Child Psychology Commons^™

Empowerment Pedagogy: A Mixed Methods Grounded Theory Approach To Developing A Pedagogical Framework For Empowering Middle School Aged Students, Henry James Bryant

Educational Studies Dissertations

The current state of adolescent well-being in “post-COVID” America demonstrates a need for widespread intervention to aid students in coping with trauma and mental health issues. In a review of the literature, feelings of empowerment have been found to be antithetical to feelings of trauma. Moreover, the benefits of empowerment in terms of adolescent mental health, academic achievement, and behaviors are well documented. However, strategies designed to impact students’ feelings of empowerment have not been well established, and programs that are presently offered are often inaccessible due to cost, public opinion, and a need for whole school adoption. In this …

“I Don’T Want To Be The Bad Kind Of Special”: The Lived Experiences Of Autistic Youth In Extracurricular Programs In Their Communities, Catherine A. Sargent Ph.D.

Counseling and Psychology Dissertations

Autistic youth face barriers to participation and belonging in community settings. Historically, autism research has privileged researcher perspectives and deficit-based frameworks, often excluding the authentic voices of autistic individuals, particularly young people. This qualitative, phenomenological study sought to address that gap by exploring the lived experiences of autistic youth (ages 13–18) participating in extracurricular community programs in Massachusetts. Framed by critical disability theory, critical autism studies, ecological systems theory, and intersectionality, the study examined how autistic youth experience inclusion, connection, and self-expression within programs designed largely for neurotypical participants.

Seven autistic youths contributed to this research through participant-generated photographs and …

Wilderness Therapy As An Intervention For Teens Who Are At The End Of Their Rope, Blake C. Neal, Heather Summers

Lynchburg Journal of Medical Science

Abstract

Wilderness therapy, treatment offered in a natural setting, is offered as an alternative to traditional treatment methods (Lodato, N., Blivas, R., & Blivas, N. L. and R., 2024). This model is often used as a last resort for teens who are unsuccessful in other environments. However, when used as a blanket treatment model for all mental health concerns, there is a risk for greater harm inflicted on participants. A case study approach provides evidence of a teen in one of these settings struggling with an eating disorder and self-harm. Although potentially helpful with some concerns, we learn from this …

Laila: A Doll Memoir Of 1947 Partition Of India And Pakistan, Maleeha Malik, Maleeha Fatima Malik

Children's Literature (MFA) Theses

This abstract examines a creative and critical work centered on the 1947 Partition of India, which displaced approximately fourteen million people and caused one million deaths. The narrative introduces Laila, an anthropomorphized doll who functions as both witness and archive, embodying the memories and traumas of multiple child survivors. Through Laila’s journey across India, Pakistan, and the diaspora, the text explores themes of identity, belonging, loss, and intergenerational memory.

Blending personal family history with historical analysis, the author situates Laila within lived experiences of migration, silence, and religious marginalization, particularly as part of the Ahmadi Muslim community. The narrative foregrounds …

The Dunning-Kruger Effect In Sixth Grade Adolescents: Improving Metacognition For Self-Regulated Learning, Julie H. Chen

Scripps Senior Theses

The Dunning-Kruger (DK) effect is a cognitive bias where low-performing individuals overestimate their own abilities, and top-performing individuals underestimate their own abilities relative to their peers. The purpose of this proposed study is to investigate the DK effect in sixth grade adolescents and to use metacognition as an intervention to improve self-assessment calibrations. This study will investigate adolescents in Piaget’s formal operational stage, aiming to improve metacognition levels. The study will occur over 12 weeks, and participants will be given a preparation handbook with or without metacognition activities for the purpose of preparing for the California Assessment of Student Performance …

The Effects Of Strong Parental Support And Societal Support Compared To Low Or Absent Support In Lgbtqia+ Youth, Kassandra Bautista

Nursing | Senior Theses

Background: LGBTQIA+ youth with unsupportive backgrounds face negative outcomes in their mental health. Past studies share that LGBTQIA+ youth have increased symptoms of mental illness including depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors related to unsupportive environments among parents, peers, and society. Objective: By advocating for this minority group through education and culturally competent care, healthcare providers can reduce negative outcomes in the mental and physical well-being of the youth. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to address the impact of parental and societal support in LGBTQIA+ mental health, and to implement interventions and increase awareness of this issue. …

Origins Of Musical Preferences: Infants' Responses To Sung Vocal Timbre, Hayley Leopold

Honors Theses

Understanding the origins of aesthetic preferences remains an important question in psychology, particularly in domains such as music where both biological constraints and cultural learning play important roles. While adults exhibit consistent preferences for certain musical features, including aspects of vocal quality or timbre, it remains unclear whether these preferences reflect early-developing perceptual biases or emerge through experience. The present study addresses this question by adopting a developmental paradigm previously used in the visual domain to examine whether infants’ responses to music align with adult aesthetic evaluations.

