Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Stonewall: Developing A Historically-And-Culturally Based Empowerment Narrative Modality For Therapeutic Treatment With Lgbtq+ Youth, Stephen Terranova

Dissertations

Despite more recent advancements in social acceptance and legislative advancements, LGBTQ+ peoples have continued to suffer from institutional and cultural oppression which has resulted in disproportionately higher levels of negative psychological outcomes, particularly for youth. The behavioral health establishment should be best-suited for addressing these concerns, but a history of stigmatizing LGBTQ+ peoples has created a paucity of population-sensitive treatment interventions which could be beneficial for use with younger people of sexually diverse identity. This paper posits that empowerment narrative therapy, with its emphasis on re-framing the stories of individuals to draw on their history of resilience to confront personal …

Examining Protective Factors That Promote Resilience Among Children With An Incarcerated Parent, Celeste A. Jackson

Dissertations

Children of incarcerated parents (CIP) represent one of the most vulnerable, at-risk populations in the United States (Johnston, 1995). Best estimates suggests there are 2.7 million children with an incarcerated parents and African-American children are disproportionately represented at a figure of 1 in 9 children (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008). Much of the research attempting to understand this population and guide intervention efforts has employed a deficit-based approach, highlighting the plethora of adverse risk factors and negative outcomes associated with being the child of an incarcerated parent. This approach fails to acknowledge the presence of resilience inherent in these youth. The …

A Phenomenological Study On The Perceptions Of The Veterans Transition Into The Civilian Workforce, Tiffany M. Allen, Tiffany Allen-Hampton

Dissertations

This study evaluated three specific factors affecting Veterans who have separated from military service and transitioned into the civilian workforce. The support and resources offered and received, as well as the participants’ adaptability in handling the transition, were examined. Additionally, perceptions of success and transition readiness were studied. Prior research on veterans indicate that many face challenges beyond service, including difficulty in finding employment. The impacts of participating in supportive services and obtaining work, particularly in relation to how respondents perceive the post military experience as either aligned or not with their pre-existing knowledge and skill sets were considered. In …

Making A Way Out Of No Way: A Phenomenological Study Of Black Maternal Activism In Chicago, Deidra Somerville

Dissertations

To date, the lived experiences of Black maternal activists in North Lawndale have not been documented, even with the critical role many played while organizing with Dr. Martin Luther King as part of the Chicago Freedom Movement and the critical role of the Illinois Black Panther Party to the Black Power Movement (Seligman, 2005; Rice, 2003). With no studies of the lived experiences of Black maternal activists in North Lawndale, the theories of bridge leadership, tempered radicalism and their application to those lived experiences is not known. By examining the relationships and organizations influencing black maternal activism, this study aims …

Governance And Economic Growth In The Arab World: Evidence From Panel Data Analysis, Adel H. Aladlani

Dissertations

Economic growth has been volatile and slow in the Arab World during the last two decades. Arguing that good governance is a precondition to vibrant economic systems and growth, comparative researchers and development policy practitioners view such a slowdown in growth in the Arab World to be triggered by weak governance performance. This cross-national study examines the relationship between governance and economic growth in the Arab World, which includes 22 member-states of the League of Arab States, over the period 1996-2017. By using World Bank data, governance is operationalized through voice and accountability (VA), political stability and absence of violence …

Three Essays On Food Insecurity In Nigeria, Pimam Manzi Pidalatan

Dissertations

Households experience multiple shocks, among which health-related and agricultural-related shocks are the most frequent shocks in developing economies. Households’ exposure to shocks contributes more to the risk of being food insecure than a poor resource endowment (Azeem et al., 2016). Moreover, in low-income countries about 3.5 million mothers and children under the age of five die every year because they are undernourished FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP AND WHO 2017). Sub-Sahara Africa is the region with the highest prevalence of undernourished people (22 percent) and stunted children (30 percent) (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP AND WHO 2017). Three of the seventeen Sustainable …

