Browsing by Author "Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen"
Now showing 1 - 20 of 101
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- A 4-year longitudinal neuroimaging study of cognitive control using latent growth modeling: developmental changes and brain-behavior associationsKim-Spoon, Jungmeen; Herd, Toria; Brieant, Alexis; Elder, Jacob; Lee, Jacob; Deater-Deckard, Kirby; Casas, Brooks (2021-08-15)Despite theoretical models suggesting developmental changes in neural substrates of cognitive control in adolescence, empirical research has rarely examined intraindividual changes in cognitive control-related brain activation using multi-wave multivariate longitudinal data. We used longitudinal repeated measures of brain activation and behavioral performance during the multi-source interference task (MSIT) from 167 adolescents (53% male) who were assessed annually over four years from ages 13 to 17 years. We applied latent growth modeling to delineate the pattern of brain activation changes over time and to examine longitudinal associations between brain activation and behavioral performance. We identified brain regions that showed differential change patterns: (1) the fronto-parietal regions that involved bilateral insula, bilateral middle frontal gyrus, left pre-supplementary motor area, left inferior parietal lobule, and right precuneus; and (2) the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) region. Longitudinal confirmatory factor analyses of the fronto-parietal regions revealed strong measurement invariance across time implying that multivariate functional magnetic resonance imaging data during cognitive control can be measured reliably over time. Latent basis growth models indicated that fronto-parietal activation decreased over time, whereas rACC activation increased over time. In addition, behavioral performance data, age-related improvement was indicated by a decreasing trajectory of intraindividual variability in response time across four years. Testing longitudinal brain-behavior associations using multivariate growth models revealed that better behavioral cognitive control was associated with lower fronto-parietal activation, but the change in behavioral performance was not related to the change in brain activation. The current findings suggest that reduced effects of cognitive interference indicated by fronto-parietal recruitment may be a marker of a maturing brain that underlies better cognitive control performance during adolescence.
- Assessment of Criminal Thinking as a Predictor and Mediator of Behavior Problems in a Community Youth SampleDelk, Lauren Annabel (Virginia Tech, 2020-05-14)Criminal behavior results in negative, costly consequences for both individuals and society at large. Therefore, researchers have worked to identify variables that predict recidivism, or recurrence of crime. The variables with the strongest predictive power include criminal thinking, personality traits, antisocial peers, and family difficulties, among others. In addition, policy makers and stakeholders are creating interventions which target criminal thinking, to reduce criminal thinking and hopefully reduce future crime. However, little is known about measuring criminal thinking in community youth for the purposes of early intervention and prevention of future behavior problems. Therefore, this study examined a measure of criminal thinking in community youth to examine item-level and measure validity. It also sought to examine if criminal thinking acts as a mediator between other risk factors and subsequent behavior problems. Although some items may need to be revised, results suggested generally good validity for the total score. This study also supports the stability of criminal thinking in community youth, and thus could be used as a measure of change. Finally, results suggest that criminal thinking mediates the relationships between antisocial friends and parenting styles in predicting reactive aggression. The results of the item-level analysis of this study highlight the similarities between psychopathy and criminal thinking. Questions also arise about the relationship between criminal thinking in community youth and more transdiagnostic concepts, such as emotion regulation problems. Overall, criminal thinking appears to be a viable target for assessment and intervention in community youth.
- Associations between Fear of Negative Evaluation and Covert and Overt Attention Bias Through Eye-Tracking and Visual Dot ProbeCapriola, Nicole N. (Virginia Tech, 2018-03-26)Social Anxiety Disorder is characterized by irrational and persistent fears of potential evaluation and scrutiny by others. For socially anxious youth, the core, maladaptive cognition is fear of negative evaluation (FNE). Whereas Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) targets remediation of intense and unfounded FNE, Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) targets attention bias. The degree to which FNE and biased attention are related processes is unknown. This study sought to assess the relationship between FNE and two indices of attention bias (dot probe and eye-tracking). In addition, this study examines differences in attention bias between a clinically confirmed group of youth SAD and healthy controls. A significant group difference in average latency to fixate on angry faces was found [F(1,65) = 31.94, p < .001, ηp2 = .33]. However, the pattern was not consistent across the other attention bias metrics (i.e., dot probe bias scores and first fixation direction percentage towards angry faces). In addition, associations between FNE and the attention bias metrics were not statistically significant in either group. Future directions and implications of these findings within the context of refinements to existing interventions are discussed.
