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Theses/Dissertations

University of Texas at El Paso

2022

Articles 1 - 30 of 42

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Development Of A Trauma-Informed Care Measure: Can Universal Precautions Address The Complexity Of Trauma?, Jennifer A. Castaneda Dec 2022

The Development Of A Trauma-Informed Care Measure: Can Universal Precautions Address The Complexity Of Trauma?, Jennifer A. Castaneda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A system that is trauma-informed, recognizes how interpersonal, community, and organizational systems contribute to health outcomes. Currently, research on TIC has been unable to translate basic scientific findings of trauma to research studies that evaluate the implementation of TIC. As such, the field is unable to offer valuable recommendations to implement TIC in different settings. The present study aimed to develop a measure of TIC to be used in medical settings. The resulting measure was revised through qualitative feedback from individuals who have experienced trauma and tested with an online convenient sample. The measure was re-evaluated with a second sample …

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The Real Face Of Borderline Personality Organization Within Intimate Partner Violence, Adriana Isabel Patino Dec 2022

The Real Face Of Borderline Personality Organization Within Intimate Partner Violence, Adriana Isabel Patino

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study tests the relationship between IPV perpetration and victimization with BPO. Results indicate that, as predicted, BPO is positively associated with both IPV perpetration and victimization and is more prevalent in female perpetrators and victims than in male perpetrators and victims. However, contrary to what previous literature says, self-control does not show enough significance to state that it is one of the leading causes of IPV perpetrated by those who present traits of BPO. In addition, results also indicate that having suffered from physical abuse during childhood diminishes the probability of perpetrating IPV. To fully understand these results, future …

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Glacier Segmentation From Remote Sensing Imagery Using Deep Learning, Bibek Aryal Dec 2022

Glacier Segmentation From Remote Sensing Imagery Using Deep Learning, Bibek Aryal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Large-scale study of glaciers improves our understanding of global glacier change and is imperative for monitoring the ecological environment, preventing disasters, and studying the effects of global climate change. In recent years, remote sensing imagery has been preferred over riskier and resource-intensive field visits for tracking landscape level changes like glaciers. However, periodic manual labeling of glaciers over a large area is not feasible due to the considerable amount of time it requires while automatic segmentation of glaciers has its own set of challenges. Our work aims to study the challenges associated with segmentation of glaciers from remote sensing imagery …

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Exploring How Morality Framing And Partisanship Influence Public Perceptions Of Immigration, Gerardo Jesus Flores Dec 2022

Exploring How Morality Framing And Partisanship Influence Public Perceptions Of Immigration, Gerardo Jesus Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The goal of this thesis research project is to provide a new theoretical outlook that explores and analyzes how morality framing may affect American political preferences and behavior. Partisanship and ideological preferences have long been acknowledged as significant predictors of political behavior in the American electorate. I posit the framing of the key issue of immigration through a moral prism can increase support for presidential proposals and may counteract or even overpower the effects of partisanship. When oneâ??s views on morality and partisanship are at odds with each other on a given issue, I expect respondents who self-identify as morally …

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Preventing Civil War: The Role Of Independent Courts, Hector R. Mendoza Dec 2022

Preventing Civil War: The Role Of Independent Courts, Hector R. Mendoza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the role of judicial institutions, typically overlooked in conflict studies, in their capacity to reduce the likelihood of conflict such as civil wars. I argue that courts that enjoy judicial independence can provide institutional mechanisms that reduce conflict, such as civil war. Specifically, I employ several rare events logistic and OLS regression models with robust clustered standard errors testing the effects of judicial independence on civil war likelihood and regime opposition size. The results indicate that judicial independence and judicial power have inconsistent and mixed results across these models and generally do not support the theory. In …

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Authoritarian Regimes And Public Goods Structure And Survival, Benjamin Torres Dec 2022

Authoritarian Regimes And Public Goods Structure And Survival, Benjamin Torres

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

What explains the variance in the level of public goods provision in authoritarian regimes? Naturally, there are differences in the capabilities of states, however, there is a noticeable trend in the level of output from certain authoritarian states. Democracies have a clear causal mechanism for public goods provision, which is the electoral mandate, but dictatorships lack this feature. Hence the question is posed, why do some authoritarian states put so much effort into the provision of public goods? Singapore is considered one of the most developed states in the world, (outperforming some of the most democratic states.) yet it is …

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Transportation Asset Management For The Electric Road System, Kamalen Maria Santos Diaz Dec 2022

