“You don’t accept he’s completely ok”:A reflexive thematic analysis of parents’ roles in monitoring their child’s health and symptoms after finishing childhood cancer treatment

Objectives/purpose: Childhood cancer survival brings continued mental and physical health challenges both for the child and for the family. In this study, we investigated how parents viewed their roles in their child’s health and symptom monitoring during the survivorship period. Methods: Twenty-one parents of childhood cancer survivors (n = 18 mothers; parent mage = 49.78 years, child mage = 18.50 years; range = 12–25 years), whose children were at least one year off-treatment (m = 3.67 years; SD = 2.25; various diagnoses), completed semi-structured interviews. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Analyses generated three themes which reflect roles that parents may adopt in the context of monitoring symptoms in their childhood cancer survivor. “Vigilant Mama and Papa” (theme 1) described parents who expressed a strong sense of responsibility for protecting their child’s health during survivorship resulting in careful monitoring of their child’s symptoms and health. “Pragmatic Mamas and Papas” (theme 2) described parents who adopted an approach to symptom and health monitoring that emphasized moving past cancer and focusing on the future. Finally, “Encouraging Mamas and Papas” (theme 3) described parents who focused on educating and preparing their child to develop an autonomous approach to health and symptom self-monitoring as they transitioned to survivorship and adulthood. Conclusion: Parents take on varying roles in monitoring their child’s symptoms and health after finishing childhood cancer treatment. Implications for Cancer Survivors: Understanding the ways in which parents continue to be involved in their child’s cancer journey helps researchers develop interventions to support dyadic coping in survivorship.</p

INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF EDUCATION AND CONTACT-BASED ANTI-STIGMA INTERVENTIONS ON THE STIGMA OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE COLLEGE POPULATION

Approximately one in four college students screen positive for a mental illness, however many who might benefit from mental health care do not seek treatment. Amongst both the general adult population and college students, stigma has been shown to be a predictor of treatment engagement, with higher levels of stigma with regard to mental illness predicting lower levels of treatment utilization. It has been demonstrated in the general adult population that contact-based anti-stigma programs are the most effective approach to stigma change, followed by education-based programs. This study aimed to investigate the impact of contact- and education-based anti-stigma interventions, relative to a control condition, on mental illness stigma, affirming attitudes towards individuals with mental illness, discrimination towards individuals with mental illness, and treatment seeking amongst college students. Both contact- and education-based interventions were found to have a significant impact on personal stigma, perceptions of empowerment, desired social distance from individuals with mental illness (a proxy of discrimination), attitudes towards treatment seeking, and intentions to seek treatment from formal sources of support. No difference in effect was demonstrated between the contact- and education-based conditions. These findings suggest that these two approaches may be equally effective for challenging stigma amongst college students.Ph.D. in Psychology, December 201

On the use of aspect-based sentiment analysis of Twitter data to explore the experiences of African Americans during COVID-19

Abstract According to data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as of June 2020, a significant number of African Americans had been infected with the coronavirus disease, experiencing disproportionately higher death rates compared to other demographic groups. These disparities highlight the urgent need to examine the experiences, behaviors, and opinions of the African American population in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. By understanding their unique challenges in navigating matters of health and well-being, we can work towards promoting health equity, eliminating disparities, and addressing persistent barriers to care. Since Twitter data has shown significant promise as a representation of human behavior and for opinion mining, this study leverages Twitter data published in 2020 to characterize the pandemic-related experiences of the United States’ African American population using aspect-based sentiment analysis. Sentiment analysis is a common task in natural language processing that identifies the emotional tone (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral) of a text sample. Aspect-based sentiment analysis increases the granularity of sentiment analysis by also extracting the aspect for which sentiment is expressed. We developed a machine learning pipeline consisting of image and language-based classification models to filter out tweets not related to COVID-19 and those unlikely published by African American Twitter subscribers, leading to an analysis of nearly 4 million tweets. Overall, our results show that the majority of tweets had a negative tone, and that the days with larger numbers of published tweets often coincided with major U.S. events related to the pandemic as suggested by major news headlines (e.g., vaccine rollout). We also show how word usage evolved throughout the year (e.g., outbreak to pandemic and coronavirus to covid). This work also points to important issues like food insecurity and vaccine hesitation, along with exposing semantic relationships between words, such as covid and exhausted. As such, this work furthers understanding of how the nationwide progression of the pandemic may have impacted the narratives of African American Twitter users

Does humor influence the stigma of mental illnesses?

Public stigma is a barrier for people with mental illness. Humor may have the potential to decrease stigmatizing attitudes in the context of disclosure. Participants completed measures on stigmatizing attitudes and humor style and were then randomized to one of three conditions (self-disclosure comedy sketch, the same comedy sketch with no disclosure, and a control comedy sketch). After reviewing the comedy sketch, participants repeated the attitude measures and provided perceptions of the comic. Humor styles and perceptions significantly interacted with condition to reduce stigma. Perceptions of the self-disclosed comic were associated with reduced stigma. People exhibiting affiliative humor style (i.e., they enjoy making others laugh) were shown to have significantly greater stigma changes in the disclosed condition compared to the non-disclosed and control conditions. Affiliative humor endorsers also interacted with the non-disclosed condition suggesting that mental health comedy might generally reduce stigma in people who use humor to improve relationships

How does direct to consumer advertising affect the stigma of mental illness?

