Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Development And Initial Validation Of The Veterans Educational Transition Scale (Vets): A Brief Scale To Predict Successful Transition Of Student Veterans To College, Lisa Beckman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The aim of this dissertation was to develop and validate a scale to assess factors that interfere with veterans’ successful transition from military life to the college environment. Student veterans are a unique population in the student body and often have unique challenges assimilating to the college environment, including difficulties making social connections, multiple life responsibilities, and unique mental health presentations. Currently, there is no measure to assess and identify transition challenges that student veterans may experience, and yet significantly more veterans are enrolling in college to take advantage of their post-9/11 GI bill benefits. This dissertation includes two studies. …

Investigating The Psychological Impact Of Covid-19 Among Healthcare Workers: A Meta-Analysis, Kavita Batra, Tejinder Pal Singh, Manoj Sharma, Ravi Batra, Nena Schvaneveldt

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Previous meta-analyses were conducted during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, which utilized a smaller pool of data. The current meta-analysis aims to provide additional (and updated) evidence related to the psychological impact among healthcare workers. The search strategy was developed by a medical librarian and bibliographical databases, including Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Scopus were searched for studies examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological health of healthcare workers. Articles were screened by three reviewers. Heterogeneity among studies was assessed by I2 statistic. The random-effects model …

Validity And Diagnostic Accuracy Of An Adhd Symptom Rating Scale For Identifying Adults With Adhd, Stacy Jean Graves

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Specific rating scales of ADHD symptomatology are often included in neuropsychological assessments evaluating adults diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The Barkley Adult ADHD Rating Scale-IV (BAARS-IV) is a widely used symptom rating scale that includes four questionnaires: self-report current, self-report childhood, other-report current, and other-report childhood. In addition to ADHD symptoms, each of the forms include items that assess functional impact and developmental history of symptomatology. While similar symptom rating scales have been found to have high validity and diagnostic utility in children, it is unclear the extent to which the BAARS-IV shares substantial common variance with other …

The School Climate And Academic Mindset Inventory (Scami): Confirmatory Factor Analysis And Invariance Across Demographic Groups, Christopher A. Kearney, Ricardo Sanmartin, Carolina Gonzalvez

Psychology Faculty Research

School climate is a multidimensional construct of the quality of a student’s academic environment, often subsuming dimensions such as safety, instructional practices, social relationships, school facilities, and school connectedness. Positive school climate has beneficial effects on a wide range of adjustment variables in youth, including academic achievement, mental health, school attendance and graduation, and school-based behavior. Studies regarding school climate assessment have burgeoned in recent years but remain marked by limited sample sizes, narrow developmental levels, restricted items, unclear psychometric strength across multiple demographic groups, and lack of integration with key student education contextual factors such as academic mindset and …

The Factor Structures Of Ability And Trait Emotional Intelligences Relative To General Intelligence And Personality, Nicholas Carfagno

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Emotional Intelligence is a popular term used to describe one’s experience with their own emotions and awareness of others’. Although emotional intelligence is thought to be a helpful predictor of various variables such as work performance and wellbeing, there is disagreement within the field of the precise definition and method of measurement. The current study examines two of the most popular models of emotional intelligence, ability and trait models, to determine if they are the same construct or two different constructs that share a moniker. Additionally, both ability and trait emotional intelligences’ factor structures are examined through hierarchical and bifactor …

Network Analysis Of Cognitive Symptom Domains In Alzheimer's Disease (Ad), Abigail Rose Baily

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a degenerative neurological disease process that results in cognitive and functional declines and ultimately results in death. The pattern and course of cognitive and functional decline has been well characterized in AD, however little is known about the interactions between the symptoms. Network Analysis is a recently developed mathematical approach of examining the interactions between symptoms, by exploring the covariance of symptoms. The current study utilized network analysis to examine the multivariate structural dependencies among cognitive domains known to be affected in Alzheimer’s disease. The sample consisted of 864 older adults (60-90 years old), selected from …