Minimizing Vehicular Traffic Via Optimized Land Use Development For A Sustainable And Equitable Future, Babu Veeregowda

Dissertations

Mixed-use developments and transit-oriented developments are becoming very common in urban areas in an effort to reduce sprawl. Numerous studies have shown that such programs would not be successful unless the mix of land uses and sizes is well-balanced and integrated with the surrounding neighborhood. Developers often ignore this aspect in favor of immediate financial gain and do not realize that there are sustainable financial benefits in land use optimization. In addition, professionals often work with limited logistics, resources, and technical knowledge and therefore struggle in setting goals and suggesting land uses that have less auto dependency based on travel …

The Heritage Leadership Process: Exploring Meaning Making And Social Emotional Competencies In Heritage Interpretation And Education For Sustainability, Lynn Cartmell, Tonia Herndon, Thomas Moffatt, Katy Mike Smaistrla Lampe

Dissertations

This study explores qualities identified as being critical to leadership work in heritage fields as identified by established leaders in heritage work. It also establishes a foundational definition of the term heritage leadership. After reviewing existing data to identify significant questions related to heritage leadership, the research team interviewed leaders in HIn and Education for Sustainability with a specific focus on leadership, meaning making, and social emotional competencies as guiding constructs in heritage leadership. A proposed definition of the term heritage leadership resulted: Heritage leaders aspire to serve others and to create meaningful connections to shared natural and cultural heritage …

Kids These Days: Increasing Youth Engagement In Community Heritage And Social Justice Through The Implementation Of A Youth Participatory Empowerment Model, Melanie Canaday-Talley, Lindsay Clemens, Amanda J. Dworak Rowland, Mary Gillis, Curlinda Mitchell Blacksheep, Jancarlos Jose Romero

Dissertations

The purpose of this co-authored, qualitative, action research study was to examine how to empower youth to become active participants in their communities. Citizen engagement in community and public life is vital to a healthy democracy and young people have a unique place in community citizenry, but are often dismissed or excluded from decision-making. The research team developed a model, the Youth Participatory Empowerment Model (YPEM), to guide youth through a process of identifying and engaging a community heritage or social justice need in their community. The team assembled a guidebook of activities to engage groups in difficult self, group, …

Patient Perception Of Fall Risk And High Fall Risk Screening Scores, Nicole D. Pena

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to describe the relationship between patient

perception of fall risk and high fall risk screening scores.

Background: Despite mandated government regulations and multiple hospital

interventions, falls are the most prevalent adverse event among hospitalized patients and

are the leading driver of health care costs, amounting to over $30 billion each year with

projections to double by 2030. Recently, perception was identified as a major component

in preventing falls. A dearth of research examines the relationship between a patient’s

perceived risk for falls and standardized fall screening scores.

Methods: A descriptive correlational design with …

The Lived Experience Of Discharged And Readmitted African Americans With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease To A Safety-Net Hospital, Kiiyonna Jones

Dissertations

Background:Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a debilitating respiratory disease that negatively affects the quality of life of those affected and has been a major contributor to the continuous rise in healthcare cost in the Unites States (Guarascio, Ray, Finch, & Self, 2013; National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, 2009; Shavelle, Paculdo, Kush, Mannino, & Straus, 2009; Scott, Smith, Sullivan, & Mahajan, 2001). In 2014, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) identified COPD as an applicable condition to the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, which penalizes healthcare organizations having readmissions higher than the national average. COPD is the second …

How Navy And Marine Corps Veterans Make Meaning Of The College Choice Process In The Post-9/11 Gi Bill Era, Derek Abbey

Dissertations

The Post-9/11 GI Bill was implemented in 2009. Since then more than 1,900,000 people have used the benefit and more than $90 billion have been paid to institutions of higher learning and to Post-9/11 GI Bill users. During this period there has been a shift in the types of college and universities veterans attend, as well as the educational models they select. These shifts are different than the general population of students. This period also included a spike in questionable recruiting practices by some colleges. In response to many institutions taking advantage of veterans, the President of the United States …

