Anger

This research aims to evaluate a 5-session cognitive behavioral program called 1MoreStep, designed for Black women living with HIV who have experienced intimate partner violence in the past two years. The study focuses on teaching skills to access personal and external strengths, safety strategies, knowledge about HIV care and stigma, communication skills to handle stigma, and addressing barriers to HIV care. It also examines the program's acceptability and feasibility among participants. Participants are randomly assigned to either the 1MoreStep intervention or an equal attention control group. The intervention includes seven group sessions and one individual session held weekly, led by experienced facilitators from the Black community. Sessions cover topics such as safety planning, HIV care engagement, stigma communication, and goal setting using cognitive behavioral skills. The control group attends weekly support group sessions that cover general health topics important to Black women living with HIV but not directly related to the intervention's goals. Throughout the study, participants complete assessments at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months to measure changes in safety strategies and HIV care engagement. Measures include surveys, medical record reviews, and interviews to evaluate treatment acceptance, session attendance, and participant experiences. The study spans approximately 6 months post-baseline, with follow-up surveys and qualitative interviews to explore program fit and barriers to participation.

This research aims to evaluate a gender-transformative intervention designed to reduce intimate partner violence (IPV) against infertile women. It focuses on couples diagnosed with female-factor infertility undergoing their first or second IVF or ICSI cycle. The trial addresses the overlap between infertility and IPV, recognizing that infertile women face higher risks of IPV and that their needs have often been overlooked. Participants are randomly assigned to one of two groups. The intervention group receives five 60-minute sessions led by trained nurses and social workers throughout the fertility treatment cycle. These sessions cover gender norms, gender equality, and healthy relationship skills at key treatment stages: before the cycle starts, during follicular monitoring, before oocyte retrieval, two weeks after embryo transfer, and 28-30 days post-transfer. The control group receives standard reproductive care. A total of 376 couples will participate, split evenly between the two groups. During the study, couples will undergo assessments at baseline and multiple points up to about 14 months after delivery. Researchers will measure the rate of IPV against infertile women over the past 12 months as the primary outcome. Secondary assessments include IPV against male partners, attitudes toward gender roles, marital quality, coping with stress, patient satisfaction with treatment, pregnancy outcomes, and neonatal health. This comprehensive follow-up includes questionnaires, clinical pregnancy tests, and monitoring of birth outcomes to understand the intervention's impact over time.

Veterans face a heightened risk of suicide during the first year after leaving military service, especially those not connected to VA healthcare. This research aims to improve reintegration and reduce suicide risk for recently transitioned Veterans by evaluating STEP-Home-SP, a skills-based, video telehealth workshop. It is designed to provide suicide prevention education, support for accessing VA care, and tools to manage the transition effectively during this critical period. The study compares two groups: one participating in the STEP-Home-SP workshop and the other receiving Enhanced Usual Care (EUC), which includes standard care plus an educational packet on suicide risk and VA care connection. STEP-Home-SP involves weekly 1.5-hour group sessions over 12 weeks, focusing on emotional regulation, problem solving, and attention training, with up to six additional 30-minute individual sessions tailored to each Veteran's needs. EUC involves existing transition support programs such as the Transition Assistance Program and VA Solid Start outreach. Participants will be assessed at multiple points over a year, including baseline, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks. Researchers will measure feasibility factors like recruitment and adherence, satisfaction with the program, and changes in reintegration status using the Military-to-Civilian Questionnaire. They will also monitor engagement with VA care and collect qualitative feedback. The study will help inform future larger trials and aims to address social isolation and suicide risk during Veterans' transition to civilian life.

Researchers are evaluating whether teaching people personalized versus standardized emotion regulation skills can better reduce daily negative emotions. The study also aims to see if matching participants to their predicted best skill training is feasible and helpful. This research may reveal how emotion regulation treatments impact emotional health and help develop personalized, evidence-based, and scalable interventions. Participants will be randomly assigned to learn one of three emotion regulation skills—cognitive restructuring, opposite to emotion action, or mindfulness—that matches their personal strengths, or to learn all three skills through interactive videos with surveys to practice and check understanding. These training conditions are designed to compare focused versus broad skill coverage. During the study, participants will report their emotions multiple times daily for 42 days, using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Short Form. They will also complete assessments every two weeks for six weeks, measuring depression, anxiety, personality traits, responses to emotions, and breath-counting tasks. Researchers will monitor changes in emotion regulation effectiveness and emotional experiences to understand the impact of the training.

Researchers are studying ways to improve teaching self-control and communication skills to children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 with challenging behaviors. The goal is to find methods that make behavior-change treatments more effective and long-lasting, even when environments or reinforcement schedules change. The study looks at how cognitive and behavioral factors like memory, timing, and decision-making affect treatment success. Participants will receive a behavioral intervention that includes functional communication training to teach appropriate communication responses, extinction-correlated stimuli to signal reinforcement changes, schedule thinning to reduce reinforcement frequency, competing stimuli to reduce challenging behaviors during delays, and caregiver training to support skill use at home. These approaches will be personalized and applied in structured sessions. During the study, participants will complete assessments to identify preferred activities and understand causes of challenging behaviors. They will learn new communication skills to replace problem behaviors and practice transferring these skills to new situations and people. Researchers will monitor changes in challenging behavior from enrollment through 16 weeks of intervention to evaluate treatment durability and generalization.

