Digital Commons Network^™

Adolescent Religious Identity And Body Esteem, Megan Gale

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents experience a key developmental process of identity formation and try to understand who they are and how they feel about themselves. While research has found religiosity to often predict increased body esteem for religious adults, little is known about the association between religiosity and body esteem for adolescents. Using an Identity Theory lens, the current cross-sectional study (n=1,693) examined the relationship between adolescent religious identity (religious salience and belief being a child of God) and body esteem, mediated by one's attachment to God. Three structural equation mediation models examined 1) overall relationships; 2) relationships by gender; and 3) relationships …

Communication About Pornography And Relationship Quality In Different-Gender Couples, Rachel Ann Augustus

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have begun to suggest factors that explain and influence the association between pornography use and relationship outcomes but further work is still needed. Communication about pornography is one variable that may be influential but it has yet to be considered in this way. Using a dyadic sample of 713 different-gender couples, I used Actor-Partner Structural Equation Modeling to analyze associations between pornography use (male pornography use, joint pornography use and female pornography use) and relational quality (from the perspective of each partner, respectively), associations between communication about pornography and relationship quality. Communication about pornography was also considered as a …

The Experience Of Friendship As A Characteristic Of Intimate Relationships: A Grounded Theory Study, Jennifer Griffith

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of the construct of friendship, specifically how intimate partners experience friendship in intimate relationships. 45 participants were interviewed one-time (for a total of 60-90 minutes) and asked about their experience of healthy and unhealthy behaviors, including friendship, in committed relationships. Research questions included: how participants define the concept of friendship, behaviors that perpetuate friendship in intimate relationships, perceived benefits of friendship, and what a lack of friendship in their relationship looks like. Participants were asked about friendship generally with the hope that information on the research questions would be …

Behavioral Indicators Of The Therapeutic Alliance In Relation To Dropout In Couple Therapy, S. Celeste Esplin

Theses and Dissertations

Almost half of those who start therapy drop out early (Thalmayer, 2018). When therapists work to improve the therapeutic alliance, clients are more likely to stay in treatment and chances of recovery improve (D'Aniello et al., 2018; Escudero & Friedlander, 2017). However, the existing research comes almost entirely from client self-reports of the alliance. Little research has examined what occurs during the session. There has been no research to determine what specific therapeutic alliance behaviors are related to early termination. The current naturalistic study sought to discover if behaviors that strengthen or diminish the therapeutic alliance are related to early …

Method And Interpretation: Gadamer And The Limits Of Methods In Qualitative Research, Jared C. Parker

Theses and Dissertations

Qualitative modes of research have been working their way into the mainstream of psychological research. Unfortunately, social psychology has largely resisted this trend, despite the particular utility of qualitative research for investigating social phenomena. Curiously, as qualitative research becomes more widely accepted in psychology, much of the discourse surrounding these approaches has revolved around the procedural dimensions of qualitative inquiry. Specifically, it has focused on developing, describing, and defending various codified approaches to qualitative data analysis. Recently, this methodological paradigm has come under some criticism, with scholars critiquing codified methods as leading to shallow, superficial, and formulaic research. Others have …

Exercise As A Predictor Of Change In Self-Reported Marital Satisfaction And Behaviors Of Couples In Therapy, Emily J. Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies looking to link physical exercise with beneficial couple outcomes have had mixed results, showing benefits for females but not males in some instances, and even negative effects for males in one instance. However, these studies used self-report data for exercise which may suffer from reporting errors. This study analyzed how daily exercise, measured by participants wearing accelerometers, impacts marital satisfaction, positive behaviors, and negative behaviors in a clinical population. The data was analyzed using multilevel models to determine how time spent exercising impacted individuals and their partners in terms of relationship outcomes. Results indicated small but significant relationships …

Neuroticism's Ties To Relationship Satisfaction: What Behaviors Matter?, Alexyss M. Lange

