Jurnal STAI Al-Hamidiyah
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Impressions of Health Messages Among Black Women-Study 3
No full textThe primary goal of this experiment is to explore how Black women perceive messaging that discusses best mental health practices during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly when the message discusses the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on Black women (i.e., targeted messaging). Black female participants will be introduced to a White male therapist via his website. They will then view his client testimonials from either Black female clients or White male clients. Next, participants will read a health message that discusses the general stressors of the pandemic (non-targeted) or a targeted message that discusses the disproportionate mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black women that focuses on self-care strategies to address mental health challenges and societal changes that could promote greater support for Black women (targeted-societal). The message will be written by the White male mental health professional. We will explore impressions of the source and the message
Prevalence and Comorbidity of Mental Disorders in Humanitarian Aid Workers Operating in Intentional Human-Made Catastrophe Contexts: A Systematic Review
No full textHumanitarian aid workers (HAWs) in intentional human-made catastrophe contexts (IHMCCs), such as armed conflicts or wars, face extreme psychological stress, increasing their risk of mental disorders. This systematic review examines the mental disorders assessed in HAWs, their prevalence, and whether psychopathological comorbidity is considered. A search in March 2025 included studies in English (representing 91.2% of published studies), with original quantitative data, assessing at least one mental disorder in HAWs working in IHMCCs. Ten studies were included (n = 2,380). Bias was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Evidence certainty was evaluated with Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation criteria. Pooled prevalence rates from self-reported measures were high for anxiety (24.46%), depression (30.84%), and post-traumatic stress disorder (9.09%). However, significant heterogeneity and wide confidence intervals limited certainty. A single study using diagnostic interviews revealed lower prevalence rates than self-reports and global baseline rates. Methodological limitations of the studies leading to low evidence quality included: cross-sectional designs, self-reported tools prone to overestimation, lack of validated tools, and limited attention to psychopathological comorbidity and theoretical frameworks. Future research should be built upon modern psychopathology frameworks, adopt longitudinal designs, combine self-reports with diagnostic interviews, and use tailored tools for HAWs' unique contexts
Childhood Predictors of Political Voice and Wellbeing: A Cross-National Analysis (in the Global Flourishing Study)
No full textPrior research documents strong associations between political voice and well-being outcomes. However, less is known about candidate childhood antecedents that lead to political voice in adulthood. We will use data from a diverse, and international sample of 200,000 individuals across 22 countries, to evaluate 16 childhood candidate predictors of political voice. We hypothesize that these childhood experiences, personal attributes, and familial or social circumstances will have meaningful and varied associations with adult political voice. Additionally, we anticipate the strength of these associations will differ by country, reflecting diverse societal influences. Using multivariate modified Poisson regression analysis and E-values for robustness check against potential unmeasured confounding. Our study aims to provide comprehensive insights into early-life experiences that contribute to the development of political voice in adulthood. The findings will enhance our understanding of the early-life predictors of adult outcomes and provide valuable evidence for how political voice develops
Interrogating early word knowledge: Factors that influence the alignment between caregiver report and experimental measures
No full textThis project investigates whether parent report of comprehension and production of individual nouns is related to toddlers' looking behavior during a LWL task using many different item exemplars
Evidence for imprecise guidance for color in real-world objects (Experiment 2)
No full textRecent research has shown that during a visual search task for colored objects, attentional processes were guided to distractor objects that were several degrees away in color from the target's color (Yu et al., 2022). In other words, coarser target templates were utilized to guide attentional processes. Evidence for imprecise target templates has not been examined in search for real-world objects as these experiments utilized simple colored circles. The purpose of this study is to determine whether coarser target templates are employed during a visual search task for real-world objects. More specifically, we found in a previous experiment that attention may enhance template-matching features more coarsely than initially predicted. Unlike simple colored circles, real-world objects contain many features and broader target representation may be necessary to effectively search for real-world object targets
Impact of group dancing during Japanese festivals on people's sense of community
No full textMoving together or attending festivals has been reported to foster social bonding. However, whether festivals with and without dancing affect individuals’ social bonds and sense of community remains unclear. The existing research does not demonstrate whether lasting effects exist over time, even when community festivals are held only a limited number of times a year. To address this issue, this study examines the impact of dancing at local festivals on individuals’ sense of community. This study hypothesized that if dancing with others enhances social bonding, individuals’ participation in festivals may enhance sense of community since dancing is a part of many festivals. Accordingly, an online survey was conducted a few months after a community festival, and participants responded to three scales: the Brief Sense of Community Scale, Community Consciousness Scale, and UCLA Loneliness Scale. The results found (1) that the participants who attended and danced at a festival with dancing showed a higher sense of community and lower loneliness level than those who did not dance or those who attended a festival without dancing. (2) Previous festival attendance habits did not influence these tendencies. (3) Furthermore, these tendencies were not related to the individual’s willingness to attend festivals. Therefore, dancing at festivals may promote a greater sense of community than attending festivals without dance
The latent organization of white matter microstructure and its relation to fluid intelligence
No full textIn this project, we use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and intelligence test data of the Dortmund Vital Study (Gajewski et al., 2022, clinical trial number: NCT05155397, https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05155397) to verify the central hypothesis of our neurocognitive process model (Schubert & Frischkorn, 2020), assuming that individuals with high fluid intelligence profit from a higher structural integrity of brain white matter tracts. Using a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework, we explore cross-sectionally the latent relationship between markers for brain white matter microstructure and fluid intelligence. To adequately model the microstructural properties of brain white matter in a latent variable framework, knowledge about their factor structure is essential. To date, however, it remains unknown whether MRI-derived markers of white matter microstructure generalize across a variety of tracts, allowing for the modeling of general factors that reflect brain-wide properties. Therefore, the primary aim of this project is to derive and characterize measurement models for several white matter microstructure markers that can be related to fluid intelligence.
