Digital Commons Network^™

Research Matters: Problem-Setting: A Research Reflection Process, Merinda Kaye Hensley

Communications in Information Literacy

In this inaugural “Research Matters” column, Merinda Kaye Hensley introduces problem-setting as an intentional research reflection process inspired by instructional design. This three-pronged approach invites librarians to examine their research agendas by surfacing prior knowledge, identifying bottlenecks, and creating an assumptions inventory. By interrogating what we think we know and where we struggle in doing research related to information literacy, problem-setting reframes our research processes as a generative, inquiry-driven practice. Drawing on an example from her own research agenda, investigating undergraduate researchers’ understandings of the publication process, Hensley demonstrates how reflective problem-setting can unstick thinking, sharpen questions and energize scholarly …

C-Tran Bus Stop Accessibility Action Plan, Grace Alston, Michelle Auster, Zoe Beckley, Noah Crawford, Ryan Gallo, Angelique Wallmann

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Project Background

C-TRAN is the regional public transportation provider for the Clark County Public Transportation Benefit Area in Southwest Washington, providing connections to the Portland, Oregon, metro region. C-TRAN connects people to opportunities, supports economic vitality, and enhances the quality of life for the community.

The challenge - 66% of C-TRAN’s bus stops are non-ADA compliant, C-TRAN’s existing capital investment strategy lacks community input and a multi-year application.

The Opportunity - Our Bus Stop Accessibility Action Plan will leverage community engagement and social metric data to develop a long-term investment strategy.

Application Of Information Literacy Skills To Everyday Life Information Seeking In College Students: Implications For Instruction, Stephanie Ward, Rachel Dineen, Darren Ilett

Communications in Information Literacy

Academic librarians who teach information literacy (IL) skills hope students will transfer those skills to their information seeking in everyday life. However, there is little evidence that students are transferring what they learn about research to their lives outside college. This study aims to find out what search and evaluation strategies college students who have had IL instruction apply to their own personal information seeking behaviors. To do this, a talk-aloud protocol was used to record participants’ thoughts and actions as they navigated scenarios that required them to select a source that met a non-academic information need. The findings indicate …

"An Open Mind And A Critical Stance": A Content Analysis Of Information Literacy Integration Into A Course About Poverty And Discrimination, Ashley Shealy, C. Rebecca Oldham, Clay Oldham, Tara L. Griffith

Communications in Information Literacy

The ACRL Framework argues that infusing curriculum with information literacy concepts can improve students’ attitudes and abilities to navigate complex information landscapes. This paper describes how a librarian and a faculty member integrated an information literacy curriculum into an undergraduate upper-division course about poverty and discrimination. Curriculum efficacy was assessed through directed content analysis of student responses to open-ended questions about engaging with news and social media, forming opinions, and having conversations about controversial topics. Responses were analyzed using a coding scheme based on course objectives derived from Framework dispositions and knowledge practices. Results indicated that exposing students to an …

Familial Roles In Grief With A Focus On Eldest Daughters In Latinx Communities, Julianna Falcon

University Honors Theses

The way in which grief impacts an individual is something that varies from person to person. However how grief impacts eldest daughters within the Latinx community and their familial roles is a subject that has had little to no research done thus far. The four participants in this exploratory study describe their own experiences with the shift in familial roles and their experience navigating grief. They all shared their experiences through semi-structured interviews. Where the findings displayed key themes surrounding expectations, support, proximity, and academic impacts within each of the interviews. More detail is provided within this study on how …

Interrupted By Design: The Impact Of Push Notifications On Stress And Task Performance, Mia Hohmann

University Honors Theses

As digital communication becomes unavoidable at work, notifications have become one of the most common and overlooked sources of interruption. Drawing from current technostress literature, this study investigates how notifications impact acute and perceived stress as well as task speed and accuracy. In an experimental setting, employed university students (N = 35) completed a data-entry task while receiving either no notifications, task-relevant notifications or task-irrelevant notifications to examine how different types of digital interruptions influenced stress and performance. Stress was measured through a pre- and post-task survey and performance was assessed through both speed and accuracy. Although results showed significant …

