Theses and Dissertations
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on-cisgender identity, age of awareness, age of social transition, primary caregiver acceptance, secondary caregiver acceptance, and mental health. Hypotheses were partially supported for age of social transition with mental health, parental acceptance with mental health, and awareness-transition gap with parental acceptance. This study investigated under studied concepts of social transition and parental acceptance that appear to have an effect on the mental health of transgender adults.
Graduating from college is an important time of life transitions and career development for undergraduates and their future. Future self-identification, the connection between an individual’s current and future self, can negatively predict depression and utilize self-control as a mechanism to achieve later academic goals. Investigating an individual’s future self- identification, depression scores, and behavioral outcomes in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic can help optimize college graduate success in an uncertain world. The present study aimed to (1) determine if earlier future self-identification moderated the changes between later outcomes (e.g., depression, perceived alcohol consumption, and academic and career goals) from pre-COVID-19 to during COVID-19, (2) investigate if psychological resources (e.g., self-control and emotion regulation) had any intermediary effects between earlier future self-identification and later depression and behavioral outcomes during the pandemic, and (3) test for any moderation effects of future self-identification on the relationship between available psychological resources before COVID-19 and during COVID-19. The present research demonstrated that students with greater earlier future self-identification were less likely to change their academic and career goals and were less likely to experience symptoms of depression during the pandemic. Additionally, self-control was demonstrated as an intermediary factor between earlier future self-identification and later academic and career goal changes. These findings may help college graduates develop resilience in other stressful situations.
School-based mental health services aim to foster positive academic and behavioral outcomes in students, however families often are not directly involved in implementing these practices. Family engagement in schools should be an essential focal point in school-based mental health services, as the partnership between families and schools has been shown to lead to positive student outcomes. This study used an evaluation tool known as the FAMSET to examine the PFS CARE intervention, a trauma-informed and culturally responsive intervention measuring family engagement in schools, which operates from an MTSS-framework. Specifically focusing on trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, administrators and staff members were asked a series of thirteen questions regarding the construct. This study aims to examine the construct of trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, to analyze administrator and staff differences, and to create a consolidated scale. Results showed that overall, the scales were efficient in capturing the construct of trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, and the scales should be analyzed separately for administrators and staff members; additionally, several questions should be omitted or reworded in the administrator survey in future administrations. Family engagement in schools is an understudied topic, and one with promising future implementations – this study is one of the first to evaluate the FAMSET tool. In future studies, this preliminary data can be used to create a validated scale, and it is recommended that future samples are larger and expand to other faculty positions as well.