The current study investigates the relationships between mother-toddler attachment security, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), sociodemographic risk, and parenting stress utilizing the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study (FFCW) longitudinal data set, a nationally representative sample of 4,898 unmarried births. The FFCW oversampled non-marital births from urban, low-income, minority individuals, and the current study utilizes self-report data from mothers during Waves 1, 3, and 6. Sociodemographic risk (Gedaly & Leerkes, 2016) is defined as the potential for increased negative impacts of maternal age at birth, maternal education level, maternal household income, and maternal race on child development due to genetic and/or societal impacts. Data on these variables are collected at Wave 1 per mother report. Mother-toddler attachment security was assessed at Wave 3 using the Toddler Attachment Sort-39 (TAS-39; Bimler & Kirkland, 2002) and parenting stress was evaluated during the same wave. Autism diagnosis in children was evaluated at Wave 6 per parent report. Children in the sample were more likely to be diagnosed with ASD if their mother earned greater than a high school education and identified as White. Results indicated that maternal race influenced both mother-toddler attachment security and the diagnosis of ASD in the sample. White mothers reported higher mother-toddler attachment security when compared to both Black and Hispanic mothers, and children of Black mothers were less likely to have a diagnosis of ASD when compared to children of White mothers. Additionally, toddlers with ASD were less secure at age 3 years when compared to their neurotypical peers. ASD, Black maternal race, and Hispanic maternal race predicted a decrease in mother-toddler attachment security, and both higher maternal education and maternal household income predicted an increase in mother-toddler attachment security. Although mothers of children with ASD reported higher levels of stress when compared to mothers of neurotypical children, parenting stress was not found to moderate the relationship between ASD and mother-toddler attachment security. Parenting stress did, however, negatively impact attachment security. The results of this study provide insight into the unique challenges faced by families with ASD during critical periods of child development and how race may correlate with both the diagnosis of ASD and mother-toddler attachment security. Multicultural considerations at diagnosis and neurodiversity as well as recommendations for family-centered interventions are discussed.

The great economic forces that built American industrial cities also quickly left them abandoned. Scholars have written extensively on the social consequences of deindustrialization. Today, however, a new period of economic growth has again changed cities. A process of redevelopment, commonly referred to as gentrification, has changed the character of former industrial cities, producing an array of new civic tensions. The new people entering cities come for job opportunities in growing economic sectors (e.g., tech, finance, and creative industries) that tend to require higher levels of education. While these sectors grow, traditional working-class jobs continue to dwindle in number and pay. This creates a polarizing force inside cities. While social polarization is often discussed as an abstract macro-level phenomenon, even abstract forces must manifest in specific places. The gentrifying neighborhood is one such place. Inside gentrifying neighborhoods, residents must contend with new people amidst profound change. My research addresses this change. It seeks to better understand what holds modern communities together (or fails to) especially as the fates of residents diverge. Gentrification provides the social context for this research, but the focus is on a specific neighborhood-level institution: the local church. I use a religious institution as the primary mode for accessing the research site for several reasons. Religious institutions are uniquely positioned to directly address issues of community, identity, and morality. That is, at church, residents engage the issues I am exploring. They discuss how to treat outsiders, how to be a good neighborhood, and how to deal collectively with community problems. Moreover, few scholars have considered the role that churches play in neighborhood gentrification, despite the prominent role of churches in communities, and despite the overall attention that gentrification has received. In order to access the perspectives of both sets of residents—the long-term residents, and the gentrifying newcomers—this research examines two churches, each populated by a different neighborhood demographic. The first church is composed of younger residents who are gentrifying the neighborhood. The second church is composed of older residents who have spent most of their lives in the neighborhood. While the two churches are divided by age, the real divide is economic. That is, the younger residents belong to an educated and prosperous class that benefit from redevelopment. The older residents, in contrast, are working-class and mostly relegated to watch as their neighborhood transforms, sometimes making them feel like outsiders. The neighborhood that constitutes the research site is Fishtown, an “urban village” in Philadelphia, long known as a white working-class enclave with a reputation for insularity. This research explores how two churches, composed of separate sets of residents, sustain community and deal with conflict in a context of increasing polarization. I use thirty-two interviews, ethnographic observation, and analysis of documents (i.e., historical land use maps and newspapers) to understand the history of Fishtown, and the role of the two churches in affecting and contending with gentrification. The research shows the enduring power of race in attenuating class divisions within the neighborhood. Gentrification is often fraught with racial tension as the gentrifying class is often whiter and wealthier than the long-term residents of a neighborhood. In Fishtown, however, this dynamic is different. The long-term residents share the same predominantly white racial identity as the newcomers. I argue that the shared identity diffuses social tensions but raises difficult questions regarding the true nature of the growing cosmopolitanism of the former urban village. Ultimately, the division within the neighborhood partitions residents into two parallel communities. This partition includes the two churches, who remain divided, even as they engage their respective residents, marshal resources for the underprivileged, and participate in a shared faith tradition. I show how the laudable activities of each church are shaped by the economic currents that rapidly change the neighborhood. / Sociology

