Digital Commons Network^™

Study Skills Self Monitoring For Adolescents With Adhd, Rachel Michelle Lesse

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to see how self-monitoring affected academic progress among high school aged students with ADHD. Students were monitored throughout their study skills class period, where they learned to monitor themselves by assessing a variety of factors, such as personal grades, missing assignments, and personal reflection. Of the three students monitored, two increased grades in most of their academic subjects, and all increased their homework production post intervention. The study did not go without various limitations, however future implications are discussed as to the importance of this study.

Does Use Of Neutralization Techniques Predict Delinquency And Substance Use Outcomes?, Erin C. Siebert

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

This study was part of a larger research intervention that uses motivational interviewing (MI) as part of an in-school substance abuse intervention in local high schools in the greater Seattle area. Our aim was to test hypothesized relationships between marijuana use, other delinquent behavior, and neutralization techniques used by participants and determine their impact on the effectiveness of an MI-based intervention. Hypotheses were that neutralization technique use would decrease the effectiveness of an MI intervention due to the conflicting cognitive processes of justification and developing discrepancy. Of the 84 participants that completed Intake assessments, 60% were male and identified as …

Mental Health Workout: Lifting Stigma, Jeremy Bambery

Master's Projects and Capstones

Mental illness affects one out of every five Americans between the ages 13-18, and it is estimated that two-thirds of these individuals will not seek treatment due to the stigma associated with having a mental illness or mental health issue (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Access to information and the ability to talk openly without fear will aid in creating a stigma free future. The goal of this project is to supply high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area with information regarding the stigma associated with mental health and mental illness via videos that will be used as …

Self Hypnosis For School Success: Empowering Adolescents With Anxiety And Stress, Nilani Shankar

Doctoral Dissertations

Self-hypnosis is a treatment that has been utilized to address the social-emotional concerns of adolescents with high levels of anxiety and stress. In this study, a multiple baseline design across three high school-aged participants was implemented to examine whether self-hypnosis could decrease symptoms of anxiety and stress and help to improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The results of the study indicated that the treatment resulted in decreases in trait and state anxiety for two out of three participants, improvements in stress levels for two out of three participants, and improvements in HRQoL for all three participants. Participants reported that …

Effects Of Poverty On Adolescent Mental Health, Morgan Dannecker

Counselor Education Capstones

Living in poverty puts adolescents at risk for developing mental health symptoms. When living in poverty, adolescents are more vulnerable to experiencing or witnessing violence, which negatively impacts their mental health. Low socioeconomic neighborhoods and poor parent education negatively impact adolescent mental health. While living in poverty can negatively affect adolescent mental health, some protective factors on the individual, familial and community level can help decrease these negative effects. Confidence, parental support and involvement, and religion can help protect adolescents from the negative effects of living in poverty. Along with protective factors, interventions that have been established to help negate …

Bridging The Gap: A Workshop To Support Sexual Education Outside Of School, Rachel Lambrecht

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Sex education cannot simply provide the “facts” about sex; students must be given the space and support to make connections between the information they receive and their own behaviors. In order to meet the immediate developmental needs of young people I have created a one-­‐day workshop for girls, which is meant to augment current sexual education programming. The aim of the one-­‐day workshop is to bridge the gap between information that girls have received from school programming or parents with the new emotional and physical sensations specific to their developing sexuality, to foster connections with peers, and instill a sense …

Parental Experience-Based Change: Positive And Negative Changes In Monitoring, Expectations, Nurturing, And Discipline, Joseph S. Rand

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to create a measure of parent's perceptions of parental experience-based change (PEBC), or parents' perceptions of the changes they make to their parenting of secondborn children as a result of experiences with firstborn children. The measure assessed PEBC in the domains of monitoring, expectations, nurturing and discipline. Participants were 401 mothers or fathers of 2 or 3 adolescent children. Factor analyses revealed an 8 factor solution that assessed increasing and decreasing in each of the 4 domains. Criterion validity was evaluated using regression analyses to examine the relationships between each factor and parenting outcomes thought to be …

Risk-Taking Behavior In Adolescence: Exploring The Roles Of Family, Peers, And School, Andrea Ladoris Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adolescence is filled with continuous transitions and growth. Many adolescents are at-risk for involvement in risk-taking behavior due to insufficient socially supportive relationships to and within multiple social environments. Research has revealed specific contextual factors that are protective against and may even reduce various types of risk-taking behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between contextual factors and risk-taking behavior using a nationally representative sample of adolescents. Ecological theory and attachment theory were used as frameworks for viewing and understanding adolescent risk-taking behavior. Data for this study were taken from the Wave 1 and Wave 2 in-home …

