Developmental Psychology Commons^™

Hope, Aspirations, And Resilience In Children And Adolescents: A Review Of Research On Measurement And Related Antecedents, Hildie Leung, Florence K. Y. Wu, Daniel T. L. Shek

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Hope, aspirations, and resilience are important developmental assets for children and adolescents. Based on the existing Western and Chinese literature, this review aims to identify instruments used to assess hope, aspirations, resilience, and conceptually related constructs as well as antecedents of the constructs in adolescents. A systematic literature search in the major databases was conducted. A total of 223 articles, with 144 being retrieved from international databases and 79 from China’s database, met the criteria and were included in the present review. Findings revealed that the majority of the existing scales were developed predominantly in the West and there were …

Dreams, Aspirations And Related Behavior In Children And Adolescents: Impacts On Child Developmental Outcomes, Florence K. Y. Wu, Daniel T. L. Shek, Hildie Leung

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

“Dreams”, “aspirations” and related constructs are traditionally regarded as facilitators of adolescent educational attainment in the Chinese context. Besides, there is an emergent need to widen the understanding of such constructs and their impact on children and adolescent developmental outcomes. This paper discusses the developmental outcomes of dreams, aspiration and related concepts based on a thorough review of the literature. Besides outlining the impacts of aspirations, dreams and related constructs on children and adolescents, features of related intervention programs, including themes of the intervention programs, program participants, methods of implementation and evaluation in both Western and Chinese contexts are also …

A Network Analysis Of Developmental Change In Adhd Symptom Structure From Preschool To Adulthood, Michelle M. Martel, Cheri A. Levinson, Julia K. Langer, Joel T. Nigg

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although there is substantial support for the validity of the diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), there is considerable disagreement about how to best capture developmental changes in the expression of ADHD symptomatology. This article examines the associations among the 18 individual ADHD symptoms using a novel network analysis approach, from preschool to adulthood. The 1,420 participants were grouped into four age brackets: preschool (ages 3–6, n = 109), childhood (ages 6–12, n = 548), adolescence (ages 13–17, n = 357), and young adulthood (ages 18–36, n = 406). All participants completed a multistage, multi-informant diagnostic process, and self and informant …

Do Beliefs About Sex Behaviors Mediate The Link Between Parent-Adolescent Communication About Sex And Risky Sexual Behaviors?, Guangyi Cui

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

The current study examined the protective effect of parenting-adolescent communication about sex on four risky sexual behaviors (age of onset of sex, number of sex partners, condom use, and STDs) among youth, framed by the Theory of Planned Behavior. It also tested for potential mediation effects between parent-adolescent communication and risky sex measures by sexual cues, date rape attitudes, and acceptance of dating violence in a sample of 2,245 college students from Japan, Slovenia, Spain, and the United States. Results provided evidence of a weak effect of parent-adolescent communication about sex on risky sexual behaviors across samples. A number of …

Body Part Structure Knowledge In Infancy, Rachel Jubran

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Human faces, bodies, and hands convey critical social information (e.g., emotions, goals, and desires). Infants, like adults, are sensitive to such social information. Unlike infants’ knowledge of the structure of the human face and body, not much is known about infants’ knowledge of hands and feet. The current study tested infants for their preference between intact hand images and ones in which the same hands were distorted (i.e., location of at least one finger was altered to distort the typical structure of the hand). Infants at 3.5 months of age had a preference for the reorganized hand image, demonstrating that …

Relationships Between Parental Self-Efficacy And Posttraumatic Growth In Mothers Of Children With Down Syndrome, Amanda A. Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the relationships between maternal variables (mother status (biological or adoptive), birth order of the child with Down syndrome, timing of diagnosis (in utero or at birth), mother’s age at time of birth or adoption, time elapsed since diagnosis and maternal psychological variables (parenting self-efficacy, and Posttraumatic growth). The current study hypothesizes that maternal variables will be positively related to parenting self-efficacy and that parenting self-efficacy will explain a significant portion of the variance in maternal Posttraumatic growth. Results indicated that maternal self-efficacy as measured by the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale was …

Categorical Perception Of Species In Infancy, Hannah B. White

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Although there is a wealth of knowledge on categorization in infancy, there are still many unanswered questions about the nature of category representation in infancy. For example, it is yet unclear whether categories in infancy have well-defined boundaries or what knowledge about species categories young infants have before entering the lab. Using a morphing technique, we linearly altered the proportion of cat versus dog in images and observed how infants reacted to contrasts between pairs of images that either did or did not cross over the categorical boundary. This was done while equating between-category and within-category similarity. Results indicate that …

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder & Narrative Comprehension Deficits In College Students, Laura E. Vincent

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The current study examined if the narrative comprehension deficits that children with ADHD exhibit during childhood and adolescence continue in college students as a function of ADHD symptoms, and if a relationship existed between ADHD symptoms and self-efficacy. Children and adolescence with ADHD have difficulties in several areas of narrative comprehension, including maintaining goal structure, distinguishing important events from unimportant events, and making causal connections. If these deficits persist there also may be a relationship between ADHD symptoms and self-efficacy.

