The Dutch Food System

Global Independent Study, Summer 2018 -- Amsterdam, Netherlandshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145779/1/Vaneyl_Poster.pd

Youth and Development: At-Risk Youth in the Holland Community

Childhood and adolescence stand out as the most pivotal times of development and growth. During these years, we begin to develop as individuals and our beliefs begin to take shape. For many children, these years are racked with suffering and turmoil and unfortunately many children end up walking down paths that lead to life-altering consequences. This research project addresses atrisk youth in the greater Holland area and the various services such as housing, reintegration, and mentoring that are provided by local organizations. Looking at six major categories that are often associated with at-risk youth—abuse and neglect, delinquency, homelessness, substance and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, and truancy—we researched the organizations, via individual interviews with organization leaders, associated with each category and then matched a specific organization to each of these. We examined the reasons that the founders created these organizations and why they chose to focus on a particular problem in the community. We aimed to find out whether these organizations adequately served the issues facing at-risk youth, and if not, find where these gaps exist. This project culminates in a digital collection of narratives from the people involved in each organization. The narratives displayed on this website present our research in a readily available format for community members to access. This project serves as a base platform for further research concerning the state of at-risk youth in Holland

Embodying Hope: The Impact of Hopeful Thinking on Cardiovascular, Psychological, and Linguistic Indicators

Past research has identified a relationship between self-regulatory processes and parasympathetic nervous system function (Geisler, Vennewald, Kubiak, & Weber, 2010). Self-regulation relates to hope in that each can involve motivation, finding pathways toward a goal, and practicing self-control (Vohs & Schmeichel, 2002). Hope has received attention for its mental health benefits, but its connections with psychophysiology have not been explored experimentally. In this study, we examined the impact of hopeful thinking on cardiovascular, psychological, and linguistic indicators. Sixty undergraduate students participated in an incomplete repeated measures experiment with three imagery conditions. Participants first thought about a specific, personal hoped-for outcome (e.g., academic, professional, relational) and then imagined their hoped-for outcome being fulfilled, remaining unfulfilled, and a neutral control condition. Changes in blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, and high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) were analyzed. Following each trial, participants completed self-report measures of hope, flourishing, and subjective emotion. Hope-fulfilled imagery was positively related to positive emotions (joy, gratitude, peace) and inversely related to negative emotions (sadness, anger), ps \u3c .001. Participants also reported greater levels of flourishing in the hope-fulfilled condition. Linguistic analyses indicated that participants used more hopeful, social, positive emotion, and benefit-finding language in the hope-fulfilled condition (ps \u3c .004). The main effect of imagery condition was not statistically significant for the physiological measures. However, an interaction of trait hope and imagery condition revealed that for participants with high trait hope, HF-HRV was negatively impacted by the hope-unfulfilled condition (p = .018). Results demonstrated that hopeful thinking prompted increased state hope, flourishing, positive mood, and positive language whereas hopeless thinking induced opposite effects. Furthermore, hopeless thinking appeared to come with a cardiac cost (i.e., decreased HF-HRV) for people with high trait hope. Provided that goals are appropriate, imagining hopes fulfilled yields emotional benefits and buffers cardiac response for high hope people

Coping with an Interpersonal Transgression: The Impact of Brief Reappraisal, Acceptance, and Rumination Inductions on Forgiveness and Short-Term Emotions

Previous research has demonstrated that emotion regulation strategies are beneficial in coping with negative events (Gross, 1998). For example, Witvliet, Knoll, Hinman, and DeYoung (2010) found that positive reappraisal reduced the negative impact of transgressions. In our study, we utilized a complex design to examine the impact of acceptance, reappraisal, and rumination between subjects over a two-week period. Undergraduate college students (N=98) recalled an interpersonal transgression from within the last year. Participants self-reported anxiety, depression, rumination, acceptance, satisfaction with life, and state forgiveness. During two visits, all participants ruminated and were randomly assigned to learn acceptance, positive reappraisal, or to ruminate again (control). Immediately following each imagery trial, participants completed self-report single items assessing positive (e.g., happiness, gratitude, peace, emotional and decisional forgiveness) and negative (e.g., sadness, anger) psychological experiences. Between participants mixed ANOVAs revealed that regardless of condition, from Visit 1 to Visit 2, participants experienced reductions in rumination, depression, and anxiety with increases in acceptance, forgiveness, and life satisfaction. We also found significant main effects of Visit and Trial, which demonstrated that participants reported increased positive experiences (e.g., gratitude, happiness, empathy, peace, forgiveness) and reduced negative emotions (e.g., sadness, anger) during the second visit and during the intervention trial (compared to the rumination trial). A significant Trial X Intervention interaction effect occurred for gratitude, happiness, peace, forgiveness, valence, sadness, and anger. Confidence interval comparisons revealed that only the individuals who learned acceptance reported increases in gratitude, happiness, peace, empathy, and forgiveness, and decreases in sadness across trials. These results demonstrated that our interventions had differential short-term impacts. Overall, all participants benefited from thinking about the transgressions. While acceptance and reappraisal did not outperform intentionally dwelling on an interpersonal transgression, brief interventions—particularly acceptance—were beneficial for short-term coping with an interpersonal offense

Adaptive Regulation Strategies in Response to Transgression Rumination: Analysis of Written Responses Following Acceptance or Reappraisal Training

Interpersonal offenses carry negative consequences associated with rumination. Two adaptive regulation strategies—reappraisal and acceptance—have demonstrated positive impacts (Wolgast, Lundh, & Viborg, 2011). One study (Witvliet, Knoll, Hinman, & DeYoung, 2010) found that compassion-focused reappraisal stimulated empathy and forgiveness, whereas benefit-focused reappraisal prompted gratitude. Yet, reappraisal may be more difficult to implement than acceptance. In this study, we evaluated the impact of brief reappraisal and acceptance interventions on participants’ written responses. Undergraduates (N=92) identified an interpersonal transgression experienced in the past three years. Participants ruminated and were randomly assigned to either positive reappraisal, acceptance, or control (a second trial of rumination) imagery conditions. Participants then wrote about their imagery experience. One week later, participants re-engaged the imagery conditions. Linguistic analyses showed main effects of trial type: in the initial visit, participants used more forgiving and cost language during the intervention compared to initial rumination (ps \u3c 0.019); a similar pattern occurred during the second visit with cost language (p \u3c 0.001). A main effect of trial occurred during the second visit, with participants using more anxious language during rumination (p = 0.009). A significant trial × condition interaction effect was found for benefit language during both visits (ps \u3c 0.03). Confidence interval comparisons revealed that reappraisal prompted more benefit-finding language than rumination during the intervention; additionally, only reappraisers increased their use of benefit-finding language across trials. Overall, participants used more forgiving language and less negative (cost-focused, anxious) language during the intervention trial, compared to rumination. Only participants in the reappraisal condition had an increase in benefit-focused language during the intervention trial. This suggests that the reappraisal condition was more effective than the acceptance or control conditions for promoting benefit-focused language, which past research has linked with increased gratitude