Digital Commons Network^™

Health Care Fraud Under The New Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program, Robert N. Rabecs

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

The Postmodern Hoard: Rates Of Exchange In Role-Playing Games, Carlos Hernandez

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

What makes Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) unique among games is the way it merges storytelling with game mechanics. Before the invention of D&D, both acting/narrative-based games and strategy-based war games that made use of fantasy-genre elements existed, but the way D&D integrates both elements invented a whole new category of game, one in which the immersive draw of a plot proves just as important as good tactics or luck of the dice. This chapter explores the relationship between the qualitative and quantitative aspects of D&D. Specifically, it argues that the rules of the game provide quantitative corollaries to aspects of …

Parent-Adolescent Involvement: The Relative Influence Of Parent Gender And Residence, Daniel Hawkins, Paul R. Amato, Valarie King

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The 1995 wave of the Add Health study is used to investigate the relative influence of parent gender and residence on patterns of parental involvement with adolescents. Adolescent reports (N = 17,330) of shared activities, shared communication, and relationship quality with both biological parents are utilized. A multidimensional scaling analysis reveals that parent gender explains most of the variance in parent-adolescent involvement, with residential status playing a secondary yet fundamental role in accounting for these patterns. Resident mothers who do not live with adolescents’ biological fathers engage in the broadest range of activities with their children. Unpartnered resident fathers display …

Gender Socialization Through Children’S Literature: Body And Beauty Image, Meera Basnet

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This exploratory study centers on a small number of children's books to examine how female characters are portrayed, and to consider the question, "Do gendered images of female characters exist visually in children's literature? I selected 5 books from the time periods of 1980 to 1989 and from 2000 to 2005. These books were written by U.S. authors and are directed at children aged 5-8 years. Findings are tentative, based upon the limited number of books included in the study, but patterns indicate that children's literature portrays gender somewhat stereotypically. I include body structure, dress, beauty and decoration, and movement …

Mom's The Word: The Portrayal Of The Single Mother/Son Relationship In Children's Literature, Sheryl Renee Haveman

Graduate Research Papers

Our culture is abounding with boys being raised solely by their mother. Awareness of the impact of divorce and the importance of a male role model for a young boy has increased and is represented in literature. Authors of children's literature have been continuing the tradition of dealing openly and honestly with many society issues. Despite the large number of books that include single mothers and their sons, the researcher questioned whether or not children's picture and chapter books were accurately portraying the dynamics involved with the single mother/son relationship.

The purpose of this study was to examine children's literature …

How Long Will We Live?, John Bongaarts

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

After a brief review of the controversy about future trends, this Population Council working paper examines past trends in the components of life expectancy at birth in high-income countries with low levels of mortality. The projection of these components provides the basis for assessing plausible future trends in longevity. Large increases in conventional life expectancy before 1950 are found to be primarily attributable to reductions in juvenile and background mortality. After 1950 the rate of improvement in life expectancy slowed, but senescent mortality fell more rapidly than before, thus becoming the main cause of rising life expectancy at birth. The …

Investing When It Counts: Generating The Evidence Base For Policies And Programmes For Very Young Adolescents—Guide And Tool Kit, Erica Chong, Kelly Hallman, Martha Brady

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

No abstract provided.

Tap And Reposition Youth (Try): Providing Social Support, Savings, And Microcredit Opportunities For Young Women In Areas With High Hiv Prevalence, Annabel Erulkar, Judith Bruce, Aleke Dondo, Jennefer Sebstad, James K. Matheka, Arjmand Banu Khan, Anne Gathuku

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) was a multiphase initiative undertaken by the Population Council and K-Rep Development Agency (KDA), the oldest and largest microfinance institution in Kenya. The overall aim of the project was to reduce adolescents’ vulnerabilities to adverse social and reproductive health outcomes, including HIV infection, by improving their livelihoods options. The project was launched in low-income and slum areas of Nairobi, Kenya, where rates of HIV infection are alarming and where young women are disproportionately affected.

Poverty, Wealth Inequality, And Health Among Older Adults In Rural Cambodia, Zachary Zimmer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This working paper examines the distribution of household wealth and tests whether associations exist between wealth inequality and health outcomes among older adults living in one of the world’s poorest regions, rural Cambodia. Results confirm difficult economic conditions among most elderly in rural Cambodia. This study suggests there is some validity to generalizing the relationship between wealth inequality and health to extremely poor populations and that a very small difference in wealth makes a relatively large difference in regard to the association with health among those living in impoverished surroundings.

