College of Behavioral & Social Sciences

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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Gendered racial microaggressions and emerging adult Black women's social and general anxiety: Distress intolerance and stress as mediators
    (Wiley, 2022-11-22) Burke, Lindsey A.; Chijioke, Sandra; Le, Thomas P.
    There is robust evidence that gendered racial microaggressions affect Black women's mental health. However, few studies have examined how this form of discrimination affects Black women's social anxiety in addition to their general anxiety, as well as the underlying mechanisms related to gendered racial microaggressions and anxiety. Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between gendered racial microaggressions stress (GRMS) and gendered racial microaggressions frequency (GRMF), and Black women's social anxiety and general anxiety symptoms. We also examined the mediating roles of distress intolerance and stress in these associations. Method One hundred and sixty-three Black women, between the ages of 18 and 25 years old, completed a cross-sectional survey. Regression analyses were used to examine the associations between gendered racial microaggressions and social anxiety and general anxiety, and mediation analyses examined the indirect effect of gendered racial microaggressions on the outcome variables through distress intolerance and stress. Results GRMS was associated with greater social and general anxiety through the mechanisms of distress intolerance and stress. GRMF was associated with reduced social anxiety and was not associated with general anxiety. Conclusions Intervention efforts should be aimed to prevent the experience of gendered racial microaggressions to prevent subsequent stress and mental health outcomes for Black women.
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    Stress, Mental Health, and Self-Care among Refugee Teachers in Malaysia
    (2020) Gosnell, Nicole; O'Neal, Colleen; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The mental health of post-conflict refugee teachers is understudied, yet critically important given the current refugee crisis which has displaced more than 70 million people (UNHCR, 2019). Teachers in hidden refugee schools are often refugees themselves, have little teacher education, and are faced with overwhelming classroom demands and other unique stressors. This study utilizes a mixed method design to examine stress, mental health (i.e., depression, and anxiety), and self-care among teachers in hidden refugee schools in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Quantitative data are archival, collected in Malaysia in 2013. Quantitative study participants included 97 primarily Burmese refugee teachers and 26 non-refugee teachers living in Malaysia. Quantitative measures included (a) Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS); (b) a self-care strategies questionnaire, and (c) a demographic questionnaire. Quantitative results suggest that refugee teachers have significantly higher rates of mental health and stress, but lower rates of self-care as compared to their non-refugee peer teachers. In addition, higher rates of self-care are associated with lower rates of mental health symptoms and stress rates; the association is moderated by age. Qualitative data were collected in June 2018 via individual interviews with eleven Burmese refugee teachers working in Malaysia. Qualitative results shed light on the unique definitions and experiences of stress, mental health, and self-care among refugee teachers in the context of macrolevel factors. Overall, this dissertation found that macrolevel factors unique to being a refugee impact refugees’ rates, experiences, and definitions of microlevel mental health symptoms, stress, and self-care.
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    Functional Neuroimaging of the Social Regulation of Emotion in Schizophrenia
    (2016) McCarthy, Julie McCarthy; Blanchard, Jack J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Negative symptoms in schizophrenia are characterized by deficits in normative experiences and expression of emotion. Social anhedonia (diminished pleasure from social experiences) is one negative symptom that may impact patients’ motivation to engage in meaningful social relationships. Past research has begun to examine the mechanisms that underlie social anhedonia, but it is unclear how this lack of social interest may impact the typically positive effects of social buffering and social baseline theory whereby social support attenuates stress. The present pilot study examines how social affiliation through hand holding is related to subjective and neural threat processing, negative symptoms, and social functioning. Twenty-one participants (14 controls; 7 schizophrenia) developed social affiliation with a member of the research staff who served as the supportive partner during the threat task. Participants displayed greater subjective benefit to holding the hand of their partner during times of stress relative to being alone or with an anonymous experimenter, as indicated by self-reported increased positive valence and decreased arousal ratings. When examining the effects of group, hand holding, and their interaction on the neurological experience of threat during the fMRI task, the results were not significant. However, exploratory analyses identified preliminary data suggesting that controls experienced small relative increases in BOLD signal to threat when alone compared to being with the anonymous experimenter or their partner, whereas the schizophrenia group results indicated subtle relative decreases in BOLD signal to threat when alone compared to either of the hand holding conditions. Additionally, within the schizophrenia group, more positive valence in the partner condition was associated with less severe negative symptoms, better social functioning, and more social affiliation, whereas less arousal was correlated with more social affiliation. Our pilot study offers initial insights about the difficulties of building and using social affiliation and support through hand holding with individuals with schizophrenia during times of stress. Further research is necessary to clarify which types of support may be more or less beneficial to individuals with schizophrenia who may experience social anhedonia or paranoia with others that may challenge the otherwise positive effects of social buffering and maintaining a social baseline.
