http://hdl.handle.net/1957/18472 2013-05-16T10:27:29Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/37888 The effects of age and neuroticism on stress reactivity and cortisol diurnal rhythms : findings from the Normative Aging Study Proulx, Jeffrey A. We examined the effect of daily stress, age, and emotional stability/neuroticism on stress reactivity, using cortisol diurnal rhythms. We used data from the Normative Aging Study (Spiro & Bosse, 2001). The 72 men in this study ranged from 67-93 (M =79.29, SD =4.88). Multilevel modeling showed that higher daily stress predicted flatter cortisol diurnal rhythms, B = .09, p < .001, as did age, B = .01, p < .001, while those higher in neuroticism on the emotional stability/neuroticism measure showed steeper slopes for cortisol diurnal rhythms, B = -.04, p < .001. These results indicate that age and emotional stability/neuroticism levels explain some of the variance in individual differences in stress reactivity and provide a basis for future research focused on the effects of psychosocial variables on physiological outcomes. Graduation date: 2013 2013-01-31T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/37712 Temperamental reactivity and children's social competence Nolen-Morse, Jessica M. The current study examined relations between temperamental reactivity at 6 months and social competence in first grade, including if emotion regulation at 54 months played a role as mediator and/or moderator between temperamental reactivity and social competence in first grade. Previous studies have shown that children who are high on temperamental reactivity early on will have poorer social competence in the future (Houck, 1999). This study explored how emotion regulation might mediate this relationship as well as how emotion regulation may serve as a protective factor (e.g., moderator) for those with higher temperamental reactivity. Important background characteristics of child gender and ethnicity, mother's education, and income-to-needs ratio were controlled for. Results indicated that temperamental reactivity at 6 months did not play a significant role in social competence in first grade, nor on emotion regulation at 54 months. Emotion regulation at 54 months was also found to be neither a mediator nor a moderator between this relationship between temperamental reactivity and social competence. The only significant relationship that was found was that between emotion regulation at 54 months and social competence in first grade, which aligns with previous research. Graduation date: 2013 2013-03-14T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/37544 Influence strategies used during work and family decisions : their connection to decision and marital satisfaction Leier, Elaine M. Changes in work and family roles as more women are entering the work force prompt a re-examination of how couples make work and family decisions. Research confirms that influence is an important component of the decision-making process. Because of the recent changes in women's paid work roles, women may now use more influence strategies than when they were not in the paid work force in such large numbers. From a family decision-making perspective, investigations of the different influence strategies used in making work and family decisions have not occurred in past research. The purpose of this study was to investigate how couples make work and family decisions, examining the impact of gender role traditionality and influence strategies used in decision making. In addition, the association between influence strategies with marital satisfaction was investigated. The sample of this study consisted of 61 couples who had made a work and family decision in the past 6 months. A mail questionnaire was developed assessing the husbands' and wives' use of different influence strategies from Spiro (1983), their gender role traditionality, their satisfaction of the outcome of the decision, and marital satisfaction. The first research question addressed gender role traditionality and influence strategies. Pearson's correlations indicate that traditional wives were more likely to use reward\referent influence than nontraditional wives and that traditional husbands were more likely to use legitimate influence than nontraditional husbands. Also, the connection between gender role traditionality, influence strategies, and decision making satisfaction was investigated. Using hierarchial regression, decision outcome satisfaction accounted for 24 percent of the variance in wives' marital satisfaction. Furthermore, prediction of wives' marital satisfaction was improved 16 percent with the inclusion of influence strategies and gender role ideology to the model. Results for wives found their marital satisfaction to be greater if they used less emotional and legitimate influence but more reward\referent and impression management influences. A similar model was attempted on husband's marital satisfaction with decision making satisfaction, influence strategies, and gender role traditionality. This model accounted for 8 percent of the variance. These findings suggest that a relationship exists between gender role traditionality and the use of different influence strategies for both husbands and wives. For wives, decision making satisfaction, the use of different influence strategies, and gender role ideology all had an effect on their marital satisfaction. Graduation date: 1991 1990-11-06T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/37540 Self-care training for school age children : an impact study of parenting and employment Palmer, Diane J. An increasing number of children care for themselves (self-care) while their parents are employed outside the home. A literature review suggested a connection between child care concerns and employed parents' increased stress, role overload, and lower productivity. This study evaluated the impact of an educational training program for families with children in self-care. Twenty-one rural families with children currently in self-care participated in this study. For most families, having children in self-care had little impact on factors which influence the parents' employment preformance. The treatment lowered the amount of time parents worried about their self-care children, but did not effect telephone use or the confidence level for parents and children. Graduation date: 1991 1991-01-29T00:00:00Z