Health and wellness programs are being utilized by organizations at growing rates. Research on health and wellness programs is typically confined to the program of a single organization and the employees participating in that specific program. Typically, this research examines the outcomes of health and wellness programs in organizations, such as return on investment in terms of medical costs, as well as improvements in the health of the employees. However, little information is known about those who choose to participate in health and wellness programs and the characteristics that may influence their participation. This study examined the relationship between demographic characteristics and likelihood of participation in health and wellness programs, as well as the relationship between program characteristics and likelihood of participation. Differences in likelihood of participation were found between different program types. Women were found to be more likely to participate than men, in most cases. Likelihood of participation increased as the incentive amount increased and decreased if the program incentive had a loss frame. Likelihood of participation was also higher for participation-based incentives compared to outcome-based incentives.

Psychosocial functioning is a key component of screening and treatment of Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD) in adults; however, psychosocial functioning in adolescents with TMD has received little empirical attention. The present study aims to examine group difference between adolescents and adults with TMD on pain and prominent psychosocial factors, such as anxiety, depression, and somatization, as well as to explore additional developmentally sensitive psychosocial factors that may be associated more with the adolescent TMD pain. Participants included 35 adolescents aged 12-17 (M=14.89 years, SD=1.84) with TMD muscle pain who completed pain questionnaires and a comprehensive dental examination. Patients and their primary caregivers completed behavioral questionnaires to examine psychosocial functioning. Thirty-five adults matched on gender, diagnosis, and duration of pain were selected from a large pre-existing database of previous orofacial pain patients. Adolescents and adults reported descriptively similar TMD pain and equivalent rates of anxiety, depression, and somatization; however, the relationship between these psychosocial factors and TMD pain appear to be more salient for adults compared to adolescents. In adolescents, increased pain-related interference was significantly associated with positive attitudes toward school, better anger control, and deficits in functional communication; whereas, more frequent TMD pain was significantly associated with sense of inadequacy and parent-reported withdrawal, though not in the expected direction. Screening for TMD in adults typically focuses on anxiety, depression, and somatization; however, these psychosocial factors overall did not appear as salient in adolescents as attitude toward school, anger control, sense of inadequacy, withdrawal, and functional communication, suggesting that adult psychosocial screen may need to be revised to include developmentally sensitive targets that may be particularly important for screening of TMD in adolescents.

Huntington's Disease (HD) is a rare condition that has been under-researched by the medical professions and psychologists alike. There is a clear lack of psychological literature on the subject of HD and furthermore, there are no adequate QoL scales available for use by spousal carers. The development of a HD specific QoL scale (HDQoL-C) for this special population, brings together theoretical constructs and practical application in order to produce a user-friendly QoL measurement for spousal carers of HD patients.