A Tale Of Two Influences: An Exploration Of Downward Accountability In World Vision International, Elena Mccollim

Dissertations

International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) face increasing accountability challenges stemming from past scandals and their claims to advance the public good. Since the 1990s, INGOs have responded with numerous reforms. The creation of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership in 2003 and the INGO Accountability Charter in 2009 reflect sector-wide efforts to enhance accountability to mission, intended beneficiaries, and peer organizations.

Many INGOs have adopted a broad range of accountability reforms. This dissertation focuses on how World Vision, the world’s largest INGO, has done so. Downward accountability remains elusive due to such factors as INGOs’ lack of transparency toward beneficiaries; the power imbalance …

Making The Invisible Visible: Capturing The Multidimensional Value Of Volunteerism To Nonprofit Organizations, Sue Carter Kahl

Dissertations

Volunteers represent an important part of the nonprofit labor pool, and their contributions are diverse and significant. Yet, the assessment of the value that they bring to nonprofit organizations often is reduced to a few numbers and understood to be an economic decision based on their absence of wages. This value is traditionally reported as volunteer numbers, hours, and an hourly financial value assigned to volunteer time. These data are important tools for articulating volunteer contributions. However, the emphasis on numbers and economic value sometimes obscures important dimensions of service. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to reveal more …

Discursive Leadership: Exploring The "Black Box" Challenge In Transcultural Leadership Studies, Christopher Patrick Brown

Dissertations

The increasingly globalized U.S. workforce includes significant numbers of adult immigrants integrating into the North American professional sphere. As such, it is important to have concrete ways to study and interpret different cultures’ thinking about teamwork, and their models of enacting shared leadership and communication in a multicultural context. Since 2006, hundreds of millions in federal grant funding has been invested in university-based language and culture programs focused on training government personnel and heritage populations in the languages and cultures of the Middle East and Central and Southeast Asia. Little is known about the performative strengths and challenges of the …

Social Innovators And Developmental Stages, Juan Carlos Rivas Espinosa

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The past two decades have seen increased interest in social innovation as a leading source of change. While social innovation literature experienced vast growth, particularly in the Western world, there is limited research on the individuals engaged in it, especially concerning their leadership practice. The extant research focuses mostly on identifying traits and competencies exhibited by social innovators. These individuals are often thought of as exceptional people able to think systemically to identify and solve problems in novel ways. The field runs the risk of perpetuating the idea that to be a social innovator one must possess a specific …

Seeking Mirrors: Representation And Identity At Asian Pacific Islander Film Festivals, Yang Jiang

Dissertations

Media representation plays an important role in shaping how we perceive ourselves. For ethnic and racial minorities, studies have confirmed that exposure to stereotypical and negative representations can harm the development of ethnic and racial identity. Currently, however, there is little understanding of how representation can support the development of ethnic and racial identity. Essentially, what might visibility, rather than invisibility, in media representation look like, and what is the relationship between visibility and ethnic and racial identity?

This dissertation sought to address these questions by looking at the experience of Asian Pacific Islander (API) attendees at API film festivals. …

The Development Of Local Government Leaders: The Use Of Competencies And Methods In A City Context, Dominika Bukalova

Dissertations

How do local government leaders perceive the development of their leadership competencies and the methods they have used to acquire competencies to meet on-the-job challenges in a city context? There have been few attempts to document leaders’ perceptions of the competencies they need or how they get developed; however, the critical and ubiquitous role of city government demands that we increase understanding of these crucial issues. Not only does a majority of the world’s population already live in urban areas (i.e., areas in which competent local governmental activity is required), but this percentage is forecasted to increase from 55% to …

Exploring, Examining, And Explaining How Participatory Governance Adds Value To Saudi Foundations’ Philanthropic Strategy, Afnan E. Koshak

Dissertations

Foundations’ flexibility, given their independence from fundraising imperatives, competition forces, and accountability pressures, enables them to invest in long-term, high-risk, multi-level experiments to deal with the increasingly complex societal problems. This flexibility, coupled with the growing role philanthropy plays in promoting social welfare across the world, is arguably what makes studies that focus on foundations’ philanthropic approaches of utmost importance.

