Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-106). Also available on the Internet.

There is a large body of literature that examines the association between parental psychopathology and child ADHD. The strength of the relationship varies across studies due to differences between the sample characteristics and methodologies utilized. A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the strength of the association between parental psychopathology and ADHD to review the research findings and to establish the degree and size of the effect. The present study included published and unpublished research that considered a quantitative comparison between parental psychopathology status or symptomatology and child ADHD status or symptomatology. Parents of children with ADHD had higher rates of psychopathology symptoms than parents of children without ADHD (d = 0.39; 95% CI [0.31, 0.48], p < .001, k = 32). Approximately 16.96% of parents of children with ADHD had a mental disorder (95% CI [14.37, 19.91], p < .001, k = 49). Parents of children with ADHD had 2.85 times the odds of parents of children without ADHD of having a mental disorder (95% CI [1.77, 4.59], p < .001, k = 18). Type of publication was the only moderator analysis that was statistically significant (Q = 5.70, p = .017, k = 21). Unpublished reports were associated with larger effect sizes in comparison to published journal articles; however, two of the unpublished reports were identified as outliers. Clinicians and researchers will benefit from the results of this research by developing a better understanding of impact parental psychopathology may have on treatment outcomes. / October 2015

Nations are becoming increasingly sensitive about securing their borders, leading border security organizations to investigate systems designed to detect deception through linguistic analysis. As research about linguistic deception still has resulted in competing hypotheses, this dissertation uses a design science, information systems approach to build a system that synthesizes research on the linguistics of deception. It also performs a systematic review and meta-analysis to provide information about linguistics of deception to border security organizations. This dissertation outlines features that should be included in collaborative meta-analysis tools: process restriction, task organization, information sharing, task coordination, terminology definition, and simple interfaces. These features are discussed and implemented in a new system www.OrionShoulders.com. Through a systematic review and a behavioral experiment on linguistic of deception using the new system, this dissertation identified seven behavioral and cognitive constructs that could be measured through linguistics during deception: cognitive load, event recollection, guilt, credibility portrayal, distancing, dominant behavior, and hedging. This dissertation contributes a theoretical model that explains these seven constructs and how they are measured. The results of the systematic review and the behavioral experiment showed that hedging terms, first-person pronouns, negative emotion, generalizing terms, and the quantity of words were significantly correlated with deception.

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<p>Guided by an integrative conceptual framework, a meta-analysis was conducted to explore the relation between the capacity aspect of self-regulation and academic achievement across childhood and adolescence. This meta-analysis of over 150 studies draws upon diverse research traditions and approaches to test moderators of theoretical, methodological, and practical importance. In the theoretical moderator analyses, results were broken down by the specific self-regulation construct (e.g., emotion regulation, executive functions), students' grade level, and academic subject. Doing so permitted an exploration of developmental and domain differences in the relation between each self-regulation construct and achievement. In the methodological moderator analyses, results were broken down by the type of self-regulation measure (e.g., teacher-report, direct assessment) and the type of achievement measure (e.g., standardized test, course grade). Doing so permitted a formal test of how these measures relate to each other, which has garnered considerable debate among self-regulation researchers. </p><p> Findings from the five moderator analyses largely supported hypotheses. The average correlation with achievement was strongest for effortful control and composite measures of executive functions, with updating significantly exceeding both shifting and inhibiting. A strong correlation also emerged for self-control, though it differed significantly based on whether the construct was categorized by author labels or definitions. Composite measures of self-regulation revealed a stronger correlation with achievement than any of its domains, as expected. Across all self-regulatory capacities, correlations became significantly stronger after the transition to kindergarten but assumed different trajectories based on the specific construct during the rest of elementary and secondary school. Domain differences also emerged, favoring math and science for executive functions but not producing significant differences with language arts for effortful control. As expected, self-regulatory capacities with an indirect effect on achievement (e.g., effortful control, emotion regulation) had the strongest correlation with course grades while self-regulatory capacities with a direct effect on achievement (e.g., executive functions) had the strongest correlation with standardized tests. Finally, direct assessments and teacher reports produced significantly stronger correlations with academic performance than when students reported their own self-regulation. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of these findings are discussed alongside results. </p><p> A new meta-analytic method was also developed to identify and resolve inconsistencies in the way psychological constructs are labeled, defined, and measured. This new method provided needed conceptual clarity in the diverse and interdisciplinary literature on self-regulation. Implications for other literatures characterized by variation in the way constructs are labeled, defined, and measured are discussed.</p> / Dissertation

