Digital Commons Network^™

Cyberbullying Victimization As A Predictor Of Depressive Symptoms Among Selected Adolescents Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jeyaseelan Maria Michael, Marc Eric Reyes

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

Cyberbullying victimization has become a significant mental health concern, particularly among adolescents at risk of experiencing negative consequences like depression. As the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic forced everyone to stay at home and participate in all their educational, recreational, and entertainment activities online, this study investigated the relationship between cyberbullying victimization (CV) and depressive symptoms among 612 college students in Tamilnadu, India. We hypothesized that experiences of cyberbullying victimization would predict depressive symptoms among the participants. Adolescent participants aged 18 to 19 years old from colleges in Tamilnadu completed an online survey composed of the Cybervictimization questionnaire for adolescents …

Long-Term Effects Of Adolescent Fluoxetine Exposure On Hippocampal Gene Expression In Male C57bl/6 Mice, Anapaula Themann

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Mood-related disorders, including depression and anxiety, are prevalent among children and adolescents. This poses a public health challenge, given their adverse impact on these young populations. Treatment with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine (FLX) is the first line of pharmacological intervention in pediatric patients suffering from affect-related illnesses. Although the use of this antidepressant has been deemed efficacious in the juvenile population, the enduring neurobiological consequences of adolescent FLX exposure are not well understood. For this reason, we explored for persistent molecular adaptations, in the adult hippocampus, as a function of adolescent FLX pretreatment. To do this, we administered …

Identifying Risk Factors For Ptsd Symptom Clusters In Maltreated, Multiracial Youth Using Nonparametric Modeling, Mallory Constantine

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Multiracial youth are one of the most at-risk racial groups for child maltreatment. Multiracial individuals are also more likely to report mental health concerns than other racial or ethnic groups. This study aimed to identify demographic and psychological risk factors that are unique to multiracial, maltreated youth with respect to PTSD symptoms (i.e., re-experiencing, hyperarousal, avoidance) through classification and regression tree (CART) analyses. Participants included 99 multiracial, maltreated youth directly following their placement in an emergency group shelter due to substantiated maltreatment. The first hypothesis was that female gender, English first language, questions related to guilt and self-blame, and depressive …

To Engage Or Disengage: The Impact Of Coping Strategies, Sex, And Stress History On Cortisol Reactivity Among Urban Adolescents, Madeline Curzon

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Stress affects people daily and can prove maladaptive to mental health if chronic or acute. Effective coping responses may mitigate the negative effects of intense or prolonged stress through physiological processes such as HPA axis activity. Previous research has found one specific coping dimension, engagement/disengagement, to be predictive of cortisol reactivity in response to lab-induced stressors. Sex and stress history also contribute to the relationship between coping and cortisol reactivity. However, these processes are not as well understood in adolescent populations and have not been explored across different types of stressors. The present study explored the relationship between coping and …

Neurodevelopmental Processes In The Prefrontal Cortex Derailed By Chronic Hiv-1 Viral Protein Exposure, Kristen A. Mclaurin, Hailong Li, Rosemarie M. Booze, Charles F. Mactutus

Faculty Publications

Due to the widespread access to, and implementation of, combination antiretroviral therapy, individuals perinatally infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) are living into adolescence and adulthood. Perinatally infected adolescents living with HIV-1 (pALHIV) are plagued by progressive, chronic neurocognitive impairments; the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying these deficits, however, remain understudied. A longitudinal experimental design from postnatal day (PD) 30 to PD 180 was utilized to establish the development of pyramidal neurons, and associated dendritic spines, from layers II-III of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in HIV-1 transgenic (Tg) and control animals. Three putative neuroinflammatory markers (i.e., IL-1β, IL-6, and …

Longitudinal Impact Of Childhood Adversity On Early Adolescent Mental Health During The Covid-19 Pandemic In The Abcd Study Cohort: Does Race Or Ethnicity Moderate Findings?, Elizabeth A. Stinson, Ryan Michael Sullivan, Susan Tapert, Fiona Baker, Florence Breslin, Anthony Dick, Marybel Gonzalez, Mathieu Guillaume, Andrew Marshall, Connor Mccabe, William Pelham Iii, Amandine Van Rinsveld, Chandni Sheth, Elizabeth Sowell, Natasha Wade, Alexander L. Wallace, Krista M. Lisdahl

