Browsing by Subject "Developmental psychology"
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Item Open Access A Longitudinal Investigation of Infant Gesture Use and Parent Speech: Unique and Dynamic Influences on Infant Vocabulary Acquisition(2016) Johnson, Kristin MichelleHow do infants learn word meanings? Research has established the impact of both parent and child behaviors on vocabulary development, however the processes and mechanisms underlying these relationships are still not fully understood. Much existing literature focuses on direct paths to word learning, demonstrating that parent speech and child gesture use are powerful predictors of later vocabulary. However, an additional body of research indicates that these relationships don’t always replicate, particularly when assessed in different populations, contexts, or developmental periods.
The current study examines the relationships between infant gesture, parent speech, and infant vocabulary over the course of the second year (10-22 months of age). Through the use of detailed coding of dyadic mother-child play interactions and a combination of quantitative and qualitative data analytic methods, the process of communicative development was explored. Findings reveal non-linear patterns of growth in both parent speech content and child gesture use. Analyses of contingency in dyadic interactions reveal that children are active contributors to communicative engagement through their use of gestures, shaping the type of input they receive from parents, which in turn influences child vocabulary acquisition. Recommendations for future studies and the use of nuanced methodologies to assess changes in the dynamic system of dyadic communication are discussed.
Item Open Access Connecting through Shared Cognition: Social Consequences and Psychological Underpinnings of Sharing Experiences with Others.(2021) Wolf, WouterTo create social closeness, humans engage in a variety of social activities centered around shared experiences, which, remarkably, do not seem to have a non-human equivalent. Recent work with human adults has suggested that one potential key mechanism through which humans connect to others during shared experiences is shared cognition, the capacity to infer shared mental states, with a particular emphasis on joint attention. To better understand the role of shared experiences, and its underlying social cognition, in human social life, we present a series of studies aimed at examining the ontogeny, phylogeny, contextual flexibility, and (social) consequences of sharing experiences with others through joint attention. Chapter 1 establishes the importance of the current empirical work by discussing the relationship between shared cognition and social bonding from an evolutionary perspective and describes the current state of the field. It then discusses several fundamental questions that remain unanswered, which form the core of the current dissertation. In Chapters 2-4, we describe a set of studies aimed at better understanding the ontogeny and phylogeny of the role of joint attention in connecting with others through shared experiences. We find that although both human children and great apes behave more socially after co-attending to a video (Chapters 2 and 3), only humans seem to create additional social closeness by creating common ground with their partner about the fact that they are sharing an experience through mutual gaze in response to a stimulus onset (Chapter 4). In Chapter 5, we describe a study with college students, in which we examine whether the social bonding effect of joint attention also operates in the context of online video mediated interactions, and if this phenomenon is moderated by group size. We find no difference between the joint attention and disjoint attention condition for dyads or groups, suggesting that, regardless of group size, joint attention is not an effective way to create social closeness in video mediated social interactions. In Chapter 6, we describe a study in which we examine whether children have a social preference for experiencing an activity together, through joint attention, versus alone, and whether sharing this experience shapes children’s attitudes towards the content of that experience in general. Our preliminary data (halted due to Covid 19 safety regulations) show no difference in children’s willingness to stay engaged in a video depending on whether they shared the experience of watching that video or watched the video by themselves (social preference). We did, however, find a trend towards children staying engaged longer during the shared experience. Additionally, we found no effect of joint attention to a toy on children’s motivation to play with that toy during subsequent individual exposure (attitude formation). In Chapter 7, we examine the darker side of the role of shared cognition in social bonding, namely how, after a shared experience, we are concerned about making a good impression on others. Specifically, we examine the development of the Liking Gap: the tendency of individuals to, after a brief interaction with a partner, think that their partner evaluated them more negatively than they evaluated their partner. Our results with children between age 4 and 11 show a Liking Gap emerging at age 5, and intensifying between age 5 and 11. Finally, in Chapter 8 we summarize and synthesize the empirical findings, discuss their theoretical contribution and practical implications, and propose avenues for future research. Overall, these studies demonstrate the crucial role of humans’ sophisticated social cognitive abilities in our social life, enabling us to connect with others effectively through shared experiences. However, our results also suggest that the extent to which this social cognitive mechanism operates outside of the context of face to face interactions might be limited. Finally, the current work highlights that these new opportunities for social bonding might also come with new opportunities to worry about the impression we make on others, even at an early age.
