Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The New Monastics And The Changing Face Of American Evangelicalism, William A. Samson

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

American Evangelicalism is, indeed, “embattled and thriving,” as Smith et. al. (1998) have suggested, thriving precisely because it has remained in an embattled state as it cyclically seeks to establish itself as a counter to the dominant culture. However, over the last 40 years American Evangelicalism has become ingrained in the dominant culture and a new group of young Evangelicals are establishing themselves as the counter to that culture and thus defining themselves against Evangelicalism itself. Employing Smith’s (1998) “sub-cultural identity” theory of religious strength while drawing on interviews with movement leaders, members and published writings, the following research provides …

Conduit Bond Financing Of Local Governments—Perspective From The U.S. And China, Zihe Guo

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

As an alternative way to issue bonds, conduit financing has been widely used by local governments and nonprofit organizations. Conduit financing allows one entity to issue debt on behalf of single or multiple borrowers. In the state of California in the U.S., a local agency is allowed to issue municipal bonds in compliance with law, but can also borrow through a joint powers agency (JPA). In this case, the JPA serves as a conduit. Conduit financing is preferred by local agencies in certain circumstances because it is more convenient or fixed issuance costs can be split between several conduit borrowers …

Three Essays On Interaction In Public Management, Seungjin Choi

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Public management is one of the most important subfields in public administration and plays a role in explaining the variations of government performance. Encouraging public administrators to get motivated through enhancing public service motivation (PSM) and collaborating with each other to accomplish their jobs and organizational objectives are key strategies to enhance the government’s accountability to the public under scarce resources. This dissertation attempts to address these concerns.

First, it conducts a meta-analytical structural equation analysis with regard to the relationships among PSM, value congruence, individual work attitudes, and individual performance and finds that person-organization fit, job satisfaction, and organizational …

Web Of Ties: The Effect Of Relationship Ties On Government Funding For Nonprofit Organizations, Anthony Heath Rico

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Chapter 1 raises the research question guiding this study. Do relationships that board members of nonprofits have to officials in other agencies affect the likelihood of acquiring grants? The objective of this study was to examine the role that relationship ties played in the nonprofit sector’s ability to receive grants.

Chapter 2 ties the research agenda to existing research. Nonprofit organizational and financial behavior was explained in terms of resource dependence. Since nonprofit organizations face uncertainty in resource allocation, the behavior of the organization and the board members change in reaction to uncertainty. The relationships that board members possess serve …

The Impact Of Cash Transfers On Labor Force Participation And Household Consumption: Evidence From Post-Apartheid South Africa, Steve M. M. Muchiri

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

The Old Age Pension (OAP) program for elderly South Africans puts a significant cash transfer in the hands of many poor households. This dissertation investigates its impact on labor force participation and consumption of selected household items. In the first half of the dissertation, we take advantage of a policy reform that lowered men's OAP eligibility age from 65 to 60 for men to match that of women for estimation identification. Using the General Household Survey data, we first demonstrate that both men and women respond to the eligibility age by dropping from labor force participation at the eligibility age, …

Coffee In China: Market Trend And Consumer Demand, Jesse W. Mattingly

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

Although it remains a tea consuming nation, both production and consumption of coffee in China has been increasing at double-digit rates and is not expected to slow down (International Coffee Organization (ICO), 2015). With investments and upward trends in production and rapid increases in consumption of coffee in China it is important for producers and retailers of the bean¹ in China to understand the new Chinese coffee consumer. Using survey data from Wuhan, China we help understand the Chinese coffee consumer by explaining their consumption using standard OLS regression. Results show that whether or not consumers make/brew their own …

Relationships Between Parental Self-Efficacy And Posttraumatic Growth In Mothers Of Children With Down Syndrome, Amanda A. Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the relationships between maternal variables (mother status (biological or adoptive), birth order of the child with Down syndrome, timing of diagnosis (in utero or at birth), mother’s age at time of birth or adoption, time elapsed since diagnosis and maternal psychological variables (parenting self-efficacy, and Posttraumatic growth). The current study hypothesizes that maternal variables will be positively related to parenting self-efficacy and that parenting self-efficacy will explain a significant portion of the variance in maternal Posttraumatic growth. Results indicated that maternal self-efficacy as measured by the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale was …

School Level Predictors Of Bullying Among High School Students, M. Alison Boswell

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Bullying is a universal problem affecting the emotional, social, and physical wellbeing of school-age children worldwide. Individual level correlates of bullying have been well-documented; however, there is limited research identifying variables at the school level which contribute to bullying involvement, especially among high school students. In this dissertation, school characteristics associated with bullying were investigated using an ecological systems framework.

