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Internalized sexual stigma is an important contributor to LGBT mental health disparities. In Thailand, the absence of validated instruments represents a research barrier. The study's purpose was to translate and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Revised Internalized Homophobia (IHP-R) scale. Based on the cross-cultural principle, team translation was applied. The IHP-R was translated by the principal author and reviewed by bilingual Thai nurses, and clarifications were made. Multidisciplinary experts provided back translation and reconciled the finalized Thai version. The psychometric properties were established in 412 Thai LGBT individuals. Data was collected via online and paper-pencil surveys and analyzed using SPSS. Most participants were male, age ranged 18–53, with moderate levels of internalized homophobia (M = 2.3, SD = 1.04). The inter-item and item-total correlations were.38-.63 and.55-.68. The content validity index was high (I-CVI, S-CVI/UA/Ave = 1). The exploratory factor analysis confirmed one construct of internalized sexual self-stigma (factor loading =.702–.816). Scores on IHP-R were correlated with stress and experiences of discrimination (r =.14 and.12). Internal consistency reliability was also high (Cronbach's alpha coefficient =.83). The IHP-R Thai version has high psychometric properties and is appropriate for LGBT research in Thailand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools and districts nationwide have heavily emphasized supporting students' health and wellbeing by engaging families and caregivers to truly support the "whole child," as outlined in the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model. The COVID-19 pandemic only heightened the important role of school and family partnerships in supporting children's health. The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Healthy CPS initiative is designed to support schools in their compliance with existing health and wellness policies to support child health. This study aimed to explore parents' primary health concerns for their children, characterize these views, explore any alignment with WSCC, and identify recommendations for family engagement in school health promotion. Eleven semi-structured focus groups (seven English, four Spanish) were conducted with CPS parents/caregivers. Groups were conducted in spring 2021 on Chicago's West Side, one of the more historically disinvested communities in the city. Focus groups were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using constant comparison, incorporating both inductive and deductive approaches. Key themes emerged related to parents' perceptions of schools' role in promoting health including: (1) parents see child health as a shared responsibility between families and schools; and (2) parents identify significant structural barriers and inequities that impede child health, such as racism, community violence, and a lack of community resources in their neighborhoods, and believe schools can do more to address them. Parents' viewed child health and wellbeing as multidimensional and stated that these dimensions must be considered holistically. Their views aligned with WSCC family engagement-related components. Parents recommended that schools employ a variety of strategies to engage families. Findings from this paper have implications for engaging families in school health policy and program development as well as implementation, particularly those in lower income, urban communities that have faced a history of structural inequities. Highlights: Chicago Public Schools parents in in this sample see child health as a shared responsibility between families and schools. Consistent with the long-standing evidence documenting historic disinvestment on the West Side of Chicago, participating parents identify significant structural barriers and inequities, such as racism, community violence, and a lack of community resources in their neighborhoods, and believe schools can do more to address them. Parents recommend schools take a variety of strategies to engage families and recommend more leadership opportunities for parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the strategies that staff at two refugee-serving organizations found helpful in mitigating their increased distress from negative political rhetoric aimed at their clients. Results point to the importance of organizational acknowledgment of the distress. Additionally, staff perceived that intentionally focused organizational interventions can mitigate the emotional impacts of negative rhetoric. Finally, strategies employees used to lessen their distress and regain a sense of efficacy included recommitment to the mission, advocacy for refugees among family and friends, strong reliance on religious faith in coping, and an avoidance of the rhetoric by decreasing engagement with news and social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Shared book reading (SBR) is an evidence-based literacy activity that promotes the development of oral language and emergent literacy skills in young children; however, literature regarding best practices for parents of children with developmental disabilities under the age of 5 years, specifically those with complex communication needs, is severely limited. In this descriptive study, we aimed to better understand how families of toddlers/preschoolers incorporated augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) into SBR interactions. Method: Videos of SBR interactions were collected across five families with children between 35 and 48 months of age who used AAC systems. Three families had previous training in AAC use during SBR; two families did not have previous training and reportedly did not use their child's AAC system during typical SBR interactions at home. Thus, SBR without AAC was considered "typical" for these two families, and behaviors were compared across two conditions: SBR without AAC and SBR with AAC. Each video was coded for a variety of parent and child behaviors, including asking questions, repetitions, modeling/ commenting, expanding/extending, defining vocabulary, affirmations, initiations, and responses. The