DSpace Repository :: Browsing by Author "DeCaro, Jason A."

Browsing by Author "DeCaro, Jason A."

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The andean cultural model of susto: cultural consonance and historical trauma in the Andes
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Brooks, Benjamin Blakely; Dressler, William W.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The research presented in these pages on cultural consonance, historical trauma, and susto demonstrates important relationships between risk factors for susto. Susto is a cultural syndrome associated with fright that impacts Andean farmers. Methods of epidemiology and cultural consensus analysis were used to explore the distribution of understandings of susto in the Callejón de Huaylas valley. Andeans link a combination of culturally salient and generalized illness symptoms to susto, and how one classifies these symptoms is dependent upon a number of sociocultural factors. Historical trauma was explored as it related to susto. Historically traumatic events are frightening and are a common cause of susto, suggesting that susto may be a culturally salient model for dealing with cultural trauma. By analyzing the symptomatology of susto from an epidemiologic standpoint one can gain insight into Andean culture and health-seeking behaviors. The Susto Symptom Scale developed for this research is an important diagnostic tool for determining if one has susto. Susto is an idiom for historical trauma and is helpful in assessing the level of exposure to historical trauma that highlanders in the valley have endured. Susto seems to be an "explanatory model" to deal with anxiousness associated with suffering from an illness. There are multiple risk factors that can help to determine if an individual is at an increased risk for developing susto. Susto is the combination between low cultural consonance, age, and a historically traumatic past; and it is these factors that make the cultural model of susto applicable.
Applying minimally invasive biomarkers of chronic stress across complex ecological contexts
(Wiley, 2022) DeCaro, Jason A.; Helfrecht, Courtney; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Chronic stress is both theoretically and methodologically challenging to operationalize through biomarkers. Yet minimally invasive, field-friendly biomarkers of chronic stress are valuable in research linking biology and culture, seeking to understand differential patterns of human development across ecological contexts, and exploring the evolution of human sociality. For human biologists, a central question in measurement and interpretation of biomarkers is how stress-responsive physiological systems are regulated across diverse human ecologies. This article aims to describe a conditional toolkit for human biologists interested in the study of chronic stress, highlighting a mix of longstanding and novel biomarkers, with special focus on hair/fingernail cortisol, latent herpesvirus antibodies, allostatic load indices, and serial/ambulatory data collection approaches. Future trends in chronic stress biomarker research, including epigenetic approaches, are briefly considered. This overview considers: (1) challenges in separating a distinctly psychosocial dimension of chronic stress from adversity more broadly; (2) essential characteristics of human ecology that shape interpretation; (3) retrospective vs. longitudinal sampling; (4) the role of age, developmental effects, and local biologies; (5) different timescales of chronicity; and (6) the role of culture.
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: the sociocultural influences on ADHD knowledge and diagnosis decision making
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Doucet, Jenelle C.; Oths, Kathryn S.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Based in biocultural medical anthropological theory, this project was designed to explore the diagnosis decision-making process in families whose elementary school children may be suffering from Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Children in kindergarten and first grade (n=211) were evaluated for ADHD by their classroom teachers and assigned a risk category (low risk, high risk but undiagnosed, and previously diagnosed). A series of interviews was conducted with parents (n=51) of children in all three risk categories to evaluate their knowledge and beliefs about ADHD; their beliefs about parenting and the characteristics of "good" parenting and a "good" home life; perceptions about status competition; and their level of psychosocial, including emotional and financial, stress. In the third phase of the study, teachers at two of the study schools (n=20) were interviewed about their knowledge of ADHD and their ideas of appropriate classroom functioning and student behavior. It was believed that there was considerable diversity in the reasons behind why families chose to either accept or reject a diagnosis of ADHD for their children. More specifically, it was hypothesized that increased caregiver strain in the form of psychosocial and emotional stress, financial pressure, and performance pressure (perceived status competition) would affect the ascription of ADHD symptoms in children by their parents and, thus, elevate their risk of developing the disorder. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that belief in a cultural model of mother blame among caregivers and teachers would affect the number of ADHD symptoms found in children. Several variables associated with caregiver strain were positively associated with ADHD symptom level. Differences in symptom level as assigned by teachers and parents were also found according to a key set of characteristics believed to be associated with a model of mother blame. This project suggests the importance of shared cultural meaning and the role of social structural forces to the lay ADHD diagnosis decision-making process.
