Search Results (19)

The goal of newborn screening (NBS) has remained the same despite its significant expansion from its inception as a public health initiative. This goal is to identify infants that are at risk for a set list of conditions and to implement a care plan to prevent, delay, or mitigate adverse health outcomes for those affected. The role of genetic counselors (GCs) in the NBS space is currently evolving, and there is limited research on parental experiences with genetic counseling for more recently added conditions on a list approved by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services called the Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP). This qualitative study interviewed parents who have spoken to a genetic counselor after their child was diagnosed with one of three following conditions in the past five years: Pompe disease, X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy, and Spinal Muscular Atrophy. A total of 13 interviews were conducted and results were organized into five thematic areas: (1) NBS/Results Disclosure, (2) Diagnostic Process after NBS, (3) Treatment/Follow-Up, (4) Communication, and (5) Holistic Support. The findings of this study highlighted parental preferences for early involvement of genetic counselors, provider, and parent education on NBS, and the provision of family support beyond genetic resources. Full article

This study aims to explore the associations between menstrual health, lifestyle behaviors, biological traits, and coping strategies among female students at a Vietnamese medical university. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 884 female students across five academic majors. Data on demographics, menstrual patterns, biological characteristics, lifestyle behaviors, and coping mechanisms were collected. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, correlation, and logistic regression to identify significant predictors of self-reported menstrual changes post university admission. Of the 884 participants, 49.8% reported menstrual changes after entering university. Among the lifestyle-related factors, increased daily electronic use (mean = 5.83 h) and later bedtimes (mean = 23:58) were associated with menstrual change (p < 0.01). Older age and higher academic year emerged as significant predictors of menstrual changes (p < 0.001). Additionally, students with blood groups A and B exhibited a higher risk compared to those with group O (p < 0.05), and Rh-positive status was also significantly associated with menstrual changes (p = 0.05). In terms of knowledge and coping practices, students who had premenstrual syndrome awareness since school were significantly less likely to report menstrual changes (p = 0.003). Although use of pain relief, particularly painkillers, correlated with higher reported pain severity, it was not directly linked to menstrual change. On the other hand, clinic consultations were positively associated with menstrual changes (p = 0.003), while students who relied on their mothers as counselors exhibited a protective association (p = 0.001). Menstrual health in university-aged women is influenced by a complex interplay of lifestyle behaviors, biological traits, and menstrual knowledge. Early education and structured coping support may serve as protective factors. The findings call for targeted menstrual health programs in university settings. Full article

Legal scholarship and caselaw suggest that exposure to peer racial harassment in school (PRHS) harms student mental health and can derail students’ academic trajectories. Legal precedents call on schools to intervene to reduce student exposure to PRHS when feasible. However, little quantitative social science has explored the impacts of PRHS, explored whether exposure to PRHS varies by racial group, or identified structural factors that may protect against PRHS. We review data from over 350,000 California 6th–12th-grade students in nearly 1000 schools and estimate that exposure to PRHS is related to a twenty-percentage-point-higher depressive symptom rate for students of all racial groups, that Black students are significantly more likely to experience PRHS, that being in a school with a race-matched school counselor or psychologist is related to lower rates of both PRHS and depressive symptoms, but that White students are more likely than students of other backgrounds to be in a school where the mental health workforce reflects their racial background. The results suggest a need to reduce exposure to PRHS, particularly for Black students, and that expanding the diversity of school mental health providers could be a pathway to protecting students against PRHS and its attendant harms. Full article

In today’s rapidly changing social and employment environment, young university students face unprecedented career development challenges. They must not only acquire strong professional knowledge and skills but also navigate the complex job market. Career calling, as a profound professional value, provides individuals with a clear sense of purpose, laying a solid foundation for their career development. Therefore, cultivating career calling has gained increasing attention in higher education, which is essential for developing future social workers who are both responsible and purposeful. This study aims to reveal the impact of individuals’ career exploration on career calling and its underlying mechanisms, as well as the influence of personality differences during the exploration process. The study was conducted in two universities in Guangdong Province, China, using online questionnaires that yielded 421 valid responses. The results confirmed that career exploration positively influenced career calling, with career decision-making self-efficacy mediating this relationship. Additionally, openness to experience moderates the connection between career exploration and career calling. These findings offer valuable insights for educators and career counselors, helping them develop effective strategies and interventions to support university students in finding and realizing their career calling. Full article

