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Boise State University

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Influence Of K9 Partners On Law Enforcement Officers, Sydney Schultz May 2023

The Influence Of K9 Partners On Law Enforcement Officers, Sydney Schultz

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to examine if and how the personal and professional lives of K9-handling officers and their police department are impacted by having access to and working alongside K9s. It also considers the possible variation in degrees of attachment to one’s dog between K9-handling officers and members of the general public. Through an online survey, questions from the Perceived Stress Scale and the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale were asked to better understand how working alongside dogs can change levels of stress. It was found that K9-handling officers experience significantly lower levels of stress compared to non-K9-handling officers. Further, …


Voter Id Laws And Gendered Impacts On Voter Turnout, Jacqueline D. Franolich May 2023

Voter Id Laws And Gendered Impacts On Voter Turnout, Jacqueline D. Franolich

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Since well before the U.S. presidential election of 2020, voter identification laws have been a topic of discussion amongst politicians, voters, the news media, and scholars. Many have questioned the focus and true reason for their creation, their implementation, their effects and potential unintended consequences. Specifically, many have argued that voter identification laws pose too great a barrier to potential voters to be worth the benefits gained in election security. Since the election of 2020, those discussions seemed to magnify. For example, in a May 2021 speech, President Biden repeated similar assertions made in the past by scholars and activists …


Unheard Victims Of Covid-19: The Impact Of Mask Use On Communication For D/Deaf And Hard Of Hearing People, Kym Couch May 2023

Unheard Victims Of Covid-19: The Impact Of Mask Use On Communication For D/Deaf And Hard Of Hearing People, Kym Couch

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Masks are effective at preventing the spread of COVID-19, but they also impact communication for d/Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) people. This research is a mixed methods approach to analyzing the impact that the widespread use of masks in response to COVID-19 has had on DHH people. Building on the allowance for nuance and paradox presented by Deborah Stone in her book Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making (2012) and holding to the Social Model of Disability, this research involves the qualitative and quantitative analysis of a survey of one-hundred and ninety-eight (198) DHH people, interviews with …


A Different Kind Of Shot: The Covid-19 Vaccination Behavior Of College Students, Alexandra Maria Mccann May 2023

A Different Kind Of Shot: The Covid-19 Vaccination Behavior Of College Students, Alexandra Maria Mccann

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

COVID-19 and its mitigation through social distancing, masking, and preventative vaccination have impacted societies worldwide, leading to controversy regarding public health policy. This dissertation investigates the determinants of the vaccination behavior of 18-24-year-old college students in four-year public institutions in the United States, specifically concerning coronavirus. Of interest are reasons “why” or “why not” students would opt for or against the COVID-19 shot. Findings could aid in messaging public policy targeted toward a desired audience. Concepts related to policy, public health, beliefs, and their effects on the willingness to receive the coronavirus shot are explored. Prospect Theory – decision-making under …


Owed Work Ahead: Public Service Motivation, Corporate Social Responsibility, And The Deconstruction Of Davis-Bacon Noncompliance In Transportation Contracting, Jasmine Platt May 2023

Owed Work Ahead: Public Service Motivation, Corporate Social Responsibility, And The Deconstruction Of Davis-Bacon Noncompliance In Transportation Contracting, Jasmine Platt

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Noncompliance with the Davis-Bacon Act (1931)—the accidental or intentional disregard of a federal prevailing wage law—is among the most unethical crimes committed against a business’s own workforce. With the threat of sanctions unpersuasive to preventing fraud, a more forbearing eye may be required to understand the understudied construction companies pressed to ‘serve two masters’ in public-private partnerships. This dissertation uses nested data from 26,903 highway and bridge construction- and construction-adjacent firms, funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and contracted by 28 state Departments of Transportation between 2010-2019, to answer the overall question: do firms that feel like government comply …


The Impact Of Free Tuition On Course-Level Student Outcomes, Thomas Sharpe May 2023

The Impact Of Free Tuition On Course-Level Student Outcomes, Thomas Sharpe

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The United States has experienced a substantial increase in tuition rates for higher education. At the national level free tuition at two-year public institutions has been one solution proposed by various leaders. The College of Southern Idaho (CSI) is a two-year public institution with an emphasis on serving the eight county South Central Idaho region. In the Summer of 2021, a year into the COVID pandemic, CSI leveraged federal COVID support funds to implement “First Eight on Us”. This first-dollar program provided students with up to eight credits for free, with minimal requirements. Then, in Summer 2022, a revised “First …


