Human Development & Quantitative Methodology Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2779
Browse
328 results
Search Results
Item Statistical Learning Across Modalities, Domains and Languages(2024) Ren, Jinglei; Wang, Min; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation establishes a comprehensive line of research that systematically exploresstatistical learning (SL) across modalities, domains, and languages. The first study delves into SL development, exploring SL changes across different ages, linguistic and non-linguistic domains, visual and auditory modalities, and languages (specifically, Chinese and English). In the second study, the focus is shifted to the probabilistic regularities embedded in a specific written language. This study investigated the ability to use word endings as a probabilistic cue to lexical stress among those who acquired a second language (L2) in formal learning settings through years of practice. The third study broadens the scope further, delving into whether beginning English learners benefit from a specialized training program emphasizing the association between word endings and lexical stress. The collective body of research in this dissertation makes significant contributions to the fields of cognitive science, linguistics, and education. Ultimately, the insights gleaned have the capacity to positively impact learners of various ages and diverse backgrounds, and to offer valuable implications for educational practices.Item Developing and validating a measure of epistemic competence beliefs to examine undergraduate students’ critical-analytic thinking in a multiple source use task(2024) Schoute, Eric Cornelis; Alexander, Patricia A; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Background: This dissertation aimed to develop and validate a novel Epistemic Competence Beliefs Measure (ECBM) to capture students’ ability to identify and utilize relevant sources for complex issues. Epistemic competence was hypothesized to be critical in performing multiple source use (MSU) tasks, particularly in predicting critical-analytic thinking in argumentative essays. The study was conducted in two phases, focusing on the ECBM’s development, its content validity, and predictive validity in an MSU context. Methods: Phase 1 involved creating the ECBM’s based on epistemic beliefs and cognition theories, presenting students with controversial scenarios. Content validity was assessed by an international panel of experts. Phase 2 implemented the ECBM in a university course, collecting data through argumentative claim selection forms, search logs, notes, essays, and a retroactive behaviors questionnaire. Data were analyzed using content analysis, cluster analysis, ANOVA, multiple linear regression, and regression trees to determine the ECBM’s predictive validity. Findings: The study revealed significant variability in students’ epistemic competence as measured on the ECBM, though no direct predictive relationship to enacted epistemic competence and exhibited critical-analytic thinking was established. Students’ critical-analytic thinking varied significantly, influenced by their GPA and TORR scores. Notably, students with higher relational reasoning abilities exhibited superior critical-analytic thinking in their essays, supporting the theorized link between these constructs. Implications: For future research, the ECBM can be refined and more closely integrated into the MSU project by aligning its completion with the task’s introduction. This integration may enhance students’ epistemic agency and awareness. Furthermore, diversifying study populations across different sociocultural contexts and employing Bayesian and mixed-methods analyses can provide deeper insights into epistemic competence and critical-analytic thinking. Practical implications suggest procedural adjustments to better align the MSU project with theoretical frameworks, potentially improving instructional practices. Conclusions: The novel Epistemic Competence Beliefs Measure is a meaningful contribution to the literature on epistemic beliefs as it unearthed theoretically and practically meaningful profiles of undergraduates’ appraisal of the characteristics of complex, controversial issues. The data-analytic focus on students’ variability rather than only consistency in characterizations of the scenarios highlighted the value of examining epistemic beliefs in a more situated, contextualized manner. This resulting findings of varying beliefs dispute the lingering assumption that epistemic beliefs are stable across contexts. While the assessment of the ECBM’s predictive validity identified no significant relations, the findings underscore the importance of relational reasoning to critical-analytic thinking. Future research should focus on refining the ECBM, exploring its applicability in diverse contexts, and employing comprehensive analytical methods to further elucidate these constructs.Item Writing to Discover: Adding Complexity to Views Of Writing As an Agent of Change in Undergraduates’ Knowledge, Interest, Confidence, and Calibration(2024) van Meerten, Julianne E.; Bolger, Donald J; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The rationale behind the present study consisted of evidence reported to date for Galbraith et al.’s (1999, 2018, 2023) dual-process model of writing, suggesting that not only do writers engage in knowledge transformation, but in the development of new knowledge. An additional aspect of Galbraith et al.’s (2023) work is their proposal and validation of a novel subjective knowledge measure, tailored to those two processes, with