Digital Commons Network^™

Emergency Care For Youth Who Experience Suicidality And Identify As Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer/Questioning (Lgbtq+): An Interpretive Phenomenology, Theresa Schultz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: Suicide is a leading cause of death in children; youth who identify as LGBTQ+ are at an exponentially higher risk of suicide. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of young adults who identify as LGBTQ+ and sought emergency care for suicidality when they were adolescents.

Methods: Heideggerian hermeneutics phenomenology is the research method used in this study. Youth, ages 18-25 years, who identify as LGBTQ+ and sought emergency treatment for suicidality when they were adolescents (13-17 years) were recruited to participate;fifteen youth enrolled. Individuals ranged in age from 20 to 25 years. Participants described …

Bullying Of Linguistically Diverse Learners: Results From The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, Jenna Woodarek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bullying is a serious phenomenon yielding significant consequences for youth who are victimized, often targeted due to their perceived level of difference from their peers. This “otherness” can often be amplified in minoritized populations, especially those which have multiple, cooccurring vulnerabilities to be targets of bullying. After a period of bullying rates decreasing in the US, special interest group inquiries found bullying rates to be on the rise again and reportedly motivated by ethnicity or race, immigrant status, and proficiency in the English language. The present research study aims to expand upon the existing pertinent literature base specific to the …

Facilitating Healthy Interpersonal Relationships For Adolescents With Autism: An Examination Of Knowledge Acquisition And Retention Over Time, Elizabeth Pask

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the Healthy Relationships & Autism (HR) curriculum (Sutton & Wesley Spectrum Services, 2013), which is a developmentally sequenced, manualized treatment intended for children and adolescents with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The HR curriculum is designed to facilitate healthy interpersonal relationships in children and adolescents with ASD. Specifically, this study investigates the effectiveness of Module 2 of the curriculum, which focuses on teaching basic biological sex education, using well researched techniques designed to reach individuals with ASD. The paper elaborates on the history and development of the need to address these issues, …

How Motivational Interviewing Affects The Motivation, Self-Efficacy, And Outcome Expectancies Of Adjudicated Adolescents In A School Setting, Sarah Paret Rabkin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unfortunately, substance use is prevalent among adolescents. Data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) shows that in 2009, 46.7% of 12th grade students reported that they had tried an illicit substance in their lifetime (NIDA, 2010). Substance use in adolescence is the strongest predictor of drug and alcohol disorders in adults. Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory suggests there is a reciprocal interaction between personal, environmental, and behavioral factors that contribute to substance use. This theory is also useful for identifying factors (e.g. motivation, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancies) that are central to behavior change.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an …

Adolescents Who Stutter: Perception Of Effective Therapy Techniques, Megan Weigel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stuttering is considered a low-incidence communication disorder, but for those who stutter, the symptoms can handicap many aspects of life. Stuttering typically presents early in childhood and data indicates the probability for natural recovery ends near the emergence of adolescence. When stuttering continues into adulthood, it is considered chronic. Currently, there is limited research on which therapy techniques have proven to be most successful with adolescents, a unique population at a pivotal age in therapy. The original intent of this study was to investigate factors that contribute to successful therapy for adolescents who stutter. Due to recruitment limitations, the data …

Self-Report Anxiety And Depression Ratings Among Adolescents With An Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Comparison Of Individuals With And Without A History Of Sexual Offending, Stephanie N Marshall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following study seeks to determine if there are differences in anxiety and/or depression symptoms between adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have been adjudicated for a sexual offense compared to adolescents with an ASD who are not adjudicated. The scores of 26 adolescent offenders diagnosed with an ASD were compared to the scores of 14 non-offending adolescents with an ASD on the following measures: The Behavioral Assessment System for Children- Second Edition (BASC-2) depression and anxiety subscales, and the Beck's Depression Inventory- Second Edition (BDI-II). An examination of whether broad band (BASC-2) vs. narrow band (BDI-II) measures …