Higher levels of ADHD symptomatology were associated with difficulties recalling story events in the college population. Some findings differed from …

Adolescents' Gender Typicality, Psychological Well-Being, And Experiences With Teasing, Bullying, And Rejection, Jennifer A. Jewell

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The current study examined whether adolescents’ gender-based victimization experiences (i.e., teasing, bullying, and rejection) mediated the association between gender typicality and psychological well-being. The current study also investigated whether daily experiences with the three types of gender-based victimization negatively impacted adolescents’ immediate emotional reactions. Participants were 570 seventh and eighth grade students (49.5% boys, 50.5% girls). During four visits over the course of two weeks, participants completed surveys about their own gender typicality, their psychological well-being (i.e., depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and body image), their experiences with gender-based teasing, bullying, and rejection, and their emotional responses to experiencing this victimization. Results …

The Reciprocal Predictive Relationship Between Personality And Risky Behaviors: An 8-Wave Longitudinal Study In Early Adolescents, Elizabeth N. Riley

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

While the overall stability of personality across the lifespan has been well-documented, there is also evidence of meaningful personality change. This is particularly true when individuals are going through periods of developmental transition. Over time, one sees incremental changes not just in behavior but in basic personality as well. 1,906 early adolescents were assessed for urgency scores, levels of maladaptive behavior engagement (drinking, smoking, and binge eating), and pubertal status every six months for four years. Zero-Inflated Poisson structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the model of reciprocal influence between behavior and personality. Across most six-month intervals over …

Parenting Behaviors Of Sleepy Parents: Associations With Emotion Regulation And Stress, Lauren R. Gilbert

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Over the last decade, the topic of sleep has garnered a great deal of interest from psychologists, due to the physiological, emotional, and behavioral outcomes associated with its deprivation. However, questions remain to be answered regarding sleep's influence in the day-to-day life of families. The current study examines the importance of sleep deprivation for parents’ parenting behaviors during problem solving discussions with their children; emotion regulation and stress reactivity are examined as mediators of these associations. Participants were 196 families with a child between the ages of 6-11. Parents filled out diaries for 7 days prior to their in-lab visit, …

Korean American Adolescents And Their Mothers: Intergenerational Differences And Their Consequences, Hui Chu

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The current study examined the links and mechanisms associated with intergenerational cultural conflict, psychological distress, and the intergenerational differences in acculturation and model minority stereotype (MMS) endorsement for South Korean immigrants. Specifically, Korean American adolescents’ (ages 12-19, M = 15.3, SD = 1.71) and their mothers’ (N = 209 dyads) acculturation difference and MMS endorsement difference were measured and analyzed as predictors of intergenerational cultural conflict and psychological distress for adolescents. Furthermore, the study analyzed intergenerational cultural conflict as a mediator in the acculturation gap-distress and the MMS endorsement-distress paths. Results indicated that when mothers and their adolescents differed …

Temperament And Personality Traits As Predictors Of Preschool Odd Symptoms, Longitudinal Course, And Impairment, Brittany L. Zastrow

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is commonly conceptualized as a disorder of negative affect and low effortful control. Currently, it is unclear whether temperament and personality traits associated with negative affect and effortful control can be useful assessment tools for identifying ODD early during development. This study examined the relationship between temperament and personality traits and ODD in a clinical sample of preschoolers. Results suggest that, at this age, temperament and personality traits of negative affect and neuroticism and effortful control and conscientiousness/agreeableness are not associated with one another. High negative affect, low conscientiousness, and low agreeableness were all specifically …

Eating Disorder Onset In Young Girls: A Longitudinal Trajectory Analysis, Carolyn M. Pearson

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

To investigate whether there are different patterns of development for binge eating and purging behavior among pre-adolescent and early adolescent girls, I conducted trajectory analyses of those behaviors in 938 girls across eight waves of data from the spring of 5^th grade (the last year of elementary school) through the spring of 9^th grade (the first year of high school). Analyses revealed four separate developmental trajectories for binge eating behavior (labeled none, increasing, decreasing, and high steady) and three separate developmental trajectories for purging behavior (labeled none, dabble, and increasing). Fifth grade scores on risk factors that were …

Facial And Body Emotion Recognition In Infancy, Leah Oberst

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Adults are experts at assessing emotions, an ability essential for appropriate social interaction. The present study, investigated this ability’s development, examining infants’ matching of facial and body emotional information.

