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
Current models of pain coping typically focus on how pain contributes to poor physical and psychological functioning. Researchers have argued that this focus on the negative consequences is too narrow and does not account for times when individuals are able to maintain meaningful functioning despite their pain. Thus, the current study sought to investigate the day-to-day processes that both help and hinder recovery from pain and persistence towards daily goals. Specifically, the present study tested: a) a two-factor model of risk and resilience “factors” that capture key processes across affective, cognitive and social dimensions of functioning, and b) whether the relation between morning pain and end-of-day physical disability is mediated by increases in these afternoon risk and resilience factors. Within-day study measures were collected for 21 days via an automated phone system from 220 participants with Fibromyalgia. The results of multi-level confirmatory factor analysis indicated that, consistent with prediction, risk and resilience do constitute two factors. Findings from multilevel structural equation models also showed resilience factor mediated the link between late morning increases in pain and end-of-day disability, in line with hypotheses. Although the vulnerability factor as a whole did not mediate the within-day link between pain and disability, pain-catastrophizing individually did serve as a significant mediator of this relation. This study was the first to empirically test a within-day latent factor model of resilience and vulnerability and the first to capture the multidimensional nature of the pain experience by examining mechanisms across affective, cognitive and social domains of functioning. The findings of the current study suggest that in addition to studying the processes by which pain has a negative influence on the lives of pain sufferers, our understanding of the pain adaptation process can be further improved by concurrently examining mechanisms that motivate individuals to overcome the urge to avoid pain and to function meaningfully despite it.
ContributorsThummala, Kirti (Author) / Davis, Mary C. (Thesis advisor) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Karoly, Paul (Committee member) / Barrera, Manuel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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
Over 35% of multiracial college students fail to earn a degree, which can have significant economic and health costs over their lifespan. This study aimed to better understand college and psychological adjustment among multiracial college students of Hispanic/Latinx and White non-Hispanic descent by examining students’ racial identities and use of resilience resources. Latent profiles of identity were identified to better understand how different aspects of racial identity are clustered in this population. Multiracial college students (N=221) reported on racial identity as measured on multiple dimensions: Hispanic/Latinx identity, Hispanic/Latinx cultural orientation, White identity, identity integration, shifting expressions of identity, and identity malleability. Students also reported on their use of multiple resilience resources (personal mastery, social competence, perspective taking, coping flexibility, familism support values) and both college and psychological adjustment. Through regression and SEM analyses, results indicated that, of the resilience resources, only personal mastery was positively related to both college and psychological adjustment, while social competence was positively related to college adjustment. More shifting expressions of identity was related to poorer college and psychological adjustment, which was partially mediated via personal mastery. Stronger Hispanic/Latinx identity was related to higher perspective taking and coping flexibility, while stronger White identity was related to higher familism support values. Latent profiles of identity indicated a four-class solution, consisting of 1) “low identity”, 2) “integrated, low shifting”, 3) “integrated, shifting”, and 4) “high shifting, low integration”. Findings highlight the need for person-centered and ecological approaches to understanding identity development and resilience among multiracial college students, and can inform prevention and intervention efforts for multiracial college students of Hispanic/Latinx and White non-Hispanic descent. Results also demonstrate the importance of assessing multiracial identity via multiple dimensions including factors such as identity integration, shifting expressions of identity, and identity malleability.
ContributorsJewell, Shannon (Author) / Luecken, Linda J. (Thesis advisor) / Jackson, Kelly (Committee member) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Edwards, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020