Authoritarian Tendencies In The American Presidency, Erica Serros May 2023

Authoritarian Tendencies In The American Presidency, Erica Serros

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis attempts to determine if authoritarian tendencies are becoming more or less prevalent in the modern American presidency. Presidential and authoritarian scholars agree that authoritarianism is trending in a more insidious manner in the modern world and that most democracies today are being subverted more inconspicuously by elected officials. The most powerful checks on the power of the president are Congress and the judicial branch, two institutions that do exercise their constitutionally granted powers in some cases, but do not always exert their power in solidarity, leading to discrepancies in the constraint of the president. The presence of conflict …


Anticipating The Impacts Of The Social, Political, And Biophysical Landscape On Long-Term Connectivity For Reintroduced Plains Bison, Jamie Ann Faselt Dec 2022

Anticipating The Impacts Of The Social, Political, And Biophysical Landscape On Long-Term Connectivity For Reintroduced Plains Bison, Jamie Ann Faselt

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Intense anthropogenic pressures on the natural environment have created the need for implementing strategies that promote or restore habitat connectivity. The ability for animals to move between habitat patches allows animals to find mates, access resources, and shift their range in response to the changing climate and ensures that ecological and evolutionary processes persist. Connectivity conservation typically focuses on biophysical barriers to animal movement, but for many species reintroductions, establishing and maintaining connectivity often requires overcoming both ecological and socio-political barriers. Despite the need to navigate complex socio-political landscapes to implement connectivity conservation plans, datasets depicting those conditions are rarely …


Sexually Selected Preferences For Human Altruism Across Sexual Orientation, Gender, Age, And Reproductive Status, Katherine Valinske Kappelman Dec 2022

Sexually Selected Preferences For Human Altruism Across Sexual Orientation, Gender, Age, And Reproductive Status, Katherine Valinske Kappelman

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Prior studies have attempted to establish how human altruism has evolved, including theories of kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and costly signaling. Recent investigations have explored the evolution of altruism as the result of sexual selection, where individuals may exhibit altruistic behavior because it is preferred by potential mates. In this study, I examine how altruistic behavior toward different people (family, friends, strangers, or general altruistic acts) is preferred when considering potential short-term and long-term mates. While previous research has examined this question using college-aged heterosexual participants, this study uses a more diverse sample, including individuals who identify as LGBTQ, those …


The Effect Of The 2018 Tariffs On European Wine, Henry Johnson Dec 2022

The Effect Of The 2018 Tariffs On European Wine, Henry Johnson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This paper estimates a vector autoregression model for average wine prices across U.S. cities to assess the impact of tariff changes on the U.K., France, Germany, and Spain after they were enacted in October 2019. It uses impulse response functions to gauge how a one-unit impulse in the per-liter duty rate may effect the average wine price in the U.S. and the quantity of wine from various exporters to the U.S. It finds that a one-unit impulse in the duty rate levied against the bloc of countries impacted by the tariff results in a fall in the quantity of wine …


The U.S. Endangered Species Act And Agency Discretion: The Role Of Public Commenting During The Rulemaking Process, Krista Helmstadter Lyons Dec 2022

The U.S. Endangered Species Act And Agency Discretion: The Role Of Public Commenting During The Rulemaking Process, Krista Helmstadter Lyons

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The most recent International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List classifies 40,084 out of the 142,577 evaluated species as threatened with extinction, with 1,962 of those species identified in the United States. The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) was enacted in 1973 to protect and recover threatened and endangered species from extinction. The ESA federal listing process can be lengthy and arduous, taking years for a species to be proposed for listing. During the process the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) seeks comments from the public and peer reviewers on the proposed rule. Previous research debates the …


The Effects Of Mental Training On Acute Psychophysiological Stress Responses In Endurance Athletes, Shelanda Antonia Maria Kujala Dec 2022

The Effects Of Mental Training On Acute Psychophysiological Stress Responses In Endurance Athletes, Shelanda Antonia Maria Kujala

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: In sports, pre-competition stress responses can influence performance. Mental skills training is a strategy used to successfully mitigate stress responses and positively impact performance. Psychological (e.g., anxiety) and physiological (e.g., cortisol) stress responses are not often measured in a single study, providing an incomplete picture of athlete experiences. When researchers have measured these constructs together, studies have excluded endurance athletes and ways to effectively buffer stress responses. Purpose: The current study had two aims. 1. How will athlete’s perceptions of stress and physiological markers of stress be related to each other? 2. How will athlete’s perceptions of stress and …


