Over the past several decades, childhood obesity has continued to rank as an epidemic, particularly in rural, impoverished areas in the United States. Therefore, researchers have affirmed the necessity of exploring solutions to the epidemic, including the need to develop and implement programs that target at-risk behaviors of childhood obesity. In this quantitative, quasi-experimental study, the focus was to determine whether public school-based programs teaching nutrition, physical education, and dietary choices could increase the nutritional knowledge, physical activities, and dietary behaviors of students attending second and third grade in rural, impoverished communities of West Virginia. The theories that served as the foundation for this study were the health belief model, and the social ecological model. Archival pretest and posttest data regarding nutrition, physical activity, and dietary behavior was provided by three public schools in rural, impoverished communities that implemented the programs over a 6-week period. Data regarding students' nutritional, physical, and dietary knowledge and behaviors were collected before and after exposure to school-based exercise and nutrition programs. Results of paired samples t tests showed a significant increase in students' nutritional and physical education knowledge, their dietary behaviors, and improvement in 4 out of the 5 areas of physical activity that were measured. Overall, the results of this study offer insight about how school-based programs can be used to develop effective school-based nutrition, dietary, and physical activity programs for students who are at-risk for obesity, especially in rural, impoverished communities.

abstract: For this thesis a Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to investigate the robustness of three latent interaction modeling approaches (constrained product indicator, generalized appended product indicator (GAPI), and latent moderated structural equations (LMS)) under high degrees of nonnormality of the exogenous indicators, which have not been investigated in previous literature. Results showed that the constrained product indicator and LMS approaches yielded biased estimates of the interaction effect when the exogenous indicators were highly nonnormal. When the violation of nonnormality was not severe (symmetric with excess kurtosis < 1), the LMS approach with ML estimation yielded the most precise latent interaction effect estimates. The LMS approach with ML estimation also had the highest statistical power among the three approaches, given that the actual Type-I error rates of the Wald and likelihood ratio test of interaction effect were acceptable. In highly nonnormal conditions, only the GAPI approach with ML estimation yielded unbiased latent interaction effect estimates, with an acceptable actual Type-I error rate of both the Wald test and likelihood ratio test of interaction effect. No support for the use of the Satorra-Bentler or Yuan-Bentler ML corrections was found across all three methods. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Psychology 2010

abstract: Item response theory (IRT) and related latent variable models represent modern psychometric theory, the successor to classical test theory in psychological assessment. While IRT has become prevalent in the assessment of ability and achievement, it has not been widely embraced by clinical psychologists. This appears due, in part, to psychometrists' use of unidimensional models despite evidence that psychiatric disorders are inherently multidimensional. The construct validity of unidimensional and multidimensional latent variable models was compared to evaluate the utility of modern psychometric theory in clinical assessment. Archival data consisting of 688 outpatients' presenting concerns, psychiatric diagnoses, and item level responses to the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) were extracted from files at a university mental health clinic. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that models with oblique factors and/or item cross-loadings better represented the internal structure of the BSI in comparison to a strictly unidimensional model. The models were generally equivalent in their ability to account for variance in criterion-related validity variables; however, bifactor models demonstrated superior validity in differentiating between mood and anxiety disorder diagnoses. Multidimensional IRT analyses showed that the orthogonal bifactor model partitioned distinct, clinically relevant sources of item variance. Similar results were also achieved through multivariate prediction with an oblique simple structure model. Receiver operating characteristic curves confirmed improved sensitivity and specificity through multidimensional models of psychopathology. Clinical researchers are encouraged to consider these and other comprehensive models of psychological distress. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2011

