Sense Of Connection Research Articles

Translating research into action: The design and development of an Indigenous specific suicide intervention skills training program (I-ASIST).

To design and develop an Indigenous specific suicide intervention skills program that focuses on education and intervention training as an effective suicide prevention strategy. Using a co-designed wrap-around framework, we developed a program in collaboration with >90 communities, stakeholders and service providers across Australia to understand knowledge, awareness and sense of connectedness between at-risk groups and health services or support groups. The I-ASIST training provides participants with the necessary skills and knowledge to apply a suicide intervention model. The framework behind the intervention model provides caregivers the awareness to recognise when someone may be at risk of suicide. It then gives them the skills to connect with a person at risk of suicide and to understand and clarify that risk, steps to keep that person safe for a specific period and then provide them with the resources or links required for further help. The program enables the development of knowledge through interactive strategies through cultural recognition and empowerment of participants. Based on a social-enterprise model, I-ASIST has been translated into a certified program supported by LivingWorks Australia. Based on a strengths-based and self-determination model of co-design, this grass roots innovative framework creates suicide safer communities.

Transition to Motherhood of Mothers Receiving Continuity of Child-Rearing Support.

Clarifying the transition to motherhood based on the experience of mothers receiving continuity of child-rearing support is expected to promote the transition, and enhance nursing support. This study clarifies the transition process by which mothers recognize and adapt to new roles with continuity of child-rearing support in Japan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 mothers who received continuity of child-rearing support. Directed content analysis based on Meleis’s Transition Theory was used to analyze the results and define a framework for analyzing the transition. A theoretical framework was identified based on the Transition Theory themes. Engagement in terms of proactive involvement in pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing was a transition property. Maintaining the mother’s well-being, building new relationships and connections, and reflecting on child-rearing in the community were transition conditions. For patterns of response, the process indicators comprised having a sense of connection with the community and reflecting on one’s child-rearing objectively. Increased readiness for child-rearing and identity re-shaping were outcome indicators. The results suggest that it is important to enhance mothers’ readiness for child-rearing for transition to motherhood, and to promote the reshaping of their identities through continuity of support from pregnancy to postpartum child-rearing.

The Experience of LGBTQ+ Identity as Spiritual Identity

Owing to widespread condemnation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) people among many mainstream religious and spiritual traditions, evidence suggests that many LGBTQ+ individuals face considerable conflict related to spiritual and religious identity. Some LGBTQ+ individuals manage to reconcile their LGBTQ+ and spiritual identities, while others even view their LGBTQ+ identity as a spiritual one. This qualitative research study focused on the experience of LGBTQ+ identity as spiritual identity. Ten participants were interviewed via email by the researcher, and data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The data were organized into three primary themes, each comprised of three to four subthemes. Findings indicated that LGBTQ+ identity as spiritual identity is experienced as a sense of connection and capacity for connection, a set of unique perspectives on various aspects of life, and a sense of having varied spiritual roles to play in the world. These findings and their limitations are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.

A Sense of Connection: Examining Social Identity and Adherence to a School-Based Exercise Club

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between social identity and adherence in the context of a school-based, 8-week structured group exercise program. Methods: Secondary students (N = 116; Mage = 15.52 years) from 10 newly formed school-based exercise clubs reported social identity perceptions specific to their exercise group, which were used to predict attendance and intentions to return to the club in the future. Results: Controlling for sex and grade level, the results of hierarchical regression analysis revealed that exercise group social identity was significantly positively related to program attendance (ΔR2 = .09, p < .01). A positive relationship was also found between exercise group social identity and intentions to return to the exercise club in the future, while also controlling for sex, grade level, and program attendance (ΔR2 = .05, p < .05). Discussion/Conclusion: The findings suggest that stronger exercise group social identity in the form of ingroup ties is associated with greater attendance and intention to return to the school-based exercise club among secondary school students.

