This three-part mixed methods study uses a parallel-databases convergent design to explore self-efficacy as an outcome of an integrated reading and anxiety intervention. Study 1 presents a qualitative analysis of teacher perspectives on effective components of the intervention, with particular attention to teacher and student self-efficacy. Study 2 is a psychometric evaluation of a brief instrument measuring the sources of reading self-efficacy in children. Study 3 employs the revised reading self-efficacy scale to collect data before and after students complete one year of the integrated intervention. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed together for a more complete understanding of intervention effects on reading self-efficacy. Results contribute to discussion on the self-efficacy of struggling readers. / 2026-08-27T00:00:00Z

Much work is being done to optimize the developmental environments responsible for nurturing their physical, technical, tactical, and psychological growth. However, recent empirical evidence suggests that the academies housing youth fall short of their holistic development aspirations, and are failing to prepare many youth for the challenges of pursuing a career in professional football. For example, research has shown that some youth are experiencing psychological distress, inferior academic outcomes, academic disengagement, foreclosed identities, and impaired social and emotional development (Blakelock, Chen, & Prescott, 2016; Brown & Potrac, 2009; Gouttebar, Aoki, & Kerkhoffs, 2016; Platts, 2012). This dissertation explores the goals of current developmental programming within elite youth football development environments, the experience of the elite youth footballers enrolled in these environments, and subsequently, offers an assessment tool that permits professional football academies to evaluate the extent to which they integrate programming that promotes holistic, positive youth development. It is hoped that engagement in this self-assessment will provide a foundation for professional football academies to engage in dialogue as to programming features that can be modified and/or introduced to promote optimal performance, psychological and emotional well-being, and future-readiness concurrently. Put more simply, this research is interested in optimizing the developmental environments of elite youth footballers in order to foster key attributes that enable them to navigate the inevitable performance, life, and career challenges that await them both within and beyond their experience in academy and/or professional football. This dissertation consists of 3 distinct, but interrelated components. Initial attention will be focused on the mission statements of the organizations (i.e., Premier League, English Football League, League Football Education) and individual clubs (i.e., academies) responsible for the development of elite youth footballers in England. Qualitative analysis of these statements will provide insight into the aspirations of these organizations (i.e., their developmental goals). Focus will then shift to elucidating the experiences of former professional academy youth, and their perceptions of academy programming. At this stage, exploring and understanding the lived experiences of individuals who have progressed through the system is of paramount importance. Thus, interviews with former elite youth footballers were conducted and analyzed. Within these interviews, participants will also be invited to comment on how developmental programming can be optimized. That is, participants were asked to offer recommendations on how developmental environments can better meet the holistic needs of this population. The next stage involved the author leveraging the conclusions and recommendations drawn from this analysis with the current evidence base on positive youth development practices to construct a self-assessment tool for professional football academies. This tool will function to evaluate the extent to which academy programming promotes holistic/positive youth development (i.e., psychological, educational, and vocational well-being within and beyond their time in the academy system). Finally, individuals with experience within professional academies evaluated the utility of the proposed self-assessment tool.

<p>The study examined the sense of self-efficacy that clergy experience while providing pastoral care by analyzing 104 pastors' responses to the Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scale (CASES). The variables that predicted higher self-efficacy scores included the number of years the participant worked as a pastor, the number of hours spent each week in counseling activities, and the number of counseling/pastoral care courses completed during seminary or pastoral training. Training with clinical pastoral education (CPE) and lay counseling activities, however, predicted lower CASES scores. This regression model accounted for 29% of the variance in CASES scores. Clergy reported significantly lower self-efficacy in their counseling skills in the Counseling Challenges factor of the CASES than in the Helping Skills and Session Management factors. This suggests that the pastors experience the lowest counseling self-efficacy (CSE) when faced with challenges such as severe psychopathology or manipulative individuals. The results carry implications for the training and continuing education that is offered to clergy. The study suggests that it could be beneficial with clergy training to focus on the areas in which CSE was lowest and on the variables that are associated with higher CSE. </p>

No description available.

