Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Child Care Self-Sufficiency Scale: Measuring Child Care Funding And Policy Generosity Across States, Karen Tvedt

Dissertations and Theses

Against the backdrop of welfare reform, this study examined the generosity of state child care programs with generosity being defined as the extent to which state funding and policies promote child care availability, affordability, and health and safety for low-income families. Despite variations in Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) implementation, no internally-consistent measure has existed that permits comparisons across the range of funding and policy indicators. This study addressed that gap by constructing a composite scale comprised of 12 indicators that were identified based on existing research and expert opinion to reflect key areas of state funding and policy …

The Institutionalization Of Diversity And Gender Equity Norms And Values In Higher Education Settings, Rowanna Lynn Carpenter

Dissertations and Theses

Universities in the United States increasingly experience demographic, business, and community pressure to hire, retain, and educate women and ethnic minority faculty, staff, and students. Responses to this pressure have changed over time from isolated open-door initiatives to comprehensive diversity initiatives designed to create welcoming campus environments for people of all backgrounds. Current literature on the assessment of diversity initiatives in higher education suggests the need to use approaches that include attention to the entire university, and to institutionalize the norms and values associated with diversity initiatives as part of the change process. Despite this shift toward a comprehensive understanding …

How Organizational Arrangements Affect High Reliability In Public Research Universities: Perceptions Of Environmental Health And Safety Directors, Rita Finn Sumner

Dissertations and Theses

The American research university is composed of two related but relatively independent structures. The academic core composed of faculty guilds, has the primary responsibility for academic content and quality. The administrative shell is responsible for mobilizing and distributing resources that support the work of the guilds and it protects guilds from harmful external forces. Part of the complex relationship between the academic core and the administrative shell is enabling the creation of internal quality through arranging institutional conditions to prepare resources to better manage risk. The need for research universities to develop infrastructures regarding environmental health and safety (EHS) to …

At Home In The World : The American Middle-Class House As A Twenty-First Century Public Square, Kathleen Holt

Dissertations and Theses

Using personal narrative, interviews, and research, this thesis project looks at how the middle-class American home has been transformed, by people like me, into a modem-day public square.

Challenging The New Penology: A Case-Study Analysis Of Correctional Management, Interstate Inmate Transfers, And Administrative Intent, Robert Thomas Swan

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of interstate inmate transfers (IITs) by prison wardens and the administrative intent that guide their use. This study assesses the explanatory power of the new penology in three cases and asks three broad questions of two prison wardens and the DOC: What correctional goals do you hope to accomplish with interstate inmate transfers? Why? And what contextual factors (if any) are felt to inhibit or facilitate these goals?

IITs are controversial. Supporters of IITs argue that in addition to serving the needs of correctional managers, they may also serve to …

Traumatic Experience Scale For Jurors (Tesj), Michael James Krummel

Dissertations and Theses

This comprehensive dissertation describes research that involved the development of a paper-and-pencil tool to inventory juror stress level(s) resulting from common types of Washington criminal and civil trials. It includes a general explanation of its rationale and development, and provides norms as well as evidence of its reliability and validity. Untreated stress can lead to several well-documented mental health conditions, the most serious two being part of this research: Acute Stress Disorder and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. The research on stress, trauma, the assessment of stress and trauma, and related therapeutic interventions have not been well correlated to the vicarious stress …

Up A Creek : The Perilous Journey Of Recently Uninsured Low-Income Adults In Oregon, Heidi Allen

Dissertations and Theses

In the United States, having health insurance is considered to be the best guarantee of having access to timely and effective health care services. With millions of uninsured adults in the U.S., many states have moved beyond traditional Medicaid programs and expanded eligibility to low-income adults who are not otherwise eligible for public health insurance. While popular with the public, these programs are vulnerable when states face economic downturns. Even during times of financial stability, Medicaid expansion programs experience significant amounts of program 'churning', and in turn, low-income adults experience health insurance discontinuity. For this reason, it is important to …

"Do I Really Belong Here?" The Effects Of Difference In Paths Through Higher Education On Graduate Student Perception On Legitimacy, Tina Dawn Lillian Burdsall

Dissertations and Theses

Why do some master's level students feel confident in completing their programs and some do not? Why do some feel connected to their department and some do not? Why do some feel legitimate as graduate students and some do not? This research proposes that there may be differences in how master's students understand the graduate student role based on whether they went directly from high-school through their bachelor's to their master's, or if they took time off between their bachelor's and master's program. This thesis used in-depth interviews with twelve second-year master's students at Portland State University to explore these …

Who Benefits? : A Multilevel Analysis Of The Impact Of Oregon's Volunteer Mentor Program For Postsecondary Access On Scholarship Applicants, Alisha Ann Lund-Chaix

Dissertations and Theses

Despite four decades of national policy interventions, equal access to postsecondary education has not been achieved. Though gains have been made, students of color, low-income students, and first generation students are still excluded from postsecondary participation. Early intervention programs and privately funded scholarships are among the many public and private voluntary responses to this problem.

