Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and substance use have been associated with increased suicide ideation, but have rarely been examined within a larger theoretical context of suicide risk. The interpersonal theory of suicide posits that feeling disconnected from others (i.e., thwarted belongingness) and feeling like a burden on others (i.e., perceived burdensomeness) are associated with increased suicide ideation. We hypothesized that perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness would mediate the relation between PTSD symptoms and suicide ideation, and that using substances to cope would moderate these relations. Participants were 254 college students reporting exposure to potentially traumatic experiences. Findings from a moderated mediation analysis indicated that perceived burdensomeness, but not thwarted belongingness, mediated the relation between PTSD symptoms and suicide ideation, and using substances to cope moderated this relation. Therapeutic interventions aimed at reducing suicide ideation might benefit from decreasing perceived burdensomeness and the use of substances to cope.

While scholars have used Schlossberg's transition theory for more than 35 years to study college-to-work transition, researchers have yet to establish if there are meaningful differences in the perceptions of traditional and nontraditional college students regarding transition preparedness from college-to-work. Following the career transition model, this quantitative study was conducted to compare traditional and nontraditional college students' perceptions of transition preparedness, specifically the concepts of readiness, confidence, control, perceived support, and decision independence. The nontraditional students in this study were military veterans. The dependent variables were measured by the Career Transition Inventory (CTI) survey. Participants were selected via a web-based method until 100 traditional and 100 nontraditional students were surveyed. The data were examined with multivariate analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of covariance. There were significant differences found in perceived transition preparedness. The CTI measure decision independence was significantly lower among nontraditional veteran students. Whereas, the CTI measure confidence was significantly higher among nontraditional nonveteran students. Based on the results of this study, three recommendations were made. If these recommendations are followed, this study can make a positive social change and might increase the probability of improving the career and academic transition services from college-to-work for non-traditional undergraduate veteran students.

While antipredator strategies have been a focus of behavioral research for decades, scientists generally study the responses of prey toward overt, explicit threat. However, risk can also be significant when a threat is covert, such as when an ambush predator may be nearby or a secondary threat remains after a predator's departure. Little is known about the mechanism that prey use to assess risk in a predator's absence. Tests were conducted to determine the manner in which coyotes respond to these ambiguous threats. Specifically, I tested whether coyotes respond to prior anthropogenic activity that has occurred near their only food source, whether they investigate human activity at both profitable (feeding) and unprofitable (non-feeding) locations, and what sort of information coyotes are capable of gaining through their investigation. I explored these questions in three experiments spanning 4 years at the USDA/APHIS/WS National Wildlife Research Center's Logan field station. Test subjects were eight pairs of captive coyotes. Results showed that coyotes delayed or avoided feeding in response to prior anthropogenic activity, and that often a delay was due to investigation of human scent trails. Investigation of non-feeding areas occurred but was relatively brief. When coyotes were prevented from investigating locations of prior anthropogenic activity, foraging ceased altogether. In addition, coyotes were able to differentiate among the activity of different humans based on their association with negative, neutral, or positive threat levels, even in the presence of confounding visual and olfactory cues. They remembered these associations even after one month. This study is the first that provides evidence suggesting that canids gather and interpret complex information for cognitive inference about threat level associated with access to food.

Alcohol is one of the most common drugs of choice among adolescents. Normally, the method of consumption is drinking large quantities of alcohol in short periods of time, otherwise known as “binge drinking.” Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) stress peptide producing cells in central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) has been implicated in behavioral responses to stress and addiction. The goals of this thesis were to determine the effects of voluntary binge drinking in adolescence and vapor-induced alcohol dependence in adulthood on CRF cells in the CeA. These studies were done using an operant model of voluntary binge drinking in rodents in which adolescent animals are allowed to orally self-administer sweetened alcohol intermittently (or sweetened water for controls) during early adolescence. The current findings demonstrate that binge drinking during adolescence decreases the number of CRF-ir cells in the CeA. This decrease in cell number is long-term, lasting well into adulthood and dependence does not exacerbate this effect. A second goal was to determine whether certain behaviors could be used as a predictive measure for adolescent binge drinking. The current findings indicated that frequency of self-grooming, can be used as a predictive measure for adolescent binge drinking. Specifically, increased frequency of self-grooming predicts lower alcohol self administration during adolescence.

This study investigated associations among different parental psychopathology dimensions and child functioning. Mothers and fathers of preschoolers with behavior problems (n = 132) completed psychopathology questionnaires when children were 3 years old. Children’s externalizing, internalizing, and social problems, academic achievement, and cognitive ability were assessed at annual home visits from age 3 to 6. In general, maternal psychopathology symptoms were associated with mothers’ reports of externalizing, internalizing, and social problems at age 3 and 6. Additionally, paternal psychopathology symptoms were associated with fathers’ reports of externalizing and internalizing problems at age 3 and 6. Mothers with more elevated psychopathology symptom dimensions had children with more mother-reported and father- reported externalizing and internalizing problems, and lower social competence at age 3 and age 6. Fathers with more elevated psychopathology symptom dimensions had children with more mother-reported internalizing problems at age 3 and 6. Only a few parental psychopathology dimensions (maternal ADHD and Cluster A symptoms, and paternal ADHD, depression, and antisocial symptoms) emerged as unique predictors of child functioning at age 3 and 6. These findings suggest that most types of mothers’ and fathers’ psychopathology may play a role in the behavioral, social, and emotional outcome of preschoolers with behavior problems.

