This study sought to identify any smartphone usage with significant positive or negative relationships with the religiosity of LDS young adults, with the hypothesis that smartphone usage would indeed have significant relationships with religiosity, both positively and negatively. Over 1,000 BYU students were surveyed for their usage of 36 popular and religious apps and of 33 different categories of content consumption, their content sharing, and compulsive use. That data was compared with their private religiosity (prayer, scripture study, and thinking seriously about religion) and religious experience (strength of beliefs, feeling the Spirit, finding strength through their faith, etc.) BYU students' smartphone usage is outlined, with Facebook dominating social media use and most students studying their scriptures on their phones. BYU students' religiosity is outlined, revealing a very believing and actively religious student body. Different forms of smartphone usage do have very significant associations with private religiosity, both positive and negative. Smartphone usage behaviors shown to have the greatest negative relationship with religiosity, are, in descending order: consuming "erotic/pornographic" content, "LGBT news or personalities" content consumption, consuming content about "Video gaming", using the Netflix app, and using the Snapchat app. Smartphone usage behaviors shown to have the greatest positive relationship with religiosity, are, in descending order: "LDS teachings and doctrine" content consumption, using the Bible Videos app, using the Gospel Library app, using the LDS Tools app, and using the Mormon Tabernacle Choir app.

Coping plays an important role in human adaptation and well-being. However, surprisingly little is currently known about the normative development of coping. The ‘coping families’ framework, outlined by Skinner and colleagues (2003), provides a promising approach to the study of coping in developmental samples. The current examination tested the coping families approach in emerging adults. A total of 425 individuals (63.5% female), aged 18-31 years (M age 25.04 years), were recruited online through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to complete questionnaires on demographic information, personality, childhood adversity, stress, coping behaviors in response to an interpersonal problem, mental health, emerging adult identity, substance use behaviors, and competence. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) examined the structure of coping behaviors. Bivariate correlations were used to examine associations between age and coping behaviors, and regression analyses examined associations between coping behaviors and various adaptive and maladaptive outcomes. EFA results yielded partial support for the coping families approach. Correlations between age and coping were not significant, suggesting that there were no meaningful age shifts in coping in the present sample. Lastly, regression analyses suggested that coping behaviors significantly predicted some adaptive and maladaptive outcomes, after statistically accounting for potential confounding variables, such as personality and childhood adversity. Findings are integrated within existing research and implications for applied work are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to determine how youth and emerging adults use television as a platform to discuss religion and to express their religious, social, and political anxieties. Through a textual, genre, and audience analysis of three case studies--"Supernatural", "Battlestar Galactica", and "Joan of Arcadia"---this paper argues that the apocalypse genre is the most effective for attracting youth and young adult audiences. "Supernatural" and "Battlestar Galactica" each successfully used the apocalypse genre ("Supernatural as a sub-genre of fantasy, and Battlestar Galactica" as a sub-genre of science fiction) and had large young demographics. "Joan of Arcadia" was a teen soap opera/serial drama that used a realism narrative in its portrayal of religion, and was prematurely cancelled because it did not have the young audience that it's network desired. The apocalypse genre is attractive to youth and young adults, because it allows them to express their religious and social anxieties in a way that is less intimidating because the setting does not directly correlate with their society.