The current study examined the relationship between religiosity, spirituality and marital satisfaction among Muslims who identified as African-American or Black to identify the best predictors of marital satisfaction. Religiosity was measured using modified versions of the subscales found in the Psychological Measure of Islam Religiousness (Raiya, 2008). Spirituality was measured using the Intrinsic Spirituality Scale (Hodge, 2003) and Marital Satisfaction was measured using a modified version of the Couples Satisfaction Index (Funk & Rogge, 2007). The study consisted of 194 participants, mainly from the east coast of the United States. Results of the study illustrate that religiosity and spirituality, as measured in this study, did not correlate with marital satisfaction. Results show strong correlations between the number of prior divorces, joint prayer with spouse and agreement on religion with marital satisfaction. Spirituality in Islam did not predict marital satisfaction better than religiosity. Marital satisfaction was predicted by the number of prior divorces – if someone was previously divorced a number of times, the chance of a future divorce was higher; joint prayer with spouse – if couples prayed more together, it indicated that they were more satisfied in their marriage; and agreement on religion – if spouses agreed with each other on religion, they enjoyed greater levels of marital satisfaction. / Educational Psychology

Master of Science / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Farrell J. Webb / The Food Sufficiency Status Model is a conceptual model that was devised to help explain why some individuals are at an increased risk of becoming food insufficient. This model proposes that there are four factors that can influence an individual’s food status they are—demographics, family status/household size, food risk factors, and depression. This study uses data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 2007-2008)—Flexible Consumer Behavior Survey Module (n = 3,413), collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The overall results generally supported the Food Sufficiency model and explained 22% (R[superscript]2adj = 0.215) of the variance in food sufficiency in the study’s population.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Sandra M. Stith and Amber Vennum / Ending a college dating relationship is common as college coeds begin trying on romantic relationships for size. Ending the relationship because the relationship has become violent can add more complexities to an already unpleasant task. This study was an attempt to better understand the stay/leave decisions for college women who were victims of dating violence and whether or not these decisions differed for college women who were involved in violent versus non-violent dating relationships. Structural equation modeling was used to explore the factors that influenced the likelihood of female college students’ dating relationships to end using Choice and Lamke’s (1999) two-part decision-making model. In summary, victims reported greater relationship distress, less attraction towards someone other than their partner, less relationship safety, lower relationship efficacy, less social support, and fewer good friends than non-victims. Results also indicated that college women’s consideration of “Will I be better off?” was more important in the decision to leave a dating relationship than their perception of “Can I do it?” In addition, results from Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) modeling found that, while victims believed they were more likely to be better off leaving their violent, dating partners, they felt less able to actually leave the relationship than their non-victim counterparts. MIMIC modeling also found that being a victim or not of dating violence did not predict breakup directly. These findings have important implications for prevention and treatment of dating violence and can be used to further the research in the area of dating violence, college students, and stay/leave decisions.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Judy Hughey / Assessment of parenting stress and child acting-out behavior was measured via pretest and posttest over the length of a seven-session parenting program, the Becoming a Love and Logic Parent program (BLLP). All participants (n=86) were randomly placed in either a seven-session BLLP program group (n=56) or placed on a waitlist (n=30) and offered the BLLP program following the completion of the posttest. The BLLP program is a widely used parenting program with limited data available as to the effectiveness of the program. The data that are available utilizes the Becoming a Love and Logic Parent Before and After Questionnaire. A measurement tool designed specifically to measure the BLLP program. This study utilized two measurement tools widely used to evaluate parenting programs, the Parenting Stress Index/Short Form (PSI/SF) and the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI), in hopes of providing data that can be compared to other parenting programs. Levels of parenting stress were measured with a widely used index, the PSI/SF. The PSI/SF provides a Total Stress (TS) score and scores from three scales measuring different aspects of parenting stress: Parental Distress (PD), Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction (P-CDI), and Difficult Child (DC). Child acting-out behavior was measured with the ECBI. The ECBI measures disruptive child behavior using two scales: Intensity scale and a Problem scale. The intensity scale provides information regarding the frequency of certain acting-out behaviors, and the problem scale provides information as to whether or not parents view that particular behavior as problematic. All participants were parents or caregivers of elementary school students from a large suburban school district near Kansas City, Missouri. The group was homogenous in nature and had higher income and education levels than the average for the district and state, making it difficult to generalize finding from the study. Due to time and space limitations and attrition, the sample size of the study was small (n=86), which likely contributed to the outcome of the study. The six hypotheses were not supported in this study. Though a decrease in parenting stress occurred for both treatment group and control group participants, there was not a statistically significant difference between the two groups on any of the PSI/SF scales. Child acting-out behavior also decreased for both the treatment group and the control group; however, there was not a statistically significant difference between the two groups. Further study on the effectiveness of the BLLP program is recommended.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Melinda S. Markham and Karen S. Myers-Bowman / The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the phenomenon of social networking sites (SNSs) and its impact on practicing human service professionals. In this exploratory study, 33 interviews, comprised of family life educators and social workers, were conducted in order to gain the perspective of how SNSs were being used in practice. A phenomenological approach was used to get at the lived experiences of these professionals. In addition, a Johari Window lens provided a way to understand the level of transparency professionals had when interacting with the digital culture. Themes found described how SNSs were being utilized in practice. These centered on benefits to the agency, clientele, and to the professional. The changing technological climate was shown to be impacting the delivery of services, yet professionals were underutilizing SNSs in practice. Regardless if the professional was on or offline, being recognized as a professional was extremely important. As a result, professionals were cognizant of potential consequences of using SNSs for professional and personal use. This awareness not only led professionals to want to safeguard their privacy, but also provided an opportunity for these professionals to develop guidelines for ethical digital behavior. Implications for research include exploring how a person’s digital status should be defined, if at all, how do privacy and ‘connecting’ influence each other, and what is the impact of viewing others’ posts on the ego strength of the person. The biggest implication for practice was the need for specific policies designed around professional digital behavior. In the absence of specific guidelines, professionals established their own set of rules to guide their practice. However, as more agencies and professions begin to see the need for and develop policies for SNS use, professionals will need to assimilate these new guidelines into their practice.

