Tyson S Barrett

Highmark Health

Purpose Perceptual training offers a promising, listener-targeted option for improving intelligibility of dysarthric speech. Cognitive resources are required for learning, and theoretical models of listening effort and engagement account for a role of listener motivation in allocation of such resources. Here, we manipulate training instructions to...

Suicide risk is higher among military sexual trauma (MST) survivors. One factor that may elevate the risk of death by suicide in this population is stigma. Indeed, stigma may prevent disclosure of MST and deter help-seeking to address the sequelae of MST. Extant literature on the association of stigma and suicide risk in men MST survivors is unders...

Study Objectives Insomnia has substantial and wide-ranging negative effects on clinical and functional outcomes and on health care expenditures, yet few individuals receive gold-standard insomnia treatment. The current article examines provider and patient outcomes associated with real-world implementation of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomn...

Study Objectives Insomnia has profound negative effects on behavioral health, physical health, and functional domains. Leveraging claims data from one of the nation’s largest payor-provider systems, the current study examined the real-world prevalence of insomnia, comorbidity of insomnia with behavioral health and other sleep disorders, and the imp...

Objective: To assess possible moderating variables that influence the effectiveness of a college-based mental health literacy curriculum, Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy (MHAA). Participants: Students at a Western University in the United States (MHAA treatment group: N = 474; Comparison group: N = 575). Methods: Using a non-randomized, quasi-...

Purpose: In effortful listening conditions, speech perception and adaptation abilities are constrained by aging and often linked to age-related hearing loss and cognitive decline. Given that older adults are frequent communication partners of individuals with dysarthria, the current study examines cognitive-linguistic and hearing predictors of dysa...

Objective Unemployment is a known health stressor that also increases early retirements. This study addresses mixed literature on retiree health and under-reporting of forced retirement to better identify potential health impacts of lost work opportunity. Methods A Lost-work Opportunity Score (LOS) was created using variables from the Health and R...

Whether Latinx families use youth mental health services (MHS) depends on complex influences of barriers and facilitators within and outside of the home. This research sought to shed light on caregiver strain as part of the equation focused on parental identification and responses to youth mental health needs. We examined multiple dimensions of car...

Purpose According to the interpersonal synergy model of spoken dialogue, interlocutors modify their communicative behaviors to meet the contextual demands of a given conversation. Although a growing body of research supports this postulation for linguistic behaviors (e.g., semantics, syntax), little is understood about how this model applies to spe...

Lexical alignment, a communication phenomenon where conversational partners adapt their word choices to become more similar, plays an important role in the development of language and social communication skills. While this has been studied extensively in the conversations of preschool‐aged children and their parents in Western, Educated, Industria...

E-cigarette use among adolescents is a national health epidemic spreading faster than researchers can amass evidence for risk and protective factors and long-term consequences associated with use. New technologies, such as machine learning, may assist prevention programs in identifying at risk youth and potential targets for intervention before ado...

Harm reduction and pharmacotherapy approaches to addressing substance use disorder are evidence-based practices for reducing adverse health outcomes. However, professional stigma toward these approaches impedes implementation. In this pilot study, professionals working in substance use treatment services received a 4-hour asynchronous online harm r...

Sexual minority college students (N = 414) were recruited through a Qualtrics panel to explore sexual and vocational identity configurations. Using Latent Profile Analysis, four distinctive latent profiles emerged from the data: Vocational Identity-Focused, Intersectional Diffused, Intersectional Achieved, and Sexual Identity-Focused Configurations...

A lack of validated measures to examine barriers to youth telepsychology services among Latinx families limits research that could identify targets for reducing mental health disparities. We developed and validated the Latinx Barriers to Accessing Telepsychology Services (Latinx BATS) questionnaire, a brief multidimensional measure for caregivers o...

Background The peer support workforce has become an established aspect of behavioral health care, with endorsement since 1999 as Medicaid reimbursable and with steady uptake of credentialing by 49 states and the District of Columbia. Yet sustainability issues due to wage and entry-level stagnation lacking advancement paths is a concern for the Cert...