Theses and Dissertations

In multiple studies, neuroticism and romantic relationship satisfaction are negatively related to one another. Yet, the exact behaviors that link neuroticism to lower relationship satisfaction are unknown. Our seven-day daily diary study (N = 246) identified specific, everyday behaviors that might mediate this association. After establishing positive and negative factors using exploratory factor analysis, we examined whether positive or negative behaviors (and sub-categories of these dimensions) mediate the relationship between neuroticism and relationship satisfaction. Our results showed that negative behaviors mediated the relationship between neuroticism and relationship satisfaction but positive behaviors did not. A subcategory of conflict tactics mediated the …

#Savequicksilver: How Fans Of The Mcu Established Their Fan Identities After Pietro’S False Introduction In The Disney + Series Wandavision, Isabela Scaturro

Theses and Dissertations

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has one of the largest fandoms in the world, thus making this fandom crucial for fandom studies. In this study, I examine how fan interactions demonstrate fan identities and fandom hierarchies after a particular character in the MCU’s first Disney+ series WandaVision was reintroduced and caused a controversy about the actor playing the character . Fans used the hashtag #SaveQuicksilver to express their feelings about Pietro, a character who was brought back into the MCU as a different actor and became a random character in the MCU. This is significant in fan studies because it caused …

“Give Me The Rules, I’Ll Understand Grammar Better ”: Exploring The Effectiveness Of Usage-Based Grammar Approach Through Explicit Instruction Of Adverbials, Pouya Vakili

Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this dissertation is to examine the (in)effectiveness of the Usage-based grammar approach through explicit instruction of adverbials in the US educational context. One area that can complicate the question of native speakers’ grammar knowledge is their awareness of grammatical terms and their functions. Along with exploring psychological and linguistic domains of language learning and instructional theories and methodologies, and also investigating grammar teaching in US schools, this dissertation intends to examine native speakers’ knowledge of grammar focusing on adverbs and adverbials as its pedagogical concern. Using a limited pool of students to examine the effectiveness of …

A Study Of The Impact Of Covid-19 On Latinx College Students In The Midwest, Molly Erin Ricci

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates how Latinx undergraduate college students at Illinois State University who were enrolled in the spring 2020 semester experienced the transition to online learning after the onset of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. It explores how they were affected by the pandemic and how they coped with it in the aftermath of college closures and movement to online learning. Qualitative data and methods were utilized through a series of 10 interviews collected in a snowball sample with various starting points. Broadly, it was found that the pandemic affected the students’ learning and college experiences greatly. There is much already …

Waqf In Transition: Tracing Local Institutional Change During The British Mandate In Palestine, Zachary Murray

Theses and Dissertations

The British Mandate’s actions of state-building in Palestine were informed by a Zionist-Western modernist envisioned past of Palestine. This state-building ideology was embedded within much of the bureaucracy of the Mandate’s system and infringed on numerous Palestinian institutions such as Waqf. Waqf was disenfranchised in particular through the implementation of urban development programs, like town planning and archaeological regimes, which sought to support the British-Zionist recasting of Palestine.

This thesis aims to show how the British’s ideology of Palestine informed the Mandate’s internal polices and actions which infringed on the rights of waqf. This was done through two axes of …

Peer Observation And Feedback As A Professional Development Structure, Malisa Dawn Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

In American schools, teachers seldomly have time to see each other teach resulting in missed opportunities to learn and grow from one another. Participants engaged in peer observation and feedback in order to determine the effectiveness of this professional development structure on practitioner growth, teacher efficacy, and overall teacher satisfaction. Data was collected from multiple sources that indicated several themes of growth resulting from the peer observation and feedback cycles including an increase in flexibility and willingness to have others in classrooms, new practitioner thinking and application to classroom practice, and the expansion of influence on highly effective teachers on …

Affective Risk Perceptions Toward Travel In A Covid Era: Policy And State Political Influences, Chloe Riley