Psychology Faculty Articles

Background

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, mental health among youth has been negatively affected. Youth with a history of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), as well as youth from minoritized racial-ethnic backgrounds, may be especially vulnerable to experiencing COVID-19–related distress. The aims of this study are to examine whether exposure to pre-pandemic ACEs predicts mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in youth and whether racial-ethnic background moderates these effects.

Methods

From May to August 2020, 7983 youths (mean age, 12.5 years; range, 10.6–14.6 years) in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study completed at least one of three …

Resting State Functional Connectivity In The Default Mode Network: Relationships Between Cannabis Use, Gender, And Cognition In Adolescents And Young Adults, Megan Ritchay

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit substance in the United States, and nearly 1 in 4 young adults are current cannabis users. The psychoactive component of cannabis, THC, is active at cannabinoid receptors, type 1, or CB1 receptors. CB1 receptors play a critical role in neural development, and chronic cannabis use causes desensitization and downregulation of these receptors. Chronic cannabis use is associated with changes in resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in the default mode network (DMN) in adolescents and young adults, although results are somewhat inconsistent across studies, likely due to differing methodologies. Additionally, cannabis effects appear …

Differences In Compulsive-Like Ethanol Consumption In Adolescent-Trained And Adult-Trained Rats Exposed To Acute Isolation Stressors, Maria J. Lopez

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The Pavlovian Conditioned Approach (PCA) procedure is an experimental procedure used with animals to induce compulsive-like behaviors directed towards an object conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with a sucrose pellet unconditioned stimulus (US) presented in a nearby food tray (sign tracking). When the object CS is an alcohol-containing bottle, the rats demonstrate compulsive-like interactions with the bottle object (e.g., approach, contact, and licking) that also results in alcohol consumption (drinking) in most rats. Compulsive alcohol drinking in a sign-tracking procedure is a result of the combined effects of schedule-induced compulsive-like behavior and the intake of alcohol (Tomie & Sharma, 2013).

The …

The Relationship Between Neighbourhood-Level And Family-Level Factors And Sleep Problems Among Children And Youth, Katarina Mckenzie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There is little research on the effects of neighbourhood factors on child sleep outcomes. No study to date has investigated the interactive effects of neighbourhood and family socio-economic characteristics (SECs) on child sleep outcomes. This study aimed to fill this gap. Secondary data analyses were completed on two samples (children and youth) from the 2014 Ontario Child Health Study, a cross-sectional, province-wide sample of 10,802 children aged 4 to 17. Multi-level modeling was used to assess the relationship between child- (e.g., age), family- (e.g., negative parenting) and neighbourhood-level factors and their relationship to sleep outcome variables: problems falling asleep, problems …

Indirect Effects Of Hpa Axis Dysregulation In The Association Between Peer Victimization And Depressed Affect During Early Adolescence, Ryan E. Adams, Jonathan Santo, William M. Bukowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective

Previous research has identified a link between peer victimization and depressive symptoms during adolescence. The goal of the current study is to examine the possible indirect effects of HPA axis dysregulation in the link between adolescent peer victimization and depressive symptoms.

Method

A total of 113 boys (n = 61) and girls (n = 52) participants from grade 5 (M age = 10.31 years) and grade 6 (M age = 11.33 years) who were predominantly European-Canadian completed self-report measures of peer victimization and depressed affect as well as, measures of salivary cortisol and self-reports of …

Reducing Stigma Associated With Growing Up Poor: How To Create A More Equitable Future For Working Class Adolescents, Jessica Goodpaster

