Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Moral Responsibility And Other Visceral Attitudes Of Western Michigan University Students Toward Food Waste, Quinn Heiser

Masters Theses

Despite the large number of people that go hungry on a regular basis in America, food waste remains a looming issue, globally and nationally. Both American college students and the universities themselves contribute a large portion to the national food waste totals. A dichotomy that is especially curious is the difference between students who live on-campus and whose main source of meals is the dining centers, versus students who live off campus and rely mainly on groceries to make meals independently. However, food waste has seldom been studied in the context of the fact that college is a major transition …

The Effects Of Technology Based Self-Monitoring On Behaviors Related To Academic Engagement Of A University Student With A Disability, Rachel Mickelson

Masters Theses

College students with disabilities often experience difficulties with meeting the demands of university level courses due to challenges with time management and impulse control (Shmulsky & Gobbo, 2013). Self-monitoring has been proven effective for various populations and behaviors, although limited research has been conducted with college students with disabilities. I-Connect, a technology-based self-monitoring tool, is a digital application that utilizes momentary time sampling where users can select a behavior and interval of time to be prompted to self-monitor that behavior (University of Kansas, 2022). The app also collects real time data and automatically creates graphs to depict the responses collected …

Community Awareness Of Domestic Violence In Arumeru District, Arusha, Tanzania, Rehema John Magesa

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Domestic violence continues to be prominent among many communities worldwide despite different efforts and strategies geared towards eradicating it. Women and girls are among the main victims of this violence. Lack of or limited awareness of the problem perpetuates the problem. However, much of the levels of awareness of the problem are lacking. This study aimed to establish community awareness of domestic violence and the levels of awareness and determine the association between respondents' characteristics and the level of awareness of gender-based violence. The study employed both probability and non-probability sampling techniques to acquire the respondents. One hundred women and …

Policy Design For Biodiversity: How Problem Conception Drift Undermines "Fit-For-Purpose" Peatland Conservation, Benjamin Cashore, Ishani Mukherjee, Altaf Virani, Lahiru S. Wijedasa

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

For over two decades, scientists have documented the alarming decline of global Peatland ecosystems, regarded as the planet’s most crucial carbon sinks. The deterioration of these unique wetlands alongside their policy attention presents a puzzle for policy scientists and for students of anticipatory policy design. Two contrasting explanations have emerged. Some argue that pressures from economic globalization compel governments to relax environmental standards, while others point to deficiencies in policy design and implementation. Our paper applies Cashore’s Four Problem Types framework to assess a more nuanced explanation: that failure of global and local policies to curb ecosystem degradation is owing …

Aspirant Sport Professionals Perceptions Of Leader Political Stances In The Workplace: An Exploratory Investigation, Marshall Magnusen, Matt Robinson

Journal of Applied Sport Management

The purpose of this exploratory study was to better understand how political behaviors by a sport organization’s leader impact aspirant sport professionals. This qualitative study utilized criterion-based and snowball sampling methods to gather data from 202 aspirant sport professionals (46.5% male, 53.5% female). Participants were given a hypothetical employment scenario and responded to four questions regarding how a leader’s political behavior might impact their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors toward the sport employer. Utilizing thematic analysis, the following themes were discovered: Discomfort and Indifference (Question 1), Expectancy Violation and Power Divide (Question 2), Visceral Thinking and Calculated Thinking (Question 3), as …

Milner Monitor, June 2024, Milner Library

Milner Library Newsletters

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

What Does It Mean To Be Kindergarten "Ready?": Trends In Parents' Expectations And Families' School Experiences Across Ses, Lisa Babel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to explore the meaning of Kindergarten “ready,” especially as the practice interacts with educational inequity. Past research used secondary data to show that SES relates to the prevalence of redshirting where children’s school entry is delayed by one year with the idea that the older they are when they start school, the more advanced they will be, but studies do not explain why children from families with lower incomes are advised to start Kindergarten later than others (Greensburg & Winsler, 2020; Reardon & Portilla, 2016). Moreover, family expectations of the Kindergarten participation process, including …

