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: Clinical Psychology
Description
There is a lack of music therapy services for college students who have problems with depression and/or anxiety. Even among universities and colleges that offer music therapy degrees, there are no known programs offering music therapy to the institution's students. Female college students are particularly vulnerable to depression and anxiety symptoms compared to their male counterparts. Many students who experience mental health problems do not receive treatment, because of lack of knowledge, lack of services, or refusal of treatment. Music therapy is proposed as a reliable and valid complement or even an alternative to traditional counseling and pharmacotherapy because of the appeal of music to young women and the potential for a music therapy group to help isolated students form supportive networks. The present study recruited 14 female university students to participate in a randomized controlled trial of short-term group music therapy to address symptoms of depression and anxiety. The students were randomly divided into either the treatment group or the control group. Over 4 weeks, each group completed surveys related to depression and anxiety. Results indicate that the treatment group's depression and anxiety scores gradually decreased over the span of the treatment protocol. The control group showed either maintenance or slight worsening of depression and anxiety scores. Although none of the results were statistically significant, the general trend indicates that group music therapy was beneficial for the students. A qualitative analysis was also conducted for the treatment group. Common themes were financial concerns, relationship problems, loneliness, and time management/academic stress. All participants indicated that they benefited from the sessions. The group progressed in its cohesion and the participants bonded to the extent that they formed a supportive network which lasted beyond the end of the protocol. The results of this study are by no means conclusive, but do indicate that colleges with music therapy degree programs should consider adding music therapy services for their general student bodies.
ContributorsAshton, Barbara (Author) / Crowe, Barbara J. (Thesis advisor) / Rio, Robin (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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
Postpartum depression (PPD) is a significant public health concern affecting up to half a million U.S. women annually. Mexican-American women experience substantially higher rates of PPD, and represent an underserved population with significant health disparities that put these women and their infants at greater risk for substantial psychological and developmental difficulties. The current study utilized data on perceived stress, depression, maternal parenting behavior, and infant social-emotional and cognitive development from 214 Mexican-American mother-infant dyads. The first analysis approach utilized a latent intercept (LI) model to examine how overall mean levels and within-person deviations of perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and maternal parenting behavior are related across the postpartum period. Results indicated large, positive between- and within-person correlations between perceived stress and depression. Neither perceived stress nor depressive symptoms were found to have significant between- or within-person associations with the parenting variables. The second analysis approach utilized an autoregressive cross-lagged model with tests of mediation to identify underlying mechanisms among perceived stress, postpartum depressive symptoms, and maternal parenting behavior in the prediction of infant social-emotional and cognitive development. Results indicated that increased depressive symptoms at 12- and 18-weeks were associated with subsequent reports of increased perceived stress at 18- and 24-weeks, respectively. Perceived stress at 12-weeks was found to be negatively associated with subsequent non-hostility at 18-weeks, and both sensitivity and non-hostility were found to be associated with infant cognitive development and social-emotional competencies at 12 months of age (52-weeks), but not with social-emotional problems. The results of the mediation analyses showed that non-hostility at 18- and 24-weeks significantly mediated the association between perceived stress at 12-weeks and infant cognitive development and social-emotional competencies at 52-weeks. The findings extend research that sensitive parenting in early childhood is as important to the development of cognitive ability, social behavior, and emotion regulation in ethnic minority cultures as it is in majority culture families; that maternal perceptions of stress may spillover into parenting behavior, resulting in increased hostility and negatively influencing infant cognitive and social-emotional development; and that symptoms of depressed mood may influence the experience of stress.
