Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

La Casita Center: An Accompaniment Based Approach To Social Justice And Social Service., Ben Harlan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

La Casita Center is a Louisville based nonprofit organization that accompanies Latinx immigrants in the Louisville Metro area. and that is led and staffed by Latina immigrants. In this thesis, I investigate how employees of this Latinx-immigrant led nonprofit organization, navigate challenges to both administer service and build community using the model of accompaniment. Organizations like La Casita are critically important for Latinx newcomer communities in the United States and as neoliberal and nativist-inspired policiescontinue to oppress and marginalize, La Casita provides a model for what it means to center inclusion, belonging, community, and solidarity. In a global landscape of …

Meeting The Mental Health Needs Of College-Aged Young Adults: Evaluating The Value And Impact Of Digital Mental Health Interventions., Sara Atherton Choate

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND: The growing prevalence of common mental health problems poses a serious hindrance to young adults, and the majority of those in need of mental health support do not seek professional psychological services. Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) that allow for self-management of mental health symptoms could provide a useful adjunctiveto traditional one-on-one counseling or therapy and offer a useful prevention tool for students at risk for experiencing mental health crises. This dissertation explored the efficacy of self-guided DMHIs targeting college students, the factors associated with help-seeking in young adults, and the impact of implementing an evidence-based DMHI at a …

Disparate Sense Of Exclusion Between Young People Of Color Living Within Variable Social Infrastructures., James M. Joyce

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I analyzed transcripts of listening sessions with youth/young adults of color in 2021-2022 for the purpose of addressing local racial inequity during COVID-19. I used inductive coding methods and found three themes on sense of exclusion to be most salient. These themes related to racial exclusion, exclusion of social infrastructures in the community, exclusion of young people of color by people working in schools and other public settings, and exclusion or disconnection of young people of color from opportunities for building community. I show how these themes vary across some dimensions of the local social infrastructure, and I discuss implications …

Divided We Fall: Gender-Based Occupational Segregation In Kentucky’S Executive Branch 2012-2020., Hillary Mcgoodwin Abbott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fifty-eight years have passed since the Title VII of the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 was signed into law, yet discrimination in employment still occurs; the Kentucky Executive Branch is no exception. This paper will use Theodore Lowi’s agency typology and EEOC categorical data from the 2012 and 2020 Kentucky Office of Diversity and Employment Training Semi-Annual Report on Female and Minority Employment (SAR) to identify gendered occupational segregation in three distinct Executive Branch agencies, address potential contributing factors and areas of change (Alkadry & Tower, 2006; Lowi, 1985; Newman, 1994; Escriche, 2007). Addressing any underlying discriminatory practices that may …

The Impact Of Criminal Justice Involvement: Examining Experiences In A Housing First Program., Amanda N. Denton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system are more likely to experience housing instability and homelessness, which, in turn, increases the likelihood of subsequent criminal justice involvement. Due to a lack of federal funding, as well as disjointed and inconsistent policies regarding eligibility criteria, people with criminal records are unlikely to receive federal rental assistance. While the exclusion of people with criminal histories is presented as necessary to protect communities and residents from crime, improving access to stable housing may reduce recidivism, incarceration rates, and correctional costs and increase public safety. The present study examined the differences …

Presence Of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 In Urban Streams Receiving Sewer Overflow, Louisville, Kentucky, Usa., Cullen Hunter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pathogens may enter surface waters as they are shed in human feces and potentially delivered to surface waters via sewer overflows, particularly in the eastern United States. This study examined of the presence of fecal indicators in two forks of Beargrass Creek in Louisville, Kentucky. Surface water grab samples (N=30), sediment samples, water quality, and a paired wastewater surveillance study were analyzed. SARS-CoV-2 was detected in a single stream sample despite ubiquitous presence of the virus within the area in wastewater and consistent evidence of a human fecal indicator. These findings demonstrate the need for more green and gray infrastructure …

A Spatial Analysis Of Supply-Demand Of Public Transportation In Jefferson County, Kentucky., Nastaran Abdoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Public transportation is important as it serves individuals, especially the transit-dependent population, by providing a basic mobility service to these people and all others who rely on public transportation. This research utilized estimating public transportation demand and supply to analyze the spatial patterns of public transportation in Jefferson County, Kentucky. The study focuses on the transit-dependent population, and it considers indicators of age, poverty status, vehicle ownership, and foreign-born population with less than five years residency in the United States. This study conducted a public transit supply-demand analysis to identify areas with imbalanced supply and demand in Jefferson County at …

