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- All Subjects: Developmental Psychology
- Creators: Grimm, Kevin
- Creators: Crnic, Keith A
Description
Postpartum depression (PPD) is a significant public health concern affecting up to half a million U.S. women annually. Mexican-American women experience substantially higher rates of PPD, and represent an underserved population with significant health disparities that put these women and their infants at greater risk for substantial psychological and developmental difficulties. The current study utilized data on perceived stress, depression, maternal parenting behavior, and infant social-emotional and cognitive development from 214 Mexican-American mother-infant dyads. The first analysis approach utilized a latent intercept (LI) model to examine how overall mean levels and within-person deviations of perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and maternal parenting behavior are related across the postpartum period. Results indicated large, positive between- and within-person correlations between perceived stress and depression. Neither perceived stress nor depressive symptoms were found to have significant between- or within-person associations with the parenting variables. The second analysis approach utilized an autoregressive cross-lagged model with tests of mediation to identify underlying mechanisms among perceived stress, postpartum depressive symptoms, and maternal parenting behavior in the prediction of infant social-emotional and cognitive development. Results indicated that increased depressive symptoms at 12- and 18-weeks were associated with subsequent reports of increased perceived stress at 18- and 24-weeks, respectively. Perceived stress at 12-weeks was found to be negatively associated with subsequent non-hostility at 18-weeks, and both sensitivity and non-hostility were found to be associated with infant cognitive development and social-emotional competencies at 12 months of age (52-weeks), but not with social-emotional problems. The results of the mediation analyses showed that non-hostility at 18- and 24-weeks significantly mediated the association between perceived stress at 12-weeks and infant cognitive development and social-emotional competencies at 52-weeks. The findings extend research that sensitive parenting in early childhood is as important to the development of cognitive ability, social behavior, and emotion regulation in ethnic minority cultures as it is in majority culture families; that maternal perceptions of stress may spillover into parenting behavior, resulting in increased hostility and negatively influencing infant cognitive and social-emotional development; and that symptoms of depressed mood may influence the experience of stress.
ContributorsCiciolla, Lucia (Author) / Crnic, Keith A (Thesis advisor) / West, Stephen G. (Thesis advisor) / Luecken, Linda J. (Committee member) / Presson, Clark C. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Anxiety sensitivity (AS; the fear of anxiety-related bodily sensations) has been earmarked as a significant risk factor in the development and maintenance of pathological anxiety in adults and children. Given the potential implications of heightened AS, recent research has focused on investigating the etiology and developmental course of elevated AS; however, most of this work has been conducted with adults and is retrospective in nature. Data from college students show that early anxiety-related learning experiences may be a primary source of heightened AS levels, but it remains unclear whether AS in children is linked to their learning experiences (i.e., parental reinforcement, modeling, punishment, and/or transmission of information about anxiety-related behaviors). Based on AS theory and its iterations, an emerging theoretical model was developed to aid further exploration of the putative causes and consequences of heightened AS levels. Using a sample of 70 clinic-referred youth (ages 6 to 16 years old; 51.4% Hispanic/Latino), the present study sought to further explicate the role of learning in the development of AS and anxiety symptoms. Results suggest that childhood learning experiences may be an important precursor to heightened AS levels and, subsequently, increased experiences of anxiety symptoms. Findings also indicate that some youth may be more vulnerable to anxiety-related learning experiences and suggest that culture may play a role in the relations among learning, AS, and anxiety symptoms.
ContributorsHolly, Lindsay (Author) / Pina, Armando A (Thesis advisor) / Crnic, Keith A (Committee member) / Sanabria, Federico (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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
Described is a study investigating the feasibility and predictive value of the Teacher Feedback Coding System, a novel observational measure of teachers’ feedback provided to students in third grade classrooms. This measure assessed individual feedback events across three domains: feedback type, level of specificity and affect of the teacher. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis revealed five factors indicating separate types of feedback: positive and negative academic-informative feedback, positive and negative behavioral-informative feedback, and an overall factor representing supportive feedback. Multilevel models revealed direct relations between teachers’ negative academic-informative feedback and students’ spring math achievement, as well as between teachers’ negative behavioral-informative feedback and students’ behavior patterns. Additionally, a fall math-by-feedback interaction was detected in the case of teachers’ positive academic-informative feedback; students who began the year struggling in math benefitted from more of this type of feedback. Finally, teachers’ feedback was investigated as a potential mediator in a previously established relation between teachers’ self-reported depressive symptoms and the observed quality of the classroom environment. Partial mediation was detected in the case of teachers’ positive academic-informative feedback, such that this type of feedback was accountable for a portion of the variance observed in the relation between teachers’ depressive symptoms and the quality of the classroom environment.
