Child Psychology Commons^™

Children’S Disclosure Of School Bullying: The Relation Between Peer Victimization, Internalizing Symptoms, Negative Affect, And Gender, Julia L. Kiefer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children who are bullied by their peers are at risk for several negative developmental outcomes and are therefore advised to tell an adult when they are. However, victims of school bullying are often reluctant to disclose to adults that they are being bullied. Some bullied children also experience symptoms of anxiety or depression, which could further reduce their likelihood of telling an adult. In this study, I tested the degree to which children’s internalizing symptoms predicted their likelihood of telling adults about being bullied at school, and if this relation was exacerbated by children’s negative feelings associated with telling an …

Impacts Of Poverty On Language Development How Low Socio-Economic Status Students Are At An Academic Disadvantage, Farbod Samari

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Socioeconomic status impacts a variety of mental health outcomes, including language development. Delays in language development have consistently been linked to poverty. Decreases in vocabulary and phonological awareness are among developmental delays in school-aged children living in poverty. This research aims to contribute to the field of human services by examining the negative impacts of poverty on language development from a social worker’s perspective. As social workers thrive to serve disadvantaged populations, this research brings awareness to how language development deficiencies occur in school-aged children living in poverty.

To fulfill the purpose of this study, a quantitative, descriptive/explanatory design …

Maladaptive Social Cognitions And Peer Victimization In Elementary-Aged Students, Katelyn Szarko

Honors Theses

Among elementary-aged students, peer victimization is common and is associated with psychological maladjustment and poor academic achievement. Students with maladaptive social cognitions, like low social competence and low perceived control, are more likely to be victimized, but having a supportive teacher and/or a positive classroom climate might help to mitigate this association. This study aimed to answer the question of whether teacher support and classroom climate protect against peer victimization for students with maladaptive social cognitions. It was hypothesized that teacher support and classroom climate will separately moderate the link between social competence/perceived control and subsequent peer victimization such that …

Job Stress Moderates The Effects Of A Mindfulness Intervention On Early Childhood Teachers' Emotion Dysregulation, Emily J. Starr

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Addressing the current crisis of early childhood (EC) teacher turnover is essential for supporting the development of young children. Teacher attrition remains a concern for policymakers globally, and in the United States, early childhood teachers frequently cite job stress and lack of support as reasons for leaving the field. For over 40 years, researchers who study childcare have been concerned about the consequences of work-related stressors. Even if these stressors do not result in turnover, EC teachers’ psychological well-being may be impacted, leading to increased emotion regulation difficulties and more frequent negative teacher-child interactions. Young children’s emotional development is significantly …

Volume 18, Issue 1, Table Of Contents

Journal of Youth Development

No abstract provided.

The Lasting Benefits Of Multiyear Camp Programming For Youth From Low-Income Backgrounds, Victoria Povilaitis, Robert Warner, Katie Mcgregor Wheatley

Journal of Youth Development

Summer camps are a common youth development setting in North America; however, youth from lowincome backgrounds often cannot attend because of financial barriers. Subsequently, although a robust camp literature exists, little is known about the lasting benefits for youth from low-income backgrounds. Even less is known about how these outcomes may differ based on the number of years youth attend a multi-year camp. The purpose of this study was to examine the long-term outcomes camp alumni reported as attributable to camp and that remain important in their life today. Eighteen outcomes examined via a cross-sectional retrospective survey completed by 449 …

Editor's Note: A Season Of Change For The Journal Of Youth Development: Implications For Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Assets, And Supports In The Jyd Publication Process, Barry A. Garst

Journal of Youth Development

No abstract provided.

Youth Science Learning As/For Community Participation: Examples From Youth Participatory Action Research, Steven M. Worker, Sally Neas, Dorina Espinoza, Car Mun Kok, Martin Smith

Journal of Youth Development

Youth development programs often provide young people with science learning experiences. We argue for reframing youth science learning from a focus on individual scientific literacy to an emphasis on collective scientific literacy—community science—to support young people in using science to address issues in their lives and communities. We provide examples from youth participatory action research (YPAR), one community science pedagogical approach. The YPAR model supports youth in deciding upon an environmental, economic, or social issue; designing and implementing research; and using their research findings to improve their community. We implemented YPAR with eight cohorts of youth over three years at …

Examining Youth Bicycle Programming Through The Empowerment- Based Youth Development Model, Thomas Clanton, Charles Chancellor, Harrison Pinckney, Venera Balidemaj

