Matching Items (17)
Description
Research regarding social competence is growing rapidly, but there remain a few aspects of social development that merit more attention. The presented pair of studies were planned to address two such areas in the social development literature, specifically the longitudinal trajectories of social competence and the role of social competence in second language development in language minority (LM) students. The goal of the first investigation was to examine the developmental trends of interpersonal skills (IS) across the early childhood and elementary school years in a nationally representative, U.S. sample. The goal of the second study was to examine whether differing trajectories of IS development in language minority children in the U.S. were related to their language and literacy (LL) skills at grade 5. Both studies utilized data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 and modeled ratings of children's IS at five time points between fall of kindergarten and spring of fifth grade using latent class growth analyses in Mplus. In study 1, the best model was a quadratic two-class latent class growth analysis. Trajectory class 1 was a higher-level path with a marginally significant non-linear shape and class 2 was a primarily stable, moderate level path with a slight, non-significant increase over time. The same pattern of results emerged for both boys and girls separately as with the combined-sex model, and in all three final models the proportion of the sample in the higher-level class was greater than the moderate-level class. In study 2 a sample of U.S. children whose primary language at home was something other than English was utilized. LL at the start of kindergarten and sex were included as covariates and LL in fifth grade as a distal outcome. The best model for the data was a cubic two-class latent class growth analysis. Class 1 followed a higher-level path with small, incremental change over time and class 2 was a moderate-level path with greater undulation. Both covariates significantly predicted latent class and language and literacy scores at grade 5 differed significantly across classes.
ContributorsDiDonato, Alicia (Author) / Wilcox, M. Jeanne (Thesis advisor) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Wilkens, Natalie (Committee member) / Valiente, Carlos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Mexican-origin adolescent females have the highest birthrate of all other ethnic groups in the U.S. Further, teen mothers are at significant risk for poor outcomes, including low educational attainment. Therefore, examining predictors of Mexican-origin teen mothers' educational attainment was the main goal of the current study. Future-oriented beliefs such as educational aspirations and expectations are suggested to have positive implications for adolescents' educational attainment in general. Therefore, guided by bioecological, social capital, status attainment, social learning, and collective socialization of neighborhood theories, the current study examined neighborhood, maternal, and cultural predictors of 190 Mexican-origin parenting adolescents' educational aspirations, expectations, and attainment. With respect to maternal predictors, the study examined mother figures' (i.e., grandmothers') educational attainment, and aspirations and expectations for the adolescent as predictors of adolescents' educational attainment. Using a multi-informant, longitudinal analytic model, results suggest that adolescents' educational expectations, rather than aspirations, significantly predicted adolescents' attainment one year later. Additionally, grandmothers' educational attainment was indirectly associated with adolescents' educational attainment via the educational expectations of both the grandmother and the adolescent. Further, the neighborhood context indirectly informed adolescents' educational attainment via both grandmothers and adolescents' educational expectations. Finally, adolescents' ethnic identity affirmation was significantly associated with adolescents' educational attainment two years later. Implications regarding the importance of educational expectations and ethnic identity affirmation for at-risk parenting adolescents' educational attainment will be discussed.
ContributorsHarvey-Mendoza, Elizabeth C (Author) / Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J. (Thesis advisor) / Updegraff, Kimberly A. (Committee member) / White, Rebecca (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The current study delineated the developmental trajectories of early childhood externalizing and internalizing symptoms reported by mothers and fathers, and examined the role of the 18-month observed parenting quality × Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia
(RSA) interaction in predicting these trajectories. Child sex was tested as a covariate and moderator. It was found that children's low baseline RSA or high RSA reactivity , in comparison to high baseline RSA or low RSA reactivity , was more reactive as a function
of early parenting quality when predicting the development of early childhood problem symptoms. Differential patterns of the interaction between parenting quality and RSA were detected for mothers' and fathers' reports. Mother-reported models showed a diathesis-stress pattern, whereas the father-reported model showed a vantage-sensitivity pattern, especially for internalizing symptoms. This may imply the potential benefit of fathers' active engagement in children's early development. In addition, the effect of the parenting quality × RSA interaction in predicting the mother-reported models was found
to be further moderated by child sex. Specifically, the parenting quality × baseline RSA interaction was significantly predictive of girls' 54-month internalizing, and the parenting quality × RSA reactivity interaction significantly predicted boys' internalizing slope. Girls with low baseline RSA or boys with high RSA reactivity were vulnerable to the less positive parenting, exhibiting high levels of 54-month internalizing symptoms or slow decline in internalizing over time, respectively. Future research directions were discussed in terms of integrating the measures of SNS and PNS in psychopathology study,
exploring the mechanisms underlying the sex difference in parenting quality × RSA interaction, and comparing the findings of children's typical and atypical development.
