Psychology Commons^™

The Moderating Effect Of Resilience Factors On Bully Victimization And Subsequent Psychological Adjustment Problems Among Adolescent Girls, Alexandra Hayley Quinn

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Bully victimization is linked to poor psychological adjustment, low self-esteem, and social withdrawal in children and teens. However, little research to date has examined the unique experiences of adolescent girls, the specific contributions of various subtypes of bullying, and the utilization of comprehensive instruments to examine the constructs of psychological adjustment and bully victimization. Further, researchers studying these issues have called for more studies to examine buffering factors that may protect teen girls from the psychological insults associated with peer victimization. This study advances research in the field by utilizing standardized self-report measures to examine the relationship between bully victimization …

Functional Interplay Between Neurocognitive Decline And Risk Factors In Older Adults: A Multivariate Latent Growth Curve Model Of Risk, Rebecca Kathryn Macaulay

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a heterogeneous brain disease with multiple interacting risk factors, suggesting equifinality. Research indicates that the pathophysiological processes involved in AD are evident years prior to disease onset with significant variability in neurocognitive functioning being apparent during preclinical stages. Identification of individuals in preclinical stages is vital, as earlier interventions may prove more effective at ameliorating AD’s devastating effects. In this respect, clarifying relationships between risk factors and neurocognitive functioning in cognitively intact older adults can improve our understanding of mechanisms involved in preclinical AD, which may allow for earlier detection and intervention. The present study employed …

The Psychological Benefits Of Animal Assisted Therapy On Elderly Nursing Home Patients, Sophia M. Elliott

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This literature review of the benefits of Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) is centered on four scholarly articles published in major psychological journals discussing the reduction of loneliness, anxiety, depression, and cognitive impairments as well as the increase in well-being and happiness in the elderly nursing- home population. Many time these residents are abandoned by family and experience little- to- no interaction with others due to understaffing at these homes. My goal through this literature review was to bring attention to an alternative form of therapy for these patients. Often patients grow sick from depression and lose their sense of self-worth …

Migratory Loss And Depression Among Adult Immigrants Of Chinese Descent, Christine Chih-Ting Chang

Dissertations

The immigration process does not only include the life after relocating to a new environment and settling down in the host society but also includes separation from the life before their departure and the negotiation between redeeming and closing their losses. This study was the first attempt to investigate migratory loss among adult immigrants of Chinese descent. The study developed the Migratory Loss Scale and examined the moderation effect of acculturation as well as the moderation effect of the presence of immigration-related meaning on the relationship between migratory loss and depression. The study also examined the mediation effect of the …

Depression And Psychotherapy For Adults In Long-Term Care Facilities, Jasper Joseph Watts

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to investigate depression and psychotherapy for adults who are in long-term care facilities. Depression is a serious problem for the elderly in general and for residents of nursing homes in particular. The current study drew on the dynamic stress vulnerability approach to explain how illness occurs in older people, using evidence obtained from the biological, social, and psychological domains with respect to depression. The research question addressed the difference in posttreatment depressive symptoms among 6 types of psychotherapy as measured by the Hamilton rating scale for depression (HRSD)? The 6 therapy techniques were (a) …

The Effects Of Acceptance And Commitment Therapy On Parents Of Children Diagnosed With Autism, Dawn Montgomery

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The number of children who display characteristics of autism in the United States has been on the rise. Not only do children diagnosed with autism experience difficulties related to the defining characteristics of autism, but parents of children diagnosed with autism commonly experience negative consequences as well. Parents of a child diagnosed with autism more often report symptoms of depression, stress, and reduced quality of life than their do counterparts with neuro-typical children. These traits have the potential to negatively impact the parents' capacity to assist their child in receiving needed treatment and can limit the ability of the parents …

The Emotional Impact On Elderly Spouses Who Placed Their Loved Ones In Long-Term, Barbara Hunt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Aging may bring mental and/or physical decline. There may come a point when a loved

one needs long-term care in a nursing home. The purpose of this phenomenological study

was to examine the community dwelling spouses' emotional state. A study was

conducted with 10 individuals (5 men and 5 women) who had a spouse in long-term

nursing care. Inclusion criteria was to be at least 65-years old, have been married at least

