Digital Commons Network^™

Retirement Investment Behaviors Of Itin Immigrants, Krzysztof Zoltek

Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

This study examines retirement related financial behaviors among foreign-born immigrants living in the United States, with particular focus on the role of Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) status. Using a cross-sectional survey of 223 foreign-born respondents, including both ITIN and non-ITIN respondents, the study examined whether ITIN status, financial literacy, fintech usage, remittance behavior, demographic characteristics, and attitudes toward financial inclusion were associated with participation in formal retirement saving and likelihood of using retirement products if available. Binary logistic regression and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to test the study hypotheses. The findings indicated that ITIN status was negatively …

“We're Just Relics Of A Bygone Era!”: The Portrayal Of Librarians In Short Films, Alessandro Camarra

Staff publications

While on the hunt for examples of "librarian" characters portrayed in popular culture, it can be thrilling when said characters make an appearance in feature length films or Hollywood blockbusters. However, sometimes a higher level of satisfaction can be found when examples come from smaller, more personal, projects.

One person films a three-minute clip of their friend wearing glasses and a fake "bun" wig, then uploads it to YouTube. Another person works all semester on a half-hour documentary of their university library, then submits it as the final project for their Film Studies class. Not to mention examples that go …

“A Place For Every Book, Every Book In Its Place … ”: The Portrayal Of Librarians In Video Games, Alessandro Camarra

Staff publications

The role of "librarian" can follow several well-worn tropes within the world of interactive media. These can be referred to as:

*The All-Knowing Guide (teaches the player how to actually play the game, i.e. accessing the inventory menu or revealing which button combination will unlock the ability to cast spells)

*The Lore Keeper (provides exposition and backstory about the game world to the player)

*The Clueless Collector (begs the player for help recovering lost/overdue books)

*The Secret Sexpot (an object of desire for the player to romance/seduce)

*The Unforgiving Tyrant (demands silence at all costs)

And then we have those …

Digital Privacy In Marketing And Advertising: A Review Of Evolving Consumer Concerns, Stakeholder Dynamics, And Theoretical Perspectives, Galvin Kuan Sian Lee

DLSU Business & Economics Review

The intensification of data-driven advertising has heightened public scrutiny of digital privacy and exposed persistent contradictions in consumer behavior. This structured integrative narrative review critically synthesizes contemporary research on the privacy paradox in digital advertising, with emphasis on consumer privacy concerns, stakeholder tensions, trust formation, transparency, perceived control, and privacy-reconfiguring advertising ecosystems. Drawing on interdisciplinary evidence from marketing, information systems, and digital policy research, the review maps five key domains: the evolution of privacy concerns; multi-theoretic perspectives explaining privacy-related behaviors; stakeholder tensions among consumers, advertisers, and regulators; the effect of privacy perceptions on trust and engagement; and the role of …

A Leadership Trait Analysis Of U.S. Vice President Jd Vance, Aubrey Immelman, Sophie J. Heck

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect leadership trait analysis of U.S. vice president JD Vance, conducted for the purpose of anticipating Vance’s likely leadership style in a high-level executive role in politics, from the conceptual perspective of Margaret Hermann’s leadership trait analysis (LTA) model, employing an empirically based “psychodiagnostic meta-analytic” methodology.

Psychodiagnostically relevant data relating to Vance were collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the Hermann Leadership Trait Inventory (HLTI) — constructed expressly for the present study — which taps seven leadership trait dimensions: belief in one’s ability to control …

The Personality Profile Of Entrepreneur And Business Leader Elon Musk, Amelia Brower, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect personality assessment of entrepreneur and business leader Elon Musk, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Psychodiagnostically relevant data relating to Musk were collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with DSM-III-R, DSM-IV, and DSM-5-TR.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed in accordance with interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles (MIPS) manuals. Musk’s primary personality patterns …