Item Open Access Decision-making Across Development: The Impact of Ambiguity and Social Context(2017) Li, RosaPublic health data show that many everyday reckless behaviors reach a developmental peak in adolescence, with adolescents engaging in more reckless behaviors than both children and adults. In contrast, most studies of decision-making across development do not find laboratory risk-taking to peak in adolescence. Here, I focus on two factors that contribute to the discrepancy between public health and laboratory findings: ambiguity and social context. Everyday decisions tend to involve ambiguous decisions (choices with unknown probabilities), while previous laboratory studies have largely focused on risky decisions (choices with known probabilities). Consequently, little is known about the ambiguity preferences of young children. Across three behavioral studies, I show that ambiguity aversion is absent in 5-year-old children (Chapter 2) and 8- and 9-year-old children (Chapter 3) but present in 15- to 18-year-old adolescents (Chapter 4) and adults (Chapters 2 to 4). The results of Chapters 2 through 4 indicate that the willingness to take ambiguous gambles, like the willingness to take risky gambles, does not peak in adolescence. Everyday decisions also often occur in social contexts when friends are present and outcomes can be shared, whereas most laboratory studies occur in social isolation. In Chapter 5, I use functional magnetic resonance imaging to show that neural response to reward for self and for friend are similar in a sample of young adults (ages 18 to 28), and that neural response to reward linearly decreases with age when participants are watched by their friends but not when they are alone. In Chapter 6, I use behavioral modeling to show that adults value rewards similarly for themselves and for their friend. Adolescents, in contrast, value their own rewards more than those of their friend, but the presence of their friend reduces this valuation difference. The results of Chapters 5 and 6 indicate that the presence of friends prompts adolescents and young adults to engage in behavior that benefits both themselves and their friends. Collectively, the results in this dissertation demonstrate the need to consider contextual influences on decision-making in order to better capture everyday decision behavior in the laboratory.
Item Open Access Development of Decision-Making Under Risk(2012) Paulsen, David JayDecision-making under risk has been of interest to philosophers for centuries. in Only in recent years through interdisciplinary approaches has knowledge concerning the descriptive nature of decision-making under risk increased. Although we know that risk-preference proceeds from a risk-seeking trend in childhood to risk-aversion in adulthood, little is known about the factors that contribute this development. The studies presented here take an interdisciplinary approach to identifying the factors that contribute to age-related changes in risk preference, where in the decision-making process these factors have influence, and changes in neural circuitry that could be responsible. The work presented herein finds that risk-preference is differentially modulated across development by risk level, the values of choice options, and the domain (gains or loss) in which options are presented. During valuation, many brain regions that have previously been associated with decision-making and risk were found to increase in activation with age, suggesting the maturation of a decision-making network. Activation in a few key areas were associated with greater risk-aversion in children, suggesting that maturation of the decision-making network leads to more adult-like behavior. The cognitive component of children's greater risk-seeking was not found to be a deficiency in probabilistic reasoning, the ability to learn from negative feedback, or a general optimism for winning. Rather, children's valuation of a gamble may be exaggerated by a disproportionate amount of attention given to the winning outcome of a gamble. It is further speculated that a lack of regret during outcome evaluation may also contribute to differences in children's risk preference compared to adults.
Item Open Access Development of Parental Confidence among Parents of Infants with Medical Complexity(2019) Vance, AshleeParental confidence is an important factor in gaining expertise in the parental role. The process of becoming a confident parent requires a personal belief in one’s own capacity but also the ability to engage in mastery experiences (e.g. repeated exposure to specific behaviors). Yet, this repeated exposure and ability to gain confidence in parenting may be limited when an infant requires complex care and hospitalization. The separation and limited interaction between an infant and parent alter the parenting trajectory and can halt confidence and ability to acquire parenting skills that are needed to meet the complex caregiving needs of an infant with medical complexity.
This dissertation aimed to develop knowledge related to parental confidence among parents of infants with medical complexity by clearly delineating the concept, understanding parent engagement within intensive care, exploring relevant contextual factors, and examining the development of confidence and factors contributing to change in parental confidence. The primary study conducted for this dissertation was an exploratory longitudinal multi-method study to examine the development of parental confidence, relationship between contextual factors and confidence, and the extent to which confidence, contextual factors, and parent/infant demographic characteristics predicted parent and infant outcomes. Findings demonstrated a significant increase in parental confidence over time and significant association between better family functioning and higher confidence. The higher confidence was also predictive of higher maternal psychological well-being three months after discharge. Furthermore, findings from a second mixed-methods study revealed that parents described confidence as either an emotional state of being or their ability to engage in specific behaviors. Using multiple methods to examine the development of confidence, essential knowledge was generated about how parents of infants with medical complexity gain confidence in their parental role. Recommendations for clinical practice and future research are provided to advance our understanding of parental confidence in order to positively impact parent and infant health.
