Frequency Of Stressors Research Articles

‘We learn how to dig deep and get through it’: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the meaning of resilience and stress for soldiers in the Irish Defence Forces

Military personnel are subject to more intense and more frequent stressors than the general population, and demonstrate higher rates of some mental illness. Resilience may be an important protective factor but is variably defined, and resilience-building interventions reflect variable approaches and produce mixed results. We aimed with this research to complement existing resilience-building strategies and interventions by contributing deeper understanding of how individuals in the Irish Defence Force (DF) experience and make meaning of resilience, through use of a qualitative and interpretative approach. The research question was: What is the meaning of resilience for DF members? Participants included six soldiers and research was carried out using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Developed themes described belief in pre-disposition toward resilience and perceptions of stigma associated with help-seeking for stress. Resilience was described as contagious among group members, suggesting the value of group resilience as a training strategy for military personnel.

Stressors during the prodromal phase of major depressive episode (CHR-D).

Early recognition and indicated prevention is a promising approach to decrease the incidence of Major depressive episodes (MDE), targeting the patients during their clinical high-risk state of MDE (CHR-D). The identification of a set of stressors at the CHR-D increases the success of indicated prevention with personalized early interventions. The study evaluated stressors in the early phase of depression, developed on the basis of a patient survey on stressors. Sixty-eight inpatients (ICD10: F3x.xx) with a reported high risk state for major depressive episode (CHR-D) were included in the current study. Stressors during CHR-D were retrospectively explored using a semi-structured clinical interview supplemented by open-ended questions. A qualitative explorative content analysis was provided to identify a pattern of stressors during the prodromal phase of the patients, based on the patient's perspective. A frequency analysis was performed for the evaluation of the prevalence of reported source of stress. All patients reported stressors in the prodromal phase of depression. Results demonstrates that patients with depressive disorder typically report multiple stressors, with the most common number being four. First, 18 stressors-groups were identified during coding. Interpersonal conflicts and disappointments in close relationships were most frequently reported stressors during the prodromal phase at 44.1%. The second most frequent stressor mentioned was the high qualitative or quantitative demands at work (38.2%). The third frequent source of stress was changes in close relationships and in family relationships (33.8%). Based on the categories of stressors described in the patient survey during the prodromal phase we suggested a model of stressors in CHR-D during the prodromal phase of the MDE. The identification of a set of stressors at the early stage of MDE may increase opportunities for early intervention. In everyday clinical practice, preventive psychiatry needs clinical and adapted instruments for recording stressors in today's society. This knowledge is necessary in order to develop precisely indicated prevention for depressive disorders.

Engagement with reservation-based Head Start teachers to explore their stress and coping: A qualitative study

BackgroundNative Americans residing in remote reservation communities find strength in connection to place, culture, language, and sovereignty; they also face challenges as their communities struggle with historical and contemporary traumas that have resulted in poverty, high crime and suicide rates and drug misuse. The psychological well-being of Head Start teachers who teach and support the needs of Native American children, is overlooked. MethodsQualitative interviews (n = 18) and focus groups (n = 9) were conducted with Head Start teachers, supervisors, parents, and ancillary staff to identify risk and protective factors at each level of the socioecological model (individual, relationships, community, society). Using content analysis and F4 analyse software two coders identified recurring themes. ResultsIndividually teachers are resilient, focused more on the children's well-being than their own. Family was both significant support and stressor. Community struggles with drug and alcohol misuse and homelessness were the most frequent stressors. Workplace support included their supervisors and the mentorship they provided each other. Spirituality in the form traditional cultural practices, prayer and Christen faith were important sources of support and well-being. ConclusionsThis paper provides insight into the stress and coping mechanisms of reservation-based Head Start teachers, identifying ways to protect and promote their health and well-being. It is important to provide support at all levels of the socioecological model to enable these teachers to strengthen their physical and psychological health and wellbeing so that they may support the children and families of Head Start to help strengthen Native American health overall.

From the COVID-19 lockdown to the new normal: Two-year changes in daily stress and positive event processes.

