The importance of cognitive development in children's understanding of health-related concepts (e.g., illness, medical personnel) has been demonstrated. Such a developmental progression, however, has not been investigated with regard to children's conceptualization of pain, despite implications found in both the research literature and clinical lore concerning the importance of developmental issues in the experience of pain for children. / Seventy-nine healthy children attending pre-school through eighth grade, and 36 children from a medical pain population participated in an interview to determine their Piagetian stage of cognitive development, conceptualization of the definition, cause, and treatment of pain, and locus of control orientation. Pain understanding was assessed with a questionnaire developed for this study which demonstrated high interrater reliability and internal consistency. / Cognitive developmental groups differed in level of pain understanding, with a significant progression in children's understanding of the concept of pain as they proceed through each stage of cognitive development. No significant effect on pain understanding was found for either diagnosis or gender. Although previous pain experience contributed to the prediction of pain understanding, neither previous experience nor locus of control significantly impacted on children's understanding of pain. The role of cognitive development, locus of control, and prior pain experience on pain understanding is discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-10, Section: B, page: 4293. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

Divorce is estimated by 1990 to affect one third of all children under 18. In 90 percent of divorces involving children, the mother has primary child custody. While some divorces may have a positive impact, a survey of research literature suggests that divorce usually has a negative impact on the development of children and that an important variable mediating that impact may be the quality of parenting by recently-divorced, single-parent mothers, who may be in crisis over new demands upon their skills and energy. Researchers hypothesized that both mother and child would be better off if the mother gained more skill in structured, rational and nurturing parenting, an authoritative parenting style. / To test this hypothesis, an experiment was conducted with ten volunteer, recently-divorced, single-parent mothers with sons in elementary school. To optimize insight into individual mother's experience, a single-subject design was employed, which used both multiple-baseline/between subject and experimental/control group comparisons. Seven mothers were assigned, by order of arrival, to a nine-week, low-cost, behavioral parenting treatment believed to develop authoritative parenting skills. The three control mothers were given a parallel experience in which they discussed popular magazine articles on divorce. Data were collected on indices of crisis (depression, anxiety, and helplessness), child behavior problems and social competence, and maternal parenting behavior, using both self-report and structured home observations. / The data support the claim that the parent training had a positive impact on child behavior problems and social competence but did not have a consistent impact on maternal parenting styles. Nor was it possible to attribute the general improvement of the mothers on the indices of crisis to the treatment. It appears that, despite the fairly restrictive criteria for inclusion, the recently-divorced, single-parent mothers differed widely in their circumstances and needs. Each experimental mother seems to have chosen from the parenting treatment according to her circumstances and needs in such a way as to benefit her son but not to affect a uniform change in parenting. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-10, Section: B, page: 4303. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

The crisis of divorce affects up to forty percent of all marriages. Each year, two percent of all children are affected by divorce. The events of separation and divorce are characterized by multiple changes in family structure, parent-child relationships, living and visitation arrangements, and the family's social support system. / This study proposed that intervening with single-parent fathers and their elementary-aged children would lead to increased family functioning, decreased emotional upset, and increased positive father-child interactive behaviors. Twelve fathers requested treatment; eight completed the program. Of the eight fathers who completed the program, six received a nine-week program of behavioral parent training and communication training. Two fathers received a nine-week contact control condition, consisting of reading and discussing divorce-related articles from the popular literature. A single-subject AB design was used, with five replications of the experimental treatment and one replication of the control condition. In-home behavioral observations and objective reports of anxiety, depression, locus of control, child behavior and knowledge of child management principles allowed for demonstration of treatment effects. Implementers of treatment and behavioral observers were unaware of the study's hypotheses. / The four fathers who dropped out of treatment, and implications for future research with single-parent families are discussed. It was concluded that intervention with recently separated, single-parent fathers and their children at this time of crisis can result in valued improvement, less so in parental behavior change, and more so in father and child attitude and affect, and that a structured educational program of parent training and communication training allows for somewhat greater improvement of father-child functioning than does divorce education alone. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-08, Section: B, page: 3533. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the short-term effects on children of exposure to parental violence. Sixty-five children (ages 6-15), from a psychiatric inpatient facility were divided into three groups based on previous exposure to physical violence between the parents and their own experience of physical abuse by the parents. The groups were compared for aggression, somatic complaints, the presence of depression and peer problems. Mothers and teachers of children from each group were administered the Child Behavior Checklist. Mothers completed the Beck Depression Inventory. A 2 x 3 ANOVA showed a significant main effect for sex across groups, with boys having a higher number of incidents than girls in all groups. A sex x group interaction was found for somatic complaints with girls from violent homes being more likely to somatasize than their male counterparts. Chi square analysis failed to find significant group differences for depression or peer problems. Although younger children in Group 2 (Violent, No Abuse) were more likely than their older counterparts to have peer problems. Mothers from violent homes rated their children as more deviant than control mothers. However, when their BDI scores were used as a covariate, differences disappeared. Teacher ratings across groups were not significantly different. When mother and teacher ratings were compared, there were no differences except for Group 2 (Violent, No Abuse). The study points to the need for ratings of children from sources other than mothers and the importance of attempting to partial out the effects of a child experiencing and witnessing abuse. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-08, Section: B, page: 3540. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

