Child Psychology Commons^™

Intuitive Proportion Judgment In Number-Line Estimation: Converging Evidence From Multiple Tasks, Emily Slusser, Hilary Barth

Emily Slusser

Examining The Concurrent And Predictive Relations Of Working Memory In Childhood Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Ashley N. Simone

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity which lead to impairment in multiple settings (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Childhood ADHD has been concurrently associated with various neurocognitive deficits and one in particular that has been under examination over the past several years is working memory (WM). WM is a temporary storage system that is responsible for maintenance and/or manipulation of information in order to complete complex cognitive and behavioral tasks. Researchers have postulated that WM is one of several potential endophenotypes of ADHD (Castellanos & Tannock, 2002) and ...

Flint’S Children: Narratives On Hope, Christin L. Carotta, Amy E. Bonomi, Karleigh Knox, Morgan C. Blain, Brianna F. Dines, Jaquan Cotton

The Qualitative Report

Hope plays an important role in resiliency, well-being, and buffering against adversity. To explore children’s experiences with hope while developing in low-income communities, we conducted interviews with twenty-one children residing in Flint, Michigan, ages 9-12 years. Research questions focused on the specific hopes children have, the importance they ascribe to different hopes, and their experiences of feeling hopeful or less hopeful about desired outcomes. Children expressed interrelated hopes across multiple social-ecological domains, including hopes for themselves, hopes for their interpersonal relationships, and hopes for the community. Children placed particular importance on their hopes of helping others, which included providing ...

What Are Effective Strategies For Implementing Trauma-Informed Care In Youth Inpatient Psychiatric And Residential Treatment Settings? A Realist Systematic Review, Stephanie A. Bryson, Emma Gauvin, Ally Jamieson, Melanie Rathgeber, Lorelei Faulkner-Gibson, Sarah Bell, Jennifer Russel, Sharlynne Burke

Stephanie Bryson

Background: Many young people who receive psychiatric care in inpatient or residential settings in North America have experienced various forms of emotional trauma. Moreover, these settings can exacerbate trauma sequelae. Common practices, such as seclusion and restraint, put young people at risk of retraumatization, development of comorbid psychopathology, injury, and even death. In response, psychiatric and residential facilities have embraced trauma-informed care (TIC), an organizational change strategy which aligns service delivery with treatment principles and discrete interventions designed to reduce rates of retraumatization through responsive and non-coercive staff-client interactions. After more than two decades, a number of TIC frameworks and ...

The Behavioral Effects Divorce Can Have On Children, Wanda M. Williams-Owens

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

According to a statistical study (Cherlin et al. 1991) 40% of children who live in the United States will experience parental divorce before they reach the age of 18. Consequently, many children are affected by the process of divorce and its finalization. When my daughter was just nine years old, she asked incredulously why my husband and I were the only married couple in our neighborhood? After twenty-two years of marriage, I realized long-term marriages in my community are not conventional. When parents’ divorce, children often face the loss of one parent's constant presence and economic stability; as a ...

The Effects Of Promising To Tell The Truth, The Putative Confession, And Recall And Recognition Questions On Maltreated And Non-Maltreated Children's Disclosure Of A Minor Transgression, Jodi A. Quas, Stacia N. Stolzenberg, Thomas D. Lyon

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

This study examined the utility of two interview instructions designed to overcome children’s reluctance to disclose transgressions: eliciting a promise from children to tell the truth and the putative confession (telling children that a suspect “told me everything that happened and wants you to tell the truth”). The key questions were whether the instructions increased disclosure in response to recall questions and in response to recognition questions that were less or more explicit about transgressions, and whether instructions were differentially effective with age. Two-hundred and seventeen 4- to 9-year-old maltreated and comparable non-maltreated children played with a stranger. This ...

Fitting The Fractional Polynomial Model To Non-Gaussian Longitudinal Data, Ji Hoon Ryoo, Jeffrey D. Long, Greg W. Welch, Arthur Reynolds, Susan M. Swearer

Educational Psychology Papers and Publications

As in cross sectional studies, longitudinal studies involve non-Gaussian data such as binomial, Poisson, gamma, and inverse-Gaussian distributions, and multivariate exponential families. A number of statistical tools have thus been developed to deal with non-Gaussian longitudinal data, including analytic techniques to estimate parameters in both fixed and random effects models. However, as yet growth modeling with non-Gaussian data is somewhat limited when considering the transformed expectation of the response via a linear predictor as a functional form of explanatory variables. In this study, we introduce a fractional polynomial model (FPM) that can be applied to model non-linear growth with non-Gaussian ...

