Digital Commons Network^™

Queering Adolescent Ecology: A Minority Stress-Informed Exploration Of Risk And Protective Factors Related To Anxiety Symptoms In Gender And Sexual Minority Adolescents, Kinsie Jean Dunham

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Substantial epidemiological research (Talley et al., 2016; Burton et al., 2013; Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2011) indicates that gender and sexual minorities (GSM; non-cisgender and non-heterosexual, respectively) disproportionately experience health disparities, including anxiety disorders (e.g., panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder; Cochran et al., 2003; Gillman et al., 2001). Disparities in anxiety symptoms and disorders for GSM adults may begin to emerge in adolescence (Fish & Pasley, 2015; Needham, 2012; Ueno, 2010). In particular, GSM adolescents report higher rates of anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders (Kosciw et al., 2014; Mutanski & Liu, 2013) than heterosexual, cisgender adolescents. Minority …

Navigating Toxic Identities Within League Of Legends, Jeremy Thomas Miner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Toxicity is an inevitable part of online gaming for many individuals that participate in the activity. How individuals navigate this behavior affects not only the community but the players themselves. In essence, online world environments affect the identity of the individual within them. The magic circle separates the gaming world and the real world into two separate and distinct places, however crystalized selves posits that the identity of an individual in one sphere is part of the individual in another. Understanding the connection between these two ideas gives rise to the question of whether or not toxic behaviors in a …

Thipsinna Dakhod Wichohan Wakhan – ‘Turnip Dakhota Way Of Life Is Sacred’: A Dakhota Model For K-12 Pedagogy And Curriculum, Ramey Leigh Escarcega-Growing Thunder

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The term “cultural place-based” is used to ground this research—a specific spiritual place linked to cultural and language-based education within the homelands of the Dakȟóta, Nakoda, and Lakota peoples who inhabit territories in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Canada: The Native people regard these as their homelands. In the Dakȟóta language, itȟáŋčhaŋ translates to “a leader, boss, person in charge, position of authority, office, management, and political power,” (Lakota Language Consortium, Llc., 2013). The author utilizes the word itȟáŋčhaŋ as the cultural–educational leadership view in creating a cultural place-based model. This research identifies the impact indicators of implementing a …

An Examination Of Transitioning Meso-Institutions And Markets In The Landscape Of American Politics, Devin Thomas Marconi

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper bridges the gap in the literature between sociological accounts of market actors provided by Mark Granovetter and Douglas North, meso-institutional examinations of polarization provided by Paul Pierson and Eric Schickler, and the psychological exploration into cross-cutting identities provided by Liliana Mason. I argue that the nationalization and concentration of markets, identities, and politics have led to a transition within the meso-institution of the market from maintaining self-regulating punishment mechanisms to replacing them with self-reinforcing mechanisms, exacerbating affective polarization. Previous works explore the transition within the meso-institutions of the media, interest groups, and political parties. I include the market …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Behavioral Symptoms Associated With Trauma, Hannah Hall

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Haunted Forms: Intermediality, Trauma, And Literary Memory, Gabriella Graceffo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis considers contemporary literature’s use of intermediality as a method to heighten the affective embodiment of PTSD symptoms represented in text. Using the meaning-making structures of photography and film, the analysis examines how the writing of Georges Bataille, Annie Ernaux, Michael Ondaatje, and Bhanu Kapil use formal implicit reference—the type of intermediality in which the characteristics and semiotics of one medium are translated to another without direct reproduction—to represent both traumatic experiences themselves and the symptom domains of PTSD. Caroline Levine’s work on affordance theory from Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network provides a theoretical foundation as to how the …

“Should Wellbeing Be The Same As Perfection?” A Case Study On Student Wellbeing In Higher Mathematics Education, Marcelo Alonso Almora Rios

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Previous research has given the impression that reticent is our hunt for optimal teaching practices, educational goals, and nature of mathematical workings. In this regard, we have (seemingly) ended up with the following inquiries:

• What could the math classroom be for? and
• What has the math classroom been for?

These two questions touch on the scary horns of two other charged philosophical dandruffs. Namely:“What are the aims of teaching mathematics?” and “What should be our objectives in learning it?”