ContributorsCiciolla, Lucia (Author) / Crnic, Keith A (Thesis advisor) / West, Stephen G. (Thesis advisor) / Luecken, Linda J. (Committee member) / Presson, Clark C. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Adverse childhood family environments have been found to have long-term effects on a child's well-being. Although no prior studies have examined the direct effects of childhood family adversities on nighttime blood pressure (BP) dip, parental death and divorce in childhood, have been associated with a variety of related psychological problems in adulthood. The current study examined the direct effects of parental death and divorce in childhood and quality of early family relationships on adult nighttime BP dip as well as the mediating role of three psychosocial factors (depression, hostility and social stress). One hundred and forty-three young adults were asked to complete self-reported measures of the three psychosocial factors and quality of family relationships. Study participants wore an ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitor over a 24-hr period in order to assess nocturnal BP dip. Although neither childhood family adversity nor quality of childhood family relationships directly predicted nighttime BP dipping, quality of early family relationships predicted all three psychosocial factors, and hostility was found to mediate the relationship between quality of childhood family relationships and nighttime systolic BP dip. Early family experiences play an important role in influencing nighttime cardiovascular functioning by influencing an individual's psychological functioning in young adulthood. Because nighttime non-dipping has been associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease and other serious health conditions, the results of the present study have important clinical implications and provide specific psychosocial pathways that may be targeted in future programs designed to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease.
ContributorsTanaka, Rika (Author) / Luecken, Linda J. (Thesis advisor) / Wolchik, Sharlene (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
In rehabilitation settings, activity limitation can be a significant barrier to recovery. This study sought to examine the effects of state and trait level benefit finding, positive affect, and catastrophizing on activity limitation among individuals with a physician-confirmed diagnosis of either Osteoarthritis (OA), Fibromyalgia (FM), or a dual diagnosis of OA/FM. Participants (106 OA, 53 FM, and 101 OA/FM) who had no diagnosed autoimmune disorder, a pain rating above 20 on a 0-100 scale, and no involvement in litigation regarding their condition were recruited in the Phoenix metropolitan area for inclusion in the current study. After initial questionnaires were completed, participants were trained to complete daily diaries on a laptop computer and instructed to do so a half an hour before bed each night for 30 days. In each diary, participants rated their average daily pain, benefit finding, positive affect, catastrophizing, and activity limitation. A single item, "I thought about some of the good things that have come from living with my pain" was used to examine the broader construct of benefit finding. It was hypothesized that state and trait level benefit finding would have a direct relation with activity limitation and a partially mediated relationship, through positive affect. Multilevel modeling with SAS PROC MIXED revealed that benefit finding was not directly related to activity limitation. Increases in benefit finding were associated, however, with decreases in activity limitation through a significant mediated relationship with positive affect. Individuals who benefit find had a higher level of positive affect which was associated with decreased activity limitation. A suppression effect involving pain and benefit finding at the trait level was also found. Pain appeared to increase the predictive validity of the relation of benefit finding to activity limitation. These findings have important implications for rehabilitation psychologists and should embolden clinicians to encourage patients to increase positive affect by employing active approach-oriented coping strategies like benefit finding to reduce activity limitation.
ContributorsKinderdietz, Jeffrey Scott (Author) / Zautra, Alex (Thesis advisor) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Barrera, Manuel (Committee member) / Okun, Morris (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Female infertility can present a significant challenge to quality of life. To date, few, if any investigations have explored the process by which women adapt to premature ovarian insufficiency (POI), a specific type of infertility, over time. The current investigation proposed a bi-dimensional, multi-factor, model of adjustment characterized by the identification of six latent factors representing personal attributes (resilience resources and vulnerability), coping (adaptive and maladaptive) and outcomes (distress and wellbeing). Measures were collected over the period of one year; personal attributes were assessed at Time 1, coping at Time 2 and outcomes at Time 3. It was hypothesized that coping factors would mediate associations between personal attributes and outcomes. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), simple regressions and single mediator models were utilized to test study hypotheses. Overall, with the exception of coping, the factor structure was consistent with predictions. Two empirically derived coping factors, and a single standalone strategy, avoidance, emerged. The first factor, labeled "approach coping" was comprised of strategies directly addressing the experience of infertility. The second was comprised of strategies indicative of "letting go /moving on." Only avoidance significantly mediated the association between vulnerability and distress.
ContributorsDriscoll, Mary (Author) / Davis, Mary C. (Thesis advisor) / Aiken, Leona S. (Committee member) / Luecken, Linda J. (Committee member) / Zautra, Alex J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The parent-child relationship is one of the earliest and most formative experiences for social and emotional development. Synchrony, defined as the rhythmic patterning and quality of mutual affect, engagement, and physiological attunement, has been identified as a critical quality of a healthy mother-infant relationship. Although the salience of the quality of family interaction has been well-established, clinical and developmental research has varied widely in methods for observing and identifying influential aspects of synchrony. In addition, modern dynamic perspectives presume multiple factors converge in a complex system influenced by both nature and nurture, in which individual traits, behavior, and environment are inextricably intertwined within the system of dyadic relational units.
