Browsing by Author "Finney, Jack W."

Now showing 1 - 20 of 131
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    The Ability of Four-Month-Olds to Discriminate Changes in Vocal Information in Multimodal Displays
    McCartney, Jason (Virginia Tech, 1999-05-06)
    Recent investigations into infants' intersensory perception suggest a specific developmental pattern for infants' attention to visible and auditory attributes of dynamic human faces. This work has proposed that infants' perception seems to progress along a sensory continuum: beginning with multimodal sensory cues (e.g., auditory and visual), then visual-cues alone, and finally auditory-cues alone. Additionally, research has proposed that amodal or invariant sensory information directs infants' attention to specific redundant aspects in the surrounding environment (e.g., temporal synchronicity). The current research attempted to clarify the potential methodological confounds contained in previous investigations into infant intersensory development by contrasting infant behavior within fixed trial and infant-controlled habituation procedures. Moreover, the current research examined infants' attention to auditory manipulations within multimodal displays when redundant sensory information (synchronicity) was or was not available. In Experiment 1, 4-month-old infants were habituated to complex audiovisual displays of a male or female face within an infant controlled habituation procedure, and then tested for response recovery to a change in voice. For half the infants, the change in voice maintained synchronicity with the face, and for the other half, it did not. The results showed significant response recovery (i.e., dishabituation) to the change in voice regardless of the synchronicity condition. In Experiment 2, 4-month-old infants received the same face+voice test recordings used in Experiment 1, but now within a fixed trial habituation procedure. Again, synchronicity was manipulated across groups of infants. In contrast to Experiment 1, the infants in the fixed-trial experiment failed to show evidence of voice discrimination. These results suggest that infant controlled procedures may be more sensitive to infant attention, especially in terms of complex social displays. In addition, synchronicity appeared to be unnecessary in terms of infants' ability to detect vocal differences across multimodal displays. In sum, these results highlight the importance of research methodology (e.g., infant control) and overall stimulus complexity (e.g., discrete vs. complex) involving studies of infants' intersensory development.
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    Adjustment to Childhood Chronic Illness: Prediction of Psychological Adjustment with an Investigation into Spiritual Coping
    Boeving, Charmayne Alexandra (Virginia Tech, 2000-11-03)
    Childhood chronic illness is replete with stressors that affect children's functioning across physical, social, emotional, and psychological domains. In this project, efforts were directed toward the identification and assessment of spirituality as a potential addition to the approach-avoidance paradigm of coping response. Twenty-two children diagnosed with either cancer or sickle cell disease were interviewed, along with their mothers, regarding psychosocial adjustment and typical approaches to coping with stressors. Children completed depression, anxiety, and quality of life questionnaires. Child participants were also asked to rate how often they utilized specific spiritual and general coping strategies in the month prior to the assessment. Mothers completed measures of depression and spiritual well-being, as well as parent proxy reports on their children's quality of life and use of spiritual coping. A factor analysis of the spiritual coping measure designed for use in the study (the Spiritual Coping Module) indicated strong support for the theoretically driven factors of religious and existential coping. Children's use of coping did not significantly account for heightened quality of life, nor for the presence of depressive and anxious symptomatology. However, maternal spiritual well-being accounted for 52.5% of the variance in self-reported maternal depression. Results are discussed in the context of improving children's adjustment to chronic illness through increased understanding of the child's and family's pattern of coping responses.
