Building intercultural mentorship, wellbeing, and wholistic practice in graduate education: Scholarly reflections on playbuilding, storytelling, and the arts

Academia is a stressful environment for graduate students and faculty due to high expectations, comprehensive assignments, and diverse roles and responsibilities. Faculty report stressors related to high demands for scholarly productivity, teaching excellence, and administrative duties. These high expectations are often heightened by increasing class sizes, limited administrative support, decreased funding opportunities, and busy schedules. There are also increased pressures for racialized faculty groups. More recently, professors have also been facing an increasing number of COVID-19-related stressors, such as remote working, childcare obligations, research delays, secondary trauma, and mental exhaustion. Educational researchers suggest that in a context of an increasingly changing academia, mentoring and community-building have the potential to promote growth-fostering relationships while supporting individuals' sense of self-worth, self-esteem, and competency. Considering the importance of mentorships and wellbeing in graduate education, as well as artful practices for learning and teaching, the authors shares their perspectives of play-building as they continue to develop intercultural relationships through collaborative writing, storytelling, and understandings of the Creative Process, as well as two Indigenous pedagogical tools: the Medicine Wheel and the Two Row Wampum Belt. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

COVID-19-Related Stressors and Chinese Adolescents' Adjustment: The Moderating Role of Coping and Online Learning Satisfaction.

The present study aims to examine the main and interactive relations of COVID-19-related stressors, coping, and online learning satisfaction with Chinese adolescents' adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 850 adolescents from three Chinese secondary schools participated in the survey during the pandemic outbreak, and the data were analyzed by hierarchical linear regression. The results show that COVID-19-related stressors were a vulnerability factor in predicting adjustment. Adolescents' adjustment could be attributed to both individual-level (e.g., coping) and class-level (e.g., a class-level indicator of coping) characteristics. Specifically, problem-based coping and online learning satisfaction can promote adolescents' adjustment directly or serve as a buffer against the negative impact of stressors on adjustment, while emotion-based coping is a vulnerability factor in predicting adjustment directly or as a risk factor in strengthening the relation between stressors and adjustment. Compared with male adolescents and adolescents with high socio-economic status, female and impoverished adolescents reported poorer adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings enrich our understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents' adjustment and are helpful in improving adolescents' adjustment during the pandemic.

COVID-Related Stressors and Psychological Distress Among Chicago Residents: the Moderating Role of Race.

BACKGROUND: Racial and ethnic minorities have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and have experienced greater financial loss, housing instability, and food insecurity due to COVID-related restrictions. As a result, Black and Hispanic communities may be at greater risk of experiencing psychological distress (PD). METHODS: Using data collected between October 2020 and January 2021from 906 Black (39%), White (50%), and Hispanic (11%) adults, we assessed racial/ethnic differences in the effect of three COVID-related stressors-employment stress, housing instability, and food insecurity-on PD using ordinary least square regression. RESULTS: Black adults reported lower PD levels compared to White adults (ß = - 0.23, P < 0.001), but Hispanic adults did not differ significantly from White adults. COVID-related housing instability (ß = 0.46, P < 0.001), food insecurity (ß = 0.27, P < 0.001), and employment stress (ß = 0.29, P < 0.001) were associated with higher PD. Employment stress was the only stressor to differentially affect PD by race/ethnicity. Among those that reported employment stress, Black adults had lower levels of distress compared to Whites (ß = - 0.54, P < 0.001) and Hispanics (ß = - 0.04, P = 0.85). CONCLUSION: Despite relatively high exposure to COVID-related stressors, Black respondents had lower levels of PD compared to Whites and Hispanics which may reflect differences in race-specific coping mechanisms. Future research is needed to elucidate the nuances of these relationships and identify policies and interventions that prevent and minimize the impact of employment, food, and housing-related stressors and support coping mechanisms that promote mental health among minority populations, such as policies that support easier access to mental health and financial and housing assistance.

