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The Extent Professional And Moral Authorities Are Evident In Federal Inclusive Education Policies, Lucille Marie Melchert

Dissertations

The EXTENT PROFESSIONAL and MORAL AUTHORITIES ARE EVIDENT in FEDERAL INCLUSIVE EDUCATIon POLICIES This study was conducted to investigate landmark federal inclusive policies in relation to leadership styles, specifically characteristics related to Sergiovanni's (1992) professional and moral leadership authorities. Research is markedly limited regarding what federal inclusive education policies say about school and district leadership. This enlightenment concerning the lack of guidance in the field of educational leadership practice, federal education policy, and inclusive learning methods is significant. Current literature supports the examination of federal education policies in relation to educational leadership. There is currently a gap in research involving …

Evaluating The Impact Of Marriage Renewal Workshop On Marital Satisfaction, Communication, Conflict Management, And Forgiveness: A Quantitative And Qualitative Analysis, Hien T. Kim Nguyen

Dissertations

The objectives of this study were to examine the impact of the Marriage Renewal Workshop (MRW) program for relationship satisfaction, communication skills, conflict resolution skills and levels of forgiveness among Vietnamese American married couple participants and their perceptions of the program's impact regarding these outcome variables. This evaluation mixed-method study employed a group of 64 participants who participated in before, after (using 4 closed-ended and open-ended questions) and six-week follow-up surveys and a group of 11 program participants who volunteered for in-depth interviews. Quantitative data were examined by using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and Mann-Whitney U Test, whereas qualitative …

Neuropsychological Correlates Of Chronic Pain: The Influence Of Anxious Arousal On Cognitive Control, Kelly L. Polnaszek

Dissertations

The present set of studies assessed the relation between neural, psychological, and cognitive mechanisms that have been shown to influence the experience of chronic pain. Specifically, Studies One and Two advanced our understanding of chronic pain by illustrating its unique relationship with anxious arousal and frontal neural activity on inhibitory control difficulties. Study Three focuses on targeting how anxious arousal is distinctly associated with neural correlates of inhibitory control in order to provide a framework that can be applied to individuals experiencing chronic pain. Together, these studies aim to inform the development of evidenced-based interventions that target anxious arousal in …

Job Satisfaction, Burnout, Occupational Intentions, And Stress Coping Styles Among Illinois School Psychologists, Courtney Ratliff

Dissertations

There is a long-standing shortage of school psychologists (Curtis, Hunley, & Grier, 2004; McIntosh, 2004; Fagan, 2004; Castillo, Curtis, & Tan, 2014). a shortage that allows the social, emotional, and academic needs of American school-children to go under served. to understand better the working conditions that may contribute to this shortage, a sample of Illinois school psychologists were surveyed. the aim of this study was fourfold. First, to collect rates of job satisfaction, the experience of burnout, and the five-year occupational intentions of school psychologists. Second, to measure the rates of occupational stress coping styles. Third, to build a model, …

Investigating Exclusionary Discipline: Teachers, Deficit Thinking, And Root Cause Analysis, Kelsie N. Reed

Dissertations

This study sought to examine school-related predictors of exclusionary discipline practices and racial disproportionality in exclusionary discipline via a mixed-methodology approach involving a quantitative analysis of contextual factors, and a qualitative/quantitative examination of the role of teacher perception in contributing to exclusionary discipline patterns. Relying on publicly available school discipline data, Phase I involved a multiple regression analysis of 200 school districts that were purposefully selected within a state in the midst of school discipline reform to examine the impact of district size, student demographics, teacher demographics, and school funding in predicting the most extreme patterns of exclusionary discipline usage. …

An Ecological Model Of Transmission Of Depression: Risk And Protective Factors For Mexican Immigrant Mothers And Children Living In Poverty, Anna Maria Ros