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    Adult Cancer Survivorship: An Evaluation of Survivorship Care Planning and Follow-Up
    Kelleher, Sarah A. (Virginia Tech, 2014-05-05)
    Over 1 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer in a given year and currently there are approximately 12 million cancer survivors in the United States. With improved detection strategies and medical advances, the number of cancer survivors continues to rise, making survivorship care an increasingly important phase along the continuum of cancer care. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the emerging field of survivorship care, including care planning and follow-up, in survivors of different types of cancer. We quantitatively evaluated the post-treatment care received by 123 cancer survivors, including the use of survivorship care plans and the impact of these care plans and subsequent follow-up on a variety of behavioral health outcomes. We qualitatively assessed survivorship care providers' (n = 8) perspectives on comprehensive survivorship care and experiences delivering post-treatment services. The majority of participants (54%) are receiving a moderate level of survivorship care, including minimal receipt of a written care plan (31%) and some amount of referrals for mental health, diet, and physical activity (28%). Results suggest significantly lower general psychological distress (F [1, 104] = 8.316, p = .005) and higher coping self-efficacy (F [1, 104] = 6.627, p = .011) for those who received some form of written care plan versus those who did not. These results imply that written care plan documents have the potential to lead to higher psychosocial functioning for survivors of cancer. The qualitative data provide initial evidence supporting the value of SCPs for patients and providers. Critical barriers to implementation of comprehensive survivorship care and SCPs, from the providers' perspective, include the fragmented healthcare system and resources. The current study is an important step toward increasing knowledge of and potential intervention targets to improve cancer survivorship experiences – from both the patients' and providers' perspectives. Future directions include developing a standardized system for delivering survivorship care and SCPs, and increasing the evidence base to examine the impact of SCPs on short- and long-term patient-reported and clinical outcomes, increase the focus on patient-centered care, and explore the impact of SCPs delivered to vulnerable groups of survivors.
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    Adventure-Based Therapy and Self-Efficacy Theory: Test of a Treatment Model for Late Adolescents with Depressive Symptomatology
    Richardson, Elizabeth DeHart (Virginia Tech, 1998-11-18)
    The primary objective of the current study was to propose and test a model for conceptualizing changes that occur as a result of adventure-based therapy (ABT), using self-efficacy theory as the conceptual foundation. Other objectives were to test the effects of ABT on depressive symptomatology and related psychosocial variables (e.g., anxiety, self-esteem). One-hundred and nine college freshmen participated in the screening procedure. Subjects who indicated mild to severe depressive symptomatology on a self-report measure and did not report past history of trauma were invited to participate in the study. Forty-one individuals were randomly assigned to either the adventure-based therapy (ABT) condition (i.e., a one-day ropes course experience) or to a placebo-control condition (i.e., an extended walk outdoors in a group). Subjects were divided into two cohorts, each with treatment and control groups, because of safety requirements related to capacity on the ropes course. Self-report instruments were completed immediately prior to participation (i.e., pretest), immediately following participation (i.e., posttest), and at 2-weeks and 2-months post participation. Primary multivariate analyses of variance performed on state and trait dependent measures did not yield statistically significant interactions; therefore, results indicated that ABT may not significantly decrease depressive and anxious symptomatology in late adolescents with depressive symptomatology. However, data were further analyzed for exploration in light of the generally low statistical power and group differences suggested by graphic displays of data. Exploratory analyses suggested that ABT may increase efficacy for coping with anxiety created by novel situations and efficacy for working and problem-solving in a group. It was therefore suggested that self-efficacy theory warrants further consideration as a theoretical framework for explaining changes that occur as a result of ABT. In addition, exploratory analyses suggested that ABT may also reduce anxiety and general psychological distress. Finally, depressive symptomatology decreased for individuals in the ABT treatment group and the placebo-control group according to exploratory analyses; however, there were no differences between groups. Further exploration of the potential effects of ABT on depressive and anxious symptomatology and general psychological distress is warranted.
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    An Analysis of Adherence in Childhood Diabetes: Social Learning and Family Systems Variables
    Lilly, Mary Kristine M.S. (Virginia Tech, 1998-03-30)
    The purpose of the current study was threefold: 1) to assess youths' and parents' perceptions of their competency in managing diabetes, 2) to assess family flexibility and cohesiveness, and 3) to assess the utility of self-efficacy and family factors as predictors of adherence and metabolic control. Participants included 62 youths with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and their parents. Parents' and youths' perceptions of their abilities in diabetes and related situations, family cohesion and adaptability, and perceptions of the family's ability to integrate the demands of the diabetes regimen into general family routines were assessed. Results suggested that both social learning factors and general family relations were important in the prediction of youths' adherence to the treatment regimen for diabetes and metabolic control. Moreover, family efficacy and family cohesion were related, suggesting the need for models of assessment and intervention that include both social learning and general family functioning variables.