Specifically, we investigate the fractional anisotropy (FA) that describes the main orientation of diffusion in each voxel of an MR image. FA is a popular measure for white matter integrity that is commonly used in the literature and the only measure that is consistently used across studies in the field of intelligence research (Cox et al., 2016; Fuhrmann et al., 2020; Kievit et al., 2016; Lövdén et al., 2013; Penke et al., 2012). The inclusion of the FA measure thus allows us to integrate our findings into the existing literature. However, FA does not directly measure white matter integrity but the directionality of diffusion. Therefore, FA is an unspecific measure that cannot identify potential drivers of directional diffusion such as the axon density or myelin content in a voxel. To address this issue, we also include a marker for axon density (intra-neurite volume fraction, INVF) obtained by the diffusion MRI technique neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI, Zhang et al., 2012) as well as a marker for myelin content (magnetization transfer ratio, MTR; Wolff & Balaban, 1989) obtained by quantitative MRI (qMRI). By this, we can extend existing findings by two infrequently used markers that provide additional specificity to the characterization of white matter microstructure. The NODDI model distinguishes intra-cellular, extra-cellular, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) compartments and thus provides more specific markers of brain microstructure (i.e., the axon density as well as the neurite orientation dispersion) than the commonly used FA measure (Zhang et al., 2012). Thereby, the NODDI model allows researchers to explain observed changes in FA that may be due to a variety of reasons such as a reduced neurite density or increased dispersion of neurite orientations within the white matter (Beaulieu, 2010). The MTR describes the interaction between mobile protons in water and motionally restricted protons such as in myelin (Vavasour et al., 2011). MTR is often used as an estimate for myelin content as it is reduced in progressing demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis (Gass et al., 1994) and animal models of white matter diseases (Dousset et al., 1992). Additionally, low post-mortem myelin content is associated with decreased MTR (Schmierer et al., 2004).
Previous research on the interrelations of white matter microstructure across tracts is scarce and largely inconclusive. Penke et al. (2012) analyzed data from the Lothian birth cohort study (N = 420, mean age of participants M = 72.3 years) and found that average FA and MTR values extracted from tracts relevant for cognitive processing can be modeled as a general factor FA and general factor MTR that reflect the white matter integrity and the myelin content as general properties of the brain. In accordance with these results, Cox et al. (2016) showed in the sample of the UK Biobank (N = 3513, mean age of M = 61.72 years) that several brain white matter markers including FA and INVF are substantially correlated across 27 tracts derived by probabilistic tractography and that a marker-specific general factor captures the common variance across tracts for each marker, respectively. The authors also demonstrated that white matter microstructure across tracts becomes increasingly more correlated with increasing age. The marker-specific general factors explained substantially more variance in the oldest participant group around age 75 compared to the youngest around age 45 (11.5% for FA and 7.2% for INVF; Cox et al., 2016). In contradiction to the single-factor models proposed by Cox et al. (2016) and Penke et al. (2012), other authors investigating FA concluded that white matter integrity cannot be reduced to a single dimension across a variety of tracts (Fuhrmann et al., 2020; Kievit et al., 2016; Lövdén et al., 2013). Instead, Fuhrmann et al. (2020) and Kievit et al. (2016) included FA measures across 10 bilaterally averaged white matter tracts (defined by the John Hopkins University white matter tractography atlas) as individual (uncorrelated) manifest variables in a latent variable model predicting fluid intelligence. Fuhrmann et al. (2020) used data of N = 551 participants from the Centre for Attention, Learning and Memory sample (CALM) and N = 335 participants from the Enhanced Nathan Kline Institute—Rockland sample (NKI-RS) (all participants under the age of 18 years) and Kievit et al. (2016) used data of N = 555 subjects from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) with a mean age of M = 53.96 years. Lövdén et al. (2013) fit a model, in which correlated tract-specific latent variables captured the common variance of seven bilateral tracts (N = 260 participants from the Swedish National study of Aging and Care in Kungsholmen (SNACK-K), participant’s mean age M = 71.8 years, tracts as defined by the Catani tractography atlas and the John Hopkins University white matter tractography atlas). The authors find that this model fits the data better than a single-factor model. In summary, previous findings demonstrate a large heterogeneity with respect to the included MRI-derived markers as well as their derived factor structure. This heterogeneity may be driven by differences in the studied populations (i.e., the mean age and the age ranges of participants) as well as the choice and number of the white matter tracts included.
