Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Examining The Effect Of Medical Risk, Parental Stress, And Self-Efficacy On Parent Behaviors And The Home Environment Of Premature Children, Kathryn Woods

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between medical risk and parenting stress and the extent to which parental self-efficacy moderates the relationship between medical risk, parenting stress, specific parenting behaviors (i.e., parental responsivity, acceptance of child, parental involvement) and the home environment (i.e., organization of environment, learning materials, variety in experience, and IT-HOME total score) of premature children. Participants included 72 parent-child dyads with premature children between the ages of 7 and 35 months corrected age. Measures included parent reports of medical risk, stress, self-efficacy, and the IT-HOME. Results show that medical risk was not significantly …

Vocational Experiences Of Survivors Of Severe Tbi With Diverse Employment Patterns: An Explanatory Mixed Method Design, Erin J. Bush

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Employment status is a salient outcome following traumatic brain injury (TBI). A return to productive activity relates in complex ways to quality of life, and loss of employment competence has potentially devastating effects on survivors. Currently, inadequate information exists about the distribution of occupations held by survivors, post-injury employment stability, and the frequency that survivors return to their pre-injury occupations. The research presented herein addressed these issues. This study consisted of two phases. Through Phase 1, the researcher gathered quantitative employment data regarding a pool of 283 survivors of severe TBI. She then conducted telephone interviews of family members of …

Quantifying Articulatory Distinctiveness Of Vowels, Jun Wang, Jordan R. Green, Ashok Samal, David B. Marx

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

The articulatory distinctiveness among vowels has been frequently characterized descriptively based on tongue height and front-back position; however, very few empirical methods have been proposed to characterize vowels based on time-varying articulatory characteristics. Such information is not only needed to improve knowledge about the articulation of vowels but also to determine the contribution of articulatory imprecision to poor speech intelligibility. In this paper, a novel statistical shape analysis was used to derive a vowel space that depicted the quantified articulatory distinctiveness among vowels based on tongue and lip movements. The effectiveness of the approach was supported by vowel classification accuracy …

The Referral Process: Rural Primary Care Physicians' Perspectives On Providing Counseling Referrals, Casey N. Tallent

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The advantages to collaborative care between physicians and mental health care providers have been known for many decades. Rural primary care physicians (RPCPs) are the first professionals that most patients contact when they have a mental health concern, particularly in rural communities. It is therefore important to understand the process that occurs when a referral for counseling is made from a RPCP and the subsequent collaboration that occurs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to generate a model that provides a better understanding of the counseling referral process from the perspective of RPCPs in private practice in the Midwest. …

A Pilot Study To Assess The Readiness And Barriers As Correlates To Participation In Rural Worksite Health Promotion Programming, Kayte L. Tranel

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

An increased risk of lifestyle-related conditions (hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some forms of cancer) is associated with overweight and obesity, which affect approximately two in three American adults (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2009). Worksite health promotion programming (WHPP) may be effective for reducing disease risk. Reaching adults in the worksite seems logical considering most spend approximately 40 hours each week in that setting. WHPP is linked to improved effectiveness for promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors, but often struggles with low participation and high attrition rates. Research regarding barriers to WHPP and physical activity is available, …

Perceptual And Acoustical Comparisons Of Motor Speech Practice Options For Children With Childhood Apraxia Of Speech, Amy Nordness

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) need intensive and accurate practice to establish an accurate motor plan and improve their speech production. Computer-led practice led to a greater quantity of practice and was preferred over parent-led practice. Further knowledge regarding children’s accuracy of speech during independent practice is needed to determine if computer-led practice is a viable practice tool. Twelve children diagnosed with CAS, between 3-0 and 7-11 years of age, participated in speech practice during computer-led, parent-led, and clinician-led practice. Comparisons of perceptual accuracy of consonants and vowels, acoustical accuracy of stops, vowels, and fricatives, and variability of …

Exploring Student Perceptions To Explain The Relationship Between Physical Activity And Academic Achievement In Adolescents: A Mixed Methods Study, Megan J. Hylok

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A nationwide survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control in 2007 reported 65% of high school students did not meet the recommendation that youth participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity most days of the week (CDC, 2008). While research has focused its attention primarily on bodily health, growing evidence supports the benefits of physical activity on brain health (Ratey & Hagerman, 2008). Physical activity is important and many adolescents are not meeting the recommendation, therefore, it is important to explore the adolescent perceptions to understand which factors influence physical activity participation. The significance of this study …

