Digital Commons Network^™

Effort Reward Imbalance In The Nursing Profession - A Novel Way Of Gathering Data, Dorailys Fagundo

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The effort-reward imbalance model allows us to see disparity in effort and reward and how this can be a predictor for a variety of constructs. The present study seeks to gather data utilizing the ERI modal in the nursing profession. Previous research has utilized the ERI model but methods for gathering data were not quick and efficient. This study seeks to utilize a database called Glassdoor to rapidly and effectively gather data. The researchers are interested in seeing the likelihood of nurses to recommend their company to a friend based on perceived effort and rewards. The sample included a random …

Can General Strain Theory Be Used To Explain The Relationship Between Recidivism And Secure Placement?, Alessia R. Shaw

Honors Undergraduate Theses

There has been extensive research conducted on recidivism among serious juvenile offenders. This study examines juvenile recidivism through the lenses of General Strain Theory (GST). GST has been used in previous studies to explain recidivism, however, secure placement and its effect on juvenile mental health, has not been studied. The purpose of this study is to test for a relationship between emotional responses like anger and hostility and secure placement, utilizing the Pathways to Desistance data. I will also examine if anger and hostility act as a mediator between secure placement and recidivism. Pathways to Desistance was a prospective study …

Racial Bias And Juror Selection In Death Penalty Cases, Kaitlyn D. Wallace

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Across the country, African American defendants are being discriminated against in the criminal courts and by juries, particularly in capital cases.[1] This assertion is supported by two lines of research. First, an analysis of Supreme Court decisions focusing on the racial impact on voir dire. Second, social-legal studies on juror decision making have demonstrated legal and socio-legal histories providing evidence that demonstrate there is a racial bias in our system. Based on these findings, this paper sets forth several legal and policy recommendations to improve the fair adjudication of African American defendants charged with capital crimes.

[1] Jack Glaser, …

Cultural Institutions' Digital Responses To Covid-19 Temporary Closures, Brittany N. Ryder

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of the study was to explore what types of digital content cultural institutions implemented during COVID-19 temporary closures and their effects on social media engagement. Existing research identified the role of digital content and social media in cultural institutions, but only in times of normal operations. The study adds to the existing literature by exploring types of digital content implemented, impacts on social media engagement, measures of social media engagement, and future implications in regard to COVID-19 temporary closures.

The study recruited 16 cultural institutions from across the United States to take part in in-depth semi-structured phone interviews …

Understanding The Challenges Child Welfare Workers Encounter Related To Promoting The Online Safety Of Foster Youth, Denielle Kirk L. Abaquita

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Foster care case managers are responsible for the wellbeing of foster youth in the foster care system. Teens (ages 13-17) in foster care are most vulnerable to serious risks, such as sex trafficking. Such risks have been heightened by the advent of internet-based technologies that connect foster youth with unsafe others at unprecedented frequency and speed. This thesis examines how case managers tackle the challenge of online safety as it relates to adolescents in the foster care system in the United States. I conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with case managers who worked with foster teens (ages 13-17) within the past …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Price Of Insulin In Canada And The United States, Kimia Z. Badakhshan

Honors Undergraduate Theses

There's frequent discourse regarding the rising cost of insulin in the US. Insulin is a drug that over 7 million people rely on for survival, and it has tripled in cost over the last decade. The pricing regulation of the drug is dependent on multiple stakeholders, including wholesalers, pharmacy benefit managers, and manufacturing companies. Due to the lack of governmental intervention in the process of pharmaceutical cost regulation in the US, data on the price negotiations and the rebate system between these entities is unavailable in public records, making it difficult to determine a primary cause as the root of …

The Underlying Effects Of Religion In Puerto Rico, Claudia A. Chardon

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to explore the role religion has played in the Puerto Rican society. Growing up in this culture entails a deep and implicit connection with the religious world. Religious values, beliefs, and attitudes are firmly entrenched and amplified through the family, culture, and schools. Because it is so deeply entrenched, it is difficult to find a place to leverage a critique of its impact. Thus, in order to understand the societal matters and challenges the island faces, an in-depth study that explores the beliefs, attitudes, and behavior of Puerto Ricans is necessary.

