Child Psychology Commons^™

Living With Autism: The Experience Of Developmentally Healthy Adolescents And Youths Who Have A Sibling Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jessica Michel

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Researchers have proposed that typically developing siblings of individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or target siblings, are at increased risk of experiencing psychological distress particularly when compared to other clinical and community sibling groups. To date, evidence drawn from quantitative studies, utilising the target siblings’ mothers as the primary informants has been mixed. These studies have primarily focused on risk factors, while the role of protective factors in the experiences of target siblings remains unexplored in quantitative investigations. However, qualitative studies utilising target siblings as informants have emerged providing insights regarding the processes of coping and adaptation that …

Provider-Patient Communication And Transition Readiness Among Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes, Corrine N. Ahrabi-Nejad

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The majority of adolescents with type 1 diabetes do not maintain a glycemic control within the recommended range. Poor diabetes control can yield both short term and long term acute health complications, making it critical for adolescents to achieve diabetes control. During this same time in development, adolescents are preparing for the transition from pediatric to adult diabetes care. Adolescents often transition to adult care based on their age rather than their transition readiness, which may result in a lack of support from their pediatric provider, potentially exacerbating their already poor glycemic control. Transitioning from pediatric care to adult care …

Evaluating Feedback During The Step It Up! Game To Increase Physical Activity Exhibited By Elementary School Students During Recess, Carla Burji

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Children who are physically inactive are more likely to suffer numerous health complications such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. The Good Behavior Game (GBG) has been identified as an effective method for decreasing inappropriate behaviors and increasing appropriate behaviors in a variety of settings; however, few studies have used the GBG to increase physical activity. Furthermore, no previous research has evaluated the effects of feedback while playing the GBG to increase physical activity. Some research suggests certain characteristics of feedback tend to produce consistent changes in behaviors such as providing feedback immediately and privately. The purpose of the current …

The Utility Of Neuropsychological Measures On The Differential Diagnosis Of Adhd-Inattentive Type Versus Anxiety In A Pediatric Outpatient Behavioral Health Population, Emily Stapleton

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

This study examined the differences in inattention and executive function between a group of children diagnosed with ADHD and a group diagnosed with anxiety disorders to establish differential profiles for these two disorders. This study evaluated the differences among children with ADHD and anxiety disorders, using parent-report and performance-based measures of inattention and anxiety. A retrospective chart review was completed for a total of 58 patients who met the criteria for an anxiety disorder or for ADHD-C and ADHD-I at the completion of the neuropsychological assessment. Analyses compared the ADHD group and the Anxiety group on select scales and subscales …

The Role Of Culture In Theory Of Mind, Leslie Linares Pava

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Theory of Mind (ToM) is defined as the ability to understand our own and otherpeople’s mental representations, characterised by individual perspectives and motives,with potential for directing human behaviour (Kuntoro, Saraswati, Peterson & Slaughter,2013). Over the past 30 years this concept has captured the attention of cognitive anddevelopmental psychologists and it has been established that typically developed childrenfrom individualistic, mainly from Anglo (English-speaking) countries are most likely toacquire this ability at the age of four.

In the past decade, a growing interest in differences between children fromindividualistic and collestivistic cultural orientations led researchers to question the extentto which ToM is influenced …

Parental Bonding: Validity, Stability And Predictor Of Mental And Physical Health During Pregnancy, Delicia Dorothy Pereira

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Background: Parental bonding during childhood is known to have a significant impact on an individual’s life-long health. The influence of early parent-child relationships may be particularly strong in mothers who are pregnant with their first child. In this study, these emotional bonds were explored using the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), a retrospective and quantitative measure of parental bonding. The PBI has not been validated in a pregnant population, nor has its consistency been examined across the birth of a child. Therefore, this study: i) validates the factor structure of the PBI for the first time in an Australian population of …

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Neuroadaptation, And Resilience: Does Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Go Far Enough?, Tracie Abbott

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) pose a significant public health risk. Current literature suggests ACEs have the potential to significantly disrupt sensitive periods of neurodevelopment. These neuroadaptations can result in social, emotional, and cognitive impairments that place a child at a significantly greater risk for adopting health risk behaviors and lifestyle factors that lead to the major causes of disease, disability, social problems, and early death in adults. Mental health clinicians have a unique opportunity to intervene by working with families to alter the trajectories of the child’s health risk behaviors and lifestyle factors. Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), a …

