MeWeRTH Funded Projects

A Community Mental Health and Well-being University Level Course: Design and Implementation

Project Team:

Dr. Joanna Pozzulo, Primary Investigator

Alexia Vettese, MA Student, Department of Psychology

Anna Stone, MA Student, Department of Psychology

Project Description:

University programs are tasked with providing students with theoretical and practical course work to effectively equip and prepare students for transitioning into the workforce (Candy & Crebert, 1991). However, for many students interested in help-seeking professions (e.g., medicine, mental health and well-being), an undergraduate degree is insufficient for certain career paths. Specifically, in psychology, undergraduate courses are not designed to prepare students to practically work in the mental health field post-graduation (Lujan, 2006). Despite research indicating that active participation in learning is important for student success in psychology programs (Stoloff et al., 2015), undergraduate psychology programs provide limited resources for gaining the practical experiences necessary to enter mental health related professions or advanced training in the medical field. Not having opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge into real-life contexts can be problematic in a university setting, as experiential learning refers to the process of learning through engaging in hands-on experiences (Kong, 2021). Therefore, providing students with experiential learning opportunities within psychology is necessary for practical skill development and networking opportunities (Jackson, 2015). For students who are interested in mental health related careers, it is important for the university to provide courses that give students the opportunity to gain practical experience and engage with theoretical course concepts.To increase community mental health initiatives on campus and provide undergraduate psychology students who are interested in mental health and well-being an opportunity to gain practical experience, a community mental health and well-being course was created at a Canadian university. This research demonstrated a proof of concept for a community oriented, high experiential learning course on well-being and discusses the benefits of implementing such a course across other post-secondary institutions. The paper discussed the course’s learning objectives, requirements, and explain potential implications and limitations this course could have for the students, the university, and the community at large.

Blood pressure disparities, nocturnal dipping, and minority stress in sexual minorities

Project Team:

Dr. Chad Danyluck, Primary Investigator

Joshua Remedios, PhD Student, Department of Psychology

Project Description:

Sexual minorities (i.e., those who do not identify as heterosexual) report worse health and well-being due to unique external and internal stressors (i.e., minority stress). These stressors may translate to disparities in blood pressure, a known critical biomarker of excess stress. Those whose blood pressure does not decrease in the evenings through a phenomenon called nocturnal dipping, are at a higher risk for stress-related health complications. As well, it is possible that for sexual minorities, being autonomous (i.e., feeling authentic, self-congruent, and authorship over their choices and actions) is important for protecting against the psychophysiological consequences of stress incursion. To that end, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of autonomous functioning on minority stress and blood pressure outcomes in sexual minorities. Using an ecological momentary assessment methodology, participants will complete short measures of minority stress and autonomous functioning that will coincide with blood pressure readings from ambulatory blood pressure monitors during a 24-hour period. Examining the within-and between-individual effects with multilevel modeling, we hypothesize that minority stress will be associated with elevated daytime blood pressure and a weaker nocturnal dip, and that higher autonomous functioning will moderate the effect of minority stress on elevated blood pressure and weaker nocturnal dipping.

Lower-risk cannabis beliefs and behaviours: Moving beyond harm reduction

Project Team:

Dr. Michael Wohl, Primary Investigator

Renee St.Jean, MA Student, Department of Psychology

Project Description:

Our study looked at the existing research on lower-risk cannabis consumption, as reported by people who use cannabis. We searched for articles published between 1900 and 2021 that used keywords related to cannabis consumption, cannabis-related beliefs and behaviors, and positive outcomes. Out of 7,111 articles, we found 12 that met our inclusion criteria.

Our study identified three themes related to lower-risk cannabis use: informed self-regulation, protective behavioral strategies, and the normalization of cannabis consumption. These themes reflect the beliefs and behaviors of people who use cannabis in a positive and non-problematic manner. However, our study also found that some people use cannabis as a coping mechanism, which undermines lower-risk cannabis consumption.

We conclude that there is a need for more research focused on how people consume cannabis in a positive and non-problematic way. Our research could help inform policies and practices around cannabis consumption and promote lower-risk consumption strategies.

