A randomized controlled trial for self-advocacy intervention in college students with disabilities.

Purpose/objective: People with disabilities often achieve lower educational attainments and face worse employment outcomes compared to the general population, a disparity partially due to the insufficient development of self-advocacy skills in academic and professional environments where targeted interventions are limited. This study designed and evaluated a 6-week self-advocacy program (SAP) enhanced with solution-focused brief therapy techniques for college students with disabilities (SWDs).

Research Method/design: A program evaluation on process and outcomes was conducted using a pilot randomized controlled trial with college SWD ( = 28).

Scale Validation and Attributional Analysis of Public Stigma in Early-Pandemic COVID-19.

Purpose: To test the validity of a COVID-19 public stigma scale and an attributional model of stigma during the early stages of the pandemic.

Design: We administered a cross-sectional survey that included scales related to COVID-19 stigma to U.S.

Family-centered decision making: A culturally responsive collaborative approach among Asians living in the United States.

Objective: Compared to Western cultures, self-determination needs are expressed and pursued differently in Asian cultures, where interdependence and achieving greater good for the group are prioritized. To accommodate these needs, we propose the use of family-centered decision making (FCDM) to complement the shared decision-making (SDM) practice, fostering collaborative psychiatric care for Asian individuals residing in the United States.

Method: This article synthesizes various literature to outline the similarities and differences between SDM and FCDM, discuss implementation steps, challenges associated with implementation, potential solutions, and future research considerations.

Self-stigma of incarceration and its impact on health and community integration.

Background: Individuals returning to the wider community from incarceration face many re-entry barriers, including stigmatising beliefs regarding past criminal record, that have impact on health and re-entry. Understanding the development and impact of self-stigma on health can inform re-entry and rehabilitation services.

Aims: The two aims of this study were first, to evaluate a previously established model of self-stigma applied to individuals who have experienced incarceration and, secondly, to study the impact of self-stigma on physical and mental health as well as community integration on re-entry.

Unidimensional versus multidimensional: A bifactor factor structure of the Self-Stigma Scale-Short (SSS-S) among U.S. adults with psychiatric disabilities.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the English version of the Self-Stigma Scale-Short (SSS-S), a nine-item self-report self-stigma measurement, among U.S. adults with psychiatric disabilities.

Psychometric evaluation of the Symptom-Checklist-K-9 among U.S. working-age adults with psychiatric disabilities.

Purpose: The Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 1992) is a widely used self-report measure of psychiatric symptoms (Prinz et al., 2013), but it is longer than many screening measures used in certain settings. Recently, a nine-item form of the SCL-90-R, the Symptom-Checklist-K-9 (SCL-K-9), has been gaining traction despite the limited research examining its psychometric properties in the United States.

Weight Self-Efficacy and Recovery Among African-Americans With Serious Mental Illness and High Body Weight.

Many African-Americans with serious mental illness fail to engage in evidence-based programs that positively affect weight management. We examined how having a weight-related physical illness correlated with self-efficacy, recovery, and quality of life by contrasting illnesses with symptoms that are obviously perceived ( e.g.

Self-Stigma's Effect on Psychosocial Functioning Among People With Mental Illness.

Consequences of self-stigma exhibit a four-step regressive model from being aware of public stigma, to agreeing with it, to applying it to oneself, to resulting harm on the self. We hypothesize the relationship between self-stigma and psychosocial functioning is mediated by three constructs: the why try effect, stigma stress coping resources, and personal recovery. Two hundred eight people with depressive and bipolar disorders participated the study.

How African Americans With Severe Mental Illness and Trauma Experience Diet and Exercise.

African Americans have a higher prevalence of obesity and obesity-related diseases than other racial/ethnic groups; among persons with serious mental illness (SMI), African Americans fare worse as well. This qualitative study focused on the perceptions of African Americans with SMI in regard to 1) their experiences with diet and exercise behaviors post trauma and 2) how diet and exercise programming can address trauma. A community-based participatory research (CBPR) team developed the interview guide, research protocols, and conducted three focus groups.

Difference and Disdain as Indicators of the Public Stigma of Mental Illness.

Viewing a stigmatized group as different from everyone else is believed to be a contentless stigma that leads to disdain. This study tests whether three emotions-intergroup anxiety, anger, and empathy-mediate the path between difference and disdain. Six hundred thirty-eight research participants from MTurk provided valid responses to an online survey via Qualtrics.

Strengths and challenges of peer coaches for supported education in colleges and universities.

Objective: Peer coaches are an important element in supported education programs. Peers are students with lived experience in recovery. As coaches, they provide on-campus support to assist students with psychiatric disabilities.

Public Perceptions of Recovery Prospects and Peer Style (Support and Confrontation) in Services for Serious Mental Illness Versus Substance Use Disorder.

Peer services have been identified as a key agent in promoting recovery (both as an outcome and as a process) for people with co-occurring disorders. We attempt to make sense of this connection here by examining public perceptions of recovery and peer services separately for serious mental illness (SMI) and substance use disorder. Two different styles may guide peers in providing SMI or substance use disorder services: support or confrontation.

How does the public understand recovery from severe mental illness versus substance use disorder?

Objective: Recovery from severe mental illnesses (SMI) has been described as an outcome (end state where persons are symptom free) or as a process (despite symptoms, people can pursue life goals). Less clear is whether recovery as a process has credibility in the substance use disorders (SUD) community. We examined how public perceptions and expectations of outcome and process between SMI and SUD differed.

Comparing Chinese and European American mental health decision making.

Background: Shared decision making (SDM) tends to reflect more Western values of individualism and empowerment, values that may be foreign to East Asian healthcare preferences for collectivism and family involvement: family centered decision making (FCDM).

Aims: To show that Chinese will be more likely to believe FCDM would be more pleasing for them if they were the patient. Conversely, European Americans will respond more favorably to SDM.

Developing a research agenda for reducing the stigma of addictions, part II: Lessons from the mental health stigma literature.

Background And Objectives: Although advocates and providers identify stigma as a major factor in confounding the recovery of people with SUDs, research on addiction stigma is lacking, especially when compared to the substantive literature examining the stigma of mental illness.

Methods: A comprehensive review of the stigma literature that yielded empirically supported concepts and methods from the mental health arena was contrasted with the much smaller and mostly descriptive findings from the addiction field. In Part I of this two part paper (American Journal of Addictions, Vol 26, pages 59-66, this issue), constructs and methods from the mental health stigma literature were used to summarize research that seeks to understand the phenomena of addiction stigma.

Developing a research agenda for understanding the stigma of addictions Part I: Lessons from the Mental Health Stigma Literature.

Background And Objectives: Although advocates and providers identify stigma as a major factor in confounding the recovery of people with SUDs, research on addiction stigma is lacking, especially when compared to the substantive literature examining the stigma of mental illness.

Methods: A review of key studies from the stigma literature that yielded empirically supported concepts and methods from the mental health arena was contrasted with the much smaller and mostly descriptive findings from the addiction field.

Results: Integration of this information led to Part I of this two part paper, development of a research paradigm seeking to understand phenomena of addiction stigma (eg, stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination) and its different types (public, self, and label avoidance).

Changing public stigma with continuum beliefs.

Background: Given the egregious effect of public stigma on the lives of people with mental illness, researchers have sought to unpack and identify effective components of anti-stigma programs.

Aim: We expect to show that continuum messages have more positive effect on stigma and affirming attitudes (beliefs that people with mental illness recover and should be personally empowered) than categorical perspectives. The effect of continuum beliefs will interact with contact strategies.