Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rebuilding The Appalachian Economy From The Ground Up: Towards A Holistic Organizational Framework For Community And Economic Development In Rural Extractive Areas, Brandon M. Dennison

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Central Appalachia specifically and rural extractive areas more generally face some of the most challenging socio-economic realities in North America. Community-based organizations (CBOs) are an important tool for addressing these challenges. As governments intensify efforts to mitigate climate change, and as fossil-fuel industries contract, extracted communities are experiencing economic, cultural, and environmental upheaval. Many leaders call for a “just transition” away from fossil-fuels, which would make local extraction communities whole. However, achieving a truly just transition away from fossil fuels is extraordinarily challenging, and many extracted communities were never whole to begin with. I argue CBOs are the crucial vehicle …

It’S A Bleed: Pediatric Hemophilia And Length Of Stay, Rural Vs Urban Hospitals, Daniel G. Liedl

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Hemophilia is a rare genetic disorder that requires specialty care and treatment. Pediatric patients with hemophilia have unique medical issues that may lead to permanent disability or death if not properly diagnosed and treated in a timely manner. Due to lack of resources and proper training of staff, rural hospitals are not equipped to properly treat pediatric hemophilia patients. Utilizing the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Kids´ Inpatient Database (KID) of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. I have found, across all hospital types, pediatric hemophilia patients have longer lengths of stay, 2.7 days for rural hospitals, 4.6 …

High School Students’ Learning During The Covid Pandemic: Perspectives From Health Sciences And Technology Academy Participants, Sherron Benson Mckendall, Alan Mckendall, Ann Chester, Catherine Morton, Sean Freeland, Summer Kuhn, Mary Mcmillion

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper examines the perspectives of Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) participants as they navigate through their West Virginia (WV) high school learning environments (i.e., in-person, blended/hybrid, complete virtual) during the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. In March of 2020, the participants in this out-of-school-time (OST) academic enrichment program for exceptionally driven, yet underprivileged, at-risk students, with over 70% living in rural areas, started receiving remote learning instruction through learning management systems or via paper packets. In August of 2020, school systems provided parents and caregivers alternative learning environments for their student(s). In order to understand the learning experiences …

Community Dynamics And Crime In Rural West Virginia Communities, Holly V. Ryczek, Robert Nicewarner

Mountaineer Undergraduate Research Review

There is a tendency for sociologists and criminologists to study crime in urban contexts rather than in rural areas and places outside small towns. Therefore, some suspect that theories of urban crime do not necessarily fit these rural areas. For example, collective efficacy in urban neighborhoods has been found to be inversely related to crime and fear of crime. In rural areas, this connection has been difficult to study because rural places are structured differently than urban neighborhoods. In this study, we expand the notions of collective efficacy in neighborhoods by introducing community dynamics. We show how latent psychodynamic processes …

A One-Session, Brief Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Workshop For Chronic Pain Patients: A One-Sample Pretest-Posttest Prospective Exploratory Study, Kelly Anne Thomas Ms

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Chronic pain affects one in every four persons (NIH, 2010). For individuals residing in rural communities where chronic pain treatment is often not accessible (Artnak et al., 2011), a one-session brief mental health intervention is a critical healthcare need. More specifically, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for chronic pain is a novel treatment approach in need of more research (Society of Clinical Psychology, 2016). This current study contributes to the gap in the literature by implementing an ACT workshop in a rural healthcare setting for individuals with chronic pain. It was hypothesized that the workshop would increase adaptive coping mechanisms …

Enabling And Threatening Factors Affecting Persistence. A Qualitative And Quantitative Study On Rural First-Generation Stem Students’ And Stem Faculty's Perspectives., Travis A. Miller

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study focuses on the factors that enable and threaten rural first-generation STEM students’ persistence. Limited empirical studies are available that focus on rural first-generation STEM majors’ persistence. Quantitative analysis was conducted using Kruskal Wallis H and Mann-Whitney U tests to determine any significant differences with the survey results. Content and thematic analysis was conducted on the student and faculty interviews to determine themes of enabling and threatening factors affecting persistence.

Enabling factors affecting persistence were found to be: Drive or Motivation, Experiences and skills, and Support. These were both faculty and student interview themes whereas a …

Accessible Design In Rural Health Care: Usability Profile Of Outpatient Health Care Facilities In Rural West Virginia., Jordan E. Miller

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990. Since then, research has shown that people with disabilities continue to experience environmental, systematic, and structural barriers to health care. The purpose of this research is to explore the prevalence of barriers in rural West Virginia health facilities and the relationship between building characteristics (like age and purpose) and accessibility. The researcher evaluated ten rural outpatient member-sites of the West Virginia Practice-Based Research Network using a survey to understand building characteristics and a tool to measure essential features for a facility to be considered ‘usable’. Findings included a negative correlation …

Lyda Judson Hanifan, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Lyda J. Hanifan was one of the original staff members of the West Virginia Department of Education, and internationally celebrated as the first author to formulate the concept of social capital.