Identifying School Climate Predictors Of School Absenteeism, Victoria Bacon

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Attendance is a crucial component of the education system and may be addressed utilizing Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) models. To effectively utilize such models, clear demarcations between tiers must exist to classify students appropriately. Additionally, relevant risk and protective factors must be identified as targets for intervention and prevention efforts at each tier. Little research exists that identifies school climate factors, and other student-based contextual factors such as academic mindset and social emotional learning, that impact absenteeism. The present study aimed to identify suitable tier demarcations as well as school climate and student-based contextual factors relevant at each tier. …

Examination Of The Relationship Between Sport-Specific Thoughts And Emotions And Anxiety And Depression In College Athletes, Marina Elizabeth Harris

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Depression and anxiety are prevalent mental health difficulties affecting student athletes, who notoriously reject mental health interventions that are not sport-relevant. This study will assist in understanding the extent to which sport-relevant thoughts and emotions impact depression and anxiety in collegiate athletes. Two-hundred and twenty-five NCAA athletes competing at the Division, I, II, or III level were administered the Sport Interference Checklist (SIC), Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Results of correlational analyses revealed a significant relationship between SIC Dysfunctional Thinking (in training and competition) and anxiety (GAD-7) and depressive (PHQ-9) symptoms, …

Anxious And Oppositional Behavior Factors In A Community Sample Of Youth With Selective Mutism, Andrew Gerthoffer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Selective mutism (SM) is a childhood disorder characterized by a failure to speak in certain situations (e.g., school, social situations; APA, 2013). SM is best assessed using a comprehensive multimodal strategy (Dow et al., 1995; Krysanski, 2003; Viana et al., 2009; Wong, 2010), including parent reports of a child’s behavior. One commonly used parent report measure is the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001). The purpose of the present study was to identify specific CBCL items that may help substantiate SM subtypes in children. The study used confirmatory factor analysis to determine whether a two-factor structure (anxious and …

Musical Meter: Examining Hierarchical Temporal Perception In Complex Musical Stimuli Across Human Development, Sensory Modalities, And Expertise, Jessica Erin Nave-Blodgett

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Performing, listening, and moving to music are universal human behaviors. Most music in the world is organized temporally with faster periodicities nested within slower periodicities, creating a perceptual hierarchy of repeating stronger (downbeat) and weaker (upbeat) events. This perceptual organization is theorized to aid our abilities to synchronize our behaviors with music and other individuals, but there is scant empirical evidence that listeners actively perceive these multiple levels of temporal periodicities simultaneously. Furthermore, there is conflicting evidence about when, and how, the ability to perceive the beat in music emerges during development. It is also unclear if this hierarchical organization …

The Prevalence And Predictors Of Complementary And Alternative Medicine (Cam) Use Among Racially/Ethnically Diverse College Students, Hermella Misiker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background: National data on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use, available through the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), convey higher prevalence of CAM use among college students compared to the general U.S population. NHIS findings also highlight non-vitamin non- mineral (NVNM) products are the most widely used form of CAM in the U.S. The purpose of this study was to identify the socio-cognitive and demographic predictors of CAM and NVNM use among a racially/ethnically diverse college student body.

Methods: An online survey was used to collect data from 392 University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. …

Addressing Disparities In Cross-Cultural Neuropsychological Assessment, Alicia Nuñez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

There are existing disparities in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) assessment, diagnosis, and treatment among ethnic/racial minority children. Thus, greater empirical attention must be given to the neuropsychological assessment of Spanish-speaking children to address linguistic diversity and psychometric equivalence of commonly used measures, like the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC), across cultural groups. Therefore, this dissertation addressed the following aims: (I) examined the factor structure of the WISC–Fourth Edition Spanish (WISC-IV Spanish) in Hispanic children with ADHD, (II) evaluated the feasibility of developing short forms of the Spanish version of the WISC to expand the assessment toolbox for Spanish-speaking children with …

Examination Of The Influence Of Consumer Preferences For Cognitive Behavioral Treatment Components And Consumer Effort During Treatment Sessions On Child Welfare Outcomes, Christopher Philip Plant

