Digital Commons Network^™

Underlying Mechanisms In The Relationship Between Ptsd And Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Jillian B. Heymann

Dissertations

Current bodies of knowledge support the relationships between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), pain catastrophizing and PTSD, and pain catastrophizing and IBS. However, much less is known regarding how pain catastrophizing influences the relationship between PTSD and IBS. Additionally, while correlations between some demographic and trauma-related symptomatology have been elucidated in the relationship between PTSD and IBS, their impact as potential moderators on the relationship between PTSD and IBS has yet to be fully examined. Examining a student sample from a large midwestern university, the present study aimed to investigate the potential mediating and moderating roles …

Elementary Students' Science Attitudes And Teachers' Implementation Of The Ngss Science Practices: A Mixed Methods Study, Michelle Laborn

Dissertations

It has been recorded in the literature that student science interest drops as students enter and transition to middle and high school. This dissertation takes up the areas of student science interest and the teaching of the science practices in the context of elementary education. This study seeks to understand student science interest in elementary students in the years before entering middle school where a drop of interest is frequently reported. It is hypothesized that an increased use or implementation of the NGSS science practices by classroom teachers would generate higher science interest in elementary students. In a framework of …

Pedagogical Possibilities Toward Positive Embodiment: Applying The Developmental Theory Of Embodiment To Educational Contexts, Elena Buis

Dissertations

Young adolescents, particularly girls, often experience uncomfortable and negative relationships with their bodies, contributing to negative physical, mental, and emotional outcomes. Although educators have implemented interventions to address this issue, those grounded in positive embodiment remain underexplored. Specifically, the Developmental Theory of Embodiment (DTE), a prominent framework in eating disorder and body image research, has not been integrated into educational research or practice. This dissertation explores the integration of DTE into educational theory, practice, and pedagogy across three complementary articles and examines the teaching and learning of Be Body Positive (BBP), a positive embodiment intervention, with a fifth grade Girl …

The Lived Experiences Of Clinical Mental Health Counselors Returning To Clinical Work After Becoming A New Mom: A Phenomenological Study, Kathryn Bohn

Dissertations

The experience of transitioning back to work postpartum can be an emotional rollercoaster for women. One that is often filled with identity tensions and sweeping emotions that range from guilt to relief, anxiety to confidence (Dod, 2025; Franzoi et al., 2023; Garcia-Lorenzo et al., 2023). Postpartum can be an emotionally raw and vulnerable time for new mothers as they navigate physical and emotional changes, maternal stress, and the pressures and demands of new motherhood (LeBlanc, 2023; Maylott, 2023). Professional counselors in a clinical setting, also known as clinical mental health counselors, encounter occupationally specific responsibilities that create unique experiences for …

From Stranger To Self: The Role Of Familiarity In Modulating The N170 And N250 Erp Components, Tabish Gul

Dissertations

This study investigated how varying levels of face familiarity modulate the N170 and N250 event-related potential (ERP) components, two neural markers of face perception and recognition. While the N250 is widely considered familiarity-sensitive, the N170 has traditionally been linked to the structural encoding stage of face perception. However, recent research suggests that face familiarity may also influence N170 amplitude and latency. While most previous studies have compared up to three familiarity levels, the present study examined five levels of familiarity: own face, friend’s face, famous face, experimentally familiar face, and unfamiliar face. Twenty-six participants viewed face images while completing a …

Do International Alumni Give Differently? A Study On The Alumni Philanthropic Perspective Of Trust And Key Relational Factors Affecting Attitude Towards Giving, John Held

Dissertations

Philanthropy plays a key role in the funding of institutions of higher education. Previous research has focused on domestic populations, exploring the antecedents and elements of philanthropy in higher education. The literature has yet to examine differences in these elements between domestic and international, or distance extremes, amongst alumni populations. This study investigates the perceptions and motivating factors influencing alumni who experience significant geographic separation from their Higher Education Institution (HEI) and their philanthropic support for their alma mater. The conceptual model includes factors at the organization-to-organization, person-to-organization, and person-to-person levels and their moderating effects on the relationship between trust …

