ASU
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
INSIDE:
ARLENE SMOLA Undergraduate studies racial and ethnic health disparities WHO YOU DRINK WITH MATTERS Jack Waddell wins award for his addiction research PREVENTION IN THE UK REACH Institute selected by the UK to help with parenting intervention
Fall 2019
Prevention & Addiction Issue
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Department Chair
3 Where and with whom you drink matters 5 New Certificate Focuses on Suicide Prevention Education 7 Innovating interventions to Combat Youth Anxiety 9 Technology Interventions for At-Risk Communities 12 Body Talk Matters at Work 14 Taking a Step Back to Step Forward
Steven Neuberg, Ph.D. Foundation Professor and Chair Department of Psychology
Contributors
16 Link Between Childhood Trauma and Drinking Control 19 Disturbing Suicide Trend 22 Parenting Intervention in the UK 24 Support Mom and Dad to Fix Health Disparities 26 Combating the Opioid Crisis 28 Obesity Prevention in the West Valley 30 Arlene Smola Researches Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
Kim D’Ardenne, Ph.D. Research Professor and Science Writer Department of Psychology
Robert Ewing Marketing and Communications Manager Department of Psychology For any comments or questions, please contact Robert at Robert.Ewing@asu.edu or call 480-727-5054
Where and with whom you drink matters By Robert Ewing
First-year ASU psychology graduate student wins national award for work on how social environment impacts alcohol consumption
experiments take place in the Behavioral Alcohol Research for Clinical Advancement (BARCA) lab, led by William Corbin, professor of psychology.
Drinking alcohol alone can be a warning sign of alcohol abuse. But drinking in stimulating group environments can put people at risk for engaging in behaviors that have acute consequences like aggression or risky sexual behavior.
Jack Waddell is a first-year graduate student in Corbin’s lab, and he was recently acknowledged by the Research Society on Alcoholism as an RSA Memorial Award winner. The award, given for the first time this year, recognizes promising alcohol researchers in honor of those researchers who have passed away.
Given potential effects of the drinking environment, researchers in the Arizona State University Department of Psychology are trying to understand whether the context of where and when people drink alters how they respond to alcohol. The
“It is just so validating to receive this award as a first-year graduate student,” Waddell said. “It means my peers see potential in my
work.” It is uncommon for first-year graduate students to present work at a symposium, let alone be selected for research awards. At the Research Society on Alcoholism meeting, Waddell was one of two graduate students honored. The other was an upper-year graduate student from Memphis. “Jack has been incredibly productive for a first-year graduate student. He already has two papers under review and defended his Master’s
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prospectus before the end of his first year,” said Corbin, who presented Waddell with the award at the RSA conference. “Given Jack’s early trajectory, I think the sky is the limit for what he will do.” At the annual meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism, Waddell presented findings about how the context of when and where people drink affects how they experience alcohol effects. “We want to help people understand how a social environment impacts drinking behavior,” Waddell said. Most research on how people consume alcohol is confined to a lab setting and usually involves one person. The experiments in the BARCA lab are different: they are similar to what people would experiment on a night out. To study the effect of a social environment on alcohol consumption, Waddell looked at how aroused or alert people were and whether they were in a positive or negative mood. When people drank in a social setting, they became more positive, sociable and outgoing. But they also
became more aggressive, rude, and demanding. In addition to his research on alcohol consumption, Waddell has served as a valuable contributor to the new Online Addiction and Substance-Use Related Disorders Graduate Certificate offered through the ASU Department of Psychology. Related: Combating the opioid crisis with better equipped counselors “Jack helped support the development of the graduate certificate program, which also gave him exposure to the required knowledge- and skills-based competencies needed in addictions treatment. He will begin applying these skills this fall at the Clinical Psychology Center, where he will be providing alcohol screening and intervention services for the ASU Alcohol Diversion Program,” said Matthew Meier, assistant clinical professor and director of the certificate program.
New ASU psychology certificate focuses on suicide prevention education By Robert Ewing
Suicide, which is responsible for more than 800,000 deaths annually worldwide, is now the second leading cause of death among young adults, ahead of homicide, drugs and alcohol, cancer and heart disease. Why is suicide growing at such a rate among young adults? What can be done about it? These questions have baffled scientists and educators alike. What we do know is that interventions can help prevent it, something that is reflected in Arizona’s recent passage of a bill requiring evidence-based training in suicide prevention and intervention for public educators and school personnel starting in
the academic year 2020-21. To help prepare students for careers in such fields, the ASU Department of Psychology launched a certificate in applied prevention science to advance science-based prevention in community settings. The certificate program is designed specifically for educators and organization leaders who want to learn about how to implement evidence-based programs for preventing a wide range of problems and difficulties. The goal of prevention science is to intervene as early as possible, and evidence-based interventions have been shown to be effective at reducing juvenile delinquency, risky sexual behavior, alcohol abuse, poor academic
performance and violent behavior in communities. There is also evidence that the risks associated with suicide are preventable. “We want trainees in the graduate certificate program to become skilled advocates for prevention solutions that work,” said Armando Pina, associate professor of psychology. “To achieve this goal, we emphasize that to make a difference in organizations and communities, one must understand effective prevention practices, where to find them and how to sustain such solutions. We teach students to make a
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difference such that youth and families can live happy and productive lives.” People often fear that talking about suicide can lead to an increase in incidents, but research shows that this is not the case. Awareness does not lead to suicide, and instead can actually help with finding resources to help someone in need. Suicide is a multifaceted issue and is often the combination of many factors like depression, trauma, anxiety, bullying and social withdrawal. But suicide can occur in the absence of known mental illness. “What we know is that symptoms and feelings of anxiety are all predictors of future depression and mental health concerns, including suicidality and self-harm,” said Ryan Stoll, an expert in prevention science and founder of the COMPASS for Courage intervention program for anxiety and stress in children. “So when we think about suicide prevention, it is not in isolation — we have to consider these other mental health concerns that we know predate it.” Stoll’s involvement with suicide prevention started well before he started training as a clinical psychologist. He volunteered with the nonprofit To Write Love on Her Arms, helping to spread the message to struggling teens that they are not alone and they do matter. The organization traveled with the Vans Warped Tour for years and met with teenagers who were struggling with depression or mental health issues and provided resources for them to find help.
“If we are actually going to address this public health crisis, we have to talk about it,” Stoll said. “We need to have a culture of openness if we are going to find a collective solution.” If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the tollfree National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800273-TALK (8255), available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to anyone. All calls are confidential. Additionally, resources are available for ASU students with confidential professional counseling on campus.
Above: Ryan Stoll talking about early intervention and suicide prevention.
