<p> Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a clinical term that refers to childhood pervasive developmental disorders which impair several areas of functioning, including social skills, communication abilities, and also include dysfunctional repetitive behaviors and interests. Associated behavior problems are commonly present in ASD. The maternal responsibilities of raising a child with ASD often lead to significant stress which is often associated with clinical depression. However, some mothers appear to possess protective factors or resilience that makes them less likely to develop depression. This study examined the relationship between core autistic symptoms, child behavioral problems, previous depression diagnoses before mothering the child with ASD, and maternal Sense of Coherence to learn if Sense of Coherence was a protective factor against maternal depression in mothers of children with ASD. A quantitative research design was used with three independent variables, including child autistic severity, child behavior problems, maternal Sense of Coherence, and maternal depression as the dependent variable. Bivariate correlational analysis and ANOVA were used to test for the significance of demographic variables. Previous depression diagnosis was statistically significant and controlled for. Two hypotheses were tested in the current study: </p><p> Hypothesis 1: (H1) Sense of Coherence will predict lower levels of depression, after controlling for potentially confounding demographic variables, the severity of autistic symptoms, and the intensity of child behavior problems. </p><p> Hypothesis 2: (H2) The Comprehensibility subscale in Sense of Coherence will predict lower levels of depression than the Manageability and Meaningfulness subscales, after controlling for potentially confounding demographic variables, the severity of autistic symptoms, and the intensity of child behavior problems. </p><p> Multiple hierarchical regressions were used to analyze these data. Hypothesis 1 was supported by the statistical analysis. Previous depression diagnosis was statistically significant (B = .41***), and it accounted for 17% of the variance in the hierarchical regression. Sense of Coherence statistically significantly predicted lower maternal depression (B = -.75***), and accounted for 45.1% of the variance in maternal depression. Hypothesis 2 was not supported by the statistical analysis. Previous depression diagnosis was statistically significant (B = .41***), and it accounted for 17% of the variance in the hierarchical regression. The Comprehensibility subscale of Sense of Coherence was not more significantly related to maternal depression than the Manageability or Meaningfulness subscales (B =-.11). However, the Meaningfulness subscale was statistically significantly related to maternal depression (B=-.41**). Sense of Coherence served as a protective factor against maternal depression in mothers of children with ASD; future research is needed in order to learn if these results generalize to the larger population of mothers of children with ASD.</p>

No description available.

The coexistence of extraordinary gifts and exceptional impairment residing within the same individual is an inherently curious contradiction. Empirical research on gifted students with one or more disabilities, termed twice-exceptional, is limited. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the role of twice-exceptionality on key constructs related to identity development and self-regulation. This study examined developmental changes in students’ self-esteem ratings and locus of control ratings from eighth grade through twelfth grade, and compared students identified as twice-exceptional with their peers who were identified as gifted-only, disability-only, or non-identified (i.e., a group of “typical” students). Participants were sampled from an existing dataset – the National Educational Longitudinal Study. Measures included questionnaire items adapted from the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (1965), and from Rotter’s Internality-Externality Scale (1966). Results of a two-way mixed design MANOVA revealed no differences between groups on a combination of self-esteem and locus of control ratings, meaning that developmental patterns over time were similar across all ability classifications. Students in the gifted-only group reported the highest levels of self-esteem and the most internalized locus of control, whereas students in the disability-only group reported the lowest self-esteem and most externalized locus of control. Significant differences were revealed between average ratings of twice-exceptional students and ratings of their peers. This manuscript concludes with a discussion of the study’s limitations, implications drawn from the study’s findings, and directions for future research. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 7, 2017. / Disabilities, Gifted, Identity, Locus of Control, Self-esteem, Twice-exceptional / Includes bibliographical references. / Steven Pfeiffer, Professor Directing Dissertation; Sandra Lewis, University Representative; Frances Prevatt, Committee Member; Angela Canto, Committee Member.