Oregon's state-supported, school-based, volunteer mentoring program for equalizing postsecondary opportunities grew out of a long-standing partnership between a state administrative agency and statewide community foundation. Key program features reflect its origin: open eligibility for any student who wants to participate and reliance on a primary …

Work-Related Outcomes Of Financial Stress: Relating Perceived Income Adequacy And Financial Strain To Job Performance And Worker Well-Being, Lindsay Ellen Sears

Dissertations and Theses

With the onset of globalization, the economic contexts and working conditions within many countries are changing, presenting new challenges' for governments, organizations, and workers. Amid these challenges, concerns about personal finances are prevalent among employees and detrimental to workers' health, well-being, and families. Research on how this financial stress affects employees at work is lacking.

In this thesis, I propose an appraisal-based model of financial stress whereby actual income and expenses are related to perceptions of income adequacy to afford wants and needs. These adequacy perceptions are, in turn, related to financial strain, representing a heightened negative affective state regarding …

Benchmarking Community Investments In Green Building And Green Buying Programs In Five U.S. Cities, Shanna Nicole Eller

Dissertations and Theses

This is a study of what can be learned from leading U.S. cities about their work on environmental sustainability program efforts and what that information suggests for other cities considering a move into the environmental sustainability arena. The study focuses on green building and buying programs.

This is an exploratory study aimed at determining if detailed information, recommended for pursuit by Portney (2003), is available regarding: (a) how individual city sustainability programs got started; (b) how they maintain or fail to maintain themselves; (c) what they have been able to achieve programmatically; and (d) how effectively they have accomplished environmental …

Multi-Level Environmental Governance : A Comparative Case Study Of Five Large Scale Natural Resource Management Programs, Shpresa Halimi

Dissertations and Theses

Globalization is occurring at an unprecedented pace through the end of the twentieth century and into the new millennium. In such a world, governance is increasingly shared among governments, civil society organizations and businesses. Globalization has placed new demands on environmental management across national borders. Hence, changes in the environmental governance frameworks are required to create the enabling conditions for the effective management of the natural resources and the environment.

This study seeks to develop an integrated "Multi-level Environmental Governance" (MLEG) framework and to explore the relationship between the core characteristics of the framework and the achievements of large scale …

Physicians Providing Alternative Medicine: Boundary Crossing And The Emergence Of Integrative Medicine, Richard Scott Lockwood

Dissertations and Theses

Integrative medicine (IM) has organized as a new area of specialization in mainstream healthcare. The development of IM is widely attributed to popular demand for the range of therapies known collectively as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). During the 1990's the rate of acceptance of CAM accelerated among consumers, professions, financing and education. The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) measured CAM utilization and professional service provision during the years 1996 and 1998, but never since. These surveys were unique because they specifically inquired as to whether CAM was provided by a physician, among other types of professionals. This dissertation defines …

Sustainability From The Perspectives Of Indigenous Leaders In The Bioregion Defined By The Pacific Salmon Runs Of North America, David Edward Hall

Dissertations and Theses

Extensive research suggests that the collective behavior of humanity is on an unsustainable path. As the evidence mounts and more people awaken to this reality, increased attention is being dedicated to the pursuit of answers for a just and sustainable future. This dissertation grew from the premise that effectively moving towards sustainability requires change at all levels of the dominant Western culture, including deeply held worldviews. The worldviews of many indigenous cultures offer alternative values and beliefs that can contribute to addressing the root causes of problems related to sustainability. In the bioregion defined by the Pacific Salmon runs of …

The Washington State Patrol, Accountability-Driven Leadership, And The Organizational Factors That Propelled Their Success: An Organizational Analysis, Timothy Carl Winchell

Dissertations and Theses

In January 2002, Washington State Patrol (WSP) Chief Ronal Serpas, Ph.D., implemented his Accountability Driven Leadership (ADL) philosophy throughout the entire statewide public safety agency. The initiative was intended to re-focus personnel on agency strategic goals, objectives, and performance. ADL stressed Computer Statistic (CompStat) management tenants, decentralized decision-making, and efficiency and effectiveness performance measures.