COVID-19-Related Stressors and Clinical Mental Health Symptoms in a Northeast US Sample.

Research has linked specific COVID-19-related stressors to the mental health burden, yet most previous studies have examined only a limited number of stressors and have paid little attention to their clinical significance. This study tested the hypothesis that individuals who reported greater COVID-19-related stressors would be more likely to have elevated levels of anxiety, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and serious psychological distress. METHODS: An online survey was administered to a convenience sample from 18 June to 19 July 2020, in US states that were most affected by COVID-19 infections and deaths at the time. Individuals who were 18 or older and residents of five Northeast US states were eligible to participate (N = 1079). In preregistered analyses, we used logistic regression models to test the associations of COVID-19 stressors with symptoms on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Impact of Event Scale-Revised, and K6, adjusting for sociodemographic covariates. RESULTS: COVID-19-related stressors (i.e., essential worker status, worry about COVID-19 infection, knowing someone hospitalized by COVID-19, having children under 14 at home, loneliness, barriers to environmental rewards, food insecurity, loss of employment) were associated with meeting thresholds (i.e., positive screening) for anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and/or serious psychological distress. Loneliness and barriers to environmental rewards were associated with all mental health outcomes. LIMITATIONS: We used a non-probability sample and cannot assume temporal precedence of stressors with regard to development of mental health symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: These findings link specific stressors to the mental health burden of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of two types of COVID-19-related discrimination and contemporaneous stressors on Chinese immigrants in the US South.

The global rise of the COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an increase in anti-Asian discrimination with potentially deleterious effects on individuals of Asian descent. In the present study, we examine how two types of COVID-19-related anti-Asian discrimination and other contemporaneous stressors independently contribute to perceptions of stress in a population-representative sample of Chinese immigrants in North Carolina, as well as the moderating role of ethnic identity on the association between COVID-related discrimination and stress. Analyses rely on data collected among participants ages 18+ in the Chinese Immigrants in Raleigh-Durham (ChIRDU) study who completed surveys in 2018 and during the COVID-19 pandemic (July-September 2020). We utilize ordinary least squares regressions to examine associations of two types of COVID-related discrimination (measured by changes in perceptions of being feared by others and racism-related vigilance) and contemporaneous stressors (measured by general COVID-19-related stressors and acculturative stressors) with perceptions of stress by respondents' pre-pandemic reports of ethnic identity. Controlling for sociodemographic predictors and other stressors, racism-related vigilance is significantly associated with higher perceived stress for Chinese immigrants who identify as completely Chinese. For those who identify as at least partly American, new perceptions of being feared by others during the pandemic are significantly associated with higher perceived stress. Acculturative and COVID-related stressors are independently associated with higher perceived stress for both groups. These results suggest that COVID-related anti-Asian discrimination aggravates the psychological burden of multiple stressors in Chinese immigrants' lives by uniquely contributing to perceptions of stress alongside contemporaneous stressors. The results also highlight the heterogeneous mental health needs of Chinese immigrants and hold important implications for intervention development in the community studied here as well as in other Chinese communities in the US.

Existential Well-being, Mental Health, and COVID-19: Reconsidering the Impact of Lockdown Stressors in Moscow.

