Digital Commons Network^™

Covid-19 And The College Student Experience, Benjamin Cochran

Senior Theses

In March of 2020, COVID-19 consumed the globe, affecting individuals’ physical and mental health. Physical health disparities among states of different political affiliations became clearer as the pandemic continued unrelentingly, but mental health disparities were not. This thesis attempted to note any mental health disparities among college students in states of both political affiliations across the country through an online survey. The 23-question survey was completed by 97 undergraduates at six universities - three in liberal states and three in conservative states. Respondents at universities in the liberal states rated their university and the state in which it is located …

Experiences Of Stigma, Social Support, And Anxiety In People Living With Hiv In South Carolina, Sarah J. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

People living with HIV (PLHIV) experience numerous psychosocial stressors, including HIV-related stigma and heightened prevalence of mental health disorders such as depression, substance use disorders, and anxiety. However, limited research has investigated predictors of anxiety within this population. This study aimed to explore the relationship between HIV-related stigma and anxiety symptoms among PLHIV in South Carolina (SC) and to examine the role of social support as a mediator for this relationship. A total of 402 PLHIV receiving HIV care at large immunology center in SC completed a paper and pencil survey, reporting sociodemographic variables, as well as experiences of HIV-related …

Sleep Challenges And Temperament Among Infants At Elevated Likelihood Of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Miranda Hope Foster

Theses and Dissertations

The current study used parent report in a prospective longitudinal design to examine the relationship between early sleep difficulties and temperament among infants with an older sibling diagnosed with ASD (EL-ASIB, n = 32), those born pre-term (EL-PT, n = 24) and those with no familial history of ASD (LL, n = 28) across the first year of life. At 3, 4, 6 and 12 months, caregivers completed the Short Form of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R) (Putnam et al., 2014). To understand how sleep difficulties are related to temperament, a new scale of Sleep Challenges was created with items …

“Even The Little Things Matter:” A Phenomenological Study On Factors Impacting Student Motivation During And After Covid-Related Disruptions In Education, Jennifer Ferris-Crisafulli

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented disruptions in education, as schools were forced to make a rapid transition to virtual learning in March 2020. Students’ motivation seemed to decline significantly during and after this virtual learning period, which ranged from months to over a year in various areas of the United States. This study seeks to understand the factors impacting student motivation during and after this virtual learning period.

This action research study was conducted using a qualitative, phenomenological approach. Data was collected from open-ended surveys and semi-structured interviews during Spring 2021 and Spring 2022. Data was analyzed through the …

Predicting Therapists’ Intentions To Use An Innovation: The Role Of Innovation-Specific, Individual, And Organizational Factors, Jonathan KuʻUhoaepilipono Ahuna

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding factors that contribute to an individual’s decision to use an innovation can increase the public health impact of innovations in children’s mental health services. Objective. This study examined whether and to what extent therapists’ innovation-specific judgements (e.g., innovation is easy to use, socially desirable) were associated with intentions to use an innovation using constructs from one of the most robust theories of innovation use–the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Method. Two aims were addressed using data collected from 95 therapists and 28 supervisors who participated in a multi-site cluster randomized trial. Therapists used either a …

Too Feminine For Execution?: Gender Stereotypes And The Media’S Portrayal Of Women Sentenced To Death, Kelsey M. Collins

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional gender norms prescribing women as more nurturing and less aggressive than men have led to both the reluctance to view women as capable of violence, as well as a greater willingness to execute men than women in the United States. To make sense of the instances where women are sentenced to death, the media often pathologizes and/or demonizes them. Scholars have found that demonizing and dehumanizing those executed is a necessity to the implementation of capital punishment, both in cases of male and female defendants. To better understand how the news media have framed the gender and racial narratives …

Exploring The Impact Of Social Emotional Learning To Support Motivation And Self-Efficacy In Text-Dependent Analysis Writing, Elizabeth N. Crocker

Theses and Dissertations

Social emotional learning has been the subject of much attention in K–12 education in recent years. In addition to self-regulation strategies such as concept mapping, using graphic organizers, and goal setting, social emotional learning includes mindfulness practices such as visualization and mindful breathing. This action research dissertation in practice explored the experiences of three academically gifted seventh-grade students in a multiple case study design to better understand how using social emotional learning strategies affected their motivation and self-efficacy for text-dependent analysis writing.