Most CompStat research has been anecdotal in nature, meaning little empirical analysis has scrutinized the implementation of these initiatives in policing. Additionally, the principal researcher could not locate any research that examined these changes in a statewide law enforcement agency. Therefore, this case study contributes to …

Attributes Of Effective Head Start Mental Health Consultants : A Mixed Method Study Of Rural And Urban Programs, Mary Dallas Allen

Dissertations and Theses

Early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) is the primary strategy implemented by Head Start programs to address the social and emotional needs of children and their families, but little is known about the attributes of early childhood mental health consultants (MHCs) that contribute to consultants' relationships with Head Start staff and to consultation outcomes. The present study examined how attributes of MHCs contribute to positive relationships between the MHCs and Head Start staff and to improved consultation outcomes. Seven attributes of rural and urban mental health consultants were examined: MHC training, supervision, and support; MHC understanding of consultant role; MHC …

"Whose Streets? Our Streets!" Urban Social Movements And The Transformation Of Everyday Life In Pacific Northwest Cities, 1990-1999, Leanne Claire Serbulo

Dissertations and Theses

This project returns to the questions that were once at the center of the urban studies debate over social movements. What are urban social movements, and what impacts do they leave on the cities where they occur? Urban protests in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington are used as the foundation for exploring the following research questions: What urban social movements occurred in the Pacific Northwest during 1990s? What goals were these movements struggling for? What impacts did urban social movements have on daily life in Portland and Seattle?

While this project has continuity with earlier attempts to identify, describe, and …

Creating A Theoretical Framework For Understanding Homeland Security Using Multiple Frame Analysis, Linda Ann Kiltz

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to begin the effort to build a theoretical foundation for homeland security policy by analyzing the 1993 World Trade Center terrorist attack using multiple frame analysis (MFA). MFA consisted of three conceptual lenses: (I)-Homeland Security as a Criminal Justice Problem/Terrorism as Crime, (II)-Homeland Security as a International Relations Problem/Terrorism as War, and (III)-Homeland Security as an Organization Design Problem/Terrorism as a Network. These lenses were applied to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing using a case study methodology, thus creating a framework to analyze a singular critical event from multiple perspectives.

This research was …

Children With Incarcerated Parents : A Longitudinal Study Of The Effect Of Parental Incarceration On Adolescent Externalizing Behaviors, Jean Mollenkamp Kjellstrand

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past two decades, the number of imprisoned adults in the United States has quadrupled. Mirroring this trend is the rapidly increasing population of children with incarcerated parents. The initial findings of research on the effects of parental incarceration on children are disturbing, indicating a vulnerable group of children at risk for poor outcomes. Yet, research on these children remains limited. Several studies have focused on the description of these children, yet few have analyzed the relationship between parental incarceration and child outcomes in conjunction with other risk and protective factors. Understanding these relationships is crucial to the development …

Emerging Governance At The Edge Of Constrained Federalism : Public Administrators At The Frontier Of Democracy, Gary Lloyd Larsen

Dissertations and Theses

President Reagan and each succeeding President exerted significant effort to scale back the size and scope of federal executive branch agencies, a pressure that can be characterized as constrained federalism. This phenomenon is described by Kettl (2000) as the theory of New Public Management. I observe and theorize that a new form of governance is emerging as an unintended consequence of constrained federalism's attempt to replace governance with management in the name of efficiency.

This new form of governance arises when federal public administrators and citizens work together in partnerships to mitigate the immediate and more subtle adverse effects …

George Lakoff"S Theory Of Worldview : A Case Study Of The Oregon Legislature, Catherine Law

Dissertations and Theses

George Lakoff's theory of worldview presented in Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think (2002) has been a topic of interest and discussion in certain political and academic circles. To date, however, it appears that no empirical test of his theory exists. In this dissertation, Lakoff's theory of worldview is explored, using the Oregon Legislature as a case study. A survey instrument to test his theory was created and administered to members of the 2005-2006 Oregon House of Representatives. Cluster analysis and chi-square analysis were used in the data analysis to examine how well Lakoff's theory explains politics. It was …

Representation Without Taxation : China's Rural Development Initiatives For A New Millenium, Minzi Su

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this research is to assess the prospects for China's rural revitalization programs now in their initial stages of formulation and implementation. The study seeks to discover, primarily on the basis of field research in several different rural locations, what capacities and political-economic conditions seem to hold the greatest promise for success. The research was occasioned primarily by two key factors: First, China's party and government are now engaged in a massive program to create nothing less than a harmonious society, a key element of which is a "new socialist countryside." The second factor is that despite numerous …

Giving Process Its Due : Can Collaboration Help Environmental Markets Succeed?, John Robert Cochran

