Human Development & Quantitative Methodology

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2248

The departments within the College of Education were reorganized and renamed as of July 1, 2011. This department incorporates the former departments of Measurement, Statistics & Evaluation; Human Development; and the Institute for Child Study.

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The best friendships of young adolescents: The role of internalizing symptoms, characteristics of friends, friendship quality, and observed disclosure
(2008-01-15) Buskirk-Cohen, Allison Anne; Rubin, Kenneth H; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The best friendships of emotionally distressed and typical young adolescents were investigated. A group of 5th and 6th grade young adolescents completed ratings on friendship quality and participated in videotaped friendship tasks. Emotional distress was identified using a T score cut-point of 60 on the Internalizing symptoms subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). There were 131 friendship dyads available for analyses. Of these, 48 were considered distressed dyads (24 female dyads; 24 male dyads) and 83 were considered typical dyads (47 female dyads; 36 male dyads). Results demonstrated similarity of internalizing symptoms between best friends of typical adolescents, but not distressed adolescents. Analyses on friendship quality ratings emphasized the importance of perspective. Distressed targets rated their friendships lower on validation/caring, help/guidance and total positive friendship quality than did typical targets. However, friends of distressed adolescents did not rate their friendships differently than friends of typical adolescents. Congruent with past research, females tended to rate their friendships higher on intimate disclosure than did males. No developmental differences emerged in analyses of friendship quality. Regarding observed disclosure, only half of the dyads engaged in spontaneous disclosure talk. The majority of disclosures involved negative speech about the self or dyad. Females tended to devote more time to disclosure talk and respond to disclosure in more positive ways than males. Fifth-graders tended to devote more time to disclosure talk, initiate more disclosures and respond in more negative ways than 6th graders. Differences between distressed and typical dyads did not emerge in analyses of observed disclosure. Finally, relations between reported friendship quality and observed disclosure were explored. Overall, a lack of relation among variables suggests that the ways in which adolescents think about friendship quality are not related to visible interactions that took place in the laboratory.
DEVELOPMENTAL AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN REWARD PROCESSING ACROSS CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE
(2010) Kirwan, Michael Louis; Fox, Nathan A; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by maturation across multiple domains. This maturation is not without difficulties, however, as adolescents also display increased negative mood, conflict with parents, and risk-taking behaviors. Increased risk-taking is thought to be the byproduct of changes in reward circuits in the brain, and while a solid foundation of research has provided evidence for changes in reward processing during adolescence compared to adulthood, little is known about the changes that occur from childhood into adolescence. The current study addresses this gap in the literature with an investigation of changes in behavioral performance on a reward-processing task using a cross-sectional sample of children and adolescents. Three primary findings emerged from this study. First, adolescents displayed faster reaction times than 8-year-olds. Second, subjects responded faster and more accurately on trials with greater potential rewards. Finally, individual differences were related to reward sensitivity, reaction times, and response accuracies.
Korean Parents' and Adolescents' Reports of Parenting Styles: A Developmental Study
(2008-04-26) kim, hayoung; Rubin, Kenneth H.; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The main purpose of this study was to examine differences and relations among Korean mothers', fathers', and adolescent girls' and boys' reports of parenting styles, distinguishing possible differences in early and mid-adolescence. The following five parenting factors were assessed: warmth/affection, aggression/hostility, neglect/rejection, behavioral control, and psychological control. Differences in individuals' adherence to cultural values as well as the relations among cultural values and parenting styles were examined. Results revealed differences within and across parents' and adolescents' reports of parenting styles. For example, mothers were more warm, aggressive/hostile, behaviorally controlling, and psychologically controlling than fathers. Boys also reported more parental behavioral control and neglect/rejection than girls. Developmental comparisons showed that younger adolescents and their parents reported the use of more parental behavioral control than older adolescents and their parents. Comparisons with regard to the relations among parenting styles showed that behavioral control is not always positively associated with warmth among Koreans. More specifically, maternal behavioral control was associated with maternal warmth for boys, but not for girls. In addition, psychological control was not a consistent negative predictor of warmth among Koreans. For example, adolescents' perceptions of maternal psychological control negatively predicted warmth for older, but not younger adolescents. Assessments also revealed that parents adhered more to Asian cultural values than their adolescent children. Cultural values moderated the relations among parental dimensions of warmth and control. For example, fathers with high adherence to Asian cultural values associated expressions of behavioral control with those of warmth. Fathers with low adherence to Asian cultural values, however, associated expressions of behavioral control with both warmth and aggression/hostility. Overall, differences in reports of parenting styles as well as differences in the relations among cultural values and parenting styles for mothers, fathers, and adolescent boys and girls revealed the complexity in the forms and functions of parenting styles among Koreans. Results also revealed the importance of examining developmental differences in parental expressions and adolescents' perceptions of parenting styles.
