Developmental Psychology Commons^™

Misinformation Machine, Jan A. Wozniak

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

No abstract provided.

"La Vida Es Un Carnaval": An Exploration Of Cuban Identity And Nostalgia Through Dance/Movement Therapy - A Community Engagement Project, Maria Fernanda Mendez Mendoza

Expressive Therapies Theses

“La Vida Es Un Carnaval” is a community engagement project and thesis that explores how identity and nostalgic resilience show up through dance/movement therapy with Cuban immigrants living in the United States, specifically Massachusetts. This project brought together six Cuban-born participants, ages 26 to 67, each with their own unique migration stories; from the Rafter Balsero Crisis of 1994, to the “Wet-Foot/Dry-Foot” policy, and family reunification. Through a mix of in-person and online sessions, participants explored their experiences using intermodal activities including dance/movement therapy techniques, conversation, journaling, artwork, and music. Themes of cultural pride, “Cubanía” – Cuban-ness, culture shock, and …

Adopted Children, Michael Galobardi, Lisa K. Lashley, Charles J. Golden

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Views about the manner and nature of human development have changed across time (Psyking.net 2016). Some of these views have been religious (e.g., creationism) and some of these views have been more biological (e.g., preformationism).  Regardless of the focus of the view, how we believe human beings develop has a profound effect on our expectations for those beings.  One early view of human development from a biological perspective was Preformationism.  This is explained as, “A notion that was widespread among pioneer biologists in the 18th century was that the fetus, and hence the adult organism that develops from it, is …

The Boston Metco Program: Recent Alumni Experiences And Educational Equity, Maya Hernandez

Honors Theses

This project focuses on contemporary school integration practices by examining, in particular, the Boston METCO (Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity Inc) program and the experiences of its recent alumni. The METCO program, the United States’ longest-running voluntary school desegregation program, was created in 1966 to give students of color from the city of Boston better educational opportunities by busing them to the surrounding suburbs for school. To this day, it is a program meant to expand educational opportunities, increase diversity, and reduce racial isolation, by permitting students from Boston to attend public schools beyond district lines, in the suburbs. My …

Moral Identity: From Theory To Research, Jean Paul Lefebvre

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Moral identity, often defined as the importance or centrality of moral values to a person’s sense of self, has long been understood to play an important role in moral functioning. However, critical gaps remain regarding its development, cross-context stability, and behavioural significance. This dissertation addresses these gaps in three empirical studies, providing new insights into the nature and function of moral identity across the lifespan and in daily life.

The first study (Chapter 2) explores developmental trends in moral identity, testing predictions from moral identity goal theory (Krettenauer, 2022). Using a cross-sectional sample spanning adolescence to old age, the study …

Testing A Model Of Ethnic/Racial Discrimination, Ethnic Identity, And Adult Attachment In College Students, Kenneth L. Ayers

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Ethnic/racial minoritized Americans encounter a disproportionate amount of discrimination throughout their lifetime that often has negative effects on their well-being and mental health. Although the impact of discrimination on symptoms of depression and substance use has been widely studied, understanding of the mechanisms through which these associations exist are still largely unknown. From the perspective of the Cultural Development and Psychopathology Framework, the effects of discrimination on psychopathology (i.e., depression symptoms and alcohol use) are likely mitigated by normative developmental processes. One such developmental outcome that has been determined to partially mediate the impact of cultural stressors (i.e., ethnic/racial discrimination) …

Teacher Beliefs And Experiences Addressing Healthy Racial And Ethnic Identity Instructionally Through Social Emotional Learning, Juliana Gutierrez

Theses and Dissertations

Children and youth develop within an ecological context that includes family, peers, and broader social environments including school. Children’s understanding of their ethnic or racial group and the meaning they attribute to belonging in that group is also shaped by interactions in their school environment. Most research on school-based social-emotional learning (SEL) programs has focused on student behavioral and academic outcomes. However, as SEL spreads across U.S. K-12 schools, questions have emerged surrounding how children from diverse racial and cultural groups and unequal opportunity can benefit from universal SEL programs. Using a mixed-methods design, this study explores teachers’ understanding and …

U.S. Military Veteran Identity And Civilian Adjustment, Darren A. Sosa

Pacific Journal of Health

U.S. military veterans transitioning back into the civilian sector often experience a variety of challenges and need to readjust into non-military environments. In order to examine the psychological challenges involved in the transition and readjustment processes among U. S. active military veterans, a qualitative study was conducted. For 6 months, data was collected from veterans in California, Nevada, Texas, Florida, and New York. Following an IRB approval, semi-structured open-ended self-developed interviews were developed and conducted with sixteen military veterans who have served in 4 branches of the U.S. Armed Forces: Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Data and information …

