Browsing by Subject "Psychopathology"
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Item Developmental Pathways from Childhood Maltreatment to Adolescent Psychopathology, Substance Use, and Revictimization(2019-06) Brown, Michelle PatriceDecades of research have demonstrated the detrimental influence that childhood maltreatment has on various aspects of child development and it is important to gain a more complete understanding of the developmental pathways that confer risk for or protection from adverse outcomes. To examine this, the aim of the first study is to determine whether adolescent revictimization mediates the relationship between maltreatment and adolescent psychopathology and substance use. The second study examines whether the quality of relationships with close friends mediates the relationship between child maltreatment and adolescent revictimization, psychopathology, and substance use. Participants were 545 (295 maltreated, 250 non-maltreated) racially diverse (52.8% Black, 27.5% White, 12.8% Bi-racial) children and their families who participated in a weeklong summer camp in middle childhood (mean age= 7.6 years). They were followed up twice in early-mid adolescence (mean age = 13.8 years) and mid-late adolescence (mean age = 16.2 years). Maltreatment was coded using Department of Human Services records. Psychopathology, substance use, revictimization, and friendship quality were assessed using adolescent self-report questionnaires. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze cross-lagged panel mediation models that allowed for examination of main effects, cross-lagged effects, and mediation simultaneously. Results of Study 1 revealed that revictimization occurring between early-mid and mid-late adolescence did not mediate the relationship between maltreatment and mid-late adolescent psychopathology or substance use. However, revictimization strongly and significantly predicted these outcomes whereas maltreatment was weakly related to psychopathology and unrelated to substance use. Results highlight the importance of further examining the mechanisms by which revictimization increases risk for psychopathology and substance use and whether the relationship between maltreatment and adverse outcomes is attenuated when later victimization is accounted for. Results for Study 2 demonstrated that relationship quality with close friends in early-mid adolescence did not mediate the relationship between maltreatment and later adolescent revictimization, psychopathology, or substance use. Furthermore, friendship quality was actually unrelated to maltreatment and each of the outcomes examined. Results suggest the critical need for future research to seek greater understanding of the unique nature of maltreated children’s friendships and the specific ways they may protect from, or even increase risk for, negative outcomes.Item Familial Aggregation of Externalizing Psychopathology(2017-08) Ofrat, ShaniObjective Understanding familial aggregation (FA) of psychopathology in a latent variable framework allows for an understanding of shared risk for maladaptive traits and disorders in parents and their children, and improves clinical utility or risk models. Previously, FA has been investigated using bivariate approaches, providing a piecemeal understanding of risk. This study investigates 1) how externalizing disorders in parents impact risk for a broad range of internalizing and externalizing disorders in offspring, 2) if risk shared between parents and offspring is best conceptualized as general risk for a group of disorders or specific to particular disorders, and 3) how this might vary as a function of parent and offspring gender. Methods Data for sample one were collected as part of the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) in 2001-2002 on 43,093 individuals 18 years or older living in the US. A replication sample used the Minnesota Twin and Family Study sample of twins, siblings, and their parents using parallel analyses to attempt to replicate results in an independent sample which used direct assessment of parent psychopathology. Using confirmatory factor analysis, parental externalizing disorders were investigated as a risk factor for externalizing, fear, and distress disorders in offspring, in a latent variable structural equation model. Results Externalizing in parents was most predictive of externalizing in offspring, followed by distress and finally fear disorders. However, in female offspring, externalizing in mothers in particular was as strong a predictor of distress disorders as it was of externalizing disorders. Risk for offspring disorders associated with parent disorders was well-explained by a latent variable framework, with residual correlations for ASPD in parents associated with specific risk for offspring ASPD. Conclusions Results indicate that familial psychopathology aggregation follows a pattern that suggests risk is aggregated generally (transdiagnostically across similar disorders), not specifically. Additionally, externalizing in mothers is associated with increased risk for distress disorders in female offspring, and possibly also in male offspring.Item Individual Differences in Social Cognition and Behavior: a Personality Psychology Framework(2021-08) Blain, ScottThough humans are universally social, we vary considerably in our ability and motivation to form and maintain relationships. One approach to explaining this variation looks to identify the mechanisms that facilitate social behavior, including social cognition and reward sensitivity. Much of this work, however, is methodologically lacking and fails to provide comprehensive explanatory frameworks. This dissertation applies insights from personality psychology to improve our understanding of individual differences in social cognition and interpersonal functioning, focusing on the broad traits most descriptive of social behavior: Agreeableness, Extraversion, and Trait Affiliation. Across four studies attempting to elucidate the neurocognitive mechanisms of these traits, various methods—including questionnaires, behavioral tasks, fMRI, and psychometric techniques—were used to elucidate how and why individuals vary in their social abilities, behaviors, and associated outcomes. Study 1 was a multi-task investigation of how three Agreeableness-Antagonism subfactors differentially predict social cognitive ability. Study 2 used fMRI, along with personality questionnaires and behavioral tasks, to examine associations among Agreeableness, social cognitive ability, and function of the brain’s default network, applying structural equation modeling and a Bayesian individualized cortical parcellation approach. Study 3 failed to replicate classic associations demonstrated between measures of depressivity and reward sensitivity, suggesting that instead, reward sensitivity is related primarily to Extraversion. Finally, Study 4 explored Trait Affiliation, an important dimension at the intersection of Agreeableness and Extraversion, and presents a new Trait Affiliation Scale, along with evidence for its reliability, validity, and practical utility. Collectively, this work represents a high standard of statistical power and methodological rigor, utilizing a total of eight independent samples ranging from N = 195 to N = 25,732. Across these studies, social cognitive ability and reward sensitivity are further established as important psychological mechanisms underlying individual differences in social functioning. The work presented here also offers