Child Psychology Commons^™

The Us In Uterus: A Collaborative Autoethnography Of Psychologists Advocating For Reproductive Justice, Dena Abbott, Rin Nguyen, Carrie Bohmer, Millie L. Myers, Jessica A. Boyles, Caitlin M. Mercier

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

In light of the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, millions of people with uteruses have been forced to navigate precarious access to reproductive care. Although health service psychologists have an ethical responsibility to engage in reproductive justice advocacy, training programs often do not adequately address sexual and reproductive health. Therefore, we sought to better understand how health service psychologists’ personal and professional experiences influence each other and explore the ways in which we as reproductive beings and advocates sustain ourselves amidst tremendous sociopolitical uncertainty. In order to do so, we employed a feminist collaborative autoethnography approach …

Enhancing Nonverbal Communication Through Virtual Human Technology: Protocol For A Mixed Methods Study, Analay Perez, Michael D. Fetters, John W. Creswell, Mark Scerbo, Frederick W. Kron, Richard Gonzalez, Lawrence An, Masahito Jimbo, Predrag Klasnja, Timothy C. Guetterman

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Background: Communication is a critical component of the patient-provider relationship; however, limited research exists on the role of nonverbal communication. Virtual human training is an informatics-based educational strategy that offers various benefits in communication skill training directed at providers. Recent informatics-based interventions aimed at improving communication have mainly focused on verbal communication, yet research is needed to better understand how virtual humans can improve verbal and nonverbal communication and further elucidate the patient-provider dyad.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to enhance a conceptual model that incorporates technology to examine verbal and nonverbal components of communication and develop a …

Indigenous Cultural Identity Protects Against Intergenerational Transmission Of Aces Among Indigenous Caregivers And Their Children, Katie Edwards, Emily A. Waterman, Natira Mullet, Ramona Herrington, Sloane Cornelius, Skyler Hopfauf, Preciouse Trujillo, Lorey A. Wheeler, Arielle R. Deutsch

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

A large body of empirical research has demonstrated that caregiver adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) predict ACEs in one’s child, a phenomenon known as the intergenerational transmission of ACEs. Little of this empirical research, however, has focused specifically on Indigenous peoples despite a growing body of theoretical literature and the wisdom of Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers that speaks to the presence of this phenomenon within Indigenous communities as well as the protective role of Indigenous cultural identity in preventing the intergenerational transmission of ACEs. The purpose of the current study was to conduct an empirical evaluation of this hypothesis, specifically …

The Impact Of Perceived Social Support On Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Elizabeth Eng

Dissertations and Theses

Individuals who have experienced repeated and interpersonal trauma often develop symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), along with additional features relating to disturbances in self-organization (DSO), which is now known as Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD). CPTSD has been seen to be associated with adverse outcomes such as somatic symptoms, attachment insecurity, and overall lower life satisfaction (Karatzias et al., 2018; Kuhar & Zager Kocjan 2022; Maercker et al, 2022). Due to these additional features relating to DSO, CPTSD has been identified as distinct from PTSD, and so it has been important to investigate these unique symptoms. One such symptom …

How Adults Use Reddit To Cope With Being Children Of Divorce, Tamera A. Joseph

Dissertations and Theses

How do adults on social media describe their experiences as a child of divorce? The purpose of this study was to explore how posts on the social media platform Reddit are used by people to reflect on their parents’ divorce when they were younger. Reddit is a social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. The platform allows users to post content such as links, posts, images, and discussion boards. Posts on the website are organized by subjects called “subreddits”. In these subreddits, users discuss topics from news, philosophy, entertainment, and life experiences. Existing public data of archived and …

Interaction Of Adhd Severity And Neighborhood-Level Ses On Preschoolers’ Risk For Obesity At School-Age, Ramya V. Jayanthi

Dissertations and Theses

Background: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) oftentimes emerges during the preschool years. School-age children with ADHD are at an increased risk for obesity as compared to their non-ADHD peers, but it is unknown if this risk is observed in younger children. Socioeconomic status (SES) is negatively related to both ADHD and obesity, but how SES interacts with ADHD to affect later obesity is unknown. This study aimed to examine if preschool ADHD diagnosis and severity interacted with neighborhood-level SES to increase risk for overweight/obesity and greater growth in BMI at school-age. We hypothesized that ADHD severity/diagnosis would be associated with greater growth …

An Exploration Of The Relation Between Psychological Functioning And Reactions To Global Climate Change For Late Adolescents In New York City, Emma Routhier