Elucidating The Interdependence Of Motor-Cognitive Development And Performance, Thomas Cade Abrams

Theses and Dissertations

As the development of complex coordination and control (i.e., motor development) involves the integration of neuromotor, psychological, social, and cognitive processes (i.e., executive functions), a better understanding of how these processes are embedded and manifest across stages of development throughout the lifespan is needed. The long-term processes associated with the acquisition and development of motor competence (MC), specifically, effortful practice and performance of various locomotor and object control skills, provide direct mechanisms for contributing to executive function (EF) development via different learning-related (e.g., synaptogenesis, hippocampal neurogenesis) as well as exercise-related (e.g., exercise-mediated neurogenesis, angiogenesis) mechanisms. However, traditional MC assessments use …

Exploring Mindfulness As A Social And Emotional Learning [Sel] Intervention: An Action Research Case Study, Matthew T. Griffith

Theses and Dissertations

Children appear to be faced with more stressors today than ever before, and schools are tasked with providing social and emotional support and instruction to help their students navigate life’s ups and downs. The purpose of this mixed methods action research case study was to explore the effectiveness of mindfulness-based practices as a social and emotional learning (SEL) intervention for a small group of three second grade students at a rural elementary school. These students were identified by their teacher as having weaknesses in the areas of self-control, emotional regulation, and sustained attention that required more targeted intervention than the …

Collaborative Problem-Solving And Its Impact On Inclusive Practices, Confidence, And Beliefs Of General Education Teachers In Colombia, Shannon Renee Elmore

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods action research study was to examine the impact of a collaborative problem-solving process on the inclusive practices, confidence, and beliefs of general education teachers at a private bilingual school in Bogotá, Colombia. The problem of practice this research aims to address is the challenge teachers face in meeting the needs of a diverse student population with the increasing inclusion of exceptional learners in the general education classroom and a lack of preparation during teacher training programs. Grounded in Vygotsky’s social constructivism and Wenger’s communities of practice, this dissertation explores how teacher collaboration can lead to …

Turning Passion Into Action: The Intersection Of Transformational Coaching And A Counter-Narrative Of Black Citizenship, Erica D. Kelley

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study explored Black middle school students’ interactions with a high-quality civics curriculum that sought to complicate traditional notions of citizenship; provide authentic opportunities for engagement and participation; center student voices; and foster positive, empowered civic identities. The study also examined whether transformational coaching, with an explicit focus on culturally responsive practices, enhanced one social studies teacher’s ability to implement such a curriculum. Critical race theory and social identity theory illuminated how traditional civics education, rooted in white supremacy, excludes and distorts Black citizenship and civic identities; conversely, both theories informed alternative views of citizenship and identity rooted …

Greenspace Across The United States: Exploring Equity And Associations With Physical Activity, Obesity, And Health-Related Quality Of Life, Ellen W. Stowe

Theses and Dissertations

Neighborhood greenspace is important for health and well-being but may not be equitably present in neighborhoods across the United States. Also, many adults are physically inactive, have obesity, and report poor health-related quality of life. Greenspace has been tied to these health conditions, but with mixed findings. The purpose of this study was to 1) use an environmental justice perspective to examine variations in 11 measures of greenspace by neighborhood race/ethnicity, income, and rurality in block groups across the contiguous United States and 2) examine 11 greenspace measures in connection to physical activity, obesity, and health-related quality of life in …

First-Generation Support: A Mixed-Methods Approach To Understanding Imposter Phenomenon And University Belongingness, Julia Kathryn Hodge