Let Us Feast! The Long Tradition Of The Feast And How It Has Featured Through Time In Literature And Film, Anke Klitzing

Articles

Why do we celebrate so often with good food? Festive meals are as ancient as they are contemporary, and have featured in books, films and stories since we began to tell them, from Beowulf to Big Night (1996). Feasts strengthen interpersonal and communal bonds, but also offer the chance to showcase wealth and generosity; however, being a host can be a challenge as well.

Once, I Was Very Very Scared And More: An Exploration Into Depictions Of Interpersonal Trauma In Children's Literature, Emma K. Siepmann

University Honors Theses

This thesis examines the ways in which experiences of interpersonal trauma are depicted in English-language contemporary literature for elementary-aged children (6-11 years). A review of academic literature suggests that interpersonal trauma can have devastating and ongoing repercussions for individuals and their communities, although establishing a sense of relational safety can help mitigate these effects and facilitate healing after a traumatic experience. This research explores age-appropriate literature as a therapeutic tool for developing relational safety and providing critical skills to children at risk for and recovering from interpersonal trauma. This study analyzes the depictions of interpersonal trauma found in 11 picture …

Fpdr And Portland: A Concerned Accountant's Perspective, Noah Roth

University Honors Theses

Established in 1942, the Fire and Police Disability and Retirement (FPDR) fund was intended to attract young men to serve as firefighters and police officers in the city of Portland. FPDR provides defined benefit retirement payments to some 2000 retirees from Portland Fire and Rescue and the Portland Police Bureau. Portlanders are obligated to pay these benefits through a property tax levy determined by the proprietors of the Fund itself. The overall liability owed to these retirees, and current employees, accounts for more than half of all liabilities owed by the city of Portland, representing a fiscal burden that calls …

We're Here To Stay: Nonviolence And The Disability Rights Movement, Sky Mcleod

University Honors Theses

Nonviolent resistance is an effective tool for enacting large scale change including the advancement of civil rights. Disabled Americans have often used nonviolent protest and civil resistance to this aim. Despite this rich history of activism, the history of the Disability Rights Movement has largely been missing from scholarship on nonviolent resistance. Similarly, historical accounts in Disability Studies provide a fragmented perspective on the use of nonviolent resistance by Disabled people. This thesis delves into this under-appreciated history. From the League of the Physically Handicapped in the 1930s to Trump’s inauguration in 2016, this paper traces the progress of the …

The Realm That I Am: An Interdisciplinary Memoir On Identity And Healing, Maria Rowen Flores

University Honors Theses

This thesis is an interdisciplinary exploration into identity, self, and meaning-making. Engaging queer studies, Chicano/a Studies, narrative therapy, creative nonfiction, and visual arts, this project is both a collage and self-portrait in two parts. Part one uses the ideas of philosophers Gloria Anzaldúa, María Lugones, Jack Halberstam, and Judith Butler to explore identity formation in the author’s family and social contexts. Part two follows the experience of having C-PTSD and uses memoir and creative writing to explore the narrative therapeutic mode. Both sections explore themes of identity, social isolation, relationships, failure, mental illness, trauma, and addiction. The work is underscored …

At The Intersection Of Domestic Violence And Mass Shootings: A Qualitative Analysis Of The Relationship Between Ipv And Gun Violence, Troy Bleau

University Honors Theses

The intersectional study of domestic violence and mass shootings has only recently been the subject of inquiry within the psychology field. Within the past ten years research has been developed to examine the relationship between these two epidemics. What authors have found is that DV does play a role in shooting perpetration. This study aimed to identify domestic violence as a risk factor to predict, and subsequently intervene before future instances of shootings. 112 shootings were analyzed between the years of 2020 and 2023--they were then categorized as DV-related, non-DV related, and/or History of DV. The tested hypothesis was that …

