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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Neurobiological Correlates Of Savoring, Ian James Kahrilas Jan 2018

The Neurobiological Correlates Of Savoring, Ian James Kahrilas

Master's Theses

Personality traits pertaining to positive emotion may be a key factor in deriving vitality from our lives. Positive affectivity refers to one's disposition to experience intense and frequent episodes of positive affect, while savoring capacity refer to one's ability to regulate positive affect. Both traits have been positively associated with happiness, self-esteem, prosocial behaviors, improved health outcomes, as well as attenuated depressive symptomatology and neuroticism. The late positive potential (LPP) is an electroencephalography (EEG) component that is theorized to index a visual cortical/amygdala pathway that is involved in evaluating the affective salience of stimuli. LPP is sensitive to the emotional …


Police Beats And City Streets: An Examination Of Black American And Latinx Youth Interactions With And Perceptions Of Police, Ogechi Onyeka Jan 2018

Police Beats And City Streets: An Examination Of Black American And Latinx Youth Interactions With And Perceptions Of Police, Ogechi Onyeka

Master's Theses

Existing research on issues of race and police suggest that Black Americans and Latinx youth tend to have more negative experiences with, and views of, police than individuals from other ethnoracial groups. This finding is even more robust among Black American and Latinx youth, notably those living in low-income and high crime communities. The victimization and constant burden such perceptions of police and police interactions have on Black American youth can potentially cause psychological damage. When coupled with repeated exposure to social, economic, and racially-related stressors, the former may result in greater adverse psychological outcomes. However, resilience factors such as …


Consistency Of Health Behaviors And Relations To Bmi In First Year College Students, Laura Nicholson Jan 2018

Consistency Of Health Behaviors And Relations To Bmi In First Year College Students, Laura Nicholson

Master's Theses

Existing research suggests that individuals with erratic schedules (e.g., shift workers) may be at greater risk for weight gain. This may be due, in part, to the inconsistent timing of health behaviors, such as sleep. Little is known, however about the relevance of the consistent timing of health behaviors among other populations, including college students who are risk for weight gain. The current study examined the consistency of three health behaviors (i.e. sleep, eating occurrences, and physical activity) and relations with body weight among first year college students at a large Midwestern university. Daily diary methods were used to collect …


Cultural Assets And Racial Discrimination: A Person-Based Exploration Of Culturally Relevant Coping With African American Male Adolescents, Emma-Lorraine Baaba Bart-Plange Jan 2018

Cultural Assets And Racial Discrimination: A Person-Based Exploration Of Culturally Relevant Coping With African American Male Adolescents, Emma-Lorraine Baaba Bart-Plange

Dissertations

African-American youth from economically-disadvantaged, urban families and communities are disproportionately exposed to stressful life conditions, including racial discrimination, placing them at increased risk for mental health problems (Gonzales & Kim, 1997; Grant et al., 2000). Though exposure to racial discrimination can span a lifetime, examining youths’ encounters with discrimination during adolescence allows us to better understand how they affect development during a critical period in which they are developing racial/ethnic identity and increasing their use of reasoning. Coping research with African American youth has found evidence for racial discrimination predicting use of culturally-relevant coping strategies (Gaylord-Harden & Cunningham, 2009) and …


The Roles Of Hpa Axis Activity And Attentional Bias In The Development Of Anxiety Symptoms In Low-Income Mexican-Origin Children, Stephanie Brewer Jan 2018

The Roles Of Hpa Axis Activity And Attentional Bias In The Development Of Anxiety Symptoms In Low-Income Mexican-Origin Children, Stephanie Brewer

Dissertations

The overarching goal of this research is to increase understanding of the development of anxiety in children of low-income Mexican-origin immigrants. Mexican-origin children display disproportionately high rates of mental disorders such as anxiety, as they face many chronic stressors related to poverty and immigration. A likely mediator of this process is HPA axis activity, causing a buildup of cortisol in the body in response to chronic stress. There is a large amount of evidence indicating that HPA axis activity is a mechanism through which accumulated poverty-related stress causes mental illness, but this mediator has not been examined in relation to …


Child Maltreatment And Psychosocial Functioning In The Context Of Foster Care: Self-Concept As A Mediator And A Moderator, Grace Jhe Bai Jan 2018

