A child's early academic learning experiences take place at home as well as at school. These two ‘overlapping spheres' have unique roles to play for the child, and affect them in different ways. In this thesis, I focus on the child's home life, and mother-child interactions nested within the home, and investigate how individual and dyadic characteristics of child and of mother may have a bearing on the quality of children's academic and non-academic learning experiences at home, and on their experience of school. The first three papers used data from eighty-five families of Year 1 children in South-East England. This data was collected using questionnaire and interview measures and videotaped observations of mother-child interactions during home visits. Paper 1 explores personal and social factors in Year 1 children relating to their self-reported school adjustment. Results from interviews showed that family and home life were important for academic self-concept, but not for school engagement, further reinforcing existing research showing that each distinct environment within the child's microsystem affects their experience of the other. Paper 2 focused on homework: an area of children's formal education outside school. Most homework interaction research uses researcher-set activities; my study tested the validity of this by comparing genuine homework and a researcher-set task. In observations of 85 families of year 1 children, mother's and child's affect during genuine homework did not correlate with their affect during the non-homework tutored task, and were related to different personal and social factors. Taking this further, Paper 3 investigated whether maternal beliefs about education predicted how she scaffolded her child during Year 2 homework. This paper used data from eighty of the families, visited a year after the original visit. Results showed that instruction quality during homework was predicted by mothers' earlier learning attribution beliefs, but not by their attitudes or expectations. Homework is believed to help children refine their self-regulation skills. Paper 4 examined maternal scaffolding interactions through the conceptual lens of ‘transfer of regulation'. Using a different dataset of home visits with seventy-eight families of children aged 8-11, the fine-grained coding method sheds light on aspects of tutored interactions typically missed by traditional scaffolding coding schemes, identifying various aspects of self-regulation and other-regulation, and mapping increases and decreases over the course of the task, thus providing rich information about the interaction quality within each mother-child dyad. In conclusion, both social (transfer of regulation: Paper 4; parenting styles, mother-child relationship: Paper 1) and individual (maternal beliefs and personality: Papers 2 and 3) factors within the home context play a role in the child's learning and school experience – as assessed by academic self-concept, self-regulation, and the positivity and cognitive support received during homework. This thesis further reveals the interlaced nature of home and school, highlighting the value of unpacking the role of the home environment on children's education.

Beck and Rector (2005) proposed a model of functional outcome in schizophrenia, suggesting the path between neurocognition and functioning is mediated by functional capacity and cognitive processes. These cognitive processes include defeatist performance beliefs, self-stigma and, most recently, metacognition, considered 'thinking about thinking'. Metacognition has been proposed to work in a hierarchy between the object- and meta-level, outlined within Nelson and Narens (1990) model, including several metacognitive components: metacognitive ability, experience and efficiency, connected by metacognitive processes. Firstly, this thesis investigated how different metacognitive components may interact dynamically and predict both what people do in their everyday lives (functional outcome) and how people feel about their everyday lives (subjective recovery outcome) in First Episode Psychosis (N=62), compared to healthy controls (N=73). Following this, this thesis examined the role of metacognition in predicting functional outcome across a three-year period, in FEP (N=26). Finally, it was suggested that metacognition may be expanded to include the way one thinks about oneself through important memories, e.g. self-defining memories (SDMs). The role of SDMs as an additional mediator between neurocognition and functioning in psychosis (N=71) was investigated. Next, using only one of the metacognitive components: metacognitive efficiency, this thesis explored whether this component could be used to explain the presence of anomalous experiences. Anomalous experiences refer to a rich number of various psychic phenomena, including anomalous self-experiences and anomalous perceptual experiences, leading to anomalous delusional beliefs. Initially, this thesis developed and piloted two metacognitive tasks in healthy student sample (N=125). Next, these tasks were used to examine the relationship between anomalous experiences and metacognitive efficiency within the first two samples (N=135): FEP group (N=62) and healthy control (N=73). Current findings demonstrated a role for metacognitive ability in predicting both functional outcome and subjective outcome in FEP, cross-sectionally, and in predicting functional outcome across three years. Alongside this, holding specific self-defining memories was shown to predict functional outcome, independent of neurocognition and metacognition, in FEP. However, no significant association was demonstrated between anomalous experiences and metacognitive efficiency, instead anomalous self-experiences were associated with auditory perceptual biases. This thesis highlights the importance of enhancing metacognitive ability, alongside neurocognitive ability and SDMs, in order to improve functioning.

