Digital Commons Network^™

Do Policies Matter? An Exploratory, Qualitative Study Of The Lived Experiences On Campus Of Transgender And Non-Binary Education Employees, Sarah Clay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The student population of American colleges and universities is becoming increasingly diverse. Though the racial and ethnic makeup of a campus population has been given the most attention in diversity and inclusion efforts, there has been a growing focus on LGBTQ issues in recent decades. As a result, institutions of higher learning have been working to develop responsive policies and programs that aim to promote LGBTQ inclusion amongst faculty, staff, and students.

However, the current socio-political climate in the United States is becoming intensely antagonistic toward gender non-conforming people. With gender identity being such a socially and politically divisive issue, …

Down The Stream: The Evolution Of Queer Stream-Of-Consciousness Novels Through The Works Of Virginia Woolf And Ali Smith, Turner Nat Byrd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis attempts to understand the evolution of the stream-of-consciousness genre as it applies to, is written by, or centers queer people. Through generous Marxist-feminist readings of the works of Virginia Woolf and Ali Smith—used in this project as exemplars of the genre—it attempts to understand the differences within both the formal and philosophical/political outlook of the two authors. Specifically looking at Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse and Smith’s Hotel World, The Accidental, and Girl Meets Boy, this project posits that Smith, intentionally or not, has effectively re-written the basic narratives and re-visited the same themes as Woolf, …

Online Learning Readiness Among International Students, Brandon Mcleod

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United States holds a commanding 22% of the market share of international students, more than double that of the second leading country (United Kingdom). The number of international students studying at U.S. institutions has had a steady incline for decades and these students now make up approximately 5% of all higher education students in the U.S. Even still, there have been previous examinations of international students’ perceptions of online learning readiness. As online and blended learning elements are an integral part of nearly every degree program, and, indeed, nearly every course, it is imperative that we gain a better …

Bridging The Gap Between Journalism 273 And Graduation, And Beyond, Mackenzie Slate Ross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While Journalism 273: Creative Visual Thinking is a requirement for all undergraduate students majoring in Integrated Marketing Communications and some students majoring in Journalism, there are students who end up graduating from the University of Mississippi with a desire for more knowledge of graphic design. Feedback from current students in the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi as well as alumni of the program was gathered in two surveys to understand better how Journalism 273 benefits them and pinpoints opportunities for improvement. One hundred nineteen students who took Journalism 273 and were enrolled in the …

Effects Of Stuttering Severity Disclosures On Listener Perceptions Of A Female Adolescent Who Stutters, Mikayla Ryan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure whether factual self-disclosure statements with differing levels of overt stuttering severity have effect on listener perceptions regarding an adolescent female who stutters (AFWS). Method: A total of 759 adults participated in this study. Participants were gathered through a nationwide campaign to various universities via email. There were four overt severity experimental conditions (control, fluent, mild and moderate-severe); participant assignments were balanced such that each experimental condition had comparable population demographics. Each condition contained a video stimulus of an adolescent female providing a factual disclosure statement identifying herself as a person who …

Value-Directed Remembering: Evidence For Distinctive Processing Of High Value Items, Donald Skinner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A large body of literature has found that when participants are instructed to maximize their score, they reliably demonstrate better memory for information assigned high relative to low-values. This value-directed remembering effect has been replicated numerous times throughout nearly three decades of research. The most current theoretical explanation posits that high-value items disproportionately benefit from semantic processing relative to low-value items; however, this does not explain how this additional processing supports better memory for high-value items. Prior research suggests that semantic processing may benefit memory through item-specific processing or the processing of unique aspects of meaning. To this extent, the …

The Ability Of Mississippi School Personnel To Recognize And Act On Internalizing Disorders In Students, Madison Varner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Childhood internalizing disorders traditionally do not garner much attention in academic settings; however, previous research has found that 1 in 4 public school students in Mississippi experiences some form of an internalizing disorder. These disorders strongly affect both behavior (e.g. bullying, school attendance, and social performance) and academic performance (e.g. literacy, mathematical learning). Under several existing pieces of legislature, public schools should already be providing treatment for these disorders; however, few schools have any provisions for the numerous students silently struggling. The primary objective of this study was to investigate teachers’ understanding of internalizing disorders and their frequency in school …

The Cognitive Inhibitory Response To Acute Exercise With And Without Blood Flow Restriction And Full Body Cooling, Yujiro Yamada