communication modality used was coded for each behavior. Results: Analysis of the video coding revealed that parents used a variety of strategies and that children relied on multimodal means of communication during SBR. For the two families who had videos collected across two conditions, namely, SBR without AAC and SBR with AAC, family AAC use increased the overall duration of SBR activities. For all families, the frequency of parent SBR strategy use increased the SBR duration. Conclusions: This study adds to the limited research on SBR practices with toddlers/preschoolers who use AAC. Directions for future research and the implications of the study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Greater Lawndale Healthy Work project is a sequential mixed methods community based participatory research project that examines work as a structural determinant of health and builds community capacity for healthy work in a predominantly Black and Latinx community in Chicago known as Greater Lawndale (GL). Objectives: We interviewed community leaders in GL as key informants to understand the barriers to healthy work and inform intervention development. Methods: We conducted a directed content analysis of transcripts from 20 key informants and coded the social ecology and type of intervention. Results: Every key informant mentioned at least one asset in GL, showing an opportunity to employ a capacity-oriented approach to intervention development. Key informants suggested a variety of interventions to address precarious work across levels of the social ecology, with individual and community level interventions being the most salient. Conclusion: Through this approach, we were able to navigate tensions and challenges in conducting research for community-wide change. Key informant stakeholder interviews can be leveraged to meaningfully inform intervention development and support the development of multi-level, sustainable, and culturally acceptable interventions that advance health equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The continuing evolution of health care and the nursing profession includes the exponential growth of telehealth platforms. The goal of this study was to describe nurses' experiences with and perspectives on their practice with and future need for telehealth. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive mixed methods study was conducted with nursing graduates from a single university. Completed survey questions focused on demographics, current work status, plans for employment participation, and telehealth experience. Descriptive analysis was conducted with statistical software, with directed content analysis for narrative responses. Results: A total of 305 of 5,080 participants completed the survey (6% response rate). Nurses described perceived benefits and barriers to working in a telehealth environment. Nurses identified continuing education needs that could form the basis for a telehealth continuing education program to increase confidence in telehealth delivery. Conclusion: The identified telehealth educational needs will positively influence the formation of continuing education opportunities for practicing nurses. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2023;54(11):501–508.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Financial knowledge often does not translate into financial well-being. This study looks at how knowledge might be converted to well-being for people living in low-income environments, based on a theory called Financial PSS. Methods: The study tests the validity of the two scales that make up Financial PSS: Perceived Financial Barriers and Financial Hope. Then it examines how these measures along with an intervention measure called TIP are associated with financial capability. Results: Results validated the Perceived Financial Barrier Scale and Financial Hope Scale. Next, the study found that the Perceived Financial Barriers Scale and the Financial Hope Scale are associated with financial capability, as is the TIP score. Conclusions: The study concludes that Financial PSS as a newly applied practice-based theory should be further tested. Workforce providers could integrate financial education and empowerment-based F-PSS process models and see a positive impact on their placement and retention outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Intimate partner violence (IPV) rates in the Arab American community are high, and there are gaps in the understanding of young adults' perspectives on IPV and its prevention. The aims of this study are to describe Arab American young adults' perspectives on the design of IPV prevention programmes and to document and explore their understanding and experiences with IPV. Design: This exploratory study was part of a larger community‐based participatory mixed‐method study (QUAL‐quan) amongst Arabs in Chicago and focused on young adult participants (18–25 years). Methods: Participants (n = 44) completed an IPV survey about IPV perpetration and victimization, dating violence norms, conflict management skills, gender stereotyping, and belief in the need for help. From four focus groups (22 participants), we explored Arab American young adults' perspectives on IPV prevention programme development. Results: Participants supported the adaptation and development of a youth‐centred IPV prevention intervention that is community‐based, culturally informed, and inclusive of multiple Arab community stakeholders. The survey results indicated multiple experiences with psychological and physical dating violence victimization (76.3% and 47.2%) and perpetration (62.2% and 27%). Conclusion: Arab American young adults in Chicago are exposed to high rates of IPV. Community‐based participatory approaches are needed to develop IPV prevention interventions that centre community needs. Impact Intimate partner violence is a significant public health problem; nearly 1 in 4 women have experienced IPV at some point in their life, and about 70% of those experiencing IPV, experience their first victimization before the age of 25. Arab American young adults experience high rates of IPV victimization and perpetration, requiring urgent attention. Participants proposed various