Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Factors Associated With Parent Reactions To The Diagnosis Of An Autism Spectrum Disorder, Emily Irene Anderberg

Theses and Dissertations

Receiving a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is often a pivotal moment for parents. The diagnostic feedback session can provide helpful information for moving forward with their child’s care but can also be filled with conflicting emotions. A few studies have looked at common parent experiences and have suggested actions for providers, but there is little information about how providers can predict parent reactions to the diagnosis and adjust their feedback accordingly. This study investigated factors related to parent reactions to the diagnostic disclosure session using a) interviews with providers that commonly diagnose autism; b) a focus group with parents …

The Mother Domain: A Mediated Model Of Maternal Gatekeepers And Depressed Fathers Among Newlyweds With Children, Clare R. Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Paternal depression is an understudied topic and research connecting it to maternal gatekeeping is still in its infancy. Research has found that the marriage relationship can be associated with both depression and maternal gatekeeping. This study focuses on how these three areas are related. A subsample of the CREATE project was used including 216 couples, or 432 married parents. Two separate SEM mediational models were tested to examine father depression as a predictor of maternal gatekeeping, with marital instability as the mediator in one model and partner connectedness as the mediator in the other model. Both parent reports were used …

Learning Aggression: The Association Between Parental Psychological Control And Adolescent Relational Aggression, Jennifer Jaeun Byon

Theses and Dissertations

Late adolescence and early emerging adulthood are important developmental time periods during which transitions to adulthood begins including independence from one's parents. While adolescents spend more time away from their homes, especially as they start attending college, the influence of their parents is still salient. Parental psychological control has been shown to impact adolescents' developmental outcomes, including their engagement in relational aggression. While past research has focused mostly on children and young adolescents, the current study seeks to explore the bidirectional associations between parental psychological control and relational aggression among late adolescents and early emerging adults. It also seeks to …

The Effects Of Premarital Education Promotion Policies On U.S. Divorce Rates, Tiffany Lura Clyde

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has documented the effects of divorce on children, families, communities, taxpayers, and society. Accordingly, local, state, and national governments have enacted policies aimed at strengthening marriages and reducing divorce. Currently, ten states have enacted some form of premarital education promotion policy. However, no research has documented whether the implementation of premarital education promotion policies has actually decreased the divorce rate in implementing states. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate empirically the effectiveness of premarital education policy implementation on reducing early divorce rates. Prior to running any empirical analyses, an implementation study was conducted to understand …

Social Withdrawal And Indices Of Adjustment And Maladjustment In Adolescence: Does Parent Warmth And Extraversion Matter?, Mallory Abigail Millett

Theses and Dissertations

Social withdrawal is often associated with a number of indices of adjustment and maladjustment, but little research exists that attempts to uncover potential protective factors. This study longitudinally examined the moderating role of parent extraversion and parent warmth on the association between two types of social withdrawal (shyness and unsociability) and later indices of adjustment and maladjustment. Participants were 463 families from the flourishing families project. Results showed no longitudinal associations between social withdrawal and later indices of adjustment or maladjustment. However, when parent extraversion was added as a moderator, shyness was positively associated with prosocial behavior for those with …

Sri Lankan Widows' Mental Health: Does Type Of Spousal Loss Matter?, Katrina Nicole Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined mental health outcomes for widowed Tamil women in Sri Lanka to identify any associations between type of spousal loss and several outcomes, including internalized stigma as a result of widowhood, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and posttraumatic stress symptoms. A sample of 381 Tamil female widows living in Eastern Sri Lanka were surveyed in 2016 to understand their experiences in a post-disaster and post-war context. Type of spousal loss was separated into seven categories: war-related death, death as a result of tsunami, illness-related deaths, accidental death, suicide, disappearance, and other. Path analysis was used to assess whether type …

Media And Parents: Socializing Factors Of Relational Aggression, Kjersti Maye Summers

Theses and Dissertations

Exposure to relational aggression in various contexts has been found to predict relationally aggressive behavior in adolescents. Past research has examined socializing factors of relational aggression separately. The current study expounds upon this research by looking at three important contexts for socialization of relational aggression during adolescence together: media relational aggression, parental psychological control, and couple relational aggression. Specifically, this study looked at how these different socializing factors combine to predict relational aggression. Participants consisted of 423 adolescents and their parents. A person-centered approach was used to determine different profiles. Latent profile analysis found three profiles, including "average" (78%), "high …

Coding Rupture Indicators In Couple Therapy (Crict): An Observational Coding Scheme, Annalisa Ward Carr

