Developmental Psychology Commons^™

Exploring Parent-Adolescent Conflict: An Examination Of Correlates And Longitudinal Predictors In Early Adolescence, Jessica A. Melching, Jessica A. Melching

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has focused on developmental trends in parent-adolescent conflict without extensively describing individual differences in conflict. The current study tested child factors, parent factors, contextual factors, and adolescence-specific factors as concurrent correlates and longitudinal predictors of parent-adolescent conflict. Participants include 218 mother-child dyads, adolescents’ mean age (11years, 11months). Parent and adolescent data was collected during the summers following the adolescents’ 5^th and 6^th grade years. All four groups of variables were associated with parent-adolescent conflict. The child group of factors emerged as the most consistent group of variables concurrently and longitudinally.

Predictors Of Recidivism In Adolescent Offenders, Sara Kathryn Lawing

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Adolescent offenders commit a significant number of physical and sexual assaults every year. A critical task for researchers and clinicians is to understand the distinct pathways that lead to these serious types of offending. The current study attempts to test the importance of these different pathways by comparing violent, violent sex, non-violent sex, and non-violent offenders based on SAVRY risk items, reoffending, and effects of treatment. A sample of 517 adolescents on probation was assessed for several risk factors (i.e., anger management, ADHD, low empathy/remorse) by probation officers. Recidivism over 12 months was assessed from official records. Results indicated that …

Early Childhood/Child Welfare Priority, Nancy Edick, Samantha K. Ammons, Melissa Cast-Brede, Ann Coyne, Karen Falconer Al-Hindi, Shari Hofschire, Lisa Kelly-Vance, Jay Killion, Sajda Qureshi, Bridget O. Ryalls, Peter Simi, Peter Wolcott

Foundational Documents

This is the executive summary of a white paper that describes the context, current capacity, areas of opportunity, and next steps for the UNO Early Childhood/Child Welfare Priority (ECCW). It responds to the need for comprehensive integrated systems of services designed to give all young children (birth through age eight) access to what they need in the early years to succeed in school and in life. In this context, UNO recognizes ECCW as critical to our metropolitan university mission. Further, we must come together with early childhood service providers, P-12 districts, parents, policy makers, other University of Nebraska campuses, community …

Object Recognition Based On Shape And Function, Akihiro Eguchi

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores a new approach to computational object recognition by borrowing an idea from child language acquisition studies in developmental psychology. Whereas previous image recognition research used shape to recognize and label a target object, the model proposed in this thesis also uses the function of the object resulting in a more accurate recognition. This thesis makes use of new gaming technology, Microsoft’s Kinect, in implementing the proposed new object recognition model. A demonstration of the model developed in this project properly infers different names for similarly shaped objects and the same name for differently shaped objects.

The Effects Of Check In/Check Out On Levels Of Problem Behavior And Academic Engagement In Elementary School Students, Leila Mullooly Miller

Master's Theses

Previous studies have largely evaluated the effects of check in/ check out (CICO) using office discipline referrals (ODRs). However, ODRs are not always reliable measures of student behavior, and direct observation is known to be an accurate tool for behavioral measurement. Due to this, the current study used direct observations to evaluate the effects of CICO on levels of problem behavior and academic engagement for a group of elementary school students. One second, one fourth, and one sixth grade student served as participants. Results indicate CICO is effective in decreasing problem behavior and increasing academic engagement. Data from teacher ratings …

Examining The Effect Of Medical Risk, Parental Stress, And Self-Efficacy On Parent Behaviors And The Home Environment Of Premature Children, Kathryn Woods

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

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between medical risk and parenting stress and the extent to which parental self-efficacy moderates the relationship between medical risk, parenting stress, specific parenting behaviors (i.e., parental responsivity, acceptance of child, parental involvement) and the home environment (i.e., organization of environment, learning materials, variety in experience, and IT-HOME total score) of premature children. Participants included 72 parent-child dyads with premature children between the ages of 7 and 35 months corrected age. Measures included parent reports of medical risk, stress, self-efficacy, and the IT-HOME. Results show that medical risk was not significantly …