In the first paper, a comprehensive review of the bullying literature was conducted. Research in the following areas were summarized: definitions of bullying, measures of bullying, individual correlates, influences of cognitive development and social context across age groups, contextual variables …

An Examination Of A Yoga Intervention And Elementary Students’ Selective Attention And Executive Function In The School Setting, M. Jill Rogers

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of yoga on children’s executive function and selective attention. There were three primary aims of this study. The first aim was to examine whether yoga would have a positive effect on children’s selective attention in a school setting. Another aim was to explore if teachers will report an improved change in children’s executive function in the classroom. The final aim was to determine if yoga would be a socially acceptable intervention to teachers and students. Participants included three fifth grade students and two teachers. Mixed methods were used to visually …

Socio-Spatial Mobilities In An Immigrant Gateway City: Analyzing Latina\O Experiences In East Boston, Mitchell Beam Snider

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation analyzes the ways in which Latino migrants in East Boston represent their material and imagined socio-spatial mobilities in the city. It considers the ways in which participants discuss the relationship of their mobilities to experiences of social exclusion and inclusion as well as feelings of belonging. The first empirical chapter specifically analyses how participants’ motility—or capacities for being mobile—interfaced with their experiences (or lack thereof) of onward migration. It finds that there is a complex relationship between onward migration and participants' motility. The second empirical chapter considers how participants represented encounters with others in the city as emotional …

The Emerge Difference: Effects Of Encouragement By Political Organizations On Women's Political Ambition, Ashleigh Hayes

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Substantive representation of women in elected positions is an area where The United States is lacking. Within the United States Congress, women are disproportionately less likely to be elected to office and it is much of the same at the state level. Nationally, women hold only 104 (19.4%) of the 535 seats in the United States Congress as of 2015 (8). At the state level, women fare somewhat better. Women comprise 24.2 percent of state legislatures nationwide (9). In the state of Kentucky, women hold 25 seats in the state legislature or 18.1 percent. This is far from equal or …

Across The States: Do Long Term Services & Supports Policies Affect The Number Of Nursing Home Residents With Low-Care Needs?, Mary Otis

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Long term care for the elderly has been steadily gaining salience in the public policy realm for many years. The federal government has been vigorously studying and exploring solutions, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) efforts to expand access to home and community-based services (HCBS) in order to reduce dependence on institutional care. These federal efforts include various incentive programs and policies recently offered under the Affordable Care Act. However, data on the strength of each state’s long term services and supports system has not been easily accessible until recently. The report “Raising Expectations: A State Scorecard …

The Working Lives And Spatial Practice Of Digital Media Developers In San Francisco, Daniel G. Cockayne

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

In this dissertation I examine work practices in the 21st Century, looking in particular at how categories such as labor and value are changing in the context of technological shifts and the valorization of entrepreneurial work. I take the example of digital media workers in San Francisco to show how work is changing in relation to correlative changes in the capitalist mode of production and the devaluation of labor under neoliberal models of reason. This approach interrogates how attachments toward work are produced and reproduced to ask why work has become such a naturalized and unquestionable category in everyday life. …

Text Messaging Appointment Reminders To Reduce No-Shows: A Pilot Study, Cameron M. Stephenson

DNP Projects

Background: Hospital and outpatient clinic no-show, did not cancel or did not attend rates are a serious problem to organizations across the United States health care system. No-show appointments reduce clinic productivity, wastes clinician time and clinic resources and can be detrimental financially. Bluegrass Pediatrics and Internal Medicine (BPIM) located in Georgetown, KY experiences these problems on a daily basis.

Purpose/Methodology. This quality improvement project consisted of evaluating the effects of text messaging on appointment attendance during 3 clinic weeks of February 2016. The sample was derived from all patients enrolled at BPIM with a scheduled well, established or routine …

Piloting An Intervention To Improve Continuity In Lung Cancer Patients, Stacy L. Richey

DNP Projects

Purpose: Kentuckians facing a lung cancer diagnosis are at greater risk for care fragmentation due to the complexities associated with the diagnosis, staging and treatment of the disease combined with multiple health disparities such as advanced age, multiple comorbid conditions, low socioeconomic status, geographic isolation, and low literacy levels. Transitioning from primary to specialist care can be especially difficult for these patients. The main purpose of this paper was to determine the feasibility and effect of a nurse-led, multidimensional intervention designed to improve relational (RC), informational (IC), and management continuity (MC) across the primary to secondary care interface, as well …

