Associations Among Childhood Adversity, Family Proximity, Hope, and Psychological Well-being in Helping Professionals

Helping professionals frequently support individuals experiencing trauma and psychological distress, yet less is known about how their own childhood adversity may relate to their well-being and psychological resources. This study was conducted to better understand how helping professionals are influenced by childhood adversity. Participants were 397 helping professionals (87.4% female, 80.1% White), ranging in age from 22 to 70 years (M = 43.08, SD = 10.28). Approximately two-thirds of participants (66.2%) reported growing up with extended family living within a 30-minute drive. Measures included the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Questionnaire, the Dispositional Hope Scale, and the Psychological Well-being Scale, which were administered through a Qualtrics survey. Bivariate Pearson correlations were conducted as the analysis. Results showed a weak but statistically significant negative correlation between childhood adversity and psychological well-being (r = -.153, p = .003), suggesting that higher levels of ACEs were associated with lower well-being among helping professionals. The correlation between hope and childhood adversity was not statistically significant (r = -.093, p = .071). Additionally, ACEs scores did not significantly differ between participants who reported growing up near extended family and those who did not (r = -.050, p = .335). These findings contribute to the understanding of how childhood adversity relates to psychological well-being among helping professionals and highlight the need for further research examining factors that may promote resilience in this population.

Sex disparities in criminal sentencing have been well documented (Embry & Lyons, 2012; Jeffries et al., 2003; Frances & Taylor 1991). For instance, federal sentencing data reports that female offenders receive sentences averaging 29% shorter than those imposed on male offenders (United States Sentencing Commission, 2023). These disparities are often attributed to paternalistic biases in judicial decision-making (Albonetti, 1997; Freiburger, 2010). The present study explores whether these biases extend to public perception by investigating whether community members sentence males or females longer for the same low-level crime. Community members of Tarrant County were randomly assigned to one of three vignette conditions — female, male, or gender-neutral — each depicting the same low-level drug offenses committed by a parent and were then asked to recommend a sentence length for the offender. It is hypothesized that participants will recommend longer sentences for male offenders than for female offenders. The findings of the present study are expected to demonstrate that sex bias in sentencing is not limited to the judiciary but is also present in lay community members' sentencing recommendations. Such findings would suggest that paternalistic attitudes toward female offenders are culturally embedded rather than specific to judicial decision-making, reinforcing the need for targeted bias-awareness interventions across both legal and public contexts.

Existential Isolation (El) is the experience of feeling fundamentally alone in one's perception of the world, with the belief that others cannot fully understand or share that experience (Pinet et al., 2017). It reflects a deep sense of separation from others and arises from the awareness that subjective experiences are ultimately inaccessible to others. El is central to existential psychology, which emphasizes the inherent loneliness tied to the human condition. Though research on El is relatively new, findings suggest that chronic El is linked to negative emotional outcomes, such as increased loneliness (Pinet et al., 2017), greater death thought accessibility (Helm et al., 2019), depression, anxiety (Constantino et al., 2019), and reduced self-esteem (Helm et al., 2018). Adverse early life experiences are another critical factor influencing adult well-being, leading to anxiety, depression, and even suicidal ideation (Hays-Grudo & Morris, 2020).
Childhood abuse, specifically, has been associated with greater loneliness in young adults (Landry et al.,
2022), though various factors-such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, and epigenetic influences - affect this relationship (Southwick et al., 2014).
Further, Bui et al. (in preparation) found that adverse childhood experiences predicted existential isolation, thus this research aims to qualitatively examine the relationship between such experiences and existential isolation in adulthood.

Caring for a person living with dementia (PLwD) is demanding and can be stressful even though caregivers can look upon their role favorably. Caregivers, especially those who are relatives or friends of PLwD, experience heightened stress levels that can impact both their mental and physical well-being and the quality of care they provide (Jorge et al., 2021). While resources for caregivers exist, most are not designed using effective learning methods to support long-term memory. Our goal was to determine the degree to which caregivers’ stress is reduced by an approach called “structured retrieval practice” (SRP). Structured retrieval practice involves spacing practice tests during learning and receiving corrective feedback. This study is a follow-up to a completed study from Dr. Tauber’s lab that showed SRP as the best method for remembering information about dementia caregiving long-term (Shumaker et al., under review).
Prior to participation, caregivers underwent a screening to determine qualification. Next, caregivers completed 2 sessions. In session 1, caregivers learned about managing dementia symptoms, coping strategies, and self-care techniques. Half of the caregivers learned the information by taking a practice test with immediate corrective feedback and the other half learned it by reading. Session 2 consisted of a second round of learning, followed by self-reported stress and memory tests. The aim of the study is to help caregivers learn methods to manage the stress related to caregiving and provide them with coping mechanisms to become able to better assist individuals living with dementia.
Data collection is currently ongoing, with approximately half of the target sample enrolled. The following presentation represents preliminary findings from the initial cohort.

Caring for another person can be demanding and stressful, and this is true for people providing care for a person living with dementia (PLwD). The stress process model (Pearlin et al., 1990) divides care triggers into primary stressors and primary subjective stressors. An example of primary stressors is managing difficult symptoms of dementia. An example of primary subjective stressors is feeling overwhelmed about providing help to a PLwD. Sadly, both types of stressors can negatively impact the wellbeing of caregivers (Lau et al., 2010; Polenick et al., 2020). Our study aims to explore how our psychoeducational intervention using structured retrieval practice (SRP; Shumaker, Ariel, & Tauber, submitted) impacts caregivers’ self-reported stress. We hope to reduce caregivers’ stress by providing high-quality care for their loved one living with dementia. Further, we hope to reduce both primary stressors and primary subjective stressors for caregivers. To explore this issue, caregivers will learn about the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) through either an SRP-based learning intervention or a reading-only control condition. The SRP intervention uses structured retrieval practice, whereas the control condition mimics reading from available sources online. Caregivers’ perceived stress will be measured before and after the intervention using the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen et al., 1983). We will examine whether stress ratings improve more for the SRP intervention compared to the reading condition. This is a first step for determining if the educational intervention improves measures of caregivers’ well-being. Data collection is ongoing, with approximately half of the target sample enrolled, and this presentation represents preliminary findings from the initial cohort.