Abstract

Examining The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem on the Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Anxiety
Holli Fullbright, Michelle Coad, Lindsay Dills, Porter Maggiore
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth

Background: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events during childhood that have lasting effects into adulthood, being associated with poorer health and psychosocial well-being. The present study investigates the relationship between ACEs, self-esteem, and anxiety among people with a history of justice involvement. We predicted that ACEs would be negatively correlated with self-esteem. Self-esteem, in turn, would be negatively correlated with anxiety.
Methods: Data were collected from 216 people with a self-reported history of substance use and justice-involvement using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Participants were required to be 18 years of age or older and fluent in the English language. Eligible participants who consented to participate in the study were asked to complete a 25-minute online survey and were compensated $1 for their time.
Results: Analyses revealed that more childhood adversity was significantly related to both higher anxiety and lower self-esteem. Further, self-esteem was significantly related to anxiety while controlling for ACEs. When self-esteem was included in the model, the relationship between ACEs and anxiety was no longer significant. In other words, self-esteem statistically mediated the relationship between childhood adversity and anxiety.
Conclusion: Findings indicate that self-esteem may be an important target for treatment among clients with histories of childhood adversity and anxiety. Self-esteem may serve as a protective factor against anxiety for clients who report a history of childhood abuse or neglect.

Past research has shown that individuals can think themselves into more extreme attitudes in the absence of learning new information about an attitude object (Tesser, 1978). Less is known, however, about whether certain types of thinking, or thought strategies, are more likely than others to make attitudes more extreme. The current study assessed whether and how a specific type of thought strategy—extrapolating beyond what is known about a social group’s personality traits—can make attitudes more extreme in the absence of new information. Participants first learned moderate trait information about two (fictitious) social groups and then self-generated extrapolations about one of the social group’s traits and reviewed the initial trait information for the second social group. Attitudes were more extreme toward the social group whose initial traits participants extrapolated than the social group whose initial traits participants reviewed. These findings extended past research and theory on the processes by which attitudes can become more extreme in the absence of new information.

Introduction: Some may believe that helicopter parenting and controlling parenting behaviors are the same, but parental control as a parenting style is distinct and separate from helicopter parenting (LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011). Helicopter parenting is a widely known parenting style that is characterized by the tendency for parents to be over-involved in the lives of their children in attempts to shield children from experiencing pain, discomfort, or failure (Padilla-Walker & Nelson, 2012). Helicopter parenting behaviors have been linked to concerning child outcomes, however, including lowered student academic motivation and achievement (Schiffrin & Liss, 2017), decreased psychological well-being (LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011), and increased feelings of depression and anxiety (Set, 2020). Parental control, alternatively, is characterized by complete control of the child’s life while expecting compliance with parent demands without exception. Child outcomes as a result of parental control also differ such that these children tend to have greater academic achievement (Watabe & Hibbard, 2014). The goal of the current study was to further explore how parents’ helicopter parenting and controlling parenting behaviors differ in predicting their students’ psychological entitlement. It was hypothesized that both helicopter parenting and controlling parenting behaviors will predict higher student psychological entitlement with helicopter parenting predicting a greater increase.
Methods: Six hundred sixty-five undergraduate psychology students at two Southern private universities were recruited through SONA. Participants answered a battery of online questionnaires about their relationship with their parent, their parent’s personality traits, and their helicopter parenting and controlling parenting behaviors. Additionally, participants answered questions about their own personality traits, academic achievement, and overall well-being.
Results: A simultaneous multiple regression was performed to explore the association between parents’ helicopter parenting and parental control scores on their students’ psychological entitlement scores. The results showed a significant association between helicopter parenting and student psychological entitlement, b = 1.54, SE = .57, t = 2.70, p = .007, R2 = .01, with increases in helicopter parenting scores predicting an increase in student psychological entitlement scores. There was also a marginally significant association between parental control and child psychological entitlement, b = -.10, SE = .05, t = 1.95, p = .052, R2 = .01, with increases in parental control scores predicting a decrease in child psychological entitlement scores. These results suggest that helicopter parenting behaviors predict higher student psychological entitlement whereas controlling parenting behaviors predict lower student psychological entitlement. For exploratory purposes, another variable, student gender, was entered into the model to assess whether gender was a predictor of student psychological entitlement. Gender was dummy coded using females as the reference group coded as 0. The results showed that there was no significant association between students’ gender and psychological entitlement scores, b = .38, SE = .83, t = .46, p = .646, R2 = .000, suggesting that gender is not associated with one’s psychological entitlement.
Discussion: Helicopter parenting and parental control are two, distinct styles of parenting that result in differing effects on student psychological entitlement. The results of the study support the hypothesis that helicopter parenting would predict a greater increase in psychological entitlement compared to parental control, however, the results refuted the claim that both parenting styles would predict increases in psychological entitlement as parental control predicted a moderately significant decrease in entitlement. Future research should examine whether these results replicate among more racially diverse and younger samples. Having a richer understanding of the parental contributors to the development of child psychological entitlement over the span of childhood and adolescence will aid professionals in identifying and changing problematic parental behaviors to decrease these outcomes.

