Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Responding To Trauma: Help-Seeking Behavior And Posttraumatic Growth In A College Sample, Aaron J. Burrick

Honors Scholar Theses

Research indicates that traumatic experiences can impact college students’ mental health, academic abilities, and relationships with peers. Trauma and associated symptoms of PTSD can lower students’ well-being and increase the risk of withdrawing from the university. Research also emphasizes the importance of psychological help-seeking as a way to experience posttraumatic growth. This study examines traumatic experiences, help-seeking attitudes, barriers, and behaviors, and posttraumatic growth in a sample of 168 undergraduate college students. Results indicated an overwhelming preference for informal help-seeking resources and the importance of traumatic severity in the decision to seek help. Additionally, female participants reported greater traumatic severity …

Effect Of Distress, Referral Source, And Pressure To Attend Therapy On Motivation To Change, Lyn E. Moore

Master's Theses

Psychotherapy is an effective form of treatment, yet difficulties with engagement and dropout continue to plague the field. Poor outcomes are more likely to be achieved by poorly motivated clients and those who are mandated to attend therapy (Prochaska, DiClemente, & Norcross, 1992). This study examined links between motivation to change, initial levels of distress, referral source, and pressure to attend therapy in a sample of 587 individuals who attended therapy at a university-based counseling center in the Northeast. Results indicated a relationship between distress and motivation to change as well as a link between the perceived pressure felt by …

Joint Attention In Young Children With Autism, Sabrina Jara

Honors Scholar Theses

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are classified as pervasive developmental disorders characterized by social, communicative, and behavioral impairments. According to formal and informal reports, children with ASD present with receptive and expressive language delay. Joint attention (JA: the behavior that occurs when two individuals focus on the same object or event) has been identified as a possible marker of delayed language development in children with ASD. In this study, the JA behaviors in children with ASD were contrasted with initially language-matched typically developing (TYP) children across three visits.

Measures of language, the frequency, duration, and source of initiation of JA episodes, …