Some studies have shown that children who witness domestic violence against a family member or experience physical, emotional, or sexual abuse will often display behavioral risk factors such as increased suicidal ideation. Using social learning as the theoretical basis, this study examined factors that are associated with suicidal ideation in children of domestic violence, such as witnessing domestic violence, experiencing physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and experiencing abuse perpetrated by a parental figure. Results showed that while witnessing domestic violence alone did not affect suicidal ideation, the combination of witnessing domestic violence and being sexually abused was strongly associated with suicidal ideation, as was having a perpetrator who was a stepparent, and having a perpetrator who was a parental figure who threatened suicide and/or homicide. Implications for further research are addressed.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Laurence A. Clement / There can be no design product without a design process to achieve it; how we design is just as important as what we design. If landscape architects engage creative activities at work, they may be able to achieve flow, "an optimal and positive state of mind during which key individuals are highly motivated and engrossed" (Fullagar, Knight, and Sovern 2013, 236). Individuals experiencing flow find themselves in situations with challenge/skill balance, intrinsic motivation, and empowering self-confidence. The methods used for this master's project and report evaluated three art-making techniques in terms of the flow state and the design solutions they inspired. Watercolor, printmaking, and digital drawing were each incorporated into three simple design projects and filmed for peer-review. Fellow landscape architecture students reviewed segments of the film and completed a survey to measure the author's flow state. Additionally, they provided a critique of the art-making processes based on their perceptions of the filmed design processes and resulting design solutions. The peer assessment, accompanied with the author's self-reflection of art-making as ideation, provide insights into creativity and "good" design. Art - as concept, craft, and communication - are integral and evident in every part of the project. The findings show how design processes that include different art-making media affect and facilitate a flow state that leads to responsive design concepts. Landscape architects should incorporate art-making into their professional practice as a means of facilitating creativity without spending excessive amounts of time or resources in the conceptual stage of a design process.

Thesis advisor: Thomas O'Hare / Substance use and suicide among adolescents is a pervasive problem in the United States. It is estimated that over 190,000 youth go to the emergency department each year as a result of alcohol related injuries and over 5,000 youth are estimated to die each year from alcohol related incidents. Moreover, suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents, resulting in more than one in ten deaths among adolescents. Research has demonstrated that a history of childhood abuse is a strong risk factor for suicidal ideation and alcohol misuse and related problems. It is estimated that 29% of maltreated youth engage in substance use with 9% reporting moderate to high levels of use and 5% reporting risky suicidal behavior. Although prior studies provide a foundation for understanding substance use and suicidal thoughts among maltreated youth, some significant gaps remain in the knowledge base including the use of older data, treating all maltreated youth as a homogenous group, and looking at substance use and suicidal thoughts as independent outcomes. This dissertation fills some of these gaps in the empirical literature by focusing on three specific aims: 1) examine the co-occurrence of substance use and suicidal thoughts among maltreated youth; 2) investigate the longitudinal predictors of substance use and suicidal thoughts among maltreated youth; and 3) assess whether the predictors of substance use and suicidal thoughts are similar or different across placement types (in-home care, kinship care, or foster care). The National Survey on Child and Adolescent Wellbeing (NSCAW II) restricted dataset is used as the primary source for the analyses to address each aim. Policy and practice implications are provided for the fields of addiction, mental health, and child welfare. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

Doctor of Philosophy / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Jared A. Durtschi / Each year in the United States, 40,000 individuals die by suicide, 7,000 of whom are young adults between the ages of 25-34. For every death, it is estimated that another 25 suicide attempts are made and that over 8% of young adults experience thoughts of suicide each year. Suicide rates are climbing, but identification of protective factors to reduce suicide risk remains elusive. Using a sample of 4,208 young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a latent profile analysis was used to test the number of profiles that best fit the data based on indicators that were hypothesized to be risk or protective features, and those profiles were analyzed using logistic regression to assess suicide risk. Hypothesized protective indicators included parent and romantic relationship quality, parental satisfaction, job satisfaction, and religiosity. Hypothesized risk indicators included parental demands, depressive symptoms, job demands, isolation, alcohol use, and adverse childhood experiences. A four-profile solution was optimal for this data and yielded four distinct profiles named: Satisfied with Life (n = 2,442), Relationship Stress (n = 669), Demanding Jobs (n = 658), and Challenging Childhood (n = 427). Individuals in the Satisfied with Life profile reported positive relationship quality with parents, partners, and children, and low depressive symptoms, isolation, and adverse childhood experiences. This profile was associated with a 60% decrease in risk for suicidal ideation. Participants in the Relationship Stress profile reported low relationship satisfaction, lack of confidence that their romantic relationship was going to be permanent, and high alcohol consumption. Individuals in this profile were 104% more likely to experience suicidal ideation compared to those not in this profile. The Demanding Jobs profile included individuals who felt their work interfered with their family time, and vice versa, but still had moderately high satisfaction in each area. This profile was not significantly associated with suicidal ideation. The final profile, Challenging Childhood, included individuals who reported low quality of relationships with their parents, high levels of isolation and depressive symptoms, and significantly higher adverse childhood experiences than other individuals in this sample. Individuals in this profile were associated with 192% increase in risk for suicidal ideation than those not in this profile. The results of this study underscore the importance of positive relationships as a protective factor against suicide, and provide new information about how job satisfaction and demands can also serve as protective features. Therapeutic interventions that address improving social support, coping with traumatic events, and decreasing alcohol consumption are recommended to decrease suicidal thoughts.

