Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Child Psychology Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Rowan University

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type

Articles 61 - 87 of 87

Full-Text Articles in Child Psychology

The Relationship Between Aggression And Communication In Students With Developmental Disabilities, Emily Peel May 2012

The Relationship Between Aggression And Communication In Students With Developmental Disabilities, Emily Peel

Theses and Dissertations

This purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between aggression and communication in students with developmental disabilities. Previous research examining the relationship between aggression and communication found a significant correlation between physical aggression and expressive vocabulary in language (Dionne, Tremblay, Boivin, Laplante, & Perusse, 2003). The current study investigated a link between high intensity behaviors (aggression) and the degree of impairment within the communication domain. Archival data was obtained from a sample of students living in a residential facility for stabilization of behaviors in Southern New Jersey. Communication was measured by the communication goals and objectives listed in …


The Effects Of Daycare On Children's Socialization In The First Three Years Of School, Alison Pomykacz Oct 2011

The Effects Of Daycare On Children's Socialization In The First Three Years Of School, Alison Pomykacz

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role that daycare may play in a child's socialization during his/her first three years of school (K-2). In particular, this study focused on the time spent in daycare per week compared with various social and academic realms. Information was obtained through parent and teacher questionnaires. While there appeared to be a wide variation among the children's hours per week spent in class, when these numbers were compared to the teacher observations, there was no apparent significance.


Birth Order And Its Effect On Depression In Adults, Sambul Zaidi Oct 2011

Birth Order And Its Effect On Depression In Adults, Sambul Zaidi

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to find the relationship between birth order and depression. It hypothesized that first-borns are more susceptible to depression than laterborns. Subjects were male and female undergraduate students from Rowan University. These students were over the age of 18 and were kept anonymous. The study collected data from fifteen participants by using a Birth Order survey which included questions about personality traits that pertain to a certain birth order position. Each subject was asked to indicate the exact birth order rank and if they have experienced depression or signs of depression. Results showed that differences …


The Loss Of Neighborhood Secondary Schools: How The Distance A Student Lives From Their School Can Affect Their Academic Achievement, Gillian Armstrong Sep 2011

The Loss Of Neighborhood Secondary Schools: How The Distance A Student Lives From Their School Can Affect Their Academic Achievement, Gillian Armstrong

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the distance a student lives from their school influences their academic achievement. In detail, this study has correlated the distance in miles a student lives from his or her school with their grade point average at the end of their freshman and junior years. Data has been collected from 100 participants at two private high schools in southern New Jersey, Our Lady of Mercy Academy and Saint Augustine College Prepatory School. Both schools are grades ninth through twelfth. Both schools are Catholic schools but you do not have to be Catholic …


Increasing Students Self-Esteem Through The Implementation Of The Bucket Filler Lesson Plans, Jenna Norton Sep 2011

Increasing Students Self-Esteem Through The Implementation Of The Bucket Filler Lesson Plans, Jenna Norton

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which positive psychology can impact the educational system. Twenty-three second grade students enrolled in Berlin Community School, located in Berlin New Jersey participated in this study. All students were enrolled in a regular education classroom and assumed to be learning at the appropriate age group level. The Piers-Harris 2 Self-Concept Scale was used to measure student's self-esteem as a pre-test and a post-test assessment. The experimental group received the implementation of the Bucket Filler Lesson plans in hopes that their self-esteem would improve upon completion of the lessons. The …


Minority Disproportionality In New Jersey, Shannon Kemp Aug 2011

Minority Disproportionality In New Jersey, Shannon Kemp

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to examine whether New Jersey districts exhibited minority disproportionality, or the overrepresentation of minority students in special education eligibility categories and placements. A dataset with a random sample of 200 school districts was compiled with special education data from the New Jersey Department of Education. Through analyses of four ethnicities, White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian, it was discovered that Black and Hispanic students were significantly more likely to be placed in special education as compared to their peers. Asian students were significantly less likely to be represented in special education in comparison to their non-Asian counterparts. Black …


An Exploratory Investigation Of Family Structure And Adult Attachment Orientation, Alison Rossi Aug 2011

An Exploratory Investigation Of Family Structure And Adult Attachment Orientation, Alison Rossi

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible role family structure plays on adult attachment orientation. Eighty-six students enrolled in introductory level psychology courses at Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey, participated in this study. Indicated in previous studies as valid to measure experiences in romantic relationships, the personality traits of attachment-related Anxiety and attachment-related Avoidance were analyzed by the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised questionnaire (ECR-R). Independent t-Tests were used to determine if differences exist in young-adult participants of both the intact-families (n=66) or divorced-families (n=20) groups, as particularly measured by the attachment-related Anxiety and attachment-related Avoidance scales of …