University Honors Theses

I examine how stigma associated with socioeconomic status (SES), or social class, has the potential to negatively impact individuals during adolescence. Specifically, I focus on the impact of class stigma, and the institutional barriers faced by adolescents as they prepare for adulthood. These barriers and the stress felt due to both stigmatization, and environmental stimuli specifically pertaining to low-income neighborhoods/environments, can hinder or alter the development of the four major domains of development: physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. Stigmatization has resulted in physically and socially isolating low-income communities from middle- or high-income communities, hindering social mobility for L-SES adolescents. …

Exercise, Cognition, And Cannabis Use In Adolescents, Ileana Pacheco-Colón

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Heavy and/or chronic cannabis use has been associated with neurocognitive impairment and decline, often in domains such as memory and executive functioning. On the other hand, exercise has been linked to positive effects on brain and cognitive health across the lifespan, as well as to better substance use outcomes. Despite this, little is known about the ways in which exercise could help prevent or ameliorate adverse cannabis-related outcomes among adolescents.

Through three separate studies, the current dissertation examines interrelations among exercise, cognition, and cannabis use in children and adolescents in an effort to determine whether exercise can prevent or ameliorate …

Factors Affecting Pubertal Timing And Perceptions Of Birth Control, Ashley L. Gomm

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Menarche is the occurrence of a first menstrual period in the female adolescent. The age of menarche has been decreasing over the past 150 years. While some factors have been identified, like increased body mass index (BMI), such factors alone cannot account for the overall decrease in age.

Due to the decreased age of menarche and as additional uses for oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) have been identified, it is becoming clear that females no longer use “birth control” or “oral contraceptives” primarily to prevent pregnancy, but instead for a myriad other reasons including “menstrual suppression.” Menstrual suppression is …

An Investigation Of Developmental Precursors And Consequences Of Self-Sacrificing Behaviors In Young Adult Romantic Relationships, Emme Lis

Masters Theses, 2020-current

It has been well established that the early attachment relationship a child forms with their parent or caregiver is foundational in influencing subsequent relationships throughout life. Adolescence itself is also a critical developmental period for future relationship development. The current study therefore was interested in examining ways in which attachment orientations youth carry into adolescence combine with parental influences to shape teens’ future relational behaviors and attitudes in young adulthood. Specifically, the parental influences of promotion of autonomy and positive relatedness, as well as parental valuing of prosocial behaviors and self-directed behavior during adolescence were investigated in interaction with early …

Effects Of Adolescent Motivation And Personality On Adherence And Success In A Voluntary Residential Bootcamp Program, Lydia Sigurdson

Master's Theses

The Youth ChalleNGe Program is a voluntary program for adolescents who have dropped out of high school and is intended to address various needs of at-risk youth. As a result, individuals are motivated to enroll for an array of reasons. Though prior research on the Youth ChalleNGe Program has sought to identify individual factors that determine program outcomes, no study has considered motivation for enrollment as a predictor of program success. Further, personality traits related to goal setting and self-regulation may impact the relationship between motivation and program outcome. Archival data was gathered from 710 participants in the Youth ChalleNGe …

Bullying Victimization And Friendship As Influences On Sleep Difficulty Among Brazilian Adolescents, Thiago Henrique Roza, Vitor Atsushi Nozaki Yano, Sarah Aline Roza, Jonathan Santo, Josafa M. Da Cunha

Psychology Faculty Publications

Bullying victimization is associated with poor health-related outcomes, including sleeping problems. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of bullying victimization on sleep difficulty, and the moderating effect of the number of close friends on this association, also exploring differences across genders. The study was based on a nationally-representative survey on adolescent health conducted in Brazilian schools, involving a total of 109,104 participants, enrolled at the 9th year in 2012. The measures used in the analysis included socio-demographic characteristics, bullying victimization, sleep difficulty, and number of close friends. In the multilevel models, reporting more peer victimization was associated with …

How An Adolescent Athlete's Status And Deviation From Masculine Norms Is Perceived By Adult Men: The Impact Of Observers' Masculine Ideology, Brandon C. Martin

