Investigating the Poverty-Reducing Effects of SNAP on Non-nutritional Family Outcomes: A Scoping Review.

INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE: Poverty-reduction efforts that seek to support households with children and enable healthy family functioning are vital to produce positive economic, health, developmental, and upward mobility outcomes. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is an effective poverty-reduction policy for individuals and families. This study investigated the non-nutritional effects that families experience when receiving SNAP benefits. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review using the PRISMA Guidelines and strategic search terms across seven databases from 01 January 2008 to 01 February 2023 (n=2456). Data extraction involved two researchers performing title-abstract reviews. Full-text articles were assessed for eligibility (n=103). Forty articles were included for data retrieval. RESULTS: SNAP positively impacts family health across the five categories of the Family Stress Model (Healthcare utilization for children and parents, Familial allocation of resources, Impact on child development and behavior, Mental health, and Abuse or neglect). DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: SNAP is a highly effective program with growing evidence that it positively impacts family health and alleviates poverty. Four priority policy actions are discussed to overcome the unintentional barriers for SNAP: distributing benefits more than once a month; increasing SNAP benefits for recipients; softening the abrupt end of benefits when wages increase; and coordinating SNAP eligibility and enrollment with other programs.

The effects of COVID-19 stressors and family life on anxiety and depression one-year into the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Coronavirus (COVID-19)-related stressors and family health on adult anxiety and depressive symptoms 1 year into the pandemic. The sample consisted of 442 adults living in the United States who were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Data were analyzed using multiple logistic regression. Results indicated that compared to a sample 1 month into the pandemic, participants in the current sample reported worse family health and increases in both positive and negative perceptions of the pandemic on family life and routines. COVID-19 stressors and perceived negative effects of the pandemic on family life increased the odds for moderate-to-severe depression and anxiety while having more family health resources decreased the odds for depression and anxiety symptoms. Participants reported lower odds for worse depression and anxiety since the beginning of the pandemic when they reported more positive family meaning due to the pandemic. The results suggest a need to consider the impact of family life on mental health in pandemics and other disasters.

Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: The Mediating Effects of Family Health.

Family health is important to the well-being of individual family members and the collective family unit, and as such, may serve as a mediator for the intergenerational transmission of trauma (ITT). This study aimed to understand the intergenerational impact of parent's adverse and positive childhood experiences (ACEs and PCEs) on their children's adverse family experiences (AFEs) and how family health mediated those relationships. The sample consisted of 482 heterosexual married or cohabiting couples (dyads) in the United States who had a child between the ages of 3 and 13 years old. Each member of the dyad completed a survey, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Parental ACEs were associated with more AFEs. The fathers', but not the mothers', ACEs were associated with worse family health. Parental PCEs were associated with better family health, and family health was associated with lower AFE scores. Indirect effects indicated that parental PCEs decreased AFEs through their impact on family health. Family health also mediated the relationship between the father's ACEs and the child's AFEs. Interventions designed to support family health may help decrease child AFEs.

Stabilization of Three-Particle Excitations in Monolayer MoS2 by Fluorinated Methacrylate Polymers.

While extrinsic factors, such as substrates and chemical doping, are known to strongly influence visible photoemission from monolayer MoS2, key fundamental knowledge for p-type polymeric dopants is lacking. We investigated perturbations to the electronic environment of 2D MoS2 using fluorinated polymer coatings and specifically studied stabilization of three-particle states by monitoring changes in intensities and emission maxima of three-particle and two-particle emissions. We calculated changes in carrier density and trion binding energy, the latter having an additional contribution from MoS2 polarization by the polymer. Polarization is further suggested by Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) measurements of large Fermi level shifts. Changes similar in magnitude, but opposite in sign, were observed in 2D MoS2 coated with an analogous nonfluorinated polymer. These findings highlight the important interplay between electron exchange and electrostatic interactions at the interface between polymers and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), which govern fundamental electronic properties relevant to next-generation devices.

Life experience pathways to college student emotional and mental health: A structural equation model.