Stigma interferes with life goals of people with mental illness. Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) may impact stigmatizing attitudes. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of psychiatric medication DTCA on the stigmatizing and affirming attitudes of the general population versus individuals self-identified with mental illness. Participants (n = 272) were randomly assigned to watch a DTCA about Cymbalta, an antidepressant, embedded in two other advertisements for non-pharmaceutical products. Participants completed measures of stigmatizing and affirming attitudes before and after viewing this DTCA. Results indicate that the Cymbalta DTCA worsened the attitudes of the general public. These participants were less likely to offer help, endorse recovery, and agree with self-determination attitudes towards people with mental illness following viewing the DTCA. The self-identified group reported less blame, less dangerousness, less social avoidance, more pity, and greater willingness to help after viewing the DTCA. Moreover, there was significant improvement in their endorsement of recovery. Results suggest that DTCAs about psychiatric medication may increase the public\u27s stigma towards people with mental illness but reduce stigma among individuals who identify as having a mental illness. Findings are somewhat limited by selection biases and self-report. Implications for further development of DTCAs are considered

Therapist Perceptions of Automated Deception Detection in Mental Health Applications

[Chapter Abstract] This paper discusses the results of a qualitative study which assessed the perceptions of mental health professionals (N=15) on the use of artificial intelligence for deception detection in therapy sessions. Four themes emerged from coding analysis of the interview data, including Functional Components of the Computer Science Implementation, Perceptions of the Computer Science Implementation, Integration of the Computer Science Implementation, and Suggestions. These themes encompass feedback from practicing mental health professionals suggesting a potential use case for automated deception detection in mental health, albeit considerations for confidentiality, client autonomy, data access, and therapist-client trust.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facbooks/1795/thumbnail.jp

The Process of Designing a Chatbot to Link Youth to Mental Health Resources

The Process of Designing a Chatbot to Link Youth to Mental Health Resources Authors: Kierra Cydrus, Shelton Gilyard Jr., Gabriella Sanabria, Dr. Kristin Kosyluk, Dr. Jerome Galea Intro/Background: Conversation agents or Chatbots are used on various websites, such as banking and customer service portals, to help users navigate information and services. This study aims to create a chatbot to help link youth attending a sexual health clinic to mental health resources. Methods: We convened a Youth Advisory Board (YAB) comprised of 7 youth aged 16-24 years and, from June-September 2021, met three times to: 1. Identify the features and resources desirable in a mental health chatbot navigator; and 2. Interact with early versions of the chatbot, which was responsive to their preferences. After the second and third YAB meetings, the chatbot was further developed for a version ready for pilot testing among youth who were not part of the YAB. Next, beginning in December 2021-present, we began recruiting youth from the collaborating sexual health clinic to try the chatbot and provide feedback on their experience. To date, we have recruited 11/20 participants. Results: The YAB provided an initial set of preferences for the chatbot, which included gender-neutral language, a personalized feel and self-help exercises (e.g., a breathing exercise to calm anxiety). Initial data indicate a preference for a chatbot that does not sound too robotic or clinical and free from excessive text. Additionally, there is a preference for the chatbot to be simple and efficient to use. Conclusion: A chatbot connecting youth with mental health resources appears feasible and acceptable; however, future development responsive to youth\u27s preferences tested in larger and more diverse samples is needed to assure acceptability

The Process of Designing a Chatbot to Link Youth to Mental Health Resources

The Process of Designing a Chatbot to Link Youth to Mental Health Resources Authors: Kierra Cydrus, Shelton Gilyard Jr., Gabriella Sanabria, Dr. Kristin Kosyluk, Dr. Jerome Galea Intro/Background: Conversation agents or Chatbots are used on various websites, such as banking and customer service portals, to help users navigate information and services. This study aims to create a chatbot to help link youth attending a sexual health clinic to mental health resources. Methods: We convened a Youth Advisory Board (YAB) comprised of 7 youth aged 16-24 years and, from June-September 2021, met three times to: 1. Identify the features and resources desirable in a mental health chatbot navigator; and 2. Interact with early versions of the chatbot, which was responsive to their preferences. After the second and third YAB meetings, the chatbot was further developed for a version ready for pilot testing among youth who were not part of the YAB. Next, beginning in December 2021-present, we began recruiting youth from the collaborating sexual health clinic to try the chatbot and provide feedback on their experience. To date, we have recruited 11/20 participants. Results: The YAB provided an initial set of preferences for the chatbot, which included gender-neutral language, a personalized feel and self-help exercises (e.g., a breathing exercise to calm anxiety). Initial data indicate a preference for a chatbot that does not sound too robotic or clinical and free from excessive text. Additionally, there is a preference for the chatbot to be simple and efficient to use. Conclusion: A chatbot connecting youth with mental health resources appears feasible and acceptable; however, future development responsive to youth\u27s preferences tested in larger and more diverse samples is needed to assure acceptability