Journal of Youth Development

This study evaluates Momentum Bicycle Clubs (MBC) through the empowerment-based positive youth development framework (EMPYD). Data were collected through eight cross-sectional focus groups of MBC youth participants (ages 10-17). Sessions included three topics: the MBC program, the mentors, and the bicycle, all of which elucidated elements of an EMPYD program for analysis. The data were analyzed utilizing an interpretative phenomenological approach. The results of the focus groups revealed how MBC empowers its youth participants. MBC displayed characteristics of the EMPYD model by providing youth with opportunities to develop mastery and moral identity in addition to the 5Cs of positive youth …

Grief And Trauma-Informed Empowerment Summer Community Arts Curriculum: Qualitative Perceptions Of A Pilot Implementation, Chavez Phelps, Samantha Francois, Kyle Hucke

Journal of Youth Development

This article aims to illuminate the perceptions of a pilot grief- and trauma-informed empowerment arts summer program for adolescents who lived in an at-risk Southern, urban neighborhood identified by the city in question as having a high percentage of street violence. The study it is based on was grounded in qualitative techniques, which consisted of focus groups and interviews. All focus groups and interviews were analyzed for themes to determine common experiences among adolescent participants and instructors responsible for implementing the curriculum. Responses from 18 African American adolescents and four instructors were included in the data analysis. Themes from focus …

Journey To Praxis: Supporting Youth Activism, Rachael Lee Ficke Clemons

Journal of Youth Development

Drawing on the work of critical scholars, this study is guided by the idea that systems and structures are malleable, and young people can challenge the conditions and policies which inform their lives. Utilizing qualitative methods, I investigated how nine adult youth workers from three different non-profit organizations supported youth of color as they engaged in social justice activism. I found that participants shared fundamental strengths-based beliefs about youth and their communities; however, their processes of engagement in social justice activism were different at each organization. This paper outlines processes participants engaged to support youth of color on their journeys …

Mechanisms Linking Threat- And Deprivation-Related Childhood Adversity And Depression: The Biopsychosocial Model, Cut N. Kemala, Marijtje L.A. Jongsma, Donny Hendrawan, Eni Becker

Psychological Research on Urban Society

Childhood adversity involves a wide range of negative experiences that pose a serious threat to a child’s wellbeing. It has been consistently shown to predict (chronic) depression in subsequent stages of development, but mechanisms underlying the relationship are still less clear. Moving from a cumulative approach of lumping heterogeneous categories of childhood adversity to a dimensional approach of classifying negative experiences into two major dimensions (threat and deprivation) has facilitated the identification of specific processes by which childhood adversity can predict depression. This review aims to provide an integrative overview of how childhood adversity increases the risk for depression using …

The Effects Of Family Size And Birth Order On Students' Social Emotional And Cognitive Development, Mary Watson

Honors Projects

This project sought to analyze and understand the differences in student’s cognitive and social emotional development based on their number of siblings (also referred to as family size) and birth order. To accomplish this, a 130-question survey was created and emailed to approximately 125 teachers. 27 survey responses were received, which is a response rate of approximately 21.6%. The response data was categorized by only child, oldest child, youngest child, child with one or two siblings, child with three or four siblings, and child with five or more siblings. Though the responses were varied, the data showed that oldest children …

The Effect Of The Degree Of Authoritative Parenting On Adolescents' Adjustment To College, Elizabeth Smith

Senior Theses

This research aimed to explore how parenting style relates to college students’ adjustment in the first month of college. Authoritative parenting is marked by a standard of maintaining some control, while also promoting children’s autonomy. Previous research has found that authoritative parenting is positively associated with adolescent behavior that is more socially responsible, self-reliant, cheerful, and cooperative. Furthermore, the more support and independence that parents encourage, will in turn breed confidence and academic persistence in adolescent years. I will expand on this research by evaluating whether parenting style also relates to adjustment and mental health outcomes among first year college …

Tolkien, Enchantment, And Loss: Steps On The Developmental Journey By John Rosegrant, Timothy K. Lenz

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Moving Beyond Fulfillment: Wisdom Years Stories Of Passion, Perseverance, And Productivity, Kenneth A. Kiewra, Jessica Walsh, Chris Labenz

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Seven participants were interviewed to uncover how they remain so productive in their wisdom years, those typically marked by retirement. Participants included a leading educational psychologist, a renowned national television news anchor, a four-time national champion collegiate coach, the founder and former chief executive of Arbor Day Foundation, a university scholar turned playwright, and two female adventurers who quit their jobs, sold their possessions, and have lived a nomadic life, hiking thousands of miles throughout America. Their wisdom years stories describe how and why they shun retirement and remain productive. The article concludes with seven advice-laden conclusions for readers: (a) …