ContributorsMcLean, Leigh Ellen (Author) / Connor, Carol M. (Thesis advisor) / Lemery, Kathryn (Committee member) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Biculturalism embodies the degree to which individuals adapt to living within two cultural systems and develop the ability to live effectively across those two cultures. It represents, therefore, a normative developmental task among members of immigrant and ethnic-racial minority groups, and has important implications for psychosocial adjustment. Despite a strong theoretical focus on contextual influences in biculturalism scholarship, the ways in which proximal contexts shape its development are understudied. In my dissertation, I examine the mechanisms via which the family context might influence the development of bicultural competence among a socio-economically diverse sample of 749 U.S. Mexican-origin youths (30% Mexico-born) followed for 7 years (Mage = 10.44 to 17.38 years; Wave 1 to 4).
In study 1, I investigated how parents’ endorsements of values associated with both mainstream and heritage cultures relate to adolescents’ bicultural competence. Longitudinal growth model analyses revealed that parents’ endorsements of mainstream and heritage values simultaneously work to influence adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the effect of multiple and often competing familial contextual influences on adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on intergenerational cultural transmission and advances scholarship on the culturally bounded nature of human development.
In study 2, I offer a substantial extension to decades of family stress model research focused on how family environmental stressors may compromise parenting behaviors and youth development by testing a culturally informed family stress model. My model (a) incorporates family cultural and ecological stressors, (b) focuses on culturally salient parenting practices aimed to teach youth about the heritage culture (i.e., ethnic socialization), and (c) examines bicultural competence as a developmental outcome. Findings suggest that parents’ high exposure to ecological stressors do not compromise parental ethnic socialization or adolescent bicultural competence development. On the other hand, mothers’ exposures to enculturative stressors can disrupt maternal ethnic socialization, and in turn, undermine adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the influence of multiple family environmental stressors on culturally salient parenting practices, and their implications for adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on ethnic-racial minority and immigrant families’ adapting cultures and advances scholarship on the family stress model.
In study 1, I investigated how parents’ endorsements of values associated with both mainstream and heritage cultures relate to adolescents’ bicultural competence. Longitudinal growth model analyses revealed that parents’ endorsements of mainstream and heritage values simultaneously work to influence adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the effect of multiple and often competing familial contextual influences on adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on intergenerational cultural transmission and advances scholarship on the culturally bounded nature of human development.
In study 2, I offer a substantial extension to decades of family stress model research focused on how family environmental stressors may compromise parenting behaviors and youth development by testing a culturally informed family stress model. My model (a) incorporates family cultural and ecological stressors, (b) focuses on culturally salient parenting practices aimed to teach youth about the heritage culture (i.e., ethnic socialization), and (c) examines bicultural competence as a developmental outcome. Findings suggest that parents’ high exposure to ecological stressors do not compromise parental ethnic socialization or adolescent bicultural competence development. On the other hand, mothers’ exposures to enculturative stressors can disrupt maternal ethnic socialization, and in turn, undermine adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the influence of multiple family environmental stressors on culturally salient parenting practices, and their implications for adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on ethnic-racial minority and immigrant families’ adapting cultures and advances scholarship on the family stress model.
ContributorsSafa Pernett, Maria Dalal (Author) / White, Rebecca M. B. (Thesis advisor) / Knight, George P. (Committee member) / Updegraff, Kimberly A. (Committee member) / Wilkens, Natalie D. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The ability to self-regulate is arguably the single most important skill a child develops early in life. Self-regulation skills are consistently linked to indices of health, success, and wellbeing. The predominating perspective in self-regulation developmental research has emphasized the role of the early caregiving environment, specifically maternal characteristics and behavior, in shaping infants’ emerging regulatory skills. Using two complementary studies, this dissertation draws from a longitudinal sample of 322 low-income, Mexican American mother-infant dyads to better understand mothers’ and infants’ unique roles in contributing to emerging infant regulatory processes. The first study explores the unique contributions of intrinsic (i.e., infant gaze) and extrinsic (i.e., maternal gaze) factors in understanding infant dysregulated emotion and behavior during mother-infant interactions. Using actor partner interdependent models (APIMs), the role of infant and maternal gaze in understanding infant dysregulation were examined longitudinally across three mother-infant interaction tasks (i.e., soothing, teaching, and peekaboo), as well as within task. The expected relations among gaze and dysregulation did not emerge in the longitudinal model; however, differential patterns of associations emerged by task. Findings are discussed within the intersection of risk, culture, and the dyadic interaction context.
