Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Secondary Psychology'

The problem that was addressed by the study is whether teachers working in blighted schools experience higher levels of secondary traumatic stress due to indirect exposure to students’ trauma and higher rates of anxiety due to direct exposure to a blighted school building than teachers working in non-blighted schools. The purely quantitative study that utilized two validated instruments and an objective checklist was conducted via Qualtrics on the internet. Study results were based on an internet survey of 172 high school teachers who work directly with students. Scores on the SDI, the STSS and the STAI-AD were analyzed. Teachers were assigned to a group, blighted or un-blighted, based on his or her qualifying scores on the SDI. Those with scores of 4 or higher were assigned to the blighted group whereas those teachers with a score of less than 4 on the SDI were assigned to the non-blighted group. Final numbers of participants for each group were 84 for the un-blighted group and 88 for the blighted group. Composite scores for the STSS and the STAI-AD were calculated. Hypothesis 1 results indicated there is a significant difference in STS, as measured by the STSS, between high school teachers who work in blighted school buildings and a control group of high school teachers who work in non-blighted school buildings (t = -6.340, p < .001, df = 170). Hypothesis 2 results also indicated there is a significant difference in state symptoms of anxiety occurring during exposure to school building disrepair, as measured by the State subscale of the STAI-AD, between high school teachers who work in blighted school buildings and a control group of high school teachers who work in non-blighted school buildings (t = -4.233, p < .001, df = 132.757). The findings of the study are consistent with previous studies on the negative effects of community blight and STSS in the helping professions.

Critical topics of teaching music continue to undergo philosophical evolution as unique concepts and perspectives are introduced by a variety of experts both in and out of the field. One concern among many is the role of the secondary music educator in the ideal classroom for student learning, part of which is impacted by teacher-student rapport. Teacher-student rapport is defined in this paper by the author as an adaptation of the general definition of rapport by Carey et al. (1986a): the quality of relationship between teacher and student that is characterized by communication and mutual, emotional understanding. The following questions were explored through content analysis of an education practitioner journal as well as literary analysis: how are teacher-student rapport-building strategies informed by the behaviorist, cognitivist, constructivist, and humanist schools of psychology; how can the information garnered from a literary analysis guide the transformation of teacher disposition policy; what are best practice techniques for teachers to build rapport in the secondary instrumental ensemble as implied by the data? It is with the data and discussion of this study that the author hopes to support teachers’ positive rapport-building efforts with students in the secondary instrumental classroom through the avenues of immediate classroom application, and policy transformation.

Data reveals that articles in the Journal of Educational Psychology examining positive rapport-building elements most comprehensively cite principles of the constructivist school, and the top three cited psychologists are Albert Bandura, Abraham Maslow, and Jean Piaget. Recommendations for teacher disposition policy transformation are suggested to help preservice teachers cultivate positive rapport-building practice, and they include standards for promoting socio-cultural investment, positive expression, student discourse recognition, reflective practice, empathy, and effective communication. Examples of potential applications in the secondary instrumental music classroom include, but are not limited to, engaging in students’ referential (Reimer, 2010) connections to rehearsed repertoire and permitting exploration of expressive interpretation of said connections; consistently raising standards of musicianship and community in response to achievement through promotion of reflective processes and demonstrations of exemplary performance; recognizing and utilizing students’ abilities to think critically and abstractly about the expression and artistic merit of class repertoire. Other implications of best practice are refined from Bandura’s (1986) self-efficacy, Maslow’s (1943 & 1971) hierarchy of needs, and Piaget’s (1952) schema and genetic epistemology theories. Finally, potential operations in chamber music are presented in relation to constructivist principles.

To understand the influence of self-efficacy on academic achievement, it is first necessary to assess the construct with reliability and validity. Although this has been done extensively in the Western context, studies on the reliability and validity of self-efficacy scores in Asian contexts have been scarce. The goal of this study is to develop a Mathematics self-efficacy scale with sound psychometric properties that can be used in future studies to advance our knowledge on the nature of self-efficacy in different cultural contexts. In this study, I described the development of a mathematics self-efficacy scale and present data on the reliability and structural validity of the scores in a sample of Singaporean adolescents (N = 1, 572). Results indicated that scale scores had strong internal consistency. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested that there were two related but distinguishable self-efficacy variables: content-specific and general. There was also evidence for convergent validity, given the significant and positive correlations between the self-efficacy scores and related constructs. As was found in other studies, the difference between gender and the three self-efficacy scores was statistically but not practically significant for content-specific self-efficacy; there was not statistical difference in the general or combined self-efficacy scores. Finally, regression analyses suggested that self-efficacy scores made significant contributions to mathematics grade, even after taking into account the contributions of past achievement and other attitudinal constructs. Further research is needed to address the limitations and to ascertain the generalizability of these findings.

