CURRENT RESEARCH AND PROJECTS
RIPPLE EFFECTS OF CHAOS: PARENTING AS A LINK BETWEEN A CHAOTIC HOME AN CHILD BEHAVIOR
This study is an ongoing thesis project in the lab examining the relationship between household chaos (e.g., noise, crowding, disorganization, unpredictability, and lack of routine within an environment) and its association to externalizing behaviors in preschool children, specifically through various types of parenting practices (e.g., positive, punitive, inconsistent). More specifically, we predict that more chaotic home environments will be linked to more maladaptive behaviors in children through fewer positive and more negative parenting practices. This study will be entering data collection upon IRB approval.
MULTI-METHOD STUDY OF AGGRESSION
This study is an independent project led by a doctoral student examining the assessment of aggression in young adults. This project integrates self-report personality assessment with laboratory-based behavioral measures of aggression to examine how personality traits and other individual differences relate to aggressive behavior. The study is supported by research grants from the Society for Personality Assessment and APA Division IX, Section 12. For more information about this study contact chloe.odell@usm.edu.
PERSONALITY AND CYBER AGGRESSION THROUGH THE LENS OF HiTOP
This dissertation study examines how dimensional personality traits relate to cyber-aggression among emerging adults. Using the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) framework, this research explores how specific personality and psychopathology dimensions are associated with different forms and motivations for online aggression. This project aims to clarify individual differences that may help explain why people engage in aggressive behavior online.
CUMULATIVE RISK IN ADOLESCENCE TO ADULT BEHAVIORAL HEALTH: THE ROLES OF RESOURCES, PERCEPTIONS, AND COPING
Exposure to contextual risk factors in adolescence have long been associated with poorer developmental outcomes in adulthood. However, studies have shown that individuals exposed to similar levels of risk may experience different outcomes. The Double ABC-X model provides a theoretical framework for understanding this variability by proposing that resources, perceptions, and coping are intervening factors that influence the association between cumulative risk and adaptation. However, the literature examining how these factors operate together as potential risk and protective factors is limited. Using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), the proposed study will use structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine direct, indirect, and conditional indirect effects between resources, perceptions, and coping in the context of cumulative risk and adaptation. Study findings will further our understanding of contextual factors that may impact adaptation in the context of cumulative risk and potentially highlight malleable factors that may be amenable to intervention. Our lab is currently preparing data for analyses.
ASK-ASD 2.0 PSYCHOMETRIC STUDY
This study is evaluating the psychometric properties of a modified version of A Survey of Knowledge of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASK-ASD), expanding on the initial development study (Hansen, 2015). Specifically, this study is examining the factor structure (e.g., exploratory factor analysis); reliability (i.e., internal consistency, test-retest reliability); and validity (i.e., correlations of ASK-ASD with an existing measure of autism stigma and knowledge as well as participants' familiarity, training, experience, and knowledge of other psychological disorders). Our lab is currently in the process of analyzing the data for this project.
CHAOS-25 PSYCHOMETRIC STUDY
The current gold-standard to assess household chaos is the Confusion Hubbub and Order Scale (CHAOS; Matheny et al., 1995). However, this instrument does not reflect the more recent updated conceptualization of household chaos. Therefore, the goal of the current study is to create an updated measure of household chaos, which includes all the dimensions that at present reflect the construct of household chaos. Our lab is currently analyzing the data from this study.