Transportation Asset Management For The Electric Road System, Kamalen Maria Santos Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Electric road systems (ERS) have been presented as a new solution towards a sustainable transportation future, fueling the widespread adoption of electric vehicles by eliminating range anxiety, reducing battery size, and being regional friendly. These systems consist of four components: electric power supply, roads, vehicles, and operations. Much of the early research conducted on ERS has been on how to initially construct these systems by focusing on the first three components, however, there is limited knowledge on how ERS will impact traditional road operations after the systems are in place. Transportation Asset Management (TAM), a major focus within the transportation …

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Sources Of Top-Down Processing In Recognition Of Repeated Speech In Noise, Liam Gleason Dec 2022

Sources Of Top-Down Processing In Recognition Of Repeated Speech In Noise, Liam Gleason

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prior research has shown that repetition facilitates speech recognition in difficult listening environments, as indicated by more accurate reporting and lower subjective noise ratings. Both effects were found even when sentences were read at encoding, suggesting that the top-down processing involved comes from a modality-general level of representation (Gleason & Francis, 2021). We investigated whether this top-down processing comes from the semantic or lemma level of language representation. Bilingual participants listened to sentences in English and Spanish. At test, these sentences and new sentences were presented auditorily in English with background noise. After listening to each sentence, participants reported the …

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Predictive Utility Of The El Paso Pretrial Risk Assessment Instrument - Revised (Eppra-R), Chelsea Sierra Queen Dec 2022

Predictive Utility Of The El Paso Pretrial Risk Assessment Instrument - Revised (Eppra-R), Chelsea Sierra Queen

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Pretrial risk assessments are used to divert defendants from pretrial detention by estimating risk of pretrial specific outcomes (i.e., failure to appear, rearrest). Ongoing validation of this tool is recommended to assess accuracy and ensure that there is no bias against specific subgroups (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, or age) of defendants. The present study evaluates the utility of a locally developed instrument in El Paso County - a predominantly Latinx county. Area Under the Curve (AUC) Receiving Operator Condition (ROC) analyses indicate statistically â??fairâ?? predictive utility for the tool. Binary logistic regression models suggest no evidence of bias. This study will …

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Self Stigma Of Seeking Psychological Help As A Predictor Of College Students' Alcohol Use And Consequences During Covid-19, Aitiana Ivonne Sanchez Dec 2022

Self Stigma Of Seeking Psychological Help As A Predictor Of College Students' Alcohol Use And Consequences During Covid-19, Aitiana Ivonne Sanchez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

COVID-19 has caused continuous depression, anxiety, and stress, in addition to the already increased symptoms of mental illness typically seen among college students. While diagnosed mental illness is common among college aged individuals, college students frequently experience undiagnosed symptoms of mental illness as well. Additionally, college students typically do not disclose any information regarding experiencing symptoms of mental illness and thus do not receive proper treatment for these undiagnosed disorders. There are numerous reasons students choose not to disclose having a mental illness; however, stigma surrounding mental illness and seeking psychological help stands as the most prominent reason. Untreated mental …

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Teachers' Perspectives On Decolonizing U.S. Curriculum For Latinx Through Ethnic Studies Programs At The Middle And High School Levels, Richard Varela Dec 2022

Teachers' Perspectives On Decolonizing U.S. Curriculum For Latinx Through Ethnic Studies Programs At The Middle And High School Levels, Richard Varela

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand the implementation of an ethnic studies program with an emphasis on Mexican American Studies at the middle and high school level, in a district located along the Mexican/U.S. frontera. Ethnic Studies are a critical, interdisciplinary academic field of study that acknowledges that race, and racism are embedded in every U.S. system, especially our educational institution. As a critical pedagogy, ethnic studies validate and encourages the voices and viewpoints of the marginalized, while analyzing and criticizing dominant influences that promote â??normalizingâ?? of racialized inequality (de los Rios, 2013). At the center of ethnic …

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Female Fighters: Why And How Do Women Rebel?, Alexandra Giggie Dec 2022

Female Fighters: Why And How Do Women Rebel?, Alexandra Giggie

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

No abstract provided.

