Abstract not available

The purpose of this study was to analyze the psychosocial development of college student-athletes and to determine if there are differences within the student-athlete population. Attempts were made to survey the entire student-athlete population at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass). Of the approximately 700 student-athletes at UMass, 335 were surveyed. 280 of these surveys were deemed usable for the purposes of this study, yielding a response rate of 40.0%. Seniors were left out of the final discussion due to a low response rate of 16%. The response rate for first year students was 65% making these results the most valid. The Student Development Task and Lifestyle Inventory (SDTLI) was used to examine psychosocial development on three tasks: Establishing and Clarifying Purpose (PUR), Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships (MIR), and Academic Autonomy (AA). A number of independent variables were used in examining these tasks including sex, type of sport, likelihood of a future in the sport, and grade point average (GPA). GPA and future in sport were found to have the most significant relationships with AA and PUR, while sex was the only variable to have a significant relationship with MIR. Four hypotheses were examined in this study. The first found that women had not achieved a higher level of psychosocial development than men. The second found that those in sports without an anticipated future had developed to a higher degree on the PUR task than those in sports with a possible future. This difference is even greater for men than for women. The third hypothesis found that those in team sports were not developed to a higher level on the MIR task than those in individual sports. Finally, the fourth hypothesis supported the idea that those with a higher GPA would be developed to a higher level on the PUR task than those with a lower GPA. These findings support the idea that there are a number of differences within the student-athlete population and that those with higher GPAs and those in sports without an anticipated future have developed to a higher level than their student-athlete peers. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on helping student-athletes to succeed in the classroom, therefore allowing them more options outside of athletics.

Research indicates that mothers structure or scaffold children's early play. However, it is unclear whether these findings can be generalized to mothers and children of different cultures. Culture-specific and ecological factors may affect a mother's inclination and motivation to play with her child, her scaffolding behaviors, her involvement in play, and the type and kind of play she engages in. This study explores and provides preliminary descriptions of how play is defined, perceived, and valued by a sample of fifteen rural Nepali mothers. The study also describes the kind of play interactions Nepali mothers have with their young children who range in age from twelve to thirty-six months. The qualitative method of research was used to address the research questions. Data were collected through participant observation, videotapes of mother-child play in the course of everyday activity in the home, and interviews and discussion with the mothers based on the videotaped activities between them and their children. The results of the study reveal that play appears to be an integral aspect of mother-child interaction in daily care routines and is seen as a valuable means for keeping the child engaged, for managing child behavior, and for encouraging children's co-operation. The mothers in this study have a positive attitude towards play and are aware of the developmental impact it has on children, even though they underestimate their own roles in play interaction with their children. Findings contribute to the field of child development and education by building on existing cross-cultural literature on play. Early childhood educators and practitioners will be able to utilize the results of this study to inform their work in designing and implementing culturally relevant child development and education programs that are meaningful for the target population.

In recent years, theorists in the fields of psychoanalysis and gay and lesbian studies have turned their attention to the study of the complex role of homosexuality in human development from a non-pathological perspective. Specifically, some psychoanalytic theorists have resumed studying the complex relationships among self-concept development, relationship quality and homosexuality. This study provided an in-depth examination of the formative experiences of a small sample of non-patient lesbian women. The study was guided by four general questions: (1) How do lesbian women conceptualize the nature and development of their sexual and gender identities? (2) What intrapsychic, familial, and societal variables shape these identities? (3) Throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood what are the processes through which lesbian women develop and negotiate their self-concepts and relationships with others? (4) What is the interplay between typical developmental processes and experiences unique to women coming of age with a same-sex identity? The sample consisted of eight lesbian women. Subjects participated in a specially designed semistructured interview, and the data were analyzed using a systematic qualitative approach. Women's stories revealed that gender and sexual identity are varied and dynamic constructs, paralleling identity development across the lifespan. For the most part, women enjoyed their childhoods and considered their relationships with parents to be positive. The women in this sample described multiple patterns of maternal and paternal influence on identity and relational style. During adolescence, young women moved away from parents as primary sources of identity and into the social world. Some women reported an awareness of homoerotic feelings during this period which threatened their vulnerable self-concepts; in most cases, these feelings were repressed in the service of maintaining a cohesive sense of self and connection to others. For the women in this sample, the tasks of young adulthood included coming out to self and parents, and negotiating intimacy with significant others. Overall, women with a same sex orientation face developmental milestones typical of all individuals, as well as milestones unique to the gay and lesbian population; the negotiation of these milestones is mediated by the individual's personality and family dynamics. The in-depth nature of this study revealed a complexity and richness of experience not considered in reductionistic psychoanalytic theories of lesbian development.

