Publications by authors named "Justin Shepherd"

Introduction: Hispanic/Latinx (hereafter Hispanic) individuals who smoke have challenges in quitting and a disproportionate risk of smoking-related health problems when compared to the general population. The smoking inequalities among the Hispanic population are influenced by limited treatment access and chronic stress exposure (e.g.

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Research on dual combustible and electronic nicotine use among Latinx persons is needed to better understand patterns of use because this group is an established tobacco disparities population. Negative emotional symptoms and related processes (e.g.

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Introduction: Although Black Americans tend to consume less alcohol than non-Hispanic/Latine White Americans, Black Americans who do drink alcohol appear at especially high risk for negative alcohol-related problems. This alcohol-based health disparity indicates a need to identify psycho-sociocultural factors that may play a role in drinking and related problems to inform prevention and treatment efforts. Minority stress-based models posit that stressors such as racism increase negative emotions, which may be associated with using substances such as alcohol to cope with negative emotions.

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Although social determinants of health (SDoH) have increasingly been understood as clinically important factors in the onset, maintenance, and relapse of substance use behavior, little research has evaluated neighborhood vigilance in terms of smoking. The present investigation sought to evaluate the role of neighborhood vigilance in terms of smoking abstinence expectancies (i.e.

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Objective: Although empirical work focused on smoking-drinking comorbidity among Latinx persons is growing, no work has explored the relation between alcohol use severity in terms of co-occurring smoking processes and mental health. Therefore, the present investigation aimed to explore the prevalence and role of alcohol use severity in relation to clinically significant tobacco and mental health problems among English-speaking Latinx adults who smoke cigarettes.

Methods: Participants included 338 English-speaking Latinx adults who smoked cigarettes daily ( = 35.

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Article Synopsis
  • More and more people are realizing that Hispanic individuals in the U.S. face unique challenges with smoking and tobacco use.
  • A study looked at how feeling stressed or sad because of racial discrimination affects their smoking habits and ability to quit.
  • It found that feeling depressed makes it harder for them to cope with smoking, while anxiety affects their beliefs about quitting smoking.
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  • There hasn't been much research on how smoking and wanting to quit smoking relate to traumatic experiences and stress in Hispanic people who smoke in the US.
  • This study looked at 228 Hispanic smokers who have faced trauma and found that their trauma symptoms made it harder for them to quit smoking and caused them to feel more dependent on cigarettes.
  • The results suggest that understanding these stress factors can help improve quitting programs for Hispanic smokers dealing with trauma, which is really important for their health.
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Article Synopsis
  • Hispanic people in the US face big challenges when trying to quit smoking because of issues with managing their emotions.
  • A study with 332 Hispanic adults showed that if someone struggles to control their feelings, they are likely to have a harder time quitting smoking and may deal with problems like irritability and weight gain.
  • It was found that better emotions can lead to more positive thoughts about quitting, while poor emotional control can make quitting even more difficult.
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Latinx individuals who smoke represent a tobacco health disparities group. Yet, limited research has focused on examining dual combustible and electronic cigarette use among Latinx populations. Importantly, Latinx persons who smoke also evince elevated rates of pain problems and symptoms and prior research has consistently linked pain problems and severity to smoking prevalence, maintenance, and behavior.

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There is a well-established relation between depression and smoking in the general population. However, past work focused on Latinx persons who smoke in relation to depressed affect has yielded inconsistent findings. The present investigation aimed to build on past research and evaluate differences among English-speaking Latinx adults who smoke combustible cigarettes with and without probable depression in terms of cigarette dependence, perceived barriers for quitting, severity of problems when quitting, and smoking abstinence expectancies.

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Limited work has focused on understanding the function of individual difference factors in terms of mental health among sexual minority college students. Anxiety sensitivity is one individual difference factor which has received substantial empirical attention, but its role is presently understudied among racially/ethnically diverse sexual minority college students. Participants included a racially and ethnically diverse sample of sexual minority college students ( = 217; = 20.

