Digital Commons Network^™

The Dimensions Of Mental Illness Stigma And Discrimination Among Nursing Personnel And Lay Persons, Carol Paula Wiseman

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Stigmatizing beliefs about mental illness remain widespread among both lay persons and healthcare professionals, undermining help seeking, recovery, and successful community reintegration for individuals living with mental illness (Agapie et al., 2022; Ahad et al., 2023). The factors which drive mental illness stigma and discrimination (MISAD) are varied, deep seated and often difficult to change (Khalid et al., 2024).

The purpose of this study was to explore the nature and manifestations of mental illness stigma and discrimination across selected participant groups in Trinidad and Tobago, identifying points of convergence and divergence. A secondary aim was to examine how the nursing …

Older Population-Based Resilience: An Evolutionary Analysis Via Complex Adaptive Systems, Po-Chung Feng

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Purpose: To clarify the concept of older population-base resilience to support nursing research, public health planning, and healthy aging strategies.

Background: Older population-based resilience is an important concept for facilitating the adaptation of aging populations to multifaceted adversity networks. While extensive studies has examined resilience among older adults across diverse systems, hierarchical levels, and dimensional perspectives, the conceptual discourse has focused mainly on the individual level. A comprehensive articulation of population-level resilience attributes has been notably absent from the literature. Consequently, establishing a precise conceptualization of Older Population-Based Resilience constitutes an imperative scholarly endeavor.

Methods: A systematic literature search was …

Examining Social Support Among Black Dementia Caregivers In The Greater Toronto Area, Deanna Marie Black

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Dementia affects more than 55 million people globally and disproportionately impacts Black populations due to inequities in healthcare access. In Canada, Black communities face higher dementia risk and greater barriers to timely, culturally aligned care. In the Greater Toronto Area, Black caregivers carry major responsibilities while navigating fragmented services shaped by race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Although social support reduces caregiver burden, little is known about how Black caregivers access and use support within intersecting social and structural constraints.

Purpose: This study will examine how Black adult caregivers in the Greater Toronto Area construct, access, and mobilize social support …

Navigating The Midlife Shift: Menopause, Motherhood, And Meaning In Women’S Lives, Michelle M. Ness

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Midlife represents a dynamic and often disorienting transition for women, marked by the convergence of menopause, shifting family roles, and evolving professional identities. This mixed-methods study explores how women navigate these intersecting experiences, particularly focusing on the impact of menopausal symptoms on motherhood, work, and relational well-being.

Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 42 women aged 39–57. Thematic analysis followed Braun and Clarke’s framework, integrating inductive and deductive coding strategies. Themes were identified and refined through an iterative analytic process, ensuring credibility and depth through careful attention to patterns and meaning across participant narratives. Four key themes emerged: …

Ecological Determinants Of Youth Marijuana Use: A Longitudinal Mediation Model, Ricardo Zamarripa Ortega, Christopher Browning, Jodi L. Ford

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Purpose: This study explores how activity space collective efficacy strengthens families to buffer against depressive symptoms, which may lead to substance use. By identifying these pathways, we aim to improve prevention strategies.

Methods: Data from the Adolescent Health Development in Context study (n = 1,538) were used for mediation models with 10,000 bootstrap draws. The main predictor was activity space collective efficacy. Mediators were family support and depressive symptoms. The outcome was marijuana use. Models controlled for age, sex, race, caregiver education, and baseline marijuana use.