Secondary Students’ Writing Achievement Goals: Assessing The Mediating Effects Of Mastery And Performance Goals On Writing Self-Efficacy, Affect, And Writing Achievement, Meryem Yilmaz Soylu, Mary G. Zeleny, Ruomeng Zhao, Michael S. Dempsey, Douglas F. Kauffman

Educational Psychology Papers and Publications

The two studies reported here explored the factor structure of the newly constructed Writing Achievement Goal Scale (WAGS), and examined relationships among secondary students’ writing achievement goals, writing self-efficacy, affect for writing, and writing achievement. In the first study, 697 middle school students completed the WAGS. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed a good fit for this data with a three-factor model that corresponds with mastery, performance approach, and performance avoidance goals. The results of Study 1 were an indication for the researchers to move forward with Study 2, which included 563 high school students. The secondary students completed theWAGS, as ...

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 ...

Exploring The Relationship Between Physical Activity And Executive Function In Early Childhood Populations: An Investigation Of Maternal Encouragement Of Activity, Lauren P. Driggers-Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have found positive associations between physical activity and executive function in adolescence and adulthood. However, research in early childhood has revealed only negative relationships. In the present study, I explored whether maternal encouragement of physical activity might moderate this relationship in very young children. Using video recordings from an archival dataset, eight maternal encouragement measures were derived from mother-child free play sessions. Although it was expected that maternal encouragement of child activity would broadly play a moderating role in the relationship between children’s physical activity and their executive function, only maternal questions seemed to moderate this relationship. One ...

The Efficacy Of An In-Vivo Chaining Procedure Compared To Pov-Vm Chaining Procedure To Teach A Task To Children With Autism, Elaine M. Turner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder which includes symptoms such as repetitive or restricted patterns of behavior, and deficits in social communication (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and affects approximately 1 in 68 children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). Children with this disorder face unique challenges when it comes to learning academic and social skills (Gardner & Wolfe, 2013). Chaining is an effective intervention for teaching individuals with disabilities a variety of skills (Cuvo, Leaf, & Borakove, 1978; Horner & Keilitz, 1975; Shrestha, Anderson, & Moore, 2013; Tarbox, Madrid, Aguilar, Jacobo, & Schiff, 2009). Video modeling, where a subject performs a behavior they have previously seen modeled on a videotape (Nikopoulos & Keenan, 2004) and more recently point-of-view video modeling (POV-VM) which provides the instruction from the subject’s vantage point may also be effective for teaching children with autism and other disabilities needed skills (Shukla-Mehta, Miller, & Callahan, 2010). There is some empirical evidence that chaining used in conjunction with POV-VM may provide effective intervention (Jowett, Moore, & Anderson, 2012; Moore, et al., 2013; Shrestha, et al., 2013) yet no studies have directly compared a chaining procedure taught by traditional methods to a chaining procedure which is exclusively taught through the use of POV-VM.

Tootling With A Randomized Independent Group Contingency In A High School Setting, John Dylan Ken Lum

Dissertations

Tootling is a procedure where students report their classmates’ positive and prosocial behavior. The present study examined the effects of tootling on students’ disruptive and academically engaged behavior in three general education high school classrooms. An A-B-A-B withdrawal design was used to assess the effects of the intervention. Students wrote tootles anonymously on paper slips and placed them into a marked container. Unlike previous tootling studies, a randomized independent group contingency procedure was used to reward the students to reduce the number of steps required to implement the intervention. At the end of the class period, teachers randomly drew three ...

The Good Behavior Game: Effects On And Maintenance Of Behavior In Middle-School Classrooms Using Class Dojo, Komila Dadakhodjaeva

Dissertations

Classroom management is one of the key components for successful instruction and affects both instructors and learners. Although most frequent discipline strategies in schools involve punitive actions, research suggests that using positive statements to teach and reinforce desirable behaviors is more appropriate and effective. A form of a group-oriented contingency that focuses on desirable behaviors is a positive variation of the Good Behavior Game (GBG). The GBG has been used widely in its original form, focusing on undesirable behaviors, and more research is needed on its positive version. Another strategy that can be used within classrooms is Class Dojo, a ...

