Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Non-Fatal Intimate Partner Violence In Volusia County, Fl, 2016-2020, Fiona Chanlatte, Jonzelle Bell Bs, Julio Montanez Ma, Amy Donley Phd

Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS)

The current white paper tabulates non-fatal intimate partner violence (IPV) offenses across Volusia County, FL by using Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data.

Artificial Sociality, Simone Natale, Iliana Depounti

Human-Machine Communication

This article proposes the notion of Artificial Sociality to describe communicative AI technologies that create the impression of social behavior. Existing tools that activate Artificial Sociality include, among others, Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, voice assistants, virtual influencers, socialbots and companion chatbots such as Replika. The article highlights three key issues that are likely to shape present and future debates about these technologies, as well as design practices and regulation efforts: the modelling of human sociality that foregrounds it, the problem of deception and the issue of control from the part of the users. Ethical, social and cultural …

A New Family Member Or Just Another Digital Interface? Smart Speakers In The Lives Of Families With Young Children, Giovanna Mascheroni

Human-Machine Communication

Based on longitudinal qualitative research involving twenty families with at least one child aged eight or younger, the article provides an account of how families, as distinctive communicative figurations, adopt, use and make sense of smart speakers through diverse socially situated practices. Findings show that parents and children enter in a communicative relationship with smart speakers based on their attribution of human-like or machine-like traits to the device, and the device response to their expectations. Moreover, engaging in communicative practices through and with smart speakers, family members subvert or reinforce existing power relations. However, smart speakers acquire new agency by …

Non-Fatal Intimate Partner Violence In Osceola County, Fl, 2016-2020, Julio Montanez Ma, Jonzelle Bell Bs, Amy Donley Phd

Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS)

In 2024, the University of Central Florida's Institute for Social and Behavioral Science developed a white paper summarizing Uniform Crime Reports data for Osceola County, FL from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The white paper tabulates intimate partner violence offenses by victim-offender relationship, offense severity, and offense type.

Non-Fatal Intimate Partner Violence In Brevard County, Fl, 2016-2020, Julio Montanez Ma, Jonzelle Bell Bs, Amy Donley Phd

Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS)

In 2024, the University of Central Florida's Institute for Social and Behavioral Science developed a white paper summarizing Uniform Crime Reports data for Brevard County, FL from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The white paper tabulates intimate partner violence offenses by victim-offender relationship, offense severity, and offense type.

Non-Fatal Intimate Partner Violence In Orange County, Fl, 2016-2020, Jonzelle Bell Bs, Julio Montanez Ma, Amy Donley Phd

Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS)

In 2024, the University of Central Florida's Institute for Social and Behavioral Science developed a white paper summarizing Uniform Crime Reports data for Orange County, FL from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The white paper tabulates intimate partner violence offenses by victim-offender relationship, offense severity, and offense type.

Lessons From Hospitality: Towards A Hybrid Model Of Senior Living Communities, Yunying Zhong, Tingting Zhang

Rosen Research Review

Old age gets most of us, and how we spend it should be meaningful. The hospitality sector could play a vital role in this regard. Senior living communities are big business in the U.S., but they face demands from residents, and the family and friends who visit them, for more than the traditional focus on healthcare. UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management researchers, Dr. YunYing Zhong, Dr. Tingting Zhang, and their co-author understand the connection between the senior living community and hospitality sectors; their research is giving impetus to a hybrid model that could benefit both.

Member Share Grocery Program Survey Results: 2023, Caroline Austin Ma, Amy Donley Phd

Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS)

The University of Central Florida’s Institute for Social and Behavioral Sciences (ISBS) partnered with United Against Poverty to measure the impact of their Member Share Grocery Program (MSGP). Surveys with 651 MSGP members across the four locations were undertaken September-December 2023. The following report details the results of every question by location.

Demographic Profile Of Accidental Drug Overdoses In 2020, Jacquelyn Reiss Phd, Amy Donley Phd, Alexandria Mcclarty Ba

Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS)

This white paper presents a demographic profile of accidental drug overdoses in Orange County, Florida for the year 2020.

