No comprehensive data base concerning the adult developmentally disabled (ADD) population is available. The absence of theoretical formulations about aging, and particularly the aging ADD, make it difficult for service providers or professionals to incorporate a conceptual framework into their work.

This thesis was an attempt to investigate two important cognitive aspects of depression: expectation of success, and changes in this expectation. Recent studies in these areas have yielded inconsistent results. It has generally been concluded that subclinical depressives do not differ from nondepressives in initial expectation of success, though they do at times exhibit smaller changes in success expectancy following personal experiences of success or failure. Two main cognitive theories of depression have attempted to account for this difference between the two populations. Beck (1967) has proposed that depression results from specific negative cognitive processes, among them a denial of personal responsibility of positive events and an exaggeration of personal responsibility for negative events. According to this theory, depressives would have a lower initial expectation of success than nondepressives and would exhibit a smaller increase in success expectancy following success and a larger decrease in success expectancy following failure. Seligman (1975) has proposed that depression results when an individual learns that responses and outcomes are independent of one another, and then makes negative, internal attributions about the cause of that independence. On the basis of Seligman's theory, one could conclude that since depressives see action and outcome as independent, they would shift success expectancy less following both success and failure.

Anxiety is an intense feeling of worry or fear and can often be overwhelming, taking over someone’s everyday activities. Oftentimes, individuals who have feelings of anxiety or are in stressful situations that are anxiety inducing, they can get physical symptoms such as increased heart rate, sweating, fatigue and rapid breathing. Anxiety can also affect an individual’s quality of vision. In circumstances that are highly stressful, individual’s vision can start to diminish temporarily, affecting the peripheral vision as well as making central vision blurry. This study examines the effects of anxiety and vision quality on athletic performance among collegiate athletes. It compares the impact of being in stressful situations among athletes with and without vision disorder during athletic events. By conducting a study focusing on collegiate athletes at the University of Central Florida and comparing their anxiety levels, as well as any changes in their eyesight/perception, we can assess the association between stress and eyesight, and whether this correlation has an impact on their performance. The objective of this study is to assess a potential relationship between athletes’ performance, with and without vision-related disorders, during highly stressful situations. 31 participants, between the ages of 18-27, participated in this study. Using UCF Qualtrics and incorporating the State-Trait Anxiety Survey into an online modality, the survey was sent out to all student athletes. By comparing the data collected in SSPS and One-Way ANOVA, there was no significant difference in the mean anxiety scores between the tested variables, including the type of sport played, the type of refractive errors, and wearing corrective lenses. Future research can focus on assessing a larger athlete sample and perhaps assessing anxiety and vision during performance and competition to better understand the true relationship between anxiety and vision disorders among athletes.

This thesis examined the ways in which present-day 6th through 12th grade theatre educators approach the topic of mental health, both implicitly and explicitly, in theatre education. Through a survey of existing literature, as well as interviews with 6th through 12th grade theatre educators, the researcher examined ways in which theatre educators were aware of the mental health needs of their students in any of the following capacities: explicit discussions regarding mental health, theatre curriculum, show selection, script analysis, and casting choices. The reveal the educator perception that mental health issues are increasingly relevant to 6th through 12th grade youth, and that some educators have been taking specific and creative steps to incorporate explicit discussions surrounding mental health into their classroom and rehearsal processes. The researcher’s intention to conduct this study was to start a conversation about the needs students have for their mental health to be supported in the classroom; moreover, it was the hope of the researcher that this study would bring awareness to how students need more specific education taking place in their classrooms to understand this topic. The researcher specifically analyzed how theatre education spaces provide an opportunity to explore the topic of mental health with students using a unique, arts-based platform.

Concussions are a relatively common neurological injury and are associated with several adverse outcomes including depression. Anhedonia is a core feature of depression, with multiple subtypes, including consummatory anhedonia (i.e., diminished reward liking). Reward liking is related conceptually to the practice of savoring pleasurable stimuli. Savoring has been a component of mindfulness-based interventions that have efficacy in treating depressive symptoms. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between lifetime concussion history, reward liking, savoring, and depression severity. 293 participants (56% women; mean age: 19.31) completed an online questionnaire and computer-based image savoring task. Contrary to expectations, no measured aspect of concussion history was related to savoring as defined by the image savoring task. A history of unconsciousness or amnesia following a concussion was positively related to reported reward liking, while a history of multiple concussions was positively related, and time since most recent concussion was negatively related, to self-reported beliefs about savoring in the moment. Reward liking had a negative relationship with depression severity that was fully mediated by "savoring in the moment" beliefs. These findings are explored in the context of recent research examining positive mood and affect following head injuries.

