Morning Symposia

Time: 10:30-11:30 (symposia 1-3 are concurrent sessions)

Symposium 1: Trauma, Conflict, and Resilience

Recording: https://youtu.be/PQTxHO-oGBk

Location: Penn 1 and Zoom (same link as the conference webinar link)

Chair and Discussant: Ann Skinner, Research Scientist, Duke Center for Child and Family Policy

This symposium examines trauma and resilience across intergenerational, conflict-affected, and youth development contexts. The first presentation aims to broaden intergenerational trauma research by highlighting overlooked trauma subtypes, calling for more inclusive models and interventions. The second draws on cognitive neuroscience fieldwork with Colombian war survivors, reflecting on both methodological and ethical challenges of supporting participants’ mental health. The third shares findings from a career readiness intervention with orphaned and separated adolescents in India, demonstrating the importance of skills training in helping to reduce stress and enhance empowerment during critical life transitions. Together, these studies illuminate how trauma can manifest across settings and generations, and how sensitive and context-specific strategies can foster healing, resilience, and agency.

Symposium 2: Alcohol, Depression, and Intervention Strategies

Recording: https://youtu.be/sCFLNeIYRlE

Location: Penn Garden Level and Zoom

Chair: Catherine Staton, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Research Professor of Global Health, Professor in Neurosurgery

Discussant: Sarah Wilson, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences

This symposium explores the intersections of alcohol use, depression, and intervention strategies. The first explores gendered differences in depression and alcohol use in Northern Tanzania, highlighting how sociocultural norms and social support networks shape coping behaviors between genders. The second presents a case series of a culturally adapted, nurse-delivered brief intervention in emergency care in Tanzania, showing reductions in harmful alcohol use, depression, and related consequences over two years. The third details the Alcohol Use Behavioral Phenotyping Test (AUBPT) pilot, which uses gamified, app-based behavioral tasks and machine learning to create culturally adaptable screening tools for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in low- and middle-income countries. Together, these studies illustrate how culturally-adapted, innovative, and context-specific strategies can address the burden of alcohol use and comorbid mental health conditions in resource-limited settings.

Symposium 3: Adapting Cognitive Assessments for Schizophrenia to Historically Excluded Groups

Recording: https://youtu.be/XQZIA_I7Cok

Location: Penn 2 and Zoom

Chair: Lawrence Yang, Pauline Gratz Distinguished Professor at Duke University School of Nursing

Discussant: William Stone, Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University

Cognitive impairment is a key feature of schizophrenia (SCZ), yet assessments are constrained by age and education. We present an adapted cognitive measure—the Flexible Adapted Cognitive Test battery for Schizophrenia (FACTS)-targeting the 27%–38% of older, undereducated individuals with SCZ worldwide. This symposium highlights advances in the use of the FACTS to broaden cognitive research in schizophrenia globally. Presentations will cover core adaptations that make the tool accessible for older, less educated respondents; new data from rural China on instruction comprehension and test completion; applications from testing in India and Nigeria; and findings from rural China showing that antipsychotic treatment effects on cognition emerge mainly after the first decade of illness. Together, these studies expand the global applicability of cognitive assessment in schizophrenia research.

Afternoon Symposia

Time: 3:00-4:00 (symposia 4-6 are concurrent sessions)

Symposium 4: Interventions for Child and Family Wellbeing

Recording: https://youtu.be/J8UPXI6wMz4

Location: Penn 1 and Zoom

Chair: Emma Mew, Post-Doctoral Associate, Duke Center for Global Mental Health

Discussant: Andrea Diaz-Stransky, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

This symposium showcases innovative approaches to strengthening child and family wellbeing across diverse cultural and global contexts. The first presentation introduces Caminando Juntos, a culturally adapted psychosocial intervention designed to support Latinx immigrant families in navigating acculturative stress and fostering positive family functioning. The second uses nationally representative data from India to show how maternal depression significantly reduces timely childhood vaccination, highlighting the need to integrate parental mental health screening into child health platforms. The third presents Sathea Samathi, a new manualized therapy protocol rooted in Theravada Buddhist traditions in Cambodia, co-developed with religious and mental health leaders to promote youth flourishing. Together, these studies illustrate how culturally grounded, family-centered, and contextually tailored interventions can address pressing child and caregiver mental health needs worldwide.

Symposium 5: Mental Health in Caregiving Professions

Recording: https://youtu.be/T6qBzPMT_gE

Location: Penn 2 and Zoom

Chair: Rae-Jean Proeschold-Bell, Research Professor of Global Health, Director of the Duke Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research (CHPIR)

Discussant: Harold Koenig, Director, Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Associate Professor of Medicine

This symposium explores the intersection of early life adversity, minority stress, and occupational mental health in caregiving professions. The first presentation examines the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) among United Methodist clergy, comparing clergy to the general population and highlighting distinctive patterns of childhood adversity that may shape vocational pathways and occupational wellbeing. The second presentation focuses on divinity school students, investigating depression among sexual and gender minority (SGM) students relative to their peers and the role of shame in shaping mental health trajectories over time. A third project examines hope as a unique positive emotion, showing that it enhances meaning and purpose, particularly among those with high ACEs or mental health challenges. Together, these studies provide novel insights into how formative experiences and identity-related stressors influence the mental health underscoring the importance of tailored support systems for clergy and seminarians and highlighting the unique role of hope in mental health resilience.