Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Methods To Reduce Stress In College Students: Dog-Assisted Therapy, Ashley A. Green

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Many young adults find their college years to be highly stressful. The American College Health Association (2021) found 48% of college students reported moderate to severe levels of psychological stress. Research has found that chronic stress, commonly found in the college population, can adversely affect the health and academic performance of college students (Campbell & Svenson, 1992). Universities have begun experimenting with and adopting a variety of strategies to help students manage stressors associated with college attendance. These initiatives have included relatively well-researched procedures such as meditation and yoga as well as emerging practices. Recently, some colleges have begun testing …

Affect, Mind-Body Factors, And Disordered And Intuitive Eating Behaviors: Examining Naturalistic Associations Among Young Women With Elevated Eating Disorder Symptoms, Kelly A. Romano

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Objective: The present study examined whether three mind-body factors—emotion dysregulation, interoceptive sensibility, and mindfulness—that are theorized to be implicated in the onset and maintenance of eating disorder (ED) pathology mediated (Aim 1) and moderated (Aim 2) within-person associations between affect and women with elevated ED symptoms’ disordered and intuitive eating behavior use. Method: Participants included 150 young women with elevated ED symptoms who completed a 10-day ecological momentary assessment protocol. To address Aim 1, multilevel structural equation models examined whether the mindbody factors (separately) mediated momentary associations between negative and positive affect, and women’s disordered (dietary restriction, loss of control …

The Influence Of Minority Stress, Coping, And A Pandemic On The Relationship Between Sexual Orientation And Mental Health: A Mixed Methods Study, James Michael Macchia

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

For decades, scientific literature has shown that sexual minority individuals across populations are disproportionately affected by negative mental health outcomes when compared to their heterosexual counterparts. These disparities are largely attributable to minority stress. Coping is a significant factor that can impact the content and severity of mental health outcomes and coping behaviors have been shown to vary based on sexual orientation. Mental health outcomes may also differ between sexual minority subgroups due to additional factors such as double discrimination and bisexual invisibility/erasure. Moreover, factors such as internalized homophobia and community connectedness have demonstrated strong associations with sexual minority mental …

Career Pathways Program Annual Report For Ay 2022/23, Wie Yusuf

Career Pathways

Career Pathways launched in August 2017 as the university-wide initiative to provide graduate student professional development. It encompasses both the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) and the Preparing Future Professionals (PFP) Certificates. The Preparing Future Faculty Certificate was established in 2007, while the Preparing Future Professionals Certificate was launched in 2017 concurrently with Career Pathways. The Career Pathways program prepares graduate students for successful transition into thriving careers. With the PFP Certificate, specifically, the emphasize has been on filling the existing gap in career and professional development for master’s students and doctoral students with career plans outside of academia. Career Pathways …

Monarch, Philip Walzer (Editor)

Monarch Magazine

Summer 2023 issue of Monarch, the Old Dominion University Magazine.

Subtitled: The Launch of a New Era

A Dynamical Systems Approach To Characterizing Brain–Body Interactions During Movement: Challenges, Interpretations, And Recommendations, Derek C. Monroe, Nathaniel T. Berry, Peter C. Fino, Christopher K. Rhea

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

Brain–body interactions (BBIs) have been the focus of intense scrutiny since the inception of the scientific method, playing a foundational role in the earliest debates over the philosophy of science. Contemporary investigations of BBIs to elucidate the neural principles of motor control have benefited from advances in neuroimaging, device engineering, and signal processing. However, these studies generally suffer from two major limitations. First, they rely on interpretations of ‘brain’ activity that are behavioral in nature, rather than neuroanatomical or biophysical. Second, they employ methodological approaches that are inconsistent with a dynamical systems approach to neuromotor control. These limitations represent a …

Navigating The Conversation: Sexual Abuse In The Black Home And The Church, Saundra Johnson

Institute for the Humanities Master's Papers, Projects, and Capstones

According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), sexual abuse is an all-encompassing non-legal term that includes crimes like sexual assault, rape, and sexual abuse. Often, victims of sexual abuse will rely on their own cultural biases, religious teachings or seek support from their faith communities to navigate their experience of victimization. Cultural norms and religious teachings, under the shield of repentance and forgiveness can normalize sexual abuse.

