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 The relationship of early social, mental, and behavioral experiences with adult obesity and Alcohol Use Disorder(2016) O'Neill, Allison Hunt; Lee, Sunmin; Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Stressful life events early in life, including symptoms of mental disorders or childhood maltreatment, may increase risk for worse mental and physical health outcomes in adulthood. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the effects of childhood Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms and maltreatment experience on two adult outcomes: obesity and alcohol use disorder (AUD). Mediational effects of adolescent characteristics were explored. This dissertation used Waves I, III, and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. In Paper 1 (Chapter 3), we investigated the association between multiple types of child maltreatment and adult objective (body mass index; BMI) and subjective (self-rated) obesity, as well as mediating effects by adolescent characteristics including depressive symptoms and BMI. Results showed that after adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, and maternal education, physical maltreatment was moderately associated with adulthood obesity as measured by BMI and self-reported obesity, while sexual maltreatment was more strongly associated with the objective measure but not the subjective measure. The indirect effects of mediation of adolescent BMI and depressive symptoms were statistically significant. In Paper 2 (Chapter 4), the objective was to examine mediation by adolescent depressive symptoms, alcohol consumption, peer alcohol consumption, and delinquency in the relationship between ADHD symptoms and adult AUD. The indirect effects of mediation of adolescent delinquency, alcohol consumption, and peer alcohol consumption were statistically significant in single and multiple mediator models. In Paper 3 (Chapter 5), the objective was to assess the joint effects of maltreatment/neglect on adult AUD. After adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, child maltreatment, and parental AUD, ADHD symptoms were significantly associated with increased odds of AUD. There was no strong evidence of multiplicative interaction by maltreatment. This association was stronger for males than females, although the interaction term was not statistically significant. This dissertation adds to the literature by examining relationships between several major public health problems: ADHD symptoms, childhood maltreatment, AUD, depressive symptoms, and obesity. This project has implications for understanding how early life stress increases risk for later physical and mental health problems, and identifying potential intervention targets for adolescents.Item School readiness of maltreated preschoolers and later school achievement: The role of emotion regulation, language, and context(2015) Panlilio, Carlomagno del Carmen; Jones Harden, Brenda; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Academic achievement is an important indicator for the well-being of children with a history of maltreatment. Unfortunately, many of these children fall behind their non-maltreated peers in measures of academic performance, and the achievement gap between these groups is increasing. Attempts to close this gap at later ages can prove to be challenging. The focus on early childhood as a developmental period to direct research and intervention efforts holds promise. Early childhood is a critical time for the ongoing development of emotion regulation, which is an important domain of school readiness. For young maltreated children, however, specific individual-level and context-level factors need to be considered in understanding how emotion regulation development proceeds. That is, the placement experiences for these young children vary greatly in the cognitive stimulation, emotional support, and stability they provide. Qualitative differences in these context-level factors can place children in different trajectories of development. These varying trajectories, in turn, may place young maltreated children in different pathways that lead to different academic outcomes in later grades. The goals of this study then were to: 1) examine the growth curves and determine the functional form of emotion regulation across time, beginning with early childhood when first contact with Child Protective Services (CPS) occurred; 2) identify latent classes based on developmental patterns of emotion regulation for maltreated preschool-aged children; 3) examine developmental differences based on individual-level and context-level factors specific to the experiences of young maltreated children; and 4) elucidate the different pathways to later academic achievement. This study utilized data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW I) study, which was a nationally-representative study that employed a complex probability sampling framework that provided estimation of national-level parameters. Data analyses used latent growth curve models, latent class analyses, and latent transition analyses to answer the goals stated above. Results indicated stability and change in emotionally regulated vs. emotionally dysregulated latent classes across 4, 5, and 6 ½ years of age. Moreover, children classified as emotionally dysregulated at age 6 ½ scored significantly lower than children who were classified as emotionally regulated on measures of reading and math achievement by age 10. Policy implications for child welfare and early childhood education are presented.