Digital Commons Network^™

When The Safety Net Becomes A Barrier: Administrative Burdens In Snap And Medicaid, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard

Center for Social Development Research

The goal of the U.S. social safety net is to ensure that everyone can meet a basic standard of living, regardless of their economic, health, or life circumstances. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid, two key parts of this safety net, support low-income families in affording food and health care. This brief summarizes findings on seven dimensions of administrative burden in SNAP and Medicaid. The findings come from analyses conducted with data from the Workforce Economic Inclusion and Mobility Project’s survey of a nationally representative sample of low-wage U.S. workers. They suggest that administrative burdens are common, affect …

Aligning Sport Management Programs With The Evolving Needs Of Hopeful Intercollegiate Athletic Administrators., Kelly P. Elliott, Don Rockey

The COSMA Journal

Pathways to becoming an Athletic Director (AD) vary considerably across intercollegiate athletics, highlighting the need for sport management programs to better align academic preparation with evolving professional expectations. While prior research has explored AD roles across NCAA divisions, limited attention has been given to how academic curricula and experiential learning opportunities support students pursuing these careers. This study examines differences in sport management curricula and experiential offerings across programs affiliated with Division I FBS, Division I FCS, Division II, Division III, and NAIA institutions. Two research questions guided the study: (1) What differences exist in required coursework across divisions? and …

The Readiness Reset: Sleep, Stress, And Pain Management For Tactical Performance, Lauren Fried

Tactical & Occupational Performance Conference

Tactical professionals operate in high-demand environments where sleep disruption, chronic stress, and persistent pain are often normalized, but these factors significantly affect readiness, resilience, and long-term performance. This session explores how sleep, stress, and pain interact at the physiological and neurological levels to influence decision-making, recovery, injury risk, and operational effectiveness in first responders and military personnel.

Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how nervous system regulation, circadian rhythms, and pain perception affect both physical and cognitive performance under stress. Drawing on current research and applied human performance principles, this session highlights practical, field-applicable strategies that tactical professionals and …

Attached To The Algorithm: Investigating The Relationship Between Adult Attachment Styles And Instrumental And Relational Dependency On Large Language Models, Jim Zapf, Ala Yankouskaya, Timothy J. Evans, Andrew J. Graham, Abigail Hill, Troy Backhuus

Journal of Counseling and Psychology

The rapid growth of large language models (LLMs) raises questions for counselors regarding when such tools are used adaptively versus when they foster dependency. Guided by attachment theory and a dual-dimension view of AI reliance, this study examined whether adult attachment styles predict instrumental (task/decision support) and relational (companion-like) dependency on LLMs, whether spiritual engagement relates to these dependencies, and whether levels differ by age. Faculty, staff, and students who had used an LLM completed the LLM-D12 and the ECR-R (N = 515). Analyses showed that instrumental dependency on LLMs was highest among individuals high in avoidance, with modest additional …

Book Review - Violent Impacts: How Power And Inequality Shape The Concussion Crisis, Samuel M. Clevenger

Global Sport Business Journal

Kathryn Henne and Matt Ventresca’s Violent Impacts critically examines how narratives surrounding CTE, TBI, and the concussion crisis are constructed across sport, the military, law, media, and science. Drawing on intersectional feminism and science and technology studies, the authors show how dominant concussion discourses privilege the experiences of White male athletes while marginalizing other groups. Based on extensive fieldwork, the book makes an important contribution by exposing representational inequalities and highlighting the intersectional gender politics of concussion research and public debate.

Sicker Americans Are More Likely To Misuse Prescription Medications, Esther Oshaji, Andrew S. London

Population Health Research Brief Series

Prescription medication misuse is a long-term population health problem in the United States. This data slice uses data from the National Wellbeing Survey (N=32,789, 2021–2025) of U.S. adults ages 18–64 to examine how the number of chronic health conditions a person has is related to their misuse of prescription opioids, tranquilizers, sedatives, or stimulants in the past 12 months. The authors find a dose-response pattern: misuse rises from 2.8% among those with no chronic conditions to 11.7% among those with three or more conditions. Mental health conditions show stronger associations with misuse than physical health conditions.

Virtual Lunch And Learn: Enhancing Research Communication With Visual Tools, Sonya Fogg

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

Virtual Lunch and Learn: Enhancing Research Communication with Visual Tools on June 26, 2026 at noon.

Understand the role of visual communication in medical research. Distinguish between data visualizations, infographics, and visual abstracts. Identify best practices and some resources and tools for creating effective visuals.

Register to attend this virtual session!