In Need Of A Hero? The Creation And Use Of The Legend Of General George S. Patton, Jr., Nathan Curtis Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During WWII, General George Patton became the hero Americans needed through the creation of a self-crafted brand and with help from journalists. After Patton’s death, opportunists forwarded a legend narrative that developed into a collective memory that morphed over time to meet contemporary challenges. Stakeholders of that collective memory commemorated and memorialized the dead hero for monetary and political gain, to promote patriotism, make military doctrinal changes, and even promote peace. Today, this collective memory has potential for the U.S. Army as it transforms civilians into soldiers and officers. This study contributes to history and memory studies by linking representations …

Peer Verbal Sexual Harassment In Early Adolescence: A Feminist And Sexual Scripts Theoretical Approach., Shawn M. Rolfe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Until recently, sexual harassment research has focused primarily on adults and college and high school students with little attention given to younger students. While recent research has noted sexual harassment occurs among younger students, the literature addressing sexual harassment among middle school students is still sparse. Additionally, most studies of sexual harassment have focused on sexual harassment generally, with no distinction made between verbal and sexual harassment. In fact, only limited research has been exclusively conducted on verbal sexual harassment. Using self-report data, the current study adds to the literature by examining the nature of verbal sexual harassment as well …

Geographic Imaginaries Of Urban Spatial Segregation: A Case Study Of The West End Neighborhoods In Louisville, Kentucky., Amber Dock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to translate the framework of geographic imaginaries into an urban context in order to capture a narrative of how residents conceptualize and experience segregation. This framework is rooted in an investigation of local discourses as they exist within a specific social, political, and historical context. Institutionalized segregation and structural racism are the foundations on which the American urban context studied here was built upon. This study employs multiple methods, including contextualizing the study area, analyzing discursive content, and visualizing the results. The results of these analyses included empirically connecting concentrations of protected classes to …

Hirschman's Voice, Exit, And Loyalty Framework In The Context Of Charter Schools And Secession: A Discourse Analysis Of Indiana Newspaper Editorial Items, 1990 To 2014., Glyptusann Grider Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I apply secession to Hirschman’s (1970) classic framework to develop a notion of charter school secession. I build beyond his constructs, which I define as Voice₁, Exit₁, and Loyalty_District in the case of dissatisfaction with traditional school governance, to explore whether there is a rhetorically discernible “battle” in Indiana’s charter school development such that actors: (1) have a crisis of legitimacy (claim) against the local school or district (Voice₂); (2) seek to leverage charter school formation as the mechanism to withdraw and establish independence (Exit₂); and (3) defend …

Predictors Of Binge Drinking Among Military Veterans: A General Strain Theory Approach., Emily Ann Hayden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is theoretically informed by General Strain Theory (GST) (Agnew 1992, 2002), and examines binge drinking within a military veteran population. It begins with an assessment on reform and focuses on shaping knowledge around the issue of binge drinking by military veterans. The current study uses Agnew’s GST to argue for an understanding of how strain and stress can affect individuals who have served in the military and acknowledges how this strain can lead to negative coping mechanisms such as binge drinking. The latter part of the dissertation argues that understanding Agnew’s GST (1992, 2002) with a military population …

Campus Recreation Inclusion For People With Disabilities: A Qualitative Investigation Of Current Inclusive Practices., Tyler C. Spencer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the current practices of campus recreation professionals to create inclusive campus recreation programs, services, and facilities. The researcher identified twelve campus recreation programs known by their peers and the industry to be at the forefront of providing inclusion efforts to people with disabilities. Through in-depth discussions with campus recreation practitioners at the twelve identified institutions, the investigation elicited a variety of interesting results. Utilizing the frameworks of Critical Disability Theory and Universal Design, this investigation identified how campus recreation practitioners perceive the inclusiveness of their campus recreation departments and how the campus recreation practitioners developed their inclusive …

"We've Been Here All Along" : The Standpoint And Collective Resilience Of Transgender U.S. Service Members., Jacob R. Eleazer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 2010 repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy ended the ban on open lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) military service (Alford & Lee, 2016). However, prior to 2015 transgender military personnel were still considered medically and psychologically unfit for service (Kerrigan, 2012; Yerke & Mitchell, 2013). From 2015 through 2017, the Department of Defense (DoD) researched the implications of policy change, developed new policies and trainings, and implemented open service for transgender persons (Belkin, 2016; Carter, 2015). The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of transgender military service members prior to this transition in …

Impartiality, Social Network Effects And Collective Memory: Three Essays On Trust In Police., Matthew Robert Fischer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an historical and empirical examination of police organizational efforts at influencing public perceptions of trust in police. It begins with an historical overview of police organizational reform, focusing on the various strategies employed by police reformers have attempted to influence public perceptions of police trustworthiness and legitimacy. It uses Rothstein’s impartiality as Quality of Government thesis and the theory of collective memory to argue for an understanding of the importance of the normative context in which police tactics and strategies are deployed for garnering trust in police and how the presence of social network effects for trust …

