The COVID-19 pandemic has convulsed human communities across the globe like no previous event in history. Family therapists, paradoxically, given the core of their work is with systems, are also experiencing upheaval in professional and personal lives, trying to work amidst a society in chaos. This paper offers a collection of reflections by systemic and family therapists from diverse cultures and contexts penned in the midst of the pandemic. The main intention in distilling these narratives is to preserve the 'cultural diversity' and 'ecological position' of the contributors, guided by phenomenology, cultural ecology, and systemic worldviews of 'experiencing.' The second intention is to 'unite' promoting solidarity in this isolating situation by bringing each story together, creating its own metaphor of a family united, connected, stronger. As a cross-cultural family practitioner, with a strong mission for collaboration, the lead author acknowledges the importance of Context - the nation and location of the experience; Culture - the manner in which culture impacts on experience; Collaboration - enhancing partnership, enriching knowledge, and mapping the journey's direction; and Connectedness - combating isolation while enhancing unity. Since the key transmission of culture is through language, raw reflections were sought initially in the practitioners' own language, which were translated for an English-speaking readership. These narratives are honest and rich descriptions of the authors' lived experiences, diverse and distinctive. The contributors trust colleagues will find these reflections helpful, validating and acknowledging the challenges of this unique period in history.This study investigates the possible association between social media usage and the mental health toll from the coronavirus at the peak of Wuhan's COVID-19 outbreak. Informed by the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication Model and Health Belief Model, it proposes a conceptual model to study how people in Wuhan - the first epicenter of the global COVID-19 pandemic - used social media and its effects on users' mental health conditions and health behavior change. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/mi-3-menin-mll-inhibitor.html The results show that social media usage was related to both depression and secondary trauma, which also predicted health behavior change. But no relation was detected between health behavior change and mental health conditions. As the virus struck, social media usage was rewarding to Wuhan people who gained informational, emotional, and peer support from the health information shared on social media. An excessive use of social media, however, led to mental health issues. The results imply that taking a social media break may promote well-being during the pandemic, which is crucial to mitigating mental health harm inflicted by the pandemic.Mortality threats are among the strongest psychological threats that an individual can encounter. Previous research shows that mortality threats lead people to engage in unhealthy compensatory consumption (i.e., overeating), as a maladaptive coping response to threat. In this paper, we propose that reminders of heroes when experiencing mortality threat increases perceptions of personal power, which in turn buffers the need to engage in unhealthy compensatory consumption. We test and find support for our predictions in a series of four studies that include real-world Twitter data after a series of terrorist attacks in 2016-2017, and three experimental studies conducted online and in the field with behavioral measures after Day of the Dead and during COVID-19 pandemic. These findings advance the literature on compensatory consumption, mortality threats, and the psychological functions of heroes."Reclaim the W" is an academic recovery program at a medium-sized midwestern university that offers undergraduates who have been academically dismissed a chance to reenroll at the institution. In this article we describe the Reclaim the W program and its target population of academically at-risk undergraduates. We then outline the first two phases of the process we used to develop an intervention for students in the Reclaim the W program, which we call Engage to Excel (E2). In the first phase we collected data from focus groups with academically at-risk students and professional staff who serve these students. This qualitative data informed the creation of the E2 intervention for students in the Reclaim the W program. In the second phase we identified key components of the quasi-experimental E2 intervention and outlined the student outcomes that will be evaluated during the intervention. Finally, we highlight research and practice implications of the E2 intervention.The United States of America is at a crossroads, one that we have been at before. This is not the first time that we have battled a pandemic while experiencing an economic downturn, state sanctioned violence and racial terror against Blacks, the boiling over of racial tensions encouraged by the president of the United States, and a movement focused on forcing America to reckon with its endemic racism, anti-Blackness, and state-sanctioned violence against Blacks. This article provides a brief overview of that history and its striking parallel to what is happening today. It pushes White social workers to understand how they are beneficiaries of racism. It reminds social workers of their ethical obligation to be change agents. Finally, it provides basic suggestions for those who are willing to see their complicity and are still willing to work on dismantling the injustice that impacts Black people in America.Gun carrying and bullying victimization are associated among adolescent boys, however the type of the bullying remains relatively unknown. This study aimed to identify whether experiencing bullying victimization based on gender and sexual orientation is associated with carrying a gun to school among adolescent boys. A cross-sectional analysis among a representative sample of high school boys (nā€‰=ā€‰3672) from the 2015 Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey was conducted. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were obtained using logistic regression analyses while controlling for grade level, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, suicidal ideation, alcohol and marijuana use, and gun access. Among the sample, 3.3% reported carrying a gun to school at least one time in the previous 12-months, 9.5% reported experiencing gender-based bullying victimization, and 7% reported experiencing sexual orientation-based bullying victimization. Regression analyses indicated that adolescent boys who experienced gender-based bullying victimization (OR 3.