Biocultural models, cultural consonance and salutogenesis in type 2 diabetes treatment; measuring the impact of symbol systems on health within a Mexican community
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Brown, Richard Arlan; Dressler, William W.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The project described here takes place in Guadalajara, Mexico in a major government sponsored health clinic. It examines the impact of social and cultural factors on clinical medical treatment with a focus on type 2 diabetes. The aim of the project is to understand the effects of culturally specified aspects of medical treatment on health outcomes. The approach to the problem is from cognitive biocultural anthropology, which emphasizes the interdependency of biology and culture. It was hypothesized that after controlling for clinical treatment, including diet, activity, and pharmaceutical consumption, that those who are able to implement culturally specified models of treatment in their own lives (cultural consonance) will have better diabetic outcomes such as lower BMI, controlled blood glucose, and greater overall well-being. A multi-stage research design, including logistic and least squares regression, facititated hypothesis testing. The project begins with cultural domain analysis including qualitative elicitation of local cultural models of treatment (n=57), followed by cultural consensus analysis (n=56). The project finishes with quantitative and comparative analyses through epidemiological survey with 85 diabetic patients. Physiological outcome measures were drawn from medical records. The local cultural model of treatment adheres closely to the biomedical model, but also includes influences from traditional medical belief systems and from the social system more generally. Diet was an especially salient aspect of the model. Survey results show an association between greater cultural consonance in the food-as-treatment model and lower BMI. Greater cultural consonance in the treatment domain was not associated with greater glucose control. Rather it was associated with poor control, which led to a reconsideration of glucose levels from an emic, patient-centered perspective. Glucose levels were re-conceptualized as disease gravity. In this sense, glucose predicts greater participation in the broadly conceived therapeutic model, but not necessarily more intensive participation in the clinical treatment regimen. Finally, greater cultural consonance in treatment predicts greater well-being. Results are discussed in relation to the research questions.
Cultural Consonance, Body Image, and Disordered Eating Among Young South Korean Men
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2022) Monocello, Lawrence Thomas; Dressler, William W.; DeCaro, Jason A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation, based on seventeen months of fieldwork in Seoul, South Korea, examines how culture affects young men’s risk of developing eating disorders. Eating disorders are among the deadliest of all mental illnesses, yet they are poorly understood among men and in populations outside of the WEIRD university students who comprise most study samples in body image research. However, the global proliferation in eating disorders among women and men necessitates increased attention to men’s culturally particular experiences of their body image. Taking a convergent mixed-methods approach and drawing on theories of cultural models, intersectionality, and embodiment, this research does three things. First, it uses cognitive anthropological methods to elicit and validate a cultural model of the ideal male body among young South Koreans. Second, it uses that cultural model to create a scale of “cultural consonance with male body ideals” to measure individuals’ ability to approximate that cultural model in their own bodies, which it then uses as a predictor for disordered eating in young Korean men. This analysis shows that cultural consonance affects risk of disordered eating beyond what traditional, individual psychological measures of body dissatisfaction predict. Third, four of these young men were selected for their intersections of cultural consonance, prestige of their educational institution, sexual orientation, and disordered eating risk to engage in in-depth ethnographic interviews to examine their embodied experiences of body image. Together, these data indicate that men in South Korea experience their particular models of body image as profoundly impactful on (1) their ability to make and maintain interpersonal relationships with one another and (2) their pursuits of class mobility (or class maintenance, for the upper-classes). For young Korean men, attention to one’s appearance and investment in its improvement are not viewed as undermining to their masculinity, but as facilitating their social integration and professional advancement in the highly competitive environment that is modern South Korea. Disordered eating, then, sometimes results from these pursuits.
A cultural model of life goals for young men in the Roanoke Valley
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) DeMoss, Lessye Joy; Dressler, William W.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Parents and educators might assume that young people understand the expectations of adulthood by the time they achieve their majority. In a rapidly changing cultural scene, this may not be the case. To address the question of whether young men share a cultural model on their pathway to adulthood, forty-four men, aged 19-25, were interviewed in the Roanoke Valley during the summer of 2014. Through free-listing interviews, pile-sorting and surveys, the researcher elicited a set of goals these young men share. General agreement did emerge that they should be building good character, seeking direction, achieving financial independence, and avoiding trouble.
