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.

Browse

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Relationships Among Internalizing Symptomatology in Kindergarten and Later Self-Concept and Competence
    (2010) Denny, Michelle Setser; Strein, William; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study used a longitudinal sample of 9,160 children participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) to: (a) describe characteristics of children who present with elevated internalizing symptomatology, (b) investigate stability of elevated internalizing status across early and middle childhood, and (c) explore possible relationships between elevated symptomatology in kindergarten and later academic competence and self-concept. Children were dichotomously categorized at kindergarten (Time 1), three years later (Time 2) and five years later (Time 3) as having either elevated or typical levels of internalizing symptomatology based on their scores on the internalizing subscale of an adapted version of the Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS). Elevated internalizing symptomatology was unrelated to gender. In middle childhood more lower SES children than expected fell within the elevated category and fewer higher SES children than expected fell within the elevated category. Elevated internalizing symptomatology, as measured by teacher ratings, was associated with weaker academic skills and less social/behavioral competence at all three points in time. Elevated internalizing symptomatology was also associated with heightened internalizing and externalizing symptomatology, as measured by children's self-report, in middle childhood. Elevated internalizing symptomatology was negatively associated with social self-concept, but not academic self-concept. Teacher-rated elevated internalizing symptomatology was very unstable from early to middle childhood, and only slightly more stable within the middle childhood years. Kindergarten internalizing symptoms were not predictive of later self-concept and competency. The impact of selected socio-cultural factors (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, SES) on temporal relationships was not significant. Results are discussed with regard to future directions for research and implications for practice.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Trainees' Use of Supervision for Clinical Work with Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients: A Qualitative Study
    (2010) McGann, Kevin; Hoffman, Mary Ann; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Most studies considering lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) clients and their therapists have primarily focused on the clients' experience in therapy (Israel, Walther, Gorcheva, & Sulzner, 2007; Liddle, 1996) or on the therapist's experience of the client (Bieschke & Matthews, 1996; Garnets, Hancock, Cochran, Goodchilds, & Peplau, 1991). However, the role that clinical supervision plays in therapists' development in working with LGB clients is rarely studied. Not enough is known about how supervision is perceived from the perspective of the supervisee who is developing skills in working with LGB clients. The current study examined 12 interviews with randomly selected predoctoral interns at APA-accredited counseling centers around the country, to explore how they made use of the clinical supervision they received for their work with LGB clients. The single previous qualitative investigation of this topic (Burkard, Knox, Hess, & Shultz, 2009) examined interviews with LGB advanced doctoral students. The current study extends the investigation of this topic by interviewing six heterosexual-identified trainees in addition to six trainees who identified as LGB or queer (Q), and by investigating a more geographically heterogeneous sample. The interviews explored various aspects of the supervision experience, including trainees' expectations of their supervisor for supervision of their work with their LGB client, the contributions of trainees and their supervisors to the supervision process, and the impact of supervision on work with the LGB client and other clients. The data were analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR; Hill, Knox, Thompson, Williams, Hess, & Ladany, 2005; Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997). All participants valued their supervision relationship, and found their supervisors helpful in assisting them in their therapeutic work with their LGB client. Trainees typically experienced their supervisors as multiculturally sensitive, and some felt that their supervisors helped them with LGB-specific interventions and case conceptualizations. Some differences between how heterosexual and LGB-identified trainees used supervision for their work with their LGB clients. All participants reported gains from their supervision experience with their LGB client that positively affected their work with other clients, regardless of these clients' sexual orientation.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Congruence of Self-Other Perceptions about Competence, Peer Victimization, and Bullying as Predictors of Self-Reported Emotions
    (2006-12-13) Nuijens, Karen L.; Teglasi-Golubcow, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study examined self-, teacher-, and peer-perceptions of competence, peer victimization, and bullying behavior as they relate to self-reported depression, anxiety, anger, and global self-worth. Participants included 99 second- and third-grade students and their teachers from one school located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. The sample of students was ethnically diverse (66.7% African American, 17.2% Hispanic, 11.1% Asian American, 5.1% White). Preliminary analyses were conducted to examine the relationships among self-perceptions. As expected, self-perceptions of competence (social acceptance, behavioral conduct, academic competence) positively correlated with one another, where self-perceived victimization and bullying negatively correlated with self-perceived social acceptance and behavioral conduct. As expected, the aforementioned self-perceptions were significantly related to self-reported emotions. Here, self-perceived victimization uniquely predicted self-reported depression and anxiety scores, self-perceived academic competence uniquely predicted self-reported anger scores, and self-perceived academic competence and behavioral conduct uniquely predicted global self-worth scores. Two sets of hypotheses were tested regarding the congruence of self-, teacher-, and peer-perceptions. First, as predicted, teacher- and peer-perceptions more strongly related with one another than with self-perceptions. Linked to this finding, self-perceived victimization and bullying were more highly predictive of self-reported competence, where teacher- and peer-perceived victimization and bullying were more highly predictive of teacher- and peer-reported competence. Second, the relative impact of self-perceptions and discrepancies between self- and other-perceptions on self-reported emotions was examined. This is a departure from past research, which has typically examined self-other discrepancies independent of self-perceptions. Results showed that self-perceptions were more strongly related to self-reported emotions than were self-other discrepancies. However, interactions between these variables in a subset of the analyses argue for the inclusion of self- and other-perceptions in this line of research. The pattern of interactions suggests that discrepancies between self- and other-perceptions had little impact on self-reported emotions for children who reported low competence or high victimization. These children tended to report more negative emotions compared to peers whether their self-appraisals agreed or disagreed with others' appraisals. Conversely, children who reported high competence or low victimization often reported more negative emotions compared to peers when their appraisals were unfavorable relative to others' appraisals.