Dissertations

Family poverty has been found to predict a number of negative outcomes across a multitude of domains of child development, including health, education, language and cognitive development (Reiss, 2013; Yoshikawa, Aber & Beardslee, 2012). Furthermore, studies examining differing prevalence rates of mental illness depending on socioeconomic status have found that children liv-ing in poverty in the United States are between two and three times as likely to meet criteria for a psychiatric disorder when compared to their higher SES counterparts (McLaughlin et al, 2011; Reiss, 2013). Family poverty has been found to predict internalizing psychopathology risk across childhood and adolescence, …

O'Shaughnessy Program Review, Natalya Sagalov

Dissertations

Loyola Academy, a Jesuit High School, seeks to create college-bound students through a rigorous curriculum that focuses on academics, faith, and physical fitness. Students who require additional academic support participate in the O'Shaughnessy program, a structured class that focuses on literacy and student skills. in 2015, the O'Shaughnessy program was changed from a four-year program to a two-year program to better prepare students for the independence of college. the purpose of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of this change while focusing on best practices in secondary reading instruction and study skills in a college readiness framework. as Loyola …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of A Case Management Model, Abigail Salat

Dissertations

EXPLORING the EFFECTIVENESS of a CASE MANAGEMENT MODEL IDEa requires special education students receive a free and appropriate education with specialized instruction in K-12 schools. While guidance related to what students are legally entitle to is readily available, little to no guidance related to how systems within schools can best support teachers is available. Special Education teachers are noted to have more difficult, demanding, and stressful roles within schools, which can lead to higher levels of burnout (Bettini et al., 2017). the Case Management model is one manner of service delivery, which allows for special education teachers to specialize in …

Heard Least But Matter Most: Listening To Youth Voice To Understand The Process Of Youth Empowerment, Carly Michelle Tindall-Biggins

Dissertations

The current literature pertaining to youth empowerment documents several outcomes associated with these processes. Despite this knowledge base, little is understood about the processes through which these outcomes are achieved. Increased understanding of these processes is necessary to help further facilitate the successful implementation of these processes across school and community contexts. the purpose of this study was to examine the factors which contribute to the successful enactment of empowerment processes. This study utilized a qualitative case study design to examine the empowerment processes in place within a community outside a large metropolitan area in the Midwest. Results identified various …

Best Leadership Practices And Actions For Leading A Transition In Curriculum Framework In Secondary Schools, Jennifer Lynn Tyrrell

Dissertations

Instructional leadership is one of the primary responsibilities of administrators within secondary schools. as administrators assume the role of instructional leaders, it is important to note that having the ability to guide a school or district through the process of organizational change is critical. Specifically, within the area of curriculum, change is constantly occurring. This qualitative research study was designed to identify a list of best leadership practices/actions for instructional leaders to use when leading a school or district through the process of changing its framework for curriculum development. the researcher replicated the research of Alexander Carter (2016) who studied …

The Patient Speaks: A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Patient's Experience Of Psychoanalysis, Katherine Williams

Dissertations

The goal of this study was to conduct a qualitatively based clinical outcome study of the patient's experience of a psychoanalytic treatment and to explore how the analysis impacted the patient's life post treatment. Much of what is known about analytic treatments comes from analysts in the form of case reports or journal articles. the goal of this study was to directly obtain patient's views of their analysis. in order to do this a heuristic phenomenological research design was used. the phenomenological approach puts a focus on the experience of the participant of a particular phenomenon in the case of …

Bridging The In Between: A Portrait Of Asian American Student Affairs Professionals In Asian American Cultural Centers, Joliana Yee

Dissertations

Although the first Asian American Cultural Center (AACC) on a U.S. college campus came about as a result of student activism in the late 1960s and 33 other AACCs have since been established at higher education institutions across the country, very little has been documented in higher education scholarship about the Asian American Student Affairs Professionals (SAPros) who work within these unique institutional resources. While concerted efforts have been made to diversify the student body demographic at predominantly white institutions (PWIs), the negative impact of campus racial dynamics on students of color have nevertheless persisted and extant literature on the …

