Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Ongoing Shift In Chinese Marital View —A Case Study Of Late Marriage Among Young Chinese In Shenzhen, Hangyu Yang

Senior Projects Spring 2024

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

Moving Toward Belonging: Library Integration In A Summer Bridge Program, Becky Leathersich, Alessandra Otero Ramos, Alan Witt, Brandon West

Milne Library

Long before higher education’s most recent shift to antiracist practices and policies, many universities and colleges implemented summer bridge programs (SBPs) to assist students from diverse backgrounds in adjusting to the rigors of college. The library instruction program incorporated into the SBP at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Geneseo is a product of the librarians’ understanding of the importance of advocating for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students. The research instruction librarians take a proactive approach to inclusion, diversity, equity, and antiracism (IDEA).

Pmt, Cbt, And Hybrid Models: Is Machine Learning The Future Of Poverty Targeting?, Luca Orion Heidelberg

Senior Projects Spring 2024

Addressing poverty in developing countries without relying on income data is becoming increasingly important, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issue farther than anyone expected. This paper reviews literature on various poverty targeting models including Proxy Means Test, Community-Based Targeting, hybrid models, and machine learning-based models in hopes of finding the best method. The findings highlight the importance of model parameters, particularly in PMT, also revealing that the number of potential beneficiaries analyzed and number of indicators utilized can influence the targeting accuracy. CBT incorporates community involvement in the poverty targeting process at a lower cost than PMT, …

Social Welfare Functions And Health Policy: A New Approach, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

The social welfare function (SWF) framework converts the possible outcomes of governmental policy choice into vectors (lists) of interpersonally comparable well-being numbers, measuring the lifetime well-being of each individual in the population of interest. The SWF proper is a rule for ranking these vectors. The utilitarian SWF adds up well-being numbers. A prioritarian SWF adds up well-being numbers plugged into a strictly increasing and strictly concave transformation function. Governmental policies are conceptualized as probability distributions over well-being vectors. A recent literature applies the SWF framework to health policy. This article first provides a brief overview of the SWF framework and …

Milner Monitor, January 2024, Milner Library

Milner Library Newsletters

Internal newsletter produced by Milner Library staff between 2018 and present.

California Carbon Sequestration And Carbon Dioxide Pipeline Regulation In An Era Of Climate Change: Technology And Policy, Robert A. Mason

Master's Projects

This report serves primary purpose of finding prospective policies that could be useful in CARB’s new carbon sequestration program as mandated by S. B. 905. The bill states program goals and provides several objectives that direct the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA), the California Air Resource Board (CARB), and the California Geological Survey (CGS, or just Survey) with various responsibilities. Curiously, S.B. 905 does not mention the Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM or CalFire), although it has primary responsibility for issuing permits for hazardous pipelines as an agent of the federal Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

Pipelines …

Cigarette Smoking Behaviors And Nicotine Dependence At The Intersection Of Sexual Identity And Sex In The United States: Findings From The National Survey On Drug Use And Health, Ollie Ganz, Jonathan A. Schulz, Sarah J. Ehlke, Jessica L. King Jensen, Andrea C. Villanti

Psychology Faculty Publications

Introduction: Cigarette smoking is disproportionately high among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults. Yet, collapsing these identities into a monolith can disguise important within group disparities (e.g., lesbian/gay versus bisexual female). The purpose of this study is to report recent national prevalence estimates and trends of cigarette smoking behaviors and nicotine dependence by sexual identity and sex. Methods: Data were from the 2015–2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (n = 210,392; adults 18+), a nationally representative, repeated cross-sectional study of substance use and mental health in the U.S. We examined bivariate and multivariable associations between sexual identity and …

Leadership And Environmental Sustainability: An Integrative Conceptual Model Of Multilevel Antecedents And Consequences Of Leader Green Behavior, Hannes Zacher, Clara Kühner, Ian M. Katz, Cort W. Rudolph

Psychology Faculty Publications

Environmental sustainability is a strategic and ethical imperative for organizations, and numerous studies have investigated associations between leadership and employee pro-environmental or “green” behavior. However, these studies have typically focused on leadership styles that conflate leader behavior with its assumed antecedents or consequences. Moreover, the literature on relations between leadership and environmental sustainability constructs is fragmented and in need of systematic integration to effectively guide future research and practice. Accordingly, we pursue three goals in this conceptual paper. First, after a brief review of key insights from extant theoretical and empirical research, we define leadership in the context of environmental …

An Ewas Of Dementia Biomarkers And Their Associations With Age, African Ancestry, And Ptsd, Mark W. Miller, Erika J. Wolf, Xiang Zhao, Mark W. Logue, Sage E. Hawn

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background

Large-scale cohort and epidemiological studies suggest that PTSD confers risk for dementia in later life but the biological mechanisms underlying this association remain unknown. This study examined this question by assessing the influences of PTSD, APOE ε4 genotypes, DNA methylation, and other variables on the age- and dementia-associated biomarkers Aβ40, Aβ42, GFAP, NfL, and pTau-181 measured in plasma. Our primary hypothesis was that PTSD would be associated with elevated levels of these markers.

