Developmental Psychology Commons^™

Self-Reported Risk And Delinquent Behavior And Problem Behavioral Intention In Hong Kong Adolescents: The Role Of Moral Competence And Spirituality, Daniel T. L. Shek, Xiaoqin Zhu

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Based on the six-wave data collected from Grade 7 to Grade 12 students (N = 3,328 at Wave 1), this pioneer study examined the development of problem behaviors (risk and delinquent behavior and problem behavioral intention) and the predictors (moral competence and spirituality) among adolescents in Hong Kong. Individual growth curve models revealed that while risk and delinquent behavior accelerated and then slowed down in the high school years, adolescent problem behavioral intention slightly accelerated over time. After controlling the background socio-demographic factors, moral competence and spirituality were negatively associated with risk and delinquent behavior as well as problem …

The Effects Of Rhythm For Social Emotional Learning Skills Development, Jonathan O. Mande

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

Many people talk about the importance of music in school and learning, we all know about its effects on cognitive development for children and adults. Though despite these universally known facts, music education programs are increasingly underfunded in schools, private lessons are not accessible to most people, while our country is simultaneously suffering from an increase in academic retention and destructive societal conflicts. Music brings all people together and at its core is rhythm. It makes available a space for joy; to fully express love, build bonds and strengthen our individual spirits. When used intentionally, music heals and is a …

Social Media's Influence On Adolescent Identity, Kerri Doble

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

The fact that social media plays a prominent role in many lives today led me to ask the question: how does digital stress from social media use influence adolescent relationships? This research question was formulated out of concern that the shifting norms related to social media use may impact identity formation and a teens search for belonging, potentially stalling development. Taking the perspective that if we lead by example, we will help them lead, my aim is to share information with adults involved in the lives of teens to promote the modeling of healthy social media behavior. My creation of …

Situated Narratives: Hearing The Voices Of Jewish Adolescent Girls, Cheryl Weiner

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

The project offers an in-depth analysis of life story narratives from Jewish adolescent girls (McAdams, 1993) to better understand what Jewish identity means to them and how it shapes their feelings, attitudes and responses to inter and intra-personal issues regarding Whiteness, Judaism, social responsibility, gender and privilege. Findings from this project will contribute to the development of a conceptual framework for understanding Jewish adolescent girls’ identity development and as a means for engaging Jewish girls in important social justice work.

McAdams, D. P. (1993). The stories we live by: Personal myths and the making of the self. Guilford Press.

The Relationship Between College Study Abroad And Perceptions Of Self-Confidence And Confident Behavior, Taylor Hallock, Cindy Miller-Perrin

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Study abroad participation is growing more common among college students in the U.S. but research on its effect on personal growth constructs such as confidence is limited. This study focused on the relationship between students who studied abroad and their perceived self-confidence and confident behavior compared to students who did not have a study abroad experience. Participants included 81 undergraduates, 48 who did not participate in a study abroad program (No Study Abroad) and 33 who did participate in a study abroad program (Study Abroad). Participants were assessed on levels of perceived self-confidence and confident behavior with the Personal Evaluation …

The Relationship Between Gender Role Conflict And Academic Progress Comparing Division Ii Male Student-Athletes To Male Non-Student-Athletes, Andrew Schroeder

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Data shows that there is a lack of progress in male graduation rates in recent decades in higher education (Diprete & Buchmann, 2013). This study examines the impact of gender role conflict and academic motivation on academic progress with first and second year Division II male student-athletes and male non-student-athletes at a Midwestern, Carnegie classified master’s college and university (larger program institution). Gender role conflict creates a narrow definition for masculinity in which males are expected to behave (O’Neil, 1981). Using general linear regression and binary logistic regression models, the researcher analyzed data of participants’ (N = 116; N …

Effects Of Neonatal Handling On Play And Anxiety In F344 And Lewis Rats, Stephen M. Siviy

