Publications by authors named "Katharine A Rimes"

Sexual minority women (e.g., lesbian, bisexual, pansexual) have increased risk of experiencing various mental health problems compared to sexual minority men and heterosexual individuals.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study wanted to find out how adults think about what helps or hurts the mental health of kids who identify as LGBTQ+.
  • Researchers talked to 16 adults like parents and health professionals to understand their views on the challenges and support for these kids.
  • They found that kids often face dangers and social issues that make it hard for them to feel safe, but they also benefit when adults help them explore their identity and feel included.
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School is a key site for prevention and early intervention in public mental health, with sexual and gender minority students being a priority group for action. Context is important in understanding how school inclusion of sexual and gender minorities shapes mental health and well-being, with rapidly changing social and political forces necessitating ongoing research. This coproduced UK secondary school-based study aimed to understand (a) key components of mentally, socially and emotionally healthy school environments for LGBTQ+ students considerate of intersecting minoritised identities; (b) staff information, skills and capacity needs and (c) factors influencing uptake and implementation.

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Sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) experience a higher mental health burden compared to their cisgender, heterosexual counterparts. Role models and mentors are important for wellbeing and development; however, little evidence exists exploring their impact on SGM people. This systematic scoping review identifies their association with mental and physical wellbeing.

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Background: Sexual and gender minority youth are at greater risk of compromised mental health than their heterosexual and cisgender peers. This is considered to be due to an increased burden of stigma, discrimination, or bullying resulting in a heightened experience of daily stress. Given the increasing digital accessibility and a strong preference for web-based support among sexual and gender minority youth, digital interventions are a key means to provide support to maintain their well-being.

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Article Synopsis
  • This research investigates the psychometric properties of the Beliefs about Emotions Scale (BES) in both community and clinical populations, focusing on how individuals perceive the acceptability of experiencing and expressing emotions.
  • The study involves two groups: a general sample of 300 individuals from Tehran and 240 patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Somatic Symptoms Disorder (SSD), using methods like Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to assess validity and reliability.
  • Results showed strong internal consistency for the BES across different samples and highlighted significant associations with other psychological measures, indicating good reliability and validation of the scale.
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Low self-esteem can impair daily functioning and is a risk or maintenance factor for several mental health problems. Sexual minority young adults, for example, those identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual, on average have lower self-esteem than their heterosexual peers. Compassion-based interventions for low self-esteem might be especially beneficial for sexual minority young adults, whose higher levels of shame and self-criticism are likely to be contributing to maintenance of their low self-esteem.

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Melanie Fennell's (1997) seminal cognitive approach to low self-esteem was published in . The current paper proposes a refined model, drawing on social theories, and research with people with socially devalued characteristics. This model emphasises how self-esteem relates to perceptions of one's value in the eyes of others.

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Background: There is substantial variation in patient symptoms following psychological therapy for depression and anxiety. However, reliance on endpoint outcomes ignores additional interindividual variation during therapy. Knowing a patient's likely symptom trajectories could guide clinical decisions.

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  • The study compared perceived discrimination in middle- and older-aged adults between England and the US, focusing on various factors like disability, financial status, and sexual orientation.
  • In England, individuals faced higher perceived discrimination based on financial status (6.65%) and sexual orientation (0.72%), while sex-based discrimination was more prevalent in the US (12.42%).
  • Overall, racism was the most reported type of discrimination in both countries, with no significant differences found after adjusting for sex, highlighting the influence of country and socioeconomic factors on perceived discrimination.
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  • A study was conducted to identify new predictors of therapy outcomes for anxiety and depression by analyzing self-reported data from nearly 2,900 participants in the UK over the past decade.
  • The analysis revealed that having a university education and engaging in additional therapeutic activities were linked to better therapy outcomes, while having more episodes of illness and higher personality disorder symptoms were associated with poorer outcomes.
  • The findings suggest that collecting therapy outcome data from large groups via self-reports can be a rapid and cost-effective way to explore factors influencing treatment success and to develop new hypotheses for future research.
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ALSPAC birth-cohort data were analysed to assess prospective associations between childhood gender nonconformity (CGN), childhood/adolescent abuse, and adulthood PTSD symptoms. Structural equation models assessed whether abuse mediated the relationship between CGN and PTSD. Sex and sexual orientation differences were investigated.

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Sexual minorities (individuals with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or other non-heterosexual identity) are at elevated risk of developing common mental health disorders relative to heterosexual people, yet have less favourable mental health service experiences and poorer treatment outcomes. We investigated the experiences of sexual minority service users accessing mental health services for common mental health problems (e.g.

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Sexual minority young adults (lesbian, gay and bisexual), are at increased risk of experiencing mental health problems than their heterosexual peers. On average they also have lower self-esteem which may contribute to the development or maintenance of mental illnesses. Interventions to improve self-esteem could improve well-being and reduce mental ill-health risk in sexual minority young adults.

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Research on mental health inequalities between sexual minority and heterosexual young adults has historically focussed on the additional stress processes that might explain this disparity. However, more recently there has been a shift towards research focussed on resilience factors that might promote mental health in sexual minority young adults. Self-esteem is one such proposed resilience factor.

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Background: Stigma against lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer (LGBQ) people may increase their risk of mental illness and reduce their access to and/or benefit from evidence-based psychological treatments. Little is known about the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of adapted psychological interventions for sexual minority individuals in the UK.

Aims: To describe and evaluate a novel LGBQ Wellbeing group therapy for sexual minority adults experiencing common mental health problems, provided in a UK Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service.

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Robust population-based research has established that sexual and gender minority youths (SGMYs) are at an increased risk of mental ill-health, but there is a dearth of literature that seeks to explore how to best support SGMY mental wellbeing. This scoping review aims to identify findings related to coping strategies and/or interventions for building resilience and/or enhancing the mental wellbeing of SGMYs. PRISMA extension for scoping review (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines was utilized for this review.

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Background: Sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) are at an increased risk of a range of mental health problems. However, few evidence-informed interventions have been developed specifically to support their mental well-being. Interventions that are evidence-informed for the general population and are fine-tuned specifically with SGMY in mind proffer considerable potential.

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Objectives: Stigma has been found to be associated with lower self-esteem, which increases the risk of difficulties across life domains including vulnerability to mental health problems. There are no previous studies of interventions for people experiencing low self-esteem in the context of different stigmatized characteristics. This study evaluated feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of an intervention targeting low self-esteem in stigmatized people aged 16-24 years.

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Background: The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme aims to provide equitable access to therapy for common mental disorders. In the UK, inequalities by ethnicity exist in accessing and receiving mental health treatment. However, limited research examines IAPT pathways to understand whether and at which points such inequalities may arise.

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Evidence suggests that sexual minorities (e.g., those identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual) experience increased rates of depression compared to heterosexual individuals.

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This study examined characteristics of cisgender people who use non-traditional sexual orientation labels and investigated minority stress in these groups. Pansexual (n = 160), queer (n = 80), and asexual (n = 98) participants were compared with heterosexual (n = 1,021), bisexual (n = 1,518), and lesbian/gay (n = 2,730) individuals recruited from a cross-sectional survey. Participants were compared on sexual attraction, age, gender and childhood gender nonconformity.

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Many individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and with other non-heterosexual orientations (LGBQ+) experience stigma, prejudice, and/or discrimination because of their sexuality. According to minority stress and identity development theories, these experiences can contribute to difficulties with self-acceptance of sexuality. Lower self-acceptance is considered a risk factor for adverse mental health outcomes.

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