Research
Expandable List
ARMS is a critical site for interdisciplinary mental health research at McMaster University. We are focused on building a supportive community for mental health research at the university and bring together the expertise of research in the social sciences, health sciences, and the community across five core research areas:
Title: Older Adults’ Sexual Mindsets
Dr. Jessica Maxwell (Assistant Professor, Department of Health, Aging & Society)
Jessica Maxwell – McMaster Experts
[upcoming project]
This fall, Dr. Maxwell will begin a project examining how older adults’ beliefs about their sex lives shape their relationship, sexual, and broader well-being. Specifically, she will be investigating whether believing their sex life can change with effort is beneficial to older adults. Investigating such beliefs is important, as there is growing recognition that older adults’ sexuality plays a key role in their health, and satisfaction with life.
Title: Gender Beliefs and Sexual Assertiveness
Dr. Jessica Maxwell (Assistant Professor, Department of Health, Aging & Society)
Jessica Maxwell – McMaster Experts
[recently published project]
With her PhD Student Auguste Harrington (University of Auckland), Dr. Maxwell demonstrated that people’s beliefs about both men’s and women’s traditional gender roles are important for understanding their comfort initiating and turning down sex in their romantic relationships (i.e., sexual assertiveness). The work, published in Sex Roles, helped highlight the necessity of simultaneously considering beliefs about how men and women should behave when understanding sexual assertiveness. Understanding people’s sexual assertiveness is critical, given it is a key component of healthy sexuality, and contributes to broader well-being.
Title: The Ethics and Social Relations of Undesirability: Exploring the Experiences of Immigration Dentention and Deportation for Canadian Immigrants with Histories of Mental Health Issues
Dr. Ameil Joseph (Associate Professor, School of Social Work)
Ameil Joseph – McMaster Experts
This research will be driven by two questions of relevance to social work practice and scholarship: How do criminal justice, immigration, and mental health systems together construct, authorize, and legitimate violence against residents of Canada without citizenship? Subsequently, what do not-yet citizens at this confluence demand for justice and care? The first objective of this study is to race the history of the social relations of treatment of people identified with mental health issues by criminal justice and immigration. The second objective is to identify the ethical gaps in the treatment, support, and care of not-yet citizens at the confluence of mental health, criminal justice, and immigration systems. This research is at the intersection of critical Disability Studies, Post-Colonialism, and Critical Race Theory and uses a Mixed Methods approach employing discourse analysis and focus groups.
Title: Promoting Healthy Families: An Evaluation of Parenting Programs Using Community-Based Projects
Dr. Andrea Gonzalez (Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences)
Andrea Gonzalez – McMaster Experts
Parenting practices are an important modifiable factor for optimal child development with a range of evidence-based parenting programs highlighting positive changes for caregivers and their children. Although parenting programs are widely used to address parenting processes and child behavior problems, theoretical foundations, format, and delivery often vary greatly among different parenting programs. Additionally, despite the known benefits of parenting programs, there are significant barriers that plague traditional services including difficulties engaging parents, low attendance, and completion thus limiting potential reach and impact. Further, difficulties engaging people from diverse racial backgrounds in mental health services have been well documented. Several studies led by Dr. Andrea Gonzalez have been undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility of several parenting programs as well as to evaluate service engagement barriers and facilitators within Ontario, Canada.
Studies include a randomized control trial to evaluate two parenting programs: Triple P and Circle of Security for families with children between the ages of 2-6. Two feasibility and acceptability studies have been launched, the first of the Parenting Under Pressure program for at-risk women during the perinatal period, and second a public health practitioner and caregiver perspective on the Parenting for Lifelong Health COVID-19 parenting materials. Finally, a community engagement study is being conducted to generate strategies to address the barriers preventing access to mental health services for racialized parents and their children. (Link to learn more about studies led by Dr. Andrea Gonzalez https://strongfamilies.ca/projects/)
Title: The World Health Organization World Mental Health International College Student Survey Initate (WMH-ICS)
Dr. Marisa Young (Director, ARMS, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology)
Marisa Young – McMaster Experts
McMaster was invited to join the WMH-ICS, a global landmark study out of Harvard Medical School that seeks to determine the contributors to and prevalence of mental health problems among university students. This study is longitudinal in design with an international focus, which provides insight into students’ mental health experiences across cultures over time. McMaster joins approximately twenty other participating universities (three of which are Canadian: University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, University of Toronto) across sixteen different countries in this study that is ground-breaking in its scope and potential to benefit students and post-secondary institutions. The survey initiate prioritizes the evaluation and creation of targeted interventions designed to reduce the onset of mental health problems and to increase academic resilience. In collaboration with McMaster’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, we aim to contribute to these intervention initiatives. With the support of ARMS, we plan to support the McMaster arm of the study (set to launch January, 2021). The success of this project will bring international collaboration and wide-scale attention to ARMS, and—by extension—the University. ARMS will mobilize McMaster faculty and students working on the WMH-ICS to promote collaboration, pedagogy, and the longevity of the project.