Demographic Trends And Far-Right Party Support In Europe: The Role Of The Cordon Sanitaire, Maxwell Curry

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examines whether cordons sanitaires, institutional exclusionary arrangements common in Western and Central Europe on the part of mainstream political actors aimed to prevent far-right political parties perceived as posing a threat to liberal democratic order from entering into governing coalitions or otherwise participating in mainstream political life, condition the relationship between immigration-related demographic change and support for far-right political parties. Contemporary scholarship has extensively examined the relationship between immigration and support for far-right political parties, but comparatively little research has examined the institutional factors that potentially condition such a relationship. In an analysis of parliamentary election data …

Estimasi Underground Economy Triwulanan Di Indonesia Pada Tahun 2010–2023, Ghina Anandhia, Hardius Usman

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

Underground economics have a significant impact on economy. Underground economy leads to low potential state revenues from the tax sector. This study estimates the quarterly value of the underground economy in Indonesia from 2010 to 2023 using the Error Correction Model (ECM) method. The results show that the average value of the underground economy in Indonesia is IDR138,392.32 billion, equivalent to 5.36 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 35.72 percent of tax revenue from 2010 to 2023. GDP and tax burden variables have a positive influence on currency demand.

Southeastern Librarian 74(2) Summer 2026 (Full Issue)

The Southeastern Librarian

Complete issue of the Southeastern Librarian, Volume 74 Number 2, Summer 2026

Second Acts In Academic Librarianship: Trends, Impacts, And Implications, Tiffany Davis Norris, Phill Johnson

The Southeastern Librarian

This study investigates the increasingly common phenomenon of academic librarianship as a second career. Survey data from more than 500 academic librarians found that nearly 70 percent of respondents did not begin their professional lives in the library field. These findings challenge the long-held perception of librarianship as an early or primary career choice and highlight significant trends with implications for library education, recruitment, leadership development, and burnout prevention. The study explores patterns in first careers and examines demographic trends, age distributions, and correlations between career background and current leadership roles. By framing librarianship as a deliberate career pivot rather …

Christianity, Gender Identity, Parents’ Rights: Book Censorship Discourse In Tennessee Communities, Janet Kesterson Isbell, Shawn Hinkel

The Southeastern Librarian

Hate and hostility toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer+ (LGBTQ+) community and people of color, inflamed in recent years by political extremism and radical conservatism, have permeated many areas of society. One context where hostilities have emerged in the past decade is public debate surrounding book challenges, which prompted a yearlong investigation into the polarizing phenomenon of book censorship in the United States. After extensive reading of media reports from around the nation, the authors focused on public discourse related to book challenges in Tennessee public and school libraries, where debate was contentious, librarians were threatened, and the state’s …

The Jewish South: An American History, A. Blake Denton

The Southeastern Librarian

The Jewish South: An American History
Shari Rabin
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2025
ISBN: 9780691208763
296 pp., $29.95 (Hbk)

Author Insights: Book Reviews In Depth: An Interview With Ann Hite, Author Of I Am A Georgia Girl: The Life Of Lucille Selig Frank, Melissa Lockaby Howell

The Southeastern Librarian

Ann Hite
I Am a Georgia Girl: The Life of Lucille Selig Frank
Macon: Mercer University Press, 2025
ISBN: 9780881469981
337 pp. $32.00 (Cloth)

Da Mosang Tarsier Series: Developing Digital Bullying Prevention Materials For Filipino Parents Of Grade School Students, Rudy M. Danganan Jr., Ann Christine V. Braga, Maria Kristina S. Alfonso, Romelito Manuel D.S. Clorina, Ma. Regina Hechanova

Children and Families

Bullying remains a significant public health and educational concern worldwide and is particularly prevalent in Philippine public schools, with Grade 7 students identified as a vulnerable group. Although the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013 (Republic Act No. 10627) mandates school-based policies and procedures, persistent implementation gaps underscore the need to strengthen home–school partnerships and equip parents with practical, culturally grounded response strategies. This paper describes the development of the Da Mosang Tarsier Series, a set of digital psychoeducational comic strips designed for Filipino parents of Grade 7 students. Guided by a user-centered design (UCD) framework, the project began with a Generative …