Birth Satisfaction, As Measured By The Birth Satisfaction Scale–Revised (Bss-R), And Its Role In Predicting Breastfeeding Duration, Maternal-Infant Attachment, And Postpartum Depression, Molly Parker

University Honors Theses

Birth satisfaction has been consistently associated with improved maternal outcomes such as reduced postpartum depression (PPD), stronger maternal-infant attachment, and longer breastfeeding duration. However, the extent to which birth satisfaction independently predicts these outcomes remains unclear. This study examined whether birth satisfaction, as measured by the Birth Satisfaction Scale–Revised (BSS-R), predicts postpartum depression, maternal-infant attachment, and breastfeeding duration in a longitudinal cohort.

Data were drawn from the Prenatal Environmental And Child Health (PEACH) study. Birth satisfaction was assessed at 12 months postpartum using the BSS-R. Postpartum depression was measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), maternal-infant attachment using the …

Rarely Asked: The Systemic Failure To Support The Mental Health Of Caregivers Of Medically Complex Children, Morgan Motsinger

University Honors Theses

Approximately one in four households in the United States cares for a child with special healthcare needs, yet the mental health of the caregivers providing that care is rarely addressed by the medical, faith, community, and social systems around them. This thesis examines the systemic gaps in mental health support for caregivers of children with life-limiting or medically complex diagnoses through a review of existing literature and an original mixed-method survey of 58 caregivers. Findings indicate that 50% of caregivers received no mental health support from their child's medical team at any point. Every respondent reported at least one clinically …

Looking Upwards And Out: Comparing Buddhist And Humanist Frameworks For Enlightenment, Mason Mckinney-Best

University Honors Theses

During the Zen Boom of the 1950's, Psychologists, Philosophers, and other western thinkers were exposed to Zen Buddhism and began to harness some of the principles for use in Psychology. In the last 3 decades, Psychologists have renewed their interest in Buddhism, especially as "fourth wave" cultural competence has become an important part of Psychological practice. While work has been done in developing clinical applications of Buddhist practices, more could be found in Buddhism for the person who wishes to become more healthy.

Within Psychology, one figure had exactly that objective: Abraham Maslow. His work on Self-Actualization has been …

The Social Construction Of Risk: How Media Socially Constructs Risk Perceptions Surrounding School Shootings Among College Students, Natalie Jobe

University Honors Theses

Although school shootings are statistically rare events, public fear surrounding them has continuously increased across the United States. This thesis explored how college students perceive the risk of school shootings despite the relatively low probability of experiencing these violent events, with particular attention to the role of media framing, sensationalized reporting, and repeated exposure to violent social and digital media. In order to examine how media framing, social and digital media exposure, as well as ongoing encounters with violent content affect risk perception, this research conducted six interviews with traditionally aged college students from Portland State University regarding their experiences …

Grief, Silence, And Surveillance In Academic Settings, Rakhi Grey

University Honors Theses

This study examines how grief is silenced, monitored, and regulated within higher education settings. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students who experienced the death of someone significant, this study explores how institutional expectations surrounding productivity, professionalism, emotional control, and academic functioning shape grief disclosure, emotional expression, and help-seeking behaviors. Using a critical theoretical framework informed by concepts of disenfranchised grief, legitimacy hierarchies, and surveillance, findings suggest that grief within higher education is not simply individually experienced, but socially and institutionally regulated. Participants described academic environments that often left little space for ongoing grief, requiring students to compartmentalize emotional distress, …

Fundamentalist Disorientations For Queer Subjects: Narrative And Theory, Betty Canoso

University Honors Theses

This thesis examines disorientation experienced by queer people who were raised in high-cost fundamentalist Christianity–people like me. Disorientation is a philosophical concept useful for examining specific intersections of human experience, like queerness and fundamentalism. Philosophers such as Sara Ahmed (2006) and Ami Harbin (2016) have been exploring the intersection of queerness and disorientation. Psychologists, sociologists and researchers from other disciplines are analyzing the interrelatedness of queerness and religion, and disaffiliation and deconversion from high-cost or high-control religions is another ongoing area of interest. Yet, despite widespread interest in these concepts, few have looked at instances of disorientation as they pertain …