Objective: There is substantial variability in early diagnostic features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), suggesting heterogeneity in clinical presentation. The present study aims to identify distinct profiles of social communication skills that predict ASD. Method: The Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS) Behavior Sample was completed on 981 children at 16-24 months. All children also received a follow-up evaluation at 2-5 years. Two types of decision-learning trees, random forests (RF) and conditional classification and regression tree (CART), were used to analyze CSBS unweighted raw scores to predict diagnostic outcomes of ASD, developmental delay (DD), and typical development (TD). Results: RF results identified gaze shifts and gaze/point follow as the strongest predictors in differentiating diagnostic status. Six additional robust predictors were selected for inclusion in the conditional CART model. Nine profiles emerged and demonstrated an overall classification accuracy of 82.2%. The profile that predicted the largest proportion of children with ASD included low scores on the following CSBS items: gaze shifts, acts for joint attention, understanding, and distal gestures. Another subgroup of children with ASD demonstrated a typical number of gaze shifts, but deficits in gaze/point follow and initiation of joint attention. A third profile, highly predictive of TD, included developmentally appropriate scores on gaze shifts, gaze/point follow, rate of communication, and understanding. T-tests were conducted on children with ASD to examine characteristics of children accurately and inaccurately classified by the conditional CART model. Compared to children correctly classified, misclassified children demonstrated better social communication skills between 16-24 months, and higher verbal and nonverbal developmental levels, fewer restricted/repetitive behaviors, and comparable social communication autism symptoms between 2-5 years. Conclusion: Children diagnosed with ASD demonstrated nine different combinations of social communication skills between 16-24 months of age, suggesting heterogeneous behavioral presentations in the second year of life. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 19, 2017. / Includes bibliographical references. / Amy M. Wetherby, Professor Directing Thesis; Chris Schatschneider, Committee Member; Michael J. Kofler, Committee Member.

Impulsivity is often implicated as a factor that facilitates the transition from suicidal thoughts to behaviors; however, findings to date are mixed as to whether this effect is direct or indirect through an increased acquired capability for suicide. These discrepancies may be due to heterogeneous conceptualization and operationalization of impulsivity. The present study aimed to clarify the nature of the relationship between impulsivity and suicidal behavior by investigating relationships between two characterizations of impulsivity—negative urgency and an inability to delay reward—and past number of suicide attempts and the medical lethality of those attempts. Participants (N = 167 undergraduate students, 80.2% female), aged 18 to 43 years (M = 19.31, SD = 2.64) completed measures of their negative urgency, ability to delay reward, and number of past suicide attempts, and were interviewed about the lethality of their past suicidal behavior. Results indicated that negative urgency had a direct association with past suicidal behavior; this was not accounted for by the acquired capability for suicide. Inability to delay reward was unrelated to suicide attempt frequency. Negative urgency, inability to delay reward, and acquired capability were unrelated to suicide attempt lethality. Overall, these findings suggest that a tendency to act rashly in the face of negative affect may lead to increased engagement in suicidal behavior, but not influence the lethality of that behavior, whereas an inability to delay reward may not be related to suicidal behavior. Future research should examine other characterizations of impulsivity in a variety of samples to better understand the nature of the relation between impulsivity and suicide. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. / Spring Semester 2017. / March 2, 2017. / delayed reward, impulsivity, lethality, negative urgency, suicide, suicide attempts / Includes bibliographical references. / Thomas E. Joiner, Professor Directing Thesis; Jesse R. Cougle, Committee Member; Colleen M. Ganley, Committee Member.