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    Anxiety and depression in children and adolescents: an examination of cognition and attributional style
    Byrd, Devin A. (Virginia Tech, 1996-12-06)
    The relationship of attributional style to anxiety and depression in children and adolescents has received little attention in comparison to studies conducted with adult populations. However, preliminary studies suggest that children and adolescents evidence similar attributional style patterns to those expressed by adults. This study further examines the relationship of anxiety and depression to attributional style to determine the utility and applicability of the adult model to children and adolescents. In addition, this study examines the accuracy of obtaining attributional style ratings using hypothetical events (i.e., questionnaire method) versus real-life events. Further, this study was designed to study the relationship of emotional measures of anxiety and depression (Le., Children's Depression Inventory and Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale) versus cognitive measures of anxiety and depression (Negative Affect Self-Statement Questionnaire). It was hypothesized that real life events (as measured by the Specific Life Events Schedule; SLES) would prove to be a concurrently valid measure of attributional style in relation to hypothetical events presented through a questionnaire method (as measured by the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire; CASQ). As well, it was predicted that real life events of the SLES would prove to be a more accurate measure of attributional style than hypothetical life events of the CASQ, in relation to achieved depression scores. Furthermore, it was predicted that certain indices of attributional style and negative self-statements would prove to be significant predictors of depression (as measured by the CDI) and anxiety scores (as measured by the RCMAS).
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    Application of Social Influence Strategies to Convert Concern into Relevant Action: The Case of Global Warming
    Lehman, Philip Kent (Virginia Tech, 2008-02-04)
    This research studied the efficacy of enhancing information-based appeals with social influence strategies in order to encourage environmental activism and efficiency behaviors in response to global warming. A secondary goal was to study the relationship between pro-environment attitudes as measured by the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and the activism/efficiency behaviors. After hearing a 15-minute presentation about the threat of global warming, 270 participants were encouraged to take relevant action by (a) signing web-based petitions asking automakers to build more environmentally friendly cars, (b) sending web-based letters to their state senators asking them to pass legislation to curb global warming, and (c) replacing their own inefficient incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). The primary independent variable was the intervention technique used to encourage the three behaviors. The Information Only condition received a standard informational presentation, and a Social Influence condition received a presentation enhanced by the social psychological principles of authority, social validation, and consistency. A third group—Social Influence and Commitment—received the social influence manipulations and also signed a commitment statement. Overall compliance was relatively low, with 30.7% of participants across all conditions completing one or more activism/efficiency behavior. Statistical comparisons of the compliance rates of the three groups were insignificant, and thus failed to support the efficacy of the social influence approach. Participants who held stronger pro-environment attitudes were more likely to complete the tasks. Those who completed at least one of the environmental actions scored significantly higher on a pre-presentation NEP (m = 54.9) than those who completed none (m = 50.3). In addition, political conservatism was negatively related to the NEP and task compliance. Finally, individuals who completed at least one of the requested behaviors showed a significant increase in pro-environment attitude on a second (post intervention) NEP, while the NEP scores of non-compliers remained unchanged.
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    Assertiveness in boys: evaluating the construct using template matching procedures
    Weist, Mark D. (Virginia Tech, 1988-08-15)
    The present investigation expanded on the template matching approach (Cone, 1980) to empirically evaluate whether assertiveness is associated with interpersonal success among a group of fourth grade boys. Using popular sociometric status as an index of success in interaction, the performances of 15 popular boys were compared with those of 15 rejected boys in a role-play measure of social behavior. An observation code containing behaviors traditionally associated with assertiveness was compared to a code containing inductively generated behaviors. Popular boys demonstrated significantly higher levels of traditional and inductive behaviors. Total scores on the inductive behavioral, code correlated significantly with self-reported assertiveness, while total scores on the traditional code did not. On an evaluative measure of assertive, aggressive and submissive response alternatives, the two groups showed no significant differences. The utility of the template matching method in empirical target selection and validation was underscored.
