Using the G8 countries’ (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States) samples from the 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), this study aimed to explore the phenomenon of double jeopardy in mathematics achievement for socially disadvantaged students. Double jeopardy is a situation of dual penalties where coming from low socioeconomic status (SES) families and attending low SES schools results in concurrent penalties at both the student level and school level in mathematics achievement. This study examined the phenomenon of double jeopardy in the G8 countries across four school locations: rural regions, towns, cities, and metropolitan areas. This study also examined four separate definitions of socioeconomic status in order to determine the effectiveness of each definition. The four definitions corresponded to four SES measures utilized in this study: father’s SES, mother’s SES, family occupation SES, and combined family SES. Multilevel analysis with students nested within schools indicated that significant double jeopardy effects varied according to SES measure, school location, and country. However, the majority of the double jeopardy effects across all the variables were large in magnitude. Furthermore, the combined family SES and the metropolitan school location were often the most sensitive SES measure and school location, respectively, to double jeopardy in the G8 countries.

Whether the stated goal of a program is to improve health, reduce crime, or to increase standard of living, the ultimate goal of social programs is to improve overall quality of life. An adequate measure of this outcome would help determine whether achievement of these more specific goals (e.g., health, education) really leads to improvements in overall life quality, and would allow trade-offs to be made in terms of funding across programs. However, an understanding of the determinants of life quality (i.e., the mechanism by which a program did or did not have its intended effect) is also essential to program evaluation and the design of future programs.This study constitutes the analysis of an existing dataset of individual traits, life circumstances, satisfaction with a list of 30 life domains, and overall quality of life for 193 healthy elders to test a hypothesized model of the determinants of life quality. As expected, domain satisfaction appears to be a function of life circumstances. Individuals' traits (e.g., age, sex, personality) modify this relationship, but neither they, nor respondents' reports of domain importance, appear to have any direct effect on quality of life. Instead, domain satisfactions alone are the most proximal determinants of overall quality of life. It also appears that individuals respond differently in terms of overall quality of life to reductions in satisfaction with certain domains than to increases. These findings should be evaluated further as they could affect the design of future successful programs. Because individuals' traits and individuals' ratings of domain importance seem to have no effect on the relationship between domain satisfaction and overall quality of life, it may not be essential to measure these in future studies. Finally, although the data on life domains available to this study were sufficient to generate these results, the first step in the development of adequate measures of overall quality of life and of domain satisfactions will be the construction of a comprehensive, fully-representative list of the life domains that comprise life as a whole.

