SES related differences in children’s early language skills influence their later language development. Parent-child verbal interactions during the initial years of children’s life play an important role in children’s early language development. Although both mothers’ and fathers’ early language input contributes to children’s language skills, until recently mothers were considered as the only primary caregivers of children and thus have been the focus of majority of the research in this area. The father’s role in a family has evolved in the past three decades meaning that fathers are increasingly spending more time with their children and contributing to their overall development. The evidence from limited research comparing mothers’ and fathers’ early speech with their preschool aged children is mixed. Also, some findings, mainly derived from research on mothers, suggest that parents socialize their sons and daughters differently, which reflects in early parent-child verbal interactions. In contrast, some research suggests that children, by the function of their own gender, elicit speech differently from their parents. Furthermore, there is an indication of differences in mother-son, mother-daughter, father-son, and father-daughter early talk. Considering the important role of parent and child gender in early parent-child verbal interactions, the current study aimed to compare parental quantity/quality and children’s quantity of language among the four independent groups of father-daughter, father-son, mother-daughter, and mother-son. A total of 112, mainly African-American, parent-child dyads were recruited for this study. Specifically, the sample included 32 father-daughter, 28 father-son, 26 mother-daughter, and 25 mother-son dyads. The convenience sample of children (37-60 months of age) and their respective mother or father were recruited from preschools known to serve a socio-economically disadvantaged population in the southeastern US. Semi-structured parent-child play sessions were videotaped at the child’s child-care facility for approximately 15-minutes. The videotapes were coded for parents’ quantity and quality of language and children’s quantity of language. The results indicated no differences among father-daughter, father-son, mother-daughter, and mother-son groups in terms of parental quantity/quality of language and children’s quantity of language. Suggesting the bi-directional nature of early parent-child interaction process, the exploratory analysis revealed significant differences in correlations among parental quantity/quality and child quantity of language across the four groups of this study. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / June 30, 2017. / Early child language development, Early parent-child interaction, Father-child interaction / Includes bibliographical references. / Beth M. Phillips, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ithel Jones, University Representative; Alysia Roehrig, Committee Member; Yanyun Yang, Committee Member.

This study explored maintenance of psychological method use and self-efficacy of method use during and following a systematic psychological skills training (PST) program. A sample size of 44 division-I collegiate athletes (27 males, 17 females) competing in baseball (n=19), softball (n=14), and track and field (n=11) sports participated in a quasi-experimental, two-group, untreated control group design study with dependent pretest-posttest and three-month follow-up. The PST program, titled AIM (Adopt, Integrate, Maintain), combined evidence-based practices with pragmatic psychological method use recommendations, and was implemented using systematic protocols for each session. Participants received four successive and cumulative PST sessions consisting of goal setting, relaxation, imagery, and self-talk that emphasized education, skill building, self-monitoring, and regulation of psychological methods. Participants were measured on use of psychological methods via the Test of Performance Strategies-2 (TOPS-2; Hardy, Roberts, Thomas, & Murphy, 2010) and self-efficacy in use of psychological methods via a scale constructed based on Bandura’s (2006) recommendations. Both measures were administered pretest (pre-intervention), posttest (one week following fourth session), and at six-week follow-up. Repeated measures MANOVAs conducted for method use and method efficacy separately, revealed nonsignificant interaction effects. Conversely, within-subjects contrasts revealed treatment group participants significantly increased (pre- to posttest) and maintained (posttest to follow-up) method use in relaxation, imagery, and self-talk. Control group contrasts indicated significant increases in imagery from posttest to follow-up. For method efficacy, the treatment group significantly increased and maintained efficacy for all four methods with no significant changes for the control group. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first sport psychology study to employ intervention fidelity monitoring, revealing full adherence and adequate intervention quality. Overall, findings from the study revealed support for increasing and maintaining method use and efficacy treatment gains three months following PST. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 10, 2017. / Maintenance, Psychological Skills Training, Psychological skill use, Self-Efficacy, Self-Regulation, Sport Psychology / Includes bibliographical references. / Graig Chow, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lynn Panton, University Representative; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member; Jeannine Turner, Committee Member.