community‐based strategies to develop IPV prevention programmes that include multiple community stakeholders. Community‐based organizations and researchers, schools and religious institutions could establish collaborations to ensure the adaptation and development of community‐informed IPV prevention programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducted 28 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Young Black Men who have Sex with Men in Chicago to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on their HIV care and ancillary service access. The qualitative analysis identified both negative and positive effects. The negative effects included: (l) mixed disruptions in linkage to and receipt of HIV care and ancillary services, and (2) heightened concerns about police and racial tensions in Chicago following the murder of George Floyd, contributing to possible disruption of retention in care. The positive effects included: (1) the ability to reflect and socially connect, contributing to heightened self-care and retention in care, and (2) some improvements in receipt of medical care. These findings suggest that while COVID-19 disruptions in care reduced in-person use of HIV care, the expansion of telemedicine allowed more administrative tasks to be handled online and focused in-person interactions on more substantive interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Illinois-Rape Myth Acceptance-Short Form (IRMA-SF) is a widely used scale measuring people's endorsement of rape myths. However, it uses heavily gendered wording and makes gender-based assumptions that may affect its generalizability to various subgroups of people, including sexual and gender minorities who may view gender constructs outside of the heteronormative gender binary. This study validates the psychometric properties of a modified form of the IRMA-SF that is gender inclusive. Participants were adults with a range of sexual orientations and gender identities. Two sets of data were merged and then the sample was randomly split with a 20/80 weight. Data in the 20% split were used for exploratory factor analyses. Data in the 80% split were used for confirmatory factor analyses. According to the exploratory factor analysis, we found a theoretically predicted one-factor model was best (41% variance explained). Further, we found acceptable absolute model fit according to the confirmatory factor analysis (RMSEA =.07, p <.001; SRMR =.06) but unsatisfactory incremental fit (CFI =.82). These model issues were likely due to a floor-effect of low item variability which may call into question the utility of this scale in determining differences in rape myth acceptance overall. Overwhelmingly, participants in this study rejected rape myths. Researchers should explore the use of gender inclusive wording with an updated rape myth scale for use with sexual and gender minorities and, perhaps the general population, as some of these statements may be lacking in cultural relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Use of numerical and spatial language, also known as math talk, is critical to the development of foundational number and spatial skills in early childhood. However, caregivers and children of low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to use less math talk than their higher-SES peers. Objective: The current efficacy study tested the hypothesis that quantity of math talk among low-SES caregivers and children is increased via a caregiver education curriculum aimed at improving caregivers' language input to children. Methods: Caregiver-child dyads (n = 37; children aged 17 to 36 months) participated in either the language input or a control intervention. Math talk (operationalized as number and spatial word tokens) was coded from video recordings of each dyad engaging in free play at three time points: baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up. Results: The language input curriculum significantly increased caregivers' amount of spatial talk and cildren's amount of number and spatial talk for up to 4 months after the intervention. Conclusions: A caregiver education intervention increased caregivers' use of math talk, which resulted in higher math talk usage by their children. Further verification is needed through an adequately powered longitudinal randomized controlled trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: The COVID‐19 pandemic increased the provision of contraception through telemedicine. This qualitative study describes provider perceptions of how telemedicine provision of contraception has impacted patient care. Methods: We interviewed 40 obstetrics‐gynecology and family medicine physicians, midwives, nurse practitioners, and support staff providing contraception via telemedicine in practices across Illinois, including Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) health centers. We analyzed interview content to identify themes around the perceived impact of telemedicine implementation on contraception access, contraceptive counseling, patient privacy, and provision of long‐acting reversible contraception (LARC). Results: Participants perceived that telemedicine implementation improved care by increasing contraception access, increasing focus on counseling while reducing bias, and allowing easier method switching. Participants thought disparities in telemedicine usage and limitations to the technological interface presented barriers to patient care. Participants' perceptions of how telemedicine implementation impacts patient privacy and LARC provision were mixed. Some participants found telemedicine implementation enhanced privacy, while others felt unable to ensure privacy in a virtual space. Participants found telemedicine modalities useful for counseling patients considering methods of LARC, but they sometimes presented an unnecessary extra step for those sure about receiving one at a practice offering same day insertion. Conclusion: Providers felt telemedicine provision of contraception positively impacted patient care. Improvements to counseling and easier access to method switching suggest that telemedicine implementation may help reduce contraceptive coercion. Our findings highlight the need