Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Preschool Executive Function Predicts Childhood Resting State Functional Connectivity And Adhd And Depression, Elizabeth Hawkey

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Measures of executive function (EF), such as the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, distinguish children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) from control children, but less work has examined relationships to depression or brain network organization. This study examined whether early childhood EF predicted a new onset or worsening of ADHD and/or depression, and examined how early childhood EF related to functional connectivity of brain networks at school age. Methods: Participants were 247 children, enrolled at ages 3-6, from a prospective study of emotion development. The BRIEF Global Executive Composite (BRIEF-GEC) was used as the measure of EF in early …

Evaluating A Targeted, Universal Middle School Program For Childhood Overweight And Obesity: Stayingfit, Myra Altman

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Evaluating a Targeted, Universal Middle School Program for Childhood Overweight and Obesity: StayingFit

by

Myra Altman

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology

Washington University in St. Louis, 2016

Professor Denise E. Wilfley, Chairperson

Childhood obesity is a pressing public health concern associated with significant medical and psychosocial comorbidities. Intervention is crucial, and schools are often suggested as an important venue through which to intervene, although the results of such interventions are inconsistent and mixed. The present study sought to expand on the literature by evaluating the effect of a targeted and universal school-based obesity intervention, StayingFit, in …

Is There A Higher-Order Mechanism That Explains Performance Across Prediction Tasks?, Michelle Lisa Eisenberg

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

People constantly make predictions about what will happen in the near future. People anticipate how other people around them will act, what other people will say, and what actions will help them achieve the greatest rewards. Because all of these behaviors are typically called prediction, it is easy to make the assumption that performance across all of these types of tasks is driven by the same underlying mechanism. However, there has been little investigation into whether the mechanisms underlying prediction are the same across multiple task modalities. Therefore, in the current study, 226 participants completed four types of tasks that …

Changes In Personality Traits And Personality Pathology In Older Adults: Self And Informant Perspectives, Hannah R. King

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A relatively small amount of research has examined personality and personality disorder change from more than one perspective, particularly in older adults. The main aim of this study is to examine personality and personality disorder change in older adults from multiple perspectives including an interview assessment, self-report, and informant-report. Data from the St. Louis Personality and Aging Network (SPAN), a representative sample of St. Louis residents with 1,630 participants and their informants, was used to study change. We use structural equation modeling to test mean-level changes and individual differences in change over the course of the study. For personality disorders, …

Developmental Trajectories Of Executive And Verbal Processes In Children With Phenylketonuria, Zoe Hawks

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a recessive disorder characterized by disruption in the metabolism of the amino acid phenylalanine. Using a verbal fluency task, previous studies demonstrated that word production is reduced in individuals with PKU relative to controls. Beyond word production, verbal fluency output can be scored for clustering and switching, which enable characterization of verbal and executive processes, respectively. The present study is the first to evaluate clustering and switching in PKU within a longitudinal design, thereby elucidating the developmental time course of core cognitive processes. To this end, semantic (animals, food/drink) and phonemic (S words, F words) fluency data …