Objective: Previous research suggests that both adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), positive childhood experiences (PCEs), and current life experiences are associated with emotional wellbeing and mental health. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of these life experience and coping processes on college student emotional and mental health. Participants: College students (N = 555) were recruited from a large western university. Methods: Participants completed an online cross-sectional survey measuring early and current life experiences, cognitive and emotional coping efforts, and emotional and mental health outcomes. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results: There was an indirect effect of PCEs on emotional and mental health through cognitive and emotional coping efforts. No association was observed between ACEs and mental health. Conclusions: Increases in PCEs are protective, enhance coping efforts, and strengthen emotional and mental health outcomes among college students.

Family well-being and individual mental health in the early stages of COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: The objective of the study was to examine the association of COVID-19 with family well-being and adult mental health 1 month into the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Prior pandemics have had long-term effects on mental health. COVID-19 and its related stressors, such as loss of work and social distancing requirements, may have a profound impact on short-term and long-term mental health. Family stress theory indicates that subjective family meaning making and family resources affect how stressors lead to outcomes. METHOD: Participants, adults ages 18 years and older (N = 416), completed a cross-sectional online survey measuring depressive and anxiety symptoms, family health, subjective family meaning making, and loss of work resulting from COVID-19. Data were analyzed using a structural equation modeling framework. RESULTS: Results indicated that subjective negative family meaning and effects were associated with more depression and anxiety. Higher family health resources were associated with less depression and anxiety. Family health resources mediated the relationships between COVID-19 loss of work with depression and anxiety. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 associated stressors 1 month into the pandemic had modest effects on family meaning making and family health resources. Individuals from families whose health resources were negatively impacted by COVID-19 reported more anxiety and depressive symptoms. Health care and public health systems should consider family health resources to help reduce the negative effects of COVID-19 on mental health. Longitudinal research is needed to examine the accumulation of stressors over time and the directionality of relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Polarization-Driven Asymmetric Electronic Response of Monolayer Graphene to Polymer Zwitterions Probed from Both Sides.

We investigated the nature of graphene surface doping by zwitterionic polymers and the implications of weak in-plane and strong through-plane screening using a novel sample geometry that allows direct access to either the graphene or the polymer side of a graphene/polymer interface. Using both Kelvin probe and electrostatic force microscopies, we observed a significant upshift in the Fermi level in graphene of ∼260 meV that was dominated by a change in polarizability rather than pure charge transfer with the organic overlayer. This physical picture is supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, which describe a redistribution of charge in graphene in response to the dipoles of the adsorbed zwitterionic moieties, analogous to a local DC Stark effect. Strong metallic-like screening of the adsorbed dipoles was observed by employing an inverted geometry, an effect identified by DFT to arise from a strongly asymmetric redistribution of charge confined to the side of graphene proximal to the zwitterion dipoles. Transport measurements confirm n-type doping with no significant impact on carrier mobility, thus demonstrating a route to desirable electronic properties in devices that combine graphene with lithographically patterned polymers.

Protection Motivation During COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Study of Family Health, Media, and Economic Influences.

BACKGROUND: Protection motivation to practice preventive behaviors is necessary for sustained mitigation during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, limited research exists on the ecological sources of influence for COVID-19 protection motivation. AIM: To explore sources of influence (family health, media consumption, and loss of work hours) on COVID-19 protection motivation. METHOD: An online quantitative survey of U.S. adults (N = 501) aged 18 years or older was administered using Qualtrics with participants recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Data were collected on constructs related to the protection motivation theory and theory of planned behavior as well as sources of influence and intention to socially distance and socially isolate during COVID-19. Constructs were further defined through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Structural equation modeling was used to determine relationships between constructs. RESULTS: A two-factor model was identified with threat appraisal as one factor and subjective norms appraisal, coping appraisal, and behavioral intention loading as another factor. Higher news media consumption and loss of work hours due to COVID-19 were both significant predictors of increased threat appraisal. Family healthy lifestyle and family health resources were significantly related to increases in the subjective norms, coping appraisal, and behavioral intention appraisal factor. CONCLUSIONS: Family health, news media consumption, and loss of work hours are associated with COVID-19 protection motivation. COVID-19 protection motivation might be enhanced through policies and messaging that can affect ecological sources of influence.

The Family Health Scale: Reliability and Validity of a Short- and Long-Form.

