Developmental Psychology Commons^™

Volunteer Training, Tenure, And Facilitation Of Essential Elements In 4-H: Examining Conditions That Promote Positive Youth Development Practices, Kimber Sarver, Kate Fogarty, Tracy Johns, Sarah Thomas Hensley, Dale W. Pracht

Journal of Youth Development

The 4-H program relies on trained volunteers to facilitate youths’ acquisition of life skills in relevant subject matter areas (STEM, Healthy Living). A large part of the 4-H professionals’ objective is to undergird their volunteers in program delivery. The content of volunteers’ training emphasizes the 4 essential elements for youth development programming, namely: 1. Creating an atmosphere of belonging for diverse youth; 2. Promoting generosity through service to their families and communities; 3. Supporting youth mastery of globally applicable life skills and specific skills within subject matter areas of expertise; and 4. Facilitating youths’ sense of independence by self-selecting topics …

Curbing The Campus Mental Health Crisis: The Role Of Extracurricular Activity Participation, Rosanne Villemaire-Krajden, Erin Barker

Journal of Youth Development

Rates of distress on post-secondary campuses are alarmingly high, calling for a shift towards learning environments that better address emerging adults’ holistic needs. This cross-sectional, mixed-method study examines the role that extracurricular activity participation can play in such approaches. Online survey data was collected from 302 undergraduate students (M_age = 21.3) to assess extracurricular activity participation prior to and during their university attendance, across quantitative indicators (i.e., type and number of activities). Students’ qualitative accounts of the influence of their extracurricular activity participation on their development and wellbeing was examined using thematic analysis. Results indicate that rates of …

Community Development Through Summer Camps, Edgar Iglesias Vidal, Narcís Turon Pèlach, Pere Soler Masó, Lara Morcillo Sanchez

Journal of Youth Development

Summer camps are widespread in many countries and have a long history. Their contribution to children’s and young people’s leisure and recreation is widely acknowledged, as is their usefulness as an educational resource. That large numbers of children and young people across Europe attend summer camps is well-known; according to Eurofound (2020), most of the twenty-seven countries analyzed record student attendance at camps, and in twelve countries (including Spain) over 50% of young people take part. However, another study carried out in the member countries of the European Union (Plantenga & Remery, 2017) stated that when the availability, use, and …

Impact Of Organized Activity Participation On Emotional Distress For Adolescents With Disabilities, Adam Langenfeld, Rebekah Hudock, Rebecca J. Dosch Brown, Marla Eisenberg

Journal of Youth Development

Adolescents who have been diagnosed with disabilities constitute a significant portion of the school population in the United States. For example, the National Survey of Children’s Health identified one in four children ages 12 to 17 as having special healthcare needs in 2019 (Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health, n.d.). These adolescents are often diagnosed with a wide range of conditions, ranging from specific learning difficulties to more global delays across developmental domains. In the school setting, adolescents with disabilities often have an individualized educational program (IEP). Mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA) of 2004, …

A Comparative Evaluation Of Two Youth Mental Health Trainings For Volunteers, Monica M. Lobenstein, Shannon Sparks, Jennifer Park-Mroch, Danette Hopke, Jayna Hintz, Megan Suehring, Kea Norrell-Aitch, Karla Gearing, Michelle Gobert, Sheila Michels

Journal of Youth Development

Adolescence is a critical period for developing social and emotional habits important for mental well-being (Kessler et al., 2005). Half of all mental health conditions start by age 14, and the average delay between onset of symptoms and intervention is eight to ten years (Wang et al., 2007). Youth with mental health conditions are particularly vulnerable to social exclusion, discrimination, stigma, educational difficulties, risk-taking behaviors, and worsening physical health. Youth often do not get the help they need due to ongoing stigma and barriers in accessing mental health treatment. For example, in Wisconsin, 30% of the population live in a …

Emotional Reactivity And Recognition Deficits In Individuals With Callous-Unemotional (Cu) Traits: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis, Emily C. Kemp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Youth and adults with antisocial behavior present a significant mental health concern. Elevated callous-unemotional (CU) traits, characterized by deficient empathy and remorse, distinguish clinically important subgroups of antisocial individuals who present with more severe behavior and distinct cognitive-affective characteristics that may help to explain the underlying causes of their antisocial behavior and inform more effective treatments. Specifically, two mechanisms theorized to underlie the development of elevated CU traits by way of atypical empathy development are deficient reactivity to and recognition of others’ emotions. Though a substantive literature base reports associations between CU traits and emotional processing deficits, significant inconsistencies remain. …

