Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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
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Item HOW AND WHEN SIGNALING IMPACTS CONSUMPTION(2021) Kim, Nicole You Jeung; Ratner, Rebecca K.; Wang, Yajin; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation includes three essays that investigate the impact of signals that certain consumption choices can send to other consumers. In particular, each essay focuses on how consumers’ consumption-related decisions (e.g., choice of hedonic items, selecting low variety, and communicating that one has no preference) impact an observing audience’s perceptions of the consumer and the subsequent impacts on the observer. The first essay demonstrates that consumers strive to position themselves as attractive friends by making hedonic consumption decisions. While consumers shift to hedonic consumption, anchoring on their belief that others would heavily value fun when it comes to friendship, this essay demonstrates that consumers themselves actually value other aspects of friendship more, such as meaningfulness. As a result of this discrepancy in the belief of friendship, hedonic choice does not effectively help consumers cultivate friendship with another person. The second essay investigates the signals that selecting a low (vs. high) variety of items sends to observers. Choosing low variety signals to observers that the consumer has accumulated consumption experiences in the past, and thus has greater expertise, compared to choosing high variety. This signal of expertise endows the consumer with influence to impact observers to make consumption choices that mimic the consumer and be more willing to take the consumer’s recommendations. The third essay examines the impact of expressing no preference in a joint decision making context. While consumers expect to make the decision easier for the recipient, recipients of no preference communication (vs. explicit preference communication), experience greater decision difficulty. This unexpected negative impact occurs because recipients of no preference communication perceive that the communicator actually has preferences that they are hiding. Further, because recipients infer that these hidden preferences are dissimilar to one’s own preferences, they end up making a choice for the joint consumption that they personally less prefer.Item Depression and Perception of Family Cohesion Levels and Social Support from Friends in Emerging Adulthood at a University Mental Health Clinic(2020) Roc, Sabrina; Barros, Patricia; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Emerging adulthood is identified as a period of transition and uncertainty that occurs between the stages of adolescence and adulthood, often from ages 18-25. During this period, mental health issues are quite prominent, especially symptoms of depression. Previous research has explored what can ease the stress of depressive symptoms, and social support has had resounding effects. The present study used secondary analysis of data from 372 therapy-seeking individuals at a university-based family clinic to evaluate how perceived levels of familial cohesion and social support from friends are associated with depressive symptoms during emerging adulthood and whether or not age moderated the association. The results of this study show significant associations between familial cohesion as predicted, and social support from friends but in an unexpected direction. Age did not appear to have any significant associations. Potential future research as well as clinical implications are discussed.Item The Effects of Observed Friendship Formation on Group Level Peer Experiences: A Study of Behaviorally Inhibited Preschooler(2020) Fleece, Hailey; Rubin, Kenneth H; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Early social withdrawal places children at a greater risk for later internalizing disorders and peer difficulties. However, positive friendships can serve as a buffer against this trajectory. Currently, very little is known about if friendships develop between preschool aged withdrawn children, and how this affects their group level peer processes. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether socially withdrawn children who made a friend demonstrated gains in social skills in their preschool classrooms over an 8-week period during which they had participated in an intervention designed to increase social interaction and decrease social reticence. Overall, the children who made a friend over the intervention period had less observed reticent behavior and more prosocial behavior in their preschool classrooms both before and after the intervention period. These children entered the intervention with more advanced social skills and were able to utilize them to develop a meaningful friendship.Item Women's Grief Experiences: The Death of a Close Female Friend(2019) Sauber, Elizabeth Winick; O'Brien, Karen M; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Friendship provides women with a plethora of benefits, including reduced physiological and psychological distress (e.g., Martina & Stevens, 2006; Yang et al., 2016). Yet we do not know what happens when women lose their female friends. Previous work conceptualizes friend loss as disenfranchised, which exacerbates grief reactions (Deck & Folta, 1989). Thus, as informed by