The Influence Of Intersectionality On Identity And Resilience, Stephanie Washburn

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Co-occurring multiple minority group membership (e.g., ethnic/racial minority and sexual/gender minority) has come to be referred as intersectionality. The purpose of this study was to explore if intersectionality is related to identity and resilience in undergraduate adults. The participant pool consisted of college students from a large metropolitan university in the Southeastern United States, (N = 340), who took an anonymous online self-report survey battery in exchange for course credit. Higher levels of resilience were associated with lower levels of identity distress. Further, identity commitment, but not identity exploration, predicted resiliency. Sexual/Gender Minority (SGM) individuals had lower resiliency than …

Religious Trauma And Identity, Kylie N. Angiel

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Religious trauma is most often the result of prolonged emotional and mental trauma, rather than a one-time occurring physical experience, which can thereby lead to complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). This prolonged form of trauma can have negative impacts on one’s psychological well-being and possibly one’s sense of identity. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of how religious trauma may be related to identity development. College students (N = 223) completed an anonymous online survey battery for course credit. Scores on a measure of religious and spiritual struggles was positively correlated with identity distress and …

Religiosity And Spirituality Among Sexual And Gender Minority College Students, Emily N. Popovetsky

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible relationship between religiosity and spirituality as separate factors and its effects on the sexual gender minority community (SGM) regarding identity distress and identity commitment to aid in SGM identity and religious identity integration. It was investigated whether spirituality could moderator the negative effects of religious rejection for the SGM community regarding identity distress, and identity commitment. A comparison between the non-(SGM) community and SGM was included. This study viewed multiple different aspects of religiosity such as religious rejection, current religious practices, and centrality of religion in one’s life as well …

Youth Identity And Postsecondary Decision Making In A Rural State: Evidence Of A College For All Master Narrative, Jayson Seaman, Cindy L. Hartman, Andrew D. Coppens, Erin H. Sharp, Sarah Jusseaume, Molly Donovan

Faculty Publications

This study examined the normative messages that inform youth postsecondary decision making in a predominantly rural state in the northeastern U.S., focusing on the institutionalization and circulation of identity master narratives. Using a multilevel, ecological approach to sampling, the study interviewed 33 key informants in positions of influence in educational, workforce, and quality of life domains. Narrative analysis yielded evidence of a predominant master narrative – College for All – that participants described as a prescriptive expectation that youth and families orient their postsecondary planning toward four-year, residential baccalaureate degree programs. Both general and domain-specific aspects of this master narrative …

Identity Content And Life Satisfaction Among Diverse College Students, Bridget Nolan Murphy

Wayne State University Dissertations

By numerous indicators, American college students today are experiencing high levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and suicidality. Most attend college during emerging adulthood when identity formation is a salient developmental task. Therefore, college students are likely to experience developmentally appropriate identity crises in addition to or exacerbated by the social, financial, and academic stressors of college. This dissertation aimed to assess how college student identity content – specifically identity content coherence between the student role and reported domains – was associated with psychosocial outcomes using the Multilevel Model of Identity Content in Context (Galliher et al., 2017a). This study also …

This Is Who I Am: Identity Development And Importance Among Diverse Youth From Lgbtq+ Parent Families, Madison T. Diomede

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Although the literature on identity and related constructs among adolescents, emerging adults, and diverse populations is growing, little research has investigated identity among adolescents and emerging adults specifically in the context of LGBTQ+ parent families. The present study seeks to fill this gap in the literature by qualitatively investigating identity development and importance among diverse youth with LGBTQ+ parents. Participants are 51 youth (ages 12-25 years) with at least one LGBTQ+ parent. Trained personnel conducted remote, audio-recorded, semi-structured interviews from December 2018-February 2020. Interviews included questions about participants’ individual identities and conversations they have had with their parents about those …

On The Catholic Identity Of Students And Schools: Value Propositions For Catholic Education, Daniel Lapsley, Katheryn Kelley

Journal of Catholic Education

The Catholic school sector is under significant stress with declining enrollments and schools closing in virtually every diocese in the United States. This paper examines two value propositions for Catholic education. One is its role in providing foundational support for the development of personal spiritual identity in emerging adulthood and across the lifecourse. The second is the contribution of Catholic education to moral-character formation. Both propositions are relatively underdeveloped. The question of students’ personal spiritual identity is overshadowed by the understandable concern with the Catholic identity of schools. The question of moral-character formation is subsumed by catechesis and liturgy but …

Validation And Measurement Invariance Of A First-Generation College Student Identity Scale, Kelsie K. Allison

