Publications

Chonody, J., Olds Sultzman, V., & Baffour, T. D. (accepted). A scoping review of college students’ attitudes toward the environment: Implications for integrating environmental justice education into social work. Professional Development: The International Journal of Continuing Social Work Education. Accepted on: 1 August 2020.

• Social work is strongly committed to environmental justice, and in the U.S., changes to educational policy are reflective of this allegiance. No comprehensive literature review of the environmental attitudes of college students is currently available. This study redresses this gap by undertaking a scoping review. Results (N = 25 articles) demonstrate that students are moderately concerned about the environment and report three to five pro-environmental behaviors. Environmental education is essential to the mission of social work and allied professions that address vulnerable and oppressed populations. Thus, this study can potentially inform pedagogical interventions in classroom and continuing education settings.

Bettmann, J. E., Kouris, G. M., Anderson, I. M., & Cassleman, B. (accepted). Wilderness as healing environment: Treating adolescent substance misuse in wilderness therapy. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child.  Accepted on: May 2020.

• This paper reviews three prominent psychoanalytic conceptualizations of substance misuse, discussing the implications for substance treatment deriving from these conceptualizations. The paper also presents wilderness therapy as an evidence-based approach, reviewing the outcomes and primary components of such programs. Finally, the paper concludes with two case studies of adolescents with substance use disorders treated in wilderness therapy. These cases apply the psychoanalytic conceptualizations to this new treatment setting.

Leonard, A., Hoellger, L. Bettmann, J. E., Kouris, G., & Ganesh, K. (accepted). Sierra club military outdoors: A nature-based intervention for female veterans. In D. L. Dustin, K. S. Bricker, D. A. Tysor, & M. T. J. Brownlee (Eds.), Outdoor Recreation and Our Military Family: Pathways to Recovery.  Champaign, IL: Sagamore Venture.

• Nature-based interventions may be particularly promising for veterans. The outdoor setting and activities in nature-based programs may decrease stigma associated with mental illness and its treatment, as well as promote open veteran-provider and veteran-peer communication. This article argues that nature-based interventions for female veterans are critically needed to address the specific psychological needs of this population. The article presents the example of the Sierra Club Military Outdoors program as one such intervention.

Bettmann, J. E., Anstadt, G., & Kolaski, A. Z. (2020). Therapeutic adventure for military veterans with mental illness: A conceptual argument. Ecopsychology, 12(4), 1-7. Go to article

• Affairs services have risen, a large number of veterans who could benefit from its resources either drop out from services early or do not access them at all. Given veterans' reluctance to engage in traditional modalities of treatment, the psychological benefits of nature- and adventure-based interventions are of particular interest as an alternative approach to address veterans' mental health needs. Although current literature suggests that therapeutic adventure produces positive outcomes for veteran participants, existing literature does not explain the mechanisms by which therapeutic adventure impacts veterans' mental health. The authors conducted a thorough literature review on nature-based interventions and adventure-based interventions with veterans. Using existing research, this article presents a conceptual argument and conceptual map for how nature-based therapeutic adventure impacts veterans' mental health. Nature and time in the wilderness are effective in improving the physical and psychological well-being of individuals. As a result, veterans may greatly benefit from utilizing therapeutic adventure. In addition, therapeutic adventure includes a group component, allowing for relationship skill building and meaningful connection with peer veterans. Nature- and adventure-based interventions should be considered as potentially strong treatment approaches for veteran populations.

Bettmann, J. E., Anstadt, G., Casselman, B., & Ganesh, K. A. (2020). Young adult depression and anxiety linked to social media use: Assessment and treatment. Clinical Social Work Journal. First published online: 15 February 2020. Go to article

• Studies suggest that more than 30% of college students are currently depressed. A small but growing body of literature suggests that young adults’ social media use correlates with their depressive and anxious symptomology. As many as 90% of young adults use social media currently, compared to just 12.5% in 2005. Further, more than a quarter of college students report spending at least six hours per week on social media, compared to only 18.9% in 2007. Smartphone use within young adult populations also is extremely high: estimates of undergraduate smartphone ownership appear to be as high as 97%. Collectively, these trends suggest that social media and smartphones play an integral role in the routines and culture of young adults. The authors present the existing research linking social media use with depression and anxiety and utilize a case study to illuminate the relationship between young adult depression, anxiety, and social media use. The article provides clear recommendations for the assessment and treatment of social media use in depressed and anxious young adults.

Keeshin, B., Byrne, K., Thorn, B., & Shepard, L. (2020).  Screening for trauma in pediatric primary care.  Current Psychiatry Reports, 22. Go to article

• Provided the high prevalence of trauma exposure in childhood, as well as the risk for morbidity, this article examines evidence, a recommended approach, and key implementation factors relevant to screening for trauma in pediatric primary care. Clinicians should use trauma screening to: 1) identify if the child has any ongoing risk of harm and report where required; 2) determine risk of suicidality and respond appropriately; 3) assess need for evidence-based trauma treatment based on symptoms and functional impact; and 4) provide a skill or guidance targeting the most severe or pressing traumatic stress symptoms.

Medina, R., Byrne, K., Nicolosi, E., & Brewer, S. (2020). Housing inequalities: Eviction patterns in Salt Lake County, Utah. Cities, 104, 102804. Go to article

• Housing insecurity affects millions of Americans. Many cases in which individuals or families lack secure housing are the result of involuntary residential displacement, which often comes in the form of eviction and eviction threat from rental residences. This study takes a spatial analysis approach to understand patterns of evictions filed in Salt Lake County, Utah at the block group level. Modeling the geography of housing security attributes in urban areas is key to identifying inequality issues in potentially segregated regions. Two regression models are constructed that provide insight into inequalities based on race/ethnicity and socioeconomic vulnerability. The models show that there are clear inequalities in Salt Lake County, whereby those living in block groups of minority populations are affected by eviction at a substantially higher rate than those living in majority white population block groups. There is also a higher likelihood of threat of eviction if residents are already economically stressed. The implications of these findings are not limited to individual or family suffering, but also have negative community and larger social effects. Potential pathways to alleviating these issues are discussed in the conclusions section.

Potter, L., Haaland, B., Cincirpini, P., Cambron, C., Lam, C. Y., & Wetter, D. W. (accepted). A time-varying model of the dynamics of smoking lapse. Health Psychology. Accepted on: 1 September 2020.

• The majority of smokers who make a quit attempt experience their first lapse within the first week of quitting, yet limited research to-date has examined how the strength and direction of the relationship between smoking risk factors and lapse may change over longer periods of time. Time-varying effect modeling (TVEM) was used to address this gap. Some associations were stable (e.g., negative affect, motivation), whereas others varied over time. Abstinence self-efficacy, positive affect, and positive coping expectancies were most strongly associated with lapse between days 3-8 post-quit.  The association of urge with lapse was strongest between days 4 and 10, as well as near the end of the quit attempt. Stress was also most strongly associated with lapse near the beginning and end of the post-quit period and was the only predictor associated with lapse on quit date. The strength of the association between smoking expectancies and lapse increased over time.  There may be periods during a quit attempt when certain risk factors are more strongly related to lapse. This work has relevance for tailoring interventions designed to deliver intervention components in particular contexts or times of need.

Catalano, R. F., Hawkins, J. D., Kosterman, K., Bailey, J. A., Oesterle, S., Cambron, C., & Farrington, D. P. (accepted). Applying the social development model in middle childhood to promote healthy development: Effects from primary school through the 30s and across generations. Journal of Developmental and Life Course Criminology. Accepted on: 1 September 2020.

• This paper describes the origins and application of a theory, the social development model (SDM), that seeks to explain causal processes that lead to the development of prosocial and problem behaviors. The SDM was used to guide the development of a multicomponent intervention in middle childhood called Raising Healthy Children (RHC) that seeks to promote prosocial development and prevent problem behaviors. This paper reviews and integrates the tests of the SDM and the impact of RHC. This integrative paper provides one of the few examples of the power of theory-driven developmental preventive intervention to understand impact across generations, and the power of embedding controlled tests of preventive intervention within longitudinal studies to understand causal mechanisms. The authors describe effects of the full multicomponent RHC intervention delivered in grades 1 through 6 by comparing outcomes of those children assigned to the full RHC intervention condition to controls from middle childhood through age 39. They also report the effects of the full RHC intervention on the firstborn children of participants compared with the firstborn children of controls.  The use of the theory to guide the development and testing of preventive interventions, and the utility of nesting intervention tests within longitudinal studies for testing both theory and interventions, is discussed.

Cambron, C., Kosterman, R., Rhew, I. C., Catalano R. F., Guttmannova K., & Hawkins J. D. (2020). Neighborhood structural factors and proximal risk factors for adolescent substance use. Prevention Science, 21, 508-518. Go to article

• This study examined associations of neighborhood structural factors (census-based measures of socioeconomic disadvantage and residential stability); self-reported measures of general and substance use-specific risk factors across neighborhood, school, peer, and family domains; and sociodemographic factors with substance use among 9^th grade students. Data drawn from the Seattle Social Development Project were used to estimate associations between risk factors and past month cigarette smoking, binge drinking, marijuana use, and polysubstance use among students (N=766). Results of logistic regression models, adjusting for neighborhood clustering and including all domains of risk factors simultaneously, indicated that neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of cigarette smoking, binge drinking, and polysubstance use, but not marijuana use. In fully controlled models, substance use-specific risk factors across neighborhood, school, peer, and family domains were also associated with increased likelihood of substance use and results differed by the outcome considered. Results highlight substance-specific risk factors as an intervention target for reducing youth substance use and suggest that further research is needed examining mechanisms linking neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and youth substance use.

Cambron, C., Lam, C. Y., Cinciripini, P., Li, L., & Wetter, D. W. (2020). Socioeconomic status, social context, and smoking lapse during a quit attempt: An ecological momentary assessment study. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 54(3), 141-150. Go to article

• Low socioeconomic status (SES) is linked to failure to quit smoking. Health inequity models suggest that low SES smokers experience barriers to quitting in part due to greater exposure to pro-smoking social contexts. This study examined longitudinal associations among socioeconomic status, pro-smoking social context factors (i.e., exposure to other smokers, places where smoking was allowed), cigarette availability, and smoking lapse during a quit attempt. Consistent with models positing that SES influences health behaviors via contextual factors, this study demonstrated that low SES smokers attempting to quit experienced greater pro-smoking social contexts that affected subsequent risk for lapse.

Canham, S. L., Humphries, J., Kupferschmidt, A. L., & Lonsdale, E. (2020). Updated understanding of the experiences and perceptions of alcohol use in later life. Canadian Journal on Aging/La Revue canadienne du vieillissement, 40(3). First published online: 3 August 2020. Go to article

• The purpose of this study was to update our understandings of older adults’ experiences and perceptions of alcohol use. Taking a community-based research approach, three Knowledge Café workshops hosted 66 older adults and service providers in Vancouver, BC. Thematic analysis identified three overarching categories: (a) reasons older adults use alcohol, including out of habit, social expectations, or to self-medicate; (b) personal experiences of alcohol use, including reduced consumption over time as a result of the cost of alcohol, the physical effects, and increased knowledge about the effects of alcohol; and (c) older adults’ perceptions of alcohol use outcomes, including positive outcomes from drinking in moderation and negative outcomes that can worsen one’s health, lead to tolerance, and harm others. Developing and promoting healthy drinking behaviors in later life is needed as the general population continues to age.

