Early Life Exposure To Unpredictable Parental Sensory Signals Shapes Cognitive Development Across Three Species, Elyssia Poggi Davis, Kari Mccormack, Hina Arora, Desiree Sharpe, Annabel K. Short, Jocelyne Bachevalier, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman, Hal S. Stern, Mar Sanchez, Tallie Z. Baram

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Exposure to early life adversity has long term consequences on cognitive function. Most research has focused on understanding components of early life adversities that contribute to later risk, including poverty, trauma, maltreatment, and neglect. Whereas these factors, in the aggregate, explain a significant proportion of emotional and cognitive problems, there are serious gaps in our ability to identify potential mechanisms by which early life adversities might promote vulnerability or resilience. Here we discuss early life exposure to unpredictable signals from the caretaker as an understudied type of adversity that is amenable to prevention and intervention. We employ a translational approach …

Personality And Psychopathology Correlates Of Institutional Misconduct Among Juvenile Offenders, Paula Floyd

Dissertations

Juvenile delinquency is a national concern, as delinquent behavior is associated with a host of poor psychosocial outcomes during later adolescence and adulthood. To address delinquency, it is important to understand psychological adjustment among adolescents who have already made contact with the juvenile justice system. One way to explore adjustment within this population involves examining personality and psychopathology correlates of institutional misconduct (i.e., behavioral infractions while incarcerated). While there is a robust body of literature regarding personality and psychopathology correlates of misconduct in adult inmate samples, there has been far less work devoted to these relationships among justice-involved youth. Furthermore, …

Stress Arising From The Covid-19 Pandemic: Impacts On Coparenting Quality And Child Internalizing And Externalizing Problems, Michelle R. Ebrahim

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Since emerging in late 2019, the highly contagious coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused worldwide disruptions, with major shutdowns in school, work, and other aspects of life. These stressors uniquely impacted families with young children. The present study investigated the impact of the pandemic on family functioning and risk for child internalizing and externalizing problems during the first year after the pandemic. The study included three waves of data collection from a larger longitudinal study aimed at understanding how couples navigate the prenatal-postpartum transition and the impacts of the family on early child development. We found that family pandemic-related stress was …

An Enhanced Mentoring Model’S Impact On Youth In Boys And Girls Clubs, Lisa Mcgarrie, Eric Napierala, Carrie Oliver, Emily Heberlein, Brittany Taylor, Angie Snyder

Journal of Youth Development

Although federal funding has been provided to add mentoring to youth development programs for decades, we still lack knowledge about the impacts of mentoring on youth outcomes. This research seeks to fill a gap by documenting youth outcomes from an enhanced mentoring approach for urban Boys and Girls Clubs (BGC) in the Southeastern United States delivered by paid staff who serve as mentors through group activities and 1:1 interactions with youth. We perform logistic regressions of secondary data from a cohort of BGCs to understand the relationships between enhanced mentoring and youth outcomes related to program retention, behaviors, and academics. …

Importance Of The Access, Equity, And Opportunity Competencies Among 4-H Professionals, Matt Benge, Jeff Wayne Howard

Journal of Youth Development

The 4-H Professional Research, Knowledge and Competencies (PRKC) is a professional development framework that can be used to identify competency gaps and training needs of 4-H professionals. The PRKC consists of 6 competency domains, 1 being access, equity, and opportunity (AEO). A tailored design method was used to gather data and sort the respondents between rural and urban community type. 4-H Extension agents serving urban communities perceived 12 out of the 14 AEO domain components as more important than agents serving rural communities did. The 2 AEO domain components that were not significantly different in perceived importance were values, norms, …

A Self-Assessment Approach To Understanding 4-H Professional Development Needs In The Northeast, Marycarmen Kunicki, Marissa Staffen, Jennifer Cushman, Rachel E. Lyons, Lisa Phelps, Kevin Sullivan