Empowering Youth Through Research: Adolescents’ Perceptions Of Physical Activity Interventions In Appalachian Communities, Sam Zizzi, James Rye, Elizabeth Vitullo, Nancy O'Hara-Tompkins

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Active participation in evaluation and research projects can empower youth and effect community change. Adolescents along with supervising teachers participating in after-school Health Sciences and Technology Academy clubs conducted research projects to increase physical activity in Appalachian communities. The sample involved 50 adolescents who participated across one of six focus groups. Two primary themes emerged from the focus groups, indicating the impact of the research experiences on students, teachers, and their communities. First, students reported increased public health and research competence as well as feelings of self-worth. Second, the participants reported developing a stronger sense of the barriers to and …

The Influence Of Socioeconomic And Environmental Factors On Health And Obesity In Rural Appalachia, Anura Amarasinghe, Gerard D'Souza, Cheryl Brown, Hyungna Oh

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

A recursive system of ordered self assessed health (SAH) and a binary indicator of obesity were used to investigate the impact of socioeconomic and environmental factors on health and obesity in the predominantly rural Appalachian state of West Virginia. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data together with county specific socioeconomic and built environment indicators were used in estimation. Results indicate that an individual’s risk of being obese increases at a decreasing rate with per capita income and age. Marginal impacts show that as the level of education attainment increases, the probability of being obese decreases by 3%. Physical inactivity …

Multiple Roles Of A Rural Administrator, Roger A. Lohmann, Nancy Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Basic administrative procedures are similar in rural and urban areas. Even so, rural human service administrators are often not prepared for the many roles they must assume in small and underfunded rural agencies. The roles may include personnel director, budget officer, accountant, fundraiser, supervisor, building and maintenance supervisor, volunteer coordinator, group developer, community organizer, public educator, policy analyst, and director of public relations and marketing.

Rural Social Work Bibliography (1999), Roger A. Lohmann, Nancy Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This bibliography was assembled in response to a request from OUP for a rural bibliography on their website prior to publication of our edited book on Rural Social Work Practice (Oxford University Press. 2005).

Why Didn't The Dogs Bark?, Roger A. Lohmann, Shirley Stewart Burns

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This study examines patterns of news coverage of five West Virginia mining disasters in local, regional and national news media. It grew out of an effort to follow up an earlier study of relief efforts at the Monongah mine disaster of 1907. One of the principal findings is that local newspapers consistently provided limited coverage of mining disasters and almost no coverage of relief efforts carried on in the wake of disasters. National coverage, by the New York Times and regional coverage by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reveals a number of persistent themes and some important differences.

Comprehensive What? Coordination Of Whom? Area Agencies On Aging And The Planning Mandate (Revised), Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The rural agency on aging did not – could not – engage in effective social planning because it was charged with a full range of responsibilities for sub-state decisionmaking among competing grant applicants. Several aspects of the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) planning mission are identified and discussed including “plan preparation”, rational decision-making, sub-state allocations and needs meeting. Widespread acceptance of the legitimacy of AAA planning goals generated three alternative models, which are termed the case management, inter-organizational and community structural approaches. More effective approaches to rural social planning might have combined elements of these three approaches in a regional …

Social Work Practice With The Rural Aged, Nancy Lohmann, Roger A. Lohmann, Ellen Netting

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Approximately 27 percent of America’s aged live in rural areas. Despite similar problems, however, there are substantial differences in the nature of human services designed to meet these needs in cities and rural areas. This chapter examines rural problems and services in health, income, housing and social integration. In addition, unique rural issues of community outreach and professional relationships in rural areas are examined.

The Rural Social Development Research Group At West Virginia University, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper is intended to present and discuss the emergent research program on social work in rural areas at the WVU School of Social Work, It also outlines a program of future research, and attempts to do that by outlining a research focus that is small scale, cost conscious, practice oriented and designed to place social work at its core. Finally, the intent is to suggest a clear and enduring linkages between what social work research and social work practice in rural areas.

The Politics Of Aging And Rural Social Services: An Exploratory Analysis, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The advent of federal funding for rural social services during the late 1960s and 1970s brought about changes in the political organization of rural America. A host of new organizational actors, like Area Agencies on Aging and various local aging agencies were created in rural communities across the country, in the wake of Baker v. Carr with its “one man/one vote” principle and funding through programs like the Economic Opportunity Act and the Older Americans Act. This article details a leadership succession model suggesting that local leadership of aging interests went through at least four distinct phases during this time: …

Urban-Designed Programs For The Rural Aged: Are They Exportable?, Roger A. Lohmann, Nancy Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

There are a variety of problems that affect older people in rural areas. In the first part of this paper, we examine four problems affecting the rural aged in particular: health, income, housing and social integration into rural communities. In the second part of the paper, we examine the question of whether programs to deal with these problems that have developed in various cities in the United States can readily be translated into rural communities. The paper concludes with a warning that the urban crisis, largely discovered by human services and other urbanists in the 1960s, is increasingly being expropriated …