Digital Commons Network^™

Familismo: Exploring A Culturally Sensitive Correlation Between Parentification And Relationship Satisfaction Amongst First Generation Mexican-American Adults Through An Attachment Theory Lens, Ana K. Perez

Dissertations

Parentification refers to the role reversal of children who take on adult responsibility to care for family members. This role is often filled by Mexican-American children as a result of immigration and assimilation. This study explored the relationship between parentification and adult romantic relationship satisfaction among first-generation Mexican-American adults, with particular attention to the moderating roles of attachment styles and perceived unfairness. While earlier research has linked parentification to mental health challenges, few studies have examined its long-term impact on intimate relationships, including relationship satisfaction and experiences of intimate partner violence. A total of 132 participants completed an online survey …

"Please Put The Phone Down!": Self-Determination Theory Applied To Parental Social Media Mediation, Benjamin A. Dolowich

Dissertations

The majority of adolescents and young adults use social media (Chaddock, 2024; Coyne et al., 2013). Parents are faced with the challenge of considering the role social media may play in their children’s lives (Valkenburg et al., 2013). Using self-determination theory as a framework (Deci & Ryan, 2000), we investigated psychological needs as one mechanism connecting parental social media mediation strategies with well-being and emotional distress in a sample of young adults. Participants were 244 undergraduate students who completed online questionnaires. The results highlighted that controlling styles of parental social media mediation have an association with emotional distress. Psychological needs …

A Mixed-Method Study To Determine The Relationships Between Academic Confidence, Anxiety And Success In College Physics I At A Small Midwestern University, Jason Fenske

Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-method study is to examine the effect of a variety of factors on student success in College Physics I. These factors include the transfer of knowledge from both high school physics and prerequisite mathematics courses for use in physics as well as anxiety, academic confidence, physics confidence, and methods designed to address these. The experiment occurred in a medium-sized midwestern university in two different classrooms. The results of this experiment showed that there is a direct correlation between mathematics confidence and physics confidence and therefore between these and student success. The study found that students who …

Exposing And Addressing Machine Learning Brittleness Through Constraint Solving, Muyeed Ahmed

Dissertations

Machine Learning (ML) implementations are fundamentally brittle: nondeterministic, inconsistent, and prone to overfitting; however, constraint solving can be used to systematically expose, quantify, and address this brittleness.

This dissertation first establishes that widely-used implementations of popular ML algorithms are nondeterministic (producing different outputs on the same input, across different runs) and inconsistent (different implementations of the same algorithm producing different outputs on the same input). This is more prevalent in Unsupervised Learning (UL) implementations where, due to the lack of a ground truth, subtle execution errors can go unnoticed and are difficult to verify. Nondeterminism and inconsistency also introduce security …

Development Of Ultrafast Protein Digestion And Standards Free Quantitation Methods For Mass Spectrometric Analysis, Praneeth Ivan Joel Fnu

Dissertations

A wide variety of biologically important molecules, such as enzymes, antibodies, hormones, transporters and receptors are proteins by composition and they play key roles in biological functions such as cellular regulation, communication, metabolism and physiological function. Protein dysfunctions and abnormalities are associated with numerous diseases, making proteins critical targets for understanding disease mechanisms and developing therapeutic interventions. Protein-based therapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies, hormones and vaccines gained popularity due to their high specificity, efficacy, and ability to treat complex diseases that are often difficult to address with small-molecule drugs.

Given the important role of proteins in a variety of biological …

Geographic And Environmnetal Influences On Color Pattern Similarity Between Coral Snakes (Genus: Micrurus) And Their Lookalikes, Anthony Sena

Dissertations

Venomous coral snakes and their lookalikes are often regarded as a classic example of Batesian mimicry, whereby a harmless species imitates a harmful species. The existing literature regarding coral snake resemblance presents a divisive stance on whether Batesian mimicry is the primary driver of shared color patterns or if alternative factors are responsible. While recent literature largely favors the Batesian hypothesis, empirical support remains inconsistent, and the specific geographic and interpretation of the conditions required for mimicry lacks consensus within the scientific community.

