Parenting is important to a child’s development of empathy. Specifically, parental warmth provides children with emotional connection and a model to learn how to manage their emotions and respond to others’ emotions. Yet warmth is just one dimension of parenting. Supportiveness may also be important but has not yet been...
BACKGROUND: The association of vitamin D with heart attack and stroke remains unclear.
METHOD: Using data from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS), we collected
dietary vitamin D data from 5,995 participants and serum (25)OH vitamin D from 1,606
participants. The association of vitamin D with prevalent heart attack...
Self-regulation skills in children are an important indicator of positive life outcomes such as health and wealth. Techniques to improve self-regulation are important, as well as understanding what factors influence child development of self-regulation. This study investigates the connection between total minutes of physical activity per day, as well as...
Child behavior disorders are the second most prevalent form of mental illness affecting children in the United States (Perou et al., 2013), with lifetime prevalence estimated at 10% (Nock, Kazdin, Hiripi & Kessler, 2007). Negative outcomes associated with ODD during childhood and adolescence include conflict in families, poor peer relationships,...
In the United States, children from underserved racial/ethnic backgrounds encounter greater environmental risk both in terms of the physical environment (e.g., housing quality, access to resources like health services and jobs, and exposure to environmental toxins) and the social environment (e.g., social support, neighborhood crime, racism, and discrimination), due to...
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted family dynamics, specifically with mothers experiencing unique stressors and challenges. This study explored the association between mothers' anxiety induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and their children’s executive function outcome during preschool. A quantitative approach was used with a sample of 219 families in Oregon, utilizing...
Children's early self-regulation skills have long-term implications for a variety of academic, social, and health outcomes. Unfortunately, children facing multiple family risk factors (e.g., harsh parenting, economic disadvantage) are more likely to struggle with early self-regulation. Despite early disparities in self-regulation, promising intervention evidence suggests that high quality prekindergarten experiences...
Positive teacher-child relationships, characterized by warmth and closeness, are associated with better behavioral and academic outcomes for children in preschool and elementary school (Hamre & Pianta, 2005). Supporting teachers to establish these positive relationships with children is important in all early care and education (ECE) programs. Head Start programs, designed...
Compassion fatigue is a common struggle that helping professionals face; however, it is not yet well understood in early childhood teachers. Compassion fatigue results from caring for individuals who have had traumatic experiences, which can cause physical and emotional exhaustion, leading to a diminished ability to empathize with individuals in...
Early behavioral regulation has been identified as an important component of school readiness, yet few easy-to-administer measures exist that directly assess this skill in young children outside of the United States (U.S.). In this dissertation, two studies were conducted to examine the reliability and validity of a direct measure of...
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Shannon B. Wanless, Author
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my advisors, Megan M
The purpose of this study was to understand the influence of organic material and nutrients from spawning salmon and supplemented salmon carcasses on stream food webs. My study objectives were to examine 1) assimilation of salmon-derived nutrients (SDN) by producers and consumers in the food web, 2) epilithic biofilm productivity,...
Celiac disease, an autoimmune response triggered by the consumption of seed storage proteins of cereals, affects an estimated 1% of the human population. In the case of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), one of the world’s most consumed cereals, alcohol-soluble proteins, the gliadins, have been identified as the allergy-eliciting agents. Previous...
Fluctuations and spatial heterogeneity of habitat and resources is thought to underlie niche variation in animal populations, with intraspecific differences serving to produce or maintain population-, community-, or ecosystem-level patterns. Individual diet variation, defined as individual variation in food resource use within a population that is consistent over time, is...
Immune-mediated diseases are a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality in canine patients. Treatments currently involve generalized suppression of the immune system, and corticosteroids are often used as a first-line agent. While often effective, corticosteroids are unlikely to induce remission without substantial side effects. Second-line immunosuppressive agents may be effective...
The rising demand on freshwater resources emphasizes the benefit of biogeochemical processes that maintain clean water by removing pollutants such as excess nitrogen. The most sensitive step in the removal of nitrogen from waterways is the oxidation of ammonia, a part of nitrification, which is carried out by ammonia oxidizing...
The undisputed cost-effectiveness of the anti-homelessness program “Housing First” is well established in the empirical literature, but fewer studies have considered the impact of the program on individual residents. This mixed-methods study examines the lives of a cohort of residents in a Portland-based Housing First project, seeking to determine whether...