Browsing by Author "Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee member"
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Item Embargo An attachment perspective on human-equine relationships: the development of the Human-Equine Attachment Questionnaire(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Zaker, Ashleigh, author; Stallones, Lorann, advisor; Gibbons, Alyssa, committee member; Peters, B. Caitlin, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberThis research aimed to develop and validate the Human-Equine Attachment Questionnaire (HEAQ), a self-report scale to assess attachment within the human-equine bond. Attachment to animals, particularly horses, presents unique dynamics that require specialized measurement. This study explored attachment styles in human-horse relationships, focusing on secure, insecure-anxious, and insecure-avoidant dimensions. The HEAQ underwent rigorous psychometric evaluation, which included confirmatory factor analysis and an assessment of construct validity. The data revealed that attachment within the human-equine bond is multifaceted, aligning with attachment styles observed in human-human relationships. Participants exhibited three distinct attachment styles – secure, insecure-anxious, and insecure-avoidant. This alignment confirms the existence of an attachment bond between humans and horses, which is complex and nuanced, featuring both secure and insecure attachment patterns. It is important to acknowledge that the internal reliability scores fell below recommended thresholds on the refined model. This is partly attributed to the reduced number of items within each factor post-misfit item removal, emphasizing the need for further scale refinement in order to enhance internal reliability. The study also explored the validity of the HEAQ by assessing convergent and discriminant evidence. Correlations between the HEAQ subscales and established scales, including the Pet Attachment Questionnaire (PAQ), Adult Attachment Scale (AAS), The Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised Scale (ECC-RS), the Big Five Inventory (BFI), and the Positivity scales, provided insights into the HEAQ's relationship with similar and distinct constructs. These findings highlighted the distinctive features of attachment within the human-equine bond and underscored the need for a specialized attachment scale tailored to the unique dynamics of the human-equine bond. This research contributes to understanding the human-equine bond, with implications for the equine industry and Equine-Assisted Interventions (EAIs). The HEAQ's continued development will lead to a comprehensive assessment tool, facilitating further research into the dynamics of attachment within the human-equine bond and its potential impact on well-being in diverse contexts. Future research should focus on refining the HEAQ, examining item wording, exploring the attachment bond from the equine side, and assessing its applicability in various cultural and socio-economic contexts.Item Open Access Attitudes and beliefs about older adult suicide and about older adults who died by suicide, and the role of ageism(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Kulish, Bailee, author; Canetto, Silvia Sara, advisor; Prince, Mark, committee member; Gorin, Moti, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberBackground: In most countries, individuals age 65 years or older have the highest suicide rates (World Health Organization, 2018). However, suicide is not uniformly common among all older adults (Canetto, 1992, 2017). For example, in the United States (U.S.), European-descent men age 65 years or older have high suicide rates while African-descent women age 65 years or older have low suicide rates (Canetto, 2021). These patterns suggest cultural influences on older adults' suicide. Studies indicate that cultural factors like suicide attitudes and beliefs predict suicide. For example, a U.S. longitudinal study found that suicide acceptability predicted subsequent suicide in the general population–in some cases, by a twofold increase (Phillips & Luth, 2020). Most studies of attitudes and beliefs about older adults' suicide have been conducted in Anglophone-countries. This study explored attitudes and beliefs about older adults' decision to suicide and about older adults who died by suicide in a non-Anglophone country, Israel. Specifically, this study examined Israeli attitudes and beliefs about older adult suicide/female and male suicide, attitudes and beliefs about older adults who died by suicide/females and males who died by suicide, and the role of ageism in these attitudes and beliefs. Methods: Attitudes and beliefs about older adult suicide (as compared to younger adult suicide) as well as female and male suicide, and attitudes and beliefs about older adults who died by suicide (as compared to younger adults who died by suicide) as well as females and males who died by suicide, depending on one of five precipitants (1. A Chronic Nonfatal Debilitating Physical Illness; 2. A Terminal Debilitating Physical Illness; 3. An Achievement Failure; 4. Widowhood; 5. Economic Hardship) were measured. A modified version of the Suicide Attitude Vignette Experience (Stillion et al., 1984) form A was used as the stimulus material. Participants were asked to evaluate the suicide using Deluty's (1988-1989a, 1988-1989b) 7-point scales of suicide acceptability, permissibility, and