Digital Commons Network^™

Physical Activity As An Intervention For Pain Based On Gate Control Theory, Martha E. Mcdonald

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of physical activity on pain tolerance and pain perception. The expectation that physical activity would reduce the perception of pain was deduced from clinical observation and propositions of the Gate Control Theory. The specific proposition tested was that large primary afferent fiber stimulation would inhibit pain perception. Following this proposition, stimulation of innocuous fibers by muscle movement should mediate pain perception. The hypothesis tested was that there would be no difference in time to tolerance or descriptors of pain perception among subjects when they experienced noxious stimulation with no intervention …

A Mixed-Methods Study Of How Elementary Principals Build Trust With Staff Using Weisman’S Five Domains Of Trust Model, Diana Escalante

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to identify and describe how elementary school principals establish trust with staff using the 5 domains of competence, consistency, concern, candor, and connection (Weisman, 2010). In addition, it was the purpose of this study to determine the elementary school principals’ perceived degree of importance for the 5 domains of consistency, competence, candor, concern, and connection for building trust.

Methodology: This mixed-methods research design used quantitative and qualitative data to analyze the research questions related to trust between elementary school principals and their staff. This study used both surveys and in-person interviews. The …

Examining Inter-Relationships Between Supervisor Full-Range Leadership, Organizational Climate Strength, And Employee Job Satisfaction Using Multi-Level Modeling, Bharat Mohan

Dissertations

Employee job satisfaction, organizational climate, and supervisor leadership style have long been researched due to their influences on critical metrics for measuring organizational success. While the relationships between these three variables have been investigated, current research suffers from two major issues. First, no existing study has explored the inter-relationships between the aforementioned components within the same model. Second, existing studies are fraught with levels-of-analysis issues that yield findings that are either incomplete or inaccurate. This study addresses these issues by introducing organizational climate strength as a mediating variable (between supervisor leadership and employee satisfaction) and by employing multi-level modeling techniques. …

Making The Invisible Visible: Capturing The Multidimensional Value Of Volunteerism To Nonprofit Organizations, Sue Carter Kahl

Dissertations

Volunteers represent an important part of the nonprofit labor pool, and their contributions are diverse and significant. Yet, the assessment of the value that they bring to nonprofit organizations often is reduced to a few numbers and understood to be an economic decision based on their absence of wages. This value is traditionally reported as volunteer numbers, hours, and an hourly financial value assigned to volunteer time. These data are important tools for articulating volunteer contributions. However, the emphasis on numbers and economic value sometimes obscures important dimensions of service. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to reveal more …

Truth Or Myth? Millennial Stereotypes, Self-Image, And Engagement In The Workplace, Stephanie Van Dellen

Dissertations

There are approximately 58 million Millennials working for corporations in the United States. Millennials generally born between the years 1980 to 1995 are said to have been shaped by events such as the invention of the Internet and cell phones. Given that Millennials make up a large percentage of the active workforce, it is important to understand the perceived stereotypes of Millennials and how these generalizations may impact their engagement and effectiveness at work.

This research aims to better understand how managers perceive Millennial employees, how Millennials self-identify with their generational stereotypes, and how they differ from other generations. The …

Employee Engagement And Burnout: A Quantitative Study Of Their Correlations With Job/Organizational Satisfaction, Sarah Burnett

Dissertations

Since Kahn introduced the concept of employee engagement in 1990, the focus on motivating employees has been en vogue in practitioner literature. The federal government as well now measures its agencies annually on how well they implement conditions conducive to engagement. Federal agencies are also ranked annually as “Best Places to Work” based on their aggregated score on three survey items deemed to represent job/organizational satisfaction. The concept of burnout, or the so-called “erosion of engagement”, however, has received significantly less attention. To begin to fill this void in the literature, secondary survey data from the 2017 Organizational Assessment Survey …

Seeking Mirrors: Representation And Identity At Asian Pacific Islander Film Festivals, Yang Jiang

Dissertations

Media representation plays an important role in shaping how we perceive ourselves. For ethnic and racial minorities, studies have confirmed that exposure to stereotypical and negative representations can harm the development of ethnic and racial identity. Currently, however, there is little understanding of how representation can support the development of ethnic and racial identity. Essentially, what might visibility, rather than invisibility, in media representation look like, and what is the relationship between visibility and ethnic and racial identity?

This dissertation sought to address these questions by looking at the experience of Asian Pacific Islander (API) attendees at API film festivals. …

Exploring, Examining, And Explaining How Participatory Governance Adds Value To Saudi Foundations’ Philanthropic Strategy, Afnan E. Koshak

Dissertations

Foundations’ flexibility, given their independence from fundraising imperatives, competition forces, and accountability pressures, enables them to invest in long-term, high-risk, multi-level experiments to deal with the increasingly complex societal problems. This flexibility, coupled with the growing role philanthropy plays in promoting social welfare across the world, is arguably what makes studies that focus on foundations’ philanthropic approaches of utmost importance.

