Existing research suggests that college students engage in concerning rates of high-risk drinking, including binge drinking, often resulting in significant alcohol related problems. The relationship between high-risk drinking and motives for alcohol use has been extensively explored in the literature, with findings suggesting that certain drinking motives are associated with dangerous drinking patterns. However, there is a great need to identify possible individual risk factors that may be associated with the development of drinking motives and high-risk drinking behavior. Recently, research has begun focusing on the relationship between individual factors, such as emotional intelligence, and alcohol use. The aim of the present research study was to investigate the relationship between high-risk drinking (i.e. binge drinking and alcohol related problems), drinking motives, and perceived and performance-based emotional intelligence (EI) in a college sample. The sample included 375 college students from colleges and universities in the United States. Participants completed an online survey which included a demographic questionnaire, the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, & Cooper, 1998), the Situational Test of Emotion Management-Brief (McCann & Roberts, 2008), the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (Cooper, 1994), the Rutgers Alcohol Problems Inventory-23 (White & Labouvie, 1989), the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (Cohen & Williamson, 1988), and open-response items related to binge drinking behavior. Statistical analyses included hierarchical and multiple regression as well as four parallel mediation analyses. Results indicated that perceived and performance-based EI are significantly associated with drinking motives and high-risk drinking, however, the strength and direction of these relationships depends upon the model of emotional intelligence examined. Specifically, lower performance-based EI was associated with higher scores on all drinking motives (i.e. enhancement, social, coping, conformity) and alcohol related problems, while higher scores on perceived EI was associated with greater enhancement and social motives and greater binge drinking frequency. Parallel mediation analyses indicated that coping and conformity motives help explain some of the relationships between EI and the high-risk drinking variables (i.e. binge drinking frequency and alcohol related problems). Implications of these results, as well as limitations of the study, are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 24, 2017. / Includes bibliographical references. / Steven Pfeiffer, Professor Directing Dissertation; Dina Wilke, University Representative; Frances Prevatt, Committee Member; Martin Swanbrow Becker, Committee Member.

This dissertation study sought to examine the extent to which both positive and negative religious/spiritual (R/S) coping practices predict adaptation to an acquired chronic illness or disability (CID). The predictive capacities of positive and negative R/S coping practices were evaluated after accounting for demographic variables, duration of disability, social support, and organizational religious activity. To gather data, a national sample of adults with physical disabilities was surveyed via Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform. Statistical analyses of relationships between variables were performed by running bivariate tests and generating two hierarchical multiple regression models. Results of the study indicated that higher educational attainment, higher yearly household income, and greater social support each significantly related to better adaptation to disability. Heightened negative R/S coping correlated inversely with adaptation. The output of a three-phase regression model showed that over and above educational attainment, yearly household income, and social support, negative R/S coping increased the explained variance in adaption by 10.8%. In fact, negative R/S coping proved to be the most powerful single predictor of adaptation in the model. Altogether, this four-factor model accounted for 39.5% of the variance in adaptation to CID. In a second three-phase regression model, the addition of positive R/S coping to demographic and social support factors did not alter the explained variance in adaptation outcomes. Results of this investigation will contribute to rehabilitation psychologists' knowledge about the relationship between positive and negative R/S coping practices and adaptation to CID. Such knowledge may assist rehabilitation practitioners in structuring screening and intervention efforts so as to reduce harmful R/S coping responses to CID onset and promote more adaptive R/S coping patterns. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 12, 2018. / Adaptation, Coping, Disability, Religion, Spirituality / Includes bibliographical references. / Deborah Ebener, Professor Directing Dissertation; Amy Burdette, University Representative; Angel Canto, Committee Member; Shengli Dong, Committee Member.

The present study investigated relationships among variables of career decidedness, satisfaction with career choice, goal instability, decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict through structural equation modeling in a sample of college students (N = 278). The Occupational Alternatives Question (OAQ; Zener & Schnuelle, 1972; modified by Slaney, 1980) and Satisfaction with Choice Question (SCQ; Zener & Schnuelle, 1972; modified by Holland, Gottfredson, & Nafziger, 1975), were used to measure individual’s career decidedness (i.e., decided or undecided), satisfaction with career choice (i.e., satisfied or dissatisfied). The Goal Instability Scale (GIS; Robbins & Patton, 1985) was used to measure the latent variable of goal instability. The Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI; Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Reardon, & Saunders, 1996a), with Decision Making Confusion (DMC), Commitment Anxiety (CA), and External Conflict (EC) subscales were used to measure latent variables of decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict, respectively. Results indicated that (a) decision-making confusion and commitment anxiety had direct effects on goal instability; (b) decision-making confusion and commitment anxiety had direct effects on career decidedness; (c) decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, external conflict, and goal instability had direct effects on satisfaction with choice. A discussion of limitations and implications for theory, research, and practice are provided. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / June 1, 2017. / Includes bibliographical references. / James P. Sampson, Jr. , Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Debra Osborn, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Gerald Ferris, University Representative; Janet Lenz, Committee Member.

