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Echinostomes are zoonotic intestinal flukes infecting birds and mammals worldwide (1,2). Adult echinostomes generally inhabit the small intestines of the definitive host and attach to the mucosal surface, causing pathological [...]

Using a resilience framework, the current cross-sectional study examined indicators of behavioral health risk and resilience among U.S. international students (N=322) across key sociodemographic characteristics. A multimethod approach was used to collect data with both an online platform and paper-based survey instrument. Results showed that higher levels of acculturative stress were reported by older students, females, undergraduates, students who lived with their families, and those who had resided in the US longer than 2 years. Findings underscore the importance of culturally relevant screening and prevention strategies that target resilience and other protective factors to reduce health risk and encourage well-being and academic success among international students.

Objective: This study examined associations among discrimination, mask-wearing behavior, and self-harming thoughts among international students in the United States during COVID-19. Participants: Undergraduate and graduate international students enrolled in universities during the 2020 summer semester participated in the online survey (N = 103). Methods: Perceived discrimination, mask-wearing behavior, and self-harming thoughts during COVID-19 were assessed by self-reports. Multivariable logistic regressions examined the association among discrimination, mask-wearing behavior, and self-harming thoughts and explored the potential moderation effect of discrimination on the association between mask-wearing and self-harming thoughts. Results: 18.6% of participants reported self-harming thoughts. Increased discrimination was significantly associated with increased odds of self-harming thoughts. Discrimination significantly moderated the association between mask wearing and self-harming thoughts. Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of increased availability of culturally appropriate mental health services for international students and the need for increased advocacy to decrease discrimination against international students in the current societal context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The postdisaster experiences of 167 social work students in the aftermath of the Great Flood of 2016 were examined. Using a cross-sectional survey design and validated self-report measures, the current study examined the association between students' protective factors (hope, altruism, spiritual support; at 8, 20, and 12 items, respectively) and six adaptive coping mechanisms, and further sought to determine whether such associations varied according to students' race (white vs. African American). Six hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses were conducted using each of the adaptive coping strategies (acceptance, active coping, positive reframing, self-distraction, planning, and venting). Results showed that students' race moderated the associations between altruism and active coping, spiritual support and active coping, spiritual support and self-distraction, altruism and planning, spiritual support and planning, and altruism and venting. The decomposition of the significant interactions indicated that the effect of altruism on active coping, planning, and venting was greater among white than among African American participants; the effect of spiritual support on active coping, self-distraction, and planning was greater among African American than among white participants. Recommendations include educating all students about risks incurred when working with traumatized populations. Research examining postdisaster coping responses of social workers can inform culturally responsive supervision approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiencing school violence can have a detrimental effect on learning. However, it is unclear whether different types of school violence have different impacts based on gender. Moreover, there is insufficient understanding of the direct and indirect effects of experiencing school violence on academic performance through perceived school safety concerns and student depression. Drawing on ecological systems theory and adversity literature, this study examined the direct and indirect effects by gender of three forms of experiencing school violence (physical fighting, threats of weapon-related violence, and bullying), through school safety concerns and depression, on adolescent academic performance. Cross-sectional data were drawn from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior System Survey, a national sample of students in grades 9-12. Multigroup path analysis was conducted to test direct and indirect associations and gender differences. Fighting, threats, and bullying were significantly associated with higher levels of school safety concerns and depression for students, which led to lower academic performance for both females and males. The majority of the effects, in both direct and indirect associations, were significantly greater among female than male students. The results of this study provide important insight into the complex relationships between experiencing school violence, perceptions of school safety, sadness and hopelessness and their relationship to academic performance.

Objective: While international students frequently face behavioral health risks due to the stress of adjusting to new cultures, many demonstrate effective coping skills that minimize negative outcomes. The current study tested the mediating effects of resilience and mental health on the relationship between acculturative stress and binge drinking. Participants: International students (N = 322) in the United States. Methods: A cross-sectional design using both online and paper-based survey was implemented. Structural equation modeling was conducted to test the hypothesized mediation model. Results: The results showed good model fit, with resilience mediating the relationship between acculturative stress and binge drinking in the conceptual model. Conclusions: Behavioral health problems and needs of international students are prevalent themes in social work practice; this study, therefore, has practical implications for U.S. colleges and universities as they make decisions about programs and services.