Career crafting offers a new approach for individuals to cope with changing career situations. However, few studies have focused on personality-related antecedents that stably predict career proactivity. Additionally, as individuals’ careers are embedded in various social relationships, career crafting involves significant social interaction. Our study focuses on gratitude, which is related to social interaction, suggesting that gratitude fosters an appreciation for interpersonal relationships, providing a beneficial impetus for career crafting. A quantitative approach was adopted with a three-wave survey with 825 responses, and SPSS 26 and Mplus 8.3 were used as the analytical software for confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical regression analysis, and path analysis. We conducted an empirical examination employing a moderated mediation model grounded in the framework of proactive motivation. The results revealed a positive correlation between gratitude and career crafting, with prosocial motivation mediating this relationship. Simultaneously, intrinsic motivation moderated the relationship between prosocial motivation and career crafting. Our study emphasizes gratitude’s role in career crafting and explores how it, along with prosocial motivations, drives proactive behaviors, responding to calls for relational work redesign and examining interactions between intrinsic and prosocial motivations in careers. It has important practical implications for individuals, organizations, and career counselors. Full article

This study examined the influence of counselors’ sense of calling on psychological burnout, mediated by meaning of work and living a calling, based on the work as a calling theory (WCT) and preceding studies. Furthermore, the sequential mediating effects of meaning of work and living a calling were investigated. Data were collected from 420 Korean counselors working in counseling centers located nationwide and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results revealed that a sense of calling negatively impacted psychological burnout. Second, the sense of calling did not affect psychological burnout through the mediation of meaning of work. Third, the sense of calling negatively impacted psychological burnout through the mediation of living a calling. Fourth, the sense of calling negatively affected psychological burnout through the sequential mediation of meaning of work and living a calling. Based on this study’s findings, implications can be provided to enhance counselors’ professional calling and reduce psychological burnout, thereby aiding them in resolving their psychological issues during counseling practice and providing higher-quality psychological services to clients. Suggestions for improvements and future research are also discussed. Full article

The emerging literature concerning sustainable careers posits that career development is an adaptive and dynamic process of creating person–career fit, in pursuit of a career that is happy, healthy, and productive. Our goal is to advance this literature by delving deeper into the intrapersonal processes involved in constructing career sustainability—which involves meeting one’s needs in the present without sacrificing one’s needs in the future—and clarifying the role of time in this process. We articulate a fundamentally subjective, intrapersonal process of enacting career sustainability that draws upon career construction theory, prospective and adaptive sensemaking, conservation of resources theory, and career adaptability to articulate how individuals reflect, frame, envision, re-frame, and ultimately, adapt to effect and maintain their career sustainability over time. This expansion brings added conceptual depth to earlier sustainable careers models by situating the career firmly within the agency of the career actor and articulating how this process unfolds with specific recognition of the past, present, and future. Educators, career counselors, HR representatives, and community organizations are called upon to promote and support career sustainability and support individuals through this dynamic and adaptive process. Full article

Psychedelics have been studied extensively in their broad treatment potential for a variety of mental health disorders. Recently, scholars have turned their attention to the role of psychotherapy in the augmentation, follow-up, and support mechanisms relevant to psychedelic administration. While it is tempting to position psychedelic substances as standalone medicines akin to SSRIs or SNRIs, their unique neurochemical action and potential for psychological transformation calls for a broader examination of the role of counseling and psychotherapy, within the context of a bio-psychosocial model. I outline well-established and emerging therapeutic modalities that are well-placed in complementary and augmented psychedelic treatment. I do so with the intention of opening a broader conversation to those situated in medical and medical-adjacent fields, including psychoanalysts, counselors, support workers, and other allied professionals. Ultimately, practitioners working in medical-aligned fields hold diversly vested interests in understanding the place of psychedelic therapies in mental health, and more attention should be given to a balanced consideration of treatment and support mechanisms. Full article