 
References
LeMoyne, T., & Buchanan, T. (2011). Does “hovering” matter? Helicopter parenting and its effect on well-being. Sociological Spectrum, 31(4), 399-418. https://doi.org/10.1080/02732173.2011.574038
Padilla‐Walker, L.M., & Nelson, L.J. (2012). Black Hawk down? Establishing helicopter parenting as a distinct construct from other forms of parental control during emerging adulthood. Journal of Adolescence, 35(5), 1177-90. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2012.03.007
Schiffrin, H.H., & Liss, M. (2017). The effects of helicopter parenting on academic motivation. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26, 1472-1480. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0658-z
Set, Z. (2020). The mediating role of inflated sense of self and impulsivity in the relationship between helicopter parenting and psychological symptoms. Archives of Neuropsychology, 57(4), 318-324. https://doi.org/10.29399/npa.24942
Watabe, A., & Hibbard, D. R. (2014). The influence of authoritarian and authoritative parenting on children’s academic achievement motivation: A comparison between the United States and Japan. North American Journal of Psychology, 16(2), 359–382.

Assessing staff attitudes and needs in a trauma-informed organization: a mixed-methods study
Background: Prior research has found that high burnout rates are prevalent in organizations that work
with individuals who have experienced trauma. Furthermore, high burnout is associated with secondary
traumatic stress, which can affect staff’s ability to provide care to clients. Therefore, the purpose of the
current study was to identify staff satisfaction and departmental needs at an organization specializing in
family services for those who have experienced trauma.
Methods: An online survey, including qualitative and quantitative questions, was developed via
Qualtrics and emailed to one non-profit organization. The results are comprised of responses from 20
employees.
Result: Overall, the participants rated their organization favorably. The average burnout and secondary
traumatic stress levels were low, which indicates no issues present in these categories. Simple linear
regression was used to test if burnout significantly predicted secondary traumatic stress. It was found
that burnout significantly predicted secondary traumatic stress (β = .57, p = .001). These results were
corroborated by qualitative data from staff, where staff demonstrated a general positive experience
within their work environment. However, when prompted staff identified aspects of the organization
that could be improved: the low number of staff employed, staff coordination and training, open
communication between coworkers and supervisors, reinstating staff events, and increased access to
mental health services.
Limitations: This study is limited by its small sample size and may not be generalizable to other
organizations, as only one organization was assessed.
Conclusion: The current study found that burnout predicts secondary traumatic stress. Overall, the staff
assessed feel that their organization is a positive work environment but identified areas for
improvement such as the number of staff, training, communication, the addition of social events, and
access to mental health services. Addressing staff concerns could reduce staff burnout and increase
satisfaction. Additionally, ensuring that staff needs are met could also benefit clients, as staff and
organizational factors are related to the quality of services.

A deterministic position claims that all events, including human choice behavior, are caused by other events (e.g., a person’s environment and past experiences). In contrast, indeterminism, or free will, maintains that a decision can emanate solely from within (i.e., independent of external influences). Previous research found that participants who read deterministic passages cheated more on an arithmetic test than those who read free will passages (Vohs & Schooler, 2008). The current research examined how the valence of the outcomes in passages influenced behavior (i.e., cheating). Experiment 1 examined how positive or negative participants rated passages that described an action within a deterministic or indeterministic universe that ended in a positive (e.g., a rescued child), negative (e.g., a lost child), or neutral (e.g., a child sitting) outcome. In Experiment 2, participants read one of the above mentioned passages followed by an additional 9 passages and comprehension questions. After reading each passage, a click to a “Show Questions” button made the passage disappear and the comprehension questions appear. To manipulate cheating, on some passages, the questions were automatically displayed while the passage was visible. Participants could answer the questions with the passage visible or click “Show Questions” to remove it. Results will be discussed in terms of the reported valence and the number of times “show questions” was clicked.