Cultural models of food and social networks among Mexican immigrants in the southeast United States
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Szurek, Sarah; Oths, Kathryn S.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This project used biocultural medical anthropology, cognitive anthropology, and social network analysis to examine the interrelationships among cultural knowledge, eating behaviors, and diabetes risk among a sample of Mexican immigrants in Alabama. Cultural domain analysis examined the cultural models of food among Blacks, Whites, and Mexicans (n = 81). A separate sample of Mexican immigrants (n = 50) participated in interviews about food beliefs and behaviors, migration, and social integration. A formal personal social network analysis was completed, as were anthropometric measurements and the collection of a whole blood sample from which to analyze percent hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). It was hypothesized that distinct cultural models of food would characterize the three ethnic groups. Increased social network interaction with Americans was expected to be positively correlated with Mexican immigrants' competence and consonance in American cultural models of food. Finally, it was hypothesized that increased competence in American cultural models of food and increased social network interaction with Americans would negatively affect immigrants' risk of diabetes. Key distinctions were found among the three models, especially with regard to the salience of fruits and vegetables. Variation was evident in the competence in the cultural models of food along four dimensions of meaning--health, cost, convenience, and the desirability of foods. The personal social network analysis indicated that Mexicans were mainly interacting with White Americans, with varying frequency of interaction. The proportion of one's network with which one shares meals was an important variable in this project, as it was associated with competence in the American model of food . In the final logistic regression analysis, having an HbA1c percent above normal was predicted by competence with the White model of desirability that prefers unhealthier foods to fruits and vegetables as well as having at least one American alter with whom one shares meals on a weekly basis, controlling for age and moderate exercise. This project advocates for attention to social structural factors, cultural knowledge, and cultural consonance when examining the social production of health among immigrant groups in America.
Cultural Models of Substance Misuse Risk and Stigma Among Individuals Seeking Treatment for Substance Use Disorders in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2022) Henderson, Nicole Lynn; DeCaro, Jason A.; Pillon, Sandra C; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
To address the effects of stigma adequately, we must first understand the underlying factors that lead to the development, expression, and internalization of that stigma. This study examined the cultural construction of substance misuse risk in Brazil, as these disorders are more stigmatized than other physical/mental illnesses and the associated stigma is often accepted as natural. This mixed-methods project utilized traditional ethnographic methods, quantitative methods specific to cognitive anthropology, and multivariate statistical analyses. The project is divided into two distinct studies that focus on two distinct populations. The first study focused on the elicitation of a cultural model of substance misuse risk and the operationalization of variation in community member’s knowledge of this model to predict attributional stigma. Persons who emphasized the risk associated with self-medication or familial stressors were more likely to stigmatize the user, while persons who saw substance use as principally a social experience were less likely to stigmatize the user. The second study explored how this model has been internalized by individuals undergoing treatment for substance dependence and, further, how differences in the experience of risk factors affected the perception of social stigma and the degree of self-stigma. Unlike the students, who rated the risk factors according to the causal types identified in earlier phases, patients organized their thinking around a unique subset of risk factors that emphasized aspects of one’s social and familial environment, comorbid mental health problems or stressors, and the addictive properties of substances. And the more that individuals interpreted substance use in terms of this patient-specific configuration of stressors, the more likely they were to perceive public stigma, stigmatize themselves, and experience depressive symptoms. Despite this internal variation, both the young adults and the patients share a single cultural model and there is little evidence that the internal contention is leading to a subcultural split. Instead, some patients are moving away from the cultural model and its connection to stigma, thus forming their own idiosyncratic interpretations of substance misuse risk.
Cultural models, pregnancy, and stress: examining intracultural variation in Jalisco, Mexico
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2009) Jackson, Meredith Ann; Oths, Kathryn S.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The purpose of this research was to use cultural domain analysis (n=73) to determine if one or more shared models of a good pregnancy exist in Jalisco, Mexico, and to use cultural consonance analysis (n=88) to statistically determine the association between a woman's ability to approximate the shared model and maternal psychosocial and physiological health. Jalisco has a pluralistic reproductive health care system, including midwives and medical doctors, and widely varying sites with differential access to biomedical and traditional health care. In an effort to capture intracultural variability, the research was conducted in an urban area, a semi-urban city, rural municipal seats, small towns, and villages. I predicted that women who are more consonant with the specified model will have lower levels of psychosocial stress and altered immune response, and that social support moderates these relationships. Anthropologists have studied the effects of culture change and stress using both psychosocial and physiological markers, and have employed cultural domain analysis to build models based on informant knowledge and information. Intracultural variation in consonance with the models is associated with stress. Furthermore, psychosocial and physiological stress markers measured during pregnancy are associated with poor birth outcomes. In this study psychosocial measures of stress are pregnancy-related anxiety (PRA) and perceived stress (PSS). Epstein-Barr Virus antibody levels were analyzed to indicate stress-related altered immune function. The analysis controls for socioeconomic status, social class, site, household elements, gestation, parity, and age. Cultural consensus analysis found one cultural model of a good pregnancy with strong agreement. The model blends tradition and biomedicine with slight variation in belief in the traditional elements. Linear regression models indicate that participants who are more consonant in the model have lower levels of both PSS and PRA. Consonance is not associated with EBV antibody levels. Perceiving social support from family and non-family enhances the effect of consonance on PRA, unless perceived family support is above the mean. In this case, the effect is blunted. Social support does not moderate the effect of cultural consonance on PSS. This research demonstrates the critical role of culture in health outcomes.