Grounded in Bronfenbrenner's (1979) Ecological Systems Theory and through the application of cross-classified random effects models, the goal of this study was to examine simultaneously neighborhood and school influences on adolescent academic achievement and risk of obesity, as well as the moderating effects of schools on these outcomes. By examining concurrently neighborhood and school influences on achievement and risk of obesity, this study aimed to fill gaps in the social determinants literature. For example, it is unclear if where an adolescent lives or where she/he attends school has a stronger influence on academic achievement. We also do not know if schools can moderate neighborhood influences on adolescent achievement, nor do we know much about the relationships among schools, neighborhoods, and adolescent risk for obesity. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement study, four research questions were investigated: (1) To what extent are neighborhood influences on U.S. middle and high school students' academic achievement moderated by school environments? (2) What are the relative influences of neighborhood and school environments on U.S. middle and high school students' academic achievement? (3) To what extent are neighborhood influences on U.S. middle and high school students' risk of obesity moderated by school environments? (4) What are the relative influences of neighborhood and school environments on U.S. middle and high school students' risk of obesity? Findings did not suggest a moderating relationship between neighborhood and school factors examined in this study. In terms of relative relationships with academic achievement, three neighborhood factors (affluence, racial composition, and urbanicity) and two school characteristics (student body racial composition and school socioeconomic status) appeared to have the strongest relationships with adolescent achievement after controlling for individual and other neighborhood and school characteristics. For adolescent risk of obesity, neighborhood affluence and racial composition had statistically significant unique associations, whereas no school factors evidenced statistically significantly relationships with risk of obesity after controlling for other factors. Results of the study were interpreted in terms of contributions to the social determinants literature, as well as recommendations for the improvement of future large-scale surveys.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT; Johnson, 2004) is an empirically validated approach to couple therapy that uses attachment theory to understand the needs and emotions of romantic partners. In EFT, relationship distress is conceptualized as resulting from negative affect, emotional disconnection, and unmet attachment needs. Although EFT is recognized as one of the most researched and effective approaches to couple therapy, little research has examined theoretically related characteristics of couples to changes in marital satisfaction throughout EFT. The present doctoral thesis examined this area of literature. Thirty-two couples were provided approximately 21 sessions of EFT. The goal of the first study was to identify intake characteristics related to change in marital satisfaction over the course of EFT. Couples completed self-report measures of marital satisfaction, attachment security, relationship trust, and emotional control at pre- and post-therapy and after each therapy session. Individuals higher on self-report attachment anxiety and higher levels of emotional control had greater change in marital satisfaction over the course of EFT. The goal of the second study was to examine intake levels of attachment security and its relationship to the occurrence of the blamer-softening event, a key change event in EFT, and changes in marital satisfaction. Results indicated that the occurrence of a blamer-softening event significantly predicted positive changes in marital satisfaction. Results also suggested that the occurrence of a softening event significantly moderated the relationship between attachment avoidance at intake and change in marital satisfaction from pre- to post-therapy. For couples who completed a blamer-softening event, partners with lower levels of attachment avoidance were more likely to have positive changes in marital satisfaction. However, this relationship was not evident for attachment anxiety. Overall, results from this thesis suggest that attachment security is a key characteristic of couple partners for therapists to consider when implementing EFT. Therapists may benefit from assessing attachment security at the start of therapy to help inform them of the emotion regulating strategies used by couple partners. This information may help therapists to tailor specific interventions such that couples may begin to develop more secure attachment bonds.

Exposure therapy has received a great deal of support as an effective treatment for social anxiety. However, not all those who undergo exposure therapy improve, and some of those who do respond continue to report significant levels of symptoms. A theorized mechanism of change for exposure therapy is extinction learning. Extinction learning is believed to occur across exposure sessions during which new associations are formed and stored in memory. Individuals with social anxiety are prone to engage in post event processing (PEP), or rumination, after social experiences, which may interfere with extinction learning, and thus attenuate response to treatment. The current study examined whether PEP limits treatment response to two different exposure based treatments, a group based cognitive behavioral intervention and an individually based virtual reality exposure therapy among participants (n = 75) diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. The findings suggested that PEP decreased as a result of treatment and that social anxiety symptoms for those with greater amounts of PEP improved at a slower rate of change than those with lower levels of PEP. Implications for the role of PEP on treatment response are discussed.

Parent child communications about sex play an important role in influencing adolescent’s sexual behaviors and attitudes. The present study was conducted to examine how sexual communications between African American mothers and their children change over a period of three years in the areas of sex education, communication about risk reduction, and child and parent report of responsiveness. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses found significant linear or curvilinear trajectory in communication with sons and daughters in all areas. Gender differences were found such that daughters received more communication than sons. Furthermore, daugthers’ sexual maturation was found to be associated with a decrease in the rate of decline of communication about general sex information. For sons, mothers decreased in rates of responsiveness as sons got older; however, as sons’ sexual maturation increased, rates of declining responsiveness slowed down.

The effects of program fidelity, gender, socioeconomic status, and school level were tested on various outcomes of a dating violence prevention program, Expect Respect. Fidelity data was collected from program facilitators, and individual posttest scores were gathered for individuals nested within each programmatic site. Multiple HLM models indicated that main effects for fidelity were present for the knowledge gained outcome scale, such that higher program fidelity led to higher posttest scores for participants. No other site level predictors affected outcomes or the fidelity-outcome relationship. Results from this study point towards the importance of implementing program fidelity when cognitive gains are a central goal of the program, whereas a more flexible program approach may be more optimal in conveying other programmatic components.