potential to be used as a tool for calibration, knowledge activation, and learning. The purpose of the present study was to (a) investigate knowledge development comparing two different writing tasks relative to a comparison task of rereading a text passage, (b) explore patterns in subjective knowledge, confidence, and situational interest ratings throughout engagement with such tasks, (c) examine the predictive power of those ratings for post-intervention knowledge, and (d) compare confidence ratings with evidence of knowledge, that is, calculating calibration scores.The study used a pretest-posttest repeated measures intervention design, in which 146 undergraduate students, enrolled in human development and psychology research methodology courses, were randomly assigned to experimental or comparison conditions. Students in all conditions started by reading a text on the topic of research design, after which students in the experimental conditions engaged in two writing activities, consisting of a free-write (for both experimental conditions) and either an explanatory or persuasive writing task. Simultaneously, students in the comparison condition reread the initial text twice while being tasked with, first, surface-level strategies and, second, deep-level reading strategies. At least a week after the intervention, students in all conditions completed a transfer test, consisting of an argument writing task. Students rated their subjective knowledge about the topic (using an adapted version of Galbraith et al.’s [2023] instrument), confidence in their knowledge about the topic, and situational interest in the topic at hand multiple times throughout the study. The study occurred in real classrooms, using materials akin to existing course materials, on a topic already part of existing course curricula but not yet covered, which contributed to its high ecological validity. Exploratory factor analyses indicated that the two subscales of subjective knowledge ratings and the single-item confidence rating needed to be combined into one factor (Subjective Knowledge/Confidence; SKC) and treated as such in all analyses. Further, tests of condition regarding knowledge gains, one of the primary hypotheses, needed to be adjusted because of a failure of randomization between groups that was observed upon analyzing initial between-group equivalence. Despite random assignment to conditions, significant differences between conditions on the primary dependent variable of conceptual knowledge were found at pretest for the comparison (control) group. Because such a difference at pretest would invalidate any causal conclusions drawn from comparisons between the experimental and comparison conditions, further comparisons were made only between the two experimental groups in addressing those research questions that pertained to the effect of condition on changes in knowledge and the subjective factors measured, as well as the predictive value of those subjective factors for post-intervention knowledge levels. Findings indicated that the writing intervention central to the present study had a positive, significant effect on learning about the topic of research design for students in both experimental conditions (i.e., explanation and persuasion) relative to their pretest knowledge levels. Additionally, students in the persuasion group were significantly better calibrated than students in the rereading group, and SKC ratings at posttest were a significant predictor of transfer-test knowledge scores for both the explanation and the persuasion groups, indicating an improved relationship between confidence and actual knowledge levels. The findings of this study underscore the importance of providing students with a range of learning strategies, including rereading and writing, to help them acquire knowledge. Educators can use these findings to inform their instructional decisions, recognizing that students’ individual needs will vary and that a combination of strategies may be most effective in promoting knowledge development.Item Longitudinal associations between parent-child interactions and children’s socioemotional functioning in ethnically diverse families(2024) Alonso, Angelica; Cabrera, Natasha J; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Theoretical and empirical evidence identify parenting behaviors as one of the most robust predictors of children’s socioemotional development. However, this body of evidence is primarily based on White middle-class mothers and children. As such, it remains unclear whether these developmental processes are generalizable to ethnic minority children who are reared in different sociocultural contexts. The present dissertation consists of three interrelated studies that examined longitudinal associations between parent-child interactions (parents’ emotion socialization; responsive parenting; parent-child dyadic synchrony) and children’s socioemotional functioning (socioemotional competence; executive function; self-regulation) in ethnically diverse mothers, fathers, and their young children. I also examined children’s regulatory skills and parent-child dyadic synchrony as mediators and child emotionality as a moderator of these associations. Empirical Study 1 examined how mothers’ and fathers’ emotion socialization behaviors (ESB) at 18 and 24 months were associated with toddlers’ social competence at 24 and 30 months. Fathers’ non-supportive ESBs to negative emotions at 18 months were positively associated with social competence at 30 months. There was a negative association between mothers’ non-supportive ESBs to negative emotions at 24 months and