Digital Commons Network^™

Elucidating The Relationship Between Self-Reported Disability And Functional Movement In Individuals With Chronic Low Back Pain, Kelsey Ampudia Clark

Theses and Dissertations

INTRODUCTION: Low back pain (LBP) is often exacerbated by movement and, during functional movements, people with LBP tend to inherently modify their posture and movement patterns to avoid aggravating their pain further. Therefore, analysis of spinal movement in people with LBP is necessary and may lead to the identification of movement-based clusters for optimal treatment. PURPOSE: The overall purpose of this study was to investigate how movement patterns in people with chronic LBP relate to their subjective level of pain-related disability. First, we determined which spinal movements best discriminate between people with chronic LBP and asymptomatic controls; second, we ascertained …

Help-Seeking Experiences As An Individual With Suicide Ideation: A Qualitative Study About Seeking Help For Suicide Ideation, Makaela H. Caldwell

Theses and Dissertations

Suicide ideation and suicide impact a rapidly rising number of individuals each year, however our society has not envisioned a way to increase help-seeking behaviors to decrease these numbers. The literature discusses many barriers and hurdles to help-seeking, but the focus of SI within the context of help-seeking has not been studied in depth. The purpose of this qualitative study was to increase knowledge on the process through which individuals determine how and whom to ask for help when experiencing SI. Two sections of themes were found: things that encourage individuals to seek or continue to seek help, and things …

Brain, Behavior, & Dysfunction, Jared Nielsen

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

We are interested in answering questions about the organization of the brain and how neurological and psychiatric illnesses disrupt its organization. To answer these questions, we use a variety of analytical techniques to extract quantitative information from MRI scans. We currently have projects that investigate how the brain is affected in patients with autism, dementia, OCD, and mood and anxiety disorders. Our hope is that the information we learn as scientists will inform and improve the way clinicians diagnose and treat their patients.

Long-Term Impact Of Mental Wellness Courses On College Student Mental Health, Neil E. Peterson

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

Physical activity, sedentary behavior, healthy lifestyles including the use of technology in health promotion

Intrapersonal And Interpersonal Predictors Of Hope In Adolescents, Megan M. B. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Hope is a variable that is defined in research as a positive outlook on one's future and a plan to achieve that future. Hope has been found to be positively correlated with self-esteem, optimism, and life satisfaction, and negatively correlated with suicide ideation and suicidality. However, there is a lack of research on predictors of hope in adolescents. Adolescents compose the age group that could arguably use the goal-oriented and positive outlook that hope provides the most. This study identified predictors of hope (i.e., depression, maternal and paternal support) in adolescents so as to know how society can give adolescents …

How A Racial Minority Status Impacts The Feeling Of Safety In Therapy, Bayleigh Serage

Theses and Dissertations

With the lack of adequate mental health care in racial minority communities (NAMI, 2021), more research is needed for clinicians to understand the racial minority client experience. This study aimed to explore the racial minority client's perception of safety during therapy. The MFT- PRN was utilized in order to assess safety for racial minority clients at the start of therapy and later on as the alliance changes. The study hypothesized that racial minority clients would initially report a lower feeling of safety in therapy and would show lower feelings of safety after four sessions of therapy when compared to demographic …

Student Retention And Persistence In University Certificate-First Programs, Troy Martin, Randall Davies

Faculty Publications

While access to higher education has grown over the past few years, significant barriers exist for nontraditional students attempting to prepare for and complete postsecondary education. For these students, the traditional methods for acknowledging student achievement do not always work. This research explored the impact of earning professional certificates on nontraditional students’ confidence, motivation, and persistence. Specifically, this study evaluated the matriculation rates between two cohorts of students who participated in the online PathwayConnect program. The mixed-method study found that matriculation rates for students who were encouraged to earn a certificate increased compared to those who followed a traditional path. …

Using Narrative Cycles To Advance Teacher Educators’ Emotional Work And Practice In An Era Of Affective Polarization, Ramona Maile Cutri, Eric Ruiz Bybee, Erin Feinauer Whiting

Faculty Publications

‘Affective polarization’ refers to the amount of negativity that people feel for those who belong to a political party other than their own. This self-study reports on our particular use of a narrative cycle model and documents its validity as a tool for doing the emotional work of exploring contradictions in one’s practice without the pressure of engaging in public emotional discourses. We focused on the contra- diction between our intention to teach anti-oppressive teacher edu- cation and inadvertently silencing students who exhibited affective polarization. Our narrative inquiry analysis documented patterns of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that we assert …