To evaluate the mechanisms maintaining these phenotypes, a quantitative, multivariate framework was utilized to analyze 400 museum …

Understanding The Impact Of Parenting, Self-Determination Theory, And Adverse Childhood Experiences On College Students, Melanie D. Prater

Dissertations

College students are at high risk for experiencing psychological distress which impacts their academic, mental, and physical well-being (Eskin et al., 2016; Reed‑Fitzke & Lucier‑Greer, 2020; Sharp & Theiler, 2018). The Self Determination Theory (SDT) serves as a suitable framework for investigating the impact of parental autonomy support (PAS) and parental psychological control (PPC) on college students’ well-being and distress. According to SDT, the satisfaction of three foundational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) supports well-being, while thwarting of these needs may be associated with psychological distress and resilience (Costa et al., 2016; Lera & Abualkibash, 2022; Reed‑Fitzke & Lucier‑Greer, 2020; …

Through Their Lens: Co-Teachers’ Effective Strategies That Support Ells And Swds In Mathematics Inclusion Classrooms, Cheryl A. Bentham

Dissertations

Abstract

The current dialogue surrounding minoritized students in mathematics classrooms often focuses on deficit-based narratives that compare their competency to unrealistic norms. Such continuous negative narratives only serve to add another layer of marginalization to students who are already underserved, notably Black and Hispanic students, and subgroups comprising ELLs and SWDs. This qualitative case study explored the research-based strategies utilized by three co-teacher pairs to support ELLs and SWDs in Algebra inclusion classrooms. Vygotsky's (1978) social constructivist theory guided the study, which posits that learning occurs through social interactions, environmental influences, and support from more knowledgeable others. The data were …

Teacher Experience And Perception Of Feedback Literacy In The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, Carla B. Mills

Dissertations

Writing instruction in schools remains a significant area of concern even after decades of awareness that students are not performing at proficient levels upon high-school graduation. This phenomenographic case study investigated teacher feedback literacy at the secondary level through interviews with teachers of writing-intensive International Baccalaureate Diploma Program courses and document analysis. Areas of feedback literacy strength included teacher awareness of designing positive class environments, attending to the socio-emotional needs of their learners, extensive use of both rubrics and exemplars, and frequent provision of verbal feedback. Document analysis revealed the presence of explicit instruction in written feedback, rubric use, and …

Ai You Can Trust: Understanding The Role Of Structural Assurance And Situational Normality In The Use Of Generative Ai, Olushola Bunmi Abayomi

Dissertations

The rapid growth of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has increased its use in productivity, content creation, and decision support; however, adoption depends on user trust, as GenAI performs tasks that are often associated with human judgment. Drawing on the Trust in Technology Model, this dissertation examines how structural assurance and situational normality influence Trust in GenAI, and how Trust in GenAI affects trusting intentions and users' willingness to depend on GenAI. Structural assurance and situational normality, captured through several factors, were modeled as antecedents of Trust in GenAI and, in turn, trusting intentions. The model was tested using survey-based experimental …

Identifying The Threshold: Using Regulatory Focus As A Predictor Of Ceo Adaptibility During Environmental Changes, George B. Constantine Iii

Dissertations

Building on research on CEO turnover and strategic leadership, this study examines how decision makers' regulatory focus shapes strategic decision-making and how this can contribute to performance decline, often resulting in CEO replacement. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, the study theorizes that measurable chronic regulatory focus attributes influence decision makers’ capacity to adapt to environmental change—conditions under which prior research suggests executives may become rigid and persist with established strategies. Despite its relevance for strategic adaptation, such chronic trait behavior has received limited attention in the current business literature. To address this gap, effectuation theory is integrated into a simulation-based …

Masculinity, Psychological Flexibility, And Machismo: An Initial Examination Of Relationships To Interpersonal Violence, Geraldine Granados Todd

Dissertations

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a grave problem in many areas of the world. Latin American countries have some of the highest rates of IPV in the world. One factor potentially impacting these rates has been hypothesized to be traditional machismo. Machismo is a complex construct that has proven difficult to define. A substantial challenge lies in distinguishing the characteristics that are unique to machismo from broader masculine gender role norms. Additionally, machismo seems to have a more “positive” side to it, encompassing loyalty to family, honor, and responsibility. This has been coined caballerismo. Studies looking at the impact of …