The movement towards the provision of evidence-based services has become increasingly important to psychological practice (CPA Task Force on Evidence-Based Practice of Psychological Treatments, 2012; Levant, 2005). One of the key components of this movement is the summarizing and dissemination of important findings to key stakeholders for interventions using techniques such as meta-analysis. Meta-analyses are typically based on reviews of the published literature on a particular topic, but increasingly researchers are acknowledging the importance of examining and including unpublished, grey literature in their reviews in presenting an accurate picture of a body of literature (Hopewell, McDonald, Clarke, & Egger, 2008; McAuley, Pham, Tugwell, & Moher, 2000). However, the inclusion of grey literature in meta-analyses and reviews remains controversial (Coad, Hardicre, & Devitt, 2006; Martin, Perez, Sacristan, & Alvarez, 2005; Seymour, 2010). A number of reviews of behavioural parenting interventions have been conducted. The body of literature in this area continues to grow quickly, and recent meta-analyses in this area have examined only subsets of the literature, thus necessitating an overall examination of all available literature in this area: published and unpublished. The present meta-analysis synthesized the results of 42 published and 6 unpublished behavioural parenting intervention studies conducted between 1966 and 2011. In the first manuscript, treatment efficacy was examined with respect to three different outcomes (parent behaviour, child behaviour, and parent adjustment). I also examined the differential effects of six moderator variables in two categories: child characteristics (child formal diagnostic status and child age) and methodological characteristics (overall quality, comparison group, experimenter allegiance, and publication status). In the second manuscript, I examined both the advantages and challenges of including grey literature in meta-analyses, and explored the use of an innovative search program. I also explored the influence of the inclusion of grey literature on outcomes, including whether effect sizes, sample homogeneity, and publication bias indices are affected by the inclusion of grey literature. Results of the present study confirm the efficacy of behavioural parenting interventions on parent behaviour, child behaviour, and parent adjustment outcomes. Further, I extend the knowledge base through the inclusion of recent reports, grey literature, searches of basic search engines such as Google and Yahoo, and the examination of previously unexplored moderator variables. My results underline the importance of consistent reporting practices in the field and their impact on the availability of evidence for policy-makers, administrators, researchers, clinicians and consumers. I also discuss the implications of these findings for the provision of evidence-based services for parents, knowledge translation, and grey literature.

With the threat of avian influenza, influenza laboratory testing and surveillance capacity has increased globally. Data from global surveillance activities have been used to identify circulating influenza strains for vaccine policy decisions, and have provided evidence of influenza disease among various populations. A recent meta-analysis, which includes findings from these surveillance efforts, has shown that influenza contributes to 10% of pediatric respiratory hospitalizations. Although statistical models indicate a high burden of influenza-associated morbidity among older adults and pandemic studies reveal an increase in hospitalizations among young adults, the global burden of seasonal influenza among adults remains unknown. In order to estimate the global burden of seasonal influenza among adult respiratory hospitalizations, we conducted a systematic review of the published literature, and identified 48 eligible articles published between January 1996 and June 2012 that met our inclusion criteria. We combined these published datasets with 29 eligible, unique datasets from year-round, influenza hospital-based surveillance. These combined data covered 50 countries with varying income and vaccine policies. Extracting numbers tested and positive for influenza, we calculated crude median positive proportions and evaluated potential differences in crude proportions among variables using Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric tests. We observed differences by data source and country development status when we included the 2009 pandemic year. With the exclusion of the 2009 pandemic year, we then generated adjusted pooled estimates using the log binomial model. We found 11% of cases from adult respiratory hospitalizations worldwide were laboratory-confirmed for influenza. This pooled estimate was independent of age but increased as country development or income level decreased. Our findings suggest that influenza is an important contributor to severe acute respiratory illness among both young and older adult populations. For countries without reliable influenza data, we provide an estimate that they may use in planning and allocating resources for the control and prevention of influenza.

In a meta-analysis of articles employing clustering methods, we find that little attention is paid to remaining within-cluster heterogeneity and that average values are relatively high. We suggest addressing this potentially problematic "dark side" of cluster analysis by providing two coefficients as standard information in any cluster analysis findings: a goodness-of-fit measure and a measure which relates explained variation of analysed empirical data to explained variation of simulated random data. The second coefficient is referred to as the Index of Clustering Appropriateness (ICA). Finally, we develop a classification scheme depicting acceptable levels of remaining within-cluster heterogeneity. (authors' abstract)

Background: The relationship between average alcohol consumption and heart disease is well researched, showing a substantial cardioprotective association. This dissertation examined the epidemiological evidence for an effect of heavy episodic drinking (HED) over and above the effect of average alcohol consumption on heart disease. Methods: Electronic databases were systematically searched for epidemiological studies on the effect of HED on heart disease and identified articles were quantitatively summarized in a meta-analysis. Meta-regression models were used to examine the effect of characteristics of primary studies. Using individual-level data, semi-parametric Cox regression models were used to investigate HED exposure within narrow categories of average alcohol consumption in a US national population sample (n = 9,937) in relation to heart disease mortality in an 11-22 year follow-up. Frequency of heavy drinking episodes was used to identify latent classes of drinking history using growth mixture modeling in a sub-sample of this US cohort. Retrieved classes were used as independent variables in Cox regression models with heart disease mortality as the outcome event. Results: A pooled relative risk of 1.45 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.24-1.70) for HED compared with non-HED drinkers with average alcohol consumption between 0.1-60 g/day was derived in a meta-analysis. A strong and consistent association with HED was found among current drinkers consuming an average of 1-2 drinks per day in the US cohort. There was no evidence of increased heart disease mortality resulting from the frequency of heavy drinking episodes before the age of forty. Conclusions: There is reasonable and consistent evidence for an association of HED and heart disease in current drinkers, negating any beneficial effect from alcohol consumption on heart health. History of frequency of heavy drinking episodes, however, showed no evidence for such an effect modification.

Antiplatelet therapy with clopidogrel is widely used in patients with coronary artery disease, but the recent development of the new P2Y12 receptor antagonists prasugrel and ticagrelor will increase treatment options. An overview of systematic reviews was performed to summarize available evidence on clopidogrel. Current data on prasugrel and ticagrelor were identified by a systematic review and used for an indirect treatment comparison (ITC) of the drugs against each other and versus placebo in the absence of head-to-head clinical trials. Adjusted indirect comparison according to Bucher, Bayesian methods for mixed treatment comparisons using Winbugs, and generalized linear mixed models using SAS were employed for ITC, yielding almost identical results: prasugrel was favored regarding stent thrombosis and ticagrelor regarding major bleeding. However, substantial differences in trial design were identified, demanding caution when interpreting these results. On the basis of the obtained results, a randomized controlled trial was designed within the gap of current evidence.