Digital Commons Network^™

Gender And Attitudes About Mental Health Help Seeking: Results From National Data, Douglas Wendt, Kevin Shafer

Faculty Publications

Men often express less emotion than women do, are hesitant to express weakness, and seek professional help much less frequently than do their female counterparts. The lack of help seeking is common across characteristics such as age, race, ethnicity, and nationality. Authors used data from the 2006 General Social Surveys mental health module to suggest that the gender gap in help seeking may be rooted in attitudes regarding help-seeking behaviors generally. Using structural equation modeling, we linked vignette type (depression and schizophrenia) to the endorsement of help seeking from informal and formal sources. Men showed similar support for informal help …

Relational Aggression/Victimization And Depression In Married Couples, Christine Marie Cramer

Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigates the correlates of partner-directed relational aggression in married couples. In particular, this study looks at the connection between romantic relational aggression and the personal outcome of depression. Both the experience of victimization and perpetration of romantic relational aggression are considered. Victimization may be linked to depression through the concept of the “looking glass self” and reflected appraisals. Aggression, in contrast, may be linked to depression through dissatisfaction with one’s own aggressive tendencies in the relationship and a lack of “relational self-esteem”. Couples who completed the RELATE assessment were asked to report on their partner’s engagement in …

A Longitudinal Examination Of The Effects Of Acculturation And Mental Health Problems On Immigrant Father Involvement: A Cross-Cultural Study, Keitaro Yoshida

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined how acculturation, mental health problems, and parenting stress are associated with two dimensions of father involvement longitudinally for Latino and Chinese immigrant fathers using a nationally representative sample of young children and their resident fathers from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). After controlling for a variety of individual and demographic characteristics and previous levels of father involvement, results from multiple group structural equation modeling revealed that immigrant fathers' English proficiency is negatively associated with care-taking involvement at 2 years, but positively associated with care-taking involvement at 4 years. Interestingly, mothers' English proficiency is also …

A Path To Empathy: Child And Family Communication, Sarah Ann Stone

Theses and Dissertations

This longitudinal study examined the association between communication in the family on the development of empathy in young children. Co-regulation and family expressiveness measured communication in parent-child dyads at age 12 months (N = 186), 24 months (N = 100), and 36 months (N = 78). A follow-up was conducted at 60 months (N = 47) to measure empathy-related responding in children. Co-regulation styles change over time, generally increasing in the most engaged, two-way style of communication (symmetrical) and decreasing in one-sided and less engaged types. Greater family expressiveness predicted higher levels of empathy as observed in an empathy-eliciting experiment, …

Barry Cunliffe, Europe Between The Oceans: 9000 Bc To Ad 1000, Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Civilizational Trauma And Value Nihilism In Boccaccio's "Decameron", David J. Rosner

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

John Keegan, The First World War, Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Andrew Targowski, The Deadly Effect Of Informatics On The Holocaust, Peter Hecht

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Positive And Negative Events On Daily Relationship Effect For Clinical Couples: A Daily Diary Study, Kayla Dawn Mennenga

Theses and Dissertations

Relationship satisfaction is a popular variable to consider when looking at long-term success for couples. Research indicates positive and negative events have an impact on relationship satisfaction. Considering the influence of the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation framework, the present study focuses on the daily impact of positive and negative events that happen outside of therapy on couple relationship satisfaction for couples seeking therapy. Daily diary methods were used to collect data, a first for using this method with clinical couples. Random effects and multilevel models of analysis controlled for days and couples. Results suggest that on any given day, positive events impact both …

How Do Boys And Girls Help? Validation Of A Multidimensional Measure Of Prosocial Behavior, Matthew Glade Nielson

Theses and Dissertations

The study of prosocial behavior is growing increasingly multidimensional in the way that it considers whom is helped and how. One area of concern is the effect of gender on prosocial behavior. Is masculine behavior more physically oriented, and if so, are measures neglecting these behaviors and biasing results toward more feminine prosocial behaviors? The current study sought to answer these questions by creating and validating a new multidimensional measure of prosocial behavior that includes behaviors more common to males. An EFA was performed on a sample of 463 adolescents and emerging adults from Amazon Turk (US citizens, 16-25, 60% …

