Child Psychology Commons^™

A Case Study On Sibling Rivalry And The Use Of A Social Skills Training Model, Michelle Maiorano

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to use social skills training on an individual child to enhance the relationship with her siblings. The social skills sessions focused on factors such warmth, rivalry, conflict and status/power between the two siblings. These were measured by the Sibling Rivalry Questionnaire which the mother filled out before the sessions began and after they were completed. The results did not find a major difference between the pre and post tests. Warmth increased slightly, rivalry decreased slightly, there was no difference in the amount of conflict, and there was a slight decrease in relative status/power from …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of School-Wide Positive Behavior Supports In The Elementary School Setting, Ashely Bryce Mcginnis

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

School-Wide Positive Behavior Supports (SWPBS) is a heavily promoted area that focuses on promoting pro-social behavior and preventing misbehavior. Many schools are moving towards SWPBS as the universal level of support for behavior. With Response to Intervention (RtI) being at the forefront of educational reform, this type of universal support is strongly recommended for academic needs, as well as behavioral needs. Data were collected from 25 schools in the West Region of Kentucky that collaborate with the Kentucky Center of Instructional Discipline (KYCID). A series of t-tests were completed in order to examine the relationship between Office Discipline Referrals (ODRs), …

Consultation In The School Psychology Literature: Has The Field Moved Beyond The Three Traditional Models?, Michelle L. Seibert

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Consultation is a crucial role for school psychology practitioners. Psychologists routinely use consultation within the schools and actually wish they could spend more of their work hours on this activity. However, when authors write about consultation in the school psychology literature, they use numerous terms and phrases, which cause confusion as to what models of consultation are prominent in the field. The focus of the current study is to examine the articles that mention consultation in School Psychology Review (Digest) in order to determine whether the three traditional models (behavioral, mental health, and organizational consultation) are still prominent in consultation …

Diagnostic Decision-Making: How Much Do Behavior Rating Scales Influence School Psychologists?, Lesley Ann Higgins

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Behavior rating scales are commonly used as part of the evaluation process throughout the field of psychology. Behavior rating scales help assess social, emotional, and/or behavioral problems in children, adolescents, and teens. Behavior rating scales indicate the severity of problem behaviors compared to a normative sample. Four scenarios were developed that varied scores on a behavior rating scale and the amount of other information that supported a specific diagnosis. A rating of the likelihood of a diagnosis was requested to see how much influence behavior rating scale scores have on diagnostic decision-making. Each of the four scenarios was sent to …

Second Language Learning Anxiety Among Malay Learners Of English., Razlina Muhammad Sabri

Student Works (2010-2019)

This is a study of second language speaking anxiety among Malay ESL learners at an institution of higher learning. The objectives of this study are to determine whether learners experience test anxiety during public speaking, to discover if there is a difference in the anxiety level of high and low proficiency learners, to ascertain whether there are any differences between the high and low anxiety learners in their speaking test assessment, and to identify the factors leading to speaking language anxiety. This study has taken both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The data is mainly obtained from questionnaires and interviews with …

Stress Levels And Development: A Phenomenology Of Autistic Children And Their Parents, Tiffany R. Wiggs

Senior Honors Theses

Being a parent means taking on both the joys and struggles that come with it. When a parent discovers that his or her child has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the level of stress changes. It could be helpful to discover the severity of change that the stresses involved in parenting a child with ASD brings to the parent/child relationship and what effect this has on a child’s physical, cognitive, emotional, and spiritual development. To attempt to answer these questions, six parents were interviewed. Findings suggested that structure in daily living improves the quality of the child/parent relationship …

The Development Of Curriculum-Based Measurement Local Norms In The Area Of Written Expression, Elizabeth Anne Youngman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This project used Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) in the area of Written Expression to establish district norms for Bowling Green City Schools. CBM uses brief fluency measures as indicators of students' academic performance. With the use of CBM, it is possible to identify students who are considered to be at-risk for educational performance. AIMSweb probes were used to assess 1,565 first through fifth grade students from five elementary schools within the Bowling Green Independent School District. Performance was scored using the three most common scoring indices: Total Words Written (TWW), Words Spelled Correctly (WSC), and Correct Word Sequence (CWS). Data collected …

Head Start: It Works For Indiana Children And Families!, Jennifer Dobbs-Oates, James Elicker, Volker Thomas

