Illness attributions, perceptions of stigma and coping strategies: Adjusting to inflammatory bowel disease

The present study examined the personal and perceived illness attributions made by patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and then investigated the relationships between illness attributions, coping strategies and psychological adjustment. An archival data set of 290 IBD patients included self-reported measures of personal and perceived illness attributions, coping strategies and psychological adjustment. The results demonstrated clear differences between personal and perceived illness attributions. For example, IBD patients were more likely to indicate that other people attributed the cause of their illness to internal and controllable factors, whereas the patients themselves attributed the cause to internal and uncontrollable factors. Attributions were indirectly related to psychological adjustment when IBD patients used avoidant coping strategies. Furthermore, attributions were both directly and indirectly associated with psychological adjustment when either problem-focused or emotion-focused coping strategies were used. Additionally, trait optimism was positively related to beliefs about responsibility for one\u27s health and negatively related to feelings of self-blame, while trait neuroticism was positively related to self-blame. Disease severity was also found to have a negative impact on psychological adjustment, independent of the coping strategy employed. Interpretations of these results suggest the need for interventions that focus on positively reframing illness attributions and symptom management

As Long As You Have Your Health? Subjective Well-being Trajectories In An Inflammatory Rheumatic Disease Sample

The purpose of this study was to explore different trajectories of subjective well-being (SWB) in a sample of people with rheumatic conditions using growth mixture modeling (GMM), and to identify demographic, disease-related, and psychosocial risk and protective factors associated with these response patterns. Four hundred and thirty two adults with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), ankylosing spondylitis (AS), or gout were recruited online, and data were collected over the internet at six monthly intervals. Satisfaction with life (SWL; Diener, Emmons, Larson &Griffin, 1985) and positive and negative affect (PANAS; Watson, Clark, &Tellegen, 1988) were measured at each time point. Other measures included demographic information, disability, pain, disease activity, control beliefs, optimism, perceived social support, and other major life events. The majority of the sample were Caucasian (70.8%), married (60.7%), women (70%).The average age of respondents was 44.3 years and the mean time since diagnosis was 8.9 years. Four trajectory groups were uncovered representing resilient, low SWB, rapid recovery, and gradual recovery response patterns. Compared to the resilient group, the low SWB group experienced greater negative emotions and less positive emotions, and reported lower income, greater disability and disease activity, and less optimism and perceived control. The rapid recovery group were less optimistic, and reported greater disability, disease activity, and less perceived control initially. The gradual recovery group was less optimistic, had greater pain at Time 1(T1), and less perceived control at Time 2 (T2). Low SWB and resilience were the most prevalent trajectory groups, whereas the two recovery groups were less represented. Experiencing greater positive emotions was associated with recovery in life satisfaction, whereas negative emotions hindered life satisfaction growth. The combination of maintaining higher positive emotions and experiencing fewer negative emotions over time was critical for sustainable higher satisfaction with life. Disease fluctuations and optimism played important roles in achieving and maintaining well-being. Future research directions are discussed

Navigating Emerging Adulthood: Exploring Current Challenges Experienced in the Community

Background: Despite experiencing challenges, many young people resist seeking formal mental health support services (McGorry & Mei, 2018). One possible reason for this underutilization is that outreach and current service frameworks might not meet the evolving needs of this group, especially among young people with marginalized identities (Robards et al., 2018). In collaboration with Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, a lead agency engaged with local community mental health services, this project seeks to contribute to initiatives specific to transitional-aged youth’s mental health, possible trauma symptoms, and help-seeking.Method: This study invites undergraduate students and transitional-aged youth (18–24 years old) residing in Windsor-Essex County, Ontario, to participate in a mixed-method project with two phases. The first phase is ongoing and consists of a quantitative online survey. The next phase of this project will involve adopting a narrative inquiry approach and interviewing a subsample of participants from community and university settings.Results: Preliminary analyses will be presented. Descriptive and correlational findings will reveal how local transitional-aged youth are coping with mental health challenges and engaging in help-seeking behaviours within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions and disruptions.Conclusion: The expected implications of this mixed-method study include gaining valuable insights into understanding the unique challenges experienced by a traditionally hard-to-reach population during the COVID-19 pandemic. The resulting insights may be leveraged to inform and refine existing support services. This project aims to accomplish these objectives by conceptualizing the problem at the local level from the youth perspective

The Utility of Research Domain Criteria in Diagnosis and Management of Dual Disorders: A Mini-Review

