Matching Items (5)
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- All Subjects: parenting
- Creators: Tein, Jenn-Yun
Description
Random Forests is a statistical learning method which has been proposed for propensity score estimation models that involve complex interactions, nonlinear relationships, or both of the covariates. In this dissertation I conducted a simulation study to examine the effects of three Random Forests model specifications in propensity score analysis. The results suggested that, depending on the nature of data, optimal specification of (1) decision rules to select the covariate and its split value in a Classification Tree, (2) the number of covariates randomly sampled for selection, and (3) methods of estimating Random Forests propensity scores could potentially produce an unbiased average treatment effect estimate after propensity scores weighting by the odds adjustment. Compared to the logistic regression estimation model using the true propensity score model, Random Forests had an additional advantage in producing unbiased estimated standard error and correct statistical inference of the average treatment effect. The relationship between the balance on the covariates' means and the bias of average treatment effect estimate was examined both within and between conditions of the simulation. Within conditions, across repeated samples there was no noticeable correlation between the covariates' mean differences and the magnitude of bias of average treatment effect estimate for the covariates that were imbalanced before adjustment. Between conditions, small mean differences of covariates after propensity score adjustment were not sensitive enough to identify the optimal Random Forests model specification for propensity score analysis.
ContributorsCham, Hei Ning (Author) / Tein, Jenn-Yun (Thesis advisor) / Enders, Stephen G (Thesis advisor) / Enders, Craig K. (Committee member) / Mackinnon, David P (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Parenting approaches that are firm yet warm (i.e., authoritative parenting) have been found to be robustly beneficial for mainstream White Americans youths, but do not demonstrate similarly consistent effects among Chinese Americans (CA) adolescents. Evidence suggests that CA adolescents interpret and experience parenting differently than their mainstream counterparts given differences in parenting values and child-rearing norms between traditional Chinese and mainstream American cultures. The current study tests the theory that prospective effects of parenting on psychological and academic functioning depends on adolescents' cultural frameworks for interpreting and understanding parenting. CA adolescents with values and expectations of parenting that are more consistent with mainstream American parenting norms were predicted to experience parenting similar to their White American counterparts (i.e., benefiting from a combination of parental strictness and warmth). In contrast, CA adolescents with parenting values and expectations more consistent with traditional Chinese parenting norms were predicted to experience parenting and its effects on academic and psychological outcomes differently than patterns documented in the mainstream literature. This study was conducted with a sample of Chinese American 9th graders (N = 500) from the Multicultural Family Adolescent Study. Latent Class Analysis (LCA), a person-centered approach to modeling CA adolescents' cultural frameworks for interpreting parenting, was employed using a combination of demographic variables (e.g., nativity, language use at home, mother's length of stay in the U.S.) and measures of parenting values and expectations (e.g., parental respect, ideal strictness & laxness). The study then examined whether prospective effects of parenting behaviors (strict control, warmth, and their interaction effect) on adolescent adjustment (internalizing and externalizing symptoms, substance use, and GPA) were moderated by latent class membership. The optimal LCA solution identified five distinct cultural frameworks for understanding parenting. Findings generally supported the idea that effects of parenting on CA adolescent adjustment depend on adolescents' cultural framework for parenting. The classic authoritative parenting effect (high strictness and warmth leads to positive outcomes) was found for the two most acculturated groups of adolescents. However, only one of these groups overtly endorsed mainstream American parenting values.