Comparison Of Food Security Status, Nutrient Intakes, Body Mass Index, And Multiple Diseases Among Self-Reported Depressed And Non-Depressed Female Food Stamp Recipients In Southeast Louisiana, Yifang Bai

LSU Master's Theses

The objectives of this study were to explore the relationships among depression and food security status, dietary nutrient intakes, sociodemographic characteristics, body mass index (BMI), and the presence of chronic diseases in a female food stamp recipient population (n = 66) in Southeast Louisiana. Women were dichotomized by stated depression and descriptive statistics on socioeconomic characteristics and mean nutrient intakes were presented for each group. Logistic regression models were used to determine the relationship of stated depression with food security status, selected sociodemographic characteristics, nutrient intakes, body mass index, and the number of chronic diseases reported. The percentage of women …

Food Purchasing Behaviors, Dietary Energy Density, Perceived Health Status, And Perceived Nutrition Knowledge Of Female Food Stamp Recipients Living In Southeast Louisiana, Carrie Marie Elks

LSU Master's Theses

Purchase and consumption of energy-dense nutrient poor [EDNP] foods by low-income individuals contributes to the lower diet quality and increased risk of chronic disease (e.g. obesity, type 2 diabetes) in this population. Food purchasing behaviors, dietary energy density [ED], perceived health status, and perceived nutrition knowledge were assessed in 22 female food stamp recipients in Southeast Louisiana. Two 24-hour recalls (at the beginning and at the end of the month) and food expenditure receipts were collected; participants also completed several questionnaires. Fifty percent [%] (n=11) of study participants were food secure, and fifty percent (n=11) were food insecure. Sixty-four % …

Scaling Up A Reproductive Health Curriculum In Youth Training Courses, Laila Rahman, M. Mazharul Islam, Ubaidur Rob, Ismat Bhuiya, M.E. Khan

Reproductive Health

The Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) program, in collaboration with the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Urban Family Health Partnership, and two nongovernmental service delivery partners, carried out the Global Youth project in northwestern Bangladesh from 1999–2003. The important lesson learned from that project was that reproductive health education could increase reproductive health knowledge in adolescents, particularly in areas related to reproductive biology, family planning, pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, HIV, and AIDS. The population-based surveys further showed that contrary to common belief, reproductive health education does not increase sexual activity; instead it increases the use …

Correlates Of Inter-Birth Intervals: Implications Of Optimal Birth Spacing Strategies In Mozambique, Saumya Ramarao, John Townsend, Ian Askew

Reproductive Health

The Optimal Birth Spacing Initiative (OBSI) was created under the auspices of USAID to place optimal birth spacing on the global leadership priority agenda. As part of this initiative, Advance Africa documented a pilot intervention to introduce the new spacing message in Mozambique. The FRONTIERS program of the Population Council collaborated with Advance Africa providing technical input, and assistance in the conceptualization of intervention design and evaluation. This paper was written to inform Advance Africa’s efforts in Mozambique and includes a short review of correlates of birth intervals; a presentation of results from analysis of Mozambique-DHS 1997 data that identify …

“You Can’T Hustle All Your Life”: An Exploratory Investigation Of The Exit Process Among Street-Level Prostituted Women, Rochelle L. Dalla

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Between 1998 and 1999, 43 street-level prostituted women were interviewed regarding their developmental experiences, including prostitution entry, maintenance, and exit attempts. Three years later, 18 of the original 43 participants were located and interviewed. This exploratory follow-up investigation focused on the women’s life experiences between the two points of contact, with emphasis on sex-industry exit attempts. Five women had maintained their exit efforts and had not returned to prostitution, nine had returned to both prostitution and drug use, and one had returned to prostitution only. Three additional women had violated parole and been reincarcerated. Themes evident among those who were …

Who Said "Words Can Never Hurt?": An Investigation Of Child Weight Status, Childhood Psycosocial Variables, And Later Adult Quality Of Life, Holly Spencer Kihm

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The first purpose of the research project was to examine the relationship between child weight status and adult quality of life. The second purpose of the research project was to test psychosocial variables as mediators of the relationship between child weight status and adult quality of life. A total of 164 undergraduate and graduate students from Louisiana State University participated in the study. The students completed five online questionnaires that were used to assess variables such as child weight status, adult weight status, history of childhood teasing experiences, child self-concept, and adult quality of life. Several statistical analyses were employed …

