Developmental Psychology Commons^™

Relations Between Parent Reports Of Effortful Control And Behavioral Measures Of Executive Function In Toddlers, Racheal Embry

Honors Theses

Recent proposals have identified many commonalities in conceptualizations of effortful control and executive function (EF, e.g., Zhou, Chen, & Main, 2012). However, the overlap of effortful control and EF during periods of emerging regulation in toddlerhood has not been thoroughly investigated. In the present study, I examined the relationship between effortful control and EF in 14, 18, and 24 month old toddlers by a combination of in-lab tasks and parent report measures. Results revealed few relations between effortful control and EF during this time. The lack of overlap between effortful control and EF may be explained by a number of …

Guardian's Goals And Gains: The Relationship Between Need Satisfaction And Parenting Goals In Parents Of Toddlers, Kallen E. Mitchell

Honors Theses

Self Determination Theory (SDT) theorizes that when three core psychological needs are met (i.e., competence, relatedness, and autonomy) then humans reach their highest level of optimization (Deci & Ryan, 2000). One common way people tend to satisfy these needs is through social relationships, typically ones where their efforts can be reciprocated; however, not all relationships are reciprocal. This study looks at the psychological needs within an asymmetrical relationship between a parent and their toddler aged child. Given an already established relationship (Smith et al. 2023) between need satisfaction and the types of goals parents have for their college aged kids …

The Reciprocal Relationship Between Ego-Resiliency And Attachment Quality: The Mediating Role Of Coping, Christopher Johnson

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Ego-resiliency is a multifaceted personality trait that is heavily associated with social competence and plays a key role in an individual’s ability to cope with stress and adapt to novel situations. Broadly speaking, ego-resiliency refers to an individual’s ability to modify one’s level of impulse inhibition in accordance with environmental demands. Three key antecedents of ego-resiliency have been identified: active engagement with the world, having a repertoire of problem-solving strategies, and the ability to quickly recover after experiencing stressful or unforeseen events. Attachment theory suggests that high-quality adolescent attachment relationships provide individuals with a “secure base” from which to explore …

Connection To Places: Exploring Impacts Of Development And Individual Characteristics, Seamus Mcgrath

Psychology Honors Papers

Research revolving around Sense of Place or connections to Place is a uniquely chaotic area of study. It is understood that these connections to places have many concrete outcomes like environmental stewardship or relative comfort in a location. However, little is known about what individual characteristics predict strong connections to places. In this study, Object Attachment (via the OASM), sentimentality (Kama Muta Frequency Scale), Belongingness (via SOBI), Animistic Thinking and Development (IDEA) are posited to have connections to sense of place, measured using the Five Dimensions of Place Attachment. The analysis primarily consisted of regression models, which supported previous research …

Speak My Language: Art Therapy Restorative Justice Hybrid For Disenfranchised High School Students, Catherine Day

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Abstract

This literature review examines the use of zero tolerance policies and exclusionary practices in schools throughout the United States. The adolescent population is more vulnerable now than ever, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. An increasing number of students are struggling with behavioral misconduct, mental health issues, and suspension/expulsion from school. The research contained in this review explores how zero tolerance policies have contributed to the current state of our education system, behavioral misconduct in schools, student involvement in the juvenile justice system, alternative methods of discipline such as restorative practices and therapeutic interventions like Art Therapy. The current exclusionary …

A Woman Unfolding: A Journey Of Motherhood And Creativity How Inviting Play And Honoring Our Thinking Preference Strengthens Well-Being, Laine M. Walnicki

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Seeking to provide a nuanced understanding of how the facets of motherhood, creativity, and wellbeing intersect and influence each other, this investigation and subsequent analysis answers the questions, "How does motherhood affect creativity?" and "How does creativity affect motherhood?" as well as their impact on creative outlook and wellbeing. Drawing on insights from the science of creativity, self-actualization, flow, and play, an understanding is curated as to how humans develop creative capacity, utilize it to foster well-being, and develop their potential for growth and evolution. The significance of play in the context of motherhood is also explored along with its …

Children's Beliefs About Search Engines., Lauren N. Girouard-Hallam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Children rely on information from other sources to think and learn about the world around them. As the world around them digitizes, their options for where to seek new information have expanded to include technological sources like Google Search. This dissertation examines what factors impact children’s trust in search engines, particularly Google. In the first set of studies, 4- to 8-year old children were asked whether technological informants and a teacher could answer stable and changing questions, and which informant would have the better answer. With age, children endorsed the Google search engine at higher rates and the teacher at …

