Digital Commons Network^™

Treatment Responses Among Youth With Anxiety Disorders And Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors In A Clinic Sample, Katrina Scarimbolo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety disorders are considered to encompass multiple conditions, including generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, panic disorder and specific phobias. Related conditions include post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive and compulsive disorder. Body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) are a group of disorders that result in repetitive touching, picking, and/or pulling to areas of the body such as the scalp or skin (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). An anxiety disorder and a BFRB commonly co-occur in youth. This comorbid presentation produces further impairment in school attendance, peer socialization, or other functional domains. These difficulties youth experience make it pertinent to study …

Youth Mental Health First Aid: Educators’ Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills, Aspirations, And Behaviors Change And Differences, Alexis M. Sanchez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine educator outcomes related to Youth Mental Health First Aid (Y-MHFA) professional development training. Educator outcomes in knowledge, attitudes, skills, aspirations, and behaviors (KASAB) were examined to evaluate the preparedness of educators to provide mental health support and the effectiveness of Y-MHFA. Additionally, this study aimed to assess educator outcomes depending on their role in the schools, including school-based educators, school-based mental health staff, and administration/district staff. The author conducted a secondary analysis of pre- and post-test questionnaires of 459 educators in a southeastern state of the United States. A repeated measures ANOVA, …

The Effects Of Critical Audit Matter Recurrence And Reporting Treatment On Investors’ Information Processing, Judgments, And Decisions, Hilda E. Carrillo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A new auditor reporting standard requires auditors to disclose critical audit matters (CAMs) in the auditor’s report. CAMs highlight accounts or disclosures that involved especially challenging, subjective, or complex auditor judgment. As one of few audit-related disclosures, CAMs act as an important signal of qualitative aspects of recognized (i.e., items shown on the face of the financial statements) or disclosed (i.e., items shown in the footnotes of the financial statements) financial statement items. While certain accounts or disclosures will consistently rise to the level of a CAM, other accounts or disclosures may only rise to the level of a CAM …

The Relationship Of Hope To Goals And Psychological Outcomes In Patients With Advanced Lung Cancer: A Test Of Hope Theory, Kelly A. Hyland

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background. Hope is an important positive psychological construct that may help to explain how individuals cope in the context of life-threatening illness. Snyder’s hope theory states that humans are goal-oriented, and that goals link hope to psychological outcomes. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship of hope to emotional well-being, meaning and purpose in life, and positive and negative affect in a sample of patients with advanced stage lung cancer. The study also sought to identify how hope relates to patients’ goals and to explore whether goal characteristics and progress in achieving goals mediated the relationship …

Presenting Selves And Interpreting Culture: An Ethnography Of Chinese International Tourism In The United States, Fangheyue Ma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I situate my dissertation research within cultural sociology, specifically the cultural phenomenon of international tourism, and social psychology, particularly the subfields of identity, interaction, and emotion. I conducted a qualitative study of participants in international package tourism and individual travelers, more specifically, Chinese tourists who travel to the United States. Main topics of exploration included tourists’ experience of their trips and package tours, how they interpreted American culture and compared it to their own, how they constructed and performed identities both as tourists and as Chinese nationals, their emotional experiences and how they made sense of an environment that they …

Improving Environmental Protection: One Imagined Touch At A Time, Luke Ingalls Liska

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Can imagined touch of flora and fauna (i.e., the plants and animals of the natural world) make you more willing to support environmental protection efforts? Across seven studies, I demonstrate that by asking consumers to imagine touching fauna, marketers can encourage consumers to become more engaged in environmental protection efforts. This effect occurs because imagined touch generates haptic imagery, which enhances a consumer’s emotional attachment to fauna. I demonstrate that emotional attachment to fauna induced via imagined touch enhances individual’s willingness to share Facebook posts, improves their willingness to support increased fines for environment-related offenses, and increases the number of …

Students’ Perceptions Of Factors Contributing To Enrollment In Arabic Courses At A College Level, Qays Q. Majeed

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this evaluation was to investigate the factors that contribute to students’ recruitment and retention in the Arabic program at my college. The two questions guiding this evaluation were: (1) what factors influence students to join the Arabic program at my college and (2) what factors influence students to continue to enroll in subsequent higher-level Arabic courses? To accomplish this evaluation, I conducted interviews with six former students --four women and two men--in the Arabic program. Eight themes emerged following analysis of data. The findings show that students joined the Arabic program for a variety of reasons. Several …

Mitigating Negativity Bias In Media Selection, Gabrielle R. Jarmoszko

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A growing body of research explores implicit negativity bias and how it influences news selection processes of media consumers. However, very little, if any, research exists exploring how negativity bias in the news selection process can be mitigated. Informed by experimental designs that have proven effective in mitigating other types of implicit bias, this study aimed to investigate whether having consumers commit themselves to definitions of their preferred type of news before engaging in the selection process alters manifestations of negativity bias in the selection. This study tested two hypotheses: H1, that non-committed individuals will have a higher selection frequency …