Our study provides findings from cultural leadership project based on healing-centered engagement strategies using a transformative convergent mixed methods research design to address mental well-being among young Bhutanese-Nepali refugee women(N = 36). Using a participatory approach, data were collected to explore the feasibility and acceptability of a culturally responsive healing-centered intervention. While quantitative scores showed a significant decrease in anxiety and depression, qualitative findings revealed increased leadership skills, self-esteem, social support, and resilience after the intervention. We discuss the need to promote a holistic view of healing from collective trauma and offer a culturally grounded asset-driven approach to promote hope and healing among refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International students in the US occupy a precarious position at the intersection of immigration policy and global education mobility, one made more challenging by the disparate impact of COVID‐19 on college students' mental health. Few studies, however, have explored the pandemic's effects on mental well‐being among the international student population in the US. Our study aims to provide initial empirical evidence on the mental health status of these students, with a specific focus on discrimination, loneliness, anxiety, and depression. We propose a mediation framework and estimate the mediating effects of loneliness and anxiety in the relationships between discrimination and depression in a sample of US‐based international students (N = 103). We collected cross‐sectional data from July to August 2020, using a 50‐item online survey instrument with three open‐ended questions. Mediation analyses using PROCESS Macro were used to analyse quantitative data and thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. Findings showed that higher levels of discrimination were significantly associated with higher levels of loneliness. Higher levels of loneliness were significantly associated with higher levels of anxiety, which in turn led to high levels of depressive symptoms. Our study contributes to understanding the needs and capacities of international students in the wake of COVID‐19 and simultaneously provides pragmatic program and policy implications for inclusive higher education environments and the overall health and well‐being of this crucial US student population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, health risk behaviours related to substance use have been recognised as a significant public health concern amongst university students. Understanding the mechanisms of substance use behaviours, including those used to cope with COVID-19-related stressors, is imperative to curate targeted prevention efforts. To that end, we examined substance use prevalence and its associations with socio-demographic characteristics, preventive behaviours, and mental health amongst US social work students. We collected data from 457 students across all degree levels (BSW, MSW and PhD) from July to August 2020 through an online survey, to examine thirty-day patterns of substance use behaviours related to cigarettes, electronic vapour products, alcohol, binge drinking and marijuana. Univariate and bivariate analyses revealed high rates of substance use behaviours, particularly alcohol use (71 per cent), binge drinking (35 per cent) and marijuana use (25 per cent). Findings also revealed significant associations amongst substance use, socio-demographic characteristics, and mental health. Amongst other implications, our study should encourage social work programmes to promote positive coping strategies amongst students and foster substance abuse prevention efforts, both to mitigate health risk behaviours and to enhance student well-being, both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Little research has examined how different types of peer victimization (i.e. school bullying, cyber-bullying, and physical and sexual dating violence) predict sexual risk behaviors and how depression may mediate the relationship of such behaviors with types of peer victimization. Few works have investigated gender differences in these direct and indirect associations as well. This study, therefore, examined gender differences in the direct and indirect associations among four types of peer victimization, depression, and sexual risk behaviors in United States (US) high school students.Materials and Methods: Data were drawn from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior System Survey, collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A multigroup path analysis was conducted using a national sample of high school students who reported having ever engaged in sexual intercourse (n = 5,288).Results: All the peer victimization variables positively predicted depressive symptoms for both females and males. The direct effects of physical and sexual dating violence were associated with increased sexual risk behaviors for females and males. However, school-bullying victimization did not significantly predict sexual risk behaviors for either gender. Cyber-bullying victimization significantly predicted increased sexual risk behaviors for males only. Among indirect effects, depression positively mediated the relationship between cyber-bullying victimization and sexual risk behaviors for males only.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that male adolescents who are victimized may actually be at higher risk of negative outcomes compared to their female adolescent peers. This study highlights the need to pay attention to male victims who may be ashamed to self-identify and difficult to detect in cyber-bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Payday lenders provide high-cost short-term loans to those who have limited access to traditional financial institutions. Although an overwhelming majority of payday loan customers are repeat borrowers, studies examining the phenomenon of repeat borrowing is scant. Our study aimed to assess risk and protective factors among repeat payday loan borrowers. Using Bankruptcy filers' data obtained through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records database of the United States Bankruptcy Court of a Southern district, we conducted a multinomial logistic regression analysis to compare one-time and repeat borrowers with non-borrowers (N  =   453). Findings revealed that medical debt and the number of children are associated with an increased risk of repeat borrowing. Homeownership is associated with a decreased risk of both one-time and repeat borrowing. In contrast, student loans are associated with an increased risk of one-time borrowing. Implications for social work practice, policy, research, and education to engage with financially vulnerable households, build assets and financial capability, and address risk and protective factors of alternative financial services such as repeat payday loan borrowing toward achieving socio-economic justice goals are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugees' successful integration into US society requires adaptation to economic, financial and social norms. Despite the importance of considering financial challenges (financial stress and financial anxiety) and financial capacity (financial literacy and financial self-efficacy) in reaching personal financial goals, literature examining the relationship between financial challenges and capacity—critical in refugee resettlement and integration—is sparse and fragmented. This study explored financial challenges and capacity amongst resettled African refugees (N  =   130) in the southern USA using data from a larger community-based participatory research study that used a mixed-methods approach. We explored socio-demographic differences in financial stress, financial anxiety, financial literacy and financial self-efficacy across African refugee subpopulation groups. Our study highlights the importance of social work advocacy for data disaggregation, which helps establish the scope of the problem, unmask subpopulation differences and make vulnerable groups more visible to facilitate the development of tailored programmes and services to reach economic integration goals. We provide social work implications for data disaggregation in the current coronavirus context, which will leave long-term financial scars on refugee subpopulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]