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

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Empathy in parents and children: Links to preschoolers' attachment and aggression
    (2016) Stern, Jessica A.; Cassidy, Jude; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Though theory suggests that parents’ empathy is important for children’s empathic development, the transmission of empathy from parent to child remains poorly understood. The goals of this investigation were to test an intergenerational model of empathy with child attachment as a potential mediating mechanism and to replicate findings linking child empathy to reduced risk for aggression. Eighty-nine preschoolers and their mothers completed measures of parent empathy, as well as child attachment, empathy, and aggression. Parent empathy predicted child empathy, but associations varied by the measure of empathy employed. Attachment did not mediate the association between parent and child empathy, although secure attachment predicted greater child empathy. Child empathy predicted aggression, but the direction of the effect varied by the measure of child empathy and by child sex. Findings shed light on the intergenerational transmission of empathy and highlight the importance of multi-method assessment in the study of empathy.
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    DIRECTION OF PARTNER PSYCHOLOGICAL AGGRESSION AND OUTCOMES OF COUPLE THERAPY: MODERATING EFFECTS OF CLIENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF THERAPEUTIC GAINS
    (2012) Childers, Morgan Anne; Epstein, Norman; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Research has consistently found that contrary to longstanding beliefs, partner aggression, both in psychological and physical forms, is primarily perpetrated bidirectionally. This study compared conjoint therapy treatment outcomes (dyadic satisfaction, changes in communication patterns, and reductions in physical aggression) for bidirectionally psychologically aggressive couples and couples in which only one partner primarily perpetrated psychological aggression. In addition, the clients' perceptions of therapy were measured continuously over the course of therapy; this factor was examined as a moderator variable. A MANOVA was run on the sample of 64 heterosexual couples, but no significant main effects were found. However, this study and past research on this sample show that these couples did improve on outcome measures. This suggests that regardless of the pattern of aggression perpetration, psychologically aggressive couples may benefit from conjoint therapy. Additionally, post hoc exploratory analyses found significant correlations between reductions in aggression and changes in negative communication patterns.
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    Maternal Adolescent Parenting Behavior and Child Aggressive and Inattentive Behavior: Findings from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project
    (2008-11-17) Guner, Bella Mironovna; Klein, Elisa L; Jones Harden, Brenda; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Adolescent parenting is associated with a wide variety of risk factors for both the mother (Berlin, Brady-Smith, & Brooks-Gunn, 2002) and child (Moore & Brooks-Gunn, 2002). Understanding the pathways leading toward poor parenting practices, and the subsequent influences on child aggressive and inattentive behavior may yield important information for intervention efforts on the part of adolescent families. The current study examines which maternal characteristics influence parenting behavior in a high risk sample of adolescent mothers and their toddlers, using Belsky's (1984) parenting process model. The purpose of the study was to: 1) examine whether maternal age, depression, or stress influenced positive and negative parenting behavior, 2) examine the influence of positive and negative parenting behavior on child aggressive and inattentive behavior, and 3) examine whether positive parenting would mediate the association between maternal characteristics and child aggressive and inattentive behavior. Data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation dataset was used to examine the aforementioned questions. The sample consisted of 319 mothers ages 15-19 and their toddlers ages 2-3 years. Heirarchical regression analyses revealed that maternal depression predicted higher levels of negative parenting behavior, younger adolescent mothers are more likely to engage in punitive parenting behavior than older adolescents, and maternal stress predicted lower levels of positive and higher levels of negative parenting behavior. Logistic regression analyses revealed that adolescent mothers who engaged in positive parenting behavior were less likely to have children who engaged in aggressive and inattentive behavior, and parents who engaged in negative parenting behavior were more likely to have children who engaged in aggressive and inattentive behavior. Mediational analyses revealed that positive parenting behavior mediated the association between maternal stress and child aggressive and inattentive behavior. These findings suggest that maternal characteristics are an important factor to consider in parenting behavior, and that despite the difficulties faced by adolescent mothers, there is room for positive parenting, which may mitigate the influence of maternal stress. The findings from this study indicate that intervention efforts may benefit from focusing on teaching adolescent mothers how to engage in positive parenting behaviors with their toddlers, thereby reducing the risk for future child aggressive and inattentive behaviors.
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    Relational Aggression Among Girls and Boys with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders in a Special School Setting
    (2005-12-04) Sutch, Zina B; Harris, Karen R.; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of this study was to determine if two factors, relational aggression (RA) and overt aggression (OA), emerge using the Children's Social Behavior Scale - Self Report (CSBS-S) with students with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) in a special school setting; to determine if students with EBD exhibit relation aggression (RA) or overt aggression (OA), as measured by the CSBS-S; and to determine if there was a relationship between these types of aggression and three variables: age, gender and IQ. The classroom teacher administered the CSBS-S to 130 students with EBD, ages seven to twenty years old, in their special school classrooms during the school day. Although RA and OA did not emerge as two distinct factors with this population, two new factors did emerge and were identified as verbal/physical aggression (VPA) and exclusion type aggression (EXA). VPA included all overt, physical and verbal behaviors and EXA included only behaviors in which a target child was excluded from the group. Students with EBD differentiated between all overt physical and verbal aggressive behaviors and exclusionary behaviors. A possible implication of these results is that students with EBD do not differentiate between RA and OA and view all aggression, with the exception of exclusion, as a single type of aggression. Students with EBD did exhibit RA and OA. However the percentage differences between genders was not significant and the means and standard deviations of scores were similar, suggesting that in this setting, with these students, both boys and girls are similarly aggressive. IQ was a significant predictor for RA, OA, and VPA, while age was only a significant predictor for OA. The relationships between IQ and the four types of aggressions was negative which implied that as IQ increased, these three aggressions decreased. Although the CSBS-S was not a valid measure of RA and OA with students with EBD, two new variables were identified, VPA and EXA. It was recommended that further studies include interviews, focus groups and observations in order to better determine how students, especially girls, with EBD differentiate and perceive aggression.
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    FORAGING STRATEGIES, USE OF SPACE AND AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR OF DOMESTIC FOWL (Gallus gallus domesticus)
    (2004-05-03) Hoerl, Erin Natalie; Estevez, Inma; Animal Sciences
    Domestic fowl were tested in three experiments, all investigating the mediating effects of three group sizes of 5, 10, and 20 individuals, on behavioral responses under varying environmental conditions. The first experiment investigated social spacing and aggressive behavior in the presence or absence of cover panels. Smaller group sizes were more affected by cover panels than larger group sizes. In the second and third experiments patchy environments were used to test optimal foraging strategies. In the second experiment, smaller group sizes were more affected by patch locations than larger ones. In the third experiment birds were presented with patches varying in quality. Birds in all group sizes were able to immediately discern patch quality and preferred patches of higher quality. Despite generations of artificial selection pressure domestic fowl continue to forage optimally in patchy environments, and adopt flocking strategies predicted by behavioral ecology theory.