Resisting Dualism In Contemporary Movement Building: Lessons From The Zapatista Movement On Creating Assertive, Insurgent, And Generative Praxis, Nico Killian

University Honors Theses

The common struggle of social movements, revolutionary and otherwise, in the contemporary era is how to establish a collective capable of asserting its politics via grassroots organizing in the face of the logic of global capitalism that atomizes communities, reconfigures the role of the state, and unleashes the fragmentizing and simultaneously totalitizing forces of the global market. Discourse regarding effective movement building in the contemporary era often falls into two dualistic avenues of resistance - complete autonomy that rejects any engagement or affiliation with political structures out of fear that it would result in demobilization through co-optation or negotiating a …

Upper Mora River Corridor Plan. Path To Social And Economic Recovery. A Working Paper, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

The Working Paper outlines a plan for the Upper Mora River Corridor as a path to the social and economic recovery of the watershed and its communities in the Mora Valley of New Mexico in the aftermath of the year 2022 wildfires. The first section of the plan includes an historical overview of the traditional gristmills of northern New Mexico and places where a few of them are preserved and still standing. The next section goes into detail as to the early commercial mills situated along the upper Mora River Corridor with a focus on the four remaining mills: the …

Sustainable Rural Development Under Ecological Civilization: Two Mountains Theory, “Green Rural Revival”, And Post-Productivist Transition In Zhejiang, Qian Forrest Zhang, Jianzhang Luo, Li Zhou

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Existing studies of China’s overarching ideological framework for national development, “Ecological Civilization”, have focused narrowly on environmental governance; how it reshapes sustainable rural development remains underexplored. This paper pursues two analytically distinct tasks. First, it reconstructs the policy history of how President Xi Jinping’s “Two Mountains” theory was incorporated into the Eco-civilization framework and how Zhejiang Province’s “Green Rural Revival” (GRR) program, as a lived example of Eco-civilization, was elevated as the national template for rural development in 2024. Second, drawing on three cases from a sample of 21 villages in Zhejiang, it identifies three core practices of GRR and …

Black Americana: Packaging Black Critique For White Consumption, Sean Bloemetjie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this project, I extend the theorization of Black Americana, a conservative, racialized mass media project where Black celebrities, through the assertion of the American-ness and promotion of the American empire, engage in the containment of Blackness and Black people. Historically, Black Americana was conceptualized by Michele White around the online marketplace for racist, caricatured, slavery-era memorabilia, but I argue that this practice has morphed and evolved into a prominent form of mediated Black subjugation by Black elites. Utilizing Whitney Houston’s performance of the national anthem as a case study, I argue in the introduction that, by insisting upon her …

Pengaruh Penggunaan Internet Terhadap Pendapatan Wirausaha Pemuda Di Indonesia, Nabella Primasetya, Putu Geniki Lavinia Natih

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

An important element in entrepreneurship is being alert to unexploited opportunities. In the context of entrepreneurial development, internet users in Indonesia continue to increase but the percentage of young people using the internet for business remains low. This study analyzes the effect of internet usage on the income of young entrepreneurs in Indonesia using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method and Propensity Score Matching (PSM). The results show that internet usage significantly increases the income of youth entrepreneurs. Internet usage for communication contributes positively to their income but usage for promotion, social media and marketplaces does not affect their income.