In this project, we use confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in a sample with a large age range to address the debate about the structure and dimensionality of white matter microstructure markers, namely FA, INVF, and MTR. The combination of the three markers allows us, on the one hand, to integrate our findings into the existing literature often investigating FA. On the other hand, it allows us to extend existing findings by two more infrequently used markers that address the lack of specificity of the FA measure. We specify a range of possible models, among which we include a single factor model as proposed by Cox et al. (2016) and Penke et al. (2012) as well as a model with white matter markers entered as manifest variables as suggested by Fuhrmann et al. (2020) and Kievit et al. (2016). Additionally, we include models that aim to describe the white matter microstructure based on anatomical classifications into association and projection fibers or data-driven classifications of tracts into groups of tracts belonging to the same functional network. We also test whether hierarchical or correlative models better represent the variance and covariance structure of the data. Finally, we test models with latent variables that capture the common variance of the same tract in the two hemispheres following the findings by Lövdén et al. (2013). All models will be tested against each other and the best-fitting model for each marker will be identified using systematic model comparisons. The winning models will be taken forward and integrated into a model combining all white matter markers. Lastly, we will include a latent variable fluid intelligence to test our hypothesis that individuals with higher fluid intelligence profit from a higher structural integrity of the white matter
Development of a virtual coach for the reduction of alcohol consumption (TUCAN)
No full textThe aim of this project is the stepwise development and optimization of an E-health intervention ("virtual coach") based on the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change, with the goal of motivating people to reduce their alcohol use, no matter how much alcohol they drink
NRP80 - Boosting Public Discourse: Towards a Targeted, Evidence-Based Strategy to Improve Moral Reasoning
No full textThe project seeks to empower the next generation of citizens to engage in high-quality public discourse through an innovative decision-making game that develops critical thinking and encourages considered use of key moral terms.
Portrait / Project description
The researchers will work with young people to identify key moral terms used during the recent pandemic. They will conduct a philosophical analysis to study how these concepts are used in public discourse. The next step will be to develop an online decision-making game with the aid of the young contributors. The game will encourage participants to reflect on their own understanding of key moral terms and help them develop stronger moral arguments.
Background
Public discourse plays an important role in understanding the impact of pandemics and the measures taken to control them. It is crucial for evaluating the proportionality of measures and for ensuring that a range of different perspectives are taken on board. Covid-19 has highlighted challenges in public discourse, such as limited participation by certain groups. Clear and consistent use of key moral terms in public discourse can help improve our understanding and management of the pandemic.
Aim
The project aims to contribute to a better understanding of how public discourse can fail because of unconsidered use of key moral terms and to propose a strategy for improving critical thinking skills that focuses on the considered use of key moral terms among young people as the next generation of citizens.
Relevance
Empowering citizens – particularly the young generation – to engage constructively in high-quality public discourse will simplify the search for the best measures to adopt in a crisis, increase the democratic legitimacy of measures and strengthen society’s resilience and cohesion.
Application
The project targets young people because they are at a stage in their lives where moral reasoning skills can be learnt more easily and because they will be leading public discourse in the coming decades. The study findings could impact how we develop and employ the capacity for moral reasoning and how democratic societies shape public discourse. It could also help public discourse fulfil its potential to contribute to a resilient society
Survey: National Survey of Emergency Managers' Use of NWS Decision Support Services
No full textThe survey tool itself is shared here