agreement, as well as Stillion et al.'s (1989) 5-point scale of sympathy for the suicide, expanded to seven points to match Deluty's scales. To assess attitudes and beliefs about the person who died by suicide, participants responded to a 7-point scale about how emotionally adjusted they thought the person who died by suicide was (Lewis & Shepeard, 1992, as modified by Dahlen & Canetto, 1996). In addition, respondents expressed their view about the seriousness of the suicidal intent of the person who died by suicide via a 7-point scale (Dahlen & Canetto, 1996). Lower scores on these 7-point scales indicated less acceptability, permissibility, agreement, emotional adjustment, and seriousness. Ageism was measured using the 6-point scale, Fraboni Scale of Ageism (FSA) (Fraboni et al., 1990), as revised by Bodner & Lazar (2008). Ageism was the average of the 21 FSA items scores, as done in a study by Gamliel and Levi-Belz (2016). Low scores on this 21-item measure indicated less ageism. The sample was 1,107 individuals: 551 older adults ages 61 to 91 (Mage = 72.06, SD = 6.77) (276 females and 275 males) and 556 younger adults ages 21 to 37 (Mage = 25.82, SD = 3.94) (285 females and 271 males). The older adult participants were recruited from community day centers and the younger adults from university campuses and workplaces. Results: The decision to suicide, across sex and age of the person who died by suicide and across suicide precipitants, was rated as follows: acceptability (M = 5.656, SD = 1.779), permissibility (M = 5.466, SD = 1.912), agreement (M = 5.826, SD = 1.661), sympathy (M = 5.337, SD = 2.104). The person who died by suicide, across sex and age of the person who died by suicide and across suicide precipitants, was rated as follows: emotionally adjusted (M = 5.535, SD = 1.712), seriousness of suicide intent (M = 2.681, SD = 2.035). Older adult suicide was rated as relatively less acceptable, less permissible, less agreeable, and as eliciting less sympathy than younger adult suicide. Younger adult suicide following achievement failure was considered most permissible and acceptable and received the most agreement and sympathy across precipitant conditions. Younger adults whose suicide followed an achievement failure were rated as more serious in suicide intent than older adults whose suicide followed a terminal debilitating physical illness. However, older adults whose suicide followed a terminal debilitating physical illness were rated as more serious in suicide intent than younger adults whose suicide followed a terminal debilitating physical illness. Male suicide was considered more permissible than female suicide. Female and male suicide was evaluated similarly in terms of acceptability and sympathy. No difference was found between the perceived emotional adjustment of females and males who died by suicide, although males who died by suicide were believed to be less serious in their suicide intent than females who died by suicide. No differences were found in suicide acceptability and permissibility, agreement with, or sympathy for older adult suicide across respondents' characteristics such as their sex or age. The average ageism score, independent of respondent characteristics (i.e., their sex and age) was M = 2.966, (SD = 0.683). Younger adults (M = 2.891, SD = 0.716) held less ageist beliefs than older adults (M = 3.044, SD = 0.629). Ageism did not predict acceptability, permissibility, agreement, or sympathy with the older adults' decision to suicide, nor the perceived emotional adjustment or the perceived seriousness of suicide intent of the older adult who died by suicide. Discussion: This study's findings on attitudes and beliefs about older adult suicide, and about older adult suicide precipitated by a terminal debilitating physical illness, did not align with the findings of similar U.S. studies. A main finding of this study was that older adult suicide was rated as less acceptable, less permissible, and less agreeable than younger adult suicide. Older adult suicide following a terminal illness received the lowest amount of sympathy when compared to other conditions involving both older and younger adults, except for younger adult suicide following a terminal debilitating illness. Further, older adults whose suicide occurred after a terminal debilitating physical illness were rated as more serious in their suicide intent when compared to younger adults whose suicide followed a terminal debilitating physical illness, but not to younger adults whose suicide followed an achievement failure. In fact, younger adults whose suicide followed an achievement failure were rated as most serious in their intent relative to all other precipitant conditions. This study's findings on attitudes and beliefs about persons who died by suicide were both similar to, and different from U.S. findings about attitudes and beliefs about persons who died by suicide. This study found no difference in attitudes and beliefs about older adult suicide depending on respondent characteristics (i.e., their sex and age), in contrast to some U.S. studies. Furthermore, in this study ageism was not a predictor of, or a moderator for attitudes and beliefs about suicide, in contrast to a prior Israeli study's findings that ageism moderates suicide attitudes and beliefs. Possible explanations for the divergent findings across studies include differences in national context and culture, and