Link, Retain, Suppress: A Grounded Theory Study Of Medical Case Management In The Philadelphia Hiv Service Agencies, Shakeera Wynne

Social Work Doctoral Dissertations

Medical case management (MCM) plays a critical role in supporting engagement in HIV care; however, differences in implementation across agencies may influence service delivery and outcomes. Existing research has focused primarily on outcomes such as retention in care and viral suppression, while less is known about how the MCM intervention is implemented in practice. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to explore how medical case management is implemented within HIV care settings and to examine the structural, organizational, and relational factors that shape service delivery. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with medical case managers working within Ryan White-funded agencies …

If Pets Are Family: Pet Loss And The Need For Grief Equity In One Health, Michele L. Whitney

Journal of One Health Systems

One Health frameworks increasingly recognize pets as integral to human health and well-being. However, these models often overlook the health and equity implications of pet loss. Culturally mediated grief experiences following pet bereavement represent a critical grief equity gap in One Health systems. Drawing on findings from a qualitative study of African American adults who experienced pet loss, along with existing literature, this Viewpoint highlights how pet loss is not only an emotional experience but also a socially structured one shaped by cultural norms, social recognition, and access to support. These dynamics contribute to inequities in how grief is experienced …

Using In-Home Air Quality Monitoring To Reduce Cannabis Secondhand Smoke Exposure In Children: Quantitative Pilot Feasibility Study, Vincent Berardi, Bradley N. Collins, Laura M. Glynn, Eusabeia Silfanus, Darby G. Lyons, Stephen J. Lepore

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background: An estimated 5 to 8 million US children live with a parent who uses cannabis, and most cannabis users report smoking cannabis inside their homes, placing children at risk for cannabis secondhand smoke (cSHS) exposure. Indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring provides real-time feedback on airborne pollutants and has shown promise in reducing in-home tobacco secondhand smoke exposure, suggesting its potential as an effective harm reduction strategy for cSHS.

Objective: This pilot study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of using low-cost, off-the-shelf IAQ monitors to increase caregivers’ awareness of children’s cSHS exposure risk and to change …

Resource Highlight: Accessdermatologydxrx, Joanne Romano

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

Try AccessDermatologyDxRx! It is your go-to Access collection in dermatology featuring core texts, review questions, cases, videos, 3D modules, and more, including: Fitzpatrick’s Dermatology Flashcards, Weinberg’s Color Atlas of Pediatric Dermatology and Taylor and Kelly’s Dermatology for Skin of Color.  Try it today!

Upcoming Holidays, Katie Prentice

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

No abstract provided.

Bridging The Gender Gap In Ghanaian Local Governance: Key Enablers And Pathways, Martin Brantuo, Victor Fannam Nunfam, Joseph Akanganngang Asitik, Ebenezer Afrifa-Yamoah

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This qualitative study examines factors facilitating women’s election to District Assemblies in Ghana through social capital and supply–demand theoretical frameworks. Through interviews with thirteen female Assembly members and four officials, the research identifies four critical enablers: financial resources, political affiliations, community relationships, and educational qualifications. Financial resources emerged as crucial for campaign management and voter mobilization, while political party support provided strategic advantages despite the nonpartisan nature of local elections. Strong interpersonal relationships within communities proved vital for building voter trust, and educational background enhanced candidates’ credibility. The findings inform recommendations for implementing gender quotas, establishing campaign funding mechanisms, voter …

Paths To Stability And Wealth: Evidence From The Habitat For Humanity Wealth Building Project, Yung Chun, Somalis Chy, Laura Evans, Xueying Mei, Stephen Roll

Center for Social Development Research

Owning a home has long been the most common way for American families build wealth—but for low- and moderate-income families, the route is rarely open and rarely simple. And handing a family the keys does not guarantee that the house will become an asset. This report sets out to answer a hard question: Can homeownership deliver lasting wealth to the families who have been locked out of it the longest, and what does it take to make that happen? This study presents findings from the first national evaluation of the Habitat for Humanity Wealth Building Project. The report examines how …

Hand Mapping: Our Sexual Health Is (Not) In Our Hands, Laura L. Ellingson

Feminist Pedagogy

This Original Teaching Activity introduces hand mapping, an assignment based on the body mapping method, in the context of a communication and gender studies course. Hand mapping can be adapted to interpersonal, organizational, intercultural, and media courses that address identities, intersectionality, communication, culture, and power in different contexts and mediums. Students outline their hands on paper and artfully embellish them as a visual representation of important takeaways or lessons they learned in the course in response to the prompt, “Our sexual health is (not) in our hands.” Students write an “artist’s statement” explaining meanings of color, symbolism, and design.

