Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Father Knows Best: The Interactive Effects Of Fathering Quantity And Quality On Child Self-Regulation, Mamatha Chetlur Chary

Doctoral Dissertations

In the past decade, developmental research has seen a surge of work regarding fathers and their influences of various aspects of child outcomes- cognitive and socioemotional. Studies show that father involvement, or “quantity” of time the father spends with the child, as well as fathering “quality”, or the characteristics marking the father-child relationship (warmth, supportiveness, sensitivity etc.), can both contribute to variance in the development of individual differences in child outcomes such as language skills, academic success and psychological well-being. One facet of adaptive development, self-regulation (SR), is a robust and consistent predictor of high academic success, fulfilling interpersonal relationships, …

Associations Between Emotion Regulation Flexibility, Executive Functioning, And Borderline Personality Disorder Features, Marykate Oakley

Doctoral Dissertations

A substantial body of research has examined emotion regulation (ER) deficits in connection with borderline personality disorder (BPD) based on individuals’ use of specific ER strategies. However, studies historically have focused on the putative adaptability or maladaptability of individual strategies without adequate focus on the fit between specific strategies and context. Thus, ER flexibility as an index of the ability to vary the use of multiple ER strategies based on changing environmental demands and goals may allow for such an approach. Yet, to date, there remains uncertainty about how to best operationalize ER flexibility, and little research has examined this …

Emotional Response To Negative Mood Induction In Mild Cognitive Impairment And Cognitively-Intact Older Adults, Gennarina Diane Santorelli

Doctoral Dissertations

Older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) report greater rates of psychiatric symptoms than cognitively-intact older persons. This may be associated with emotion dysregulation, which is prevalent in cognitively-impaired populations. No research to date has investigated responses to emotionally-provocative stimuli in persons with MCI. Aim 1 of this study determined differences in emotional reactivity to and recovery from negative mood induction in older persons with amnestic MCI (aMCI) and cognitively-healthy older adults. Moreover, emotion dysfunction in MCI may be linked to impairment in executive function (EF), a common feature of MCI. Theoretical models postulate that EF is essential to the …

Decreasing Stress Through An Emotion Regulation And Non-Judging Based Intervention With Trauma-Exposed College Students, Megan Cherry

Doctoral Dissertations

Among college students, trauma and PTSD symptomatology are associated with negative consequences (e.g., poor academic performance, stress sensitivity, and negative coping). College is often a stressful time, and those who have experienced trauma, particularly those experiencing PTSD symptoms, are vulnerable to heightened stress sensitivity and negative outcomes. It is imperative to identify interventions that decrease stress for trauma-exposed college students to reduce the deleterious effects of related outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine whether emotion regulation and non-judgment could be enhanced in trauma-exposed college students through a short, mindfulnessbased intervention, and whether the intervention would lead to …

The Role Of Culture In Close Relationships: East-West Differences In Communication And Emotion Regulation, Feiran Ge

Doctoral Dissertations

The current research examined the role of culture in shaping two interpersonal processes that occur within romantic relationships – i.e., (a) how individuals communicate emotional messages with their romantic partner and (b) how they help each other regulate emotions. I addressed these two processes by focusing on national culture, comparing behaviors between European American and Chinese partners in romantic relationships. Chapter I (Studies 1-4) investigated the extent to which European Americans and Chinese prefer direct vs. indirect communication styles with their romantic partners. Studies 1 and 2 found that Chinese were more indirect (vs. direct) than European Americans when they …

The Neural Correlates Of Emotion Reactivity And Regulation In Young Children With Adhd, Claudia I. Lugo-Candelas

Doctoral Dissertations

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most frequently occurring pediatric neurobehavioral disorder. Although emotion reactivity and regulation are frequently impaired in ADHD, few studies have examined these factors in preschool aged children with ADHD, and none have explored the neural correlates of emotion reactivity and regulation in this group though event-related potentials (ERPs). Children aged 4 to 7 with (n = 24) and without (n = 30) ADHD symptoms completed an attention task composed of four blocks: baseline, frustration, suppression, and recovery. In the frustration and suppression blocks, negative affect was induced by false negative feedback. During the …

Emotion Regulation As A Mediator Of Adolescent Developmental Processes And Problem Outcomes, Katherine Little Kivisto

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent models of adolescent development and psychopathology emphasize the importance of the social regulation of emotion during adolescence (Allen & Manning, 2007; Allen & Miga, 2010), and emotion regulation as a mediating factor between multiple aspects of adolescent development and adolescent adjustment (Morris, Silk, Steinberg, Myers, & Robinson, 2007). The present dissertation investigated these two phenomena in two separate studies of adolescent development, emotion regulation, and psychological adjustment.

In study one, a new measure of adolescent social regulation of emotion – the Managing Distress Interpersonally Scale, or MANDI – showed good internal consistency, test-retest reliability and factor structure across two …