Visit the Minder website for more information.
Title: The World Mental Health International College Student Qualitative Pathways Through Care Study
Dr. Marisa Young (Director, ARMS, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology)
Marisa Young – McMaster Experts
Canadian Consortium leads:
- James Gillett (McMaster University)
- Loa Gordon (McMaster University)
Knowledge on student mental health care choices predominantly comes from broad-based surveys like the World Mental Health International College Student Survey Initiative (WMH-ICS), with epidemiological evidence identifying key trends in mental health care usage across this population. Examinations into the lived mental health experiences and practices of students, however, are far less common. To bridge the gap between quantitative and qualitative investigations of well-being, McMaster has helped lead the development of a protocol that leverages the WMH-ICS as a powerful recruitment tool for interviews with university students about their mental health care choices.
With eight countries (a number that is growing) and two other Canadian universities (The University of British Columbia and Simon-Fraser University) participating through a cross-national collaboration based out of Harvard Medical School, this project uniquely aims to generate a robust international comparison of college student mental health. We seek to answer questions on barriers and facilitators to help-seeking, experiences with various forms of care (clinical treatment, self-care, community and peer-based supports, and digital tools), and the impact that care trajectories have on the lives of students.
Title: Thriving together: Community-engaged research to understand and address the mental health needs of newcomer children and families in Hamilton
Dr. Amanda Sim (Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences)
Refugees fleeing war, persecution, and human rights violations in their countries of origin are at heightened risk of poor mental health and psychosocial outcomes due to a confluence of pre-, peri-, and post-migration factors such as exposure to trauma, poverty, and acculturation stress. Despite these well-documented risks and the potential for intergenerational impacts on child and youth well-being, studies show persistent disparities in access to mental health services among refugee and immigrant populations in Canada. This project involves community-engaged research led by Dr Amanda Sim at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University to understand refugee families’ mental health needs, barriers and facilitators to accessing care, and preferences for support. Studies include a qualitative key informant study with service providers across the settlement, health, education, and public sectors in Hamilton, and mixed methods research with refugee caregivers and adolescents. Research findings to date have been shared with study participants, policy makers, and the general public using an arts-based knowledge mobilization strategy culminating in an exhibition of refugee families’ artwork held at Hamilton City Hall in May 2023. Findings will inform the next phase of the project to co-design and pilot a culturally responsive mental health and resilience-strengthening intervention with refugee families and service providers in Hamilton.
(Link to learn more about the project: Mental Health and Help-Seeking among Refugee Children and Families in Hamilton, Ontario – CYRRC)
Title: Preventing child maltreatment among migrant and displaced families on the Thailand-Myanmar border
Dr. Amanda Sim (Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences)
Child maltreatment is a global public health crisis with self-reported prevalence rates worldwide ranging from 22.6% for physical abuse to 36.3% for emotional abuse. Evidence suggests that children in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) – particularly those living at the intersections of poverty, armed conflict and forced migration – are at increased risk of experiencing maltreatment.?Interventions that support caregivers to practice positive parenting skills have been shown to reduce the risk of child maltreatment as well as improve a range of caregiver and child mental health and behavioural outcomes.?However, large-scale implementation of parenting interventions in LMICs remains limited, particularly in humanitarian and displacement settings where the need is arguably the greatest. This project involves an international collaboration between Dr Amanda Sim at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University, researchers at Duke University and Mahidol University, and implementing partners in Thailand to develop and evaluate a film-based intervention to reduce child maltreatment and promote positive parenting among migrant and displaced families living on the Thailand-Myanmar border. This project is being implemented as part of the Global Parenting Initiative, a global consortium of academic and research institutions and implementing organizations working to provide access to free, evidence-based, playful parenting support to promote child learning and prevent violence at scale in the Global South.
