Digital Commons Network^™

Association Between Anxiety And Rrbs In Autistic Youth: Role Of Ethnicity, Catherine Rita Callaci

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Autistic youth are at elevated risk for developing co-occurring anxiety symptoms (Zaboski & Storch, 2018), which are shown to be related to restricted, repetitive behaviors (RRBs; Rogers et al., 2012). Despite similar rates of autism in Latinx as in non-Latinx White youth, limited research has been conducted in the Latinx population. Participants were autistic youth and youth with developmental delays (DD; N = 199, Mage = 4.98 years, Latinx = 66.3%, Male = 66.3%) from two larger randomized controlled trials investigating parenting stress. Child anxiety was measured via the Spence Anxiety Scales total anxiety T-scores. RRBs were measured via Repetitive …

Taste Of Florence: A Hospitality Student's Guide To Study Abroad In Florence, Emma M. Mcclure

Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

The goal of this creative project is to better prepare hospitality student for studying abroad in Florence, Italy. Studying abroad can be a daunting class, but there’s so many benefits from doing it. For example, you learn a lot about yourself and others around you. It better prepares you for after college because it teaches you life lessons like becoming more aware of the world around you. It also sets you apart from others when you start to apply for internships or jobs, because it shows the companies that you are independent and culturally diverse.

The results that I gathered …

Lost In Chaos: The Battle Between Selfcare And Motherhood, Sarah Shahzad

MS Marketing Research Projects/Theses

Motherhood in collectivist societies such as Pakistan is deeply intertwined with caregiving, leaving limited space for women’s self-care or personal well-being. This study explores how young Pakistani mothers negotiate self-care within competing expectations of maternal sacrifice, cultural morality, and structural constraints. Guided by the Institutional Logics Perspective (ILP), it examines how familial norms, religious values, and market forces collectively shape women’s self-care practices, framing self-care not as an autonomous act but as a negotiated process embedded within social and institutional boundaries. This study adopts an interpretive phenomenological approach to explore how Pakistani mothers experience and negotiate self-care within cultural and …

From Protest To Form: Translating Venezuelan Resistance Into Architectural Form, Estefany S. Gomes

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Political unrest in Venezuela has continuously redefined the relationship between power and space. Protest reveals that collective action is inherently spatial. As movement consolidates into collective action, it reorganizes territory and redefines how space is used and occupied. What appears as an event can be understood as a constructed condition shaped by direction, pressure, and intensity. In this sense, protest operates as a temporary architecture formed through motion and presence.

This thesis investigates the spatial intelligence embedded in protest and explores how it can be translated into architectural form. Protests reorganize space through compression and release. They unfold through phases …

Cultural Humility In The Workplace: A Causal-Comparative Study Of Foreign And Local Hire Employees In International Education, Natalie A. Ortiz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cultural humility is recognized as a framework for fostering respectful relationships in culturally diverse workplaces. However, limited research has examined cultural humility within international education in regard to workplace dynamics and power imbalances that may exist between foreign and local hire educators. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to examine differences in perceived cultural humility levels between foreign and local hire employees in PreK-12^th grade private international schools in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The study also examined whether years of international educational experience and the number of international educational assignments influenced perceived cultural humility levels. Data …

The Caged Canary: Compounded Discrimination And The Female Jazz Vocalist, Isabella Eaton

Master's Theses

While women have historically represented the overwhelming majority of jazz vocalists, they have also experienced a unique legitimacy gap in a culture that traditionally grants the status of authenticity to the masculine instrumentalist. This study explores the experiences of mid-twentieth century female jazz vocalists, arguing that they faced compounded discrimination within American jazz culture as a result of gender marginalization and the devaluation of their vocal instrument. The intricacies of this phenomenon necessitate a multipronged qualitative approach by employing historiographical analysis, synthesis of existing scholarship, and qualitative case study research methods. Beginning with the dichotomy between the jazz “cat” and …

Vibe Diggers: The Sampling Of Brazilian Music In Hip-Hop, Romulo De Carvalho Moraes Barbosa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates the trend of musical borrowings of 1970s MPB (música popular brasileira) by contemporary American hip-hop producers, especially in terms of what they have called a “Brazilian vibe.” A lot has been said about sampling already from legal, sociological, and historical points of view, but less has been said about its aesthetic procedures, and even less about the wider implications of a tendency for using transnational sources. In the case of MPB, hip-hop artists seem to understand the music they sample through an often vague, intuitive representation, which fuses qualities of those recordings with an intersubjective mood, a …

