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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- Creators: Department of Psychology
Description
Executive functioning (EF) is the cognitive processing of goal-oriented actions that are predictive of important life functioning skills. Middle childhood is an important time for academic achievement and social development. Positive and negative parenting practices were examined in the prediction of several child executive functioning outcomes in middle childhood, this thesis further examined whether early life socioeconomic status moderated such associations. This sample consisted of 708 twins (32% monozygotic, 36% same-sex dizygotic, and 32% opposite-sex dizygotic) with ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds at two age points, 12 months old (M = 12.5 months, SD = 1.06) and 8 years old (M = 8.41, SD = .40).There was a significant negative main effect between negative parenting and CPT. Further, positive parenting interacted with SES to predict CPT and Digit Span Forward. A significant positive effect was identified between positive parenting and CPT in low SES families, but not high SES families. Interestingly, greater positive parenting was associated with lower Digit Span Forward in high SES families, but not low SES families. These findings suggest that while negative parenting was associated with worse EF across the entire sample, the relationship between positive parenting practices and executive functioning outcomes differed based on early life socioeconomic status. Future research should examine whether various domains of executive functioning may follow different developmental patterns.
ContributorsKim, Caitlin (Author) / Doane, Leah (Thesis director) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Pediatric chronic pain is surprisingly common and impactful, prospectively predicting poorer mental and physical health outcomes. Internalizing symptoms represents one such outcome. It is the most common cluster of symptoms in children, it is related to poorer child functioning, and it has been linked to future functioning/psychopathology. The psychosocial mechanisms through which child pain may impact internalizing have yet to be fully elaborated, but withdrawal from social engagement with peers has been proposed as one possible mechanism. Additionally, sibling relationships may play a role in enhancing or diminishing a child’s social engagement while they are in pain. The current study aimed to examine whether child social engagement at age 8 mediates the relation between child chronic pain at age 8 and internalizing symptoms at age 9. Further, the study tested whether sibling warmth and sibling conflict act as moderators between child chronic pain and child social engagement. The physical and emotional health, quality of sibling relations, and extracurricular social engagement of 491 twin children from 247 families were assessed at age 8 and age 9 via surveys completed by the children’s primary caregivers. Findings showed that child pain at age 8 did not predict lower levels of social engagement, and social engagement did not predict child internalizing at age 9. Sibling warmth, but not conflict, significantly moderated the pain—social engagement relation. Together, these findings indicate that the relation between chronic pain and internalizing functions differently in children than in adults through a variety of cognitive, environmental, and social factors. More longitudinal research in this area will help establish changes in the relation between pain and internalizing from childhood into adulthood.
ContributorsRichards, Nicole Eve (Co-author) / Richards, Nicole (Co-author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Child chronic pain is both common and consequential and identification of malleable risk factors is a critical step towards developing effective interventions. Existing evidence points to the possibility that parent behavior may play a significant role in the development of children’s chronic pain through modeling of pain-related behaviors. An important parental trait that predicts parent behavior in pain contexts is parental pain catastrophizing, which has been linked to child pain outcomes as well as to increased facial pain behavior in both parents and their children during pain induction. Existing research has examined facial pain behavior in aggregate, summarizing facial expressions over the course of an entire dyadic interaction, which does not allow for evaluation of the dynamic interplay between a parent and child. The current study aimed to test the hypothesis that higher parental catastrophizing would predict decreased flexibility in emotional dynamics between parent and child (reflected in facial affect during a parent-child interaction that occurs within the context of child pain-induction), which would in turn predict fewer child chronic pain symptoms. The approach used dynamic systems analysis of facial behaviors during the parent-child interaction during the child’s performance of a pain inducing cold pressor task to assess dyadic emotional flexibility. Nine-year old children from a larger sample of twins (N = 30) were video recorded during a cold-water pain task while their parents observed them. Videos of the children and their parent from these interactions were analyzed using facial action unit software (AffDex), into positive, neutral, and negative facial emotional expressions. Synchronized parent and child coded facial data were then analyzed for flexibility using GridWare (version 1.1). Parents completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) to assess parental trait pain catastrophizing and the Body Pain Location/Frequency scale to assess child chronic pain symptoms during the prior three months. Contrary to prediction, parental catastrophizing was related to higher levels of flexibility, and flexibility was unrelated to child chronic pain. Exploratory analyses indicated that children with higher levels of effortful control had more emotionally flexible interactions with their parent during the cold pressor, and emotionally flexible interactions predicting lower levels of children’s negative emotional responses to the acute pain task. suggesting some promising avenues for future research.