method issues, Recommendations for future research include using a broader range of attitude and belief questions, examining ageism via qualitative methods, and studying suicide attitudes and beliefs across a diversity of national and cultural contexts.Item Open Access Differentiating associations between tasks and outcomes in the human brain(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Nelson, Lauren, author; Seger, Carol, advisor; Thomas, Michael, committee member; Anderson, Chuck, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberIn order to successfully achieve their goals in a noisy and changing environment, organisms must continually learn both Pavlovian (stimulus-outcome or S-O) and instrumental (action-outcome or A-O) associations. A wide range of brain regions are implicated in reinforcement learning and decision-making, including the basal ganglia, medial prefrontal cortex, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). One possible explanation of disparate findings is that activation depends on the nature of the action or response under consideration. To investigate representations of task-reward associations, subjects switched between an emotional judgement task and a spatial judgement task, combined with either a high or low level of reward. A general linear model (GLM) compared activation for different combinations of task and reward. A cluster in the mid-prefrontal cortex was more active for right versus left response, whereas a cluster in the midbrain near the brainstem was more active for left responses. Performance of the spatial task was associated with activation in the ventral occipital cortex and ventral prefrontal cortex. Clusters in the posterior parietal cortex and lateral prefrontal cortex were more active during the emotion task. Receiving a large reward was accompanied by activation in primary somatosensory cortex and auditory cortex, while receiving a low reward appeared to recruit the anterior cingulate cortex. Comparing trials which yielded a reward versus trials with no reward revealed activation in the dorsal prefrontal cortex. A 2-way ANOVA examining independent contributions of response and reward found an effect of response in cuneus and pre-cuneus, an effect of reward in anterior insula and sensorimotor cortex, and an interaction in the post-central gyrus. A 2-way ANOVA of task and reward found a main effect of task in several clusters in the medial occipital cortex, a main effect of reward in somatosensory cortex and anterior insula, and an interaction in the ventral occipital and anterior prefrontal cortex.Item Open Access Emotion's role in challenging interpersonal contexts and substance use: a multilevel mediation analysis(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Mataczynski, Maggie, author; Emery, Noah, advisor; Prince, Mark, committee member; Riggs, Nathaniel, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberEmotions have a well-established role in substance use, however there are several mixed findings on how exactly positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) influence substance use. Interpersonal contexts are known to influence both emotions and substance use, especially among youth. This study attempted to clarify the relationship of emotions and substance use by hypothesizing that there is a cascade effect of challenging interpersonal contexts (CICs) that facilitate acute changes in PA and NA which, in turn, leads to increased substance use. This study used secondary data from a parent ecological momentary assessments (EMA) study to examine the links between CICs, emotions, and substance use in a sample of young adult college students. Multilevel path analysis results echoed other studies in that an occurrence of a CIC was associated with participants feeling overall worse at the same moment (more NA, less PA). Interestingly, at the within-person level, PA at the previous moment exhibited a significant positive direct effect on substance use at the next moment. CICs at the previous moment exhibited an indirect effect on substance use at the next moment through acute changes in PA at the within level. CICs also exhibited a direct positive effect on substance use at the between-person level. There were no significant observed effects for NA at either the within- or between-person level. Our study replicated how CICs can make individuals feel worse while also indicating unique findings of PA's role in how CICs are associated with substance use.Item Open Access Identifying latent profiles of psilocybin use(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Gray, Bethany A., author; Rickard, Kathryn, advisor; Prince, Mark, advisor; Fidler, Deborah, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberPsilocybin, the hallucinogenic substance found in some mushrooms, may have medicinal and therapeutic uses. As such, it is garnering pronounced interest from the scientific community and general public. It is likely that psilocybin is on a trajectory to become more acceptable and sought out by researchers and individuals interested in its potential benefits. Traditionally, psilocybin has been used in does large enough to produce hallucinogenic effects; however, there are some reports of beneficial outcomes of psilocybin use with particularly small (i.e., micro) doses. It is likely that there are different patterns of psilocybin use, including using psilocybin in different