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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Item RACE AND GENDER’S EFFECT ON POLICE OFFICER STRESS AND BURNOUT: A CASE STUDY OF THE BALTIMORE POLICE DEPARTMENT(2021) Duka, Leila; Xie, Min; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Law enforcement is an inherently stressful profession because officers deal with unique strains. Experiencing extensive and consistent amounts of stress ultimately leads to burnout, ineffective, and inefficient officers. Guided by several theoretical frameworks, the current study will examine the gender and racial differences in police officers’ stress and burnout in the Baltimore Police Department (N = 878). Specifically, I use several OLS regressions to understand the scaled responses of the officers’ psychological stress, physical stress, and burnout levels. I found female officers are more likely and black officers are less likely to experience both manifestations of stress. Further, I found no sign of increased burnout levels for either group. When analyzing a potential moderation between these demographics, I also found no difference between minority groups. While only a case study, the conclusions drawn can help identify which officers are most vulnerable to high stress and burnout levels.Item 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.Item Assessment of Perceived Stress Among School-Age Children: Relations with Emotional Engagement and Literacy Achievement(2020) Meyering, Kristin M; O'Neal, Colleen; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This short-term longitudinal quantitative study is the first to examine the psychometric properties of the PSS-10 among elementary-age students and the impact of stress on school-related outcomes, including emotional engagement and literacy achievement. Participants included upper elementary students (N = 396, Mage = 9.62; 55% female; 56% dual language learners; 6% Asian, 12% Black, 28% Latino/a, and 40% White students). Emotional engagement was assessed using self- and teacher-reported questionnaires. Literacy achievement was assessed using a literacy performance task. A CFA revealed a two-factor structure for the PSS-10, including a coping factor and distress factor. The PSS-10 had adequate internal consistency but did not demonstrate adequate test-retest reliability between time points two to four months apart. Path analyses revealed that the coping factor was a significant predictor of later literacy achievement. The distress factor predicted later emotional engagement when the coping factor was removed from the model.Item Cortisol Reactivity and Observed Parenting among Mothers of Children with and without ADHD(2015) Thomas, Sharon Renee; Chronis-Tuscano, Andrea; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Parenting is a robust predictor of developmental outcomes among children with ADHD. Early parenting predicts the persistence and course of ADHD and comorbid problems above and beyond risk associated with shared genetic effects. Yet, on average, mothers of children with ADHD are less positive and more negative in their parent-child interactions compared to mothers of non-disordered children. Little is known about psychobiological markers which may be associated with individual variations in maternal parenting in families of children with ADHD. Neurobiological models of parenting suggest that maternal cortisol levels following a stressor may be positively associated with hostile and intrusive parenting; however, to date no studies have examined maternal cortisol reactivity and parenting in school-age, or clinical samples of, children. Mothers’ regulation of physiological stress responses may be particularly important for families of children with ADHD, as parenting a child with chronically challenging behaviors represents a persistent environmental stressor. The current study sought to extend the existing literature by providing an empirical examination of the relationship between maternal cortisol reactivity following two laboratory stressors and parenting among mothers of children with and without ADHD. It was hypothesized that child ADHD group would moderate the relationship between cortisol reactivity and self-reported and observed parenting. Greater total cortisol output and greater increase in cortisol during the TSST were associated with decreased positive parenting and increased negative and directive parenting, with the exception of parental involvement, which was associated with increased cortisol output during the TSST. Conversely, cortisol output during the PCI was associated with increased positive parenting, increased parental involvement, and decreased negative parenting. In contrast to the TSST, a greater decrease in cortisol during the PCI indicated more positive parenting and parental involvement. These associations were specific to mothers of children with ADHD, with the exception of maternal directiveness, which was specific to comparison mothers. Findings add to our understanding of physiological processes associated with maternal parenting and contribute to an integrative biological, psychological, and cognitive process model of parenting in families of children with ADHD.Item Culture-Training Match: Testing the Interaction between Trainee Cultural Background and Training Design on Stress Reactions and Transfer of Training(2014) Salmon, Elizabeth; Gelfand, Michele J.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigates how trainee cultural background interacts with training structure and error instructions to predict transfer of training. Previous research on training interventions relies largely on Western theories of learning, and few training techniques have been tested with samples outside of North America or Western Europe. The current research seeks to expand these perspectives to investigate the impact of different training interventions in face and dignity cultures, with a particular focus on how cultural differences in stress reactions affect training outcomes. Building on this foundation, I hypothesize that the match between trainee cultural background and training design elements will predict training effectiveness, as measured by training transfer. Specifically, trainees from dignity cultures are expected to benefit from training interventions with low structure and error encouragement instructions. In contrast, the same training design may be ineffective or even counterproductive for trainees from face cultures, who are hypothesized to benefit more from high structure training and error avoidant instructions. Further, I link culture-training match to physiological stress to suggest that this may be one mechanism through which the interaction between culture and training dimensions impacts training transfer. One study was conducted in which participants from dignity and face cultures (N = 212) were randomly assigned to training conditions varying on structure and error framing instructions. Participants were trained to perform a computer-based simulation, with heart rate and cortisol collected throughout the training intervention. Participants returned seven to 15 days after the training to complete transfer measures. The results showed the expected interactions between culture and training structure and between culture and error instructions for training transfer. Stress reactions did not mediate this effect as expected; in contrast, emotional control was the key explanatory mechanism. Implications for training design and implementation across cultures are discussed, along with possible extensions of this research.Item The Effects of Mood and Stress on Cardiovascular Responses(2011) Sadak, Christina Elisa; Smith, Barry D; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The "reactivity hypothesis" posits that elevations in cardiovascular reactivity may increase the risk of developing adverse cardiovascular events over time. Negative emotions and stress may exacerbate cardiovascular reactivity, as represented by increases in blood pressure and heart rate responses. However, prior studies have reported mixed results. Therefore the primary goal of the present study was to examine the effects of stimuli intended to elicit either sadness (negative mood induction) or mental stress (stressor tasks) on blood pressure and heart rate responses, in particular, when placed alongside each other in one experimental paradigm. One hundred and six participants were randomized to one of four conditions: Mood Induction (Sad or Neutral) Only or Mood Induction (Sad or Neutral) plus Stressor Tasks. Continuous measures of heart rate and blood pressure were collected, in addition to periodic self-report measurements of sadness and perceived stress. It was first hypothesized that participants in the Mood Induction plus Stressor Task conditions would exhibit greater blood pressure and heart rate responses than the participants in the Mood Induction Only conditions. It was also hypothesized that the elicitation of a negative emotion would not predict significant increases in blood pressure and heart rate. Third, it was hypothesized that the elicitation of a negative emotion would not affect the relationship between the stressor tasks and blood pressure and heart rate. Finally, it was hypothesized that males would exhibit greater blood pressure responses than female participants. Data were analyzed using reactivity scores in a series of statistical analyses. Results supported several of the hypotheses, confirming that certain stressor tasks significantly increase blood pressure and heart rate responses. Findings also provided evidence that a negative mood induction is associated with significant increases in blood pressure and heart rate responses, even though these responses may not be unique to this specific negative emotion. Implications for future work, including clinical applications, are discussed.