Syfte och frågeställningar: Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om det fanns något samband mellan socioekonomi, kostvanor och den fysiska hälsan hos ungdomar i olika skolor i Stockholms län. Detta besvarades genom följande frågeställningar: Finns det något samband mellan socioekonomi och den fysiska hälsan hos ungdomar i årskurs 9? Finns det något samband mellan socioekonomi och kostvanor hos ungdomar i årskurs 9? Skiljer sig sambandet mellan socioekonomi, kostvanor och den fysiska hälsan beroende på bostadsområde? Metod: Studien var en kvantitativ enkätstudie. Enkäten innehöll frågor gällande socioekonomi, kostvanor samt fysisk hälsa. Urvalsgruppen bestod av flickor och pojkar i årskurs nio från tre skolor i en kommun i södra Stockholm. Enkäten delades ut i respektive skola och klass. Totalt gick det 308 elever i de deltagande klasserna varav 237 besvarade enkäten. Deskriptiv statistik samt analytisk statistik i form av korrelationsanalys användes för att redovisa resultatet. Resultat: Ett signifikant samband kunde ses mellan ”materiell välfärd” och ”fysisk aktivitetsnivå” (r = 0.14, p = 0.03). Detta kunde även noteras mellan ”materiell välfärd” och de enskilda frågorna ”fysiskt aktiv 1 timme” (r = 0.15, p = 0.02), ”svettig/andfådd” (r = 0.22, p = 0,001), ”upplevd fysisk hälsa” (r = 0.14, p = 0.03) samt ”rökning” (r = 0.18, p = 0.006). Ett signifikant samband kunde ses mellan ”upplevd socioekonomi” och de enskilda frågorna ”fysiskt aktiv 1 timme” (r = 0.17, p = 0.009), ”svettig/andfådd” (r = 0.20, p = 0.003) samt ”upplevd fysisk hälsa” (r = 0.23, p = 0.001). Inget signifikant samband noterades mellan ”materiell välfärd” och ”kostvanor” (r = -0.06 och p = 0.38) eller ”upplevd socioekonomi” och ”kostvanor” (r = 0.09 och p = 0.21). Ingen analys kunde genomföras på sista frågeställningen och denna kunde på grund av detta inte besvaras. Slutsats: Det fanns vissa signifikanta samband mellan socioekonomi och fysisk hälsa. Socioekonomi kan således ha en viss samvariation med den fysiska hälsan men tillsynes inte med kostvanor. Då tvärsnittsdata användes kan dock uttalanden om orsakssamband inte ske. Resultatet kan inte generaliseras till andra grupper då bekvämlighetsurval användes samt för att majoriteten av deltagarna kom från samma område.