Canham, S. L., Humphries, J., Kupferschmidt, A. L., & Lonsdale, E. (2020).  Engaging in community dialogues on low-risk alcohol use guidelines for older adults.  Journal of Applied Gerontology, 39(12), 1332-1339. Go to article

• Despite widespread use and acceptance of alcohol, discussions of age-related changes that impact alcohol consumption behaviors are rare. The objective of this community-engaged qualitative research study was to gain insight into how to promote knowledge dissemination regarding newly developed low-risk drinking guidelines for older adults. A convenience sample of 66 older adults and service providers participated in three Knowledge Café dialogue workshops and discussed their opinions about alcohol use in later life, and ideas for sharing alcohol-related research evidence with the community. Participants discussed (a) low-risk drinking knowledge dissemination, (b) personal choice in drinking alcohol and adherence to low-risk drinking guidelines, and (c) preferences for engaging in discussions about alcohol use. Community dialogues fostered knowledge dissemination while participants engaged in rich conversations about a rarely discussed topic. Sharing evidence-based clinical advice with community stakeholders through dialogue events offers an innovative opportunity for health promotion efforts

Canham, S. L., Custodio, K., Mauboules, C., Good, C., & Bosma, H. (2020). Health and psychosocial needs of older adults who are experiencing homelessness following hospital discharge. The Gerontologist, 60(4), 715–724. Go to article

• Though hospitals are a common location where older adults experiencing homelessness receive health care, an understanding of the types of supports needed upon hospital discharge is limited. The authors examined the unique characteristics of older homeless adults and the health and psychosocial supports required upon hospital discharge. As the population of older adults increases across North America, there is a parallel trend in increased numbers of older adults who are experiencing homelessness. Not only is there often a need for ongoing medical care and respite, but there is a need for both shelter and housing options that can appropriately support individual needs.

Wada, M., Canham, S. L., Battersby, L., Sixsmith, J., Woolrych, R., Fang, M. L., & Sixsmith, A. (2020). Perceptions of home in long-term care settings: Before and after institutional relocation. Ageing & Society, 40(6), 1267-1290. Go to article

• Although moving from institutional to home-like long-term care (LTC) settings can promote and sustain the health and wellbeing of older adults, there has been little research examining how home is perceived by older adults when moving between care settings. A qualitative study was conducted over a two-year period during the relocation of residents and staff from an institutional LTC home to a purpose-built LTC home in Western Canada. The study explored perceptions of home amongst residents, family members, and staff. Accordingly, 210 semi-structured interviews were conducted at five time-points with 35 residents, 23 family members, and 81 staff. Thematic analyses generated four superordinate themes that are suggestive of how to create and enhance a sense of home in LTC settings: (a) physical environment features; (b) privacy and personalization; (c) autonomy, choice, and flexibility; and (d) connectedness and togetherness. The findings reveal that the physical environment features are foundational for the emergence of social and personal meanings associated with a sense of home, and highlight the impact of care practices on the sense of home when the workplace becomes a home. In addition, tension that arises between providing care and creating a home-like environment in LTC settings is discussed.

Butt, P. R., White-Campbell, M., Canham, S. L., Dowsett Johnston, A., Indome, E. O., Purcell, B., Tung, J., & Van Bussel, L. (2020). Canadian guidelines on alcohol use disorder among older adults. Canadian Geriatrics Journal, 23(1), 143-148. Go to article

• Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is an increasingly common, under-recognized, and under-treated health concern in older adults. Its prevalence is expected to reach unprecedented levels as the Canadian population ages. In response, Health Canada commissioned the Canadian Coalition of Seniors’ Mental Health to create guidelines for the prevention, screening, assessment, and treatment of AUD in older adults. Twenty-two recommendations were created.

Castillo, J., Hendrix, E. W., Nguyen, V. L., & Riquino, M. R. (accepted). Macro practice supervision by social work field instructors. Journal of Social Work Education. Accepted: 2 March 2020.

• Although the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has identified field education and macro practice as core domains in social work education, there has been limited research examining the implementation of macro practice elements into field education settings. In an effort to add to the extant literature, this exploratory study aimed to collect information from a sample of field instructors examining: 1) field instructors’ integration of macro practice elements in the field practicum setting, and 2) the amount of time field instructors allotted to discussing macro practice elements in their weekly supervision with students. Surveys were completed by 102 field instructors associated with an accredited undergraduate and graduate-level social work education program at a public university in the Intermountain West region of the United States. This study found that: field instructors integrate few or limited macro practice elements into the field practicum placement; field instructors spend minimal time discussing macro practice elements with students during weekly supervision; and field instructors’ discussion of macro practice elements varied during supervision, and this discussion on varied macro practice elements differed by the type of field practicum setting (primary area of practice focus). Implications for social work education and field practicum education are provided and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Becerra, D., Hernandez, G., Porchas, F., Castillo, J., Nguyen, V., & González, R. P. (2020). Immigration policies and examining the relationship between immigration enforcement and depression, anxiety, and stress among Latino immigrants. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 29(1-3), 43-59. Go to article

• Using a legal violence framework, this paper examines the relationship between current immigration policies and the mental health of Latino immigrants in Arizona. Data were drawn from a sample of adult Latino immigrants (n = 427) living in Arizona. Results indicated that participants who reported a greater personal suffering as a consequence of current immigration policies reported significantly higher symptoms of 1) depression, 2) anxiety, and 3) stress. In addition, participants who reported greater family suffering as a consequence of current immigration policies reported significantly higher symptoms of: 1) anxiety and 2) stress.

Frost, C. J., Gonzalez-Pons, K., & Gren, L.H. (2020). Integration in the age of populism? Highlighting key terms in the context of refugee resettlement in the United States. In C. Noble & G. Ottmann (Eds.) The challenge of right-wing nationalist populism for social work: A human rights approach (pp. 111-121) Routledge. Go to chapter

• Over the past 15 years, right-wing nationalist populist language and ideals have come to the forefront of political and social discussions in the U.S. The purpose of this type of populism in the U.S. is to increase divisions in the population in such a way that certain groups of people in the general population (i.e. Protestant and white), are valued more than others, such as newly arrived refugees and/or immigrants. This chapter explores the impact of U.S. right-wing nationalist populism on refugee resettlement and the process of integration for newly arrived groups. The role of social work in advocating for support of refugees is examined.

Gren, L. H., Benson, L. S., & Frost, C. J. (2020). Global U: Exploring curricular development and outcomes in three University of Utah experiential learning abroad programs. Pedagogy in Health Promotion: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 6(1), 36-45. Go to article

• The University of Utah is a publicly funded, R1 university located in the United States, with a mission statement that includes recognition of its global role, asserting that “... we engage local and global communities to promote education, health, and quality of life.” As part of that engagement, the University of Utah has offered learning abroad opportunities since 1967. Approximately 1 in 10 students participates in a global learning experience, and 80% of programs are short term (defined as 10 weeks or less). The pedagogical theories that guide these short-term programs are experiential learning, authentic learning, and intentional targeted intervention. The authors describe three short-term learning abroad programs in public health and social work—for students at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate level—connecting the reported benefits to the pedagogical model and theories used to develop the specific curriculum for these short-term programs. Faculty use a variety of reflective tools to help students learn to function in their new setting (experiential learning); explore and meaningfully construct concepts and relationships as they address real-world problems (authentic learning); and facilitate intercultural growth (intentional targeted learning). The University of Utah has adapted a three-stage model for learning abroad that incorporates principles from these theories to drive program activities: Plan (predeparture), Learn (program participation), and Integrate (postprogram). Immediate benefits to students of participating in a global-learning experience include intercultural learning, personal, and career development. Benefits to faculty include scholarly products in the domains of education and service learning, community-engaged participation, and research.

Goa, Y., Xie, S., & Frost, C. J. (2020). An ecological investigation of resilience among rural-urban migrant adolescents of low socio-economic status families in China. Journal of Community Psychology, 48(3), 862-878. Go to article

• This study aims to explore the mechanism of resilience among rural‐urban migrant adolescents of low socioeconomic status (SES) families in China with the ecological system perspective. Selecting 946 rural‐urban migrant adolescents from the China Education Panel Survey, the researchers used latent class analyses to distinguish different levels of resilience among migrant adolescents from low‐SES families, and logistic regressions to identify factors associated with resilience and to examine the cumulative risk and protection models. The findings show that parental expectation, teacher support, and organized neighborhood are salient resilience‐promoting factors; and resilience happens only if protective factors accumulate enough at multiple systems to compensate the negative effect of cumulative community risk. The study describes the importance of a protective environment in the domains of family, school, and neighborhood on the resilience of this group, and suggests intervention programs should extend the paradigm from a child‐centered approach to an environment‐focused approach to potentiate the positive development of this population.

Campbell, K. A., Gamarra, E., Frost, C. J., Choi, B., & Keeenan, H. (2020). Childhood adversity and health after physical abuse. Pediatrics, 146(4), e20200638. Go to article

• Involvement with Child Protective Services (CPS) provides an opportunity to recognize those children at risk for ongoing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). The relationship between ACEs and child health among CPS-involved children, and the role of primary care providers (PCPs) in moderating this relationship, is unknown. Children with CPS involvement have ACE exposures that are associated with reduced health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Although PCPs are often unaware of CPS involvement or other ACEs, many caregivers welcome the support of a child’s PCP in improving child well-being after adversity.

Gonzalez-Pons, K., Gallegos, I., Graves, S., & Frost, C. J., (2020). Employing the right annual data collection efforts to combat IPV on college campuses. Journal of American College Health. First published online: 6 February 2020. Go to article

• Present data collection efforts to identify and address intimate partner violence on college campuses and universities are flawed. Traditional methods utilized to report on intimate partner violence on campus, including campus climate surveys and Clery Act reporting guidelines, are insufficient in that they do not capture the full scope of intimate partner violence. Inconsistent operationalization of intimate partner violence affects prevalence rates, generalizations across entities, and subsequent programing efforts. This viewpoint is a call for universities to standardize data collection efforts that accurately capture the wide range of actions and perpetrations that constitute intimate partner violence so as to prevent the further loss of student lives on campus.