Prevention that works: Innovating interventions to combat anxiety in youth By Kim D’Ardenne
Most cases of anxiety and depression among schoolage children are untreated. Among those receiving treatment, prescriptions and counseling for pediatric anxiety are only 60% effective. In spite of there being more evidence-based intervention programs than ever before, they remain unused, particularly with ethnic minority youth and families. The Arizona State University Department of Psychology is working to change that. Armando Pina, associate professor of psychology, presented on a new wave of evidence-based interventions for ethnic minority youth at the
2019 meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA) in August. ASU’s Ryan Stoll, who recently earned his doctorate in psychology, also presented at the APA meeting on brief and efficient evidence-based interventions for youth. Together, Pina and Stoll developed a brief intervention for anxiety. Over the past six years, they have worked to disseminate the intervention, called COMPASS for Courage, in schools. Stoll recently won the ASU Changemaker challenge for the project. Related: Bringing the startup world to interventions
focused on testing interventions with Caucasians and in the last 10 years, there has been little to no progress in testing the effects of interventions with Asian American or Native American youth,” Pina said. The APA is a large convention, and Pina hopes that presenting about the lack of progress to serve certain minority youth will help define steps to take in the future. “There are systematic avenues researchers can take that are core to advancing intervention
“Researchers remain mostly
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science for ethnic minority youth and reducing health disparities among diverse or underserved populations,� Pina added.
New graduate certificate program in prevention science
The ASU Department of Psychology is not just focusing on interventions for ethnic minorities or anxiety. Starting Aug. 22, 2019, the department will launch the Certificate in Applied Prevention Science (CAPS). The CAPS program will prepare students for leadership jobs in their communities and at the state and federal levels. Students will learn how to find, evaluate and advocate for interventions that have been shown to prevent or reduce the severity of mental, emotional or behavioral disorders. Students who complete the five-course certification program will have an in-depth understanding of program evaluation, community building approaches and strategies for the sustainability of interventions that promote healthy social, emotional and interpersonal development in youth and positive family relationships. Related: Helping children and families with a prevention science certificate
Above: Flyer for the Graduate Certificate
Researchers use technology-based interventions to help atrisk communities By Robert Ewing
Advances in technology make modern living easier, from improving communication to creating new tools such as the internet and smartphones; these technological improvements are now being applied to interventions.
experienced childhood trauma.
symptoms of depression.
“One of the cornerstones of resilience is social relationships. Our ability to communicate with and rely on other people helps us immensely with being resilient through adversity,” said Castro.
Related: Taking the message ‘It’s OK to not be OK’ global
In a new study published in Behavior Research and Therapy, Arizona State University psychology graduate student Saul Castro and Associate Professor of Psychology Frank Infurna investigate whether an online intervention program can improve emotional awareness and social engagement in middle-aged adults who have
The research featured an online social intelligence training program that centered on improving social emotional regulation. Previous research had shown a strong association between social functioning and physical and emotional health. People who have better social engagement typically live longer and have less anxiety and
“If you can target improving social relationships, we think that it will have downstream effects later on, such as better physical and mental health. We wanted to design a program around this idea,” said Castro. The intervention is an online course that was developed by ASU Foundation Professor Alex Zautra and his wife, Eva, and has seven
modules that each cover a particular topic, such as neuroplasticity — all centering on the concept that with effort you are able to adapt and change aspects about yourself. They were designed to be done at the participant’s own pace and on their schedule, which was made possible through its online delivery. Rather than bringing strangers together, the research team allowed participants to test the principles out in their own lives, with the intent of actually using the intervention. Following each module, each participant would be presented with a task to go and apply the behavior in their own environment in the real world. “It is really important to take the knowledge we get from research and apply it to people who can benefit from it,” said Castro. “We were able to show evidence to suggest that facets of social relationships can be improved through intervention. Our ability to deliver the intervention via online methods can enable its widespread use and accessibility,” said Infurna.
Pathways to African American Success intervention Cady Berkel, associate research professor in the ASU Department of Psychology, in collaboration with Velma McBride Murry of Vanderbilt University, also recently published information about the Pathways for African American Success (PAAS) intervention in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology. The digital intervention was an adaptation of the Strong African American Families (SAAF) program developed by McBride Murry and her colleague Gene Brody at the University of Georgia, where Berkel conducted her graduate work. The SAAF program reduced the risks of substance use and sexual risk behavior among rural African American families by promoting parents’ use of positive racial socialization. Despite its success, attendance was a challenge for families. Many of the participating families had members who worked jobs that had unpredictable shifts, making consistent attendance a challenge. “We wanted to pursue using technology to implement the program to try and reduce attendance issues,” Berkel said. Initially, Berkel said the efforts to translate the programs from in-person to e-health interventions were met with skepticism. Few thought rural African American families would use a technology-based intervention, especially one that was game-based. Berkel and Murry conducted extensive ethnographic research in rural African American communities and found evidence supporting their efforts. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2015 about 88% of eighth graders and 83% of fourth graders reported using a computer at home. A Pew Research Center survey also found that in 2016, more than 67% of U.S. seniors age 65 and older use the internet and 51% used the internet at home. Another Pew Research Center study in 2018 found that even among those with an income lower than $30,000 per year, 82% still used the internet.
“Not everyone had a computer in their home, but they all had access to a computer, either at a library, at school or in a friend’s house,” Berkel said. By Robert Ewing
There were three groups in the study: a control group that was sent materials about youth development, a group that met in person and a group that used the e-health version. The researchers used the computer game “The Sims” as a model for how they wanted the technology version of the program to look, complete with customizable avatars. The e-health intervention was similar to the in-person group setting, in which participants learned strategies for supporting their adolescents and discussed how to talk with them about sensitive topics such as sex, drug use and discrimination.
attended more sessions, and they showed better improvements for sensitive topics like discrimination, sex and substance use. “We often see extended kin raising children. We also wanted to know, can we engage older people with a computer-based intervention?” Berkel said. “Grandmas were more likely to attend the technology sessions, and that was really cool.” Even though the attendance was best in the e-health group, the in-person intervention group reported better improvement in communication and support for adolescents. Berkel said this finding leads her to believe that a hybrid model that combines technology with traditional in-person methods, similar to ASU’s New Beginnings Program, might be the best bet moving forward.
“We wanted to answer two questions about the digital version,” Berkel said. “Can we really get families to engage? Will the effects of the intervention be different?” The researchers found the families did engage. Families in the e-health group
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Does ‘body talk’ affect performance at work? By Robert Ewing
ASU psychology professor studies the benefits of an inclusive workplace Everyone wants to be appreciated at work, and inclusive and culturally diverse workplaces are more innovative and outperform competitors. But what about inclusivity with respect to weight? Arizona State University’s Marisol Perez recently spoke at the Arizona Women Leading Government 2019 conference on her research about body image in the workplace. Haylie Smith, a former undergraduate research assistant to Perez and ASU alumna Cherese Mead also presented. Over 35% of adults in America
are obese, and an additional 100 million adults are overweight. According to the CDC, approximately 75% of the adult population in America will be overweight by 2020.
professor of psychology. “In fact, body image concerns in the workplace prevent women from reaching their full potential.”
