Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Intimate Partner Relationship Satisfaction Among Women Who Have Experienced Discrimination And Childhood Trauma, Rachel L. Gaglio

Dissertations

Objective: Connections may exist between intimate partner relationship satisfaction outcomes and experiences of childhood trauma and discrimination among women. The majority of existing research highlights individual trauma impacting relationship satisfaction that includes military experience, childhood trauma, domestic violence, and sexual assault, yet there is a gap in research which expands on both childhood trauma and discrimination endured among women in relation to intimate partner relationship satisfaction outcomes, as they relate to intimacy and closeness and resolving conflict and arguments. The present study explored the links between childhood trauma and discrimination experienced by women and their connection in intimate partner relationship …

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 …

A Trinity Of Forces: A Critical Investigation Of The Intersection Of Lived Experience, Jesuit Secondary Education, And Corporate Curricula, Bernhard Bruno Walke

Dissertations

This dissertation examines how students' identities and personal experiences shape their encounters with both Jesuit Secondary Education and the Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP). Throughout this qualitative analysis, the researcher will examine how identity, secondary education, and corporate attitudes coexist, overlap, conflict, intersect, and compete with one another. By employing Gloria Ladsen-Billings’s Critical Race Theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), Dolores Delgado Bernal and Daniel Solórzano’s contributions to Latinx Criticism (Lat Crit), (Solorzano & Bernal, 2001), Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Theory of Intersectionality (K. Crenshaw, 1989), and Tara Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth Model (Yosso, 2005), the researcher will examine how students experience “non-linear …

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 …

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 …

Enhancing Control Charting Schemes And Exploring New Assessment Metrics To Advance Quality Control And Cyber-Attack Detection In Manufacturing, Ahmad Al Majali

Dissertations

The increasing integration of digital technologies and industrial control systems in modern manufacturing has introduced new cybersecurity vulnerabilities within cyber–physical production environments. Malicious actors can exploit these vulnerabilities to induce subtle process deviations that degrade product quality while remaining undetected by conventional statistical monitoring tools. Such attacks can be deliberately engineered to manipulate process behavior through transient shifts that vary in magnitude, duration, and frequency. Despite extensive research on transient shifts caused by assignable causes in Statistical Process Control (SPC), limited attention has been given to intelligently designed cyber–physical attacks that exploit the structural characteristics and limitations of control charting …

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 …

Perceptions And Practices: A Qualitative Study Of Middle Grades Physical Science Teachers’ Knowledge And Use Of Formative Assessment, Michelle Morgan

Dissertations

Declining content mastery scores in middle grades physical science across the River Valley School District, as reflected in College and Career Ready Performance Index data, have raised concerns about instructional practices and the use of formative assessment. Although formative assessment is widely recognized as a high-impact practice, limited research has examined how middle school physical science teachers’ conceptual knowledge aligns with their instructional planning and classroom practices. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore teachers’ knowledge of formative assessment and the relationship between their stated beliefs and instructional practices. Participants included five eighth-grade physical science teachers …

Secondary Teachers’ Perceptions Of Professional Development And Learning, Shannon Thompson Lawson

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research was to examine how secondary teachers perceive their professional learning and development experiences and how organizational and leadership structures shape those perceptions. This study was grounded in phenomenographic methodology, which seeks to understand the qualitatively different ways individuals experience a shared phenomenon. Leader–member exchange (LMX) theory and transformative learning theory served as interpretive frameworks for examining relational leadership dynamics and shifts in instructional beliefs and practices.

A purposeful sample of 10 secondary teachers (Grades 9–12) from a suburban public high school participated in the study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed using …

The Digital Divide And Participation In Financial Services: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective, Melissa A. Cunningham-Sereque

Dissertations

The global financial technology (FinTech) market reached nearly $395 billion in 2025 and is projected to surpass $1 trillion within the next decade (Fortune Business Insights, 2025). As digital technologies become increasingly embedded in banking and financial services, this dissertation responds to calls within the Information Systems (IS) discipline to better understand digital access, inclusion, and participation in financial systems (PFS). Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory, this study used prominent dimensions from extant digital divide literature to build a digital resource domain consisting of connectability, affordability, usability, mentality, and skill. These dimensions are proposed to influence intrinsic motivation, …

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 …

Practices And Strategies Used In Classrooms For Children Who Are Deaf With Autism, Jennifer Anne Hills