- Associations between peer attachment and neural correlates of risk processing across adolescenceAsscheman, J. Susanne; Deater-Deckard, Kirby; Lauharatanahirun, Nina; van Lier, Pol A. C.; Koot, Susanne; Casas, Brooks; Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen (2020-04)Adolescence is a period of increased risk-taking behavior where individual differences in risk taking may relate to both adverse and positive experiences with peers. Yet, knowledge on how risk processing develops in the adolescent brain and whether this development is related to peer attachment is limited. In this longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we collected data from 167 adolescents (53% male) followed for four annual assessments across ages 13-17 years. At each assessment, participants completed a lottery choice task to assess neural risk processing and reported on their perceived attachment to peers and parents. Behaviorally, risk-preference on the lottery choice task decreased linearly with age. Neural activation during risk processing was consistently found in the insula and dACC across the four assessments and increased linearly from ages 13-17 years. Furthermore, higher peer attachment was related to greater right insula risk processing for males but not for females, even after controlling for parental attachment. The magnitudes of this association did not change with age. Findings demonstrate that neural risk processing shows maturation across adolescence and high peer attachment may be associated with low risk taking by heightening neural sensitivity to potential risks for male adolescents.
- Behavioral Responses and Risk Detection in Sexual Encounters: A Study on the Effects of Social Anxiety and a Brief InterventionSchry, Amie R. (Virginia Tech, 2013-09-25)Sexual victimization among college women is a common problem. This two-part study sought to examine social interaction anxiety as a risk factor of sexual victimization and to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a computer-based risk reduction program. A total of 1095 undergraduate females completed an online survey to assess social anxiety as a risk factor (study part I), a subsample of whom (n = 136, including 51 above the clinical cutoff on a social anxiety measure and 85 below the cutoff) completed the subsequent in-lab study (study part II). During study part II, participants were randomly assigned to either receive a computer-based risk reduction program or an educational program on campus resources (control condition), and their predicted use of resistance techniques was assessed both before and after their assigned program. Participants also responded to an audio recording of a sexual assault vignette to assess risk detection. After controlling for past victimization and depression, social interaction anxiety was not related to predicted use of assertive resistance techniques or to risk detection. However, social anxiety positively predicted use of passive resistance techniques at the lowest level of unwanted sexual advances (i.e., breast fondling) in a series of three escalating sexual advances (i.e., breast fondling, genital fondling, and rape threat). No participants dropped out of the study, and ratings on a questionnaire assessing acceptability of the risk reduction program were positive. Program condition predicted change scores for predicted use of assertive resistance at a low level of unwanted sexual advances (i.e., breast fondling) such that the control group decreased in predicted use of assertive resistance significantly more than the risk reduction program group. Additionally, the risk reduction program group had significantly better risk detection compared to the control group. Therefore, support for the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the risk reduction program was found. The finding that the control group decreased significantly more than the risk reduction program group in assertive resistance between the two story administrations is important because assertive resistance techniques tend to be the most effective in reducing risk of completed sexual victimization. Therefore, it is important that risk reduction programs encourage women to use assertive resistance. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
