Matching Items (13)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Depression
- All Subjects: Embodied Cognition
- Creators: Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics
- Resource Type: Text
Description
The current study investigated whether intermittent restraint stress (IRS) would impair fear extinction learning and lead to increased anxiety and depressive- like behaviors and then be attenuated when IRS ends and a post- stress rest period ensues for 6 weeks. Young adult, male Sprague Dawley rats underwent restraint stress using wire mesh (6hr/daily) for five days with two days off before restraint resumed for three weeks for a total of 23 restraint days. The groups consisted of control (CON) with no restraint other than food and water restriction yoked to the restrained groups, stress immediate (STR-IMM), which were restrained then fear conditioned soon after the end of the IRS paradigm, and stress given a rest for 6 weeks before fear conditioning commenced (STR-R6). Rats were fear conditioned by pairing a 20 second tone with a footshock, then given extinction training for two days (15 tone only on each day). On the first day of extinction, all groups discriminated well on the first trial, but then as trials progressed, STR-R6 discriminated between tone and context less than did CON. On the second day of extinction, STR- IMM froze more to context in the earlier trials than compared to STR-R6 and CON. As trials progressed STR-IMM and STR-R6 froze more to context than compared to CON. Together, CON discriminated between tone and context better than did STR-IMM and STR-R6. Sucrose preference, novelty suppressed feeding, and elevated plus maze was performed after fear extinction was completed. No statistical differences were observed among groups for sucrose preference or novelty suppressed feeding. For the elevated plus maze, STR-IMM entered the open arms and the sum of both open and closed arms fewer than did STR- R6 and CON. We interpret the findings to suggest that the stress groups displayed increased hypervigilance and anxiety with STR-R6 exhibiting a unique phenotype than that of STR-IMM and CON.
ContributorsShah, Vrishti Bimal (Author) / Conrad, Cheryl (Thesis director) / Newbern, Jason (Committee member) / Judd, Jessica (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Both dialogic reading and embodied cognition have showed to be effective strategies in the development of early literacy skills. Additionally, the use of electronic books has been found to also have a positive effect, including in combination with dialogic reading. The effectiveness of dialogic reading and embodied strategy while reading an e-book has not been compared. The purpose of the study is to determine if embodied cognition can improve dialogic reading practices and possibly offer a theoretical framework for why dialogical reading practices work. Additionally, this study aims to determine the impact of embodied cognition and dialogic reading on the development of both vocabulary and story recall skills in preschool-aged children. Twenty-nine preschool children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old took part in a matched pairs experiment that included reading an e-book. Children in the experimental groups received four readings of either an embodied cognition condition or a dialogic reading condition. Following the four readings, the groups switched treatment. The children who received the embodied cognition conditions scored significantly higher on both story recall and vocabulary acquisition compared to those in the dialogic reading and control groups. Results of the study suggest embodied cognition in conjugation with dialogic reading practices could provide a more effective and improved model for promoting early literacy skills.
ContributorsMedrano, Danielle Alessandra (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Kupfer, Anne (Committee member) / Gomez, Ligia (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The ability to regulate emotions, attention, and behavior develops early in life and impacts future academic success, social competency, behavioral problems, and psychopathology. An impairment in regulation is known as dysregulation. Past research shows that children of mothers with postpartum depression are more likely to show impairment in regulatory abilities. There is an established link in the literature between family support and maternal depression, which in turn can impact child behavior. However, further research is needed to explore the impact of family support on early childhood dysregulation in the context of maternal depression. Using a sample of 322 Mexican-American, mother-child dyads, two models were examined. Model one hypothesized family support would buffer the effects of maternal depression on child dysregulation at 24 months. Model 2 hypothesized that family support is related to child dysregulation through its effect on maternal depression. Results showed that increased family support was related to more child dysregulation when there were high levels of maternal depression. There was no evidence to support the hypothesis that maternal depression mediated the relationship between family support and child dysregulation.
