Digital Commons Network^™

The Black Arts And Black Power Movements In The Artwork Of John T. Riddle, Jr., Isabella Vitti

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the under-studied work of the Black sculptor John T. Riddle, Jr. and how he was influenced by the politics of Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s. Police brutality, the Vietnam War, the Black Power Movement, and the Watts uprising had a major impact on Riddle’s work.

Relations Between Adverse Childhood Experiences And Substance Use In Adolescents And Emerging Adults: The Moderating Role Of Exposure To Community Violence And Community Support And Community Recognition, Kiara Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Due to historical and current systemic racial inequities, African American adolescents and emerging adults living in low-income urban communities bear the burden of higher rates of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and exposure to community violence. Both exposure to ACEs and community violence are linked to higher levels of substance use. However, limited research exists on how exposure to community violence exacerbates the association between ACEs and higher frequencies of substance use in adolescence and emerging adulthood. There is also a need to understand how community-level protective factors may weaken the relations between ACEs and higher rates of substance use. The …

Reducing Mortality Among African American Mothers Related To Postpartum Hemorrhage By Implementing Early Education And Risk Assessments, Don'ya Truesdale

Theses and Dissertations

African American women are at the highest risk for hemorrhaging during childbirth (Okunlola, 2022). A hemorrhage can occur among postpartum mothers for many reasons, with the main causes being uterine atony, tissue trauma, and clotting issues. However, risks for Black mothers differ. The comorbid and social factors within the Black community greatly influence the likelihood of Black mothers experiencing postpartum hemorrhage. Additionally, the lack of assessment and attention catered towards those risk factors lead to an increased mortality among African American (AA) mothers compared to Caucasian mothers and all other ethnicities. Nonetheless, as maternal risk assessments and education increase, mortality …

Colored Lawyer, Topeka: The Legend And Legacy Of Elisa Scott, Jeffery Scott Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Attorney Elisha Scott’s reputation for fighting injustice grew so large he received letters addressed only, “Colored Lawyer, Topeka, Kansas.” He was born in obscurity in 1890, but his death made national news in 1963. Scott’s story may not be known at all if his name was not often listed as counsel in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that desegregated public schools. But it was his sons who filed the case and helped fight it from Topeka to the United States Supreme Court. He was never officially part of the legal team. He had, however, won a …

An Exploration Of Racial Trauma And Protective Factors In Black Youth, Daria Chantal Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Black students’ experiences in school can vary due to racism and discrimination within and outside of the classroom, which can impact their academic progress and overall well-being. In this three-part study, the impact of discrimination is observed to determine if there is a long-term effect of these situations and, if so, determine if there is utility to implement school-based resources to decrease these negative effects. The first study examined whether ethnic-racial socialization in childhood could moderate against symptoms of trauma in young adulthood that were potentially caused by discrimination from peers and teachers in childhood through hierarchical regressions. The second …

Effects Of Parenting And Self-Efficacy On Diet, Family Mealtime And Weight-Related Outcomes In African American Adolescents, Haylee Michele Loncar

Theses and Dissertations

Despite substantial research and concern, adolescent overweight and obesity continues to be a significant public health problem. Theory based on developmental literature emphasizes the role of adolescent self-regulatory factors, like self-efficacy, in health behavior engagement and weight-related outcomes. There is also extensive literature that highlights parents’ role in promoting self-regulatory development through warm and responsive behaviors and practices. However, few studies have considered longitudinal associations and changes in weight-related outcomes over time, as well as moderated effects by parenting. This study assessed longitudinal associations between adolescent self-efficacy parenting factors and adolescent BMI, diet, and family mealtime to fill gaps in …

Feasibility Of A Parent-Focused, Stress Management Intervention To Decrease Adolescent Bmi, Reduce Stress, And Increase Well-Being Among African American Families, Colby J. Kipp

Theses and Dissertations

African American adolescents in the United States experience a higher prevalence of obesity as compared to their White counterparts. This health inequity presents a public health concern as consequences of weight-related chronic diseases often persist into adulthood and are increasingly problematic. As chronic stress has been found to be higher among African American youth compared to White adolescents, it presents as a potential barrier to participation for African American families in health promotion interventions. Additionally, it may be beneficial to target stress in health promotion programs as a modifiable factor in conjunction with health behaviors that may improve outcomes related …

Substance Use Disorder Treatment Among African American Men Living In The Rural South Of The United States, Serge Raoul Wandji

Theses and Dissertations

Substance use disorders (SUD) affect more than 40 million Americans. African American (AA) men are disproportionally affected by the negative health and social consequences of SUD, and men in rural areas may be particularly at risk due to disadvantaged socioeconomic conditions and persistent race-related stressors such as perceived discrimination. The overall purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of factors associated with SUD treatment acceptance and relapse potential among Southern rural AA men.