Perez recently completed a study on the impact of body At the conference, Perez talk in women executives. discussed the importance of She found that over 83% of “body talk” in the workplace. them said their performance Body talk is any conversation that mentions the body, including in a presentation would be negatively impacted if they comments people say about themselves or about other people. felt uncomfortable with their appearance. And, 87% of the women executives reported that In her presentation, Perez said that 72 out of 90 executive women feeling uncomfortable with their experienced negative body talk in appearance would negatively affect their ability to represent the workplace. their company at a conference or in a meeting. “Negative body talk can impact leadership and performance,” When the same participants said Perez, who is an associate
felt confident about their appearance, 57% reported feeling more confident at work. Over 28% said feeling confident in their appearance improved their work performance. Common phrases at the workplace like, “Does this make me look fat?” or “I’m going to be bad and eat this cookie,” sound innocent at first glance, but they really are examples of negative body talk and help to propagate harmful body shaming in the workplace. Perez said there are many ways that managers can improve weight inclusivity in the workplace, such as by congratulating people for an accomplishment while simultaneously not discussing people’s bodies or weights at work. “People deserve to work in a place where they are valued and appreciated for their accomplishments, ideas, and work ethic, and where their body shape and weight is irrelevant,” Perez said.
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Mindfulness: Taking a step back to take a step forward By Robert Ewing
New ASU program provides tools to better manage stress Imagine being fully aware of the present moment, all of your sensations, feelings and thoughts, and being OK with it. Now imagine taking a deep breath and just letting all of your stress dissipate. That probably felt pretty good – and whether you know it or not, you were practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness has been shown to have positive effects on both mental and physical well-being, and at Arizona State University, the Clinical Psychology Center offers training that teaches people how to pay attention on
purpose and be in the present moment in a nonjudgmental way. “The Mindfulness Group is an educational and experiential program with the goal of learning how to open up to the full experience of life from moment to moment and how to live life to the fullest,” said Erin Mistretta, a clinical psychology graduate student. “We hope to give students a tool to better manage their stress — something they can use while in school and take with them when they graduate.” Mistretta became interested in mindfulness after a series of athletic injuries when she was an undergrad. She was overwhelmed with stress and became focused on how she could feel relief
from those challenges. Mindfulness allowed her to develop a more holistic view of who she was in the world and helped her manage stress. “Our society is very shame focused, and we might not display that externally, but internally we carry a lot of judgements about ourselves,” she said. “Mindfulness helps us to overcome those internal judgements and to make progress towards positive goals.” The informal practice of mindfulness is simply paying
attention to something you do every day, like eating or walking. The formal practice is closer to structured meditation. ASU’s Mindfulness Group provides training for the formal practice of mindfulness and explains ways people can integrate it into their lives. “We identify what is stress for each group member,” said Juan Hernandez, a clinical psychology graduate student who runs the group with Mistretta. “Then we find ways for that person to implement mindfulness practices in their own lives.”
Each session is interactive and includes hands-on mindfulness exercises. The program is tailored to the needs of each individual participant. Group leaders are doctoral students in clinical psychology and are supervised by a licensed clinical psychologist. For more information contact the ASU Clinical Psychology Center at 480-965-7296. Call by Sept. 16 to ensure a spot.
Mindfulness at ASU — starting Sept. 23
ASU’s Mindfulness Group is designed to help people cope with any of the challenges in their life — big or small — using mindfulness-based techniques. The group is open to ASU students, faculty and adults from the community. The goals of the eight-session program are: • Improve symptoms related to stress and anxiety • Discover techniques to decrease worry and regulate emotions • Improve the quality of daily living • Increase the capacity for staying mentally and physically healthy • Learn the benefits of incorporating mindfulness into daily routines
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Psychology graduate researches link between childhood trauma and impaired control over drinking By Kim D’Ardenne
ASU psychology student wins NSF fellowship for doctoral research When recent graduate Lyndsay Campbell transferred to Arizona State University in 2017, she also started a part-time job. Her work, as the assistant to the program coordinator for AmeriCorps at ASU, would be the seed for a proposal she wrote as a senior to the National Science Foundation (NSF). In April, Campbell found out her proposal was selected for a fellowship that will fund doctoral work in psychology at ASU. The NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program covers tuition and gives recipients a stipend for three years. Campbell is the third ASU psychology student to
receive the fellowship in as many years. Lyndsay Campbell With AmeriCorps, Campbell worked on ways to increase academic engagement at local Title I schools. In her NSF proposal, she wrote about how eye-opening it was to begin to understand the impact that early life experiences had on how students performed in school. “Having an adverse experience in childhood dramatically increases the probability of having negative outcomes — like addiction or homelessness — as an adult. At AmeriCorps, I worked to include trauma sensitivity training into our programs,” Campbell said. “In graduate school I want to continue this type of work, but from a neuroscience perspective. I
want to study how childhood experiences link to problem behavioral patterns like substance abuse.” Campbell’s graduate work will bridge two labs in the ASU Department of Psychology: the Social Addictions Impulse Lab led by Julie PatockPeckham and the Decision Neuroscience Lab led by Samuel McClure. Patock-Peckham’s lab studies what causes alcohol use disorders in adulthood, and Campbell will focus on how childhood trauma
affects the decisions people make about alcohol. She will look at the relation between adverse experiences in childhood and impulse control in college students.
“The technology used in neuroscience lets you ask complex questions,” Campbell said. “Exploring the neural basis of why people make the choices they do could lead to more effective interventions.”
“Lyndsay is a brilliant student who is interested in just about everything associated with making healthy and unhealthy choices. When she worked in my lab as a research assistant, we had several spontaneous conversations about how victims of trauma in early life often have difficulties with self-control and self-regulation, especially related to alcohol,” said Patock-Peckham, assistant research professor of psychology. “Lyndsay linked problems with impulsivity to the work on decisionmaking happening in the McClure lab. Our chats led to the proposed experiments in her GRFP application and a collaboration between SAIL and the Decision Neuroscience Lab.”
Work from the McClure lab has shown that when people make choices that are less impulsive, an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex — located just behind the forehead — is very active. The Decision Neuroscience Lab has also shown that structural differences in the prefrontal cortex predict how impulsive people are in general. Campbell wants to test whether such structural differences are linked to the choices people make about how much alcohol to drink.
Campbell will examine the relation between childhood trauma and impulse control when drinking alcohol in a new way: through the lens of neuroscience. With McClure, she will use neuroimaging methods to study the brain circuits involved in impulsivity.