Results: Collective efficacy predicted increased family support (cross-sectional β = 0.134, 95% CI [0.065, …

Immigrant Women’S Experiences Of Living In An Abusive Relationship: A Narrative Inquiry, Fay M. Dastjerdi, Sassan Issari, Zipora Rahmanov, Elizabeth Sombilon

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Immigration has become a reality in most parts of the world for different reasons. Iranian immigrants ranked sixth in acquiring Canadian citizenship and eighth in being admitted as permanent residents (Bains, 2024; Risdon, 2024). Most immigrants experience some degree of loss and disassociation after being dislocated. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) impacts people of all genders, ages and socioeconomic, racial, educational, ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds; however,women experience this form of gender-based violence at much higher rates, most often perpetrated by men (Statistics Canada, 2023 & 2025). IPV presents a significant public health challenge affecting diverse demographic groups, including immigrant women …

Maltreatment And Aggression In Children And Adolescents: A Meta-Analytic And Systematic Review, Lauren Staigers

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

This research project aims to organize the body of research on the micro-level relationship between adverse childhood experiences and aggression in children under the age of eighteen.

A Systematic Review Of Prejudice Against Immigrant Women In Organizational Leadership In The United States, Vanessa Ampofoa Boadu

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

This study examines how gender, nationality/immigration status, and ethnicity shape workplace experiences, impact professional advancement, and overall productivity

Diagnostic Accuracy Of A Single-Item Happiness Index For Screening Mild Depressive Symptoms, Shun Chan, Aderonke Odetayo, Jasmine Cheung, Anson Chui Yan Tang, Lorna Kawi Ping Suen, Simon Ching Lam

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Depression symptoms are a mental health problem with rising prevalence globally. To enhance the estimation of depressive symptoms in epidemiological studies, a 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) has been widely used. Some local research found that a single-item General Happiness Index (GHI) highly correlated with the scales used for screening the depressive symptoms. This study hence aimed to explore the sensitivity and specificity of GHI for screening mild or more severe depressive symptoms based on the secondary data analysis in the Chinese population.

Methods: This methodological study used the data collected in the General Happiness Survey 2024 and 2025 …

Seeing Through Students’ Eyes: Photo-Elicitation For Research And Program Evaluation In Nursing, Megan P. Williams

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Photo-elicitation invites participants to capture and share photographs representing their lived experiences. It offers a meaningful way to evaluate how nursing students integrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes across cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains of learning. Grounded in visual sociology (Harper, 2002) and expanded through nursing pedagogy (Linz, 2011; Kronk et al., 2015), this approach helps students express ideas and emotions that are difficult to articulate or assess. Prior research indicates that photo-elicitation supports empathy, critical thinking, and self-awareness through learning experiences such as aging (Chonody, 2018), community health (Cooper et al., 2017), and academic challenges (Steenfeldt et al., 2019). …

Ronald E. Mcnair Research Symposium Presentation Schedule 2026, Mcnair Scholars Program

McNair Symposium

This is the presentation schedule for the 24th Undergraduate Ronald E. McNair Research Symposium 2026.

Intersectionality And Institutional Power In Dystopian Cinema: Gender, Race, And Social Order In Sinners, Alexander Kilian, Amaya Baker

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

This research project, Intersectionality and Institutional Power in Dystopian Cinema: Gender, Race, and Social Order in Sinners, examines how Sinners construct and represent women through intersecting systems of gender, race, and institutional power within a dystopian framework. Situated within broader discussions of equity, embodiment, and access, the project addresses how speculative media reflect and shape contemporary social hierarchies, particularly in modeling institutional authority, social organization, and identity formation. The primary objective is to analyze how these intersecting systems influence perceptions of identity, hierarchy, and social cohesion. Employing an interdisciplinary humanities approach, the project integrates film analysis, feminist theory, and critical …

Characterizing Stigma In Congenital Heart Disease: A Scoping Review, Tieghan Killackey, Valerie Tan, Mark Sochaniwskyj, Maryjo Antonio, Mohit Prashar, Ashley Farrell

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common congenital malformation in Canada with a prevalence of 1.3%. (1) While medical advancements have improved survival rates, individuals with CHD have reported experiencing social exclusion, isolation, discrimination and bullying due to their condition, which impacts their social, professional, and emotional well-being.(2,3) This type of stigmatization can impact mental health, treatment adherence, and quality of life in patients (4); however limited research has focused on the experience of stigma in patients with CHD.