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The production and utilization of lactate has been suggested as a potential mechanism to increase interference control, a core executive function. Although blood flow restricted exercise has been shown to acutely increase blood lactate concentration, the effect of this exercise on interference control is unknown. Higher intensity exercise tends to have a greater benefit on interference control, but this is not always the case, which may be due to an increase in body temperature. Cooling may prevent this elevation and reinforce the exercise-induced benefit on interference control. The purpose of this thesis was twofold: 1) to evaluate the effect of …

The Few Among The Many: Women's Labour In British Guiana Prisons, 1838-1917, Estherine Gwendoline Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the history of incarceration in British Guiana between 1838 and 1917 with emphasis on the interconnections between the colony’s burgeoning carceral apparatus and the life and labour of women. It highlights the intersection of coerced labour and colonialism in the colony in the post-emancipation period, by centering the lives of incarcerated women to understand the nature of state governance and the use of labour in this colonial spaces. I argue the plantocracy leveraged the expansion of the penal apparatus not to control crime but to control labour.

Tracing the use of prisons in the colony, I demonstrate …

Perceived Value Of A Vr (Virtual Reality) Tourism Experience: A Scale Development, Fernando Arroyo Lopez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Firms are skeptical about what values travelers anticipate obtaining from a Virtual Reality (VR) experience in tourism, and the valuation of trade-offs they are willing to make. This scale development aimed to fill this gap in the literature by creating a scale that can capture the perceived value derived from a VR experience in tourism. This research study adhered to well-established, mainstream psychometric scale creation and validation methods as demonstrated by several authors. This study provides a key step in developing measurement theory related to the perceived value derived from a VR experience in tourism and identifies four value dimensions: …

Willingness To Use Hiv Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (Prep) And Preferences For A Pharmacy-Based Prep Program Among Men Who Have Sex With Men, Swarnali Goswami

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to: 1) estimate willingness to use PrEP (WTUP) among men who have sex with men (MSM) using meta-analysis; 2) to assess patterns of minority stressors, HIV/AIDS acquisition stress and PrEP stigma among MSM and evaluate the association of such patterns with WTUP, using latent profile analysis; and 3) to elicit MSM’s preferences for a community pharmacy-based PrEP delivery program, using a discrete choice experiment.

First, a meta-analysis using a random-effects model revealed a moderate pooled prevalence proportion for WTUP of 0.58 (95% CI: 0.54-0.61) (or 58 out of 100) among PrEP naïve MSM estimated …

The Current State Of School Culture In Elementary Schools In Mississippi During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Rodney Harrison Hurt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the Spring of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic changed not only the way in which our daily lives were carried out, but it also drastically effected the way schools operated. Many if not all school districts in the state of Mississippi began operating in some type of remote fashion during the spring of 2020. Some school districts switched to an online format while others operated using a hybrid model which may have included work packets being completed at home or a combination of the two. The type of model by which each school operated often depended on the resources available …

The Relationship Between Ethnicity, Immigrant Generation, & Delinquency: Examining Youth In Child Protective Services., Erin Leigh Geist

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although minority youth are overrepresented in the makeup of the welfare and juvenile justice system, there is a lack of research that examines dually-involved youth. In recent years, there has been an escalation in the number of Hispanic youth that have become involved in the child welfare system, including youth that identify as Hispanic immigrants. This study uses nationally representative data of children receiving welfare services to examine the relationship between ethnicity, immigrant generation, and delinquency. The results of binomial regression models illustrated that there was no effect of Hispanic ethnicity or immigrant generation on delinquency. However, the analysis provided …

No Person Is An Island: A Multi-Level Analysis Of The Relationship Between Self-Determination Theory And Well-Being, Lauren Nichole Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals frequently work collaboratively with others in school, workplaces, and in their daily lives. As such, the group literature has focused on several concerns that individuals have in groups such as making choices with others, feeling competent, and getting along with others. One such theory that addresses these concerns at the individual level is self-determination theory, or the idea that people must be satisfied in their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness to experience growth and well-being. The purpose of this project was to determine whether self-determination theory replicates in groups and whether individuals’ perceptions that their groups are autonomous, …

Assessing The Effectiveness And Utility Of A Mindfulness-Based Ecological Momentary Intervention In College Students, Jeffrey Pavlacic

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental health problems are common and increasing in college students. Despite the high prevalence rates of mental health problems in college students, a small percentage of students seek treatment. Low treatment seeking is associated with different factors, such as stigma, financial barriers, and emotion dysregulation. Identifying and delivering evidence-based treatments is critical to curtailing mental health problems and promoting psychological well-being in this population. One intervention that offers significant promise is Ecological Momentary Intervention (EMI), which incorporates technology to administer interventions. EMIs are widely applied for heterogeneous psychological problems and effective through different modalities. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) ameliorate psychological distress …

