NYU Applied Psychology OPUS Spring 2010

online publication of undergraduate studies

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

SPRING 2010

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Vanessa Victoria Volpe

EDITORS Jackson J. Taylor Sibyl Hayley Holland

STAFF WRITERS Alyssa Deitchman Javanna N. Obregon Justina Passarelli

FACULTY MENTOR Dr. Gigliana Melzi

CONTRIBUTORS Maurice Anderson Don Asher Cohen Priya Gopalan Robby D. Harris Ryann McNeil Silvia Niño Neha Sahu Cristina Tamayo Jessica Winterstern

GRAPHIC DESIGN & LAYOUT Jackson J. Taylor

SPECIAL THANKS NYUSteinhardt Department of Applied Psychology Dain Goding Davel Hamue Justine M. Kelly-Fierro E. James Ford Dalal Katsiaficas Adina Schick Arthur Taylor Dean Lindsey Wright

COVER PHOTO: Sasha Arutyunova (NYU TSOA ‘11)

OPUS was initiated by undergraduate students in NYU Steinhardt’s Department of Applied Psychology.

The ideas and opinions contained in this publication solely reflect those of the authors and not New York University. All work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0

A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR As psychology students at a large research university in the heart of New York City, we recognize that psychology does not exist in a vacuum. We are acutely aware of how context and culture permeate all aspects of our experience, and strive to bring these considerations back into the psychological equation. We often ask, “Why is this important? Who are we benefiting? How can we make an impact?” Encouraging us to consider the application of a psychology saturated with subjectivity is the message of both NYU’s Applied Psychology program and NYU Applied Psychology OPUS. Undergraduate researchers rarely have a voice in the larger psychological community, but this voice is crucial. OPUS was created to encourage and showcase the exemplary work of NYU undergraduate students in psychology. As an online publication, OPUS is designed to allow students to reach a wider audience with their work, simultaneously creating the potential for dialogue both within and beyond NYU. OPUS strives to build a community of excellence for undergraduates who are not only studying psychology from a textbook, but becoming actively engaged by asking questions and applying this knowledge to their world.

Whether you’re interested in language acquisition, the development of treatment options for psychological disorders, or the portrayal of mental illness in modern cinema, this publication pushes for a broader, functional definition of psychology. Our inaugural issue features academic work in all forms, from empirical investigations to review articles, op-ed pieces, and creative works. These articles present only a few of the impressive undertakings of undergraduate NYU psychology students and we look forward to showcasing many, many more.

So welcome to the Spring 2010 issue of NYU Applied Psychology OPUS! As you read, ask yourself, what is psychology to you?

We hope this issue will get you talking.

Vanessa Victoria Volpe Editor-in-Chief

contents PREFACE Dr. Gigliana Melzi

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STAFF ARTICLES Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome: Two Disorders, One Diagnosis | Alyssa Deitchman | 5 Drinking From the Lethe: Memory Erasing is No Longer a Myth

| Javanna N. Obregon | 8

A One Way Ticket to Shutter Island | Justina Passarelli | 11

EMPIRICAL ARTICLES A Meta-Analysis on Father Involvement and Early Childhood Social-Emotional Development | Robby D. Harris | 15

SUBMISSIONS In Between the Images: The Therapeutic Benefits of Unconscious Exposure | Don Asher Cohen | 31 A Call for the Proper Evaluation of Treatment for Co-Occurring BD and SUD | Priya Gopalan | 34

ABSTRACTS Loneliness and Depression among Foster Children: The Role of Caregiver Ethnic Match

| Maurice Anderson | 38

| Ryann McNeil | 38 Book Reading Styles in Bilingual Head Start Classrooms | Silvia Niño | 39 Father Involvement in Ethnically Diverse Populations

Demographic and Relational Predictors of Social Self-Awareness in Urban Elementary Classrooms | Neha Sahu | 39

| Cristina Tamayo | 40 | Jessica Winterstern | 40

Language Attitudes of Puerto Ricans toward English and Bilingualism The Stories Friends Share: Structural and Thematic Analyses

STAFF & CONTRIBUTOR BIOS Staff Bios | 41 Contributor Bios | 32

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PREFACE Welcome to the inaugural issue of the NYU Applied Psychology OPUS! This student-initiated and student-led online publication represents the Applied Psychology Undergraduate Program’s commitment to encourage students to bridge psychological theory with practice in our ever growing multicultural world. The diverse content covered in this inaugural issue reflects the breadth of interests our students have, as well as the strong research skills and hands-on experience they gain through their coursework and field site placements.

I am often amazed by our students’ devotion and commitment to the field of psychology despite their youth. Their dedication and contributions are encapsulated in this first issue. I truly hope you enjoy reading it!

Gigliana Melzi, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Applied Psychology Director of Undergraduate Studies in Applied Psychology New York University

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Volume I | Spring 2010

Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome: Two Disorders, One Diagnosis Alyssa Deitchman Joseph is fascinated with the pull of his skin and insists it looks like rubber. His palm faces the ceiling as he stretches his fingers down toward the floor. I notice that this repetitive compulsion is interfering with his focus on the teacher. I try to stop him, but to no avail. All he can say is “rubber,” while showing me this motion over and over again.

He keeps looking at me with a troubling, detached and empty gaze. Joseph is a sevenyear-old child I taught at a summer camp for mentally disabled children. Joseph is diagnosed with Autism.

s t a f f a r t i c l e s

Andrew converses with me about my day, though his eye contact is similar to that of Joseph’s. He looks past me as he speaks but is able to talk to me in a sequential, organized manner. After a quick pause in conversation, he resumes his drawing with a fervent attention to detail. I ask my mentor for Andrew’s diagnosis, and if I can see his Individual Education Plan. He seems to be on a different level than Joseph yet they are grouped into the same program. Andrew is diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.

In the past decade, professionals have viewed Asperger’s as a high-functioning form of Autism. Autism and Asperger’s syndrome have often been considered synonymous in the eyes of the general public, despite the distinction set forth by the American Psychiatric Association's (2000) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (text revision; DSM-IV-TR). Though an undergraduate student is hardly qualified to diagnose mental illnesses, I found myself wondering, If the rate at which a child

cognitively develops presents the only differentiating factor between these two disorders, why is Joseph so severely detached and Andrew able to stay on task and talk with me?

The disparity between the behaviors of these boys begs many questions in regards to the recent merge of Asperger’s syndrome under Autism Spectrum disorders in the new version of the DSM. According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the differentiating factor between Asperger’s syndrome and Autism is the rate at which cognitive milestones are met. The DSM-IV explains that Asperger’s is absent of “clinically significant delays in language, cognitive development, and adaptive functioning” (LopezDuran, 2010). Besides this difference, the APA maintains that these two disorders are clinically identical in areas of social interaction and restricted repetitive patterns of behavior. The APA argues for the merge of these two similar clinical profiles, which are currently diagnosed differently on the sole basis of language and cognitive development.

While this argument presents a valid point, that social behavior does seem like a more clinically significant diagnostic factor than cognitive development, the distinctions between the disorders make this merge seem faulty. But in order to fully comprehend the differences between the two disorders, we need to understand the Autism Spectrum. Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome are classified under a group of disorders entitled Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) by the DSM-IV-TR (2000). PDDs are characterized by impairments in communication and social deficits, along with repetitive interests and behaviors.

Austism and Asperger’s Syndrome: Two Disorders, One Diagnosis | Alyssa Deitchman However, Shore (2003) represents Asperger’s syndrome as an entirely separate entity from Autism (Figure 2), though both are considered to be Pervasive Developmental Disorders. If Asperger’s disorder was always simply a “high-functioning” autism, as the APA suggests, then how can they be represented separately? From my work at summer camp, I observed first-hand just how disparate the difference between these disorders could be.

Figure 1. The Autism Spectrum.

As Rosenn (1997) illustrates, autism disorders were once presented as a spectrum (Figure 1). In this model, classic autism, also known as Kanner’s Syndrome, is at the severe end of the spectrum wherein patients are nonverbal and severely cognitively disabled. In the center, the Pervasive Developmental DisordersNot Otherwise Specified (PPD-NOS) are listed under the “moderate” category, as the presentation of autism takes a greater variety of forms and may affect individuals in many different ways, incorporating aspects of both High Functioning Autism/Asperger’s Syndrome (HFA/AS) and Kanner’s Syndrome as suggested by the introduction of more shapes in the cone.

Lastly, the light and highly varied portion of the spectrum represents HFA/AS, in which there are only minor motor difficulties and no apparent delays in emergent cognitive skills.

Since Joseph and Andrew behaved so differently, I had a hard time understanding why they were viewed in the same academic, political, social and clinical contexts. Catherine Lord, director of the University of Michigan Autism and Communication Disorders Center, justifies the merge of these disorders with well-intentioned explanation, “The intent is to try to make the diagnosis of autism clearer and to better reflect the science” (Hamilton, 2010). Despite such intent, with every redefinition we seem to make the classifications of autism increasingly unclear.

Michael John Carley, author of Asperger’s From the Inside Out angrily exclaims, “I personally am probably going to have a very hard time calling myself autistic” (Hamilton, 2010).

How can anyone, from clinicians to summer camp staff, recognize and appropriately “treat” autism if the opposite ends of the spectrum are so different? As the APA keeps broadening the definition, the public is being further distanced from a concrete understanding of what Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome are, and what they are not.

References

Figure 2. Pervasive Developmental Disorders.

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: APA. Hamilton, Jon. (2010, February 10). Asperger's officially places inside autistic spectrum. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/ templates/story/story.php?storyId=123527833 Lopez-Duran, Nestor. (2010, February 15). Autism and asperger's in the DSM-V: Cognitive utility. Retrieved from http://www. child-psych. org/2010/02/autism-and-aspergers.html Rosenn, D. (1997). Autism Spectrum Severity Wedge from Aspergers: What we have learned in the '90s conference in Westboro, MA. Shore, S. (2003). Beyond the wall: Personal experiences with Autism and Aspergers syndrome.(2nd ed.). Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing Company.

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Drinking from the Lethe: Memory Erasing is No Longer a Myth Javanna N. Obregon At the beginning of the 20th century, neurologist Sigmund Freud (1989) developed the concept of the unconscious, a deeply buried nook in the brain where memories are stored.

According to Freud (1989), these memories cannot always be recalled, but can still affect personality, behavior, and decision-making at a subconscious level. In fact, psychologists agree that the repression of negative memories can lead to the development of neurosis (Weiten, 2007). Freud (1989) believed that by bringing unconscious memories to the surface, personal growth and self-actualization could be achieved.

But what if there was a simpler process? What if these negative memories could be erased? Could those troubled by painful memories receive a second chance at happiness, or would a quintessential aspect of personality be lost?