- Brain Similarity as a Protective Factor in the Longitudinal Pathway Linking Household Chaos, Parenting, and Substance UseKim-Spoon, Jungmeen; Lee, Tae-Ho; Clinchard, Claudia; Lindenmuth, Morgan; Brieant, Alexis; Steinberg, Laurence; Deater-Deckard, Kirby; Casas, Brooks (Elsevier, 2023-04-29)Background: Socioecological factors such as family environment and parenting behaviors contribute to the development of substance use. While biobehavioral synchrony has been suggested as the foundation for resilience that can modulate environmental effects on development, the role of brain similarity that attenuates deleterious effects of environmental contexts has not been clearly understood. We tested whether parent-adolescent neural similarity—the level of pattern similarity between parent-adolescent functional brain connectivity representing the level of attunement within each dyad—moderates the longitudinal pathways in which household chaos (a stressor) predicts adolescent substance use directly and indirectly via parental monitoring. Methods: In a sample of 70 parent-adolescent dyads, similarity in resting-state brain activity was identified using multipattern connectivity similarity estimation. Adolescents and parents reported on household chaos and parental monitoring, and adolescent substance use was assessed at a 1-year follow-up. Results: The moderated mediation model indicated that for adolescents with low neural similarity, but not high neural similarity, greater household chaos predicted higher substance use over time directly and indirectly via lower parental monitoring. Our data also indicated differential susceptibility in the overall association between household chaos and substance use: Adolescents with low neural similarity exhibited high substance use under high household chaos but low substance use under low household chaos. Conclusions: Neural similarity acts as a protective factor such that the detrimental effects of suboptimal family environment and parenting behaviors on the development of adolescent health risk behaviors may be attenuated by neural similarity within parent-adolescent bonds.
- Cardiovascular Reactivity to and Recovery from Laboratory Tasks in Low and High Worry WomenKnepp, Michael Matthew (Virginia Tech, 2010-03-23)Anxiety and its cognitive component of worry have been related to exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity and delayed recovery to laboratory stressors, and to increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Previous research on the anxiety-cardiovascular system relationship, including data from Knepp and Friedman (2008), are included to support this project. Two experiments were completed during the course of this study. The first consisted of two peripheral-based body positioning tasks. The second experiment used an active versus passive sympathetic stress task paradigm (mental arithmetic, hand cold pressor). Subjects were nonsmokers free of cardiovascular and neurological disease. Trait worry was examined through the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ). Blood pressure recordings and cardiac recordings through ECG and ICG were done in each experiment during seven epochs: an anticipatory baseline with three baselines preceding and three recovery periods following each task. Repeated measures analysis was run on all cardiovascular measures. In the first experiment, high worriers had worsened blood pressure reactivity to task. The second experiment found that high worriers had increased stroke volume across all epochs. There were mixed findings in the studies relating to subjects acclimated to the laboratory experience. Future directions of research relating anxiety, worry, and cardiovascular risk factors are discussed.
- Challenges and Strengths of College Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity DisorderElias, Rebecca M. (Virginia Tech, 2015-12-10)Emerging adults who have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often encounter difficulties within the university setting. Despite an increase in the number of students with ASD enrolled in postsecondary educational institutions, there are few reports on the social, academic, and/or other needs of college students with ASD. The purpose of this study was to assess the perspectives of parents of emerging adults with ASD and ADHD, in order to inform efforts to address the poor postsecondary outcomes of students with ASD. Survey data were collected from parents who had a son or daughter in one of three educational placement groups (parents of high school students, parents of postsecondary students, and parents of individuals aged 18-25 not enrolled in education) among two disorders; ASD and ADHD. Participants were recruited nationally to participate in an online survey. Parents of emerging adults with ASD identified social interactions and daily living as primary difficulties for their son or daughter with ASD. Significant differences emerged with respect to difficulties among emerging adults with ADHD, who identified difficulties related to executive functioning and attention. Social interaction training was an identified needed service by parents of emerging adults with ASD. Additionally, independent living training was a common core service requested by parents of individuals with ASD and parents of individuals with ADHD. Results suggest that the postsecondary profile of parent-reported difficulties and needed services remains distinct for the diagnostic groups ASD and ADHD. These difficulties should be considered within the context of intervention for postsecondary students with ASD and ADHD.