Comparison Between The Effects Of Acute Physical And Psychosocial Stress On Feedback-Based Learning, Xiao Yang, Brittany Nackley, Bruce H. Friedman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Stress modulates feedback-based learning, a process that has been implicated in declining mental function in aging and mental disorders. While acute physical and psychosocial stressors have been used interchangeably in studies on feedback-based learning, the two types of stressors involve distinct physiological and psychological processes. Whether the two types of stressors differentially influence feedback processing remains unclear. The present study compared the effects of physical and psychosocial stressors on feedback-based learning. Ninety-six subjects (Mage = 19.11 years; 50 female) completed either a cold pressor task (CPT) or mental arithmetic task (MAT), as the physical or psychosocial stressor, while electrocardiography and …

College Of Health Sciences Newsletter, College Of Health Sciences, Old Dominion University

Ellmer College of Health Sciences Newsletters

June 2023 issue of Old Dominion University's College of Health Sciences Newsletter.

Lms Problem-Posing Academic Relationships Between Faculty And Students: A Post-Intentional Phenomenological Study Of Dialogical Relationships In Asynchronous Online Courses, Sheri L. Prupis

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Drawing on Freire’s Engaged Pedagogy as a theoretical framework, I investigated the manifestation of dialogical relationships between faculty and students in fully asynchronous online courses. Employing a post-intentional phenomenological methodology, I examined how students and faculty held varying expectations for relationships in asynchronous online courses. The findings revealed that while students preferred transactional exchanges, faculty aspired to foster more profound and more enduring relationships with their students. This divergence can be partly attributed to the transactional exchange structure of Learning Management Systems (LMS), which heavily influences how faculty design and deliver courses and how students participate.

Providing Family Centered Care Within Pediatric Integrated Care Settings, Emily D. Bebber

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Parent engagement remains critical to pediatric care. Both pediatric medical and mental health care remains dependent upon parent/guardian engagement to support successful outcomes for children and adolescents. Efforts to enhance Family Centered Care (FCC) has been spotlighted within pediatric care since the 1950s and the inclusion of counselors within integrated behavior health (IBH) teams ushers a need for an evolved understanding of the implementation of FCC, including parent/guardian engagement across professional roles. Using an explanatory mixed-method design, I examined team implementation of Family Centered Care (FCC) among different provider types (e.g., physicians, nurses, licensed mental health providers, social workers, technicians) …

Examining The Relationship Between Program Satisfaction, Credential Earnings, And Gender On Full-Time Employment Outcomes Of Career And Technical Program High School Graduates In Virginia, Margaret J. Turley

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Career and technical education (CTE) incorporates occupational skills, workforce readiness skills, and credentials that make high school graduates better prepared for the workforce. Students who complete CTE programs of study have higher employment rates after high school graduation and often go on to postsecondary education. For those who do not go on to postsecondary education, CTE programs can provide opportunities for increased earnings and more access to the labor market.

This quantitative study used binary logistic regression, using data collected by the Center for Survey Research of the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center to examine if satisfaction with CTE …

The Currency Of Teacher Trust In Working Conditions For Teacher Retention, Jeanette White

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Virginia Public schools continue to face teacher shortages, and policymakers and school leaders are desperately seeking ways to influence teachers' decisions to stay at school. This multi-site case study of seven elementary schools offers a conceptual framework to examine how teachers' trusting relationships with students and parents relate to working conditions and retention. Teacher interview excerpts, an overall measure of teacher working conditions using the Virginia Climate and Working Conditions Survey (Virginia Department of Education, 2021), and school-level descriptive statistics were analyzed to examine the relationship between teachers' perceptions of trust and other working conditions within their schools. In this …

The Human That Is Not Human: Examining The Doppelganger Through David Hume, Brittnea Anne Holland

English Theses & Dissertations

The roots of horror are deeply entangled with the concepts presented through Enlightenment thinkers, especially in terms of the self and what makes a human truly a human; David Hume's essays and discussions on human nature lend themselves easily to the analysis of horror throughout the ages, particularly both in terms of what makes humanity human and in terms of metaphysical and theological concepts--and the rejection of them. This, coupled with Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank’s concepts of the uncanny, allows for the ability to perceive what makes creatures like the Doppelganger everlasting throughout humanity. Though horror as a concept …

The Role And Contribution Of Rural North Carolina Community Colleges In Social Capital Development, Tanya J. Mcghee

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Community colleges are important settings for the development of social capital as well as institutions of higher learning. The democratic mission, geographic dispersion, and close relationship with multiple stakeholders throughout their service regions allow community colleges to be well-suited to act as liaisons and social architects facilitating social capital creation. This is particularly true in rural areas, where community colleges are often among the largest employers and are major cultural and civic engagement centers. In an era of persistent budget reductions and fiscal tension, there is a need to better understand the multitude of ways rural community colleges support communities …

Salivary Microrna As A Concussion Biomarker And The Implications For Athletic Trainers' Practices, Thomas Richard Campbell

