Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Growing Food Security: The Impact Of Community Gardens On Food Security In Denver, Colorado, Grace Catherine Kellner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Community gardens increase mental health, physical health and social inclusiveness and cohesiveness, while directly connecting gardeners to their environment. In some U.S. cities gardens additionally increase community and individual food security by providing fresh food to those who struggle to feed themselves and their families. This study examined the relationship between community gardens and increased food security in Denver, and is one of the first studies of its kind in this location. Specifically, I investigated who participates in community gardens, why they participate, whether gardens are accessible, and whether community gardens have the potential to improve individual and community food …

Biopsychosocial Models Of The Development Of Childhood Disruptive Behaviors, Anne Bernard Arnett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hyperactivity/attention problems (HAP) and conduct problems (CP) are common and impairing disruptive behaviors in childhood and adolescence. Previous research has established that HAP and CP are highly comorbid, and that outcomes are worse for youth exhibiting both symptom clusters relative to youth with only one disruptive behavior type. Despite ample evidence that HAP and CP share common etiological factors and maladaptive outcomes, the nature of their developmental association remains unclear. This dissertation clarifies three important characteristics of comorbid HAP and CP development, in two replicate, longitudinal, population samples of youth. First, I test the theory that within-person variation in HAP …

Development Of Cognitive Vulnerability For Depression In Youth: Sex, Emotional Maltreatment, And Depression Predict Negative Cognitive Style, Jessica R. Technow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hopelessness theory is a prominent cognitive theory of depression that has been shown to predict depression in youth. However, research has yet to elucidate normative mean-level development of the cognitive risk factor in hopelessness theory from childhood through adolescence. The current study utilized a multi-wave design and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses to examine mean-level negative cognitive style growth and stability in late childhood, early adolescence, and mid-late adolescence. Participant sex, emotional maltreatment, and major depression were also tested as predictors of negative cognitive style. For three years, youth (N = 681, ages 7-18 at baseline) were assessed every 1.5 …

Defining A Role For Affect In Decision-Making, Pareezad Cyrus Zarolia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent theories of decision-making have hinted that affect might be useful during some decision-making processes. I propose a model, the affective evaluation model, which defines the role of affect in decision-making as helpful when affect is decision-relevant and unhelpful when it is not. In three studies, I manipulate the decision-relevance of affect to test this central component of the affective evaluation model. Study 1 demonstrates that emphasizing decision-relevant affective signals facilitates optimal decision-making as compared to emphasizing purely cognitive evaluations. Study 2 tests the hypothesis that creating the expectation that affect is useful can facilitate decision-making. Finally, Study 3 tests …

Lesbian Couple Dynamics And Heterosexist Stressors: Building A Foundation For Culturally Competent Relationship Interventions, Shelby B. Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lesbian relationships are severely underrepresented in the couples and family literature (Hartwell, Serovich, Grafsky, & Kerr, 2012). The current study sought to expand the basic science on lesbian couples with the overarching goal of informing evidence-based relationship interventions. The first aim of this study was to examine processes found to be important to relationship success in previous studies of couples in general, including communication, external support, household tasks, intimacy, and sex, as these processes are typically targeted in relationship interventions. The second aim was to examine the role of factors more specific to lesbian couples and related to heterosexist stressors …

Political Participation And Political Repression: Women In Saudi Arabia, Amalkhon Y. Azimova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2015 Saudi Arabian women were for the first time in history granted political space through electoral suffrage. To evaluate whether the new political opening for Saudi Arabian women has improved women's rights and equality in the Kingdom, I sought to conduct interviews to acquire their views and attitudes. In the process my encounters with Saudi Arabian women revealed their fear, cautiousness, and unwillingness to participate politically, which impelled me to discover the relationship between women's political participation and political repression. In the course of this research I learned that political repression inhibits women's political participation, and in Saudi Arabia …

The Role Of Self-Focused Cognition In Emotion Regulation, Ana Maria Draghici

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present dissertation reports a set of three studies that sought to characterize the effects of self-focused cognition on emotion regulation, specifically, cognitive reappraisal. Across the three studies, I investigated the effects of self-distancing, disengagement of self-focused thought, and changing the content of self-focused thought on multiple measures of emotion regulation success and emotion regulation difficulty. Results broadly suggested that disengaging self-focused cognition provides distinct advantages for emotion regulation, which are independent of effects on emotional reactivity. Specifically, I observed that other-focused cognition resulted in equally successful, but less difficult emotion regulation, the ability to more quickly disengage from self-focused …