to integrate LARC care with telemedicine workflows, improve patient privacy protections, and promote equitable access to all telemedicine modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Few studies, mostly descriptive, have quantitatively analyzed the working conditions of domestic workers (DWers) informally employed by private households in the USA. These workers are explicitly or effectively excluded from numerous workplace protections, and scant data exist on their exposures or how best to categorize them. Methods We analyzed data from the sole nationwide survey of informally employed US DWers with work-related hazards data, conducted by the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the University of Illinois Chicago Center for Urban Economic Development, and the DataCenter in 14 US cities (2011–2012; N = 2086). We used exploratory latent class analysis to identify groups of DWers with distinct patterns of exposure to 21 self-reported economic, social, and occupational workplace hazards (e.g. pay violations, verbal abuse, heavy lifting). We then used multinomial logistic latent class regression to examine associations between workers' individual, household, and occupational characteristics and latent class membership. Results Among the 2086 DWers, mean age was 42.6 years, 97.3% were women, 56.0% Latina/o, 26.5% White, 33.2% undocumented immigrants, and 11.7% live-in. 53.5%, 32.0%, and 14.5% primarily worked doing housecleaning, child care, and adult care, respectively. 49.9% of workers reported ≥3 hazards. Latent class analysis identified four groups of DWers doing: 'Low hazard domestic work' (lowest exposure to all hazards), 'Demanding care work' (moderate exposure to pay violations [item response probability (IRP) = 0.42] and contagious illness care [IRP = 0.39]), 'Strenuous cleaning work' (high exposure to cleaning-related occupational hazards, such as climbing to clean [IRP = 0.87]), and 'Hazardous domestic work' (highest exposure to all but one hazard). Covariates were strongly associated, in many cases, with latent class membership. For example, compared to other DWers, DWers doing 'hazardous domestic work' had the largest predicted probability of being economically insecure (0.53) and living-in with their employers (0.17). Conclusions Results indicate that informally employed US DWers experience distinct patterns of workplace hazards, and that it is informative to characterize DWers' exposures to different sets of multiple hazards using latent class analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to interpersonal violence (EIV) is a prevalent risk-factor for aggressive behavior; however, it is unclear whether the effect of EIV on clinically significant aggressive behavior is similar across gender. We examined whether gender moderates the association between experiencing and witnessing interpersonal violence and the diagnosis of intermittent explosive disorder (IED). We also examined potential pathways that might differentially account for the association between EIV and IED in men and women, including emotion regulation and social information processing (SIP). Adult men and women (N = 582), who completed a semistructured clinical interview for syndromal and personality disorders, were classified as healthy controls (HC; n = 118), psychiatric controls (PC; n = 146) or participants with an IED diagnosis (n = 318). Participants also completed the life history of experienced aggression (LHEA) and life history of witnessed aggression (Lhwa) structured interview and self-report measures of emotion regulation and SIP. Men reported more EIV over the lifetime. In multiple logistic regression analysis, experiencing and witnessing aggression within the family and experiencing aggression outside the family were associated with lifetime IED diagnosis. We found that the relationship between EIV and IED was stronger in women than in men. Affective dysregulation mediated certain forms of EIV, and this relation was observed in both men and women. SIP biases did not mediate the relation between EIV and IED. EIV across the lifespan is a robust risk factor for recurrent, clinically significant aggressive behavior (i.e., IED). However, the relationship between EIV and IED appears to be stronger in women. Further, this relation appears partially mediated by affective dysregulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children with respiratory technologies, particularly those with mechanical ventilation, represent a growing population that require complex home nursing, medical equipment, outpatient medical and habilitative supports to live and thrive in their community. Care coordination is essential to support these children and their families to navigate and integrate key community-based health and educational services, however, care is often fragmented and care coordination needs unmet. Therefore, to fully support children with respiratory technologies, it is critical to understand the role of care coordinators (CCs) and how to sustain this workforce. The aim of this article is to describe CCs' perspective on (1) their role in supporting families in a home care program for children with respiratory technologies and home nursing, and (2) the core components of recruiting into and sustaining the CC workforce. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 CC from the Division of Specialized Care for Children (DSCC) Home Care program for children with technology dependence and home nursing in Illinois. Two independent coders utilized a modified template approach and discussed to agreement to analyze transcripts. Results: CC averaged 6.6 years of CC experience; the majority had social work or nursing backgrounds. CCs' job satisfaction was derived from their role supporting hospital discharge, seeing children improve over time, and navigating challenges with families. CCs enjoyed working in a collaborative environment where they could draw from their colleagues' experience to solve problems. Job dissatisfaction and job turnover stemmed from difficult family interactions, high caseloads, and redundant and time-intensive administrative tasks, which interfered with family engagement. Conclusions: CCs for children with respiratory