Who Keeps Us Safe? Youth Resistance And Security Regimes At The Neoliberal University, Arwen Hansell

University Honors Theses

In a political climate shaped by surveillance, labor precarity, policing, and immigration enforcement, questions of (in)security increasingly organize everyday life. Governments justify security measures through the language of public safety, even as many people experience insecurity surrounding housing, healthcare, employment, and the future itself. Although critical security studies have examined policing, militarism, and surveillance extensively, youth are often overlooked as political actors despite their central role in social movements. This study addresses that gap by focusing on student labor organizers and activists navigating (in)security. Using collaborative ethnography, I conducted fieldwork at protests, labor organizing meetings, workshops, and demonstrations connected to …

"I Still Care About Her": Ambiguous Loss And Social Death In Substance-Affected Relationships, Margaret M. King

University Honors Theses

Substance use creates a ripple effect, affecting the individual as well as their family members. The struggles associated with problematic substance use result in feelings of ambiguous loss towards the substance using individual, a type of loss in which a person is still living but either psychologically or physically unavailable. This research explores the experiences of ambiguous loss in college students with loved ones struggling with substance use, examining how they are thrust into caregiving roles, experience support, and find meaning within their loss. Seven semi-structured interviews were held with adult college students who identified as having a loved-one struggling …

Geographic And Systemic Disparities In Maternal Health: A Systems Analysis Of Prenatal Care Access Across Rural Oregon, Cecelia Petrik

University Honors Theses

Objectives: In Oregon, 51% of hospitals providing labor and delivery services are located in rural areas. Consolidation of these hospitals and provider shortages has created severe geographic and systemic disparities in maternal healthcare. This thesis explores how geographic isolation and inadequate prenatal care access contribute to widening disparities in severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and mortality across Oregon's rural and frontier counties.

Methods: This study utilizes data from the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Center for Health Statistics (2024) and analyzes spatial correlations across all 36 Oregon counties. A bivariate choropleth map was constructed to examine the structural intersection between health infrastructure …

Bringing The Focus Of Curriculum Back To The Students And What Does This Look Like For Teachers, Gabriella Anaya

University Honors Theses

As a future ELA teacher, I was curious about how the books students read influence their learning. Specifically, I wondered: How does letting students choose their own books impact reading comprehension outcomes? Studies suggest that the reading materials were not necessarily what we should be focusing on, rather the teaching methodology and how it implements reading materials. The key methodology that contributed to reading comprehension improvement was instilling motivation in students by fostering student autonomy over their own learning in the classroom. This is the main idea in which my research concentrates on connecting research on reading comprehension with practical …

Moving Beyond Traditional Cost Containment For Glp-1 Coverage Within Oregon's Proposed Universal Health Plan, Manoj Rajesh

University Honors Theses

In 2022, Oregon voters passed Measure 111, constitutionally mandating access to affordable health care. As the Universal Health Plan Governance Board (UHPGB) designs the state's proposed single-payer system, it faces an unprecedented financial vulnerability: the clinical demand for GLP-1 receptor agonists. These high-cost, indefinite-use medications for obesity and metabolic syndrome threaten to overwhelm fixed public budgets. Historically, both the Oregon Health Plan's Medicaid framework and commercial private insurers have relied on static cost-containment models—categorical exclusions, step therapy, and aggressive utilization management—that achieve short-term fiscal solvency at the expense of comprehensive preventative care. This thesis argues that to fulfill the mandate …

The Effect Of Incidental Emotions On Self-Control: An Examination Using A Need-Based Choice Model, Shruti Koley

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that examines the effects of incidental emotions on choices in self-control dilemmas. The framework predicts that the effect of emotions depends on the hedonic and non-hedonic needs they activate and the extent to which emotional consumers expect the virtuous and gratifying options in the choice dilemma to facilitate these needs (i.e. their instrumentality toward the activated needs). The framework helps develop propositions for the self-control effects of six commonly experienced emotions: happiness, sadness, pride, guilt, anger and anxiety. Design/methodology/approach – The author uses a choice model to develop …

Intersectionality And Insurgent Citizenship: Women Of Color Feminism In 1970s New York City, Genevieve Bonner Davis

Dissertations and Theses

Not since the phrase "Ain't I a Woman" has African American women's intellectual leadership and insight been as visible and influential as the contemporary concept of intersectionality. Like Sojourner Truth's iconic intellectual intervention in the anti-slavery movement, intersectionality has experienced a similar trajectory of dissolution, distortion, appropriation, and popularization. Since its articulation by Black legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality theory has had a bumpy road to its buzzy, if controversial, status in the firmament of twenty-first-century political thought.

