Clinical Psychology Commons^™

Feasibility Of Staff Training In Facilitating Affirmative Moving With Unhoused Lgbtq+ Individuals, Sujin Ma

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

Homelessness-service environments require non-clinical frontline staff to manage frequent crises and provide relational support to sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals with extensive trauma and minority stress histories. However, staff training often prioritizes didactic knowledge over embodied skills that support emotional regulation, attunement, and identity-affirming engagement. Grounded in trauma-informed care, minority stress theory, and somatic learning, this mixed-methods study examined the feasibility and preliminary patterns of change associated with an embodied staff training designed to prepare non-clinical workers to facilitate Affirmative Moving (AM), a brief movement-based, LGBTQ+-affirming support group model.

The study was conducted between July and September 2025 at …

Functional Domains’ Ability To Predict Outcomes In Comparison To Absenteeism In A National Sample Of School Age Children, Randolph Dupont

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

School absenteeism poses a critical challenge for educators, clinicians, and policymakers due to its strong associations with impairments across academic, social, mental health, and family domains. Traditional models conceptualize absenteeism systemically, using dimensional definitions (e.g., chronic absenteeism defined by missed days), or analytically, using categorical definitions (e.g., truancy, school refusal). Both approaches are limited in capturing the functional consequences of school attendance problems (SAPs). This study evaluated whether a functional impairment model, which emphasizes how domains of functioning are disrupted by absenteeism, provides a more accurate framework for predicting outcomes than absenteeism frequency alone. Using longitudinal data from the Adolescent …

Predicting Psychosis Through Speech: A Case For Nlp In Clinical Practice, Lydia Britton '27

Student Research

Psychosis is difficult to identify in early stages; however, changes in speech and language offer insights and indicators of emerging symptomatology. This paper examines the potential for Natural Language Processing (NLP) and other computational linguistic techniques for improving the predicition of psychosis disorders through automated analysis of speech. Existing research shows that lingustic markers that are aligned with Formal Thought Disorder, including reduced semantic coherence, poverty of content, tangentiality, reduced syntactic complexity, and pragmatic deficits, can help to distinguish between individuals who are experiencing or at risk for psychosis from healthy controls. Traditional clinical assessments may have difficulty identifying and …

Book Review: Addressing Anxiety In Young Learners: A Teacher’S Guide To Recognizing Needs And Resolving Behaviors, Jacqueline Sperling

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of pediatric mental illnesses, especially anxiety disorders, have increased significantly (Racine et al., 2021), and with this change, teachers have been tasked with educating even more students who have additional needs.

Addressing Anxiety in Young Learners: A Teacher’s Guide to Recognizing Needs and Resolving Behaviors is a book that aims to provide teachers with an understanding of pediatric anxiety disorders and practical tools to support students who present with symptoms of them. The following review of the book describes what the book addresses, highlights strengths, examines areas for improvement, and offers additional …

An Equity-Based And Culturally Responsive Bill Of Rights For Early Childhood Students Of Color With Exceptionalities, Evette Simmons-Reed, Michelle Frazier Trotman Scott, Gloria Tardash, Mildred Boveda, Donna Y. Ford

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing disparities in early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education (ECSE) services for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) disabled children, exposing critical gaps in access, services and support. systemic inconsistencies in implementation, training, and funding, remain barriers limit opportunities for CLD students to benefit, despite the aims of the Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act (IDEA). To address these inequities, this manuscript proposes an expanded and updated Culturally Responsive Equity-Based Bill of Rights for EI and ECSE. Building upon Ford and colleagues' (2018) work, this revised document extends protections to children aged zero to five, emphasizing …

Guest Editor's Introduction: Methodological Innovations For Advancing Early Childhood Educational And Psychological Research, Anthony Mangino Ph.D.

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

The goal of this special issue is to provide you, the inquisitive reader and developmental scientist, with some of the methodological tools to aid in augmenting your analytic capacity.