Evaluating A Social Skills Training Protocol In A Private Setting: Outcomes And Issues, Judi Davis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Society is dealing with a trend of aggressive and destructive behavior among children and adolescence. Children with social, emotional, and conduct problems are at high risk for academic failure, peer rejection, conduct disorder, school dropout, delinquency, and drug and alcohol problems (Webster-Stratton, Reid, & Stoollmiller, 2008). A high priority for the United States public health and crime prevention is the prevention of aggressive and delinquent behavior during childhood and adolescence (Taylor, Eddy, & Biglan 1999).

Social skills trainings aim to increase the performance of key social behaviors that are important for children to succeed in social situations. Solutions may be …

What Is The Perceived Impact Of Social Media On Personal Relationships In Adolescence?, Samantha Sexton

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

A study was conducted to review the perceived impact social media plays in children’s personal relationships during adolescence. Surveys and interviews were sent out to 50 subjects in an effort to gather and compile information for analysis. The Compulsive Internet Use Scale (Meerkerk et al.) was used in a survey format and administered to participants to access their perceptions in which their child(ren) and/or grandchild(ren)’s use the internet and social media. A 5-point Likert Scale was also implemented in order to provide measurable analysis. Adult anxiety in regards to social media was observed at different levels depending on the developmental …

The Relation Between Children's Perceived Containment And Parental Antisocial Behavior, Joye L. Henrie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have invoked a variety of theories when discussing the relation between children's orientation to authority and the development of antiSocial behavior (ASB). Here, the focus is children's sense of containment. Previous studies revealed an association between perceived containment and child externalizing behaviors. In this study, the degree to which a child's sense of containment is related to parents' level of ASB was examined. One hundred sixty aggressive children and their parents participated. I hypothesized that ineffective discipline would moderate the relation between parent ASB and child perceived containment. I expected to find an inverse relation between parents' level of …

Rejection Sensitivity And Early Relationships: Explaining Differential Outcomes In Early Dating, Heather Holly

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Infants' Sensitivity To Emotions In Body Gestures, M. Kelly Powell

Kaleidoscope

No abstract provided.

Cultural Differences In The Subjective Experience Of Emotion: When And Why They Occur, Christie N. Scollon, Sharon Koh, Evelyn Wing Mun Au

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Cross-cultural comparisons of subjective emotional experience are common, and virtually any comparison of nations or different ethnic groups is bound to yield some differences and some similarities. While nobody doubts the considerable intercultural variability in subjective or self-reports of emotion, more attention needs to be given to when and why and these differences occur. In this article, we explore factors that accentuate or attenuate cultural differences in the subjective experience of emotion. We propose that cultural norms shape emotional experiences to different degrees depending on the time frame of the emotional experience, the valence of the emotion, and even the …

Effects Of Homophobic Versus Nonhomophobic Victimization On School Commitment And The Moderating Effect Of Teacher Attitudes In Brazilian Public Schools, Mandi M. Alexander, Jonathan Bruce Santo, Josafá Da Cunha, Lidia Weber, Stephen T. Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study investigated homophobic victimization, teacher support, and school commitment in Brazilian schools. Participants were 339 students, ages 11 to 18 years old, in two public schools in Brazil. Data were obtained using the Brazil Preventing School Harassment Survey. Structural equation modeling revealed that both homophobic and nonhomophobic victimization were negatively related to school commitment but that homophobic victimization was a stronger predictor. Results supported the hypothesis that supportive teachers can moderate the relationship between victimization and school commitment. Finally, the moderating effect of teacher support was stronger in instances of frequent homophobic victimization.

