Stigma toward individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) plays a significant role in treatment engagement, policy creation, and research priorities. Attribution theory posits that stigma results from attempts to understand the causes of behavior, and attributions toward individuals with SUD typically fall along a continuum from personal attributions (e.g., bad character) to biological attributions (e.g., genetic or neurochemical; Henderson & Dressler, 2017). Past research has demonstrated that poor character attributions are strongly associated with SUD stigma, which can lead to reduced pity, support, and tolerance for this population (Röhm et al., 2022). The present study examined whether personal culpability mediates the relationship between stigmatizing language and perceived need of treatment towards individuals with SUD. Community members in Tarrant County were randomly assigned to read a vignette describing an individual with SUD in either person-first or stigmatizing language followed by a brief survey (modeled after Kelly & Westerhoff, 2010). We hypothesize that participants exposed to stigmatized language will report greater personal culpability attributions for the vignette character leading to reduced perceived need for treatment. These findings would suggest that addressing language in media and clinical settings is essential, as reducing stigmatizing language may lower personal culpability attributions and ultimately promote greater support for treatment engagement among individuals with SUD.

Black women have notoriously been mistreated within the medical system, a reality that is heavily documented in the literature and can be traced back to times of slavery. Today, Black women continue to face disproportionately high rates of mistreatment and adverse outcomes during childbirth. Racial bias plays a key role in these inequities, influencing how medical providers perceive and respond to patients’ pain. The current study examined differences in perceptions of Black and White mothers experiencing pain during childbirth. We recruited an equal number of Black (n = 250) and White (n = 250) participants and randomly assigned them to examine real-life photographs of either Black or White mothers’ facial expressions. After viewing the images, participants reported their perceived seriousness of the mother's condition and level of humanity. It is predicted that 1) participants in the White mother condition will report higher perceived pain than those in the Black mother condition, 2) participants will dehumanize Black mothers to a greater extent than White mothers, and 3) these associations will be consistent regardless of the participant’s race. Findings will shed light on racial bias during maternal emergencies and reveal how ingroup bias affects these outcomes.

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.