Is There A Relationship Between Religiosity And Infidelity? A Meta-Analysis, Meghan Maddock

Theses and Dissertations

Infidelity in romantic relationships is common and has been associated with relationship dissolution and strain on individuals. Most religions teach that infidelity is harmful, and some researchers have suggested that, in the aggregate, more religious people might be less likely to report infidelity. However, research has been mixed, with some studies finding that more religious people are less likely to report infidelity, other studies finding that more religious people are more likely to report infidelity, and other studies finding no relationship. To clarify seemingly contradictory findings, I conducted a meta-analysis of the infidelity-religiosity relationship with 38 studies and a total …

Dónde Están Les Latinxs? A Content Analysis Of Latinx Representation Across Three Clinical Disciplines, Haley M. Hinkle

Theses and Dissertations

Latinx, or Hispanic/Latino, minoritized groups experience a broad spectrum of mental health challenges, disparities, and risks at a disproportionate rate compared to both their non-White counterparts and compared to other minorized groups in the U.S. (SAMHSA, 2015). They also experience a number of cultural and individual strengths associated with their values, practices, and resiliencies (Leyva et al, 2022; Gennetian et al, 2021; Calzada et al, 2020). However, given the substantial percentage of Latinxs who live in the United States (18.7%), the mental health needs of this minoritized group are not sufficiently addressed in social science literature, as a number of …

Adolescent Religious Identity And Body Esteem, Megan Gale

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents experience a key developmental process of identity formation and try to understand who they are and how they feel about themselves. While research has found religiosity to often predict increased body esteem for religious adults, little is known about the association between religiosity and body esteem for adolescents. Using an Identity Theory lens, the current cross-sectional study (n=1,693) examined the relationship between adolescent religious identity (religious salience and belief being a child of God) and body esteem, mediated by one's attachment to God. Three structural equation mediation models examined 1) overall relationships; 2) relationships by gender; and 3) relationships …

The Experience Of Friendship As A Characteristic Of Intimate Relationships: A Grounded Theory Study, Jennifer Griffith

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of the construct of friendship, specifically how intimate partners experience friendship in intimate relationships. 45 participants were interviewed one-time (for a total of 60-90 minutes) and asked about their experience of healthy and unhealthy behaviors, including friendship, in committed relationships. Research questions included: how participants define the concept of friendship, behaviors that perpetuate friendship in intimate relationships, perceived benefits of friendship, and what a lack of friendship in their relationship looks like. Participants were asked about friendship generally with the hope that information on the research questions would be …

Behavioral Indicators Of The Therapeutic Alliance In Relation To Dropout In Couple Therapy, S. Celeste Esplin

Theses and Dissertations

Almost half of those who start therapy drop out early (Thalmayer, 2018). When therapists work to improve the therapeutic alliance, clients are more likely to stay in treatment and chances of recovery improve (D'Aniello et al., 2018; Escudero & Friedlander, 2017). However, the existing research comes almost entirely from client self-reports of the alliance. Little research has examined what occurs during the session. There has been no research to determine what specific therapeutic alliance behaviors are related to early termination. The current naturalistic study sought to discover if behaviors that strengthen or diminish the therapeutic alliance are related to early …

Method And Interpretation: Gadamer And The Limits Of Methods In Qualitative Research, Jared C. Parker

Theses and Dissertations

Qualitative modes of research have been working their way into the mainstream of psychological research. Unfortunately, social psychology has largely resisted this trend, despite the particular utility of qualitative research for investigating social phenomena. Curiously, as qualitative research becomes more widely accepted in psychology, much of the discourse surrounding these approaches has revolved around the procedural dimensions of qualitative inquiry. Specifically, it has focused on developing, describing, and defending various codified approaches to qualitative data analysis. Recently, this methodological paradigm has come under some criticism, with scholars critiquing codified methods as leading to shallow, superficial, and formulaic research. Others have …

Exercise As A Predictor Of Change In Self-Reported Marital Satisfaction And Behaviors Of Couples In Therapy, Emily J. Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies looking to link physical exercise with beneficial couple outcomes have had mixed results, showing benefits for females but not males in some instances, and even negative effects for males in one instance. However, these studies used self-report data for exercise which may suffer from reporting errors. This study analyzed how daily exercise, measured by participants wearing accelerometers, impacts marital satisfaction, positive behaviors, and negative behaviors in a clinical population. The data was analyzed using multilevel models to determine how time spent exercising impacted individuals and their partners in terms of relationship outcomes. Results indicated small but significant relationships …

