Psychology Commons^™

Doing Assessment: A Multicase Study Of Preschool Teachers’ Language And Literacy Data Practices, Rachel E. Schachter, Shayne B. Piasta

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Early childhood research and policy have promoted the use of language and literacy assessment data to inform instruction. Yet, there is a limited understanding of preschool teachers’ data practices and sensemaking, particularly when considered from the perspectives of practicing teachers. In this multicase study, we used a phenomenological approach to generate a theory about preschool teachers’ data practices in relation to supporting children’s language and literacy outcomes. Twenty preschool teachers participated in a series of three observations, planning interviews, and stimulated recall interviews designed to tap their pedagogical reasoning and data use practices. The framework that emerged through iterative within-and …

Sensitray: An Integrated Measuring Device For Monitoring Children’S Mealtime Dietary Intake, Hunter S. Guru, Anthony D. Weng, Santosh Pitla, Dipti Dev

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Childhood nutrition establishes consumption norms that affect an individual’s health over the course of their lives. However, early nutrition interventions to establish such norms are uncommon owing to the various inefficiencies associated with current methods of measuring childhood nutrition. Here, we present an IoT measuring device, called the SensiTray, which accurately tracks mealtime intake in a child-friendly and cost-effective fashion. Principal technologies underlying the SensiTray (including mass-sensing technologies, microcontrollers) are identified and analyzed, along with other design choices. Operation of the SensiTray is explained with special attention given to SensiTray software peripherals and algorithms. Preliminary testing consisted of static and …

Spring Break Or Heart Break? Extending Valence Bias To Emotional Words, Nicholas R. Harp, Catherine C. Brown, Maital Neta

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Ambiguous stimuli are useful for assessing emotional bias. For example, surprised faces could convey a positive or negative meaning, and the degree to which an individual interprets these expressions as positive or negative represents their “valence bias.” Currently, the most well- wellvalidated ambiguous stimuli for assessing valence bias include nonverbal signals (faces and scenes), overlooking an inherent ambiguity in verbal signals. This study identified 32 words with dual-valence ambiguity (i.e., relatively high intersubject variability in valence ratings and relatively slow response times) and length-matched clearly valenced words (16 positive, 16 negative). Preregistered analyses demonstrated that the words-based valence bias correlated …

Nontarget Emotional Stimuli Must Be Highly Conspicuous To Modulate The Attentional Blink, Lindsay A. Santacroce, Brandon J. Carlos, Nathan Petro, Benjamin J. Tamber-Rosenau

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The attentional blink (AB) is often considered a top-down phenomenon because it is triggered by matching an initial target (T1) in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream to a search template. However, the AB is modulated when targets are emotional, and is evoked when a task-irrelevant, emotional critical distractor (CDI) replaces T1. Neither manipulation fully captures the interplay between bottom-up and top-down attention in the AB: Valenced targets intrinsically conflate top-down and bottom-up attention. The CDI approach cannotmanipulate second target (T2) valence, which is critical because valenced T2s can “break through” the AB (in the target-manipulation approach). The present …

Social Connectedness And Negative Affect Uniquely Explain Individual Differences In Response To Emotional Ambiguity, Maital Neta, Rebecca L. Brock

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Negativity bias is not only central to mood and anxiety disorders, but can powerfully impact our decision-making across domains (e.g., financial, medical, social). This project builds on previous work examining negativity bias using dual-valence ambiguity. Specifically, although some facial expressions have a relatively clear negative (angry) or positive valence (happy), surprised expressions are interpreted negatively by some and positively by others, providing insight into one’s valence bias. Here, we examine putative sources of variability that distinguish individuals with a more negative versus positive valence bias using structural equation modeling. Our model reveals that one’s propensity toward negativity (operationalized as temperamental …

Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Sexual And Gender Minority Youth: A Call To Action, Katie M. Edwards, Jillian R. Scheer, Heather Littleton, Natira Mullet

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Trust In The Jury System: A Comparison Of Australian And U.S. Samples, Monica K. Miller, Jeffrey Pfeifer, Brian H. Bornstein, Tatyana Kaplan

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Public trust in the criminal justice system, including the jury system, is important for maintaining a democracy that is fair for all citizens. However, there is little research on trust in the jury system generally and even less cross-country comparison research specifically. Trust in the jury system might relate to other legal attitude measures (e.g., authoritarianism). This study identified the degree to which trust in the jury system relates to legal attitudes and compared perceptions of trust between the U.S. and Australia. Community members completed a survey that included measures of trust in the jury system and legal attitudes. The …

