Publications by authors named "Allison N Herman"
We describe the Life Experiences Curriculum (LEC), which attempts to integrate medical student well-being with trauma-informed medical education. The long-term goal of LEC is to help medical students flourish with adversity and trauma, where flourishing refers to having a sense of purpose that arises from awareness of one's strengths and limitations, shaped by life experiences. The short-term goal of LEC is to develop students' relational capacities, such as acceptance and awareness of self and others, while building and maintaining students' psychological safety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To determine whether a common measure of childhood emotional neglect, scored instead as a continuous measure of increasing parental connection, is associated with adult flourishing and depressive symptoms, and to compare the magnitude of these 2 associations.
Methods: We pooled cross-sectional survey data from the Midlife in the United States study, collected from 2 national cohorts (2004-2006 and 2011-2014) of English-speaking, US adults, aged 25 to 74 years. Using the 5-item emotional neglect subscale of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, a score of increasing childhood parental connection was created by not reverse-scoring responses.
Unlabelled: Turnover in the US early childhood education (ECE) workforce is associated with worse outcomes for children. Greater workplace spirituality, or the perception of meaningful work, sense of community, and alignment with organizational values, is associated with reduced turnover. However, this association has not been examined in ECE professionals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTurnover of early childhood education (ECE) professionals negatively impacts program costs, staff morale, and relationships with children. We determined whether the presence of work as a calling was associated with less intention to leave the ECE field. From an online survey administered to 265 ECE professionals in Pennsylvania, a calling score based on the Calling and Vocation Questionnaire was used to create sample-defined tertiles of low (< 38), medium (38-44), and high (> 44) presence of calling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Because traumatic life experiences are common, teaching and learning can be difficult without recognizing how trauma can make people feel psychologically unsafe. Safety can be restored through healthy relationships.
Contributions To Theory: We present a framework for how relational health-the capacity to develop and maintain safe, stable, and nurturing relationships with others-may allow flourishing in school communities, even amidst past and ongoing adversity.
Article Synopsis
- * Results showed that out of 37,025 adolescents, 65.8% were considered to be flourishing, and those with stronger family connections had significantly higher flourishing rates, increasing from 34.9% to 84.3% as family connection scores improved.
- * The findings suggest that a positive family environment not only helps prevent negative outcomes but actively fosters a sense of flourishing in young people.
Background: Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and being female are distinct risk factors for having a major depressive episode (MDE) or an anxiety disorder (AD) in adulthood, but it is unclear whether these two risk factors are synergistic. The purpose of this study was to determine whether exposure to ACEs and being female are more than additive (synergistic) in their association with MDE and AD in US adults.
Methods: We pooled cross-sectional survey data in the Midlife in the United States study from two nationally-representative cohorts of English-speaking US adults.
This survey quantifies the prevalence of socioeconomic deprivation in the lives of early childhood education professionals as well as the prevalence of COVID-19–associated deaths of their family members and close friends.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: We determined whether high diabetes distress (DD) in young adults with type 1 diabetes was associated with higher glycated haemoglobin (HbA ) levels and whether this association was similar among those who were and were not using diabetes devices (insulin pumps and/or continuous glucose monitors [CGMs]).
Methods: In 2017, an online survey was completed by 423 of 743 (57%) young adults (19-31 years) with type 1 diabetes receiving care at a specialty clinic in New York City. HbA level was the primary outcome measure, and high DD (Diabetes Distress Scale score ≥3) was the primary exposure.
Objective: To investigate whether higher levels of childhood family connection were associated with greater adult flourishing and if this association was present across levels of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and childhood socioeconomic disadvantage (SED).
Methods: We pooled cross-sectional data from telephone and mailed surveys in the Midlife in the United States study that were collected from 2 nationally representative cohorts (2004-06 and 2011-14) of English-speaking, US adults, aged 25 to 74 years. Adult flourishing z score, standardized to the study population, was created from Ryff's 42-item Psychological Well-being Scale and quartiles of childhood family connection from a 7-item scale assessing parental attention, affection, and communication during childhood.
Importance: Higher levels of childhood family connection have been associated with measures of adult flourishing or eudaimonic well-being, such as purpose, self-acceptance, positive relationships, and growth. However, this association has not been examined among those with childhood-onset chronic disease.
