Developmental Psychology Commons^™

Dispositional Mediators Of Burnout Syndrome In A Sample Of Direct Care Staff Employed At Group Homes In A Midwestern State, Cristovao Bartolo Carreira

Wayne State University Dissertations

The current research examined the dispositional characteristics that mediated burnout syndrome in a sample of direct care workers who were employed in group homes for the mentally ill in a Midwestern state. Specifically, the indirect effects that the direct care staff's attachment systems and problem solving ability were examined as they applied to their potential burnout status. Attachment theory, a contemporary psychodynamic theory of personality, was used to provide a context for the study. The researcher studied the interactions between construct subcomponents to address a criticism in the literature stating that only total scores were used to study burnout and …

Psychopathy And Attachment: Examining The Relationship Between Secure Attachment Priming And Psychopathy, Victoria Allen

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to employ implicit and explicit security priming in order to examine the relationship between attachment dimensions and expressed psychopathy; specifically, it was hypothesized that security priming would reduce levels of expressed psychopathy. A repeated measures design was also used to assess the association between state attachment variables and expressed psychopathy. The results showed that security priming was effective at reducing expressed psychopathy for individuals high in trait attachment anxiety. Security priming also caused changes in the associative relationships between attachment dimensions and expressed psychopathy. These findings increase our understanding of the relationships between attachment …

Relations Of Parenting Quality, Interparental Conflict, And Overnights With Mental Health Problems Of Children In Divorcing Families With High Legal Conflict, Irwin N. Sandler, Lorey A. Wheeler, Sanford L. Braver

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

The current study examined the associations between child mental health problems and the quality of maternal and paternal parenting, and how these associations were moderated by three contextual factors, quality of parenting by the other parent, interparental conflict, and the number of overnights parents had with the child. Data for the current study come from a sample of divorcing families who are in high legal conflict over developing or maintaining a parenting plan following divorce. Analyses revealed that the associations between child mental health problems and positive maternal and paternal parenting were moderated by the quality of parenting provided by …

An In Depth Analyses Of Specific Language Impairment As Compared To Other Developmental Disorders, Adam W. Stein Mr.

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Specific language impairment (SLI), defined as a disproportionate difficulty in learning language despite having normal hearing, intelligence, and no known neurological or emotional impairment, has been shown to share similar cognitive characteristics with individuals with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). However, little research has investigated the dissimilarities in these two different developmental disorders. Children with SLI also show many similar symptoms with individuals diagnosed with dyslexia. The aim of these studies is to get a better understanding of cognitive differences between SLI and ADHD, and the cognitive similarities between SLI and dyslexia. Tests of both verbal and non-verbal measures of …

Pathways Of Activity: Lessons From Dominican College Students, Monika L. Son

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

High attrition rates among Latino students have long been identified as a major problem in college. Few attempts have been made to understand the normative developmental experiences among this population. This study, based on a study of lives, a narrative approach, examines the experiences of urban Dominican-American college students. Their strategies for effectively navigating a wide variety of contexts (e.g., school, work, family, and neighborhood) are analyzed, and implications for their educational efforts are examined within a developmental framework. Gender disparities and immigrant processes are also explored.

Two part interviews were completed with eleven participants. The first interview was semi-structured …

Processes Underlying Syntactic Control: Evaluating Linguistically Diverse Children, Vanessa R. Raschke

Dissertations

The current study focused on the mechanisms involved in syntactic awareness development in monolingual and bilingual (English/Spanish-speaking) nine-year-olds. Inclusion of child language brokers (those who translate and interpret for non-English speaking family members) diversified the definition of "bilingual." Previous research has shown bilingual advantages in areas of metalinguistic awareness and executive function (e.g., Bialystok, 2010; Davidson, Raschke, & Pervez, 2010), however, child language brokers have not been distinguished in these studies. These children, due to early language-switching and translation duties, may have differential development of areas of inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, areas suspected to aid in metalinguistic awareness …

Weight Loss Surgery Maintenance And Psychosocial Development: A Narrative Perspective, Carrie J. L. Hickman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Bariatric surgery is not the panacea it was once thought to be for weight loss. Due to patient noncompliance issues, many weight loss surgery patients are relapsing and regaining the significant amounts of weight that bariatric surgery had initially helped them to lose. This failure is costly monetarily, psychologically, and medically to both the patient and to society. Using the narratives of 32 post-weight loss surgery patients, this narrative study explored: (a) whether Erikson's psychosocial stages of development occur after weight loss surgery, (b) whether successful patients (defined as those who are able to maintain their weight loss long term) …