Noise reduction strategies based on time-frequency masking have been shown to provide substantial improvements in the intelligibility of speech in noise for both listeners with normal and impaired hearing. Previous studies on this type of noise reduction have involved intact, well-articulated speech spoken by healthy talkers (i.e., not disordered s...

Purpose The ability to understand speech under adverse listening conditions is highly variable across listeners. Despite this, studies have found that listeners with normal hearing display consistency in their ability to perceive speech across different types of degraded speech, suggesting that, for at least these listeners, global skills may be in...

Purpose As evidenced by perceptual learning studies involving adult listeners and speakers with dysarthria, adaptation to dysarthric speech is driven by signal predictability (speaker property) and a flexible speech perception system (listener property). Here, we extend adaptation investigations to adolescent populations and examine whether adult a...

E-cigarette use among adolescents is a national health epidemic spreading faster than researchers can amass evidence for risk and protective factors and long-term consequences associated with use. New technologies, such as machine learning, may assist prevention programs in identifying at-risk youth and potential targets for intervention before ado...

El estigma asociado o la vergüenza interiorizada entre los familiares de personas con afecciones estigmatizantes puede ser un factor importante que influye en las conductas de búsqueda de ayuda entre las personas cuidadoras latinxs de jóvenes con problemas de salud mental. Mediante la Escala de Estigma Asociado se evalúan las dimensiones afectiva,...

Purpose Defined as the similarity of speech behaviors between interlocutors, speech entrainment plays an important role in successful adult conversations. According to theoretical models of entrainment and research on motoric, cognitive, and social developmental milestones, the ability to entrain should develop throughout adolescence. However, litt...

As concern about opioid misuse grows, harm reduction has emphasized individualized care (e.g., treatment access) and systemic solutions (e.g., public policy). A gap in the literature exists surrounding opioid impacts that exist between the individual and societal levels of analysis. This literature review examines opioid impact at the family level,...

Purpose Background noise reduces speech intelligibility. Time–frequency (T-F) masking is an established signal processing technique that improves intelligibility of neurotypical speech in background noise. Here, we investigated a novel application of T-F masking, assessing its potential to improve intelligibility of neurologically degraded speech i...

Background: Variability in the riser and depth of each step in a stairway can decrease step predictability, and increase users fall risk. Unfortunately, inconsistencies in inter-step riser height and depth are common, but their impact may be lessened by adding high-contrast tread edges and vertical, monochrome striping applied to the bottom and top...

Introduction: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) exhibit cognitive deficits that interfere with their ability to learn language. Little is known about the functional neuroanatomical differences between children developing typically (TD) and children with DLD. Methods: Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, we recorded oxyg...

Purpose Although recruitment of cognitive-linguistic resources to support dysarthric speech perception and adaptation is presumed by theoretical accounts of effortful listening and supported by cross-disciplinary empirical findings, prospective relationships have received limited attention in the disordered speech literature. This study aimed to ex...

Values are freely chosen life directions and/or qualities of being that can motivate behavior change. There is nascent support for the utility of values work as a part of the therapeutic process across treatments, particularly in third wave therapy approaches (e.g., acceptance and commitment therapy). However, therapeutic values work is underresear...

Objective Individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) may find adherence to their hearing devices difficult due to internal experiences related to their hearing loss such as sadness or frustration. The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Adult Hearing Loss (AAQ-AHL) is the only measure available to assess psychological inflexibility as it rel...

Studies investigating the effect of tread edge highlighters on descent speed differ, but collectively report the potential benefit of reduced fall risk. Here we examine the impact of adding high-contrast black vinyl striping to the front edge of each step’s tread and its impact on descending gait speed (intervention), while controlling for illumina...