Theses and Dissertations

This longitudinal mixed-methods study examines first-generation students (FGS) from a new angle, using the lens of the imposter phenomenon (IP) and the impact of a support program tailored to this population. The Opportunity Scholars Program (OSP) serves low-income, first-generation in-state students. The program promotes retention for low-income FGS. It is worthwhile to evaluate whether and to what degree such a program affects IP among FGS. At the beginning and end of the fall semester, 99 OSP first-generation students, general FGS, and non-FGS completed surveys on imposter phenomenon, academic self-efficacy, and test anxiety. Following the quantitative measures, 12 first-generation students participated …

Embodied Participation In Digital Publics: Somnambulance, Surveillance, And The Construction Of Identity, Adam S. Padgett

Theses and Dissertations

In our current information landscape, routine surveillance has changed the nature of rhetorical engagement in public spheres. Scholarship in publics theory have done productive work to map out the complex field of discursive participation. Michael Warner has demonstrated how, through the circulation of common texts, people no longer have to be in public in order to participate in publics. However, in the wake of ubiquitous surveillance, this focus on publicness has offered little attention to privacy in publics theory. I argue that legal and postmodern theories of bodies-as-texts is problematic for reading and writing bodies online. Intersecting with embodiment and …

Belonging In Context: An Exploration Of Sense Of Belonging Among College Students, Ladonna L. Gleason

Theses and Dissertations

Feeling a sense of belonging is essential to human health and functioning and has been well documented in the literature. However, questions of context remain. Research in belonging has focused on social aspects of belonging, leaving broader contextual frames unexplored. There has been little work in identifying and differentiating the contexts in which belonging is experienced or in developing an understanding of how the experience of belonging differs across contexts. Current belonging theory lacks this important contextual perspective that could inform the ways in which belonging is constructed and reconstructed through disruption. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, new …

Gratitude Buffers The Effects Of Stressful Life Events On Early Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction And Externalizing Behaviors But Not Internalizing Behaviors, Mimi Scott Webb

Theses and Dissertations

Identifying psychological strengths that foster healthy development in youth has become a topic of exploration in the field of positive psychology (e.g., Suldo & Huebner, 2004; Valle et al., 2006). Gratitude is a promising trait-like characteristic with qualities indicative of a potential psychological strength that may serve as a protective factor for early adolescents in the face of stressful life events. This study utilized data from a sample of 1,880 middle school students from the Southeastern United States. Hierarchical regression analyses investigated gratitude’s role as a moderator in the relationship between stressful life events and adolescent well-being. Specifically, gratitude’s ability …

Perceived Sexual Intent: Power, Relationship Status, And Gender, Joseph Eric Padgett

Theses and Dissertations

Does lacking power cause people to think potential partners are less interested in engaging with them sexually? Do men and women perceive the interests of potential sex partners differently? Does the amount of sexual intent perceived by people who are in a romantic relationship differ from that of singles? Power has been shown to impact perceptions in other contexts, and the way people rate the attractiveness of potential mates is shown to differ depending upon their own relationship status. Similarly, gender differences are a central theme in discussions of sex related perceptions, preferences, and behaviors. In this study, I utilize …

When And Why Targeted Products For Underserved Consumers Backfire, Ruoou Li

Theses and Dissertations

As the demand for creating and embracing a diverse marketplace increases, marketing strategies that over-generalize the needs of different consumer groups are no longer viable. Thus, many brands and companies have begun offering inclusive products that accommodate the specific needs of historically underserved consumers (e.g., women, people of color). One important question for marketers to answer is how these inclusive products should be promoted to appeal to these previously undervalued consumers. While prior research suggests that consumers will favor products with more explicit descriptions of the target consumer (i.e., blatant targeting) because doing so makes the targeted identity salient, I …

Investigating Bifactor Models And Fit Indices For Unidimensionality: An Illustration With Method Effects Due To Item Wording, Elizabeth A. Leighton

Theses and Dissertations

The use of unidimensional scales that contain both positively and negatively worded items is common in both the educational and psychological fields. However, dimensionality investigations of these instruments often lead to a rejection of the theorized unidimensional model in favor of multidimensional structures, leaving researchers at odds for how best to treat their data. One modeling technique that has gained attention in recent years related to item wording effects is the bifactor model, which specifies a general construct that explains the covariation among all items, and two method factors that explain additional covariation among items with similar wording.

