Browsing by Author "Sampige, Ritu"
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Item Analyzing the Relationship Between Children’s Schooling Modality and Parenting Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic(2021-04-01) Sampige, Ritu; Daijiazi, Tang; Master, AllisonThe rise of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of US schools in March of 2020 in order to curb the spread of the virus. However, for the 2020-2021 school year, many parents were given the option to select either in-person or remote education modalities for their children, thus leading to a major dilemma. While in-person schooling may be linked with greater benefits for children’s development, it is also paired with a greater risk of contracting the virus. Due to this conundrum, which is unique to the 2020-2021 school year, this research study aims to analyze the impacts of COVID-19 on parent mental health with regards to children’s schooling modality. Using Qualtrics, a survey was developed with questions pertaining to children’s education and the COVID-Related Family Safety/Stability Stress subscale from the COVID-Related Parenting Stress scale. This subscale examines stress that parents experience regarding keeping their children and families safe during the pandemic. Utilizing the SPSS software, ANOVA and Pearson Chi-Square tests were conducted, and the results reveal that parents of children who are remotely learning feel more confident about keeping their children safe and therefore experience less COVID-Related Family Safety/Stability stress compared to parents of children who are physically learning at school. This underscores a need to alleviate parenting stress among parents of children who are physically attending school. Future goals for this study include analyzing child mental health across schooling modalities, other measures of parent mental health, and parents of children who are participating in hybrid learning.Item Exploring the Relationship Between Parental Mental Health and Parental Perceptions of Infant Vulnerability(2022-12) Sampige, RituA mismatch in vulnerability perception occurs when parents’ perceptions of their children’s medical vulnerability level differ from children’s objective medical risk status, and such mismatch negatively affects children’s health. The goal of this thesis is to determine how parental perceptions of infant vulnerability compare with objective infant vulnerability status and to identify the role of parental mental health in this relationship. This thesis fills the current gap in vulnerability-related research by elucidating parental perceptions of infant vulnerability across a broad range of infant health (NICU and well-baby nursery infants). Deidentified longitudinal data from the BabySeq Project was utilized for this study. Conducted between May 14, 2015 and May 21, 2019, the BabySeq Project was a randomized controlled trial that aimed to determine the psychosocial impact of newborn genomic sequencing results on families (519 parents of 325 infants). Data collected at 3 months and 10 months after disclosure of sequencing results were the focus of this present study. The data set included information regarding parental anxiety (GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9), perceptions of children’s vulnerability (CVS), and reported medical history of infants. From the data set, two novel variables were developed, including the objective vulnerability score to identify infants’ medical risk status and the Match/Mismatch score to determine parents’ risk for misperceiving their infants’ vulnerability. Parental mental health scores were significant predictors of Match/Mismatch scores and perceived vulnerability, and vice versa, within each timepoint at 3 and 10 months post-disclosure. When controlling for demographic variables, Match/Mismatch scores at 3 months, but not parental mental health at 3 months, longitudinally predicted Match/Mismatch scores at the 10-month timepoint. Additionally, parental mental health at 3 months, but not Match/Mismatch scores at 3 months, longitudinally predicted future parental mental health at the 10-month timepoint. There is a need for health care professionals to identify parents who are at risk for mismatch in infant vulnerability perception. By recognizing such at-risk parents, physicians can subsequently provide resources that will assist parents in better understanding their infant’s objective health status, and physicians can allocate resources to help alleviate parents’ potential mental health severity.Item Mismatch Between Perceived and Objective Indices of Infant Vulnerability: NICU Status and Parental Mental Health(2023-04-13) Sampige, RituParental misperceptions of child vulnerability have detrimental effects on parenting behaviors and childrenï¾’s health. Hence, there is a critical need to understand factors that affect the alignment between childrenï¾’s objective vulnerability and parental perceptions of childrenï¾’s medical vulnerability. The goals of this study were to measure the alignment between objective and perceived infant vulnerability, assess differences in alignment between infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and well-baby nurseries, and determine how such alignment differed across parental mental health risk. The BabySeq Project enrolled 519 parents of 325 infants, and data from two timepoints across seven months were explored. Two novel variables were created ï¾– objective vulnerability and match/mismatch scores. Objective vulnerability represented infantsï¾’ medical risk while match/mismatch scores represented the alignment between objective and perceived vulnerability. Welchï¾’s t-tests showed that match/mismatch, objective, and perceived vulnerability scores at the first timepoint were significantly greater among NICU infants than well-baby nursery infants. Furthermore, parents at risk for anxiety at the first timepoint and parents at risk for depression at the