Clinical Psychology Commons^™

Attention Problems In Black Children Presenting To Pediatric Integrated Primary Care: Comorbidities And Gender Differences, Jaylynn A. Floyd, Heather A. Jones

McNair Journal at VCU

Introduction: Attention-deficit/ hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a lifetime prevalence rate of 8.7% (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022). Numerous previous studies have exhibited how ADHD can be debilitating with both symptoms and impairments, but Black youth remain understudied (Green et al., 2024). To add, ADHD may present differently depending on one’s gender (Young et al. 2020), and bias has been shown to influence ratings of someone’s ADHD symptoms (Fairman et al., 2020). To combat these health disparities seen within the literature, this study aimed to describe attention problems in Black youth and to investigate whether attention …

Autism Care Continuum: Exploring Specialty Services Across The Lifespan Within U.S. Academic Medical Centers, Alexis Khuu

Theses and Dissertations

Autistic people—particularly adults—experience high rates of co-occurring mental health problems and often report unmet service needs. Although several barriers to accessing quality care are well-documented, the broader landscape of autism-specific services across the lifespan remains under-researched. This two-part thesis aimed to address this gap by examining the availability of autism-specific services, as well as patterns in service utilization and associated costs, among autistic children and adults. The first study employed a systematic web-scraping protocol and data extraction procedure to identify and characterize autism specialty services offered by U.S. academic medical centers. This work revealed a general lack of autism specialty …

Investigating The Ecology Of The Homeless Court: The Promise Of Quasi-Experimental And Statistical Learning Methods, Dylan Wong

Theses and Dissertations

Interactions with the legal system are a crucial factor in maintaining homelessness. Difficulties in addressing legal issues are barriers to accessing services and finding employment and housing. Across the United States, the homeless court is an emerging legal program that has been developed to break this cycle, but they appear to face numerous capacity and coordination problems. Few empirical and systematic investigations have been conducted on homeless court programs. Further, previous studies of homeless courts focus their process and outcome measures on the priorities of the legal system. An investigation into the ecology, or environmental context, of homeless persons would …

Investigating Individual Variability In Autistic Identity And Its Moderating Effects On Mental Health And Quality Of Life, Sydney Richelle Terroso

Theses and Dissertations

The autistic community has long voiced the mental health of autistic adults as a key clinical and research priority. Autistic identity, or the recognition and embrace of core autistic traits as integral to an individual's identity as a whole, may be a potential target for therapeutic approaches aimed at supporting well-being and quality of life. The current study investigates individual differences in self-reported autistic identity scores by demographic factors and by features of autism and health history using online survey data from N=225 autistic adults. Additionally, with a subset of the participants who completed an interconnected study of current mental …

Social Comparison Target Selections As Health Information Preferences: Exploring Contextual Influences Among Women In Midlife With Elevated Risk For Cardiovascular Disease, Emmanuel Lapitan

Theses and Dissertations

Insufficient physical activity (PA) heightens the risk of chronic illnesses including cardiovascular disease (CVD), particularly among women in midlife with conditions such as hypertension. Behavioral interventions often use psychoeducation and skills training to increase PA, but how individuals interact with health-relevant information and how this relates to daily PA behavior is unclear. Health information preferences vary between individuals, but whether they vary for the same individual across contexts has been understudied. In particular, the role of contextual factors in predicting social comparison (i.e., evaluating oneself relative to others to obtain information about oneself) are not well understood. The purpose of …

Principal Component Analysis Of Emotion Related Concepts, Ana Kellermann Jimenez

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Past research has established the overlap between several emotion-related factors, such as alexithymia, empathy, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and mentalization. The aim of the present study was to analyze where these variables overlapped and how they related to different psychological and psychopathological variables. This was accomplished through the use of a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and four canonical correlation models. The results indicated that there was an eight-component structure that included Alexithymia, Valuing Emotions, Mistrusting Emotions, Positive Reframe, Perspective-Taking, Empathetic Concern, Emotional Pessimism, and Avoiding Emotions. The internal reliability of the components ranged from adequate to excellent. The validity of the …

Examination Of An Experimental Paradigm Of Impaired Control Over Alcohol Use, Emily K. Junkin

