Educational Psychology Commons^™

Mathematics Anxiety: Supplementary Materials, Sarah Buckley

Student learning processes

This publication contains two professional development activities for teachers which focus on mathematics anxiety. One is a team-based activity and the other is an activity for individuals. The activities encourage both mathematics teachers and non-mathematics teachers to reflect on their current practice, their attitudes towards mathematics, their ideas about teaching mathematics and the mathematical beliefs of students.

Mathematics Anxiety, Sarah Buckley

Student learning processes

This Mathematics Monograph is focussed on helping teachers and school leaders gain a better understanding of: How mathematics anxiety negatively impacts learning and teaching; the symptoms, causes and companions of mathematics anxiety; the difference between reducing mathematics anxiety directly and indirectly; and strategies that can identify and address mathematics anxiety in students and teachers. The Monograph is intended to present information for reflecting and planning how mathematics anxiety can be reduced and regulated in classrooms and in the school community.

The Impact Of Social Media On Adolescent Mental Health, Nicole J. Critchfield

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The number of adolescents reporting mental health issues such as anxiety and depression has dramatically increased in the last two decades. As this trend coincides with the increase in social media use by adolescents, many researchers have studied the correlation between the two. This literature review examines the correlation along with the pros and cons of adolescent social media use outside and inside the classroom. Most recently, research is showing how social media is used impacts the state of an adolescent’s mental health rather than the use of social media in general. Teachers and schools can help students learn how …

Interventions For Anxiety In Mainstream School‐Aged Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review, Kylie Hillman, Katherine Dix, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Petra Lietz, Jenny Trevitt, Elizabeth O'Grady, Mirko Uljarević, Giacomo Vivanti, Darren Hedley

Student learning processes

Anxiety is a common problem in school‐aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and other psychosocial interventions have been developed as alternatives to pharmacological intervention to treat anxiety symptoms in students with ASD without co‐occurring intellectual disability. This present synthesis of evidence is a systematic review and meta‐analysis examining the efficacy of interventions for reducing anxiety among school‐aged children with ASD. The review summarizes evidence from 24 studies using an experimental or quasi‐experimental design. The authors’ conclude that there is evidence that CBT is an effective behavioral treatment for anxiety in some children and youth with …

Development Of A Module To Address Interest And Anxiety In Learning Science For Female Secondary Pupils In Nigeria, Muhammad Tukur

Student Works (2020-2029)

The purpose of this study was to develop a Module for female secondary pupils to help increase interest and anxiety (FSSMIA) in learning science at a selected public day senior secondary school in Zamfara, Nigeria. The study further intended to create awareness for parents to perceive the importance of their daughters learning science. A Type 1 Developmental Research Design was used in the study based on the ADDIE Model. First, a needs analysis with selected female pupils was conducted through a focus group interview. Analysis of related curriculum documents and textbooks was also done to establish the need for this …

Acceptability, Feasibility, And Efficacy Potential Of A Multimodal Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Intervention To Address Psychosocial And Advance Care Planning Needs Among Anxious And Depressed Adults With Metastatic Cancer, Joanna J. Arch, Joel N. Fishbein, Michelle C. Ferris, Jill L. Mitchell, Michael E. Levin, Elizabeth T. Slivjak, David J. Andorsky, Jean S. Kutner

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Adults with metastatic cancer frequently report anxiety and depression symptoms, which may impact health behaviors such as advance care planning (ACP).

Objective: The study leveraged acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), an evidence-based approach for reducing distress and improving health behaviors, and adapted it into a multimodal intervention (M-ACT) designed to address the psychosocial and ACP needs of anxious and depressed adults with metastatic cancer. The study evaluated M-ACT's acceptability, feasibility, and efficacy potential.

Design: The study was designed as a single-arm intervention development and pilot trial.

Setting/Subjects: The trial enrolled 35 anxious or depressed adults with stage IV cancer …

Utilizing Act Daily As A Self-Guided App For Clients Waiting For Services At A College Counseling Center: A Pilot Study, Jack Haegar, Carter H. Davis, Michael E. Levin

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective: Considering increasing demands for mental health services at college counseling centers (CCCs), there is a need for cost-effective solutions that avoid depleting stressed CCC resources. This study examined if ACT Daily, a mobile application based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), could serve as an effective self-guided intervention.

Participants: 11 individuals on a CCC waitlist suffering from anxiety/depression participated in the study over 2 weeks.

Methods: This study implemented a pre-post, open trial design of ACT Daily. Assessments were completed at baseline and 2-week post assessment.

