Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Dermatoglyphic Measures In Relation To Depressive Symptoms Among Non-Clinical Adolescents And Young Adults, Yosefa A. Modiano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Depressive disorders are highly prevalent and can be devastating. Increasingly, depressive symptomatology is understood from a dimensional perspective such that non- or sub-clinical presentations may share a similar etiology. Depression etiology is believed to include genetic and environmental factors that may contribute to underlying vulnerability (diathesis) by way of neurodevelopment. Birth cohort studies have provided empirical evidence of the relationship between prenatal insult and later experience of adverse outcomes, including increased risk for depressive disorders. Retrospective investigation of the possible influence of prenatal disturbance on later experience of depressive symptoms has methodological limitations. Dermatoglyphic measurements offer a more methodologically viable …

Examining Relations Between Executive Functions And Decoding: A Meta-Analytic Investigation, Teresa Ober

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Introduction: The Simple View of Reading (SVR) is one of several established models of reading that present decoding and linguistic comprehension as critical skills in the development of reading competencies. Previous research has highlighted the connection between reading comprehension and cognitive skills, including those which fall under the term of executive functions (EF; for a review, see Follmer, 2018). EF may also be critical in the development of decoding. According to the dual route model of word recognition (Coltheart, 2006), decoding involves two separable processes; the phonological route, involving encoding and retrieval of letter-sound associations (also called phoneme-to-grapheme correspondence rules), …

Collaborative Research For Justice And Multi-Issue Movement Building: Challenging Discriminatory Policing, School Closures, And Youth Unemployment, Ronald David Glass, Brett G. Stoudt

Publications and Research

This special issue engages ethical, epistemic, political, and institutional issues in projects of collaborative research for justice that were designed with movements contesting policing, school closures, and youth disinvestment and unemployment. Three of the articles were collaboratively written by activists and scholars who drew from movements that deployed research for community-driven progressive change. The movements and the research are thus situated at the intersection of struggles against a resurgent anti-immigrant white supremacy, gentrification, a punitive carceral state, low pay and lack of meaningful employment opportunities, and the privatization of the public sector. These articles build upon and are in conversation …

Awareness Of Emotions Leads To Self-Efficacy Among College Students, Amy Lee, Emily M. Delacruz

Publications and Research

Self-efficacy is one’s belief in their own ability to succeed in a particular situation or accomplish a task (Bandura, 1977). Previous research has shown that the effort one puts into achieving goals, coping abilities, and behavior in the face of opposition are all heavily influenced by efficacy beliefs. Self reflection and knowledge of inner feelings, areas in which one excel, areas in which one do poorly, and areas in which one need to improve aid in the establishment of goals (Bandura, 1977 & Cervone, 2004). Inner feelings are bound to occur when one make sense of what one can and …

“We Are All The Decline”: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Presbyterian Clergywomen’S Talk About Denominational Decline, Miriam Shelton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this study, I have used social representation theory and discursive methods to explore developmental challenges posed to the clergy by the social changes brought about by the loss of membership and resources in one mainline denomination. Analyzing the interviews of 37 Presbyterian clergywomen, I document a Presbyterian social representation of decline, the core of which aligned with a report on decline issued by the PCUSA (General Assembly Task Force on Membership Growth and Decline, 1991), shaped by themâta of death versus liveliness, moving versus stagnation, growth versus decline and decline as good versus as bad. One way in which …

Childhood Neglect And Risk Of Revictimization By An Intimate Partner: A Prospective Investigation Of Mediational Pathways, Rebecca M. Spizzirri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Childhood maltreatment increases risk of revictimization in adulthood, although knowledge is limited. Very few studies focus on children with histories of neglect or include males. In addition, while some studies have begun to examine potential pathways from childhood victimization to adult revictimization, there is heavy reliance on data from cross-sectional or short-term longitudinal studies. This dissertation examines data from a large prospective cohort design study to examine potential mediators between childhood neglect and revictimization by an intimate partner in adulthood. Children with official records of neglect experienced before age 12 and non-maltreated children matched on the basis of age, sex, …

Neural Indices Of Vowel Discrimination In Monolingual And Bilingual Infants And Children, Yan H. Yu, Carol Tessel, Henry Han, Luca Campanelli, Nancy Vidal, Jennifer Gerometta, Karen Garrido-Nag, Hia Datta, Valerie L. Shafer

Publications and Research

Objectives: To examine maturation of neural discriminative responses to an English vowel contrast from infancy to 4 years of age and to determine how biological factors (age and sex) and an experiential factor (amount of Spanish versus English input) modulate neural discrimination of speech.

Design: Event-related potential (ERP) mismatch responses (MMRs) were used as indices of discrimination of the American English vowels [ε] versus [I] in infants and children between 3 months and 47 months of age. A total of 168 longitudinal and cross-sectional data sets were collected from 98 children (Bilingual Spanish–English: 47 male and 31 female …

Exposure To Suicidal Behavior Predicts A Suicide Attempt, Depending On Past Psychiatric Diagnosis, Emily A. Kline

Theses and Dissertations

We hypothesized that adolescents with a psychiatric diagnosis that were exposed to a suicide attempt and/or suicide death are at risk for future suicide attempts. Exposure to suicidal behavior did not predict future suicide attempts, however the interaction between having a psychiatric diagnosis and exposure significantly predicted future suicide attempts.

Examining The Association Between Childhood Exposure To Substance-Abusive Environments And Factor Two Psychopathic Traits, Cordelia Chou

Student Theses

Psychopathy is a multidimensional construct consisting of aberrant personality characteristics that are categorized as either affective and interpersonal (F1) or antisocial and deviant traits (F2). While the differentiation between F1 and F2 psychopathic traits has been studied, limited research examines the etiologies of the factors. Existing theory hypothesizes that the development of F1 traits is influenced by biological factors, whereas F2 traits arise from environmental influences. F2 traits are theorized to develop as a defensive behavior when individuals are constantly exposed to unhealthy environments or persistent traumatic experiences. One example of an unhealthy environment is exposure to a substance-abusing environment …

The Relationship Between Workplace Environment, Teacher Well-Being, And Young Children’S Behavioral Outcomes, Sarah G. Elbaum

Theses and Dissertations

When teachers are not provided with adequate workplace support, this may influence their ability to provide high-quality learning environments, resulting in negative developmental outcomes for children. Using the 2014 Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), this study investigated the relationship between workplace environment, teachers’ psychological well-being, and children’s behavioral outcomes.

Rural Adolescent Education Reframed: Can Social Justice, Lewin’S Topology, And Aesthetics Aid Reform Efforts?, Judith F. Upjohn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyze how changes in classroom-level conditions can help underperforming students thrive despite established school structures that discriminate against and exclude those students from learning opportunities.

Every year, millions of US public school students fail to graduate high school (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2018), despite numerous ongoing education reform efforts (Berkshire & Schneider, n.d.; Strauss, 2017). A large percentage of these students attend rural schools (Arnold, Newman, Gaddy, & Dean, 2005; Status of Rural Education, 2018). The rural conditions of adolescent students adversely affect their educational performance and achievement (Howley …