Digital Commons Network^™

Shying Away From Sex: Examining Fear Of Negative Evaluation And Body Esteem As Mediators In The Associations Between Shyness And Sexuality, Carlie Grace Palmer

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have examined how shyness influences broad aspects of relationships (i.e., quality, satisfaction); however, little is known about how shyness impacts sexuality, specifically, within committed relationships. This study examined associations between shyness and sexual frequency and sexual satisfaction within committed young adult relationships. Potential explanations for these associations (i.e., fear of negative evaluation and body esteem, consecutively) were also examined. Participants included 3,670 individuals (61.6% female) ages 30-35 from the United States who were in committed dating or marital relationships. Results revealed that shyness was negatively associated with sexual frequency and satisfaction among men and women. In addition, fear of …

What Parents Value Matters: Examining The Association Between Cultural Values, Parenting Styles/Practices, And Child Outcomes, Chen-Yun Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have identified significant relationships between parenting styles and child outcomes. However, these associations might vary in different cultures because parenting behaviors could link to cultural values. Additionally, understanding the cultural values of parents would help researchers better understand the reasons of parents’ behaviors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between parental Asian values, parenting styles, parenting practices, and child outcomes. Parents of preschool-age children (N = 273) from Taiwan completed a series of parenting values and parenting behaviors questionnaires. Teachers rated child prosocial behaviors, modesty, sociability, and impulse control. Results revealed that some domains …

Measuring Influence On Linear Dynamical Networks, Jaekob Chenina

Theses and Dissertations

Influence has been studied across many different domains including sociology, statistics, marketing, network theory, psychology, social media, politics, and web search. In each of these domains, being able to measure and rank various degrees of influence has useful applications. For example, measuring influence in web search allows internet users to discover useful content more quickly. However, many of these algorithms measure influence across networks and graphs that are mathematically static. This project explores influence measurement within the context of linear time invariant (LTI) systems. While dynamical networks do have mathematical models for quantifying influence on a node-to-node basis, to the …

Interracial Couples And Neighborhood Attainment In Percent White, Entropy, And Average Income, Hannah Louise Spencer

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies of interracial couples' residential outcomes in the United States have limited their focus to a truncated selection of interracial couple-types. To provide a more complete understanding of the residential patterns of interracial couples and how they fit into the contemporary color line, I assess an expanded set of interracial and monoracial couple-types' outcomes in percentage White, entropy, and neighborhood income. I do this by employing multiple OLS regression analysis using data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act from 2005 to 2015. My results suggest that different types of interracial couples follow residential patterns that are distinctive from those …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

An Exploration Of Mechanisms Of Change In Compassion Focused Therapy Groups: A Pilot Study In A College Counseling Center Population, Jennifer Lynn Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

Objectives. This study explored mechanisms of change for Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) groups. The feasibility and acceptability of a new group therapy protocol were assessed in a college counseling center population.Method. Seventy-five participants engaged in eight transdiagnostic CFT groups. Group CFT consisted of 12 weekly sessions. Participants completed measures of fears of compassion, flows of compassion, self-reassurance, self-criticism, shame, and psychiatric distress at pre, mid, and post time points. Significant and reliable change was assessed. Potential mechanisms of change were examined using correlations. Self-report feasibility and acceptability data were collected from therapists and participants respectively.Results. Significant and reliable change was …

Personality Inventory Dsm-5: A Spanish Translation For Hispanics In The United States, Jessica Abigail Carmona

Theses and Dissertations

The Personality Inventory DSM-5 (PID-5) was created to measure personality pathology and help in the development of a dimensional conceptualization of personality disorders (Krueger, Derringer, Markon, Watson, & Skodol, 2012). It measures five maladaptive personality traits: Negative Affect, Detachment, Antagonism, Disinhibition and Psychoticism. The PID-5 has also garnered significant support for its hierarchical structure, five-factor structure across samples and translations, and its ability to predict variance in internalizing and externalizing disorders (Krueger & Markon, 2014). The current study builds on this literature by translating the PID-5 into Spanish spoken in Latin America and testing the replicability of the five-factor structure, …

Factors Associated With Parent Reactions To The Diagnosis Of An Autism Spectrum Disorder, Emily Irene Anderberg

Theses and Dissertations

Receiving a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is often a pivotal moment for parents. The diagnostic feedback session can provide helpful information for moving forward with their child’s care but can also be filled with conflicting emotions. A few studies have looked at common parent experiences and have suggested actions for providers, but there is little information about how providers can predict parent reactions to the diagnosis and adjust their feedback accordingly. This study investigated factors related to parent reactions to the diagnostic disclosure session using a) interviews with providers that commonly diagnose autism; b) a focus group with parents …

