Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Secondary Transition Experiences: Analyzing Perceptions, Academic Self-Efficacy, Academic Adjustment, and Overall Impact on College Students' with LD Success in Postsecondary Education(2011) Butler, Allison Lynette; Fabian, Ellen; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The National Center for Special Education Research at the Institute of Education Sciences under the United States Department of Education funded the National Longitudinal Transition Study - 2 to provide the first national overview of the characteristics and experiences of youth with disabilities which includes self-representations of themselves, their schooling, their personal relationships, and their future aspirations. The study was initiated in 2001 and data collection ended in 2010. The NLTS2 provided insight to youth's perceptions of secondary experiences and expectations for the future which was an area with limited research. The current study draws from college students with learning disabilities in an attempt to analyze their perceptions through experience. Exploratory and descriptive, this investigation examines the relationship between students' perceptions of their secondary transition experiences, academic self-efficacy, academic adjustment, and cumulative semester grade point average (GPA). The purpose of this study was to analyze participants' experiences to generate information regarding how students perceive the effectiveness of their secondary transition programs in pursuit of postsecondary success. In addition, this study examined self-efficacy issues and academic adjustment. Through online survey administration the following instruments were used: a demographic questionnaire, National Longitudinal Transition Study - 2 (NLTS2) Youth Continuation Interview (YCI) containing questions asking participants to rate their perceptions, the Academic Self-Efficacy scale (CASES; Owen and Froman, 1988), and the academic adjustment subscale of the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ; Baker & Siryk, 1989). Data was analyzed using a one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Pearson's product moment correlations. In addition a step-wise multiple regression was performed in order to identify the most influential factors associated with postsecondary academic success (GPA). Academic self-efficacy was the primary determinant of student success. Variables found to have significant relationships with academic self-efficacy were perceptions of secondary transition experiences, academic adjustment, self-reported cumulative grade point average, and number of semesters completed. An inverse relationship was discovered to exist between academic self-efficacy and type of institution as well as being African American and Latino students.Item The Assessment of the Forms and Functions of Childhood Aggression Reconsidered(2009) Potter, Tracey Meryl; Teglasi, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined the relationships between aggression and adjustment with a configuration of aggression categories derived from factor analyses of two commonly used scales to measure aggression, Dodge and Coie's (1987) Reactive/Proactive scale and Crick and Grotpeter's (1995) Children's Social Behavior Scale (relational and overt aggression). Second and third grade students and their teachers completed aggression ratings and a battery of adjustment measures. Teacher and peer rated aggression scales were constructed from an exploratory factor analysis of the aggression items. The teacher rated scales that emerged were pure overt, reactive relational, and reactive overt, and emerging peer rated scales were pure overt and reactive relational. The factor analysis of the teacher ratings revealed numerous cross-loaded as did the analysis of peer ratings. Cross-loaded teacher-rated items captured the construct of emotional dysregulation whereas the cross-loaded peer-rated items represented pure relational aggression. Unique associations were observed between teacher-rated pure overt aggression with externalizing behaviors, peer rated reactive relational aggression with self-rated depression and anxiety symptoms, and peer rated pure overt aggression with self-rated depression symptoms. The results regarding overall gender differences were consistent with prior research in that boys were perceived as more purely overtly aggressive than girls when rated by both their teachers and peers, and girls were perceived as more reactively relationally aggressive than boys when rated by both teachers and peers. Gender was also found to moderate certain relationships between aggression and adjustment. Importance of informant, as well as implications for understanding the construct of aggression and its relationship to adjustment are discussed.