To learn more about the project:
Title: A Way Through
Dr. Ameil Joseph (Associate Professor, School of Social Work)
Ameil Joseph – McMaster Experts
Responding to grief in marked and meaningful ways is an effective way of dealing with loss and achieving a sense of integration. In the case of rapid and intense social change, people often feel an exacerbated sense of loss and disempowerment. This can magnify anxieties and regrets, worsening negative thinking and problematic behaviours. This project aims to develop new online resources designed to support people coping with COVID-19, those dealing with loss and grief and to share alternatives to social gatherings for memorials after the loss of a family member, colleague or friend. Our research team has partnered with community organizations like the Canadian Mental Health Association of Hamilton (CMHA) to develop online resources designed to support people coping with the infection, those dealing with loss and grief and to share alternatives to social gatherings for memorials after the loss of a family member, colleague or friend.
Title: Emotions Matter
Dr. Diana Singh (Executive Director, ARMS, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology)
Diana Singh – McMaster Experts
CMHA Hamilton is partnering with McMaster to enhance workplace mental health, specifically, to develop improved supports for frontline care workers.
Led by Dr. Diana Singh, the team will use evidence-based research to assist in the creation of workplace resources and strategies designed to promote emotional resiliency among community care professionals.
Broad Objectives:
- Examine the broader social context in which socioemotional stressors arise during client care delivery.
- Design a standardized social support and skills building program for emotionally challenging/laborious work
- environments. A pilot study of the new program will be conducted with CMHA Hamilton’s front line staff.
Read the report (external link).
Title: Emotional Labour in Libraries: Stressors in the Library Work Field
Dr. Diana Singh (Executive Director, ARMS, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology)
Diana Singh – McMaster Experts
The Hamilton Public Library has partnered with McMaster in stage 2 of the broader Emotions Matter study along with three other Library Systems in Ontario: Grimsby, Burlington, and Brantford.
Dr. Diana Singh and her research team have launched an Employee Health and Well-Being Survey across the four Public Library Systems, to examine the consequences of emotional labour and emotion management among a sample of Ontario Library Workers.
The study will contribute to current efforts to improve organizational practices and employee wellness programs across the four library systems and will help inform the development of a social support program and emotional labour skills training course for public service workers.
Title: The Family-Friendly Community Resources for Better Health and Well-being project (FFCR-BHW)
Dr. Marisa Young (Director, ARMS, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology)
Marisa Young – McMaster Experts
This project aims to collect data on Family-Friendly Community Resources across Canada with a particular focus on Ontario. These community-level data have been matched to existing individual-level longitudinal data from the Canadian Work Stress and Health Study (2010-2019), which includes measures of “work-family conflict,” a pernicious modern day mental health risk for parents with children. A unique repository with the combined data will be created for other researchers to use.
This project will have significant impact by increasing the accessibility of data and preparing students and highly qualified personnel to work with big data across the province’s private and public firms. With support from ARMS, this project will provide data access to all through a publicly available data repository and technical reports across Canadian regions, while bringing together faculty, students and community members with aligned interests in residential communities, health and well-being.
Title: Building a Community of Practice: A Research-Practice Fair for Community-Engaged Approaches to Mental Health Research
Dr. Marisa Young (Director, ARMS, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology)
Marisa Young – McMaster Experts
To date, accumulated insights and experiences among interdisciplinary researchers from the social sciences and community mental health experts have been siloed. Community-engaged research (CER) is a model that unifies research and practice, giving scholars and community leaders an equal partnership in developing research from planning through implementation to dissemination.
CER approaches to mental health enable scholars to: 1) Determine local needs among community members, front line providers, community organizers, and clients receiving care. 2) Mobilize findings with community leaders that have direct ties to policy and practice. 3) Develop a pragmatic lens of lived experiences across the life course. 4) Collectivize multiple forms of expertise surrounding mental health as a multifaceted resource and problem.
CER is still in its nascency, with front-line and academic approaches to mental health fractured by theoretical and methodological barriers. To promote CER in mental health, this project focuses on working with community partners to produce and distribute protocols for best practices in community-engaged mental health research that can inform future interdisciplinary and intersectoral work in diverse local and national contexts. The overarching goal of the project is to consolidate academic and community expertise to jointly address the nation’s mental health crisis.