Matching Items (26)
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- All Subjects: Developmental Psychology
- Creators: Bradley, Robert
- Creators: Su, Jinni
Description
The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal relations of maternal behaviors, children`s temperamental negative emotionality, and children`s emotion perception processes, including emotion perception accuracy (EPA) and emotion perception bias (EPB), to children`s conduct disorder symptoms in a normative sample. Separate structural equation models were conducted to assess whether parenting or children`s proneness to negative emotions at 24-30 (T2), 36-42 (T3) and 48-54 (T4) months predicted children`s EPA and EPB over time, and whether T3 and T4 children`s emotion perception processes were predictive of children`s conduct disorder at 72 months of age (T5). None of the hypothesized longitudinal relations was supported; however, other noteworthy results were observed. T3 children`s proneness to negative emotions was positively related to children`s concurrent bias toward anger. The latent constructs of negative parenting, children`s proneness to negative emotions, and the observed measure of children`s emotion perception accuracy showed stability over time, whereas the observed measures of children`s bias toward understanding distinct negative emotions were unrelated across time. In addition, children`s expressive language was predicted by children`s earlier emotion perception accuracy, which emphasized the importance of improving children`s emotion understanding skills during early years. Furthermore, the previously established negative relation between EPA and EPB variables was only partially supported. Findings regarding the relations between parenting, children`s negative emotionality and emotion perception processes are discussed from a developmental perspective.
ContributorsSeyed Nozadi, Sara (Author) / Spinrad, Tracy L. (Thesis advisor) / Eisenberg, Nancy (Committee member) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Eggum, Natalie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Although anxiety may be developmentally appropriate, it can become problematic in some youth. From an ecological perspective, social systems, like family and friendships, are theorized to influence developmental trajectories toward (mal)adjustment, but empirical evidence is scant with regard to the relative impact of subjective satisfaction with family and friendship on anxiety problem development. This thesis study used a subsample of approximately 50% Hispanic/Latino clinic-referred youth (n = 71, ages 6-16 years). Overall, results suggest that the effect of friendship satisfaction on anxiety varied as a function of age but not ethnicity, such that there was a significant negative relationship between child-reported friendship satisfaction and anxiety levels for older children (approx. 9 years and older) but not for younger children. The effect of family satisfaction on anxiety also varied as a function of age, such that older children showed a positive relation between child reported family satisfaction and parent reported anxiety. Furthermore, a positive relation between family satisfaction and anxiety was found only for the H/L children. Post hoc analyses regarding cultural underpinnings of this finding and implications for future research are discussed, as are the results regarding differences between parent and child reports of anxiety.
ContributorsHumphrey, Julia (Author) / Pina, Armando A (Thesis advisor) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Family plays an important yet understudied role in the development of psychopathology during childhood, particularly for children at developmental risk. Indeed, much of the research on families has actually concentrated more on risk processes in individual family members or within-family subsystems. In general, important and complex associations have been found among family-related constructs such as marital conflict, parent-child relationships, parental depression, and parenting stress, which have in turn been found to contribute to the emergence of children's behavioral problems. Research has begun to emerge that certain family system constructs, such as cohesion, organization, and control may influence children's development, but this research has been limited by a focus on parent-reports of family functioning, rather than utilizing observational methods. With notable exceptions, there is almost no observational research examining families of children at developmental risk. This study examined the longitudinal relations among family risk and family system constructs, as well as how family systems constructs mediated the relations between family risk and child outcome. Further, the study examined how developmental risk moderated these relations. The sample followed 242 families of children with and without developmental risk across the transition-to-school period. Family risk factors were assessed at 5 years, using parental reports of symptomatology, parenting stress, and marital adjustment, and observational assessments of the parent-child relationship. Family system constructs (cohesion, warmth, conflict, organization, control) were measured at age 6 using structured observations of the entire family playing a board game. Child behavior problems and social competence were assessed at age 7. Results indicated that families of children with developmental delays did not differ from families of typically developing children on the majority of family system attributes. Cohesion and organization mediated the relations between specific family risk factors and social competence for all families. For families of typically developing children only, higher levels of control were associated with more behavior problems and less social competence. These findings underscore the importance of family-level assessment in understanding the development of psychopathology. Important family effects on children's social competence were found, although the pathways among family risk and family systems attributes are complex.
ContributorsGerstein, Emily Davis (Author) / Crnic, Keith A (Thesis advisor) / Aiken, Leona (Committee member) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Gonzales, Nancy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Does a consistent mentor help a youth transition into a secure and independent adult life? To answer this, I have used a grounded theory methodology to research elements of the foster care system. Through academic research, I audited the landscape of mentoring within foster care and then helped in the designing of a framework for a foster youth mentoring service could look like and have researched the areas in which a mentor can benefit a youth. I have listened to and recorded the stories of three college students with lived foster care experience so that I could learn from those who have firsthand experience. After using these methods, the findings showed that a consistent mentor figure is a key factor in the transition into a secure and independent adult life.