Faculty And Staff Formation In Jesuit Higher Education: The Scholarship And Art Of Accompaniment, Belle Liang, Maria Gregoire, Elisa Liang

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

This study examines the formative impact of selected faculty and staff formation initiatives offered at Boston College, with particular attention to those shaped by Ignatian spirituality. Drawing on qualitative survey data from 134 participants, the analysis identifies interrelated conditions through which formation is experienced as a coherent process rather than a set of discrete programs. Across initiatives, renewal and vocational clarity were most often described through four conditions: People, Pause, Place, and Purpose, understood here as the alignment of values, commitments, and lived practice. Presence emerged as the relational medium through which People, Pause, Place, and Purpose became formative. Presence …

Spotting Power: Reframing Media Literacy In Civic Education, Kason Kendall

Democracy & Education

This article analyzes and critiques the tendency to frame media literacy as a neutral skill set concentrated on verifying sources, or "spotting the error." While this approach emphasizes cognitive habits of checking for bias and accuracy, it does not adequately prepare students to understand intentional misinformation as a political strategy. Building on Matthew's (2020) response to Curry and Cherner (2019), I propose that limiting media literacy to error correction hides the strategic production and intentional spread of disinformation by powerful organizations, corporations, and media outlets. Rooted in curriculum theory and the work of scholars such as Gramsci, Hall, Habermas, and …

“The Blue Party? No, Wait, Is There Really A Blue Party?” A Study Of Young Norwegian Children’S Perceptions Of Politics, Stine Johansen Utler

Democracy & Education

The study investigates Norwegian primary school children's immediate responses to “What do you think of when you hear the word ‘politics’?” It examines children’s perceptions of the concept of politics, their emphasis, and how they communicate their perceptions, providing information about children’s political socialization, knowledge, and understanding as well as early conceptual learning. The data come from group interviews with 36 children (20 second-graders and 16 fourth-graders). The study was not longitudinal but emphasized differences in the content of children’s perceptions. The analysis identifies four different categories of children`s perceptions. These vary according to their emphasis, their apparent associative political …

Beyond The Classroom: Leveraging Community Engaged Learning To Teach Corporate Social Responsibility In Sport Management, Amanda Greene Dr., Charles Jones, Natalie Smith

The COSMA Journal

This manuscript presents a case study exploring the use of community engaged learning (CEL) to teach corporate social responsibility (CSR) in an upper-level sport management course. The purpose of this study is to examine how participation in a semester long community engaged learning experience influences student understanding of corporate social responsibility, civic identity, and theory-to-practice application. Students partnered with a local nonprofit affiliated with a professional sport organization to design and execute a donor engagement event addressing youth needs in the community. Guided by experiential learning theory, the course emphasized out-of-classroom learning, industry mentorship, and reflective practice. A longitudinal qualitative …

The Pain Of Women And Femmes: A Multi-Session Class Activity On Generative Ai-Technology And Gender Norms, Bethany L. Johnson, Margaret M. Quinlan

Feminist Pedagogy

This unit helps students examine the societal implications of reproductive pain, focusing on healthcare settings and in post–Roe America. Through active listening, media analysis, and interactive research with ChatGPT, students examine how generative AI responds in a neutral tone; however, with additional data and correction, large language models (LLMs) produce more expansive and inclusive responses. Class activities include group discussions, research, and simulations. By using transcripts from the podcast “The Retrievals” and analyzing recent media, students evaluate how LLMs adjust their answers to identical questions, thereby calling into question their design, functionality, and benefits. The unit employs feminist pedagogy to …

The Effect Of Weight Training With Blood Flow Restriction On Muscle Strength Development In Mma, Tomáš Kozák, Marek Kokinda, Pavel Ružbarský

Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity

Background: This study aimed to elucidate the effect of weight training with blood flow restriction (BFR) on explosive power and isokinetic strength in combat athletes. Materials and methods: The sample included 12 male MMA fighters divided into a control (19.50±0.50 years) and an experimental (18.00±1.00 years) group. Participants trained twice weekly for 8 weeks, with BFR in the experimental group. Explosive power was assessed using following tests by Optogait: countermovement push-up, kneeling countermovement push-up and kneeling squat push-up for upper limbs and countermovement jump, countermovement jump with free arms and squat jump for lower limbs. Isokinetic strength was measured by …

Perceptions Of Teachers In Inuit Nunangat On The Benefits Of Life-Promotional Activities On Inuit Youth To Reduce Suicide In Nunavut, Aramide Owoaje

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Legitimacy In Three Forms Of Probation Supervision For People With Serious Mental Illness, Sophia Sarantakos, Emily Claypool