Theses and Dissertations

The therapeutic alliance, a construct representing agreement and collaboration on therapy goals, therapy tasks, and the emotional bond between client(s) and therapist, is a robust predictor of therapy outcomes in individual, couple, and family therapy. One way to track the therapeutic alliance is through ruptures and repairs. Ruptures are breaks, tensions, or tears in the therapeutic alliance. Ruptures and repairs influence the therapeutic alliance and consequently therapeutic outcomes. Currently, there is a lack of research addressing ruptures and repairs in couple therapy. The first step in researching alliance ruptures is to have a reliable way to assess alliance ruptures. This …

Review Of How Places Make Us: Novel Lbq Identities In Four Small Cities, By Japonica Brown-Saracino., Emily Kazyak

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Japonica Brown-Saracino’s How Places Make Us is an engaging book that illustrates the centrality of cities in shaping understandings of sexuality. She analyzes the identities and lives of lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) women in four cities: Ithaca, New York; San Luis Obispo, California; Portland, Maine; and Greenfield,Massachusetts. Despite the fact that these cities are home to a high number of female same-sex couples and are imagined as sites of acceptance for LGBTQ people, Brown-Saracino discovers, through her ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, something surprising: the LBQ women in each city offered radically different narratives about sexuality. The book is devoted …

The #Metoo Movement And Its’ Impact In Pakistan, Noor Usman Rafi

MSJ Capstone Projects

The MeToo movement, albeit a social media tool, has practically worked in favor of women empowerment. All the women speaking out against Harvey Weinstein and big Hollywood producers stepping down had a tremendous moral impact on the movement. This gave it so much force and impetus that it translated into a similar trend in India and Pakistan.

Women empowerment and sexual harassment are being discussed regularly in news media in Pakistan. Because of the ripple effect of the hashtag MeToo, victims and sufferers who spoke up have been vital enough to spark this debate. The taboo and silence of ‘being …

Social Class And The Stubbornness Of Family Myths: How Nonbeliever And Pagan Parents Cope With Intrusions On Parenting By Proselytizing Christian Family Members In The U.S. Bible Belt, Amy Mcclure

Faculty Publications

Family scholars have documented how powerful institutions intrude upon marginalized parents. Yet, few have examined the effect that intrusion on parenting takes on a more intimate level. Guided by insights from theories of emotion management and family inequality, I compare how two religiously marginalized groups in the Bible Belt cope with a ubiquitous experience they face as parents—unwelcomed proselytizing by Christian family members. Based on participant-observation and forty in-depth interviews, I document nonbeliever and Pagan parents’ experiences with proselytizing by Christian family members to be common, intrusive, and often perceived as potentially harmful to children. Failing to enforce desired boundaries …

Factors Affecting Marital Disruption Amongst Nigerian Immigrants In North America (Nina): A Pilot Study, Jochebed B. Ade-Oshifogun, Augusta Y. Olaore, Joan O. Aina

Faculty Publications

Background: It has been observed that some Nigerian Families that immigrated to North America (NINA) seem to have very stressful marital relationships that lead to separation or divorce. The goal of this study was to determine the level of marital satisfaction among NINA

Method: A simple, standardized survey tool was utilized to measure the index of marital satisfaction (IMS). The score varied from 0-100 with a lower score (<30 >points) indicating marital satisfaction. A demographic questionnaire was also administered to the subjects. Descriptive data analysis and level of marital satisfaction were computed in SPSS (version 25).

Results: Forty-five of the …

Food Assistance May Help Families Prevent Emergency Department Visits For Child Asthma, Colleen Heflin

Population Health Research Brief Series

Childhood asthma is the leading cause of emergency department visits for children under the age of 15 in the U.S. Food insecurity may increase a child’s risk for developing asthma. This research brief shows that higher SNAP benefits are associated with fewer asthma –related emergency department visits.

