Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

App-Based Academic Interventions For Children With Autism, Cassity R. Haverkamp

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Technology, such as tablet/phone apps, robots, video games, and virtual reality, can be used to teach skills to autistic children. Research on technology supports for autistic youth often focus on social skills, a main part of an autism diagnosis. However, autistic children may also have academic challenges, and fewer studies have looked at how technology can teach academic skills to children with autism. We created three studies to look at how academic apps may benefit autistic children. In the first study, we reviewed studies that looked at how academic apps can increase the academic skills of children with autism. We …

Training Parents In Descriptive Assessment And Function Identification, Makenzie Sip

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

It is often difficult for parents to address their child’s problem behavior. Children with special needs can display more frequent and intense problem behavior. Therefore, professionals need to help parents of children with special needs identify how to decrease their child’s problem behavior. Professionals help to decrease problem behavior by performing assessments called descriptive assessments to identify why the problem behavior is happening, and then using these assessments to create an appropriate plan of how to prevent and respond to the problem behavior. We examined if parents could be taught the skills necessary to perform descriptive assessments and then use …

The Use Of Stress Management In Combination With Parent Training: An Intervention Study With Parents Of Preschool Children, Theresa L. Gunderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many preschool children exhibit a number of problematic, acting-out behaviors. Parents of preschoolers exhibiting behavior problems often experience a great deal of stress associated with these problem behaviors. Consistently robust improvements have been found in the use of stress management for adult stress, pain, and medical wellbeing. Likewise, studies have shown parent training decreases the severity of child behavior problems. However, only a few studies have examined effects of parent training on both child behavior and parent stress. Some studies have found that parents who complete parent training also report lowered stress levels commensurate with improvement of child behavior. It …

How Utah Parents Of Utah School Children Judge School Effectiveness, Philip L. Rodgers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There is a perceived crisis concerning public education in the United States. This has led to an increase in the use of standardized tests for the purpose of measuring school effectiveness. However, the use of standardized tests for this purpose is problematic. Among these problems is the concern that standardized tests may not measure what parents believe are the most important attributes of an effective school. Unfortunately, there is little in the way of empirical evidence regarding parent beliefs in this area.

The purpose of this research was to answer the following four questions.

1. What do parents of school-aged …

Parents Of Children With Severe Disabilities: Parental Stress, Depression, And The Marital Relationship, Melinda W. Christensen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper provides an overview of parental stress and depression in families with children diagnosed with severe cognitive disabilities. Previous research on parents with children with disabilities was reviewed. Studies were selected from peer-reviewed journal articles that specifically included children with an IQ below 70 or a noted cognitive impairment of a severe degree. Children in the study had to be living at home and below the age of 21. Significant levels of stress and depression were not found consistently in the studies reviewed. Parents of children with disabilities did report levels of stress and depression above the control groups …

Parents' And Teachers' Acceptability Of Treatments For Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: The Effects Of Presentation And Information Delivery, Jason Donald Gage

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most frequently diagnosed problems affecting school-age children. This disorder can cause significant problems for children who consequently need treatment. Consumers of interventions for ADHD have efficacious treatments to choose from, but such treatment may not be implemented appropriately and effectiveness may decrease. Viewing treatments as 111 acceptable can affect treatment integrity and in turn increase effectiveness. Therefore, it is important that professionals understand how to increase the acceptability of treatments when first presenting treatment options to consumers. The primary purpose of this study was to determine if presenting parents and teachers with additional …

The Influence Of Social Support On The Stress Level Of Parents With Disabled Children, Shannon J. Pratt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study investigated the relationship between social support and stress in 572 families of disabled children in various parts of the United States. To utilize multidimensional models such as Dunst's ecological model and the Double ABCX model of stress, additional variables were investigated; these included family characteristics and recent life events (FILE). A regression design was used, with family characteristics, recent life events (FILE), perceived helpfulness of social support (FSS), and perceived adequacy of resources (FRS) as independent variables, and parental stress (PSI) as the dependent variable (PSI). Helpfulness of social support, recent life events, and family characteristics all predicted …

Predictors Of Change For Parents Who Perceive Improvement In Their Family Functioning Following A Parent-Training Program, Linda Gayle Moore

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of the present study was to determine if perceptions of improved family functioning following a behavioral parenting program could be predicted by educational background, income, and pretest knowledge of behavioral principles. Subjects for the study were parents of elementary-school-aged children who volunteered for the parenting classes. Parents who perceived their families as dysfunctional, as measured by the pretest FACES II, were selected as subjects for the study. Parents whose perceptions of their families improved after the parenting class were then compared with parents who did not perceive improvement in their families on the predictor variables.

The results demonstrated …

Assimilation And Accommodation In Family Discourse: A Longitudinal Analysis, Marcia Summers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Assimilative behavioral strategies provide continuity through maintenance of similarities, traditions, and interactions, while accommodative strategies result in social innovation through the creation of new modes and interactive patterns (J. Block, 1982; J. H. Block, 1983). It was hypothesized that females would show assimilative discourse patterns through the maintenance of conversational topics, while males would show accommodative patterns through more frequent changes in conversational topic, and that the roots of this pattern lie in family conversation. Nineteen families were videotaped at one month, four months, and four years following the birth of their second child. Results showed that gender-differentiated use of …

Socio-Behavioral Correlates Of 6- To 11-Year-Old Offspring Of Alcohol Consuming Parents, Jan Garver Bacon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There is a lack of simple random sample based research into whether there are social skill and behavior problem differences for six- to eleven-year-old boys and girls which correlate with rates of parental alcohol consumption, social sequelae of parental alcohol consumption, reported level of marital conflict, and extended family history of alcoholism.

This simple random sample study correlates the above variables with T scores on the behavior problem and social competence scales of the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist and Child Behavior Checklist - Teacher's Report Form for six- to eleven-year-old children (N=100). Behavior problem scales include disorders of affect, thought, …

Adolescent Identity Status In Current Familial Relationships During Separation, Eugene E. Campbell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

College students were assessed as to ego identity status and perceptions of their relationships with parents during their first year away from home. Each parent was also asked to rate the relationship. There was general agreement between parents and adolescents although the data indicate that mothers and adolescents share a more similar view of their relationship than did the fathers and adolescents.

The hypothesis that females would report more affection and communication with their parents than would males was partially supported. Daughters were more communicative with their mothers and were more affectionate toward both parents than were sons.

Several proposed …

The Effects Of Concurrently Teaching Parents And Their Children With Learning Adjustment Problems The Principles Of Parent Effectiveness Training, Sterling Andelin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study attempts to determine if concurrently teaching Parent Effectiveness Training principles to parents and their children results in greater effectiveness than teaching the parents only.

The study was performed in the context of the Learning Adjustment School Program sponsored by the Eastern Idaho Community Mental Health Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

The subjects were 35 students in this program who had learning disabilities and/or emotional disturbances. Fifty-two of their parents were also subjects. An experimental group of parents, a control group of parents, an experimental group of children, and a control group of children were selected. The students in …