Developmental Psychology Commons^™

Bilingual Children's L1 And L2 Word Frequency Effects: The Role Of Individual Differences, Astrid Michelle Portillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Bilingualism continues to grow among the world's population. Nevertheless, most research studies on language processing have focused on monolingual individuals, leaving questions about how language processing unfolds in bilingual individuals. Here, we investigated how individual differences in bilingual experience, indexed by current L2 exposure, impact eye movement measures of reading fluency, indexed by word frequency effects, in an understudied population: bilingual children. Prior eye movement research involving bilingual younger adults (aged 18 to 30) has reported a trade-off in L1 and L2 word frequency effects with greater levels of current L2 exposure (Whitford & Titone, 2012, 2017). We wanted to …

The Role Of Individual Difference In Predicting Psychopathology Following Peer Victimization, Miranda Evans

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

eer victimization is a common experience that is associated with later psychopathology. However, there is inconsistency in the strength and statistical significance of this effect. The current study used two methods to try to understand this inconsistency. First, co-occurring internalizing and externalizing symptoms were considered dimensionally. Second, the present study considered temperament as a potential moderator to explain the multifinality of outcomes that occur following peer victimization. A community sample (N = 387; 52% female) of early adolescents (11-15) from a longitudinal study of risk and resilience factors for psychopathology was utilized to test hypotheses. Cross-lagged examinations between victimization and …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Community-Based Youth Non-Profit Organization At Increasing Prosocial Behavior And Decreasing Antisocial Behavior Among Young Boys: A Pilot Study, Molly A. Miller

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Community-based youth non-profit organizations (NPOs) have become increasingly popular for the provision of youth prevention and intervention services, yet many youth NPOs lack the resources to undergo formal evaluation. Further, most existing program evaluations do not consider individual characteristics of the child or the child’s exposure to stressors. The current pilot study sought to evaluate the extent to which boys participated in 1:1 mentoring and other program activities at the Son of a Saint (SOAS) NPO, an organization seeking to provide positive male role models for fatherless young boys. In addition, the current study examined the effects of program involvement …

Perceived Helicopter Parenting And Self-Determination Theory In Emerging Adulthood, Emily Hivick

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Self-determination theory encompasses three different elements, competence, autonomy and social belongingness (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Helicopter parenting is defined as extreme involvement in a child’s life to the point of making decisions for them while also being associated with high levels of parental support and high feelings of parental-child closeness (Padilla-Walker & Nelson, 2012). Research has shown that helicopter parenting has been associated with psychological and behavioral problems in young adults, (Odenweller, Booth-Butterfield, & Weber, 2014). The current study investigated the association between perceived helicopter parenting and self-determination theory components along with intrinsic motivation and academic and extracurricular engagement in …

Do Faces Facilitate Or Distract Children From Attending To Threats?, Sarah A. Skidmore

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Threatening stimuli may produce an attentional bias in humans, capturing and holding attention to a greater extent than other types of stimuli. Humans rely on others to alert their attention to threats in their environment, and social stimuli, such as faces, have privileged processing compared to nonsocial stimuli. We wanted to explore whether task-irrelevant fearful or neutral faces facilitate, distract, or have no effect on the detection of threatening or neutral images (spiders and frogs, respectively). Three- to-five-year-old children (N=37) completed a visual search task in which they searched for threatening or neutral animals. Consistent with previous literature, we found …

Entrée Précoce Sur Le Marché Du Travail À 13 Ans Et Répercussions Sur La Sst Des Jeunes Occupant Un Emploi À 15 Ans, Élise Ledoux, Marc-Antoine Busque, Julie Auclair, Luc Larberge

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Le travail rémunéré pendant les études fait partie du mode de vie d’une majorité d’étudiants au Québec. En effet, les récentes données de l’Enquête québécoise sur la santé des jeunes du secondaire 2016-2017 (EQSJS) rapportent que plus d’un élève du secondaire sur deux travaillait pendant l’année scolaire et que près de 12 % d’entre eux consacraient 16 heures ou plus par semaine à leur emploi. De plus, les deux tiers (67 %) des jeunes ayant subi une blessure au travail, alors qu’ils travaillaient pour un employeur ou pour l’entreprise familiale, ont dû soit recevoir des soins, soit consulter un …

Torn Apart: A Closer Look At Our Cover Image, Sandra Rios

Culture, Society, and Praxis

No abstract provided.