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    An Attention-Specific Intervention for Adults with ADHD
    Francisco, Jenifer (Virginia Tech, 2006-05-09)
    Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) consists of symptoms of both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity that cause significant functional impairment (APA, 1994). Approximately 4.7% of adults are diagnosed with ADHD; however, there are few empirically-informed interventions that are specifically designed for adults. Instead, many of the common interventions for adults are derived from work done with children with ADHD and may not be appropriate for their particular needs (Weiss & Weiss, 2004). Given that adults with ADHD typically experience more symptoms of inattention rather than hyperactivity, an investigation of the effectiveness of an intervention that specifically targets their inattentive symptoms is warranted (Weiss & Weiss, 2004; Weiss et al., 2002). Therefore, the goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of an attention-specific intervention for adults with ADHD. The intervention used in this study, Attention Process Training (APT; Sohlberg & Mateer, 1987), has never been applied to adults with ADHD. The underlying assumption behind this intervention is that attentional functioning can be improved through the use of tasks that are designed to re-train various aspects of attention. More specifically, this study addressed sustained, alternating, and selective/divided attention during the intervention. A non-concurrent multiple baseline design was used in order to assess the effectiveness of the APT among a sample of adults with ADHD. A sample of four adults, aged 21-37 years (M = 27.75) participated in this study and demonstrated minimal changes in their attentional ability after the intervention. In addition, the findings suggest that the different components of attention addressed in this intervention are not distinct and likely have a reciprocal affect on one another.
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    A Behavioral and Educational Treatment to Improve Adolescent Mothers Supervision and Home Safety Practices With Their Young Children
    Gulotta, Charles S. III (Virginia Tech, 1998-03-26)
    Injury is the leading cause of death and disabilityamong American children, and most injuries to children aged 1-5 years occur at home. Factors associated with increased risk for unintentional injury to young children include an overcrowded home environment, low SES, and living with a mother who is young, less educated, more emotionally overwhelmed, and less protective in her supervision, attributes characteristic of many adolescent mothers. Previous research suggests that teaching parents basic child behavior management techniques can reduce child dangerous behavior (Mathews, et al., 1987; Powers & Chapieski, 1986), but these interventions have not addressed the lack of knowledge about child development common among adolescent parents. The current study employed a multiple-baseline design across subjects to assess the impact of a 6-week in home educational and behavioral treatment. Observable home hazards, supervisory skill, maternal efficacy, parenting stress, and cognitive readiness to parent were examined in four adolescent mothers (aged 16-19), in addition to the dangerous behavior of their children (aged 16-24 months). Mothers received education about child development and sensitive parenting, as well as training in home safety and child behavior management. Child dangerous behavior and maternal supervisory skill and positive behavior were assessed in weekly 20-minute videotaped mother-child interactions. Pre- and post- measures of parenting stress, cognitive readiness to parent, and maternal efficacy related to parenting and child safety were assessed by self-reports. Treatment resulted in improvements in mother positive behavior and knowledge of child development and in reductions of parenting stress, observable home hazards, and child dangerous behavior. A 2-month follow-up revealed some minimal maintenance of treatment gains suggesting additional booster sessions are needed for longer-term gains of reduced injury risk.
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    The behavioral effects of nonnutritive sucking on infants of differential fetal growth
    Boyd, Christopher M. (Virginia Tech, 1989-05-05)
    Newborn infants with differential patterns of fetal growth, as determined by their weight-for-length, typically display behaviors which have been conceptualized as reflecting the integrity of the infant's behavioral organization. The newborn infant's sucking is one behavior that has been hypothesized to both reflect the effects of previous experiences on behavioral organization and affect the infant's future behavioral development. In particular, the infant's pattern of sucking activity may not only reflect the integrity of the infant's nervous system, it may also alter the temporal organization of the infant's behavioral state and motor activity by increasing behavioral quiescence. The purpose of this study was to compare the sucking activity of underweight-for-length (N = 30) and average-weight-for-length (N = 30) infants and its effects on behavioral state and motor activity. Fifteen low-PI and 15 average-PI infants were randomly assigned to each of two experimental conditions.