Evaluation Of A Positive Version Of The Good Behavior Game Utilizing Classdojo Technology In Secondary Classrooms, William Blake Ford

Dissertations

Appropriate and effective classroom management skills are critical in supporting students’ academic, social, and behavior development in schools; however, teachers often cite needing help with classroom management as their greatest need. Given this concern, school psychologists need effective and efficient strategies to offer to teachers and school staff dealing with classwide behavioral difficulties. The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is an empirically supported interdependent group contingency intervention providing explicit classroom management techniques aimed at improving student behavior. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a positive version of the GBG utilizing ClassDojo technology on classwide academically engaged ...

The Circle Of Play: A Cross-Cultural-Study Of Teachers’ Views Of Play Before And After Observing A Community Adventure Play Experience, Andrea Davis

Child Development Theses

This thesis looks at how teachers from Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and the United States viewed play before and after observing children participating in a Community Adventure Play Experience (CAPE). A CAPE is a play experience that utilizes “loose parts” (materials that can be played with and used to create, but are not traditional toys, i.e. tires, sticks, boxes, etc.) instead of manufactured toys and play equipment. In many schools, children are being allowed fewer and fewer opportunities to play as teachers try to cram more and more academic material into the school day. However, all of the literature suggests ...

Pathways To Empowerment: A Social Work Student’S Reflection On Anti-Oppressive Clinical Social Work Practice, Katelyn Necastro

Child Development Theses

There is increasing attention being provided to the experience of marginalized and oppressed communities in the U.S. The rise of public awareness of societal issues coincides with considerable attention in the social work community on providing direct practice care to clients that fully incorporates the social justice aims of the profession. Using the history of the profession of social work and core anti-oppressive practice and concepts, this reflection touches on incorporating an anti-oppressive framework into modern clinical social work practice. Case narratives on my internship with adolescent females in a high school in Brooklyn assist in depicting the process ...

Bridging Play And Social Interaction In Young Children With Language Delays, Angela Miller

Child Development Theses

Children tend to develop skills in specific trajectories that have been heavily researched and theorized. However, some children exhibit delays in their development which then might have effects on other skills and areas of development. This paper will outline the typical developmental stages that children go through in terms of their physical, cognitive, social-emotional, language and play development. It will also detail a child’s development of play skills and how other areas of development, with special focus on social-emotional and language development, contribute to acquisition of play skills and, alternatively, how play development often contributes to progression of development ...

How The Foster Care System Impacts Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Cbt), Anna Bratushevskaya

Child Development Theses

The number of children in foster care is growing at an alarming rate, and finding families who are willing and able to care for these traumatized children is not an easy task. Children land in foster care due to extreme traumatizing circumstances in the homes of their biological parents. It is therefore not surprising that these children have a higher incidence of psychological problems than their peers living with their biological parents. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an umbrella term under which trauma-based cognitive therapy (TF-CBT) falls. Both CBT and TF-CBT show excellent results in treating children with serious psychological ...

A Reflection On How Children With Insecure Attachments In Foster Care Experience Trauma, Khadija Bleasdell

Child Development Theses

Attachment and the impact of trauma on children in foster care are reviewed and discussed from my relational perspective as a therapist. I draw upon my clinical experiences with three children in foster care who experienced some form of neglect. One child engaged in play to express her experiences of trauma, another child embodied a very mature stance to feel accepted by adults, while another child struggled with impulse control, fluctuating between being withdrawn and overly aggressive. Attachment theory as well as the implications of trauma are reviewed and discussed through the relation to my experiences with my clients during ...

From Foster Care To College: Student Stories Of Success, Tory Nicole England

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the different factors that empower young adults that were in foster care to be successful in a college environment. It has been documented that foster youth have significant challenges during secondary education (Conger & Rebeck, 2001; Geenen & Powers, 2006). Due to these challenges, foster youth attend and graduate higher education at a lower rate than their peers. The perspectives of foster youth currently enrolled in higher education is critical to determining which factors and programs have helped with their educational success. Five participants completed semi-structured interviews about their secondary education, transition to college, and ...