Matching Items (13)
Filtering by

Clear all filters

152144-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Accumulating evidence implicates exposure to adverse childhood experiences in the development of hypocortisolism in the long-term, and researchers are increasingly examining individual-level mechanisms that may underlie, exacerbate or attenuate this relation among at-risk populations. The current study takes a developmentally and theoretically informed approach to examining episodic childhood stressors, inherent

Accumulating evidence implicates exposure to adverse childhood experiences in the development of hypocortisolism in the long-term, and researchers are increasingly examining individual-level mechanisms that may underlie, exacerbate or attenuate this relation among at-risk populations. The current study takes a developmentally and theoretically informed approach to examining episodic childhood stressors, inherent and voluntary self-regulation, and physiological reactivity among a longitudinal sample of youth who experienced parental divorce. Participants were drawn from a larger randomized controlled trial of a preventive intervention for children of divorce between the ages of 9 and 12. The current sample included 159 young adults (mean age = 25.5 years; 53% male; 94% Caucasian) who participated in six waves of data collection, including a 15-year follow-up study. Participants reported on exposure to negative life events (four times over a 9-month period) during childhood, and mothers rated child temperament. Six years later, youth reported on the use of active and avoidant coping strategies, and 15 years later, they participated in a standardized psychosocial stress task and provided salivary cortisol samples prior to and following the task. Path analyses within a structural equation framework revealed that a multiple mediation model best fit the data. It was found that children with better mother-rated self-regulation (i.e. low impulsivity, low negative emotionality, and high attentional focus) exhibited lower total cortisol output 15 years later. In addition, greater self-regulation in childhood predicted greater use of active coping in adolescence, whereas a greater number of negative life events predicted increased use of avoidant coping in adolescence. Finally, a greater number of negative events in childhood predicted marginally lower total cortisol output, and higher levels of active coping in adolescence were associated with greater total cortisol output in young adulthood. Findings suggest that children of divorce who exhibit better self-regulation evidence lower cortisol output during a standardized psychosocial stress task relative to those who have higher impulsivity, lower attentional focus, and/or higher negative emotionality. The conceptual significance of the current findings, including the lack of evidence for hypothesized relations, methodological issues that arose, and issues in need of future research are discussed.
ContributorsHagan, Melissa (Author) / Luecken, Linda (Thesis advisor) / MacKinnon, David (Committee member) / Wolchik, Sharlene (Committee member) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
151959-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) is a chronic disease that requires maintaining tight metabolic control through complex behavioral and pharmaceutical regimens. Subtle cognitive impairments and stress response dysregulation may partially account for problems negotiating life changes and maintaining treatment adherence among emerging adults. The current study examined whether young adults

Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) is a chronic disease that requires maintaining tight metabolic control through complex behavioral and pharmaceutical regimens. Subtle cognitive impairments and stress response dysregulation may partially account for problems negotiating life changes and maintaining treatment adherence among emerging adults. The current study examined whether young adults with T1DM physiologically respond to psychological stress in a dysregulated manner compared to non-diabetic peers, and if such individuals also demonstrated greater cognitive declines following psychological stress. Participants included 23 young adults with T1DM and 52 non-diabetic controls yoked to T1DM participants based on age, gender, ethnicity, participant education, and maternal education. Participants completed a laboratory-based social stressor, pre- and post-stressor neurocognitive testing, provided fingerstick blood spots (for glucose levels) and salivary samples (for cortisol levels) at five points across the protocol, and completed psychosocial questionnaires. Related measures ANOVAs were conducted to assess differences between T1DM participants and the average of yoked controls on cortisol and cognitive outcomes. Results demonstrated that differences in cortisol reactivity were dependent on T1DM participants' use of insulin pump therapy (IPT). T1DM participants not using IPT demonstrated elevated cortisol reactivity compared to matched controls. There was no difference in cortisol reactivity between the T1DM participants on IPT and matched controls. On the Stroop task, performance patterns did not differ between participants with T1DM not on IPT and matched controls. The performance of participants with T1DM on IPT slightly improved following the stressor and matched controls slightly worsened. On the Trail Making Test, the performance of participants with T1DM was not different following the stressor whereas participants without T1DM demonstrated a decline following the stressor. Participants with and without T1DM did not differ in patterns of performance on the Rey Verbal Learning Task, Sustained Attention Allocation Task, Controlled Oral Word Association Task, or overall cortisol output across participation. The results of this study are suggestive of an exaggerated cortisol response to psychological stress in T1DM and indicate potential direct and indirect protective influences of IPT.
ContributorsMarreiro, Catherine (Author) / Luecken, Linda (Thesis advisor) / Doane, Leah (Thesis advisor) / Barrera, Manuel (Committee member) / Aiken, Leona (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
136651-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
The transition from high school to college is associated with considerable life strain for adolescents, including higher reported levels of daily stress and negative affect (NA), and alterations in stress physiology have been linked to poor health. The purpose of this thesis was to use an ecological momentary assessment design