Young Survivors Of Disaster: A Meta-Analytic Review Of Mental Health Interventions For Children And Their Families, Theressa L. Labarrie

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Disasters, both natural and human-made, are on the rise. While disasters affect everyone, the most vulnerable populations are often hardest hit. Our nation’s youth are among the most vulnerable, suffering the most severe psychological repercussions. This is a population in need of empirically supported post-disaster mental health interventions. However, the research on mental health treatments for post-disaster trauma treatment among youth is still in its developmental stages. There is no known synthesis of treatment interventions for youth and their families, even though there is clear evidence that this population is among the most vulnerable to the effects of disaster exposure. …

An Extension Of The Dimensional Comparison Theory: A Test Of Emotional Intelligence Self-Concepts., Caitlin J. Spencer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

According to the Dimensional Comparison Theory (DCT), individuals’ self-concepts of abilities are influenced not only by external sources of evaluation within the same domain, but also internal comparisons of abilities across different domains, resulting in negative contrast effects for self-concepts in dissimilar domains and positive assimilation effects for self-concepts in similar domains. These dimensional comparisons have been primarily tested with academic domains to date, yet social-emotional learning is an important complement to academic learning. The present study sought to extend the DCT to Emotional Intelligence (EI) self-concepts in a sample of 1,069 Canadian children and adolescents, aged 9-18 years. Using …

The Impact Of Socio-Ecological Risk Factor Clustering On Mental, Emotional, And Behavioral Problems In Hispanic Adolescents, Lila Asfour Cathcart

Open Access Dissertations

Hispanic youth are often at greater risk for developing mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) problems, such as substance use, sexual risk behaviors, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms, compared to non-Hispanic white youth. Socio-ecological risk and protective factors, including family, school, peer, and acculturation factors, have been shown to be associated individually with a variety of MEB problems. This study examines the clustering of these risk and protective factors and evaluates whether there are specific subgroups of Hispanic adolescents, who are at greater risk for a variety of MEB problems. Data come from two randomized controlled trials, and were collected at …

Depression’S Connection To Self-Harming Behavior In Adolescents, Michael T. Hendrick

Education Masters

Self-harming behavior amongst adolescents has increased in prevalence throughout America. There is a direct connection between depression and self-harming behaviors in adolescent students. The most common reasons why adolescents participate in self-injury are as a coping mechanism, a means of relief, for the regulation of feelings, self-punishment, attention seeking and sensation seeking. There is often a link between depressive symptoms and negative life events or past trauma. Multiple methods of self-harm are often performed by students and may be carried out several times over the course of many months, the techniques used vary greatly. Schools are one of the most …

Combating Childhood Obesity Through Nurse Practitioner-Led School Wellness Program, Joy L. King-Mark

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Translational and Clinical Research Projects

Overweight children and childhood obesity have been identified as an area of national and global concern. The prevalence of childhood obesity has been described as one of the most common chronic childhood conditions (Faguy, 2016). During the past decade, childhood obesity has been on the rise throughout the nation with an estimated childhood rate of 42 million to 70 million by 2025 (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014). The purpose of this prospective, quantitative study was to develop and implement a family nurse practitioner-led wellness intervention program in the school setting that incorporated nutrition and physical activity for adolescents. The review …

An Innovative Approach To Preventing Depression: Examining The Experiences Of Mothers And Daughters Who Participate In The Cities Mother-Daughter Project, Tasha M. Brown

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The current study employed qualitative inquiry to examine the experiences of mothers and daughters who participated in the Cities Mother-Daughter Project, an intervention aimed at preventing depression in low-income urban African-American girls, study participants included 9 mothers and 9 daughters. Qualitative analysis was used to examine the subjective experiences of mothers and daughters who participated in the Cities Mother-Daughter Project. Seven overarching themes emerged when participants reflected on their experience in the group intervention: 1) value of group, 2) desire for continued intervention, 3) suggestions for improvement, 4) skills learned in group, 5) mother-daughter relationship, 6) personal change, and 7) …

Effects Of Religious Participation On Negative Mental Health Symptoms Among Low-Income, Urban African American Adolescents, Alfonso L. Floyd

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

African American adolescents living in low-income, urban neighborhoods are at high risk for developing psychological problems due to increased exposure to urban stressors. Given the complexity and chronic nature of these stressors, protective factors such as involvement in one’s religious institution may protect adolescents from harmful stressors associated with living in urban, low-income neighborhoods. This thesis sought to examine whether religious participation is an effective moderator of the relation between urban stressful life experiences and internalizing/externalizing psychological outcomes among low-income, urban African American adolescents. Two dimensions of religious participation, organizational and non-organizational, were examined as potential moderators of the effect …