Stochastic Sampling And Machine Learning Techniques For Social Media State Production, Neda Hajiakhoond Bidoki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The rise in the importance of social media platforms as communication tools has been both a blessing and a curse. For scientists, they offer an unparalleled opportunity to study human social networks. However, these platforms have also been used to propagate misinformation and hate speech with alarming velocity and frequency. The overarching aim of our research is to leverage the data from social media platforms to create and evaluate a high-fidelity, at-scale computational simulation of online social behavior which can provide a deep quantitative understanding of adversaries' use of the global information environment. Our hope is that this type of …

Student Affairs Fundraising: A Comparative Case Study Of Two Programs At Public Research Universities, Neal Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This comparative case study examined the development, design, and evolution of two student affairs fundraising programs, each led by a full-time development officer, at public research universities in the Southeastern region of the United States. The purpose of the study was to identify practices and strategies for higher education administrators exploring, creating, or reframing student affairs fundraising programs that traverse advancement and student affairs divisions. The research is timely given the increased role of philanthropy in funding public higher education institutions (Giving USA, 2018) and the growing number of student affairs fundraising programs (Crowe, 2011). Bolman and Deal's (2017) four …

Ethnographic Case Study Of International Baccalaureate (Ib) Seniors' Self-Esteem And Perception Of Labels In A Title I School, Denis Serrano Cruz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This ethnographic case study explored the effects labels had on senior students who were enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program at a Title I school. This qualitative study explored the culture, assumed identities, and self-perceptions of the students. More specifically, the researcher aimed to find the impact the two formal labels "IB student" and "Title I student," as well as any informal labels associated with the two. The study had each participant complete one interview that asked them forty-two questions. Each interview lasted approximately forty-five minutes. Data was gathered from the interview responses, field observations made during the research, and …

Tenth Graders' Response To Dystopian Literature: An Exploratory Ethnography, Tevin Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Dystopian literature allows for there to be an avenue, or safety net as I would call it, for people to be able to discuss topics of a harsh nature. Students or young adults today are becoming increasingly more apolitical upon completion of high school. This is due in part to the lack of information or knowledge given to them prior to entering, "the real world." The gravity of situations occurring in today's world during the time of this paper such as the how similar living with COVID-19 is to a dystopian society, or the Black Lives Matter movement, it is …

Meroitic Childhood Diet And Weaning At Sai Island, Sudan: A Carbon And Nitrogen Isotopic Study Of Site 8-B-52.B, Brenna Raisor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This research explores the diet and weaning patterns of non-adult individuals from an elite Meroitic (300 BCE – 350 CE) cemetery (8-B-52.B) at Sai Island, Sudan. This was accomplished by conducting stable isotopic analyses of carbon and nitrogen on a sample of 54 individuals. These analyses focused on differences in adult and non-adult diet, non-adult weaning patterns, and intra-elite differences between contemporaneous cemeteries at Sai Island in order to shed light on the patterns of non-adult diet and weaning and the mother-infant dynamic. The non-adult individuals range from 36 weeks gestational age to 16.5 years of age, and the adult …

The Power Color: Does Shared Decision Making Between Physicians And Patients Differ By Race, Vernon Headley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Objective: Shared Decision-Making (SDM) as a clinical approach allows patients and physicians to discuss the best treatment options for the patients' improved health outcomes. Over the past two decades, SDM has improved the quality of health by reassuring patients that they have a voice when considering treatment options. The objective of this study is threefold: to examine parents' perceptions of engaging in SDM with their physicians about their treatment options; to engage in the SDM process when their children's mental health conditions were the subject of SDM; and to assess the comfort level of parents engaging in SDM, based upon …

Estimation And Clustering In Network And Indirect Data, Ramchandra Rimal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The first part of the dissertation studies a density deconvolution problem with small Berkson errors. In this setting, the data is not available directly but rather in the form of convolution and one needs to estimate the convolution of the unknown density with Berkson errors. While it is known that the Berkson errors improve the precision of the reconstruction, it does not necessarily happen when Berkson errors are small. Furthermore, the choice of bandwidth in density estimation has been an open problem so far. In this dissertation, we provide an in-depth study of the choice of the bandwidth which leads …

Social Support And Mental Health Outcomes Of Lgb People Of Color, Jessica Ruiz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people of color (LGB PoC) continue to remain an understudied population. Research supports that LGB PoC may experience greater negative health consequences compared to LGB racial/ethnic majority populations. Social support, including family and peer support, is often associated with positive health outcomes for sexual minorities of all backgrounds. The present study sought to evaluate differences between types of social support, including what occurs when one is faced with significant loss of support (i.e., family support). Comparisons between groups sought to determine whether alternative systems of support (i.e., peer social support) buffers against the negative impact of …