Undergraduate Theses

Masculinity has been at the forefront of discussion surrounding social change in American popular culture. After consideration of the historical context of masculinity in the 20th century, development and sport were discussed. To evaluate the effects of adult men’s masculinity ideology on their perceptions of gender nonconforming behavior (pink nail polish), an adolescent male athlete target was utilized. A 2 x 2 between-subjects design used sport (football and swimming), and status (a freshman and a senior) in vignettes which described an adolescent male athlete. Participants’ unique attributes, such as degree of conformity to masculine norms, gender role conflict, and policing …

The Development Of Reward Processing And Risky Behaviors In The Brain, Michelle L. Ramos

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adolescence is a period of heightened risk taking which can lead to many negative consequences. This increased risk taking may be related to developmental changes in the reward processing system in the brain. The current study proposes to investigate individual differences in the development of the reward processing system as well as cognitive-based regulatory processes in the developing brain, and how heterogeneity in neural and autonomic activity related to these processes may predict risk-taking behavior. Despite crucial developmental changes in the reward system leading to hypersensitivity to reward, there is great variability in risk-taking and sensation seeking behaviors seen in …

L-Theanine Prevents Long-Term Affective And Cognitive Side Effects Of Adolescent Δ-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Exposure And Blocks Associated Molecular And Neuronal Abnormalities In The Mesocorticolimbic Circuitry, Marta De Felice, Justine Renard, Roger Hudson, Hanna J. Szkudlarek, Brian J. Pereira, Susanne Schmid, Walter J. Rushlow, Steven R. Laviolette

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Chronic adolescent exposure to Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is linked to elevated neuropsychiatric risk and induces neuronal, molecular and behavioral abnormalities resembling neuropsychiatric endophenotypes. Previous evidence has revealed that the mesocorticolimbic circuitry, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and mesolimbic dopamine (DA) pathway are particularly susceptible to THC-induced pathologic alterations, including dysregulation of DAergic activity states, loss of PFC GABAergic inhibitory control and affective and cognitive abnormalities. There are currently limited pharmacological intervention strategies capable of preventing THC-induced neuropathological adaptations. L-Theanine is an amino acid analog of L-glutamate and L-glutamine derived from various plant sources, including green tea leaves. L-Theanine has previously been …

Adults’ Reflections On Their Lived Experiences With Adolescent Social Anxiety Disorder, Shelley Marie Skelton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental health disorders for children and youths, and social anxiety disorder (SAD) is the third most common anxiety disorder. SAD can negatively impact school performance, mental health, and healthy social development. In comparison to other forms of anxiety, current treatments for SAD have not been as efficacious. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore other factors of adolescent SAD, such as the role of resilience. The two research questions addressed the lived experiences of adolescents with SAD and how they developed resilience in relation to their SAD. Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of …

Using Photovoice To Understand And Amplify Youth Voices To Prevent Sexual And Relationship Violence, Victoria Banyard, Katie Edwards, Ramona Herrington, Skyler Hopfauf, Briana Simon, Linda Shroll

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Aims: Efforts to improve prevention of sexual and relationship violence (SRV) among adolescents call for more centering of youth voices, experiences, and skills to design prevention programs that incorporate youth engagement rather than those that are designed by adults for youth. Amplifying the voices of historically marginalized youth are especially needed. Photovoice (PV) is a participatory action method that can empower youth and generate prevention knowledge.

Methods: The current project used PV to engage youth in late middle and early high school to discuss how they could work to prevent SRV in their community. A convenience sample of nine youth …

Educational Outcomes Of Adolescents Participating In Specialist Sport Programs In Low Ses Areas Of Western Australia: A Mixed Methods Study, Eibhlish O'Hara, Craig Harms, Fadi Ma'ayah, Craig Speelman

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Specialist Sport Programs (SSPs) are an underexamined activity that combines the best features of two different contexts for adolescent development: a sporting program and a secondary school. A mixed-methods study was conducted to determine the influence of participation in SSPs on the educational outcomes of lower secondary students in Western Australia. The results demonstrated a significant improvement in specialist students' mean grade for Mathematics over the course of a year, while their mean grade for all other subjects, and their level of engagement with school, remained stable over the same period of time. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with key …

