On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a public health emergency of international concern. In March 2020, the United States government imposed impactful safety and confinement measures issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) all over the country to prevent community transmission of COVID-19. Institutions of higher education rapidly transitioned to online learning and eliminated in-person engagements in the spring of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) followed a similar trajectory by shutting down all athletic activities due to the global pandemic. While college students in general notably experienced increased pandemic related distress and mental health concerns (e.g., depression, anxiety) during the early stages of the global pandemic, the disruption of collegiate sport competitions and seasons uniquely and significantly impacted collegiate student athletes and their overall well-being. In this qualitative study, I sought to document and understand the narrative of Black student athletes' experiences of stress and coping during the first two months of the COVID-19 global pandemic and cancellation of collegiate sports. Through reflexive thematic analysis, I found that psychosocial resources such as avoidance, acceptance, mindful self-compassion, health …

Emotion dysregulation and rumination are involved in the development, maintenance, and treatment of both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and sleep disturbances. We examined if and how these factors influenced the nature of the relationship between PTSD symptom severity and subjective sleep disturbances among trauma-exposed individuals. Using data gathered from a community sample of 199 trauma-exposed individuals (Mean age = 35.48; 59.80% female), we examined whether there were stronger significant associations between greater PTSD symptom severity and poorer sleep quality/lower sleep quantity at higher (vs. lower) levels of (1) negative emotion dysregulation and positive emotion dysregulation (both included in the same model) and (2) rumination. Participants recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk completed the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, Brief Version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale – Positive, Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire, and sleep quality/quantity items from the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Results of simple and additive multiple moderation analyses showed that neither negative/positive emotion dysregulation nor rumination moderated the relationships between PTSD symptom severity and sleep quality/quantity. Exploratory analyses showed that negative emotion dysregulation (when examined independently) moderated the relationship between PTSD symptom severity and sleep quality. There were also significant associations between poorer sleep …

Guided by the framework of bicultural identity integration (BII), a conceptual model depicting the direct and indirect effects of BII, cognitive flexibility, affect regulation, and coping on psychological wellbeing indicators (i.e., life satisfaction, depression) of adult children of immigrants (ACI) in the U.S. was developed. It was hypothesized that greater BII would contribute to greater cognitive flexibility and affect regulation, which would be associated with more utilization of adaptive coping strategies and greater psychological wellbeing. A total of 240 young ACI from across the U.S. completed the online research questionnaire that measured all variables of interest. Results from structural equation modeling analyses showed adequate model fit with the data. Findings provided support to the indirect effects of BII factors on wellbeing through affect regulation, however, the indirect effect paths are more complicated than what were hypothesized originally. Specifically, higher levels of identity harmony and identity blendedness contributed to more difficulties in emotion regulation, and subsequently, poorer wellbeing. Additionally, both cultural identity harmony and identity blendedness contributed to greater levels of cultural and relational maintenance strategies (i.e., avoidance, forbearance) in the context of intergenerational conflict through affect regulation, but not through cognitive flexibility. Notably, the latent variable of cultural coping strategies …

The purpose of this research was two-fold: (1) further validate the Virtual Reality Stroop Task HMMWV [VRST; Stroop stimuli embedded within a virtual high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle] via a comparison of the 3-dimensional VRST factor structure to that of a 2-dimensional computerized version of the Stroop task; and (2) model the performance of machine learning [ML] classifiers and hyper-parameters for an adaptive version of the VRST. Both the 3-D VRST and 2-D computerized Stroop tasks produced two-factor solutions: an accuracy factor and a reaction time factor. The factors had low correlations suggesting participants may be focusing on either responding to stimuli accurately or swiftly. In future studies researchers may want to consider throughput, a measure of correct responses per unit of time. The assessment of naive Bayes (NB), k-nearest neighbors (kNN), and support vector machines (SVM) machine learning classifiers found that SVM classifiers tended to have the highest accuracies and greatest areas under the curve when classifying users as high or low performers. NB also performed well but kNN algorithms did not. As such, SVM and NB may be the best candidates for creation of an adaptive version of the VRST.

