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Food Insecurity, Race, And Adolescent Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease In Nhanes 2001-06, Kritika Shankar

Master's Theses

Abstract

Introduction: Non-Alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver condition in the U.S and is an emerging public health concern in adolescents. Risk factors for adolescent NAFLD remain largely unexamined.

Aim: To investigate if demographic and dietary-related factors are linked with NAFLD in adolescents.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from NHANES (2001-2006) ages 12-19 (n=4714) were analyzed. NAFLD was defined as >30 u/L ALT. Food Insecurity levels (child, adult, household), race/ethnicity, sex, BMI, and the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) were tested using multivariate binary logistic regression with elevated ALT (no, yes) as the dependent variable.

Results: Risk for …

First-Time Juvenile Arrestees' Odd Symptoms: The Role Of Parent-School Interaction And Race, Ari Romano-Verthelyi

Master's Theses

Objective.Disruptive behaviors are bidirectionally associated with low-quality parent-school interactions (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1995). However, Non-White children are more likely to be identified by teachers as behaviorally disruptive (Epstein et al., 2005), more likely to have low-quality parent-school interactions (Serpell & Mashburn, 2012), and more likely to be engaged in the justice system (Hockenberry & Puzzanchera, 2013).Considering that non-White parents may interact with schools and teachers differently than White parents (Mariñez-Lona & Quintana, 2009), it is unclear to what extent race might influence the predictive relationship between aspects of parent-school interactions and disruptive behavior problems. Thus, this study will examine …

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 …

Do Marketing Strategies Impact Condom Sales In Uganda?, Meyhar Mohammed

Master's Theses

What attracts people to buy condoms? HIV/AIDS remain one of the biggest health dangers of the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. A lot of efforts have been pursued in the past two decades to drastically reduce prevalence of HIV and increase awareness about preventive mechanisms. In order to prevent relapse of success achieved so far, it is important to recognize transformation of consumer behavior due to growth in social networks, education and awareness over time. There are a lot of behavioral triggers captured by social marketing interventions in the field of public health. In an attempt to investigate the role …

Mixed Signals: Examining Ethnic Affirmation As A Factor In The Discrimination-Depression Relationship With Multiracial And Monoracial Minority Adolescent Girls, Linda A. Oshin

Master's Theses

Multiracial adolescents are a growing segment of our population, but not much is known about their ethnic-racial identity development. The current study examined ethnic affirmation, a dimension of ethnic-racial identity, and race socialization and their influence in the relationship between perceived group discrimination and depressive symptoms among multiracial (n = 42) and monoracial minority Black (n = 29) and Latina (n = 95) adolescents (M=15.4 years). Results showed that there were no mean differences between multiracial and monoracial adolescents in ethnic affirmation, maternal race/ethnic socialization, or depressive symptoms. Multiracial adolescents reported significantly less perceived discrimination. …

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of The National Alliance Of Mental Illness's Ending The Silence Program, Sarah L. Taniyama

Master's Theses

The National Alliance of Mental Illness’s Ending the Silence (ETS) program focuses on the epidemic of mental illness stigma among school- aged youth. The program is targeted specifically at high school- age youth, and aims to educate, dispel myths about mental illness and instill a message of hope and recovery all while encouraging students to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness. A trained presentation team containing two people, one of whom is a young adult who is living with mental illness or recovered from mental illness, delivers the program. Participants (n=142) completed assessments measuring their thoughts and attitudes towards …

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 …

A Pilot Study Investigating Comprehension Of Driving Vocabulary In Adolescents With Language Impairment, Jessica M. Pandolfe

Master's Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate if adolescents with LI are at increased risk relative to unimpaired peers at struggling to comprehend driving-related vocabulary found in driving preparation material.

Method: This study included 11 adolescents with LI and 11 adolescent controls with typical language development. Participants completed a self-developed receptive vocabulary measure, the Driving-Related Picture Vocabulary Task, which consisted of simple noun, compound noun, and simple verb driving terminology.

Results: The Driving-Related Picture Vocabulary Task was found to have strong convergent validity with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Fourth Edition (Dunn & Dunn, 2007). Strong positive correlation was …

The Relationship Between Drug Use And Depressive Symptoms Among High School Students, Andrea Huntley

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

A Pilot Study Investigating The Comprehension Of Miranda Rights By Adolescents With Language Impairment, Anne Marie Lieser

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Assessing Knowledge And Attitudes Of The Human Papillomavirus Infection And Vaccine Among Adolescents In Hartford, Ct, Anita C. Chandrasekaran

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

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 …

The Effects Of Age, Gender, And Gender Role Ideology On Adolescents' Social Perspective-Taking Ability And Tendency, Kaitlin M. Flannery

Master's Theses

The current research examined gender and age differences in adolescents’ social perspective-taking (SPT), or the social-cognitive ability to infer another person’s thoughts and feelings. This study aimed to demonstrate that SPT Ability and SPT Tendency are distinct constructs that should be considered separately. The influence of youths’ gender role ideologies on SPT also was considered. In a sample of adolescents ranging from ages 12 to 17 (N=158), participants reported their tendency to take the perspective of a specific same-age, same-gender friend, and also were assessed in their ability to use SPT in a hypothetical context. The results indicated …

Social And Environmental Risk Factors For Anemia And Malnutrition Among Adolescent Girls In Mumbai, India, Dylan E. Graetz

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

It Isn’T Just Skin Deep: Adolescents And Appearance In Connecticut, Avery Lachance

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Pink And Dude Chefs: A Nutrition And Culinary Intervention For Middle School Students, Tianna R. Sheehan

Master's Theses

Pink and Dude Chefs: A nutrition and culinary intervention for middle school students

Tianna Sheehan

The prevalence of obesity in US adolescents has more than tripled in the past 35 years, and the greatest impact has been among low-income and minority racial/ethnic populations. Adolescents report inadequate fruit and vegetable intake, an overconsumption of sweetened beverages, and a high reliance on fast food locations for meals or snacks; increasing the risk of adolescent obesity. Building knowledge and skills through culinary interventions may empower middle school students to create and also choose healthful foods.

Pink and Dude Chefs, a six-week nutrition and …

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 …

New Media Use Among High Achieving Adolescents, Kathleen Sara Alpizar

Master's Theses

To date, there has been relatively little research on adolescents and their new media use in school and at home. It is important to study this new media use because it can reveal much about how communication patterns are changing or evolving as adolescents incorporate new media seamlessly into their lives.

This study examined high achieving adolescents' use of new media at school and in their homes. Data were gathered at school through questionnaires and group discussion sessions. In addition, students kept diaries of all of their media use for one week.

This study revealed that high-achieving adolescents use new …

Maternal Emotional Support, Ethnic Identity, And Years Of Completed School In Urban Native-American Female Adolescents, Kennon Savage Mcdonough

Master's Theses

Digitized thesis