Dancing In Circles: Bon Dance As Performance Of The Past, Travis Robb Kim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project traces the contours of the Japanese folk dance tradition of Bon Dance in Hawaiʻi through the nuances of public scholarship, diaspora, and racial capitalism by producing an original play which aims to perform the knowledge and praxis which the performance ritual puts forward. Treating Bon Dance as muse, the original play examines the necessity of turning to the past in order to disrupt a future made inevitable by oppressive systems; a fiction that comments on and critiques the predictive and generative technologies that have embedded themselves into society at large. Through intertwining conversations that explore prophecy and …

The Impact Of Stigma On The Mmpi-3 Scores Of An Indo-Caribbean Community Sample, Julia Persaud-Naipaul

Theses and Dissertations

Evaluation of personality and psychological disorders is accomplished through the use of psychometric measures. However, tests require interpretation of test responses using a normative criterion based on a particular population that may not fully consider the effect of cultural influences on an individual’s level of willingness to report psychological difficulties. For example, individuals in collectivistic cultures may not be as willing to self-report problems because mental illness is often perceived as a source of embarrassment and shame. One culturally unique population that has been overlooked in psychological assessment is the Indo-Caribbean population. Their specific cultural values, beliefs, attitudes, and practices …

Improving Physical And Biochemical Properties Of Gelatin Microgels For Tissue Engineering, Ziqiang Guan

Doctoral Dissertations

Gelatin-based microgels are modular biomaterial building blocks that can be injected and assembled into three-dimensional scaffolds for tissue engineering. Their performance, however, is limited by the transport properties of individual particles, the difficulty of directly encapsulating cells while preserving viability and secondary crosslinking capacity, and the limited ability of passive scaffolds to provide externally controlled physical stimulation. This dissertation investigated three complementary strategies to expand the structural and functional capabilities of gelatin-based microgel systems. First, thermally stable porous gelatin/alginate microgels were produced using calcium-mediated ionic crosslinking and subsequently annealed with microbial transglutaminase. The resulting assemblies maintained internal porosity at physiological …

Nāgasvaram Ensemble Music In Contemporary South India: Perspectives Of Revival, Rajeswari Ranganathan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a study of nāgasvaram ensemble music in South India based on ethnographic research in Tamil Nadu conducted between 2022 and 2026. Drawing from observations of its various performance contexts and extensive interviews with contemporary practitioners, teachers, students, impresarios, and archivists, this study examines how the aesthetics, social contexts, and circulation of nāgasvaram ensemble music have evolved over the last four decades. Countering prevalent narratives of its decline and highlighting its endurance, I argue that this musical practice is undergoing a revival, both shaped by and contributing to ongoing social transformations.

Nāgasvaram ensembles featuring the double-reed woodwind instrument …

Going The Distance: How The Disney Renaissance Illustrated The Social And Cultural Changes In America During The 1990s, Deborah A. Bates

Graduate Masters Theses

The cultural and social history of America in the 90s is examined in this thesis by looking at the Disney Renaissance, a period of ten films made by the Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS). This thesis illustrates how the animators were able to seamlessly incorporate important societal trends of the 90s into their films, portraying a changing world within their films. As they were creating a new style of the animated movie musical, they were creating works that connected to the audiences watching in new ways, by putting up a reflection of society within their films. The way that the …

“School’S Not For Me. I Don't Belong In School.”: Students With Dis/Abilities’ Perspectives On Special Education During State Intervention, Leila E. Parks

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study presents the lived experiences of 10 racialized teens with dis/abilities who received special education services in the Boston Public Schools during state intervention. As a youth participatory action research collective, the young people in the study’s Youth with Dis/Abilities Research Group explored issues of inclusion and exclusion, ableism, racism, and safety at school. The project was framed by dis/ability critical race studies, incorporating aspects of critical race theory and disability studies in education. Based on stories expressed through free-writes, poetry, drawings, interviews, and group conversations, the racialized teens with dis/abilities shared negative school experiences overall. Though most …

Effects Of A Shame-Focused Self-Compassion Writing Intervention In Individuals With Social Anxiety, Selen Amado

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The present study examined the efficacy of a brief, shame-focused self-compassion (SF-SC) writing intervention in reducing shame, social anxiety and related cognitive maintenance processes among individuals with elevated social anxiety. Shame is a core feature and maintaining factor of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), closely linked to self-focused attention, post-event processing, and self-criticism. Additionally, self-compassion demonstrates a robust inverse association with shame. However, few interventions have explicitly targeted shame as a primary mechanism of change using self-compassion strategies in socially anxious populations. Using a randomized controlled design, 94 participants with elevated levels of social anxiety and shame were assigned to either …

“When I’M Not Heard, I Feel Like I Don’T Matter”: Advancing Equity In Disability Policy Through Critical Participatory Action Research With People With Intellectual Disability, Cris Marchionne