The Intersections Of Sex And Inequality In A Mixed Status Industrial London Sample, Anna Green Aug 2022

The Intersections Of Sex And Inequality In A Mixed Status Industrial London Sample, Anna Green

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Saint Pancras Burial Ground and its inhumated priests, paupers, aristocrats, and migrants provide a unique perspective into the interactions between sex and inequality in 18th and 19th century industrial London. Frequencies of caries, dental calculus, periodontal disease, linear enamel hypoplasia, periapical lesions, tuberculosis, treponematosis, rickets, and trauma among 224 females from St. Pancras were compared to 27 low-status females from Crossbones Burial Ground and 74 primarily high-status females from Chelsea Old Church Cemetery. Based on the information known about those buried at St. Pancras, it was hypothesized that the frequencies of health indicators in St. Pancras should fall between the …


Going Viral: A Qualitative Analysis Of The Anti-Vaccine Movement & Social Media, Corinn Evancho Schumacher Aug 2022

Going Viral: A Qualitative Analysis Of The Anti-Vaccine Movement & Social Media, Corinn Evancho Schumacher

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In the recent years of the rise of Web 2.0, health information has become more accessible. With this shift has come a reliance on social media to inform and educate the masses on vaccines. With the introduction of the Covid-19 vaccine, the conversation surrounding vaccines moved to the forefront of the United States’ zeitgeist from late 2021 to early 2022. In this research, I conducted a case study on the communication surrounding vaccines on social media while examining specific Facebook groups that advance the misinformation surrounding vaccines. I examined over 300 posts from four public Facebook groups in order to …


An Empirical Study Of Rational Addiction: The Effects Of Quitting Aids On Smoking Cessation, Cade White Aug 2022

An Empirical Study Of Rational Addiction: The Effects Of Quitting Aids On Smoking Cessation, Cade White

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the relationship between the use of quitting aids and smoking cessation using United States (US) survey data from the 2018-2019 Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS). Becker and Murphy’s (1988) theory of rational addiction implies that strong rational addictions must terminate abruptly. In other words, strong addictions only cease by the user quitting “cold turkey”. I empirically test this hypothesis using a “double-hurdle” approach, outlined by Jones (1994). A smoker’s decision to quit and their conditional quitting success is modeled in two stages. In the first stage, a probit model is estimated for their …


Making In The Midst Of Pandemic: The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Two Public Library Makerspaces, Stacey Woods Aug 2022

Making In The Midst Of Pandemic: The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Two Public Library Makerspaces, Stacey Woods

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on makerspaces in the United States which were subject to public health guidelines and challenged with limited/no access to facilities. This multi-case study examined two public library makerspaces, and addressed these research questions: (1) How did the pandemic affect makerspace operations and access, and the teaching and learning that occurs there? (2) How did makerspace leaders respond to the challenges of the pandemic? (3) How did makerspaces evolve during the COVID-19 pandemic? I developed the Conceptual Framework for Studying the Impact of Pandemic on Public Library Makerspaces which informed the …


Evaluating Imf Structural Conditionality And Good Governance: Has Streamlining Worked To Reduce Corruption?, Yila Ataman May 2022

Evaluating Imf Structural Conditionality And Good Governance: Has Streamlining Worked To Reduce Corruption?, Yila Ataman

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

At the turn of the century, while facing significant criticism for the inherent invasiveness of structural conditionality, the frequently high number of conditional requirements attached to loans, and relatively low implementation rates of conditional reforms, the IMF made a series of changes to their conditionality practices to streamline back to their core organizational mission of macroeconomic stability. The IMF defends its continued use of structural conditions with the institutional transparency and accountability that these conditions seek to impose, thereby reducing corruption. IMF structural conditions can however create new opportunities for corrupt linkages to develop and limit the state’s institutional capacity …


Climate Shocks And Violent Conflict Incentives: Evidence From The Indian Sub-Continent, Thomas Campbell May 2022

Climate Shocks And Violent Conflict Incentives: Evidence From The Indian Sub-Continent, Thomas Campbell

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

How much do climate shocks impact different societal actors’ incentives to commit direct acts of violence? This thesis argues that different climate shocks and their effects introduce incentives for different societal actors to increase and reduce their likelihood of committing direct acts of violence, which is in line with Brzoska’s (2018) claim. The results of this thesis’ analysis support that different climate shocks can lead different societal actors to commit acts of violence.