Temporal Orientation as a Predictor of Self-Directed Change among Disordered Gamblers

Project Team:

Dr. Michael Wohl, Primary Investigator

Kenzie Dowson, MA Student, Department of Psychology

Melissa Salmon, PhD Student, Department of Psychology

Project Description:

At present, the dominant motivational strategy to facilitate behaviour change among those living with addiction is to focus one’s attention on the better possible future that may result from cutting down or cessation. However, research is now emerging that suggests nostalgic reverie (i.e., sentimental longing) for life lived before addiction can also motivate behaviour change. Yet to be explored are the conditions in which longing for a future free of addiction and longing for one’s past that was free of addition might motivate change among disordered gamblers.

Previous research conducted in our lab suggests that a difficult past before gambling undermines nostalgia’s positive effect on readiness to change. Moreover, these findings also suggest that perceiving a future without gambling as vague may hinder one’s desire for change when focusing on a better possible future. However, being ready for change does not always translate to action. Therefore, in the current research, we will employ a longitudinal assessment to determine the conditions by which a past and future focus motivate disordered gamblers to take action to change their gambling behaviour over time (N = 400). We expect that a past focus (i.e., nostalgia) may be most effective in motivating self-directed change attempts when the gambler has a positive past they can nostalgize about. Conversely, we expect that a future focus (i.e., longing for a better possible future) may be most effective in motivating change attempts among those who have a clear vision of the goals they want to attain.

What are the personality correlates of people who have a financially focused self-concept?

Project Team:

Dr. Nassim Tabri, Primary Investigator

Isabella R. L. Bossom, MA student, Department of Psychology

Dr. Michael Wohl, Graduate Chair and Professor, Department of Psychology

Dr. Julie Blais, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University

Project Description:

The self-concept is composed of beliefs people hold about how well one is functioning in many life domains. However, problems arise when people overvalue the importance of one life domain over others. For instance, people who overvalue financial success have been shown to engage in addictive behaviours, including disordered gambling (Tabri, Salmon, & Wohl, 2021; Tabri et al., 2017). However, little is known about the personality characteristics of financially focused people. Circumstantial evidence indicates that people who overvalue financial success may be more likely to have psychopathy and antisocial personality traits (e.g., Glenn et al., 2017; Kasser & Ryan, 1993) as well as Machiavellianism (e.g., McHoskey, 1999). Likewise, other research has shown that low honesty and humility is linked to status and financial focused risk taking (Ashton et al., 2010; Sween et al., 2017). Accordingly, in the proposed research, we will examine whether psychopathy, antisocial personality, low honesty and humility, and Machiavellianism are each associated with greater financially focused self-concept. Because these personality traits overlap, we will also examine their unique associations with financially focused self-concept after controlling for overlapping variance. The research will involve a secondary analysis of existing data of a large (N=1725) demographically diverse national sample of Canadians in which all the constructs were measured.  The results will provide novel insight about the personality characteristics of financially focused people, which will be informative for prevention and treatment efforts focused on financial success overvaluation and its negative mental health consequences.

An exploratory study of the effectiveness of a new mobile app for sustainable, environment friendly lifestyle

Project Team:

Dr. Stefania Maggi and Dr. Aida Warah, Primary Investigators

Esther Briner, PhD student, Department of Psychology

Project Description:

A mobile app, the i4ThePlanet (https://www.gentlewaysforourplanet.org/try-our-mobile-app-i4theplanet/),  was developed and launched recently to enable individual 18+ years of age to take daily environment friendly action under six lifestyle areas: Food, Fashion/Electronics, Materials, Travel/Energy, Leadership and Wellness. The app is intended to help individuals begin the shift towards a sustainable lifestyle that promotes both a healthier environment and individual wellness. More specifically, it is designed to promote actions that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to promote personal wellness.  The app development was guided by the following assumptions:

-Many adults want to take environment friendly action but don’t know where to start.

-Providing easily accessible, specific information on what effective environmentally friendly strategies will enable people to act on their motivation to protect the environment.