The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative has been considered a comprehensive alternative classification framework for understanding neuropsychiatric ailments, as opposed to the longstanding, traditional DSM framework. Where the DSM categorizes neuropsychiatric disorders as each being distinct and diagnostically defined by the presence of specified symptoms, RDoC provides a multidimensional conceptualization of psychiatric disorders with neurobiological roots. By taking a multidimensional approach, RDoC overcomes two major constraints of the DSM framework: that is, that the DSM is categorical in its approach to psychiatric disorders to the point of understating the intersectionality between concomitant disorders, and that the DSM focuses mainly on clinical features. RDoC seems to better account for the intersection between dual disorders and considers a range of factors, from the more microscopic (e.g., genetics or molecular functions) to the more macroscopic (e.g., environmental influences). The multidimensional approach of RDoC is particularly appealing in the context of dual disorders. Dual disorders refers to a concurrent psychiatric disorder with an addiction disorder. RDoC accounts for the fact that there is often overlap in symptoms across and bidirectional influence between various disorders. However, to date, there is limited research into the clinical utility of RDoC, and less so in the context of the clinical management of dual disorders. In this Mini-Review, we discuss how RDoC differs from the DSM, what outcomes have been reported in utilizing RDoC clinically, the utility of RDoC for the diagnosis, management, and monitoring of psychopathology, and the limitations of RDoC as well as avenues for future research

Consequences and Utility of the Zinc-Dependent Metalloprotease Activity of Anthrax Lethal Toxin

Anthrax is caused by the gram-positive bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The pathogenesis of this disease is dependent on the presence of two binary toxins, edema toxin (EdTx) and lethal toxin (LeTx). LeTx, the major virulence factor contributing to anthrax, contains the effector moiety lethal factor (LF), a zinc-dependent metalloprotease specific for targeting mitogen-activated protein kinase kinases. This review will focus on the protease-specific activity and function of LF, and will include a discussion on the implications and consequences of this activity, both in terms of anthrax disease, and how this activity can be exploited to gain insight into other pathologic conditions

Philanthropy and the Arts: A Retrospective

58 p. Examining committee chair: Dr. Patricia DeweyThe purpose of this master's capstone is to examine the history of contributed revenue streams for nonprofit arts organizations in the United States and the role those streams play in the current arts nonprofit funding environment. Through a synthesis of coursework and an extensive literature review, this research serves to inform arts leaders as to major trends and areas to be aware of regarding contributed income and the arts, which assists in enabling them to navigate the present funding environment as well as plan for the future

Relationships Between Rural/Urban Living, Family Environment, and Coping Strategies

Current research indicates that family environment factors can affect a person\u27s psychological well-being. However, there tends to be a paucity of research investigating whether or not these various family environment factors are associated with the use of different coping strategies to deal with stress and problems. Studies have also shown that living in an urban vs. living in a rural setting can differently affect the ways in which people cope with life stress and problems. The majority of these studies have involved children or elderly individuals, omitting the young and middle adulthood years. Also, there appears to be no research that has studied whether certain combinations of these family environment factors and rural vs. urban residency are related to the coping strategies people use to deal with stress and problems. Concurrent study of these variables may result in increased understanding about the ways in which they arc related and impact a person. Therefore, the main purpose of the present thesis was to investigate relationships among living in rural vs. urban settings, various family environmental factors, and coping strategies simultaneously in a sample of young to middle aged adults. To help fill the gaps in the current body of research, this study investigated four sets of hypotheses. The first set involved relationships between living in a rural vs. urban setting and adaptive vs. maladaptive coping strategies as measured by the COPE instrument. The second set of hypotheses predicted associations between family environment variables, as measured by the Family Environment Scale (FES), and living in rural vs. urban settings. The third set of hypotheses posited relationships between various family environment variables, as measured by the FES, and adaptive vs. maladaptive coping strategies, as measured by the COPE instrument. The fourth set of hypotheses is the key feature of this study, and appears not to have been studied by prior research. This set involved examining moderating effects or family environment variables on relationships between living in rural vs. urban settings and coping strategies. The present study used a volunteer sample or 90 participants enrolled in undergraduate classes at a small mid-western university. These participants were administered a series or questionnaires that included the COPE instrument to assess coping strategies, the FES to assess social-environmental characteristics or their families, and a questionnaire to assess demographic information and determine rural vs. urban residency or the participants. The results or this study provided strong indication that there is a significant difference in the way rural and urban individuals typically cope with stress and problems, that there are significant differences in the social-environment climate of families living in a rural selling compared to those living in urban settings, and that certain family environment factors are significantly associated with the use of particular types of coping strategies. And, in terms or the key feature of this study, family environment factors were shown to have the ability to moderate the relationship found between the use of certain types of coping strategies and living in rural vs. urban settings

A comparison of self-report and objective measurements of smartphone and social media usage

Smartphone and social media research continue to be plagued by concerns regarding their dependence on self-report measures of usage. Specifically, the extent to which self-report measures of usage reflect actual objective usage continues to be questioned and warrants further investigation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to leverage mobile data donation (specifically iPhone Screen Time data) to evaluate single estimates and behavioural scales of smartphone and social media usage against objective measures of smartphone and mobile social media usage. Findings of the current study suggest that despite differences in single estimates and objective smartphone use data, single estimates do show moderate agreement and association with objective data. Conversely, single estimates of mobile social media use and smartphone pickups displayed questionable to poor agreement and association with objective data, suggesting reduced reliability. Finally, self-report behavioural scales (i.e., problematic use, nomophobia, fear of missing out, phubbing) showed mostly negligible and non-significant associations with objective data. The findings of this study, in conjunction with the existing but limited research in this area, have a number of methodological implications for future smartphone and social media research and with regard to interpretations of findings from existing research