Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Exploratory Study Of Undergraduate Pre-Health And Nursing Student Differences In Development, Bergen Johnson, Grace Rellinger

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

There is a great deal of research on how the professionalization and work of medical students, physicians, and nurses affect them, including burnout, stress, and empathy loss. We are interested in the earlier development of these trends and whether they already begin among undergraduate students pursuing health or nursing professions. There is a substantial knowledge gap in the differences and commonalities between pre-health, nursing, and students who have left health professions already. This research explores some of these commonalities and differences that begin developing quite early in nurses’ and physicians’ education. We look specifically at aspects we have labeled as …

Effects Of Religion And Health On Humility In Undergraduate Pre-Health And Nursing Students, Bergen Johnson

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

Physicians who display greater humility tend to have better communication with patients, who then self-report as having better health (Ruberton et al. 2016). Research shows that older adults with increased humility have better self-rated health (Krause 2010). Religiosity also relates to humility in older adults, with more religious individuals scoring higher in humility (Krause 2010). Due to the benefits of humility for patients and physicians, the early character development of humility in undergraduate pre-health and nursing students is of interest — especially as this is a time of rapid character change and development (Clydesdale 2007). This study investigates whether the …

The Beyond Ethnicity Project, Corri Zimmerman, Rita Kagaju

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

This research centers on Latina/o/x students' perceptions of their racial identity in light of issues related to privilege, racism, colorism, and belonging as they navigate the social and racial dynamics of a Predominantly White Institution. Focusing on the lived experience of 23 U.S. and foreign-born Latina/o/x, this ongoing research seeks to understand how skin color and place of origin play a role in understanding and interacting with these themes. Initial findings reveal that white-identifying students feel like outsiders in spaces that are predominantly white and in spaces that are predominately Latina/o/x. International students in this study faced ignorance about their …

Stress And Social Support Of Foster Parents During Covid-19, Carlie Mcniff

21st Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2022)

Foster parents provide crucial care to hundreds of thousands of children in the U.S., and with their role comes a variety of challenges. They face a great amount of stress which is why the turnover rate is high, and there is a critical need for more foster parents. Uncertainty is a large component of the foster care system, and the COVID-19 pandemic heightened this. It is unknown how stress that foster parents have experienced during this time was affected, and this study seeks to explore that. Additionally, this study focuses on types and sources of social support of foster parents …

Social Support And Change In Empathy In Undergraduate Pre-Health Students, Merrik Campagna

21st Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2022)

Many medical education studies show that medical students often lose empathy throughout their time in medical school, but thus far we do not know whether these trends have their roots in earlier educational experiences. This research begins to fill this gap, exploring whether indications of these changes in empathy start in undergraduate programs. This is important because patients who feel more empathy from their doctors tend to listen to and trust their doctors more. If we can better understand what factors lead to a loss of empathy we can adjust programs to help negate this effect. Our data comes from …

Understanding Moral Foundations: Gender, Politics, And Religion Within A Sample Of First Year Pre-Health Students, Grace Hannah

19th Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2020)

All individuals have a sense of what actions are moral or immoral, even without specifically deliberating about decisions. Prior research has shown that moral foundations theory is helpful in understanding variations in moral sentiments within a population. These moral foundations consist of five domains: harm, fairness, in-group/loyalty, authority, and purity/sanctity. For this research project, we looked into how respondents’ religious affiliation, gender, and political ideology affected their core moral foundations. We sent an electronic questionnaire to college freshman who indicated an interest in a health related studies or profession from an initial survey they took before beginning college. Results show …

Hope College And The Vietnam War Era: "We Only Started To Care When It Affected Us.", Halla Maas, Olivia Brickley

18th Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2019)

This project focuses on Hope College during the Vietnam War era. During this time, the draft created moral dilemmas for both students and faculty. When it started affecting themselves and people they knew, students felt that they needed to be educated about the war. The draft also meant that students sought deferments through such means as studying ministry, pre med, and other sciences. Hope students noticed that young men who were able to avoid the draft were usually privileged and not a part of the minority class. This led many Hope students to protest the draft and the war. These …

Hope College And Ready For Life: Kate's Story, Hannah Kenny, Kate Veldink

18th Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2019)