Dissertations and Theses

Climate change poses a potentially unique generational crisis, as it threatens the viability of the very world that the current adolescent generation stands to inherit. While some studies have begun to appreciate the specific experience of adolescents as it pertains to climate change, they attend to young people’s behavior or self-reported feelings. The present study aims to employ psychoanalytic constructs, with attention to the unconscious determinants of psychic life and behavior, in an empirical examination of this topic, and to introduce a level of sensitivity to the vicissitudes of the adolescent period that have not previously been addressed in the …

Relation Between Parent Feeding And Emotional Overeating In Preschoolers As Mediated By Emotion Regulation, Lindsay Nicole Baker

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emotional overeating is defined as eating in response to negative emotions, and the shift from emotional undereating to overeating around the preschool years indicates environmental influences. Parent feeding practices such as using food to regulate emotions and behavior may impede children’s ability to regulate their emotions, leading to emotional overeating. This study analyzed the relation between parent feeding practices, child emotion regulation, and emotional overeating in 4- and 5-year-old children. For study 1, mothers of 4- and 5-year-old children completed online questionnaires through MTurk and Prolific. Questionnaires measured parent feeding practices, emotion regulation, and emotional overeating. Parent use of food …

Using A Single Measure To Assess Adherence And Differentiation In Family Therapy For Adolescent Externalizing Problems, Stephanie Violante

Theses and Dissertations

Family therapy is considered a well-established treatment approach for adolescent externalizing problems; however, research examining its effectiveness when delivered in routine practice settings has produced mixed results. The accurate interpretation of these inconsistent results requires an understanding of what therapeutic techniques were delivered, including those that were prescribed (i.e., adherence) and those that were non-prescribed (i.e., differentiation), suggesting the need for a measure that can concurrently assess treatment adherence and differentiation. The current study examined the extent to which an observational measure of an array of therapeutic techniques for youth emotional and behavioral problems (the Therapy Process Observational Coding System …

The Impact Of A Parent-Only Pediatric Obesity Intervention Program On Quality Of Life In Racially Diverse Children, Taylor Vashro

Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric obesity has been associated with significant decrements in pediatric quality of life (QOL) comparable with severe pediatric diseases such as cancer. Parenting interventions have yielded health benefits for children with obesity; however, few studies have investigated the impact of parent-focused interventions on QOL in children with overweight and obesity. This study investigated the impact of a 6-week intensive parenting intervention program on the QOL of 5-12 year old, predominantly Black children with overweight and obesity. Parents were randomized into either the parenting intervention (NOURISH+) or a control group, and QOL, as well as variables related to child and parenting …

Profiles Of Family Functioning In Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Patients: Longitudinal Associations With Child Well-Being, Sydney Sumrall

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to assess 1) patterns of family functioning and 2) longitudinal associations between family functioning patterns and well-being in a vulnerable cohort of children with chronic illness. Caregivers of hematology (16.4%) and oncology (83.6%) patients ages 7-20 (N=55; M_age = 13.3 [SD = 2.7]; 52.7% female; 45.5% non-Latinx White, 38.2% Black or African American, 12.7% Latinx, 1.8% Asian, and 1.8% multi-racial,) reported on family functioning via the Family Assessment Device. Cluster analyses identified three mutually exclusive clusters: one high adaptive group, one moderate adaptive group, and one maladaptive group. Group membership was not significantly …

Witnessing Community Violence And Its Consequences: Changes Across Middle School, Sarah Pittman

Theses and Dissertations

Community violence exposure is prevalent among youth residing in economically marginalized communities that have high rates of violence. Witnessing community violence has been concurrently associated with persistent adverse consequences. However, few studies have applied a developmental psychopathology framework and examined dynamic developmental processes between witnessing community violence and outcomes over time. Moreover, most prior studies have used analyses that assume that associations between witnessing violence and outcomes are the same for all adolescents, which is inconsistent with both developmental theories and theories specific to community violence exposure. The goal of this study was to apply a developmental psychopathological framework to …

Examining Allostatic Load As A Biological Mechanism Linking Childhood Adversity And Pediatric Pain, Angela Pascale

Theses and Dissertations

Despite a strong literature base relating childhood adversity to pain, the biological mechanisms underlying these associations remain unclear. Theoretical and preliminary empirical evidence supports allostatic load as a potential biological mechanism, though prior studies investigating associations between childhood adversity and elevated allostatic load and/or between elevated allostatic load and poorer pain outcomes have primarily focused on adult populations and individual allostatic load indicators rather than a comprehensive index. Thus, the current study built upon prior literature by testing longitudinal relationships between childhood adversity and multiple biological indicators spanning across physiological systems (i.e., comprehensive allostatic load index) and pediatric pain outcomes …

A Preliminary Investigation Of A Brief, Virtual, Behavioral Parent Training Program On Parents’ Self-Efficacy And Young Children’S Behavior, Taylor Daniels