PARENTING PRACTICES AND ROUTINES AS MEDIATORS OF PARENTING INFLEXIBILITY AND CHILD BEHAVIORS
Due to the high prevalence rates of child behavioral problems, considerable research has focused on factors that contribute to child behavioral problems. Parenting inflexibility has been shown to relate to child internalizing and externalizing behaviors through ineffective parenting practices. However, child routines, another related yet distinct parenting behavior, has yet to be explored in this relationship. The primary purpose of this study was to examine parenting practices and child routines as mediators of the relationship between parenting inflexibility and child behavioral outcomes. Mothers of school-aged children (N = 157) were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and completed self-report measures of parenting inflexibility and parenting practices and parent-report measures of child routines, internalizing behaviors, and externalizing behaviors. Ordinary least squares regression models indicated that negative parenting practices partially mediated the relationship between parenting inflexibility and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors (separately). Alternative models were also supported when the predictor and mediator were reversed, suggesting a bidirectional relationship between negative parenting practices and parenting inflexibility. Contrary to hypotheses, positive parenting practices and child routines (independently) did not mediate the relationship between parenting inflexibility and child internalizing behaviors (or externalizing behaviors). Significant results from this study suggest that parenting inflexibility may be displayed through negative parenting practices, resulting in child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Moreover, parenting inflexibility and negative parenting practices (i.e., poor monitoring/supervision, inconsistent discipline, and corporal punishment) may be important targets for interventions to prevent or reduce child behavioral problems. Manuscript in preparation.
THE ROLE OF MATERNAL EMOTION REGULATION IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATERNAL ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES (ACES), NEGATIVE PARENTING, AND CHILD EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIORS.
Previous research has shown the prevalence and effects of ACEs, with nearly 61% of adults experiencing at least one ACE in their lifetime. Females are at a greater risk for experiencing 4 or more ACEs (Center for Disease and Prevention, 2019); therefore, the effects of maternal ACEs on children need to be explored further. Maternal ACEs are associated with a range of negative effects among mothers and their children, such as more display of child externalizing behaviors (Cooke et al., 2019; Hatch et al., 2020; Khan et al., 2019; Stepleton et al., 2018), and one mechanism through which this occurs is the use of negative parenting practices (NPP). Specifically, mothers exposed to more traumatic experiences report greater use of physical punishment and more punitive parenting practices which, in turn, is associated with more child externalizing behaviors (Banyard et al., 2003; Choe et al., 2013; Cohen et al., 2008; Yoon et al., 2019). ACEs can also affect individuals' emotional regulation, the ability to appropriately respond to highly stressful events (Shaffer et al., 2012; Spieker et al., 2018). More ACEs have shown to predict greater difficulty in emotion regulation (DER), and therefore if mothers have a higher number of ACEs, this may impact their ability to handle stressful situations. Although there are associations between maternal ACEs, DER, and child externalizing problems, the literature has yet to examine all these factors together in one model. This study aimed to examine the association between maternal ACEs and child externalizing behaviors and explore how emotion regulation and negative parenting may influence this relationship. Results showed differential outcomes based on ACES subtype. Specifically, mothers' household dysfunction ACEs mediated the relationship betwen negative parenting practices and child externalizing behavior. However, mothers maltreatment ACEs mediated the relationship between DER and externalizing behavior. Manuscript in preparation.
EXAMINING ROUTINES AMONG HEAD START FAMILIES: A PATH MODEL ANALYSIS OF THE FAMILY STRESS MODEL
In the United States, nearly half of families with children under six are at risk of experiencing poverty (Han & Zhang, 2022). The family stress model (FSM; Conger & Elder, 1994) has well established how economic hardship disrupts family functioning (Conger et al., 2010). In this model, economic pressure, or the perceived strain of economic hardship, leads to parental distress, which in turn affects parenting behaviors, and leads to negative child outcomes like externalizing behavior problems (Masarik & Conger, 2017). Consistent routines have been studied as a parenting behavior that is associated with fewer child externalizing behaviors (Bater & Jordan, 2017; Larsen & Jordan, 2019). However, no known published studies involving preschool-aged children have applied routines to the FSM framework. By analyzing a sample of Head Start children, we aim to gain invaluable insights into how general child routines and family routines may link to child externalizing behavior in the context of economic hardship and parental distress. Comparing the indirect effects of family routines and child routines will also reveal whether economic pressure – and its association with child behavior problems – may be better explained by child routines than family routines. Since routines are a malleable parenting behavior, the study may point to a mechanism that could be targeted through psychoeducation and intervention. This manuscript has been submitted for publication.