Lock'em Up And Throw Away The Key: Racial Attitudes And The Structural Determinants Of Support For Crime Policy Among White Americans, Amanda J. Abraham

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates support for the death penalty and federal crime spending among white Americans. Data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) series (1992-2000) are matched with census tract level indicators of demographic and community characteristics from the 1990 and 2000 Census Bureau Summary File Tape 3A and county level crime data supplied by the Federal Bureau of Investigation�s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). Ordered logistic regression is used to investigate five general research questions: (1) Are racial attitudes the most salient individual level predictors of support for crime policy among whites as suggested by prior research? (2) Are whites� …

Nutrient-To-Cost Comparisons Of Daily Dietary Intake, Food Security Status, And Body Mass Index In Female Food Stamp Recipients Residing In Southeast Louisiana, Shanna Lundy

LSU Master's Theses

Diets are typically poorer and risk of chronic disease is greatest in low-income populations. A relationship has been established in the literature between food costs and diet quality, where lower cost diets are generally those of the poorest quality. Food group intake, energy/nutrient intake, and diet cost were assessed in 64 female food stamp recipients in Southeast Louisiana. From one 24-hour dietary recall collected at the beginning of the monthly resource cycle (Day 1) and one at the end (Day 2), nutrient intakes and diet costs were able to be analyzed between different time frames. Participants were divided among food …

Efficacy Of Nutrition Education Lessons Targeting A Group Of Low-Income Elderly, Gabriela M. Viteri

LSU Master's Theses

Nutrition education has the potential not only to increase nutrition knowledge and, potentially, healthy behaviors, among the elderly, but also to reduce the need for health and social services. The nutrition component described herein is part of an overall wellness program that focuses on increasing physical activity and healthy dietary behaviors among participants. We completed a four month nutrition intervention in a group of 33 low income elderly at the Leo Butler Center (LBC) (n=20) and Catholic Presbyterian Apartments (CPA) (n=13) in the fall of 2005 in Baton Rouge, LA. The Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) was used as the theoretical …

Voluntary Childlessness In The United States: Recent Trends By Cohort And Period, Laurie Chancey

LSU Master's Theses

Most large-scale studies on voluntary childlessness since the waning of the baby boom provide cross-sectional estimates for a single time period. They cannot be synthesized to estimate change because of the varied definitions used to operationalize voluntary childlessness. In this study, I use data from the 1973-2002 cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to estimate change in voluntary childlessness using a consistent definition by period and birth cohort. I find that voluntary childlessness stayed relatively constant through the seventies and eighties, but showed a large increase from the mid-nineties to 2002. I show that voluntary childlessness increased …

The Healing Space: Intersubjectivity, Gender & Bibliotherapy In Winnie-The-Pooh, The House At Pooh Corner, The Wind In The Willows And Peter Pan, Anna-Claire Walsh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis carries out a detailed analysis of three examples of canonical English children's fantasy literature using Jesslca Benjamin's psychoanalytic feminism as a 'theoretical framework. , Applied to close readings of chosen texts, Benjamln's concepts offer Important Inslghts Into understandlrig childhood development, relationship dynamics and gender issues. Furthermore, Benjamln's Intersubjective,theory has Implications for litarary uses of psychoanalysis, and for using books as therapeutic mediums In the practice of bibliotherapy.

Ethical Issues In Conducting Forensic Evaluations, Karen C. Kalmbach, Phillip M. Lyons

Psychology Faculty Publications (Archived)

The role of the forensic mental health professional (MHP) often differs substantially from that of the typical clinician. These differences bear directly on the ethical delivery of services.

Motivational Factors That Influence African American Women To Serve As Michigan State Legislators, Rogenia Goza

Dissertations

Problem. The purpose of this study was to discover factors that influence the political career choice of African American women legislators to serve in the State of Michigan Congress. Therefore, this study focused on motivations that affected three African American women legislators' political experiences.

