Digital Commons Network^™

Do Developmental Assessments Impact Parental Stress?, Ivy Campos

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is a preliminary exploration of whether parental stress can be influenced by receiving the developmental assessment information about a target child. The study consisted of 25 self-referred families who sought developmental assessments from the Youth and Family Development Program (YFDP) at Florida International University, with children between 4 to 12 years of age. All parents contacting YFDP for developmental assessments completed a pre-test (Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) over the telephone. Participants (both parent and child) completed an assessment battery during Weeks 1 and 2, and a final feedback session (Week 4) was provided for the parent on …

Evaluating A Participatory Approach To Diversity Training With Multicultural Counseling Trainees, Jenean Brown

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain knowledge about the impact and effectiveness of instructional practices used in teaching of multicultural diversity sensitivity courses at the graduate level. A participatory approach termed Transformative Diversity Training (TDT) was evaluated by examining how graduate students (N = 41 evaluated their own change in (a) awareness, knowledge, and skills for working with diverse clients, and (b) efforts to transform themselves, work settings, and/or communities toward more equitable practices. TDT impact was analyzed by examining participants' written responses to questions provided at pretest (start of semester), posttest (end of semester), and follow-up (one …

On The Developmental Continuity/Discontinuity Of Early Adolescent Patterns Of Racial Identity Salience : Relations With Later Identities And Psychosocial Adjustment, Anthony L. Burrow

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Given the significant amount of attention placed upon race within our society, racial identity long has been nominated as a meaningful influence upon human development (Cross, 1971; Sellers et al., 1998). Scholars investigating aspects of racial identity have largely pursued one of two lines of research: (a) describing factors and processes that contribute to the development of racial identities, or (b) empirically documenting associations between particular racial identities and key adjustment outcomes. However, few studies have integrated these two approaches to simultaneously evaluate developmental and related adjustment aspects of racial identity among minority youth. Consequently, relations between early racial identity …

How Diagnoses Of Comorbid Disorders Are Associated With Treatment Entry, Treatment Completion And Alcohol Use Severity Among Adolescents In A Substance Abuse Treatment Program, Holly Ann Buss

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined patterns of comorbid diagnoses and their relation to treatment entry, treatment completion and alcohol use severity in a sample of 494 adolescents involved in a substance abuse treatment program. Utilization of other treatment services was also examined.

The results revealed no significant differences among groups with various patterns of comorbid disorders in terms of retention. However, there was a trend suggesting that participants diagnosed with externalizing disorders were less likely to enter into treatment. Adolescents who used alcohol more severely were more likely to read self-help books. Results indicated that adolescents diagnosed with internalizing disorders used alcohol …

An Investigation Of The Effects Of A School-Based Intervention On Feelings Of Personal Expressiveness In Multi-Problem Adolescent Youth, Richard E. Albrecht

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to determine the effects of the Changing Lives Program intervention on troubled adolescents' feelings of personal expressiveness, believed to be one domain of positive identity development. Forty-three intervention and twenty nonintervention comparison control participants were given a battery of pre-, post-, and follow-up assessments including the Personally Expressive Questionnaire (Waterman, 1995), which was used to derive participants' feelings of personal expressiveness scores. Using Repeated Measures Analysis of Multivariate Analysis (RMANOVA), a significant four-way interaction of Time X Condition X Gender X Ethnicity was found relative to the Control, Roy's Ɵ = .166, F(2,47) = 3.899, p < .027 indicating that intervention participants' feelings of personal expressiveness did increase significantly relative to the control group. Furthermore, the results suggest differential outcomes based on ethnicity, suggesting the need for future study with respect to specificity of effects and mechanisms of identity formation in differing ethnic subgroups.