College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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Item THE IMPACT OF ETHNIC AND RACIAL IDENTITY ON THE RELATION BETWEEN AFRICAN AMERICAN TEST ANXIETY AND LATER ACHIEVEMENT(2019) Daye, Alyssa Lauren; O'Neal, Colleen; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The present study tests a protective factor which may mitigate the negative impact of test anxiety on academic outcomes. This study examines ethnic and racial identity as a moderator of the impact of test anxiety on grades and academic ability self-concept among African American adolescents. The study relies on the existing longitudinal Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (MADICS) dataset, a public use dataset collected from 1991-2000. The subsample consists of 533 African American youths in Wave 3 and 399 African American youths in Wave 4. The present study uses two waves of data from participants aged 13 to 18. This study employs self-reported questionnaires of test anxiety, ethnic and racial identity, grades, and academic ability self-concept. Moderation analyses are conducted to test ethnic and racial identity as a protective factor mitigating the impact of test anxiety on later grades and academic ability self-concept, while adjusting for gender, socioeconomic status, and age. Results indicate that ethnic and racial identity moderated the relation between test anxiety and GPA, such that the lower the level of ethnic and racial identity, the more protective it becomes. Discussion centers on potential causes for the unexpected trend in moderation.Item Psychological and Neurobiological Outcomes of Parent-Child Adrenocortical Concordance(2017) Merwin, Stephanie; Dougherty, Lea R; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Emerging work has examined parent-child concordance of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning (i.e., adrenocortical concordance) which reflects the attunement or association of the stress hormone cortisol between the parent and child. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) is a critical aspect of HPA axis functioning that is sensitive to environmental factors and uniquely predicts psychopathology in youth. HPA axis functioning has also been linked to alterations in brain structure, specifically the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a critical brain region involved in learning and emotional processing and is sensitive to the parenting context, and undergoes change across early childhood. Despite these critical links between the parent-child dyad, HPA axis functioning, and hippocampal structure, no study has examined the longitudinal outcomes of adrenocortical concordance. The current study examined early parent-child adrenocortical concordance and its concurrent and longitudinal associations with parenting and children’s psychopathology and psychosocial functioning, as well as its longitudinal associations with children’s hippocampal structure in middle childhood. Participants included 142 parent-child dyads. Parents and children provided cortisol at Wave 1 when children were 3-5 years-old, and 98 dyads returned for the Wave 2 assessment three years later when children were 5-9 years-old. At Wave 1, parents and children provided salivary cortisol samples at waking, and 30 and 45 minutes post-waking across two days to assess the CAR. At Waves 1 and 2, child psychopathology and functioning were assessed through a parent-report clinical interview, and the parenting context was assessed through a laboratory-based parent-child interaction task. At Wave 2, a subsample of 51 children completed an anatomical magnetic resonance imaging assessment to measure hippocampal structure. Stronger parent-child concordance was associated with children’s poorer outcomes, namely increases in parental hostility from early to middle childhood, and children’s greater psychiatric symptoms and poorer psychosocial functioning in early and middle childhood. Moreover, parent- and child-level risk factors moderated several associations between stronger concordance and children’s poor outcomes. Parent-child concordance was not related to children’s hippocampal volumes in middle childhood. Importantly, our findings highlight adrenocortical concordance as a process underlying the parent-child relationship that plays a role in the development of psychopathology and functional impairment in children.Item Neural Mechanisms of Approach and Avoidance(2017) Gentry, Ronny; Roesch, Matthew R; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Using environmental cues to acquire good things and avoid harmful things is critical for survival. Rewards and punishments both drive behavior through reinforcement learning mechanisms and sometimes occur together in the environment, but it remains unclear how these signals are encoded within the brain and if signals for positive and negative reinforcement are encoded similarly. The dopaminergic system and, more broadly, the corticomesolimbic circuit are known to be involved in the processing of positive and negative reinforcement. Here, I investigated neural correlates of decision-making and associated behavioral patterns within two key corticomesolimbic regions: the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), which is thought to generate contextually appropriate responses, and the nucleus accumbens (NAc), which is thought to use dopamine (DA) prediction error signals to motivate behavior. The goal of this work was to uncover the underlying brain mechanisms encoding positive and negative reinforcement signals and to explore individual differences in neural and behavioral patterns that arise during learning and performance. To achieve this, I recorded from single neurons within vmPFC and measured DA release within NAc core during two behavioral tasks examining distinct aspects of learning: initial Pavlovian responses, as well as more complex combined positive and negative reinforcement. I found that, within the vmPFC, cell firing was modulated more often and more robustly by cues predicting reward than by cues preceding avoidable shock; overall, we found very few cells that responded to shock