Neuroticism's Ties To Relationship Satisfaction: What Behaviors Matter?, Alexyss M. Lange

Theses and Dissertations

In multiple studies, neuroticism and romantic relationship satisfaction are negatively related to one another. Yet, the exact behaviors that link neuroticism to lower relationship satisfaction are unknown. Our seven-day daily diary study (N = 246) identified specific, everyday behaviors that might mediate this association. After establishing positive and negative factors using exploratory factor analysis, we examined whether positive or negative behaviors (and sub-categories of these dimensions) mediate the relationship between neuroticism and relationship satisfaction. Our results showed that negative behaviors mediated the relationship between neuroticism and relationship satisfaction but positive behaviors did not. A subcategory of conflict tactics mediated the …

Prophesy: A New Tool For Dynamic Cib, Norman M. Kearney

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Dynamic system models are simplified representations, used to understand how a set of interacting elements (a system) might change over time. When observational and experimental data about system interactions are lacking, but an understanding of the system is still desired, judgments are sometimes used. While judgments may be wrong, organizing them into a model and analyzing their dynamics can help to support more rigorous decision making. Cross-Impact Balances (CIB) is a method for modelling systems using multiple data types, including judgments (Weimer-Jehle 2006). For many years, CIB has been used almost exclusively to assess system elements for their internal consistency. …

The Role(S) Of Cib In Constructing Hybrid Scenarios, Sigrid Prehofer, Hannah Kosow, Wolfgang Hauser, Wolfgang Weimer-Jehle

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Linking qualitative scenarios with quantitative models is a common hybrid approach to integrate assumptions on possible future societal contexts into modelling. However, the integration of interdisciplinary - and therefore often heterogeneous forms of knowledge - still is one of the main challenges of quantitative modelling. To support interdisciplinary knowledge integration, we use the concept of ‘context scenarios’, constructing qualitative scenarios with semi-qualitative Cross-Impact Balance analysis (CIB) and linking it with quantitative models. We have applied this hybrid approach in different methodological designs in several projects regarding water management and energy transitions. Reflecting and drawing insight from these empirical cases, we …

A Valley Lost To Time, Washington C. Pearce

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis delivers a playable and functional module for the 5 th Edition of the World’s Greatest Role-Playing Game. The Critical Introduction uses reader response and performance theory to create a framework for reading role-playing games as literature, explains some of the recent scholarship surrounding role-playing games, and details the creative process and work of the creative thesis.

In A Valley Lost to Time, Adventurers recruited by the Trellin Prime Minister are sent westward, over the Drazlin mountain range, with a mission to discover the fate of a decades-lost failed colony. The route is long and treacherous, passing through a …

A Mixed Method Approach To Understanding Team Members' Perspectives After Receiving Problem-Solving Training And Performance Feedback, Alexander Mark Julian

Theses and Dissertations

While countless studies have collected data on the effectiveness of various problem- solving models, few have attempted to identify which components of the training process are helpful to participants. Two teacher teams consisting of seven participants were trained in an adapted version of the Team-initiated Problem Solving (TIPS) model, observed each meeting, and provided performance feedback regarding how well they had adhered to the model. A mixed method approach was used to collect quantitative data in the form of the teams' adherence to the TIPS model and qualitative data once successful adherence to the model had been shown. Researchers interviewed …

Thrive Online: Supporting Students In Learning To Learn Online, Layne Nyman West

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

The purpose of this project was to design and develop a 2 to 4 week online course intended to improve the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and self-efficacy of all students (with special emphasis on first-year, first-generation, multicultural, and non-traditional students) to effectively learn online.

Hpv Infection And Vaccination: A Question-And-Answer Guide For School Nurses, Mendi England, Karlen E. Luthy, Michael S. Robinson

Student Works

This paper provides school nurses with a quick question-and-answer format guide to common HPV-related questions that are often asked by school aged children's parents.

Ataruz Archaeological Field School Preparation Class, Jacob Fuge

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

The purpose of this project was to prepare students who will participate in an archeological excavation in Ataruz, Jordan. Typically, the directors invite anywhere from five to eight BYU students to go on the excavation, which takes place in July during the summer term of Brigham Young University. The client for the project is a professor in the Ancient Scripture Department at Brigham Young University and a co-director of the dig. Normally, the students who participate have had no experience or formal training in archeological fieldwork. The time to work on the excavation is usually limited to two to four …

Diagnosis And Initial Management Of Acute Stress Disorder And Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder In The Primary Care Setting, Lindsay Leonard, Blaine Winters

Student Works

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to equip nurse practitioners (NPs) with resources and tools that will help with the early recognition and treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) in patients following a traumatic accident.

