Digital Commons Network^™

Engines For Activism: Gsa Advisors Sparking Student Activism For Lgbtq+ Equity, Elizabeth J. Meyer, Rebecca Grace Kaplan, Erin Kurtz

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This article reports on a study on educators supporting student activism for LGBTQ+ equity in schools. The research questions we address are: What impacts do activist-educators have on the activities of the students in their GSA (Genders & Sexualities Alliance)? In what ways do activist-educators support student activism for LGBTQ+ equity? Based on in-depth interviews with seven educators in Colorado, we use grounded theory to present a conceptual model called “Engines for Activism” (EFA). We share data that explain how student and educator interactions within the space of a student club led by an educator-activist can drive advocacy and activism …

“You Can’T Ban That!”: Lgbtq+ Youth Of Color Speak Back To Book Bans In Utah, Sonny Partola, Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This article explores how LGBTQ+ youth of color (LGBTQ+ YOC) in Utah perceive anti-LGBTQ+ book bans amid a hostile sociopolitical climate. Drawing from a critical ethnographic study at a public high school, and guided by Queer of Color Critique, we examine how censorship, heteronormativity, and White Christian nationalism shape book bans. Youth participants described such bans as mechanisms of erasure and harm that restrict access to affirming literature and reinforce marginalization, while also revealing contradictions in schools’ promotion of literacy alongside censorship. Despite these harms, participants resisted erasure—asserting visibility, belonging, and intellectual freedom. This study contributes to scholarship on censorship …

Improving Identification And Referral Of Xylazine‑Associated Wounds In Homeless Healthcare, Ramon A. Gambino

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Background: Xylazine-adulterated fentanyl is linked to distinctive necrotic wounds and complex care needs in unsheltered populations. This quality improvement (QI) project implemented a brief survey and referral log at Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless (AHCH) to track suspected xylazine-associated wounds and referrals to advanced care. Methods: Final data were exported from Qualtrics, cleaned to retain finished responses, standardized categories, and de-identified. The analytic sample included 18 encounters. Results: Results showed that 55.6% (n = 10) documented suspected xylazine-associated wounds; 5.6% (n = 1) reported no suspicion; 38.9% (n = 7) were uncertain. Referrals were rarely documented overall at AHCH …

Building Community Resilience In The Wabash Valley Region, Abby Chappell, Jacob Harmon, Corbyn Irwin, Aiden Askins

2026 Spring Reports (Terre Haute)

The focus of this project is investigating how to improve community resilience against disasters among citizens of the Wabash Valley from an interdisciplinary perspective. Chandra, et al. (2011) defines community resilience as “the ongoing and developing capacity of the community to account for its vulnerabilities and develop capabilities that aid that community in (1) preventing, withstanding, and mitigating the stress of a health incident; (2) recovering in a way that restores the community to a state of self-sufficiency and at least the same level of health and social functioning after a health incident; and (3) using knowledge from a past …

How Social Media Provides Access For Human Traffickers To Victimize Children: A Literature Review With Combative Measures., Ashton Lamb

Honors Theses

This literature review focuses on how human sex traffickers utilize social media to groom children. Social media is utilized by a great number of people around the world, including many children. While social media is intended to be fun and interactive, it does provide new access for dangerous people to reach victims. There is a very real, growing issue online that is not widely known to the public. This hidden danger is known as human trafficking. Human trafficking is defined as the involvement of any force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some labor or commercial sex act (Department of Homeland …

College Students, Immigration, And The News: Navigating What Is Reliable News, Alexis Pineda-Bautista

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

People treat mainstream media as a trustworthy source, but mainstream media has recently come into question. Mainstream media’s ability to quickly deliver accurate information has been called into doubt and there has been an increase in partisan reporting (Bennett and Livingston, 2018 as cited in Besalú and Pont-Sorribes, 2021; Besalú and Pont-Sorribes 2021). This research aims to demonstrate how the public views the mainstream media’s ability to deliver reliable information, why some participants are turning towards social media as a news source, and how people use their personal experience to verify the validity of media claims.