Evalutating Self-Instructional Training Materials To Teach Caregiver Implementation Of A Reading Program, Ky'aria Moses

Dissertations

Approximately 69% of fourth grade students and 70% of eighth grade students performed below the proficient level on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment, highlighting ongoing gaps in early literacy skills (NAEP, 2024). Caregiver implementation of instructional reading strategies can positively impact children’s literacy development; however, training is often required to ensure fidelity. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (TYC), is an evidence-based Direct Instruction reading program designed for caregiver implementation, yet its written self-instructional Practice Guide may be insufficient for developing fluent instructional delivery. Research suggests that programmed instructional formats incorporating active …

“Dynt Of Dede:” Reading The Medieval Combat Scene Through The Helmet-Cleave Motif, Andrew Sherwood Thomas

Dissertations

This research explores the continuity of chivalric combat descriptions throughout medieval literature. By tracing the history, development, and distribution of the helmet-cleave motif, this study is able to examine combat scenes spanning a wide reach of time, genera, and language. The purpose of this work is to suggest a reading methodology for the chivalric combat scene that appropriately situates it in its cross-textual context and so reveals the nuance of its expression and the value in its study.

Despite the volume of surviving combat descriptions in medieval literature, they remain underrepresented in the scholarship due to their apparent repetitious and …

Severity-Informed Analysis Of Staff-Worn Personal Protective Equipment Use In An Applied Behavior Analysis Clinical Setting, Trey Ximenez

Dissertations

Staff who provide care for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability experience high workplace injury rates, particularly in applied behavior analysis settings (Hardesty 2020; Hardesty et al., 2025; Romani et al., 2020). Despite these elevated risks, organizations lack evidence-based criteria for determining what protection to recommend to staff based on documented injury outcomes (Irwin Helvey et al. 2024). This study examined how staff injury characteristics are associated with staff-worn personal protective equipment (PPE) use in an inpatient neurobehavioral unit. A retrospective analysis of 1,998 staff injury incidents from 105 patients (2020-2024) tested whether injury severity, injury type relevance, …

Association Between Stress Mindset, Psychological Symptoms, And Psychosocial Risk In Liver Transplant Patients, Sarah Kay Brill

Dissertations

Psychosocial functioning is a central component of liver transplant evaluation, yet less is known about how cognitive factors, such as stress mindset, relate to transplant readiness. The present study examined the association between stress mindset and psychosocial risk, as well as its relationship with depressive symptoms, anxiety, and perceived stress among patients undergoing liver transplant evaluation. Patients included 62 adults completing standard pre-transplant assessment measures, including the Stress Mindset Measure–Specific (SMM-S), Stanford Integrated Psychosocial Assessment for Transplantation (SIPAT), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Hierarchical logistic regression analyses indicated that stress mindset was …

Seeing The Unspoken: A Pilot Eye-Tracking Study Of Moral Injury Among Veterans, Eva M. Valdez

Dissertations

This pilot study examined associations between self-reported moral distress, state distress, combat exposure, deployment history, and maximum pupil reactivity among veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Participants viewed neutral and morally relevant images while pupil responses were recorded using eye-tracking technology. Self-report measures included moral distress severity, exposure to potentially morally injurious events, Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) ratings, total deployments, number of combat deployments, and Combat Exposure Scale scores. Maximum pupil reactivity was calculated by subtracting the mean z-scored maximum pupil response during neutral image presentations from the mean z-scored maximum pupil response during morally relevant image presentations. This variable …

Pathways To The Streets: A Proposed Model Examining The Factors Influencing Gang Affiliation And Involvement Among Young Black Men In The United States, Ceauna L. Juarez

Dissertations

This literature review examined gang involvement among young Black men in the United States and explored the factors that contribute to joining gangs and the consequences that may follow. The first chapter provides a brief history of gang involvement in Black communities and introduces Erikson’s development model, self-determination theory, and the minorities’ diminished returns as the three theoretical frameworks. The second chapter discusses common challenges faced by young Black men who are currently involved in gangs or are at risk of joining. The chapter explores issues such as life expectancy after gang involvement, adverse childhood experiences, mental health concerns, and …

