Digital Commons Network^™

Spillover Effects Of Medicare Advantage Plans: Does The Market Penetration Of Plans Affect Hospital Care Quality?, Qianwei Shen

Wayne State University Dissertations

The percentage of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans increased from 12 percent in 2003 to 28 percent in 2013 out of the about 50 million Medicare enrollees. Although Medicare beneficiaries are increasingly choosing MA plans, little is known about whether and how the market penetration of these plans affect the quality of hospital care provided to Medicare beneficiaries. This issue is extremely important to policy makers when they try to evaluate the importance and effectiveness of current Medicare policy, like Obama Care. This paper is designed to examine the spillover effect on the quality of hospital care …

Communication And Identity: The Paternity Leave Decision, Scott Sellnow-Richmond

Wayne State University Dissertations

Paternity leave has remained an under-studied phenomenon in the United States. The US stands in contrast to countries such as Sweden and Norway, which have a history of government-regulated paid time off for fathers of new children. Therefore new fathers in the US face a unique situation regarding their decision of whether or not to take whatever form of paternity leave may be available to them. This study explores what aspects of new fathers’ identities are salient regarding the paternity leave decision. The Communication Theory of Identity (CTI) is used as a theoretical framework to explore how these identities correspond …

Affirming Expectations: African American Men's Perceptions Of Trust In Physicians, Rondrell Tayvan Taylor

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

AFFIRMING EXPECTATIONS:

AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN’S PERCEPTIONS OF TRUST IN PHYSICIANS

by

RONDRELL TAYVAN TAYLOR

August 2015

Advisor: Dr. R. Khari Brown

Major: Sociology (Medical)

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Trust is the foundation of the doctor-patient relationship. It promotes healing and medical efficacy. Patient trust in physicians exists when doctors act in their patients’ best interests. Moreover, trust literature demonstrates that historically (and contemporarily), African Americans are less likely than Whites to trust clinicians and the medical community due to the history of discrimination, clinical racism, unethical medical practices, implicit or unconscious racial biases, and exploitation by the health care …

Event Centrality After Trauma: Stability, Trauma Type, And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Anna Michelle Wright

Wayne State University Dissertations

In order to better understand posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and PTSD’s etiology, researchers have begun examining whether PTSD symptoms are related to the centrality of the traumatic event (i.e., whether the trauma is central to the individual’s life story and changes the way he or she views the world). The current study examines the following questions: (1) Is event centrality stable over time? (2) What is the effect of cumulative trauma on event centrality? Additionally, do different types of trauma have different associations with event centrality? and (3) Given its relationship with PTSD, should event centrality be considered a …

An Evaluation Of The Factor Structure, Reliability And Construct Validity Of The Male Role Norms Inventory-Revised For African American/Black Men, Wilfred Michael Allen

Wayne State University Dissertations

Background: In the United States, on average, men die nearly five years younger than women. Among men, the life expectancy for African American/Blacks is 72.1 years compared to 76.6 years for White/European Americans. African-American/Black men experience an earlier onset and more severe disease with higher rates of complications than White/European American men. Masculinity ideology has been identified by researchers as having an influence on health behaviors and ultimately health outcomes. Based on prior research literature, higher levels of masculinity ideology have been associated with fewer health promoting behaviors. As such, there is a need for a reliable and valid measure …

What Impacts Life Satisfaction Of Aging Adults Following Stressful Life Events?: An Examination Of The Buffering Effect Of Personal Resources, Cassandra Barragan

Wayne State University Dissertations

Purpose: Existing research has shown that elders experience changes in their life satisfaction following stressful life events. There is an abundance of literature supporting the predictive nature of not only stressful life events on life satisfaction, but social support, autonomy, and financial security. What the literature is lacking, is examination of the buffering effect of social support, autonomy, and financial security on the relationship between stressful life events and life satisfaction. This study hypothesizes that increases in social support, autonomy, and financial security will buffer the impact of SLEs for elders and thus, they will experience increases in their life …

Adolescent Risk Behaviors: Examining Latent Classes And Latent Transition Statuses In A Longitudinal Bahamian Sample, Veronica Koci

Wayne State University Dissertations

Adolescence is a developmental period marked by much change across physical, cognitive, psychological, and social domains leading to greater vulnerability for poor decision making. As a result, adolescence is a period of increased risk taking behaviors. Prevention of risk behaviors would benefit from early intervention prior to the onset of these risk behaviors. Unfortunately, it is difficult to identify those youth who may be most at risk. Risk-taking adolescents may choose to engage in specific risk behaviors; as well, risk factors that influence risk taking may also differ as a function of the specific domains of risk behaviors. The present …

Political Content And Political Behavior: Using Functional Theory To Test The Ability Of Political Content To Stimulate Political Interest, Ryan Stouffer