Individual Differences In Social Responsiveness, Social Experiences, And Oxytocin System Genetic Variation In Depression Symptom Severity, Grace Sullivan

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Social experiences including discrimination, low social support, and interpersonal conflict are reliable predictors of depression symptom severity (Costello, 1982; Monroe, Rohde, Seeley, & Lewinsohn, 1999; Phifer & Murrell, 1986). However, individual differences may buffer against or exacerbate risk (Pluess & Belsky, 2015). A more holistic and dimensional approach, in line with modern perspectives on mental health (Kircanski, LeMoult, Ordaz, & Gotlib, 2017), requires an investigation of individual differences that moderate associations of positive and negative social experiences with depression symptom severity. This dissertation assesses relative contributions of social experiences (low social support, discrimination, childhood trauma, and sexual objectification) to variation …

Risk Factors For Bullying Victimization In Children With Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (Nf1), Peter L. Stavinoha, Cody Solesbee, Susan M. Swearer Napolitano, Steven Svoboda, Laura J. Kless, Alice Ann Holland

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal disorder associated with numerous physical stigmata. Children with NF1 are at known risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), academic struggles, and significant social difficulties and adverse social outcomes, including bullying victimization. The primary aim of this study was to identify risk factors associated with bullying victimization in children with NF1 to better inform clinicians regarding targets for prevention and clinical intervention. Children and a parent completed questionnaires assessing the bully victim status, and parents completed a measure of ADHD symptoms. Analyses were completed separately for parent-reported victimization of the child and the child’s self-report …

(Non)Religious Coping With A Natural Disaster In A Rural U.S. Community, Dena Abbott, Andrew Franks, Corey Cook, Caitlin Mercier

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Religious/spiritual (R/S) coping following natural disasters is associated with positive outcomes, leading to perceptions that the absence of R/S coping leads to negative outcomes among nonreligious individuals. However, little research explicitly explores the coping strategies of nonreligious individuals in response to natural disasters and traumatic events. The present study collected data from a sample of survivors of a natural disaster event (i.e., a tornado) to test the relationship between (non)religiosity/(non)spirituality, coping, psychological distress, and posttraumatic growth. Statistical models suggested that problem-focused coping facilitated posttraumatic growth and lower levels of psychological distress among people with lower levels of institutional religiousness and/or …

Using The Very Short Form Of The Children’S Behavior Questionnaire For Spanish-Speaking Populations In Low- And Middle-Income Countries: A Psychometric Analysis Of Dichotomized Variables, Elsa Lucia Escalante-Barrios, Sonia Suarez Enciso, Samuel P. Putnam, Helen Raikes, Sergi Fàbregues

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

While the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Very Short Form of the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ-VSF) have been assessed in the US and Europe in samples composed of middle- and high-income parents with high levels of education, no studies have tested the instrument in low-income Spanish-speaking populations living in low- and middle- income countries. To fill this gap, our cross-sectional study assessed the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the CBQ-VSF version in a sample of 315 low-income and low-educated parents with preschool children living in the Caribbean Region of Colombia. While our findings revealed problems …

Teacher Questioning Practices In Early Childhood Science Activities, Erin Hamel, Yuenjung Joo, Soo-Young Hong, Anna Burton

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

This study explores teachers’ use of questioning during collaborative science exploratory activities. We classified a total of 755 questions across 14 preschool science lessons implemented by four teachers by type (open- or closed-ended) and content (science- or non-science-related) while also recording the intended recipient. Results revealed that, overall, teachers primarily asked closed-ended questions to children during preschool science activities. While closed-ended questions outnumbered open-ended, science-related questions were more likely to be open-ended questions. We noticed this trend whether the teacher directed the question to a group of children or an individual child. Gender of the child recipient was also explored …

Food Program Participation Influences Nutrition Practices In Early Care And Education Settings, Bethany D. Williams, Susan B. Sisson, Irene Padasas, Dipti Dev

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Objective: To determine differences by Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) participation on nutrition requirements and best practices and barriers to implementing both in early care and education programs (ECEs) stratified by context (centers vs home-based ECEs).

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Three-thousand and fourteen licensed Nebraska ECEs in 2017.

Participants: One-thousand three hundred forty-five ECEs.

Main Outcome Measures: Director-reported nutrition practices in classrooms serving children aged 2-5 years (8 requirements for foods served, 5 best practices for foods served, and 14 best practices for mealtime behaviors).