Impact Of Perinatal Escitalopram Exposure On Adolescent Behavior, Jessica Bezenah - Bottorff

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Escitalopram (EST), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), is an antidepressant frequently used during pregnancy, yet there is limited knowledge of its long-term effects on maternal use. Past studies suggest that maternal exposure may adversely affect the fetus, which may be due to the hyperserotonergic environment caused by the nature of SSRIs during early development. Modifications of the serotonergic system in offspring during certain critical periods of development may result in long-term behavioral and cognitive changes in adulthood. Further, recent human studies have demonstrated that prenatal exposure to SSRIs in humans may increase susceptibility to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and …

Cultural And Structural Barriers Of Utilizing Mental Health Services In A School-Based Setting For Latinx Populations, Silvia Lozano, Bridgette Guadalupe Calderon

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This qualitative research study aimed to reduce mental health service disparities in Latinx communities and helps fill in the gap by addressing cultural and structural barriers to utilizing MHS in a school-based setting for Latinx youth. There is limited research regarding Latinx parents’ perspectives and the reservations they have on utilizing school-based mental health services (MHS) for their children. This study identified six important themes: cultural factors, trust and rapport, reservations, access and awareness, parental involvement and challenges, and school-based resources. Implications for school districts are that they can use these findings to increase early intervention mental behavioral health programs …

The Effect Of Animal-Assisted Therapy On Prosocial Behaviors In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders And Developmental Delay: A Pilot Study, Emma Mitchell

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulties in social interaction, nonverbal communication, and repetitive patterns (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). Indeed, autistic individuals have been shown to have greater challenges with developing, maintaining, and understanding social relationships which can persist over their lifetime. Early intervention services are recommended for autistic children when they are young to help promote positive skills to enhance their functioning within society and increase their wellbeing over time. This is an especially pressing issue as ASD rates are rising – with the latest data now suggesting 1 in 36 children have the …

Dazed & Confused... And... Psychotic?, Judy Ann Clausen, Joanmarie I. Davoli, Benjamin W. Lacy Md

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines marijuana’s impact on developing brains. Secondly, this Article explores the Green Rush – the rise of the multibillion-dollar marijuana industry and the media and legal environment that unleashed massive marijuana commercialization. The Article compares decriminalization with commercialization, illustrating that it is possible to address social justice concerns of arrests, incarceration, and criminal records for marijuana use without unleashing a multibillion-dollar industry that markets to youth. The Article concludes by exploring approaches from Australia, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, all of which continue to criminalize marijuana, in part because they have observed the U.S. Green Rush and its …

Does Appearance Matter? The Relationship Of Perceived Body Size And Physical Appearance On Students' Attraction To Physical Activity At Recess, Danielle Belcher

Master's Theses

Drastic declines in recess physical activity (PA) have been observed within recent years (Center for Disease Control (CDC), 2017). Due to recess’ discretionary nature, psychosocial variables associated with PA are predictors of students’ PA levels. Recess is also a time of heightened bullying occurrences (Vaillancourt et al., 2010). Appearance-based bullying is the most common type of victimization that occurs in schools, transpiring more often in children with larger body max indexes (BMI), and possibly altering students’ physical self-perceptions. Physical self-perceptions have been shown to impact PA motivation, however, it is still unknown the extent to which appearance-based bullying, body size, …

Effects Of Attractiveness And Relationship Type Of Perceptions Of Adolescent Sexual Grooming, Alexandra Shappley

Honors Theses

Child sexual grooming is a prevalent issue within the United States, especially with the rise of the internet and social media (Shakeshaft, 2004; Finkelhor et al., 2000; Winters et al., 2017). There has been less research done on adolescent sexual grooming; however, researchers have found that perceptions of adolescent sexual grooming vary depending on the gender and age of the offender and victim (Russel & Gyrus, 2022; Sahl & Keene, 2012). Researchers have found that people perceive a sexual grooming relationship as inflicting more harm if the perpetrator is a man (Hernandez et al., 2019), particularly an older man (Russel …

Investigating The Relation Between Family Income And Barriers For Black Caregivers Of Autistic Children, Leah Gelfand

