College of Education
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1647
The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item Social Influences of Error Monitoring(2016) Barker, Tyson Vern; Fox, Nathan A; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Adolescence is characterized by dramatic hormonal, physical, and psychological changes, and is a period of risk for affective and anxiety disorders. Pubertal development during adolescence plays a major role in the emergence of these disorders, particularly among girls. Thus, it is critical to identify early biomarkers of risk. One potential biomarker, the error-related negativity (ERN), is an event-related potential following an erroneous response. Individuals with an anxiety disorder demonstrate a greater ERN than healthy comparisons, an association which is stronger in adolescence, suggesting that pubertal development may play a role in the ERN as a predictor of anxiety. One form of anxiety often observed in adolescence, particularly among girls, is social anxiety, which is defined as anxiety elicited by social-evaluative contexts. In adults, enhancements of the ERN in social-evaluative contexts is positively related to social anxiety symptoms, suggesting that the ERN in social contexts may serve as a biomarker for social anxiety. This dissertation examined the ERN in and its relation with puberty and social anxiety among 76 adolescent girls. Adolescent girls completed a flanker task in two differentItem 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 The Influence of Perceptions of Parent Racial Attitude and Intergroup Contact Have on Adolescent Cross-Race Relationships(2005-11-14) Edmonds, Christina Maria; Killen, Melanie; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research on cross-race relationships has demonstrated that contact between races is an important contributing factor to reducing prejudice in both children and in adults; however, cross-race relationships are still rare and infrequent and have been shown to decrease with age. The purpose of this project was to focus on the impact parents have on their children's cross-race relationships. Adolescents' perceptions of parents' messages about these relationships were examined to investigate how this related to the extent of contact with peers from different ethnic backgrounds and the extent to which it impacted adolescents' subsequent evaluations of cross-race relationships. Participants were 347 ninth- and twelfth-graders of mixed ethnicity and across gender. Three factors were proposed to influence their attitudes toward cross-race relationships: perception of intergroup contact, perception of parents' racial attitudes, and perception of parents' messages. The questionnaire consisted of four sections: (1) Intergroup Contact Measure, (2) Cross-Race Friendship and Dating Experiences, (3) Parental Attitudes, and (4) Personal Attitudes and Autonomy. The Intergroup Contact section asked demographic questions regarding the racial make-up and chance at interaction with individuals from a different racial background. The second section, Social Experiences, asked questions regarding the participant's experience with cross-race friendships and romantic relationships. The third section, Parental Attitudes, assessed the participant's perception of his or her parents' attitudes toward cross-race relationships. The fourth section of the survey, Evaluations of Parental and Personal Attitudes, asked participants their opinion on who should make rules for adolescents' dating and friendship choices. Findings indicated that perceptions of intergroup contact had an effect on the formation and development of both cross-race friendships and dating relationships. Perceptions of parent racial attitudes had an effect on the actual experiences participants had within their cross-race relationships. In addition, the findings indicated that parents evaluated cross-race relationships differently and their messages played a key role in shaping the experiences of their children. These findings both contribute and expand on existing literature about adolescent social relationships and theories of prejudice and racial bias, providing further support to intergroup contact theory.