Digital Commons Network^™

How Witnessing Domestic Violence Affects The Future Of Children: An Exploratory Study, Victoria Cleckler

Honors Theses

Domestic violence (DV), also known as Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), is a widespread issue that affects many people, families, and communities, with one in four women and one in nine men falling victim to domestic violence each year in the United States. However, these statistics only consider what has actually been reported. More than 44% of domestic violence cases go unreported each year. It can be inferred that a drastic number of children are also affected. Children who witness domestic violence are indirect victims of DV, as they experience psychological and emotional turmoil simply by witnessing the abuse. However, there …

From Pantry To Palate: An International Cookbook Unveiling Cultural Comforts Amidst Food Insecurity On Campus, Victoria M. Main

Master of Arts in Media and Communication Plan II Graduate Projects

Food insecurity among international students in higher education is a pressing issue often overlooked by universities. This project addresses this gap by exploring food insecurity among international students at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) through participant narratives, cultural connections, and recipes collected via interviews. Diverse international students were purposively sampled, reflecting various academic disciplines, nationalities, and cultural backgrounds. Semi-structured interviews facilitated the sharing of personal stories and cherished recipes, which were analyzed to identify recurring themes and cultural commonalities.

The project resulted in the creation of the Falcon Food Pantry International Cookbook, compiling culturally resonant recipes to empower students and …

Associations Between Stress, Health Behaviors, And Quality Of Life In Young Couples During The Transition To Survivorship: Protocol For A Measurement Burst Study, Dalnim Cho, Michael Roth, Susan K Peterson, Kristofer Jennings, Seokhun Kim, Shiao-Pei Weathers, Sairah Ahmed, J Andrew Livingston, Carlos Barcenas, Y Nancy You, Kathrin Milbury

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Cancer is a life-threatening, stressful event, particularly for young adults due to delays and disruptions in their developmental transitions. Cancer treatment can also cause adverse long-term effects, chronic conditions, psychological issues, and decreased quality of life (QoL) among young adults. Despite numerous health benefits of health behaviors (eg, physical activity, healthy eating, no smoking, no alcohol use, and quality sleep), young adult cancer survivors report poor health behavior profiles. Determining the associations of stress (either cancer-specific or day-to-day stress), health behaviors, and QoL as young adult survivors transition to survivorship is key to understanding and enhancing these survivors' health. …

Positive Epidemiology, Revisited: The Case For Centering Human Rights And Economic Justice, Farah Qureshi, Christy Denckla, Julia K. Boehm

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In recent years, a growing body of research in positive epidemiology has sought to expand the traditional focus of epidemiologic research beyond risk factors for disease and towards a more holistic understanding of health that includes the study of positive assets that shape well-being more broadly. While this paradigm shift holds great promise for transforming people’s lives for the better, it is also critiqued for showcasing decontextualized perspectives that could cause great harm to the public’s health if translated uncritically into population-based interventions. In this commentary, we argue for orienting positive epidemiology within a human rights and economic justice framework …

I Am A "Fruit Eater": Predicting Fruit And Vegetable Consumption With Approach Self-As-Doer Identities, Melisandra R. Mclaughlin, Abree A. Dieterman, Katelyn R. Kelley, Hannah B. Dunlavy, Ashley M. Lenarz

Research & Creative Achievement Day

The daily recommended intake of fruits and vegetables is 1.5-2 cups and 2-3 cups, respectively, but only one in 10 adults in the United States are meeting those recommendations (CDC, 2019). Research on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) indicates healthy eating behaviors can be predicted by intentions and other components of the theory (McDermott et al., 2015). Likewise, the self-as-doer, an identity that aims to describe individuals in terms of doing a behavior, also predicts healthy eating. However, less research has explored how the orientation of a doer identity predicts fruit and vegetable consumption. Those with an approach doer …

Psychological Science: Who’S Really In Charge? Popular Media’S Influences On Food Behavior, Chakuen W. Rambang, Amilya Bryant, Benjamin Ramer, Delvin Porter

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

With mass media, consumption being very accessible, many individuals are being impacted in their daily lives. Mass media influences have had the opportunity to persuade people in their daily choices such as nutritional behaviors. With different nutritional trends on the rise, the presentation of popular media applications, such as TikTok, may have correlations to how individuals react to different trends regarding nutrition. Many videos on the platform have different algorithms that persuade their viewers to partake in different trends. In addition to popular media possibly having the impact of changing an individual's behavior, the overall understanding of nutrition may play …

Family Medicine’S Role In Addressing The Intersections Of Redlining And Climate Change, Daryl O. Traylor, Eboni E. Anderson, Brianna Clark, Alex M. Smith, Cooper K. Allenbrand

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Redlining, the practice of discriminating against specific neighborhoods based on race and socioeconomic status, leads to persistent environmental hazards and socioeconomic inequalities that have lasting adverse health effects on their populations. Health disparities are further exacerbated through the concentration of environmental hazards, as well as the escalating impact of climate change, which poses an increased risk of respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease, mental health issues, heat-related illness, infectious diseases, food insecurity, and socioeconomic difficulties in redline neighborhoods.