technologies require diverse skills, but interdisciplinary teams enable collaborative support of families. Seeing children thrive can sustain the workforce, however, CCs report challenges due to high caseloads and administrative tasks, which impede direct family involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The current literature indicates that intensive care (ICU) patients' sleep quality is generally poor, which is associated with serious physical and psychological consequences. Aims and objectives: To describe the practices nurses use to provide good‐quality sleep to adult ICU patients and assess nurses' perceptions of patients' sleep quality and nurses' professional autonomy in sleep management. Design: A descriptive‐correlational, cross‐sectional study. Methods: A total of 232 ICU nurses from four hospitals in Poland were recruited. Data were collected between May and August 2019 using a previously developed questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics and non‐parametric tests. Results: A total of 119 nurses took part in the study (response rate: 51%). On average, nurses rated patients' sleep quality as moderate (4.44 ± 2.23, scale 0‐10). Most of the respondents (95.8%) said they did not use any sleep protocol. Various strategies to improve patients' sleep were used sporadically (2.64 ± 1.55, scale 1‐5). The use of sleep quality assessment methods was positively correlated with patients' sleep quality (rho = 0.22, P =.02). Nurses' professional autonomy regarding sleep management was assessed as average (4.34 ± 2.43, scale 0‐10) and was correlated with the patients' sleep quality (rho = 0.25, P <.01). Nurses who rated their autonomy in patients' sleep management more highly (rho = 0.29, P <.01) and more often influenced patients' sleep decisions (rho = 0.24, P <.01) used more methods to improve patients' sleep. Conclusions: Strengthening the professional autonomy of ICU nurses and creating a reliable sleep assessment and improvement tool, which would describe strategies nurses can implement independently could increase sleep quality among ICU patients. Relevance to clinical practice: Addressing organizational problems, which hamper the patients' sleep management by ICU nurses could result in using more strategies to provide good‐quality sleep to ICU patients. There is a need for clinical guidelines regarding patients' sleep management to help educate and guide nurses how to independently use sleep improvement methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicaid beneficiaries in most states must go through a redetermination process every 6–12 months to demonstrate continued eligibility. This study sought to examine Medicaid redetermination experiences among beneficiaries with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). A sequential mixed methods study was conducted involving quantitative phone surveys and semi-structured, in-person interviews with Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese speaking beneficiaries in Illinois. Survey respondents experienced notable barriers during the redetermination process. Quantitative data showed LEP respondents to have 5.3 times the odds of losing their Medicaid benefits as compared to English proficient respondents. Qualitative interviews illustrated the impact of Medicaid loss on individuals and families, as well as strategies for successfully navigating redetermination. Findings suggest that language barriers hinder Medicaid redetermination and play a role in cancellation of benefits. Recommendations for better language supports during the Medicaid redetermination process are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current descriptive qualitative study aimed to explore how informal caregivers of persons residing in long-term care (LTC) facilities are coping with the no visitation policy during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Semi-structured interviews were conducted approximately 1 month after the no visitation policy was implemented. Interview questions explored how informal caregivers are feeling, coping, and staying connected and involved with loved ones residing in LTC. Recruitment (N = 14) occurred through social media, email, and word of mouth. To maintain social distance and reduce transmission risk, interviews were conducted by phone. Through systematic data reduction, six themes emerged: (a) Reminiscing About Life Before COVID-19, (b) Feelings Related to Physical Separation, (c) Our Loved Ones Are Lonely and Don't Understand, (d) Creating Ways to Stay Connected, (e) Recognition and Concern for LTC Staff, and (f) Coping During Future No Visitation Mandates. Results of this study may assist LTC administrators and nurses if no visitation policies are required in the future. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 47(12), 19–26.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this study was to implement a HIV stigma reduction/health literacy educational program to investigate HIV stigma reduction and HIV knowledge and health literacy expansion within a cross-generational African American faith center on the west side of Chicago. Subject and methods: The study included a community-based mixed method design, enveloped with elements of "stigma reduction, intergroup contact and religious social capital" theories, analyzed a sample size of fourteen (N = 14) faith center participants' pre- and post-assessment scores and their direct quotes gathered from focused observations. Results: The study presented significant difference found in HIV knowledge (p =.007), and (HIV) health literacy (p =.041). Additionally, significant difference was found in four out of fifteen HIV stereotypes subscales scores on the Stereotype About AIDS Questionnaire. Conclusion: The study suggests that HIV stigma has potentiality to reduce within the African American faith center population contrary to previous studies where HIV stigma reduction was not evident. The intervention model provided a protocol for partnership development between this faith center and the local community hospital infectious disease program to address HIV stigma, HIV knowledge and health literacy (HIV health literacy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]