Anne Bruce’s research focused on the potential for mindfulness meditation to promote a better quality of living and dying by reducing stress and anxiety. Mindfulness meditation, which involves nonjudgmental and moment-to-moment awareness of change within a person’s mind and body, has been researched extensively for the last decade. But little research has been done on the experience of people with life-threatening illness and hospice caregivers who practice this form of meditation. At the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, where care is based on mindfulness meditation, Anne conducted extensive fieldwork while working as a volunteer caregiver. Through in-depth unstructured conversations, she gained insights about new ways of understanding death and dying, and their meaning for those holding non-theistic, non-Western perspectives. Anne hopes findings from this research will help enhance understanding of mindfulness meditation as a self-care practice for people with life-threatening illness. Ultimately, she hopes her work will help program planners develop new models of hospice care and support services that address psychological and spiritual needs of people with life-threatening illness and their caregivers.
Research Pillar: Population Health
Menstrual pain and discomfort in adolescence: Socialization influences
Tina Wang’s interests in health psychology and peer influences prompted her to examine a problem that is a major cause of missed school days among adolescent girls – menstrual pain and discomfort. Most adolescents fail to manage their pain effectively. But virtually no research has been done on how adolescent girls influence each other’s attitudes towards pain. Wang’s study will focus on similarities and differences in the attitudes and coping behaviours of adolescent girls related to menstrual pain. Identifying peer influences could lead to the development of school programs that help adolescent girls manage menstrual pain more effectively, resulting in better health and fewer missed school days. Wang’s long-term goal is to contribute to women’s health by developing a better understanding of the social factors that influence health.
Development and pilot testing of a novel intervention to ensure optimal support for arthritis patients
While family and friends of people living with arthritis have been identified as key sources of support, little research has been done on the specific role and impact of their support. Research suggests the well-being of patients with arthritis suffers when their spouses don’t understand what support they need. Through interviews and focus groups, Allen Lehman is identifying the types of support that arthritis patients want and need from family and friends. He is also identifying ways to increase positive support and assessing how support improves health and reduces health care costs. Lehman will use the results to develop a health education program for arthritis patients and their family and friends. Ultimately, Lehman hopes this research will provide a model for identifying support needs in people with other chronic illness.
The Early Identification and Intervention for Children At-risk for Developing Dyslexia
Dyslexia affects a person’s ability to process language in order to learn to read. If undetected and untreated, the neurological disorder can lead to antisocial behaviour, depression, suicide and other consequences. Nonie Lesaux’s initial research on dyslexia revealed the persistent nature of literacy problems in adults, convincing her of the critical need to identify children at-risk of developing the disorder and intervene at an early stage. Now Lesaux is researching the effectiveness of a kindergarten intervention program for at-risk students, with a particular interest in the social and environmental factors that compound this disorder. Because dyslexia often goes undetected among low-income groups and those who speak English as a second language (ESL), Lesaux is specifically focusing on the effectiveness of the intervention program for children from low-income and ESL families. She hopes that a key result of the research will be a kindergarten screening tool to easily and accurately identify dyslexia in children.
The hierarchical structure and function of social support as a quality of life determinant among community dwelling older adults with chronic lung disease
The number of older adults with chronic lung diseases, such as asthma and bronchitis, is steadily growing in BC. Spouses are often the only source of support for people living with these diseases, yet little research has been done on their supportive role or on alternative forms of support. Gail Low hopes to address these gaps by researching support systems that promote well-being and help older adults cope with lung disease. Her research involves asking older adults to identify how and why their support systems work to help provide direction for new lung health services. She is also developing a map of meaningful support systems as a model to guide existing community health programs.
Assessing the Mental Health of Canadians: What are we measuring and How Does it Relate to Health Care Utilization?
Many studies have identified socio-economic status as a major factor affecting health. Christopher Richardson is narrowing the focus to look specifically at the relationship between socio-economic status, mental health and health care usage. This study involves the use of sophisticated statistical technologies to analyze data from National Population Health Surveys on factors affecting health such as education, income and mental health. Richardson hopes this work will lead to a better understanding of mental health and the ability to more precisely measure mental health and its connection to health care usage.
Mapping the socio-cognitive determinants of bullying and victimization: Preventative steps toward reducing childhood aggression
Bullying and victimization plague one in five Canadian children and the incidence and severity of such behaviours is increasing. Even more alarming are the long-term consequences of this behaviour, including delinquency and abusive behaviour in adulthood for bullies, and depression and suicidal behaviour for victims. Most programs designed to prevent bullying and victimization emphasize controlling and monitoring children’s lives, with limited success. Bryan Sokol’s research takes a different approach. Sokol is putting together psychological profiles of children who are routinely aggressive and those who engage in bullying. His study aims to identify the internal, or psychological factors that distinguish non-aggressive children from bullies. Sokol, who has previously researched suicide among First Nations adolescents, hopes his study will ultimately lead to more effective prevention of the health problems resulting from childhood aggression.
The effects of Sexualized Images and Stress on Body Image and Dieting: An Evolutionary Perspective
Why are so many women preoccupied with being thin? And why does this pre-occupation lead to eating disorders in certain women? Dr. Catherine Salmon is addressing these questions in her research by exploring the theory that pre-occupation for thinness and dieting could be part of an ancestral practice of exercising control over reproduction. Research has shown that females facing social or ecological conditions that are unfavourable for childbearing can sometimes delay reproduction until the situation improves. One way of doing this has been by reducing body fat to suppress ovulation. Salmon is exploring the notion that in modern society, women continuously experience cues indicating a poor environment for reproduction, such as high levels of competition between females and stressful sexual attention. Salmon hopes that learning more about these factors underlying body image and dieting will lead to more appropriate interventions for eating disorders.
First Nations Metaphors of Health and Trauma
Drawing from decade-long work experience as a pediatric nurse with children and adolescents in crisis, and academic work in developmental psychology, comparative literature and analysis of narratives, Dr. Ulrich Teucher is studying cross-cultural differences in young people’s sense of identity and concepts of health. Teucher hopes the research, which involves visiting remote First Nations communities, will improve understanding of these differences and provide a clearer view of what good health means to First Nations youth. This may provide new insights into reasons for the high rate of suicide and among First Nations youth and contribute to better methods of assisting those at high-risk for this behaviour.
Family influence in pediatric chronic pain and disability
Up to 15 per cent of school-aged children and adolescents suffer from chronic pain conditions such as recurrent headaches and abdominal pain. Children with chronic pain frequently miss considerable amounts of school, do not participate in athletic and social activities, and suffer depression or anxiety. The family plays an important role in influencing how children learn to deal with pain, but little is known about how this learning occurs. My research will identify how families influence children’s responses to pain. I will compare studies of children between the ages of eight and 15 with chronic pain and disability with pain-free children and their parents. The research will examine how families interpret pain symptoms, how parents make decisions about their children’s complaints of pain, parents’ thoughts about their children’s pain, and parent-child behaviour during pain episodes. In addition, I am studying how health care providers and parents assess pain in children and the tools that we use with children to measure pain. My research will also explore the relationship between sleep disturbances and chronic pain in children, an area of research that has been overlooked until now. The results of these research studies will help family members and health care providers better manage children’s pain, and will help improve treatment and prevention of disabling pain in children.