Scholars@Duke
Justin Rasmussen

Selected Publications

Social Vulnerability, COVID-19, Racial Violence, and Depressive Symptoms: a Cross-sectional Study in the Southern United States.

Journal Article Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · December 2024 BackgroundIn March 2020, the novel 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic. In May 2020, George Floyd was murdered, catalyzing a national racial reckoning. In the Southern United States, these events occurred in the context of ... Full text Cite

Water Treatment Practices and Misperceived Social Norms among Women Living with Young Children in Rural Uganda.

Journal Article The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · September 2024 Access to water safe for consumption is critical for health and well-being, yet substantial structural barriers often necessitate household action to make water safer. Social norms about water treatment practices are understudied as a driver of personal wa ... Full text Cite

Caregiver preferences for physically harsh discipline of children in rural Uganda.

Journal Article Journal of family violence · July 2024 PurposePhysically harsh discipline is associated with poor developmental outcomes among children. These practices are more prevalent in areas experiencing poverty and resource scarcity, including in low- and middle-income countries. Designed to li ... Full text Cite

A Pilot Study of the Coping Together Virtual Family Intervention: Exploring Changes in Family Functioning and Individual Well-Being.

Journal Article Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · July 2024 In this pilot study, we tested a virtual family strengthening and mental health promotion intervention, Coping Together (CT), during the COVID-19 pandemic. We explored changes at the family and individual levels, as well as mechanisms of change. Participan ... Full text Cite

Correlates of Intimate Partner Violence Victimization and Perpetration in Adolescents and Young Adults in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review.

Journal Article Trauma, violence & abuse · April 2024 Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global public health crisis with long-term adverse consequences for both victims and perpetrators. Patterns of violence often begin during adolescence, yet most interventions target adult relationships. A systematic rev ... Full text Cite

Family Strengthening in the Context of COVID-19: Adapting a Community-Based Intervention from Kenya to the United States.

Journal Article Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · February 2024 COVID-19 led to widespread disruption of services that promote family well-being. Families impacted most were those already experiencing disparities due to structural and systemic barriers. Existing support systems faded into the background as families bec ... Full text Cite

Congregation leader and member discussions in a church-based family strengthening, mental health promotion and HIV prevention trial: Intervention.

Journal Article Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · January 2024 Featured Publication Collaboration with African religious congregations can promote psychosocial well-being with greater accessibility. Effective collaboration requires studying congregations as unique intervention contexts. This study explored how an intervention in western K ... Full text Cite

Maternal adverse childhood experiences, child mental health, and the mediating effect of maternal depression: A cross-sectional, population-based study in rural, southwestern Uganda.

Journal Article American journal of biological anthropology · September 2023 ObjectivesThis study aimed to examine the intergenerational effects of maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and child mental health outcomes in rural Uganda, as well as the potentially mediating role of maternal depression in this pathway ... Full text Cite

Peer-delivered Problem-solving Therapy for Adolescent Mental Health in Kenya: Adaptation for Context and Training of Peer-counselors.

Journal Article Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · September 2023 Peer-delivered interventions for adolescent mental health can help address poor access to mental health interventions. Questions remain about how interventions can be adapted for peer delivery and whether peers can be trained. In this study, we adapted pro ... Full text Cite

Cigarette smoking and misperceived norms among adults in rural Uganda: a population-based study.

Journal Article Tobacco control · September 2023 BackgroundLittle is known about perceived norms about cigarette smoking in Uganda or the extent to which perceptions drive personal cigarette smoking behaviour.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study in 2016-2018 that targeted all adu ... Full text Cite

Adverse childhood experiences, alcohol consumption, and the modifying role of social participation: population-based study of adults in southwestern Uganda

Journal Article SSM - Mental Health · December 1, 2022 Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include multiple forms of child maltreatment, including abuse and neglect, as well as other forms of household dysfunction. Studies from Uganda have revealed a high prevalence of child abuse, as well as one ... Full text Cite

Perceptions About Local ART Adherence Norms and Personal Adherence Behavior Among Adults Living with HIV in Rural Uganda.

