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
- Creators: Thompson, Marilyn
Description
This longitudinal study examined the relations between self-regulation and reading achievement from kindergarten through second grade. In addition to the broader concept of effortful control, this study looked at various sub-components, including attention focusing and inhibitory control. A series of unconditional latent growth curve models were estimated to assess the initial level and growth of children’s parent- and teacher-reported effortful control and reading skills. In addition, parallel-process latent-growth curve models were estimated to examine the relations between the growth parameters (e.g., how the initial level and growth in self-regulation relates to the initial level and growth in reading). Parent-reported inhibitory control and effortful control displayed linear growth over this time period. Teacher-reported self-regulation did not change significantly. Reading achievement increased across all three time points, but the rate of growth was steeper from kindergarten through first grade than from first to second grade. Results from the parallel-process models showed that the kindergarten scores for parent-reported attention focusing and inhibitory control were negatively related to growth in Letter Word abilities from first through second grade, whereas initial teacher-reported attention focusing, inhibitory control, and effortful control were negatively related to growth in Passage Comprehension abilities from first to second grade. This study illustrates important relations between self-regulation and reading abilities throughout the first few years of elementary school.
ContributorsWall, Carla (Author) / Valiente, Carlos (Thesis advisor) / Jahromi, Laudan (Committee member) / Thompson, Marilyn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Rapidly growing research on mothers’ perinatal depression, has demonstrated significant links among mothers’ depressive symptoms during pregnancy and the first year postpartum, their parenting, and multiple aspects of children’s development. This prospective longitudinal study contributes to research on mothers’ perinatal depression by examining the mechanisms by which maternal perinatal depression is associated with children’s adjustment early in development in a sample of 204 Mexican-origin adolescent mothers (Mage at Wave 1 = 16.80, SD = 1.0) and their children (58% boys). I expected that adolescent mothers’ negative parenting behaviors would mediate the associations between mothers’ perinatal depressive symptoms and three child outcomes: internalizing symptoms, externalizing behaviors, and cognitive ability. I further hypothesized that mothers’ perceived social support from their family would modify the extent to which mothers’ perinatal depressive symptoms negatively impact their parenting behaviors and their children’s developmental outcomes. Mothers reported on their own depressive symptoms, their perceived social support from their family and their children’s internalizing and externalizing problems; negative parenting was assessed using observational methods; and children’s cognitive ability was assessed using standardized developmental assessments. In this sample, adolescent mothers’ negative parenting behaviors did not significantly mediate the relations between mothers’ perinatal depression and children’s developmental outcomes. Further, perceived social support did not significantly buffer the effects of mothers’ perinatal depression on mothers’ negative parenting or children’s developmental outcomes. However, in line with hypotheses, results indicated that mothers’ prenatal depression had a wider impact on children’s adjustment outcomes than mothers’ postpartum depression, which appeared more specific to children’s internalizing problems. Discussion focuses on implications for intervention addressing adolescent mothers’ perinatal depression, as well as the need to continue to explore protective factors that have the potential to disrupt the negative intergenerational transmission of risks.
ContributorsSeay, Danielle M (Author) / Elam, Kit (Thesis advisor) / Iida, Masumi (Thesis advisor) / Thompson, Marilyn (Committee member) / Wilkens, Natalie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs abound in schools worldwide, adopted in large part on limited and varied evidence that the social/SEL skills acquired in these programs contribute to academic achievement. However, large-scale studies with the most common SEL program in the United States (Second Step®) have yielded no evidence of academic benefits, despite revisions to the Second Step® measure (i.e., DESSA – SSE) to include “skills for learning” (i.e., executive functioning skills). The dearth of academic effects could reflect programmatic or measurement flaws. The purpose of this paper is to explore the latter and unpack the core “inputs” of Second Step® to determine whether the social-emotional or executive functioning components may be differently related to academic achievement. Such questions have important implications for evaluating program theory/logic and for the SEL field more broadly. The current study addresses this broader aim by assessing the longitudinal, bi-directional relationship among Executive Functioning, Prosocial Skills (as a proxy for SEL skills), and academic achievement in Kindergarten and Grade 1 students (N = 3,029) from rural and urban schools (N = 61). Widely utilized curriculum-based measures of reading and math tests were administered directly to students to assess academic achievement, while teachers reported on students’ Prosocial Skills using an established measure. A bi-factorial measure of executive functioning was derived from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses from teacher-reported rating scale data. Results based on autoregressive cross-lagged panel model using accelerated longitudinal design lend some support for a longitudinal bidirectional relationship between the executive functioning components of shifting and emotional regulation (EF 2) and Prosocial Skills. Furthermore, while results support extant research that the executive functioning components of working memory, planning, and problem solving (EF 1) positively predict academic achievement, the executive functioning components of shifting and emotional regulation (EF 2) and Prosocial Skills are not meaningful nor consistent predictors of academic achievement. Implications and limitations are discussed.
ContributorsDesfosses, Danielle (Author) / Low, Sabina (Thesis advisor) / Thompson, Marilyn (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Swanson, Jodi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021