Item Open Access Developmental and Evolutionary Origins of Language: Insights from the Study of Pointing and Gaze in Infants, Bonobos, and Chimpanzees(2017) Lucca, Kelsey RileyThe uniquely human ability to acquire language has led to two important and enduring questions: how did humans evolve the ability to communicate through language, and how do human infants acquire this ability so adeptly? Here, I aim to provide new insights into these long-standing questions by exploring how human infants and nonhuman primates use and develop nonverbal communicative behaviors.
Chapter 1 introduces the significance of the empirical studies by outlining the role of nonverbal behaviors in shaping uniquely human communicative skills, along both evolutionary and developmental timelines. In Chapter 2, I take a developmental approach and investigate the role of one particularly important nonverbal behavior, infants’ pointing gestures, in facilitating early language development. I found that pointing has a direct and immediate impact on word learning: in the moment an infant points toward an object, they have a heightened readiness to learn that object’s label. In Chapter 3, I test how pointing relates to learning in a variety of domains, and explores potential motives driving infants’ production of pointing. Results demonstrated that pointing reflects a heightened readiness to learn both labels and functions, and are potentially motivated by requests for objects’ labels. In Chapter 4, I take an evolutionary approach and describe a study assessing another important form of nonverbal communication, gaze alternations, in bonobos and chimpanzees. Like humans, bonobos and chimpanzees gaze alternated more when interacting with an attentive, as opposed to inattentive, communicative partner. However, unlike humans, individuals produced few gaze alternations (bonobos) or only frequently gaze alternated after reaching adulthood (chimpanzees).
Chapter 5 provides an overview and synthesis of the empirical findings, as well as important future directions. Together, the studies presented here confirm that nonverbal behaviors are a critical feature of the communication systems of both nonhuman apes and human infants. By demonstrating how human infants and nonhuman apes use nonverbal behaviors to communicate and learn, the current findings provide unique insights into the origins and development of language.
Item Open Access Developmental Pathways in Underachievement(2012) Snyder, Katie ElizabethDespite decades of research attention given to academic underachievement, longitudinal and developmental investigation of this phenomenon has been sparse. To address this shortcoming, the current study used a longitudinal, person-centered approach to identify latent subgroups of growth in the joint development of underachievement and four motivational beliefs (self-concept, task importance, psychological cost value, and self-worth) from first through sixth grade. Two types of underachievement latent classes emerged: one characterized by sustained underachievement and the other by growing underachievement (an Achievement class was also consistently found). Sustained, chronic underachievement was not associated with declines in self-concept or task importance, but was related to moderately lower levels of psychological cost value and self-worth, and was also related to lower middle school academic achievement. Growing underachievement was associated with lower and declining self-concept and task importance. Although differential class membership by gifted status was hypothesized, no such effects were found. Gender effects were found for the Task Importance and Self-Worth models in the hypothesized direction, but this effect was not as robust as in prior research. Findings from the current study build on prior research highlighting heterogeneity among underachieving students.
Item Open Access Diversity and Inequality in Context: Schools, Neighborhoods, and Adolescent Development(2022) Leer, JaneRising demographic diversity and persistent social inequality are two defining features of youths’ social worlds, and schools and neighborhoods are key developmental contexts where this component of contemporary life plays out. This dissertation aimed to better understand the developmental implications of these twin phenomena, focusing specifically on adolescence, a critical period of development characterized by profound neurobiological and social cognitive changes. Across three studies, I asked, (1) how does exposure to different types of diversity and inequality in schools and neighborhoods relate to adolescent mental health and academic engagement? and (2) how do these relations differ across contexts and according to individual socioeconomic and racial-ethnic identity?The first chapter examined the relation between how schools say they value diversity and adolescent belonging, mental health, and academic engagement across racial groups. Results indicate that when schools’ mission statements conveyed explicit support for diversity (versus exhibiting color-evasive ideologies), racial disparities in mental health, educational aspirations, and reading achievement were smaller. However, when there was a mismatch between how schools said they value diversity and how such values were put into practice, schools’ proclaimed support for diversity was negatively associated with mental health, especially among White youth. The second chapter examined how exposure to rising inequality within neighborhoods—vis-à-vis gentrification—may impact educational outcomes. I found small positive associations between living in a gentrifying (versus chronically disinvested) neighborhood and 12th grade cumulative grade point average, intentions to pursue higher education, and one dimension of school quality: exposure to experienced teachers. However, these potential benefits of gentrification were concentrated among youth who were not economically disadvantaged and White youth. Further, for Black youth, the relation between gentrification and postsecondary plans varied according to the degree of racial turnover occurring in gentrifying neighborhoods—Black gentrification was positively associated with intentions to pursue college, but White gentrification was not. The third chapter examined two psychological mechanisms through which living in a gentrifying neighborhood may impact reading and math achievement: educational aspirations and psychological distress. Overall, there was a positive direct association between gentrification and achievement, and limited evidence of mediation. However, the pathways linking gentrification to educational aspirations, psychological distress, and achievement differed across socioeconomic and racial groups in nuanced ways that illuminate the potential costs and benefits of living in a changing neighborhood during adolescence. These three studies contribute to advancing the education, adolescent, and neighborhood literatures by examining understudied aspects of schools and neighborhoods. Findings suggest that the relation between context, identity, and development is more nuanced than is often assumed, with policy implications for how schools and neighborhoods can better address rising demographic diversity and persistent inequality.
