<p>Adolescents are highly sensitive to peer influence and thus at higher risk of acquiring problematic behaviors through peer interactions. However, adolescents vary in the extent to which they are influenced by their peers. Resistance to peer influence (RPI), the tendency to refuse undesired peer norms and peer pressure, is one of the crucial explanations for this variation. Prior to designing effective interventive plans to improve RPI, it is important to elucidate the pathways of how RPI develops in childhood and adolescence. Therefore, the present study leverages an adopted-at-birth design and proposes a moderated mediation model to examine whether: 1) child phenotypic impulsivity mediates the association between birth parent impulsivity and adolescent RPI; 2) child phenotypic self-esteem mediates the association between birth parent self-esteem and adolescent RPI; 3) adoptive parent responsiveness buffers the impulsivity pathway; and 4) adoptive parent responsiveness strengthens the self-esteem pathway. The sample consists of 538 family triads, with adopted child, birth parents, and adoptive parents, drawn from a sample of 561 families recruited from 45 adoption agencies in the United States. Birth parents’ impulsivity and self-esteem were measured to index heritable factors for phenotypic impulsivity and self-esteem. Adoptive parents’ responsiveness was measured via home observations. Impulsivity and self-esteem of adopted adolescent were reported by their adoptive parents, whereas RPI was assessed via self-report. Covariates included adolescent sex, age, and the openness to adoption between birth parents and adoptive parents. Results of structural equation models revealed that none of the proposed mediating or moderating pathways reached statistically significant levels. Overall, girls reported higher RPI than boys. For future studies, researchers may want to consider more accurate proxies of genetic factors for impulsivity and self-esteem, and repeated measures designs.</p>

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<p>  </p> <p>Sleep is a critical component of early development, with over 8,000 hours spent asleep between a child's first and third birthday alone. Beginning in infancy, sleep is linked to several aspects of development, such as language, attention, and social communication. Thus, given its frequency and importance for infants and toddlers, sleep is among the most common topics raised by parents of typically and atypically developing children at well-child visits and beyond. The current dissertation includes three distinct, but integrated studies on sleep in early development. Specifically, study 1 addresses sleep in typically developing toddlers using videosomnography (an objective measure of sleep), study 2 addresses relations between sleep and attention in toddlers at low and high familial risk for ASD, and study 3 addresses prospective patterns of early sleep and development in children who later develop ASD. Overall, results from this dissertation highlight that sleep problems (e.g., night waking) can be expected even within well documented typical development. Findings from this dissertation have implications for sleep measurement in early childhood and suggest that using objective measures of sleep and developmental competence are critical for understanding normative sleep in typical and atypical development. </p>

Changes in social information processing that occur during adolescence are thought to rely on the functional and structural maturation of a network of interconnected brain regions referred to as “the social brain.” The morphology of these brain regions, individually, is thought to be associated with functional specialization and/or ability, but little is known about the relationship between the morphology of the network and its functional specialization. Studies suggest that repeatedly executed psychological processes are not only reflected in functional networks, but may also be related to coordinated morphological changes in the brain across multiple regions that are functionally and structurally connected. The present study sought to explore changes in neuromorphological covariation that occur in the social brain network between adolescence and adulthood (Aim 1), using magnetic resonance imaging and graph theory, and link the properties of this covariance to self-reported and behavioral aspects of social information processing, specifically resistance to peer influence (Aim 2.1), rejection sensitivity (Aim 2.2), and the control of automatic reactions to socially relevant stimuli (Aim 2.3). The specificity of these results to social stimuli was assessed by also analyzing covariance properties in relation to a non-social measure of cognitive functioning (Aim 2.4). Subjects were 217 healthy right-handed individuals between the ages of 13 and 25 – 77 adolescents (ages 13-17), 73 young adults (ages 18-21), and 67 adults (ages 22-25). Analyses involved extracting cortical thickness values for the social brain network for each subject, and conducting group-level graph theoretic analyses. Results suggest that older subjects, subjects who are less sensitive to social stimuli and those who perform better on a behavioral inhibition task, all share one characteristic: the density of covariance in the structural social brain network is low compared to individuals who are younger, more sensitive to social stimuli, and who perform worse on a behavioral inhibition task. Furthermore, this pattern was not observed in a non-social measure of cognitive functioning, suggesting a level of specificity to social information processing in the reported findings. By suggesting that selective structural covariance in the social brain may be characteristic of maturity but also more adaptive in social contexts, the findings from the present study contribute to the idea that adolescence is a time of great opportunity for shaping the brain's structural architecture. / Psychology

<p dir="ltr">Military families are a unique context as they experience separation from the service member who is away from the family for a considerable duration of time for a job that puts them at risk of serious injury or death. Service members returning from deployments may display a variety of mental health difficulties including post-traumatic stress disorder, especially when they have combat experiences. Applying a family systems framework, this thesis examined the associations between both service members’ and significant others’ PTSD symptoms, their ineffective arguing, and their reports of their children’s externalizing behaviors across three time points during reintegration, or the stage in the deployment cycle when the service member returns to the family. The study tested hypotheses that these would decline over time, and that initial levels and the rate of change in ineffective arguing would mediate the effect of parental PTSD at Time 1 on children’s externalizing behaviors at Time 3. Using data from service members and significant others in 71 families (142 individuals), I estimated multilevel models using both mixed and the structural equation frameworks. I found that parental PTSD and ineffective arguing were stable across reintegration, with considerable inter-individual variation in these at baseline. There was a decrease in children’s externalizing behaviors across time. There were also significant differences in parents’ rating of children’s externalizing behaviors. I did not find evidence for mediation but did find an association between parental PTSD and baseline levels of ineffective arguing. Results suggest that while parental stress is linked with the couple’s functioning, there may be protective factors within families that act as sources of resilience for the children.</p><p><br></p>

