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Emotion Reactivity, Emotion Dysregulation, And Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Among At-Risk Adolescents: A Multiple Mediation Analysis, Paula N. Floyd

Master's Theses

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is defined as deliberate self-inflicted damage to bodily tissue without the intent to die. NSSI has been identified as a major health concern, as it is related to both poor psychosocial outcomes and increased suicide risk. NSSI is especially important to understand among adolescents, as age of onset is typically during adolescence and prevalence rates are highest among this age group. One of the most well-established correlates of NSSI is emotion dysregulation. While many studies have examined emotion dysregulation and its subcomponents in relation to self-injury, there has been far less work devoted to factors that may …

Summertime Sleep And Bmi In Urban Minority Girls: Relations To Physical Activity And Executive Functions, Carolyn Rose Bates

Master's Theses

Urban minority youth, particularly females, are at high risk for increased weight gain during the summertime months, and may also experience insufficient sleep at this time. Few studies have objectively measured summertime sleep in this population or related sleep to weight gain during this season. The current study draws on a sample of 66 urban minority girls aged 10-to-14 who participated in a community-based summer day camp program promoting physical activity (PA). The study objectively characterizes sleep in this sample, both in unstructured and structured contexts. Additionally, the study examines potential pathways underlying summertime relations between sleep and weight, including …

The Effects Of Acculturative Stress On Mental Health Outcomes Of African Immigrant And Refugee Youth: Coping As A Moderator, Emma-Lorraine Baaba Bart-Plange

Master's Theses

For immigrant and refugee adolescents, acculturative stress such as social and family conflict may be experienced as a result of the acculturation process (Berry, 2006; Mena, Padilla, & Maldonado, 1987). While research documents that these adolescents demonstrate patterns of associations between acculturative stress and internalizing symptoms, development of coping strategies may help youth to address adverse stressors (Oppedal, Roysamb, & Heyerdahl, 2005; Zimmer-Gembeck & Skinner, 2011). In addition to mainstream coping strategies, culturally-relevant coping strategies may be used by ethnic minorities, particularly those of African descent (Utsey, Brown, & Bolden, 2004). The purpose of the current study was to determine …

Positive Peer Pressure Among Black American Youth And The Roles Of Ethnic Identity And Gender, Dakari Quimby

Master's Theses

Peer pressure is a phenomenon that affects many youth due to the importance of peer relations during adolescence (Brinthaupt, 2002). Consequences associated with negative peer pressure have been well documented, but the extant literature on positive peer pressure is sparse though it may be an untapped source of positive development (Padilla-Walker & Bean, 2009). The current study examined whether positive peer association, a form of peer pressure involving the indirect modeling of behaviors, can have a role in promoting healthy youth development longitudinally among African American adolescents living in low-income, urban, high violence neighborhoods. A sample of 316 African American …

Predictors Of Academic Achievement And Failure Among Low-Income Urban African American Adolescents: An Ecological Perspective, Israel Moses Gross

Master's Theses

Predictors of academic achievement among urban low-income African American adolescents have primarily been investigated by examining "main effects," or limited interactions with conventional statistical techniques. This paper adds to the literature by examining the factors that influence academic outcomes among this population within an ecological systems framework. This allowed for a comprehensive understanding of how numerous protective and risk factors, across ecological settings, interact to influence academic outcomes.

Optimal Data Analysis (ODA) was employed to create prediction models for mathematic and reading achievement. ODA allowed for the examination of a vast number of variables in one statistical model without increasing …

Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Clusters And Externalizing Problems In Young Urban African American Adolescents, Maria Ann Horn-Rollins

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between five posttraumatic stress symptom (PTSS) clusters and two forms of externalizing problems within and across the middle school years in a low income urban sample of young adolescent African Americans. A secondary aim of this study was to explore moderation effects by gender. Total PTSS positively predicted a little over 58% of the cross-sectional externalizing outcomes and uniquely explained between 5 and 12% of the variance in these outcomes over and above gender and exposure to violence. Total PTSS significantly and positively predicted one-third of the longitudinal outcomes and …