Sociology Commons^™

Examining The Role Of Integration Experiences In Shaping Immigrants’ Post-Migration Food Choices And Eating Practices In Ontario, Canada, Eunjeong Eugena Kwon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite the extensive literature on immigrants’ post-migration dietary transitions and their implications for long-term health and well-being, little research has been conducted to link these processes to their integration experiences. This dissertation contributes to the current literature by examining the interrelationship between immigrants’ integration experiences – especially their economic integration – and their post-migration food choices and eating practices.

The first integrated article (Chapter 2) draws on qualitative interviews with 38 recent immigrants in two Ontario cities (Toronto and London) in Canada. First, this chapter focuses on illustrating recent immigrants’ general experiences in managing their post-migration food choices and eating …

Resignation Or Resistance? Examining The Digital Privacy Attitudes And Behaviours Of East Yorkers, Kaitlyn Cavacas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Digital technologies have become enmeshed in everyday life causing the public to become exposed to potential privacy risks through data collection and aggregation practices. Further, the upsurge in use of social networking platforms has also created opportunities for privacy violations through institutional and social surveillance. Employing a qualitative thematic analysis, this study explores how adults (N=101) living in East York, Toronto, navigate privacy through their use of the internet and digital services. Participants expressed feelings of mistrust, loss of control, resignation, and perceived self-unimportance with regards to their digital data. Importantly, others noted their desire and attempts to …

Assessing Self-Identified And Meta-Perceived Social Groups For Predicting Day-To-Day Discrimination And Examining Psychological Distress Based On Identity Mismatch, Emily C. Nunez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The way that people are socially assigned may influence how they are targeted for discrimination. Whether self-identified (SI) or meta-perceived (MP) (i.e. perceptions of how one is classified by others) and visibly expressed (VE) (e.g. clothing) social identity better predict day-to-day discrimination is an important question that has not been addressed in previous research. Identity mismatch based on SI and MP social groups may cause psychological distress, and racial ambiguity may contribute to ethnoracial identity mismatch. This thesis utilized a cross-sectional survey conducted in Canada and the United States to assess how levels of day-to-day discrimination varied based on SI …

The Economic Integration Of Mexican Mennonite Immigrants In Canada, Marina Wiebe

MA Research Paper

With a rapidly shrinking proportion of Canadians that live in rural areas, there have been some attempts to settle immigrants in rural communities. With few exceptions, these attempts in Canada have been unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the Mennonite people are considered to be a population that maintains their retention in rural areas with some success. The literature regarding this specific immigrant group is limited and lacks context of the economic environment of Canada today. It is in the interest of government policy to have a working and current understanding of Mennonites’ economic outcomes and retention in rural communities. The integration patterns of …

An App A Day Keeps The Doctor Away: A Visual Case Analysis Of The Self-Optimization Ideologies Downloaded Onto Apple Users As They Download Applications, Ismahan Yusuf

MA Research Paper

This visually thematic qualitative case analysis seeks to advance cyber-sociology by analyzing the hyper-under-attended relationship between interfaces and discourses. Here, the interface under investigation is the Apple App Store, examined for the ways in which the platform is discursively encoded with particular ideologies, ideals, desires and narratives downloaded onto users as they download applications. Such is explored via a two-part research question inquiring: Which type of applications enjoy the most promotion on the Apple App Store and what cyber-architectural tools are herein used to optically exalt them? To investigate this, an iOS 11-operating iPhone was used to frequent the store’s …

In Search Of Psychiatric Kinds: Natural Kinds And Natural Classification In Psychiatry, Nicholas Slothouber

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In recent years both philosophers and scientists have asked whether or not our current kinds of mental disorder—e.g., schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder—are natural kinds; and, moreover, whether or not the search for natural kinds of mental disorder is a realistic desideratum for psychiatry. In this dissertation I clarify the sense in which a kind can be said to be “natural” or “real” and argue that, despite a few notable exceptions, kinds of mental disorder cannot be considered natural kinds. Furthermore, I contend that psychopathological phenomena do not cluster together into kinds in the way that paradigmatic natural kinds (e.g., chemical …

Excavating Feminist Phenomenology: Lived-Experiences And Wellbeing Of Indigenous Students At Western University, Eva Lynn Cupchik

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission underscores the need to incorporate narrative accounts of Indigenous students’ experiences as part of wide-scale de-colonizing efforts. This dissertation asks; how do Indigenous students experience their identities at Western University? What is at stake for phenomenology, feminist methods, and Indigenous theory, in the post Truth and Reconciliation era?

