Psychology Commons^™

Emotion In Adoption Narratives: Links To Close Relationships In Emerging Adulthood, Holly A. Grant-Marsney

Doctoral Dissertations

An adopted person develops a narrative or story to help make sense of his or her adoption. This narrative provides a window into how the adoptee understands the role of adoption in his or her life and articulates feelings and thoughts about it. Adolescent and emerging adult adoptees’ data from the Minnesota-Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP) were examined. MTARP longitudinally followed 190 adoptive kinship networks, with varying levels of openness in the adoption, from childhood to emerging adulthood. The current study sought to understand how emotion (affective valence and specific emotions), as identified in the adoption narratives during adolescence and …

Affective And Cognitive Empathy Deficits Distinguish Primary And Secondary Variants Of Callous-Unemotional Youth, Rachel E. Kahn

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined whether a sample of detained male adolescents (n = 107; Mean age = 15.50; SD = 1.30) could be disaggregated into two distinct groups, consistent with past research on primary and secondary variants of callous-unemotional (CU) traits in adolescents. This study also sought to determine a possible explanation for the CU traits among youth in the secondary variant by examining whether they differ from primary variants on measures of cognitive and affective empathy. Using Latent Profile Analyses, two groups of adolescents high on CU traits were identified, a large group (n = 30) high …

Adolescent Reactions To Maternal Responsiveness And Internalizing Symptomatology: A Daily Diary Investigation, Lisa Jobe-Shields, Gilbert R. Parra, Kelly E. Buckholdt, Rachel N. Tillery

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

A daily diary methodology was employed to gather teens’ perceptions of maternal responsiveness to daily stressful events and teens’ reactions to maternal responsiveness in a diverse sample (792 entries from 104 teens; 81% African American, mean age 13.7 years). Additionally, parents and teens completed baseline reports of internalizing symptoms. Diary findings were congruent with prior studies employing self-report measures of global maternal responses to emotion (e.g., higher probability of Accepting reactions to supportive responses, higher probabilities of Attack, Avoid-Withdraw reactions to non-supportive responses). Elevated baseline internalizing symptoms were related to perception of elevated Punish and Magnify responses during the week, …

Mexican American Adolescents’ Gender Role Attitude Development: The Role Of Adolescents’ Gender And Nativity And Parents’ Gender Role Attitudes, Kimberly A. Updegraff, Susan M. Mchale, Katharine H. Zeiders, Adriana J. Umana-Taylor, Norma J. Perez-Brena, Lorey A. Wheeler, Sue A. Rodriguez De Jesus

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Gender development has long term implications for education and career endeavors and family formation behaviors, but we know very little about the role of sociocultural factors in developmental and individual differences. In this study, we investigated one domain of gender development, gender role attitudes, in Mexican American adolescents (N = 246; 51% female), using four phases of longitudinal data across eight years. Data were collected when adolescents averaged 12.51 years (SD = 0.58), 14.64 years (SD = 0.59), 17.72 years (SD = 0.57), and 19.60 years of age (SD = 0.66). Mothers’ and fathers’ gender …

Empathy As A Moderator Of Adolescent Bullying Behavior And Moral Disengagement After Controlling For Social Desirability, Amy Zelidman

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess the moderating influence empathy has on the associations between adolescent bullying behavior and moral disengagement after controlling for social desirability (e.g., response bias). 676 students in 7th and 8th grade from a suburban middle school in Southeast Michigan participated in this study in the fall of 2012.

Results showed male respondents were more likely than female respondents to (a) report engaging in all forms of traditional bullying behavior overall, including physical, verbal, and social bullying and (b) report higher rates of physical victimization and moral disengagement. Female respondents were more likely to …

Longitudinal Relations Between Peer Victimization And Delinquency: The Mediating Roles Of Sadness, Fear, And Anger, Lisa J. Ulmer

Theses and Dissertations

Peer victimization is a common occurrence among youth, and it has been linked to a number of negative outcomes, including delinquent behaviors (e.g., physical aggression, theft/property damage, and substance use). Several studies examined relations between peer victimization and delinquency, though few have done so longitudinally or examined whether negative emotions are underlying processes that explain associations between these constructs. The current study’s purpose is to examine whether several negative emotions (i.e., anger, fear, and sadness) mediate relations between several types of peer victimization and delinquency among middle and high school youths. The study’s sample of 318 youths was predominately African …

Where Does Electronic Aggression Fit?: A Comparison Of Dimensional And Categorical Models Of Adolescent Aggression, Krista R. Mehari

Theses and Dissertations

Electronic aggression is a rapidly growing focus of research, but it lacks a unifying theoretical framework that is necessary to advance the field. The lack of a theoretical framework has led to inconsistencies in measurement of electronic aggression, making it difficult to draw conclusions across studies. In general, researchers have assumed that electronic aggression constitutes a new form of aggression, a counterpart to physical, verbal, and relational aggression, due to unique features surrounding the perpetration of electronic aggression. Furthermore, researchers have treated electronic aggression as a categorical variable based on the assumption that “cyberbullies” constitute a distinct group of adolescents. …

Positive Moral Emotions And Moral Identity Development: The Difference Between Authentic And Hubristic Pride, Victoria Casey

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The goal of this study was to begin to fill a gap in the research on moral identity development in adolescence by investigating positive moral emotions (i.e., pride) for motivation in moral action in relation to moral identity development. Specifically, two forms of pride were analyzed: authentic pride, which is focussed on an action and its positive outcomes, and hubristic pride, which is focussed on an individual’s performance that reflects their greater capability in comparison to others. A new pride measure was developed for use in this study. Ten scenarios depicting moral behaviour were used, with eleven statements …

The Relationship Between Adolescent Depression And Social Skills In Young Adulthood, Emily H. Simmons

Scripps Senior Theses

This study investigated the relationships between a history of adolescent depression and social skills in young adulthood. Participants between the ages of 22 and 30 reported past and present experiences with depression and completed assessments of three aspects of social skills: emotional understanding, strength of social relationships, and interpersonal competence. Results indicated an association between current depression and social skills deficits but no main effect of adolescent depression on overall social skills. However, greater emotional understanding was associated with a history of adolescent depression. An earlier age of onset predicted stronger social relationships while length of depressive episode and time …