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"In the context of criminal-legal community supervision, standard and specialized probation officers are often tasked with coordinating services for adults diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI) on their caseloads. The coordination of services varies across different programs including traditional probation, specialty probation, and mental health court. Given the proliferation of programs focused on mental health in the criminal-legal system, the perspectives of front-line workers or street-level bureaucrats in criminal-legal agencies are a rich source of information about what is happening on the ground and could provide insights into the potential translational barriers of policy to practice. A deeper examination of …

From Acrimony To Forgiveness: How Adolescents Make Sense Of Childhood Maltreatment, Katherine Irwin

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This paper examines 16 adolescents’ narratives about the abuse they experienced during childhood. To date, most research examining child abuse (CA) survivorship and recovery has been conducted with adults who look back on their early experiences. Consequently, this study fills gaps in our knowledge by offering a youth-centered view of survivors’ efforts to cope with CA. The data come from a 12-year qualitative study of a group counseling program for high school students in Hawaiʻi. The findings revealed that a minority (n = 2) of the teens had negative views of their lives and futures, while the majority (n = …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Gender Inequality In Southeast Missouri Law Enforcement Agencies, Madeline Marie Whistler, Christopher Bradley, H. Hamner Hill

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Does gender inequality impact the careers of female law enforcement officers in the Southeast Missouri region? Using a qualitative single instrumental case study, seven cis-gendered female law enforcement officers who were employed at local law enforcement agencies within the Southeast Missouri region were interviewed to investigate the central research question. Four themes emerged from the data that illustrated their experiences: sexual exploitation and harassment, a lack of work-life balance, the presence of gender stereotypes, and patriarchal hierarchy and male dominance in the workplace. The findings suggest that the experiences of female law enforcement officers are heavily impacted by the behavior …

A Plea For Open Access To Qualitative Criminology: With A Python Script For Anonymizing Data And Illustrative Analysis Of Error Rates, Scott Jaques, Andrew Wheeler

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Qualitative researchers are expected, sometimes required, to publish their data open access (OA). This is for the sake of science, impact, and social justice. Yet, understandably, qualitative criminologists are worried about what this means for their workload and their ability to protect subjects’ confidentiality. To be solutions-oriented, we developed an open-source Python script for anonymizing qualitative data. It uses named-entity recognition and fuzzy-rule based merging to identify and replace personally identifiable information (PII) with unique pseudonyms. This tool doesn’t eliminate the need for manual work, but it reduces the cost and associated risk. In this article, we describe and explain …

Rethinking Interpreter Training: The Role Of Microlearning In Boosting Knowledge Retention, Hicham Boughaba

Al-Kīmiyā

This study examines the effectiveness of microlearning interventions in enhancing knowledge retention and interpreting performance among trainee interpreters. A quasi-experimental design was employed, with interpreting students divided into two groups: an experimental group receiving targeted microlearning modules on specialized terminology and a control group relying on general knowledge only. Their performance was evaluated according to four criteria: accuracy, clarity and fluency, terminology usage, and cultural and contextual understanding. Results indicate that participants who were exposed to microlearning modules achieved significantly higher scores across all evaluation criteria, with notable gains in accuracy and terminology usage. These findings suggest that microlearning constitutes …

Queer, Hybrid Participatory Design: Relational Practices And Norms For Coalition Building With Rural, Lgbtq+ Communities, Luettamae Lawrence, Maureen Boyle, Chasity Mayo, Catherine A. Rushworth, Moira Anderson, Dorothy Wallis, Jayme Walters

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper examines the first year of collaboration between the Bear River Region LGBTQ+ Community Coalition and queer residents in rural northern Utah, United States, using a hybrid participatory design (PD) approach. Using Yep’s queer relationality theory, we examine how hybrid spaces were designed and iteratively adapted to support inclusion, care, and collective agency among LGBTQ+ community members. Drawing on Community Coalition Action Theory and queer PD, we analyze four cases from May 2024 to June 2025 including workshops and regular meetings to explore how relational practices evolved across different formats and phases of coalition development. In this paper, we …

Women's Ratings Of Leadership Effectiveness Of Agentic Black Women Leaders, Patrice Y. Lattimore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Balancing Our Capacity To Serve: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Black Women Navigating Personal, Professional, And Community Leadership Roles, Shemeka K. Brathwaite

Student Theses

This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of Black women community leaders as they navigate a balance between their professional, personal, and community leadership roles. The research design uses the theoretical frameworks of Black Feminist Intersectionality and Role Theory, specifically addressing the cultural burdens imposed by the Strong Black Woman archetype, which adds additional role strain. The study began with a questionnaire completed by 54 Black women community leaders, followed by 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews selected from this pool. The study’s key findings are illustrated in a Black Women’s Sustainable Community Leadership Framework. Black women community leaders exude high self-efficacy, …