In an effort to merge social science and humanities methodology, I undertook an ethnographic case study of Ms. Kate Veldink, a student in the Ready for Life (RFL) program at Hope College. My research question is: What are the day-to-day experiences of a RFL student on Hope College’s campus? I obtained consent from Ms. Veldink and her family, enabling us to embark as research partners in this query. Through the Mellon Scholars Program of Hope College, we created an inquiry-into-research project as an extension to the class Human Behavior and the Social Environment in the Department of Sociology and Social …

Influence Of Physicians’ Beliefs On Propensity To Include Religion/Spirituality In Patient Interactions, Aaron B. Franzen

Faculty Publications

This study examines physicians’ beliefs, their perceptions of whether religion impacts health outcomes, and their propensity to discuss religion/spirituality with patients. It is not uncommon for patients to want religious/spiritual conversations, but the occurrence is infrequent. This study adds to knowledge regarding which physicians include these topics. Using a nationally representative sample of physicians and a mediated bi-factor structural equation model, the author finds that “religious and spiritual” physicians connect religion and patient health more than other religious/spiritual orientations. As a result, “religious and spiritual” physicians include religion/spirituality most often (indirect path). After this variation is accounted for, “spiritual but …

Exploring The Attitudes Of The Hope Campus Community Towards The Ready For Life Program, Katherine Veldink, Madelyn Mikitka, Elizabeth Lilley, Jordon Lambert

17th Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Performance (2018)

Exploring the attitudes of the Hope College campus community towards the Ready for Life Program was a topic first researched for a fall Genius Hour Showcase, as social inclusion is a primary area of interest for this researcher and her team. Ready for Life is a program that provides post-secondary educational experiences for college-aged individuals diagnosed with cognitive, learning, or social disabilities. Instructors at Ready For Life assist each student in daily instruction and support, and partners with Hope College professors to adapt the academic materials from the courses each student is enrolled in. As a partner with Hope College, …

Social Inclusion And Disability In The Us And China: An International Context For Experiential Learning, Kylie Dekryger, Abigail Duran, Maria G. Garcia Reyes, Gabrielle Werner

17th Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Performance (2018)

Children with disabilities are a highly vulnerable group around the world, including in China (Cheung, 2013). However, China’s context differs in two notable ways: population size and lack of systematic means of delivering community-based services for people with disabilities (Fisher, Li, and Fan, 2012; UNICEF-EAPRO, 2012). This project focused on the study of community-based services in China and their role in the continuum of care for persons with disabilities. In addition, students and faculty participated in experiential learning and professional development through engagement with non-governmental organizations that focus on this population in the cities of Beijing, Xian, Zhengzhou, and Hong …

Physicians' Moral Dispositions, Role Perceptions, And Patient Interactions: Exploratory Findings From Physicians In The Midwestern United States, Aaron B. Franzen

Faculty Publications

We know that patients and their well-being is important to physicians, but what this means in terms of their practice is not always as clear. One potentially fruitful approach to understanding this variation is to look to physicians' value dispositions and moral foundations. Prior work within the general population has highlighted the place and importance of religion/spirituality, but very little is known about physicians and how moral foundations matter for medicine more broadly. The purpose of this research note is to explore these issues with a sample of physicians in Michigan. We find that individual characteristics are related to physicians' …

Patient Or Physician Centered Care?: Structural Implications For Clinical Interactions And The Overlooked Patient, Aaron B. Franzen

Faculty Publications

Patient-centered care is widely supported by physicians, but this wide-spread support potentially obscures the social patterning of clinical interactions. We know that patients often want religious/spiritual conversations in the context of medical care but the provision is infrequent. As there is regional variance in religiosity, a gap in the literature exists regarding whether patient populations’ religiosity is connected to physicians’ self-reported religious/spiritual interactions. Using a national sample of U.S. physicians linked to county-level measures, the author test whether both physicians’ background and patient population characteristics are related to religious/spiritual interactions. Specifically, do physicians in more religious locations report more frequent …

A Longitudinal Study Of Resident Emotional Stability, Self-Reported Health And Perceptions Of Programmatic Support, Aaron B. Franzen, Benjamin R. Doolittle

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Certain characteristics such as acceptance, planning, and humility have correlated with less burnout among resident physicians. However, less is known about residency program culture, socialization, and support. The purpose of this study is to investigate social isolation, solidarity, stress, and frustration over time, their self-reported health, as well as the programmatic support.

