Browsing by Author "Ingman, Kathleen A."

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    An Examination of Social Anxiety, Social Skills, Social Adjustment, and Self-Construal in Chinese and American Students at an American University
    Ingman, Kathleen A. (Virginia Tech, 1999-04-30)
    Research has shown that international students studying in the United States report significantly lower levels of social adjustment than American students. Cultural differences may contribute to this problem; however, social relationships between international students and American students lead to greater adjustment for the former group. In spite of this finding, many international students fail to develop significant interpersonal relationships with American students. In this study, self-construal, social anxiety, and social skills were investigated as possible mediating variables for international student social adjustment. During the first phase of the study, data were collected from 59 Chinese and 105 American graduate students at a large state university in the southeastern United States. Results indicated that Chinese students experience lower social adjustment, higher levels of social anxiety, and report higher interdependent self-construal than American students. Independent self-construal was inversely related to social anxiety for both groups. In addition, an inverse relationship between social anxiety and social adjustment was found for the American students only. For the second phase of the study, a subset of Chinese (N = 28) and American (N = 32) students from the first phase participated in four separate dyadic interactions with both Chinese and American confederates. The students were asked to rate their level of anxiety both before and after the interaction, and their behavior during the interaction was videotaped and later rated by independent observers. Analyses of these data revealed that American students experienced higher anxiety than Chinese students both before and after the interactions. Social adjustment appears to play a role in this difference since Chinese subjects with low social adjustment reported lower post-interaction anxiety than those with high social adjustment. Self-construal is also discussed as a possible explanation for this finding. In addition, American students were rated as having better overall social skills (as defined by American norms) than Chinese students. Both groups of students reported lower anxiety after interacting with an American confederate, perhaps due to language difficulties during interactions with Chinese confederates. Finally, some interesting results were revealed when the effects of sex were explored in the analyses. Implications for student orientation programs and directions for future research are discussed.
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    The relationship between family environment and internalizing and externalizing childhood behavior problems
    Ingman, Kathleen A. (Virginia Tech, 1996-04-05)
    In spite of the high prevalence of internalizing and externalizing disorders in children, little research has been conducted to directly assess risk factors associated with the development of these disorders. Among other influences, it has been suggested that the expression of childhood psychopathology may be related to family socialization practices. This study uses Olson's circumplex model of marital and family systems to test the relationship between family environment and the internalizing and externalizing domains of childhood psychopathology. It was hypothesized that children with internalizing behavior problems come from families that are high in cohesion (i.e., enmeshed) and low in flexibility (i.e., rigid and structured). Furthermore, it was predicted that these families are low in level of expressed conflict and have poor communication levels within the family. Families o(children with externalizing behavior problems, on the other hand, were hypothesized to be low in cohesion (i.e., disengaged), and to be either high or low in flexibility (i.e., rigid or chaotic). They were predicted to openly express high levels of conflict within the family, but generally have poor communication skills. These hypotheses were tested using Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist to assign children between the ages of 7 and 11 to internalizing (n = 9) and externalizing (n = 10) groups and using an objective observational measure and several self-report measures to evaluate the families along the dimensions of the circumplex model. Results failed to confirm these hypotheses, however, they were suggestive of a link between family environment and nature and severity of childhood behavior problems.