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A First-Generation 4-H Youth Member Intervention Framework To Support Members To Enter, Engage, And Persist In The Program, Jeremy Elliott-Engel, Nicholas A. A Morris

Journal of Youth Development

The First-Generation 4-H Youth Member (FG4-HYM) Intervention Framework is an organizational management perspective for preparing 4-H youth programs that supports the welcoming of youth and families that have no previous experience with the organization. Using the Bronfenbrenner ecological model, we explore the multiple layers of 4-H program management that support the participation of FG4-HYM in the 4-H club program. This framework provides a tool for 4-H professionals to use when assessing their program’s readiness to provide high-quality programming to all audiences, regardless of their families’ previous experience with the organization. This framework represents the foundational requirements that an organization must …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Youth Development

No abstract provided.

4-H Camps: Complexities In Adult-Youth Dynamics, Stephanie Femrite, Rebecca Mott, Steven Krauss

Journal of Youth Development

Summer camp programs provide adolescent counselors with opportunities to work alongside adult staff, aiming to develop critical skills such as communication, responsibility, independence, and teamwork. Growing research supports the value of camp-based developmental relationships through youth-adult partnerships. However, tensions often arise as adults struggle to share power while youth question their roles as partners. Few studies have investigated the role of expectations and realities in camps that promote a youth-adult partnership approach. To address this gap, a qualitative study was conducted to explore the role perceptions of 14- to 18-year-old camp counselors and program directors’ expectations of counselors’ roles in …

Adolescent Externalizing Symptoms And Parent Emotion Socialization: An Examination Of Longitudinal Effects And Differences By Adolescent Sex, Cheston West

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adolescence is an important developmental context with several changes in social and emotional functioning. Though adolescents are gaining independence from their caregivers, they still engage in dynamic interactions with their caregivers who remain key figures in their lives. When adolescents express emotions, caregivers engage in various behaviors in response to these expressions, a process known as emotion socialization. This process has mostly been examined as a parent-driven construct in which parent emotion socialization impacts child-level outcomes, namely internalizing symptoms, with limited research on externalizing symptoms. However, available literature demonstrates that child-level characteristics (e.g., externalizing symptoms) are linked to differences in …

From Activity To Adaptability: Systematic Review On Elevating Adolescent Resilience Through Physical Activity, Kaylee Cowdrey

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The recent increase in mental health concerns among teens showcases the need for accessible solutions that help buffer against psychopathology and build resilience. This systematic literature review looks at various studies to see how physical activity can positively affect resilience in adolescents by enhancing their emotional regulation, self-efficacy, self-esteem, social connections, and brain function. Literature published since 2010 from databases, including APA PsycInfo, PubMed, and Google Scholar, was collected for this analysis. The results of the review found that as adolescents engage in physical activity, there is improvement in coping skills by enhancing emotional regulation, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and social connectedness …

Evaluation Of The Implementation Of Foster Youth Independent Living Programs In The State Of California, Ingrid Flores

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Foster youth transitioning into adulthood often confront a myriad of challenges stemming from limited social capital and unstable support systems. The transition out of foster care, particularly for Transitional Age Youth (TAY), is fraught with barriers including disconnection from familial ties, inadequate knowledge regarding higher education, financial instability, unemployment, and housing insecurity. In 2021, approximately 4,920 foster children aged out of the system, facing the option to participate in extended care programs designed to facilitate their transition into independent living. Despite these programs, many youths struggle to achieve self-sufficiency. Key legislation, including the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, and …

A Systematic Review Of Effective School-Based Interventions Against Bullying In The United States, Jessica Lopez Lopez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Bullying remains a persistent issue within the United States (U.S.) educational system, affecting–among other things–students’ well-being, academic performance, and mental health. This mixed-methods systematic review was purported to address gaps in previous literature by identifying effective school-based interventions against bullying implemented between 2017 and 2024 in the U.S. Using a purposive sampling method, this review screened three electronic databases: APA PsycNET, ERIC, and JSTOR to garner relevant studies. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were employed to ensure rigorous selection and analysis of relevant articles. There were four studies in this systematic review (n=4). The …

The Adverse Effects Of Substance Use Among Caregivers On Children In The United States: A Systematic Review, Amanda R. Suchaire