Doctor of Philosophy / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Charlotte Shoup Olsen / Farrell J. Webb / Homelessness has become an enduring fixture of contemporary United States society. Female veterans face a host of unique challenges; females often carry the burden of serving in the armed forces, while balancing marriages, motherhood, and care giving responsibilities in their home lives. As the veterans return to their lives as civilians, the females who served in the military must deal with the possibility of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape while in the armed services. Female service members are twice as likely to have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD) than their male service members and are three to four times more likely to become homeless. Understanding this view of homelessness from the female veteran’s perspective is limited due to small sample sizes in previous research efforts. However, with the increasing numbers of homeless female veterans it is imperative to understand the risk factors. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted using a modified framework for studying vulnerable populations. The study was designed to explore the meaning of homelessness from the female homeless veteran’s perspective. Second, risk factors were examined for homelessness and the services necessary for the female veteran to exit the homeless cycle. Third, the data were coded and analyzed to identify patterns and commonalities of multiple psycho social factors such as unstable family support, domestic violence, job loss, affordable housing options, substance abuse, mental and physical health issues. These factors were cited as the leading risk factors contributing to the homeless state of this sample of female veterans. The data collection consisted of ten homeless female veterans participating in a private, audio taped interview using a semi-structure interview tool. Resources listed as a necessity to end homelessness consisted of affordable housing, job security, earning a living wage income, transportation, remaining drug free, and being awarded disability. The pathway to homelessness varied for each participant, but they all demonstrated a tremendous amount of resiliency.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Jared R. Anderson / Sandra M. Stith / Adoption trends have shifted in the past two decades and as a result, could impact established assumptions about behavior problems among adopted children. A comprehensive meta-analysis was published in 2005 attempting to come to more definitive conclusions regarding adoption behavior and moderators of adoption behavior. However, the study used a sample from over a dozen countries over a 44 year span. This study is a meta-analysis that has replicated many of the questions investigated by the previous analysis with a much more recent 15 year sample of adoptees placed only within the United States. The results show that combined international and domestic adoptee samples, as well as separate international and domestic adoptee samples are more likely to have total, externalizing, and internalizing behavior problems than their non-adopted counterparts. In addition, age at time of assessment, gender of adoptees, and length of time spent with adoptive family may moderate some of the behavior problems experienced by adoptees. Pre-adoptive adversity, age at time of assessment, and study quality were not shown to have moderating influence on behavior of adoptees.

abstract: In the present research, elements of the intra- (i.e., family dynamics) and extra-family (i.e., characteristics of parents' occupations) contexts were examined in a longitudinal design as associated, broadly, with individuals' mental health, relationship quality, and future orientations among Mexican American families with adolescent offspring in two separate studies. The first study reviewed the utility of applying dyadic data methods to the investigation of family processes, explored the strengths three different analytic approaches (i.e., the actor-partner interdependence model, a two-intercept model, and a difference model), and applied them to the study of marital relationships (N = 246 marital dyads). Results revealed that spouses' marital negativity was related to their own somatic symptoms, whereas, spouses' somatic symptoms were associated with both their own and their partners' marital negativity, with some variations by approach. This study suggested the three analytic approaches, though designed to answer slightly different questions, yielded a similar pattern of results with several important differences. The second study utilized a person-centered approach to identify family-level patterns of both mothers' and fathers' objective occupational characteristics (i.e., self-direction, hazardous conditions, physical activity), as well as the larger sociocultural context of these patterns (N = 160 dual-earner families). Results revealed three distinct occupational contexts: Differentiated High Physical Activity, Incongruent, and Congruent High Self-Direction. Results indicated that families in the Congruent High Self-Direction profile had the highest levels of youth career aspirations, whereas, educational aspirations were the highest among youth in both the Incongruent and Congruent High Self-Direction profiles. Youth-mother and -father conflict was highest in the Congruent High Self-Direction profile, and youth-father warmth was highest for families in the Differentiated High Physical Activity profile. This study suggested that Mexican American parents work in varied occupational contexts, and these contexts were differentially associated with family relationships and youth's orientations toward the future. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Family and Human Development 2012