South Asians are the third fastest growing racial/ethnic minority group in the United States with distinct cultural characteristics. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disproportionately impacted racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S, including South Asians, across several life domains: work, home life/education, social activities, economic, emotional and physical health, infection, quarantine, and positive changes. The COVID-19 pandemic may have critically impacted South Asians with traumatic event experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity across several life domains. Limited work suggests high rates of interpersonal traumas and substantial PTSD symptom severity in the South Asian community. Uniquely, the current study examined which life domains impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic associated with a greater count of traumatic event types, interpersonal vs. non-interpersonal traumas, and PTSD symptom severity. Results revealed that negative experiences in social activities, as well as distress in economic, emotional, and physical health domains, were significantly associated with the count of traumatic event types. Negative social activity experiences, and distress in the economic and emotional health domains, were also significantly associated with PTSD symptom severity. Quarantine and physical health domains significantly associated with the count of interpersonal traumas, while COVID-19-related experiences (in social, quarantine, and infection domains) …

Exceptional classroom management (CM) for face-to-face and online classes is vital to instructor success, and importantly, directly impacts students' ability to learn. Classroom conflict may disrupt an instructor's CM and can occur when a student is uncivil (e.g., sidetracks from lecture) or when an instructor misbehaves (e.g., antagonizes students). A small but meaningful line of work suggests that uncivil students and misbehaving teachers negatively impact the learning environment. However, no work has examined how the interaction between an uncivil student and misbehaving teacher impacts learning. As such, the purpose of the current study is to empirically investigate how teacher responses to student incivility impact cognitive learning in an online learning environment. The project evaluated approximately 252 undergraduate students via an online study. Participants watched a video of an online class in which the professor responds to an uncivil student in one of three different ways: antagonistically, positively, or neutrally. Participants then took a cognitive learning quiz based on the lecture and answered questions about their perception of the instructor, uncivil student, and the learning environment. Results of the one-way ANOVA suggest that how an instructor responded to student incivility did not significantly impact cognitive learning. Secondary analyses also indicated that …

The data surrounding barriers to student-athletes seeking mental health care are limited, but show that stigma is one of the most frequently reported barriers. Further, the effect of sharing demographic identities (i.e., race, gender) between a student-athlete and their mental health treatment provider has not been fully explored. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of reported barriers and facilitators to mental health as well as the importance of sport psychologist characteristics as a facilitator of mental health treatment. Participants consisted of student athletes from an NCAA Division I university, representing 11 sports. A series of two-way, repeated measures ANOVA analyses were conducted to determine within-subjects differences in overall reporting of barriers and facilitators, as well as between groups differences in race and gender. Significant differences were found in the rating of barriers and facilitators. Female student-athletes rated sharing a gender identity with their mental health treatment provider as more important than did male student-athletes. The findings of the study may aid athletic departments in developing targeted interventions to lower barriers and increase use of mental health resources to promote psychological well-being among student-athletes.

Time perception is a fundamental aspect of consciousness related to mental health. One cognitive state related to time perception is mind wandering (MW), defined as having thoughts unrelated to the current task. Little research has directly assessed the relationship between these two constructs, despite the overlap in clinical significance and the shared importance of attention for healthy functioning. In the present study, I addressed this by having a sample of 40 adults in the United States complete an online sustained attention to response task remotely while answering thought probes related to thought type and time perception. Multilevel modeling results indicated that cognitive factors were related to the judgements of passage of time (JOPOTs; the feeling that time is passing quickly or slowly) while they had little relation to the estimated duration or the accuracy of those estimations. Specifically, JOPOTs were related to attention to task and emotional valence, and the addition of MW, intentionality, and fixed/dynamic thoughts to the models explained additional variance. Duration estimations and JOPOTs were unrelated to each other, suggesting JOPOTs and duration estimations have different relationships to cognitive factors and should be studied as separate constructs. Additionally, results suggested that the heavy use of dichotomization in …