There is a mounting interest among scholars in the governance of foundations, the systems and processes concerned with ensuring the overall strategic direction of organizations. Influenced by agency and stewardship theories, an increasing number of studies address such topics as …

How Navy And Marine Corps Veterans Make Meaning Of The College Choice Process In The Post-9/11 Gi Bill Era, Derek Abbey

Dissertations

The Post-9/11 GI Bill was implemented in 2009. Since then more than 1,900,000 people have used the benefit and more than $90 billion have been paid to institutions of higher learning and to Post-9/11 GI Bill users. During this period there has been a shift in the types of college and universities veterans attend, as well as the educational models they select. These shifts are different than the general population of students. This period also included a spike in questionable recruiting practices by some colleges. In response to many institutions taking advantage of veterans, the President of the United States …

Social Innovators And Developmental Stages, Juan Carlos Rivas Espinosa

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The past two decades have seen increased interest in social innovation as a leading source of change. While social innovation literature experienced vast growth, particularly in the Western world, there is limited research on the individuals engaged in it, especially concerning their leadership practice. The extant research focuses mostly on identifying traits and competencies exhibited by social innovators. These individuals are often thought of as exceptional people able to think systemically to identify and solve problems in novel ways. The field runs the risk of perpetuating the idea that to be a social innovator one must possess a specific …

Discursive Leadership: Exploring The "Black Box" Challenge In Transcultural Leadership Studies, Christopher Patrick Brown

Dissertations

The increasingly globalized U.S. workforce includes significant numbers of adult immigrants integrating into the North American professional sphere. As such, it is important to have concrete ways to study and interpret different cultures’ thinking about teamwork, and their models of enacting shared leadership and communication in a multicultural context. Since 2006, hundreds of millions in federal grant funding has been invested in university-based language and culture programs focused on training government personnel and heritage populations in the languages and cultures of the Middle East and Central and Southeast Asia. Little is known about the performative strengths and challenges of the …

The Development Of Local Government Leaders: The Use Of Competencies And Methods In A City Context, Dominika Bukalova

Dissertations

How do local government leaders perceive the development of their leadership competencies and the methods they have used to acquire competencies to meet on-the-job challenges in a city context? There have been few attempts to document leaders’ perceptions of the competencies they need or how they get developed; however, the critical and ubiquitous role of city government demands that we increase understanding of these crucial issues. Not only does a majority of the world’s population already live in urban areas (i.e., areas in which competent local governmental activity is required), but this percentage is forecasted to increase from 55% to …

Legal Accountability And Nonprofit Governance: An Exploratory Quantitative Study Of Board Member And Executive Knowledge Of Fiduciary Duties, Crystal Trull

Dissertations

United States nonprofits are governed by boards of directors who have legal responsibilities based on the fiduciary duties of care, loyalty, and obedience. Boards, along with the chief executive, are held responsible to fulfill these standards which are designed to hold nonprofits legally accountable to carry out their tax exempt purpose by using organizational resources for the intended purpose, avoid conflict of interest, and ensure compliance. However, despite this weighty responsibility and the voluntary nature of nonprofits, no standardized process exists to educate nonprofit leaders about their legal responsibilities.

While governance is a key area of nonprofit research, there is …

A Tale Of Two Influences: An Exploration Of Downward Accountability In World Vision International, Elena Mccollim

Dissertations

International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) face increasing accountability challenges stemming from past scandals and their claims to advance the public good. Since the 1990s, INGOs have responded with numerous reforms. The creation of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership in 2003 and the INGO Accountability Charter in 2009 reflect sector-wide efforts to enhance accountability to mission, intended beneficiaries, and peer organizations.

Many INGOs have adopted a broad range of accountability reforms. This dissertation focuses on how World Vision, the world’s largest INGO, has done so. Downward accountability remains elusive due to such factors as INGOs’ lack of transparency toward beneficiaries; the power imbalance …

Evolving An Ecological Way Of Thinking: Social Interactions And The Construction Of Environmentally Sustainable Behaviors In Adolescents During Expeditionary Learning, Jennifer Fruend

Dissertations

The people around us - as well as the methodical progression of education through content - often shape our relationship to the world. Currently, Earth is at a crossroads, which requires humans to act and live more sustainably with an intentional environmental ethos, whether for literal survival or for slowing Earth’s resource degradation. Situated within the models of ecological contributors such as Aldo Leopold, transformational experiences, particularly when processed with self-reflection, writing, and social interaction, can change behaviors and priorities in individuals. Additionally, by recognizing the place of social learning components in expeditionary, informal, or adventure-based education settings, the potential …

Policy Alternatives That Provide California School Districts With The Policy Options Necessary To Develop Facilities To Enhance Student Learning Opportunities And Optimize Financial Resources, Brett Mitchell

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop policy alternatives by the years 2019 to 2025 that would assist state policy makers, legislators, and advocates in adding definition to California school facility development and funding.

