Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Why Weak States Balance: National Mobilization And The Security Strategies Of Post-Soviet States, Eteri Tsintsadze-Maass

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the 14 post-Soviet states adopted dramatically differing security strategies towards Russia: some sought security by bandwagoning with Russia while others strove to balance against it. Why did states with similar experiences under Soviet rule and similar asymmetric power positions vis-à-vis Russia adopt such diverse security strategies in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s disintegration? In contrast to prevailing theories focusing on power, economic interdependence, and cultural similarities, I propose that these variations in post-Soviet states’ security strategies can be best explained by their diverse experiences with national mobilization. The central argument of this …

Judicial Elections, Public Opinion, And Their Impact On State Criminal Justice Policy, Travis N. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

This dissertation explores whether and how the re-election prospects faced by trial court judges in many American states influence criminal justice policy, specifically, state levels of incarceration, as well as the disparity in rates of incarceration for Whites and Blacks. Do states where trial court judges must worry about facing reelection tend to encourage judicial behavior that results in higher incarceration rates? And are levels of incarceration and racial disparities in the states influenced by the proportion of the state publics who want more punitive policies? These are clearly important questions because they speak directly to several normative and empirical …

What Do You And I Have To Lose? Influence Of Relationship Factors On Couple Help Seeking, Douglas Allen Spiker Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Without intervention, most distressed couples will not see relationship quality improvement. Couple therapy has demonstrated efficacy, yet many distressed couples are reluctant to access these services. Despite this well-documented treatment gap, limited research exists on why relationally distressed individuals in relationships do or do not seek couple therapy. An unexplored avenue to increasing couple help seeking is leveraging research and theory on why couples stay together (i.e., relationship-based motives). Interdependence theory and Investment Model of Commitment posit that couples persist in relationships for both self-focused (i.e., commitment, positive and negative relationship quality) and partner-focused relationship reasons (i.e., perceived partner commitment, …

Move Or Improve? Place, Policy, And Educator Labor Markets, Cory Curl

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

What is the role of place and policy in shaping educator labor markets during the decade following the Great Recession of 2008? This research leverages data on Kentucky students, educators, schools, and school districts from 2009 to 2018, with a focus on the rural, isolated Appalachian region. Many counties in the region have long struggled with poverty, low rates of labor force participation, lower educational attainment, and dependence on public transfers (Ziliak, 2019). Despite these challenges, the people of Appalachia demonstrate a strong attachment to the region. With this research, I enhance understanding of contexts and conditions, such as unique …

Defying The Odds: Exploring The Ways First-Generation College Students Enact Resilience, Paris Lauren Nelson

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This thesis examined the experiences of first-generation college students in the context of higher education. This thesis was framed by the communication theory of resilience to discover how first-generation college students enact five processes of resilience: crafting normalcy, affirming identity anchors, maintaining and using communication networks, employing alternate logics, and foregrounding productive action. First-generation college students face academic preparation, financial, social capital, personal, and college completion adversities that may necessitate engagement in resilience processes. Participants (N = 8) participated in focus groups and interviews where they discussed messages from family, peers, and university faculty and staff involving reactive and proactive …

Benefits, Drawbacks, And Risks Of Ai, James M. Donovan

Law Faculty Books and Chapters

The specter of the impact of artificial intelligence [AI] on law and legal education casts a long and uncertain shadow. Its mix of enthusiasm and trepidation can arise from a thin idea of what the label refers to. Four components differentiate AI from even high-end automation: Big data and predictive analytics, deep learning software, cloud computing, and natural language process. From the perspective of the person on the street though, is captured as “the art of creating machines that perform functions that require intelligence when performed by people,” centering on the ability to make independent choices. While that gloss may …

Evaluating The Effects Of Meditation On Students’ With Disabilities On-Task Performance, Lauren Ashley Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

This document will address the following prompts: (a) compare and contrast A-B-A-B designs and multiple probe designs for their applications to research questions, respective strengths and weaknesses, and threats to internal validity, (b) evaluate Wilson and Dixon (2010) for rigor, risk of bias, and quality based on What Works Clearinghouse’s measures, and (c) provide a rationale for the use of meditation with students with disabilities and outline procedures a practitioner could follow to implement meditation with a student with behavioral challenges.