Climate Anxiety Shapes Career And Parenthood Decisions In College Students, Minha Hossain, Patrycja Sleboda-Sobolev

Publications and Research

This study examined how climate anxiety influences future-oriented decision-making among college students, with particular attention to four decision-making domains: career planning, parenthood decisions, sustainability behaviors, and geographic mobility. Although climate anxiety has become increasingly common among young adults, less research has explored how it shapes long-term life decisions within diverse U.S. college populations or how psychological and contextual factors influence these relationships. A sample of 257 undergraduate students from Baruch College completed a Qualtrics survey measuring climate anxiety, climate-related emotions, hope, self-efficacy, migration background, and future-oriented decision-making domains. Results indicated that climate anxiety significantly predicted career and parenthood decision-making, but …

Sexual Identity And Sleep Health In Adolescents: The Role Of Parenting Practices, Alexa Grace Deyo

Theses - ALL

Adolescence is a developmental period marked by heightened vulnerability to insufficient sleep, which contributes to adverse emotional, cognitive, and physical health outcomes. Evidence indicates that adolescents who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) are at an increased risk for poor sleep relative to their heterosexual peers. However, little is known about which dimensions of sleep health differ by sexual identity or modifiable factors that may underlie these differences. This study examined whether adolescent sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and daytime sleepiness differed by sexual identity, and investigated whether parental acceptance and parental monitoring helped explain these differences. Participants were 5,919 …

The Association Between Proximal Sexual And Gender Minority Stressors And Alcohol-Related Outcomes: The Moderating Role Of Experiential Avoidance, Nicolas Cardenas

Theses - ALL

Unhealthy alcohol use is prevalent in college environments, and disproportionately higher among sexual and gender minority (SGM) undergraduate college students. Minority stress theory posits that SGM stressors, particularly proximal forms of stressors (e.g., internalized stigma), negatively impact psychological processes, which are then associated with an increased prevalence of alcohol use. Experiential avoidance, or the avoidance of uncomfortable internal experiences, is one such psychological process that may influence the association between internal SGM stress and alcohol-related outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine if experiential avoidance significantly moderates the association between SGM internal stressors (i.e., internalized stigma and rejection …

Mending The Research-Practice Gap In Psychology: Using Role-Play, Self-Reflection, And Ai Feedback To Enhance Unified Protocol Skill Development, Farryn A. Pauly

Honors Theses

This study explores ways to bridge the research-practice gap in psychology by examining how role-play, structured self-reflections, and AI-generated feedback support the development of Unified Protocol (UP) clinical skills. Using a single-subject design, the researcher simulated therapy sessions with a volunteer acting as the patient, implementing UP modules in sequence, while collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. Each session included preparation using the UP, role-play, and pre- and post-session reflection. Performance was evaluated using Lyssn, an AI-based platform that generated Cognitive Therapy Rating Scale (CTRS; Young & Beck, 1980) scores and detailed feedback on CBT techniques. This was interpreted and …

Factors Relating To Memory, Kyra Vanheirseele

Honors Theses

Cognitive and emotional processes are increasingly recognized as important factors influencing memory functioning. In the current study, the associations between depressive symptoms, selfcritical rumination, sleep quality, and cognitive confidence with self-referent memory recall were examined in a sample of undergraduate students (N = 60; 70.0% female, 21.7% male; M age = 19.36 years, SD = 1.21). The sample was predominantly White (73.2%), with additional representation from Black or African American (14.3%), American Indian or Alaska Native (1.8%), Asian (1.8%), and other racial groups (8.9%). Using established self-report measures, participants reported on depressive symptoms (Schmitt & Maes, 2000; Sauer et al., …

Elective Abortion, Moral Injury, And Maternal Bonding To The First Child, Jennifer Marie Lightner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

The Associations Between Problematic Social Media Use, Social Media Appearance Preoccupation, And Sleep Quality Among Emerging Adults, Lily Gisclair

Honors Theses

Emerging adulthood is a critical developmental window in which significant transitions increase vulnerability to mental health challenges. Additionally, emerging adults are spending large amounts of time on social media sites. Recent literature suggests that problematic social media use and social media appearance preoccupation could all play a role in increased anxiety, depression, and poorer sleep outcomes in young people. However, to our knowledge, few studies have directly examined the associations among all of these variables specifically in the emerging adult population. The current study was designed to examine these associations among 178 emerging adults between the ages of 18 and …

The Lived Experiences Of Facilitators Navigating Group Cohesion In Online Interpersonal Psychotherapy Groups, Jason Woodford

