Norian Caporale-Berkowitz, Ph.D.

This study found that college students who have been on probation are more likely to remain enrolled if they have higher levels of resilience. In contrast, students who have not been on probation are more likely to remain enrolled if they have higher levels of grit. This suggests that while grit may be helpful to students who are not struggling, resilience is a better target for interventions and research designed to help students who struggle the most in completing college.

Purpose
Workplace mindfulness training has many benefits, but designing programs to reach a wide audience effectively and efficiently remains a challenge. The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of a widely adopted workplace mindfulness program on the mindfulness, active listening skill, emotional intelligence, and burnout of employees in a large, multinational internet company.

Design/methodology/approach
The study sample included 123 employees across three company… Show more

Purpose
Workplace mindfulness training has many benefits, but designing programs to reach a wide audience effectively and efficiently remains a challenge. The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of a widely adopted workplace mindfulness program on the mindfulness, active listening skill, emotional intelligence, and burnout of employees in a large, multinational internet company.

Design/methodology/approach
The study sample included 123 employees across three company offices who completed the two‐day Search Inside Yourself (SIY) program. Data were collected using self‐report measures pre‐, post‐, and four‐weeks post‐intervention and were analyzed using paired samples t-tests.

Findings
Significant increases were detected in mindfulness and the “awareness of emotion” components of emotional intelligence four weeks post-course. No significant changes were found in participants' self-reported levels of burnout, active listening skill or the “management of emotion” components of emotional intelligence.

Practical implications
Teaching workplace mindfulness and emotional intelligence skills through a highly applied, condensed course format may be effective for increasing mindfulness and the “awareness” components of emotional intelligence. Longer courses with more applied practice may be necessary to help participants build emotional management and listening skills and to reduce burnout.

Originality/value
The present study is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first academic, peer-reviewed assessment of SIY, a workplace mindfulness training program that has been taught to over 50,000 people worldwide. Show less

To examine the role of grit as a mediator of the relationship between student-veteran status and not seeking mental health help. Participants: A diverse and nationally representative sample of students (8,203 women, 4,934 men) from 18 U.S. colleges and universities included in the Understanding Student Distress and Academic Success study was used. Method: Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling to assess associations between military service, grit, and help seeking. Results:… Show more

To examine the role of grit as a mediator of the relationship between student-veteran status and not seeking mental health help. Participants: A diverse and nationally representative sample of students (8,203 women, 4,934 men) from 18 U.S. colleges and universities included in the Understanding Student Distress and Academic Success study was used. Method: Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling to assess associations between military service, grit, and help seeking. Results: Military service was positively associated with both facets of grit: consistency of interests (CI) and perseverance of effort (PE). CI, but not PE, mediated the relationship between military service and never having sought mental health help. Conclusions: These results suggest that grit mediates the relationship between military service and not seeking mental health help. Interventions for student-veterans that emphasize the utility of mental health treatment may be useful to diminish the negative influence of grit on help-seeking. Show less

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) youth continue to be disproportionately at risk for depression. During COVID-19 social distancing, LGBQ youth who live with family may be more consistently exposed to potentially discriminatory family situations, and may receive reduced community and mental health support. However, the Internet offers opportunities to interact with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities by watching videos of, and developing one-way… Show more

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) youth continue to be disproportionately at risk for depression. During COVID-19 social distancing, LGBQ youth who live with family may be more consistently exposed to potentially discriminatory family situations, and may receive reduced community and mental health support. However, the Internet offers opportunities to interact with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities by watching videos of, and developing one-way relationships—or parasocial relationships—with, LGBTQ media personalities on platforms such as YouTube. The current study explored how parasocial relationships with LGBTQ YouTubers may moderate the links between family support, loneliness, and depression symptoms among LGBQ emerging adults living with their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 183 LGBQ emerging adults (age 18–23) was … Show less