The emergence of the novel COVID-19 disease and the social distancing measures implemented to curb its spread affected most aspects of daily life. Past work suggests that during times of more severe stress, people respond to daily stressors with relatively higher negative affect. However, little is known about how people responded to daily stressors and positive events at different moments in time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, we examined longitudinal changes in daily event-related affect (covariation of daily stressors or positive events with same-day affect) from Spring 2020 (wave 1) to 2022 (wave 2). The sample consisted of 324 adults aged 18-80 (mean=52years; 89% women) from the US and Canada who completed weeklong daily diaries at both waves. The results revealed improvements in affective well-being, stressor-related affect (i.e., smaller fluctuations in affect on stressor days vs. nonstressor days), and positive event-related affect (i.e., lower negative affect on days with vs. without positive events). Furthermore, as people gradually resumed their social activities from 2020 to 2022, people reported being exposed to an increased frequency of both stressors and positive events. This study highlights the potential influence of socio-historical phenomena, such as an ongoing pandemic, on the events that people encounter and how they emotionally respond to them.

Factors associated with the presence of depression, anxiety, and substance use in health students from 10 Latin American countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction. Health science students represented a particularly vulnerable group during the pandemic. Studies in various regions have found a high prevalence of psychopathology, associated with the presence of stressors such as contact with patients, isolation, and financial difficulties. Objective. To determine the stressors for and frequency of depression, anxiety and substance use in Latin American health science students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method. A questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study was conducted to measure the presence of stressors and determine anxiety and depression symptoms through the PHQ-9 and the GAD-7 scales, and substance use in 777 students from ten countries, from June 2020 to January 2021. Results. The most frequent stressors were having a loved one diagnosed with COVID-19 and being diagnosed with another illness. A total of 54.1% of the sample had depression, and 46.2% had anxiety according to the rating scales cut-off points, while 24.8% reported substance use. Reading or listening to news about the pandemic was the main stressor associated with the presence of psychopathology. Discussion and conclusion. Latin American health science students displayed high frequencies of psychopathology associated with various stressors. It is therefore important to monitor the mental health of this population to prevent low academic performance.

Occupational stressors and associated factors among dentists in Erbil City, Kurdistan Region-Iraq

Background. The health and well-being of dentists are essential components of a successful dental practice. Many studies showing high levels of stress, burnout, and psychological distress reported by dental professionals. Objective. To assess the main occupational stressors among dentists practicing in Erbil city and to identify the associated factors that lead to or aggravate these stressors experienced in the work environment. Subjects, materials and methods. This was a cross-sectional study conducted from August to October 2023. Data were collected from private and two government dental teaching institutions, along with accessible dental clinical practices. A total of 220 dentists were recruited. A modified version of the Occupational Stress Indicator questionnaire was used to assess the stressors. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Kurdistan Board for Medical Specialties. The questionnaire consisted of two sections, the first gathering demographic and professional data of the participants, while the second section contained 33 items assessing the causes of stress. Participants rated the frequency of stressors using a scale of “never”, “seldom”, “sometimes”, “often”, “very often”, and “always”. Results. The response rate was 199/220 (90.5%). 64.3% of participants were younger than 38 years. Males contributed for 57.3%. The mean total stress score was 90 ± 17.6. Higher stress score was significantly associated with the presence of health problems, (p<0.05). A lower mean stress score was reported among dentists who were practicing their job only in private clinics, (p<0.05). No other factors showed a significant correlation with stress scores. Conclusion. Dentistry is a stressful profession and there are significant stressors that dental professionals face in their daily work, which can have implications for their overall well-being and the quality of patient care. There is a significant association between stress levels and the presence of health problems, as well as the place of employment.

Impact of Parent Presence and Engagement on Stress in NICU Infants.

Infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) are exposed to frequent stressors that impact their neurodevelopmental outcomes. Parent presence and engagement are considered critical to improving infant outcomes, yet associations between cumulative NICU parent presence, engagement, and infant stress are infrequently examined. To examine associations between NICU infant stress and the amount (hours per week) or frequency (days per week) of parent presence and skin-to-skin care (SSC). A secondary analysis of a data set representing 78 NICU families was conducted. Infant acuity was measured using Neonatal Medical Index (NMI) scores. Parent presence and SSC data were collected from electronic medical records. Infant stress was measured using resting salivary cortisol levels collected at NICU discharge (median = 33 days of life). More cumulative SSC was associated with lower discharge cortisol in NICU infants for SSC measured in hours per week (P = .03) or days per week (P = .05). Cumulative parent presence was not significantly associated with infant cortisol at discharge. Hierarchical regression analyses examining timing of parent presence supported a model including admission cortisol, NMI score, and parent presence during weeks 1 to 4 of life for explaining infant stress at discharge (R2 = 0.44, P = .004). Analyses examining timing of SSC supported a model including admission cortisol, NMI score, and frequency of SSC during week 1 for explaining infant stress at discharge (R2 = 0.21, P = .04). Early, frequent SSC to mitigate stress in NICU infants was supported. Results suggested that timing of parent presence impacts NICU infant stress; however, additional study is recommended.

Preliminary evidence for the validity of the Brief Post-Secondary Student Stressors Index (Brief-PSSI): A cross-sectional psychometric assessment.

The brief version of the Post-Secondary Student Stressors Index (Brief-PSSI) was developed in order to improve the usability of the instrument as a method for evaluating the severity and frequency of stressors faced by post-secondary students. While the original 46-item instrument has been thoroughly psychometrically validated and successfully used among student populations, the length of the instrument limits its utility. Providing a valid, shortened version of the PSSI will enable institutions to include the tool on existing online surveys currently being deployed to surveil the mental health and wellbeing of their students. This study reports preliminary evidence in support of the validity and reliability of the Brief-PSSI using a cross-sectional pilot sample of students attending an Ontario university in 2022. A total of 349 participants (average age 25 (SD = 7.7), range 19-60) completed the first survey, while 149 completed the follow-up survey (average age of 26 (SD = 7.7), range 17-60). Evidence of internal structure, relations to other variables, and of test-retest reliability was assessed according to established index validation guidelines, including the specification of multiple-indicator, multiple-cause models, and Spearman's rho correlation coefficients. Results provide preliminary support for the validity and reliability of the tool, which demonstrated acceptable goodness-of-fit statistics, statistically significant relationships with like constructs in the hypothesized directions, and good test-retest reliability correlation coefficients. The Brief-PSSI is a useful tool for evaluating the sources of stress among post-secondary students, assessing both the severity of stress experienced and frequency with which each stressor occurred. Future research should explore the practical utility of adding the Brief-PSSI to existing survey assessments as well as pursue the continued collection of validation evidence for the tool among varied student populations.

Sublethal effects of early-life exposure to common and emerging contaminants in birds

The plight of wild birds is becoming critical due to exposure to environmental contaminants. Although laboratory studies have provided insights into the developmental effects of chemical exposures, less is known about the adverse effects of environmental chemicals in developing wild birds. Early life stages are critical windows during which long-term organization of physiological, behavioral, and neurological systems can occur. Thus, contaminant exposure at early life stages can directly influence survival and reproductive success, with consequences for population stability and resilience in wild species. This review synthesizes existing knowledge regarding both short- and long-term effects of early-life exposure to widespread contaminants in birds. We focus especially on wild birds and on contaminants of concern within the Gulf of Mexico as an example of a habitat under anthropogenic stress from exposure to a complex mixture of chemicals and changing land uses that exacerbate existing vulnerabilities of wildlife in this region. Chemical contaminants for discussion in this review are based on avian mortality records from the Wildlife Health Information Sharing Partnership (WHISPers) database and on additional review of the literature regarding avian contaminants of concern for the northern Gulf of Mexico, and include oil and associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, flame retardants, pesticides, heavy metals, and plastics. We provide an overview of effects in bird species at both the pre-hatching and post-hatching early life stages, discuss differences in sensitivities by route of exposure, life stage, and life history, and provide recommendations for future research. We find that additional research is needed on altricial species, post-hatching early-life exposure, long-term effects, and on ecologically relevant contaminant concentrations and routes of exposure. Given the increasing frequency and intensity of anthropogenic stressors encountered by wild animals, understanding both lethal and sublethal impacts of contaminants on the health of individuals and populations will be critical to inform restoration, management, and mitigation efforts.