The Need To Codify Roe V. Wade: A Case For National Abortion Legislation, Kathryn N. Peachman

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Sleep Restriction On Food-Related Inhibitory Control And Food Reward In Adolescents: Physical Activity And Weight Status As Potential Moderators, Kara Mcrae Duraccio

Theses and Dissertations

The present study aimed to evaluate associations between sleep duration and food-related inhibitory control and food reward in adolescents aged 12-18. Potential moderating effects of physical activity and weight status on the association between sleep, inhibitory control, and food reward were also examined. To evaluate these associations, the study employed a two-phase crossover design in which participants spent either 5 hours per night (restricted sleep) or 9 hours per night (habitual sleep) in bed for 5 nights. Participants completed a food-related inhibitory control task and a questionnaire assessing for food reward on the 6th day of each study phase. Repeated …

Bound By Silence: Psychological Effects Of The Traditional Oath Ceremony Used In The Sex Trafficking Of Nigerian Women And Girls, Jennifer Millett-Barrett

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Nigerian women and children have been trafficked to Italy over the last 30 years for commercial sexual exploitation with an alarming increase in the past three years. The Central Mediterranean Route that runs from West African countries to Italy is rife with organized crime gangs that have created a highly successful trafficking operation. As part of the recruitment process, the Nigerian mafia and its operatives exploit victims by subjecting them to a traditional religious juju oath ceremony, which is an extremely effective control mechanism to silence victims and trap them in debt bondage. This study explores the psychological effects of …

Marital Satisfaction Amongst Nigerian Immigrants In North America (Nina): Pilot Study, Jochebed B. Ade-Oshifogun, Joan Aina, Augusta Y. Olaore

Faculty Publications

Background: It has been observed that some Nigerian Families that immigrated to North America (NINA) seem to have very stressful marital relationships that lead to separation or divorce. The goal of this study was to determine the level of marital satisfaction among NINA

Method: A simple, standardized survey tool was utilized to measure the index of marital satisfaction (IMS). The score varied from 0-100 with a lower score (<30 >points) indicating marital satisfaction. A demographic questionnaire was also administered to the subjects. Descriptive data analysis and level of marital satisfaction were computed in SPSS (version 25).

Results: Forty-five of the …

Review Of Outsourced Children: Orphanage Care And Adoption In Globalizing China, Michelle Samura, Cala Gin, Dorcas Hoi, Florencia Park

Education Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Outsourced Children: Orphanage Care and Adoption in Globalizing China by Leslie K. Wang.

Youth-Sized Lab Coats: When Children Become Doctors Through Adolescent Healthcare Brokering, Lindsey Russell

Social Sciences

Child language brokering refers to the practice of children acting as linguistic and cultural mediators in general settings like school, stores, banks and other personal uses. The primary focus of this paper is “adolescent healthcare brokering,” a term coined in 2016 by researchers Jennifer R. Banas, James W. Ball, Lisa C. Wallis and Sarah Gershon, to refer to the use of children as interpreters for family and community members, specifically in the healthcare setting; these cross-lingual communications may occur during regular physician appointments, trips to the emergency department or at specialized visits in fields such as obstetrics or oncology.

This …

Cognitive Control And Context Maintenance In Individuals With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (Ocd), Lindsay Morgan Fruehauf

Theses and Dissertations

Context maintenance, an aspect of cognitive control, is the internal representation and utilization of task-relevant information that helps achieve task goals. Alterations in context maintenance may be responsible for the cognitive difficulties seen in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We used two tasks designed to measure context maintenance: a) the cued-Stroop, a single-trial version of Golden’s Stroop test that varies the cue for each trial (color-naming or word-reading), and b) the AX-CPT task, a continuous performance task that has participants respond to an “A” only when followed by an “X,” with all other non-target trials labeled as AY, BX, and …

Cross-Group Relationship Satisfaction: A Meta-Analysis, Elena Kelsey Henderson

Theses and Dissertations

Cross-group relationships are defined by romantic relationships involving two individuals from distinct racial or ethnic groups. For this paper, the terms “interethnic” and “interracial” are used as specifiers for the umbrella terms, “intergroup” and “cross-group.” Studies examining whether cross-group romantic relationships are more or less satisfying than intergroup romantic relationships have yielded discrepant findings. Through a systematic review and meta-analysis of 27 studies, we found that there are no significant difference between cross-group and intergroup relationship satisfaction (aggregate d = .024, 95% CI [-0.076; 0.123]). Tests of moderation found that the amount of Asian participants included in individual studies on …

Cultivating The Skill Of Savoring: An Internet-Delivered Intervention To Promote Well-Being, So Yeon Park

Theses and Dissertations

The skill of savoring is one practice from the positive psychology literature that appears to facilitate well-being and happiness (e.g., Cazanescu, Tecuta, Candea, & Szentagotal-Tartar, 2018). Given such findings and the emerging evidence in favor of delivering positive psychology interventions via the Internet (Layous, Nelson, & Lyubomirsky, 2013), the potential feasibility of providing researched-based savoring instruction using self-directed online resources warrants empirical examination. This pilot study examined the feasibility of a self-directed online module of instruction and exercises intended to aid in cultivating individuals’ savoring abilities. The two primary aims of the present study were: 1) to examine the feasibility …

