Familial transmission of mental health help-seeking: Does it "run in the family"?

Familial transmission of mental illnesses and health behaviors is well established. However, little research has examined familial transmission of mental health help-seeking behaviors despite social science theoretical traditions that support its occurrence including social learning theory and the network episode model. Among parent-adolescent dyads, extant literature supports consideration of adolescent-autonomy versus parent-gatekeeping according to whether or not parents recognize a mental health problem in their adolescent.

Socioeconomic-Status-Based Disrespect, Discrimination, Exclusion, and Shaming: A Potential Source of Health Inequalities?

Observing an association between socioeconomic status (SES) and health reliably leads to the question, "What are the pathways involved?" Despite enormous investment in research on the characteristics, behaviors, and traits of people disadvantaged with respect to health inequalities, the issue remains unresolved. We turn our attention to actions of more advantaged groups by asking people to self-report their exposure to disrespect, discrimination, exclusion, and shaming (DDES) from people above them in the SES hierarchy. We developed measures of these phenomena and administered them to a cross-sectional U.

Inequities Gone or Enduring? Evaluating the Effects of a School-Based Antistigma Intervention on Race/Ethnic and Gender Intersectional Disparities in Mental Illness Stigma.

While significant mental illness stigma disparities across race/ethnicity and gender exist, little is known about the efficacy of anti-stigma interventions in reducing these intersectional disparities. We examine the two-year effects of school-based anti-stigma interventions on race/ethnic and gender intersectional stigma disparities among adolescents. An ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sixth grade sample ( = 302) self-completed surveys assessing stigma before randomly receiving an anti-stigma curriculum and/or contact intervention versus no intervention.

'Me' vs. 'Them': How Mental Illness Stigma Influences Adolescent Help-Seeking Behaviors for Oneself and Recommendations for Peers.

Mental illness stigma is a significant barrier to utilizing mental health services for young populations. Few studies have evaluated how specific stigma dimensions relate to help-seeking and recommendations among adolescents. We examined how the stigma dimensions of labeling, stereotypes, and separation/discrimination influenced self-reported help-seeking behaviors of adolescents and recommendations for hypothetical peers with a mental health problem.

Reproduction and genetic causal attribution of epilepsy.

Objective: This study addresses the contribution of genetics-related concerns to reduced childbearing among people with epilepsy.

Methods: Surveys were completed by 606 adult patients with epilepsy of unknown cause at our medical center. Poisson regression analysis was used to assess the relations of number of offspring to: (1) genetic attribution (GA: participants' belief that genetics was a cause of their epilepsy), assessed via a novel scale developed from four survey items (Cronbach's alpha = .

Estimating School Race/Ethnic Enrollment Effects on Student Mental Health: Density and Diversity as a Risk or Protective Factor.

Objective: To investigate effects of school race/ethnic enrollment on mental health in early adolescence by examining both race/ethnic density (percent non-Latinx [NL] White enrollment) and diversity (range/size of all race/ethnic groups enrolled). Variation by student race/ethnic identity is examined as minority stressors are uniquely experienced by race/ethnic minority students.

Design: Longitudinal cohort from a broader mental health study.

Reproductive decision-making in families containing multiple individuals with epilepsy.

Objective: This study evaluated factors influencing reproductive decision-making in families containing multiple individuals with epilepsy.

Methods: One hundred forty-nine adults with epilepsy and 149 adult biological relatives without epilepsy from families containing multiple affected individuals completed a self-administered questionnaire. Participants answered questions regarding their belief in a genetic cause of epilepsy (genetic attribution) and estimated risk of epilepsy in offspring of an affected person.

The Psychiatric Genetic Data of Children in Proceedings to Terminate Parental Rights.

The introduction of psychiatric genetic evidence in court proceedings to terminate parental rights raises concerns that such information will result in misconceived assumptions about the child's mental health trajectory and unjust rulings on termination of parental rights. We conducted an online vignette-based survey with a nationally representative sample of adults from the general public ( = 300 respondents) to assess their views on how evidence about a child's psychiatric genetic makeup may affect key decisions in termination proceedings. Our findings indicate that genetic evidence increased the child's labeling as having a psychiatric disorder, regardless of the presence of symptoms, treatment recommendations, evaluation of prescription medication, and beliefs in treatment efficacy.

