Browsing by Author "Lucas-Thompson, Rachel G., committee member"
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Item Open Access Intervening with laughter: using laughter/humor to create positive experiences in dementia relationships(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Matter, Michelle M., author; Faw, Meara H., advisor; Knobloch, Katherine R., committee member; Long, Ziyu, committee member; Lucas-Thompson, Rachel G., committee memberHumor and laughter have various positive outcomes on people's health and relationships both within healthcare settings and in daily life. In particular, humor and laughter can be beneficial for individuals impacted by dementia. This dissertation project was an engaged, mixed methodological intervention in which a program containing humor activities was created for people with dementia and their care partners to determine whether actively engaging with humor and laughter would be associated with positive outcomes for participants' well-being, observed behaviors, and relationships. Data collection methods included real-time observations as well as pre- and post-test surveys. Results indicated that participants were able and willing to participate in the program, that they engaged in various relational maintenance strategies during the program, and that the program was enjoyable and effective at creating positive personal and interpersonal outcomes for participating dyads. This project contributes to the scholarly community by investigating the usefulness of a noninvasive intervention within an understudied dyadic and aging population while demonstrating the powerful outcomes that can result from engaged scholarship and community collaborations. Additionally, this work offers the community partner a "plug-and-play" program that can be repeated in the future and provided participants with valuable and enjoyable experiences.Item Open Access Psychological distress and coping during the COVID-19 pandemic: a structural topic modeling approach(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Tran, Thao P., author; Henry, Kimberly L., advisor; Lucas-Thompson, Rachel G., committee member; Prasad, Joshua, committee member; Prince, Mark, committee member; Swaim, Randall C., committee memberIn this study, I focused on two closely related phenomena, namely psychological distress and distress-coping mechanisms during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. I examined participants' voluntary written responses to two open-ended questions on psychological distress and coping in an online survey using an unsupervised machine learning approach called structural topic modeling. I chose to extract 17 topics from the collection of participants' responses. Among these topics, 11 were mostly about different factors contributing to participants' mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, including but not limited to, uncertainty due to the coronavirus, financial/work-related concerns, living conditions, and concerns about personal health and safety as well as the well-being of loved ones and others in general. Besides, I also found 5 topics discussing many ways people took care of their mental health during this challenging time. Surprisingly, one topic revealed different feedback people had for researchers who designed and implemented the survey. I also found cross-country differences in terms of the prevalence of each of the resultant topics. In summary, I documented a number of findings that are congruent with the existing literature on psychological distress and coping during the COVID-19 pandemic while at the same time, pointed out some important nuances in the qualitative responses of participants. Implications, strengths, and limitations, as well as directions for future research were discussed in the study.Item Open Access The effects of a brief mindfulness induction on maternal autonomic activity(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Wendt, Kathleen Ellen, author; Coatsworth, J. Douglas, advisor; Lucas-Thompson, Rachel G., committee member; Anderson, G. Brooke, committee memberBrief mindfulness activities are often included in preventive interventions for parents, but researchers do not know the type and combination of mindfulness components that beget the strongest effects on self-regulation. Focused attention meditation is associated with improved attention and self-regulation, but applications of such in interpersonal stressors are scarce. Using a randomized micro-trial design, the present study tested the effects of a brief mindfulness induction (focused attention meditation) on maternal autonomic processes, specifically change in respiratory sinus arrhythmia and tonic skin conductance level compared to resting state, during a goal-oriented task with her child (n = 40 mothers). Mothers were randomly assigned to listen to either a focused attention meditation or a control educational podcast before participating in an adapted Parent-Child Challenge Task (Lunkenheimer et al., 2017) with their 4.5-6.5-year-old children. A repeated measures linear mixed-effects model with basic covariance structure indicated an interaction effect between time and treatment for change in parasympathetic activity, such that mothers in the experimental group, on average, expressed relatively higher parasympathetic activation immediately following the induction period, compared to mothers in the control group. There were no statistically significant effects related to change in sympathetic activity. These results suggest a brief mindfulness induction can promote maternal parasympathetic processes during and immediately after the meditation. Beyond confirming pilot protocol viability, this work contributes to our understanding of the real-time, intra-individual effects of brief mindfulness inductions in interpersonal contexts.Item Open Access Work-life balance in a Japanese sample: a person-centered approach(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Tran, Thao P., author; Henry, Kimberly L., advisor; Fisher, Gwenith G., committee member; Lucas-Thompson, Rachel G., committee memberWork-life balance (WLB) has been linked to one's job satisfaction, well-being, and quality of life. Despite its importance, WLB remains elusive to many working people. The present study used a person-centered methodology called Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to answer three research questions: (1) Can people be categorized into meaningful exclusive and exhaustive latent groups of varying degree of WLB based on their experiences in work and life domains?; (2) To what extent do demographic variables predict membership in certain profile of WLB?; (3) Are identified profiles of WLB related to individuals' well-being? In a sample of over 700 middle-aged workers from Tokyo, Japan, I identified three distinct subgroups that qualitatively differed in their symptomology of balance. I referred to these as the Moderate WLB Profile that was family-oriented and partially engaged in their multiple life roles, the High WLB Profile that was fully engaged and efficient at managing their roles, and the Low WLB Profile that was partially engaged and inefficient at juggling among several life roles. Regarding demographics, age, gender, and marital status seemed to be important predictors of one's latent profile membership. Furthermore, the latent profile membership was predictive of one's well-being. In sum, the study results suggested that WLB is indeed critical to workers' well-being and hence, further efforts to boost balance are needed. One-size-fit-all policies of WLB may not work well for all employees. Understanding workers' circumstances is critical for more targeted interventions/policies to enhance balance.