Post-COVID job Stressors and Their Predictive Role on Mental Health: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Between Physicians and Nurses.

Health care providers face heightened stress and increased rates of anxiety and depression post-COVID-19. The pandemic, officially declared over in May 2023, continues to impact their wellbeing significantly, with ongoing mental health monitoring and tailored interventions crucial for support. The aim of this study was to describe the frequency of job stressors in a sample of Spanish health care providers post-COVID and to explore potential differences between physicians and nurses, hypothesizing that while both professional categories could experience similar job stressors, some of them could have a differential impact on the mental health of each subgroup. This cross-sectional substudy is part of the MINDxYOU project. The data were collected from 191 health care providers from two regions in Spain. Participants completed the UNIPSICO test battery, used to assess job stressors, and questionnaires to evaluate perceived stress, depressive symptomatology, anxiety, and resilience. Descriptive analyses, bivariate correlations, and linear regression models were performed to compare the two professions that were the most representative of our sample: physicians (n = 82) and nurses (n = 54). The most frequent job stressors were workload, lack of positive feedback, and inequity in social interactions. Physicians reported worse outcomes in terms of workload, autonomy, role conflicts, inequity in social interactions, and work-family balance compared to nurses. Mobbing, despite not being very frequent, significantly predicted different mental health outcomes for both physicians and nurses. Inequity in social interactions and job satisfaction were significant predictors of physicians' mental health, while role ambiguity, interpersonal conflicts, and career turnover intentions predicted nurses' mental health. As hypothesized, our findings highlight that certain job stressors (i.e., inequity in social interactions, conflicts in the workplace) might be affecting physicians' and nurses' mental health differently. Therefore, effective strategies addressing each subgroup's specific stressors would be necessary to prevent the development of burnout syndrome and other serious mental health conditions associated with occupational stress. These strategies would imply organizational changes in most cases.

Host-pathogen interactions under pressure: A review and meta-analysis of stress-mediated effects on disease dynamics.

Human activities have increased the intensity and frequency of natural stressors and created novel stressors, altering host-pathogen interactions and changing the risk of emerging infectious diseases. Despite the ubiquity of such anthropogenic impacts, predicting the directionality of outcomes has proven challenging. Here, we conduct a review and meta-analysis to determine the primary mechanisms through which stressors affect host-pathogen interactions and to evaluate the impacts stress has on host fitness (survival and fecundity) and pathogen infectivity (prevalence and intensity). We assessed 891 effect sizes from 71 host species (representing seven taxonomic groups) and 78 parasite taxa from 98 studies. We found that infected and uninfected hosts had similar sensitivity to stressors and that responses varied according to stressor type. Specifically, limited resources compromised host fecundity and decreased pathogen intensity, while abiotic environmental stressors (e.g., temperature and salinity) decreased host survivorship and increased pathogen intensity, and pollution increased mortality but decreased pathogen prevalence. We then used our meta-analysis results to develop susceptible-infected theoretical models to illustrate scenarios where infection rates are expected to increase or decrease in response to resource limitations or environmental stress gradients. Our results carry implications for conservation and disease emergence and reveal areas for future work.

New progress in an old debate? Applying the DSM-5 criteria to assess traumatic events and stressor-related disorders in cancer survivors.

