Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Role Of Multifamily Real Estate Investments In Retirement Planning, Miguel A. Fernandez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

By using data from the 1995 Property Owners and Managers Survey (POMS), this study explores the role of owner characteristics (socioeconomic and behavioral) and ownership characteristics in predicting the likelihood of using multifamily property for retirement purposes. In addition, this study examines the likelihood of reporting a profit in the prior year among those who purchase multifamily properties for retirement purposes. The sample consists of property owners who own multifamily real estate other than their primary residence (N = I ,3 19). Property owners with retirement savings motive (RSM) were more likely to be male, White, have income more …

Defining Predatory Mortgage Lending In Utah: A Professional's Perspective, Luke V. Erickson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to define and describe the nature of predatory mortgage lending in the state of Utah. Twelve professionals from the state who work in the mortgage lending market participated. Data consisted of interviewee comments and were analyzed qualitatively using a multi-step method of coding for concepts and themes.

Through coding and analysis it was determined that the term predatory mortgage lending is defined as an act of abuse that is targeted towards a borrower with one or more vulnerable characteristics. It was also found that users of this term do not always adhere to this …

The Relative Effects Of Education And Cognitive Complexity Of Employment Experience On The Rate Of Cognitive Decline In Elderly Women, Janet M. Lundahl

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis examined the lifetime exposure of women's employment on cognitive functioning and cognitive decline in late life.

From the Cache County Study on Memory, Health, & Aging data, a sample of 2,588 women, aged 65 and older gave retrospective occupational history and were screened using the Modified Mini-Mental State Exam at study entry and approximately 3 years later. Non-demented women were used.

Ordinary least squares regression was used cross-sectionally and longitudinally to test the association between cognitive complexity level of the longest job and baseline cognitive status, and rate of cognitive decline over approximately 3 years.

Cross-sectional analysis revealed …

Trusting The Dating Partner In The Face Of Relationship Problems And Uncertainty: The Moderating Role Of Parents And Friends, Rebecca Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Using a sample of 82 college students in dating relationships, this study is an examination of the moderating effect of parents' and friends' approval of the dating relationship on the associations between participants' individual characteristics (age, self-esteem, and own agreeableness) and relationship characteristics (love, ambivalence, conflict, conflict resolution effectiveness, and perception of the partner's agreeableness) with trust. The results of the hierarchical regression analyses showed that approval of the relationship by parents and friends moderated the relationship between individual characteristics and relationship characteristics with trust. Specifically, friends' approval of the relationship moderated the association between self-esteem and age with trust, …

The Effect Of Social Network Disapproval On Partners' Dating Relationship: The Romeo And Juliet Effect Revisited, Rebecca Rawlins

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

By using online self-report data provided by 41 undergraduate students and their dating partner (N = 82), this study examined the potential curvilinear relationship between four social network sectors (own parents, own friends, partner's parents, and partner's friends) and romantic dating partners' relationship characteristics (perceptions of partner's agreeableness, love, satisfaction, commitment, and ambivalence). After controlling for the effects of age, relationship duration, and social network overlap, the hierarchical regression analyses provided little support for the Romeo and Juliet Effect, that is, the negative association between social network approval and characteristics of the dating relationship. Instead, the study mostly replicated …

The Effects Of Gender Communication Patterns On Opposite Gender Attraction, Robert R. Wright

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Female patterns of speech communication including expression of empathy, sharing similar experiences, and asking further questions were compared to typical male patterns of communication in gender attraction. Self-report methods were employed in the administration of the Attractive Communication Styles Survey and the Conversation Survey Questionnaire. With a convenience sample of 164, both survey instruments assessed for differences of attraction between the two conversation styles. Analyses revealed both males and females valuing the typical female pattern of communication, but differed in the intensity of support with females strongly favoring and males slightly favoring the female pattern (6.350(72) = x, p < .01; 13.811(90) = x, p < .01). However, both males and females exhibited statistical differences in all their responses for the female pattern, except when asked which they were attracted to the most romantically (p = .064). Implications for further research on the actual dyadic interaction effects on attraction are supported.

