Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Filtering by
- All Subjects: trauma
- All Subjects: community
- Creators: Department of Psychology
Eat Drink Smoke is an illustrated journal/memoir about trauma, addiction and mental illness. It is a creative project wherein storytelling is used as therapy.
Activist burnout theory has produced minimal but meaningful literature and research that explores the dynamics of burnout culture, movement in-fighting, marginalized identities, and dimensions of burnout symptoms. Black feminist visionaries and writers such as Audre Lorde and bell hooks have developed theories of love, self-care and community as central to resistance that have informed my research approach. Thus, my study aims to investigate activist burnout from a perspective that marries popular activist burnout theory with these frameworks of self-care and community. I conducted a survey of Arizona State University student organizers and activists (N=34) to address the following research questions: What are the causes and symptoms of burnout for Arizona State University activists and organizers? How have self-care and community played a role in their work and countered burnout? Can working conceptions of self-care and community serve as resistance in ways that feel meaningful to activists? The survey was broken into three dimensions: “Demographics and Experience,” “Burnout,” and “Self-Care and Community.” The results reinforced prior findings on established toxic cultures and burnout symptoms but introduced complications to working theories, such as the connections between cycles of burnout and the cyclical nature of electoral politics along with the roles of chronic and mental illness. Respondents largely demonstrated conceptions of self-care and community as resistance but also demonstrated personal and professional barriers to putting these conceptions into practice.
This project is an investigation of the gene by environment (GxE) interactions’ effect on substance use outcomes among refugee communities. Substance use disorders (SUDs) are a major public health concern, affecting individuals and communities worldwide. The etiology of SUDs is complex, involving a combination of genetic, environmental, and social factors. In recent years, there has been growing interest in the role of gene by environment interactions in the development of SUDs, particularly in vulnerable populations such as refugees. Refugee populations are exposed to a range of environmental stressors that may interact with genetic factors to increase their risk of SUDs. However, a number of studies describe a “refugee paradox,” where despite having been exposed to risk factors that can lead to SUDs, they are less likely to develop SUDs. Understanding these gene by environment interactions in refugee communities is crucial for not only understanding this phenomenon, but developing effective prevention and treatment strategies for this population. This thesis aims to investigate the gene by environment interactions underlying substance use in refugee communities and to analyze different methods for gene by environment analyses, ultimately determining which method is best suited for this population.
This study is a systematic review of the current literature surrounding intergenerational trauma in Southeast Asian (SEA) immigrant/refugee families. This review was guided upon using the 2020 PRISMA criteria and framework. After a parallel search across several databases, 14 articles were qualified for inclusion after reviewing exclusion criteria. Across these articles, five main aims were examined: the effect of trauma on parent mental health, the effect on child mental health, the effect on parenting, the effect on family dynamics/relationship, and an exploratory aim on current recommended interventions. The literature indicated that negative mental health outcomes were often present in parents and affected the quality of parenting. Child mental health was negatively affected through close interactions with the parent. Certain parenting behaviors and styles were associated with traumatized parents, which led to the development of attachment issues in children. Family dynamics and relationships were impacted by conflicting cultures and beliefs they were raised with in the United States and the ones taught at home by their parents. Current recommendations for interventions involve therapy, understanding culture and context of trauma, and as well as utilizing the support and influence of the community. There are many gaps in current research and more examination of intergenerational trauma amongst SEA populations is needed to better understand this complex issue in order to improve the relationship between parents, children, and overall family suffering from the effects of intergenerational trauma. Further recommendations for research, gaps in literature, and implications for this study are explored.
