PHD, Kent State University, 2016, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a genetic, lifelong condition and the symptoms of SCD include pain crises, acute chest syndrome, increased risk of infection, decreased red blood cells, and stroke. Due to the chronic and difficult to manage nature of SCD, non-adherence is a problem and results in greater rates of hospitalization, infection, pain crises, acute chest syndrome, and an increased risk for early death. Disease management in adolescents with chronic illnesses is more complex than for young children or adults. As they are developing, adolescents become more independent, and responsibility for adherence tasks begins to fall more to the adolescent than their parent. Previous research has revealed that many factors contribute to adherence in SCD, and the best model for studying adherence in this population can be informed by models of adherence in diabetes and the Health Belief Model. Research supports the importance of including adolescent psychosocial functioning, parental stress, and parental perceived barriers when examining contributions to adherence in adolescence. The goal of the proposed study is to evaluate the contributions of adolescent psychosocial functioning, parental stress, and parental perceived barriers to adherence in adolescents with SCD. Overall, findings did not support hypotheses, but important relationships were revealed for this understudied population. The main findings from this study relate to adherence in youth with SCD and fall into three main areas: adolescent anxiety, responsibility for adherence, and healthcare barriers. Adolescents high in anxiety self-reported higher mean levels of adherence than non-anxious adolescents, indicating anxiety may be a protective factor for adherence. In this sample, parents took the majority of responsibility for a range of adherence tasks; however, there were some important tasks for which no one took clear responsibility. Responsibility also varied by mother level of education and insurance ty (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Beth Wildman Ph.D. (Advisor); Josefina Grau Ph.D. (Committee Member); John Updegraff Ph.D. (Committee Member); Prasad Bodas M.D. (Committee Member); Mark A. James Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology

Specialist in Education (Ed.S.), University of Dayton, 2015, School Psychology

Students who experience a traumatic brain injury may develop challenges in the areas of academics, behavior, and social emotional functioning. Many of these difficulties may be attributed to executive functioning deficits, which include impairments to higher-order cognitive processes such as reasoning, making decisions, monitoring, thinking critically, and metacognition. This study evaluated the efficacy of a school based psychosocial intervention for a student with a traumatic brain injury sustained in infancy who has related executive functioning deficits.

Committee: Susan Davies Ed.D (Committee Chair); Elana Bernstein Ph.D (Committee Member); Joni Baldwin Ed.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2013, Arts and Sciences: Psychology

The goal of this study was to investigate the social cognitive domains of facial affect processing and emotional intelligence in patients who had undergone anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) for the treatment of medically intractable temporal lobe epilepsy. It was hypothesized that patients who underwent right ATL would perform more poorly than left ATL patients on measures of facial affect processing and emotional intelligence. Additionally, we expected poorer performance on measures of social cognition to predict poorer psychosocial functioning. Participants were sixteen individuals who had undergone ATL at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. They completed a facial affect processing battery, a performance based emotional intelligence test, neuropsychological measures (memory, attention executive ability, and confrontation naming), and self-report questionnaires of quality of life and psychosocial functioning. Data from 16 participants (8 right ATL; 8 left ATL) were analyzed. Participants with right ATL were less accurate than participants with left ATL in their ability to identify the presence and rate the intensity of emotions in facial expressions. The right ATL group performed more slowly than the left while comparing the relative intensity of emotions depicted in two faces and when rating the intensity of the emotional valance of facial expressions (p < .10 for all comparisons). Despite their slower performance, the right ATL group was significantly more accurate than the left ATL group in their ability to compare the relative intensity of emotions depicted in two faces (p < .10). Poorer ability to rate the relative intensity of emotions depicted in faces and to incorporate one's own emotions into decision making were significantly related to poorer self-reported functioning on multiple domains of quality of life and psychosocial functioning, all p < .05.

Committee: Paula Shear Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Steven Howe Ph.D. (Committee Member); Gerald Matthews Ph.D. (Committee Member); Michael Privitera M.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2011, Arts and Sciences: Psychology

Individuals with bipolar disorder demonstrate variable treatment trajectories and poor psychosocial functioning even when they are not highly symptomatic. This study evaluated whether the degree of impulsivity during a mixed or manic mood episode is related to decrements in psychosocial functioning in patients with bipolar I disorder, and examined clinical and cognitive predictors of time to reach euthymia within one year following hospitalization. Participants were 94 adult inpatients (60 manic) with bipolar I disorder. Baseline symptom severity was assessed using the Young Mania Rating Scale and the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale, and baseline impulsivity was measured with the Stop Signal Task, Degraded Stimulus Continuous Performance Task, Delayed Response Task, and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. In the current sample, impulsivity was significantly higher among participants experiencing mixed than manic episodes and predicted recent psychosocial functioning among individuals in mixed episodes only. Time to reach euthymia was comparable for both groups. Predictors of a shorter time to reach euthymia for the entire sample included fewer depressive symptoms and better impulse control at baseline, as well as a later age of illness onset, shorter illness duration, and the absence of comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and marijuana abuse. Trait impulsivity was a significant independent predictor of time to euthymia, even after accounting for the other clinical variables.

Committee: Paula Shear PhD (Committee Chair); Steven Howe PhD (Committee Member); Stephen Strakowski MD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2002, Arts and Sciences : Psychology

Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a severe mental illness that is characterized by affective, behavioral and perceptual symptoms as well as cognitive and psychosocial dysfunction. In addition to difficulties in occupational and social functioning, BPD is often accompanied by cognitive deficits. To date, only one study has examined whether cognitive deficits are related to psychosocial outcome in euthymic individuals with BPD. The current study examined the relationship between cognitive dysfunction and occupational and social functioning in euthymic individuals with BPD. It was hypothesized that primary role and relationship functioning in stable outpatients with BPD would be significantly related to memory integrity and executive functioning and that these cognitive deficitsb would make independent contributions to psychosocial functioning after controlling for the effects of demographic and clinical variables. Twenty-four individuals with a Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-Axis I Disorders, Patient Version (SCID-I/P) diagnosis of BPD participated in the study. A structured interview was used to assess primary role and relationship functioning. Participants were also administered tests sensitive to premorbid general intellectual functioning, current intellectual abilities, executive functioning, visual spatial constructional ability, verbal and visual memory. Results demonstrated that verbal memory was related to difficulties with primary role functioning, and sequencing skills were associated with difficulties in relationship functioning after controlling for the effects of demographic and clinical variables. There was a trend towards and relationship between visual spatial constructional ability and primary role functioning. The findings also showed that a subgroup of the participants demonstrated impairments in visual memory and executive functioning, suggesting that cognitive dysfunction persists during periods of euthymia in individuals with BPD.

Committee: Dr. Paula K. Shear (Advisor) Subjects: Psychology, Clinical