“Lyndsay’s interests lie right at the forefront of what we can do using neuroscience tools to study the human brain. We have a new ability to measure differences in how people’s brains are connected and how different parts of the brain interact as people make decisions. Lyndsay will be applying these methods to better understand a really important problem in society,” said McClure, associate professor of psychology.
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About the same time she was writing her GRFP proposal, Campbell was also applying to graduate school. She said the decision to apply to ASU was easy because of her undergraduate experience. “ASU has so many opportunities for undergraduate students to volunteer in different labs, and that really guided my choice. I could see myself doing the research at the graduate level, excelling in the program, and having the tools and resources to answer the questions I want to study,” Campbell said. “My interests are also interdisciplinary, and I feel right at home at ASU, which has a culture of promoting interdisciplinary research.”
ASU psychology professor addresses disturbing suicide trend By Marshall Terrill
Youth in high-achieving schools experience much stress, depression and anxiety Suicides are up across the board in America, according to a recent national study showing a 33% increase since two decades ago, the highest since World War II. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the numbers are up for young girls and women, boys and men, most ethnic groups and minorities and even senior citizens. But the demographic that’s outpacing all others is highachieving adolescents and young adults. And that’s disturbing to Suniya Luthar, a Foundation Professor of psychology at Arizona State University. Luthar also served on a panel of experts for a major report by the National Academies of Science and Medicine on fostering
children’s well-being. The report highlighted specific subgroups of youth who are particularly vulnerable and in need of extra attention. These included children in poverty, in foster care, those with incarcerated parents — and now, also youth in high-achieving schools. Commenting on underlying causes, Luthar said, “The common denominator is the pressure to achieve and high levels of achievement,” Luthar said. “When people ask me where the pressure is coming from, my answer is a rhetorical one: Where is it not coming from?” ASU Now spoke to Luthar on the eve of the 2019 World Suicide Prevention Day about this alarming trend and what can be done to reverse the tide. Woman in grey hair and glasses smiling Suniya Luthar Question: Suicides are up in almost every category, but your
research shows this is especially so with highachieving students. What is the evidence to suggest there are increases? Answer: There are data showing this from the recent 2018 Jean M. Twenge study, demonstrating that we’re not imagining this phenomenon. Their findings showed that there have been significant cohort increases over the last few decades in serious depression, which includes aspects of suicidal ideation, attempts and so on. Among adolescents, the steepest increases are seen in those from the highest levels of family income. Another recent report from the American Psychological Association is on Generation Z, who are basically 15- to 20-year-olds. The study showed that Generation Z youth are reporting higher levels of stress and serious
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symptoms of depression, anxiety and pressure as compared to previous generations, including millennials. Then there are accumulated findings from our own work, where we’ve compared kids who are in high-achieving schools (HAS) to national norms. HAS youth are much more likely to suffer from serious problems of anxiety, depression and substance abuse than U.S. kids on average. It’s important to note that we’re not talking about a handful of kids here; these are students at the top 25th to 20th percentile of achievement scores, so that’s as many as a quarter of today’s young, across the country. Q: A recent episode of “American Greed” focused on the college admissions scandal. It chronicled a high school student applying to Ivy League schools. It showed her with her parents on Ivy Day when they announce their admission decisions for first-year applicants. She didn’t make the cut. In a matter of minutes, her life crumbled even though she had done all the right things. Does this point to parents as the primary cause or reason why these young people are under so much pressure? A: Parents are often the source of this frenzied pursuit of excellence, but by no means are they the only cause. All parents want is the best for their children, and they want them to have the same education they had. But the reality is that life today is much more competitive than it was when we applied to colleges, so parents want kids to build up the very best academic resumes possible. Teachers at school want the same; in fact, many schools post scores on standardized tests and GPAs publicly, so everybody’s watching. Even simple things like a soccer or baseball game are watched by a bunch of parents, and this can create a lot of pressure. Going beyond the adults, friends at school compare notes — “Are you a starter
on the team? Did you make the A band?” And finally, this is what the university system wants now — in selective colleges, all-around excellence is expected and nothing less. The other problem is that these young people somehow believe that .02 on a GPA is going to make a difference in whether they get into a particular college or not. What they don’t realize is that at a certain point, it really is a crapshoot. There has been a huge increase in applications to these colleges. So for young people to think that if they get that extra .02 on their GPA, their whole life will be different, that’s simply not true. I think we need to get this message across to kids: After you reach a certain level of excellence, please don’t tie yourself in knots and cram and get only three hours of sleep at night in order to make that hair of a difference because, ultimately, it’s unlikely to matter. Q: Sounds like there’s an almost unrealistic pressure to achieve? A: A disturbing analogy comes to my mind now as I do a lot of talks for parents in high-achieving schools. I’m reminded of the Industrial Revolution when kids had to work all the time. There was no childhood. There was no play. That’s where these kids are now. They work around the clock with schoolwork and resume-building as if their very beings depend on this. What kind of life is that for our children? Q: How do we begin to make a difference in the lives of these kids? A: The best way we can help these kids is to change mindsets at the community level so that it’s not just the child or the family, but the culture in which we live. We need to help all of the children and grownups to understand exactly how unhealthy this has all become. The way I have done this, and continue to do so, is to gather data on a particular school’s students and show parents and teachers exactly how their school is doing. So they get the data, but also, hopefully, they get it with some compassion. I’m a mother and I’ve raised my kids through these challenging issues. I can’t say it was always easy; in fact, I was often confused and perplexed myself. Going back to your question, then, of how best to make a difference — the bottom line is that we must pay attention to what’s
happening here and understand what’s at stake, based on the data. As parents, we all want our kids to do well, but where is the point where we say, “We need to stop now”? As a family, as a school, as a community, where do we draw the line and say, “This is excessive”? I’m encouraged to say that we are beginning to see some changes. As an example — one of our collaborating schools recently sent me an email to say they’ve stopped posting the names of the highest achievers in the local newspaper, understanding that the ones who made it are happy but the ones who didn’t make the list feel publicly shamed and embarrassed. That’s just one example of how we can step back from this and look at our own behaviors as adults and relieve some of that pressure on our kids. It is increasingly clear that this pendulum has swung too far and that there is a problem. It’s a serious problem, and we can’t wish it away — and it’s up to us adults to dial it back. Getting into a top college is not what makes or breaks a human being. Q: Aside from pressure to achieve, what else might contribute to serious depression among this group? A: Well, there are a few other things, beginning with social media. Kids can be very unkind, using derogatory names and bullying each other, and everything is worse and amplified through social media. Actually, I think it’s worse for kids today than when we were young, because it’s so much easier to be unkind on social media than in faceto-face conversations. Also, as you think about it, when we were teenagers, many of us had embarrassing moments at school, but it took awhile for word to spread. Now, you have kids taking videos of others in embarrassing situations and circulating them through the whole school, with no compunction. Then there is the big problem of continual comparisons on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram on whose life is better, and kids feeling that “everybody’s happier than I am.” We know that such negative comparisons are demoralizing, and they exacerbate depression. And we haven’t even touched on school violence and shootings. When students have to perform active shooting drills regularly at school, what does that do to them? Their physical safety is threatened
in a way that we never had to deal with or worry about. I have to say also that there can be a great deal of societal judgment against these kids, with implications that they are entitled, overly sheltered and brittle, without much compassion. I do hope that all of us take a step back and think about this: It is in fact a much more competitive, stressful and even frightening world for kids today than it was when we grew up. Q: We can be done on a national level that goes beyond your talks to parents? A: It is wonderful that the National Academies’ report has taken this issue to a national scientific policy level – a clear statement has been made that kids in high achieving schools are vulnerable and need focused attention. My hope is that this group of youth – and their families – will receive much more attention in future research and based on the findings, and appropriate interventions. There needs to be more incentive for adults to understand the seriousness of what’s going on, and how can we make a difference in ways that stick rather than just “checking the box.” Our children are hurting dreadfully. We must come together to reduce their pain and panic, and the accompanying risks for serious self-harm. Top photo: Photo illustration by Getty Images.