Theses and Dissertations

This paper aims to analyze the influence of state political affiliation and policy on affective risk perceptions, in the context of COVID-19. The study of risk perceptions in the travel literature is important because it can help industry leaders predict tourist decision-making and ensure feelings of safety for travelers. The relevance of risk perceptions has become even more apparent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study analyzes three policies put into place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19: mask mandate, cancellation of public events, and school closures. Affective risk perceptions were measured by the Tourism Crisis Management Initiative’s …

Food Insecurity Resilience Of Refugee Families In The United States: A Qualitative Study, Maryam Suliman Alhabas

Theses and Dissertations

Refugee families living in the United States often encounter a number of challenges while trying to build a new home and maintain their household food security. Refugee families at high risk of experiencing food insecurity in the resettlement country. Food insecurity among US refugee families is a major public health concern as it adversely impacts their health and wellbeing, since it affects dietary intake and mental health and associated with illness, poor nutrition, and obesity. Little is known about what happens when refugee families face food insecurity experience, and the role of their social contexts in that experience. The objective …

An Examination Of Attachment And Aspirations In Diverse Rural Youth: The Role Of Peers And Teachers, Gresi Bonomo Irdam

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three studies that examined diverse rural youths’ educational and rural aspirations. These studies have the potential to inform rural communities, educators, and parents by providing novel understandings of how peers and teachers in mathematics and science classrooms influence diverse rural youths’ rural attachment, and aspirations (i.e., educational, rural residential, community, and proximity). Thus, the purpose of this dissertation was to investigate rural teachers and their diverse students from White, African American, Hispanic, and Native American backgrounds. In particular, the studies within this dissertation examine how teachers’ social connectedness to their rural communities relates to their teacher …

Examining The Relationship Between School Policing Behaviors And The Depressive Symptoms Experienced By Black Students, Collin Perryman

Theses and Dissertations

The school policing literature has two major themes: (a) the negative safety outcomes of school safety (Gottfredson et al., 2020) and (b) the central role that school police play in placing Black students into the school-to-prison-nexus (Morris, 2016; Turner & Beneke, 2020). The study of school police roles, how school police interact with educators, and the safety effects of school police presence is important. Just as important is knowing the mental health effects of physical and nonphysical school policing behaviors on Black students. This dissertation sought to fill this gap in part by studying the relationship between school police behaviors …

Null Hypothesis Statistical Testing: A Survey Of The History, Critiques, And Alternative Methodologies, Bradley David Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

Considered normative from the second half of the 20th century (Danziger, 1990), null hypothesis statistical testing (NHST) has received consistent, largely unheeded criticism. Critiques have received more attention in recent years with the recognition of the replication crisis in the social sciences and the American Statistical Society’s statement and special issue on p values (Wasserstein & Lazar, 2016; Wasserstein et al., 2019). This paper seeks to provide a framework for understanding the issue by looking at the history of NHST and investigating some alternatives to the methodology. A brief review of the history, spread, and critiques of NHST is provided …

A Hawaiian Heroine’S Journey: The Early Life And Career Of Dancer Jean Erdman Campbell, Diane B. Mcghee

Theses and Dissertations

This biographical study covers the early life and career of dancer, choreographer, and avant-garde theatre artist, Jean Erdman Campbell (1916-2020). Based on extensive research of historical literature and archival materials, the manuscript traces Erdman’s ancestry and follows the subject through age 32, when she became established as a star of modern dance and prepared for a world tour. The guiding question for this study was what influences shaped the life course, identity and artistry of Erdman, and how might the subject be presented as biography? The researcher examined the influences on Erdman as related to various dance traditions, especially Hawaiian …

