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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

The Process And Meaning Of Sexual Assault Disclosure, Sharon G. Smith Aug 2005

The Process And Meaning Of Sexual Assault Disclosure, Sharon G. Smith

Psychology Dissertations

Disclosure of sexual assault is a complicated process which depends upon a host of factors, such as assault characteristics, the victim’s interpretation, and the level of distress she experiences. Comprehensive theories of adult sexual assault disclosure have not been proposed. Most studies concentrate on a particular aspect of disclosure, such as outcomes of disclosure and reasons for disclosing versus not disclosing. A number of gaps exist in the current literature on adult sexual assault disclosure. These include the conceptualization of disclosure as a discrete or continuous variable; how it may evolve during stages of recovery; the progression of disclosure (e.g., …


A Comparison Of Consumer-Controlled And Traditional Hiv Counseling And Testing: Implications For Screening And Outreach Among Injection Drug Users, Bradford Noyes Bartholow Aug 2005

A Comparison Of Consumer-Controlled And Traditional Hiv Counseling And Testing: Implications For Screening And Outreach Among Injection Drug Users, Bradford Noyes Bartholow

Psychology Dissertations

Recent advances in HIV antiretroviral therapy and the availability of prophylaxis for opportunistic infections, combined with the opportunity to prevent perinatal HIV infection, underscores the value of early diagnosis of HIV infection. HIV antibody home test kits offer individuals the opportunity to collect a blood sample, send it anonymously to a laboratory, and receive counseling and referral over the phone. Home HIV testing may reduce barriers to testing that have precluded individuals from learning their HIV serostatus, and if seropositive, from taking advantage of efficacious therapeutic and preventive regimens. This study employed a randomized-controlled prospective field trial design to determine …


The Effects Of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure On The Mutual Regulation Of Attention In Mother-Infant Dyads, Traci Golbach Aug 2005

The Effects Of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure On The Mutual Regulation Of Attention In Mother-Infant Dyads, Traci Golbach

Psychology Dissertations

Mutual regulation of attention was investigated in a group of prenatally cocaine-exposed and non-exposed mother-infant dyads during a 5-minute videotaped free play session. Mutual regulation was measured using a state-based coding scheme designed to categorize dyadic interactions into three mutually exclusive and exhaustive states: maternal bid, mutual engagement, and non-involved. Results revealed no significant differences between cocaine-exposed and non-exposed dyads in overall amount of mutual engagement displayed. Cocaine-exposed dyads exhibited significantly longer mutual engagement episodes. Mothers in the two groups did not differ in the number or quality of bids for mutual engagement, and infants in both groups were equally …


The Effect Of The Death Of A Child On Midlife Mental And Physical Health: An Exploration Of Risk And Resilience Factors, Catherine Hilary Rogers Aug 2005

The Effect Of The Death Of A Child On Midlife Mental And Physical Health: An Exploration Of Risk And Resilience Factors, Catherine Hilary Rogers

Psychology Dissertations

The study examined the long-term effects of a death of a child on a variety of parental psychological and physical outcomes, incorporating several methodological and conceptual innovations over previous research. Prior bereavement research typically has focused on functioning within a short time period after the death and often has utilized self-selected samples of grieving parents; thus current models of grief may be inadequate. In contrast, this study broadened the timeframe in which bereavement is studied (average time since death= 20 years), and examined a sample of bereaved parents who were not self-selected. Participants were members of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study …


Longitudinal Effects Of Family Variables And Illness Severity On Cognitive Functioning In Children With Hiv Infection, Heather Jordon Clark Aug 2005

Longitudinal Effects Of Family Variables And Illness Severity On Cognitive Functioning In Children With Hiv Infection, Heather Jordon Clark

Psychology Dissertations

Although HIV/AIDS is the 9th leading cause of death in African-American children, 80% of HIV-infected children in the U.S. live into school-age years. This study focuses on associations between HIV illness severity, family factors, and long-term cognitive functioning of these children. Participants included 42 perinatally HIV-infected children (mean age = 72.4 months), 93% of whom were African-American. Mean intellectual functioning was more than one standard deviation below the normative mean; whereas, overall language and attention functioning were generally not different from the normative sample. First, this study described changes in functioning over time and/or between genders. Analyses of variance were …


Sense Of Community And Participant Engagement In A Group-Based Parenting Intervention, Catherine Ann Lesesne May 2005

Sense Of Community And Participant Engagement In A Group-Based Parenting Intervention, Catherine Ann Lesesne

Psychology Dissertations

This study examined sense of community (SOC) and participant engagement in the first 12 months of a longitudinal, group-based intervention program for parents, Legacy for ChildrenTM. Previous research in self-help/mutual support groups and alternative living environments for recovering addicts suggested SOC may positively influence engagement in programs and may be an active ingredient to the success of such programs. Literature on SOC has been limited by cross-sectional investigations and lacked a developmental perspective of changes in SOC over time. This study examined the following questions: 1) Does SOC with the parenting program differ between intervention and control participants at 6 …


The Growth Of Phonological Awareness: Response To Reading Intervention By Children With Reading Disabilities Who Exhibit Typical Or Below-Average Language Skills, Justin Coy Wise May 2005

The Growth Of Phonological Awareness: Response To Reading Intervention By Children With Reading Disabilities Who Exhibit Typical Or Below-Average Language Skills, Justin Coy Wise

Psychology Dissertations

Phonological awareness (PA) can be defined as the ability to recognize that orthographic patterns represent specific phonemic elements of speech (Nitrouer, 1999). Alternatively, some view PA as a purely linguistic skill that involves the ability to recognize and manipulate specific speech sounds (e.g., Catts, 1991). A large body of research indicates the primary problem for children who do not learn to read is a deficit in PA (e.g., Morris et al., 1998; Stanovich, 1988). Far less work has examined what drives the development of PA (Metsala & Walley, 1998). Recently, it has been suggested that oral language skills influence the …


Autonomy And Relatedness In Mother-Teen Interactions As Predictors Of Involvement In Adolescent Dating Aggression, Phyllis Holditch Niolon May 2005

Autonomy And Relatedness In Mother-Teen Interactions As Predictors Of Involvement In Adolescent Dating Aggression, Phyllis Holditch Niolon

Psychology Dissertations

This study examined autonomy and relatedness in mother adolescent interactions as longitudinal predictors of adolescent involvement in dating aggression. Research indicates that dating aggression, defined as perpetration and/or victimization of physical, psychological, or sexual aggression, affects one-third to two-thirds of adolescents. Most studies of adolescent dating aggression have been cross-sectional, have lacked a developmental theoretical perspective, and have not adequately investigated contextual differences in dating aggression. This study adds to the existing literature in that it applies a developmental framework to a multi-method, longitudinal study (n=88) of adolescent dating aggression. Adolescents’ and their mothers’ demonstrations of support for and inhibition …


Development Of Visual-Verbal Integration In Working Memory During Childhood And Its Relation To Language And Reading, M. Katrina Smith May 2005

Development Of Visual-Verbal Integration In Working Memory During Childhood And Its Relation To Language And Reading, M. Katrina Smith

Psychology Dissertations

Research has demonstrated working memory improves during childhood and supports vocabulary, grammar, and reading development (Adams & Gathercole, 1995, 1996; Bowey, 1996; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1989, 1990). Prior to the addition of the episodic buffer in Baddeley’s model of working memory (2000a), auditory and visual aspects of working memory were often treated separately without evaluating contributions from the ability to integrate the two forms of information. The present study was designed to investigate the development of visual-verbal integration in working memory and its role in language and reading development. Tests of receptive vocabulary, receptive grammar, and decoding ability were administered …