ContributorsRodrigues, Samantha Jean (Author) / Luecken, Linda (Thesis director) / Benitez, Viridiana (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts or actions are on the rise in adolescents (National Institute of Mental Health, 2015; Bridge, Asti, & Horowitz, 2015). Parents, school administrators, and therapists are searching for resiliency factors with in at-risk groups to aid students in need. In previous work, Luthar and Zigler (1992) reported that intelligent youth are more resilient than less intelligent youth under low stress conditions but they lose their advantage under high stress conditions. This study examined whether intelligence (reflected in grade point average; GPA) and maladaptive (internalizing and externalizing symptoms) behaviors are negatively related in adolescents, and tested whether level of stress, reflected in emotion regulation and friendship quality, moderated that association. It also probed whether the relationships differ by gender. Sixth-graders (N=506) were recruited with active parental consent from three middle schools. Adolescents completed self-report questionnaires Regarding demo graphics, maladaptive behaviors, emotion regulation, and friendship quality, and GPA data were collected from the school. Regression analyses found that GPA was negatively related to externalizing symptoms. Girls with poor friendship communication report significantly higher maladaptive behaviors. This relation was more pronounced for girls with high GPAs, as predicted. Results support the theory that intelligent female adolescents are more reactive under adverse circumstances. Future efforts should follow students through middle school into high school to evaluate whether friendships remain important to adjustment, hold for boys as well as girls, and have implications for relationship interventions.
ContributorsGonzales, Ashlyn Carol (Author) / Luthar, Suniya (Thesis director) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Infurna, Frank (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
This study investigates whether children who are Dual Language Learners (DLLs) and who have poor reading comprehension will benefit from participating in the EMBRACE intervention. The reading comprehension program is based on the Theory of Embodied Cognition, which focuses on the embodied nature of language comprehension. Our understanding of language is based on mental representations that we create through experiences and are integrated with according sensorimotor information. Therefore, by engaging the motor and language system through reading stories on an iPad that prompt the children to manipulate images on-screen, we might improve children's reading strategies and comprehension scores. Fifty-six children participated in reading three stories and answering related questions over a period of two weeks. Results showed that the intervention was successful in increasing reading comprehension scores in the physical manipulation condition but not in the imaginary manipulation condition. Although lower motor skill scores positively correlated with lower comprehension skills, the children's motor deficits did not moderate their performance on the intervention.
ContributorsValentin, Andrea Cristina (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Restrepo, Maria Adelaida (Committee member) / Adams, Ashley M. (Committee member) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Affluent children have been previously understudied and considerably neglected in developmental research due to the notion that they are "low risk." There is limited empirical research exploring the effects of parent involvement in affluent youth: specifically, the importance of the adolescent's perception that their mother/father do not spend as much time with them as they would like. The goals of the study were to explore the role of this dimension of perceived parental involvement in anxious-depressed symptoms, somatic symptoms, rule breaking behaviors and substance use with upper-class suburban youth. The sample was taken from the New England Study of Suburban Youth Cohort (NESSY) (Luthar & Latendresse, 2005b) consisting of 252 high school students in the 12th grade located in an affluent community in the Northeast. Results showed that the participants who indicated their fathers could have dinner with them more often if they tried presented significant group differences in anxious-depressed symptoms, somatic symptoms, and rule breaking behaviors while substance use trended towards significant. Thus, these data demonstrate that parent-child relationships are not only important for infant and child development, but are also an integral part of development of adaptive behaviors during adolescence. In addition, the data suggest the benefits from having strong, supportive, and stable relationships with not only mothers but with fathers as well. Results from post hoc analyses revealed perceived absence of fathers at dinnertime affects the adolescent more than the perceived absence of mothers at dinnertime. Finally, teens who indicated a need to spend more dinnertimes with their father may be suffering from a lack of open communication and opportunities to discuss social and emotional issues that are conducive to adolescent development and adjustment.