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Alcohol use disorders peak during young adulthood with nearly 27% of individuals aged 18 to 30 meeting diagnostic criteria. Impaired control, or difficulty limiting alcohol use, has been identified as one of the earliest symptoms of an alcohol use disorder and is predictive of alcohol use severity. Despite the relevance of impaired control for identifying and preventing hazardous drinking behaviors, there is a dearth of research that exists on this critical risk factor. The current study tested an experimental paradigm of impaired control whereby participants self-administered alcohol following guidelines to limit consumption to a low level. It was hypothesized that …

Adapting A Personalized Normative Feedback Intervention For Graduate Student Drinkers, Faith Shank

Theses and Dissertations

On average, graduate students consume eight drinks per week, meeting criteria for heavy drinking and highlighting the need for a cost-effective intervention. The current study examined the efficacy of personalized normative feedback (PNF) for reducing heavy drinking in graduate students. Study 1 examined the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention content to inform a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the intervention. Results from qualitative interviews with 13 graduate students who interacted with the intervention content preferred to receive feedback about peers enrolled in the same type of degree program. Study 2 was an RCT using PNF from peers with the …

The Lived Mental Health Experiences Of African American/Black Mothers With An Infant In The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit During Covid-19, Dr. Shewonyui S. Lurker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American/Black (AA/B) women are more likely than other women in the United States to give birth prematurely. Experiencing premature birth and infant hospitalization in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) during the COVID-19 pandemic may have negatively affected AA/B mothers’ mental health and led them to experience elevated rates of increased posttraumatic stress disorders, depression, anxiety, and postpartum depression. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived mental health experiences of AA/B mothers of infants in the NICU during COVID-19. Feminist theory provided a lens for understanding intersectionality in the experiences of AA/B mothers. Semistructured interviews were …

Outcomes Related To College Students' Attachment, Suzanne Vaccaro

Psychology ETDs

Young adults aged 18-25 have the highest prevalence of mental health issues compared to adults over age 25. Mental health outcomes during emerging adulthood may be linked to early childhood variables, such as attachment, grounded in early caregiving, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) (Hughes et al., 2017; Waters & Roisman, 2019). The current study examined relationships between the attachment script assessment (ASA), a measure intended to elicit secure base script knowledge, indicative of secure attachment state of mind, ACEs, and mental health outcomes among a diverse sample of college students aged 18 to 25. Although results did not indicate relationships …

Gatekeeper Training As A Form Of Suicide Prevention: An Evaluation Of Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (Asist), Sarah E. Pardue-Bourgeois

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) is the most widely used gatekeeper training (McAuliffe & Perry, 2007) and the literature examining its effects shows strong support for self-reported changes in attitudes and knowledge regarding suicide, and confidence to intervene with a person with thoughts of suicide (Gould et al., 2013; Shannonhouse et al., 2017a; Shannonhouse et al., 2017b; Shannonhouse et al., 2019). However, no research currently exists that investigates whether individuals trained in ASIST can provide the suicide-specific intervention skills post-training. Thus, the current study sought to extend the current literature by broadly investigating the following aims. Study aims investigated …

Relation Between Executive Functions, Ruminative Thinking Style, And Internalizing Symptoms In Neurodivergent Individuals., John Strom

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Introduction: Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) are among the most common psychological disorders occurring in childhood (Bishop, 2010; Scandurra et al., 2019), and are commonly associated with a host of psychological challenges including deficits in executive functioning (Craig et al., 2016; Demetriou et al., 2019) as well as comorbid internalizing disorders such as depression and anxiety (Katzman et al., 2017; Kirsch et al., 2020; Simonoff et al., 2008). Research has suggested that executive function deficits may contribute to symptoms of depression and anxiety and that this relation may be mediated by ruminative thinking styles (Snyder et al., 2019; von Hippel et al., …

Invisible Intersections: Race, Adhd, And The Role Of Disciplinary Actions In Academic Outcomes, Miles Feller