In semi-structured interviews, 13 …

The Impact Of Prior Abusive Dating Experiences And Gender On Romance Scam Victimization And Monetary Loss, Trevor Rowe

Department of Psychology

Online romance scams are a rapidly expanding cybercrime that affects millions of people each year, financially and emotionally. This study examines an underexplored question: Will individuals with a greater number of abusive partners be more vulnerable to romance scam victimizations and lose more money? Adult dating app users (N = 518) completed an online survey. After controlling for being approached for relationships, those with a greater number of past abusive partners were more likely to be victims and lost more money. In addition, men reported a higher frequency of romance scam victimizations and more money loss.

“The Left Leg Is Not Well”: Identity, Economy, And Ability In Early Modern Drama, Emma D. Whaley

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The human reality of the disabled experience often goes overlooked by scholars analyzing early modern literature. Most scholarship seems to interpret disability as metaphorical without examining the human who experiences it. In this paper, I will be examining disability in three early modern texts as literal and inquire into the realities of the disabled experience for the characters. A Larum for London, The Shoemaker’s Holiday, and The Fair Maid of the Exchange all prominently feature a disabled character—Stump, Ralph, and Cripple respectively. These characters offer a depth of personhood rarely examined in early modern literary scholarship, even in …

The Relational Good Life: Entrepreneurship Education And Grounded Sumak Kawsay In Otavalo, Ecuador, Vanessa I. Lozano Hardman

Theses and Dissertations

Indigenous Kichwa communities in Ecuador’s Otavalo region have long participated in local and transnational markets, historically as mindalaes, specialized traders of the northern Andes. Yet in recent years, international development-oriented NGOs have framed entrepreneurship education as newly necessary for economic development. These approaches emphasize individualized narratives of vision, self-reliance, and growth, often characterizing Indigenous peoples as lacking entrepreneurial skills or the appropriate mindset. Drawing on ethnographic research with youth, mothers, and teachers at Saminay–El Legado, an agro- technical, intercultural bilingual secondary school (UECIB) in the parish of San José de Quichinche, this article examines how entrepreneurship education intersects with grounded …

Self-Concept Clarity And Relationship Satisfaction: The Mediating Role Of Approach And Avoidance Motives For Sacrifice Among Heterosexual Couples, Hannah F. Hatch

Theses and Dissertations

While individuals often engage in relational sacrifice to promote positive outcomes like connection (approach motives), they may also sacrifice for a partner to avoid negative outcomes like conflict (avoidance motives). These distinct motives for sacrifice have been repeatedly linked with divergent couple outcomes, yet little is known about the personal and relational factors which shape them. The current study addressed this gap using dyadic data from 289 mixed-gender couples to examine how self-concept clarity (SCC) predicted changes in relationship satisfaction via approach and avoidance motives for sacrifice. Participants represented diverse ethnic and sociodemographic backgrounds across all demographic regions of the …

Fhss Collaborations: Departmental Cohesion And Inter-Departmental Ties, Sydney P. Goodson, Alexandra Williams, Aaron Hunter, Salem Hansen

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

This project analyzes patterns of faculty collaboration within the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences (FHSS) at BYU using social network analysis of co-authorship data. As part of this research, we compiled data from Google Scholar on the 216 publishing faculty members within FHSS and their co-authorship connections. The study evaluates both internal cohesion and inter-departmental collaboration. Key measures include clustering coefficients to assess within-department cohesion, and degree and strength to capture the breadth and volume of collaborations across departments. Findings indicate that departments such as Sociology, School of Family Life, and Geography exhibit relatively high internal cohesion, suggesting …

The Artificial Maintenance Of Relationship Satisfaction: Romantic Ai Companion Usage Sustains Emerging Adults' Human Romantic Relationship Satisfaction While Eroding Relationship Stability, Rebekah M. Hakala