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ASU researchers lead family intervention research in the UK By Robert Ewing
Parenting intervention chosen for use by United Kingdom government Do happy, well-functioning families benefit the economy? The government of the United Kingdom wants to know, and they partnered with researchers in the Arizona State University REACH Institute for help finding the answer. The U.K. is home to 2.5 million divorced or separated families, which include 3.9 million children. Among these families, many are underemployed or receive support from the state. The Department of Work and Pensions in the United Kingdom want to find out if evidence-based programs that reduce family conflict and improve family stability will also reduce the economic burden of divorce and separation on the state. As part of a cost-savings initiative, the U.K. Department of Work and Pensions recently selected four evidence-based interventions to test whether they reduced conflict and promoted well-being in families. The REACH Institute Family Check-Up was one of the four programs. The motivation behind the initiative is to demonstrate a benefit to families and the U.K. economy. “The U.K. Department of Work and Pensions believes that when families are functioning
better, they are more likely to work and are less likely to need a pension,” said Anne Mauricio, associate research professor. “We knew the Family Check-Up could help families function better.” The Family Check-Up supports positive parenting and family management practices to strengthen family relationships. The program is a collaborative, assessment-driven, strengthsbased approach that uses motivational interviewing. It includes an initial interview, family assessment with videotaped observation and a feedback session that involves parents and practitioners collaboratively setting intervention goals that include evidencedbased parenting supports delivered using the Everyday Parenting curriculum. Research has shown that children of parents who participate in the Family Check-Up program have fewer problem behaviors, improved emotion regulation, reductions in substance use and a decreased risk for obesity and child neglect and abuse. Children also experience heightened self-esteem, better coping skills and improved academic performance. These changes in child behavior are attributable to increases in positive parenting and to decreases in family conflict as well as maternal depression. Mauricio and Yasaman Parsi, program coordinator senior, recently trained 30 U.K. practitioners how to deliver the Family CheckUp. The training included dialogue between
ASU researchers and U.K. practitioners about potential cultural barriers and how to best adapt the Family Check-Up program to ensure success. “Interventions are often designed for laboratory settings, in which everything works optimally, but that’s not real life.” Parsi said. “We want to demonstrate the real-world applicability of the Family Check-Up.”
he started and to help promote an intervention that helps children and families around the world.” The Family Check-Up is currently used in Sweden, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and the United States.
Honoring Tom’s legacy Related: Tom Dishion recognized for pioneering contributions to child intervention science The trip Mauricio and Parsi took to the U.K. was also in honor of the late Thomas Dishion, Regents Professor of psychology and the developer of the Family Check-Up. “This initiative started in 2017, and Tom was part of the inception,” Mauricio said. “It feels good to continue the work that
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Fix and prevent health disparities in children by supporting mom and dad By Kim D’Ardenne
National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report highlights importance of caregiver-child relationship How important is mom? What about dad? According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the well-being of a child’s primary caregiver is one of the most important factors associated with fixing and preventing health disparities among children. Children from low-income or ethnic minority homes are more likely to have poorer physical health, suffer from behavioral and/or mental health problems and have substance abuse disorders. But decades of work by developmental psychologists, including researchers at Arizona
State University, shows that being strongly connected to their primary caregiver can protect children from the effects of poverty, discrimination, trauma and chronic stress. Based on this work, the recently released National Academies report Vibrant and Healthy Kids: Aligning Science, Practice, and Policy to Advance Health Equity prioritizes supporting primary caregivers. “We know that a child’s primary caregiver — who is most often the mother — is a good buffer against the adversity a child might experience, and a strong relationship between caregiver and child can begin to level the playing field in terms of health disparities,” said ASU Professor Suniya Luthar, who was part of the interdisciplinary 14-member committee responsible for writing the report.
The importance of the primary caregiver
The emphasis on the wellbeing of caregivers is a new target for improving children’s lives. A 2000 report on children’s health, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development, focused on promoting self-regulation in children. The ability to adjust behavior based on circumstances — for example, whether one responds to a verbal insult with a witty reply versus aggression — can predict success in school and healthy social relationships. What influences how, and how well, children selfregulate? According to ASU Regents Professor Nancy Eisenberg, an expert on self-regulation in children, the answer includes biological factors, like genetics, the child’s
environment and the primary caregiver. The quality of the relationship between caregiver and child affects how well children self-regulate. Luthar, who is a Foundation Professor of psychology at ASU, was one of just two psychologists on the National Academies committee. Along with other developmental psychologists, she keeps finding that if the primary caregiver is unwell or under stress, the bond between caregiver and child can become dysfunctional and children can suffer. This idea, recently highlighted in a special issue of Child Development, forms the core of Luthar’s research on motherhood and her work on developing ways to help mothers under stress. The National Academies report includes a roadmap of recommendations for how to address health disparities in children. The first item on the roadmap is the usefulness of intervening early; the second is the importance of supporting a child’s primary caregiver.
“But it is never too late to intervene,” Luthar said. Luthar added that a strong and healthy attachment between children and caregivers — one capable of buffering against challenges like growing up in poverty or experiencing chronic stress — is possible in all kinds of families and living situations. She has developed two of the scientifically validated supportive group interventions cited in the National Academies report. The Relational Psychotherapy Mothers Group is used with women who are living in poverty, and the Authentic Connections group is used with mothers who are white collar professionals.