Feasibility Of A Virtual Group Nutrition Intervention For Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Acadia W. Buro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have an increased likelihood of being overweight or developing obesity. As children and adolescents with ASD exhibit problematic eating behaviors and may consume more energy-dense foods and fewer fruits and vegetables than typically developing youth, nutrition represents a modifiable obesity risk factor for adolescents with ASD, yet there is a lack of interventions to improve healthy eating and reduce the risk of obesity in this population.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a virtual implementation of BALANCE (Bringing Adolescent Learners with Autism Nutrition …

“Be Valiente”: Investigating Ethnic Identity Through Digital Storytelling With Latinx Fourth-Grade Students, Jennifer Michelle Barreto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Multilingual and multicultural students face the challenge of understanding where their ethnic identity lies in learning. The education system in the United States lacks inclusivity in classrooms, continuing monocultural views and monolinguist ideals as the norm and encouraged in curriculum and standards (Flores, 2020). This dissertation study seeks to break cultural and linguistic ideologies to better understand the development of ethnic identity in three Latinx fourth-grade students by creating a digital story. Through a sociocultural lens that includes a bioecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1977; Vélez-Agosto et al., 2017) and multimodality (NGL, 1996) framework the study emphasizes all funds of knowledge (Moll …

Making A Home Away From Home: A Qualitative Study Of African Students’ Practices Of Integration In The United States, Alphonse O. Opoku

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last two decades, the population of international students in the world has significantly increased. More and more students from diverse backgrounds cross national borders to study. The observed increase in numbers and diversity has led to an uptick in scholarly research that focuses on the adaptation and experiences of international students. Most of these studies, particularly in the US, are informed by the acculturation theories and assimilationist frameworks of the 1900s. Also, an exclusive focus is placed on the host country, with few studies acknowledging the impact of the origin country on the international student experience. Such approaches …

Sleep Hygiene Practices And Subjective Well-Being As Predictors Of High School Students' Obtaining Sufficient Sleep During The School Week, Erin M. Brennan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sleep is critically important to human health. However, the quantity and quality of sleep can vary within and among individuals over time, affecting overall wellness. Adolescence is a critical time for development, both for physical health, as well as health-related behaviors and habits. Physical health is known to be influenced by health-related behaviors such as sleep hygiene, which promotes good sleep. Physical health and engagement in health-related behaviors also are known to influence other aspects of well-being, namely subjective well-being, or happiness. Adolescents are often characterized by their changing sleep needs, patterns, and habits. This study is a secondary analysis …

An Evaluative Pilot Study Of An Online Facilitator Professional Development Program, Alana Elkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With a rapid increase in higher education online course offerings, many institutions are hiring part-time faculty to meet the demand of online learning. However, a lack of professional development in online course facilitation has proven to limit the effectiveness of facilitation and hinder the foundational quality standards the courses were built upon. An evaluative pilot study was conducted on a professional development framework provided to a group of online course facilitators that were hired to teach the course but did not participate in the online course developments. Since many course facilitators are not online faculty developers, they have limited knowledge …

Bayesian Multivariate Joint Modeling For Skewed-Longitudinal And Time-To-Event Data, Lan Xu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In epidemiologic and clinical studies, a relatively large number of biomarkers are repeatedly measured in patients over time, often associated with data on epidemiologic and clinical interest events. So, much attention is focused on developing the specific patterns of the longitudinal measurements, and the associations between those patterns and the time to a certain event, such as heart attack, diagnose of disease, time to transplantation, or death. In the last two decades, the research into joint modeling of longitudinal and time-to-event data has received a tremendous amount of attention.

Numerous researchers have proposed joint modeling approaches for a single longitudinal …

Measuring State Empathy: Exploring The Efficacy Of A Film Clip Task And Examining Individual Differences In Empathic Responding, Stephanie R. Hruza

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study of trait empathy and the experience of empathy has implications for psychopathologies, the enactment of prosocial behaviors, and inhibition of aggression. For the most part, studies on empathy have been limited to the examination of trait empathy and/or empathy-related prosocial behaviors. However, to better understand how trait empathy may translate into empathy-related behaviors, it is important to find the best ways to elicit and measure state empathy, as well as characterize the relationship between trait and state empathy. Additionally, research into the relationship between normal-range personality traits and empathy on both a trait and state level has largely …