If Not Dc, Then Mods? A Look At The Metadata Object Description Schema, Cheryl D. Walters

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Selective Mutism: The Little Known Disorder That Causes Big Problems, April Meyer Vogt

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

For my senior thesis/project, I planned on delving into the subject of Selective Mutism (SM) and how it interferes in a child's education, and what treatments and evaluations are available to help treat and diagnose a child with SM. SM is a type of anxiety disorder that can occur when a child develops an acute fear of speaking. Treatment of a child with SM usually focuses on techniques to lower anxiety and increase self-esteem and confidence in communication and social settings. I focused my presentation towards treatment models and options, including, but not limited too: behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, …

The Determinants Of The Distribution Of Mortality In Mountain States Counties, Anne Israelsen Whyte

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

There has been significant concern about economic equity, expressed in legislation at federal, state, and local levels affecting income distribution and access to public services. Such a large interest in equity must also extend, then, to the ultimate inequality: distribution of life spans. The purpose of this paper is to determine the significant factors that affect the distribution of mortality by county in the Mountain States. Mortality distribution is the span of differences of age at death. This is an interesting topic because mortality affects everyone. Hence, individuals who care about living longer would be interested in knowing the factors …

Losing Face: Why More Media Literacy Education Is Needed In Utah's Public School Curriculum, Natalie Andrews, Brooke Nelson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Health programs in Utah's curriculum focus mainly on the after effects of media's influence--eating disorders, low self-esteem and other destructive teenage behavior--and no one puts the correct amount of blame on television or the advertisements that promote buying to be beautiful. However, studies have found a strong correlation in teens between media consumption and negative behaviors. Teens are, after all, a main target for over $30 million ad dollars every year. Utah has curriculum in place for media literacy, but it is scattered throughout multiple subjects and is never rightly treated as its own. Because of this, we propose protecting …

The Relationship Between The Outcome Questionnaire And The Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale In Marital Assessment, Adam Malan Poll

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This correlational study attempted to determine if the Outcome Questionnaire can be used to collect the same information as the Revised Dyadic Adjustment scale in marital assessment. Both measures are common pretreatment assessments and have relational components. The study used secondary data from the Utah State University Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic. Reliability and correlational tests were performed and the results indicate that the assessments measure different constructs. There also were no statistically significant correlations when comparing the measures by gender, marital distress, and marital satisfaction. Implications are discussed including the formulation of new clinical cut-off scores and the importance …

Effects Of The Diagnostic Label "Adhd " On Peer Judgment, Jared Toone

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Diagnostic labels are frequently used with children exhibiting symptoms of learning and behavioral disorders. The effect that such labels have on the labeled children as well as their peers is not completely understood. In the present study, the effects of the label "ADHD" on peer acceptance were examined. Fourth- and fifth-grade boys and girls viewed a video of a peer listening to teacher instruction and working on a worksheet. For half of the participants, the child in the video was labeled as having ADHD, while the other participants were told nothing about the child. After viewing the video, the children …

Towards A More Comprehensive View Of The Use Of Power Between Couple Members In Adolescent Romantic Relationships, Charles George Bentley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study investigated the construct of power in adolescent romantic couples using multiple measures. The project examined gender differences in power, created models of powerlessness for each gender, and examined relations between power and aggression and relationship quality. Participants were 90 heterosexual couples, aged 14-18 years old, living in rural areas in Utah and Arizona. Couple members completed surveys assessing attitudes and behaviors in their relationships and a video-recall procedure in which partners rated their own and their partner's behaviors during problem solving discussion.

