Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

Given the growing reports of toxic gymnastics culture and evidence of mental health issues in gymnasts, this study aims to fill in the gaps surrounding the causes of poor mental health and wellbeing of gymnasts as a result of negative gymnastics culture focusing on the idea of mental toughness. Current college gymnasts (n=7) completed a questionnaire and in-person interview to discuss their ideas around mental toughness, their experience with gymnastics culture and the coaching behaviors that create it, and their understanding of their own mental health. 7 participants completed all materials. Results showed that all participants had a mental toughness score falling in the “average” or “good” range with a mean score of 85 out of 140. Mental toughness was mentioned in a negative context 95 times overall and a in positive context 41 times overall during interviews. 6 participants rated their overall experience of gymnastics culture as average and 1 rated it as good, but when reflecting on their most negative experiences of gymnastics culture 4 participants rated their experience as average and 3 rated their experiences as bad. All participants expressed having experienced symptoms of poor mental health in the past 4 months and witnessed symptoms of poor mental health in teammates. 6 participants were unlikely to communicate their symptoms and 4 were unlikely to seek professional help, yet the number of participants likely to offer direct support or encourage teammates to communicate symptoms with a coach/trainer was 5 and 4 respectively. Negative mentions of mental health overall (118) was three times higher than positive mentions of mental health (43) during interviews. As a whole, gymnasts who experienced negative gymnastics culture struggled to recognize poor mental health/wellbeing and viewed mental toughness as synonymous with enduring mental and physical pain. Starting gymnastics at a young age and development in the sport and ideas becoming internalized as part of self, as well as negative coaching behaviors and abuse were referenced as potential reasons for poor understanding of mental health in gymnasts. Recommendations for improvement of gymnastics culture to prevent the negative consequences on gymnasts understand of their mental health include (1) acknowledgement and awareness by coaches of the impact their behaviors can have on gymnasts, (2) building strong personal connections with gymnasts, (3) increasing coaches and support staffs understanding of mental health symptoms so they can recognize them in gymnasts, and (4) promoting and encouraging meaningful conversations around mental health to remove stigma and fear of retaliation for gymnast.

This creative project outlines the steps taken to successfully plan and host a fundraising event at Arizona State University. In my case, this more specifically dealt with organizing a dodgeball tournament between two friendly rivals: police officers and firefighters in the city of Phoenix. All proceeds raised from this fundraising dodgeball tournament were donated back to first responders working in the city of Phoenix.

Crazed Oasis strives to create a community-based, sustainable clothing brand that looks and feels great, while creating a community that is safe and welcoming to individuals of all backgrounds. We strive to educate all about the world to provide an understanding and appreciation for all individuals and cultures. The current climate of the world is a crazy one, and the clothing industry is highly unsustainable. Crazed Oasis is creating the solution by building a community to create new friendships and connections while focusing on the important topics of the world, such as sustainability, mental health, human rights, arts and passions, and more. Through our clothing products, we will educate and create a culture of understanding through art.

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.

In January of 2022, 61 women from Afghanistan were accepted to Arizona State University and joined our campus from the Asian University of Women. Of One Heart is a Phoenix based nonprofit which aims to connect refugees with mentors to cultivate intercultural relationships, assist refugees in integrating into a new community, and to empower refugees to utilize their unique perspectives and talents in their new home. In addition to these goals, these relationships aim to connect refugees with the networks their mentor has and to assist them in understanding the new systems and norms of American culture. The relationship is reciprocal in the sharing of background and stories to facilitate trust and to recognize the value refugees have to contribute to society. The mission of this project is to implement the Of One Heart mentoring model onto ASU campus to help facilitate intercultural friendships between our new students from Afghanistan and other ASU students, faculty and staff. In doing so, we hope to create a model demonstrating refugee student success by collecting data through pre and post program surveys to track if involvement in the program improved participants utilization of existing ASU resources, cultural competency, mental health, and participation in community activities and internships/job opportunities. Ideally, we hope to create a program model which is proven to support refugee students to be replicated for future semesters as the program expands to serve not only the students from Afghanistan, but all refugee and asylum seeking students.

"Black in Bleu" is a reflection on my life as a young, Black woman in America told through poetry, and music in conjunction with feminist activists' work as well as results from a survey amongst other young, black students. This paper is a window into Blackness reflecting my experiences as well as many others in a way to find love in that reflection. There is a playlist that goes along with the paper meant to be listened to simultaneously with the reading.

This research aimed to examine college students’ perceived racial discrimination, mental health, and differences of these variables by US citizenship to promote healthier mental health practices within Asian college students. Mental disorders are a leading cause of suicidal ideation, which is the fourth leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults, becoming a global phenomenon. The rate of mental health problems, including anxiety and depression, have steadily increased in a decade, with higher rates among racial and ethnic minorities. More than half of adults with serious mental illnesses haven't received treatments, with minorities being more likely to delay or fail seeking mental health treatments due to cultural and structural barriers such as cultural stigma, racial discrimination, acculturation, and language, making it more difficult to address the inaccessibility to high mental health care services, especially for Asians. The findings of this study suggest that, compared to international students, domestic students have greater mental health service seeking intention, received worse racial discrimination (subject to slurs and suspiciousness) and worse mental health since Covid-19, and determined language concordance between patient and healthcare provider is important. International students have more negative beliefs towards the difficulties of treatment and care of mental illnesses and determined ethnicity concordance between patient and healthcare provider is important. The findings provide preliminary insight to acknowledge the differences between domestic and international students in their perceived racial discrimination and mental health. Furthermore, based on findings the issue can be addressed by implementing a mixed-method approach on collecting disaggregated data among this population, removing language and stigmatic barriers to mental health services by education, and promoting cultural competency among mental health workers.

Indian-American young adults are often caught between the cultures of their parents and their environment, and these two cultures can impact their views based on the cultures' views. In this project, I created an overview of personal accounts of Indian-American young adults on their experiences with mental health struggles, and receiving counseling and treatment. This study analyzed a sample of accounts and testimonials previously collected through a qualitative review. I found that many of the Indian-American young adults were open to mental health counseling and treatment, but saw Indian cultural views as a barrier.

Psychedelics have sparked widespread interest as they offer a potential new form of therapeutic treatment. This thesis paper explores the current and upcoming psychedelics that are being researched for their use in a therapeutic setting. The main substances discussed are lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy/molly/MDMA), and ketamine (esketamine). This paper also discusses the mechanism of action for each drug and the underlying research that has been found to support the ethical use of these substances alongside talk therapy