30 years, and reside alone in his or her own home. The social emotional selectivity theory

and the construct of boundary ambiguity were applied to view the epoch. …

Reasons For Living And Self-Reported Suicidal Behavior Among A Sample Of U.S. Army Personnel, Deborah Elaine Willis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Suicidal Behavior in the U.S. Army is a problem that persists despite significant efforts to promote help-seeking behaviors and the investment of millions of dollars to develop resilience-building interventions. Evidence-based literature supports the use of reasons for living as a protective factor against suicidal behavior in clinical and nonclinical samples, yet it has rarely been studied in an active duty (AD) Army population. This study examined the relationship between self-reported reasons for living and self-reported suicidal behavior, to determine if high levels of reasons for living correlated with low risk of suicidal behavior, over and above demographics, depression, stressful life …

Improving Depression Care For Older Home Health Patients, Sarah R. Schirmer

DNP Projects

Rates of depression in older home healthcare (HH) patients are highly prevalent. Although depression in this population is associated with increased rates of re-hospitalization, falls, and suicides, it is frequently under diagnosed and under treated. This Capstone Report examined this problem through three interrelated manuscripts. The first manuscript explored the problem through a review of the literature. This review determined that while there are many barriers to adequate depression care, programs that train clinicians to screen for depression and connect patients to depression care encourage adequate evaluation and treatment and can result in clinically significant changes in depression scores. This …

The Longitudinal Effects Of Participation In Structured Extracurricular Activities On Educational Achievement, Future Earnings, And Symptoms Of Depression With School Belongingness As A Mediating Variable In A Low-Income Sample, Christina L. Stacy

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential outcomes of participating in structured extracurricular activities (SEA) as an adolescent. Research has previously demonstrated that beneficial outcomes commonly associated with SEA participation include academic achievement and educational/career ambitions, positive social outcomes, and psychological well-being. It is thought that the benefits of SEA participation may be mediated by adolescents’ feelings of school belongingness and positive relationships. By extension, school belongingness is a key contributor to engagement, academic achievement, positive social relationships, and mental well-being. Although the research is typically positive, one must be careful in overgeneralizing that increasing student participation …

Effectiveness Of Psychotherapy For Youth In Poverty: A Benchmarking Study Of A Public Behavioral Health Agency Using A Client Feedback System, Jonathan Kodet

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a public behavioral health (PBH) agency that had implemented continuous outcome feedback as a quality improvement strategy.

Method: I investigated the pre-post treatment outcomes of 4,389 ethnically diverse youths (6 to 17 years old) at or under the poverty line participating in treatment (from January 2008 to March 2014) for a broad range of primary diagnoses including depression and anxiety disorders (23%); adjustment disorders (27%); Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (13%), various V-codes (18%); bipolar disorders (3%); and substance use disorders (2%). I also investigated the treatment outcomes …

Behavioral Health Among Asian American And Pacific Islanders: The Impact Of Acculturation And Receipt Of Behavioral Health Services On Depression And Anxiety, Mari E. Yamamoto

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Behavioral health models improve access to mental health care by integrating psychology and medicine. While integrated care is supported among the general population, less research focuses on the model with Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). AAPIs are low treatment-seeking due to various barriers (e.g., limited English proficiency, stigma, insurance) and acculturation stressors. Using hierarchical linear modeling, this study examined longitudinal depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7) growth trajectories among AAPIs within a behavioral health model and the moderating impact of acculturation and frequency of behavioral health visits. The best fitting model was from a sample who (N = 354; …

Risk Factors Associated With Depression And Anxiety In Older Adults Of Mexican Origin, Raquel Estrada Gonzalez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Older adults of Mexican origin are often underserved, especially those residing in nursing homes. Their number has increased in the past 4 years. There is a gap in the research literature on Hispanic elders, specifically those of Mexican origin, residing in nursing homes along the Texas-Mexico border. Because Texas has one of the fastest growing populations of Mexican elders, it is important to better understand this population. This nonexperimental study evaluated the relationship among risk factors' such as gender, marital status, family support, activities of daily living (ADLs) and participation in nursing home activities. These relationships were evaluated with a …

