Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond Objectivity: Examining The Effects Of Incorporating Civic Engagement Into Higher Education Journalism Courses, Jennifer Brannock Cox

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper examines a case study comparing students in civic engagement-enhanced journalism classes with those in which civic engagement was not emphasized in a medium-sized Mid- Atlantic university. Students completed surveys at the conclusion of the spring 2017 semester assessing their attitudes toward professional journalism roles. Students in courses containing civic engagement work prized contextual roles and were more open to non-traditional forms of community engagement journalism than their counterparts, who focused more on interpretive/ disseminator roles.

Translating Encounters: Connecting Indigenous Young People With Higher Education Through A Transmedia Project, Kristine Alexander, Hudson Eagle Bear, Tesla Heavy Runner, Ashley Henrickson, Taylor Little

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This piece draws on multiple voices to reflect on a collaborative project between universitybased researchers and a local community organization devoted to Indigenous Blackfoot children and their families. The evolution of the project from one based on photoelicitation to one devoted to building a digital storytelling library meant a methodological shift to acknowledge the role of translation in encounters between university researchers and community practitioners, between Elders and youth, and between settlers and Indigenous people. Our experience provides lessons on the importance of taking seriously the moments when difference is encountered and translated during the research and community-building process.

Using Games To Solve Real-World Civic Problems: Early Insights And Design Principles, Karen Schrier

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Video games are starting to be used to support civic learning and engagement. Moreover, games are being used to crowdsource solutions to real-world problems; however, few of these games address civic problems and engage adolescents and young adults. In this paper, I explore designing and using games for real-world civic problem-solving, as well as for supporting civic engagement among young adults. Using a design analysis approach, I investigate six video games and propose 20 initial design elements for use in creating and implementing civic problem- solving games. These include principles such as: using authentic civic problems, data, and tools; enabling …

Film As Engaged Learning: A Study On Teaching Civics Through Spanish Culture, Kajsa C. Larson

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

University professors use film as a medium to examine social issues, although little is known about the tangible effects that socially minded films have on viewers. This study examined how combining film studies with a philanthropy project was beneficial to students’ understanding of global social concerns. Survey data showed that with this teaching approach, students increased their awareness of local social needs and nonprofits and had a greater personal interest in community involvement and helping others.

Service-Learning & Early Childhood Teacher Education: A Qualitative Exploration Of Professional Preparation Standards, Tina M. Kruger, Mary Jane Eisenhauer, Laura Weaver

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Preparing teachers to work with children and families cultivates high-quality early learning. This study explored the impact of service-learning on early childhood pre-professional students (candidates) and community partners (CPs). Focus group transcripts illustrate connections between service and professional preparation standards. Service-learning and professional standards intersect through the experience of candidates and CPs. Findings support the use of Kolb’s model as a foundation for service-learning in early childhood teacher education and can inform service-learning in other disciplines.

A Needs Assessment And Program Evaluation Of A Physical Therapy Service-Learning Program In China, Kerstin M. Palombaro, Samuel R. Pierce, Robin L. Dole

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

International service-learning (ISL) programs in physical and occupational therapy programs are increasing in number. This paper describes a needs assessment and initial program evaluation conducted for a physical therapy ISL program at an orphanage in China. Chinese orphanage staff and Widener University physical therapy students were surveyed. Chinese staff expressed satisfaction with the training and provided suggestions for programming needs. Students identified areas for further education of orphanage staff and suggestions for future program design.

Community-Based Participatory Research, Catherine Stemmans Paterson

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This article investigates community-based participatory research (CBPR) within the framework of service learning and community engagement initiatives within contemporary higher education. It identifies the characteristics of high-quality CBPR, delves into two criticisms of these efforts, and provides ideas for addressing these criticisms.

Maintaining Engaged Scholarship In Challenging Times: Experiences Working With Veteran Medical Providers In Greater Los Angeles, Angela Chalé, Elizabeth Avila, Yvette Avila, Christina Chalé

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper describes the challenges experienced in a study premised on scholarly engagement that consisted of a partnership between the nutritional science program and medical providers at the Veterans Administration, Greater Los Angeles, following allegations of systemic misconduct in the delivery of health care by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Since the VHA is a primary provider of medical training in the United States, we were interested in obtaining their opinion about and knowledge of vitamin D nutriture in relation to cognitive and physical functioning. We were unable to overcome challenges that undermined collaboration and propose incentivization, partnering with grounded …

Enhancing Service-Learning Experiences For International Students: An Auto-Ethnography And A Dialogue, Li Mao, Laura Servage, Donna Chovanec

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This auto-ethnographic study recounts the experiences of an international doctoral student in a service-learning (SL) placement. The narrative discusses the cultural and linguistic barriers that the student faced, both in the classroom and in her SL field placement. The authors use the student’s secondary sources as well as a series of reflective dialogues as data toward an analysis of the learning needs of linguistic and cultural minorities in service-learning—an as of yet underexplored area of research in service-learning pedagogy.

