Organic Collaborative Research Partnership Building: Researchers, Needle and Syringe Program Providers, and People Who Inject Drugs (open access)

Organic Collaborative Research Partnership Building: Researchers, Needle and Syringe Program Providers, and People Who Inject Drugs

Article reporting on the use of an organic community research partnership-building approach between researchers, needle and syringe program (NSP) providers, and people who inject drugs (PWID) in Canberra ACT, Australia. Results found engaging in relationship building around partner priority activities created mutual understanding and trust premised in authenticity of the evolving partnership. The organic approach, which included a partner audit of the research tools for relevance, resulted in high acceptance and enrollment into the research by NSP providers and PWID. The results of this study provide evidence for the benefits of organic collaborative research partnership building with NSP providers and PWID for authentic service program implementation.
Date: October 21, 2021
Creator: Resiak, Danielle; Mpofu, Elias & Rothwell, Roderick
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library

A Study of Health-Related Screening Behaviors among Individuals in Texas with Adverse Childhood Experiences

Data from this dissertation was obtained from the Texas Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The Texas BRFSS questionnaire used a cross-sectional retrospective research design while asking questions about individuals' exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and included 11 questions. The sample included 9096 individuals over the age of 18 who had exposure to at least one ACE. An ACE score was calculated for all participants and were divided into two groups (less than 4 ACEs and more than 4 ACEs) to compare whether differences in ACE score would impact participating in routine health screening or not. Additionally, whether different kinds of ACEs would impact health screening was also examined. Logistic regression was used to assess whether different kinds of ACEs impact participation in routine health screening. This study found that individuals with a history of childhood adversities including experiencing childhood emotional abuse, living in a dysfunctional household impeded them from participating in routine health screenings. It is recommended that both primary care physicians and mental health providers to use motivational interviewing while interacting with patients with ACE histories. It is also suggested that using trauma-informed care (TIC) in primary care can help patients talk about their abuse histories and …
Date: August 2021
Creator: Baniya, Ganesh
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Exploring the Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Resilience, School Engagement and Success in Adolescents with Co-Occurring Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder

There remains a dearth of literature that explains with no ambiguity, the complex relationships that exist between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and resilience, as well as school engagement and school in individuals with a co-occurring diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). This study seeks to fill this missing gap in the literature. These research questions were answered using a retrospective cross-sectional study design of national secondary data from the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH). The findings revealed that the more ACEs an individual had, the less they were likely to engage and succeed in school. A similar finding was obtained for resilience as individuals with more ACEs showed less resilience. However, counterintuitively to the hypothesis of the project, having both ASD and ADHD does not necessarily make these outcomes worse compared to having a singular diagnosis of either ASD or ADHD. The significance of this study is that it informs rehabilitation counselors as well as educators on the need for early identification of individuals with ASD and ADHD with a background of ACEs and commence interventions early enough to ensure they are more resilient and obtain improved success in school-related activities as well …
Date: August 2021
Creator: Adaralegbe, Ngozi Jane Frances
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Speech-in-Noise Processing in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder often experience difficulty during speech-in-noise (SIN) processing tasks. However, it remains unclear how behavioral and cortical mechanisms of auditory processing explain variability in SIN performance in adults with ASD and their neurotypical counterparts. The proposed research explored variability in SIN as it relates to behavioral, perceptual, and objective measures of auditory processing. Results showed significant differences between groups in SIN thresholds. In addition, neurotypicals outperformed the ASD group on measures of sustained auditory attention characterized by reduced impulsivity, increased inhibition, and increased selective auditory attention. Individuals with ASD showed decreased acceptance of noise as compared to neurotypical peers. Overall, results highlighted auditory processing deficits in individuals with ASD that contribute to SIN performance.
Date: August 2021
Creator: Anderson, Chelsea D
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Speech Perception Outcomes in Adults with Cochlear Implants

Postlingually deafened cochlear implant (CI) adults have large variability in speech perception abilities. While CIs are one of the most successful neural prosthetic devices, they are not able to adequately provide fine structure cues which results in a degraded signal for the listener to interpret. While behavioral measures remain the gold standard for determining speech perception abilities, an objective measure is needed for patients who are unable to provide reliable behavioral responses. Behavioral, cognitive, and neural measures were collected in this study to identify potential neural biomarkers that correlate with speech perception performance. Behavioral experiments evaluated participants' abilities to identify, discriminate, and recognize words as well as sentences in quiet and in noise. Cognitive measures were assessed to determine the roles of attention, impulse control, memory, and cognitive flexibility on speech recognition. Auditory event-related potentials (ERP) were obtained with a double oddball paradigm to produce the mismatch negativity (MMN) response, which has been shown to have associations with phonetic categorical perception at the group level. The results indicated that executive function is highly predictive of speech performance and that the MMN is associated with categorical perception at the individual level. These findings are clinically relevant to determining appropriate follow-up care …
Date: December 2021
Creator: Manning, Jacy
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library