A randomised controlled trial evaluating the Guide Cymru mental health literacy intervention programme in year 9 (age 13–14) school pupils in Wales

Background: Adolescent mental health has become a public health concern as 10-20% of adolescents have experiences with mental health problems. Improving mental health education is critical to reducing stigma and improving access to appropriate care when needed. Here we examine the impact of a mental health literacy programme (Guide Cymru) in young adolescents in the UK. A randomised controlled trial assessed the effectiveness of the Guide Cymru intervention. Method: A total of 1,926 pupils (860 males and 1066 females) aged 13-14 (year 9) took part in the study. The secondary schools were randomised into the active and control arms of the study. Teachers in the active arm of the study were trained on the Guide Cymru and then delivered the intervention to their pupils. Pupils in the active groups received six modules of mental health literacy (the Guide Cymru), and control schools received teaching as usual. Mental health literacy across several domains (e.g., knowledge, stigma, help-seeking intentions) were assessed both before and after the intervention. Data collection for the randomised controlled trial ran from September 2019 to March 2020. Multi-level modelling analysis was conducted to account for the clustered nature of the design. Results: All aspects of mental health literacy, including mental health knowledge (g = 0.32), good mental health behaviours (g = 0.22), mental health stigmas (g = 0.16), intentions to seek help (g = 0.15), and avoidant coping (g = 0.14) improved after completing the Guide Cymru programme (ps < .001). Discussion: The current study presents evidence for the Guide Cymru's effectiveness in improving secondary school pupils' mental health literacy. We demonstrate that providing teachers with appropriate resources and training to deliver the Guide Cymru programme within their classrooms can improve the mental health literacy of pupils. These findings have important implications for the beneficial impacts the secondary school system can have on reducing the burden of mental health problems at a critical point in a young person's life

Design Graduates in Transition: Early Career Learning in the Design Agency

The focus of this thesis is on design graduates as they transition from higher education into the design industry, specifically in relation to their early career learning and development within the design agency setting. Previous research has focused on graduate employability and how higher education prepares students for the world of work; however, there are considerable gaps in how graduates’ early career learning occurs in the United Kingdom’s (UK) design industry. Furthermore, research has not taken into consideration the complex role that internships play in graduate transition into the design industry. By identifying the process of transition and early career learning that occurs for design graduates, this thesis investigates how design agencies can facilitate, support, and develop workplace learning. Using case studies, it is shown that graduates benefit from learning in design agencies that provide clear expectations and support to assist their development. The research highlighted that graduates often struggle with transition and use internships as opportunities for learning and career progression. These outcomes have provided the design industry and higher education with opportunities to consider the decisions they make about graduate learning. Significantly, the thesis illuminates the complexity involved in graduate transition and early career learning in design agencies. As a result, an approach for developing work-based learning has been recognised to aid early career roles in the design industry

Implicit Sexual Cognitions in Women with Ambiphilic Sexual Attractions: A Comparison to Androphilic and Gynephilic Women

Previous research using indirect cognitive measures (sometimes referred to as implicit measures) of sexual attraction have shown that women who are attracted to men (androphilic women) show category non-specific responses, whereas those who are attracted to women (gynephilic) show a category-specific bias to women. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether women who explicitly report approximately equal attraction to men and women (ambiphilic) would show similar non-category specific attraction at this implicit level or whether their responses would be more similar to those of gynephilic women. An implicit association task and a priming task were given to 169 women alongside measures of their self-labelled sexual orientation and an explicit measure of their sexual attraction to men and women. The results replicated previous findings of little bias towards either gender in androphilic women and of a strong bias towards females in gynephilic women. The ambiphilic women also showed a strong bias towards females. The findings clearly show that early automatic associations to sex are biased towards females in ambiphilic women and are not consistent with their explicit statements of preference

A reduction in the pupil’s response to affective sounds in psychopathy and related personality traits

The pupil of the eye dilates in response to affective information, even if that information is not visual. We used this affective modulation of the pupil to examine the hypothesis that individuals with high traits of psychopathy have an insensitivity to emotional stimuli. We also examined general personality traits related to psychopathy. A sample of 120 healthy young men had their pupils monitored while they listened to sound clips that conveyed either neutral emotion (e.g., rain), negative emotion (e.g., a person screaming) or positive emotion (e.g., people laughing). Psychopathy and general personality traits were measured via self-report questionnaire. As expected, both the positive and negative emotional sounds produced greater dilation in the pupil size than neutral sounds. This affective modulation of the pupil was found to be reduced for the negative sounds for people high on the “callous/affective” components of psychopathy (the Affective facet of the SRP-4 and the Meanness scale of the TriPM) and the general personality traits of Reward Dependence and Cooperativeness. The results indicate that these callous traits of psychopathy and general personality may be underpinned by a reduction in the ability to effectively process or monitor emotional stimuli

Psychological distress and resilience in first responders and health care workers during the COVID‐19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, first responders and health care workers faced elevated virus-related risks through prolonged contacts with the public. Research suggests that these workers already experienced lower levels of psychological well-being linked to occupational risks. Thus, the pandemic’s impact might have particularly affected mental health in these groups. This paper analysed data from a large-scale Welsh population study (N = 12,989) from June to July 2020. Levels of psychological distress were compared across various occupations, including police, fire and rescue, and NHS health care workers. Resilience was also indexed, and its role considered as a protective factor for psychological distress. Surprisingly, health care workers reported lower distress levels than the general population. Further, fire and rescue and police groups had lower distress than most groups and significantly higher resilience. Within police officers, higher resilience levels were protective for distress. Fire and rescue workers were half as likely as others to report distress, even accounting for demographic factors and resilience. The findings offer an optimistic view of psychological resilience in these critical occupations. They illustrate potential benefits to one’s mental health of playing a crucial societal role during crises and reiterate the importance of enhancing resilience within groups who encounter high-risk situations daily