Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Challenges In Researching The Relationship Between Delinquency And Family Dynamics In Juvenile Sex Offenders, Dio Kevin Turner Ii

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Recently developed treatment approaches on juvenile sex offenders include the offenders and their families. These approaches have some empirical support; however, little research attempts to link family dynamics and child abuse with juvenile re-offending. This study attempted to examine the family dynamics from the juveniles’ perspective. The Family Assessment Measure (FAM-III), Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), Self Reported Delinquency measure (SRD), and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire - Short Form (CTQ-SF) were used to assess family dynamics, parenting style, delinquency and childhood maltreatment, respectively. Problems with recruitment resulted in too few participants (N=6) to conduct meaningful statistical analyses. Participant responses suggested elevated impression …

The Influence Of Ethnic Identity And Family Support On Posttraumatic Symptoms In Maltreated Youth, Harpreet Kaur

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Maltreated children are at greater risk of developing PTSD than nonmaltreated children (Ackerman et al., 1998; Epstein et al., 1997; Famularo et al., 1996; Kilpatrick et al., 2003; Widom, 1999). This study sought to assess the role of ethnicity, ethnic identity, and family support on the effects of maltreatment and trauma in adolescents. Participants (n=145) included adolescents from Child Haven, a Department of Family Services (DFS)-related site in Las Vegas, and youths in foster care assessed at the offices of Dr. Stephanie Holland. The first hypothesis was that non-Caucasian youth would have higher levels of PTSD-related symptoms than Caucasian youth. …

Happiness Around The World: The Paradox Of Happy Peasants And Miserable Millionaires, Carol Graham

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

For centuries the pursuit of happiness was the preserve of philosophers. More recently there is a burgeoning interest in the study of happiness in the social sciences. Can we really answer the question what makes people happy? Is it grounded in credible methods and data? Is there consistency in the determinants of happiness across countries and cultures? Are happiness levels innate to individuals or can policy and the environment make a difference? How is happiness affected by poverty and by progress? This presentation introduces a line of research which is both an attempt to understand the determinants of happiness and …

An Examination Of The Grieving Processes Of Suicide Survivors, Sarah Van Der Pol

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The scope of this research serves to aid in the understanding and counseling of survivors of loved ones who have committed suicide. This study will examine the phenomenon of survivors; specifically, what occurs as survivors move through the experience of grief and loss, as well as their individual grieving processes. The grieving process of those who deal with suicidal deaths of loved ones will be examined. Themes that emerge within the experiences of the participants will be identified and examined. Further, recommendations for the clinical practice of current and future counselors for work with suicide survivors will be suggested. Recommendations …

Examining Activity Levels And Motor Proficiency: A Comparison Of Children Who Are Overweight And At A Healthy Weight To Their Parents And Peers, Aaron Copeland, Maresa Madsen, Riley Phelps, Brandon Richards

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine relationships and differences between motor proficiency, activity level, and parental activity level in children who are at a healthy weight and children who are overweight or obese.

Methods: Forty-four children (26 children at a healthy weight and 18 children who were overweight or obese) between the ages of 8-16 (BMI: 14.3-43.6 kg/m2) and 36 parents (BMI: 18.1-44.7) participated in this study. Children and parents wore StepWatch activity monitors (SAM) to measure activity levels over a 72 hour period. Tests reflecting several determinants of motor performance were also administered to …

An Assessment Of Child Welfare: The Value Of Training And Family Engagement, Kelly L. Scherado

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Child maltreatment in the United States continues to be one of the nation’s most serious social problems. Child welfare practice is intended to ensure the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families. One of the ways child welfare systems can achieve positive outcomes for vulnerable children is to utilize the most current best practices in training, focused on family engagement and strengths-based empowerment. To this end, child welfare training programs that are family centered, culturally competent, and focused on preventing out of home placements, should be implemented nationwide to better prepare child welfare agencies to meet the needs of …

Earthy Bride, Melissa S. Foerster

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

There are nearly 2.5 million couples getting married in the United States each year (Harrison, 2008, pg. xi). That breaks down to more than 6,300 weddings in a single day. The average wedding in the United States “produces 63 tones of CO2 and 400-600 pounds of trash” and therefore, newlyweds are creating over 3,500,000 pounds of trash in a single at their weddings (Harrison, 2009, ¶ 2)! The green movement is on the rise and wedding industry needs to implement it to meet new demands. In order to do people need to be informed of the importance, benefits and savings …