Renaming Me: Assessing The Influence Of Gender Identity On Name Selection, Sharon Obasi, Richard Mocarski, Natalie Holt, Debra Hope, Nathan Woodruff

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Our identity is our name connected with a specific face and body. Yet, our name, a critical aspect of the “names-body-identity” nexus is rarely selfselected. The naming of a newborn is often the purview of family and the name selected is often linked to the sex assigned to the child. Assigned sex, however, may differ from gender identity. Renaming, the process of selecting and using a new name, can be instrumental in expressing an authentic gender identity. Thus, gender identity and renaming were examined among transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) adults using an online survey. Participants indicated that the recognition …

A Longitudinal Examination Of Bedtime Routines And Sleep In Toddlers, Amanda Prokasky

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

Ample research has examined the impacts of sufficient and high-quality sleep on children’s health, development, and well-being (Chen, Beydoun, & Wang, 2008; Gregory & Sadeh, 2012; Touchette et al., 2009), yet less research has focused on the factors that contribute to sufficient and high-quality sleep in early childhood. The bedtime routine is one environmental influence on children’s sleep that has received little attention in the literature base and therefore is the focus of the current study.

In a sample of 399 30-month old toddlers studied over the course of one year, three aims were investigated: the within-age consistency of the …

The Role Of Gamma Oscillations And Cortical Inhibition In The Development Of Working Memory In Adolescence, Christopher P. Walker

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Adolescence is a dynamic period of social, cognitive, and biological changes. In particular, working memory, the ability to actively encode and maintain information over a short period of time, develops early in childhood and gradually increases in capacity and stability during adolescence. The precise neurophysiological mechanism by which working memory capacity increases during adolescence is unclear. The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the role of cortical gamma-band (> 30 Hz) oscillations—which are associated with working memory in adults—for the development of working memory capacity in adolescents, and to identify the extent to which the temporal profile of gamma-aminobutyric …

We All Need Somebody To Lean On: Social Support As A Protective Factor For Individuals With Childhood Adversity, Rachel Clingensmith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Extensive research has shown that childhood adversity impacts development across the lifespan and has been linked to numerous negative health outcomes. Depression symptoms are one such outcome that has been associated with ACE exposure. The literature also indicates emotion regulation may be a mediator between ACEs and depression outcomes. The primary aim of this study (N = 766) is to investigate pathways leading from ACEs to depression and potential protective factors. It was hypothesized that difficulties in emotion regulation would mediate the link between ACEs and later depressive symptoms, social support would moderate the pathway between difficulties in emotion regulation …

Disentangling The Negativity Bias: 7-9-Month-Old Crawling And Non-Crawling Infants' Responses To Fearful And Angry Expressions., Katherine C. Dixon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the origins of the negativity bias in infancy and how it develops is important for building a complete understanding of emotion perception. The goal of the present study was to 1) examine attentional biases for emotional expressions in infants between 7-9 months of age, specifically the bias for fearful and angry expressions, 2) examine how the onset of crawling is related to these biases and what that suggests about the mechanism underlying emotion preference in infants, and 3) examine how infant expression production differs when viewing different facial expressions. Infant attention biases to fearful, angry, happy, and neutral facial …

Longitudinal And Geographic Trends In Family Engagement During The Pre-Kindergarten To Kindergarten Transition, Susan M. Sheridan, Natalie A. Koziol, Amanda Witte, Iheoma Iruka, Lisa Knoche

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

The transition to kindergarten is foundational for children’s future school performance and families’ relationships with the educational system. Despite its well-documented benefits, few studies have explored family engagement across the pre- Kindergarten (pre-K) to kindergarten transition nor considered the role of geographic context during this period. This study examined trajectories of family engagement across the pre-K to kindergarten transition, and identified whether engagement differs for families in rural versus urban settings. Participants were 248 parents of children who participated in publicly funded pre-K programs and transitioned 1 year later into kindergarten. Home-based involvement increased from pre-K through kindergarten. School-based involvement …

Awareness Of Sex Offender Registration Policies And Self-Reported Sexual Offending In A Community Sample Of Adolescents, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Hayley M. D. Cleary