The present study aimed to directly examine and compare synchrony from three distinct approaches: observed microanalytic behavioral sequences, observed global dyadic qualities, and physiological attunement between mothers and infants. The sample consisted of 323 Mexican American mothers and their infants followed from the third trimester of pregnancy through the first year of life. Mothers were interviewed prenatally, observed at a home visit at 12 weeks postpartum, and were finally interviewed for child social-emotional problems at child age 12 months. Specific aspects of synchrony (microanalytical, global, and physiological) were examined separately as well as together to identify comparable and divergent qualities within the construct.
Findings indicated that multiple perspectives on synchrony are best examined together, but as independent qualities to account for varying characteristics captured by divergent systems. Dyadic relationships characterized by higher reciprocity, more time and flexibility in mutual non-negative engagement, and less tendency to enter negative or unengaged states were associated with fewer child social-emotional problems at child age 12 months. Lower infant cortisol was associated with higher levels of externalizing problems, and smaller differences between mother and child cortisol were associated with higher levels of child dysregulation. Results underscore the complex but important nature of synchrony as a salient mechanism underlying the social-emotional growth of children. A mutually engaged, non-negative, and reciprocal environment lays the foundation for the successful social and self-regulatory competence of infants in the first year of life.
The present study aimed to directly examine and compare synchrony from three distinct approaches: observed microanalytic behavioral sequences, observed global dyadic qualities, and physiological attunement between mothers and infants. The sample consisted of 323 Mexican American mothers and their infants followed from the third trimester of pregnancy through the first year of life. Mothers were interviewed prenatally, observed at a home visit at 12 weeks postpartum, and were finally interviewed for child social-emotional problems at child age 12 months. Specific aspects of synchrony (microanalytical, global, and physiological) were examined separately as well as together to identify comparable and divergent qualities within the construct.
Findings indicated that multiple perspectives on synchrony are best examined together, but as independent qualities to account for varying characteristics captured by divergent systems. Dyadic relationships characterized by higher reciprocity, more time and flexibility in mutual non-negative engagement, and less tendency to enter negative or unengaged states were associated with fewer child social-emotional problems at child age 12 months. Lower infant cortisol was associated with higher levels of externalizing problems, and smaller differences between mother and child cortisol were associated with higher levels of child dysregulation. Results underscore the complex but important nature of synchrony as a salient mechanism underlying the social-emotional growth of children. A mutually engaged, non-negative, and reciprocal environment lays the foundation for the successful social and self-regulatory competence of infants in the first year of life.
ContributorsCoburn, Shayna Skelley (Author) / Crnic, Keith A (Thesis advisor) / Dishion, Thomas J (Committee member) / Mackinnon, David P (Committee member) / Luecken, Linda J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Clinically meaningful emotional and behavioral problems are thought to be present beginning in infancy, and may be reliably assessed in children as young as 12 months old. However, few studies have investigated early correlates of emotional and behavioral problems assessed in infancy. The current study investigates the direct and interactive contributions of early infant and caregiver characteristics thought to play an important role in the ontogeny of behavior problems. Specifically, the study examines: (1) the links between temperamental reactivity across the first year of life and behavior problems at 18 months, (2) whether children high in temperamental reactivity are differentially susceptible to variations in maternal sensitivity, (3) the extent to which child temperamental risk or susceptibility may further be explained by mothers’ experiences of stressful life events (SLEs) during and before pregnancy. Data were collected from 322 Mexican American families during prenatal, 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-week home interviews, as well as during 12- and 18-month lab interviews. Mother reports of SLEs were obtained between 23-40 weeks gestation; temperamental negativity and surgency at 6 weeks and 12 months; and internalizing and externalizing behaviors at 18 months. Maternal sensitivity during structured mother-infant interaction tasks at the 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-week visits was assessed by objective observer ratings. Study findings indicated that maternal SLEs before birth were associated with more infant negativity across the first year of life, and that negativity in turn was associated with more internalizing problems at 18 months. Ecological stressors thought to be associated with sociodemographic risk factors such as low-income and ethnic minority status may begin to exert cascades of influence on children’s developmental outcomes even before birth.