Purpose: Although recruitment of cognitive-linguistic resources to support dysarthric speech perception and adaptation is presumed by theoretical accounts of effortful listening and supported by cross-disciplinary empirical findings, prospective relationships have received limited attention in the disordered speech literature. The current study aim...

Sexual revictimization is heightened among military service members and veterans and is associated with greater posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and severity. The heightened distress following revictimization may be due to posttraumatic cognitions (PTC), which include negative beliefs about the self and world, and self-blame. Moreover, it is un...

Autistic adults, adults who have an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, are more likely than their non-autistic peers to experience mental health concerns. A growing body of literature supports interventions that target psychological flexibility as a useful approach for reducing mental health concerns in autistic adults. Despite this, psychometric...

Purpose The purpose of this project was to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on speech-language pathologist (SLP) service provision for emergent bilinguals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). One prominent issue in AAC service delivery is the efficacy and feasibility of providing AAC services via telepractice. The CO...

Background Knowledge regarding barriers faced by Latina/o/x caregivers in accessing youth mental health services (MHS) have largely depended on resource intensive interview-based assessments. Objective We evaluated a questionnaire for Latina/o/x caregivers of youths that presents a briefer and more feasible alternative. Method We conducted a psyc...

Purpose This study sought to explore the associations between Intuitive Eating (IE), eating disorder (ED) symptom severity, and body image-related cognitive fusion within a clinical sample. IE was also examined as a possible mediator in the relationship between body image-related fusion and ED symptoms. Methods This study includes cross-sectional...

Introduction: This study sought to examine stairway safety by identifying associations between fall-related events on stairways, distractions, gait speed, drifting, as well as handrail use and proximity. Method: Video recordings captured 11,137 observations of stair users in two public stairways and recorded distractions (e.g., looking at a mobi...

Falls on stairs occur frequently and pose a significant health and financial risk. Laboratory research has found that fall frequency can be reduced through contrast enhancement of the stairs by applying vinyl striping to the first and last steps' faces, and all the steps' top edges. Here we sought to determine if such step contrast enhancement can...

Sexual harassment and violence is a grave public health concern and risk for revictimization increases following initial exposure. Studies of sexual revictimization in military samples are generally limited to women and are focused on rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with no examination of how revictimization relates to interpersonal...

Purpose Acoustic–prosodic entrainment, defined as the tendency for individuals to modify their speech behaviors to more closely align with the behaviors of their conversation partner, plays an important role in successful interaction. From a mechanistic perspective, acoustic–prosodic entrainment is, by its very nature, a rhythmic activity. Accordin...

Neuroscience research presents contradictory evidence in support of both the protective and destructive effects of cannabinoids in depression. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis summarizes the existing preclinical literature on the effects of cannabinoid administration in the chronic unpredictable stress model of depression in orde...

Falls on stairs occur frequently and pose a significant health and financial risk. Laboratory research has found that fall frequency can be reduced through contrast enhancement of the stairs by applying vinyl striping to the first and last steps’ faces, and all the steps’ top edges. Here we sought to determine if such step contrast enhancement can...

Objective: Consistent hearing aid use is essential for spoken language development of children who are hard of hearing. A recent randomised controlled trial of an eHealth hearing aid management education program found the intervention increased knowledge, perceptions, confidence, and device monitoring among parents of young children. Yet, it is not...

Mental health literacy (MHL) training is essential in college environments. These programs are commonly delivered in-person via workshops or for-credit courses. Campuses now seek high-quality online options. We compare the effectiveness of a for-credit MHL course against a comparison course, focusing on whether online asynchronous delivery was as e...

The purpose of this study was to determine whether functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) could reliably identify cortical activation patterns as healthy adults engaged in single sip and continuous swallowing tasks. Thirty-three right-handed adults completed two functional swallowing tasks, one control jaw movement task, and one rest task wh...

Purpose This study examined the effectiveness of a standalone mobile application (app), Háblame Bebé, for use in real-world settings without supplemental human interaction to promote Spanish-speaking mothers’ language interactions with their young children and associated child bilingual (Spanish–English) language development. Method Thirty-seven S...