Background: Initial psychological papers on COVID-19, mental health and wellbeing mostly focus on the aftermath lockdown-related stress and stress related to the disease itself. Still, we presume that personal well-being can be resistant to stressors depending on the way the person is settled in their life. Objective: We seek to reconsider the contribution of lockdown-related stressors to existential well-being, to assess existential well-being during the outbreak and to compare the contribution of living conditions and COVID-19-related factors on well-being. Design: An online survey was conducted during the peak of the outbreak in Moscow (April-May 2020) (N=880). The data was obtained using the "Test of Existential Motivations" questionnaire and a series of questions addressing (1) living conditions - mental and physical health, employment, and social distancing; (2) COVID-19-related stressors - non-chronic illness, financial losses, and unavailability of goods or services; (3) sociodemographic indicators - age, gender, and income. Data analysis included hierarchical multiple regression, one-sample t-test, and analysis of variance. Results: Surprisingly, the existential well-being of Moscow citizens during the research period was moderate. Each of the three groups of factors predicted a similar proportion of the variance of well-being (3-3,9%). The strongest predictors of well-being were long-term mental health status and financial stability. The effect of COVID-19-related stressors was most pronounced when they co-occur. Conclusion: The negative association between lockdown-related stressors and poor well-being is not universal. It is necessary to study the effect of COVID-19-related stressors in combination with individual living conditions and region-specific factors and to focus on the prevention of the occurrence of stressors.

COVID-19 related stressors and mental health outcomes of expatriates in international construction.

The construction industry is labor-intensive, and employees' mental health has a significant impact on occupational health and job performance. In particular, expatriates in international projects under the normalization of the epidemic are under greater pressure than domestic project employees. This paper aims to explore the association of stressors and mental health in international constructions during COVID-19. Furthermore, test the mediation effect of psychological resilience and moderating effort of international experience in this relationship. A survey of 3,091 expatriates in international construction projects was conducted. A moderating mediation model was employed to test the effect of psychological resilience and international experience. Then, statistical analysis with a bootstrap sample was used to test the mediation effect of the model, and a simple slope was used to test the moderating effect. Moderated by experience, the slope of the effect of stressors on psychological resilience changed from -1.851 to -1.323. And the slope of the effect of psychological resilience on mental health outcomes reduced by about 0.1. This suggests that experience is one of the buffering factors for individual psychological resilience of expatriates to regulate stress. Theoretically, this study verifies the mediation effect of psychological resilience between COVID-19 related stressors and mental health outcomes and importance of an expatriate's experience in an international assignment. Practically, this study provides guidelines for international construction enterprises and managers to make an assistant plan for expatriates during this pandemic time and pay more attention to their psychological status. The research also suggests that the best choice for challenging assignments is choosing a more experienced employee.

COVID-19 stressors and one-year changes in depression and anxiety in a longitudinal cohort of low-income adults in the United States.

Emerging data suggest that adults with low income are at highest risk for COVID-19-related stressors and mental health disorders. This study aimed to determine if COVID-19-related stressors were associated with worsening depression and anxiety in a cohort of low-income adults one year after the start of the pandemic. Participants included 253 Medicaid and commercial accountable care organization recipients from 5 community health centers around Boston, MA who enrolled December 2019-March 2020 in a larger longitudinal study of a Medicaid program. Participants completed surveys at baseline and one-year follow-up that measured depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-8 [PHQ-8]) and anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 [GAD-7]) symptoms. Follow-up surveys assessed COVID-19-related stressors experienced over the prior 12 months. A stressor score included COVID-19-related infectious, social, and economic stressors categorized into tertiles (low, 0-3; medium, 4-6; high, 7-19). Mean age (SD) was 45.2 (11.5) years; 71.2% were female, 42.3% Hispanic and 14.6% Black. At baseline, 126 (49.8%) had moderate or severe depression (PHQ-8 ≥ 10), and 109 (43.1%) had moderate or severe anxiety (GAD-7 ≥ 10). The mean (SD) number of COVID-19 stressors was 4.9 (3.1); the most frequent were food insecurity (52.2%) and job or income loss (43.9%). Compared to the low tertile, those in high and medium tertiles had significantly greater one-year increases in depression and anxiety symptoms. Low-income adults facing multiple COVID-19-related stressors, particularly health-related social needs, had worsening mental health symptoms over one year. Interventions are urgently needed to address the dual burden of health-related social needs and poor mental health exacerbated by COVID-19.