Both psychological and physiological data support the concurrent validity of distinguishing between bulimia nervosa (BN) and purging disorder (PD) based on the presence vs. absence of binge-eating episodes, respectively. However, limited data exist on the predictive validity of this distinction. Differences in outcome or predictors of outcome would support the clinical utility of distinguishing between the two disorders, a key criterion for diagnoses within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The current study sought to describe the long-term outcome of PD and compare that outcome to BN and to examine cognitive (shape/weight concerns), cognitive-affective (depressive symptoms, loss of control eating), and behavioral (eating episode size) predictors of outcome. Exploratory analyses tested if predictors of outcome differed between diagnoses and examined physiological (leptin and postprandial cholecystokinin response) predictors of outcome. Women (N = 217; N = 84 PD, N = 133 BN) were invited to completed diagnostic interviews and questionnaires at a mean (SD) of 10.60 (3.72) years following baseline assessments. Two outcomes were examined: eating disorder status and purging frequency. Of the women sought, 94% were successfully located, and 58 PD and 91 BN participated. Diagnostic stability was observed at follow-up, but outcome did not differ between PD and BN. Within PD, greater depressive symptoms predicted a lower likelihood of remission, and lower leptin levels predicted higher purging frequency at follow-up. Within BN, no variables predicted eating disorder status at follow-up. Fewer shape/weight concerns, greater loss of control eating frequency, and a larger postprandial cholecystokinin response each predicted a higher purging frequency in BN at follow-up; however, these models should be interpreted cautiously due to difficulties with model fit. Exploratory analyses indicated that baseline diagnosis did not significantly moderate associations between predictors and outcome. Taken together, results do not provide conclusive support for distinguishing between PD and BN based on outcome or predictors of outcome. Findings may reflect the longer duration of follow-up in this study compared to prior work. More work on empirically supported treatments in PD, and potential differences in response between PD and BN, are needed to fully evaluate the clinical utility of distinguishing between PD and BN and to inform diagnostic schemes. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 16, 2018. / bulimia nervosa, loss of control eating, outcome, purging, purging disorder / Includes bibliographical references. / Pamela K. Keel, Professor Directing Dissertation; Mark Winegardner, University Representative; Thomas E. Joiner, Committee Member; Norman B. Schmidt, Committee Member; Diana L. Williams, Committee Member.

Emotional eating, or eating in response to negative emotions, represents a valuable construct of study due to its transdiagnostic nature (Habhab, Sheldon, & Loeb, 2009; Masheb & Grilo, 2006) and associations with obesity (Laitinen, Ek, & Sovio, 2002). As such, research on emotional eating could inform interventions that would be applicable to individuals with both full threshold and subclinical eating pathology. While research supports a relationship between increased negative affect and emotional eating, limited empirical work has tested the role of cognitive biases in the link between negative affect and emotional eating. This represents an important avenue for research due to the theoretical role cognitive biases play in models of binge eating (Heatherton & Baumeister, 1991). The present study recruited N = 90 women as either control (n=40) or emotional eating participants (n=50) to complete a self-report questionnaire battery, an implicit computer test of cognitive biases, a speech task stress induction, and an ad lib test meal. Participants with emotional eating had higher levels of negative affect and cognitive biases than individuals without such symptoms. Implicit and explicit cognitive biases significantly mediated the relationship between group and global negative affect. However, negative affect did not significantly mediate the relationship between cognitive biases and food consumption following stress. Given that our hypotheses were partially supported, further examination of the relationship between cognitive biases and emotional eating is warranted to determine if there is potential benefit in modifying cognitive biases to reduce emotional eating symptoms. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / May 14, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Pamela K. Keel, Professor Directing Dissertation; Debra Fadool, University Representative; Thomas Joiner, Committee Member; Walter Boot, Committee Member; Jesse Cougle, Committee Member.