Covid-19 Policies And Recreation Behavior: An Economic Analysis, Sophia Croome May 2022

Covid-19 Policies And Recreation Behavior: An Economic Analysis, Sophia Croome

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

A number of studies have examined park visitation patterns and consumer preferences using available national and state park visitation data (Kupfer et al., 2021; Volenec et al., 2021; Wood et al., 2013; Yan et al., 2021a). However, municipal park visitation remains largely understudied due to the difficulty and costliness associated with data collection and analysis. This study utilizes high frequency mobile device location data to measure changes in municipal and state park visitation caused by COVID-19 response policies. We exploit spatial and temporal variation in COVID-19 mandates at the county level in the U.S. state of Idaho and at the …


Arguing For The Philosophy Of Political Science, Robert Herold May 2022

Arguing For The Philosophy Of Political Science, Robert Herold

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

While there are many working scientists who engage in things like theory building and empirical testing, there has also been a group of scientists who sought to better understand the philosophy behind science. This philosophical study of science as a project is referred to as the philosophy of science and there are different sub-fields for each of the natural and social sciences, except for political science. This lack of an explicit sub-field dedicated to reflecting on our philosophy of science, i.e., our beliefs, values, methods, etc., has caused this knowledge to become tacit within our community. Because the knowledge of …


Predicting Gross Metropolitan Product Worldwide Using Statistical Learning Models, Socio-Economic, And Satellite Imagery Data, Simin Joshaghani May 2022

Predicting Gross Metropolitan Product Worldwide Using Statistical Learning Models, Socio-Economic, And Satellite Imagery Data, Simin Joshaghani

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Gross metropolitan product (GMP) is one the most critical indicators for determining a metropolitan area’s economic performance. While GMP data currently exists for major cities in the US and OECD countries, the rest of the world is a blind spot. This study aims at estimating the GMP of 1289 cities in non-US and OECD countries, where no official city-level statistics are produced. We perform this estimation through multiple machine learning models, using night-time lights satellite imagery, and other publicly available data. We analyze eight spatial databases and four cross-sectional datasets and derive a feature vector of covariates through various techniques, …


Do Casinos Create Economic Development?: A 15-Year National Analysis Of Local Retail Sales And Employment Growth, Jonathan Lawrence Krutz May 2022

Do Casinos Create Economic Development?: A 15-Year National Analysis Of Local Retail Sales And Employment Growth, Jonathan Lawrence Krutz

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Casino gambling has exploded across the United States over the past 30 years. Both the academic literature and gambling proponents agree that promises of economic development have driven casino policy decisions. While such claims are tempting to policy makers, the academic literature has been largely skeptical of both the methodologies and conclusions of the casino-sponsored research behind them. For such claims to be true, retail sales and employment must grow faster in local economies with casinos than in similar locations without them. Economic theory and academic research suggest that casinos do not attract new money to an area but instead …


Deviating From The Plan: Assessing The Impact Of Forest Management Delays On Ecosystem Function, Kathryn Joyce Murenbeeld May 2022

Deviating From The Plan: Assessing The Impact Of Forest Management Delays On Ecosystem Function, Kathryn Joyce Murenbeeld

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Forests are under increasing stress due to changes in disturbance regimes, such as wildfire and pest or disease outbreaks, an increase in more severe and prolonged drought, and changes in land use. These stressors are already having an observable impact on forests in the western United States. Many forests within the western US are managed by the US Forest Service. Forest management is important as a tool for increasing a forest's ability to withstand or recover from these stresses. Additionally, because of the forest’s influence on interactions between the land surface and the atmosphere, forest management has implications for future …


The Effects Of Covid-19 Shelter In Place Policies On Us Demonstrations, David A. Newton May 2022

The Effects Of Covid-19 Shelter In Place Policies On Us Demonstrations, David A. Newton

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study provides evidence of a link between Shelter in Place (SIP) policy response during the pandemic and demonstration events. Through the combination of daily county-level government policy response to SIP implementation to limit the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States (US) and cell phone mobility data, this research studied how demonstrations and violence are affected following shutdown policies. A dynamic framework is visible due to the staggered effect of policies implementation across the US. At the national level, the results showed reduced participation in demonstration events at the national level, suggesting that increasing social costs may …


Votes And Voices: Minority Languages And Electoral Substate Nationalism In Spain And The United Kingdom, Valeryn Shepherd May 2022

Votes And Voices: Minority Languages And Electoral Substate Nationalism In Spain And The United Kingdom, Valeryn Shepherd

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Substate nationalist political parties are a key component of the electoral politics of Spain and the United Kingdom. The demographic support that these parties receive is often tied to speakers of regional languages. In this paper, six regions in the two countries - Scotland, Catalonia, the Basque Country, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Galicia - are examined using geographic data analysis to determine whether communities with a high level of minority language speakers are more likely to vote for substate nationalist parties. In most of the cases, I find that there is a strong connection between the two.