Method. This study used a case-study approach, and the end result is a multi-faceted case study of the political experiences of three State of Michigan African American women legislators. The techniques used in the ethnographic research---interviews, observations, note-taking, and reviews of public and personal documents---were intended to increase understanding of the observed phenomena. Data …

The Transition To Fatherhood: Exploration Of Fathers' Understandings And Perceptions Of Their Experiences Of Fatherhood, Yael S. Abitbol

Theses : Honours

At the beginning of the 21st century, the face of fatherhood is a dynamic and complex reality. The aim of this study was to explore father's perceptions regarding their own experiences during the transition to fatherhood. More specifically, this study aimed at exploring the adjustment to fatherhood and the resources and support systems that the fathers utilised in managing their adjustment to fatherhood. A qualitative research design, specifically an approach based on grounded theory was employed. A total often white Caucasian fathers, with own biological children under the age of five participated in this study and were interviewed using a …

The Experience Of The Transition To An Aged-Care Facility: A Qualitative Exploration, Jenny M. Smith

Theses : Honours

The transition from one's place of residence to an aged-care facility may be a daunting prospect, with many factors relevant to the degree of ease in which this change occurs. Whilst this is a significant life event, qualified information about older adults' experience of it is limited, with little found about Australia. Much of what is available focuses on the caregivers' and relatives' viewpoints or their interactions with staff and do not pertain to the transition period itself, but to aged care in general. The main findings from the available literature suggest that the way a new resident perceives their …

Geeks At Play: Doing Masculinity In An Online Gaming Site, Natasha Chen Christensen

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This paper uses data taken from chat logs within a first person shooter game, Quake Online, in order to explore the performance of gender online. Previous research has shown how physicality is given a position of importance in institutions where masculinity is developed and reproduced such as sports and war; cyberspace offers the opportunity of divorcing the performance of masculinity from the body. Researchers of gender in cyberspace are divided into two perspectives about the effect of the absence of a physical body on the performance of gender: One camp believes that without the constraints of the body, gender in …

Imagined Cities, Real Futures: Simcity And The Co-Production Of Urban Dystopias, Samuel Gerald Collins

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

While the author of this chapter agrees with anthropologists who reject an urban studies predicated on postmodern surfaces and insist that we analyze cities in regional, national and global contexts of political economy, he nevertheless suggests that the urban imaginary has never been so important: Movies, television and music have proven all too useful in the continued vilification of an urban underclass. In 2001, in order to explore the role media might play in the structuring and delimitating of the ways we think about cities, Collins assigned SimCity, a computer simulation game combining models of urban development with cellular automata, …

Allegorical Reductions And Social Reconstructions: An Introduction To Games, Gamers, And Gaming Cultures, Matthew Wolf-Meyer, Davin Heckman

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Games have become a central metaphor in representations of society, and most people are familiar enough with Lewis Carroll's Alice to know that when she passes through the looking glass she finds herself embroiled in a game a Chess which is also much more (Carroll 1992 [1897]). This strange game of Chess is simultaneously a simulation and an enactment of social life in Wonderland, and Carroll plots out Alice 's narrative path as a series of tactical Chess moves, which can be understood as both an attempt to win the game and to navigate through Wonderland and her …

When A Killer Body Isn’T Enough: Cross-Gender Identification In Action-Adventure Video Games, Marc Ouellette

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

While sports games try to recreate the atmosphere of a stadium or of television broadcasts of games, role-playing and action-adventure games attempt to duplicate cinematography through animation. For Tomb Raider, the virtual reality created by the cinematic animation of the game produces an environment for male-to-female cross-gender identification, a topic that has received little critical attention. The sense of identification intended in this chapter comes from psychoanalysts Jean Laplanche and Jean-Baptiste Pontalis, who describe identification as a psychological process in which a subject assimilates an aspect, a property, a characteristic of another and transforms himself [or herself] totally or partially …

The Rise, Development And Future Directions Of Critical Race Theory And Related Scholarship, Athena D. Mutua

Journal Articles

This essay tells the story of the rise, development and future directions of critical race theory and related scholarship. In telling the story, I suggest that critical race theory (CRT) rises, in part, as a challenge to the emergence of colorblind ideology in law, a major theme of the scholarship. I also contend that conflict, as a process of intellectual and institutional growth, marks the development of critical race theory and provides concrete and experiential examples of some of its key insights and themes. These conflicts are waged in various institutional settings over the structural and discursive meanings of race …

Constructing Whiteness In Health Disparities Research, Jessie Daniels, Amy J. Schulz

Publications and Research

There is a long tradition within the United States of constructing whiteness (the racial subject) against racialized others (the racial object) and in the process displacing the focus of critical analysis. Here we turn our lens to the often invisible--or at least underinterrogated--concept of whiteness within the context of the literature on racial disparities in health. Specifically, we examine how whiteness is constructed in the active literature documenting and interpreting racial disparities in health and the implications of these constructions for efforts to eradicate inequalities in health. We draw on the concepts of racial formation and "racial projects" that emphasize …