The Effect Of Co-Witness Information And Individual Differences In Cognitive Abilities On The Suggestibility Of Pre-School Children, Rachell Leanne Jones

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Despite nearly 25 years of research, psychologists are still learning new ways in which various demographic, psychological, social, and cognitive factors contribute to child suggestibility. Numerous facets of each area have been studied independently, but as a field, it is becoming apparent that suggestibility is also affected by complex interactions between these various components (Scullin, Kanaya, & Ceci, 2002). The current study investigated several forensic interviewing techniques and psychosocial and cognitive factors that were hypothesized to influence child suggestibility. One hundred children were randomly assigned to five interview conditions after viewing a live event. The supposed statements of a co-witness …

Adolescents With Callous Unemotional Traits And Their Roles In Group Crime, Laura C. Thornton

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the relationship between callous-unemotional (CU) traits and self-reported leadership characteristics during group crimes among 614 first-time offenders participating in a large multi-site study. Resistance to peer influence (RPI) and self-esteem (SE) were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between CU traits and leadership during group crime. The results indicated that youth with CU traits were more likely to commit crimes with others. Further, although youth with CU traits reported they came up with the idea for crimes and were leaders during group crimes, these relationships were not mediated by RPI and SE. Future research on youth with …

The Influences Of Caregiver-Child Interactions And Temperament On Cortisol Concentrations Of Toddlers In Full-Day Childcare, Helen Morris Lane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the influences of caregiver-child interaction and temperament on cortisol concentrations of toddlers in full-day childcare. Sensitive and responsive caregiving is critical to the quality of children's early experiences. Caregivers who are attuned to unique needs of young children can support and guide child growth and development. In the context of relationships the child grows, develops, and learns to biologically respond to events in his or her world that he or she may perceive as threatening, with the production of cortisol. Studies show that regulation of cortisol release later in life may be …

Positive And Negative Parenting Strategies, Parental Psychopathology, And Relational Aggression In Youth, Genevieve E. Lapre, Monica A. Marsee

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the mediating role of parental psychological control on the association between parental psychopathology and youth relational aggression in a community sample of 118 adolescents (aged 11-17) and their parents. Additionally, an analysis was conducted to examine the moderating role of positive parenting on the association between parental psychopathology and relational aggression. Further analyses controlled for overt aggression and examined effects of youth gender. Results suggest psychological control partially mediates the association between parental psychopathology and relational aggression. The overall mediation was not significant after controlling for overt aggression; however, the association between psychological control and relational aggression …

Evaluating The Role Of Environmental Stressors And Sensitive Parenting On The Emergence Of Behavior Problems During Early Childhood, Brenna Sapotichne

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Repeatedly, parenting quality has been shown to affect children’s level of behavior problems during early childhood (e.g., Bayer, Sanson, & Hemphill, 2006; Shaw, Gilliom, Ingoldsby, & Nagin, 2003). However, the parent-child relationship exists within a broader social context (Bronfenbrenner, 1986). Therefore, social contextual stressors such as financial strain, neighborhood danger, and residential overcrowding may affect children’s adjustment through parenting. Based on The Family Stress model (Conger & Elder, 1994), the current study tests the theory that sensitive parenting mediates the relationship between these three environmental stressors (i.e., financial strain, neighborhood danger, and residential overcrowding) and children’s behavior problems from ages …

Age Differences In Reward Anticipation And Memory, Kristen L. Cushman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Aging research on item- and associative-recognition memory has demonstrated that older adults are deficient in forming associations between two unrelated stimuli. Although older adult performance on tests of item-recognition is similar to younger adult performance, older adults perform worse than younger adults on tests of associative memory (Naveh-Benjamin, Hussain, Guez, & Bar-On, 2003). In addition to the idea that younger adult performance on associative-recognition tests is superior to that of older adults, research has shown that reward cues can enhance motivated learning and item memory performance of younger adults. In an fMRI study that examined the influence of reward anticipation …

The Initial Development Of Child-Focused Interventions In The Treatment Of Maternal Substance Abuse And Child Neglect, Kendra Tracy

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This single case study focuses on the development and evaluation of child focused interventions for the treatment of child neglect and concurrent maternal substance abuse that were incorporated into Family Behavior Therapy (FBT). The participants were a mother referred by the Department of Family Services and her child. The child participated in three child focused interventions that were developed to decrease child behavior problems, increase support and communication, and prevent future neglect by strengthening the mother & child relationship. Although not a focus in this study, the mother participated in traditional FBT adult focused intervention components. The chief aim of …

