Psychology Commons^™

The Mechanism Of Reducing Anxiety Through Mindfulness Interventions: Digital Therapeutic Program, Maria Neizvestnaya

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the prevalence of anxiety disorders, making it a population health concern in the United States and worldwide. The growing need for effective prevention and treatment of anxiety coincides with a deficit of mental health providers and physicians. With the healthcare system currently overwhelmed and the slow training pipeline of new providers, the gap between patient demand and treatment providers will not be closed in the next decade. There is a growing need for evidence-based treatments for anxiety disorders that can increase access to care while addressing the underlying mechanisms of anxiety. Digital therapeutics is a fast-developing …

Childhood Trauma And Ptsd Symptoms: Disentangling The Roles Of Emotion Regulation And Distress Tolerance, Jenna E. Russo, Deepali M. Dhruve, Arazais D. Oliveros

College of Arts and Sciences Publications and Scholarship

Background: Research documents that individuals with a history of childhood trauma experience greater emotion regulation difficulties (ED), as well as lower distress tolerance (DT), two constructs that independent lines of research implicate as transdiagnostic factors in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To help elucidate how such mechanisms may influence the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of PTSD, the current study investigates the distinct mediating roles of ED and DT and explores which accounts for more unique variance.

Methods: Participants (N = 385, aged 18-48) with a childhood trauma history provided self-ratings of cumulative trauma exposure, and endorsed current ED, DT, and …

Sickle Cell In A Poor Community In Haiti: Attention, Emotion, And Sleep, Sarajane Rodgers

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Hemoglobin disorders or inherited blood diseases affect about 5% of the world population. One main category of these disorders is sickle-cell disease (SCD). SCD can cause many physical complications, such as kidney problems, leg ulcers, and chronic pain. Less frequently discussed symptoms include complications like attention problems and emotion regulation. The study looked at a small sample of pediatric and adult patients (N=22) with SCD at a primary care clinic in a very poor community in Haiti, researching sleep and emotion regulation, given their shared neurobiological systems. As these symptoms can influence attention, the relationships among attention, emotion, and sleep …

Examining Maternal Emotion Regulation In Children With And Without Adhd: A Multimodal Approach, Alexis Garcia

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: Our study utilized a multimodal approach to explore profiles of emotion regulation (ER) in mothers of young children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We also sought to understand how parent factors (i.e., skills, stress, ADHD symptoms) as well as child factors were associated with membership to these profiles. Methods: The final sample consisted of 182 parent-child dyads. Sixty-six children were in the typically developing group (Mean age = 5.47, SD = .90, 74.2% males), and there were 116 children in the ADHD group (Mean child age = 5.41, SD = .75, 80.2% males). Dyads completed a stress-inducing task …

The Role And Effect Of Mindfulness In Intimate Relationships, Mazyar Karandish

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Mindfulness practice, a present-centered approach to experience, has been shown to effectively enhance various dimensions of the human experience. Recent literature has explored how the practice of mindfulness meditation has provided benefits to practitioners seeking to enhance relationship dynamics. There are multiple examples of mindfulness-based relationship enhancement programs aiming to enhance the quality of intimate relationships in adults. This study utilizes a repeated-measures design to address whether a neutral mindfulness-based program, not geared at enhancing relationships, can significantly alter the quality of intimate relationships. The research will further examine the central mechanisms of action through which mindfulness can enhance relationships. …

The Effect Of Parent Emotion-Related Talk On Infant Behavior And Emotion Regulation, Nicole Elise Lorenzo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Early parent-infant interactions play a critical role in the social, emotional, and behavioral development of children. While several aspects of parent-infant interactions have been thoroughly examined, parent emotion socialization has not been examined to the same extent. The current work aimed to examine the development of parent emotion-related talk in mothers of infants with and without elevated behavior problems in two studies. The first study examined the developmental trajectory of parent emotion-related talk among mothers of infants with and without elevated behaviors. Furthermore, a secondary goal of the study was to examine the effect of parent emotion-related talk on infant …

