32nd Annual UMBC McNair Research Conference

The study examined the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and insecure attachment styles in adulthood. It specifically focused on how childhood neglect may predict avoidant attachment and how childhood abuse may contribute to anxious attachment. ACEs significantly impact mental, behavioral, and physical health, shaping adult relationships. Anxious attachment involves a need for constant affirmation and fear of rejection, while avoidant attachment involves emotional withdrawal, making it hard to form meaningful relationships. The research recruited 200 participants aged 18 to 76 through an online survey website called Prolific, utilizing data from the CSU Stanislaus library database and other sources. The results indicated that anxious attachment is more associated with childhood abuse, while avoidant attachment is more associated with childhood neglect. The study also emphasized the role of psychopathology, such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and emotional dysregulation, in connecting ACEs to adult relationship quality. Additionally, it highlighted the importance of supportive childhood relationships in lessening the harmful effects of ACEs. The findings aim to contribute to the development of targeted interventions for healthier attachment patterns and psychological resilience in individuals with childhood trauma histories. Data analysis is ongoing to further explore these relationships and refine the findings.

Stress has been shown to have an impact on student’s academic success. Racial minorities experience more stress compared to their white counterparts due to systemic oppression. This study's purpose is to investigate the role of stress on academic achievement between black and white students. To better understand how stress impacts academic success, the Minority Student Stress Scale (MSSS), self-reported GPA, and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) were collected from 91 undergraduate students at a predominantly white institution (PWI) from 2022-2024. Analyses using t-tests will highlight the effects of PSS scores and GPAs of black and white students. A Pearson Correlation will be conducted for MSSS and GPA for minority students. It is hypothesized that stress will negatively impact student’s academic outcomes. Students experiencing racial-related stress will impact MSSS scores and academic achievement. Our data shows that black students have higher levels of minority-related stress, while black and white students experience similar levels of perceived stress. Black students have a direct relationship between perceived stress and GPA, while white students have an inverse relationship between perceived stress and GPA. This data suggests that black and white students respond to stress differently. Further research into resilience between black and white students is needed.

Previous research has shown that children of mothers with a history of major depressive
disorder (MDD), compared to children of never depressed mothers, are at a higher risk of
developing depression themselves. However, not all children of depressed parents
develop MDD, highlighting the need to understand potential moderators of risk. This study
examined how child emotional regulation strategies, specifically cognitive reappraisal and
suppression, may moderate the link between mother MDD and children’s depressive symptoms.
Additionally, child age and gender were examined as potential moderators. We recruited
95 mother-child dyads from the community. Of the mothers, 62% had a history of MDD during
their child’s life and the others had no lifetime history of any depressive disorder. The children
were 7-15 years old, the majority were Caucasian (77.9%) and female (55.3%). Children
completed self-report questionnaires assessing emotion regulation strategies (cognitive
reappraisal and suppression) and depressive symptoms. Analyses revealed that higher levels of
suppression, but not lower levels of cognitive reappraisal, were associated with high levels of
depression in children. This relation was strongest in older boys of mothers with a history of
MDD. These findings suggest that children’s use of suppression may increase risk for
depression, particularly in at-risk older boys

Using Kipp Williams ostracism work this study focuses on experiences of inclusion/exclusion and the need to belong on social relationships. Recalling a time that one was excluded should increase one’s need to belong, and the converse should be true for recalling a memory of being included. In addition, those who enjoy thinking about relationships (high in a relationship need for cognition) should provide more robust responses to vignettes regardless of condition. Using vignettes, we explore how the need to belong can influence responses to excluded others. To manipulate the need to belong, we asked participants to recall a time they were excluded (included) and then have them respond to a series of vignettes where someone in their social group is feeling excluded. Qualitative analysis of participants' open-ended responses will explore themes and determine whether individuals use different approaches based on their conditions. We expect open-ended responses and resulting themes to demonstrate individuals use different approaches based on condition. Quantitative analysis will examine participants’ scores on the Friendship Habits Questionnaire, Relationship Need for Cognition Scale, and the Need to Belong scale. We predict that the need to belong will shape how participants respond to excluded others within their social group.

