Psychology
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Item Examining Associations between Neural Sensitivity to Social Feedback with Trait and State Loneliness in Adolescents(2024) Alleluia Shenge, Victoire; Redcay, Elizabeth; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Loneliness can be defined as the negative emotional response to an experience of discrepancy between the desired and actual quality or quantity of one’s relationships. Loneliness is associated with many negative outcomes, including depression and self-harm. This phenomenon tends to increase in adolescence and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at even greater risk for developing loneliness during this time than their neurotypical peers. The present study examined how neural sensitivity to both positive and negative feedback from peers is related to loneliness and social experiences among adolescents with and without autism. In a sample of 94 adolescents (22 autistic and 72 non-autistic) ages 11-14, we used an innovative ecologically valid paradigm for fMRI task along with real-world experience sampling to assess self-reported interaction quality and state loneliness, as well as surveys to examine reports of “trait” (or stable levels of) loneliness.The results indicated group differences in both state and trait loneliness, with the autistic group showing high levels of loneliness. In addition, the autistic group had lower interaction quality compared to their non-autistic peers. However, we did not find support for associations between neural sensitivity to feedback and interaction quality or loneliness across our full group. This work provides an important first step in understanding the relation between loneliness, neural sensitivity to social feedback and social experiences and can further inform intervention for adolescents at risk for negative mental health outcomes depending on which mechanism shows an association effect on social experiences and lonelinessItem PSYCHOSOCIAL STRESS AND INTERNALIZING SYMPTOMS IN BLACK EMERGING ADULTS: THE ROLE OF PHYSIOLOGICAL DYSREGULATION AND CULTURAL SOCIALIZATION(2024) Wang, Yuqi; Tyrell, Fanita A; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research suggests that ethnic-racial minority emerging adults disproportionately experience higher levels of internalizing problems due to exposure to higher levels of generalized stress (e.g., perceived stress) and unique, race-related stress (e.g., discrimination), which is especially relevant for Black emerging adults. However, few studies have examined the unique contributions of these types of stress and the mechanisms that facilitate their detrimental mental health effects. Informed by existing theoretical models, the current study evaluated the unique contribution of both generalized and discriminatory stress on internalizing symptoms (i.e., anxiety and depression) as well as the mediating role of physiological functioning (i.e., diurnal cortisol slope, C-reactive protein) on these associations. Further, the current study takes astrength-based approach by examining the potential protective role of cultural socialization on the links among psychosocial stress, physiological functioning, and internalizing symptoms. Findings indicate that generalized stress and discriminatory stress both contribute to depressive symptoms and physiological functioning in Black emerging adults, although the links between psychosocial stress and internalizing symptoms were not mediated by physiological functioning. In addition, cultural socialization protected or exacerbated the effects of psychosocial stress on mental and physiological health outcomes depending on the type and severity of the stressor. These findings suggest that therapeutic treatment and intervention efforts for Black emerging adults should consider the impact of both types of stress on these youth’s mental and physiological health as well as the nuanced role of cultural socialization on these links. Future research should examine how other types of psychosocial stress, mediating mechanisms, and resilience processes may impact the mental and physiological health outcomes of Black emerging adults.Item Impact of COVID-19 on Parent and Child Mental Health in India: A Mixed-methods Longitudinal Study(2023) Havewala, Mazneen Cyrus; Wang, Cixin; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The COVID-19 pandemic has affected individuals around the world. Parents of young children have experienced significant strain as they have attempted to balance their work obligations as well as take care of household duties and attend to the needs of their young children. Several studies have demonstrated the detrimental impacts of COVID-19 on parent and child mental health. However, the majority of studies are quantitative, cross-sectional in nature, and were conducted during the early phases of the pandemic. Moreover, there is limited work on the topic of parent and child mental health within the COVID-19 context among families in India. Thus, the current mixed-methods longitudinal study aimed to fill these gaps in the literature by attempting to examine the impact of COVID-19 on child mental health and parent mental health among families with young children in India. The study also aimed to understand the moderating effects of parenting behaviors with relation to child COVID-19-related stress and child mental health difficulties, and the moderating effects of social support with relation to parent COVID-19-related stress and parent mental health difficulties. One hundred and forty parents of children between the ages of 4 to 8 completed a survey between October 2020 and February 2021 (Time 1), of which 85 parents completed it between May 2021 and July 2021 (Time 2), and 70 completed it between July 2022 and October 2022 (Time 3). Qualitative in-depth individual interviews were conducted with a subset of the sample (n=20) between July 2022 and December 2022 to gain a better understanding of challenges experienced by parents and how the pandemic impacted them and their children in various ways over the course of the pandemic. The findings indicated that the stress caused by changes brought about by the pandemic was related to parent and child mental health in India. Parents in India experienced several challenges that impacted their mental health. Factors contributing to those challenges, and in turn, possibly their mental health are discussed. Parenting behaviors such as parental nurturance and restrictiveness were also related to child mental health and served as moderators of the relation between child COVID-19-related stress and child mental health difficulties; parental nurturance emerged as a protective factor while parental restrictiveness was a possible risk factor. Perceived social support was negatively linked with parent mental health difficulties, and it also served as a buffer in the relation of parent COVID-19-related