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

First-generation college students (FGCS) comprise approximately 56% of the U.S. post-secondary institution population, yet they face substantially more academic, financial, and additional unique issues than continuing-generation college students. Research on FGCS has been steadily growing in recent years, however, literature on identity for this population is sparse. To address these gaps in the literature, the aim of the current study was to adapt, validate, and establish full factorial measurement invariance across Black and White FGCS for a multidimensional quantitative measure of first-generation college student identity. The final sample included 425 current FGCS (81.2% female; M_age = 24.4 years, SD …

African American English As A Predictor Of Ethnic And Ethnolinguistic Identity In Adolescence, Giahna L. Glasco

Dissertations and Theses

This study’s purposes were to provide support for the Social identity theory of African American English (Vietze & Glasco, 2022) and the meanings African American English (AAE) speakers assign to their dialect. The study was primarily based on Tajfel’s (1979) social identity theory that proposes individuals derive a sense of self from group membership. The qualitative analyses examined ethnic and language group memberships. Ethnic identity development (Phinney, 1992), and ethnolinguistic identity theories (Giles and Johnson, 1987) guided narrative and content analyses of Kiese Laymon’s memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir (Laymon, 2018). The sample included 21 African American English conversations …

Identity Transformation Through Substance Use Disorder Recovery: Introducing The Six Stage Model, Naomi Watkins, Austin Mcneill Brown, Kayce Courson

The Qualitative Report

Narratives of substance use disorder recovery experience can provide useful qualitative conceptual categories and novel theories about the way in which recovery is experienced by individuals. This information can better inform definitions, concepts, and supports for recovery processes. The current study reviewed 30 written personal recovery biographies which were contained within student applications to the collegiate recovery program housed in the Center for Young Adult Addiction and Recovery at Kennesaw State University. Using grounded theory methodology, common benchmarks, or topographic recovery features were revealed involving the evolution of identity as an inter-negotiated process throughout the addiction and recovery biographies (Charmaz, …

Bicultural Identity And Academic Achievement: The Second-Generation Immigrant Student Experience, Karimeh Haddad

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

By comparing the academic success and internal processes of immigrant groups, this study aimed to explore the impact of immigration status (first, second, and third-generation) and cultural backgrounds on academic achievement on a holistic level. By measuring acculturation, parental expectations, self-efficacy, goal adjustment, motivation, control beliefs, and vocabulary knowledge of university students, the combination of constructs best correlated to academic achievement was studied with determinants of demographics playing a key role. In addition to quantitative analyses, in-depth interviews supplemented the analyses and further gave insight to the backgrounds of the target population, second-generation immigrant students. The results indicated that there …

Exploring Connections Between Social Anxiety And Social Media Use In College Students, Alexandra Deman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

When young adults enter college their identity and self-esteem are tested in a novel environment. Interacting, forming new relationships, having some sense of independence for the first time, and often living in a new area can take a toll on someone who has not sufficiently developed a stable identity. This, in-turn, may create a negative outlook on one’s self and the individual’s capabilities to participate in social interaction, or ultimately a desire to avoid them altogether. If such a negative view further intensifies and remains present, it may develop into social anxiety disorder. Social media can either alleviate or escalate …

Does Aging Identity Moderate The Impact Of Experiences With Familial Ageism On Well-Being?, Emily E. Kinkade

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to begin investigating the effects of ageism in the family context. The current literature has documented the negative impacts that negative stereotypes and negative perceptions of aging has on older adults’ health, mortality, and well-being (Levy, 1996; Levy, 2003). However, the majority of extant research on ageism focuses on age discrimination in the workplace and in healthcare despite the majority of peoples’ time being spent in the family context. Therefore examining experiences of ageism sourced from family members merits study. Walker, Bisconti and Kinkade (in preparation) found evidence that the experience of ageism within …

Ethnic-Racial Identity And Psychological Adjustment: An Examination Of Identity Coherence And Identity Confusion As Mediators, Cara Allen

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The current dissertation project investigated relationships among ethnic-racial identity, identity coherence, identity confusion, and self-esteem in an ethnic minority sample. Consistent with previous research, ethnic-racial identity was related to identity coherence. Also consistent with previous research were the findings that identity coherence and identity confusion are differentially associated with self-esteem. Mediation analysis revealed that the relationship between one form of ethnic-racial identity, ethnic-racial identity commitment, and self-esteem was mediated by identity coherence. This mediated relationship was not moderated by gender, ethnicity, or immigration status. However, the relationship between identity coherence and self-esteem was moderated by college experience.

The Roles Of Parents In Shaping Fathering Across Generations In Cebu, Philippines, Lee T. Gettler, Patty X. Kuo, Abet Bas, Judith B. Borja

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Objective: This study examined how parental caregiving and parent–child closeness are associated with future fathering among 335 Filipino men who are participants in a long-running birth cohort study.