This paper examines the interplay of redlining, climate change, and health disparities, with an emphasis on the enduring consequences for these marginalized communities. Through …

Bryant University Research And Engagement Day Schedule, Bryant University

Bryant REDay (Research and Engagement Day)

No abstract provided.

2024 Reday Awards, Bryant University

Bryant REDay (Research and Engagement Day)

No abstract provided.

The Experience Of Self-Regulation Among Obese Adults During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nicholas Cunningham

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Obesity is considered a disease, an epidemic, and is a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases, certain cancers, poor mental health, and low quality of life. It is also a leading cause of mortality. While it is difficult for obese adults to combat their condition, it was much more challenging during unprecedented times such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Annesi’s self-regulation conceptual framework was used as a basis to ground this study. Research explains the importance of practicing self-regulation to increase physical activity. However, there is little research on the practice of self-regulation to increase physical activity and weight …

Inhibiting Repetitive And Restricted Behaviors In Sprague-Dawley Rats Using Propranolol: Sex Differences, Melanie M. Berry

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is diagnosed when an individual has persistent deficits in social communication and restrictive repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities. Restricted repetitive behaviors (RRBs) are typically triggered by anxiety and can cause significant detriment to an individual's life. While there is no cure for ASD, there are pharmacological treatment options for the symptoms caused by ASD. Propranolol, a beta-adrenergic antagonist, is used to treat anxiety and shows promise in reducing many of the symptoms associated with ASD. This study explores the effects of Propranolol on RRBs in a sample size of …

A Qualitative Investigation Of The Technology Acceptance Model In The U.S. Cooperative Extension Service On The Adoption Of Customer Relationship Management Systems, Aaron Weibe

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This research investigates the technology acceptance model (TAM) in the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service (CES) regarding the adoption of customer relationship management (CRM) systems to improve communications, outreach, and engagement with the publics and communities it serves. The CES comprises land-grant universities throughout the United States and offices in nearly every county in the country. It provides research-based educational programming to help communities of all sizes meet the challenges they face. However, many CES organizations have yet to adopt CRM technologies, leading to potential missed opportunities in improving client engagement, outreach, and communications. A thorough review of the literature of …

Research Discoverability, Deborah M. Williams, Emily Ray

Library Faculty Presentations & Publications

No abstract provided.

Avoidant Attachment, Coping Styles, And Body Image In Adults With Trichophagia And Onychophagia Disorders, Maryam Mehrtash

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this quantitative research was to study the relationship between avoidant attachment, coping styles, and body image in adults with trichophagia and onychophagia disorders. The repeated failed attempts of patients to reduce or stop their compulsive behavior persist as a significant health concern for clinicians and researchers alike. Previous literature indicated that a lack of recognition of the underlying mental illness in these conditions exists and may be due to the absence of individualized treatment. Attachment theory, proposed in this study, integrates psychosocial and neurobiological factors to examine this study’s therapeutic constructs. Sixty-seven adults with trichophagia (N= 50) …

Excellence Summit 2024, Office Of Research And Sponsored Projects Operations

Excellence Summit (Research Week) Archived Proceedings

In it's 17th year, the University of the Incarnate Word, welcome all to read and review the proceedings of the annual research week. The 2024 Excellence Summit highlighted academic excellence across all schools featuring topics from nutrition studies to soil amendments, artificial intelligence, medical case studies, and music composition studies. The rich mixture of humanities, health sciences, physical sciences, education, and business can be found in this booklet. We thank all that contributed to these works and hope the community enjoys learning from today's and tomorrow's leaders in research, inquiry, and scholarship.

