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Understanding Preschoolers' Emotion Regulation and Task Engagement: The Role of High-Quality Teacher Instructional Support Practices
No full textChildren’s ability to engage positively with tasks or learning activities in the preschool classroom is a key indicator of their school readiness. Regulation-related skills, such as emotion regulation, provide a foundation for children to get the most of a learning environment and are associated with positive academic engagement. Notably, children growing up in poverty are at an increased risk for lower self-regulation and have more to gain from high-quality early childhood education programs, in which teachers’ use of high-quality instructional practices may act as a protective factor. In a secondary analysis of two cohorts of preschoolers (N = 480) from 71 Head Start classrooms, the current study used a multilevel analytic approach to examine child-level emotion regulation and lability as contributors to children’s observed task engagement, as well as the direct and moderating role of classroom-level instructional support quality. Findings highlight both emotional lability (i.e., dysregulation) and instructional support quality as significant predictors of children’s gains in task engagement from fall to spring of the preschool year. Sensitivity analyses are included. Implications for future research, practice, and policy in the early childhood education context are discussed.</p
Unwelcome Fruit of Inequity: A Critical Examination of Systemic Barriers to Black Student Retention at Predominately White Institutions
No full textThis study examines how legacy admissions, culturally biased standardized testing, and the underrepresentation of Black faculty create systemic barriers that hinder the retention of Black students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Guided by Critical Race Theory, Validation Theory, and Community Cultural Wealth, the research explains how these factors shape Black students’ experiences and contribute to inequities in persistence and graduation. The study reviews literature on institutional racism, equity-centered leadership, and culturally sustaining practices, identifying how these issues intersect with PWI policies, campus climate, and faculty representation. It also considers how institutional responses such as test-optional admissions, mentorship initiatives, and inclusive pedagogies shape students’ sense of belonging, academic validation, and retention. Because college leaders influence institutional environments, this dissertation develops a race-conscious, equity-centered training curriculum to guide administrators, faculty, and staff in implementing meaningful structural and cultural change. Findings show that admissions practices like legacy preferences and standardized testing function as racialized filters that disadvantage Black students, while low representation of Black faculty limits access to culturally relevant mentorship and affirming learning environments. Test-optional policies broadened access but did not improve retention without sustained investment in culturally responsive supports. Institutions adopting HBCU-informed models, culturally responsive mentoring, or collaborative pedagogies demonstrated stronger retention, whereas race-neutral or symbolic reforms yielded limited progress. Overall, comprehensive, leadership-driven structural change and continued use of CRT, Validation Theory, and Community Cultural Wealth can guide PWIs in fostering equity, belonging, and academic success for all students. </p
Barriers to Measurement-Based Care Implementation: Clinician Behavioral Determinants
No full textMeasurement-Based Care (MBC) integrates routine assessments into treatment to improve client outcomes, yet it's effectiveness depends on clinician fidelity. Theoretical frameworks, including the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) and Contextualized Feedback Intervention Theory (CFIT), highlight mechanisms influencing MBC use (Damschroder et al., 2022; Riemer & Bickman, 2011), while the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) identifies clinician behaviors critical to implementation (Atkins et al., 2017). Key TDF domains including beliefs about capabilities, consequences, behavioral regulation, and social influences shape MBC fidelity. This study examines these domains to identify barriers and facilitators of MBC use. Data was collected from a randomized controlled trial study assessing unidimensional (client outcomes) and multidimensional (client outcomes & therapeutic process indicators) MBC. Clinicians (N = 59) from four community mental health clinics serving youth (ages 11-16) in inpatient, intensive outpatient, and intensive in-home services settings used an online Measurement Feedback System (MFS) to implement MBC with their clients (N = 955). Baseline clinician measures included: self-efficacy, Personal Innovativeness in the Domain of Information Technology, Numeracy and Graph Skills, Monitoring and Feedback Attitudes Scale, Regulatory Focus, Internal Feedback Propensity, and Team Psychological Safety. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) revealed significant clinician-level variability in MBC fidelity. Overall fidelity was low (42% completion rate, 44% viewing rate, and 25% implementation index). Contrary to hypotheses, self-efficacy negatively predicted fidelity, while session count positively predicted higher fidelity. Significant office-level differences emerged, suggesting that factors beyond clinician characteristics (e.g., organizational and structural elements) impact MBC use. Further research should explore multi-level barriers to support MBC adoption across diverse community settings.</p
Development of a Dynamic Next Generation Semicircular Canal Assessment Device
