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Living Arrangements, Proximity To Child/Parent And Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults, Haemi Chung Aug 2019

Living Arrangements, Proximity To Child/Parent And Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults, Haemi Chung

MA Research Paper

Studies have demonstrated the links between living arrangements and depressive symptoms among older adults. Yet, little is known about how these associations may differ among foreign- and native-born older adults who have different needs and expectations for family relations. Using the Health and Retirement Study, I examine predictors of living arrangements among native- and foreign-born adults over the age of 50 using multinomial logistic regressions. I also run a series of logistic regressions to examine the association between living arrangements and risk of high depressive symptoms. The results show that nativity and immigration characteristics are significant predictors of living arrangements. …


The Interrelated Nature Of Trauma: Exploring The Narratives Of Persons Living With A Family Member Who Has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Emily Johnson Aug 2019

The Interrelated Nature Of Trauma: Exploring The Narratives Of Persons Living With A Family Member Who Has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Emily Johnson

MA Research Paper

The study of the relationship between work-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the family has commonly been approached from both a psychological and psychiatric perspective. Moreover, these studies have primarily focused on how PTSD impacts familial relationships from the perspective of the individual who has PTSD, while little attention has been placed on the viewpoint of family members. By using data obtained from Beyond Blue and Reddit, the current study aims to redress this gap by directly exploring the perceptions of family members living with an emergency service worker who has PTSD. A qualitative content analysis was conducted using …


International Students’ Earnings In London, Ontario, Amna Wasty Apr 2019

International Students’ Earnings In London, Ontario, Amna Wasty

MA Research Paper

While there is an abundance of literature on the labour outcomes of immigrants, there is limited research on the earnings of former international students. This study uses the 2016 census to compare the earnings of new labour market entrants who were international students, and are now permanent residents, to those of domestic students and foreign-educated immigrants in London, Ontario. The results found that former international students had slightly lower earnings than domestic students, despite being more likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree, have studied a STEM field, and be working in a NOC skill level A occupation. Former international …


Bad Comic, Good Comic: The Social Construction Of Brownness In The Racial And Ethnic Humor Of South Asian Comedians, Tasmeea Islam Sep 2018

Bad Comic, Good Comic: The Social Construction Of Brownness In The Racial And Ethnic Humor Of South Asian Comedians, Tasmeea Islam

MA Research Paper

The current study aims to compare how South Asian comedians Russell Peters and Hasan Minhaj use racial and ethnic humor to articulate their understandings of Brownness, a tenuous space of both privilege and persecution in North America. Racial and ethnic humor inhabit a contentious continuum that includes exclusionary racist humor, which naturalizes and reiterates racial ideologies, and emancipatory racial humor that exposes and resists dominant power structures. I employ a thematic content analysis of the stand-up comedy shows Comedy Now!(2004) and Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King (2017) to argue that the social construction of Brownness in the material of South Asian …


Divorce And Health: Does Educational Attainment Matter?, Sara Quinn-Hogan Sep 2018

Divorce And Health: Does Educational Attainment Matter?, Sara Quinn-Hogan

MA Research Paper

This study examines the relationship between divorce and women’s health, looking at whether the negative effects of divorce on health remain controlling for one’s educational attainment. Using data from the 2011 cycle of the Canadian GSS, a logistic regression was conducted to examine the relationship between divorce and health controlling for educational attainment. First, it was hypothesized that divorced women are more likely to report poor health than women who are married, single, or widowed. As expected, being divorced increased the odds of poor health. The second hypothesis was that controlling for educational attainment would reduce the negative consequences of …


Assessing The Importance Of Cve Strategies In Ontario, Matthew Murray Sep 2018

Assessing The Importance Of Cve Strategies In Ontario, Matthew Murray

MA Research Paper

For several years now, countering violent extremism (CVE) strategies have existed as a core component of police agency mandates and governmental policy directed toward reducing radicalism. However, little is known about what specific skills and attributes are necessary for police officers to successfully perform these duties. In this paper, we draw upon in-depth interviews with 6 individuals that have performed CVE-related duties within Ontario to discover which core competencies they perceive to be crucial to effectively work in such an environment. Additionally, an environmental scan is utilized to survey the contemporary CVE landscape in Ontario. The respondents described how CVE …


School Shouldn’T End When The Bell Rings: An Exploratory Homeschooling Study, Mackenzie Dukelow Aug 2018

School Shouldn’T End When The Bell Rings: An Exploratory Homeschooling Study, Mackenzie Dukelow

MA Research Paper

Homeschooling has experienced significant growth over the last several decades, yet little to no research has explored the relationship between homeschoolers and the public education system. Being the first to explore this relationship, the current study collected and examined data from 3 semi-structured interviews and 15 online homeschooling blogs in order to understand the growth of homeschooling in Ontario and the relationship between homeschooling and the public education system. The results of this study reveal the relationship between homeschoolers and the public education system varies significantly over time and locale, the challenges within each system and the difficulty of transitioning …