Training In Trauma-Responsive And Anti-Racist Telehealth: A Model For Behavioral Health Clinicians And Providers, Ritchie Rubio

Psychology Division Scholarship

Telehealth's uptake in behavioral health services has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many clinicians continue to lack focused training in providing trauma-informed and culturally-responsive telehealth care. This article outlines a model curriculum that was created to instruct and coach behavioral health providers in California on how to integrate anti-racist and trauma-responsive techniques into telehealth. Topics like evidence-based trauma therapies, racial/ ethnic trauma, marginalized communities, digital divide, and provider selfcare were all covered in the nine-part curriculum. Every three-hour session included evidence-informed didactic content, telehealth skills practice, and concrete planning for implementation. Trauma-responsive frameworks such as the tri-phasic model …

Childhood Trauma, Attachment, And Adult Leadership Styles, Joshua S. Duncan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Past researchers have shown relationships between leadership styles and attachment and that secure attachment is positively related to transformational leadership. However, there is a gap in the research on how childhood trauma and attachment security relate to leadership styles in adults. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine how childhood trauma and attachment security relate to transactional, transformational, and laissez-faire leadership styles. Social cognitive theory and attachment theory grounded this study. In this quantitative study, the specific research design was comparative. SurveyMonkey was used to gather data from supervisor/manager leaders who were recruited on social media (N = …

Childhood Trauma, Attachment, And Adult Leadership Styles, Joshua S. Duncan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Past researchers have shown relationships between leadership styles and attachment and that secure attachment is positively related to transformational leadership. However, there is a gap in the research on how childhood trauma and attachment security relate to leadership styles in adults. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine how childhood trauma and attachment security relate to transactional, transformational, and laissez-faire leadership styles. Social cognitive theory and attachment theory grounded this study. In this quantitative study, the specific research design was comparative. SurveyMonkey was used to gather data from supervisor/manager leaders who were recruited on social media (N = …

Cannabis Exposure During Pregnancy And Neural Mechanisms Of Parenting: Assessing Neural Responses To Infant Cues And Parenting Outcomes, Shannon Powers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As legalization of cannabis and cannabinoids spreads in the United States, access and use of cannabis during the prenatal period has increased. There is limited knowledge on the effects of prenatal cannabis use on the parental brain. One way to identify potential effects of cannabis on parenting is through studying parenting brain functions and behavior. Cannabis use disorder (CUD) has been shown to be associated with lower positive parenting and lower sensitivity to infants, but it is unclear by what mechanisms. The following two studies address this gap in knowledge by examining the association between cannabis use during the prenatal …

Understanding The Relationship Between Perceived Childhood Experiences And Relationship With God, Remaz Bahaa

Theses and Dissertations

The present study explores the relationship between perceived childhood experiences and one’s current relationship with God in an Egyptian Muslim sample. While such relationship has been researched in Western contexts, there is a notable gap in understanding these dynamics within Muslim Middle Eastern cultures. In this study, 180 participants, brought up in Muslim households, were given the following questionnaires: both versions of the Parental Acceptance Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ) referring to the father and mother, Attachment to God Inventory (AGI), and Images of God (LAMBI Scale). The results presented the internal consistency of both the AGI and LAMBI scales with the …

Tsunami Exposure And Mental Health Consequences: Protective Role Of Cultural Coping Strategies, Thulitha Wickrama, Michael J. Merten, K. A.S. Wickrama, Amanda Terrell

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

There is a knowledge gap regarding the link between disaster exposure and adolescent mental health problems in developing countries. This study examines the case of Sri Lanka to investigate (a) the immediate and long-term mental health impact of the 2004 tsunami disaster on adolescents and (b) the potential moderating effects of unique cultural and family practices that prevail in Sri Lanka. This study used a random sample of 160 adolescents (ages 12–19) and their mothers who were exposed to the tsunami disaster while living in a southern Sri Lankan village and provided prospective data immediately after the disaster (2005) and …

What Does It Mean To Be Kindergarten "Ready?": Trends In Parents' Expectations And Families' School Experiences Across Ses, Lisa Babel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to explore the meaning of Kindergarten “ready,” especially as the practice interacts with educational inequity. Past research used secondary data to show that SES relates to the prevalence of redshirting where children’s school entry is delayed by one year with the idea that the older they are when they start school, the more advanced they will be, but studies do not explain why children from families with lower incomes are advised to start Kindergarten later than others (Greensburg & Winsler, 2020; Reardon & Portilla, 2016). Moreover, family expectations of the Kindergarten participation process, including …