The transition from high school to college is associated with considerable life strain for adolescents, including higher reported levels of daily stress and negative affect (NA), and alterations in stress physiology have been linked to poor health. The purpose of this thesis was to use an ecological momentary assessment design to study associations between momentary experiences of negative affect and cortisol levels in a sample of adolescents transitioning to college. I also examined the potential moderating effects of two potential vulnerability or protective factors, alone status and perceived social support from friends. Adolescents provided salivary samples and completed paper-and-pencil diary reports of socioemotional experiences and alone status five times per day for three consecutive weekdays, as well as completed self-report questionnaires on perceived social support from friends. Within-person increases in momentary negative affect were associated with momentary cortisol reactivity. Alone status significantly moderated this association such that the association between momentary negative affect and momentary cortisol levels was only significant when individuals were with others and not when they were alone. Perceived social support from friends did not significantly moderate the within-person associations between negative affect and momentary cortisol levels. The findings add to our understanding of physiological correlates of socioemotional experiences, as well as contexts in which these associations may be exaggerated or attenuated. The findings inform our understanding of potential pathways by which physiological reactivity to socioemotional experiences may affect the health of adolescents as well as how prevention efforts could reduce potential poor health outcomes associated with heightened stress reactivity.
ContributorsKomarnisky, Sydney-Paige Milan (Author) / Doane, Leah (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Luecken, Linda (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-12
133508-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Research has shown that environmental stressors that occur during childhood and early adolescence are associated with multiple deficits in physiological and psychological functioning later in life. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been proposed as a potential biological mechanism through which these phenotypic alterations occur as studies have shown a link

Research has shown that environmental stressors that occur during childhood and early adolescence are associated with multiple deficits in physiological and psychological functioning later in life. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been proposed as a potential biological mechanism through which these phenotypic alterations occur as studies have shown a link between early life adversity and altered diurnal cortisol patterns (Goldman-Mellor, Hamer, & Steptoe, 2012; Gunnar & Quevedo, 2008). Given research has shown that diurnal cortisol levels are influenced by genetic factors (Veen et al., 2011), but that a majority of differences across subjects can be attributed to the environment (Schreiber et al., 2006), phenotypic associations were explored between the quality of the home environment and children's diurnal cortisol patterns. The first aim of this study was to determine the level of genetic and environmental contributions to different parameters of diurnal cortisol rhythm. The second aim of this study was to examine whether the quality of the home environment, particularly indicators involving parenting and the physical environment, was associated with these same diurnal cortisol measures. A diverse sample of 320 twin children were assessed at 8 years using gold standard home environment interviews and a measure of diurnal cortisol rhythm across three days with three samples taken from each twin every day. Twin intraclass correlations indicated high levels of heritability for the morning to afternoon diurnal cortisol slope as well as the afternoon to evening slope, while measures of cortisol in the afternoon, evening, and across the day showed low levels of heritability, which suggested that differences in the environment were a more influential factor. Multilevel regression analyses showed that the overall quality of the home environment was found to be significantly negatively associated with cortisol levels at bedtime and negatively associated across the morning to afternoon slope at a trend level. The physical environment and emotional climate of the home were not significantly associated with any indicators of the diurnal cortisol pattern. A unique seasonality effect was noted as cortisol measurements taken from participants during the summer were significantly increased when compared to participants throughout the rest of the year. Overall, these findings showed a unique association between the quality of the home environment and diurnal cortisol levels at bedtime and perhaps the change in cortisol levels across the morning to afternoon, as well as a possible seasonal covariate which may affect diurnal cortisol measurements and one which often goes overlooked in cortisol research.
Created2018-05
134140-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Cultural beliefs and behaviors can serve as both risk and protective processes for Latino adolescents, with some recent empirical work suggesting the important protective role of bicultural values (e.g., endorsing high levels of both mainstream culture and culture of origin). We expanded on past research to explore whether bicultural values

