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Law, Justice, And All That Jazz: An Analysis Of Law's Reach Into Musical Theater, Amy Oldenquist

Master's Theses and Capstones

Narratives or stories are present in many facets of life. Narratives especially are seen in the media, fiction and nonfiction alike. These stories, seen in media, fiction, and nonfiction alike, have an immense impact on their audience. This influence displays the importance of continued research into media’s narratives, especially legal narratives. Much of past research looked at the social construction of these stories and its framing. Framing refers to how a subject is discussed in the media. While there is much research on media, framing, and legal narratives, very few researchers have examined live entertainment, including musical theater. My study …

Seeing And Believing: The Emergent Nature Of Extreme Weather Perceptions, Matthew John Cutler

Doctoral Dissertations

Perceptions of environmental issues are influenced by a variety of factors. Sociological research on this topic has largely taken a social-psychological approach and as a result the effects of community and biophysical contexts on individual perceptions are given less attention than individual-level predictors, such as political party affiliation or measures of educational attainment. Using data from the Communities and Environment in Rural America (CERA) surveys, I employ a mixed-effects modeling technique to investigate the influence of individual- and county-level characteristics on public perceptions of unusual or extreme weather.

In addition to the survey data, I also utilize county-level weather events …

Life Interrupted: The Experience Of Informal Caregivers Of Aging Family Members, Susan Wirka Fox

Doctoral Dissertations

While publicly-funded long-term care services have traditionally focused on institutionally-based care, informal family caregivers provide 80% of all long-term care in the US (Thompson 2004). This caregiving is physically and mentally demanding, unpaid, and often performed while the caregiver is balancing work and family responsibilities. With stress process theory (Pearlin 1989) as a guide, this research utilizes a mixed methods approach to study the relationships between the objective demands of caregiving, caregiver burden, and caregiver mental and physical well-being; whether burden mediates these relationships; how caregivers experience the demands of caregiving as stressful; and how they utilize coping strategies to …

Enduring Impact Of Childhood Stressors On Adult Health: Testing Psychological And Behavioral Pathways, Tracy Keirns

Doctoral Dissertations

Stress and health has been a topic of interest among researchers in a variety of fields such as medical sociology, psychology, public health, child abuse, and epidemiology. For decades this research had largely been conducted in silos within each of the respective fields. In recent years, these silos have started to diminish. Sociologists have begun to consider the accumulation of stressors over the life course, including how serious childhood stressors (such as child abuse) impact morbidity and mortality later in life. Using Wave I, Wave III and Wave IV data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health …

"Nobody Wants To Feel Different...But It's Just The Way It Is": Experiences Of Stigma And Other Stressors Among People Living With Psoriasis, Alex Parkhouse

Doctoral Dissertations

It is understood that stigmatizing processes can, and do, affect multiple domains of life among people who bear a stigma label. It is also understood that sources of stress (stressors) can spill over into a variety of areas of life, impacting the health and well-being of stigmatized people. However, although both stigma research and stress research advance, little has been done to connect these two important lines of sociological inquiry. To address this gap, 23 semi-structured qualitative in-person and telephone interviews were conducted to examine the daily, lived experiences of stigma and other stressors among people living with psoriasis (PLWP), …

Social Capital In A Diversifying City: A Multi-Neighborhood Ethnographic Case Study, Justin Robert Young

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite major demographic shifts in the nation’s racial/ethnic composition, we know little about how residents of integrating cities and neighborhoods are connected to one another. Research regarding the relationship between neighborhood diversity and ‘social capital’ (ties between individuals) is mixed, often suggesting that diversity reduces trust, close ties, and participation in local civic life. Yet, the extant literature fails to account for ground-level urban social processes underlying social capital formation in diverse neighborhoods. In this dissertation, I reframe the diversity/social capital debate by using ethnographic methods to answer three interrelated questions: How do residents of diverse neighborhoods (compared to less …

Well-Being As A Measure Of Inequality Among The Retirement-Age Population: An Examination Of The Role Of Place, Migration, And Socioeconomic Status In Shaping Happy And Healthy Older Americans, Megan Henly

Doctoral Dissertations

The proportion of the U.S. population comprised of seniors – those aged 65 and older – is projected to increase from 13% presently to 20% by 2030. With this demographic change, it is important to consider how older residents are faring, which older residents do best, and what communities are doing to support this population. Rather than examining income or wealth as a dependent variable, I predict two measures of well-being among older U.S. residents– one subjective and one objective. By linking survey data of the 50 and older population from the 2010 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to a …

A Woman's Work Is Never Done? Earlier Life Child, Marital, And Work History And Older Women's Relationship To The Paid Labor Force, Anne Shattuck

Doctoral Dissertations

In the past 40 years, women in the U.S. have experienced higher rates of labor force participation and higher rates of divorce and single motherhood. How these changes will affect women when they reach old age is not yet understood. Using a pooled sample from the Health and Retirement Study of 4,350 women born between 1931 and 1943, this dissertation assesses patterns of women’s work/retirement circumstances at age 66-68 and evaluates the relationship between those patterns and women’s earlier life marital, work, and childrearing history. Latent class analysis revealed four distinct classes of older women: the "retired well" (57.6% of …

Filming The Gay Normal: An Exploration Of The Gay Closet And Its Portrayal In Film, Joseph Albert Marquette

Master's Theses and Capstones

The purpose of this thesis is to flesh out an understanding of the lived experience of the homosexual closet and ultimately how it is portrayed in film. It uses film, however, as a snapshot of potential realities that reflect the gay individual in society.

It relies heavily on the social theories and work of Edward T. Hall, Erving Goffman, Albert E. Scheflen, Judith Butler, and Gerschen Kaufman, among others, to build a framework for understanding the closet on both a macro and micro scale. It does not attempt to isolate the homosexual but rather to situate him or her within …

Non-Industrial Private Forest Landowner Engagement And Amenity- Driven Migration In Wildfire-Prone Landscapes Of The Inland Northwest, Morgan Ann Crowley

Master's Theses and Capstones

Rural counties in the Inland Northwest have a ‘working lands’ culture that supports livelihoods dependent on the health of wildfire-prone private and public forests. Wildfires threaten economic livelihoods and exacerbate the challenges of working landscapes impacted by changing economies, demographic trends, and forest conditions. The main objectives of this thesis are to investigate: 1) what comprises amenity-driven migration and how are amenity- driven migration and wildfire severity related?; 2) are amenity-driven migrants engaged in forest management activities in Wallowa County, Oregon and what is forest management engagement?; 3) how does landowner parcel proximity from WUI, USFS land relate to perspectives …