Digital Commons Network^™

Addressing Workplace Violence In Healthcare, Eric Crane

M.S. in Leadership

This research paper explores the prevalence, consequences, and mitigation strategies for workplace violence in healthcare. The literature focuses on the importance of leadership’s involvement of the implementation of change, providing programing, and obtaining buy-in from staff to combat what has consistently been a factor leading to employee burnout, assaultive behavior, and compromised patient safety. It shows that workplace violence has been a constant in healthcare, however, has escalated post COVID-19 pandemic. Research and statistics show that workplace violence in healthcare is more prevalent than in other fields and is on the rise. A multiple-choice survey was conducted using Survey Monkey, …

Population Gains Continue In New Hampshire, But The Pace Varies, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, Carsey Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that New Hampshire’s population reached 1,402,054 on July 1, 2023, an increase of 24,500 residents since April 1, 2020, according to new Census Bureau estimates. New Hampshire gained 3,100 residents last year compared to 11,500 and 8,800 in the two preceding years, respectively. The state gained population even though it had 6,600 more deaths than births in the past three years because nearly 31,000 more people moved to the state than left it.

All ten of New Hampshire’s counties gained population between 2020 and 2023, compared to 52 percent of all …

New Hampshire Employees Working In Small Firms Lack Access To Paid Family And Medical Leave, Kristin E. Smith

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, author Kristin Smith reports that in December 2022, just prior to the launch of the NH Paid Family and Medical Leave Program, 40 percent of New Hampshire workers did not have access to paid medical, parental, or family leave. In its first year, the program reached 14,712 workers or less than 3 percent of Granite State workers. Workers in small firms report lower rates of access than workers in larger firms. Women also have lower access to paid leave than men. In addition to a lack of awareness, low enrollment may be linked to NH Paid Family …

Large Pool Of New Voters Could Add Volatility To New Hampshire Primary, Kenneth M. Johnson, Andrew Smith, Dante Scala

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, authors Kenneth Johnson, Andrew Smith, and Dante Scala note a greater likelihood of volatility in the New Hampshire primary because there will be many new faces among the voters who flock to the polls on January 23. The New Hampshire electorate has experienced significant turnover since the 2020 primary. More than one-fifth of New Hampshire’s potential primary voters this year are new because in 2020 they were not old enough to vote or resided somewhere else. The ideology and political party allegiances of these young people and new migrants differ significantly from those of longtime residents. In …

Lifespace Patterns Of College Students High And Low In Personal Intelligence, John D. Mayer

UNH Personality Lab

Personal intelligence (PI) refers to the capacity to accurately reason about personality in oneself and other people. We hypothesize that people who are higher in personal intelligence differ from others in their relationships and behaviors. We conducted a series of theoretically-guided studies to examine how PI is associated with a person’s self-reported activities, interactions, situations, and group memberships: their lifespace. In two archival and three new studies of college students (Ns = 385, 358, 1186, 416, 696, respectively) we first identified 15 short, factor-based scales describing aspects of college students’ lifespace that are potentially relevant to personal intelligence. …

Women In Leadership Positions In Higher Education: Challenges, Opportunities, And Strategies For Success, Maria Bowen

M.S. in Leadership

This research project is aimed to identify the challenges and barriers women face in higher education while striving to obtain leadership positions and provide possible solutions to resolve the gender gaps found in higher education’s leadership. A literature review was conducted, which informed questions that were asked in an interview setting. Interviews were conducted with leaders that identify as women in higher education and sought to provide personalized accounts of the researched trends. Ultimately, despite higher education being perceived as a progressive industry and having legislature in place to combat gender disparities, leadership positions are not reflective of gender distribution …

An Open-Source Template For Introducing A Technical Supplement, John D. Mayer, David R. Caruso

UNH Personality Lab

An open-source template on the relationship between an article and its accompanying technical supplement.

Latest Data Show All New England States Gain Population, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, Carsey Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that population gains were widespread in New England last year, according to new Census Bureau estimates. All six states gained population for the first time since before the pandemic. New Hampshire and Maine continued to gain population, just as they have in each of the last four years. In contrast, Massachusetts and Rhode Island gained population last year after several years of population decline. Vermont and Connecticut also continued to add population.