Research has found that threat related attentional biases towards novel animals can be induced in children by giving threat information about the animals. Naturally occurring (i.e. non-induced) threat related attentional biases have also been found in both children and adults in the past research. The naturally occurring threat stimuli mainly include phobia stimuli and the threat stimuli that are assumed to have evolutionary roots (e.g., threatening facial expressions, and poisonous animals). In the present research, induced and naturally occurring threat related attentional biases were investigated and contrasted in children and adults. The participants' manual RTs and eye movements were measured in five experiments using the visual search paradigm to examine the attentional biases. The participating children, regardless of their trait anxiety scores, showed attentional bias toward angry faces as indexed by RT and eye movement measures. In the second and third experiments, children acquired fear of novel animals by listening to threat information about them. They later showed attentional bias to the newly feared stimuli: the presence of the animal's images interfered with detecting an irrelevant target, and the animal's images were detected faster than the control stimuli when presented as hidden targets in naturalistic scenes. In the fourth and fifth experiments, no enhancement of attentional bias towards fear-relevant stimuli due to receiving threat information was evident, as no difference was found between the threat information and the no information snake stimuli in terms of attention deployment measures. Strong evidence of naturally occurring attentional bias toward snake stimuli, however, was found in both RTs and overt attention indices. Overall, the RT data provided more robust evidence than the eye movement data in support of the predicted threat related attentional biases. It was argued that attentional biases to fear stimuli might have different levels which develop over time, with fast threat processing (indexed by faster RTs) appearing soon after the fear is acquired.

Peer interactions are recognised as playing a key role in the development of children, but we lack detailed analysis of individual differences in the early peer play of preschoolers. Five data sets are used to explore aspects of children's developing social competence between the ages of 2 and 5 years. Four of the five research investigations were carried out in day nurseries, and the remaining study was conducted in a reception class (children aged 5 years), all in a London Local Authority. The first paper explores core elements of peer play which can be identified through direct observation. It serves the dual purpose of highlighting children's real life experience of making social connections through peer interactions and exploring the key dimensions of verbal and nonverbal behaviour that support such connections. Papers 2 and 3 are mainly focused on exploring the different perspectives of parents and practitioners in their views of children's current social adjustment, with additional reports on child temperament from parents and reports on peer play from practitioners. Finally, Papers 4 and 5 explore in greater depth a range of potential predictors of young children's social competence, including temperament and socioemotional understanding. Being able to recognise individual differences in patterns of play specifically in terms of levels of interaction and disconnection led to the use of the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale throughout the remaining studies. The notable differences in levels of successful interactivity underlined the need to measure children's effectiveness in using a range of abilities to establish and maintain engagement with play partners. The further studies involved a total of 516 practitioner reports and 179 parent reports on children's behaviour, social competencies and temperament, as well as 123 direct assessments of children's socio-emotional understanding. Matched parent and practitioner questionnaires were used to examine similarities and differences in adult perceptions and interpretations of children's peer play. Levels of convergence between parent and practitioner views of children's socio-behavioural functioning were found to change as children get older, from an early convergence on prosocial behaviours to a later convergence on problem behaviours. The results also highlighted the particular roles of temperament and socioemotional understanding in peer play. Effortful control was found to be a significant predictor of positive, interactive play. Furthermore, socio-emotional understanding – as assessed through the use of simple structured tasks and hypothetical scenarios – was found to predict patterns of interactive play, thereby evidencing the sociocognitive factors involved in effective peer interactions. Gender differences were also evident, suggesting that girls and boys may rely on different attributes and skills to forge social connections. The key findings are discussed with attention to their implications for effective practice in early years provision, developing our understanding of early social competence from different perspectives. Directions for further research are presented.