Recent applications …

Exploring African American Girlhood Perceptions And Experiences Of Self Esteem, Monica Wade

Theses and Dissertations

Furthering the cultural competence of counselors around emotional wellness for minority groups, this research explored the intersectionality of race and gender through counter storytelling of experiences of Black girlhood that are often not told. To fill the existing gap in literature describing perceptions of emotional wellness, I explored African American adolescent girls perceptions and experiences of self esteem for girls who participated in an empowerment organization called Dream Girls. This qualitative study used a phenomenological analysis to gain understanding of the influences that impact the way these adolescents understand themselves.

Learning To Automate Follow-Up Question Generation Using Process Knowledge For Depression Triage On Reddit Posts, Shrey Gupta, Anmol Agarwal, Manas Gaur, Kaushik Roy, Vignesh Narayanan, Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, Amit Sheth

Publications

Conversational Agents (CAs) powered with deep language models (DLMs) have shown tremendous promise in the domain of mental health. Prominently, the CAs have been used to provide informational or therapeutic services (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy) to patients. However, the utility of CAs to assist in mental health triaging has not been explored in the existing work as it requires a controlled generation of follow-up questions (FQs), which are often initiated and guided by the mental health professionals (MHPs) in clinical settings. In the context of `depression', our experiments show that DLMs coupled with process knowledge in a mental health questionnaire …

Screening And Assessment Of Cancer-Related Fatigue: An Executive Summary And Road Map For Clinical Implementation, Joy C. Cohn, Shana Harrington Pt, Ph.D., Jeannette Q. Lee, Daniel Malone, Mary Insana Fisher

Faculty Publications

Background:

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) prevalence is reported as high as 90%. Cancer-related fatigue is multidimensional and associated with lower health-related quality of life. Effective screening and assessment are dependent upon use of valid, reliable, and clinically feasible measures. This Executive Summary of the Screening and Assessment of Cancer-related Fatigue Clinical Practice Guideline provides recommendations for best measures to screen and assess for CRF based on the quality and level of evidence, psychometric strength of the tools, and clinical utility.

Methods:

After a systematic review of the literature, studies evaluating CRF measurement tools were assessed for quality; data extraction included psychometrics …

Using Whole-Brain Diffusion Tensor Analysis To Evaluate White Matter Structural Correlates Of Delayed Visuospatial Memory And One-Week Motor Skill Retention In Nondemented Older Adults: A Preliminary Study, Jennapher Lingo Vangilder, Maurizio Bergamino, Andrew Hooyman, Megan C. Fitzhugh, Corianne Rogalsky, Jill C. Stewart, Scott C. Beeman, Sydney Y. Schaefer

Faculty Publications

Skill retention is important for motor rehabilitation outcomes. Recent work has demonstrated that delayed visuospatial memory performance may predict motor skill retention in older and neuropathological populations. White matter integrity between parietal and frontal cortices may explain variance in upper-extremity motor learning tasks and visuospatial processes. We performed a whole-brain analysis to determine the white matter correlates of delayed visuospatial memory and one-week motor skill retention in nondemented older adults. We hypothesized that better frontoparietal tract integrity would be positively related to better behavioral performance. Nineteen participants (age>58) completed diffusion-weighted imaging, then a clinical test of delayed visuospatial memory …

Neighborhood Characteristics And Dementia Symptomology Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults With Alzheimer’S Disease, Dana M. Alhasan, Matthew C. Lohman Ph.D., Jana A. Hirsch, Margaret Chandlee Miller Ms, Ph.D., Bo Cai Ph.D., Chandra L. Jackson

Faculty Publications

Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSs) lead to myriad poor health outcomes among individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Prior studies have observed associations between the various aspects of the home environment and NPSs, but macro-level environmental stressors (e.g., neighborhood income) may also disrupt the neuronal microenvironment and exacerbate NPSs. Yet, to our knowledge, no studies have investigated the relationship between the neighborhood environment and NPSs.