This thesis traces the origins of intersectionality theory through three distinct but intertwined phases. Phase one is the genealogy of …

Symmetry And Psychosocial Adaptation To Trauma, Illness And Disability Part I: Views From Physics, Medicine And Psychology, Hanoch Livneh

Leadership, Learning and Counseling Faculty Publications and Presentations

The aim of this two-part paper is to discuss the concept of symmetry and its derivatives, symmetry breaking and asymmetry, and the role they assume in elucidating the structure and processes that underlie psychosocial adaptation to traumatic experiences. To achieve this aim, in Part I, first, a cursory review of symmetry is undertaken as it applies to physics, including conservation laws, the forces of nature, and leading theories of nature. Second, the paper addresses how symmetry is perceived in biology and medicine, including symmetry within biochemical and genetic structures, the human body, and the onset of disease processes. Third, the …

The Impact Of Mnar Attrition On Estimation Of Latent Growth Curve Models With Binary Observed Variables, Jason T. Newsom, Brian T. Keller, Mallory R. Kroeck, Nicholas A. Smith

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

A Monte Carlo simulation was used to evaluate the performance of latent growth curve (LGC) modelswith binary observed variables when the attrition pattern was missing not at random (MNAR) for fivetime points. Parameter and standard error biases for three estimation methods were compared:weighted least squares with mean and variance adjustment (WLSMV), categorical robust marginal max-imum likelihood (categorical MLR), and Bayes. The results indicated that robust diagonal weightedleast squares paired with multiple imputation (MI) performed best when values were missing at ran-dom. When data were missing not at random, Bayesian estimates performed best.

¡Estamos Aqui!: The Underrepresentation Of Latinos In Professional Sports And Sports Media, Antonio Hernandez

University Honors Theses

The Latino population has had a long and complicated history within the United States. Since the turn of the 21st century, Latinos continue to become the largest minority group within the country. As the Latino population continues to rise, other industries have failed to properly represent the community. Within the world of professional sports, Latinos continue to be grossly underrepresented, with professional athletes from Latino backgrounds representing less than 6% of all professional athletes across all disciplines. This number is just under ¼ of the total percentage of Latinos within the United States. With Latino's influence of other cultural phenomena …

The Educational Gender Gap Explored Through The Lens Of Hegemonic Masculinity, Marcell V. Csikos

University Honors Theses

Women's college attendance skyrocketed with the passing of Title IX, and by the eighties, college campuses featured men and women at an even fifty-fifty split. Today, women make up over fifty-seven percent of college students. It is not a new phenomenon, studies and surveys have shown that women are doing better at school for decades, but they rarely tie men's underperformance to the concept of masculinity. The study of hegemonic masculinity is an overarching theory that looks at the values, rules, and dynamics that men have to follow in order to keep their social status. This literature review uses said …

Shoplifting: Analyzing Spatial And Temporal Patterns, Elizabeth Petrenko

Dissertations and Theses

Shoplifting has contributed to significant losses in Oregon, reaching nearly $956 million in 2022. While overall property crime in Portland, Oregon, dropped between 2023 and 2024, reported shoplifting incidents increased by 50.0%. In Oregon, stealing property worth $100 or less is third-degree theft and a Class C misdemeanor. Second-degree theft involving stealing property between $100 and $1,000 is a Class A misdemeanor. Although often classified as petty or minor theft, shoplifting imposes strain on retailers, consumers, and communities, which raises questions about the spatial and temporal distribution of this crime. This study uses Portland Police Bureau (PPB) offense data to …