Community‐Based Research And The Historian’S Craft, Zorian Maksymec, Christina Redmond, Nina Reid-Maroney

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper discusses a community-based research project that paired undergraduate history students with local community partners in an exploration of the antislavery movement in Canada and the problem of its erasure from local historical memory. The article outlines the project’s background and method, examines the wide-ranging importance of the community classroom it helped to create, and reflects on the importance of undergraduate research in the setting of a liberal arts university as a bridge between classroom and community.

Development Of Community‐Based Workshops For Mexican‐Origin Rural, Low‐Income Study Participants, Rosa D. Manzo, Yvette G. Flores, Adela De La Torre

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper documents the process of developing community-based psychoeducational workshops to engage and retain study participants within a comparison research site. The development and adaptation of the workshops followed methods of cultural adaptation and ecological validity (Domenech-Rodriguez & Wieling, 2004; Bernal, Bonilla, & Bellido, 1995). Our work supports the idea that culturally responsive approaches can engage community members and increase the acceptability of researchers in low-income Mexican-origin communities.

Differences In Race And Gender Of Retired Servicemembers In The Decision To Reenlist, Samantha R. Loeza

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of the study was to examine the race and gender differences among retired enlisted service members in work self-determination regarding the decision to reenlist. Existing research indicated little to no information regarding these factors. The independent variables are race and gender, and the dependent variable is work self-determination in the decision-making to re-enlist. This research utilized an adapted version of the Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale, an 18-item assessment of work motivation theoretically grounded in self-determination theory. Only retired active-duty enlisted service members between the ranks of E-5 through E-9 were surveyed. Regarding race, this study only …

How Can Dei Training Change The Culture Of An Organization To Achieve Belonging And Retain Diverse Employees?, Kaisa S. Holt

University Honors Theses

Studies show the need for innovation and higher productivity yields can be best achieved through workforce heterogeneity. Creating effective DEI training frameworks is crucial for belonging, sustainable social well-being and enacting real change. This is key to proactively shifting our current system from one that responds to the need for DEI on a surface level to something that is regenerative. The aim of this review is to evaluate characteristics and enhancements added to evidence-based DEI training between 2020 and 2024. Studies were identified using the Portland State advanced database of academic journals on the DEI training and impacts of the …

Evaluation Of A Statewide Suicide Awareness And Prevention Program, Darien Collins

Theses and Dissertations

Mental health challenges are prevalent among young people in South Carolina, with suicide being a leading cause of death for individuals aged 10 to 24. Ending the Silence (ETS) serves as a gatekeeper training to engage students, school staff, families, and community members in conversations surrounding mental health challenges and suicide awareness. The University of South Carolina School Behavioral Health Team (SBHT), led by Dr. Mark Weist, with funding from the South Carolina (SC) Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation (BCBS), worked with the South Carolina National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) on a three-year evaluation of their ETS program. Results …

Long-Range White Matter Fibres And Post-Stroke Verbal And Non-Verbal Cognition, Rebecca W. Roth, Deena Schwen Blackett, Ezequiel Gleichgerrcht, Janina Wilmskoetter, Chris Rorden, Roger Newman-Norlund, Souvik Sen, Julius Fridriksson Ph.D., Natalie Busby, Leonardo Bonilha

Faculty Publications

Among stroke survivors, linguistic and non-linguistic impairments exhibit substantial inter-individual variability. Stroke lesion volume and location do not sufficiently explain outcomes, and the neural mechanisms underlying the severity of aphasia or non-verbal cognitive deficits remain inadequately understood. Converging evidence supports the idea that white matter is particularly susceptible to ischaemic injury, and long-range fibres are commonly associated with verbal and non-verbal function. Here, we investigated the relationship among post-stroke aphasia severity, cognition, and white matter integrity. Eighty-seven individuals in the chronic stage of stroke underwent diffusion MRI and behavioural testing, including language and cognitive measures. We used whole-brain structural connectomes …

Maternal-Child Cortisol Attunement Differs In Preschoolers With Autism, Fragile X Syndrome, And Neurotypical Development, Rachel Hantman

