scholarly journals Distance Learning and Parental Mental Health During COVID-19

2020 ◽  
pp. 0013189X2097880
Author(s):  
Cassandra R. Davis ◽  
Jevay Grooms ◽  
Alberto Ortega ◽  
Joaquin Alfredo-Angel Rubalcaba ◽  
Edward Vargas

As COVID-19 cases continue to increase across the country, there is a concern about the extent to which this pandemic will affect students. Since March 2020, schools transitioned to a distance-learning format, which unintentionally forced parents into new teaching roles as proxy educators. In this brief, we explore the association between distance learning and the mental health of proxy educators. We find that parents with children who struggled with distance learning experienced elevated mental distress. Given the relationship between teacher burnout and student outcomes, we argue the importance of supporting parents during this time to improve students’ schooling.

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (09) ◽  
pp. 772-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hashir Aazh ◽  
Ali A. Danesh ◽  
Brian C. J. Moore

AbstractParental mental illness is a risk factor for mental health disorders in the offspring. However, the relationship between parental illness in childhood and mental health disorders in adulthood among patients with tinnitus and/or hyperacusis is not known.The aim was to explore the relationship between parental mental health in childhood and anxiety and depression for patients experiencing tinnitus and/or hyperacusis.This was a retrospective cross-sectional study with a correlational design.Two hundred eighty-seven consecutive patients who attended a Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Therapy Specialist Clinic in the United Kingdom were included. Their average age was 52.5 years.The association was explored between anxiety and depression measured via the Generalized Anxiety Disorder questionnaire (GAD-7) and the Patient Health questionnaire (PHQ-9) and responses to the question “While you were growing up during the first 18 years of life did your parent(s) have depression or mental illness?”Thirty-nine percent of patients (111/287) responded “yes” to the question about their parents’ mental health, which is about double the incidence in the general population. Regression analysis showed that parental mental illness significantly increased the risk of anxiety and depression, with unadjusted odds ratios (ORs) of 2.7 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.5–4.9, p = 0.001) for the PHQ-9 and 2.6 (95% CI: 1.4–4.8, p = 0.002) for the GAD-7. However, when the models were adjusted for the effects of age, gender, tinnitus handicap as measured via the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory, hyperacusis handicap as measured via the Hyperacusis questionnaire, uncomfortable loudness levels, GAD-7 scores (for the depression model only), and PHQ-9 scores (for the anxiety model only), parental mental health was only significantly associated with depression, with an OR of 2.7 (95% CI: 1.08–6.7, p = 0.033).Audiologists offering tinnitus and hyperacusis rehabilitation should screen patients for parental mental illness in childhood, especially for those with comorbid depression, and make onward referral to appropriate mental health services when needed. Future research should analyze the breadth and type of adverse childhood experiences among patients with tinnitus and hyperacusis and their relationship with mental problems and treatment efficacy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 295-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yash Bhambhani ◽  
Gail Cabral

Although increasing evidence shows that mindfulness is positively related to mental health, the nature and mechanisms of this relationship are not fully understood. Based on previous research findings and suggestions, the authors of the current study hypothesized that decentering and nonattachment are 2 variables that mediate the relationship between mindfulness and psychological distress. A nonclinical, non-treatment-seeking sample of 308 students and employees from a middle-class, primarily Caucasian university filled out mindfulness, decentering, nonattachment, and mental distress measures online. Mediational analyses failed to support the hypothesis. Results suggest that mindfulness and nonattachment are independent predictors of nonclinical psychological distress and fully explain the effect of decentering on psychological distress. Results should be interpreted with caution and not generalized to clinical issues. A more comprehensive look into the mechanisms of mindfulness, especially with rigorous experimental, longitudinal studies, is warranted. The authors stress the importance of checking alternative, equivalent models in mediation studies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 459-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Zissi ◽  
George Stalidis

Background: This study draws on old and well-established evidence that economic change, and especially recession, affects people’s lives, behavior and mental health. Even though the literature is rich on the relationship between unemployment and mental distress, there is a renewed research interest on the link between socio-economic inequalities and psychological health. Aims: The study investigates the relationship of social class with mental distress during the hard times of persistent and severe economic crisis in Greece by conducting a comparative, community study in the country’s second largest city, Thessaloniki. Method: A face-to-face structured interview covering living conditions, life events, chronic stressors and coping strategies was employed to 300 residents of socio-economically contrasting neighborhood areas. Social class was operationalized by Erik Olin Wright’s social class position typology, based on ownership and control over productive assets. The method of multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was also applied to analyze the collected data. Results: The results indicated that mental distress was significantly differentiated across social classes and in each residential area. Unemployed and unskilled workers were the most vulnerable groups in terms of psychological health. Chronic stress arose in this study as a risk factor for poor mental health outcomes and it was associated to low marital quality, intense economic burden and impoverished housing conditions. Conclusion: Those who face income loss, job loss and disability are at high risk for poverty and marginalization, suffering from greater psychological distress.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takahiro Kubo ◽  
Daichi Sugawara ◽  
Akihiro Masuyama

As the pandemic limited our lives, people engaged in their favorite activities; either in alternative ways or while disregarding the restrictions. These major activities and our engagement in these activities of life are considered to have a significant impact on our mental health. Thus, this study aimed to examine the relationship between two types of passion (harmonious passion and obsessive passion), fear of COVID-19 (emotional fear responses, symptomatic expressions of fear), and mental distress. To this end, 322 Japanese participants completed an online questionnaire. The results showed that harmonious passion (HP) was positively related to emotional fear responses and negatively to mental distress. On the other hand, obsessive passion (OP) was positively associated with symptomatic expressions of fear and negatively with mental distress. Symptomatic expressions of fear have a stronger positive relationship with mental distress than emotional fear reactions. This study evidenced that HP is a protective factor against pandemics as it improves mental health while appropriately recognizing fear of COVID-19. Focusing on different types of passion may prove effective in improving mental health amidst the pandemic.


