Analyzing Data from Single Case Design Studies: A Demonstration and Comparison of Methods
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Program:
Educational Psychology
Data from single case and small-N interrupted time series (ITS) design studies offer rich information, not available from group comparison designs, about the effects of an intervention on individuals. Several methods for analyzing and synthesizing these kinds of data have been proposed to date, though many are limited or flawed. A more sophisticated statistical method, using multilevel modeling techniques, overcomes many of the limitations of the earlier approaches. This claim is supported by a comparative discussion and demonstration of several methods with two reversal design data sets. Procedures and estimates are explained, interpreted, and compared. Potential solutions for accommodating technical complexities of the data are discussed.
The Acquisition of Conventional Spelling Patterns by Pre-Conventional Spellers: A Developmental Analysis
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Program:
Educational Psychology
This study involves a comparison of the experiences that enable young children who are still in the phase of "inventing" spelling to acquire conventional spelling patterns. A micro-genetic methodology was employed to analyze students' acquisition of specific spelling patterns over a 3-week, 6-session training period in order to identify factors that affected the rate of acquisition. Kindergarten and first grade students underwent a series of seven literacy pretests and were given exposure to nine words that contained difficult spelling patterns. Three of the words contained spelling patterns where the underlying phonology makes it challenging to identify the correct grapheme, three contained targeted spelling patterns where the orthographic patterns have no phonological trace and the final three words were non-words with either uncommon or illegal English spelling patterns. One group of students was taught to read the words containing the targeted spelling patterns on flash cards. A second group was taught to segment the same words by moving letters into Elkonin boxes. A third group of students, the minimal treatment control, group was asked to practice inventing spellings of these same words. Spelling tests were administered at the beginning and end of each training session and used to model growth curves of the acquisition of the conventional spelling patterns
Validating Use of a Symptom Assessment Scale in Palliative Care Using an Argument-Based Approach
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Program:
Educational Psychology
Validation of patient-reported outcomes (PRO) scales has not kept up with contemporary views on validity and validation. For example, validity is not considered to be a binary state and it is the proposed use or interpretation of scale scores that is validated, not the scale itself. In this dissertation, I attempted to validate the use of a symptom assessment scale in a Veterans Affairs (VA)-based palliative care program to measure program outcomes using an argument-based approach to validity. In the first step of this approach, I developed the interpretive argument which specifies the claims and assumptions that are inherent in the proposed use. I then conducted three investigations to generate supporting evidence for the claims. The first was a basic psychometric analysis, the second was an assessment of measurement invariance, and the third was an examination of item directionality. In the validity evaluation, I assessed the plausibility of the claims incorporating the results of the investigations. I found that a bifactor model provided good fit to the data and concluded that while the psychometric properties of the scale were fairly well maintained in this new use, the degree of missing data may be biasing outcomes and also prohibits use of the scale to measure outcomes. I also concluded that it may be more appropriate to treat some of the items of the scale as formative and this new formulation may help promote complete administration of the scale.
The Effects of Deployment on a Child's Academic and Behavioral Functioning
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Program:
Educational Psychology
Potential disruption of family life due to a military deployment is a significant concern of U.S. armed forces, as well as to service members. In addition to the effects of parental absence, periods immediately surrounding the military family member's deployment and return may have deleterious effects on children. This study proposed a 7-phase definition of the cycle of deployment, and suggested that strain on the family due to the cycle could be grouped into four levels. A sample of 201 families with fathers in the Navy and children ages 5 to 12 supplied information on deployment, family functioning (FACES IV), family stress levels (Perceived Stress Scale), family coping skills (F-COPES), and child behaviors (Devereux scales). Current and prior reading and math grades and teachers' ratings of the child were also obtained. Greater deployment strain and poorer family functioning were associated with poorer child behavioral and academic performance and greater family stress. Predictors interacted such that child problems occurred primarily when deployment strain was combined with poor family functioning or coping skills. The negative effects were substantial in real-world terms; up to 1/3 SD on the Devereux-Parent or a difference in reading grades of B+ to B-. It was demonstrated that the deleterious effects of deployment were mainly due to increased family stress, and not simply parental absence. Reading grades were much more sensitive to stressors than math grades. Age and gender of the child had minimal effects. Results suggested that deployment strain can have serious adverse consequences for children, but that healthy family functioning and/or coping skills largely mitigate these effects.