Rehabilitation Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Many concussions are sustained globally each year; however, research suggests that a large number may go undiagnosed due to a reliance on subjective information from patients and limitations of current objective measures. Recently, efforts have been focused on identifying clinical biomarkers of concussions, including salivary microRNA (miRNA), to improve healthcare professionals’ concussion management practices. Even if salivary miRNA were shown to be a valid and reliable measure for managing concussions, healthcare professionals, such as athletic trainers (ATs), must be familiar with the tool and have positive attitudes toward the implementation into clinical practice. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was …

The Influence Of Mentorship On K-5 General Education Teachers: A Study Of Southeastern Schools In Virginia, Katherine Ryan Goldburg

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The current teacher shortage and the demand for high quality teachers presents a nationwide educational problem. Additionally, more than one-third of teachers leave the profession within the first five years of their careers (Callahan, 2015). The most vital and systemic change that is needed in our educational landscape is the attraction, retention, and professional development of quality teachers (Darling-Hammond & Sykes, 2003). If school district administrators expect new teachers to succeed, they need to provide them with unprecedented levels of support. This qualitative research study examined new elementary education teachers' perceptions of the influence of their mentorship program and the …

Climbers’ Risk Perceptions Of Erosion From Flooding At Carderock Recreation Area, Chandler J. Berry

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

Through increased temperature, precipitation, frequency of extreme weather, flooding, drought, and fire, climate change will alter where and how people can recreate. Extant research illustrates the effects of climate change on a variety of outdoor recreation activities; however, little research has been completed on the effects of climate change on rock climbing outside of the alpine environment. One such impact found at Carderock Recreation Area is riverine flooding and erosion. This study used a quantitative survey research design to understand how risk perceptions of erosion from flooding are affected by place attachment and the past use history of rock climbers …

An Autoethnography On Teaching Antiracism In The Current Sociopolitical Environment, Taylor M. Jacobson

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

In the course of American history, students from historically marginalized and underrepresented communities have been left out of the educational conversation. This has created an era of undereducated citizens who have historically used privilege to oppress students from these communities. Teachers must use their privilege to teach antiracist education that specifically encourages students to stand up for the justice needed to make a better world. Although this education is important, politicians, parents, and school board administrators are consistently putting teachers in an awkward position when they work towards implementing antiracist education by enacting policies that force them to stop or …

Determining The Degree To Which Ideational Behavior Predicts Occupational Identity Achievement In Emerging Adult College Students Preceding Entry Into The Fourth Industrial Revolution Workforce, Carrington M. Faulk

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

As emerging adults transition into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) workforce, it is essential to understand the factors that predict successful occupational identity achievement, as automation will impact human occupational identity crises. This descriptive cross-sectional study implemented a correlation design to determine the degree to which ideational behavior predicts occupational identity achievement preceding entry into the 4IR workforce. Using a sample of 166 emerging adult college students from a Mid-Atlantic, diverse, four-year university, data were collected using Runco’s Ideational Behavior Scale (RIBS) and Melgosa’s Occupational Identity Achievement subscale (OIA). Results showed that ideational behavior significantly predicted occupational identity achievement ( …

Exploring Learning Experiences Of Community College Faculty Short-Term Study Abroad Leaders Using Ipa And Visual Research, Rachel Ann Simpson

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

As short-term study abroad programs increase in popularity and number at community colleges, it is vital to examine the effect on the faculty who lead these programs. The purpose of this research study was to explore how community college faculty who lead short-term study abroad programs perceive personal learning including social and cultural factors and how they apply any change in perspectives to their non-study abroad courses. At the community college level, faculty-led short-term study abroad courses play a key role in addressing the growing importance of intercultural competence within undergraduate education. Despite the critical role that faculty play in …

The Solidarity Manifesto: A New Network For Future Change, Sofia Calicchio

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Colonialism is a scheme of standpoint; colonizer versus colonized, West versus East, good versus bad. When put in the foreground, the value of what we see heavily relies on our perspective and knowledge. When learning to dissect, deconstruct, and decolonize spaces, we need to start utilizing decolonial thought as an historical tool rather than a true depiction of reality. Decolonizing spaces and recognizing Western colonization practices means challenging the normative structures in colonial history, thus breaking the cycle of oppression through building community and fostering solidarity. Drawing on theories exploring access to public spheres, representation, protection, permanence, cultural displacement and …

Teaching Higher Education During A Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study Of Instructor Decisions Associated With Switching From Face-To-Face To Online-Only Sessions, Steven M. Miner

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, university instructors were required to shift their course delivery from face-to-face to online-only presentations with two weeks of preparation. Volunteering instructors were interviewed via a semi-structured interview protocol regarding their actions to maintain instructor presence in an online-only setting. The term emergency remote teaching (ERT), defined by fellow researchers as the adoption of just-in-time remote teaching practices that would otherwise be offered face-to-face, aligned with the actions taken by interviewees. The data indicated that given an event requiring ERT, instructors should: overcome technology issues for themselves and their students to verify communication pathways, and exhibit …