A growing body of literature has suggested that ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) is a protective factor for biracial youth as it provides youth with skills to face different adversities like racial discrimination, ultimately improving their psychological well-being. Various types of ERS exist (e.g., verbal, non-verbal, etc) across different levels (e.g., parent-child, household/family) but some have been overlooked in research. This study sought to bridge this gap by exploring ERS at the family level and determining whether it relates to depressive symptoms among biracial black-white adolescents and emerging adults. The study examined if (a) family ERS around multiracial and monoracial black topics related to depressive symptoms differently and (b) any developmental differences were present in the association between family ERS and depressive symptoms. We predicted a negative relationship between both forms of Family ERS and depressive symptoms. The methods included a secondary analysis with three multiple linear regression models conducted in SPSS Version 28. Findings indicated significant negative associations between both forms of Family ERS and depressive symptoms in biracial black-white young people. Developmental differences also emerged in these associations. The results explore the potential role that Family ERS may have regarding depressive symptoms in biracial black-white young people.

Attentional biases of social anxiety including self-focus and attention to perceived negative evaluation from others are a key role in maintaining anxiety symptoms. Self-focus on somatic symptoms prompts fear of rejection if others notice these symptoms. Exercise is a powerful interoceptive exposure strategy because it has been seen to reduce anxiety sensitivity. The current investigation will examine the effects of exercise on the perception of heart rate among socially anxious individuals. Participants filled out an online questionnaire to determine social anxiety group eligibility. Participants were attached to ECG sensors that monitored their heart rate. A self-manipulation task was completed before and after an exercise or rest task to provoke attentional focus toward the heartbeat. Results indicate that high and low socially anxious individuals did not differ in heartbeat detection accuracy when completing an exercise or rest task, F(1,8)= 1.09, p= .33. These findings provide a basic understanding of how exercise may benefit perception of heart rate among socially anxious individuals.

How we perceive the factors that control our lives impacts our behavior and influences our participation in prosocial behavior. Studies have examined how internal and external locus of control impact many facets of our lives, such as well-being, life satisfaction, and how we treat others (Stevick et al., 1980). Little to no research has been conducted on the connection between locus of control and prosocial behavior. The present study will examine the relationship between the two.
Previous research has demonstrated that an external locus of control can have detrimental effects on individuals, leading to anxiety, depression, and risky behaviors (Guo et al., 2021). Conversely, engaging in prosocial behavior has been shown to elicit positive emotions and reduce stress (Baumsteiger, 2019). This line of research is crucial for understanding the individual differences in how people navigate life, respond to challenges, and plan for the future. By predicting behaviors and outcomes, such as prosocial behavior, we can foster community participation, promote psychological well-being, and enhance positive social interactions.
Past research has examined the links between third variables that affect prosocial behavior, such as self-control, life satisfaction, and moral disengagement. The present study investigates the link between locus of control and prosocial behavior.

Youth involved in juvenile legal systems and those who are at risk for delinquency often report high levels of trauma. The Restorative and Transformative Justice (RTJ) for Youths and Communities Pilot Program, located in four counties of New Jersey, is an initiative to provide educational, employment, mental health, substance abuse, life skills, mentoring, and social services to system-involved and at-risk youth. Examining the effectiveness of the RTJ Hubs may improve the quality of services, especially for youth who have had high levels of trauma. Our mixed method approach includes surveys completed via Qualtrics and in-person Photovoice groups in which data will be collected at baseline and 3, 6, and 9-month benchmark follow-ups that assess behavior and attitudes. The expected findings are that RTJ Hubs will positively impact domains of social support, civic engagement, trauma responses, and restorative justice attitudes, especially for system-involved youth with high adverse childhood experience scores. This study is presumed to benefit youth participants re-entering society after detention, prevent at-risk youth from initial justice system contact, improve connections with local law enforcement, and positively impact the larger community. Overall, we foresee positive impacts on youth behavioral health concerning violence, delinquency, and criminality improving safety, security, and health.

Online classes have existed for many years and consist of asynchronous and synchronous classes. Synchronous classes include live lectures while asynchronous classes tend to include pre-recorded lectures that can be a few minutes to over an hour long. As online classes have risen in popularity due to the Covid-19 pandemic, TikTok has also. Therefore, it can be advantageous to see if TikTok can be incorporated into online classes to help with comprehension. The study will be conducted on Qualtrics and will be both experimental and quantitative. Participants in the control group will watch a twenty-minute long pre-recorded lecture video while the experimental group will watch five 2-3 minute long TikTok videos that contain the same lecture content. After, both groups will take a 20-question multiple choice test to measure their comprehension of the lecture material. It is expected that those in the TikTok condition will perform better on the comprehension test than those in the control condition. Data is in the process of being collected. If significance is found, then more instructors can try using TikTok videos to help their students learn. Additionally, researchers can measure the role of cognitive load on online lecture comprehension.

