Child Psychology Commons^™

Testing Reliability Of Biophilic Design Matrix Within Urban Residential Playrooms, Ellen Marte

Theses and Dissertations

Biophilic interior design in urban playrooms has been greatly understudied. We measured inter-rater reliability of the Biophilic Interior Design Matrix (BID-M) and matrix items by quantitatively coding images of 45 New York City residential playrooms. Findings suggest that the BID-M needs to be modified to better assess urban playrooms.

Estimating Predictors Of Mental Well-Being Through Analysis Of Children’S Drawings: The Case Of Syrian Refugees, Stephanie Smith

Master's Theses

There are currently over 65 million individuals that have been forcibly displaced globally. The cumulative trauma that comes from the refugee experience and exposure to violence has proven to have long-term negative psychological outcomes and thus negative impacts on human capital in the long run. Given that over 50% percent of the global refugee population are children, the ability to efficiently and accurately assess their mental well-being is of critical importance. Using data from over 2000 refugee children in Jordan, I use machine learning techniques to find key predictors of psychological distress, PTSD, and exposure to violence found in children’s …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Marginalized Populations In The United States: A Research Agenda, Neeta Kantamneni

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

International and national crises often highlight inequalities in the labor market that disproportionately affect individuals from marginalized backgrounds. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting changes in society due to social distancing measures, has showcased inequities in access to decent work and experiences of discrimination resulting in many of the vulnerable populations in the United States experiencing a much harsher impact on economic and work-related factors. The purpose of this essay is to describe how the COVID-19 pandemic may differentially affect workers of color, individuals from low-income backgrounds, and women in complex ways. First, this essay will discuss disproportionate representation of …

The Academic Success And Beyond-Academic Wellbeing Of High Functioning Autistic Boys: A Policy-Professional Care-School-Parent Ecological Perspective, Evelyn Sauceda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High Functioning Autistic (HFA) boys have significant social, emotional, and cognitive difficulties and unique cognitive abilities that require special support from stakeholders in their ecology (policy makers, care providers, schools, and parents). The quality of such support and its ecological integration are of poor quality. The purpose of this study was to report on the perceptions of parents of HFA boys about their children’s academic and beyond-academic experiences as understood within a policy-care provider-school-parent ecological framework. This study contributes to the limited ecological literature on the topic. This exploratory, qualitative, phenomenological, non-experimental, and cross-sectional research study used a non-probability, purposive, …

Navigating "Technoference" In The Family System, Kathlynn Sergent

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

This integrative literature review explores the increase of technology use in families, with a focus on how technology is disrupting in-person social interactions within the family system. Many studies have been conducted on how technology impacts a couple’s romantic relationship, and only a few have examined the relationship between the parent and child. This review is one of the first to examine how technology may affect the entire family unit from before children to raising adolescents. Each section of the family unit is examined, beginning with before children, followed by the early bonding and attachment associated with infant/childhood, and then …

Youtube Is Unsafe For Children: Youtube's Safeguards And The Current Legal Framework Are Inadequate To Protect Children From Disturbing Content, Heather Wilson

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

For America’s children, the amount of screen time they consume has not changed much over the years. Children under eight have steadily spent about two hours a day in front of a screen, with those under age two averaging 42 minutes a day. Children from low-income families spend roughly an hour and forty minutes longer in front of a screen. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, screen time should be limited to two hours a day for children ages two to five; whereas, for those youngest children—under two years—they recommend zero screen time.

While the average amount of screen …

Examining Relationships Between Early Childcare Teachers' Adult Attachment Orientations And Quality Of Interaction In The Infant Classroom, Alexandra Morris Benoit

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past several decades, women have entered the workforce in increasing numbers. This has led to the majority of infants and young children being cared for outside of the home by extra-familial caregivers. Research has shown the benefits that quality childcare can have on the developmental trajectories of children, as well as the detrimental effects that can be seen when children experience low quality care. Further, children are particularly vulnerable in the first year of life when they are establishing attachment bonds with their primary caregivers. With the long hours that many spend in the care of childcare workers, …

Maternal Stress And Child Internalizing Symptoms: Parent-Child Co-Regulation As A Proposed Mediator, Tatum Harvey