Defining My Country: An Appalachian Educator’S Autoethnography Of Linguistic Erasure And Ai, Kimberly B. Wright

Dissertations

When students use AI writing tools to revise their work, the algorithms often erase the cultural and linguistic markers that constitute their authentic voice. This erasure operates through the same mechanisms that linguistic justice scholars have documented for decades: a dominant language ideology that frames non-dominant expression as deficient and “corrects” it into standardized prose. As a first-generation Appalachian educator who spent years suppressing her own voice to succeed in academic spaces, I recognize this pattern from the inside. Using autoethnography as a methodology, this study examines how my journey from voice erasure to reclamation informs my pedagogy to help …

Analyzing Professional Development To Foster Agency And Professional Growth Among Educators, Kameron Kimbrough

Dissertations

This study explores how professional development (PD) and leadership systems influence teacher agency and instructional coherence at a high-poverty, predominantly Black K–8 school in Chicago. Midwest Elementary Academy has faced persistent achievement gaps and systemic instability that hinder collaboration and teacher growth. Guided by three research questions, this exploratory case study used a mixed-methods design to examine educator perceptions of PD quality, instructional autonomy, and leadership structures. Data were collected through anonymous surveys, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and document reviews with four educator participants. Qualitative data were coded using open and in vivo methods, and survey responses were analyzed descriptively …

Performing (For The) Guru: A Performance Studies Approach To The Study Of Cults, Todd M. Brown

Dissertations

This project approaches a long-term experience of living in a cult through a performance studies lens. Utilizing autoethnographic methods, it explores personal insights and observations from years within the inner-circle of a coercive religious environment under tyrannical leadership. A variety of systems and relationships are narrated and analyzed according to three categories: ritualization, deployability, and occupation. Ritualization explains how a body becomes imbued with the rhythms and mantras of a cultic milieu. Deployability describes how this body is put into action at the service of the leadership. Occupation, as a metaphor, illuminates how a cultic subject becomes filled with the …

College Student Coping And Experiences During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Trinka Peer Pape

Dissertations

The isolation experienced by college students during the COVID-19 pandemic led to numerous issues and increased stress. The purpose of this study was to examine the coping mechanisms that college students utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic and explore the impact of the pandemic on how these students coped and their overall lived experiences. Participants were juniors and seniors graduating between May 2023 and May 2024 from a university in the southern Midwest. The researcher employed a mixed methodology approach, consisting of a quantitative survey, followed by qualitative interviews with students who completed the survey. Based on the results of the …

Experiences Of Care From The Perspective Of Students With Disabilities: A Multi-Case Study, Neve Grosse Siegfreid

Dissertations

Inclusion for students with disabilities is often limited to access to the general education curriculum and school environment. Previous research has indicated that teacher relationships are essential to student success. Missing from the research was the practice of care as relational inclusion, as described in Nel Noddings’s ethic of care theory. The purpose of this qualitative, multi-case study was to explore inclusion through care relationships as experienced by students with disabilities ages 12-15 and to contrast their experiences with Noddings’s care as inclusion, as described in the ethics of care theory. Using the philosophical lens of Nel Noddings’s ethic of …

Police, Punishment, And Mental Health: Examining The Effects Of School-Based Services On Disciplinary Inequities, Jessica Peña

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how school-based law enforcement officer (LEO) staffing ratios and school-based mental health provider (MHP) staffing ratios were associated with disciplinary disproportionality for students of color, and whether MHP staffing moderated the relationship between LEO staffing and disproportionality using a comprehensive national dataset. The following research questions guided this study:

Q1 Does disciplinary disproportionality exist in exclusionary practices within the current educational system?

Q2 How are ratios of school police officers related to disciplinary disproportionality?

Q3 How are ratios of school-based MHPs related to disciplinary disproportionality?

