Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Benefits Of An Outdoor Adventure Program For Improving Self-Esteem And Self-Efficacy And Reducing Problem Behaviors In Adolescent Girls, Kristen O'Shea

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The study assessed change in self-efficacy, self-esteem, and problem behaviors from pre-treatment to post-treatment and at 6-month follow-up for adolescent girls enrolled in an outdoor adventure program. Family security and previous program experience were also considered. Participants included 62 girls (ages 10 - 18) from diverse ethnic and SES backgrounds (the majority were Euro American from middle class backgrounds). As expected, problem behaviors were negatively correlated with self-esteem throughout the trip; they were negatively correlated with self-efficacy at 6-month follow-up. Girls from "higher security" families reported significantly higher levels of self-esteem (p < .05) and fewer problem behaviors (p < .01) than girls from "lower security" families. A principal components analysis (PCA) was run to review test properties of one of the study measures, the modified General Self-Efficacy Scales. Limitations of the study, including low power and few statistically significant results, are discussed.

Fire In My Backyard: Place Meanings And Landowner Views On Fire And Fuels Management On The Kootenai National Forest, Mt, Michael Anthony Cacciapaglia

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Federal land management agencies are currently striving to become more democratic and open to citizen participation in decision-making. Recently, the build-up of hazardous forest fuels and ensuing increase in high-intensity wildland fire events across the western U.S. has led to growing interest in integrating local communities and their views and interests into the planning process for fuel reductions projects. One way to investigate local perspectives and make them available to local fire management officers is through qualitative research into relationship to place and preferences for proposed management actions using in-depth interviews with landowners residing in the wildland-urban interface. This study …

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 …

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 …

Park Visitors And The Natural Soundscape: Winter Experience Dimensions In Yellowstone National Park, Shelley Walker Saxen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The natural soundscape is becoming increasingly recognized as a threatened park resource. A variety of policies, laws, and regulations have rapidly been established that affect the National Park Service mandate and require the agency and individual parks to protect, preserve, and restore natural sounds. National Parks are grappling with how to manage the newly legitimized natural soundscape resource and this research provides some of the first significant knowledge of visitor experiences of park soundscapes and preferences for management policies. The role of the natural soundscape in visitor experiences was explored through both interview and survey data with the primary goal …

Place-Based Conservation Legislation And National Forest Management: The Case Of The Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership, Michael Thomas Fiebig

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper investigates the use of place-based conservation legislation as a tool for conflict resolution, wilderness designation and unit-level administrative planning reform on national forests by analyzing the case of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership in Southwestern Montana. The codification of place-based negotiated compromises over forest management is a significant departure from the administrative planning approach used to resolve multiple-use conflicts by the U.S. Forest Service. The goals of this paper were to develop a place-based legislation typology for natural resources policy, to determine the motivations for seeking this approach, and to analyze its use. Preliminary research for this project was begun …

A Comparative Study Of Divorced Families And Families Utilizing Supervised Visitation Services: Child Behavior, Interparental Conflict, Parenting Attitudes And Parental Stress, Diana Eleonora Maria Marchetti

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Research has repeatedly demonstrated the association between families of divorce and variables of child behavior, interparental conflict and parenting attitudes. However, overall research exploring supervised visitation services and examining these variables in relationship to this population is limited. Furthermore, studies designed to compare these groups (divorced and supervised visitation) is sparse. Overall, children from single parent homes (e.g., divorced and/or supervised visitation situations) tend to have more child behavior and adjustment problems as compared to children of intact families (Hetherington, Cox & Cox; 1982; Portes, Howell, Brown, Eichenberger, & Mas, 1992). However, such problems are not attributed to marital disruption …

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 …

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.

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 …

"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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

Causes And Consequences Of Displacement Decision-Making In Banhine National Park, Mozambique, Chad Edward Dear

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Decision-making is looming regarding the displacement of people resident in and reliant on resources in strict protected areas around the world. This research investigated the causes and consequences of displacement decision-making in Banhine National Park (BNP), Mozambique. I investigated causes using political-economic, actor-centered, and post-structural perspectives on power. I investigated consequences using the Impoverishment Risk and Reconstruction (IRR) framework. Methods included interviews, focus groups, and observations involving BNP-area residents; park staff; district, provincial, and national-level government employees from various sectors; NGO and World Bank staff; and private consultants. I also analyzed numerous government and donor policies, plans, reports, and legal …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Mindfulness As A Predictor Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptomatology In An Experiential Avoidance Model, Brian Lantz Thompson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of measures of mindfulness to predict the variance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) avoidance symptom severity above and beyond measures of experiential avoidance. A sample of 378 introductory psychology students completed questionnaire packets in individuals rooms to insure confidentiality of sensitive material. Based on a pencil-and-paper self-report measure of PTSD symptoms, the sample was divided into 3 groups: PTSD group (n = 44); trauma-no PTSD (n = 147); and a control (no trauma) group (n = 123). A fourth traumatized group was subsequently created consisting of individuals who endorsed a …

Evolution Of Roots, Robin Eileen Browning

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Browning, Robin, M.A., June 2008 Integrated Arts and Education Evolution of Roots Chairperson: Karen Kaufmann Committee Members: Jim Kriley and Dorothy Morrison Somewhere a seed was planted long ago. It grew, changed and developed. It was sheltered, nurtured, fed and pruned. This seed took form, evolving to become a tiny sprout. The sprout was exposed to warmth and rain, time and sometimes pain, a process lending to further maturation. This in turn, once again, changed the youngster to a young sapling. Education, unfamiliar concepts, and exposure to new and different areas and elements developed this young sapling into an adult …

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 …

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 …

The Relationship Among Washington State County Commissioners Knowledge And Perceptions Of Washington State University Extension And Their Willingness To Fund Wsu Extension, James Hilmer Lindstrom

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The study determined the relationship between perceptions that the Washington State county commissioners' hold of WSU Extension and their knowledge of WSU Extension. In addition, the study determined whether their perceptions, knowledge, and/or understanding of Extension are related to and thereby may have predictability to their willingness to provide the essential local funding to continue the educational programs Extension delivers. The study addressed the interest Washington State county commissioners/county council members have in funding WSU Extension, which directly affects the critical element of maximizing Extension's impact on society. As a publicly funded educational organization, WSU Extension faces an uncertain fiscal …

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 …

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, …

The Experience Of Attrition: A Phenomenological Study Of Freshmen In Academic Good Standing At The University Of Montana, Cheryl L. Minnick

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to gain clear, precise systematic descriptions of the experienced meaning of voluntary non-continuation of academic studies, attrition, after the first-year. Based on interviews with six college freshman in academic good standing, with phenomenology as a research method, the study documented ways in which college freshman perceived, experienced and defined their decision and experience of dropping out of college.

Data were collected via one-on-one, open-ended, unstructured interviews conducted to gain an uncensored account of the experience of attrition reflected by the query, "Please share with me your experience of deciding not to continue …

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 …