Existing research suggests that college students engage in concerning rates of high-risk drinking, including binge drinking, often resulting in significant alcohol related problems. The relationship between high-risk drinking and motives for alcohol use has been extensively explored in the literature, with findings suggesting that certain drinking motives are associated with dangerous drinking patterns. However, there is a great need to identify possible individual risk factors that may be associated with the development of drinking motives and high-risk drinking behavior. Recently, research has begun focusing on the relationship between individual factors, such as emotional intelligence, and alcohol use. The aim of the present research study was to investigate the relationship between high-risk drinking (i.e. binge drinking and alcohol related problems), drinking motives, and perceived and performance-based emotional intelligence (EI) in a college sample. The sample included 375 college students from colleges and universities in the United States. Participants completed an online survey which included a demographic questionnaire, the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, & Cooper, 1998), the Situational Test of Emotion Management-Brief (McCann & Roberts, 2008), the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (Cooper, 1994), the Rutgers Alcohol Problems Inventory-23 (White & Labouvie, 1989), the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (Cohen & Williamson, 1988), and open-response items related to binge drinking behavior. Statistical analyses included hierarchical and multiple regression as well as four parallel mediation analyses. Results indicated that perceived and performance-based EI are significantly associated with drinking motives and high-risk drinking, however, the strength and direction of these relationships depends upon the model of emotional intelligence examined. Specifically, lower performance-based EI was associated with higher scores on all drinking motives (i.e. enhancement, social, coping, conformity) and alcohol related problems, while higher scores on perceived EI was associated with greater enhancement and social motives and greater binge drinking frequency. Parallel mediation analyses indicated that coping and conformity motives help explain some of the relationships between EI and the high-risk drinking variables (i.e. binge drinking frequency and alcohol related problems). Implications of these results, as well as limitations of the study, are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 24, 2017. / Includes bibliographical references. / Steven Pfeiffer, Professor Directing Dissertation; Dina Wilke, University Representative; Frances Prevatt, Committee Member; Martin Swanbrow Becker, Committee Member.

More than half of adolescents in the United States participate in organized sports (Kann et al., 2014); however, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC; 2016) found that recently increasing rates of athlete dropout were associated with poor coping skills. Before sports leaders and coaches can successfully implement trainings and programs aimed to improve athletes’ coping effectiveness, researchers must first examine the coping processes of youth athletes in order to then inform the development of evidence-based interventions (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004). To better conceptualize and understand coping among youth athletes, this dissertation studied 310 youth volleyball athletes immediately following a High Performance tryout. The athletes were compared across gender (male vs. female) and skill level (less-skilled vs. more-skilled) regarding their self-reported coping experience according to the following target variables: problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, avoidance-focused coping, stress appraisal, perceived controllability, perceived coping effectiveness, and performance self-rating. Correlational analyses revealed perceived controllability was significantly associated with coping function across the entire sample, such that greater perceived controllability was associated with more problem-focused coping, more emotion-focused coping, and less avoidance-focused coping. A 2x2 MANOVA comparing the target variables across gender and skill level revealed a significant main effect for gender, but the interaction and main effect for skill level were not significant. Post-hoc analyses indicated that males were more likely to use avoidance-focused coping compared to females. Finally, regression analyses were conducted to examine whether coping function (i.e., problem-focused, emotion-focused, or avoidance-focused), perceived controllability, and the interaction between these two variables predicted perceived coping effectiveness and performance self-rating, respectively. None of the interactions were significant, indicating that the relationships between coping function and perceived coping effectiveness were not moderated by perceived controllability; this was also true for the models predicting performance self-rating. Therefore, the interaction terms were excluded from the regression analyses, and the adjusted models indicated that greater perceived controllability, problem-focused coping, and emotion-focused coping predicted greater perceived coping effectiveness. Greater perceived controllability also predicted higher performance self-rating. Taken together, these results suggest some differences in coping according to gender and skill level. The results also suggest that youth athletes may not conceptualize effective coping according to Folkman’s (1991; 1992) matching hypothesis of the goodness-of-fit model of coping effectiveness. This dissertation’s findings have important implications for future research examining coping in sport as well as for the development and implementation of mental skills training programs for youth athletes. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / April 30, 2018. / coping, stress appraisal, youth sport / Includes bibliographical references. / Martin Swanbrow Becker, Professor Directing Dissertation; Karen Randolph, University Representative; Steven Pfeiffer, Committee Member; Graig Chow, Committee Member.