Journal of Youth Development

In 2017, the National 4-H professional research, knowledge, and competencies (PRKC) taxonomy was updated reflecting the current needs of 4-H youth development professionals. Knowledge and skill gaps of 4-H professionals need to be identified to optimize resource allocation for professional development on the state and regional level. We developed a web-based self-assessment of the PRKC tool using Qualtrics, that evaluated the core competencies across the 6 PRKC domains: (a) youth development; (b) youth program development; (c) volunteerism; (d) equity, access, and opportunity; (e) partnerships; and (f) organizational systems. The responses from 188 Extension 4-H professionals (approximately a quarter of the …

How To Survive College As An Acoa: The Effectiveness Of University Resources On Helping Acoas Socially And Psychologically Succeed During Their Academic Career, Kelly Buchan

Senior Theses

In 2019, 14.5 million people ages 12 and older had Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), but only 10% received treatment (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [NIAAA], 2022). Parental drinking problems can directly affect children, or “Adult Children of Alcoholics.” Of the few studies targeting ACoAs, results show that ACoAs not only have higher risks of mental illness, but they also have lower GPAs and social health (Schroeder & Kelley, 2008). Thus, this study assessed the extent to which perceptions of the college drinking environment are related to higher depression rates in ACoAs, certain drinking motivations, and reluctance to use …

Civic Engagement And Advocacy In Rural Wisconsin: Youth Development Through Legislative Forums, Doug Liphart, Neil James Klemme, Ian Meeker

Journal of Youth Development

Youth Development programming that engages youth to work side by side with local leaders creates an environment where youth develop civic skills. These skills include a greater understanding of the legislative process, their role in our democracy, and increased engagement in the democratic process. Through their participation in the Superior Days Legislative Forum, youth increase their civic skills, are inspired to create change in their communities, ask questions and respond to challenges by bringing legislative issues of concern unique to their community to the entire representative body at the state capitol. Youth delegates also gain experience partnering with adults from …

Cultural Humility Training For Mentors: Lessons Learned And Implications Of Youth Programs, Amy J. Anderson, April Riordan, Lavasha Smith, Bridget Hillard, Bernadette Sánchez

Journal of Youth Development

The current paper presents lessons learned from a research-to-practice partnership between mentoring program practitioners and researchers that focused on the development and implementation of a cultural humility training for volunteer mentors. Using multiple data sources (e.g., training materials, field notes, mentor surveys), we present a description of the research-to-practice partnership and the Culturally Smart Relationships pilot training content. We generate practice-oriented lessons to inform future cultural humility training work with staff and volunteers in youth programs. Our lessons reflect recommendations that emerged from five project phases: (a) organizational commitment to justice, equity, diversity, inclusion; (b) training curriculum and logistical planning; …

Challenges, Opportunities, And Adaptations Of A College Preparatory 4-H Youth Development Program During Covid-19, Emily M. Davis, Ann Sansing, Jasmine Harris-Speight, Mary Nelson Robertson, David Buys

Journal of Youth Development

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has proliferated across the United States, and in the process, it has disrupted all sense of normalcy. Because adolescents are in a critical period for growth and development, youth are particularly susceptible to negative impacts of disruption from COVID-19. Therefore, sustaining youth development programs is essential to ensuring positive youth development occurs despite significant challenges. Unfortunately, the implementation of programs that maintain safety precautions can be challenging. Many programs have been forced to either cancel all activities or to transition program elements to a virtual format. Rural Medical and Science Scholars (RMSS) program administrative staff made the decision …

Informing Practice Through Professional Development: An Interstate Urban Programming Study Tour, Vernelle Mitchell-Hawkins, Deborah Dietrich

Journal of Youth Development

Southeast Pennsylvania 4-H Extension educators identified a need for professional development in order to further develop current urban 4-H programs. The expectation was that increased awareness and knowledge would lead to increased skills competency in planning, implementing, and evaluating urban 4-H youth development programs. An interstate professional development program was developed to inform practitioners on positive youth development in urban communities. The 2-day program included on-site observations of urban programs and professional development on best practices. The event was scheduled as a study tour that involved intentional focus on practical applications of research theory for informal education. The Penn State …