The Winning With Wellness (WWW) project was a school-based obesity prevention program that was developed to promote healthy eating and physical activity in youth residing in rural Appalachia. The project was based on the Coordinated School Health model (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2013a) and used a community-based participatory research approach with an emphasis on feasibility and sustainability. The purpose of this study was to examine self-reported health outcomes for middle school students across the course of the intervention. Sixth grade middle school students (N = 149; 52% girls) from four schools in Northeast Tennessee completed a survey assessing demographic factors and health behaviors as well as the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL, Varni, Seid, & Kurtin, 2001) at baseline and follow-up, approximately 9-months after project implementation. Across the course of the intervention there were no statistically significant changes from baseline to follow-up in fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity, or screen time. Further, there were no statistically significant changes in health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The lack of change in health behaviors is similar to a recent study also emphasizing sustainability (Neumark-Sztainer, Story, Hannan, & Rex, 2003). Unlike in the current study, Palacio-Vieira and colleagues (2008) found HRQoL to significantly decline with age in a population-based sample of Spanish youth. It will be important to examine whether or not obesity interventions may ameliorate this effect as well as to test the feasibility and school/structural support for sustained intervention implementation at a level that promotes lifestyle change.

The nine amino acid peptide vasopressin acts as a neurohormone in the periphery and a neurotransmitter/neuromodulator in the central nervous system. Historically, research on vasopressin neurons and their projections to the pituitary has helped lay the groundwork for our understanding of peptidergic neurotransmission. Currently, our research on central vasopressin projections is driving a revolution in our understanding of social behavior. Vasopressin affects a number of social behaviors from social memory to aggression to affiliative behavior, such as pair-bonding. Further, with the addition of more and more transgenic mouse models of disease states, anxiety and depression related disorders, and social behavior dysfunction, it is important now more than ever to have a clear knowledge of the mouse vasopressin system, which derives from a number of distinct nuclei within the brain. Here, I map out vasopressin immunoreactivity in the mouse brain, and delineate the subset of brain regions with gonadal steroid hormone-dependent vasopressin immunoreactivity. Such projections are thought to derive from the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis and medial amygdala in the telencephalon. Finally, based on data from mice with lesions of the suprachiasmatic nucleus, I outline the subset of regions that likely receive vasopressin from this source. Our research on the anatomy of the vasopressin system of mice and our attempts to delineate the site of origin of the many vasopressin fibers found throughout the brain suggest that a significant amount of the vasopressin innervation deriving from cells in the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis and medial amygdala project to areas in the midbrain involved in serotonin and dopamine transmission, such as the dorsal raphe and ventral tegmental area. These transmitter systems play a crucial role in the control of anxiety and depression levels as well as motivated behavior and emotional regulation. Our results strongly suggest that a direct link exists between these systems, and future plans include an examination of this possibility. It is our hope that this work will further our understanding of the role of vasopressin and other transmitter systems in the regulation of social behaviors.

The present study evaluated the efficacy of a four-week seminar which emphasized the principles of Agentive Theory. This theory, which is compatible with theories of a phenomenological/ existential perspective, was first developed by C. T. Warner, an American philosopher. Agentive Theorists/Therapists emphasize that our negative emotions, ie., depression, anger, etc. , are assertions or judgments we make and not merely feelings we are responsible for controlling or expressing. Forty-eight outpatients who sought help with personal/emotional problems from a department of behavioral medicine were assigned to either a treatment or waiting-list control Group. Following a four-week treatment phase, the treatment group was shown to have made significantly greater improvement than the waiting-list control group with respect to general mental health, somatization, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, psychoticism, anger, and guilt.

The conceptualization of the personality construct of introversion has been problematic since the term's inception due to the complexity and seemingly self-contradictory nature of the collection of attributes of which it is comprised. To advance the understanding of introversion, I propose that it is a continuous segment of the non-clinical part of the autism spectrum, and that it is not the same as the inverse of extraversion. When introversion and autism are placed on the same continuum, the nature of the relationship of the traits becomes more apparent, and new possibilities are available for exploration of both autism and introversion. This review of literature traces the origins and development of the concept of introversion and places it on the autism spectrum, demonstrating the apparent synonymous nature of the traits despite varying degrees of severity in expression. The current factorial structure of introversion demonstrates how autistic features interact to produce the personality dimension. Other factors, including genetic predisposition, relationships to the clinical and non-clinical symptoms of schizophrenia spectrum expression, and neurological findings that support the correlation will be considered. Finally, suggestions for future research and possible theoretical and empirical implications and applications are explored.

The success rate of information technology projects is on a downward trend, with reported losses in the billions of dollars. Recent studies indicate a 50--56% project success rate based on quality, budget, and on-time criteria. Building upon the conceptual framework of the emotional intelligence and knowledge management theories, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how project management practitioners apply self- and cultural-awareness competencies to affect project outcomes. Using a purposeful sampling method, 24 experienced U.S.-based project management practitioners participated in a web-based questionnaire. Following Giorgi's data reduction process resulted in numeric data coding. Thematic analysis revealed themes of (a) awareness and redirection of negative emotions, (b) cultural intelligence, and (c) balanced diverse teamwork. The findings from this research study support increasing awareness, training, and application of emotional and cultural intelligence competencies within the multidimensional knowledge-centric global business environment. Increased awareness and ability to use emotional and cultural competencies can lead to enhanced business outcomes. Improved people-based business practices may increase the economic stability for the organization, employees, and specifically the project management practitioner as a knowledge manager. Implications of social change from this study include increasing success of knowledge-based information technology solutions, expanding employment opportunities, and supporting socially-responsible integrated change.