Knowledge, Physician Communication, And Psychological Predictors Of Willingness To Engage In Dementia Risk Reduction Across The Lifespan, Thomas Fisher

Dissertations

Dementia represents a growing global public health concern, with increasing evidence suggesting that a substantial portion of dementia risk may be attributable to modifiable lifestyle and health-related factors. However, relatively little is known about public knowledge of these risk factors, willingness to engage in dementia risk reducing behaviors, and psychological factors that may be associated with willingness. The present study examines these factors among adults living in the United States across the lifespan. Participants (N = 308) completed an anonymous online survey assessing dementia risk-factor knowledge, willingness to engage in dementia risk reducing behaviors, primary care provider communication regarding dementia …

Analysis Of A Process-Based Approach To Case Formulation And Treatment With Acceptance And Commitment Therapy, Callum Smith

Dissertations

Process-Based Therapy (PBT) is a novel approach to clinical research and practice. PBT is proposed as an alternative model to classic diagnostic frameworks. It emphasizes conceptualizing psychological problems through adaptive and maladaptive processes of change. The aim of current PBT research is to develop reliable methods of organizing change processes into network models. In network models, change processes are presented in nodes connected by lines and arrows to represent the interacting relationships between those processes for a given individual. The present project aims to evaluate the inter-rater reliability and predictive validity of a novel semi-structured interview method to aid in …

A Qualitative Study Of Immigration Trauma, Posttraumatic Growth, And The College Experience Among Mena Immigrant Students, Braa A. Elkhidir

Dissertations

Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) immigrant students who are seeking to earn a higher education in the United States have to navigate acculturative stressors and systemic barriers. Prior research has focused primarily on the challenges MENA immigrant students experience without deeply exploring how these students adapt and grow. The focus in this qualitative study was to understand how MENA immigrant college students experience and make meaning of their academic journeys. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore the academic experiences of seven MENA immigrant college students in the United States and assess how acculturative stressors, personal strengths, coping strategies, and …

Love’S Dialects: Proposed Additions In Emotionally Focused Therapy For Intercultural Couples, Nicola Heurich

Dissertations

Intercultural romantic relationships have become an increasingly prominent feature of contemporary society due to globalization, migration, and cross-cultural exchange (Livingston & Brown, 2017). However, these partnerships are also associated with elevated levels of relational distress and higher rates of conflict, separation, and divorce, underscoring the need for culturally responsive approaches in couple therapy (Bustamante et al., 2011; Genç & Su, 2021).

Research on intercultural couples remains limited both within and beyond Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and despite increased recognition of cultural factors, there is still insufficient guidance on navigating differing cultural contexts within a dyad (Linhof & Allan, 2018).

The …

Power Signature-Based Hardware Security Techniques For The Internet Of Things, Ashish Mahanta

Dissertations

The rapid proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) has introduced significant security challenges, particularly concerning stealthy, instruction-level malicious code injections that evade traditional software defenses. While conventional power analysis techniques are highly effective at detecting such subtle abnormalities, they require capturing high-resolution, voluminous power trace data. This dependency necessitates bulky data acquisition (DAQ) instrumentation, power-hungry analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and intensive computational resources, making these methods impractical for deployment on resource-constrained IoT devices. To bridge this critical gap, this dissertation presents a novel hardware security paradigm, the Power Rising and Descending Signature (PRIDES) methodology. Instead of quantizing actual power consumption …

Bridging The Gap: A Qualitative Case Study Of Pre-K Teachers' Literacy Professional Development Needs In The Context Of Georgia's Early Literacy Act (Hb 538), Deborah Lissimore

Dissertations

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how school-based pre-K teachers in Georgia perceived their literacy professional development needs within the context of the Georgia Early Literacy Act, House Bill 538, and to examine the role of teacher leadership in supporting their professional learning. Although the Act established evidence-based literacy requirements and professional learning expectations for kindergarten through third grade educators, comparable supports for school-based pre-K teachers were not clearly defined. Participants included five certified pre-K teachers employed in a Georgia public school district. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and researcher field notes, with member …