Methods: A longitudinal self-administered survey implemented within an academic pediatric residency program to track resident characteristics over time.

Results: In Wave 1, among 101 residents, 78 (77%) responded. In Wave 2, among 98 residents, 73 (74%) responded. 45 residents were in both Wave 1 and 2. All …

Stress Buffer Or Identity Threat?: Negative Media Portrayal, Public And Private Religious Involvement, And Mental Health In A National Sample Of Us Adults, Samuel Stroope, Mark H. Walker, Aaron B. Franzen

Faculty Publications

Guided by the stress process tradition, complex links between religion and mental health have received growing attention from researchers. This study gauges individuals’ public and private religiosity, uses a novel measure of environmental stress—negative media portrayal of religion—and presents two divergent hypotheses: (1) religiosity as stress-exacerbating attachment to valued identities producing mental health vulnerability to threat and (2) religiosity as stress-buffering social psychological resource. To assess these hypotheses, we analyze three mental health outcomes (generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and general mental health problems) in national U.S. data from 2010 (N = 1,714). Our findings align with the stress-buffering perspective. Results …

Is This Relevant? Physician Perceptions, Clinical Relevance, And Religious Content In Clinical Interactions, Aaron B. Franzen

Faculty Publications

Despite wide support among physicians for practicing patient-centered care, clinical interactions are primarily driven by physicians’ perception of relevance. While some will perceive a connection between religion and patient health, this relevance will be less apparent for others. I argue that physician responses when religious/spiritual topics come up during clinical interactions will depend on their own religious/spiritual background. The more central religion is for the physician, the greater his or her perception of religion's impact on health outcomes and his or her inclusion of religion/spirituality within clinical interactions. Using a nationally representative sample of physicians in the United States and …

Work-Family Conflict: The Effects Of Religious Context On Married Women’S Participation In The Labor Force, Jenna Griebel Rogers, Aaron B. Franzen

Faculty Publications

Past work shows religion’s effect on women’s career decisions, particularly when these decisions involve work-family conflict. This study argues that the religious context of a geographic area also influences women’s solutions to work-family conflict through more or less pervasive normative expectations within the community regarding women’s roles and responsibilities to the family. We use the American Community Survey linked with community-level religious proportions to test the relationship between religious contexts and women’s participation in the labor force in the contiguous United States–2054 census geographic areas. Using spatial analysis, we find that community religious concentration is related to the proportion of …

Is Being "Spiritual" Enough Without Being Religious? A Study Of Violent And Property Crimes Among Emerging Adults, Sung Joon Jang, Aaron B. Franzen

Faculty Publications

While prior research tends to confirm a negative association between religiousness and crime, criminologists have been slow to incorporate new concepts and emergent issues from the scientific study of religion into their own research. The self-identity phrase “spiritual but not religious” is one of them, which has been increasingly used by individuals who claim to be “spiritual” but disassociate themselves from organized religion. This study first examines differences in crime between “spiritual but not religious” individuals and their “religious and spiritual,” “religious but not spiritual,” and “neither religious nor spiritual” peers in emerging adulthood. Specifically, we hypothesize that the spiritual-but-not-religious …

The Milk And Medicine Program Evaluation: Lusaka, Zambia, Lindsey Boeve

10th Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Performance (2011)

The HIV and AIDS epidemic is sweeping through Zambia, Africa at an unsettling rate. This epidemic plays a dramatic part in the increase of orphans and vulnerable children. The Christian Alliance for Children in Zambia (CACZ), a faith-based, non-governmental organization implemented its Milk and Medicine Program in 2004. CACZ’s goal is, “to improve child health and strengthen families to prevent child abandonment and institutionalization.” The program distributes nutritional supplements, medicine and limited social work support for those involved in the program. It has served approximately 300 children since its inception. This research seeks to understand the efficacy of the Milk …