Digital Commons Network^™

Maternal Depression And Child Maladjustment: The Role Of Parental Style, Mallory Casey Mcbride

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Parental practices are perhaps the most important aspect of a child’s development. Diana Baumrind was one of the first to attempt to conceptualize parenting and she identified four distinct categories of parental style. Building upon Baumrind’s work, Ellen Skinner has further refined the concept of parenting and identified six dimensions of parenting: warmth, structure, autonomy support, rejection, chaos, and coercion. Prior research supports a link between undesirable parental practices and maternal depression and both of these constructs have been shown to contribute to child maladjustment. The present study sought to further examine the relationship between maternal depression, parental style, and …

Adolescent Mothers: The Space Between What They Know And What They Do, Nicole Catherine Mccray

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Although the current rate of teen pregnancy in the United States is at a historic low (Martin et al., 2007), there are a number of risk factors associated with early parenthood. Adolescent parenthood is often embedded in a larger context of risk such as poverty, single parenthood, low educational attainment, a history of physical and emotional abuse, and engagement in risky behavior (Hans & Wakschlag, 2000). As parents, adolescent mothers tend to be less knowledgeable about child development, less stimulating in interactions with infants, less tolerant, and more punitive with punishment (Brooks-Gunn & Furstenberg, 1986). The children of adolescent mothers …

Why Take The Risk?: Women's Interpretive Repertoires For Choosing Home Birth, Laura Ann St. Clair

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this project was to use a social constructivist approach to understand the perception of risk by mothers making the choice to give birth at home in Missoula, Montana. Social constructivism assumes that knowledge about risk is filtered through “social and cultural frameworks of understanding” (Lupton and Tulloch 2002, 321). The information gained from participants in this study was interpreted as a representation of the individual’s culture, including their beliefs, values and upbringing, as well as the influences of the individual’s social network which can include family members, spouses, friends, and community members. Various phenomena, elements or constructs …

A Phenomenological Study Of Reiki Practitioners And Their Perceptions Of Reiki As It Relates To Their Personal Health, Tannis Mardece Hargrove

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to understand the essence of becoming a Reiki practitioner and Reiki’s relationship to an individual’s personal health. The phenomenological research perspective utilized in this study allowed the data to speak for itself and represented the essence of Reiki and Reiki practitioners in Missoula, Montana. Ten Reiki practitioners were interviewed about their personal experience with Reiki. Interviewees were all volunteers, over the age of 18, who were trained in Reiki II or higher and had more than three years of experience practicing Reiki. Participants had practiced Reiki either on themselves or someone else regularly, which …

A Test Of General Strain Theory: Exploring Gender Specific Emotional And Behavioral Variation, Sarah Rae Puckett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Traditional sociological theories examining delinquency typically were formulated to explain male behavior. With the universal recognition of the crime-gender gap, it is important to determine the applicability of these theories to female delinquency. This research uses the National Survey of Children (1981) to test propositions from general strain theory, specifically those outlined by Broidy and Agnew (1997). The data set allows for an expansion of the types of strain and delinquency typically examined in strain tests. Ordinary least squares regression, path analysis and a series of t-tests were used to determine variations in male and female emotional and behavioral responses …

Building The Case For Delivery Of Health Promotion Services Within The Vocational Rehabilitation, Catherine Adele Ipsen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The majority of wellness programs are offered at the worksite to full-time employees. Research about these programs indicates that participating employees experience improved health and work-related outcomes, and that outcomes are exaggerated for workers with multiple health risk factors.

People who are not employed or are underemployed cannot access health promotion services at the worksite. This is a significant barrier for people with physical disability because they experience lower rates of employment and higher rates of secondary health conditions than the general population.

Compromised health reduces the probability of full-time employment. Secondary health issues such as pain, depression, anxiety, fatigue, …

Perceived Discrimination And Depressive Symptomatology Among Native American Older Adults, Rita Haidle Billow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Recent studies have recognized discrimination as a stressor that is linked to psychological distress for those who experience such discrimination. The present study investigated the role of cultural identification as a moderator of the relationship between a global measure of perceived discrimination and depressive affect for a sample of older Native American adults, a group that has essentially been ignored in the empirical literature. The data were collected through surveys mailed to tribally-enrolled Native American adults aged 50 and older residing on a reservation in the Northwest. Multiple regression analysis was performed to test the moderating role of cultural identification. …

A Descriptive Study Of Native Americans Participation In Hiv Testing In Montana, Carrie Strike