How Reuse Rooms Can Reduce Waste On University And College Campuses, Zoe Slabodnik

University Honors Theses

This undergraduate honors thesis discusses the importance of how reuse rooms on university and college campuses can reduce waste by providing an alternative method of disposal other than landfills. There is currently no definition in use that exists for the term reuse room. This thesis defines a reuse room as a community room where anyone with access can donate and take free items that can be reused, recycled, repurposed, repaired and reworn. The goal of a reuse room is to encourage waste reduction, promote and destigmatize the use of second-hand materials, and save money and items from going to landfills. …

Evolution Of Morning Sickness And How It Relates To Maternal Nutrition And Fetal Development, Leena Macias

University Honors Theses

A multitude of pregnant mothers throughout the world experience some sort of nausea and vomiting symptoms while pregnant. There is a large body of literature that has examined the evolutionary significance of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP), and why it continues to persist within our society. The purpose of this thesis is to perform a literature review and to add onto the current literature present within this multidisciplinary field. In order to do so, the field's published works were compiled and examined, being careful to only choose credible and significant sources in order to understand why pregnant mothers experience …

An Exploration Of Degrowth: Reimagining The Economy In The Face Of Climate Change, Nicole Kristene Martinez-Bergman

University Honors Theses

Climate change is an issue of great magnitude facing the world, and communities are already feeling its effects, especially the most vulnerable. As the planet warms, it threatens to upend global ecosystems, from the oceans to the forests to the earth's atmosphere. Furthermore, the strains climate change places on the earth are a threat to global economic systems as erratic weather damages cities and creates an increasingly unstable agricultural system. However, these changes to the climate are due to anthropogenic impacts, meaning humans have caused this issue. This uniquely positions humans to create a structure to slow and eventually reverse …

"Your Food Is Who You Are": Food Sovereignty Within A Native Urban Community Garden, Zoe Buhrmaster

University Honors Theses

This paper explores the concept of food sovereignty within the context of a community garden managed by the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) in Portland, based on interviews with key garden coordinators and community members. The garden, initiated in 2019, emphasizes the cultivation of First Foods and traditional medicinal plants, serving as a space for cultural revitalization and community health. Food sovereignty, as defined by interviewees, encompasses a relational approach to plants as relatives, community control over food systems, and access to healthy, ancestral foods. The garden's history highlights its development amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and its role …

Immigration, Machismo, And Cultural Stigmatization: Causes Of Lack Of Mental Health Treatment Utilization Among Mexican Men In The U.S., Cynthia M. De La Torre-Lopez

University Honors Theses

Within academia, the topic of Latino men's mental health treatment utilization does not gather enough discussion. Even less, the area of Mexican men's mental health which although part of the Latino population, has specific stressors and implications. The following thesis will present a literature review method in order to answer the following research question, "How does machismo, stigma, and immigration affect the utilization of mental health treatment among Mexican men living in the U.S.?" These three predictors: machismo, stigma and immigration will be discussed in order to find an explanation as to why Mexican men are less likely to search …

Exploring The Impacts Of Genai On English And Applied Linguistics: Implications For A Future-Ready Journal, Jasper Roe

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Since publishing our review in JEAL on AI-powered writing tools in 2023, a lot has changed, and will continue to change in the field of English and Applied Linguistics. Primarily, this is a result of the ‘AI Spring’ that global industrialised society is currently experiencing. In this editorial, I will discuss my perspective on some of the major developments over the last year in reference to teaching and research with GenAI, and attempt to chart what seems to be the most salient points of these technologies for our journal, in the hope that it will stimulate discussion, argument, experiments and …

Cross-Cultural And Cross-Proficiency Analysis Of Selected Cohesion Indices In Student Essays, Audrey Buenavista Morallo