- Characterizing Reward Function During Social Feedback: Associations with Anhedonia in Socially Anxious AdolescentsCarlton-Smith, Corinne Nicole (Virginia Tech, 2023-05-05)The present study aimed to: (1) Characterize markers of reward sensitivity during periods of social stress using a well validated social feedback paradigm; (2) Evaluate clinical relations between reward markers and anhedonia; and (3) Investigate if elevated levels of baseline prior exposure to stress (i.e., peer victimization) are associated with the degree of ventral striatum suppression and anhedonia symptoms in a social stress context. A total of 29 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 years old (Mage = 15.31; SD = 1.51; 55.2% cisgender girls) participated in the present study. Participants were asked to complete a semi-structured interview; fill out self-report questionnaires regarding social anxiety, stress, depression, and anhedonia; and complete a magnetic resonance imaging scan while playing the Island Getaway task. Ventral striatum (VS) BOLD signal activation estimates were then extracted during discrete phases of the game (e.g., anticipation of social feedback and outcome of social feedback) and statistically compared within-subjects via paired samples t-tests and correlated to social anxiety measures. Additionally, regression analyses assessed the effect of VS activation on anhedonia as well as the associative effect of peer victimization on VS activation and anhedonia. Results revealed that when in the presence of social stress (defined as the potential for negative feedback), socially anxious adolescents demonstrated significantly suppressed VS activation relative to baseline when anticipating feedback. Additionally, results indicated that the degree of reduced VS activation during anticipation was correlated to total changes in anhedonia severity across the task. Lastly, results demonstrated that overt peer victimization is a significant predictor of suppressed VS activation during anticipation of social feedback, but not during social outcomes. Taken together, these results identify potentially novel mechanisms associated with anhedonia and blunted reward processing in socially anxious youth that could be improved via interventions that target positive-valence systems.
- Childhood Emotional Abuse, Effects, and Protective Factors: Comparison of Protective Factors between Emotional and Physical AbusePapafratzeskakou, Eirini (Virginia Tech, 2011-04-29)Although emotional maltreatment is clearly a very important issue that impedes youths' development, it has only recently begun to receive the attention it deserves. The present study hypothesized that for adolescents with high self-worth, high religiosity, high parent and peer support, high family cohesion, and low family conflict the negative effects of emotional abuse on internalizing symptomatology would attenuate. Additionally, the same protective factors were hypothesized to moderate the relationship between emotional and physical abuse and adolescent internalizing symptomatology. Two samples were used in order to test the aforementioned hypotheses: 1) a whole sample that consisted of adolescents with no or any emotional and physical abuse (N = 220) and 2) a no physical abuse sample that consisted of adolescents with no or any emotional abuse (N = 118). In order to assess the study variables the following measures were used: Conflict Tactics Scale-PC, Self-Perception Profile, Youth Religiosity Scale, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, Family Environment Scale, and Youth Self Report. None of the study's hypotheses were supported by the current data. It is assumed that this might be due to the sample's nature and it is suggested that future studies utilize a sample with different age groups and with higher reports (means) of emotional and physical abuse. However, the findings suggested that emotional abuse had a stronger effect on internalizing symptomatology than physical abuse, and the significant main effects of self-worth, parent support, peer support, and family cohesion indicated the importance of their presence in adolescents' psychological adjustment.