Recently, a group of scientists from Brooklyn’s SUNY Downstate Medical Center may have made the mythical process of memory erasing a reality (Carey, 2009). According to the New York Times, a team of researchers, led by Dr. Todd Sacktor, discovered the function of enzyme PKMzeta in memory storage against an antagonist drug called ZIP (Carey, 2009). Joining forces with Dr. Andre A. Fenton of SUNY Downstate’s Spatial Memory Department, Dr. Sacktor’s team found that when they injected lab rats with ZIP, the drug interfered with memory recall and consolidation (Carey, 2009; “Erasing Your Memories”, 2009). Once injected, the rats could no longer recall memories of learned behaviors, such as positions of shocking devices in a maze that they had remembered consistently throughout a four-month period (Carey, 2009).

Spurring great psychological debate, Dr. Sacktor’s team believes that this same process can be I ll us t rat io n © Davel Hamue 2010

Looking like Lethe, see! the lake A conscious slumber seems to take,

And would not, for the world, awake.

–The Sleeper, Edgar Allen Poe

duplicated in humans (Carey, 2009).

From further experimentation with rats, Dr. Sacktor and his team learned that ZIP almost immediately erases specific memories without interfering with either short- or long-term memory construction (“Erasing Your Memories”, 2009).

As an enzyme, PKMzeta “catalyze[s] very specific chemical reactions and can be rapidly inhibited” (“Erasing Your Memories”, 2009). With ZIP creating these very specific reactions of synaptic proteins, Dr. Sacktor and his team believe they are capable of using ZIP to inhibit PKMzeta, thereby erasing precise memories without any damage to the surrounding cortical areas (“Erasing Your Memories”, 2009). Impressively, ZIP also appears to permanently erase memories.

Three months after being injected, Dr. Sacktor’s rats still cannot recall the correct path through the maze, even if they are given hints and reminders (“Erasing Your Memories”, 2009). Dr. Sacktor suggests a three-month memory lapse in rats is equivalent to approximately a decade in human years (Carey, 2009b).

Once the exact process is perfected, Dr. Sacktor and his team believe that memory erasing holds many potential benefits for psychological wellbeing (Dwyer, 2009). They suggest that better control over memories could lead to the treatment of addiction, Alzheimer’s disease, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Carey, 2009) along with a series of other neurological and mental health disorders (“Erasing Your Memories,” 2009). This research may be beneficial in treating addiction and trauma, as well as improving the ways in which people learn and remember (“Erasing Your Memories,” 2009). Through Dr. Sacktor’s

Volume I | Spring 2010 research, those afflicted by painful memories can have a fresh start with a simple injection, followed by the doctor’s reassuring words: you won’t feel a thing.

Advocates against memory erasing argue just that—you won’t feel a thing. According to Freud (1989), memories are the basis of individual opinions and preferences, influencing choices and personality. For instance, someone who was bitten by a dog as a child might have a different opinion about dogs than someone who was rescued by one. Hence, memory erasing has the potential to change a part of an individual’s interpretation of the world. It is almost as if a person is choosing to erase what makes him or her unique. Researchers agree that people are different because of the subjectivity of perception (Weiten, 2007). Even sensory information, such as color perception and touch sensation, differ depending on both genetics and experience (Weiten, 2007). In other words, no two people experience the world in the same way, and without the memory of specific life events, a distinct perspective is lost. After years of composing a unique identity, the advent of memory erasing procedures has the potential to eliminate the product of all those life events.

Furthermore, psychologists suggest that the ways in which people shape and edit memories contributes to their individuality. Many in the scientific community have found that memory is not as reliable as one may think.

Studies show that memory regularly edits itself in order to make experiences fit into an individual’s mental model of the world (Ash, 2009; Choi & Choi, 2010). Memory is also subject to change as a result of hindsight bias, the inclination to think something will happen because it’s happened before, and the influence of interpersonal relationships in the form of suggestions from others (Weiten, 2007). For instance, when a witness to a car accident is asked to describe the scene, they may report seeing broken glass

despite its absence. The witness is not intentionally lying. Through the power of suggestion and the mind’s editing process to fit pre-existing models of what should have happened, the witness believes he or she actually experienced the event as he or she described.

Based on the subjectivity of memory, many psychologists see no harm in erasing memories considering their fallibility. But is it not subjectivity that creates individuality? The way people interpret and incorporate events shape their outlook. Most importantly, it is from memories, both good and bad, that we learn from our mistakes and achievements. Freud never wanted memories erased; he wanted them brought to the surface, acknowledged, and worked through, in order to better understand one’s self and one’s behavior (Weiten, 2007).

Another significant disadvantage of memory erasing is the possibility that it would make personal growth more difficult to achieve.

In an interview with Dr. Sacktor, a man only known as James W. argued just that when he said, “I’m in general disciplined to promote any kind of ignorance-even if that ignorance would make a person happier. We learn from the past right? Well, we’re suppose to and sometimes it is learning from painful memories that we become better people,” (“Erasing Your Memories,” 2009).

Although Dr. Sacktor responded to the statement by assuring that the process is effective and safe, he failed to directly address this concern (“Erasing Your Memories,” 2009, p.2). Learning and experience are certainly essential to personal growth. Weiten (2007) claims, “The adaptation process initiated by stress may lead to personal changes that are changes for the better.

Confronting and conquering a stressful challenge may lead to improvements in specific coping abilities and to an enhanced self concept” (p.

388). Though research has asserted the positive potential of memories, even negative ones, Dr. Sacktor fails to acknowledge their importance.

Drinking from the Lethe: Memory Erasing is No Longer a Myth | Javanna N. Obregon Memory erasing has the potential to alleviate many psychological disorders such as trauma, phobias, and addiction. However, as a society, by erasing memories we would lose that which allows us to learn, progress, and define ourselves. Most importantly, memories and experiences create a basis for each individual’s worldview interpretation. They shape us into the people we are today and influence who we will be in the future. Memory erasing does sound like a quick fix for psychological issues, but at what cost? As the saying goes, ignorance is bliss, but regardless of how “blissful” we feel, that happiness would be based on a lie. Worst of all, that lie is one we would have told ourselves, so can we really call it happiness?

References Ash, I. K. (2009). Surprise, memory, and retrospective judgment making: Testing cognitive reconstruction theories of the hindsight bias effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 916-933.

Carey, B. (2009, April 5). Brain researchers open door to editing memory. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/health/research/06 brain.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=memory%20erasing&st=cse Choi, D. W., & Choi, I. (2010). A comparison of hindsight bias in groups and individuals: The moderating role of plausibility. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40(2), 325-343.

Dwyer, J. (2009, April 8). Memories: Good, bad and erasable. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/ 04/08/nyregion/08about.html?scp=4&sq=memory%20era sing&st=cse Erasing your memories. (2009, April 13). The New York Times.

Retrieved from http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/ 04/13/memoryerasing/?scp=1&sq=memory%20erasing&s t=cse Freud, S., & Gay, P. (Eds.). (1989). The Freud reader. New York: Norton.

Poe, E.A. (1985) Edgar Allen Poe: Selected works. New York: Random House.

Weiten, W. (2007). Psychology: Themes and variations (7th ed.).

Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

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Volume I | Spring 2010

A One Way Ticket to

Shutter Island

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Psychology as a field is often misrepresented in modern cinema and Martin Scorsese’s latest film, Shutter Island, is one that may leave a negative impression of psychology on the viewer. In the story, U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo Dicaprio) sets out to find an escaped patient from Ashcliffe Insane Asylum on Shutter Island. However, in a radical twist, we find that Teddy is himself a patient at the asylum. He suffers from Delusional Disorder, creating a false world to escape the dark reality of his past. Shutter Island is one of the many films that present the ethical considerations of psychological treatment to a mainstream audience. While it succeeds in accurately presenting a severe case of mental illness and the changing treatment options of the time, it may ultimately fail to shed a much needed, positive light on the modern field of psychology.

Was Teddy Delusional or Are We? Teddy displays features of both Grandiose and Persecutory Delusional Disorder.

According to the American Psychiatric Association's (2000) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (text revision; DSMIV-TR), this mixed type is characterized by feelings of immense importance and feelings of being watched or victimized. Teddy experiences both; believing he is on the verge of a grand discovery and simultaneously is being conspired against by the doctors at the asylum.

For those with Delusional Disorder, full periods of remission may be followed by subsequent relapses, as is Teddy’s case.

Perhaps in response to his experiences in war and the death of his wife and children, Teddy creates an entirely different identity,

Justina Passarelli complete with a new name, profession, past and present. To prevent the truth of his situation from shattering his newly constructed sense of self, Teddy believes any information provided by his doctors is merely part of the conspiracy to keep him in the institution. This altered sense of reality serves as a defense mechanism, a means by which he protects himself from the pain of his past experiences. Despite several hints and associations purposely expressed throughout the intervention, Teddy’s delusions persist until the final scene, leaving us with an eerie sense of just how powerful and complex the mind can be in its defense.

While the disorder is portrayed in a very realistic light, it might be hard for a viewer with no background in psychology to believe the extremity of Teddy’s Delusional Disorder. This type of disorder is even difficult for clinical psychologists to fully understand, so the average viewer may question Teddy’s delusions, or may even leave feeling delusional themselves.

The War Between Archaic Methods and Progressive Treatment A psychological thriller portraying psychological treatment in the 1950’s is likely to leave viewers wary of the state of modern psychology. As we experience Teddy’s flashbacks of the war, we are confronted with another conflict – a psychology in the midst of profound change.

On one hand Shutter Island depicts the traditional inhumane treatment of patients in an asylum, evidenced in the harsh militancy of the warden and his accordance with the archaic treatment of lobotomy. On the other hand, Shutter Island depicts advancements in psychoanalysis, as evidenced by the more progressive standpoint of

A One Way Ticket to Shutter Island | Justina Passarelli Dr. Cawley, a proponent of a more compassionate client-centered alternative.

While Shutter Island is a fictional depiction of patient abuse, it is important to note that it is, unfortunately, an accurate one. In the 1950s, lobotomies were widely practiced as a way to “tame” or “calm” severely violent or problematic patients.

However, lobotomies are rarely practiced today because a large number of deaths resulted from the procedure. Even so, when necessary, the procedure is much more advanced than it was 50 years ago, when, as the movie showed, doctors used an ice pick to probe the brain through an individual’s eye. Now, lobotomies are only an option in the most extreme of circumstances and as a last resort, after psychotherapy, medication and all other resources have failed.

Shutter Island is in fact an accurate depiction of the changing methodology in clinical psychology and worthy of praise in that area. But to those unfamiliar with the history and progression of psychological treatment, the way this film portrays psychology in the 1950s might leave viewers uneasy about its modern practice.

