Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Towards Precision Audiology: Perceptual Profiles & Their Relation To Ecologically Valid Communication Assessments, Dana Cherri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Living in a sonic world, a person with hearing loss experiences difficulty in communicating with others. One of the reasons why some people with hearing loss do not wear hearing aids (HAs) is limited perceived benefit, which may result from HAs that are not fit using “best practices” or because the best practices fail to address individual difficulties experienced by the listener. The typical audiogram provides information regarding audibility as a function of frequency and is used to establish degree, type, and configuration of hearing loss, but does not measure the ability of an individual to process various components of …

Deceptive Appeals And Cognitive Influences Used In Fraudulent Scheme Sales Pitches, Rafael J. Toledo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fraud schemes exploit the complex interplay that results from utilizing deceptive appeals to activate underlying cognitive influences. This study was designed, first, to identify the deceptive appeals present in the messaging of fraudulent schemes and, second, to identify the underlying cognitive influences being exploited by the deceptive appeals utilized. Findings reveal that effectively used deceptive appeals work to keep viewers’ mental processes in a state of cognitive ease. This state allows cognitive influences--such as heuristics, cognitive biases, and the System 1 mind--to remain in control of mental processing; however, System 1 is prone to accept deceptive beliefs. The results of …

Tourism-Oncology: More Than A Treatment, Ozge Buyuk, Gulsah Akkus

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Medical tourism is a growing global niche market all over the world. In this study, which intends to assess the status of "tourism-oncology," texts obtained longitudinally from digital and social media were analyzed for content. Tourism-oncology has evolved as an economic activity within the context of medical tourism in Turkey. The research revealed that (i) oncology was among the top five, (ii) lung cancer was the cancer type that results in the most travel, (iii) the user profiles shared on social media were mostly those of travel agencies and health-consulting businesses, (iv) Istanbul, Antalya, Ankara, Izmir, and Mugla were the …

Hidden Struggles Within The Mental Healthcare Workplace, Tammy V. Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) have reported on the worldwide pervasiveness and increasing societal costs associated with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). A recent post on the WHO website cited recent scientific research (2022) indicating the magnitude of harmful effects attributed to ACEs, even classifying them as “violence against children.” Esaki and Larkin (2013) indicate that ACEs are prevalent among many social service professionals, including mental health clinicians.

This study uses mental health clinicians as the sample population to identify the impact of ACEs on job performance. Findings from a volunteer …

Examining The Social Validity Of Parent Training: Post-Participation Parent Perceptions And Reflections Of Group Triple P, Nycole C. Kauk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Child behavior problems are highly prevalent and impactful on the child and their family system, bringing both short-term and long-term consequences (Sanders, 2012). Many risk factors for child behavior problems are modifiable via the use of Behavioral Family Interventions, such as behavioral parent training programs (Kazdin, 1991). Behavioral Family Interventions (BFI) modify factors within the family system to minimize modifiable risk factors and engineer protective factors to produce behavior change (Kazdin, 1991). While several manualized behavioral parenting interventions exist, the Triple P parenting program is one of the most researched and effective programs used internationally, particularly the Level 4 package; …

The Integration Of Positive Psychology And Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports To Improve Minoritized Students' Social, Emotional, And Behavioral Outcomes, Jasmine L. Gray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a culturally adapted 9-session group positive psychology intervention with and without an added peer reporting intervention on student levels of social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. Many studies have evaluated either school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) or positive psychology interventions (PPIs) in isolation, but very few studies have examined the extent to which combining these interventions and approaches may promote complete mental health. The Well-Being Promotion Program is a multitarget positive psychology intervention that has been evaluated in both elementary and middle school populations (Roth et al., 2017; Lenz et al., …

Two Essays In Applied Microeconomics: Retirement, Income Inequalities, And Other Economic Indicators Of Health And Life Satisfaction, Zahra Akbari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following proposal includes two essays in applied microeconomics. The first essay studied the relationship between income differences among siblings and the health outcomes of the individuals. Health inequalities and the factors associated with them have been a significant interest of health economists. Among those factors that can lead to health differences in adulthood, many studies have studied financial status. There are still many questions about these factors which should be answered in this area, especially about the adulthood income relative to a reference group and how it can be related to differences in adulthood health. The main goal of …

