Matching Items (12)
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
Latent profile analysis (LPA), a type of finite mixture model, has grown in popularity due to its ability to detect latent classes or unobserved subgroups within a sample. Though numerous methods exist to determine the correct number of classes, past research has repeatedly demonstrated that no one method is consistently the best as each tends to struggle under specific conditions. Recently, the likelihood incremental percentage per parameter (LI3P), a method using a new approach, was proposed and tested which yielded promising initial results. To evaluate this new method more thoroughly, this study simulated 50,000 datasets, manipulating factors such as sample size, class distance, number of items, and number of classes. After evaluating the performance of the LI3P on simulated data, the LI3P is applied to LPA models fit to an empirical dataset to illustrate the method’s application. Results indicate the LI3P performs in line with standard class enumeration techniques, and primarily reflects class separation and the number of classes.
ContributorsHoupt, Russell Paul (Author) / Grimm, Kevin J (Thesis advisor) / McNeish, Daniel (Committee member) / Edwards, Michael C (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Decision trees is a machine learning technique that searches the predictor space for the variable and observed value that leads to the best prediction when the data are split into two nodes based on the variable and splitting value. Conditional Inference Trees (CTREEs) is a non-parametric class of decision trees that uses statistical theory in order to select variables for splitting. Missing data can be problematic in decision trees because of an inability to place an observation with a missing value into a node based on the chosen splitting variable. Moreover, missing data can alter the selection process because of its inability to place observations with missing values. Simple missing data approaches (e.g., deletion, majority rule, and surrogate split) have been implemented in decision tree algorithms; however, more sophisticated missing data techniques have not been thoroughly examined. In addition to these approaches, this dissertation proposed a modified multiple imputation approach to handling missing data in CTREEs. A simulation was conducted to compare this approach with simple missing data approaches as well as single imputation and a multiple imputation with prediction averaging. Results revealed that simple approaches (i.e., majority rule, treat missing as its own category, and listwise deletion) were effective in handling missing data in CTREEs. The modified multiple imputation approach did not perform very well against simple approaches in most conditions, but this approach did seem best suited for small sample sizes and extreme missingness situations.
ContributorsManapat, Danielle Marie (Author) / Grimm, Kevin J (Thesis advisor) / Edwards, Michael C (Thesis advisor) / McNeish, Daniel (Committee member) / Anderson, Samantha F (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
With the growing popularity of medical cannabis, and high rates of cannabis use disorder (CUD) among medical cannabis users, it is more important than ever to accurately identify the proximal antecedents and subjective effects of medical cannabis use. Subjective antecedents and effects have been proposed as key mechanisms underlying the transition from cannabis use to CUD, but little research has examined medical cannabis users’ experiences in real-time, real-world settings. The current study of 86 young-adult medical cannabis users ages 18-30 (32.6% female) used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to characterize the antecedents and effects of medical cannabis use, and to examine whether these antecedents and effects vary as a function of CUD severity. Higher craving, pain, and withdrawal symptoms predicted greater odds of cannabis use at the next report, and lower subjective ‘high’ predicted greater odds of cannabis use at the next report. Use of medical cannabis was associated with increases in positive affect, stimulation, relaxation, and subjective ‘high’, decreases in negative affect, withdrawal symptoms, craving, and pain, and increases in cognitive problems, psychotic-like experiences, and adverse bodily effects. Further, following cannabis use, medical users with more CUD symptoms reported greater relief from craving, attenuated increases in stimulation and relaxation, and enhanced increases in sluggishness, cognitive problems, psychotic-like symptoms, and bodily symptoms. Results suggest that medical cannabis use, like recreational use, is associated with a wide range of subjective antecedents and effects, and that relief from cannabis craving may play an important role in the maintenance of CUD among medical users.