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Since reporting first began in Montana in 1985 there have been few, if any, significant changes in regard to HIV/AIDS case rates as well as the demographic characteristics and risk behaviors of Native Americans infected with HIV/AIDS. The fact HIV/AIDS does not appear to have had a disproportionate impact on Montana’s American Indian population at the present time is somewhat surprising given other markers of potential HIV risk, such as the increase in both teen pregnancies and other sexually transmitted disease rates like Hepatitis C, suggest an increased level of risk among American Indians when compared to non-Indian populations. Epidemiologic …

Relational Transgressions In Romantic Relationships: How Individuals Negotiate The Revelation And Concealment Of Transgression Information Within The Social Network, Melissa A. Maier

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study examined how individuals negotiate the revelation and concealment of information following an act of infidelity within the social network. Research has shown that individuals experience a tension when deciding to reveal and/or conceal information regarding a relational transgression (Baxter, 1994, Baxter & Braithwaite, 2007). Drawing on dialectical tensions (Baxter, 1990), relational transgressions (Roloff & Cloven, 1994), and support networks (Cutrona and Suhr, 1992; Klein & Milardo, 2000), this project posed a number of research questions. Interviews were conducted with 22 participants regarding their communication following the discovery of an act of infidelity. Participants were asked to discuss who …

Attachment, Personality, And Conflict Behaviors In Romantic Couples: Examining Vulnerability To Depression, Elizabeth Anne Harwood

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Major Depressive Disorder has been conceptualized from a number of theoretical perspectives. The present study aims to provide a theoretically integrated understanding of depression vulnerability. Cognitive and interpersonal theories of depressive vulnerability were considered simultaneously in a sample of undergraduate research participants. Study procedures included an attachment elicitation exercise, which was preceded by completion of a self-report measure of depressive and anxious affect. The attachment elicitation exercise was followed by self-report measures of relationship behavior, adult attachment style, cognitive vulnerability, depressive symptomatology, and additional self-report measures of affect. Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that the effects of insecure …

Change And Recovery From Substance Misuse: Native American Perspectives, Stacy Miller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This qualitative study investigated the constructs of change within the action and maintenance stages of the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TMC) and balance within the domains of the Medicine Wheel (MW). The guiding questions addressed: a) point of focus in sobriety and recovery phases within the domains of the MW, b) specific mechanisms at work, c) support systems, tools, temptations, motivating factors, maintenance, gains, losses, and personal reasons for change, d) spiritual component, e) connection between tribal culture and recovery, and f) distinction between sobriety and recovery.

Eight adult Native Americans in sobriety or recovery for a minimum of 3 …

Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta Splendens) Show Self-Control For Access To A Mirror, Christopher Matthew Collins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Self control is defined as choosing a larger, delayed reinforcer over a smaller, more immediate reinforcer with the opposite defined as impulsivity. In general, results from self-control research involving avian and non-primate mammalian subjects have shown a strong to moderate impulsive choice bias whereas studies using adult humans and non-human primates have shown a strong self-control bias. While the non-human self-control literature is rich with studies using select avian and mammalian species, there is very little self-control literature on the choice behaviors of fish or social reward. The present experiment assessed preference in male Betta splendens using an immediate/2 sec …

The Leadership Role In Online Support Programs For Beginning Teachers, Nancy K. Gagen Clouse

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As distance learning opportunities foster a wide array for online mentoring, program administrators are in need of research supporting the successful development and management of such efforts. This qualitative research examined the leadership perspectives, skills, and strategies involved in developing and administering an online support program (also referred to as electronic mentoring) designed to help beginning teachers transition into the profession and improve their retention (National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 2003). The population was comprised of all known programs established to date in the United States. Interviews were conducted of 28 program administrators representing 20 online programs for …

Learning Communities, Achievement And Completion: Exploring Relationships In Southern Alberta Secondary Schools, Corrienne Janet Beres

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Longitudinal studies carried out by Statistics Canada and Human Resources Development Canada (Bowlby & McMullen, 2002) identified that dropout rates are high in Canada in relation to other developed nations. In 2003, Alberta's Commission on Learning found that one quarter of Alberta's high school enrollees were not completing high school. The Commission proposed the formation of learning communities as one way to increase the achievement of students in Alberta, with the intention that this would then increase the number of students completing high school. This research was undertaken to ascertain how mature the learning communities were in the high schools …

An Analysis Of Alberta's First Nations, Metis, And Inuit School-Community Learning Environment Project, Kelly Burke Thomas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The First Nations, Métis, and Inuit School-Community Learning Environment Project was one of the programs through which the Aboriginal Branch of Alberta Education attempted to increase the academic success rate of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students. Sixteen school jurisdictions in Alberta were asked to choose one school within their district on which to focus the resources offered by the Project. These resources included a large amount of money and print materials prepared by the Aboriginal Branch. The schools were asked to consult with the school community and area residents, including elders, to prepare strategies they believed would fulfill the …

