Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Globalizing Investments: Enhancing Retail Investor Portfolios Through Cross-Asset International Diversification, Charlotte T. Kline

University Honors Theses

Diversification is frequently reiterated, but for the standard retail investor, the what, how, and why often slide between the cracks. Diversifying internationally appears even more seldom discussed. A wealth of research has been integrated throughout this paper to focus on the what, how, and why of foreign diversification, all from a retail investor's perspective. This synthesis provides a comprehensive background followed by a discussion of a variety of asset classes available for diversification and biases and factors that lead to these gaps in diversification. The findings were divided into two categories: possible asset classes favorable to international diversification and causes …

Variations In Religiosity By Latitude Parallel Variations In Environmental Instability, Karl G. D. Bailey, Crystal Collins, Aidan Li, Duane C. Mcbride

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Across three global samples, we observe increases in many measures of religiosity from the poles towards the equator, extending previous reports of latitudinal psychology. This equatorial-polar gradient parallels indices of political, economic, and ecological instability, consistent with models where religious beliefs and behaviors serve coping functions in unstable cultural contexts.

Adventist Political Behavior, Social Issues, And A Voter Engagement Campaign, John Gavin

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Major demographic studies and survey research about Adventist politics and social issues have been conducted over the past 28 years spanning seven national election cycles. Recently a comprehensive review of all studies on the subject has been completed revealing a complex profile of the Adventist political and social persona and indicating the consistent presence of a small minority of socially and politically active individuals.

The Honor Framework: Empowering Adolescent Girls To Address Violence, Naelijwa Manongi, Joel Raveloharimisy

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Adolescent girls worldwide are subject to various forms of violence, such as corporal punishment and sexual abuse inflicted by family members, caregivers, and school violence. Girls are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence, including sexual violence, exploitation, abuse, forced marriage, and human trafficking. While there is evidence that violence can be prevented, high rates of violence persist, and girls require empowerment and honor-based strategies to reclaim their power. Violence can have severe physical, psychological, and social consequences, making it crucial to address the issue. In this paper, we propose the HONOR framework. This approach combines Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Development …

Sound The Alarms: Problem Gambling Among Incarcerated Women, Jeff Marotta, Glenn Yamagata, Greta Coe

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract:

In the wake of widespread introduction of electronic gaming machines, reports about the "feminization" of gambling began appearing in the 1990s as more women were gambling, developing problems, and seeking help for problems related to gambling than in the past. More recently, scholars have introduced the concept of 're-feminization of gambling' as females increasing enter the online gambling world. Despite a 20+ year increase in problem gambling among women and the well-established link between forensic populations and problem gambling, the literature base on problem gambling among female criminal offenders is very limited. This presentation will briefly review this literature …

Developing A Research Agenda: Collaborative And Impactful Research For Adventist Ministry And Education In Australia And New Zealand, Tracie Mafile'o, Erika Puni Dr, Michelle Ralston Dr, Daniela Brown Ms, Branimir Schubert Dr

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Adventist human-subject research ought to have a positive impact and to address real-world challenges. This presentation reports on a current qualitative study which aims to develop a research agenda for collaborative and impactful research for the Adventist ministry and education in Australia and New Zealand.

Views And Experiences Of Members Of Faith-Based Organizations When Church Attendance Was Restricted By The Covid Lockdown, Kebogile Mokwena, Edith Dinong Phaswana

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Faith-based organizations provide social and mental support to their members, but the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the implementation of massive restrictions of movement, which affected every aspect of social life, including church attendance. On the other hand, the pandemic-related challenges which included social, spiritual, mental and financial, increased due to the restrictions of movement, as well as the high numbers of sick and dying people. The purpose of this study was to explore the views and experiences of members of FBOs during the Covid pandemic.

Meeting Physical Needs Of Vulnerable Communities To Intersect With Spiritual Needs, Joy Kauffman, Audrey Ahwan, Ronda Christman

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

This presentation will describe the FARM STEW Certified Home study and participants current health practices. The majority of the participants reported that they had a tippy tap (sink with soap or ash). Many had a garden growing fresh vegetables and were participating in the savings account/ VSLA.