Purpose We proposed and tested a causal instantiation of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework, linking acoustics, intelligibility, and communicative participation in the context of dysarthria. Method Speech samples and communicative participation scores were collected fr...

Adolescents with a history of child maltreatment experience increased risk for psychopathology that sets them on a trajectory towards a range of difficulties in adulthood. Various factors influence caregivers’ decisions to seek mental health services (MHS) that could improve developmental outcomes. The present study applied a machine learning algor...

Determine whether parent characteristics and practices differentiate between substance using and non-using children in Mexico. Data consisted of 52,171 children (i.e., 5 th and 6 th grade) who participated in the National Survey of Drug Use Among Students. The relative importance of student reported parenting factors in classifying lifetime substan...

Individuals with eating disorders (EDs) may be particularly susceptible to body image related cognitive fusion (i.e., excessive entanglement with one’s body image related thoughts such that they unduly influence on behavior). The Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire-Body Image (CFQ-BI) is the only existing measure of this construct, yet its psychometric...

Latinx caregivers underutilize traditional youth mental health services (MHS) relative to their White counterparts. Disparities may be explained by barriers preventing engagement in traditional MHS. A potential mismatch between available services and preferred culturally appropriate healing practices may also contribute to treatment disparities. Th...

Aims: A novel professional training was developed to reduce stigma toward harm reduction and pharmacotherapy for substance use disorders. Methods: The training was delivered over three sessions to n1⁄4147 health professionals in Utah between 2019 and 2020, including n1⁄440 substance use disorder treatment professionals. Pre and post-training survey...

Objective The current study examined the moderating role of gender on the association of military sexual trauma (MST) type (harassment‐only vs. assault) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) using the 6‐factor Anhedonia Model. Methods Participants were 1321 service members/veterans. Two‐part hurdle models assessed the moderating role of gender...

Purpose For individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD), conversational interactions can be challenging. Efforts to improve the success of these interactions have largely fallen on the individual with PD. Successful communication, however, involves contributions from both the individual with PD and their communication partner. The current study exami...

Purpose Perceptual training paradigms, which leverage the mechanism of perceptual learning, show that naïve listeners, those with no prior experience with dysarthria, benefit from explicit familiarization with a talker with dysarthria. It is theorized that familiarization affords listeners an opportunity to acquire distributional knowledge of the d...

Objective: Parents frequently experience challenges implementing daily routines important for consistent hearing aid management. Education that supports parents in learning new information and gaining confi- dence is essential for intervention success. We conducted a pilot study to test an eHealth program to determine if we could implement the prog...

Purpose Perceptual training is a listener-targeted means for improving intelligibility of dysarthric speech. Recent work has shown that training with one talker generalizes to a novel talker of the same sex and that the magnitude of benefit is maximized when the talkers are perceptually similar. The current study expands previous findings by invest...

Purpose: Following a total laryngectomy in which the larynx is completely removed, individuals in the USA have three primary options for alaryngeal verbal communication including tracheoesophageal speech (TES), oesophageal speech (ES) and electrolarynx (EL). Using a large sample of participants from across the USA, this study investigated listener...

The familiar talker advantage is the finding that a listener’s ability to perceive and understand a talker is facilitated when the listener is familiar with the talker. However, it is unclear when the benefits of familiarity emerge and whether they strengthen over time. To better understand the time course of the familiar talker advantage, we asses...

An understudied aspect of couple relationship education (CRE) effectiveness is participant factors, including their changing needs over time. This study investigated the influence of changing needs over time on CRE outcomes. Participants (n = 692) self-selected to a CRE course and completed pre- and posttests. Family life stages were utilized to re...

Clinical perfectionism is associated with various cognitive processes including performance monitoring and emotion regulation. This exploratory study analyzed neurological data from a randomized controlled trial for clinical perfectionism that compared acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to a waitlist control. The objective was to assess the ef...