One Flew East, One Flew West Shutter Island isn’t the only film that skews audience perceptions of psychological treatment.

Its famous predecessor, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, shares similar misrepresentations of the field. By presenting lobotomies and electroshock therapy as dangerous treatment options, both films portray psychologists’ disregard for the well-being of their patients.

Furthermore, the ending of each film leaves us to question just how “crazy” the main character was, reminding us that abnormality is societally

determined and often misunderstood. It is important to remember that both of these films occur during the 1950’s, not presently, and while they do raise necessary concerns about how we understand the abnormality of mental illness, they no longer reflect the treatment realities of the modern field of psychology, which strives to rehabilitate individuals without violating their rights as human beings.

Cinematic diagnosis: Shutter Island evokes an array of philosophical questions: What is insanity? How can psychologists diagnose such an abstract concept? Can it ever be cured? This film speaks volumes to society’s conclusions on what is sane and what is not. And to some effect, calls all psychological diagnoses into question. Shutter Island does a great job at depicting Teddy’s particular case of Delusional Disorder accurately, but unfortunately, without proper understanding of the 1950s context, may end up doing more harm than good to the representation of psychology in modern film.

Keeping context in mind, Shutter Island can be a wildly fascinating film, full of action, mystery and suspense. If you are even remotely interested in psychology, and especially if you are in pursuit of a career in this field and you have yet to see Shutter Island, well, you must be insane.

References American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: APA.

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A Meta-Analysis on Father Involvement and Early Childhood Social-Emotional Development Robby D. Harris New York University

e m p i r i c a l a r t i c l e s

|

Department of Applied Psychology

|

Class of 2009

Research on fathers has been burgeoning for the past three decades. However, results from this literature show conflicting findings and weaken any ability to draw generalizable conclusions on the unique contributions that fathers provide to their children. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted with 13 articles published between the years of 1998-2008 to better understand the relationship between father involvement and early childhood social-emotional development. Tests for the moderating effects of SES, race/ethnicity, and father residential status were also performed. Father involvement was positively associated with positive social-emotional abilities fits the variables were able to and negatively associated with behavior problems. In addition parenting none of thethat threetruly moderating explain any of the variability in the relationship between father involvement and child outcomes.

Traditionally, researchers have focused on the role of mothers in child development, and the influences that this relationship has on the family.

However, with about twenty percent of all new marriages ending in divorce or separation within the first five years of marriage, it is of great value to examine the distinct influences that each parent has on a child (National Center for Health Statistics, 2002).

When considering the individual influences that a mother and a father have on a child, it is possible that each parent offers very discrete influences that somehow fit together (Amato, 1994; Black, Dubowitz, & Starr, 1999; Marsiglio, Amato, Day, & Lamb, 2000). However, it is also possible that each parent is separately capable of transmitting the necessary skills, behaviors, and values to his/her child. Historically, United States culture has regarded the mother as the primary caregiver and nurturer, and the father as the enforcer of authority and provider of sustenance (Campos, 2008). Yet with changing family structures and so much ambiguity as to how parents function in the 21st century, a new and encompassing approach to understanding modern

contemporary needs of parents and children alike is necessary. Thus, this study hopes to add to the literature, which is already serving to break down such stereotyped and possibly antiquated notions, and inspire new pathways of thought that are culturally relevant and based in understanding of our modern family structures.

The importance of parent involvement in the development of children has been studied extensively, illustrating that high levels of parent involvement are associated with high and positive levels of academic achievement (e.g., Flouri & Buchanan, 2004) and social-emotional competence (e.g., Overbeek et al., 2007) throughout childhood and adolescence.

However, it is of great importance to consider who is actually being studied in such work on parenting. Most research that examines the role of parents or parent involvement has included mostly mothers or mother figures, rarely including fathers. Yet, these findings are generalized and discussed in terms of broader ‚parent‛ involvement. In our times of rapidly changing family structures, studying mothers alone is no longer enough. It becomes imperative, now more

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A Meta-Analysis on Father Involvement and Early Childhood Social-Emotional Development | Robby D. Harris 26

than ever, to better understand the role of fathers in child development and child outcomes. Generalizing the effects of mother involvement as representative of the effects of overall parent involvement threatens the veracity of the conclusions that can be drawn from such work. This tendency also disregards the growing body of research that demonstrates that fathers uniquely contribute to their children’s development as distinct from the contributions of mothers.

Over the past three decades, research on fathering has gained great momentum (Downer, Campos, McWayne, & Gartner, 2008; Marsiglio et al., 2000). Father involvement across the development of a child has been linked to children’s psychological adjustment (Flouri, 2008) fewer behavioral problems (Carlson, 2006), higher educational attainment (Flouri & Buchanan, 2004), and overall mental health (Boyce et al., 2006; Dubowitz et al., 2001). The heightened interest in, and great strides toward learning more about fathers and father involvement are exemplified by the creation of a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the exploration of this field called Fathering in 2003. Still, most research on fathers and children’s outcomes has been limited by its focus on the periods of adolescence, middle childhood, and infancy. There is much less work that highlights fathers in relation to children during the early childhood period who are preschool aged (ages 3-6).

Early childhood is a critical period of development when children experience a variety of changes. One of the most significant changes is the transitioning into the formal schooling environment (i.e., kindergarten and first grade) from preschool settings or in-home care. Studying this transition is important because, traditionally, this is when children begin to develop independence from their

parents as they spend significantly more time away from their parents in school with their teachers and peers (Entwisle & Alexander, 1998). Children take on the new role of student and are faced with assessment, comparison, and competition with their peers on an everyday basis. These new roles are paired with the rapid development of cognitive and social abilities (Bates et al., 2006; Entwisle & Alexander, 1998). Furthermore, children are no longer able to receive as much one-on-one care, contact, and encouragement as they might be used to, and are forced to become more self-reliant in this larger group setting. The concept of being equipped or prepared to successfully navigate this transition into formal schooling has been termed ‚school readiness.‛ Measuring school readiness assists in our understanding of the necessary tools, abilities, and skills that young children need to be successful when they first enter school. School readiness encompasses children’s development across multiple domains, including: behavioral, social, cognitive, language, and physical development.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2000) many children in the United States, especially those from a lower socioeconomic status (SES) are entering kindergarten and the first grade lacking the ‚requisite academic, social, emotional, and language skills to make use of classroom resources and successfully adjust to school‛ (Downer et al., 2008, p. 68). It is clear that more work must be completed in order to understand what children need to thrive when they enter this new stage, and how families, educators, and policy-makers can help assist the transition. Although cognitive ability is the area of school readiness that receives the most

Volume I | Spring 2010

attention, it is equally important that the child’s social-emotional development be taken into consideration (Raver & Zigler, 1997). Socialemotional development in early childhood is described in terms of self-control, assertion, and cooperation, social competence, self-concept, selfesteem, empathy, and emotion and behavior regulation. The proper acquisition and development of these abilities plays a major role in a child’s ability to thrive in kindergarten and the first grade as an autonomous, social being. Children must learn how to navigate themselves in this new environment that is overwhelmed with many other children who are all seeking the same attention and care. They must learn how to interact and cooperate with their peers, but also must learn how to care for and sustain themselves when necessary. If children do not gain these necessary skills in early childhood, they will not be able to effectively communicate and interact with others, and are likely to have a difficult time functioning academically in this new environment. It is clear that social-emotional development in this period is necessary for children to continue healthy development, and that this development has a large influence on children’s ability to effectively transition to formal schooling.

Research has shown that parent involvement helps to facilitate social-emotional competence in this age (e.g., Overbeek et al., 2007). However, with the changing structure of families in the United States and because mother involvement is commonly generalized to represent overall parent involvement, it becomes increasingly important to understand social-emotional development of children in this age in relation to their fathers. Research in the field has begun to investigate the role that fathers play in children’s development, as

separate from the effects of mothering. Father involvement has been associated with the same socialemotional development of preschoolers that research had previously associated with parent involvement. Fathers help their children to develop positive self-concept, self-esteem, social competence, empathetic abilities, self-confidence, and emotion regulation (Amato, 1994; Biller, 1993; Culp, Schadle, Robinson, & Culp, 2000; Downer & Mendez, 2005; Fagan & Iglesias, 2000). Although minimal research finds results to the contrary, there is still much work to be completed in this area as studies note that the role of fathers in children’s social-emotional development often varies across specific groups and contexts. Specifically, the influences of SES, race/ethnicity, and father residential status have contributed to the contradictory results in this emergent field. Thus, this study will examine the moderating effects of these variables on the relationship between father involvement and social-emotional abilities in early childhood.

The rationale behind investigating these three moderators in the meta-analysis was to work toward establishing a context for the trends that were reported in the literature. It is extremely important to understand how each of these moderators influences the relationship between father involvement and children’s early social-emotional development so to draw more accurate, directive, and consistent conclusions about the state of the literature. The importance of including these moderating factors is best explained by Coley (2001) who notes the ‚significant need for further clarification on the range of normative roles that lowincome, minority, and unmarried fathers fulfill, as well as on the precursors and effects of their fathering behaviors‛ (p.743). In this regard, this meta-analysis hopes to add context to the outcomes that emerge

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within each of these subpopulations, beyond the overwhelming majority of research on fathers that has studied white, middle-class, and married men (Coley, 2001).

In terms of SES, comparison studies find that fathers of higher SES are more likely to have children with higher academic competence (e.g., Bowey, 1995). Yet there has been limited research on the implications of SES of fathers on social-emotional development of children in this age, a critical component of overall school success (Mitchell, 2008). With an increased focus on the importance of development in this domain, it is crucial that more work is completed so to better understand the unique roles that fathers play in this process (Raver & Zigler, 1997). Previous research has found that family income level is actually not a significant predictor of variability in the behavioral-emotional scores of children (Dooley & Stewart, 2007). However, research has also shown that higher family income was associated with greater father involvement with child socialization (Ahmeduzzaman & Roopnarine, 1992), and fewer child behavior problems (Black et al., 1999; Jackson, 1999). Given these mixed findings, there is a need for a systematic and empirical investigation of the overall trends that are actually occurring. Therefore, this review will explore if SES influences the relationship between father involvement and early childhood social-emotional development across multiple studies. It was hypothesized that father involvement from lower-income families would be associated with less social-emotional competence among preschoolers.