Many Black adults in the United States experience significant mental health problems in their lives yet are reticent to seek professional psychological help. This underutilization of mental health services has been documented in several studies and national reports. Various factors have been identified over the years as researchers attempted to understand the discrepancy between the psychological services that Black adults need and what they access. With the continued low level of access, researchers have begun to examine this behavior within the cultural context of the Black community. More particularly research has focused on investigating how cultural values impact health behavior and might influence the mental health behavior of Black adults in the United States. This study examined a cluster of cultural values to identify how they might be related to professional psychological help-seeking behavior. More specifically, the study investigated whether collectivism/individualism, fatalism, famalism, spirituality and religiosity would predict professional help-seeking behavior for 343 Black adult men and women from the Northeastern and Southeastern United States. Multiple regression analyses and Chi Square tests were used to analyze the data. A logistic regression model including all of the variables just noted was significantly predictive of whether professional psychological help had been sought. In subsequent univariate analyses controlling for the effects of the other variables in the model, only familism was found to be a unique predictor of professional help-seeking behavior and was negatively related to having sought help. Similar results were obtained for a linear regression examining whether the predictors together would predict intentions to seek counseling. In the presence of all the predictors, spirituality was a positively significant predictor over and above the effects of the other variables. Demographic variables (education, years in the U.S., having a family member in therapy, and having a mental health professional in the social network) were positive predictors of help-seeking behavior and intentions to seek counseling. Age was negatively related to intentions to seek counseling. The study also examined whether intentions to seek counseling could be used as a proxy to actual behavior as proposed by the theory of Planned Behavior, and this was supported by the results of a logistic regression that showed intentions to be a positively significant predictor of help-seeking behavior. Chi Square tests examining the difference between the help-seeking behavior of Black men and women found no significant difference. The implications for practice, research and training were discussed.

The notion of normality in families is socially constructed. In fact, so-called traditional families represent only 3% of households in the United States. The presence of dissimilarity in families has given rise to a deficit model, where families constructed outside of the norm are recognized as vulnerable to problems and likely candidates for intervention. At the same time, mental health practitioners indicate feeling unequipped to address the concerns of these families. Rather than assume nontraditional families are destined for maladaptive outcomes, research must investigate how family members address differences to produce strong, high functioning families. As such, the purpose of this qualitative investigation was to a) identify what transracially adopted individuals think and feel about their own race and the race of their parents/other adoptive family members, b) understand how racial differences are addressed in families formed through transracial adoption, and c) elucidate how transracially adopted individuals are affected (in childhood and adulthood) by ways in which their parents address or do not address issues of race with them. Data was collected through 13 semi-structured interviews with adults of color who were transracially adopted by White parents. Participant narratives were transcribed and then analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR). Results illustrate the complexity of identity formation and parent/child relationships in the lives of transracial adoptees. Racial messages received from family members and communities are identified, including themes of colorblindness, racial discrimination, and having no sense of belonging. Participants described various ways in which they dealt with race-related messages on their own, through methods of isolation and avoidance. They also discussed negative emotional responses to race-related encounters, such as confusion, anger, and anxiety. Participants' experiences of their own racial identity, as well as their relationship to their birth race and culture, are described. Suggestions for prospective White transracial adoptive parents are made, including the importance of incorporating adoptees' birth race and culture within family life. Finally, implications for mental health practitioners working with transracial adoptive families, limitations, and suggestions for future research are provided.