Few gender differences emerged in reports of perpetration of aggression, but boyfriends reported higher levels of …

Adult Romantic Attachment Style, Global Self-Esteem, And Specific Self-Views As Predictors Of Feedback Preference In Potential Romantic Relationships, Crystal Chi-Sheng Lin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined how adult romantic attachment (anxiety and avoidance dimensions), global self-esteem, and social and academic self-views relate to one another and how well they predict preference for a specific feedback type (enhancing, verifying, or no feedback) from a potential romantic partner in times of distress. It also investigated the relation between the type of feedback one receives and attraction to the partner who gives that type of feedback. Multiple regression analyses supported some predicted relations between romantic attachment and feedback preference. Neither global self-esteem nor social and academic self-views predicted preference for a particular feedback type, nor did …

Cognitive Autonomy In Adolescence, Ruth A. Thompson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the relationship between areas of cognitive autonomy and adolescent development. Differences in cognitive autonomy between age groups were analyzed. Students attending Grades 7, 9, and 11, and college students in Northern Utah participated in this study. Three hundred and ninety-six participants responded to the Cognitive Autonomy and Self-Evaluation(CASE) inventory, which examined the subcategories of evaluative thinking, voicing opinions, comparative validation, decision making, and self-assessment.

Scores were compared by grade and by gender. Results showed that college students scored significantly higher in three of the five areas of cognitive autonomy. Additionally, females in both ninth grade and college …

Burnout In Marriage And Family Therapists, Cory A. Eddington

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Among the profession of marriage and family therapy, the goal is to help those individuals, couples, and families that are struggling in life. While working with these clients there is the possibility that the therapists may become stressed themselves and experience burnout. The following is a descriptive study of 30 marriage and family therapists (MFTs) in the state of Utah. The demographic variables of clinical experience, sex, case load, setting of practice, education level, and marital status were studied as to their relation to the experience of burnout. Statistically significant findings demonstrated that the variables of sex and caseload were …

Welfare Status, Gender, And The Utilization Of Marital Counseling Services, Courtney A. Wyatt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine how welfare status, gender, and the interaction between welfare status and gender relate to the utilization of counseling services related to marriage (i.e., "marital help-seeking"). This study was a secondary analysis of the Utah Marriage Survey data set from 2003. Two samples were utilized in this study, and generated a total sample of I ,316 participants. The first sample was made up of I, 173 randomly selected Utah households, identified through a random-digit dialing sampling technique. The second sample was obtained from a random selection of current Temporary Assistance for Needy Families …

Fathers' Perceptions Of Relationships With Young Adolescent Children: Implications For Family Therapy, Tyler D. Patrick

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study used family systems theory as a lens to examine fathers' relationships with young adolescent children as it relates to the areas of time spent together, communication between generations, and paternal satisfaction in raising an early adolescent child. Similarities and differences of scores on the Parent Success Indicator were examined for 191 Caucasian American (n=110) and African American (n=81) fathers of 10- to 14-year-old-children. Results showed that increased amounts of time that fathers report spending with children was significantly associated with paternal satisfaction, communication between generations, fathers' use of time, parental frustration, and parental teaching. …

Single Parenting Of Early Adolescents: Clinical Application To A More Helpful Perspective, Ane Weed

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to discover the most important self-identified areas for a particular group of single parents to focus their limited time. Single parents have been pathologized and compared to two-parent families. A strength-based perspective that acknowledges single parent families as a legitimate family system with the possibility for being healthy may be more helpful. The objective of this study was to identify common strengths between self-reported satisfied single parents (n = 86) and early adolescent children of single parents (n = 67) through data collected with the use of the Parent Success Indicator (PSI) …

Marital Quality, Context, And Interaction: A Comparison Of Individuals Across Various Income Levels, Victor W. Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research compared measures of marital quality between married respondents who were classified as adults currently receiving government assistance (GA) or adults not currently receiving government assistance (NGA). Additional demographic/contextual variables such as gender, age, age at first marriage, religiosity, income, education, cohabitation, mental health, and substance abuse along with four interactional variables - escalating negativity, criticism, negative interpretation, and withdrawal - were measured as potential correlates with marital quality.

