College of Education

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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Resilience in Formerly Incarcerated Black Women: Racial Centrality and Social Support as Protective Factors
    (2019) Yee, Stephanie Elza; Shin, Richard Q; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The United States incarcerates a larger percentage of its population than any other country in the world. Women are entering prison at higher rates than men in recent years, especially Black women, who are underrepresented in the criminal justice literature. Very little is known about formerly incarcerated Black women, who experience unique sociocultural challenges such as disproportionate rates of mental health issues, gendered racism, intimate partner violence, and recidivism to prison. This study examined how social support and racial centrality played a role in challenges faced by a sample of 54 formerly incarcerated Black women living in a large metropolitan city in the mid-Atlantic. Two multiple hierarchical regressions were used to explore whether social support and racial centrality moderated the relationship between gendered racism and depression. There was no evidence to indicate that racial centrality predicted depression or acted as a moderator between gendered racism and depression. However, social support was found to moderate the relationship between the variables. Implications for practice and future directions are discussed.
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    THE INFLUENCE OF STRESS AND SOCIAL SUPPORT ON PARENTING BEHAVIORS AMONG LOW-INCOME FAMILIES: MEDIATIONAL PATHWAYS TO CHILDREN’S SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
    (2019) Kuhns, Catherine Emily; Cabrera, Natasha; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Economic stress been shown to compromise children’s social development and undermine parenting behaviors in mothers of young children. A separate literature suggests that social support may attenuate the negative effects of maternal stress on parenting behaviors. Guided by the Family Stress Model and the Stress Buffering Model, this study examined the indirect pathways from maternal experiences of stress (economic and parenting) to children’s social competencies and behavior problems longitudinally in a sample of children from the Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (Baby FACES). It also tested the moderating effects of two types of social support (instrumental and emotional) on the negative association between stressors (economic and parenting) and children’s social skills. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) results demonstrated support for the Family Stress Model, such that economic stress (at age 1) was longitudinally and indirectly related to children’s social competencies and problem behaviors (at age 3) via observed maternal sensitivity (at age 2). That is, higher levels of economic stress were related to elevated levels of behavior problems and lower levels of social competencies because it increased parenting stress and decreased maternal sensitivity. However, there was no evidence that social support moderated the association between either type of stress and parenting. Findings are discussed in light of policy and programmatic efforts to broaden support of families and children by incorporating services that promote sensitive parent-child interactions and reduce maternal parenting stress.
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    Moving Forward: Addressing stress, positive resources, and gender
    (2012) Yang, Minji; Miller, Matthew J.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study examined a comprehensive stress-buffering model in a sample of 200 college students. Specifically, this study looked at social support and optimism as moderators between different types of stress and psychological health while controlling for gender given prior research that has demonstrated gender differences among the study constructs. Hierarchical regression analyses found that social support, but not optimism, worked as a significant moderator between different stressors, developmental challenge stress, time pressure stress, and social mistreatment stress, and psychological health. Supplemental analyses found in an independent samples t-test analysis that female college students had higher mean levels of time pressure stress than male college students. An extensive literature review of the study constructs including conceptual and methodological information and areas of improvement are delineated. Limitations of this study as well as future directions in research and clinical practice are also included.
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    Role of biopsychosocial variables in predicting positive well-being and health-promoting behaviors in individuals with autoimmune diseases.
    (2008-05-09) Taylor, Nicole Erin; Hoffman, Mary Ann; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This project investigated the role of biopsychosocial variables in predicting positive well-being and health-promoting behaviors in individuals with autoimmune diseases. The predictors included disease severity, depression, arthritis self-efficacy, and social support. The dependent variables were positive well-being and health-promoting behaviors. Participants included 175 individuals with connective tissue or musculoskeletal autoimmune diseases who were over age 18. Participants were recruited through various health agencies and clinics serving people with autoimmune diseases and eligible respondents completed the survey online. Results of the study showed that disease severity and social support are not related, suggesting that an individuals' ability to access and utilize social support is unrelated to the severity of their autoimmune disease. Second, a significant relationship was found between self-efficacy and depression suggesting that individuals who believe they can handle the consequences of their disease report lower depression. Third, it was found that depression and social support predict both positive well-being and health promoting behaviors. Depression and social support added significant contributions to the regression model predicting well-being and healthy behaviors. Self-efficacy and disease severity did not add significant contributions to this model. It was found that self-efficacy does not mediate the relationship between depression and positive well-being but social support does. Fourth, a cluster analysis revealed four different clusters of participants that react to their autoimmune disease in four different ways. The cluster analysis suggested that, in general, people may react strongly favorably, strongly unfavorably, or not at all to their autoimmune disease. Finally, qualitative data for three open-ended questions related to perceived causes of disease, openness to counseling or psychotherapy, and positive consequences of autoimmune diseases were analyzed by three independent raters. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
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    An Examination of the Needs of Mothers with Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
    (2006-04-25) Nicholas, Amy Lynne; Beckman, Paula J; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This investigation was designed to examine the needs of a diverse group of mothers with infants in an urban hospital's NICU. Forty-six mothers were asked to rate the importance of having various types of needs met while their infants were hospitalized using the NICU Family Needs Inventory. The five need subscales addressed on the inventory are Support (emotional resources needed by the family), Comfort (the need for personal physical comfort), Information (the need to obtain realistic information about the infant), Proximity (the need to remain near the infant), and Assurance (the need to feel confident about the infant's outcome). Overall, while mean differences were relatively small, the participants viewed needs in the area of Assurance as most important and needs in the area of Support as least important to have fulfilled. Various parent and infant characteristic data were also collected and used as predictor variables in a series of multiple regression analyses to determine the degree of their relationships with the needs that mothers viewed as most important to have fulfilled. There was a positive correlation found between annual household income and mothers' needs in the area of Support. Infant length of stay in the NICU was also found to be inversely correlated to mothers' Information needs. In depth discussions about these results are provided, including linkage to Maslow's theory pertaining to the hierarchy of human needs. The findings from this study can be used by providers when interacting with families, as well as during the design and implementation of parent support programs in the NICU. Further investigation of parents' needs with larger samples, including fathers, is needed.