The specific purpose of this study was to try and understand why unique experiences of living with an alcoholic parent could create developmental deficits which emotionally challenge COAs' when faced with the life lessons a college environment offers. This study offered four possible explanations for experiencing challenges in its theoretical background: (1) psychosocial development, (2) the epistemology of alcoholism and its effects on the family, (3) personality development and the concurrence of building resilience, and (4) the college environment itself, with the phenomenon of binge drinking--forcing COAs to confront family alcoholism. A total of 7 participated in this study--4 men and 3 women. Despite the dynamic differences in the answers overall, all 7 participants acknowledged one important concept. When the participants were asked about their own drinking habits, each participant said, though in different ways, they had to be careful with their drinking habits. Participants seemed to be aware that whether alcoholism is genetic or a learned addiction, they were at risk of becoming alcoholics themselves. This study found overall, as previous literature suggests, no matter how COAs are studied, they are found to be a heterogeneous population. Specifically, this study's results points out that they are indeed heterogeneous, yet similar in that all participants in this study, it could be argued, exhibit some vulnerability in regard to parental alcoholism.

There is a lack of clarity in the current literature in how potential etiological factors interact and result in disordered eating. The purpose of this study was to examine an expanded model of Personality, Social Support, Appraisal/Coping Processes, Abuse History, Internalization of Sociocultural Standards, Psychological Disturbances, and Body Disparagement in the development of disordered eating. The current model was evaluated using 276 women in their transition to college, a time period highly associated with symptoms believed to increase a woman's risk for the development of disordered eating including perceived difficulty coping, weight gain, and negative affect. Structural equation modeling was used to allow simultaneous examination of the causal relationships between the factors. Structural analyses confirmed that college women with previous stressful experiences appraised the adjustment to college as more stressful and reported feeling less able to cope with the transition. Those women who identified the transition as overwhelming were also aware of increased negative mood and psychological states since beginning the school semester. Further, women with previous traumatic sexual experiences appeared to be at additional risk for increased negative affective symptoms. The resulting model confirmed that those women who experience negative mood states and those that endorse strong internalization of cultural values regarding attractiveness encountered increased dissatisfaction and disapproval of their bodies. Finally, women with higher levels of body concern engaged in more eating behaviors associated with disordered eating. The roles of personality functioning and perceived social support could not be identified in the developmental model. The predictive links between constructs in the resulting model provide meaningful information regarding the transition to college and associated risks for development of disordered eating. Validation of the model in an independent sample would provide confirmation of these relationships and longitudinal research examining females' attitudes across crucial developmental periods might provide important information regarding which individuals are most at risk for development of disordered eating.

Psychological and behavioral characteristics of female undergraduates with varying levels of disordered eating, as measured by the Questionnaire for Eating Disorder Diagnoses (Q-EDD; Mintz, O'Halloran, Mulholland, & Schneider, 1997), were investigated. Results suggest that the Q-EDD is an appropriate instrument for measuring eating disorder symptomatology. Greater disordered eating was associated with more bulimic, dieting, and weight fluctuation symptoms, higher impression management and approval-seeking needs, more dichotomous thinking, self control, and rigid weight regulation, and increased concern with body shape and dissatisfaction with facial features. Eating-disordered and symptomatic women evidenced more severe eating disorder behaviors and psychological distress than asymptomatic women. Findings are congruent with a redefined discontinuity perspective of eating disorder symptomatology. Treatment implications and campus-wide preventions are suggested.

Working with students in social fundamentals classes in which social comprehension has been found to influence the development of these traits, this study attempts to determine whether sex, college classification and subject-matter are factors in the development of objectivity, agreeableness, and cooperativeness.

The purpose of this investigation is to extend the study of the influence of social comprehension on the adjustment of college students by (1) determining the adjustment progress of students in the social fundamentals classes, and (2) comparing the adjustment progress of men and women in these home economics classes with the progress of men and women in other subject-matter fields.

The purpose of the present study is to determine whether subject matter and the class section are factors in the development of certain personality traits in college students of social fundamentals. Specifically, the purposes are: (1) to determine whether subject matter field and class section are factors in the development of personality traits referred to as objectivity, agreeableness, and co-operativeness; and (2) to determine which subject matter fields and class sections are responsible for group differences.

The purposes of the present investigation were (1) to determine whether systematic desensitization could be administered in a group setting, (2) to evaluate the stability of any reductions in test-anxiety which resulted from group desensitization, and (3) to make recommendations for counseling research and practice which were warranted by the results of the investigation.

This was a study of modes of resolving experimentally induced motor conflict situations, certain personality variables, and scholastic achievement of a group of college students.

The present investigation was initiated in order to determine the relationship of responses to geometric designs to inferiority feelings and certain personality variables. The major problem was divided into the following sub-problems: 1. What is the relationship of responses to geometric designs to selected clinical scales on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory? (MMPI). 2. What is the relationship of responses to geometric designs to selected personality variables on the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule? (EPPS). 3. What is the relationship of responses to geometric designs to selected personality characteristics on the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey? (G-Z).

The question addressed in this study is whether either parent's conflict style affected the supportive quality of the parents' relationship with the son or daughter. It was important to explore variables that affect support because supportive relationships with parents have been related to adolescent adjustment. Past studies have suggested parental conflict has a negative impact on the parent-adolescent relationship. Research in the area of mediators of perceived support in the parent-adolescent relationships is limited. This study focused on perceived support in the specific relationship of the parent and adolescent. Qualitative measures of conflict were used since they have been more strongly related to changes in parent-adolescent relationships than quantitative measures. In this study the supportive quality of the parent-adolescent relationship was operationalized as a measure of parental support, depth of the parent-adolescent relationship, and conflict in the parent-adolescent relationship (Quality of Relationship Inventory).