<p dir="ltr">Abstract: Atypical frontal alpha asymmetry is the difference in EEG-measured alpha-band power between right and left hemispheres, and patterns of lateralization are thought to reflect motivational direction (approach/withdrawal) and affective processing. Increased rightward frontal alpha asymmetry is associated with tendency toward approach-related behavior often displayed in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), though findings have been inconsistent. While differences in results may be partially accounted for by within-diagnosis heterogeneity, growing evidence suggests individual response tendency and emotional salience of a situation may influence one another. Investigating the potential interactions between trait and state measured variables may therefore clarify lateralization patterns in ADHD. The current study measured frontal alpha asymmetry in a well-characterized sample of school-aged children with and without ADHD. EEG during standard resting-state and emotional passive-viewing tasks were recorded from 220 children (nADHD = 97). A semi-structured clinical interview and standardized rating scales were collected to assign DSM-5 diagnoses and temperament group belonging. Parent measures included the behaviorally-rated Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire (TMCQ). Latent profile analysis within the ADHD group revealed two temperament subgroups: emotionally regulated and emotionally dysregulated (high anger and sadness). EEG assessment suggests children broadly produced a more rightward asymmetry while in resting state compared to a task-based condition, though show no notable differences between neutral and negative emotional task conditions. ADHD diagnostic status, temperament group, and sex assigned at birth did not impact patterns of asymmetry. Results emphasize measurement differences in frontal alpha asymmetry between lab-based tasks and further highlight the importance of state influences on alpha lateralization.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The present study explored the association between maternal use of food to soothe and maternal sensitivity, while considering the potential moderating role of child negative affectivity. Before addressing the key questions, the congruence and stability of key constructs at two different time points, 12 and 18 months, using both self-reported and observer-reported data, were examined. A nonclinical sample of 136 mother-child dyads were recruited. Maternal use of food to soothe, child negative affectivity, and maternal sensitivity were observed across lab visits at both time points, 12 and 18 months. Mothers completed questionnaires about maternal use of food to soothe and child negative affectivity at both time points. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the associations and potential interaction effects between maternal sensitivity and child negative affectivity on maternal use of food to soothe.</p><p dir="ltr">Findings showed that maternal sensitivity was negatively associated with mothers’ use of food to soothe at 12 months in the lab, although this association was not observed at 18 months. Child negative affectivity did not moderate the significant association mentioned. The study also found low to moderate stability in mother-reported use of food to soothe, child negative affectivity, and maternal sensitivity across the two time points. Furthermore, the congruence between self-reported and observer-reported data on these practices was generally low, underscoring the challenges in measuring these behaviors.</p><p dir="ltr">The findings suggest that higher maternal sensitivity could potentially lower the frequency of using food as a soothing method at 12 months. Future research should aim to confirm these findings in more diverse populations and through less structured observational settings.</p>

<p dir="ltr">A major challenge to promoting effective early science and engineering education is the lack of reliable and validated assessments that align with current educational guidelines for science and engineering. Existing early science and engineering assessments either cover a narrow range of concepts and practices and/or are not designed in a way to evaluate and provide information within theorized dimensions of science and engineering knowledge and skills. The goals of this study were to develop a preschool science and engineering assessment and to examine the factor structure of children’s science and engineering knowledge and skills using the newly developed assessment. A 120-item assessment was developed and administered to 186 children (50.28% female) ages 3-to-5 years (<i>M </i>= 4.62 years, <i>SD</i> = 0.61 years). The overall best fitting structure of the assessment was found to be a three-dimensional model: disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts. Items that had low correlations with the overall test, loaded poorly onto their respective factors, or were found to provide overlapping information with other items (i.e., exhibited similar difficulties for the same content areas) were removed, resulting in a final and brief (48-item) version of the assessment. This study has important implications in that the newly developed science and engineering assessment can be used in both the research (e.g., evaluate curricula, interventions) and classroom (e.g., assess learning) settings to provide information at the dimension-level, and has the potential to transform how we view and instruct science and engineering during the early childhood years.</p>

The aim of this study was to explore and describe the experience of an only-child adolescent’s lived experience of parental divorce. Gestalt field and phenomenological theory in conjunction with current literature provided an overview of the theoretical underpinnings pertaining to the study. A qualitative research approach with a case study of an only-child adolescent dealing with parental divorce was conducted in an ethical manner by means of two face to face, one-on-one, in depth interviews. Two main themes were identified. The first being experienced feelings associated with grief and bereavement, which revealed feelings of anger in the notion that the participant’s childhood was lost as a result of the divorce and being caught between the parental conflicts. The participant seemed to take it upon herself to take care of those significant to her in fear that she would lose them and that the loss would continue to be repeated. It was further revealed that when the only-child adolescent felt a loss of her own identity she in turn felt out of control. The second theme identified was; experience pressure due to being an only-child. Pressure in being an only-child was very significant surrounding the participant. The participant shared a great deal of feelings pertaining to feeling lonely and longing for a sibling. As parents in divorce situations seem to be focussed on their divorce often the child suffers from stress and the unrealistic expectations parents often have surrounding their children. In this study the only-child could not seem to cope with the pressure and in times of despair made use of coping mechanisms, mainly that of cutting to compensate for the emotional pain experienced. The researcher is of the opinion that the study delivered new found awareness into the only-child adolescent’s lived experience of parental divorce and is in hope that the new found results are utilised as a platform for further studies about this vulnerable population. / MSW (Play Therapy), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015