The purpose of the scoping review is to synthesize evidence on the various manifestations of stigma in the lives of …

Finding And Using Validated Surveys In Health Science Research, Tracy Ashby

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

Join us as we introduce techniques for identifying and using validated surveys in health sciences research. Learn strategies for finding reliable, evidence-based measurement tools in the databases and gain tips on how to evaluate their quality and relevance.

Between The Unexpected And The Unknown: The Liminal Transformation Of Bilbo Baggins And Travelers Along Route 66, Logan O. Uber

Mythcon

Much like Bilbo Baggins in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit travelers along Route 66 knew where their journey would take them, but not how it would change them. Applying liminal theory this paper demonstrates that Route 66 and Tolkien’s road function as transformative threshold spaces where travelers leave behind familiar identities to enter landscapes marked by uncertainty, danger, and possibility. Dust Bowl Migrants—individuals and families fleeing the Depression for better opportunities—and Bilbo all set out to find a better, if not different future. Their journeys transform and change them, making them more than what they once were. Route 66 exists as …

Ecological Momentary Assessment Of Caregiver Distress In Home Hospice Caregivers: A Study Protocol, Tuzhen Xu, Ya-Ching Huang

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Caregivers of hospice patients, often family or close friends, provide continuous support for individuals with a life expectancy of six months or less. In 2022, 1.72 million Medicare beneficiaries received hospice care, most at home, with an average stay of 98 days. Caregivers manage medications, symptoms, personal care, emotional support, and provider coordination, placing them at high risk for fatigue, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, and burnout. Traditional surveys or single-point interviews often fail to capture the dynamic nature of distress, especially during nighttime care or crises.

Purpose: To characterize real-time patterns of physical and psychological distress among home hospice …

Best Practices For Classroom Seating Arrangements: A Narrative Literature Review, Sophia M. Williams

Graduate Student Research Symposium

Every K-12 classroom has a unique dynamic produced by students and managed by its teachers. The relationships between peers, as well as the relationships between students and their teacher play an integral role in how students work and behave each day. An important aspect of the classroom dynamic that teachers’ control is seating arrangements. Indeed, extant research has debated on the best practice for seating arrangements in classrooms to create optimal learning environments that benefit both pupil and teacher. Some studies suggest that students work better when they are working with people that they have positive relationships with. Contrarily, others …

See-Judge-Act In The Age Of Viral Violence: Moral Agency, Praxis, And Social Media, Thomas Elias

Graduate Student Research Symposium

More and more, young adults are encountering war and violence through an unrelenting stream of social media images and videos: bombed apartment blocks, civilians fleeing airstrikes, and acts of political violence. Psychological research links exposure to unfiltered depictions of war with heightened trauma symptoms. In the age of social media, people undergo the moral processes online in response to war, terror, and injustice. While these platforms amplify global awareness, they also strain the capacities of moral agents to see clearly, judge responsibly, and act meaningfully. Drawing on Catholic social thought, digital ethics, and psychological research, this project explores how viral …

Migritude In The Digital Space: An Analysis Of Migration Narratives In Twenty-First-Century Electronic Literature, Ruth Oluyemi Akande

ELO (un)supervised 2026

The study examines the concept of migritude in the field of digital literature, highlighting the importance of African and diasporic movements in the development of modern electronic narratives studies. Drawing upon digital humanities, postcolonial theory, and African literary studies, the study posits that electronic literature transcends mere representation of migration; it actively enacts migritude through its formal, procedural, and interactive design.