The second study connects patterns of specific maternal behaviors (i.e., acknowledging, gaze, vocal appropriateness, appropriate range of affect, consistency of style, resourcefulness, and touch) associated with maternal sensitivity to infant cortisol reactivity and recovery. Latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed four distinct combinations of maternal sensitivity behaviors. One pattern emerged as a risk profile—differentiated by higher maternal stress—and was associated with significantly more infant cortisol recovery compared to other profiles. Both studies offer a more nuanced understanding of the respective roles of infant and maternal factors in the development of self-regulation. Further explication of developmental processes involved in early regulatory functioning has implications for advancing both scientific knowledge and improved targeting of prevention and early intervention efforts to promote optimal child outcomes, particularly in populations that at increased risk for developmental psychopathology.
The second study connects patterns of specific maternal behaviors (i.e., acknowledging, gaze, vocal appropriateness, appropriate range of affect, consistency of style, resourcefulness, and touch) associated with maternal sensitivity to infant cortisol reactivity and recovery. Latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed four distinct combinations of maternal sensitivity behaviors. One pattern emerged as a risk profile—differentiated by higher maternal stress—and was associated with significantly more infant cortisol recovery compared to other profiles. Both studies offer a more nuanced understanding of the respective roles of infant and maternal factors in the development of self-regulation. Further explication of developmental processes involved in early regulatory functioning has implications for advancing both scientific knowledge and improved targeting of prevention and early intervention efforts to promote optimal child outcomes, particularly in populations that at increased risk for developmental psychopathology.
Contributorsvan Huisstede, Lauren (Author) / Crnic, Keith A (Thesis advisor) / Spinrad, Tracy (Committee member) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Prior research has established associations between sleep duration and body mass index (BMI) scores and risk for obesity in middle childhood, but it is less clear whether other objectively- and subjectively-measured sleep indicators may be associated with BMI scores, weight status (e.g., obesity), and other estimates of weight and body fat such as waist circumference (WC) and percent body fat. Empirical studies have also demonstrated independent associations between broad self-regulation and sleep indicators and BMI scores, but no study to date has tested these factors in a model together and the extent to which associations between normative sleep problems, weight indicators, and effortful control (EC) may be explained by shared genetic or environmental influences. Data from a large longitudinal study of twins was used to test phenotypic associations between sleep problems at eight years and weight indicators at nine years, including whether EC at eight years moderates these associations. Additionally, multiple quantitative behavior genetic models were used to estimate unique and shared genetic and environmental covariances among normative sleep problems, weight indicators, and EC at eight years of age and whether additive genetic influence on weight in middle childhood differs by child weight status group. Phenotypic findings showed that greater sleep duration at eight years predicted greater decreases BMI at nine years of age for children with low levels of EC at eight years. Greater sleep midpoint variability at eight years predicted greater increases in percent body fat from eight to nine years of age for children with low EC at eight years. Behavior genetic findings showed greater environmental influences on parent-reported sleep duration and quality, as well as objective sleep midpoint variability. Similarly, associations between parent-reported sleep duration and sleep midpoint variability and other sleep indicators and EC were primarily accounted for by shared environmental factors. In contrast, there was high additive genetic influence on objective sleep quantity and quality, all weight indicators, and EC. Many of the associations between sleep indicators, sleep and weight indicators, and among weight indicators were entirely accounted for by shared additive genetic factors, suggesting that common, underlying sets of genes explain these relations.
ContributorsBreitenstein, Reagan Styles (Author) / Doane, Leah D. (Thesis advisor) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Perez La Mar, Marisol (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The parent-child relationship is one of the earliest and most formative experiences for social and emotional development. Synchrony, defined as the rhythmic patterning and quality of mutual affect, engagement, and physiological attunement, has been identified as a critical quality of a healthy mother-infant relationship. Although the salience of the quality of family interaction has been well-established, clinical and developmental research has varied widely in methods for observing and identifying influential aspects of synchrony. In addition, modern dynamic perspectives presume multiple factors converge in a complex system influenced by both nature and nurture, in which individual traits, behavior, and environment are inextricably intertwined within the system of dyadic relational units.
The present study aimed to directly examine and compare synchrony from three distinct approaches: observed microanalytic behavioral sequences, observed global dyadic qualities, and physiological attunement between mothers and infants. The sample consisted of 323 Mexican American mothers and their infants followed from the third trimester of pregnancy through the first year of life. Mothers were interviewed prenatally, observed at a home visit at 12 weeks postpartum, and were finally interviewed for child social-emotional problems at child age 12 months. Specific aspects of synchrony (microanalytical, global, and physiological) were examined separately as well as together to identify comparable and divergent qualities within the construct.