(RSA) interaction in predicting these trajectories. Child sex was tested as a covariate and moderator. It was found that children's low baseline RSA or high RSA reactivity , in comparison to high baseline RSA or low RSA reactivity , was more reactive as a function
of early parenting quality when predicting the development of early childhood problem symptoms. Differential patterns of the interaction between parenting quality and RSA were detected for mothers' and fathers' reports. Mother-reported models showed a diathesis-stress pattern, whereas the father-reported model showed a vantage-sensitivity pattern, especially for internalizing symptoms. This may imply the potential benefit of fathers' active engagement in children's early development. In addition, the effect of the parenting quality × RSA interaction in predicting the mother-reported models was found
to be further moderated by child sex. Specifically, the parenting quality × baseline RSA interaction was significantly predictive of girls' 54-month internalizing, and the parenting quality × RSA reactivity interaction significantly predicted boys' internalizing slope. Girls with low baseline RSA or boys with high RSA reactivity were vulnerable to the less positive parenting, exhibiting high levels of 54-month internalizing symptoms or slow decline in internalizing over time, respectively. Future research directions were discussed in terms of integrating the measures of SNS and PNS in psychopathology study,
exploring the mechanisms underlying the sex difference in parenting quality × RSA interaction, and comparing the findings of children's typical and atypical development.
ContributorsLi, Yi (Author) / Eisenberg, Nancy (Thesis advisor) / Spinrad, Tracy (Thesis advisor) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Wilkens, Natalie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Ethnic enclaves, or neighborhoods with high ethnic densities, have been linked with positive health outcomes and lower crime rates. Using data from the Pathways to Desistance project, this study tested whether neighborhood Latino concentration prospectively predicted re-offense rates among a sample of Mexican American juvenile offenders (n = 247). Further, I tested whether the effect of neighborhood Latino concentration on re-offense was moderated by ethnic identity, Mexican orientation, and generation status. Covariates included demographics and risk factors for offending. Results showed that neighborhood Latino concentration, ethnic identity, Mexican orientation, and generation status were not predictive of re-offense rates. Gender, risk for offending, and time spent supervised during the follow-up period predicted re-offense rates one year later. The results highlight the importance of risk assessment for this high risk group.
ContributorsBui, Leena (Author) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis advisor) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Tein, Jenn-Yun (Committee member) / White, Rebecca (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
The goal of this study is to contribute to the understanding of Mexican-American three- to five-year-old children’s effortful control (EC) and negative emotionality (NE) development by examining whether Mexican-American adolescent mothers’ parenting transacts with their three- to five-year-old children’s EC and NE and by exploring whether mothers’ familism acts as a protective factor. I hypothesized that mothers’ harshness and warmth would transact with EC and NE over time. I further hypothesized that mothers’ familism values would (a) positively predict mothers’ warmth and negatively predict mothers’ harshness, and (b) act as a buffer between low EC and high NE, and high harshness and low warmth. These hypotheses were tested within a sample of Mexican-American adolescent mother-child dyads (N = 204) and assessed longitudinally when children were 36, 48, and 60 months. Mothers were predominantly first generation (i.e., mothers’ parents were born in Mexico; 67%) and spoke English (65%). When children were 36 months, average family income (i.e., wages, public assistance, food stamps) was $24,715 (SD = $19,545) and mothers had started community college (13%) or completed high school/GED (30%), 11th grade (19%), 10th grade (8%), or less than 9th grade (14%). In this sample, transactions between harshness or warmth and EC or NE were not found, but a bidirectional association between NE and harshness was found. Familism marginally negatively predicted harshness, but not warmth. Familism moderated the relation between NE and harshness such that there was only a negative relation between NE and harshness when familism was high. However, familism did not moderate the relations between NE and warmth, or EC and harshness or warmth. The results of this study are discussed with respect to (a) current methodological limitations in the field, such as the need to test or develop parent-report measures of Mexican-American children’s temperament and value-driven socialization goals, (b) future avenues for research, such as person-centered studies of clusters of mothers’ values and how those relate to clusters of parenting behaviors, and (c) implications for interventions addressing parenting behavior of adolescent mothers.
ContributorsBerger, Rebecca H (Author) / Wilkens, Natalie (Thesis advisor) / Spinrad, Tracy (Committee member) / Updegraff, Kimberly (Committee member) / Crnic, Keith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Rapidly growing research on mothers’ perinatal depression, has demonstrated significant links among mothers’ depressive symptoms during pregnancy and the first year postpartum, their parenting, and multiple aspects of children’s development. This prospective longitudinal study contributes to research on mothers’ perinatal depression by examining the mechanisms by which maternal perinatal depression is associated with children’s adjustment early in development in a sample of 204 Mexican-origin adolescent mothers (Mage at Wave 1 = 16.80, SD = 1.0) and their children (58% boys). I expected that adolescent mothers’ negative parenting behaviors would mediate the associations between mothers’ perinatal depressive symptoms and three child outcomes: internalizing symptoms, externalizing behaviors, and cognitive ability. I further hypothesized that mothers’ perceived social support from their family would modify the extent to which mothers’ perinatal depressive symptoms negatively impact their parenting behaviors and their children’s developmental outcomes. Mothers reported on their own depressive symptoms, their perceived social support from their family and their children’s internalizing and externalizing problems; negative parenting was assessed using observational methods; and children’s cognitive ability was assessed using standardized developmental assessments. In this sample, adolescent mothers’ negative parenting behaviors did not significantly mediate the relations between mothers’ perinatal depression and children’s developmental outcomes. Further, perceived social support did not significantly buffer the effects of mothers’ perinatal depression on mothers’ negative parenting or children’s developmental outcomes. However, in line with hypotheses, results indicated that mothers’ prenatal depression had a wider impact on children’s adjustment outcomes than mothers’ postpartum depression, which appeared more specific to children’s internalizing problems. Discussion focuses on implications for intervention addressing adolescent mothers’ perinatal depression, as well as the need to continue to explore protective factors that have the potential to disrupt the negative intergenerational transmission of risks.