Speaking From Places: A Phenomenological Deconstructive Study Of Children’S Places, Child-Centric Methods, And Politics., Sugandh Dixit

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation adopts an innovative phenomenological and deconstructive methodology to create a child-centric research process sensitive to facilitating, integrating, and representing children’s voices in designing their school playground. The study developed and employed two novel child-centric methods, an Embedded Walk and a Communal Child-Map Project in order to integrate parents’ and children’s experiences of the school spaces the authorities planned to renovate. Both methods reveal and complicate the socio-political dynamics that structure children’s, parents’, and researchers’ stances towards children’s places and worlds. During the Embedded Walk, children led their parents through their play spaces and they collaboratively documented the childrens’ …

Gaze Patterns Of Social And Nonsocial Stimuli: A Possible Early Marker For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Ashley Rose Doll

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The push for early identification and diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has led to new developments in this area of research. Eye tracking is a promising behavioral screening measure that has been heavily investigated for over a decade. Differences in eye gaze between typically developing (TD) children and children with ASD when viewing social and nonsocial videos have been observed, but only within videos of children playing as social stimuli and with geometric shapes as nonsocial stimuli (Pierce et al., 2016; Shaffer et al., 2017). In addition to social stimuli and geometric shapes, the current study expanded on previous …

Early Childhood Teacher Turnover In Nebraska, Amy M. Roberts, Kathleen C. Gallagher, Susan Sarver, Alexandra Daro

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

Teacher turnover is a serious challenge across early childhood settings. Turnover can be expensive for early childhood programs, burdensome to staff, and harmful to children throughout the nation. Nebraska is no exception. This research brief describes teacher turnover in the state’s early care and education settings, including licensed child care, state-funded PreK, and Kindergarten through Grade 3.

Research Questions The following research questions were asked across early childhood programs (licensed child care, state-funded PreK, and K-3): 1. What was the average rate of annual teacher turnover? 2. According to administrators, what was the most common reason teachers left their employment? …

Alcohol Expectancies Among Students In The City Of Pokhara, Nepal, Niran Tamrakar

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Alcohol plays a vital role in various aspects of Nepalese society. It also presents public health risks. Though adolescents in Nepal are at high risk for negative consequences from alcohol use, there is limited information available on their alcohol behaviors and beliefs. The present study aims to describe alcohol expectancies among a sample of secondary students in Nepal to identify and understand motivations underlying their alcohol-related behaviors. A self-report survey was administered to 591 students from different Englishmedium schools in the city of Pokhara. This study began with the Chinese Adolescent Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (CAAEQ), then used qualitative methods to …

Structural Model Of Child Routines And Self-Regulation In Relation To Parenting And Externalizing Behavior Problems In Young Children, Lovina R. Bater

Dissertations

The relationship between parenting practices and externalizing behavior problems in preschool children is well established; however, the mechanisms that explain this relationship are less understood. It is suggested that the structure and predictability created by child routines allow children the opportunity to become aware of and learn to regulate their behaviors accordingly, yet only a couple of studies have examined this relationship. Therefore, this study examined competing models (i.e., direct, indirect, and serial mediation models) to help determine which model captures the relationship between the variables of interest. It was hypothesized that each model would have good model fit but …

Associations Of Specific And Multiple Types Of Childhood Abuse And Neglect With Personality Pathology Among Adolescents Referred For Mental Health Services, Ruby Charak, Noor B. Tromp, Hans M. Koot

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

The present study investigated the unique association between five types of childhood abuse and neglect and 18 lower-order dimensions of personality pathology, and using latent classes analysis (LCA) explored patterns of childhood abuse or neglect experiences. Further differences across latent classes on personality pathology traits, personality disorder symptom count and a diagnosis of personality disorder were examined. Participants were 178 adolescents and young adults (12–22 years; M = 16.02, 65.7% girls; 83% Axis I/II disorder) from the Netherlands referred for mental health services. Emotional abuse was uniquely associated with 11 personality pathology traits; sexual and physical were associated with three …

The Role Of Dialect Words In Children’S Social Decisions, Madison Rose Myers-Burg

