In early 2020, 康考迪亚大学欧文分校的教员艾琳·纳尔逊(Erin Nelson)当时正在休产假，她渴望开始一个新的研究项目, 在换尿布和24小时照顾两个小孩的过程中, one a newborn. Dr. 尼尔森在医疗保健领域的人际沟通方面有很强的背景, and when the unprecedented public health lockdowns began, 她感到迫切需要深入研究社会上正在发生的事情.
“I was in my two-month-old son’s room, breastfeeding and thinking, ‘God, there’s so much going on and I wish I was doing research,’” Nelson recalls. As if in response, 我突然想到了一个主意，召集一个研究小组来研究沟通在危机中的作用. “这绝对不是我自己的想法，”尼尔森说. “It was divine intervention.”
Nelson, a Communication professor who also teaches in CUI’s Healthcare Administration program and is helping build Concordia’s Public Health master’s degree curriculum, 在社交媒体上公开邀请，看看是否有人有兴趣合作研究应对病毒爆发的沟通相关方面.
One of the first to respond was Dr. Cathi Sinardi, who directs CUI’s Master of Healthcare Administration program, and Master of Public Health program, and Concordia University Irvine’s two under-graduate Healthcare Management majors. Sinardi, like millions of parents, was suddenly homeschooling her children, ages 5 and 8, while also building Concordia University Irvine’s growing Healthcare Administration programs from her family’s home in Tennessee.
“我想做研究，但时间太长了，我不知道从哪里开始，”西纳尔迪说. “我是在我们的教学项目中认识艾琳的，我钦佩她和她的能力. To see that post was such an opportunity. 我感到很幸运，并立即表示我想参与其中.”
Collaborating, and being mothers who have full-time jobs, 完成这种水平的研究对我来说是惊人的.
该组织获得了一笔小额赠款，用于支付参与者进行一项长期调查，调查的问题与健康驱动的破坏期间的损失体验有关. “We thought we would shed light on the collateral damage, emotionally and relation-ally, that was happening,” says Sinardi. “就在我们做研究的时候，有很多事情正在发生.”
最让Sinardi吃惊的是“人们一次要处理的损失数量!,” she says. “It was compound losses, over and over again. 阅读那些人们谈论他们如何不能参加毕业典礼的回复真是令人难以置信. They lost their ability to socialize, to go out and get fresh air, 他们的孩子在学校里失去了社交活动，正在处理一种新的虚拟学习方式.”
研究结果表明，人们不仅经历了损失, but experienced many different losses at the same time. 他们的调查回答说明了他们是如何应对集体和个人的, and whether their responses were maladaptive or helpful, Nelson says.
To the group’s surprise, the Journal of Health Communication, the top journal in that field, 接受并于2021年2月发表了他们的研究. The paper, titled, “请在心中尖叫:COVID-19大流行期间的复合损失和应对,分享了该团队对257名北美参与者进行的关于“因COVID-19而遭受的损失类型”的调查结果, feelings of guilt and delegitimization, communal coping, and general coping behaviors.作者的结论是，由于失去爱人等事物的程度不同, a job or a physical activity routine, “people felt guilty for grieving over their losses, 随后，他们不太可能将损失视为集体损失，更有可能自己利用回避应对机制.论文随后讨论了这些发现对公共卫生的影响.
“出版的速度比我预期的要快得多，”尼尔森说. “通常，这需要很长时间，而且你被拒绝的次数比被接受的次数要多. 第一次被接受是一个绝对的惊喜.”
Kids on Zoom
同样值得注意的是，这个团队是在养育年幼孩子的痛苦中做到的. 除了一位作者外，其他作者在参与研究项目时都在抚养年幼的孩子. One was also pregnant.
“On our Zoom meetings, there were little kids screaming in the background, asking for snacks, me yelling down the hall, I’m changing a diaper but I’m still listening,’” Nelson says. “It was a free-for-all, absolutely. That’s doing research as a mom.”
西纳尔迪说，孩子们经常出现在会议上，静音按钮也被大量使用.
“One person would be breastfeeding, 又一次停下来，跳起来把孩子们从打斗中拉开,” Sinardi remembers. “This group could understand each other. If someone said, ‘I have to go: The PBS show ran out. The YouTube is over. Their tablet died,’ we understood that.“午睡时间是无价的研究时间，有时还要熬夜. “等孩子们都上床睡觉了，(我的Concordia)工作也完成了，接下来就是研究了，”Sinardi说.
有时，这四个人同时编辑同一份在线文件——每个人都来自她所在的不同时区. “The aspect of collaborating, and being mothers who have full-time jobs, 完成这种水平的研究对我来说是惊人的, and I’m proud of that,” Sinardi says.
尼尔森补充说，她非常喜欢在康考迪亚大学欧文分校工作的主要原因是重视工作与生活的平衡.
“I can be a researcher, a teacher and a mom,” she says. “康科迪亚拥有我所见过的最令人惊叹的工作与生活平衡, 这让我有能力成为一名教师，并专注于我的研究, all while balancing my family. It’s the number one reason I work here.”
很明显，这一切都是上帝一手促成的.
尼尔森还说，她比以前做过的任何研究都更喜欢这项特别的研究.
“This was the first time I was really passionate, motivated and felt empowered by the research,” she says. “我用我的批判性思维技能，从与媒体沟通的角度来评估正在发生的事情, government agencies, as well as the interpersonal side. I’m especially fascinated by how families operate. That’s what drove me.”
这一成就也凸显了康考迪亚跨学院合作的价值, which “speaks to the community we have here,” Sinardi says.
更不用说康考迪亚大学欧文分校(Concordia University Irvine)的两位作者帮助完成了一项发表在同行评议期刊上的研究，并在两次会议上发表了论文，这“非常重要”, and shows what a great institution we have,” says Nelson.
该团队现在又有三篇论文发表或被重要期刊审查. 这项新的额外研究涉及社会应对COVID期间家庭内部的损失和冲突.
“很明显，上帝在整个过程中发挥了作用，”西纳尔迪说. “It’s been such a blessing and an incredible journey.”