The Risk Of Adolescent Victimization: Assessing Elements Of The Social Bond Theory, Jaime Antonio Negrete May 2022

The Risk Of Adolescent Victimization: Assessing Elements Of The Social Bond Theory, Jaime Antonio Negrete

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Travis Hirschi’s social bond theory holds that the social bonds (attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief) individuals have with parents, friends, extracurricular activities, work, and school can affect an individual’s life choices. When social bonds are weakened, broken, or nonexistent, the lack of these bonds can explain why crime and delinquency occur. Therefore, Hirschi believed that asking why offenders “do it” when it comes to crime is irrelevant. Rather, we should be asking “why don’t we do it” when it comes to crime and delinquency, which lead Hirschi to believe that the answer to that question could be answered by the …


The Theory Of Mattering: Implications For Adolescent Depression And Suicidal Ideation, Josie Lucretia Bryan May 2022

The Theory Of Mattering: Implications For Adolescent Depression And Suicidal Ideation, Josie Lucretia Bryan

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies have suggested that mattering may influence both self-esteem and depression, and the perception of not mattering can lead to suicide ideation, attempts, or completion. When young people perceive they matter to those in their social environment, that sense of mattering can act as a protective factor. Existing research supports the notion that mattering is salient to adolescent development and, importantly, potentially malleable which could make it a prevention/intervention factor. The current study endeavored to identify contributing factors to adolescent perceived mattering and to test the Theory of Mattering in an adolescent population when predicting mental health outcomes. A …


Rural Embodiments Of Femininity: An Autoethnographic Approach To Gender Narratives, Randi Wichman May 2022

Rural Embodiments Of Femininity: An Autoethnographic Approach To Gender Narratives, Randi Wichman

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The socialization one experiences throughout their lifetime informs their communication behaviors with others around them. Coming of age in a rural, Westernized geography instilled in me a unique sense of femininity that was constructed to complement the narratives significant to the cultural context of Rural America. This research discusses multiple dominant and marginalized forms of gender and these identities’ relationships to the gendered experiences that I had growing up in rural Montana. This autoethnography is composed of narrated experiences, pre-teen assessments, and poetic descriptions of the disciplining I was confronted with throughout my childhood in my small, ranching community. I …


Technology, Public Participation, And The American Bureaucracy: Participatory Technology Assessment In United States Federal Agencies, Christopher George Torres Aug 2021

Technology, Public Participation, And The American Bureaucracy: Participatory Technology Assessment In United States Federal Agencies, Christopher George Torres

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes three participatory technology assessment (pTA) projects conducted within United States federal agencies between 2014 and 2018. The field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) argues that a lack of public participation in addressing issues of science and technology in society has produced undemocratic processes of decision-making with outcomes insensitive to the daily lives of the public. There has been little work in STS, however, examining what the political pressures and administrative challenges are to improving public participation in U.S. agency decision-making processes. Following a three-essay format, this dissertation aims to fill this gap. Drawing on qualitative interviews …


Comparative Investigations Of Population Health In Urban Military And Non-Military Communities Of Roman Britain, Marina Elizabeth Noble Aug 2021

Comparative Investigations Of Population Health In Urban Military And Non-Military Communities Of Roman Britain, Marina Elizabeth Noble

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This research compiles and compares the biological health profiles of three urban populations at Venta Belgarum (Winchester), Londinium (London), and Eboracum (York) as a means for assessing health and status differences between military and non-military urban populations in Roman Britain. Data concerning a total of 1,334 individuals representing all ages and both sexes were analyzed between the three cemetery samples. Estimations of mean stature, rates of periosteal reaction, porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia, linear enamel hypoplasias, and trauma are compared here in an effort to discuss relative health, status, and inequality within the wider populations of urban non-military communities (Venta …