- Co-development of internalizing and externalizing behaviors during middle childhood and potential moderators of the processChen, Nan (Virginia Tech, 2014-10-08)Child internalizing and externalizing problems co-vary during development and lead to maladjustment outcomes, such as substance abuse, academic failure, antisocial behaviors and psychopathology. The proposed study aims to examine the co-development process of internalizing and externalizing problems during middle childhood and the potential moderators of this reciprocal relationship. Children and their families recruited in the Study of Early Childhood Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) constitute the sample of the current study. Participants in the study were recruited from nine states in the United States and followed from birth to adolescence. Though a few studies have examined the developmental trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems over time, the findings are not consistent in terms of the directions of the relationship and very few have examined individual difference in the co-development process. To address this gap in knowledge, two moderating effects are examined, with one moderator being time-invariant, i.e., children's gender, and the other moderator being time-variant, i.e. parent-child conflicts. Longitudinal growth modeling and longitudinal difference score modeling are used to examine the dynamic relationship and the moderating effects. Comparisons of the two approaches are made with respect to the specific hypotheses of change tested by each model, model convergence, parameter and fit estimates, and the interpretation of the results.
- Common and Distinct Neural Mechanisms of Fear Acquisition and Reversal in comorbid Autism with Social Anxiety and Social Anxiety Disorder uncomplicated by AutismCoffman, Marika C. (Virginia Tech, 2019-08-28)Social Anxiety (SAD) increases in prevalence as children enter adolescence. Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are diagnosed with comorbid SAD at higher rates than these individuals are diagnosed with other clinical disorders, including depression and other anxiety disorders. However, there is little research on whether the presentation and neural underpinning of comorbid SAD within the context of ASD is the same as SAD alone. Individual and diagnostic differences exist in neural and biological mechanisms of fear conditioning. Characterization of whether neural mechanisms of fear are different within ASD with comorbid SAD and SAD alone may better inform clinical treatments. Accordingly, the present study characterizes neural responses during a fear-inducing experiment, as measured by fMRI. Fifty-seven adolescents participated in this study, with adolescents with ASD and SAD (n=17), SAD alone (n=20), and typically developing adolescents (n=20). All participants completed two fear conditioning and reversal paradigms while completing an fMRI scan. The paradigm consisted of a Social condition and Nonsocial condition. An ANOVA for fear conditioning was conducted. Results revealed significant activation in the Inferior Temporal Gyrus (ITG) during fear conditioning. No between group differences were observed, but within-group differences indicated differential modulation of the ITG in the ASD with SAD group in the Social condition compared to the Nonsocial condition. The SAD group demonstrated differential activation between conditioning stimuli in the Nonsocial condition, but not in the Social condition. Results indicate that adolescents with ASD and SAD may display different neural mechanisms for acquiring fear compared to typically developing peers. Results have potential to inform treatment approaches.
- Constructing a Theory of Power-Relevant Dyadic Helping and Aggressing: A mixed-methods studyMcCarty, Shane Michael (Virginia Tech, 2016-06-29)Helping and aggressing behaviors are important to study in adolescence because they relate to adaptive and maladaptive developmental outcomes. These behaviors take place within the social context and their impact may be determined by the nature of the dyadic relationship between the agent and the recipient of the behavior. Relative power may be a critical aspect of dyadic relationships as evidenced by the research on bullying and related outcomes. However, a review of the helping and aggression literatures shows that relative power between agents and recipients of behavior has largely been neglected, perhaps because measurement approaches focus on individual tendencies over time rather than single behaviors at one point in time. I propose a theory that includes relative power as a critical dimension in the conceptualization of aggression and helping in dyadic interactions. I define dyadic interpersonal behavior based on two bipolar continua: impact (extremely beneficial impact [helping] through no impact to extremely harmful impact [aggressing]) and relative power imbalance between dyad members (lower-power through balanced-power to higher-power). In this dissertation, I tested whether my theory fits with adolescents' conceptualizations of helping and aggressing behavior in dyads using a mixed-methods approach. Focus group data collection occurred from two sessions with 13 and 11 adolescents in order to create gender-relevant and school-relevant vignettes of helping and aggressing behavior. Vignettes varied in intensity of impact (extremely beneficial, moderately beneficial, neutral, moderately harmful and extremely harmful), relative power between agent and recipient (i.e., high to high, low to low, high to low, and low to high power dyads), and power type (i.e., academic power and social power). The quantitative phase involved the rating of paired vignettes based on similarity by 203 students from the same high school as the focus group participants. Similarity scores were aggregated within gender and the type of power (academic or social). Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to test whether the proposed theory of power-relevant helping and aggressing is supported by adolescents' similarity ratings. The models of boys' interpersonal behaviors show three-dimensional solutions whereas those for girls reflect four-dimensional solutions. The first dimension of benefit and harm, which was proposed in my theory, emerged in all four sets of analyses (academic-boys; academic-girls; social-boys; social-girls). The secondary dimension proposed in the theory, relative power, only emerged for girls in regard to social power, as the fourth dimension in that solution. Qualitative analyses of focus group transcripts suggest that school atmosphere, power in the school, and bullying were primary themes salient in adolescents' thinking about helping and aggressing behavior. Relative power did not emerge as a theme or a concept in these qualitative analyses, suggesting that relative power is not a salient concept in adolescent thinking for helping and aggressing. Thus, neither quantitative nor qualitative analyses support the secondary dimension proposed in my theory. This mixed-methods study advances theory and research by: 1) demonstrating that adolescents conceptualize helping and aggressing as opposite ends of a single dimension at the behavioral level, 2) demonstrating that power at the individual level with a group referent and collective dyadic power are more salient than relative power in adolescents' perceptions of helping and aggressing behavior, and 3) situating the conceptualization and measurement of interpersonal behavior within the relational context.
- Cultural Factors in the Dysregulation of Shame and Embarrassment: Emotions in Social Anxiety and Taijin KyofushoNoguchi, Ryoichi John Paul (Virginia Tech, 2011-04-20)The present study examined the role of emotion regulation (ER) in individuals who endorsed social anxiety symptoms found in taijin kyofusho (TKS) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) in a young adult sample. More specifically, the study sought to examine the role of self-conscious emotions of shame and embarrassment with respect to TKS and SAD. Participants were administered a series of questionnaires during the first phase of the study and, during the second phase, a diagnostic clinical interview and additional questionnaires were administered along with an experimental social evaluative task and recording of electrical cardiac impulses. Descriptively, social anxiety symptoms were expected to be associated with less adaptive ER strategies. Additionally, differences between individuals who endorsed TKS and SAD symptoms were expected such that TKS would be associated more so with shame and SAD with embarrassment. It was hypothesized that ER would mediate the relationship between embarrassment and shame and their hypothesized anxiety counterparts (SAD or TKS). Findings revealed an association between shame and TKS, and embarrassment and SAD. However, less adaptive ER strategies were not related to social anxiety symptoms and ER did not mediate the relationship between self-conscious emotions and social anxiety. The present findings suggest that shame and embarrassment can play a role in the clinical manifestations of SAD and TKS. Implications regarding the role of these emotions and ER were examined.
- Development of cognitive control during adolescence: The integrative effects of family socioeconomic status and parenting behaviorsLi, Mengjiao; Lindenmuth, Morgan; Tarnai, Kathryn; Lee, Jacob; Casas, Brooks; Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen; Deater-Deckard, Kirby (Elsevier, 2022-10)Cognitive control is of great interest to researchers and practitioners. The concurrent association between family socioeconomic status (SES) and adolescent cognitive control is well-documented. However, little is known about whether and how SES relates to individual differences in the development of adolescent cognitive control. The current four-year longitudinal investigation (N = 167, 13-14 years at Wave 1) used multi-source interference task performance (reaction time in interference correct trials minus neutral correct trials) and corresponding neural activities (blood oxygen level dependent contrast of interference versus neutral conditions) as measures of cognitive control. SES and parenting behaviors (warmth, monitoring) were measured through surveys. We examined direct and indirect effects of earlier SES on the development of cognitive control via parenting behaviors; the moderating effect of parenting also was explored. Results of latent growth modeling (LGM) revealed significant interactive effects between SES and parenting predicting behavioral and neural measures of cognitive control. Lower family SES was associated with poorer cognitive performance when coupled with low parental warmth. In contrast, higher family SES was associated with greater improvement in performance, as well as a higher intercept and steeper decrease in frontoparietal activation over time, when coupled with high parental monitoring. These findings extend prior cross-sectional evidence to show the moderating effect of the parenting environment on the potential effects of SES on developmental changes in adolescent cognitive control.