The term ‘positive education’ refers to an educational system engendering both the skills of positive wellbeing and traditional, academic achievement (Seligman …

The Influences Of Bias-Based Bullying And Teacher-Student Relationships On School Belonging, Charlotte J. Moss

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

School belonging is an important factor to examine when considering the well-being of school-aged children. Factors that may influence a student’s sense of school belonging include bias-based victimization and the quality of teacher-student relationships. Many studies have examined these three variables independently or have analyzed the interaction of two of these variables. However, there are very few studies that have specifically looked at the effects of bias-based victimization and the quality of teacher-student relationships on school belonging. In order to fill these gaps in the research, this study sampled participants using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), an online crowdsourcing platform that …

Teacher Turnover And Retention The Choice To Leave: Lived Experiences Of Teachers In Rural Montana, Brittany Elizabeth Julie Katzer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

School districts across the United States are grappling to fill, and to keep, their classrooms operating with qualified teachers, especially in rural communities. To ensure a quality education for the millions of students in the nation in the coming years, educational leaders and government officials need to evaluate what can be done to increase the number of teachers staying in their positions. Schools must be better equipped to understand what contributes to high turnover rates and the inability to retain their teachers. It is necessary to create conditions that will keep fully trained and qualified teachers in the field. The …

A Comparative Study On Critical Thinking Skills Of Isec And Non-Isec Teachers In Institutions Of Higher Education In The North Of China, Liqin Tang

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Critical thinking (CT) has become a main focus in the higher education and is viewed as one of the essential skills for students to succeed in the 21^st century. Many studies focus on Chinese students and their CT skills. There is a scarcity of research targeting teachers’ CT. However, teachers are the key to successful education and they play a crucial role in any education reform. Teachers’ perception, attitude, and experience impact the educational practice. Therefore, it is imperative to examine teachers’ CT.

This study utilized a non-experimental causal-comparative methodology with an explanatory mixed methods research design. The purpose …

A Comparison Of Barriers To Traditional And Home-Based Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Participation: Potential Implications For The Maintenance Phase, Erin Rose Madison

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Cardiac rehabilitation provides medically supervised therapeutic exercise and multifaceted risk factor modification as a form of secondary prevention for cardiovascular disease, a persistent leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States and internationally. Despite robust evidence of compelling patient outcomes, decreased disease recurrence, and the indications from the ACC/AHA endorsing phase II cardiac rehabilitation (CR) as a crucial aspect of recovery from cardiac events and qualifying conditions, CR is widely underutilized. A variety of patient barriers can serve as mitigating factors to CR referral, enrollment, participation, and completion contributing to, in part, the underutilization of CR. Barriers to …

Warmth Of The Sun, Drake M. Gerber

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Warmth of the Sun, is a reflection on personal experiences I’ve had in the landscape while living in the Northwest. This curated experience is an attempt to capture my sincerity towards a place and hold onto that feeling. I intend to share faded memories of personal experiences through enigmatic sculptures to make the viewer look a bit closer at these objects and see the landscape in a new way. This paper explores thoughts on the idea of place, material, process, contemporary influences, and the experiences that inspired this body of work.

The Reproductive Consequences Of Low Energy Availability In Females, Courtney Couture

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Motown Movie Magic: Respectability, Gender, And Authenticity In Crossover Films, 1972-1989, Nicholas Andrew Ambs

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

At the start of the 1970s, Berry Gordy, Jr., moved Motown Industries to Los Angeles to expand into the film and television industries. Just as in the music industry, Gordy utilized respectability politics to navigate a segregated market to appeal to a wider audience. As rhetoric around notions of respectability changed perspectives on the Black experience, Gordy’s business practices represented a traditional tactic for uplift ideology that he sought to demonstrate in his film. In the context of national changes and industrial trends, Gordy balanced building credibility, establishing a profitable studio, and creating a positive image throughout the 70s and …

Does Behavioral Synchrony Extend To Robots? Children’S Sharing, Mentalizing, And Social Attributions To Synchronous Others, Sarah E. Sweezy

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Behavioral synchrony, or the act of keeping rhythm with others, has many implications on children’s interactions with others, from prosocial behaviors to feelings of affiliation with synchronous people. However, little is known about how behavioral synchrony applies to non-human entities. From robots leading movement-based learning in classrooms or being engaged in cultural settings, a new series of questions arise for how children view synchronizing with non-human others. The current study aimed to investigate how broadly synchronization effects would extend in a child sample: Are behavioral synchrony effects limited to synchronizing with humans or do they extend to social agents (e.g., …

Subjective Well-Being And Intergenerational Mobility In South Africa, Alison J. Monroe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Using data on individuals from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), this paper analyzes the relationship between intergenerational mobility and subjective well-being for two cohorts of South Africans. Subjective well-being has been measured using a multitude of factors, but the impact of changing economic mobility on reported life satisfaction has been less explored in the context of South Africa. Education and social mobility are the two mobility variables used to understand how changes in economic status relative to one’s parents affect self-reported well-being. This paper utilizes three methods of regression analysis for comparisons: cross-sectional, pooled cross-sectional, and panel (fixed effects …