In Experiment 1, 18 6.5-month-olds were familiarized to angry or happy bodies or faces. Those familiarized to bodies were tested with familiar and novel emotional faces. Those habituated to faces were tested with bodies. The 6.5-month-old infants exhibited a preference for the familiar emotion, matching between faces and bodies.

In Experiment 2, 18 6.5-month-olds were tested with faces and bodies displaying anger and sadness. Infants familiarized to faces showed a familiarity …

Examining The Interaction Of Neonatal Alcohol And Hypoxia In Vitro, Megan L. Carter

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Exposure to ethanol (ETOH) during fetal development results in a range of cognitive/behavioral deficits. There are differences in sensitivity to the effects of ETOH that could be explained by other factors, such as hypoxia. Similar mechanisms of damage underlie both ETOH, more specifically ETOH withdrawal, and hypoxia. Based on this overlap, it was hypothesized that sub threshold levels of these insults may interact to produce increased damage in sensitive brain regions. This study used a rodent organotypic hippocampal slice culture model to investigate the interaction of hypoxia and ETOH withdrawal and to determine possible developmental differences in the sensitivity to …

Bayesian Analysis Of Parental Drinking Motives And Children's Adjustment, Aaron A. Duke

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Harm reduction strategies can mitigate against some of the deleterious effects of alcohol on families. These strategies are most feasible and cost-effective when they can be targeted at those who are most at risk. Previous studies examining the relation between parents’ alcohol use and their children’s psychological adjustment have failed to consider important contextual questions such as drinking motives. The current investigation set out to identify the extent to which parents’ drinking motives predict internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in their children. The investigation consisted of cross sectional analysis of parents’ drinking motives and their children’s adjustment using data from 154 …

The Whole Picture: Body Posture Recognition In Infancy, Alyson J. Hock

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Holistic image processing is tied to expertise and is characteristic of face and body processing by adults. Infants process faces holistically, but it is unknown whether infants process body information holistically. In the present study, we examined whether infants discriminate changes in body posture holistically. Body posture is an important nonverbal cue that signals emotion, intention, and goals of others even from a distance. In the current study, infants were tested for discrimination between body postures that differ in limb orientations in three conditions: in the context of the whole body, with just the limbs that change orientation, or with …

The Sexualized Girl: The Development Of An Expanded (Sexualized) Gender Stereotype Among Children, Ellen A. Stone

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The current study examined children’s stereotypes about sexualized girls. Elementary school children (n = 208) from the mid-South between the ages of 6 and 11 completed a survey assessing their stereotypes about sexualized girls and non-sexualized girls. Participants were asked to justify, in their own words, their responses to several stereotypic evaluations. Children’s cognitive development was analyzed through classification skill as a moderator of belief in stereotypes about girls. Results revealed that children perceived the sexualized girl to be more popular and better liked by boys than the non-sexualized girl. However, the sexualized girl was also rated as less athletic, …

Marital Conflict And Pubertal Timing: Stress And Security As Mediators Of Associations, Eric A. Haak

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The timing of pubertal development has important mental and physical health consequences. Individuals who enter puberty off-time are at greater risk for psychological disorders, social difficulties, and physical morbidity. One variable associated with early pubertal development is marital conflict. Life History Theory proposes that marital conflict signals an unreliable environment and promotes advanced pubertal timing to enhance reproductive fitness. Such calibrations allow individuals to unconsciously invest more resources in reproduction, following a quantity over quality approach. Despite research supporting the role of marital conflict in early-onset puberty, research has struggled to find a mechanism for this relationship. The current study …

Childhood Depression And Obesity: Role Of The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (Hpa) Axis Activity, Joanne Tyler

Kaleidoscope

This study examined relations between child depression and eating behavior and weight problems, including the role ofbaseline cortisol and cortisol reactivity in these relations. Data were drawn from a larger study, and included 50 children between the ages of6 and 12. Children reported on their depressive symptoms, and children and parents reported on child engagement in external eating, under-eating, over-eating, parental pressure to eat, enjoyment of food, and food and satiety responsiveness. For children exhibiting hypercortisolism, depression was associated with decreased over-eating and food responsiveness. Hypercortisolism was especially important for girls and children later in pubertal development. The reduced appetite …

Infants' Sensitivity To Emotions In Body Gestures, M. Kelly Powell

Kaleidoscope

No abstract provided.