- A Developmental Cascade Model of Maltreatment, Delay Discounting, and Health Behaviors across Adolescence and Young AdulthoodPeviani, Kristin Marie (Virginia Tech, 2022-06-15)Maltreatment is a pervasive global problem known to have cascading consequences that persist long after exposure subsides (Masten and Cicchetti, 2010). Maltreatment is often co-occurring, involving exposure to multiple types. Cumulative maltreatment, or exposure to multiple types of neglect and abuse, is proposed to be of critical importance for developmental psychopathology. However, a cumulative approach to studying maltreatment provides little insight into the developmental processes whereby it exerts its effects on health. Thus, we employed both a cumulative approach and a multidimensional approach to facilitate our comprehensive understanding of maltreatment experiences related to behavioral development. Given the high prevalence of maltreatment, it is important to cultivate a greater understanding of the processes linking maltreatment and health and to identify developmental periods of vulnerability to its deleterious effects. The present study uses a longitudinal design and a multidimensional approach to examine the effects of maltreatment on delay discounting and health-promoting and health-demoting behaviors during adolescence and across the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The study sample includes 167 adolescents (aged 13–14 at Time 1; 53% male) who participated across 5 time points over 6 years. At Time 5, adolescents provided retrospective reports of their exposure to maltreatment during adolescence across ages 13–18. Delay discounting, substance use, and body mass index (BMI) were assessed at each time point. We used a developmental cascade model with autoregressive, cross-lagged, and cross-sectional associations to examine the longitudinal multivariate change processes and indirect effects from maltreatment exposure during adolescence to delay discounting and health-promoting and health-demoting behaviors during adolescence and across the transition to young adulthood. Our results indicate that cumulative maltreatment affects health-demoting behavior via its effects on delay discounting and that maltreatment of omission but not commission drives this effect. Furthermore, the findings identify adolescents exposed to maltreatment of omission as being especially vulnerable to marijuana use via elevated delay discounting. Identifying mediating processes linking maltreatment exposure to health-promoting and health-demoting behaviors may be instrumental for preventing deleterious developmental cascades and interrupting related health problems during adolescence and across the transition from adolescence to young adulthood.
- Developmental Changes in Emotion Regulation during Adolescence: Influences of Socioeconomic Status, Parent Stress, and Family Emotional ClimateHerd, Toria (Virginia Tech, 2018)Although prior research suggests that ER development typically exhibits a positive growth trajectory across adolescence as prefrontal brain regions continue to mature, individual differences in the rate of development have yet to be fully elucidated. The present study illustrates developmental processes in which family context (i.e., socioeconomic status, parent perceived stress, and family emotional climate) influences developmental trajectories of emotion regulation using both growth curve and latent change score analyses. The sample included 167 adolescents (53% males) who were first recruited at age 13 or 14 years and assessed annually four times. Our results support the mediating role of family emotional climate in the association between socioeconomic status and changes in emotion regulation, but not parent perceived stress. Our findings emphasize the constraints placed on ER development as a result of low SES and highlight the need for intervention efforts at proximal levels, such as the family emotional climate, for adolescents who face such distal risk factors.