social competence at 30 months only for toddlers with high negative emotionality. A positive association between fathers’ emotion coaching of negative emotions at 18 months and 30-month social competence emerged only when mothers did not provide any emotion coaching. Empirical Study 2 examined longitudinal associations between mothers’ and fathers’ responsive parenting at 9 months and children’s socioemotional functioning (executive function and socioemotional competence) at age 3. This study also tested children’s effortful control at 24 months as a mediator and emotionality as a moderator of these associations. Only mothers’ responsive parenting at 9 months was associated with greater socioemotional competence at age 3. There was no support for effortful control and emotionality as a mediator and moderator, respectively, of associations between maternal or paternal responsive parenting and socioemotional functioning. Empirical Study 3 examined direct associations between mother- and father-child synchrony at 18 months and toddlers’ self-regulation at 24 months and indirect associations through parent-child synchrony at 24 months. I also examined child emotionality as a moderator of direct associations and explored whether participation in a parenting intervention had impacts on synchrony and self-regulation. Father-child synchrony at 24 months mediated associations between earlier synchrony and self-regulation. Child emotionality did not moderate associations between synchrony and self-regulation. Finally, mothers and fathers in the treatment conditions exhibited greater synchrony with their children at 24 months than parents in the control group. Collectively, these findings indicate the unique ways that ethnically diverse mothers and fathers contribute to their children’s socioemotional development. These studies highlight the need for further research examining mechanisms (mediators and moderators) as additional sources of within-group variability in socioemotional functioning. Doing so will help diversify the science of normative socioemotional development and can inform program efforts to best support ethnic minority children in developing strong socioemotional skills.Item HIGHER-ORDER THINKING ACROSS STAGES OF AN ARGUMENTATIVE MULTIPLE SOURCE USE TASK(2024) Sun, Yuting; Alexander, Patricia A.; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Higher-order thinking is foundational to deeper learning and has been a major theme in the philosophical, psychological, and educational literatures. Multiple source use tasks (MSU) offer a rich context to investigate higher-order thinking, although systematic research on higher-order thinking in MSU contexts remains scarce. In addition, prior studies were often conducted in orchestrated settings, limiting their ecological validity. Guided by the Integrated Framework of Multiple Texts (List & Alexander, 2019), the current study aimed to unearth higher-order processes that unfolded over the Preparation, Execution, and Production stages of an ecologically valid MSU task. The study explored how a notetaking scaffold impacted higher-order processes, as manifested in the notes taken during the Execution stage and the argumentative essays written during the Production Stage.Participants were 105 undergraduate students enrolled in a course where MSU tasks are integral components. Over four class sessions, students completed learner characteristics measures, searched for sources online while completing a search log (Preparation stage), read and took notes on documents they selected (Execution stage), and wrote argumentative essays based on their notes (Production stage). Further, using a quasi-experimental design, students in the experimental class received a notetaking scaffold that prompted them to attend to key features of individual documents and integrate information across documents. The comparison class took notes in their preferred ways. Analyses revealed a variety of higher-order processes at each task stage. Students seemed to face more challenges in some processes (e.g., critical analysis, synthesis) than others (e.g., documenting evidence, justifying claims). The notetaking scaffold effectively facilitated some processes in notetaking (documenting source information) and essay writing (sourcing, counterarguing). Further, associations were found among processes occurring at different stages, with those related to sourcing and source evaluation being central. The study contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of students’ higher-order thinking across stages of a natural, class-based MSU task. Implications for future investigations using improved MSU tools and alternative analytical approaches and designs are discussed. Practically, the study pointed to the need for more explicit instructions and support in such areas as enhancing students’ understanding about argumentation and critical analysis of documents.Item A Mean-Parameterized Conway–Maxwell–Poisson Multilevel Item Response Theory Model for Multivariate Count Response Data(2024) Strazzeri, Marian Mullin; Yang, Ji Seung; Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Multivariate count data arise frequently in the process of measuring a latent construct in human development, psychology, medicine, education, and the social sciences. Some examples include the number of different types of mistakes a student makes when reading a passage of text, or the number of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and/or dysphagia episodes a patient experiences in a given day. These response data are often sampled from multiple sources and/or in