UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item The Portrayal of Anger and Anger Management in Children's Picture Books(2024) Hernandez, Ilcia; Teglasi, Hedwig; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Through a comprehensive analysis of a sample of 80 children’s picture books, this study highlights the importance of embedding language to describe anger experiences and elements of social information processing (SIP) within stories to enhance young children’s understanding of anger arousal within themselves and others, as well as of anger management strategies. This study identified anger-eliciting situations, physiological and behavioral reactions, coping strategies proposed by helpers or the main character, along with other themes related to emotion socialization within the books. The current study identifies gaps in the portrayal of SIP mechanisms within stories, which underscores a need to emphasize the role of emotion dysregulation and of SIP biases during interpersonal conflicts as it is critical to foster regulation, reappraisal, and problem-solving skills among readers. The depiction of anger arousal and its escalation, predominantly through illustrations, is explored, along with implications for emotion understanding and cultural considerations of emotion expression. Picture book stories convey beliefs and values about anger by normalizing the emotion while promoting constructive regulation and expression through addressing the arousal in the body, delaying reactive responses, and using cognitive coping strategies. Overall, the current study has implications for caregivers and clinicians, in that becoming aware of how anger experiences are portrayed in picture books can aid in book selection based on a match with an individual child’s experiences and temperament to maximize its use as a tool for social-emotional learning and anger management in young children.Item Trajectories of Clinician Competence and Student Engagement During an Adolescent ADHD Intervention(2023) Sommer, Samantha Lynn; Teglasi, Hedwig; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)School-based organization, time management, and planning skills-related (OTMP) interventions have been developed to address academic and organizational difficulties students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder face (ADHD), especially when entering secondary school (DuPaul et al., 2012; Evans et al., 2018; Villodas et al., 2014). For OTMP interventions to be reliably administered, interventionists must be appropriately trained to not only implement session procedures that adhere to intervention protocol, but to also adjust their responses to individual students to maintain quality interactions, which is referred to as competence (Goense et al., 2016; Perepletchikova et al., 2007). This study tested the hypothesis that the constructs, interventionist competence and student engagement, would significantly change over the course of a 16-session school-based intervention for adolescents with ADHD and academic challenges. Specific student characteristics were also expected to interact with initial levels or changes in competence and engagement over time. Using an archival dataset (N= 111) and latent growth modeling, findings revealed that neither competence nor engagement changed significantly over time. However, initial levels of both constructs significantly varied. Further conditional growth modeling found that greater ADHD symptom severity negatively contributed to competence and that internalizing symptoms contributed uniquely and positively to competence. Although interventionist competence and student engagement did not exhibit significant change over time, certain student factors were associated with the quality of interventionists responses to students and with the degree to which students remain engaged with intervention materials.Item AN EVALUATION OF YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID TRAINING FOR AMERICORPS CLASSROOM EDUCATORS(2020) Ross, Ana-Sophia; Wang, Cixin; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The prevalence and severity of adolescent mental health concerns is clear. Half of youth experience a trauma/adverse event, thus significantly increasing their risk of developing mental illness. Further, suicide recently became the second leading cause of death among young people. Unfortunately, most youth do not get the mental health services they need. Schools, however, are the most likely place to provide formal or informal mental health care. Classroom educators, in particular, are most likely to be the one to refer/recommend students to formal school mental health services and they also provide informal mental health help. Despite their key role, they often feel underprepared to recognize concerning symptoms in youth and to support school mental health efforts. This mixed-methods study explored the impact of training 106 City Year AmeriCorps members in Dade County (Miami, Florida) using the Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) program. Quantitative data were collected at three points (pre, post, and two months after training) to examine whether YMHFA training equipped corps members with tools to support students’ mental health. Overall, training was associated with short-term improvements in mental health literacy, confidence and intentions to engage in providing mental health first aid behaviors, and knowledge of school based mental health providers. Notably, participants self-reported greater engagement in mental health helping behaviors in the two months after training than in the two months before training. No improvement in mental health stigma was observed, and some short-term improvements (i.e., mental health literacy, intentions to help) were not sustained at follow-up. Qualitative data generally supported quantitative findings and suggested that the YMHFA program is well-suited for classroom educators. However, the program has room to grow in ensuring it helps educators support culturally and linguistically diverse students’ mental health.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 A survey of current and proposed practices in the organization, operation, and content of selected supervised-practice programs for training secondary-school counselors(1952) Whitfield, Ralph; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Item An evaluation of the guidance programs in nine selected colleges(1950) Bunch, Arvil Newton; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Item STUDENT RESILIENCY: A MIXED METHODS ANALYSIS OF COUNSELING GROUP EFFECTS.