Digital Commons Network^™

A Transformative Framework To Investigate The Influences Of Chineseness On Chinese International Students’ Learning Experiences On U.S. College Campuses, Wenjin Guo

Dissertations

This study applied a mixed-methods, social-justice approach to explore how Chinese international students interpret their success and/or challenges influenced by their Chinese forms of community cultural wealth in their academic learning at a predominately White Catholic university in the Midwest of the United States for over one year. I adopted a transformative paradigm to guide my study. Since the reviewed theoretical frameworks solely failed to form a profound comprehension of how Chineseness influenced Chinese international college students, I analyzed essential components of socio-cultural and critical race theories and created China as Method as the framework to guide my study.

This …

Understanding The Process Of Health Goal Achievement Among Black Men Who Have Sex With Men (Msm) In Chicago: An Exploratory Qualitative Study, Anthony Johnson

Dissertations

Background: Over the last 30 years, Black men who have sex with men (MSM) have been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS while accounting for only approximately 1% of the population of the United States. The majority of research with Black MSM has focused on HIV infection risk factors, but very little attention has been given to their overall health and well-being. The breadth of HIV-health related research that includes Black MSM tends to demonstrate high levels of racial, environmental, and economic disparities that need to be addressed. However, more research must be conducted to explicate the process of exercising strength and …

Supporting Latine Children’S Informal Engineering Learning And Spatial Thinking Through Tinkering And Storytelling, Diana Acosta

Dissertations

In the United States, the Latine community is the fastest growing minority group. Projections estimate that by the year 2060, they will represent 28% of the total population. Yet, Latines continue to be underrepresented and underserved in STEM fields and careers. Providing equitable informal STEM learning opportunities to young children may be a way to increase access and interest in STEM, to address the broader goal of increasing representation. Importantly, for these learning experiences to be truly equitable they must be meaningful and engage everyday cultural practices. Guided by a strengths-based approach, the current study examines how oral stories as …

Maternal-Fetal Attachment And Its Relationship To Quality Of Life In Pregnant Women With Diabetes, Cheryl Ann Angel

Dissertations

Background: Maternal-fetal attachment (MFA) is the bond between a mother and her unborn child during pregnancy. Pregnant women with diabetes are considered high-risk and their numbers are expected to increase as levels of obesity rise and women wait longer to have children. This researcher has observed health care providers instructing pregnant women with diabetes about diabetes self-management (DSM) activities such as “dietary management” and encouraging the women to make those changes for their baby. However, some women remained unable to successfully engage in DSM behaviors despite having exhibited signs of MFA, e.g., expressing “thoughts of the fetus” to health care …

An Ethics Of Doctrinal Emergence: Reading Newman With Augustine And Contemporary Information Theory, Jeffrey John Campbell

Dissertations

Jeffrey J. CampbellLoyola University Chicago AN ETHICS OF DOCTRINAL EMERGENCE: READING NEWMAN WITH AUGUSTINE AND CONTEMPORARY INFORMATION THEORY The aim of this essay is to begin the process of a reconfiguration of the theological category of doctrinal development and to integrate an “emergent doctrinal ethics of belief” as an inextricable dimension of this category. Most scholarly writing on doctrinal development has taken place in the wake of the Enlightenment with its focus on epistemology, and doctrine is conceived of as “referencing” a quasi-metaphysical “res.” I attempt to “update” the guiding metaphors of doctrinal development with the goal of moving discussions …

Bias Mitigation For Toxicity Detection Via Sequential Decisions, Lu Cheng, Ahmadreza Mosallanezhad, Yasin N. Silva, Deborah Hall, Huan Liu

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Increased social media use has contributed to the greater prevalence of abusive, rude, and offensive textual comments. Machine learning models have been developed to detect toxic comments online, yet these models tend to show biases against users with marginalized or minority identities (e.g., females and African Americans). Established research in debiasing toxicity classifiers often (1) takes a static or batch approach, assuming that all information is available and then making a one-time decision; and (2) uses a generic strategy to mitigate different biases (e.g., gender and racial biases) that assumes the biases are independent of one another. However, in real …

