Browsing by Subject "Childhood"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Factors associated with sleep wake disturbances in adult survivors of childhood brain tumors.
    (2010-02) Gapstur, Roxanna
    Sleep disturbances impact physical and mental health in brain tumor survivors, leading to sub-optimal participation in life activities. Technological advances in cancer treatments have improved five-year survival rates for childhood brain tumors to nearly 75%. With growing numbers of brain tumor survivors, mitigation of serious late sequelae from cancer treatments becomes increasingly important. This study evaluated factors associated with sleep quality in adult survivors of childhood brain tumors and a population-based comparison group. The Cancer-Related Factors Affecting Sleep model developed by Vena et al. (2004) provided a conceptual framework for this study. Participants were recruited from the University of Minnesota and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital clinical treatment databases. The comparison group was recruited from a national mailing database service. The first aim evaluated differences in global and component sleep quality between survivors and the comparison group. Using multiple variable linear regression and logistic regression, no differences in global sleep quality were detected between survivors and the comparison group. However, survivors were two and a half times more likely than the comparison group to have longer sleep latency, taking on average 33 minutes to fall asleep after going to bed. Females in both groups reported worse sleep quality, including more daytime dysfunction, and risk of poor sleep (PSQI global scores > 10). The second aim evaluated cancer treatment effects on sleep quality among brain tumor survivors. Tumor location and surgery were not significant predictors of sleep however, radiation to the hypothalamus approached significance among survivors for longer sleep latency. Exploratory analyses identified radiation to the hypothalamus and age at diagnosis < 5 as predictors of lower vigor subscale scores on the POMS. No treatment variables predicted abnormal BSI scores among the survivors. The third aim evaluated a path model proposing post-treatment variables including obesity, depression, and fatigue as mediators of global sleep quality. In addition, gender, age, radiation to the hypothalamus and age at diagnosis < 5 were included in the model as exogenous variables. Obesity and depression were not strong predictors of global sleep quality however, gender and age at diagnosis < 5 predicted higher fatigue subscale scores. Fatigue itself significantly predicted higher (worse) global sleep quality scores within the model. This study revealed new and surprising information about sleep latency in brain tumor survivors. It also confirmed known associations with sleep and gender and a strong relationship between fatigue and sleep quality. Given these findings, future studies can begin to focus on identifying additional factors impacting sleep in these survivors.
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    The Role of Spirituality in the Ongoing Recovery Process of Female Sexual Abuse Survivors
    (2008-10) Houg, Bonnie Louise
    This study investigated the role spirituality plays in the recovery process of female childhood sexual abuse survivors (CSA). Fourteen female CSA survivors participated in individual interviews. They responded to questions regarding their spiritual development across the recovery process, effects of spirituality on their interpersonal and intrapersonal processes, and obstacles to their spiritual development. Data were analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR; Hill et al., 1997) to identify major themes that include: 1) participants distinguished between spirituality and religion; 2) the role of spirituality varied across their recovery process; 3) many had a positive spiritual role model/mentor during their childhood; 4) ongoing sexual abuse led to rebellion as adolescents/young adults (e.g., anger against God’s failure to intervene, self-destructive behaviors that further exacerbated mistrust, shame and alienation; and 5) participants eventually reached spiritual reconciliation, which they viewed as the greatest single factor in their recovery. Practice and research recommendations are provided.
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    Too Important to Ignore: A Post-Intentional Phenomenological Investigation of Teaching Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers About Infants and Toddlers
    (2016-05) Pearson, Jolene
    A watershed of knowledge about how very young children learn and develop has been revealed through the science of child development. The science of child development has demonstrated that immediately from birth, babies need supportive relationships and responsive environments in order to build strong brain circuits and lay the foundations for both physical and mental health. Increasingly very young children (under three years of age) in the United States depend on early childhood teachers for their care and education. Studies of early childhood teacher preparation programs, that focused on preparing teachers of children from birth to grade three, have found that pre-service students may not take even one course about infants and toddlers (birth to three years of age) or that the coverage of infants and toddlers is marginalized within the curriculum. This post-intentional phenomenological study (Vagle, 2014) examined the phenomena of how infant and toddler content might take shape in bachelor’s degree (BA/BS) programs that offer Early Childhood teacher (birth to grade three) licensure in Minnesota. The phenomenon was studied though investigating the experiences of six faculty members who teach courses about infants and toddlers and seven staff members of university-sponsored child development centers who host students in their classrooms as an infant or toddler practicum connected to the courses taught by the faculty. Findings from this study are depicted through six tentative manifestations of the phenomenon: Swimming against the Current, Complexity, Un-like, Mentoring Students, Perspectives on Parents and Beyond Standards. The tentative manifestations were produced as a synthesis of the experience of faculty and staff: attending to the Minnesota Board of Teaching’s Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Standards (87100:3000); in dialogue with participants’ personal preparation, experiences, beliefs, and convictions; in consideration of the demographics of the pre-service students; and in response to current information and issues within early childhood education. This research contributes to an understanding of how infant toddler content took shape in five early childhood teacher preparation programs and also yielded significant practical implications for teaching pre-service teacher candidates about infants and toddlers.