(2015) Pickering, Cyril Emmanuel; Strein, William; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Student resiliency, or the internal resources that an individual possesses that enables success despite adversity, is a variable of interest, particularly for students who are at-risk for negative outcomes in school. This study examined the group counseling efforts of an alternative high school, looking at how group composition influenced the growth in scores on the Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents, a measure of student resiliency that students were given at the beginning and end of the year. In addition to this quantitative analysis, students who participated in the groups and counselors who facilitated the groups were interviewed regarding the effectiveness and challenges of the groups, as well as how the groups impacted Sense of Mastery, Sense of Relatedness and Emotional Reactivity, the three areas of resiliency that were being measured. Each interviewee provided feedback regarding ways that the groups could help students grow in resilience. Results from the quantitative analysis indicated the aggregated starting resiliency scores of the other group members had no impact on a student’s growth in any of the resiliency scales. A second analysis revealed some correlations between group growth in resiliency and a student’s growth in resiliency, seemingly indicating that as the group improves in certain measures, individual growth is hindered. Results from the qualitative analysis revealed overall positive impressions of the group counseling experience and statements about how the groups helped improve resiliency. Several common themes among students and counselors emerged regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the group counseling approach. Implications for implementation and evaluation of group counseling are discussed.Item Informant Discrepancies: Understanding Differences in Parent and Teacher Ratings of Children's Executive Functions and Social Skills(2015) Albrecht, Jessica; Teglasi, Hedy; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Researchers and practitioners in the field of psychology frequently use parent and teacher rating scales in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of young children. However, research has shown that agreement between parents and teachers on rating scales is low to moderate. The present study examined this phenomenon, termed "informant discrepancy", for the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF) and the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS). Parents and teachers completed these scales for the same sample of 73 Kindergarten children. Results indicated that parent-teacher agreement was low at the scale and item levels, within-informant correlations were higher than between-informant correlations, mean differences in parent and teacher ratings may be explained by differences in the home and school contexts, and informants identified different children as having significant problems with executive functions and social skills. Implications of the findings for research and practice are discussed.Item An Investigation of High School Counseling Programs as a Reflection of a College-Going Culture(2012) Park, Denise; Lee, Courtland C; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study is to investigate high school counseling programs as a reflection of a college-going culture. A qualitative thematic analysis is used to examine four school counseling programs at high schools in a school district located along the Eastern seaboard of the United States. In order to increase the likelihood of identifying aspects of school counseling programs that are successful in reflecting a college-going culture, only high schools with high college-going percentage rates were selected for this study. College-going culture theory, including the nine college-going culture principles, as proposed by McClafferty, McDonough, and Nunez (2002) is used as a framework for this study. The college-going culture principles operate as themes to help categorize school counselor activities and measure whether the school counseling programs reflect a college-going culture in the schools. A methodological triangulation is employed to identify planned college-going activities within three information sources from each school: school counselors' management plans, school counseling websites, and the school counseling departments' calendars. Results suggest that collectively, the four selected schools plan college-going activities that are consistent with all nine college-going culture principles, thus suggesting that there is a college-going culture that is strongly supported and reflected by the school counseling departments in these schools. Suggestions, based on these findings, for how other schools might improve their college-going culture are included. Implications for promoting cultural reform to support college access and success for all students are also discussed.Item DEFINING AND ASSESSING PARENT EMPOWERMENT AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT USING THE NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD EDUCATION SURVEY: A FOCUS ON MARGINALIZED PARENTS(2012) Kim, Jungnam; Bryan, Julia; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Marginalized parents experience multiple and complex challenges in terms of social isolation, exclusion, and powerlessness. This empirical study investigated the effects of parent empowerment on academic outcomes using a large national representative sample and should provide insights about the importance of parent empowerment in education and counseling. Further, the study investigated the effect of the intersectionality of race/ethnicity, home language and income on parent empowerment. This first attempt at analyzing intersectionality in the context of parent empowerment may provide some guidance for future researchers in addressing the complex nature of intersecting identities. This study was a correlational study that used data from the Parent and Family Involvement Survey of the National Household Education Surveys (PFI-NHES: 2007) to investigate the relationship between parent empowerment and academic achievement as measured by parents' reports of students' grade point average(GPA). Using multiple linear regression and logistic regression, the findings of the current study demonstrated that some aspects of parent empowerment were related to children's academic achievement, namely, parents' competence, self-determination, community belonging, and community participation. Interestingly, parents' sense of meaning and consciousness were not related to children's academic achievement. Moreover, intersections of race/ethnicity, home language and income were also related to parent empowerment. The results are significant in that they provide empirical information for school counselors, teachers, administrators and counselors for working with parents. Furthermore, these data may begin to provide support for the conceptual framework of parent empowerment provided this study in order to guide future research and practice.