Most of New England’s population increase came from migration, because deaths continue to exceed births in four of the …

How Many Emotional Intelligence Abilities Are There? An Examination Of Four Measures Of Emotional Intelligence, John Mayer, David R. Caruso, Gill Sitarenios, Manolo Romero Escobar

UNH Personality Lab

The ability model of emotional intelligence (EI) specifies that four related abilities are involved: perceiving emotions, facilitating thought using emotions, understanding emotions, and managing them. Several performance-based assessments have been developed to measure those four abilities. Although some researchers find empirical support for the four abilities, others have argued that emotional intelligence divides into three abilities, two or even a single, unitary ability (Legree et al., 2014; Palmer, Gignac, Manocha, & Stough, 2005). We reanalyzed archival data from four ability tests of emotional intelligence, Ns = 503, 5000, 1000, and 2000, conducting item-level exploratory factor models of all four assessments …

Unlocking The Gates Of Change: Exploring The Impact Of Transformational Leadership On Openness Toward Organizational Change, William A. Whipple Iii

M.S. in Leadership

This capstone delves into the contemporary challenge of organizational change, specifically focusing on leadership's influence on employee openness to change. The objective is to provide leaders with practical tools for fostering employee receptivity to change in today's dynamic work environment. This study employs a mixed-method approach involving a literature review and a quantitative survey. The research reveals a positive relationship between transformational leadership and employee openness to change. A 21-item survey evaluates the correlation between five subdimensions of transformational leadership and employee openness. Practical implications suggest that leaders emphasizing inspirational communication can enhance employee openness to future organizational changes, contributing …

More U.S. Women Of Childbearing Age, But Fewer Have Given Birth, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that, in 2022, there were 21.9 million women aged 20–39 who had not given birth in the United States. This is 4.7 million more childless women of prime child-bearing age than would have been expected given fertility patterns prior to the Great Recession. In 2022, there were 9 percent more women 20 to 39 than in 2006, but the share who had never had a child was up by 37 percent.

The cumulative result of fewer women having children and diminishing fertility levels was 9.6 million fewer U.S. births between 2008 and …

Youth Identity And Postsecondary Decision Making In A Rural State: Evidence Of A College For All Master Narrative, Jayson Seaman, Cindy L. Hartman, Andrew D. Coppens, Erin H. Sharp, Sarah Jusseaume, Molly Donovan

Faculty Publications

This study examined the normative messages that inform youth postsecondary decision making in a predominantly rural state in the northeastern U.S., focusing on the institutionalization and circulation of identity master narratives. Using a multilevel, ecological approach to sampling, the study interviewed 33 key informants in positions of influence in educational, workforce, and quality of life domains. Narrative analysis yielded evidence of a predominant master narrative – College for All – that participants described as a prescriptive expectation that youth and families orient their postsecondary planning toward four-year, residential baccalaureate degree programs. Both general and domain-specific aspects of this master narrative …

Technical Supplement For How Many Emotional Intelligence Abilities Are There? An Examination Of Four Measures Of Emotional Intelligence, John D. Mayer

UNH Personality Lab

No abstract provided.

Recent Demographic Trends Have Implications For Rural Health Care, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports nonmetropolitan (rural) America gained population between April of 2020 and July of 2022. In the preceding decade, rural areas lost population, both because more people left rural areas than moved to them and because births just minimally exceeded deaths. In contrast, the recent, modest rural population increase occurred because a significant net migration gain more than offset the growing excess of deaths over births fostered by the pandemic. That rural migration was strong enough to produce population growth is especially surprising given that deaths outnumbered births—in part due to the pandemic—in 85 …

Migration Sustains New Hampshire’S Population Gain: Examining The Origins Of Recent Migrants, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that New Hampshire’s population continued to grow in 2021 and 2022 because a migration gain of 18,300 was enough to offset the excess of deaths over births. More people died (28,700) than were born (24,900) in New Hampshire in the past two years. Covid certainly contributed to this loss, but annual deaths already exceeded births in the state for several years before the pandemic.

Recently released Census data underscore the mobility of New Hampshire’s population and provide insights into the origin of the migrants to the state. Only 41 percent of the …

A Descriptive Study Of Covid-Era Movers To The Northern Forest Region: "The Perfect Balance Of Things...A Choice Based On Lifestyle, Community, And Values", Jessica A. Carson, Sarah Boege, Libby Schwaner

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

The Northern Forest—a 34-county swath of northern Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York—saw an increase in domestic migration during the pandemic, with 85 percent of the region’s counties experiencing domestic in-migration gains between 2020 and 2021, compared with 63 percent of counties in the rest of the United States. Who moved to the Northern Forest region, and why? Do they intend to stay? And what does that mean for those who already lived there?