Intentional Personality Change: Toward The Prevention Of Problem Drinking, Elizabeth N. Riley

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Personality stability across the lifespan has been well documented, but within that overall stability there is also evidence of meaningful change. There is both theoretical and empirical evidence to suggest that personality change can occur at the volition of the individual, through behavioral processes. The current study tested whether an emotion modulation intervention that promoted behavior change could be applied to reduce a related, high-risk personality trait (negative urgency) and a high-risk behavior (heavy alcohol consumption) using a three-week long, mixed laboratory design. Participants (n=23) were a sample of heavy drinking but otherwise healthy volunteers who were randomly assigned to …

Advancing The Measurement Of Trauma-Related Shame Among Women With Histories Of Interpersonal Violence, Alyssa Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Shame is a predominant emotion for some trauma-exposed individuals—particularly survivors of interpersonal violence (IPV)—that is associated with more severe symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; see Saraiya & Lopez-Castro, 2016). Despite growing evidence of shame’s importance in recovery from trauma and PTSD, measurement challenges have played a large role in difficulties understanding and comparing the impact of shame across studies. These challenges include: 1) the use of measures that assess trait shame as opposed to trauma-related shame, 2) inconsistent use of established shame measures across studies, and 3) failure to acknowledge the co-occurrence of shame and guilt. These limitations are …

High Demand Labor Sectors And College Enrollment: A Preliminary Analysis Of The Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship (Wrks), Jillian Frost

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

States have taken a variety of approaches to improving educational investment in the labor market and increasing educational attainment statewide. One such approach is the idea of target sectors – identifying high demand and high growth industries to direct business and educational investment across the state. Since 2011, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has utilized target sectors to identify high demand high wage occupations in order to drive labor force participation, employment, and educational alignment. To combat projected employee shortages in the identified target sectors and low educational attainment across the state, Kentucky launched the Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship (WRKS) program …

Impact Of Government Regulations And Programmatic Decisions On Demand For A Novel Contraceptive Product In Developing Countries, Matthew Westling

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Family planning and contraceptive use is becoming an area of emphasis for developing countries. The important role family planning has in the growth and development of personal wealth and the larger economy is already well understood. However, there is little information about how planning, policy, and programmatic decisions influence contraceptive consumption. Accordingly, this paper established an index which explores the weight program planning, contraceptive delivery, and national policies have on contraceptive consumption. The index was established through a factor analysis which utilized monthly indicators from the dissemination of a novel contraceptive product called Sayana Press® in twelve developing countries. Results …

Effective Elective? Elective Courses’ Impact On Student Performance During Associated Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences, Shelby Spencer Tungate

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Experiential education programs at colleges of pharmacy are guided by standards set forth by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE.) Exactly how these standards are met, however, is often determined by the individual college of pharmacy. This includes deciding how students are selected and placed on their fourth-year rotations, referred to as Advanced Pharmacy Practices Experiences, or “APPEs.” While it may seem that students who have taken elective courses focused on specialized topics, such as pediatrics or geriatrics, will perform better on related APPEs, this thought remains largely unfounded. Using four years of student data at the University of …

Does State And Local Government Employment Promote Tax Revenue Stability? A Look At Kentucky Cities, William Ryan Pennington

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Research shows that public sector jobs are more stable than private sector jobs. This study examines whether tax revenue volatility is affected by the concentration of a city’s economic base in state and local government employment. The relationship between public employment and revenue volatility has not been studied but is relevant as state and local governments have reduced their workforces in the post-Great Recession period. Using panel data on Kentucky cities, I find that the coefficient on state and local government employment concentration is inversely related to tax volatility but is not statistically significant in a fixed effects estimation.

Ethanol Sustains Phosphorylated Tau Protein Immunofluorescence In The Cultured Neonatal Rat Hippocampus: Implications For Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, Caleb Seth Bailey

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs) are comprised of developmental, behavioral, and cognitive abnormalities caused by prenatal alcohol exposure, affecting an estimated 2%-5% of childrenand costing up to $4 billion annually in the United States alone. Although some behavioral therapies can help, the biochemical mechanisms that underpin FASDs need further elucidation for development of more efficacious therapeutics. The tau protein modulates cytoskeletal structure in neurons, and thereby plays an integral role in proper development and function of the central nervous system, but its function is altered by its phosphorylation state, such that increased phosphorylation reduces tau protein function. The tau protein …

Influences Among Affect Based Risk Factors And Problem Drinking In College Students, Emily Atkinson

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Broad negative affect has been consistently shown to predict problematic alcohol use. More specific affect-based constructs, though, have been shown to predict problem drinking above and beyond broad negative affectivity. The current study aims to investigate transactions among and predictive roles of broad negative affectivity and specific affective-based factors in relation to problem drinking among a sample of 358 students assessed twice during their first year of college. Participants were assessed for negative urgency (the tendency to act rashly when highly emotional), affective lability (the tendency to experience rapid and intense shifts in mood), negative affectivity, and problem drinking via …

Social Constraint, Social Support And Psychological Functioning In Rural And Nonrural Cancer Survivors, Jessica N. Rivera-Rivera

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

This cross-sectional study identified the nature and strength of the relationship between social and psychological functioning, and explored if these relationships differ as a function of environmental and personal characteristics.