ContributorsJones, Connor (Author) / Meier, Madeline H (Thesis advisor) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin J (Committee member) / Corbin, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Alcohol use remains a major public health concern and economic burden. Extant literature suggests that young adulthood is a particularly high-risk developmental period for heavy drinking. Given this, it is imperative to understand possible risk and protective factors for heavy drinking and related consequences during this risky developmental period. Prior research has shown that both drinking history and alcohol response (AR) are consistent predictors of future drinking outcomes. However, it is unclear how they may work together to confer this risk. The current study aimed to fill this gap in the literature by examining how alcohol use trajectories across adolescence and early adulthood impacted relations between AR after an alcohol challenge and drinking outcomes over a 2-year period in a sample of young adult moderate to heavy drinkers. Results showed that both drinking history and AR were independently predictive of alcohol outcomes at the 6-month follow-up such that a more extensive drinking history, greater high arousal positive effects, and lesser low arousal negative effects predicted greater drinking and alcohol-related problems 6-months later. However, drinking history and AR were largely not predictive of change in drinking outcomes over time. Finally, AR did not mediate the relationship between drinking history and later alcohol-related outcomes. This is the first study to address relations among drinking history, AR, and later drinking outcomes using a longitudinal alcohol challenge design with a full account of early drinking history. Future research would benefit from inclusion of a broad range of drinkers and longer follow-up assessments to better understand the complex pathways of risk from early drinking history and AR to future drinking outcomes. Such efforts may increase the understanding of who is at greatest risk and/or would benefit most from specific intervention programs.
ContributorsHartman, Jessica (Author) / Corbin, William R (Thesis advisor) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Doane, Leah D (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The proliferation of intensive longitudinal datasets has necessitated the development of analytical techniques that are flexible and accessible to researchers collecting dyadic or individual data. Dynamic structural equation models (DSEMs), as implemented in Mplus, provides the flexibility researchers require by combining components from multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling, and time series analyses. This dissertation project presents a simulation study that evaluates the performance of categorical DSEM using a probit link function across different numbers of clusters (N = 50 or 200), timepoints (T = 14, 28, or 56), categories on the outcome (2, 3, or 5), and distribution of responses on the outcome (symmetric/approximate normal, skewed, or uniform) for both univariate and multivariate models (representing individual data and dyadic longitudinal Actor-Partner Interdependence Model data, respectively). The 3- and 5-category model conditions were also evaluated as continuous DSEMs across the same cluster, timepoint, and distribution conditions to evaluate to what extent ignoring the categorical nature of the outcome impacted model performance. Results indicated that previously-suggested minimums for number of clusters and timepoints from studies evaluating continuous DSEM performance with continuous outcomes are not large enough to produce unbiased and adequately powered models in categorical DSEM. The distribution of responses on the outcome did not have a noticeable impact in model performance for categorical DSEM, but did affect model performance when fitting a continuous DSEM to the same datasets. Ignoring the categorical nature of the outcome lead to underestimated effects across parameters and conditions, and showed large Type-I error rates in the N = 200 cluster conditions.
ContributorsSavord, Andrea (Author) / McNeish, Daniel (Thesis advisor) / Grimm, Kevin J (Committee member) / Iida, Masumi (Committee member) / Levy, Roy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the most well researched constructs in developmental science, yet important questions underly how to best model it. That is, are relations with SES always in the same direction or does the direction of association change at different levels of SES? In this dissertation, I conducted a meta-analysis using individual participant data (IPD) to examine two questions: 1) Does a nonmonotonic (quadratic) model of the relations between components of SES (i.e., income, years of education, occupation status/prestige), depressive symptoms, and academic achievement fit better than a monotonic (linear) model? and 2) Is the magnitude of relation moderated by developmental period, gender/sex, or race/ethnicity? I hypothesized that there would be more support for the nonmonotonic model. Moderation analyses were exploratory.
I identified nationally representative IPD from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). I included 59 datasets, which represent 23 studies (e.g., Add Health) and 1,844,577 participants. Higher income (β = -0.11; β = 0.10), years of education (β = -0.09; β = 0.13), and occupational status (β = -0.04; β = 0.04) and prestige (β = -0.03; β = 0.04) were associated with a linear decrease in depressive symptoms and increase in academic achievement, respectively. Higher income (β = 0.05), years of education (β = 0.02), and occupational status/prestige (β = 0.02) were quadratically associated with a decrease in depressive symptoms followed by a slight increase at higher levels of income and a diminishing association towards higher levels of education and occupational status/prestige. Higher income was also quadratically associated with academic achievement (β = -0.03). I found evidence that these associations varied between developmental periods and racial/ethnic samples, but I did not find evidence of variation between females and males.
I integrate these findings with three conclusions: (1) more is not always better and (2) there are unique contexts and resources associated with different levels of SES that (3) operate in a dynamic fashion with other cultural systems (e.g., racism), which affect the integrated actions between the individual and context. I outline several measurement implications and limitations for future research directions.
