Child Psychology Commons^™

Psychosocial Adjustment Among Refugee Children, Nola Ivana Lawrence

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Refugee children are faced with multiple stressors. These stressors include unresolved issues with country of origin, transition to a new country, and long-term adjustment. War is a traumatic situation. For children who have gone through the trauma of war, parents may contribute one of the major influences to their psychosocial adjustment. The purpose of this study was to assess the role that parental mental health, as measured by the Hopkins Symptom Checklist - 25 (HSCL-25) and parenting sense of competence as measured by the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC), plays in children’s psychosocial adjustment to war trauma using delinquency …

African American Children's Inferences Based On Race, Sex And Age, Erica Hightower

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Previous studies (Madole, Eastman, Stone, & White, 2005) have suggested that children do not make inferences about people on the basis of race until around 8 years of age. The present study was a replication of a study performed by Madole et al. The distinction between the two studies was in the sample used, hi the previous study the majority of children used were Caucasian. The present study sought to examine whether African American children were more likely to make inferences on the basis of race than Caucasian children. Children ages 6 to 11 years were asked to perform an …

Examination Of The Impact Of Age, Family Conflict, And Perceived Parental Involvement On Treatment Adherence For Children And Adolescents With Cystic Fibrosis And Diabetes, Blake M. Lancaster

Dissertations

The success of medical interventions for patients with diseases that require consistent adherence to a medical regimen is largely contingent upon the patient’s ability to consistently follow medical recommendations. Medical regimen adherence significantly influences the patient’s health and impacts the health care providers’ ability to treat any disease or medical problem. Adherence levels are particularly low in the pediatric population among young patients with diabetes and cystic fibrosis. Researchers and clinicians hypothesize that levels of adherence are particularly low during adolescence (ages 11-15) because this may be the period in which primary responsibility for daily adherence is transferred from the …

Behaviorally-Based Disorders: The Historical Social Construction Of Youths' Most Prevalent Psychiatric Diagnoses, Christopher A. Mallett

Social Work Faculty Publications

The article discusses the historical social construction of the most prevalent diagnosis of youth in the U.S. The country's psychiatry controls the definitions of mental health disorders and diagnosis through required practice utilization of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. A research is conducted through a social construction theoretical paradigm to identify diagnostic classification systems, nosology changes, and critical time periods.

Examination Of The Relationship Between Parenting Styles And Parental Tolerance, Amanda Sowers

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Noncompliant behavior in children may be due to the developmental stage the child is going through, but persistent noncompliance can have long-term effects on the child ranging from academic problems to relationship problems (Forehand & Wierson, 1993; Kalb & Loeber, 2003). Parents' response to noncompliant behavior may be influenced by their parenting style. Parental tolerance is one factor that may differ among parenting styles. Parental tolerance can be defined by how annoyed the parent becomes by disruptive behavior displayed by children and the affect it has on the parent-child interaction (Brestan, Eyberg, Algina, Johnson, & Boggs, 2003). One new measure …

Self-Mutilation In Adolescents: Recognizing A Silent Epidemic, Constance Glenn, Susan M. Denisco

Nursing Faculty Publications

This article describes the physical and emotional manifestations of self-mutilation behavior (SMB) in adolescents and provides information about diagnosis and treatment. The authors' own survey of school nurses' on-the-job experience with SMB is presented. Finally, the implications of the problem for nurse practitioners (NPs) who care for teens at risk for SMB are discussed.

Parental Involvement In Youth Sports, Kristin Leigh Greene

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this paper is to understanding the motivating factors pertaining to the involvement of youth in sport and how parents can assist in providing their children optimal sport experiences. The paper will begin by providing a background of youth sport involvement, and include the benefits and drawbacks of youth sport participation. To ensure that young athletes are positively motivated toward sport participation, it is important to understand their reasons for participation, as well as how others, such as parents, impact their motivation toward sport. This paper will address a number of motivational theories. Deci and Ryan's cognitive evaluation …

Effects Of A Parenting Group On Family Relationships And Child Behavior Problems, Patricia E. Fernandez