Three Essays On Civil Disturbances, Crime, And Housing Markets, Noel Ritchey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

In these three essays, I examine the relationship between housing prices and civil disturbances. In the first essay, I examine the Ferguson Unrest in 2014 following the killing of Michael Brown. Using a hedonic model and a repeat sales model using data from ZTRAX, I find a highly significant negative affect around the events temporally and spatially. In the second essay I examine house price indices across the US during the onset of COVID and during the protests following the killing of George Floyd. I use the Zillow Home Value Index and I find cities which experienced protests experienced less …

Digital Disconnect: The Relationship Between In-Game And Real-World Issues In World Of Warcraft, Taylor Devereaux

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

This dissertation explores how players of the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft, responded to in-game instances of sexism and racism before and after the Activision Blizzard lawsuit was made public. It also covers the responses of players to the lawsuit itself to see if player responses changed once the lawsuit was made public. These results illustrate if and how player responses may change regarding in-game social issues based on the real-world environment that the game is being created within. To establish what players are seeing in the game, I first analyzed the narratives of four major …

Local-Level Maternal And Infant Health: A Mixed-Methods Analysis Of The Relationship Between Social Determinants Of Health, Maternal And Infant Health Outcomes, And Public Health Programs In Florida, Jacquelyn Reiss

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Current data highlight significant disparities in infant and maternal health (IMH) outcomes both when comparing outcomes to other countries and between groups within the U.S. Previous studies indicate that disparities in health outcomes are caused by health inequities. Health inequities are a result of marginalized groups historically being denied resources and exposed to increased risk directly impacting health. These resources and risks are considered social determinants of health (SDoH), such as income, housing, transportation, and access to care. Although SDoH influence individuals across multiple levels of society, communities are sites where individuals directly access protective resources and are potentially exposed …

Unintentional Fatal Overdose Analysis In Orange County, Fl Yearly Trends 2018-2022, Alexandria Mcclarty, Amy Donley Phd

Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS)

This report aims to analyze yearly trends in unintentional fatal overdoses in Orange County, FL. Like many other parts of the country, the Central Florida area continues to suffer from a high number of overdose mortalities. As such, this report analyzes unintentional fatal overdoses across the years 2018-2022, focusing on the variables of sex, race, age, drug toxicology, victim residency information, and death location to draw conclusions on Orange County’s overdose climate and identify any changes over time. Additionally, we analyze quarterly trends within each calendar year, and estimate overdose rates in regard to county population by using publicly available …

Chatgpt, Lamda, And The Hype Around Communicative Ai: The Automation Of Communication As A Field Of Research In Media And Communication Studies, Andreas Hepp, Wiebke Loosen, Stephan Dreyer, Juliane Jarke, Sigrid Kannengießer, Christian Katzenbach, Rainer Malaka, Michaela Pfadenhauer, Cornelius Puschmann, Wolfgang Schulz

Human-Machine Communication

The aim of this article is to more precisely define the field of research on the automation of communication, which is still only vaguely discernible. The central thesis argues that to be able to fully grasp the transformation of the media environment associated with the automation of communication, our view must be broadened from a preoccupation with direct interactions between humans and machines to societal communication. This more widely targeted question asks how the dynamics of societal communication change when communicative artificial intelligence—in short: communicative AI—is integrated into aspects of societal communication. To this end, we recommend an approach that …

Volusia County, Fl Mental Health And Substance Use Disorder Treatment Gap Analysis, Amy Donley Phd, Jacquelyn Fernandez-Reiss, Caroline Austin

Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS)

The University of Central Florida's Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS) partnered with Volusia County to undertake a gap analysis focused on mental health and substance use disorder treatment. Specifically, we designed a study to determine the capacity of treatment options, identify barriers to seeking treatment, and illuminate what works particularly well. The gap analysis results can guide future decisions on allocating resources best to ensure that treatment is accessible to all in need.