Discrimination, cultural consonance, and cell-medated immunity among college students at the University of Alabama
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Quinn, Edward; DeCaro, Jason A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Racial-ethnic inequalities in health are a major public health concern in the United States. Biocultural anthropologists approach the question of health using culture theory and are informed by expertise in human biology. The mechanisms by which social inequalities “get under the skin” and are transduced into health inequalities are of interest to both biocultural anthropologists and those directing efforts to reduce health inequalities. Recent evidence showing racial-ethnic differences in cell-mediated immunity was elaborated upon through research conducted with 71 young college students at the University of Alabama. Drawing on prior ethnographic work on understandings of life trajectory among youth, and on the extensive literature demonstrating associations between perceived discrimination and health outcomes, this study tested two mechanisms for the observed racial-ethnic differences in cell-mediated immunity. Cultural consonance, or the degree to which an individual is congruent with locally valued ways of thinking and behaving, and perceived discrimination were tested for associations with cytomegalovirus (CMV). CMV was used as a proxy measure of cell-mediated immune status. Differences by race-ethnicity in CMV were found. Non-White students had higher levels of CMV than White students. No main effects of cultural consonance or perceived discrimination predicted CMV, but an interaction between these two variables did predict CMV. Future research efforts in racial-ethnic health disparities will consider social address and culture as important factors in population health.
Embeddedness, cultural consonance, and health in a dynamic migration network in Northern Peru
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2018) Stein, Max Jacob; Oths, Kathryn S.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation investigates the effect of migrant embeddedness on cultural consonance and psychological health outcomes. Specifically, this project evaluates the extent that migrants’ relative attainment of shared migration goals and lifestyle aspirations is a consequence of their position in a translocal network of fellow migrants with whom they share longstanding social relations. The research question is posed with respect to a diaspora community originating from the Andean village of Chugurpampa in La Libertad, Peru. In the late 1980s, Chugurpampa was a vibrant farming community, but 30 years of rising economic stagnation and climatic instability have driven hundreds to out-migrate to the nearby city of Trujillo to overcome poverty. This mixed-methods project was conducted across the pueblos jovenes (shantytowns) and urbanizaciones (neighborhoods) of Trujillo Province in La Libertad, Peru, where thousands of Liberteñan migrants have found success as shoemakers, merchants, business persons, drivers, and brick masons. Some youths pursue advanced studies in technical schools and universities with hopes of becoming professionals, which most regard the only reliable way to get oneself ahead in life. Research therefore focuses on: (1) the construction and distribution of cultural models of “Chugurpampan migration success” (CMS), including shared migration goals and lifestyle aspirations; (2) modeling the boundaries and structure of Chugurpampa’s diaspora in Trujillo; (3) evaluating individual levels of mental distress using two correlated psychological instruments as outcome variables in empirical testing. This project offers an understanding of how social structure influences cultural success and mental well-being. Specifically, research integrates concepts from social network theory and cognitive anthropology to empirically test whether migrants’ embeddedness in the Trujillo-based diaspora community shapes their cultural consonance in CMS and psychological health. Results suggest embeddedness and cultural consonance have an interactive effect against psychological stressors associated with rapid culture change. Strong ties such as close family and friends are costly to people who are more embedded and consonant overall, while less strong community ties such as neighbors, schoolmates, or acquaintances are economical because they require a fraction of the maintenance and broaden access to new resources via weak ties. Conclusions aim to explain how patterns of human mobility are embedded in hierarchical relational structures and cultural institutions that influence the knowledge, behavior, and mental wellness of immigrants.