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The current study is aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the Parent Project, a structured parenting group used with the parents of adolescents, 12 to 15 years old, who have been identified as experiencing behavior problems. The Parent Project focuses on improving the parent child relationship and family environment. Participants included 12 caretakers who have completed the 10-week program. Intervention effects were evaluated at baseline and upon completion of the program. It was hypothesized that parents would report significantly greater improvements in the parent-child relationship, family environment, and child behavior problems at completion of the program. Statistical and clinical significant …

Evaluation Of Program Outcomes: Assessment In Children, Cheryl M. Romano

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

In an age of increased concern for accountability and the review of services, administrators of health programs should be able to present their clinics effectiveness, and demonstrate their excellent service to the community, along with providing evidence for the continued need of such clinics. Outcome evaluation plays an integral part in providing this information, and is intended to provide information concerning the effectiveness of a particular program, thus allowing for modification, and even better outcomes.

This project addressed pre and post functioning in children referred for academic and/or behavioral difficulties, in a university of health sciences-based clinic. The aim was …

Self-Management: A Proactive Strategy For Students With Asperger Syndrome, Lee Wilkinson

Lee A Wilkinson, PhD

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Anxiety Induction On Facial Recognition Skills Within A Sample Of Adult Victims Of Childhood Abuse, Kathryn M. Bell

Dissertations

Although it is well established that interpersonal victimization can lead to affect regulation problems, less is known about the extent to which childhood victimization impairs facial recognition skills. Most studies exploring this relationship have focused on emotion recognition (ER) in physically abused and neglected children. The degree to which these ER problems apply to sexual victimization and extend into adulthood is yet unknown. The current study examined the impact of physical and sexual childhood abuse on adult ER skills under a heightened arousal condition in 104 women with varying childhood victimization experiences. The relationship between childhood victimization and ER skills …

The Impact Of Reading Programs As A Map Project Strategy, Tena Jones

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 was enacted to protect the United States' most vulnerable students and was signed into law in January 2002 (U.S. Department of Education, 2002). For many years, black, Hispanic, special education, and limited English proficient students were not achieving at the same level as their white, middle-class counterparts because schools were not held accountable for their individual progress. The achievement gap is well documented in previous research at all levels of education. Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) from 1996 to 2000, obtained from a national sample of 8th- …

Supporting Young People To Seek Professional Help For Mental Health Problems: Cover Feature., Coralie J. Wilson

Coralie J Wilson

No abstract provided.

Temperament, Distraction, And Learning In Toddlerhood, Wallace E. Dixon Jr., Brenda J. Salley, Andrea D. Clements

ETSU Faculty Works

The word- and nonword-learning abilities of toddlers were tested under various conditions of environmental distraction, and evaluated with respect to children's temperamental attentional focus. Thirty-nine children and their mothers visited the lab at child age 21-months, where children were exposed to fast-mapping word-learning trials and nonlinguistic sequential learning trials. It was found that both word- and nonword-learning were adversely affected by the presentation of environmental distractions. But it was also found that the effect of the distractions sometimes depended on children's level of attentional focus. Specifically, children high in attentional focus were less affected by environmental distractions than children low …

Audio Narration And Reading Ability In Programmed Instruction, Wendy Jaehnig

Dissertations

This study compared the effects of audio, textual, and audio-textual narration in a programmed instructional module on the performance of individuals with different reading abilities. One hundred eighty-four college students were randomly assigned to audio, textual, or audio-narration. Dependent variables were posttest score and instruction completion time. An ANCOVA was used to analyze the results, with ACT reading test scores as the covariate. No differences were found between the groups on posttest scores (p = .56) or completion time (p = .90), and there was no interaction between narration type and reading score for either dependent variable. Audio …

Early Predictors Of Sexual Behavior: Implications For Young Adolescents And Their Parents, Lisa D. Lieberman

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

The study provides empirical evidence of the independent contribution of nonsexual romantic relationships in the seventh grade to the onset of sexual intercourse by the ninth grade for both males and females. In addition, it shows that among females, seventh graders in serious relationships with older teenagers—uniquely defined as those two or more years older—have an increased likelihood of sex in the ninth grade. Finally, the study demonstrates that seventh graders of both genders who have had serious romantic relationships were already significantly different in the sixth grade from those who have not: They had peers who were more accepting …

