Child Development Lab

Department of Psychology

Theses and Dissertations



  • Liverette, K. H. (2016, Spring). Do teachers observe the same social-emotional exchanges in the classroom as researchers? Ph.D. Dissertation.

  • Karalus, S. P. (2016, Spring). Creating a structural measurement model of socialization of social-emotional competence: The contribution of CLASS and FOCAL-T. Ph.D. Dissertation.

  • Ferrier, D. E. (2016, Spring). The contribution of cognitive self-regulation to social competence: A latent change score analysis. Ph.D. Dissertation.

  • Watanabe, N. (2015, Spring). Parental socialization of emotion in Japan: Contribution to preschoolers' emotion knowledge. Ph.D. Dissertation.

  • Fettig, N. B. (2015, Spring). Temperament and emotion regulation: Predicting social competence, internalizing, and externalizing behavioral outcomes. Ph.D. Dissertation.

  • Howarth, G. Z. (2014, Spring). Temperament and emotionally regulated reactions to problem situations in preschool classrooms: An exploration of the moderating effects of emotion knowledge. Ph.D. Dissertation.

  • Bailey, C. S. (2014, Spring). The socialization of emotion regulation in preschool classrooms. Ph.D. Dissertation.

  • Plourde, S. (2013, Fall). The association of teacher emotional expression and reactions to emotions and toddler emotion interactions with peers. M.A. Thesis.

  • Herndon, K. (2013, Summer). Age differences in emotion regulation in toddler and preschool classrooms. M.A. Thesis.

  • Zinsser, K. (2013, Spring). Early childhood education directors’ impact on social-emotional teaching and learning. Ph.D. Dissertation.

  • Wyatt, T. (2013, Spring). Self-regulation in preschool children: Hot and cool executive function as predictors of later classroom learning behaviors. Ph.D. Dissertation.

  • Thayer, S. K. (2012, Fall). Early social-emotional competence: Preschool and kindergarten predictors. Ph.D. Dissertation.

  • Fettig, N. B. (2012, Spring). Children’s emotion regulation during a disappointment: The moderating roles of emotion reactivity and gender. M.A. Thesis.

  • Shewark, E. (2012, Spring). Learning forgiveness: The influence of interparental conflict on child forgiveness. M.A. Thesis.

  • Watanabe, N. (2011, Spring). Forgiveness in Japanese children and adolescents: Dispositional, emotional, and parental influence. M.A. Thesis.

  • Brown, C. (2011, Spring). The association between social-emotional competence and children’s academic readiness. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Zinsser, K. (2010, Spring). Expression as prevention: Modeling the role of family emotion expression in breaking the connection between temperament and adolescent substance use. M.A. Thesis.

  • Tarpey, E. (2010, Spring). Preschoolers’ knowledge of specific emotions. M.A. Thesis.

  • Segal, Y. (2010, Spring). Contemporary and longitudinal relations between preschoolers’ emotion regulation and their social behavior. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Morris, C. S. (2010, Spring). Emotionally competent caregiving: Relations among teacher-child interaction patterns, teachers’ beliefs about emotions, and children’s emotional competence. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Mahoney, A. (2010, Spring). Aggression in preschool and predictions of peer reactions: How do children expect their peers to feel in response to their behaviors? M.A. Thesis.

  • Caswell, C. (2009, Spring). What am I feeling? Using television to effectively teach emotion knowledge to preschoolers. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Mincic, M. (2008, Fall). Dialogic reading with emotion-laden storybooks: Intervention methods to enhance children's emergent literacy and social-emotional skills. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Caal, S. (2008, Spring). Adolescent sexual development: Contextualizing a cognitive process in the decision to engage in protective or risky sexual behavior. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Sarampote, N. (2007, Spring). The sibling relationship and its contribution to social and emotional competence in middle childhood. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Hamada, H. H. (2007, Spring). Individual differences in children’s forgiveness: Intraindividual, parental, and family environmental contributors. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Mason, T. (2006, Fall). The relationship between adult attachment security and emotion regulation strategies. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Mincic, M. (2006, Spring). Children’s perceptions of parental behaviors as moderators of relations between parent-child attachment and emotional parent-child communication. M.A. Thesis.

  • Caverly, S. (2006, Spring). The contribution of siblings to children’s social competence. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Neal, K. L. (2005, Fall). The relationship between children’s propensity to forgive, parents’ propensity to forgive and parenting practices. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Hackney, R. (2005, Spring). Parents' discipline styles, children's verbal IQ and prosocial behaviors. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Strnatka-Knapp, V. (2003, Summer). Autonomy, social support, and psychological adjustment in learning disabled and non-learning disabled college students. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Blood, T. (2002, Summer). The affective self-regulation of anger and its effects on parenting. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Kochanoff, A. (2001, Summer). Attachment, discipline, and emotion understanding. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Blair, K. (2000, Spring). Emotion regulation and aggression: a function of coping style and emotionality. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Aux, K. (2000, Spring). Maternal affective communication and parenting behavior: Mechanisms for intergenerational transmission of attachment in preschoolers. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Queenan, P. L. (1999, Fall). Gender differences in the socialization of social and emotional competence in preschool aged children. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Wheeler, D. (1999, Summer). Fantasy proneness and attachment style: A mediation model of the development of psychopathology. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Sears, R. D. (1999, Spring). Relations among family environment, peer interactions, social cognition, and social competence: Predicting aggressive behavior. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Schmidt, M. E. (1998, Spring). The relations of security of attachment to emotional competence and later social competence. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Sadovsky, A. (1998, Spring). Perseveration of gender stereotypes in young children’s toy choice. M.A. Thesis.

  • Auerbach-Major, S. (1997, Summer). Temperament and parental discipline: Main effects and moderating factors. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Sawyer, K. S. (1996, Fall). Sibling contributions to young children’s emotional competence. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Mitchell-Copeland, J. (1996, Spring). Teacher-child attachment and social competence. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Cody, D. A. (1995, Spring). Play assessment of cognitive development of delayed preschoolers. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Menotti, A. M. (1992, Summer). Maternal cognitive factors and ratings of child behavior as predictors of mothers' control strategies in interaction with their preschool children. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Happ, L. K. (1991, Fall). The response of first-born children to the birth of a sibling: A short-term longitudinal study. Ph.D. Dissertation

  • Kowalski, F. S. (1990, Fall). Social cognition and preschoolers at risk for conduct disorder. M.A. Thesis.

  • Bouril, B. H. (1988, Fall). The importance of definition and perspective in evaluating preschoolers' social competence. Ph.D. Dissertation