There is a gap between theories centering on reflective cognition in philosophy and the embodiment of land, prevalent across Indigenous cultures. However, phenomenology can provide a method to facilitate dialogues with discourses outside Eurocentric domains that empathize with marginalized communities’ struggles, through an understanding of location-based knowledge. …

Social And Municipal Influences On Electric Vehicle Purchases, Jordan M. Fuller

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Growth in electric vehicle ownership in Canada has been slow relative to policy imperatives to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to the 2014 IPCC report the global transportation sector was responsible for approximately 23% of all energy related CO2 emissions - second only to the energy supply sector. Further, transportation-related GHG emissions have risen despite growing availability of more efficient modes of transportation (IPCC, 2014). In Ontario, where there is an emphasis on renewable energy production, the transportation sector is the largest emitter of GHGs at 35% (Ontario Government, 2016). We conducted our case study in London, Ontario where …

Immigrant Perpetrators Of Domestic Homicide: Unique Risks And Service Needs, Randal David

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This integrated dissertation comprises of three studies exploring severe and/or lethal domestic violence among male immigrant perpetrators. The first study analyzed the differences between immigrant and Canadian-born perpetrators of domestic homicide using a sample of 186 cases of domestic homicide that occurred from 2002-2016 in Ontario; 93 perpetrators that were Canadian-born and 93 immigrant perpetrators. Results revealed sociodemographic differences between groups, such as immigrant perpetrators’ increased likelihood to reside in large urban areas, have children, and have a higher level of education.

Criminogenic differences were also identified between groups, with immigrant perpetrators less likely to have probation, parole, and bail …

Does Higher Education Make A Difference? The Influence Of Educational Attainment On Women’S And Men’S Employment Outcomes, Katelyn Mitri

MA Research Paper

Scholars agree that precarious employment is growing across and within all occupations and industries, but little is known on the educational attainment of precarious workers. Some studies suggest that recent graduates, women, and the less educated are more likely to be employed in precarious work. Other research contends that involuntary precarious employment is rising among all groups and educational levels. Using the May 2018 Labour Force Survey, this study explores whether higher education protects men and women from precarious employment, and if higher education has a protective effect on men’s and women’s wages within precarious employment. Findings suggest that women, …

Out Of The Closet And Into Sport: An Analysis Of Openly Lesbian Athletes, Rachel Fazzari

MA Research Paper

ABSTRACT. Coming out refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals disclosure of their sexual orientation. Coming out literature has often focused on the implications of coming out to family. Although there has been some research conducted on being out in sport, much of the research conducted on LGBT athletes has either been conducted before the twenty-first century or has been conducted solely on gay men. As a result, very little is known about the coming out experiences of lesbian athletes today. Since sport is rooted in masculine ideals and heterosexuality, it would be likely that lesbian athletes …

Living Arrangements, Proximity To Child/Parent And Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults, Haemi Chung

MA Research Paper

Studies have demonstrated the links between living arrangements and depressive symptoms among older adults. Yet, little is known about how these associations may differ among foreign- and native-born older adults who have different needs and expectations for family relations. Using the Health and Retirement Study, I examine predictors of living arrangements among native- and foreign-born adults over the age of 50 using multinomial logistic regressions. I also run a series of logistic regressions to examine the association between living arrangements and risk of high depressive symptoms. The results show that nativity and immigration characteristics are significant predictors of living arrangements. …

The Interrelated Nature Of Trauma: Exploring The Narratives Of Persons Living With A Family Member Who Has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Emily Johnson

MA Research Paper

The study of the relationship between work-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the family has commonly been approached from both a psychological and psychiatric perspective. Moreover, these studies have primarily focused on how PTSD impacts familial relationships from the perspective of the individual who has PTSD, while little attention has been placed on the viewpoint of family members. By using data obtained from Beyond Blue and Reddit, the current study aims to redress this gap by directly exploring the perceptions of family members living with an emergency service worker who has PTSD. A qualitative content analysis was conducted using …

Living Alone: Five Decades Of Change, And Its Implications For Health, Xiangnan Chai

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The percentage of Canada’s one-person households has increased consistently between 1971 and 2016. One-person households occupy the largest share among all household types as of 2016. However, limited attention has been paid to the increase in Canadians’ living alone and its implications for older people’s health and well-being, due to which I develop three studies to fill the gaps in the literature.

