Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2016-10-24T00:00:00Z
Women with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have become focus of research only recently, thus far there is little knowledge about the female phenotype of ASD in relation to social information...Show moreWomen with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have become focus of research only recently, thus far there is little knowledge about the female phenotype of ASD in relation to social information processing. This study focused on social cognition in high functioning women with ASD with specific focus on social attention and empathy. Participants consisted of 31 women with ASD and 29 non-clinical controls. Social attention was assessed by measuring eye fixation patterns using eye tracking while participant watched four movie clips of children expressing specific emotions. Empathic abilities were assessed using the informant reported Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Results show deceased fixation duration on the face and mouth in women with ASD compared to non-clinical controls, no differences were found in fixation duration on the eyes, objects and outside the areas of interest. In addition, women with ASD had a reduced ability to take the other’s perspective, a reduced ability to imagine the actions and feelings of (fictional) characters, and experienced more personal distress in stressful situations compared to non-clinical controls. In women with ASD, a negative correlation was found between personal distress and total fixation duration to the face. It is concluded that women with ASD have a deviant attention in social situations and reduced cognitive empathic abilities, but have more distress in social situations al well. It is suggested that an attentional deployment hypothesis might explain the findings. These findings stress the need for adjusting diagnostic assessment and treatment of women with ASD to the female phenotype of ASD.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2019-08-29T00:00:00Z
The current study investigated and compared the development of Chinese girls adopted from institutional care, foster care, or from a mixture of both types of care to the Netherlands. The sample...Show moreThe current study investigated and compared the development of Chinese girls adopted from institutional care, foster care, or from a mixture of both types of care to the Netherlands. The sample consisted of 1106 girls who were between 4 and 18 years of age (mean age 7 years). Parents completed several questionnaires addressing all kinds of subjects related to the health and development of the adopted children. Results revealed that most girls adopted from China were healthy and experienced few developmental delays. Most girls scored high on individual strengths and competencies as well and they had satisfying relationships with their adoptive parents. Part of the adoptees showed some indiscriminate friendliness. A comparison of the care groups revealed that girls adopted from foster care were in an advantage with regard to their general health and developmental status. Mean differences between the groups, however, were small. Neither a mediating effect of children’s self-regulatory abilities, nor a moderating role of either age at adoption or the parent-child relationship could be established. Some direct effects, however, were found. Children adopted before their first birthday and children who had a very good relationship with their parents showed most developmental gains. Overall, this study provides information regarding the adjustment and development of female children adopted from various types of care in China that might be useful to adoptive parents and a range of professionals and organizations working with international adoptees.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2019-09-05T00:00:00Z
This eye-tracking study investigates whether age-related changes in the ability to take perspective influence narrative text comprehension. Thirty-two typically-developing children (M = 11.73; SD =...Show moreThis eye-tracking study investigates whether age-related changes in the ability to take perspective influence narrative text comprehension. Thirty-two typically-developing children (M = 11.73; SD = 0.74) and 34 young adults (M = 21.02; SD = 1.98) read stories in which the need to use perspective-taking abilities was systematically varied. The offline measure (after reading) suggested that adults were better and faster at making inferences in general, and both 10-12-year-olds and 18-25-year-olds were faster in making an inference in the complex perspective-taking condition (which required them to take the perspective of one of the story characters and imagine how this character would react to the intentions, thoughts, or feelings of another story character) compared to the control condition (which required them to make an inference about physical causality with regard to an object). The reading process itself revealed that 18-25-year-olds read stories faster across all conditions we examined. In addition, both 10-12-year-olds as well as adults revealed the longest reading times in the most difficult condition in which complex perspective-taking was needed to draw inferences. Stories in which the interaction between two story characters has to be taken into account are processed differently compared to stories in which no social-cognitive information is needed, as well as compared to when one only has to take the perspective of one story character. Narratives in which perspective-taking is crucial for comprehension are more difficult to process, even for adults, but are better represented in the situation model readers construct.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2019-08-19T00:00:00Z
Parents who have experienced childhood maltreatment may face difficulties when faced with the hardships of parenting. A phase that may prove to be especially difficult for parents who have...Show moreParents who have experienced childhood maltreatment may face difficulties when faced with the hardships of parenting. A phase that may prove to be especially difficult for parents who have experienced childhood maltreatment is the adolescent phase of their child, as it is often marked by conflict. In addition, their child’s young-adult phase can become difficult for maltreated parents, because this new period of exploration and reorganization of the emotional ties of the young adult with their parents also marks a period of change. Furthermore, maltreated parents may face additional difficulties are associated with childhood maltreatment, like psychological problems or less adaptive personality traits. This paper focuses on maltreated and non-maltreated parents and the quality of interaction with their adolescent or young adult children. It will be investigated whether child maltreatment experienced by the parent influences the quality of the interactions with