Positive Youth Development: Parental Warmth, Values, And Prosocial Behavior In 11 Cultural Groups, Concetta Pastorelli, Antonio Zuffiano, Jennifer E. Lansford, Eriona Thartori, Marc H. Bornstein, Lei Chang, Kirby Deater-Deckard, Laura Di Giunta, Kenneth A. Dodge, Sevtap Gurdal, Qin Liu, Qian Long, Paul Oburu, Ann T. Skinner, Emma Sorbing, Laurence Steinberg, Sombat Tapanya, Liliana Maria Uribe Tirado, Saengduean Yotanyamaneewong, Suha M. Al-Hassan, Liane Peña Alampay, Dario Bacchini

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

The current cross-cultural study aimed to extend research on parenting and children’s prosocial behavior by examining relations among parental warmth, values related to family obligations (i.e., children’s support to and respect for their parents, siblings, and extended family), and prosocial behavior during the transition to adolescence (from ages 9 to 12). Mothers, fathers, and their children (N = 1107 families) from 8 countries including 11 cultural groups (Colombia; Rome and Naples, Italy; Jordan; Kenya; the Philippines; Sweden; Thailand; and African Americans, European Americans, and Latin Americans in the United States) provided data over 3 years in 3 waves (M_{age …}

Psychology Of Adolescence, Brent Maximin

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Coparenting Among Families Of Treatment-Seeking Adolescents: Associations With Coping Behaviors And Psychological Adjustment, Andrew Joseph Flannery

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In recent decades, the family literature has demonstrated that the influences of coparenting spread through the entire family system and also uniquely affect child and adolescent psychosocial outcomes. For example, extant evidence shows that coparenting influences the connection between marital conflict and adolescent psychosocial outcomes. However, the period of adolescence is underscored by novel stressors, as teenagers experience biological, psychological, social, and cognitive transformations. Moreover, the median age of onset for mood, anxiety, substance use, and impulse-control disorders is before 25 years of age and most frequently during adolescence. Additionally, the manner in which adolescents cope with stressors may buffer …

The Effect Of Depression On Adolescent Deviant Behavior And The Mediating Effect Of Autonomy, Theresa Lee

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to synthesize the relations among the adolescent need for autonomy in decision making process, depression, and tendencies for deviant or risk-taking behaviors as adolescents. Background variables such as socio-economic status, sex, race, previous academic achievement, parent warmth and support, resistance to peer pressure were controlled for. Using the NICHD database set, multiple regression analyses revealed that adolescent autonomy was not correlated with adolescent depression, and earlier depression at sixth grade was not a significant mediator of the effect of earlier deviant behaviors at sixth grade on later adolescent deviant behaviors. More importantly, however, the …

Fitting In: A Study On Adolescent Identity-Uncertainty And Group Entitativity, Isabela Ixchel Cruz-Vespa

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Uncertainty-Identity Theory hypothesizes that the more uncertain people are about themselves, the more likely they are to identify with groups as a way to define themselves and guide their behavior. Research has shown that this identification can happen to an extreme level when the group is highly entitative, or provides clear expectations for how group members should behave, think and feel, thereby resolving their uncertainty. Adolescence is a development period defined by self-uncertainty, and therefore also heightened vulnerability to highly entitative, extremist groups. This experiment tests the prediction that adolescents who are experiencing high self-uncertainty will be more likely to …

Co-Constructing Stigma: Treating Trauma In Adolescence, Isabelle Sanderson

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Public stigma and self-stigma are major factors that impede the seeking of mental health treatment as well as the development of an effective therapeutic alliance. This paper explores the co-creation of stigma dynamics from an intersubjective systems theory lens suggesting these dynamics may play a role for adolescent clients who have experienced significant trauma. Specifically, the potential overlooking and/or misdiagnosis of trauma-related experiences and symptoms often occurring with adolescents diagnosed with ADHD may be contributing to a co-constructed dynamic between the therapist and client to avoid an exploration of trauma that would be experienced as more stigmatizing, more threatening, and …