Losing track of time has been studied in two distinct ways in psychology. Perhaps the most well-known is the experience of flow that was popularized by Csikszentmihalyi in 1990. In the case of flow states, people are so immersed and engaged in what they are doing during a peak performance that they lose awareness of time. From positive psychology, we also have a robust literature on the importance of being present in the moment through mindfulness practice which in turn can improve our performance. Social media use is often viewed as a waste of time. However, under conditions of mindfulness, this activity might be considered information gathering. In this study, mindfulness is expected to increase time awareness and recall during social media viewing. We manipulate mindfulness by having participants listen to a guided mindfulness audio clip (or not), then ask them to provide a time estimate while scrolling through social media. Recall measures will be used to determine what they remember from their social media session and accuracy of time estimates will also be recorded. Participants in the mindfulness condition are expected to recall more information from the social media stream and to provide more accurate time estimates.

The topic of mental health and academic achievement has increased drastically over the years. Mental health substantially influences dropout rates among high school and college students, particularly in minority groups. However, research on the relationship between mental health and academic achievement in African American male adolescents, especially when incorporating other outside cultural factors, remains limited. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the impact of mental health (measured through depression and anxiety symptoms) on academic achievement (measured through GPA). This study uses secondary data from the first wave of Add Health.

Data was gained from over 6,000 U.S adolescents in grades 7 through 12 and analyzed using an Ordinary Least Squares regression. The dataset contains responses on factors like household structure, friendships, neighborhood, mental health, and education. Additionally, mediating variables like social connections, residential parent support, school belongingness, neighborhood support, and family support were incorporated into the analysis. The results revealed a significant relationship between depression, anxiety, and GPA across the entire sample. However, when it comes to African American male adolescents, only the relationship between anxiety and GPA was found to be significant.

After the rise of the #MeToo movement, support for survivors has entered mainstream media setting the tone that Sexual Violence (SV) will not be tolerated. Even so, the ways in which SV is handled in individualistic versus collectivist cultures vary greatly. This study will investigate the likelihood that collectivist cultures will express protectiveness over male perpetrators of SV. Participants composed of St. Edwards University students and the general public will complete a survey which will measure protective factors towards male perpetrators in four hypothetical scenarios. This study is following a mixed methods research methodology. Qualitative measurements are utilized in order to explore whether protectiveness over perpetrators is being exhibited by participants. Then, quantitative measurements of demographics will be collected in order to examine whether or not there is a correlation between collectivist cultures and exhibiting protectiveness over male perpetrators. The duration for this study is an eight-week period and we collected a total of 86 participants. While the results suggest that there was not a significant difference when measuring for race/ethnicity, there was a significant difference when measuring for gender in that non-binary/third gendered individuals were more likely to be protective towards male perpetrators of SV than males or females.

Background: Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are prevalent among 3.4% to 7.7% of the general population (Cloitre et al., 2018). Interpersonal trauma perpetrated by a close other, also termed relational trauma, is a significant predictor of CPTSD (Fowler et al., 2013). Victims of relational trauma experience greater severity of posttraumatic stress symptoms compared to victims of non-interpersonal, such as a natural disaster or car accident (Seah & Berle, 2023; Fowler et al., 2013). The aim of this proposed study is to explore how cognitive flexibility, and posttraumatic cognitions mediate the relationship between one’s attachment style and perceived emotional invalidation and one’s symptoms of complex posttraumatic stress disorder. By examining this complex relationship, results may inform therapeutic treatment for individuals with relational trauma. Proposed Methods: Participants will be at least 18 years-old, reside in the United States, have had at least one romantic relationship for 6 months or longer, and have experienced difficulties or distress with at least one romantic partner. The survey will consist of five survey measures and demographic items. The data will be collected using Qualtrics and analyzed using SPSS.