Analysis: Chi-square analysis adjusted for multiple comparisons.

Results: Of the sample, 86.8% participated …

Improving Breastfeeding Environments And Feeding Practices In Family Child Care Homes With The Go Nap Sacc Program, Kara Kohel, Holly Hatton-Bowers, Natalie A. Williams, Dipti Dev, Donnia Behrends, Emily Hulse, Zainab Rida, Holly Dingman, Danae Dinkel, Liz Gebhart

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Purpose: Breastfeeding and responsive feeding are important practices that support the health of infants and women. In the United States, breastfeeding continuation rates remain lower than recommended, and working women face additional challenges with breastfeeding continuation. Providers in a family child care setting are uniquely positioned to support and provide important resources to families in their breastfeeding and infant feeding practices.

Methods: The Go NAP SACC program was designed to improve the nutrition and physical activity environments and practices in child care settings serving infants and young children. This evaluation focuses on Breastfeeding and Infant Feeding in Nebraska Family Child …

Competency-Based Training In The Supervision Of Relational Telemental Supervision, Paul Springer, Richard Bischoff, Nathan C. Taylor, Vanessa Neuhaus, Cassandra Leow

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Supervision has long been considered essential to developing effective mental health practice, especially among COAMFTE accredited training programs. But with telemental health rapidly being accepted as a standard treatment medium for couple and family therapy, there is little guidance about how to supervise clinicians who are engaged in telemental health practice. This paper presents an important step toward increasing the effectiveness of the supervision of therapists who are delivering relational therapies online through the identification of relational competencies unique to this delivery medium. These competencies have been adopted and integrated into a COAMFTE accredited master's degree program that has been …

Psychological Distress Prevalence And Associated Stressors And Supports Among Urban-Displaced Congolese Adults In Kenya, Julie A. Tippens, Holly Hatton-Bowers, Ryan Honomichl, Lorey Wheeler, Helen M. Miamidian, Kirstie L. Bash, Michelle C Howell Smith, Dulo Nyaoro, J. Joshua Byrd, Samuel E. Packard, Nicolette I. Teufel-Shone

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Background: There is limited understanding of the prevalence of psychological distress and associated stressors and supports among displaced adults in low- and middle-income first asylum countries.

Method: This article reports the findings of a cross-sectional study. We recruited 245 Congolese adults (18–80 years) residing in Nairobi, Kenya using snowball sampling. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic characteristics, the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20), and a locally developed stressors and supports survey. We used multivariable logistic regression to examine associations among sociodemographic, stressor, and support variables and the likelihood of experiencing psychological distress.

Results: More than half of the …

Supporting Children’S Healthy Development During Mealtime In Early Childhood Settings, Adrien D. Malek‑Lasater, Kyong‑Ah Kwon, Diane M. Horm, Susan B. Sisson, Dipti Dev, Sherri L. Castle

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency of and relationship between responsive feeding practices used during early childhood education (ECE) mealtimes and high-quality teaching practices and teacher characteristics. We found variation in teachers’ use of responsive feeding practices. Teachers were more often observed using role modeling than supporting eating self-regulation. Programs that implemented family style meal service had a generally higher use of responsive feeding practices. Overall, we found positive associations between high-quality teaching practices and responsive feeding practices. Teachers’ Head Start status was associated with teaching practices and role modeling during mealtime. Teachers’ education and salary …

Strengthening The Quality Of Preschool, Childcare, And Parenting, Soo-Young Hong, Holly Hatton-Bowers, Lisa Knoche

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Early childhood is a critical period during which children learn to regulate and manage emotions and actions, develop and maintain social relationships, and interact effectively with others (Scott-Little, Kagan, & Frelow, 2006). Children who know how to use appropriate behavioral and emotional strategies and effectively interact with others are more likely to develop positive relationships and be accepted by peers later on (Odom, McConnell, & Brown, 2008). Emotional well-being and competence is one of the key areas of development that goes through significant changes over the early childhood period (Hyson, Copple, & Jones, 2006; Keane & Calkins, 2004), and thus, …

Mealtime Emotional Climate And Child Health: A Systematic Review, Jasmin Smith, Jaclyn A. Saltzman, Dipti Dev

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Background: Positive mealtime emotional climate (MEC) has been linked to better nutrition, psychosocial, literacy and academic outcomes, and fewer behavior problems. However, MEC has been defined in a variety of ways across studies, limiting the ability to synthesize findings and plan future research.