Similarly, there has been insufficient research on the influences of race and ethnicity on father involvement and social-emotional development in

early childhood. Although emergent literature has focused on fathers of minority status, such as Latino and African American fathers, this construct of minority status is almost always conflated with being of low SES (Downer et al., 2008). And in this regard, it is impossible to parse out the different effects that being a father of either minority status or low SES may have on children’s social-emotional abilities. In fact, it is questionable whether the limited research that has attempted to focus on race/ethnicity as a separate construct from SES was actually successful in doing so. For example, Fagan (2000) found that Head Start teachers rated Puerto Rican American children, whose fathers were more involved in childcare, as lower in social competence than children whose fathers were not involved in childcare. Yet, this finding was not true for the African American fathers. The current literature on father involvement provides no indication that increased father involvement would be associated with lower social-emotional competence (e.g., Roopnarine, Krishnakumar, Metindogan, & Evans, 2006).

Therefore, it is likely that the findings reported by Fagan are confounded by outside variables that are not accounted for in the measures of father involvement that were employed. It is possible that these Puerto Rican American fathers who were involved were fathers of children who were in greater need, and therefore were of lower social competence to begin with (Dodge, Pettit, & Bates, 1994). In addition, it is also possible that this lower child social competence was an effect of limited resources that would be associated with low SES and not necessarily with the father’s race/ethnicity.

Nonetheless, research has found that more father involvement was associated with higher levels of children’s emotion regulation among African American

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families (Downer & Mendez, 2005), just as we would expect based upon the father involvement literature as a whole (Downer et al., 2008). Clearly, there is a demonstrated need to study the two constructs separately to truly understand how each relates to father involvement and child outcomes (Downer et al.). Effective conclusions cannot be drawn from these studies, as there is no way to completely detangle the two constructs of race/ethnicity and SES. That is, there are no means to distinguish whether an effect size was indicative of low SES, and not of race/ethnicity, or vice versa.

Therefore, this analysis explored if race/ethnicity influenced the relationship between father involvement and early childhood social-emotional development, across the literature, net of SES characteristics of the samples. It was hypothesized that race and ethnicity, as distinct from income level, would have no moderating effect on the relationship between father involvement and early childhood social-emotional development.

Finally, research suggests differences in the relationship between father involvement and early childhood social-emotional development may exist depending on the residential status of the father (e.g., Black et al., 1999). Typically, father residential status is measured by whether the father lives at home with the child or not. Most commonly, nonresidential father involvement is considered in terms of monetary support. However, this is only one dimension of father involvement. Research has expressed a challenge in measuring nonresidential father involvement in any other terms, such as closeness, quality of interactions, and emotional commitment (Coley, 2001). Yet, researchers have argued that it is these other dimensions of involvement that measure quality in addition to quantity, that may be more influential for,

and predictive of, child outcomes (Campos, 2008).

Although involvement by nonresidential fathers has been associated with higher levels of social and emotional adjustment and fewer behavior problems (Greene & Moore, 2000), there has been no research which explicitly compares how children’s socialemotional development in families with resident and nonresident fathers differ.

Even though this area of research is limited, the findings that do exist are mixed, making unclear what, if any, effect father residential status has on the relation between father involvement and socialemotional development. Some research has shown that children of nonresident fathers do not display any differences in behavior outcomes from children whose fathers did live in residence (Black et al., 1999).

Yet, other research demonstrates that children of nonresident fathers were less sociable, and expressed less interest in social relationships (Peretti & di Vitorrio, 1993). Therefore, in including this moderating variable, the influences of father residential status on the relationship between father involvement and early childhood social-emotional development will be explored. It was hypothesized that children of residential fathers will display higher levels of social and emotional adjustment than those of nonresidential fathers, across equitable levels of involvement (Peretti & di Vitorrio, 1993).

It is clear that the literature on all three of these potentially moderating variables is both limited and inconclusive. A meta-analysis is ideal for addressing these contradictory findings and clarifying the relationships that may exist. The current analysis hopes to elucidate the work that has been completed on father involvement and early childhood socialemotional development, and to also provide guidance

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for the work that should be completed in the future.

The results of this meta-analysis will help to clarify previous findings and provide innovative and meaningful directions. It was hypothesized that there would be a positive association between father involvement and early childhood social-emotional outcomes. With the growing variability of what families in the United States look like, it is increasingly critical that research on the importance and influences of fathers continues to strengthen and grow. In addition, results from this analysis have practical implications for policy development related to promoting positive child outcomes by identifying populations in need (those who display inadequate social-emotional adjustment) and targeting the fathers of these children as important contributors to this development as it relates to school readiness.

Method Data Collection Method To collect the studies that were included in this meta-analysis, a broad keyword search was performed online, utilizing all of the major social science databases, totaling 26 databases (e.g., PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, ERIC). The keywords used in the search included: father, father involvement, paternal involvement, and male involvement. Furthermore, these keywords were also searched in varying combinations with the keywords: Head Start, Preschool, and Early Childhood in order to collect articles pertaining to the age range in investigation. 3,775 titles were collected from this comprehensive search process and were compiled into an online bibliographic program. After eliminating all duplicate citations, the remaining titles were sorted based upon

several primary inclusion criteria (see below). An advanced doctoral student and an advanced undergraduate student completed this sorting procedure with the ultimate goal of retaining only the articles that would hold the potential for analysis.

Articles that were targeted for the current review had to fulfill the following requirements: (1) include a measure of father involvement and school readiness, (2) utilize quantitative measurement, (3) be published in a professional journal between the years 1998-2008, and (4) include data specific to children in early childhood (ages 3-8). Books, book chapters, literature reviews, meta-analyses, and strictly qualitative works were not included in this study. However, dissertation research was kept in order to include the greatest breadth of work in the analyses, which was especially important being that the study of father involvement is still relatively young (Downer, Campos, McWayne, & Gartner, 2008). After sorting the articles based upon the inclusion criteria described above, 120 articles were then passed along for additional sorting to determine whether or not it was possible and/or appropriate to code each article for analysis.

Two investigators further sorted the articles based upon secondary inclusion criteria regarding the specific data included in each article. Firstly, the mean age of the children included in each sample had to be between three and eight years old at the time of the father involvement data collection. For example, an article that collected data on father involvement when a child was two years old, but collected child outcome data at age four did not meet the coding criteria. And

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secondly, the relevant father involvement and child outcomes data had to expressed in terms of correlations or regression analyses, the forms utilized in these analyses. After sorting through the articles based upon the system described above, 30 articles were left to be included in the larger meta-analysis that will evaluate the association between father involvement and school readiness of children entering the formal school environment (i.e., first grade or kindergarten) from preschool.

The current study examines the moderating influences of father residential status, socio-economic status, and race and ethnicity on the association between father involvement and children’s socialemotional development during the preschool period.

Social-emotional development is one construct of school readiness that was measured by the larger meta-analysis. Therefore, the 30 articles from the larger meta-analysis were further sorted based upon relevance to social-emotional development and child outcomes leaving 13 articles to be included in this smaller meta-analysis.

Coding Schemes Two investigators created a coding manual that was used as a tool to extract and organize all of the pertinent information and data from each article.

Included in this coding manual was demographic information about the children and fathers in the study (including age, race/ethnicity information, income level, location of study, residential status of father, relationship of father to child), the sample size, the measures of school readiness and father involvement included in the work, study quality indicators of reliability for each construct (e.g., Cronbach’s alpha, Cohen’s kappa coefficient,

Spearman’s rho), and the associations between each set of constructs. The work of this coding process was split between two researchers who established inter-coder reliability on 20% of the articles at 90% agreement or higher. Once each article was coded, it was entered into an SPSS database for organizational purposes.

Organizing Data Data across measures of father involvement were organized into two dimensions: active and passive father involvement. These dimensions arose from standards established by previous literature but were ultimately based upon the author’s discretion.

Measures of father involvement that were defined as ‚active‛ included engagement or performing activities with the child, communication patterns, attachment styles, and caregiving roles that the father employed. Measures of father involvement that were deemed as ‚passive‛ included general presence of the father in his child’s life, and financial contributions to the child. Although there was an inherent value judgment in placing these labels on the measures of father involvement, this was not the intention of the author, as any involvement in a child’s life should be regarded as valuable.

Data across measures of children’s socialemotional abilities were also organized into two dimensions: positive and negative outcomes. Again, these dimensions arose from standards in the literature, but each measure was categorized based upon the author’s judgment. Positive socialemotional outcomes were regarded as those including social skills and emotion regulation. Negative socialemotional outcomes were equated with behavior problems (including measures of both internalizing

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and externalizing behavior problems). Each measure included in the 13 articles utilized in these analyses was organized into one dimension of father involvement and one dimension of child outcomes, and effect sizes were calculated at this point.

Calculating Effect Sizes Each of the 13 articles included in this work reported data in terms of Pearson’s correlation coefficient r except for one article (Keown & Woodward, 2002) for which the data included were transformed into Pearson’s correlation coefficients. To avoid problems with overestimation and skewness that using correlations often induces, the correlations were converted into a standard unit of analysis, Fisher’s Z scores, and were ‚weighted by the inverse of the variance to give greater weight to larger samples than smaller samples‛ (Sirin, 2005, p. 423). Seventythree associations were included in the 13 articles and the associations that were calculated across these 73 associations are called effect sizes. An effect size is the standardized measure of association that is employed in meta-analyses which allows researchers to compare effects across various studies (Borenstein, Hedges, Higgins, & Rothstein, 2009) These effect sizes were separated in terms of the two dimensions of father involvement and child outcomes as outlined above. In theory, four separate meta-analyses were conducted: one on the relationship between active father involvement and positive social-emotional outcomes, one on the relationship between active father involvement and negative social-emotional outcomes, one on the relationship between passive involvement and positive outcomes, and one on the relationship between passive involvement and negative outcomes.

However, there were no measures of association

between active father involvement and negative child outcomes, and consequently no data to analyze in this regard.

A mean effect size was then calculated for each study included in these three meta-analyses.

Although this approach allows for the possibility of overlooking legitimate differences that may exist across multiple correlations within a study (i.e., correlations based upon father involvement, as rated by mothers versus as rated by fathers) it does avoid giving too much power and significance to those studies that include multiple correlations (Lipsey & Wilson, 2001). At this point, each mean effect size was integrated to find one summary effect size to describe the direction and strength of the relationship between the variables of father involvement and socialemotional outcomes. These statistics were transformed back to Pearson’s correlation coefficient r through a z-to-r transformation with 95% confidence intervals to designate the range where the population mean were most likely to fall in the observed data (Hedges & Olkin, 1985).

Random Effects Model With consideration to the generalizability of meta-analysis effect sizes, there is often debate over whether a fixed effects model or a random effects model should be utilized (Cooper & Hedges, 1994; Hedges & Vevea, 1998; Sirin, 2005). A fixed effects model assumes that the effect sizes calculated are adequate in estimating the population effect sizes, and therefore are generalizable (Lipsey & Wilson, 2001). However, a random effects model assumes that the included studies do not embody any ‘identical’ true effect sizes that would

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necessarily be representative of the larger population (Borenstein et al., 2009). Under a random effects model, there is no standard for what should be expected as an outcome of the independent variable (i.e., father involvement), and therefore generalizability is low. A random effects model was utilized in this meta-analysis as there is no standard for social-emotional outcomes that would be associated with any level of father involvement, and under this model, more weight was given to studies that included more variance and larger sample sizes.

