Browsing by Author "Romo, Javiera"
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Publication Reducing stigma toward people with serious mental illness through a virtual reality intervention: a randomized controlled trial(2023) Rodríguez-Rivas, Matías E.; Cangas, Adolfo J.; Martín, Andrés; Romo, Javiera; Pérez, J. Carola; Valdebenito, Sara; Cariola, Laura; Onetto, Josefina; Hernández, Bárbara; Ceric Garrido, Francisco; CEA GONZÁLEZ, PABLO ANTONIO; Corrigan, PatrickBackground: Stigma toward people with serious mental illnesses (SMI), like schizophrenia, is a serious global public health challenge that limits the quality of life of those affected and poses a major barrier that keeps people from seeking professional help. There is an urgent need for novel, effective, and scalable interventions to decrease stigmatized perceptions of chronic psychotic disorders and to reduce the health burden imposed by them. Method: We conducted a randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of a new immersive virtual reality game (Inclúyete-VR) on the level of stigma toward people with SMI, measured by the AQ-27 Attribution Questionnaire. Participants in the experimental group were exposed in an immersive way to hallucinations common in schizophrenia, then shown different psychosocial resources available for their recovery and social inclusion; those in the control group used VR software unrelated to mental health. VR sessions were delivered through Oculus headgear and lasted 25 minutes. Results: We randomly assigned 124 university students (55% female) to experimental or control conditions (n=62 each). We used mixed ANOVA to compare outcomes before and after the intervention between the two groups. We found a significant intervention-by-time interaction (p<0.001), with a reduction in the experimental group of overall stigma levels on the AQ-27 scale and its three subscales: dangerousness-fear, avoidance, and lack of solidarity (p<0.001 for all). Conclusions: The Inclúyete-VR software proved effective in the short term in reducing stigma toward people with severe mental illness. The program’s longer-term efficacy, scalability, and dissemination remain to be studied.Publication Wellbeing, social media addiction and coping strategies among Chilean adolescents during the pandemic(2023) Varela, Jorge; Pérez, J. Carola; Rodríguez-Rivas, Matías E.; Chuecas, María Josefina; Romo, JavieraIntroduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents had to deal with a range of mental health problems that has increased social media addiction levels with adverse effects on life satisfaction. Previous studies have explored coping mechanisms to deal with this addiction problem, but did not consider the need to simultaneously cope with different dimensions. Therefore, our study aimed to examine the moderating effect of various coping mechanisms on the relationship between social media addiction and adolescent life satisfaction. Methods: Self-report questionnaires were applied to 1290 secondary school students (age mean = 16.03, SD = 1.27, range: 14 to 19; and 57% female). An exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis were performed to determine the factor structure of the Brief-Cope 28 scale. Then, a descriptive and correlational analysis of the variables and a multiple linear regression analysis was performed. Results: We found that the social media addiction risk was negatively associated with life satisfaction, adaptive strategies were positively correlated to life satisfaction, and maladaptive strategies were negatively correlated to it. Also, a moderation model was evaluated in which four stress management strategies, namely acceptance and perspective-taking, seeking socio-emotional support, active coping, and maladaptive strategies all conditioned the relationship between social media addiction risk and life satisfaction after controlling for demographic variables and the specific strategies of using comedy, religion and substance use. Results indicate additive and multiplicative effects of management strategies for stressful situations in the studied relationship. Seeking socio-emotional support and active coping were positively related to life satisfaction and maladaptive strategies were negatively associated with it. Multiplicative effects indicate that the relationship between the social media addiction risk and life satisfaction depends only on the acceptance and perspective taking that adolescents report. When adolescents reported having low or average levels of acceptance and perspective taking, there was a negative correlation with general life satisfaction, a connection that grew markedly stronger. In contrast, no connection between social media addiction and life satisfaction was detected for adolescents who report higher levels of acceptance and perspective-taking. Discussion: Abuse of social media and the use of maladaptive stress coping strategies were risk factors that decreased life satisfaction among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic period.Publication Workload and psychosocial risks among nurses in mental health and psychiatry in Chile(2023) Fuentes, Daniela; Rodríguez, Matías; Romo, JavieraThe present study aims to explore and compare psychosocial risks and work overload among nursing professionals in the field mental health and psychiatry in Chile. Quantitative, observational and cross-sectional research was designed for this purpose. Nurses from community, ambulatory, hospital and emergency units in mental health and psychiatry in Chile were recruited between January and May 2022. Instruments of psychosocial variables and an occupational psychosocial risk scale based on the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire were used. Descriptive and correlational statistics were used, as well as independent samples t-tests, Factorial Anova and post-hoc analysis with Bonferroni correction. As a result, 174 nursing professionals were recruited, 79.3% female, average age 33.9 years. One-third belonged to the Metropolitan Region of Chile. The highest psychosocial risk was obtained by nurses over 30 years of age, from the Metropolitan Region, with more than 16 patients under their care, at the hospital or psychiatric emergency level. Significant differences were observed in work overload and psychosocial risks according to personal and work characteristics of the professionals, as well as of the users and health services. The levels of psychosocial risk and work overload of mental health and psychiatric nurses were reported, as well as the comparison of these according to personal, sociodemographic, and work characteristics. In order to improve the quality of work life of these professionals and the quality of these services, it is essential to develop interventions focused on the dimensions addressed, as well as to define norms and policies that ensure a workload in accordance with international standards.