Complete Issue, Volume 39, Issue 1

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the complete issue for Volume 39, Issue 1 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

Perceived Barriers To And Comfort Levels With Hypothetical Intimate Partner Violence Help-Seeking Among Arab Americans, Jana Mostafa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Members of the Arab American community experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) face unique barriers to help-seeking and have different comfort levels with using formal and informal resources. This thesis surveyed Arab-Americans to identify perceived barriers and comfort levels with IPV help-seeking. A culturally informed and centered approach was taken to examine connections between individual level factors, perceived barriers and comfort levels in using resources. To do so, I gathered data via an online survey with 82 Arab American participants. Findings suggest that participants perceived the greatest barriers to seeking help for IPV are related to how others view and understand …

Christian Nationalism Among Evangelical Christians Through A Critical Race Theory Lens, Marina I. Rivera Ramos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

In this study, I conducted ethnographic participant observations and semi-structured interviews at two evangelical congregations in central Florida, Free Baptist Church (FBC) and Cornerstone Church (CC), to explore how Christian nationalist ideas (CN) are negotiated, embraced, and/or rejected in church messaging and among congregants. I collected notes from eight sermons at each church and interviewed a total of 14 congregants regarding their concerns and lived experiences as Christians in the U.S. and their opinions on racial injustice. Expanding on previous research on CN, I incorporated Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an analytical framework to understand CN as inextricably connected to …

Understanding School Shootings Using Qualitatively-Informed Natural Language Processing, Quan K. Do

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Prior literature has investigated the connection between school shootings and factors of familial trauma and mental health. Specifically, experiences related to parental suicide, physical or sexual abuse, neglect, marital violence, or severe bullying have been associated with a propensity for carrying out a mass shooting. Given prior research has shown common histories among school shooters, it follows that a person's violent tendencies can be revealed by their previous communications with others, thus aiding in predicting an individual's proclivity for school shootings. However, previous literature found no conclusions were drawn from online posts made by the shooters prior to the mass …

Analyzing Help-Seeking Behaviors And Barriers Among Hispanic Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence, Emely Mejia

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is experienced by millions of women in the U.S. every year. As the population of Hispanic women continues to grow, there is more attention to the unique experience of these women and the factors that disproportionately affect this population when they experience IPV. The objective of this study was to identify the help-seeking behaviors and barriers to help-seeking in Hispanic survivors of IPV. The last published systematic review on this topic was in 2011, showing a gap in our understanding of the prevalent barriers affecting these Hispanic women over the last decade. To assess the current …

An Analysis Of The Role Of Fentanyl In Fatal Overdoses In Orange County, Logan Michalski

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Fentanyl is a potent narcotic analgesic that leads to countless overdoses each year. Past studies have shown that fentanyl use has been growing substantially in counties within Florida. However, little research has been done to quantify and analyze rates of fentanyl overdose within Orange County, particularly over multiple year periods of time. The goal of this study is to provide information and analysis on the rates of fentanyl overdose within Orange County, Florida from 2019 to 2021, and to explore demographic factors that correlate with fentanyl overdose. It is hypothesized that the rate of fentanyl overdoses will have significantly increased …

Gendered And Racialized Bodies In Dobbs V. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Saphronia Carson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

In June 2022 the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abandoning nearly 50 years of precedent, and removing federal protections for abortion access. In doing so, the Court drew on a lineage of explicit and implicit discourses that have constructed abortions, abortion providers, and pregnant and fetal bodies in ways that make overturning Roe seem inevitable. This thesis takes a reproductive justice perspective while conducting a feminist critical discourse analysis of the majority and concurring opinions in Dobbs. Two main findings stand out. First, the decision relies on originalist constructions of abortions, abortion providers, pregnant people, and fetuses to …

Reflections On White-Passing Black Identity, Edi Mucka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Now, there are more options than ever for racial identity. Identities such as Black, White, Native, Asian, and Latino have put into contention how past racial boundaries and definitions interact with newer racial color lines. Racial passing is one concept that captures both older and newer forms of identity maintenance. Racial passing refers to when a person classified as a member of a racial group is accepted or perceived as a member of another. In this thesis, I review the literature on racial passing to understand its history and theoretical explanations. Based on the review, I examine a convenience sample …

Advocacy With Context: The Role Of Pediatricians In Breastfeeding Success, Sanya Bansal