Tests for Heterogeneity among Correlations Tests for heterogeneity were included to examine how much of the variation present in the included studies was real and representative of the larger population (Borenstein et al., 2009). In other words, these statistics ensured that the observed findings were representative of real effects and were not merely spurious, or based completely in error. In addition, the I2 statistic indicated what percentage of the observed variation was real. A large I2 statistic would warrant further analyses on the influence of possible moderating variables on the relationship between father involvement and early childhood socialemotional development (Borenstein, Hedges, Higgins, & Rothstein).

Publication Bias Publication bias is another critical aspect of meta-analyses that was considered. Only articles that were published in peer-reviewed journals were utilized in this meta-analysis. However, it is possible that more work on father involvement and early childhood social-emotional development was conducted during the years 1998-2008, but was not published. This is especially possible if such work lacked statistical significance and included a small

sample size. Although these features do not discredit the findings of such work, it certainly might have impeded the opportunity for publishing. Due to this fact, it is possible that the trends captured in this review are only representative of the work that was published, and not of all of the work that was actually conducted in this period. Therefore, tests for publication bias were also included to ensure that the results accurately captured all work conducted between the years 1998-2008.

Test for Moderator Effects To check for the significance of each moderating variable included in this review (SES, race/ethnicity, and father residential status), the heterogeneity analysis delineated by Borenstein Hedges, Higgins, and Rothstein (2009) was followed. Q statistics from tests for heterogeneity were analyzed. A significant Q-between would have signified that the mean effect sizes across each level of the moderating variables differed by more than merely sampling error, and that the moderating variable did have an effect on the relationship between father involvement and early childhood social-emotional development.

Results Overall Effect Sizes The seven articles (31 effect sizes) that were included in this work in relation to active father involvement and positive social-emotional abilities yielded a summary effect size of .22 (p < .05). The eight articles (32 effect sizes) of relevance to active father involvement and negative social-emotional outcomes yielded a summary effect size of -.13 (p = .069). And the three articles (10 effect sizes) of relevance to passive father involvement and negative social-emotional outcomes yielded a summary effect size of -.14 (p=.089).

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Tests for Heterogeneity and Publication Bias In interpreting the Q statistic, we found that it was significant, meaning that there was heterogeneity in the observed effects. When looking at the I2 statistic, we found that 60% of the observed variation was real (which is a medium-large percent for this statistic), meaning that there was enough variation in the overall sample to examine what was contributing to the association (Borenstein et al., 2009). In other words, we were justified to look at the moderating variables to see if they could explain any of the variability. In addition, there was no evidence of publication bias in the sample.

Moderating Variables In these analyses, we combined both active and passive dimensions of father involvement into one variable, as there were not enough effect sizes from each dimension to run the analyses separately. Also, there were only enough data to run moderator analyses on SES in relation to positive outcomes.

There were, however, enough data to run the moderator analyses across all three moderators in relation to negative outcomes. After running the analyses, we found that, with nonsignificant Qbetween statistics, neither SES, race/ethnicity, nor father residential status was able to explain any of the variability in relation to both positive and negative social-emotional outcomes. In other words, none of these three variables were found to be significant in moderating the relationship between father involvement and social-emotional outcomes.

Discussion Summary Effect Sizes There was a significant positive effect between active father involvement and the development of positive social-emotional abilities

in early childhood, meaning that more father involvement was associated with more positive child outcomes. With an effect size of .22 (p < .05), this relationship was of a medium size in terms of the standards for interpreting metaanalyses (Borenstein et al., 2009). In addition, there were significant trends between father involvement (both active and passive dimensions) and fewer social-emotional problems. In other words, more father involvement was associated with less negative child outcomes. However, it is important to keep in mind that although these effects were not, in fact, significant, when working with such a limited number of studies, significant trends are still impressive. In addition, when interpreting effect sizes in meta-analyses, the standard is to examine the strength of the effect primarily, and to not rely solely on the significance of the effect, as the significance will vary based upon many factors and does not necessarily discredit the presence and strength of an effect (Borenstein et al., 2009). Therefore, father involvement was associated with child outcomes in the expected directions, and supported the hypothesis that there would be a positive association between the two variables (after considering the desired direction of the effect between father involvement and negative social-emotional outcomes).

Moderator Variables Our next finding was that neither SES, race/ethnicity, or father residential status served as significant moderators of the relationship between father involvement and social-emotional outcomes.

These findings ultimately mean this relationship may be the same across all levels of the moderators. In

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other words, it is possible that the relationship between father involvement and early childhood social-emotional abilities may not differ whether the father were of low SES, minority status, or nonresidential nor whether the father were of mid/high SES, non-minority status, or residential.

These findings are consistent with the work by Dooley and Stewart (2007), which also found that family income level was not a significant predictor of variability in the behavioral-emotional scores of children. Therefore, our hypotheses in relation to SES and father residential status were incorrect. However, our hypothesis regarding race/ethnicity was correct in that we predicted that the minority status of the father would not have any influence on the relationship between father involvement and child outcomes.

However, caution should be used in interpreting these results with the great deal of data missing from the moderator analyses. Many of the studies did not include the data necessary to run the moderator analyses, and in fact, data from only five out of the 13 studies were included in these analyses. Some articles did not report data on the three variables whereas others reported mixed samples. With the minimal number of studies that were able to be included in the moderator analyses, it is possible that our results do not fully represent the sample.

Therefore, it is necessary for researchers to study context more purposefully in relation to father involvement and child outcomes. Although the relationship did not vary as a function of the three variables, it would be injudicious to assume that father involvement across all of the moderator variable levels was identical. Recent work on parenting demonstrates that involvement across different cultures cannot be measured or interpreted in

one distinct manner (McWayne, Owsianik, Green, & Fantuzzo, 2008). Therefore, although we can safely argue that, based upon the findings of this analysis, father involvement is important, it will be important for more work to be completed in which culture and context are explicitly taken into account.

Directionality of Results Another conclusion to be drawn from this meta-analysis is that the field presently lacks an indication of the directionality of the relationship between father involvement and child outcomes. In other words, we do not know if father involvement affects child outcomes, if child behavior affects father involvement, or if the relationship is transactional, meaning that it works in both directions. This point is important to consider so that future research can identify where possible interventions and additional supports will be most beneficial. Recent work suggests that the direction of this relationship in relation to parent involvement is transactional in nature (Hoglund, Jones, Brown, & Aber, 2009). Therefore, it is possible that both father involvement and child behavior affect each other. However, only longitudinal data on father involvement and child outcomes will help us to address this properly and test for causality.

Nonetheless, engagement of fathers in their childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives is an exciting finding, regardless of the direction of the relationship, and should be further supported in various ways.

Conceptions of Father Involvement This meta-analysis has made clear that the field needs to develop a more explicit and unified conception of what father involvement truly is. Is father involvement how much time a father spends with his child, how the father communicates with his

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child, or how much money the father contributes to his child’s life? When the field measures one concept in so many diverse ways, the true meaning of the variable can get lost, and therefore it will be important for future research to create measures that more concretely measure father involvement. Before research on fathers involvement can be employed in the development of programs and policies that focus on supporting fathers in raising their children, it will be necessary for the field to synthesize what father involvement includes, how to measure this construct, and what the implications of such involvement are in the lives of children.

Similarly, measures that directly sample fathers will be important to develop. Most of the measures on father involvement included in this project were either completed by teachers or mothers, and only a few studies included data on father involvement that were reported by fathers. There are many extraneous variables that may make reports by mothers and teachers inaccurate in obtaining a true measure of a father’s involvement. For example, the quality of a relationship that a father has with the mother of his child may certainly influence how she reports his involvement regardless of his actual involvement with the child. A divorced custodial mother who does not get along with her divorced husband might report lower father involvement than a divorced custodial mother who does get along with her divorced husband, even if both fathers are involved in the same exact manner. In addition, it is possible that a teacher who does not witness much father presence during the school day would rate such a father as low in involvement. However, it is possible that this father works during the school day, but is very involved with his child outside of school, and therefore such a

report might not accurately capture the involvement of this father. The importance of studying context and the intersectionality of variables should be taken into consideration when developing measures of father involvement and study designs in the future.

It is also important to consider what has been addressed in the field since Amato and Gilbreth (1999) conducted the last meta-analysis on father involvement. One of the most significant future directions that these authors suggested was that father involvement should preferably be measured in an engaged manner rather than in a more superficial manner (i.e., physical presence of the father in the child’s life). From examining the articles included in this meta-analysis, it would appear that the field of father involvement has, in fact, taken the directives laid out by Amato and Gilbreth. The overwhelming majority of father involvement measures were ‚active‛ in nature (63 effect sizes) with only ten measuring father involvement in ‚passive‛ terms. However, what is important to keep in mind is that the meta-analysis by Amato and Gilbreth was conducted on nonresidential fathers, who, as research demonstrates, are less likely to be actively engaged with their children due to limited access (Black et al., 1999). Nonetheless, it is possible the great deal of active father involvement measures that were included this analysis are indicative of a shift in how the field conceives of fathers and their importance.

School Readiness Meta-Analysis Finally, this meta-analysis examined one construct of school readiness. The larger metaanalysis from which this project is based will examine all aspects of school readiness in relation to

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father involvement. In addition, the school readiness meta-analysis will include more studies across all of the dimensions of school readiness, including socialemotional development, so to increase the variability of the data and allow us to draw more generalizable conclusions.

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Boyce, W. T., Essex, M. J., Alkon, A., Goldsmith, H. H., Kraemer, H. C., & Kupfer, D. J. (2006). Early father involvement moderates biobehavioral susceptibility to mental health problems in middle childhood. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 45(12), 1510-1520. *Burgos, L. (2003). The effect of the father-child relationship on the social conduct of 2 1/2 year old children in preschool. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 18(2), 135-155.

Campos, R. (2008). Considerations for studying father involvement in early childhood among Latino families. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 30(2), 133-160.

Carlson, M. J. (2006). Family structure, father involvement, and adolescent behavioral outcomes. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68, 137-154.