Theses and Dissertations

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly sophisticated, romantic AI companions--AI systems designed to simulate romantic, emotional, or sexual relationships--have emerged as a novel relational phenomenon. Nearly one in four emerging adults now engage with romantic AI companions, yet little is known about how this usage affects their romantic human relationships. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory and the Investment Model of Commitment, and employing structural equation modeling, this thesis uses data from 2,431 emerging adults in romantic relationships to examine whether romantic AI companion usage influences relationship satisfaction and relationship stability among emerging adults in the United States (ages 18-30), and whether …

Cv: Carlene Sipma (Sociology), Carlene Sipma

Sociology Department Faculty Curricula Vitae

No abstract provided.

Shame On You! The Socialization Of Self-Conscious Emotions In Early Childhood, Ashton K. Allen

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how parents and children discuss self-conscious emotions across early childhood. Self-conscious emotions such as shame, guilt, embarrassment, awe, and pride play a critical role in children's social and emotional development. Although prior research has demonstrated links between parent and child emotion talk about basic emotions such as happiness, anger, disgust, fear, sadness, less is known about how parents and children talk about self-conscious emotions. Participants for the current study were 247 parent-child dyads. The dyads completed a wordless storybook task designed to elicit discussion of five self-conscious emotions (shame, guilt, embarrassment, awe, and pride) annually across three …

Book Review: Social Justice Design And Implementation In Library And Information Science Edited By Bharat Mehra, Ellie F. Kawada

School of Information Student Research Journal

Social Justice Design and Implementation in Library and Information Science, edited by Bharat Mehra, is an engaging volume that explores the pursuit of social justice in its many forms in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). The included chapters cover case studies of social justice implementation in library services, theoretical frameworks for subversive methods of research and education, and the future of library advocacy for social justice. While the volume is centered on English-speaking countries and lacks the perspective of paraprofessional library staff, the themes and examples presented in the book are invaluable to any LIS students, professionals, …

Accounting For Non-Monetary Exchange: A Systematic Review Of Barter Literature From Colonial Ledgers To Digital Economies, Christian Timotius Peilouw, Unti Ludigdo, Imam Subekti, Yeney Widya Prihatiningtias

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Non-monetary exchange systems persist throughout human history, challenging assumptions about monetary dominance and revealing fundamental limitations in conventional accounting frameworks. This systematic literature review examines how accounting practices adapt to and shape non-monetary exchange across diverse historical and contemporary contexts, investigating patterns in accounting practices, challenges to conventional theory, and implications for economic resilience. Following PRISMA guidelines, the review analyzed 28 peer-reviewed articles from 1979 to 2025 identified through Scopus database searches combining barter-related and accounting terms. The analysis reveals four major themes: historical foundations showing sophisticated proto-banking systems in colonial America that operated without currency; crisis-driven alternatives demonstrating how …

The Contested Terrain Of Sport For Development And ‘Peace’ Amidst Persistent Global Aid Cuts And Geopolitical Tensions, Derrick Charway, Umair Asif, Zohreh Khani, Mazen Alkhatib

Journal of Global South Sport Studies

Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) has emerged as a global concept for advancing humanitarian, peacebuilding and social benefits, particularly in disadvantaged communities and conflict-affected regions of the world. Yet, its promise is often entangled with the broader contradictions of international aid, which in the Global South often shifts from solidarity to systems shaped by power asymmetries, geopolitics and self-interests. Drawing on critical aid theory and decolonial thought, foregrounded in the Palestine context, we argue that SDP offers potential benefits but remains constrained by the very systemic issues it purports to redress. Further, we critique the International Olympic Committee’s stance …

Evaluating The Feasibility And Preliminary Effectiveness Of A Tailored Diabetes Education Program For Rural Residents, Brittany L. Smalls, Oluwatosin Leshi, Suraksha Khanal, Grejika E. Abram-Erby

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Diabetes is a top ten Rural Healthy People 2030 priority for health improvement among rural Americans. Socioeconomic, environmental, geographic and political barriers contribute to the type 2 diabetes (T2D) prevalence and its disparate impact in rural communities. However, promoting proper self-care behaviors via self-management education can help people with diabetes better manage their condition.