Background: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019), trauma, or unintentional injury, is the leading cause of death for individuals under the age of 45 and the third leading cause of death for all ages of people in the United States. Patients involved in traumatic accidents often develop adverse psychological sequelae such as PTSD and ASD. …

The Influence Of Sex On Cognitive Control Performance And Frontoparietal Network Integrity In First Episode Psychosis, Kaitlyn Mcfarlane Greer

Theses and Dissertations

Cognitive deficits in first-episode psychosis (FEP) are well documented including deficits in cognitive control, but how sex may influence or impact these cognitive deficits is not well known. Cognitive deficits may impact multiple neural networks, including the fronto-parietal network (FPN). How sex may influence the structural integrity of regions in the FPN is also an important area of research in FEP that may provide further insight into the beginnings of the disease. The current study aimed to examine sexual dimorphisms in structural integrity of the frontoparietal network (FPN) and its role in cognitive control in FEP. A total of 111 …

Intolerance Of Uncertainty, Sensory Processing, And Related Correlates In Autistic Children During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Mollie Bradley

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic increased uncertainty and anxiety for most and was especially disruptive to autistic people and their families. Autistic children were particularly vulnerable due to their intolerance for increased uncertainty and disruption to their school and therapy support. This study aimed to investigate the effect that increased uncertainty had on autistic children, specifically their sensory behaviors and stress levels and on the stress levels of their primary caregivers. Parents and guardians of 47 autistic children completed an online survey consisting of questions investigating background and demographic information, their experiences during the first six months of the pandemic, information about …

A Comparative Study On The Expository Writing Abilities Of Kindergarten Students With And Without Developmental Language Disorder, Kristine Michelle Dayley Andrus

Theses and Dissertations

State standards require kindergarten students to produce expository writing, but little research has been done regarding their abilities in this area. This study describes expository writing samples of 47 typically developing (TD) kindergarteners and 43 kindergarteners with developmental language disorder (DLD). The Expository Language Measures (ELM) Flow Chart and the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software were used to detail the language complexity and text structure features the children in the sample produced. When comparing TD and DLD children's expository written samples, no significant differences in the language and text structure measures were found. It is important to continue …

An Archive Of Poetry: Surviving Settlement, Upholding Feminine Virtue, And Practicing Narrative Discipline In Anne Bradstreet's And Eliza R. Snow's Poetry, Britta Karen Adams

Theses and Dissertations

Settlement is a frequent topic in scholarly conversations about early American literature. From studies about William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation to Anne Bradstreet's poetry, settlement is a consistent theme in texts written by early Americans and in scholarship written by experts about early American texts. Settlement is also a major theme in the poetry written by Eliza R. Snow after fleeing with the Latter-day Saints from Missouri and settling in Nauvoo, Illinois. Both Bradstreet and Snow lived through settlement crises, crises that incorporated and exacerbated religious tensions within their communities eventually taking the form of the Antinomian Controversy and the …

The Relationship Between Historical Trauma And Mental Health Status: The Moderating Role Of Ethnic Immersion For Polynesian Americans, Cameron W. H. Hee

Theses and Dissertations

A large body of research has examined the intergenerational consequences of historically traumatic events with populations whose ancestors have collectively faced significant experiences of loss and trauma due to colonization, genocide, and other forms of oppression and marginalization. This type of research is especially prevalent among indigenous populations and historical trauma has been used to theoretically explain some groups overrepresentation in negative societal and health indices. Yet there has been virtually no empirical study of the effects of historical trauma using a Polynesian sample. The aim of this dissertation was to examine the association historically traumatic losses may have with …

Socioeconomic Potential: Predicting Income Through The Moderating Effect Of Socioeconomic Status On Social Capital, Virginia K. Leiter

Theses and Dissertations

Social capital is an important predictor of socioeconomic attainment, defined here as household income, but it is less clear how this relationship may vary by socioeconomic status (SES). Coleman's (1988) theory of social capital suggests that context is likely to influence exchanges of capital. Indeed, theory and research suggest that SES may either intensify or compensate for social capital in its relation to socioeconomic attainment. I seek to identify and understand these potential interactions using data from 101,163 participants of the European Social Survey (ESS). Results indicate that while social trust and both absolute and relative social involvement--two common measurements …