Knight, J. A., Kehm, R. D., Schwartz, L., Frost, C. J., Chung, W. K., Colonna, S., Keegan, T. H. M., Goldberg, M., Houghton, L. C., Hanna, D., Glendon, G., Daly, M. B., Buy, S. S., Andrulis, I. L., John, E. M., Bradbury, A. R., & Terry, M. B. (2020). Pre-pubertal internalizing symptoms and timing of puberty onset in girls. American Journal of Epidemiology. First published online: 15 October 2020. Go to article

• Stressful environments have been associated with earlier menarche. The authors hypothesized that anxiety, and possibly other internalizing symptoms, are also associated with earlier puberty in girls. The LEGACY Girls Study (2011-2016) includes 1040 girls aged 6 to 13 years at recruitment with growth and development assessed every six months. Pre-pubertal maternal reports of daughter’s internalizing symptoms were available for breast onset (N=447), pubic hair onset (N=456), and menarche (N=681). Using Cox Proportional Hazard Regression, the authors estimated prospective hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the relationship between one standard deviation of the percentiles of pre-pubertal anxiety, depression, and somatization symptoms and the timing of each pubertal outcome. Multivariable models included age, race/ethnicity, study center, maternal education, body mass index percentile, and breast cancer family history. Additional models included maternal self-reported anxiety. One standard deviation increase of maternally-reported anxiety in girls at baseline was associated with earlier subsequent onset of breast and pubic hair development, but not menarche). The association of anxiety with earlier breast development persisted after adjustment for maternal anxiety. Increased anxiety in young girls may indicate risk for earlier pubertal onset.

Riches, N. O., Rothwell, E., Johnson, E. P., Frost, C. J., & Goldenberg, A. (2020). The limited use of U.S. residual newborn screening dried bloodspots for health disparity research. Genetics in Medicine, 22, 1723-1726. Go to article

• State-run newborn screening programs screen nearly all babies born in the United States at the time of delivery. After newborn screening has been completed, some states store the residual dried bloodspots. It is unknown how they have been used to address health disparities-related research. Excluding 12 studies that researched leukemia or a brain tumor, only 20 studies addressed a known health disparity, with six stating a specific aim to address a health disparity. This resource could be used to gain further knowledge about health disparities, but is currently underutilized.

Garland, E. L., Hudak, J., Hanley, A. W., & Nakamura, Y. (2020). Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement reduces opioid dose in primary care by strengthening autonomic regulation during meditation. American Psychologist, 75(6), 840-852. Go to article

• The current opioid crisis was fueled by escalation of opioid dosing among patients with chronic pain. Yet, there are few evidence-based psychological interventions for opioid dose reduction among chronic pain patients treated with long-term opioid analgesics. Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE), which was designed to target mechanisms underpinning chronic pain and opioid misuse, has shown promising results in two randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and could facilitate opioid sparing and tapering by bolstering self-regulation. Here the authors tested this hypothesis with secondary analyses of data from a stage II RCT. Chronic pain patients (N = 95) on long-term opioid therapy were randomized to eight weeks of MORE or a support group (SG) control delivered in primary care. Opioid dose was assessed with the Timeline Followback through three-month follow-up. Heart rate variability (HRV) during mindfulness meditation was quantified as an indicator of self-regulatory capacity. Participants in MORE evidenced a greater decrease in opioid dosing (a 32% decrease) by follow-up than did the SG (F(2, 129.77) = 5.35, p = .006, d = 1.07). MORE was associated with a significantly greater increase in HRV during meditation than was the SG. Meditation-induced change in HRV partially mediated the effect of MORE on opioid dose reduction (p = .034). MORE may boost self-regulatory strength via mindfulness and thereby facilitate self-control over opioid use, leading to opioid dose reduction in people with chronic pain.

Garland, E. L., Hanley, A. W., Riquino, M. R., Reese, S. E., Baker, A. K., Salas, K., Yack, B. P., Bedford, C. E., Bryan, M. A., Atchley, R. M., Nakamura, U., Froeliger, B., & Howard, M. O. (2020). Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement reduces opioid misuse risk via analgesic and positive psychological mechanisms: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 87(10), 927-940. Go to article

• Current pharmacological and psychological pain treatments focus largely on reducing negative emotional reactions to pain. This study suggests that a new psychological treatment, Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement, decreases risk for prescription opioid misuse among patients with chronic pain by increasing positive psychological factors like positive emotions and meaning in life.

Garland, E. L., Bryan, M. A., Hanley, A. W., & Howard, M. O. (2020). Neurocognitive mechanisms of mindfulness-based interventions for addiction. In A. Verdejo-Garcia (Ed.) Cognition and Addiction: A researcher’s guide from mechanisms toward interventions (pp. 283-293). Academic Press. 9780128152980. Go to chapter

• Recent developments in cognitive neuroscience provide insight into the neurocognitive deficits underlying addiction. At the same time, mindfulness meditation practices have emerged as promising treatments for addictive disorders. This chapter first presents evidence supporting mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) as effective therapies for addictive disorders. Next, “top-down” and “bottom-up” mechanisms through which MBIs exert their therapeutic effects on addictive behavior are detailed. A neurobiological framework is integrated throughout the text, highlighting parallels between the restorative effects of mindfulness practice on the brain and dysregulated neural functions undergirding addictive behaviors. Finally, MBIs are considered as means of recovery enhancement in the broader context of long-term addiction treatment.

Cahill, C., Quijada Cerecer, D. A., Alvarez Gutiérrez, L., González Coronado, Y. S., Hernández Zamudio, J., Martinez, J., & Reyna Rivarola, A. R. (2020). 'Still we rise': critical participatory research for justice. In A. Datta, P. Hopkins, L. Johnston, E. Olson, & J. M. Silva (Eds.) Routledge handbook of gender and feminist geographies (pp. 410-422). Routledge International Handbooks. 9781138057685. Go to chapter

• The anti-apartheid wisdom of ‘Nothing about us, without us, is for us,’ resonates strongly with the commitment of critical participatory action research (PAR) to value knowledges that are historically marginalized and produced through collaboration and in action. In this spirit, this chapter engages with the promises and potential of PAR as a transformative social justice project that is epistemologically and ontologically rooted in democratic participation and critical inquiry, and in conversation with social movements. Drawing upon Mestizo Arts & Activism Collective’s participatory research projects, the authors discuss the role of critical PAR in the struggle for immigration rights.

Hendrix, E., Barusch, A., & Gringeri, C. (2020). Eats me alive!: Social workers reflect on practice in neoliberal contexts. Social Work Education.  First published online: 27 January 2020. Go to article

• Social workers regularly engage with people who have experienced traumatic events—such as domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, persecution, or armed conflict—but our understanding of how this work affects social workers themselves is still developing. Theories of burnout, vicarious trauma, and secondary traumatic stress illuminate the difficulty of trauma work, yet these approaches generally assign accountability for self-care to individual social workers, neglecting the contexts in which they operate—a response that reflects the neoliberal ideology of personal responsibility. In this article, the authors argue social workers charged with supporting those who experience trauma are themselves jeopardized by the organizational manifestations of neoliberalism. This article presents the reflections of social workers doing difficult work in neoliberal contexts. In-depth interviews were conducted with seven American social workers serving trauma-affected clients in non-clinical roles to better understand how they experienced their work. In their responses, participants underscored the centrality of organizational and systemic contexts. As one of our participants commented, 'The organizational stuff eats me alive!’ It calls on social work educators to prepare students to recognize, critically engage, and resist neoliberal elements of their practice contexts.

Harrell, S., Anderson-Nathe, B., Wahab, S., & Gringeri, C. (accepted). Feminist research practice: Reorienting a politic for social work. In C. Cocker & T. Hafford-Letchfield (Eds.), Rethinking feminist theories for social work practice. Palgrave Publishing.

• In recent decades, social work research, practice, and education have become increasingly constrained by the braided influences of neoliberalism, professionalization, and criminalization. Using concrete practice examples, this chapter proposes that principles of feminist research rooted in understandings of power as dynamic, historic, and structural offer a potential interruption to the influences of the braid on social work practice. Through their contributions to knowledge production, education, and practice, the authors hold that tenets of feminist research open a new politic for social work, in which social work scholars, practitioners, and educators might interrupt dominant paradigms in the field and open space for collaborative action and a new social work future.

Hanley, A. W. & Garland, E. L. (2020). The Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement Fidelity Measure (MORE-FM): Development and validation of a new tool to assess therapist adherence and competence. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work. First published online: 8 November 2020. Go to article

• Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) is a mind-body therapy that unites complementary aspects of mindfulness training, third-wave cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and principles from positive psychology into an integrative treatment for addiction and its comorbidities. As interest in MORE has grown among researchers and clinicians, there is an increasing need to provide quality assurance measures to ensure treatment integrity during implementation of MORE. Here, the authors describe the development and validation of the Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement Fidelity Measure (MORE-FM). Findings from this study yielded insights for future iterations of the MORE-FM. In sum, the MORE-FM is a valuable tool for assessing and enhancing the integrity of MORE in future research trials and clinical applications.

Hanley, A. W. & Garland, E. L. (2020). Salivary measurement and mindfulness-based modulation of prescription opioid cue-reactivity. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 217(1). Go to article

• Chronic pain patients on long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) may be at elevated risk for developing conditioned opioid cue-reactivity as their prescribed dosing schedules simultaneously function as fixed reinforcement schedules. Since opioids are typically consumed orally during LTOT, it stands to reason that opioid cue exposure might elicit conditioned salivary responses. However, no study has examined salivary cue-reactivity among opioid users during in-vivo exposure to their own prescription opioid medication. Study findings demonstrate salivation may serve as a useful, objective index of opioid cue-reactivity. With further refinement of this task, conditioned salivary response could be used to identify especially vulnerable patients, who then could be targeted with a personalized medicine approach for selective and intensive prevention/treatment interventions to preempt escalation of opioid use to opioid misuse and opioid use disorder (OUD).

Hanley, A. W., Bettmann, J. E., Kendrick, C.E., Derringer, A., & Norton, C.L (2020). Dispositional mindfulness is associated with greater nature connectedness and self-reported ecological behavior. Ecopsychology, 12(1), 54-63. Go to article

• Environmental problems are worsening as human behavior continues to damage the environment. However, not all human behavior has negative environmental consequences, and many people make concerted efforts to behave in environmentally sensitive ways. Yet, the personal qualities that contribute to ecological behavior remain imprecisely characterized. This study explored two individual difference variables believed to support ecological behavior: 1) dispositional mindfulness, and 2) nature connectedness. In this pursuit, two participant samples (N = 54, N = 299) completed self-report surveys on dispositional mindfulness, mindfulness practice involvement, nature connectedness, and ecological behavior. Path analysis revealed positive associations between dispositional mindfulness, nature connectedness, and self-reported ecological behavior, with nature connectedness found to mediate the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and self-reported ecological behavior in both samples. Examining the multidimensional dispositional mindfulness construct more granularly, results indicated the mindful tendency to observe internal and external events nonjudgmentally was particularly important for self-reported ecological behavior. Finally, mindfulness practitioners reported greater nature connectedness and more self-reported ecological behavior. Implications of these findings for human ecological behavior are explored.

