Seizure disorders are a widespread health concern (England, Liverman, Schultz, & Strawbridge, 2012). Past research shows that a good quality marital relationship can have numerous health benefits (Homish & Leonard, 2008); however, there is little evidence to show that individuals suffering from seizures are receiving any of these marital benefits. Instead, most research suggests that individuals with a seizure disorder are significantly less likely to marry, have more marital conflict, and report the seizures as a main reason for divorce (Chen, et al., 2013). The current study included 67 individuals who self-reported that they suffered from a seizure disorder. These individuals took part in an online survey that included questions about their experience with seizures, their strategies for managing emotions, and their relationship (marital) status. It was hypothesized that individuals who were married would report fewer emotion regulation difficulties and be less impacted by their seizures than those who were unmarried. The results of this study showed that: 1) married and unmarried individuals did not differ in reported emotion regulation difficulties; 2) contrary to predictions, married individuals were more impacted by their seizures than unmarried individuals; 3) greater emotion regulation difficulties (specifically difficulty accepting emotions and difficulty carrying out goal-directed behavior when upset) were associated with a greater perceived impact of seizures on one’s life; and 4) marriage moderated the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and impact of seizures, such that difficulty accepting emotions predicted a greater impact of seizures on one’s life for married but not unmarried individuals. This was not the case for another facet of emotion regulation measured, namely difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior when upset. An important conclusion from this study is that a failure to accept emotions may be more likely to contribute to seizure impact among married than unmarried individuals. Promoting acceptance of emotions, perhaps in the context of one’s marital relationship as well as in general, may be beneficial for individuals suffering from a seizure disorder.

The effects of over-the-counter drug (OTC) use on college students' health has been debated in the field of psychology with researchers arguing that poor sleep quality among college students is the result of polysubstance use. However, this explanation is not a foregone conclusion. These researchers have not adequately addressed the issue poor sleep quality among college students and its relationship to polysubstance use. This is an important issue because prolonged unsupervised OTC drug use and poor sleep quality can impact long-term health and lessen students' likelihood of being successful in college. This paper addresses the issue of OTC drug use with special attention to sleep quality. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Scores were collected to assess subjective sleep quality and its relationship to OTC drug use. Several other risk factors including binge drinking, marijuana use, and illicit drug use were also accounted for in this model. This study argues that, although the current literature suggests that poor sleep quality is the effect of drug use rather than the cause; the relationships between these factors are still unclear. This study aims to fill a gap in the college drug use literature by establishing a relationship between poor sleep quality and OTC drug use in a college sample.

Approximately one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans develop mental health problems, yet only 35-40% of those with mental disorders are seeking mental healthcare (Hoge, et al., 2004; Vogt, 2011). Military spouses may be an important resource for facilitating treatment seeking (Warner, et al., 2008), especially if service member mental health issues are impacting the marriage. Military spouses might be hesitant to encourage service member help-seeking, however, due to perceived threat of adverse military career consequences. For this study, 62 military wives completed an online survey. As part of the survey, participants were randomly assigned to one of four vignettes containing a description of a hypothetical military husband with mental health symptoms. Each vignette presented different combinations of marital conflict (high versus low) and service member concerns about adverse career consequences (high versus low). Wives rated on a five-point scale how likely they were to encourage the hypothetical military husband to seek help. It was hypothesized that spouses would be more willing to encourage help-seeking when concerns about adverse military career consequences were low and marital distress was high. No main effects or interaction effect were found for marriage and career. Perceived stigma about seeking mental health treatment in the military, psychological identification as a military spouse, and experience and familiarity with military mental healthcare policies failed to moderate the relationship between marital conflict, career concerns, and encouragement of help-seeking. Correlational analyses revealed that (1) greater experience with military mental healthcare (first- or secondhand), and (2) greater perceptions of stigma regarding seeking mental healthcare in the military each were associated with decreased perceptions of military supportiveness of mental healthcare. Therefore, although the experimental manipulation in this study did not lead to differences in military spouses' encouragement of a hypothetical military service member to seek mental health services, other findings based on participants' actual experiences suggest that experiences with military mental healthcare may generate or reinforce negative perceptions of military mental healthcare. Altering actual experiences with military mental healthcare, in addition to perceptions of stigma, may be a useful area of intervention for military service members and spouses.

Researchers have found inconsistent effects (negative or positive) of social relationships on self-control capacity. The variation of findings may depend on the aspects of social relationships. In this study, rather than examining overall social relationships and self-control, characteristics in social relationships were clearly defined, including social support, social connection and social conflict, to determine their specific effects on self-control. An online survey study was conducted, and 292 college students filled out the survey. For data analysis, path analysis was utilized to examined the direct effect and indirect effect from social relationships to self-control. Results showed social connection and social conflict may indirectly associate with self-control through stress, but social support does not. It may suggest, in traditional stress buffering model, it is the social connection in social support that really reduce the stress. Concerning the direct effects, social support and social connection were significantly associated with self-control directly, but social conflict does not. This result may support the Social Baseline Theory that positive social relationships have direct regulating effects. Results are good for guidance of experimental manipulation of social relationships in study of social influences of self-control.