Objective: To identify which child characteristics are associated with MEC and to determine how previous studies have measured MEC.

Methods: We searched three databases (1980–2020) for peer-reviewed articles measuring MEC. Inclusion criteria required at least one child-level outcome related to physical, nutritional, or developmental health; children aged 0–18 years old; and quantitative data using cohort, case-control, intervention, …

Coping With Covid‑19: An Examination Of The Role Of (Non) Religiousness/(Non)Spirituality, Dena Abbott, Andrew S. Franks

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Psychological distress and coping strategies employed during collective trauma events may vary for theists and atheists, as well as others along the (non)religious spectrum. The present study explored these differences via data collected from a US-based sample during the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistical models suggested relationships between maladaptive coping and distress for all participants and potential differences in coping and, in turn, distress between participants high and low in institutional religiousness and individual spirituality. Additionally, all participants, though especially nonreligious participants, appeared less able to engage in adaptive emotion-focused coping strategies. Implications for future research are provided.

Psychotherapy With Nonreligious Clients: A Relational-Cultural Approach, Dena M. Abbott

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

In extant literature related to the integration of religion/spirituality (R/S) in psychotherapy, nonreligious clients are often excluded or briefly mentioned. Further, few theoretical frameworks supporting recommendations for intervention with or for conceptualization of nonreligious clients’ unique experiences and presenting concerns are offered. The present article summarizes psychotherapy-relevant scholarship related to nonreligious people in the United States and offers recommendations for intervention using a Relational-Cultural Therapy approach. In addition to increasing awareness of systemic oppression, resilience, and potential clinical needs of nonreligious clients, the article proposes concrete strategies for addressing structural inequity that disadvantages nonreligious people through conceptualization of such experiences …

Excluder: An R Package That Checks For Exclusion Criteria In Online Data, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Collecting survey data online can result in low-quality data. Survey participants may not complete the survey, may complete the survey too quickly or slowly, may not reside in the country they claim, or may use unacceptable screen types. Also, online surveys are plagued by automated bots attempting to complete the surveys while offering worthless data. Researchers collecting online data may want to check their data for these and other potential criteria to exclude problematic data entries. The excluder package uses three main function types to mark, check, and exclude data based on seven different exclusion criteria.

Improving Measurements Of Similarity Judgments With Machine-Learning Algorithms, Jeffrey R. Stevens, Alexis Polzkill Saltzman, Tanner Rasmussen, Leen-Kiat Soh

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Intertemporal choices involve assessing options with different reward amounts available at different time delays. The similarity approach to intertemporal choice focuses on judging how similar amounts and delays are. Yet we do not fully understand the cognitive process of how these judgments are made. Here, we use machine-learning algorithms to predict similarity judgments to (1) investigate which algorithms best predict these judgments, (2) assess which predictors are most useful in predicting participants’ judgments, and (3) determine the minimum number of judgments required to accurately predict future judgments. We applied eight algorithms to similarity judgments for reward amount and time delay …

Exercise Shifts Hypothetical Food Choices Toward Greater Amounts And More Immediate Consumption, Karsten Koehler, Safiya E. Beckford, Elise Thayer, Alexandra R. Martin, Julie B. Boron, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Although exercise modulates appetite regulation and food intake, it remains poorly understood how exercise impacts decision-making about food. The purpose of the present study was to assess the impact of an acute exercise bout on hypothetical choices related to the amount and timing of food intake. Forty-one healthy participants (22.0 ± 2.6 years; 23.7 ± 2.5 kg/m 2 , 56% female) completed 45 min of aerobic exercise and a resting control condition in randomized order. Food amount preferences and intertemporal food preferences (preference for immediate vs. delayed consumption) were assessed using electronic questionnaires with visual food cues. Compared to rest, …

Censored Data Considerations And Analytical Approaches For Salivary Bioscience Data, Hedyeh Ahmadi, Douglas A. Granger, Katrina R. Hamilton, Clancy Blair, Jenna L. Riis

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Left censoring in salivary bioscience data occurs when salivary analyte determinations fall below the lower limit of an assay’s measurement range. Conventional statistical approaches for addressing censored values (i.e., recoding as missing, substituting or extrapolating values) may introduce systematic bias. While specialized censored data statistical approaches (i.e., Maximum Likelihood Estimation, Regression on Ordered Statistics, Kaplan-Meier, and general Tobit regression) are available, these methods are rarely implemented in biobehavioral studies that examine salivary biomeasures, and their application to salivary data analysis may be hindered by their sensitivity to skewed data distributions, outliers, and sample size. This study compares descriptive statistics, correlation …