Hanley, A. W., Dorjee, D., & Garland, E. L. (2020). Mindfulness training encourages self-transcendent states via decentering. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice. First published online. Go to article

• Self-transcendence is theorized to be a core mechanism of mindfulness. Yet, no known empirical study has investigated the process by which self-transcendent experiences emerge in novice practitioners. To address this gap, this study explored whether changes in decentering in response to mindfulness training translated into increases in self-transcendence over the course of five mindfulness training sessions. Participants (N=26) were randomly allocated to either a mindfulness training condition or an active listening condition. Results indicated that mindfulness training increased both decentering (p=.023) and self-transcendence (p=.001) relative to the active listening condition. Furthermore, greater decentering at the mid-point of training predicted greater self-transcendence at the training’s end, suggesting that those participants that become better able to non-reactively observe their thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations while meditating were also more likely to experience self-transcendence. This study provides the first empirical evidence that mindfulness training can cultivate self- transcendent experiences through the process of decentering from internal phenomena.

Hanley, A. W., Bernstein, A., Nakamura, Y., Hadash, Y., Rojas, J., Tennant, K., Jensen, R. L., & Garland, E. L. (2020). The Metacognitive Processes of Decentering Scale: Development and Initial Validation of Trait and State Versions. Psychological Assessment, 32(10), 956-971. Go to article

• The ability to decenter from internal experiences is important for mental health. Consequently, improving decentering is a common therapeutic target, particularly for mindfulness-based interventions. However, extant decentering measures are limited, as they fail to directly assess all three metacognitive processes recently theorized to sub-serve decentering. The authors thus conducted four studies to develop and test the Metacognitive Processes of Decentering-Trait (MPoD-t) and State (MPoD-s) scales. Consistent with the metacognitive processes model, exploratory factor analysis (N = 355), and then bi-factor exploratory structural equation modeling (N = 275), indicated the MPoD-t was composed of three independent yet interrelated lower-order factors: meta-awareness, (dis)identification with internal experience, and (non)reactivity to internal experience, which sub-served an emergent, higher-order, decentering factor. The authors next found evidence of the MPoD-t's convergent validity, as well as known-groups criterion validity, wherein mindfulness practitioners reported higher MPoD-t scores than non-practitioners. Item response theory analyses were then used to identify a subset of three MPoD-t items for the MPoD-s. Finally, the authors found evidence that the MPoD-s was sensitive to changes in state decentering following a brief mindfulness induction relative to an active control condition, and that MPoD-s changes mediated the effect of mindfulness on levels of pain and related outcomes among a sample of preoperative surgery patients (N = 82). These studies indicate the trait and state versions of the MPoD may prove useful for the study of decentering and its constituent metacognitive processes. As such, the MPoD may help advance understanding of how the metacognitive processes of decentering support mental health and well-being.

Deringer, S. A., Hanley, A. W., Hodges, J., & Griffin, L. K. (2020). Improving ecological behavior in outdoor recreation through mindfulness: A mixed methods inquiry. Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education, and Leadership, 12(2), 149-163. Go to article

• Outdoor recreation professionals have long sought to impact environmental behavior of participants. Mindfulness and nature connection have recently been explored as possible constructs to impact environmental behavior. The purpose of this study was to better understand the impact of mindful outdoor recreation trips on college students’ nature connectedness and ecological behavior. The authors used an explanatory mixed methods approach to explore the relationship between mindfulness, nature connection, and ecological behavior. Quantitative findings suggest that being mindfully outdoors has a positive effect on the degree to which nature is included in the sense of self and on ecological behavior. Qualitative findings support the quantitative findings and suggest that students use mindfulness to connect with nature and to care more for the environment. These findings suggest that the use of mindfulness interventions in outdoor education programming may improve nature connection and ecological behavior.

Sneed, J. C., Deringer, S. A., & Hanley, A. W. (2020). Immersive technology and nature connection. Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education, and Leadership,12(2), 228-231. Go to the article

• It has long been assumed that to connect with nature, a person must spend time in nature, and human impact of venturing into natural spaces can result in disturbance or damage. For many, experiencing nature comes with associated costs and often requires physical abilities or additional resources that can limit participation. Privileged with a lack of physical impact, relatively low consumer costs, and few physical barriers, virtual immersive experiences may provide impactful and expanded opportunity for people to connect with nature. The purpose of this study was determine if participants using a head-mounted display could experience nature connection.

Skolaksy, R. L., Wegener, S. T., Aaron, R. V., Ephraim, P., Brennan, G., Greene, T., Lane, E., Minick, K., Hanley, A. W., Garland, E. L., & Fritz, J. M. (2020). The OPTIMIZE study: Protocol of a pragmatic sequential multiple assessment randomized trial of nonpharmacologic treatment for chronic, nonspecific low back pain. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 21(293). First published online: 11 May 2020. Go to the article

• Low back pain is a prevalent condition that causes a substantial health burden. Despite intensive and expensive clinical efforts, its prevalence is growing. Nonpharmacologic treatments are effective at improving pain-related outcomes; however, treatment effect sizes are often modest. Physical therapy (PT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have the most consistent evidence of effectiveness. Growing evidence also supports mindfulness-based approaches. Discussions with providers and patients highlight the importance of discussing and trying options to find the treatment that works for them, and determining what to do when initial treatment is not successful. Herein, the authors present the protocol for a study that will evaluate evidence-based, protocol-driven treatments using PT, CBT, or mindfulness to examine comparative effectiveness and optimal sequencing for patients with chronic low back pain. Results of this study may inform referring providers and patients about the most effective non-operative treatment and/or sequence of non-operative treatments to treat chronic low back pain.

Hudak, J., Hanley, A. W., Marchand, W. R., Nakamura, Y., Yabko, B., & Garland, E. L., (2020). Endogenous theta stimulation during meditation predicts reduced opioid dosing following treatment with Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement. Neuropsychopharmacology. First published online: 12 September 2020. Go to the article

• Veterans experience chronic pain at greater rates than the rest of society and are more likely to receive long-term opioid therapy (LTOT), which, at high doses, is theorized to induce maladaptive neuroplastic changes that attenuate self-regulatory capacity and exacerbate opioid dose escalation. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to modulate frontal midline theta (FMT) and alpha oscillations that are linked with marked alterations in self-referential processing. These adaptive neural oscillatory changes may promote reduced opioid use and remediate the neural dysfunction occasioned by LTOT. In this study, the authors used electroencephalography (EEG) to assess the effects of a mindfulness-based, cognitive training intervention for opioid misuse, Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE), on alpha and theta power and FMT coherence during meditation. The authors then examined whether these neural effects were associated with reduced opioid dosing and changes in self-referential processing. Before and after eight weeks of MORE or a supportive psychotherapy control, veterans receiving LTOT (N = 62) practiced mindfulness meditation while EEG was recorded. Participants treated with MORE demonstrated significantly increased alpha and theta power (with larger theta power effect sizes) as well as increased FMT coherence relative to those in the control condition—neural changes that were associated with altered self-referential processing. Crucially, MORE significantly reduced opioid dose over time, and this dose reduction was partially statistically mediated by changes in frontal theta power. Study results suggest that mindfulness meditation practice may produce endogenous theta stimulation in the prefrontal cortex, thereby enhancing inhibitory control over opioid dose escalation behaviors.

Hudak, J., Prince, K. C. , Marchand, W. R., Nakamura, Y., Hanley, A. W., Bryan, C. J., Froeliger, B., & Garland, E. L. (2020). The temporal dynamics of emotion dysregulation in prescription opioid misuse. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 110024. First published online: 24 June 2020. Go to article

• Opioid misuse is theorized to compromise the capacity to regulate positive and negative emotions. Yet, the temporal dynamics of emotion dysregulation in opioid misuse remain unclear. Opioid misuse among people with chronic pain is associated with emotion dysregulation that occurs within the first few seconds of an emotional provocation. Treatments for opioid misuse should aim to remediate these deficits in emotion regulation.

Blume, F., Quixal, M., Hudak, J., Dresler, T., Gawrilow, C., & Ehlis, A. C. (2020). Development of reading abilities in children with ADHD following fNIRS-neurofeedback or EMG-biofeedback. Lernen Und Lernstörungen, 9(3), 163-174. Go to the article

• Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show deficient reading skills, which, like ADHD symptoms, are associated with limitations in neurocognitive abilities. Neurofeedback (NF) aims to improve the latter, to alleviate ADHD symptoms, and to promote school and reading performances. Whether frontal lobe-NF based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electromyogram (EMG)-biofeedback (BF), however, improve reading abilities of children with ADHD and whether these changes are associated with changes in neurocognitive abilities, has not yet been clarified. It was also unclear whether embedding trainings in virtual reality (VR) could increase their effectiveness. These questions were examined using data of 35 children with ADHD (6–11 years) who participated in 15 sessions of fNIRS-NF in VR, fNIRS-NF in 2D, or EMG-BF in VR. On average, children's reading performance improved in all training groups. Stronger improvements were found after VR trainings. Improvements in reading natural words were, on a trend level, accompanied by decreasing attention, while improvements in reading pseudowords were accompanied by improved sustained attention and response inhibition. The results suggest that fNIRS-NF and EMG-BF effectively improve reading abilities of children with ADHD, especially when training in VR.

Rosenbaum, D., Leehr, E. J., Rubel, J., Maier, M. J., Pagliaro, V., Deutsch, K., Hudak, J., Metzger, F. G., Fallgatter, A. J., & Ehlis, A. C. (2020). Cortical oxygenation during exposure therapy – in situ fNIRS measurements in arachnophobia. NeuroImage: Clinical, 26, 102219. Go to the article

• Exposure therapy is a well-studied and highly efficacious treatment for phobic disorders. Although the neuro-biological model of fear is well underpinned by various studies, the mechanisms of exposure therapy are still under discussion. Partly, this is due to the fact that most neurophysiological methods like fMRI are not able to be used in natural therapeutic settings. This study used in situ measurements of cortical blood oxygenation (O2Hb) during exposure therapy by means of functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Thirty-seven subjects (N = 30 completers) underwent exposure therapy during five adapted sessions in which subjects were exposed to Tegenaria Domestica (domestic house spider – experimental condition) and Dendrobaena Veneta/ Eisenaia hortensis (red earthworm – control condition). Compared to the control condition, patients showed higher O2Hb levels in the anticipation and exposure phase of spider exposure in areas of the cognitive control network (CCN). Further, significant decreases in O2Hb were observed during the session accompanied by reductions in fear related symptoms. This study sheds light on the neuronal mechanisms of exposure therapy. The results are discussed in light of a phase model of exposure therapy that posits a role of cognitive control in the beginning and routine learning at the end of the therapy session.