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious mental illness characterized by dramatically differing mood states and marked costs for the individual and society, making it important to find factors associated with the condition. Deficits in emotion regulation have been found across a wide range of mental health disorders and may represent an important risk factor for BD. Literature in this area has large methodological inconsistencies and many conclusions are mixed. Therefore, the current study sought to conduct a meta-analytic review of literature related to emotion regulation in BD. Results suggest that people with BD broadly report more frequent use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and less frequent use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies than healthy controls. Of these strategies, the largest effect sizes were found for risk-taking, rumination, impulsivity, catastrophizing, and self-blame. Comparisons to other clinical groups suggest that emotion regulation in BD is largely similar to major depressive disorder and less severely impaired than borderline personality disorder. Moderator analyses of BD samples in different mood states suggest mood state plays a limited role in emotion regulation strategy usage, although some maladaptive strategies may be more common in samples with depressive symptoms. Among emotion regulation strategies, increased positive rumination and suppression …

Violence and aggression continue to be both public health and economic concerns. The field of violence prediction has undergone a series of changes in an attempt to best assess risk including using unstructured clinical judgment, actuarial measures, and structured professional judgment. Although prediction has become more accurate with improved measures, a new generation has recently emerged with an emphasis on understanding violence, as opposed to merely predicting it, to shift the focus towards violence prevention. In addition to the creation of measures, researchers have sought to identify specific risk factors for aggression and violence including static and dynamic risk factors. Despite research demonstrating associations between neuropsychological and social-cognitive factors, violence risk measures continue to omit these variables. The current study developed a multi-faceted, theoretical model of aggression including social-cognitive, neuropsychological, personality, and psychiatric factors. A community, male sample (N = 1,192) collected through Amazon's MTurk responded to a series of self-report measures and neuropsychological tasks. Utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM), I created a model predicting aggression. Several important paths were significant including from entity theory to aggression, mediated by hostile attribution bias, schizotypy to aggression, mediated by both hostile attribution bias and disinhibition, substance use to aggression mediated by disinhibition, …

Middle childhood is the least understood developmental period in the attachment literature, likely due to active reorganization of the attachment system during this stage. Coinciding with increased cognitive and socioemotional competencies, middle childhood attachment begins to transition from relationship-specific attachment to general attachment representations. While parents continue serving as the primary attachment figure used as a secure base and safe haven, noticeable shifts occur in terms of the need for availability over proximity to attachment figures and the child's involvement in maintaining the attachment relationship. Currently, there is no dominant conceptual or methodological approach for studying attachment in middle childhood. The present study sought to develop and validate an observational coding system examining middle childhood attachment using a dimensional approach. The Middle Childhood Behavioral Attachment Dimensions (MCBAD) system demonstrated mixed reliability and validity compared to other established attachment measures. Compared to traditional categorical attachment measures, this study provides evidence for the utility of an anxiety-avoidance dimensional attachment scale in childhood. Additionally, the MCBAD is the first observational system that examines both nonverbal and verbal attachment behaviors in an unstructured separation-reunion episode, and findings suggest a need for further examination of verbal attachment during this developmental stage.

Research examining how these athletes, specifically football players, are racially mistreated in revenue sports in Power Five conferences, as well as the effect of this mistreatment on their health and well-being, has been sparse. Thus, the purpose of my study was to examine current Black male college football players' experiences of racial mistreatment within their lives in general, and their collegiate sport experiences in particular, and to learn how these experiences have affected their health and well-being across their academic, athletic, and social spheres of functioning. Through reflexive thematic analysis, I gathered that (a) the athletes believed that football defines and limits them, (b) they felt misunderstood and isolated on campus, (b) they were dehumanized and criminalized, and (d) they were physically and psychologically exhausted from chronic racial mistreatment. Despite the NCAA making positive strides toward addressing mental health concerns within collegiate athletics, there remains a clear need for more support and nourishment regarding the mental health of Black male college athletes, particularly football players. Further results and implications are discussed.

