Degree Level

Childhood Cancer: Maternal Stress and Coping (open access)

Childhood Cancer: Maternal Stress and Coping

Sixty-two mothers of childhood cancer patients completed questionnaires on family demographics, parental stress, sense of parenting competence, self esteem, health locus of control, attitudes toward cancer, life events, social support, and psychological symptomatology. Correlation and regression procedures were used. Time since diagnosis and the severity rate of a child's illness did not predict the mother's sense of parenting competence, but a negative correlation at the $p<.01$ level between mothers' report of self esteem and their distress was revealed. Social support was negatively correlated at the $p<.01$ level with psychological distress, but life events were positively correlated at the $p<.01$ level. Internal locus of control was positively correlated with psychological distress, but attitudes toward cancer did not correlate with psychological distress.
Date: December 1996
Creator: Buenrostro, Martha
System: The UNT Digital Library
Psychological and Social Functioning Differences among Homeless Mothers (open access)

Psychological and Social Functioning Differences among Homeless Mothers

Existing studies of people who are homeless provide descriptive information about the heterogeneity of the population. Families who are homeless are the fastest growing subset of this population. This study examined the variability in psychological and social functioning among homeless mothers and attempted to identify risk factors that predict level of adult functioning. Data was collected from 76 homeless mothers with minor aged children receiving services at area shelters. The sample was divided between highly structured and unstructured shelter environments. Each participant completed an extensive interview which included measures of personal and family history, risk factors and current psychological and social functioning. Social functioning was able to be predicted by a number of these risk factors.
Date: December 1996
Creator: Green, Patricia Pater
System: The UNT Digital Library
Depression in Sixth-Grade Early Adolescents: Effects of Intimate Support, Relationship Conflict, and Self-Efficacy (open access)

Depression in Sixth-Grade Early Adolescents: Effects of Intimate Support, Relationship Conflict, and Self-Efficacy

Depressive symptomology was examined in this study as a function of conflict and intimate support with parents, friends, and siblings among a non-clinical sample of 223 predominately white sixth-grade early adolescents. Moreover, sixth-graders' depressive symptomology was examined as a function of conflict management self-efficacy and intimate support self-efficacy. The purpose of the present study was twofold: 1) to explore the effects of intimate support and conflict in family and friend relationships on sixth-grade early adolescent depressive symptomology, 2) to determine whether poor conflict management skills self-efficacy and poor intimate support self-efficacy are linked with depressive symptomology in sixth-grade early adolescents. Friend relationship qualities had little impact on depression in sixth-graders. However, the presence of conflict and deficits in family intimate support, especially from parents, was associated with increased depression. Increased levels of depression also corresponded with lower ratings of conflict management self-efficacy and intimate support self-efficacy. Moreover, relationship difficulties combined with self-efficacy deficits to affect depression.
Date: August 1996
Creator: Goodness, Kelly R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Inhibition of Return in Schizophrenia (open access)

Inhibition of Return in Schizophrenia

The present study was designed to look at inhibition of return within a schizophrenic population for the first time. Inhibition of return is an attentional phenomenon that has been studied with a number of populations, and has been shown to be present in normal individuals. Based on the disattention hypothesis put forth by Cromwell and colleagues (e.g., Cromwell & Dokecki, 1968), it was hypothesized that patients with schizophrenia would show an impaired inhibition of return. Twenty-eight inpatients with schizophrenia, and 19 normal comparisons were evaluated on a visual inhibition of return task. Consistent with hypotheses, schizophrenia patients have significant impairments in inhibition of return compared to normal comparison participants. Further, the relative lack of inhibition of return in the schizophrenic group was found to be strongest to stimuli in the left visual field. These results provide initial support for a reconceptualization of the disattention hypothesis.
Date: August 1996
Creator: Hinds, Jeffrey D. (Jeffrey Dale)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory: a Predictive Validity Study with Criminal Offenders Mandated to Rehabilitative Treatment (open access)

The Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory: a Predictive Validity Study with Criminal Offenders Mandated to Rehabilitative Treatment

The Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory was constructed to screen for substance abuse patterns despite non-admittance of respondents. Predictive validity studies of the SASSI are limited, and are not available for probationers. Participants were 147 male and 54 female probationers mandated to treatment. Overall differences among SASSI scales were significant for treatment compliance and outcome. Higher SASSI scales were found among those probationers who were compliant/successful. Individual scales were not significantly different, however, a trend was revealed; those respondents who scored higher tended to comply/succeed in treatment. The SASSI alone accurately classified 59.7% of respondents. In summary, the SASSI's use in predicting treatment outcome is limited and should be employed with concomitant data.
Date: August 1996
Creator: Flores, Johnny Martin
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Investigation of Psychopathy in a Female Jail Sample: a Study of Convergent and Discriminant Validity (open access)

An Investigation of Psychopathy in a Female Jail Sample: a Study of Convergent and Discriminant Validity

The present study was designed to assess both the construct of psychopathy in a female jail sample as well as the quality of the measures that have been employed to assess this personality style. Utilizing the multitrait-multimethod matrix proposed by Campbell and Fiske (1959), the construct of psychopathy was measured via three instruments: (a) the Antisocial Scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory, (b) the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised, and (c) the Antisocial Scale of the Personality Disorder Examination. In addition, the predictive validity of each of these measures of psychopathy was evaluated to determine their ability to predict institutional violence and non-compliance. The results revealed significant convergence and divergence across the three instruments supporting the construct of psychopathy in a female jail sample. In addition, the measures of psychopathy demonstrated moderate predictive validity.
Date: May 1996
Creator: Salekin, Randall T. (Randall Todd)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Think-Assess-Design: a Model for Redesigning Traditional Organizations Into Empowered Work Environments (open access)

Think-Assess-Design: a Model for Redesigning Traditional Organizations Into Empowered Work Environments

"Think-Assess-Design" is a model for guiding traditional organizations through the steps necessary to redesign themselves into a more empowered, team-based work environment. Three broad steps—think, assess, and design—provided the framework for organizational change in this case study.
Date: May 1996
Creator: Richardson, Sandra Kay
System: The UNT Digital Library