There is a mounting interest among scholars in the governance of foundations, the systems and processes concerned with ensuring the overall strategic direction of organizations. Influenced by agency and stewardship theories, an increasing number of studies address such topics as …

The Development Of Newspaper Restaurant Criticism In Ireland, 1988–2008, Claire O'Mahony

Dissertations

This dissertation examines the development of newspaper restaurant criticism in Ireland from 1988 to 2008. This era was a time of considerable economic change in Ireland. It was also a period that saw changing attitudes to food and dining out, as well as a more varied restaurant landscape. This study aimed to determine how the format and focus of newspaper restaurant reviews changed over this time frame. It also explored the role of the restaurant critic, and how reviews reflected developments in Irish food culture and the economy. Using a mixed methods research design, a sample of reviews from the …

Life Without Choice: How Do Mothers With Children Living In Direct Provision In Ireland Feel About Their Limited Role As Family Food Providers?, Michele Moran

Dissertations

Direct Provision was introduced in Ireland during the year 2000. Latest figures show 5,848 asylum seekers are in Direct Provision (RIA, 2018). Physical and mental health research studies have highlighted the challenges within this system (Manandhar et al., 2008). Food provision is one of these challenges. Food, culture, religion, income, and isolation are highlighted in this research study. The key objectives of this research were (1) to review the literature on aspects of food and identity, culture, tribalism, and ethnicity concerning asylum seekers living in Direct Provision in Ireland. (2) To conduct qualitative semi-structured interviews with mothers living in different …

Predicting Leader Survival: Evidence From Covert Action Case Study Analysis, Joy S. Patton

Dissertations

This research explores the unique relationship between covert action and leader survivability, in particular, how leadership styles and personality traits influence this relationship. The life of a ruler is ephemeral. For those who are lucky, their exit from office is through retirement or old age. For most, their tenure is short, often ending through violent means. The overthrow of rulers by their rivals is a common theme throughout world history, and the strategy remains a popular choice in contemporary warfare. However, despite the frequency of regime change, very little is discussed in international relations about covert regime change and its …

Differential Mating Motives' Influence On Preferences For Facially Communicated Extraversion, Mitch Brown

Dissertations

Human facial structures communicate personality from which one can infer another’s behavioral intentions, forming a basis for mate selection. One particularly detectable trait through facial structures is extraversion. Extraversion is a trait associated with heightened interest in promiscuous mating strategies and preferred among individuals similarly interested in short-term mating, implicating extraverted mates as ideal trait for short-term mating. Nonetheless, behavioral repertoires associated with extraversion may also pose risks, particularly in long-term mating, as their increased promiscuity may undermine their fidelity to a specific partner, thereby potentially reducing biparental investment in any offspring produced. Thus, a preference for introversion (i.e., low …

The Development Of Socio-Sexual Behavior In Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus Leucas), Malin K. Lilley

Dissertations

The reproductive success of the beluga whale is critical for a species facing extinction in its endangered Cook Inlet, Alaska population. To date, little is known about the mating behavior of these whales in wild populations. On the other hand, observations of beluga whales in human care allow researchers to better understand many aspects of their daily lives and life histories that are difficult to assess in wild populations. Thus far, a catalog of socio-sexual behavior has been established based on observations of belugas; however, the developmental trajectory of socio-sexual behavior is not well-understood. The present study explored how socio-sexual …