<p> This study employs structural equation modelling to analyze core parenting behaviors developed from Baumrind&rsquo;s paradigm through a social learning lens. It applies then to a non-clinical, ethnically diverse, urban population in the United States. It analyzes relationships of behavioral management, parent-child relationship, problem solving and communication, and parenting stress to child behavioral outcomes at the ninth year including mediation and moderation effects at years 1, 3, and 5. Treatment exposure was explored as a major moderator of pathways. Behavioral management, problem solving and communication, and parenting stress at year 5 predict child behavioral outcomes. Parent-child relationship at years 1 and 3 predict improvements in child behavioral outcomes. Contrary to expectation, prediction of outcomes from both parenting stress and behavioral management at year 3 is negative: increases in the use of spanking and in stress increased positive behaviors. The effects from these at year five, however, are consistent with previous literature. Key mediations are behavioral management and problem solving and communication of parent-child relationship year 3 effects. The moderation by treatment exposure is significant in increasing the effect of parenting stress and problem solving and communication. The application of core parenting skills provides useful pathways for increasing positive behavioral outcomes and for prevention of behavioral problems in early adolescence. Such prevention should focus on resiliency and early parent-child relationship. Future research should focus on additional moderating and moderated mediational pathways and analysis of the elements of treatment exposure. Keywords: parenting behaviors, child behavioral outcome, treatment exposure</p><p>

<p> Altruistic behavior has been conceptualized from a variety of perspectives. One approach to understanding altruism involves understanding the contextual factors that influence it. Parenting style is a source of early learning that greatly influences a child&rsquo;s social functioning. The flexible connectedness offers three potential mechanisms by which parenting may influence altruism: perspective taking, empathic concern, and psychological flexibility. The current study examined perceived parenting style as a predictor of altruism and the flexible connectedness factors as potential mediators of this relationship. In the context of decision-making tasks involving monetary allocations (i.e., dictator and reciprocity tasks), authoritarian parenting predicted increases in altruism, and permissive parenting predicted decreases in altruism. In the context of a volunteer form, parental care predicted decreases in altruism. Parenting style was consistently associated with only psychological flexibility of the flexible connectedness factors, such that parental care was associated with increased flexibility and parental overprotection was associated with decreased flexibility. None of the flexible connected factors predicted altruism alone, but psychological flexibility moderated the relationship between empathic concern and altruism on the reciprocity task such that increases in psychological flexibility were associated with a stronger negative relationship between empathic concern and altruism. The current study&rsquo;s results suggest that inflexible parenting (i.e., authoritarian parenting and permissive) may influence how we treat others in unexpected ways, sometimes benefiting society at a cost to the individual.</p><p>

How do children use physical and virtual tools to develop new numerical knowledge? While concrete instructional materials may support the delivery of novel information to learners, they may also over-simplify the task, unintentionally reducing learners' performance in recall and transfer tasks. This reduction in testing performance may be mitigated by embedding physical incongruencies in the design of instructional materials. The effort of resolving this incongruency can foster a richer understanding of the underlying concept. In two experiments children were trained on a computerized number line estimation task, with a novel scale (0-180), and then asked to perform a series of posttest number line estimation tasks that varied spatial features of the training number line. In experiment 1, during training with feedback, children either received a ruler depicting endpoint and quartile magnitudes (i.e., 0, 45, 90, 135, 180) that physically matched the on-screen number line (congruent ruler), a proportionally-similar ruler scaled 33% larger than the on-screen number line (incongruent ruler), or no ruler. Children were trained to criterion before proceeding to posttest. Results indicated that while children who used the congruent ruler performed well during training, their performance at posttest was less accurate than the other two conditions. On the other hand, by increasing the difficulty of the learning task, while providing relevant landmark information, children in the incongruent ruler condition produced the highest accuracy at posttest. In experiment 2, controlling for learning task duration, the incongruent ruler and congruent ruler conditions were compared directly. Posttest results confirmed an advantage for children in the more complex, incongruent ruler condition. These results are interpreted to suggest that landmarks representations are an important and accessible means of developing a mature numerical representation of the number line. Furthermore, the results confirm that desirable difficulties are an essential component of the learning process. Potential implications for the design of learning activities that balance instructional support with conceptual challenge are discussed.

