Matching Items (6)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Brains
- All Subjects: College
- Creators: Doane, Leah
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
- Resource Type: Text
Description
The beginning of college is a period in which increased alcohol use often coincides with greater involvement in romantic relationships. Existing literature yields inconsistent findings regarding the influence of different relationship statuses on drinking behavior, perhaps because these studies have not accounted for recent changes in the way college students engage in dating/sexual relationships. In the current college environment, many students who define themselves as non-daters are nonetheless sexually active, a phenomenon referred to as the 'hook up' culture. The present study sought to address this issue by examining the effects of both relationship status and sexual activity on heavy episodic drinking (HED) among 1,467 college students over the course of their first three semesters. Results indicated that the effects of relationship status depended on whether or not an individual was sexually active. Non-dating but sexually active students reported rates of heavy drinking comparable to students who defined themselves as casual daters, but non-dating students who were not sexually active reported drinking behavior similar to those involved in committed relationships. Further, transitions between low and high risk relationship/sexual activity statuses were associated with corresponding changes in HED. Transitioning into a high risk status was associated with greater levels of heavy episodic drinking, whereas transitioning into a low risk status was associated with decreases in this behavior. Together, results indicate that engaging in nonexclusive dating or sexual relationships may play an important role in the development of problematic patterns of alcohol use during the early college years. These findings have potentially important implications both for future research and for prevention and intervention efforts targeting high risk college drinkers.
ContributorsZalewski, Suzanne (Author) / Corbin, Willaim (Thesis advisor) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Motor behavior is prone to variable conditions and deviates further in disorders affecting the nervous system. A combination of environmental and neural factors impacts the amount of uncertainty. Although the influence of these factors on estimating endpoint positions have been examined, the role of limb configuration on endpoint variability has been mostly ignored. Characterizing the influence of arm configuration (i.e. intrinsic factors) would allow greater comprehension of sensorimotor integration and assist in interpreting exaggerated movement variability in patients. In this study, subjects were placed in a 3-D virtual reality environment and were asked to move from a starting position to one of three targets in the frontal plane with and without visual feedback of the moving limb. The alternating of visual feedback during trials increased uncertainty between the planning and execution phases. The starting limb configurations, adducted and abducted, were varied in separate blocks. Arm configurations were setup by rotating along the shoulder-hand axis to maintain endpoint position. The investigation hypothesized: 1) patterns of endpoint variability of movements would be dependent upon the starting arm configuration and 2) any differences observed would be more apparent in conditions that withheld visual feedback. The results indicated that there were differences in endpoint variability between arm configurations in both visual conditions, but differences in variability increased when visual feedback was withheld. Overall this suggests that in the presence of visual feedback, planning of movements in 3D space mostly uses coordinates that are arm configuration independent. On the other hand, without visual feedback, planning of movements in 3D space relies substantially on intrinsic coordinates.
ContributorsRahman, Qasim (Author) / Buneo, Christopher (Thesis director) / Helms Tillery, Stephen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Motor behavior is prone to variable conditions and deviates further in disorders affecting the nervous system. A combination of environmental and neural factors impacts the amount of uncertainty. Although the influence of these factors on estimating endpoint positions have been examined, the role of limb configuration on endpoint variability has been mostly ignored. Characterizing the influence of arm configuration (i.e. intrinsic factors) would allow greater comprehension of sensorimotor integration and assist in interpreting exaggerated movement variability in patients. In this study, subjects were placed in a 3-D virtual reality environment and were asked to move from a starting position to one of three targets in the frontal plane with and without visual feedback of the moving limb. The alternating of visual feedback during trials increased uncertainty between the planning and execution phases. The starting limb configurations, adducted and abducted, were varied in separate blocks. Arm configurations were setup by rotating along the shoulder-hand axis to maintain endpoint position. The investigation hypothesized: 1) patterns of endpoint variability of movements would be dependent upon the starting arm configuration and 2) any differences observed would be more apparent in conditions that withheld visual feedback. The results indicated that there were differences in endpoint variability between arm configurations in both visual conditions, but differences in variability increased when visual feedback was withheld. Overall this suggests that in the presence of visual feedback, planning of movements in 3D space mostly uses coordinates that are arm configuration independent. On the other hand, without visual feedback, planning of movements in 3D space relies substantially on intrinsic coordinates.
ContributorsRahman, Qasim (Author) / Buneo, Christopher (Thesis director) / Helms Tillery, Stephen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
How adolescents cope with stress impacts all aspects of their lives and is particularly important during the transition to college, a time were adolescents are at risk for negative physical and mental health outcomes. What has not yet been studied is how coping impacts the type of romantic relationship adolescents engage in. Data from a longitudinal study, which featured baseline measures as well as twice weekly diary assessments, was used to assess how coping style, commitment level, partner conflict, and sexual risk at baseline was associated with number of romantic partners and relationship duration over the transition to college. There was no significant association between coping and number of romantic partners or relationship duration. Increased partner conflict was associated with lower relationship duration, while higher levels of commitment were associated with higher relationship durations. Adolescents' sexual risk score was negatively correlated with number of romantic partners. Limitations as well as directions for future research are discussed.
ContributorsManning, Jonathan Michael (Author) / Thao Ha, Phuong (Thesis director) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Individuals with strong broad social motives (BSM) place high personal value on social activities and are at increased risk for heavy drinking. Those with strong BSM who also perceive that college students are heavy drinkers (high descriptive norms) might be particularly susceptible to increases in alcohol use during the transition to college, and may be likely to drink for social facilitation (social drinking motives). To test these hypotheses, we examined a mediated moderation model testing interactive effects of BSM and descriptive norms (perceptions of drinking in college) on drinking behavior, mediated by social drinking motives. Data were from 426 incoming college students and analyses were based on a subsample of 218 who reported drinking behavior at either time point. Results indicated that BSM interacted with descriptive norms to predict increases in social drinking motives from high school to college and social drinking motives in turn predicted increases in alcohol use. Probing this interaction revealed that those with high BSM and high descriptive norms experienced greater increases in social drinking motives than those with low descriptive norms. Tests of moderated indirect effects indicated that effects of BSM on drinking behavior through social drinking motives were also stronger among those with high descriptive norms. These results identify a particularly high risk group for changes in alcohol use during an important developmental period. This may have important implications for prevention and intervention methods which can attenuate college alcohol use by targeting individuals with strong BSM who perceive heavy drinking among college peers.
ContributorsCanning, Jessica Ryan (Author) / Corbin, William (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
This study examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations among diurnal cortisol rhythms and sleeping patterns in adolescents. 79 participants completed the study over three days during the spring semester of their senior year in high school, and 76 of these subjects participated again over three days during the fall semester of their freshman year in college. They completed daily saliva samples and diary entries, while wearing an actigraph to obtain objective measurements of sleep duration and efficiency. Cross-sectionally, longer sleep duration was associated with a lower cortisol awakening response, a smaller area under the cortisol curve, and a steeper cortisol slope. Longitudinally, there was no significant relationship between sleep duration and these cortisol parameters. Moreover, sleep efficiency was not associated with cortisol parameters cross-sectionally nor longitudinally. Results suggest associations between concurrent sleep duration and cortisol patterns, and may have significant impact on understanding adolescents' physiological response to stress.
ContributorsLathrop, Devon Olivia (Author) / Doane, Leah (Thesis director) / Orchinik, Miles (Committee member) / Zeiders, Katherine (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05