Rosenbaum, D., Leehr, E. J., Kroczek, A., Rubel, J. A., Int-Veen, I., Deutsch, K., Maier, M. J., Hudak, J., Fallgatter, A. J., & Ehlis, A. C. (2020). Neuronal correlates of spider phobia in a combined fNIRS-EEG study. Scientific Reports, 10, 12597. First published online: 28 July 2020. Go to the article

• Specific phobia is associated with aberrant brain activation in confrontation paradigms with phobic stimuli. In previous EEG research, enhanced event-related potentials (ERPs) in the late-positive potential (LPP) window have been observed. Further, studies with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and fMRI suggest that spider phobia is associated with enhanced activation within cortical and subcortical areas. In this study, the authors investigated the neuronal correlates of spider phobia in a combined fNIRS–EEG study. To this end, 37 spider phobic patients (PP) and 32 healthy controls (HC) underwent a symptom provocation paradigm, during which subjects watched video clips of spiders and domestic animals (confrontation phase) after being primed on the content of the video (anticipation phase). Simultaneously, fNIRS, EEG, electromyography (EMG), electrocardiography and behavioral measures were assessed. Study results merge the existing data on neurophysiological correlates of phobic stimulus processing in hemodynamic and electrophysiological research, and extend those of static visual material (pictures) to dynamic visual material (videos).

Rosenbaum, D., Kroczek, A. M., Hudak, J., Rubel, J., Maier, M. J., Sorg, T., Weisbender, L., Goldau, L., Mennin, D., Fresco, D. M., Fallgatter, A. J., & Ehlis, A. C. (2020). Neural correlates of mindful emotion regulation in high and low ruminators. Scientific Reports, 10, 15617. First published online: 24 September 2020. Go to the article

• Depressive rumination is considered a prominent risk factor for the occurrence, severity, and duration of depressive episodes. A variety of treatment options have been developed to treat depressive rumination of which mindfulness-based programs are especially promising. In this study, the authors investigated the neural underpinnings of a short mindfulness intervention and mindful emotion regulation in high and low trait ruminators in an ecologically valid environment using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Participants were randomly assigned to a mindfulness instruction (MT) group or an instructed thinking (IT) group. Participants in the MT group were trained to either focus their attention mindfully on their breath or their emotions, while the IT group focused their attention on the past or future. Afterwards, all participants underwent an emotion regulation paradigm in which they either watched negative or neutral movie clips. During both paradigms cortical hemodynamic changes were assessed by means of fNIRS. Participants in the MT group showed lower activity in the cognitive control network (CCN) during the focus on breath condition in comparison to the focus on emotion condition. Further, self-reports of emotional distress during the instruction paradigm were reduced in the MT group. During the emotion regulation paradigm, the authors observed reduced emotional reactivity in terms of emotional distress and avoidance in the MT group in comparison to the IT group. The results of this pilot study are discussed in light of the literature on the neural correlates of mindfulness-based interventions in rumination and emphasize the use of fNIRS to track neural changes in situ over the course of therapy.

Hoy-Ellis, C. P. (accepted). Minority stress: Where have we been and where are we going? Journal of Homosexuality.

Hoy-Ellis, C. P. (in press). Just Practice with midlife and older LGBT adults. In J. Finn (Ed.), The Just Practice Framework in action: Contemporary case studies. Oxford University Press.

Keyes, T. S. & White, K. G. (accepted). Igniting the warrior spirit to address historical trauma among Indigenous people. In H. Weaver (Ed.), RoutledgeHandbook on Indigenous Resilience.  Routledge.  Accepted on: 25 November 2020.

• The Warrior Spirit Movement to Heal Historical Trauma, through Native Health Care Solutions LLC, is a non-profit corporation working to help heal Native people and communities through the integration of Native traditional knowledge with Western knowledge. The primary goals are to provide education about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and traditional healing practices, and to support trauma-informed approaches within Native communities. This chapter outlines the barriers to healing, the philosophy, and the evolution of the Warrior Spirit Movement to Heal Historical Trauma. This movement officially began in 2018, when there was a call to action from Native people to mobilize and address the trauma that was affecting their communities. In response to that mandate, three “Calling upon the Warrior Spirit” conferences were held that integrated a trauma-informed approach along with traditional healing practices and ceremonies in Native communities. Conference participants engaged in presentations and ceremonies from health care professionals, scientists, and traditional healers about approaches to healing through holistic, culturally-sensitive programs, services, and systems. Future goals and plans for the Warrior Spirit Movement to Heal Historical Trauma are underway.

Loomis, A. M. & Felt, F. (2020). Knowledge, skills, and self: Linking trauma-informed training content to trauma-informed attitudes and stress in preschool teachers and staff. School Mental Health. First published online: 16 October 2020. Go to article

• Increasingly, preschools are integrating trauma-informed interventions, which often include components of training, to improve practices and promote the well-being of children who have experienced trauma. Similar interventions have been linked to positive outcomes for older children; however, there is limited research that examines whether or how training on trauma specifically contributes to child and staff well-being within early childhood settings such as preschools. This study examines the relationship between trauma-informed training content, trauma-informed attitudes, and stress in a sample of 111 preschool staff (49% lead teachers, 20% assistant teachers, and 27% other staff such as administrators and classroom aides). This study examined the unique influence of training related to trauma-informed skills (e.g., screening for trauma, responding to challenging trauma-related behaviors) and trauma-informed self-reflection (e.g., the impact of a child’s trauma on staff) on trauma-related attitudes and stress (including general stress and child-related stress) in a sample of teachers and staff with prior training on trauma-informed knowledge (e.g., definitions of trauma). The findings of this study suggest that all trauma-informed training is not equal; training that focuses on self-reflection, such as the role of vicarious trauma, may be particularly important as part of a trauma-informed school approach. Trauma-informed attitudes are also an important mechanism through which trauma-informed interventions may influence staff well-being in preschool settings.

Loomis, A. M. (2020). Preschool self-regulation as a mediator between adverse childhood experiences and student-teacher conflict: The role of race and gender. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 54(1), 294-306. First published online: 26 October 2020. Go to article

• Nearly half of young children nationally have some sort of preschool experience by the time they enter kindergarten. Many of these children have experienced one or more types of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as child maltreatment or exposure to violence. Exploring how adversity impacts children in the preschool context may highlight potential opportunities for trauma-informed interventions, as well as ways to reduce racial disparities seen in preschool outcomes, such as school readiness and suspension/expulsion rates. This study explores the relationship between children’s exposure to cumulative adversity, their self-regulation, and their relationship with their teachers in a sample of predominantly Black (29%) and Latino (71%) children. Data were collected from caregivers of preschool children (n = 126) on their child’s lifetime exposure to twelve childhood adversities, including traditional ACEs (e.g., domestic violence exposure and parental substance use) and environmental ACEs (e.g., community violence exposure and food insecurity). Data was also collected from teachers at the middle and end of the preschool year on the child’s self-regulation and on the student-teacher relationship. Children in the sample experienced an average of three adversities, with a range of zero–10 ACEs. In a series of path analyses, children’s mid-year self-regulation problems mediated the relationship between children’s ACEs and their end-of-year student-teacher conflict. Above and beyond the contribution of cumulative adversity, teachers reported higher self-regulation problems and student-teacher conflict for Black preschoolers in the study than for other children. The findings in this study highlight the potential negative impact of cumulative adversity on children in the preschool context and supports the need for the development of trauma-informed preschool models that attend to racial disparities and implicit bias to best support the well-being of adversity-exposed young children.

Loomis, A. M. (2020). Effects of household and environmental adversity on self-regulation for Latino and African American preschool children: Closing the school readiness gap. Early Education and Development. First published online: 6 April 2020. Go to article

• Addressing factors that influence children’s self-regulation is a critical step toward closing achievement gaps that have consistently been found for African American and Latino children, as well as children living in poverty. Cumulative sociodemographic risk in childhood is now widely understood to be a developmental risk factor for children. However, the relationship between cumulative risk and multi-method indicators of self-regulation has not been widely explored, particularly with diverse preschool populations. This study examines the relationship between cumulative household and environmental risk indicators, bottom-up indicators of self-regulation (fear, attention bias to threat), and top-down indicators of self-regulation (inhibitory and emotional control) in a sample of 126 predominantly Latino and African American preschoolers. Findings from indirect effects path analyses suggest a pathway from cumulative environmental risk to inhibitory self-regulation through bias to threat and fear, as reported by both parents and teachers. An expanded conceptualization of cumulative risk may support the development of systemic interventions that address factors disproportionately experienced by ethnic minority children in low-income urban areas and reduce disparities in early school readiness.

Loomis, A. M. (2020). Pathways from family violence exposure to disruptive behavior and suspension in elementary school. Journal of Family Trauma, Child Custody, & Child Development, 17(1), 21-36. First published online: 30 March 2020. Go to article

• Suspension is associated with a host of negative outcomes, including future suspension and poor academic engagement. A number of demographic and behavioral factors, such as behaviors and race/ethnicity, have been found to predict a child’s risk of suspension; however factors in the family environment, such as family violence, have not been widely explored within this body of literature. This study examined whether disruptive behaviors mediated the relationship between family violence exposure and suspension in elementary school using data from the age 8 wave of the LONGSCAN dataset. In this sample, 68% of children had been exposed to some sort of family violence and 6.6% of children had been suspended. The direct pathway from family violence to suspension was significant, as was the indirect pathway through disruptive behaviors, where children exposed to more family violence were more likely to exhibit disruptive behaviors and more likely to be suspended. In this sample, boys and African American students were also more likely to be suspended. These findings support the need for school-based responses that addresses both the impact of violence exposure and racial disparities within discussions of children’s outcomes.

Loomis, A. M., Sonsteng-Person, M., Jaggers, J., & Osteen, P. J. (2020). School discipline as a consequence of violent victimization in adolescence: Understanding the mediating roles of head injury and fighting. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. First published online: 22 September 2020. Go to article

• Pathways from violence to head injury and poor long-term outcomes have been found among numerous populations, however, have not yet been widely examined with youth exposed to violence. Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are linked to a range of consequences salient to adolescent development and well-being, such as impulsivity, academic abilities, and emotional processing. This gap in research has led to a missed opportunity to understand the consequences of youth victimization, particularly within the academic setting. This study examined whether head injury and problem behaviors mediate the relationships between victimization and suspension/expulsion using data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, a multi-site, longitudinal study of serious adolescent offenders age 14–18. A sample of male youth who had witnessed violence (n = 1,094) reported a total score of victimization, number of early behavior problems (i.e., cheating, fighting, etc.), ever having a head injury (32.9%), and number of times suspended (adjusted M = 13.13; SD = 19.31) or expelled (adjusted M = 0.65; SD = 0.99). Structural equation modeling was used to examine direct and indirect pathways from victimization to suspension and expulsion through head injury and behavior. Direct pathways from victimization to school discipline were significant; indirect pathways mediated by only head injury were not significant, but indirect pathways through only problem behavior and through TBI and problem behavior were significant for both expulsion and suspension. Results suggest that youth who have been victimized are at higher risk for both suspension and expulsion and that this risk may be, in part, explained through increased head injury and problem behaviors. TBI screenings/services for violence-exposed youth and trauma-informed school-based services may help to deter trajectories toward suspension and expulsion, but should be developed with attention to the influence of racial bias on pathways to school discipline.

