Developmental Psychology Commons^™

The Developmental Importance Of Napping In Preschool Children, Adam T. Newton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Most children cease napping between 2- and 5-years-old. Little is known about the predictors or outcomes related to this cessation, or the interrelation of different components of nap behavior. Four empirical studies were conducted to investigate the developmental importance of napping among preschool children.

Studies 1 and 2 used a large, longitudinal sample of Canadian children to investigate the predictors (Study 1) and outcomes (Study 2) related to early nap cessation. Early nap cessation was defined as stopping daytime sleep before three years old. In Study 1, parents reported on their own, child, and family functioning at two timepoints (0-1 …

Early Gaze Behaviours In Infants At High Familial Risk For Autism Spectrum Disorder: Association With Brain Development, Julia Teixeira Pinto Montenegro

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show impairments in gaze-following and will seldom engage in joint attention (JA). The ability to initiate JA (IJA) can be more impaired than the ability to respond to JA (RJA). In a longitudinal study, 101 high-risk infants for ASD (62% males) completed MRI scans at 4 or 6 months of age. Subcortical volumes (thalamus, basal ganglia, hippocampus, amygdala) were extracted. Gaze and JA behaviours were assessed with standardized measures. The majority of infants were IJA non-responders (n=93, 92%), and over half were RJA non-responders (n=50, 52%). In the non-responder groups, models testing the …

Screen Time Use And Children’S Mental Health During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Amira Hmidan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Parents with school-aged children have experienced numerous hardships during the 2020-2021 academic school year, including school closures, lockdowns, and travel restrictions. Higher levels of parent stress and screen time may adversely impact children’s behavioural outcomes. This longitudinal survey study examined the associations of parent stress, parenting styles, and prolonged screentime on internalizing and externalizing behaviours in school-aged children. Parents (n = 108) completed survey measures at two time points over the 2020-2021 academic school year. Two generalized estimating equations were performed. There was a significant positive interaction between parent stress and screen time (B = < .001; p = .001) …

Construction And Preliminary Validation Of The Interrai 0-3 Developmental Domains, Jo Ann M. Iantosca

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background. With no standardized approach for early assessment of childhood development in Canada, and with a lack of a comprehensive assessment-to-intervention system that amalgamates social, psychiatric, medical, functional, psychological, and environmental constructs, the interRAI 0-3 was developed to support intervention efforts based on the needs of young children and their families. The interRAI 0-3 includes over 650 items that seek clinical information, developmental milestones, and context items regarding the family and social relationships surrounding the child. The newly developed interRAI 0-3 was most recently evaluated to examine the reliability and validity of the Expressive and Receptive Language and the Gross …

Child And Adolescent Sleep Disturbances And Psychopathology In A Mental Health Clinic Sample, Aviva Blacher

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Sleep disturbances in children and adolescents (hereafter children) are associated with significant short-term and long-term impairments including more severe psychopathology, reduced cognitive functioning, and poorer general health. We know that children being treated in specialty mental health services are more likely to have sleep disturbances than community samples. We also know that relationships exist between sleep and psychopathology in children with specific disorders (e.g. ADHD, depression, etc.). However, few studies have investigated the relationship between sleep and psychopathology in a broad sample of children seen at mental health agencies. Both child factors and family factors may influence both sleep and …

Girls’ Internalizing Symptoms And White Matter Tracts In Cortico-Limbic Circuitry, Ola Mohamed Ali

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Dysfunction in cortico-limbic circuitry is implicated in internalizing disorders, but less is known about whether structural abnormalities precede disorder, thus potentially marking risk. I therefore examined associations between white matter tract integrity in cortico-limbic circuitry at age 7, obtained using Diffusion Tensor Imaging, and concurrent and longitudinal patterns of internalizing symptoms, over a 5-year period, in 42 typically developing girls. Using Automated Fiber Quantification, diffusion properties were examined at multiple points along tract length (cf., an average diffusion measure of the entire tract). Concurrent internalizing symptoms were associated with reduced fractional anisotropy in segments of the cingulum bundle and uncinate …

Relating Sensory Sensitivity And Repetitive Behaviours In Autism Spectrum Disorders, Samantha E. Schulz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The heterogenous expression of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) complicates our etiological understanding of the disorder. By focusing on the most commonly-reported symptom of ASD, namely sensory processing dysfunction, this project attempts to determine the underlying factors of autism-related restricted interests and repetitive behaviours (RRBs). The specific aims of this project are to examine the relationship between sensory sensitivity and RRBs and to compare current questionnaire measures of sensory processing issues to more objective measures, specifically, a psychophysical behavioural task of visual sensitivity. A positive relationship was found between sensitivity and RRBs in both autistic children and their TD peers. Furthermore, …

What Are The Cognitive Mechanisms That Underlie Our Theory Of Mind? Potential Insights From Information Theory, Nellie Kamkar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to infer mental states. The purpose of Study 1 was to reduce performance demands on a ToM test for forty (22 females) children (M age = 4.604; SD age = 1.128). Here, a low-uncertainty condition included a behaviour repetition manipulation, intended to increase success rate—but results did not confirm our hypothesis. Potential reasons for the results of Study 1 are discussed and tested in Study 2. The purpose of Study 2 was to determine the mechanism by which ToM operates in fifty-seven (26 females) adult participants (M age = 20.632; SD age = …

