Psychology

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of Psychology.

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Browsing Psychology by Author "Browne, Dillon"

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    Are screens to blame? Children’s digital media use and emotional problems during the COVID-19 pandemic
    (University of Waterloo, 2022-08-03) Zhang, Jasmine (Yuxin); Browne, Dillon
    This study examined the relationship between digital media (“screen use”) and mental health in children during the COVID-19 pandemic. A multinational sample of caregivers (n = 549) provided bi-monthly reports on their families and two children aged 5–18 (n = 1098) between May and November 2020. Measures included children’s screen time, mental health symptoms (depression, anxiety, anger), and lifestyle factors, as well as family-wide COVID-19 disruptions and parental screen time. A longitudinal, multilevel sibling comparison design was employed to disentangle child-specific versus family-wide associations, in addition to the direction of effects. Specifically, associations were assessed via multilevel cross-lagged panel models, in which siblings (Level 1) were nested within families (Level 2). Three-level growth curve models were also fit to examine child-specific and family-wide predictors of children’s screen time. The directional associations between mental health symptoms and screen time were inconsistent within families. Between families, sibling pairs with higher depressive and anxiety symptoms in July showed more screen use two months later. Additionally, higher screen time in July predicted more anxiety in September. Growth models revealed that mental health challenges had little predictive effect on screen time in the context of other lifestyle factors, but parental screen use was a salient predictor. These results collectively demonstrate that family-wide contextual effects cast important influences on screen use, emotional well-being, and their associations. Moreover, the findings emphasize the need for a whole-family approach to studying and managing children’s screen use.
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    Family Health Service Utilization Patterns: Analysis of Predictors, Economic Costs, and Preventative Factors
    (University of Waterloo, 2023-08-28) Urusov, Alexey; Browne, Dillon; McCarthy, Megan
    This study examined the family and individual-level predictors of caregiver/child health and social service utilization expenditures during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of UK caregivers (n = 418) provided reports on their families and two of their children between the ages of 5-18 (n = 836) during May and November of 2020. Caregiver report measures included COVID-19 distress, family functioning, caregiver distress, social support, child functional impairment, social and health service utilization expenditures, and demographic variables. Kruskall-Wallis non-parametric tests revealed significant group differences among families in relation to service expenditures based on family social support, caregiver distress, and child impairment. Zero-inflated negative binomial regressions revealed that for the younger child, COVID-19 stressors were the most important predictor of service expenditures. For the older child, functional impairment in different areas (e.g., school, home) was the most important predictor. For the caregiver, their own mental health, and demographic characteristics (e.g., relationship status, age), were the most important predictors. For the whole family, child impairment played the biggest role in predicting service utilization expenditures. These results demonstrate the importance of considering family and individual variables in relation to social and health service utilization expenditures. These outcomes highlight the importance of supporting families with prevention and early intervention initiatives that consider systemic factors across the family ecology, especially during large-scale social disruptions. Additionally, the findings highlight that there are multiple family processes at work associated with family well-being and the resulting societal healthcare expenditures.
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    How Does Economic Pressure Relate to Family Processes? A Systemic Test of the Family Stress Model
    (University of Waterloo, 2021-08-24) Colucci, Laura; Browne, Dillon
    Background: When evaluating family well-being, it is important to disentangle dyadic, individual, and family-wide variability. Presently, few studies have considered the role of social disadvantage and mental health across different levels of family analysis. Methods: Canadian families (N = 224, including 55% Canadian-born and 45% immigrant mothers) were observed interacting in a round-robin design. Families included mothers, fathers, and two children, aged 5-9 (younger sibling) and 9-13 years (older sibling). Each family dyad (6 total) completed a co-operative building task for 5 minutes and both members were coded for expressed positivity (12 directed dyadic scores per family). Mothers self-reported depressive symptoms and both parents reported children’s emotional problems. The social relations model was fit and tested in association with socioeconomic status and individual mental health. Results: Significant variance in family positivity across dyadic, individual, and whole-family levels was observed. Socioeconomic status was primarily related to family variations in positivity, while individual mental health was related to positivity for mothers and older children. When individual and family variance components were dropped from the model, certain family relationships were most strongly related to individual mental health, though the pattern of results is less interpretable. Conclusions: This study provides support for multilevel conceptualizations of family life. Socioeconomic status is a family-wide risk factor that relates to whole-family differences in positivity and individual-specific mental health symptoms. Individual mental health is associated with individual differences in expressed positivity during family interactions. Implications for clinical landscapes, theory, and methodology in developmental and family science are discussed.
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    Measurement and Factor Structure of Developmental Trauma Disorder Symptoms in Children Involved in Child Welfare
    (University of Waterloo, 2021-08-09) Smith, Jackson Andrew; Browne, Dillon
    Childhood trauma is associated with a wide array of neurodevelopmental, physiological, psychosocial, and emotional challenges beyond those captured by posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—especially in instances of multiple and/or repeated traumas and traumas that occur in the context of a caregiving relationship. As a result, children who have experienced complex developmental trauma often receive multiple diagnoses concurrently and across their lifespan. Indeed, childhood trauma has been identified as a central transdiagnostic risk factor in the etiology of numerous mental disorders and in research examining the existence of a general psychopathology factor (p-factor) (Caspi et al., 2014). However, recent criticisms of p-factor modelling have questioned the interpretation and cross-study comparability of work in this area, calling for a more theory-driven approach to defining the general factor. Emotion dysregulation has been identified as a potential mediator in the relationship between childhood trauma and the transdiagnostic risk of psychopathology, and some researchers interpret the general factor as emotion dysregulation. However, researchers have yet to test emotion dysregulation as a reference domain for the p-factor or the structure of psychopathology within a Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD) framework. This study attempted to address these gaps in a sample of (N = 555) children involved in the Ontario child welfare system who have experienced maltreatment. In the first part of the study, I assessed the degree to which the Assessment Checklist for Children (ACC) captures the proposed DTD diagnostic criteria. In the second part, I tested the factorial structure of DTD symptoms using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, including a single factor, correlated factors, second-order, fully symmetrical bifactor, and bifactor(s-1) model with emotion dysregulation as the general factor reference domain. The results identify gaps in the ACC when applied to the DTD framework. Further, the results suggest that the bifactor(s-1) model fits the data best and provides the most interpretable results with meaningful clinical practice and research implications.