Fathers need support too
In 2018, fathers were the primary caregiver in 7% of American households, and the National Academies report emphasizes that understanding how best to ensure their wellbeing is also important.
be very different, and what has been shown to work for supporting mothers might not work for fathers,” Luthar said. “Instead of telling parents to do this or do that, we need to start asking how we can best equip mothers and fathers, individually, for success.” There are few evidence-based support programs designed specifically for male caregivers, but the report did mention one evidence-based program as a promising model for how to support fathers: the Family Check-Up. Started by the late Thomas Dishion, the Family Check-Up teaches fathers and mothers parenting skills, like effective discipline methods, to help address problem behaviors in children. The Family Check-Up is one of the evidence-based interventions being implemented throughout the U.S. and internationally by ASU’s REACH Institute. The program takes a holistic, wide-angle perspective to problem behaviors in children, and involves all caregivers, whether they are mothers, fathers, grandparents or guardians. “What is happening with the child is not just about the child; it is about the family, the school and even the neighborhood,” said Anne Mauricio, an associate research professor of psychology at ASU who is currently working on scaling up the program. Mauricio said support for the caregiver is a critical part of both the program’s framework and its success. Evidence-based interventions that provide support to primary caregivers — like the Relational Psychotherapy Mothers Group, Authentic Connections and the Family Check-Up — are a feasible and scalable way to leverage the caregiverchild relationship as a buffer against adversity like poverty, discrimination, trauma and chronic stress. “The interventions just need to have the right ingredients, which are the same for low-income moms with addiction or mental health problems as they are for well-educated moms. Caregivers, just like their children, need ongoing, authentic love and support,” Luthar said.
“What mothers need and what fathers need can
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Combating the opioid crisis with better equipped counselors By Kim D’Ardenne
New online substance abuse counselor certificate program at ASU teaches evidencebased rehabilitation treatments Each day, more than 1,000 Americans are treated in emergency rooms for opioid use, and more than 130 die from an overdose. Only 20% of the people who need rehabilitation receive treatment, and only a small fraction receive evidencebased rehabilitation. To meet the nationwide need for effective addiction rehabilitation, the Arizona State University Department of Psychology will launch an online training program that
teaches evidence-based treatment strategies. The first session of the ASU Online Addiction and Substance Use Related Disorders Graduate Certificate began Aug. 22, 2019. Students who complete the seven-course certificate program will have the foundational knowledge required for licensure as an addictions counselor in Arizona and most other states. “Most of the empirically validated treatments for substance abuse rehabilitation are not readily available, and our goal is to increase access to effective addiction treatments,” said Matthew Meier, assistant clinical professor of psychology. “We believe one way to do this is by teaching people who will be helping addicts about evidence-based treatment options.” Each class in the program is based on the latest scientific research on addiction. Class topics include the
psychobiology and neuroscience of addiction, multicultural issues associated with substance abuse and the ethics of substance abuse treatment. Substance users can be addicted to more than one drug, and addiction is often accompanied by mental illness. The ASU Online Addiction and Substance Use Related Disorders Graduate Certificate addresses the complexity of substance abuse with classes that focus on the evidence-based options for the assessment of addiction and any accompanying mental disorders and research-based rehabilitation treatments.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one of the most effective evidence-based substance abuse treatments is contingency management. This method seeks to incentivize and reinforce behaviors in patients that promote sobriety. An example of contingency management is giving patients vouchers for each day of sobriety. The vouchers can then be exchanged for food and entertainment. Rehabilitation programs like this have been effective at treating both opioid and stimulant addiction in adults. “There is widespread bias against contingency management,” Meier said, “but research has shown it is an effective intervention alone and works better than other approaches.” Other examples of evidencebased rehabilitation treatments are medication assisted treatment and behavioral therapies like motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy. In medication assisted
treatment, patients receive prescribed medications help treat the symptoms of withdrawal and decrease the likelihood of relapse due to cravings. In behavioral therapies, patients receive counseling to help them complete treatment. The certificate program will teach students about these and other validated rehabilitation interventions, so they are aware of the current state of research on drug addiction. “Providing more up-to-date information about research in the field of substance abuse treatment is desperately needed,” Meier said. “There is also a huge need for welltrained substance abuse counselors, especially outside of metropolitan areas.” Prospective students must have a bachelor’s degree in a behavioral health-related field, be enrolled in a behavioral health master’s degree or doctoral program or currently work as behavioral health professional. The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics expects job opportunities for licensed substance abuse counselors to grow by 22% through 2026. Jobs for licensed substance abuse counselors are available in substance abuse treatment centers, community mental health agencies, primary care, integrated health, criminal justice, hospitals, schools, universities, the military and Veteran’s Affairs.
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Expanding obesity prevention to young children in the West Valley By Kim D’Ardenne
Can early prevention in young children be more effective than intervention later? In the United States, obesity rates among children ages 2 to 19 years old have skyrocketed from 10% in 1999 to over 18.5% in 2016. This has also coincided with an increase in obesity prevalence in adults ages 20 and older from 30.5% to 39.6% in the same time period. Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer — some of the leading causes of preventable, premature death. Obesity is also associated with increased rates of depression and mental illness and is a leading cause
of disordered eating and anxiety among teens. Children who are ethnic minorities and who come from low-income families are the most likely to be obese. Cady Berkel, associate research professor in Arizona State University’s Department of Psychology and codeveloper of the Family Check-Up 4 Health (FCU4Health) program has decided to find out if early prevention in young children and toddlers can be more effective than intervention in older children. Related: Can parenting skills prevent childhood obesity? The FCU4Health program is already being tested with kids who are between 6 and 12 years old and have an elevated BMI, but they are now conducting a new study to include children earlier in childhood (ages 2-5) before behavioral patterns of eating and activity have been
established. “Once kids get to a certain point, their behaviors become set,” Berkel said. “If you can establish those early health behaviors, it is a lot easier than trying to undo what has already been done.” Berkel and the FCU4Health team partnered with the city of Avondale to launch an expansion of the FCU4Health program in a study called, “Healthy Communities 4 Healthy Students.” This new initiative is being supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and First Things First, Arizona’s main resource for early childhood programs.
Bayless Integrated Healthcare, Care1st Avondale Resource Center and Avondale School District are also partners on the project. The program is provided for free for families. It begins with an interview and feedback sessions where families learn about the results of their interviews and set goals for next steps. This could be strategies for monitoring children’s health behaviors — like their diet, physical inactivity, screen time or sleep. It could also be helping families get connected with other resources they need, like enrolling in WIC or job training for parents.
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Psychology student wins Smith Marshall Scholarship, will study racial and ethnic health disparities By Robert Ewing
Xochitl Arlene Smola, a first-generation college student in Arizona State University’s Department of Psychology, was recently awarded the Smith Marshall Scholarship. The Smith Marshall Scholarship is an endowed scholarship awarded each year to psychology students who have graduated from a high school in the state of Arizona and have excelled in their academic pursuits.