Addressing Bias Against Sopo Vee Opp Polyamory, Nafees Alam

Social Work Faculty Publications

Polyamory is a consensual relationship style involving multiple romantic and/or sexual partners, with SOPO (solo polyamory), VEE, and OPP (one penis policy) being specific polyamorous dynamics that often face heightened bias. The reality show "Sister Wives" offers a compelling case study of both stigmatization and potential normalization of non-monogamous relationships in mainstream media. This manuscript examines how "Sister Wives" both reinforces and challenges stereotypes about polyamory, its impact on public perception, and how the experiences of the Brown family parallel those of SOPO VEE OPP practitioners. By analyzing media representation alongside lived experiences, we can better understand how to promote …

Examining The Effectiveness Of Nature Metaphor Patterns For Cultivating Intimacy, Acceptance, Relationship Satisfaction, Self-Compassion, And Positive Communication In Couples, Jenna Rice, Sarah Fraher, Elizabeth Engelkamp, Melissa Mcternan, Hannah Grigorian, James Cordova

Psychology

Effective couple interventions, such as Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy and the Relationship Checkup, include the labeling of common relationship patterns. This study hypothesized that a micro-intervention using nature metaphors, such as “Porcupine–Turtle,” would produce greater improvements in relationship health relative to descriptive labels such as “Approach–Withdraw.” Twenty-five couples were presented with nature metaphor patterns, while 24 couples were presented with descriptive patterns. Several measures of relationship health showed significant improvements across both groups, while other measures showed significant improvements for descriptive patterns only. Generally, nature metaphor patterns were initially rated as more novel and more resonant. Broadly, these results add …

Polarized Truth Decay & The Role Of Education In A Democracy, Sonja Varbelow, William Yaworsky

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to delineate the causes and dangers of truth decay for a democracy, the role education has played in the process, and how education can present a resistance to this dangerous trend. Truth decay has been characterized as an increase in quantity of opinion over fact, divergent views on what constitutes a fact, and decreased confidence of traditional sources of information. We agree that truth decay is a serious problem but would characterize it somewhat differently. Opinions, divergent views, and decreased confidence in traditional sources of information are not detrimental by themselves. Instead, we see …

Personal Goal Facilitation, Burnout And Work Engagement: The Role Of Self-Discrepancy, Jacinth Jia Xin Tan, Bek Wuay Tang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Employees who perceive greater personal goal facilitation through work (PGFW) experience lower burnout and higher work engagement. This research examined whether self-discrepancies and emotional experiences explain these relationships across two cross-sectional studies involving a nationally representative sample of working adults (Study 1; N = 889) and a sample of public school teachers (Study 2; N = 228) in Singapore. Participants listed personal goals and rated how much their jobs facilitated these goals, alongside measures of self-discrepancy, emotions, burnout, and engagement. Across both samples, higher PGFW predicted lower burnout and greater engagement. These associations were consistently explained by lower ideal self-discrepancy …

Global Prevalence Of Internet Gaming Disorder: An Umbrella Review Of Meta-Analytic Evidence And Implications For Child And Adolescent Psychiatry, Elisabeth C. S. Poon, Xun Ci Soh, Trina J. H. Poh, Andre C. S. Tan, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Background/Objectives: Internet gaming has become a widespread global activity, raising concerns about the prevalence of Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). However, existing meta-analyses report highly variable prevalence estimates. This umbrella review aims to clarify the prevalence and variability of IGD by synthesizing evidence from meta-analyses to provide a comprehensive overview of IGD prevalence across populations, age groups, and regions. Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, systematic searches were carried out across five published literature databases and two supplementary search sources. Title and abstract screening, followed by full-text eligibility assessment, were conducted independently by three authors. The same three authors then performed data extraction …

A 10-Minute Walk From The Mrt. But For Whom?, Paulin Tay Straughan, Yi Wen (Chen Yiwen) Tan, Wensi Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

They highlighted that as people age, mobility naturally declines, adding that the convenient shorthand such as a “10-minute walk” to define accessibility is ultimately a social construct – one that must be grounded in lived realities and evidence. They noted that ageing in place is not just the ability to remain at home as one transitions into later life – it is about living in an environment that fosters attachment, continuity and well-being, which requires both the built and social environments to be supportive. Responses must be guided by solid evidence – through ongoing conversations with those whose needs we …