Title: MEMO-ASAP: Mealtime Effects on Maternal Outcomes- Adolescents on the Autism Spectrum Amongst the COVID Pandemic

Authors: Kate Lindig, Deborah Rafferty, Naomi Ekas, and Chrystyna Kouros

Introduction: Mental health of mothers of children on the autism spectrum has been extensively studied (e.g., Sawyer et al., 2009). Prior studies have found connections between the time commitment and pressure experienced by mothers of autistic children and poor mental health outcomes (Liu et al., 2020). Mealtimes for children on the autism spectrum often create stress for mothers (Ausderau & Juarez, 2013). Children on the autism spectrum often experience various difficulties with feeding and mealtime behaviors, such as limited food variety (Curtin et al., 2015), food neophobia (Kuschner et al., 2015), high rates of food refusal and more restricted food repertoire compared to neurotypical children (Bandini et al., 2019), as well as increased disruptive behaviors around mealtimes (Curtin et al., 2015). While little research has examined how feeding behaviors in autistic children impact mothers’ mental health (e.g., Ausderau & Juarez, 2013), it is possible that these behaviors may exacerbate negative mental health outcomes as mothers spending hours attempting to help their children eat with little fruition likely causes feelings of stress and anxiety. Therefore, this study aims to examine how food restrictiveness and disruptive behavior during mealtimes for children on the autism spectrum affects measures of maternal mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has the potential to elevate stress-levels and other negative mental health outcomes for mothers.

Method: Ninety-seven mothers with a child on the autism spectrum served as participants for this study. All mothers participated in October 2020 as a follow-up to a larger study that began prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mothers were mostly white, non-Hispanic (77%), college-educated (45%), with a yearly income greater than $40K (90%). Mothers answered surveys about their children’s mealtime behaviors (BAMBI) and their own mental health (IDAS, NIH PROMIS).

Results: Two separate multiple regressions were performed to examine associations between disruptive mealtime behaviors, such as refusing to stay seated or screaming, and maternal dysphoria and stress. Results indicated a significant, positive association between the number of disruptive behaviors a child or adolescent with ASD exhibited during mealtimes and maternal self-reports of dysphoria, b = 1.24 (SE = .60), t = 2.05, p = .04, R2 = .05, while controlling for everything else in the model. Similarly, there was a significant, positive relation between disruptive mealtime behaviors and maternal self-reports of stress, b = 1.66 (SE = .82), t = 2.02, p = .047, R2 = .09. The relations between limited variety of food and the study outcome variables were non-significant, ps ≥ .09.

Discussion: Autistic children’s disruptive mealtime behaviors were associated with poor maternal mental health outcomes, specifically higher depressive symptoms and greater stress. Consequently, finding ways to lower disruptive mealtime behaviors is important, since they have the potential to impact maternal mental health outcomes. Future research should test various mealtime intervention programs to find the most effective ways for parents to minimize their autistic children’s disruptive mealtime behaviors. Additionally, future research should explore the effects of mealtime behaviors on fathers’ mental health outcomes, since they are often present during their autistic children’s mealtimes. Finally, future research should look specifically at how children on the autism spectrum’s mealtime behaviors at the current time compare to those during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the present study’s data was collected.

References:
Ausderau, K., & Juarez, M. (2013). The impact of autism spectrum disorders and eating challenges on family mealtimes. ICAN: Infant, Child, & Adolescent
Nutrition, 5(5), 315–323. https://doi.org/10.1177/1941406413502808
Bandini, L. G., Curtin, C., Eliasziw, M., Phillips, S., Jay, L., Maslin, M., & Must, A. (2019). Food selectivity in a diverse sample of young children with and
without intellectual disabilities. Appetite, 133, 433–440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2018.11.016
Curtin, C., Hubbard, K., Anderson, S. E., Mick, E., Must, A., & Bandini, L. G. (2015). Food selectivity, mealtime behavior problems, spousal stress, and family
food choices in children with and without autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(10), 3308–3315.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2490-x
Kuschner, E. S., Eisenberg, I. W., Orionzi, B., Simmons, W. K., Kenworthy, L., Martin, A., & Wallace, G. L. (2015). A preliminary study of self-reported food
selectivity in adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 15-16, 53–59.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2015.04.005
Liu, R., Dong, H., Wang, Y., Lu, X., Li, Y., Xun, G., Ou, J., Shen, Y., Xia, K., & Zhao, J. (2020). Sleep problems of children with autism may independently affect
parental quality of life. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 52(3), 488–499. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01035-z
Mayes, S. D., Calhoun, S. L., Murray, M. J., & Zahid, J. (2011). Variables associated with anxiety and depression in children with autism. Journal of
Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 23(4), 325–337. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-011-9231-7
Sawyer, M. G., Bittman, M., La Greca, A. M., Crettenden, A. D., Harchak, T. F., & Martin, J. (2009). Time demands of caring for children with autism: What are
the implications for maternal mental health? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40(5), 620–628. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-
0912-3