Smola’s early desire to understand the brain and behavior led her to explore the field of psychology, resulting in a passion for learning and research. “The first time I heard the term psychology, it was as if I had cracked open a large book with light beaming out of it,” Smola said. Because she is particularly interested in adolescent development, Smola has spent her time at ASU working with leading researchers including Nancy Gonzales, Foundation Professor of psychology and dean of natural sciences, and Leah Doane, associate professor of psychology and developmental area head. With Gonzales and Doane, Smola is working on ways to mitigate the racial and ethnic disparities that affect many Arizonan students. She credits Gonzales and Doane as two of the most influential mentors she has had at ASU.
As a first semester freshman, Smola became a research assistant at Bridges within the Culture and Prevention Research Lab, led by Gonzales. Bridges is a family-oriented intervention for middle school students and their families. The program works to reduce alcohol, behavioral and emotional problems in the long term by increasing engagement and support among families and within the school community. Smola has since presented research at a national conference and is currently working on her honors thesis with the lab. Smola is also a research assistant at Transiciones within the Adolescent
Stress and Emotion Lab, which is led by Doane. The Transiciones Project studies how the transition to college at ASU affects the physical and mental health of Latino high school students and their families. The lab uses physiological measures, such as hormone levels and sleep quality, to understand the impact of day-to-day experiences on physical and mental health. Smola’s work as part of the Bridges and Transiciones programs led to her “aha” moment: She realized she was captivated by the questions, experimental design and analytical aspects of psychology. She wanted to pursue a PhD. “Working on these projects gave me the confidence to be where I am,” she said. “They have dynamically changed my career interests.” She hopes to one day become a researcher in the field of developmental psychology and to educate others on the challenges that ethnic students face in and out of the classroom.
“A big revelation I had while at ASU is that professors, faculty and peers want to help you succeed — the first step is to just be inquisitive and ask,” Smola said. Smola has taken her love of learning one step further to the psychology department’s new Student Success Center, where she and others coach and tutor underclassmen. “The really interesting and unique thing about the success center is that it’s specifically geared toward psychology. It is different from other tutoring centers because we’ve taken these courses, we’ve been in their shoes,” Smola said. The goal of the center is to prepare undergraduate psychology students for success in academics and well beyond. “As part of the inaugural SSC coaching team, Arlene has been instrumental in setting up the center and its initial success. Her enthusiasm is infectious to both the students and the other coaches,” said Whitney Hansen, senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology and supervisor of the Student Success Center. “She has used her advanced knowledge of statistics to help coaches review and students master the material. She is smart, passionate and supportive, which is why students who come to see her in the SCC keep coming back to receive coaching!”
“A lot of other ethnically diverse or first-generation students don’t have the opportunities I have had at ASU, so I think a lot of initiatives should go to answering these kinds of disparities, as well as health disparities,” Smola said. “Being awarded the Smith Marshall Scholarship is another great opportunity that will help me continue my academic studies.” Smola said that as a first-generation college student and Hispanic woman, the Smith Marshall Scholarship has given her the confidence to ask questions and pursue a prominent career in research and developmental psychology. She encourages others to ask questions when they need it most.
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A new model of political attitudes By Robert Ewing
ASU psychology graduate student wins APS award for political psychology research How are people’s political beliefs organized, and what leads them to subscribe to certain beliefs? Answering these kinds of questions has often been the domain of political scientists, but psychologists have also sought to explain people’s political attitudes, with a focus on the influence of variables like personality and values. Political beliefs are often summarized using a single spectrum, with liberalism on the left and conservatism on the right. Most people fall somewhere in this range. But according to recent psychological research, this idea might be too simplistic.
Arizona State University psychology graduate student Adi Wiezel was recently awarded the 2019 Association for Psychological Science Student Research Award for her research on political ideology, or the relationship among people’s attitudes about specific political issues. Wiezel, who studies political psychology as well as the general emotional, motivational and social mechanisms of attitude change, was one of four recipients of the award. Historically, political ideology research has emphasized a one-dimensional spectrum ranging from conservativism to liberalism. More recently, some researchers who study political attitudes have shifted to differentiating between attitudes regarding social versus economic policy issues. This allows researchers to make further distinctions in ideology, especially among people who are neither extreme liberals nor extreme conservatives. For example, using these
two factors, someone who is conservative on economic issues such as tax reform but liberal on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage might be classified as a Libertarian. However, this two-factor structure excludes a number of specific issues such as foreign policy and trade. Wiezel wanted to find out what would happen when she looked at interrelationships among more issues than just those that concern sociomoral issues and the economy. She began developing a new inventory that measures attitudes about almost 30 specific political issues, based on work she did previously using data from the American National Election Studies — a national survey conducted every presidential election cycle. Questions on the inventory covered social and economic issues such as abortion and aid to the poor, but also included issues like foreign imports, immigration rates, the death penalty and the torture of terrorists. “We know that certain voting behaviors are made on the basis of certain issues, and we wanted to know how people grouped those issues,” said Wiezel, who has a master’s degree in political science and psychology. Wiezel and her colleagues surveyed Americans online using a breakdown similar to the partisan divides in the 2016 presidential election: 35% Democrat, 29% Republican and 36% Other.
help us better understand the kinds of categories people use to consider policy issues, and could help us think about political representation more broadly,” Wiezel said. The current political climate is divisive, and understanding the nuances that contribute to political beliefs could help bridge the gap. At ASU, Wiezel works with Michelle “Lani” Shiota, associate professor of psychology, and Douglas Kenrick, President’s Professor of psychology. “The findings from Adi’s work can push us to ask more sophisticated questions about people’s political attitudes,” Shiota said. “Researchers have often focused on explaining overall conservative versus liberal political orientation in terms of traits such as intelligence, open-mindedness, conscientiousness and desire for power over others. Asking what predicts each specific cluster of attitudes uncovered by this research is less polarizing, less conducive to ‘us versus them’ thinking. I’m excited to see where the research goes from here!” Wiezel and her collaborators are collecting more data to examine how these four factors relate to personality and what motivates individual people.
Data analyses suggested four distinguishable factors, or groups of specific policy issues, in the new inventory. These factors differentiate how Americans think about the roles of government in terms of: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Resource distribution and regulation Sociomoral attitudes Immigration/foreign policy Protection from dangerous others
Wiezel’s findings suggest there may be benefits to considering more than just economic and social dimensions of how people think about politics. “The existence of these distinctions in political attitudes is important because they could
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Kombucha culture
Microbial communities in fermented drink can teach us about cooperation and competition In today’s health conscious community, kombucha is all the rage. Its appeal comes from its accessibility and alleged health benefits, which range from introducing probiotics to killing deleterious bacteria in the human body. But as is the case for many things in science, there is more to kombucha than meets the eye — literally. The microscopic microbes inhabiting this fermented concoction could offer insight into how microbial communities interact, more specifically on how symbiotic relationships form within complex microbial models.
