More than a mask: Possible relationships between lifting of COVID-19 mask requirements and depression symptoms experienced by US adults with disabilities.

Background: Lifting of masking restrictions at key periods during the COVID-19 pandemic may have disproportionately negatively impacted the mental health of individuals with disabilities.

Objective: This study examines the prevalence of depression-related symptoms in individuals with and without disabilities preceding and following the US rollback of COVID-19 masking mandates.

Methods: Pandemic-era data on reported symptoms of depression from the federal Household Pulse Survey from dates surrounding two major announcements on masking relaxations were analyzed.

Therapist Effects on Disparities Experienced by Minorities Receiving Services for Mental Illness.

OBJECTIVES: The authors examine if some of the reason clients from racial and ethnic minority groups experience outcome disparities is explained by their therapists. METHOD: Data from 98 clients (19% minority) and 14 therapists at two community mental health agencies where clients from racial and ethnic minority groups were experiencing outcome disparities were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling with treatment outcomes at Level 1, client factors at Level 2, and therapists at Level 3. RESULTS: There were substantial therapist effects that moderated the relationship between clients' race and treatment outcomes (outcome disparities).

State budget cuts, health care reform, and a crisis in rural community mental health agencies.

Between 2009 and 2011, states implemented significant budget cuts to community mental health agencies (CMHAs), which are frequently the sole provider of specialized behavioral health services in rural communities. Starting in 2010, federal policy changes created by health care reform and mental health parity are likely to increase the number of individuals who can afford to seek services for a mental illness. CMHAs under financial stress have begun to eliminate services and reduce staff.

Clinician factors related to outcome differences between black and white patients at CMHCs.

Objectives: Data are limited on how clinicians contribute to outcome differences between black patients and white patients. Because the clinician-patient relationship is the foundation of mental health services, understanding clinicians' role in outcome differences may help identify evidence-based interventions that decrease disparities and capitalize on positive differences. Symptoms and functioning in a sample of black and white adults receiving outpatient services were examined to determine the effects of their primary clinician on those patterns.

A model of contagion through competition in the aggressive behaviors of elementary school students.

This article extends the work of Kellam, Ling, Merisca, Brown and Ialongo (1998) by applying a mathematical model of competition between children to peer contagion in the aggressive behaviors of elementary school students. Nonlinearity in the relationship between group aggression and individual aggression at 2-year follow-up is present. Consistent with the findings of Kellam et al.

Preimmigration beliefs of life success, postimmigration experiences, and acculturative stress: South Asian immigrants in the United States.

This study retrospectively explored the links between preimmigration beliefs of life success and postimmigration experiences and their influence on acculturative stress among a group of parents who recently immigrated with their children from three non-English speaking countries-Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan-to the United States. The respondents, 75 sets of parents residing in New York City, participated in semistructured qualitative interviews. Discrepancies between the parents' anticipated life success in the United States and actual experiences after immigration were associated with the parents' expectations of their children fulfilling parents' own dreams of success.