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    A Behavioral Evaluation of the Transition to Electronic Prescribing in a Hospital Setting
    Cunningham, Thomas R. (Virginia Tech, 2006-04-18)
    The impact of Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) on the dependent variables of medication-order compliance and time to first dose of antibiotic was investigated in this quasi-experimental study of a naturally-occurring CPOE intervention. The impact of CPOE on compliance and time to first dose was assessed by comparing measures of these variables from the intervention site and a non-equivalent control before and during intervention phases. Medication orders placed using CPOE were significantly more compliant than paper-based medication orders (p<.001), and first doses of antibiotic ordered using CPOE were delivered significantly faster than antibiotic orders placed using the paper-based system (p<.001). Findings support previous research indicating the positive impact of CPOE on patient safety as well as justify and enable future interventions to increase CPOE adoption and use among physicians. Additionally, data collected in this study will be used to provide behavior-based feedback to physicians as part of CPOE adoption and use intervention strategies to be explored in the forthcoming research.
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    A behavioral family intervention to improve adherence and metabolic control in children with IDDM
    Bonner, Melanie Jean (Virginia Tech, 1992-05-19)
    The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a behavioral family intervention on adherence and metabolic control in insulin dependent diabetic children (IODM). Specifically, assumption of regimen responsibilities between the parent and child were manipulated to facilitate regimen adherence. The intervention delivered was a target-specific behavioral contract extended sequentially across four target behaviors (Le., blood glucose testing, insulin injections, diet, and exercise). Regimen components were targeted in a within subjects, multiple baseline design across behaviors to assess the relationship between adherence and metabolic control. Metabolic control was assessed with a measure of glycosylated hemoglobin (e.g., HbA1C.) Five IDDM children (3 female,2 male), who met study criteria (Le., nonadherence to blood glucose testing defined as oS. 2 tests daily and metabolic status outside the optimal range using standard laboratory reference values) were recruited from physician referrals and media announcements. Subjects were between the ages of 10 and 15 years (M = 12.6); four were Caucasian and one was African-American. Mean duration of diabetes upon entry into the study was 4.3 years. Results revealed that four subjects responded to the intervention and three of those four evidenced clinically significant improvements in metabolic control at mid - and/ or post-study. One subject demonstrated only moderate intervention effects and no improvement in metabolic control while another increased adherence, but decrements in metabolic control were noted. These results suggest that adherence may mediate the relationship between family variables and metabolic status. Two additional subjects demonstrating consistently good metabolic were employed to assess the validity of target behaviors. The results were related to various family and diabetes-specific psychosocial indices.
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    Behavioral inhibition and test anxiety: an empirical investigation of Gray's theory
    Hagopian, Louis Peter (Virginia Tech, 1991-04-05)
    The effects of test anxiety on behavioral inhibition were examined using three computerized behavioral tasks. High test anxious subjects demonstrated more behavioral inhibition than low test anxious subjects, according to frequency measures on two of the three behavioral tasks. Group differences in latency measures were not found, however. High test anxious subjects reported higher levels of state anxiety than low test anxious subjects. Increased behavioral inhibition was greater for the Punishment condition, which involved the loss of points and negative audio-visual feedback for incorrect responses, than for the Non-Reward condition. Contrary to initial predictions, group differences were found to be greater in the Non-Reward condition than in the Punishment condition.
