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Discrimination And Health: A Longitudinal Study, Jun Xu

All Theses

This study examines several questions about discrimination using a longitudinal survey from the 2006 and 2008 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Results show that whites are least likely to experience discrimination as we expected. In addition, the data provides support for the hypothesis that people with higher total household assets and higher household total number of members are less likely to experience discrimination. However, contrary to my hypothesis, females have smaller odds of experiencing discrimination compared to males. People with higher education levels are more likely to report major discrimination events compared to those with lower education …

Sex And Neuroticism: Frequent Sex Protects Intimates From The Negative Implications Of Their Neuroticism, Virginia Michelle Russell

Masters Theses

A robust literature documents numerous negative implications of neuroticism for romantic relationships. The current study was the first to demonstrate necessary information regarding how couples can protect against these implications. Given the role of negative affect in the association between neuroticism and relationship difficulties, and given the role of sex in reducing negative affect, the current 8-wave longitudinal study of 72 newlywed couples tested the prediction that sexual frequency would moderate the association between neuroticism and marital satisfaction. Lagged multilevel modeling analyses supported this prediction. Specifically, although neuroticism was negatively associated with changes in marital satisfaction among spouses engaging in …

How Does Mobility Change Over Time For Older Adults, And How Are Changes Influenced By Cognitive Functioning?, Melissa Lunsman O'Connor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mobility, which includes life space and driving behaviors, is an important functional domain for older adults (e.g., Webber, Porter, & Menec, in press). Low mobility is associated with sensory, physical, and cognitive deficits (e.g., Anstey, Wood, Lord, & Walker, 2005). However, few studies have investigated how mobility changes over time. This dissertation contains three longitudinal articles that explored mobility changes, with an emphasis on driving and cognition, among community-dwelling older adults.

The first paper investigated patterns of driving self-regulation (i.e., adjustment of driving behaviors) among control-group participants from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) study (N=548). …

Self-Reported Family Income And Expenditure Patterns For A Cohort Of Tanf-Reliant African American Women: Outcomes From A Longitudinal Study In Miami-Dade County, Florida, Stacia Michelle West

Masters Theses

This mixed-method study was designed to analyze the impact of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 on a cohort of welfare-reliant African American women in Miami-Dade County. A snowball sampling technique was utilized to identify and conduct in-person interviews with women who were receiving welfare benefits from January 1997 to March 2000. The study intended to determine the participant characteristics, employment and wage histories, annualized income, and annualized expenditures over the time span. The results indicate that the average age of recipients was 34.5 years old with four children. The average educational attainment for the cohort …

Cognitive And Psychiatric Predictors To Psychosis In Velocardiofacial Syndrome: A 3-Year Follow-Up Study, Kevin M. Antshel, Robert J. Shprintzen, Wanda Fremont, Anne Marie Higgins, Stephen V. Faraone, Wendy R. Kates

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Objective: To predict prodromal psychosis in adolescents with velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS). Method: 70 youth with VCFS, 27 siblings of youth with VCFS and 25 community controls were followed from childhood (Mean age = 11.8 years) into mid-adolescence (mean age 15.0 years). Psychological tests measuring intelligence, academic achievement, learning/memory, attention and executive functioning as well as measures of parent and clinician ratings of child psychiatric functioning were completed at both time point. Results: Major depressive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder diagnoses increased in the VCFS sample. With very low false positive rates, the best predictor of adolescent prodromal …

Phonological Memory And Broader Language Development: Longitudinal And Etiologic Relations, Robin Leonhardt Peterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current research investigated the relationship of phonological memory (PM) to vocabulary and syntax learning in school-age children with and without language disorders. Previous research has established that PM and broad oral language skills covary, but disagreement remains about the reason for this association. Opposing theoretical viewpoints emphasize the importance of either bottom-up (PM influences vocabulary and syntax acquisition) or top-down (vocabulary growth influences PM skill) factors. In three longitudinal studies, we tested competing bottom-up and top-down explanations of the PM-broad language link. Study 1 utilized a structural equation modeling approach to understand PM and broad language relations from age …