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Cohesion is important in writing because of its role in writing quality development (Abdi Tabari & Johnson, 2023) and in making texts comprehensible (Ghasemi, 2013). It can differentiate between proficient and deficient writing (Crossley et al., 2016b, 2019), demonstrating its use as an index of language proficiency. Despite being an index of proficiency, little is known about cohesion use in L2 contexts (Abdi Tabari & Johnson, 2023; Crossley, 2020; Crossley et al., 2016a). To address this, this study investigated the use of connectives, givenness, and lexical overlap in essays from the Philippines, Singapore, and China available in a corpus. A …

Beyond Fentanyl Test Strips: The Need To Decriminalize All Drug Checking Equipment In Tennessee, Jeremy C. Kourvelas Mph

SMART Policy Briefs

KEY POINTS

• In 2022, Tennessee decriminalized fentanyl test strips (FTS) through Public Chapter 764. Thousands have since been distributed by the state and nonprofit coalitions as a key harm reduction strategy. As of the end of 2023, 44 other states and D.C. had also decriminalized FTS.

• Research indicates that people who use drugs are five times as likely to change their behaviors (including reducing drug use overall) in response to a test result that is positive for fentanyl. People who use methamphetamine are especially likely to change their behaviors.

• However, the law only applies to “narcotic testing equipment used to …

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Family Court Rulings Linked To Parent-Child Relationships, Ruth Ann Nichols

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Parenting arrangements arising from family court decisions can have lasting effects on Parent-Child relationships, which can affect children’s emotional and physical development. In this study, parenting arrangements, also known as custody arrangements, are examined in terms of time allocated to each parent for the legal (decision-making) and physical (parenting time) aspects of parenting arrangements. The study aimed to identify patterns between temporary and final court decisions on parenting arrangements. Primary data were collected over 3 weeks in 2022 from 652 parents ages 19-64, with a child ages 3-17, and a U.S. family court decision. An 85-item, online survey, created for …

Financial Incentives For Adoption And Kin Guardianship Improve Achievement For Foster Children, David Simon, Aaron Sojourner, Jon Pedersen, Heidi Ombisa Skallet

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Difference-in-differences analysis of linked administrative data estimates effects of a Minnesota policy change that increased the payments to adoptive parents and kin guardians for children ages 6 and older, making them equal to what foster care payments were, but didn’t for younger children. Equalizing payments raised average academic achievement by 31 percent of a standard deviation three years after foster children’s cases started, raised the value of payments by about $2,000 per child during this period, raised the monthly chance of moving from foster care to adoption or kin guardianship by 29 percent, improved school stability, and reduced school suspensions.

Building A Foundation For Racial And Ethnic Equity: Estimated Impacts Of Massachusetts Legislation To Expand Affordable Quality Child Care And Early Education, Randy Albelda, Alan Clayton-Matthews, Anne Douglass, Christa Kelleher, Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson, Songtian Zeng

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

A multi-disciplinary UMass Boston team of researchers through the Early Education Cost and Usage Simulator Project (CUSP) seeks to better understand some of the impacts of expanding financial assistance to families for child care and early education. The team has developed and uses a statistical model that simulates parents’ decisions about care usage to estimate how much more licensed care might be needed in Massachusetts and what employment and income changes may take place with increased utilization of affordable licensed quality child care and early education. The team’s October 2023 brief provided findings for all families and children in the …

Building A Foundation For Racial And Ethnic Equity: Estimated Impacts Of Massachusetts Legislation To Expand Affordable Quality Child Care And Early Education Executive Summary, Randy Albelda, Alan Clayton-Matthews, Anne Douglass, Christa Kelleher, Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson, Songtian Zeng

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

A multi-disciplinary UMass Boston team of researchers through the Early Education Cost and Usage Simulator Project (CUSP) seeks to better understand some of the impacts of expanding financial assistance to families for child care and early education. The team has developed and uses a statistical model that simulates parents’ decisions about care usage to estimate how much more licensed care might be needed in Massachusetts and what employment and income changes may take place with increased utilization of affordable licensed quality child care and early education. The team’s October 2023 brief provided findings for all families and children in the …