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Who Said What To Whom?: Contextual Memory Processes In Bilinguals, Naoko Tsuboi Dec 2022

Who Said What To Whom?: Contextual Memory Processes In Bilinguals, Naoko Tsuboi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Source memory is memory for sources of information (who gave the information), whereas destination memory is memory for destinations of information (to whom the information was given). Prior literature found that source memory exceeded destination memory, and destination memory was impaired remarkably under high cognitive demand tasks. These findings supported the attention hypothesis, the idea that greater attentional resource availability leads to better source and destination memory. The current study extended prior source and destination research to bilingualism because bilinguals are thought to have a greater attention control ability than monolinguals. In the only published study to compare bilingual and …

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Mental Illness Labeling In Justice-Involved People, Elena Therese Vaudreuil Dec 2022

Mental Illness Labeling In Justice-Involved People, Elena Therese Vaudreuil

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

While it cannot be denied that there is a strong correlational relationship between justice-involvement and mental illness, research has demonstrated that severe mental illness is rarely the direct cause of criminal activity. However, stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental illness are often rooted in incorrect generalizations regarding the link between mental illness and unpredictable, dangerous behavior, which can be magnified by labels (e.g., "schizophrenic" or "criminal"). This reduction of a person to a label results in a number of negative outcomes, ranging from the prejudice and inequitable treatment one may experience from groups such as justice workers, police, and employers …

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Development Of Balanced Mix Design Quality Control Specifications Based On The Acceptance Limits Of Hma Performance Tests, Lucas Tameirao Abrantes Aug 2022

Development Of Balanced Mix Design Quality Control Specifications Based On The Acceptance Limits Of Hma Performance Tests, Lucas Tameirao Abrantes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

With the augmented use of recycled materials, recycling agents, modified binders, andwarm mix asphalt additives, several highway agencies including the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), have considered methods to improve the durability and long-term performance of asphalt concrete (AC) mixes. The need for performance tests that could consistently evaluate the rutting and cracking potentials of AC mixes became crucial as the popularity of the Balanced Mix Design (BMD) concept has increased over the years. A concern now is related to the practicality of these tests for routine use in the process of quality control and quality assurance during the field …

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Effects Of Ceo Social Networks On Firm Innovation Strategy, Jinxin Yang Aug 2022

Effects Of Ceo Social Networks On Firm Innovation Strategy, Jinxin Yang

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prior research studying the effects of CEOs on innovation are primarily based on Upper Echelon Theory, which indicates the intrapersonal characteristics among executives in their experiences, values, and personalities could be indispensable antecedents for firm innovation, while the implications of their interpersonal differences have hardly yet received enough attention they deserve. To advance CEO social networks and innovation research, therefore, we attempt to provide some insightful findings through this dissertation series with two papers. In the first paper, we examine the general relationships between two important CEO social network characteristics (network centrality and structural holes) and firm exploratory innovation, and …

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Ready Player?: Sex And Race In Video Games, Matthew Michael Espino Aug 2022

Ready Player?: Sex And Race In Video Games, Matthew Michael Espino

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As a child, I had always been fascinated with video games. Sure, I used video games as a way to relieve stress mainly, but I found myself drawn into the worlds that I was immersing myself in. These worlds are filled with social structures, cultures, governments, even religions. Once I started doing research in college, I took a bit of a step back from the games I loved and took a broader look at what I was playing. Specifically, I wanted to see what these worlds had to offer in terms of representation of races, gender, and non-human characters. These …

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Experiences Of Latinidad And First-Generation College Students In Jane The Virgin: Using Auto-Historia Teoria And Finding Coyolxauhqui, Gema Sarahi Lopez Aug 2022

Experiences Of Latinidad And First-Generation College Students In Jane The Virgin: Using Auto-Historia Teoria And Finding Coyolxauhqui, Gema Sarahi Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis is an examination of the importance of Latinx and first-generation college student representation in media. By using autohistoria-teoría and content analysis, I aim to find the ways in which the show, Jane the Virgin, influences my experiences of Latinidad as well as how it represents the first-generation college experience and how those relate to my own. I use Gloria Anzaldúa's model to study identity dealing with nepantla, arrebatamientos, and the Coyolxauhqui process to discuss my own identity.

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Violent Radicalization In Support For Right-Wing Authoritarian Leaders, Collective Action For White Nationalism, And Voting Restrictions, Angel D. Armenta Aug 2022

Violent Radicalization In Support For Right-Wing Authoritarian Leaders, Collective Action For White Nationalism, And Voting Restrictions, Angel D. Armenta

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Framing cultural and demographic change as abrupt or continuous is theorized to respectively worsen and reduce intergroup hostility (e.g., anti-immigrant policy endorsement, prejudice, discrimination). Psychological anchors and propellors are theorized to respectively exacerbate and lessen negative reactions toward cultural and demographic change. Two experiments applied the Cultural Inertia Model to 1) identify methods through which majority groups attempt to maintain the status quo as a function of demographic change (i.e., support toward right-wing authoritarian leaders, collective action for White nationalism, and voting restrictions), 2) identify who is more likely (i.e., high levels of national nostalgia) or less likely (i.e., high …