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The experience of perceived ethnic discrimination is prevalent and has harmful effects across various behavioral health processes among Latinx persons. Yet, there is limited work on the association between perceived ethnic discrimination and smoking among this health disparities group. Building from initial work that has demonstrated a relationship between perceived ethnic discrimination and smoking abstinence expectancies, the present study sought to explore mechanisms by which perceived ethnic discrimination may be related to cigarette dependence.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to create a way to measure how people from different racial or ethnic backgrounds react emotionally to stress they face because of their identity.
  • In the first part of the study, researchers created a 15-question survey and tested it on over a thousand people to make sure it worked well and measured what it was supposed to.
  • The results showed that this survey could help understand how stress affects mental health and behaviors, especially in people from Latinx backgrounds, linking high stress responses with health problems and poor well-being.
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The Latinx population in the United States (U.S.) experiences significant tobacco and other substance use-related health disparities.

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Limited research has focused expressly on dual tobacco-alcohol use among the Latinx population. Latinx individuals who smoke represent a tobacco health disparities group and evince elevated rates of pain problems and symptoms. Prior research has consistently linked pain problems and severity to smoking and alcohol prevalence, maintenance, and behavior.

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Posttraumatic stress symptoms have been associated with opioid misuse and dependence among adults with chronic pain. Lower levels of perceived distress tolerance (i.e.

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Objective: The Latinx/Hispanic (hereafter, Latinx) population in the United States (US) experiences significant tobacco-related health disparities. Extant work suggests social determinants of health (SDoH) such as perceived discrimination is an individual differences factor for cigarette smoking behavior among Latinx individuals who smoke cigarettes. Other research has suggested sensitivity to internal cues, referred to as anxiety sensitivity, is related to smoking among Latinx adults, but this work has not explored whether anxiety sensitivity may moderate the association between perceived discrimination and smoking behavior.

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There is a well-established relation between anxiety psychopathology and smoking in the general population. However, little work focuses on Latinx/Hispanic (hereafter Latinx) persons who smoke from this comorbidity perspective. The present investigation aimed to explore differences among English-speaking Latinx adults who live in the United States (US) and smoke cigarettes with and without a probable anxiety disorder in terms of cigarette dependence, perceived barriers for quitting, severity of problems when quitting, and smoking abstinence expectancies.

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: Smoking-related health disparities are prevalent in the Latinx community in the United States (US). Although Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) are known to contribute to a myriad of health problems among the Latinx population, there is relatively limited work expressly aimed at elucidating SDoH among Latinx smokers. Perceived racial/ethnic discrimination is one SDoH construct that may be especially relevant to understanding smoking-related cognition for Latinx smokers in the US.

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Introduction: Hispanic/Latinx (hereafter Latinx) individuals in the United States (US) face unique smoking-related health disparities, including limited access to care and health insurance for smoking treatment. Social determinants of health (SDoH) have received increased recognition in their role of smoking behavior and cessation. However, research on SDoH in Latinx smoking populations has been limited.

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Cigarette smoking is associated with adverse physical and mental health among Latinx adults in the United States. The present investigation sought to explore the main and interactive effects of anxiety symptoms and anxiety sensitivity in relation to cigarette dependence, perceived barriers for smoking cessation, and severity of problems experienced when quitting among adult Latinx smokers. Participants included 338 Latinx adult daily cigarette smokers ( = 35.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Latinx smokers in the U.S. face specific challenges related to smoking cessation, and many report high levels of probable anxiety disorder (50.9%) and anxiety sensitivity (73.4%).
  • - The study involved 338 English-speaking adult Latinx daily cigarette smokers and focused on how anxiety symptoms and sensitivity relate to their beliefs about smoking, known as outcome expectancies.
  • - Findings showed that anxiety sensitivity was a significant predictor of both negative and positive smoking outcome expectancies, suggesting that managing anxiety sensitivity could be crucial for effective smoking cessation strategies in this population.
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The non-Hispanic Black population experiences trauma-related disparities. One potentially important individual difference construct for posttraumatic stress is anxiety sensitivity. There is limited work on anxiety sensitivity among non-Hispanic Black persons, and no research has focused on this construct in terms of posttraumatic stress among this population.

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