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Cooper, H. M., & Hedges, L. V. (Eds.). (1994). Handbook of research synthesis. New York, NY: Russell Sage. *Cugmas, Z. (1998). The correlation between children's personal behavioural characteristics and indicators of children's attachment to their mother or father, respectively. Early Child Development &Care, 143, 65-78. *Culp, R. E., Schadle, S., Robinson, L., & Culp. A. M. (2000). Relationships among paternal involvement and young children’s perceived self-competence and behavioral problems. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 9, 27-38. *Denham, S. A., Workman, E., Cole, P. M., Weissbrod, C., Kendziora, K. T., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (2000). Prediction of externalizing behavior problems from early to middle childhood: The role of parental socialization and emotion expression. Development & Psychopathology, 12(1), 2345.

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Downer, J. T., Campos, R., McWayne, C.M., & Gartner, T. (2008). Father involvement and children’s early learning: A critical review of published empirical work from the past 15 years. Marriage & Family Review, 43(1/2), 67-108). *Downer, J. T., & Mendez, J. L. (2005). African American father involvement and preschool children’s school readiness. Early Education and Development, 16, 317-340.

Dubowitz, H., Black, M. M., Cox, C. E., Kerr, M. A., Litrownik, A. J., Radhakrishna, A., English, D. J., Schneider, M. W., & Runyan, D. K. (2001). Father involvement and children’s functioning at

age 6 years: A multisite study. Child Maltreatment: Journal of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, 6, 300-309.

Entwisle, D. R., & Alexander, K. L. (1998). Facilitating the transition to first grade: The nature of transition and research on factors affecting it. Elementary School Journal, 98, 351-364.

Fagan, J. (2000). African American and Puerto Rican American parenting styles, paternal involvement, and Head Start children’s social competence. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 46, 592-612.

Fagan, J., & Iglesias, A. (2000). The relation between fathers’ and children’s communication skills and children’s behavior problems: A study of Head Start children. Early Education and Development, 11, 307-320.

Flouri, E. (2008). Fathering and adolescents’ psychological adjustment: The role of fathers’ involvement, residence and biology status. Child: Care, Health and Development, 34(2), 152-161.

Flouri, E., & Buchanan, A. (2004). Early father’s and mother’s involvement and child’s later educational outcomes. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 141-153.

Greene, A. D. & Moore, K. A. (2000). Nonresident father involvement and child well-being among young children in families on welfare. Marriage and Family Review, 29, 159-180. *Hagan, L. K., & Kuebli, J. (2007). Mothers' and fathers' socialization of preschoolers' physical risk taking. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 28(1), 2-14.

Hedges, L.V. & Olkin I. (1985). Statistical methods for meta-analysis. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, Inc. Hedges, L. V. & Vevea, J. L. (1998). Fixed and random-effects models in meta-analysis.

Psychological Methods, 3, 486–504.

Hoglund, W. L. G., Jones, S. M., Brown, J. L., & Aber, J. L. (2009, April). Family home and schoolbased involvement in the inner-city context: Transactions with child school adjustment. Paper symposium presented at the 2009 biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, CO. *Jackson, A. P. (1999). The effects of nonresident father involvement on single Black mothers and their young children. Social Work, 44, 156-166. *Keown, L. J., & Woodward, L. J. (2002). Early parent-child relations and family functioning of preschool boys with pervasive hyperactivity. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30(6), 541-553.

Lipsey, M. W., & Wilson, D. B. (2001). Practical meta-analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Marsiglio, W., Amato, P., Day, R., & Lamb, M. E. (2000). Scholarship on fatherhood in the 1990s and beyond. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62, 1173-1191.

McWayne, C.M., Owsianik, M., Green, L.E., Fantuzzo, J. W. (2008). Parenting behaviors and preschool children’s social and emotional skills: A question of the consequential validity of traditional parenting constructs for low-income African Americans. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23, 173-192.

Mitchell, S. J. (2008). Low-income African American fathers’ contributions to toddlers’ social and emotional development (Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, 2007).

Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences 69(2-A).

National Center for Educational Statistics. (2000). The kindergarten year. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Educational Statistics.

Overbeek, G., Stattin, H., Vermulst, A., Ha, T., Engels, & Rutger C. M. E. (2007). Parent–child relationships, partner relationships, and emotional adjustment: A birth-to-maturity prospective study. Developmental Psychology, 43(2), 429-437. *Page, T., & Bretherton, I. (2001). Mother- and father-child attachment themes in the story completions of pre-schoolers from post-divorce families: Do they predict relationships with peers and teachers? Attachment & Human Development, 3(1), 1-29.

Peretti, P. O., & di Vitorrio, A. (1993). Effect of loss of father through divorce on personality of a preschool child. Social Behavior & Personality, 21, 33-38. *Pettit, G. S., Brown, E. G., Mize, J., & Lindsey, E. (1998). Mothers' and fathers' socializing behaviors in three contexts: Links with children's peer competence. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 44(2), 173-193.

Raver, C. C., & Zigler, E. F. (1997). Social competence: An untapped dimension in evaluating Head Start’s success. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12, 363-385. *Roopnarine, J. L., Krishnakumar, A., Metindogan, A., & Evans, M. (2006). Links between parenting styles, parent-child academic interaction, parent-school interaction, and early academic skills and social behaviors in young children of english-speaking Caribbean immigrants. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 21(2), 238-252.

Sirin, S. R. (2005). Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: A meta-analytic review of research.

Review of Educational Research, 75(3), 417-453. *Stover, C. S., Van Horn, P., Turner, R., Cooper, B., & Lieberman, A. F. (2003). The effects of father visitation on preschool-aged witnesses of domestic violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18(10), 1149-1166. *Verschueren, K., & Marcoen, A. (1999). Representation of self and socioemotional competence in kindergartners: Differential and combined effects of attachment to mother and to father. Child Development, 70(1), 183-201.

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submissions

Volume I | Spring 2010

In Between the Images: The Therapeutic Benefits of Unconscious Exposure Don Asher Cohen New York University

s u b m i s s i o n s

|

Department of Applied Psychology

The way psychologists think about and treat phobias may be facing imminent change. Damour and Hansell (2008) define a phobia as an intense, persistent and irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object or situation. However, recent research suggests that phobias are more than simply intense fears. In fact, psychologists have discovered that exposure to phobicstimuli (specific object of phobia) activates different part of the brain than the one which activates when people are exposed to fearful-stimuli (anything else someone is afraid of) (Carlsson, Petersson, Lundqvist, Karlsson, Ingvar & Ohman, 2004). In other words, phobias may be neurologically different from fears.

Furthermore, when unconsciously exposed to fearfulstimuli, the brain reacts differently than it reacts when consciously exposed to fearful stimuli (Morris, Ohman & Dolan, 1998), suggesting that people use different parts of their brains to process conscious and unconscious emotions. Understanding these unique properties of phobias is instrumental in treating them.

One strategy, exposure therapy, requires that people face their fears in the most literal sense (Damour & Hansell, 2008). It has been shown to be highly effective in the treatment of phobias (Barlow, Raffa & Cohen, 2002). In exposure therapy, the eradication of phobias is accomplished by gradually exposing individuals to the object they are afraid of.

Eventually, individuals come to realize that the feared object is not intrinsically dangerous, because they are not harmed by the object itself. When individuals can reach this conclusion, they are less avoidant of the

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feared object. Effective as the treatment may be, Damour and Hansell (2008) note that exposure therapy can cause people to experience anxiety during treatment.

However, there may be a way to achieve similar effects without requiring clients to experience such anxiety.

Carlsson et al. (2004) used backwards masking to unconsciously expose participants to phobic and fear relevant stimuli. In backwards masking, people are shown to an image for a brief period of time before it is covered up by a different image. This technique exposes participants to images they are unable to report seeing.

In Carlsson et al.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (2004) study, half of participants exhibited arachnophobia (phobia of spiders) and the other half exhibited ophiophobia (phobia of snakes).

Participants were exposed to six image-mask pairs, each in randomized order and repeated twice. Images included two phobic stimuli (spiders and snakes respective to the participant), fear relevant stimuli (spiders and snakes respective to the participant) and two mushrooms.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) images showed that unconscious exposure to phobic stimuli and fearrelevant stimuli elicit similar responses. However, when the participants were given time to consciously process the stimuli being exposed, differences emerged.

Consciously-exposed, phobic stimuli elicited an affective processing response that fear-relevant stimuli did not elicit. In other words, on a conscious level, when people suffering from phobias are exposed to their phobias, their fear response is different from exposure to other things of which they are non-pathologically afraid.

Morris et al. (1998) also used backwards

In Between the Images: The Therapeutic Benefits of Unconscious Exposure | Don Asher Cohen

masking to unconsciously expose people to “fearful faces” which were later covered up by “neutral faces”.

They measured participants’ fearful responses to these stimuli with PET scans and magnetic resonance images (MRI) of brain activity in the amygdala, a region central to emotional functioning. The images showed that unconsciously exposed faces elicited a neural response in the right amygdala without eliciting a response in the left. When the faces were unmasked, the amygdala response was different: unmasked faces elicited neural responses in the left amygdala without eliciting response in the right amygdala. This discrepancy shows that the human brain responds to conscious and unconscious stimuli in different ways.

Understanding these differences may prove useful in better understanding and treating phobias in the future.

The effect of unconscious exposure to phobic stimuli was explored by Siegel and Weinberger (2009), whose work more directly suggests unconscious exposure may be useful in therapy. Siegel and Weinberger (2009) conducted three experiments, one of which tested the effect of unconscious exposure on behavior. Their first experiment established that, through backwards masking, participants can be exposed to stimuli without being able to report exposure to these stimuli. Their second experiment showed that when individuals suffering from fear of spiders were unconsciously exposed to spider images, they were less behaviorally avoidant of a caged tarantula than people suffering from a fear of spiders that were not exposed to those images. In a third experiment, participants were separated into two groups. During the first week of their experiment, participants completed a behavioral approach task,

during which they approached a caged spider. In the second week, one group of participants was unconsciously exposed to the phobic stimuli (spider images), while the other was not. Participants in the group that was unconsciously exposed to the spider images were less avoidant of the spider in the second week, compared to their first week. Participants in the group that was not exposed to the spider images were not less avoidant of the spider. Siegel and Weinberger’s (2009) work suggests that the effect of unconscious exposure is similar to the effect of current exposure therapy in that both successfully reduce avoidant behavior.

Because the highlighted studies only examined the effects of unconscious exposure in the short-term, further research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of unconscious exposure in treating phobias.

Additionally, the aforementioned studies have only investigated the use of unconscious exposure with two phobias – arachnophobia and ophidiophobia. If the effects of unconscious exposure prove to be long lasting and applicable to a wider range of phobias, unconscious exposure therapy should be integrated into current interventions. Because unconscious exposure circumvents the anxiety conscious exposure causes, it has the potential to become a preferred treatment option.