With the increase in quality of life (QoL) research in recent years and its relationship to physical and mental health, building a model of these relationships is an important pursuit for researchers with the aim of creating targeted social policy and programs. Two studies were designed to test a model of the relationship between quality of life, physical health, and mental health on two different groups in the National-Capital region: a housed sample and a homeless and vulnerably housed sample. Study 1 consisted of 1,339 adults who took part in the 2007-2008 Canadian Community Health Survey and were stably housed in either a rented or owned residence. Study 2 consisted of 395 single adults who participated in the City of Ottawa baseline measure of the Health and Housing in Transition (HHiT) study (Hwang, Aubry, et al., 2011) and were homeless or vulnerably housed. Subjective levels of various physical and mental health indicators were measured for each of the samples, along with subjective quality of life indicators. Of interest in each of the studies was: 1) The effect that physical and mental health factors have on quality of life in each of the samples, and 2) determining if mental health or physical health is a better predictor of quality of life. Structural analysis of the housed sample model resulted in both physical and mental health having a significant positive effect on QoL, although neither physical nor mental health was a better predictor of quality of life. For the homeless and vulnerably housed model, structural analysis determined mental health to have a significant direct positive effect on QoL, while physical health showed a non-significant negative effect. Mental health was determined to be a significantly better predictor of QoL in the homeless and vulnerably housed model, accounting for 30.47 percent of the variance in quality of life. Implications of this research are discussed.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a chronic health condition that is increasingly affecting both children and adolescents (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). Although many studies have investigated the impact of HIV on cognitive, physical, academic, and psychosocial functioning, little is known about the self-perception of health-related quality of life, subjective well-being, social-emotional well-being, and psychopathology risks of youth who are infected with HIV. This study is one of first to examine the presence of these positive and negative health indicators and the relationship among these factors in youth with HIV and a community-based sample. A total of 84 youth (n=42 in each group) between 13-18 years old participated in this study. All participants completed a packet of self-report measures, which included the Pediatric Quality of Life Scale (PedsQL™ 4.0; Varni, Burwinkle, Seid, & Skarr, 2003), Student Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS; Huebner, 1991), Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale-Children (PANAS-C; Laurent et al., 1999), Social Emotional Assets and Resiliency Scale-Adolescent Form (SEARS-A; Merrell, 2011), and Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BASC-2 BESS; Kamphaus & Reynolds, 2007). The data were analyzed for significant correlations, group differences, and social-emotional predictors of physical functioning and subjective well-being. Specifically for youth with HIV, several health-related quality of life indicators were found to be positively correlated with life satisfaction and social-emotional strengths indicators, but negatively correlated with negative affect and psychopathology symptoms. Stronger, but non-significant correlation coefficients were noted for participants in the HIV group than youth in the community-based sample. In particular, stronger associations between the positive mental health indicators (i.e., subjective well-being and social emotional strengths) were observed for youth with HIV than youth in the community-based sample. Youth with HIV also reported a greater association between their subjective well-being and psychopathology when compared to youth in the community-based sample. Additionally, there was a significant main effect of family structure on participants’ perceptions of their social functioning and psychopathology symptoms. When the differences in family structure were controlled for, the overall mean ratings of participants’ health-related quality of life, subjective well-being, social-emotional well-being, and psychopathology risks did not significantly differ between groups. Furthermore, family structure and self-rated empathy skills significantly predicted physical functioning of youth with HIV, but no significant or meaningful variables were found to predict their subjective-well being. Finally, no significant variables were found to predict the physical functioning or subjective well-being of youth in the community-based sample. The limitations of the current study, implications of findings, and directions for future research are discussed.

abstract: Wellness in the workplace is a significant concern for many companies as employees experience both physical and mental health issues based on the environment in which they work. Both sedentary behavior and job-related stress, which may cooccur, are associated with the development of chronic disease, occupational stress, absenteeism/presenteeism in the workplace, increased employee turnover, and ultimately higher health care costs for companies. The development and implementation of workplace health promotion programs (WHPPs) is a popular, and at times, highly successful option to mitigate these issues. Yet, even when companies offer WHPPs, there still tends to be a lack of overall awareness, participation, and sustained engagement. Existing research regarding recreational music making (RMM) in the workplace and music therapy to improve wellness may serve to support the development of music therapy-based WHPPs as an effective solution. The evidence-based field of music therapy is an established health profession that uses music interventions to assist individuals in achieving their non-musical goals. This clinical project serves to highlight existing literature in support of the development of music therapy-based WHPPS. Furthermore, by tethering the tenets of previously successful WHPPs, the basic principles of collectivism, and the structural underpinnings of community music therapy, this clinical project offers evidence-based experientials and assessment tools for future implementation. Treatment domains addressed are physiological and psychosocial. Proposed goals include increased opportunity for physical activity, increased opportunity for stress-reduction and relaxation, and increased opportunity for social interaction among participants. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Music Therapy 2020

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Autistic individuals report a greater prevalence of physical and mental health difficulties, compared to the general population. This study examines factors which impact physical and mental health in the general population to evaluate whether they potentially underlie this increased prevalence in autistic individuals. We compared twenty-two autistic adults, twenty-three adults reporting symptoms of insomnia, and twenty-one neurotypical adults. The primary factors were sleep quality and insomnia; secondary factors were level of autistic traits, alexithymia, and prosocial behavior. Participants completed self-report measures looking at each of these factors as well as their perceived physical and mental health. Participants also wore an actigraphy watch for up to fourteen days to characterize their sleep behavior. This actigraphy data suggested that autistic adults slept longer than those with symptoms of insomnia and the neurotypical group. Multiple regressions identified which primary or secondary factors were associated with change in perceived physical and mental health. Transdiagnostic dimensional analyses suggested that both lower sleep quality and higher levels of loneliness predicted lower perceived physical and mental health, with the effect being greater for perceived mental health. The addition of secondary factors identified higher levels of alexithymia as a significant predictor of lower levels of perceived mental health but did not improve the model. For the autistic group, no factors were predictive of change in perceived physical health; however, follow-up analyses identified more insomnia symptoms as predicting reduced perceived physical health. Both reduced sleep quality and greater loneliness predicted lower perceived mental health in the autistic adults. More sleep impairment and more symptoms of insomnia also predicted lower perceived mental health but did not better explain this change when included together over when included separately. These study findings suggest that sleep quality and loneliness are salient factors in the mental health of autistic adults and that understanding these, and sleep factors in general, may help to explain mental health challenges in these individuals.

