New Research From Dr. Draheim and Student Mentees

Dr. Amanda Draheim recently published two articles, both of which were first-authored by former mentees who maintained ongoing collaborations with Dr. Draheim after they graduated to complete the publication process.

The first project, first-authored by Ashley Lindley, and in collaboration with several members of Dr. Lara Stepleman’s research team at Augusta University (including Tracy Casanova, Jessica Britt-Thomas, and Lara Stepleman), explores systemic barriers to health care experienced by sexual minoritized women living in the Southeastern United States. Primary barriers identified in their analyses included long distances to medical facilities, community stigma, shortage of mental healthcare providers, and socioeconomic factors. They hope this information can be used to inform public health interventions.

The other publication, first-authored by Elsa Hammerdahl and co-authored by student and faculty collaborators at Lawrence University (Lori Hilt, Grace Fox, and Emily Briester), presents data from a randomized controlled trial that Elsa conducted for her honor’s thesis. Elsa applied for and received two grants in support of this work, including a grant from Psi Chi, and headed this project from start to finish. Her project was designed to explore attention control as a potential mechanism through which mindfulness reduces rumination (i.e., a cognitive coping style that is a transdiagnostic risk factor for many psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and more). Findings suggest that a brief mindfulness app intervention can improve attention control and the authors hope their methodology will inspire continued work focusing on mechanisms of change using reliable and valid measures of attention control.

Both Ashley and Elsa presented their work at research conferences and are currently pursuing careers in psychology. Congratulations to all!