The UK currently has the highest number of premature births (babies born before 37 weeks gestation age and below 2.5kg) in Europe affecting around 70,000 babies and their caregivers each year. Consequently many interventions have been created to support the development of the preterm newborn and minimise the complications of prematurity. Many of the interventions developed have been predominantly tactile and have almost exclusively focused upon their effect upon the baby and not, for example considered the effect that this type of intervention might have upon the parents; specifically the mother, when they are the ones who perform the therapy. In fact there is a severe lack of systematic studies investigating the latter. Hence, the aim of this thesis was to search for research-based evidence on the benefits of environmental support to both babies (e.g. increased weight gain or awake periods) and their mothers (e.g. higher perceptions of themselves as a mother) during hospital confinement and within the context of Neonatal Health Psychology (NNHP). For this reason, the main hypothesis investigated whether mothers’ cognitions and emotions; specifically Maternal Self-Efficacy, Self-Esteem and Attachment, would be affected by environmental mediators in the form of structured or non-structured tactile sensory nurturing interventions. The empirical work reported in this thesis is divided into 3 distinct phases. Firstly, as their was no appropriate measure of maternal Self-Efficacy for mothers of hospitalised preterm neonates the main aim of Phase-1 was to develop and validate an appropriate measure. Using a prospective survey method and a mixed design (between/within and correlational) a total of 160 mother-preterm dyads (pooled from 2 cohorts; cohort 1, N=100; cohort 2, N=60) were recruited. The results demonstrated that the Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy (PMPS-E) tool had good initial psychometric properties (including internal/external reliability and construct validity) for its use with mothers of relatively healthy hospitalised preterm neonates. Secondly, in order to investigate mothers’ perceived maternal parenting self-efficacy beliefs further Phase-2 examined whether the type of feeding a mother chose to give to her baby mediated her self-efficacy beliefs. The results suggested that breastfeeding a preterm neonate during hospital confinement may adversely affect mothers’ perceptions of their efficacy in all aspects of parenting. Finally, using an experimental method Phase-3 tested the main hypothesis of this thesis and used a randomised cluster control trial (RCCT) design to allocate 60 mothers and their preterms equally to one of three cluster groups; consisting of either structured (e.g. TAC-TIC therapy or Using a Toy) or non-structured (Placebo/Control) tactile sensory nurturing interventions. The main findings illustrate that tactile sensory nurturing interventions do mediate maternal cognitions and emotions, preterm weight gain and behavioural state. In particular, mothers who performed TAC-TIC demonstrated significantly higher self-reported perceptions in their self-efficacy, self-esteem and attachment, which was attributed to the fact that these babies spent increased amounts of time in an alert and responsive behavioural state, and gained more weight throughout the study period. Thus, the work presented throughout this thesis has implications for Neonatal Health Psychologists and other Health Care professionals’ practice within neonatal units, the use of Neonatal Health Psychology as a framework to study the preterm neonate and their family, and also the way in which both mothers and their hospitalised preterm neonates are supported during hospital confinement.

<p> This study focused on the perspectives of ten licensed mental health practitioners regarding the resilience of African American women survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) who permanently leave male perpetrators. A generic qualitative methodology guided the exploration using individual face-to-face interviews. Data collection included individual semi-structured interviews using open-ended questions, which harmonized with the postmodern worldview and constructivist-interpretive paradigm that undergirded the study. After multiple cycles of data analysis cycles, five major themes emerged. The emergent themes were hope, family influence, self-concept, empowerment, and turning points. Maslow's hierarchy and Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological theory provided the theoretical framework for the analysis of the themes. The study presented a discussion of the implications of the themes for understanding the resilience traits of African American women IPV survivors. Such implications are relevant to researchers, policy-makers, counselors, counselor educators, health care workers, and other human services professionals who affect the treatment of this cohort.</p>

Negative cultural attitudes towards the menstrual cycle have psychological consequences for women. The menstrual cycle in our society is devalued in public discourse and public regard, in which it is viewed as an uncontrollable, painful, and mysterious curse upon womankind. Internalization of these messages may negatively impact women’s self-esteem because of menstruation’s quintessential association with womanhood. Women’s lack of accurate, practical knowledge about the menstrual cycle may be a large contributor to these negative attitudes. The purpose of this proposed research is to investigate whether performing fertility awareness, a daily practice of observing fertility signs to determine the phases in a woman’s menstrual cycle, can increase self-esteem in college-aged women. The study measures perceived control, self-efficacy, and self-esteem in women before and after learning and practicing fertility awareness, as well as comparing those scores to a control group. It is proposed that practicing fertility awareness increases women’s self-esteem and self-efficacy by providing them with perceived control over their reproductive health. Implications for educational imperatives and future research are discussed.

<p> Media accounts have influenced public opinion about the insanity defense and have given rise to misperceptions about its purpose and rate of usage. This study hypothesizes that the public is more likely to implicate mental illness in irrational crimes and that the more media exposure given to the case, the more likely the public is to implicate mental illness. This study also seeks to establish current public opinion of the utility and prevalence of the insanity defense. The results of this research do not conclusively indicate that amount of media attention can be used to predict the public's tendency to implicate mental illness as a motive for crime, thus, hypothesis one was only partially supported. Meanwhile, hypothesis two, participants will be more likely to implicate mental illness in crime that they perceive to be irrational was not supported by this study. The third hypothesis, participants will be more likely to give a verdict of NGRI if they implicated mental illness as the motive for the crime, was only partially supported by this study. With the ever-growing media attention devoted to implicating mental illness in high-profile crimes, results from this study suggest that the public does not correlate the amount of media attention dedicated to high-profile cases with mental illness.</p>

