Psychology
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2270
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Item Exploring Relations Between Memory and Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors in Childhood(2021) Munshell, Paige; Riggins, TracyThere is a growing field of research which suggests internalizing and externalizing disorders cause disruptions in cognitive functioning, including memory. This association has primarily been explored in adults. This honors thesis explores the potential connection between mnemonic discrimination as a measure of episodic memory and internalizing and externalizing behaviors in young children. Researchers collected data on memory using a Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST) in children between 3 and 5 years of age and related their performance to ratings of their internalizing and externalizing behavior from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) completed by a parent or guardian. Results did not support the hypothesis that internalizing and externalizing behaviors were related to poor episodic memory, as has been shown in adult populations. Future research with older children should be conducted in order to understand when during development that internalizing and externalizing behaviors begin to inhibit episodic memory.Item Preschool Psychopathology & Psychosocial Functioning: Physiological and Behavioral Susceptibility to the Early Environment(2014) Tolep, Marissa; Dougherty, Lea R; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The aim of this investigation was to examine how physiological (cortisol reactivity) and behavioral (negative and positive emotionality) markers of susceptibility moderate the relations between a wide range of early environmental experiences (parental depression, parenting, and family stress) and preschool psychopathology, psychosocial functioning, and social competence using a multi-method approach. One hundred and fifty-six preschool-age children (ages 3-5) and their biological parents were recruited from the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Stress reactivity was assessed by collecting five salivary cortisol samples from children, which included one pre-task and four post-task samples. Observational assessments were used to assess children's temperamental emotionality and parenting behavior. Children and parents' psychopathology and psychosocial functioning were assessed using psychiatric clinical interviews. Primary caregivers reported on children's social competence. Overall, we found evidence consistent with diathesis-stress models of psychopathology. Specifically, we found that the combination of a blunted pattern of HPA axis reactivity and environments characterized by family stress, including recent stressful life events and harsh parenting, was related to higher levels of children's externalizing symptoms and lower psychosocial functioning. Additionally, we found that children with high levels of negative emotionality and who are exposed to mothers with depression had the lowest social competence. In contrast to differential susceptibility theory, we did not find evidence that children's stress reactivity and temperament rendered them more sensitive to the effects of supportive parenting. The distinct patterns of findings observed for children's stress reactivity and temperament suggest that children's physiological and behavioral reactivity reflect separate pathways of risk to environmental influences rather than indices of a shared, common system of sensitivity. Taken together, our findings highlight the critical role of the early environment, particularly for children with identified risk factors (e.g., blunted cortisol reactivity, high negative emotionality), and add to our understanding of mechanisms and pathways involved in risk for early emerging, clinically significant psychopathology and functional impairment