Examining The Relationship Between Racial Respect Among Black Early Childhood Professionals And Their Perceptions Of Black Children, Kayla Nembhard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Black children are exposed to the highest rates of negative teacher perceptions and punitive consequences. Healthy People 2020 acknowledges the significance of the first five years of child development and the various factors that promote or hinder health outcomes during this time. Furthermore, it highlights the significance of quality relationships between children and their caregivers, including their ECE teachers. Overall, Black children tend to fare better academically when they are able to engage with Black educators and other ECE professionals. However, there is recent evidence Black educators in ECE settings, specifically, also uphold racialized negative perceptions of Black students that …

Japan’S Covid 19 Infection Rate: A Focus On Tokyo Neighborhoods, Lauren Koerner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis asks, are neighborhood demographic and economic variables connected to COVID-19 infection rates in Tokyo, Japan? I hypothesize that variation in urbanization and neighborhood demographics account for Japan’s low, though not uniform COVID-19 infection rates. This thesis applies several anthropological perspectives: The biocultural perspective because I look at epidemiology of COVID 19 considering socio-cultural, economic, and ecological factors as well as biological susceptibilities. The critical biocultural perspective because I look at how structures of power and inequality may impact health and healthcare access. Biomedical/applied anthropology, well placed to study the current epidemiologic situation of COVID 19 in Japan and …

"Are We Done?": The Minimization Of Covid-19 And The Individualization Of Health In The United States, Cassidy R. Boe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the death toll from Covid-19 in the United States exceeds 1 million in just over two years, more variants continue to emerge, threatening more waves of Covid-19 and ultimately, more deaths. Despite this, mask use continues to decline, and one third of Americans say that the pandemic is over. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been central in publicly disseminating biomedical knowledge using Twitter. The CDC’s Twitter account (@CDCgov) shares information related to the spread of Covid-19, including mitigation measures such as mask recommendations and vaccine information. I have conducted a narrative analysis of the replies …

Applied Anthropology Of Addiction In Clinical Spaces: Co-Developing And Assessing A Novel Opioid Treatment Pathway, Heather Diane Henderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Historically, there has been no clear treatment pathway for opioid use disorder (OUD) patients who seek emergency care. Utilizing a trajectories of addiction framework, this dissertation presents insights from an applied anthropology of addiction study in an acute care setting to build a medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) treatment pathway, aiming to break down the stigma related to opioid use disorder (OUD) and mitigate a lack of treatment options. This dissertation took place in an urban trauma center in Florida, from 2018 to 2021. With almost 1500 hours of participant observation, hundreds of informal interviews, and 30 formal interviews, …

A Macro Social Examination Of The Relationship Between Disabilities And Crime Using Neighborhood And County Level Data, Natasha A. Baloch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last few decades, there has been a consistent increase in mental illnesses in the US population. This has also lead to increased interactions of those with mental illnesses and/or disabilities with law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Despite these instances, there is limited research on the relationship between disabilities, mental health issues and crime in the large body of criminological research. Further, the current extant research is a) outside the field of Criminology, b) primarily focuses on those with only intellectual or developmental disabilities and/or c) does not examine this relationship at the macro level, despite evidence …

Numeracy And Financial Wellbeing During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nora Wikoff

Numeracy

This paper examines the role of numeracy in smoothing financial difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that numeracy was associated with a 30% reduction in late or non-payment of bills and a 20% reduction in the odds of feeling financially squeezed. The effect of numeracy on financial wellbeing was remarkably consistent across levels of education, ethnicity, and gender, suggesting that improving numeracy levels in the population may be an effective strategy to increase financial capability across the board. However, while numerate individuals were less likely to experience financial difficulty, high numeracy did not predict narrower gaps between Whites …