Effects Of Neighborhood Disadvantage And Peer Deviance On Conduct Problems: Interactions With Age Of Onset, Courtney Marie Goetz

LSU Master's Theses

Youth with conduct problems (CP) generally fall into two developmental classifications, child-onset and adolescent-onset, which exhibit different causal processes and life course trajectories. Research suggests that child-onset CP is more likely to be related to individual predispositions, while adolescent-onset CP is more associated with social factors, such as peer delinquency. Living in impoverished and disorganized neighborhoods increases the risk for associating with deviant peers. Thus, the current study tested the hypothesis that neighborhood factors would be more strongly associated with adolescent-onset CP than child-onset CP, which would be explained by a greater association with deviant peers. Linear and negative binomial …

Concern, Conflict, And Chaos: Nebraska Educator Experiences During The Pandemic, Amanda Witte, Amanda Prokasky, Courtney Boise, Renata T.M. Gomes, Gwen Nugent, Susan Sheridan

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

During the spring of 2020, Nebraska’s 983 public schools sat vacant, and Nebraska’s 329,290 Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 students were learning in environments other than school. Educators were expected to pivot quickly from traditional classroom instruction to remote experiences. Understanding the effects of the pandemic on educators is necessary to effectively meet their needs and the needs of students. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the experiences of Nebraska’s urban and rural PreK–Grade 12 educators during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In surveys collected in July 2020, participants (i.e., superintendents, principals, and teachers) completed …

College Students’ Perceptions Of Alcohol’S Role In Disclosures Of Sexual Assault And Intimate Partner Violence, Emily A. Waterman, Lindsey M. Rodriguez, Sarah E. Ullman, Emily R. Dworkin, Katie Edwards

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Objective: Much is known about how alcohol increases the risk of sexual assault or intimate partner violence victimization during college. This research qualitatively explores perceptions about how alcohol influences disclosures about these events to informal supports.

Participants: Participants included college students who received a disclosure wherein they or the survivor were drinking during the disclosure (n = 81).

Methods: Responses were coded with regard to who was drinking and whether the effect of drinking during the disclosure was perceived as positive, negative, mixed, or neutral/none.

Results: Participants perceived alcohol to have both positive (e.g., increasing the likelihood of discussing …

Appreciating And Promoting Resilience In Families, John W. Eagle, Susan M. Sheridan

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Families comprise the primary context for a child’s development. As the composition of the family system continues to change, the adult caregivers’ role has become increasingly important in fostering healthy developmental trajectories for their children. Family relationships and interaction styles are central to developing competence and promoting adaptive educational, social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. Families give children an informal education (Turnbull et al., 2015), which is a prerequisite to successful experiences in the classroom (Adams & Christenson, 2000). Whereas the school environment sets up developmental tasks for students, the family serves as an important resource for the acquisition of these …

Updated Perspectives On Linking School Bullying And Related Youth Violence Research To Effective Prevention Strategies, Dorothy L. Espelage, Susan M. Swearer

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Bullying, a subset of aggression, has been an international focus of scholarship for several decades and has been declared as public health concern globally (Espelage, 2015; Hymel & Espelage, 2018; Kann et al., 2018). An abstract literature search with the terms “adol*” and “bully*” yielded 382 peer-reviewed journal articles from 2001 through 2010, and an astounding 1585 articles from 2011 through 2020.

Within the last decade, there has been a concerted effort among scholars to reach a consensus on how bullying should be defined, operationalized, and assessed, how it differs from other forms of aggression (e.g., dating violence), and how …

Nebraska Child Care Market Rate Survey Report 2023, Alexandra Daro, Greg W. Welch, Venessa Bryant

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014 was reauthorized with renewed emphasis on the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program, which seeks to provide equal access to quality child care for families. The CCDF program is necessary to ensure children from families with lower income have the opportunity to experience stable, high-quality early experiences while their parents experience a pathway to economic stability. A primary goal of the CCDF program is to ensure that families with lower income receive CCDF funds to help them access quality child care in the same manner as families that …

Profiles Of Well-Being Among Early Childhood Educators, Amy M. Roberts, Alexandra Daro, Kathleen C. Gallagher

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

Research Findings: This study used a person-centered data analytic approach to identify distinct subgroups of early childhood educators (n= 133) based on their responses to multiple indicators of well-being (psychological, financial, and health indicators). Various fit indices established a two-class solution. Specifically, one group was characterized by more positive well-being and the other by less positive well-being. Subgroup differences were the greatest for indicators of psychological well-being, including self-care and self-compassion. In addition, educators with less than a bachelor’s degree, working as assistant teachers, receiving less pay, with more adverse childhood experiences, were overrepresented in the less positive …