stress and parent mental health difficulties at Time 1. Qualitative findings also indicated that support from spouse, other family members, friends and co-workers helped parents cope with the challenges associated with the pandemic. In sum, the findings of this study helped identify important risk and protective factors for parent and child mental health within the COVID-19 context in India. The findings have important clinical implications that inform future intervention efforts to support children and families during related stressful events.Item CHILDHOOD BEREAVEMENT AND INTERNALIZING SYMPTOMS: RELATIONSHIP QUALITY AS A MECHANISM AND EARLY ATTACHMENT SECURITY AS A BUFFER(2024) Awao, Sayaka; Cassidy, Jude; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Childhood bereavement has been linked with poor psychosocial outcomes. However, few studies have explored the mechanisms and protective factors affecting child outcome following the death of a close family member (i.e., loss), and a limited number of studies have considered the timing of loss. The present study leverages a population-based longitudinal cohort data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine outcomes (internalizing symptoms), mechanisms (relationship quality), and protective factors (early attachment security) at age 9 and 15 for children who experienced the death of a close family member during three developmental stages: early childhood, middle childhood, and late childhood/early adolescence. Although many of the hypothesized associations were not found, findings underscore the enduring impact of early childhood attachment in protecting children in the face of loss. Specifically, the protective role of early attachment security was found at age 15, particularly for individuals experiencing loss during late childhood/early adolescence. The study highlights the importance of continued investigation of the impact of childhood bereavement endured during different developmental stages, and the importance of examining outcomes at different ages.Item MULTIMODAL ANALYSIS OF NEURAL SIGNALS RELATED TO SOURCE MEMORY ENCODING IN YOUNG CHILDREN(2024) Lei, Yuqing; Riggins, Tracy; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The emergence of source memory is an important milestone during memory development. Decades of research has explored neural correlates of source memory using electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, connections between findings from the two approaches, particularly within children, remain unclear. This dissertation identified fMRI-informed cortical sources of two EEG signals during memory encoding, the P2 and the late slow wave (LSW), that predicted subsequent source memory performance in a sample of children aged 4 to 8 years. Both P2 and LSW were source localized to cortical areas of the medial temporal lobe (MTL), reflecting MTL’s crucial role in both early-stage information processing and late-stage integration of memory, which also validated LSW’s suspected role in memory updating. The P2 effect was localized to all six tested subregions of cortical MTL in both left and right hemispheres, whereas the LSW effect was only present in the parahippocampal cortex and entorhinal cortex. P2 was additionally localized to multiple areas in the frontoparietal network, a cortical network known as the “attention network”, highlighting interactions between memory encoding and other cognitive functions. These results reflect the importance of considering both spatial and temporal aspects of neural activity to decode memory mechanism, and demonstrated the potential of combining multimodal measures in children, paving the way for future developmental research.Item Early emotional caregiving environment and associations with memory performance and hippocampal volume in adolescents with prenatal drug exposure(2023) Kohn, Brooke Hannah; Riggins, Tracy; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Early adversities, including prenatal drug exposure (PDE) and a negative postnatal emotional caregiving environment, impact children’s long-term development. The protracted developmental course of memory and its underlying neural systems offer a valuable framework for understanding the longitudinal associations of pre- and postnatal factors on children with PDE. This study longitudinally examines memory and hippocampal development in 69 parent-child dyads with PDE histories to investigate how the early emotional caregiving environment affects children with PDE’s neural and cognitive systems. Measures of physical health, drug exposure, and the emotional caregiving environment were collected between 0-24 months. At age 14 years, adolescents (N=69, 52.17% Female) completed multiple measures of episodic memory. at ages 14 (n=27) and 18 (n=17) years, a subset of adolescents underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Latent constructs of episodic memory and the caregiving environment were created using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Multiple regressions revealed a negative emotional caregiving environment during infancy was associated with poor memory performance and smaller left hippocampal volumes at 14 years. Better memory performance at 14 years predicted larger right hippocampal volume at 18 years. At 18 years, the association between the emotional caregiving environment and hippocampal volume was moderated by sex, such that a negative emotional caregiving environment was associated with larger left hippocampal volumes in males but not females. Findings suggest that the postnatal caregiving environment may modulate the effects of PDE across development, influencing neurocognitive development.Item Relations Between Latent Episodic Memory, Nap Habituality, and the Cortex During Childhood(2023) Allard, Tamara Lynn; Riggins, Tracy; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)During childhood, episodic memory demonstrates marked improvements that are supported by the protracted development of the hippocampus and a larger network of cortical regions. To date, most research has focused on associations with the hippocampus in this age group. Few studies have explored the contribution of cortical regions and no studies have explored this longitudinally. Thus, the first aim of this dissertation was to examine the longitudinal co-development of cortical thickness and surface area in memory-related cortical regions with a latent episodic memory variable in 4- to 8-year-old children (N = 177). Findings, uncorrected for multiple comparisons, demonstrated that a thinner cortex in multiple episodic memory network regions (i.e., inferior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal sulcus, lingual gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, precuneus, lateral occipital cortex, superior frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, superior temporal gyrus, and temporal pole) at age 4 predicted more