Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Nonreligious Parents' Perceptions Of The Role Religious Differences And Religious Disaffiliation Play In Family Relationships, Heather H. Kelley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The number of nonreligious Americans has steadily increased in recent years, and researchers predict that this growth will continue. Despite this growth, limited research has explored the experiences of nonreligious parents and how religious differences impact their family relationships. As such, through a qualitative analysis of 33 interviews with nonreligious couples (N=66 individuals), the current study addresses how nonreligious adults perceive the influence of religious differences on their relationships with their family of origin (i.e., parents, siblings, and extended family members) and how these religious differences impact the intergenerational relationships between nonreligious parent's family of origin and their children. Additionally, …

Are Corporations Responding To Civil Society Pressure?: A Multilevel Analysis Of Corporate Emissions, Annika Marie Rieger

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Previous research in the world-society tradition associates improvements in nation-level environmental outcomes with greater civil society integration. However, research in the world-systems tradition indicates these improvements depend on a nation’s position in the global political-economic hierarchy. To test whether these patterns are present at the organizational level, I estimate a multilevel model using corporate emissions data from the Carbon Disclosure Project and include interactions between world-system position and three measures of civil society integration: number of NGOs, proportion of corporations with climate-management incentives, and number of corporate UN Global Compact signatories. I find that the relationship between civil society pressure …

A Content Analysis Of Common Relationship Challenges Among People Who Practice Polyamory, Kalyn Su, Sophie Camilleri

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Approximately 1 out of 9 people in the U.S. have engaged in polyamory (Moors et al., 2021), a relationship type in which all involved agree to have multiple romantic and/or sexual partners. Despite the commonness of polyamory, there are many misconceptions about the polyamorous experience. However, research has yet to examine common challenges that people engaged in polyamory endure. The goal of the present qualitative study was to identify the disadvantages and stressors of polyamory in order to shed light on the unique experiences of people in these relationships. 219 adults who were currently in a polyamorous relationship were asked …

Violently Peaceful: Unpacking Portrayals Of Black Lives Matter Protests, Cynthia Tuzo

Honors College Theses

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an international activist organization that aims to fight racial inequality and injustice in America. During the summer of 2020, many American citizens utilized their First Amendment right to protest against the killings of unarmed Black people in association with the BLM movement. BLM emphasized the use of nonviolent tactics to fight injustice. Contrary to their emphasis, the protests associated with BLM were portrayed as both violent and peaceful depending on the political beliefs of the reporter. In my research, I consider what it means for a protest to be peaceful and whether the Black Lives …

Where The Thunder Dragon Lives: The Case Of Human Capital Flight In Bhutan, Grace Subu

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Human capital flight (HCF) hinders developing economies striving to escape the middle-income trap by enhancing domestic institutions and improving living standards. Global development literature has focused on creating theoretical frameworks to understand and manage human capital flows. Recent iterations of the human capital flow paradigm have moved beyond the traditional 'brain gain' versus 'brain drain' dichotomy to emphasize the globalized nature of the reciprocity of knowledge and transfer of skill through human capital mobility, highlighting the concept of 'brain circulation.' This paper examines Bhutan's emerging HCF problem as a case study to illustrate these theoretical concepts. Bhutan's unique situation, characterized …

Gender Disparities Within The Olympics, Hadley Parkinson

Sociology Student Work Collection

This project explores the various disparities among the Olympic Games and World Athletics as they impact women, transgender, intersex, and DSD athletes, as well as how these impacts relate to sociological topics.

An Exploratory Research On The Sexualization Of Young Women On Tiktok, Grace Schmerz

Student Theses

This study adopts a mixed-method approach, utilizing both qualitative content analysis and quantitative metadata assessments to evaluate 1000 TikTok videos tagged under specific hashtags suggestive of youthful and sexualized themes. Qualitative findings highlighted the characteristics of sexualization through thematic content analysis, sorting behaviors, attire, and the context of music and speech within the videos. Themes such as sexualized postures, sexualized attire, sexualized dancing, sexualized speech, and sexualized gestures were categorized and quantified with the support of descriptive statistics. The study found a significant presence of sexualization in the sample, most prominently in post-pubescent women. Quantitatively, engagement metrics provided insight into …

The 20th Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Legislative Report, Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

The 20th Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Legislative Report from the Legislative Session May 6-9, 2024 at the Capitol Building in Austin, Texas.