The Nature And Structure Of Temperament In Early And Middle Childhood: A Multi-Method Approach, Yuliya Kotelnikova

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Structural work on the nature of child temperament has lagged far behind parallel research with adults. Further, the structure of extant parent-report questionnaires has been examined only at the higher-order level, using small samples of children. This dissertation addresses this important gap in three studies, examining the lower- and higher-order structure of two widely used parent-reports of child temperament (Studies 1 and 2) and an observational battery of temperament (Study 3). The first study examined the lower- and higher-order structure of the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Rothbart, Ahadi, Hershey, & Fisher, 2001) in a large community sample of children at …

Prosody: An Important Cue To Word Learning, Monica Dasilva

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Infants rely on cues from their environment during language acquisition. Prosodic features of words are one such cue and involve changes in stress and rhythmic patterns within speech. Studies have examined prosody’s influence on word segmentation and have found it to be a useful cue for detecting word boundaries (Johnson & Seidl, 2009). What is less understood is how prosody helps infants form associations between novel labels and their referents during word learning. The present thesis investigated the influence of prosodic cues on word learning. The looking times were recorded of 13 infants (19-25 months) exposed to object-label pairings that …

Suicidal And Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: Examining The Potential Impact Of Direct And Indirect Forms Of Childhood Maltreatment, Jenna S. Armiento

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite extensive research suggesting childhood maltreatment is related to nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), little research has examined the extent to which the differential effects of direct maltreatment (i.e., sexual and physical abuse) and indirect maltreatment (i.e., witnessing domestic violence) has on NSSI in relation to suicidal self injury (SSI). Moreover, more research is needed to understand the differences between NSSI and SSI. Participants consisted of 519 children/youth from a provincial tertiary care facility specializing in treating children with severe mental health challenges and nine community mental health facilities across Ontario, Canada. Logistic regression analyses revealed that children/youth that experienced indirect maltreatment …

The Emotional Experience And Expression Of Anger: A Child's Perspective, Craig A. Oolup

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this study was to explore and identify key themes related to a child’s experience of anger. The existing literature on children’s emotional experiences stems from adult perceptions and interpretations; this study was envisioned to investigate the experience of anger among children using their own words. Participants were male and female students, aged 8-9 and in a general grade three classroom within a community school. Through the use of semi-structured interview focus groups conducted over a span of 10 weeks, participants were invited to disclose their understandings of anger and how they experienced it. Results were analyzed via …

Children's Understanding And Experience Of Anger Within Their Peer Groups, Nicole J. Hamel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this study was to describe how children understand, experience and express their anger with others in their peer group, from their perspectives. Semi-structured focus groups were conducted with third grade students in an elementary school. Children were asked three questions: 1) What did you learn about dealing with anger this week? 2) What are some good/positive things that happened between you and your classmates this week? 3) What are some not so good or negative things that happened between you and your classmates this week? Six themes emerged from analysis of the transcripts of the semi-structured focus …

Reactive And Regulatory Temperament Traits As Predictors Of Depressive Symptoms In Middle Childhood, Yuliya Kotelnikova

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Although a large literature has examined temperament in adult and adolescent depression, few studies have investigated temperamental precursors of depressive symptoms in young children over time. I evaluated the role of positive and negative emotionality (PE, NE) and effortful control (EC) in predicting initial levels and change in depressive symptoms in middle childhood. Measures of child temperament (laboratory observations and maternal reports) and depressive symptoms were collected from 205 seven-year-olds who were followed up one and two years later. A steeper increase in self- and mother-reported depressive symptoms was found for children lower in laboratory-assessed EC and higher in laboratory …

Profiles Of Children And Youth Displaying Inappropriate Sexual Behaviours: Relevance For Assessment For Sexual Offending Patterns, Julia M. L. Rick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a specialized assessment program with a sample of children/youth (n = 80) who were seeking intervention for inappropriate sexual behaviour (ISB) at a tertiary mental health facility in London, Ontario. The primary goal was to identify predictive factors in participants with offending behaviour—both sexual and non-sexual—in order to prioritize treatment needs and to address strategies for reducing the risk of sexual offending against others. As participant ages increased by 1 year, their odds of sexually offending someone increased by approximately 27%. Also, males were found six times more likely to sexually …

Flexibility In Parent-Child Interactions: The Application Of Dynamic Systems Methodology To Dyadic Processes In Children With Behaviour Problems, Vivien Lee

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Dynamic systems theory (DST) can provide a comprehensive account for how parent-child interactions evolve over time to produce stable patterns of interacting and can result in seemingly divergent trajectories. Recent methodological advances using state space grids (SSGs) have provided a graphical means to examine real-time dyadic processes, as well as measures of dyadic flexibility, or the ability to adapt emotional and behavioural responding in response to contextual demands. Higher levels of dyadic flexibility have been associated with improvements in child behaviour problems after treatment (Granic et al., 2007), while its converse, rigidity, has been associated with increases in behaviour …