Perceived social problem-solving deficits are associated with suicide risk; however, little research has examined the mechanisms underlying this relationship. The interpersonal theory of suicide proposes 2 mechanisms in the pathogenesis of suicidal desire: intractable feelings of thwarted belongingness (TB) and perceived burdensomeness (PB). This study tested whether TB and PB serve as explanatory links in the relationship between perceived social problem-solving (SPS) deficits and suicidal thoughts and behaviors cross-sectionally and longitudinally. The specificity of TB and PB was evaluated by testing depression as a rival mediator. Self-report measures of perceived SPS deficits, TB, PB, suicidal ideation, and depression were administered in 5 adult samples: 336 and 105 undergraduates from 2 universities, 53 homeless individuals, 222 primary care patients, and 329 military members. Bias-corrected bootstrap mediation and meta-analyses were conducted to examine the magnitude of the direct and indirect effects, and the proposed mediation paths were tested using zero-inflated negative binomial regressions. Cross-sectionally, TB and PB were significant parallel mediators of the relationship between perceived SPS deficits and ideation, beyond depression. Longitudinally and beyond depression, in 1 study, both TB and PB emerged as significant explanatory factors, and in the other, only PB was a significant mediator. Findings supported the specificity of TB and PB: Depression and SPS deficits were not significant mediators. The relationship between perceived SPS deficits and ideation was explained by interpersonal theory variables, particularly PB. Findings support a novel application of the interpersonal theory, and bolster a growing compendium of literature implicating perceived SPS deficits in suicide risk.

Suicide in rural areas has not received significant attention in the research literature to this point, although suicide rates are higher among adults and older adults in rural areas than in urban areas. The aims of the study were as follows: (1) establish the feasibility of assessing suicide ideation and history of suicidal behavior; (2) determine preliminary estimates of the prevalence of suicide ideation, and history of suicide attempts; and (3) examine the effectiveness and acceptability of safety and referral plans for individuals whose responses indicated elevated suicide risk, in rural communities with limited access to referral care. Participants were 96 adults aged 40 to 85 years old (M = 57.34, SD = 11.47) residing in West Texas. Our results indicate that 26% of participants endorsed a lifetime history of suicide ideation and/or suicide attempt(s) and 12.5% reported suicide ideation in the past year. In addition, 93.4% of participants reported that participation in our suicide-focused study was an excellent or good experience. Results suggest that individuals in rural communities are willing to talk about suicide, found the experience helpful, and were satisfied with the referral process.

Suicidal behavior and death by suicide are significant and pressing problems in the Bhutanese refugee community. Currently, Bhutanese refugees are dying by suicide at a rate nearly 2 times higher than the general United States population. Proper identification of risk factors for suicide saves lives and prevents suicides (Mann et al., 2005); however, if suicide risk is underestimated due to culturally inflexible risk assessments, preventable deaths may continue to needlessly grow. In a community sample of Bhutanese refugees resettled in Vermont (N=60), the current study aims to (1) test elements of a comprehensive conceptual model of incremental risk factors for suicide – adapted from the interpersonal psychological theory of suicide (IPTS; Joiner, 2005) – including suicidal desire, suicidal ideation, thwarted belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness and (2) test the relative contributions of suicidal desire and suicidal ideation as risk factors for suicidal behavior. Participants attended a single study visit at which they completed self-report measures administered in an interview format via an interpreter, if needed. Key measures included the Beck Scale for suicidal ideation (BSS; Beck & Steer, 1991), Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ; Van Orden et al., 2012), Wish to be Dead Scale (WDS; Lester, 2013), Refugee Health Screener – 15 (RHS-15; Hollifield et al., 2013), Postmigration Living Difficulties checklist (PmLD; Laban et al., 2005), Brief Biosocial Gambling Screen (BBGS; Gebauer et al., 2010), basic demographics questions, and qualitative questions about suicide within the Bhutanese refugee community. The analytic approach relied on the use of hurdle models, Fisher’s exact tests, hierarchical logistic regression, and independent samples t-tests to assess the relationships among aspects of our conceptual model. Although endorsement of suicidal ideation (n = 4, 6.7%) and suicidal behavior (n = 2, 3.3%; measured by combining the planning and concealment subscales of the BSS) was low in the sample, a substantial minority (n = 29, 48.3%) endorsed some desire to be dead. Perceived burdensomeness, but not thwarted belongingness, was significantly associated with both suicidal ideation and the desire to be dead. There was no evidence that the desire for death contributed additional risk of suicidal behavior, above and beyond suicidal ideation. Of participants with a history of suicide attempts (n = 4), none reported any suicidal ideation and 3 reported some desire to be dead. Neither desire to be dead nor suicidal ideation was significantly related to suicide attempt history. These findings have implications for suicide detection and prevention among resettled Bhutanese refugees. The cultural responsiveness of suicide screening in this population could be improved by assessing two constructs not typically assessed: desire to be dead (e.g., the WDS) and perceived burdensomeness (e.g., INQ). Explicit evaluation of these two constructs in Bhutanese refugees may increase the sensitivity of risk assessments without sacrificing specificity in comparison to assessments exclusively focused on self-reported suicidal ideation.