Teacher Perceptions Of Elementary Children's Internalizing Symptoms When Experiencing Parental Wartime Military Deployment, Letitia Henson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Military wartime deployment of parents has a powerful and potentially damaging impact on their young children. As tours lengthen and deployments of military parents become more frequent, the possible negative effects on the children increase proportionally. This quantitative, comparative study evaluated internalizing symptoms among 220 young children who had a parent currently on military deployment and a parent who returned from military deployment compared to a control group of same age peers whose parents were nonmilitary. Using the theoretical frameworks of attachment theory and ambiguous loss theory, the study investigated 3 internalizing symptoms: Anxiety/Depressed, Withdrawn/Depressed behaviors, and Somatic Complaints among …

Five Facets Of Mindfulness And Psychological Health: Evaluating A Psychological Model Of The Mechanisms Of Mindfulness, David B. Brown, Adrian J. Bravo, Corey R. Roos, Matthew R. Pearson

Psychology Faculty Publications

There has been an increasing focus on determining the psychological mechanisms underlying the broad effects of mindfulness on psychological health. Mindfulness has been posited to be related to the construct of reperceiving or decentering, defined as a shift in perspective associated with decreased attachment to one's thoughts and emotions. Decentering is proposed to be a meta-mechanism that mobilizes four psychological mechanisms (cognitive flexibility, values clarification, self-regulation, and exposure), which in turn are associated with positive health outcomes. Despite preliminary support for this model, extant studies testing this model have not examined distinct facets of mindfulness. The present study used a …

Mindfulness And Emotional Outcomes: Identifying Subgroups Of College Students Using Latent Profile Analysis, Matthew R. Pearson, Adrienne K. Lawless, David B. Brown, Adrian J. Bravo

Psychology Faculty Publications

In non-meditating samples, distinct facets of mindfulness are found to be negatively correlated, preventing the meaningful creation of a total mindfulness score. The present study used person-centered analyses to distinguish subgroups of college students based on their mindfulness scores, which allows the examination of individuals who are high (or low) on all facets of mindfulness. Using the Lo-Mendell-Rubin Adjusted LRT test, we settled on a 4-class solution that included a high mindfulness group (high on all 5 facets, N = 245), low mindfulness group (moderately low on all 5 facets, N = 563), judgmentally observing group (high on observing, but …

Modeling Risk For Child Abuse And Harsh Parenting In Families With Depressed And Substance-Abusing Parents, Michelle L. Kelley, Hannah R. Lawrence, Robert J. Milletich, Brittany F. Hollis, James M. Henson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Children with substance abusing parents are at considerable risk for child maltreatment. The current study applied an actor–partner interdependence model to examine how father only (n=52) and dual couple (n=33) substance use disorder, as well as their depressive symptomology influenced parents’ own (actor effects) and the partner's (partner effects) overreactivity in disciplinary interactions with their children, as well as their risk for child maltreatment. Parents completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977), the overreactivity subscale from the Parenting Scale (Arnold, O’Leary, Wolff, & Acker, 1993), and the Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory (Ondersma, Chaffin, Mullins, & …

Burnout Does Not Help Predict Depression In French Schoolteachers, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

Objectives: Burnout has been viewed as a phase in the development of depression. However, supportive research is scarce. We examined whether burnout predicted depression among French school teachers.

Methods: We conducted a 2-wave, 21-month study involving 627 teachers (73% female) working in French primary and secondary schools. Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory and depression with the 9-item depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The PHQ-9 grades depressive symptom severity and provides a provisional diagnosis of major depression. Depression was treated both as a continuous and categorical variable using linear and logistic regression analyses. We controlled …

Investigating The Role Of Cognitive Biases As A Risk Factor For Depression, Daniel Aaron Dickson

Dissertations

Consistent with the combined cognitive bias hypothesis (Hirsch, Clark, & Mathews, 2006), cognitive biases in attention, memory, and interpretation have been posited as an underlying vulnerability to the maintenance and recurrence of depressive episodes. While research supports the presence of these biases during current depressive episodes, there is limited evidence that these biases persist following the remission of depression symptoms. However, there is some initial data that suggest that these biases persist in remitted depressed individuals, indicating that these biases may serve as a vulnerability factor for subsequent depressive episodes. In addition, there is little research that has evaluated these …