This study was designed to investigate the difficulties and challenges facing counseling practitioners that result in secondary traumatic stress, compassion satisfaction and burnout. Secondary traumatic stress, compassion satisfaction and burnout in Licensed Professional Counselors may have a relationship to their quality of life ratings. The risks of working directly with traumatized individuals on a regular basis are well documented. These three variables (Secondary Traumatic Stress, Compassion Satisfaction and Burnout) are prominent in the human services field with counselors being in the top five affected (in helping professions). A total of 77 participants completed a demographic questionnaire and the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL). This quantitative research design is classified as descriptive research/correlational study (non-experimental) between variables. A multiple regression analysis was utilized to collect the data. The findings were not as expected by the researcher. It appeared that counselors become satisfied from working with traumatized victims. Recommendations and future research directions are explained.

This generic qualitative research study examined the impact that non-counseling duties have on school counselors’ professional identity. The 10 participants were tenured school counselors who worked in a suburban county in a mid-Atlantic state. This generic qualitative study explored how school counselors can perceive non-counseling duties and how those duties may be redefined by integrating clinical components to align them with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model. Generic qualitative methodology structures the study for a greater understanding of a phenomenon, school counselors’ perceptions of their professional identity and does non-counseling duties impact those perceptions. Semi-structured interviews revealed the participants’ perceptions towards their roles as school counselors, non-counseling duties, their own professional identities, and their ability to change their perception of non-counseling duties to align with the ASCA National Model. Thematic analysis of the data revealed themes that addressed how those participants perceived non-counseling duties and their perceptions of their professional identity. This study indicates there was a direct effect on professional identity due to the assignment of non-counseling duties and the perception of the school counselors of those duties. The participating school counselors spoke of a positive perception of their school counseling role, which focused on how they performed their job. They perceived non-counseling duties to be an interference to performing their role as a school counselor. In addition to their perceptions to non-counseling duties, the school counselors that participated struggled to describe their perceptions of their professional identity.

Although there is a large investment made in technology in our public and private schools each year, there has been comparatively little effort made into understanding the impact of that technology on our students. This study examines the relationship between student boredom, media multitasking, and distraction in an effort to understand the impact of media multitasking on our students. To examine this, a mixed methods design was utilized, consisting of a memory recall experiment, student interviews, and a survey instrument. This study found that laptops are preferred over iPads for both focus and academic reasons, and it discovered classroom environments and teaching methodologies that caused distraction to occur as well as strategies employed by students to attempt to overcome distraction. Ultimately, this study did not find an impact on academic performance as assessed by a memory recall experiment. As a result, this study contributes significant knowledge into technology distraction at the high school level as well as modifications that can help improve student focus.

Secondary traumatic stress is the physiological reaction to vicarious traumatization. Public child welfare workers are exposed daily to the traumas of child maltreatment from neglect to death. Unlike other first responders, child welfare workers have continued exposure to the trauma of child maltreatment with every report, change in placement, and discussion. Rural child welfare workers have an added burden of issues common to both the children and families they serve, and to themselves as members of their communities: isolation, social proximity, dual relationships, remoteness, and fewer resources. In an effort to identify the experiences of secondary traumatic stress in rural child welfare workers in this study, eight child welfare workers were individually interviewed from two separate, remote, rural communities. Using semi-structured, open-ended questions, discussions of their experiences produced a wealth of data that was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings gave discovery that rural child welfare workers do experience secondary traumatic stress, and included symptoms such as: depression, frustration, exhaustion, sleeplessness, crying, hypervigilance, avoidance, guilt, loss of appetite, and more. Many of these symptoms were exacerbated by the characteristics of the remote, rural community as there were few outlets and venues for discussing and debriefing in privacy. Conclusions were rural child welfare agencies need to engage in providing trauma informed training and support to their workers, and include secondary trauma as part of their culture in supervision and management. Finally, several new resources are discussed which are available to agencies and staff from national child welfare institutes, agencies, and online publications.

The purpose of this study was to better understand the impact of parental involvement as minority students access information while preparing for college. Two qualitative questions formed the foundation of this study: 1. How does parental involvement contribute to minority students’ access to TRIO? 2. What roles do minority parents play in their children’s education while they are enrolled in TRIO? Participants of this study were minority parents whose children were enrolled in TRIO. In total, 9 minority parents participated in this study – 67% Hispanic, 22% Pacific-Islanders, and 11% Native-American. To collect data a semi-structured interview was used; interviews were face-to-face and lasting approximately one hour. Three themes emerged from participants’ interview: 1) passive parental involvement; 2) the impact of TRIO, and 3) active parental involvement. Examples and a further explanation of each theme are described in the results chapter of this thesis.