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The effects of maternal stress on child behavior, especially externalizing problems such as aggression, defiance, and lack of self-control, are well-established within psychological literature. Few studies, however, have examined the effects of maternal stress on child internalizing problems, such as loneliness, withdrawal, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Moreover, there is much research within developmental psychology to support the notion that parent-child co-regulation, sometimes called dyadic synchrony, can predict child behavioral outcomes. Currently, researchers lack an understanding of how this process can interact with maternal stress to predict child internalizing symptoms. The following thesis details a multi-method assessment which is …

A Needs Assessment For The Utilization Of Child Life Specialist Bereavement Support Services In An Emergency Veterinary Hospital Setting, Jared R. Negin-Fryers

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Studies indicate that there is an affective attachment bond, and related emotional involvement that exists between the companion animal and their human owners. Patient companion-animal death within the veterinary hospital, is a daily occurrence, with death rates per patient being significantly higher than in human health care. This comparatively higher death rate is due to the commonplace utilization of professionally sanctioned euthanasia to relieve animal pain and suffering. Companion animal death, may elicit grief reactions that are identical to what is experienced upon the death of a family member. A void currently exists in family centered veterinary care in terms …

Peer Acceptance In The Lunchroom And Children’S Internalizing Symptoms, Jake Steggerda

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is evidence to suggest that the context of the school lunchrooms provides children with rich opportunities for enhancing or hampering the quality of their relationships (Craig, Gregus, Elledge, Pastrana, & Cavell, 2016; Steggerda et al., in preparation). Although past research has linked children’s peer acceptance to their level of internalizing symptoms, few studies have examined peer acceptance within the lunchroom context. This study extends that work by examining associations between lunchroom peer acceptance (assessed via self- and peer-reports) and children’s internalizing symptoms. Participants were 676 fourth-grade students (50.7% female; 42.7% Hispanic/Latino, 30.3% White, 10% Pacific Islander, and 17% other) …

Approach And Avoidance Coping Humor Motives And Their Relation To Trauma Exposure And Physical Health, Andrea D. Dorbu

Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated approach-avoidance motives for humor use and their association with physical health symptoms linked to childhood trauma exposure and adult relationship trauma exposure among military-affiliated people and civilians (N=100). Results indicated that approach-avoidance motives for humor use were not associated with study variables. However, adult relationship trauma exposure had a significant positive association with physical health symptoms among both groups. In addition, childhood trauma exposure was significantly positively associated with adult relationship trauma exposure.

143— Mothers' And Children's Perceptions And Observed Aggression And Rough-And-Tumble Play In 7-Year-Olds' Sibling Relationships, Niki Lam, Elijah Lorah, Isabella Echeverria, Kiara Maher, Adriana Murtha

GREAT Day Posters

The purpose of this study was to compare mothers’ and children’s perceptions of sibling relationships with observed aggression and rough-and-tumble play (RTP). 64 White, middle-class 7-year-olds were videotaped performing three separate tasks with their siblings. Coded videotapes of the three tasks and questionnaires were used to collect data about perceived and observed aggression and RTP. Results suggest that the accuracy of mothers’ and children’s perceptions vary.

039— Gender, Partner, And Task In 7-Year-Olds’ Assertive And Affiliative Language With Siblings And Friends, Molly O'Brien, Mikaela Freeman, Shreya Mishra, Emily Salvemini, Aria Elling, Ganie B. Dehart

GREAT Day Posters

As part of a longitudinal study following sibling and friend interactions from early childhood through adolescence, we focused on the use of assertive and affiliative language by 7-year-olds during play with siblings and friends. Children were taped during free-play, board game, and construction tasks with a sibling and a same-age friend. Contrary to results of past research, task and interaction partner mattered more than gender in girls’ and boys’ use of assertive and affiliative language.

Parental Nurturance In Childhood And Adolescence Correlated To Anxiety In College Students, Julianne R. Urban

Senior Honors Theses

Parental nurturance is important for individuals in childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. In general, high levels of parental nurturance helps individuals to be well-adjusted. However, anxiety disorders are prevalent among emerging adults, so the present study investigated a potential correlation between parental nurturance and college student anxiety. Participants consisted of undergraduate students who were at least 18 years old and enrolled in at least one psychology course. They were asked to complete the Parental Nurturance Scale and Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale. The results indicated a significant negative correlation between the two variables. Specifically, increases in parental nurturance were …

The Effect Of Parental Interaction On Emotional Learning With Interactive Devices In Children Ages Three To Five, Kathleen Rosneck

