Gina Brelsford - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Gina Brelsford

Research paper thumbnail of Designing Sorting Networks

, except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection w... more , except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.

Research paper thumbnail of College Students' Permissive Sexual Attitudes: Links to Religiousness and Spirituality

International Journal For the Psychology of Religion, Mar 31, 2011

Clear associations exist between religiousness and conservative sexual attitudes, but there is a ... more Clear associations exist between religiousness and conservative sexual attitudes, but there is a paucity of research on spirituality's interaction. In this study, the authors examined the link between 297 male and 642 female college students' reports on sexual attitudes coupled with multidimensional measures of intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects of spirituality and religiousness. Results indicated significant links between private religious practices, daily spiritual experiences, and conservative sexual attitudes for all respondents. However, for male but not female participants, self-reported spirituality had significant inverse correlation with permissive sexual attitudes. Further, spiritual disclosure and self-reported extent of religiousness were related to female participants' reports of more conservative sexual attitudes. Finally, hierarchical regression analyses found that spirituality provided unique variance toward conservative sexual attitudes for male but not female participants. Implications of these findings are discussed. There is a robust literature supporting links between religiousness, sexual behaviors, and attitudes for adolescents (

Research paper thumbnail of Religious and Spiritual Journeys: Brief Reflections from Mothers and Fathers in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

Pastoral Psychology, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Using cognitive behavioral therapy to help children cope with parental military deployments

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy

Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are associated with more deployments than in previous years. Recent ... more Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are associated with more deployments than in previous years. Recent estimates show 1.2 million school children have a parent that is serving in the active military. Family stress increases proportionately to the length of deployment and the perception of danger. In a recent study, twenty percent of children whose parent was being deployed were identified as ''high risk'' for psychosocial disturbances. A deployed parent represents a stressor reflecting ambiguous loss which prompts emotional distress. Cognitive behaviorally based prevention and intervention efforts have shown considerable promise with children experiencing a variety of disorders who do not necessarily have a deployed parent. For instance the Penn Resiliency Program has enjoyed considerable empirical support. It seems quite reasonable that these favorable results would generalize to a population of military children. This paper will briefly review the extant literature on the effects of parental deployment on children's emotional well-being and then recommend a variety of cognitive behavioral interventions to enhance their psychological welfare.

Research paper thumbnail of Caring for those who serve in the stormy present

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy

Research paper thumbnail of Preventing anxiety and depression in children

Research paper thumbnail of Generativity and spiritual disclosure in close relationships

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2009

This exploratory study examines the link between generativity and an interpersonal aspect of reli... more This exploratory study examines the link between generativity and an interpersonal aspect of religion and spirituality, spiritual disclosure, in close relationships. Three hundred seventy-eight adults aged 18 to 85 years were asked about their use of spiritual disclosure with close friends, views on their own generativity, questions related to personality characteristics, and level of general self-disclosure. This community sample’s reports

Research paper thumbnail of Interpersonal Spirituality in Father--Child Relationships

Research paper thumbnail of Spiritual Disclosure and Religious Intimacy With Friends, Siblings, and Parents

Research paper thumbnail of Parents' Religiousness and Spirituality in the Neonatal Intensive-Care Unit and Links to Well-Being

Research paper thumbnail of Religious Coping and Gratitude in Emerging Adulthood

Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring Latino College Students' Sexual Behaviors in Relation to Their Sexual Attitudes, Religiousness, and Spirituality

Journal of religion and health, Jan 27, 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, sexu... more The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, sexual attitudes, and sexual behaviors among Latino and non-Latino college students. The sample included 230 undergraduate college students enrolled at a mid-sized University in the western USA. Sexual behaviors among Latinos were significantly correlated with sexual attitudes and spiritual disclosure in close relationships. However, sexual behaviors for non-Latino respondents were only significantly related to sexual attitudes, not indices of religiousness or spirituality. Sexual educators, health educators, college-level instructors, and counselors can use these results to help Latino and non-Latino students alike understand the relationship between their religious and spiritual beliefs, sexual attitudes, and sexual behaviors.

Research paper thumbnail of Coping and Family Relationships in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Research paper thumbnail of Spirituality, Religion, and Substance Coping as Regulators of Emotions and Meaning Making: Different Effects on Pain and Joy

Journal of Addictions & Offender Counseling, 2009

... Joseph W. Ciarrocchi, Department of Pastoral Counseling, Loyola College in Maryland; Gina M. ... more ... Joseph W. Ciarrocchi, Department of Pastoral Counseling, Loyola College in Maryland; Gina M. Brels-ford, School of Behavioral Sciences and Education, The Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg. ... ic a l R e g re s s io n a n a ly s e s fo r P u rp o s e in l ife , S a tis fa c tio n W ...