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Introduction: The current study is a secondary analysis of one arm of a controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of FBT-CW for mothers identified for concurrent child neglect and substance abuse (see Donohue et al., 2014). FBT-CW is comprised of multiple cognitive behavioral intervention components targeting skill sets that are hypothesized to influence child neglect and/or substance abuse. The primary areas of focus for these interventions include: (a) management of antecedents to substance abuse and/or child neglect, (b) parenting skills training, (c) communication skills training, and (d) job getting and financial management skills. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to …

Investigating The Inner Experience Of Individuals Attending Psychotherapy At A Community Mental Health Center, Stefanie A. Moynihan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Although psychotherapy outcome studies sometimes use qualitative methods (e.g., interviews and traditional sampling methods), the majority of those studies rely mainly on quantitative methods (e.g., retrospective self-report progress-monitoring questionnaires), even when investigating clients’ experience of treatment. However, there are reasons to believe that both qualitative and quantitative methods are substantially flawed—both interviews and self-report questionnaires investigating experience can yield substantially inconsistent findings in comparison to careful, descriptive sampling-based methods such as Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES). To date, there are neither qualitative nor quantitative published studies that explore the everyday, natural inner experience of psychotherapy clients. The current study used DES, …

Examination Of Factors Reported By Athletes To Interfere With Their Lives Outside Of Sports, Jesse Scott

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The original Sport Interference Checklist (SIC) is a mental-health screening instrument designed to assess the extent to which mental health factors interfere with athletes’ performance during sport training or competition. In addition, the SIC appraises whether athletes are interested in pursuing psychological treatment for the aforementioned factors. Although validated, the SIC does not assess how the aforementioned factors affect athletes’ performance outside of sports. Doing so would permit professionals to examine the influence of these factors across sport training, sport competition, and life outside of sports.

The purpose of this study was to determine the psychometric properties and clinical utility …

Menstrual Cycle Changes In Dysregulated Eating Symptoms, Kimberly S. Stevens

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Objective: Animal and human data indicate that fluctuations in ovarian hormones (e.g., estrogen and progesterone) across the estrus/menstrual cycle drive changes in eating behavior. Post-ovulatory phases (i.e., mid-luteal and pre-menstrual in women) correspond to distinct ovarian hormone profiles (i.e., low estradiol or high estradiol coupled with high progesterone) that are known to have stimulatory effects on eating behavior and have been associated with increased risk for emotional eating and binge eating. Nonetheless, other specific components of dysregulated eating (e.g., preoccupation with food, loss of control over eating) that are related to and/or prospectively predict the development of clinical binge eating …

Memory And Stereotypes For Lesbian/Gay Characters, Amber Rose Williams

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Stereotype-consistency bias refers to the idea that people tend to remember stereotypical information about others better than non-stereotypical information (Fyock & Stangor, 1994). Limited research has examined how people may use stereotype-consistency bias when recalling information about LGBT characters in narratives (Bellezza & Bower, 1981; Clark & Woll, 1981; McGann & Goodwin, 2007; Snyder & Uranowitz, 1978). This line of research suggests that, instead of genuinely remembering stereotypical information better, participants tended to guess stereotypical answers to questions they do not know. In contrast to those studies, the experiment I conducted for this thesis suggests that heterosexual young adults tend …

Functional Capacity Profiles In Bipolar Disorder And Schizophrenia, Ashley Sara Emami

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Serious mental illnesses (SMIs) often have an onset early in life and go on to produce disability and functional impairment, which require ongoing supportive services and loss of productivity. Bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SZ) are two of the most common SMIs. BD and SZ differ in their pattern of neurocognitive performance, which suggests differences in the severity of functional impairment between the illness groups. Within these psychiatric illness groups, subgroups may also be identified using cluster analysis. Evidence points to heterogeneity in functional outcomes in BD and SZ, yet very little research has assessed for subgroups based on functional …

Eyewitness Recall And Identification Accuracy: Effects Of Stress In An Extreme Haunt And A Haunted House, William Blake Ridgway