Comparative Spending Of Medicaid Dollars On Child Participants Of Kentucky’S Sobriety Treatment And Recovery Teams Program Versus A Matched Comparison Group., Matthew Thomas Walton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Child protective services agencies have long observed the complicating role that parental substance use and addiction plays in cases of child maltreatment. Families who struggle with these problems present unique challenges for child welfare professionals. These families are typically more difficult to engage, more likely to have children removed from the home, and have poorer outcomes when compared to other families. These poorer outcomes often include health problems. Addiction has well-known effects on health, and the specific manifestations of these problems for parents have been documented for years in child protection casework. However, what has been less investigated are the …

Public Policy And Strategies To Support Institutional And Technological Innovations In The New Water Economy: The Example Of Innovation Technology Clusters In Developing And Diffusing Water Technologies., Craig Francis Barham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A long list of water technologies has been central to human development throughout history. From the well in ancient times to desalination in the contemporary period, water technologies are needed to produce, distribute and treat water to support human life, industry, agriculture, and environmental health. As human development puts intense pressure on the planet's limited fresh water supplies, society is turning to increasingly innovative water technologies to close the supply-demand gap. The water economy represents a significant share of total economic output it its own right, while at the same time water directly or indirectly underpins all other economic activity. …

The ‘Just City’ Or Just A City? : Evaluating Social Justice And Equity In Planning Education., Wes Grooms

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary evaluations of accredited planning education performance have eschewed the principles and methodologies of formal program evaluation and performance management. This dissertation tests hypotheses that this contributes to the lack of social equity and justice commitment, content, and inquiry on the part of accredited graduate planning degree programs, their clients, and administrators. The organizations, resources, and processes involved in the purveyance of accredited graduate planning education were conceptualized as a singular, evaluable program and illustrated in a series of program logic models. These models revealed sources of the inattentiveness to normative issues that past evaluations have evidenced, and informed assertions …

State-Reinforced Self-Governance Of Community-Managed Open Spaces In Chicago, Il And Louisville, Ky., Willow Sequoia Dietsch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As urban populations rise, small greenspaces, like gardens, are increasingly important to well-being of communities, and urban sustainability as a whole. However, past development, and current political and economic challenges encumber many cities in providing adequate greenspace. Cities like Chicago, IL and Louisville, KY have turned to the communities to manage greenspaces with help from partner organizations. This thesis examines these arrangements, and compares them in terms of several potential factors, (i.e. legal authority, responsibility, and support). Semi-structured interviews of important community greenspace stakeholders, and archival sources including original documents, news articles, and government reports, were used to understand the …

Cost Burden Of Social Isolation For Wheelchair Users In Louisville, Kentucky., Connie Light

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Social isolation is an important predictor for poor health status, chronic diseases, and healthcare utilization and costs. There is a growing number of Americans with one or more disabilities, and evidence suggests that many are also socially isolated. This is especially true for those with immobility, as the built environment including housing structures are not universally designed to be accommodating. Immobility describes those who use walkers, canes, or wheelchairs, with the latter suffering the most impact. The cost of social exclusion can be measured by the exacerbation of disease in wheelchair users, whose fragile health status and social networks …

Lgbtq+ Nondiscrimination Laws In Kentucky., Christopher M Wales

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the political and demographic obstacles facing the Fairness movement in Kentucky in regards to local employment protection ordinances for LGBTQ+ persons (Fairness Ordinances). Using case studies on recent Fairness debates in Berea and Bowling Green, this thesis explores the concern some Kentuckians have about LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination ordinances in their communities. From these cases studies, it can be concluded that many of the concerns espoused by opponents of Fairness are simple scare tactics with no evidence supporting their claims. This thesis then utilizes a logistical regression to uncover what demographic characteristics increase the odds of a municipality possessing …

Exploring The Barriers To Effective Federal Flood Mitigation In The Mississippi River Region., Linda Kay Bailey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a comprehensive study of flood mitigation in the Mississippi River region as it is impacted by federal flood policies and programs. The study begins with a historical narrative of flooding events and flood mitigation that provided the impetus for federal flood mitigation in the late 1920s. The historical narrative sheds light on issues related to federalism, path dependency, dynamic growth, and socio-culture influence during the development of flood mitigation policy. Growth machine theory is used to describe how inequality and disparate access to political power has worked to exacerbate flood disaster outcomes and how this dynamic is …

A Cross-Sectional Exploration Of Household Financial Reactions And Homebuyer Awareness Of Registered Sex Offenders In A Rural, Suburban, And Urban County., John Charles Navarro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As stigmatized persons, registered sex offenders betoken instability in communities. Depressed home sale values are associated with the presence of registered sex offenders even though the public is largely unaware of the presence of registered sex offenders. Using a spatial multilevel approach, the current study examines the role registered sex offenders influence sale values of homes sold in 2015 for three U.S. counties (rural, suburban, and urban) located in Illinois and Kentucky within the social disorganization framework. Homebuyers were surveyed to examine whether awareness of local registered sex offenders and the homebuyer’s community type operate as moderators between home selling …