Families strongly influence the health of communities and individuals across the life course, but no validated measure of family health exists. The absence of such a measure has limited the examination of family health trends and the intersection of family health with individual and community health. The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Family Health Scale (FHS), creating a multi-factor long-form and a uniform short-form. The primary sample included 1,050 adults recruited from a national quota sample Qualtrics panel. Mplus version 7 was used to analyze the data using a structural equation modeling framework. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed a 32-item, 4-factor long-form scale. The four factors included (1) family social and emotional health processes; (2) family healthy lifestyle; (3) family health resources; and (4) family external social supports. A 10-item short-form of the FHS was also validated in the initial sample and a second sample of 401 adults. Both the long-form and short-form FHS correlated in the expected direction with validated measures of family functioning and healthy lifestyle. A preliminary assessment of clinical cutoffs in the short-form were correlated with depression risk. The FHS offers the potential to assess family health trends and to develop accessible, de-identified databases on the well-being of families. Important next steps include validating the scale among multiple family members and collecting longitudinal data.

The influence of adverse and advantageous childhood experiences during adolescence on young adult health.

BACKGROUND: Research indicates that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can lead to poorer adult health, but less is known how advantageous childhood experiences (counter-ACEs) may neutralize the negative effects of ACEs, particularly in young adulthood. PURPOSE: We examined the independent contributions of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Advantageous Childhood Experiences (counter-ACEs) that occur during adolescence on five young adult health indicators: depression, anxiety, risky sexual behaviors, substance abuse, and positive body image. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The sample included 489 adolescents from a large northwestern city in the United States who were 10-13 years at baseline (51 % female). METHODS: Flourishing Families Project survey data were used for this secondary analysis using structural equation modeling. Adolescents and their parents completed an annual survey. ACEs and counter-ACEs were measured over the first five years of the study. The five health indicators were measured in wave 10 when participants were 20-23 years old. RESULTS: Participants had on average 2.7 ACEs and 8.2 counter-ACEs. When both ACEs and counter-ACEs were included in the model, ACEs were not predictive of any of the health indicators and counter-ACEs were predictive of less risky sex (-.12, p < .05), substance abuse (-.12, p < .05), depression (-.11, p < .05), and a more positive body image (.15, p < .01). Higher ratios of counter-ACEs to ACEs had a particularly strong effect on improved young adult health. CONCLUSIONS: Counter-ACEs that occur in adolescence may diminish the negative effects of ACEs on young adult health and independently contribute to better health.

Family-Centered Health Promotion: Perspectives for Engaging Families and Achieving Better Health Outcomes.

Communities and populations are comprised of individuals and families who together affect the health of the community. The family unit is an unparalleled player for maintaining health and preventing disease for public health because members may support and nurture one another through life stages. Preliminary research confirms that family-oriented health promotion and disease prevention are promising strategies because the family unit is both a resource and a priority group needing preventative and curative services across the life course. Although there are growing numbers of successful efforts, family health systems are generally underutilized in health promotion practice. This lack of utilization in policy and practice have hampered the collection of robust evidence for family health. This paper purports that families are important actors in public health. Yet, since no one pattern for healthy families is known, public health practitioners can consider six principle-based approaches to legitimately and respectfully advance the families' innate potential for health promotion and disease prevention. Each perspective aims to foster higher capacity for family health systems to function appropriately in public health practice. Health promotion practitioners and researchers can explore family health perspectives with the potential for systems policy and practice adjustments in public health.

The Public Health Family Impact Checklist: A Tool to Help Practitioners Think Family.

Families are an important cornerstone of individual and community health across the lifecourse. Not only do families play a role in the development of health, but the family's health is likewise influenced by individual health behaviors and outcomes. Therefore, to improve population health, public health programs must support families. Limited training in family science, as well as lack of instruments to help "think family," often result in Public Health practitioners feeling ill-equipped to develop programming that supports, targets, and/or involves a diverse range of families. Tools to help public health practitioners think family are limited. The Family Impact Checklist is one tool that may help improve the degree to which policies support families. The purpose of this study was to adapt the Family Impact Checklist specifically for use in public health programming efforts. Through a two-round Delphi approach comprised of 17 public health professionals, the Public Health Family Impact Checklist was developed. The adapted Checklist includes 14 items across four think family principles: family engagement, family responsibility, family stability and family diversity. We propose that this tool will help practitioners develop high impact, family-friendly programs that ultimately lead to improved individual and community health.