In recent years, an increasing amount of research has been conducted on the topic of personal spiritual practices, such as prayer. Fewer studies have been conducted on reasons for changes in the frequency of such practices within the church. Those that have addressed church behavior have most often measured attendance and membership. It is the goal of this study to conceptualize potential causes for changes in personal prayer practice at one church. A yearlong marketing campaign was used to help increase church attenders’ frequency of the personal spiritual practice of prayer. Two cross-sectional studies were conducted one-year apart and revealed a significant increase in prayer. Possible reasons for this change, limitations and suggestions for further research will be discussed.

Socioemotional selectivity theory posits that as people age, they become motivated and successful at maximizing positive emotions and minimizing negative ones. Yet, 70% of older adults report physical pain, which is associated with negative affect. The strategies and resources that older adults use to maintain positive affect in the face of pain remain largely unknown. Specific positivity-enhancing strategies include recalling, recognizing, and responding to positive stimuli and prioritizing close over knowledgeable social partners. Executive functions (EF, i.e., task-switching, working memory, and inhibition) and heart rate variability (HRV) may be important resources for coping with pain. The current project used two studies to test whether older adults used positivityenhancing strategies and maintained emotional wellbeing following pain more than younger adults; associations with EF and HRV were also investigated. In Study 1, 50 older and 50 younger adults experienced a control and a pain condition, were given the chance to employ positivity-enhancing strategies, and provided EF and HRV data. Study 2 used longitudinal data from community-dwelling older adults (n =150) to test whether task-switching moderated the within-person relationship between pain and wellbeing. In Study 1, after the pain condition, younger adults demonstrated lesser preference toward knowledgeable social partners than older adults (γ = -0.15, p = .016). No other age group x pain condition x valence interactions were found. Older and younger adults did not differ in changes in positive or negative affect following pain. Task-switching and HRV were both associated with reduced preference for knowledgeable social partners following pain, but no other significant EF or HRV interactions were found. Study 2 failed to support the hypothesis that task-switching protected against pain-related declines in wellbeing. Future research on strategies that older adults use to maintain emotional wellbeing in the face of pain is needed.

Despite demonstrating eating disorder rates equivalent to White women, African American and Asian American women are less likely to seek treatment and are more likely to terminate treatment prematurely. One of the most successful programs for eating disorder prevention has only focused on surface-level cultural adaptations. Prevention literature maintains that deep-structure cultural adaptation (e.g., integrating cultural values and beliefs) can enhance outcomes for ethnic minorities. This dissertation examined the feasibility of Sustainable Adapted Treatments for Eating Disorders (SATED), a pilot intervention that included a culturally- targeted pre-treatment to an eating disorder dissonance-based intervention. A sample of 72 women (ages 18-30) were recruited via the SONA pool, student organizations, and community organizations. In Study 1, 47 women participated in focus groups (i.e., 21 African American women and 26 Asian American women). Grounded theory was used to analyze data, and this data was then used to develop a culturally-informed pre-treatment. Pre-treatment protocols (30- 45 minutes) were developed for both African American and Asian American groups and were refined prior to implementing the intervention. In Study 2, a pilot intervention, 25 women were assigned either to a pre-treatment condition, or 30-45 minute, individualized session (N = 12) or a no pre-treatment condition (N = 13) prior to completing an eating disorder DBI which took place over two 2-hour sessions. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires at baseline, post-intervention, and at 2 to 3-month follow-up. Constructs assessed included eating disorder symptomatology, attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help, and body dissatisfaction. Overall feasibility and acceptability of the pre-treatment and pilot intervention were assessed via triangulation of methods including third-party observations, in-depth interviews, and fidelity checks. Preliminary findings from the questionnaires indicated that there was a general downward trend for eating pathology across both the pre-treatment and no pre- treatment condition, except for eating restraint. Body dissatisfaction decreased for both groups from baseline to post-test, but increased at follow-up. Attitudes towards treatment-seeking increased for both groups from baseline to follow-up. Results may inform feasibility issues that accompany translational research with ethnic minorities and inform a future definitive trial.