Rogel, A., Loomis, A. M., Hamlin, E., Hodgdon, H., Spinazzola, J., & van der Kolk, B. (2020). The impact of neurofeedback training on children with developmental trauma: A randomized control study. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, & Policy. First published online: 13 July 2020. Go to article

• Developmental trauma or chronic early childhood exposure to abuse and neglect by caregivers has been shown to have a long-lasting, pervasive impact on mental and neural development, including problems with attention, impulse control, self-regulation, and executive functioning. Its long-term effects are arguably the most costly public health challenge in the United States. Children with developmental trauma rarely have a satisfactory response to currently available evidence-based psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatments. Neurofeedback training (NFT) is a clinical application of brain computer interface technology, aiming to alter electrical brain activity associated with various mental dysfunctions. NFT has shown promise to improve posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. This randomized controlled study examined the effects of NFT on 37 children, aged 6–13 years with developmental trauma. This pilot study demonstrated that 24 sessions of NFT significantly decreased PTSD symptoms, internalizing, externalizing, other behavioral and emotional symptoms, and significantly improved the executive functioning of children aged 6–13 years with severe histories of abuse and neglect who had not significantly benefited from any previous therapy. NFT offers the possibility to improve learning, enhance self-efficacy, and develop better social relationships in this hitherto largely treatment-resistant population.

Loomis, A. M., Feely, M., & Kennedy, S. (2020). Measuring self-reported polyvictimization in foster youth research: A systematic review. Child Abuse & Neglect, 107, 104588. First published online: 11 June 2020. Go to article

• Youth who are or have been in foster care (foster youth) are at higher risk for adverse outcomes in early adulthood. As the importance and complexity of victimization experiences—including types, timing, and perpetrators—is better understood, it is unclear whether or to what extent the research on foster youth assesses polyvictimization. Because many types of victimization, such as community violence, are under-reported or absent in the administrative data typically used for research with foster care populations, self-reports of victimization experiences are necessary to comprehensively assess polyvictimization. Polyvictimization places youth at increased risk for adverse outcomes, and yet is not widely measured in the foster youth population. This is likely in part due to the wide-use of administrative reports to assess maltreatment among research on foster youth, which does not capture a full range of victimization experiences. This is the first systematic review to assess the measurement of self-reported polyvictimization in research with current or former foster youth. Given the limited comprehensive assessment of victimization, these findings support strong recommendations for developing or adapting polyvictimization measures specifically for foster youth so that the measures include child welfare-specific factors, such as the timing and perpetration of victimization experiences.

Mogro-Wilson, C., Loomis, A. M., Hayes, C., & Rojas, R. (2020). Emerging bicultural views of fatherhood: Perspectives of Puerto Rican fathers. Advances in Social Work,19(2), 311-328. Go to article

• Puerto Rican fathers remain an understudied population, despite the growing Latino community in the U.S. Understanding how Puerto Rican fathers perceive their roles as fathers can inform our conceptualization of their engagement with children, as well as the development of culturally-specific parenting interventions. In this qualitative study, focus groups were conducted with Puerto Rican men to identify their perceptions of their roles as a fathers and how individual, child, and cultural influences may relate to these roles. Parenting roles identified by fathers in the study were: being there, maintaining open communication, building confidence, preparing for adulthood, teaching culture/values, and providing a role model for their children. The study also explored father and child characteristics, history with their own father, and a hybrid cultural perspective as influences on Puerto Rican fathers’ perceptions of their parenting roles. Due to the increasing population of Puerto Rican and other Latino sub-groups, providers and social workers working with Puerto Rican families should understand the perceived parenting roles within families to better engage and support fathers and families within this growing population.

Gedney, C., Lundahl, B., & Fawson, P. R. (2020). Sexual assault prevention: A randomized control trial of a standard military intervention and a motivational interview enhancement. Violence and Victims, 35(2), 266-280. Go to article

• The authors compared the impact of a sexual assault prevention program (SAPP) in increasing participants’ rejection of sexual assault myths and their willingness to act as bystanders to interrupt possible sexual assaults. College students who had experience with the U.S. Military were recruited and randomized to a “training as usual” or the same training aided by a motivational interview (MI)-based enhancement. Only those in the MI-enhanced SAPP reported increased willingness to intervene to interrupt possible sexual assaults. The MI enhancement took less than 20 minutes to deliver and seems to have promise in amplifying the impact of SAPPs.

Jaggers, J. & Loomis, A. M. (2020). Research at work: Sampling, central tendency, and causation. Families in Society. First published online: 29 June 2020. Go to article

• A basic understanding of statistics is an important piece of social work practice, informing the ability of social workers to interpret and evaluate existing research and to conduct evaluations of programs in their agencies. This article gives an overview of basic statistical concepts of variables, central tendency, and correlation versus causation to give social workers a preliminary foundation to critically evaluate and utilize basic research. The basic statistics in the study “Relationship Between the Five Facets of Mindfulness on Mood and Substance Use Relapse” by Temme and Wang (2018) are unpacked as a way to bring to life the statistical concepts discussed throughout the article.

Min, M. O., Albert, J., Lorincz-Comi, N., Minnes, S., Lester, B., Momotaz, H., Powers, G., Yoon, D., & Singer, L. T. (in press). Prenatal substance exposure and developmental trajectories of internalizing symptoms: toddlerhood to preadolescence. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. First published online: 23 November 2020. Go to article

• Using data from two large community-based birth-cohorts of 1,651 mother-child dyads, this study found that prenatal tobacco exposure was associated with suboptimal developmental trajectories of internalizing (depression, anxiety) symptoms during childhood (age 2 — 13) in the context of prenatal poly-drug exposure, highlighting a need for continued and increased efforts toward prevention of prenatal tobacco use.

Singer L. T., Min, M. O., Momotaz, H., Powers, G., Minnes, S., & Bearer, C. (in press). Association of fatty acid ethyl esters in meconium with behavior during childhood.  Drug and Alcohol Dependence. First published online: 25 November 2020. Go to article

• Using a biomarker of prenatal alcohol exposure, fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) analyzed in meconium, this study demonstrated that higher concentrations of FAEEs (ethyl myristate, ethyl palmitate, ethyl oleate, ethyl linoleate, and ethyl linolenate) were associated with caregiver-reported aggressive and/or delinquent behavior in youth ages 10 and 12. This finding indicates that higher concentrations of FAEEs in meconium are potential markers for prenatal alcohol exposure and may be useful in identifying children at risk for aggressive and delinquent behaviors at school age due to prenatal alcohol exposure.

Kim, J., Minnes, S., Ridenour, T. A., Perzynski, A. T., Min, M. O., & Singer, L. T. (accepted). Attitudinal tolerance of deviance in at-risk early adolescents. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research.  Accepted on: 16 November 2020.

• Built on problem behavior theory, this study examined whether adolescent attitudinal tolerance of deviance (ATD) precedes health risk behaviors. The authors examined patterns of adolescent attitudinal tolerance of deviance (ATD) among early adolescents with prenatal drug exposure and associated the patterns with later risk behaviors. Latent class analysis identified three distinctive patterns of ATD: intolerance, tolerance-of-relational-deviance, and tolerance-of-all-deviance. These different ATD patterns differentiated subsequent alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors.

Drake-Brooks, M. M., Hinkson, K. D., Osteen, P. J., & Bryant, C. (2020). Examining the DSM-5 latent structures of posttraumatic stress disorder in a national sample of student veterans. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 74, 102262. Go to article

• To date, no studies have examined the latent structures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within a sample of student veterans. To examine these constructs in a student veteran sample (n = 297), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on six different models of PTSD, including a one-factor model, based on the 20 symptoms found in the DSM-5; PTSD was assessed using the PCL-5. Global fit statistics suggest that fit across all models, including the 1-factor model, were good, and the AIC was lowest for the seven-factor hybrid model. Statistical tests and fit guidelines for nested models suggest there is no quantitative advantage of a five, six, or seven-factor model over the existing DSM-5 four-factor model. Given the high percentage of student veterans who screened positive for a probable PTSD diagnosis (53 %) in this study, compared to non-student veterans (11–20 %) and the general student population (11–15 %) found in other studies, further research is needed to assess the clinical utility of these symptoms and model structures.

Prince, K. C., Jaggers, J. W., Walker, A., Shade, J., & Worwood, E. B. (in press). Methodological challenges in retrospective evaluation of mental health court effectiveness. Journal of Applied Social Science.

• Mental Health Courts (MHCs) are problem-solving courts that have been implemented throughout the United States. One critical component of MHCs is determining their effectiveness and limitations. However, unique challenges are encountered when evaluating MHCs. One major challenge, and the focus of this paper, is identifying an adequate control group. Though a randomized controlled trial presents an ideal approach, it is not always possible given retrospective data, and both ethical and logistical issues arise. Propensity score matching (PSM) provides an alternative approach for comparing groups when randomization is not possible. PSM works by first identifying the characteristics that make a person likely to be in treatment. This paper describes attempts to use PSM in a MHC evaluation. Specific challenges with PSM are discussed and recommendations are made for use of PSM with MHCs.

Trejbalová, T. & Salisbury, E. J. (in press). Dying and misbehaving on death row: A theoretical explanation of death row misconduct. Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research. Accepted on: 12 May 2020.

• Behavioral misconducts of prisoners have been widely investigated, including their timing in one’s sentence; however, the exploration of misconducts among prisoners sentenced to death is highly limited. The death row inhabitants’ experience is qualitatively distinct from other prisoners and is an area in need of deeper inquiry. The stay in prison for many capital prisoners is defined by the sentence’s ultimate outcome—their execution. This paper presents a new framework to understand whether the major stressor of execution leads to distinct arrays of misconduct. The proposed framework utilizes the five stages of grief model to explain when and why violent and nonviolent infractions occur. This exploration is discussed with regards to its policy implications, and its limitations are considered.

Boppre, B., Miethe, T., Troshynski, E., & Salisbury, E. J. (in press). Cross-national differences in women’s imprisonment rates: Exploring the conditional effects of gender inequality and other macro-level factors. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice.

• Prior research examined cross-national differences in imprisonment, yet few studies considered the specific nature of women’s imprisonment. This study fills an important gap in the literature by assessing the socio-economic factors associated with women’s imprisonment rates. Cross-national differences in women’s imprisonment are examined using a social threat perspective. This study demonstrates that the relationship between gender inequality and women’s imprisonment is highly contextual and depends on nations’ levels of development. Specifically, gender inequality significantly increases women’s imprisonment in high developed nations, but decreases women’s imprisonment in low developed nations. Results are discussed in relation to their theoretical and policy implications.

Belisle, L., Parker Keen, J., Boppre, B., & Salisbury, E. J. (in press). Bringing course material to life through experiential learning: Impact on students’ learning and perceptions in a corrections course. Journal of Criminal Justice Education. 

• Experiential learning can be an effective practice to improve student engagement, comprehension, and application of course material in criminal justice classrooms. This study analyzes 33 undergraduate students’ reactions to three experiential learning activities in an upper-level corrections course: a jail tour, a formerly incarcerated guest speaker, and/or a documentary on life without parole. As a course assignment, students submitted reflection papers in relation to two of the three activities. Students’ blinded papers were then coded and qualitatively analyzed to determine the impacts of experiential learning on connections to the course material and changes in perceptions of incarcerated persons and the correctional system. Three themes emerged from their papers, supporting the use of experiential learning tactics. The ethical concerns of the use of correctional tours are also discussed, as well as areas for future research.