Q4 Does the ratio of school-based MHPs …

The Use And Efficacy Of Non-Verbal Gestures In Applied Studio Voice Instruction And Vocal Coaching, Mark Eugene Lubas

Dissertations

Despite important innovations in the use of technology in vocal instruction, individualized, faceto- face communication remains the predominant delivery modality for applied voice lessons and vocal coaching. Applied voice instructors and vocal coaches consistently identify non-verbal, gestural communication as a significant dimension of these instructional interactions. Existing scholarship has examined the expressive use of gesture in musical performance, the role of gesture in facilitating pitch accuracy acquisition among young singers, and the neurological responses of singers to gestural input. However, systematic investigation of gesture as a pedagogical instrument from the perspective of the instructor remains underdeveloped in the literature. This …

Between The Lines And Behind The Lessons: An Educational Criticism Of Bridging Anti-Bias Possibilities In Colorado’S K-2 Standards And Classrooms, Grace Marguerite Breiten

Dissertations

In an era of standardized accountability in public education, anti-bias-oriented Colorado educators have sought to foster caring, courageous, and critically conscious citizens by affirming student identity, promoting diversity, demanding justice, and inspiring activism, all while adhering to mandated academic standards. The purpose of the qualitative Educational Critical and Connoisseurship study was to understand and describe how K-2 anti-bias-oriented educators teaching in public schools in Colorado interpreted and implemented Colorado’s Reading, Writing, and Communicating (RWC) and Social Studies (SS) standards using an anti-bias orientation. This study was guided by the following research questions:

Q1 In what ways are Colorado’s K–2 Reading, …

Reframing Health: A Phenomenological Inquiry Into The Lived Experiences Of Weight- Inclusive Healthcare Providers, Hannah Brass

Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the unique lived experiences of healthcare professionals who practiced from a weight-inclusive lens. This study was guided by the following research questions:

Q1 What is the unique lived experience of a healthcare provider practicing from a weight-inclusive lens?

Q2 What are the significant experiences that have influenced the development of weight-inclusive providers’ attitudes (i.e., thoughts, feelings, and behaviors)?

Data from these findings were analyzed using Giorgi’s (2009) descriptive phenomenological method to discover rich descriptions and themes of weight-inclusive healthcare practitioners' experiences. The study explored the significant experiences and supports that influenced …

Protecting The Public: The Impact Of Continued Competence Regulations On Nursing Disciplinary Rates, Laura Katherine Blackhurst

Dissertations

Nursing competence is essential for the provision of quality, ethical, legal, safe patient care. NRBs serve a critical role in establishing standards for nurses that lead to the protection of the public. While most NRBs mandate some measure of ongoing competence, there is notable variation in NRB competence regulations. While competence regulations should reduce the need for nursing discipline, there is limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of these regulations in promoting public protection.

The purpose of this study was to explore how continued competence regulations impact the disciplinary rate of registered nurses. The following research questions guided this study:

Q1 …

Black Faces In White Spaces: Understanding School Belonging Among Black Adolescents At Nais Independent Schools, Letetsia Angelica Fox

Dissertations

Even though the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) has been committed to diversity for the last 30 years, they often focus their diversity efforts on all students of color instead of specific groups such as Black students (Brosnan, 2001). By not focusing on the specific experiences of Black students at independent schools, independent schools cannot truly foster a strong sense of school belonging for Black students because they do not understand the distinct barriers and factors that contribute to the development of school belonging for Black students who attend their schools (Hall & Stevenson, 2007).

This qualitative study sought …

Barriers To Climate Change And Sustainability Action: Nursing Education And Practice, Dawn Marie Smith

Dissertations

Climate change is one of the most pressing public health emergencies of our time and nurses can have a great impact in their current practice and in the education of future nurses (The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, n.d.; American Nurses Association, 2023; Health Care without Harm, 2025). Deaths due to rising temperatures, vector-borne illness, and food insecurity related to drought and extreme weather are on the rise (WHO, 2024). It has been estimated that globally over 250,000 additional deaths will be attributed to climate related effects between 2030 and 2050 (Watts et al., 2020; WHO, 2023).