Is Social Competence Achievable In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder?, Monica Caldeira

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A review of existing literature pertaining to the social skills of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder provides a mixed picture: some researchers argue that social skills are altogether lacking, while others indicate that, in some instances, individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder possess the same social skills as their typically developed peers. The purpose of this study was to examine the social competence of adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders, as well as the factors that contributed to or hindered adolescents’ social competence. A sample of 17 adolescents, with varying degrees of autism severity, together with their parents and teachers took part …

“I’M Trying To Do The Right Thing”: Competing Responsibilities Among Teen Parents In The Context Of Neoliberalism, Jennifer Kimberly Heipp

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over 14 months of participant observation at teen mom serving organizations, I examined competing and complimentary ideas between the teen moms and the staff of the organizations about what it means to be "responsible." Within neoliberalism, being a "responsible" person is seen as both an ideal and an obligation, and scholars have elaborated how within neoliberal regimes, processes of "responsibilization" occur. In this dissertation, I advance the notion of "competing responsibilities," in that both the programs and my teen mom informants believe it is important to be a responsible person but they differ on the key question of to whom …

Factors Contributing To The Economic Self-Sufficiency Of At-Risk Foster Youth Who Have Aged Out Of Care, Alexzandra M. Hust

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Foster youth aging out of care encounter many struggles upon transitioning into adulthood, resulting in an increased risk of homelessness and adverse social, health, and financial outcomes. This study aimed to determine if various factors (environmental factors: education, mental health service, social support and personal factors: incarceration, substance abuse referral, and unplanned parenthood) were associated with indicators of economic self-sufficiency (full-time and part-time employment, housing stability, and use of financial, food, and housing assistance). Multiple logistic regressions were conducted to explore risk and predictive factors of each indicator of economic self-sufficiency with a sample of 265 19 year old foster …

Fruit And Vegetable Consumption Among An Ethnically Diverse Sample Of Middle School-Aged Girls, Shannon E. Chiles

Open Access Theses

Obesity is a major health concern not only for adults, but for children and adolescents as well. Fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption has been associated with a reduced risk of obesity among children and adolescents, but few children and adolescents meet the nationally recommended amount of daily F&V consumption. Also, few studies have examined this relationship among an ethnically diverse sample. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to explore factors (parental F&V consumption and F&V self-efficacy) related to F&V consumption among 200 Middle school girls of Hispanic and Non-Hispanic descent. Multiple group path analyses were conducted. High self-efficacy …

Diagnosis Of Borderline Personality Disorder In Adolescence: Issues And Practice, Rebecca Denaway

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

The purpose of this research was to discover what drives the diagnostic practices of clinicians working with adolescents with a possible Borderline Personality Disorder. The DSMV allows this diagnosis in adolescents but it is rarely utilized by practitioners for this age group. A qualitative research method was used for the project, in which, participants were interviewed inperson to collect data. There were nine total participants in the Twin Cities metro area, who were all qualified to render mental health diagnoses and worked with adolescents. The interviews focused on the participant's personal practices and experiences with regard to diagnosis of BPD …

Perspectives Of Stuttering Treatment: Parents, Children, And Adolescents, Heather Darlene Salvo

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Perspectives of Stuttering Treatment:

Parents, Children, and Adolescents

By Heather D. Salvo

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee August 2016

Under the Supervision of Carol H. Seery

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

Purpose. The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether age affects the perspectives of children (ages 8-12), adolescents (ages 13-17), and parents related to stuttering treatment experiences and outcomes. A secondary purpose of this study was to investigate whether the perspectives of children and adolescents regarding stuttering treatment experiences and outcome preferences differed from the perspective of their parents.

Participants. Participants required internet access and minors …

Treatment Recidivism In Adolescents With Mental Illness: A Focused Applied Medical Ethnography, Chukwudi C. Ekwemalor

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Background

Treatment recidivism, described as frequent unplanned relapse readmissions, is a national problem predominant in adolescents with mental illness with significant socioeconomic consequences. Adolescents living with mental illness are a sub-culture of adolescence, the critical growth period of developmental and social transition from childhood to adulthood. The main triggers of treatment recidivism in this population are not fully understood from previous studies.