In this research brief, authors Jess Carson, Sarah Boege, and Libby Schwaner share findings from interviews with 16 such movers (and six regional real estate …

Advancing Decarbonization In Regulated Multifamily Affordable Housing: Key Federal Levers To Achieve Meaningful Change, Housing Sustainability Advisors, Eric Hangen

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Decarbonizing affordable rental housing is critical to mitigating climate change and meeting the Biden Administration’s target for a net-zero emissions national economy by 2050. It also offers numerous benefits, including energy cost savings, improved health and well-being, and economic opportunities. However, challenges related to upfront costs, tenant turnover, technical expertise, and policy support must be addressed to accelerate the market’s adoption of decarbonization. Collaboration between governments, policymakers, landlords, tenants, and industry experts is essential to overcome these challenges and achieve a sustainable and equitable future.

We are faced with a historic moment: the Inflation Reduction Act has provided $27 billion …

Evaluation Of Telemental Health Services For People With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities: Protocol For A Randomized Non-Inferiority Trial, Luther G. Kalb, Jessica M. Kramer, Tawara D. Goode, Sandra J. Black, Susan Klick, Andrea Caoili, Samantha Klipsch, Ann Klein, Micah P. Urquilla, Joan B. Beasley

Institute on Disability

Background: Roughly 40% of those with intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD) have mental health needs, twice the national average. Unfortunately, outpatient mental health services are often inaccessible, increasing reliance on hospital-based services. While telemental health services hold potential to address this gap, little is known about the effectiveness of telemental health for the diversity of persons with IDD, especially as it relates to crisis prevention and intervention services. Accordingly, the aims of this study are to: (1) compare telemental health versus in-person crisis prevention and intervention services among people with IDD; and (2) understand if outcomes vary across subpopulations, in order to …

New Englanders' Use Of Child Care Varies By Income, Even Among Working Households, Jessica A. Carson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this data snapshot, author Jess Carson reports that data from the U.S. Census Bureau collected between January and May 2023 show that access to child care remains uneven. Among New England households with a child under age five, 71.1 percent had used at least some child care in the past seven days. However, lower-income households are less likely to use care than higher-income households. While child care use is more prevalent among low-income households with a working adult, rates are still below those in high-income households. Findings suggest that in low-income New England households, access to early care opportunities­­—as …

New England Households Rely On A Mix Of Child Care Arrangements, Jessica A. Carson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this data snapshot, author Jess Carson reports that data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau between January and May 2023 show that 70 percent of New England households with a child under five use child care, and more than one-third of those rely on multiple arrangements. Findings suggest that even having access to a formal slot in center- or home-based care may not be sufficient for meeting families’ needs. Finding the right type and mix of care is complex and underscores the need for flexible and diverse child care options for New England families.

Three Years Of Record High Mortality And Low Fertility Leave Many States With More Deaths Than Births, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this data snapshot, Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that with Covid-induced mortality at record highs and continuing low fertility during the past three years, U.S. births exceeded deaths by the smallest margin in more than a century. Such widespread natural decline is unprecedented. At least 22 states had a natural decline in each of the three pandemic years. Prior to the pandemic, the most states with more deaths than births in a year was 5 in 2019. There will be fewer states with more deaths than births in 2023 if the recent reductions in Covid deaths persist. But many …

U.S. Births Remain Near 40-Year Low For Third Consecutive Year, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this data snapshot, Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that recent National Center for Health Statistics birth data indicate there were only 3,661,000 births in 2022, compared to 3,664,000 in 2021, and just 3,614,000 in 2020. These three birth cohorts are the smallest in 40 years and continue a birth decline that began in the era of the Great Recession. The long-term impact of the fertility decline has been substantial. Had 2007 fertility patterns been sustained through 2022, there would have been 9.6 million more births in the last 15 years. A critical long-term question is: how many of these …

Permanent Supportive Housing As A Solution To Homelessness, Antonio Serna

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Homelessness in the United States has grown into a crisis, and those with disabling conditions, such as a physical disability, substance use disorders, or behavioral/mental health disorders, are disproportionately at risk. Prior research in Boston found that in three-quarters of shelter stays in the city between 2014 and 2018, the person was recorded as having a disability. The susceptibility of this group to homelessness and chronic homelessness is partly because disabilities correlate with lower incomes and job insecurity, which pose a challenge to maintaining long-term housing. It is for this reason that permanent supportive housing (PSH)—housing that is paired with …