The Steroid/Peptide Theory Of Social Bonds: Integrating Testosterone And Peptide Responses For Classifying Social Behavioral Contexts, Sari M. Van Anders, Katherine L. Goldey, Patty X. Kuo

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

Hormones, and hormone responses to social contexts, are the proximate mechanisms of evolutionary pathways to pair bonds and other social bonds. Testosterone (T) is implicated in trade-offs relevant to pair bonding, and oxytocin (OT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) are positively tied to social bonding in a variety of species. Here, we present the Steroid/Peptide Theory of Social Bonds (S/P Theory), which integrates T and peptides to provide a model, set of predictions, and classification system for social behavioral contexts related to social bonds. The S/P Theory also resolves several paradoxes apparent in the literature on social bonds and hormones: the …

A Kinder, Gentler Nativism?: Review Of Alison Gopnik, The Philosophical Baby, David Moshman

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Review of Alison Gopnik, The philosophical baby: What children's minds tell us about truth, love, and the meaning of life.

In its historic philosophical and psychological formulations, nativism highlighted innateness. Development was deemed nothingmore than a genetically driven process ofmaturation; learning, in turn, was nothing more than the filling in of superficial content. In this determinist view, neither development nor learning could be deemed active, creative, or constructive processes, and nothing genuinely new could result.

The nativists who have increasingly populated the literature of developmental psychology since the 1980s, however, are neonativists. Neonativists fully accept modern views of immature organisms …

Using Toys To Support Infant-Toddler Learning And Development, Gabriel Guyton

All Faculty and Staff Papers and Presentations

Being mindful of the basic principles of child development and the role of play, teachers can intentionally select toys to meet young children's unique needs and interests, supporting learning.

Intact Statistical Word Learning In Autism Spectrum Disorders, Jessica Mayo

Master's Theses

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have impairments in language acquisition, but the underlying mechanism of these deficits is poorly understood. Implicit learning appears potentially relevant to language development, particularly in speech segmentation, which relies on sensitivity to the transitional probabilities between speech sounds. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between implicit learning and current language abilities in school-aged children with autism (n = 17) and typical development (n = 24) using a well-studied artificial language learning task. Results suggest that the ASD and TD groups were equally able to implicitly learn transitional probabilities from a lengthy …

Language Typology And Sentence Frame Effects On Motion Verb Interpretation In Grade Schoolers, Emma C. Kelty

Master's Theses

Most English descriptions of motion events express manner in the main verb and path in a prepositional phrase, as in “She skips out of the house”. However, the same event can be described differently if a different syntactic frame is used: “She exits the house”. While young children have been found to interpret novel motion verbs according to the syntactic frame information, adults have been found to rely somewhat more on the overall language pattern, or typology (Hohenstein et al., 2004; Naigles & Terrazas, 1998). Grade schoolers have not been examined in this paradigm, and their linguistic abilities suggest that …

Aging And Selective Attention In Causal Learning, Melanie Waldrop Asriel

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study investigated age differences in generalization of causal value employing similarity as a cue to causality. Exemplars from six food categories (A+, B-, C+, D-. E+, F-) were presented to both young and older adults in two contiguous training phases. Training Phase 1 included exemplars from categories A+, B-, C+, D-. Training Phase 2 included exemplars from A+, B-, E+, F-. Foods in the “+” categories were paired with an outcome of sickness and foods in the “-” categories were not paired with sickness. Tests of causal judgment and exemplar recognition were conducted. For causal judgment, individual exemplars experienced …

The Unconscious Influence Of Mortality Salience On Younger And Older Adults, Ellen Johnson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Past research has examined the many ways individuals behave in response to unconscious primes. For instance, unconsciously activating stereotypes leads people to exhibit behavior that parallels the target stereotype (e.g., Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996; Dijksterhuis & van Knippenberg, 1998). Priming methodology has also been extended to inducing mortality salience, such that specific behaviors emerge in response to thinking about one’s own death. Two theories, socioemotional selectivity theory and terror management theory, hypothesize how individuals cope with thoughts about the end of life. The present study attempted to extend past research by comparing older and younger adults’ responses to unconscious …