Social Justice, Inclusive Education, And Teacher Agency, Jennifer Sanguiliano Lonski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Public school education in the United States has a long history of supporting societal norms within the curriculum and classroom. Through the use of social justice and inclusive education (SJIE), teachers have the unique ability to disrupt the social reproduction of inequity within their content and curriculum. In order to do this, teachers must first understand social justice and inclusive education (knowledge) and feel comfortable and confident implementing it within their classroom (agency). This study focuses on 13 public school teachers who attended a weeklong professional development program which focused on social justice, privilege, trauma-informed education, mindfulness, and inclusive education …

The Impact Of Faculty Socialization On Teaching Practices Of Postsecondary Physics Instructors, Claudine Mclaren Turner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This research investigates faculty socialization of college physics instructors and its effect on teaching practice. Results of two studies—a statistical analysis about professional characteristics and teaching practice and an ethnography about culture, professional roles, and teaching practice—are integrated to inform our understanding of the impact of socialization on teaching practice. These findings have the potential to improve institutional and organizational faculty development, as well as improve individual teaching practice and, by extension, student persistence and success. Exploratory factor analysis, latent class analysis, and multiple analysis of variance were used to examine cross-sectional survey data collected from 1,176 postsecondary physics instructors …

Analyzing User Behavior In Collaborative Environments, Samaneh Saadat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Discrete sequences are the building blocks for many real-world problems in domains including genomics, e-commerce, and social sciences. While there are machine learning methods to classify and cluster sequences, they fail to explain what makes groups of sequences distinguishable. Although in some cases having a black box model is sufficient, there is a need for increased explainability in research areas focused on human behaviors. For example, psychologists are less interested in having a model that predicts human behavior with high accuracy and more concerned with identifying differences between actions that lead to divergent human behavior. This dissertation presents techniques for …

Utilizing Institutional Data For Curriculum Enhancement To Improve Student Success In Undergraduate Computing Programs, Prateek Basavaraj

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Student success is one of the widely discussed topics in post-secondary institutions and is measured in terms of the graduation and retention rates of programs. The goal of an educational institution is to achieve maximum student success and, hence, high graduation and retention rates. There are multiple studies on factors affecting student success. One of the factors that contributes to student success is the "program curriculum." Unfortunately, the traditional program curricula at many higher education institutions were developed with a belief or assumption that all students possess equal expertise, skills, and follow a similar learning path. The traditional curricular development …

The Innate Immune Response To House Dust Mite In Allergic Airway Inflammation, Madelyn Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

House dust mite (HDM) is an indoor aeroallergen which is commonly associated with the development of allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma. In fact, up to 70% of allergic asthmatic individuals have been shown to demonstrate reactivity towards HDM allergens. The downstream adaptive immune response to HDM is well characterize and is described as being largely T helper cell type 2 (Th2) and partly T helper cell type 17 (Th17) dominated. However, less is known about how resident antigen presenting cells (APCs) and structural cells such as airway epithelial cells recognize and respond to HDM. Unlike other microbial antigens, recognition of …

Food For Thought: Food Insecurity And Academic Performance, Justen Rosenberg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Objective: In 2018, 11.1% of American households were food insecure at least once. Annual reports on food insecurity conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture study the prevalence of household food insecurity; however, they fail to conceptualize the consequences that are associated with being food insecure. The objective of this study is to analyze the impacts of food insecurity on academic performance of children currently enrolled in an Orange County, Florida, K-12 public school. Methods: One focus group and 10 one-on-one interviews were conducted with parents who have at least one child currently enrolled in a K-12 public school …

Casting As A Pedagogical Practice In Educational Theatre Spaces, Scott Savage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Casting might be the most exciting thing in theatre to happen off-stage. Actors, agents, directors, producers, and outside observers are keenly interested in who plays a given part. In a professional space, casting seeks to ask, "Which performer is the best fit for this part?" But what happens when an educational theatre director instead asks, "Which role will best enable the learning of this performer?" This thesis explores the process of casting in an educational theatre space as being distinctly different from casting in a professional theatre space. By examining theoretical underpinnings of casting through literature and reflexive practice, I …

Predicting The Persistence Of Traditional And Nontraditional University Undergraduates Using The Psychosociocultural Model, Lauren Maroon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Nontraditional students are increasingly more common in higher education but have lower persistence rates than their traditional peers. While educational researchers have developed several models to predict college persistence using both cognitive (e.g. entrance exam scores) and noncognitive (e.g. academic motivation) factors, most of these models were created for traditional students. The psychosociocultural (PSC) model was created to better predict academic outcomes specifically for underrepresented students using psychological, social, and cultural factors. However, the PSC model has never been used to study nontraditional students. To address these limitations, this study used the PSC model to predict the persistence of traditional …

