Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1988.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Faculty of Social Service Administration, August 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 153 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes bibliographical references (p. 118-127). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-144). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

abstract: Stress responses play a central role in the development of psychopathology. Coping efforts, one subset of stress responses, have been shown to influence the relations between stress and adjustment. Although the relations between youths' coping and emotional and behavioral outcomes are well-documented, less is known about the factors that predict youths' coping. Given their importance for adaptation, understanding influences on youths' coping has important implications for developmental theories and preventive interventions. The current study examined the main and interactive effects of positive parenting and youths' temperament on youths' coping efforts and coping efficacy one year later in a sample of 192 youth aged 9-15 years when assessed initially. Data used were from the first and third waves of a four-wave, prospective, longitudinal study of families where one or both parents recently became unemployed. Positive parenting was measured with a combination of mother-report, child-report, and observational measures. Temperament was assessed with mother-report, child-report, and/or teacher-report measures. Children reported on their coping. It was hypothesized that positive parenting, effortful control, and surgency would be positively associated with active coping and coping efficacy, and negatively associated with avoidant coping. Further, it was hypothesized that the relations between positive parenting and youths' coping would be stronger for youths low in effortful control or surgency. Structural equation modeling with latent variables revealed no significant main effects of positive parenting, effortful control, or surgency on youths' coping efforts or coping efficacy. Path analyses revealed no significant positive parenting by temperament interactions in the prediction of youths' coping efforts or coping efficacy. Several significant correlations between measures of positive parenting or surgency and youths' coping emerged. The pattern of correlations provided some support for the hypothesized relations. For example, aspects of positive parenting (e.g., maternal acceptance) and youth surgency were associated with more adaptive coping both concurrently and longitudinally, whereas an aspect of negative parenting (i.e., maternal rejection) was associated with less adaptive coping both concurrently and over time. Potential explanations of the unexpected findings and future directions for understanding the role of parenting and youths' temperament in youths' coping efforts and coping efficacy are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2010

abstract: The constructs of compliance and temperament play an important role in children's school liking and engagement, and these constructs may differ between typically-developing children and children with autism because of the deficits associated with autism. The present study examined group differences among temperament, parent and child behaviors in a compliance context, and school liking and how these processes related to each other. This was the first study to examine school liking in children with high functioning autism and to explore the associations among school liking, temperament, and compliance in this population. Participants included children with high functioning autism (n = 20) and typically-developing children (n = 20) matched on language and mental age, and their parents. Compliance to a parent was observed in a laboratory setting, and temperament and school liking data were collected using parent-report measures. The findings revealed that children with autism had significantly lower Effortful Control (EC) and school liking scores than typically-developing children. However, there were no group differences in compliance, and no significant relation was found between temperament and compliance. Additionally, school liking scores were related to compliance and EC. These findings are discussed with respect to implications for potential future research and use of interventions for children with high functioning autism. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Educational Psychology 2011

This longitudinal study investigated how parent, child, and family characteristics influence each other during the transition to parenthood. Participants were 98 cohabiting couples who were expecting their first child. Couples participated in data collection during the third trimester of pregnancy and again when their children were one and two years old. This study aimed to understand how family dynamics and individual characteristics of parents and children influence child adjustment during the first years after the transition to parenthood, to explore the relationship between mothers’ and fathers’ parenting, and to clarify how mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of important family constructs are related during this important time. Key constructs are introduced including co-parenting alliance, parenting efficacy, temperament, ineffective parenting, and child adjustment. A review of literature aims to provide conceptual clarity among these interrelated constructs that are instrumental in early family life. Drawing from the literature review, a conceptual model grounded in family systems theory is introduced in which co-parenting, parenting competence, and child temperament predict parenting practices, which in turn interact with child temperament to predict child adjustment. Child adjustment was measured in terms of internalizing and externalizing behaviours as rated by parents. Ineffective parenting was measured in terms of self-reported lax and over-reactive parenting strategies. To investigate the relationships among mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of these variables, confirmatory factor analyses were used to test whether parents’ individual ratings on measures were indicators of a broader couple level construct. To explore the impact of parenting on child outcomes, models were tested looking at lax parenting, over-reactive parenting, and ‘see-saw parenting’, which occurs when parents use both lax and over-reactive strategies. Temperament was tested as a moderator of the effects of each of these parenting styles on child outcomes. Regarding significant findings, low parenting efficacy, difficult temperament, and over-reactive parenting were found to be the most important predictors of later behaviour problems for children, with some differences in predictors of internalizing and externalizing behaviours and some different risk factors for mothers and fathers. Ineffective parenting occurred more often for parents who perceived their infants to have difficult temperaments and for parents who felt less confident about their parenting skills. Some results were inconsistent with previous research findings. These discrepant findings are discussed. Additional exploratory analyses found that parenting efficacy mediated the relationship between difficult temperament and over-reactive parenting. Implications for research and clinical applications are discussed. / Graduate