Purpose

The study purpose was to explore treatment recidivism with the following aims:

1. To illuminate treatment recidivism from the perspectives of recidivist adolescents with mental illness.

2. To describe the main factors that contribute to treatment recidivism …

Test Of An Adolescent Anxiety Sensitivity Amelioration Program (Aasap) For At-Risk Youth, Ashley Arehart Knapp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adult research supports the effectiveness of targeting the malleable vulnerability factor of anxiety sensitivity (AS) in terms of preventing panic specifically and anxiety psychopathology generally. Risk factor research suggests AS modification among youth has implications for panic as well as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). However, very little work has evaluated the impact of AS reduction among youth, which is unfortunate given adolescence is a period of “core risk” in terms of anxiety disorder onset. Further, no work has considered the effect of such a program on GAD-relevant outcomes, nor has any work included family-level intervention factors, despite evidence suggesting parents …

Factors Influencing Healthy Eating And Physical Activity Behaviors Of Adolescents In Appalachia, Natalie Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the TPB constructs of attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms and their ability to predict healthy eating and physical activity behaviors among adolescents living in Southern Appalachia. The study also considered the relative utility of subjective norms and social support in predicting these behaviors. Data for this research were derived from a larger study, Team Up for Healthy Living, conducted September 2011 through November 2014 with high school students in the Appalachian region (Study ID: R01MD006200 from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities). Participants (n=963) completed a three-part paper survey collecting data about …

Lived Experience Of Adolescents With Chronic Pain: A Phenomenological Study, Ryan Christopher Suder

Occupational Therapy Program Student Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experience of adolescents who live with chronic pain. All 10 participants were between the ages of 13 and 17 and have lived with chronic pain for at least 6 months. Data sources for the study were two interviews for each participant, participant drawn depictions of their chronic pain, and researcher journaling. The person-environment-occupation model was used to frame the research design. The study found four main themes among the data: pain identity, invisible disease, occupational loss, and uphill climb to regain life. Each theme described the essence of the …

Risk Factors Leading To Increased Recidivism Rates Among Adolescents Admitted To An Acute Care Child And Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital, Logan Mccarthy, Jonathan Cayce, Lisa Pullen

Doctoral Projects

The purpose of this study is to identify risk factors that may increase recidivism among adolescents admitted to an acute child and adolescent psychiatric hospital. A chart review was performed on 98 adolescent clients admitted to an acute psychiatric hospital, in order to gather data on the potential risk factors of gender, length of stay, diagnoses, living situation, history of a suicide attempt, history of self-harming behavior, history of trauma and abuse, reason for admission, history of previous admissions, presence of outpatient services, and family mental health history. Clients readmitted to the hospital within a 12 month time frame were …

Marginalized Sexuality And Masculinity: An Ethnographic Exploration Of Adolescent Homophobic Language In A Rural High School, Benjamin M. Bailey

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have examined homophobic language (HL) with both qualitative and quantitative methods and have studied HL's relationship to multiple factors such as sexual prejudice, masculinity, and religiosity. However, our understanding of this language, while expanding, is still limited because the meaning of this evolving language varies depending on the context in which the language is used. In order to get a more in-depth and current understanding of this language, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 males who were high school seniors. I also conducted 102 hours of observations in their high school. I analyzed the interviews and observations with a …

Parent-Reported Deficits In Executive Function And Sleep-Disordered Breathing In Adolescent Behavioral Weight Loss Program Participants, Jonathan James Mietchen

Theses and Dissertations

Children and adolescents with obesity and overweight are at increased risk for developing sleep disordered breathing (SDB) and SDB has been associated with cognitive deficits and executive dysfunction. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between executive functioning and SDB among adolescents participating in a behavioral weight loss intervention. Adolescents (n = 37) and their caregivers completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and caregivers completed the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ). Using the Sleep Related Breathing Disorder scale on the PSQ adolescents were classified as at risk or not at risk for SDB. Correlations were …

Transitioning From Elementary To Junior High: Action Research At Bark River-Harris School District, Jason B. Lockwood

All NMU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this action research was to identify factors related to attendance and academics that contribute to student failures and absenteeism in a rural school district. Comparing data between 2012-2013 through 2014-2015, the school district administration recognized a trend in failing grades and absenteeism in the middle school grades. Using a mixed methods design, data was collected from an on-line survey, focus group interviews, teacher interviews and student records. The seventh grade class of 57 students were recruited with twenty-four students participating. The key findings included both teacher behaviors and student behaviors which contributed to the trend in …

Factors Affecting Length Of Stay In Children And Adolescents Admitted With An Eating Disorder To A Large Urban Pediatric Hospital, Adelina Paduraru

Nutrition Theses

Background: Hospitalizations including the diagnosis of an eating disorder (ED) have increased significantly in the pediatric population over the past few decades. Patients who are male, who areage, who receive an nasogastric (NG) tube, or who require admission to a residential treatment program often remain in the hospital for longer periods of time. Few studies examining LOS exist for children and adolescents with an ED. Longer lengths of stay have previously been associated with factors such as having Medicaid, a reduced body mass index (BMI) upon admission, and a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa (AN).

Objective: The purpose of …