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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    Fostering Resilience Among Early Adolescents Exposed to Community Violence: Challenges, Strategies, and Support Needs of Middle School Teachers in Predominantly African American Urban Communities
    (2006-04-27) Maring, Elisabeth Fost; Koblinsky, Sally A.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Community violence places youth at risk for adverse developmental consequences such as poor school achievement, aggression, and self-destructive behaviors. Although an increasing number of studies have investigated the strategies that parents use to protect their children from negative effects of violence exposure, there is a dearth of research that focuses on the challenges faced by teachers in violent communities. Recognizing the potential for teachers to have a major influence on early adolescents' development, this study addressed a major gap in the literature by examining: 1) the challenges that teachers face in low-income neighborhoods with high community violence; 2) the strategies that teachers use to foster resilience in their students; and 3) the supports that teachers need to more effectively teach and guide youth within violent communities. This qualitative study adopted an ecological/risk and resilience framework. Teachers' voices provided important information about the challenges of teaching in violent neighborhoods and the protective factors within various ecological contexts that help teachers foster youth resilience and maintain their own teaching effectiveness. The investigator recruited 20 teachers from three middle schools with predominantly African American students located in neighborhoods with high violence levels in Maryland. A modified grounded theory approach was used for data analysis. Results revealed that community violence was the central phenomenon affecting teachers in the three schools. Three emergent concepts framed teachers' depiction of their challenges, strategies, and support needs: 1) guidance; 2) structure; and 3) self preservation. Specifically, teachers in violent communities confronted challenges providing youth with guidance and structure, while preserving their own mental health. They employed guidance-related strategies to foster youth resilience; addressed structure in their classrooms, school, and community; and engaged in behaviors to preserve their personal mental health. Finally, teachers expressed needs for support to effectively guide youth; improve school and community structure; and access mental health-related services. The study concludes by discussing implications of the findings for programs and policies, including the need to improve teacher training, school leadership, school security, peer mediation and counseling services, parent education, and community involvement in anti-violence initiatives. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.
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    Role of Maternal Social Support and Church Attendance in Moderating the Relationship Between Maternal Depression and African American Preschoolers' Behavior Problems
    (2004-11-30) Tyler, Crystal Michelle; Koblinsky, Sally A; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Policymakers, educators, researchers and practitioners are devoting increasing attention to the challenges faced by low-income families in urban communities. Research indicates that poor women with young children are particularly susceptible to experiencing depression. Maternal depression has been associated with numerous negative outcomes for both mothers and their children. In view of the high prevalence of maternal depression and the myriad stressors faced by poor families in high crime neighborhoods, there is an urgent need to identify factors that may attenuate the negative impact of mother's depression on preschoolers' socioemotional development. Thus, the major purpose of this study was to examine the potential of social support and church attendance to moderate the relationship between maternal depression and children's behavior problems. The present study utilized secondary data from a larger, three-year study funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The sample for this study consisted of low-income African American mothers in violent neighborhoods in Washington, DC and Prince George's County, Maryland. All mothers had a three-to-five year old child enrolled in Head Start. Data were obtained through face-to-face interviews utilizing culturally-sensitive measures. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the main and interaction effects for predictor (maternal depressive symptoms), moderator (social support, church attendance), and criterion variables (child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems). Results revealed that maternal depressive symptomology significantly predicted children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Findings further revealed that social support moderated the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and children's externalizing behavior problems. When the level of social support increased for mothers who did not exhibit extreme depressive symptomology, children had fewer externalizing behavior problems. In contrast, when social support increased for mothers with very severe depressive symptoms, children had greater externalizing problems. Maternal social support did not buffer preschoolers' internalizing problems. Maternal church attendance likewise failed to buffer the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and internalizing or externalizing problems. Findings suggest a need for culturally-sensitive strategies to increase the support networks of low-income, urban, African American mothers of preschoolers. Such efforts may help educators and family practitioners to reduce the impact of maternal depression on preschoolers' externalizing behavior problems.