ContributorsWebb, Tanner Justin (Author) / Heller, Cheryl (Thesis director) / Stone Sheppard, Nyasha (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
The transition to college is a time of increased opportunity and stress that spans across multiple domains (e.g., social life, academic workload, finances). Adolescents who encounter significant stress during the transition to college may be vulnerable to adverse outcomes, due to a “wear and tear” of physiological systems, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Latino students may be particularly at-risk for heightened stress exposure, as minority youth often experience both minority-specific stressors and general life stress. Despite this, the majority of research on Latino students is limited to the examination of singular forms of stress, and little is known regarding the cumulative impact of multiple forms of stress on Latino students’ HPA axis functioning. The present study employed a “multi-risk model approach” to examine the additive, common, and cumulative effects of multiple types of stress (general, academic, social, financial, bicultural, discrimination) on HPA axis functioning in Latino college students (N = 209; 64.4% female; Mage = 18.95). Results from three-level growth curve models indicated that, in the additive model, no stressors were associated with the CAR, but general stress was associated with a flatter diurnal cortisol slope (DCS) and bicultural stress was linked with a steeper DCS. In the common model, the college stress latent factor was related to a reduced cortisol awakening response (CAR), but not the DCS. In the cumulative model, cumulative risk was linked with a lower CAR, but not the DCS. These findings highlight the physiological correlates of various stressors experienced by Latino college students.
ContributorsSasser, Jeri (Author) / Doane, Leah D (Thesis advisor) / Su, Jinni (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Sleep and weight health during childhood can be the essential building blocks that influence later physical and psychological health. Researchers note how neighborhood effects on health may be mediated or moderated by parenting or family-related factors. This dissertation expanded on the efforts through an examination of contextual predictors of children’s health using the Arizona Twin Project dataset (N = 933; 51.7% female; 56.5% White; 25.6% Latino). The family stress model (FSM), contextual relevance model (CRM), and the integrated model were used to test the relations between neighborhood and family factors on children sleep and weight health. Parent perceptions of neighborhood danger and childhood opportunities index were tested using multilevel- mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation models to address some of the limitations in previous reviews. The FSM was partially supported: parental stress and strain mediated the association between perceived neighborhood danger with sleep efficiency. However, the FSM was not fully supported as parental stress and disrupted parenting did not serially mediate the associations between neighborhood conditions and sleep efficiency. Moderation analyses revealed that negative parenting exacerbates associations between perceived neighborhood danger and sleep duration, demonstrating amplified disadvantages processes of the CRM. Negative parenting also moderated the associations between perceived neighborhood danger and sleep efficiency; the relationship was beyond what was noted in the CRM. Greater neighborhood opportunity was more strongly related to greater body fat percentage in families with higher positive parenting, as compared to families with lower positive parenting. Familism significantly moderated the association between neighborhood contexts and parental stress and strain within a subsample (Latino descent only). Last, the exploratory multilevel moderated mediation models suggested that most associations did not vary by the subgroups explored (i.e., positive parenting, familism cultural value). These results join a growing initiative to explore the science of ecological context, culture, and family interplay.
ContributorsPark, HyeJung (Author) / Doane, Leah D. (Thesis advisor) / White, Rebecca M.B. (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Su, Jinni (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Currently, Latino youth are reporting greater academic achievement compared to prior decades; however, they continue to drop out of high school at higher rates compared to their peers. Given that Latino youth will soon take on adult roles in society, it is important to explore resources that can help them reach their academic potential, while also considering ethnic-racial discrimination as a barrier. Prior work has highlighted the benefits that family ethnic socialization experiences (FES), and having an informed understanding of ones’ ethnic-racial identity (ERI achievement) can provide for Latino youths’ academic adjustment. However, additional work is needed to examine contextual factors that may inform Latino parents’ FES engagement. Furthermore, limited work has explored the variability in how Latino youth experience these and other cultural resources, and in turn, how they inform youths’ academic adjustment. In Study 1, I explored whether Mexican-origin mothers’ and fathers’ workplace discrimination informed youths’ academic adjustment via parent-adolescent relationship quality, mothers’ and fathers’ FES, and youths’ ERI. Findings suggest that mothers and fathers who experience more frequent workplace discrimination engage in more FES, and mothers’ (but not fathers’) FES was associated with youths’ higher ERI achievement. Furthermore, greater mother-adolescent conflict was associated with lower academic adjustment. Overall, findings have implications for understanding how youths’ developmental competencies are informed by their familial relationships, and their parents’ experiences with workplace discrimination.
In Study 2, I utilized person-centered analyses to examine whether distinct typologies emerged based on Latino youths’ experiences with FES, ERI, and emotional support from Latino and non-Latino peers. Findings revealed three profiles of cultural resources. Furthermore, youth who reported the highest levels of all cultural resources demonstrated better academic adjustment compared to youth with low to moderate levels of resources, but not compared to youth with more moderate levels of resources. Finally, profile membership moderated the association between youths’ ethnic-racial discrimination and academic adjustment; however, the profile that provided protective effects varied by academic adjustment indicator. Overall, findings provide a nuanced understanding regarding the promotive and protective effects that cultural resource profiles can have for youths’ academic adjustment.