No full textAccurate evaluation of vertical semicircular canal (SCC) function remains a critical gap in vestibular diagnostics. This dissertation presents an integrated and automated rotational testing platform that delivers precise, repeatable stimuli for assessment of all six SCC planes. Here, we designed, validated, and acquired preliminary normative data for a rotational testing paradigm consisting of the vertical computerized rotational head impulse test (crHIT-Vertical), the sinusoidal harmonic acceleration test (vSHA), and the velocity-step (vVST) test. crHIT-Vertical yielded higher VOR gains with <5% of values falling outside normative limits compared to 35% in for standard vHIT, with significantly reduced variability and asymmetry across all canals. vSHA testing at 0.08, 0.16, and 0.64 Hz produced VOR gains that increased proportionately with chair velocity and showed consistent gain-phase relationships across canal planes (p < 0.05). vVST revealed shorter time constants and smaller gains in vertical versus horizontal planes, with no correlation to vHIT metrics regardless of acceleration or deceleration. Together, these protocols establish a unified, frequency-dependent framework for precise evaluation of both vertical and horizontal SCC function, directly addressing longstanding diagnostic limitations in vestibular care.</p
Trajectories and Predictors of Alliance in an Online Relationship Intervention
No full textIn both individual and couple therapy, the therapeutic alliance explains approximately 7% of the variance in treatment outcomes. Existing evidence indicates that the alliance remains a key predictor of outcomes in teletherapy and even digital-first interventions for individuals. Research on alliance in digital interventions with couples is limited, but some studies show its importance in these contexts as well. However, trajectories of alliance in digital-first interventions for couples, as well as predictors of alliance in digital interventions for both individuals and couples, remain underexamined. This study involved a sample of 298 couples enrolled in the OurRelationship program, an online intervention for low-income couples supported by brief coach calls. It used a multi-level modeling framework to examine two aims: (1) coach alliance means, variability, and slopes and (2) predictors of the strength and slopes of alliance. Specifically, gender, psychological distress, conflict, emotional trust, and relationship satisfaction were explored as predictors, as these have been shown to influence alliance in other service delivery formats. Aim 1 analyses revealed that alliance ratings were positive, with a mean alliance of 8.97 for men and 9.37 for women, and it grew over time even when controlling for the effect of program completion. Linear modeling of the effect of time fit the data better than nonlinear modeling. Aim 2 results revealed that gender, emotional trust, and relationship satisfaction predicted mean alliance, whereas distress and conflict did not. No variables significantly predicted the rate of change of alliance over time, and there was no evidence of gender moderating any predictors. The findings suggest that positive alliances do form in online couple interventions and that they grow over time, replicating extant literature in couple therapy. They also emphasize the importance for practitioners to intentionally foster alliances with male partners and with couples experiencing low levels of trust or relationship satisfaction.</p
Reducing Harm Among Harm Reductionists: A Scoping Review of Harms Experienced by Peer Service Navigators in Harm Reduction Settings
No full textPeer service navigation has strong evidence of enhancing health outcomes across various healthcare settings, with the potential to play a critical role in harm reduction settings by providing accessible, stigma-free care to people who inject drugs, who often experience both health-related harms associated with injection drug use and barriers to care. Due to the dual identity of being both service providers and individuals with lived experience of substance use, peers face unique occupational harms, including high-stress occupational environments and burnout. This scoping review examines the experiences and harms encountered by peer service navigators working within harm reduction settings. Using a pre-defined search strategy. A comprehensive search across five electronic databases identified 6,470 studies eligible to be screened, with 63 studies ultimately eligible for full-text review, and four studies included. Data was extracted using a structured coding template, describing key study characteristics, and guided by the Axis of Nested Hierarchies framework, categorizing findings into above water (e.g., organizational and societal) and underwater (e.g., individual and biological factors) themes, as well as recommendations for action and research. All studies reported both benefits and harms in the above water domain (e.g., social connection and workforce harms), while Two of the four articles documented underwater benefits (e.g., reciprocal learning and recovery maintenance), and three of the four articles documented underwater harms (e.g., recovery maintenance, personal resource strains, and vicarious/dual trauma). All four studies provided recommendations for action (e.g., targeted support, retention, and bolstered benefits) and research (e.g., peer perspectives and longitudinal workforce outcomes). This review highlights the urgent need for interventions supporting peer service navigators in harm reduction settings. To best support public health priorities, additional research is needed to identify longer-term, structural leverage points.</p
On Extending Predictable Forward Performance Processes to Cumulative Prospect Theory