School Mental Health Curriculum Effects on Peer Violence Victimization and Perpetration: A Cluster-Randomized Trial.

Background: Addressing school violence is an important public health goal. To assess the role of school mental health curricula in violence prevention, we evaluated effects of an anti-stigma curriculum on violence victimization/perpetration.

Methods: An ethnically/socioeconomically diverse sample of 751 sixth-graders (mean age 11.

A School-Based Intervention for Mental Illness Stigma: A Cluster Randomized Trial.

Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of a school-based curriculum, Eliminating the Stigma of Differences (ESD), in improving attitudinal and/or behavioral contexts regarding mental illness in schools and increasing the likelihood that youth seek treatment for mental health problems when needed.

Methods: We conducted a cluster randomized trial in sixth-grade classes from 14 schools in 2011 and 2012 with follow-up at 6-month intervals through 24 months (2012-2015). Using a fully crossed 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design, we compared ESD to a no-intervention control and to 2 comparator interventions: (1) contact with 2 young adults with a history of mental illness and (2) exposure to antistigma printed materials.

Media language preferences and mental illness stigma among Latinx adolescents.

Purpose: Media-a powerful influence on mental illness stigma-varies by language and culture. Nevertheless, recent meta-analyses have demonstrated scant attention to Spanish language media as well as historically low Latinx participation in mental illness anti-stigma intervention. To better inform how to improve equity in mental health service utilization, this study assessed how language preferences in mass media influence stigma among Latinx adolescents, compared to family language and social preferences.

Genetic attribution and perceived impact of epilepsy in multiplex epilepsy families.

Objective: Studies have found that affected individuals who believe the cause of their disorder is genetic may react in various ways, including optimism for improved treatments and pessimism due to perceived permanence of the condition. This study assessed the psychosocial impact of genetic attribution among people with epilepsy.

Methods: Study participants were 165 persons with epilepsy from multiplex epilepsy families who completed a self-administered survey.

Adolescent views of mental illness stigma: An intersectional lens.

Differences in mental illness (MI) stigma among adolescents were examined cross-sectionally across race, ethnicity, and gender to identify target populations and cultural considerations for future antistigma efforts. An ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of sixth graders ( = 667; mean age = 11.5) self-completed assessments of their MI-related knowledge, positive attitudes, and behaviors toward peers with MI and adolescent vignettes described as experiencing bipolar (Julia) and social anxiety (David) symptoms.

Impact of a Community-level Intervention on HIV Stigma, Homophobia and HIV Testing in New York City: Results from Project CHHANGE.

Background: HIV stigma and homophobia are barriers to access to HIV prevention and treatment services. Project CHHANGE, Challenge HIV Stigma and Homophobia and Gain Empowerment, was a multicomponent intervention designed to reduce community-level HIV stigma and homophobia via workshops, space-based events and bus shelter ads delivered to community-based organizations and neighborhood residents in a high HIV prevalence, primarily African-American, Black and/or Afro-Caribbean, neighborhood in New York City (NYC).

Methods: Serial cross-sectional, street intercept surveys among residents of the invention neighborhood and matched control neighborhood were conducted before and after the intervention.

Parental recognition of preadolescent mental health problems: Does stigma matter?

Rationale: Parents are one of several key gatekeepers to mental health (MH) services for adolescents with MH problems. Parental MH stigma is a significant barrier to treatment, yet little is known about how stigma may bias parental recognition of mental illness in youth.

Objective: This study examines how stigma influences a critical and early stage of the help-seeking process-the recognition of MH problems in preadolescents by their parents.

Patterns of Aggressive Behaviors Across Mental Health in Sixth Graders.

School-based violence is a current public concern in the United States. One factor that can impact school-based violence that has gained much attention is mental health status. To better inform public perceptions, this study provides new evidence concerning the association between mental health status and acting out violence in school-aged populations.

