Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech Content Policy, Van Pelt And Opie Library, Michigan Technological University

Digital Commons Information

Content Policy outlining the acceptable content and file formats that can be deposited in Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech, as well as information pertaining to ownership and rights of content, privacy, and access.

Online Grocery Shopping By Nyc Public Housing Residents Using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) Benefits: A Service Ecosystems Perspective, Nevin Cohen, Katherine Tomaino-Fraser, Chloe Arnow, Michelle Mulcahy, Christophe Hille

Publications and Research

This paper examines adoption of online grocery shopping, and potential cost and time savings compared to brick and mortar food retailers, by New York City public housing residents using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. A mixed methods action research project involving the co-creation of an online shopping club, the Farragut Food Club (FFC), recruited 300 members who registered to shop online using SNAP, and received waivers on delivery minimums and provided technical assistance and centralized food delivery. We conducted a survey (n = 206) and focus groups to understand shopping practices; FFC members collected receipts of groceries over two …

The Language Of The Draughtsboard Sharks: A Conlang Project, Trent Garlin

English Department: Linguistics ENG 334

The language of the draughtsboard sharks is a fictional conlang. This paper describes the history, physical anatomy, means of articulation, morphology, syntax, and grammar of the language through the entirely fictional lens of a research team studying shark communication in New Zealand. Notable aspects of the conlang are its portrayal of imaginary, non-human speech organs created to eliminate a shark’s realistic inability to speak, as well as the absence of a written element to the language largely due to the lack of opposable thumbs (or fingers at all) on sharks. The language also includes IPA charts for both consonants and …

African American Genealogy Workshop Poster, Kelli Johnson

Ephemera

African American Genealogy Workshop Poster

Employee Financial Wellness Programs: Tips For Employers, Sloane Wolter, Jenna Hampton Bsw, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Ellen Frank-Miller

Social Policy Institute Research

There are several types of Employee Financial Wellness Programs (EFWPs), such as workplace financial counseling, workplace credit building, and employer-sponsored small dollar loans. Each program benefits the company and its employees in different ways.

The Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, with generous support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, studied the implementation of EFWPs at several diverse organizations, including a nonprofit in the Midwest and several supply chain locations of a national retailer, to understand the impact. As a result, we’ve identified four ways in which organizations can maximize the benefits of EFWPs and avoid pitfalls …

Employee Financial Wellness Programs: Promising New Benefit For Frontline Workers?, Mathieu Despard, Ellen Frank-Miller, Yingying Zeng, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Geraldine Germain, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Meredith Covington

Social Policy Institute Research

Interest among employers is growing in Employee financial wellness programs (EFWPs), a new type of benefit to address financial stress among employees. EFWPs benefits include financial counseling, small-dollar loans, and savings programs that address employees' non-retirement financial needs. Little evidence exists concerning the availability and use of and outcomes associated with EFWPs, especially among low- and moderate-income (LMI) workers who may be in greatest need of these benefits. We present findings concerning awareness and use of EFWPs from a national survey of LMI workers (N=16,650). Availability of different EFWP benefits ranged from 11 to 15% and over a third of …

A Drawing A Day Keeps The Pandemic Away: Vol 9, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

A Drawing a Day Keeps the Pandemic Away

The project is called A Drawing a Day Keeps the Pandemic Away. We created it on March 17th, which was the day when we realized that we weren’t going to be able to go back into the museum and continue installing the exhibitions we had been planning to open on March 27th. People were asking us what we, as an art museum, were going to do to reach out to the community during the pandemic shutdown and honestly we were wondering that ourselves, so we had an online brainstorming session and came up with the idea of posting a daily …

It's Coming: Chick-Fil-A Scheduled To Open In August, Mark D. Weinstein

News Releases

Cedarville University students will return to campus in early August in time to help dedicate the Chick-fil-A restaurant that is nearing completion on campus. The 15,000 square foot eatery will seat 300 people at the facility that will provide people with scenic views of Cedar Lake and the campus. The building will also provide additional space for students to interact and study, as it's strategically located next to Centennial Library.

Ouachita To Adjust Schedule For Fall 2020, Brooke Zimny, Ouachita News Bureau

Press Releases

Ouachita Baptist University President Ben Sells announced yesterday in an email to students, faculty and staff that the university will begin classes on campus for the 2020-21 fall semester on Aug. 17, eight days earlier than originally scheduled.