The Situational Context Of Safety Culture From The Perspective Of Medical-Surgical Staff Nurses And Nurse Leaders In A Hospital, Lisa Harton

Dissertations

People enter into healthcare facilities to maintain or restore health; however, often times those seeking health are harmed during the process by avoidable medical errors. Since the Institute of Medicine report on patient harm, safety culture continues to be the largest barrier in realizing safer patient care. Staff nurses' comprise the largest component of the health care workforce in hospitals and consistently have the lowest perceptions of a safety culture. Leaders who play a key role in creating and sustaining a safety culture consistently have the most favorable perception of safety culture. The development of a safety culture and safer …

Parenting Capacity And Meaning Making Among Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence, Johanna Engler Barry

Dissertations

This qualitative dissertation used a feminist methodology to explore parenting capacity and meaning making among a purposive sample of 16 female survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). The two research questions that guided this work centered on how women's exposure to IPV during both childhood and adulthood impacted parenting capacity. All participants for this dissertation experienced IPV during childhood as well as adulthood, and had at least one school-aged child. Participants completed semi-structured in-person interviews during which they were asked a series of questions about their experiences with IPV during childhood and adulthood as well as questions about their parenting …

Making Moral Judgment More Responsive Via Constraints On Moral Beliefs, Principles, And Convictions, David Bukenhofer

Dissertations

A moral judgment is the conclusion of a psychological process, and a moral belief is thecognitive content resulting from it. Some experiences constrain the moral beliefs, principles, and convictions from which moral judgments are causally formed. If these experiences are associated with an underlying belief, principle, or conviction, they add context to it. Acquiring new contextual information through experience prompts reflection, which leads to the development of new morally relevant reasons. I hold that moral beliefs, principles, and convictions typically are involved in the formation of moral judgments, and that moral judgments typically are formed on the basis of moral …

Changing Concepts Of Merit In China's Education System: An Oral Historical Research Of Teachers In Key Schools, Yao Chen

Dissertations

This study examines teachers' views of meritocracy and how their conceptions and views influence their everyday practices in schools with regard to producing, recognizing, and awarding individual merit in China's key schools. This study uses a qualitative methodology, especially oral history interviews. It shows that the meaning of merit has changed over time, depending on cultural and institutional contexts during China's transition from Mao's age to the present. Thirteen teachers, who have been working in the education system of China since the early 1980s, and who have worked as teachers in China's key (magnet/elite) schools (including higher education institutions), were …

A Poetics Of Violence: Representations Of Violence As Storytelling And World-Building Tools Of The Theater, Richard Gilbert

Dissertations

This dissertation explores how representations of violence do dramaturgical work in theatrical production. Playwrights write scenes of violence, and directors and designers stage them, with specific dramaturgical goals in mind. The project of this work is to develop a theoretical framework for understanding how productions use representations of violence. Ideally, that framework will be of use both to critics seeking to analyze productions with violence and to practitioners who want to more consciously shape their own use of violence.

Representations of violence create a sudden change in the audience's affective experience of the fictional world. I call that sudden change …

Factors Associated With Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy And Quality Of Life Among Type 2 Diabetes Patients In Saudi Arabia, Awatef Ibraheem

Dissertations

Evidence has suggested that diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is associated with decreased quality of life (QoL) and impaired physical and emotional health. About 82% of the diabetic population in Saudi Arabia show signs of DPN. However, it is under-recognized and undertreated. Further, DPN is linked to several clinical and metabolic risk factors. However, there is minimal evidence from Saudi Arabia on the impact of DPN on the individual's QoL. The aims of this current study were to (1) examine the impact of DPN symptoms on functioning, health perception, and QoL and (2) explore the biologic and individual factors associated with …

Victims Of Child Sex Trafficking: Are U.S. Pediatricians Ready To Identify, Assess, Treat And Protect Them?, Bidisha Sinha