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

As the popularity of child-friendly tablet-based apps and games has grown, the need to evaluate the effects of tablet play has also developed. The current study used an app designed for children ages two to five years called “Daniel Tiger’s Grr-ific Feelings” to examine whether prosocial interactive media can be beneficial for emotional development. The present study was modeled after a study by Rasmussen et al. (2018), wherein children ages three and four years spent two weeks with an experimenter- adapted version of the same app. This experimenter adaptation consisted of limiting children’s access to a subset of the available …

The Changing Perspective On Adolescence, Luke I. Leppanen

Conspectus Borealis

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Study Of Naming, Kassidi Krzykwa

Honors Theses

Bidirectional naming is the ability to acquire a listener response or tact for a stimulus and then emit the other operant without further training. Incidental naming refers to the ability to emit the listener response and tact for the item without direct reinforcement after just being exposed to the name of the item. The development of naming could allow a child to learn more readily from the natural environment. However, it is unclear if bidirectional naming and incidental naming are two separate skills, or if one is potentially a prerequisite for the other. For this project, procedures outlined by Greer …

Stimulus Fading On Teaching Receptive Identification, Dennis Pomorski

Honors Theses

Many of the skills needed to live happily and independently are not in the repertoires of children diagnosed with autism, and they do not learn these skills through exposure to others (MacDuff, 2001). One of the skills children diagnosed with ASD struggle to develop is receptive identification. There is often a risk of prompt dependence or failure to transfer stimulus control to the desired stimuli when using LTM prompting methods. Children with autism spectrum disorder may require a different approach in developing a receptive language repertoire. The purpose of this study was to teach a child diagnosed with ASD receptive …

Fathers’ Perceived Co-Parenting And Children’S Academic Readiness Among Chinese Preschoolers: Longitudinal Pathways Through Parenting And Behavioral Regulation, Lixin Ren, Rebecca Y.M. Cheung, Courtney Boise, Xuan Li, Jieqiong Fan

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

Co-parenting quality has frequently been linked to young children’s social–emotional functioning, but limited research has focused on the relationship between co-parenting and children’s early academic skills, or the underlying mechanisms through which co-parenting influences children’s development. Using data collected from urban China, the present study examined how fathers’ perceptions of co-parenting quality was related to their preschool-aged children’s academic readiness (i.e., receptive vocabulary, reading, early math; N = 336), and whether father’s parenting practices and children’s behavioral regulation mediated the link between co-parenting quality and child outcomes. Findings suggested that the relation between co-parenting quality and children’s academic readiness was …

Teaching Echoics To A Student With Autism: Video Model Vs Live Model, Dana Waddell

Honors Theses

Learning a language is not always an easy task for all children. Typically, language is a skill that comes naturally very young in a child’s life, but for children with autism, the path to learning language is very different. The first stages of learning language involve many skills, one of which are called “echoic skills,” because the child directly echoes a sound a person elicits. This is fundamental to learning language, especially in children with autism. The field of behavior analysis has conducted great amounts of research on this topic and has found that using technology in therapy sessions can …

Establishing Auditory Discrimination And Echoic Stimulus Control With An Auditory Matching Procedure, Matthew Von Holst

Honors Theses

An echoic is a verbal operant which is controlled by a verbal discriminative stimulus and is characterized by the repetition of the verbal behavior of another speaker with point-to-point correspondence between the sound of the stimulus and the response (Skinner, 1957). These echoic responses are very important for children with developmental disorders because their language development is very unpredictable and may not appear at all, potentially causing difficulties in school and problems with social development (Reed, 2005). Teaching language acquisition skills can help offset these problems because it reinforces future echoic responses and helps develop advanced verbal operants such as …

Using A Progressive Time Delay To Increase Mands In A Child With Autism, Brielle Babcock

Honors Theses

Mands are a building block for all communication and are therefore important to teach to individuals who do not consistently use mands. Skinner defined a mand as a “verbal operant in which the response is reinforced by a characteristic consequence and is under the control of relevant conditions of deprivation or aversive stimulation” (Hall & Sundberg 1987). By providing individuals with a way to express their desires and needs, individuals display less problem behaviors. A functional form of communication is imperative to typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorders alike. The goal of the current study was to …

Increasing The Echoic Repertoire Of A Child With Autism Using An Imitation And Echoic Sequence, Rose Bridges

Honors Theses

A prerequisite to many things in life is the ability to communicate. Although this may mean many different things, such as verbal language, sign language, written language, and even icons, there must be some form of communication that may be utilized to get needs across. Many young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are non-verbal, however there are also many children with ASD who have the ability to say words but are still not independently speaking. Reinforcing approximations to word sounds has been previously used as an effective way of increasing the child’s verbal repertoire (Shane, 2017). The present study …