Infants' characteristics, including temperament and cognitive ability, contribute to individual differences in language development. However, the process through which such traits influence language learning remains unclear. One possibility is that temperament and cognitive capacities affect the way in which infants learn words by influencing their ability to successfully use contextual referential cues. Social cues, such as eyegaze, pointing and gesturing, and emotional expressions, are one important type of referential cue. The present study explored the role of such social cues in the relation between infant characteristics and vocabulary in 71 18-month-olds. It was hypothesized that infants' characteristics would be associated with both their vocabulary and their use of such social cues, and that social cue use would be related to overall vocabulary. Further, it was predicted that infants' ability to use social cues effectively would mediate the relation between infants' temperament and cognitive ability, and their vocabulary. Participants watched six word-learning videos on a Tobii 1760 Eyetracker. In each video, a speaker labeled a novel object using one social referential cue. Infants' ability to use that cue to learn the object label was assessed by tracking the time spent looking toward the target object. Infants' cognitive and language abilities were assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd edition. Both parents and observers provided ratings of child temperament, and parents also completed the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences form. Both correlation and bias-corrected bootstrap mediation analyses were conducted. Temperament did not make a unique contribution to infants' vocabulary, but both cognitive ability and social cue use did. Mediation analyses indicated that social cue use did mediate the relation between early cognitive ability and vocabulary, but only for infants with lower than average cognitive ability. These results indicate that social cues may be especially important for language development in infants and young children with low IQ, possibly because they provide additional supports for word learning. This has important implications for both typically developing infants as well as young children with language disorders.

abstract: A model of the effects of early adolescents' temperament (negative emotionality and inhibitory control) and threat appraisals on resulting status in the bullying dynamic was examined. Specifically, I examined the hypothesis that negative emotionality and passive victim versus bully-victim status would be mediated by threat appraisals, and that mediated effect would be moderated by levels of inhibitory control. The study used a sample of 56 early adolescents ages 7–16. Temperament characteristics were measured using the EATQ–R (Capaldi & Rothbart, 1992). Threat appraisals were assessed using items from Hunter, Boyle, and Warden (2004). Bullying and victimization were measured using items created for this study and additional cyber bullying items (Smith, Mahdavi, Carvalho, & Tippett, 2006). A multinomial logistic regression and test of moderated mediation were analyzed to examine the model (Hayes, 2012). Higher levels of negative emotionality were correlated with being a victim of bullying. The moderated mediation model was not statistically significant, however the direction of the patterns fit the hypotheses. Future directions and limitations are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Psychology 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine whether child temperament, parent personality, and the interaction between the two would predict anxiety/depressive problems, and also whether the presence of positive factors would be related to child anxiety/depressive problems. It was also hypothesized that child mood would be predictive of symptoms of anxiety and depression, even after accounting for heritability. Participants were 106 5-year-old twin pairs and their parents, who completed questionnaires and a parent-child interaction. As hypothesized, child negative mood and parent personality were significant predictors of anxiety/depressive problems. However, their interaction was not significant. For children in the negative mood group, as their level of family conflict decreased, their score on anxiety/depression also decreased, providing evidence that low family conflict is protective. Results also revealed that anxiety/depression is heritable and that child mood was significant in predicting symptoms of anxiety and depression even after first accounting for heritability.