Place Identity And Gentrification-Induced Social And Cultural Displacement Among Longstanding Black American Residents: Theory, Case, And Innovating Methodology, Brittany B. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have increasingly recognized the sociocultural impacts of gentrification on Black residents. However, the gentrification literature lacks an empirically tested theoretical model on the nuanced ways gentrification may socially and culturally displace longstanding Black residents. Limited attention has also been given to factors that may moderate social and cultural displacement. Since place identity (i.e., one’s sense of belonging to a place) encompasses residents’ social and cultural connections to their neighborhoods, conceptualizing social and cultural displacement in relation to place identity helps to understand a potential moderating factor. Furthermore, although space and place dynamics of gentrification have been well-documented, gentrification research …

Unintended Consequences Of The Electronic Health Record And Cognitive Load In Emergency Department Nurses, Carolyn S. Harmon

Theses and Dissertations

Background: The electronic health record (EHR) was rapidly implemented to improve patient safety. However, this rapid and widespread EHR implementation negatively connects to patient safety. Clinician cognitive overload is also thought to be negatively connected to patient safety, especially in the chaotic emergency department (ED) setting. Limited research has been conducted on unintended consequences of the EHR (UC-EHR) and cognitive load (CL) in ED nurses. Understanding the UC-EHR and CL in ED nurses facilitate informed interventions to improve nursing practice and patient safety.

Aims: Guided by the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) 2.0 framework, the aims of this …

Healthy Aging Beyond Sex And Gender Binaries, Nicole M. Lampe

Theses and Dissertations

An estimated 2.7 million sexual and gender minority (SGM) adults 50+ reside in the United States (US) with this number projected to increase to more than 5 million by 2060 (Flatt et al. 2022; Fredriksen-Goldsen and Kim 2017). Medical research, education, and practice in the United States (US) often erase sex and gender variation, thus ignoring the experiences of older adults living beyond Western sex and gender binary systems (e.g., female/male and women/men), particularly transgender, non-binary, and/or intersex (TNBI) populations. Such erasure stems from TNBI older adult structural incompetency or the failure to understand how macro-level systems, institutions, and structures …

Subject Cognitive Decline In Informal Caregivers, Eunika Simons

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose. The United States is experiencing unprecedented demographic shifts as the population continues to age. More than 53 million Americans are caregivers and that number is continuing to grow. Caregiving has become a significant societal and public health issue to be addressed. This study provided a population-based national perspective regarding informal caregivers to identify differences between caregivers reporting cognitive decline and those caregivers reporting no cognitive decline. The analysis explored the relationships between the type and characteristics of informal caregivers, the nature of the caregiving relationship, caregiver unmet needs, and the general, physical, and mental health-related outcomes of the caregivers. …

Diving Deeper: Employee’S Perceptions Of Diversity, Leader Behaviors, And Inclusion, Phylicia Fanetta Davlyn Richardson

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding an employee’s perspectives of their organization, team and leader has been researched extensively in the field. The same can be said for diversity, equity, and inclusion. However there have been gaps in the literature when it comes to an employee’s perception and how they can dictate their approach to their work environment. Grounded in the theory of the effect leadership has on employees (Jung & Welch, 2022; Randolph-Seng et al., 2016), this study examines vary leader behaviors (inclusion, antiracism, allyship) and how they interact with perceptions of inclusion and diversity. Using a survey, 211 participants answered measures assessing their …

One Space Can Put Her In A Different Place - How Do We Inhabit Spaces Differently?, Farida Youssef

Theses and Dissertations

In Egypt, a male-dominated society, women are forced to constantly negotiate with patriarchal systems. Dichotomies and paradoxes between principles governing different gendered roles, religion and cultural codes and westernization and commercialization have been continuously shaping Egyptian women’s status over the past decades. This is exhibited in public spaces, where women’s current preferences, perceptions and behavior emphasize the dominance of one gender over the other. This research aims for a better understanding of space inhabitance through a gendered lens. It questions the roles the society and the urban spaces play in the daily lives of women through examining women’s perception of …