dosages, frequencies, and for differing purposes, which have yet to be described in the literature. Thus, I sought to determine whether or not there are identifiable psilocybin use patterns of psilocybin use, to describe their defining characteristics, and test for differences on other important constructs, e.g., benefits, consequences, and reasons for use. This research uses mixture modeling to identify latent profiles of psilocybin use in a large population of adults endorsing lifetime psilocybin. Data for this project was sourced anonymously from subreddit community sites. I found three profiles indicated by frequency and quantity of psilocybin use. Auxiliary testing was used to evaluate differences among the profiles. The Chipper Profile (n =118) was associated with approximately 1-4 annual uses and between 0.75g and 1.0g dosages of dehydrated, psilocybin containing mushrooms. The Tripper Profile (n =428) was associated with a slightly higher psilocybin use frequency as the Chipper Profile (2 and 6 times annually), and self-reported dosages between 2 and 4g. The Microdose Profile (n =118), was related to substantively higher psilocybin use frequencies than the other two profiles (between 2 - 4 times a week) and a lower range of preferred dosages (between 0.25g - 0.75g). The profiles differed in the total number reasons participants reported having for their psilocybin use and the total number of benefits they reported experiencing. This can potentially be understood in relation to psilocybin use expectancies and motives to use. Additionally, every profile was associated with a low number of psilocybin use consequences, but the profiles did not significantly differ on this measure. Psilocybin seems to be distinct from other substances in that use frequency and quantity do not appear to impact one's risk of experiencing undesirable consequences of use. Further research is required to identify risk and protective factors for negative outcomes, as well as those that optimize the one's likelihood of experiencing psilocybin use benefits.Item Open Access Large scale brain network mental workload engagement in schizophrenia(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Duffy, John R., author; Thomas, Michael L., advisor; Rojas, Don, committee member; Blanchard, Nathanial, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberObjective: Cognitive deficits in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia are a core feature of the disorder. There are currently no treatments for these cognitive deficits. Our aim is to examine and compare patterns of increased versus decreased activity in the central executive network (CEN), salience network (SN), and default mode network (DMN) between healthy controls (HC) and patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (SZ) as well as to explore the influence of task load on these networks between HC and SZ. Method: Analyses focused on a secondary dataset comprising Blood Oxygen-Level Dependent (BOLD) data collected from 25 HC and 27 SZ who completed a working memory (WM) task (N-back) with 5 load conditions while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Region of interest (ROI) data were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models. Dynamic causal modeling (DCM) was used in an exploratory analysis to examine working memory load input to these networks. Results: Group activation differences were found in the posterior salience network (pSN), default mode network (DMN), dorsal default mode network (dDMN), and ventral default mode network (vDMN) showing greater activity for SZ. Specifically, pSN, SMN, dDMN, and vDMN all showed increased activity in SZ compared to HC. The curve of brain activity was consistent between HC and SZ with the exception of the vDMN, where HC show greater activation at modest mental workload (quadratic curve) and SZ showed greater brain activation at lower mental workload (linear). In the CEN, there were no group differences, and the response curve was the same for both groups. In DCM analysis, working memory load acted as an input on different networks between HC and SZ. Conclusions: These group differences demonstrate network difference between HC and SZ and could show value in treatments targeting cognitive deficits in SZ from a large-scale brain network connectivity perspective. Future studies are needed to confirm these results with higher sample size in order to examine potential subtleties of interactions between these networks.Item Open Access Neural correlates of prospective memory in college students with anxiety(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Rice, Michaela S., author; Davalos, Deana, advisor; Thomas, Michael, committee member; Faw, Meara, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberProspective memory is the ability to create and execute future tasks. It is comprised of two components: cue detection and intention retrieval. Prospective memory is essential for successfully performing high-level goals, a proficiency that is of extreme importance in college populations. Previous research has shown that prospective memory is vulnerable to deterioration in individuals with psychological disorders. Anxiety is a psychological disorder that has been associated with various cognitive deficits, including prospective memory impairment, and it is highly prevalent among undergraduate students. To date, no studies have investigated the relationship between