Maximizing Youth Leadership In Out-Of-School Time Programs: Six Best Practices From Youth Driven Spaces, Jamie Heng-Chieh Wu, Alison Shereda, Sara T. Stacy, John Kenneth Weiss, Megan Heintschel

Journal of Youth Development

This paper aims to provide strategies for youth-serving organizations to maximize opportunities for youth to develop leadership skills within the out-of-school time program context. The sample includes 5 youth-serving agencies who participated in the Youth Driven Spaces initiative led by a Midwest program. Data for this project included observations of youth–adult meetings, field notes from youths’ reflections on key model activities, and interviews with adult staff to identify common challenges and supportive solutions. We identified 6 emergent themes for supporting youth leadership: (a) engage youth in meetings, (b) create opportunities for youth to learn how to be leaders, (c) recognize …

Using Stem Camps To Improve Female Interest In Technology Careers, April H. Reed, Mark Angolia, Lyubov G. Sluder, Leslie R. Pagliari

Journal of Youth Development

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields have been traditionally entered by men, often establishing women as underrepresented in many of these fields. This research study focuses on participants at a STEM camp for middle- and high-school girls designed to introduce them to technology. The camp was held 4 times over 3 years, with many of the participants from rural areas, underrepresented by race and economic status. Sixty camp attendees completed pre- and post-camp surveys and are referred to as the intervention group. A control group of 200 middle- and high-school girls who did not attend the camp also took …

Book Review: Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race, Laura M. Stanton, Leo M. Taylor, Jenny M. Lobb, Pat Holmes, Steve Brady, Imani Scruggs

Journal of Youth Development

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race is a 2017 revised and updated edition to Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum’s original book written in 1997. The book explores decades of research on the psychology of racism, with an emphasis on the psychology of racial identity in Black, White, and other ethnic and cultural identities. The author helps readers gain a better understanding of historic and modern racism and the implications it has on individuals today. The book also contains important messages for people who work with diverse groups of adults and particularly …

Associations Between Cannabis, Psychosis, And Schizophrenia In Adolescents, Lauren Moment

Academic Leadership Journal in Student Research

The effects of cannabis use on the brain, mind, and body have been studied for decades. The developing brain, particularly the adolescent and young adult brain, undergoes critical development that makes it especially susceptible to the effects of cannabis use. Among the adverse effects of cannabis use in adolescence and young adulthood, psychosis and psychotic disorders (e.g., schizophrenia) have been examined. The association of cannabis use with schizophrenia was first elucidated in a Swedish study of army conscripts. Specifically, conscripts reported their cannabis use exposure and were followed longitudinally to assess the emergence of schizophrenia. The authors found that those …

The Effects Of Nutrition And Exercise On The Mental Wellness Of Preschool Children, Reem Farhat

McNair Research Journal SJSU

When it comes to mental health, young children are often not researched and their tantrums or mood swings are not taken seriously, when in reality these small behavioral issues could be pointing to a larger issue. Children are the most overlooked when it comes to mental health diagnosis and treatment, unless the child begins to display extreme behavior (Philpott et al., 2019). However, preventative mental health care is arguably more pragmatic and less taboo than diagnosis and treatment. While there is research to support the use of exercise and nutrition in mental wellness, there is still not enough done within …

Full Issue

McNair Research Journal SJSU

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Associations Between Cumulative Risk, Childhood Sleep Duration, And Body Mass Index Across Childhood, Tiffany Phu, Jenalee R. Doom

Psychology: Faculty Scholarship

Background: Although associations between cumulative risk, sleep, and overweight/obesity have been demonstrated, few studies have examined relationships between these constructs longitudinally across childhood. This study investigated how cumulative risk and sleep duration are related to current and later child overweight/obesity in families across the United States sampled for high sociodemographic risk.

