A recent analysis has predicted that close to a million Americans will have died from contracting COVID-19 (Sullivan, 2021, para. 1). Unsurprisingly, the most vulnerable people, like those who have been incarcerated, have been hit the hardest (Brennan Center for Justice, 2020, para. 1). The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created additional stress affecting inmates both physically and mentally. Therefore, the maintenance of good mental health among inmates should be a concern. However, the nature of the correctional environment limits the therapeutic options available to health care professionals. Among the challenges mental health professionals face in ensuring quality care are a poor rapport between the care provider and client, having a client living in an environment where distressing factors are omnipresent, and a lack of resources (Gussak, 2015, p. 2). All of these issues are exacerbated when the client requiring mental health care is in the correctional system. Depression and anxiety are some of the most common disorders affecting the prison population. However, in the correctional system, therapies that have been found effective among a general population have been shown to not benefit 30% to 60% of clients (Abbing, Baars, Van Haastrecht, & Ponstein, 2019, p. 1). Effectively treating depression is of great concern because, as Gussak (2007) found, depression can lead to self-harming behaviors and suicide when left untreated (p. 2). Additionally, addressing and treating anxiety is of particular importance today as COVID-19 has been a significant source of distress; explicitly, one incarcerated journalist reported witnessing entire units of inmates experiencing high levels of anxiety and panic attacks (Popperl et al., 2020, para. 5). Thus, a critical review of the available literature can reveal the particular effectiveness of art therapy in treating depression and anxiety in prison populations. The impacts of implementing more effective therapies in the correctional system are a reduction in recidivism and successful reintegration into society. Consequently, this literature review will suggest a potential application of art therapy for improving the mental health of those incarcerated in the correctional system with the intent of engendering positive social impact.

According to the Center for Disease Control, the first case of COVID-19 in the United States was confirmed on January 21st, 2020. The patient was a resident of Washington state who had returned from the city of Wuhan during the previous week. The virus quickly spread across the country, and our lives have yet to return to normal in the nineteen months since. Between the initial wave that began in early 2020, and the current wave from the Delta variant that is now ravaging the country once again, this virus has claimed the lives of over six hundred thousand people in the United states alone. The majority of news coverage has focused on the pandemic from a national or global perspective. And since major metropolitan areas are often hotspots for the spread of infectious diseases (with the spread of COVID-19 being no exception), smaller towns and cities have experienced incredible desolation of their own. While the global scale and impact of this tragedy is paramount, it is also important to consider the devastation that has been torn apart smaller - often rural - communities, and to remember people whose lives have been forever changed. When I moved back from Phoenix, Arizona to my hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky in June I had the opportunity to do just that: to see this pandemic through the lens of a tight-knit community, where there exists a feeling that everybody knows each other. I wondered whether or not Owensboro had experienced the COVID-19 pandemic between March 2020 and June 2021 in the same way that was being portrayed by national news broadcasts. How did one city combat a nationwide pandemic?

The emergence of COVID-19 has ravaged through the United States generally and prison facilities in particular. By reducing prison populations and protecting a facility's most vulnerable members, compassionate release is a means of mitigating the consequences of COVID-19 facing prison facilities across the country. This thesis will examine compassionate release requests for the months of March 2020 through May 2020 from minimum and low-security prison facilities within the Bureau of Prisons. By examining this data, the goal of this thesis will be to determine whether the Bureau’s use of compassionate release was conducted in a manner that would protect the well-being of incarcerated individuals in response to the emergence of COVID-19. Similarly, the data will be examined in order to identify any significant differences between prison facilities in their use of compassionate release and subsequent outcomes from COVID-19 infections and deaths. Lastly, this thesis will examine this data to determine whether the Bureau’s use of compassionate release was consistent with the general objective of reducing prison populations and overcrowding in response to COVID-19.

This scoping review provides a synthesis of research which maps the literature on the topic of COVID-19 related impact on Undergraduate Student Mental Health and Baccalaureate Success. The purpose of this review was to identify existing literature pertaining to the psychological repercussions of COVID-19 on the undergraduate population, describe the range of successful interventions used to reduce stress and demand on the U.S. undergraduate population during a pandemic, and identify implications for future research. Due to the novelty of coronavirus and limited research on the given topic, this review provides a framework of available research by identifying types of available research, identifying how research is conducted on the topic, identifying and analyzing knowledge gaps, and clarifies key concepts in literature.

As 2020 unfolded, a new headline began taking over front pages: “COVID-19”. In the months that followed, waves of fear, sorrow, isolation, and grief gripped the population in the viruses’ wake. We have all heard it, we have all felt it, indeed because we were all there. Trailing a few months behind those initial headlines, more followed that only served to breed misinformation and ludicrous theories. Even with study after study, quality, scientific data about this new virus could not come fast enough. There was somehow both too much information and also not enough. We were scrambling to process the abundance of raw numbers into some semblance of an explanation. After those first few months of the pandemic, patterns in the research are beginning to emerge. These horrific patterns tell much more than just the pathology of COVID-19. As the number of sick, surviving, and deceased patients began to accumulate, it became clear that some populations were left devastated, while others seemed unscathed. The reasons for these patterns were present long before the COVID-19 Pandemic. Disparities in health care were highlighted by the pandemic – not caused by it. The roots of these disparities lie in the five Social Determinants of Health (SDOH): (1) economic stability, (2) neighborhood and built environment, (3) education, (4) social and community context, and (5) health and health care. Minority populations, namely Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders consistently have higher diagnosis rates and poorer patient outcomes compared to their White American and Asian American counterparts. This is partly because minority populations tend to have jobs that pay lower, increase exposure risk, and provide little healthcare. When unemployment increased in the wake of the pandemic, minorities were the first to lose their jobs and their health insurance. In addition, these populations tend to live in densely populated neighborhoods, where social isolation is harder. Higher poverty rates encourage work DISPROPORTIONATE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 ON MINORITY POPULATIONS 3 rather than education, often perpetuating the cycle. The recent racial history and current aggressions towards minority people might produce a social attitude against healthcare Health care itself can be expensive, hard to find, and/or tied to employment, leading to poorly controlled comorbidities, which exacerbate poor patient outcomes in the case of COVID-19 infection. The healthcare delivery system plays little part in the SDOH, instead, public policy must be called to reform in order to fix these issues.