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Race is a marginalized identity linked to significant achievement gaps for Black and Latino students in the USA (de Bray et al., 2019). These students experience higher rates of exclusionary school discipline (ESD) than White and Asian peers (Aud et al., 2010; de Bray et al., 2019), with suspensions correlating to lower academic performance (Del Toro & Wang, 2022; Wang et al., 2023; Owens & Hinshaw, 2016). Additionally, developmental disabilities like ADHD intersect with these issues; despite narrowing racial disparities in diagnoses (Cénat et al., 2022; Fairman et al., 2020), access to treatment remains uneven (Baglivio et al., 2017; Coker …

Impact Of Perceived Stress And Trait Resilience On Mental Health Outcomes Related To Traumatic Stress Exposure, Ken Safley

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Traumatic stress exposure is common and associated with a range of adverse psychological outcomes, including anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These effects are cumulative, with increased exposure linked to greater psychological distress. However, there is considerable variability in how individuals respond to trauma, suggesting the influence of cognitive and dispositional factors. Cognitive models of PTSD highlight the role of stressor appraisals in the development of psychopathology, while individual differences in protective factors, such as trait resilience, may buffer these effects. The present study investigated whether perceived stress mediates the relationship between trauma exposure and psychological outcomes, and whether …

Psychopathy, Emotion, And Mock Juror Decision-Making, Bailey A. Hall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that mock jurors impose harsher sentencing (including death sentencing) when defendants are described as psychopathic, but reasons for this are unclear. This preregistered study investigated the role of juror anger and cognitive biases (predecisional distortion [PDD]) in the relationship between defendant psychopathy descriptions and mock juror decision-making. In an online experiment, participants (undergraduates in a large Southeastern university [n=410] and a US Census-representative online sample [n=384]) reviewed case facts of a murder, were randomized to expert witness testimony of defendant psychopathy or control conditions and read the prosecution and defense arguments before sentencing the defendant to death or …

Food For Thought: Binge Planning Cognitions And Behaviors Within An Online Sample Of Adults With Binge-Type Eating Disorders, Rose H. Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has begun exploring the phenomenon of binge planning, wherein individuals who binge eat do so with forethought, rather than impulsively. What specific thought processes and behaviors comprise binge plans remains unexamined. How, or if, the eating disorder presentations of individuals who plan binges ahead of time differ from those who binge impulsively is also still unknown. The present study sought to explore the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors associated with binge planning, and to identify how the motivations, symptomologies, and personality traits (i.e., impulsivity) differ between binge eaters who do or do not plan their binges. An online study using …

Examining Associations Between Sleep Variability And Treatment Outcomes In A Clinical Sample Receiving Psychotherapy Treatment For Alcohol Use Disorder, Charles A. Manzler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sleep disturbances are highly prevalent among individuals with AUD. Sleep and alcohol have a bidirectional relationship such that alcohol damages sleep-promoting brain regions, and impaired sleep exacerbates cognitive and emotional deficits that can promote alcohol use. Despite the evidence that sleep improves across treatment for AUD, these improvements have had inconsistent associations with treatment outcomes. This may result from previous research focusing solely on mean values of sleep parameters rather than daily within-person variability. Sleep variability is emerging as an important correlate of physiological dysregulation and is connected to a range of negative symptoms that may promote alcohol use. The …

The Potential Mediating Role Of Perfectionistic Self-Presentation In The Relationship Between Other Stigma, Self-Stigma, And Attitudes Towards Mental Health Help-Seeking In Asian Americans, Trevor E. Taone

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

The importance of understanding why individuals decided to engage in mental health care cannot be overstated. This importance is further highlighted in the need to examine the different factors that may help researchers and clinicians to obtain more insight into why populations with a higher demand for mental health services, such as Asian Americans, possess negative attitudes toward seeking mental health care. Stigma has been identified as a significant barrier that influences these attitudes towards help-seeking. Other stigma and self-stigma, in particular, play an important role in understanding why individuals may possess negative views about mental health care help-seeking. With …

العزلة الاجتماعية وعلاقتها بالأفكار اللاعقلانية لدى طلبة المدارس, Feras Qurit'e Al-Jobour, Ali Abdullah Al-Hourani

Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Research in Higher Education مجلة اتحاد الجامعات العربية للبحوث في التعليم العالي