prospective memory and anxiety using neurophysiology. The purpose of the present study is to fill this gap in the literature by examining prospective memory performance in college students with anxiety using an electroencephalogram (EEG). After recording anxiety levels via self-reported measures, participants completed a computerized prospective memory task while two types of event-related potentials were recorded from an EEG: the N300 to assess cue detection, and the prospective positivity to assess intention retrieval. The findings indicate that anxiety was not significantly related to prospective memory performance, although the data patterns suggest that accuracy decreased as anxiety increased. Intention retrieval was weakly positively correlated with accuracy, and weakly negatively correlated with state anxiety. Taken together, these results suggest intention retrieval could be a key component in supporting prospective memory for college students with high state anxiety.Item Open Access Parental alienation, authoritarian parenting, and their effects on attitudes in alienated children(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Saunders, Luke, author; Harman, Jennifer, advisor; Rhodes, Matt, committee member; Saunders, Kyle, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberResearch has yet to investigate the attitudes of alienated children other than that of the valences towards their parents. The present study investigated the relationship between parental alienating behaviors (PABs), authoritarian parenting style, and their possible effects on attitudes in children who have been alienated from a parent by another. Participants enrolled in introductory psychology courses (n = 656) were recruited to participate in an online, self-report survey that measured indicators of parental alienation, authoritarian attitudes, prejudicial attitudes, need for closure, splitting, and retrospective ratings of parenting styles and PABs. Results indicated that alienated children did not score significantly higher than children who were not alienated on authoritarian attitudes, and that splitting was not a significant mediator in this relationship. However, results showed a significant relationship between PABs and authoritarian parenting, and a significant correlation between splitting and need for closure. Future research should further investigate attitudes in alienated children.Item Open Access Reducing greenhouse gas emissions: using community-based social marketing to identify targets for behavior change(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Ross, Elizabeth C., author; Aloise-Young, Patricia, advisor; Witt, Jessica, committee member; Long, Marilee, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberGreenhouse gas emissions produced by human activities threaten all life on earth. Project Drawdown (2020), Wynes and Nicholas (2017), and other similar efforts have catalogued behaviors that individuals can adopt to stall and mitigate climate change. Thus far, no empirical attempts have been made to determine which of these behaviors make viable targets for behavior change interventions. The current study remedies that gap through the use of community-based social marketing (CBSM), which distinguishes behavioral targets using the behaviors' probability, penetration, impact, and barriers. Following the CBSM framework, penetration and probability were assessed for 16 low-carbon behaviors to find those with the lowest adoption rates (i.e., penetration) and the highest likelihood of being adopted (i.e., probability). Impact for each behavior was also estimated using Project Drawdown and other similar sources. The perceived barriers and benefits of behavior engagement were then assessed for the five behaviors with the most ideal combination of impact, penetration, and probability: living motor vehicle free, purchasing green energy credits, following a plant-based diet, avoiding a plane flight, and installing compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) and light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs. Recommendations for future interventions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions were then made based on the findings pertaining to these five behaviors. Among the target audience considered in this work, very few individuals had purchased green energy credits. Additionally, the barriers to purchasing green energy credits had clear solutions for many participants. Given the comparable ease with which participants can engage in this behavior, I recommend that future interventions target the purchasing of green energy credits. Additional recommendations are made for the five behaviors, considering the benefits and challenges associated with each one.Item Embargo Religious envy: investigating the nonreligious experience(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Underill, Bailey, author; Steger, Michael, advisor; Dik, Bryan, advisor; Hastings, Pat, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberTheories of religion identify certain benefits that religion uniquely provides. Furthermore, there is evidence that non-religious individuals not only miss out on these benefits but are penalized for and discriminated against due to their lack of religious affiliation. For these reasons, when non-religious individuals engage in social comparison, they may experience envy toward religious individuals related to