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    Changes in the Content and Prosody of Mothers' Speech to Infants Across the First Postnatal Year
    Strunk, Pia Christina Jr. (Virginia Tech, 1997-12-18)
    The purpose of this research project was to examine the linguistic and prosodic content of infant-directed speech to infants, and to explore the relationship that exists between the prosodic features and the content of this speech, and how this relationship changes over the first eight months after birth. Analyses were conducted on maternal infant-directed speech directed to infants across three age groups: 1, 4, and 8-month olds. Speech samples were taken from 75 mothers (n = 25 per group) and both coded for content and analyzed for pitch (Fo) characteristics. Linguistic analysis indicated overall significantly more Informational speech that either Affective or Contentless speech directed to infants in all three age groups. In addition, significant differences were found within and between Affective and Contentless speech, but these effects were also mediated by age. Significant differences were also found in the acoustic features of maternal infant-directed speech, mediated by both type of speech and age. Overall, these results suggest that maternal infant-directed speech varies in both linguistic content and prosodic features, and that the variation of these prosodic features is mediated by both the type of speech used and the age of the infant.
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    Children's Primary Health Care Services: A Social-Cognitive Model of Sustained High Use
    Janicke, David Michael (Virginia Tech, 2001-04-06)
    This study tested portions of a social-cognitive model that explained the mechanisms involved in the parent decision-making process that ultimately drive and maintain children's health care use. Eighty-seven primary caretakers of children ages 4 to 9 years completed measures of child health and behavior, parental stress and functioning, and social cognitive measures related to parenting and health care use. Primary care use data over the two-years prior to recruitment were collected from primary care providers. Regression analysis showed that social cognitive measures were significant predictors of pediatric primary care services. Specifically, parental stress interacted with general parenting self-efficacy; parents with high stress and high parenting self-efficacy were more likely to use pediatric primary care services. Self-efficacy for accessing physician assistance and parental outcome expectations for pediatric physician visits were positively related to pediatric primary care use. These social cognitive variables accounted for more variance than variables traditionally included in health care use research (i.e., child behavior, parental distress, and parent health care use). Best Subsets analysis resulted in an overall best predictive model that accounted for 29.8% of the variance in pediatric primary care use. In this model, the interaction between parental stress and general parenting self-efficacy was the best predictor of use, accounting for 11.5% of the variance in physician use. High internalizing behavior scores, higher self-efficacy for accessing physician assistance, use of medication, and more parent health care visits were associated with higher pediatric primary care use in this overall model. While acknowledging the role of child health and behavior, this study extends the literature by demonstrating the importance of considering parental perceptions of burden, confidence, and ability to help themselves and their family. Implications for health care professionals and directions for future research are discussed in light of these finding.
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    Children's Religious Coping Following Residential Fires: An Exploratory Study
    Wang, Yanping (Virginia Tech, 2004-04-22)
    Recent advancements in the general child disaster literature underscore the important role of coping in children's postdisaster adjustment. Religious coping in children, a potentially important category of coping strategies, has received little attention until recent years. Moreover, its role in the context of post fire adjustment has not been studied. The present study examined the psychometric soundness of the Religious Coping Activities Scale (RCAS; Pargament et al., 1990) in children and adolescents and explored its utility in predicting children's religious coping over time: moreover, the study evaluated its role in predicting PTSD symptomatology over an extended period of time. This investigation included 140 children and adolescents (ages 8-18). Factor analyses of the RCAS revealed a 6-factor solution very similar to the factor structure in the original study. This finding suggests that the RCAS is a promising instrument to measure children's religious coping efforts. Hypotheses concerning the prediction of children's religious coping were only partially supported. Regression analyses indicated mixed findings in terms of the contributions of selected variables to the prediction of children's Spiritually Based Coping and Religious Discontent. Overall, the regression model predicted Religious Discontent better than Spiritually Based Coping. A mixed-effects regression model and hierarchical regression analyses were both employed to examine the role of children's religious coping in predicting short-term and long-term PTSD symptomatology following the residential fires. Results from the mixed-effects regression indicated that loss, time since the fire, child's age, race, and race by age interaction significantly predicted children's PTSD symptoms over time. However, time specific regression analyses revealed different predictive power of the variables across the three assessment waves. Specifically, analyses with Time 1 data revealed the same findings as did the mixed-effects model, except that time since the fire was not a significant predictor in this analysis. General coping strategies appeared to be the only salient predictors for PTSD at Time 2. Finally, Religious Discontent appeared to be negatively related to PTSD at a later time.