Recent literature in couple therapy has demonstrated the effects of physical health on some common presenting problems; however, few studies have considered progress as a construct on its own, irrespective of client-identified presenting problem. The current study used an Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediated Model to determine the connection between each partner's physical health and their own and their partner's self-reported progress in couple therapy, mediated by each partner's emotional regulation. Physical health was measured every four sessions using the Health-Related Quality of Life scale, and progress was measured by the Presenting Problem Progress Questionnaire given each time a couple attended therapy. Emotional regulation was measured by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation scale. The research questions asked whether healthier people and/or their partners would be more emotionally regulated and therefore experience more progress. Results indicated a significant predictive relationship between individual health and presenting problem progress for males and females; however, neither association was mediated by emotional regulation. Additional results suggested that health may predict emotional regulation for both male and female clients, with female health also predicting variation in male emotional regulation. Clinicians are encouraged to consider client health as a predictor of emotional regulation and create treatment goals that facilitate improvements to client health.

An adapted version of the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation model was used as a theoretical guide for this study, which proposes that adaptive processes exist and can moderate relationships between enduring vulnerabilities and different outcomes. Relationships of interest include the negative link between depression and marital satisfaction and the positive link between marital satisfaction and physical health. An adaptive process of interest is empathy, due to its well-researched positive impact on mental, relational, and physical health. This study examined whether perceived spousal empathy (i.e., the empathy perceived by one spouse coming from their spouse) had any moderating effects on the previously mentioned links. A clinical sample of 34 relationally distressed heterosexual couples was included in the study. Depression unexpectedly had a positive relationship with marital satisfaction and physical health. Marital satisfaction had no significant relationship with physical health. Perceived spousal empathy had no moderating effects. The clinical implications of the results are discussed.

Theory and evidence suggests that person-centred models may be especially relevant for elucidating the role of perfectionism in health and well-being in those with chronic health conditions. This may be particularly true for conditions, such as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), in which perfectionism is known to play a prominent role in health outcomes. Yet to date no research has taken a person-centred approach to examine how within-person combinations of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns are linked to vulnerability for poor health in CFS. The current study compared matched samples of people with CFS and healthy controls (N = 163 each) on measures of stress, depression, and health problems. Consistent with the Stress and Coping Cyclical Amplification Model of Perfectionism in Illness and the tripartite model of perfectionism, within-person combinations of high perfectionistic concerns and strivings had the poorest health profile compared to other within-person combinations, but only among those with CFS. In addition, the perfectionism was indirectly associated with health through stress in those with CFS only. Findings add to a growing evidence base on the utility of person-centred models for understanding the health risks of perfectionism in the context of chronic illness.

Background: A 1998 seminal study catapulted adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) into the zeitgeist and shaped assessment of these experiences and long-term health consequences via The ACEs Study Questionnaire (ACE-SQ). However, the ACE-SQ's childhood sexual abuse (CSA) item requires the perpetrator have been 5-years or older than the survivor for endorsement. This may not adequately capture CSA and limit the questionnaire's ability to detect survivors. Objective: This study assessed whether CSA survivors were missed by this 5-year modifier, whether service access was restricted, and whether those missed were at elevated risk for adverse outcomes. Participants and setting: A sample of 974 women (M age = 30.46) completed an online survey. Methods: Histories of CSA were assessed using the original ACE-SQ and an alternative version without the 5-year modifier. Participants were grouped by endorsement (Modifier, No Modifier, No CSA) and compared across numerous physical and mental health outcomes using MANOVA, ANOVA, and logistic regression. Results: Numerous CSA survivors are presently missed by the 5-year modifier (n = 118 of N = 249). This group demonstrated the same elevated depression (t = 3.44, p = .002, d = 0.34), heightened somatic symptom burden (t = 3.34, p = .003, d = 0.35), and poorer subjective health (t = -2.86, p = .012, d = 0.27) as those captured by the modifier. Conclusions: Recommendations for research, practice, and policy include removing the 5-year modifier from CSA assessment, creating an empirically informed CSA definition, and eliminating or adjusting requisite cut-scores for accessing services.