Participants (n=87) consist of breast, prostate, colorectal, lung, and head and neck cancer survivors who were diagnosed within the past five years. Cancer survivors were recruited through a cancer registry and outpatient clinics. Data collection involved questionnaire and medical records review.

In linear regression models for distress, social constraint demonstrated a stronger relationship with general distress (β = .37 vs. β = -.26), anxiety and depression ( …

Thrown Together: Credit Union And Commercial Bank Regulation And Competition In The Consumer Finance Industry, 1960-2015, Grace Cale

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

This project seeks to assess whether there are meaningful differences between the stability of the Credit Union and Consumer Banking industries before the 1980s, and how both industries’ stability had been affected by subsequent political-economic changes. I also sought to assess if deregulation would make credit union behave at risk levels similar to banks. I initially observed that there was a strong inverse correlation between credit union size and failures, which I argue could be explained by regulatory change. This claim was strengthened by the observation that credit unions had benefitted from certain key forms of deregulation, they were still …

“We Had Become Trailer People”: Stigma, Social Boundary Making, And The Story Of The American Mobile Home Park, Katie M. Founds

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Mobile homes and mobile home parks—still most often called trailer parks in common vernacular—occupy a particularly stigmatized position in American culture. A symbolic stand-in for a host of social ills, from bad hygiene and broken families to drug use and loose morals, mobile homes offer affordable housing at a social cost, branding their residents as likewise deficient. This piece of material culture did not come into being with such negative meanings attached. The process of becoming a symbol of stigma is an historical one, a story of meaning making in the midst of cultural shifts and changing norms. Since appearing …

Is Secondhand Discrimination Harmful For The Mental Health Of Black Americans? Findings From A Community Epidemiological Study, Myles Moody

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

In recent years, there has been a growing concern about not only the deleterious health effects of direct experiences of racism, but also how individuals are affected by others’ experiences of racism. It has been firmly established that direct exposure to discrimination can negatively impact the mental health of Black Americans and other minorities. But there is a dearth of empirical evidence that may answer the question of how indirect experiences of racism affects health. The purpose of this study is threefold: 1) to examine the social distribution of personal and vicarious experiences of discrimination among Black adults, 2) to …

It’S Not Just Sunday School: Young Children, Race/Ethnicity, And Gender In Three Homogeneous Protestant Sunday Schools, Henry James Zonio

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Current sociological approaches to examining the lives of children approach children as active agents and participants in their socialization. Further, children are considered experts witnesses and interpreters of their own experiences. In the cases of race and gender socialization, interpretive reproduction has been used as a framework to examine how children construct and act on meanings of race and gender. While these interpretive studies illuminate how children interpret and reproduce meanings of race and gender, they do not explicate how children appropriate meanings from their cultural milieu. Consequently, these studies do not consider ways the larger culture enables and constrains …

The Application Of The Food Safety Modernization Act’S Produce Safety Rule For Produce Auctions, Mari Schroeder

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Produce is a high-risk commodity that is associated with numerous foodborne outbreaks each year. The Food Safety Modernization Act’s Produce Safety Rule was designed to address these issues by requiring farms that grow, harvest, package, and/or hold produce to comply with science-based minimum guidelines. However, with the revival of the local food movement there is a subsequent flux in alternative food networks that handle produce but are not covered by this rule. Produce auctions represent only a fraction of these alternative food networks but are the focus of this study because of their interaction with the Plain community whose relationship …

Acute Sensitivity And Tolerance To Alcohol As Predictors Of At-Risk Drinking, Holley Allen

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Laboratory studies have reliably shown that reduced sensitivity to alcohol’s subjective intoxicating effect is associated with heavier drinking. More recently, there has been research to suggest that heightened sensitivity to the disinhibiting effects of alcohol might also contribute to at-risk drinking. Most research on the acute effects of alcohol has focused on drinking magnitudes averaged across participants with little attention to how individual differences influence abuse potential. This study overcomes previous limitations by testing the degree to which individual differences in acute sensitivity and tolerance to the subjective intoxicating and disinhibiting effects of alcohol predict drinking behavior in a large …

Attentional Control In Infancy: The Role Of Sociodemographic Risk, Cortisol, And The Home Environment, Hannah B. White

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Infants’ ability to channel their cognitive resources by controlling their visual attention allows them to be active agents in their learning and development. Individual differences in attentional control have been linked to a wide variety of developmental outcomes including disparities between social classes in cognitive functioning. However, it is yet unknown when in development differences in attentional control related to sociodemographic factors emerge, or how factors of the home environment and the infant’s stress response relate to this effect. Accordingly, Experiment 1 examined whether certain sociodemographic factors, such as socioeconomic and minority status, predict 3.5-month-old infants’ (N = 102) …