Early Parenting And Children's Relational And Physical Aggression In The Preschool And Home Contexts, Juan F. Casas, Stephanie M. Weigel, Nikki R. Crick, Jamie M. Ostrov, Kathleen E. Woods, Elizabeth A. Jansen Yeh, Catherine A. Huddleston-Casas

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study investigated early parent- child relationships and how children's use of relational and physical aggression varies with aspects of those relationships during the preschool years. Specifically, parenting styles, parents' use of psychological control, and parents' report of their children's reunion behaviors were assessed. Analyses revealed significant associations between children's use of both relational and physical aggression and parents' reports of their own and their partner's parenting style, psychological control behaviors, and indicators of the attachment relationship. The results highlight the importance of investigating both mothers' and fathers' parenting and the sex of the child in studies of potential links …

The Processing Of Affective Information Among Shy Children And Aggressive Children, Dina M. Casey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research investigaed the role of emotion in social information processing and examined whether children with behavior patterns other than aggression process social information in a unique manner. Testing hypotheses derived from Crick and Dodge's (1994) model of social information processing, the first study assessed shy, aggressive, and nonshy/nonaggressive children's beliefs about their emotions and a protagonist's emotions at the model's representation step and at the response search/access step by varying a protagonist's intent in fictional scenarios. The second study assessed whether correct labeling of a protagonist's emotional state would eliminate shy children's tendency to underattribute hostility and aggressive children's …

The Relationship Among Resilience, Forgiveness, And Anger Expression In Adolescents, Mauren A. Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate and describe the relationship among resilience, forgiveness and anger expression in adolescents. The purpose of the study was to explore whether certain adolescent resiliencies significantly related to positive or negative affective, behavioral, or cognitive levels of forgiveness and certain types of anger expression in adolescents. This study also investigated whether there were certain adolescent resiliencies and types of forgiveness that can predict lower levels of negative anger expression in adolescents. This research was built on two conceptual models: Wolin and Wolin's (1993) Challenge Model and the Forgiveness Process Model (Enright & Human Development Study …

An Examination Of The Similarities Between Same-Grade Friends And Different-Grade Friends, Brenna Kelley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the similarity between same-grade and different-grade friendship pairs compared to randomly paired children in the same grade and in different grades. Previous research has focused primarily on examining same-grade children's friendships and has not examined friendships of children differing in grade. This study examined similarities between same- and different-grade friends on teacher-rated behaviors and peer relations variables. Children in 78 ungraded primary classrooms (N = 908) participated in a socio-metric interview and were rated by their teachers using the Teacher-Child Rating Scale (T-CRS, Hightower, 1986). Friendship pairs were composed of children who …

Perceived Smoking Environment And Smoking Initiation Among Multi-Ethnic Urban Girls, Tracy R. Nichols, Amanda Birnbaum, Sara Birnel, Gilbert J. Botvin

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose

To examine associations between the perceived smoking environment and smoking initiation among urban multi-ethnic adolescent girls in New York City.

Methods

Self-report surveys completed in grades 7, 8, and 9 assessed girls’ (n = 858) smoking initiation, and perceived smoking environment (family smoking, friends’ smoking, smoking norms, and cigarette availability). Carbon monoxide breath samples were collected from girls using a variation of the bogus pipeline procedure.

