M.A. - Psychology

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https://hdl.handle.net/10125/2144

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    From Roots to Recreation: Unveiling Sakau Perceptions
    (2024) Willyander, Macmillan; Maynard, Ashley E.; Psychology
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    Targeting Trauma in Treatment for Youth with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Predictors and Outcomes
    (2023) Matro, Austen Taylor K. M.; Mueller, Charles W.; Psychology
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    Parent Perception of Teacher Quality and Teacher Cultural Sensitivity and Responsiveness as Mediators of Growth in Mathematics Understanding in Racially Minoritized and Non-Racially Minoritized Head Start Preschoolers
    (University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Mann, Melody; Daubert, Emily N.; Xu, Yiyuan; Psychology
    The U.S. educational system fails to provide equitable educational experiences for racially minoritized students, also called racially minoritized learners (RMLs), who are from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds, including African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Indigenous backgrounds. Compared to their White peers, RMLs face sociocultural disparities as early as the preschool years that can lead to early gaps in learning opportunities and achievement in fundamental academic domains, such as mathematics, which are crucial for academic and career success. In early childhood education, parent perceptions of 1) Teacher Quality and 2) Teacher Cultural Sensitivity and Responsiveness (CSR) are positively related to the mathematics understanding of RMLs. Using a large-scale data set of diverse young learners, this study evaluated the effect of parents’ perception of Head Start Teacher Quality and CSR in the early childhood Head Start centers on RMLs’ growth in mathematics understanding over the course of one preschool year. Analyses were conducted using the base year data of the 2014-2017 Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), a nationally representative dataset of children enrolled in Head Start programs across the U.S. The goal of the current study was to evaluate whether or not RML status impacts mathematics understanding in Head Start preschoolers, and if so, to test whether Teacher Quality and Teacher Cultural Sensitivity Responsiveness mediate this relation. Children’s RML status was related to their growth in mathematics understanding in Head Start Preschool. Contrary to hypotheses, Teacher Quality and Teacher CSR were not mediators of the relation between RML Status and growth in Mathematics Understanding. Thus, the current findings do not support the hypothesis that Teacher Quality and Teacher CSR influence RMLs Mathematics Understanding over the course of the preschool year. Investigations into the current topic are timely and important as classrooms across the United States are growing to represent the cultural and linguistic diversity of the nation, but schools are failing to keep up with the changing needs of the evolving demographic of young students in the U.S.
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    The Role Of Contextual Variables In Intra- And Inter-individual Cognitive Flexibility
    (University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Preiser, Brianna J.; Papa, Anthony; Psychology
    Background: Emotion regulation and coping theorists propose dynamic process models, which highlight the interaction of person and situation to inform adaption. The empirical research on self-regulation supports the idea that adaptive functioning is dependent on the ability to flexibly switch strategies to match the context of the situation. While flexibility has long been discussed as a hallmark of effective adaption, assessing coping response as adaptive or maladaptive by the degree of flexibility in responding is relatively new and has largely been studied by asking participants to self-report how flexible they are in approaching stressful situations. The current study examined the utility of operationalizing cognitive flexibility in terms of cognitive variability, i.e., the ability to generate multiple coping/emotion regulation strategies in response to a stressor and flexibly implement strategies based on individual assessment of situation-strategy fit. Methods: Participants were presented with hypothetical stressors across two life domains (financial, relational) and asked to generate all the possible ways they could respond. Free responses were coded into one of 11 strategy types and composite scores were calculated across the stressors to produce individual-level scores for repertoire of responses generated and situation-strategy fit. These proxies for cognitive flexibility were used in hierarchical linear regression models to determine their predictive value for subjective satisfaction with life and psychological distress outcomes. Other measures of flexibility were included to demonstrate additional predictive value of the current conceptualizations of cognitive flexibility over and above existing measures. Results: Results support predictions that individuals would respond in varied ways as situational demands placed on the participant change and point to greater demand for social support, planful problem-solving, and emotional expression in response to stress in the financial domain and greater demand for confrontation, distancing, accepting responsibility, escape-avoidance, mindfulness-acceptance, and resignation in response to stress in the relational domain. Findings support hypotheses that there is a significant predictive value of the measured ability to be flexible over existing self-report measures across outcomes. Findings indicated that increases in situation-strategy fit were predictive of increases in subjective satisfaction with life and decreases in psychological distress; increases in the repertoire of strategies generated predicted decreases in subjective satisfaction with life and increases in psychological distress. Discussion: The current study was among the first to attempt operationalization of cognitive flexibility in a contextualized and meaningful way and was successful as a proof-of-concept demonstrating individuals do select varying strategies as situational demands change. This study demonstrated fit matters and provided support for the theory and past research claiming that strategies are differentially adaptive in different contexts. More importantly, we provided a starting point to continue to build on and refine more precise ways of defining and calculating the facets of flexibility we know to be important. Future research should continue to refine measurement of cognitive flexibility, increase the number of stressors participants respond to and span measurement across other life domains, and increase measurement to multiple time points to better approximate the dynamic process of self-regulatory flexibility.