Do Coping Behaviors Moderate the Adjustment of Elementary School Children who are Victimized by Relational Aggression?
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Program:
Educational Psychology
This study explored whether coping strategies had an impact on the adjustment of third through fifth grade students (N = 88) who experienced conflict with their peers. The victimized students' level of adjustment and strategies used to cope with bullying, were additionally investigated. Self-report data was gathered on the students' victimization experiences, coping strategies and level of school and peer adjustment. A measure of school and peer adjustment was also obtained by the participants' teachers, as a means of validating the student reports. Victims of peer aggression were anticipated to exhibit poorer adjustment due to their tendency to rely on more maladaptive ways of coping and less often on adaptive ways of coping. Statistical support was found for several direct relationships, but not for any of the mediated effects. Specifically, both overt and relational victimization were related to lower rates of peer adjustment. Coping was also found to have a direct impact on adjustment. The use of avoidant coping was associated with lower rates of school and peer adjustment and the use of approach coping was associated with higher rates of school and peer adjustment.
Teacher and School Variables that Impact Special Education Preschool Teacher-Family Involvement Behaviors
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Program:
Educational Psychology
The present study examined taecher attitudes, teacher preparation/training, teacher experience, and school support and their relationship to reported family involvement behaviors, using the Epstein framework as a six part definition for family involvement. Participants included 283 teachers in 20 different special education preschool programs within the New York City area. Four measures were used, the FITS-P that measures reported teacher attitudes, the FITPQ that measures reported teacher family involvement behaviors, a questionnaire that measures reported teacher experience and teacher preparation/training, and the Program Self-Assessment and Quality Improvement Guide (Section 3) that measures reported school support for family involvement. A multilevel survey data set was collected from multiple teachers within multiple schools. Correlational analyses were conducted to assess the direction and strength of variable relationships among three predictors: years of teaching experience, teacher preparation/training, and teacher attitudes. The data were also analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). This was conducted in order to determine if teacher attitudes, teacher preparation/training, years of teaching experience impact teacher family involvement behavior differently across schools. Further, it was investigated whether degree of school support contributes to this difference across schools.In general, the hypotheses in this study were supported by the results and provide preschool educators with valuable information to help develop strategies, identify facilitators and obstacles, and improve the working partnership between schools and families, with a goal of increasing family involvement. One of the clearest findings was that teacher attitude was predictive of reported teacher family involvement behaviors. Teachers who exhibited more positive family involvement attitudes actually reported using more family involvement practices in their classrooms. A second finding was that only one of the three types of teacher preparation/training, in-service training, was predictive of reported teacher family involvement behaviors. Also, teachers who had taken a course primarily focused on family involvement in their pre-service training had more positive reported attitudes towards family involvement. Teachers who reported not attending a course dedicated to family involvement but rather had family involvement integrated or embedded throughout a number of courses reported fewer or less frequent family involvement behaviors. Teacher experience was negatively related to teacher attitude towards family involvement; however, it was not deemed a predictor of teacher family involvement behaviors. In this study, the degree of school support as measured by the SED/VESID was positively correlated and significantly predictive of reported teacher family involvement behaviors. In this study, principals who reported to offer more administrative support for family involvement in their schools did have teachers who reportedly offered more positive attitudes and applied more family involvement practices in their classrooms. Implications of these findings are discussed.