This dissertation presents a three-phase model of schema development. In this model, each phase starts with an implicit decision about the adequacy of the schema, called a "meta-decision." Phase 1 (decision formation) starts with the meta-decision that a new schema is needed to reach a goal or serve a purpose. The main task of Phase 1 is forming or identifying a potentially adequate candidate schema. Once the person meta-decides that such a schema has been found, the person enters Phase 2 (decision consolidation). During this phase, the person engages in confirmatory testing of the adequacy of the schema. If the person meta-decides that the adequacy of the schema is confirmed, the person enters Phase 3 (decision dis-investment). During this phase, the person utilizes the schema, as evidenced by improved ability to process new relevant information. The dissertation reviews research and theories that relate to the model. Finally, the dissertation presents new research which tests some predictions of the model.

Infants begin to coordinate their actions into means-end sequences at eight to nine months of age, as indicated by their willingness to search for objects that are occluded, and by their ability to use supports to pull distant objects within reach. However, the occurrence of perseverative responses like the A-not-B error through the end of the first year suggests an inflexibility in means-end actions, in that infants fail to respond on the basis of context-specific information, but rather respond on the basis of previously rewarded action. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate two antithetical explanations of infant search errors--one that attributes errors solely to repeated motor experience, and one that invokes the notion of representational, or working memory to describe means-end search. Nine-, twelve-, and eighteen-month-old infants were tested on a violation of expectation search procedure. Infants were given repeated practice pulling down a screen to retrieve a toy. After several trials, a second identical screen was surreptitiously inserted behind the first, forcing infants to adapt their search behavior to the novel layout in order to successfully retrieve the toy. Infants at the three ages were tested on an 'opaque' condition, in which both of the screens were opaque and covered with an identical checkerboard pattern. Nine- and twelve-month-olds were also tested in two control conditions. In the 'transparent' control condition, the two screens were fitted with plexiglass windows, thus eliminating the need to represent the existence of the toy. In the 'no-toy' control condition, the screens were opaque, but no toys were hidden and subjects were simply given a series of trials with one screen and then tested with two screens. The results supported the working memory, representational account of infant search. In the opaque condition, most nine-month-olds searched for the toy behind the second cover. Twelve-month-olds, however, were less likely than the nine-month-olds to pull down both screens, and frequently persisted in their efforts to find the toy behind the first screen. Infants in the two control conditions did not have this difficulty extending their action to the second screen. Eighteen-month-olds quickly solved the double-cover problem, rapidly pulling down both screens. The poorer performance of the twelve-month-olds suggests that they accurately represented the location of the toy where they had seen it hidden (behind the first screen), and thus failed to consider the second screen as a possible hiding location for the toy.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between adolescents' exposure to violent and non-violent traumatic life events and psychological factors and the effects of demographic and prosocial resiliency factors on this relationship. A secondary analysis of data from a study with a large sample of white and black adolescents (grades 9th and 10th) from three high schools was performed. Of the total eligible population, 89% participated in the survey (N = 1684). The adolescents' ages ranged from 13 to 18 years; 54% were black and 46% white; and 50% of the adolescents were female. One out of five adolescents was exposed to violence as a victim of a violent traumatic life event and there was greater exposure in black and male adolescents. The overall mean exposure to non-violent traumatic life events was 4.95. These data suggested that there is a relationship between traumatic life event exposure and anger total, depression, and mental distress in a large diverse sample of adolescents. Victimized female and white adolescents reported more depressive and mental distress than male and black adolescents. Exposure to violent traumatic life events in adolescents was a significant predictor of anger total $(p<.01),$ depression $(p<.01),$ and mental distress $(p<.01).$ Prosocial resiliency factors (self-efficacy, social support, and hope) moderated the exposure to violent traumatic life event exposure. Higher self-efficacy and social support and more hopeful about the future were protective and ameliorated the detrimental effects of exposure to violent traumatic life events in adolescents. These findings support the importance of identifying adolescents exposed to violence and intervening to address the associated psychological symptoms. Further, prosocial resiliency can be used to decrease the deleterious effects and are potential avenues for prevention strategies.