Americans, over several decades, have consistently identified themselves as being religious and/or spiritual. Even though religious devotion has been recognized as a relevant diversity facet, therapeutic applications have been problematic. In the career development literature, numerous studies examined the influence of religion/spirituality (R/S) and generally categorized them in three ways. These include R/S as religious calling, as an integral feature of career interests and values, and as a supportive role. Yet, notable gaps exist among the articles. Researchers tended to operationalize R/S in a unidimensional manner, as a stand-alone construct instead of comprising multiple features. Investigations of religious calling in vocational matters were not recent. Further, few authors considered the influence of quest religious orientation on career development. In the present study, the relationships between seven career development and thirteen R/S variables using a sample of religious undergraduates (n = 290) enrolled in a career exploration course at a Christian university in the Midwest region of the United States were investigated. Findings from hierarchical regression analyses of vocational identity, career commitment, and career indecision checking for gender effects revealed three consistent salient predictors – religious calling, life-satisfaction, and quest religiosity. Implications of the results and possible therapeutic applications for career counselors are proposed. Full article

For patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer, information regarding hereditary predisposition can influence treatment decisions. From a surgical standpoint, patients with known germline mutations may alter decisions of local therapy to reduce the risk of second breast primaries. This information may also be considered in the choice of adjuvant therapies or eligibility for clinical trials. In recent years, the criteria for the consideration of germline testing in patients with breast cancer has expanded. Additionally, studies have shown a similar prevalence of pathogenic mutations in those patients outside of these traditional criteria, prompting calls for genetic testing for all patients with a history of breast cancer. While data confirms the benefit of counseling by certified genetics professionals, the capacity of genetic counselors may no longer meet the needs of these growing numbers of patients. National societies assert that counseling and testing can be performed by providers with training and experience in genetics. Breast surgeons are well positioned to offer this service, as they receive formal genetics training during their fellowship, manage these patients daily in their practices, and are often the first providers to see patients after their cancer diagnosis. Full article

Texting-based crisis counseling is increasingly used to reach young people in acute crisis. Drawing on the online disinhibition effect (ODE), this U.S. study explored how asynchronicity and invisibility contribute to how users reveal their presenting problem and engage with counseling. A random sample of 49 text crisis line sessions with youth averaging 18 years was used to assess response lag times and flow as well as their impact on the session. Interviews with crisis counselors provided supplemental context. Content analysis identified patterns in the presenting problem, reasons for response lags, and patterns in how the sessions ended. The overall duration of text sessions was substantially longer than that of voice calls, to cover comparable content. Users frequently multitasked or become engaged in other activities between texts, creating a more disjointed flow. This also allowed the user to take time with responses to difficult questions. Counselors had to match their pace with users, make decisions when to discontinue the session, and use intentional language to develop a therapeutic connection. In line with the ODE framework, the findings suggested that the invisible nature of texting allowed users to reach out for help at the moment they needed it, regardless of their location. Implications for using texting-based interfaces are discussed. Full article

Cyberbullying is a form of aggression in which electronic communication such as e-mails, mobile phone calls, text messages, instant messenger contacts, photos, social networking sites and personal webpages are used to threaten or intimidate individuals. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) counselling based on empathic training may reduce cyberbullying among adolescents. The present study investigated the impact of developing empathy skills in reducing cyberbullying among a sample of adolescents using two groups (i.e., an experimental group and control group). The experimental group received counselling intervention based on CBT with special focus on improving empathy whereas the control group received CBT general counselling. The participants comprised 217 adolescents (experimental group = 98 adolescents, control group = 119 adolescents) with a mean age of 15.1 years (SD ± 1.5). The measures included the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) and the Bullying, Cyberbullying Scale for Adolescents (BCS-A). Results showed that there were statistically significant differences on TEQ scores and BCS-A scores in the experimental and control groups after the intervention but more so in favor of the experimental group in terms of reduced levels of cyberbullying (both victimization and perpetration). Positive gains among the experimental group in both empathy and reduced cyberbullying remained at two-month follow-up. It is recommended that teachers and school counselors tackling cyberbullying should use empathy training as part of their cyberbullying prevention programs. Full article