the benefits of religious affiliation and the consequences faced for being religiously unaffiliated. This study aims to investigate "religious envy" in the lives of religiously unaffiliated individuals within the United States. Four individuals (ages 22 to 30; three women and one man) who identified as atheists and endorsed experiencing religious envy were interviewed, and transcripts were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). This analysis developed four domain topics: perceptions and beliefs, previous experiences, religious envy, and reasons for staying nonreligious. Twenty-one themes formed a basis for understanding the phenomenon of religious envy. Themes within the "Religious Envy" domain indicated that participants experienced envying religious individuals due to a perceived sense of community or belonging, coping with grief or loss, existential comfort, and a sense of ethical or moral certainty. This study identifies specific ways that nonreligious individuals may experience religion and its role in their lives and beliefs. Furthermore, this study provides initial exploratory evidence for the existence of religious envy as a phenomenon.Item Embargo The call to sell: a qualitative exploration of calling for religiously identified women in multi-level marketing(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Jayne, Alexa, author; Dik, Bryan, advisor; Prasad, Joshua, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee member; Albert, Lumina, committee memberWork is a life domain in which many people perceive a calling. Research on calling reveals that workers who perceive and live out a calling often experience a range of positive outcomes, such as increased work-related and overall life satisfaction and well-being. However, living a calling can also lead to negative outcomes, such as workaholism, burnout, and exploitation. Multi-level marketing (MLM) is a business model that operates via direct selling and network recruitment. This business model has been found to be particularly attractive to women. It has also gained traction within the faith community, with many MLM companies aligning with Christian values and faith communities. This study sought to investigate the sense of calling that religiously identified women who work in Young Living, a leading MLM company in the United States, may experience. Six individuals participated in-depth structured interviews, and transcripts were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results revealed four domains and multiple themes, including 1) Reasons for Joining (e.g., supplementary income, pipeline of buying to selling, positive previous experiences with product, means to achieve work-life balance, desire to have own business), 2) Sense of Calling (e.g., transcendent summons, desire to educate and share clean products with others, sharing their faith with others, empowering others to become distributors, perceiving multiple callings), 3) Positive Outcomes (e.g., personal and professional growth, belonging to a community of like-minded people, camaraderie with other women in business, positive recognition and social influence, increased religious engagement), and 4) Negative Outcomes associated with the work (e.g., overwhelm and difficulty setting boundaries, moral disagreements with discourse and utilization of certain products, negative perceptions of business structure from others, needing to convince others about usefulness of products). Implications for clinicians, organizations, and future research are explored. Future research is recommended to replicate and validate the results of this study. Research is also recommended to investigate how the results of this study may apply to more diverse samples, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results of this study may help to inform clinicians into how one's religious perspective may inform their sense of calling.Item Open Access The influence of mentor relationship quality and youth's sense of belonging on adolescent substance use(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Fredrickson, Gereon J., author; Prince, Mark, advisor; Henry, Kimberly, advisor; Krafchick, Jen, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberObjective: Adolescent substance use (alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine) is a public health concern that negatively impacts youth and their ability to successfully navigate through life. Mentoring is an intervention tool used to reduce problem behaviors in adolescents, and research suggests that the mentoring relationship quality and a youth's sense of belonging within a mentoring program may be crucial to its effectiveness. The proposed study seeks to examine mentorship quality and youths' sense of belonging as they relate to adolescent substance use in a secondary data analysis of Campus Connections and explore sustained abstinence in substance use between mentee and mentor reports of mentor alliance. Method: 680 adolescent mentees participated in Campus Connections and completed a survey at the beginning and end of the program which assessed for substance use, mentor alliance, and their sense of belonging in the program. To account for abstinence, the data was subsetted to only include mentees that reported no substance use at baseline. 