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Trauma And Resilience Among Migrant Children From Mexico And The Northern Triangle Eroute To The United States, Georgina Sanchez-Garcia Aug 2022

Trauma And Resilience Among Migrant Children From Mexico And The Northern Triangle Eroute To The United States, Georgina Sanchez-Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Children who experience the phenomenon of migration from the Northern Triangle region and Mexico en route to the United States face pressing problems with psychosocial consequences that ostensibly affect them and are reflected in the violation of their human rights. We studied trauma and resilience among migrant children from Mexico and the Northern Triangle nations â??Guatemala, El Salvador, and Hondurasâ?? who are uprooted from their communities to undertake the dangerous overland journey to the United States (Lusk & Sanchez-Garcia, 2021; Rodriguez, 2020; UNICEF, 2018). The experience of such migration for children can be fraught with hardship, and it may have …

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"Building The Plane As We Fly It": Tesmonios Of First-Time Mexican American Studies High School Teachers During The 2021-2022 School Year In Southwest Texas., Jesse Soledad Arrieta Aug 2022

"Building The Plane As We Fly It": Tesmonios Of First-Time Mexican American Studies High School Teachers During The 2021-2022 School Year In Southwest Texas., Jesse Soledad Arrieta

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Mexican American Studies, as a course, was approved by the Texas State Board of Education in 2019. However, there were no provisions on how the course would be implemented or supported by school districts in Texas. Further, in 2021, Texas House Bill 3797 and Senate Bill 3 were passed into law, aiming at the heart of Ethnic Studies - Critical Race Theory (CRT). Utilizing testimonio as methodology and method, I sought to understand the experiences of first-time Mexican American Studies high school teachers implementing Mexican American Studies during the 2021-2022 school year in Southwest Texas. Testimonio interviews with six teachers …

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High School Career Guidance: From The View Of A Street-Level Bureaucrat, George Clair Thomas May 2022

High School Career Guidance: From The View Of A Street-Level Bureaucrat, George Clair Thomas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

High school counselors struggle to complete the tasks assigned to them. Often serving more than 500 students, counselors must address requirements specified by the American School Counselor Associationâ??s national model. They must also perform duties required by state and local policy, as well as campus-designated priorities. Empirical studies of school counselors have focused on identifying the duties that counselors perform, the effectiveness of training that counselors have received, and issues that occur from the standpoint of local control of counselor duties. I found no study that identified how counselors prioritize what they do or the level of discretion that counselors …

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Long-Term Effects Of Juvenile Fluoxetine Exposure On Autophagy Induction And Phosphorylated Tau In The Hippocampus And Prefrontal Cortex Of Male Mice, Minerva Rodriguez May 2022

Long-Term Effects Of Juvenile Fluoxetine Exposure On Autophagy Induction And Phosphorylated Tau In The Hippocampus And Prefrontal Cortex Of Male Mice, Minerva Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Fluoxetine (FLX) represents the antidepressant of choice for the management of pediatric mood-related illnesses. Accumulating preclinical evidence suggests that ontogenic FLX exposure leads to deregulated affect-related phenotypes in adulthood. Mood-related symptomatology constitutes a risk-factor for various neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), making it possible for juvenile FLX history to exacerbate the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Because AD is characterized by the pathological accumulation of hyperphosphorylated Tau - which can result from impaired function of protein degradation pathways, such as autophagy and the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), this thesis evaluated the potential long-term effects of adolescent FLX exposure on these pathways, …

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Making Aid Work: Assessing The Impact Of Regional Similarities On State Development Through A Transaction Costs Approach, Sophia Corinne Wozniak May 2022

Making Aid Work: Assessing The Impact Of Regional Similarities On State Development Through A Transaction Costs Approach, Sophia Corinne Wozniak

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research seeks to discern the extent to which similarities between states involved in bilateral aid transfers impact the effectiveness of aid in catalyzing human development within the recipient state. Essentially, in this study I intend to understand if recipient states respond more positively to assistance when the donor state bears similar characteristics to the recipient. As a myriad of new donors emerge into the donor discussion, they bring with them unique cultural contexts, languages, religions, colonial heritages, geographic locations, and many other aspects which may distinguish them from the existing pool of donors.