A Case Study Of Irada: Its Impact On The Development And Enhancing The Legitimacy Of Home-Based Businesses In Key Poverty Areas In Jordan, Zaid Hussein Al Attar

Theses and Dissertations

Many researchers have investigated the phenomenon of the informal economy and rec-ommended impractical interventions such as controlling the informal economy or formalizing it. However, most research has missed another strategy for helping the informal economy, which involves achieving legitimacy. This study uses unique data from a Jordanian government organi-zation named IRADA designed to help small, home-based businesses. Data on 345 home-based businesses representing a range of poor areas across Jordan provide a case study of IRADA's strategies to help home-based businesses succeed and to contribute to legitimate informal econo-mies in these areas. Logistic regression analysis reveals how marketing and specialized …

The Home Field Advantage: Exploring Elements Of Immigrant Entrepreneurship, Loren H. Rich

Theses and Dissertations

Immigrants participate in entrepreneurial activity more frequently than other groups, largely resulting from restricted access to traditional occupational advancement. Recent studies have reported that immigrant entrepreneurs focus on their abundance of human and social capital to obtain the financial resources necessary to fund their ventures. Lack of financial resources has been identified as a major barrier for immigrant entrepreneurs; however, as this study indicates, both native and immigrant entrepreneurs face similar financial hurdles in locating initial startup funding. Where major differences arise between native and immigrant entrepreneurs is that native entrepreneurs more frequently transition to business forms of debt, a …

Social Withdrawal And Internalizing Problems In Emerging Adulthood: Does Parenting Matter?, Stephanie Shea Luster

Theses and Dissertations

The first purpose of this study was to investigate the direct effects of three subtypes of social withdrawal (shyness, social avoidance, and unsociability, respectively) on internalizing outcomes (depression, emotional dysregulation, and self-worth, respectively) in emerging adulthood and to examine these effects by gender. A second purpose was to examine if parenting moderates (i.e., exacerbates or buffers) the main effects of social withdrawal on internalizing outcomes. Participants included 790 undergraduate students from four universities in the United States (Mage = 19.61, SD = 1.85, range = 18–29; 243 males, 547 females) and their mothers. Regression analyses established that shyness was associated …

The Quality Of Residential Parent-Child Relationships And Its Impact On Stepfamily Experiences, Megan Urick, Gordon E. Limb

Faculty Publications

This study sought to understand the effect that residential biological parent-child relationship has on retrospective accounts of overall stepfamily experiences. Using data from the Stepfamily Experiences Project (STEP), a nationally-based quota sample, retrospective accounts of 1,593 emerging adults’ stepfamily experiences were analyzed. Results indicated that a higher quality residential biological parent-child relationship was positively and significantly correlated with a higher quality stepfamily experience. Clinicians and other social scientists need to be aware of the importance of strengthening the parent-child relationship when providing services and interventions for stepfamilies.

What's Good About Failing Schools?, Maika Malualelagi Tuala

Theses and Dissertations

Education policies tend to target failing schools that are often located in disadvantaged communities. However, the use of high-stakes testing to identify and punish failing schools has become increasingly controversial. An overemphasis on test scores to determine school quality has led to unintended consequences and overshadows other valuable school-based resources that parents feel meaningfully contribute to students' academic experiences. To better understand how low-SES parents describe their children's low performing schools, I interviewed 92 families in an under-served community. Through these interviews I illuminate the school-based resources that contribute to school quality. In fact, these additional elements were often more …

Baby Boomers And The Vietnam War: A Life Course Approach To Aging Vietnam Veterans, Miles Steven Marsala

Theses and Dissertations

The sheer size of the baby boomer cohort has prompted a great deal of research on life outcomes and potential social strain or benefit of such a large cohort. A major contingency for the baby boomers was the experience of the Vietnam War. Many young men had their life course trajectories interrupted when they were drafted to military service or enrolled in college in an effort to evade the draft. This study uses the Life Family Legacies data to investigate how the Vietnam War may have affected later-life health outcomes of this cohort. Comparing physical health as captured by activities …