the individual differences framework of grief reactions (Mancini & Bonanno, 2009), the purpose of this study was to 1) qualitatively describe the bereavement of women who have experienced the death of a close female friend and 2) test an integrative model of grief reactions predicting complicated grief and posttraumatic growth among female friend grievers. For the qualitative portion of the study, seven women were interviewed in three focus groups. Findings from directed content analysis highlighted common grief reactions (e.g., sadness, yearning for their friends), supportive and disenfranchising interactions related to social support, ways of coping (e.g., rituals to stay connect to the deceased), growth after loss, and ongoing challenges after the friend’s death. For the quantitative portion of the study, a path analysis of online survey data obtained from 148 women was conducted using maximum likelihood estimation in Mplus. Analyses suggested that the hypothesized model demonstrated inadequate fit. Modification indices and additional pathways were reviewed for theoretical plausibility, resulting in three additions to the model. The revised final model was a good fit to the data, explaining 55% of the variance in complicated grief and 43% of the variance in post-traumatic growth. Most strikingly, avoidant emotional coping served as a key mediator and predictor of complicated grief, while problem focused coping served as a key mediator and predictor of post-traumatic growth. This has implications for counseling psychologists regarding theory and practice related to bereaved women—in addition to recognizing the significance of female friend grievers’ losses, the results can be used to advance outreach and intervention efforts among disenfranchised grievers.Item Childhood Attention Problems and the Development of Comorbid Symptoms at the Transition to High School: The Mediating Role of Parent and Peer Relationships(2015) LeMoine, Kaitlyn Ashley; Chronis-Tuscano, Andrea; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk for the development of depression and delinquent behavior. Children and adolescents with ADHD also experience difficulty creating/maintaining high quality friendships and parent-child relationships, and these difficulties may contribute to the development of co-morbid internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescence. However, there is limited research examining whether high quality friendships and parent-child relationships mediate the relation between ADHD and the emergence of these co-morbid symptoms at the transition to high school. This study examines the mediating role of relationship quality in the association between ADHD and depressive symptoms/delinquent behaviors at this developmentally significant transition point. Results revealed significant indirect effects of grade 6 attention problems on grade 9 depressive symptoms through friendship quality and quality of the mother-child relationship in grade 8. Interventions targeting parent and peer relationships may be valuable for youth with ADHD to promote successful transitions to high school.Item Supports from friends as predictors of stress and school outcomes during the transition to college: A longitudinal study(2013) Donlan, Alice Elizabeth; Wentzel, Kathryn R; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated relations among support from friends, stress, friendship goals, and school-related outcomes during the transition from high school to college. A conceptual framework was developed to examine a) the extent to which the degree of context change during the transition predicts levels of school belongingness and GPA; b) the extent to which stress mediates the potential relation between context change and school-related outcomes; c) the extent to which social supports from high school friends and college friends moderate the relation between stress and school related outcomes; and d) the extent to which precollege friendship formation and maintenance goals predict future levels of support from high school friends and college friends. Data were collected at four time points that represent major milestones in the transition process: (T1) precollege, (T2) the beginning of the first semester, (T3) the end of the first semester, and (T4) the beginning of the second semester. Psychometric properties of the support scales were investigated through confirmatory factor analysis. Descriptive statistics and results regarding mean variable change over time are provided. Multiple regression analyses replicated previous findings that stress negatively predicts school belongingness over time. Furthermore, perceived supports from college friends predicted increased college belonging over time, while perceived supports from high school friends did not. None of the support by stress interaction terms significantly predicted school outcomes, indicating that evidence for a moderation pathway was not found. Results from a latent variable path analysis did not provide evidence that a precollege goal to form friendships predicts future support from college friends, nor that a precollege goal to maintain friendships positively predicts future support from high school friends; models had only borderline fit. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.Item The Link Between Relationship Orientations and Friendship Quality: The Mediating Roles of Social Goals and Resolution Strategies(2013) Fredstrom, Bridget Kay; Torney-Purta, Judith; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)During adolescence, friendships become increasingly important to overall well-being, yet it is common for individuals to experience frequent conflicts with their friends. Theories relating to social cognition offer a framework to examine how adolescents think about expectations for reciprocity as well as goals and strategies in response to hypothetical conflicts (and how these social cognitions are associated with friendship quality). Participants included 198 adolescents from 6th, 7th, and 8th grades from two racially diverse schools in a southern state. All participants had parental consent and provided verbal assent. They provided nominations of two same-sex best friends in their grade who attended their school and rated their perceptions of four dimensions of positive friendship quality for each. Participants also completed an exchange and a communal orientation scale (revised from adult versions) responding with reference to each of their nominated friends. Finally, participants read four hypothetical conflicts and were asked to imagine that they and their nominated friend were described. They rated the likelihood that they would choose each of a set of specific social goals and strategies in resolving conflict. Hierarchical linear regressions examined whether adolescents' exchange and communal orientations predicted their perceptions of positive friendship quality. Moderated-mediation analyses examined whether individual differences in social goals and resolution strategies mediated the associations between exchange and communal orientations and positive friendship quality (and also gender differences). Exchange and communal orientations had different associations with friendship quality. Choice of social goals appears to be one process through which relationship orientations are associated with friendship quality. Exchange orientation was not significantly associated with positive friendship quality. However, mediation models revealed that adolescents with higher expectations for tit-for-tat exchanges were more likely to endorse revenge goals which in turn were associated with lower friendship quality. In contrast, communal orientations were positively and significantly associated with overall rated friendship quality, suggesting the importance of reciprocity in meeting the needs of others. Finally, gender differences suggest that relationship orientations partially explain why adolescent males and females have qualitatively different friendships, and managed conflict differently. Limitations, implications, and future directions for analyses and research are discussedItem I get High with a Little Help from my Friends (and Family): Close Relationships, Distress Tolerance, and Risk-Taking in Adolescence(2012) Ehrlich, Katherine Babcock; Cassidy, Jude A; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Despite substantial efforts to educate adolescents about the consequences of their risky decisions, adolescent risk behavior remains a significant social and public health problem. The goal of this research was to examine the role of individual and contextual predictors of adolescent health risk behavior and risk-taking measured in the laboratory. Specifically, I examined parent-adolescent relationships and friendships as two contextual predictors of risk, and I measured adolescent distress tolerance as an individual predictor of risk behavior in a longitudinal study of adolescents and their families. In Aim 1, I used a variable-centered approach to examine concurrent and prospective predictors of adolescent risk-taking. In Aim 2, I took a person-oriented statistical approach to the study of adolescent risk-taking by examining whether there are particular groups of adolescents with particular relationship characteristics who were most likely to engage in risky behavior, and whether these groups of adolescents would be more likely to take risks if they had low distress tolerance. Aim 1 analyses revealed that adolescents were most likely to engage in health risk behaviors when they had negative parent-adolescent relationships or positive friendships, but distress tolerance was unrelated to risk-taking. None of the predictors was related to laboratory risk behavior. Aim 2 analyses revealed that the influence of adolescents' relationships on their risk-taking behaviors depended on their ability to tolerate and manage their emotions. Among adolescents with high levels of friendship conflict, distress tolerance served as a protective factor against health risk behavior. Among high distress tolerant adolescents, those who had high parent-adolescent conflict engaged in greater risk-taking than adolescents who had high friendship conflict. Across all analyses, none of the predictors accounted for Time 2 risk behavior after accounting for Time 1 risk-taking in the models. Overall, these findings suggest that adolescents' relationship experiences and distress tolerance relate to risk-taking behaviors, even at an age when adolescents are engaging in relatively low levels of risk behavior. Future research should continue investigating predictors of risk behavior across multiple levels of analysis, with an emphasis on biological, individual, relational, and environmental factors that contribute to risk-taking.