Unearthing The Old South/West: Histories Of Racial Capitalism In Modernist Border Narratives, Bailey Moorhead

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Unearthing the Old South/West” examines four works of modernist historical fiction which accentuate competing regimes of racial capitalism through South/Western border settings. Following the trend in New Southern and Western Studies to break with exceptionalist and essentialist considerations of these regions, my analysis challenges white-centric narratives of the U.S. South and West and questions their popular portrayals as culturally distinct spaces. Viewing the U.S. as a site of ongoing settler colonialism, imperialist conquest, and international trade reliant upon labor exploitation, I develop the idea that South/Western borders form a microcosm for larger structures of systemic oppression throughout the nation by …

Transdiagnostic Processes Of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: An Experimental Investigation Evaluating The Role Of Emotion Regulation In Uncertain Contexts, Mary J. Schadegg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a complex disorder characterized by pervasive and uncontrollable worry. Numerous researchers have established theoretical models to explain the cognitive, emotional, and contextual processes that develop and maintain GAD. From these theories, intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and emotion regulation (ER) have emerged as two transdiagnostic processes that play key roles in this disorder. Extensive research has examined each of these processes individually; however, only four studies to date have specifically examined the association between IU and ER, and none of these studies have looked at the interconnection of these processes in GAD. The current study used …

Expressions Of Femininity, Black Feminism, And Pan-Africanist Rhetoric In Black Popular Music, Alonya Lei Castillo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black women have long been subjected to misrepresentations and stereotypes which have denied them full access to their own femininity and womanhood. These misrepresentations and stereotypes are pervasive in Euro-American culture and can be clearly observed in film, television, and music. As a result, these women have combatted such narratives as an expression of agency. One of the most notable ways Black women have accomplished these goals is through Rap and R&B, genres that have allowed them to shape and reshape notions of femininity and Black womanhood. The participation of Black women in these musical traditions frequently draw on womanist …

Supports For College Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Views Of Postsecondary Practitioners And Faculty Regarding Autism Spectrum Disorder Student Service Provision, Susan Byrd Jenkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are matriculating to higher education at growing rates and are now believed to make up roughly one to two percent of the postsecondary student population (Cox & South, 2017; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as cited in Gobbo & Shmulsky, 2013). Service provision for college students with ASD typically falls under the oversight of student disability services practitioners who provide guidance to faculty and staff regarding accommodations. The professionals who carry out ASD service delivery are a source of expertise, insight and understanding regarding recommended supports for students on the spectrum. This study …

The Longitudinal Influence Of Adhd Status And Stimulant Medication On Body Mass Index And Blood Pressure Among Obese Youth, Sophie Kollin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Youth with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more vulnerable to developing obesity, as they have significantly higher body mass index (BMI) and are at increased risk of food addiction and binge eating. Stimulant medication use, which is an evidence-based treatment for ADHD, is associated with lower BMI and higher blood pressure among normal weight youth. The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal influence of ADHD and stimulant medication use on BMI and blood pressure trajectories among a sample of 456 youth treated in a weight management clinic. Mixed linear modeling examined the main and interactive effects of …

The Ability Of Positive And Negative Liberty, Alexandra Jo Kotter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The way in which we recognize, define, and promote freedom in our society can be deeply valuable. It can lead to important political answers and help identify rights and their nature. My intention is to consider the relationships among three conceptions of freedom. I believe that discussions of freedom which are relevant to political philosophy are necessarily normative. By this I mean that I am not discussing purely descriptive concepts of freedom- instead I am speaking of freedom which can be considered desirable, for this is what truly matters. Freedom to murder, for example, is freedom in the descriptive sense …

Headache And Psychological Variables As Predictors Of Disability In Individuals With Primary Headache Disorders, Halle Mccracken

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Headache disorders are among the most prevalent disorders of the nervous system, affecting more than half of the global population during the lifetime. Tension-type headache and migraine are disabling conditions, and their resulting symptoms negatively impact quality of life and reduce daily functioning. These conditions are often comorbid with psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders, and headache-related disability is often compounded by these psychiatric symptoms as well as transdiagnostic factors, such as stress, fear of pain, and anxiety sensitivity. The present study aimed to explore the relative contributions of headache symptoms and psychological factors to headache-related disability and …

Building Cultural Competence In Schools Through Teacher Capacity, Latonya R. Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand the dynamics of how teaching culturally responsive strategies to teachers can help eliminate the opportunity gap between students of color and their White counterparts. The action research method involved first collecting quantitative data through several surveys and then explaining the quantitative results with in- depth qualitative data through interviews and professional learning communities. In the first phase of the study, the culturally responsive and teacher efficacy scale data was collected from the participants within the study and the district at large. While the district survey was not mandated, it was strongly encouraged. …