Reducing Risks For Anxiety And Depression Among Urban Youth: Leveraging After School Programs To Promote Emotion Regulation, Erin R. Hedemann

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rates of internalizing disorders in childhood are around 10% and higher among racial/ethnic minority youth and youth living in poverty. Targeting empirically derived processes associated with anxiety and depression may be an efficient and effective way to minimize risks for internalizing symptoms and impairment. Deficits in emotion regulation (e.g., increased use of emotional suppression, decreased use of cognitive reappraisal) are associated with anxiety and depression in youth and improve with treatment. The current study examined the acceptability and promise of an intervention targeting these emotion regulation strategies in the context of an after-school music program. Reflecting a community-based participatory research …

The Effects Of Alcohol Intoxication And Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies On Lab-Based Partner Aggression, Laura E. Watkins

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Intimate partner aggression (IPA) is a serious national health concern that affects an alarming number of individuals and can lead to substantial psychological and physical suffering. Situational risk factors that arise in the immediate context of IPA reflect state-like influences that trigger aggression. Because these factors are more variable and fluctuate according to the situation, they are potentially promising targets for prevention and intervention efforts (e.g., through cognitive and behavioral interventions). Within this realm, two factors in particular appear to play a prominent role in the etiology of IPA: alcohol intoxication and cognitive emotion regulation strategies. In contrast to prior …

Sexual Victimization History And Visual Attentional Bias For Emotional Pictures In College Women, Renu A. Thomas

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Various traumatic experiences and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are associated with biased attention toward trauma-related information. However, few studies have exclusively investigated such biases in sexual victimization survivors or identified factors that influence this relationship between sexual victimization and biased attention. Using eyetracking methodology, the current study attempts to delineate attentional patterns in sexually victimized and non-victimized undergraduate women, using viewing of different emotional picture pairs. This study also aims to assess the impact of PTSD symptomatology on the relationship between sexual victimization and greater attentional bias. Finally, the study explores changes in attention toward trauma-related stimuli among survivors by …

Emotional, Social, And Cognitive Correlates Of Stalking And Intrusive Harassment., Allissa Marquez

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Although stalking has been recognized as social problem for the last twenty years, few studies have examined the treatment needs or effectiveness with these persistent offenders. The dearth of information on appropriate intervention is in part related to the difficulty of operationalizing stalking behavior in empirical studies. Accordingly, the present study sought to examine clinically relevant indicators of functioning using both categorical and continuous definitions of stalking behavior. Two hundred and fifty male prisoners were surveyed about their engagement in intrusive and aggressive behaviors during a significant conflict, as well as their social, emotional, and cognitive functioning. Results indicated quantitative …

The Role Of Family Routines And Rituals In The Psychological Well Being Of Emerging Adults, Yesel Yoon

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Adolescence and emerging adulthood are both critical transition phases wrought with developmental changes and challenges. One of the major developmental tasks that families of children, adolescents and emerging adults deal with is facilitating the development of emotion regulation. The practices that families engage in that attempt to create order and stability within the family—their routines and rituals—may be one key family variable that helps develop better emotion regulation. Family routines and rituals tend to create a more stable environment, which in turn may predict better outcomes for individuals (Crespo, Davide, Costa & Fletcher, 2008; Fiese, 2007; Leon & Jacobvitz, 2003). …

Interpersonal Aggression Perpetration: Static And Emotion Regulation Risk Factors, Jill Panuzio

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Intimate partner aggression (IPA) is a serious public health problem for both men and women in the United States. With aspirations of alleviating the significant negative effects of IPA, a substantial body of literature has been devoted to uncovering risk factors for IPA perpetration. Much of this research has focused on static, or relatively stable, factors that may influence IPA, such as life stress, distress tolerance, rumination, and jealousy. However, considering situational variables that influence individuals more proximally to aggressive acts, in conjunction with these static factors, may provide more precise prediction of partner aggression. Current theoretical and empirical work …