Item Open Access Do the Messages Matter? An Investigation of Classroom Messages and College Students’ Personal Theories about Education(2016) Barger, Michael M.Students hold a number of personal theories about education that influence motivation and achievement in the classroom: theories about their own abilities, knowledge, and the learning process. Therefore, college instructors have a great interest in helping to develop adaptive personal theories in their students. The current studies investigated whether specific messages that instructors send in college classroom might serve as a mechanism of personal theory development. Across 2 studies, 17 college instructors and 401 students completed surveys assessing their personal theories about education at the beginning and end of college courses. Students and instructors reported hearing and sending many messages in the classroom, including instructor help messages, conciliatory messages, uncertainty in the field messages, differential ability messages and generalized positive and negative feedback. Between-class and within-class differences in message reports were associated with students’ personal theories at the end of their courses, controlling for initial personal theories. Students’ initial personal theories were also related to the messages students reported hearing. The findings demonstrate the utility of assessing non-content messages in college classrooms as potential mechanisms for changing students’ personal theories in college. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Item Open Access Effect of Grandparent-grandchild Interaction on Socio-emotional and Cognitive Outcomes of Adolescent Grandchildren in Sri Lanka(2015) Saxton, Kaitlin GraceBackground: The role of grandparents has changed in response to social, economic and demographic factors, which may operate both in favour of or against the relationship between grandparents and their grandchildren. The potential positive impact of the grandparent-grandchild relationship on the development of adolescent grandchildren has been increasingly recognized, although relatively few studies have directly related this relationship to measures of child well-being. This study aims to examine the association between grandparent-grandchild interactions and socio-emotional and cognitive outcomes among adolescent grandchildren in Sri Lanka. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted within schools, temples, homes and community buildings in Galle District. An interviewer-assisted survey was used to collect data about the adolescent participants’ demographics, family and household information, grandparent relationships, empathy, and socio-emotional development. A cognitive test was used to assess the adolescents’ cognitive development. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine the association between the grandparent-grandchild relationship and adolescent outcomes. Results: Our results indicate that grandparent-grandchild relationships are significantly associated with adolescent socio-emotional and cognitive development. Conclusions: This study underlines the importance of the grandparent-grandchild relationship.
Item Open Access Effects of “We”-Framing and Prior Discourse on Young Children’s Referential Informativeness(2024) Vasil, JaredSuccessful reference relies on being appropriately informative for listeners. What factors influence informativeness? For example, what factors influence the decision to refer to a ball with the less informative phrase it, as opposed to the more informative phrase the red ball? The present dissertation proposes and investigates a common ground hypothesis and a motivation hypothesis as candidate explanations of young children’s informativeness. Chapter 1 reviews some history of early research pertinent to these hypotheses. Chapters 2 and 3 provide extensive review of recent research pertinent to either hypothesis. Chapter 4 sketches a pragmatistic account of applied statistical inference for investigations of referential informativeness. This account eschews the pseudo-objectivity of traditional statistical practice in favor of a subjectivist Bayesian approach. Chapter 5 puts this way of thinking to work as a tool to compare the relative merits of the common ground and motivation hypotheses. A study is reported that investigated the effects of “we”-framing and prior discourse on 4-year-olds’ informativeness. Four-year-olds learned a novel game from an experimenter, E1. E1 framed the game as conventionally shared or idiosyncratically invented. Then, participants played the game with a new experimenter, E2. E2 framed their play with we”-framing or “you”-framing. Subsequently, participants’ informativeness was recorded when they referred to items in the game for E2. Surprisingly, participants were more informative following conventional compared to idiosyncratic discourse. Less reliably, but equally consistently, this same pattern attended “we”-framing, compared to “you”-framing. In addition, exploratory analyses suggested that participants more often taught E2 with normative language, rather than instrumental language, following idiosyncratic discourse when it was supplemented with “you”-framing. These results suggest that conventional discourse and “we”-framing stoke children’s cooperative motivations and, thereby, their informativeness.