Abriendo Puertas: Exploring The Challenges To Homeownership And Housing Stability For Latinos In Massachusetts, Lorna Rivera, Phillip Granberry, Bianca Ortiz-Wythe, Michelle Borges

Gastón Institute Publications

This report speaks to the current state of housing for Latinos in the Commonwealth; and it’s not great. Areas where Latinos still face inequities are compounded in a way that directly impacts access to housing and thus, ability to build generational wealth, or at the very least housing stability. We have solutions to these issues, like rent control, transfer fees, zoning changes, and even tax credits. What we lack is enough political power to have our voices make a larger impact, as Latinos own their homes at 32.7% , this issue is directly correlated to our low homeownership rates, often …

Protocol: Factors Influencing The Implementation Of Non-Pharmacological Interventions For Behaviours And Psychological Symptoms Of Dementia In Residential Aged Care Homes: A Systematic Review And Qualitative Evidence Synthesis, Hunduma D. Ayeno, Gizat M. M. Kassie, Mustafa Atee, Tuan Nguyen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review. The objectives are as follows. This paper aims to describe a protocol for a systematic review that will synthesise the qualitative evidence regarding factors influencing the implementation of non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) for behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) management in residential aged care homes (RACHs). The planned systematic review aims to answer the research question: ‘What are the factors influencing the implementation of NPIs in the management of BPSD at RACHs?’. Additionally, the planned systematic review also aims to generate recommendations to guide stakeholders (e.g., clinicians and aged care staff) and …

Green Gold: The Akkoub’S Settler Ecologies, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

The akkoub (Gundelia tournefortii) is a thistle-like plant so precious in Palestinian cuisine that it is often referred to as “green gold.” The risks, as well as the mystique, surrounding the akkoub have only intensified since the state of Israel designated this plant as protected under the Nature and Parks Protection Act. The story of the akkoub as depicted in this article illustrates the three tenets of “settler ecologies”: the regime of environmental protections enacted by the settler state that furthers its domination of the natural landscape and its dispossession of local and Indigenous communities. The first and …

Cni Combined Variables Dataset, Kahlib Fischer

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Overview:

This data represents county-wide data for every state in the United States in an attempt to measure the presence and impact of social capital and local community health (as defined by covenantal noncentralization) on community challenges.

Predictor Variables (Covenantal Noncentralization):

• 2 Parent Percentage
• Religious Adherence
• Social Associations
• Charitable Deduction
• Institutional Governance

Outcome Variables (Community Challenges):

• Tragic Deaths
• STD Rates
• Unemployment
• Child Poverty
• Dropout Rate

The spreadsheet consists of the following tabs:

• Raw Data: all data, predictor and outcome, for every county in the United States
• CNI-Z: Z score conversions for all Predictor Variables as discussed above
• Comm …

Cognitive And Neuroscientific Perspectives Of Healthy Ageing, Jon B. Prince, Helen L. Davis, Jane Tan, Katrina Muller-Townsend, Shaun Markovic, David M. G. Lewis, Brianne Hastie, Matthew B. Thompson, Peter D. Drummond, Hakuei Fujiyama, Hamid R. Sohrabi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

With dementia incidence projected to escalate significantly within the next 25 years, the United Nations declared 2021–2030 the Decade of Healthy Ageing, emphasising cognition as a crucial element. As a leading discipline in cognition and ageing research, psychology is well-equipped to offer insights for translational research, clinical practice, and policy-making. In this comprehensive review, we discuss the current state of knowledge on age-related changes in cognition and psychological health. We discuss cognitive changes during ageing, including (a) heterogeneity in the rate, trajectory, and characteristics of decline experienced by older adults, (b) the role of cognitive reserve in age-related cognitive decline, …