INTRODUCTION: Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) is one of the most common spinal abnormalities in children, affecting 2% to 3% of adolescents in the United States. Its cause remains unclear. Many previous studies conclude that AIS may be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, with very few consistencies. Severe scoliosis is usually treated with corrective surgery, and the etiology of post-surgical pain is even more unclear and has the opportunity to affect the patient well into adulthood. STUDY AIMS: By following a monozygotic twin pair with identical DNA, our retrospective case study can control for genetic disposition, and can look toward other possible causes for the pain the patients experienced. This study attempts to shed light on the complexities of AIS and pain with a focus on environmental and psychosocial factors. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a single pair of monozygotic twins treated for AIS with comparable spinal fusion surgeries performed at a large northeast urban children's hospital. Twin A and Twin B were initially treated with a brace for their scoliosis. Despite bracing, their curves progressed and warranted spinal fusion, with Twin A having a Cobb angle of 53°, and Twin B with 50°. The surgery was conducted simultaneously at the age of 13 by two different orthopedic surgeons. At age 7.5, Twin B was treated for Ebstein's anomaly of the tricuspid valve and significant dysrhythmias. METHODS: After the patients were discharged, a comprehensive retrospective chart review of the patients' pre-op, inpatient, and post-op pain and drug regiment was conducted. The patients were also asked to note their pain as they recovered after discharge. The patients and their mother completed self-report measures of multiple psychosocial variables both before and after surgery through REDCap. A Quantitative Sensory Test (QST) was also performed by the patients to assess their sensory sensitivity and pain thresholds. Mechanical, pressure, and thermal scores were obtained with the use of von Frey hairs, a pressure Algometer, and a Thermode. The QST was administered on the patients' palm/ thenar eminence (distant non-surgical site), and on their lower back (surgical site). The QST results were compared to a previous study's median cohort data, to discern if the patients presented hyper- or hyposensitivity for that particular test. RESULTS: Due to the limitations of case studies, the results presented here should be considered strictly preliminary. Twin B experienced more significant pain during both the acute and chronic recovery phases after surgery, and showed lower sensitivities during most pre-op QST trials. Twin B also scored markedly higher on a number of sub-variables in the psychosocial surveys. A notable correlation was the parent protective measure, indicating that the mother may have been more protective of Twin B. CONCLUSIONS: What is unique to this study is that age, gender, Cobb angle, fusion length, and genetic disposition are all controlled for, allowing us to analyze the patients based on other risk factors. Twin B shows consistently higher pain scores while in the hospital as well as while recovering at home. The parent self-report measures support these findings, showing a slight bias in favor of Twin B in regards to protectiveness, which also coincides with large-scale studies. Although preliminary, it is important not to underestimate the role environmental and psychosocial factors play in post-surgical pain.

xvi, 133 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The increasing incidence of depression worldwide has led the World Health Organization to predict that depression will be the second leading global burden of disease by 2020. Since depression is often characterized by suboptimal emotion regulation, one of the potential pathways for understanding the transmission of depression risk is through the examination of early emotion regulation development, specifically in a known at-risk group: offspring of depressed parents. A substantial body of literature underscores the myriad ways in which offspring of ever-depressed parents differ from offspring of never-depressed parents, particularly in their development of emotion regulation, and level of risk for affective disorders. Emotion regulation was defined, along with its putative component dimensions, within the context of several well developed temperament models. This study examined emotion regulation in toddlers through data from the Infant Development Study, a longitudinal study of infant development which included parents from the Oregon Adolescent Depression Project and their offspring. A measurement model of emotion regulation based upon mother reports of toddler behavior was developed and tested as a first step in exploring this putative risk pathway. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test three measurement models for absolute and comparative fit. A three factor model with dimensions of Negative Affectivity, Surgency, and Effortful Control, was the best fitted model of those tested. Following this aspect of the study, structural models with outcomes of problem behavior were also tested in order to examine the concurrent and predictive validity of the measure. The best fitting model was found to be significantly associated with concurrent toddler problem behavior and predictive of later toddler problem behavior, including internalizing, externalizing, and aggressive behaviors. Recommendations are presented for future study of emotion regulation as a risk transmission pathway. / Committee in charge: Kenneth Merrell, Chairperson, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Cynthia Anderson, Member, Special Education and Clinical Sciences Joe Stevens, Member, Educational Leadership; John Seeley, Member, Not from U of 0; Jean Stockard, Outside Member, Planning Public Policy & Mgmt

abstract: Including a covariate can increase power to detect an effect between two variables. Although previous research has studied power in mediation models, the extent to which the inclusion of a mediator will increase the power to detect a relation between two variables has not been investigated. The first study identified situations where empirical and analytical power of two tests of significance for a single mediator model was greater than power of a bivariate significance test. Results from the first study indicated that including a mediator increased statistical power in small samples with large effects and in large samples with small effects. Next, a study was conducted to assess when power was greater for a significance test for a two mediator model as compared with power of a bivariate significance test. Results indicated that including two mediators increased power in small samples when both specific mediated effects were large and in large samples when both specific mediated effects were small. Implications of the results and directions for future research are then discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Psychology 2013