Masters Theses

A single-case, multiple-baseline research design was used to evaluate the effects of a two-session, virtual behavioral parent training program on parents’ self-efficacy and their children’s compliance and appropriate behavior. Participants included five parent-child dyads recruited from a grant-funded preschool program in Northern Illinois. When the parent training program was implemented, parent self-efficacy increased across four of the five parent participants (using daily behavior ratings). Effect size comparisons for self-efficacy reflected large effects for three parents. Further, child compliance increased across four of the five child participants and child appropriate behavior increased across three of the five child participants (using daily …

Childhood Mental Health Outcomes Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: An Evidence-To-Practice Review Leona J. Keller, Ms, Atc*; Sooji M. Berthiaume, Ms, Atc†; Karis J. L, Leona J. Keller, Sooji M. Berthiaume, Karis J. Landry, Alyssa L. Bolno, Zachary K. Winkelmann

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Concussions can have lasting symptoms in children such as depression, anxiety, hyperactivity, or failure to control anger. If diminished mental health outcomes are not monitored and do not improve after concussion, children may need additional treatment as a result of sequela. The purpose of the guiding systematic review was to determine if there are increased mental health symptoms in pediatric patients who sustained a concussion as compared to pediatric patients who have not sustained a concussion. The guiding systematic review and meta-analysis authors used seven different databases for articles published from 1980 to 2020. Selected articles had mental health outcomes …

Child Psychological Well-Being And Adult Health Behavior And Body Mass Index, Julia Boehm, Farah Qureshi, Laura D. Kubzansky

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: Psychological well-being (PWB) is linked with health behaviors among adults, but it is unclear if childhood PWB prospectively predicts healthy adulthood biobehavioral profiles. Such evidence may identify developmental windows for establishing positive health trajectories across the lifespan. Using data spanning 30 years, we investigated whether PWB at age 11 was associated with health behaviors and body mass index (BMI) at ages 33 and 42. We hypothesized children with higher versus lower PWB would engage in healthier behaviors, have lower BMI in adulthood, and be more likely to maintain optimal levels over time. Method: Data were from 4,728 participants of …

Investigating The Quality Of Life For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Scale Using Rasch Methodology, Laura C. Chezan, Jin Liu, Ruiqin Gao, Erik Drasgow

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Our purpose in this study was to provide additional psychometric evidence of the Quality of Life for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (QOLASD-C) scale. We used Rasch modeling to investigate the QOLASD-C functioning, the characteristics of the items comprising the scale, and the item functioning across subgroups of children with ASD based on gender and race/ethnicity. Results showed that QOLASD-C was unidimensional, met the local independence assumption, and measured quality of life (QOL). The items showed excellent fit to the model and good discriminating ability between low and high QOL. Most items showed a moderate difficulty level. No differential item …

The Origins Of Dance: Characterizing The Development Of Infants' Earliest Dance Behavior, Minju Kim, Adena Schachner

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Dance is a universal human behavior and a crucial component of human musicality. When and how does the motivation and tendency to move to music develop? How does this behavior change as a process of maturation and learning? We characterize infants’ earliest dance behavior, leveraging parents’ extensive at-home observations of their children. Parents of infants aged 0–24 months (N = 278, 82.7% White, 84.5% in the United States, 46.0% of household incomes ≥ $100,000) were surveyed regarding their child’s current and earliest dance behavior (movement by the child, during music, that the parent considered dance), motor development, and their …

The Influences Of Bias-Based Bullying And Teacher-Student Relationships On School Belonging, Charlotte J. Moss

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

School belonging is an important factor to examine when considering the well-being of school-aged children. Factors that may influence a student’s sense of school belonging include bias-based victimization and the quality of teacher-student relationships. Many studies have examined these three variables independently or have analyzed the interaction of two of these variables. However, there are very few studies that have specifically looked at the effects of bias-based victimization and the quality of teacher-student relationships on school belonging. In order to fill these gaps in the research, this study sampled participants using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), an online crowdsourcing platform that …

Can Gesture Input Support Toddlers’ Fast Mapping?, Lori G. Foran, Brenda L. Beverly, John Shelley-Tremblay, Julie M. Estis

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Forty-eight toddlers participated in a word-learning task to assess gesture input on mapping nonce words to unfamiliar objects. Receptive fast mapping and expressive naming for target object-word pairs were tested in three conditions – with a point, with a shape gesture, and in a no-gesture, word-only condition. No statistically significant effect of gesture for receptive fast-mapping was found but age was a factor. Two year olds outperformed one year olds for both measures. Only one girl in the one-year-old group correctly named any items. There was a significant interaction between gesture and gender for expressive naming. Two-year old girls were …