Educational policy has increasingly focused on holding teachers and schools accountable for student performance. Yet popular and academic writers have long connected exposure to neighborhood violence to poor student performance. Newly available datasets, statistical methods and computer technology allow for greater power and additional control in analyzing this relation. Using school and neighborhood data (N = 792,374 students from 1,240 school neighborhoods) from New York City between 2006 and 2010, multilevel models were used to test whether exposure to violence in the school neighborhood (the number of police-reported felony assaults, homicides, rapes and robberies) predicts student performance (scaled scores on annual English and math tests). Violent crime is significantly associated with negative students outcomes controlling for a host of student and school neighborhood level variables including poverty and prior violent crime. Effect sizes were larger when predicting math outcomes than English, and for students in middle school as opposed to elementary school. These findings suggest that educational policymakers must distinguish exposure to violence from teacher and school effects and that neighborhood violence must be addressed by stakeholders of child development whether in schools or in society at large.

Emotion is difficult to define, quantify, and measure yet it pervades almost all aspects of an individual’s life, from one’s internal motivations and feelings, to his or her external responses and decisions. This body of work tackles three major components contributing to the experience of emotion – development, social influences, and the underlying role of the brain. These three components shape emotion in a fundamental and intertwining way, and methods like brain imaging can provide new insights into how emotion changes and is expressed throughout one’s life. Study 1 showed that reactivity and regulation of craving changes with age and are supported by frontoparietal cortical maturation. Study 2 showed that the value estimations of food change across development and can be heavily influenced by social factors. Study 3 replicated the social influence effects observed in Study 2 and revealed the neural mechanisms contributing to this phenomenon. Additionally, this study used a broader range of stimuli including negative, neutral, and positive images, in order to expand the generalizability of the findings. Taken together this work uncovers neural, developmental, and social influences that shape how individuals experience emotions.

No description available.

In the Commonwealth of Virginia, substance abuse professionals are debating the licensure requirements for substance abuse counselors. The debate concerns the minimum educational and experience requirements for substance abuse counselor licensure (i.e., lowering the educational requirements to include individuals with less than a master's degree). In most counseling related helping professions, the minimum educational requirement for a counselor is a master's degree in a counseling related field. to obtain a state or national license, 4,000 hours of supervised experience and the passing of a licensure examination is required beyond a master's degree. The field of substance abuse counseling is an exception to this educational requirement. Substance abuse counselors' educational levels can vary from a graduate degree in a counseling related field and a state or national license to a high school diploma and a state or national substance abuse certification. These differences in educational backgrounds tend to be based on recovery status. Non-recovering counselors are likely to have a graduate degree and a professional license, and recovering counselors are likely to have a high school diploma and a substance abuse certification. Counselor level of education has been linked to different levels of cognitive development. Counselors at higher levels of cognitive complexity possess many of the attributes needed to be effective counselors, such as, being empathic, being flexible in the use of counseling methods, being more autonomous and interdependent and exhibiting less prejudice towards others. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among counselor education, experience, recovery status, conceptual complexity, and moral judgment of substance abuse counselors. The theoretical framework for the study was cognitive developmental theory, specifically conceptual level and moral development. This study surveyed 900 randomly selected substance abuse counselors in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Multiple certification and licensure lists were obtained that were representative of differing levels of education, experience and credentials of substance abuse counselors in Virginia. The accessible population included, Certified Substance Abuse Counselors (CSACs), Certified Addictions Counselors (CACs), Master's Addiction Counselors (MACS) and Licensed Substance Abuse Treatment Providers (LSATPs). The survey instruments included: a General Questionnaire, the Paragraph Completion Method (PCM), and the Defining Issues Test (DIT). One hundred and eighty-eight (188) survey responses were received for a return rate of 21%. Following data collection, multiple regression, t-tests and chi square statistical analyses were preformed to test the research hypotheses. The research findings were: counselor conceptual complexity and education level (i.e., master's degree) were positively correlated, and counselor level of moral judgment and education (i.e., bachelor's degree) were negatively correlated. A negative relationship was found between family member recovery status and moral judgment and counselor level of moral judgment was lower on an authentic (i.e., a substance abuse dilemma) vs. the standard DIT dilemmas. No correlation was found between counselor level of experience and conceptual complexity or moral judgment. Further research is needed to replicate the current findings. Suggestions made for future research include: collecting additional information on the General Questionnaire concerning supervision practices, a larger stratified sample, and the use of the DIT-2 rather than the DIT-Short Version.