Cities Of God Under Occupation: Settler Colonial Practices And Pacification In The Favelas Of Rio De Janeiro And The Occupied Palestinian Territories, Amanda Pimenta Da Silva

Theses and Dissertations

The 2002 film ‘City of God’ tells an anecdotal story of violence in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and is a reminder that the societies we tend to take for granted can actually be a luxury. The film portrays the daily life of the peripheries of Rio and its relation with drug trafficking, crime, and poverty, and how it has deteriorated into a war zone so dangerous that anyone risk being shot to death. Thousands of miles away from the Brazilian slums there is another so-called city of God, or the city chosen by God to be the home’s …

First-Generation Students And The Challenges Faced Towards Their Sense Of Community At A 4-Year University, Jorge L. Gonzalez-Palacios

Theses and Dissertations

"It takes a village to raise a child." Such simple words, yet the power it holds behind it is something not to be overlooked. The aspect of community, especially in a college campus setting, is something all students should have the opportunity to cherish. From K-12, we slowly begin to create our very own village, filled by various individuals that pertain to one's own experience. These individuals guide us and grant us knowledge when needed most, but as we mature, and at some point, leave this village to begin our journey into adulthood, we find ourselves having to begin anew, …

The Influence Of Sex On Cognitive Control Performance And Frontoparietal Network Integrity In First Episode Psychosis, Kaitlyn Mcfarlane Greer

Theses and Dissertations

Cognitive deficits in first-episode psychosis (FEP) are well documented including deficits in cognitive control, but how sex may influence or impact these cognitive deficits is not well known. Cognitive deficits may impact multiple neural networks, including the fronto-parietal network (FPN). How sex may influence the structural integrity of regions in the FPN is also an important area of research in FEP that may provide further insight into the beginnings of the disease. The current study aimed to examine sexual dimorphisms in structural integrity of the frontoparietal network (FPN) and its role in cognitive control in FEP. A total of 111 …

Mindfulness To Promote Healthy Aging In Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment And Their Caregivers: A Mixed Methods Feasibility And Acceptability Study, Emma Mcbride

Theses and Dissertations

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), thought be a precursor to dementia, is characterized by cognitive decline without functional impairment. As the population ages and the prevalence of MCI increases, non-pharmacologic interventions are needed to address well-being and disease progression in this population of older adults and their caregivers. In response to growing interest in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) as an adjunct to integrated care for this population, this single arm, mixed methods pilot study trialed a lightly adapted, 6-week MBI for both MCI patients and their caregivers (n=24). The intervention was feasible and acceptable in both groups. There was a trend toward …

The Apostrophic Impasse: Diacritical Remarks On The Stories Of International Law, Legal Decolonial Genealogy And Antony Anghie’S Historiography, Britt L.A.Q. (Haadiya) Hendrix

Theses and Dissertations

The (hi)stories of international law have strengthened the tentacles of coloniality in the legal regime as they continue to taunt the precarious lifeworlds of people, our planet and social imaginaries of an otherwise. The flow of coloniality has similarly rematerialized in decolonial legal theories and the postcolonial historiographical accounts of international law. I intend to demonstrate this colonial revival in the groundbreaking text of Antony Anghie Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Creation of International Law (2005) which challenged the (hi)stories of traditional jurisprudence. The latter was not necessarily a rejection nor negation of Western thought, because I argue that postcolonial historiography …

Students’ Uptake Of Written Feedback In An Egyptian University Language Program, Isabel Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

Feedback is by no means a straightforward path; rather, the feedback on the writing process involves several factors on the part of both educators and students at a university level. It is important to note that feedback can be given in different ways to each student, while uptake may vary across educational institutions. This study explored students’ perceptions on engagement strategies, uptake, and emotional responses to the feedback phenomenon. Past studies on feedback and uptake prompted the investigation of this area.

The study includes tentative answers to the wealth of questions that have contributed to the field of feedback. This …