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Black caregivers and families of autistic youth experience racial barriers (e.g., racial microaggressions, stigma;) and practical barriers (e.g., cost of treatment, long waitlists), when seeking treatment and diagnostic services (Lovelace et al., 2018). The current study aimed to ascertain whether family income influenced the racial and practical barriers experienced by a sample of Black caregivers of autistic youth (N = 101). Overall and item-level analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between racial and practical barriers experienced across Lower (below 39,693; n=32), Lower-Middle ($39,693-$59,540; n=28), Middle-Upper ($59,540 to $119,080; n=21), and Upper income groups ($119,080 and …

The Age Of Adolescence: Examining The Relationship Between Body Image And Mood In Early Adolescence, Destiny R. Klanecky

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The current study sought to examine the relationship between body dissatisfaction and early adolescent mood with the intent of raising awareness and prevention, as well as intervention, when it comes to negative mental health and depressive mood in early adolescence. General self-worth acted as the outcome variable, examining body dissatisfaction, gender, and affect as potential predictor variables of lower general self-worth at the end of the school year. All measures were done through self-report questionnaires. Correlations were run to determine gender differences among the variables of interest and a hierarchical regression was done to account for change in general self-worth …

Family Conflict & Children's Problem Behaviors: A Bidirectional Analysis Across Emerging Adolescence, Lauren Aaron

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown that living in a family high in negative and hostile conflict is detrimental to children’s adjustment. As youth transition into adolescence, their desire for more autonomy can lead to changes in the family dynamic, such as increased family conflict. What is lesser known are the ways in which families may differ in how conflict changes during this time, how these differences may influence adjustment, and whether having a child with problem behaviors may lead to increases in family conflict.

The present studies used four waves of data from the Adolescent Brain & Cognitive Development study, an ongoing …

Emotional Intelligence In A Childrens Book, Delaney Farr

Senior Honors Projects

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to recognize and manage the emotions of oneself and others, which is crucial in building and sustaining social relationships. This children's book focuses on two aspects of EI and other skills in social-emotional development. The two EI skills this book focuses on are first, the ability to recognize one's emotions and, second, the ability to react appropriately to these emotions. In making this book, I utilized my background knowledge in EI and child development which I obtained through previous study of EI and child development in my psychology course work and in close working …

An Analysis Of Child Valence Bias Trajectories As A Result Of Parental Factors: A Longitudinal Perspective, Kaylee Brooke Donner

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Valence bias is an important part of how individuals perceive the world around them, and this is especially influential in terms of children’s development. This study used data from longitudinal data collection surveys consisting of 197 participants, ages 6-17, to investigate correlations between valence bias, puberty, parental conflict, emotion regulation, temperament, interpersonal regulation, trait anxiety, and personality. This research provides much sought-after knowledge in terms of how parental factors impact children’s development, specifically children's valence bias development. Previous research has shown that emotion regulation in parents, along with different parenting styles with equal levels of discipline and loving support largely …

An Exploratory Research On The Sexualization Of Young Women On Tiktok, Grace Schmerz

Student Theses

This study adopts a mixed-method approach, utilizing both qualitative content analysis and quantitative metadata assessments to evaluate 1000 TikTok videos tagged under specific hashtags suggestive of youthful and sexualized themes. Qualitative findings highlighted the characteristics of sexualization through thematic content analysis, sorting behaviors, attire, and the context of music and speech within the videos. Themes such as sexualized postures, sexualized attire, sexualized dancing, sexualized speech, and sexualized gestures were categorized and quantified with the support of descriptive statistics. The study found a significant presence of sexualization in the sample, most prominently in post-pubescent women. Quantitatively, engagement metrics provided insight into …

Regarding The Gender Gap: Interrogating Mcarthur’S Hypothesis On Dyslexia, Anxiety, And Inattention, Caroline Lynch

Honors Scholar Theses

This study interrogated the pervasive gender gap in dyslexia diagnosis. In order to do so, we analyzed Dr. Genevieve McArthur’s recent hypothesis that poor reading is linked to poor self-concept, anxiety, and inattention, which begins the cycle once again. Using a subset of data from the Child Mind Institute’s Healthy Brain Network biobank (children aged 7-11, n=1,725), we evaluated McArthur’s proposed relationships, and possible gendered differences within those relationships through probing which factors were important predictors of if a child did or did not receive a dyslexia diagnosis. We looked at word reading, biological sex, anxiety and inattention as possible …