Work-to-family conflicts (WFC), an aggravating factor of stress, may affect cardiovascular health. However, the link between WFC and cardiovascular health behaviors is not fully defined. This study intends to identify the mediating effect of coping strategy on the relation between WFC with cardiovascular health behaviors, such as smoking, stress management, increased physical activity, and healthy diet habits. The study is a cross-sectional online survey with 358 call center counselors. We adopted a linear regression to confirm the relationship between WFC, coping strategy, and cardiovascular health behavior, which are the main variables of the study. Maladaptive coping partially mediated the relationship between WFC and cardiovascular health behavior. Based on the results, we insist that a support system to reduce WFC is necessary, as well as increasing the availability of resources and policies to reduce WFC in the workplace and find ways to improve maladaptive coping to promote healthy behaviors of call center workers. Full article

Personalized polygenic risk information may be used to guide risk-based melanoma prevention and early detection at a population scale, but research on communicating this information is limited. This mixed-methods study aimed to assess the acceptability of a genetic counselor (GC) phone call in communicating polygenic risk information in the Melanoma Genomics Managing Your Risk randomized controlled trial. Participants (n = 509) received personalized melanoma polygenic risk information, an educational booklet on melanoma prevention, and a GC phone call, which was audio-recorded. Participants completed the Genetic Counseling Satisfaction Survey 1-month after receiving their risk information (n = 346). A subgroup took part in a qualitative interview post-study completion (n = 20). Survey data were analyzed descriptively using SPSS, and thematic analysis of the qualitative data was conducted using NVivo 12.0 software. The survey showed a high level of acceptability for the GC phone call (mean satisfaction score overall: 4.3 out of 5, standard deviation (SD): 0.6) with differences according to gender (mean score for women: 4.4, SD: 0.6 vs. men: 4.2, SD: 0.7; p = 0.005), health literacy (lower literacy: 4.1, SD: 0.8; average: 4.3, SD: 0.6; higher: 4.4, SD: 0.6: p = 0.02) and polygenic risk group (low risk: 4.5, SD: 0.5, SD: average: 4.3, SD: 0.7, high: 4.3, SD: 0.7; p = 0.03). During the GC phone calls, the discussion predominately related to the impact of past sun exposure on personal melanoma risk. Together our findings point to the importance of further exploring educational and support needs and preferences for communicating personalized melanoma risk among population subgroups, including diverse literacy levels. Full article

Researchers widely explored non-intellective study factors because they play a central role in academic performance and are potentially more modifiable than intellective ones. The scientific literature suggests that the non-intellective factors can be classified into three main areas: self-concept, which refers to self-esteem and efficacy, motivation and emotional reactions; the area of study, related to study dedication and operative skills; and the area of relationships, comprising those with family, fellow students and teachers. Basing on these findings, the C-Comp Scale has been developed and tested in the past, addressed to college students. This study aimed to adapt and test a new version of this questionnaire on high school students. Methods. A pilot study was conducted on 364 Italian high school students to adapt and test the new version of the questionnaire, called the H-Comp Scale. The following study, conducted on 792 Italian high school students, provided further evidence of its reliability, structural validity, and concurrent validity with general self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and academic performance. Results. The H-Comp Scale showed to possess excellent reliability and structural and concurrent validity. The final version is composed of twelve subscales, aggregated in three areas, with just 48 items: Study (Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, Time Management, Study Dedication), Self (Learning Assessment, General Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy, Reaction to Failures, Emotional Control), and Relationships (Family Relationships, Fellow Student Relationships, Teacher Relationships). Conclusions. The H-Comp Scale would be a useful and easy-to-use instrument to support school counselors, tutors, teachers, and researchers in exploring different types of non-intellective variables, to better project educational intervention aimed to improve high school students’ academic performance and satisfaction. Full article