The majority of empirical work regarding the phenomenon of work-family conflict has focused on the experiences of White, middle-class, professional women. While Latinos represent the fastest growing segment of workers in the U.S. labor force, and professional employment the fastest growing segment of occupation type, the experiences of professional Latinas, for whom the dominant cultural values may not be salient, remains largely unexplored. The influence of cultural context variables on experiences of work-family conflict has yet to be understood. The present study surveyed 203 professional Latinas with children. It was expected that Latino cultural values (i.e., collectivism, familism) and traditional gender role attitudes (i.e., marianismo) would have both a main effect on levels of work-family conflict and a moderating effect on the relationship between job and family stressors and work-family conflict, such that the relationship between both kinds of stressors and the two forms of conflict (i.e. work-family conflict; family-work conflict) would be stronger for those participants who also endorsed greater levels of individualism and familism, and for those who adhered to more traditional gender role attitudes and who experienced greater conflict in relation to their gender role attitudes. As expected, hierarchical multiple regressions revealed significant main effects for job and family stressors and individualism on levels of work-family conflict. Contrary to the hypotheses, no main effects were found for collectivism, familism, or gender role attitudes. Also as expected, results indicated that collectivism appeared to moderate the relationship between family stressors and family-work conflict and familism moderated the relationships between job and family stressors and work-family conflict. Contrary to hypothesized relationships, results did not reveal a significant moderating effect for gender role attitudes. However, as predicted , the level of conflict that participants reported experiencing in regards to their gender role attitudes did appear to significantly moderate the relationship between job and family stressors and work-family conflict, such that these relationships were stronger for those participants who endorsed high levels of conflict about their gender role attitudes. Implications of these findings for future research, training, and practice were discussed.

A century of psychological research exists on the impact of unemployment on individuals. However, missing from the literature is a consideration of the social context of unemployed persons and the ways in which persons cope with their unemployment. This study sought to examine the experiences of unemployed persons in poverty, poverty being a social context frequently ignored in psychological literature. In addition, the study aimed to explore the psychological impact of these experiences, the strategies used by the poor to cope, and the appraised effectiveness of coping strategies. Participants were 21 unemployed adults living in poverty. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) methodology. Fifteen domains emerged from the CQR analysis to show that unemployed poverty is an experience of widespread disruption to daily, social, and family life. Financial hardship and social isolation were commonplace and financial hardship was expressed to be the most stressful of experiences. Participants associated a range of emotions with their unemployment including sadness, hopelessness, anger, and a sense of low self-regard. However, a variety of emotion-focused, problem-focused, and religious coping strategies were utilized to cope. Religious coping and reliance on community resources that were empowering were reported to be the most effective coping strategies. Secondary analysis was conducted by examining the frequencies of categories by gender. Women more frequently reported financial hardship and were more socially isolated than men. Additionally, women more frequently reported sadness and hopelessness. The results are discussed with consideration to socio-political context of poverty and recommendations made for clinical practice and future research.

Lesbians of color exemplify persons with multiple, marginalized identities. Scholars theorize that they are susceptible to racist, heterosexist, and sexist discrimination. Given the multiple pathways of discrimination, scholars postulate that lesbians of color are susceptible to adverse mental health outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorders, and decreased life satisfaction (Williams and Williams-Morris, 2000). However, most literature on lesbians of color and mental health is primarily theoretical or conceptual while empirical evidence is limited. Further, the scant literature on lesbians of color that exists primarily explore Black and/or Latina lesbians, while very little is known about the mental health of Asian American and Native American lesbians. The purpose of my research study was to explore how Asian American lesbians' mental health is affected by the convergence of multiple societal oppressions such as racism, heterosexism, and sexism (N=167). Additionally, I explored how both enculturation and unsupportive social interactions among Asian American lesbians moderates the relationship between mental health and perceived experiences with racism, heterosexism, sexism. Perceived experiences with racist, heterosexist, and sexist events were each measured by Asian American Racism-Related Stress Inventory (AARRSI; Liang, Li, and Kim, 2004), Heterosexist Harassment, Rejection, and Discrimination Scale (HHRD; Szymanski, 2006), and Schedule of Sexist Events (SSE; Klonoff and Landrine, 1995), respectively. To measure each moderator, level of enculturation and unsupportive social interactions, the study utilized Asian Values Scale (AVS; Kim et al., 1999) and Unsupportive Social Interactions Inventory (USII; Ingram, Betz, et al., 2001), respectively. Lastly, mental health outcomes were measured by Mental Health Inventory (MHI; Veit and Ware, 1983). Correlation analysis and multiple regression analyses evaluated the relationship among these variables. Results indicated that heterosexist events uniquely predicted mental health, unsupportive social interactions were predictive of mental health, and unsupportive social interactions significantly moderated the relationship between perceived experiences with racism and mental health. Limitations and implications future research and clinical practice are discussed.