Faculty Bibliography

This study explores the pathways through which school-based mentoring relationships are associated with improvements in elementary and high school students' socio-emotional, academic, and behavioral outcomes. Participants in the study (N=526) were part of a national evaluation of the Big Brothers Big Sisters school-based mentoring programs, all of whom had been randomly assigned to receive mentoring at their schools over the course of one academic year. Students were assessed at the beginning and end of the school year. The results of structural equation modeling showed that mentoring relationship quality, as measured by the Youth-Centered Relationship scale and the Youth's Emotional Engagement scale, was significantly associated with positive changes in youths' relationships with parents and teachers, as measured by subscales of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, the Teacher Relationship Quality scale, and the Hemingway Measure of Adolescent Connectedness. Higher quality relationships with parents and teachers, in turn, were significantly associated with better youth outcomes, including self-esteem, academic attitudes, prosocial behaviors, and misconduct. The effect sizes of the associations ranged from 0.12 to 0.52. Mediation analysis found that mentoring relationship quality was indirectly associated with some of the outcomes through its association with improved parent and teacher relationships. Implications of the findings for theory and research are discussed.

This study explored the roles and psychological experiences identified as defining adult moments using mixed methods with a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse sample of young adults both enrolled and not enrolled in college (N = 726; ages 18-35). First, we evaluated results from a single survey item that asked participants to rate how adult they feel. Consistent with previous research, the majority of participants (56.9%) reported feeling "somewhat like an adult," and older participants had significantly higher subjective adulthood, controlling for other demographic variables. Next, we analyzed responses from an open-ended question asking participants to describe instances in which they felt like an adult. Responses covered both traditional roles (e.g., marriage, childbearing; 36.1%) and nontraditional social roles and experiences (e.g., moving out of parent's home, cohabitation; 55.6%). Although we found no differences by age and college status in the likelihood of citing a traditional or nontraditional role, participants who had achieved more traditional roles were more likely to cite them in their responses. In addition, responses were coded for psychological experiences, including responsibility for self (19.0%), responsibility for others (15.3%), self-regulation (31.1%), and reflected appraisals (5.1%). Older participants were significantly more likely to include self-regulation and reflected appraisals, whereas younger participants were more likely to include responsibility for self. College students were more likely than noncollege students to include self-regulation and reflected appraisals. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

We explored changes in self-management skills and substance use from 7th to 11th grade in a multiwave study of predominantly minority adolescents (N = 1,756). Using latent growth curve analysis, we found that substance use significantly increased, whereas self-management skills significantly decreased. In a parallel process model, we found that participants who reported higher self-management skills in the 7th grade had smaller increases in substance use. Participants who had larger decreases in self-management skills tended to have greater increases in substance use. We also explored the influence of grades and gender and found that (a) participants with higher grades at baseline had lower initial substance use, higher initial self-management skills, and smaller increases in substance use, and (b) male participants had greater increases in substance use. These results suggest that the provision of self-management skills may be an effective strategy for preventing substance-use initiation and escalation during adolescence.

This study explored pathways through which hurricane-related stressors affected the psychological functioning of elementary school aged children who survived Hurricane Katrina. Participants included 184 mothers from the New Orleans area who completed assessments one year pre-disaster (Time 1), and one and three years post-disaster (Time 2 and Time 3, respectively). Mothers rated their children's behavior problems at Time 3 only (n = 251 children; 53.0% male; Mean age: 10.19 years, SD = 1.68 years). A path analytic model indicated that hurricane-related stressors were associated with increased maternal psychological distress and school mobility in the first post-disaster year, which were associated with higher child internalizing and externalizing symptoms three years post-disaster. Mediation analysis indicated that hurricane-related stressors were associated with child symptoms indirectly, through their impact on maternal psychological distress. Findings underscore the importance of interventions that boost maternal and child mental health and support children through post-disaster school transitions.