Probabilistic Mapping Of Human Functional Brain Networks Identifies Regions Of High Group Consensus, Ally Dworetsky, Benjamin A. Seitzman, Babatunde Adeyemo, Maital Neta, Rebecca S. Coalson, Steven E. Petersen, Caterina Gratton

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Many recent developments surrounding the functional network organization of the human brain have focused on data that have been averaged across groups of individuals. While such group-level approaches have shed considerable light on the brain’s large-scale distributed systems, they conceal individual differences in network organization, which recent work has demonstrated to be common and widespread. This individual variability produces noise in group analyses, which may average together regions that are part of different functional systems across participants, limiting interpretability. However, cost and feasibility constraints may limit the possibility for individual-level mapping within studies. Here our goal was to leverage information …

Spring Break Or Heart Break? Extending Valence Bias To Emotional Words, Nicholas R. Harp, Catherine C. Brown, Maital Neta

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Ambiguous stimuli are useful for assessing emotional bias. For example, surprised faces could convey a positive or negative meaning, and the degree to which an individual interprets these expressions as positive or negative represents their “valence bias.” Currently, the most well- wellvalidated ambiguous stimuli for assessing valence bias include nonverbal signals (faces and scenes), overlooking an inherent ambiguity in verbal signals. This study identified 32 words with dual-valence ambiguity (i.e., relatively high intersubject variability in valence ratings and relatively slow response times) and length-matched clearly valenced words (16 positive, 16 negative). Preregistered analyses demonstrated that the words-based valence bias correlated …

A Comprehensive Study To Delineate The Role Of An Extracellular Vesicle-Associated Microrna-29a In Chronic Methamphetamine Use Disorder, Subhash Chand, Austin Gowen, Mason Savine, Dalia Moore, Alexander Clark, Wendy Huynh, Niming Wu, Katherine Odegaard, Lucas Weyrich, Rick A. Bevins, Howard S. Fox, Gurudutt Pendyala, Sowmya V. Yelamanchili

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), which express a repertoire of cargo molecules (cf. proteins, microRNA, lipids, etc.), have been garnering a prominent role in the modulation of several cellular processes. Here, using both non-human primate and rodent model systems, we provide evidence that brain-derived EV (BDE) miRNA, miR- 29a-3p (mir-29a), is significantly increased during chronic methamphetamine (MA) exposure. Further, miR-29a levels show significant increase both with drug-seeking and reinstatement in a rat MA self-administration model. We also show that EVassociated miR-29a is enriched in EV pool comprising of small EVs and exomeres and further plays a critical role in MA-induced inflammation and …

Factors Associated With Smoking In Low-Income Persons With And Without Chronic Illness, Monique T. Cano, David L. Pennington, Sara Reyes, Blanca S. Pineda, Jazmin Llamas, Vyjeyanthi S. Periyakoil, Ricardo F. Muñoz

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION Tobacco disparities persist among low-income smokers who seek care from safety-net clinics. Many of these patients suffer from chronic illnesses (CILs) that are associated with and exacerbated by smoking. The objective of the current study was to examine the differences between safety-net patients with and without CILs in terms of nicotine dependence and related factors (such as depression, anxiety) and self-efficacy regarding ability to abstain from smoking. METHODS Sixty-four low-income smokers who thought about or intended to quit smoking were recruited from the San Francisco Health Network (SFHN) and assessed for CILs, nicotine dependence, depression, anxiety, and smoking abstinence …

Reappraisal—But Not Suppression—Tendencies Determine Negativity Bias After Laboratory And Real‑World Stress Exposure, Candace M. Raio, Nicholas R. Harp, Catherine C. Brown, Maital Neta

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Higher reactivity to stress exposure is associated with an increased tendency to appraise ambiguous stimuli as negative. However, it remains unknown whether tendencies to use emotion regulation strategies—such as cognitive reappraisal, which involves altering the meaning or relevance of affective stimuli—can shape individual differences regarding how stress affects perceptions of ambiguity. Here, we examined whether increased reappraisal use is one factor that can determine whether stress exposure induces increased negativity bias. In Study 1, healthy participants (n = 43) rated the valence of emotionally ambiguous (surprised) faces before and after an acute stress or control manipulation and reported reappraisal …