Sleep in children is important for the functioning of a range of cognitive processes, including memory, attention, arousal, executive functioning, and the processing of emotional experiences. This, in addition to the high comorbidity between sleep problems and anxiety, may suggest that sleep plays a role in the cognitive and behavioural processes associated with childhood anxiety. Although a body of research exists which considers the associations between sleep problems and anxiety, there is currently little research evidence available for the effect of children's sleepiness on anxiety, or for the effect of childhood sleep problems or sleepiness on anxiety related processes. To address this, this thesis begins with a meta-analysis exploring the efficacy of transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for the treatment of childhood anxiety (Paper 1). CBT is generally the treatment of choice for childhood anxiety, and targets the processes that the subsequent papers in this thesis consider in relation to children's sleepiness and sleep problems. Papers two to five consider the effect of sleepiness on a range of cognitive and behavioural processes, including vicariously learning and unlearning fear (Paper 2), ambiguity resolution (Paper 3), emotion recognition (Paper 4), and habituation and avoidance (Paper 5). The final paper considers sleep problems in relation to a CBT intervention for childhood anxiety (Paper 6). Overall, while sleep problems and usual sleepiness were found to be associated with childhood anxiety, current sleepiness was not. On the other hand, sleepiness (usual and current), and reduced sleep, affected children's behavioural processes when exposed to anxiety provoking stimuli, but were not found to affect children's anxietyrelated cognitive processes. Sleep problems interacted with vicarious learning processes, but not with ambiguity resolution or emotion recognition processes, or with change in anxiety symptoms following a CBT intervention for childhood anxiety. Implications for treatment and future research directions are discussed.

There has been a rise in anxiety amongst typically developing children in recent years. Existing research has suggested a link between the increase of television viewing, and the increase in childhood anxiety. This thesis confirms the plausibility of this hypothesis; a meta-analysis found a small but consistent effect of viewing “scary” television on children's internalizing responses. Existing cognitive models of emotional processing in anxious individuals identify attention, interpretation, and memory preferences towards emotionally negative materials as potential mediators. Whilst attention and interpretation preferences have been well evidenced, the link between anxiety and negativity preferences in memory is more tenuous, particularly in typically developing children. A positive-negative asymmetry in memory is well established in adults; however, the extent to which children process and remember positive, negative and neutral stimuli differentially is relatively unexplored. The Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm has been utilised to allow analysis of memory accuracy and response bias. There were several key findings within this thesis. In line with previous research, a preference away from negatively valenced material was found when simple word list stimuli was used. When narratives were used as a richer source of material, memory performance was greater for negatively, than positively valenced stimuli. However, when two sources differing on richness of information (visual vs narrative stimuli), and valence (positive vs negative) were presented simultaneously, the modality effect became dominant; the richer source of material was discriminated with higher accuracy, regardless of valence. When this effect was followed up, no evidence of a mood interaction within emotional memory was found. Semantic elaboration was explored as a potential mechanism behind valence effects in memory. However, no positive findings were identified. Age, gender and trait anxiety did not reliably moderate valence effects on memory. This thesis adds to the small body of knowledge focusing on children's emotional memory, particularly by including response bias analyses. It highlights the complex nature of emotional processing in children and some of the factors contributing to accuracy. Further research should explore in greater depth how valence effects differ for various types of stimuli, and under which circumstances these effects can be overridden. Mechanisms behind these valence effects are also yet to be unpicked.

For many children, storybooks are ubiquitous, forming a unique and special part of their childhood. Storybooks are a critical aspect of young children's emerging literacy. Exposing them to phoneme word sounds, a rich varied vocabulary and print knowledge. This thesis explores one aspect of the amazing relationship children have with storybooks. Specifically, how do children learn new words from books, and it further discusses the best ways to use storybooks to facilitate this learning. Through the use of purpose-made storybooks, which help to control for all the different book elements (e.g. ensuring the story plot and the words that children were learning were novel). This thesis presents an empirical examination of the cognitive processes that help children learn new words through shared storybook reading. A series of experiments investigate the relationship between repetition of words, sleep consolidation and book formats - and their effects on vocabulary acquisition in 3.5-year-old children. These experiments have allowed us to isolate factors that increase the likelihood of children learning more words, and knowledge that can be used to support children's vocabulary development. Importantly, we have discovered that children benefit from the same contextually cueing effects as adults supporting Horst, Parsons, and Bryan (2011) theory for repeated effects during repeated book readings. In addition, children demonstrate similar memory consolidation effects as adults when learning immediately proceeds sleep (Stickgold & Walker, 2005a). By examining the effects of rhyme books, we can further contribute to Hayes, Chemelski, and Palmer (1982) levels of processing theory for memory function in children. Overall, this thesis examines how understanding the cognitive processes supported by regular storybook reading can provide benefits for all preschool children, and outlines accessible and feasible techniques to help children's emergent literacy.

