Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Meeting Biopsychosocial Needs Of Individuals With Histories Of Multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences, Christine G. Morgan

LSU Master's Theses

According to Felitti and colleagues (1998), a significant portion of the general population has been exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) with subsequent and persistent, dose-related, negative consequences to physical and mental health. Debilitating disturbances to biopsychosocial well-being are significant and frequently lead to fatality in adulthood. After reviewing the prevalence and severity of ACEs, this thesis presents an overview of the literature outlining the biological, social, and psychological factors contributing to the development and progression of disease in the brain and body. Additionally, current trauma-informed interventions are summarized. Three experienced clinicians share practical advice for implementing evidence-based, trauma-informed mental …

Influence Of Motivation On Phonics Effectiveness, Rachel L. Bradley

LSU Master's Theses

Reading is a basic life skill, and is paramount to students’ success in school. In fact, skilled readers tend to succeed in subject areas including mathematics, social studies, and science (Valleley & Shriver, 2003). Phonics is one of the cornerstones of learning to read. Without mastering phonics, students are more likely to experience persistent difficulties in reading (Elbro, 1996; Bus and Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, 1999; Rose, 2006). However, student motivation to read can impact the effectiveness of reading programs (Melekoglu, 2011). The current study examines the influence of motivation on the effectiveness of a phonics program with six first-graders …

National Alliance On Mental Illness (Nami) New Orleans Helpline Analysis, Deborah Ann De La Houssaye

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT This study built on prior research about helplines that focused on descriptive accounts of caller profiles (frequent callers, children callers, male/female, reason for calls, help seeking intentions/beliefs, attitudes and expectations of callers); counselor profiles (active listening skills, motivation, empathy, altruism, family peer advocates); and helpline profiles (advantages and limitations of telephone, chat rooms, emails, and texting). The intention of this study was to assess the needs of the organization in order to build a helpline that meets the needs of the clients. It assessed existing data from calls made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) New Orleans …

Examining Teacher Multicultural Competence In The Classroom: Further Validation Of The Multicultural Teaching Competency Scale, Melissa Jo Hamilton

LSU Master's Theses

The focus of this study is to strengthen the technical adequacy of the Multicultural Teacher Competency Scale (MTCS; Spanierman et al., 2011) self-assessment measure for teacher multicultural competence. This study will also examine the relationship between it and the teacher-student relationship and teacher self-efficacy. Results show that the MTCS shows similar internal consistency reliability with a new demographic of in-service teachers. The MTCS also has predictive significance for teacher self-efficacy and student-teacher relationship scores. Implications of the study include the importance for teachers to be taught and practice this competency, as well as, validation that this construct is related to …

Control, Care, And Stress: Parenting's Effect On Child Internalizing Symptoms, Maysa Kaskas

LSU Master's Theses

Theoretical models of childhood psychopathology suggest that the parent-child relationship serves an influential role in the development and maintenance of internalizing disorders such as anxiety and depression. However, there is a great deal of inconsistency in the research literature on the predictive power of parenting variables such as parental control and parental care. Furthermore, these parenting variables are often poorly defined and inconsistently operationalized across studies, hampering interpretation of results and limiting conclusions on the strength of the effect. Additionally, few studies have examined the role of parenting with careful attention to moderators. In order to investigate these problems, 189 …

Inmate Populations In A Disaster: A Labor Force, A Vulnerable Population, And A Hazard, Jordan Carlee Smith

LSU Master's Theses

Within the disaster literature, few studies have been devoted to the role of incarcerated populations as a source of labor within the context of emergency operations. When faced with a lack of resources, emergency management rely on inmate labor forces to prepare for and respond to hazards and disasters. In the U.S., inmates from the Louisiana State Penitentiary helped with sandbagging the facilities in preparing for the potentially flooding of the Mississippi River and Hurricane Katrina (Gaillard, 2012). The state of California has long maintained inmate firefighting forces to combat destructive wildfires statewide (Goodman, 2012). However, there has never been …

Strategic Use Of Language In White House Twitter Communications, Margo L. Jolet

LSU Master's Theses

Lippmann (1922) theorized that we understand our world through elites and the media because we cannot experience everything ourselves. We look to others to share their experiences with us. In this way, the media and elites tell us what is important in our world. Converse (1964), Zaller (1992), and Lupia (1994) argue that not only do elites and the media help us see what is important, but they draw out attributes of these issues to help us make political determinations congruent with our belief systems. In this thesis, I conduced two studies investigating candidate, party, and White House tweets about …

Initial Development And Validation Of The Student Wellbeing Teacher-Report Scales, Anthony Joseph Roberson