526 mentees were used in analyses. Firth logistic regression models were used to address the study's hypotheses. Results: A high-quality mentee reported relationship was associated with decreased odds of using substances at follow-up. Similarly, as a mentee's reported sense of belonging increased, the odds of them using substances at follow-up decreased. Lastly, there was a significant difference between the mentee and mentor reported relationship quality where the mentee report was a stronger predictor of sustained abstinence at study end. Conclusion: This study established a relationship between mentor alliance and youth's sense of belonging as a preventative method for continued abstinence. Understanding the factors within mentoring that contribute to positive outcomes for youth can help further develop mentoring as an intervention and improve techniques to maximize effectiveness. In addition, these findings may inform intervention and treatment recommendations that include mentoring and encourage future researchers to explore additional factors that contribute to mentoring successfulness in positively impacting adolescent substance use.Item Open Access To save carbon or to save forest: comparing effectiveness of climate impact messaging on household energy behavior(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Curcio, Hannah, author; Aloise-Young, Pat, advisor; Graham, Dan, committee member; Marzolf, Greg, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberImpacts from the climate change crisis are already being seen across the world. With these adverse events, awareness of, and communication about, climate change is increasing. Despite this, though, there has been an inadequate increase in climate action. Thus, it is important to determine the best ways to communicate climate impact information to consumers. The present study investigates how we can best frame climate impact messages for them to be effective in changing consumer behavior. Specifically, the effectiveness of four different carbon messages was examined in the context of household energy behavior. While meeting U.S. electricity demand with renewable energy is an attainable goal, it will require greater flexibility in the electricity grid, including flexibility in demand timing. Thus far, utility companies have used price signals as a main form of demand response. However, communicating environmental savings to consumers in addition to/instead of price savings is an emerging trend. For these reasons, the present study focused on the impact that climate impact messages may have consumers' willingness to shift their appliance use toward a time of day when renewable energy sources are more plentiful. Participants were recruited online and through local environmental groups. In an online survey, 244 participants were randomly assigned to one of four messaging conditions for three household appliances (air conditioning, dishwasher, and washing machine). The goal of the messages is to convince consumers to shift the times they use these appliances, and, as a result, shift demand on the electricity grid, to 9 a.m. (a time with higher renewable energy sources on average in the continental U.S.). Based on previous message framing research, the messages tested were framed in terms of environmental gain: specifically, the environmental savings accomplished by the behavior change. Three messages were created based on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions data, with savings calculated in terms of pounds of CO2 emissions, percent change in CO2 emissions, and the equivalent of acres of forest planted. (For example, "…would cut your yearly CO2 emissions by the equivalent of planting 475 square feet of forest…") A fourth message simply stated that the behavior is "more environmentally friendly" to test a non-numeric message. Participants were asked the likelihood of changing the time that they run each appliance, first with no message present (which acted as a baseline covariate) and then with the randomly assigned message present. Because previous research has shown that numeracy plays a role in the effectiveness of numerical messaging, I also tested a numeracy moderation effect. To compare participants' likelihood of switching across messaging conditions and to test whether numeracy played a moderating role, I ran individual analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) for each of the three appliances. This allowed me to control for participants' baseline likelihood (i.e., with no environmental message), by adding it as a covariate. Across all three appliances, neither the main effects of messaging condition and numeracy nor the interaction between the two were significant predictors of post-test likelihood. This means there was no evidence to suggest a difference in effectiveness between the messaging conditions, although there was a notable nonsignificant trend of the forest equivalency message performing better. Additionally, I ran mean differences tests comparing baseline likelihood and experimental likelihood for each of the conditions. These tests showed strong evidence that each climate impact message significantly increased participants' likelihood of switching the time they use their appliances. The finding that the messages were effective confirms the need to understand how to optimize the impact that climate impact messages can have on behavior and the mechanisms through which they are effective. Furthermore, the finding that the forest equivalency message had the strongest effect of the four messages (though