The co-occurrence of anxiety disorders (ADs) and disruptive behavior disorders affects a substantial proportion of children and may cause significant impairment in functioning. Approximately 40% of clinic-referred youth with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) meet criteria for an AD (Greene et al., 2002). In spite of the frequent co-occurrence of these disorders, there is little research examining the presence of AD in clinic-referred samples of youth with ODD. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to 1) examine the phenomenology of clinic-referred youth with ODD/AD as compared to youth with ODD alone, and 2) explore the role of cumulative family risk (CFR) in predicting level of impairment in youth with comorbid ODD/AD as compared to youth with ODD alone. There was mixed support for distinct clinical profiles among youth with ODD/AD as compared to youth with ODD alone: youth with ODD/AD had higher levels of anxiety, internalizing symptoms, and parent psychopathology whereas youth with ODD alone had higher levels of conduct problems, hyperactivity, and attention difficulties. However, there was little support for the role of CFR in predicting impairment in youth with ODD/AD. Future research should enlist a multi-informant, multi-contextual approach in examining the role of CFR in predicting impairment levels for youth with comorbid ODD/AD. / Ph. D.

abstract: Internalizing symptoms are prevalent among adolescents, especially among Latinos, and can have negative consequences on health and development. Understanding the risk and protective factors leading to internalizing difficulties among Latino youth is critical. The current study sought to assess the effects of family risk and peer social rejection in the seventh grade on internalizing symptoms in the tenth grade, and the potential buffering effects of social support from family and from friends, among a sample of 749 Mexican American youth. Structural equation modeling was used to examine pathways from seventh grade family risk and peer social rejection to internalizing symptoms in the tenth grade. Perceived social support from family and perceived social support from friends were tested as moderators of these relations. Gender differences in these pathways were also assessed. Results showed that family risk did not predict tenth grade internalizing symptoms, but that peer social rejection predicted increased internalizing symptoms for girls. Furthermore, buffering effects were not confirmed; rather social support from both friends and family had no effect on the relation between family risk and internalizing symptoms, and high levels of social support from both sources amplified the effect of peer social rejection on internalizing symptoms. Secondary analyses suggested that at low levels of social support from both sources, peer social rejection predicted decreased internalizing symptoms for males. Limitations and implications for prevention and future research are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2015

This study extracted descriptive information and analyzed content in 23 children's books related to military deployment using a coding instrument entitled, “Military Bibliotherapy Coding Instrument for Children's Books,” developed for this study. Additionally, the content from the books was compared to themes found in current research literature. The books were not as racially diverse as the military population. Books for black children are underrepresented with only 8% of books having black characters compared to the 16.9% black population in active duty military service. The most prevalent response to the deployment of a loved one described is sadness with 65% of the books describing this response. Finding ways to keep the main character and the deployed person connected is the most prevalent coping strategy described in the books (82%). A surprising find is that pride in the deployed person's military service is described as a coping strategy in some of the books although it was not found in the research literature. All phases of deployment were described with the exception of reintegration. No books addressed this important phase of deployment. Information from this analysis will assist parents, educators and mental health professionals in selecting books for bibliotherapy use that align with the unique circumstances and characteristics of military children. Information presented will also inform and encourage publishers to seek out and publish books to more adequately meet the demographics and meet the unique experiences faced by military children.

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This work deals with finding out the opinions and experiences of children from the asylum house to addictive substances and mapping the occurrence of other risky forms of behavior. Another aim of this work was to investigate and describe the risk and protective factors involved in risk behavior. The starting point for this work is that many researches point to the occurrence of risk behaviors among children and adolescents, and to the growing number of single-parent children,often ending in shelters. The theoretical part deals with the description of the use of addictive substances and the occurrence of risk behavior in the school population, as well as explanation of terms such as risk behavior and risk and protective factors. In addition, the individual chapters in the Theory are dedicated to family, school, peers, social exclusion and asylum homes. The practical part describes the process of the survey itself. The research group consisted of three children aged between 9 and 11 in one asylum house, a case study. The research set was chosen by the method of deliberate institutional selection. Half-structured interviews were used in the research, which was subsequently analyzed by encoding, segmentation and categorization of data. There were eight categories that emerged from interviews with...

A b s t r a c t This thesis is a part of the project concerning risk factors of manifestation of specific learning disabilities in children at risk of dyslexia. Specifically, it deals with the development of morphology in children with family history of specific learning disabilities. Children in preschool and early school age have been repeatedly within three years tested with a diagnostic tool called Test of morphological awareness based on the Test of language (Žlab, 1992). The aim of the study was to map the development of several sub-areas of morphological skills (gender forms, plural nouns, past tense and 3rd person singular verb, adjectives derivation and grammatical agreement). Several issues were concerned. First, whether the development of children in this age group is still ongoing and so if the performance is improving. Second, whether there are differences in the development of children from an intact group (with normal speech development) and a risk group (children from families where at least one parent has suffered from specific learning disabilities). Third, whether is the development influenced by intelligence or sex. Performance of children was also assessed qualitatively with respect to specific language features included in the monitored areas of morphology. The conclusions of each...

A b s t r a c t This thesis is based on two projects which follow one another and which deal with study of development of language and literacy skills in children at risk of dyslexia. The thesis describes the development of morphological awareness in children with specific language impairment. The level of morphological awareness was repeatedly tested during three years at children in preschool and early school age with the Test of morphological awareness. This method was prepared on the basis of Žlab's Test of language awareness (1992) and maps development of several subareas of morphological skills - gender forms, plural nouns, past tense and third person singular verb, adjective derivation and gramatical agreement. Several issues were concerned. First, whether the development of children in this age group is still ongoing and whether the Test of morphological awareness can measure this ongoing. Second, whether there are differences in the performance of children from normal speech development group (control group) and specific language impairment children group, where according to the disorder the morphological deficits can be expected. Qualitative analysis of observed subareas of morphology was also performed. The conclusions of analysis are discussed in the context of theoretical approaches, current...

In the context of both projects Enhancing literacy development in European languages, work package 2 and The early literacy development and its variability in children at risk of specific learning disabilities, we monitored child development of literacy in preschool age and during the first years of school attendance in a four-stage process. The research group (n = 76) compound of typically developing children (BV = 37), children with the family risk of dyslexia (RR = 22) and children with specific language impairment (NVŘ = 17). We evaluated development of phonemic/phonological, lexical/semantic and morphological/syntactic skills, preliteracy skills and early literacy skills. The last fifth test stage included the assessment of literacy development in 3rd graders. First, a group of children with literacy deficits (n = 9) was identified via the latent profile analysis method. Subsequently, four predictive models of literacy deficits for each stage were created by means of lasso or L-1 penalized regression method. Predictive models follows the trend that until literacy skills are fully automatized (preschool age and the 1st grade), phonemic and phonological skills predominate, but later - after the formal learning to read and write proceeds - early literacy skills are becoming more and more...