COVID-19 pandemic-related stressors and posttraumatic stress: The main, moderating, indirect, and mediating effects of social support.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a variety of stressors, some of which have been linked to intense stress reactions, such as posttraumatic stress (PTS)-like symptoms. However, we have limited knowledge on cumulative effects of pandemic-related stressors on PTS or on variables that may mitigate the effects of these stressors. We aimed to address some of these knowledge gaps by testing three models to examine the interrelationships among pandemic-related stressors, perceived social support, coping flexibility, and pandemic-related PTS. The sample of this cross-sectional correlational study is comprised of 2291 adults from the United States who completed an online survey between 22 May 2020 and 15 July 2020. Results indicated that greater exposure to secondary stressors, but not COVID-19-related stressors, was associated with increased PTS. After controlling for COVID-19-related and secondary stressors, social support had negative direct and indirect (via coping flexibility) effects on PTS. In addition, social support mediated the effects of COVID-19-related and secondary stressors on PTS. Our findings highlight the complexity of the role of social support in relation to pandemic-related stressors and PTS, and suggest that early interventions that target social support and coping flexibility may help reduce pandemic-related PTS.

Coping under a COVID-19 lockdown: patterns of daily coping and individual differences in coping repertoires.

BACKGROUND: Polyregulation-the concurrent or sequential use of multiple strategies to regulate affect or cope with stressors-is a frequent but understudied phenomenon. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to identify patterns of daily coping and individuals' coping repertoires (i.e., range of coping patterns employed across situations) during a COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. We investigated day-level covariates (appraisals, worrying, mood) of daily coping patterns and person-level covariates (psychopathology, average mood) of coping repertoires. Design: A non-representative community sample (n = 322, 15-82 years old) participated in a 21-day ambulatory assessment study. METHODS: We applied multilevel latent class analysis.. RESULTS: We identified seven daily coping patterns and ten classes of individuals differing in the size of their coping repertoire and their propensity for polyregulation. Daily coping patterns differed in daily perceived controllability and mood (but not in daily worrying or stress). At the person level, individuals with a higher level of average coronavirus-related worrying more frequently engaged in a high degree of polyregulation. The size of individuals' coping repertoire was unrelated to psychopathology and average mood. CONCLUSION: The findings provide insights into the composition of daily coping patterns and individuals' coping repertoires during crisis periods and contribute to a new polyregulation perspective on coping.

COVID-19-Related Stressors and Mental Health Among Chinese College Students: A Moderated Mediation Model.

This study aims to examine the relation between COVID-19-related stressors and mental health among Chinese college students during the pandemic outbreaks, and the possible mediator or moderator between them. Five hundred and fifty Chinese college students were invited to complete an anonymous survey, and the data were analyzed with SPSS 16.0 software. The results shows that the number of stressors has a negative direct and indirect (through risk perception of being infected with COVID-19 disease) impacts on college students' mental health. Adaptive coping is a protective factor of students' mental health, and could be regarded as a buffer that attenuates the negative effect of the COVID-19-related stressors on risk perception of being infected with COVID-19 disease (or mental health). With regard to demographic variables, females, junior and senior students, or students whose family residence was worst hit by the pandemic tend to report poorer mental health during the pandemic outbreak. These findings enrich our understanding about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college population and have implications for university counseling services during times of acute, large-scale infective disease outbreaks.

COVID-19 lockdown distress, but not the infection concerns, shape psychological functioning during the pandemic: The mediating role of basic psychological needs.

This study examined the effect of COVID-19 lockdown and infection concerns on positive and negative aspects of psychological functioning during the first weeks of the new coronavirus pandemic, and the mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction and frustration. Slovene adults (N = 425; 79% female) filled in questionnaires measuring COVID-19-related stressors, satisfaction and frustration of basic psychological needs, well-being, and ill-being. Results of the path analysis with Bootstrap estimation procedure revealed that the perceived severity of the COVID-19 lockdown circumstances predicted diminished psychological functioning of participants both directly and via decreased needs satisfaction and increased needs frustration. Conversely, the infection concerns had a much weaker and direct only effect on the increased ill-being, but no effect on well-being. These findings indicate that lockdown circumstances, but not the possibility of COVID-19 infection, predominantly shape individuals' ability to satisfy their basic needs and subsequently their psychological functioning during the pandemic. The study suggests that public health responses should address not only risk of infection but also people's psychological needs.