References Barlow, D. H., Raffa, S. D., & Cohen, E. M. (2002). Psychosocial treatments for panic disorders, phobias, and generalized anxiety disorder. In P. E. Nathan & J. M. Gorman (Eds.), A guide to treatments that work (pp. 301-336). New York: Oxford University Press.

Carlsson, K., Peterson, K. M., Lundqvist, D., Karlsson, A., Ingvar, M., & Öhman, A. (2004). Fear and the amygdala: Manipulation of awareness generates differential cerebral responses to phobic and fear-relevant stimuli. Emotion, 4, 340–353.

Damour, L. K., & Hansell, J. H. (2008). Abnormal Psychology (2 ed.). New York, NY: Wiley.

Morris J.S., Ohman A, & Dolan RJ. (1998). Conscious and unconscious emotional learning in the human amygdala. Nature, 393, 467– 70.

Siegel, P. & Weinberger, J. (2009). Very brief exposure: The effects of unreportable stimuli on fearful behavior. Consciousness and Cognition. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2009.08.001

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Volume I | Spring 2010

A Call for the Proper Evaluation of Treatment for Co-Occurring BD and SUD Priya Gopalan New York University

s u b m i s s i o n s

|

Department of Applied Psychology

Considerable research in psychology documents the co-occurrence of addictive behavior and mood disorders. When a person is diagnosed with both a mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorder (SUD), they are considered to have a “dual diagnosis”. It is crucial for psychologists to concern themselves with both aspects of this dual diagnosis in order to research and provide effective, comprehensive, and sustainable treatment for clients. Bipolar disorder (BD), in particular, has a very high rate of dual diagnosis. Sasson, Chopra, Harrari, Amitai, and Zohar (2003) report that 60% of individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder also exhibit symptoms of other disorders, and more than 40% report simultaneous drug use, posing a unique challenge to clinicians and researchers. For these dually diagnosed patients, response to medication is often altered by their drug habit, their symptoms are harder to detect, and they have higher rates of relapse, hospitalization, and suicide attempts (Xie, McHugo & Drake, 2009).

There is a crucial need to identify the best treatment option for those who suffer from the combined effects of BD and SUD. Substantive data collected by the National Comorbidity Survey supports such necessity, suggesting psychologists need to increase outreach for patients who are dually diagnosed (Kessler et al., 1996). Although many epidemiological and descriptive studies describe the severity of the issue, very few empirical studies have evaluated possible treatment options. It is difficult to design randomized controlled experiments for this population

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due to ethical concerns with placing individuals in treatment groups and the breadth of potential confounding factors, such as individual differences in genetic makeup, level of drug use, and self-esteem. In the few empirical studies on aspects of treatment for individuals dually diagnosed with BD and SUD, researchers investigated the effectiveness of three aspects of dually diagnosed patients’ treatment – the way their case is managed, (Drake, Xie, McHugo, & Shumway, 2004), the training of their therapist (Grella & Stein, 2006), and the type of treatment they receive, specifically the effectiveness of medication alone versus medication paired with CBT (Schmitz et al., 2002) - on their treatment outcomes.

Even in these few empirical studies that are meant to provide us with greater understanding of how to treat this dual diagnosis, flaws in their very research designs have left the psychological community unable to draw any concrete conclusions. This review hopes to shed light on the methodological flaws of these studies in order to further demonstrate the need for more conclusive research to assess treatment options for this population.

Drake, Xie, McHugo, and Shumway (2004; based on The New Hampshire Dual Diagnosis Study) empirically investigated the longitudinal (1989-1992) treatment outcomes of bipolar outpatients (N=51) based on the way their case was managed. The sample consisted of mostly White (98% White) and male (65% male) patients dually diagnosed with BD and cooccurring SUD. The sample, especially in terms of race, is not representative of the general population and leaves an enormous gap in the lack of generalizability of its

A Call for the Proper Evaluation of Treatment for Co-Occurring BD and SUD | Priya Gopalan

findings. In this randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive either assertive community treatment or standard case management (Drake et al., 2004). Though the article noted that both conditions provided integrated services to address dual diagnosis, the authors failed to provide operational descriptions of either condition, making it impossible to account for any resulting significant difference in outcome as a result of management group. Though it failed to find a significant association between outcomes and case management strategy, one value of this study lies in its presentation of the success of treatment for dually diagnosed patients that integrates both aspects of their diagnoses, evident in patients’ improvement in multiple domains (e.g., employment, behavior, functionality) throughout the study.

Grella and Stein (2006) investigated the role of psychologist training and use of on-site dual diagnosis services in patients’ outcomes. Using a sample of 351 patients from 11 residential programs, researchers sought to identify which type of program had the best treatment outcome for dually diagnosed patients. The sample was evenly distributed between males and females (53% male and 47% female) and included a larger proportion of African Americans (35%) than Drake et al.’s (2004) study. It also sought to represent some of the concerns of the African American population - of the 123 African Americans patients who took part in this study, 82% had been homeless and 59% had previously been in trouble with the law. Grella and Stein (2006) found that better training for psychologists and their increased utilization of on-site dual diagnosis services in their treatment improved patients’ outcomes. The study also found higher rates of psychological distress for African Americans, both before and after treatment, as well as a reduced access to healthcare for this population. A major

setback of this study is its investigation of co-morbidity in general, rather than BD and SUD specifically (only 65% of the sample suffered from a mood disorder), which means that the results may not acknowledge the unique considerations in the co-morbidity of mood disorders. Though it certainly seeks to present a case for increased dual diagnosis services, this study does not provide clinicians with a concrete idea of what these dual diagnosis services entail and which of their features are really making the difference.

Schmitz et al. (2002) investigated the role of the type of treatment dually diagnosed patients receive on their treatment outcome. In order to test the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in treating cooccurring BD and SUD, 46 patients (80% white, 47.8% male) were randomly assigned to a treatment group with either medication intervention alone or medication intervention with CBT. The medically managed group had 4 clinic visits in three months to monitor their compliance, drug-use, and mood. The CBT group had these clinic visits supplemented with 16 individual sessions of CBT. The results supported the hypothesis that CBT fostered patients’ compliance with medication and improved their mood. However, both groups showed lower rates of substance abuse at the end of the 12 weeks, leading us to believe that CBT did not create any significant difference in addictive behavior between groups. On the other hand, members of the CBT group were found to be more regular in their attendance and showed more satisfaction with their prognosis. How do we make sense of these results? Staying in treatment is linked to more positive treatment outcomes and perception of recovery, as evidenced by patients’ selfreports, so why do these encouraging outcomes not translate into a difference in behavior? Schmitz et al.

(2002) acknowledged that the way in which substance

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Volume I | Spring 2010

use was measured and coded as well as high levels of attrition could have skewed their results. In the face of these methodological concerns, it is difficult to draw any appropriate conclusions from this study.

The review of these articles provides a small sample of the literature that is currently available on treatments for co-occurring BD and SUD. All three studies offer support for the growing consensus that dually diagnosed patients find it much more difficult than patients with a single diagnosis to recover. However, studies often present inconsistent findings and limitations imposed by biased samples, lack of operationalization, and confounding variables. It is apparent that there are not enough soundly designed experimental studies to examine the effects of different aspects of treatment on the comorbidity of BD and SUD. Therefore, there is an urgent need to properly evaluate new treatment options available to this unique population. Further investigation using experimental techniques needs to help clarify the best aspects of treatment plans for people suffering from cooccurring BD and SUD, rather than lead us further astray.

References Drake, R.E., Xie, H., McHugo, G.J., & Shumway, M. (2004). Three-year outcomes of long-term patients with co-occurring bipolar and substance use disorders. Biological Psychiatry, 56(10), 749-756. doi:10.1016/j.biosych.2004.08.020 Grella, C. E., & Stein, J. A. (2006). Impact of program services on treatment outcomes of patients with comorbid mental and substance use disorders. Psychiatric Services, 57(7), 1007-1015. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.57.7.1007 Kessler, R. C., Nelson, C. B., McGonagle, K. A., Edlund, M. J., Frank, R. G., & Leaf, P. J. (1996). The epidemiology of co-occurring addictive and mental disorders: Implications for prevention and service utilization. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 66(1), 17-31. doi:10.1037/h0080151 Sasson, Y., Chopra, M., Harrari, E., Amitai, K., & Zohar, J. (2003). Bipolar comorbidity: From diagnostic dilemmas to therapeutic challenge. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 6(2), 139-144. doi:10.1017/S1461145703003432 Schmitz, J. M., Averill, P., Sayre, S., McCleary, P., Moeller, F. G., & Swann, A. (2002).

Cognitive-behavioral treatment of bipolar disorder and substance abuse: A preliminary randomized study. Addictive Disorders & Their Treatment, 1(1), 17-24. doi:10.1097/00132576-200205000-00004 Xie, H., McHugo, G. J., & Drake, R. E. (2009). Subtypes of clients with serious mental illness and co-occurring disorders: Latent-class trajectory analysis. Psychiatric Services, 60(6), 804-811. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.60.6.804

abstracts

The following abstracts highlight the research of members of the Applied Psychology Honors Program.

The authors will present their projects at the Undergraduate Research Conference on April 30, 2010.

Look for their complete theses in the Fall 2010 issue of OPUS.

Abstracts

Loneliness and Depression among Foster Children: The Role of Caregiver Ethnic Match Maurice Anderson Nearly 500,000 children are in foster care. More than 20% of them are transethnically (with ethnically dissimilar families) placed following the Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994. Many exhibit internalizing behaviors (e.g. depression, loneliness). This study investigated whether transethnic foster placement is associated with variation in mental health outcomes of foster children. It was hypothesized that, the degree of ethnic matching between foster child and caregiver, and the incidence of internalizing behaviors, would be negatively related. To test this hypothesis, a secondary analysis was conducted on a sample (N=106) of mostly African-American and Hispanic (69%) boys (N=58) and girls (N=48) between the ages of 7 and 15 (M=10.47; SD=1.89) in foster care. A continuous measure of ethnic match, Total Match Index (TMI), was created (based on ethnic self-identification, country of origin, and language), and regressed on child internalizing symptoms, controlling for several confounding covariates. TMI trended towards significant prediction of childhood depression even after controlling for potential confounds (t=-1.93; p=.06; R2=.15). Correlational analyses identified specific variables that may have moderated the influence of ethnic match on the mental health outcomes of transethnically placed foster children. Suggestions for future research and potential policy implications are discussed.