Feminist Academic Organizations: Challenging Sexism Through Collective Mobilizing Across Research, Support, And Advocacy, Lauren Gurrieri, Andrea Prothero, Shona Bettany, Susan Dobscha, Jenna M. Drenten, Shelagh Ferguson, Stacey Finkelstein, Laura Mcvey, Nacima Ourahmoune, Laurel Steinfield, Linda Tuncay Zayer

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper examines the establishment of a feminist academic organization, GENMAC (Gender, Markets, and Consumers; genmac.co), serving gender scholars in business schools and related fields. In so doing, it builds on the emerging literature of feminist academic organizations, as situated within feminist organizational studies (FOS). Through a feminist case study and by assessing the reflections of GENMAC's board members, we tell the story of the emergence of GENMAC and detail the tensions the organization encountered as it formally established itself as a feminist organization within the confines of a business school setting, a patriarchal system, and a neoliberal university paradigm. …

Zero Tolerance Atrocity Crimes Against Migrant Children And Families In The United States: An Accountability Framework For Family Separation, Sarah Diaz Jd, Llm, Jenny Lee Phd

Center for the Human Rights of Children

No abstract provided.

Las Chingonas: An Ecological Approach To Latina Student Mothers’ Journey Through College, Emely Elizabeth Medina-Rodriguez

Dissertations

Women with children are one of the growing student sub-populations in higher education. However, the support student mothers receive in colleges and universities has been historically unreliable and their experiences in college have not been studied in depth. This is especially true for student mothers from minoritized backgrounds with differing racial, ethnic, sexual, gender, and ability identities. This research aims to understand the experiences Latina graduate student mothers from an ecological and critical perspective. Guided by Critical Human Ecology and Black Feminist Thought, eight open-ended interviews were conducted and analyzed. Themes and categories came out of the patterns in the …

The Souls Of Black Folks In The Twenty-First Century: Self-Efficacy, Grit, And Their Development In Low-Income Urban Black Youth, Amzie Moore

Dissertations

Self-efficacy and grit have shown to be internal resources for African American youth, particularly urban low-income youth living in high crime and high poverty communities. This dissertation is a quasi-experimental, longitudinal, and mix method study, which evaluated a cross-age peer mentoring program. This evaluation was to examine if youth mentors’ attendance in the program for one year predicted increases in their self-efficacy and grit. The results of the study revealed that age significantly interacted with youth attendance, predicting increases in self-efficacy. Findings from the qualitative analyses illustrated that the peer-mentoring program strengthened culturally-relevant self-efficacy and grit among youth mentors.

Unlocking Desistance: The Role Of Executive Functioning In The Rehabilitation Of Correctional Populations, Danielle Nesi

Dissertations

In a secondary analysis of data collected by Fishbein and Sheppard (2006), the current study sought to explore the relationships among age, executive functioning and antisocial behavior (e.g., changes in institutional infractions, self-reported aggression and reactivity) among a sample of incarcerated men enrolled in a correctional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) program between 2003 and 2005. Specifically, the current study examined whether baseline executive abilities predicted misconduct and whether this relationship was mediated by treatment engagement. The relationships among age, treatment engagement, and changes in executive functioning post-treatment were also considered. It was predicted that improvements in executive functioning would vary …

Constructing Engineering Knowledge Through Tinkering, Reflection, And Digital Storytelling, Lauren C. Pagano

Dissertations

Educators and researchers suggest that informal learning activities in museums, libraries, and families’ homes can promote children’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning (Sobel & Jipson, 2016). Tinkering, a form of hands-on problem-solving involving real tools and materials, is one way to engage families in engineering design processes. However, tinkering activities vary greatly in terms of the goals presented, the resources available, and opportunities to test (Bevan, 2017). Across three studies, we examined how variations in tinkering exhibit design and parent-child interaction relate to children’s memory and STEM learning. In Study 1, we examined the structure and content of …

Leveraging Moral Foundations To Increase Covid-19 Vaccination, Cara Elizabeth Ray