Cultural beliefs and behaviors can serve as both risk and protective processes for Latino adolescents, with some recent empirical work suggesting the important protective role of bicultural values (e.g., endorsing high levels of both mainstream culture and culture of origin). We expanded on past research to explore whether bicultural values were associated with internalizing (depressive, anxiety, stress) symptoms and externalizing (alcohol use) symptoms among a sample of Latino adolescents preparing to begin college. We hypothesized biculturalism to protect against all negative outcomes. Our sample consisted of 209 college-bound Latino adolescents (65% female; 85.1% Mexican descent; 10.6% 1st generation, 62% 2nd generation) who were enrolled in university for the coming fall. All multivariate models included sex, ethnicity, parent education, and immigrant generation status as covariates. Correlations and multivariate analyses revealed that higher bicultural values were associated with lower depressive symptoms, lower anxiety symptoms, lower stress, and greater alcohol use. Gender was shown to moderate the relationship between biculturalism and alcohol use. Overall, findings suggested that greater bicultural values were associated with lower endorsement of internalizing symptoms for all participants, but higher endorsement of alcohol use over the last year for the highly bicultural females. Biculturalism may be particularly protective for Latino adolescents who are preparing to attend college given the need for them to transition into an environment with high acculturative demands. However, our results also highlight that these bicultural females may be at greater risk for alcohol use and related problems.
ContributorsDilgert, Janice (Author) / Doane, Leah (Thesis director) / Thompson, Daisy (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
155899-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Adolescent and young adult alcohol use is a major public health concern given that it is the most widely used substance by teenagers. This is particularly concerning given the important biological and environmental changes that occur during this developmental period. Therefore, it is not surprising that alcohol use in adolescence

Adolescent and young adult alcohol use is a major public health concern given that it is the most widely used substance by teenagers. This is particularly concerning given the important biological and environmental changes that occur during this developmental period. Therefore, it is not surprising that alcohol use in adolescence is associated with a variety of negative outcomes including alcohol-related consequences, poor academic performance, aggression, and difficulty transitioning to adulthood. Because of this, it is imperative to better understand alcohol use during this time. While there are numerous measures that aim to capture adolescent alcohol use, there is not currently a measure that gathers comprehensive information on alcohol use across adolescence and into early adulthood. Therefore, we developed the Comprehensive Adolescent Drinking History Form (CADHF). The CADHF gathers detailed drinking information for each year since the onset of first regular use, including quantity and frequency of both regular use and periods of heaviest drinking. Additionally, the CADHF collects information on the participants' aggregate drinking experiences between their age of onset and age of first regular use. Using a sample of young adults who completed an alcohol challenge study, we sought to examine (1) whether route of administration of the measure impacts results, (2) which CADHF are most useful, and (3) whether the CADHF shows concurrent, convergent, and incremental validity. Results showed that, the CADHF can be administered online or over the phone and all eight indices provide valuable information depending on the research question. Additionally, strong significant correlations between the CADHF with the Timeline Follow Back (TLFB) and the Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (YAACQ) suggest convergent and concurrent validity. Finally, the CADHF predicted concurrent and future alcohol-related problems over and above the gold standards of alcohol consumption measures; age of onset, age of first intoxication, and the TLFB. This is the first study to retrospectively assess participant's comprehensive alcohol consumption and fills a major gap in the literature. The CADHF has the potential to inform the timing of prevention and intervention efforts and provides unique information from the current gold standards of alcohol consumption measures.
ContributorsHartman, Jessica (Author) / Corbin, William (Thesis advisor) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
187718-Thumbnail Image.png
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

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
168399-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
The present study contributed an investigation of prosocial peers, a prospective promotive factor, and its association with depressive symptoms, an internalizing outcome. The study utilized six waves of panel data from 2,002 youth in the control condition of the Community Youth Development Study (mean age 13.12 at Grade 7; 52%