Objectives: To investigate whether higher levels of childhood family connection were associated with greater flourishing in young adulthood among those with type 1 diabetes and, secondarily, whether this association was present across levels of adverse childhood experiences and childhood social position.
Background: The study objective was to determine whether higher levels of dispositional mindfulness were associated with lower HbA levels among young adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and whether this association differed by age or exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
Methods: An online cross-sectional survey, called T1 Flourish, was completed in 2017 by 423 of 743 (56.9%) young adults (19-31 years) with T1D receiving outpatient care at a diabetes specialty clinic in New York City.
In a previously reported randomized trial, we used both quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the impact of a professional development course, Enhancing Trauma Awareness, to increase trauma-informed care among preschool teachers in a large, urban, US school district. Although quantitative data from surveys showed no impacts of the course, the qualitative data from focus groups suggested that the course had positive, meaningful impacts on the teachers. These contrasting results are reconciled here by describing our experience of conducting and analyzing the focus group data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough mindfulness-based interventions may be effective in addressing the common symptom of fatigue, no population-based studies have examined the relationship between mindfulness and fatigue. We determined whether higher levels of dispositional mindfulness were associated with lower levels of fatigue. Cross-sectional data were obtained through the Pennsylvania Head Start Staff Wellness Survey, a 2012 web-based survey in which 2199 of 3375 (65%) eligible staff participated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To determine whether school start time changes impact adolescents' mood, self-regulation, safety, and health.
Methods: In September 2015, two school start time changes were implemented in Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools: a 50-minute delay (to 8:10 am) for high schools and secondary schools and a 30-minute advance (to 7:30 am) for middle schools. We conducted cross-sectional surveys of students' sleep, mood, self-regulation, health, and safety before (2017 students) and after (1180 students) these changes.
Importance: Adverse childhood experiences are common and are associated with changes in early development and learning, but training early childhood educators in trauma-informed approaches to care has not been evaluated with randomized clinical trials.
Objective: To determine whether a 6-session (12-week) professional development course, "Enhancing Trauma Awareness," improved the quality of teachers' relationships with the children in their classrooms.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This cluster randomized clinical trial conducted from September 2017 to May 2018 allocated classrooms by a computer-generated random sequence to intervention (attend Enhancing Trauma Awareness course) and control (no course) groups.
Objective: To determine whether self-reported drowsy driving was associated with an evening chronotype, a biologically-based difference in circadian sleep-wake timing, and shorter school-night sleep duration in a sample of high school drivers.
Study Design: Cross-sectional observational data were obtained from an online survey in spring 2015 of 431 drivers, age 15.5-18.
Objective: To determine whether simultaneous school start time changes (delay for some schools; advance for others) impact adolescents' sleep.
Design: Quasi-experimental study using cross-sectional surveys before and after changes to school start times in September 2015.
Setting: Eight middle (grades 7-8), 3 secondary (grades 7-12), and 8 high (grades 9-12) schools in Fairfax County (Virginia) public schools.
Introduction: Despite attention to the health of low-income children in Head Start, little is known about the health of adults working for the program. The objective of our study was to compare the physical and mental health of women working in Pennsylvania Head Start programs with the health of US women who have similar sociodemographic characteristics.
Methods: We used data from a web-based survey in 2012 in which 2,199 of 3,375 (65.
Eating regular family meals is associated with a lower risk of obesity among preschool-aged children. Children in lower-income households are at higher risk for obesity, but there is little information about their mothers' perceptions of family meals, and such information could improve nutrition counseling. To identify the perceived benefits and challenges of having family meals, four focus groups were conducted with 20 mothers of preschool-aged children living in low-income households in Philadelphia, PA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The prevalence of obesity among preschool-aged children has increased, especially among those in low-income households. Two promising behavioral targets for preventing obesity include limiting children's portion sizes and their intake of foods high in solid fats and/or added sugars, but these approaches have not been studied in low-income preschoolers in the home setting. The purpose of this study was to understand the contextual factors that might influence how low-income mothers felt about addressing these behavioral targets and mothers' aspirations in feeding their children.
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