The energy drink market increased 240% between the years 2004 and 2008 and is expected to continue to grow. Growth of this market is concerning because energy drink consumption has been associated with a variety of health risk behaviors including increased marijuana use, sexual risk-taking, fighting, alcohol consumption, but little research has explored the relationship between energy drinks and dietary behaviors of emerging adults. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between energy drink consumption and diet among a sample of emerging adults. Participants included 585 undergraduate students from a large, public US university (m age=18.7; 47% non-Hispanic White, 20.9% Hispanic, 25.5% Asian, 2.7% non-Hispanic Black, and 4.4% other; 56% Female). Using an online survey, students self-reported energy drink consumption and dietary behaviors. Past week and past month energy drink consumption was measured with single items asking the number of times and the number of days the student consumed an energy drink, respectively. Dietary behaviors measured included soda, diet soda, milk, sweet snacks, salty snacks, fruits, vegetables, breakfast, frozen food meals, fast food meals, and restaurant meals consumption in a usual week. Summing responses to items including weekly consumption of milk, fruits, vegetables, and breakfast created a healthy eating index. Similarly, summing responses on items including weekly consumption of soda, diet soda, sweet snacks, salty snacks, frozen food, fast food, and restaurant food created an unhealthy eating index. Linear regression analyses were run to determine the associations between energy drink consumption and the individual dietary behaviors as well as the healthy and unhealthy eating indices. All analyses controlled for gender, race/ethnicity, and body mass index (BMI). Additional models were run with gender as a moderator to determine if the associations between energy drink consumption and dietary behaviors differed by gender. Overall, 17.5% of students consumed energy drinks at least one time in the past week (12.6% male, 5.0% female), and 38.1% consumed energy drinks on at least one day in the past month (22.7% male, 15.4% female). Increased past month energy drink consumption was associated with a higher score on the unhealthy eating scale (B=0.25 (SE =0.13), p=0.001), soda consumption (B=0.11 (SE =0.05), p=<0.001), and diet soda consumption (B=0.07 (SE =0.04), p=0.007), and a lower score on the healthy eating scale (B=-0.27 (SE=0.17), p<0.05). Increased past week energy drink consumption was associated with a higher score on the unhealthy eating score (B=0.80 (SE =0.28), p=<0.001), soda (B=0.25 (SE =0.10), p=0.003), diet soda (B=0.20 (SE =0.09), p=0.003), pre-packaged salty snacks (B=0.16 (SE =0.09), p=0.04), and frozen meal consumption (B=0.16 (SE =0.05), p=<0.002). No moderation effect was found by gender. Results suggest that those students who consume more energy drinks also consume more unhealthy foods and beverages. Given these associations, it is important that interventions aimed at addressing diet quality, overweight, or obesity rates within this population also consider the implications of energy drink consumption as a risk factor. / text

Doctor of Philosophy / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Amber V. Vennum / Belonging to groups has been found to lead to many positive outcomes, including acting as a buffer for maladaptive coping behaviors, in the lives of emerging adults. Less is known about how belonging may act as a protective factor to engaging in unhealthy behaviors, less is known in regards to how group coping norms of the groups emerging adults belong to impact the motivations for coping and subsequently coping mechanisms. Further, belonging is a necessary component to life; however, less is known about how emerging adults understand what it means to belong. This dissertation includes two studies focused on belonging in emerging adulthood. Both studies utilized participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk). In study 1, a quantitative study (N = 438) was conducted to further explore how group coping norms moderates the associations between group belonging and individual motives for coping. Additionally, coping behaviors were included to understand how belonging to groups is associated with coping motives and coping behaviors. Results from study 1 indicated that while belonging was not significantly predictive of motivations and functions of using specific behaviors, unhealthy group coping norms were positively predictive of motivations for and functions of behaviors for coping purposes. Moreover, the interaction term (belonging X unhealthy group norms) yielded one significant path indicating that belonging to groups may be protective of using sex to cope even when unhealthy group norms are present. Additionally, belonging was negatively associated with drug frequency and positively associated with healthy supportive and self-soothing coping. Further, several coping motives were positive predictors of both unhealthy and healthy coping behaviors. In study 2, a qualitative study (N = 422) using open-ended questions was conducted to hear from emerging adults about their experiences of belonging. A thematic analysis approach was used to code participant responses before categorization and identifying themes. Participant responses indicate that emerging adults belong to groups based on personal identity, religious and spiritual affiliations, life stage and circumstances, educational group associations, professional association, significant relationships, social change initiatives, shared interests and activities, online connections. Moreover, themes outlining what it means to belong to emerging adults include embraced, increased self-confidence, greater life meaning, experience of a safety net, commonalities among group members, relationship component to group belonging, and fitting in and conformity. Before belonging to groups, results indicate that becoming a member of the group is necessary. Reasons for joining groups, group membership through intentionality, formal group entrance process, group membership as a natural process, group membership through identity formation, and group membership in an online context are all components of joining groups for emerging adults. Participants described the process of belonging with the following themes: building investment and intimacy, messages of inclusion, developing connection and community, mutual support, positive feelings that foster belonging, and individual growth and development and the process of belonging. Finally, participants identified what they get from belonging to groups which included a sense of belonging, feeling included and a part of something, personal growth needs, emotional needs, communal needs, work needs, and giving back and volunteering needs. The findings of this qualitative study indicate a need to further understand the belonging phenomenon in emerging adults across many populations. Research, clinical, and practical implications are outlined and provided.