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Writing For Research In Brazilian Schools: The Landless Workers Movement's Education Of The Countryside, Ana Maria Doll Ghelere Portas May 2022

Writing For Research In Brazilian Schools: The Landless Workers Movement's Education Of The Countryside, Ana Maria Doll Ghelere Portas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis, “Writing for Research in Brazilian Schools: The Landless Workers Movement’s Education of the Countryside,” examines pedagogical practices of rural areas in Brazil. More specifically, I analyze writing practices of high school students in public schools co-governed by the state and the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), a grassroots social movement that has fought for agrarian reform in Brazil for over 40 years. I analyze research papers developed in the social movement's research program: autobiographies written by students in their first year of high school and research papers written in the two final years. My analysis looks for connections between …

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Sex And Age Differences In Approach Behavior Toward A Port That Delivers Nicotine Vapor, Veronika Evangelina Espinoza May 2022

Sex And Age Differences In Approach Behavior Toward A Port That Delivers Nicotine Vapor, Veronika Evangelina Espinoza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The goal of our laboratory is to study the mechanisms that promote nicotine use, particularly in vulnerable populations such as adolescents and females. Thus, the purpose of this thesis was to characterize age and sex differences in the motivational/rewarding effects of nicotine (Aim 1) and withdrawal behavior (Aim 2). To more closely model human use patterns, the present study employed nicotine vapor methods involving passive exposure for 14 days in adolescent and adult female and male rats. Age and sex differences in approach behavior (nosepokes) were assessed in a port that delivered nicotine plumes on Day 1 and 14. Controls …

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Twitter Posts, Gist, And The Perceived Harmfulness Of The Human Papillomavirus Vaccine, Candice Fawn Coffman May 2022

Twitter Posts, Gist, And The Perceived Harmfulness Of The Human Papillomavirus Vaccine, Candice Fawn Coffman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Individuals frequently encounter two types of information when evaluating the risk of a vaccination: statistical evidence describing the frequency of positive and negative outcomes, and anecdotal evidence describing positive and negative personal experiences. The present study evaluated the relative importance of both types of evidence when considered simultaneously. We predicted that the presentation of even one negative anecdote would have an effect on the key risk information (the â??gistâ??) that subjects extracted from the statistical and anecdotal data. Self-generated twitter posts (tweets) and standard measures of perceived risk were used to test the latter prediction. The current findings partially supported …

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Establishing The Construct And Concurrent Validity Of Psychological Cumulative Stress And The Moderating Effect Of Protective Factors To Drinking Outcomes, Carlos Portillo May 2022

Establishing The Construct And Concurrent Validity Of Psychological Cumulative Stress And The Moderating Effect Of Protective Factors To Drinking Outcomes, Carlos Portillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Previous studies have examined the associations between types of psychological stress and alcohol consumption but have not adequately examined psychological stress from a cumulative perspective. The present study sought to examine if self-report measures representing chronic stress, acute stress, life events, traumatic life events, and daily hassles throughout one’s lifetime were associated with drinking outcomes obtained from an online sample of at-risk drinkers reporting drinking patterns in the previous 90 days. Furthermore, the present study sought to examine if an index of protective factors moderate the effects of psychological stress on drinking outcomes. It was hypothesized that (1) the measures …

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The Effect Of Brief Exposures To Fitspiration Images On Motivation To Exercise And Body Image Concerns In Latinx College Students, Roberto Sagaribay May 2022

The Effect Of Brief Exposures To Fitspiration Images On Motivation To Exercise And Body Image Concerns In Latinx College Students, Roberto Sagaribay

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Social media is used by three quarters of the population; however, the literature has suggested its potential adverse impact on mental health. Social media behaviors are associated with body image dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors. Fitspiration is an extension of social media that consists of photos and messaging aimed toward motivating users to exercise. Studies have demonstrated how these posts impact body image concerns and unhealthy weight management behaviors to achieve the thin and toned body ideal. Thus, the aim of this study was to experimentally assess motivations to exercise, body image concerns, and negative mood after brief exposures to …

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Looking At Latino Communities: Legal Cynicism, Acculturation, And Their Willingness To Cooperate With Police, Shayla Salais May 2022

Looking At Latino Communities: Legal Cynicism, Acculturation, And Their Willingness To Cooperate With Police, Shayla Salais

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Numerous studies have examined how acculturation affects Latino neighborhoods and how legal cynicism affects Latino neighborhoods. Acculturation has been linked with low crime levels, meanwhile legal cynicism is attributed to high crime levels. This study aims to address this contradiction in the literature. Based on 1059 surveys, 46 neighborhood clusters were used to examine how legal cynicism and acculturation to Mexico impact a neighborhoods willingness to cooperate with police. A multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression found that acculturation to Mexico results in higher levels of legal cynicism and less willingness to cooperate with police. The OLS regression also found …

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