Purpose: To account for the social environmental factors that affect rural residents, a tailored diabetes education program was developed, and the program’s effectiveness in improving diabetes knowledge and T2D-related health outcomes was assessed.

Methods: Using data collected from Appalachian Kentucky residents enrolled in a six-week, …

Nature Nearby: Use Of Green Spaces Mediating The Relationship Between Access To Green Spaces And Health, Sydney P. Goodson

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Access to green spaces has been consistently linked to improved physical and mental health, yet the mechanisms driving this relationship remain underexplored, particularly in the United States. Using data from the 2018 General Social Survey (N = 1,045), this study examines whether time spent in natural environments mediates the relationship between access to green spaces and self‑rated physical and mental health. Linear regression models with robust standard errors reveal that time spent in natural environments mediates the relationship between access to green spaces and both health outcomes. These findings suggest that proximity to green spaces alone is insufficient to produce …

Family Processes As A Protective Factor Between Adverse Childhood Experiences And Adolescent Delinquency, Tessa Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores whether family processes (i.e., parental attachment and parental discipline/monitoring) serve as protective factors between the relationship of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adolescent delinquency. Prior research has established an association between ACEs and many negative life outcomes, including delinquent behavior, while strong parental attachment and parental discipline/monitoring are linked to lower rates of delinquency. However, the interplay of these three factors has been understudied. Drawing on data from the 2024 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS) (N=22,016), this study examines the relationship between ACEs, family processes, and delinquency using negative binomial regression models. Results indicate that parental …

Trading Precarities: How Bangladeshi Freelancers Leverage The Digital Economy Amid Local Insecurity And Ai Disruption, Naim Bin Hasan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This study examines how Bangladeshi freelancers use digital platform work to cope with precarious local labor markets and how this strategy both mitigates and reproduces insecurity. In this form of work, freelancers compete for short-term, skill-based remote jobs posted by global clients. Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews and virtual ethnography, this study challenges dominant Western understandings of the precariat that assume workers fall from stable employment into insecure work. Instead, the findings show that many freelancers enter platform labor strategically as a way out of already unstable and limited local opportunities. While freelancing carries a promise of foreign income, flexibility, …

Creative Engagement For Community Through The Life-Span, D. Nicole English, Pelgy Vaz

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Creative Engagement for Community Through the Life-Span

Creative Engagement includes crafts, cultural practices, expressive arts, and activities that bring people together. Having access to such activities enables people to develop healthy habits, social interactions, and build community that can sustain one throughout the lifespan. On-going research indicates that Creative Engagement Activities, and the Communities of Practice that build around them, benefit people throughout the life-span, but become particularly important to older adults, by building resilience and social connections, in the face of inevitable life losses.

https://youtu.be/r3JS5YP-MnM

An Immersive Placements And Moral Growth At Barretstown: Integrating A Transformative Framework With Preservice Teachers In Marianist Teacher Education, Jeremy R. Mills, Annie Chiles, Caroline Miller, Lauren Windsor

Thomas C. Hunt Building a Research Community Day

This study examines how immersive experiential learning at Barretstown, a therapeutic camp in Ireland, nurtures intellectual, ethical, and spiritual growth in preservice teachers. Framed by William James’ four characteristics of mystical experience — ineffability, noetic quality, transiency, and passivity — and grounded in the Marianist philosophy of education, the research employs a qualitative, phenomenological design. Reflective narratives from three teacher candidates were thematically coded, revealing transformative experiences marked by ineffable joy, revelatory insight, enduring impact, and openness to grace. Findings suggest that experiential learning integrated with spiritual and communal formation cultivates educators grounded in empathy, moral awareness, and authentic presence.