Through in-depth interviews with 21 participants, this thesis investigates how graduate students at East Tennessee State University feel about their finances. Although all adults, by necessity, have everyday money concerns, this study explores the unique experiences that post-baccalaureate students have with debt, how they talk about it, and what meanings they attach to student loans in their daily lives. This study is novel in that little research to date has examined how graduate students' perceptions of adulthood are connected to their financial situations and their stage in life. For example, saving money is important to this population mainly because it signifies the achievement of adulthood. Debt, on the other hand, signifies dependence and questionable adult status. Although graduate students' future incomes will vary, they share similar strategies for managing the stigma of debt.

The purpose of this study was to examine the beliefs and behaviors of Emerging Adults relating to sexual consent, and how these ideas relate to an individual’s well-being. Specifically, this study used a survey that combined multiple questionnaires that were developed by the research team as well as an existing measure of consent: Sexual Consent Scale- Revised (Humphreys, T., & Brousseau, M. 2010). These questionnaires were used to answer the two questions that are the focus of this presentation and are of importance to schools, parents and family life educators: “How does an individual’s sexual behavior, beliefs or attitudes relate to individual wellbeing?” and “How does an individual’s sexual behavior relate to sexual consent?" This study was a preliminary look into sexual consent in emerging adulthood with a focus on wellbeing. The study included a total of 74 females (77.1%) and 21 males (21.9%); One (1%) participant identified as Other. The range of ages was 18-28, with a mean age of 20.14 years (SD 2.091). A total of 37 different majors were included (Undergraduate and Graduate). Most students indicated they were single (n=51, 56.6%) and 39 individuals indicated they were in a relationship (n=39, 43.3%). The two most important findings for this presentation are: There is an “Idealized” idea of sexual consent, disconnected from behavior, highlighted by the cognitive dissonance shown in responses to two items— 93% of individuals strongly agreed to the item: “I feel that sexual consent should always be obtained before the start of any sexual activity,” yet only 11% strongly agreed to the statement “I always verbally ask for consent before I initiate a sexual encounter” and the second important finding relates to the hypothesis— “As lack of perceived behavioral control increases, scores of assuming consent will also increase”. The data showed there is a significant, strong, positive relationship between behavioral control and assuming consent (r=.570, p=.000), indicating an important connection. This research is especially important in the current political/cultural climate—promoting sexual knowledge is becoming increasingly imperative for the overall wellbeing of individuals. The baseball model of getting to “bases” and “scoring” dominates US culture and may lead to ideas of competition versus ideas of mutual pleasure and enthusiastic consent. Educating families as well as youth is an important step to changing culture. Social Learning Theory provides a unique perspective in that both behavioral skills/practice and cognition need to be addressed in sex education in order to reinforce positive sexual consent behaviors. There is evidence that the time period from adolescence into emerging adulthood shows an increase in sexual risk taking, and the theory of Emerging Adulthood marks this time period as one of transitions and exploration (Arnett 2000, 2007). Educating youth before this time period may be key to promoting healthy behaviors. This study is an initial investigation into a complex topic that can be used to facilitate a discussion on sexual consent as well as the current implications for families and parents that need to educate their children about these topics.

abstract: Sexual satisfaction has been positively linked to both individual and relational wellbeing (Christopher & Sprecher, 2000; Davison, Bell, LaChina, Holden, & Davis, 2009). Further, sexual communication has demonstrated positive impacts on sexual satisfaction (Byers, 2005); yet, research by MacNeil and Byers (2009) found that most people in romantic relationships do not share their sexual preferences with their partner. According to Tolman (2002), women seem to be especially reluctant to communicate sexually, due to the particular societal restrictions placed on expressions of female sexuality and desire. This study aims to understand how emerging adult women communicate with their sexual partners in order to increase pleasure, what barriers exist to sexual communication for these women, and how gendered social norms are expressed in the process. Based on interviews with 19 women between the ages of 20-29, the findings of this study suggest that emerging women often place more weight on social expectations of appropriate female sexual expression than relational context when choosing whether or not and/or how to sexually self-disclose. Further, the women in this study were at varying stages of renegotiating their internalization of the prioritization of male sexual pleasure over female pleasure. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Communication Studies 2019