ContributorsOjeda, Johanna Alyssa Quiambao (Author) / Luthar, Suniya (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Curlee, Alexandria (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
The coronavirus pandemic has proven to be a challenging time for the Hispanic community, facing impacts on stress and depression symptoms at disproportionate rates. The current study examined the associations between socioeconomic COVID stressors and depression symptoms; and coping styles, including problem-focused and emotion-focused coping, and depression symptoms amongst Mexican heritage parents. Coping styles were also examined as a moderator of the association between socioeconomic COVID stressors and depression symptoms
ContributorsSanchez, Natalee (Author) / Cruz, Rick (Thesis director) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Perez, Marisol (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2022-12
Description
Previous research demonstrated the overall efficacy of an embodied language intervention (EMBRACE) that taught pre-school children how to simulate (imagine) language in a heard narrative. However, EMBRACE was not effective for every child. To try to explain this variable response to the intervention, the video recordings made during the four-day intervention sessions were assessed and emotion was coded. Each session was emotion-coded for child emotions and for child-researcher emotions. The child specific emotions were 1) engagement in the task, this included level of participation in the activity, 2) motivation/attention to persist and complete the task, as well as stay focused, and 3) positive affect throughout the session. The child-researcher specific emotions were 1) engagement with each other, this involved how the child interacted with the researcher and under what context, and 2) researcher’s positive affect, this incorporated how enthusiastic and encouraging the researcher was throughout the session. It was hypothesized that effectiveness of the intervention would be directly correlated with the degree that the child displayed positive emotions during the intervention. Thus, the analysis of these emotions should highlight differences between the control and EMBRACE group and help to explain variability in effectiveness of the intervention. The results did indicate that children in the EMBRACE group generally had a significantly higher positive affect compared to the control group, but these results did not influence the ability for the child to effectively recall or moderate the EEG variables in the post-test. The results also showed that children who interacted with the researcher more tended to be in the EMBRACE group, whereas children who did not interact with the researcher more frequently were in the control group, showing that the EMBRACE intervention ended up being a more collaborative task.
ContributorsOtt, Lauren Ruth (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Kupfer, Anne (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Prior research suggests that African American adults are more likely than White adults to experience negative alcohol use outcomes such as alcohol use disorder (AUD) despite reporting lower rates of alcohol consumption. Research also shows that African Americans experience higher rates of depression, which can increase risk for alcohol consumption and AUD through drinking to cope. The current study examined the role of depressive symptoms and drinking to cope in alcohol consumption and AUD symptoms among White and Black/African American college students. Participants completed an online survey during the fall (T1) and spring semester (T2) of their first year of college (N = 2,168, 62.8% female, 75.8% White). Path analyses were conducted to examine whether depressive symptoms and drinking to cope mediated the association between race/ethnicity and alcohol consumption and AUD symptoms, as well as whether race/ethnicity moderated the associations between depressive symptoms, drinking to cope, and alcohol use outcomes. Results indicated that White participants had higher levels of depressive symptoms and alcohol consumption than African American participants. Drinking to cope at T1 was also associated with more depressive symptoms at T1, higher levels of alcohol consumption at T2, and higher levels of AUD symptoms at T2. Also, there was an indirect effect of depressive symptoms on AUD symptoms via drinking to cope. Results from multigroup path analyses suggested that depressive symptoms were more strongly associated with drinking to cope for White students than African American students. There were no significant racial/ethnic differences in the associations between depressive symptoms or drinking to cope and alcohol use outcomes. Future research should examine the roles of race, depression, and drinking to cope in alcohol use outcomes for college students.
ContributorsTaylor, Nicole (Author) / Su, Jinni (Thesis director) / Corbin, William (Committee member) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
The Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) and the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) are highly valid depressive testing tools used to measure the symptom profile of depression globally and in South Asia, respectively (Steer et al., 1998; Kroenke et al, 2001). Even though the South Asian population comprises only 23% of the world’s population, it represents one-fifth of the world’s mental health disorders (Ogbo et al., 2018). Although this population is highly affected by mental disorders, there is a lack of culturally relevant research on specific subsections of the South Asian population.
As such, the goal of this study is to investigate the differences in the symptom profile of depression in native and immigrant South Asian populations. We investigated the role of collective self-esteem and perceived discrimination on mental health.
For the purpose of this study, participants were asked a series of questions about their depressive symptoms, self-esteem and perceived discrimination using various depressive screening measures, a self-esteem scale, and a perceived discrimination scale.
We found that immigrants demonstrated higher depressive symptoms than Native South Asians as immigration was viewed as a stressor. First-generation and second-generation South Asian immigrants identified equally with somatic and psychological symptoms. These symptoms were positively correlated with perceived discrimination, and collective self-esteem was shown to increase the likelihood of these symptoms.
This being said, the results from this study may be generalized only to South Asian immigrants who come from highly educated and high-income households. Since seeking professional help and being aware of one’s mental health is vital for wellbeing, the results from this study may spark the interest in an open communication about mental health within the South Asian immigrant community as well as aid in the restructuring of a highly reliable and valid measurement to be specific to a culture.
ContributorsSwaminathan, Manasa (Co-author) / Murthy, Nithara (Co-author) / Vogel, Joanne (Thesis director) / Kwan, Sau (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05