The Narrative Dynamics Of Special Books By Special Kids Youtube Videos And Comments: A Study Of Disability Rhetoric And Public Narrative Engagement, Jessica Louise Allee

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Digital media has expanded disability advocacy and community building by enabling accessible, visual storytelling and connection. Special Books by Special Kids (SBSK), a YouTube channel using interview-based disability storytelling, foregrounds people’s experiences with disabilities in the videos, while inviting viewers to interpret, identify with, and respond in the comments. As a participatory storytelling space, SBSK offers a site for examining how disability meanings are constructed, negotiated, and transformed through narratives, multimodal practices, and audience uptake, while revealing how dominant disability rhetoric or ableist discourse that positions people with disabilities as burdens, inherently deficient, or socially devalued, can be reproduced, complicated, …

Understanding Chronic Bodily Pain Across Multisystemic Illnesses: A Comparative Analysis Using Exploratory Factor Analysis And Invariance Testing, Suvetha Ravichandran

Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

Chronic pain is a debilitating symptom that often remains under-researched and poorly treated, particularly for those with multisystemic conditions. This study explored the shared and distinct experiences of chronic bodily pain across four multisystemic illnesses: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS), and Long COVID. Comparative exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and invariance testing were used to examine commonalities and differences in underlying pain experiences for those with the above diagnoses as well as healthy controls based on their responses to pain items from the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire-1 (DSQ-1). A total of 3,724 participants were included: 2,403 …

Rhetorical Physics And The Laws Of Language: A Comparative Analysis Of President Trump And President Macron At The United Nations 2025, David Edmund Allen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The paper features a textual analysis of the UN speeches made by the US President Donald Trump and by France’s President Macron. President Trump’s speech was made in the absence of a teleprompter and lasted almost an hour. President Macron’s speech was representative of a more standard diplomatic speech. Both speeches are analyzed using a variety of models and techniques. The analysis incorporates an exploration of Manin’s link of Zipf’s law to concepts from information theory and algorithmic complexity, Tao’s concepts applied to power laws, ‘E pluribus unum’, out of many, one, plus a completely new application of Villermaux’s universal …

Do I Fit In Here? How Immigrants’ Endorsement Of Social Markers Is Related To Their Wellbeing In Three Migrant Receiving Societies, Justine Dandy, Chan Hoong Leong, Adam Komisarof, Travis Lim, Krystal Perkins

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Social markers of acceptance are the attributes seen as important for immigrants to achieve or display in order to be accepted similarly to a local-born citizen. In research on constructions of national identity, factor analysis reveals a culture-specific, two-factor structure akin to the ethnic–civic distinction observed. In this paper, we extend this work by examining the relationship between social markers of acceptance and immigrants’ well-being in three national contexts: Australia, Japan, and the U.S. Specifically, in study 1 we examined the factor structure of social markers in non-immigrant samples in each context (Australia, n = 1357; Japan, n = 2000; …

Mental Health Stigma In Latin American Youth With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Ryan J. Mccarty, Matias Jensen, Elissa Paz Jensen Santa Cruz, Melisa N. Sagarnaga, Pamela Claisse Quiroz, Isabella A. Cruz, Laura D. Seligman, Joseph D. Hovey, Monica E. Ochoa, Nadeen Salhadar

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an impairing mental health condition that affects individuals across the lifespan. Some literature has evaluated mental health stigma in adults with OCD but limited attention has been given to youth, as well as those of Latino ancestry. The present study reported the extent of stigma experiences among Latin American youth with OCD, as well as examined sociodemographic, clinical and psychological correlates. 235 youth with clinician confirmed diagnoses of OCD from 10 North and South American countries completed questionnaires assessing stigma experiences, symptomatology, and functioning. Sociodemographic and clinical variables were also collected. The average OCD stigma response …