Methods

Analyses were based on data from a PTSD-enriched cohort of 849 individuals. We began by performing factor analyses of the biomarkers, the results of which …

Insights Into Child Abuse And Neglect: Findings From The Minnesota Longitudinal Study Of Risk And Adaptation, Marissa D. Nivison, Madelyn H. Labella, K. Lee Raby, Jenalee R. Doom, Jodi Martin, William F. Johnson, Osnat Zamir, Michelle M. Englund, Jeffry A. Simpson, Elizabeth A. Carlson, Glennn I. Roisman

Psychology Faculty Publications

The Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (MLSRA) is a landmark prospective, longitudinal study of human development focused on a sample of mothers experiencing poverty and their firstborn children. Although the MLSRA pioneered a number of important topics in the area of social and emotional development, it began with the more specific goal of examining the antecedents of child maltreatment. From that foundation and for more than 40 years, the study has produced a significant body of research on the origins, sequelae, and measurement of childhood abuse and neglect. The principal objectives of this report are to document the …

Switching The Narrative: Pastors’ Beliefs And Reasonings, Dejaune K. Thompson, Sheriyse M. Williams, Shuntay Tarver, Portia C. Stokes

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although many African Americans experience mental health/addiction (MH/A), only 39% of the population seek professional treatment. Several significant barriers contribute to their ability to seek treatment, and as such, many African Americans feel more comfortable relying on the Black Church and pastors for support. However, many pastors are not prepared to support the MH/A needs of their parishioners thus leaving those who seek help without the proper MH/A care they need. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perceptions held by African American pastors on preparedness based on experience and theological beliefs to address MH/A issues within …

All The Better To Hear You With: Using Social Media For Employee Listening, C. S. Ju, E. A. Liguori, N. M. Savage

Psychology Faculty Publications

The article explores the use of social media for employee listening in organizations, highlighting the importance of employee voice and its positive impact on the workplace. It suggests that social media platforms can provide a space for employees to express themselves, share ideas, and connect with others. However, caution is advised when integrating social media into formal workplace decisions and the hiring process due to concerns about fairness, privacy, and discrimination. The article also addresses the challenges faced by minority employees in voicing dissent and the potential for social media to amplify their voices. It recommends consulting the book "Social …

Where Numbers Meet Narratives: An Examination Of Joint Displays In Mixed Methods Evaluation, Natalie D. Jones

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The use of Mixed Methods (MM) in evaluation has increasingly become a valuable asset in evaluators' methodological toolbox. Despite prolific research on various aspects of mixed methods, from typologies to ontological debates, there remains a dearth of empirically derived evidence on effectively communicating MM findings. This lack of empirical research is compounded by criticism regarding the integration in MM studies. A prominent means of addressing both integration of data strands and communicating findings in MM studies is through joint displays.This study presents a multiphase exploration into how evaluators communicate MM findings and the visual efficiency of joint displays compared to …

Neither Jew Nor Greek: Considering A Christian Social Justice Model, Steven Brooks

Faculty Publications and Presentations

American society has been on a necessary trek towards social justice, mainly because of a history of institutional slavery, the systematic oppression of native peoples, and unnecessary gender bias. However, in the 21st century, social justice has not only become a rallying cry for socialism, but also a platform that has resulted in inequalities. In contrast, a Christian social justice model recognizes humanity as equal recipients of God’s grace in that “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34, NIV). The “level playing field” of social justice is summarized in Jesus’ words, “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16a, …

A Conditional Linear Combination Test With Many Weak Instruments, Dennis Lim, Wenjie Wang, Yichong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We consider a linear combination of jackknife Anderson-Rubin (AR) and orthogonalized Lagrangian multiplier (LM) tests for inference in IV regressions with many weak instruments and heteroskedasticity. We choose the weight in the linear combination based on a decision-theoretic rule that is adaptive to the identification strength. Under both weak and strong identifications, the proposed linear combination test controls asymptotic size and is admissible. Under strong identification, we further show that our linear combination test is the uniformly most powerful test against local alternatives among all tests that are constructed based on the jackknife AR and LM tests only and invariant …

