Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students.
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- All Subjects: Resilience
Description
Sometimes difficult life events challenge our existing resources in such a way that routinized responses are inadequate to handle the challenge. Some individuals will persist in habitual, automatic behavior, regardless of environmental cues that indicate a mismatch between coping strategy and the demands of the stressor. Other individuals will marshal adaptive resources to construct new courses of action and reconceptualize the problem, associated goals and/or values. A mixed methods approach was used to describe and operationalize cognitive shift, a relatively unexplored construct in existing literature. The study was conducted using secondary data from a parent multi-year cross-sectional study of resilience with eight hundred mid-aged adults from the Phoenix metro area. Semi-structured telephone interviews were analyzed using a purposive sample (n=136) chosen by type of life event. Participants' beliefs, assumptions, and experiences were examined to understand how they shaped adaptation to adversity. An adaptive mechanism, "cognitive shift," was theorized as the transition from automatic coping to effortful cognitive processes aimed at novel resolution of issues. Aims included understanding when and how cognitive shift emerges and manifests. Cognitive shift was scored as a binary variable and triangulated through correlational and logistic regression analyses. Interaction effects revealed that positive personality attributes influence cognitive shift most when people suffered early adversity. This finding indicates that a certain complexity, self-awareness and flexibility of mind may lead to a greater capacity to find meaning in adversity. This work bridges an acknowledged gap in literature and provides new insights into resilience.
ContributorsRivers, Crystal T (Author) / Zautra, Alex (Thesis advisor) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Kurpius, Sharon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts or actions are on the rise in adolescents (National Institute of Mental Health, 2015; Bridge, Asti, & Horowitz, 2015). Parents, school administrators, and therapists are searching for resiliency factors with in at-risk groups to aid students in need. In previous work, Luthar and Zigler (1992) reported that intelligent youth are more resilient than less intelligent youth under low stress conditions but they lose their advantage under high stress conditions. This study examined whether intelligence (reflected in grade point average; GPA) and maladaptive (internalizing and externalizing symptoms) behaviors are negatively related in adolescents, and tested whether level of stress, reflected in emotion regulation and friendship quality, moderated that association. It also probed whether the relationships differ by gender. Sixth-graders (N=506) were recruited with active parental consent from three middle schools. Adolescents completed self-report questionnaires Regarding demo graphics, maladaptive behaviors, emotion regulation, and friendship quality, and GPA data were collected from the school. Regression analyses found that GPA was negatively related to externalizing symptoms. Girls with poor friendship communication report significantly higher maladaptive behaviors. This relation was more pronounced for girls with high GPAs, as predicted. Results support the theory that intelligent female adolescents are more reactive under adverse circumstances. Future efforts should follow students through middle school into high school to evaluate whether friendships remain important to adjustment, hold for boys as well as girls, and have implications for relationship interventions.
ContributorsGonzales, Ashlyn Carol (Author) / Luthar, Suniya (Thesis director) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Infurna, Frank (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Background: During the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, nurses experienced increased workloads which affected their compassion fatigue (CF). High levels of CF affect quality of care. However, little is known about what factors are associated with CF among nurses during the pandemic. Aim: This study aims to examine the factors associated with CF using the socio-ecological model (SEM).
Methods: This study is a cross-sectional correlational study which targeted nurses who are actively practicing and can speak English, Korean, Japanese, or French. Online websites for the recruitment including the study description and survey link were provided in each country. Survey data were collected from July 1, 2020 to January 25, 2021.
CF, consisting of burnout and secondary traumatic stress (STS), was measured using Professional Quality of Life scale (ProQOL). Factors based on each level of the SEM were measured: intrapersonal factors (demographic factors, resilience), fear of infection, intention to leave their job, care of COVID-19 patients, developing policies, being asked to work at higher acuity levels, received training about COVID-19, and any COVID-19 test results); interpersonal factors (fear of bringing COVID-19 to family); organizational factors (provision of personal protective equipment [PPE] or masks, organizational support to prevent COVID-19, type of organization, and accommodational support); community factors (country of practice and incidence rate); and policy factor (mask policy). These data were analyzed using multiple regression using maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors.
Results: Intrapersonal factors (resilience, age, being bedside staff, fear of infection, intention to leave their job, being asked to work at higher acuity levels, and receiving the positive COVID-19 results), organizational factors (provision of PPE, organizational support for COVID-19, and accommodational support), community factors (incidence rate when the mask policy was not in effect, and country of practice), and policy factor (mask policy under a high incidence rate) were the associated factors. The interaction between incidence rate and mask policy was significant.
Conclusion: To prepare for future emerging infectious disease crises, organizational support with proper PPE supplies, continuing education on emerging infectious diseases, and providing interventions to increase resilience are suggested.
ContributorsJo, Soo Jung (Author) / Reifsnider, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor) / Bennett, Jo Anne (Committee member) / Pituch, Keenan (Committee member) / Singh, Komal (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021