Researchers are investigating whether a mindfulness-based intervention delivered through virtual reality (MBI-VR) can reduce impulsive aggression in people diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The study aims to see if MBI-VR improves emotion regulation and activates the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), a brain area important for controlling emotions. The trial also explores if the effects vary with different doses of the intervention. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: two groups receiving different doses of MBI-VR (16 sessions or 24 sessions) or a control group performing distraction tasks without immersive VR. MBI-VR sessions involve guided mindfulness exercises in visually dynamic and interactive virtual environments using a head-mounted display. Each session lasts about 10 minutes and includes mood and anxiety assessments before and after. The distraction group receives non-immersive activities like listening to music or viewing images, alongside usual inpatient care. Throughout the study, participants undergo clinical assessments, brain scans using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during emotion regulation tasks, and regular monitoring of impulsive aggression symptoms. Scans and assessments occur at baseline, after 16 sessions, and after 24 sessions. Safety and tolerability, including possible VR motion sickness, are closely monitored. The total participation period covers the intervention and follow-up assessments, with ongoing usual psychiatric care provided.

The trial investigates the adaptation and pilot testing of the ATTACH2 parenting program, originally designed for in-person delivery, to an online web and mobile format. The program aims to improve children's mental, emotional, and behavioral health by strengthening the parent-child relationship, particularly for families affected by stressors like depression, addiction, domestic violence, and poverty. This transition responds to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic limiting in-person services and seeks to provide safe, user-friendly virtual mental health support to vulnerable families. The ATTACH2 program consists of 10 to 12 weekly sessions, each about 45 minutes, delivered by trained facilitators such as nurses or social workers. The study involves co-designing virtual interfaces with parents and service providers through four phases: user engagement and design exploration, prototyping, software development, and pilot beta testing. The goal is to create a reliable minimum viable product for virtual delivery that incorporates user feedback and meets the needs of families and facilitators. Participants will be involved in pilot testing the virtual program, with assessments conducted before and after the intervention to measure changes in children's mental, emotional, and behavioral health using age-appropriate tools. Parent-child interaction quality will be assessed using the Parent Child Interaction Teaching Scale. Data will be collected through surveys and focus groups, and refinements will be made based on participant feedback. The study also includes dried blood sample collection for participating families in specific locations, and the total intervention period spans about 10 to 12 weeks.

This research aims to build evidence for a youth firearm violence prevention program in Washington D.C., a city facing disparities in youth firearm violence outcomes. It focuses on how participation in the summer youth employment program called The T.R.I.G.G.E.R Project, designed to address the root causes of gun violence, relates to youth behavioral outcomes such as pro-social involvement, aggression, and attitudes toward firearms. Participants will be involved in The T.R.I.G.G.E.R Project over several years, with waves of youth participating in summer youth employment programs from 2022 through 2025. The program includes components like summer employment, social and emotional learning, future orientation, adult and peer support, critical consciousness, and civic engagement, all aimed at addressing firearm violence causes. Youth participants will complete four surveys over one year to track changes in attitudes and behaviors: a pre-test at the program start, then post-tests 2-4 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months after the program ends. Researchers will measure changes in civic efficacy, pro-social involvement, violence-related attitudes, aggressive behavior, firearm carriage frequency, firearm use, and firearm aggression throughout these time points.

Researchers are studying how art therapy affects emotional expression and regulation in military service members with posttraumatic stress symptoms. The study aims to understand the neurological systems involved by using brain scans and self-assessment questionnaires. This research is conducted within the Military Health System where art therapy is a common treatment but lacks thorough scientific evaluation. Participants will attend a total of eleven sessions over six to eight months. The first session includes an interview, self-assessment questionnaires, and a brain MRI scan while viewing neutral and negative images. Then, participants take part in eight one-hour individual art therapy sessions with a certified art therapist. The tenth session repeats the questionnaires and MRI scan, and the final session is a virtual interview conducted three months after the tenth visit. Throughout the study, participants will complete various questionnaires measuring symptoms and traits related to posttraumatic stress, anxiety, stress, and emotional regulation. Brain activity during tasks will be assessed through functional neuroimaging. The research also monitors potential emotional distress during sessions and collects qualitative feedback. Overall participation lasts up to eight months with follow-up to evaluate lasting effects.

Increasing heat exposure caused by climate change is affecting communities worldwide, especially those living in poor housing conditions such as informal settlements and low-income households. This research aims to study the impact of applying sunlight-reflecting cool roof coatings on indoor temperatures and overall health. The trial is a global, multi-center, cluster-randomized controlled study conducted in five urban climate hotspots across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania, where heat exposure and vulnerable housing conditions pose significant health risks. The study compares households that receive a cool roof coating, which reflects sunlight and reduces indoor heat, with those that keep their original roofs. The cool roof coating works by reflecting ultraviolet and visible sunlight and radiating absorbed heat, thus lowering indoor temperatures and energy use. The trial will run over a 12-month period, including the hottest months of the year, to measure the effects on health, indoor environment, and economic outcomes. Participants will undergo repeated measurements including resting heart rate, blood glucose control, depression symptoms, and various health and environmental factors over the course of the study. Data will be collected at baseline and multiple times during the hottest months and alternate months. Researchers will monitor indoor air temperature, humidity, heat index, and household energy use continuously. The study seeks to provide evidence on whether cool roofs can improve physical, mental, and social wellbeing in vulnerable populations facing extreme heat.