The Mother Domain: A Mediated Model Of Maternal Gatekeepers And Depressed Fathers Among Newlyweds With Children, Clare R. Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Paternal depression is an understudied topic and research connecting it to maternal gatekeeping is still in its infancy. Research has found that the marriage relationship can be associated with both depression and maternal gatekeeping. This study focuses on how these three areas are related. A subsample of the CREATE project was used including 216 couples, or 432 married parents. Two separate SEM mediational models were tested to examine father depression as a predictor of maternal gatekeeping, with marital instability as the mediator in one model and partner connectedness as the mediator in the other model. Both parent reports were used …

Learning Aggression: The Association Between Parental Psychological Control And Adolescent Relational Aggression, Jennifer Jaeun Byon

Theses and Dissertations

Late adolescence and early emerging adulthood are important developmental time periods during which transitions to adulthood begins including independence from one's parents. While adolescents spend more time away from their homes, especially as they start attending college, the influence of their parents is still salient. Parental psychological control has been shown to impact adolescents' developmental outcomes, including their engagement in relational aggression. While past research has focused mostly on children and young adolescents, the current study seeks to explore the bidirectional associations between parental psychological control and relational aggression among late adolescents and early emerging adults. It also seeks to …

The Effects Of Premarital Education Promotion Policies On U.S. Divorce Rates, Tiffany Lura Clyde

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has documented the effects of divorce on children, families, communities, taxpayers, and society. Accordingly, local, state, and national governments have enacted policies aimed at strengthening marriages and reducing divorce. Currently, ten states have enacted some form of premarital education promotion policy. However, no research has documented whether the implementation of premarital education promotion policies has actually decreased the divorce rate in implementing states. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate empirically the effectiveness of premarital education policy implementation on reducing early divorce rates. Prior to running any empirical analyses, an implementation study was conducted to understand …

Social Withdrawal And Indices Of Adjustment And Maladjustment In Adolescence: Does Parent Warmth And Extraversion Matter?, Mallory Abigail Millett

Theses and Dissertations

Social withdrawal is often associated with a number of indices of adjustment and maladjustment, but little research exists that attempts to uncover potential protective factors. This study longitudinally examined the moderating role of parent extraversion and parent warmth on the association between two types of social withdrawal (shyness and unsociability) and later indices of adjustment and maladjustment. Participants were 463 families from the flourishing families project. Results showed no longitudinal associations between social withdrawal and later indices of adjustment or maladjustment. However, when parent extraversion was added as a moderator, shyness was positively associated with prosocial behavior for those with …

Sri Lankan Widows' Mental Health: Does Type Of Spousal Loss Matter?, Katrina Nicole Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined mental health outcomes for widowed Tamil women in Sri Lanka to identify any associations between type of spousal loss and several outcomes, including internalized stigma as a result of widowhood, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and posttraumatic stress symptoms. A sample of 381 Tamil female widows living in Eastern Sri Lanka were surveyed in 2016 to understand their experiences in a post-disaster and post-war context. Type of spousal loss was separated into seven categories: war-related death, death as a result of tsunami, illness-related deaths, accidental death, suicide, disappearance, and other. Path analysis was used to assess whether type …

Media And Parents: Socializing Factors Of Relational Aggression, Kjersti Maye Summers

Theses and Dissertations

Exposure to relational aggression in various contexts has been found to predict relationally aggressive behavior in adolescents. Past research has examined socializing factors of relational aggression separately. The current study expounds upon this research by looking at three important contexts for socialization of relational aggression during adolescence together: media relational aggression, parental psychological control, and couple relational aggression. Specifically, this study looked at how these different socializing factors combine to predict relational aggression. Participants consisted of 423 adolescents and their parents. A person-centered approach was used to determine different profiles. Latent profile analysis found three profiles, including "average" (78%), "high …

Coding Rupture Indicators In Couple Therapy (Crict): An Observational Coding Scheme, Annalisa Ward Carr

Theses and Dissertations

The therapeutic alliance, a construct representing agreement and collaboration on therapy goals, therapy tasks, and the emotional bond between client(s) and therapist, is a robust predictor of therapy outcomes in individual, couple, and family therapy. One way to track the therapeutic alliance is through ruptures and repairs. Ruptures are breaks, tensions, or tears in the therapeutic alliance. Ruptures and repairs influence the therapeutic alliance and consequently therapeutic outcomes. Currently, there is a lack of research addressing ruptures and repairs in couple therapy. The first step in researching alliance ruptures is to have a reliable way to assess alliance ruptures. This …

Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

The Association Of Spirituality And Well-Being In South African And Ugandan Samples, Alicia Jane Doman

Theses and Dissertations

Literature has shown a correlation between spirituality and well-being, but this has not been thoroughly studied outside North America, with very few studies conducted in Africa. This study compared data from two sub-Saharan African nations, Uganda and South Africa, that differ markedly in terms of multiple factors that affect well-being, such as mortality rates and access to healthcare, as well as educational and personal growth opportunities. Survey data were collected using the measures of The Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale and Ryff's Personal Well-Being Scale. There were four racial groups represented in the data: Black South Africans, Coloureds, White South …

Europe's (Lack Of) Welfare Chauvinism: Evidence From Surveys And Spending, Ethan Davis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Immigration’s effect on European welfare states is complicated. On one hand, increased immigration might undermine social solidarity and impose greater fiscal burdens on redistribution, reducing support for welfare spending. On the other, natives could respond to greater globalization with economic anxiety, increasing support for redistribution in order to mitigate risk. Welfare chauvinism predicts a mixed effect—increased spending for programs that middle-class natives use and reduced spending for programs that benefit immigrants disproportionately. I test this theory by analyzing (1) European attitudes towards immigration and welfare spending and (2) actual spending on these programs, particularly social housing. Additionally, I present a …

An Analysis Of Esl Learner Preferences For Native Accent Retention And Reduction, K. James Hartshorn

Faculty Publications

Though most ESL learners desire a “native-like” pronunciation, researchers have observed that some may want to retain features of their L1accents as a means of maintaining identity. This raises important questions about the best ways to teach L2 pronunciation. Therefore, the aims of this study were to discover how pervasive a preference for accent retention may be and to identify possible reasons learners exhibit this preference. To accomplish this, a scale was designed to assess a preference for accent retention, and potential explanatory variables were identified. Analyses of 350 ESL learners identified varying levels of a preference for accent retention, …

Parent Entrance And Adolescent Outcomes Using Longitudinal Family Structure Data, Matthew Usevitch, Mikaela Dufur

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The effects that a parent entrance, such as the marriage of a single parent, has on child outcomes are currently not well documented. Since literature suggests that children living in single-parent families tend to have worse educational outcomes on average than children living in married-parent families, a logical hypothesis would be that a parent entrance would benefit children. Data from previous studies do not provide solid support for this hypothesis. Part of the reason for the variety of findings may be that there are opposing variables affecting children who experience this transition. An additional parent typically brings more economic resources …

Religion, Mental Health, And The Latter-Day Saints: A Review Of The Literature (1995-2017), Adrienne Rogers, Daniel K. Judd

Journal of Undergraduate Research

There are over 4,000 religions in the world today. One of the core functions of religion is to help individuals find meaning and purpose in life. Several researchers have found that this religious function impacts psychological well-being, often for the better. This relationship between religious belief, practice, affiliation, and mental health has been an ongoing conversation that has generated controversy and debate.

Our research focuses specifically on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how this religion affects the mental health of its members. Several studies have shown positive outcomes regarding Latter-day Saint membership and mental health. Also, …

Attitudes Toward Economic Reform In Ukraine, Eliza Riley, Celeste Beesley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The transition from authoritarian, planned economies to democratic market economies is one of the most ambitious and momentous political-economic endeavors of the last century. As such, it is hardly surprising that the transition has been carried out with varying levels of success. Previous literature has examined features of the reforms (i.e. gradualism vs. shock therapy) or external monitoring, support and incentives (such as was available for aspiring EU members) as determinants of the probability of successful reform. This thesis contributes to our understanding of how public attitudes and beliefs about economic reforms may be a factor in the stalled or …

Uncovering Reasons Behind Attrition: A Micronutrient Program Evaluation For A Global Nonprofit, Elizabeth Pulsipher, Savannah Henshaw, Dr. Scott Sanders

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Last summer, we conducted quantitative and qualitative research for an in-depth analysis of the attrition occurring in the Liahona Children’s Foundation’s program—a program attempting to alleviate child malnutrition in sixteen countries. Our findings draw upon five sources: 1) individual interviews we conducted with a randomized sample of Liahona Children’s Foundation program participants, 2) focus groups we led with all program coordinators in the Philippines, 3) our individual interviews with all program coordinators in the Urdaneta region, 4) a survey of program participants at the screenings, and 5) observations from program screenings and distributions. Upon returning home and receiving the ORCA …

Early Intervention For At-Risk Online Students, Carolyn Andrews

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

Design and development project. The purpose of this project was to design and develop an intervention for at-risk students enrolled in an online class at Brigham Young University. The overarching goal of creating an intervention was to facilitate online learning and improve student satisfaction by helping students increase their performance. The development of the intervention was done in coordination with BYU Online administrators and select BYU faculty.

