Mental health stigma is a significant obstacle for those with mental health issues in and from the Middle East, defined as the countries of southwest Asia and North Africa including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Such stigma may be passed down generationally; primary caregivers born in the Middle East who immigrate to the United States may pass down their beliefs and opinions of mental health to their children born in the U.S. This study examined the association between perceived primary caregiver mental health stigma and Middle Eastern emerging adults’ intention to seek mental help, while also examining the possible moderating effect of peer social support on this association. It was hypothesized that social support would mitigate the proposed negative association between a primary caregiver’s mental health self-stigma and their emerging adult child’s intention to seek mental health services. Results showed no significant association between perceived primary caregiver mental health stigma and an emerging adult’s intention to seek help, and no significant moderating effect of social support. However, findings showed a negative association between emerging adults’ mental health self-stigma and their help-seeking intention, as well as a positive association between prior counseling and help-seeking intention. Future implications of this research include bringing awareness to and addressing self-stigma in the Middle Eastern community, as well as providing education and training to those in the mental health field who may work with this population.

Amid the COVID-19 outbreak that were heightened in the United States between 2020 and 2021, reports of racial discrimination increased compared to year’s past for those who identify as Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color (BIPOC). Experiences of racial discrimination are stressful, and individuals in a romantic relationship may turn to their partner to receive support. However, in the context of interracial romantic relationships where one partner identifies as White, experiences of racial discrimination may be sometimes dismissed or minimized from the White partner, which may further the distress of their BIPOC partner. Nevertheless, supportive behaviors, such as empathy, may alleviate distress and validate one’s experience of racial discrimination. Relational savoring is an online intervention that has been theorized to increase empathy and perspective taking by focusing on positive relational memories associated with one’s partner, grounded in attachment theory. The purpose of this study was to examine whether relational savoring was effective in increasing empathy and perspective taking in a sample of White identified individuals who are in a romantic relationship with a BIPOC partner. This study collected data from 111 White identified individuals in an interracial romantic relationship with a BIPOC partner for an average of 8.9 years. It was hypothesized that White identified individuals who participated in a relational savoring task would report increased empathy and perspective taking when their partner experiences a racially discriminatory event via a vignette, compared to those in the control condition. Contrary to the study’s hypothesis, participation in the relational savoring task did not statistically change White participant’ ability to perspective take and report empathic concern when faced with their partner experiencing acts of racial microaggression. Results did, however, show that relational savoring, compared with a control condition, is effective in decreasing negative emotion after exposure to a vignette that depicts a racial microaggression.

The purpose of this study was to understand more about how romantic couples negotiate forgiveness and reconciliation. To do so, this study used purposive sampling and recruited 21 couples (42 individuals) to independently complete diaries two times a week for four weeks. In addition to collecting information about the transgression and background related to the transgression, participants were asked to report their most recent conversations with their partner since their last diary. Analysis revealed that couples’ conversations were triggered in the following seven ways: Intentional repair, during other conversation, during other arguments, airing feelings, everyday interactions, potential for temptation or risk, and chronic behavior associated with violation. This interpretive analysis was also guided by negotiating morality theory. One of the central assumptions of negotiated morality theory is that forgiveness communication is an important site for relational partners to negotiate a shared sense of morality. Moreover, the details of couple’s diaries and conversations provide information that can be used to advance negotiated morality theory. Specifically, this analysis extends theory by 1) demonstrating that conceptualizing the moral functions of forgiving communication hierarchically, renaming constructs, and the addition of a new construct (honoring emotion) will improve its parsimony and explanatory power, 2) illustrating how couples engage in discussion-based forgiveness and reconciliation, and 3) empirically illustrating how defining moral standards and restoring relational justice are the two main moral functions of forgiving communication. Restoring relational justice consisted of the following subthemes: establishing accountability, atonement, honoring the self and other, honoring emotion, and increasing safety and certainty. Among the contributions this analysis makes is identifying and describing honoring emotion. In doing so, the subcategories of honoring emotion provide both heuristic and practical implications. Participants’ diaries provided insights about the range of emotions, the discomfort and difficulty of emotional conversations, and communicating emotions.

Emerging adulthood (18 – 28 years) is a distinctive period in the life course whereyoung people are involved in the process of transitioning to adult roles in their careers and social relationships. Due to the ongoing COVID- 19 pandemic, economic instability, and other social factors, emerging adults in the United States are experiencing greater stress and challenges than ever before. In this climate of high stress, personal characteristics such as an individual’s propensity to endorse sociotropy (the tendency to focus primarily on relationships) or autonomy (the tendency to focus primarily on the self) may be associated with experiences of stress and resulting depressive feelings based on the diathesis-stress model of depression proposed by Beck in 1967. However, perceived partner’s dyadic coping may buffer against the positive association between stress and depression. Despite this plausible link, not much is known about how personal characteristics (here sociotropy and autonomy) of emerging adults may influence their perceptions of their own as well as partner’s dyadic coping. To address this gap, the present study used survey data from 269 emerging adults to examine whether personal characteristics such as sociotropy and autonomy are associated with their perceptions of dyadic coping and to examine if these associations are moderated by perceived relationship commitment, given commitment has been found to increase relationship maintenance behaviors. Results found that both sociotropy and autonomy were associated positively with positive dyadic coping by self and negatively with negative dyadic coping by partner. Relationship commitment partially moderated these associations. Results of this study have the ability to inform therapy for emerging adults in romantic relationships who may be experiencing higher stress, symptoms of depression, and those who may be experiencing difficulties in their relationships. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed

Despite an increasing number of women completing doctoral programs each year, there remains a deficit in the representation of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Moreover, Women of Color (WoC) in STEM doctoral programs face unique stressors and barriers that their male colleagues may not, such as microaggressions, racism, and sexism due to their marginalized identities. Although there is a growing body of research focusing on how WoC in STEM successfully navigate academic challenges and symptoms of distress present in rigorous doctoral training, there is limited research examining intrapersonal (i.e., academic resilience) and interpersonal (i.e., perceived social support) factors that may mitigate the negative associations of these experiences. To address these gaps in the literature, the present study gathered data from 174 WoC during December 2021 and January 2022. Results supported the hypothesis that academic challenges would be positively associated with symptoms of distress. Furthermore, based on research showing positive associations between both academic resilience and social support and psychological well-being, the study also examined whether academic resilience and perceived social support from friends and romantic partners. While academic resilience was not found to moderate the association between academic challenges and symptoms of distress, perceived social support was found to have moderating effects, such that low and high levels of perceived social support increased the strength of the positive association between academic challenges and symptoms of distress. Results of the present study have implications for doctoral programs and mental health practitioners working at university college centers and support for need for the enhancement of the structure and process of the doctoral program experience for WoC in STEM.

Every year an alarming number of deaths for the Black community are a result of disparities and inequalities in health outcomes. While literature has largely focused on social determinants of heath (e.g., economic, environmental, biological, and behavioral structures) as contributing factors to disparate health outcomes for Black people, literature on medical mistrust has been on the rise. Medical mistrust is defined as the belief that health care entities and providers act against a patient's best interest and well-being, and is associated with lower rates of service utilization, inadequate management of health conditions, lower levels of involvement in research, and treatment nonadherence. Only recently has patient-centered care been examined as a construct that may reduce the negative effects of medical mistrust. This study examined Black identifying patients (N = 174) across gender and their reported levels of medical mistrust, and if the perception of a patient-centered health care environment would moderate the association. The findings indicated that Black females, compared to Black males, endorsed higher levels of medical mistrust that may be indicative of intersectional influences. While there were significant effects of gender and perceived patient-centered care on medical mistrust, perceived patient-centered care was not found to significantly moderate the relationship between gender identity and medical mistrust. This may be indicative of the varying degrees of medical maladies that may be stronger determinants of perceived patient-centered care, despite gender or other demographic characteristics. Implications for practice and future research on the intersectional influences on medical mistrust and perceived patient-centered care in the Black communities are discussed.

Activity in the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system tends tocovary amongst romantic partners. Studies of interpersonal physiology suggest that romantic partners possess the ability to influence each other’s physiological states, which may be observable through systematic covariation in partners’ physiological activity (i.e., physiological synchrony). However, very few studies have directly tested physiological synchrony across conversation contexts, which is a notable gap in the literature given that social context may modulate the implications of physiological synchrony on relational functioning. Using electrodermal skin conductance as a measure of autonomic activity, this study used multilevel vector autoregressive modeling to test for time-lagged physiological synchrony across different-gender romantic partners while they discuss 1) a mutual stress and 2) a topic of mutual enjoyment. Strong carryover (i.e., autoregressive) effects were observed in both female and male partners in both conversations. Unidirectional time-lagged synchrony was observed in the mutual stress conversation, with female skin conductance preceding and predicting male skin conductance, on average. No time-lagged synchrony effects were observed in the enjoyment conversation, on average. Across both conversations, physiological synchrony varied greatly between each couple. Findings prompt future studies to further explore physiological synchrony using multiple physiological indicators to identity couple-specific dynamics.

Personal training is a growing industry as individuals across the U.S. face increasing levels of physical and psychological health issues. Hiring a certified personal trainer (CPT) presents an opportunity to not only become healthier, but also to grow one’s knowledge and abilities; researchers refer to this process as self-expansion. This research sought to specify a path model of the self-expansion process clients experience while training with their CPT. Secondly, this research described clients’ self-reported disclosure patterns with their CPT. Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and ResearchMatch, the study sampled N = 392 U.S. residents who reported training with a CPT. Results from the path analysis indicated poor global fit; however, local fit supported several statistically significant paths. Clients’ level of internal motivation was positively associated with their self-disclosure, self-expansion, and self-pruning. Clients’ self-disclosure was positively associated with perceived closeness with their CPT. Contrary to prediction, clients’ perceived closeness was negatively associated with perceived support from their CPT. However, clients’ perceived closeness and perceived levels of support were both positively associated with their reported levels of self-expansion. Regarding clients’ disclosures, results indicated that clients primarily discuss physical training, diet and nutrition, and health concerns. Thematic analysis of self-reported disclosure examples revealed discussion topics including body dysmorphia, loss and grief, mental health, personal relationships, physical health, professionalism, support seeking, trainer sharing, and trust. Theoretical implications for the self-expansion model include support for additional variables in the self-expansion process, including motivation, self-disclosure, perceived support, and self-pruning. Additionally, practical recommendations for CPTs include an awareness of the type of relationship that clients may desire, as closeness may inhibit perceptions of support with training. Further, CPTs should be aware of the disclosures they may encounter, as clients may share intimate information and seek social support. As such, training programs should include sections on active listening and empathy and require CPTs to be knowledgeable of community resources in the event of a disclosure that presents a serious health risk to the client. Additional research is necessary, particularly to investigate closeness in the self-expansion process, as it did not function as expected within service and professional relationships.