Browsing by Subject "stress management"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Extension Center for Family Development Annual Report, 2014
    (University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Family Development, 2015) Center for Family Development
    This report highlights University of Minnesota Extension Center for Family Development work in 2014 in the areas of health and nutrition and family resiliency.
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    Information seeking versus avoiding: How do college students respond to stress-related information?
    (2016-06) Shi, Weijia
    Focusing on the population of college students in the health context of stress and stress management, this study used an experimental design to test whether the variables of risk perception, response efficacy, self-efficacy, and source credibility can influence health information engagement. Results showed that both risk perception and response efficacy were positively associated with information seeking and negatively associated with information avoiding, but only risk perception had a strong and statistically significant influence on information engagement. No interaction or moderating effects were found. The implications of these findings for information engagement research and strategic health communication are discussed.
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    Parents and stress: Understanding experiences, context, and responses
    (St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota Extension, Children, Youth and Family Consortium, 2015-05) Cronin, Sarah; Becher, Emily; Christians, Kris Schmiesing; Debb, Stephanie
    How do parents experience stress? How does the social environment, economic hardship, and the very nature of parenting contribute to a parent's stress and coping? Learn how parents and their families are influenced - physically, cognitively, and emotionally - by their experiences with stress. Find coping strategies and ways to help families as they navigate stressors in their environment. "In our context as urban public educators (who remain largely European-American), we are tasked with reducing bias in our practice in order to reduce the wide gaps in achievement between white students and students of color. Parental stress research acknowledges that the wide variety in parent appraisal of a child’s behavior is largely connected to personality differences and/or family and social norms. Acknowledgment that those family and social norms are culturally mediated rather than universal could lead to further research that attempts to avoid bias" (eReview author K. Christians).
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    A randomized controlled trial of a mobile ecological momentary stress management intervention for students with and without a history of emotional abuse
    (2019-08) Nguyen-Feng, Viann
    College can be a stressful period of life, in which a history of interpersonal trauma is associated with greater risk of distress. Specifically, students with a history of childhood emotional abuse report more distress despite the lack of research on emotional abuse. Thus, it is imperative to develop interventions to help reduce distress in this population. One novel approach involves ecological momentary interventions (EMIs), which use mobile phone platforms to deliver near-real-time psychosocial interventions in daily life and can increase access to psychotherapeutic care. This study is the first randomized controlled trial to examine the feasibility and efficacy of an EMI for reducing psychological distress among students with and without an emotional abuse history. For 14 days, participants (N = 382) were randomly assigned to receive: 1) the EMI that teaches stress management skills or 2) an ecological momentary assessment (EMA), a self-monitoring control condition with assessments only. Participants completed pretest, posttest, and three-week follow-up measures. Linear mixed models indicated that there were no significant condition-by-time interaction effects, suggesting that changes over time occurred regardless of condition (EMI vs. EMA). There were different levels of EMI efficacy depending on emotional abuse history, in that the EMI was generally more effective for those with a history of emotional abuse and the EMA was more effective for those without such a history. Overall, the EMI appeared feasible, acceptable, and usable, although less effective than web-based versions. Because of this, college counseling centers might rather streamline resources to further promote web-based interventions. Future interventions could also target certain at-risk groups, based on their trauma history or baseline levels of distress.
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    A Web-Based Intervention with Email Support for Community College Students
    (2016-08) Meredith, Liza
    This study evaluated the efficacy of an online stress management program among community college students (N = 479). The online program was designed to increase present control, decrease mental health symptoms, and improve academic performance by means of an online mental health intervention (OMHI). Sections of a college readiness course (N = 28) at a community college were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: present control intervention (PCI), present control intervention with supportive messages (PCI + SM), or a comparison (COM) group. Participants in the PCI and PCI+ SM completed the same online intervention; however, the PCI+SM group received weekly supportive messages while completing the program. Participants were asked to complete self-report measures of present control, perceived stress, and mental health symptoms at pre-intervention, post-intervention, 3-week follow-up, and 6-week follow-up. Academic data for participants including official semester grade point averages (GPAs) and percentage of credits completed was obtained. Of the 479 participants, approximately 66% (n = 318) completed the post-intervention, 24% (n = 117) completed the 3-week follow-up, and 19% (n = 92) completed the 6-week follow-up surveys. All interactions between time and condition were non-significant suggesting that the three conditions were approximately equally effective for mental health outcomes. The between-group effect sizes comparing the PCI groups to the COM group for mental health outcomes from pre- to post-intervention were in the minimal to small range (d = -.08 to d = .14). Within-group effect sizes measuring change on mental health outcomes from pre- to post-intervention were also in the minimal to small range (d = -.15 to d = .26). There were no significant differences in academic outcomes between conditions, and the between-group effect sizes were in the minimal to small range (d = -.17 to d = .02). Explanations for why the PCI conditions were not more effective are provided. In addition, limitations and future directions are discussed.