Early Childhood Practitioners' Beliefs Regarding Children's Development And Learning Based On The Curriculum, Karlene Gloria Degrasse-Deslandes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) is an agency of the Ministry of Education and Youth in Jamaica responsible for early childhood development. It has been proposed that Early Childhood Practitioners (ECPs) should engage in more child friendly and age-appropriate teaching practices. This is especially critical as they use the Jamaica Early Childhood Curriculum (JECC). This basic qualitative research was conducted to explore ECPs’ beliefs regarding children’s development and learning and the influence on the implementation of the JECC. The research questions that guided the study address the beliefs of Jamaican ECPs regarding children’s development and learning and the influence of …

Sustaining And Increasing Participation Of Rural Seniors In A Senior Center, Michelle L. Fontaine

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This case study’s objective was to sustain and increase senior participation in senior center activities by examining the rural senior perception of environmental needs and support of a local senior center. Senior centers assist with aging in place well and aid seniors to be socially active within their communities. Much of the literature around senior centers has focused on urban environments and not on the specific needs of the rural senior. In this study, 24 individuals were interviewed. The questions examined the seniors’ perception about the functionality and accessibility of the senior center to meet their physical and social needs …

Childhood Cancer Survivorship: Navigating A New Normal In Middle Tennessee, Karli M. Beaumont

OTD Capstone Projects

Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in partnership with Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center offers REACH for Cancer Survivorship, a pediatric cancer survivorship clinic. REACH provides a full range of follow-up care designed to meet the physical, emotional, and practical needs of survivors and continuous surveillance of deleterious effects of cancer and its treatments. The purpose of this project was to meet population and agency needs through research of long- and late-term sequela while advocating for occupational therapy’s role in the oncology population through the proactive therapy and prospective surveillance models. The process of creating this project included synthesizing the literature, …

Emerging Giants And Lessons For Development: China, India, And Their Different Paths To Progress, Eskander Alvi Editor, Wei-Chiao Huang Editor

Upjohn Press

This book explores the differences and commonalities in growth experiences of two looming economic giants, China and India—countries that follow often-contrasting economic, social, and political paths as they struggle to achieve long-term prosperity for their billion-plus populations. The papers included within show that the economic and political realities in the two countries are quite different, and that these realities are deeply embedded in each country’s social framework. China and India are at markedly different stages of economic development but the challenges facing the two countries, unsurprisingly, diverge—not only because of the different stage of development each has reached, but also …

Prepplates: Meal Prep For Busy Lives, Alec Coronado Garcia, Luc Roelofs, Kade Fey

Celebration of Research

PrepPlates is an innovative meal idea based in Sioux County. Our purpose is clear: to transform the way people approach mealtime by providing not only nourishment but also a comprehensive dining experience suited to their preferences and lifestyles. Our business venture aims to revolutionize the meal kit industry by providing convenient, affordable, and high-quality meal solutions tailored to the preferences and lifestyles of our demographic. Through research and strategic planning, PrepPlates emerges as a beacon of innovation in the competitive landscape of meal preparation services. Rooted in a comprehensive understanding of demographic and market trends, our business model is tuned …

The Holobiont, Food Justice, And Gaia 2.0 A Post-Human(Ist) Approach To Functional Medicine, Rosalynn A. Vega

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Functional medicine is a personalized and holistic approach to treating chronic disease. In this article, I build upon posthumanist literature by examing how functional medicine practitioners are decentering and destabilizing what it means to be human. Functional medicine discourse on the holobiont, which considers the human as an assemblage of different microbial species, reframes the “humananimal” (see Nayar 2018) as the “humicrobe.” I engage Gaia 2.0 (see Lenton and Latour 2018) when analyzing the interconnectivity, interdependence, and mutualism of all life. My approach to interconnectivity interweaves both functional medicine descriptions of systems biology and Luhmann’s (2012) approach to system’s theory …

Latent Classification Of Multi-Model Non-Homogeneous Continuous-Time Markov Chains, Joonha Chang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) model and latent clustering models are commonly used to study longitudinal measures of categorical outcomes. Because of its simple but powerful Markovian property, CTMC models have been widely used in medical and public health researches. Due to limitations in the standard CTMC model, there have been some studies on non-homogeneous continuous-time Markov chain (NH-CTMC) that utilized time-dependent rates, but the progresses have been limited. NH-CTMC can be more powerful than CTMC by its default nature of time-dependent rate that can be fitted to a wider range of applications in medical studies. In this study, we …

Overnight Shifts And Poverty: A Look At How Money Affects Sleep, Jared Scott

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Overnight shift work has been clearly linked to overall poorer sleep. Additionally, socio-economic status (SES) is a strong predictor of many health outcomes, including sleep health. This study looks at the intersection of shift work and SES as they relate to sleep health.