Item Open Access Examining early word learning and language input through a longitudinal, experimental, and observational lens(2022) Dailey, ShannonChildren learn hundreds of words in a few short years (e.g., Dale & Fenson, 1996; Fernald, Pinto, & Swingley, 1998), but there is wide variability between children (Fenson, 2007). Some of the variability in children’s language skills can be attributed to differences in their language input (e.g., generally, children who hear more words say more words; Huttenlocher, et al., 1991; Huttenlocher, et al., 2010). However, there are many other factors at play that may influence both children’s language input and their ability to learn from that input over time, such as their own cognitive, social, and linguistic developments (Bergelson, 2020). In this dissertation, I ask if differences in infants’ language input explain changes in their word comprehension, explain gender differences in their early language skills, or predict their later language outcomes years later.
In Chapter 1, I review prior work on variation in children’s language experience, how it maps onto their developing language skills, and how children’s own development may affect that input. Chapter 2 investigates how children's word comprehension develops across infancy in an eye-tracking study and a complementary corpus analysis. I find that infants gain semantic precision in word comprehension from age 0;6 to 1;6, but this improvement is not readily explained by changes in their at-home exposure to the tested words. Instead, children's improvements in word comprehension may be driven by cognitive and social developments that aid their word learning. Chapter 3 investigates if differences in children's early language input could drive gender differences in their early language skills. I replicate prior work finding girls have an early word production advantage, but I do not find evidence that they have different language input compared to boys. However, I find that children hear more words once they've said their first word, regardless of gender. These results suggest that children's language input does not vary by gender, but instead by their language abilities. In Chapter 4, I turn to investigating a longer timescale of language input and development. Do children's early language abilities and input in infancy predict their later language outcomes years later? I find that children's early language skills consistently predict their later language skills, and measures of children's early language input do not improve our predictions. In Chapter 5, I summarize and synthesize the results of these three studies and discuss implications and future directions of this work.
Across these three studies, I find that language input is not a strong predictor of differences in children’s language skills. Instead, my results suggest that other factors (such as children’s age, gender, and earlier language development) better predict children’s language outcomes.
Item Open Access Explaining Discrepant Findings for Performance-approach Goals: the Role of Emotion Regulation During Test-taking(2008-04-25) Tyson, Diana FrancesThe study of achievement goals has begun to examine the underlying mechanisms that link goal orientations in order to develop a more accurate model that explains achievement outcomes. Currently, performance-approach goal orientations are inconsistently linked to affective, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes. Little research has considered the underlying mechanisms that sustain performance-approach goal orientations, particularly for early adolescents. This study explores the ways in which adolescents modify or regulate the emotional experiences that can interfere with or enhance the attainment of performance-approach goals and achievement. As such, this dissertation examined the role of emotion regulation as a critical process in the pursuit of performance-approach goal orientations that explains how individuals can modify their emotional experiences in order to achieve in a middle school sample (N=328). Students completed self-report measures of their goal orientations and other background variables. After taking a unit math exam, students reported on the emotions that they experienced during the exam. Structural equation modeling was used to examine associations among student goals, emotional experiences, strategies for regulating emotions, and math achievement. Results demonstrated evidence that emotion regulation strategies moderated the relation between performance-approach goals and achievement on a math test. The study found partial support for the PARE model, indicating that performance-approach goals are associated with achievement outcomes when students experience debilitating emotions and utilize emotion regulation strategies.Item Open Access Fragile Masculinity: Operationalizing and Testing a Novel Model of Identity Fragility(2022) Stanaland, AdamIn this dissertation, I propose, operationalize, and test a novel model of identity fragility using fragile masculinity as a case study. To date, identity research has largely focused on understanding how people’s membership in different social categories (e.g., gender, race) shapes their experiences, self-concept, and behavior. I contend that when (i) a social category is high-status and (ii) its corresponding norms are especially rigid—as is often the case with masculinity—people in this category may feel pressured to uphold its norms in order to maintain their status. To the extent that identities are pressured, I argue that they are “fragile”, in turn eliciting compensatory, stereotypical responses (e.g., male aggression) to perceived threats aimed at maintaining status. Supporting the proposed model, I found that young men’s (Study 1) and post-pubertal boys’ (Study 3) aggressive cognition post-threat was directly related to the extent to which their masculine behavior was extrinsically motivated (pressured). In Study 2, I found that straight men’s anti-gay bias was again predicted by a combination of extrinsic pressure and threat, which was partially mediated by men’s endorsement of gender-inversion stereotypes (e.g., gay = feminine). Finally, as one possible pathway to reduce these adverse pressures and compensatory aggression, in Study 4, I found that identity-salient events like U.S. presidential elections can loosen masculinity norms from the “top-down” to mitigate certain men’s sociopolitical aggression.