Quality of Life and Its Predictive Factors Among Healthcare Workers After the End of a Movement Lockdown: The Salient Roles of COVID-19 Stressors, Psychological Experience, and Social Support.

Although healthcare workers play a crucial role in helping curb the hazardous health impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), their lives and major functioning have been greatly affected by the pandemic. This study examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life (QoL) of Malaysian healthcare workers and its predictive factors. An online sample of 389 university-based healthcare workers completed questionnaires on demographics, clinical features, COVID-19-related stressors, psychological experiences, and perceived social support after the movement lockdown was lifted. All domains of QoL were within the norms of the general population except for social relationship QoL, which was lower than the norm. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that COVID-19-related stressors (e.g., stress due to annual leave being frozen, loss of daily routine, and frequent exposure to COVID-19 patients) and psychological sequelae (e.g., greater severity of depression, anxiety, and stress) predicted lower QoL. Conversely, greater perceived social support from friends and significant others predicted higher QoL. Clinical and demographic characteristics predicted QoL to a lesser extent: A history of pre-existing medical illness was associated only with lower physical health QoL, whereas older age and being single, divorced, or widowed were only predictive of higher environmental QoL. Efforts to enhance QoL among healthcare workers in response to the pandemic should focus on mitigating COVID-19-related stressors and psychological sequelae and facilitating social support.

Children Coping, Contextual Risk and Their Interplay During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Spanish Case.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of millions of people around the globe and some of the unprecedent emerged disruptions, are likely to have been particularly challenging for young children (e.g., school closures, social distancing measures, movement restrictions). Studying the impact of such extraordinary circumstances on their well-being is crucial to identify processes leading to risk and resilience. To better understand how Spanish children have adapted to the stressful disruptions resulting from the pandemic outbreak, we examined the effects of child coping and its interactions with contextual stressors (pandemic and family related) on child adjustment, incorporating in our analysis a developmental perspective. Data was collected in April 2020, through parent-reports, during the acute phase of the pandemic and, temporarily coinciding with the mandatory national quarantine period imposed by the Spanish Government. A sample of 1,123 Spanish children (50% girls) aged 3 to 12 (Mage = 7.26; SD = 2.39) participated in the study. Results showed differences in the use of specific strategies by children in different age groups (i.e., 3-6, 7-9 and 10-12-year-olds). Despite the uncontrollable nature of the pandemic-related stressors, child disengagement coping was distinctively associated to negative outcomes (i.e., higher levels of behavioral and emotional difficulties), whereas engagement coping predicted psychosocial adjustment across all age groups. Moreover, interactively with child coping, parent fear of the future and parent dispositional resilience appear as relevant contextual factors to predict both negative and positive outcomes, but their effects seem to be age dependent, suggesting a higher contextual vulnerability for younger children. These findings might have implications for identifying individual and contextual risk and informing potential preventive interventions aimed to reduce the impact of future pandemic outbreaks on children of different ages.

Relations of COVID-19-Related Stressors and Social Support With Chinese College Students' Psychological Response During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This study examines the main and interactive relations of stressors and social support with Chinese college students' psychological symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression) during the COVID-19 pandemic. All the constructs are assessed by self-report in an anonymous survey during the pandemic outbreak. The results show that the number of stressors has a positive relation with psychological symptoms, and social support has a negative relation with psychological symptoms. In addition, social support serves as a buffer against the negative impact of stressors. These findings hold implications for university counseling services during times of acute, large-scale stressors. Specifically, effective screening procedures should be developed to identify students who experience large number of stressors and provide suitable psychological intervention for them.