Dissertations

Despite the vast majority of the eligible U.S. adult population being vaccinated against COVID-19, geographical clusters of unvaccinated individuals pose a substantial risk of outbreak. It is important to encourage as many individuals as possible to vaccinate against COVID-19 to reduce its spread and severity. Past research has identified endorsement of the purity and liberty moral foundations – intuitive domains of moral concern – as predictors of vaccine hesitancy and political conservatism, while conservatism is itself associated with vaccine hesitancy. Across two online surveys, I examined the effects of a message invoking the purity and liberty foundations as well as …

Healing Earth In A Time Of Crisis: Curriculum For Integral Ecology, Caleb Steindam

Dissertations

This intrinsic multiple case study examined secondary- and university-level educators’ experiences teaching with Healing Earth, a curriculum developed by the International Jesuit Ecology Project at Loyola University Chicago, which merges scientific, social, spiritual, and ethical analyses of pressing ecological issues. Based on the conceptual framework of integral ecology, Healing Earth is a response to Pope Francis’s (2015a) call for “a new way of thinking about human beings, life, society and our relationship with nature” (§215).

This study primarily consisted of in-depth interviews with educators who have used Healing Earth in a variety of secondary and post-secondary Catholic educational contexts. A …

Turn Not Thine Eyes: Holy Faces, Saving Gazes, And The Theology Of Attention, Jacob W. Torbeck

Dissertations

Jacob W. TorbeckLoyola University Chicago TURN NOT THINE EYES: HOLY FACES, SAVING GAZES, AND THE THEOLOGY OF ATTENTION Theoretical Theologies and Practical Theologies have historically been contrasted with one another as distinct but connected disciplines, a contrast with roots in the figures of Plato and Aristotle, or Mary and Martha. Over the centuries, with the increasing ability of theologians to specialize, theoretical theologians have accused practical theologians as ignoring spiritual realities, while practical theologians have accused theoretical theologians of ignoring material realities. This dissertation puts forward a theological exposition of the notion of contemplative attention that demonstrates the unity and …

A Radically Weak (I)Ncounter: Dorothy Day, The Catholic Worker, And Overcoming Otherness, An Anatheistic Argument For A Political Theology Based In Community, Martin Tomszak

Dissertations

The central goal of this dissertation is to find a way to do theology otherwise; to emphasize the need for radical community within the publics of the Church, the academy, and wider society; and to take seriously what the developing genre of radical political theology has to offer the realm of theo-ethics at both a popular and academic level. Through my chosen lens of anatheistic theology and an emphasis on radical lay community, this work aims to evoke genuine conversation about how the Church, the Catholic Worker Movement, and postmodern critical theory might fit together to address the central concerns …

Viruses, Vaccines, And The Erotics Of Risk In Latinx Hiv Stories And Covid-19, Dr. Suzanne Bost

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In 2019, I published Shared Selves: Latinx Memoir and Ethical Alternatives to Humanism (University of Illinois Press), in which I discuss contagion as a metaphor for embracing our shared materiality with others. Six months later, during the Covid-19 pandemic, neighbors were crossing streets to avoid each other. Social distancing is, counterintuitively, asking us to view separation and seclusion as forms of solidarity. But how can we be solid if we are oriented against each other? Isolation itself has become contagious: sharing repulsion and rejection, measuring six feet of “social” distance from others. These spaces are made up of a variety …

Influences Of Latino Caregivers’ Input And Acculturation On Children’S Bilingual Development: A Speech Sample Analysis, Jordan Sierra Perry

Master's Theses

Interactions with caregivers are important for children’s development. In particular, the language input that young dual language learners (DLLs) receive from their primary caregivers affects their cultural knowledge and their bilingual language outcomes. However, relatively little research has been conducted to investigate the cultural contexts that influence Latino caregivers’ bilingual language use at home, including their acculturation level. Thus, the present study examined the relation between caregivers’ acculturation and their children’s bilingual (Spanish and English) language use, and whether this relation varied as a function of caregivers’ bilingual language use. Parent-report measures of bilingual language use, in addition to video …