Using Structural Equation Modeling To Understand The Role Of The Family In Pediatric Asthma Contexts, Nour Al Ghriwati

Theses and Dissertations

Family factors have long been associated with the psychosocial adjustment of children with chronic illnesses, such as asthma (Minuchin, 1975; Rapee, 1997). Research indicates that negative family factors may also contribute to child disease severity, via bio-behavioral mechanisms of effect (Wood et al., 2006); however, these pathways have yet to be examined with a comprehensive focus on more positive family factors. This study sought to examine whether factors such as family cohesion, problem solving abilities, and communication influence asthma symptom severity in children via their effects on child depression and anxiety symptoms. Using structural equation modeling, we identified significant indirect …

A Longitudinal Study Evaluating The Effects Of Interferon-Alpha Therapy On Cognitive And Psychiatric Function In Adults With Chronic Hepatitis C, Marilyn Huckans, Bret Fuller, Viva Wheaton, Sarah Jaehnert, Carilyn Ellis, Michael Kolessar, Daniel Kriz, Jeanne Renee Anderson, Kristin Berggren, Hannah Olavarria, Anna W. Sasaki, Michael Chang, Kenneth D. Flora, Jennifer M. Loftis

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Objective: To prospectively evaluate for changes in objective cognitive performance (attention, memory, and executive function) and psychiatric symptom severity (depression, anxiety, fatigue, and pain) in patients before, during and after interferon-alpha based therapy (IFN) for chronic hepatitis C virus infection (HCV).

Methods: 33 HCV+ adults were evaluated two months before IFN initiation (baseline), three months into IFN, and six months following IFN termination (IFN+ Group). 31 HCV+ adults who did not undergo IFN therapy were evaluated at baseline and six months later (IFN− Group). At each evaluation, participants completed the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) Attention, Memory and Executive Functions Modules, …

Cognition In Emotional Disorders: An Abundance Of Habit And A Dearth Of Control, Paula T. Hertel

Psychology Faculty Research

Emotional and other psychological disorders are categories of experience identified at least in part by the goal of having treatment plans for people in distress. Because the categories exist for such purposes, research efforts are organized to discover distinctions among the categories and between disordered and nondisordered individuals. Many of these distinctions are cognitive. When clinical scientists began experimental studies, the term “cognitive” had been used to refer primarily to conscious thoughts that characterize disorders (see Beck, 1976), but in more recent decades the term signifies an experimental approach framed according to the theories and paradigms of cognitive psychology. In …

Integrating Beck’S Cognitive Model And The Response Style Theory In An Adolescent Sample., Stephanie Winkeljohn Black, Patrick Pössel

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Depression becomes more prevalent as individuals progress from childhood to adulthood. Thus, empirically supported and popular cognitive vulnerability theories to explain depression in adulthood have begun to be tested in younger age groups, particularly adolescence, a time of significant cognitive development. Beck’s cognitive theory and the response style theory are well known, empirically supported theories of depression. The current, two-wave longitudinal study (N = 462; mean age = 16.01 years; SD = 0.69; 63.9 % female) tested various proposed integrative models of Beck’s cognitive theory and the response style theory, as well as the original theories themselves, to determine if …

Emotion Regulation And Residual Depression Predict Psychosocial Functioning In Bipolar Disorder: Preliminary Study, Rodrigo Becerra, Kate Cruise, Craig Harms, Alfred Allan, Darryl Bassett, Sean Hood, Greg Murray

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study explores the predictive value of various clinical, neuropsychological, functional, and emotion regulation processes for recovery in Bipolar Disorder. Clinical and demographic information was collected for 27 euthymic or residually depressed BD participants. Seventy one percent of the sample reported some degree of impairment in psychosocial functioning. Both residual depression and problems with emotion regulation were identified as significant predictors of poor psychosocial functioning. In addition, to residual depression, the results of the current study introduce a variable of emotion dysregulation to account for poor psychosocial functioning among BD populations. Improving emotion regulation strategies, in particular, concentration and task …