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent research suggests that young children are capable of distinguishing between phonetically dissimilar spoken accents, yet have difficulty distinguishing between phonetically similar accents (Wagner, Clopper, & Pate, 2013). The present study aimed to determine whether the presence of dialect-specific vocabulary enhances young children’s ability to categorize speakers. Participants completed four training trials in which they were familiarized with photos of two children: one of whom used American English labels for test objects and one of whom used British English labels. After training trials, participants completed eight test trials in which they were asked to infer which target child would use …

Measuring Novel Antecedents Of Mental Illness: The Questionnaire Of Unpredictability In Childhood, Laura M. Glynn, Hal S. Stern, Mariann A. Howland, Victoria B. Risbrough, Dewleen G. Baker, Caroline M. Nievergelt, Tallie Z. Baram, Elysia P. Davis

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Increasing evidence indicates that, in addition to poverty, maternal depression, and other well-established factors, unpredictability of maternal and environmental signals early in life influences trajectories of brain development, determining risk for subsequent mental illness. However, whereas most risk factors for later vulnerability to mental illness are readily measured using existing, clinically available tools, there are no similar measures for assessing early-life unpredictability. Here we validate the Questionnaire of Unpredictability in Childhood (QUIC) and examine its associations with mental health in the context of other indicators of childhood adversity (e.g., traumatic life events, socioeconomic status, and parenting quality). The QUIC was …

Overcoming Exposure To Complex Stressors: An Examination Of Protective Coping Mechanisms For Low-Income Urban African American Youth, Molly Cory

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Low-income urban African American youth experience multiple uncontrollable stressors (e.g. community violence) that may then impact the severity of controllable stressors (e.g. school stressors) and combine to produce negative life outcomes. In light of these negative outcomes, it is important to understand individual protective factors, and the coping response in particular. Past research has emphasized the advantages of primary control engagement coping, but recent evidence suggests that low-income urban African American youth facing complex and uncontrollable stressors may benefit more from disengagement strategies in response to uncontrollable stressors. Although it is expected this population would additionally benefit from applying engagement …

Chronic Life Stress And Change In Stress Response Functioning In Urban Youth: The Role Of Social Support And Gender, Heather M. Marshall

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) has been established as a bio-marker of stress reactivity in acute stressor tasks. Much less research exists exploring whether sAA is bio-marker for chronic stress exposure, and therefore, allostatic load. Extant research is inconsistent with some evidence to support chronic stress exposure having an impact on sAA reactivity and diurnal levels of sAA, while other studies have failed to support this theory. Social support is regarded as a protective factor against stress, mental health, and physical health consequences. It has been suggested that gender may play a role in the utilization and benefits of social support networks. …

Language Counts: Early Language Mediates The Relationship Between Parent Education And Children's Math Ability, Emily Slusser, Andrew Ribner, Anna Shusterman

Faculty Publications

Children's early math skills have been hailed as a powerful predictor of academic success. Disparities in socioeconomic context, however, also have dramatic consequences on children's learning. It is therefore critical to investigate both of these distinct contributors in order to better understand the early foundations of children's academic outcomes. This study tests an integrated model of children's developing math ability so as to (1) identify the specific skills and abilities most clearly linked to early math achievement and (2) measure the influence of children's socioeconomic context on each of these skills. We first evaluated the early vocabulary, number word knowledge …

Early Childhood Stressors And Negative Personality Behaviors, Kyler Joachim

Scholars Week

Early Childhood Stressors and Negative Personality Behaviors

Research is moving away from static to contextual models of understanding personality development, making it imperative to consider daily occurrences, not just biology or significant traumatic events, in personality formation. Temperament has long been considered the innate source of behaviors that later solidify into personality, but behaviors themselves and the conditions that produce and reinforce them are shaped by the daily environment. This behavior-environment interaction is especially important for children experiencing childhood stressors like poverty, food insecurity, and parental aggravation. Non-clinical personality related behaviors may arise from these stressors, which can lead to …

Head Start And Internalizing/Externalizing Behaviors, Camila Ferreira

Scholars Week

Children who attend Head Start program are impacted in externalizing/internalizing behaviors, and many other areas. The abstract explains how the study analyzes these impacts, and how temperament and parental involvement also play a role in behaviors.