LSU Master's Theses

Given that youth mental health is associated with their success in school and in life more broadly, it is important that school-based psychological service providers embrace best-practice prevention and intervention strategies that target mental health when working with student populations. One line of study in this area has begun exploring the incorporation of a dual-factor model of mental health within universal screening systems in schools. The dual-factor model is differentiated from the traditional unidimensional mental health model, which focuses on the presence or absence of psychopathology, by conceptualizing mental health alternatively as consisting of both psychopathology and wellbeing dimensions. The …

Lightning Flash Rate In The Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela Related To Sea Surface Temperatures And Tropospheric Air Flow, Deirdre Smith

LSU Master's Theses

Northern Venezuela's Lower Maracaibo Basin (LMB) has the highest lightning flash rate (LFR) density in the world. The area receives approximately 200 flashes per km^2 annually. Local topography as well as local and global scale climate drivers have been shown to influence the frequency of the lightning storms, known as "Catatumbo Lightning". This research focuses on influences on LFR in the LMB by local and global sea surface temperatures and elements of local tropospheric air from 1996--2015. Sea surface temperature and tropospheric air data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are used in Spearman rank correlations to determine relationships …

The Impact Of A Transdiagnostic Risk Factor On Willingness To Seek Treatment Among Black Students, Kimberlye Elise Dean

LSU Master's Theses

Anxiety and depressive disorders are among the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorders, yet they remain under-treated in the U.S. Further, Black adults are significantly less likely that non-Hispanic White adults to seek or receive mental health services. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), a risk factor for developing and maintaining anxiety and depressive symptoms, may be negatively related to the decision to seek treatment and sociocultural variables related to treatment-seeking behaviors may impact this relation. The decision to seek treatment is composed of several subcomponents, including readiness to change (RTC) and willingness to seek treatment. Thus, the current study examined the relations …

40 Trees: The Quest To Save Whitebark Pine On The Flathead Indian Reservation, Andrew S. Graham

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

When it comes to managing natural resources in the face of global climate change, sometimes localized action is best. Rick Everett spent a lot of time in western forests - first as a ski patroller and logger and then as an ecologist - before landing as a professor at a tribal community college on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Now he faces a challenging new question: How do you save a tree species that is ecologically valuable to the forest and culturally valuable to Native American tribes, but is being pushed toward extinction by forces varied, deadly and driven by climate …

Beyond Blood: Examining The Communicative Challenges Of Adoptive Families, Mackensie C. Minniear

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study examined how adoptive families discursively create family identity through their communication. Building on theories of discourse dependence and family communication patterns, this research examined how families whose identity does not meet a bio-genetic view of family must re-define family using communication. Often times, families that are created outside biological means must renegotiate family identity both within the family, and outside the family, from those who feel comfortable commenting and questioning their family composition. Communication becomes a tool that adoptees must use to understand their family identity, as well as their own adoptive identity. Furthermore, this study looked to …

Redskins Revisited: Competing Constructions Of The Washington Redskins Mascot, Eean Grimshaw

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This project looks at how synecdoche and ideographs function in the construction of competing position in the controversy surrounding the Washington Redskins mascot. I examined the rhetoric produced by both the Washington Redskins organization and its fans, as well as the rhetoric of Change the Mascot, the Oneida Indian Nation of New York and other opponents between the years of 2013 and 2015. Based in part on Moore’s (1993, 1994, 1997) argument that synecdoche and ideographs often prevent resolution and produce irreconcilable conflict, I extend this notion insofar as the controversy surrounding the Redskins mascot appears to be shifted towards …

Empowerment And Subjective And Emotional Well-Being In South Africa, Erik Kappelman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Conservation Genetics On The Frontline, Kenneth W. Rand

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Conservation genetics stands out as an effective tool for discovering and monitoring rare, endangered or invasive populations of plants and animals. Particularly when compared to traditional search and capture methods, it provides more holistic studies to preserve the disappearing biodiversity of the American West and the world.