Student Academic Performance In Skills-Based Technology Courses Delivered Through Different Scheduling Formats, Shaun Eric Scott

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This descriptive study investigated student academic performance in skills-based word processing courses taught in two different scheduling formats at one small rural western United States university over the period of several years. One scheduling format followed a more traditional approach where courses were taken at the same time as at least one other course and in a time frame more resembling a typical semester. This distributed practice model, or cohort approach, required a prerequisite beginning level course or appropriate substitute course before enrolling in an advanced word processing course, thus spreading the instructional time over a longer timeframe. The other …

Cyber Bullying And Victimization: Psychosocial Characteristics Of Bullies, Victims, And Bully/Victims, Delia Carroll Campfield

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study explored cyber bullying and victimization. The use of technology as a vehicle for peer victimization is increasing and is associated with a risk of psychosocial maladjustment (Finkelhor, et al., 2000; Wolak, et al., 2006; Ybarra & Mitchell, 2004a, 2004b). It is thought to peak during middle school (Harris & Petrie, 2002); thus, the sample included 6th, 7th, and 8th graders who identified themselves as cyber bullies, victims, or bully/victims. Hypotheses were as follows: face-to-face bullies and victims would also be involved in cyber bullying and victimization, with females being more involved than males; cyber bullying and victimization would …

Custer's Last Drag: An Examination Of Tobacco Use Among The Seventh Cavalry During The Nineteenth Century, Shannon Marjorie Vihlene

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tobacco has played an integral role in global history, and there are numerous historical records related to tobacco use over the past five hundred years. The odontological evidence recovered from the Custer National Battlefield infers a high frequency of tobacco use within the Seventh Calvary, yet nineteenth century historical records fail to mention such intensive use in the Seventh Calvary. This paper will briefly discuss late nineteenth century tobacco culture and apply that to a bioarchaeological research project associated with remains from the Custer National Battlefield to addresses this contradiction between historical and physical records.

Exploring The Experiences Of The Certified Athletic Trainer And The Athlete Post-Surgery, Sarah G. Cummings

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

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Development Of The Secondary Conditions Among Adolescents With Disabilities (Scaad) Instrument: An Exploratory Study, Marie Middleton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to develop a measure of secondary conditions, explore the reliability and validity of the measure, and explore the relationship between secondary conditions and participation among adolescents with disabilities. This research collected ratings of limitation due to secondary conditions, and ratings of participation for 24 adolescents with Intellectual/Developmental Disability. Data show that the participants experience an average of 11 secondary conditions during a three-month period as reported by families. The inter-rater agreement between parents and Family Support Specialists was .73 on a point-by-point comparison, and .85 when comparing whether or not limitation was a concern. …

Understanding Parental Motivation To Home School: A Qualitative Case Study, Nolen Ben Olsen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Comparatively little educational research has focused on home schooling. Since most students are educated in public schools, parents’ choice of other educational alternatives is often perceived as a deviation from the societal norm. Friends and neighbors of parents who home school rarely understand their motivation for doing so. This study addresses the following question: why do parents remove their children from traditional, public school programs to initiate home schooling, and how well do public school personnel understand this motivation? Using qualitative case study methodology, the researcher confined the study to a specific concentrated population of home schooling families. Phenomenological data …

The Extravaganza Awaits, Kathryn Lorraine Rodriguez

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Abstract The Extravaganza Awaits This paper addresses ideas in my thesis work, consisting of a series of paintings which evolved into installation. My ideas concern notions of spectacle, consumption of information, and self-gratifying selection. I lighten these ideas with humor and treat them with a carnivalesque aesthetic, appropriate to the absurdity that I see characteristic of them. Painting places the issues in a narrative context, but the story remains open- ended to allow the viewer to bring personal associations to the work. I specifically selected images of friends and family unfamiliar to the viewer and a lexicon of personal symbols …

Enlightening Leadership: A Phenomenology, Kevin M. Mays

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The mechanistic, seventeenth century paradigm that has informed the leadership of our organizations has evolved into the quantum realm. This scientific renaissance is revealing a depth of knowledge that is stirring a new found interest in wisdom traditions as the truths of modern science appear to mirror knowledge found in ancient philosophic and meditative practices. Such Eastern spiritual practices have entered into the American mainstream and are becoming validated from a scientific perspective.