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In the United States, Caregiver Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is a significant public health issue that disrupts family dynamics and can severely impact the health of millions of children. The systematic review examines the adverse impact of caregiver substance use on children, with research published from 2020 onwards. The significance of this study is due to the increasing prevalence of substance use disorders among caregivers and their harmful effects on child maltreatment, psychosocial health, physical health, and overall well-being. A systematic review framework will be utilized, synthesizing peer-reviewed studies to describe the prevalence of caregiver substance use, developmental issues for …

Evaluating The Effects Of Parental Serious Mental Illness On Life Functioning Of Adult Offspring: A Longitudinal Study, Lena E. Leyva

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Background: Parental mental illness greatly impacts a child’s development by posing great risks to their physical and mental health, academic success, and overall functioning (Naughton et al., 2019; Adjej et al., 2023). It remains clear that exposure to parental mental illness has short-term implications. However, long-term impacts on offspring while entering and managing adulthood has not been thoroughly examined. Objective: This longitudinal study proposes to determine the effects of parental mental illness on life functioning of adult offspring at baseline and then occur every two years over the course of eight years. Method: Quantitative data will be collected from 120 …

Breaking The Pipeline: Exploring Exclusionary Discipline, Restorative Justice, And The Attitudes And Beliefs Of Educators, Ericka J. Varnedoe

Honors College Theses

This study explores the connection between exclusionary disciplinary practices and the school-to-prison pipeline. It highlights how exclusionary discipline, including suspensions and expulsions, disproportionately affects marginalized groups such as students of color, students with disabilities, and LGBTQ youth, further contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. In contrast, restorative justice, a non-punitive approach, offers a promising alternative. Initially adopted from the criminal justice system, restorative justice has been integrated into school environments to foster positive school climates, improve experiences, and mitigate challenging behaviors. This research examines educators' attitudes toward both exclusionary and restorative practices, as well as their awareness and implementation of restorative …

Attachment Theory In Adult Romantic Relationships: The Influence Of Childhood Trauma On Adult Attachment Styles And Romantic Relationship Satisfaction, Shelby Bock

Senior Honors Theses

Attachment theory provides a key framework for understanding adult romantic relationships, especially for individuals with a history of childhood trauma. Early adverse experiences, such as emotional abuse and neglect, as well as broader categories of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), can disrupt attachment development, contributing to insecure attachment styles—anxious or avoidant—that influence relationship dynamics in adulthood. This review synthesizes current literature on how childhood trauma contributes to attachment patterns and emotional intimacy, trust, and relationship satisfaction in adult romantic relationships. It also highlights the role of attachment in mediating the effects of childhood trauma on romantic relationships. Finally, the review proposes …

Adolescence: Bio-Physiological Development, Theresa C. Allen

Essays in Developmental Psychology

The Wonder Years was a television comedy-drama that aired for six seasons from 1988 to 1993.  It was a series on the coming of age…life through the eyes of an adolescent boy, Kevin Arnold, living in the late 1960’s - early 70’s.  From surviving the indignities of the junior high gym locker room, to discovering the joys of the opposite sex, to struggling to cut parental apron strings, a nation watched Kevin Arnold try to navigate the ever-changing waters of puberty, friendships, love and lust, and the uncertainty of tumultuous social times while trying to forge a sense of self …

Formal Operational Period, Katie Cunningham, Heidi Kloos

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Consider the following prompt: “If you hit a glass with a feather, the glass will break. Ann hit a glass with the feather. What will happen to the glass?” To answer correctly, one would have to first learn the rule about how the feather will affect the glass. The second step then is to apply the learned rule in a logical fashion. The mental activity needed to carry out these steps is known as hypothetico-deductive reasoning. It is required for counter-factual thinking, transitive inferences, and hypothesis testing. Jean Piaget postulated that this type of mental activity is characteristic of children …

Attachment Theory: Schaffer And Emerson, Jeffery H. Cornelius-White, Joan E. Test

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson’s work on the development of attachment in childhood is based on the evolutionary perspective of John Bowlby. Schaffer and Emerson (1964) defined attachment as, “The tendency of the young to seek the proximity of other members of the species” (p. 6). In their view, infants and young children seek out and find comfort in being physically close to people with whom they have formed attachments.

Wimmer And Perner 1983, Alexandra Daro, Jonathan B. Santo

Essays in Developmental Psychology

False beliefs occur when individuals are unaware of a change in a situation that makes their beliefs different from reality. Children developing a theory of mind learn to distinguish their own beliefs about a situation from other individuals’ beliefs about the same situation. Through this process, children move away from assuming their thoughts are shared by everyone in their day to day experiences (an egocentric perspective normal to this developmental stage), and toward an understanding of others as individuals with minds, thoughts, and beliefs separate from their own.