The Relationship between Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation in Children
Author:
Elizabeth McLaughlin
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Program:
Educational Psychology
Emotional competence is a core component of school success for all children, and the ability to regulate one's emotions is an important skill in developing emotional competence. Dispositional mindfulness may be an underlying cognitive orientation that allows children to be successful at regulating their emotions, because it involves both attention and cognitive components that influence how individuals perceive and react to their emotions. Mindfulness has been shown to have a robust relationship with emotional functioning in adults and is being incorporated into many treatment approaches for a variety of physical and psychological difficulties. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and emotion regulation in children in grades 5-7. Ninety-one students completed self-reports of dispositional mindfulness and emotion regulation and completed a performance assessment of emotional awareness. In addition, one parent for each child completed a parent report of the child's emotion regulation. Path analysis demonstrated that dispositional mindfulness predicted emotion regulation, both through the child's self-report and the parent's assessment of the child's emotion regulation abilities. Emotion regulation as assessed by the parent report also predicted a child's level of emotional awareness and sophistication of emotional understanding. Identifying the factors that help children become successful regulators of their emotions may inform the ways in which school psychologists and teachers support the emotional development of the students they serve.
Training Students' Self-regulation of Motoric Flexibility: The Effects of Modeling and Self-evaluation
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Program:
Educational Psychology
The purpose of this research was to determine if technique modeling and self-evaluation had an impact on college students' self-regulation of motoric flexibility, measured through physiological assessments and surveys of stretching practices, flexibility outcome expectations, self-efficacy, and knowledge. In order to measure the impact of the treatments, students were randomly assigned to three conditions: 1) control lecture condition, in which flexibility fitness was taught using a scripted lecture format; 2) technique modeling condition, in which flexibility fitness was taught using the same script in addition to the researcher modeling proper stretching technique; and 3) technique modeling and self-evaluation condition, in which flexibility fitness was taught using the same script and technique modeling in addition to students being taught to measure their own motoric flexibility and to record their progress. It was hypothesized that the three treatment conditions would produce the following linear trend: condition 3 > condition 2 > condition 1 on the outcome measures. The results of this research study did demonstrate that flexibility training had a significant positive linear effect on college students' right upper body motoric flexibility, stretching practices, outcome expectations, self-efficacy and flexibility procedural knowledge.
The Effects of Group Coaching on the Homework Completion of Secondary Students with Homework Problems
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Program:
Educational Psychology
Homework is a staple in American education that accounts for a large percentage of the total time American students spend on academic task. Research on the effectiveness of homework provides ample evidence that homework has a positive effect on learning and academic performance, particularly for middle and high school students. Unfortunately, the rate of consistent homework completion, for students with and without disabilities, is dismally low. The current body of research on homework interventions suggests that self-management interventions may be the best type of intervention to help all students with homework difficulties.
The Role of Self-Theories of Intelligence and Self-Efficacy in Adaptive Help-Seeking by College Students
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Program:
Educational Psychology
In this study the role of self-theories of intelligence and self-efficacy on adaptive help-seeking behavior was examined. One-hundred, first-year college students were asked to complete a highly difficult vocabulary task that would ensure universal failure. Performance attributions were assessed in order to determine the students' view of intelligence as either fixed or malleable. To obtain a measure for self-efficacy, a subsequent task was administered whereas participants were asked to indicate their confidence for the use of help-seeking to improve learning. During this task students were permitted to seek help in the form of a hint or direct answer. The students' bids for help were later coded as either maladaptive or adaptive forms of help. A final vocabulary posttest was administered immediately following to assess learning. Results from a multivariate analysis of variance yielded a main effect for self-theory of intelligence on all predicted variables. Post hoc tests revealed significant differences between the groups such that the students who attributed their performance to ability pursued less adaptive forms of help, did worse on the posttest, and had lower self-efficacy posttest ratings than those students who attributed performance to effort. Since no main effects were observed for self-efficacy, a bias score was calculated for each participant to control for calibration errors and used as a covariate in a subsequent analysis of covariance. With the inclusion of the covariate, bias score, significant effects for all predicted variables were obtained. Students in low self-efficacy group as compared to the high self-efficacy group pursued less adaptive forms of help, did worse on the posttest, and had lower self-efficacy posttest ratings. Overall findings from this study showed that view of intelligence directly impacts help-seeking behavior, which indirectly affects learning and performance.