Precarity and Healing: On the Role of Grief in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones (1998)

"Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones (1998) is a fictional account of the undocumented Parsley massacre of 1937, when black Haitian migrant workers were killed by Rafael Trujillo’s government in the Dominican Republic. The paper places the novel in the African diasporic tradition of writing about the traumatic past, with the Parsley massacre being one such traumatic event of Haitian diasporic writing. The paper highlights the critical problem that unlike most post-colonial fiction, this Haitian diasporic story about gaining voice and agency fails to provide a satisfactory therapeutic valence or an explanation for individual suffering. The paper proposes an application of Judith Butler’s concept of precarity in order to reconsider the problem of healing the wounds of the past in Danticat’s novel. For Butler, social relationality makes subjects vulnerable within the social structure they inhabit, but this vulnerability may also carry a potentiality for the experience of social vulnerability to be shared in makeshift acts of solidarity. The paper claims that precarity does have a limited potential in the novel, which can be detected through the analysis of the water imagery. Amabelle Désir, the protagonist, is already living a precarious life before the Parsley massacre, but the brutality to which she is subjected isolates her socially even more afterwards. She is unable to bear her testimony, living in the past, mourning her lost lover. The representation of precarity in the novel’s water imagery indicates that making contact with her former employer in 1961 brings a momentary sense of connection and community that enables her to commit suicide eventually. This element of truncated healing can be read as the limited potential of precarity available in the Haitian diasporic context. Keywords: Edwidge Danticat, Toni Morrison, Judith Butler, Haitian diasporic women’s writing history, empowerment, healing, precarity, grief "

Power of Language and Radio Listening: The Indigenous Peoples’ Sense of Connection Outside their Community

This study investigated whether radio listening gives the indigenous peoples, the Bihug, of Tuaca, Basud, Camarines Norte, Philippines, a sense of connection to the world outside their own community. A multi-level approach using three methods was utilized for the research design namely: in-depth or focused interview, focused group discussion, and narratology. To reaffirm the Bihug’s concern for each other, they used the radio to build a sense of connection outside their own community, a connection that assisted them in augmenting their income, provided some comfort and a feeling that they were wanted and that they belonged to a larger community, and let them momentarily forget their hardships. When listening to news, they felt concern for those who suffered from calamities and those who were victims of crimes. Tuning in to radio connected the Bihug to incidents happening in other places. These incidents involved not only lowlanders but their tribal members, as well. Moreover, the Bihug depended on radio broadcasts about weather conditions to secure them from typhoons.

Identifying and Coding Behavioral Indicators of Social Presence With a Social Presence Behavioral Coding System

Social presence, the sense of connection with another, is more important than ever as teachers, healthcare providers, and other professionals are using immersive tools to facilitate the social interaction for education, training, therapy and collaboration between geographically distributed humans and surrogates (avatars, agents, or robots). Leading researchers cite the subjective nature of the traditional self-report measures of social presence and the absence of a standardized approach to measuring social presence as a constraint to gaining deeper understanding of user’s experiences of emerging and existing tools. This discourse highlights behavioral indicators of social presence that have been identified over decades across disciplines from psychology, communication, computer science, education, and engineering. The authors explicate the behavioral themes of social presence and describe a classification system grounded in exogenic and endogenic themes of social presence. This article goes on to describe the design of a social presence behavioral coding system (SPBCS) instrument that provides a structure to coding behaviors associated with a users’ experience of social presence. The behavioral coding system described in this paper is the first step in creating a robust standardized approach to quantifying social presence through behavioral, physiological, and subjective indicators that ultimately may replace the current standard subjective approaches to describing the user’s experience in all realities.

“Connecting With Good People and Good Plants”: Community Gardener Experiences in New York State During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Community gardens are collective projects in which participants collaborate to maintain a garden. They provide many biophysical and cultural ecosystem services, contributing to individual and community resilience and wellbeing. These benefits may be even more appreciated during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, since community gardens require efforts from multiple gardeners in shared spaces, the pandemic also exposed some of their vulnerabilities. This study focuses on the benefits community gardens have offered during the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges the pandemic posed to sustaining community garden activity, and recommendations to address these issues moving forward. We conducted our study in four cities in New York representing a gradient of socioeconomic and biophysical characteristics: Binghamton, Buffalo, Ithaca, and New York City. We collected data from surveys and semi-structured interviews with community gardeners and analyzed them using mixed models and thematic coding. The primary benefits gardeners derived from their community garden experiences were: a sense of connection with other gardeners, their communities, and nature; mental and physical wellbeing; and a safe space of refuge. In addition to material shortages (e.g., seeds), the biggest challenge gardeners faced due to the pandemic was the limited degree of socializing in the gardens resulting from personal behavioral changes and rules imposed by gardens. Despite the challenges, gardeners reported enjoying the 2020 garden season. The pandemic also created opportunities for gardens to serve their communities, such as organizing programs for composting, food donation and distribution, and home gardening. Our findings suggest that community gardens can be resilient sites of reprieve during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, providing essential benefits for gardeners and local residents. To sustain community garden resilience, we recommend community gardens and gardeners cultivate connections and diversity, within and between the biological and human communities of their gardens.