Tuning charge transport dynamics via clustering of doping in organic semiconductor thin films.

A significant challenge in the rational design of organic thermoelectric materials is to realize simultaneously high electrical conductivity and high induced-voltage in response to a thermal gradient, which is represented by the Seebeck coefficient. Conventional wisdom posits that the polymer alone dictates thermoelectric efficiency. Herein, we show that doping - in particular, clustering of dopants within conjugated polymer films - has a profound and predictable influence on their thermoelectric properties. We correlate Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity of iodine-doped poly(3-hexylthiophene) and poly[2,5-bis(2-octyldodecyl)pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4(2H,5H)-dione-3,6-diyl)-alt-(2,2';5',2'';5'',2'''-quaterthiophen-5,5'''-diyl)] films with Kelvin probe force microscopy to highlight the role of the spatial distribution of dopants in determining overall charge transport. We fit the experimental data to a phonon-assisted hopping model and found that the distribution of dopants alters the distribution of the density of states and the Kang-Snyder transport parameter. These results highlight the importance of controlling dopant distribution within conjugated polymer films for thermoelectric and other electronic applications.

ACEs and counter-ACEs: How positive and negative childhood experiences influence adult health.

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies over the past two decades have found a link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and worse adult health outcomes. Less well understood is how advantageous childhood experiences (counter-ACEs) may lead to better adult health, especially in the presence of adversity. OBJECTIVE: To examine how counter-ACEs and ACEs affect adult physical and mental health using Resiliency Theory as the theoretical framework. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants were Amazon mTurk users ages 19-57 years (N = 246; 42% female) who completed an online survey. METHODS: We conducted a series of regression analyses to examine how counter-ACEs and ACEs predicted adult health. RESULTS: Corresponding to the Compensatory Model of Resiliency Theory, higher counter-ACEs scores were associated with improved adult health and that counter-ACEs neutralized the negative impact of ACEs on adult health. Contrary to the Protective Factors Model, there was a stronger relationship between ACEs and worse adult health among those with above average counter-ACEs scores compared to those with below average counter-ACEs scores. Consistent with the Challenge Model, counter-ACEs had a reduced positive effect on adult health among those with four or more ACEs compared to those with fewer than four ACEs. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the findings suggest that counter-ACEs protect against poor adult health and lead to better adult wellness. When ACEs scores are moderate, counter-ACEs largely neutralize the negative effects of ACEs on adult health. Ultimately, the results demonstrate that a public health approach to promoting positive childhood experiences may promote better lifelong health.

Family-Focused Public Health: Supporting Homes and Families in Policy and Practice.

Life expectancy in the US is on the decline. Mental health issues associated with opioid abuse and suicide have been implicated for this decline necessitating new approaches and procedures. While Public Health 3.0 provides a call to action for stakeholders to work closely together to address such complex problems as these, less attention has been given to engaging and supporting the most important stakeholders and primary producers of health within the US: families and households. The idea that health begins at home is discussed from the perspective of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention levels. Primary prevention where research provides evidence for the role of the family in healthy child development. Secondary and tertiary prevention where research offers evidence for the role of the family in caregiving. Despite this evidence, greater focus and attention must be placed on the family at all prevention levels as an often overlooked setting of public health practice and level of influence. Prevention across all levels is enhanced as public health practitioners think family when designing and implementing public health policy. Four family impact principles are presented to help guide planning and implementation decisions to nourish family engagement.

Disentangling "Bright" and "Dark" Interactions in Ordered Assemblies of Organic Semiconductors.

