Counseling, Higher Education & Special Education Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Counseling, Higher Education & Special Education Theses and Dissertations by Author "Babaturk, Leyla"

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    Reciprocal Relations Between Perceived Stress and Literacy Achievement in School-Age Children Over Time
    (2021) Babaturk, Leyla; O'Neal, Colleen R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Stress has a negative impact on academic achievement, but it is unclear whether achievement impacts stress. Most stress research utilizes a unidirectional design (e.g., stress affects achievement). Recent research has begun to examine cross-lagged models in which social-emotional variables and achievement affect one another; however, associations have typically been found at the between-person level of analysis. In contrast, within-person effects may provide information about the state- or trait-like nature of an individual’s, versus a group’s (between-person effects), growth over time. This short-term longitudinal study examined the direction of relations between the social-emotional variable of perceived stress and literacy among diverse elementary students. In addition, this study was the first to examine stress-literacy achievement relations at both the between-person and within-person levels. Participants included upper elementary students (N = 397; Mage = 9.61; 56% female; 57% Dual Language Learners; 12% Black, 6% Asian, 30% Latinx, 7% Multiracial; 43% White) from three schools. Measures were collected at three timepoints over four months, including student-reported perceived stress (two factors: stress-coping and stress-distress) and a literacy achievement performance task (Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension, TOSREC). Latent variable path analyses revealed that stress-coping was a significant predictor of later literacy achievement. Reverse relations also held true with literacy achievement as a negative predictor of later Time 2 stress-distress, and a positive predictor of later Time 2 coping, when previous stress was not a control. In contrast, no significant stress-literacy achievement relations (i.e., direct, reverse, or cross-lagged) were found when a latent curve model was used at the residual level, which suggests that the relations between stress and literacy achievement were more trait-based than state-based for students across a short period of time. Results are discussed in the context of reciprocal and between-person versus within-person mechanisms of change between stress and literacy achievement.
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    Stress and achievement in elementary school students: The mediating role of growth mindset
    (2019) Babaturk, Leyla; O'Neal, Colleen R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The achievement gap is one of the most pernicious education problems in the United States, and stress has a negative impact on achievement. Growth mindset may explain how stress impacts achievement. This study used a short-term longitudinal design (n = 251; 36% DLL) to evaluate growth mindset as a mediator of the negative impact of stress on literacy achievement in 3rd - 5th grade students. Results confirmed that perceived stress was negative related to achievement. The present study also explored whether mediation model results differ between dual-language learning (DLL) and English-native students. Although growth mindset did not act as a mediator in the full sample, growth-minded attributions mediated the negative effect of stress on achievement for non-DLL students only. These results hold implications for understanding how to help students with the consequences of stress on their mindsets and academic performance.