ContributorsMartinez-Fuentes, Stefanie (Author) / Updegraff, Kimberly A (Thesis advisor) / Umaña-taylor, Adriana J (Thesis advisor) / White, Rebecca M.B. (Committee member) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This dissertation combines three first-author manuscripts that focused broadly on the study of adolescent sleep within a family context (Sasser et al., 2021; Sasser & Oshri, 2023; Sasser et al., 2023). First, Chapter 1 introduces the theoretical background and empirical research that grounded the research questions and hypotheses explored across the studies. The first study (Chapter 2) examined the influence of family connection on actigraphy-measured sleep among Latinx late adolescents and explored family dynamics and cultural values as potential moderators. The second study (Chapter 3) investigated daily and average concordance between parent and youth actigraphy-measured sleep and how this varied as a function of family context (e.g., parenting, family functioning). The third study (Chapter 4) examined concordance in actigraphy sleep among parent-youth and sibling dyads and explored how relations differed across zygosity type and sleeping arrangements. The dissertation concludes with an immersive discussion (Chapter 5) that summarizes the key differences, similarities, and takeaways across studies and highlights future directions and implications for developmental science, public policy, and clinical interventions. Collectively, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of youth and adolescent sleep within a family context by identifying proximal (e.g., daily interactions with parents/siblings) and broader family-level factors (e.g., dynamics, culture) that may help promote more healthful sleep among both adolescents and their family members.
ContributorsSasser, Jeri (Author) / Doane, Leah D (Thesis advisor) / Su, Jinni (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin J (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Parental depression is a risk factor for children’s healthy language development, however, the mechanisms of risk transmission are less understood. The present study aimed to examine aspects of parent-child interactions as mediators of the negative relations between mothers’ and fathers’ depression and children’s expressive language. Using longitudinal data from families in a large city of the Western United States (N = 497; child Mage = 5.83 months; 47% female), I examined these relations using mothers’ and fathers’ reports of depression, observations of mothers’ and fathers’ parent-child interactions, and observational indices of children’s expressive language in the home. Although results indicated no longitudinal relations between mothers’ or fathers’ depression and children’s expressive language, mothers’ depression was negatively related to mothers’ and fathers’ later parental supportiveness. Moreover, mothers’ acceptance and fathers’ supportiveness were positively related to children’s later expressive language. These findings shed light on family dynamics when mothers’ experience heightened levels of postpartum depression and how specific parent-child interactions support healthy language development.
ContributorsClifford, Brandon Neil (Author) / Eggum, Natalie (Thesis advisor) / Rainey, Vanessa (Committee member) / Lucca, Kelsey (Committee member) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Pediatric chronic pain is pervasive and associated with myriad adverse consequences, yet due consideration has not been given to the mental health disturbances that often present alongside chronic pain and the etiological mechanisms that potentially underlie both. The current study examined the etiology underlying chronic pain and internalizing symptomology in middle childhood, considering both independent and co-occurring symptom presentations. Phenotypic parent-offspring associations across chronic pain and internalizing symptomology were also examined. Lastly, nuclear twin family models were tested to determine the extent to which genetic and environmental factors underlie parent-offspring transmission. The sample comprised 795 children (399 families; Mage= 9.7 years; SD = 0.92) and their parents drawn from the Arizona Twin Project. Results indicated that chronic pain was highly heritable (78%), whereas internalizing symptomology was modestly heritable (32%) and further subject to moderate shared environmental influence (50%). Moreover, 9% of the variance in chronic pain was explained by additive genetic factors shared with internalizing symptomology. Maternal chronic pain and internalizing symptomology were positively associated with both child chronic pain and internalizing symptomology. The association between maternal chronic pain and child chronic pain was more pronounced for girls than boys, whereas the association between maternal internalizing symptomology and child internalizing symptomology was more pronounced for boys than girls. Paternal chronic pain was not significantly associated with child chronic pain but was unexpectedly associated with lower child internalizing symptomology. The negative association between paternal chronic pain and child internalizing symptomology was more pronounced for boys than girls. Paternal internalizing symptomology was not significantly associated with child chronic pain but was positively associated with child internalizing symptomology. Lastly, the best fitting reduced nuclear twin family models for both chronic pain and internalizing symptomology retained additive genetic, sibling-specific shared environmental, and nonshared environmental parameters, where parent-offspring transmission was solely explained by shared genetics and sibling-specific shared environmental factors further accounted for co-twin resemblance. Results provide novel insight into common liabilities underlying chronic pain and internalizing symptomology in middle childhood, parent-offspring associations across chronic pain and internalizing symptomology, and the etiological mechanisms that explain symptom aggregation across generations.
ContributorsOro, Veronica (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis advisor) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Su, Jinni (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021