Dissertations

Deaf education has a history spanning more than 200 years; however, there remain relatively few evidence-based practices specifically identified for use with children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH; Cawthon & Carrie, 2021). In contrast, autism as a diagnostic and educational category is a much more recent phenomenon. Just over 80 years ago, Donald Triplett, became the first person diagnosed with autism in the United States (Donovan & Zucker, 2016). The diagnosis and education of autism is a newer phenomenon with strong research underpinnings. Conversely, the field of deaf education has existed for over 200 years, yet few evidence-based practices …

The Relationship Of Analysis And Performance In Henri Tomasi’S Concerto Pour Trombone Et Orchestre, Craig Owen Hull

Dissertations

Henri Tomasi’s Concerto pour Trombone et Orchestre is regarded as one of the most important pieces within the trombone solo repertoire. However, neither Tomasi nor his Concerto pour Trombone et Orchestre have received a notable amount of scholarly attention. This is likely due to Tomasi’s obscurity to a general audience and too few trombonists engaging in analytical and historical scholarly endeavors. However, the quality of the composer, his work, and the lack of scholarship surrounding it encourage such a study to exist.

The music theory discipline known as analysis and performance relies on analysis and historical context. The combination of …

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 …

Behavior Of A Mildly Skewed Network Tied-Arch Bridge During Construction And Early Service Life, Harsha Amunugama

Dissertations

This dissertation work investigated the structural performance of the 2nd Avenue Bridge in Detroit, Michigan, the first skewed, unbraced network tied-arch bridge in the U.S. The 245-ft long, 96.5-ft wide bridge features an 18-degree skew. The bridge was constructed using accelerated bridge construction (ABC) techniques, including off-site fabrication at a bridge staging area (BSA) and installation via self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) and lateral launching, enabling the completion of construction with minimal disruptions to I-94 traffic and improved safety.

Given the unique structural configuration of the bridge, the use of innovative construction techniques, and differences observed in structural responses predicted by …

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 …

Transparency And Accessibility In State Transportation Performance Reporting: A Systematic Examination Of State Department Of Transportation Websites Under Map-21, Jack Alan Klee

Dissertations

In the United States, all 50 State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) rely on federal funding as a key revenue source for roadway preservation programs. The 2012 Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act introduced a performance-based framework for transportation policy, establishing seven national goal areas that require state DOTs to report performance outcomes. As MAP-21 reaches its ten-year milestone, this dissertation investigates the extent to which state DOTs demonstrate transparency and accessibility in reporting federally mandated performance management results. Despite the centrality of performance reporting to accountability and public trust, systematic evaluations of these dimensions remain limited …

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 …

Convergence And Divergence Of Opinion About Treatment Of Binocular Vision Disorders Among Vision Care Professionals, Sonia Young

Dissertations

There are three distinct professions prominent in the field of pediatric vision care. They are ophthalmology, optometry and orthoptics. All professions are integral to the detection and treatment of pediatric binocular vision disorders. However, distinct schools of thought exist to describe the best approach to pediatric binocular vision disorders and their treatments. Literature often highlights two opposing schools of thought represented by the “medical” and “behavioral” approaches. While there is academic debate about the merits and pitfalls of either approach, there is a paucity of nuanced perspectives which more closely resemble the ways in which pediatric ocular clinicians approach diagnosis …

“The Thorns Of The Most Severe Virtue”: Education, Religion, And Cultural Power In Michigan, 1798–1855, Kyle Christopher Vanderwall

Dissertations

This project seeks to demonstrate the centrality of education and religion as cultural power levers used by Americans, Odawa, and Catholic missionaries. Though the power of each culture was uneven, efforts to create educational institutions imbued with different denominations of Christianity, as well as continued contestation over land, remade the cultures of all involved. Americans privileged state-building practices, the Odawa acculturated to remain in Michigan when removal policies were enacted throughout the United States, and the Catholic church attempted to proselytize Indigenous communities.

Although the ethnohistorical method needed to be understood in order to write this project, it is not …

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 …

Structure-Property Relationships In Epoxy/Amine-Derived Polyester Thermosets, Jeffrey Aguinaga

Dissertations

This dissertation relates to ester-containing aromatic epoxy monomers and thermosets formed via reaction of those monomers with either ester-containing or non-ester-containing amine comonomers.  Due to the wide array of potential reactants (many bioderivable) to form ester-containing epoxy monomers that are closely related in structure, fundamental study of structure-property relationships was highly practical for this platform of materials.

Though properties of aromatic epoxy thermosets of relatively high-crosslink density and network strand rigidity vary widely with chemical composition and architecture, relatively low fracture toughness and impact resistance due to lack of ductility are typical. Integration of ester functionality and aliphatic spacers/connectors for …