Theses and Dissertations

Early maternal-child attunement sets a critical foundation for later social development. While maternal and child cortisol attunement in neurotypical (NT) development has been clearly established, little research has examined these relations in neurodevelopmental populations, such as those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Fragile X Syndrome (FXS). Given their elevated-risk for disrupted maternal-child attunement and given elevated stress and dysregulated cortisol patterns in both children with ASD and FXS and their parents independently, this is a critical gap. This study addressed this gap in the literature by examining early maternal-child cortisol attunement in 97 mother-child dyads (_nNT = …

Associations Between Infant Vagal Regulation, Early Social Communication, And Socidemographic Risk, Tessa Djiko

Theses and Dissertations

Respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA), a measure of parasympathetic nervous system activation, has been linked to socioemotional and language development (Porges, 2007; Thayer & Lane, 2000). Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show lower RSA (Patriquin et al., 2011) while both children with ASD and children from lower SES backgrounds show differences in early social-communication development (Jones-Mason et al., 2018). However, little is known about interactions between sociodemographic risk and physiological regulation within the context of ASD and social-communication development. The present study addresses this gap by examining the relationship between RSA (as indexed by RSA suppression and resting-state RSA), …

Evaluating Gender Bias In An Early Reading Screener Of Word Identification Abilities, Donna Perazzo

Theses and Dissertations

Children who have difficulty learning to read, particularly those with a specific learning disorder in reading (SLD-R) are at risk for an array of adverse outcomes. However, children who are identified and receive reading interventions early perform better on social, emotional, academic, and behavioral outcomes relative to those who do not receive early identification and intervention. In response to the growing body of research that has developed on the importance of the early identification of children have difficulty reading, many states have mandated the screening of all children for reading difficulties, specifically dyslexia. However, with the development of new reading …

Development Of An Examiner-Examinee Rapport Scale For Neuropsychological Testing: The Barnett Rapport Questionnaire – 2, Jenna Moore

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Rapport in the context of neuropsychological testing refers to the interpersonal interaction between the examinee and examiner. The purpose of this study was to improve upon the original Barnett Rapport Questionnaire. Participants consisted of college students (n = 55), middle-aged adults (n = 30), and older adults (n = 99) at a university-affiliated neuropsychology clinic, who were administered a brief neuropsychological battery. After testing, both examinees (n = 184) and examiners (n = 24) completed items regarding the nature of the interpersonal interaction. Exploratory factor analysis indicated a two-factor model consisting of 13 items found on both the examinee and …

The Importance Of Sense Of Community In Recovery For Individuals Living With Serious Mental Illness, Natalia Gomez

Theses and Dissertations

People with serious mental illness face a variety of barriers to participating in community life. Some of these barriers include limits in social functioning which can then affect social relationships and life satisfaction (Sanchez et al, 2016). Devaluation based on mental health status is an important barrier to address due to its connection to stigma and relationships. The more an individual fears that they will be undervalued and discriminated against, the more they may fear interacting with others. They may hide that they are in mental health treatment or avoid social encounters that they consider as possibly rejecting. These behaviors …

Mindfulness And Perceived Stress Among English Language Students In Uzbekistan, Laurie A. Wolfe, Rakhmatullo Akhmedov

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

The current study investigated the effective of mindfulness training versus study skills training on perceived stress among Uzbek English language students. The researchers conducted a quasi-experimental study using a convenience sample of sixty 2^nd year students studying English as a foreign language at a large public university in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. One group of students (n = 30) received mindfulness training while the other group served as an active control group (n = 30) and received study skills training. Both groups received 20-minute training in their English classes, four days a week, for 4-weeks. All participants completed pre- …

Self-Generated Narratives Enhance Associative Inference At The Cost Of Memory Specificity, Shuran Tang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Associative inference allows us to make novel associations based on prior experiences, guiding future behavior. While previous studies have used narratives or mental imagery to aid memory, the specific role of narratives in this process remains unclear. This study investigates the role of narratives in enhancing associative inference and their potential trade-offs with item-level memory specificity. Across two experiments, participants learned object pairs using narrative or perceptual descriptions, with or without active linking. Experiment 1 found that narratives combined with active linking improved associative inference. Experiment 2, incorporating a mnemonic similarity task, revealed that while narratives enhanced memory integration, they …

Age-Related Differences In The Discounting Of Combination Outcomes In Which Immediate Gains Are Followed By Delayed Losses, Ke Ning

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Past research on age differences in delay discounting overwhelmingly has focused on simple delayed rewards. Many everyday choices faced by the aging population, however, involve delayed losses and also are more complicated, involving combination outcomes of both gains and losses. Additionally, income might moderate the effect of age on discounting but has not been evaluated. Here, we examined the discounting not only of simple delayed losses but also of combination outcomes in which immediate gains are followed by delayed losses in a sample of middle-aged and older adults of varying income level. We found that when controlling for income, older …

Gender Differences In Relations Between Social Comparison, Social Support, And Sleep Disturbance Among Midlife And Older Adults., Iris Bercovitz, Gabrielle M Salvatore, Jacqueline A Mogle, Danielle Arigo

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

OBJECTIVE: To examine associations between sleep disturbance, social support, and social comparison among midlife and older adults, including the moderating role of gender.