The Role of Connectedness and Psychological Hardiness in EFL Teachers' Pedagogical Effectiveness.

The role of emotions in EFL teachers’ pedagogical success and efficacy has long been emphasized in the literature. However, the power and impact of teachers’ positive psycho-emotional factors like sense of connectedness and hardiness have been marginally explored in EFL contexts. Against this shortcoming, the present mini-review article made an attempt to provide the theoretical and research underpinnings of three prominent teacher-related factors, namely, connectedness, psychological hardiness, and pedagogical effectiveness as well as their interplay. Moreover, the research trends, gaps, and future directions are provided for enthusiastic researchers. Finally, some practical implications for EFL teachers, teacher trainers, and SLA researchers are offered to raise their awareness of psycho-emotional factors in second/foreign language education.

A hierarchy of needs for remote undergraduate medical education: lessons from the medical student experience

PurposeThe disruption of undergraduate medical education (UME) by the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked rapid, real-time adjustments by medical educators and students. While much is known about online teaching in general, little guidance is available to medical educators on how to adapt courses not originally designed for the online environment. To guide our faculty in this transition we conducted a needs assessment of students enrolled in virtual courses across all 4 years of UME training.MethodsUsing a mixed-methods approach, we conducted a single-institution virtual learning needs assessment in May and June of 2020. We developed and disseminated a survey to assess student experiences with virtual learning. We conducted quantitative and qualitative analysis of responses (n = 255 or 39%) to identify emergent themes.ResultsWe identified six interdependent themes that need to be met for medical students to fully reach their learning potential: access to stable internet and quiet study spaces, flexible course design with asynchronous, self-paced components, clear expectations for engagement with content and each other, a sense of connectedness with faculty and peers, synchronous classes that maximize interactivity, and assessments that foster a sense of learning over performance. Interpersonal relationships with faculty and peers affected students’ sense of learning more than any other factor.ConclusionsBased on our findings we propose a hierarchy of needs for virtual learning that provides guidance on adapting existing medical school courses to the remote setting and overcoming common challenges. We highlight opportunities for how virtual elements may enrich in-person courses going forward, including in the clinical setting. Although the solutions required to meet the threshold of need at each level may differ based on the context, attending to these same fundamental needs can be extrapolated and applied to learners across a range of environments beyond the virtual.

Through Thick and Thin

Through Thick and Thin

Group VR experiences can produce ego attenuation and connectedness comparable to psychedelics

With a growing body of research highlighting the therapeutic potential of experiential phenomenology which diminishes egoic identity and increases one’s sense of connectedness, there is significant interest in how to elicit such ‘self-transcendent experiences’ (STEs) in laboratory contexts. Psychedelic drugs (YDs) have proven particularly effective in this respect, producing subjective phenomenology which reliably elicits intense STEs. With virtual reality (VR) emerging as a powerful tool for constructing new perceptual environments, we describe a VR framework called ‘Isness-distributed’ (Isness-D) which harnesses the unique affordances of distributed multi-person VR to blur conventional self-other boundaries. Within Isness-D, groups of participants co-habit a shared virtual space, collectively experiencing their bodies as luminous energetic essences with diffuse spatial boundaries. It enables moments of ‘energetic coalescence’, a new class of embodied intersubjective experience where bodies can fluidly merge, enabling participants to include multiple others within their self-representation. To evaluate Isness-D, we adopted a citizen science approach, coordinating an international network of Isness-D 'nodes'. We analyzed the results (N = 58) using 4 different self-report scales previously applied to analyze subjective YD phenomenology (the inclusion of community in self scale, ego-dissolution inventory, communitas scale, and the MEQ30 mystical experience questionnaire). Despite the complexities associated with a distributed experiment like this, the Isness-D scores on all 4 scales were statistically indistinguishable from recently published YD studies, demonstrating that distributed VR can be used to design intersubjective STEs where people dissolve their sense of self in the connection to others.