Methods: Using 2010 data among older adults with AD collected from a sample of the South Carolina Alzheimer’s Disease Registry, we estimated cross-sectional associations between neighborhood characteristics and NPSs in the overall population and by race/ethnicity. Neighborhood …

Association Between Socioeconomic Status And Mental Health Among China’S Migrant Workers: A Moderated Mediation Model, Yubo Shao, Huang Ying, Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Lian Tong

Faculty Publications

Mental health problems are prevalent among China’s internal migrant workers. However, research on the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and mental health is insufficient. Therefore, this study, utilizing the China’s National Dynamic Monitoring Survey data from a sample of 15,997 migrant workers aged 15–59 years to explore differences in the relationship between migrants’ objective and subjective SES and mental health status in 2015. Both the mediating effect of perceived interpersonal discrimination and the moderating effect of age were examined through structural equation modeling. The results indicated that subjective SES has a stronger direct relationship with mental health than objective SES. …

September 14, 2022 Faculty Senate Minutes, University Of South Carolina

Faculty Senate

No abstract provided.

Towards Efficient Scoring Of Student-Generated Long-Form Analogies In Stem, Thilini Wijesiriwardene, Ruwan Wickramarachchi, Valerie L. Shalin, Amit P. Sheth

Publications

Switching from an analogy pedagogy based on comprehension to analogy pedagogy based on production raises an impractical manual analogy scoring problem. Conventional symbol-matching approaches to computational analogy evaluation focus on positive cases, and challenge computational feasibility. This work presents the Discriminative Analogy Features (DAF) pipeline to identify the discriminative features of strong and weak long-form text analogies. We introduce four feature categories (semantic, syntactic, sentiment, and statistical) used with supervised vector-based learning methods to discriminate between strong and weak analogies. Using a modestly sized vector of engineered features with SVM attains a 0.67 macro F1 score. While a semantic feature …

September 7, 2022 General Faculty Minutes, University Of South Carolina

Faculty Senate

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Steam Supply Performance: Steamer Vs. Bubbler, Yongliang Zhang, Nansheng Xu, Qiming Tang, William Gibbons, Kevin Huang

Faculty Publications

Water/steam electrolysis is a key enabling technology for clean, low-carbon and sustainable production of hydrogen and will play a crucial role in future hydrogen economy. For high temperature solid oxide electrolytic cells, steam is the chemical feedstock. A stable and accurate supply of steam to solid oxide electrolytic cells is of vital importance to smooth production of hydrogen. In this study, we compare steam supply performance of two commonly used steam generators: steamer and bubbler. Our results show that bubbler with proper volume and fritted inlet gas tubing can provide more stable and accurate steam supply than steamer for laboratory …

Validity Of An Abbreviated Individual Water Insecurity Experiences (Iwise-4) Scale For Measuring The Prevalence Of Water Insecurity In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Hilary J. Bethanancourt, Edward A. Frongillo Jr. Ph.D., Sera L. Young

Faculty Publications

The 12-item Water Insecurity Experiences Scales provide high resolution, cross-context equivalent data on household and individual water insecurity. A 4-item, 1-minute version of the Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE-4) Scale has proven useful for understanding the prevalence of household water insecurity experiences when limited resources preclude the use of the HWISE-12 Scale. Herein, we tested the validity of an analogous four-item version of the Individual Water Insecurity Experiences Scale (IWISE-4) for measuring the prevalence of individual water insecurity when limited resources prevent implementation of the IWISE-12 Scale. We used data from adults in 31 low- and middle-income countries (n …