Preoperational Period, Huda Abu-Suwa, Lisa K. Lashley, Charles J. Golden

Essays in Developmental Psychology

The preoperational period is part of Jean Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development (Lally & Valentine-French, 2019). Piaget was a cognitive psychology, who in 1936 created a model to explain how children understand the world and develop cognitively. While other contemporary theorists believed that intelligence was a fixed trait, Piaget believed that cognitive development was a process that occurred in distinct stages, and that maturation brings about changes and growth in development, rather than training (Lally & Valentine-French, 2019). Piaget posited that each stage occurred at a specific time and in a specific sequential order, such every child goes through …

Rachel Barr, Huda Abu-Suwa, Lisa K. Lashley, Charles J. Golden

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Dr. Rachel Barr is a developmental and clinical psychologist, and a leading expert on early learning and memory. She has published and presented on over 200 articles, encyclopedia entries, book chapters, and poster presentations on subjects related to child development and psychology and continues to do research in these fields (Rachel Barr, 2019).

Mirror Test Of Infant Self-Awareness, Jenna Bekkala, Naomi J. Aldrich

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Our understanding of self, or belief in one’s being as distinct from others, has been a subject of inquiry throughout human history. Discussions of self-concept would not appear in the empirical literature, however, until the mid-19th century. After likening an orangutan’s response to teasing as that of a “naughty child”, Charles Darwin began to question orangutans’ selfconcept by observing reactions to their own mirror images. Darwin’s use of the mirror to gauge self-awareness, a method eventually applied to his own infant son (Darwin, 1877), would remain the most frequently used assessment of self-concept for the next century.

Infant Memory, Jenna Beffel, Naomi J. Aldrich

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Until the second half of the 20th century, the ability to recall information was thought to emerge between 2- and 10-years-of-age. Resulting from repression of our earliest sexual urges, immature neural mechanisms, or an impoverished sense of self and linguistic skills, infantile amnesia represents the predominant view of infancy at the time; a period in which the child possessed remarkably limited mental abilities, thus experiencing the world as nothing more than “one great blooming, buzzing confusion” (James, 1890). The research contributions of Dr. Carolyn Rovee-Collier over the next seventy years succeeded in altering this perspective.

Infant Imitation And Social Interaction, Caroline Bartes, Naomi J. Aldrich

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Today imitation (i.e., copying another’s behaviors) is recognized as the fundamental mechanism by which cultural knowledge is socially transmitted across generations (Gergely & Csibra, 2006). Indeed, inquiries into children’s imitation have been at the forefront of developmental science nearly since its inception. Piaget suggested that at its core, imitation acted as the child’s representation of self-in-action before the representation of self-in-thought (Piaget & Inhelder, 1966/1969). While Piaget discussed the presence of reflexive imitation within the first months of life (e.g., a baby crying upon hearing another baby’s cry), he reasoned that children could not imitate others’ gestures until the end …

Newborn Senses, Ryan Bennett, Lisa K. Lashley, Charles J. Golden

Essays in Developmental Psychology

When babies are born, they possess all five senses-taste, hearing, sight, touch and smell; however, some senses are more developed than others. Newborns had previously been an enigma to scientists and little was known about their intelligence, motives, and capabilities. Neuroscientists are now able to map out a timeline of when senses are developed during and after gestation; this has given the scientific community and parents everywhere a better understanding of newborns and their ability to process their environment.

Newborn Reflexes, Ryan Bennett, Lisa K. Lashley, Charles J. Golden

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Reflexes are characterized as involuntary movements or actions and are a key indicator of a healthy brain and nervous system in newborn babies. There are five primitive reflexes that are common for infants who do not experience central nervous system (CNS) deficits. Furthermore, newborn reflexes are also considered to add adaptive value by increasing their chances of survival.

Parental Influence, Justin Burgess, Lisa K. Lashley, Charles J. Golden

Essays in Developmental Psychology

An adequate level of parenting—providing enough nutrition, shelter, exposure to language and peers, or not harshly punishing children (punching, kicking, striking with a weapon)—seems to not have a long-term effect on cognitive development in children. Twin and adoption studies have found that intelligence is accounted for almost entirely by genes and nonshared environment, which includes peers, teachers, and unique experiences. However, there are parenting styles and types of home environments that are correlated with better school performance, stronger school engagement, and more words spoken at certain ages.