This study used data from the High School Longitudinal Study [2009-2013] to address racial/ethnic and gender similarities and differences in the relationships among behavioral engagement, self-efficacy beliefs, academic achievement in mathematics and future career choices in a sample of 23,450 ninth-graders in the U.S. The data were analyzed using the Log-linear Model Selection Multinomial Logistic Regression programs in SPSS. The results indicated that students with low behavioral engagement and low self-efficacy in mathematics were more likely to obtain very low GPAs in math, while those with moderate behavioral engagement and moderate self-efficacy were less likely to obtain low GPAs. On the other hand, students were more likely to choose math, science and technology careers only when both their behavioral engagement and self-efficacy were moderate. Whenever behavioral engagement or self-efficacy in mathematics was low, they were more likely to choose other white-collar or predominantly blue-collar careers. There were also significant variations in the relationships among the variables depending on students’ race/ethnicity and gender. Finally, students’ gender, self-efficacy in mathematics, and the interaction of behavioral engagement and self-efficacy in math were all significant predictors of students’ certainty about their future career choices. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 13, 2017. / Behavioral Engagement, Career Choice, Gender, Race/Ethnicity, Self-efficacy in Mathematics / Includes bibliographical references. / Susan C. Losh, Professor Directing Thesis; Alysia Roehrig, Committee Member; Jeannine Turner, Committee Member.

Collegiate athletes experience mental health concerns at similar rates to non-athlete students, however, the student-athlete population underutilizes professional mental health help with only 10% of those in need seeking services. Criticisms of the extant research on student-athlete mental health help-seeking include studies that lack theoretical guidance, and convenience samples who are not experiencing a mental health issue. The aim of this study was to conduct a theoretically driven investigation assessing factors of help-seeking associated with the Health Belief Model and Reasoned Action Approach while sampling student-athletes who identified as currently experiencing a personal or emotional health concern. More specifically, the purpose of this study was to investigate which factors of help-seeking behavior predict the likelihood that a student-athlete will seek professional help, and to identify the differences in help-seeking factors between student-athletes with a lower likelihood of seeking help compared to those with a higher likelihood of seeking help. Participants were 269 NCAA student-athletes who completed an online survey assessing factors related to their help-seeking behavior. A multiple liner regression reveled that perceived benefits, perceived susceptibility, and perceived attitudes factors were significant predictors of the likelihood that a student-athlete would seek treatment. Results from a one-way MANOVA showed significant differences between the lower likelihood and the higher likelihood of seeking help group on the perceived seriousness, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, instrumental barriers, stigma-related barriers, and the perceived attitudes factors. Additional information gathered in this study suggests the most frequently reported factors which prevented student-athletes from seeking help include a belief the issues they are experiencing is not that serious, or a desire to seek help from a source other than a mental health professional. Findings from this study have implications for athletic departments, campus counseling centers, and future interventions designed to enhance mental health help-seeking. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / March 7, 2018. / Help-Seeking, Mental Health, Student-Athletes / Includes bibliographical references. / Graig Chow, Professor Directing Dissertation; John Taylor, University Representative; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member; Martin Swanbrow Becker, Committee Member.

Unpredictability in expectations, resources and classroom demographics can be very demanding for teachers, particularly when they are trying to utilize effective instructional strategies. This study evaluates the association of the presence of teaching assistants (i.e., paraprofessionals) with teachers’ instructional decision-making process in the context of the demands placed on teachers by focusing on general education kindergarten and first grade teachers in a quantitative design. This study began to explore the predictive influences of the frequency of paid assistants in kindergarten and first grade classrooms on teachers’ instructional groupings and to explore the predictive influence of how prepared teachers feel to supervise assistants on their assistant’s instructional role. A sample 148 kindergarten and first grade teachers was obtained through a stratified random sample of small, medium, and large Florida school districts as well as a distribution of questionnaires through LISTSERVs (i.e., Facebook groups, professional organizations) across the United States. Data analyses for this study included descriptive statistics and correlations among all study variables as well as two multiple regressions. Findings from this study demonstrate that class size significantly predicts instructional grouping practices and frequency of a teaching assistant significantly predicts teaching assistant instructional task assignment. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester 2018. / January 26, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Beth Phillips, Professor Directing Thesis; Sonia Cabell, Committee Member; Jeannine Turner, Committee Member.