This purpose was achieved by determining differences in treatment acceptance and relapse potential by race and gender among rural residents admitted in a SUD treatment …

Shifting Institutional Paradigms To Ignite Organizational Equity Amongst African American Professionals, Michael Fountain

Theses and Dissertations

African Americans can become discontented with their jobs and even consider resigning due to workplace anxiety. This quantitative study among African American business professionals in the U.S. highlighted the critical factors that foster positive working environments and organizational equity for African American professionals. The researcher focused on increasing an organization's effectiveness through managing diversity, allowing employees to feel inclusivity, and being part of a team. As a result, there will be happier, satisfied, and committed workers, thereby increasing the level of knowledge in the workforce while reducing expenses. This study analyzed conflict management, cultural diversity, marginalized employee emotions, teamwork, and …

Childless African American Women Over 50 In The Usa: A Qualitative Descriptive Study, Robbie Roshyl Mitchell

Theses and Dissertations

In modern society, some African American women are choosing a career before accepting the traditional role of birthing a child or children at an early age and marriage is not always part of the equation. Women’s freedoms (i.e., equality, personal choice, sexuality) have increased since their early struggles for their rights as citizens and as women. Some are viewed as agents against the norm by some conservative-minded people by not having a child or children well into their adulthood, especially if they are over the age of 50. Research suggests that women without children are perceived negatively by others and …

African American Coaches In Athletics: A Study Of Enabling And Inhibiting Factors Impacting Leadership Success, Lamar Lawrence

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research focused on identifying and addressing the enabling and inhibiting factors that have influenced the careers of African American National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I head basketball coaches. The researcher used a phenomenological approach to discover and understand the lived experiences of African American NCAA Division I men's head basketball coaches that are considered to be successful leaders in their field in order to gain their perspective and personal insight into barriers and potential solutions to those barriers in this particular field. Active and systemic discrimination, along with institutionalized racism and bias, are essential factors in this …

African American Family Members’ Needs And Experiences During A Loved One’S End-Of-Life, Kelley Obringer

Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to explore African American family members’ needs and experiences during their loved one’s end-of-life. In Chapter 1, a literature review was conducted to review the current state of the literature regarding African American family members’ needs and experiences during their loved one’s end-of-life. Chapter 2 includes a qualitative exploratory study of African American family members’ needs and experiences during their loved one’s end-of-life. The study sample consisted of family members of African Americans being cared for through services provided by an outpatient palliative care facility in the Southeastern United States. Family members answered five open-ended interview questions …

Exploring African American Girlhood Perceptions And Experiences Of Self Esteem, Monica Wade

Theses and Dissertations

Furthering the cultural competence of counselors around emotional wellness for minority groups, this research explored the intersectionality of race and gender through counter storytelling of experiences of Black girlhood that are often not told. To fill the existing gap in literature describing perceptions of emotional wellness, I explored African American adolescent girls perceptions and experiences of self esteem for girls who participated in an empowerment organization called Dream Girls. This qualitative study used a phenomenological analysis to gain understanding of the influences that impact the way these adolescents understand themselves.

Examining The Relationship Between School Policing Behaviors And The Depressive Symptoms Experienced By Black Students, Collin Perryman

Theses and Dissertations

The school policing literature has two major themes: (a) the negative safety outcomes of school safety (Gottfredson et al., 2020) and (b) the central role that school police play in placing Black students into the school-to-prison-nexus (Morris, 2016; Turner & Beneke, 2020). The study of school police roles, how school police interact with educators, and the safety effects of school police presence is important. Just as important is knowing the mental health effects of physical and nonphysical school policing behaviors on Black students. This dissertation sought to fill this gap in part by studying the relationship between school police behaviors …

The Presbyterian Exception? The Illegal Education Of Enslaved Blacks By South Carolina Presbyterian Churches, 1834-1865, Margaret Bates

Theses and Dissertations

The study of literacy among enslaved people in South Carolina is often limited to legal literature, enslaver and enslaved autobiographies, and Northern accounts of education from teachers sent to the South. The use of these types of sources to describe literacy and education of enslaved people leaves out a major contributor to the enslaved literacy movement, the churches. Using documentation from two Presbyterian churches in South Carolina, this thesis expands upon the enslaved literacy movements in South Carolina to look at the roles ministers, missionaries, and congregations played in teaching enslaved blacks how to read religious literature, why these institutions …

A Case Study Of Rural Southern Desegregation: How Black Students In A South Carolina Community Experienced Segregated Schooling And The Integration Process, Margo Mcdowell Gore

Theses and Dissertations

My purpose for this study is to shed light on how the African-American community in a small Southern rural community experienced segregated schools and the long school desegregation process. Conflicts over school integration in urban centers like Little Rock drew the media's attention, but how small communities beyond the glare of the media fared is less well understood and documented. Archival data and contemporary media coverage provide a timeline and context for the experiences of this Black community, and oral history interviews were collected and analyzed to document the range of desegregation experiences.