Equal Predictive Ability Tests Based On Panel Data With Applications To Oecd And Imf Forecasts, Oguzhan Akgun, Alain Pirotte, Giovanni Urga, Zhenlin Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose two types of equal predictive ability (EPA) tests with panels to compare the predictions made by two forecasters. The first type, S-statistics, focuses on the overall EPA hypothesis, which states that the EPA holds, on average, over all panel units and over time. The second type, C-statistics, focuses on the clustered EPA hypothesis where the EPA holds jointly for a fixed number of clusters of panel units. The asymptotic properties of the proposed tests are evaluated under weak and strong cross-sectional dependence. An extensive Monte Carlo simulation shows that the proposed tests have very good finite sample properties, …

Robust Testing For Explosive Behavior With Strongly Dependent Errors, Yui Lim Lui, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

A heteroskedasticity-autocorrelation robust (HAR) test statistic is proposed to test for the presence of explosive roots in financial or real asset prices when the equation errors are strongly dependent. Limit theory for the test statistic is developed and extended to heteroskedastic models. The new test has stable size properties unlike conventional test statistics that typically lead to size distortion and inconsistency in the presence of strongly dependent equation errors. The new procedure can be used to consistently time-stamp the origination and termination of an explosive episode under similar conditions of long memory errors. Simulations are conducted to assess the finite …

Childlessness And Sibling Positioning In Upward Intergenerational Support: Insights From Singapore, Dahye Kim, Christine Ho, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan

Research Collection School Of Economics

Objective: This brief report aims to explore the role of child-lessness and its interaction with sibling positioning (i.e., birth order and gender) in upward intergenerational support within the context of Asian familial and patrilineal values. Background: Despite the increasing rates of childlessness in Asia, little is known about how childless individuals deviate from or adhere to the patrilineal gendered practices of supporting their older parents. Singapore, a rapidly aging nation that emphasises Confucian familism values and patrilineal practices in guiding its welfare policies, provides an ideal setting for this research investigation. Method: We analysed a sample of 475 Singaporeans aged …

Lifetime Adversity Predicts Depression, Anxiety, And Cognitive Impairment In A Nationally Representative Sample Of Older Adults In The United States, Sangnam Ahn, Seonghoon Kim, Hongmei Zhang, Aram Dobalian, George Slavich

Research Collection School Of Economics

Objective: Although life stress and adversity have emerged as risk factors for mental health problems and cognitive impairment among older adults, prior studies on this topic have been cross-sectional and based on relatively homogeneous samples. To address these issues, we examined prospective associations between lifetime adversity and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairment in a nationally representative, longitudinal sample of older adults in the U.S. Method: We analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study (1992-2016). The sample included 3,496 individuals (59.9% female), aged ≥64 years old (M age=76.0 ±7.6 years). We used the individual-level panel data and ordinary …

Managing In A Regressive Legal Environment: Employers Need To Stay The Course Of Nondiscrimination, Michael T. Zugelder

Finance Faculty Publications

Federal law expanded civil rights and equal opportunity to all employees. Major U.S. employers have embraced the expansion by using affirmative action plans and diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Concerns raised by a more conservative Supreme Court and its reversal of affirmative action in higher education, the recent enactment of regressive state laws aimed to diminish the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and invalidate affirmative action and DEI efforts should not be allowed to discourage the progress made. Employers can and should stay the course of expanded civil rights and equal opportunity in the workplace for all firm employees.

Economic Review Of Point-Of-Care Eeg., Adam Green, M Elizabeth Wegman, John P Ney

Cooper Medical School of Rowan University Departmental Research

Aims: Point-of-care electroencephalogram (POC-EEG) is an acute care bedside screening tool for the identification of nonconvulsive seizures (NCS) and nonconvulsive status epilepticus (NCSE). The objective of this narrative review is to describe the economic themes related to POC-EEG in the United States (US).

Materials and methods: We examined peer-reviewed, published manuscripts on the economic findings of POC-EEG for bedside use in US hospitals, which included those found through targeted searches on PubMed and Google Scholar. Conference abstracts, gray literature offerings, frank advertisements, white papers, and studies conducted outside the US were excluded.

Results: Twelve manuscripts were identified and reviewed; results …

Studying Implicit Racial Bias In Breast Cancer Screening, Diagnosis, And Treatment: A Scoping Review, Lillian C. Nguyen

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Breast cancer remains a significant public health concern worldwide, with persisting disparities in several aspects of breast cancer care. Implicit bias has emerged as a potential contributor to these disparities. While previous research has examined implicit bias in healthcare, particularly in the context of racial and ethnic disparities, no review has been conducted to examine the association of physician implicit bias and breast cancer care. There remains a need for further investigation into its role in breast cancer care. This scoping review aims to systematically analyze the existing literature on physician implicit bias in breast cancer care to discern its …

The Influence Of Intersectionality On Identity And Resilience, Stephanie Washburn