هدفت الدّراسة إلى الكشف عن مستوى كل من العزلة الاجتماعية والأفكار اللاعقلانية، والعلاقة بينهما لدى طلبة المدارس. اعتمدت الدراسة على المنهج الوصفي الارتباطي، وتكوّنت عيّنة الدّراسة من (831) طالباً وطالبة (476 طالباً و 355 طالبة)، تم اختيارهم بالطّريقة المُتيسرة في الفصل الدراسي الثاني للعام الدراسي (2023/2022)م. ولتحقيق أهداف الدراسة؛ جرى استخدام مقياس العزلة الاجتماعية ومقياس الأفكار اللاعقلانية اللذين أعدا لغايات هذه الدراسة، بعد التحقق من صدقهما وثباتهما. أظهرت نتائج الدراسة أن مستوى كل من العزلة الاجتماعية والأفكار اللاعقلانية جاء متوسطاً، وأن هناك علاقة ارتباطية موجبة دالة إحصائياً بينهما. كما أظهرت النتائج أيضاً عدم وجود فروق دالة إحصائياً في مستوى كل …

The Potential For Improv As A Therapeutic Tool In The Context Of Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Suggestions For Dbt Clinicians, Jocelyn Borden

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores the theoretical and practical intersections between improvisational theater and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), proposing that the core tenets of improv closely align with the philosophical foundation and therapeutic goals of DBT. Aimed at mental health professionals, this work provides a conceptual framework and praxis for incorporating improv-based activities into DBT skills training to enhance client engagement, experiential learning, and emotional resilience. Through an examination of improv theory, parallels with DBT principles, and practical suggestions for integration, the thesis outlines how applied improvisation can be used as a supplemental tool in traditional DBT treatment. The final section includes …

Minority Stressors And Internalizing Symptoms In Sexual And Gender Minority Adolescents: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Anni R. Subar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents are at elevated risk for internalizing symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, due in part to chronic exposure to minority stress. To provide a comprehensive synthesis of this literature, we conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies, yielding 162 effect sizes from 41,360 participants aged 8– 22. All included studies examined the association between minority stress, defined as stigma-related stressors such as discrimination, victimization, and internalized stigma, and internalizing outcomes in SGM youth. The random-effects meta-analysis revealed a small but significant association (r = .25) between minority stress and internalizing symptoms, consistent across stressor …

Understanding The Roles Of Individual And Family-Based Resilience Resources And Mechanisms In Youth With Painful Disorders Of Gut-Brain Interaction, Corinne Taylor Evans

All ETDs from UAB

Background Children living with chronic pain are at risk for many negative physical and mental health consequences. However, certain positive attributes and factors can help lessen or prevent such consequences. Children with painful disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBIs) experience deficits in social, emotional, and physical functioning. However, it is unknown whether a combination of individual and family-based resilience factors may lower these risks and contribute to improved physical and mental health responses. Methods 120 children with painful DGBIs were recruited from a pediatric gastroenterology clinic. Children and caregivers completed a series of questionnaires measuring individual and family-based resilience resources (e.g., …

Stigma, Shame, And Narcissism: A Literature Review, Alex Gaither

University Honors Theses

This thesis is a literature review of 12 peer reviewed journal articles accessible through the Portland State University library database on the relationship between stigma, shame, and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). This thesis discusses ideas brought up in these articles regarding the classification and conceptualization of NPD as a disorder, the role that shame plays in the pathology of NPD, the ways that shame is addressed through treatment, and public and practitioner held bias resulting from the stigmatization of the disorder. New and upcoming ways of conceptualizing the disorder are also briefly discussed as there has been a push to …

Longitudinal Relations Between Self-Esteem And Depression: A Continuous Time Analysis With Exploration Of Sleep Duration Effects, Mackenzie Cummings

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Adolescents and young adults face elevated risk for depression. While poor self-esteem and sleep disturbance are known risk factors, few studies have examined their unique and interactive contributions. Longitudinal research often overlooks unequal intervals and multiple sources of variance (e.g., between- and within-person). This study used continuous time structural equation modeling to address these gaps and examine relationships between self-esteem, sleep duration, and depression from adolescence into adulthood. Drawing on four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 6,184), I tested whether sleep duration moderated the self-esteem–depression link and explored gender differences. …