METHODS: Adults ages ≥40 years (N = 557, MAge = 57, 53% men) completed a cross-sectional survey including validated measures of sleep disturbance, perceptions of social support, and social comparison orientation.

RESULTS: Sleep disturbance was negatively associated with social support (rs = −0.42 to–0.33, ps = 0.001) and associations were stronger for men than women–particularly perceived support from friends (η 2= 0.01). Sleep disturbance was also associated with upward comparison orientation (r = 0.12, p = 0.003), …

Beyond Mindset : Investigating Neural And Psychological Mechanisms Of Strategic Mindset, Growth Mindset And Feedback Learning, Yaqi Yang

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

Extensive research has explored the benefits of the growth mindset over the past decades. Recently, researchers have turned their attention to the strategic mindset, a new concept with the potential to positively impact cognitive and behavioural change. While some literature suggests that both mindsets are associated with feedback learning, robust evidence is lacking, and the relationship between the three factors remains unknown. This thesis aims to investigate the neural and psychological mechanisms underlying the strategic mindset, growth mindset, and feedback learning through three distinct studies.

In Study 1, utilising a self- and other-rating paradigm, we examined neural and behavioural evidence …

Adaptation And Evaluation Of Guideline-Based Family-Based Behavioral Treatment For Overweight And Obesity In Childhood Survivors Of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia And Lymphoma, Jessica Jakubiak

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Children who survive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and lymphoma are at considerable risk for chronic, treatment-related medical complications known as “late effects.” Not only are these late effects significant in and of themselves, but many are exacerbated by excess weight, a particularly concerning combination given the elevated rates of overweight and obesity within this population. Although the therapeutic regimens (e.g., steroid “pulses”) endured by children who survive ALL and lymphoma may contribute to excess weight, accumulating evidence also demonstrates the development of poor dietary habits and inadequate levels of physical activity during cancer treatment. Such weight-related health behaviors appear to …

Factors In Understanding Students Who Want To Become Psychology Professionals And Choose Not To Attend Graduate School, Katie Rubedor-Green

Theses and Graduate Projects

Due to the worsening mental health crisis in America, there is a need for more psychology professionals. Becoming a psychology professional requires a graduate-level education. Past research has explored the college and graduate school choice process for individuals enrolled in undergraduate and graduate education programs. This research project aims to understand individuals who aspire to become psychology professionals but have decided not to apply to graduate school. Eight undergraduate psychology seniors were interviewed about the factors they considered in their decision not to pursue graduate education in psychology, their knowledge about their education options, and their preferred program factors. The …

Barriers To Healthcare Faced By Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Their Families, Jennifer Lu

Theses and Graduate Projects

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that is characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication as well as repetitive behaviors or interests that can affect daily functioning. ASD individuals are also more likely to experience poor physical and mental health along with reduced life expectancy compared to non-autistic people. Thus, it is crucial that those with ASD are able to obtain adequate healthcare. However, there is limited research on the barriers to medical care access faced by those with ASD and their families.

Purpose: Due to the lack of autism awareness in the general population and …

Predictors Of Antisocial Behavior Among Hispanic Adults, Mara Page

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Antisocial behavior can lead to serious social and legal consequences such as long-term involvement in criminal activities. Although there has been much research on predictors of antisocial behavior, such as perceived economic status, parental communication, impulsivity, substances, parenting styles, and parental involvement, little has been researched on how these apply to the Hispanic population. Grounded in Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general crime theory, the purpose of this nonexperimental correlational survey design study was to assess whether sensation-seeking behavior, self-control, parental monitoring, religious coping, perceived social support, and rugged resilience predicted antisocial behavior among Hispanic adults. A sample of 167 Hispanic adult …

Adhd And Chronic Anhedonia: Antecedents Of Treatment-Resistant Depression And Suicidality In Adults, Tia Sternat

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Depression is a chronic and debilitating disorder. Approximately 280 million people live with depression, and more than 700,000 lives are lost due to suicide each year. Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a severe form of depression which is highly correlated with comorbid psychiatric disorders such as attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and associated with increased suicidality. Anhedonia, the reduced ability to experience pleasure, is associated with various psychiatric conditions, including ADHD. The theoretical framework for this study was the biopsychosocial model. Depression may be diagnosed in accordance with a defined cluster of symptoms, and/or how symptoms are experienced vary by individuals …