Matching Items (3)
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- All Subjects: Mindfulness
- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
Description
School bullying is a serious problem for children and adolescents, associated with a multitude of psychological and behavioral problems. Interventions at the individual level have primarily been social skills training for victims of bullying. However, investigators have had mixed results; finding little change in victimization rates. It has been suggested victims of school bullying have the social skills necessary to be effective in a bullying situation; however they experience intense emotional arousal and negative thoughts leading to an inability to use social skills. One intervention that has been getting increasing acknowledgement for its utility in the intervention literature in psychology is mindfulness. However, there has been no research conducted examining the effects of mindfulness meditation on victims of bullying. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop an online intervention for victims of bullying that utilizes the cutting-edge technique of mindfulness and to determine the efficacy of this intervention in the context of bullying victimization. Participants were 32 adolescents ages 11 to 14 identified by their school facilitators as victims of bullying. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to assess the efficacy of the NMT program versus a treatment as usual (TAU) social skills program. Results revealed significant decreases in victimization and increases in mindfulness among both treatment groups from pre-test to follow-up and post-test to follow-up assessments. There were no differences found between the two treatment groups for mean victimization or mindfulness scores. Overall, the NMT program appears to be a promising online intervention for bullied teens. Directions for future research and limitations of this study were also discussed.
ContributorsYabko, Brandon (Author) / Tracey, Terence J. G. (Thesis advisor) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Sebren, Ann (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Despite the societal importance of activism, the understanding of activist intentions remained limited (Liebert, Leve, & Hu, 2011; Klar & Kasser, 2009). The current study used the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to examine two structural models of low-risk activist intentions and high-risk activist intentions (Ajzen, 1991). The traditional TPB model was tested against a hybrid commitment model that also assessed past activist behaviors and activist identity. Participants (N = 383) were recruited through social media, professional list-serves, and word of mouth. Results indicated a good model fit for both the traditional TPB model (CFI = .98; RMSEA = .05; SRMR = .03; χ2(120) = 3760.62, p < .01) and the commitment model (CFI = .97; RMSEA = .05; SRMR = .04; χ2(325) = 7848.07, p < .01). The commitment model accounted for notably more variance in both low-risk activist intentions (78.9% in comparison to 26.5% for the traditional TPB model) and high-risk activist intentions (58.9% in comparison to 11.2% for the traditional TPB model). Despite this, the traditional TPB model was deemed the better model as the higher variance explained in the commitment model was almost entirely due to the inclusion of past low-risk activist behaviors and past high-risk activist behaviors. A post-hoc analysis that incorporated sexual orientation and religious affiliation as covariates into the traditional model also led to a good-fitting model (CFI = .98; RMSEA = .04; SRMR = .04; χ2(127) = 217.18, p < .01) and accounted for increased variance in low-risk activist intentions (29.7%) and high-risk activist intentions (18.7%) compared to the traditional model. The merits of each of the structural models and the practical implications for practice and research were discussed
ContributorsJew, Gilbert (Author) / Tran, Alisia (Thesis advisor) / Tracey, Terence (Committee member) / Capielo Rosario, Cristalís (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The purpose of this study was to investigate how to decrease teacher stress and burnout by a virtual online mindfulness practice intervention with cognitive apprenticeship, self-determination, and self-efficacy theory as the frameworks. Teaching in the United States K-12 public school system is a stressful occupation because of the higher level of responsibility within schools that requires resilient stress coping skills for overall well-being. My research project’s purpose was to examine instruction and training in mindfulness practice as a tool to cultivate stress coping skills in K-12 teachers through a six-week mindfulness virtual online course (MVOC). This study involved 5 participants with the methodology employed was an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach which included quantitative data collection with pre-and post-surveys, which included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills Questionnaire (KIMS - Short), and the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale (PHMS) with Linkert scale questions. Subsequently, followed by three qualitative interviews over six weeks to facilitate a case study consideration. The action research study results exhibited reduced stress following an increase in awareness from developing a personal mindfulness practice. Furthermore, the MVOC intervention helped the participants build a daily personalized mindfulness practice that improved their stress coping skills and was also beneficial in specific ways, which promises teachers whom routine mindfulness practice will cultivate progressively effective stress coping skills and assist K-12 teachers to enjoy increased job satisfaction and reducing the leading cause of burnout.
ContributorsPinthong, Uraipanyawan (Bo) (Author) / Giorgis, Cyndi (Thesis advisor) / Gonzales, Deborah (Committee member) / Sebren, Ann (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021