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated alarming increases in psychological distress and alcohol use behaviors and has caused the greatest increases in depression and anxiety symptoms among college students. Prior studies have examined the impact of COVID-19 broadly on mental health and alcohol use outcomes; however, few studies have examined these impacts in college students. Previous studies have examined individual factors that could moderate the relation between COVID-19 related stressors and mental health and alcohol use outcomes, but knowledge is lacking regarding the role of emotion regulation. The present study aimed to examine the role of emotion regulation in the relation between both COVID-19 stressful experiences and COVID-19 related worry and mental health and alcohol use outcomes, and to explore racial/ethnic differences in their associations. Four hierarchical multiple regression models were conducted to assess main effects of COVID-19 stressors and emotion regulation, as well as moderation of the effect of emotion regulation on depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, alcohol consumption, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms during the past year. COVID-19 related worry was associated with greater symptoms of both mental health outcomes, whereas COVID-19 related stressful experiences were associated with both mental health outcomes, more alcohol consumption, and more AUD symptoms. Difficulties in emotion regulation had significant main effects on mental health outcomes and AUD symptoms, but not alcohol consumption. Hispanic/Latinx students reported higher experiences of both COVID-19 related stressors, but consumed less alcohol than did White/European students. This study provides further insight into the nature of COVID-19 related stressors and their subsequent impacts. Implications for prevention and intervention on college campuses are discussed.

This paper explores the technological systems used by Arizona State University’s Housing department during the course of 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic which struck the state of Arizona. The COVID-19 epidemic is the largest pandemic in recent memory. It has affected all walks of life, from social economic damages, widespread panic and the rise of civil unrest. One of the most profound effects from this generation of students is the impact it has had in all levels of education from kindergarten to graduate school. The American education system has been heavily affected since the pandemic first started. Due to the lockdowns, traditional education practices such as in-person classrooms, class labs, and even the psychological impact of physical distancing has affected students’ educational experiences. This disruption has also greatly affected our college system. In response to problems such as the lockdowns, slow rate of infections per student, many colleges have made extensive use of technological aids, substitutes, and systems to combat the damage done to the education system. This resulted in switching of in-person course work to online based assignments and tests. The colleges response to the pandemic has not only been online, but in-person as well. ASU has adopted a variety of systems to track its students’ and employees’ health statuses. This is done via the use of the Daily Heath Check System (an application used by ASU to track the health of both students and faculty), and the use of randomized testing. This enabled the tracking and monitoring of the rate of infections within the ASU community. ASU has also installed hand sanitizer machines in every building as well as providing a supply of health and safety equipment to necessary staff. These systems, products, and preventative practices have been put into place for the protection of not only the students but employees of ASU. However, one key consideration about the adoption of these measures, is whether or not they are truly effective. One of the areas explored are the problems with the adoption of these systems and how they were implemented. Meaning that these systems adopted resulted in either less then successful outcomes or causing student displeasure towards the systems that were implemented.

Spring of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic brought significant challenges and life changes for people around the world. The sudden isolation, the health-related anxiety, and the drastic changes in daily routines affected everyone. This study measures the impact COVID-19 had on incoming first-year students at Arizona State University, and how the pandemic impacted their mental health. A total of 92 students participated in this study and were recruited through convenience sampling. In order to gain a better understanding of how students were truly doing transitioning into college during the pandemic, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected in the forms of a survey and optional follow-up interviews. Congruent with previous literature, the survey found that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on college students and their mental health. Seven students completed the follow-up interviews and expanded on their answers in the survey through personal examples of their first-year experiences. After the survey and follow-up interviews were completed, I presented my findings for first-year students in Mary Lou Fulton Teacher’s College to help students see that they were not alone. This research allowed students the opportunity to be heard and share their experiences, as well as, to obtain access to resources that promote their mental health and academic success during the challenging time.

While Covid-19 had severe impacts on education across the board, the goal of our research is to examine how virtual learning affected Business Data Analytics and Computer Information Students at Arizona State University. A survey was created to measure three key academic areas (student learning, communication, and student engagement) that may have experienced a notable change in quality. Forty Nine W.P. Carey students were surveyed and their responses were recorded in a Google Sheet. From there the results were transferred to excel and converted into a Numeric Likert scale. By establishing base scores for each of the survey statements we can isolate areas of virtual learning that underwhelmed or satisfied our target demographic. The objective of the subsequent analysis was to identify any areas within the three focal points that participants felt strongly impacted their performance with virtual schooling during the August 2020 to May 2021 school year.

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.