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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Psychology

Doctoral Dissertations

Depression

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

It’S All The Rage: An Animated Approach To Screening For Postpartum Depression, Amanda Gorham Dec 2020

It’S All The Rage: An Animated Approach To Screening For Postpartum Depression, Amanda Gorham

Doctoral Dissertations

Postpartum depression presents a complication for mothers which can, in some cases, be severe and even life-threatening. Instruments commonly used to screen for this psychological condition have been challenged by an extensive body of literature, with many mothers being unidentified and even untreated for their symptoms. The presented research introduces a newly developed screening instrument for detecting probable postpartum depression using text-free scenario-based animations, based on the lived experience of the condition as qualified by empirical research and the existing body of literature. Developed items were controlled for quality via Think Aloud Protocol and alignment studies with subject matter experts …


Maternal Postpartum Depression And Father Involvement Across The Transition To Parenthood, Katie Newkirk Oct 2018

Maternal Postpartum Depression And Father Involvement Across The Transition To Parenthood, Katie Newkirk

Doctoral Dissertations

Maternal postpartum depression is a common complication of childbirth that affects the whole family. Fathers’ greater involvement in childcare can buffer children from the negative effects of mothers’ depression, and aid in mothers’ recovery, so it is important to understand under what conditions fathers become more or less involved when mothers are depressed. Prior research has supported both a compensation hypothesis, whereby fathers compensate for the effects of mothers’ depression on mothers’ parenting by being more involved in parenting, and a spillover hypothesis, whereby mothers’ negative emotionality causes fathers to pull back from family life and be less involved in …


Correspondence Between Change In Adult Attachment Patterns And Change In Depression Symptoms In Early Marriage, Cassandra C. Devito Jul 2016

Correspondence Between Change In Adult Attachment Patterns And Change In Depression Symptoms In Early Marriage, Cassandra C. Devito

Doctoral Dissertations

Countless studies have demonstrated the association between attachment styles and depressive symptoms; however, thus far, none have examined concurrent change. That is, does change in attachment style predict change in depressive symptoms over time? This question was examined in a sample of 229 heterosexual newlywed couples from Western Massachusetts. It was found that changes in attachment avoidance in particular predicted changes in depressive and anxious symptoms over time. Being a parent also played a role in participants' overall attachment styles, depressive symptoms and anxious symptoms on average, with differences observed by gender. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.


Predicting Social Skills And Adaptability In Preschoolers With Behavior Problems, Nastassja Marshall Nov 2015

Predicting Social Skills And Adaptability In Preschoolers With Behavior Problems, Nastassja Marshall

Doctoral Dissertations

Social skills and adaptability have been associated with a host of positive child outcomes. However, previous research has rarely examined the extent to which child symptomatology and family environment are associated with social skills and adaptability in children. Furthermore, no studies have looked at these associations longitudinally in preschool children with behavior problems, for whom social functioning may be especially important. The current study examined the relationship of five predictors (child oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), child attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), marital conflict strategies, parental depression, and parental warmth) with social skills and adaptability measured in preschoolers with behavior problems at …