The Impact Of The "Whistle-To-Whistle" Ban On The Frequency And Placement Of Gambling Advertising On Uk Television, Ellen Mcgrane, Elizabeth Goyder, Rob Pryce, Matt Field

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract

Introduction:

There are currently no legally enforced restrictions on the broadcast time of gambling advertising on UK television. In August 2019, the Industry Group for Responsible Gambling (IGRG) introduced a voluntary policy which limited advertising around live sports, creating a “safe” window of 5 minutes either side of a match, known as the “Whistle-to-Whistle” period. This policy intended to protect young and vulnerable people from the widespread exposure to gambling adverts on television during pre-watershed (9pm) live sports games.

Methods:

This study will employ panel data statistical models to explore the change in pre-watershed gambling advertising around live sports, …

Financially Focused Self-Concept And Disordered Gambling Severity Are Bidirectionally Related Over Time, Nassim Tabri, Michael Wohl

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract:

Financially focused self-concept refers to overvaluing the importance of financial success for self-definition and self-worth (e.g., “My value as a person depends upon the amount of money I have”). Theory suggests financially focused self-concept plays a pernicious role in the etiology and maintenance of disordered gambling. Providing support for this supposition, recent research has demonstrated as positive association between financially focused self-concept and disordered gambling symptomatology—an association that is independent of known etiological and maintenance factors. Critically, the extant research on link between financially focused self-concept and disordered gambling has been cross-sectional, which limits the ability to draw causal …

Payments Data In Gambling Research, Kasra Ghaharian, Mana Azizsoltani

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

A considerable body of gambling-related research has leveraged gamblers' behavioral tracking data to address a broad set of research questions. These data have typically comprised of gamblers' betting-related behaviors including, for example, the frequency and volume of betting. The analysis of gamblers' payment-related behavioral data is far less common, but provides a fruitful avenue gambling-related research.

In this presentation we discuss a selection of potential research opportunities that payments transaction data presents. We supplement this discussion with specific analyses that have been performed by our research group. We also discuss knowledge gaps and areas for future research.

Evaluation Of The Dsm-5 Internet Gaming Disorder Measures: A Cosmin Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Vivien Wen Li Anthony, Devin Mills Ph.D, Lia Nower

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Due to the rising concern of problem video gaming, the DSM-5 has suggested including Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) as a possible new behavioral addiction and proposed nine criteria to assess IGD. In response, a number of measurement instruments have been developed based on the DSM-5 IGD criteria. This presentation will discuss results from a systematic review that evaluated psychometric properties of these measures. Systematic search identified 22 measures. Meta-analysis revealed that 3.1% of the general population and 6.4% of video gamers had IGD. The estimated prevalence rates largely varied across different measures. Although many measures demonstrated satisfactory structural and construct …

Through Christ Alone?: Adventists’ Beliefs About Salvation, Petr A. Činčala, René Drumm, Duane C. Mcbride

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

This presentation examines how Adventists from four world divisions view the issue of salvation. Using data from the 2018 and 2023 Global Church Member’s Surveys, we compare and contrast members’ stated beliefs over time about how one receives salvation. The analysis includes cultural factors that may be influencing these outcomes.

Bullying Perpetrators And Victims And Associated Factors Among High School Learners In Tshwane District, South Africa, Kebogile Mokwena, Dudu Shiba

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

The global increase in mental disorders includes a significant proportion of children and adolescents, and bullying in school is reported to be a contributory factor to mental disorders among children. Although bullying in Sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, is anecdotally acknowledged, this public health, developmental, and education challenge has mainly been limited to the rite of passage for children, and not much has been done to identify risk factors for bullying perpetrators and victims in a school environment. The purpose of the study was to screen learners in Tshwane District, Pretoria, for bullying behavior.

Community Conversations: Using Focus Groups And Qualitative Surveys To Understand The Aspirations, Challenges And Solutions Of Under-Represented Community Groups In A Tri-County Region., Curtis J. Vanderwaal, Emma D. Vanderwaal

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Community needs assessments often fail to include the voices of underrepresented groups. Student and faculty research teams analyzed qualitative data from nine focus groups and 364 qualitative survey responses. Using a constant comparative methodology, findings explore the aspirations, challenges, and solutions from these community groups.