Guided by the ironic process theory and its extensions, the dissertation research aimed at (a) studying the thought suppression paradox in student athletes, (b) exploring the efficacy of an acceptance-mindfulness intervention in decreasing the thought suppression paradox, and (c) using working memory capacity (WMC) to explain individual differences on the susceptibility to the thought suppression paradox. A total of 90 NCAA Division I student athletes were recruited and randomly assigned to three conditions (i.e., suppression, control, and intervention). All the athletes performed a set of computerized complex span tasks (i.e., operation, reading, and symmetry span), and then completed a task pair in each of the two thought-control phases (i.e., amid, post). The task pair consisted of a thought-monitoring task and a two-color Stroop task. According to the condition assignment, each athlete applied a strategy for controlling the thought of a recent athletic failure when performing the task pairs, and his/her EEG was simultaneously recorded. Results generally supported the existence of thought suppression paradox and the efficacy of an acceptance-mindfulness intervention in student athletes, although WMC failed to account for individual differences. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / February 28, 2018. / acceptance-mindfulness intervention, athlete, ERP, N400, thought suppression paradox, working memory capacity / Includes bibliographical references. / Gershon Tenenbaum, Professor Directing Dissertation; Walter R. Boot, University Representative; Jonathan R. Folstein, Committee Member; Graig M. Chow, Committee Member.

This study aims to understand the frequency of emoticon usage in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) using discussion boards. It also aims to understand whether the contexts (i.e., socio-emotional versus task oriented contexts) in which emoticons are used make any difference. In addition, this study will examine whether using emoticons in online discussion boards helps communicators to exchange emotions and thus to enhance the message content. The result of the study suggests that participants use more emoticons when they are provided. Participants in socio-emotional contexts use more emoticons than they do in task-oriented contexts. The results of the study also suggest that participants in socio-emotional contexts found emoticons helpful in expressing their ideas and in understanding others' ideas, and also expressing their feelings and understanding others' feelings. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2005. / Date of Defense: June 3, 2005. / Online Discussion, Emoticon, Contexts / Includes bibliographical references. / Susan Carol Losh, Professor Directing Thesis; Alysia Roehrig-Bice, Committee Member; Allan Jeong, Committee Member.