Program evaluations are increasingly assessing the impact of treatment delivery and program processes on outcomes. The current study examined the effects of program fidelity, measured across various dimensions, and relationship quality on behavior change and knowledge gained outcomes in 241 middle and high school students who were participating in Expect Respect, an evidence-based dating violence prevention program. Cross-level, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses found that program fidelity was not a significant predictor of participant outcomes. However, main effects for relationship quality were present for the knowledge gained outcome measure. Subsequent cross-level interactions provided further support for the importance of relationship quality in prevention program outcomes.

A large body of evidence supports the notion that chronic stress and strain may impact healing from physical trauma. However, no evidence exists to substantiate whether chronic stress impacts recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage. In this study, a group of 31 undergraduate weight-training students completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Undergraduate Stress Survey (USQ, a measure of life event stress) a series of fitness tests and then returned 5 to 10 days later for an exhaustive resistance exercise stimulus (E-RES) workout. This workout was performed on a leg press to the cadence of a metronome to ensure a strong eccentric component of exercise. Participants were monitored for 1 hour after this workout and every day for 4 days afterwards. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) multi-level growth curve analyses demonstrated that stress measures were related to recovery from maximal resistance exercise for both functional muscular (maximal isometric force, jump height, and cycling power) and psychological (perceived energy, perceived fatigue, and soreness) outcomes. Stress was not related to outcomes immediately post-workout (except maximal cycling power) after controlling for pre-workout values. Thus, the effect of stress on recovery is not likely due to magnitude of disruption from maximal exercise. After controlling for significant covariates, including fitness and percent disruption from baseline, individuals scoring a 10 on the PSS at their first visit reached baseline 288% (2.88 times) faster than individuals who scored a 19 at this same time point. There were significant moderating effects of stress on affective responses during exercise. Feeling (pleasure/displeasure), activation (arousal), muscular pain and RPE (exertion) trajectories were moderated by stress. Exploratory analyses found that stress moderated physical recovery, but not psychological recovery in the first hour after the E-RES workout. Also, stress was related to the increase in IL-1[beta], a pro-inflammatory cytokine, in the 48 hour period after exercise for a sub-set of participants. These findings likely have important theoretical and clinical implications for those undergoing vigorous physical activity. Those experiencing chronic loads of stress and mental strain should include more rest time to ensure proper recovery. / text

This work presents an evaluation of a reform teaching practice, known as peer-led guided inquiry, that combines guided inquiry and cooperative learning for college chemistry teaching. Integral to implementing the reform in a large class (greater than 100 students) was the role of peer leaders, undergraduate students who have successfully completed the target course. These peer leaders facilitated cooperative learning groups during weekly guided inquiry activities in general chemistry. The evaluation, using data collected over a 3-year period, had two main foci: effective teaching and promotion of equity in the classroom. Both of these aims were evaluated using hierarchical linear models. The reform was found to be effective, with a progressive increase in the test scores of those students in the reform classes versus the students in the traditional classes. Furthermore, students in the reform outperformed their counterparts on an externally-constructed national exam. Both findings also held true when controlling for student SAT scores. Effectiveness is not sufficient cause for recommendation amid concerns that distinct groups of students may be disadvantaged by a reform. The evaluation therefore had special concern for students who were at significant risk of low performance in a college chemistry course, such as those with poor high school preparation. No evidence was found that the reform made the situation worse for these students; in fact, the reform was determined to be effective regardless of preparation as measured by SAT scores. In addition, formal thought ability was found to be an important factor in chemistry performance, independent of SAT scores, with low formal thought ability placing students at-risk. The evaluation data indicated that the reform may have allowed students who entered the course with low formal thought ability to overcome this disadvantage, though this effect could be attributed to chance. Finally, to understand further the students in this setting beyond cognitive factors, an inventory of student study approaches was administered. Three specific approach profiles were prevalent: surface, surface achieving and achieving. Two less prevalent approach profiles, deep and deep achieving, were related to better understanding of chemistry as measured by the national exam.