Reliance on self-reported screening for suicide risk may be contributing to a lack of progress in suicide prevention, in part, because of limitations related to stigma, ambivalence, and deception in responding. One change to potentially mitigate these issues and improve screening effectiveness is to allow for explicit selective disclosure of information, specifically by including a “prefer not to disclose” option in screening items. This study aimed to achieve the following: (1) investigate whether selective disclosure is a valid and reliable construct of suicide risk among high risk populations, (2) identify causal mechanisms and moderators of selective disclosure, and (3) investigate the relationship between selective disclosure and death/suicide implicit association (d/s-IAT). These aims were investigated using online self-report surveys across three independent samples of adults in higher-risk and lower help-seeking populations, and who reported high current distress: Military and veterans (n = 135), men over age 50, (n = 187), and LGBTQ young adults (n = 140). Across groups, results indicated that selective disclosure was highly specific to individuals who reported higher risk for suicide, and was prevalent in approximately one out of four participants who endorsed some level of suicide risk. Above and beyond explicit report of suicide risk, reported inaccuracy of risk disclosure, low help seeking, and hopelessness were the only predictors significantly associated with selective disclosure across all groups. Qualitative results also highlighted the importance of “mistrust,” “misunderstanding,” and “fear of stigmatized consequences” as drivers for selective disclosure. Personality traits and mode of assessment did not appear to affect likelihood for selective disclosure. Implicit association to death/suicide was significantly associated with explicit report of suicide risk across all groups, but was not associated with selective disclosure. These results suggest that adding explicit selective disclosure choices to suicide risk screening items is unlikely to substantially increase screening sensitivity, as nearly all selective disclosers self-reported elevated suicide risk. However, allowing for and evaluating explicit selective disclosure among suicide risk reporters may provide useful information for risk assessment and follow-up, and preemptively addressing drivers for selective disclosure before or during suicide risk screening may increase screening effectiveness. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / July 10, 2018. / IAT, Non-Disclosure, Risk Assessment, Suicidality / Includes bibliographical references. / Thomas E. Joiner, Professor Directing Dissertation; John Taylor, University Representative; E. Ashby Plant, Committee Member; N. Brad Schmidt, Committee Member; Natalie Sachs-Ericsson, Committee Member.

Dysfunctional reward processing and disinhibitory tendencies have been highlighted as central to the development and maintenance of substance use disorders (SUDs). The literature emphasizes two different interpretations of the reward dysfunction observed in individuals with SUDs – one being that substance-free reward dysfunction arises as a consequence of repeated substance use, and the other being that substance-free reward dysfunction is mainly a liability for subsequent substance use. Further complicating these accounts are recent findings demonstrating a moderating role of disinhibition on the relationship between reward sensitivity and SUDs. The proposed work aimed to address these unresolved complexities in the literature by examining interactions between disinhibition and neural reward sensitivity (operationalized via nucleus accumbens [NAcc] activation in the monetary incentive delay [MID] task) in predicting substance problems assessed concurrently and across time. While disinhibition showed to be a robust liability factor for substance problems, demonstrating strong predictive value both concurrently and prospectively, age 14 NAcc activation was not related to substance problems as a main effect nor in an interactive manner. Additionally, dysfunctional NAcc activation was not a consequence of adolescent substance use either, as substance problems from age 14 to 19 was not predictive of the change in NAcc activation between age 14 and 19. However, NAcc activation appeared to be a concurrent co-determinant of substance problems at age 19 – disinhibition and NAcc activation interacted to predict substance problems such that those high in disinhibition with blunted NAcc activation showed the most problems. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester 2018. / August 8, 2018. / Drug/Substance Use, Neuroimaging, Reward Sensitivity / Includes bibliographical references. / Christopher J. Patrick, Professor Directing Thesis; Greg Hajcak, Committee Member; Christopher Schatschneider, Committee Member.