Examining The Impact Of Social Media Use On Body Dissatisfaction And Eating Disorder Symptomatology Among Adolescents, Ilyssa P. Salomon

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Media exposure is often cited as a causal factor in the development of body dissatisfaction, or negative thoughts and feelings toward the body (Grogan, 2017; Thompson, Heinberg, Atlabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). While eating disorders most commonly emerge during late adolescence (18-21 years), risk factors that predict the later onset of eating disorders emerge much earlier and escalate during adolescence (13-16 years; Hudson, Hiripi, Pope, & Kessler, 2007; Rhode, Stice, & Marti, 2016). Overall, links between exposure to traditional forms of mainstream media (e.g. television and magazines), body dissatisfaction, and eating disorder symptomatology are well- established in the literature, with robust …

Mental Contamination, Coping, And Ptsd Symptom Severity Following Sexual Trauma, Jordyn M. Tipsword

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Mental contamination (MC) – an internal sense of dirtiness experienced without contact with a contaminant – has been linked to PTSD symptoms among sexual trauma survivors. However, existing work has been limited to cross-sectional or quasi-experimental designs – precluding conclusions concerning the directionality of associations among PTSD symptoms and MC – and little work has examined potential mediators of those associations. The present study utilized a prospective design to evaluate the directionality of associations between MC and PTSD symptoms and the role of avoidance and approach coping in mediating those associations. Participants included 41 women with a history of sexual …

Structure And Demographic Correlates Of Individual Trait Responses To Emotions, Anita Adams

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

From a functionalist perspective, emotions inform people of their needs and influence responses to the environment. Responses to emotion encompass more than emotion regulation strategies. Individual differences emerge from the consistent way that people cope with their emotions, called trait responses to emotion (TRE). We hypothesized approach/avoidance and control/dyscontrol would characterize the dimensional structure of TRE and that dimensions would correlate with age, gender, and early life experiences. The present study developed a multidimensional model to explore TRE from a TurkPrime sample (N = 284). Participants completed a web-based battery of surveys with demographic, early life experience, and TRE questionnaires. …

Cancer Patients’ Tobacco Use And Tobacco Treatment Referral Response: Implementation Outcomes At A National Cancer Institute- Designated Cancer Center, Tia Borger

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Smoking after cancer diagnosis is linked to cancer-specific and all-cause mortality among other adverse outcomes. Yet, 10-20% of U.S. cancer survivors are current smokers. Implementation of evidence-based tobacco treatment in cancer care facilities is widely recommended, yet rarely accomplished. This study focuses on the early outcomes of a tobacco treatment program integrated within an NCI-designated cancer center. Participants consist of 26,365 patients seen at the cancer center during the first 18 months of implementation. The study is a retrospective chart review of patients’ tobacco use, and among current users, patients’ treatment referral response. Over 99% of patients were screened for …

Training Music Therapists And Music Therapy Students To Provide Trauma-Informed Care: Training Development And Pilot Feasibility Study, Mckenna B. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Adverse childhood experiences are considered a serious public health problem and can lead to complex trauma. Due to the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences in the general population, it is likely music therapists frequently treat clients who have experienced trauma; however, there appears to be no published research on music therapy training and education regarding validated trauma-informed approaches. This study examined the impact of a three-hour educational training on music therapists’ knowledge of trauma-informed care and perceptions of preparedness to practice trauma-informed music therapy. Seven training attendees chose to participate and completed a pre-test and post-test covering demographic information, knowledge, …

Voices Of Hope: A Randomized Controlled Trial Of A Peer-Delivered Telephone Recovery Support Program, Alex Elswick

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Substance use disorder (SUD) is one of the most pervasive public health problems in the United States (US Surgeon General, 2016). Addiction (used synonymously with SUDs here) is associated with an abundance of negative outcomes including reduced quality of life, increased criminal activity, spread of infectious diseases, child neglect, job loss, loss of productivity and much more (US Surgeon General, 2016). Despite the detriment that addiction poses to virtually all facets of society, the addiction treatment paradigm in the United States lags significantly behind the research (Kelly & White, 2011; Laudet & Humphreys, 2013). This current system focuses on intensive, …

Does Parental Stress Influence Parent-Child Sexual Communication?, Kirstie Otto

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

This study shined a light on the impact of parent’s sexual attitudes and parental stress has on parent-child sexual communication. A sample of 203 parents between the ages of 30 and 60 were recruited to complete an online survey about their levels of parental stress, their sexual attitudes, and how often they discuss sexual communication with their adolescents. Beliefs that the responsibility of birth control should be shared between all parties involved, set the foundation that there will be higher levels of parent-child sexual communication. These findings inform therapists about the importance of creating a safe place where families can …