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) …

Religion And Spirituality In Clinical Practice: An Exploration Of Reluctance Among Practitioners., David Drew, Jessica Banks

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Across the United States, an overwhelming majority of the population claim that religion and spirituality beliefs shape their worldview and assist in coping with life stressors. Yet, the literature has shown that mental health practitioners reported discomfort integrating religion and spiritually in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to explore whether license-holding mental health professionals in Southern California develop reluctance toward addressing religion/spirituality with their clients. Through snowball sampling, 52 clinicians composed of social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists, nurses, psychologists, and psychiatrists were recruited across Southern California (N =52). The participants were measured descriptively based on …

What Is The Relationship Between Religiosity, Self-Perceived Problematic Pornography Use, And Depression Over Time?, Meghan Elizabeth Maddock

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies suggest that religious individuals are more likely than non-religious individuals to perceive their pornography use as problematic. For our six-month longitudinal study, we recruited a sample of adults from Turkprime.com. We hypothesized that more religious individuals who use pornography at baseline would report higher self-perceived problematic pornography use at three months, which would be associated with higher depression at six months. We constructed and validated our own measure of self-perceived problematic pornography use, which included two factors: excessive pornography use and compulsive pornography use. We ran two separate structural equation models, one with excessive use at three months …

Deterioration In Individual Psychotherapy: The Effectiveness Of The Clinical Support Tools, Melissa Mallory White

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have found evidence that when clinicians use an evidence-based feedback system that uses Clinical Support Tools (CST) for not-on-track clients, deterioration rates fall and success rates improve (Shimokawa et al., 2010). Despite multiple studies finding evidence in support of using the CST, there has been a discrepancy between effect sizes (i.e., d = 0.5; Simon et al., 2012). As such, further replicate of these past studies is needed to discover if small effect sizes still persist and if so, what possible variables may contribute to inconsistent findings. For the current study, it was predicted that the use of the …

We Shall Overcome: The Association Between Family Of Origin Adversity, Coming To Terms, And Relationship Quality For African Americans, Kylee Marshall

Theses and Dissertations

Because adverse childhood and family of origin experiences may have implications for adult relationships, it is important to understand what can help buffer potential negative effects. The current study was designed to understand the relationship between childhood family of origin adversities, coming to terms with family of origin issues and events, and adult romantic relationship quality for African Americans (N = 1613). A path analysis was conducted using data from the RELATE assessment (see www.relate-institute.org). Results indicated that, taken together, coming to terms, self-esteem, and depression likely partially mediated the relationship between family of origin adversity and adult relationship quality. …

Illness And The American Workplace: Issues And Implications For Employers And Employees, Victoria R. Dolan

Student Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to identify American employee experiences and existing workplace policies and cultures surrounding illness, disability, and sick leave. This approach was taken in order to closely examine what looks to be working well for companies and workers, and what could benefit from a more human centric approach in regards to workplace policy and employee support programs. The study of employee experiences in particular represents a gap in the current scholarly literature regarding illness and illness policy in the American workplace, and more accurately represents the experiences for both employees and employers. Furthermore, it assists with distinguishing the types …

The Role Of Temperamental Fear And Parenting Quality On Emerging Internalizing And Externalizing Problems During Early Childhood, Tejal Patel

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Temperamental characteristics may distinguish which children are at greater risk for later psychopathology. In addition, parenting quality may interact with the association between temperament and behavior problems to increase or decrease externalizing or internalizing behaviors in children. This study examined whether mothers’ parenting quality moderated the associations between children’s temperamental fear and children’s behavior problems. The sample consisted of 143 low-income mother-child dyads who participated in various interactional tasks designed to measure mothers’ parenting and children’s temperamental fear. While children’s fearless and fearful temperament were not significantly associated with externalizing and internalizing behaviors, respectively, some significant associations emerged. Positive and …

Economic Hardship During Childhood Increases The Risk Of Premature Death Later In Life, Blakelee R. Kemp

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Experiencing economic hardship during childhood can have long lasting consequences for health. This is especially true for individuals who face multiple forms of hardship early in life. Adults over the age of 50 who reported experiencing several types of childhood economic hardship, such as moving due to financial difficulties or having poor family finances, were more likely to die over the next 10 years than adults who reported no economic hardship during childhood. In fact, experiencing two or more economic hardships during childhood was associated with a 23% increase in the risk of death from any cause. The trend indicates …