Item Open Access From Magnitudes to Math: Developmental Precursors of Quantitative Reasoning(2015) Starr, ArielThe uniquely human mathematical mind sets us apart from all other animals. Although humans typically think about number symbolically, we also possess nonverbal representations of quantity that are present at birth and shared with many other animal species. These primitive numerical representations are thought to arise from an evolutionarily ancient system termed the Approximate Number System (ANS). The present dissertation aims to determine how these preverbal representations of quantity may serve as the foundation for more complex quantitative reasoning abilities. To this end, the five studies contained herein investigate the relations between representations of number, representations of other magnitude dimensions, and symbolic math proficiency in infants, children, and adults. The first empirical study, described in Chapter 2, investigated whether infants engage the ANS to represent the full range of natural numbers. The study presented in Chapter 3 compared infants' acuity for detecting changes in contour length to their acuity for detecting changes in number to assess whether representations of continuous quantities are primary to representations of number in infancy. The study presented in Chapter 4 compared individual differences in acuity for number, line length, and brightness in children and adults to determine how the relations between these magnitudes may change over development. Chapter 5 contains a longitudinal study investigating the relation between preverbal number sense in infancy and symbolic math abilities in preschool-aged children. Finally, the study presented in Chapter 6 investigated the mechanisms underlying the maturation of the number sense and determined which features of the number sense are predictive of symbolic math skill. Taken together, these findings confirm that number is a salient feature of the environment for infants and young children and suggest that approximate number representations are fundamental for the acquisition of symbolic math.
Item Open Access Gender, Loneliness, and Friendship Satisfaction in Early Adulthood: The Role of Friendship Features and Friendship Expectations(2013) Weeks, Molly StroudThree studies focus on an intriguing paradox in the associations between gender, friendship quality, and loneliness, and examine whether gender differences in friendship expectations help explain why the paradox occurs. Study 1 (n = 1761 college undergraduates) documents the three elements of this paradox: (1) females reported higher levels of various positive features in their friendships than did males; (2) higher levels of positive friendship features were associated with lower levels of loneliness; and (3) males and females reported similar levels of loneliness. Consistent with this paradox, when friendship features were statistically controlled, a statistical suppression effect was found such that females reported higher levels of loneliness than did males.
Study 2 (n = 1008 young adults aged 18 to 29) replicated each of the findings from Study 1 using a revised and expanded measure that reliably assessed a broader set of distinct friendship features. In addition to measuring friendship features and loneliness, Study 2 also examined friendship satisfaction, and here too a striking suppression effect emerged. Specifically, although females reported slightly higher levels of friendship satisfaction than did males, females reported lower levels of friendship satisfaction than did males when friendship features were statistically controlled. Another noteworthy finding was that several friendship features were more strongly related to friendship satisfaction for females than they were for males, suggesting that females may be more "sensitive" to subtle variations in friendship features than are males.
Study 3 (n = 419 young adults aged 18 to 29) further replicated the suppression effects observed in Studies 1 and 2, and was designed to learn whether gender differences in friendship expectations would help explain the paradox and suppression effects. Two different facets of friendship expectations were hypothesized and assessed with newly developed, highly reliable measures of each facet. The first facet, referred to as "feature-specific friendship expectations," focused on the degree to which individuals expect a best friendship to be characterized by each of the friendship features that were assessed in Study 2. The second facet, referred to as "feature-specific friendship standards," focused on identifying where individuals "set the bar" in deciding whether or not a friend's actions have fulfilled expectations in various friendship feature domains.
Gender differences were found for both facets of friendship expectations with females generally having higher expectations for their friends than did males. The two facets were only moderately correlated, and related in distinct ways to other variables of interest. Findings indicated that higher levels of feature-specific friendship expectations were generally associated with more positive functioning in the social domain (i.e., higher levels of positive friendship features and friendship satisfaction), whereas higher levels of feature-specific friendship standards were associated with potentially more problematic functioning (i.e., more negative responses to ambiguous violations of friendship expectations).