Methods: We conducted secondary analyses on 3690 families with recorded child height and weight within the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study. A cumulative risk composite (using nine variables indicating household/ environmental, family, and sociodemographic risk) was calculated for each participant from ages 3-9 years. Path analyses …

Parent-Child Relations, Sleep, And Externalizing Problems In Clinical Youth, Tiffany Thao Vo

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Sleep problems are a major prevailing concern in clinical youth populations. Research has shown that poor sleep is correlated with mental health problems, while parent-child relationships are associated with externalizing behaviors. The aim of this study was to (1) replicate these findings; (2) extend on previous research on the relationships between sleep, parent-child relationships, and externalizing problems; and (3) analyze moderating effects of parent-child relationships on the relationship between sleep and externalizing problems in youth (N = 25) ages 6 to 11 presenting to mental health treatment. Bivariate analyses indicated average objective sleep duration is related to parent-child relations and …

Stress And The Validity Of Parent Report Measures, Katharine Fabro

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Data collected from self-report measures can be problematic as participants may misunderstand questions, misremember information, or misrepresent themselves when answering questions. Bias in self-report data is particularly concerning for parents of children with DD, as these measures are often used as part of diagnostic decisions and service allocations. Parents of children with DD typically experience higher levels of stress than parents of typically developing children. Stress has been shown to decrease cognitive functioning and bias parent perceptions, making it more likely that parents will inaccurately respond to self-report measures inquiring about their own parenting behaviors and their child’s maladaptive behaviors. …

Parent Treatment Manual For Adolescent Self-Harm, Miriam Mokhless Rizk

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This doctoral project is a treatment manual that was created for parents of self-harming adolescents. To date, no treatment manual currently exists to aide these parents in fostering healthy environments for adolescents completing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) intensive outpatient treatments; however, the literature describes the importance of creating validating environments as an important factor in positive treatment outcomes of adolescents who self-harm. This ten-week treatment manual was designed to provide these parents with DBT skills in order to learn the foundations of providing a positive environment in the home. The results of this treatment manual are projected to reduce parenting …

Effects Of Parents’ Mbsr On Internalizing Problems In Children: Asd As Moderator, Hadley Mcgregor

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at high risk for increased levels of behavior problems and developing internalizing problems. Previous literature has highlighted the impact of parental stress on the development of behavioral problems in children with ASD; however, little research has examined the relation between parenting stress and internalizing problems in children with ASD. The current study utilized data from the Mindful Awareness for Parenting Stress (MAPS) study which consisted of families of 80 preschool children with developmental delays (DD) (N = 31) and children with ASD (N = 49) whose parents reported high levels of stress. Specifically, …

Antisocial Behavior And Callous Unemotional Traits In Youth: A Biosocial Approach, Yong Lin Huang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Early life presence of antisocial behavior (e.g., aggression/delinquency) and psychopathic/callous-unemotional (CU) traits (lacking empathy/remorse, shallow affect) are precursors to juvenile crime and criminal offending in adulthood. Etiological research on antisocial/CU tendencies has implicated both neurobiological (e.g., alterations in brain function and structure) and environmental (social adversity, prenatal stress) underpinnings. It has been proposed that reward and punishment processing deficits may induce problematic traits and behavior, such that antisocial/CU tendencies may be linked to hypersensitivity to rewards and hyposensitivity to punishment. Studies in this area have generated inconsistent findings and focused primarily on adult and clinical samples, leaving youth and community …

Oxytocin, A Lover And A Fighter: Maternal Trauma Exposure And Mother-Child Coregulation, Patricia M. Pehme

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The placenta is responsible for regulating the fetal growth and environment in preparation for the anticipated external life. To succeed, it continuously adapts and weaves in a variety of neuroendocrine signals from the maternal organism. If a mother was exposed to trauma and her physiology sustained a change in the functioning of the immune, autonomic and/or endocrine systems, the placenta may anticipate different external environments for her children as compared to children of mothers without trauma exposure. This dissertation examined possible underlying mechanisms of psychosocial trauma transmission from one generation to the next via the placental oxytocinergic pathway. Encompassing three …