not statistically significant) is worth researching further, because of the potential applications of this finding. Communicating climate impact information in terms of equivalency in square footage of forest planted easily allows for visualizations to be included, more so than other numerical messages, which may increase a message's saliency and persuasiveness. Furthermore, the findings of the present study and a pilot study that is reported suggest that future research should examine effectiveness within different segments of the population. More research, overall, is needed to further investigate the most effective ways to inform consumers about the climate impact of their behaviors.Item Open Access Validating a points-based effort expenditure for rewards task(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Sturm, Emily T., author; Thomas, Michael L., advisor; Seger, Carol, committee member; Stephens, Jaclyn, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberInvalid performance on neurocognitive tests due to lack of effort expenditure is a concern for researchers and clinicians. Performance validity tests determine when adequate effort has been expended, but they fail to differentiate between subcomponents of effort that may be responsible for poor performance. The Effort Expenditure for Reward Task (EEfRT) is a task that provides separate measurements of reward processing and valuation constructs which could be informative as performance validity indicators. However, previous versions of the EEfRT use monetary performance-based rewards to investigate the expected value of effort, which can be problematic due to the influence of socio-economic factors and potential to systematically disadvantage participants with neurocognitive disorders. This study first aimed to examine the construct validity, specifically, the construct representation of a points-based version of the EEfRT online and in-person. The second aim of this study, which is exploratory, is to characterize patterns in embedded performance validity test performance obtained for separate neurocognitive measures as well as the EEfRT, thereby informing nomothetic span, or patterns of significant relations across measures of effort. This aim assessed whether the scores from the EEfRT indicate performance validity in other domains. Online participants (n = 342) from Prolific.com for the online sample and in-person participants (n = 27) were recruited via advertisements. Participants completed a battery including the EEfRT along with three working memory tasks, two executive functioning tasks, and one reward learning task. Results of regression analyses showed that, as hypothesized, both online and in-person participants chose hard tasks significantly more often at higher reward levels and at higher probability levels. However, contrary to expectations, a significant interaction between reward and group showed that points were more motivating in the online setting compared to in-person. Exploratory latent profile analysis revealed no clear pattern in embedded performance validity tests within the EEfRT or across other tasks. The results of this study suggest that a points-based version of the EEfRT is potentially valid for measuring effort-based decision making, but more research is needed before it can be called an objective measure of effort in the context of validating performance on cognitive tests.Item Open Access Veterinary school instructor knowledge and use of study strategies(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Osborn, Rebecca M., author; Rhodes, Matthew, advisor; Cleary, Anne, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee member; Balgopal, Meena, committee memberEmpirically supported study strategies have been investigated for years and there has been a growing body of research on what strategies undergraduate students know of and utilize while studying. However, there is less research on instructor knowledge and endorsement of study strategies as they can serve as a guide to students in how to study. Professional schools (e.g., medical, pharmacy, or veterinary schools) have little to no research evaluating what strategies instructors encourage to students while the population of students are meant to be lifelong learners. In the current study, instructors in veterinary medicine were surveyed on their knowledge and endorsement of study strategies including learning scenarios where participants rated strategy effectiveness. The endorsement of study strategies was also correlated with the ranking and acceptance rate of the veterinary school the instructor teaches at to determine if there is a relationship of empirically supported study strategies and the ranking of school quality. The survey found that instructors endorsed both beneficial and nonbeneficial study strategies and learning scenarios but were more likely to encourage empirically supported strategies to students. The ranking and acceptance rate of the school showed no correlation with more endorsement of those beneficial strategies. The results of this survey demonstrate veterinary instructors have a slight preference for empirically supported learning strategies but continue to hold some misconceptions on learning. Further research is needed to determine how best to reach and inform this instructor population, but veterinary instructors are highly motivated to learn more about how best to teach veterinary students.