Center for Families Publications

This technical report summarizes new and existing data to address the question, “Does Head Start work for Indiana children, families, and communities?” Data sources consulted in this study include the state Head Start Program Information Report, local Indiana Head Start and Early Head Start Programs, existing national studies of Head Start and Early Head Start, and local and national data available on children’s development in early care and education programs for low-income families. This report concludes that Indiana’s Early Head Start and Head Start programs are indeed providing substantial benefits to children, families, and communities. The report summarizes the outcomes …

Emotion Knowledge And Language Skills: Contributions To Social, Behavioral And Academic Outcomes In Kindergarteners, Sarah Hornback

Psychology Honors Papers

This study examined emotion knowledge and language skills in kindergarteners, and how these skills jointly affect children’s overall social, behavioral and academic functioning. Participants included 60 kindergarteners from a language and literacy-enhanced early childhood school, who were individually interviewed using the Kusche Affective Interview-Revised. Additionally, all participants’ expressive and receptive language skills were tested using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Expressive One-Word Vocabulary Test (EVT). Participants’ language and emotion knowledge scores were then compared to social, behavioral and academic performance as noted in the school’s teacher-rated report card. Preliminary analyses indicated positive correlations between language skills and …

Cross-Informant Agreement Among Parents And Children, Staci S. Mullins

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Rating scales are often used by school psychologists to assess for emotional and behavioral disorders in students. While one advantage of rating scales is that data can be collected and assessed from multiple informants, research has shown that agreement between multiple informants is usually low to moderate, with the lowest being between parents and youth. The Conners Comprehensive Behavior Rating Scale (CBRS) is a new multi- dimensional rating scale claiming to have moderate parent/youth agreement. The purpose of this study was to analyze the cross-informant agreement between youth and parents using the Conners CBRS and then compare the correlations from …

Parenting Self-Efficacy And Parenting Practices Over Time In Mexican American Families, Larry E. Dumka, Nancy A. Gonzales, Lorey A. Wheeler, Roger E. Millsap

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

Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study used a longitudinal cross-lagged panel design and a structural equation modeling approach to evaluate parenting self-efficacy's reciprocal and causal associations with parents' positive control practices over time to predict adolescents' conduct problems. Data were obtained from teachers, mothers, and adolescents in 189 Mexican American families living in the southwest U.S. After accounting for contemporaneous reciprocal relationships between parenting self-efficacy (PSE) and positive control, results indicated that parenting self-efficacy predicted future positive control practices rather than the reverse. PSE also showed direct effects on decreased adolescent conduct problems. PSE functioned in an antecedent causal …

Evidence-Based Programs That Address Social Emotional Learning In An Early Childhood Setting, Jihan Ali

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this project is to compare and contrast evidence-based curriculums that address social-emotional learning for children 3 to 5 years old in a rural early childhood setting. Factors that will be considered include the effectiveness of the program with diverse populations, implementation in rural areas, includes a parenting component, cost of training as well as other appropriate factors. By providing effective early childhood education to children and parents, Fernbrook will be able to give the parents skills to more effectively parent at the home and children skills to develop healthy social emotional skills.

Research Question: What evidence-based social …

Teacher Training For The Implementation Of The Incredible Years At Gfw Elementary School, Karen J. Appel

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this research project was to determine whether training the Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) teachers, paraprofessionals, and staff would increase the social and emotional literacy of the children as well as the staff in the ECSE classroom . The four areas of training & research consisted of: 1. Increasing staff’s positive attention, encouragement and praise while working as a team in the ECSE classroom; 2. Using incentives for the purpose of promoting positive attention in the classroom; 3. Using more proactive teaching techniques for the purpose of preventing behavior problems in the classroom, and 4. Increasing staff’s …

A Comparison Of Methods For Teaching Auditory-Visual Conditional Discriminations To Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Laura Lee Grow

Dissertations

Early and intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) is an approach to treating the behavioral deficits and excesses observed in children with autism spectrum disorders. The magnitude of improvement in the overall functioning of children receiving EIBI has stimulated additional research and widespread clinical dissemination through the publication of EIBI curricular manuals. Many EIBI manuals recommend teaching conditional discriminations using the simple/conditional method. Initially, component simple discriminations are taught in isolation and in the presence of a distracter stimulus. Finally, conditional discriminations, which include stimuli previously taught as simple discriminations, are presented to the learner. Although the simple/conditional method is often recommended …