Methodology: This study involved descriptive statistics using a Delphi study method. Within the theoretical framework established for policy analysis, this Delphi study was inclusive of the knowledge and expertise of an expert panel that was nominated through peers. The Delphi panel consisted of 24 experts knowledgeable about statewide school facilities policy in California. The Delphi study was comprised of 3 rounds of electronic questionnaires …

Mental Health Nurses' Imagination, Power, And Empathy: A Descriptive Study Using Rogerian Nursing Science, Maureen B. Doyle

Dissertations

The researcher developed a perspective on empathy derived from Rogers' (1970, 1994) Science of Unitary Human Beings. Building on Barrett's (1983) Rogerian theory of power as knowing participation in change, the researcher proposed that empathy and power would change relative to each other and relative to the creative manifestation of human imagination. Using a descriptive correlational design, three hypotheses predicting that empathy, power, and imagination would each be related positively to one another were tested.

The Relationship Between Two Types Of Artificial Lighting And Restlessness As Manifested By Level Of Activation And Motor Activity In The Elderly, Ann F. Kolanowski

Dissertations

The researcher's purpose in this study was to investigate a proposed relationship between the spectral power distribution of two different fluorescent lights and two measures of restlessness, motor activity and level of activation. Motor activity was measured using Down's and Fitzpatrick's (1926) Motor Activity Rating Scale. Level of activation was measured using Hoskins (1978) alternate forms of Thayer's Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List. The spectral power distribution of fluorescent lights was selected as a stimulus which might induce restlessness because different colors are known to have different arousing potentials. A General Electric Chroma 50 lamp provided broad spectrum fluorescent lighting. This …

A Description Of Self-Concept Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Kathryn R. Lynch

Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to describe self-concept following a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) at the expected endpoint of maximum recovery of function. According to the literature, this endpoint occurs between six and twelve weeks after injury. Additionally, the study was designed to identify any relationships among self-concept, injury severity, and neuropsychological outcome. It was believed that the description and identification of factors associated with self-concept would enhance nursing's knowledge regarding the experience of mild TBI and the nursing diagnosis 'disturbance in self-concept'. Rosenberg's framework was used to investigate self-concept. Rosenberg describes self-concept as a tripartite structure …

Patterns Of Fatigue And Factors Influencing Fatigue During Adjuvant Breast Cancer Chemotherapy, Ann M. Berger

Dissertations

Women beginning adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer seek information from health professionals regarding fatigue, but knowledge regarding this distressing symptom is currently limited. The purposes of this study were to describe the patterns of fatigue and of factors influencing fatigue across the first three cycles of chemotherapy and to determine the extent to which health and functional status, chemotherapy protocol, physical activity behaviors, activity/rest cycles, nutrition behaviors and status, stress management behaviors, interpersonal relations behaviors, symptom distress and reaction to the diagnosis of cancer explain fatigue at each treatment and predict fatigue at the mid-point of the first three chemotherapy …

Food, Body Weight, And Health Among Adolescents In The Digital Age: An Explorative Study From A Health Promotion Perspectives, Christopher Bjorn Holmberg

Dissertations

The overall aim of this thesis was to explore adolescents' relationship with food, body weight, and health communication in online digital media, as well as how adolescents experience participating in a health promotion intervention regarding food and physical activity habits. Health promotion as a research area served three purposes: to inform the research questions, to direct the data collection, and to identify implications from the research findings. The four included studies explored how adolescents portray food in a widely used image-sharing application, why and how adolescents in treatment for obesity engaged with online health-related information, and how these adolescents experienced …

Phylogeographic Relationships Of Coereba Flaveola And Their Malaria Parasites, Meghann Humphries

Dissertations

This dissertation is broadly focused on elucidating how the geographic structure and demographic changes in host and parasite populations relate to one another, and how such interactions contribute to the generation and maintenance of biological diversity.