What's In A Name? Plant Naming As Cultural Artifact And Story In The Midwestern United States, Sophie Wesseler

Undergraduate Theses

This project sought to collect and contextualize the historical and contemporary names given to plants by inhabitants of the Midwestern United States, understanding plant names as cultural artifacts that can offer insight into the communities in which they were created and evolved. Formatted as a series of entries, this collection gathered these names and contextualized them within other artifacts of cultural significance, such as art or poetry, and alongside historical research on their origins and cultural environments. Examining plant names through the fields of linguistics, semiology, anthropology, cultural studies, taxonomy, and ethnobotany, this work traces the names of various plants …

Characteristics And Motivations Of Passengers On Board A Puffin Tour Boat In Maine, Skye Howard

Honors College

The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a visually attractive seabird found in the North Atlantic Ocean. While research in the Eastern North Atlantic indicates that Puffins attract visitors to areas where the species can be viewed, less is known about visitor interest in Atlantic puffins in the Western North Atlantic. This study helps fill a gap in the literature regarding visitor interest in Atlantic puffins in the Western North Atlantic. The purpose of this study is to provide an understanding of the characteristics of passengers on board a puffin tour boat visiting Petit Manan Island, Maine, and the importance of …

The Man-Hating Woman: Studying Bystander Perceptions Of Social Media Sexism Confrontations, Erika Hipsky

Honors College

Social media platforms enable users to perpetuate discriminatory rhetoric and oppressive structures, including sexism. While previous research on sexism confrontations has mainly focused on face-to-face interactions, there is little information available on how confrontations operate within the context of social media. This thesis examines the influence of confronter approach (HATE or CARE) and identity (man or woman) on TikTok sexism confrontations. Female participants, acting as bystanders (N = 57), were surveyed on their perceptions of four TikTok confrontations: HATE Woman, CARE Woman, HATE Man, and CARE Man. Regardless of confronter gender, participants viewed CARE confrontations as more likable than HATE …

Intrinsically Career-Motivated Women & Motherhood, Paige Allen

Honors College

The goal of the present study was to identify whether maternal regret was present among career-oriented mothers and understand how intrinsically-career motivated women experience motherhood. Data from 20 qualitative interviews with working mothers were analyzed with modified grounded theory and strategies using open, axial, and selective coding. The study identified four themes and fifteen associated subthemes that represent working mothers’ experiences: qualities, skills, conditions, and resources. These themes and the theoretical frames of Bowen’s family systems theory, rational choice theory, and intersectionality led to several implications for working mothers. While it is possible to contribute to both work and family, …

Lessons In Persistence, Syble Heffernan

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

LESSONS IN PERSISTENCE is a thesis that operates within the tradition of writing about trauma and resilience, taking up themes of mental illness, class, colonialism, loss of a parent, navigating queerness in a conservative Christian context, and reckoning with gender-based violence and expectations directed toward people socialized as women. The use of ecopoetics highlights the relationship between traumas to the earth brought about by climate change, war, and worldwide suffering, and those brought upon the human body (specifically marginalized bodies) by grief, illness, abuse, and the loss of self. The collection ultimately aims to establish explicit connections between internal and …

Breaking The Rule Of Silence: Childbirth And Gendered Power In Efuru And The Joys Of Motherhood, Sunday Elliott Uguru

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examines the thematic preoccupation of childbirth in the formative period of feminist discourse in African literature through a critical study of selected novels of Igbo women of southeastern Nigeria. The novels studied represent the earliest published African texts in English by women. The period under focus falls within the emerging stage of Nigerian literary tradition in its written form with a dominant presence of men. This study investigates the women novelists' perspective toward the failure of male authored works to represent women's childbirth experience. Through a critical reading of Flora Nwapa's Efuru and Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of …

"Everyone Got To Eat My Tears": Racialized Emotions, Mentoring Practices, And The Political And Ethical Commitments Of Women Of Color Graduate Students In Stem, Machienvee V. Lammey

Sociology ETDs

In this project, I examine the emotional and lived experiences of women of color (WOC) graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and how they embody and negotiate racism, classism, and sexism in academia, particularly in White, men-dominated STEM spaces. I utilize critical race theory and intersectionality to shed light on how WOC draw upon their intersecting identities, marginalization, and sense of community to navigate and resist oppressive environments. Specifically, I highlight the ways they experience racialized emotions and leverage vulnerability to resist dominant academic norms and controlling images to preserve their holistic selves, engage in critical reflexivity …

Transit Workforce Development Challenges And Mitigation Practices, Jodi Godfrey

Mineta Transportation Institute

The objective of this research is to summarize previously conducted research related to workforce development challenges in the transit industry, detailing major findings and subsequent recommendations based on the annotated bibliography of the current atmosphere and most successful ways to mitigate those challenges to attract and retain talent in the transit industry. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. had over 10 million job openings and only 5.7 million unemployed workers in March 2023. In 2017, the Washington Post posited that there were not enough workers to fill the vacancies, as the U.S. Census Bureau announced a 17-year …