Creating An Opportunity Society, Ron Haskins

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

America presents citizens and immigrants with great opportunity to get ahead. Even so, there is less mobility in America than in other industrialized nations and perhaps less than in the past. Individuals, parents, communities, and governments at all levels can do a lot to promote mobility and opportunity. Specific proposals for increasing opportunity, many supported by good evidence, will be presented.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Social Survey 2010 Highlights, Robert Futrell, Christie D. Batson, Barbara G. Brents, Andrea Dassopoulos, Chrissy Nicholas, Mark J. Salvaggio, Candace Griffith

Reports (USI)

UNLV sociologists conducted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Social Survey (LVMASS) to identify the socio-spatial distribution of attitudes and attributes relevant to urban sustainability in the Las Vegas Valley. The project goal is to understand how Las Vegas residents think about urban sustainability issues across three dimensions: 1) natural environment; 2) community and quality of life; 3) economy.

Gendered Disparities In Take-Ups Of Employee Health Benefits, Jennifer Reid Keene, Anastasia H. Prokos

Sociology Faculty Research

Using a sample of 2,271 workers from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce whose employers offered personal health insurance, this article investigates the gendered nature of health insurance benefit take-ups. These analyses include family and employment characteristics in addition to employers’ contributions to health insurance premiums, a measure that is unexamined in sociological analyses of health benefits. Progressive logistic regression models predict the effects of gender and family characteristics. Results indicate that women with employed spouses are less likely to take up their own health benefits than are comparable men, net of basic employment characteristics. Gender differences disappear, …

African American Parental Beliefs About Resiliency: A Delphi Study, Vita L. Jones

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Resiliency is a concept that has been discussed in the fields of anthropology, psychology, sociology, and education for over 30 years. Most authors define resiliency as the ability to triumph over adversity. The term associated with children/youth who rise above negative situations is resilient. A subgroup of students who are disproportionately affected by negative perceptions from society and who often find themselves in negative situations are African American children/youth. It appears that these students encounter less social fit in school, have a higher propensity for at-risk behavior, and experience less favorable academic and social outcomes.

This study involved a Delphi …

Diversity Issues In Recruitment And Retention Of Clients For Parenting Classes, Rachel Elizabeth Davis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Parenting skills classes are an effective means of preventing and remediating juvenile delinquency, youth violence, and child maltreatment. In particular, juvenile delinquency and child maltreatment disproportionately affect low-income African American families. Unfortunately, data from most parenting classes suggest dismal attendance and participation rates for racial- and ethnic-minorities from low-income backgrounds. The lack of effective recruitment may be due, in part, to the level of cultural competency inherent in the design, content, and implementation of existing parenting classes. Using semi-structured interviews and the qualitative methodology of grounded theory, this study explored the self-reported parenting beliefs, values, and struggles of a sample …

Child Neglect And Trauma: The Additive Traumatic Effects Of Neglect On Maltreated Adolescents, Adrianna Rachel Wechsler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Child maltreatment affects thousands of youths in the United States and poses numerous detrimental effects to individuals, families, and the community. Neglect is the most commonly reported and least studied form of child maltreatment. All types of child maltreatment may result in negative outcomes, but the chronic and pervasive nature of child neglect poses a significant threat to child development. No studies have been published evaluating the role of child neglect in the development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and PTSD-related symptoms. This study examined whether neglect has an additive traumatic effect on maltreated youth. The first hypothesis was that …

Modeling Natural Resources Scarcity And Proverty Effects On Fertility In Honduras, Nepal, And Tanzania, Ayoub Shaban Ayoub

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines whether the vicious circle theory applies in three developing countries characterized by high population growth. According to the vicious circle theory, natural resource scarcity coupled with poverty leads to population growth via positive effects on fertility particularly in rural areas of developing countries. Population growth then leads to a further increase in natural resource scarcity, creating a "feedback loop." This is the first study to use micro-level data to test and control for endogeneity using a two-stage Probit model (IVPROBIT). The existing literature has largely failed to address endogeneity in the relationship between natural resource scarcity and …