Attention And Mimicry In Minimal Groups, Heidi Blocker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a group effect on matching behavior; ingroups tend to be matched more than outgroups. Differences in attention to ingroup and outgroup members may correspond with group differences in matching. Determining how both attention and matching are influenced by minimal groups can help distinguish between potential mechanisms used to explain group effects in social behavior. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to know if attention biases can be trained to social groups. Study 1 replicated attention training to neutral faces, but study 2 failed to replicate attention training to emotional faces. Study 3 used the same attention training method, but …

Exploring Ethnocultural Differences In Distress Of Newly Arrived Refugees During Early Resettlement: A Mixed Methods Dissertation, Maria M. Vukovich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods dissertation explored potential differences in distress levels between newly arrived refugees from Bhutan/Nepal, Burma, Iraq, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo during the first year of resettlement in Denver, Colorado. Utilizing RHS-15 quantitative outcomes and demographic data collected approximately every 3 months for 1 year, three approaches to propensity score analysis were performed with risk set matching on balancing time-varying covariates across treatment conditions at each time point. Subsequently, a three-way factorial ANOVA was conducted to examine mean differences in distress levels between treatment group, ethnocultural background, and time. In addition, clinical interview data were analyzed …

The Association Between Exposure To Poverty And Anxiety In Middle Childhood: Examination Of The Modulating Roles Of Coping, Responses To Stress, And Threat Bias Neural Activity, Hannah Bianco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between the amount of time spent living in poverty since birth and self-reported symptoms of anxiety in middle childhood. Several models were tested with consideration to the potential modulating roles of coping strategies, responses to stress, and threat bias neural functioning. Exposure to poverty is associated with increased risk for anxiety throughout childhood, adolescence, and into young adulthood (McLoyd, 1998, Najman et al., 2010). Individual factors such as use of various coping strategies and responses to stress, as well as neural processes related to attentional bias toward threat, have been shown to differentially impact risk …

War Tax Free: Institutional Resiliency For War In The United States, Sarah Nelson Bakhtiari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The obsolescence of war taxes in the United States after 1968 is a product of the state's increased institutional resiliency for war. Historically, war taxes were raised for purposes of revenue generation for contemporaneous war spending or wartime inflation control. The state's development of a robust tax system that provides high and automatically increasing revenues over time, along with monetary mechanisms for price stability, obviate the need for war taxes. In particular, the development of the income tax system and the use of inflation-targeting monetary policy expanded the state's warfighting capacity without reliance on war taxes. These developments suggest a …

With Or Without Class: A Comparative Study Of Union-Worker Cooperative Relations In The U.S. And South Korea, Minsun Ji

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines to what extent union-cooperative partnerships in the U.S. and S. Korea might revitalize labor movements and to what extent class-based narratives (or their absence) shape labor movements. Exploring competing labor ontologies, the dissertation analyzes how variants of traditional Marxism and poststructural thinking shape labor campaigns. Through a historical review of union and worker coop activism, and modern case studies of union-coop partnerships among taxi drivers and bus drivers, the dissertation analyzes the consequences of organizing "with" and "without" class narratives.

These labor histories and case studies lend support to the poststructural claim that class identity is constructed …

When "I Do" Becomes "I Don't": Exploring Communication Behaviors And Dialectical Tensions In Broken Engagements, Chelsea Annette Hand Stow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Communication behaviors and precipitating events were studied in accounts provided by 109 heterosexual individuals living in the United States who had experienced at least one broken premarital engagement. Participants' responses to an exploratory survey designed by the researcher were thematically analyzed in order to determine the causes of broken engagements, communication strategies used in sharing the disengagement narrative, advice given and received, and the presence of relational dialectics (both tensions and coping strategies). Data revealed that broken engagements more closely mirror divorce than dating breakups, engagements are more likely to be broken by women than men, and disengagement more often …

Creating Rhetorical Subjectivities: Negotiating The Precarity Of The Homo Oeconomicus In The Neoliberal Workplace, Leslie Lynne Rossman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ubiquitous impact of the neoliberal economy on our everyday life leads to questions of rhetorical significance. This project strives to incorporate service labor experience as a source as well as an effect of rhetoric thereby embodying materialist notions of the body at the site of production. I explore neoliberal discourses through the phenomena of outsourcing and offshoring by interviewing service industry employees that have experienced job uncertainty within a Fortune 500 corporation. By studying narratives, this project explores how the material effects of rhetoric are able to determine discourses of power relating to production. Thus, this study questions the …

