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Risk And Resistance Factors For Depression And Anxiety Among Youth With Sickle Cell Disease, Laura Reinman

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: Depression and anxiety are common problems for adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD). It is important to understand both risk and resiliency factors contributing to psychological outcomes among youth with SCD in order to prevent and effectively treat such problems. To better elucidate contributing factors to depression and anxiety among youth with SCD selected risk and resiliency factors from the risk-and-resistance model adapted for SCD were examined (Barakat, Lash, Lutz, & Nicolaou, 2006). The risk factor of fatigue and resistance/resiliency factors of cognitive appraisal of stress and self-concept are of focus because they have been understudied, and their temporal …

The Influence Of Adhd Symptoms And Social Functioning On Anxiety And Depression Symptoms In College Students, Danielle Willis

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has shown that Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with impaired social functioning in children and adolescents. ADHD and poor social functioning have been shown to be separately associated with increased anxiety and depression symptoms as well. However, little research has examined these associations among college students. College is a transitional period of increased stress and exposure to new social situations for all students, but may be even more challenging for those with ADHD, who are already at risk for increased internalizing problems and impairment in social functioning. The current study aimed to examine the influence of ADHD symptoms …

Examining Early Maladaptive Schemas, Depression, And Health Behaviors, Juliana D'Onofrio

Theses and Dissertations

Chronic disease continues to predominate the leading causes of death and account for the majority of healthcare expenditures in the United States. Researchers have identified that engagement in negative health behaviors, such as eating a poor diet, physical inactivity, risky sexual activity, nicotine and illicit drug use, and excessive alcohol consumption is a key risk factor for developing chronic disease later in life. In order to help motivate individuals to adhere to a healthy lifestyle, understanding why an individual might engage in negative health behaviors is warranted. Young's schema theory is a social cognitive theory that explores early maladaptive schemas …

What Is The Relationship Between Religiosity, Self-Perceived Problematic Pornography Use, And Depression Over Time?, Meghan Elizabeth Maddock

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies suggest that religious individuals are more likely than non-religious individuals to perceive their pornography use as problematic. For our six-month longitudinal study, we recruited a sample of adults from Turkprime.com. We hypothesized that more religious individuals who use pornography at baseline would report higher self-perceived problematic pornography use at three months, which would be associated with higher depression at six months. We constructed and validated our own measure of self-perceived problematic pornography use, which included two factors: excessive pornography use and compulsive pornography use. We ran two separate structural equation models, one with excessive use at three months …

Behavioral And Voltammetric Analysis Of Chronic Escitalopram Treatment To The Hiv-1 Transgenic Rat: Implications For Comorbid Hiv-1 And Clinical Depression, Adam R. Denton

Theses and Dissertations

HIV-1 infection is a serious condition affecting approximately 37 million individuals. Between 30% and 60% of seropositive individuals will develop symptoms of clinical depression. These individuals are five times more likely to commit suicide than non-seropositive clinically depressed patients. Dysfunction in serotonergic and dopaminergic transmission has consistently been implicated in the pathogenesis of depression. Specifically, dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex and in the nucleus accumbens core region have been shown to be underlying factors in the trajectory of depression. Given these underlying neurological features, the present research employed behavioral testing and electrochemical recording in an attempt to elucidate the therapeutic …

9/11 Exposure And Parental Monitoring, Heather Zemeck

Theses and Dissertations

This paper investigates the effects of 9/11/01 exposure on parental monitoring, and how depression and anxiety are associated with these effects. This research utilizes data collected from Evacuees, First Responders, and non-exposed Controls. Results revealed moderate 9/11 exposure is associated with increased parental monitoring; while, depression is associated with decreased parental monitoring.

Social Jetlag, Depressive Symptoms, And Longitudinal Outcomes In College Students, Morgan P. Reid

Theses and Dissertations

Social jetlag refers to the chronic shift in sleep timing between work and free days and has been associated with a variety of negative physical and psychological outcomes. Existing research on social jetlag has relied heavily on cross-sectional studies, preventing researchers and practitioners from assessing the effects of social jetlag over time. The current study used longitudinal data to explore the directionality of the association between social jetlag and depressive symptoms as well as the longitudinal associations between social jetlag, academic performance, and wellbeing in college students. Gender and race were also assessed as potential moderators of these associations. Cross-lagged …

Competing Strength-Based Models Of Trauma And Suicidality In A High-Risk Primary Care Sample, Samantha Mladen

Theses and Dissertations

There is limited research on the relationship between trauma exposure, depression, and suicidality, particularly in high-risk primary care samples. The present study aims to: 1) characterize the prevalence of suicidality, depression, and trauma exposure in this sample; 2)develop and test models of the relationships between suicidality, depression, and trauma exposure in this sample; 3) augment the selected model with key protective factors, including social support and religiosity; and 4) further elaborate the nature of religiosity as a potential protective factor using the subscales of the Attitudes toward God scale, Anger toward God and Comfort with God.

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Examining Mother And Father (Dis)Agreement Of Youth Mental Health Among Ethnically Diverse Families, Areti Vassilopoulos

Theses and Dissertations

Many children and adolescents in the United States experience externalizing behavior problems identified as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder. These behavior problems cause disruptions in the youth’s socioemotional functioning and academic success. The assignment of a diagnosis from the DSM-5 is often the first step in treatment planning, because many clinics and third-party payers require a diagnosis for authorization of treatment payment. However, research has repeatedly revealed that informants differ in the information they provide regarding youth mental health. While studies have separately examined the association of youth characteristics, parent characteristics, and family characteristics and informant agreement, …

The Role Of Strength: Navigating Perinatal Loss Among Black Women, Ashley N. Hill

Theses and Dissertations

In the U.S., Black mothers experience fetal and infant mortality at alarming rates when compared to White and Latina mothers (Gregory, Drake, & Martin, 2018). The intent of this study was to examine perinatal loss among Black American women and to expand understanding of how the Strong Black Woman (SBW) ideology influences bereavement. Data were gathered from (N=109) Black American bereaved mothers. It was predicted that endorsement of differing aspects of the SBW would moderate the relationship between perinatal grief and psychosocial outcomes (i.e., depression and post-traumatic growth). Regression analyses, alongside a bootstrapping procedure via PROCESS (Hayes, 2017), …

Longitudinal Patterns Of Depression Symptoms Among Emerging Adults, Sarah W. Clark

Theses and Dissertations

Research has suggested that depression symptoms generally decrease after late adolescence; however, there is increasing attention paid to depression symptoms among college students given the stressors unique to this time period and negative outcomes associated with depression. This study examined latent trajectories of depression symptom severity among college students. Participants were 9,889 college students who participated in the Spit for Science project (Dick et al., 2011). Growth Mixture Modeling was used to identify the presence of four subgroups of individuals with similar patterns of initial level and change in depression severity over four years of college, including Low/Minimal (55.9%), Decreasing …