ContributorsLin, Betty (Author) / Crnic, Keith A (Thesis advisor) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn S (Committee member) / Luecken, Linda J. (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
The present study utilized longitudinal data from a high-risk community sample (n= 377; 166 trauma-exposed; 54% males; 52% children of alcoholics; 73% non-Hispanic/Latino Caucasian; 22% Hispanic/Latino; 5% other ethnicity) to test a series of hypotheses that may help explain the risk pathways that link traumatic stress, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology, and problematic alcohol and drug use. Specifically, this study examined whether pre-trauma substance use problems increase risk for trauma exposure (the high-risk hypothesis) or PTSD symptoms (the susceptibility hypothesis), whether PTSD symptoms increase risk for later alcohol/drug problems (the self-medication hypothesis), and whether the association between PTSD symptoms and alcohol/drug problems is due to shared risk factors (the shared vulnerability hypothesis). This study also examined the roles of gender and ethnicity in these pathways. A series of logistic and negative binomial regressions were performed in a path analysis framework. A composite pre-trauma family adversity variable was formed from measures of family conflict, family life stress, parental alcoholism, and other parent psychopathology. Results provided the strongest support for the self-medication hypothesis, such that PTSD symptoms predicted higher levels of later alcohol and drug problems among non-Hispanic/Latino Caucasian participants, over and above the influences of pre-trauma family adversity, pre-trauma substance use problems, trauma exposure, and demographic variables. Results partially supported the high-risk hypothesis, such that adolescent substance use problems had a marginally significant unique effect on risk for assaultive violence exposure but not on overall risk for trauma exposure. There was no support for the susceptibility hypothesis, as pre-trauma adolescent substance use problems did not significantly influence risk for PTSD diagnosis/symptoms over and above the influence of pre-trauma family adversity. Finally, there was little support for the shared vulnerability hypothesis. Neither trauma exposure nor preexisting family adversity accounted for the link between PTSD symptoms and later substance use problems. These results add to a growing body of literature in support of the self-medication hypothesis. Findings extend previous research by showing that PTSD symptoms may influence the development of alcohol and drug problems over and above the influence of trauma exposure itself, preexisting family risk factors, and baseline levels of substance use.
ContributorsHaller, Moira (Author) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis advisor) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Pina, Armando (Committee member) / Tein, Jenn-Yun (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Guided by the Risky Families model and Daily Process methods, the present study examined how daily stressors are related to emotional well-being at the between- and within-person levels among adolescent grandchildren raised by grandmothers. This study also examined whether risk (i.e., adverse childhood experiences/ACES) and resilience (i.e., socio-emotional skills) factors were linked to differences in daily well-being, stressor exposure, and emotional reactivity, and evaluated the efficacy of an online social intelligence training (SIT) program on daily stressor-emotion dynamics. Data came from a subsample (n = 188) of custodial adolescents who participated in an attention-controlled randomized clinical trial and completed 14-day daily surveys prior to and following intervention. Analyses were conducted with dynamic structural equation modeling. Daily stressors, on average, and experiencing above average stressors, were associated with higher negative emotions and lower positive emotions and social connection. Those with more ACEs, on average, reported higher daily stressors and worse well-being, whereas those with higher socio-emotional skills, on average, reported lower daily stressors and better well-being. At the within-person level, more ACEs were associated with higher daily negative emotions. Nonverbal processing was linked to higher daily positive emotions and social connection. Conversational skills were associated with higher daily positive emotions and social connection, and lower, more inert daily negative emotions. Neither ACEs nor socio-emotional skills were associated with within-person reactivity to stressors. Also, the SIT program did not demonstrate efficacy for any outcome. My discussion focused on how findings extend the literature on custodial adolescents by showing that daily stressors impact well-being, offer knowledge of how ACEs and socio-emotional skills shape daily stressor-emotion dynamics, and considers reasons why the online, self-guided SIT program failed to show efficacy on key outcomes.
ContributorsCastro, Saul (Author) / Infurna, Frank (Thesis advisor) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023