Learning To Swim: The Act Approach To Living With Depression, Ashley Martinez

Honors Projects

This illustrated self-help manual was designed as a basis for treatment for individuals of a wide range of ages experiencing depression. The therapeutic base of the manual is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which outlines the pathology of depression as problems in functioning rather than problems in the individual. The ACT theory of depression views problems in functioning as centered around the way negative emotions are perceived and processed through language and problematic actions or inaction as a result of cognitive distortions. Because of problems with language, the manual is illustrated to help the reader understand the foundations of ACT …

An Evaluation Of Mental Health And Methadone: Anxiety, Depression, And Drug Use, Gursimran Khahera

Master's Projects and Capstones

As a part of the Masters of Science in Behavioral Health field placement, an evaluation was conducted of the integrated treatment plan in mental health and substance abuse at Bay Area Addiction Research and Treatment (BAART) programs. The goal of the BAART programs are to provide comprehensive mental health and substance abuse outpatient recovery services, as well as on-site primary health care services for substance users, mainly opioid use. There is a link between increased substance abuse and increased rates of depression and anxiety. These disorders use the same neuro chemical pathway and are highly codependent upon one another. Because …

Modeling Hedonic Processing And Anhedonia In Depression, Kevin Mercado

Honors College Theses

Depression is characterized by low positive emotion and a lack of pleasurable experiences, or anhedonia. Past studies have emphasized controlling negative affect, but there is an emerging trend in the depression literature to focus on positive emotion. The current study employed several psychophysiological tools, postauricular reflex, startle blink reflex, and event-related potential (ERP) components such as P3 and the late positive potential (LPP), to assess the dissociable components in positive emotion (consummatory and anticipatory processes). In addition, several different hypotheses of emotional dysfunction were evaluated to accurately model deficits in positive emotionality. A majority of the psychophysiological tools used supported …

Specific Trauma Subtypes Improve The Predictive Validity Of The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire In Iraqi Refugees, Bengt B. Arnetz, Carissa L. Broadbridge, Hikmet Jamil, Mark A. Lumley, Nnamdi Pole, Evone Barkho, Monty Fakhouri, Yousif Rofa Talia, Judith E. Arnetz

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Trauma exposure contributes to poor mental health among refugees, and exposure often is measured using a cumulative index of items from the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ). Few studies, however, have asked whether trauma subtypes derived from the HTQ could be superior to this cumulative index in predicting mental health outcomes. A community sample of recently arrived Iraqi refugees (N = 298) completed the HTQ and measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptoms. Principal components analysis of HTQ items revealed a 5-component subtype model of trauma that accounted for more item variance than a 1-component solution. These trauma subtypes …

Collaborative Treatment Of Late-Life Depression In Primary Care (Germanimpact): Study Protocol Of A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial, Iris Wernher, Frederike Bjerregaard, Iris Tinsel, Christiane Bleich, Sigrid Boczor, Thomas Kloppe, Martin Scherer, Martin Härter, Wilhelm Niebling, Hans-Helmut König, Michael Hüll

Institute on Aging Publications

Background: Depression is not a normal side effect of aging, however it is one of the most prevalent mental health issues in later life, imposing a tremendous burden on patients, their families, and the healthcare system. We describe the experimental implementation of a collaborative, stepped-care model for the treatment of late-life depression (GermanIMPACT trial) in the German primary care context. GermanIMPACT was developed as an adaptation of a successful and widely used American model. The aim of the study is to evaluate the model’s applicability to the German primary care setting and its cost-effectiveness.

Methods/Design: The study will be conducted …

The Impact Of Physical Activity On Depressed Mood In Older Seventh-Day Adventists, Benjamin J. Silber

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Research has shown physical activity (PA) to result in a reduction in depressed mood. The effects have been examined for different age groups, however, it is unclear whether PA effects differ in older adults. A prospective cohort study (N = 6,463) examined duration and intensity of PA in relation to mood in the Biopsychosocial Religion and Health Study (BRHS). Depressed mood indices were expected to be predicted by lower levels of PA and individuals in younger age groups were expected to receive a greater reduction in depressed mood after PA than those in older age groups. Previous PA (minutes of …