My research investigates the relationship between the architectural designer and the use that he or she makes of digital media as part of the design process. My principal research question is: what is the advantage of including digital media as part of the designers' 'toolset' in the early stages of design? The context is a highly successful and high profile mid-sized Australian architectural practice. The study considers the nature of architectural designing as a creative activity and the extent to which advantages could be gained by including digital media as part of the designers' toolset in the early stages of design. Designers seem to be polarised between championing the role of digital media as part of their design processes and downright rejecting it. One such extreme position is a view that this media has either 'no place' (Martens et al. 2007:np; Sanders 1996:4-5) within architectural design and is thus seen as 'just another tool' filling at best an ancillary and service role in the design process (Kvan, Mark et al. 2004:np). This view suggests therefore that designing with digital media has hardly advanced (Corrigan 2003:86). An opposing view is that digital media can take a more fundamental place to advance design methods (Rahim 2006:1), even revolutionarily improve the design process beyond 'question and debate' (Winner 1986:6 in Steele 2001:13), resulting in a 'new architecture' (Lindsey 2001:12) and encouraging significant change in designing through semi-automated generation of design and interconnected ways of communicating (Lindsey 2001:12). Resulting from my study, I have found, however, that the more negative views (Winner 1986:6; Sanders 1996:4-5) regarding the integration of digital media into the architectural design process tend to distract from the more balanced investigation into how a designer masters an expanding architectural design practice. As a doctoral candidate I take a participant-observer position within Terroir where I have been employed for the past five years. My experiences in responding to my research question suggest that the advantage of digital media is not a question of whether or not to integrate the tools. The question is more an issue of how a designer masters an expanding design process through an approach that includes ideas, conventional media and digital media. My thesis demonstrates the changes that occurred through the integration of digital media and, conversely, possibilities to opportunistically further improve on conventional design practice. My research suggests that mutuality exists in the relationship between the designer and their digital media. Through their co-evolution, changes can occur where there is not only an integration of digital media with design, but also both media and design practice change through their integration. I also discuss how an uptake of digital media gives grounds for a new specialised ro le in practice. A new role emerged within the collaborative firm of architects, which I have called in this thesis the digital ideator. It is a role that I demonstrate as potentially being central to digital media integrated with design practice.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 2001. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-220). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ67919.

Suicide is believed to be the second leading cause of death among college students, and recent data on the prevalence of suicidal ideation on college campuses signifies the need for suicide prevention efforts. Historically prevention efforts have emphasized identifying and shepherding into specialized mental health treatment those students who are currently in a heightened state of risk. One limitation of this approach is that college mental health services find themselves stretched to capacity, with utilization rates steadily on the rise. Thus, several scholars have called for suicide prevention efforts to take a public health approach, seeking to intervene more broadly by improving the mental health of the larger population. One way of broadening these prevention efforts is to investigate factors that preserve the emotional and mental resilience of college students facing similar life stressors and distress levels. Thus, the suicidality literature has seen an increase in the investigation of these protective factors. Self-compassion emerges in the literature as a promising protective factor that may have applicability in shielding individuals from entering the continuum of suicidality.<<par>> This study aims to build upon existing research by examining within a college student population the relationship between suicidal ideation and possessing a self-compassionate attitude, a relationship that has yet to be examined in the literature. Further goals of this research include the following: determining if any of the six subscales of the self-compassion construct in particular convey more robust protection from developing suicidal ideation, examining the potential mediating effect of self-compassion on the relationship between depression and suicidal ideation, and investigating whether self-compassion has a differential influence on developing suicidal ideation for women as compared to men. The proposed study will use a stratified randomized case control design in which those endorsing suicidal ideation in the past month will be matched with those indicating the absence of suicidal ideation in the past month on perceived impact of recent life stress and demographic characteristics. Self-report methods will include a measure of self-compassion, depression, life events, and an item aimed at examining presence or absence of suicidal ideation during the past month. Findings from this study will contribute to an understanding of resilience factors that protect from the development of suicidality and will have implications for intervening broadly at the population level. / text