-Digital apps are a preferred way for individuals to start and maintain environment-friendly lifestyle

-Non-monetary positive reinforcement (e.g., stars) is an effective way of rewarding the efforts of individuals who already are motivated to act and have made recent changes to their behavioural habits.

-Aspirational goals (e.g., planting trees, reforesting in specific places) are an effective way to keep individuals motivated and to sustain behaviour changes.

The purpose of this pilot study is to collect preliminary data from app users so that we can begin to evaluate the assumptions presented above. The pilot study will use a mixed-methods approach where we will administer short before and after questionnaires and ask participants to share their input using qualitative methodologies. We aim at recruiting a sample of  approximately one hundred and twenty individuals, half of which will be asked to use the app for one month, and the other half will not be using the app.

Vicarious Crime Exposure and Well-being in Family and Friends of Victims of Crime

Project Team:

Dr. Chad Danyluck, Primary Investigator

Anna Ranger, MA student, Department of Psychology

Project Description:

In 2019, 2.2 million Canadians reported criminal victimization, 5% more than 2018 and the fifth consecutive increase (violent crimes increased 7.3%).¹ The cost of crime to Canadians is staggering. Annually, victims lose $47 billion in direct (e.g., property loss) and indirect costs (e.g., legal fees, diminished well-being),² with little financial support being provided to victims and their families.³

A robust literature documents the negative impact of crime on victim well-being. Depending on crime severity, victims experience a range of health and social problems including sexual dysfunction,⁴ post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),⁵ and abandonment.^6,7 Yet the literature remains silent about how criminal victimization affects a victim’s family and friends. Understanding the vicarious impact of crime is particularly important because close relationships are important sources of social support and life meaning and, thus, integral to recovery among victims.

Filling this gap, the proposed online study will examine the relationship of vicarious victimization to mental health and well-being in family and friends of crime victims. Specifically, this study will determine whether crime severity and type (e.g., hate-based crime or not), and degree of interpersonal closeness, interact to predict personal and relational health (e.g., PTSD, anxiety, depression, sleep impairment, relationship quality, sexual intimacy).

The proposed study will guide a broader research program that may inform clinicians, educators, scholars, and policy makers on best practices for enhancing well-being among crime victims and their relations. Left unaddressed, crime’s impact on well-being may be misunderstood, and interventions focusing on direct targets of crime may be incomplete.

Does geospatial access to healthy foods exacerbate the association between diabetes and depression?

Project Team:

Dr. Rachel J. Burns, Primary Investigator

Genevieve Forget, MA student, Department of Psychology

Project Description:

People with diabetes are at greater risk of depression and elevated depressive symptoms compared to people without diabetes (Rotella & Manucci, 2013). Difficulty following dietary recommendations is associated with greater odds of depression among individuals with diabetes (Nanayakkara et al., 2018). Perceived food insecurity (i.e., self-reported access to affordable food) is associated with depression among low-income adults with poorly controlled diabetes (Silverman et al., 2015). Given that a healthy diet is essential for diabetes management and that the inability to access this diet is distressing for some individuals with diabetes, living in an area with poor geospatial access to healthy food (e.g., proximity to grocery stores) may exacerbate the link between diabetes and depressive symptoms in this population. However, little is known about the association between geospatial access to healthy foods and mental health outcomes. Consistent with socioecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), it is hypothesized that individual level factors (i.e., diabetes status) will interact with features of the built environment (i.e., geospatial access to healthy food) to predict depressive symptoms, such that the link between diabetes and depressive symptoms will be stronger among individuals who live in an area with poor access to healthy food compared to individuals who do not live in these areas. Data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; self-reported diabetes status and depressive symptoms) will be linked to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Access Data (neighbourhood-level grocery store access, income level, vehicle access, and fast-food availability) to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations.