The present study contributed an investigation of prosocial peers, a prospective promotive factor, and its association with depressive symptoms, an internalizing outcome. The study utilized six waves of panel data from 2,002 youth in the control condition of the Community Youth Development Study (mean age 13.12 at Grade 7; 52% male; 66.1% White; 26.6% Hispanic). A series of time-varying effect models (TVEM) illustrated the associations between prosocial peers and depressive symptoms over developmental time from Grades 7 through 12. It was hypothesized that prosocial peers and depressive symptoms would have a negative association for both males and females, and that the association would be moderated by gender at the time of transition to high school. It was expected that females would display a significantly stronger negative association than males between prosocial peers and depressive symptoms at this juncture, particularly due to gender-based differences in socialization that are compounded by transition. To strengthen conclusions about prosocial peers being a promotive factor, secondary analyses included covariates measuring previous levels of depressive symptoms; these models accounted either for baseline depressive symptoms or year-prior symptoms. Results showed, overall, prosocial peers had a significant negative association with depressive symptoms over time, for both males and females. When controlling for baseline depressive symptoms, this was still the case. When controlling for year-prior depressive symptoms, prosocial peers was no longer significantly associated with depressive symptoms for males across Grades 10 through 12. Gender moderated the association between prosocial peers and depressive symptoms at the time of transition to high school as well as other grades. When controlling for baseline depressive symptoms, it was again found that gender moderated the association between prosocial peers and depressive symptoms at the time of transition to high school (Grades 8 and 9) but also at Grade 12. When controlling for year-prior depressive symptoms, gender did not moderate the association at the time of transition to high school, but it did at Grades 10, 11, and 12. Overall, results support the possibility of prosocial peers as a prospective promotive factor for youth mental health.
ContributorsMendes, Skyler H. (Author) / Oesterle, Sabrina (Thesis advisor) / Doane, Leah (Thesis advisor) / Perez La Mar, Marisol (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
158277-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Stress in individuals presents in various forms and may accumulate across development to predict maladaptive physical and psychological outcomes, including greater risk for the onset of internalizing symptoms. Early life stress, daily life experiences, and the stress response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis have all been examined as potential predictors

Stress in individuals presents in various forms and may accumulate across development to predict maladaptive physical and psychological outcomes, including greater risk for the onset of internalizing symptoms. Early life stress, daily life experiences, and the stress response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis have all been examined as potential predictors of the development of psychopathology, but rarely have researchers attempted to understand the covariation or interaction among these stress domains using a longitudinal design when looking at the influence of stress on internalizing psychopathology. Further, most research has examined these processes in adulthood or adolescence with much less attention given to the influence of these dynamic stress pathways in childhood. Guided by the biopsychosocial model of stress, this study explored early life stress, daily life stress, diurnal cortisol (cortisol AM slope), and internalizing symptoms in a racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of twins participating in an ongoing longitudinal study (N=970 children; Arizona Twin Project; Lemery-Chalfant et al. 2013). An additive model of stress and a stress sensitization framework model were considered as potential pathways of stress to internalizing symptoms in middle childhood. Based on a thorough review of relevant literature, it was expected that each stress indicator would individually predict internalizing symptoms. It was also predicted that early life stress would moderate the associations between diurnal cortisol and internalizing symptoms, as well as daily life stress and internalizing symptoms. Multilevel modeling analyses showed that early life stress and cortisol AM slope, but not daily life stress, predicted internalizing symptoms. Early life stress did not moderate the associations between daily life stress and internalizing symptoms or cortisol AM slope and internalizing symptoms. Results support independent additive contributions of both physiological stress processes and early life parental stressors in the development of internalizing symptoms in middle childhood. Future investigation is needed to better understand the sensitizing effects of early parental life stress during this developmental stage.
ContributorsLecarie, Emma (Author) / Doane, Leah (Thesis advisor) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
132106-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Family influences are known predictors of adolescent health and well-being trajectories, yet little research has investigated how adolescents’ orientation to family may be associated with their physiological stress responses. Influenced by the strength-based approach to culture, this study evaluated 418 Hispanic adolescents' familism values and perceived life stress in family,

Family influences are known predictors of adolescent health and well-being trajectories, yet little research has investigated how adolescents’ orientation to family may be associated with their physiological stress responses. Influenced by the strength-based approach to culture, this study evaluated 418 Hispanic adolescents' familism values and perceived life stress in family, school, and peer domains to investigate prospective associations with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress responses to the Group Public Speaking Task for Adolescents (GPST-A). Prior growth-mixture modeling on this sample revealed a five-class solution of cortisol responding to the GPST-A that was used here as the dependent variable: one class showed a more pronounced pattern of reactivity, potentially indicative of hyper-responsivity to the stress task; two classes showed evidence of a low to moderate cortisol response, potentially indicative of an adaptive physiological response to the challenge; and two classes showed patterns of non-responsivity, potentially indicative of hypo-responsivity. Results demonstrate that the role of familism is nuanced in the context of stressors, potentially offering both promotive and risk-amplifying effects for the physiological stress response system. This study offered several novel findings in the relation between cultural factors, salient stressors of adolescence, and HPA activity.
ContributorsSmola, Xochitl Arlene (Author) / Gonzales, Nancy (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05