A primary …

The Effects Of Fluency Building On Undergraduate Student Performance, Lauren B. Shibley

Dissertations

Online learning has become integral to higher education, with enrollment steadily increasing over the past decade and accelerating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research highlights the importance of flexibility, learner autonomy, and self-regulated learning skills in this environment, with studies demonstrating that strategies such as mastery-based, self-paced instruction, fluency training, and timely feedback support student engagement and academic success. Early work adapting personalized instruction for online use (Pear & Crone-Todd, 1999) and subsequent studies on fluency practice (Quigley et al., 2018; Urbina et al., 2019) emphasize how these supports can improve concept retention. Despite these advances, more quantitative research is needed …

Place-Based Scholarship Utilization And Urban Black Males, Nkenge Amir Bergan

Dissertations

Despite the expansion of place-based scholarship programs across the United States, Black males from urban communities remain significantly underrepresented in post-secondary enrollment. Though these scholarships are designed to provide expanded or universal access to higher education, Black males disproportionately underutilize this financial resource. This qualitative investigation examines the lived experiences, perceptions, and contextual factors influencing Black males’ decisions regarding place-based scholarship utilization and college attendance.

This study, grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT) and self-efficacy theory, employs a qualitative design to explore participant experiences. Participants are recruited through outreach to local alumni networks and community organizations, with eligibility limited to …

A Phenomenological Study Of Black College Students’ Belonging Built Through Meaningful Interactions With Black Staff At Predominantly White Institutions, Katelyn A. Hanley Semelbauer

Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore how Black students at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) describe meaningful interactions with Black staff and how they make meaning of those interactions as it relates to building a sense of belonging. The conceptual framework for this study incorporates Strayhorn’s (2019) college students’ sense of belonging theoretical model as a foundation with Museus’s (2014) culturally engaging campus environment model as a lens for analysis of the findings.

Using a hermeneutical phenomenological approach, 12 Black undergraduate students were recruited to participate. Each of the students attended a public 4-year PWI in the Great …

Popular Protest And Corporate Reputation: Exploring The Impact On Recruitment And Retention, Heather Miller

Dissertations

In today’s sociopolitical climate, popular protest has become a powerful force shaping how organizations are judged and how people decide where to work. This qualitative study took place during a period of heightened sociopolitical activity and public unrest in the United States, when organizational responses to contested issues were especially visible and consequential. This study explored how popular protest affects corporate reputation (CR) and, in turn, influences employee recruitment and retention. Drawing on stakeholder theory (ST), corporate social responsibility (CSR), and corporate social advocacy (CSA), the study situated popular protest as an external pressure that exposes alignment or misalignment in …

Workload As A Tipping Point: A Serial Mediation Model Examining The Roles Of Job Crafting And Workload On Work Engagement, Affective Commitment, And Turnover Intentions, Jessica E. Langston

Dissertations

Job crafting is one way in which employees can boost their performance and satisfaction, and organizations can reap the benefits of high performance. Job crafting refers to an employee’s ability to proactively redesign a job to foster their satisfaction, engagement, and resilience toward work (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). After twenty-five years of study, the positive impacts of job crafting are well-established (Bhagat & Arora, 2021; Bruning & Campion, 2018; Wong et al., 2017; Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). Recently scholars have noted the potential downsides and have called for more research into the nuances of job crafting when explored through the …

The Perceived Cultural Intelligence Of Leadership And Its Impact On Employee Organizational Commitment And Workplace Well-Being, Melinda Bowens

Dissertations

In today’s continuously evolving workplace, the role of leadership has expanded beyond traditional management competencies to encompass the ability to recognize, navigate, and leverage cultural differences. This quantitative study examines the relationship among perceived leader cultural intelligence, employee workplace well-being, and organizational commitment. Recognizing that workplace well-being and organizational commitment are critical to the overall health and success of organizations, it is essential to gain a greater understanding of the factors that influence these constructs. Accordingly, this study collected from 410 participants to investigate the relationship between perceived cultural intelligence of leadership, employee organizational commitment, and workplace well-being. Employing a …

Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Second-Career Educators, Kyle Avink

Dissertations

School districts across the United States face a persistent teacher shortage driven by high attrition rates, declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs, and increasing demands on educators (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017). Teacher attrition is especially high within the first three to five years, with nearly 40-50% of new teachers exiting within their first five years (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017; Cells et al., 2023; Gray et al., 2015; Ingersoll et al., 2025). In response, many states have expanded alternative certification pathways that allow professionals from other fields to enter teaching, making second-career educators a potential solution to workforce challenges (Afacan, 2022; …

Assessing The Viability Of Cryptocurrency As A Payment Method: A Consumer Perspective, Aadavan Dharumaiyan

Dissertations

The problem addressed in this study was the limited mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies for daily retail transactions despite continued technological advancement and increasing institutional interest. The purpose of this qualitative study, grounded in Husserlian descriptive phenomenology, was to explore the perceptual and behavioral factors influencing this adoption gap. Participants were recruited using snowball sampling, resulting in eight participants divided into two cohorts: active cryptocurrency payment users (Cohort 1, n = 2) and cryptocurrency holders who did not use cryptocurrencies for payments (Cohort 2, n = 6). Data were analyzed using the Moustakas phenomenological approach to identify patterns in participant experiences. …

Unpacking American Reception Of Glocalized Non-English Content In The Netflix Era, Sur Govindarajan

Dissertations

The swift growth of streaming services has revolutionized the worldwide distribution of media, making it possible for non-English and non-English-adjacent content to reach American consumers on a never-before-seen scale, which is sometimes perceived as an indication of increasing cultural tolerance. However, while a lot is known about what audiences see, far less is known about how they really understand and assess these stories. There is a fundamental vacuum in our understanding of audience reception as a lived, meaning-making process because previous research has mostly focused on consumption patterns. In order to close that gap, this study examines how American audiences …

Navigating Recovery: A Qualtitive Study Of Harm Reduction And Sobriety Among African American In Redlined Chicago Neighborhoods, Erica N. Tate

Dissertations

This qualitative study examines the lived experiences of African American individuals residing in historically redlined communities in Chicago who are maintaining sobriety using harm reduction strategies. Grounded in the context of structural inequities, the study explores how social determinants of health, including limited healthcare access, transportation barriers, and community disinvestment, shape recovery pathways. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals in sustained recovery and providers, and the data were analyzed using inductive and deductive thematic approaches. Findings indicate that recovery is an ongoing process influenced by environmental exposure, trauma, and access to support systems.

Participants identified harm reduction strategies, such as …

Ptsd, Policy, And Passion: An Advocate's Autoethnographic Journey To Improve Veteran Care, Christopher L. Stansbury

Dissertations

                                                                Abstract

This autoethnographic study focuses on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among U.S. veterans and the policies and practices that impact life outcomes. The research answers the questions: (1) what insights emerge from the author’s embedded advocacy experience; (2) what systemic barriers impede veterans’ access to PTSD treatment; and (3) how does military culture shape help-seeking behavior. This research draws on the author’s multigenerational and institutional ties to military service—as descendant of a Korean-era veteran, Marine and Army servicemember, VA employee, and veteran advocate. The researcher constructs detailed autoethnographic and composite narratives of the lived experiences of service members who develop …

Host Families’ Perspectives Of The Impact Of The Commodification Of Education On The Student-Host Family Relationship In Study Abroad, Guadalupe Bustamante

Dissertations

The growing commodification of education has reshaped study abroad in ways that extend beyond marketing and program design. While homestays have traditionally been viewed as the ideal format for cultural immersion and language acquisition, research has largely overlooked how these trends affect the student-host family relationship from the family's perspective.

This study examines whether, and, if so, how Spanish host families perceive their roles and relationships with the American students they host have been impacted by these trends. Using a qualitative exploratory case study design, the research focused on representatives from eight families in Madrid, who have hosted U.S. students …