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: Developmental Psychology
Description
The current study expands prior work on early adolescents’ impression management in the classroom by developing a self-report measure that was used to explore students’ endorsement of four academic self-presentation strategies (i.e., exaggerate, downplay, honest, and avoid) depending on peer type (i.e., best friend and most popular classmate), academic performance condition (i.e., strong and poor performance), and whether gender differences emerged, when discussing one’s level of effort on a class project. Specifically, data were collected from 475 eighth-grade students (253 boys, 222 girls) within a high-performing educational context. Preliminary psychometric evidence is provided indicating that the measurement tool developed for the present study shows promise. Additionally, findings from the current study extend existing work in which eighth-grade students perceive that high-status youth are less academically engaged than one’s close friends, and students are reluctant to appear industrious to one’s peers; however, given the novelty of the measure and educational context in which data were collected, alternative interpretations and corresponding implications of study results are discussed. The current study also extends theoretical conceptualizations of how transactional processes among early adolescents’ perceptions of academic norms among classmates, concerns over one’s public image, and students’ use of academic self-presentation strategies with peers may have lasting effects on students’ educational identity and commitment.
ContributorsSechler, Casey M. (Author) / Ladd, Gary W. (Thesis advisor) / Updegraff, Kimberly (Thesis advisor) / White, Rebecca M.B. (Committee member) / Jager, Justin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Sleep and weight health during childhood can be the essential building blocks that influence later physical and psychological health. Researchers note how neighborhood effects on health may be mediated or moderated by parenting or family-related factors. This dissertation expanded on the efforts through an examination of contextual predictors of children’s health using the Arizona Twin Project dataset (N = 933; 51.7% female; 56.5% White; 25.6% Latino). The family stress model (FSM), contextual relevance model (CRM), and the integrated model were used to test the relations between neighborhood and family factors on children sleep and weight health. Parent perceptions of neighborhood danger and childhood opportunities index were tested using multilevel- mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation models to address some of the limitations in previous reviews. The FSM was partially supported: parental stress and strain mediated the association between perceived neighborhood danger with sleep efficiency. However, the FSM was not fully supported as parental stress and disrupted parenting did not serially mediate the associations between neighborhood conditions and sleep efficiency. Moderation analyses revealed that negative parenting exacerbates associations between perceived neighborhood danger and sleep duration, demonstrating amplified disadvantages processes of the CRM. Negative parenting also moderated the associations between perceived neighborhood danger and sleep efficiency; the relationship was beyond what was noted in the CRM. Greater neighborhood opportunity was more strongly related to greater body fat percentage in families with higher positive parenting, as compared to families with lower positive parenting. Familism significantly moderated the association between neighborhood contexts and parental stress and strain within a subsample (Latino descent only). Last, the exploratory multilevel moderated mediation models suggested that most associations did not vary by the subgroups explored (i.e., positive parenting, familism cultural value). These results join a growing initiative to explore the science of ecological context, culture, and family interplay.
ContributorsPark, HyeJung (Author) / Doane, Leah D. (Thesis advisor) / White, Rebecca M.B. (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Su, Jinni (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Currently, Latino youth are reporting greater academic achievement compared to prior decades; however, they continue to drop out of high school at higher rates compared to their peers. Given that Latino youth will soon take on adult roles in society, it is important to explore resources that can help them reach their academic potential, while also considering ethnic-racial discrimination as a barrier. Prior work has highlighted the benefits that family ethnic socialization experiences (FES), and having an informed understanding of ones’ ethnic-racial identity (ERI achievement) can provide for Latino youths’ academic adjustment. However, additional work is needed to examine contextual factors that may inform Latino parents’ FES engagement. Furthermore, limited work has explored the variability in how Latino youth experience these and other cultural resources, and in turn, how they inform youths’ academic adjustment. In Study 1, I explored whether Mexican-origin mothers’ and fathers’ workplace discrimination informed youths’ academic adjustment via parent-adolescent relationship quality, mothers’ and fathers’ FES, and youths’ ERI. Findings suggest that mothers and fathers who experience more frequent workplace discrimination engage in more FES, and mothers’ (but not fathers’) FES was associated with youths’ higher ERI achievement. Furthermore, greater mother-adolescent conflict was associated with lower academic adjustment. Overall, findings have implications for understanding how youths’ developmental competencies are informed by their familial relationships, and their parents’ experiences with workplace discrimination.
In Study 2, I utilized person-centered analyses to examine whether distinct typologies emerged based on Latino youths’ experiences with FES, ERI, and emotional support from Latino and non-Latino peers. Findings revealed three profiles of cultural resources. Furthermore, youth who reported the highest levels of all cultural resources demonstrated better academic adjustment compared to youth with low to moderate levels of resources, but not compared to youth with more moderate levels of resources. Finally, profile membership moderated the association between youths’ ethnic-racial discrimination and academic adjustment; however, the profile that provided protective effects varied by academic adjustment indicator. Overall, findings provide a nuanced understanding regarding the promotive and protective effects that cultural resource profiles can have for youths’ academic adjustment.
ContributorsMartinez-Fuentes, Stefanie (Author) / Updegraff, Kimberly A (Thesis advisor) / Umaña-taylor, Adriana J (Thesis advisor) / White, Rebecca M.B. (Committee member) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023