Widowhood And The End Of Spousal Caregiving: Wear And Tear Or Relief?, Jennifer Reid Keene, Anastasia H. Prokos

Sociology Faculty Research

This paper analyses the impact of spousal care-giving on survivors’ depressive symptoms six months into widowhood, and examines the applicability of a ‘ relief model’ of spousal adjustment during bereavement. We examine several aspects of the care-giving situation, including care-giver stress, care-giving demands, and type and duration of care and how these affect survivors’ depressive symptomatology. The sample is drawn from two waves of the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) survey, which was conducted in the United States in the Detroit Metropolitan Area, Michigan. The first wave of data was collected from couples and the second from the surviving …

Concurrent Panel Session 2: Challenges Facing Our Youth And Aged Populations, Michele Clark, Claudia Collins, Chris Kearney, Ed Jost, Larry Mason, Carla Sloan, William Sullivan

Shaping the Future of Southern Nevada: Economic, Environmental, and Social Sustainability

Moderator: Dr. Ann McDonough, UNLV Gerontology Program Scribe: Lisa Gioia-Acres, UNLV Department of History Conference white paper & Full summary of panel session, 4 pages

Unlv Magazine, Grace Russell, Gian Galassi, Shane Bevell, Karyn S. Hollingsworth, Jennifer Lawson, Lori Bachand, Cate Weeks, Erin O'Donnell, Peter Starkweather

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

Inside Unlv, Diane Russell, Cate Weeks, Shane Bevell, Mamie Peers, Lori Bachand

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Child Abuse And Neglect In Nevada, Denise Tanata, Susan Klein-Rothschild

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Child maltreatment is a critical issue facing our nation and our state. Child abuse and neglect impacts the lives of thousands of children and families every day.

• In 2003, an estimated 906,000 children were determined to be victims of child abuse and neglect in the United States. This equates to a victimization rate of 12.4 per 1,000 children in the population.
• These figures, however, only represent the number of substantiated cases of abuse and neglect. In 2003, approximately 2.9 million referrals concerning the welfare of an estimated 5.5 million children were made to child protective service agencies in 2003.

Marriage And Family Life In Nevada, Stephen M. Wilson, Jeanne Hilton

Social Health of Nevada Reports

For almost twenty years, Nevada has been the fastest growing state in the country. Much of this growth is due to numerous immigrant and retiree families moving in every day, creating unique challenges to the state. On the other hand, Nevada ’s families, like families in the rest of the United States , are changing in predictable ways. Over the last century, families have become smaller and more diverse. Today, families are not only smaller, but they move more often, have more family members living into old age, enjoy better health, and have more education and wealth than has been …

Environment And The Quality Of Life In Nevada, Robert Futrell

Social Health of Nevada Reports

When the first environmental decade was launched in the U.S. more than thirty years ago with the inaugural Earth Day, protecting our air, water, land and other natural resources seemed a relatively simple task. Environmental polluters and exploiters would be brought to heel by tough laws. The U.S. and other industrialized nations responded to quality of life concerns associated with the degradation of the natural environment by adopting dozens of major environmental and resource policies and creating new institutions such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to manage environmental programs. With a sense of urgency Congress passed the Clean Air …

Conclusion: Social Capital And The Quality Of Life In Nevada, Craig Walton

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Our contributors have presented data and analyses which bring up questions Nevadans need to raise when they talk about the kind of home we want Nevada to be. We must take seriously their findings, their recommendations, and their pleas for help. These social indicators must be re-visited periodically. We make a beginning today, but we need to sustain public discussion of these problems of poor social capital in our home town and home state. Aristotle mentioned that a large number of people in one place does not make a community – practices, customs, institutions, and a shared moral culture change …

Inside Unlv, Lanelda Rolley, Shane Bevell, Carol C. Harter, Lanelda Rolley, Mamie Peers, Diane Russell

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

2005- 2008 Unlv Mcnair Journal, Valerie Avery, Shana Bachus, Karmen K. Boehlke, Andrea Flores, Alden Kelly, Erick Lopez, Carol Preussler, Heather Shay, Ava Bookatz, Shaun Elsasser, Veronica Hicks, Shaida A. Jetha, Anthony Quinn, Thurithabhani Seneviratne, Teddy Boado Sim Jr., Liza Ward, Amris Henry-Rodgers, Jacquelynn Kaaa-Logan, Jason Orozco, Juan C. Plata, Bonnie Bartlett, Kathleen Bell, Vacheral M. Carter, Nydia Diaz, Kimberly Hackstock, Julio A. Luna, Charles Mao, Sandra Ramos, Precious Rideout, Benjamin Lee Watrous, Chet R. Whitley