Wayne State University Dissertations

The health of the American democracy is up for debate. Digital natives will decide the future of this democracy. Fewer digital natives--those who have grown up with Internet access--are engaging in formal political participation, compared to their parents. Digital natives lack the information needed to participate. This study examined the effects of interactive political content on digital natives' political information efficacy (PIE) through an experiment. The results revealed a decrease in the participants' political confidence and a decrease in the likelihood they would vote. Exposure to political information harmed most digital natives' PIE and reinforced political attitudes in some. The …

A Prediction Modeling Framework For Noisy Welding Quality Data, Junheung Park

Wayne State University Dissertations

Numerous and various research projects have been conducted to utilize historical manufacturing process data in product design. These manufacturing process data often contain data inconsistencies, and it causes challenges in extracting useful information from the data. In resistance spot welding (RSW), data inconsistency is a well-known issue. In general, such inconsistent data are treated as noise data and removed from the original dataset before conducting analyses or constructing prediction models. This may not be desirable for every design and manufacturing applications since every data can contain important information to further explain the process. In this research, we propose a prediction …

A Comparative Content Analysis Of African American And Caucasian Role Portrayals In Broadcast Television Entertainment Programming, Scott Evan Burke

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study examines the nature and number of character portrayals in broadcast entertainment programming. More specifically, the portrayals of African American characters are examined and compared to Caucasian portrayals. The goal of this study is to determine what, if any, stereotypes may still be prevalent on broadcast television and if there are any discrepancies between portrayals of African American and Caucasian characters.

A content analysis methodology was utilized to code 577 character occurrences from broadcast television entertainment programs popular with African Americans and Caucasian audiences. Each character occurrence was evaluated using thirty-two schematic differential items with regard to portrayal attributes, …

Dynamics In Health Care Expenditures For Emerging And Developed Countries, Edmundo Roman Reyes

Wayne State University Dissertations

This paper analyzes the dynamics on health care expenditures and health outcomes for emerging and developed countries. The first part of the study focus on the short-run dynamics in health care expenditures for six emerging and a selected group of six developed economies of the OECD group. An error correction model is utilized for the analysis. Results for the presence of a long term relation are consistent within the sample. In addition, direct convergence is found to be consistent as well. The speed of adjustment is larger for emerging economies than for developed economies, which indicates that developed economies would …

Understanding The Behavior Of States As Their Nuclear Status Changes, Patty Zakaria

Wayne State University Dissertations

Can a state’s nuclear status influence its behavior in dyadic relationships? The present study examines the role played by nuclear status on the proliferating state’s level of hostility and cooperation towards other states in dyadic relationships. The study builds on the existing literature by looking at the behavior of states prior to becoming nuclear weapons states by strictly examining states with nuclear weapons development programs. This phase in the nuclear process is lacking in the current literature on nuclear weapons. Hostile behavior is measured based on the level of hostility in militarized disputes between states attempting to develop nuclear weapons …

Turning The Page: Fandoms, Multimodality, And The Transformation Of The 'Comic Book' Superhero, Matthew Alan Cicci

Wayne State University Dissertations

Superheroes are increasingly becoming more affiliated with film media than comic books. The amount of revenue generated, the formation of new fans, and the interests of comic publishers’ parent companies all suggest that superhero film adaptations are the medium most associated with the superhero character. Such a monumental shift in the distribution of superheroes—comic books were long the dominant medium of superhero characters—is indicative of ongoing media convergence practices; the success of these contemporary adaptations, from 1998 on, have not only caused the filmic superhero to eclipse the comic one, it has inevitably led to a rewriting of superhero comic …

Agency And Resistance Strategies Among Black Primary Care Patients, Janella Nicole Hudson

Wayne State University Dissertations

Research has identified marginalized and minority patients as displaying fewer participatory behaviors during the clinical interaction. Using a culture-centered framework, this study examines the process by which patients with a previous history of discrimination employed agency and resistance strategies in order to influence the outcome of their clinical interactions. This study conducted a secondary analysis of the video taped interactions of 25 black primary care patients in an urban low-income clinic. Using qualitative content analysis, I identified five emergent themes for patient agency: interrupting the physician, stating observations of care, expressing needs and desires, constructing identity, and agenda/goal management. Participants …

Toward Enhancing Treatment For Pregnant Smokers: Laying The Groundwork For The Use Of Complementary And Alternative Medicine Approaches, Amy Michele Loree

Wayne State University Dissertations

Tobacco is the most widely used drug of abuse during pregnancy. Despite efforts to reduce perinatal tobacco use, its prevalence has remained steady over at least the past decade, suggesting that efforts to reduce smoking prevalence before and during pregnancy have not been effective. Although a range of effective treatments exist, most pregnant smokers neither seek nor receive any kind of treatment. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments may be ideal as alternative, low-cost approaches capable of reaching and assisting a greater proportion of pregnant women with smoking cessation. This study examined characteristics and treatment utilization practices of pregnant smokers …