Author(s):  
Ching-Wen Chang ◽  
Siu-Ming To ◽  
Wallace Chi-Ho Chan ◽  
Alex Ching-Pong Fong

Precarious political circumstances can take a mental toll on young people. Adopting a socio-ecological perspective, this study investigated the influence of stress arising from political life events, intrapersonal factors (i.e., meaning in life, resilience), interpersonal factors (i.e., social support, associational social capital), and community factors (i.e., perceived empowerment in the community, perceived opportunities for civic engagement) on the mental health of youth in Hong Kong. Furthermore, it examined the moderating effects of these factors on the relationship between stress arising from political life events and mental health. A cross-sectional quantitative survey with a stratified purposive sampling data collection method was conducted. A total of 1330 secondary school students were recruited for this study. Multiple regression analysis was performed to examine both direct and moderation effects. The results indicate that high stress arising from political life events, low meaningfulness in life, low resilience, low social support, low youth empowerment in the community, and high civic engagement in the community were related to high mental distress. None of the presumed moderators moderated the relationship between stress due to political life events and mental distress. Assessing and addressing stress due to political life events would be potentially important in mental health programs for Hong Kong adolescents in precarious political situations.


2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61
Author(s):  
Roselyn M. Abbott

This article applies group analytic thinking to the relationship between religious fundamentalism and mental illness. Religion is explored as a means of social cohesion, and religious fundamentalism as a regressive response to globalization. Extrinsic and intrinsic religious attitudes are compared, with evidence of mental health within the latter. Clinical examples are offered to explore the potential heightening of mental distress for those presenting with culturally liminal attitudes within fundamentalist communities. Within contemporary society, it is proposed that the inclusion of psychoanalytic thinking within religious practice and the secular acceptance of the religious function could enable the emergence of a self-reflexive, and therefore more humane, spirituality.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Fritz ◽  
Jan Stochl ◽  
Ian Goodyer ◽  
Anne-Laura Van Harmelen ◽  
Paul O. Wilkinson

Objective: More than one in three people worldwide are exposed to some form of childhood adversity (CA). CA is strongly associated with an increased risk for the development of mental health problems. Resilience factors (RFs), such as self-esteem, are known to reduce such vulnerability to mental health problems. Here we examine besides direct RF effects, whether RFs predominantly alter the relationship (i.e. moderation) or disrupt the developmental chain (i.e. mediation) between CA and mental health problems.Methods: We studied 1130 adolescents. CA exposure and 10 RFs (3 inter-individual e.g. friendships; 7 intra-individual e.g. self-esteem) were assessed at age 14. Mental health problems were assessed at age 14 and 17, and were combined into a mental distress index. We estimated direct-effect, moderation and mediation models.Results: When taking the effects of all 10 RFs into account, five of the 10 RFs had a significantly negative direct effect in the overall sample. However, of those five, only brooding revealed a significant effect in both the group of adolescents with and without CA. Of the 10 RFs, friendship support, family cohesion and distress tolerance had a significantly negative relationship with age-17 distress in the group of adolescents with CA, and no effect in the group of adolescents without CA. Yet, none of the three RFs revealed a significant moderation effect (p = 0.07-0.09). Positive self-esteem, negative self-esteem and aggression functioned as significant mediators for the relationship between CA and mental distress.Conclusions: In situations in which CA is not known, brooding seems to be the most beneficial RF, as it reduced subsequent mental distress in both adolescents with and without CA. Regarding RFs in the aftermath of CA, our findings provide predominant support for mediation rather than for moderation effects. More specifically, targeting negative self-esteem, positive self-esteem, and aggression seems most fruitful, when the aim is to disrupt the chain between CA and adolescent mental health problems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-41
Author(s):  
Daniel Robinson ◽  
David Young

In this article, we report on a scoping review of empirical literature addressing the relationship between teachers’ inclusion-related knowledge, skills, and attitudes and student outcomes. Using six common electronic databases for education (ProQuest, JSTOR, SAGE Journals Online, ScienceDirect, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES), we searched for peer-reviewed, English-language publications between 1 January 2008 and 1 January 2018 (a 10-year period). A total of 25 articles met the search criteria for this scoping review and were consequently subject to a more detailed examination. This more detailed examination focused upon five student variables (intellectual disabilities [IDs], learning disabilities [LDs], autism spectrum disorder [ASD], other mental health disorders, and giftedness) and five possible student outcomes (social well-being, functional or life skills, academic achievement, post-secondary transitions, and exceptionality-related outcomes). These 25 articles include eight systematic or scoping reviews, two that report on experimental studies, nine that report on quasi-experimental studies, and six that report on correlational-descriptive research studies. A summary account of these 25 articles is offered, as is a list of related implications, for both practice and inquiry. Some of the most significant implications are related to the limited body of evidence related to a number of variables; these include teachers’ attitudes and resultant student outcomes, giftedness, and post-secondary transitions. Additionally, these implications also offer cautionary considerations related to teachers delivering mental health-related programs and utilizing technology-related interventions for students with ASD.


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