Tax-Time Saving And The Earned Income Tax Credit: Results From Online Field And Survey Experiments, Mathieu Despard, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Stephen Roll, Bradley Hardy, Dana Perantie, Jane Oliphant

Social Policy Institute Research

Tax refunds are an opportunity for Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) recipients to build emergency savings. Randomly assigned behavioral interventions in 2015 and 2016 have statistically significant impacts on refund saving take-up and amounts among EITC recipients who filed their taxes online. From a survey experiment, we also find that EITC recipients have a 49 percent and 59 percent increased likelihood of deferring 20 percent of their refunds for six months when hypothetically offered 25 and 50 percent savings matches (p < .001), respectively. These findings can inform policy development related to encouraging emergency saving at tax time.

Financial Counseling For Front-Line Workers: A Pilot Study Of Engagement And Outcomes, Mathieu Despard, Yingying Zeng, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Ellen Frank-Miller, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Although financial counseling has been studied in community-based settings, programs offered in the workplace are understudied and yet may aid low- to moderate income employees in improving their financial situations. This study examines workers’ engagement in and associated credit outcomes from an employer-based financial counseling program in the New York City area. Findings suggest that participants engaged equally in services except for older and non-English speaking workers, who had lower levels of digital engagement. In-person engagement in services was minimal. Credit score improvements were modest, but greater for workers who had

scores in the lowest quartile at baseline. These credit …

Promoting Public Retirement Savings Accounts During Tax Filing: Evidence From A Field Experiment, Stephen Roll, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Olga Kondratjeva, Sam Bufe

Social Policy Institute Research

Many U.S. households—especially those with low- to moderate-incomes (LMI)—struggle to save for retirement. To address this issue, the Department of the Treasury launched myRA, a no-fee retirement account designed primarily to help people who lacked access to employer-sponsored plans build retirement savings. In this paper, we report findings from two myRA-focused field experiments, both of which were administered to well over 100,000 LMI online tax filers before and during the 2016 tax season. The first experiment involved sending one of three different myRA-focused email messages to tax filers immediately prior to tax season, and the second experiment …

The Impact Of Tax Refund Delays On The Experience Of Hardship And Unsecured Debt, Olga Kondratjeva, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) provides substantial financial support to low-income workers, yet around a quarter of EITC payments are estimated to be erroneous or fraudulent. Beginning in 2017, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 requires the Internal Revenue Service to spend additional time processing early EITC claims, delaying the issuance of tax refunds. Leveraging unique data, we investigate how delayed tax refunds affected the experience of hardship and unsecured debt among EITC recipients. We find that early filers experienced increased food insecurity relative to later filers after the implementation of the refund delay.

Documenting Covid-19 Experiences: An Interview With Academic Librarian Gina Murrell, Raymond Pun

Gleeson Library Faculty and Staff Research and Scholarship

An interview with Gina Murrell by Raymond Pun for the blog Infobase. Originally published June 9, 2020: https://www.infobase.com/blog/featured/documenting-covid-19-experiences-an-interview-with-academic-librarian-gina-murrell/

The Day The Crayons Quit: Team Management Suggestions, Renna Redd

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Bilingual And Bicultural Research Teams: Unpacking The Complexities., Maya I I. Ragavan, John Cowden

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Researchers often describe use of "bilingual/bicultural" research teams, especially for research being conducted with marginalized communities. In this perspectives article, we argue that while increasing the diversity of research teams is imperative, using the term "bilingual/bicultural" without further explanation is problematic. We first review the nuances of the terms bilingual and bicultural individually. Next, we describe how the terms bilingual and bicultural cannot be conflated. Finally, we provide recommendations for researchers, journals, and funding agencies.