Dissertations

The trafficking of children for commercial sexual exploitation is a gross violation of human rights and a global, public health issue that is rapidly growing and prevalent. Due to the clandestine nature of this crime and the general lack of public knowledge about it, identifying and protecting victims of child sex trafficking (CST) is fraught with challenges. Therefore, it is imperative that healthcare professionals - often the only professionals with whom CST victims come in contact while in captivity - are properly educated and trained on this topic. A literature review reveals there is little knowledge about pediatricians' education and …

The Flexible Impact Of Affective States On Group Decision-Making And Ideational Creativity, Young-Jae Yoon

Dissertations

Positive and negative affect are often thought to influence the cognitive performance of individuals and groups via their effects on two different dimensions of cognitive processing style: heuristic vs. systematic processing, and global vs. local attentional focus. Recently, research has suggested that the effects of affective states on the analytic and creative performance of individuals depend on the relative dominance of heuristic vs. systematic processing (for analytic performance) and of a global vs. local attentional focus (for creative performance) just prior to the affect's arousal (Huntsinger, Isbell, & Clore, 2014; Huntsinger & Ray, 2016). Extending this individual-level evidence to small …

Your Goals And You - Don’T Let Your Goals Get (To) You …. Before You Can Get To Them!, Shweta Singh

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

What is the one thing you can count on as far as goals are concerned? Not one thing but many things and secondly- your goals are similar to goals of many people around the world, who (interestingly enough) have really nothing in common with you. And finally- that is because how we decide our goals, has very little to do with what is inside us and more about the surrounding influences.

Just lean back and think about how much you are taught and selectively exposed to - by way of opinions, ideas, thoughts about what an ideal life is? Who …

Decreasing Women's Endorsement Of Benevolent Sexism, Kelsey Berryman

Master's Theses

The aim of the current study was to reduce women's endorsement for benevolent sexist beliefs. the intervention aimed to educate women about the prevalence and seriousness of benevolent sexism. as this is a subtle and deceptively positive type of sexism, women are particularly susceptible in endorsing it (Glick & Fiske, 2001). in order to increase awareness for benevolent sexism in their everyday lives, some participants read an informational text about the pervasiveness and harmfulness of benevolent sexism in the U.S. This text was read after participants had already written about a time they engaged in benevolent sexism to elicit negative …

Understanding The Role Of Relationship Satisfaction In Social Support Provision For Youth In The Child Welfare System, Nathan Michael Lutz

Master's Theses

The objective of this study was to examine kin social support and relationship satisfaction, as well as the interaction between these two variables, in terms of their association with placement stability, externalizing behaviors, and internalizing symptoms for youth in the child welfare system. Ordinary Least Squares Regression methods were used in conjunction with Poisson and Negative Binomial Regression methods. the study also examined two different methods for calculating the interaction term to determine relationship satisfaction's moderating effect on the relationship between social support and the outcomes. Results suggested that relationship satisfaction does act as a moderator when externalizing behaviors and …

The Effect Of Imagined Intergroup Contact On Heterosexism, Laurel Mertz

Master's Theses

Heterosexism and other forms of prejudice against the LGBTQ community remain prevalent across the world. Thus, the study of how to reduce heterosexism has become a much more common and necessary domain of research in recent years. Previous research has demonstrated mixed results of the effect of imagined intergroup contact on heterosexism. the current study sought to evaluate various contexts in which imagined intergroup contact would decrease or increase levels of both implicit and explicit heterosexist attitudes. I predicted that individuals who imagined winning a basketball game with a gay teammate would display more positive attitudes toward gay men whereas …

The Longitudinal Relationship Between Callous-Unemotional Traits And Exposure To Community Violence: Examining Primary And Secondary Psychopathy In Serious Adolescent Offenders, Elizabeth Sargent