Attachment And Anxiety In Aggressive Children And Adolescents, Erinn Obeldobel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is rising concern among the general public regarding childhood aggression and its impact on society. This study sought to further the understanding of childhood aggression by examining the variables of anxiety and current attachment in an aggressive population of youth. There is a substantial body of research that relates poor attachment to aggressive-related behaviors (e.g., Allen, Hauser, Borman-Spurrell, 1996; Gacono & Meloy, 1994; Meesters & Muris, 2002; NICHD-ECCRN, 2006; Simons, Paternite, & Shore, 2001). In comparison to the research on the relationship between attachment and aggression in children and adolescents, the relationship between anxiety and aggression is more contradictory …

Assessing Common Variance In Psychopathy Measures, Rochelle Taormina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Youth who demonstrate callous and unemotional traits along with aggressive antisocial behaviors are more likely than youth who do not display callous and unemotional traits to continue those acts into adulthood. Similarly there is support in the literature that the psychopathy construct measured in adulthood are evidenced in youth. For example, psychopathy traits measured by the Psychopathy Check List-Revised (PCL-R), noted as the gold standard assessment measure of psychopathy in adults, has been slightly modified for use with youth (i.e., Psychopathy Checklist - Youth Version [PCL-Y V]). The PCL-YV has been identified as a useful predictor of aggressive behaviors among …

Describing Emotional, Social, And Cognitive Processes In Adolescents With And Without Psychopathic Traits: Examining Rorschach Variables, Vanessa Rae Talkington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined the effectiveness of select Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM) variables in detecting individual differences among youth diagnosed with Conduct Disorder (CD) who were either high or low on psychopathic traits. Twenty-nine male adolescents with CD in an alternative education school setting were placed into high or low psychopathy groups based on their Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL: YV) scores. Significant differences were found for WSum6, a RIM variable that measures cognitive ideation. However, both CD groups gave very few answers that yielded rich RIM protocols. That is, answers tended to be simple and similar, making inferential statistics uninterpretable. …

The Efficacy Of Treating Adolescent Depression With Interpersonal Psychotherapy For Adolescents(Ipt-A) In The School Setting, Steven Pasquinelli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Depression affects the lives of an estimated 2 to 8% of adolescents in the United States. This disturbance of mood impacts many facets of the individual's life, including the ability to participate in and benefit from educational experiences. School psychologists are challenged to find effective treatments for adolescents experiencing depression that can be delivered in a school setting. Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents (IPT-A; Mufson, Dorta, Moreau, & Weissman, 2004) has been found effective for adolescents in clinical settings as well as in urban, school-based clinics. Its use as an efficacious treatment with adolescent students in a traditional public school setting …

School Success Among African American Male Adolescents: An Existential Examination Of Protective Factors, Carol Thomas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For many adolescents who live in a high-risk neighborhood, harsh and sometimes dangerous circumstances often interfere with the ability to enjoy school success. While quantitative methods have been employed to reveal protective factors among African American male adolescents, few qualitative studies exist that analyze the lived experiences of this population of youth and their ability to flourish despite environmental disadvantages. This study is a phenomenologically-oriented narrative case study of five African American male adolescents who attend high school in a small, rural community and who are on track to graduate. The primary philosophies that framed this study were Ryan and …

An Investigation Of Psychosocial Functioning For Children And Adolescents Diagnosed With Bipolar Disorders, Maura Paczan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study provides a literature review of how the various sub-types of bipolar disorders are related to a child's daily functioning. Also, this study examined the age of onset of the disorder as it is related to psychosocial functioning. Specifically, age of onset was compared with psychosocial functioning in the areas of friends, family and school. Further, the interaction between age of onset, type of bipolar disorder (I, II, NOS), and psychosocial functioning was examined. The results confirmed, youth diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder evidence significant difficulty in overall psychosocial functioning. This finding was consistent across measures (i.e., CGAS and GSA …