Using Geometry And Visualization To Demystify Eigen Decomposition In The Classroom: An Analytical And Pedagogical Approach, Briana Marie Young

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite leaving graduate school with a functional understanding of eigen decomposition, many students of the social sciences lack a conceptual or intuitive understanding of what eigen objects are or how to adapt the utility of these objects to new situations and properly interpret them. Conceptual understanding is beneficial and desirable in several ways: It endows users with higher accuracy in how they apply a given method, as well as the means to challenge improper or misguided use of that method. The objective of this dissertation is to lay out the derivation of simple instructional tools that can be incorporated into …

Comedy, Camaraderie, And Conflict: Using Humor To Defuse Disputes Among Friends, Sheena A. Bringa

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study sought to examine the role humor plays in defusing conflict between friends from an evolutionary perspective. Although a vast amount of research exists on humor, friendship, and conflict, no single study connects all three of these concepts together. This study attempted to fill this gap by examining how different humor styles used between friends in times of conflict relate to friendship satisfaction and life satisfaction. Specifically, the hypotheses predicted that friends who use affiliative humor to deescalate conflict are more inclined to report higher relational satisfaction and improved individual well-being than friends who use maladaptive humor to deescalate …

"Our Loons": Participant Attachments And Motivations Within A Community-Based Monitoring Program, Taylor Tewksbury

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Organizations can benefit from understanding person-place relationships and volunteer motivations as they recruit and sustain involvement in their community-based monitoring (CBM) programs. Place attachment, or the bond between people and their meaningful environments, is one lens through which to explore these relationships. Past studies have associated place attachment with environmentally responsible behaviors (ERB), such as CBM involvement. However, few studies have explored the relationship between place attachment and CBM in the context of volunteers’ attachment to the species of study.

The purpose of this research study was to explore the place-based relationships and motivations among volunteers of the Loon Preservation …

Umfc #12: A Comprehensive Forensic Analysis Case Report, Kaylee M. Hinds

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The University of Montana Forensic Case 12 (UMFC) is a human skeleton with an MNI of one that was recovered in August 1983 from an old schoolyard in Helena, Montana, by construction workers who were building a highway. The individual was given to the University of Montana Anthropology Department following the authority’s investigation. At the time, the University of Montana aided in the analysis of the skeletal remains and both departments had deemed the case as forensically insignificant and historic. The initial recoverers believed that the individual was a descendant of the Last Chance Gulch era and reflected Chinese ancestry, …

Investigating Intellectual Diversity: A Critical Examination Of Academic Publishing Practices And Their Effects On Wildlife Conservation, Madeline M. Damon

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Academic publishing processes and standards play a fundamental role in communicating, reviewing, and expanding scientific knowledge in wildlife conservation. However, various publishing biases privilege some research perspectives and worldviews while limiting others. These biases directly impact intellectual diversity, or differences in ontology, axiology, and epistemology. This study aims to quantify intellectual diversity in the field of wildlife conservation and identify how publishing biases affect knowledge available to researchers and decision-makers worldwide.

The study employed a sample of 50,000 articles published between 2018 and 2022, collected from the Web of Science database. To analyze the vast amount of article records, natural …

The Resilience Of American Indian And Alaska Native Older Adults In The Context Of Major Health Disparities In Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, Asthma, And Arthritis: A Narrative Review, Ennis Frank Vaile

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Background: Multiple major health disparities have been documented in Indian Country, including cardiovascular disease (Howard et al., 1999), diabetes (Acton et al., 2003), asthma (Mannino et al., 2002), and arthritis (Barbour et al., 2017). Prior research has shown that the prevalence rates of these conditions in American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) are among the highest in the United States. Given these health disparities, aging older adults in Indian Country may be especially vulnerable to the development of concurrent negative mental health outcomes, particularly depression (Garrett et al., 2015). Nonetheless, AI/AN older adults continue to age successfully and exhibit substantial …

Impacts Of Eating Disorder Recovery On Communication Of Identity Through Food, Rosemary Willett Jeter

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Using the Communication Theory of Identity as a framework, the purpose of this thesis was to investigate how the experience of eating disorder recovery (EDR) impacts one’s communication of identity through and about food, and perceptions of others’ communication about and through food. Purposive sampling yielded 20 adult participants who self-identified as having been in EDR for at least one year. Results from a phronetic iterative data analysis of semi-structured interviews yielded several themes. When considering how EDR influences personal communication through food, main themes include: (a) the inability to share meals creates a gap between the enacted and relational …