Matching-To-Sample Using A Tablet, Karina Salazar-Ponce

Honors Theses

Kids with autism tend to have a difficult time with one-to-one correspondence matching. Matching-to-sample is the process of pairing an identical stimulus to its corresponding stimulus, for example, matching a physical object to its corresponding picture. This is an important skill because it is the first step in teaching individuals with developmental delays visual discrimination skills and generalization of matching. The use of technology is beneficial because it helps with attending in instructional learning. Technology is also becoming more advanced and is being used more in classrooms. The purpose of this study was to teach matching-to-sample using a tablet. There …

Neighborhoods And Mental Health: Understanding The Social, Environmental And Structural Factors To Better Support Our Youth And Communities, Meghan Murtagh

Community Engagement Student Work

The social, structural and environmental characteristics of neighborhoods can have a significant impact on the social, emotional, behavioral and cognitive development of children and adolescents. The Center for Disease Control reports every 1 out of 5 children (22%) living below 100% of the federal poverty level have a mental, behavioral and/or developmental disorder (CDC, 2019). Through the utilization of ecological frameworks and a “place” based framework called The Social Determinates of Health, research was conducted to examine the link between neighborhoods and health outcomes in children and adolescents. These findings were then shared through a workshop with the target audience …

Applying The Homework, Organization, And Planning Skills (Hops) Intervention To Elementary Students With Adhd, Ayanna Maia Peake

Dissertations

Students need appropriate executive functioning (EF) skills to improve their academic achievement. The Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) Interventions were implemented for 16 sessions with three elementary students with ADHD and executive functioning (EF) deficits. The study aimed to improve the homework, organization, and time management skills of each participant. The interventions were expected to decrease both EF deficits and teacher reports of homework behavior difficulties. This study used a multiple baseline across participants single subject research design with interventions implemented concurrently. A behavior rating scale provided pre and post-intervention data on the participants’ EF deficits. Classroom teachers also …

The Developmental Effects On The Daughter Of An Absent Father Throughout Her Lifespan, Carlee Castetter

Honors Senior Capstone Projects

Fatherless households are becoming increasingly common throughout the United States. As a result, more and more children are growing up without the support of both parents, and this may be causing developmental consequences. While there has been significant research conducted on the effect of absent fathers on children in general, there has been far less research regarding girls specifically. As discovered in this paper, girls are often impacted differently than boys when it comes to growing up without a father. The current research paper aims to discover just exactly how girls are impacted by this lack of a parent throughout …

Time To Play: The Relationship Between Time Spent Playing And Educational Outcomes In Peru, Jasmine Davidson

Economics Honors Projects

Every day, children around the world are playing. There has been plenty of research on the importance of different kinds of play, but very little on the importance of the quantity of play. Understanding the relationship between educational outcomes and the amount of time spent playing would allow parents to better structure their children’s time and would settle the debate between psychologists and economists on whether play has inherent value for a child’s future outcomes. I focus on Peru because conducting this research in a developing country context broadens the current research mostly focused on high-income countries. Using child-level, longitudinal …

Examining Biobehavioral Indicators Of Adhd In Children With Fxs, Hannah Pressler

Senior Theses

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity behaviors that are inconsistent with developmental age. Children with fragile X syndrome (FXS), a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder, are often diagnosed with comorbid ADHD (53-59% of males with FXS). Despite the prevalence of ADHD in FXS, little is known about the early manifestation of ADHD. The current project aims to explore group differences in play behaviors between children with FXS and typically developing (TD) children as well as the correlation of infant play behavior and heart activity to future ADHD attention outcomes. Participants included male children with FXS and …

Development And Evaluation Of The Nebraska Assessment Of Computing Knowledge, Markeya S. Peteranetz, Anthony D. Albano

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

One way to increase the quality of computing education research is to increase the quality of the measurement tools that are available to researchers, especially measures of students’ knowledge and skills. This paper represents a step toward increasing the number of available thoroughly-evaluated tests that can be used in computing education research by evaluating the psychometric properties of a multiple-choice test designed to differentiate undergraduate students in terms of their mastery of foundational computing concepts. Classical test theory and item response theory analyses are reported and indicate that the test is a reliable, psychometrically-sound instrument suitable for research with undergraduate …