Benefits and Challenges of Having a Service Dog Among Veterans in Recovery from Substance Use Harms

ABSTRACT Service dogs (SDs) are gaining attention for their benefits on the mental health of military veterans, especially related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, little is known about veterans’ experiences with SDs in relation to recovery from substance use harms. In fact, the role of animals in human recovery from substance use harms is nearly unexplored. To address this gap, we examined if and how SDs support veterans in recovery, including any potential challenges they may face. We adopted a descriptive, qualitative, patient-oriented design and conducted 16 semi-structured interviews with Canadian veterans living with PTSD, who had a SD, and who identified as in or seeking recovery. We applied the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) four dimensions supporting a life in recovery to our analysis (community, home, health, purpose) and explored how these dimensions pertain to the veteran–SD relationship. We found that all veterans perceived their SDs as an important support, impacting all four of SAMHSA’s dimensions of recovery through a sense of connection. Veterans described a mutual bond with their SDs and that they helped them build social capital with other humans in their community. Veterans also highlighted that their SDs helped them feel safer and more comfortable in public spaces, which encouraged them to get out of their homes more regularly. SDs enabled veterans to manage their substance use by promoting physical, mental, and emotional health and wellbeing and by offering meaning in veterans’ lives. However, veterans described challenges related to SD regulation and legislation, which hindered their ability to participate in meaningful daily activities and contributed to a sense of disconnection. Overall, veterans in our study described numerous ways in which their SDs supported a life in recovery from substance use harms. However, our findings suggest that improved public education and policy are necessary to legitimize SDs and ensure that the benefits of these animals are fully recognized.

In-verse reflection: structured creative writing exercises to promote reflective learning in medical students

Medical educators recognize the value of reflection for medical students and the role creative writing can play in fostering this. However, direct creative writing tasks can be challenging for many students, particularly those with limited experience in the arts and humanities. An alternative strategy is to utilize an indirect approach, engaging students with structured tasks that obliquely encourage reflection. This paper reports one such approach. We refer to this approach as in-verse reflection, playing on both the structure of the writing and its novel approach to reflection. Students were invited to write, in verse-like structures, about their personal and clinical experiences as medical students. Thematic analysis of their creative outputs and reactions identified four principal themes: the challenges of life as a medical student, the emotional demands of the medical course, a sense of connectedness and solidarity with fellow students, and a sense of marginality within the hospital system. Students generally found the tasks highly engaging and conducive to reflection, producing texts representing significant insights into their experiences as medical students. The reported method offers a relatively simple, structured, and guided approach to reflective writing, adding to the repertoire of methods available to educators in the medical humanities.

Socio-cultural integration and holistic health among Indigenous young adults

BackgroundResearch on associations between social integration and wellbeing holds promise to inform policy and practice targets for health promotion. Yet, studies of social connection too frequently rely on overly simplistic measures and give inadequate attention to manifestation and meanings of social integration across diverse groups. We use the term socio-cultural integration to describe expanded assessment of both social and cultural aspects of belonging and connection.MethodsWe examined 7 distinct indicators of socio-cultural integration, identified heterogeneous patterns of responses across these indicators using latent profile analysis, and determined their relevance for wellbeing using survey data from a study with Indigenous communities in the U.S. and Canada. Wellbeing was measured using holistic ratings of self-rated physical, emotional, and spiritual health.ResultsLatent profile analysis (LPA) of responses to the 7 socio-cultural integration variables yielded a 3-class model, which we labeled low, moderate, and high integration. Mean scores on self-rated physical, mental and spiritual health were significantly associated with LPA profiles, such that those in the low integration group had the lowest self-rated health scores and those in the high integration group had the highest health scores. With the exception of similar ratings of cultural identification between low and moderate integration profiles, patterns of responses to the diverse socio-cultural integration measures varied significantly across the 3 latent profiles.ConclusionsResults underscore the importance of expanding our assessment of social integration with attention to the interrelationships of family, community, culture, and our environment. Such concepts align with Indigenous conceptions of wellbeing, and have relevance for health across cultures. More concretely, the indicators of socio-cultural integration used in this study (e.g., cultural identity, having a sense of connectedness to nature or family, giving or receiving social support) represent malleable targets for inclusion in health promotion initiatives.

Impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on mental health and future orientation among young adult asylum seekers in Italy: A mixed-methods study.

The COVID-19 outbreak caused a worldwide health emergency which disproportionately affected migrants and ethnic minorities. Yet, little is known about the psychosocial effects of the pandemic among refugees and asylum seekers. This study used a convergent parallel mixed-method design to explore knowledge and opinions concerning COVID-19 and the impact of lockdown on perceived mental health and future orientation among 42 young adult asylum seekers residing in northeastern Italy. Participants took part in individual interviews comprising both qualitative and quantitative questions. Qualitative reports were analyzed using thematic content analysis, whereas descriptive statistics and paired sample t-tests were computed on quantitative data. Results indicated that most participants were correctly informed about the nature, origin, and spread of COVID-19, expressed moderate or high satisfaction concerning the clarity of communication about safety measures, and followed them most of the time. Worries about family in the home country, loneliness, fear for own and loved ones’ health, and concerns about delays in the asylum application were the most frequently mentioned stressful events. Psychological and physical distress significantly increased, and positive future orientation significantly decreased during the lockdown. However, participants also emphasized the usefulness of instrumental support from social workers and exhibited a resilient attitude characterized by the acceptance of uncertainty, sense of connectedness, and positive outlook. Overall, findings suggest that the current emergency may exacerbate psychological vulnerabilities of asylum seekers due to continued existential uncertainty. Thus, individual and contextual assets should be strengthened to promote psychosocial adjustment and coping resources in the context of the pandemic.

Meaning In Life and Workplace Spirituality as Intervention on Psychological Well-Being of Private Preschool Teachers in Malaysia

The increased level of stress and job turnover rate among private preschool teachers in Malaysia has led to low psychological well-being. Based on previous research, it is suggested that meaning in life and workplace spirituality can contribute positively to an individual’s psychological well-being. The objective of this research is to understand the effect of meaning in life and workplace spirituality on preschool teacher’s psychological well-being and therefore introduce them as possible interventions for Malaysian preschool teachers’ psychological well-being. A qualitative approach with phenomenological design was adopted in this study, and online semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data from eight participants who were recruited from private preschools in Malaysia. This study found that factors that help preschool teachers to develop their meaning in life and psychological well-being included having harmonious passion and social support from their family and friends. Besides, meaningful work, sense of connection with others, alignment with preschool’s values and perceived organizational support are elements from workplace spirituality that can also increase preschool teachers’ psychological well-being.