Building Bridges: Supervisors’ Management Of Competency Questioning, Arianna Camille Vokos

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Clinical supervision is an opportunity for supervisors to influence and shape the education of counselors-in-training. Exchanging feedback between supervisees and supervisors can be a challenging aspect of supervision and can have profound impact on the efficacy of supervision, the safety of clients, and the supervision relationship. Understanding the experience and process that supervisors go through when their competence is questioned could be critical to understanding the supervision relationship. Successful management of competency questioning contributes to the efficacy of the supervision relationship, better protection of clients, and positive development of supervisees. Using grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2014), this qualitative study addresses …

The Effect Of Place Attachment And Leisure Identity On Stewardship Participation In The Rattlesnake National Recreation Area And Wilderness, Elena Rene Thomas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As outdoor recreation participation increases in the U.S., and many communities in the American West are experiencing rising amenity migration, park and protected area managers face significant challenges to balance both providing for visitors’ desired experiences and protecting the natural resources on which these experiences depend. Confronted with declining management capacity, agencies are increasingly looking to engage both newer and established recreationists in stewardship behaviors to help maintain these areas and improve human-environment relationships. One barrier to community involvement in stewardship efforts is the need to better understand the connection between recreationists’ antecedent conditions and their motivations to steward. Past …

Theory Of Care, Gabriella Ann Graceffo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

With a backdrop of the body and its inner forms, Theory of Care is a collection of poems and lyric excerpts that explores themes of queer sexuality, physical and mental health, etymology, desire, and physicality. It coheres moments of internal reckoning with an exploration of how trauma lives in the body, particularly the queer femme body. By accessing various landscapes including the medical sphere, family dynamics, and the social environments of the South, the collection grapples with different vernaculars to question how the language used to discuss (or dismiss) trauma dramatically alters the perception of those experiences.

Training And Utility Of Mindfulness Among School Psyschologists, Emily Ann Hattouni

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The role of school psychologists (SPs) includes consulting with parents, teachers, and working directly with students. Researchers have demonstrated a high rate of burnout among professionals in this field (e.g., Huebner, 1992; Schilling et al., 2018). Mindfulness-based interventions have been found to be useful to address symptoms of burnout among other professionals (e.g., physicians: Luken & Sammons, 2016). Mindfulness has also been theorized as particularly useful for the myriad roles that school psychologists work within (Alahari, 2017). Although research into the utility of mindfulness have found positive effects for students within the schools (e.g., Felver et al., 2016), no research …

Investigating Teacher Perceptions Of Montana Kindergarten To Second-Grade Play-Based Learning Practices During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Erin N. Ellis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this mixed-method study was to examine early elementary education teachers' perceptions of the presence, feasibility, and desirability to implement play-based learning, including free play, guided play, and games in Montana public school K-2 classrooms, and the impact COVID-19 health and safety protocols had on the implementation of play-based learning compared to the previous year (before COVID-19). Using a sequential explanatory research design, teachers self-reported their ability to implement play-based learning, including playbased learning forms, activities, and materials before the COVID-19 pandemic (retrospectively) compared to during COVID-19 and the impact the COVID-19 health and safety protocols had on …

American Indian Traditional Ceremonial Practices: Addressing Problem Substance Use In A Multi-Tribal Urban Community, D'Shane Barnett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Background: Traditionally, American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities and individuals held ecological knowledge that supported holistic wellness for their tribal members through a variety of medicines and ceremonies. Contemporary Western healthcare systems have largely alienated AIAN people from access to traditional ceremonial practices (TCPs). Despite decades of cultural adaptation of evidence-based practices (EBPs), the deleterious effects of historical and intergenerational trauma are widely documented. This includes disproportionately high rates of problem substance use in both reservation and urban AIAN community settings.

Purpose: In contrast to deficit-based paradigms, Reziliency posits that protective factors, approaches, and methods used within AIAN communities …

Examining The Interpersonal Psychological Theory Of Suicide In A Sample Of Individuals With Psychosis, Jennifer Villa

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Psychotic disorders confer high risk for suicidality. Previous research has found the symptom clusters of psychosis to have differential relationships with risk for suicidal ideation and behavior. Despite evidence for unique determinants of suicide among people with disorders on the psychosis spectrum, little research has examined theoretical models of suicide that aim to explore the transition from suicidal thoughts to behavior in this population. The Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide (IPTS) may be particularly useful in delineating this transition, as the constructs underlying the IPTS overlap with symptoms and experiences salient in people with psychosis. We examined baseline data from an …