Psychology Faculty Publications

Play is an important part of normal childhood development and seen in many mammals, including rats. To better understand the interplay between genotype and postnatal experiences, the effects of neonatal handling on play were assessed in Lewis (LEW) and Fischer 344 (F344) rats. Handled litters experienced brief periods of separation during the first two postnatal weeks. F344 rats were less likely to direct nape contacts toward an untreated Sprague–Dawley (SD) partner and less likely to rotate to a supine position in response to a nape contact. When compared to rats from control litters, handled LEW, and F344 rats were more …

Developmental Justice, Darleen Claire Wodzenski

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Explore specific factors contribute to the overwhelming and downward spiraling phenomenon of youth involvement with the Juvenile Justice system. Identify Juvenile Justice crossover, DMC (Disproportionate Minority Contact), and trauma-informed and developmentally responsive engagement to promote youth well-being, lawfulness and good citizenship. Identify strategies, protocols, and practices that prevent Juvenile Justice first contact, reduce DMC, and support successful youth re-entry and successful integration into family and community. Includes introduction to critical mental health, habilitative, and sociocutural factors implicated in Juvenile Justice involvement.

Systemic Perspective Of Conduct Disorder In Adolescents, Charmayne Adams

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

This presentation explores the systemic nature of conduct disorder and the effect it has on individuals, educational settings, and communities. It address the systemic nature of the diagnosis through Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Model and looks at interventions for each layer of the model. This presentation also acknowledges the disproportionate rate of youth-at-risk, especially male youth of color diagnosed with conduct disorder.

Gender Identity And Self-Esteem Within The Contexts Of The Same-Sex Peer Group, Nation, And Group Individualism And Collectivism, Mithra H. Pirooz

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Adolescence is a period of development during which needs and relationships shift (Sebastian, Burnett, & Blakemore, 2008). Issues of gender also become more salient, and gender identity has been related to different areas of psychosocial adjustment, such as self-esteem (Egan & Perry, 2001). The current study examined predictors of self-esteem among early adolescents in the context of a multilevel model. We considered felt pressure to conform to gender norms, gender typicality, and gender satisfaction as individual-level predictors within the contexts of the same-sex peer group, nation, and group levels of individualism and collectivism. Multilevel modeling was employed to account for …

Findings Of An Effect Of Gender, But Not Handedness, On Self-Reported Motion Sickness Propensity, Ruth E. Propper, Frederick Bonato, Leanna Ward, Kenneth Sumner

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Discrepant input from vestibular and visual systems may be involved in motion sickness; individual differences in the organization of these systems may, therefore, give rise to individual differences in propensity to motion sickness. Non-right-handedness has been associated with altered cortical lateralization of vestibular function, such that non-right-handedness is associated with left hemisphere, and right-handedness with right hemisphere, lateralized, vestibular system. Interestingly, magnocellular visual processing, responsible for motion detection and ostensibly involved in motion sickness, has been shown to be decreased in non-right-handers. It is not known if the anomalous organization of the vestibular or magnocellular systems in non-right-handers might alter …

Athletes’ Perceptions Of Positive Development Resulting From Canadian Intercollegiate Sport: A Content Analysis, Scott Rathwell, Bradley Young

The Qualitative Report

Governing bodies of university sport have adopted more holistic approaches to the development of their athletes (Canadian Interuniversity Sport, 2013; NCAA, 2015). To our knowledge, there has been little empirical effort made to describe and assess positive development in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) context. In this study, we qualitatively examined positive development outcomes associated with athletes’ participation in CIS sport programs. We conducted semi-structured open-ended interviews with 15 student-athletes (5 male, 10 female; M_age = 22, range = 17-26). To analyze the data, we performed a deductive content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) using positive development categories found …

The Spanking Debate Is Over, Noam Shpancer

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

The empirical, theoretical, and moral arguments against spanking are compelling.