Results: Results indicated that ACT Daily was acceptable and that participants improved on …

Confronting Students’ Personal And Interpersonal Communication Anxieties And Needs Through Constitutive, Experiential Communication Pedagogy, Lawrence R. Frey, Emily Loker

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Today’s college students are experiencing unprecedented high levels of anxiety, resulting in devastating effects. This essay challenges communication educators to respond directly to this significant issue by employing an experiential pedagogy that offers students constitutive opportunities to initiate, experiment with, and receive feedback about new communicative behaviors that will enable them to interact well and achieve positive outcomes in high anxiety-inducing interactions. The essay explicates how that constitutive, experiential pedagogy informs the course “Communication and Human Relations,” enabling students to acquire communication competencies to reduce their anxiety about and to manage effectively their personal and interpersonal communication difficulties.

Does Hope Moderate The Effects Of Financial Distress In Adolescent Resiliency?, Miles E. Payne

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Little is known about the influence that hope may have on adolescent outcomes despite financial distress. This study considered financial distress as a risk factor in testing the moderating ability of hope on adolescent prosocial behavior and anxiety (PSB). Adolescents (n = 500) ranging from 11.00 – 16.00 years of age completed in-home questionnaires two years apart. Results indicated a direct effect between PSB and hope. However, analyses revealed no moderated effects, as controlling for prior levels of PSB or anxiety accounted for most of the variance. Although hope may be beneficial to PSB, the stability from prior levels …

This Is Me: Anxiety And Depression Awareness Event, Stephanie Cotrone

Honors Projects

College and life are stressful, but they don't have to be. We've all been in that place where it feels like life is caving in and there's nowhere else to turn, but it does get better. This event brings awareness to mental illnesses common on college campuses and in the community. There will be engaging and interactive activities to learn about anxiety & depression, and healthy ways to cope through music, art, theatre, amusement parks, learning, reading, and more. Performances by the Humanities Troupe and testimonies by current students who have had experience dealing with mental illness before or who …

Weight Status, Bullying Involvement, And Internalizing Symptomology In Adolescents: Examining A Diathesis-Stress Model, Ana Damme

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Bullying is a pervasive societal issue that is consistently linked to negative outcomes that are emotionally, socially, behaviorally, and medically related. Most youth will encounter this negative life event in their childhood. The purpose of this dissertation was to use a diathesis-stress model perspective to assess the relations between the negative life event of bullying involvement, youths’ mental health, and youth weight status. Youth who have an unhealthy weight status are more likely to be involved in bullying than those with a healthy weight status (Browne, 2012; Puhl). Additionally, bullying and having an unhealthy weight status are related internalizing symptomology …

Pisa Australia In Focus Number 4: Anxiety, Marina Schmid

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The pressure to get good grades is one of the most frequently cited sources of stress for school age children and adolescents (OECD, 2017). Both schoolwork-related anxiety and test anxiety have been shown to have a negative impact on student academic performance and general well-being. As students move into the later years of schooling, the academic demand on them increases and they are expected to manage this along with their emotional responses to it. Alongside the assessments of students’ performance in reading, mathematics and scientific literacy, PISA also collects information about their experiences of schooling – their worries, their interests …

Exploring Procrastination And Self-Regulated Learning Through Motivational Beliefs, Betsy Ng

Journal of Research Initiatives

This study investigated the relations among procrastination, motivational beliefs, and self-regulated learning with a sample of 8th and 9th grade Singaporean students (N = 442). It examined the role of procrastination on self-regulated learning through motivational beliefs in science using structural equation modelling. The results showed positive relations of procrastination with task value, self-efficacy and test anxiety, as well as use of learning strategies. In addition, t- test analyses revealed significant gender and grade level differences in motivational beliefs. Procrastination accounted for enough variation in motivational beliefs to emerge as a significant predictor, suggesting that procrastination could influence …

Protocol For A Systematic Review: Interventions For Anxiety In School-Aged Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd): A Mixed Methods Systematic Review, Petra Lietz, Julie Kos, Katherine Dix, Jenny Trevitt, Mirko Uljarevic, Elizabeth O'Grady

Student learning processes

This review aims to synthesise evidence about interventions to reduce anxiety symptoms in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While clinical studies will not be excluded per se, this review seeks to move beyond interventions that are relevant only for clinical practice and care in clinical settings and prioritise studies that draw out implications for school-aged children that will help their functioning in real-world settings such as school and the home. To achieve this aim, the review will employ a mixed-methods systematic review which can accommodate the anticipated diverse types of available studies. These studies are likely to use …

An Examination Of The Transdiagnostic Role Of Delay Discounting In Psychological Inflexibility And Mental Health Problems, Michael E. Levin, Jack Haegar, Clarissa W. Ong, Michael P. Twohig