Trejbalová, T., & Salisbury, E. J. (2020). Women’s Risk and Needs Assessment (WRNA) in the Czech Republic. Women & Criminal Justice, 30(1), 30-41. Go to article

• The focus of practitioners and academics alike has been shifting toward gender-responsive treatment of justice-involved women. One instrument that accounts for the realities of justice-involved women is the Women’s Risk Needs Assessment (WRNA). In order to inquire about its validity outside the United States, this tool was piloted in the Czech Republic in 2016 with 148 women prisoners. The study examined whether the WRNA is a valid tool for use in the Czech Republic, and how well it predicts the disciplinary infractions of incarcerated women with different cultural backgrounds. Results demonstrated a generalizability of women’s criminogenic needs beyond the United States—several of the gender-neutral (e.g., antisocial friends) and gender-responsive factors (e.g., prior victimization/trauma) that are predictive of American women prisoners’ institutional infractions are also predictive of Czech women prisoners’ infractions. To reduce women’s incarceration rates and to disrupt the intergenerational transmission of crime, we must address women’s criminogenic needs, going beyond traditional male-based risk assessment.

Goldberg, S. B., Tanana, M., Imel, Z. E., Atkins, D. C., Hill, C. E., & Anderson, T. (2020). Can a computer detect interpersonal skills? Using machine learning to scale up the facilitative interpersonal skills task. Psychotherapy Research. First published online: 16 March 2020. Go to article

• Therapist interpersonal skills are foundational to psychotherapy. However, assessment is labor intensive and infrequent. This study evaluated if machine learning (ML) tools can automatically assess therapist interpersonal skills. ML may be a promising approach for automating assessment of constructs like interpersonal skills previously coded by humans. ML may perform best when the standardized stimuli limit the “space” of potential responses (vs. naturalistic psychotherapy) and when models have access to the same data available to raters (i.e., transcripts).

Waid, J., Voit, R., Tanana, M., Vanderloo, M., & Kothari, B. (2020). The role of siblings in the development of externalizing behaviors during childhood and adolescence: A scoping review. Journal of Family Social Work, 23(4), 318-337. Go to article

• Siblings play a critical role in children’s behavioral development; yet sibling-focused assessment and intervention for youth behavior concerns are uncommon in social work practice settings. To address this research-to-practice gap, a scoping review of research focused on siblings and the development of externalizing behaviors in childhood and adolescence was conducted. Forty-three empirical studies, published between 1997 and 2017, were reviewed and synthesized. Results illuminated a number of processes through which siblings influenced the development of externalizing behaviors. Identified behavioral domains included conduct problems, substance use, and sibling abuse. Sibling negativity and hostility, coercive sibling interactions, and sibling collusion were consistently associated with the development of conduct problems. Substance use behaviors were primarily influenced via sibling role modeling, social reinforcement, facilitating access, and co-use. Moderating effects of parental involvement, peer influence, sibling age range, and sibling gender composition were also observed. Less research was conducted on the processes underpinning sibling abuse, although prevalence studies suggest high rates of sibling victimization, particularly among close-age siblings and male-male dyads. Results indicate the need for social workers to consider both the characteristics of sibling groups and the quality of sibling relationships when assessing and intervening to prevent and address externalizing behavior problems in children and adolescents.

Goldberg, S. B., Flemotomos, N., Martinez, V. R., Tanana, M. J., Kuo, P., Pace, B. T., Villatte, J. L., Georgiou, P., Van Epps, J., Imel, Z. E., Narayanan, S., & Atkins, D. C. (2020). Machine learning and natural language processing in psychotherapy research: Alliance as example use case. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 67(4), 438-448. Go to article

• Artificial intelligence generally, and machine learning specifically, have become deeply woven into the technologies of modern life. Machine learning is dramatically changing scientific research and industry, and may also hold promise for addressing limitations encountered in mental health care and psychotherapy. This paper introduces machine learning and natural language processing as related methodologies that may prove valuable for automating the assessment of meaningful aspects of treatment. Prediction of therapeutic alliance from session recordings is used as a case in point. Recordings from 1,235 sessions of 386 clients, seen by 40 therapists at a university counseling center, were processed using automatic speech recognition software. Machine learning algorithms learned associations between client ratings of therapeutic alliance exclusively from session linguistic content. Using a portion of the data to train the model, machine learning algorithms modestly predicted alliance ratings from session content in an independent test set. These results highlight the potential to harness natural language processing and machine learning to predict a key psychotherapy process variable that is relatively distal from linguistic content. Six practical suggestions for conducting psychotherapy research using machine learning are presented, along with several directions for future research. Questions of dissemination and implementation may be particularly important to explore, as machine learning improves in its ability to automate assessment of psychotherapy process and outcome.

Teasley, M. & Homer, B. Racial disparities in the education system. Encyclopedia of Social Work, National Association of Social Workers Press and Oxford University Press. First published online: 30 June 2020. Go to article

• Despite years of education reform, the United States continues to have disparities in academic outcomes among racial and ethnic groups in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education. High school graduation rates have increased for racial and ethnic minorities, but gross disparities in high school graduation and college attendance still exist. In this article, the authors first examine the literature on racial and ethnic group disparities in education within public K–12 education, followed by a brief review of recent research literature on racial and ethnic disparities within higher education. In each section, there is some examination of race, ethnicity, and critical factors that lead to disparities within the education system. Information on socioeconomic status, school readiness, special education, school discipline, culture, and teacher bias are discussed. The authors conclude that while family income and socioeconomic status help to explain disparities in education outcomes among racial and ethnic groups, cultural factors are a salient part of the conversation.

Topuzova, L. N., Tecle, A. S., Ha, A. T., & Hunter, R. (2020). Global learning communities: Bridging borders and building capacity of communities on the margins. In P. Blessinger & E. Sengupta (Eds.), International Perspectives on Policies, Practices & Pedagogies for Promoting Social Responsibility in Higher Education (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 32) (pp. 147-161). Emerald Publishing Limited. 9781839098550. Go to chapter

• Education of refugees and internally displaced persons IDP(s), is not one of the needs that is immediately addressed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), mainly due to the way policies and services were originally conceived, with the view that forced displacement and migration is temporary. However, in the last couple of decades, both policy makers and practitioners, as well as the academe, have come to realize that the protracted nature of the refugee experience requires different responses and interventions, including a focus on education on all levels, from the primary to higher/tertiary education. In this chapter, the authors describe a university-community partnership that offers a Social Work Case Management Certificate (CMC) program for paraprofessionals, volunteers, and community social change agents living in refugee camps and other marginalized settings where communities are in forced migration.

Dodson, C. S., Garrett, B., Kafadar, K., & Yaffe, J. (accepted). Eyewitness identification speed: Slow identifications from highly confident eyewitnesses hurt perceptions of their testimony. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Accepted on: 29 August 2020.

• Do high confidence eyewitness identifications dominate all other evidence that is relevant to assessing eyewitness testimony? To answer this question, participants evaluated a highly confident eyewitness’ lineup identification. Participants learned that the eyewitness either quickly identified the suspect (e.g., “I’m sure it’s him. I identified him instantly.”), slowly identified the suspect (e.g., “I’m sure it’s him. I identified him after a while.”), or they learned nothing about the eyewitness’ identification time and were in a confidence only condition (e.g., “I’m sure it’s him.”). Highly confident eyewitnesses who make a relatively slow identification are perceived as less accurate and suspects are regarded as less likely to be guilty as compared to either when no information is provided about identification-speed or when eyewitnesses make a fast identification. These experiments show that identification speed is one of the few variables that can cause people to discount the testimony of highly confident eyewitnesses.

Garrett, B., Liu, A., Kafadar, K., Yaffe, J., & Dodson, C. (2020). Factoring the role of eyewitness evidence in the courtroom. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 17(3), 556-579. Go to article

• A pressing concern with the eyewitness testimony used in many criminal cases is that jurors may be swayed by the high confidence of an eyewitness, and, as a result, may disregard other factors that provide more diagnostic information. Mock jurors were surveyed using a large national sample of 1,684 laypeople, selected to be representative of the U.S. population (age, race, gender, geographic region), using mock trial videos of eyewitness testimony. To explore the relationship between courtroom confidence and other factors, the authors used a fractional factorial design, permitting examination of the relationships among seven factors. Among these seven factors, the authors found that jurors gave most weight to the confidence of eyewitnesses, especially that expressed in the courtroom, irrespective of the eyewitness' testimony about confidence (low or high) at the initial police lineup. Jurors' assessments were not sensitive to the other factors or their interactions in the experiment: crime type (burglary or sexual assault), the race of the defendant and eyewitness, or information provided in judicial instructions or by expert testimony. The disproportionate importance of the eyewitness' expressed confidence has implications for the effectiveness of legal efforts to inform jurors about factors affecting eyewitness memory.

Liu, A., Kafadar, K., Garrett, B., & Yaffe, J. (2020). Bringing new statistical approaches to eyewitness evidence. In. D. L. Banks, K. Kafadar, D. H. Kaye, & M. L. Tackett (Eds.), Handbook of Statistics for Forensic Science (pp.499-539). New York: Chapman & Hall/CRC Handbooks of Modern Statistical Methods. 9780367527709. Go to chapter

• Eyewitness identification (EWID) plays a critical role in criminal cases, from the investigation to the prosecution of the crime. The core element of EWID is memory—remembering the suspect, the proceedings of the crime, and the emotions associated. Memory is first encoded, then consolidated with existing information in the brain, and then retrieved (i.e., reconstructed) at a later time. Statistical methods, used to analyze datasets concerning eyewitness choices in experiments or in the field, can allow one to better understand what factors affect the likelihood that an eyewitness will choose correctly.

Yi, J., Kim, M. A., Choi, K. H., & Bradbury, L. (2020). Oncologists' experience of delivering bad news in Korea. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying. First published online: 22 July 2020. Go to article

• This study explored oncologists’ experiences of delivering bad news to patients with cancer and their families. Nine oncologists recruited from three superior hospitals in Korea completed in-depth interviews. The results of thematic analyses identified four themes: precursors to bad news delivery, why it is difficult to deliver bad news, when it is more difficult to deliver bad news, and strategies of delivering bad news. The participants felt unprepared for the task and stressed because breaking bad news goes against their responsibility to do no harm and their professional objective to promote healing. Although they were unclear about best practices regarding communication styles, they individualized their communication style to meet the needs of their patients, who have an array of cultural, social, and spiritual backgrounds. Understanding oncologists’ perceptions of bad news delivery can inform culturally appropriate interventions for alleviating their stress and improving patient-physician relationships in communication of bad news.