Results

Differences were found in smoking prevalence with white girls reporting the highest prevalence of smoking at baseline and the greatest increase in smoking prevalence from seventh to eighth grade. Black girls reported …

Effects Of Single Versus Multiple Verbal Operant Arrangements On The Acquisition Of Mands And Tacts In Preschool Children, Tina M. Sidener

Dissertations

Verbal Behavior programs for children diagnosed with autism typically teach novel language in the context of multiple verbal operant arrangements. Commonly called "mixed verbal behavior", this involves the interspersal of various exemplars across verbal operant categories. Despite the current recommended use of this teaching procedure, only 2 studies to date have empirically evaluated its effectiveness (i.e., Arntzen & Almas, 2001; Carroll & Hesse, 1987). In both of these studies, mixed mand-tact training resulted in faster mean acquisition of tacts than tact-only training. In Experiment 1 of the current investigation, a systematic replication of previous studies was conducted with 3 typically-developing …

13. From Post-Mortem To Preventive Medicine: Next Steps For Research On Child Witnesses., Thomas D. Lyon, Karen J. Saywitz

Thomas D. Lyon

Visual-Spatial & Visual-Motor Function In Pediatric Heart Transplant Recipients, Stephanine Dianne Griffone

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Heart surgery is commonly used to repair congenital heart defects and to perform heart transplantation. The associated hypoxia before or during the surgery may cause damage in the parasaggital area of the cerebral cortex, with resulting difficulty during tasks requiring visual-spatial and visual-motor skills. This study compares the performance of children who received a heart transplant during infancy to that of nonclinical children with no medical complications on three visual-motor measures, three visual-spatial measures, and two computerized visual-spatial tasks - a Block Design Matching task and a Mental Rotation task. The children who received a heart transplant achieved significantly lower …

12. Caregiver Support And Child Sexual Abuse: Why Does It Matter?, Lindsay C. Malloy, Thomas D. Lyon

Thomas D. Lyon

Naturally Occurring Changes In Time Spent Watching Television Are Inversely Related To Frequency Of Physical Activity During Early Adolescence, Robert W. Motl, Edward Mcauley, Amanda Birnbaum, Leslie A. Lytle

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

In this longitudinal study, we examined the relationship between changes in time spent watching television and playing video games with frequency of leisure-time physical activity across a 2-year period among adolescent boys and girls (N=4594" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: normal; font-size: 16.200000762939453px; word-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; position: relative;">). Latent growth modelling indicated that a decrease in time spent watching television was associated with an increase in frequency of leisure-time physical activity. That relationship was strong in magnitude …

11. Report Of The Apsac Task Force On Attachment Therapy, Reactive Attachment Disorder, And Attachment Problems., Mark Chaffin, Rochelle Hanson, Benjamin E. Saunders, Todd Nichols, Douglas Barnett, Charles Zeanah, Lucy Berliner, Byron Egeland, Elana Newman, Thomas D. Lyon, Elizabeth Letourneau, Cindy Miller-Perrin

Thomas D. Lyon

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder In Children And Adolescents, Mary R. Driscoll

Graduate Research Papers

Post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents has only been researched for the past fifteen to twenty years. Despite the estimates from state and local child protective services that approximately 896,000 children were victims of child abuse or neglect in 2002 (National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect, 2002), the vast majority of research and techniques used in the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents has stemmed from research focused on adults. This report will provide a summary of current perspectives on the definition, assessment, and treatment of PTSD in adolescents.

Parent-Adolescent Involvement: The Relative Influence Of Parent Gender And Residence, Daniel Hawkins, Paul R. Amato, Valarie King

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The 1995 wave of the Add Health study is used to investigate the relative influence of parent gender and residence on patterns of parental involvement with adolescents. Adolescent reports (N = 17,330) of shared activities, shared communication, and relationship quality with both biological parents are utilized. A multidimensional scaling analysis reveals that parent gender explains most of the variance in parent-adolescent involvement, with residential status playing a secondary yet fundamental role in accounting for these patterns. Resident mothers who do not live with adolescents’ biological fathers engage in the broadest range of activities with their children. Unpartnered resident fathers display …

Shame In Body Image In Children's Literature, Joy Mauldin

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Even though children's books have been around for centuries, no research has addressed shame dynamics in children's literature. Psychologists can play an important role in the illumination of shaming content in literature, which will shape a child's perception of the world around her. In this qualitative study, five volunteers, non- psychologist adults ranging in ages 26-58 years, discovered that shame exists in children's books. The volunteers noted that shame can be both explicit and implicit in fashion. This study informs us that when given an understanding of shame, a non- psychologist layperson can identify shaming content in children's literature. This …