- Diagnosing Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) Using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM–IV: Parent Version (ADIS–P)Anderson, Scott Robert (Virginia Tech, 2009-12-01)The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM–IV: Parent Version (ADIS–P) is a valid diagnostic tool in assessing Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) in youth. Although there is considerable evidence that the ADIS–P is effective when diagnosing anxiety disorders in youth, no studies have yet examined its utility in assessing ODD, even though the ADIS–P contains an ODD module. In contrast, a number of studies support the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children–Version IV (DISC–IV) as a reliable and valid tool for assessing ODD. The two diagnostic interviews have not been compared to determine whether the ADIS–P might be equally valid to the DISC–IV in diagnosing ODD. In this study, the ADIS–P and DISC–IV ODD modules were administered in a counterbalanced order to the parents of a clinical sample of 53 children between 8 and 13 years of age referred for the treatment of ODD. It was hypothesized that the ODD module of the ADIS–P would be reliable, as evidenced by inter-rater correspondence, and valid as determined by its concurrent validity with the DISC–IV and its relations with the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) Aggression and Conduct Problems scales as well as the Disruptive Behavior Disorders rating scale (DBD). Both of these latter instruments were completed by parents and teachers of the referred youth. Results suggest that the ADIS–P provides a valid assessment of ODD, giving clinicians and researchers another empirically-supported interview to use when assessing children's disruptive behaviors.
- Differentiating Externalizing Behaviors in Early Childhood: The Role of Negative Affectivity and Attentional ControlErmanni, Briana L. (Virginia Tech, 2022-12-14)My thesis project aimed to assess potential meaningful differences in the behavioral subtypes of externalizing behaviors in children. Externalizing behaviors are a style of behavioral adjustment that are characteristic of early childhood behavior problems. They are commonly measured in developmental and clinical research using the Externalizing Scale of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The scale is comprised of Aggressive and Rule-Breaking Behaviors, which are divergent in their developmental trajectory and personological distinctions: aggressive behaviors have emotional underpinnings like frustration, whereas rule-breaking is linked to behavioral impulsivity. In situations of low regulation, negative affectivity may differentially predispose children to these behaviors due to a reactive propensity for anger and frustration. Attentional control can act to regulate these behaviors through shifting and focusing of attention, but may execute this regulation differently based on the situational context. The role of contextual attentional control in predicting two distinct externalizing behaviors has not been sufficiently evaluated in children. AC was behaviorally coded for during a frustrating context. Child behavior problems and temperament were assessed via parent report. Two mediation models were assessed with NA, AC, and aggressive and rule-breaking behaviors, but no indirect effects were found. When individual components of AC were assessed separately as moderations as opposed to mediations, attention shifting played a prominent role and moderated both the aggressive and rule-breaking models. Findings further clarify the role of attention in the relation between temperament and childhood behavior problems.
- Differing Religious Motivations are associated with Adolescent Health Behavior through Self-regulationHolmes, Christopher Joseph (Virginia Tech, 2014-04-30)Previous literature has widely demonstrated the physical and mental benefits of religiousness. However, how religiousness benefits health is not as well known. It has been proposed that self-regulation is the linking mechanism and the current study sought to confirm this theory. Furthermore, religious motivation has been found to have differential effects on a variety of outcomes. The current study hypothesized that higher identification as religious motivation is linked to higher health-promoting behavior and lower health-risk behavior through higher self-regulation, which was composed of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive regulation. It was also hypothesized that higher introjection as religious motivation is linked to lower health-promoting behavior and higher health-risk behavior through lower self-regulation. The current sample included 220 adolescents (mean age = 15 years, 55% male) and their primary caregivers. This study's findings clarified that the motivation to be religious is critical when considering health benefits as it predicts health outcomes distinctly from only religiousness in general and self-regulation mediates this relation. Specifically, higher identification was related to higher self-regulation and subsequently lower health-risk behavior, whereas introjection was linked to lower self-regulation and subsequently higher health-risk behavior. However, when health-promoting behaviors, such as exercise or brushing teeth, were considered, the relation did not exist. In addition, non-significant interaction effects between identification and introjection indicated that these effects are only additive in nature. The current findings are particularly important by providing information about protective factors for risk taking behavior during adolescence, a developmental period associated with greater risk taking behavior.