Research has demonstrated that personality factors are associated with sport performance as measured by coach ratings and objective performance outcomes, as well as factors/behaviours that are understood to be facilitative for performance, such as problem-focused coping and quality of preparation. Given the potential utility of personality assessment, professional sport organizations have integrated it into their pre-draft procedures. However, it remains unclear whether such data, particularly at the factor level, can add value to draft selection process, over and above that of past performances. The purpose of the present study was to explore if the Big-Five personality traits are related to draft order and predictive of athletes' future performance in professional baseball. Latent profile analysis revealed two distinct personality profiles amongst 2018 and 2019 draft prospects. The results of the covariate analysis were not significant; however, this was likely due to the small n for class 2. Thus, there might in fact still be a meaningful difference between personality profiles by draft order. The results of a series of multiple regression analyses suggested that personality factors and facets were not predictive of performance in the season following the draft, after controlling for performance in the previous season for both hitters and …

The decision of the landmark United States Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona (1966) established procedural safeguards to protect custodial suspects' 5th and 6th Amendment rights through requiring provision of what is now known as the Miranda warnings prior to interrogation. Suspects may elect to waive their rights once informed; however, research indicates that many individuals have inadequate knowledge and appreciation of their Miranda rights and consequences of waiving them. Miranda abilities and individual factors are critical factors in determining the validity of Miranda rights waivers. Researchers implicated many factors as influencing waiver decisions (e.g., intellectual ability, psychopathology, age); however, the differential impact of racial/ethnic identity is relatively unexplored. The importance of the investigation of race/ethnicity in Miranda abilities and decisions is underscored by the established differences in perceptions of police officers for racial/ethnic groups. Additionally, scholars have identified a potential presence of stereotype threat contributing to detrimental interrogation decisions. The current study advances previous research through examining the influence of racial/ethnic identity on Miranda abilities and waiver decision. This study also seeks to further the understanding of the effects of perceptions of police officers and presence of stereotype threat through investigate the role of those variables in Miranda abilities …

Since 2009, the suicide completion rate for military service members and veterans (SMVs) has exceeded rates in civilian populations, with risk highest among young, male veterans. Suicide risk factors include psychiatric illness, low social support, and repeated or prolonged exposure to traumatic events. Recent research further suggests that the experience of unresolved morally injurious events (MIEs) may create lasting feelings of guilt and shame that contribute to psychiatric illness. Additionally, adult attachment plays an important role in coping responses and relational strategies and may influence the degree to which SMVs experience helplessness and isolation that foster suicidal ideation. Protective factors such as social connectedness are important mitigating factors, substantially reducing the risk of suicidality. In the present sample of 206 combat SMVs, higher suicidal ideation was directly correlated with more MIEs, higher attachment avoidance and anxiety, and lower social support. Although neither social support nor attachment anxiety moderated the link between MIEs and suicidal ideation, a significant interaction between attachment avoidance and MIEs emerged, suggesting that higher attachment avoidance increases the risk for suicidal ideation among SMVs reporting more experiences of moral injury. Additionally, findings suggest that higher levels of social support buffer the detrimental effects of attachment anxiety, but …

Interpersonally aversive, antagonistic, or "dark" traits have been the focal point of research for decades. In more recent personality research, affiliative, prosocial, or "light" traits have become an area of emerging interest. Examining both domains may allow for a more comprehensive perspective to understanding behaviors and social attitudes involved in human nature related to social dominance and authoritarianism. The purpose of this study was to explore the associations among aversive versus affiliative personality traits with social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Both SDO and RWA are robustly tied to prejudice and discrimination, as well as other negative interpersonal characteristics. In this way, the current study will help address if expression of SDO and RWA are primarily linked with presence of a negative (aversive traits) or more so with the absence of a positive (affiliative traits) The current study involved a large general population sample of males who were assessed with Self-Report Psychopathy Scale-Short Form (SRP-SF), subscales from the Short Dark Tetrad (SD4), and the Light Triad Scale (LTS), along with variables tapping the multifaceted domains involved in SDO and RWA. In addition to a series of multiple regression analyses, an exploratory structural equation model (ESEM) was tested to …