An exploration of the age of mound construction at Mazique (22AD502), a late prehistoric mound center in Adams County, Mississippi
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2009) LaDu, Daniel Anderson; Brown, Ian W.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The Mazique site (22Ad502), in Adams County, Mississippi, is believed to have been occupied during both the Coles Creek (A.D. 700-1000) and Mississippi periods (A.D. 1000-1680). However, Ian W. Brown (2007) has suggested that mound building at Mazique was primarily a result of Plaquemine activity. This thesis presents new evidence suggesting that mound construction at Mazique occurred primarily during the Coles Creek period and that the Plaquemine presence here during the Mississippi period has been overestimated. The larger implications of these conclusions are that the construction, arrangement, and use of flat top mounds and plaza complexes was an indigenous development of the Coles Creek period in the Natchez bluffs region as it was in the greater Lower Mississippi Valley, and that the characterization of the Plaquemine culture as a hybridization of Coles Creek and Mississippian cultures should not be discarded as a theory of cultural interaction in the region.
Finding success and health through God: a study of cultural models and health among Brazilian Pentecostals
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Dengah, Henri Jean Francois; Dressler, William W.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation investigates the influence of religious cultural consonance on well-being. In particular, I ask if religious conceptions of ideal acolyte identity and behavior buffer daily stressors experienced by socially and economically marginalized Brazilian Pentecostals. Between 1960 and 1985, the Protestant population of Brazil quadrupled. This expansion however, is disproportionately among Brazil's poor, disenfranchised, and minority populations. This research posits that Pentecostal communities offer an alternative cultural-landscape to create identity, power, and status--which may contradict, compensate, and even challenge the dominant norms. Thus, religious cultural consonance may be a specific mechanism that marginalized Brazilian Pentecostals utilize to mitigate the physiological and psychological stress of their daily lives. This mixed-methods research is conducted in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. The project utilizes two specific communities: The Assembléia de Deus (AD) and Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD). The AD is theologically more sectarian than the IURD, advocating a greater separation between their faith and the secular world. This cross-cultural comparison is valuable for examining potential differences in the interaction of religiosity and sectarianism in the appraisal and embodiment of psychosocial stress. Research therefore focuses on: (1) the construction and distribution of religious cultural models of ideal personhood and lifestyle; and (2) evaluating well-being through psychological health measures in relation to religious models. This research offers an understanding of how religion influences psychological well-being. More specifically, this research empirically shows how religion is a cultural institution that can offer an alternative and attainable set of life goals and identities. By conceiving religion as composed of a series of cultural models, differential adherence or cultural consonance with religious and secular ideals can be evaluated by their influence on mental well-being. Ultimately, this research will contribute to understanding the ways culture and religion shape psychological health.
Framing health deservingness of undocumented immigrants: perspectives from health workers at two Alabama clinics
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Bianchi, Anna Elizabeth; Oths, Kathryn S.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This study seeks to answer the call of medical anthropologists to study the moral issue of health deservingness through social scientific analysis. Specifically, this research attempts to find ways in which notions of health care deservingness for undocumented immigrants are framed by health workers in the southeastern United States. Interviews were conducted with health workers at all levels (n=31) in two safety-net clinics in Alabama to test two hypotheses. Based on clinic characteristics, it was hypothesized that a medical humanitarianism frame would be more frequently used among health workers at the community health center than at the public health department clinic. Based on the interests of public health in infectious disease control and surveillance, it was hypothesized that an infectious disease frame would be more frequently used among health workers at the public health department clinic than at the community health center. Content analysis was used to examine arguments, and chi-squares were used to test hypotheses. Health workers at both clinics stressed medical humanitarianism more than any other frame to argue for the health deservingness of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Furthermore, participants relied on the articulation of several frames. Conclusions demonstrate the salience of humanitarian ideals and reveal the ways in which frames are used to argue for or against deservingness.