Reference-Dependent Choice On Digital Platforms, Joshua K. Kaisen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Throughout this dissertation I explore a significant departure from the standard model of rationality known as reference-dependence. The theory reference-dependence asserts that an individual’s choice is dependent on their frame of reference established through factors divorced from their rational cost and benefit. This behavior is inefficient as individuals fail to rationally optimize their payoffs. This behavior is understudied in natural settings where isolating specific stimuli which may establish a reference is challenging. However, digital platforms contain limited stimuli which are fully observable to researchers and present an ideal setting to study the theory of reference-dependence. Thus, I introduce three new …

A Longitudinal Examination Of Coping And Subjective Well-Being Among High School Students In Accelerated Curricula, Hannah L. Gilfix

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

High school students in accelerated curriculum, which include Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, face greater amounts of academic stress than those in the general education curriculum (Suldo & Shaunessey, 2013). It is crucial to understand how these students cope with their academic demands and the impact that their use of various coping factors has on their overall subjective well-being. This study utilized a longitudinal non-experimental design to a) examine the stability of coping factors, b) examine the relationship between individual coping factors and subjective well-being, c) investigate the impact of socioeconomic status on the relationship of coping …

The Role Of Antecedent Music In The Running Routines Of Experienced Runners, Jennifer L. Cook

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Promoting running as an accessible and cost-effective form of exercise is important because persistent runners have a 29 to 50% lower risk of cardiovascular mortality compared to those who never run (Lee et al., 2014). Although there is a body of research on music and running, the results have been inconclusive across the literature. This may be due to a reliance on self-report measures and the averaging of results employed with group designs. To address these issues, the current study measured performance (pace) as the primary dependent variable in a series of within-subject designs. First, an online cross-sectional survey (Study …

The Ring Of Gyges 2.0: How Anonymity Providing Behaviors Affect Willingness To Participate In Online Deviance, Cassandra E. Dodge

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anonymity has long been discussed as a source of disinhibition. The myth of the Ring of Gyges illustrates how a person may act immorally solely because they know they will not be caught (Plato, 375/2017). Incorporating perspectives of rational choice and deterrence, anonymity serves as a form of risk reduction within hedonistic calculus (Beccaria, 1764/1963; Bentham, 1781/2000). Analogous to the myth of the Ring of Gyges (Plato, 375/2017), techniques of anonymity “hide” users from others while online. These techniques serve as a form of risk reduction, reducing the certainty of punishment (Becarria 1764/1963). Additionally, there are many ways by which …

Investigating The Relationship Between Vocabulary Size Level, Informal Exposure, Motivation, And The Efl Learners’ Collocational Knowledge In Saudi Arabia, Amal Barzanji

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigated the correlation between English collocation test scores and three independent variables including vocabulary level, informal language exposure, and motivation. The study also examined which independent variable was the most influential in predicting the collocation tests scores. Data was collected using, Gyllstad’s (2007) COLLEX and COLLMATCH tests, Webb et al.’s (2017) Form A of the updated Vocabulary Levels Test, Luk and Bialystok’s (2013) Language and Social Background Questionnaire (LSBQ), and Moskovsky et al.’s (2016) L2 Motivational Self-System Questionnaire (L2MSS). Participants (N = 136) from a Saudi university completed the questionnaires. The results indicated that although there were …

Evacuation Decision Making And The Role Of Social Connections Across Evacuation Statuses During Hurricane Irma, Nathan D. Shull

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine the evacuation decision-making process during Hurricane Irma in 2017. Special consideration was given to the role of an individual’s social connections (SCs). Additionally, the dependability, density (i.e., social network size and number of connections), and diversity of SCs were compared between those who: (a) evacuated to a shelter in Pinellas County, (b) evacuated to somewhere outside of the Tampa Bay area, and (c) did not evacuate. Data for evacuees and non-evacuees from Collins et al. (2018) were used to perform this comparison, while the data for shelter evacuees were acquired via a …

A Self-Study Of Need-Supportive Teaching In Elementary Art, Craig Jacobowitz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I present a self-study of my need-supportive teaching practice. I have long been curious about what it is about my teaching, what I say and do, that motivates students to work harder on their artwork and persevere when they become mired in difficulties. Need-supportive teaching addresses students' basic psychological needs within the classroom setting through high-quality teacher/student relationships and structure. Need-supportive teaching, motivation, and academic resilience are areas I made an extensive study of, as presented in chapter two. In March of 2020, the educational landscape in the United States was altered by the arrival of the unprecedented and novel …

Cognitive Ability And Ambivalence Toward Alcohol: An Examination Of Working Memory Capacity’S Influence On Drinking Behavior, Emily T. Noyes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research stemming from dual-processing theories suggest that working memory capacity may have an important role in the ability to inhibit automatic tendencies when there is the motivation to do so (Barrett, Tugade, & Engle, 2004). Ambivalence, the simultaneous desire to engage in (approach motivation) and inhibit (avoidance motivation), often occurs with problematic behaviors like alcohol abuse. The current study sought to determine whether individual differences in working memory capacity moderate the relationship between approach, avoidance and subsequent drinking behavior in a clinical sample. A total of 66 individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) participated in a baseline assessment of working …