Practice Facilitation And Peer Coaching For Uncontrolled Hypertension Among Black Individuals: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Monika M Safford, Doyle M Cummings, Jacqueline R Halladay, James M Shikany, Joshua Richman, Suzanne Oparil, James Hollenberg, Alyssa Adams, Muna Anabtawi, Lynn Andreae, Elizabeth Baquero, Joanna Bryan, Debra Sanders-Clark, Ethel Johnson, Erica Richman, Orysya Soroka, Jimmy Tillman, Andrea L Cherrington

Student and Faculty Publications

IMPORTANCE: Rural Black participants need effective intervention to achieve better blood pressure (BP) control.

OBJECTIVE: Among Black rural adults with persistently uncontrolled hypertension attending primary care clinics, to determine whether peer coaching (PC), practice facilitation (PF), or both (PCPF) are superior to enhanced usual care (EUC) in improving BP control.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A cluster randomized clinical trial was conducted in 69 rural primary care practices across Alabama and North Carolina between September 23, 2016, and September 26, 2019. The participating practices were randomized to 4 groups: PC plus EUC, PF plus EUC, PCPF plus EUC, and EUC alone. …

Emotional Labor Performed Among University Faculty Responding To Student Sexual Assault Disclosures, Cadi Imbody

All Theses

Given the barriers to formal help-seeking and the prevalence on college campuses, students who experience sexual assault may turn to faculty for assistance, as they are familiar faces they trust and can provide access to university resources. In these cases, faculty may become the frontline for providing official help within the university setting. Responding to these student sexual assault disclosures requires great emotional capacity and the ability to provide empathetic, supportive responses. In these interactions, faculty may need to perform what Arlie Russell Hochschild (1983/2003) theorized as “emotional labor” to handle such sensitive information appropriately. Initially focusing on the service …

“Playing The Blame Game”: How Social Media Users Make Sense Of Coach-Athlete Sexual Violence And Institutional Betrayal, Claire Waddell

All Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how users of the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) responded to and assigned responsibility in two cases of coach-athlete sexual violence in elite North American sport. The cases of Kyle Beach, formerly of the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League, and Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly, both formerly of the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League, were chosen for analysis because they represent the blending of (masculinized) sports culture and (feminized) sexual violence within the unique context of professional North American sports. A convenience sample of …

A New Canon: Dismantling Racist Exclusion In Opera And Paving The Way For Inclusive Representation, Kourtney J. Holmes

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document examines the exclusion of African American opera from the traditional Western operatic canon and standard performance practices within educational institutions and professional organizations. The narrow conception of opera as a European art form has obscured the contributions and cultural significance of works by pioneering African American composers. This study addresses this gap and elevates neglected histories by arguing for African American opera's artistic merit and contemporary relevance within the American operatic tradition.

Through musical and historical analysis of representative works from the late 19th/early 20th centuries onwards, I aim to illuminate the genre's unheard tales of struggle, identity, …

Barriers To A Real Second Chance: Seeking Redemption While Set Up For Failure, Kara Forrai

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With the enactment of the Second Chance Act in 2008, there has been a need to better understand the effectiveness of prisoner reentry programs and the services that are provided within these programs. Since then, numerous articles have described the barriers that previously incarcerated persons encounter during reentry and how this increases the likelihood of recidivism. The goal of this current study is to understand what current barriers exist for individuals within a local reentry program and then to suggest future implementations that could reduce the impact of these barriers. To achieve this goal, qualitative research methods are employed to …

Liminal Embodiment And The Changing Parental Body, Torisha Khonach

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation sits at the intersection of sociology of the body, parenting, and life course to examine how the role and status of becoming a parent shape individuals' embodiment. Grounded in research highlighting body and embodiment as crucial, yet understudied aspects of social experiences, my study views biological changes as rooted in the social, where symbolic messages shape how parents think and understand their bodies and embodiment. The transition to parenthood serves as a unique lens for analyzing embodiment, as pregnancy, barriers to assisted reproductive technology, and adoption serve as evidence for the intersection of physical and social changes. My …

Adverse Childhood Experiences: Why Trafficking Victims End Up Running Away, Getting In Trouble, And Being Homeless, Makaylen Tadeo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Sex trafficking of youth is something that requires people to think deeper as to how they ended up trading sex in the first place. Literature has shown that within adverse childhood experiences, abuse plays a significant factor. There are many types of abuse and a variety of harmful effects it can have on a child that is not only limited to physical and mental health but also to how they grow up and live in the world. Using the life course theory, this current study wanted to apply the concepts to explain how specific adverse childhood experiences in the form …