Child Maltreatment And Psychosocial Functioning In The Context Of Foster Care: Self-Concept As A Mediator And A Moderator, Grace Jhe Bai

Dissertations

Youth in foster care experience high prevalence rates of emotional and behavioral problems (Burns et al., 2004; Clausen et al., 1998; Fernandez, 2009; Orton et al., 2009; see McWey et al., 2010; see Pilowsky, 1995) due to a range of risk factors they encounter. Exposure to maltreatment can generally lead to increased internalizing problems (e.g., Avery et al., 2000; Carlson et al., 1997; see McWey et al., 2010), externalizing behaviors (e.g., Prino & Peyrot, 1994; McWey et al., 2010), social problems (e.g., Bolger & Patterson, 2001; Bolger et al., 1998), and poor self-perceptions or self-worth (see Arata et al., 2005; …


The Experience Of Mentors In A Cross-Age Peer Mentoring Program: Exploring The Helper Therapy Principle, Dakari Quimby Jan 2018

The Experience Of Mentors In A Cross-Age Peer Mentoring Program: Exploring The Helper Therapy Principle, Dakari Quimby

Dissertations

Mentoring programs are increasingly popular interventions for promoting positive development in Black youth from high risk environments. Cross-age peer mentoring refers to an older youth serving as a mentor for a younger mentee. Although not as widely studied as adult mentoring, this relationship has been found to have a beneficial effect for both the mentor and mentee. The current study seeks to better illuminate this bidirectional benefit by focusing on one half of the relationship—the experience of cross age peer mentoring by Black American mentors from low income communities. This is an important untapped area of study as peer mentoring …


The Impact Of Sociodemographic Factors On Health-Related, Neuropsychological, And Psychosocial Functioning In Youth With Spina Bifida, Jaclyn Lennon Papadakis Jan 2018

The Impact Of Sociodemographic Factors On Health-Related, Neuropsychological, And Psychosocial Functioning In Youth With Spina Bifida, Jaclyn Lennon Papadakis

Dissertations

Objective: There is a lack of research on the impact of sociodemographic factors on youth with spina bifida (SB). This is concerning given the pervasive health disparities that exist in pediatric chronic illness groups. The aims of this study were to examine: (1) differences in health-related, neuropsychological, and psychosocial functioning among youth with SB based on sociodemographic risk; (2) cumulative risk as a predictor of youth outcomes, as moderated by age; (3) SB-related family stress as a mediator of the associations between sociodemographic/cumulative risk and youth outcomes, longitudinally. Methods: Participants (M age = 11.43, 53.6% female) were recruited as part …


Measuring Community Violence, Trauma, And Family Functioning Among Youth Living In Low-Income, Urban Environments, Kyle Deane Jan 2018

Measuring Community Violence, Trauma, And Family Functioning Among Youth Living In Low-Income, Urban Environments, Kyle Deane

Dissertations

Exposure to community violence is a pressing public health concern that has profound effects on an adolescent’s development and psychological well-being, and is disproportionately experienced by ethnic minority youth living in economically disadvantaged urban environments. Efforts to measure violence exposure and its sequelae have centered primarily on the use of retrospective questionnaires and cross-sectional design and often fail to consider other contributory risk or resilience factors. Comprised of three related studies, the goal of this dissertation is to address the relations between of exposure to community violence, adjustment difficulties, such as posttraumatic stress, and family functioning among African American and …


Examining Outcomes And Mechanisms Of The Honest, Open, Proud Intervention In College Students With Mental Illness, Carol Hundert Jan 2018

Examining Outcomes And Mechanisms Of The Honest, Open, Proud Intervention In College Students With Mental Illness, Carol Hundert

Master's Theses

Emerging adulthood is a developmental stage involving many changes and transitions (Arnett, 2004). The instability during this time can cause significant distress, making this a period of increased vulnerability for the development of mental illness (Kessler et al., 2007). The rise in the incidence of mental illness on college campuses has caused an increased demand for mental health services (Kadison & Digeronimo, 2004). Unfortunately, college students face many barriers to treatment, including self-stigma (Eisenberg, et al. 2009). Honest, Open, Proud for college students (HOP-C) is a peer-led group-based intervention designed to reduce self- stigma in college students living with mental …