<p>This counseling project examines the issue of recidivism and the need to realign the current system of retribution in favor of rehabilitative services in the United States prison system. Theoretically, this project reviews attachment theory as developed by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth and ties the central constructs inherent to attachment theory to equine-assisted prison-based programs. Support and evidence of animal-assisted interventions as agents of healing and psychological growth is found in connection between theory and practice in the case study involving the selected hypothetical inmate, Robert. Robert explores his traumatic past using attachment theory based personal therapy sessions in conjunction with working with the horses through the prison-based animal program. Dialogue exchanges in therapy elucidated how Robert&rsquo;s attachment to the horses and with his therapist developed. The resulting progression and insight building abilities he acquires may serve as preventative measures with respect to re-offense after release. </p>

<p> Chronic unemployment is one of the top stressors in life that affects an individual&rsquo;s income, identity and self-worth, emotional and physical health, and personal relationships. At the extreme, the stressors are associated with an increased risk of suicide. While the damaging effects of chronic unemployment are extensive, not everyone experiences such negative consequences. The focus of research has primarily been on the negative impact rather than exploring what may account for the differences in the ways that individuals adapt, such as the intelligent use of positive emotions. Researchers using quantitative methods have identified significant correlations among emotional intelligence (EI), positive emotions, and coping. The problem is that the results have not provided an understanding of the deliberate use of positive emotions to cope with stress. The purpose of this qualitative, hermeneutic (interpretative), phenomenological study was to provide a rich, contextual understanding of the processes by which individuals activated and utilized positive emotions via EI to cope with the multiple stressors associated with chronic unemployment. A purposeful sample of six adults receiving services from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Job Center and unemployed for a period of 6 months or more participated in the study. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews to collect the data. The data was analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The identified themes underscored the importance of providing support services to extend vocational interventions and can be used to inform policy makers of changes needed in unemployment programs. Second, the use of a phenomenological approach to examine the confidence in the ability to use emotions and the ability to activate and use positive emotions provided support for the proposition that the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (PE) facilitates the application of trait EI and the deliberate use of positive emotions to cope with stress.</p>

The study investigates the psycho-cultural and social influences on the academic and social coping concerns of Nigerian graduate students studying at Clark Atlanta University. The research collection of data among Nigerian graduate students at Clark Atlanta University highlights the roles played by different variable factors such as educational, social, cultural and economic, which may create stress that may in turn affect the well-being of the student's academic and social life. The stipulated data in this research portrays the importance of establishing a multi-cultural counseling program that will enhance the students; past and present psycho-cultural experiences and offer counseling and psychological support as graduate students encounter the new learning eco-community. This in turn helps in reducing the stress experienced by the students during this period of adjustment and separation anxiety from their traditional support systems.

<p> The unique qualities of the teenage brain and the ubiquity of mobile technology suggest a role for mobile applications (apps) in the treatment of teenage depression. The hermeneutic portion of this inquiry into teenage depression includes both 20-year-old data on evidence-based treatment modalities and articles written in the last few years on mobile health applications (mHealth). The research problem includes few randomized controlled trials of the efficacy and security of mobile health applications. This thesis employs heuristic methodology to examine the author&rsquo;s personal experience with mobile interventions for the treatment of her depression. Of the many hundreds of mHealth solutions designed to address depression, most rely on the tenets of neuropsychology, positive psychology, and mindfulness-based therapies to drive functionality. Apps contain features familiar to teenagers and are easy to access with a smartphone. Teenagers are digital natives whose life-long exposure to technology necessarily shapes their expectations of immediacy and innovation.</p>

<p> The cultural movement toward abbreviation and multitasking detracts from the desire and also, potentially, the ability to begin engaging in deep reading. This is problematic, considering that the deep reading of narrative fiction has many potential benefits. Through the use of both heuristic and hermeneutic methodology, this thesis takes a look at the psychological and scientific literature that explores the relationship between reading narrative fiction and an increase in both empathy and theory of mind skills; how the art of reading narrative fiction can be viewed from a depth psychological perspective; and the author&rsquo;s personal experience with reading narrative fiction. This information is then utilized to explore how these components can be applied within the psychotherapy process through the use of bibliotherapy, as well as how it can be a valuable tool for one&rsquo;s own personal growth and exploration outside of a therapy setting.</p>

<p> Through hermeneutic and heuristic research this thesis looks at melancholia or complicated grief with the contributing factor of identity questioning. From a depth psychological perspective, normal grief is differentiated from melancholia or complicated grief, which involves the unconscious. This exploration employs the theory of Allan Hugh Cole Jr., whose work on melancholia draws on that of Donald Capps, Erik Erikson, and Sigmund Freud. A disposition to melancholia, particularly in men, comes from the first abandonment by a primary parent, resulting in identity loss and resistance to resolution of grief. Factors such as trauma, sexual orientation, religion, or marginalized race can have exacerbating effect on melancholia and were found to have treatment implications. Ritual, art, play, humor, and dreams can be identity-conferring and restorative resources. The author proposes that melancholia with identity issues should be understood as a psychological problem that is distinct from, although it can prolong and complicate, grief.</p>