Global Versus Momentary Osteoarthritis Pain and Emotional Distress: Emotional Intelligence as Moderator
(Oxford University Press, 2018) Parmelee, Patricia A.; Scicolone, Monica A.; Cox, Brian S.; DeCaro, Jason A.; Keefe, Francis J.; Smith, Dylan M.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; Duke University; State University of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook
Background Pain and emotional well-being are complexly associated both globally and in the moment. Emotional regulation strategies may contribute to that complexity by shaping the pain-well-being association. Purpose Using emotional intelligence (EI) as an integrative conceptual framework, this study probed the role of emotional regulation in the associations of osteoarthritis pain with emotional well-being in varying time frames. Perceived attention to, clarity, and regulation of emotions were examined as predictors of well-being, and as moderators of the well-being-pain association, at global and momentary (within-day) levels. Methods In a microlongitudinal study, 218 older adults with physician-diagnosed knee osteoarthritis self-reported global pain, depressive symptoms, and EI (mood attention, clarity, and repair). Momentary pain and positive and negative affect were then assessed four times daily for 7 days. EI subscales were examined as moderators of the pain-well-being association at global and momentary levels, controlling demographics and general health. Results Global and momentary pain were positively associated with mood clarity and negatively with attention, but not with repair. Clarity and repair negatively predicted depression, and buffered effects of pain on depression. Momentary negative affect was negatively predicted by mood clarity and repair; again, clarity and mood repair buffered effects of momentary pain on negative affect. Only mood repair predicted positive affect, with no interactions emerging. Conclusions Attention to mood states exacerbates the experience of pain in both short and long terms. In contrast, both mood clarity and ability to repair moods appear important to both momentary and longer-term emotional well-being.
How MAOA, decision-making, and negative parenting impact aggression and conduct problems in children: a gene by environment interaction study
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2019) Powe, Cameron E.; Lochman, John E.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Objective: Test if decision-making moderates the relationship between MAOA gene variant and aggression/conduct problems and if low/high MAOA and negative parenting will moderate decision-making and aggression/conduct problems. Method: Study used archival baseline data from a population of at-risk children. Measures include the buccal swab, the Iowa Gambling Task, the Teacher Report of Proactive and Reactive Aggression, the Behavior Assessment System for Children, and the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire. Analyses: Base models will test if MAOA variants, decision-making, and negative parenting impacts reactive aggression/conduct problems, and if the interactions between MAOA gene variants x decision-making and negative parenting x decision-making impacts reactive aggression/conduct problems. Moderation models will test if MAOA gene variants and negative parenting impacts decision-making, and if the interaction between MAOA gene variants x negative parenting behaviors impacts decision-making. Results: There was a significant moderation between MAOA gene variants and ADM when predicting to reactive aggression as well as a significant moderation between MAOA gene variants and ADM when predicting to conduct problems. Discussion: The moderation effect between affective decision-making and MAOA gene variants predicting to reactive aggression and the moderation effect between low affective decision-making and MAOA gene variants predicting to conduct problems, demonstrates that the higher MAOA allele can act as a protective factor. However, a different relationship exists between high affective decision-making and MAOA gene variants when predicting to conduct problems. In this moderation, higher affective decision-making can act as a protective factor against the risks associated with having the lower MAOA variant, but children with the higher MAOA variant engage in more conduct problem behavior. The study utilized a sample of aggressive and conduct problem youth, and these children may be more effective at using conduct problem behaviors to achieve their goals, even though they have the affective decision-making abilities to understand the differences between reward and punishment.
How smart phones affect skin conductance and social support networks among students at The University of Alabama
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2014) Owens, Charles Ross; DeCaro, Jason A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Although smart phone technology has been around several years, researchers are just now beginning to understand the impact of constantly being linked in to a network of information exchanges between and among users. Because smart phone technology has become commonplace in many developed nations such as the United States, the need to identify and observe its biological, social, and cultural impact is crucial. This investigation offers a benchmark analysis of users' perceptions of their own attachment to their smart phone devices, as well as to what extent this attachment can be measured through sympathetic nervous system response. Using skin conductance as a biomarker and a series of interviews including Cohen's Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL), it was determined that users do self-report a strong attachment to their devices. However, this attachment was not able to be captured through strict observation of skin conductance response alone during an experimental challenge when a text message was received. Rather, skin conductance level coupled with informants' interview responses yielded positive correlations between feeling anxious when the device is not nearby and with a perception that having a smart phone has dramatically changed the users' lives. Using the Kruskal-Wallis test as a non-parametric proxy for an Analysis of Variance, a significant association between the "anxious" statement and a high appraisal score on Cohen's ISEL was also determined. Lastly, a smaller group of informants underwent experience sampling interviews three times a week for seven days. Five categories of smart phone use were determined: Social Media and Photo Sharing, News and Information, Organization, Entertainment, and Communication. Smart phone use throughout the week varied among the sample. This study is a contribution to a small but growing body of literature on the biological, social, and cultural impacts of habitual smart phone use. It is hoped that researchers will benefit from this research by expanding on the observations made in this investigation in order to better understand the aggregate impact of technology on daily life.