Toward Otherworlding The Teaching-Learning Of Psychology With Community College Students, Francisco Medina

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation reimagines a different relationality to teaching-learning psychology in the community college classroom through a series of three separate articles. Each article draws on quasi-ethnographic, autoethnographic, and group discussions elements to wonder about the types of theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical dimensions that might make psychology courses more attuned and accountable to younger generations and the end of the world as we know it. The first article explores the metaphysical inseparability, interdependence, and co-constitution of teaching-learning, theory-making, and collective world-making in the psychology community college classroom as an invitation to the end of psychology as we know it. I argue …

Creatively Addressing The Employment Gap: Using Creativity And The Arts To Help Autistic Adolescents And Young Adults Build Skills For Employment, Eliana Rachel Grossman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Neurodiversity-affirmative autism frameworks present a shift from deficit-based models of autism to the recognition that autism is but one of many facets of biodiversity that should be affirmed and embraced. However, there is little research examining links between creativity and autism that has adopted a neurodiversity-affirming approach. The dissertation aimed to expand upon the nascent interdisciplinary link between neurodiversity-affirmative autism research and creativity to 1) understand the creative experiences of autistic adolescents and young adults and 2) address the critical issue of chronic unemployment faced by autistic people.

The first study examined the perspectives of autistic adolescents and young adults …

Unpacking The Behavioral, Cognitive, Sleep, And Stress Associations With Smartphone Checking, Yi Jing Chua

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The widespread use of smartphones for various daily activities has led many users to habitually check their devices. Smartphone checking may be negatively associated with daily behavioural, health, affective, and cognitive outcomes when it interrupts individuals during their work, health, and well-being-enhancing pursuits. Yet, research on smartphone checking suffers from various research gaps, including the use of cross-sectional design which hinder interpretation of the direction of relationship between smartphone checking and daily outcomes, the presence of individual difference confounds, and relying on subjective smartphone checking measures that are susceptible to recall biases. To address these gaps, the study investigated the …

Playing With Weplay!: Adapting A Caregiver-Child Group For Caregivers Of Young Children With Early Signs Of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Louisa A. Cahn-Gambino

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

WePlay! Denver, a collaboration between the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology and the Children’s Museum of Denver, Marsico Campus, began providing caregiver-infant playgroups to the community in 2019. WePlay! and Nosotros Jugamos, the English and Spanish-speaking groups, teach caregivers with young children about play-based exploration, provide psychoeducation, and offer resources. Qualitative data from WePlay! Denver’s initial groups and input from the WePlay! Denver team emphasized interest in expanding WePlay! to include families with children of varying developmental stages and who have specific developmental needs and considerations (Gross et al., 2021), such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD …

Teacher Beliefs And Experiences Addressing Healthy Racial And Ethnic Identity Instructionally Through Social Emotional Learning, Juliana Gutierrez

Theses and Dissertations

Children and youth develop within an ecological context that includes family, peers, and broader social environments including school. Children’s understanding of their ethnic or racial group and the meaning they attribute to belonging in that group is also shaped by interactions in their school environment. Most research on school-based social-emotional learning (SEL) programs has focused on student behavioral and academic outcomes. However, as SEL spreads across U.S. K-12 schools, questions have emerged surrounding how children from diverse racial and cultural groups and unequal opportunity can benefit from universal SEL programs. Using a mixed-methods design, this study explores teachers’ understanding and …

Secure Attachment Styles And Depression In Adolescents With Co-Rumination As A Moderator, Kimberly Murray

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Depression among adolescents has increased over the years and can affect development and potentially lead to substance abuse, self-injurious behavior, and suicide. Adolescents with secure attachments to parents have been found to have fewer symptoms of depression. Co-rumination with friends has shown to be related to positive quality in friendships due to self-disclosure between friends; however, co-rumination also is related to an increase in depression. The purpose of this quantitative study is to examine whether adolescent’s attachment style with parents is associated with depression and whether this association is moderated by co-rumination with friends. The theories that were used to …

Sexual Abuse: A Multi-Faceted Problem, Marcus Venable

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

On average, US citizens have experienced approximately 400,000 sexual assaults per year, which results in enormous immediate and long-term consequences for individuals, as well as society in general.

In the U.S., the principal method of combatting this crime has been the creation of Sex Offender Registries used to notify the public of the identity and location of convicted sex offenders who may be living in proximity to their residence. In addition to the Registry, laws have been passed forbidding convicted sex offenders from residing within buffer zones around areas of high child concentration [schools/parks/etc.].

The efficacy and consequences of these …