Pedagogical agents, which are "virtual" (computerized) characters for learning, are a recent research phenomenon. While they have been studied in numerous types of computerized environments in terms of their impact on learning, motivation, attitude and other measures, no study has yet been performed replicating a human-agent social learning "virtual classroom" environment, and no study has compared the impact of a Direct Interaction (learner participates in conversation) as compared to a Vicarious Interaction (learner overhears conversation). This study sought to determine in a human-agent social learning situation the extent to which the underlying inherent processes of human-human social learning are mirrored in a human-agent social learning situation using Bandura and Schunk's recommended guidelines for social learning models (Coping and Mastery). It also sought to determine the impact of a social interaction - either "overheard" (Vicarious) or "with the learner" (Direct) – on social learning outcomes. The study examined the impact of Agent Type (Coping and Mastery) and the impact of Agent Type * Interaction Type (Coping/Vicarious; Coping/Direct; Mastery/Vicarious; and Mastery/Direct) on learner motivation (self-efficacy and anticipated satisfaction), attitudes (agent likeability and positive attitudes towards agent), social comparison activity (competence similarity, performance similarity, and evaluation comparison), positive and negative affect, and learning performance (recall, integration, and a combined recall/integration score). One hundred and three undergraduate learners from a pre-service teacher's Introduction to Technology course were randomized into five conditions, including a control condition with social model agent present but not speaking. The learning environment was an hour-long automated computerized instructional module teaching learners how to create an e-learning instructional plan in three segments: creating objectives, creating an activity plan and creating an assessment. Dependent measures were taken prior to the inception of instruction, half-way through the instruction, and at the end of the instruction after the post-test learning performance activity. In terms of Agent Type, there were significant results for Motivation (p = .052) and Self-Efficacy (p = .016), Positive Attitude (p = .046), Comparisons (p = .008), Competence Similarity (p = .021), Performance Similarity (p = .003), and all three Learning Performance results (Recall: p = .000; Integration: p = .001; and Combined: p = .000). Attitudes approached significance (p = .086). Coping Agent Type produced significantly more positive results than did Mastery Agent Type for all dependent measures except Learning Performance measures. For these, the Mastery Agent Type was much more effective than the Coping Agent Type. In terms of Time * Agent Type, there were significant results for Attitude, Positive Attitude, and Evaluation Comparison, with Comparisons (p = .083) and Performance Similarity (p = .093) approaching significance. There were no significant results for Agent Type * Interaction Type, but for Time * Agent Type * Interaction Type, Motivation was significant, and Attitudes approached significance at p = .071. Learner Positive and Negative Affect were not significant in terms of Agent Type or Agent Type * Interaction Type, but both dependent measures were highly significant in terms of Time. Over time, both positive and negative learner affect decreased across conditions, demonstrating that the other social learning processes were not affected by mood. All significant results except one were in the expected direction, with the Coping Agent Type producing more positive results than the Mastery Agent Type. However, interestingly, while the Learning Performance measures of Recall (p = .000), Integration (p = .001), and Combined (p = .000) all were highly significant, they produced the opposite result of what was expected, with the Mastery Agent Type learners producing high learning performance scores. Results indicate that in a computerized human-agent social learning experience the Coping Agent Type influences learners to have more positive outcomes in terms of the underlying processes of social learning (motivation, attitudes, and social comparison activity), but the Mastery Agent Type leads learners to have more positive learning performance outcomes. Sweller's Cognitive Load theory, Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance theory, Mayer's social conversation schema, Bandura's Social Learning Theory in terms of motivational issues, and Turner's Theory of Social Interaction explain many of the significant results, and implications for social learning theory and instructional design theory are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: May 15, 2007. / Self-Evaluation Maintenance Theory, Cognitive Load Theory, Cognitive Dissonance, Social Model, Pedagogical Agent, Social Learning, Social Interaction, Avatar, Instructional Design, Self-Efficacy, Learning, Educational Technology / Includes bibliographical references. / Amy L. Baylor, Professor Directing Dissertation; Mary W. Hicks, Outside Committee Member; Robert K. Branson, Committee Member; Gary W. Peterson, Committee Member.

Mathematics plays an important role in everyday life. Math anxiety has been one of the major reasons that students do not like math mathematics. Many efforts have been done to alleviate learner's math anxiety with respect to curriculum design, math assessment, classroom culture, and teacher attitudes. In this study, math anxiety from the GED (General Educational Development) population is addressed through emotional and motivational support provided by pedagogical agents. There are two reasons to this approach. One major reason is the inherent social nature of learning and research on learners' emotion and motivation are gaining more and more interest. The other major reason is that the embodiment nature of pedagogical agents have been recognized by researchers and the pedagogical agents become one of the ideal candidates to improve learning and influence learners' emotion and motivation in a computer-based learning environment. In this study, emotional support and cognitive motivational messages were embedded in pedagogical agents to promote learning, alleviate math anxiety, and improve leaner motivation. 109 GED students affiliated with local community college participated in this study. This study used a 2 x 2 factorial design. The two independent variables were emotional support and cognitive motivational messages and each dependent variable contained two levels: presence versus absence. The dependent measure of study includes learning, math anxiety, and leaner motivation. MANOVA analysis revealed a main effect of emotional support. Further univariate analysis showed that students who worked with emotional support agents performed better in learning and had less math anxiety than those students who worked with none-emotional support agents. No significant results were found on the main effect of cognitive motivational messages. This study shows quantitative evidence of the effectiveness of pedagogical agents as a means to deliver emotional support in a computer based learning environment. Further research is suggested to examine the adaptive nature of emotional support and cognitive motivational messages. The effect of emotional support and cognitive motivational messages in non-GED population needs to be tested. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2009. / Date of Defense: August 7, 2009. / Math Anxiety, Emotional Support, Motivation, Pedagogical Agent / Includes bibliographical references. / John Keller, Professor Directing Dissertation; Elizabeth Jakubowski, Outside Committee Member; Marcy Driscoll, Committee Member; Amy Baylor, Committee Member.