This research will  careful analyse the specific electronic literary works, demonstrates how nonlinear narratives, hypertextual fragmentation, and reader involvement reflect the inherent discontinuities of migratory experiences, while also highlighting African epistemologies, linguistic hybridity, and cultural memory. These digital narratives, …

The Implications Of Generative-Ai User Prompt Engineering Shaping The Absent Presence Of Latino Women Textual Rhetoric In Llms, Angely C. Suarez Dejesus

ELO (un)supervised 2026

This article examines how large language models (LLMs) generate text that affects underrepresented groups, particularly Latino women, due to limited cultural, contextual, and abstraction training rooted in biases. The research draws on Brock’s (2018) CTDA theory, White et al.’s (2023) prompt engineering framework, Klein’s (2015) computational spatiality, and Anzaldua’s (1987) concepts of cultural, emotional, and gendered borderlands to analyze the outputs. Using narrative prompt experiments, Chat GPT 3.5, 5, Claude AI, Gemini, and Microsoft Co-Pilot produced changes in their textual outputs as evidence of further algorithmic designs. Nevertheless, continual biases embedded in the algorithms’ linguistic representation and misrepresentation through the …

Making The Writer’S Project, Alex Calderwood

ELO (un)supervised 2026

The Writer’s Project is a series of playful text editors which intervene in the act of writing in unexpected, challenging, and unusual ways. Some of the editors are conceptual experiments in user interface design: What if the editor asked you if you were sure before committing to each word? What if the delete key was not functional? Others editors are provocations that take aim at the conditions and AI-mediated writing, built to create a tension between writerly agency and system resistance. These involve placing writers into different configurations with text streams, for instance by turning prior writings into a Tetris-like …

K4) Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage Inscription: End Of The Road Or A New Beginning?, Michał Duda, Bogdan Włodarczyk, Marzena Makowska-Iskierka

International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conferences

The aim of paper is to examine the changes triggered by the inscription of religious traditions on intangible cultural heritage lists - the national level and at the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Such inscriptions generate transformations observable at heritage sites, among communities safeguarding these traditions, and in the behaviours of visitors - phenomena referred to as the “UNESCO effect.” These changes often extend beyond individual sites, inspiring other communities and heritage bearers to seek heritage recognition.

The paper focuses on religious cultural heritage associated with the tradition of creating floral carpets for the Feast of Corpus Christi in Spycimierz, …

K1) Negotiating The Sacred: Religious Sensitivities Within Contemporary Tourism Practices, Polyxeni G. Moira Dr

International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conferences

This study critically analyses ways of managing religious sensitivities in the contemporary tourism environment, focusing on the dynamic intersections between religious-cultural heritage, spirituality, and the visitor experience. Recognizing the diversity of tourist motivations—which range from traditional pilgrimage to purely cultural, historical, or educational pursuits—the study argues for the need for flexible models of governance. These models must strike a delicate balance between the accessibility of sacred sites and the necessary respect for their sanctity.

Through a thorough review of the interventions of international organizations (such as UNESCO, UNWTO, and ICCROM) and the analysis of good practice studies from various continents, …

L3) Drawing, Religious Experience And The Pilgrim’S Mind, Stephen F. Haller

International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conferences

While some tourism activities can be a positive obstacle to awareness and connection, other tourism activities, like drawing, can lead to inner development, wonder, and a heightened experience. A traveller’s activity of sketching and drawing is a meditative exercise in concentration and focus that can transform one’s experience and enhance their perception. It often facilitates the experience of connection to the place being drawn; to nature; and to a community. If developed as a frequent habit, drawing can be a character-building activity with virtues that continue even after the act of drawing is over. It is a method of altering …

L2) More Than Faith: Self-Fulfilment As A Key Driver Of Memorable Religious Tourism, Sau Ying Pamela Ho, Jing (Bill) Xu

International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conferences

While traditional perspectives on religious tourism often emphasize faith as the primary motivator, this study challenges that assumption, revealing that the pursuit of self-fulfilment is a more powerful and significant driver of memorable visitor experiences. This research delves into the psychological underpinnings of pilgrimage, seeking to understand what transforms a simple visit into a profoundly impactful journey that enhances a visitor’s sense of self-worth.