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Sex offender registration laws are widely implemented, increasingly restrictive, and intended to serve both specific and general deterrent functions. Most states have some form of policy mechanism to place adolescents on sex offender registries, yet it remains unclear whether adolescents possess the requisite policy awareness to be deterred from sexual offending. This study examined awareness of sex offender registration as a potential sanction and its cross-sectional association with engagement in several registrable sexual behaviors (sexting, indecent exposure, sexual solicitation, and forcible touching) in a community sample of 144 adolescents. Results revealed that many adolescents were unaware that these behaviors could …

Promoting Healthy Sleep Practices Among Parents Of Young Children: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial, Kristin Lynn Edwards

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One of the most significant and underrecognized public health concerns in young children is related to the consequences of inadequate sleep. Inadequate sleep may result in problems related to behavioral regulation, executive functioning, and academic performance. ‘Sleep hygiene’, a term that describes consistent daytime and nighttime practices that promote healthy sleep, has been found to significantly increase sleep duration and improve sleep quality in the pediatric population. Researchers have found that many parents have a poor understanding of sleep hygiene. The purpose of this study was to determine if an educational intervention increased parental knowledge and practices of sleep hygiene …

Book-Sharing As A Context For Fathers And Mothers To Enhance Language Development Of Their Preschool Children, Yagmur Seven

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Poor reading levels is a pervasive problem in the US. For example, two of every three eigth grade students in the US are estimated to demonstrate insufficient reading comprehension skills. Early use of decontextualized language, in which the language expressed is removed from the here and now, serves as a precursor of academic language proficiency. Starting as early as the third year of life, decontextualized language is less likely to be practiced in lower socio-economic status (SES) households. Although storybooks offer a rich context for practicing the language with young children, reading storybooks alone is not adequate to promote conversational …

Trans Collaborations Clinical Check-In (Tc3): Initial Validation Of A Clinical Measure For Transgender And Gender Diverse Adults Receiving Psychological Services, Natalie R. Holt, Terrence Z. Huit, Grant Shulman, Jane L. Meza, Jolene Smyth, Nathan Woodruff, Richard Mocarski, Jae Puckett, Debra A. Hope

Trans Collaborations Academic Papers

One key aspect of evidence-based psychological services is monitoring progress to inform treatment decision making, often using a brief self-report measure. However, no such measure exists to support measurement based care given the distinct needs of transgender and gender diverse people (TGD), a group facing large documented health disparities and marginalization in healthcare. The purpose of the present study was to develop and provide initial psychometric validation of a short, behavioral health progress monitoring self-report measure, the Trans Collaborations Clinical Check-in (TC3). TGD communities, providers identified as TGD-affirmative, and relevant academic experts contributed to item and scale development. The final …

Why People Self-Sabotage, And How To Stop It, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In an invited commentary, SMU Behavioural Sciences Institute Director Professor David Chan explains how the science of self-sabotage can help us understand why people sometimes choose to say and do things that defeat their own goals and offer solutions to deal with the problem.

Teachers’ Perspectives On Year Two Implementation Of A Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, Rachel E. Schachter, Erin E. Flynn, Amy R. Napoli, Shayne B. Piasta

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

In this study we examined teachers’ perspectives regarding the second year of implementing a Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA). Using a mixed-methods approach, we focused on the administration process, the perceived benefits of the assessment, and how teachers used the assessment to inform instruction. We also investigated whether these differed by teacher and district characteristics and how KRA experiences were different in the second year of implementation. Research Findings: Teachers generally did not view the KRA as beneficial for instruction or for students, reporting administration difficulties, inadequate KRA content, and limited utility of KRA data for supporting instruction as ongoing barriers …

Varying Inter-Stimulus And Inter-Trial Intervals During Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing: A Translational Extension Of Autoshaping, Patricia Eberhardt

Thesis Projects

Stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) is a respondent conditioning procedure often implemented to elicit vocalizations in children with language delays. Unfortunately, the research showing the effect of increased rates of vocalizations is mixed. Through analogies drawn between SSP and autoshaping, da Silva and Williams (under review) identified variables potentially responsible for increasing the efficacy of SSP (da Silva & Williams, under review). The present study sought to evaluate the relative duration of the inter-trial interval (ITI) and the inter-stimulus interval (ISI). Specifically, the duration of the ITI was systematically varied from 15 s to 60 s and the value of ISI was …