Parent Efficacy And Parent Involvement In Parents Of Preschool Children, Jennifer Murkli Aug 2011

Parent Efficacy And Parent Involvement In Parents Of Preschool Children, Jennifer Murkli

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the relationship between parent involvement and parent efficacy in parents of preschool children. Twenty parents from a suburban, a predominantly White private preschool participated in the study. Parent self-reports of involvement and efficacy beliefs as they pertain to their preschooler's learning and development were assessed. On average, parents reported medium parent efficacy and medium parent involvement. Results of the study demonstrated a significant relationship between parent involvement and parent efficacy. The relationship was moderate with a positive direction. Thus, the relationship demonstrated to a modest degree that greater parent efficacy is related to greater parent involvement, …


The Relationship Between Nighttime Reading With Children By Their Caregivers And Reading Achievement, Ashley Williams Jul 2011

The Relationship Between Nighttime Reading With Children By Their Caregivers And Reading Achievement, Ashley Williams

Theses and Dissertations

The hypothesis of this research project was to determine if there was a significant relationship between children who were read to by their caregivers in previous years and children who were not read to by their caregivers in previous years. The relationship between reading achievement and gender was also examined in this research study. Twelve fourth grade students (six male, six female) were asked to complete a questionnaire about their reading practices and take a brief two part reading assessment, consisting of word recognition and reading comprehension. A two way between groups ANOVA revealed that there was not a significant …


The Importance Of Cultural Competence When Evaluating Bilingual Students, Maria-Ines Castro Jul 2011

The Importance Of Cultural Competence When Evaluating Bilingual Students, Maria-Ines Castro

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of language and culture on Hispanic student test taking performance. Specifically, the researcher hypothesized that Hispanic students' test taking performance would be impacted by the language used on the assessment given, and the test administrator's awareness, knowledge, and skills related to cultural competence. Twelve bilingual-Hispanic students from Rowan University-Camden completed a Nelson-Denny Reading Test for the purpose of this research project. The same test was presented to all students in an English version and a Spanish version. A Mixed Design with repeated measures indicated that there was no significant difference …


Abnormal Eating Patterns And The Relationship To Dissociative Experiences, Gionna Botto Jul 2011

Abnormal Eating Patterns And The Relationship To Dissociative Experiences, Gionna Botto

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if a relationship exist between abnormal eating patterns and dissociative experiences, as well as if a relationship exist between bulimia nervosa and food preoccupation symptomatologies. This study used a non-clinical non-diagnosed population of university students (n=100) to determine results. The participants were given two self-report scales, the Eating Attitudes Test and the Scale of Dissociative Activities in order to provide data to the researcher. The data was correlated, using Pearson's Correlation to determine results. The results in this study indicated that there is a statistically significant relationship between dissociative experiences and abnormal …


Vision Accuracy: Comparisons, Mark Roman Jul 2011

Vision Accuracy: Comparisons, Mark Roman

Theses and Dissertations

Solomon Asch conducted a Line Judgment Task in the 1950s that led researchers to believe that conformity can be assessed through experimentation. The purpose of this study was to modify that of Asch's experiment and to assess the answers that college undergraduate students would give. Twelve trials of line comparison tasks were utilized as well as answers from five confederates. It was hypothesized that out of the 47 participants, more of them would answer incorrectly to the incorrectly answered trials of the confederates than those to those trials that the confederates answered correctly. There were a total of five incorrect …


The Effect Of Postpartum Depression On Child Cognitive Development, Joshua Lees Jul 2011

The Effect Of Postpartum Depression On Child Cognitive Development, Joshua Lees

Theses and Dissertations

The incidence of postpartum depression (PPD) in Western societies is approximately 10-15% and its cause is multi-faceted. Because mothers largely constitute infants' social environment and mediate their experience of the external world, it is imperative to investigate the effects of PPD on child growth and development. Within this paper, the author explores previously conducted Post-Partum Depression research, in regards to its effects on child cognitive development. Following this literature review, a brief experimental study is conducted and explained on a sample population of mothers' of special needs children, serviced by an Early Intervention provider. During this experimental analysis, the researcher …


The Relationship Between Locus Of Control And Birth Order In College Students' Academic Success, Shannara Williams Jul 2011

The Relationship Between Locus Of Control And Birth Order In College Students' Academic Success, Shannara Williams