Guilty Plea Appeals Across Two States: Who Appeals And Who Wins?, Jacqueline G. Lee, Kelsey S. Henderson, Mason Scott

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Though the vast majority of criminal convictions stem from guilty pleas, what occurs after the plea is relatively unknown. Data on appeals of guilty pleas was collected from two states to explore the prevalence and outcomes of guilty plea appeals, in addition to characteristics of those cases. One state produced approximately 5.5 times more plea appeal opinions per month than the other. Interestingly, one state's appeals largely centered around excessive sentencing claims (73.6%), while the other saw a range of grounds (e.g., ineffective assistance of counsel). Appealing defendants in one state almost always lost (only a 2% likelihood of success), …

Haapxtàm Ka'Ál Yimisapʰíkʰ We Dream For Our Children Indigenous Pedagogies In Early Childhood Education: Survivance, Truth Telling, And Healing On Native Land, Sara Anne Koyano

Dissertations and Theses

Since Time Immemorial, Indigenous Peoples have lived, learned, and thrived on this continent, exercising their inherent sovereignty as Original Peoples and passing down Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and learning across generations. US settler colonial violence and assimilation policies have had historical and contemporary detrimental impacts on Native children, families, and communities by attempting to disrupt the intergenerational transmission of Indigenous knowledges. Consequently, many young Native children in Oregon do not have access to educational opportunities that value, honor, and affirm their Indigenous identities and cultures, nor do they see themselves reflected in their classrooms and curricula. Furthermore, in 2019, …

Ballots And Beliefs: Diverging Views On Election Integrity From The Public And Officials, Anita Manion, David C. Kimball, Paul Manson, Paul Gronke, Joseph Anthony

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

Public opinion about election integrity and election administration is frequently cited in policy debates in the United States. Due to their role in administering elections, local election officials (LEOs) provide an authoritative voice on election-related matters. Yet it remains unclear whether differences between LEO and public opinion reflect compositional differences between these groups or fundamentally distinct ways of evaluating election integrity and reform. We compare the main predictors of opinions about election administration for LEOs and the public in the United States on election integrity, voting values, and election reforms using national surveys from 2020 and 2024. We find that …

Administrative Burdens In Post-Filing Eviction Prevention Programs: Focusing On Oregon's Safe Harbor Policy, Minji Cho

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

This study examines the administrative burdens faced by tenants in post-filing eviction prevention programs, focusing on Oregon’s Safe Harbor Policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Safe Harbor, paired with the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Program, aimed to prevent tenants from being evicted while waiting for rental assistance applications to be processed and for the monies to be disbursed, by inserting a long pause in the otherwise short eviction process. Despite its novelty, tenants in post-filing eviction stages faced challenges with tight timelines and navigating both eviction proceedings and ERA applications. This study demonstrates the administrative burden tenants experienced when securing Safe …

Rosenzweig's Elements And Universal History, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper uses Rosenzweig’s conception of the three elements of God, World, and Human from The Star of Redemption in a model of universal history. The model also has some relation to Rosenzweig’s geopolitical essay, Globus, which is very different from the meta-historical Star. Based on a systems-theoretic schema of events and processes, the model views human history in terms of three linked processes: a primary process labeled “World” – the origin and development of human society embedded in nature, a secondary process labeled “God” – the origin and development of the Axial religions and philosophies, and a …

Association Between The Combined Herbal Medicines And Risk Of Dental Diseases In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis: Insight From A Nationwide Database, Chiu-Hui Ling, Wei-Jen Chen, Ying-To Hsu, Hanoch Livneh, Ming-Chi Lu, Tzung-Yi Tsai

Leadership, Learning and Counseling Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background and Objectives:

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are found to have a higher risk of dental diseases. Although herbal medicines (HMs) have long been used to treat various conditions, few studies focus on its impact on dental diseases. In this longitudinal cohort study, we assessed the correlation between HM use and risk of dental diseases in RA groups.

Materials and Methods:

A total of 2359 persons with RA aged 20–80 who were free of dental diseases between 2001 and 2010 were retrospectively enrolled from nationwide register-based data. They were then classified into HMs and non-HMs groups based on whether …