Black autistic individuals face dual burdens: racial prejudices and biases surrounding autism. Literature often overlooks their unique experiences, creating a gap in understanding how they display autistic traits differently from peers of other races. This study compares Black and White autistic individuals and examines the cultural role in their social and psychological barriers. Participants included 16 Black and 16 White autistic adults from a previous study. A semi-structured interview was conducted asking questions about discrimination, social interactions, and self-identity related to race and neurodivergence. Analysis produced four thematic codes: Belongingness, Interpersonal Dynamics, Negative Psychological Effects, and Identity Formation. Sub-thematic codes were created for each. A Fisher’s exact test revealed significant differences in three areas: cross-group connections (p = .023), lack of cultural community support (p = .001), and restrictive social identity (p = .012). Findings indicate that Black autistic adults are often ostracized from both the Black and autistic communities, leading to invalidated identities. They form better connections outside their social identities but feel confined by cultural expectations that they are pressured to live up to. Further research on other social identities, such as gender and sexual orientation, is needed to expand understanding of autism in diverse cultures.

Through acculturation individuals find themselves adopting the traits of the culture they are exposed to. Mexican-Americans often find themselves navigating through the process of acculturation due to the exposure of new cultural and societal norms that are dominant in America. Culture plays a role in the way we perceive and express our emotions which influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between acculturation and emotional belief and regulation among Mexican-Americans. It was hypothesized that there would be a positive correlation. As Mexican Americans acculturate more to American culture, their emotional belief and regulation systems would become more aligned with American norms, which would result in an increased acceptance of emotions and different beliefs about emotional expression. Participants (n=225) completed self report measures on the survey platform PROLIFIC which assessed acculturation levels as well as emotional belief and regulation techniques. The ages ranged from 18 and 75 years with a mean of 33 years. The findings from my research did not support my hypothesis, but there was a positive correlation between acculturation and the usefulness of positive and negative emotions among participants. Further research may examine this relationship through different surveying techniques.

The revival of research on the effects of psychedelics in psychology has opened new methods for
understanding human consciousness, creativity, and connections. This study focuses on
connection, specifically interpersonal relationships. Prior research has discovered extreme
changes in the mental states of individuals who have had psychedelic experiences.
However, the social aspects of psychedelic experiences are relatively unresearched. This
investigation aims to examine psychedelic-linked relationships in an exploratory manner. Forty-eight participants were recruited who had a psychedelic experience within the past 12 months, had an interpersonal partner alongside them during the experience, and had used either
psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), or 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine
(MDMA) for their psychedelic experience. Our participants' relationships with their partners who accompanied them in their most recent psychedelic session were evaluated. Relationship quality was assessed via an anonymous online survey that addressed the quality of
their relationship before their most recent psychedelic experience and the current quality of their
relationship. Relationship quality data was assessed with the Interpersonal
Relationship Quality Scale (IRQS). A Wilcox Signed-Rank Test indicated that participants'
relationship quality following a psychedelic experience were significantly higher than
before the psychedelic experience.

Students transitioning into higher education experience severe stress, especially when taking exams. Standardized Testing increases test anxiety, which consists of physiological over-arousal with impaired thinking of failure. While universities responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by temporarily dismissing standardized admission tests, some institutions are reconsidering the tests as admissions requirements. In addition, stress is highly detrimental to a student’s well-being, and standardized testing induces stress for students. Furthermore, the social attribution model helps explain how we engage with stress within external or internal environments. Empathizing and seeing all students’ humanity, hearts, spirits, and bodies is crucial. Therefore, institutions and their leaders who use a holistic critical mentoring framework empathize with their students and consider their culture and lived experiences when making decisions that impact the students. In this study, I explore symptom somatic disorders, which are body pains or fatigue symptoms that don’t go away, thus manifesting stress transmitted in the body and evident when college students stress over taking standardized tests. The literature review demonstrates the importance of advocating for the college student’s experience by integrating a holistic critical mentoring framework to reduce stress, provide resources for dealing with stress, and empathize with suppressed stress in individuals educational journey.

Anxiety is a common mental disorder that affects a large percentage of Americans. The 2024 results of the American Psychiatric Association’s annual mental health poll show that 43% of US adults report feeling more anxious than they did the previous year, up from 37% in 2023 and 32% in 2022 (American adults express increasing anxiousness in annual poll; stress and Sleep Are Key Factors Imp, 2024) Given this increase in reported symptoms, the present study aims to gain a better understanding of the relationship between anxiety and cognitive abilities to provide valuable insights for educators, counselors, and policymakers. This study is positioned to offer a comprehensive understanding of how anxiety, stress, and depression, may be related to attentional control and episodic memory using several tasks including the Stroop color naming task, the antisaccade task, the Operation-SPAN task, the n-back task, and episodic recall of information from an interfering context.