Human language is an action wherein one plans for, produces, and terminates sound production. Errors in motor planning and production lead to vocal dysfluency. Motor control of respiration is critical for a myoelastic-aerodynamic sound generation mechanism that is used by humans and many other vocalizing animals. Developing our understanding of how the forebrain assumes control of brainstem respiratory circuitry is essential for understanding language initiation, execution, and termination. Songbirds are an animal model for speech production in humans because of the numerous similarities between song learning and production and language acquisition and speech production. Zebra finches sing a learned song that is composed of a motif of 4-7 syllables. The motif is repeated multiple times to form a song bout. Here we explore how a cell-type specific class of neurons control sound termination in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). In songbirds, motor production of song requires activity in premotor and motor cortical analogues HVC (letters used as proper name) and RA (robust nucleus of the arcopallium), respectively. Using an AAV (adeno-associated virus) as a viral vector and Cre-dependent expression of a red-shifted opsin (ChRmine), neurons in premotor cortex that project to motor cortex (HVCRA neurons) produced and inserted soma-targeted, membrane-bound ion channels that allowed for light-dependent manipulation of ongoing cellular activity. Using real-time recording of singing, optical stimulation was timed with the production of individual song syllables. Light stimulation was delivered while birds produced self-initiated and female-directed songs, as well as during quiet respiration. We measured respiratory pressure in birds while they were singing by inserting a small piece of silastic tubing into the anterior thoracic air sac. Singing was reliably disrupted by optical illumination of HVCRA neurons. During the production of song, optogenetic activation of HVCRA neurons resulted in a truncation of the ongoing song respiratory pattern within ~25 ms for female-directed songs and ~32 ms for self-initiated songs. Measures of ongoing respiration during HVCRA stimulation outside of singing had no measurable effects on respiration. These data demonstrate that ongoing song motor patterns can be interrupted via activation of a specific class of neurons, and that the effect is mediated by suppression of ongoing respiratory patterns. However, the suppression of respiration is state-dependent. When birds typically sing faster (female-directed song), the termination occurred faster compared to when they sing more slowly (self-initiated song). Further, outside of song, optical activation of the neurons did not affect ongoing respiration. This suggests that forebrain control of respiration is “permitted” only during song. The underlying neural mechanisms allowing for this state-dependent switch remain to be elucidated. The forebrain control of song termination requires robust activation of HVCRA neurons to suppress brainstem respiratory circuitry. Similar suppression of respiratory circuits may control the termination of human speech.

Introduction: TBRI is an attachment-based model of care for children and youth who have experienced relational trauma. TBRI has been used in a number of service settings, but there is a lack of research on TBRI in clinical and counseling services.   
 
Purpose: The purpose of this pilot study is to evaluate behaviors and trauma symptoms among foster and adopted children whose families received clinical services using the TBRI Counselor’s Manual. 
 
Methods: This study used a one group, pre-post design. Caregivers seeking clinical services for their foster and adopted children (n=14) completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Trauma Symptoms Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC) or Trauma Symptoms Checklist for Children (TSCC) prior to treatment and again after 18 family sessions with a clinician using the TBRI Counselor’s Manual.  
 
Results: Although statistical analyses were limited by the small sample size, descriptive statistics suggest that CBCL and TSCYC/TSCC scores were trending in positive directions. Specifically, mean t scores for most CBCL and TSCYC/TSCC subscales improved, including mean scores for attention problems, aggressive behaviors, and anger. Further, the percentage of participants with scores in the clinical/borderline range dropped for most subscales, including attention problems, aggressive behaviors, anger, arousal, as well as for the composite scales of internalizing problems and externalizing problems.   
 
Discussion: Preliminary findings suggest that TBRI may help improve behavior and trauma symptoms among adopted and foster children whose families participate in TBRI-based clinical services. Limitations include a high rate of attrition and lack of a control group. Further research is needed to establish the effectiveness of the intervention in improving outcomes for adopted and foster children and families.