ContributorsSowards, Hayley Anne (Author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis director) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Postpartum depression is recognized as the most common psychiatric disorder that appears in approximately 10-15% of women, with higher frequencies among low-income minority women. Past studies have revealed that depressive symptoms negatively impact child development and mother-child synchrony. The current study's purpose was to explore the effects of postpartum depressive symptoms on later dyadic dysregulation. The data was collected from Las Madres Nuevas' study, a longitudinal investigation. Participants were 322 Mexican and Mexican American mother-infant dyads from the Phoenix metropolitan area who were recruited though a Maricopa Integrated Health System (MIHS) prenatal clinic. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used to measure depression 6 weeks postpartum. Additionally, the dysregulation-coding scheme used at child's 24 months of age measured the children's, mothers', and dyads' regulatory skills throughout their interactions with each other. Linear regression analyses were the central analyses of this study. In the first regression analysis, results showed that mother's age at prenatal visit (p= 0.44), 6-week depression score (p= 0.37), mother's education (p= 0.77), and number of biological children (p= 0.28) did not significantly predict dyadic dysregulation at 24 months. The second linear regression analysis concluded that the 6-week depression score, mother's country of birth, the interaction of maternal depression and country of birth, mother's education, mother's age at prenatal visit, and number of biological children also did not predict dyadic dysregulation at 24 months. Although not statistically significant, the findings suggest that the Hispanic Paradox theory, conservation of native cultural values, and strong social support have protective effects in Mexican immigrant and Mexican American childbearing women.
ContributorsOlivas Varela, Itzel (Author) / Luecken, Linda (Thesis director) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Winstone, Laura (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This study examined the effectiveness of a Social Intelligence Intervention (SII) in improving components of social intelligence, and whether neuroticism moderates such associations in 130 participants aged 45-70. We hypothesized that the SII will improve participants' social intelligence across several factors: social awareness, social skills, social information processing, and perspective taking. Furthermore, we examined if neuroticism moderated participants' responsiveness to the intervention. Specifically, we hypothesize that individuals with high levels of neuroticism will have greater improvements in social intelligence. Individuals were randomly assigned to participate in the SII (n=71) or an attention control condition (n=59) that focused on healthy living tips. Individuals provided self-report data prior to participation in the study, and following completion of the intervention or attention control condition. The results were not statistically significant, however there was a trend for social information processing to improve with the SII. Neuroticism and time significantly moderated social awareness. This research suggests that the SII may not be effective in improving social intelligence scores for participants in midlife. Thus, the SII should be enhanced to surpass improvements that could potentially be from common factors in the intervention.
