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Toddlers of Latina Adolescent Mothers: The Effect of Cognitive and Language Development on Emotion Dysregulation
Adolescent mothers face a number of challenges that place their families at risk for less optimal parenting and poor child outcomes. For example, children of adolescent mothers are at risk for higher levels of dysregulated patterns of emotion. Emotion dysregulation is a key element to the development of psychopathology later in life. However, important predictors of emotion dysregulation, such as the child’s early cognitive and language development have yet to be studied in samples of Latina mothers or adolescent mothers and their children. The current study aims to further explore the longitudinal relationship between children’s cognitive and language development and subsequent emotion dysregulation in a sample of Latina adolescent mothers and their toddlers. The present study consists of 149 adolescent Latina mother-toddler dyads. Mother-toddler dyads participated in two waves when the children were aged 18 months (W1) and 24 months (W2). During W1, children’s cognitive and language abilities were measured using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development; emotion dysregulation was coded at W2. Hierarchical linear regression was used to test the effects of cognitive and language abilities in Latino children, age 18 months, and its influence on emotion dysregulation at age 24 months. After controlling for baseline levels of negative reactivity at W1, we found that cognitive abilities were not significantly associated with emotion dysregulation. In contrast, language abilities were significantly associated with emotion dysregulation, such that better language abilities were related to lower levels of emotion dysregulation.
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Going from Bad (Social Media Use) to Worse (Smartphone Addiction)
Smartphone use has become so much a part of everyday life, that individuals may not realize the potential for addiction to these devices. This study assesses social media use, smartphone addiction, and quality of life. Participants were 405 undergraduates (91% Caucasian, 77% female) who completed online surveys. Social media use was assessed by summing self-reported minutes on Facebook, Instagram, and/or Snapchat. Smartphone addiction was assessed using the Cell-Phone Addiction Scale (MRCPAS; Roberts et al., 2014). Quality of life included physical and mental health, assessed using a modified version of the SF-12 Health Survey (Ware et al., 1996), and depression, anxiety, and stress, assessed using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Scales had good reliability (range = .74 to .90). Preliminary analyses indicated that being younger was related to more social media use, smartphone addiction, and better physical and mental health; females also reported greater social media use and more smartphone addiction than did males. Therefore, primary analyses controlled for age and gender. As predicted, partial correlations indicated that more social media use was related to worse physical health, more anxiety, and more stress (all r’s > ± .10, all p’s < .044). Similarly, greater smartphone addiction was related to worse physical and mental health, and more depression, anxiety, and stress (all r’s > ± .18, all p’s = .000). Overall, it appears that excessive social media use is not a good thing, but smartphone addiction is worse; strategies focused on decreasing both are needed.
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Examining the Protective Effects of Self-Esteem in Self-Critical Perfectionism and Demoralization
Increasing prevalence of distress disorders (i.e., major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder) among young adults highlights the need to understand factors that may contribute to these problems (Mirzairad et al., 2016). One commonly studied factor implicated in distress disorder development is self-critical perfectionism (SCP), or maladaptive concern over mistakes and having extremely high standards (Sherry et al., 2013; Wang, Sheveleva, & Permyakova, 2019). Past research suggests that protective factors, such as high self-esteem, may buffer the effects of SCP on distress disorder symptomology (Feng et al., 2018). The goal of this study was to replicate and extend the previous research and re-examine whether self-esteem moderates the association between SCP and demoralization (a primary marker of distress disorders; Sellbom, Ben-Porath, & Bagby, 2008) among college students. Using a sample of 276 undergraduates, we first calculated zero-order correlations between scores on measures of SCP (Big Three Perfectionism Scale; Smith et al., 2016), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; Rosenberg, 1965), and demoralization (RCd of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008/2011), which indicated moderate to strong associations between all variables. We also performed regression analyses to examine the main and interactive effects of SCP and self-esteem on demoralization. Results suggest that, although SCP and self-esteem did have significant main effects on demoralization, they did not have a significant interactive effect. In all, contrary to previous research, our data did not support the buffering effect of self-esteem on SCP and distress disorder symptomology. Clinical implications and limitations are discussed.
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Major and Study Habits
When looking across majors there are several similarities in study habit tendencies. We decided to focus on this topic in our Research Methods class experiment because individuals come from a variety of backgrounds and find common interest in a specific major. We will analyze the similarities between the study habits of the differing majors. To collect data, we created an anonymous online survey to measure grade point average (GPA), study habits, use of colored pens, note taking abilities, and handedness. We hypothesize that 1) individuals in the social and health sciences are more likely to use colored pens, 2) individuals in humanities and health sciences will have the best study habits based on GPA, 3) individuals in humanities and health sciences will have a tendency to use flashcards and highlight their notes, and 4) individuals in the health sciences will have a tendency to be left handed and are more likely to wish they were better note takers. Our study has been approved by the Kent State IRB and data collection is ongoing.
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Natural Hair & Hair EsteemGenerations of systematic hair discrimination has left African-Americans inadequate in the eyes of society, which has been linked to poor mental health. Black people are taught to be impatient with their thick curls and that it is an inconvenience to take care of their hair. Self-acceptance and self-love is required for African Americans to overcome the generational curse of low hair-esteem, however, less is known about the implications of positive hair esteem. This study explores the association between hair esteem and quality of relationships with other women, including how mental health moderates this association. I hypothesize that positive hair esteem will be associated with better quality relationships with other women and that the strength of the association will vary by self-reported mental health. Participants include women identifying ages 18-45+ who completed an internet-based 25 question survey inventory, which included an established measure of hair esteem (Bankhead & Johnson, 2014), questions about the quality of their interpersonal relationships, and an assessment of mental health. Data collection is in progress. The findings will add to our understanding of the benefits of positive hair esteem for mental health and lay the foundation for utilizing hair to unify and empower women. |