The Relation Among Sleep, Routines, And Behavior In Children With An Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jill Angelique Henderson

Dissertations

Children with an ASD have a propensity for routines and reportedly have a greater incidence of sleep disturbance and externalizing behaviors than typical children. In addition, significant relations have been identified among routines, sleep behavior, and externalizing behavior in a community sample of children, suggesting that a lack of routines maybe related to sleep disturbance and externalizing behaviors. However, to date, no known studies have thoroughly examined the relation between these variables in children with an ASD. The primary purpose of the present investigation was to examine relations among routines, sleep, and behavior in children with an ASD. Primary caregivers …

The Effects Of Differential Negative Reinforcement Of Task Engagement On Escape From Academic Tasks, Brett Vivian Mehrtens Prince

Dissertations

The effects of differential negative reinforcement of alternative behavior (DNRA) were examined on the escape behavior of four 1st and 2nd grade general education students. The alternative behavior that was negatively reinforced was task engagement during reading or math periods. The DNRA treatment was evaluated for its effects on task engagement in either a DNRA with access to a preferred activity condition or a DNRA without access to a preferred activity condition. In the preferred activity condition, the participants were allowed to engage in a high preferred activity when they had been engaged with an academic task for a certain …

Effects Of Spritual Well-Being, Religious Coping, And Hardiness On Parenting Behaviors In Low Socioeconomic Status Families, Jane Elizabeth Schenck Varner

Dissertations

Children from low socioeconomic status families are at risk for poor academic, emotional, and behavioral outcomes (Owens & Shaw, 2003). Multiple variables have been associated with resiliency in such families (Walsh, 2003). Spiritual and religious constructs have demonstrated positive effects on quality of life (Perrone, Webb, Wright, Jackson, & Ksiazak, 2006), emotional well-being (Davis, Kerr, & Kurpius, 2003; Calicchia & Graham, 2006), and positive health outcomes (Edmondson et al., 2005) in various populations. Previous research has not examined the relationship between spiritual and religious variables and resiliency, nor has previous research considered how the religious, spiritual, and resiliency variables affect …

The Influence Of The Family Context And Intervention Implementation Integrity On Child Behavior During Conjoint Behavioral Consultation, Michelle Swanger-Gagne

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

The purpose of the study was to determine the role of family context variables (i.e., parenting stress and positive parenting practices) as possible moderators and mediators of the relationship between conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) and change in child problem behavior in the home setting. Another aim of the study was to evaluate the mediator roles of two dimensions of intervention implementation integrity (i.e., adherence to interventions and full engagement in the plan implementation phase) on parenting stress and change in child problem behavior for families involved in CBC. Participants were 203 parents, 81 teachers (81 classrooms), and 203 children who …

Investigating The Emotional Intelligence Of Adolescents With And Without Disabilities, Leota Tucker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study involved an investigation of the emotional intelligence profiles of three groups of adolescents: those with learning disabilities, those with an emotional disturbances, and adolescents without disabilities. A 2 (gender) X 3 (group) X 4 (subscale) mixed design with repeated measures on subscale was used to determine whether differences in emotional intelligence, as measured by the BarOn EQi: YV, existed among these three groups of adolescents. Specifically, performance within the four subscales of intrapersonal, interpersonal, stress management and adaptability as well as in the overall composite scores were compared to detect differences between gender, and disability groups.

A total …

Parental Abduction From The Perspective Of The Victims: Implications For Counselors, Mary Jo L. Gibbs

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This is a descriptive study that examined parental abductions from the perspective of the abductee. The results will help counseling professionals better to understand the psychological consequences of parental abduction, coping mechanisms that were used by the abducted children and counseling techniques and strategies that helped the children through this difficult time and after being returned to the left-behind parent.

A 32 multiple choice and short answer questionnaire was developed for this study. The survey consists of 12 closed answer (Yes or No) questions, three open ended questions, and seventeen demographic questions. The questionnaire was given through a phone interview …

Teacher And Student Perceptions Of Self-Determination, Jennifer L. Black

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

For almost two decades, research efforts specific to self-determination have resulted in the development of curricula, assessments, instructional strategies, interventions, model programs, and proposed quality indicators (Field et al., 1998). Despite the combined efforts and perceptions of researchers, teachers, parents, employers, and college disability service providers related to these important aspects of self-determination research, limited attention has been devoted to understanding the perceptions of self-determination from secondary students with and without disabilities and their general and special education teachers.

