The purpose of this study is to determine how the intersectionality of the variables parental relationships, peer relationships, religiosity and susceptibility of control are predictors of self-control and flourishing in college. Self-control is a predictor of many aspects of flourishing behavior and positive outcomes in college. Understanding…

Every year roughly 50% of graduate students drop out of doctoral programs (Farkas, 2018). Per Farkas (2018), the top seven reasons for this include time management difficulties, conflicts with a supervisor, the student's thesis not having a "story," exhaustion or burnout, problems writing up theses (one of the main problems described is…

This dissertation consists of a theoretical review and two empirical studies investigating college students' academic effort beliefs (AEB) and their relationship to academic functioning. The overarching goal of this project was to (a) better understand how college students think about effort as it relates to their academic endeavors, (b) develop a…

This study investigated high-achieving and non-high-achieving students' persistence in STEM fields using nationally representative data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 for the years 2009, 2012, 2013, 2013-2014, and 2016. The results indicated that approximately 70% of high-achieving and non-high-achieving students continued their…

There is limited research on sexuality education for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The present study examined special education teachers' feelings of self-efficacy to teach sexuality education to students with IDD. Using a 36-item Attitudes and Beliefs Instrument and a 13-item Self Efficacy Survey, this study…

Disruptive behavior problems develop along multiple causal pathways and are associated with a wide variety of co-occurring problems, including mood disorders. In usual care, effective treatment practices for youth disruptive behavior might differ from what the efficacy research suggests, given treatment setting and population demographic…

This study examined patterns and predictors of 79 public sector therapists' practice element (PE) intentions for treating hypothetical single problem area youth with either anxiety or disruptive behavior problems. Analyses of intention profiles suggested that PE intentions varied by diagnosis and included both a majority of practices derived from…

Purpose: The purpose of this scholarly project was to determine if GRE scores (verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing) predict first-time pass rate on the NCE. This project also investigated the correlation between first-time pass rate on the NCE and the individual covariates of age at program matriculation, sex, race,…

Approximately 43% of Louisiana teachers leave the classroom within their first five years, the period in which professional practice improves most quickly. As more effective teachers leave, districts are searching for replacements in an increasingly inexperienced candidate pool. To identify possible leading indicators of early-career teacher…

Prescription Drug Misuse (PDM) among college students is a concerning public health issue in the United States. Little research has examined misuse behaviors as they occur in college students' daily lives, limiting our understanding of the context of misuse and real-time misuse predictors. The goal of my dissertation was to better understand PDM…

Estimates indicate that transfer of newly learned knowledge and skills varies between 10% (Fitzpatrick, 2001) and 62% (Saks, 2002) despite organizations spending a significant amount of resources on training. The Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI; Bates et al., 2012; Holton et al., 2007) was developed to provide a consistent measurement…

Identifying early risk factors for the development of social anxiety symptoms has important translational implications. Accurately identifying which children are at the highest risk is of critical importance, especially if we can identify risk early in development. We examined continued risk for social anxiety symptoms at the transition to…

Some of the worst long-term outcomes of children are associated with the presence of both externalizing behavior and low academic achievement. Additionally, trajectories of externalizing problem behavior have shown that when children enter kindergarten with problem behavior, it tends to persist and is often associated with low academic…

This study reports on adolescents' experiences as exchange students in the Rotary Youth Exchange program. Based on a literature review and multivariate analysis of original survey data collected from 408 exchange students from 40 home countries that had spent a year in one out of 37 destination countries, the study concludes that students'…

The aim of the present study was to identify the state of prediction of the critical thinking dispositions of primary school teacher candidates through their self-efficacy for STEM. The study was designed subject to the correlational survey model with the sample group comprised of 295 primary school teacher candidates continuing their education at…