cues, and responses to shock avoidance and reward cues were not colocalized within the same cells. Alternatively, I found that DA release within the NAc increased to both reward and shock avoidance cues compared to neutral cues, and these changes occurred within the same microdomain of the NAc. Additionally, we uncovered intriguing individual differences in NAc DA release and behavioral responses during both our combined approach avoidance and autoshaping tasks and, in the final chapter, shifted these responses by manipulating task parameters and inhibiting VTA-NAc DA neurons. Together, these results help further our understanding of how differences in vmPFC activity and accumbal DA release influence cue-driven learning and behavioral performance across various contexts.Item UNDERSTANDING THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE CENTRAL EXTENDED AMYGDALA TO DISPOSITIONAL NEGATIVITY(2017) Tillman, Rachael; Shackman, Alexander; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Dispositional negativity (DN) is a key risk factor for a spectrum of adverse outcomes, including anxiety disorders, depression, and comorbid substance abuse. The central extended amygdala (EAc; an anatomical concept encompassing the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis [BST] and central nucleus of the amygdala [Ce]) is implicated in the development and maintenance of these disorders. However, disorders, like other psychological processes, reflect the coordinated actions of widely distributed networks. Yet, the functional architecture of the human EAc and its relation to individual differences in DN remains poorly understood. We investigated intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) of the EAc in 185 healthy adults. Whole-brain regression analyses revealed that the BST and Ce show iFC with one another via the sublenticular extended amygdala. While both regions showed significant iFC with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and with cingulate territories involved in adaptive control of anxiety-related behavior, the BST showed more robust coupling. Contrary to expectations, EAc iFC was not significantly associated with individual differences in DN. These observations provide a novel neurobiological framework for understanding a range of stress-sensitive disorders.Item Stability and Change of Cortisol Reactivity to a Laboratory Stressor from Early to Middle Childhood(2015) Leppert, Katherine A.; Dougherty, Lea R; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined the stability and change of children’s cortisol reactivity to a laboratory stressor from early to middle childhood and moderators of change. Ninety-six children completed stress-inducing laboratory tasks and provided five salivary cortisol samples at preschool age (T1; M = 49.88 months, SD = 9.51 months) and three years later (T2; M = 87.44 months, SD = 11.42 months). At T1, parents completed clinical interviews assessing child and parent psychopathology. Cortisol reactivity patterns significantly changed from decreasing to increasing reactivity from early to middle childhood. Moreover, preschool psychopathology moderated this change. Children with fewer preschool psychiatric symptoms demonstrated more stable reactivity patterns, whereas children with preschool psychiatric comorbidity demonstrated more unstable reactivity patterns across assessments. Findings suggest a developmental shift from decreasing to increasing cortisol reactivity from early to middle childhood, and highlight early preschool psychopathology as a moderator of change in cortisol reactivity.Item PARENTAL COMPLIANCE WITH CHILD SALIVARY CORTISOL SAMPLING: IMPACT ON CHILDREN'S CORTISOL DATA(2013) Smith, Victoria; Dougherty, Lea R; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Studies assessing hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning in young children commonly involve parental collection of salivary cortisol in ambulatory settings. However, no data are available on the compliance of parents in collecting ambulatory measures of children's salivary cortisol. This study examined the effects of parental compliance on the cortisol awakening response (CAR) and diurnal cortisol slopes in a sample of preschoolers. Eighty-one parents were instructed to collect their child's salivary cortisol samples upon their child's waking, 30 and 45 minutes post-waking and before bedtime on two weekdays. Subjective parental compliance was assessed using parent-report, and objective parental compliance was assessed using an electronic monitoring device. Rates of compliance were higher based on parent-report than electronic monitoring. Parental noncompliance as indicated by electronic monitoring was associated with higher waking cortisol and lower CAR. Findings suggest the need to incorporate electronic monitoring of parental compliance into developmental neuroendocrine research, especially when assessing the CAR.Item HPA axis reactivity to psychological stress among cocaine dependent individuals(2011) Richards, Jessica Margaret; Lejuez, Carl W; Daughters, Stacey B; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Due to the high prevalence of illicit drug use and subsequent costs to society, researchers have focused on potential mechanisms underlying continued substance use and dependence. One mechanism of interest is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its primary hormone, cortisol. Chronic substance use is associated with elevated basal cortisol concentrations and a blunted cortisol response to stress which has been shown to predict substance use outcomes. However, little is known about the specific conditions under which drug users display a dysregulated cortisol response to stress. Therefore, the current study compared HPA axis response to two different psychological stressors among a sample of cocaine dependent individuals. Results indicated no significant differences in cortisol response across conditions. Future researchers should conduct larger scale studies with carefully matched healthy non-drug using participants to determine whether the absence of a significant stress effect on cortisol functioning is specific to chronic cocaine use.