Positive Affect Facilitates Reduction In Depression Symptoms During A Mobile Mindfulness-Based Intervention, Andrew Rauch

Master's Theses

Depression negatively impacts the lives of many, and the rates are continuing to rapidly increase. Identifying patterns of modifiable affective psychological mechanisms that contribute to reducing depression symptoms is critical to improve the effectiveness of wellbeing interventions for individuals with depressive disorders. Depression has been characterized by valanced patterns of low positive affect and high negative affect, yet the extent to which these relative patterns of affectivity change in response to intervention remains less clear. The present study evaluated affective patterns in college students (n = 127) with elevated depression symptoms who participated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of …

Modeling The Impact Of Peer Mentorship To Support First-Year Student Well-Being, Sarah Broner

Master's Theses

The transition to college is characterized by instability in a variety of life domains, with some students experiencing sharp declines in well-being across the first year of college (Conley et al., 2014). Well-established in the literature is the link between this life transition and increased rates of mental illness, including depression, anxiety, stress, and relationship problems (Auerbach et al., 2018). The adjustment to higher education can be particularly difficult for underserved students (Carter et al., 2013; Kalsner & Pistole, 2003), who may not have access to the same types of knowledge, resources, and privileges as their White counterparts on campus. …

The Impact Of Perceived Discrimination And Stigma Consciousness On Connectedness, Trust, And Satisfaction In Healthcare Domains During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Devon Richardson

Master's Theses

This study will assess the relations between perceived experiences of discrimination within healthcare settings and connectedness, trust, and satisfaction with services in healthcare domains among African Americans. It will also examine if the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated this relationship. I predict that African Americans in the COVID-19 discrimination condition (versus the control condition) will report lower connectedness and trust with healthcare workers and lower satisfaction with healthcare services. I also predict that stigma consciousness will moderate this effect. For African Americans reporting lower levels of stigma consciousness, I expect there will be a negative relation between perceiving discrimination and connectedness, …

Psychological Symptoms, Visceral Pain Sensitivity, And Observations Of Parent Pain Behavior Are Related To Somatic Symptoms In Premenarchal Adolescents, Genevieve Roth

Master's Theses

Somatic symptoms are a risk factor for the development of chronic pelvic pain in women. The present study characterized somatic symptoms and their relations with psychological, pain sensitivity, and parental factors in a community sample of premenarchal adolescents, which marks an initial step in advancing the identification of potential modifiable factors related to menstrual pain and chronic pain development. Pain sensitivity (visceral and bodily factors) and psychological symptoms (anxiety and stress) were predicted to be related to somatic symptoms (e.g, widespread bodily discomfort) in premenarchal adolescents. Additionally, adolescents’ observation of parent pain behavior was expected to be specifically associated with …

Towards An Active Foveated Approach To Computer Vision, Dario Dematties, Silvio Rizzi, George K. Thiruvathukal, Alejandro Javier Wainselboim

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this paper, a series of experimental methods are presented explaining a new approach towards active foveated Computer Vision (CV). This is a collaborative effort between researchers at CONICET Mendoza Technological Scientific Center from Argentina, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and Loyola University Chicago from the US. The aim is to advance new CV approaches more in line with those found in biological agents in order to bring novel solutions to the main problems faced by current CV applications. Basically this work enhance Self-supervised (SS) learning, incorporating foveated vision plus saccadic behavior in order to improve training and computational efficiency without …

A Mixed Method Study Of Teachers' Appraisals Of Student Wellness Services And Supports During Covid-19, Tasha M. Childs, Elizabeth Levine Brown Phd, Naomi Brown, Aidyn L. Iachini Phd, Kate L. Phillippo, Linda Galib, Audra Parker, Ken Fujimoto Phd