Three stories highlight the work done to preserve biodiversity through the use of conservation genetics:

1. Trout Rescue: A new hope for westslope cutthroat in Montana How to save a disappearing westslope cutthroat trout through genetic rescue by adding genetic diversity to ensuring future survival in increasingly warming waters more harm than good. …

A Comparison Of The Utility Of Craniometric And Dental Morphological Data For Assessing Biodistance And Sex-Differential Migration In The Pacific Islands, Brittney A. Eubank

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Genetic analysis of maternally-inherited mitochondrial DNA and the paternally-inherited Y-chromosome yield contrasting pictures of movement of peoples into the Pacific Islands. A possible explanation for this discrepancy is a matrilocal residency pattern practiced by early Pacific settlers, in which Melanesian men were brought into settler communities to intermarry with local women, yielding a higher intrapopulation variance and lower interpopulation variance exhibited in males compared to females. This research investigates the possibility of sex-differential migration in the Oceanic populations of Easter Island, Fiji, Guam, Mokapu, and New Britain through analysis of biodistance based on dental morphological trait frequencies and craniometric measures …

Between Rivers: Reflections On Home, Obligation, And Otherness From A Confluence Of Conservation And Connectivity, Chandra M. Brown

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Between Rivers is an exploration of the role of the outsider in international watershed conservation. Through extended personal narrative and analysis of current events, ethnographic texts, and sociopolitical history, this thesis considers questions related to responsibility in conservation. The narrative focuses on Ecuador’s Jondachi Fest, a case study in international collaboration and celebration of an ecologically key river system. Grassroots celebrations and river festivals are sprouting up on endangered rivers all across South America. In this thesis, the author examines her own experience as an outsider working to facilitate one such festival – the challenges, shortcomings, relationships, and victories – …

The Western Stemmed Point Tradition: Evolutionary Perspectives On Cultural Change In Projectile Points During The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition, Lindsay D. Scott

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this thesis I analyze the cultural techniques of Paleoindians in North America by examining the diversification and fusion of stemmed projectile point traditions using an evolutionary analysis. The Western Stemmed Point tradition has an extensive regional and temporal distribution throughout the Intermountain West and High Plains during the Paleoindian period. In an effort to determine how stemmed projectile point technologies relate to each other, I applied a phylogenetic approach to construct heritable patterns of projectile point histories. By measuring the physical traits of those points and using a macro-evolutionary theoretical approach, changes in artifact form can be acquired and …

Temporary Work On The Bakken Shale, Peter D. Ore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this thesis, I explore what accounts for worker consent to precarious employment in the context of rapid industrial change in the rural United States. In recent years, domestic oil development has transformed the landscape of western North Dakota and Eastern Montana into a zone of oil production now known as “the Bakken.” The acute demand for labor brought about by this development resulted in vastly inflated wages, which in turn drew workers from around the U.S. and the world. State and private labor market intermediaries, including temporary labor agencies, formed to organize and market this labor force for employers …

Knife River Flint Distribution And Identification In Montana, Laura Evilsizer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

An examination of the spatial, temporal, and functional distribution of Knife River flint in Montana, and a study in misidentification of Knife River flint in archaeological assemblages. Lithic sourcing has the potential to provide a plethora of information to archaeologists: resource procurement strategies, mobility patterns, trade networks, and the preferencing of particular lithic material types. However, without proper identification it is impossible to study the distribution of lithic materials from their source. Knife River flint, a brown chalcedony, is a particularly fascinating material, geologically occurring in a small area, but culturally distributed over a large area. I analyze the distribution …

Another Day In The Oil Patch: Narratives Of Probation Work In Montana, Ally Guldborg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Job stress has been linked to several negative outcomes for workers in human service professions. Despite a wealth of knowledge on job stress in social service occupations, relatively little is known about the job stress of probation officers. In eastern Montana and western North Dakota’s Bakken region, a recent oil extraction boom and bust cycle has caused rapid socio-demographic change. Researchers have found that oil extraction in the Bakken region has led to several challenges for social service and police agencies in the area. In this study, I use qualitative interview methods to examine the stresses and challenges involved in …

Class Iii Archaeological Survey Report: Madison Buffalo Jump State Park, Gallatin County, Montana, Brandon J. Bachman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Through a cooperative agreement between the University of Montana (UM) Department of Anthropology and Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, the University of Montana, between 17 May and 1 June 2014, conducted an archaeological inventory of the 640-acre Madison Buffalo Jump State Park. Douglas Macdonald, Ph.D. and Sara Scott, Ph.D. managed the project for each institution, respectively. Copious amounts of artifacts and features alike were recorded at Madison Buffalo Jump during the survey, including: 1) 3-4 drive lines used in the funneling of bison to jump locations; 2) bison bone concentrations below the kill/nick point on the face of the jump; …

Bicycle Mobility In Glacier National Park: Assessing Going-To-The-Sun Road Travelers' Attitudes, Knowledge, And Perceptions Of Bicycling, Brian G. Battaglia