Mental Health Problems, Traumatic Brain Injury, And Offending Behavior Among Persons Incarcerated In A County Jail, Lauren F. Fournier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous work has found that although mental illness is positively related to offending behavior, it is a fairly poor predictor of aggression, violence, offending, and recidivism after controlling for sociodemographic and historical risk factors (i.e., criminal history, age, race, gender). This refutes the model that mental illness is a direct cause of crime. Instead, risk for recidivism or crime related to mental health problems may be higher when combined with other risk factors. The current study evaluated traumatic brain injury (TBI) and associated symptoms of post-concussion syndrome (PCS) as potential moderators of the relationship between mental health problems and concurrently …

An Examination Of Covid-19 Health Behaviors And Public Health Messaging Using The Health Belief Model And Organization-Public Relationship Quality, Aaron L. Nichols

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the context of the most severe pandemic in over 100 years, this study examined public health behavior and public health messaging using the health belief model (HBM) and organization-public relationships (OPR) as frameworks. The study employed a cross-sectional survey of students (N = 288) and employees (N = 203) at a large public university in the southeastern United States. First, the study empirically tested the components of the HBM as determinants of engaging in public health behaviors meant to slow or prevent the spread of COVID-19 and found all components of the model to be significantly related to engaging …

Framing #Metoo Movement In China A Content Analysis Of China Women’S News Coverage, Wenminzi Wu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Grounded in the framing theory, this article examined a differential study by content analysis. After the #MeToo movement rapidly trended in at least 85 countries including China, many people’s life and mind have been changed. The purpose of this study was to explore the frames used in the news coverage in China Women’s News referring to sexual harassment/assault and to examine how far the sense of gender equality has been changed in China especially after the #MeToo movement began. The sample came from the online database of a total of 546 relevant coverage from 2014 to 2020 in China Women’s …

An Ecological Momentary Assessment Of Disordered Eating Behaviors Within Alcohol Use Episodes: Determining Temporal Sequencing In Food And Alcohol Disturbance, Emily M. Choquette

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The co-occurrence of disordered eating and alcohol use has been well documented in the literature. Food and Alcohol Disturbance (FAD), previously referred to as “drunkorexia,” refers to the use of disordered eating behaviors within an alcohol use episode for the purpose of increasing alcohol effects and/or offsetting caloric intake from alcohol. There is a relatively limited literature base which examines FAD; however, there is evidence that FAD is associated with alcohol-related consequences and health risk behaviors. As such, further study into this phenomenon is necessary. The current study aimed to address significant limitations in the literature. While the aims of …

Do I Belong? What Students Teach Us About Belonging To A New University, Jennifer Ann Scaia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Foundational to this evaluation study, the participating institution aspired to improve its retention rate. Students’ perceived sense of belonging has been identified as an important variable related to student retention and persistence (Bean & Eaton, 2000; Strayhorn 2012; Strayhorn 2019; Tinto, 2017). For students to succeed beyond their first year in college, it is fundamentally important that they view themselves as valued members of the university community (Bean & Eaton, 2000; Bollen & Hoyle, 1990; Murphy, 2016).

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how undergraduate students, predicted as less likely to retain into their second year, described their …

Exploring Educators' Sensemaking Of Statewide Professional Learning For Educational Decision-Making Within An Mtss, Sarah E. Thoman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative inquiry explored district-based educators’ sensemaking of an ongoing, statewide professional learning series focused on special education eligibility for students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) using a response-to-intervention (RtI) approach within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). Specifically, the professional learning series was designed as a community of practice (CoP; Lave & Wenger, 1991) with both face-to-face and virtual activities. The professional learning series was in its second year of implementation and educators in the first two cohorts (Cohort 1 and Cohort 2) of the series were the participants in this study. The theoretical framework of sensemaking (Weick, 1995) …

Narrative Meaning Productions Of Compassionate Healthcare: An Examination Of Cultural Codes, Organizational Practices, And Everyday Realities, Carley Geiss

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the social complexities of emotion in healthcare; employing a multi-level narrative approach that explores the cultural, organizational, and interactional aspects of “compassionate care.” The central question I ask is: How do cultural beliefs and values surrounding compassionate healthcare inform organizational practices and the lived experiences of individuals providing such care? This project highlights the largely overlooked cultural, structural aspects of emotion, demonstrating how pervasive collective values and beliefs become institutionalized, and how such standards inform everyday experiences of healthcare providers.