Neoliberalism And The School Choice Movement In The United States, Lianne M.A. Mulder Aug 2018

Neoliberalism And The School Choice Movement In The United States, Lianne M.A. Mulder

MA Research Paper

This paper investigates the role of neoliberalism in the advocacy for and implementation of school choice in the United States. It applies conflict theory of education to the school choice debate and uses post-Katrina New Orleans as a case study of school choice implementation. It concludes that neoliberal and like-minded think-tanks, foundations, and lobby groups are involved in the advocacy for school choice in the United States because it assists them in furthering their goals of influencing whose values and ideals will be taught and whose children will land the desired jobs; thereby maintaining the capitalist status quo and enabling …


Pathways Over The Life Course: Patterns Of Depressive Symptoms In Adolescence And Their Potential Impact On Educational Attainment, Stephen Carneiro Fernandes Jun 2018

Pathways Over The Life Course: Patterns Of Depressive Symptoms In Adolescence And Their Potential Impact On Educational Attainment, Stephen Carneiro Fernandes

MA Research Paper

This analysis draws on life course sociology to investigate the association between depression in adolescence and postsecondary completion in young adulthood. Three gaps in the mental health and education literature are addressed: lack of attention to the duration and timing of depressive symptoms, the overuse of high school degree receipt and college entry as outcome variables, and the exclusion of theoretically important confounders, such as self-rated health. Using panel data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, distinct mental health pathways that are based on a 12-item revision of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale are …


Conceptualizing Justice: Police Responses To Sex Crimes In Partnership With Canadian Police Departments, Keyanna Drakes Sep 2017

Conceptualizing Justice: Police Responses To Sex Crimes In Partnership With Canadian Police Departments, Keyanna Drakes

MA Research Paper

Justice exists in and through interpretations of past laws and legal procedures. Justice for sex crimes, however, is particularly complex due to the differences between victim needs and the operations of the criminal justice system. This study, using 70 semi-structured interviews and 2 focus groups from Canadian police departments, shows procedural and distributive justice as the two most prevalent forms of justice police officers use when dealing with sex crimes. The commonalities between the two forms of justice support the notion that police officers have adapted to using multiple methods of justice that are more compassionate to victims of sexual …


Racism, Oligarchy And Contentious Politics In Bermuda, Andrea Dean Sep 2017

Racism, Oligarchy And Contentious Politics In Bermuda, Andrea Dean

MA Research Paper

In 1959, ‘blacks’ in Bermuda boycotted the island’s movie theatres and held nightly protests over segregated seating practices. By all accounts the 1959 Theatre Boycott was one of the most significant episodes of contentious politics in contemporary Bermuda, challenging social norms that had been in existence for 350 years. While the trajectory and outcomes of ‘black’ Bermudians’ transgressive social protests could not have been predicted, this analysis uses racism, oligarchy and contentious politics as conceptual tools to illuminate the social mechanisms and processes that eventually led to the end of formal racial segregation in Bermuda after less than three weeks …


A Novel Measure Of Work Stress: Identifying Work Stressor Patterns In Canada Using Latent Class Analysis, Vesna Pajovic Sep 2017

A Novel Measure Of Work Stress: Identifying Work Stressor Patterns In Canada Using Latent Class Analysis, Vesna Pajovic

MA Research Paper

This analysis utilizes data from the 2012 Mental Health component of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS-MH) and latent class analysis to identify patterns of stressful work environments and their relationship with occupational and social location. Based on the intersection of 12 work stress measures, five classes of stressful work environments emerged that can be described as low stress, high stress, physical stress, monotonous, and chaotic environments. Results from models including covariates show that work stress exposure is stratified by occupation, socioeconomic status, age, gender, race/ethnicity, immigrant status, and marital status. Notably, blue- and pink-collar workers had higher odds of …


Jihad And Hashtags: Women's Roles In The Islamic State And Pro-Jihadist Social Networks, Rachel K. Inch Sep 2017

Jihad And Hashtags: Women's Roles In The Islamic State And Pro-Jihadist Social Networks, Rachel K. Inch

MA Research Paper

Over a one-year period from January 2015 to January 2016, a team of researchers collected nearly 100,000 Tweets from female operated Twitter accounts that exhibited pro-Islamic State (IS) affiliations. The following exploratory research paper aims to address two questions: (1) will identifiable patterns of engagement be revealed through a thematic analysis of Tweets posted by pro-IS women?, and (2) do these patterns illuminate the roles pro-IS women occupy online and in real-time social networks? This research paper intends to challenge the gendered assumption that women play strictly supportive roles within the boundaries of the IS, and demonstrate that IS female …


