Doctoral Student Receives Grant-in-Aid for Dissertation Research

Rachael Peck, a doctoral student in the trauma psychology track, working under the mentorship of Professor of Psychology and Director of Research Operations for the Institute, Dr. Heather Littleton, was selected to receive a $1,000 Grant-in-Aid from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues for her dissertation research. Her project is entitled, “Women’s health, body image, and negative sexual experiences: A latent class analysis” and represents the first research study to seek to identify characteristic patterns of adult sexual victimization experiences among women. This is a noteworthy award and highlights the important contributions to the field of trauma and resilience science by student researchers at the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience. You can learn more about the Institute’s student research labs here.    

Fall Kicks Off a New Series of Research Interest Groups for Institute Affiliates

Marked by cooling weather, the colorful transition of fall leaves, and multitudes of young minds beginning their educational journey on campus, September is a season of change. For the Institute, this means a new set of Research Interest Groups (RIGs). There are four separate RIGs scheduled to meet once per month through the end of the year. Current Research Affiliates are encouraged to review the new RIGs and consider signing up for the topics that best align with your background and research interests. You can see descriptions and schedules for the new RIG’s here.

You can also consider becoming an Institute Affiliate! The Institute currently has nearly 50 multi-disciplinary Research Affiliates from across the U.S. and the world collaborating on advancing the field of human resilience through trauma and resilience research. If you are a researcher and have an interest in human resilience, we welcome you to join one of our RIGs and consider becoming a Research Affiliate. This is a great way to connect, collaborate, contribute, and submit research grants.

Community Training & Empowerment to Provide New Wellness Trainings to CSPD

The Institute’s Community Training and Empowerment Division is starting a new series of wellness trainings for the Colorado Springs Police Department. We are proud to support CSPD in a variety of ways, from trainings to clinical services. This new training aims to further enhance resilience in staff, officers, and their families. Beginning in September, partners, spouses, and parents of CSPD officers can sign up to participate in the Resilient Family Academy program. This five-week skills course provides education on trauma and its impact on families, resilience, resilient family characteristics, parenting and child development, emotions and how to manage them, parenting and relationship skills, boundaries, and incorporating or adapting family traditions.

Officers and staff may also sign up to attend one of two full-day Resilience Workshop Series trainings, which will provide education and skills on recognizing stress and trauma, combatting the impact of these experiences, creating and retaining self-determination and mastery, and seeking assistance when helpful.

Recent Institute Research Publications

A few of the recent research publications from the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience researchers can be found below.

Barriers to Formal Help-seeking following Sexual Violence: Review from within an Ecological Systems Framework
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15564886.2021.1978023

Zinzow, H. M., Littleton, H., Muscari, E., Sall, K. (2022). Barriers to Formal Help-seeking following Sexual Violence: Review from within an Ecological Systems Framework. Frontiers in Psychology.

Moral injury and psychosocial functioning in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Weber, M. C., Smith, A. J., Jones, R. T., Holmes, G. A., Johnson, A. L., Patrick, R., Alexander, M. D., Miyazaki, Y., Wright, H. M., Ehman, A. C., Langenecker, S., Benight, C., Pyne, J. M., Harris, I. J., Usset, T. J., Maguen, S., & Griffin, B. J. (in press). Moral injury and psychosocial functioning in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological Services. Special issue: "Spiritually integrated care."