Introduction: During emerging adulthood, the dynamics of the parent-child relationship change such that parents need to support their child’s independence and autonomy (Padilla-Walker et al., 2019). Engaging in helicopter parenting, where parents excessively monitor their adult children, is associated with greater mental health problems for emerging adults (Schiffrin et al., 2014). Emerging adults who experience greater helicopter parenting also report higher levels of entitlement (Segrin et al., 2012). As emerging adults transition to attending college, perhaps living away from home for the first time, they may experience challenges that negatively impact their mental health. However, there is a lack of research that focuses on how helicopter parenting impacts well-being specifically related to students’ college experience. Thus, the overall goal of the current study was to examine associations between helicopter parenting and emerging adult’s college-related well-being. A second aim was to determine the extent to which psychological and academic entitlement (i.e., the belief that academic success is deserved and the avoidance of personal responsibility) mediated these associations.

Method: Participants included 657 undergraduate students at two private universities in the United States. Participants completed an online survey composed of several measures evaluating the participants’ parents’ helicopter parenting behaviors and the participants’ own academic entitlement, psychological entitlement, and college related well-being. Measures used in the current analyses included the Helicopter Parenting and Autonomy Supportive Behavior Scale (Schiffrin et al., 2014), the academic entitlement scale (Chowning & Campbell, 2009), the Psychological Entitlement Scale (Campbell et al., 2004), and the College Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (CSSWQ; Renshaw, 2016).

Results: Multiple mediation was used to investigate the extent to which academic entitlement – externalized responsibilities and entitled expectations -- and psychological entitlement mediated the association between helicopter parenting and well-being related to the college experience. Results revealed that helicopter parenting positively predicted each measure of entitlement, ps ≤ .001; but, only academic entitlement – externalized responsibilities significantly predicted college related well-being (b path), b = -5.82, SE = .71, p ≤ .001. The 95% confidence interval of the indirect effect using 5,000 bootstrap reiterations did not include zero [-1.25, -0.47], suggesting a significant indirect effect of helicopter parenting on college related well-being through academic entitlement – externalized responsibilities.

Discussion: Although helicopter parenting was associated with higher levels of each form of entitlement, only academic entitlement served as a mediator of the association between helicopter parenting and college related well-being. Students with higher levels of externalized responsibility generally avoid taking personal responsibility for their academic difficulties, instead blaming failures on others (e.g., their college professors). It is possible that these students were accustomed to having their parents manage academic tasks, particularly when they were living at home. However, now that they are living away from home and attending college, they feel entitled to expect similar treatment from their professors. These findings are important for college administrators and others working with college students to identify students who may be particularly vulnerable for struggling during the transition to college.

How does Prior Knowledge Impact Students’ Study Order Decisions?
Matthew N. Olivares, Addison P. Williams, Addison L. Babineau, Michelle L. Rivers, Sarah K. Tauber, & Michael A. Pelch

Learning complex concepts is essential for student success, but it is often challenging. To improve student concept learning, researchers have identified study strategies that can significantly increase student performance (Samani & Pan, 2021). One strategy that has a profound effect on complex concept learning is study order. Prior research has found that memory performance is better when concepts are studied in an interleaved order (i.e., studying multiple concepts mixed together) compared to a blocked order (i.e., studying one concept multiple times before moving to the next; Brunmair & Richter, 2019). One factor that may impact students’ study order decisions (i.e., the decision to interleave or to block) is prior knowledge. We hypothesized that students with more knowledge about a topic would choose to interleave more during learning than would students with less knowledge. To evaluate this hypothesis, we conducted a two-part study to explore the study order decisions of undergraduate students enrolled in Introductory Geology at TCU (i.e., “Understanding the Earth”). During session one of the study, students learned to classify categories of rocks (i.e., igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary) by either studying the rocks or by completing practice tests. After each learning trial, students could block their study by selecting to study another example from the same rock category (e.g., study multiple igneous rocks in a row); or they could interleave their study by selecting to study an example from a different rock category (e.g., study one igneous rock, then one sedimentary rock). After the first session, students completed activities and lectures in their Introductory Geology course aimed at increasing their knowledge of rock classifications. Then, students completed session two of the study by restudying the rock categories, making study order decisions, and taking a final test on rock classification. We will examine students’ study order decisions at session one (i.e., low prior knowledge) as compared to their study order decisions at session two (i.e., high prior knowledge).