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

BACKGROUNDUnderstanding teachers' appraisals of student wellness services and supports during COVID-19 is essential to strengthening services and improving student health outcomes. This mixed-method study aimed to examine US PK-12 teachers' appraisals of student wellness services and supports during COVID-19.METHODSThis study focuses on qualitative data from 291 teachers' open-ended responses to the question: “What do you wish your school leaders knew about this (wellness support) aspect of your work?” and whose responses described wellness services and supports. A qualitative content analysis was conducted by an interdisciplinary research team using open- and axial coding.RESULTSThree main themes emerged. (1) insufficient access to mental …

Harnessing The Power Of Interdisciplinary Research With Psychology-Informed Cyberbullying Detection Models, Deborah Hall, Yasin N. Silva, Brittany Wheeler, Lu Cheng, Katie Baumel

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Cyberbullying has become increasingly prevalent, particularly on social media. There has also been a steady rise in cyberbullying research across a range of disciplines. Much of the empirical work from computer science has focused on developing machine learning models for cyberbullying detection. Whereas machine learning cyberbullying detection models can be improved by drawing on psychological theories and perspectives, there is also tremendous potential for machine learning models to contribute to a better understanding of psychological aspects of cyberbullying. In this paper, we discuss how machine learning models can yield novel insights about the nature and defining characteristics of cyberbullying and …

Responses To Environmental Change, Lisa Reyes Mason, Susan P. Kemp, Lawrence A. Palinkas, Amy Krings

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

Communities worldwide are facing environmental crises such as air pollution, water shortages, climate change, and other forms of environmental change and degradation. While technical solutions for environmental change are essential, so too are solutions that consider social acceptability, value cultural relevance, and prioritize equity and social justice. Social work has a critical and urgent role in creating and implementing macrolevel social responses to environmental change. The key concepts of environmental change, environmental and ecological justice, social vulnerability, and social responses are discussed. A description of the roles and skills unique to macro social workers for this effort is given, followed …

Current Progress And Future Directions For Theory And Research On Savoring, Fred Bryant

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

As research on savoring has increased dramatically since publication of the book Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience (Bryant and Veroff, 2007), savoring has gradually become a core concept in positive psychology. I begin by reviewing the evolution of this concept, the development of instruments for assessing savoring ability and savoring strategies, and the wide range of applications of savoring in the psychosocial and health sciences. I then consider important directions for future theory and research. To advance our understanding of how naturalistic savoring unfolds over time, future work should integrate the perceptual judgments involved in not only the …

Complexity, Resources And Text Borrowing In State Legislatures, Eric Hansen, Joshua M. Jansa

Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Do states copy or reinvent language from complex policies as they diffuse, and does this depend on legislative resources? We argue that states will more frequently reinvent more complex policies, but that states with high-resource legislatures will reinvent more than their low-resource counterparts for more complex policies. We test the theory using the bill texts from 18 policies that diffused across the 50 states from 1983-2014, measuring reinvention and complexity using text analysis tools. In line with expectations, we find that complex policies are reinvented more than simple policies and that high-resource legislatures reinvent bills more than low-resource legislatures on …

Gentrification, Amie Thurber, Amy Krings

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

Gentrification can be understood as the process through which geographical areas become increasingly exclusive, which disproportionately harms people living in poverty and people of color, as well as the elderly, families, and youth. As such, this article argues that macro social work practitioners should view gentrification as a key concern. Thus, to help guide macro interventions, the article begins by first defining gentrification and describing ways to measure it, while emphasizing its difference from revitalization. Second, the article explores causes of gentrification, including its relationship to systemic racism. Third, the article explores the consequences of gentrification on individuals’ and communities’ …

Predicting The Adoption Of Password Managers: A Tale Of Two Samples, Shelia Kennison, D. Eric Chan-Tin

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Using weak passwords and re-using passwords can make one vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches. Cybersecurity experts recommend the adoption of password managers (PMs), as they generate and store strong passwords for all accounts. Prior research has shown that few people adopt PMs. Our research examined PM adoption in a sample of 221 undergraduates from psychology courses and a sample of 278 MTurk workers. We hypothesized that PM adoption could be predicted using a small set of user characteristics (i.e., gender, age, Big Five personality traits, number of devices used, frequency of using social media, and cybersecurity knowledge). The results showed that …