Pixelated Scapegoat: False Connections Between Video Games And Violent Crime In America's Largest Cities, Matthew Segal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

For too many years, the public perception of violent crime has been viewed through the warped lens of media representations and reporting of mass killings, the likes of Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland, while ignoring the body counts that rack up year after year in America's own cities. Many pundits and politicians declare cultural decay and glorification of violence in video games as the main reason for mass shootings. However, these same voices fail to take the explanation any further to explain the eruptions of violence that rack up thousands of lives a year in large metropolitan areas. The question …

The Effect Of Economic Conditions On The Prevalence Of Abusive Supervisory Behaviors: A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis, Xinyue Zhao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The antecedents of abusive supervisory behaviors have been largely examined at the individual and organizational level. Hardly any attempts have been made to investigate abusive supervisory behaviors in a context broader than the organization. I try to answer the question "does a recession really unleash abusive supervisory behaviors?" by conducting a cross-temporal meta-analysis to examine the effect of economic conditions on the prevalence of abusive supervisory behaviors. Considering economic conditions as an antecedent to abusive supervisory behaviors provides a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomena. I proposed four reasons to explain how economic conditions affect employee's perception of abusive supervisory …

Investigating How First-Year College Students Use Smartphones To Receive Parental Support, Jacob Bonne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The purpose of this study was to understand how first-year undergraduate college students use smartphones to receive parental support. A conceptual framework was implemented to frame the research and focused on first-year college student transitions and development within the context of parental support. A Phenomenological methodology with semi-structured interviews was implemented which explored the phenomenon from both immersive and holistic perspectives. Seven themes emerged from the analysis: decision-making, academic pathways, autonomy, emotional support, access, safety, and preparation. This study provided two recommendations for practice, including to educate students and parents about parental support and to educate parents about specific student …

Social Science Teachers' Comfort Teaching A Variety Of Controversial Issues, Bonnie Bittman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Inclusion of discussion concerning controversial issues has been a part of education in the United States since the advent of public education. Using an online, social media platform, the researcher investigated demographic, environmental, and personal characteristics of social science teachers to determine their willingness and comfort levels in discussing controversial issues in a social science classroom. This study of 91 participants included teachers' age, gender, race, educational history, religious and political beliefs, and the developed environment of each school to determine how teacher and school demographics influenced teachers' willingness and comfort levels discussing controversial issues in classrooms. The independent variables …

(Main)Streaming Hate: Analyzing White Supremacist Content And Framing Devices On Youtube, Christopher Charles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The emboldening of white supremacist groups, as well as their increased mainstream presence in online circles, necessitates the creation of studies that dissect their tactics and rhetoric, while offering platform-specific insights. This study seeks to address these needs by analyzing white supremacist content and framing devices on the video hosting website, YouTube. Data were collected through a multi-stage sampling technique, designed to capture a 'snapshot' of white supremacist content on the platform during a 45-day period in 2019. After line-by-line coding and qualitative thematic analysis, results showed that sampled channels varied between different levels of color-blindness and overt racialization in …

Dispositional, Place Perceptions, And Imagination: The Interactive Network Of Authenticity, Ying Chao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The purposes of this dissertation are threefold: to define and operationalize different types of authenticity, to test the interactive network of different types of authenticity, and to test the relationships between authenticity and tourist outcome variables including transformation, place attachment, and loyalty. In psychology, authenticity is typically conceptualized to be subject-based in nature, referring to a person's state of being true to oneself across contexts and against external influences. This type of authenticity has been termed "dispositional authenticity" and operationalized in this study in dimensions of authentic living, accepting external influence, and self-alienation. In tourism, authenticity is usually considered to …

Understanding The Role Of Social Networks In Influencing Adult's Participations In Physical Activity In Unequal Physical And Social Environment, Ting Du

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Physical inactivity has become a public health crisis which can be the trigger to many other chronic diseases. Participation in physical activity is correlated with a variety of factors at multiple levels, including individual physical and psychological health, interpersonal social support, and community physical and social environments. Previous studies found that individuals' social networks influenced health behaviors, including physical activity. However, it remains unclear how social networks at different life stages affect adult engagement in physical activity among different socio-demographic groups. Built upon a theoretical framework which integrates the social-ecological model, social cognitive theory and social network theory, this study …