Does Video Game Content Matter? An Examination Of Two Competing Ideas, Nathan J. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The current paper addresses the associations between video game content (i.e., physically aggressive, relationally aggressive, and prosocial) and physical aggression, relational aggression, and prosocial behavior in two distinct developmental periods. The purpose of the paper is to test whether playing video games with a particular type of content influences behaviors over time, or whether individuals who have higher levels of physical aggression, relational aggression, or prosocial behavior prefer to play games with similar content. Two theories will be simultaneously examined and tested in order to determine the relative merit in using each in research examining the relationships between video game …

Hooking Up, Sexual Attitudes, And Parental Repartnering Choices: Variations At The Intersection Of Race And Gender, Nathaniel Aaron Stoddard

Theses and Dissertations

Using a subsample of emerging adults from the Stepfamily Experiences Project (n = 989), we examine how parents' repartnering choices (nonmarital and premarital cohabitation) influence their emerging adult children's commitment-related relationship attitudes (attitudes about sex in committed relationships) and behaviors (hooking up). We further examine these processes at the intersection of race and gender. In this way, we expand the current emerging adult literature by exploring two understudied populations: emerging adults who grew up in stepfamilies, and emerging adults from diverse racial backgrounds. We divided our sample by race (black, Latino, American Indian, white, and multiracial) and gender, resulting in …

Who Benefits From Income Inequality? An International Examinationof The Relationship Between Income Inequalityand Student Achievement, Christina Ruth Edmunds

Theses and Dissertations

This study directly tests the relationship between income inequality and student mathematics achievement. Furthermore, I examine the degree to which the relationship between income inequality and student achievement is moderated by student SES. To test these relationships, I created a database of national wealth measures and linked it with student achievement data from the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The results of multilevel models indicated that income inequality is negatively related to student achievement scores. Additionally, this relationship is not moderated by student SES, indicating that the relationship between income inequality and student achievement is the same for …

Got Hope? Measuring The Construct Of Relationship Hope With A Nationally Representative Sample Of Married Individuals, Sage Elizabeth Erickson

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores an emerging construct: relationship hope. I define relationship hope as when individuals feel that regardless of the current quality of the relationship, there is significant hope for the relationship in the future if they keep working on it. The Relationship Hope Scale (RHS) is a new five-item scale that measures this construct. I evaluated the psychometric properties of RHS with Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT). I used a nationally representative sample of married individuals, ages 25-50 years old, in the United States. I found that RHS performs well in both CTT and IRT …

Depression Symptoms And Marital Quality In Vietnam-Era Veterans: Does The Presence Of Higher Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms (Ptss) Matter?, Kevin L. Stott

Theses and Dissertations

Using data from 617 Vietnam-era veterans, this study aimed to better understand the relationships between depression symptoms, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and overall marital quality. Results indicated that depression symptoms and PTSS each had a negative relationship with marital quality when considered individually. The association between depression symptoms and marital quality persisted when PTSS was accounted for. However, the significant association between PTSS and marital quality dropped out. Further, PTSS did not moderate the association between depression symptoms and marital quality. The current study suggests tha tdepression symptoms and PTSS overlap in relation to marital quality among Vietnam-era veterans, with depression …

Grave Matters: A Presentation And Comparative Analysis Of The Late Classic Burials From Guajilar, Chiapas, Mexico, Shelley Lorraine Wells

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to identify the possible origins of the peoples who immigrated into the archaeological sites of Guajilar and Lagartero, located in the upper Grijalva River Basin region in southern Chiapas, Mexico, during the Late Classic period (AD 650-900). First, I present the Late Classic burial data from both sites according to four basic descriptive criteria: burial location, grave type, burial type, and grave goods. Then, I conduct a comparative analysis of the burial practices found at these two sites based on these criteria so that patterns in burial practices can be identified. Following the comparative analysis between Guajilar …