Development Of Body Emotion Perception In Infancy_ From Discrimination To Recognition.Pdf, Alison Heck, Alyson Chroust, Hannah White, Rachel Jubran, Ramesh Bhatt

Psychology Faculty Works

Research suggests that infants progress from discrimination to recognition of emotions in faces during the first half year of life. It is whether the perception of emotions from bodies develops in a similar manner. In the current study, when presented with happy and angry body videos and voices, 5-month-olds looked longer at the matching video when they were presented upright but not when they were inverted. In contrast, 3.5-month-olds failed to match even with upright videos. Thus, 5-month-olds but not 3.5-month-olds exhibited evidence of recognition of emotions from bodies by demonstrating intermodal matching. In a subsequent experiment, younger infants did …

Impact Of Neurodevelopmental Genes On The Trajectory Of Adhd Severity: A Pilot Study, Agnieszka Mlodnicka

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity, and is associated with delays in neural development. To assess the association of genes involved in neurodevelopment with symptoms and trajectory of ADHD, saliva was collected and genotyped from 145 participants from a longitudinal study of preschoolers who were followed annually for 7 years. We examined four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes associated with neurodevelopment: neuregulin-1 (NRG-1; SNP rs3924999), neurotropin-3 (NT-3; SNP rs6489630), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF; rs6265), and regulator of G protein signaling 4 (RGS4; rs951439). Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that neuregulin-1 and …

“I Am Going To College…Now What?!”: Becoming A College Student, Renata Strashnaya

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

College enrollment rates are increasing across the nation at both 2-year and 4-year institutions (NCES, 2015). Nearly two-thirds of undergraduate students are under the age of 25 and enrollment numbers are increasing for every racial and ethnic group (NCES, 2012). The first year of college is often a critical time for growth and development for students who are transitioning from high school to college. As such, there is a call to restructure the first year of college by finding new ways to support student success (Tinto, 1993, 2002). This call is, however, in response to limited knowledge of the transition …

The Development Of Affect And Defense In Childhood And Adolescence, Kari Gray

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to further determine the nature of the relationship between how defense mechanisms affect and are affected by the ways in which feelings are modulated and regulated in children and adolescents. This study has been built upon an IRB-approved research project conducted under primary investigator Steven Tuber, Ph.D. at the Psychological Center and the City College of New York (From Child Assessment to Child Treatment; A Preliminary Investigation). The study data are pre-existing, collected from 5 – 16 year old children and adolescents presenting for treatment and/or assessment at the Psychological Center, a …

Biological Signatures Of Emotion Regulation In Children, Sarah Myruski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Emotion regulation (ER) is a key predictor of positive adjustment throughout the lifespan. Despite decades of research on discrete ER strategy use, ER may be more appropriately measured in terms of the breadth of emotional range, or the degree to which one can flexibly modulate emotional responses. Yet little is known about ER flexibility in childhood. Also, given the crucial role of caregiver support in children’s emotional lives, ER may be most accurately measured in developmentally appropriate and ecologically valid social contexts. Further, few developmental studies have capitalized on the growing evidence base surrounding biological signatures of ER. This study …

Student Motivation Profiles As A Diagnostic Tool To Help Teachers Provide Targeted Support, Cailin Tricia Currie

Dissertations and Theses

Research has demonstrated that academic engagement is an important resource for students, promoting their learning and achievement. Less well documented is the possibility that students' classroom engagement may also be a valuable resource for their teachers, capable of influencing how teachers treat their students over time. The current study sought to examine the relationship between student motivation and teacher behavior to better understand how teachers perceive and respond to their students' classroom motivation and whether these motivational states contain diagnostic information about the types of supports students may need in order to be engaged, enthusiastic learners. The observable manifestations of …

Empathy Institutionalized: Sociocultural Dialogue As A Strategic Peacebuilding Initiative, Emily Owens

Bridge/Work

A common adage used in psychological exploration tells us that “If you want to know the end, look at the beginning.” While typically employed to emphasize the importance of upbringing and environment on personal outcomes, this phrase can be equally applicable in examining the ways in which society has developed over time to produce our polarized sociopolitical culture of today. This work explores from an integrative psychosocial perspective the potential that exists in working to define a new “end” by shaping a new “beginning,” through going directly to the institutions that comprise our own beginnings— schools. Through a combined research …