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relationship between locus of control and birth order. Does your birth position predict your locus of control? Also, does birth order have an effect on the academic achievement of college students (n=54)? A few subjects were disqualified from the study based on the fact that they were the only child. A demographics survey was designed to determine the academic success based on grade point average. The Rotter's Locus of Control survey was used to determine the locus of control of the college students. Neither hypothesis investigated yielded the predicted results. This …


Interactive Software And Its Effects On Hostility, Warren Shya Jul 2011

Interactive Software And Its Effects On Hostility, Warren Shya

Theses and Dissertations

The researcher will be exploring the relationship between violence in video games and the emotional responses to them. The goal of the study is to confirm the previous body of research that a short term increase in aggression and hostility exists after a violent video game is played. The study will also expand on the current existing body of data by examining other variables such as gender, age, typical time spent in a week playing videogames, overall familiarity with video games, the game genre that is normally played, and what consoles and systems are typically used to be played on. …


Individual Case Study: Verbalizing Emotions To Reduce Aggressive Outbursts In An Autistic Adult, Samantha Levine Jul 2011

Individual Case Study: Verbalizing Emotions To Reduce Aggressive Outbursts In An Autistic Adult, Samantha Levine

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this individual case study were to (a) to decrease the maladaptive behaviors displayed by the participant and (b) have the participant verbalize his feelings before they build up to cause the maladaptive behavior. The study used positive reinforcement and rewards to reinforce the positive behaviors displayed by the participant as well as to deter negative behaviors. The participant made vast improvements in expressing his emotions and also showed great improvement in controlling his maladaptive behaviors. Implications of a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder are discussed as well as an explanation of other studies performed for individuals with …


Rate Changes In Risky Behavior & The Role Of Sibling Influence, Julian Bajczyk Jul 2011

Rate Changes In Risky Behavior & The Role Of Sibling Influence, Julian Bajczyk

Theses and Dissertations

This study is based on research performed in 2006 by Laura Argys, Daniel Rees, Susan Averett, and Benjama Witoonchart. The 2006 study investigated relationship between the birth order and an adolescent's likelihood of engaging in certain risky behaviors. For the purpose of this study these behaviors include things like drug use, sexual activity and violent or antisocial offenses. The initial study found a trend implicating that adolescents with older siblings more likely to engage in certain risky behaviors than adolescents who did not have older siblings (eldest and only children). The Argys, et al. study used data collected from the …


A Study Of Academic Achievement Differences Between The Genders, Marissa Housman Aug 2010

A Study Of Academic Achievement Differences Between The Genders, Marissa Housman

Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to explore the academic achievement gap between male and female students by comparing grade point averages across genders. Specifically, the researcher hypothesized that such a gap exists and that females would academically surpass their male counterparts in the classroom. Participants consisted of 300 students in grades 5, 8, and 11 from a public school district in suburban New Jersey. Grade point average (GPA) was generated by converting letter grades into numbers (4.0-0.0) and then averaged. A two-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) confirmed the hypothesis that females have a higher average GPA than males, as a whole …


Social Skills And Attributions Of Asperger's Syndrome, Louis Fair May 2010

Social Skills And Attributions Of Asperger's Syndrome, Louis Fair

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was a single subject design (a) measuring where in social skills ability, a male high school student diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, is deficient based off of 5 subscales of social skills and then (b) creating an intervention focused on improving the areas of weakness to help the student function socially. The five subscales that the skills were grouped under with social awareness, social cognition, social communication, social motivation and autistic mannerisms. A within-subject design was run for t-scores and the student measured to have the biggest area of weakness in the areas of social awareness, …


Effectiveness, Types, And Usage Of Behavior Modification At The Elementary Level, Ashley Hanscom May 2010

Effectiveness, Types, And Usage Of Behavior Modification At The Elementary Level, Ashley Hanscom

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined if 60% or more of the participants use Behavior Modification, if four or more different types are being used, and if Behavior Modification in effective in less than 2 months. A survey was distributed to an elementary school in Southern New Jersey (n = 25). Two out of the three hypotheses were proven; 100% of participants use Behavior Modification and more than four types are being used. Limitations, future research, and conclusions are discussed.