The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher and student perceptions related to self-determination. Teacher perceptions were measured with the …

African American Parental Beliefs About Resiliency: A Delphi Study, Vita L. Jones

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Resiliency is a concept that has been discussed in the fields of anthropology, psychology, sociology, and education for over 30 years. Most authors define resiliency as the ability to triumph over adversity. The term associated with children/youth who rise above negative situations is resilient. A subgroup of students who are disproportionately affected by negative perceptions from society and who often find themselves in negative situations are African American children/youth. It appears that these students encounter less social fit in school, have a higher propensity for at-risk behavior, and experience less favorable academic and social outcomes.

This study involved a Delphi …

Is It The Blues? Depression & Suicide Prevention In Our Schools, Naveen Jonathan

Marriage and Family Therapy Faculty Presentations

Discusses the prevalence of depression and suicide among children and teenagers, the factors behind it, signs and symptoms, and what educators can do to help prevent it and help suffering students.

It's All Happening At The Zoo: Children's Environmental Learning After School, Jason A. Douglas, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

Pairing dynamic out-of-school-time (OST) programs with zoos can encourage young people's relationships with and sense of responsibility for animals and the environment. The project presented in this article, Animal Rescuers, gave the authors the opportunity to examine how such a pairing can work. OST programs enable learning in settings that are generally unavailable during school time (Honig & McDonald, 2005). They provide space for collaboration among students, teachers, and others such as program visitors or outside educators. Taking advantage of the flexibility, location, and educational playfulness of an OST setting, the authors worked intensively with a small number of 10-12-year-old …

Imaginary Stories In School: First Steps Toward Literacy, Gillian Dowley Mcnamee

Occasional Paper Series

This essay holds that to forgo opportunities for children's pretend play and conversation around storytelling in school is to distort the very nature of language development and literacy.

Applications For Parent-Child Relationship Concerns, Christy A. F. Jenkins

Graduate Research Papers

The parent-child relationship is the foundation for formative life experiences and is a common diagnosable concern in the professional counseling and human service field. This work briefly addresses the DSM-IV-TR diagnosis V 61.20 Parent Child Relational Problem, providing prevalence rates, and related risks as well as two specific intervention strategics. Intervention strategies include the use of temperament traits and the communication of love between individuals. A handout follows the text of this work which may be used with clients.

Cortisol Reactivity Across The Day At Child Care: Examining The Contributions Of Child Temperament And Attachment To Mother And Lead Teacher, Lisa S. Badanes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous work has shown that full-day center-based child care is associated with increased physiologic stress for many young children (e.g., Tout, de Haan, Campbell, & Gunnar, 1998; Watamura, Sebanc, & Gunnar, 2002). Specifically, increasing cortisol from morning to afternoon at full-day child care in contrast to decreasing cortisol across the day for these same children at home has been repeatedly demonstrated for toddlers and preschoolers. Factors that have been related to rising cortisol across the day at child care include the child's age (rising cortisol at child care between 2 and 5 years, but not for infants or older children, …

Social Phobia, Sarah S. Cosley

Graduate Research Papers

Social phobia is a common diagnosis for people of all ages. In the United States alone millions of people suffer from Social Phobia. People who suffer from social phobia can have problems in many areas of their life including: work, school, relationships, and daily functioning. Symptoms associated with social phobia can range from general fears to specific fears. A discussion of the definition of social phobia, symptoms, treatment, and application will be explored in the following paper.

Reactive Attachment Disorder : Implications For Counselors, Kim Rogers

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this paper is to provide background on reactive attachment disorder. Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is growing in diagnosis and yet it is one of the least researched disorders. This paper will discuss attachment theory, problems with the RAD diagnosis, interventions for mental health professionals, and future research ideas.

Aspergers Syndrome, Miquel K. Anastasi

Graduate Research Papers

Aspergers Syndrome has recently become a "popular" topic in the mental health fields. More and more school aged children are being formally diagnosed with the disorder. Yet, many professionals do not truly understand the nature of Aspergers syndrome beyond being a form of autism. In this paper Aspergers Syndrome is defined and compared with Autism and the causes and possible treatments are discussed, particularly from biological and sociocultural points of view.