A Study on the Efficacy of the Tabletop Roleplaying Game Dungeons & Dragons for Improving Mental Health and Self-Concepts in a Community Sample.

Tabletop gaming has seen a rise in popularity over the past 10 years, with an influx of interest following the Coronavirus pandemic. Limited research has explored the impact of tabletop roleplaying games on mental health and self-concepts such as self-esteem and self-efficacy. This study used a repeated-measures design with four measurement points to quantitatively evaluate the effect of playing Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) on mental health and self-concepts in a community sample.

High resources and infectious disease facilitate invasion by a freshwater crustacean.

It is well-established that both resources and infectious disease can influence species invasions, but little is known regarding interactive effects of these two factors. We performed a series of experiments to understand how resources and parasites can jointly affect the ability of a freshwater invasive zooplankton to establish in a population of a native zooplankton. In a life history trial, we found that both species increased offspring production to the same degree as algal resources increased, suggesting that changes in resources would have similar effects on both species.

Psychological impacts of challenging behaviour and motivational orientation in staff supporting individuals with autistic spectrum conditions.

Despite increased risk of experiencing challenging behaviour, psychological impacts on community and residential staff supporting adults with autistic spectrum conditions are under-explored. Studies examining related roles indicate protective psychological factors may help maintain staff well-being. This study investigated relationships between motivational orientation (eudaimonic or hedonic), challenging behaviour frequency and type (physical, verbal or self-injurious) and psychological impacts (anxiety, depression and life satisfaction).

Introducing the Medical Ethics Bowl.

Although ethics is an essential component of undergraduate medical education, research suggests that current medical ethics curricula face considerable challenges in improving students' ethical reasoning. This article discusses these challenges and introduces a promising new mode of graduate and professional ethics instruction for overcoming them. We begin by describing common ethics curricula, focusing in particular on established problems with current approaches.