multiple stages, yielding a multilevel data structure with lower level sampling units (e.g., individuals, such as students or patients) nested within higher level sampling units or clusters (e.g., schools, clinical trial sites, studies). Motivated by real data, a new Item Response Theory (IRT) model is developed for the integrative analysis of multivariate count data. The proposed mean-parameterized Conway--Maxwell--Poisson Multilevel IRT (CMPmu-MLIRT) model differs from currently available models in its ability to yield sound inferences when applied to multilevel, multivariate count data, where exposure (the length of time, space, or number of trials over which events are recorded) may vary across individuals, and items may provide different amounts of information about an individual’s level of the latent construct being measured (e.g., level of expressive language development, math ability, disease severity). Estimation feasibility is demonstrated through a Monte Carlo simulation study evaluating parameter recovery across various salient conditions. Mean parameter estimates are shown to be well aligned with true parameter values when a sufficient number of items (e.g., 10) are used, while recovery of dispersion parameters may be challenging when as few as 5 items are used. In a second Monte Carlo simulation study, to demonstrate the need for the proposed CMPmu-MLIRT model over currently available alternatives, the impact of CMPmu-MLIRT model misspecification is evaluated with respect to model parameter estimates and corresponding standard errors. Treating an exposure that varies across individuals as though it were fixed is shown to notably overestimate item intercept and slope estimates, and, when substantial variability in the latent construct exists among clusters, underestimate said variance. Misspecifying the number of levels (i.e., fitting a single-level model to multilevel data) is shown to overestimate item slopes---especially when substantial variability in the latent construct exists among clusters---as well as compound the overestimation of item slopes when a varying exposure is also misspecified as being fixed. Misspecifying the conditional item response distributions as Poisson for underdispersed items and negative binomial for overdispersed items is shown to bias estimates of between-cluster variability in the latent construct. Lastly, the applicability of the proposed CMPmu-MLIRT model to empirical data was demonstrated in the integrative data analysis of oral language samples.Item Latino fathers' motivations, parental play, parent and friend relationship support, and children's socioemotional development from early childhood to adolescence in racially-ethnically diverse families(2024) Ghosh, Rachel Alina; Cabrera, Natasha; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Parenting practices and parent-child relationship quality, shaped in part by parenting cognitions and beliefs, have a strong proximal contribution to the course and outcome of children’s development from early in the lifespan. However, much existent empirical knowledge about parenting comes from studies of White middle-class mothers and children, and there is far less evidence from racially, ethnically, and economically diverse families – especially from fathers. Through a collection of three interrelated studies, the present dissertation contributes to this literature with an examination of fathers’ parenting motivations, and mothers’ and fathers’ independent and interactive influences on child and adolescent socioemotional outcomes among diverse families. Empirical Paper 1 qualitatively explored what motivated first-time Latino fathers in the U.S. to be good parents for their infants, and examined differences in their motivations by nativity status. Fathers described five primary themes, with variation by nativity,in their parenting motivations: 1) personal rearing history, 2) desire to rear a well-adjusted child, 3) relationship with their child, 4) intrinsic motivations, and 5) sense of duty and responsibility. Empirical Paper 2 examined associations between mothers’ and fathers’ quality of play (i.e., challenging parenting behaviors, playfulness) at 18 months and toddlers’ social competence at 24 months, and tested whether child negative emotional temperament moderated these associations. Contrary to hypotheses, there were no significant associations between mothers’ or fathers’ two types of play and children’s social competence, and no significant moderation effects by negative emotionality. Empirical Paper 3 examined the interactive effects of adolescents’ level of support in their relationships with mothers, fathers, and best friends in the 8th grade and associations with depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and externalizing problems in the 9th grade, as well as differences by adolescent sex. There were several interactive effects of the relationships on later depressive symptoms, though not on anxiety symptoms or externalizing problems, and few differences by adolescent sex. More support from one parent was related to fewer depressive symptoms when youth experienced an unsupportive relationship with the other parent or with a best friend. Taken together, the findings of these studies advance developmental theory and provide nuance to our understanding of mothering, fathering, and children’s and adolescents’ socioemotional developmental processes. These studies have implications for research and programs aimed at promoting the normative, healthy development of diverse youth through recognizing and capitalizing on the contributions of different members within