Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Parental Bonding: Validity, Stability And Predictor Of Mental And Physical Health During Pregnancy, Delicia Dorothy Pereira

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Background: Parental bonding during childhood is known to have a significant impact on an individual’s life-long health. The influence of early parent-child relationships may be particularly strong in mothers who are pregnant with their first child. In this study, these emotional bonds were explored using the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), a retrospective and quantitative measure of parental bonding. The PBI has not been validated in a pregnant population, nor has its consistency been examined across the birth of a child. Therefore, this study: i) validates the factor structure of the PBI for the first time in an Australian population of …

The Role Of Culture In Theory Of Mind, Leslie Linares Pava

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Theory of Mind (ToM) is defined as the ability to understand our own and otherpeople’s mental representations, characterised by individual perspectives and motives,with potential for directing human behaviour (Kuntoro, Saraswati, Peterson & Slaughter,2013). Over the past 30 years this concept has captured the attention of cognitive anddevelopmental psychologists and it has been established that typically developed childrenfrom individualistic, mainly from Anglo (English-speaking) countries are most likely toacquire this ability at the age of four.

In the past decade, a growing interest in differences between children fromindividualistic and collestivistic cultural orientations led researchers to question the extentto which ToM is influenced …

Living With Autism: The Experience Of Developmentally Healthy Adolescents And Youths Who Have A Sibling Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jessica Michel

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Researchers have proposed that typically developing siblings of individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or target siblings, are at increased risk of experiencing psychological distress particularly when compared to other clinical and community sibling groups. To date, evidence drawn from quantitative studies, utilising the target siblings’ mothers as the primary informants has been mixed. These studies have primarily focused on risk factors, while the role of protective factors in the experiences of target siblings remains unexplored in quantitative investigations. However, qualitative studies utilising target siblings as informants have emerged providing insights regarding the processes of coping and adaptation that …