Researchers have associated parent involvement in primary schools with the improvement of grades, attendance, and the decrease of negative social behaviors. Consequently, parent involvement has improved in many primary schools. However, in secondary schools, parent participation continues to be deficient, particularly among Latino and African American communities due to language barriers, low incomes, and lack of social networks. Research is needed on how parent participation affects student achievement in secondary schools with underserved populations. Social capital theory provided the conceptual framework to help determine if parent involvement could create parent-school relationships that would lead to improved student academic and behavioral outcomes in a predominantly minority urban charter high school. The quasi-experimental observational study used program data and pre and post archived student records provided over a 2-year period from a convenience sample of 83 continuously enrolled students. Epstein’s framework was used to categorize types of parent involvement, which constituted the independent variables. T tests and chi-squared analyses were used to test the association between the independent variables and dependent variables. The study found a limited association between GPA and ELA grades and certain types of parent participation activities for students overall, but not for English Language Learners. Attendance was not found to be affected significantly and data were lacking on suspensions and expulsions. The results of this study informs administrators who seek to increase parent involvement in order to improve student achievement and decrease the drop-out rate in high schools serving at risk students.

Although school dropout rate remains a significant social and economic concern to our nation and has generated considerable research, little attention by scholars has examined the phenomena of re-engagement in effective school context and its developmental influences on at-risk students expectancy for success and task-value towards graduation. Given the multifaceted interactions of school context and the complex developmental needs of at-risk students, there were dual purposes for this three-phase, two-method qualitative study that addressed the literature concerns.

The first purpose was to explore and identify policies, programs, and practices perceived as being most effective in re-engaging at-risk students behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively, at ten Model Continuation High Schools in California. Phases one and two collected data on the Model Continuation High Schools (MCHS) to address this purpose.

In phase one, an inductive document review of the ten MCHS applications including four statement letters was conducted and results identified eleven policies, ten programs, and eleven practices that were effective in re-engaging at-risk students behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively. In phase two, the phenomenological ten-step analysis of semi-structured administrator interviews revealed eight re-engaging implementation strategies perceived to be effective with at-risk students.

The second purpose was to build upon Eccles' Expectancy-Value Theoretical Framework by gaining insight on effective school context that supported at-risk students' developmentally appropriate expectancy for success and task-value beliefs towards graduation. Phase three conducted a deductive content analysis of eight theoretical based components on the combine data collected in phases one and two to address this second purpose. Results revealed that principles of Eccles’ Expectancy-Value Model were evident in all identified policies, programs, and practices of the ten MCHS.

Model Continuation High Schools are exemplary sites with effective school context that have much to share with other continuation high schools looking for successful re-engaging approaches for at-risk students. The research provided results suggesting that MCHS had significant policies, programs, practices and implementation strategies that transform disengaged at-risk students into graduates by developing students' expectancy for success belief and task-value belief towards graduation. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed.

This mixed method study examined the effectiveness of a school-based program that has been integrating trauma-informed education and art therapy for three decades to treat adolescents who have experienced complex trauma, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and toxic stress. To date, no clinical-effectiveness outcomes research or systematic program evaluation had been conducted at Northern California School (pseudonym). This research included 15 former student participants who attended the program over the past 15 years, as well as 28 current and former staff employed over the past 30 years. Research methods include tenets of effectiveness studies, program evaluation, and narrative analysis. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 195 archival clinical files, questionnaires distributed to former students and staff, and in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The results provide demographic characteristics of each sample; for former student participants, this includes ACE scores describing the prevalence of the 10 major types of childhood trauma, and GSE scores describing present-day level of functioning. Results also provide characteristics of treatment, significant correlates of graduating from the program with a high school diploma, and ratings of process and outcome variables as well as various treatment modalities by former students and staff participants. Dialogical narrative analysis was utilized to analyze qualitative data gathered during the in-depth, semi-structured interviews, and the stories of three former students, four art therapists, and the voice of the researcher are presented in the form of short stories to provide an overview of the experience of art therapy in the voices of former students and staff. This research contributes evidence that art therapy is an impactful and effective component of treatment for adolescents with complex trauma and higher ACE scores, and may create lifelong patterns for these individuals of seeking therapeutic support in times of distress.

Because the Latino population is the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States and because sexual assault is a common crime, it is important to understand the mental health implications on sexually assaulted Latinas. A quantitative study on secondary data explored PTSD and depression symptoms in a sample of Latina sexual assault survivors.

Data from 79 Latina sexual assault survivors who received psychotherapy revealed that after six sessions they no longer met criteria for PTSD. Furthermore, after 6 sessions their depression rates also decreased. Latina sexual assault survivors benefit from brief treatment.

Findings in this study may help educate the Latino community on the importance of mental health services after traumatic sexual experiences.