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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) from strawberries was purified,
partially characterized, and used to study its role in the degradation
of anthocyanin pigments. The extraction method included the use of a
buffered solution containing the phenolic binders Polyclar AT and
Amberlite XAD-4. Addition of Triton X-100 resulted in an increase of
the...