Retaining Residents Is Important To New Hampshire's Future: Why Do People Stay?, Kristine Bundschuh, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

A key factor impacting New Hampshire’s demographic and economic success is retaining and growing its population. What motivates people to move to New Hampshire is important to the state’s future and garners considerable policy attention. Much less consideration is given to retaining current residents. Yet on average, nearly 1.3 million New Hampshire residents do not migrate into or out of the state in a given year. Understanding why those residents stay in New Hampshire can be an important element of the state’s comprehensive development strategy.

In this brief, authors Kristine Bundschuh and Kenneth Johnson discuss the results of NH Granite …

Population Gains Widespread In New Hampshire Counties Due To Migration, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this data snapshot, Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that the population of New Hampshire grew by 17,700 to 1,395,000 between April 2020, when the 2020 Census was conducted, and July 2022, according to new Census Bureau estimates. These population gains were widespread, occurring in each of the state’s ten counties despite deaths exceeding births in nine of the ten counties. The entire population gain accrued because 21,600 more people moved to the state than left it. The data underscore the continuing importance of migration to the state’s future. Such migration gains result both from attracting migrants to the state …

New Census Data Reflect The Continuing Impact Of Covid On U.S. Demographic Trends, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that, according to recent Census Bureau estimates, the U.S. population has grown at the slowest rate in history in the past two years due to the impact of Covid. Deaths exceeded births in 75 percent of all U.S. counties, far more than at any point in the past. Most of the modest population gain was due to migration, and its extent varied along the rural-urban continuum. Looking ahead, the size and distribution of future population gains remain uncertain. As the impact of the pandemic wanes, the excess of births over deaths is …

New Hampshire Parents Use Child Care But Seek More Options, Jessica A. Carson, Sarah Boege

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, authors Jess Carson and Sarah Boege describe child care use and gaps among respondents to the 2022 New Hampshire Preschool Development Grant Family Needs Assessment Survey. The authors report that three-quarters of responding parents with children under age five had searched for child care in the past 12 months; half reported that their search was difficult, with a lack of openings as the main challenge. Despite these difficulties, three-quarters of respondents with young children reported using some form of regular child care. However, four out of five parents who used care rated their child care arrangement as …

Supportive Program Strengths And Gaps For New Hampshire Families: "Just Enough Money To Barely Pay For Most Things", Sarah Boege, Jessica A. Carson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, authors Sarah Boege and Jess Carson describe child and family program use and gaps among respondents to the 2022 New Hampshire Preschool Development Grant Family Needs Assessment Survey. Parents with children under age nine were asked about programs to help meet family food needs and to support child development and education. The authors find that nearly half of parent respondents used at least one of the programs in question, with the National School Lunch Program having the widest reach. Responding parents were generally familiar with food assistance programs, but less familiar with child development and education programs. …

Data Literacy In The Social Sciences: Findings From A Local Study On Teaching With Quantitative Data In Undergraduate Courses, Patricia B. Condon, Eleta Exline, Louise Buckley

Faculty Publications

Objective – The University of New Hampshire (UNH) Library conducted an exploratory study of the pedagogical practices of social science instructors at UNH who teach using quantitative data in undergraduate courses. This study is connected to a suite of parallel studies at other higher education institutions that was designed and coordinated by Ithaka S+R.

The four aims of this study were to explore the ways in which instructors teach and engage undergraduates in the social sciences using quantitative data; understand the support needs of these instructors; develop actionable recommendations for campus stakeholders; and identify opportunities for the development of resources, …

Local Civic Health: A Guide To Building Community And Bridging Divides, Quixada Moore-Vissing, Carrie Portrie, Michele Holt-Shannon, Bruce L. Mallory, Jessica A. Carson, Daniel Bromberg, Sarah Boege, Carly Prescott, Steph Mcnally, Mikayla Townsend

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In the same way that doctors conduct an annual check-up to assess our health, we can collect information to assess the civic health of our communities. Civic health includes factors such as how much people trust each other, show up at public meetings, get involved, vote, and help out neighbors.

This seven-part guide is designed to help people at the local level collect data to better understand what factors bring people together or push them apart. This information can help communities to thrive and strengthen democracy at the local level.

The guide includes exercises around mapping the different populations who …