I begin by investigating the population structure of the Coereba flaveola (bananaquit) population within Puerto Rico, which is the apparent source of several expansions of the species into the Lesser Antilles. These findings indicate that both island and taxon effects influence the observed demographic changes. Because susceptibility to antagonists is related to both host species-specific characteristics and to geographical location, coevolutionary outcomes of these …

Development Of A Foot Care Knowledge Test For Elderly People With Diabetes, Nelda C. Martinez

Dissertations

Purpose of the study was to develop a valid and reliable instrument to measure foot care knowledge in elderly people with diabetes. Utilizing a three phase design, Phase I focused on survey of foot care content deemed important by a geographically random, stratified sample of 90 diabetes nurse educators. With 71% of subjects responding, results indicated that Foot/Nail Care, Footwear/Shoes, and Footwear/Socks, Stockings, Hosiery were considered the three most important aspects of foot care related to elderly people with diabetes. Data were used in Phase II to design a 25 item, multiple choice foot care knowledge test corresponding to a …

Self-Selected Distraction For Acute Procedural Pain In Adolescents: An Intervention Feasibility Study, Debra A. Jeffs

Dissertations

This feasibility study evaluated all phases of the planned main study. The study tested the effect of self-selected distraction on acute pain perception in adolescents undergoing allergy skin testing. Distraction is a cognitive-behavioral nonpharmacologic nursing intervention used to divert attention from painful stimuli, which is supported by the gate control theory and distraction framework. A developmental model of adolescence provided a framework for testing self-selected distraction with adolescents for whom choice and control are important developmental concerns.

What is the effect of distraction on acute procedural pain perception in adolescents? Specifically, what is the effect of self-selected distraction, rather than …

Early Outcomes From Mild Traumatic Brain Injury From Child And Proxy Perspectives, Pamela Pieper

Dissertations

Approximately 70-90% of traumatic brain injuries are mild, with a worldwide incidence greater than 600 per 100,000 people. Previous studies of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) after a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) have not included child perspectives or children discharged from the Emergency Department.

This study evaluates, from perspectives of children and their proxies, whether children who have sustained an mTBI return to pre-injury levels of HRQoL by 1-month post-injury and whether their HRQoL is different from that of mild non-brain injured or uninjured children at either time point. It also compares child/proxy dyad ratings of the child's HRQoL.

Fleet Mental Health: A Discourse Analysis Of Navy Leaders' Attitudes About Mental Health Problems, Richard J. Westphal

Dissertations

Mental disorders are a significant source of medical and occupational morbidity for active duty military members. The majority of military personnel believe that using mental health services will cause career harm, and over 81% of those with mental health problems do not seek treatment. The literature suggests that stigma and fear of negative career impact are significant barriers to the use of mental health services. Military members have indicated that concern about leaders' attitudes is a barrier to seeking help. The attitude of military leaders is important because those leaders have authority over both subordinates' careers and their access to …

Effectiveness Of Experiential Learning Strategies, Debra L. Fowler

Dissertations

The aim of this experimental study was to determine if Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing (BSN) students who complete a service learning (SL) assignment within a nursing course score significantly higher on the Nursing Professional Values Scale—Revised (NPVS-R) compared to an attention control group of BSN students in the same nursing course.

Clinical Decision-Making Among Nursing Students: An Interpretive Study, Ann Hanson White

Dissertations

Clinical decision making has been identified as one of the most important contributions made by the professional nurse in the care of patients. Yet as a discipline, we continue to question what factors influence the development of clinical decision making skills. The purpose of this study was to identify how nursing students learn clinical decision making. Heideggerian phenomenology and hermeneutical analysis provided the framework and method for the study.

The Impact Of Instructional Technology On Lesson Effectiveness And Obstacles To Incorporating Technology Into Lesson Design As Perceived By Elementary School Teachers, Sarah Loring

Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and describe the impact of instructional technology on lesson effectiveness and obstacles to incorporating instructional technology into lesson design as perceived by elementary school teachers.

Methodology. A qualitative ethnographic method was used in this study. Triangulation was accomplished through the collection and analysis of direct interviews, and artifacts shared by educators and strengthened by information-rich data provided in direct observations.

Findings: Major finding of the study showed high student engagement with the use of technology, and unavailability of the internet/Chromebooks as a big obstacle to technology integration.

Conclusions: Based on …

Experienced Engagement In Appreciative Advising Of Adjunct Professors In Community College Education, Margaret Kenrick

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study was to identify what Appreciative Advising strategies were used by adjunct professors to engage community-college students when participating in Appreciative Advising. The study was also designed to describe the experiences of the adjunct professors as they implemented the strategies of Appreciative Advising with students. In addition, it was the purpose of this study to describe the benefits and challenges adjunct professors experienced when participating in Appreciative Advising. Finally, this study sought to describe the impact to teaching practices experienced by adjunct professors who participated in Appreciative Advising.

Methodology: This study used …