Counseling, Higher Education & Special Education Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2757
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Item Worry Intensity about Situations Experienced by Student Teachers(2019) McCurdy, Kelsey Faith; Teglasi, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Student teachers are often overlooked in discussions about teacher burnout, attrition, and turnover despite evidence that burnout may begin to develop during student teaching (Horgan, Howard, & Gardiner-Hyland, 2018). High rates of teacher turnover and attrition are costly and detract from the quality of education (Alliance, 2014). This study examines four questions related to student teachers’ experience with worry and stress: how much do student teachers worry about common teaching situations, to what extent is worry intensity situational, how do student teachers describe their experiences with worry, and is worry intensity related to perceived stress reactivity? Results demonstrated that person differences accounted for relatively more variation in worry intensity than did situations. Further, results demonstrated that worry intensity was significantly related to perceived stress reactivity to social evaluation. Implications for understanding how individuals reason about worry intensity and implications for teacher preparation programs are discussed.Item Relations Among Peer Victimization, Aggression, And School Climate in Elementary School Students(2019) Sullivan, Kathryn; Wang, CIxin; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Peer victimization in schools is a growing concern in China, where prevalence rates range from 22-26.1% (Han, Zhang, & Zhang, 2017; Cheng et al., 2010). Peer victimization is linked to many negative outcomes, including increased aggression (Arsenault et al., 2006; Averdijk et al., 2016). A positive school climate, which includes factors that support learning, physical and emotional safety, connection, support, and engagement, may serve as a protective factor against both peer victimization and its negative outcomes. This study examined the longitudinal relations between peer victimization, aggression, and school climate by examining self-report survey data collected from 800 3rd to 6th-grade students in China. Results indicated that a positive school climate was a significant moderator of the positive relationship between peer victimization and later aggression. These findings have important implications for the role of school climate as protective against later behavioral difficulties for victimized students.Item 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.Item Secondary Traumatic Stress, Financial Stress, and the Role of Coping in Understanding Southeast Asian American Mental Health(2019) Truong, Nancy Nguyen; Miller, Matthew J; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study advances the literature by jointly examining two stressors (secondary traumatic stress and financial stress) hypothesized to impact the mental health of the Southeast Asian American (SEAA) community and focused on the experiences of generational stress with SEAAs. This study also examined how coping moderated the relationship between stress and mental health. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to test whether secondary traumatic stress, financial stress, direct and indirect coping (entered in Step 1), and the interactions between stress and coping (entered in Step 2) predicted mental health. Participants included 134 self-identified 1.5-generation and second-generation SEAA adults who completed an online survey. Consistent with emerging research, increased financial stress and secondary traumatic stress significantly predicted poorer mental health. Further, indirect coping significantly predicted poorer mental health. Contrary to expectations, none of the moderation effects were significant. Post-hoc analyses were also conducted. Limitations and implications for future research and practice are addressed.Item The Development and Validation of the Costs of United States Corporate Capitalism Scale(2018) Sharma, Rajni; Shin, Richard Q; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Within the field of counseling psychology, which promotes values of social justice, the discussion of United States corporate capitalism (USCC) is limited. I provide evidence for the development and validation of the Costs of USCC Scale (CCC), a 24-item, self-report measure assessing the degree to which an individual attributes the cause of social problems in the U.S. to be structural (i.e. USCC) or individualistic (i.e. individual failure regarding work ethic, lack of motivation, effort, or ability). 1,010 individuals completed the CCC scale through an online survey distributed through MTurk. A three-factor structure emerged: a) USCC as Structural Cause of Costs, b) Individual Failure as Cause of Costs, c) Disagreement with Temporary Solutions to Costs. The CCC has acceptable criterion and discriminant validity, and reliability estimates for the full scale. Findings from this project may help inform future research on attitudes regarding USCC and their relationship with economic policy change.Item IMPACT OF SCHOOL-BASED PERCEIVED RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN MIDDLE SCHOOL ON AFRICAN AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION AND ACADEMIC ABILITY SELF-CONCEPT(2019) Estevez, Gabriella; O'Neal, Colleen; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study will examine how school-based perceived racial discrimination in middle school impacts long-term academic outcomes for African American adolescents via the mediator of depression. The present study will test this model using data from a sample of African American students within the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (MADICS), a public use data set collected from 1991-2000. Three separate waves will be examined (a) 8th grade (N = 533); (b) 11th grade (N = 399); (c) one year after high school (N = 243). Measures in this study are all self-report and include school-based perceived racial discrimination from teachers and peers (8th grade), depressive symptoms (8th and 11th