Research paper thumbnail of Spirituality and flourishing: Four structural equation models

Research paper thumbnail of Religiosity, Spirituality, Sexual Attitudes, and Sexual Behaviors Among College Students

Journal of Religion and Health, 2012

The purpose of this study was to determine whether religiosity, spirituality, and sexual attitude... more The purpose of this study was to determine whether religiosity, spirituality, and sexual attitudes accounted for differences in sexual behaviors among college students. The sample included 960 college students enrolled at four northeastern colleges. Results indicated differences in sexual attitudes, religiosity, and spirituality by gender. Moreover, sexual attitudes, religiosity, and spirituality were associated with sexual behaviors among college students. Sexual behaviors among males were influenced by their sexual attitudes, religiosity, and spirituality, while for females, their sexual behaviors were mostly influenced by their sexual attitudes. College health professionals can use these findings when discussing sexual practices with students.

Research paper thumbnail of Spiritual disclosure between older adolescents and their mothers

Journal of Family Psychology, 2008

This study examines the role of spiritual disclosure within older adolescent-mother relationships... more This study examines the role of spiritual disclosure within older adolescent-mother relationships. Spiritual disclosure is defined as mutual disclosure of personal religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. Three hundred 18- to 20-year-old college students and 130 of their mothers reported on spiritual disclosure in their relationships. According to both parties, greater spiritual disclosure was related to higher relationship satisfaction, greater use of collaborative conflict resolution strategies, less dysfunctional communication patterns, less verbal aggression, and increased general disclosure in mother-adolescent relationships beyond global religiousness and demographics. Spiritual disclosure also predicted unique variance in collaborative conflict resolution strategies beyond these factors and general disclosure. The findings underscore the value of attending to the interpersonal dimension of religion/spirituality. More specifically, the results suggest that spiritual disclosure is an indicator of relationship quality, one that is tied to better relationship functioning, and one that merits further attention in studies of family dynamics.

Research paper thumbnail of Grateful and Sanctified: Exploring the Parent-Child Context

Journal of Family Issues, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Caring for Those Who Serve in the Stormy Present: Introduction to the Special Issue on Treating Military Personnel and Their Dependents

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 2011

Research paper thumbnail of Religious and Spiritual Issues: Family Therapy Approaches with Military Families Coping with Deployment

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 2011

Exploring religious and spiritual issues in family therapy has become more commonplace over the p... more Exploring religious and spiritual issues in family therapy has become more commonplace over the past decade (Walsh, Spiritual resources in family therapy, 2009), but understanding how religion and spirituality evolve within military families is unclear. Further, the stressors that family members face in the midst of a deployment are paramount, for which many individuals use a variety of coping skills. In this paper we explore these links further by reviewing the scant literature focused on military families and religious and spiritual coping. This literature review is followed by a description of strategies to understand family members' religious and spiritual lives related to family functioning and military deployment. Finally, strategies to enhance family functioning through both an integration of secular, religious, and spiritual pathways in a family therapy setting are discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Designing Sorting Networks

, except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection w... more , except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.

Research paper thumbnail of College Students' Permissive Sexual Attitudes: Links to Religiousness and Spirituality

International Journal For the Psychology of Religion, Mar 31, 2011

Clear associations exist between religiousness and conservative sexual attitudes, but there is a ... more Clear associations exist between religiousness and conservative sexual attitudes, but there is a paucity of research on spirituality's interaction. In this study, the authors examined the link between 297 male and 642 female college students' reports on sexual attitudes coupled with multidimensional measures of intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects of spirituality and religiousness. Results indicated significant links between private religious practices, daily spiritual experiences, and conservative sexual attitudes for all respondents. However, for male but not female participants, self-reported spirituality had significant inverse correlation with permissive sexual attitudes. Further, spiritual disclosure and self-reported extent of religiousness were related to female participants' reports of more conservative sexual attitudes. Finally, hierarchical regression analyses found that spirituality provided unique variance toward conservative sexual attitudes for male but not female participants. Implications of these findings are discussed. There is a robust literature supporting links between religiousness, sexual behaviors, and attitudes for adolescents (

Research paper thumbnail of Religious and Spiritual Journeys: Brief Reflections from Mothers and Fathers in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

Pastoral Psychology, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Using cognitive behavioral therapy to help children cope with parental military deployments

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy

Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are associated with more deployments than in previous years. Recent ... more Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are associated with more deployments than in previous years. Recent estimates show 1.2 million school children have a parent that is serving in the active military. Family stress increases proportionately to the length of deployment and the perception of danger. In a recent study, twenty percent of children whose parent was being deployed were identified as ''high risk'' for psychosocial disturbances. A deployed parent represents a stressor reflecting ambiguous loss which prompts emotional distress. Cognitive behaviorally based prevention and intervention efforts have shown considerable promise with children experiencing a variety of disorders who do not necessarily have a deployed parent. For instance the Penn Resiliency Program has enjoyed considerable empirical support. It seems quite reasonable that these favorable results would generalize to a population of military children. This paper will briefly review the extant literature on the effects of parental deployment on children's emotional well-being and then recommend a variety of cognitive behavioral interventions to enhance their psychological welfare.

