College of Behavioral & Social Sciences

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

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    Assessing the Impact of Typical Variations in Stressful Life Events on Hippocampal Development in Childhood
    (2021) Botdorf, Morgan; Riggins, Tracy; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The negative impact of extreme stress on early brain development is well-documented. An emerging body of work suggests that less extreme and more typical variations in stressful experiences (e.g., parental divorce, changing schools) may also exert an impact on the brain, especially in early childhood; however, more systematic research is needed. Across, three studies, this dissertation addressed this gap by exploring effects of typical variations in stressful life events on development of the hippocampus, a brain region highly susceptible to stress. Study 1a assessed the impact of stressful life events on the development of hippocampal subfield volumes (i.e., CA1, CA2-4/dentate gyrus (DG), subiculum) in an accelerated longitudinal sample of 102 4- or 6-year-old children who were each followed for 3 years. Analyses revealed that experiencing more stressful life events was related to smaller CA1 and CA2-4/DG volumes in the 6- (but not 4-) year-old cohort. Study 1b used the same sample described in Study 1a to investigate the impact of stressful life events on functional connectivity between the hippocampus and stress-related cortical regions. Analyses revealed a significant association in the 4- (but not 6-) year-old cohort, such that experiencing more stressful life events was related to greater connectivity between the hippocampus and the insula, a region important for emotional processing. Study 2 assessed moderating effects of sex and socioeconomic status (SES) on the association between stressful events and hippocampal subfield volumes using a large (n = 4,348), diverse subsample of 9-10-year-old adolescents from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study. Analyses revealed that stressful life events were related to smaller subiculum volumes, but these associations did not vary by sex or SES. Overall, these findings provide evidence of the impact of typical variations in stressful life events on both hippocampal structure and functional connectivity. Findings also highlight the complexity of stress effects on the brain as these experiences may impact the hippocampus in an age-dependent manner. These results advance our current understanding of how stress influences hippocampal development and pave the way for studies to assess the implications of findings both for cognitive processes and the development of stress-related disorders.
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    Exploring neural correlates of depression in childhood: The relation between amygdala:hippocampus ratios and CDI depression scores in 4-8 year olds
    (2021-05-11) Coley, Katherine; Riggins, Tracy
    Nationally representative studies have shown that mood disorders such as depression and anxiety are widely prevalent in children, with depression acting as one of the leading causes of disability in the United States (Ghandour et al., 2018; Schmaal et al., 2016). Research on adults suggests that depression and mood regulation can be linked to brain structure and function, specifically abnormalities with the amygdala and hippocampus (Yavas et al., 2019; Gerritsen et al., 2012). Interestingly, these brain regions have been shown to undergo structural and functional changes in early childhood that correspond with critical developmental changes in behavior (e.g., Riggins et al., 2018; Stern et al., 2019). Despite these changes, there is very little research investigating the relation between the brain and depressive symptoms in children, particularly during early childhood. Furthering the understanding of the relation between structural changes in brain and depressive symptoms is critically important not only for addressing high rates of childhood depression, but also for understanding the etiology and course of depression from early childhood into adulthood. This information could inform future intervention strategies and improve our understanding of normative and non-normative development in early childhood. This study aims to fill this gap by assessing the association between amygdala and hippocampus volumes and depressive symptoms cross sectionally and longitudinally in children ages 4-8 years.
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    The Chick or the Egg? Multi-Group, Short-Term Longitudinal Relations Between Grit and Literacy Achievement
    (2019) Boyars, Michal Yablong; O'Neal, Colleen R; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The impact of grit on achievement is well established, but it is unclear whether achievement impacts grit. This short-term longitudinal study examined the direction of relations between grit and literacy among diverse elementary school student groups. Most grit research features a unidirectional design (e.g., grit affects achievement). Yet, recent research supports cross-lagged models in which socioemotional skills and achievement affect one another. In addition to testing cross-lagged effects, this study examined the direction of grit-literacy relations for different demographic groups (i.e., age, gender, and dual language status). Method: Participants included upper elementary students (N = 396; 3 schools; Mage = 9.61; 55% female; 59% dual language learners; 11% Black, 6% Asian, 29% Latino/a, 8% Multiracial; 39% White). Measures were student-reported grit, teacher-reported grit, and a student literacy achievement performance task (Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension, TOSREC). Analytic Approach: An autoregressive cross-lagged design included two time points over 4 months. A cross-lagged model was compared to unidirectional models (i.e., direct and reverse) for best fit. Multi-group analyses were then used to examine whether grit-literacy relations differed as a function of demographics. Results: The data fit the cross-lagged model better than the direct or reverse models. Within the context of a cross-lagged model – which contained both the direct and reverse effects – there was a significant relation between Time 1 literacy achievement and Time 2 student-reported Grit-PE, suggesting that literacy achievement can predict later Grit-PE. There were no demographic differences in the fit of the data with the cross-lagged model between gender, DLL status, and age groups. Findings of the current study support the examination of reciprocal effects in grit-literacy relations and its generalizability among students. Longer-term cross-lagged studies are needed to further understand the temporal sequence between grit and literacy.
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    THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY: HOMICIDE, DYNAMIC CHANGE, AND DETERRENCE IN WASHINGTON, D.C. NEIGHBORHOODS, 1998-2006
    (2014) Goodison, Sean Edmund; Paternoster, Raymond; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Studies examining homicide rates often have two limitations. First, there is a lack of rich, dynamic data to account for change, and second, no consideration of formal social controls at the neighborhood-level. To address these limitations, longitudinal data from Washington, D.C. was collected at the neighborhood level. This homicide incident and neighborhood demographic data, which spans from 1998-2006, allow for a test of two theoretical perspectives within a classical/social control sphere, namely social disorganization and deterrence. This work poses two main questions: Do dynamic structural factors influence homicide rates across neighborhoods? Does aggregate deterrence influence homicide rates across neighborhoods? Results suggest that dynamic structural factors predict homicide rates better than static factors, though deterrence results are insignificant. Implications and avenues for future research are also discussed.
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    An Examination of the Pathways of Depressive Symptoms and Heavy Drinking from Adolescence to Adulthood
    (2011) Gustafson, Emily Anne; Stein, William; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study examined the dynamic interaction of heavy alcohol use and depressive symptoms at three points over a time period of 11 years from adolescence to adulthood using a subset of data from the nationally representative, multi-year, longitudinal data source, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Results revealed that, in general, those that drink heavily with greater frequency are more likely to have a greater number of depressive symptoms. Conversely, those with more early depressive symptoms are more likely to be early heavy drinkers, but less likely to be heavy drinkers six years down the road. Additionally, early depressive symptoms affect later trajectories in binge drinking. Gender, racial/ethnic group, and college attendance all affected the relationship over time for heavy drinking and were generally related to the average but not the change over time of depressive symptoms. Results are discussed in the context of Elder's life course theory that views developmental trajectories in relation to social pathways.