grade), and the academic outcomes of high school graduation and academic ability self-concept (1 yr. after high school) from youth self-reports.Item ASIAN-AMERICAN IMMIGRANT PARENTS’ BELIEFS ABOUT HELPFUL STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH CONCERNS(2018) Frese, Kristen Marie; Wang, Cixin; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The present exploratory, mixed-methods study explores Asian-American immigrant parents’ beliefs about helpful strategies for addressing youth mental illness (i.e., depression and eating disorders). Nineteen Asian-American immigrant parents (M=46.1 years, SD=3.9) completed closed-ended surveys and semi-structured interviews. Frequency counts were collected from the surveys on parents’ attitudes toward mental health services, products, and providers for the prevention and intervention of adolescent mental illnesses. The interviews were coded for themes using thematic analysis in order to explore parents’ beliefs about helpful strategies for addressing youth mental illness. Five primary strategies for addressing youth mental health concerns emerged: Providing social support; providing strategies to improve mental health; teaching adolescents about mental health; seeking help from professionals; and identifying the cause or diagnosing the problem. The roles that the school and culture play in each of those strategies is discussed. Implications are given for school-based mental health providers.Item Parent- and Teacher-Rated Social Skills and Theory of Mind in Kindergarteners(2018) Caputo, Maryke Haasbroek; Teglasi, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated how kindergartners’ use of Theory of Mind (ToM; understanding and inferring others’ mental states to predict and explain behavior) relate to their Social Competence (SC), as rated by parents and teachers. This study aimed to determine whether social skills items could be classified as more or less conventional (knowledge of emotions and social conventions) or intentional (requires noticing and interpreting other’s beliefs and intentions) based on their correlates with more or less structured performance measures of ToM, respectively. Results partially supported this this distinction. Patterns suggested that parents and teachers judge children’s social skills differently. This study also explored relations of language with SC and ToM. Language accounted for much of the variance in the more structured ToM task and teacher-rated social skills, but not the less structured ToM task or parent-rated social skills. Implications for SC conceptualization and scale construction and interpretation are discussed.Item PHYSICAL HEALTH IN PSYCHOTHERAPY: AN EXAMINATION OF DISCUSSION AND RESPONSE FROM THERAPIST AND CLIENT PERSPECTIVES(2017) Fuhrmann, Amy Carr; Hoffman, Mary Ann; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated if and how physical health is discussed in open-ended psychotherapy in a naturalistic setting, including identifying frequency and content of reported physical health issues, in-session responses to these reports, decisions not to report a physical health issue, and relationships with other session variables. Participants were 54 clients and 11 doctoral therapists-in-training engaged in open-ended treatment at a low-fee, community psychotherapy clinic. Data about physical health was collected for each client at intake, and data on report of a physical health issue, characteristics of the report, therapists’ response during the session, decision not to report, working alliance, real relationship, and session evaluation were collected after each session. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, mean comparison, and linear regression. Results indicate that while talking about a physical health issue was relatively infrequent, clients had physical health issues that they found distressing. The most common physical health issues discussed were sleep, weight, and pain. Clients were more likely to share issues in session that they rate as more distressing and related to their mental health than those they chose not to share. Clients were three times more likely than therapists to initiate discussion about physical health in session, and issues that were discussed usually came up in the early phase of long-term, open-ended treatment, and were discussed in more than one session. In sessions when a physical health issue was discussed, depth of the discussion varied greatly, but when clients’ understanding of their physical health issue was evolving or unclear, they more consistently talked about the issue in depth. When talking about physical health, therapists reported helping clients draw connections with their mental health through insight, while clients felt therapists focused more on exploration of the issue. Qualities of the discussion about physical health in session related to client-rated working alliance, real relationship, and session evaluation. Implications for training, research and practice are discussed.Item ‘Butch Up’ or ‘Sissy That Walk’? Testing the Potential of Gender Affirmations to Moderate Masculinity Threat in Gay Men(2018) Vernay, Collin; Shin, Richard Q; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)There is evidence to suggest heterosexual men respond to threats to their masculinity in a number of deleterious ways, but few studies have examined this relationship in sexual minority men. For this reason, the present study sought to investigate the effects of an experimentally manipulated masculinity threat on the moods, internalized heterosexism, and self-esteem of gay men, while exploring the potential for gender affirmation exercises to moderate such effects. A sample of 129 gay men were recruited and asked to engage in either a gender affirmation or control writing task, after which they were either exposed to a masculinity threat or control. Findings across conditions were nonsignificant for each of the outcome measures regardless of writing task or threat exposure. Findings were similarly nonsignificant for the interaction between these variables. These findings further complicate the limited and often inconsistent literature on gay men and masculinity.