Research paper thumbnail of Caring for those who serve in the stormy present

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy

Research paper thumbnail of Preventing anxiety and depression in children

Research paper thumbnail of Generativity and spiritual disclosure in close relationships

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2009

This exploratory study examines the link between generativity and an interpersonal aspect of reli... more This exploratory study examines the link between generativity and an interpersonal aspect of religion and spirituality, spiritual disclosure, in close relationships. Three hundred seventy-eight adults aged 18 to 85 years were asked about their use of spiritual disclosure with close friends, views on their own generativity, questions related to personality characteristics, and level of general self-disclosure. This community sample’s reports

Research paper thumbnail of Interpersonal Spirituality in Father--Child Relationships

Research paper thumbnail of Spiritual Disclosure and Religious Intimacy With Friends, Siblings, and Parents

Research paper thumbnail of Parents' Religiousness and Spirituality in the Neonatal Intensive-Care Unit and Links to Well-Being

Research paper thumbnail of Religious Coping and Gratitude in Emerging Adulthood

Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring Latino College Students' Sexual Behaviors in Relation to Their Sexual Attitudes, Religiousness, and Spirituality

Journal of religion and health, Jan 27, 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, sexu... more The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, sexual attitudes, and sexual behaviors among Latino and non-Latino college students. The sample included 230 undergraduate college students enrolled at a mid-sized University in the western USA. Sexual behaviors among Latinos were significantly correlated with sexual attitudes and spiritual disclosure in close relationships. However, sexual behaviors for non-Latino respondents were only significantly related to sexual attitudes, not indices of religiousness or spirituality. Sexual educators, health educators, college-level instructors, and counselors can use these results to help Latino and non-Latino students alike understand the relationship between their religious and spiritual beliefs, sexual attitudes, and sexual behaviors.

Research paper thumbnail of Coping and Family Relationships in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Research paper thumbnail of Spirituality, Religion, and Substance Coping as Regulators of Emotions and Meaning Making: Different Effects on Pain and Joy

Journal of Addictions & Offender Counseling, 2009

... Joseph W. Ciarrocchi, Department of Pastoral Counseling, Loyola College in Maryland; Gina M. ... more ... Joseph W. Ciarrocchi, Department of Pastoral Counseling, Loyola College in Maryland; Gina M. Brels-ford, School of Behavioral Sciences and Education, The Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg. ... ic a l R e g re s s io n a n a ly s e s fo r P u rp o s e in l ife , S a tis fa c tio n W ...

Research paper thumbnail of Spirituality and flourishing: Four structural equation models

Research paper thumbnail of Religiosity, Spirituality, Sexual Attitudes, and Sexual Behaviors Among College Students

Journal of Religion and Health, 2012

The purpose of this study was to determine whether religiosity, spirituality, and sexual attitude... more The purpose of this study was to determine whether religiosity, spirituality, and sexual attitudes accounted for differences in sexual behaviors among college students. The sample included 960 college students enrolled at four northeastern colleges. Results indicated differences in sexual attitudes, religiosity, and spirituality by gender. Moreover, sexual attitudes, religiosity, and spirituality were associated with sexual behaviors among college students. Sexual behaviors among males were influenced by their sexual attitudes, religiosity, and spirituality, while for females, their sexual behaviors were mostly influenced by their sexual attitudes. College health professionals can use these findings when discussing sexual practices with students.

Research paper thumbnail of Spiritual disclosure between older adolescents and their mothers

Journal of Family Psychology, 2008

This study examines the role of spiritual disclosure within older adolescent-mother relationships... more This study examines the role of spiritual disclosure within older adolescent-mother relationships. Spiritual disclosure is defined as mutual disclosure of personal religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. Three hundred 18- to 20-year-old college students and 130 of their mothers reported on spiritual disclosure in their relationships. According to both parties, greater spiritual disclosure was related to higher relationship satisfaction, greater use of collaborative conflict resolution strategies, less dysfunctional communication patterns, less verbal aggression, and increased general disclosure in mother-adolescent relationships beyond global religiousness and demographics. Spiritual disclosure also predicted unique variance in collaborative conflict resolution strategies beyond these factors and general disclosure. The findings underscore the value of attending to the interpersonal dimension of religion/spirituality. More specifically, the results suggest that spiritual disclosure is an indicator of relationship quality, one that is tied to better relationship functioning, and one that merits further attention in studies of family dynamics.

Research paper thumbnail of Grateful and Sanctified: Exploring the Parent-Child Context

Journal of Family Issues, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Caring for Those Who Serve in the Stormy Present: Introduction to the Special Issue on Treating Military Personnel and Their Dependents

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 2011

Research paper thumbnail of Religious and Spiritual Issues: Family Therapy Approaches with Military Families Coping with Deployment

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 2011

Exploring religious and spiritual issues in family therapy has become more commonplace over the p... more Exploring religious and spiritual issues in family therapy has become more commonplace over the past decade (Walsh, Spiritual resources in family therapy, 2009), but understanding how religion and spirituality evolve within military families is unclear. Further, the stressors that family members face in the midst of a deployment are paramount, for which many individuals use a variety of coping skills. In this paper we explore these links further by reviewing the scant literature focused on military families and religious and spiritual coping. This literature review is followed by a description of strategies to understand family members' religious and spiritual lives related to family functioning and military deployment. Finally, strategies to enhance family functioning through both an integration of secular, religious, and spiritual pathways in a family therapy setting are discussed.