The Effect Of Minority Stress On Sexual Minority College Students' Mental Health: The Role Of General Social Support And Sexuality-Specific Social Support, Lee A. Golembiewski

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Sexual minority (SM) college students continue to face greater mental health problems relative to their heterosexual peers (Woodford et al., 2014; Wilson & Liss, 2022). According to minority stress theory, SM individuals face distal (e.g., heterosexist discrimination) and proximal (e.g., expectations of rejection, internalized homophobia, and concealment) stressors related to their SM identity which can have negative effects on their mental health (Douglass & Conlin, 2020; Meyer, 2003). However, social support has been hypothesized to help protect against the effects of minority stress experienced by SM individuals (Cohen & Wills, 1985; Moody & Smith, 2013). Most of the existing research …

An Ethnographic Case Study Exploring Culturally Responsive Teaching And Learning, James H. Jones Jr.

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

With the continued transformation of the cultural landscape of America and the recognition of the importance of our diverse communities, schools and educational leaders across the country must transform and grow to be reflective of this diverse world. Because it has been demonstrated that principals have a profound impact on instruction and student learning, facilitating the implementation of culturally relevant pedagogies can play a critical role in developing and sustaining effective urban schools. However, there is an undertheorized tension between the inequality regimes of managerialism and the goals of culturally responsive school leadership, highlighting that the undergirding theories of action …

Can’T Let Go: Anxiety, Ontological Security, And French Foreign Policy Decision-Making During The Hollande Administration, Peter D. Langley

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Why does France continue to intervene militarily in sub-Saharan Africa despite repeated commitments, both in practice and in rhetoric, to disengage and adhere to strict non-intervention? Although many accounts of France’s African security policy have been put forth, few have analyzed French foreign policy choices through the decision-making process itself, let alone exclusively applied International Relations (IR) theories to understand those decisions. Synthesizing a narrative approach with an ontological security interpretation, which understands states as having identity security needs on top of their physical ones, I propose an alternative framework for understanding France’s security-seeking, threats to identity, and how they …

Two Essays On Industry Tournament Incentives, Sarah Almisher

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

A large body of literature has developed on the disparities in compensation among chief executive officers. Financial media has highlighted the fact that CEOs in the United States receive excessive pay and that the gap among executive compensation is soaring. High compensation creates incentives for CEOs to take higher risk in firm policies to land a more attractive position managing another firm and attaining higher pay which is considered the ultimate prize (Kale, Reis, and Venkateswaran 2009; Coles, Daniel, and Naveen 2006). This creates a tournament in the managerial labor market. We define this tournament as the pay differential between …

Predicting E-Cigarette Use Among Emerging Adults Using Perceived Social Norms And Outcome Expectancies, Stephen N. Hanson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Despite low rates of combustible tobacco use rates among adolescents and young adults, e-cigarettes continue to gain popularity. A few factors have been shown to be related to e-cigarette use based on prior research. One such example is social enhancement expectancies. Additionally, greater perceptions of harm have been found to be inversely related to e-cigarette use such that those that expect increased risk to their health are less likely to report using e-cigarettes. I hypothesized that social enhancement expectancies would mediate the relationship between perceptions of social norms and e-cigarette dependence. I also hypothesized that perceived harm, such as greater …

Towards A Formal Theory Of Humor In Organizations, Richard Joseph Hayes

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Current theories and models of humor conceptualize humor at the individual, dyadic, and organizational level. These theories laid the foundation for research and empirical findings that have established humor’s impact in the workplace. Yet, because these theories are not integrated, they individually do not offer a comprehensive view of humor in the workplace across different levels, hindering the development of multilevel research designs. Additionally, the ambiguity of these narrative theories hampers empirical testing precision. This dissertation expands the literature by introducing a mathematical, multilevel model of humor and tests that theory using computational simulation methods. Synthetic environments reproduced observed correlations …

Information And Communications Technology Within Coastal Resilience Planning Frameworks: The Case Of Jamaica, A Small Island Developing State, Ren-Neasha R. Blake Gilmore

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Coastal areas increasingly grapple with coastal hazards like hurricanes, tropical storms, sea level rise, and flooding. Proactive and agile coastal resilience solutions are necessary to reduce such risks and their associated socio-economic and environmental impacts. For these reasons, global coastal planners are pursuing climate action through multi-sector collaborations, innovative hybrid natural and manufactured solutions, and feasible mid to long-term coastal resilience strategies. While climate action is high on governments’ agenda globally, integrating information and communications technology has diffused widely within the coastal planning space in small island developing states, drawing on more technology-driven solutions. Very few empirical studies in the …