The Impacts Of Problematic Social Media Use On Youths: Evaluation And Treatment Recommendations, Carianne Archer

Dissertations

Youths’ frequency and time spent on social media continues to increase over the years parallel to the growing concern of the status of the mental health of youth. This critical literature review project focuses on the impacts that social media use has on youth (ages 8 to 18 years) and what methods of evaluation and treatment are being used clinically, with recommendations provided to clinicians based on the available literature. The questions that guided this review included: What are the impacts of social media on the self-concept and interpersonal functioning of youths?; What clinical presentations are associated with youths who …

Case Study: Exploring College Students’ Transformative Learning Experience Through Co-Creation Of A Pilot Compassionate Parenting Module In A Humanities Class, Maria Silvia Casabianca

Theses and Dissertations

A case study was conducted with 14 students who took a 16-week college humanities course at a regional university in the state of Florida. The core subjects of the course were kindness, compassion, and empathy. The instructor’s approach to teaching included methods akin to those of transformational learning. Data were collected from 14 weeks of reflective journals, semi-structured interviews, and compassionate parenting modules written by the participants as final assignments. Findings indicated that transformative learning practices supported participants’ reflection and identification of acquired beliefs and new learning about kindness, empathy, and compassion. Participants also described perceived benefits of kindness for …

Associations Between Childhood Sexual Abuse, Adult Sexual Assault Experiences, Psychological Distress, And Substance Use, Diamonde Mccollum

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

This study evaluates the potential mechanisms underlying the association between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and substance use among adult women. Moreover, CSA, adult sexual assault (ASA), and psychological distress (including symptoms of depression and perceived stress) was evaluated to determine how it contributes to substance misuse. Past research shows that individuals who experience CSA are more likely to experience ASA, which results in psychological distress. Individuals may use substances to cope with psychological distress from CSA and ASA, consistent with the self-medication hypothesis. Women (N = 225) were recruited from Mechanical Turk (Mturk) and completed an online survey. Results indicate …

An Evaluation Of Reciprocal Associations Across The Mentoring Relationship For Mentors And Mentees With Attachment Needs, Molly Cory

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring programs are a popular approach for supporting low-income youth by providing them with an adult mentor who is intended to be a positive role model and fulfill unmet attachment needs. Low-income youth who become mentees are often understood through an attachment lens and treated as the focus of any mentoring intervention. Although significant research has been devoted to understanding the impact of the mentoring relationship on mentees, the function of the mentoring relationship for mentees remains unclear. Some studies have found direct effects of the mentoring relationship on mentee emotional and behavioral outcomes, while other studies have suggested indirect …

Effects Of Reading Intervention On Behavior Outcomes Of Middle School Students: A Rapid Review, Davina Putz

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Reading is one of the most valuable skills acquired in life with tremendous effects on future success in education, professional career, and daily living. While effective reading instruction continues to be focus of elementary school education, some students proceed to middle and high school stuck on an elementary grade reading level. Below grade level reading ability can result in numerous behavioral and academic struggles at the secondary level. The current study systematically investigated the body of research evaluating effects of reading interventions on behavior outcomes. Five publications met inclusionary criteria to be further analyzed using narrative synthesis and visual analysis …

Toddler Characteristics And Attention, Lani A. Taylor

Research Psychology Theses

Abstract

Individual differences have become increasingly relevant when addressing variability across child development. Literature bears evidence that these differences may impact a toddler’s ability to respond to Joint Attention (JA). JA refers to a communicative gaze and pointing between a child and another individual. JA has been recognized as being a critical milestone, to the formation and cultivation of shared awareness and attention of an event or object. JA is a skill that is critical to the development of future language acquisition (Vaughan Van Hecke et al., 2007). The aim of this study is to measure whether child characteristics, such …