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The impact of stress on eyewitness recall and identification accuracy has been studied extensively but with somewhat inconsistent results. Understanding the effects of stress are important if they are to be generalized to victims or witnesses of real crimes. This study consisted of two experiments that used an extreme haunt and a haunted house to examine attendees’ ability to recall details of and identify actors encountered, as a function of state anxiety and in the context of Deffenbacher’s (1994) catastrophe model of memory performance under anxiety. The results showed that physiological (i.e., heart rate) and psychological (i.e., State Anxiety Inventory) …

Resilience And The Mental Health Of Bullying Victims: The Role Of Peer Relationships On The Relation Between Bullying Victimization And Social Anxiety, Michelle Catherine Zochowski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bullying is a pervasive issue in today’s schools that has a significant impact on the mental health of students. Resilience has a positive impact on the outcomes related to facing adversity including bullying. The following dissertation study asks whether the relation between bullying victimization and social anxiety differs as a function of resilience and gender. It was hypothesized that bullying victims with increased resilience would show lower levels of social anxiety, as would students that report their gender as female. Chapter one discusses the significance of the problem, defines relevant constructs, and introduces the problem statement. Chapter two outlines the …

Individual Differences In Infants' Temperament Affect Face Processing, Jennifer L. Rennels, Andrea J. Kayl, Kirsty M. Kulhanek

Psychology Faculty Research

Infants show an advantage in processing female and familiar race faces, but the effect sizes are often small, suggesting individual differences in their discrimination abilities. This research assessed whether differences in 6–10-month-olds’ temperament (surgency and orienting) predicted how they scanned individual faces varying in race and gender during familiarization and whether and how long it took them to locate the face during a visual search task. This study also examined whether infants viewing faces posing pleasant relative to neutral expressions would facilitate their discrimination of male and unfamiliar race faces. Results showed that infants’ surgency on its own or in …

Disease Salience Effects On Desire For Affiliation With In-Group And Out-Group Members: Cognitive And Affective Mediators, Murray Millar, Andrea Fink-Armold, Aileen Lovitt

Psychology Faculty Research

This study tested the hypothesis that threats related to infectious diseases would make persons less willing to affiliate with out-groups and that feelings of disgust and beliefs about the out-group members would mediate this effect. To test this hypothesis, American participants of European descent were presented with either a disease threat or control threat. Then they were shown a photograph of someone of the same race or different race. Participants were asked to indicate whether they would avoid the target person and to state their emotional and cognitive responses to the person. As predicted, disease salience decreased the desire to …

Regulation Of Gabaa Receptor Subunit Expression In Substance Use Disorders, Jeffrey S. Barker, Rochelle M. Hines

Psychology Faculty Research

The modulation of neuronal cell firing is mediated by the release of the neurotransmitter GABA (γ-aminobuytric acid), which binds to two major families of receptors. The ionotropic GABAA receptors (GABAARs) are composed of five distinct subunits that vary in expression by brain region and cell type. The action of GABA on GABAARs is modulated by a variety of clinically and pharmacologically important drugs such as benzodiazepines and alcohol. Exposure to and abuse of these substances disrupts homeostasis and induces plasticity in GABAergic neurotransmission, often via the regulation of receptor expression. Here, we review the regulation of GABAAR subunit expression in …

Older, Wiser, And Fiercer: Perspectives Of Middle-Aged And Older Men Who Have Sex With Men On Their Resilience To The Risk And Impacts Of Hiv/Aids, Renato M. Liboro, Charles Fehr, George Da Silva, Lori E. Ross, Paul A. Shuper, Francisco Ibanez-Carrasco, Andrew D. Eaton, Daniel Pugh

Psychology Faculty Research

Roughly forty years since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) continue to be the population most at risk of, and most affected by, HIV/AIDS in Canada, the United States, and innumerable low to high income countries worldwide. Despite this, many MSM remain HIV-negative today, and among MSM living with HIV, many have not only survived the clinical and social impacts of HIV/AIDS, but have also thrived, lived full lives, and fiercely advocated for their health care and social service needs.