To investigate these dynamics, the study adopted the ABC Model of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). This framework posits that an Activating event (visiting a religious attraction) triggers an individual’s internal Belief system (religiosity and self-fulfilment), …

L1) Religious Tourism In Islam: Between Spiritual Purpose And Sincere Intention, Tariq Elhadary, Razaq Raj

International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conferences

This study explores religious tourism in Islam through the interrelated concepts of spiritual purpose and sincere intention. It argues that the Islamic understanding of religious experience extends beyond physical travel or the visitation of sacred sites, grounding its value in the inner dimension of faith. Islam prioritizes the essence of actions over their outward form, establishing conviction of the heart before verbal affirmation and physical practice. Accordingly, intention serves as the primary criterion for assessing the validity, acceptance, and spiritual completeness of deeds. Religious journeys such as Hajj, Umrah, and visits to holy sites therefore attain their authentic significance when …

K3) From Sacred Landscape To Pilgrimage Environment: The Case Of Monte San Giorgio And Mendrisio, Lorenzo Cantoni, Adine Gavazzi

International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conferences

Across Europe, numerous historic pilgrimage landscapes no longer function as dominant religious destinations, yet devotional practices persist in fragmented, latent, or reinterpreted forms. Pilgrimage however appears to be undergoing a process of transformation within postsecular communities, where spiritual meaning coexists with heritage tourism, community identity, and cultural landscape management. Building on religious tourism studies, pilgrimage is understood as mobility toward sacred sites as well as a ritual process embedded in tradition, motivation, and lived experience (Griffin & Raj 2017). Contemporary scholarship emphasises that pilgrimage preserve the experiential and relational practice linking people, landscape and belief systems, while fighting the tourist …

K2) (Over) Tourism And Tolkien’S Doors Of Durin: Challenges And Opportunities For St Edward’S Local Parish Church, Ruth Dowson, Karen Wellman

International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conferences

This paper considers the impacts of overtourism on the local parish church in the English Cotswolds that allegedly inspired Tolkien’s Doors of Durin (Lord of the Rings), and which was also the location of the ending of the English Civil War in the 17th Century. As a convenient stopping place for coaches, the picturesque village of Stow-on-the-Wolds has numerous tea shops; its unique historical and literary connections have made St Edwards Parish Church into a destination for approximately 200,000 visitors a year (the equivalent of ten coaches every day). This research project assesses the visitors’ footprint: demographics; where they come …

J1) Reorienting The Pilgrim-Tourist Dichotomy, Daniel H. Olsen

International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conferences

Over the past decade, the pilgrim–tourist dichotomy, originally articulated by Smith (1992), has come under sustained scrutiny, particularly in light of postmodern critiques that problematize rigid dualisms and emphasize the fluidity of personal identity. Scholars have long debated the usefulness of this binary framework. On one hand, some have sought to refine the dichotomy by inserting additional categories along a spectrum, attempting to capture the nuances between pilgrims and tourists. On the other hand, many critics have dismissed the model’s analytical utility entirely, often without offering a concrete alternative to understand the distinctions between these two types of travelers.

This …

J2) Whose Sacredness? A Systematized Review Of Theoretical Grounding And Social Representation In Tourism Studies, Ana Maria Candell Saldarreaga, Silvia Aulet

International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conferences

This paper presents a critical and systematized literature review of how sacred spaces and sites are conceptualized within tourism studies. Although research increasingly engages with religious, spiritual, heritage, and secular sites, the concept of 'sacredness' is frequently employed without explicit definition or consistent theoretical grounding, often leading to an analytical ambiguity between traditional devotion and contemporary heritage consumption. Consequently, the central question this study addresses is: In what ways is tourism scholarship conceptualizing sacrality, and what is being overlooked in the process. To address this, the study examines dominant disciplinary perspectives, the types of spaces analysed, and the positioning of …