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Karen Skemp

Associate Professor
Public/Community Health Edu University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

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Karen Skemp

Associate Professor

Public/Community Health Edu

Specialty area(s)

Nutrition and performance, Alternative Nutrition, Nutrition education, Body Image and eating patterns across various populations, Fitness Across the Lifespan.

Education

Ph.D. (Kinesiology), University of Minnesota
M.Ed. (Physical Education/Athletic Administration), North Dakota State University
B.A. (Education/Sociology), University of San Diego

Kudos

presented

Patrick Barlow, Institutional Research, Assessment & Planning; and Michele Pettit and Karen Skemp, both Public Health & Community Health Education; presented "Exploring the nexus of mental health, spirituality, and social media" at American Public Health Association 2024 Annual Meeting & Expo: on Oct. 27 in Minneapolis, MN. Spirituality includes a sense of connection to something bigger than oneself and may become prominent when an individual confronts adversity. Resilience refers to the ability to bounce back from challenging situations. This study examined spiritual coping and resilience in relation to social media use, anxiety, depression, and stress among a campus community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Faculty, staff, and students from a mid-sized Midwestern public university completed an online survey consisting of items from the Spiritual Coping Strategies Scale, a revised version of the Facebook Intensity Scale, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale, and the Brief Resilience Scale. Age may be a protective factor in offsetting adverse mental health effects of social media. Similarly, religious spiritual coping may be a protective factor against anxiety.

Submitted on: Nov. 20

presented

Patrick Barlow, Institutional Research, Assessment & Planning; and Michele Pettit and Karen Skemp, both Public Health & Community Health Education; presented "Coping with a crisis: The intersection of spirituality and social media" at American Public Health Association 2023 Annual Meeting & Expo: on Nov. 13 in Atlanta, GA. Spirituality includes a sense of connection to something bigger than oneself and may become prominent when an individual confronts emotional stress, physical ailments or mortality. Resilience refers to the ability to bounce back when presented with challenging situations. COVID-19 presented a challenging situation for people across the globe. To that end, the purpose of this study was to examine spiritual coping in relation to social media use, resilience, stress, depression, and anxiety among a campus community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Submitted on: Nov. 20, 2023

published

Addie M. Berens, Department of Anesthesiology, Children’s Hospital, Milwaukee, WI and Karen Skemp, Public Health and Community Health Education, co-authored the article "Examining the Prevalence of Disordered Eating among Menopausal and Post-Menopausal Women" in Archives of Women Health and Care published on May 8 by Archives of Women Health and Care.

Submitted on: May 12, 2023