Identifying The Trauma Recovery Needs Of Maltreated Children: An Examination Of Child Welfare Workers' Effectiveness In Screening For Traumatic Stress, Adrienne Whitt-Woosley

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Children in the child welfare system comprise a group characterized by their exposure to trauma via experiences of maltreatment, under circumstances presenting multiple risk factors for traumatic stress. High rates of posttraumatic stress have been observed in this population. However, there is currently no standard for the universal screening of children in child welfare for trauma exposure and traumatic stress. The purpose of this study was to analyze the trauma experiences of a sample of maltreated children and examine whether child welfare workers are effective screeners of traumatic stress symptoms with children from their caseloads. Method: A sample of children …

Vocational Rehabilitation Outcomes For Hispanic Consumers In Traditional Settlement Areas And New Immigrant Destinations: A 17-Year Trend Analysis, Karen E. Waddle Cinnamond

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

At the end of the 20^th century, economic and political forces converged to create an unprecedented migration of Hispanics across and within U.S. borders. Many migrated for work in new destinations like the Southeast instead of traditional regions in the Southwest. In the Southeast many communities struggled to meet the economic and social needs of its newest members of a population that grew seemingly overnight.

The state-federal vocational rehabilitation system is an important service to meet the economic and social needs of people with disabilities that impair their ability to work. Current scholarship suggests Hispanics and other minorities experience …

Pipelines To Leadership: Aspirations Of Faculty In The Community College Kentucky Community And Technical College System, Erin C. Tipton

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Community colleges are challenged to find their next set of leaders who can respond to the diverse challenges of leading the institution. This study examined the impact of institutional and personal factors on faculty aspirations to leadership roles within the community college through the utilization of the Social Cognitive Career Theory framework. A case study research design utilizing mixed-methods investigated the perceived and preferred organizational culture(s) and the manner in which institutional and personal factors influence faculty aspirations to assume leadership roles at Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College.

The findings of the research indicate that affecting change and being …

Measuring The Levels Of Athletic Identity And Identity Foreclosure Of National Association Of Intercollegiate Athletics (Naia) Student-Athletes, Gavin P. Washington

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

During a person’s college years they are beginning to form identities and develop a sense of self. One of the most salient identities that college student-athletes identify with is their athletic identity. Numerous research studies have been conducted on the saliency of a student-athlete’s athletic identity, however the vast majority of those research studies examined student-athletes participating at the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division I level. This study was designed to extend the previous investigation of athletic identity and identity foreclosure among college students by focusing on athletes participating at the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) level.

By …

Chronic Pancreatitis, Pain, And Anxiety In An Alcohol And High Fat Mouse Model, Tiffanie Clinkinbeard

Theses and Dissertations--Gerontology

Homeodynamic space (HDS) shrinks as vulnerability increases with aging and repeated damage to the cells. HDS is lost in alcoholic pancreatitis patients due to overconsumption of alcohol, smoking, and high fat diets. Etiologically relevant animal models for study of chronic pancreatitis (CP) are needed. In order to begin filling this gap a central purpose of this dissertation research was to examine relationships between the alcohol and high fat diet (AHF) and pancreatitis with attention to hypersensitivity and anxiety-like behaviors. The AHF diet induced pancreatitis described here etiologically mimics human risk factors of AHF consumption for advancement to alcoholic CP.

In …

Impermeable Assemblages: Flooding, Urban Infrastructure, And Stormwater Politics In São Paulo, Brazil, Nate Millington

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This project analyzes efforts to remake the relationship between water and city in São Paulo, Brazil. Currently experiencing overlapping problems of flooding, scarcity, and pollution, São Paulo illustrates the challenges of managing water in a contemporary mega-city. This dissertation subsequently considers the city’s water management through an approach that borrows from urban political ecology, social studies of science, and post-colonial urban theory. With an epistemological grounding in these literatures, this project analyzes ongoing conversations about water management in São Paulo, and focuses on how water is encountered and engaged with in the landscape by engineers, artists, and activists. This project …

A Plural And Uneven World: Queer Migrations And The Politics Of Race And Sexuality In Sydney, Australia, Derek Ruez

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation examines how the geographies of sexuality and race shape queer migrants’ experiences of settlement and citizenship in Sydney, Australia. Against a backdrop of economic shifts in the Asia Pacific and Australia's long history of racialized exclusion, I conducted 43 in-depth interviews with queer migrants and '2nd generation' adult children of migrants who reflect the diversity of Australia's migration streams, including historically important migration from Southern and Eastern Europe and increasingly significant movements from South, Southeast, and East Asia. Through those interviews, I examined participants' migration histories, everyday spatial trajectories in the city, and involvement with queer and ethnic …

