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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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
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