Journal Article AIDS and behavior · June 2022 Although misperceived norms often drive personal health behaviors, we do not know about this phenomenon in the context of antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence. We conducted a cross-sectional study including all persons living with HIV (PLWH) on ART acros ... Full text Cite

Bringing Parent-Child Interaction Therapy to South Africa: Barriers and Facilitators and Overall Feasibility-First Steps to Implementation.

Journal Article Int J Environ Res Public Health · April 7, 2022 There is a large assessment and treatment gap in child and adolescent mental health services, prominently so in low- and middle-income countries, where 90% of the world's children live. There is an urgent need to find evidence-based interventions that can ... Full text Link to item Cite

Perceived and misperceived norms about khat and/or cannabis use among adults in southwest Uganda.

Journal Article The International journal on drug policy · March 2022 BackgroundStudies from high-income contexts have found evidence that norms about substance use are misperceived. The accuracy of perceived norms about khat and cannabis use in Uganda have not previously been described.MethodsWe conducted ... Full text Cite

Ease of marital communication and depressive symptom severity among men and women in rural Uganda: cross-sectional, whole-population study.

Journal Article Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · February 2022 PurposeDepression is a major contributor to the global burden of disease. The extent to which marital communication may influence depression in contexts with little mental health support is unknown.MethodsWe conducted a whole-population s ... Full text Cite

Overestimation of alcohol consumption norms as a driver of alcohol consumption: a whole-population network study of men across eight villages in rural, southwestern Uganda.

Journal Article Addiction (Abingdon, England) · January 2022 Background and aimsLittle is known about how perceived norms about alcohol consumption may influence high alcohol consumption rates in Uganda. This study estimated the accuracy of perceived norms about men's alcohol consumption and estimated the a ... Full text Cite

Correlates of attendance at community engagement meetings held in advance of bio-behavioral research studies: A longitudinal, sociocentric social network study in rural Uganda.

Journal Article PLoS medicine · July 2021 BackgroundCommunity engagement is central to the conduct of health-related research studies as a way to determine priorities, inform study design and implementation, increase recruitment and retention, build relationships, and ensure that research ... Full text Cite

Adverse childhood experiences, adult depression, and suicidal ideation in rural Uganda: A cross-sectional, population-based study.

Journal Article PLoS medicine · May 2021 BackgroundDepression is recognized globally as a leading cause of disability. Early-life adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been shown to have robust associations with poor mental health during adulthood. These effects may be cumulative, wh ... Full text Cite

WATER TREATMENT BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL NORMS AMONG WOMEN LIVING WITH YOUNG CHILDREN IN RURAL UGANDA

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AND HYGIENE · 2021 Cite

Do household asset wealth measurements depend on who is surveyed? Asset reporting concordance within multi-adult households in rural Uganda.

Journal Article Journal of global health · June 2020 BackgroundIn resource-limited settings, the Filmer & Pritchett asset index is frequently used to measure household economic status. Little is known about how its validity is affected by differential reporting or recall within households.Method ... Full text Cite

"When you have no water, it means you have no peace": A mixed-methods, whole-population study of water insecurity and depression in rural Uganda.

Journal Article Social science & medicine (1982) · January 2020 BackgroundLack of access to clean water has well known implications for communicable disease risks, but the broader construct of water insecurity is little studied, and its mental health impacts are even less well understood.Methods and findin ... Full text Cite

Portrayals of mental illness, treatment, and relapse and their effects on the stigma of mental illness: Population-based, randomized survey experiment in rural Uganda.

Journal Article PLoS medicine · September 2019 BackgroundMental illness stigma is a fundamental barrier to improving mental health worldwide, but little is known about how to durably reduce it. Understanding of mental illness as a treatable medical condition may influence stigmatizing beliefs, ... Full text Cite

Relative wealth, subjective social status, and their associations with depression: Cross-sectional, population-based study in rural Uganda.

Journal Article SSM - population health · August 2019 Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and has been found to be a consistent correlate of socioeconomic status (SES). The relative deprivation hypothesis proposes that one mechanism linking SES to health involves social comparisons, suggest ... Full text Cite