Study 3 also tested the hypothesis that discrepancies between feature-specific friendship expectations and the quality of a person's best friendship on each of the same features are associated with loneliness and also with friendship satisfaction. Polynomial regression analysis, rather than the traditional difference score approach, was used to test this hypothesis. The discrepancy hypothesis was not supported with regard to either loneliness or friendship satisfaction; possible explanations for this finding are discussed.
Together, findings from the three studies provide evidence of the replicability of the observed paradox, identify friendship quality as a suppressor variable on gender differences in loneliness and friendship satisfaction, and provide evidence for the existence of two distinct facets of friendship expectations. Results from this dissertation suggest important directions for future research designed to better understand the linkages among gender, social cognition, and social experience in contributing to emotional well-being for young adults.
Item Open Access Grade Expectations: An Investigation of Performance Feedback, Classroom Goal Structures, and the Motivational Consequences of their Dynamic Interplay(2015) Koenka, AlisonThe salience, prevalence, and consequences of feedback students receive on their academic performance have led to widespread interest in assessment outcomes. Despite the frequency and high stakes of performance feedback, a clear picture of how it influences students' academic motivation has failed to emerge. The overarching goal of this dissertation study was to better understand the effect of performance feedback on secondary school students' academic motivation following a high-stakes assessment. In particular, this study had three main aims: (1) begin disentangling the influence of performance feedback from its valence on students' self-efficacy, goal orientations, and intrinsic motivation, (2) explore how the stage of an assessment event and performance feedback interact to influence these motivation constructs, and (3) determine whether the influence of performance feedback on academic motivation depends on the evaluation dimension of the classroom goal structure.
To investigate these topical questions, the current study implemented a cluster-randomized experimental design. One hundred sixty-one seventh through ninth grade students in 13 math or science classes from a single, all-female secondary school were randomly assigned by their class to one of the following four feedback conditions: (1) numeric grades, (2) evaluative comments, (3) numeric grades accompanied by evaluative comments, and (4) no feedback. Students' academic motivation was then measured on three occasions to capture its fluctuations during an assessment event: at baseline, immediately after teachers announced what form of feedback students would receive (i.e., anticipation stage), and immediately after students received their assigned form of feedback (i.e., receipt stage).
Results revealed a series of complex interactions between the stage of feedback (i.e., anticipation vs. receipt) and its form (i.e., grades, comments, grades plus comments, or no feedback). Notably, only students in the grades plus comments condition experienced a decline in self-efficacy from anticipation to receipt of this feedback. However, these students also reported an increase in their mastery goal orientation and intrinsic motivation upon the receipt of grades accompanied by comments. Students in the comments condition experienced a similar increase in intrinsic motivation. Finally, students in the no feedback and comments conditions also reported a greater performance-approach goal orientation when they received performance feedback (or lack thereof) compared to when they anticipated it. No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that students' perceptions of the evaluation dimension of their classroom goal structure moderated these interaction effects. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of these findings are discussed along with limitations and recommendations for future research.
Item Open Access Growing Up in the Face of Economic Hardship: The Effects of Job Loss, Material Deprivation, and Subjective Financial Stress on Children and Parents(2018) Schenck-Fontaine, AnikaMost research on the effects of economic hardship on children and parents has only considered the effects of income poverty, while ignoring the roles of two other dimensions of economic hardship - subjective financial stress and material deprivation. In this dissertation, I fill that gap in the literature by examining the effects of these underexamined dimensions of economic hardship on children's social-emotional outcomes from an international perspective. I also expand on the extant literature by examining the effects of economic hardship on parenting at the community, rather than the family, level. Together, the three chapters of this dissertation add a more nuanced and global perspective to a growing body of literature on the multiple dimensions of economic hardship and their impacts on children and parents.
The first chapter examines the multiple possible manifestations of economic hardship at the family level and their associations with children's social-emotional outcomes. Using data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative longitudinal study of children born between 2000 and 2001 in the United Kingdom, I find that half of the families who experienced economic hardship were not income poor, but nevertheless experienced material deprivation, subjective financial stress, or both. Moreover, all manifestations of economic hardship, including those without income poverty, were associated with higher levels of behavior problems for children. I interpret these findings to indicate that income poverty is a necessary but insufficient measure of economic hardship and that future research on the effects of economic hardship should consider all of the possible manifestations of economic hardship.
