Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Theses
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ItemLiving as a young adult with Type 1 diabetes(University of Melbourne, 2006)
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ItemBilingual sentence processing : subject-verb agreement and word order(University of Melbourne, 2006)
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ItemParenting and neurobehavioural development of very preterm children(University of Melbourne, 2006)
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ItemThe continuity and change of psychopathology in childhood : a follow up study(University of Melbourne, 2006)
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ItemAttentional affective processing in early adolescents who vary on primary dimensions of temperament(University of Melbourne, 2006)
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ItemThe psychometric analysis of integrity : a construct validation approach(University of Melbourne, 2006)
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ItemMaximising correct class prediction in mixture models using Monte Carlo computer simulation(University of Melbourne, 2006)
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ItemChild sex offenders with an intellectual disability: a descriptive model of the offence process( 2006)Grounded theory methodology was utilised to develop a preliminary descriptive model of the offence process of thirteen child sex offenders with an intellectual disability. In recent times, there has been increased interest around treatment issues relating to specific sexual offender populations, however little is known about the offence process of child sex offenders with an intellectual disability. The aim of this research project was to first investigate the offence process for this population of offenders and then establish their offence pathways to assist in the development of treatment programs. The project was conducted in two stages. The first stage incorporated two separate studies. Study one involved interviewing the thirteen participants and utilising the•information to develop a model of the offence process. The model contained four phases which described a sequence of psychological, behavioural and environmental factors, including mediating variables that contributed to the sexual abuse of prepubescent children. Study two aimed to further validate the developed model by investigating archival offence chains of eleven anonymous child sex offenders to establish if their offence pathways corresponded to the pathways developed in model. These offence pathways conformed to the pathways established in the developed model. Stage two of the research project analysed the offence pathways established in study one in relation to the self-regulation model pathways (Ward & Hudson, 1998, 2000). All the participants in study one were able to be reliably allocated to the approach pathways of the self regulation model. Checks were undertaken by an independent researcher for both the model development and the pathway allocation to ascertain reliability, suitability and content validity throughout the process. The results indicated that the model has provisional validity and adequate inter-rater reliability, and received a high level of saturation with respect to the model development and pathway analysis. The model and its relationship to the self-regulation pathways are discussed in detail, as are the clinical and research implications.
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ItemPrecursors and consequences of heavy alcohol use in adolescence( 2006)There is evidence of high and escalating rates of alcohol use in adolescents today and concern that high use is related to concurrent and later difficulties. Despite overlap with other substances, alcohol is by far the most commonly used substance during adolescence and is considered normative in some countries. Thus, it is important for research to focus on alcohol use in adolescence and early adulthood, to determine its patterns, developmental paths and outcomes. This study used extensive longitudinal data from a large community sample, followed from infancy to young adulthood (the Australian Temperament Project), and sought to examine the precursors and consequences of adolescent alcohol use. Firstly, it sought to identify clusters of adolescents with different alcohol usage patterns. Next, predictors of adolescent alcohol use were investigated to determine whether developmental paths differed for moderate and heavy adolescent alcohol users. Sex differences in the patterns and precursors of alcohol use were explored. In addition, a small sub-sample of participants was followed into young adulthood to examine the psychosocial outcomes of different patterns of adolescent alcohol use. Results confirmed high levels of alcohol use among Australian adolescents, and striking increases over time. Five alcohol-use clusters emerged representing trajectories from 13 to 18 years, with somewhat different developmental pathways. As hypothesised, individual risk factors, identifiable in childhood, were predictive of heavy alcohol use, although effects were small, while social risk factors were predictive of both heavy and moderate alcohol use. This finding has implications for intervention, supporting both early intervention for behaviour problems and social skill deficits, as well as multi-modal prevention efforts during adolescence incorporating a range of social domains. Importantly, there were no sex differences in patterns of adolescent alcohol use. Regarding predictors, some minor sex differences emerged in the link between childhood behaviour problems and heavy alcohol use, but not in the manner expected, suggesting that more research is required to determine the presence or absence of sex-specific pathways. Finally, alcohol-use patterns changed between late adolescence and young adulthood, revealing significant increases for most groups. While most adolescent abstainers were drinking in early adulthood, their earlier abstinence appeared to protect them against harmful levels of use. Moderate users experienced the most marked increases, reaching levels similar to heavy users in young adulthood. Unexpectedly however, adolescent alcohol-use patterns did not predict young-adult psychosocial adjustment, suggesting that alcohol use is more closely related to concurrent than future adjustluent, and indicating a need for further longitudinal research in this area.