This study was conducted as part of a parent grantwhich examined the relationship between components of sleep and antibody responses to the flu vaccine in a population of 392 nurses working at two large hospitals. During/after sleep data was collected, nurses had blood drawn at four time points: immediately pre-vaccination, 1-, 6-, and 11-months post vaccine to obtain serum for detection of anti-influenza antibodies measured with an HI (hemagglutination inhibition) assay. Additionally, the inflammatory biomarkers IL6, IL1-β, TNF-α and CRP were measured at the pre-vaccine time point only to determine any correlation between the markers and antibody response. Data was analyzed using a hierarchical regression. In the first step, analyses assessed whether each change/average in cytokines over the one-month period had an impact on vaccine response for each of the four viral strains in the flu vaccine. In a second step, analyses assessed whether variables such as insomnia, stress, age, smoking, BMI, and race had any impact on vaccine response beyond the effects exerted through inflammation. The change in association (β) between the primary independent variable and primary dependent variable were examined in order to determine whether there are any suppression effects caused by baseline covariates on the relationship between …

Client pre-treatment expectations have a significant impact on psychotherapy outcome, therapeutic alliance, and attendance. Client expectations are thought to account for approximately 11-14% of variance in premature termination from psychotherapy. However, measures that conflate treatment beliefs and distinct measurement techniques for the same outcome construct obscure the relationship between expectations and psychotherapy outcomes. Clarifying these associations is necessary to support development of useful methods and processes that support client retention in evidence-based treatments. With drop-out rates of approximately 20% across treatment settings, and as high as 69.4% in psychology training clinics, risk of attrition is a significant liability to effective treatment. The meta-analytic findings presented herein clarify the association of pre-treatment expectations with psychotherapy outcome, considering competing definitions for client expectations and discrepant psychotherapy outcome measurement. Implications for attrition, treatment outcomes, and therapeutic alliance are discussed.

The hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology (HiTOP) is a novel classification system that adopts both a dimensional and hierarchical approach to psychopathology to address shortcomings. However, the HiTOP framework is descriptive in nature and requires additional research to consider potential mechanisms for the onset and maintenance of psychopathology, such as cognitive-behavioral emotion regulation strategies. To redress this gap, a sample of 341 adults who endorsed ongoing mental health concerns completed self-report measures of emotion regulation strategies and psychopathology. The data revealed a three-spectra HiTOP model consisting of internalizing, thought disorder, and antagonistic externalizing. Results found that psychopathology was most strongly associated with avoidance, catastrophizing, expressive suppression, and self-blame. In contrast, adaptive strategies were generally unrelated to the HiTOP spectra. This pattern was strongest for internalizing, distress, and detachment. Fewer, yet noteworthy unique relationships between the strategies and specific spectra/subfactors were also found. These findings suggest that psychopathology may be best conceptualized as an overutilization of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Furthermore, the results indicate there is added benefit to considering these strategies within a hierarchical approach to psychopathology. These associations alert clinicians to potential treatment targets and contribute to an ongoing literature that seeks to identify underlying mechanisms of the structure of …

The onset of COVID-19 and cancellation of collegiate sports may have exacerbated student-athletes' psychological distress. Within a national sample of collegiate student-athletes (N = 5755; 66.7% women; 72.3% White), I determined how gender, race, and sport season related to rates of depression, stress, and counseling use. I used a cross-sectional methodology and collected data in April/May 2020. Overall, 26.5% (n = 1526) and 10.6% (n = 612) of the collegiate student-athletes endorsed clinical and high levels for depression and stress, respectively; 25.1% (n = 1443) and 69.7% (n = 4014) reported subclinical and moderate levels of depression and stress, respectively. Few student-athletes reported counseling use before (17.1%) or after (2.3%) the onset of COVID-19; those who reportedly used services endorsed higher levels of depression and stress than those who did not. Female student-athletes reported higher rates of depression, stress, and counseling use than male student-athletes. There were no race or sport season effects. Student-athletes who competed in spring sports endorsed higher levels of counseling use than student-athletes who participated in a fall season sport. Athletic departments must address their student-athletes' psychological distress by facilitating a higher use of mental health services.

