Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Psychology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Predicting Reinforcers To Increase Physical Activity In Young Children With Obesity Using The Six-Minute Walk Test, Jordan D. Lill May 2021

Predicting Reinforcers To Increase Physical Activity In Young Children With Obesity Using The Six-Minute Walk Test, Jordan D. Lill

Theses & Dissertations

Childhood obesity continues to be a significant public health problem in the United States in which approximately 8% to 12% of American children are obese (Cunningham, Kramer, & Narayan, 2014; Mirza et al., 2018; Ogden et al., 2014). Further, 42% of American children are engaging in less than the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity (Troiano et al., 2008). Several treatments have been evaluated that have included goal-setting, self-monitoring, performance feedback, and access to arbitrary tangible rewards (e.g., Hyusti, Normand, & Larson, 2011; Van Camp & Hayes, 2012), but these treatments have often failed Luttikhuis et al., 2009; Nooijan …


The Impact Of Mindfulness On Healthy Food Choices, Kaylea Hopfer May 2021

The Impact Of Mindfulness On Healthy Food Choices, Kaylea Hopfer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The practice of mindfulness has a long history in research, particularly psychological studies. In this paper I examine the effects of a short mindfulness intervention on healthy food purchases. Specifically, I developed an online survey and recruited 634 participants via Prolific between July 24 - July 27, 2020. I randomly assigned participants to either a mindfulness manipulation or a control condition. Following treatment (or control) participants completed a food choice task and various other control. Following the survey, I analyzed data using R version 4.0.2 (2020-06-22) and R-Studio. I estimated three different regression models, ordinary least squares (OLS), Poisson, and …


Examining The Interplay Of Mental Health, Family Conflict, And Body Mass Index Among Mexican Origin Families: A Cross-Lagged Model, Laura Margaret Lehman Distel Jan 2021

Examining The Interplay Of Mental Health, Family Conflict, And Body Mass Index Among Mexican Origin Families: A Cross-Lagged Model, Laura Margaret Lehman Distel

Dissertations

Mexican-origin youth in the U.S. are at risk for obesity (Fryar et al., 2018) and mental health concerns (McLaughlin, Hilt, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2007). One key psychosocial process implicated in this health inequity is family conflict (Conger et al., 1999), which has been associated with both poor mental health outcomes (e.g. Santiago & Wadsworth, 2009) and overweight and obesity (Halliday et al., 2013). However, no research to date has examined the complex interplay of family conflict, mental health problems and body mass indices (BMI) over time. The present study examined cross-lagged associations among child z-scored BMI (zBMI), mental health problems (internalizing …


The Lived Experience Of Black Women With Weight Loss And Counseling Post Bariatric Surgery, Cynthia Williams Jan 2021

The Lived Experience Of Black Women With Weight Loss And Counseling Post Bariatric Surgery, Cynthia Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractStudies have shown that bariatric surgery can assist obese individuals to both lose a significant amount of weight rapidly and improve or resolve health comorbidities associated with obesity. This weight loss, however, can be considerably less for the obese Black woman. While reasons for this difference appears multifactorial entailing dietary, genetics, and environmental factors, limited research concerning the lived experiences of obese or formerly obese Black women with weight loss and post bariatric counseling have been conducted. The primary objective of this interpretative phenomenological study was to increase the understanding of the lived experiences of obese or formerly obese Black …


Relationship Between Social Media Screen Time, Sedentariness, And Bmi Among Young Adults, Helen Golod Jan 2021

Relationship Between Social Media Screen Time, Sedentariness, And Bmi Among Young Adults, Helen Golod

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Obesity has quickly become an epidemic that affects adults and youth not only in the United States, but also increasingly elsewhere in the global community. Research suggests that most children and adolescents spend a significant amount of time indulging in screen-based leisure, especially on social media. Such behavior may also be linked to sedentary lifestyle, which can impact an individual’s body mass index (BMI). There is a lack of understanding concerning how sedentary behavior moderates the relationship between screen time spent on different types of social media and BMI among young adults in the United States. To address this research …


Mindfulness Of What? Impact Of Awareness- And Acceptance-Focused Mindful Eating Techniques On Eating Outcomes, Jennifer Battles Jan 2021

Mindfulness Of What? Impact Of Awareness- And Acceptance-Focused Mindful Eating Techniques On Eating Outcomes, Jennifer Battles

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Introduction: Significant debate exists over the conceptualization of mindfulness even though mindfulness-based interventions are widely utilized to treat obesity and problematic eating behaviors. Little research has directly compared these theorized components of mindfulness in the context of eating. The purpose of the current study was to understand the relative importance of two components of mindfulness (i.e., awareness and acceptance) on laboratory eating outcomes. Methods: An experiment was conducted with 103 obese participants (Mage = 22.38, SD = 6.82; 64.1% female, 44.6% White, MBMI = 35.42, SD = 7.68) comparing two mindful eating inductions (i.e., awareness only and …


Obesity-Related Health Behaviors And Stress Among Sexual Minority Women, Kristen Andrea Smith Jan 2021

Obesity-Related Health Behaviors And Stress Among Sexual Minority Women, Kristen Andrea Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adult obesity rates have continued to rise with 40% of the adult population in the United States currently being categorized as obese. Sexual minority women are more prone to obesity than heterosexual women. Obesity has been linked to several causes of premature and preventable death and has often been attributed to changeable health behaviors such as physical activity, diet, and sleep. Additionally, stress has been shown to impact health behaviors as well as rates of obesity. Sexual minority women are known to experience more stress due to their minority status, a concept described in minority stress theory which states that …


Feasibility Of Acceptance-Based Health Coaching Targeting Food Cravings In Pregnancy, Lauren Blau Jan 2021

Feasibility Of Acceptance-Based Health Coaching Targeting Food Cravings In Pregnancy, Lauren Blau

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Excess gestational weight gain (GWG) is the leading high-risk condition in pregnancy in the United States and associated with a variety of poor delivery and health outcomes for the mother and infant. The majority of interventions addressing diet and physical activity in pregnancy have at best small effects on weight gain and pregnancy health outcomes. Past studies on weight loss in non-pregnant samples have demonstrated the utility of addressing psychological factors to modify eating behaviors. Currently, there is a lack of research to evaluate the efficacy of targeting psychological factors to improve cognitive and affective coping skills when attempting to …