rapid improvements in memory performance from age 4 to 6 years. Similarly, greater surface area in the precuneus and less surface area in the medial orbitofrontal gyrus at age 4 also predicted more rapid improvements in memory performance from age 4 to 6 years. Additionally, results revealed that several regions demonstrate parallel co-development with latent episodic memory performance from age 4 to 8 years. Specifically, greater changes in cortical thickness and surface area of the entorhinal cortex were associated with greater changes in memory from age 4 to 6 years. Furthermore, cortical thickness of entorhinal cortex and surface area of anterior cingulate cortex, entorhinal cortex, inferior parietal sulcus, lingual gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus showed co-development with latent episodic memory from age 6 to 8 years. Together, these findings suggest that cortical thickness and surface area of the episodic memory network support improvements in memory performance during childhood. However, these findings did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. Although age-related differences were one focus of this investigation, individual differences were another. Specifically, during childhood children transition away from afternoon napping. This transition has previously been associated with differences in memory consolidation abilities and hippocampal maturation. These associations suggest that habitual nappers require more regular sleep to consolidate memories due to an immature episodic memory network. However, limited work has examined these associations outside the hippocampus. Therefore, the second aim of this dissertation was to examine whether regions that support longitudinal memory development differ as a function of nap habituality (N = 44). Findings revealed significant differences in cortical thickness of right inferior frontal gyrus and surface area of lateral occipital cortex, such that non-nappers demonstrated a thinner cortex and greater surface area in these regions compared to nappers, though these findings did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. Thus, although there is some evidence that memory-related cortical regions may differ based on nap habituality, additional work is needed to support this claim. Together this dissertation provides new data on the co-development of memory with brain structure in the episodic memory network and identifies individual differences that may be associated with these brain structures.Item Attachment and Peer and Romantic Relationship Functioning: The Role of Social Information Processing(2022) Fitter, Megan Haley; Cassidy, Jude; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Perhaps the most central tenet of attachment theory is that individual differences in attachment quality relate to social functioning (Bowlby, 1969/82, 1973, 1980). Indeed, abundant research demonstrates that early insecurity toward caregivers relates to poor functioning in later peer and romantic relationships (Englund et al., 2011; McElwain et al., 2008), and individuals’ attachment orientations relate to their concurrent functioning with peers and romantic partners (Collins et al, 2006; Groh et al., 2014). For decades, researchers have been trying to understand why these connections exist. The aim of this dissertation is to help answer this question with a collection of three empirical studies testing social information processing (SIP) as a mechanism through which attachment predicts individual differences in social functioning. The present studies focus on two critical components of SIP—expectations and attributions. Study 1 (N = 2100) examined the indirect effects of adolescents’ attachment style dimensions on their acceptance by peers—assessed with sociometric peer ratings—through negative expectations of peers’ behaviors. Findings revealed that adolescents with greater attachment anxiety (fears of rejection and abandonment) and avoidance (discomfort with closeness) held negative expectations for how their peers would behave, and negative expectations in turn related to low acceptance by peers. Study 2 (N = 347) examined the role of attribution biases and friendship quality on pathways from early attachment to young adolescent romantic relationship quality. Longitudinal latent variable structural equation modeling analyses did not yield evidence for attribution biases or friendship quality as mediators on such pathways. Further, no direct links between early attachment to mothers and romantic relationship quality emerged. Findings did, however, show relations between early attachment to mothers and negative attribution biases about peers, as well as between friendship quality and romantic relationship quality. Study 3 (N = 198) examined a causal link between young adults’ attachment and attribution biases using an experimental priming procedure. Security priming—temporarily boosting feelings of security—led participants to make fewer negative attributions about hypothetical romantic partners’ transgressions. Participants with fewer negative attributions, in turn, reported that they would respond less negatively to the transgressions. Findings across the three studies provide support for SIP as a mechanism through which some conceptualizations of attachment (i.e., attachment style dimensions and temporary feelings of security) relate to social functioning, but findings do not support the theory that SIP explains longitudinal links between early attachment and later social functioning.Item Child security, caregiving behavior and representations: Links to maternal secure base scripts(2021) Straske, Martha Davis; Cassidy, Jude; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)An individual’s representation of attachment can be measured using the Attachment Script Assessment. These scripts are (1) learned from experience, (2) stable across time and context, and (3) guides for behavior (Waters & Roisman, 2019). Following the principle of intergenerational transmission of attachment, literature has established the connection between mothers’ secure base script knowledge and children’s attachment security. However, little work has studied how parents’ secure base scripts may predict outcomes distal from security. The present study investigated the relation between mothers’ secure base script knowledge and children’s attachment security, as well as children’s caregiving scripts and behaviors, while also considering the impact of mothers’ supportive and unsupportive responses to child distress. Although none of the hypotheses was supported, the current study found a link between mother’s secure base script knowledge and her parenting behavior. We discuss potential explanations for the unexpected findings and outline directions for future research examining the role of mothers’ secure base script knowledge on child outcomes.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.