ContributorsSeay, Danielle M (Author) / Elam, Kit (Thesis advisor) / Iida, Masumi (Thesis advisor) / Thompson, Marilyn (Committee member) / Wilkens, Natalie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
In recent years, educational policy in the United States has focused extensively on the importance of providing American students with quality training in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields (STEM). It is generally agreed upon that STEM fields will provide a large number of the future economy's jobs, and that America needs more students to be adept in STEM skills in order for the country to remain a global economic leader. Discourse has also centered around the gender disparity in these fields; even though women have surpassed men in overall college degree attainment over the last couple decades, there are far fewer women than men in many STEM majors and occupations. STEM and gender inequality has been studied extensively, and the U.S. Department of Education is continuing its research efforts to understand the factors that lead women to choose STEM field with the aim of enlarging the pool of students enter STEM fields. In 2009, the department began a longitudinal study that followed 9th graders into their college years. This data set (the HLS:09) was used in order to assess gender disparities in STEM with a recent, nationally representative sample. Logistic Regression analysis was used in order to identity social variables that interact with gender to predict whether or not a student would choose a STEM major upon entering college. The results of the analysis are considered through a critical lens and discussion of how the social hierarchy of fields of work through occupational income and cultural prestige (i.e. when presidential administrations promote STEM education due to job growth in STEM industries) reproduces inequality through constraining students' choices in college majors and work fields whether or not gender equality is realized.
ContributorsGorry, Lindsey Elaine (Author) / LePore, Paul (Thesis director) / Wilkens, Natalie (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
I investigated if race/ethnicity was associated with self- and peer-reported victimization and aggression in a sample of 5th through 8th graders (N = 383, 51% males) from two schools in which Hispanic/Latino students were the ethnic-racial majority. Self-reported victimization did not differ between races. In contrast, White students often had higher peer-reported victimization relative to Hispanic and Multi-racial students. Few significant associations were found for aggression. There was some, albeit inconsistent, support for the idea that power imbalance based on race/ethnicity is shifted by numbers. In the future, researchers should conduct studies aimed verifying this notion and that are tailored toward answering questions of mechanism.
ContributorsMitiku, Helen (Author) / Wilkens, Natalie (Thesis director) / Lindstrom Johnson, Sarah (Committee member) / White, Rebecca (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Adolescent substance use carries a considerable public health burden, and early initiation into use is especially problematic. Research has shown that sensation seeking traits increase risk for substance use experimentation, but less is known about individual and contextual factors that can potentially protect against this risk. This study utilized a longitudinal sub sample of youth (N=567) from a larger study of familial alcoholism to examine sensation seeking in early adolescence (ages 10-15) and its relations to later substance use experimentation. Hypotheses tested whether individual executive control, parenting consistency, neighborhood disadvantage, and neighborhood ethnic concentration moderated sensation seeking’s effects on substance use experimentation using multilevel zero-inflated Poisson modeling. Across models, higher levels of sensation seeking were predictive of a higher likelihood of having initiated substance use, but sensation seeking was not significantly related to the number of different substance use classes tried. Only neighborhood disadvantage emerged as a significant moderator of the path from sensation seeking to substance use initiation. The strength of sensation seeking effects on substance use initiation increased as neighborhood disadvantage decreased below average levels, with the most advantaged neighborhoods exhibiting the strongest link between sensation seeking and substance use. There was also a trend towards the most disadvantaged neighborhoods exhibiting increased sensation seeking effects on substance use initiation. These results highlight the importance of focusing on relatively more advantaged areas as potentially risky environments for the externalizing pathway to substance use.
ContributorsJensen, Michaeline R (Author) / Gonzales, Nancy A. (Thesis advisor) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis advisor) / Enders, Craig (Committee member) / White, Rebecca (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
DescriptionMy thesis consists of a research paper on effective therapeutic practices for anorexia-nervosa, which include FBT, CBT-E, and DBT. The creative portion of my thesis includes a self-paced recovery journal and recipe book that are meant to be used in conjunction with a therapeutic practice.
ContributorsGoldberg, Olivia (Author) / Soares, Rebecca (Thesis director) / White, Rebecca (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2023-05