No full textThis dissertation advances the theory of Predictable Forward Performance Processes (PFPPs) by developing new models inspired by behavioral finance, focusing on rank-dependent and loss-averse preferences.Chapter 1 introduces PFPPs in continuous and discrete time, reviews the limitations of expected utility in dynamic settings, and provides background on behavioral models—particularly Cumulative Prospect Theory and its three components: probability distortion, loss aversion, and reference dependence.Chapter 2 develops Rank-Dependent PFPPs (RDPFPPs) by incorporating probability distortions into the PFPP framework. In conditionally complete markets, their existence reduces to solving a sequence of integral equations. Using Volterra techniques, we construct explicit solutions, including closed-form expressions when inverse marginal functions are completely monotonic. A conditionally complete Black-Scholes market model illustrates the approach.Chapter 3 addresses PFPPs for loss-averse agents. Instead of S-shaped utilities, we apply the concavification principle to use concave envelopes that preserve loss aversion while avoiding non-concavities. The resulting forward problem leads to a free-boundary Fredholm integral equation of the first kind. We study its ill-posed structure via a characteristic system and Tikhonov regularization, using resolvent analysis and finite-rank kernel approximations to ensure existence and uniqueness. The resulting methods offer constructive, tractable solutions for PFPPs with behavioral features.Overall, this work bridges forward investment theory with behavioral decision making models, contributing to the broader effort of incorporating empirically relevant preferences into stochastic control frameworks.</p
Further Characterization of the Affective Itch Circuit in Mice
No full textThe central amygdala (CeA) is known to be highly involved in mediating itch and anxiety, but the pathways and mechanisms are yet to be fully understood. The goal of this project was to further study two subsets of the neuronal population within the parabrachial nucleus (PBN)-CeA pathway. The first population is itch-responsive PBN neurons, which project to the CeA. These neurons were captured using the targeted recombination in active populations system and were activated using optogenetic stimulation. I found that activating these neurons could cause an increase in spontaneous scratching, but caused no change in pruritogen induced scratching, anxiety-like behaviors, or pain-like behaviors. Additionally, I found that inhibiting these neurons in a chronic itch model could decrease the amount of spontaneous scratching but did not change anxiety-like behaviors. The second population of neurons are CeA neurons that express neuropeptide y receptor 2. When activated with optogenetics, these neurons had a significant decrease in pruritogen induced scratching behaviors, but no change in anxiety-like behaviors or pain-like behaviors. Overall, I found that these two subsets of the neuronal population within the PBN-CeA pathway seem to be itch specific but have opposite effects on itch behavior when activated. Further research is necessary to fully understand how they interact with each other in the itch affective circuit.</p
AI for Content Management
No full textRecent advances in generative AI have enabled marketers to produce content at unprecedented speed. However, conventional content testing methods such as A/B testing and multi-armed bandit testing have not evolved to match this accelerated pace. This dissertation addresses this challenge by proposing two novel AI-driven systems designed to enhance the speed and efficiency of content testing in marketing. In the first essay, I propose the Email Open Rate Predictor (EMOP), an AI system that leverages recipients' characteristics, headlines’ topics, emotions, and campaign sending times to predict email campaign open rates. EMOP enables marketers to instantly evaluate countless variations of email campaigns without needing large samples or waiting hours for results. The second essay presents DeepAudio, an AI system specifically developed to assess the likeability of audio ads, filling a critical gap since prominent online audio platforms currently lack built-in ad testing capabilities. DeepAudio integrates established psychological insights on ad effectiveness with advanced AI algorithms to automatically evaluate multiple audio ads. Extensive validation confirms DeepAudio's robustness and generalizability, providing marketers with immediate and actionable insights. Together, EMOP and DeepAudio provide marketers with efficient and effective tools, significantly enhancing their ability to optimize content performance at the speed of modern AI content creation.</p
Psychological and Behavioral Pathways from School Bullying to Adolescent Obesity in Florida
No full textBackground: Adolescent bullying is a prevalent issue that may contribute to long-term health risks, including obesity. This study aimed to examine how school bullying relates to adolescent BMI percentile and to identify the psychological and behavioral pathways that mediate this association.Methods: We used a representative sample of Florida high school students from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBS). A multi-step analytic framework was applied, including LASSO regression with survey weights to identify candidate mediators, followed by a total effect model to assess significant predictors of body mass index percentile (BMI%). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to validate latent constructs, and structural equation modeling (SEM) estimated direct and indirect effects within a causal mediation framework.Results: Structural equation modeling revealed that bullying was significantly associated with mental distress (β = 0.23), risk behaviors (β = 0.49), and body dissatisfaction (β = 0.66). The final model demonstrated acceptable fit (CFI = 0.814, RMSEA = 0.066) and explained 34.2% of the variance in adolescent BMI percentile. These findings support a multi-pathway framework linking school bullying to obesity through psychological and behavioral mechanisms. Conclusions: Bullying contributes to adolescent obesity through distinct psychological and behavioral mechanisms. Prevention efforts should target not only bullying behaviors but also the underlying mental health and body image concerns that link victimization to physical health outcomes. Policy reforms, including weight-based protections and school-based mental health services, are needed to address these interconnected risks