Governing The Urban Water Commons : Essays On Collaborative Policy Networks In A Polycentric Ecology Of Urban Water Policy Games., Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Governing social-ecological systems, such as the urban water commons, is a multi-scale and multi-sector (polycentric) human-environment process. This dissertation interrogates this process by situating itself within the Ecology of Games Framework by Norton Long (and updated by Mark Lubell) and the literature on polycentric governance by the Bloomington School of Political Economy. The dissertation’s three essays 1) offer both theoretical and methodological means to enact polycentric public economies within the ecology of games framework, and 2) explicate the conditions under which interoganizational collaboration is fostered within a polycentric ecology of policy games in governing the Middle Rio Grande urban watershed. …

Urban Governance Reconsidered : Assessing The Roles Of Public-, Private-, And Third Sector Leaders In Governing The Modern City., Benjamin Colby Leamon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As central cities redefine themselves after decades of commercial abandonment, “urban renaissance” movements, white flight, and the gentrification of their central urban neighborhoods, are cities still governed by the political-business coalitions conceptualized by urban regime theorists, or have new players emerged? Further, as cities continue to evolve within the post-Fordist landscape, do extant theories of urban governance, themselves built upon decades-old observations, continue to provide adequate models for urban governance as it actually exists in cities today? This dissertation is a quantitative and qualitative examination of contemporary urban governance in the United States, and the roles of CDCs and anchor …

Structure, Spending, And Democracy : A Study Of Municipal Governments., Neal Mcintyre Turpin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The debate over the effect of government structure is one of the most examined aspects of administration. At the municipal level, much of this work has focused on the structural reforms of the Progressive era. Three of these reforms –city managers, at-large elections, and non-partisan elections –were meant to make cities more professional and efficient. Three more –initiatives, referenda, and recalls –were meant to make cities more democratic. A large segment of this literature has studied what effects these structures have on local government spending, and results have been mixed. This dissertation seeks to examine what effects structural reform elements …

How The City Of Indianapolis Came To Have African American Policemen And Firemen 80 Years Before The Modern Civil Rights Movement., Leon E. Bates

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores a series of events that occurred in the spring of 1876. The relationship between the Indianapolis city government, the Marion County Courts, the Indianapolis Police Department, and the African American community came together to usher in changes never before envisioned. The Indianapolis Police Department (IPD) was formed in 1855, then disbanded 12 months later in a political dispute. From 1857-to-1876, the IPD was all white. These changes took place as the Reconstruction era was coming to a close. The first Ku Klux Klan was at its apex, terrorizing black communities, and Jim Crow was coming into its …

Constructing Urban Life : A Study Of Automobile Dependency In 148 Mid-Size U.S. Cities., Chad Paul Frederick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Automobile-dependent sprawl remains the dominant urban development paradigm in the United States. One reason for this is that the automobile is assumed to be more beneficial to the local economy than it is detrimental to society. Both sides of this assumption are wrong. First, local economies do not benefit much from automobile dependency. On the contrary, multimodal cities have lower unemployment, higher wages for African-Americans, and more efficient property markets. In addition, while it is true that multimodality means slightly higher taxes, the total value of living in multimodal cities far surpasses automobile-dependent cities with a massively improved quality of …

An Exploratory Study Of Existing State Anti-Bullying Statutes., John-Robert Curtin, Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative exploratory study examines the current state of school anti-bullying legislation in the United States by reviewing the 50 state statutes and builds on the work of Sameer Hinduja, and Justin W. Patchin, (2015) and Sacco, D, Silbaugh, K, Corredor, F, Casey, J, Doherty, D. (2013). Their work on comparing state bullying statutes did not address restorative justice/practices, protections for special populations, safe-reporting systems, or stakeholder knowledge. This study addresses these four areas that were not addressed and they are the focus. In addition, this exploratory study addresses the following questions:

• What are the theories that explain youth bullying? …

Exchange Patterns And Relations In Collaborative Governance., Charles Wharton Kaye-Essien

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collaborative governance has received considerable attention in recent years. From environmental resource management to public safety, collaborative governance continues to play a vital role in regional problem solving. In spite of this increasing popularity previous attempts to model the political, economic, and demographic determinants of collaboration have in most cases produced inconsistent results, thereby undermining the ability to generalize from such findings. Additionally, our understanding of the relational patterns that emanate from collaborative agreements remains fairly rudimentary. The main objective of this research is to address some of the gaps in the literature and improve our understanding of collaborative governance …