Individual Differences In The Discrimination Of Novel Speech Sounds: Effects Of Sex, Temporal Processing, Musical And Cognitive Abilities, Vera Kempe, John C. Thoresen, Neil W. Kirk, Felix Schaeffler, Patricia J. Brooks

Publications and Research

This study examined whether rapid temporal auditory processing, verbal working memory capacity, non-verbal intelligence, executive functioning, musical ability and prior foreign language experience predicted how well native English speakers (N = 120) discriminated Norwegian tonal and vowel contrasts as well as a non-speech analogue of the tonal contrast and a native vowel contrast presented over noise. Results confirmed a male advantage for temporal and tonal processing, and also revealed that temporal processing was associated with both non-verbal intelligence and speech processing. In contrast, effects of musical ability on non-native speech-sound processing and of inhibitory control on vowel discrimination were not …

Congruence Within The Parent-Teacher Relationship: Associations With Children’S Functioning, Elizabeth Moorman Kim, Kathleen M. Minke, Susan M. Sheridan, Natalie A. Koziol, Ji Hoon Ryoo, Kristin M. Rispoli

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

Meaningful interactions between families and schools benefit multiple facets of children’s functioning including their academic, social, and behavioral adjustment (Christenson & Sheridan, 2001).

Positive relationships between parents and teachers predict children’s enhanced social-emotional functioning and academic adjustment across time (Izzo, Weissberg, Kasprow, & Fendrich, 1999).

Studies of parent-teacher relationships often focus on the association of child outcomes with separate parent or teacher reports of their relationship quality. Little attention has focused on the congruence of perceptions within parent-teacher dyads.

It may be the case that when parents and teachers view their relationship in a similar positive light, better connections or …

Jewish Perspectives On Christian Privilege: A Consensual Qualitative Study, Robert Kinney

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Although multicultural considerations, privilege, and oppression are of current interest across the field, much of the extant research has failed to explore religiosity as a component of the psychological literature. Using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) the authors set out to gain an understanding of Christian privilege and the impact it has on Jewish Identity. A sample of 12 adult, American, non-Orthodox Jews were interviewed using a semi-structured interview protocol. The interview data was collected to better understand the manifestations of Christian privilege and the impact of said issues on participant’s lives and identities. Seven themes were identified (1) Personal Conceptualization …

The Long Term Effect Of Parental Involvement In A Child's Education: A Ten-Step Approach, Eraina Ross-Aseme

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Parental Involvement in a child's education is very important to the child becoming a productive citizen. Some parents find themselves getting in at the start of their child entering elementary school; parental involvement should begin before the school age years. Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of establishments such as schools, churches and businesses partnering in a child's education. The goal of this project is to empower parents to build stronger support systems with schools, neighborhoods, churches and communities. Its aim is to show parents, school systems and businesses that collaboration in the education arena can be strengthened to achieve a …

Neural Responses To Infants Linked With Behavioral Interactions And Testosterone In Fathers, Patty X. Kuo, Joshua Carp, Kathleen C. Light, Karen M. Grewen

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

Few fMRI studies have investigated the brain-behavioral basis of parenting in human fathers. Ten fathers were videotaped and gave salivary testosterone samples while interacting with their 2–4 month old infants, and viewed video clips of their own infant and an unfamiliar age-, ethnicityand sex-matched other infant during an fMRI protocol. Infant stimuli activated a network of prefrontal and subcortical brain regions. Furthermore, a subset of these regions activated significantly more to own (OWN) than other (OTHER) infants. Finally, neural responses to OWN versus OTHER were linked with paternal sensitivity, paternal reciprocity, and testosterone. In sum, our results provide a novel …

Asymmetry In Resting Alpha Activity: Effects Of Handedness, Ruth E. Propper, Jenna Pierce, Mark W. Geisler, Stephen D. Christman, Nathan Bellorado

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha band power during rest shows increased right, and/or decreased left, hemisphere activity under conditions of state or trait withdrawal-associated effect. Non-right-handers (NRH) are more likely to have mental illnesses and dispositions that involve such withdrawal-related effect. The aim of the study was to examine whether NRH might be characterized by increased right, relative to left, hemisphere activity during rest. Methods: The present research investigated that hypothesis by examining resting EEG alpha power in consistently-right-handed (CRH) and NRH individuals. Results: In support of the hypothesis, NRH demonstrated decreased right hemisphere alpha power, and therefore increased right hemisphere …