 

Other Publications

Clark-Shirley, L., Canham, S. L., & Doyle, P (2020). Dr. Robert L. Rubinstein’s legacy, through the lens of teaching and mentorship. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 41(4), 390-391. First published online: 15 May 2020. Go to article

• Gerontologists’ careers are diverse—interdisciplinary by design—and are shaped by countless factors, not the least of which is mentorship. A mentor’s influence across one’s career can persist and change over time, even after interactions come to an end. The late Dr. Robert (Bob) L. Rubinstein, environmental gerontologist, cultural anthropologist, and professor, was a mentor to many. Upon his passing, Bob left a legacy of critical thinking, inquiry, and scholarship that will continue to impact gerontologists for generations. From the perspective of three gerontologists trained by him, the authors describe defining characteristics of Bob’s mentorship and consider his influence throughout their careers in academia, long-term care, and applied research.

Mueller, D., Wilford, A., Sarver, C. M. & Prince, K. C. (2020). An evaluation of Utah’s 24/7 sobriety program: Phase one report. Utah Criminal Justice Center, University of Utah College of Social Work.

• The 24/7 program was first implemented in South Dakota in 2005. A growing number of states are adopting the 24/7 program to reduce DUI recidivism. Although the 24/7 program is growing in popularity, few studies have empirically examined whether the 24/7 program leads to reductions in DUI recidivism. Many of the studies that have examined the effectiveness of the 24/7 program are methodologically limited. The 24/7 pilot program in Utah was designed as a randomized control trial (RCT) to address some of the shortcomings of prior research. Specifically, Utah was interested in understanding whether the program had an impact on alcohol-related recidivism. The evaluation plan consisted of examining whether the 24/7 program had an impact on DUI recidivism using a comparison group, self-reported alcohol-related behaviors for a subsample of second-time DUI offenders, interviews with program stakeholders, and by comparing pre- and post-24/7 program DUI recidivism in Weber County to all other Utah Counties. When considering the judgement description (i.e., guilty, no contest, and plea in abeyance) by study condition, no statistically significant differences between the proportions emerged. The majority of respondents spoke very highly of the 24/7 program and its potential to reduce alcohol-related recidivism in Utah. They also consistently mentioned they have heard from program participants that the program has had a meaningful impact on their lives (e.g., sobriety, health, and relationships). As with any program, there are some areas that may benefit from improvement. In particular, respondents indicated there is a breakdown in communication between program partners—especially when handling failure to comply cases. One recommendation with respect to communication was the need to have a shared data system between program partners.

Prince, K. C., Sarver, C. M., & Worwood, E. B. (2020). Recovery, Engagement, Assessment, Career Development, and Housing (REACH): Year three outcome report. Utah Criminal Justice Center, University of Utah College of Social Work.

• This annual report explains the outcomes through three years of observation for performance metrics outlined in the evaluation plan for the Pay for Success (PFS) Recovery, Engagement, Assessment, Career Development, and Housing (REACH) program operated by First Step House (FSH). The REACH project launched in July 2017. Statewide arrests revealed a significant effect for treatment, with treatment participants having significantly fewer statewide arrests since randomization. Incarceration days revealed a significant effect for treatment, with treatment participants having fewer days incarcerated since randomization. The employment metric also revealed a statistically significant difference—treatment cases had significantly more people employed.

Prince, K. C., Mueller, D., & Sarver, C. M. (2020). Evaluation of the Utah Department of Corrections’ (UDC) implementation of the Statewide Adult Recidivism Reduction (SRR) program: Phase one report. Utah Criminal Justice Center, University of Utah College of Social Work.

• This report set out to evaluate several outcomes related to SRR implementation. These included: 1) examination of whether risk/needs scoring fidelity (quality assurance), overall and across Utah Department of Corrections (UDC) Adult Probation and Parole locations, improved from pre- to post-SRR adoption; 2) examination of whether the frequency of risk/needs assessments administered within 60 and 90 days of release pre- and post-SRR differed; 3) an analysis of whether client risk/needs assessment (overall and by domain-specific score) trajectories improved (owing to improved services) between pre- and post-SRR periods; 4) examination of whether the case action plans (CAPs) occurring/updated within 60 and 90 days of release improved between the pre- and post-SRR periods; and 5) an analysis of whether case action plans’ alignment with needs identified by the level of service/risk need responsivity (LS/RNR) risk assessment improved from pre- to post-SRR adoption. Unfortunately, data limitations made an analysis of objectives four and five untenable at this stage of SRR-implementation. The first three objectives were addressed, however, and yielded a number of favorable associations between these outcomes and SRR. The evaluation examines changes in patterns associated with the adoption of SRR. When combined, the results suggest SRR has had a positive association with many of the outcomes that were examined in this report and there is preliminary support that the program has achieved many of its intended goals. At present, the results remain tentative, as further analyses are needed to help provide greater depth and context regarding the current findings.

Prince, K. C., & Sarver, C. M. (2020). Housing Not Jail (HNJ): Year three outcome report. Utah Criminal Justice Center, University of Utah College of Social Work.

• This annual report explains the outcomes through three years of observation for performance metrics outlined in the evaluation plan for the Pay for Success (PFS) Housing Not Jail (HNJ) program operated by The Road Home (TRH), which provides a rapid rehousing (RRH) intervention, with behavioral health supports, for persistently homeless individuals. The HNJ project launched in January 2017. Housing stability revealed a significant effect for treatment, with treatment participants having significantly fewer days in shelter or jail since randomization. Participants also showed increased enrollment in behavioral health treatment.

Sarver, C. M. & Prince, K. C. (2020). Evaluation of ReSet: A Pay for Success pilot project. Utah Criminal Justice Center, University of Utah College of Social Work. 

• This report analyzes the effect of the ReSet program on recidivism, as defined by returns to prison for parole violations, new charges, or either (in event free survival (EFS) models). Models that followed individuals for the maximum duration possible (up to two years for some people) since release did not support the efficacy of the ReSet program in reducing recidivism. A second set of models followed individuals to the average end of treatment, or 217 days. While the cumulative incidence function (CIF) approaches did not reveal findings supportive of ReSet, the EFS model, which combines the two failure types (and which has greater statistical power), did reveal a marginally significant effect for treatment and a medium-sized effect (HR value). Combined, the results suggest that treatment through the ReSet program does not impact long-term recidivism, but may impact short-term recidivism when considering the two failure types combined. The fact that there is some evidence for a short-term effect, but none for a long-term effect, is interesting from a programming perspective. This finding indicates that, whatever benefit was obtained through the program is lost after treatment ends and treatment group individuals “catch up” with control group individuals in terms of long-term recidivism. This finding is not necessarily negative and may also reflect the difficulty of sustaining behavioral change outside of the structured confines of the ReSet program; it may be that participants require more time in a structured treatment setting in order to sustain nascent behavior change. If the ReSet program has short-term efficacy, there is reason to believe a fully-developed aftercare program (perhaps implemented if the program is adopted at full scale) might increase the duration of the effect, possibly leading to fewer returns to prison in the long-term as well as the short-term. Alternatively, ReSet might serve as a form of aftercare for inmates who are exiting prison-based therapeutic communities.

Sarver, C. M. & Prince, K. C. & Wilford, A. (2020). Evaluation of the assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) program: Final report. Utah Criminal Justice Center, University of Utah College of Social Work.

• Since inception, the assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) project enrolled 206 consumers across both sites. The majority of consumers were male and had a diagnosis of schizophrenia; more than half had a substance use disorder. While relatively few consumers endorsed recent substance use (other than tobacco), a small percentage endorsed ongoing use of illegal substances. Prior to AOT enrollment, the vast majority of consumers had visited an emergency room for behavioral health concerns and one-fourth had contact with the criminal justice system. In the period after AOT enrollment (includes both time in AOT and after discharge), consumers demonstrated lower rates of psychiatric hospitalization, less criminal justice contact, and fewer emergency room visits. In last year’s report, there were also significant reductions in the cost of emergency room services; in this report, there was a reduction in cost but the findings were not significant. These findings may suggest that AOT is associated with lower emergency costs for some clients and/or for clients over a specific period of time.

Seawright, J. & Sarver, C. M. (2020). Adherence to evidence-based practice in community-based treatment as part of Utah’s JRI certification tool (annual report). Utah Criminal Justice Center, University of Utah College of Social Work.

• This report describes the development of the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAMH) JRI Certification Tool, which will be used by the state of Utah to certify treatment providers to work with justice-involved persons. Of note, the report details recent changes to the tool, which were made in light of legislative updates, provider feedback, and a legislative audit of JRI.

Seawright, J. & Sarver, C. M. (2020). Adherence to evidence-based practice in community-based treatment as part of Utah’s JRI: Preliminary results from correctional program checklist program assessments of licensed substance abuse authorities (annual report). Utah Criminal Justice Center, University of Utah College of Social Work.

• This report summarizes the findings of correctional program checklist (CPC) assessments conducted on five local substance abuse authorities (LSAAs). Overall, programs increased adherence to evidence-based practice (EBP) when compared to previous assessments; however, programs struggle to achieve adherence in the areas of quality assurance and treatment characteristics. The remaining assessments (n=6) were postponed due to COVID-19 and will be conducted virtually in the first part of 2021.

Vogel-Ferguson, M. B. (2020). Work Investment Opportunity Act evaluation report. Social Research Institute, University of Utah College of Social Work.

• The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)—the largest single source of federal funding to support workforce development—went into effect on July 1, 2015. In Utah, WIOA is primarily administered through the Department of Workforce Services (DWS). While many WIOA outcomes reflect program success, DWS strives to further improve service delivery and program outcomes. To this end, Utah’s WIOA program leaders contracted with the Social Research Institute (SRI) at the University of Utah to conduct a program evaluation. The purpose of the evaluation was to answer the following key research questions posed by DWS leadership: 1) What is the overall composition and experience of the WIOA customer base relative to demographics, education and work history, barriers to program participation, and satisfaction with DWS programs and staff?; 2) How do the DWS WIOA front-line staff experience implementing the WIOA program? From their perspective, what program and policy components support and/or hinder success in program implementation? What changes and/or supports would help them be more effective in administering the WIOA program?; and 3) What can workers’ notes and data entered in UWORKS reveal regarding the appropriate implementation of WIOA services? This report provides DWS with answers to these questions using three methods of data collection: 1) in-person interviews with WIOA customers; 2) focus groups with WIOA front-line staff; and 3) a review of case notes and other data in the online UWORKS system.

Wilford, A. & Sarver, C. M. (2020). Evaluation of the FAST program: A rapid rehousing and critical time intervention to support homeless families (semi-annual report). Utah Criminal Justice Center, University of Utah College of Social Work.

• This interim report summarizes enrollment rates and baseline characteristics of homeless families enrolled in a rapid rehousing/critical time intervention. To date, 26 families have been enrolled.

Wilford, A., Sarver, C. M., & Mueller, D. (2020). Evaluation of the FAST program: A rapid rehousing and critical time intervention to support homeless families (annual report). Utah Criminal Justice Center, University of Utah College of Social Work.

• This annual report summarizes enrollment rates and baseline characteristics of homeless families enrolled in a rapid rehousing/critical time intervention. To date, 37 families have been enrolled. The report also examines program fidelity to the CTI model.