ScholarWorks@Georgia State University
Recent Submissions
Publication Open Access Nutritional Considerations for the Menopausal Woman: Evidence-based Strategies for Thriving Through Hormonal Change(2026-08-04)The purpose of this project is to study the nutritional factors that influence health during the peri-menopausal transition. Develop an educational resource that offers evidence-based guidance to support hormone balance through targeted nutrition strategies. This document will emphasize key nutrients, explore the multifaceted influences on this life stage—including biological, cultural, and socioeconomic factors—and provide practical tools for nourishment. The final product will be a resource featuring symptom-responsive recipes, educational commentary, and accessible nutrition insights. It will reflect both current scientific understanding and the lived experiences of aging women, bridging clinical relevance with everyday care.Publication Open Access Exploring Resilience and Protective Factors against Substance Abuse in Young Adult African American Men with a History of Childhood Abuse(2026-07-29)African American men who experience childhood abuse are more likely to engage in problematic substance abuse (SA) than African American women with similar histories. Despite this, the experience of abstaining from SA for these men is not well understood, undermining efforts to design effective treatment programs. Guided by the Society-to Cells Resiliency Model, this study explored the existentialia of resilience, protective factors, and mental health treatment experiences and beliefs among young adult African American men with a history of childhood abuse who abstained from SA. An interpretive phenomenological approach was used to best understand the lived experiences of the young men. Participants were recruited through flyers distributed in three metropolitan cities in the southeastern United States. Data were collected using a demographic survey and through individual semi-structured, video-recorded interviews. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify patterns and themes depicting their experiences and beliefs. Nine young adult African American men, who ranged in age from 18-23 years, and were high school graduates, completed interviews that revealed six themes and five subthemes. The themes were “Never give up,”; “Underdogs,”; “Take my mind off of everything,”; “It caused me not to trust,” “Build better bonds with other people,” and “They need community support.” All participants described being resilient, despite being African American men, survivors of childhood abuse, and having negative views of society. They chose positivity, personal growth, and active coping (spirituality, sports, social support) to deal with the abuse and abstain from SA. Most participants (8) had not received mental health services following their abuse, but all believed in its benefits. Findings underscore the importance of trauma-informed and culturally responsive approaches to supporting African American men abused as children to prevent SA and associated problems.Publication Open Access Effects of One Session of Balance Board on Postural Control and Gait Pattern in Adults and Children(2026-08-04)Postural control is fundamental to balance and to movements such as gait, and it matures gradually through childhood. Balance-board intervention may improve static and dynamic balance by enhancing proprioceptive and sensory integration, but its acute effects on static balance and on gait remain unclear. This study investigated the acute effect of a single session of two balance boards, a multidirectional wobble board and a wide-based lateral rocker board, on static balance and dynamic gait stability in typically developing children and young adults. A randomized crossover design was used, and three-dimensional motion capture and force-plate data were collected before and after each session. Static postural control was assessed from center-of-pressure (COP) during single-leg standing in 15 adults and 14 children, and dynamic gait stability was assessed during an obstacle-crossing task in 12 adults and 12 children through spatiotemporal parameters, lower-limb joint kinematics, and the margin of stability (MoS). Results showed that children had greater COP values than adults on all static measures (all p < .001) and prevalent differences in gait, maintaining larger AP MoS but a smaller ML MoS at foot-off than adults. Neither board reduced COP, and the only static interactions were found for ellipse height (p = .029) and ML COP range (p = .025) reflecting a slight increase in adults. During gait, the intervention produced a small, board-specific effect consistent with task specificity. The AP MoS shifted toward greater stability from pre to post on the rocker board but not the wobble board. There was a single age-dependent change in trailing-limb ankle dorsiflexion (group by time interaction, p = .043). Overall, a single balance-board session did not acutely improve static single-leg balance with either board, or its effect on dynamic gait stability was limited to a small, direction-specific gain in AP stability under the rocker board. The findings suggest that acute balance-board effects are task-specific and direction-specific particularly rocker board's ML-oriented influence, and a single session may be insufficient to induce substantial postural changes in both children and adults.Publication Restricted The Healing Power of Gratitude in Chronic Illness Populations: An Exploration of Gratitude Interventions and Experiences(2026-08-04)Gratitude practice has gained attention as a beneficial psychological intervention, with research supporting its positive effects on physical and mental health and well-being. This dissertation presents two manuscripts examining gratitude within chronic illness populations. The first manuscript is a narrative review of gratitude interventions that have been tested in chronic illness populations, including cancer, chronic pain, diabetes, heart disease, HIV, inflammatory bowel disease, neuromuscular disease, and traumatic brain injury. Results indicate that gratitude interventions show the most consistent benefits for psychological outcomes, with chronic pain and cancer populations demonstrating the strongest evidence of effectiveness. Cross-cutting findings suggest that intervention length, dosage, and format meaningfully moderate outcomes, and that further research is needed to better understand for whom and under what conditions gratitude interventions are most beneficial. The second manuscript presents a qualitative study using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the experience of gratitude for ten cisgender women living with moderate-severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Three superordinate themes were identified: Loss and Disruption, Coping as Continuous Labor, and Gratitude as Practice, Not Disposition. Findings suggest that gratitude for women with RA is not a stable trait or natural emotional response but rather something actively constructed, effortfully maintained, and frequently interrupted. Critically, acceptance of an RA diagnosis emerged as a sequential prerequisite for accessing gratitude rather than a parallel process, with premature gratitude carrying the risk of virtue bypass. Together, these manuscripts argue for a more nuanced, sequentially informed approach to gratitude intervention design and clinical application within chronic illness populations, with particular attention to the relational, cultural, and gendered dimensions of women’s experiences.Publication Embargo An Exploration of Perceived Discrimination and Psychological Well-being for International Students(2028-08-04)Discrimination has been noted as an important acculturative stressor for international students. Multiple studies also showed that different forms of perceived discrimination were related to worse mental health for international students. However, the existing reviews on discrimination did not specify the unique type of discrimination international students might experience, such as language discrimination, and xenophobia, nor did they explore the unique moderators in the acculturation process. Therefore, I conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological well-being for international students, synthesized current research findings, and tested the potential between-study moderators in a systematic way. Across 58 studies, a negative and medium-to-strong relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological well-being emerged, showing that students with higher levels of perceived discrimination experienced worse psychological well-being. Further, perceived discrimination was more strongly related to negative psychological well-being indicators (e.g., depression, anxiety; r = -0.35), compared to positive psychological well-being indicators (e.g., life satisfaction, self-esteem; r = -0.27). Lastly, the review revealed the underrepresentation of South Asian international students in the current literature, and the need to incorporate and examine important contextual factors for international students. Social belonging is one important factor that might be protective for students experiencing discrimination. However, there were mixed findings related to whether social connections with others and a sense of belonging serve as protective factors for international students experiencing perceived discrimination, and under what circumstances. The second part of the project aims to understand the mental health effects of perceived discrimination for Asian international students and the moderation effects of financial stress and campus belonging, under the unique social and cultural context during COVID-19. The results indicated a 3-way interaction between cultural discrimination, campus belonging, and financial stress in their relationship with psychological distress, showing that the protective effect of campus belonging to buffer against cultural discrimination is contingent upon individuals’ perceived financial stress. The impact of racial discrimination on distress appears invariant, regardless of one’s social or financial resources. These results underscore the importance of taking into consideration the financial and social factors when developing interventions or providing services to support international students dealing with discrimination.
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