Income And Physical Activity Choices: A Comparison Between United States And China, Xiaowen Hu

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

The low income population often appears to make poor health choices, including physical activity deficiency. Since outdoor physical activity does not have to be monetarily costly, one explanation for this phenomenon is related to the idea of time preference. Briefly, the benefit of future good health appears to be valued less by those with low income, and they face a choice between consumption today and better health in the future. The objective of this study is to further investigate the determinants of participation in physical activity with an emphasis on the effect of annual household income. This dissertation consists of …

Northside, Jesse L. Houk

Theses and Dissertations--English

The Northside of Lexington, Kentucky is an area with its own culture, community and art. While living in this community I was able to learn, grow and develop alongside this newly renovated area. The people and their lives intersect in such a way that creates a tension at times. However, many social awareness advocates vie for the success of this neighborhood for many years to come. The objective of studying such an area as the Northside in Lexington is to focus on the similarites rather than the differences in culture, community and artistic endeavor. With a collection of essays and …

The Role Of Adult Attachment In International Students’ Acculturation Process, Miao Li

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

International students face a variety of challenges in their acculturation process. The acculturation process is a highly variable process that is influenced by the mediating and moderating effects of individual factors that exist prior to, or arise during, acculturation (Berry, 1997). Among the moderating personal factors existing prior to acculturation, adult attachment has received heightened attention as an important variable impacting the acculturation process and adaptation outcomes. Wang and Mallinckrodt (2006a) suggested that successful adaptation involves exploration of unfamiliar social situations that resemble the infants’ exploration of their physical surroundings. The acculturation process can be challenging and stressful because individuals …

What’S With All The “Hype?”: Racial Discrimination, Racial Identity, Racial Socialization, And Hypermasculinity Among African American Adolescent Males, Christina M.B. Jordan

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Experiences tied to individual and institutional racism have a long and persistent history of impacting the livelihood of African American people. Some theorists and researchers have argued that African American males have adopted masculine identities that emerged as coping responses to their experiences with racism and oppression (Cunningham, Swanson, & Hayes, 2013; Franklin, 2004; Majors & Bilson, 1992; Spencer, 1995). Younger males, are increasingly demonstrating an exaggerated form of masculinity (hypermasculinity) in response to their environments, particularly those in urban communities, as a coping response (Spencer, Fegley, Harpalani, & Seaton, 2004). The degree to which racial discrimination is related to …

Identifying The Core Elements Of Developing Student Leaders In A College Ambassador Program, Megan Tennison

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Within the university system, student organizations have historically had multiple positive influences on the students who choose to participate in them. This study looked at a particular banner organization in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the University of Kentucky. Using the Social Change Model of Leadership Development theory as a backbone, a survey was created to evaluate the impact UK CAFE Ambassador Program has on its participants, as well as to identify avenues for improvement. This is a program that seeks to represent the college through recruitment and to develop student leaders through soft skill building. After …

Three Essays On Unemployment Insurance In The 21St Century, Lewis H. Warren

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

My dissertation consists of three essays focusing on unemployment insurance (UI) and how it affects recipients. The first essay examines how UI generosity affects the search intensity of recipients through matching American Time Use Survey respondents to all of their observations in the Current Population Survey (CPS), the population from which they are drawn. Earnings from the CPS are then run through a benefit calculator that determines eligibility and benefit amounts which are used to determine how UI generosity affects search times. The second essay uses the Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine how lesser known policies affecting …

The Determinants And Trends In Public-Private Wage And Fringe Benefit Differential, Sun Ki Choi

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

The decline in private sector wages in the aftermath of the Great Recession reopened a longstanding debate about whether public sector employees make more than private sector employees. However, much of this debate has only focused on the difference in wages over the past few years. This paper uses the Current Population Survey from 1995-2013 to examine how the federal-private wage differential has evolved over time. Wage regressions are estimated by year for federal and private sector workers. I then use these estimates to calculate the federal-private wage differential. This is augmented with selectivity bias corrections for each year. Probit …

Three Essays On Export Concentration, International Environmental Agreements, And The Carbon Content Of Trade, Mihai Paraschiv

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

A common finding in the international trade literature is that economic integration leads to export diversification. By documenting a positive link between joining the European Economic and Monetary Union and bilateral export concentration, the leading essay shows that this is not always the case. Using a panel data approach, I find that exports between the Eurozone members are on average more concentrated than those among countries which do not share the euro. Central to this outcome is that some economic integration agreements, such as the European Economic and Monetary Union, may lead to a drop in not only trade but …