Little is known about the impact of natural disasters on marital and partner relationships. In this study, the authors aimed to fill this gap by investigating the changes in such relationships in a sample of 40 low-income, mostly African American women who survived Hurricane Katrina. Through in-depth interviews, participants described how the hurricane affected their intimate relationships. The authors found that, although many participants reported negative changes in their relationships, others reported that their relationships grew stronger, often despite initial strain. As a framework for understanding the processes underlying participants' negative and positive outcomes, the authors drew on the family stress model. Consistent with the model, participants reported that the hurricane led to external stressors, including unemployment and prolonged separations, and that these stressors, in turn, undermined both individual functioning and relational processes (e.g., communication and support). Conversely, participants reporting positive changes experienced new employment opportunities, a greater sense of perspective, and high levels of effective communication and support in their relationships. Based on the findings, policies that reduce the economic strain of low-income families in the aftermath of disasters and empirically supported, culturally sensitive, clinical interventions for individuals and couples are recommended.

Previous research on natural disasters has been limited by a lack of predisaster data and statistical analyses that do not adequately predict change in psychological symptoms. In the current study, we addressed these limitations through analysis of 3 waves of data from a longitudinal investigation of 313 low-income, African American mothers who were exposed to Hurricane Katrina. Although postdisaster cross-sectional estimates of the impact of traumatic stress exposure and postdisaster social support on postdisaster psychological distress were somewhat inflated, the general trends persisted when controlling for predisaster data (B = 0.88 and -0.33, vs. B = 0.81 and -0.27, respectively). Hierarchical linear modeling of the 3 waves of data revealed that lower predisaster social support was associated with higher psychological distress at the time of the disaster (beta = -.16), and that higher traumatic stress exposure was associated with greater increases in psychological distress after the storm (beta = .86). Based on the results, we suggest that the impact of traumatic stress on psychological trajectories cannot be accounted for solely by preexisting risk, and recommend more complex research designs to further illuminate the complex, dynamic relationships between psychological distress, traumatic stress exposure, and social support.

In this study, we explored predictors of community college re-enrollment after Hurricane Katrina among a sample of low-income women (N = 221). It was predicted that participants' pre-hurricane educational optimism would predict community college re-enrollment a year after the hurricane. The influence of various demographic and additional resources (e.g., social support, childcare, hours of employment, psychological well-being) was also explored. High levels of pre- and post-hurricane educational optimism were significant predictors of re-enrollment, as were lower post-hurricane psychological distress and fewer post-hurricane hours employed. In addition, experiencing a greater number of moves since the hurricane was a marginally significant predictor of post-hurricane re-enrollment.

A high prevalence of the sequence variant c.1436C-->T in the CPT1A gene has been identified among Alaska Native newborns but the clinical implications of this variant are unknown. We conducted medically supervised fasts in 5 children homozygous for the c.1436C-->T variant. Plasma free fatty acids increased normally in these children but their long-chain acylcarnitine and ketone production was significantly blunted. The fast was terminated early in two subjects due to symptoms of hypoglycemia. Homozygosity for the c.1436C-->T sequence variant of CPT1A impairs fasting ketogenesis, and can cause hypoketotic hypoglycemia in young children. Trial registration www.clinical trials.gov NCT00653666 "Metabolic Consequences of CPT1A Deficiency"

In the present study, the authors examined the role of child-related stressors in the psychological adjustment of lower-income, primarily unmarried and African American, mothers (N = 386). All participants lived in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina, and about a third were also exposed to Hurricane Rita (30.3%, n = 117). Lacking knowledge of a child's safety during the hurricanes was a significant predictor of heightened postdisaster psychological distress and posttraumatic stress, even after controlling for demographic variables, predisaster psychological distress, evacuation timing, and bereavement. From interviews with a subset of the participants (n = 57), we found that mothers consistently put their own needs behind those of their children. The authors recommend policies that promptly reunite mothers with missing children and support lower-income mothers in caring for their children during natural disasters and the aftermath.