Association Between Exposure To Air Pollution And Hippocampal Volume In Adults In The Uk Biobank, Dawson W. Hedges, Lance D. Erickson, Jackie Kunzelman, Bruce L. Brown, Shawn D. Gale

Faculty Publications

Background: The hippocampus is important for memory processing. Several neuropsychiatric diseases including Alzheimer’s disease are associated with reduced hippocampal volume, and further the hippocampus appears vulnerable to environmental insult. Air pollution has been associated with cardiovascular disease, abnormal brain structure, and cognitive deficits.

Objective: Because of hippocampal vulnerability to environmental insults and based on the association between exposure to air pollution and cognitive function and brain structure, we evaluated the association between exposure to toxins in air pollution and left and right hippocampal volume using brain-imaging and air-pollution data from the UK Biobank, a large community-based dataset.

Methods …

Discrimination, Coping, And Social Exclusion Among African Immigrants In The United States: A Moderation Analysis, Sherinah K. Saasa

Faculty Publications

This cross-sectional study examined coping strategies as moderators of the relationship between perceived discrimination and social exclusion among African immigrants in the United States (N = 409). Moderation models using path analyses were conducted to examine the moderating effects of three coping strategies (active coping, use of instrumental support, and religious coping) on the relationship between discrimination and four dimensions of social exclusion: (1) material deprivation, (2) limited access to basic social rights, (3) limited social participation, and (4) insufficient cultural integration. Increases in perceived discrimination were associated with increased social exclusion on all four dimensions. Increased use of active …

The Longest-Lasting Relationship: Patterns Of Contact And Well-Being Among Mid- To Later-Life Siblings, Alexander C. Jensen, Makayla K. Nielson, Jeremy B. Yorgason

Faculty Publications

Objectives: Adults in mid to later life experience shrinking social networks, which may hinder well-being. Siblings may be important sources of social contact. Yet, little is known about adults’ patterns of contact with siblings and how contact is linked to well-being.

Method: Participants included 491 adults from across the United States (M age = 58.96, SD = 6.25; 68% female) recruited online via Amazon Mechanical Turk; they reported on their contact with their sibling in person, over the phone, via email, texting, and social media.

Results: Latent class analysis found evidence for four patterns of contact (classes) among siblings: low, …

Examining Religious Commitment, Personality, And Well-Being Among Latter-Day Saints, Kawika Allen, Ofa Hafoka, Lane Fischer

Faculty Publications

This study examined religious commitment, the big five personality traits, social interaction anxiety, and anger among 110 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Results suggest the majority of the participants are religious, score high on agreeableness and conscientiousness, and low on social interaction anxiety and anger. Agreeableness mediated the relationship between religious commitment and anger, and extraversion moderated the relationship between religious commitment and social interaction anxiety. Counseling strategies are discussed for social work providers. Implications and future directions are discussed.

The Impact Of Sleep Restriction On Food-Related Inhibitory Control And Food Reward In Adolescents: Physical Activity And Weight Status As Potential Moderators, Kara Mcrae Duraccio

Theses and Dissertations

The present study aimed to evaluate associations between sleep duration and food-related inhibitory control and food reward in adolescents aged 12-18. Potential moderating effects of physical activity and weight status on the association between sleep, inhibitory control, and food reward were also examined. To evaluate these associations, the study employed a two-phase crossover design in which participants spent either 5 hours per night (restricted sleep) or 9 hours per night (habitual sleep) in bed for 5 nights. Participants completed a food-related inhibitory control task and a questionnaire assessing for food reward on the 6th day of each study phase. Repeated …

Cognitive Control And Context Maintenance In Individuals With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (Ocd), Lindsay Morgan Fruehauf

Theses and Dissertations

Context maintenance, an aspect of cognitive control, is the internal representation and utilization of task-relevant information that helps achieve task goals. Alterations in context maintenance may be responsible for the cognitive difficulties seen in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We used two tasks designed to measure context maintenance: a) the cued-Stroop, a single-trial version of Golden’s Stroop test that varies the cue for each trial (color-naming or word-reading), and b) the AX-CPT task, a continuous performance task that has participants respond to an “A” only when followed by an “X,” with all other non-target trials labeled as AY, BX, and …