Father Involvement in Ethnically Diverse Populations Ryann McNeil Researchers, practitioners, and policy makers recognize the early influential role of fathers in their infants’ socio-emotional and cognitive development, and recognize the cultural embeddedness of father involvement. Nonetheless, little research has examined father involvement across ethnically diverse groups in early infancy. The current study uses a time-diary approach coupled with surveys to explore how fathers engage with their 14 month infants, how demographic and social factors affect the quality of the father-infant relationship, and how the child’s gender influences these interactions. Mothers of African American, Dominican, and Mexican backgrounds were recruited from 3 New York City hospitals. When infants were 1, 6, 14, and 24 months mothers were interviewed for an hour using a time-diary approach in which they reported infants’ activities during the prior day (24 hours) based on what infants were doing and who was engaged in those activities. They also reported on their relationship to father, education, etc. This study reports on the 14-month interviews of 168 mothers.

From the diary data, infants’ time spent with fathers was coded into eight categories: care-giving, toy play, unstructured, literacy, television, child outings, general outings, and childcare. Various differences emerged by ethnicity and child gender.

Mexican fathers spent the most time in care-giving activities, whereas African American and Dominican fathers spent more time in unstructured play and television activities. Fathers spent significantly more time engaged in book-reading activities with their daughters, and typically spent more time watching television with their sons. Aspects of the mother-father relationship related to father time with infants. The activities infants share with their fathers are shaped by child gender, family cultural practices, and the mother-father relationship. Discussion focuses on the challenges to studying father involvement in infancy, and the value of diary approaches in developmental research.

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Volume I | Spring 2010

Book Reading Styles in Bilingual Head Start Classrooms Silvia Niño Early narratives shared between children and adults are crucial for children’s linguistic and cognitive development. Most research on narrative development has focused on parent-child conversations and book-reading interactions. However, parent-child interactions are only one context through which children develop narrative skills. Because preschoolers spend a significant part of their day in preschool, interactions between children and their preschool-teachers also plays a formative role for children’s narrative competency. Nevertheless, only a handful studies have examined the book-sharing styles used by preschool teachers, and little is known about how teachers adapt their book-sharing approach to bilingual environments. The present study examined the book-sharing styles of teachers in 12 bilingual (Spanish-English) Head Start classrooms as they shared wordless and text-based books with their class. Preliminary results suggest that there are individual differences in teachers' book-sharing styles, with some teachers focusing closely on the storyline, whereas others encourage their students to think analytically and make predictions about the plot. Interestingly, though, all teachers tend to include more meta-literacy talk and offer richer language lessons when sharing the wordless book. Results are discussed in relation to the role of teacher-class book-sharing on children's language development.

Demographic and Relational Predictors of Social Self-Awareness in Urban Elementary Classrooms Neha Sahu Elementary school classroom interactions with peers and individual student social competence are important to children’s success in school. A key component of social competence is social self-awareness - awareness of one’s own behaviors in social interactions. Research has focused on the intra-individual processes predicting social self-awareness. However, as children grow older, peers become increasingly influential in their social development. This study moves beyond the individual, examining the primary peer environment in middle childhood as it relates to social self-awareness. Using social network and peer sociometric methods, the study examined the level of congruence between self-and peer-nominations of prosocial and aggressive behaviors (social self-awareness) as predicted by individual-level social factors (peer network centrality) over and above demographic factors (age and gender). Participants included 418 2nd to 4th grade AfricanAmerican students facing heightened risk for school disengagement and social problems, from 33 classrooms in 5 Chicago elementary schools, located in high poverty urban neighborhoods. Analyses revealed that increasing age and network centrality predicted increasing levels of social self-awareness. Contrary to expectations, gender normative social behaviors failed to match predictions. Discussion focused on how social contexts facilitate or inhibit internal processes (Bronfenbrennerian approach). Future studies should examine classroom-level predictors, beyond individual-level predictors.

Abstracts

Language Attitudes of Puerto Ricans toward English and Bilingualism Cristina Tamayo Language learning and attitudes are often implicitly influenced by larger social, economic, and political factors. The Puerto Rican experience is a perfect case study as the teaching and learning of English on the island is linked to historical events that have led Puerto Ricans to resist becoming bilingual. However, research on Puerto Ricans’ attitudes towards English was conducted in decades before English became the lingua franca of a globalized world. These global cultural changes might have led to significant revisions in the language attitudes of Puerto Ricans, especially among the youth. The purpose of the current study was to examine the language attitudes of young Puerto Ricans. Nine participants (ages 18-23) were interviewed about their beliefs, attitudes and perceptions towards languages spoken in the island. Using a grounded theory approach, data were coded and analyzed looking for recurring themes and patterns across and within cases. Preliminary results suggest that attitudes have positively changed and that young Puerto Ricans are not resisting becoming bilinguals as did youth of earlier generations. Results are discussed in relation to the potential impact of globalization in shaping modern Puerto Rican’s language and cultural ideologies.

The Stories Friends Share: Structural and Thematic Analyses Jessica Winterstern Narratives are essential in a child’s life promoting growth in socio-emotional and cognitive areas. Yet, the current research does not sufficiently investigate all critical contributors who influence children’s narrative development, such as peers.

Storytelling interactions influence the development of children’s unique narrative styles and the bonds that develop between peers. However, there exist gaps in our understanding of how peer interactions support the development of children’s storytelling abilities, in particular how this relationship develops with age and the role gender plays in such development.

The present study examined the personal narratives shared between friends across age groups and gender. Forty-eight children between the ages of 5 and 10 were asked to share stories with a same-sex friend. Stories were audio-recorded, videotaped and transcribed. Narrative interactions were coded for interactional features and themes. Interactional and thematic features were submitted to analyses of variance determining gender and age-group differences. Preliminary results showed that children told more elaborative narratives with age. Boys utilized agency themes whereas girls highlighted communion themes. Finally, girls overlapped and interrupted more so than did boys. Results are discussed in relation to the role peers and friendship play in language development.

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Alyssa Deichtman, a staff writer for OPUS, is a sophomore in the Applied Psychology program. Her research interests include Autism research, industrial/organizational psychology, and adolescent mental health. She dreams of dual-degrees in Psychology and Business Administration.

Sibyl Hayley Holland, editor of OPUS, is a junior in the Applied Psychology program.

She is a member of Elise Cappellaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research team and an America Reads literacy tutor. Her research interests include child development and educational psychology. Upon graduation, she hopes to pursue a Masters in School Counseling and work in the New York City public school system as an elementary school counselor.

Javanna N. Obregon, a staff writer for OPUS, is a sophomore in the Applied Psychology program. She is mainly interested in women's mental health, and she hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.

Justina Passarelli, a staff writer for OPUS, is a freshman in the Applied Psychology program. Her research interests include adolescent depression, the feminist perspective, and the dynamics of sexual psychology. She hopes to pursue a doctorate in clinical or counseling psychology, and practice in NYC.

Jackson J. Taylor, editor of OPUS, is a junior in the Applied Psychology program. He is a member of Dr. Melziâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Child Language research team and the NYU Latino Family Involvement Project.

He also interns for Dr. Jacqueline Carleton, editor-in-chief of the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy Journal. His research interests include socio-cultural influences on interpersonal communication, the influence of emerging technologies, attachment theory, and advances in experiential therapy. He plans to pursue a Ph.D in Clinical Psychology after he graduates, and live happily ever after in New York. In the meantime, he keeps himself occupied with independent research, his unpackedbox, and shameless self-promotions.

Vanessa Victoria Volpe, editor-in-chief of OPUS, is a junior in the Applied Psychology program, with a minor in Creative Writing. As a Research Assistant in Dr. Selcuk Sirin's lab, she researches identity negotiation and psychological outcomes for urban immigrant youth. She is also a Research Assistant at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital's adolescent outpatient substance abuse program, where she researches the influence of gender and social support on HIV risk behavior, and serves as a CoInvestigator on a study of the use of text messaging to enhance the efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Upon graduation, she hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Developmental or Clinical Psychology.

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Maurice Anderson is a senior in the Applied Psychology honors program, with a minor in Sociology. As a proud member of the NYU community, he serves as president of the Applied Psychology Undergraduate (APUG) Club, and was inducted into Psi Chi as well as the Golden Key International Honor Society. He is a research assistant at the NYU Child Study Center investigating sibling interactions in foster care. He has previously worked at the Door, a youth community center, performing brief psychosocial intake assessments. He will be presenting his work at the 38th Annual Hunter College Psychology Convention, and Stanford’s 2010 Undergraduate Psychology Conference. He considers graduation his biggest accomplishment to date.

Don Asher Cohen is a junior in the Applied Psychology program. His main research interests include non-conscious processes in phobias and trauma. After graduating, he plans to pursue a doctorate in psychology and eventually practice as a psychotherapist.

Priya Gopalan is a junior in the Applied Psychology program, and a member of the Community College Transfer Opportunity Program (CCTOP). As a research assistant in Dr. Selcuk Sirin’s lab, she studies the educational experience of immigrants in the NY metropolitan area. Her main research interests include immigrant populations and substance abuse.

Robby D. Harris graduated from NYU in 2009 with a B.S. in Applied Psychology. He is currently working with Dr. Stephen Russell as a doctoral student in the Family Studies and Human Development program at the University of Arizona. Robby's research interests include gender identity development, masculinity, father involvement with adolescent sons, and schools as contexts for healthful identity development. He would like to extend great thanks to Onnie Rogers and Drs. Christine McWayne, Rodrigo Campos, and Gigliana Melzi for their help preparing his manuscript.

Ryann McNeil is a senior in Applied Psychology honors program. She thanks Dr. Catherine Tamis-LeMonda and Dr. Gigliana Melzi for their support throughout the course of her project. Her main research interests include father involvement, gender socialization, and children’s developmental outcomes. She will begin NYU's Counseling Mental Health and Wellness masters program in Fall 2010.

Silvia Niño is a senior in the Applied Psychology honors program. She thanks Dr. Gigliana Melzi, Adina Schick, and the members of the Child Language research team for their unwavering support and guidance throughout the course of her project.

Neha Sahu is a senior Applied Psychology major, with a minor in Media, Culture, and Communications. Her research interests include educational psychology, as well as child and adolescent development. She is grateful for her mentor, Dr. Elise Cappella, for all of her help with her honors project. Upon graduation, she will be working as a Teach for India Fellow for two years.

Cristina Tamayo is a senior in the Applied Psychology honors program. She thanks Dr. Gigliana Melzi, Adina Schick, Joy Kennedy and the Child Research Language research team for their support throughout the course of her project. Her main research interests include language ideologies, language attitudes and the Puerto Rican experience with bilingualism and English. After graduating, she plans to attend law school in Puerto Rico.

Jessica Winterstern is a senior in the Applied Psychology honor's program. She thanks Dr. Melzi for her unconditional support throughout the course of her project. She is also grateful for the opportunity to work with Adina Schick and the members of the Child Language and LFIP research teams. After graduating, she plans to present her research at the 2010 Stanford Undergraduate Psychology Conference, prepare to apply to law school, and take a much needed break.

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