One of the reasons Camryn Weihrauch chose The Ohio State University at Lima was because she knew she would be able to do research as an undergraduate.
As she finishes up her final semester as a psychology major, Weihrauch is seeing the benefits of that decision. She has received an Undergraduate Research Scholarship to complete her thesis “Quality of parent-child book reading as a predictor of children’s social-emotional competencies.”
Weihrauch’s research is focused on the area of developmental psychology, but it has broader implications that overlap with areas such as social psychology. It builds from an existing study in Dr. Virginia Tompkins psychology lab that collected parent-child book reading interactions before COVID-19. In a follow-up study a year later, Weihrauch looked at the socio-emotional outcomes, such as emotional symptoms and conduct problems.
“Camryn has a strong research project because of its practical relevance to current events,” said Tompkins, associate professor of psychology.“This research will help to better understand the qualities of parent-child discussions around mental states that relate to children's socio-emotional wellbeing, which is of critical importance during a pandemic that has had a potentially negative impact on this aspect of development.”
Weihrauch’s project examines the qualities of parent-child book reading, such as discussion of character emotions, that predict later socio-emotional outcomes. As part of the study, she has measured the children’s social skills using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, or SDQ.
“This research is important because we have found that parent-child book reading is correlated with positive outcomes in children’s social development, and high SDQ scores are correlated with children that are better at adapting to unusual circumstances,” Weihrauch said. “This research could shed some light on how children are coping with the unprecedented impacts of the pandemic and through further research could show how and why some children are coping better.”
The $3,000 scholarship has increased Weihrauch’s confidence that she is contributing to the field of psychology, and more practically, has given her a chance to focus closely on that work as she finishes up her thesis.
“This scholarship allows me more time to focus on my research,” Weihrauch said. “I worked two jobs for the majority of my college career in order to pay tuition, and I am grateful for this scholarship because it eases that burden.”
Weihrauch will present her work at both the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum and the Ohio State Lima Undergraduate Research Forum in April 2021.