In Chapter 2, I pool the 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2016 Canadian censuses, and the 2011 National Household Survey to explore the increase in the percentages of living alone among young, middle-aged, and older women and men, …

Capturing The Diversity Within Canadian Families, Kathya Aathavan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mixed partnerships are unions between two people that cross socially constructed boundaries between groups, particularly race and ethnicity and they are an aspect of diversity within Canadian society. Using the 2006 and 2016 Canadian long-form censuses, I examine mixed unions, measured as partnerships across different visible minority categories and places of birth. I find that there is more diversity within unions than what is captured just using visible minority status. Being highly educated, living in census metropolitan areas, and in same-sex partnerships are predictors of mixed unions indicative of barriers to mixed partnerships possibly being less salient among these groups. …

Understanding The Development Of A Logic Model In A Multi-Agency Resource Centre, Alexandra M. Boston

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In response to social and economic decline in the downtown area of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, over thirty diverse community organizations collaborate to deliver services out of the Neighbourhood Resource Centre (NRC). This study seeks to uncover how the objectives of the NRC are being interpreted and enacted by community organizations, and how the organizations navigate diverse desired outcomes to create a logic model. Through participatory action research, the study sought to answer the research questions through field observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. An analysis of the data yields that, through collaboration and engagement the NRC has strengthened the …

Retirement Residence Living: Stories Of Older Adult Residents, Alexandra Jackson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Social isolation and loneliness have a negative effect on the lives of older adults. Participation in regular physical activity may facilitate social connectedness to mitigate feelings of social isolation and loneliness. Current understanding of regular physical activity for social connection and health benefits in older adult residents of retirement communities is limited. This study aimed to address, ‘What are the stories of social connectedness of physically active older adults living in a retirement residence?’. Using a narrative methodology, and incorporating an occupational mapping tool, residents of a retirement community storied their experiences of regular physical activity. Thematic analysis revealed themes …

Forms Of Capital In Immigrants’ Social And Economic Integration, Georgina Chuatico

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Immigrants’ social and economic integration in Canada are explored using the 2001 census, the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC) and the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB). I analyze how immigrants’ ethnicity as well as education level relative to their ethnic group, affect their social tie formation with co-ethnic members. Visible minority groups are more likely to make co-ethnic ties than the white population groups. Additionally, those who have similar or lower levels of education than their group are likely to make intra-ethnic networks two years after arrival. Next, I examine the income trajectories of immigrants by taking into account …

The Myths That Make Us: An Examination Of Canadian National Identity, Shannon Lodoen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis uses Barthes’ Mythologies as a framework to examine the ways in which the Canadian nation has been mythologized, exploring how this mythologization affects our sense of national identity. Because, as Barthes says, the ultimate goal of myth is to transform history into nature, it is necessary to delve into Canada’s past in order to understand when, why, and how it has become the nation it is today. This will involve tracing some key aspects of Canadian history, society, and pop culture from Canada’s earliest days to current times to uncover the “true origins” of the naturalized, taken-for-granted elements …

"A Deadly Game Of Russian Roulette": Exploring The Framing Of The Opioid Crisis In Canadian News Media, Lorna Ferguson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this study is to investigate the framing of the opioid crisis in Canadian news media. Using a 'frame analysis' approach (Entman 1993), the following questions are addressed: (1) How has the opioid crisis been framed in recent Canadian news articles?; (2) How often (frequency) are each of the frames documented in recent Canadian news articles?; and (3) What is the dominant frame? To answer these questions, this study draws on the results of a content analysis of 314 news articles published between January 2018 to December 2018. Data collected through systematic searches of the Canadian Major Dailies …

The Canadian Urban - Rural Health Disparity: The Role Of Health Lifestyles And An Alternative Explanation For Rurality's Higher Bmi Rates, Matthew J. Stackhouse

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Canadian urban - rural health disparity is concerning, as rural residents are more likely to experience deleterious health outcomes such as injuries, chronic conditions, obesity, and shorter life expectancy. There are several rural social-structural explanations for the disparity such as an aging population, less education attainment, greater unemployment rates, poorer working conditions, lack of health professionals, greater distance from quality health resource, and poorer health behaviours. Some of these findings have been linked to higher Body Mass Index (BMI) scores in rural areas. However, no study has considered the health lifestyle differences of urban - rural Canadians and how …

The Politics Of Where: The Federal Government And Canada's Urbanization, 1867-2017, Charles D. Crenna

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation responds to a single overarching research question: what is the nature and extent of the federal government’s influence on urbanization in Canada, both on its systems of cities and on their internal structure? Lessons learned regarding the federal role in Canada’s urbanization remain relevant and applicable to emerging conditions. They offer a sound, streetwise foundation for future urban policy development, based on understanding the vital politics of where.