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Playing The Part Online: A Role-Based Telehealth Intervention Supporting Trauma Integration In Adults, Mary Schwabenland

Expressive Therapies Theses

This study explores a telehealth-adapted, role-based drama therapy intervention designed to support trauma integration in adults. Grounded in trauma theory, experiential approaches, and drama therapy frameworks, the intervention utilized interoceptive awareness, metaphor, and role embodiment to explore emotional material in dramatic reality, with aesthetic distance serving as an adjustable mechanism of activation and containment. A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted on clinical session notes from five adult clients. Five themes emerged from the analysis, including: aesthetic distance and modes of engagement; aesthetic quality and symbolic coherence; role narrative as integration pathway; intervention as catalyst within ongoing process; and therapist positioning …

Co-Active Therapeutic Filmmaking: A Methodology Pilot Project, Blair Webber

Expressive Therapies Theses

This pilot project examined the intersection of drama therapy and filmmaking. Drawing on the Co-Active Therapeutic Theater model from drama therapy and digital storytelling and participatory video methods from social work research, this methodology designed and delivered a co-created filmmaking intervention at a residential treatment center for adult men with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder. Four participants made a seven-minute-long short fictional film based on their definition of active recovery and a theme of recovery they wished to share with an audience. It was screened at the treatment center for staff and their fellow residents. Data collection was …

Interparental Relationship Quality Reduces Parental Stress And Subsequent Family Dysfunction Across Pregnancy And Early Childhood, Rachel Clara-Beth Beck

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

In this multiple paper dissertation, I found that a higher quality interparental relationship, characterized by more emotional intimacy, support, responsiveness and better conflict management skills, plays a key role in reducing stress and its subsequent impact on family dynamics. Aims and hypotheses were tested using longitudinal data collected from mixed-sex couples during the pregnancy-postpartum transition and into early childhood. In study #1, higher quality interparental support during pregnancy was associated with lower postpartum stress which, in turn, predicted fewer parent–infant bonding impairments. In study #2, a mutually responsive orientation in the couple relationship during pregnancy interacted with intrapersonal regulatory resources …

Does Self-Compassion Buffer Against The Potential Effects Of Perfectionism And Psychopathology On Non-Suicidal Self-Injury?, Natasha Bourgoin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

University students with increased rates of reported perfectionism, anxiety, and depression, are vulnerable to non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). However, not all students with psychological distress engage in NSSI, suggesting protective factors may help to mitigate this risk. The present study examined the relation between perfectionism and NSSI, via the mediating effects of anxiety and depression, and the moderating role of self-compassion. Participants were 338 university students (67% female; 87% White) who completed several self-report measures. Students with greater perfectionism reported higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms and, in turn, more NSSI engagement. Self-compassion and several self-compassionate domains attenuated connections between …

The Effects Of Cannabidiol (Cbd) On The Social, Cognitive, And Physical Facets Of Anxiety Sensitivity, Ezri Rathbun

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The current study investigated how repeated administration of 300mg of cannabidiol (CBD), when compared to a placebo, affects the social, cognitive, and physical facets of anxiety sensitivity (AS), a characteristic that reflects fear of the consequences of anxious arousal. Prior work suggests CBD may have anxiolytic effects that may be specific to the social aspects of anxiety. Thus, it was hypothesized that, that, relative to placebo, CBD would reduce self-reported AS-social concerns, but not AS-cognitive or AS-physical concerns, compared to baseline. Participants (N= 79; 52 women; M_age = 22.06) with elevated perceived stress were randomly assigned to 14 …

Depression Symptoms Are Associated With Less Positively Biased Self-Ratings Of Attentional Control, Anna E. Morgan

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Deficits in the ability to flexibly direct, sustain, and shift attention, known as attentional control, have been linked to anxiety and depression. Attentional control supports engaging with goal-relevant stimuli while effectively disengaging from irrelevant or emotionally distracting stimuli. Thus, it is crucial in cognitive processes and emotional responses. Common measures of attentional control include behavioral tasks and self-report measures. However, behavioral and self-report measures are weakly correlated, suggesting that individuals generally are not good at perceiving their attentional control abilities. This mismatch between measures could be related to anxiety and depression symptoms. The goal of my project was to examine …