The Burden of Stigma on Health and Well-Being: A Taxonomy of Concealment, Course, Disruptiveness, Aesthetics, Origin, and Peril Across 93 Stigmas.

Most individuals are stigmatized at some point. However, research often examines stigmas separately, thus underestimating the overall impact of stigma and precluding comparisons across stigmatized identities and conditions. In their classic text, Social Stigma: The Psychology of Marked Relationships, Edward Jones and colleagues laid the groundwork for unifying the study of different stigmas by considering the shared dimensional features of stigmas: aesthetics, concealability, course, disruptiveness, origin, peril.

Developing a community-level anti-HIV/AIDS stigma and homophobia intervention in new York city: The project CHHANGE model.

HIV/AIDS stigma and homophobia are associated with significant negative health and social outcomes among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and those at risk of infection. Interventions to decrease HIV stigma have focused on providing information and education, changing attitudes and values, and increasing contact with people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), activities that act to reduce stereotyped beliefs and prejudice, as well as acts of discrimination. Most anti-homophobia interventions have focused on bullying reduction and have been implemented at the secondary and post-secondary education levels.

Research Participants' Preferences for Hypothetical Secondary Results from Genomic Research.

Secondary or incidental results can be identified in genomic research that increasingly uses whole exome/genome sequencing. Understanding research participants' preferences for secondary results and what influences these decisions is important for patient education, counseling, and consent, and for the development of policies regarding return of secondary results. Two hundred nineteen research participants enrolled in genomic studies were surveyed regarding hypothetical preferences for specific types of secondary results, and these preferences were correlated with demographic information and psychosocial data.

Evaluation of Antistigma Interventions With Sixth-Grade Students: A School-Based Field Experiment.

Objective: School-based interventions for preadolescents provide the opportunity, in a ubiquitous institutional setting, to attack stigmatizing attitudes before they are firmly entrenched, and thus they may reduce mental illness stigma in the overall population. This study evaluated the effectiveness of classroom-based interventions in reducing stigma and increasing understanding of mental illness and positive attitudes toward treatment seeking among sixth-grade students.

Methods: In an ethnically and racially diverse sample (N=721), 40% of participants were Latino, 26% were white, and 24% were African American; the mean age was 11.

Depression and genetic causal attribution of epilepsy in multiplex epilepsy families.

Objectives: Rapid advances in genetic research and increased use of genetic testing have increased the emphasis on genetic causes of epilepsy in patient encounters. Research in other disorders suggests that genetic causal attributions can influence patients' psychological responses and coping strategies, but little is known about how epilepsy patients and their relatives will respond to genetic attributions of epilepsy. We investigated the possibility that among members of families containing multiple individuals with epilepsy, depression, the most frequent psychiatric comorbidity in the epilepsies, might be related to the perception that epilepsy has a genetic cause.

A Social History of Disease: Contextualizing the Rise and Fall of Social Inequalities in Cause-Specific Mortality.

Fundamental cause theory posits that social inequalities in health arise because of unequal access to flexible resources, including knowledge, money, power, prestige, and beneficial social connections, which allow people to avoid risk factors and adopt protective factors relevant in a particular place. In this study, we posit that diseases should also be put into temporal context. We characterize diseases as transitioning through four stages at a given time: (1) natural mortality, characterized by no knowledge about risk factors, preventions, or treatments for a disease in a population; (2) producing inequalities, characterized by unequal diffusion of innovations; (3) reducing inequalities, characterized by increased access to health knowledge; and (4) reduced mortality/disease elimination, characterized by widely available prevention and effective treatment.

Age at cancer diagnosis, amenability to medical interventions, and racial/ethnic disparities in cancer mortality.

Purpose: Racial disparities in cancer mortality may be greater for cancers that are amenable to available early detection and treatment (amenability level). We investigated whether these patterns vary by age at cancer diagnosis.

Methods: Using 5-year relative survival rates (5Y-RSR), we classified 51 cancer sites into least amenable, partly amenable, and mostly amenable cancers (<40%, 40-69%, ≥70% 5-YRS, respectively).