Latino fathers' motivations, parental play, parent and friend relationship support, and children's socioemotional development from early childhood to adolescence in racially-ethnically diverse families
(2024) Ghosh, Rachel Alina; Cabrera, Natasha; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Parenting practices and parent-child relationship quality, shaped in part by parenting cognitions and beliefs, have a strong proximal contribution to the course and outcome of children’s development from early in the lifespan. However, much existent empirical knowledge about parenting comes from studies of White middle-class mothers and children, and there is far less evidence from racially, ethnically, and economically diverse families – especially from fathers. Through a collection of three interrelated studies, the present dissertation contributes to this literature with an examination of fathers’ parenting motivations, and mothers’ and fathers’ independent and interactive influences on child and adolescent socioemotional outcomes among diverse families. Empirical Paper 1 qualitatively explored what motivated first-time Latino fathers in the U.S. to be good parents for their infants, and examined differences in their motivations by nativity status. Fathers described five primary themes, with variation by nativity,in their parenting motivations: 1) personal rearing history, 2) desire to rear a well-adjusted child, 3) relationship with their child, 4) intrinsic motivations, and 5) sense of duty and responsibility. Empirical Paper 2 examined associations between mothers’ and fathers’ quality of play (i.e., challenging parenting behaviors, playfulness) at 18 months and toddlers’ social competence at 24 months, and tested whether child negative emotional temperament moderated these associations. Contrary to hypotheses, there were no significant associations between mothers’ or fathers’ two types of play and children’s social competence, and no significant moderation effects by negative emotionality. Empirical Paper 3 examined the interactive effects of adolescents’ level of support in their relationships with mothers, fathers, and best friends in the 8th grade and associations with depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and externalizing problems in the 9th grade, as well as differences by adolescent sex. There were several interactive effects of the relationships on later depressive symptoms, though not on anxiety symptoms or externalizing problems, and few differences by adolescent sex. More support from one parent was related to fewer depressive symptoms when youth experienced an unsupportive relationship with the other parent or with a best friend. Taken together, the findings of these studies advance developmental theory and provide nuance to our understanding of mothering, fathering, and children’s and adolescents’ socioemotional developmental processes. These studies have implications for research and programs aimed at promoting the normative, healthy development of diverse youth through recognizing and capitalizing on the contributions of different members within the family system.
Reward modulation of inhibitory control during adolescence: An age related comparison of behavior and neural function
(2010) Hardin, Michael George; Fox, Nathan A; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The developmental period of adolescence is distinguished by a transition from the dependent, family-oriented state of childhood to the autonomous, peer-oriented state of adulthood. Related to this transition is a distinct behavioral profile that includes high rates of exploration, novelty-seeking, and sensation-seeking. While this adolescent behavioral profile generally aids in the transition to autonomy, it comes at a cost and is often related to excessive risk-taking behavior. Current models attribute the adolescent behavioral profile to a developmental discordance between highly sensitive reward-related processes and immature inhibitory control processes. Specifically, reward-related processes appear to develop in a curvilinear manner characterized by a heightened sensitivity to reward that peaks during adolescence. On the other hand, inhibitory processes show a protracted linear developmental trajectory that begins in childhood and continues gradually throughout adolescence. Thus, the unique developmental trajectories of these two sets of processes leave the adolescent with highly sensitive, reward-driven processes that can only be moderately regulated by gradually developing inhibitory processes. Despite the usefulness of these models of adolescent behavior, they remain incompletely supported by data, as few studies specifically examine the interaction between reward-related and inhibitory processing. The current study addresses this particular gap in the adolescent neural development literature by administering a reward-modified inhibitory control task to children, adolescents, and young adults during functional neuroimaging. Three key findings emerged from the current study. First, adolescents showed greater inhibition-related neural responses than both adults and children when potential monetary reward was available. Second, adolescents reliably showed greater striatal recruitment with reward than both adults and children. These differences in striatal response occurred as all three age groups showed significant reward-related behavioral improvements. Third, when reward was not present, adolescents and children showed deficient inhibitory behavior relative to adults. Findings from this study support models proposing interactive relationships between heightened adolescent sensitivity to reward and protracted development of inhibitory control. Additionally, the current findings expand these models by suggesting heightened adolescent sensitivity to reward may facilitate developmentally inefficient inhibitory control processes in a bottom-up manner.