Popular and consumer cultures share a similar trajectory in the United States with spectacle and money being key ingredients in the construction of both. This is most apparent in the sports industry in America with billions of dollars in revenue generated every year. During the first half of the twentieth century sports like baseball and boxing commanded a significant amount of cultural and economic capital. It was not unheard of for sports teams, talented athletes and even a few select coaches to ascend to a legendary or even mythical status. The spectacle and revenue generating capacity of amateur and professional sports was considerable during this time, but it was not until the early 1960s that the true potential for an American sports was constructed. The introduction of television in the development of the National Football Leagues spectacle redefined what sports in the United States means to popular and consumer cultures. The enormity of the National Football Leagues premier annual spectacle, the Super Bowl, is a testament to the sports dominance of American popular and consumer cultures. By analyzing the National Football Leagues formative years during the 1960s and 1970s, it is my intention to demonstrate how the NFL was able to reframe its cultural product, and achieve an unprecedented social and economic status in American culture. I will employ an organization set analysis of cultural industry systems proposed by Paul M. Hirsch in conjunction with Clifford Geertz and Jerome Bruners studies on the cultural power and significance of the narrative form to trace the trajectory of the NFLs social and economic success. Popular fiction will also be included to demonstrate how thoroughly professional football infiltrated popular and consumer cultures and changed how Americans viewed televised sports. American sports have undergone amazing changes over the last century, but it was the National Football League and television that changed what the sports industry means to American culture.

Parents raising children with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience high levels of parenting stress, especially when ADHD is accompanied by comorbid Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ADHD/ODD). Children with ADHD experience difficulties with their executive functions in such areas as inhibition control, working memory, and emotional regulation. Despite evidence linking ADHD with parenting stress, and ADHD with executive function difficulties (EFDs), there is little research exploring whether EFDs within an ADHD population are associated with parenting stress. This dissertation’s main objective is to determine whether parent-reported and teacher-reported childhood EFDs are associated with elevated levels of parenting stress. A secondary data analysis was completed on a cross-section of parent and teacher completed psychiatric assessment measures for children (n=243) diagnosed with ADHD. Measures included the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, the Conners’ Parent Rating Scale and the Parenting Stress Index, Long Form. A number of important findings were produced; key of which was the finding that a strong association exists between parent-reported EFDs and Child Domain parenting stress. Consistent with prior ADHD research, difficulties with emotional control and inhibition were found to be potent predictors of Child Domain parenting stress. To a lesser degree, children’s difficulties with initiation and self-monitoring were associated with Child Domain parenting stress, suggesting that daily hassles pose challenges for parents, especially when the child attends a new school. Also important was the finding that parent-reported oppositionality partially mediated the relationship between EFDs with emotional control, inhibition and shift, and Child Domain parenting stress. Despite teachers’ reports that children displayed more severe behaviours than were reported by parents, teacher-reported EFDs were not significantly associated with Child Domain parenting stress, with a few exceptions. Although not a well-explored concept within the literature on ADHD and parenting stress, parental acceptance of the child emerged as source of Child Domain parenting stress and a potential focus for assessment and treatment. Findings from the current study suggest that early identification and intervention with emotional control difficulties and ODD are vital due to their strong association with clinically significant levels of Child Domain parenting stress.

Parents raising children with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience high levels of parenting stress, especially when ADHD is accompanied by comorbid Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ADHD/ODD). Children with ADHD experience difficulties with their executive functions in such areas as inhibition control, working memory, and emotional regulation. Despite evidence linking ADHD with parenting stress, and ADHD with executive function difficulties (EFDs), there is little research exploring whether EFDs within an ADHD population are associated with parenting stress. This dissertation’s main objective is to determine whether parent-reported and teacher-reported childhood EFDs are associated with elevated levels of parenting stress. A secondary data analysis was completed on a cross-section of parent and teacher completed psychiatric assessment measures for children (n=243) diagnosed with ADHD. Measures included the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, the Conners’ Parent Rating Scale and the Parenting Stress Index, Long Form. A number of important findings were produced; key of which was the finding that a strong association exists between parent-reported EFDs and Child Domain parenting stress. Consistent with prior ADHD research, difficulties with emotional control and inhibition were found to be potent predictors of Child Domain parenting stress. To a lesser degree, children’s difficulties with initiation and self-monitoring were associated with Child Domain parenting stress, suggesting that daily hassles pose challenges for parents, especially when the child attends a new school. Also important was the finding that parent-reported oppositionality partially mediated the relationship between EFDs with emotional control, inhibition and shift, and Child Domain parenting stress. Despite teachers’ reports that children displayed more severe behaviours than were reported by parents, teacher-reported EFDs were not significantly associated with Child Domain parenting stress, with a few exceptions. Although not a well-explored concept within the literature on ADHD and parenting stress, parental acceptance of the child emerged as source of Child Domain parenting stress and a potential focus for assessment and treatment. Findings from the current study suggest that early identification and intervention with emotional control difficulties and ODD are vital due to their strong association with clinically significant levels of Child Domain parenting stress.

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This thesis was designed to investigate differences in aggression between girls with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Forty girls with ADHD and 43 girls without ADHD aged 9- to 12- years and their mothers and teachers participated. A multiassessment methodology was used to investigate these differences, employing mothers' reports, teachers' reports, and a laboratory aggression analogue task (a computer game involving simulated girls in other rooms). The results indicated that mothers and teachers saw girls with ADHD as having much higher levels of all types of aggression assessed, including overt, relational, proactive, and reactive aggression, than girls in the control group. On the lab task, girls with ADHD used a strategy that involved more threatening and bragging comments, and social exclusions of their co-players. Expected differences on some of the lab task measures did not emerge. Also, according to mothers, teachers, and the results from the lab task, girls with ADHD were significantly less prosocial than girls in the control group. Where significant group differences had been found, follow-up tests generally indicated that girls with ADHD and comorbid oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) were more aggressive than girls in the control group, with girls with ADHD but not ODD falling in between. In sum, these results indicate substantial cause for concern for the concurrent and future psychosocial well-being of girls with ADHD.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is commonly conceptualized as a disorder of negative affect and low effortful control. Currently, it is unclear whether temperament and personality traits associated with negative affect and effortful control can be useful assessment tools for identifying ODD early during development. This study examined the relationship between temperament and personality traits and ODD in a clinical sample of preschoolers. Results suggest that, at this age, temperament and personality traits of negative affect and neuroticism and effortful control and conscientiousness/agreeableness are not associated with one another. High negative affect, low conscientiousness, and low agreeableness were all specifically associated with the angry/irritable (vs. argumentative/defiant, vindictive) ODD symptom domain; however, the traits did not predict change in symptoms over time. Lastly, low conscientiousness predicted ODD-related impairment, while negative affect and agreeableness interacted to predict impairment such low agreeableness appears to be a primary pathway to impairment, and high negative affect appears to be a secondary pathway. Overall, this study suggests high negative affect, low conscientiousness, and low agreeableness are associated with ODD. Early assessment of these traits may be clinically useful in identifying children at risk for ODD, given that they may be early markers for ODD symptoms and impairment.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Rosemary Tannock. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-81).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Includes bibliographic references (p. 91-100).