A randomized, experimental pilot study of QUATRO Adherence Therapy examined differences at baseline and follow up in the dependent variables of severity of psychiatric symptomatology and medication concordance as measured by the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale and the Personal Evaluation of Transitions in Treatment for subjects with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder at a community mental health center. The sample was 23 subjects. A questionnaire developed for the study collected data at follow-up. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, /-tests, and repeat Anova to compare groups and determine significance of change following completion of the intervention. Program evaluation was positive. Statistical comparison indicated no significant differences were found in change scores for either group. Implications for further research are that a larger scale randomized controlled study is needed to produce statistical significance.

This study was begun at the request of the Mental Health Division (henceforth known as MHD) of the State of Oregon. The purpose was to conduct a follow-up study on six Day and Residential Treatment Service (henceforth known as DARTS) Centers which are funded by MHD. The purpose of the research was to assess whether or not the Centers are an effective treatment tool. The information acquired by this study will be used to provide information to MHD and the DARTS Center Directors to assist their decision making regarding program direction, and to provide MHD with specific information to be used in preparation for the upcoming state legislative session.

Chapter 1 will cover who is uploading the videos and how individuals navigate from professional to amateur videos and visa versa. The discussion will be in context of YouTube as a public sharing space that can contain personal information. A central advantage of YouTube as a space for health information is health communication. Chapter 2 will focus on social networking and the comments section, where patients voluntarily share their voice in an online medical community.

<p> Gatekeeper Suicide Prevention Trainings such as Question Persuade and Refer (QPR) are used to increase suicide awareness and teach participants basic suicide intervention skills. Previous researchers showed that QPR training increases knowledge of suicide risk factors and increases participants' willingness to intervene with individuals at risk of suicide. It was hypothesized that completion of QPR would also increase positive attitudes toward the utilization of mental health services and that this outcome would be more pronounced among male participants. The examination of attitudes was rooted in the theoretical framework of Ajzen's theory of planned behavior. The Inventory of Attitudes toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS) was the instrument used for the study. The study occurred in a rural community college in southern Oregon. Student attitudes were assessed prior to completion of a 1-hour QPR presentation followed by a 3-week post assessment. Analysis of Variance revealed significant effects of QPR training. IASMHS scores were significantly higher at post QPR training. A significant interaction between gender and QPR training showed that women scored significantly higher than men only at pre QPR training. There was no statistical gender difference in attitudes measured by the IASMHS at post QPR training. QPR increased help seeking attitudes in both men and women with the increase being more pronounced in men. Increasing positive attitudes toward help seeking can contribute to positive social change. Practitioners in the field of men's health should consider using gatekeeper suicide prevention training such as QPR as a means of increasing male help seeking.</p>

The purpose of the study is to provide a descriptive analysis of food insecurity within the adult First Nations population in Manitoba. A bivariate analysis is used to determine strength of relationships between food insecurity and socio-demographic variables as well as self-reported general health and psycho-social health. This research study also includes a gender-based analysis (GBA), which allows for possible food insecurity prevalence differences between women and men The data obtained for this research study is from the second wave of the Manitoba First Nations Regional Longitudinal Health Survey (MFNRLHS, 2002/2003). Select socio-demographic variables as well as self-reported general health status, ‘life balance,’ and elements of psycho-social health, including self-reported health, ‘life balance,’ depression, intense anxiety, stress level, and domestic dispute were included. A P-value of 0.05 was used to identify significant differences. Significant results from this study include elevated food insecurity in Manitoba First Nations (37.2%). The bivariate analysis reveals that food insecurity is marginally associated with age group, with the highest food insecurity among young and middle-aged women; middle-aged men, and those with lone-parent status. Food insecurity is also significantly associated with total household income, the number of incomes per household, as well as employment versus government support over a two-year period. Food insecurity is elevated in both southern (29.4%) and northern (51.4%) regions of the province.