Information And Communication Technology (Ict) And Libraries: Research Mapping And Scientometric Overview With Special Reference To Indian Research, Prakash E.R., Umesha Naik Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is of paramount importance in modern-day libraries and information centres. ICT helps in capturing, processing, storing, and communicating information. No library can still rely only on traditional printed information resources to perform effectively and efficiently (Etebu, 2010). The present study investigated the various realms of research pursued focusing on ICT with respect to libraries and made an effort to map the research scientometrically with a special reference to India. ICT and library related SCOPUS records are elicited and analysed to make a review of the research pursued by professionals in the field. A …

Metadata-From-Home: A Digital Collections Project During Covid-19, Scott Dutkiewicz, Jessica Serrao, Charlotte Grubbs

Presentations

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shift to working from home (WFH) and online education proved a boon for digital collections. Not only can digital collections provide researchers remote access to rare and unique archival materials, but the metadata work that facilitates its discovery can be adapted to a WFH environment. At Clemson University Libraries, the metadata team facilitated a WFH project where 15 Libraries employees across two units are helping to describe a collection of over 2400 photographs. This project rose to the challenges of providing meaningful work to colleagues while working from home, empowering them to learn new …

Father-Adolescent Relationship Closeness: A Path Analysis Of Family Factor Associates With Father-Adolescent Engagement And Relationship Quality, Mark H. Trahan, Richard H. Morely, Kevin Shafer

Faculty Publications

Father-adolescent child relationship quality has been identified as key to adolescent health outcomes. While factors have previously been identified associated with father-adolescent closeness, a comprehensive model of understanding the influence of these factors is needed. Using cross-sectional data from the Study of Contemporary Fatherhood (SCF), this analysis of father-adolescent relationship closeness evaluated responses of nine hundred (N = 900) father surveys to investigate historical factors, including own father relationship quality, biological fathering, family transitions, and ACEs along with current factors, including co-parenting, depression, parenting stress, knowledge of adolescent, warmth, and engagement, on father-adolescent relationship closeness. Path analysis results indicate that …

Maternal Immune Activation Alters Fetal Brain Development And Enhances Proliferation Of Neural Precursor Cells In Rats, Kelly J. Baines, Dendra M. Hillier, Faraj L. Haddad, Nagalingam Rajakumar, Susanne Schmid, Stephen J. Renaud

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Maternal immune activation (MIA) caused by exposure to pathogens or inflammation during critical periods of neurodevelopment is a major risk factor for behavioral deficits and psychiatric illness in offspring. A spectrum of behavioral abnormalities can be recapitulated in rodents by inducing MIA using the viral mimetic, PolyI:C. Many studies have focused on long-term changes in brain structure and behavioral outcomes in offspring following maternal PolyI:C exposure, but acute changes in prenatal development are not well-characterized. Using RNA-Sequencing, we profiled acute transcriptomic changes in rat conceptuses (decidua along with nascent embryo and placenta) after maternal PolyI:C exposure during early gestation, which …

Adjusting To Covid-19, Cedarville University Announces Fall Schedule, Mark D. Weinstein

News Releases

Cedarville University has announced plans to adjust its fall academic schedule in order to build flexibility into the calendar and minimize exposure of the campus community to a potential late fall spike of COVID-19, which has been suggested as a possibility by public health experts.

Adverbial Clauses Introduced With ‘ Cuando’, Julen Carrasco Oteo

Theses and Dissertations

The meaning differences that the temporal-aspectual system and the indicative and subjunctive versions of sentences trigger in the Spanish language are the cornerstone of its semantic and syntactic possibilities. These possibilities increase if we take into account not only all the types of subordinate clauses that exist in Spanish, but also the number of Spanish- speaking communities spread around the globe. This synchronic corpus-based study of Spanish major varieties focuses on dependent adverbial clauses introduced with ‘cuando’ (‘when’) in order to examine indicative and subjunctive mood distribution. Prescriptive standards tend to be too broad if they are applied to explain …

Nurses And Needlesticks: Perceptions Of Stigma And Hiv Risk, Bethany Sharon Moore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Health-care providers (HCPs) are vulnerable to occupational health hazards, including dirty needle-stick injuries (DNSIs), which increase the risk for infection with HIV and other blood-borne pathogens. This study examines the perceptions of nurses and nurse practitioners who work in various health care settings regarding HIV-risk and DNSIs, in order to ascertain how these perceptions inform their decision-making regarding their health and nursing practice. I utilize a phenomenological approach to analyze the lived reality and embodiment of the DNSI experience by HCPs. The study explores the personal and institutional level factors that may influence the timely reporting and treatment of DNSIs, …

