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Outcomes Associated With Outward Bound And Nols Programs: A Means-End Study, Daniel Thomas Pronsolino

Master's Theses

Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) are two of the United State’s largest providers of outdoor education and adventure recreation programs. While many studies have examined the outcomes of the different organizations individually, there is very little comparative research. This study compared the attributes, consequences, and values obtained by 510 participants of courses 14 days or longer in the Rocky Mountain region during the summer of 2006.

Means-end theory was used to analyze data obtained from participants through personal interviews. Means-end theory links the physical objects or services, the means, with the outcomes and the personal values …

The Effect Of Stress On Hedonic Capacity In Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Prospective Experimental Study Of One Potential Pathway To Depression, Bethany H. Morris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A growing body of work links psychopathology to changes in hedonic capacity following stressors. This was the first experimental study of the effects of stress on hedonic capacity in an analog generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) sample (a high worry group). Specifically, we utilized an experimental manipulation of stress and a behavioral index of anhedonia to test the hypothesis that individuals with GAD, who are at higher risk for developing depression symptoms, exhibit greater stress-related deficits in hedonic capacity than do nonanxious controls. Further, this study assessed whether stress-induced hedonic deficits predicted future depression. Controls exhibited the expected reward learning pattern …

The Dynamics Of Income And Neighborhood Context For Population Health: Do Long Term Measures Of Socioeconomic Status Explain More Of The Black/White Health Disparity Than Single-Point-In-Time Measures?, D. Phuong Do

Faculty Publications

Socioeconomic status, though a robust and strong predictor of health, has generally been unable to fully explain the health gap between blacks and whites in the Untied States. However, at both the individual and neighborhood levels, socioeconomic status is often treated as a static factor with only single-point-in-time measurements. These cross-sectional measures fail to account for possible heterogeneous histories within groups who may share similar characteristics at a given point in time. As such, ignoring the dynamic nature of socioeconomic status may lead to the underestimation of its importance in explaining health and racial health disparities.

In this study, I …

What Matters, And What Matters Most, For Change In Life Satisfaction In The Oldest-Old? A Study Over 6 Years Among Individuals 80+, Anne Ingeborg Berg, Lesa Hoffman, Linda Björk Hassing, Gerald M. Mcclearn, Boo Johansson

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Objectives: The study investigates whether markers of life satisfaction identified in a cross-sectional study – quality of social network, self-rated health, depressive symptoms, locus of control and widowhood, in addition to financial satisfaction and the personality traits of extraversion and neuroticism - predict change in life satisfaction (LSI-Z) across four measurement occasions during a 6-year period in individuals aged 80+. Method: Data were drawn from the Swedish OCTO-Twin-study of individuals aged 80 and older. Results: Growth curve analysis showed a relatively consistent significant linear decline in life satisfaction, but certain markers predicted change in life satisfaction. The …

A Longitudinal Approach To Understanding Individual Differences Affecting The Drinking Behavior Change Process, Mariam Dum

Theses and Dissertations

Most studies examining predictors of treatment outcomes among problem drinkers have used a traditional statistical approach that examines group outcomes (e.g. analysis of variance, multiple regression analysis). Contrary to traditional methods, a person-centered approach identifies commonalities among clusters of individuals and provides the opportunity to examine the relationship between multiple individual differences and outcomes in a longitudinal manner. Specifically, the person-centered approach makes it possible to cluster individuals into subgroups based on their change patterns, and to examine the relationship between those subgroups and other variables of interest (e.g., drinking problem severity). This approach allows the inclusion of a relatively …

Role Stressors, Coworker Support, And Work Engagement : A Longitudinal Study, Jerry Wright

Master's Theses

This study examined the Job Demands-Resources theory in relation to engagement using a longitudinal design. The main purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the nature of work engagement over time. Specifically, it examined if role stressors (a job demand) were predictive of work engagement measured one year later. Additionally, this study investigated the possible moderating or buffering effect of coworker support (a job resource) on the relationship between role stressors and later work engagement. A total of 96 (70% full-time and 30% part-time) library employees participated in this study. A moderated hierarchical regression analysis indicated that baseline engagement …

Loneliness As A Partial Mediator Of The Relation Between Low Social Preference In Childhood And Anxious/Depressed Symptoms In Adolescence, Reid Griffith Fontaine, Chongming Yang, Virginia Salzer Burks, Kenneth A. Dodge, Joseph M. Price, Gregory S. Pettit, John E. Bates

Reid G. Fontaine

This study examined the mediating role of loneliness (assessed by self-report at Time 2; Grade 6) in the relation between early social preference (assessed by peer report at Time 1; kindergarten through Grade 3) and adolescent anxious/depressed symptoms (assessed by mother, teacher, and self-reports at Time 3; Grades 7–9). Five hundred eighty-five boys and girls (48% female; 16% African American) from three geographic sites of the Child Development Project were followed from kindergarten through Grade 9. Loneliness partially mediated and uniquely incremented the significant effect of low social preference in childhood on anxious/depressed symptoms in adolescence, controlling for early anxious/depressed …