News by Subject Social & Behavior

Nationwide survey, led by BU researcher Dr. Sarah Lipson, indicates colleges and universities need to invest in more resources for faculty "gatekeepers" of mental health.

New research has found that childhood adversity, such as parental conflict, death of a close family member or serious injury, before the age of nine was associated with mental health problems in late adolescence.

A national study of more than 3,000 veterans found that 12.8% reported post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms related to COVID-19 and 8% said they had contemplated suicide during the pandemic. However, in the same survey, more than three times the number reporting COVID-related PTSD symptoms and five times the number of those who had contemplated suicide -- said that they have experienced positive psychological benefits during the pandemic.

If relatives of people with mental illness become better at accepting the difficult emotions and life events they experience - which is what training in compassion is about - their anxiety, depression and stress is reduced. These are the results of a new study from the Danish Center for Mindfulness at Aarhus University.

In a survey-based study published in the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development of 105 graduate-level counseling students who identified as Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC), investigators found that experiences of discrimination can negatively affect student overall wellbeing and lead to burnout.

In a study of 558 college students, those who reported more symptoms associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also reported higher levels of stress. Students reporting higher levels of ADHD symptoms also reported lower levels of resilience, according to the study published in the Journal of College Counseling.

School-based interventions that target students with, or at risk of, academic difficulties in kindergarten to grade 6 have positive effects on reading and mathematics, according to an article published in Campbell Systematic Reviews.

A palliative care doctor has suggested that studying Shakespeare's plays could help medical students connect more closely with their patients. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine Dr David Jeffrey, of the Department of Palliative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, investigates how the playwright's empathic approach - the ability to understand and share the feelings of another - can enhance the patient-doctor relationship.

Female doctors who suffer domestic abuse can feel unable to get help due to perceptions that it "should not happen to a doctor" and a judgemental culture in medical settings, a new study suggests.