Faith Experience Of African Students In Secular Universities In Russia: A Narrative Inquiry, Pavel Zubkov

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

For decades young Africans to come to study in Russian universities. Apart from social issues the Adventist students face a faith challenge in observing Sabbath and confronting secular worldview. This study will explore the life stories of African students to identify the reasons, why some keep Adventist faith and others give up.

Using Virtual And Augmented Reality To Teach Children On The Autism Spectrum With Intellectual Disabilities: A Scoping Review, Emily M. Erb

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In recent years, both Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technology have shown great promise for the instruction of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by simulating real-world experiences in a safe and controlled environment. However, there are many reports of the failure of such research to include individuals with both ASD and Intellectual Disability (ID). The present scoping review consists of 20 studies which utilized VR/AR to teach various skills to children and youth with comorbid ASD and ID. Findings show that within the small number of eligible studies, a great deal of variation exists in essentially every …

Problem Gambling In Chile: A Comparison Between Pre And Post Pandemic Behavior 2018-2022, Juan Oyanedel Dr., Mariela Huenchumilla Ms

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

The COVID-19 Pandemic involved several behavioral changes in the world’s population. Extended periods of isolation were one of its most defining features of it. These changes affected people's relationship with gambling, both in terms of access and socialization processes associated with it. Asocial gambling is one of the features of problematic gambling, and it was particularly fit to grow in the framework of long periods of isolation.

The article reports the differences in the prevalence of problem gambling in the general Chilean population as well as the changes in the characteristics of gamblers between 2018 and 2022. The study uses …

Mapping The Conceptualization Of Gender In Gambling Literature, Abu Saleh Mohammad Sowad

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

This study maps the existing conceptualization of gender in peer-reviewed gambling scholarship to locate areas of future inquiry for a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between gender and gambling. In this study, we located the literature relevant to the conceptualization of gender in gambling published between 2000-2020 by searching eight academic databases using Boolean operators and various key search terms, yielding 31,533 results. After a thorough screening based on inclusion/exclusion criteria and excluding duplicates, we located 2,532 journal publications that addressed gender and gambling. Among them, 53.4% used gender as a descriptive demographic variable, 44.3% explored the comparative analysis between …

Problem Gambling, General-Strain Theory, And Gender, Michelle Malkin

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Prior research identified a host of factors that increase the likelihood that an individual will become a problem gambler, most of which would be identified by criminologists as “strains” under the framework of General Strain Theory (GST). Yet, GST has not been widely used as a possible explanation for why people become problem gamblers. In addition, there has been little examination of how gender interacts with those variables to affect problem gambling. In this research, I display how propositions from GST provide a framework for understanding why people become problem gamblers and whether gender is a moderating factor in this …

Stoner Nation: The Impact Of Cannabis Use On Gambling Behavior, Jeffrey Marotta Phd, Glenn Yamagata, Greta Coe

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract:

Nearly 40 U.S. states have legalized marijuana use in some form and there are current efforts at the Federal level to reclassify cannabis from its status as a Schedule I drug, the classification meant for the most dangerous substances, to a less restrictive substance. Reclassification would be a first step toward wider legalization, a move backed by most Americans. Because Oregon was an early adopter of legalized recreational cannabis use and has widespread access to more forms of legalized gambling than most states, Oregon could be considered a proving ground for studying the interaction between gambling behaviors and widespread …

Tax Salience, Escrow, And Support For Property Tax: Findings From A Survey Of South Carolina Voters, Susan Young, Matthew P. Thornburg, David Wilson Steinmeyer

Journal of Political Science

Tax salience has been found to impact tax opposition attitudes in a previous study, and scholars find that tax presentation is a key factor influencing the salience of a tax to those who pay it. We test Cabral and Hoxby’s 2012 hypothesis that homeowners who escrow their property tax payments will express more support for property tax increases than non-escrow taxpayers. Using original data collected from a mailed survey of South Carolina voters our multi-variate regression analysis shows that homeowners who escrow property taxes express more support for increasing school tax than do non-escrow payers. We also find significant knowledge …

Black Lives Matter And The Effects Of A Social Media User's Connection To Differing Ethnic And Racial Backgrounds, Ashley Helfrich, Satoshi Machida