The impact of parental depressive problems on children’s depressive symptoms has been widely studied. The Stress Buffering Hypothesis states that social support acts as a protective factor between the impacts of stress from negative life events on physical and psychological health. The current study examined the stress buffering hypothesis in terms of the relationship between parental depressive problems and emerging adult depressive problems. The differential buffering strength of both perceived social support and received social support between stress from negative life events and depressive problems were examined along with the moderating effects of parent and emerging adult gender. Neither perceived nor received social support significantly moderated the aforementioned relationship. When parental depressive problems were added to the model, the three-way interaction between received social support, perceived stress, and paternal depressive problems, on male depressive problems was significant. Other significant pathways and models were discussed.

Casual sexual relationships and experiences (CSREs) are a common phenomenon experienced by the majority of emerging adults attending college and university. Despite researchers' increased interest towards the topic of casual sex in recent years, there is a lack of validated psychometric measures that operationalize different types of CSREs and an absence of uniformity in the definitions of casual sex. Few studies distinguish clearly between different types of CSREs and few studies include a balanced approach when considering well-being outcomes (i.e., negative and positive markers). The first study of this dissertation aimed to bridge the research gap through the development and validation of the Casual Sex Experiences Scale (CASEX), which measures frequency of four types of CSREs (one-night stands, booty calls, fuck buddies, and friends with benefits). The CASEX's validity (factorial, convergent, divergent) and reliability (internal consistency) were tested in two independent samples. The results indicated that the CASEX can indeed measure the four aforementioned types of CSREs. In the second study, we examined how those four types of CSREs were related to well-being in consensual sexual interactions in a cross-sectional study. We included positive and negative markers of wellbeing. Moreover, we tested whether the relation between CSREs and well-being was moderated by sociosexual attitudes. We derived hypotheses from the theory of cognitive dissonance related to the potential moderating effect of sociosexual attitudes. Participants reported a coexistence of negative and positive well-being outcomes related to CSREs (e.g., positive and negative emotions during and following casual sex). In most cases, sociosexual attitudes did not moderate the relationships between CSREs and well-being outcomes. However, a notable exception was that sociosexual attitudes moderated relationships between CSREs and emotions experienced during and following casual sex, which was expected from the theory of cognitive dissonance. As hypothesized, the relationship between casual sex and negative emotions during and following casual sex was stronger in those participants with less sociosexual attitudes. Nonetheless, some results refuted our hypotheses, for instance, some relationships between casual sex and positive emotions during and following casual sex were stronger in those participants with less sociosexual attitudes. In other words, casual sex seemed to have been less of an emotional experience (positive or negative) in those with more sociosexual attitudes. Overall, this dissertation provides initial evidence in favour of the validity and reliability of the CASEX, which can enable to understand more nuanced relationships between experiences of casual sex and well-being among emerging adults. Findings deepened the understanding of the role of sociosexual attitudes in the relations between different types of CSREs and well-being markers.

The purpose of the current study was to observe how music affects the mood of those who suffer from anxiety and depression and those who do not. While previous research has examined this many of the previous studies have induced either physical pain or mood in participants in order to measure the impact of music. The current study, however, intends to examine how music affects mood without attempting to induce mood in participants. Six-hundred and seventy college students were given a questionnaire containing an anxiety questionnaire, depression scale, demographic questionnaire, and music listening questionnaire. Intercorrelations, ANOVAS, as well as linear regressions were performed on the data and results for the study were significant in that music was found to impact participant's anxiety and depression. Results of the current study indicate that participants' preference for alternative music and soundtracks/showtunes impacted their level of depression and anxiety.

The Parental Authority Questionnaire is a widely used measure of parenting style that assesses Baumrind’s parenting prototypes, including authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles. After the original validation on a sample of 108 high school students and 171 undergraduate students, few published studies have validated the factor structure of the Parental Authority Questionnaire across various regions, gender dyads, and ethnicities. Because research has shown that Southern states encompass characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status, rural nature, lower education attainment, emphasis placed on religious beliefs) that may uniquely affect parenting styles and practices, the current study conducted a confirmatory factor analysis on the Parental Authority Questionnaire on 4,859 emerging adult college students attending a large Southern university to determine if such regional characteristics compromise the original factor structure of the Parental Authority Questionnaire. Further, given differences found in parenting across parent-child gender dyads and ethnicity, the current study also examined the factor structure of the Parental Authority Questionnaire across gender and ethnicity using confirmatory factor analyses.

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