A Case Study On Sibling Rivalry And The Use Of A Social Skills Training Model, Michelle Maiorano May 2010

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 …


Interdependent Group Contingency Management For Cocaine-Dependent Methadone Maintenance Patients., Kimberly C Kirby, Mary Louise Kerwin, Carolyn M Carpenedo, Beth J Rosenwasser, Robert S Gardner Jan 2008

Interdependent Group Contingency Management For Cocaine-Dependent Methadone Maintenance Patients., Kimberly C Kirby, Mary Louise Kerwin, Carolyn M Carpenedo, Beth J Rosenwasser, Robert S Gardner

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

Contingency management (CM) for drug abstinence has been applied to individuals independently even when delivered in groups. We developed a group CM intervention in which the behavior of a single, randomly selected, anonymous individual determined reinforcement delivery for the entire group. We also compared contingencies placed only on cocaine abstinence (CA) versus one of four behaviors (CA, treatment attendance, group CM attendance, and methadone compliance) selected randomly at each drawing. Two groups were formed with 22 cocaine-dependent community-based methadone patients and exposed to both CA and multiple behavior (MB) conditions in a reversal design counterbalanced across groups for exposure order. …


Early Oral-Motor Interventions For Pediatric Feeding Problems: What, When And How, C. J. Manno, C. Fox, P. S. Eicher, Mary Louise Kerwin Jan 2005

Early Oral-Motor Interventions For Pediatric Feeding Problems: What, When And How, C. J. Manno, C. Fox, P. S. Eicher, Mary Louise Kerwin

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

Children with developmental delays often have feeding difficulties resulting from oral-motor problems. Based on both clinical experience and a review of published studies, oral-motor interventions have been shown to be effective in improving the oral function of preterm infants and children with neuromotor disorders, such as cerebral palsy. However, oral-motor problems may be under identified in other populations of children with developmental difficulties. The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for understanding oral-motor skill development and problems that can occur in any infant and young child and to review oral-motor treatment techniques and their empirical support.


Behavioral Intervention And Prevention Of Feeding Difficulties In Infants And Toddlers, Mary Louise Kerwin, P. S. Eicher Jan 2004

Behavioral Intervention And Prevention Of Feeding Difficulties In Infants And Toddlers, Mary Louise Kerwin, P. S. Eicher

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

Although eating is considered an automatic physiologic process, many children experience feeding difficulties. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for assessment, treatment and prevention of feeding difficulties in children. Identification and treatment of any factors actively interfering with feeding success is a critical cornerstone for effective behavioral interventions for feeding. Using variables that comprise the structure of a meal, this paper discusses how these variables might be manipulated in behavioral interventions for feeding problems. Recommendations for prevention of feeding problems are also presented.


Pediatric Feeding Problems: A Behavior Analytic Approach To Assessment And Treatment., Marylouise E. Kerwin Jan 2003

Pediatric Feeding Problems: A Behavior Analytic Approach To Assessment And Treatment., Marylouise E. Kerwin

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

Although eating is considered an automatic physiologic process, many children experience feeding difficulties. The purpose of this article is to present a behavior analytic conceptualization of feeding problems and to summarize the empirically supported behavioral interventions for these problems. While negative reinforcement appears to maintain food refusal, classical conditioning may contribute to its initiation. Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior with escape extinction is an empirically supported intervention for feeding problems and has been successfully implemented by trained staff or parents, in multiple settings, with maintained gains over time and generalization to new foods for many children. While the efficacy of …


An Alternating Treatments Comparison Of Two Intensive Interventions For Food Refusal., W H Ahearn, Mary Louise Kerwin, P S Eicher, J Shantz, W Swearingin Jan 1996

An Alternating Treatments Comparison Of Two Intensive Interventions For Food Refusal., W H Ahearn, Mary Louise Kerwin, P S Eicher, J Shantz, W Swearingin

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

We compared two treatment packages involving negative reinforcement contingencies for 3 children with chronic food refusal. One involved physically guiding the child to accept food contingent on noncompliance, whereas the other involved nonremoval of the spoon until the child accepted the presented food. Subsequent to baseline, an alternating treatments comparison was implemented in a multiple baseline design across subjects. After each child had been exposed to at least nine sessions of each treatment condition and percentage of bites accepted had increased to at least 80%, the child's caregivers selected the preferred treatment package. The results indicated that both treatments were …


The Costs Of Eating: A Behavioral Economic Analysis Of Food Refusal., Mary Louise Kerwin, W H Ahearn, P S Eicher, D M Burd Jan 1995

The Costs Of Eating: A Behavioral Economic Analysis Of Food Refusal., Mary Louise Kerwin, W H Ahearn, P S Eicher, D M Burd

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

Behavioral economic concepts were applied to the analysis and treatment of pediatric feeding disorders in a clinical setting. In Experiment 1, children who chronically refused food were presented with varying amounts of food on a spoon (empty, dipped, quarter, half, and level). Each child exhibited a different but orderly demand function of response (acceptance, expulsion, and mouth clean) by cost (increasing spoon volume) for a constant pay-off of toys and social interaction. In Experiment 2, physical guidance or nonremoval of the spoon for food refusal was initiated at the smallest spoon volume with low levels of acceptance, and was subsequently …