For Athena Aktipis, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and associate faculty in the Biodesign Center for Biocomputing, Security and Society at Arizona State University, being a fan of kombucha herself led to her delving deeper. “Honestly, I started working on kombucha because I really liked the taste of it,” she said. “I started brewing it in my kitchen for my own consumption. After brewing it for a couple of months, I would come home from work and just stare at it, asking, ‘How do you work?’ Being a scientist, I got on Google Scholar to learn more, but I didn’t find much.” In response to this, Aktipis teamed up with other researchers to take all the pieces of the puzzle she had found in preexisting literature and put them together see the bigger picture on how kombucha operates and how the different
species of microbes interact and cooperate within. Alexander May, a prior researcher in Aktipis’s lab, led the efforts to expand on this knowledge in a review paper published in PeerJ, The Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences. Arvind Varsani, an associate professor in the Biodesign Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics and School of Life Sciences and associate faculty in the Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, and Carlo Maley, faculty in the School of Life Sciences and an associate professor in the Biodesign Center for Biocomputing, Security and Society, served as collaborators on the review paper. The paper deconstructed each component of the microbial system, offering insight into how the microbes interact and what resources they utilize as a by-product of the fermentative processes used for making kombucha. “We think kombucha is important as a model system because it’s an easy-to-grow microbial community that can potentially answer interesting questions about cooperation between different species,” May said. “Microbes, including the bacteria and yeast in kombucha, actually have a lot of complex social behaviors that scientists are only really starting to learn about. We think that by understanding what’s going on at the small scale, we can get clues as to what happens at the larger scale and see if the same patterns even hold true in human societies. People have been eating fermented foods like kombucha for centuries, but it’s only recently that scientists have started digging into the systems themselves to understand how and why they can benefit humans.” Kombucha is made by first introducing sucrose to black or green tea, followed by the addition of kombucha liquid from a previous batch. A biofilm, also from a previous batch of kombucha, is then placed on top of the liquid, and the concoction is allowed to ferment for 10 to 14 days. Although this may seem nothing more than a straightforward recipe for making a tasty refreshment, these fermentative steps actually sustain a wide variety of microbes, illustrating various ecological concepts we usually only see in real time with nonmicroscopic organisms.
Above: Athena Aktipis, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology
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“We are trying to develop kombucha as a system that could allow us to create new antimicrobial products.” — Athena Aktipis, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and associate faculty in the Biodesign Center for Biocomputing, Security and Society For example, the yeast found in the kombucha liquid produces invertase, an enzyme that bacteria and yeast use to metabolize sugars, as a public good. Similarly, bacteria produce a biofilm at the top of the batch that protects microbes from outside invaders, provides oxygen and offers space for the storage of resources. Ethanol and acid, the by-products of fermentation, also keep invaders at bay. However, there are many systems that have various microbial species at play, so why pick kombucha to illustrate these relationships? “There is an ease of management that comes from it — because it is easy to make — but it also has a sort of complexity because it contains so many species, and in that way, it is similar to a microbial system you would see in nature,” Aktipis said. “It is at this really nice boundary between simplicity and complexity.” Kombucha has proven to be an efficient way to study interspecies interactions on the microbial scale, but it has much more to offer. From this study, Aktipis and collaborators are working on using
kombucha as a model to develop interventions for bettering human health. It has been recently brought into light how important the human microbiome is — the balance of microbes in our bodies, which we have co-evolved with since the dawn of humankind, is pivotal to human health. Throwing that balance off could have significant adverse effects, but treating humans with microbes could restore that balance. “Right now, we are trying to develop kombucha as a system that could allow us to create new antimicrobial products, which are based on multiple species,” Aktipis said. “Whereas drugs are used to kill organisms, we want to ask, ‘How can we cultivate a diverse microbial community that can outcompete pathogens?’” To do this, researchers are taking kombucha and introducing new invaders or removing some chemical or microbial component. “We are trying to figure out which parts of cooperation in kombucha are most important,” Aktipis said. “This paper is the tip of the iceberg of a whole research program we are designing.” These researchers are the first to look into kombucha as a model system — Aktipis says this is a good reminder to be aware of the world around and to never stop asking, “Why?” “There is this tendency in science to only look at things that are already being studied. A lot of what we did with this kombucha project is coming back to the importance of observation, observing the natural world. I think that’s been a little bit lost, and it’s also much more fun to be aware of your world and to try to understand it.”
Experiencing awe from science influences beliefs about God By Kim D’Ardenne
ASU study finds how people engage with science can promote unbelief or beliefs about God Most Americans believe science and religion are incompatible, but a recent study suggests that scientific engagement can actually promote belief in God. Researchers from the Arizona State University Department of Psychology found that scientific information can create a feeling of awe, which leads to belief in more abstract views of God. The work will be published in the September 2019 issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and is now available online. “There are many ways of thinking about God. Some see God in DNA, some think of God as the universe, and others think of God in biblical, personified terms,” said Kathryn Johnson, associate research professor at ASU and lead author on the study. “We wanted to know if scientific engagement influenced beliefs about the existence or nature of God.” Though science is often thought of in terms of data and experiments, ASU psychology graduate student Jordan Moon, who was a co-author on the paper, said science might be more to some people. To test how people connect with
science and the impact it had on their beliefs about God, the researchers looked at two types of scientific engagement: logical thinking or experiencing the feeling of awe. The team first surveyed participants about how interested they were in science, how committed they were to logical thinking and how often they felt awe. Reporting a commitment to logic was associated with unbelief. The participants who reported both a strong commitment to logic and having experienced awe, or a feeling of overwhelming wonder that often leads to open-mindedness, were more likely to report believing in God. The most common description of God given by those participants was not what is commonly found in houses of worship: They reported believing in an abstract God described as mystical or limitless. “When people are awed by the complexity of life or the vastness of the universe, they were more inclined to think in more spiritual ways,” Johnson said. “The feeling of awe might make people more open to other ways of conceptualizing God.” In another experiment, the research team had the participants engage with science by watching videos. While a lecture about quantum physics led to unbelief or agnosticism, watching a music video about how atoms are both particles and waves
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led people to report feeling awe. Those who felt awe also were more likely to believe in an abstract God. “A lot of people think science and religion do not go together, but they are thinking about science in too simplistic a way and religion in too simplistic a way,” said Adam Cohen, professor of psychology and senior author on the paper. “Science is big enough to accommodate religion, and religion is big enough to accommodate science.” Cohen added that the work could lead to broader views of both science and religion.
Morris Okun, Matthew Scott and Holly O’Rourke from ASU and Joshua Hook from the University of North Texas also contributed to the work. The study was funded by the John Templeton Foundation.
COACHING FELLOW
STUDENTS IN DATA
Above: New Student Success Center coaches, Devan, Xochitl, Lauren and Danielle
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