<p> The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality types and second language acquisition. The study addressed a problem that is inadequately investigated in foreign language acquisition research; specifically, personality traits as predictors of language learning in college students studying Spanish as a foreign language. The researcher conducted one sample t-tests to assess statistically significant differences between mean personality type score and the test value, as well as, a multiple linear regression analysis. A convenient sample of college students (n=52) completed the Neris Personality Type Indicator at the beginning of the course, and took several examinations throughout the semester. Personality traits were correlated with examination grades. The results of the analysis indicated that personality types were not related to second language acquisition. The results of the multiple linear regression analysis were not significant, F (5,46) = 0.39, p = .85, R2 = .04, indicating that the model consisting of the personality types contributed to 4% of the variance in test grade. Because the model was not statistically significant, the researcher did not evaluate the individual predictors.</p><p>

No description available.

To guide action, animals anticipate what events will occur, and when they will occur, based on experience. How animals anticipate future events is an unsettled question. Although reinforcement learning is often used to model anticipation, it is resource-intensive outside of the simplest scenarios. In this dissertation, I show evidence of memory that is persistent and carries timing information, and specify an algorithm for how animals might anticipate the identity and timing of future events. This dissertation consists of two studies. In the first study, I found that identity and timing of remembered odors are jointly represented in the same cells in the dentate gyrus and lateral entorhinal cortex. Further, odor memories persist well after new odors emerge. The study analyzed results from an experiment conducted by Woods et al. (2020) on mice passively exposed to separate odors for a period of 20 s per exposure. The results are consistent with a memory framework known as timing using inverse Laplace transform (TILT). In the second study, I constructed a computational algorithm based on the TILT memory framework to anticipate the identity and timing of future events. The algorithm generates predictions based on memories of past events, and stored associations between cues and outcomes. The algorithm is resource-efficient even when the future depends on the indefinite past. The algorithm is scale-invariant and works well with chains of events. Together, the studies support a novel computational mechanism which anticipates what events will occur, and when they will occur. The algorithm could be applied in machine learning in cases of long-range dependence on history. These studies predict that behavioral and neural responses of animals could depend on events well into the past. / 2024-03-13T00:00:00Z

Depression is a debilitating mental health disorder that has the potential to affect an individual's lifespan adversely; adolescents who reside in low-income urban environments are more at risk of developing the disorder. The purpose of this quantitative ex post facto study was to compare depression symptomatology and quality of life rates among emerging adults who enrolled and emerging adults who did not enroll in a mentorship program as an adolescent while in high school. Beck's cognitive model of depression was used as a theoretical foundation to determine how negative schemas are formed in adolescents who show symptoms of depression. The sample consisted of 128 participants from two groups who included emerging adults between the ages of 18 and 30, half of whom enrolled in a Mentorship Program in Northern New Jersey (MPNNJ) while the other half did not enroll in the mentorship program in Northern New Jersey (non-MPNNJ). ANCOVA analyses were used to investigate whether emerging adults from the MPNNJ versus non-MPNNJ reported differences in depression symptoms and quality of life rates while controlling for job satisfaction and substance use. It was concluded that The MPNNJ group reported significantly lower depression symptomatology rates and higher quality of life rates than the non-MPNNNJ while controlling for covariates, job satisfaction and substance use. Study findings provide empirical evidence to support the long-term positive effects of mentorship programs on depression symptomatology and quality of life. Community planners may be able to use study findings to design youth development programs that have long-term beneficial impacts on participants.