their adolescent/young adult children and whether parental psychopathology and personality mediate the effect of experienced maltreatment by the parents on the interaction with their adolescent/young adult children. The sample consisted of 12 non-maltreated parents and 10 maltreated parents, some parents were part of the same family. Multilevel analysis was performed to consider within family nestedness of the data. Ordinary least squares regression was performed when multilevel was not possible. No effects of experienced maltreatment on parental interaction (emotional support and warmth/lack of negative affect) was found. Furthermore, there were no mediating effects of personality nor psychopathology on the association between experienced maltreatment and parental interaction. However, it was found that that childhood maltreatment can be linked to a less agreeable and more introverted disposition in adulthood. Furthermore, more introverted parents were more emotionally supportive. These tentative findings expand the scarce literature on the effect of maltreatment on personality in adulthood and of the influence of personality traits on parental interaction. Gaining more insight in how parenting is affected by personality traits and how the development of specific personality traits are affected by maltreatment might aide in providing more insight in how to assist these maltreated parents and their children.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2019-07-19T00:00:00Z
Objective. To examine the effect of the parenting style of the mother on the relation between maternal depression and the infant’s stress response system. Method. The sample consisted of 55 mothers...Show moreObjective. To examine the effect of the parenting style of the mother on the relation between maternal depression and the infant’s stress response system. Method. The sample consisted of 55 mothers and their infants. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed during pregnancy and when the infant was six months old, by means of the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Maternal parenting style was observed from mother-infant interaction during the Still Face Paradigm, when the infant was six months old. When the infant was 12 months old, a stress-paradigm was conducted during which both physiological and behavioral measures of infant stress reactivity were obtained. Results. Maternal postnatal depressive symptoms were found to be negatively related to maternal sensitivity. In addition, maternal prenatal as well as postnatal depressive symptoms were found to predict infant baseline heart rate, infant stress reactivity and infant heart rate recovery, but only in interaction with certain characteristics of the mother’s parenting style. Conclusions. The present study underlines that the way a mother interacts with her child is very important for the development of the child’s neurobiological system and that her parenting style can either buffer or enhance the effect of maternal psychopathology. Teaching mothers at risk how to interact positively and adequately with their child and how to respond to its needs, could possibly decrease the deleterious effects of maternal depression on child development.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2019-07-19T00:00:00Z
Problems with emotion regulation in childhood are related to negative child outcomes later in life, such as behavior problems. Because parents play an essential role by assisting their infant to...Show moreProblems with emotion regulation in childhood are related to negative child outcomes later in life, such as behavior problems. Because parents play an essential role by assisting their infant to develop the ability to regulate their emotions, the purpose of this study was to gain deeper understanding of the relation between maternal behavior and infants’ behavioral and physiological emotional reactivity and emotion regulation. 66 mother-infant dyads participated in two stress paradigms: the still-face paradigm was conducted at 6 months of age and the child was exposed to the robot paradigm at 12 months of age. During the stress paradigms infants’ behavioral reactivity, self-soothing behavior, heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were examined. Maternal sensitivity and maternal intrusiveness were observed during a free play task at the 6-month appointment. Overall, the infants showed behavioral and physiological arousal and regulation during stress. Although no effect of maternal intrusiveness was found, the 6-month-old infants of mothers judged as more sensitive showed more emotional reactivity, indicated by a greater increase in negative affect and heart rate than infants of less sensitive mothers. These infants also showed more physiological regulation, indicated by a greater decrease in RSA during stress than infants of less sensitive mothers. The stability of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation between 6 and 12 months was low: only the difference in RSA from stress to recovery was modestly stable. It is concluded that maternal behavior has an effect on the development of infants’ emotional reactivity and emotion regulation Future studies should further investigate the environmental characteristics influencing the development of emotion regulation in children using longitudinal designs.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2018-07-01T00:00:00Z
The aim of the present study was to examine the concept of social defeat in a human sample. Relationships between an ethnic minority position, implicit and explicit self-esteem, heart rate, skin...Show moreThe aim of the present study was to examine the concept of social defeat in a human sample. Relationships between an ethnic minority position, implicit and explicit self-esteem, heart rate, skin conductance, and social support were examined. In addition, the relationship between self-reported behavioral problems on the one hand, and self-esteem and physiology on the other hand was explored. The sample consisted of 56 male adolescents 12-18 years of age, who were divided, based on self-report behavioral problems into a high and low risk group. The implicit association task and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale were used to measure self-esteem. Measures of heart rate and skin conductance were collected during an affective research paradigm. There were no relationships between an ethnic minority position and any of the behavioral measures. Individuals reporting a significant degree of behavioral problems had lower explicit self-esteem. Average heart rate was found to be related to internalizing behavior in a low-risk group regardless of SES, self-esteem or social support. Social support did diminish the effect of average heart rate on externalizing behavior in the low-risk group. In conclusion, no clear picture of the social defeat concept is revealed by this study, more research is required.Show less
