Digital Commons Network^™

The Cultural Script Of Special Needs Adoption, George Grant, Jr.

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine special needs adoption from the perspective of the adoptive parents. Using the general guidelines of grounded theory, the study analyzed secondary data from a post-adoption program providing services to families who adopted special needs children. The data revealed that adoptive parents function under a cultural script of special needs adoption. The cultural script influences how families view themselves, the environment around them and how they decide to function as adoptive families. The study explains the cultural script, ways that professionals working in adoption can use that cultural script to support adoptive families …

Examining The Experiences Of Nontraditional Undergraduate Women: Pedagogy Versus Andragogy, Beverly Ann Hair

Dissertations

Increasing numbers of nontraditional students, of whom many are women, are enrolling in two-year and four-year colleges and universities. The purpose ofthis study is to critically examine the experiences of nontraditional undergraduate women and their preferred learning environment--pedagogy vs. andragogy. Students were asked to respond to a variety of questions in order to reflect upon their preferred learning environment. The researcher looked for differences inthe experiences of 20 (ten Black and ten White) nontraditional female undergraduate college students within their respective institutions based on their race, socioeconomic background, age, and religious background. Also, the researcher focused on why these nontraditional …

Perceptions Of A Prejudiced Campus: Institutional Antecedents And Personal Consequences For African-American Students, Brenda Taylor King

Dissertations

The present research consists of two studies designed to (a) identify those institutional characteristics that African-American students, themselves, consider to evaluate the campus environment of predominately White colleges and universities (PW'CUs). and (b) examine the relationship between African-American students' perceptions o f the campus environment at a PWCU (based on institutional characteristics) and their expectations of quality of life and academic achievement In Study One. African-American and White students at Western Michigan University and high school seniors at two public high schools completed the Campus Climate Survey, designed to identify the institutional characteristics to which African- American students spontaneously attend …

Teaching My Son To Be A Father: The Plight Of Unmarried Adolescent African American Fathers, Michael George Till

Dissertations

A quantitative research design was utilized to examine and understand the perceptions of fatherhood and manhood held by unmarried African American adolescent fathers. In face-to-face 60-90 minute interviews using a semistructured interview guide developed by the researcher, participants were asked open-ended questions to provide these young men with a voice and an opportunity to express their needs, support, neglect, understanding, and perception of how society views them and its impact on the functioning of the family unit. Using purposeful sampling, 10 unmarried African American adolescent fathers, located in the southwestern area of Michigan, were interviewed for data collection.

Interviews were …

Ideology Or Insanity? Media Presentation Of Ted Kaczynski And Tim Mcveigh, Matthew P. Sheptoski

Dissertations

This dissertation explores mainstream media presentation of two convicted murderers: Theodore J. Kaczynski, otherwise known as "The Unabomber," and Timothy J. McVeigh, found guilty of the 1995 destruction of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. More specifically, I analyze The New York Times's and Time's presentation of these two actors in order to assess whether their acts were attributed to political and ideological motivation or psychological abnormality and mental illness. Quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that Kaczynski's crimes were more likely to be attributed to psychological abnormality and mental illness, while McVeigh's crimes were more likely to be …

Why Religious People Believe What They Shouldn't: Explaining Theological Incorrectness In South Asia And America, D. Jason Slone

Dissertations

Cross-cultural descriptions of religious thought and behavior in South Asia and America show that people commonly hold ideas and perform actions that seem to be not only conceptually incoherent but also “theologically incorrect” by the standards of their own traditions. For example. South Asian Theravada Buddhists are taught that the historical Buddha is unavailable because he attained enlightenment and achieved parinirvana (“complete extinction”) and yet conceptually and ritually represent him as if he is present and available for petition. Similarly, American Protestants represent the Christian God as having absolute divine sovereignty and yet reveal confidence in an inner locus of …

Family Structure And Attachment And Their Role In Reducing Delinquency In The African American Family, Kiesha Warren

Dissertations

The study uses data from the over sampling of African American youth (4,808) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to explore the relationship between family structure, attachment and their role in reducing delinquency. Using theelement of attachment from Hirschi’s (1969) social control theory, this study examines the historical development of the various family structures and the role attachment plays in reducing delinquency in those family structures. The study uses structural equation modeling to test this hypothesis. This study shows that when attachment is present regardless of the family structure delinquency will be reduced.

Teachers' Perceptions Of School Safety, Safety-Based Changes, And Their Resultant Impact On School Climate: A Case Study, Laura L. Finley

Dissertations

In the last decade, several high-profile shootings in suburban school districts have drawn attention to the issue of school-based violence. Consequently, schools all over have responded in many ways. The literature reveals that many suburban and rural schools have adopted the same measures as have urban districts, despite the fact that their discipline and violence problems are qualitatively different. These responses have generally been punitive and technological in nature, rather than curricular or structural reforms. This has included institution of metal detectors, more restrictive student dress codes, zero tolerance laws and others. Some, though, have suggested that these responses may …

What Have They Told Us About Gangs? A Content Analysis Of Twentieth Century Texts On U.S. Gangs, Douglas Lee Gilbertson

Dissertations

Inspired by a scholarly desire to understand and explain things, formal theoretical explanations for the social problem of gangs have been around just about as long as gangs themselves. This is an inductive content analysis of the texts within twentieth century works explaining gangs. This study explores those explanations as social artifacts and analyzes the text within them in order to identify textual similarities. This is accomplished by consolidating codified text or words until typologies of abstract theoretical concepts are revealed. The purpose of this study is to identify probable causal factors for gang formation and gang joining behavior that …

The Link Between Smoking And Body Weight Among Adolescents, Tracey Barnett

Dissertations

Trends in smoking rates among adolescents indicate that white females generally smoke more than their adolescent counterparts, the only substance in which this occurs. Another trend in which white females far outnumber any other adolescent group is eating disorders. This study was conducted to assess the relationship between cigarette smoking and perception of weight among adolescents. A logistic regression model was constructed to test the relationship using the Adolescent Health Public Dataset. For females, there was a link between cigarette smoking and perception of overweight which was not found among the males. Similarly, white females had a significantly higher rate …