Data on 9,210 workers aged 18 years and older were acquired from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. These workers self-identified their typical shift as overnight, evening, daytime, or rotating. Data on poverty income ratios (PIR) was also collected and was used to generate SES groups of poverty (PIR ≤ 1), below median (PIR ≥ 1 …

An Instrument To Evaluate 4-H Cloverbud Stem Programming, Alisha M. Hardman, Donna J. Peterson, Mariah S. Morgan, H. Elizabeth Solace

Journal of Extension

Evaluation data is needed to demonstrate the impact of 4-H science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programming on children and youth. However, collecting evaluation data from cloverbuds (ages 5-7) is particularly challenging given their developmental age. We adapted an observational Cloverbud evaluation tool to measure basic life skills, essential elements of positive youth development experiences, and, unique to this tool, STEM specific experiences. We developed the STEM items using educational science standards allowing Extension to document STEM in addition to youth development outcomes. Doing so, may increase the adoption of 4-H STEM programming by teachers in the school setting.

Foraging Culture In Iceland: Understanding The Transfer Of Plant Knowledge And Personal Views On Foraging, Ella Jane Maurer

Whittier Scholars Program

Foraging is a broad topic, practiced in different locations throughout history. This study looks into the specific practices, values, and views of foraging in Iceland. There is little previous research that has been done, working with Icelanders, and hearing their stories. Through conducting several interviews of local Icelanders with different backgrounds and a brief six-question survey via the Inaturalist application, this study looks into exactly that. By compiling stories from the interview and survey data, themes were highlighted collecting similar and contrasting statements on ways plants are foraged, opinions on Icelandic foraging culture as a whole, and ways knowledge is …

Perceptions Of Dengue Risk And Acceptability Of A Dengue Vaccine In Residents Of Puerto Rico, Coral Rosado-Santiago, Carmen L. Pérez-Guerra, Nicole M. Velez-Agosto, Claudia Colón-Burgos, Karla M. Marrero-Santos, Susanna K. Partridge, Amy E. Lockwood, Cathy Young, Steve H. Waterman, Gabriela Paz-Bailey

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Dengvaxia is the first dengue vaccine recommended in the United States (U.S.). It is recommended for children aged 9–16 y with laboratory-confirmed previous dengue infection and living in areas where dengue is endemic. We conducted focus groups with parents and in-depth interviews with key informants (i.e. practicing pediatricians, physicians from immunization clinics, university researchers, and school officials) in Puerto Rico (P.R.) to examine acceptability, barriers, and motivators to vaccinate with Dengvaxia. We also carried out informal meetings and semi-structured interviews to evaluate key messages and educational materials with pediatricians and parents. Barriers to vaccination included lack of information, distrust toward …

Snac Patrons' Typical Use And Overall Evaluation Of Services, Joy Bruneel, Melody Loutzenhiser

Student Research Symposium

Food insecurity among students in higher education programs is a relatively new area of research with the first study being published only 14 years ago.¹ Over the years, the costs associated with higher education have steadily increased leading to more financial burdens for students than ever before. According to the 2019-20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, over 4 million students nationwide struggle with food insecurity.²

While the incidence of food insecurity among students is increasing, many students are not taking advantage of community and university resources aimed at targeting this issue on college campuses.³ In a study …

Violence And Danger In Children's Folklore, Alleyah Murphy

Student Research Symposium

Children's Folklore is described as games, traditions, songs, and rhymes that are passed down from person to person, anonymous in origin, have variation, and often have association with a group.

I decided to examine violence and danger in Children's Folklore.

Community-Level Food Sovereignty And Wellbeing In The Upper Yakima River Basin: Framing Lived Experiences Within Multiscalar Food Systems Discourse, Alex Theophilus

Student Research Symposium

Broader Project Context

• Characterizing wellbeing in the Intermountain West
• Key themes include
• Individual and community wellbeing
• Population and demographic change
• Environmental change
• Rural-urban regional connectivity
• Food
• Community-identified salient issues

Tracing The Path: Exploring The Drivers Behind Venezuelan Migration Waves, Sofia Hernandez Otero

2024 Student Academic Showcase

This research project investigates why Venezuela, once a wealthy nation, has experienced one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, causing many people to leave in large numbers. By examining the reasons behind these waves of emigration and the specific characteristics or backgrounds of the people leaving, we aim to understand the factors driving this mass exodus. Through studying the demographics of each wave, including factors like age, socioeconomic status, and education level, we seek to gain insights into the diverse experiences of Venezuelan migrants. By shedding light on these aspects, the research aims to provide a clearer understanding of the …