A Study Of Beluga (Delphinapterus Leucas) Vocal Ontogeny, Audra Elizabeth Ames

Dissertations

There is a shortage of literature regarding beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) vocal ontogeny, as presently, there has only been one published study on the vocal development of beluga calves, despite the value of ontogenetic studies for our understanding of sound-centered species. Here I offer the second longitudinal study of beluga vocal development. Using a calibrated digital hydrophone with a sampling rate of 256 kHz, I studied the vocal progression of a male beluga calf in early life. From his first day, the calf produced broadband pulse trains with upper frequency limits extending past the study’s Nyquist frequency (128 kHz); …

Promoting Workplace Health Using Wearable Technology: A Mixed Methods Study In A Nonprofit Organization, Mitchell Tarver

Dissertations

Despite efforts to improve the designs and benefits of workplace wellness programs (WWPs), there are two major problems preventing employers from optimizing the human capital of their employees: (a) many WWPs are limited and do not include an exercise component, which increases the potential for chronic health conditions; and (b) more than 50% of employees are reluctant to participate in WWPs due to the common barriers of time, convenience, and location. A lack of physical activity is a problem because studies have shown that chronic conditions increase rates of absenteeism and presenteeism, both of which increase productivity loss. Additionally, low …

Screening The Managerial Applicant: A Descriptive Phenomenological Study Of Résumé Review And Evaluation, Gregory E. Higgins

Dissertations

Resume screening is among the most frequently used hiring methods in U.S.-based organizations (Behrenz, 2001; Wilk & Cappelli, 2003). While little research has been conducted to establish its validity (Russell, 2007), 90% of hiring personnel in the United States use some form of resume screening to eliminate job applicants during the hiring process (Boatman & Erker, 2012). Researchers have noted that the use of resume screening is a likely source of hiring errors (Robertson & Smith, 2001) that have a range of negative impacts on organizations including loss of revenue, damage to the organizational image, lowered employee morale, customer dissatisfaction, …

Essential Leadership Competencies For College Presidents In A Metrics-Driven Community College System, Mark Mclean

Dissertations

Leaders in higher education face more change than ever before in a complex, challenging, and continually shifting social, political, and economic environment (Kezar & Holcombe, 2017). As a result, presidents are increasingly accountable for performance and metrics serve as an important component of accountability (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2017). However, presidents may not possess the “rare combination of skills that enables them to be both strong transactional and operational leaders as well as more visionary and transformational ones” (Pelletier, 2016, p. 31). As a consequence, leadership failure produces significant adverse results for presidents and institutions including the loss of positions and the threat …

Improving Individual And Group-Wide Behaviors In Head Start Classrooms With Mystery Student Intervention: Assessment Of Effectiveness, Generalization, And Maintenance, Jamie Pasqua

Dissertations

The current study investigated the effects Mystery Student intervention on improving individual and group behaviors in Head Start classrooms. Mystery Student Intervention is a randomized independent group contingency and has only been investigated in one previous study (Pasqua, 2016). A multiple baseline design across three Head Start classrooms was employed to determine the effectiveness of Mystery Student Intervention on decreasing aggregate class and individual child disruptive behaviors. Of further interest was the extent to which the effects of Mystery Student Intervention generalized to other settings and results maintained following its removal. Results indicated that Mystery Student Intervention was effective at …

Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus) Vocal Responses To Sonar And Spectrally Pink Background Noise, Maria Zapetis

Dissertations

As human populations rise, the level of man-made noise increases globally. Naval sonar and boat traffic are underwater sound sources of particular concern to marine mammal welfare. To better understand the impact of these noise increases on cetaceans, studies can explore animals’ behavioral changes in response to noise. Studies have investigated the ‘dose-response’ relationship between the received sound pressure level of sonar signals and the behavior of cetaceans in the wild, but exposure studies in controlled environments are limited. The studies in this dissertation examined bottlenose dolphin vocal modifications during various experimental noise treatments. Acoustic recordings previously obtained for bottlenose …