Psychology Faculty Publications

Delay discounting is a basic behavioral process that has been found to predict addictive behaviors, and more recently, other mental health problems. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), is a transdiagnostic treatment that appears to alter delay discounting, possibly through reducing psychological inflexibility. The current study sought to further bridge research on delay discounting and ACT by examining the relation of delay discounting to a broad range of selfreported mental health problems and measures of psychological inflexibility. A cross sectional online survey was conducted with 389 college students. Small negative correlations ranging between .09 and .15 were statistically significant between delay …

Metacognition As A Mental Health Support Strategy For Elementary Students With Anxiety, Kathi Weight

Education Dissertations

Mental health issues affect learning and performance in profound ways. Schools tend to lack a comprehensive approach to address the needs of students with anxiety, due to the limited training staff receive in mental health identification and support. As teachers work to address barriers to learning, schools must develop a system to fully address the growing needs of students with anxiety. Metacognition plays a significant role in clinical psychology and is used as a mental health intervention and support in clinical settings. The possibility of the application of a specific cognitive strategy to classroom settings in order to support elementary …

Evaluating An Adjunctive Mobile App To Enhance Psychological Flexibility In Acceptance And Commitment Therapy, Michael E. Levin, Jack Haegar, Benjamin G. Pierce, Rick A. Cruz

Psychology Faculty Publications

The primary aims of this study were to evaluate the feasibility and potential efficacy of a novel adjunctive mobile app designed to enhance the acquisition, strengthening, and generalization of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) skills being taught in therapy. A sample of 14 depressed/anxious clients receiving ACT used the ACT Daily app for two weeks in a pre-post, open trial design. Participants reported a high degree of program satisfaction. Clients significantly improved over the two-week period on depression and anxiety symptoms as well as a range of psychological inflexibility measures. Analyses of mobile app data indicated effects of …

Childhood Anxiety Within The Classroom: A Professional Development Experience For Educators, Madeline Garlough

Honors Projects

Education majors are required to complete a significant amount of coursework related to student behaviors and best practices regarding these behaviors. However, this coursework lies heavily on the side of disruptive and aggressive behaviors. Much less is taught about students who experience quiet conflict, despite childhood anxiety being one of the most prevalent disorders that children face. The purpose of this project is to provide teachers and future teachers with information about how to best assist these anxious students within the classroom.

Because of the nature of this project, it is also necessary to understand how teaching adults differs from …

Acceptance And Commitment Therapy As A Treatment For Anxiety And Depression: A Review, Michael P. Twohig, Michael E. Levin

Psychology Faculty Publications

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a modern form of cognitive behavioral therapy based on a distinct philosophy (functional contextualism) and basic science of cognition (relational frame theory). This article reviews the core features of ACT’s theoretical model of psychopathology and treatment as well as its therapeutic approach. It then provides a systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating ACT for depression and anxiety disorders. Summarizing across a total of 36 RCTs, ACT appears to be more efficacious than waitlist conditions and treatment-as-usual, with largely equivalent effects relative to traditional cognitive behavioral therapy. Evidence from several trials also indicate …

Relative Importance Of Anxiety And Motivational Variables In Predicting Language Achievement For College Learners Of Chinese, Qi Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

The growing worldwide enthusiasm in learning Chinese calls for more research on learner characteristics in Chinese classrooms to better inform teaching practice. Language anxiety, which falls under the umbrella of learner’s affect, is considered an important affective aspect that negatively influences language learning and acquisition. As research on language anxiety mainly focused on the learning of Western languages, this study constitutes an initial attempt to investigate anxiety in the learning of Chinese through the testing of a structural model. The purpose of the study was to examine the relative importance of language anxiety in predicting Chinese achievement when motivation, integrativeness, …

Attachment Styles And Trust Propensity In Females With Borderline Personality Disorder, Jacob Matthew White

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is one of the most frequently encountered and complex disorders in mental health care. Interpersonal impairment is a central issue for individuals with BPD. This complex disorder has received negative stigma along with historically more females than males receiving this diagnosis (Linehan, 1993). Therefore, this study examined a clinical sample of 30 females diagnosed with BPD. Through the collection of data this study used the following measures: a basic demographic questionnaire gathering specific age, ethnicity, current relationship status, parental relationship status, the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR; Brennan, Clark & Shaver, 1998), and the Propensity …

Test Anxiety: Prevalence, Effects, And Interventions For Elementary School Students, Lauren Talbot

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

No abstract provided.

