Matching Items (4)
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
In urban planning and design, creating emotional bonds, known as place identity, between people and their surroundings is paramount to improving the well-being of those who reside there. However, determining how to alter the built environment in order to increase place identity is a difficult task to achieve. Walkability is a good mechanistic link between the built environment and place identity. Walkability is comprised of a suite of factors that take into consideration both the natural and built environment. This thesis aims to determine if walkability is positively correlated with place identity in an extreme climate such as Phoenix. To test this, ecosystem services and disservices are used as factors to measure overall walkability. We found that access to recreational opportunities, aesthetic features of the pathway, and safety were all significant predictors of place identity. This has positive implications for walkable infrastructure to be strengthened in desert cities.
ContributorsSiefert, Janelle (Author) / Larson, Kelli (Thesis director) / Kelley, Jason (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Watts College of Public Service & Community Solut (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
It is well known that neighborhood contexts form an integral part in shaping development across the lifespan. At the same time, it is recognized that there is variability in the manner with which the neighborhood context is associated with pertinent outcomes, such as mental health and psychological well-being. In this regard, empirical research has differentiated between subjective and objective neighborhood indicators. Midlife is a critical life stage due to middle-aged adults being “sandwiched” between generations and being firmly entrenched in the workforce; in this regard, the neighborhood context could play a role in shaping mental health and psychological well-being in midlife. Of importance is determining which factors account for development in midlife, and whether individuals can find protective factors in order to preserve their health and psychological wellbeing into older adulthood. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine whether and how neighborhood context is associated with mental health and psychological well-being in midlife. The first study examined whether the subjective and objective neighborhood context moderates the impact of monthly adversity on mental health and psychological well-being in midlife. The second study aimed to examine whether and which potentially relevant latent factors exist among subjective and objective neighborhood indicators in a sample of middle-aged adults from the Phoenix Metropolitan area.
Taken together, the results of these studies provide evidence that neighborhood context is indeed relevant resource for middle-aged adults. Specifically, in Paper 1, found that individuals who live in neighborhoods with less disorder show fewer steep declines in mental health and well-being in months when an adversity was reported. Paper 2 found that that there are distinct latent constructs that were primarily comprised of factors related to resource and prosperity and financial strain for the objective indicators. For subjective perceptions factors comprised neighborhood insights. These findings contribute to the literature on potential ways in which neighborhood context may serve as a resource and serve as the groundwork for future studies that test mechanisms linking the neighborhood context to mental health and well-being in midlife and inform future intervention studies.
ContributorsStaben, Omar Enrique (Author) / Infurna, Frank J (Thesis advisor) / Sheehan, Connor (Committee member) / White, Rebecca (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Latinx Family Processes in Place: An Examination of Ethnic-Racial Compositions of Ecological Systems
Description
The bioecological perspective emphasizes that proximal processes are the primary mechanisms driving development. Proximal processes can be influenced by a single microsystem or multiple microsystems collectively, which is defined as the mesosystem. Language brokering and ethnic-racial socialization are important proximal processes in U.S. Latinx families, and are likely to be influenced by the ethnic-racial compositions within families’ ecologies. In this dissertation, I examined these important family processes in relation to the ecologies that Latinx adolescents and/or parents are situated within.Paper 1 examined the developmental trajectories of everyday, school, and official business language brokering, and the influences of neighborhood ethnic-racial compositions on language brokering. Findings showed that language brokering trajectories differed across situations. Neighborhood ethnic-racial compositions influenced language brokering trajectories. Overall, this study addressed the gap in foundational understanding of how language brokering unfolds across developmental time and highlighted neighborhood as a key context shaping the development of language brokering.
In paper 2, I used a person-centered approach to capture the ethnic-racial exposures within Latina mothers’ mesosystems using activity space methods, and identified four distinct profiles of mothers navigating distinct activity spaces. Mothers' activity space profiles directly impacted adolescents' ethnic-racial identity. Latina mothers’ activity spaces also influenced adolescent ethnic-racial identity through changes in mothers' cultural socialization. This study offered a holistic view of the varied ethnic-racial exposures encountered by different groups of Latina mothers in their daily activities. This study broadens the existing research by examining Latina mothers' mesosystemic exposures, moving beyond the examination of ethnic-racial socialization and identity within singular microsystems.
Both studies centered on Latinx families in emerging immigrant gateways, allowing for the examination of ethnic-racial compositions within a single microsystem and mesosystems at levels not observable in established immigrant gateways. Collectively, the two papers contribute to a comprehensive understanding of U.S. Latinx family processes within ecological contexts over time.
ContributorsZhao, Chang (Author) / White, Rebecca M. B. (Thesis advisor) / Seaton, Eleanor K. (Committee member) / Updegraff, Kimberly (Committee member) / Mackinnon, David P. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024