The Economic Integration Of Canada's Refugees: Understanding The Issues With Canada's Approach, Ryan Endicott Sep 2017

The Economic Integration Of Canada's Refugees: Understanding The Issues With Canada's Approach, Ryan Endicott

MA Research Paper

This paper examines the extent to which Canada’s refugee policies have fostered the economic integration of refugees. This paper uses content analysis to examine past research, government reports and news articles, to better understand the effectiveness of Canada’s policies on refugee integration. This paper finds that refugees in Canada face severe barriers to economic integration, resulting in high unemployment and a concentration in precarious work. Exploring these issues reveals key limitations within Canadian policies, and the devastating consequences they have for Canadian refugees. Policy suggestions are made based on established international best practices on the economic integration of refugees.


The Influence Of Parents And Natural Mentors On Young Adults' Substance Use Behaviours: Evidence From A National Study, Travis Hackshaw Sep 2017

The Influence Of Parents And Natural Mentors On Young Adults' Substance Use Behaviours: Evidence From A National Study, Travis Hackshaw

MA Research Paper

This study examines the impact of parenting during adolescence and young adulthood on children’s use of alcohol and illicit drugs in young adulthood. The influence of mentoring relationships are also assessed. Longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and ordered and multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to test models predicting young adults’ frequency of heavy drinking and illicit drug use. Interaction terms were tested between parent and mentor variables as well as college enrolment. Parental monitoring during adolescence reduced young adults’ use of alcohol, but not illicit drugs. Rather, attachment to parents reduced young …


Exploring Cross-National Incarceration, Evan R. Wiley Oct 2016

Exploring Cross-National Incarceration, Evan R. Wiley

MA Research Paper

Incarceration is common to nation-states of all types, yet its use varies greatly. What accounts for these variations? Are certain countries simply more criminogenic than others, or are more complex relations at play? With a sample of 118 countries, and the use of linear regression, the impact of social development, neoliberal politics, and social inequality are explored. Little to no support was found for social development hypotheses, while strong support was found for political variables. Contrary to previous research, unemployment was found to be negatively associated with the use of imprisonment. The relationship between crime and incarceration was discussed and …


Beyond The Land Of Five Rivers: Social Inequality And Class Consciousness In The Canadian Sikh Diaspora, Harmeet S. Sandhu Oct 2016

Beyond The Land Of Five Rivers: Social Inequality And Class Consciousness In The Canadian Sikh Diaspora, Harmeet S. Sandhu

MA Research Paper

Romanticized visions of Khalistan became emotively embedded in the hearts and minds of Sikh-Canadians following the execution of Operation Blue Star. Today, insurgents residing within the contested homeland continue to draw support from Sikh immigrants and their Canadian-born descendants. Perplexingly, while a sizable proportion of second and third-generation Sikh youth advocate for the creation of the theocratic state of Khalistan, many selectively disregard the righteous way of life envisioned by the founders of the Khalsa Panth. This paper presents a conceptual sociological analysis of the diasporic politics of identity and homeland. Although Marx, and other modern social theorists, had presumed …


Terror On Twitter: A Comparative Analysis Of Gender And The Involvement In Pro-Jihadist Communities On Twitter, Eric W. Witmer Aug 2016

Terror On Twitter: A Comparative Analysis Of Gender And The Involvement In Pro-Jihadist Communities On Twitter, Eric W. Witmer

MA Research Paper

Social media has become the milieu of choice to radicalize young impressionable minds by terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda and the Islamic State. While a plethora of research exists on the recruitment and propaganda efforts by terrorist organizations there is limited number of quantitative studies that observe the relationship of gender and the involvement in online radical milieus. This current research will build upon prior studies through the comparative analysis of 750 unique Twitter accounts supporting the IS and the affiliates of al-Qaeda that were non-randomly sampled between January and September of 2015. The research aimed to address the …


"I Took The Blue Pill" The Effect Of The Hegemonic Masculine Police Culture On Canadian Policewomen's Identities, Lesley J. Bikos Jul 2016

"I Took The Blue Pill" The Effect Of The Hegemonic Masculine Police Culture On Canadian Policewomen's Identities, Lesley J. Bikos

MA Research Paper

There are varied opinions as to whether the subculture of policing continues to reproduce traditional gender roles and stereotypes in order to maintain male dominance, leaving policewomen at a distinct disadvantage. In an effort to understand this phenomenon from policewomen’s own experiences, this study utilized qualitative in-depth interviews with 15 policewomen from varied police forces in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The role of police culture and hegemonic masculinity is explored in relation to the identity formation of policewomen both on and off-duty. Drawing on the work of Dorothy Smith (1987), the findings reveal that policewomen have a bifurcated consciousness, dividing the …