Gifted Children, Justin Burgess, Lisa K. Lashley, Charles J. Golden

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Children can be gifted in a variety of different areas, including musical talent, athleticism, and artistic ability among others. The focus of this entry will be solely on those children who are gifted in intellectual ability and academic achievement. Identification of intellectual giftedness usually requires an individually administered intelligence test, achieving a Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ) of 130 or higher, which is a threshold that dates back to Lewis Terman’s research at Stanford in the early to mid 20th century. Although this seems like an arbitrary score, an IQ score of 130 and above is where an individual scores two …

The Marshmallow Task, Laurel A. Brabson, Hannah M. Coffey, Mary Margaret Ruckle, Cheryl B. Mcneil

Essays in Developmental Psychology

To study the human systems of self-control during delayed gratification, Dr. Walter Mischel and colleagues developed what became the famous Marshmallow Test, published in Science in 1989. This study became a frontrunner in the field of psychology, laying the foundation for future studies in impulse control. Dr. Mischel was born in 1930 in Vienna, Austria. He was a professor at the University of Colorado, Harvard University, and Stanford University where he originally conducted the Marshmallow Test. Dr. Mischel currently holds a professorship at Columbia University.

Nutrition And Growth, Chris Burley, Lisa K. Lashley, Charles J. Golden

Essays in Developmental Psychology

From a child’s embryonic development in the womb to adulthood, nutrition plays a key role in physical, mental, and social growth and development. Throughout the lifespan, proper nutrition and growth are essential to living a long, healthy life. Nutrition is particularly important in the developmental period.

Intersensory Redundancy, Macey Cartwright, Heidi Kloos

Essays in Developmental Psychology

How does redundancy in the input affect the child’s attention? Consider, for example, a scenario in which the child is listening to a parent’s utterances, as well as watching the parent’s lips moving in synchrony with the speech. Intuitively, one might assume that there is an inherent advantage in such informational coherence. The match between sounds and visual input might help constrain attention in productive ways. Alternatively, a mismatch in intersensory information might affects attention negatively. The reality of how intersensory redundancy affects a child’s attention is more surprising than what intuition might suggest, as we discuss in this essay.

Parent–Child Interaction Therapy Adapted For Older Children, Luke W. Badley

Dissertations, 2020-current

Externalizing behavior problems in children refer to negative outward actions directed toward others and the environment (Liu, 2004; Maughan et al., 2005). Between 2013–2019, the CDC reported a prevalence of 8.9%, with the highest rates in children aged 6–11 (Bitsko et al., 2022). If untreated, these behaviors may worsen and impact broader psychological functioning (Masten & Cicchetti, 2010). A review of the literature regarding the treatment of child behavior problems using Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) interventions highlights the critical role that parents play in the development and treatment of childhood behavior problems. BPT interventions enable parents and other important adults …

Lasting Impact Of Friendship: A Group Manual For Meaningful Connections In Adolescence, Kristen M. Hull

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Adolescence brings profound changes in physical growth, emotions, and social interactions. The friendships formed during this time of life play a crucial role in shaping a young person’s sense of self, emotional health, and ability to navigate social relationships well into the future. This group manual examines the importance of friendships in adolescence, offering a research-based approach to understanding how these relationships influence mental well-being, academic success, and personal development. Designed for school counselors and other trained professionals, it provides practical strategies to help students build and maintain meaningful, supportive friendships during this pivotal stage of life.

Keywords: adolescence, friendship, …

How Childhood Maltreatment Shapes Brain Regions: Considerations For Speech-Language Pathology, Alexa G. Sees

Honors Thesis

Childhood maltreatment is a pervasive issue that affects millions of children worldwide, leading to alterations in key structures such as the limbic system, basal ganglia, corpus callosum, visual cortex, and language areas. These changes result in significant cognitive, emotional, and neurological consequences, such as learning deficits, emotional regulation issues, memory problems, reduced vocabulary size, speech errors, etc. This thesis explores the neurological effects of childhood maltreatment and their implications for speech-language pathology, highlighting how maltreatment-induced brain changes affect areas within the scope of speech-language pathology, such as social communication, language development, and behavior management. These results underscore the importance of …