demonstrated significant effects on sexually violent behavior in a rigorous outcome evaluation: Safe Dates (Foshee et al., 2004); Shifting Boundaries (building-level intervention only, Taylor, Stein, Woods, Mumford, & Forum, 2011); and funding associated with the 1994 U.S. Violence Against Women Act (VAWA; Boba & Lilley, 2009). The dearth of effective prevention strategies available to date may reflect a lack of fit between the design of many of the existing programs and the principles of effective prevention identified by Nation et al. (2003)

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted both school bullying and cyberbullying

Published versio

VarSight: prioritizing clinically reported variants with binary classification algorithms.

BackgroundWhen applying genomic medicine to a rare disease patient, the primary goal is to identify one or more genomic variants that may explain the patient's phenotypes. Typically, this is done through annotation, filtering, and then prioritization of variants for manual curation. However, prioritization of variants in rare disease patients remains a challenging task due to the high degree of variability in phenotype presentation and molecular source of disease. Thus, methods that can identify and/or prioritize variants to be clinically reported in the presence of such variability are of critical importance.MethodsWe tested the application of classification algorithms that ingest variant annotations along with phenotype information for predicting whether a variant will ultimately be clinically reported and returned to a patient. To test the classifiers, we performed a retrospective study on variants that were clinically reported to 237 patients in the Undiagnosed Diseases Network.ResultsWe treated the classifiers as variant prioritization systems and compared them to four variant prioritization algorithms and two single-measure controls. We showed that the trained classifiers outperformed all other tested methods with the best classifiers ranking 72% of all reported variants and 94% of reported pathogenic variants in the top 20.ConclusionsWe demonstrated how freely available binary classification algorithms can be used to prioritize variants even in the presence of real-world variability. Furthermore, these classifiers outperformed all other tested methods, suggesting that they may be well suited for working with real rare disease patient datasets

Mindfulness: An effective coaching tool for improving physical and mental health:

This article provides an overview of the mechanisms of action, evidence base, and practice of mindfulness, with an emphasis on how to easily incorporate this valuable skill into practice