The rather broad definition of medical trauma within DSM-IV has contributed to long-lasting debates on the applicability of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in oncological patients and its differentiation from Adjustment Disorder (AjD) which results from non-traumatic critical life events. The DSM-5 criteria have introduced a narrower definition of medical traumatization. However, studies on updated prevalence rates in cancer patients are missing. Within a cross-sectional study, we assessed hematological cancer survivors using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5. We investigated (i) the frequency and type of cancer-related stressors, (ii) the proportion of stressors qualifying as traumatic according to DSM-5 (i.e., an event of sudden and catastrophic character) and (iii) the prevalence of PTSD, AjD and cancer-related PTSD according to DSM-5. 291 patients participated (response rate: 58%). Mean age was 54years, 60% were male. 168 patients (59%) reported cancer-related stressors, with the most frequent being cancer diagnosis disclosure (n=58, 27%). Eight percent of reported stressors qualified as traumatic events according to DSM-5. Five (1.8%), 15 (5.3%) and 20 (7.0%) cancer survivors met DSM-5 criteria for current PTSD, lifetime PTSD and AjD, respectively. Among all PTSD cases, three were cancer-related (1.1%). In addition, seven patients (2.5%) metall symptoms for cancer-related PTSD, but not the DSM-5 criterion for medical trauma. Considering receiving the cancer diagnosis as traumatic event, which is debatable according to DSM-5, 38% of stressors qualified as traumatic and six patients (2.1%) met criteria for cancer-related PTSD. DSM-5 criteria enable a clear identification of traumatic events in the context of cancer. This change may inform discussions on the appropriateness of PTSD in cancer patients and facilitates its differentiation from AjD. Larger studies need to validate our findings.

The relationship between loneliness and the experiences of everyday stress and stressor-related emotion.

Loneliness influences how people experience and respond to stressors, which may account for its role as a risk factor for morbidity and mortality. The present study was motivated by emerging evidence that affective responses to minor daily events have long-term implications for health and well-being. Specifically, we evaluated how individual differences in loneliness relate to the frequency of everyday stressors and stressor-related negative emotions. A diverse community sample of 255 adults (age 25-65years) completed ecological momentary assessments (EMA), during which they reported recent stressors and current negative affect (NA) five times a day for 14days. Multilevel logistic analyses indicated that there was a quadratic association between loneliness and likelihood of reporting stressors, controlling for demographics, social isolation, depressive symptoms, and context (current activities, current location). Multilevel regression indicated that loneliness was unrelated to the concurrent effect of stressors on NA but significantly larger lagged stressor effects were observed among individuals in the low and high ranges of loneliness. These findings suggest that individuals with high levels of loneliness are more likely to experience everyday stressors and have prolonged emotional responses following stressors.

Life Stressors and Immunological Aging: Protective Effects of Cognitive Reappraisal

Stress may accelerate the aging of the immune system in ways that increase morbidity and mortality. However, effective emotion regulation may attenuate these stress-immune links. The current study tested whether cognitive reappraisal, which involves reframing an emotional event to change its impact, moderates the associations between life event stressors on markers of immunological aging in a longitudinal study of older adults. Participants (N=139, 58% female, Mage=78 years) reported their frequency of life event stressors, use of cognitive reappraisal, and provided blood every six months up to 10 times. Markers of immunological aging included percentages of late-differentiated T and natural kill (NK) cells and levels of systemic inflammation (interleukin-6 [IL-6], and C-reactive protein [CRP]). Multilevel models that adjusted for demographic and health covariates tested between- and within-person effects of life event stressors on immunological aging, moderated by reappraisal. The effects of life stressor frequency on late-differentiated NK cells between people and on IL-6 within people depended on reappraisal. On average, people who experienced more stressors but reported more use of reappraisal had lower percentages of late-differentiated NK cells. In addition, at times when people reported more stressors than their average but also used more reappraisal, they had lower levels of IL-6. Reappraisal did not moderate the associations between life stressors on T cells nor CRP. Emotion regulation and specifically cognitive reappraisal may play a protective role in attenuating the effects of life event stressors on aspects of innate immunological aging in older adults.