Results indicated statistically significant differences between GA and NGA individuals on all of the marital quality measures and on 8 of the 11 demographic/contextual variables. Additionally, the four interactional variables …

Therapeutic Processes In A Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment For Depressed Adolescents With Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Meredith Brent

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Youth with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have higher rates of depression than healthy youth. A cognitive-behavioral treatment, primary and secondary control enhancement training-physical illness (PASCET-PI), for depressed adolescents with IBD was associated with reductions in depressive symptoms. The purpose of this study was to examine the salience of nonspecific processes (factors inherent in any human relationship) and specific processes (factors related to therapy content) during PASCET-PI sessions and their association with improvements in psychological functioning.

Participants included 10 adolescent patients with IBD with mean illness duration of 31.9 months. At intake, eight participants qualified for a diagnosis of major depressive …

Campus Climate: Effect On Ethnic Minority Students' Mental Health Utilization, Laura C. Pruitt

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The idea of climate as a construct that could impact the perception of one's environment was introduced by Bernice Sandler and colleagues (1996) with the idea of "chilly climate" as it relates to the inequitable differences between women and men. However this concept has been applied to other populations as well in particular that of ethnic minorities. A chilly climate describes how a person perceives the environment in terms of being welcoming and accepting, or intolerable and chilly. Taken alone any chilly behaviors may have little to no effect however behaviors that are overt and frequent can have a devastating …

Assessing Cognitive Abilities In A Sample Of Sioux Children Utilizing Traditional And Nonverbal Measures Of Intelligence, Norman C. Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The disproportionate number of American Indian students receiving special education services indicates an ongoing need for research leading to improved assessment and placement practices with this population. Standardized tests are most often used to screen and select students for special education services. However, not all intelligence tests have been normed for use with all populations, especially where minority groups have been concerned.

While the merits of traditional intelligence tests must not be discounted, the emergence of new tests and assessment measures is encouraging, particularly for the assessment of American Indian students. A natural next step is to consider a traditional …

Appreciating A Pretty Shoulder: The Risquie Images Of Charles Ellis Johnson, Daniel Davis

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Housed in the collections of the Special Collections and Archives at Utah State University is an intriguing set of risqué photographs dating roughly from 1890 to 1910. Some of the images are stereo-views or cabinet card portraits of burlesque actresses either in tights or displaying bare necks, shoulders, and upper bosoms. Other photographs in the collection are even more suggestive with women undressing, lounging about with dresses that reveal their thighs, wearing body suits, and removing one-another’s clothing. By today’s standards they are more comical than pornographic. Considering the conventions of the time, however, especially in conservative, turn-ofthe-century Utah they …

A Visual Guide To Creating Complex Publication Patterns In Endeavor's Voyager Integrated Library System, Angela Dresselhaus

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Sneak Preview: Bear River Watershed Historical Digital Collection, Cheryl D. Walters, Cheryl D. Walters

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Provides early look at a new digital collection assembling image and text resources about the Bear River Watershed in Utah and Idaho.

Google As Teacher: Everything Your Students Know They Learned From Searching Google, Pamela N. Martin

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Google As Teacher: Everything Your Students Know They Learned From Searching Google, Pamela N. Martin

Pamela N. Martin

No abstract provided.

The Marrow Of Human Experience, William A. Wilson

All USU Press Publications

Composed over several decades, the essays here are remarkably fresh and relevant. They offer instruction for the student just beginning the study of folklore as well as repeated value for the many established scholars who continue to wrestle with issues that Wilson has addressed. As his work has long offered insight on critical mattersn--nationalism, genre, belief, the relationship of folklore to other disciplines in the humanities and arts, the currency of legend, the significance of humor as a cultural expression, and so forth--so his recent writing, in its reflexive approach to narrative and storytelling, illuminates today's paradigms. Its notable autobiographical …

Integrating Information Literacy With A Sequenced English Composition Curriculum, Wendy Holliday, Britt A. Fagerheim

Britt Fagerheim

This article details the process of implementing a sequenced information literacy program for two core English composition courses at Utah State University. An extensive needs assessment guided the project, leading to a curriculum design process with the goal of building a foundation for deeper critical thinking skills. The curriculum development and implementation process highlights several of the advantages of using the course-integrated model of instruction to develop a more comprehensive information literacy program.