The current dissertation had three primary objectives, categorized into two MTurk studies with capital juror-eligible community members: (a) cross-validate the psychometric properties of the JQVV, (b): explore the role of legal attitudes via the JQVV in mock capital sentencing decisions, and (c): examine the JQVV's ability to detect juror social desirability in capital voir dire. Impressively, Study 1 (N = 552) and Study 2 (N = 313) provided strong and consistent evidence for the JQVV's reliability and construct validity. In the mock juror paradigm, punitive legal attitudes on the JQVV (i.e., Crime-Neg, Convict, and Death-Pos), did not directly affect sentencing decisions, however they indirectly influenced the perception of nearly all other legally relevant variables (e.g., evidence type). For example, participants with more punitive criminal justice attitudes evaluated aggravating evidence more favorably which, in turn, increased death sentence verdicts. Study 1 also underscored the concerningly low levels of comprehension jurors have regarding judicial instructions and other relevant legal knowledge (e.g., the definition of aggravating). In Study 2, the support-life and support-death groups evidenced divergent patterns of social desirability, although support-death participants did not dramatically alter their scores between the genuine and social desirability condition. Additionally, the JQVV Pros-Cyn and Justice-Pos scales …

Therapeutic alliance has been consistently demonstrated as a robust predictor of treatment outcomes, though the time in psychotherapy at which therapeutic alliance best predicts outcomes is unclear. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that racial and ethnic minority clients typically form weaker therapeutic alliances in treatment. The weaker development in therapeutic alliance among racial and ethnic minority clients may mediate discrepancies in treatment outcomes, including higher dropout rates. The purpose of this study was to explore this possibility by (1) investigating the temporal relationship between therapeutic alliance and treatment outcomes and (2) examining differences in therapeutic alliance ratings and treatment outcome, including unilateral termination, among racial and ethnic minority clients. The findings of this study may be integral to identifying and addressing psychotherapy treatment disparities that are tied to racial or ethnic minority status.

The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) has gained widespread favor since its publication. However, validation studies of its interpretive descriptors remained limited to date. As such, the primary goal of the current study aimed at validating the interpretive descriptors through the lens of empirical correlates using the PDSQ as the external criterion. It also served as a replication and extension to the 2018 study conducted by Rogers and colleagues. The final archival sample included 204 clients from the UNT Psychology Clinic who were administered PAI between May 2016 and December 2020. Overall, reliability and construct validity were strongly supported for PAI clinical scales. Further, the current study replicated large majority of the correlates identified by Rogers and colleagues, which boosted the confidence in reproducible interpretations based on empirical correlates. Importantly, investigation of item-level and gendered correlates provided crucial interpretive implications that were otherwise obscured. For example, item-level correlates refined interpretation by clarifying the nature of scale-level correlates, particularly those of moderate strength. On the other hand, notable gender differences were identified for certain scales, which led to drastic differences in patterns of gendered vs. non-gendered correlates. Finally, several important methodological considerations are proposed in hope to facilitate the empirical research concerning …

Despite significant progress in the acceptance and celebration of LGBTQ+ individuals, there is overwhelming evidence that sexual minorities still face disproportionate levels of health inequity compared to their heterosexual peers. Relative to their heterosexual peers, LGBTQ+ emerging adults may encounter unique challenges with discrimination, stigma, and limited social support as they navigate changes in their educational and occupational environments. Additionally, within the broader public health and LGBTQ+ mental health literature, little is known about the mental health service utilization of sexual minority emerging adults. To address these empirical gaps, a sample of 98 LGBTQ+ emerging adults completed self-report measures of heterosexist discrimination experiences, mental health symptoms, LGBTQ+ positive identity, LGBTQ+ community connectedness, and mental health service utilization. The present study found that LGBTQ+ positive identity and LGBTQ+ community connectedness did not attenuate the significant positive relationship between discrimination and negative mental health outcomes. The present study also found that LGBTQ+ positive identity predicted greater likelihood of mental health service utilization, whereas LGBTQ+ community connectedness did not. Finally, exploratory qualitative analyses yielded deeper understanding of relationships between LGBTQ+ positive identity, LGBTQ+ community connectedness, mental health service utilization, and resilience among sexual minority emerging adults. Implications and future directions for empirical research …