Advisor(s)
Kristi Guest
Caroline Richter
Committee Member(s)
Anne Brisendine
Heather Austin
Sylvie Mrug
School
College of Arts and Sciences
Document Type
Dissertation
Department (new version)
Psychology
Date of Award
9-11-2025
Abstract
The overarching goal of this dissertation was to investigate interventions that aimed to support mental health and child development in underserved families. Individuals from low-income households often experience mental health difficulties, such as higher rates of caregiver depression. Additionally, children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to face difficulties with social and emotional development. This dissertation is comprised of three papers exploring interventions to facilitate child development and well-being in low-income families. The first paper is a systematic review and meta-analysis on home visiting interventions aimed at supporting the social-emotional development of children from birth to five years of age. The review included 16 articles examining the effects of these interventions on children’s internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, or social-emotional development. The qualitative synthesis revealed that the outcomes of home visiting interventions varied across behavioral and social-emotional domains while the meta-analysis indicated that these interventions had a significant effect in reducing overall problem behaviors. The second paper investigated the relationship between children’s cognitive, language, and social-emotional development and caregiver depression in a sample of 114 children enrolled in an Early Head Start (EHS) program and their primary caregivers. It explored changes in child and caregiver outcomes over time while in the EHS program and investigated the relationship between children’s development and caregiver depression. Findings indicated children’s cognitive and language development significantly improved over time, while social-emotional development remained stable. Additionally, results indicated greater levels of caregiver depression at baseline significantly predicted children’s later social-emotional development. The third paper evaluated the use of a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) implemented in a school for underserved youth. Specifically, it investigated the reduction of stress as a mechanism for increasing emotional well-being and decreasing anxiety. Findings indicated the MBI did not contribute to significant improvements in students’ stress, anxiety, or emotional well-being. However, mid-intervention stress significantly predicted post-intervention anxiety and emotional well-being. These findings highlight that stress plays an important role in students’ mental health.
ProQuest ID
Recommended Citation
Paquette, Brianna, "Promoting Mental Health And Social-Emotional Development In Underserved Families" (2025). All ETDs from UAB. 7408.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/7408