methodological contributions and broader theoretical insights into the understanding of personality and its relation to psychopathology. In sum, this dissertation paves the way to a better understanding of how and why individuals vary in our social abilities, interpersonal interactions, and relationship success, in addition to serving as an argument for the broad utility of personality psychology’s methods and theories.Item Maternal Mood and Comorbid Personality Disorders: Attachment Development from Infancy to Young Adulthood(2019-06) Ruiz, SarahMaternal psychopathology, particularly maternal mood disorders, is an important developmental context for attachment development, as maternal sensitivity and other caregiving behaviors necessary for a secure attachment may be impaired. While maternal depression in relation to offspring attachment has been well examined, less attention has been given to the impact of maternal psychiatric comorbidity, particularly between maternal mood and personality disorders (PD) on attachment development. Leveraging a prospective longitudinal study of well and psychiatrically ill mothers and two of their children (60 children of well mothers, 75 children of mothers with comorbid mood and PDs, and 57 children of mothers with mood disorders), this study seeks to further examine the role of maternal psychiatric illness on attachment development over three time points, early and middle childhood, and young adulthood. In study 1, I characterized the sample using cross-sectional analyses to predict attachment at each time point. Although I predicted that mothers in the mood and comorbid groups would have offspring with greater incidence of insecure attachment across all developmental periods, my hypotheses were not confirmed as maternal psychiatric mood and comorbid group membership did not predict attachment in early, middle, and young adulthood. The study provided preliminary evidence that maternal bipolar disorder predicted lower log odds of secure attachment in early childhood, and that offspring of mothers with higher Cluster B dimensional scores had increasing logs odds of being securely attached in early childhood. For study 2, I predicted that offspring of mothers with mood disorders would be characterized by greater discontinuity over development, moving towards insecurity over time, and ran exploratory analyses to examine attachment discontinuity in offspring of mothers in the comorbid group. Results suggest that for offspring of mothers with maternal personality Cluster C diagnosis, attachment across development may be characterized as discontinuous with increasing log odds of secure attachment from early to middle childhood. Offspring of mother with Cluster A dimensional scores also demonstrated decreasing log odds of being securely attached across development. These results expand upon our existing understanding of maternal psychopathology on offspring attachment development, and offers preliminary evidence on attachment in the context of maternal comorbid psychiatric illnesses with PDs. However, results should be considered in light of limitations of the study, including sample size and general sparse findings, and await further replication and extension. This study offers a preliminary understanding of maternal mental illness, beyond maternal depression, and extends the current literature by examining the role of maternal comorbidity on cross sectional and longitudinal offspring attachment outcomes.Item PATHWAYS TO DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AND INFLAMMATION FROM EARLY PSYCHOSOCIAL AND NUTRITIONAL ADVERSITY: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF CHILEAN YOUTH(2020-06) Reid, BrieExposure to early life adversity (ELA) is thought to increase the risk of later psychopathology through alterations in immune system functioning, notably through increased inflammation. However, nutritional adversities such as iron deficiency may arise from and co-occur with ELA. Psychosocial adversity and nutritional adversities together may play a causal role in the development of psychosocial maladjustment via increases in circulating inflammatory factors. The present study investigates whether psychosocial ELA predicts iron status early in life and uses structural equation modeling to determine if ELA and iron status in infancy predict increased inflammation in adolescence and depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood. The study is a follow-up of infants from working-class communities in Santiago, Chile, who participated in a preventive trial of iron supplementation at six months of age. Anthropometrics, stressful life events, maternal depression, socioeconomic status, support for child development, and iron status were measured in the first year of life, five years, ten years, and adolescence. In adolescence, participants provided blood samples for inflammation assessments (CRP, WBC, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, and monocyte count). In emerging adulthood (21y), participants provided self-reported depressive symptoms. ELA in infancy predicted iron status in infancy and depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood. However, ELA did not directly predict increased inflammation in adolescence, and increased inflammation did not predict increased depressive symptoms. Iron status in infancy predicted increased monocyte count in adolescence, and ELA in infancy predicted higher levels of monocytes indirectly through iron status in infancy. These findings provide novel evidence of the association between postnatal ELA and iron status and suggest that ELA predicts depressive symptoms independent of inflammation in this population. These findings also provide evidence of a novel pathway by which early adversity and nutrition program the developing immune system.Item Sex Differences in the Relationship Between Psychopathy and Cerebral Lateralization During Empathic Challenge(2023-04-19) Gunther, Gavrielle J; Lloyd, Robert L; Hjelle, Ryan JHemispherical dominance or cerebral lateralization is characterized as activity in the brain being elevated in one hemisphere more than the other, typically during presentations of affectively laden stimuli. The right hemisphere is associated with feelings of negative affect, while the left hemisphere is associated with positive emotions (Robinson and Price, 1982). Empathetic responses in relation to hemispheric dominance and the degree of psychopathy has not been examined in non-clinical populations, and sex of participant even less so. Social/emotional processing in females may differ from males; the human brain is sexually dimorphic, various structures being different between the sexes (Nopoulos et al., 2000). Using the ratio of alpha power between the left and right frontal cortices (F3 vs. F4) as an index of relative cerebral activity, we found a non-significant relationship between right hemisphere lateralization and psychopathy when viewing a highly empathic video of someone in distress. The correlation between LSRP scores and the left to right hemisphere ratio was not significant in females (p = .394 [-.199, .623]). The correlation between LSRP scores and the left to right hemisphere ratio was not significant in males, p = .919 [-.432, .337]. There was a non-significant relationship that showed females had a stronger LSRP and left-to-right alpha ratio (R² = 0.060, linear; R² =0.207, quadratic., see figure 1) compared to males R² = 0.001, linear; R² =0.052, quadratic., see figure 2), but significance was not reached.