In 2022, over 50 million adults were diagnosed with a mental illness, however, only half of those individuals received mental health care. This marked disparity between diagnosis and service utilization reflects the need to understand barriers impeding individuals from seeking mental health treatment. One commonly experienced barrier to seeking treatment is stigma. Stigma can result from cultural attitudes to structural limitations within communities which impacts how its members seek and interact with mental health services. Community-based research is necessary to understand the nuances regarding barriers within specific communities and the impact of sociodemographic factors on the perceived level of stigma. This direct work with communities helps identify various lived experiences and identify where stigma is most prevalent. Participants were recruited at community centers, bus stops, and public parks in Tarrant County (N = 77) and asked to complete a brief paper survey. Analysis demonstrated that males reported higher levels of stigma towards seeking mental health treatment compared to females. No other comparisons of sociodemographic variables were statistically significant. These results suggest that interventions targeting mental health treatment engagement in Tarrant County should target stigma primarily among males. Further research is needed to understand other barriers within this community to seeking mental health treatment.

Substance use among adolescents, particularly those in the juvenile justice (JJ) system, remains a critical public health issue with serious long-term consequences. Adolescents in JJ facilities face a heightened risk of developing substance use disorders (SUDs) and are more likely to experience negative outcomes such as mental health challenges and re-incarceration. Identifying substance use patterns in this population is essential for developing targeted treatment and intervention strategies that can mitigate these risks. This study examines the prevalence and patterns of substance use among incarcerated youth, focusing on how these patterns, as well as changes in use over time, relate to treatment needs. Data were analyzed from the Leveraging Safe Adults (LeSA) project, a 5-year longitudinal study evaluating the effectiveness of Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) in reducing opioid use among youth after release from JJ facilities. Quantitative methods, including frequencies, cross-tabulations, and ANCOVAs, were used to analyze survey data. Results at baseline (N = 250) indicate that incarcerated youth report most frequent use of marijuana and alcohol and identify marijuana as the most problematic substance for them. However, a general decrease in marijuana and alcohol use was observed at a 3-month follow-up (n = 90) and 6-month follow-up (n = 60). These findings suggest a need for targeted interventions focused on marijuana use and provide preliminary evidence that substance use patterns in this population can improve over time. Findings could inform future interventions designed to address the unique challenges faced by adolescents within the juvenile justice system.

Sector diversity in professional training programs is a crucial factor in expanding the reach and effectiveness of trauma-informed interventions across multiple disciplines. This exploratory study examines the year-to-year expansion of sector diversity in Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) Practitioner Training from 2019 to 2024. Data from 4,048 participants across six years of training sessions were analyzed to assess trends in sector representation across 16 professional categories. Annual participant counts ranged from 498 in 2020 to 1,229 in 2024. Findings indicate a gradual diversification of professional representation, with juvenile justice, sex trafficking, corrections, international outreach, and medical professional sectors remaining underrepresented. These insights highlight areas requiring targeted outreach to enhance the inclusion of diverse professional backgrounds in future training cohorts. The study contributes to understanding trends in professional diversity within TBRI training and informs future recruitment strategies for underrepresented sectors.

Ethical decision-making is affected by both cognitive and emotional factors; nevertheless, little research has been directed towards the impact of frustration in moral reasoning. We examined the impact of frustration in decision-making in response to both classical (Sacrificial) and real-world (Contemporary) moral dilemmas in two different studies (N = 328). The participants first took the Ethical Perspectives Scale (Diegel et al., 2024) and were then assigned to a frustrating anagram completion or control group. Next, they responded to ethical dilemmas and gave us data about personality traits, religious orientation, socioeconomic status, sex, age, and political orientation.
The results showed that frustration significantly reduced the ability of ethical perspectives to predict decision-making. Without frustration, Utilitarianism was a strong predictor of outcome-oriented decisions (p ≤ .01), while Rights and Common Good ethics were linked to deontological decision-making (p ≤ .01). However, under the influence of frustration, these effects disappeared (p ≥ .05), suggesting that emotional upset undermines moral consistency. Frustration also undermined the influence of Virtue and Care ethics (p ≤ .01), particularly under high-stakes conditions.
Later tests revealed correlations between ethical positions and personality traits. Both Care ethics and Virtue ethics showed significant relationships with higher religiosity levels (p ≤ .05), while Rights ethics was negatively related with religiosity (p ≤ .01). Politically, Virtue ethics was linked with conservative orientations, while Care ethics was linked with liberal orientations (p ≤ .05). Tests for personality factors showed Utilitarianism associated with low Openness (p = .002), while Virtue ethics was predictive of higher Openness (p = .043).
The findings highlight how frustration undermines moral reasoning, thus disrupting ethical frameworks in the decision-making process. This carries important implications for leadership, policy-making, and crisis situations where ethical decisions have to be made under high-stress conditions.

Many people living with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) are cared for by informal caregivers (Thompson et al. 2007). Caregivers can face challenges managing and treating symptoms owing to gaps in their dementia-related knowledge (Jorge et al., 2021). Prior work has found that practice testing enhances long-term retention of information (Agarwal et al., 2021). Practice testing followed by elaborative feedback also benefits learning, regardless of whether the retrieval attempt is successful or unsuccessful (Butler, 2008; Roediger & Butler, 2011). We examined whether practice testing with or without elaborative feedback improved caregivers’ learning of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Caregivers studied 12 categories of BPSD and then either restudied the material, took a practice test with no feedback, or took a practice test with elaborative feedback. We found that testing with feedback enhanced caregivers’ learning of BPSD more than testing with no feedback or restudying on both an immediate and delayed test. We also present characteristics of our sample.