second timepoint perceived their infants to be significantly more vulnerable than parents not at risk for anxiety or depression, respectively. In this first look at longitudinal data from NICUs and well-baby nurseries, results show that vulnerability perceptions, including mismatch with objective vulnerability, are associated with infant medical health and parental mental health status. Findings underscore the importance of identifying both objective and perceived measures of infant health to better understand ways to promote optimal parent-child interactions and child health.Item The Relationship Between Parent Anxiety Symptomatology and Feeding Behaviors(2020-09-29) Sampige, RituWith alarming rates of pediatric obesity, there is a pressing need to determine the causes of children’s maladaptive self-regulation of energy intake. Parent feeding behaviors influence children’s eating behaviors. Despite the high prevalence of anxiety among adults, the impact of parent anxiety on feeding behaviors is understudied. Hence, this qualitative systematic review utilizes PRISMA guidelines to synthesize current literature regarding the effects of parent anxiety on feeding behaviors. PubMed and APA PsycInfo were searched with an extensive keyword combination to identify empirical studies from peer-reviewed journals regarding the effects of parent anxiety on the feeding of normally developing children aged six months or older. After independent and blind screening rounds of 925 articles, ten articles were included for data extraction based on study design, goal, results, and limitations. A majority of the included studies indicate an association between parent anxiety symptomatology and nonresponsive, obesogenic feeding behaviors, which include restrictive and controlling feeding practices. However, there is a lack of consensus among the studies regarding the severity of impact of parent anxiety symptomatology on the development and utilization of nonresponsive feeding behaviors. Common limitations among the included studies are the use of self-reported data, cross-sectional design, and only mothers in the sample. Hence, future researchers should conduct longitudinal studies with objective parent-child mealtime observation to better assess the impact of parent anxiety on feeding behaviors and to support future healthcare professionals in guiding parents with anxiety and anxiety symptomatology towards optimal feeding behaviors.Item The Relationship Between Parent Anxiety Symptomatology and Feeding Behaviors(2021-04-01) Sampige, RituWith alarming rates of pediatric obesity, there is a pressing need to determine the causes of children’s maladaptive self-regulation of energy intake. Parent feeding behaviors influence children’s eating behaviors. Despite the high prevalence of anxiety among adults, the impact of parent anxiety on feeding behaviors is understudied. Hence, this qualitative systematic review utilizes PRISMA guidelines to synthesize current literature regarding the effects of parent anxiety on feeding behaviors. PubMed and APA PsycInfo were searched with an extensive keyword combination to identify empirical studies from peer-reviewed journals regarding the effects of parent anxiety on the feeding of normally developing children aged six months or older. After independent and blind screening rounds of 925 articles, ten articles were included for data extraction based on study design, goal, results, and limitations. A majority of the included studies indicate an association between parent anxiety symptomatology and nonresponsive, obesogenic feeding behaviors, which include restrictive and controlling feeding practices. However, there is a lack of consensus among the studies regarding the severity of impact of parent anxiety symptomatology on the development and utilization of nonresponsive feeding behaviors. Common limitations among the included studies are the use of self-reported data, cross-sectional design, and only mothers in the sample. Hence, future researchers should conduct longitudinal studies with objective parent-child mealtime observation to better assess the impact of parent anxiety on feeding behaviors and to support future healthcare professionals in guiding parents with anxiety and anxiety symptomatology towards optimal feeding behaviors.Item Utilizing Conjoined Mice Models to Explore the Aging Lacrimal Gland(2022-04-14) Sampige, RituAging is a risk factor for dry eye disease (DED), an inflammatory abnormality of the ocular surface that results in an uncomfortable gritty feeling in the eye. It occurs due to significantly reduced tear volume or alteration of tear osmolarity. With a rapidly increasing aging population in the U.S., there is a pressing need to explore DED across age. The lacrimal gland (LG) is responsible for tear production and is affected in DED. This study aimed to explore whether there was a relationship between aged circulating, systemic factors and the LG. Male and female PepBoy mice that were 4 months of age were surgically joined to another same-sex PepBoy or C57BL/6J (B6) mouse, which was aged 18 months. Pairings were either isochronic (young with young or aged with aged) or heterochronic (young with aged). LGs were evaluated 2 months post-surgery. Measurements of T cell and B cell inflammatory marker levels showed a significant upregulation in fold expression of Cd19, Cxc19, Cxcl13, Ifng, Ctss, and Il-1b between both isochronic pairings. Among males, results showed that young, heterochronic mice had significantly greater LG lymphocyte infiltration compared to young, isochronic mice. Intriguingly, we observed significant fibrosis in 36% of the aged parabiotic male LGs, regardless of pairing. In essence, young circulating factors were insufficient in rejuvenating aged mice LGs in the heterochronic pairings. However, aged circulating factors accelerated aging in young mice LGs, thus underscoring the role of systemic, circulating factors in LG insult and DED incidence.