How do children's career aspirations come to reflect the social inequalities among their elders? One theorist, Linda S. Gottfredson, 1996 was interested in explaining how at-risk children come to define themselves professionally and found that career choice is an effort to position oneself in the extensive social order in which the most public, social aspects (i.e., gender, social class, intelligence) play an integral part in this process, rather than the more personal, private elements (i.e., values, personality, siblings, family plans). Given this information, the next question would be, how do we break the cycle of underachievement, poverty, and under education of at-risk youth, so that they can develop educational and career goals that are most suited to their values, interests and abilities? The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a Cognitive Information Processing (CIP) intervention structured by a standard decision-making tool, the Career Decision Making Tool (CDMT) on the career decision-state of at-risk youth. Impact is defined as the total effects, intentional and unintentional, of administering a human service intervention. Furthermore, the career decision state is defined in terms of (a) the extent to which individuals are certain of their educational and occupational choices and (b)their degree of satisfaction with their choice at a given moment in time (Bullock, Peterson, Lierer & Reardon, 2009). More simply, career decision state is defined in terms of career decidedness (certainty) and satisfaction. This study was implemented as part of an existing summer, community-based prevention and health promotion program, Project K.I.C.K. (Kids in Cooperation with Kids), housed within a local Boy's and Girl's Club. While seventy-five youth participated in some of the intervention activities, complete data were available for forty-six participants. Forty-six predominately African American (83%) adolescent youth, ages 11 – 18, attending summer camp at a Boy's and Girl's Club in a medium-sized community in North Florida participated in the intervention. The goals of the CIP interventions are to ensure that the youth are: a) given information and experiences to broaden their educational and career knowledge base; b) prepared to make an informed choice of career; and c) are equipped to develop an educational plan conducive to attaining their career aspirations. The results of this study indicated that, with respect to the development of the occupational goal decision state in terms of decidedness, certainty, or satisfaction, the means did not vary significantly across the observations, pretest, pretest, and posttest. Thus, collectively, the CIP intervention appeared to have no impact on these participants' choice of occupational goal. However, the chi-square ratios pertaining to frequencies of decidedness indicated there was a significant shift (p ≤ .05, χ2 = 32.01, df = 6) in the level of decidedness from pretest 2 to the posttest in that 5 participants indicated a first choice of occupation on the second pretest, but no participants indicated a first choice on the posttest. Thus, there was a shift toward becoming more undecided in terms of occupational goal. With regard to level of educational choice, satisfaction with choice, and certainty of choice, the CIP intervention had no significant impact on the participants' educational goal decision state. Nonetheless, there were changes from the second pretest to the posttest in terms of frequencies of individuals endorsing "Don't know" and "BA/BS degrees," with the former increasing by 8 participants and the latter decreasing by 8 participants. Thus, as with the case of occupational goals, there is a shift toward becoming more undecided in terms of educational goal as a result of participation in the CIP intervention. On a four-point helpfulness scale where 1 = not helpful, 2 = somewhat helpful, 3 = helpful, and 4 very helpful, the participants expressed that the vast majority of activities were helpful to very helpful in formulating their educational and occupational goals. With respect to the entire CDMT experience in terms of satisfaction, the participants indicated that they were satisfied with the facilitation of educational goals and occupational goals. In conclusion, the implementation of a CIP intervention structured by the CDMT appeared to provide an "awakening" experience for many of the participants regarding educational and occupational opportunities. The majority of the participants enjoyed the activities and expressed satisfaction regarding their impact on their educational and occupational goals. It appeared that this was an effective career intervention that could be improved with additional emphasis on preparing for field trips and in processing the experience afterward. The participant's responses to this career intervention were highly encouraging. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2010. / Date of Defense: April 8, 2010. / Career, Decision State, Cognitive Information Processing, At-risk Youth / Includes bibliographical references. / James, P. Sampson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carol Darling, University Representative; Gary W. Peterson, Committee Member; Susan B. Losh, Committee Member.