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Co-occurring multiple minority group membership (e.g., ethnic/racial minority and sexual/gender minority) has come to be referred as intersectionality. The purpose of this study was to explore if intersectionality is related to identity and resilience in undergraduate adults. The participant pool consisted of college students from a large metropolitan university in the Southeastern United States, (N = 340), who took an anonymous online self-report survey battery in exchange for course credit. Higher levels of resilience were associated with lower levels of identity distress. Further, identity commitment, but not identity exploration, predicted resiliency. Sexual/Gender Minority (SGM) individuals had lower resiliency than …

Concepts And Measures Of Human Intelligence And Anthropology: A Systematic Review Of Academic Literature From 1930s To 2010s, Leilani Maldonado

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis explores the evolution of intelligence research and its contextualization within historical biases. Using a meta-analysis approach, the study examines word frequencies in academic literature spanning from the 1930s to the 2010s to identify shifting trends in intelligence discourse. Eleven search terms related to intelligence were analyzed to interpret changes in academic focus over time. The findings reveal significant shifts influenced by historical events, societal movements, and advancements in technology and methodology. From the prominence of IQ measures during World War II to the rise of cognitive science in the 1960s and the emergence of emotional intelligence in the …

Florida’S Most Recent Anti-Transgender Political Policies And Their Effects On Transgender Adults, Jaron A. Sanchez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

During May of 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed multiple bills into law, which included House Bill 1521, Senate Bill 1580, and Senate Bill 254. Critics have regarded these bills to directly discriminate against transgender individuals and negatively impact their quality of life. The main research question this project seeks to answer is what impact these bills have, if any, on transgender individuals who live in the state of Florida. This includes experiences that negatively impact quality of life outcomes and mental health disparities. An online survey of a small sample of the population that self identifies as transgender, that …

Guns Can't Kill Ghosts, Krista B. Ruffo

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis explores the grieving process of a child, 6-year-old Maple, in a fictional way. As Maple attempts to carry on with daily life, such as attending first grade, after the death of her father, she experiences supernatural visions that cause her to consider what life and, consequently, death is. She also contends with her mother’s unwillingness to tell Maple why her father is dead, since her mother believes that keeping Maple shielded from the full truth is the best course of action. Maple struggles with sleeping issues, reoccurring dreams of her father, depression, lack of interest in formerly exciting …

Curanderismo And Healing: Insights From Hispanic Young Adults, Allisa Castro

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Curanderismo is a holistic form of traditional medicine primarily used by Latin American populations and Hispanic communities in the United States. This type of care focuses on several aspects of health including physical, emotional and spiritual (supernatural). Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority population in the United States and yet healthcare access to this population remains limited by various barriers including lack of insurance, legal status, language, poverty, and other structural factors. Within this context, exploring the perceptions and role of traditional medicine, like curanderismo, as a form of healthcare becomes crucial in understanding and addressing the unique healthcare needs …

The Contribution Of The White Working-Class Toward Their Own Political And Economic Disenfranchisement, Dana De Castro

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study was to answer the following question: why are the white working-class in America complicit in their own political and economic disenfranchisement? Moreover, this paper utilizes two time periods in American history, specifically, the Antebellum period and the Jim Crow era, and examines the white working-class’s behavioral pattern in these periods with the historical context in mind that took place in each of the eras. Through an analysis of the two studies, it is revealed that the white working-class has long been disenfranchised politically and economically. The white working-class of the past (specifically, the Antebellum period …

Shades Of Justice: Exploring Colorism In The Hispanic Community And Its Legal Battle For Equity, Christel A. Infante

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis focuses on the racial disparity within the Hispanic and Latinx communities as injustices exist within the community and the workplace. Racial disparities in the United States have been a persistent and deeply rooted issue that has plagued the nation for centuries. Despite significant progress in civil rights and anti-discrimination legislation, disparities in areas such as education, employment, and criminal justice persist. Understanding the factors contributing to these disparities is essential for addressing systemic inequalities and fostering a more just society. The analysis of this thesis primarily focuses on the cases and ramifications of Hispanic persons within the workplace, …

Critical Convergence: Mapping The Boundaries Of How Faculty Interrogate Whiteness In The Geoscience Educational Landscape, James E. Hobbs

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations

This study examined the role of faculty members in interrogating whiteness within geoscience education. The dominant reliance on whiteness as the primary way of knowing in geoscience education has long perpetuated a singular perspective that serves as a mechanism for reinforcing existing power structures rooted in white supremacy. Drawing on tenets from Critical whiteness Studies, Curriculum Theory, and Transformative Learning Theory, this research investigated U.S. higher education faculty members' strategies and challenges in disrupting whiteness within the geoscience curriculum.

Through critical qualitative narrative inquiry, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with geoscience faculty members across multiple institutions across the United …