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    CORTICOLIMBIC FUNCTIONING, NICOTINE DEPENDENCE CHARACTERISTICS, AND SMOKING LAPSE HISTORY: AN FMRI STUDY
    (2014) Richards, Jessica Margaret; Lejuez, Carl W; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Nicotine dependence is a prevalent and costly disorder characterized by notoriously high relapse rates. Extant research implicates stress as a key mechanism driving smoking across the stages of addiction, and neurobiological models of stress and addiction emphasize the role of overlapping corticolimbic circuits in both emotion dysregulation and compulsive drug seeking. However, neuroimaging research examining the neural correlates of stress processing in human smokers is limited and lacking in some areas, leaving key questions unanswered. Specifically, it is unclear how neural responses to stress may explain individual differences in nicotine dependence severity and cessation attempt outcomes. Moreover, more recent theoretical and empirical work has highlighted the importance of looking beyond functioning in discreet neural regions and has emphasized the importance of examining how brain functioning at a network level, through the use of resting state functional connectivity, might explain addictive behavior. However, research examining the relationship between functional connectivity and clinically-relevant smoking measures is also limited. As a first step toward addressing these gaps in the literature, the current study utilized a novel fMRI-compatible psychological stress induction task to examine the relationships between stress-induced neural activation, as well as resting state functional connectivity within stress-related corticolimbic circuits, and clinically-relevant smoking characteristics among a sample of adult cigarette smokers. Analysis of the fMRI data collected during administration of the novel stress induction task revealed significant stress-induced activation in the right insula, a region previously implicated in the interoceptive experience of negative affective states, as well as visceral symptoms of nicotine withdrawal and craving. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant relationships identified between stress-induced neural functioning, or functional connectivity within stress-related circuits, and the clinically-relevant smoking measures that were assessed. Findings are discussed in light of several study limitations and directions for future research are enumerated.
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    HPA axis reactivity to psychological stress among cocaine dependent individuals
    (2011) Richards, Jessica Margaret; Lejuez, Carl W; Daughters, Stacey B; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Due to the high prevalence of illicit drug use and subsequent costs to society, researchers have focused on potential mechanisms underlying continued substance use and dependence. One mechanism of interest is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its primary hormone, cortisol. Chronic substance use is associated with elevated basal cortisol concentrations and a blunted cortisol response to stress which has been shown to predict substance use outcomes. However, little is known about the specific conditions under which drug users display a dysregulated cortisol response to stress. Therefore, the current study compared HPA axis response to two different psychological stressors among a sample of cocaine dependent individuals. Results indicated no significant differences in cortisol response across conditions. Future researchers should conduct larger scale studies with carefully matched healthy non-drug using participants to determine whether the absence of a significant stress effect on cortisol functioning is specific to chronic cocaine use.
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    Informant discrepancies in assessing child dysfunction relate to dysfunction within mother-child interactions.
    (Germany: Springer., 2006) De Los Reyes, Andres; Kazdin, Alan
    We examined whether mother-child discrepancies in perceived child behavior problems relate to dysfunctional interactions between mother and child and stress in the mother. Participants included 239 children (6–16 years old; 58 girls, 181 boys) referred for oppositional, aggressive, and antisocial behavior, and their mothers. Mother-child discrepancies in perceived child behavior problems were related to mother-child conflict. Moreover, maternal stress mediated this relationship. The findings suggest that discrepancies among mother and child evaluations of child functioning are not merely reflections of different perspectives or artifacts of the assessment process, but can form components of conceptual models that can be developed and tested to examine the interrelations among critical domains of child, parent, and family functioning.