Dissertations and Theses

Emerging environmental markets assign economic value to ecosystem services and exchange them in market-like transactions. These markets are characterized by diverse stakeholder interests interacting with minimally defined transaction steps and high uncertainty. In this context, process plays an important role in shaping the institutions that make markets work or fail. If process matters, then market organizers need to intentionally craft processes just as they intentionally design institutions. This project explores a subset of four relatively established water quality trading programs that involved diverse stakeholders, and used differing forms of collaboration to design institutions. This research tests whether sometimes subtle changes …

Lost In Translation : Ideas Of Population Health Determinants In The American Policy Arena, Maria Gilson Sistrom

Dissertations and Theses

A growing body of research reveals the determinants of population health to be social, political and economic, yet health policy in the United States remains largely individualistic (Evans, Barer, & Marmor, 1994). At the same time research is revealing these structural determinants of health, measures of population health in the United States are worsening in comparison to other developed countries (Bezruchka, 2001). Explanations for this include the influence of culture, medical, public health and governmental institutions and historic development and processes on health policy. Researchers hold to a view of the policy process that is informed by science, yet policy …

Organizational Complexity In American Local Governance: Deploying An Organizational Perspective In Concept And Analytic Framework Development, Charles David Crumpton

Dissertations and Theses

Organizational complexity is a distinguishing characteristic of local governance in America's urban areas. Organizationally complex arrangements among jurisdictions, agencies, and private for-profit and not-for-profit organizations are frequently involved in the production and delivery of local public goods and services in the United States. In this dissertation study the author seeks useful explanations regarding emergence, operation and consequences of organizational complexity found in local public economies in the United States. The study draws on the author's professional practice and researcher experience and organizational theory to develop a conceptual platform for better understanding local public sector organizational complexity. The conceptual platform is …

The Effects Of Climate Change And Urbanization On The Runoff Of The Rock Creek Basin, Jon J. Franczyk

Dissertations and Theses

Climate changes brought on by global warming are expected to have a significant affect on the Pacific Northwest hydrology during the 21^st Century. Current research anticipates higher mean annual temperatures and an intensification of the hydrological cycle. This is of particular concern for highly urbanized basins, which are considered more vulnerable to changes in climate. Because the majority of previous studies have addressed the influences of either climate or urban land cover changes on runoff, there is a lack of research investigating the combined effect of these factors. The Rock Creek basin (RCB), located in the Portland, OR, metropolitan …

Organizational Change In Corrections Organizations : The Effect Of Probation And Parole Officer Culture On Change In Community Corrections, Shea Brackin Marshman

Dissertations and Theses

Current trends in the field of community corrections make it necessary for administrators to consider innovative organizational change strategies to increase public safety. However, criminal justice administrators face pressure to maintain the status quo even as they are expected to produce successful outcomes through innovative practices. The broader implication is that administrators will have to develop proficiencies in the interpretation of theoretical concepts to make meaningful decisions about how best to use scarce resources to measure organizational variables. This research uses a case study of one community corrections organization to demonstrate how administrators in community corrections might make use of …

Police Organizations : An Empricial Examination Of American Sheriff's Offices And Municipal Police Agencies, Matthew Adam Jones

Dissertations and Theses

The landscape of American policing is comprised of a myriad of police organizations, each serving a distinct function and populace. Yet, police reformers rarely recognize this and continue to disseminate 'umbrella' policy prescriptions to all policing organizations. This body of research argues that public and police administrators must take into account the nature of the organization and its constraining forces before prescribing change or initiating policy. I argue that to intelligently construct police agencies, prescribe policy, and accurately diagnose police organization behavior we must first have a strong idea, if not solid understanding, of the factors that shape and constrain …

Psychological Detachment As A Moderator In Work-Family Conflict Relationships, Lauren Ann Murphy

Dissertations and Theses

Psychological detachment from work during off-job time has great significance in the field of Occupational Health Psychology because it affects the process of work recovery. Recovery from work helps people to achieve a work-life balance that leads to psychological health and general well-being.

Measuring Community-Engaged Departments: A Study To Develop An Effective Self-Assessment Rubric For The Institutionalization Of Community Engagement In Academic Departments, Kevin Kecskes

Dissertations and Theses

Change in American higher education is occurring at a rapid pace. The increasing reemergence of civic or community engagement as a key component in the overall landscape of American higher is emblematic of that change. Academic departments play a critical role in higher education change, including institutionalizing community engagement on campuses. Yet, designing a way of measuring community engagement specifically at the level of the academic department has not been undertaken.

Based on advice from national expert/key informant interviews and the recognition of the importance of the role of academic departments in the overall institutionalization of community engagement in higher …