When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged on an international scale, the disruption of routine and social interactions caused challenges in mental health, as people began to self-isolate and confine themselves from the world. Although the sudden interruption of social interaction led to stress and anxiety, human-animal interactions have shown a decrease in stress, anxiety, depression, and feelings of loneliness and social isolation. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether companion animals influence mental health, specifically depression and anxiety, in college-aged students who attended the Arizona State University Downtown Campus during the 2020-2021 academic school year.

Schizophrenia is a mental health disorder that affects an individual's ability to function per societal expectations, leading to the onset of stigmatization and discrimination. This can affect the course and outcome of the individual's diagnosis, which impacts several aspects of life, including interpersonal relationships, self-care, and medical attention. Reclassifying the term "schizophrenia" can create a better understanding of the disorder's symptoms and increase funding and research to alleviate the stigmatization currently affecting individuals with this diagnosis.

Schizophrenia is a mental health disorder that affects an individual's ability to function per societal expectations, leading to the onset of stigmatization and discrimination. This can affect the course and outcome of the individual's diagnosis, which impacts several aspects of life, including interpersonal relationships, self-care, and medical attention. Reclassifying the term "schizophrenia" can create a better understanding of the disorder's symptoms and increase funding and research to alleviate the stigmatization currently affecting individuals with this diagnosis.

This thesis first examines the history and contemporary landscape of school mental health, offering evidence for schools as an essential component of the child and adolescent system of care. It then provides contemporary discussion around the importance of design in public administration, as well as analyzes the current design model of school-based mental health services, including key actors, normative assumptions, and underlying conceptual models to demonstrate the outdated presumptions that have led to a model that is not designed to adapt to the unique needs of students, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on contemporary theory of design in public administration, I argue that the largely fragmented, decentralized, bureaucratic, complex, and underdeveloped design of school-based mental health services mainly developed in the 1970s and 1980s has reached its limits and cannot adapt to new societal variables. Lastly, I discuss said limitations of this model to argue for a conceptual and practical re-design of the current system of school-based mental health systems in the United States.

Dating apps have become commonplace in our society, with popular apps such as Tinder having more than 75 million monthly active users. Dating apps allow people to search for relationships, serious or casual, at any time of the day and greatly expands a person’s dating network. However, dating apps mostly rely on photographs of their users in order for potential matches to choose to pursue a relationship. So, users are tasked with promoting an appealing online version of themselves to their audience. This research seeks to understand how dating apps affect body esteem, specifically how dating app usage and photo editing correlate to reported body esteem. The findings of this study indicate that the amount of dating apps a person uses correlates to negative body esteem, and that those that reported editing their photographs more than their peers also reported lower body esteem.

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.