Cripping The Border – Acompañamiento As Access: An Ethnographic Case Study Of Transborder Youth With Disabilities, Marco O. Amaral

Dissertations

The U.S.-Mexico border is a historical, geopolitical site of intense militarization where colonial logics of "othering" converge to marginalize disabled transborder youth. While transborder studies have expanded, students with disabilities remain relegated to the "void" and contained by educational systems that prioritize surveillance over access. Grounded in Sepúlveda’s (2011) acompañamiento and Transborder DisCrit, this ethnographic case study examines the lived experiences of both students and their families who cross the border daily to attend school in the U.S. It frames these journeys not as mere commutes, but as acts of defiance within the broader disability rights movement.

As a teacher-activist, …

Blessing Or Burden?: Parental Religiosity And Lgbtq Adolescent Well-Being, Emma S. Griffitts, Lindsey Maner, Adam Rogers

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

This study investigated the associations between parent religiosity and their LGBTQ teen's psychological risk and resilience factors. LGBTQ youth showed higher risk factors, but parent religiosity also predicted greater resilience, mediated by child religiosity. These effects were stronger among LGBTQ teens than non-LGBTQ teens, suggesting that their internalized faith may lead to increased coping and well-being in minority contexts.

Submission Guidelines

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Is Home Birth A Choice? Racial And Geographic Differences In Unintended Home Births In The U.S., Anna De La Paz

Population Health Research Brief Series

Home births that happen without planning or medical support (i.e., unintended home births) carry a higher likelihood of adverse outcomes, such as low birth weight, preterm birth, and hypothermia. This data slice summarizes findings using data from CDC WONDER (2017–2023) on racial, regional, and metropolitan status differences in home births among women ages 15–44 in the U.S. Findings show that unintended home births are disproportionately concentrated among non-Hispanic Black women, with rates varying substantially by region and metropolitan status.

Transforming Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights For Adolescent Girls In West And Central Africa, Mame Soukeye Mbaye, Sarah Engebretsen, Maty Dia, Karen Austrian

Adolescents and Young People

This brief summarizes the evidence on adolescent girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in West and Central Africa (WCA), particularly evidence from the GIRL Center’s priority countries. It explores social norms and structural barriers to adolescent girls’ SRHR, pregnancy, harmful practices, unmet need for contraception, service gaps, SRHR in conflict settings, and legal and policy barriers. The brief informs strategies and promising entry points that have the potential to transform SRHR outcomes for girls in the region.

Accelerating Adolescent Girls’ Education In West And Central Africa, Mame Soukeye Mbaye, Sarah Engebretsen, Maty Dia, Karen Austrian

Adolescents and Young People

This brief summarizes the evidence on gender inequality in education in West and Central Africa (WCA), particularly the GIRL Center’s priority countries. It explores attendance, progression, transition to secondary, and re-entry. This brief informs strategies that address persistent inequalities and promote transformative outcomes for adolescent girls in the region.

Geographic Variation In Adrd Prevalence And Mortality And Their Association With Social Vulnerability Across Us Counties: A Spatial Epidemiological Analysis Using Norc And Cdc Svi Data, Dean Kyne

Sociology Faculty Publications

Introduction: Geographic disparities in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRDs) remain insufficiently understood at the national scale, limiting efforts to address inequities in dementia burden across USA communities. This study examined county-level variation in ADRD prevalence and mortality and evaluates the association between social vulnerability and these outcomes.

Methods: This cross-sectional ecological study analyzes 2020 county-level ADRD prevalence and all-cause mortality among Medicare beneficiaries from the NORC Dementia DataHub. The analytic sample included 3,108 USA counties in the contiguous USA and the District of Columbia. ADRD outcomes included (1) prevalence of highly likely ADRD and (2) prevalence of all determinations, …