Metaphors In Language Learning And Teaching: Discovering The Underlying Factors Affecting Demotivation In Anglophone Learners Of Modern Foreign Languages, Holly Sallah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In response to increased levels of demotivation in anglophone students of modern foreignlanguages, this thesis attempted to discover potential underlying causes through the use of metaphor elicitation directed at tertiary learners in the United States of America. Students were asked to metaphorize both the language learning process and the role of the language teacher. Afterwards, a qualitative metaphor analysis revealed that participants were overwhelmingly positive in respect to the role of the language teacher, but more mixed in their metaphors regarding the language learning process, with high frequency words such as “work” and “skill”. Contrary to the literature, the role …

Botanical Aphrodisiacs For Women's Health, Hayley N. Prescott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD) affects nearly 40% of women in the United States. While males have five FDA approved drugs for ED, there is only one FDA-approved as-needed treatment for premenopausal women with acquired, generalized Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), the most prevalent FSD. The lack of approved drugs is largely due to the biopsychosocial complexity of HSDD; however, there are neurobiological underpinnings evident. Due to the lack of safe efficacious treatment options, we hypothesize that botanical species traditionally used as aphrodisiacs may be promising leads, and exert their effects via activation of melanocortin’s, an excitatory circuit implicated in sexual …

Perceptions Of Black First-Generation College Students Regarding The Impact Of Recruitment Practices At A Predominantly White Institution During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Deann Handy Walter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2020, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) plagued the United States, becoming one of the greatest disruptions to the U.S. higher education system in history. Affecting every aspect of institution’s operations, prospective fall 2020 and beyond students were impacted greatly by the interruption of traditional college recruitment practices which would have occurred as they made their enrollment decisions. Most affected by this interruption were students of underrepresented groups. This dissertation focuses particularly on Black first-generation students and their perceptions regarding the impact of recruitment practices at a Predominantly White Institution during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative study is proposed as the …

Implications Of Gender Dysphoria On Gender Schema And Social Cognitive Theories Of Gender Development, Beau Bourgeois

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project considers the implications of gender dysphoria under two prominent theories of gender development, gender schema theory (GST) and social cognitive theory (SCT). Gender dysphoria is considered a significant motivator for transgender behavior and is presented in the DSM-5 as the experience of a strong desire, or as primarily affective in nature. GST and SCT differ in a number of ways, most notably in the role affect plays for gender development and behavior motivations. The former places primary emphasis on environmental influences, leaving the role of affect in question, while the latter posits gender behavior and motivation as an …

Late-Stage Diversification Of Select Natural Products €“ New Chemical Entities With Improved Biological Activities, Moneerah J. Alqahtani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Owing to their complexity, diverse structures and molecular targets, natural products have contributed, and will continue to contribute, to the development and discovery of new drugs. Although natural products provide numerous active compounds, their complex structures and poor pharmacokinetics make meeting the eligibility criteria for clinical trials unfeasible. In order to improve their drug-likeness, structural modification is an effective tool to generate countless natural product-based molecules with potential therapeutics. This proposal entails synthetic efforts towards late-stage diversification of natural products in two projects.

The first study highlights the multi-factorial nature of Alzheimer’s disease and brings attention to the importance of …

Auditors Are Known By The Companies That Keep Them: The Effect Of Media Sensationalism And Audit Firm Responses On Auditor Ratification, Latoya Flint

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines media influence on auditor relationships with client shareholders. Audit firms are concerned about client loss due to reputational damage. Sensationalized media reports of corporate accounting frauds can be misleading in their description of the auditor’s responsibility for fraud detection. Although audit firms do not control media sensationalism, they can respond to it. I conduct an experiment to examine the impact of media sensationalism and audit firm responses on shareholders’ likelihood to support auditor ratification. I predict and find that high media sensationalism leads shareholders to perceive a higher level of audit firm control over adverse fraud outcomes. …

The Shades Of Immigration: How Skin Tone Shapes Attitudes Towards Venezuelan Immigrants In Latin America, Madison Hamilton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Venezuela is currently home to one of the most profound economic crises in modern-day Latin America and the most severe in any non-war-ridden country in recent years. Due to this, mass amounts of Venezuelan immigrants have left to countries such as Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru. This immigration within Latin America, with similar culture and language, leads to the question of if and how does skin tone predict attitudes towards Venezuelans in several Latin American countries? This study uses data from the 2018/19 LAPOP data survey to assess the link between skin tone and support for Venezuelan immigrants. Results of …