Large, complex systems of cities are both self-organizing and responsive to strategic guidance by the federal government. Politically-difficult choices among competing urban locations can be made both by hiding …

Health Policy And Social Change: Women’S Advocacy Groups And Narrative Mobilization, Jill Moffatt

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The goal of this study is to systematically investigate the mobilization of co-created (storyteller and story-gatherer) narratives for policy and social change. A case study format investigated the mobilization of narratives by a women’s health organization in London, Ontario. Semi-structured interviews resulted in transcripts from key actors. These transcripts were thematically coded and analyzed. All interview participants emphasized that from their perspective the organization did influence health policy or social change through their narrative use. Specific policy change examples were provided by participants, and social change was subjectively recognized as realized through the creation of awareness and affirmed through audience …

Narratives Of Sexuality In The Lives Of Young Women Readers, Davin L. Helkenberg

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In recent years, research on adolescent sexuality in Young Adult (YA) Literature has included a discussion of its potential role in sex education. Based on the extensive yet problematic presentation of sexuality within these texts, it has gained both support and opposition. However, very few empirical studies have been done on how readers say YA Literature has informed their sexual lives.

This thesis investigates how narratives of sexuality found within YA Literature may inform the sexual lives of young women readers by examining both readers’ experiences and YA texts. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 female participants (aged 18 …

Postcolonial Trauma In The Mediterranean: The Italian-Libyan Transnational Community, Rosario Pollicino

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study aims to recuperate the Italian collective remembering originating from the colonial offense in Libya. Focusing on works of testimony in different genres of contemporary literature written by the Italian former settlers in Libya, I analyze how these former settlers who moved to Libya have been subjected to different kinds of traumas by the Fascist government. I focus on how these traumas, individual and collective, are documented through these works and discuss how they continue to be relevant today. Drawing on sociology, anthropology, history, literary and trauma studies I argue that these cultural representations prove the existence of a …

International Students’ Earnings In London, Ontario, Amna Wasty

MA Research Paper

While there is an abundance of literature on the labour outcomes of immigrants, there is limited research on the earnings of former international students. This study uses the 2016 census to compare the earnings of new labour market entrants who were international students, and are now permanent residents, to those of domestic students and foreign-educated immigrants in London, Ontario. The results found that former international students had slightly lower earnings than domestic students, despite being more likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree, have studied a STEM field, and be working in a NOC skill level A occupation. Former international …

Offender Characteristics: Influence On Attitudes And Sentencing Patterns Of Female Undergraduates, Madison Mcaskill

Brescia Psychology Undergraduate Honours Theses

Offender rehabilitation has more positive outcomes, yet the public prefers the punishment of incarceration. Disparity in the punitivity of sentencing has been related to age and gender of offenders, with adult, male offenders receiving more punitive, less rehabilitative sentences than youth, female offenders. The present study examined patterns of sentencing in an all female sample (N=103). After reading a crime story manipulating offender gender and age, participants were asked to “sentence” the offender. Gender of offender did not cause differences in sentences given, however youth offenders were sentenced significantly less. Participants showed no significant attitudinal differences on the Treatment Attitude …

Female And Male Perpetrators Of Domestic Homicide: A Gendered Phenomenon?, Jackie Salas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Domestic violence is a global issue extending across regional, cultural, and social boundaries. In 2017, 137 women across the world were killed everyday by intimate partners or relatives. By far, women over-represent victims of domestic violence and domestic homicide across time. Although disproportionate, equally concerning is the issue of violence against men. Researchers have started to question whether the risk factors related to male and female’s use of violence is gendered, however no clear consensus has been reached. A retrospective case analysis was completed using domestic homicide cases reviewed by the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee based in Ontario, Canada. …

Factors Affecting Resistance And Receptivity To Evidence-Based Policing Practices In Canada, Hina Jawaid Kalyal

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Evidence-based policing (EBP) is based on the use of research for decision-making in police organizations. Despite its noted importance, there is a dearth of research that identifies specific reasons which lead to receptivity to EBP or the lack thereof. Based on a qualitative methodology, the present dissertation addresses this gap in literature by exploring the contextual factors which may be responsible for police resistance or receptivity to the use of evidence. Data were collected from Canadian police organizations through qualitative questions added to a survey (n = 353) as well as in-depth interviews with police leaders across Canada ( …

The Use Of Social And Cultural Capital As Refugee Mothers Transition Their Children To Ontario Education, Courtney A. Brewer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study focused on Syrian refugee mothers’ experiences in transitioning their children to new school systems in Ontario, Canada. In 2015, the Canadian government committed to resettling 25000 Syrian refugees and processing higher numbers of refugee claims in the years following. Despite the increased number of refugees in Canada, there has been limited attention to perspectives of mothers in relation to transitioning children to the Canadian education system (Brewer, 2016). As well, the intersection at which all aspects of this study are situated in—refugees, motherhood, school transitions, and social and cultural capital—lacked scholarly attention. Drawing on Bourdieu’s (1990) theory of …