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    An Examination of the Ohio Scales, Short Form, Hopefulness Domain, Youth- and Caregiver-Report Versions in a Community Care Setting
    (University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Ng, Andrea C.; Nakamura, Brad J.; Psychology
    Hope theorists posit that the construct of “Hopefulness” can be a positive indicator of overall wellness. Research suggests that higher levels of hopefulness have been associated with positive treatment outcomes (e.g., lower behavioral difficulties). However, few studies have examined the role of hopefulness with multiethnic youth, and it is unclear whether extant findings are generalizable to these populations. Further, despite the growing literature on the potential clinical value brought by assessing caregiver perspectives on youth treatment, there is a lack of psychometric investigations on hopefulness measures capturing both caregiver and youth perspectives. As the only measure assessing hopefulness from a multi-stakeholder perspective, the Ohio Scales, Hopefulness Scale (OS Hopefulness Scale), provides a unique opportunity to contribute to the literature by examining the role of youth- and caregiver-reported hopefulness in treatment. Along these lines, the current study centered on examining the utility of this free four-item measure of hopefulness (i.e., OS Hopefulness Scale) within a large statewide public mental health care system. Collectively, the six aims of this study (done for both youth- and caregiver-report versions) examined the measure’s (a) factor structure and (b) internal consistency, along with (c) the relationship between youth- and caregiver-reported hopefulness. Additionally, we explored the measure’s relationships with (d) numerous domains of psychopathology (e.g., depression, anxiety, delinquency), and (e) youth functioning. Lastly, (f) change over time in response to treatment delivery was also investigated. Participants included a total of 1,036 youth receiving services through the Hawai'i Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division’s system of care from 2014 to 2020, who were ethnically diverse (30.6% multiethnic, n = 317), 60.4% male (n = 626), with an average age of 12.8 (SD = 3.5). As a whole, the study found good factor structure, acceptable internal consistency, and a significant positive association between youth-reported and caregiver-hopefulness. Additionally, significant inverse relationships were found between caregiver-reported hopefulness with youth mental health problems and youth functioning (more hopefulness related to less problems and functional impairment); while youth-reported hopefulness was found to be significantly inversely related to youth mental health problems but not youth functioning. Finally, significant positive changes in hopefulness and significant relationships with youth functioning were also evident at three-month follow up for both youth- and caregiver-reported hopefulness. The constellation of my findings demonstrates potential for this four-item measure of hopefulness to be a useful, efficient, and cost-effective tool with ethnically diverse samples, which are substantially different from samples included in previous studies of hopefulness. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
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    Community Membership among Samoans raised in Hawaiʻi
    (University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Suʻesuʻe, Anamalia Anusaga; Maynard, Ashley E.; Psychology
    Humans are social beings with a fundamental need to connect and belong with others (Baumeister & Leary, 1995), further actualizing this need for belonging in the development of communities. McMillan & Chavis (1986) identify membership or how much an individual feels a part of their respective community as a fundamental element in maintaining a sense of community. Membership may be complex, for example, for those a part of communities with extensive histories of migration and with upbringings in ethnically diverse environments, like Samoans raised in Hawaiʻi. To better understand this experience, this qualitative study explores meanings of membership for Samoans raised in Hawaiʻi as well as how meanings are manifested in their daily lives. Semi-structured interviews with a talk story approach were conducted via Zoom with 17 individuals. Thematic analysis and activity settings analysis were conducted on interview data. Results revealed seven themes within three superordinate categories including defining community, experiences of belonging, and investment in community. Three exemplar activity settings reflecting how meanings of the three categories are manifested in daily lives are also provided. As the Samoan community continues to grow in Hawaiʻi and throughout the diaspora, it is important to not only acknowledge the distinct experiences among members, but to support the momentum of cultural maintenance through wider systemic approaches that promote positive relationships within the community.