The benefits of self-compassion interventions have been well documented in the counseling literature. Despite these benefits, access to such interventions remains a considerable barrier for a range of populations. We addressed the issue of limited access by using a randomized controlled trial to evaluate an online, self-guided course on self-compassion specifically targeted toward women. Fifty-seven women were randomly assigned to receive immediate or delayed access to a 10-week course designed… Show more

The benefits of self-compassion interventions have been well documented in the counseling literature. Despite these benefits, access to such interventions remains a considerable barrier for a range of populations. We addressed the issue of limited access by using a randomized controlled trial to evaluate an online, self-guided course on self-compassion specifically targeted toward women. Fifty-seven women were randomly assigned to receive immediate or delayed access to a 10-week course designed to increase self-compassion and reduce self-judgment, shame, and perfectionism. Analysis of the data revealed that participants in the treatment condition experienced significant increases in self-compassion and decreases in self-judgment, shame, and perfectionism compared with participants in the wait-list group. Results provide evidence that self-compassion can be fostered in a nonclinical population of women through participation in a self-paced online course. Related findings and potential implications, including the use of such interventions to address accessibility concerns, are discussed within the existing literature. Show less

This study aims to investigate whether a self-guided web-based course can teach pairs of nonprofessional peers to deliver psychological support to each other.

In this experimental study, a community sample of 30 dyads (60 participants, mostly friends), many of whom presented with mild to moderate psychological distress, were recruited to complete a web-based counseling skills course. We hypothesized that participants would increase the use of skills taught by the course and decrease the… Show more

This study aims to investigate whether a self-guided web-based course can teach pairs of nonprofessional peers to deliver psychological support to each other.

In this experimental study, a community sample of 30 dyads (60 participants, mostly friends), many of whom presented with mild to moderate psychological distress, were recruited to complete a web-based counseling skills course. We hypothesized that participants would increase the use of skills taught by the course and decrease the use of skills discouraged by the course, would increase their overall adherence to the guidelines taught in the course, and would perceive posttraining counseling sessions as more helpful and their peers as more supportive.

The course had large effects on most helper-role speech behaviors: helpers decreased total speaking time, used more restatements, made fewer efforts to influence the speaker, and decreased self-focused and off-topic utterances (ds=0.8-1.6). When rating the portion of the session in which they served as clients, participants indicated that they made more progress in addressing their stressors during posttraining counseling sessions compared with pretraining sessions (d=1.1), but they did not report substantive changes in feelings of closeness and supportiveness of their peers (d=0.3).

The results provide proof of concept that nonprofessionals can learn basic counseling skills from a scalable web-based course. The course serves as a promising model for the development of web-based counseling skills training, which could provide accessible mental health support to some of those underserved by traditional psychotherapy. Show less

The mental health of students at U.S. colleges and universities is rapidly deteriorating, and our counseling infrastructure struggles to meet rising demand. Given this reality, colleges must supplement reactive counseling services with preventive, campus-wide initiatives targeting root causes of distress, including loneliness and lack of social support. One promising innovation would be to provide basic training on listening and helping skills to all students so they can take turns reciprocally… Show more

The mental health of students at U.S. colleges and universities is rapidly deteriorating, and our counseling infrastructure struggles to meet rising demand. Given this reality, colleges must supplement reactive counseling services with preventive, campus-wide initiatives targeting root causes of distress, including loneliness and lack of social support. One promising innovation would be to provide basic training on listening and helping skills to all students so they can take turns reciprocally supporting each other. Self-disclosure and providing support both have strong mental health benefits. This would also increase social connection, which is likely to improve academics and retention. This paper reviews the benefits and limitations of teaching peer support skills to a large volume of students, which may enable colleges to deliver the social and emotional aspects of education that are critical to health and academics, yet often sorely missing. Show less

Chapter 21
Multifaceted Acculturation: An Immersive, Community-Based Multicultural Education
Norian Caporale-Berkowitz & James Lyda

Chapter 24
Mental Health Services in a Diverse, Twenty-First-Century University
James Lyda & Norian Caporale-Berkowitz