Browsing by Author "Mittal, Mona"

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    “Each week feels like a mountain”: The impact of COVID-19 on mental health providers’ well-being and clinical work.
    (Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 2023) Mittal, Mona; Morgan, Amy A.; Du, Jingshuai; Jiang, Jessica; Boekeloo, Bradley; Fish, Jessica N.
    The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed a tremendous strain on health care providers. Although there is a burgeoning body of literature on how COVID-19 has impacted frontline health care workers (i.e., providers treating COVID-19 patients), little attention has been dedicated to second-line workers (i.e., providers treating the mental health of people impacted by COVID-19). In this article, we present findings from a thematic analysis of open-text responses (n = 136) examining how COVID-19 shaped both the well-being of second-line workers, specifically mental health providers, as well as their clinical work in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Results indicated that mental health providers were experiencing significant COVID-19-related burnout and poor physical and mental health outcomes. Participants described diminished negative effects on the quality of their clinical care from the burnout and trauma associated with COVID-19. Many also demonstrated resilience, identifying the duality of both negative (e.g., exhaustion) and positive (e.g., pride in helping others) meaning derived from their second-line work experiences. We conclude with recommendations for preventing and addressing burnout among mental health professionals in the era of COVID-19 and subsequent health emergencies.
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    Maternal experiences of intimate partner violence and C-reactive protein levels in young children in Tanzania
    (Elsevier, 2018-12) Slopen, Natalie; Zhang, Jing; Urlacher, Samuel S.; De Silva, Gretchen; Mittal, Mona
    Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a critical public health issue that impacts women and children across the globe. Prior studies have documented that maternal experiences of IPV are associated with adverse psychological and physical health outcomes in children; however, research on the underlying physiological pathways linking IPV to these conditions is limited. Drawing on data from the 2010 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey, we examined the relationship between maternal report of IPV in the past 12 months and inflammation among children ages 6 months to 5 years. Our study included 503 children who were randomly selected to provide a blood sample and had a mother who had ever been married and who had completed the Domestic Violence Module, which collected information on physical, sexual, and emotional violence. Analyses were stratified based on a threshold for acute immune activation status, defined by the threshold of CRP>1.1 mg/L for young children in Tanzania. In bivariate analyses, healthy children whose mothers reported IPV showed a marginally elevated median CRP level compared to children whose mothers did not report IPV (0.35 vs. 0.41 mg/L; p = 0.13). Similarly, among children with active or recent infections, those whose mothers reported IPV had an elevated median CRP compared to children whose mothers did not (4.06 vs 3.09 mg/L; p = 0.03). In adjusted multiple variable regression models to account for child, mother, and household characteristics, maternal IPV was positively associated with (log) CRP in both healthy children and children with active or recent infection. Although longitudinal research with additional biomarkers of inflammation is needed, our results provide support for the hypothesis that inflammation may function as a biological pathway linking maternal IPV to poor psychological and physical health outcomes among children of mothers who are victimized—and this may extend to very young children and children in non-Western contexts.
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    Sexual Risk Behavior and Lifetime HIV Testing: The Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences
    (MDPI, 2022-04-05) Dyer, Typhayne V.; Turpin, Rodman E.; Hawthorne, David J.; Jain, Vardhmaan; Sayam, Sonica; Mittal, Mona
    Despite the success of HIV prevention drugs such as PrEP, HIV incident transmission rates remain a significant problem in the United States. A life-course perspective, including experiences of childhood adversity, may be useful in addressing the HIV epidemic. This paper used 2019 BRFSS data to elucidate the role that childhood adversity plays in the relationship between HIV risk and HIV testing. Participants (n = 58,258) completed self-report measures of HIV risk behaviors, HIV testing, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). The median number ACEs in the sample was 1, with verbal abuse (33.9%), and parental separation (31.3%) being the most common ACEs reported. Bivariate findings showed that all ACEs were associated with increased HIV risk and testing. However, increased risk was not correlated with increased HIV testing, with the highest incongruence related to mental health problems of household member (53.48%). While both self-reported HIV risk and ACEs were positively associated with HIV testing, their interaction had a negative association with testing (aPR = 0.51, 95%CI 0.42, 0.62). The results highlight the need for targeted HIV prevention strategies for at-risk individuals with a history of childhood adversity.