Perceptions Of Family Involvement And Its Influence On High School Attendance: Voices Of Families And Mathematics Teachers, Amber Phillips

Dissertations

Chronic absenteeism continues to be a growing concern in high schools, particularly in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. Although family involvement has been widely studied in elementary and middle schools, less is known about how families and mathematics teachers experience school-based family involvement at the high school level. This qualitative case study explored those perspectives at a rural high school in Northwest Georgia. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with five families and five upper-level mathematics teachers, and a focus group was conducted with eight mathematics teachers. Interview and focus group transcripts were analyzed using structural and focused coding to …

Teaching Difficult Histories: An Exploratory Case Study Of Teacher Experiences And Student Demonstrations Of Historical Empathy In A Cdf Freedom School, Michael T. Miller

Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored two research questions: What did CDF Freedom School teachers experience while teaching elementary and middle school students how to learn history with a critical lens? How did CDF Freedom School students’ work demonstrate historical empathy and perspective-taking? Using secondary data collected by Dr. Johari Harris from the Summer 2023 CDF Freedom School in Charlottesville, VA, a thematic analysis was conducted of exit interviews from four teachers, classroom observation data from one teacher, and writing samples from students in grades 3-8 in response to materials from the Educating for Democracy curriculum. Themes were created from teacher …

Secondary Biology Teachers’ Understandings Of Growth Mindset, Kathryn Chapman

Dissertations

This case study investigates how high school biology teachers understand and apply growth mindset principles in their daily instruction. Using surveys, semi‑structured interviews, and focus groups, the study examines how biology teachers interpret mindset, how they attempt to enact it, and how curriculum demands shape their efforts. Findings show that teachers’ beliefs about intelligence strongly influence their feedback, expectations, and instructional decisions. Teachers described biology as a subject in which struggle is highly visible, emotionally charged, and often tied to students’ prior knowledge, making mindset work both necessary and challenging. Results also indicate that students’ mindsets are shaped by broader …

Interplay Of Atomicity, Polarization, And Quantization On Performance And Reliability In Gan Finfets, Salim I. Almenshad

Dissertations

GaN based nanoscale high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are the next generation of transistor technology that features the unique combination of higher power, wider bandwidth, low noise, higher efficiency, and temperature/radiation hardness than conventional AlGaAs and Si based technologies. However, enhancement mode operation for nanoscale channel region is the most recent needed area of research. As well as reliability of these devices remains a major concern. The main objective of this proposed research is to numerically investigate the role of atomistic inhomogeneity and quantization in low-dimensionality lateral tri-gated AlGaN/GaN FinFET devices. It is shown that 3-D configured AlGaN/GaN FinFETs with narrow enough …

Optimizing Few-Shot Learning In Pruned Large Language Models With Task-Specific Prompts, Danyal Aftab

Dissertations

Few-shot learning enables large language models to efficiently perform tasks given only a limited number of labeled examples. However, training these models entirely from scratch requires substantial computational resources, making it challenging for many organizations to fully leverage their potential. This thesis explores how structured pruning, task-specific prompting, and parameter-efficient fine-tuning can be combined to preserve few-shot learning capabilities in compressed LLMs, while also extending their utility to real-world recommendation systems.

In this research, we propose the Tailored LLM framework, which first reduces model size through structured pruning and then enhances few-shot learning performance using carefully designed prompts. We experiment …

A Quantitative Exploration Of Public School Teachers’ Colorblind Racial Attitudes And Their Teaching Practices, Lindsey Dopheide

Dissertations

Teachers play a significant role in shaping student’s academic experiences, social development, and understanding of race and diversity within school settings. Because schools function as important sites of racial socialization, teachers’ beliefs about race may influence how they interpret student behavior, respond to inequities, select instructional practices, and engage with culturally diverse classrooms. One framework that has received increasing attention within psychological and educational research is colorblind racial ideology (CBRI) which reflects the minimization or denial of the continuing significance of race and racism in society. Colorblind racial ideology has been identified in prior literature as a dominant framework for …