Examining The Factor Structures Of The A-Des And Ptci To Identify Unique Predictors Of Ptsd Symptom Clusters In Maltreated Youth, Amanda Howard

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Research on childhood posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has increased over the past decade. Youth who experience maltreatment are more likely to exhibit symptoms of PTSD. At present, the literature largely focuses on youth who have experienced general trauma or PTSD symptoms, while maltreated youth are understudied. To date, no studies have examined the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES) or the Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (PTCI) in a sample of maltreated youth. Predictors of childhood PTSD for maltreated youth remain unknown. The present study was the first research study to date to examine the factor structures of the …

The Relation Between Positive Stereotypes, Negative Stereotypes, And Discriminatory Behavior Toward Hispanic And White Populations, Aileen Ynez Lovitt

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Research examining positive stereotypes has suggested a possible connection between positive stereotype endorsement and prejudice. This literature, however, has not investigated the relation between positive and negative stereotypes endorsement. Additionally, the combined impact of positive and negative stereotype endorsement predicting prejudice or discrimination has not been considered. Two studies were conducted to address the limitations in past research and gain a better understanding of positive stereotypes relating to behaviors toward out-group racial groups using Hispanic and White participants. Positive stereotypes endorsement was hypothesized to be positively associated with negative stereotype endorsement and was expected to increase the predicted power of …

Tales Of Thriving: Identifying The Underpinnings Of Women's Success In Stem Careers, Sarah E. Thoman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Women remain underrepresented in U.S. science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Prior research enumerates many challenges that women experience in STEM and suggests interventions that enhance women’s exposure to STEM, technical acumen in STEM, or offer STEM community. Identifying what enables women to thrive in STEM is a novel approach to extending these efforts using a strengths-based approach. I thus conducted a case study focused on understanding the experiences of successful women in the STEM workforce. Findings revealed three core characteristics to women’s STEM success: synergizing self and science, science career advancement and mastery, and being a STEM change …

Dark Tetrad Responses To Moral Dilemmas, Kayli Wrenn

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Dark Tetrad consists of four socially malevolent personality traits: psychopathy, sadism, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. The current study assessed the relationships among each dimension of the Dark Tetrad and moral decision making using sacrificial moral dilemma vignettes. Participants (n = 212 undergraduates) completed two measures of each of the four Dark Tetrad constructs then read a series of 16 sacrificial moral dilemma vignettes. These dilemmas manipulated whether the participant would personally perform the sacrifice and described either the disgusting or sad emotional consequences of the sacrifice. After each vignette, participants rated the moral rightness/wrongness, moral permissibility, and behavioral intention to …

Depressive Symptoms As A Moderator Of Diurnal Trends In Reward Seeking, Erick Albert William Rogers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Anhedonia, a cardinal symptom of a major depressive episode, is the decreased motivation to seek rewards. Individuals with depressive symptoms tend to report reduced positive affect, a distal measure of reward motivation, and engage in less reward-motivated behavior (i.e., reward seeking). However, diurnal rhythms may also influence reward-seeking. Both self-reported positive affect and behavioral measures of reward-seeking increase from the morning to the afternoon and then decreased in the evening. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine whether reward-seeking varied across time of day and whether anhedonia moderated variation. Overall, reward-seeking did not vary across time of day. …

Coping On The Fly: School Psychologists' Perceptions Of Cultural Competence, Jennifer Wynn

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The goal of this qualitative ethnographic study is to explore how school psychologists demonstrate multicultural competence (MC) when testing students for K-12 special education. As the population of the United States (US) becomes increasingly diverse, mental health professionals are encouraged to become culturally competent. Cultural competence is the ability to work with culturally and linguistically diverse populations; and being aware of stereotypes, biases and microaggressions. Cultural competence is taught within some psychology preparation programs; however, courses are often limited. Although cross-cultural competencies have been explored in clinical and counseling psychology, they have yet to be explored in the field of …