We report on spatially correlated wavelength-resolved photoluminescence and Kelvin probe force microscopy to probe ground state charge-transfer coupling and its correlation with pi-stacking order in nanoscale assemblies of a small molecule n-type organic semiconductor, tetraazaterrylene (TAT). We find a distinct upshift in surface potential contrast (SPC) corresponding to a decrease in work function in TAT in the transition from disordered spun-cast films to ordered crystalline nanowire assemblies, accompanied by a nanowire size dependence in the SPC shift suggesting that the shift depends on both ground state charge transfer interaction and a size (volume)-dependent intrinsic doping associated with the nitrogen substitutions. For the smallest nanowires studied (surface height ≈ 10-15 nm), the SPC shift with respect to disordered films is +110 meV, in close agreement with recent theoretical calculations. These results illustrate how "dark" (ground-state) interactions in organic semiconductors can be distinguished from "bright" (excited-state) exciton coupling typically assessed by spectral measurements alone.

The Public Health Innovation Model: Merging Private Sector Processes with Public Health Strengths.

Public health enjoyed a number of successes over the twentieth century. However, public health agencies have arguably been ill equipped to sustain these successes and address the complex threats we face today, including morbidity and mortality associated with persistent chronic diseases and emerging infectious diseases, in the context of flat funding and new and changing health care legislation. Transformational leaders, who are not afraid of taking risks to develop innovative approaches to combat present-day threats, are needed within public health agencies. We propose the Public Health Innovation Model (PHIM) as a tool for public health leaders who wish to integrate innovation into public health practice. This model merges traditional public health program planning models with innovation principles adapted from the private sector, including design thinking, seeking funding from private sector entities, and more strongly emphasizing program outcomes. We also discuss principles that leaders should consider adopting when transitioning to the PHIM, including cross-collaboration, community buy-in, human-centered assessment, autonomy and creativity, rapid experimentation and prototyping, and accountability to outcomes.

Poly[2,5-bis(3-dodecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene] Oligomer Single-Crystal Nanowires from Supercritical Solution and Their Anisotropic Exciton Dynamics.

Supercritical fluids, exhibiting a combination of liquid-like solvation power and gas-like diffusivity, are a relatively unexplored medium for processing and crystallization of oligomer and polymeric semiconductors whose optoelectronic properties critically depend on the microstructure. Here we report oligomer crystallization from the polymer organic semiconductor, poly[2,5-bis(3-dodecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene] (PBTTT) in supercritical hexane, yielding needle-like single crystals up to several microns in length. We characterize the crystals' photophysical properties by time- and polarization-resolved photoluminescence (TPRPL) spectroscopy. These techniques reveal two-dimensional interchromophore coupling facilitated by the high degree of π-stacking order within the crystal. Furthermore, the crystals obtained from supercritical fluid were found to be similar photophysically as the crystallites found in solution-cast thin films and distinct from solution-grown crystals that exhibited spectroscopic signatures indicative of different packing geometries.

Intersystem Implications of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Advancing Health Promotion in the 21st Century.

The developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) theory and life course theory (LCT) are emerging fields of research that have significant implications for the public health and health promotion professions. Using a DOHaD/LCT perspective, social determinants of health (SDH) take on new critical meaning by which health promotion professionals can implement DOHaD/LCT guided interventions, including recommended policies. Through these interventions, public health could further address the sources of worldwide chronic disease epidemics and reduce such disease rates substantially if related policy, programs, and interdisciplinary and multi-sector collaboration are emphasized. Additional characteristics of the most effective interventions involve context-specific adaptation and societal structures that impact upstream, early life environments on a broad scale, influencing multiple locations and/or diseases.

Validating Machine Learning Algorithms for Twitter Data Against Established Measures of Suicidality.

BACKGROUND: One of the leading causes of death in the United States (US) is suicide and new methods of assessment are needed to track its risk in real time. OBJECTIVE: Our objective is to validate the use of machine learning algorithms for Twitter data against empirically validated measures of suicidality in the US population. METHODS: Using a machine learning algorithm, the Twitter feeds of 135 Mechanical Turk (MTurk) participants were compared with validated, self-report measures of suicide risk. RESULTS: Our findings show that people who are at high suicidal risk can be easily differentiated from those who are not by machine learning algorithms, which accurately identify the clinically significant suicidal rate in 92% of cases (sensitivity: 53%, specificity: 97%, positive predictive value: 75%, negative predictive value: 93%). CONCLUSIONS: Machine learning algorithms are efficient in differentiating people who are at a suicidal risk from those who are not. Evidence for suicidality can be measured in nonclinical populations using social media data.