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Although the importance of breastfeeding is almost universally accepted, the rates of breastfeeding are improving very slowly. The current literature provides much insight as to how medical professionals such as obstetricians and lactation specialists could improve the rates of breastfeeding. The pediatrician could encourage breastfeeding at a prime opportunity: during post-natal visits. Unfortunately, there is limited research on what role the pediatrician plays in breastfeeding success. This study used in-depth, qualitative interviews from four pediatricians to gather data on the true role of the pediatrician in breastfeeding. These pediatricians were selected based on the diverse patient population they serve, considering …

The Implications Of Religion And Internal Motivations On Health Behaviors, Sarah Jamaleddine

Honors Undergraduate Theses

It is considered that religion and internal motivations may act as guiding forces behind the thoughts and actions of individuals. The purpose of this thesis is to explore if religiousness and internal motivations may influence individual health behaviors. To explore these relationships, a convenience sample using a 5-minute Qualtrics survey with questions regarding religiousness, internal motivations, and health behaviors was developed. This survey was offered to UCF students over the course of a few semesters. It is hypothesized that individuals that indicate more religiousness and stronger internal motivations (greater internal locus of control and self-efficacy) will demonstrate more positive health …

Speciesism In Childhood: An Exploration Of Children's Attitudes Toward Nonhuman Animals, Hannah C. Knotts

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Humans objectify or designate certain animals to specific roles. These roles are often learned in childhood and followed into adulthood. Though there is more literature on the nonhuman animal industries nowadays than ever, there are still gaps in knowledge and work to be done concerning childhood speciesism. This qualitative study aims to reveal how childhood perspectives toward nonhuman animals are established. The study's findings indicate speciesism may develop in early age children due to parental and environmental influences. Parents were found to influence speciesism in children through teaching the distinct roles animals play in our society. As adults, parents were …

Provider Perceptions On The Usage Of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy To Influence Behavior Change In Individuals With Substance Use Disorders, Leia T. Rausch

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Recent research studies and clinical trials have suggested that psychedelic therapy with psychological support can offer beneficial and synergistic effects in reducing or eliminating substance use disorder (SUD) patterns and symptoms. However, very little is known about SUD healthcare providers' perceptions of the usage of psychedelic-assisted therapy in SUD treatment. The present study assesses biomedical SUD healthcare providers' perceptions and concerns to better understand potential barriers to the effective implementation of psychedelic-based therapies and formulate further recommendations for research efforts surrounding them. This study collected data through a short survey and qualitative semi-structured interviews from nine participants involved in SUD …

Selma: A Filmic Description Of History, Hunter L. Tierman

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis will determine the validity of the claim made by Joseph Califano, an aide to President Lyndon Johnson, that the film Selma is not historically accurate, especially regarding the Johnson character. This topic was picked to critique historical accuracy in the film and provide a framework to determine if the film would be suitable for use in an educational setting. This thesis used multiple academic monographs, telephone conversations, interviews, and presidential archives to come to a conclusion. After thorough research, it has been determined that Selma can be used as an educational resource with appropriate cautions stated beforehand regarding …

Healthcare Access And Experiences Among Transgender University Students, Micah Reisner

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Background

As transgender identification rises in younger generations, it is imperative that colleges and universities account for the health and wellbeing of this growing subset of the student body. Previous research indicates that transgender populations experience unique barriers to accessing healthcare, including socioeconomic barriers and a lack of healthcare providers experienced in transgender medicine. These barriers contribute to low rates of healthcare utilization and significant health disparities in transgender populations.

Methods

A community health assessment of transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) students at the University of Central Florida was conducted in order to assess: (1) students' access to and experiences with …

The Perfect Storm: Motherhood, Intimate Partner Violence, And Covid-19, Kelly Blauschild

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an insidious societal problem with potentially lethal ramifications. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread conditions and virus risk mitigation procedures like social distancing and stay-at-home orders exacerbated factors that contribute to IPV such as poverty and substance use. Though anyone can experience IPV, mothers carried unparalleled burdens in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic such as increasing childcare responsibilities, growing financial difficulties, and worsening mental health, and many of these factors have been linked to experiencing IPV. The growing body of literature indicates a rise in IPV during COVID-19, but little has …