Does Parental Mediation Of Media Influence Child Outcomes? A Meta-Analysis On Media Time, Content, Aggression, Substance Use, Sexual Behavior, And Health Outcomes, Kevin Matthew Collier

Theses and Dissertations

As the world evolves into a media saturated environment, the focus of many studies have been the negative effects of media on children and adolescents. For at least the past two decades, researchers have explored how parental involvement in their child's media consumption can influence child outcomes. Parental mediation of media includes restrictive mediation, active mediation, and co-viewing. Three meta-analyses, one for each type of mediation, reviewed a total of 69 studies. Each analysis assessed the effectiveness of parental mediation of media on five pertinent child outcomes: media use, aggression, substance use, sexual behavior, and negative health outcomes. The overall …

Mary Elise Sarotte, The Collapse: The Accidental Opening Of The Berlin Wall, Basic Books, 2014. Barry Rubin And Wolfgang G. Schwanitz, Nazis, Islamists, And The Making Of The Modern Middle East, Yale University Press, 2014., Laina Farhat–Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

The Marital Paradigm Study: Wave 2, Brian J. Willoughby, Spencer L. James

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This project had mentored goals related to student involvement with conducting a research project and collecting data, student independent research projects with data, and general student learning. Below we outline these goals and discuss how each goals was met.

The Segregating Effects Of The Social Construction Of Academic Quality, Maika M. Tuala

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Brown v. Board concluded 60 years ago that “separate but equal” schools are “inherently unequal”. Yet, schools are more separate and unequal today than four decades ago. Take the district that I have been studying, for example. The north side has mostly affluent white students attending B+ schools while the south has 80 percent poor minorities in D+ Schools

Ironically, school segregation practices are none existent, and today, poor minority parents have more opportunities to choose schools for their children rather than attending low performing zoned schools. In fact, this district offers ideal opportunities for school choice. The parents in …

Adolescent Body Dissatisfaction And Emotional Distress, Marina Potter

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Based on data from a nationally representative survey of adolescents in the U.S., this study examines the association between body dissatisfaction and emotional distress, mediated by family, peer, and school relationships. In a sample of 5,110 adolescent girls, I use least squares regression to estimate the models. I find satisfaction with family relationships, self-esteem, time with friends, peer victimization, and feelings about school to be associated with emotional distress. In addition, body dissatisfaction remains the strongest predictor of emotional distress, even when all other variables are held constant.

Seeing A More Complete Worker: Religiosity, Income, & Job Satisfaction, Rolf David Dixon Jr.

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

A central assumption to the study of individuals in work settings it to study only the those factors directly connect to the work context. The purpose of this study is to examine whether a more holistic approach to a generally very compartmentalized phenomena, such as job satisfaction, is in order. Using the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data collected in 2000, I examine the effects of religious attendance frequency of job satisfaction under the hypothesis that religious attendance will have a statistically significant effect on job satisfaction and that that effect will be positive. The results show that there …

Connecting To Disconnect: Internet Access And Loss Of Trust In Pre-Arab Spring Egypt, Rolf David Dixon Jr.

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Research has shown that seeking out and deliberating with like-minded individuals can contribute to the fragmentation and polarization of societies. The study posits that the internet can contributes to just such like-minded reinforcement, via a phenomenon called the echo chamber effect. An analysis of the World Values Survey of Egypt in 2001 supports the claim that the internet can contribute to fragmentation and polarization, as measured by a lack of trust. The analysis shows that access to the Internet, even as early as 2001, with the limited penetration it had in in Egypt at that time, still had a measurable, …

Stepfamily Experiences Project (Step), Kevin Shafer, Erin K. Holmes

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Stepfamily Experience Project (STEP) is a data set made up of approximately 1,500 emerging adults (aged 18-29) that was collected in 2013. STEP was motivated by a research literature which argues that stepfamilies are worse off than two-biological parent families (sometimes called biologically-intact families). While, on average, this may be true, STEP researchers thought that this research ignored what makes a successful stepfamily. This is unfortunate, because stepfamilies are of immense worth which can positively impact men, women, and children. As a result, we collected data, with the support of BYU and generous donors, to find out exactly what …