Discerning Moral Injury, Alexandra A. Merletti

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Moral injury is a recently developed psychological construct used to explain trauma that cannot be adequately explained by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It arises from experiences in which sufferers feel that they have violated deeply held moral beliefs and has multiple negative long term health and professional consequences for individuals affected. In order to better understand moral injury, this study seeks to understand how it is identified in individuals by others and utilizes Christie’s (2018) Ideal Victim Theory and Gray and Wegner’s (2009) Moral Typecasting Theory as a theoretical framework. Participants for this study were 374 undergraduate students at the …

Voices Of Change: Oral Histories Of Ethnic Studies Leaders In Racialized Organizations, Bucket Manyweather

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study of implementing California Assembly Bill 1460, or mandatory Ethnic Studies (ES) in the California State University System (CSU), investigates the leadership decisions made within a set of self-governing campuses with varied institutional resources and responsibilities. This research uses an Oral History methodology, which situates personal experiences in history to illustrate how Ethnic Studies staff, faculty, and administrators navigate a racialized organization as they institutionalize a critical race curriculum and mandate within the context of individual campus histories, cultures and governances.

I reviewed the literature and documented the history of the first College of Ethnic Studies, the movement's impact, …

Black Women Educational Leaders In Pk-12 Public Education: A Multiple Case Study On The Double Consciousness Of Black Women Educational Leadership In Southwestern United States, Malena Baizan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examined the stories of Black Women Educational Leaders (BWEL) in PK-12t public education and their double consciousness as expressed through their leadership. The focus of this study was BWEL’s counternarratives as leaders within a system built upon systemic racism and oppression. Their experiences as Black Women Educational Leaders in PK-12 in a school district in which most school administrators are white, but most of the student body is Black and Brown were highlighted and centered to shed light on how the double consciousness of Black women informs their leadership. Utilizing Critical Race Feminism as the theoretical framework with …

“Sex Is Fun”: A Study Of Hook Up Behaviors And Experiences Of Post-College And Middle-Aged Adults, Joshua Corum

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research is a qualitative study of the hook up and casual sex behaviors and experiences of those in full adulthood, focusing on their motivations to hook up and the subsequent outcomes of those casual sex activities. Most of the existing scholarship on hooking up and casual sex primarily investigates the behaviors, attitudes, and experiences of college students within emerging adulthood. Little consideration is made for the ways in which adults negotiate hooking up and casual sex in other stages over the life course and after major life transitions. In this dissertation, I asked three questions: 1) How do adults …

Voices From The Field: Black Women Who Have Successfully Transcended The Leadership Pipeline Into Superintendency, Brione A. Minor-Mitchell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Black women have a distinct journey within the realm of education, one that can only be fully comprehended and articulated by Black women themselves. However, even with their insights, not all readers will grasp the intense scrutiny Black women face when they strive for leadership roles, particularly in superintendency. This study aims to delve into the experiences of Black women who have risen to superintendency, examining the challenges they've encountered. It seeks to address four key questions through the lenses of Critical Race Feminism and Black Feminist Thought: What barriers do Black aspiring women leaders confront as they ascend to …

Factors Shaping Charter School Leaders’ Student Recruitment Practices In Southern Nevada, John E. Aydogdu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Charter schools have witnessed significant growth in the United States, accompanied by increased diversity among student populations. However, Southern Nevada charter schools diverge from national trends, enrolling a less racially and socioeconomically diverse student population. This study examined factors that shape charter school leaders’ student recruitment practices in Southern Nevada. In addition to addressing the lack of literature coverage on Southern Nevada charter schools’ demographics, this study also introduced new research regarding the predicament of charter school demographics in Southern Nevada. Using a case study approach, data from 16 charter school leaders and staff members across four identified charter schools …

Improving Occupational Therapy Student Utilization Through A Community Engagement Program For Individuals With Dementia, Andrew Stevenson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The contents of this doctoral project include an introduction to some of the difficulties people with dementia face in regard to engaging in the community, and how that may impact their health. It goes on to support how occupational therapists (OTs) have the skills to provide treatment addressing this issue but have faced difficulty entering settings such as memory care. A literature review demonstrates some of the positive benefits that can result from providing people with dementia opportunities for community engagement and reveals some of the difficulties associated with providing quality dementia care. This helps to explain the purpose of …