ContributorsEspinosa, Elaina Nicole (Author) / Infurna, Frank (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor, Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
The purpose of our study was to evaluate whether viewing videos of dogs had an effect on the stress response of college students. While there is strong support in the literature for demonstrating the beneficial effect of human-canine interactions on human stress indicators, there is very little to no literature on whether or not this phenomenon translates across a digital medium. We hypothesized that when exposed to a video of golden retriever puppies after a stress-inducing task, an individual would experience an increase in blood pressure recovery rate and a decline in perceived stress. In order to study this, we put together several surveys to test our participants' perceived stress, and we measured blood pressure several times in order to obtain a physiological measure of stress. Additionally, in order to produce a guaranteed stress response in our participants, we gave them 2 minutes to prepare a 4 minute video-recorded speech that they were not made aware of prior to entering the testing facility. After the speech task, the experimental group quietly viewed a pleasant 4 minute video containing imagery of dogs, while the control group sat silently for the same duration of time. During this time, the control group was asked to mentally review their performance and to focus intently on the feelings they experienced while giving their speech. Through these measures we found a significant recovery rate in systolic blood pressure and a trending difference between groups for the decline in negative affect. The data demonstrated that the experimental group had blood pressure levels that were significantly closer to their baseline levels when compared to the control group, whose blood pressure did not decline at the same rate. Additionally, the experimental group experienced a higher level of change in negative affect when asked to self-report their level of stress before the speech task and after the conditional recovery period. Interestingly, these findings can be applied to recent literature suggesting that systolic blood pressure is the most important factor of cardiac health to consider when assessing an individual for risk of heart disease or cardiac arrest. While the sample size of this study was small, the significant reduction in systolic blood pressure within the experimental group could indicate the possible efficacy of utilizing digital media containing imagery of canines as a form of therapy for systolically-hypertensive individuals as a means of managing their condition.
ContributorsDiModugno, Maria (Co-author) / Barbera, Joseph (Co-author) / Luecken, Linda (Thesis director) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Adverse neighborhood environments have been found to negatively influence children’s sleep and physical activity outcomes (Pabayo et al., 2014; Aguilar-Farias et al., 2020). Previous literature suggests that positive parenting and familism values may play protective roles in high-risk neighborhood contexts (Romero et al., 2020). This study utilized a strengths-based approach to examine relations between neighborhood opportunities and sleep and physical activity in children, and whether positive parenting and familism values buffered these associations. This study utilized a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of 710 twin children (Mage=8.44 years, SD=.69; 51.4% female; 58.5% non-Hispanic White, 23.7% Hispanic). Children wore actigraphy watches for 7 nights (M=6.79, SD=.71) to capture sleep (duration, efficiency, midpoint, midpoint variability) and physical activity (MVPA and sedentary behaviors) parameters. Objective neighborhood opportunity was evaluated using the Child Opportunity Index 2.0 (COI; Noelke et al., 2020). Positive parenting behaviors were observed and coded in the context of a parent-child interaction task. Primary caregivers reported on their children’s sleep problems and their familism values. Results revealed that higher COI predicted earlier sleep midpoint and less midpoint variability. Interactions between COI and positive parenting were nonsignificant. Though marginal, associations between the COI and midpoint variability were most negatively related in children whose primary caregiver reported high familism values. Future research should look at children’s engagement in family activities to better understand whether children who reside in low opportunity neighborhoods and experience high familism values have to face additional competing family demands, leading to greater individual variation in sleep timing.
ContributorsGutierrez, Valeria (Author) / Doane, Leah (Thesis director) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Cruz, Rick (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2022-12
Description
Pediatric chronic pain is common and costly to children, their families, and society. Importantly, pediatric pain often persists into adulthood. Prior research suggests that parent chronic pain, particularly maternal pain, is a risk factor for the development of chronic pain in children. Existing evidence also suggests that parenting, including parental pain-related pain catastrophizing and general parenting style, are all associated with greater levels of chronic pain in children. The present study examined whether the prospective relations between parent and child pain differed between mothers and fathers, and whether parenting mediated or moderated the parent pain--child pain relations. It was hypothesized that 1a) both maternal and paternal chronic pain prospectively predicts child chronic pain, but that maternal pain would be a stronger predictor; 1b) having 0, 1, or 2 parents will increase the child’s risk of developing chronic pain; 2) maternal pain catastrophizing about their own (a) and their children’ pain (b) would mediate the relations between maternal and child pain; and 3) authoritarian parenting style (a) and negative parenting behaviors (b) would mediate the relationship between parent and child pain. Exploratory analyses tested the whether parental warmth predicted child pain, independent of mom pain. Regression models that account for twin dependency used longitudinal data collected from a sample of 895 twin children showed that maternal pain but not paternal pain predicted child pain. Maternal catastrophizing of her own pain, but not her child’s pain, significantly mediated the relation between maternal and child pain. However, maternal catastrophizing of her child’s pain predicted child pain at age 9, when controlling for child pain at age 8. All proposed relations between general parenting styles as well as warm parenting and child pain were not significant.