Superhero Media As A Potential Context For Investigating Children's Understanding Of Morally Relevant Events, Justin Martin

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Currently, superhero films are one of the more popular film genres, and the genre does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon. In addition, the lives and exploits of superheroes are told through other forms of media such as animated films and television series targeted towards children. However, these narratives are also violent. If older children (i.e., approximately 7-11) engage with superhero media, then it is important to understand the ways they attempt to make sense of this genre. To this end, the essay examines how superhero media may serve as a potential context for older children's understanding of …

Can Gesture Input Support Toddlers’ Fast Mapping?, Lori G. Foran, Brenda L. Beverly, John Shelley-Tremblay, Julie M. Estis

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Forty-eight toddlers participated in a word-learning task to assess gesture input on mapping nonce words to unfamiliar objects. Receptive fast mapping and expressive naming for target object-word pairs were tested in three conditions – with a point, with a shape gesture, and in a no-gesture, word-only condition. No statistically significant effect of gesture for receptive fast-mapping was found but age was a factor. Two year olds outperformed one year olds for both measures. Only one girl in the one-year-old group correctly named any items. There was a significant interaction between gesture and gender for expressive naming. Two-year old girls were …

Parent Anger Relates To Cortisol Elevations For Children Attending Head Start Preschool, Jamie Gensbauer

West Chester University Master’s Theses

A robust research literature suggests that the impact of early adversity on child developmental outcomes is partially mediated or explained by the physiological stress response functioning. Economic hardship, for example, has been linked to dysregulation in levels of the stress hormone cortisol, as has negative parent emotion expression. Whereas a number of studies have examined links between parent depression and anxiety and child stress levels, the present study is the first we know of to examine parent anger in relation to child cortisol. Participants were 370 children attending Head Start preschool, and their parents or primary caregivers. According to federal …

Early Childhood Language And Literacy Development Programs For Autism Spectrum Disorder And D/Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing Students, Mayson Spillman

Lewis Honors College Thesis Collection

This paper examines several popular approaches in the United States for enhancing early childhood literacy and language development in two special education populations— d/Deaf or hard-of-hearing (d/DHH) students and students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In addition to examining the effectiveness of these approaches, I adopt an educational equity lens to describe how variability in implementation can impact outcomes for these children. Based on my critical reading of the literature, I offer three broad recommendations for school psychologists: (1) Carefully consider dosage and fidelity of implementation, (2) Use caution when modifying existing interventions for these populations, and (3) Increase in-service …

“It’S Loving Yourself For You”: Happiness In Trans And Nonbinary Adults, Elliot Tebbe, Haley L. Bell, Kendal Cassidy, Sonia Lindner, Emily Wilson, Stephanie L. Budge

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Expanding upon the larger body of literature that focuses on adverse mental health concerns among trans and nonbinary (TNB) populations, emerging research has recently begun to investigate positive outcomes and psychological well-being among TNB people. This study contributes to this growing area of research by investigating one subjectively experienced aspect of well-being—happiness—among TNB adults residing in the central Great Plains region of the United States. For this study, 20 TNB adults participated in semistructured interviews where they were asked to reflect on how they experienced happiness generally and in relation to being TNB, and what fostered or impeded their happiness. …

Variable- And Person-Centered Approaches To Examining Construct-Relevant Multidimensionality In Writing Self-Efficacy, Morgan Les Debusk-Lane, Sharon Zumbrunn, Christine Lee Bae, Michael D. Broda, Roger Bruning, Ashlee L. Sjogren

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Self-efficacy is an essential component of students’ motivation and success in writing. There have been great advancements in our theoretical understanding of writing self-efficacy over the past 40 years; however, there is a gap in how we empirically model the multidimensionality of writing self-efficacy. The purpose of the present study was to examine the multidimensionality of writing selfefficacy, and present validity evidence for the adapted Self-Efficacy for Writing Scale (SEWS) through a series of measurement model comparisons and person-centered approaches. Using a sample of 1,466 8th–10th graders, results showed that a bifactor exploratory structural equation model best represented the data, …

The Relationship Between Isolation And Social Emotional Experiences In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jana Arslan

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Children with ASD often face socioemotional challenges compared to their typical developing classmates (Chamberlain et al., 2006; Deckers et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2021; Locke et al, 2010; Zeedyk et al., 2015). The objective of the current study was to assess the relationship between classroom isolation and social emotional experiences (i.e., social isolation, loneliness, self-efficacy with peers, and friendship quality) in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) through self-report surveys in order to foster the best possible academic environment for children with ASD to succeed and create outlets for further research to be developed in regards to this subject. …