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The central aim of this thesis assessed whether Going-to-the-Sun Road (GTSR) travelers have a positive or negative association with roadway bicycling and the degree of public support for GTSR bicycling in Glacier National Park (GNP). Secondarily, this thesis tested a control and treatment group’s knowledge of roadway cycling laws to determine the effectiveness of a “Bicycles May Use Full Lane” sign and brochure, which both reflected Montana’s cycling laws. Finally, an analysis of the necessity of GNP’s partial bicycle restriction on the GTSR was conducted by comparing the characteristics of two road segments using GIS, and by assessing the attitudes, …

Adaptation On A Budget: How Vietnamese Innovators Are Trying To Design Their Way Out Of Climate Change, Shanti R. Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the rapidly developing Mekong Delta of Vietnam, young innovators are facing a challenge far greater than simply trying to catch up with the wealthier world. In a growing trend, the next generation of Vietnamese is acting under a common understanding: climate change is real, it’s here and the time to respond is growing short.

For over a decade, Southern Vietnam has consistently been ranked by international organizations like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as one of the most vulnerable places in the world to the impacts of climate change. That vulnerability is heightened by the fact that the …

The Bridge River Dogs: Interpreting Adna And Stable Isotope Analysis Collected From Dog Remains, Emilia Tifental

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Excavations at the Bridge River site have been on-going since 2003, increasing our understanding of the communities that inhabited the Middle Fraser Canyon, British Columbia over 1,000 years ago. The most recent excavation at Housepit 54 in the summer of 2014 supplied further data regarding relationships between people and their dogs. Dogs are well documented in the Middle Fraser Canyon through both archaeological excavations and traditional knowledge. A household's possession of a dog has been linked to other prestigious materials, and therefore been interpreted as an indicator of wealth and status. The present study was aimed at further investigation of …

Re-Analyzing The Function Of Demonstrative Reference In Tajik, Kelly E. Bowman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis presents a re-analysis of Tajik demonstratives based on an alternative to the widely accepted framework for understanding demonstrative reference. In this framework, demonstrative reference is categorized according to two criteria: the anchor relative to which reference is made, and the number of spatial distinctions the system has for encoding distance from the anchor (Levinson 2004, O’Grady 2010). According to previous literature (Rastorgueva 1963, Perry 2005, Windfuhr & Perry 2009), Tajik has a speaker-anchored, two-way reference system. However, these criteria alone do not account for the data presented in this thesis. I therefore propose the following change to this …

More Than Zero: Variation In The Tattooed Population, Zachary Reiter

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sociological research treats all individuals with more than zero tattoos as being part of the tattooed population. This type of categorization fails to capture the significant differences between tattooed individuals. For example, a gang member with a criminal insignia tattooed on his or her neck would be part of the same research population as long term tattoo artists with their entire body covered in tattoos or even a middle aged man with a single tattoo on his bicep. By interviewing tattoo artists, this thesis details the unique nature of tattooing as an occupation, the changing nature of the modern tattooing …

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Eukaryotic Dna Extraction From Burial Soil Samples, Ariane Thomas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

DNA is a valuable resource as a unique identifier of physical characteristics at both the population and individual levels. Due to a variety of factors that contribute to genetic decay, forensic and bioarchaeological investigators have limited outlets in which to extract viable DNA after most of a body’s organic materials have fully decomposed. This preliminary research focused on extracting DNA from the soil surrounding buried Sus scrofa domesticus cadavers to confirm the presence of viable and analyzable DNA. After a decomposition period of five months in Montana, soils were collected at incremental distances above the remains and sequenced to identify …

Living With Hiv: A Potential Source Of Trauma In Children And Adolescents, Kaitlyn P. Ahlers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Due to advances in medical treatment for HIV/AIDS, individuals infected with HIV are living longer. HIV is now considered a chronic illness, and there has been limited research into the mental health problems that can arise from living with HIV, particularly among children and adolescents. Past research has demonstrated that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can result from experiences related to chronic illness. Importantly, HIV could affect children and adolescents in a distinct way when compared to any other incurable, chronic illness. The present study examined the mental health issues faced by children and adolescents who are infected with HIV as …

Crossing The Line: Navigating A Polluted Transboundary Watershed, Celia T. Tobin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Montana’s Lake Koocanusa sits at the end of a river system that drains Canada’s most productive coal country. Today, the waters of the massive lake contain a mineral called selenium, a poorly understood byproduct of mine waste. This summer, the U.S. federal government will be in a position to declare that the selenium in the lake puts Canada in violation of its international treaty with the U.S. The Montana government, however, is preparing to argue otherwise through its own water analysis. The disagreement has U.S. ecologists frustrated with the state’s position, saying they won’t practice science that is slave to …