ContributorsKorous, Kevin M. (Author) / Causadias, José M (Thesis advisor) / Bradley, Robert H (Thesis advisor) / Luthar, Suniya S (Committee member) / Levy, Roy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
It has been theorized that cultural variation within the family shapes children’s self-regulatory competence, yet there is a dearth of research examining the relation between culture and self-regulation. Family orientation refers to the emphasis on providing support, respect, and obligation to the family system, and is important for children’s functioning, yet existing literature on related constructs relies on parent-reported measures. Additionally, quantitative genetic research has neglected the role of culture in the genetic and environmental contributions on children’s self-regulation. There were three main aims of this study: 1) to propose novel coding schemes and factor analytic approaches to capture family orientation, 2) to examine the relation between family orientation and self-regulation in middle childhood, and 3) to examine whether family orientation moderates the genetic and environmental influences on self-regulation in middle childhood. The sample was drawn from the Arizona Twin Project (N=710) where children (49.1% female, 55.6% White, 28.3% Hispanic/Latino) were assessed at approximately eight years of age (Mage = 8.38 years, SD = 0.66). Family orientation values were indexed by parent-reported familism, whereas family orientation behaviors comprised coded measures of children’s family orientation and experimenter ratings of caregiver and child behavior. Outcome measures of self-regulation included the Continuous Performance Task, Flanker Task, Digit Span Backward, and parent- and teacher-reported effortful control (Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire). Higher family orientation behaviors predicted positively predicted children’s self-regulation, with the exception of Digit Span Backward performance, and associations were not moderated by child sex, family SES, or race/ethnicity. Twin models revealed that differences in family orientation behaviors could be attributed to genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental influences, and additive genetic and nonshared environmental influences explained the variation across measures of self-regulation. Finally, there was no evidence that family orientation values nor behaviors moderated the genetic or environmental influences on children’s self-regulation. This study highlights the complex nature of cultural variation within the family and its importance for children’s self-regulatory abilities.
ContributorsRea-Sandin, Gianna (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis advisor) / Doane, Leah D (Committee member) / Causadias, Jose (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis is a primary neuroendocrine system posited to mediate the associations between early life stress and long-term deleterious psychological and physical health outcomes. The effects of early life adversity on HPA axis functioning have been well-documented in primarily White samples, with statistical advances allowing researchers to isolate latent trait cortisol as a stable indicator of HPA axis functioning to account for day-to-day influences on diurnal cortisol patterns. However, directional associations have been mixed depending on developmental stage, demographic composition, and methodological differences across studies. The few studies of early adversity and HPA axis functioning in Hispanic/Latino/a/x samples demonstrate complex interactions between cultural processes and adversity in predicting HPA axis output. Further, nascent literature has isolated the cognitive, meaning-making, and prosocial skills involved in ethnic racial identity (ERI) and its subconstructs of exploration, resolution, and affirmation as promotive during the adolescent stage of development in Latinx youth. Such skills might better prepare youth for neurobiological stress regulation after adversity. To my knowledge, no study has examined whether ERI plays a protective role against the effects of early adversity on trait-level indicators of the HPA axis during adolescence, despite the particularly high rates of cumulative exposure to early life adversity in Latinx youth as compared to White counterparts. Guided by adaptive cultural resilience theories, this study of 197 socioeconomically diverse Latinx older-adolescents aimed to leverage recent findings of stable trait indicators of cortisol output to 1) identify consistent directional markers of the effects of early life adversity on latent trait cortisol in a Latinx sample and 2) elucidate the degree to which ERI might act as a promotive feature for HPA axis levels and protective factor against cumulative early life adversity. Confirmatory factor analyses identified a theory-driven model as an adequate measure of latent trait cortisol. Greater exposure to early adversity predicted lower latent trait cortisol, but ERI demonstrated neither protective nor promotive effects. The present study reifies that early adversity exposure has deleterious effects on trait-level HPA axis functioning, but identifying sources of cultural resilience among Latinx youth remains critical for the future of health equity.
ContributorsGusman, Michaela S. (Author) / Doane, Leah D (Thesis advisor) / Causadias, José M (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin J (Committee member) / Wolchik, Sharlene A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
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