The second chapter more deeply investigates the association between material deprivation and children's social-emotional outcomes holding income constant. I use data from the Parenting Across Cultures Project to identify whether the association between material deprivation and children's behavior problems found in the first paper is also observable among families in nine diverse countries in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia. I find that even when income remained stable, parents' perceived material deprivation was associated with children's externalizing behavior problems. I also find that parents' disciplinary practices explain a small but significant share of the association between parents' perceived material deprivation and children's behavior problems. There were no differences in these associations between mothers and fathers or between high- and low- and middle-income countries. These results provide further evidence that material deprivation influences children's social-emotional outcomes at any income level and suggest that this association is significant in diverse political, cultural, and economic contexts.
The third chapter examines the effect of economic hardship on parenting behavior at the community, rather than family, level. Using longitudinal state-level US administrative data on mass layoffs and child maltreatment investigations, this chapter tests whether economic shocks at the state level are associated with community-wide increases in child maltreatment. I show that job losses are associated with a significant increase in investigations for physical abuse, but not in the overall rate of investigations. Moreover, job losses also predict an increase in the share of reports that was substantiated. These findings underscore the need to consider economic hardship at the community level in addition to the family level when studying economic disparities in children's outcomes and experiences.
Item Open Access How Social Status Permeates Inequalities in Health: Three Studies on Experiences of Social Disadvantage(2020) Rivenbark, JoshuaThe social gradient of health is pervasive and unrelenting. Across nearly any layer of society – race, religion, economic standing, or others – the populations worst off in terms health are also the most socially disadvantaged. Over three studies, this dissertation examines some of the experiences that underlie the connection between social disadvantage and health, namely internalized perceptions of status, interpersonal interactions, and institutional actions. The first study examines the link between adolescents’ perceived social status and their mental health at a range of ages, identifying at what age mental health problems begin to track perceptions of status, as well as contextual factors that do (or do not) relate to perceptions of status. In the second study, data from a nationally representative survey in France are used to document rates of reporting discrimination within the healthcare setting by gender, immigrant status, race/ethnicity, and religion. Rates of foregoing medical care are also documented across the same groups, and the potential explanatory role of discrimination toward disparities in foregone care is then investigated. The third and final study looks at the role of institutional stigma, using state bans of Sharia law in the USA as an exemplary case of stigmatizing policies with minimal material consequences. National birth record data for the USA is used, and the variation in policy enactment over time and space is leveraged to examine birth outcomes for Muslim women who were pregnant at the time their state passed a ban. Findings reveal a decrease in the secondary sex ratio to targeted women, suggesting the stigmatizing policy acts as a population-level stressor with consequences for maternal health.
Item Open Access Implicit, Eclipsed, but Functional: the Development of Orthographic Knowledge in Early Readers(2009) Kaefer, TanyaAlthough most models of reading development present orthographic knowledge as a more advanced and later developing form of knowledge than phonological knowledge, this dissertation presents a model of the development of orthographic knowledge in which generalized orthographic knowledge, the knowledge of symbol patterns within and across words, develops early, at the same time as phonological knowledge and before lexicalized representations of a whole word. However, because phonological and generalized orthographic knowledge are not fully integrated, phonological knowledge masks orthographic knowledge in typical measures of literacy.
In study 1 pre-readers' knowledge of the elements that make up words was tested using eye-tracking as a measure of implicit knowledge. We find that pre-reading children as young as 3 have implicit orthographic knowledge regarding the elements that make up words. This supports the prediction that generalized orthographic knowledge develops before lexicalized knowledge.
In study 2, children's creative spellings were used to gauge children's implicit knowledge of letter patterns in a naturalistic setting. We find that kindergarteners in particular tend to rely on phonology over orthography when the two are in conflict. This supports the hypothesis that phonological knowledge can mask orthographic knowledge.
In study 3, children were asked to decode non-words and their implicit knowledge of letter patterns was measured using eye tracking. I found that early readers show some implicit knowledge when decoding, This supports the hypothesis that generalized orthographic knowledge can be measured in literacy tasks under certain testing conditions.
In study 4, children's phonological and orthographic knowledge was tested directly by asking children to sound out and select the best word. Results show that sensitivity to orthographic violations is decreased when phonology is introduced. This is a direct test of the hypothesis that phonological knowledge can mask orthographic knowledge, and findings support this hypothesis.
These results suggest that pre-readers show generalized orthographic knowledge before lexicalized knowledge and concurrently with phonological knowledge. Furthermore, this generalized orthographic knowledge initially presents itself implicitly, and in many early literacy tasks the orthographic domain is dominated by phonological concerns. Essentially, orthographic and phonological knowledge develop at the same time; however, until children learn to integrate the two dimensions of written language, they rely on one source over the other.
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