Predictors of altered states of consciousness triggered by sexual activity

ABSTRACT Introduction Altered states of consciousness (ASCs) refer to marked changes in usual waking consciousness. Sexual arousal, orgasm, and resolution, are modulated by neural pathways that are also activated by psychoactive substances that trigger ASCs. Relatedly, self-report studies show that sexual activity may trigger ASCs. However, investigation about sex-related ASCs is scarce. More knowledge in this regard is important, as these states can be pleasant and enriching. Objectives To explore correlates and predictors of ASCs elicited by sexual activity. Method The international sample consisted of 291 participants who responded to an online survey (196 women, 95 men). Sexual functioning was measured with the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) and the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-15). The Modified Tellegen Absorption Scale was used to measure the general propensity to experience ASCs by various triggers (absorption). Alterations of consciousness beginning during or shortly after the last sexual encounter were assessed by four subscales of the Altered States of Consciousness Rating Scale (OAV): 1) Experience of Unity (sense of merging between self and surroundings), 2) Spiritual Experience (sense of connection with a reality outside space and time as ordinarily experienced), 3) Insightfulness (emergence of original thoughts), 4) Blissful State (unusual sense of pleasure, peace, and love). Results Better female sexual function (FSFI total score) correlated significantly with Experience of Unity (r = .24), Blissful State (r = .37), Spiritual Experience (r = .25), and marginally with Insightfulness (r = .15, p = .069). Arousal was the dimension of female sexual function more robustly correlated with ASCs; female arousal correlated with Experience of Unity (r = .27), Blissful State (r = .40), Spiritual Experience (r = .24), and Insightfulness (r = .20). Women's absorption was significantly related to higher desire (r = .15), but not to other dimensions of sexual functioning. In women, sexual arousal and absorption independently predicted Experience of Unity (βSA = .26, βAB = .45), Spiritual Experience (βSA = .23, βAB = .50), Blissful State (βSA = .40, βAB = .29), and Insightfulness (βSA = .19, βAB = .47). All other dimensions of female sexual functioning did not significantly explain additional variance. Men's associations between sexual functioning and ASCs were less consistent: male sexual satisfaction was significantly associated with Experience of Unity (r = .25), Blissful State (r = .34), and Insightfulness (r = .28); male orgasmic function was associated with Blissful State (r =.35). Other IIEF-15 dimensions were unrelated to ASCs. In men, sexual satisfaction and absorption independently predicted Experience of Unity (βSS = .29, βAB = .48), Spiritual Experience (βss = .20, βAB = .52), Blissful State (βSS = .37, βAB = .33), and Insightfulness (βSS = .33, βAB = .51). Conclusions The occurrence of sex-related ASCs appears to be independently related to sexual responsiveness and general propensity to experience ASCs by a variety of triggers, sexual and nonsexual. As noted in previous studies, ASCs and sexual functioning were more strongly related in women than in men. Studies on the importance of ASCs for sexual well-being are warranted. Disclosure Work supported by industry: no.

Internet-delivered guided self-help Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for family carers of people with dementia (iACT4CARERS): a qualitative study of carer views and acceptability

ABSTRACT Purpose To explore carers’ views and acceptability of internet-delivered, therapist-guided, self-help Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for family carers of people with dementia (iACT4CARERS). Methods A qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews was employed with family carers (N = 23) taking part in a feasibility study of iACT4CARERS. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Results Four overarching themes were identified: 1) usefulness and relevance of the content of the sessions, 2) sense of connectedness, 3) the impact of the intervention on participants and 4) acceptability of the online delivery. Positive carer experiences and intervention acceptability were facilitated by learning helpful ACT skills, perceiving the content of the session as relatable to the carers’ needs, feeling connected to other carers and the therapist during the intervention, noticing the benefits of the intervention and the user-friendliness of the online platform. Recommendations for a full-scale trial were identified, such as the inclusion of some “face-to-face” interactions (e.g., via video call) between carers and therapists to facilitate a bidirectional interaction and the provision of an additional aide-memoire to improve the learning experiences. Conclusion Overall, the intervention was acceptable to the family carers. The proposed recommendations should be considered in a full-scale trial.

Neighborhood Walking and Social Connectedness.

Neighborhood social ties matter crucially, especially during stressful life events like a global pandemic, for they represent vital sources of wellbeing and community capacity. Activities that enable community members to engage in incidental sociability and acts of “neighboring”—that is, authentic social interactions with their neighbors—warrant attention from sport and active living researchers because of their potential to bolster the social fabric of our neighborhoods and facilitate neighbors' access to important resources, such as information, material resources, and social support. Though perhaps dismissed as trivial, neighborhood walking represents a valuable and underappreciated everyday activity that fits this description, especially in an age characterized by an epidemic of social isolation and loneliness. Despite its vast potential to address the quasi-anonymity of urban life, neighborhood walking remains surprisingly underexamined as a facilitator for fostering social connectedness, the sense of connection and social bond people feel toward others. The goal of this manuscript, therefore, is to establish the conceptual grounding for how neighborhood walking strengthens social ties among neighbors to facilitate access to important coping resources. In doing so, it aims to advance a research agenda on walking that moves beyond the benefits of physical activity.