Background Few studies have multidecade longitudinal data to test the pathways through which parenting is transmitted across generations, with most relevant research conducted in the United States, Europe, and other similar settings. The roles of mothers and fathers in shaping their sons’ future parenting is particularly understudied despite fathers having the potential to positively influence child health and development.

Method: Participants’ mothers (Generation 1 [G1]) reported on caregiving during Generation 2 (G2) …

Art Therapy As A Tool For Enhancing Adolescent Identity Formation, Self-Knowing, And Empowerment., Victoria Force

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Adolescence is a pivotally important developmental stage for individuals. During this time, adolescents begin the journey of discovering the many facets of their identities. This capstone thesis explores how the discipline of art therapy can aid adolescents in the formation of their understanding of specific parts of their identities. Workshops offered at a community mental health organization collected data via surveys, observable experiences, and art. These workshops offered clients a safe space to artistically express their identity. Results of the exercise provide indications that art therapy could be used as a positive aid in adolescent identity formation.

Is It Who Am I Or Who Do You Think I Am? Identity Development Of Adolescents With Substance Use Disorders, Danielle N. Treiber

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to unearth how adolescents with substance use disorders achieve the task of identity formation and the construction of self-concept in the midst of the drug culture and society that exists. It sought to uncover the social constructs designed to ignore and/or remove human complexities and allow an intersectional approach to be brought to a study on this population. Historically, there has been a failure to investigate the underlying social attitudes and behaviors that impact the very delicate and vulnerable process of finding self. Psychosocial and relational adjustment are strongly influenced by the extent to …

Perceived Social Support And Identity Formation In Bereaved University Students, Katherine Ottley

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The experience of death-related loss is almost universal, which makes it an important area of study. The experience of death-related loss can cause a re-evaluation of identity (Hibberd, 2013), but this has not been widely studied in emerging adults. The lack of research into bereavement experiences in emerging adulthood leaves many questions unanswered, in particular regarding identity. This is the case, despite identity consolidation being considered an important task of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2006; Erikson, 1959). I examined the relationships between bereavement, identity and social support, using a sample of 98 university students, many of whom were White and female. …

Exploring The Female Autism Phenotype: Personal Identity Formation And Well-Being In Autistic Females, Erinn Nell Barry

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A personal identity answers the questions: who am I and where do I fit in the world? While these are questions that all persons may encounter, I examine identity formation, as conceived by Marcia (1980), in a community sample of females diagnosed (or self-identified) as having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), given that less is known regarding the identity process that autistic females undergo. More specifically, I examine the relationship between autism traits and the achieved and diffuse identity statuses. Research indicates the existence of a female autism phenotype (Lai et al., 2015), such that autistic females often present with …

A Predictive Model For Tck Identity Development: What Role Do Faith Development And Religious Motivation Play?, Amanda Rockinson-Szapkiw, Lorene R. Heuvelman-Hutchinson

Journal of Counseling and Psychology

This study examines the predictive association of 86 Third Culture Kids’ (TCK) faith development, religious commitment, and identity development statuses. TCKs’ low levels of faith development and religious motivation were associated with lower levels of identity statuses while TCKs’ achieved identity statuses were associated with high levels of faith development and religious motivation. The results of the direct logistical regression revealed that the full model containing the two predictor variables (intrinsic religious motivation and faith stage) significantly predicted identity achievement status. The model accounted for between 18.7% and 29.2% of the variance in identity status. It correctly classified 83.7% of …

Persistence Of Cultural Heritage In A Multicultural Context: Examining Factors That Shaped Voting Preferences In The 2016 Election, Anna M. Schwartz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The prevailing discourse about the myth of the “melting pot” of American culture implies that heritage cultures are eliminated in favor of a homogenous “American” norm. However, this myth belies the persistence of our cultural heritage in forming our attitudes, morals, and habitual patterns of thought, each of which shape how we participate in our democracy through voting. By contextualizing voting predictors such as authoritarianism, social dominance, and sexism in developmental and ecological theories, this dissertation shows how they are shaped by culture and transmitted through consumption of media and interaction with members of one’s community and family. In an …

The Impact Of A Mentoring Program On Adolescent Girls’ Self-Esteem, Natalie C. Flanders

Georgia College Student Research Events

Adolescents in the modern world often find themselves facing pressures and influences from family, friends and society. Influences such as advertisement and media are readily available through social media and internet. Girls are especially vulnerable to the pressure in maintaining an ideal body image due to stereotypical female images being portrait as beautiful and attractive. It often results in girl’s preoccupation with beauty and peers’ perceptions, along with other risky behaviors (Galeotti, 2015). Past research found support through a mentoring relationship can have profound impacts on adolescents social-emotional, cognitive, and identity development (Schwartz, Lowe, & Rhodes, 2012). Youth mentoring is …