Date of Award

Spring 6-13-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D. in Psychology

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

First Advisor

Angela Narayan

Second Advisor

Jenalee Doom

Third Advisor

Max Weisbuch

Fourth Advisor

Kateri McRae

Fifth Advisor

Jenn Bellamy

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Childhood caregiver, Mental health, Metaperceptions, Young adult, Self-esteem

Abstract

Early experiences and relationships have enduring impacts on the development of self and later mental health and wellbeing. In social relationships and interactions, the developing individual is continuously assessing how they view themself, how they view the other person, and how they believe the other person views them. Metaperceptions represent the latter construct: how an individual thinks another person perceives them. Childhood self-esteem, parent-child attachment, and metaperceptions are foundational constructs for the developing individual, yet metaperceptions have not previously been tested as a predictor for adulthood mental health while also accounting for childhood self-esteem and parent-child attachment. This study introduced a brief, novel measure of child-caregiver metaperceptions: the Five Words Task (FWT), and evaluated construct validity of the FWT with attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and childhood self-esteem, and predictive validity of the FWT with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD in young adulthood. A sample of 548 young adults (Mage =27.07, SDage = 4.65; 53.5% female, 44.3% male; 2.2% other gender, 68.3% White, 9.5% Black, 8.9% Asian, 8.2% Latinx, 4.6% biracial, multiracial, or other, and 0.5% preferred not to report) participating in a larger study responded to FWT prompts to report metaperceptions about their mothers and fathers, as well as other key variables. Maternal FWT and paternal FWT scores were each modestly correlated with childhood attachment anxiety and avoidance with respective caregivers, but not with childhood self-esteem. Higher maternal FWT and paternal FWT scores were correlated with lower symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. When attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance with respective childhood caregivers, as well as covariates were included in the final models, higher maternal FWT and paternal FWT scores continued to predict lower symptoms of depression and anxiety, but not PTSD. Group differences revealed that individuals who reported any negatively valenced word in the FWT had significantly higher symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. The FWT has significant potential use in clinical and research settings, as a brief and effective measure of metaperceptions, and as a possible therapeutic target for cognitive reappraisal to increase individuals’ positive attributions of how caregivers’ appraised individuals during their childhoods, with the ultimate goal to improve current mental health and wellbeing.

Copyright Date

6-2025

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Cassandra Svelnys

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

68 pgs

File Size

459 KB

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