Although the Brown v. Board of Education …

Moderating Effects Of Parental Feeding Practices And Emotional Eating On Dietary Intake Among Overweight African American Adolescents, Mary Quattlebaum

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects of parental feeding practices and adolescent emotional eating (EE) on dietary outcomes among overweight African American adolescents. Based on Family Systems Theory, it was hypothesized that parental feeding practices, such as parental monitoring and responsibility, would buffer the effects of EE on poor dietary quality, whereas practices such as concern about a child’s weight, restriction, and pressure-to-eat would exacerbate this relationship. Adolescents (N = 127; Mage = 12.83 ۫.74; MBMI % = 96.61 ± 4.14) provided baseline data from the Families Improving Together (FIT) for a Weight Loss trial and an ancillary study. Dietary outcomes …

The Examination Of Health Care System Distrust As A Barrier To Utilization And Engagement Of Preventive Services In The Health Care System In Black Emerging Adults, With A Special Focus On Insurance Status And Usual Source Of Care., Alexandra Wynn

Theses and Dissertations

Health care system distrust is a well-known barrier to health utilization and engagement in older African Americans. However, it has not been explored in Black emerging adults, individuals 18- 26. It is important to explore the social and psychological effects of systemic barriers, such as health care system distrust, in this developmental period as emerging adults undergo unique demographic shifts, changes in sense of self, and identity exploration. Due to emerging adulthood being an exploratory and challenging transitionary phase, emerging adults have an increased susceptibility to preventable morbidity and mortality issues and decreased access to important preventive services. Thus, health …

A Thematic Analysis Of African American Fathers' Emotion-Related Beliefs And Behaviors, Deon Brown

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored African American fathers’ beliefs about and experiences with their own and their children’s negative emotions (i.e., parental meta-emotion philosophy and parental emotion socialization). Participants included 58 African American fathers in the Midwestern region of the United States between the ages of 29 and 40 (Mage = 30.94). 57 were biological fathers and one was a stepfather to toddlers between 24 and 31 months of age. Participants were invited to complete lab tasks, including the meta-emotion interview (MEI). The MEI is semi-structured interview of parents’ and their children’s negative emotion (i.e., sadness and anger). I selected a subset …

Family History Of Substance Problems Among African Americans: Associations With Drug Use, Drug Use Disorder, And Prescription Drug Misuse, Rebecca Mahrs-Gould

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Understanding individual risk for substance use and substance use disorders is important in the efforts of reducing risk and prevention of these problems. A family history of alcohol and/or drug problems often increases the risk for these problems, however the majority of research in this area is conducted in samples that are predominantly White. African Americans face disparate outcomes from substance use and substance use disorders, and the risks for substance problems may not be the same as for Whites. A systematic review of the literature identified nine studies that examined a family history of either substance problems or …

Factors Associated With Parent Involvement For African American Youth With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities: Findings From The Nlts-2012, Latonya J. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

This study used a correlational design to explore the association between parent demographics, parent experiences, and parent expectations, and parent involvement for families supporting African American youth with IDD. Chi-square statistical analyses were used to determine the associations between parent involvement and factors related to post-school planning. Associations were found between parent involvement and parent demographics, parent and youth experiences with professionals, parent expectations. The findings of this study provide opportunities for professionals and other stakeholders to intentionally develop actionable goals and objectives aimed at redefining parental involvement through a culturally responsive lens that positions parents as a resource, create …

#Blackfemaleteachersmatter: The Experiences Of Three African American Female Teachers Who Left The Classroom During Their Induction Years, Ashlye Victoria Wilkerson

Theses and Dissertations

This study captured the lived experiences of three African American, female classroom teachers who left the profession within three years of beginning their careers. The main goal that led this research was to center the perspectives of African American women in the conversation about teacher retention, turnover, and attrition percentages that plague the field of education. The primary questions that guided this study were: (1) “What can be learned from the life stories of former African American female teachers who left the teaching profession from South Carolina public classrooms during their induction years?”, (2) “What do their life stories reveal …

Disparities In Programming African American Solo Vocal Music On College Campuses Across The United States, Ramelle Brooks