Twenty three infants between 8 and 12 months of age participated in a …

Assessing Positive Digital Experiences: A Spanish Validation Of The Digital Flourishing Scale For Adolescents, Alfredo Zarco-Alpuente, Victor Ciudad Fernández, Jasmina Rosič, Sophie Janicke-Bowles, Tamara Escrivà-Martínez, Paula Samper-García

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Background: Adolescents are immersed in digital communication, which can benefit or harm their well-being. Digital flourishing captures positive perceptions of this communication-connectedness, authentic self-presentation, positive social comparison, civil participation, and self-control-and how it contributes to well-being. In Spain there is still no validated instrument for adolescents. Method: We adapted and validated the Digital Flourishing Scale for Adolescents (DFSA) for Spanish adolescents. Study 1 involved a pilot survey (n = 13) and cognitive interviews (n = 10) to improve clarity and cultural relevance. Study 2 used a cross-sectional survey (n = 1,786) to examine the DFSA’s latent structure, measurement invariance by …

Examining Connections Between Therapist Self-Disclosure, The Therapeutic Relationship, And Cultural Mistrust In A Sample Of Black And White Emerging Adults, Sarah Mitty Mcnamee

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

This analogue study examined how two different types of therapist self-disclosure (TSD) influenced the assessment of the working alliance and real relationship by observer participants, and how these variables were impacted by a participant’s race and experience of cultural mistrust. A sample of N = 339 Black and White adults watched one of two mock therapy videos, depicting either a non-immediate TSD or an Alliance- Focused Training (AFT)-consistent immediate TSD in response to the patient’s rupture markers. Based on the video, each with the same White therapist and bi-racial patient, participants rated the observed working alliance and real relationship. Participants …

Childhood Through Motion: Reimagining Everyday Mobility Corridors For Learning, Independence, And Exploration, Olivia Liljegren

City and Regional Planning

This project proposes the Childhood Through Motion (CTM) Framework, which reimagines how everyday mobility corridors can support children’s development through repeated engagement with integrated interventions along key neighborhood routes. Building on existing approaches such as Safe Routes to School and Playful Learning Landscapes, the framework integrates mobility, play, learning, and social interaction into a connected system of corridors and nodes distributed throughout a neighborhood street network. Rather than treating mobility, play, and learning as separate, the framework explores how developmental opportunities can be integrated into the public spaces children use every day.

The framework is organized through five guiding principles …

Bilingual Beginnings: Expressive Language And Socio-Emotional Development In Early Childhood, Molly C. Mccormick

Scripps Senior Theses

Although research on bilingualism has expanded rapidly in recent years, the majority focuses on cognitive advantages or receptive vocabulary, or the words children understand. Far less attention has been given to how expressive language, the words children produce, and its potential role as the mechanism linking bilingual exposure to socio-emotional development. Although dual-language learners sometimes appear to have relatively limited expressive vocabularies in one language, these differences tend to reflect patterns of language use and input quality rather than true developmental delays. Even so, temporary differences in expressive skills can be especially meaningful during children’s formative years, when they rely …

A Systematic Review Of Socioeconomic Status On Infant-Directed Speech, Laura K. Flaker

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project reviews the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on infant-directed speech (IDS) and examines potential interventions aimed at increasing the use of IDS. Existing research indicates that caregivers from higher-SES backgrounds tend to use more frequent and higher-quality IDS, including greater vocabulary diversity and more responsive interactions, compared to caregivers from lower-SES backgrounds. These differences are often influenced by factors such as parental stress, limited time, and access to resources. Understanding the differences in IDS is crucial to reducing disparities in language development. Findings from this review suggest that interventions such as increasing access to mental health services and …

A Child On Stand: The Impact Of Experiencing Trauma On Children’S Testimonial Efficacy In Legal Proceedings, Morgan Sweger

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Children who are victims of physical, sexual, emotional, or verbal abuse are nearly always left deeply traumatized by such events. In extreme cases, abused children may be asked to testify against their abuser(s) in legal proceedings, recounting their trauma in front of a room full of strangers. For some, the trauma of abuse may influence a child’s ability to effectively recall and describe their experiences and for others, the process of participating in legal proceedings creates deeper wounds. Research has aimed to understand whether children lack the ability to contribute sufficient testimonies during investigations of abuse and how these investigations …

The Implementation Of A Token Economy On The Behaviors Of Children With Adhd, Dominic M. Hritsko