0689 Nurses and Sleep: The Relationship Between Patient-Related Stressors and Sleep Quality

Abstract Introduction Poor sleep quality in nurses is linked to worse psychological health. Identifying which occupational stressors may impact nurses’ sleep quality and psychological health may provide an opportunity for intervention. Patient-related stressors such as worrying about and/or an inability to help patients recover or survive hospitalization have a negative impact on a nurses’ psychological health. It remains unclear if patient-related stressors also impact nurses’ sleep quality. We examined if more patient-related stressors are associated with lower sleep quality in nurses. Methods The Worksite Blood Pressure Study is a multi-site study investigating psychosocial factors and ambulatory blood pressure. The study recruited 472 participants from 10 New York City worksites including 105 nurses during 3 waves over 11 years. The current analysis was restricted to 82 nurses at Wave 3. Participants completed the Nurses’ Stress Inventory Questionnaire which assessed the frequency and severity of stressful situations at work and a sleep questionnaire. Items on patient-related stressors and sleep quality were examined with higher scores indicating more stress and worse sleep quality, respectively. A linear regression model was specified predicting sleep quality from stressful patient interactions; participants answering at least 8 of the 16 items querying these interactions were included in the analysis. Age, race/ethnicity, religion, personal income, employment tenure, and years of education were included as covariates. Results Participants (N=82) were 96.3% female, 30.5% Black, 4.8% Hispanic/Latinx, 75.6% Christian. Mean age was 40.2 years (SD = 7.5), mean years of education was 15.4 (SD = 2.2), mean employment tenure was 8.3 years (SD = 6.7), and median personal income was $55,000 (Range $17,500, $95,000). Mean sleep quality was 8.9 (SD = 2.6). Nurses who reported greater frequency and severity of patient-related stressors had significantly worse sleep quality, B = 1.79, 95% CI 0.20, 3.37, p = 0.028. Sensitivity analyses restricting the analysis to nurses with no missing data on stressful interactions replicated these results, B = 2.22, 95% CI 0.34, 4.09, p = 0.022. Conclusion Patient-related stressors were associated with lower sleep quality in nurses. Efforts to increase support to nurses who experience patient-related stressors may help improve nurses’ sleep quality and possibly psychological health. Support (if any) P01HL47540

“It unleashed all the worries we tried to calm down”: The Trump administration's impact on the mental health of immigrant communities

A growing body of scholarship has established the role of immigration status as a social determinant of health but has not clearly delineated how socially-situated processes of interpretation and meaning making of the risks associated with legal uncertainty shape the mental health impacts of illegality. This article examines ethnographic and interview data collected during the election and first year of President Trump's presidency to answer the question: “How do political changes impact perceptions of risk, stress, and ultimately the mental health of Latinx immigrants, and what can this tell us about the role of sociocultural narratives in shaping experiences of illegality?”. This article contributes empirical knowledge about the psychosocial impacts of Trump's presidency on the mental health and well-being of immigrant communities, while also advancing our theoretical understandings of the ways that political discourses and cultural narratives shape how immigrants interpret and cope with the risks they face. I demonstrate how shifts in sociopolitical narratives about immigration not only generated increases in the frequency and intensity of status-related stressors that immigrants experienced but weakened coping strategies that immigrants had used to frame themselves as “relatively safe” in order to manage the emotional strain of deportability. Shifts in sociopolitical narratives about immigration motivated an increase in psychosocial cycles of deportability which impacted the mental health of undocumented immigrants, increasing anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as social withdrawal.

Resilience of Rural Households: Insights from a Multidisciplinary Literature

Due to the increase in both the frequency and severity of shocks and stressors that rural households are faced with, a vast array of studies has emerged in recent times on issues surrounding their resilience. Scholarship in this field has benefitted from insights from multiple disciplines including applied economics, disaster risk management, and human ecology, to name a few. These diverse contributions, although beneficial and necessary, have led to what appears to be discrepancies in the research arena. Using a bibliometric approach and thematic clustering, we shed light on the research landscape of rural household resilience. Furthermore, this article synthesizes some of the main contributions from various subfields and offers a systematic way for studies to approach the subject matter. From issues such as the objective and subjective dimensions of resilience characterization and measurement, to the degree of integration of the broader social ecological systems within which, households exist, the systematic classification of related concepts carried out in this article helps to organize knowledge, as well as aims to provide a guiding framework for future research and review efforts.

The Impact of Early and Recent Life Stress on Trajectories of Inflammatory Biomarkers in a Diverse Sample of Adolescents.