Continuing research on meditation has revealed its effectiveness in producing many of the characteristics deemed essential in the field of transformational leadership. Congruently meditation centers are proliferating, …

Into The Den Of Evils: The Genizaros In Colonial New Mexico, Doris Swann Avery

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As a result of the Indian slave trade in the American Southwest, a group of detribalized Indians emerged in New Mexico during the Spanish colonial period. These Indians came to be known as the genízaros and, through the process scholars call ethnogenesis, developed their own identity by incorporating Hispano-Christian cultural practices while preserving their native ways. The genízaros were products of a widespread and lucrative trade in Plains Indian captives and, as such, they represented various tribes, including Apaches, Navajos, Comanches, Kiowas, Pawnees, Utes and Wichitas. The term “genízaro” emerged as a caste label during the Spanish colonial period and …

An Evaluation Of Visitor Decisions Regarding Alternative Transportation In Glacier National Park, Melissa Lynn Baker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2007, Glacier National Park implemented a free, voluntary shuttle bus system along the Going to the Sun Road. The first year of implementation of the transit system at Glacier National Park presented a unique opportunity to evaluate visitor behavior in national parks. One way that transportation mode choice has been understood is through the theory of planned behavior, which characterizes social behavior as the result of conscious, deliberate thought processes directly related to the behavior in question. This study examined the intersection of national park visitors' recreation experience preference and their decisions toward shuttle use in a national park. …

An Outcomes Assessment Of Two Therapeutic Group Homes Serving Children With Reactive Attachment Disorder In A Rural Community, Brooke Rose Spangler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Archival data collected on 35 4-12-year-old children, each of whom completed treatment for reactive attachment disorder (RAD), was used to evaluate a treatment program in a rural northwestern community. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (Achenbach, 1991) and Youth Outcomes Questionnaire (Y-OQ) (Burlingame, Wells, & Lambert, 1996) were completed by coding behaviors early in treatment and late in treatment from behavioral records. A correlational design was used, and t-test, repeated measures and fixed factor analyses of variance were conducted. Results showed that there was an overall decrease in the amount of maladaptive behaviors at the conclusion of residential treatment for attachment …

"Words Are No Good": The Curse Of Signification And The Curse Of Faulkner's South, Michael Joseph St. Thomas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this study I examine three of Faulkner’s novels that concern his fictional Yoknapatawpha County: As I Lay Dying (1930), Absalom, Absalom! (1936), and Go Down, Moses (1942). These novels, I argue, indicate a development in Faulkner’s relationship to the formalist hierarchy of art over real life. To show this development I will investigate the topic of language as an inadequate medium in characters’ relationships to nature and the past. In As I Lay Dying Faulkner presents words as something unable to achieve the transcendence his characters desire. In Absalom, Absalom! and Go Down, Moses the author extends this suspicion …

William Apess: Autobiography And The Conversion Of Subjectivity, Carly Jean Dandrea Madson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Madson, Carly Jean Dandrea, M. A., Summer 2008 English Chairperson: David L. Moore Abstract “William Apess: Autobiography and the Conversion of Subjectivity” In 1829, Apess published his first book A Son of the Forest, a conversion narrative documenting his life. Apess, a Pequot Methodist minister in the early nineteenth century, has recently come to the attention of academic historians, English literary, and Native American Studies scholars. Barry O’Connell of Amherst College compiled and edited Apess’s writings in On Our Own Ground: The Complete Writings of William Apess, a Pequot, published by University of Massachusetts Press in 1992. Apess may be …

Cinema's Green Is Gold: The Commodification Of Irishness In Film, Erika Noelle Mann

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis is concerned with the manners in which Irishness has become highly desirable and commodified, and the manifestations that commodification has taken in Irish film. In recognition that the Irish American diaspora holds a special regard for Irishness, I will explore reasons for the allure of Irishness for Irish Americans and how that allure contributes to commodification. Chiefly among these reasons are Irishness’ desirability as a white ethnicity and its alignment with a family values based morality. Irishness also has strong appeal for the Irish diaspora with its ties to a land that offers a welcoming “authentic” homeland and …

Remember Gay Victims: An Exploration Into The History, Testimony, And Literature Of The Persecution Of Homosexuals By The Third Reich And Their Effect On A Queer Collective Consciousness, Paul D. Vestal

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis under National Socialism during the Second World War has historically been ignored and almost completely erased. However, within the past two and a half decades a significant number of historical, academic, sociological, and literary inquiries and works have uncovered this once forgotten past. Because of these investigations, the anti-homosexual actions inflicted upon gay men by the Third Reich have the ability to impact the continual creation of a queer collective memory and consciousness. Unfortunately, many queers do not know the historic connotations and denotation of the pink triangle—a symbol worn by homosexual males …