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the representation of African American composers within the solo vocal literature genre of classical music. Literature suggests the music of African American composers is seldom taught in classical musical studies. The study explored one publicly available college recital database from each U.S. geographical region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West), which included listings of songs performed at each recital. The researcher recorded the number of recitals including African American composers and provided a numerical breakdown of song genres associated with African American Americans that included African American arts songs, Spirituals, Blues, Gospel, Jazz, and operatic arias. The number of …

Reimagining Prince Hall: Race, Freemasonry, And Material Culture In Boston, 1775-1870, Sueanna Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation revisits the subject of early black freemasonry and draws upon a new wealth of archival material to recontextualize it through the lens of social history and print and material culture. This study explores the way that freemasonry operated in the daily lives of black masons and presents a new social history of the formation of Boston’s first black masonic lodge. Turning specifically to print and material culture, it traces the way that the earliest black masons engaged in the broader print and material culture of the society, thus promoting interracial engagement. This study also traces how the Prince …

A Cost Effectiveness Analysis Of The Nutritious Eating With Soul Study, Mary Jones Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

PURPOSE Historically, African Americans (AA) have been underrepresented in nutritionrelated behavioral research despite their disproportionate higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The Nutritious Eating with Soul (NEW Soul) Study is one of the first of its kind to recruit an AA only study group to examine CVD prevention via a clinical trial to examine changes in CVD risk factors across two cohorts who are randomly assigned to a plant-based, soul food vegan diet or low-fat omnivorous (omni) diet. The purpose of cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) is to inform clinical and policy decisions and the costs of interventions that society is …

The Effects Of The Superwoman Schema On African American Women Receiving Their Graduate Degree At Rowan University While Also Holding An Assistantship, Corrine Smith

Theses and Dissertations

As an African American or Black woman, there is an expectation to be strong at all times. They are often glorified for their resiliency. Unfortunately, that strength and the expectation of it, can prove to be detrimental to African American or Black women's health. The Superwoman Schema, originally studied in 2010 by Woods-Giscomb, is the double edge sword that is handed to African American or Black women at a young age. The purpose of this qualitative study was to expand Wood-Giscomb's research by examining the perceptions of the impact of the Superwoman Schema on African American or Black graduate students …

That 90'S Kind Of Love: The Rise Of African American Romance Novels In Traditional Romance Publishing, Jamee Nicole Pritchard

Theses and Dissertations

In 1994, Pinnacle Books, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corporation, launched a new line of romance novels that featured Black characters written by Black authors. The new line was called Arabesque, and it was the first of its kind in mainstream publishing dedicated to love stories that explored Black life and culture. The line influenced other publishers to follow suit in acquiring similar titles and authors, and because of the number of African American writers signed to major publishing houses in 1994, the year was deemed by the press as the birth of the African American romance novel. This study …

Foxy Ladies And Badass Super Agents: Legacies Of 1970s Blaxploitation Spy And Detective Heroines, Carlie Nicole Todd

Theses and Dissertations

The presentation of Black femininity in Blaxploitation spy and detective films like Cleopatra Jones (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), and Get Christie Love! (1974) – depicting powerful, independent, and multidimensional characters – was a sharp departure from the derogatory images of African American women in film prior. These films also included some of the first Black spy and detective film heroines – Foxy Brown, Cleo Jones, and Christie Love – that portrayed a “serious” female detective or government agent as the main protagonist and center of the film’s action. These Blaxploitation heroines were unique in how their characters departed from prior …

Engraved In Prejudice: How Currency Displayed The Mindset Of The South, Holly Johnson Floyd

Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses the utility of currency as a promotional technique for southern ways, most specifically a mindset surrounding the social status of African Americans. Prior to the start of the Civil War, southern states began using images depicting enslaved labor on multiple types of currency. This practice continued through the creation and fall of the Confederate States of America, but the most telling images come from the financial instruments used between the war’s end and the start of Jim Crow. A brief history of southern and northern hostilities, with slavery at the forefront of the southern culture, sets the …

Evaluation Of A Clinic-Based Peer Navigation Program (Pnp) For African Americans Living With Hiv In South Carolina, Kimberly Butler Willis

Theses and Dissertations

Peer navigation programs have been identified as a potential motivator in care engagement and retention for patients living with HIV, although the data is inconsistent. HIV management requires important disease management considerations and innovative approaches for patient care. Medication advancements and technology have drastically improved care for most patients living with this chronic disease; yet African Americans contract, live with, and die because of HIV-related complications at disproportionately higher rates compared to their White peers.The purpose of this exploratory mixed-methods outcome evaluation is to: (1) determine if peer navigation is a viable intervention to improve three key HIV care metrics: …