the family system.Item INHIBITION IS KEY: A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO SUCCESSFUL WORD PROBLEM SOLVING(2024) Jaffe, Joshua Benjamin; Bolger, Donald J; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Numerical competency and reading comprehension skills are necessary, but insufficient for word problem success. Depending on the word problem structure, successful problem solving may require inhibiting the seemingly obvious and correct answer. Inhibitory control plays a significant role in processing and solving word problems. Through classroom practices and textbook problems, I argue that individuals form associations between relational terminology and specific mathematical operations (“more” for addition and “less” for subtraction), and the notion that all numerical values in a problem must be used to produce an answer. In this study, I proposed an inhibitory performance-based model that posits two approaches to problem solving: (a) a successful approach where solvers inhibit mathematical associations and form appropriate set schemas to conceptualize semantic relations, and (b) an association approach where solvers do not inhibit associations and therefore may have an inaccurate understanding of the semantic relations. To test the model, data were analyzed from 105 undergraduate students at the University of Maryland. The study consisted of four sections: cognitive skills, word problems, domain-specific inhibitory control tasks, and a semi-structured interview. The word problem section included problems that were both consistent and inconsistent with an individual’s operational and numerical associations. Overall, the quantitative results identified that participants performed significantly worse on inconsistent problems. Further, the data suggest that failure to correctly answer inconsistent problems may be due to inhibitory control rather than other cognitive skills. The qualitative data indicated that a vast majority of participants believed in both mathematical associations and remembered classroom experiences that may have contributed to these beliefs. While inhibitory control has been suggested to play a significant role in word problem performance, this is one of the first studies to explicitly examine the relationship through domain-specific inhibitory control tasks and an interview. These results guide a path for future research to examine how individuals develop mathematical associations and for interventions to dissuade their usage.Item THE USE OF RANDOM FORESTS IN PROPENSITY SCORE WEIGHTING(2023) Zheng, Yating; Stapleton, Laura; Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)An important problem of social science research is the estimate of causal effects in observationalstudies. Propensity score methods, as effective ways to remove selection bias, have been widely used in estimating causal effects in observational studies. An important step of propensity score methods is to estimate the propensity score. Recently, a machine learning method, random forests, has been proposed as an alternative to the conventional method of logistic regression to estimate the propensity score as it requires less stringent assumptions and provides less biased and more reliable estimate of the treatment effect. However, previous studies only covered limited conditions with a small number of covariates and medium sample sizes, leaving the generalizability of the results in doubt. In addition, previous studies have seldom explored how to choose the hyper-parameters in random forests in the context of propensity score methods. This dissertation, via a simulation study, aims to 1) make a more comprehensive comparison between the use of random forests and logistic regression to determine which model performs better under what conditions, 2) explore the effects of the hyperparameters on the estimate of the treatment effect in propensity score weighting. An empirical study is also used as an illustration about how to choose the hyperparameters in random forests using propensity score weighting in practical settings.Item Knowledge and Attitudes of Montessori Teachers of Young Children as a Context for Guiding the Normalization and Self-Construction Process(1994) Schaefer Zener, Rita; Flatter, Charles; Human Development & Quantitative Methodology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)The purpose of this study was (1) to investigate the degree of agreement between AMI trained Montessori teachers' knowledge and attitudes and Montessori's recommendations for guiding the process of normalization among young children and (2) to discover the reasons for differences from those recommendations. Normalization is the central process in the Montessori method. Except for a study by this investigator (Zener, 1993) guiding the process of normalization had not been researched since Montessori's work some forty-five to eighty-five years ago. Therefore, this investigation also provided current teacher experiences of guiding the process of normalization. One hundred sixty five Montessori teachers attending various regional and national conferences were surveyed with knowledge and attitude scales. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10% of the participants. Mean scale scores from 4.0 to 5.0 on a five degree Likert scale and a SD less than 1.0 were projected as satisfactory levels of agreement with Montessori's recommendations. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the scales, and content analysis was used to analyze the interviews. T-tests and ANOVAS indicated that demographic variables were not significant to the results.