Journal of Political Science

Millions of citizens, including a large number of whites, joined the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in the summer of 2020. An important factor that mobilized them toward BLM was the rise of social media. Recognizing the critical importance of social media, the present research explores the link between social media use and citizens’ behavior on the BLM movement in the United States. The focus of the analysis is on the issue of diversity. Because diversity on social networks can expose individuals to more diverse views, one can hypothesize that a higher number of one’s "friends" and followers being from …

Campaigning During Covid-19: How Texas Republicans Navigated The 2020 Election, Jeff Hunter, Mike Wintemute, Bryan Mclaughlin

Journal of Political Science

The COVID-19 pandemic caused major disruptions to political campaigns during the 2020 election. There was a stark contrast between how the two major parties approached campaigning during COVID-19, including the election in Texas, a deep red state that some thought might present opportunities for Democratic Party candidates. Using interviews with 13 campaign operatives, this study examines how Republican candidates in Texas navigated their campaigns in the context of a pandemic. Our results suggest the unique context of campaigning during COVID-19 gave Republicans key advantages over Democrats. Decisions to embrace a more organic, bottom-up approach led to more flexible campaign strategies. …

Celebrity Politics In The American South: The Case Of Ben "Cooter" Jones, Richard T. Longoria

Journal of Political Science

Celebrities get involved in American politics as activists and candidates for office. The literature suggests that celebrities have many advantages over traditional political candidates. However, the case of Ben Jones, "Cooter" from The Dukes of Hazzard, suggests that fame is not enough to win elections. The political environment is the decisive factor in determining whether a celebrity candidate wins or loses an election. The South’s realignment from Democrat to Republican made it difficult for Democrat Ben Jones to succeed in a changing South. Like other celebrities that lost the fundraising battle Jones lost several bids for office. Celebrities, like Fred …

Vicarious Trauma: A Phenomenological Qualitative Study Of School Counselors And Self-Care, Chernika E'Unece Leon

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand school counselors’ lived experiences of vicarious trauma and explore self-care strategies. School counselors are often exposed to vicarious trauma while working with children who encounter trauma. The theories used to guide this study were constructivist self-development theory and the theory of self-care. These theories explained the nature of understanding the psychological, interpersonal, and transpersonal influence of trauma work on counselors. There were two research questions that guided this study: (a) How do school counselors describe their experience of vicarious trauma? (b) What coping strategies do school counselors implement to cope with …

Church Attendance, Social Isolation And Loneliness In Older African American Adults During Covid-19, Kinea Savedge

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

As the number of older and aging adults continues to grow in the United States, it is important to understand the process of aging and the obstacles associated with growing in age. Two social factors linked with aging are social isolation and loneliness, especially during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Since COVID-19, social isolation and loneliness have been of greater focus due to regulations. This qualitative research study analyzed the impacts of social isolation and loneliness on older African American adults’ overall health by using semi-structured interviews to explore their lived experiences. This study focused on the associations between social isolation, …

The Grade Is The Message: An Analysis Of The Grading Structure’S Effects On Student Grade/Learning Orientations, Grant Lynn Rye

Masters Theses

This qualitative study was undertaken to study the medium of the grade in education contexts under the assumptions made within the field of media ecology. The goal of this study was to build on previous research that has identified that learning-oriented students are better set up for success in the classroom than grade-oriented students. With this in mind, this study aims to identify, from the student perspective, what different aspects of the grading system communicate to students that they should value in the classroom, especially in regard to grade-oriented or learning-oriented mindsets. After conducting interviews with current students from a …

A Most Surprising Fern: Serendipity And Browsing In Botanical Search, Douglas Tuers

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

This article is a case study of botanical field work in the eastern United States in the early twentieth century. These cases will be analyzed as instances of browsing and serendipity. Browsing and serendipity have a rich literature in information science and this article will draw on this literature in order to better understand serendipity in botany. This article will show how botanical localities support browsing and serendipity for the botanists who search them. This article will also show how botanical institutions and botanists interface with localities in order to further support browsing and serendipity. As a whole this article …

Reducing Cost-Of-Care In Next-Generation Genetic Sequencing, Sarah Auletta

Sociology Between the Gaps: Forgotten and Neglected Topics

No abstract provided.