McNair Journal

Journal articles based on research conducted by undergraduate students in the McNair Scholars Program

Table of Contents

Biography of Dr. Ronald E. McNair

Statements:

Dr. Neal J. Smatresk, UNLV President

Dr. Juanita P. Fain, Vice President of Student Affairs

Dr. William W. Sullivan, Associate Vice President for Retention and Outreach

Mr. Keith Rogers, Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach

McNair Scholars Institute Staff

Predictors Of Perceived Work-Family Balance: Gender Difference Or Gender Similarity?, Jennifer Reid Keene, Jill Quadagno

Sociology Faculty Research

This article uses the 1996 General Social Survey (GSS) and the 1992 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) to examine two issues: the relationship of work characteristics, family characteristics, and work-family spillover to perceptions of work-family balance; and models of “gender difference” versus “gender similarity.” The GSS analysis supports the gender similarity model. It demonstrates that work demands such as the number of hours worked per week and work spillover into family life are the most salient predictors of feelings of imbalance for both women and men. The NSCW includes subtler measures of family spillover into work as well …

Factors Affecting Participation In Senior Center Programs, Betty J. Jefferson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study investigated whether the factors of relationships, recreation, relatedness, and reward would affect participation in senior centers. Demographic variables of age, sex, and socio-economic status and enabling variables of health, transportation, and income were also investigated. Data were collected from a sample of 57 older adults (aged 55 and over) from three Las Vegas Senior Centers using an instrument developed by the investigator. Findings revealed that relationships, recreation, and relatedness contributed to reasons for participation. Rewards did not seem to affect participation. In terms of demographics, more participants tended to be older, female, and educated. Enabling variables revealed participants …

A Comparative Assessment Of The Status, Structure And Process Utilized By Nevada's Family Support And Preservation Consortia To Achieve Collaboration, Marlys A. Morton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper presents a framework for understanding inter-organizational collaboration and describes and analyzes how collaboration was used as a method to build new service networks, the characteristics of the consortia, and the status of the collaborative processes.

Although the literature on inter-organizational collaboration in the human services is increasing, little is known about how regional consortia view the process of working together towards a common purpose. The results reported in this paper are intended to help fill that gap.

The findings reported in this study are based on a survey process using a standardized questionnaire to study the collaborative status. …

Teenage Pregnancy: Correlates Of Sexual Behavior And Overview Of Prevention, Intervention, And Local Programs, Janice Rollins Monteiro

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

It is doubtful that any woman who has become pregnant and delivered a child did not experience some level of anxiety or frustration. It is also not likely that these women did not have anything else occurring simultaneously in their lives, such as work, social, and family commitments. Pregnancy and the expectancy of bringing a new life into the world inherently carry a certain amount of stress and uncertainty. Finding oneself in this situation has an incredible impact when a young woman has perhaps not even fully developed herself, and is faced with the challenge of raising a child.

The Right To Die: An Old Woman's Formula, Mary Guinan

Public Health Faculty Publications

On December 26, 1990, Nancy Cruzan died, 12 days after her feeding tube was removed. She had been in an irreversible coma for seven years and her parents had sued for the right to remove the feeding tube that was keeping her alive. The pain and suffering of her family in coming to this decision was certainly compounded by those who disagreed with them and tried to prevent the extubation. Whether one agrees with this particular decision or not, most of us will not be faced with such clear alternatives, ie, leave the tube in or take it out in …

Domestic Violence: Physicians A Link To Prevention, Mary Guinan

Public Health Faculty Publications

Domestic violence may result in more injuries and fatalities for women than automobile crashes, muggings, and rapes combined, but according to a recent editorial, physicians largely ignore the problem. Evidence showed that a majority of women treated at an emergency facility for injuries resulting from violent acts of spouses or other persons known to the victims were discharged without any arrangement being made for their future safety. Physicians rarely inquired about an injury victim's past sexual or physical abuse, living arrangements, or future prospects of safety.