Engagement In Activities And Cognitive Functioning Among Older Adults In The Health And Retirement Study, Pamela Emily May

Wayne State University Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation is to examine the effect of cognitive and social activities on cognitive performance and health conditions in a national sample of older adults from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). This dissertation first aimed to identify longitudinal relations between activity frequency and cognitive functioning. Two hypotheses were tested, baseline activity frequency predicts change in cognitive functioning over time, and baseline cognitive performance predicts change in activity frequency over time. The dissertation’s second aim was to identify links between activity frequency and cognitive trajectories. The third aim was to identify longitudinal relations between activity frequency and …

Growing Up Tween: Femininity, Masculinity, And Coming Of Age, Victoria Velding

Wayne State University Dissertations

The construction and performance of gender reveal conceptions of femininity and masculinity that are exclusive to individuals and groups of individuals. As research suggests, societal gender norms are rooted in heteronormative ideologies suggesting that heterosexuality is ideal, and therefore to appropriately perform dominant femininity and masculinity is to perform heterosexuality. In this dissertation, I expand gender and sexuality knowledge by bridging the two in a population where sexuality studies are sparse: children, and more specifically, tweens. I conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 tweens (10 female and 10 male) between the ages of 8 and 12 and 15 mothers of tweens. …

Essays In Adaptive Learning And Mean-Square Stability In Regime Switching Models, Jason Robert Reed

Wayne State University Dissertations

The first chapter of this dissertation analyzes the necessary and sufficient conditions for stability under recurring structural changes. Using a finite state Markov process to model stochastically evolving, state-dependent parameters I find that by employing the conditions unique to mean-square stability, the minimum state variable (MSV) solution, found in non-linear models of this reduced form, is also stable in the learning sense. However, the choice of parameter values limits the robustness of this result. Furthermore, to illustrate this outcome I develop empirical results for a model similar to Cagan’s 1956 work on hyperinflation for Germany and the United States. I …

“We Send Our News By Lightning . . .”: The Information Explosion Of The Nineteenth Century And Adaptation In The Press, 1840-1892, Timothy L. Moran

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation examines the change that came to American newspapers and reporting between 1840 and 1892 as the result of increasing communication bandwidth and the emergence of fast communication networks. Improvements in news distribution by post roads, steam navigation, and steam railways, followed by application of telegraphic communications, significantly speeded the news and changed the news cycle itself by linking metropolitan news centers with peripheral newspapers. The American Civil War brought this new information technology together with an event that created massive audience demand for timely and factual news, as opposed to purely political or commercial information. In postwar years …

A Study Of Performance Based Budgeting Reforms In The National Park Service And Their Effects On Agency Management And Operations, Nichole Marie Fifer

Wayne State University Dissertations

This is a case study of performance-based and budgeting reforms in National Park Service (NPS). The study examines the effects of reform initiatives on the agency’s administration, budgeting, and management. Previous research suggests that current reform initiatives are more effective than those of the past. Further research on reforms suggests reform impacts, while small or non-existent at the agency level may be significant at the sub-agency level. The main reform studied here is performance based budgeting (PBB), under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). Its purpose is to improve policy implementation at the “street level.” If working as intended, …

Laughing Our Way To Stronger Democracy: Political Comedy's Potential To Equalize Political Interest And Political Knowledge In Community College Students, Lisa Lynne Lawrason

Wayne State University Dissertations

Political comedy is the one off-line news source – albeit soft news – that young adults access in higher rates than older adults. They are tuning into political comedy to be entertained, but while watching, they also get a healthy dose of politics. For otherwise apolitical young people, does exposure to politics in this format heighten their political interest? Does it make them more politically knowledgeable citizens? Through a 4-weeklong experiment, this study tests the effects of exposure to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on political interest and political knowledge in a sample of community college students in mid-Michigan. …

Analysis Of Queue Characteristics At Signalized Intersections Near Highway-Railroad Grade Crossing, Amna Chaudhry

Wayne State University Dissertations

Analysis of traffic queues at signalized intersections which are in close proximity to highway- railroad grade crossings is of primary importance for determining if the normal signal operation needs to be preempted for railroad operations by providing a special signal mode for safe clearance of the queued vehicles from the tracks before the train arrival, and prohibiting any conflicting traffic movements towards the crossing. Such queuing analysis becomes even more critical where direct observations of traffic queues are not possible or where the assessment is needed for a future location. Inadequate estimation of queues from signalized intersections to the nearby …

The Impact Of Autobiographical And Vicarious Events On Narrative Identity, Kendall Michelle Soucie