Elevated inflammatory activity is one possible pathway through which exposure to childhood adversity engenders risk for physical and psychiatric illnesses. Limited research has investigated the compounding effects of childhood and adolescent stress exposure on changes in circulating levels of inflammatory biomarkers. This study assessed whether childhood adversity interacted with chronic or acute stress during adolescence to affect the temporal trajectories of five inflammatory biomarkers across at least three blood draws in a diverse sample of adolescents (N = 134; observations = 462). Using multilevel modeling, the interaction of childhood adversity, time, and within-person variance of acute stressors significantly predicted trajectories of higher interleukin-10 levels, controlling for demographics, medication use, and body mass index. Adolescents with high levels of childhood adversity who were exposed to a higher frequency of acute stressors compared to their own average rate of stress exposure consistently had higher levels of IL-10 as they got older, but those with average and below frequency of acute stressors had decreasing trajectories of log IL-10 as they matured. The results demonstrate how events early in life shape biological responses to the adolescent environment. This study also highlights the importance of developmental timing on the body's enhanced reactivity to acute and sustained stressors following childhood adversity.

Stress, Anticipatory Anxiety, and Mental Health Help-Seeking among Chinese Students in United States at the Beginning of COVID-19: A Thematic Analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic brought numerous negative effects towards people’s mental health. The current study explored the influence of pandemic on Chinese international students in the U.S. at the beginning of the pandemic. Interview method was used in this study. Interview questions included the influence of pandemic, the influence of panic caused by pandemic, the influence of Asian-hates events, and mental health help-seeking behaviour. As the result, three main themes were narrowed down: stress, anticipatory anxiety, and help-seeking behaviour. The current study found that the most frequent stressor was the risk of infection. The other direct stressors were difficulty of traveling between China and the U.S., negative influence of academic life, and shortage of medical supplies. More indirect stressors were found: worries about Chinese students in the U.S. being infected by parents, worries about discrimination by parents, discriminating experiences of friends, and infection history of friends and of relatives in China. Three anticipatory anxieties were found: getting in touch with others, anti-Asian events, and different strategies to cope with disease. All participants reported no professional help-seeking behaviour. Five of eight participants reported the non-professional help-seeking. Three of eight participants reported they used self-regulation to cope with the stress and anxiety. The results demonstrated the unique experience and coping strategy of Chinese international students. Although they had lived in the U.S. for many years, their coping strategies still identified with Chinese culture. Future study could explore more associations of stress, anxiety, and help-seeking to understand and help Chinese international students better. This study can provide some guidance for future intervention studies and practices regarding the mental health situation of Chinese international students in other countries during the pandemic.

Reducing susceptibility to drought under growing conditions as set by farmers: The impact of new generation drought tolerant maize varieties in Uganda

Given the challenges brought about by the increasing frequency of climatic stressors (droughts) and other biotic challenges (pests and diseases), breeding for tolerance to these traits is now seen as an indispensable adjunct to the enhancement of yield potential. Drought tolerant (DT) maize varieties that do well under moderate drought and outperform (or do not underperform) commercial checks under normal rainfall are becoming available. This study examines the role of these maize varieties in mitigating the effects of drought on maize yields in drought-prone areas of eastern Uganda. We estimate the causal impact of these new generations of maize varieties using a multinomial endogenous switching regression treatment effect framework. The average treatment effects of adopting DT maize show that farmers who actually cultivated DT maize achieve 30% more yield than what they would have obtained with non-DT hybrids. Similarly, average treatment effects on the untreated, revealed that farmers who grew non-DT modern and local maize would have 32 and 54% more yield, respectively, if they instead had adopted DT maize. While being superior to all other maize seeds, the magnitudes of the benefits of DT maize varieties were more pronounced in areas with comparatively less rainfall amount providing strong evidence that the yield potential of these varieties is stable across space and a wide range of rainfall conditions. If the genetic gains of these varieties can be secured over the long term, their impacts in improving the resilience of maize farming systems are likely to be considerably large and favorable.