The present research attempted to address how metacommunication of young children relates to the products in a collaborative problem solving, along with the three main purposes: first, to investigate the relationship between metacommunicative talk in a dyad and the proper movement of the robot; second, to compare metacommunicative output by the two roles in the robot game, which are Operator and Witness; and last, to examine the increase of metacommunicative talk over the course of the games. To answer the question above, using a small battery-operated robot, 10 kindergartners and 12 first–second graders were asked to play games, which were a collaborative task that requires two children; Operator and Witness. Each dyad participated in three sessions, playing both roles during one session. After quantitative analysis of the data administered to address the three purposes, qualitative analysis was done to detect the in-depth processes between metacommunication and the collaborative problem solving. The relationships between metacommunicative talk in a dyad and the proper movement of the robot were complicated, indicating the relationships are more task-specific. It was found that there is a fair amount of role-dependent variability. Frequencies of metacommunicative output vary from the subcategories of metacommunication. Usage of the subcategories is related to the role that a child plays in the robot games. Adversely to prediction about the last purpose, the metacommunicative usage decreased as the sessions continue. The plausible accounts were addressed about the findings. Qualitative analysis revealed that the children utilized metacommunication for various reasons. They are to clarify statements, to retell previous statements, to prompt the games, to expatiate insufficient instructions voluntarily or with input from the outside, to be aware of linguistic references, to repeat other's statement, to regulate other person's statement in order to stop partner's talk or to start own talking, and finally to integrate a previous statement to the present communication. In coda, the benefits of using metacommunication were acquisition of a correct concept on the instruction given and advancement of communication skills as the game proceeded.

This study was designed to examine the influence of different media presentations on children's comprehension and memory of a story. Sixty-six first grade children experienced a well-structured story presented either by audio, audio-visual, or interactive CD-ROM media. Within the interactive CD-ROM condition, children either controlled the interactions (participant) or observed another child's interactions with the program (observer). The interactive CD-ROM contained a wide variety of animations and sound effects that were considered mostly irrelevant to the story content. All children received a memory and comprehension interview containing a free recall question, specific factual and inference questions, a picture sequencing task, and media preference questions. Results indicated no difference among the media conditions in terms of children's free recall of the story. However, children's recall of the story categories fit the pattern established by story grammar theory. In terms of the specific memory questions and picture sequencing task, children who just heard the story (audio) performed significantly worse than the children in the other media conditions, even when the questions were based on information that was contained in the narration. All children performed better on the inference than factual questions. Interestingly, there were no differences in terms of memory or comprehension among the audio-visual, participant, and observer interactive CD-ROM media conditions. It appears that watching irrelevant objects and animations did not distract children from comprehending the story. The presence of a well-established story grammar structure may have facilitated children's ability to retain the basic story components despite interruptions. In addition, explorations within the CD-ROM were documented and described for children in the participant interactive media condition. Although there was a surprising amount of variability in children's interactive behavior, it appears that gender may have influenced both the amount and type of interactions with the story program. Results are discussed in terms of the implications for children's multimedia design.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present with varying degrees of deficit in the broader areas of social communication and stereotyped behaviors, but emerging research proposes delayed motor skill and atypical sensory processing as additional factors worth closer examination. In the current study, I sought to investigate the impacts of visual motor skills and sensory differences on language ability in young children with autism. I hypothesized that young children with autism, atypical sensory processing (Short Sensory Profile, 2nd Edition), and impaired visual motor integration (Beery VMI, 6th Edition) would have the most impacted language ability scores (Differential Ability Scales, 2nd Edition). A total of 22 children, eight with autism (25% female; M age = 66 months or 5.5 years) and 14 with typical development (50% female; M age = 73 months or 6 years) between the ages of 3:0 and 9:6 and their parents completed measures for this study. Findings were significant for the relations of status (i.e., TD vs. ASD) on language ability [t(20) = 2.66, p = .015], status on visual motor integration [t(20) = 2.27, p = .035], and for status on sensory processing [t(20) = −5.35, p < .001]. Results of the three-way interaction indicated that 72% of the variance in language ability was accounted for by the key variables in this model, but this hypothesis was not supported: p = .09, B = .15, CI95 = −.031 to .33. Related hypotheses of visual motor integration on status and language, sensory processing on status and language, and between visual motor integration and sensory were also not supported. Ancillary analyses of individual moderation indicated significant status group (TD vs. ASD) differences for children with visual motor integration full form standard scores of 119 and below (p < .05) and for children with total sensory scores of 25 to 36 (p < .05). These post hoc findings are consistent with previous literature and demonstrate promise for replication in future research with a larger and more heterogeneous sample. Further research on these constructs is encouraged as it could inform meaningful pathways for early intervention.