Psychology Theses and Dissertations

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https://hdl.handle.net/1794/995

This collection contains some of the theses and dissertations produced by students in the University of Oregon Psychology Graduate Program. Paper copies of these and other dissertations and theses are available through the UO Libraries.

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Browsing Psychology Theses and Dissertations by Subject "adolescent"

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    Utilization of Linguistic Markers in Differentiation of Internalizing Disorders, Suicidality, and Identity Distress
    (University of Oregon, 2024-01-09) Ivie, Elizabeth; Allen, Nicholas
    The adolescent period of development is associated with a significant increase in the occurrence of mental illness. In addition, death by suicide is one of the leading causes of death amongst adolescents. Identity formation is a key developmental task of adolescence, and successful navigation of this process is associated with greater well-being and resilience, while difficulties are associated with risk for mental health disorders and suicidality. Adolescents today spend enormous amounts of time on digital devices, which have become a new instrument by which they explore and confirm their identities and experiences. The study of natural language use is related to wide range of psychological phenomena, including psychopathology, and offers a tool by which we can begin to ask and answer these questions utilizing new tools that allow us to passively collect adolescents’ language use directly from their digital devices. The current study leverages a unique clinical sample of adolescents who have been followed over six months to explore the relationship between both between and within participant measures of psychopathology, suicidal thought and behaviors, and putative linguistic markers of adolescent identity formation derived from online communications in order to further understand the association between these variables using ecologically valid measures in a community sample of adolescents experiencing significant mental health challenges. The aims of the study were to (1) assess whether there are differences in how adolescents with psychopathology, suicidal ideation, and previous suicide attempts use language, (2) language differences associated with mental illness symptomology, (3) and language differences in hypothesized identity domains associated with mental illness symptomology communicated through social communication apps via text. Participants completed baseline measures of depression, suicidality, and anxiety symptoms. Participants downloaded the EARS tool onto their digital devices that passively collected text data sent through social communication applications. The results of this study indicated that there are natural language use differences between adolescents with psychopathology and those who experience suicidality, depression, and anxiety symptoms.