Wayne State University Dissertations

The primary aim of this dissertation was to elucidate the process by which we incorporate the life events of others (vicarious events) into our own lives and, by extension, into our own sense of identity. It was hypothesized that vicarious events from within a person's social network can be as germane to identity development as autobiographical events if the vicarious event involves someone with whom the person is socially-close rather than socially-distant and is an event in which the self was more proximal (shared events) than distal (witnessed or hearsay). The extent to which age, gender, dispositional empathy, and the …

Abanyasida: Emergent Subjectivities And Socialities In Rwandan Associations For People Living With Hiv, Jennifer Ilo Van Nuil

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with the HIV epidemic in Rwanda, specifically related to the support associations for people living with HIV. In it, I examine the reshaped individual subjectivities that emerged within the group, the emergent socialities that came to life, and the influences of the governmental and nongovernmental institutions in the wider Rwandan context. The study design combined three main features – historical research and key informant interviews on the historical forms and practices of coming together in Rwanda, ethnography on the daily activities of five specific associations and ethnographic research on the ways in which the associations shaped …

Distant Localities: The Rhetorical Contradictions Of Local Food Narratives, Anna Grace Zimmerman

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation explores the rhetorical construction of the local food movement through the narrative genre of the food exposé. On its face, local food appears to be a grassroots movement, and yet, through an analysis of the tropes used to describe and construct the movement, another story emerges – one intended for elite audiences. Using narrative critique, this project explores both the narratives of local food, as well as the deployment of that narrative into the material world and in the construction of particular identities. Ultimately, I argue that the narratives of local food give the impression that this way …

Perceptions Of Social Bonds, Social Engagement And Social Capital By Social Network Site Users, Alisha Beckrow

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL BONDS, SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT AND SOCIAL CAPITAL BY SOCIAL NETWORK SITE USERS

by

ALISHA M. BECKROW

May 2015

Advisor: Dr. Matthew W. Seeger

Major: Communications

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

In this study we investigated the perceptions of social bonds, social engagement and social capital by users of the social network site Facebook. A survey questionnaire was distributed to three similar young professional organizations in the Midwest United States. The participants were asked about their use of Facebook as members of the organization. The results indicated that social network sites can be used to compliment other forms of …

Differential Parenting Practices Within Families: Associations With Siblings' Academic And Behavioral Outcomes, Ashley Ceresnie

Wayne State University Dissertations

The association between parenting behaviors and the outcomes of children has been widely studied, with results commonly linking parents' attitudes and behaviors with child outcomes. Few studies, however, have examined and analyzed the link between differential or inconsistent parenting within families and the academic and behavioral outcomes of siblings. Thus, the main purpose of this study was to explore the relations between differential parenting within families and the academic and general behavioral outcomes of pairs of siblings. Included in this study were variables that represent parenting factors (demandingness and responsiveness) and child outcomes (academic grades and behaviors). Unique to this …

The Impact Of Voter Suppression Laws On African American Participation In Florida And North Carolina From 1988 To 2012, Anthony Lewis Daniels

Wayne State University Dissertations

A rich body of research presents conflicting accounts describing how contemporary voter suppression laws impact political participation. This study process traces the political development of North Carolina and Florida from 1988 to 2012 to assess four competing explanations of this process. This study compares three measures of participation that strongly support the discouraging voter hypothesis, which finds that voter suppression laws depress black participation.

This study finds that state officials in Florida adopted a much stricter voter suppression regime than those in North Carolina for the period under study. As a result, the two states developed differing levels of democratization. …

Worker Use Of Social Media For Informal Learning In A Corporate Environment, Susan N. Genden

Wayne State University Dissertations

In the global workplace, workers must quickly adapt to changing information and productivity demands. Workers must filter information, avoid overload and find out what they need to know. How can use of social media technologies benefit the knowledge worker and the corporate workplace? This study presents a closer look at the use, perceptions, and reflections of active social media users within the corporate environment. The purpose of this study was to examine, through worker voice, factors in worker use of social media that lead to successful informal learning outcomes in the corporate environment. This qualitative research used a phenomenological methodology. …

Inclusive Representation In Global Decision-Making Processses: Challenges Of Democracy, Sovereignty, And Liberatory Politics For Marginalized Groups, Laurel Dawn Sprague

Wayne State University Dissertations

This project proposes a framework for liberatory representation that institutionalizes processes to remove domination and meaningfully increasing respect and concern toward marginalized groups on issues that substantively affect them. It argues that decision-making processes that do not offer meaningful influence to those people who are most affected by particular decisions turn those who are supposed to be political equals into wards of dominant groups; essentially turning adults into political children. To meet ideals of political equality, liberatory processes for inclusive decision-making are required. The concept of political adulthood provides the foundation for an examination of current processes designed to bring …