Understanding Mesosystemic Influences On Reported Health Among Rural Low-Income Women: A Structural Equation Analysis, Tiffany Wigington

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While ensuring access to health insurance and health care services is important, emerging research indicates that individual health and well-being result from a complex array of environmental, social, and psychological factors. The delineation of how factors of health and well-being unfold and impact rural low-income women is particularly salient for social workers who provide services to rural residents and who work within a rural context. Utilizing components from the ecological systems perspective, this study explored how the factors associated with health risk influenced reported health and mesosystemic processes among rural low-income women. This sample (n=304) for this study was drawn …

Ready, Set...Pitch: Marketing Yourself Like An Entrepreneur, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Great elevator pitches are created to sell your idea, business, product or service in 30 seconds or less (the time it takes to go from the first floor to the top of the building in an elevator). It’s important to develop and practice an effective pitch so you are ready to use it under fire. When you step onto an elevator with Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, you want to be prepared! This worksheet will help you create an amazing pitch!!

Behavioral Health Providers And Electronic Health Records: An Exploratory Beliefs Elicitation And Segmentation Study, Nancy C. Shank

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) is a public policy strategy to improve healthcare quality and reduce accelerating health care costs. Much research has focused on medical providers’ perceptions of EHRs, but little is known about those of behavioral health providers. This research was informed by the theory of reasoned action, and the technology acceptance model. This mixed methods research was conducted in two studies. The first study interviewed behavioral health providers (n = 32) to elicit beliefs about EHRs. Using the elicited beliefs from the first study, a survey of 38 Likert-scaled belief statements was administered to …

Ready, Set...Pitch: Marketing Yourself Like An Entrepreneur (Powerpoint Pdf), Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Great elevator pitches are created to sell your idea, business, product or service in 30 seconds or less (the time it takes to go from the first floor to the top of the building in an elevator). It’s important to develop and practice an effective pitch so you are ready to use it under fire. When you step onto an elevator with Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, you want to be prepared! This worksheet will help you create an amazing pitch!!

Social Meaning Of Alcohol-Related Flushing Among University Students In China, Ian M. Newman, Izumi Jinnai, Jie Zhao, Zhaoqing Huang, Jia Pu, Ling Qian

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study explored drinking patterns, alcohol-related flushing, and ways students themselves and other people respond to flushing in drinking situations. Of 1080 Chinese undergraduate university students given the survey questionnaire, 725 (67.1%) returned the completed surveys. Eighty percent of the students were drinkers (93% of males and 69% of females); 68% of the drinkers were flushers. Most of the students (59.3%) said flushing had no special meaning, that is, would ignore flushing; 54% of the flushers said they could keep drinking “but less” when they flush; 27% of the students said that a flushing person should stop drinking; however, if …

Audibility As A Predictor Of Speech Recognition And Listening Effort, Ryan W. Mccreery

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Two studies were conducted to evaluate how audibility influences speech recognition and measures of working memory in children with normal hearing. Specifically, audibility limitations related to background noise and limited bandwidth were analyzed, as these factors are characteristic of the listening conditions encountered by children with hearing loss who wear hearing aids.

In the first study, speech recognition was measured for 117 children and 18 adults with normal hearing. Stimulus bandwidth and the level of background noise were varied systematically in order to evaluate predictions of audibility based on the Speech Intelligibility Index. Results suggested that children with normal hearing …

Feasibility Of Group Voice Therapy For Individuals With Parkinson’S Disease, Jeff Searl, Kristel Wilson, Karen Haring, Angela M. Dietsch, Kelly E. Lyons, Rajesh Pahwa

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose: The primary purpose was to demonstrate the feasibility of executing treatment tasks focused on increasing loudness in a group format for individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). A second purpose was to report preliminary pre-to-post treatment outcomes for individuals with PD immediately after they complete the group program. Methods: The group intervention is described. Fifteen adults with PD who participated in the group and three clinicians leading the group provided feedback about the execution of the intervention. The participants also provided voice samples and self-ratings of voice handicap once before completing the 8-week voice group and once immediately after completing …