The Roles Of Perceived Subjective Norms And Anticipated Sexism In Women's Intentions To Pursue A Career In Transportation, Elizabeth Colbert Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The intention of this study was to better understand the significant underrepresentation of women in the transportation industry. The present study examined the relationships between female high school students' anticipation of a sexist workplace climate in transportation workplaces, perceived subjective norms about transportation work, and intentions to pursue a career in the transportation industry, using the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). A sample (N = 132) of female high school students completed measures of anticipated sexism in transportation careers, perceived subjective norms, and transportation career intentions. Results of a regression analysis indicated that higher perceived subjective norms were a …

To Continued Success: Reforming Internal Tunisian Security Policy, Thomas Eli Banghart V

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tunisia's reputation as the success story from the Arab Spring rests on the integration of a stable democratic regime. Domestic as well as regional threats continue to push the boundaries of this fledgling democracy. Development measures, and reform of the Tunisian Internal Security Forces are paramount for the state's survival. This work presents measures for Security Sector Reform within Tunisia, then proceeds to create a map a developmental intervention aimed at securing stability through several drivers. Understanding that development is a security threat for Tunisia will help allies, other regional actors, NGO's, and other organizations furthers the unique situation where …

Court-Appointed Special Advocates In The Rural South: A Fidelity Assessment, Shanna N. Felix

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Children in the court system who are abused or neglected are mandated by the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) to have special legal representation in the form of a Guardian ad Litem (GAL). A GAL can be a staff attorney or he or she can be a volunteer layperson (known as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate, or CASA) who has undergone the GAL training. In some states, the CASA volunteer can be a substitute for the GAL, while in other states (like Georgia) the CASA is appointed by the judge as a complement to the staff attorney. To …

Motivation, Athletic Identity, And Commitment To Sport In Division I Varsity Athletes And Collegiate Club Level Athletes: A Qualitative Analysis, Emily C. Karoblis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Motivation, athletic identity, and commitment are constructs that have previously been addressed and researched in regards to their impact upon athletes. Each of these constructs has previously been addressed alongside one other construct but all three have not been addressed. In addition to this, research is lacking information regarding collegiate club sport athletes. The purpose of this study was to examine the thoughts of club level athletes and Division I Varsity level athletes as they relate to motivation, athletic identity and commitment to sport. The participants included 12 athletes, 6 at the club level and 6 at the Varsity level. …

Perfectionism And Eating Disordered Psychopathology: Examination Through A Stress Generation Perspective, Sarah A. Mello

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Current research on eating disorders identifies a close correlation with perfectionism. However, little is understood about the complexities of this relationship, and some studies have demonstrated a stronger relationship between these variables when compared to others. This research sought to investigate the role of stress, in particular adverse life events, as a mediator in order to more robustly explain the relationship between eating disorder features and self-evaluative perfectionism, a higher order component of perfectionism consisting of concern over mistakes, need for approval, rumination, and perceived parental pressure. Three hundred and five college women volunteered to complete a series of self-report …

Colaboratory: Design Collaboration For The Greater Good, Stephanie Arends Neal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A university campus is comprised of countless students enrolled in an array of degree programs that logistically creates a diverse population that can and should culminate into a dynamic professional network for graduates. How can higher education capitalize on this melting pot to provide experiences for students and fuse this network? A place, where students collectively solve problems by applying knowledge from their degree-specific areas, will foster interdisciplinary collaboration. By requiring working-relationships between students that benefit their community, a design center will provide students with experiences across disciplines that mirror a real-world, collaborative work environment while they identify opportunities and …

Do Placement And Repetition Of Information In Pictorials Affect Comprehension And Memory Of Medication Instructions?, Jessica Le

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how text and picture pairings affected comprehension and memory for medication instructions. Participants viewed instructions on how to prepare a mock oral suspension drug. These instructions either had the picture repeat the information in the text, or complement information in the text. The text instructions were also either integrated into the pictures, or were separated from the pictures. Next, participants were assessed on their comprehension and memory including memory for the order of the steps and their belief in their ability to carry out this task effectively. The results indicated that participants …

Pathways From Childhood Abuse To Positive Adapation: The Moderating Roles Of Social Support And Coping Style, Sarah Elizabeth Cleary

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Studies show that up to 50% of children worldwide are affected by physical, emotional, sexual abuse and/or neglect. While these traumatic events can have profound consequences on development across the lifespan, it is important to note that approximately 20-30% of childhood abuse survivors do not report negative impacts. One explanation for this difference in outcomes is the concept of resilience, defined as successful adaptation in spite of the experience of high-risk trauma. Many studies have been conducted to delineate factors fostering resilience. Some researchers argue that individuals' ability to achieve resilience is a direct result of the environment, while others …

Jotería-Historias: Theories From The Fringes, Robert Mitchell Gutierrez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

