"Hardly Able to Move, Much Less Open a Book": A Systematic Review of the Impact of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Victimization on Educational Trajectories.

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is a highly prevalent issue, both in North America and globally, with well-recognized adverse impact on survivors' physical, emotional, and economic well-being. The objective of this systematic review is to collect and synthesize empirical work on the effects of SGBV victimization on educational trajectories, goals, attainment, and outcomes. The review summarizes what is known about factors associated with victimization that affect survivors' educational trajectories and highlights gaps in the literature pertaining to the effects of victimization on education. Five databases were searched for this review: Web of Science, Sociological Abstracts, PubMed, APA PsycInfo, and ERIC. For inclusion, the articles must present research on the academic impact of any form of SGBV experienced in higher education and must have been conducted in the United States or Canada. The 68 studies that met these criteria presented research on six key areas of educational outcomes: impacts on academic performance and motivation; attendance, dropout, and avoidance; changes in major/field of study; academic disengagement; educational attitudes and satisfaction; and academic climate and institutional relationships. Research also revealed factors mediating the relationship between SGBV exposure and educational outcomes such as mental health, physical health, social support, socioeconomic status, and resiliency, which we summarize in a pathway model. The research reviewed had significant limitations, including weak study designs, limited generalizability, and diversity concerns. We offer recommendations for future research on this topic.

Novel Methods for Leveraging Large Cohort Studies for Qualitative and Mixed-Methods Research.

Qualitative research methods, while rising in popularity, are still a relatively underutilized tool in public health research. Usually reserved for small samples, qualitative research techniques have the potential to enhance insights gained from large questionnaires and cohort studies, both deepening the interpretation of quantitative data and generating novel hypotheses that might otherwise be missed by standard approaches; this is especially true where exposures and outcomes are new, understudied, or rapidly changing, as in a pandemic. However, methods for the conduct of qualitative research within large samples are underdeveloped. Here, we describe a novel method of applying qualitative research methods to free-text comments collected in a large epidemiologic questionnaire. Specifically, this method includes: 1) a hierarchical system of coding through content analysis; 2) a qualitative data management application; and 3) an adaptation of Cohen's κ and percent agreement statistics for use by a team of coders, applying multiple codes per record from a large codebook. The methods outlined in this paper may help direct future applications of qualitative and mixed methods within large cohort studies.

A qualitative analysis of psychosocial stressors and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on frontline healthcare personnel in the United States.

There is a dearth of qualitative studies exploring the lived experiences of frontline healthcare personnel (HCP) during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We examined workplace stressors, psychological manifestations of said stressors, and coping strategies reported through coded open-text responses from 1024 online surveys completed over two months by 923 HCP participating in three nationwide cohorts from Spring 2020. Our findings suggest that risk, job insecurity, frustration with hospital administration, inadequate access to personal protective equipment, and witnessing patient suffering and death contributed to deteriorating mental and physical health. Negative health impacts included the onset or exacerbation of anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms, including weight fluctuation, fatigue, and migraines. Coping mechanisms included substance use and food consumption, meditation and wellness, fitness, socializing with loved ones, and religious activities. Insights garnered from participants' responses will enable more personalized and effective psychosocial crisis prevention and intervention for frontline HCP in future health crises.