Digital Literacy Skills Of Undergraduate Students Of Library And Information Science On The Utilization Of Electronic Information Resources In Two Federal Universities In Nigeria, Inemesit Udom Udoh Mr., Glory E. Ekpenyong Mrs., Olusola Olowookere Mr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study examined digital literacy skills of undergraduate students of Library and Information Science on the Utilization of Electronic Information Resources in Two Federal Universities in Nigeria. Five (5) objectives were framed to guide the study. The descriptive survey design was adopted. The population of the study was 250 final year students comprising 182 and 68 students from the Departments of Library and Information Science, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, (MOUAU) and University of Uyo (UNIUYO) from the 2015/2016 session, respectively. The accidental (aka convenience) sampling technique was used to select 120 respondents for the study. Data were collected …

Assessing Adaptive Capacity To Climate And Population Change At The Urban-Rural Interface: Human-Water System Dynamics In The Hood River Valley, Oregon, Alexander Reid Ross

Dissertations and Theses

An exurban nook on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge named after the Hood River that runs northward from the glaciers of Mount Hood to the confluence seems ideally poised for the kind of relaxed, natural lifestyle that once brought suburban areas their appeal. However, like other exurban areas, Hood River also lies at an uncertain fault-line between economic and environmental transformation in the U.S.'s exurbs.

This study maps the socio-economic and climatological transformations of exurban areas as they contend with different approaches to sustainability and resilience. To determine the major climate and development hazards facing exurban areas …

A Comprehensive Model Of Employment Support, Alberto Migliore, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

This brief describes a model of employment supports centered around achieving quality job matches and based on five key elements: building trust, getting to know job seekers, support planning, finding jobs, and support after hire.

Missing Piece Of The Puzzle: Creating A General Meaning Of Sex Measure, Veronica R. Hanna-Walker

Theses and Dissertations

The presence of and/or search for meaning has divergent and salient outcomes for individuals’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Although numerous domains of meaning have been examined, the literature on the meaning of sex is sparse and lacks a quantitative measure. In this study, I aimed to validate a general Meaning of Sex (MOS) Measure that captured the presence of (MOS-P) and search for (MOS-S) the meaning of sex that predicted salient relational and sexual outcomes (i.e., relationship stability and satisfaction and sexual satisfaction). The MOS measure was based off of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) created by Steger …

Do Shape And Volume Of Subcortical Neural Structures Involved In Reward Processing Correlate With Body Mass And Food Reward In Adolescent Females?, Kelsey K. Zaugg

Theses and Dissertations

Background: The prevalence of adolescent obesity has increased drastically in the last few decades, spurring research examining causes and consequences of this chronic health condition. Neuroimaging techniques are being used to determine possible neural correlates of obesity that could help inform research in this field. However, the research among adolescents is not as abundant and findings so far are contradictory. This study sought to examine the association of the shape and volume of subcortical brain structures involved in reward processing with weight status in adolescent females. Additionally, this study sought to determine if the shape and volume of these structures …

Employee Financial Wellness Programs: Tips For Providers, Jenna Hampton Bsw, Sloane Wolter, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Ellen Frank-Miller

Social Policy Institute Research

There are several types of Employee Financial Wellness Programs (EFWPs), such as workplace financial counseling, workplace credit building, and employer-sponsored small dollar loans. Each program benefits the company and its employees in different ways.

The Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, with generous support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, studied the implementation of EFWPs at several diverse organizations, including a nonprofit in the Midwest and several supply chain locations of a national retailer, to understand the impact. As a result, we’ve identified five ways in which providers can maximize the benefits of EFWPs and avoid pitfalls …

Finding Av Needles In Manuscript Haystacks: Conducting An Audiovisual Assessment/Audit In Manuscript Archives, Benjamin Harry

Journal of Western Archives

Many twentieth-century audiovisual formats are becoming obsolete or are physically degrading, warranting the need to digitally reformat this content. The first step is to expeditiously document where and what types of audiovisual materials are hidden within archival manuscript collections. This article describes the efforts of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections (LTPSC) at Brigham Young University to quickly audit manuscript collections to determine the location and format details of audiovisual materials, a crucial first step to inform decisions about personnel requirements, equipment purchases, and grant seeking to facilitate the systematic digitization of audiovisual content.