ContributorsLagergren, Abigail (Author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis director) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2021-12
Description
The interconnection between family contexts and sleeping patterns play a crucial role in childhood development, with disturbances in either being indicative of future health outcomes in adulthood. It is unclear whether sibling relationships and sleep would have a similar effect as there are not many studies that have examined these links by using subjective sleep and sibling relationship assessments. Given this gap in the literature, the present studied aimed to 1) examine potential bidirectional relations between sibling relationships (warmth, conflict) and sleep variables (duration, efficiency, and sleep midpoint variability) across ages 8 and 10, and 2) test whether a novel sibling interaction task with measures of sharing and competition conducted at age 8 predicts sleep variables both cross sectionally and two years later at age 10. Data are from the Arizona Twin Project which includes a racially and socioeconomically diverse representation of children in Arizona. Twins wore an actigraph watch at both age 8 and age 10 to capture sleep duration and efficiency. Primary caregivers also reported sibling relationships via a questionnaire during both waves. Twins completed a marble pulling task to measure negotiation and cooperation behaviors at age 8 only. We tested cross-lagged prospective associations between sleep and sibling contexts. My study identified a longitudinal, positive association with sibling warmth at age 8 and sleep duration at age 10 and another concurrent, positive association with sibling conflict at age 8 and sleep midpoint variability at age 8. A negative association was identified between sibling warmth and sleep efficiency at age 10. Stability over time was also identified in both sleep variables and sibling relationships. Future studies can further investigate the different ways siblings may influence sleep behaviors, or vice versa, by taking into consideration the quality of the relationship, age, gender, and overall family dynamics. Due to the complexity of sibling relationships, the relations between sleep and siblings may vary among different individuals and families. These additional factors may need to be considered when evaluating the effects of sibling relationships and sleep on child development and well-being.
ContributorsRuiz, Ashley (Author) / Doane, Leah (Thesis director) / Corbin, William (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2023-12
Description
Chronic pain is common among children and can lead to future physical disability and health problems. The Biopsychosocial model of child pain suggests that biological, psychological, and social factors predict pain risk, but most research has focused on biological and psychological factors impacting child pain, and less on social factors. One social factor is family stress, including parent mental and physical health problems, and parenting and marital stress. The impact of stress, however, may vary depending on the presence of positive family resources, including marital empathy, parental warmth, and interpersonal support. Thus, the current longitudinal study examined links between family stress and increases in child pain during middle childhood and tested whether positive resources acted as a buffer to protect the development of child pain and if low social status acted as an extra stressor to make pain worse. Participants were part of the Arizona Twin Project, an ongoing longitudinal project of twins. At twin age 9, primary caregivers (PCs) reported on different stress, social status, and positive resources measures, and PCs and twins reported on twin bodily pain. At twin age 11, PCs and twins again reported on twin chronic bodily pain. Neither greater family stress nor parent physical health problems predicted increases in child pain over two years, controlling for twin pain at age 9. In tests of moderation, a single significant interaction emerged in a direction opposite of prediction: the relation between family stress and child pain was moderated by social status, such that average and high levels of social status exacerbated the relation between family stress, and child pain at age 11. Although the interaction needs to be replicated, findings suggest that high social status may act as a risk factor for poor child physical health and pain when family stress is high. Future research should further explore whether and how family stress and social status, as well as peer stress and resources, alone and in combination predict health as children age into adolescence.
ContributorsRusy, Isabella (Author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis director) / Corbin, William (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2023-12