Changes in psychological wellbeing and health behaviours as COVID restrictions are lifted

Project Team:

Dr. Marina Milyavskaya, Primary Investigator

Kimia Fardfini, MA Psychology student

Dr. Rachel J. Burns, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology

Gail McMillan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology

Project Description:

With the rise of COVID-19, a large proportion of the population have had to make changes to their daily routines, including changes to work, social activities, and health behaviours such as exercise. However, the routines that many people have established over the past 15 months (e.g., working from home, limited social contact outside of one’s household) will soon be disrupted again as COVID-related restrictions are eased. Changes in contextual cues are often a time when people re-evaluate old behavioural habits (Verplanken, Walker, Davis & Jurasek, 2008) or attempt to create new behavioural habits (Walker, Thomas & Verplanken, 2015). Moreover, major life changes are often linked to changes in psychological wellbeing (Bewick et al., 2010 , Brandel et al., 2018, Wang, 2017). Therefore, the easing of COVID-19 restrictions affords a unique opportunity to examine if this major contextual change impacts psychological wellbeing and health behaviours. Data from approximately 150 participants will be collected via monthly surveys over the course of approximately 4 months. Data will be collected via Prolific. This project will allow us to: 1)Examine the prevalence of trying to adopt new health behaviours and reduce unwanted behaviours; 2)Examine changes in psychological wellbeing over time; 3)Examine changes in the frequency and automaticity of health behaviours over time; and 4)Examine links between mental health and health behaviours.

Evaluating wellness courses through partnerships with people with lived expertise in our community

Project Team:

Dr. Joanna Pozzulo, Primary Investigator

Kim Corace, Ph.D., The Royal

Anna Stone, MA student, Department of Psychology

Project Description:

MeWeRTH undertook a pilot study (Spring 2021) to offer science-based, non-credit, wellness courses to the public. Courses were intended to 1) increase content knowledge of wellness topics (i.e., knowledge mobilization, 2) improve self-perceived well-being and 3) create a learning community for wellness. Two courses were piloted, namely 1) using nature to improve well-being and 2) understanding the science of solitude. Each course provided 12-hours of instruction over 6-weeks, using a virtual platform in real-time. Enrollment was set to a maximum of 25 registrants to allow for discussion and engagement with the material and create a wellness learning community that extends beyond class time. No previous experience was required to take these courses. Courses achieved good participation rates and satisfaction. However, a formal evaluation was not undertaken to assess course objectives. The current project will utilize a pre-post design to assess courses’ objectives in a community sample. MeWeRTH will partner with The Royal, including clients and families, to identify wellness topics of interest to The Royal clients and their families. Together, we will evaluate courses for 1) knowledge transfer/mobilization, 2) improved well-being, 3) engagement with the material outside class, and 4) overall, satisfaction with the course.

Landscape of functional limitations among university students

Project Team:

Boris Vukovic, Ph.D., Primary Investigator

Dr. Katie Gunnell, Department of Psychology

Joshua Remedios, MA Psychology student

Dr. Marina Milyavskaya, Department of Psychology

Anamarie Gennara, incoming MA Psychology student

Dr. Johanna Peetz, Department of Psychology

Jessie Gunnell, READ Initiative

Project Description:

Experiencing barriers and limitations in everyday functioning is a reality for many postsecondary students. Functional limitations are a major factor that negatively affect student success and wellbeing. There are well-established measurement tools for functional limitations that have been used to determine the impact of disability, such as the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0); however, beyond the context of disability research, we have not been applying these assessment frameworks on general student populations. Surveying Carleton University students will help us gather data on a spectrum of barriers and limitations in functioning across salient life domains such as cognition, interpersonal relationships, household and school activities, self-care, and participation in society.

The primary purpose of this project is to examine the type and degree of functional limitations Carleton University students experience and examine the data through the lens of psychometric validation of key domains. The secondary purpose is to build multidisciplinary collaborations and inform future grant applications. For example, results will serve as the foundation for a larger collaborative research program that will investigate the intersection of functional limitations with various aspects of wellness and human functioning, such as executive functioning, goal attainment and motivation, time and task management, self-care behaviours, and mental health. Moreover, this project contributes to ongoing collaborations on the assessment of functional limitations with researchers at McMaster University and the University of Toronto. Lastly, the project will serve as a template to be replicated at universities across Canada to further expand the dataset on general student functional limitations and inform future research projects aimed at improving student wellness through enhanced understanding of functional limitations.