Findings indicated that multiple perspectives on synchrony are best examined together, but as independent qualities to account for varying characteristics captured by divergent systems. Dyadic relationships characterized by higher reciprocity, more time and flexibility in mutual non-negative engagement, and less tendency to enter negative or unengaged states were associated with fewer child social-emotional problems at child age 12 months. Lower infant cortisol was associated with higher levels of externalizing problems, and smaller differences between mother and child cortisol were associated with higher levels of child dysregulation. Results underscore the complex but important nature of synchrony as a salient mechanism underlying the social-emotional growth of children. A mutually engaged, non-negative, and reciprocal environment lays the foundation for the successful social and self-regulatory competence of infants in the first year of life.
The present study aimed to directly examine and compare synchrony from three distinct approaches: observed microanalytic behavioral sequences, observed global dyadic qualities, and physiological attunement between mothers and infants. The sample consisted of 323 Mexican American mothers and their infants followed from the third trimester of pregnancy through the first year of life. Mothers were interviewed prenatally, observed at a home visit at 12 weeks postpartum, and were finally interviewed for child social-emotional problems at child age 12 months. Specific aspects of synchrony (microanalytical, global, and physiological) were examined separately as well as together to identify comparable and divergent qualities within the construct.
Findings indicated that multiple perspectives on synchrony are best examined together, but as independent qualities to account for varying characteristics captured by divergent systems. Dyadic relationships characterized by higher reciprocity, more time and flexibility in mutual non-negative engagement, and less tendency to enter negative or unengaged states were associated with fewer child social-emotional problems at child age 12 months. Lower infant cortisol was associated with higher levels of externalizing problems, and smaller differences between mother and child cortisol were associated with higher levels of child dysregulation. Results underscore the complex but important nature of synchrony as a salient mechanism underlying the social-emotional growth of children. A mutually engaged, non-negative, and reciprocal environment lays the foundation for the successful social and self-regulatory competence of infants in the first year of life.
ContributorsCoburn, Shayna Skelley (Author) / Crnic, Keith A (Thesis advisor) / Dishion, Thomas J (Committee member) / Mackinnon, David P (Committee member) / Luecken, Linda J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The following study was developed to investigate the development of writing skills in second and third grade students. The recent emphasis on writing, specifically writing in multiple genres, made in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010) has increased the need to further understand how students write. The NAEP (2002) reports that approximately 77% of fourth grade students have only a general grasp of writing. Despite this poor performance, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010) have increased the expectations for student writing. The goal of this proposed dissertation, using an holistic literacy perspective, is to shed light on differences in how students write in informative and opinion genres, which skills predict writing outcomes, the extent to which reciprocal effects between writing and literacy are present, and what type of student profiles exist within the classroom. It was found that students received lower scores on opinion writing compared to their informative compositions. It was also found that better reading comprehension was associated with better writing performance in both genres. High vocabulary ability predicted higher opinion essay scores and better performance on a behavioral regulation task predicted better informative essay outcomes. Reciprocal effects between writing outcomes and literacy skill were found, with higher opinion writing scores predicted higher vocabulary outcomes. Finally, students appeared to fall into four latent profiles: high achievers, average achievers, struggling students, and a group of students who have average literacy skill but scored extremely poorly on the opinion essay task.
ContributorsIngebrand, Sarah Wynonah (Author) / Connor, Carol M (Thesis advisor) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Harris, Karen (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Clinically meaningful emotional and behavioral problems are thought to be present beginning in infancy, and may be reliably assessed in children as young as 12 months old. However, few studies have investigated early correlates of emotional and behavioral problems assessed in infancy. The current study investigates the direct and interactive contributions of early infant and caregiver characteristics thought to play an important role in the ontogeny of behavior problems. Specifically, the study examines: (1) the links between temperamental reactivity across the first year of life and behavior problems at 18 months, (2) whether children high in temperamental reactivity are differentially susceptible to variations in maternal sensitivity, (3) the extent to which child temperamental risk or susceptibility may further be explained by mothers’ experiences of stressful life events (SLEs) during and before pregnancy. Data were collected from 322 Mexican American families during prenatal, 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-week home interviews, as well as during 12- and 18-month lab interviews. Mother reports of SLEs were obtained between 23-40 weeks gestation; temperamental negativity and surgency at 6 weeks and 12 months; and internalizing and externalizing behaviors at 18 months. Maternal sensitivity during structured mother-infant interaction tasks at the 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-week visits was assessed by objective observer ratings. Study findings indicated that maternal SLEs before birth were associated with more infant negativity across the first year of life, and that negativity in turn was associated with more internalizing problems at 18 months. Ecological stressors thought to be associated with sociodemographic risk factors such as low-income and ethnic minority status may begin to exert cascades of influence on children’s developmental outcomes even before birth.
ContributorsLin, Betty (Author) / Crnic, Keith A (Thesis advisor) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn S (Committee member) / Luecken, Linda J. (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016