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    Cognitive-Behavioral Treatments for Depression in Children: The Impact of Case Formulation on Treatment Selection
    Goza, Amanda Beth (Virginia Tech, 1999-08-10)
    Cognitive-behavioral treatments are the most well-documented, and apparently most effective, treatments for childhood depression. Efforts to translate these findings to clinical practice are thwarted by the large number of strategies (and sessions) included in empirically supported treatment packages and a lack of guidance regarding differential selection of strategies. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of case formulation on the selection of individual treatments for childhood depression. Two hundred thirty-seven Ph.D.-level mental health professionals with knowledge of behavioral and/or cognitive behavioral theory and practice were recruited via e-mail to participate in this study. Candidates were asked to indicate the likelihood that they would select each of 9 cognitive-behavioral treatments based on one of twelve fictional vignettes. The vignettes were designed to represent children of ages 6, 10, and 14, and presenting with depression based on Cognitive Distortion, Social Skills Deficit, or Environmental Deficit etiologies. Three "Control" vignettes, in which the age of the child was varied but no case formulation was provided, were also included. Our results provide confirmation that case formulation is an important step in the treatment of childhood disorder. Participants successfully matched cognitive treatments to cognitive etiologies, social skills treatments to social skills deficit etiologies, and environmental treatments to environmental deficit etiologies of childhood depression. Differences in treatment selection were also noted with regard to age of the child being treated, in a manner consistent with developmental theory. Here, we have confirmed that the case formulation approach is useful in the differential selection of empirically supported cognitive-behavioral treatments for childhood depression.
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    Comorbidity of anxiety and depression in youth: A developmental analysis
    Seligman, Laura Diane (Virginia Tech, 1999-04-06)
    The purpose of the current study was to examine a model explaining a pathway from anxiety to depression in youth. Additionally, a second model was considered examining specifically the worry component of anxiety and its role in the development of depression. Path analyses were used to examine the relationships between general anxiety and worry and academic competence and functioning, social competence and functioning, attributional style, hopelessness, and depression. In addition, the impact of sex and cognitive ability on these relationships was examined. Results revealed that anxious and depressive symptomatology were significantly correlated. Further, some support was found to suggest that the significant relationship between self-reported anxiety and depression was partially mediated through social and/or academic variables as well as attributional style and hopelessness. While sex was not found to significantly impact these relationships, cognitive ability did moderate the relationship between worry and academic functioning even when other variables were considered simultaneously. The implications of these findings for treatment and research are discussed.
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    A Comparison of Feedforward versus Feedback Interventions for Safety Self-Management in Mining Operations
    Hickman, Jeffrey S. (Virginia Tech, 2002-04-12)
    This quasi-experimental field study examined the efficacy of a safety self-management intervention to increase safety-related work practices in mining operations. A total of 15 male miners participated in the study while engaging in their normal work practices at the Virginia Tech Quarry, located in Blacksburg, Virginia. The study had two groups, Feedforward (n=8)--participants self-recorded their intentions to engage in specific percentages of safety-related work behaviors before starting their shift for the day, and Feedback (n=7)--participants self-recorded their percentages of safety-related work behaviors after their shift for the day. After a seven-week Baseline, miners participated in a safety training presentation. Immediately following this training, participants from each group were instructed to complete one self-monitoring form each day on their self-intentions (Feedforward) or actual (Feedback) safety performance for four weeks. Participants were paid $1.00 for each completed self-monitoring form. All completed forms were entered into a raffle for a cash prize of $50.00 at the end of the Intervention phase. During Withdrawal (four weeks) miners did not complete any self-monitoring forms. Trained research assistants made a total of 10, 905 obtrusive behavioral observations on three target behaviors (ear plugs, dust mask, and safety glasses) and five non-target behaviors (gloves, hard hat, boots, knee position during lifts, body position during lifts) across phases. Results showed the safety self-management intervention significantly increased safety performance across both target and non-target behaviors during the Intervention phase.