Posters & Presentations

This month I successfully proposed my dissertation project to my committee (now the real work begins!). As suggested by the title, my project will investigate the way in which low feelings of belongingness and high feelings of burdensomeness interact to increase suicide ideation among older adults. The study is based on a theory developed by Thomas Joiner, PhD and his students at Florida State University.

Thanks to my committee for their very helpful comments and suggestions: Daniel Segal, PhD; Frederick Coolidge, PhD; Sara Qualls, PhD; Molly Maxfield, PhD; and Aditi Mitra, PhD.

Note: Anyone experiencing a suicidal crisis can contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Last week, I presented a poster at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, which took place in San Diego. Poster presentations are always fun because I get to meet others who are interested in similar areas of research. I was even awarded an APA Student Travel Award in order to participate in the convention.

This particular poster reported the results of an analysis of hopelessness, dysfunctional attitudes, and suicide ideation among community-dwelling older adults. As expected, hopelessness and dysfunctional attitudes were positively associated with suicide ideation. Perfectionism emerged as an important component of dysfunctional attitudes. 

I successfully defended my thesis last Friday. Although it was somewhat nervewracking, the meeting went really well. It felt more like a discussion than a presentation by the end and I got lots of good feedback and suggestions from my committee. The next step is to try to publish a journal article using the findings from the study.

The gist of the results is that problem- and emotion-focused coping appear to be adaptive, whereas dysfunctional coping appears to be somewhat less related to resilience to suicide. Implications of the study are that some coping strategies may serve as protective factors against suicide and coping strategies should be evaluated as part of a thorough assessment of at-risk older adults.

Thanks again to my committee for their guidance and to those who participated in the study.

Earlier this week, I gave a presentation at our local senior center that was designed for older men who are recently widowed or divorced. The purpose of the presentation was to discuss:

-relationships in later life
-what is "typical" after the loss of a spouse/partner
-how to decide whether you are ready to date again
-strategies for getting what you want.

Older adults have a disproportionally high rate of completed suicide as compared to the general population, but relatively little is known about the extent to which coping styles and beliefs serve as protective factors against suicide in this population.

We had a group of community-dwelling older adults complete questionnaires on coping, reasons for living, and suicidal ideation. Some of the findings include:

- Suicidal ideation had a significant negative relationship with both problem- and emotion-focused coping and a significant positive relationship with dysfunctional coping.

- Suicidal ideation had a significant negative relationship with survival and coping beliefs, responsibility to family, child-related concerns, and total reasons for living score and a significant positive relationship with fear of suicide.

The findings suggest that a full assessment of coping styles and reasons for living should be part of a thorough evaluation of at-risk older adults. Future research should test the extent to which interventions that bolster coping skills and reasons for living reduce suicidal ideation and suicidal behaviors.

A substantial literature has documented that sexual abuse relates to suicidal behaviors but relatively less is known about resilience to suicide, especially cognitive deterrents to suicide.

The present study investigated the effects of a history of sexual victimization on reasons for living. Female participants (N = 138; M age = 24.4 years, SD = 7.3 years; range = 18 to 53 years; 79% Caucasian) completed the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) and the Reasons For Living (RFL) Inventory. According to SES responses, participants were classified into 5 mutually exclusive groups: no victimization, sexual contact, sexual coercion, attempted rape, and rape. ANOVAs showed that degree of sexual victimization had a significant effect on the RFL Total scale and 2 subscales (Survival and Coping Beliefs; Moral Objections). The general pattern was that mean RFL scores in the no victimization group were significantly higher than the mean scores in the sexual coercion and rape groups.

An implication is that having a history of sexual victimization, especially sexual coercion and rape, limits one’s later reasons for not committing suicide. Bolstering these modifiable deterrents to suicide should be part of suicide prevention efforts among at-risk women.

Last week I successfully proposed my thesis project titled, "Coping Strategies, Suicidal Risk, and Protective Factors Against Suicide in Older Adults." The goals of this study are to investigate coping abilities in older adults and how those relate to suicidal ideation and cognitive deterrents to suicide. We've already begun data collection and hope to have the study completed by the end of the year. Thank you to my committee (Daniel L. Segal, Ph.D., Frederick L. Coolidge, Ph.D., and Brian Yochim, Ph.D.) for all of their thoughtful comments and questions.

As part of our clinical training at the CU Aging Center, we are required to give an "evidence-based practice" presentation to the other staff members. According to the APA, evidence-based practice in psychology is "the integration of the best available research with clinical expertise in the context of patient characteristics, culture, and preferences." That is, both research and clinical skills are used in the practice of psychotherapy. Inspired by a client with whom I worked earlier this year, I chose to discuss complicated bereavement, which is being considered for inclusion in the next edition of the DSM.

The UCCS Gerontology Center sponsors a seminar series for students, faculty, and community members. Today, David McCabe, Ph.D. of Colorado State University presented the results of a study on memory and executive functioning across the lifespan.

Dr. McCabe used the analogy, "age is to memory as time is to rust." Basically, age does not cause memory loss, rather memory loss is caused by some underlying variable (associated with age). A few hypotheses for why episodic memory (memory for events) decines with age include reduced working memory capacity, processing speed, executive function, and general fluid intelligence.

The findings of Dr. McCabe's study suggest that tests of executive function and working memory capacity measure a common construct, which he calls "Executive Attention." Executive attention was found to be more closely related to episodic memory than processing speed or general fluid intelligence, implying that problems with episodic memory are due to executive dysfunction in older adults.

As a Research Assistant at Lighthouse International, I worked on a support group intervention study. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a telephone support group in reducing symptoms of depression in individuals caring for an older relative or friend with vision impairment, an often overlooked population.

I was the facilitator of the support group sessions and led two groups with five participants each. In the start-up phase of the project, I created many of the materials used in the program, which covered topics such as enhancing communication, dealing with emotional issues, and handling stressful situations. My colleagues and I presented the results of this study at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association (APA) in August 2007.