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Saturday Treatment Program (SatTP) is a ten-day treatment program that was designed through the Cleveland Clinic and takes place at a middle school on Saturdays during the school year. The program design follows that of the Summer Treatment Program, where counselors utilize a comprehensive point system that is part of a token economy to evaluate children’s behaviors (ADHD summer treatment program). I will be working with other counselors led by Dr. Hallie Fetterman Ph.D., a pediatric psychologist, to deliver the program and evaluate the behaviors of sixteen children. The program is split into three age groups: six through …

Examining The Effects Of Black Parenting Styles Of Self-Esteems, Alexander J. Ruffin-Stcyr, Lorris Robinson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study examined the relationships between parenting styles, Afrocentric values, and psychological flourishing among African American families. Grounded in cultural and developmental perspectives, the study focused on how social and cultural contexts shape well-being outcomes. Parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive) and Afrocentric values were explored as key predictors of flourishing.

Using a quantitative survey design, data was collected from 86 African American adults who completed standardized measures assessing parenting style, cultural values, and flourishing. Correlational analyses revealed that permissive parenting was significantly and negatively associated with flourishing, indicating that higher levels of permissive parenting were linked to lower well-being. …

Hidden Wounds: Exploring Moral Injury In Childhood Exposure To Domestic Violence, Megan Elizabeth Denny

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The profound impacts of Childhood Exposure to Domestic Violence (CEDV) have been documented extensively, revealing long-term psychological effects such as the potential development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and increased likelihood of future victimization or perpetration of violence. Yet, the concept of moral injury (MI) traditionally explored in military and healthcare contexts, remains significantly underexplored in populations exposed to CEDV. This study examines the relevance of MI among individuals who experienced domestic violence (DV) during their youth. The research focused on two primary aims: (1) to describe the level and variability of moral injury-related distress among adults with histories of …

Examining Bidirectional Associations Between Mothers’ Beliefs About Emotions And Child Social-Emotional Outcomes, Sydney Sumrall

Theses and Dissertations

Social-emotional (SE) skills encompass the ability to recognize and regulate emotions, manage behavior to act on goals, and maintain social relationships (Abrahams et al., 2019). Parents play a crucial role in child SE skill development. According to theories of emotion socialization (ES), the beliefs parents hold about emotions shape parents’ ES behaviors, including teaching children how to understand and express feelings (Eisenberg et al., 1998; Gottman, 1996). Because emotion socialization practices are influenced by cultural values (Raval & Walker, 2019), the parent beliefs and ES strategies that best support children’s SE skill development may vary across families’ racial backgrounds. Although …

The Relationships Among Adverse Childhood Experiences, Medical Usage, And Somatic Symptoms: Stress And Coping As Mediating Factors, Samantha Harper

Honors Undergraduate Theses

It has been estimated that the costs of childhood adversity amount to $14.1 trillion annually (Peterson et al., 2023). Nearly two-thirds of people report adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), including abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction, that reverberate well beyond childhood (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2023; Felitti et al., 1998). Greater exposure to ACEs is linked consistently to poorer health outcomes, including somatic symptoms or physical symptoms with no organic cause (Katon & Walker, 1998; Sansone et al., 2001; Stuart & Noyes, 1999; Waldinger, 2006). The present study examined the relationships among ACEs, somatic symptoms, and healthcare utilization in …

Expanding Assessment Of Adverse Childhood Expereneces(Aces) To Include Childhood Disabilties And Medical Trauma., Cassidy E. Chergi

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are considered a fair predictor of future physical and mental health outcomes. However, historically, the ACEs framework has not fully incorporated chronic stressors associated with childhood physical disabilities and health conditions. This study proposes an expansion of ACEs to include serious childhood medical issues and events as well as disability-related adversity—such as early experiences of functional limitations, social adversity, and system-wide barriers. This study also explores the correlation between these serious medical issues and disability-related adversity in childhood and psychological issues in early adulthood, including signs of trauma, depression, and anxiety. Understanding these relationships can contribute …

Arts Enriched Head Start Preschool And School Readiness: Are Benefits Accentuated For Children Facing Greater Economic Hardship?, Isabella Capera

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Children growing up in impoverished and low-income households face opportunity gaps that limit their school readiness (Blair & Raver, 2015). Head Start preschool, which serves families facing economic hardship, has been demonstrated to reduce these gaps and enhance school readiness. Further, multiple studies have suggested that arts enriched Head Start may offer particular benefits (e.g., Brown et al., 2010, 2018; Lobo & Winsler, 2008). Yet research to date is limited and has not examined whether the benefits of arts enriched preschool may be uniquely helpful for children facing the greatest economic risk. The present study examines growth in school readiness …