By collecting the cultural/historical narratives of gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (GBTQ) Chicanos of Colorado, this research project locates theories in the flesh, or theories of resistance and agency, in the forms of cuentos, pláticas, chismé, mitos, testimonios, and consejos to explicate a queer of color performance of intersectional and decolonial politics. To set the context, several historical and political snapshots of GBTQ Chicano experience over the last 500 years are reviewed to demonstrate how communication about, for, and between GBTQ Chicanos operate in a liminal state (nepantla) where violence, marginalization, and oppression are …

Displaced But Not Without Place: Refugee And Immigrant Integration Experiences In Greeley, Colorado, Rebekah Natalie Marsh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis research focuses on the integration experiences of refugees and immigrants in Greeley, Colorado and the corresponding actions and reactions of local Greeley members and leaders who are involved with this population. This thesis explains how the political, industrial and economic needs of the historical sugar beet and current meat packing industries shaped and are shaping the segregated landscape of Greeley. This in turn shapes the integration experiences for the refugees and immigrants and local members of Greeley. These industries historically recruited undocumented Mexican laborers to fill high turnover manual labor jobs. Now, the JBS meat packing plant is …

It's A Whole New Ball Game: The Mitchell Report, Performance Enhancing Drugs, And Professional Sports, Brian J. Schrader

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the findings of a congressional investigation into the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in Major League Baseball, known as the Mitchell Report. It analyzes the primary arguments presented in the report, the argument for integrity, role-models, and apology specifically, through the lens of governmentality and moral regulation. It argues that the report represents a distinct mode of governance that seeks to condemn PED use in a moralizing way. This mode of governance is characterized by its emergence from a variety of locations as opposed to the relatively simple use of the state and its legal apparatus. …

Indigenous Curation At The Denver Museum Of Nature And Science, Julia Marie Strunk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the questions of how and why indigenous curation is incorporated into collections care and management for American Indian sacred, ceremonial, and religious items at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) through the examination of staff discourse. This thesis also discusses the importance of incorporating non-Western ontologies and epistemologies into classically Western science and natural history museums, and how this helps reconcile differing collections care and management practices. Through the presentation and examination of data and literature, I argue that it is important to include indigenous curation in museums because it aids in cultural revitalization and …

Influence Of Self-Stigma, Distress Disclosure, And Self-Compassion On Post-Traumatic Stress Reactions In Deployment Veterans, June Marie Ashley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Military deployments can contribute to significant changes among the service members who experience them. Particularly regarding traumatic or highly stressful deployment experiences, the potential exists for posttraumatic stress reactions with both detrimental outcomes and beneficial influence. The present study explored this spectrum of reactions through the lenses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and posttraumatic growth (PTG). Given the well-researched presence of stigma within military culture toward psychological distress, consideration was given to how stigma may influence severity of PTSD and degree of PTG. Rather than focusing on public stigma, the present study explored the possible influence of internalized stigma, known …

"Discursion And Excursion:" Poetry Of Bodies, Place, And Landscape In The Ecocritical Movement, Haley N. Littleton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis project focuses on the current literary field of Ecocriticism, its historical transmutations, and the correlation of the pastoral genre, as one begins to understand current human understandings of "nature." By applying a deeper understanding of the Deep Ecology movement, along with shifting understandings of the human and the non-human, specifically in our usage and attention to landscape and wilderness, I hope to explore the role that the aesthetic, and the function of the poem, can play a crucial role in the environmental movement. By building a foundational understanding of our cultural context and critical theories of Environmental criticism, …

Cuba After Fidel: Economic Reform, Political Liberalization And Foreign Policy (2006–2014), Arturo Lopez-Levy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation discussed Cuba's processes of economic reform and political liberalization, and their impact on Cuba's foreign policy's adaptation to the post-Cold War. The first part of the dissertation explains economic reform and political liberalization from the perspective of partial reform equilibrium as a result of the Cuban Communist Party's focus on domestic stability and international legitimacy. The second part of the dissertation focused on Cuba's foreign policy dynamics associated to the domestic reform, the changes in the international system after the end of the Cold War and the asymmetric conflict between Cuba and the United States.

A Clipped Wing: An Assessment Of The Effectiveness Of The B-21, Aidan Thomas Hughes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the effectiveness of the Northrop Grumman B-21 long range strike bomber in advancing the ability of U.S. policy makers to achieve national security objectives. The operational value of the B-21 is assessed through analysing its probable role in four hypothetical combat scenarios, and the relative effectiveness of the B-21 is measured alongside the potential performance of alternative systems. This operational analysis is augmented by a consideration of the shape of recent U.S. national security strategies, as well as the anticipated future security environment, which provides the foundation of an analysis of the ability of the B-21 to …