ContributorsLiu, Freda Fangfang (Author) / Gonzales, Nancy A. (Thesis advisor) / Tein, Jenn-Yun (Committee member) / Yoo, Hyung Chol (Committee member) / Barrera, Manuel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Longitudinal data from European-American (EA) and Mexican-American (MA) families (n = 179 mothers, fathers, and youth; 41% MA) was used to test a bio-psycho-cultural model of the effect of non-responsive parenting on externalizing problems in young adult offspring through the effect on the stress response system. Parenting behavior (acceptance, rejection, harsh discipline) was assessed when children were in late childhood (12-13 years), cortisol samples were collected during late adolescence (18-19 years), and externalizing problems were measured in young adulthood (21-22 years). Latent profile analyses were used to examine patterns of parenting behavior in EA and MA families. A path analysis framework was used to examine how non-responsive parenting interacted with acceptance to predict adolescent stress response and subsequent externalizing problems in EA and MA young adults. Results showed different patterns of parenting behavior in EA versus MA families, with MA families demonstrating a profile of high acceptance and high non-responsiveness at higher rates than EA families. In MA families, youth adherence to the traditional cultural value of familismo related to more positive perceptions of parenting behavior. Across ethnic groups, parent rejection only predicted higher externalizing problems in young adults when acceptance was high. The effect of parent harsh discipline on offspring stress response differed by ethnicity. In MA families, harsh discipline predicted dysregulated stress response in youth when acceptance was low. In EA families, harsh discipline did not relate to youth stress response. Overall, results increase the understanding of normative and adaptive parenting behaviors in MA families. Findings inform the development of culturally-competent parenting-focused interventions that can better prevent dysregulated stress response and externalizing behavior problems in ethnically diverse youth.
ContributorsMahrer, Nicole Eva (Author) / Luecken, Linda (Thesis advisor) / Wolchik, Sharlene (Thesis advisor) / Tein, Jenn-Yun (Committee member) / Pina, Armando (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Parental over-control (excessively restrictive and regulatory parenting behaviors) has been consistently identified as a robust risk factor in the development and maintenance of child anxiety problems. However, current understanding of the parental over-control to child anxiety relation is limited by a lack of specificity. The broad ‘parental over-control’ construct represents a heterogeneous category of related but distinct parenting behaviors each of which may exert a unique effect on child anxious emotion. Still, research to date has generally failed to consider this possibility. Moreover, culturally cognizant theory and emerging empirical evidence suggest cross-ethnic (Caucasian vs. Hispanic/Latino) differences in the utilization of various parenting strategies as well as the effects of parenting behaviors on child outcomes. But, only a handful of studies have considered the potential differences in the functioning of parental over-control behaviors within a Hispanic/Latino cultural framework. Using a sample of 98 pre-adolescent children at-risk for anxiety problems, the present study sought to further explicate the association between parental over-control and child anxiety symptoms in the context of ethnic and cultural diversity. Results suggest that parents’ use of overprotection and (lack of) autonomy granting might be particularly relevant to child anxiety, compared to parental intrusiveness and behavioral control. Findings also indicate that some youth may be more vulnerable to parental over-control and suggest that cultural values may play a role in the relation between over-controlling parenting and child anxiety symptoms. Knowledge about cross-cultural variations in the relation among parental over-control behaviors and the development of anxiety symptoms is important because it can improve the cultural robustness of child anxiety theory and has potential to inform culturally sensitive child anxiety prevention and intervention efforts.
ContributorsHolly, Lindsay E (Author) / Pina, Armando A (Thesis advisor) / Crnic, Keith (Committee member) / Tein, Jenn-Yun (Committee member) / Barrera, Manuel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This study examined whether the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a preventive parenting intervention, led to changes in coping strategies and coping efficacy in emerging adults whose families had participated in the program 15 years earlier. Gender and baseline risk were examined as moderators of these relations. Participants (M = 25.6 years; 50% female) were from 240 families that had participated in an experimental trial (NBP [mother-only, mother-child] vs. literature control). Data from the pretest and 15-year follow-up were used. Multiple regression analyses revealed that pretest risk interacted with program participation in the mother-only condition of the NBP such that offspring entering the program with higher pretest risk reported significantly less avoidant coping 15 years later. There was a marginal effect of participation in the NBP on problem-focused coping; emerging adults who had participated in the NBP had marginally higher levels of problem-focused coping. There were no significant main effects nor interactive program by risk or program by gender effects on support coping or coping efficacy. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for implementation of preventive interventions and research on pathways of coping.
ContributorsRhodes, Charla Aubrey (Author) / Wolchik, Sharlene A (Thesis advisor) / Tein, Jenn-Yun (Committee member) / Leucken, Linda (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019