A Collective Case Study Of Expectant Father Fears, Robert Grand

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative, collective case study explored how men perceive fears of childbirth and level of preparedness to become fathers. An additional purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of expectant and new fathers with regard to how the Boot Camp for New Dads (BCND) program helped them to alleviate pregnancy fears and develop preparedness to become a parent. Data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews and focus groups conducted after the participants completed a three-hour boot camp for the BCND program. Additionally, participants completed the Kessler-6, a short questionnaire designed to glean their perspectives of fears after the childbirth. …

Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Over Individual Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? A Meta-Analysis Of Effective Treatment Of Anxiety Disorders In Middle Childhood, Emily A. Edwards

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Anxiety is a commonly diagnosed disorder in middle childhood that affects many aspects of the child’s life. Effective treatment is needed so that children are able to experience fewer or no symptoms of anxiety and to manage anxiety. Cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) is widely used as a treatment for children with anxiety. CBT can either be facilitated in an individual or group format but there are inconsistencies in the literature regarding which modality is most effective. A meta-analysis was conducted to compare the effectiveness of individual CBT (ICBT) and group CBT (GCBT) in treating school-aged children with anxiety disorders. Eligible …

The Mental Health Of Children And Adolescents : Report On The Second Australian Child And Adolescent Survey Of Mental Health And Wellbeing, David Lawrence, Sarah Johnson, Jennifer Hafekost, Katrina Boterhoven De Haan, Michael Sawyer, John Ainley, Stephen R. Zubrick

Wellbeing

Based on a survey conducted in the homes of over 6,300 families with children and/or adolescents aged 4 to 17 years, this report presents a comprehensive picture of the mental health of young Australians. It documents the prevalence and type of mental health problems, the impact of those problems on families and young people themselves and the role of health and education services in providing assistance. While the primary sources of information were parents and carers, the survey also engaged directly with young people 11 years and older who completed their own survey. This information provides unique insights about aspects …

Learning To Learn And Naming Through Receptive And Expressive Identification, Kelli Perry

Dissertations

Poor or no language skills are typical of most preschool children with autism (American Psychological Association, 2013). Language can be divided into the two components of receptive, or listener, skills and expressive, or speaker, skills. Recommendations for sequencing language instruction vary across the different behavior-analytic instructional models (Lovaas, 1981; Barbara & Rasmussen, 2007; Sundberg & Partington, 1998; Sundberg, 2008). The current study sought to examine those recommendations using young children (three- to four-years-old) with limited vocal repertoires and to explore the acquisition of learning to learn (Harlow, 1949) and naming (Greer & Ross, 2007). This research (1) adds to the …

Strategies To Reduce Foreign Language Anxiety In Adult Efl Students Of The European Union, Kathleen Hershner

Master's Projects and Capstones

One of paradoxes in adult foreign language learning is that older learners must communicate in the very language, in this case English, they struggle to acquire. The discomfort that arises from needing to use deficient or non-existent skills in a new language is more acutely felt in adults than children. Adults approach learning new languages with an assumed level of control over themselves and their environment and can easily become frustrated when they're unable to maintain their usual levels of confidence and competence, which can lead to foreign language anxiety. FLA is a specific kind of anxiety defined as an …

Internalizing Disorders In Early Childhood: Professional Development Framework For Teachers, Danielle Guttman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Recent research indicates that internalizing disorders such as depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) manifest in young children. Since early childhood teachers spend a substantial portion of their day with young children, it is important to examine their beliefs and behaviors surrounding these disorders. The role of the school psychologist has come to include providing support for educators such as presenting up-to-date research through professional development (PD). The current investigation implemented an intervention designed to compare different forms of PD seminars ("Information" and "Strategies") designed to increase teachers' awareness of internalizing disorders in early childhood. Ninety-nine participants comprised the …

A Young Child's Anxiety And Math Performance: Enhancing Cognitive Behavioral Intervention With Conjoint Behavioral Consultation, Kirsten L. Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Partnering with families, school personnel, and community resources is an important step to supporting the child and family, especially when children might suffer from debilitating anxiety concerns. However, little research examines the impact of anxiety on math performance for young children participating in school-based interventions enhanced by family components. The following research questions were addressed in the study: 1a) Will a young child with elevated levels of anxiety show a decrease in anxiety symptoms with a Cognitive Behavioral framework intervention program for children? 1b) Will anxiety be reduced with the addition of a Conjoint Behavioral Consultation with the family and …

A Little Goes A Long Way: Pressure For College Students To Succeed, Jennifer R. Davis

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

When college students begin college they experience pressure from multiple sources. For example, they experience pressure from their parents to succeed, from their professors, and pressure from themselves to do well in classes. This pressure could lead to high anxiety and possibly even poor performance in classes. Prior research that has examined the impact of anxiety on performance includes the Yerkes-Dodson law and the Processing Efficiency Theory. Both argue that anxiety increases the performance to a point, but then performance decreases again with too much pressure. The Processing Efficiency Theory also includes motivation. This motivation increases the drive to succeed …