Master's Theses

in youth, psychopathy is often represented by callous-unemotional traits, characterized by a lack of guilt and empathy. While justice-involved youth can exhibit such traits, less research has been done in adolescents than has been with adults in the justice system. Still, previous research supports that callous-unemotional traits in particular can predict higher risk for adverse outcomes and violent behavior in youth. Various vulnerabilities and experiences contribute to the development of callous-unemotional traits, and while some individuals with psychopathic traits are thought to have been born with an innate inability to feel empathy (primary psychopathy), others may experience psychological distress in …

Latino Parents' Acculturative Stress And Their Preschoolers' Prosocial Development: Testing The Mediating Role Of Parenting Style, Zahra Fatima Naqi

Master's Theses

Studies increasingly recognize the importance of cultural factors when studying the development of immigrant children from low-income backgrounds. There is reason to believe that parents' acculturative stress may be linked to children's prosocial development, via parenting. the present study included a sample of immigrant Latino parents of 3- to 5-year-old Head Start preschoolers (N = 28) to examine how parents' acculturative stress might be associated with children's prosocial behavior at home, as reported by parents, and at school, as reported by teachers. Furthermore, it studied whether this linkage is mediated by warm, supportive, and hostile parenting practices. Results indicated that …

Condition Severity And Parent Psychosocial Functioning In Families Of Youth With Spina Bifida: The Role Of Parental Attitudes And Beliefs, Elicia Wartman

Master's Theses

Past research suggests that parents of youth with spina bifida (SB) have worse psychosocial outcomes than parents of typically developing youth. SB is a complex medical condition that is accompanied by varying degrees of physical disability and cognitive deficits. Research on stress and coping suggests that parents' attitudes and beliefs may contribute to their own psychosocial adjustment. This study unpacks condition severity and examines the role of severity of condition-related factors in predicting parental adjustment and parental attitudes and beliefs. Participants were recruited as part of a larger longitudinal study. Information on condition severity, including type of SB, lesion level, …

The Creation And Evolution Of Introductory Courses In Women's Studies Programs, Tori Kay Olson

Master's Theses

This study seeks to understand what affects knowledge production in introductory women's studies courses. Using critical discourse analysis, the study looks at the archives of two very different programs within the Chicago area. the two programs studied, Loyola University Chicago and University of Illinois€”Chicago, offer two different examples of how women's studies programs were created and evolved, and how this influenced the knowledge production in their introductory courses. in addition to the archival materials of these two universities, this study relies on various reports and accounts written by women's studies scholars during the same timeframe as the documented archival material …

Trajectories Of Adaptive Functioning Among Youth With Spina Bifida: The Influence Of Neurocognitive Functioning And Parental Scaffolding, Adrien Winning

Master's Theses

Youth with spina bifida (SB), a congenital birth defect affecting the central nervous system, are at risk of experiencing an array of psychosocial and functional deficits (Copp et al., 2015; Holmbeck et al., 2003). Indeed, previous research has documented difficulties across the three adaptive functioning domains outlined by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD): conceptual (e.g., communication, self-direction, functional academics), social (e.g., interpersonal skills), and practical (e.g., self-care, navigating health-care; Copp et al., 2015). Despite this evidence, whether or not children with SB typically acquire skills across development is largely unknown. Additionally, little is known about risk …

Wayfinder Application For Autistic Occupational Assistance, Nathaniel Edward Hishon

Master's Theses

Employment among autistic individuals is an area of noted difficulty, with an employment rate well below the general population [1]. Several barriers attributed to autistic unemployment, including difficulties communicating with employers and social interactions with coworkers, obsessive adherence to routine, and trouble organizing and completing workplace tasks, are also attributed to challenges in maintaining employment [2]. Several studies have concluded that long-term employment support is necessary to acquire and maintain autistic employment [3]. The noted benefit of intensive job training, such as access to job coaches, indicates the need for further support to help autistic individuals complete workplace tasks and …