Combining Work And Family: The Experiences Of Gender And Ethnicity Of Visible Minority Women In Leadership Positions, Alelie Ocampo Aug 2015

Combining Work And Family: The Experiences Of Gender And Ethnicity Of Visible Minority Women In Leadership Positions, Alelie Ocampo

MA Research Paper

This paper examines the experiences of visible minority women in leadership roles. Gender and ethnicity intersect to shape the experiences of work and family for minority women. Although participants identified several advantages associated with being visible minority women in the labour force, they also identified several challenges; most notably their career pursuits conflicted with ethno-cultural and gender norms surrounding the maternal role. These expectations hindered career development needed to fulfill leadership positions in the workplace. Nevertheless all women in this study held leadership positions, and they discussed the personal strategies and organizational accommodations that contributed to their success. These visible …


The Immigrant Health Advantage In Canada: Lessened By Six Health Determinants, Sasha Koba Aug 2015

The Immigrant Health Advantage In Canada: Lessened By Six Health Determinants, Sasha Koba

MA Research Paper

The existence of a healthy immigrant effect in which immigrants initially have a health advantage over the native-born is well established. As immigrants spend time in their host country, they adopt health behaviours and subsequently lose their health advantage. However, the causes of the decline in immigrants’ health as their time in Canada increases are not known. I examine the effect of six health determinants on immigrants’ deteriorating health in Canada. I also explore if there are gender differences in the deterioration of immigrants’ health. Additionally, I consider the possible association between immigrants’ length of time in Canada, their age …


Seasonal Agricultural Workers In Canada: Understanding The Socio-Political Issues, W. Zachary Marshall Aug 2015

Seasonal Agricultural Workers In Canada: Understanding The Socio-Political Issues, W. Zachary Marshall

MA Research Paper

This paper explores the current Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) in Canada. This paper uses content analysis to examine past research, current policies and key examples to examine the program and understand key flaws in the way it is currently administered. This paper finds that migrant workers currently face issues in 4 key areas: working conditions, living conditions, access to health care and isolation (lack of community). Exploring these issues this paper identifies some of the key problems with the SAWP and explores how the Canadian approach does not always match with the current best practices.


Neighbourhood Context And Youth Mental Health: The Role Of Local Community Programming In A Mid-Sized Ontario Urban Centre, Monica Christine Bochus Aug 2015

Neighbourhood Context And Youth Mental Health: The Role Of Local Community Programming In A Mid-Sized Ontario Urban Centre, Monica Christine Bochus

MA Research Paper

Existing research indicates that neighbourhood disadvantage takes a cumulative toll on mental health across the life course beginning in childhood. This study used a qualitative approach to explore the role of local community resources on buffering the harmful effects of adversity for youth in a mid-sized Ontario urban centre. The following questions were addressed: 1) What role do youth-centered community resources play in child and adolescent mental health promotion and awareness, particularly for at-risk children? 2) How can they serve to improve child and adolescent well-being? By interviewing key informants, the study found that affordable youth-centred programming has the potential …


Living In A Transnational World: Identity Negotiation And Formation Among Second-Generation Lebanese Young Adults Living In London Ontario, Wajeha Chams Aug 2015

Living In A Transnational World: Identity Negotiation And Formation Among Second-Generation Lebanese Young Adults Living In London Ontario, Wajeha Chams

MA Research Paper

According to the 2011 Canadian Census, immigrants make up 20.6% of the total Canadian population (Statistics Canada, 2014), and a growing body of research is raising questions about immigrants’ experiences, their identities and how transnational lives have shaped and influenced Canadian society and citizenship. Recent research on transnationalism enhances understanding of immigrants’ relationships within both their source and host countries. This research demonstrates that first-generation immigrants tend to maintain their ethnic identities, language and cultural traditions through the active maintenance of transnational ties and activities. However, the lives of their children are less directly tied to the parents’ homeland. As …


Gender, Generation, And Jobs: Differences In Gender Role Ideologies By Age And Occupation, Christina Treleaven Aug 2015

Gender, Generation, And Jobs: Differences In Gender Role Ideologies By Age And Occupation, Christina Treleaven

MA Research Paper

Gender inequality in the workplace remains a salient issue today; women continue to earn less than men, driven in part by occupational segregation and by general perceptions about socially constructed gender norms. Using the United States General Social Survey, I conduct multivariate Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis to explore the differences in gender role ideologies by generational cohort and occupation. The results highlight differences in gender role ideologies amongst occupations and suggest that while perceptions of gender influence occupational choices, so too do occupations impact our perceptions of gender roles. Individuals working in occupations atypical for their gender, those who …