Investigating Momentary Body Image Disturbance, Affect, And Disordered Eating Among College Students, Allison T. Cunning

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite evidence that eating disorders are associated with elevated mortality rates, increased risk of suicide, and societal and financial burden, treatment outcomes for individuals with eating disorders remain poor. Body image disturbance has emerged as a robust risk factor for the development and maintenance of disordered eating (e.g., overeating, binge eating, purging, restriction) and theoretical and clinical perspectives most commonly operationalize body image disturbance as a trait construct. However, empirical evidence suggests body dissatisfaction may fluctuate, and these fluctuations may play an important role in the relationship between risk factors and disordered eating. The current study employed ecological momentary assessment …

Building Media Literacy In Adolescence: A Cognitive Behavioral Clinician's Manual To Combat Misinformation And Misdiagnosis During Sessions, Patricia Sacchetti

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

This paper examines the role of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in countering misinformation that youth encounter on social media and other informal sources, with the goal of creating a manual for mental health clinicians. The use of CBT by clinicians working with adolescents to combat the issue of misinformation and misdiagnosis has received little attention in the literature. Mental health clinicians’ knowledge of media literacy as a psychological construct can foster an effective treatment style by building upon the foundation of well-established theory and practice, such as CBT. CBT is a multifaceted treatment that can help guide mental health clinicians …

Overcoming Barriers To Connection Between People With Schizophrenia And Their Caregivers, Sarah G. Fernandez

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

The purpose of this doctoral project is to bring together existing literature on relational barriers between patients and caregivers, and strategies for overcoming them, for one reason: to help clinicians facilitate connection within families and households where one person has schizophrenia. It is therefore comprised of two parts: this paper containing a three-part literature review on barriers to connection including social skill deficits characteristic of the disease of schizophrenia, environmental factors, and caregiver burden and expressed emotion within families, as well as protective factors and strategies for overcoming them. The second component of this project is a psychoeducational module geared …

Is She Being “Fast?”: Exploration Of African American Women’S Experience With Sexual Objectification, Alaigra V.R. Usher

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Issues of sexual objectification have been intertwined in America’s history since enslavement. This phenomenology study aimed to explore African American women’s lived experiences with sexual objectification and to understand the essential themes and conceptualizations that African American women attribute to sexual objectification. Through semi-structured interviews with a criterion sampling of African American women, the research sought to identify core themes surrounding sexual objectification experiences. In the results of this study, it was found that this population conceptualizes their sexual objectification experiences through seven themes: Earliest Sexual Objectification Experiences (SOE), SOE, Responses to SOE, Parental Protection, Reasons for SOE, SOE places, …

As Good As It Gets? Comparing Clients’ And Treatment Providers’ Perceptions Of Engagement Barriers And Facilitators For Exposure And Response Prevention Ocd Treatment, Samuel Mutschler-Aldine

University Honors Theses

This mixed-methods study compared clients' and providers' sentiments toward research-based themes on barriers and facilitators of client engagement in treatment. For individuals with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), engagement in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy is a crucial ingredient of successful treatment and symptom remission. Therefore, it is imperative to thoroughly understand the perspectives on engagement barriers and facilitators of people with field experience: ERP patients and therapists.

The researcher administered two Qualtrics surveys to thirty current providers and six current or former clients of ERP for OCD. Each survey contained five-point, Likert-style scales to measure the level each participant agreed …

Revising And Consolidating The Dsm-5 And Icd-11 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders Into A Dimensional Spectrum-Based Disorder: A Literature Review, Samuel Milton Shatsky

University Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the clinical, cultural, and theoretical implications of replacing the current DSM-5 and ICD-11 categorical diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) with a unified dimensional framework: trauma spectrum disorder (TSD). The proposed TSD model addresses ongoing concerns around diagnostic inflation, treatment misalignment, and clinical confusion stemming from binary trauma categorizations. This thesis explores whether adopting a dimensional diagnostic model to replace DSM-5 and ICD-11's current PTSD and CPTSD designations could lead to improved treatment outcomes and diagnostic clarity.

Methodology consisted of an extensive literature review of the field's current research. Using the …