Human canalization and female growth buffering with Drosophila as a model organism
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2018) Spangler, Daryll Ross; DeCaro, Jason A.; Reed, Laura K.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Child health is a central concern in populations experiencing economic, environmental, and nutritional stress. Adversity, however, does not affect individuals uniformly as preferential child investment and underlying biological processes may lead to instances of differential growth outcomes among boys and girls. The causes of such differences may be misinterpreted when examining health and nutrition survey data and are deserving of inspection. This research utilizes an evolutionary female canalization model to broadly contextualize observed instances of sex-specific growth outcomes. The objectives of this research are to: (1) investigate sex-specific differences in growth and development; (2) address contributing cultural factors of the target population; (3) create a biological framework for understanding female canalization; and (4) create a robust understanding of sex-specific growth outcomes that can be used to interpret health and nutrition survey data. To complete these objectives, this research uses the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey of the Philippines as a database for analysis. Drosophila melanogaster was employed as a model organism to investigate female canalization as an ancestral biological and evolutionary mechanism present in both Drosophila and humans. Human results indicate that girls are less sensitive to adverse environmental conditions and show more stable patterns of growth and development than boys. Drosophila results suggest there to be significant sex, diet, and genotype interactions that contribute to differential male and female phenotypic outcomes. These results show there are shared, sex-specific developmental characteristics between humans and Drosophila and that an understanding of contributing factors is crucial to future interpretations of health and nutrition survey data.
Improving executive function development: fantasy-oriented pretend-play as a protective factor
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Thibodeau, Rachel Beth; Gilpin, Ansley T.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Recent research suggests certain abilities (i.e., emotion regulation, appropriate physiological reactivity, executive functions) support the development of school readiness skills, especially among children in low-income environments. Although many preschool curricula have been developed to scaffold school readiness skills in at-risk preschoolers, these curricula are often very costly and require extensive training to implement. In order to improve upon the feasibility and sustainability of these programs, it is important to identify natural environmental experiences that are implicated in normative development. For instance, engaging in pretend-play, which typically involves cooperation, shared affect, and support among peers and adults, likely provides a positive context to scaffold development. The current study investigated how a propensity towards imagination and pretend-play (i.e., fantasy orientation; FO) may serve as a protective factor to minimize deficits in executive functions in a Head Start population (N = 343 children). Results revealed partial support for these hypotheses. Specifically, it appears that cognitive aspects of FO moderate the relationship between emotion regulation and executive function such that better cognitive performance was observed among children with poor emotion regulation skills and a high FO compared to peers who had poor emotion and a low FO. Similarly, behavioral aspects of FO appear to moderate the relationship between physiological reactivity and executive function. Among children who displayed low physiological reactivity, those with a higher FO demonstrated better executive function outcomes than peers who had a low FO. Implications for curriculum development and future directions are discussed.
Life history strategies, testosterone, and the anthropology of human development
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Aronoff, Jacob; DeCaro, Jason A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Life history theory was originally formulated in evolutionary biology to describe interspecies variation in life course development as a result of natural selection. Recently, some theorists in psychology and anthropology have tried to apply life history theory to understanding human intraspecies variation in psychology and behavior. These theorists have proposed that psychosocial stressors found in harsher social environments serve as cues of mortality risk that prime the development of particular life history strategies. The current study was an early empirical exploration of this theoretical development through examining a possible relationship between measures of the social environment and proposed components of human psychological and behavioral life history strategies, including sociosexuality, aggression, and risk taking. This proposed relationship was tested using a sample (n = 99) that was recruited from the population of young adult male college students at the University of Alabama. Further, the current study was an effort to incorporate hormonal mechanisms as well as the influence of culture into life history strategy theorizing. Testosterone was measured both in the morning and in the late afternoon/evening through saliva samples due to its implication in sexual behavior, aggression, and risk taking. Ethnographic open ended interviews were conducted with members of the population under study (n = 10) in order to obtain environmental factors specific to the sociocultural context. This served to add breadth and a contextually specific assessment of the social environment for the study population. Results indicated no relationship between environmental assessment measures, life history strategy measures, and testosterone. Therefore, this suggests a need to reconsider the relevance of life history theory to variation in human psychology and behavior.

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