Student Theses

People with intellectual disability deserve a system that offers flexible, timely, and person-centered support — one that is innovative, sustainable, and holistic in enabling them to live fulfilling lives. This qualitative study, grounded in Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR), examines how people with intellectual disability experience participation in decision-making within New York State's disability service system. By centering lived experience, the study identifies factors that facilitate or hinder participation in decision-making and examines structural, social, and policy-related barriers that limit agency. Through six focus groups and a Photovoice project with self-advocates receiving OPWDD services, participants described systemic barriers that limited …

Kindergarten Classroom Educators’ Perceptions Of Social Emotional Learning Implementation, Thomasina A. Millner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this study was that research on social emotional learning (SEL) has largely focused on student outcomes, program effectiveness, and implementation practices, but limited research has examined kindergarten classroom educators’ perceptions of implementing SEL. Grounded in the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning framework, the purpose of this study was to explore kindergarten classroom educators’ perceptions of SEL implementation. For this basic qualitative design, semistructured interviews with nine kindergarten educators who had at least 1 year experience implementing SEL were conducted. Through thematic data analysis the following five themes emerged: Educators noted (1) that SEL is …

Measuring Proteostasis Changes In Apolipoprotein E Mouse Models Using Quantitative And Kinetic Proteomic Methods, Ariel E.A. Denos

Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a neurological disorder associated with brain mass loss and cognitive decline. It affects millions of elderly people and is currently uncurable. Since 1906, when the disease was first described, researchers have uncovered many components of AD pathology. However, it is now evident that curing Alzheimer's Disease will require intervention before the pathological onset of amyloid beta plaque deposition, tau neurofibrillary tangles, and associated neuronal loss. Studying AD from the perspective of early intervention requires special attention to small changes that may disrupt the normal processing of cells. Cells undergo a natural cycle of creation and destruction …

Ai And The Music Industry: Its Current Status And A Speculative Projection Of Its Evolutionary Trajectory, Rhett D. Morris, Clayton Rosati, Stefan Fritsch

Honors Projects

Music serves as one of society's biggest cultural outlets, allowing millions to share in what used to be a uniquely human form of expression. The commodification of music has built a huge industry full of companies and platforms that have used technology and property laws to shape music's relationship with the public. This study aims to look into the future to see how AI and its implementation could affect the structure of the music industry. To look into the future, this piece establishes two of the most pressing kinds of AI technology for the music industry and looks to contextualize …

Bridging The Gap: Action-Oriented Vs. Community-Minded Mentalities And Behaviors In Cold Case Investigation Units, Samantha Strine

Dissertations

One key group in policing that has seen an increase in public and media attention but not research is the cold case investigation unit. These units tend to be more “bureaucratic”, focusing on communication, community-engagement skills, and “desk work”. Thus, this is a potential area for learning techniques and policies that shift the mentalities within police culture to be more accepting of new community focused policies. This study also seeks to address a gap in current research related to studying specialized police units.

The purpose of this study is to describe the organizational dynamics and officers’ tactics, perceptions, and interactions …

The Legend Of The Bear Lake Monster, Melissa Anderson Asay

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

The Bear Lake Monster is a legend that has persisted for centuries. This monster is rooted in Shoshone oral traditions and hold the potential to be based off of fossils found in the Shoshone territory. This living legend was later amplified by Mormon settlers. One settler in particular, Joseph C. Rich, played a significant role in shaping its narrative. Though he eventually admitted to fabricating sightings to encourage settlement, belief in the creature remains alive today. The serpent’s presence in local lore has undeniably influenced the Bear Lake region, shaping both its identity and tourism industry. This legend serves as …

Affective And Cognitive Factors Contributing To Male-Female Differences In Mathematics, Sarah N. Herod

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Math differences between men and women have been studied for several decades, with original theories suggesting a biological reason for the differences and more new ones suggesting multiple factors, such as self-efficacy, anxiety, and spatial ability, may be responsible for these apparent differences. Additionally, most research into math differences between the sexes involves the use of a composite score, rather than examining the different sub-domains of math separately. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between sex and math performance within the context of an individual's belief and attitudes towards math and spatial information. Seventy-one participants …

“Dynt Of Dede:” Reading The Medieval Combat Scene Through The Helmet-Cleave Motif, Andrew Sherwood Thomas

Dissertations

This research explores the continuity of chivalric combat descriptions throughout medieval literature. By tracing the history, development, and distribution of the helmet-cleave motif, this study is able to examine combat scenes spanning a wide reach of time, genera, and language. The purpose of this work is to suggest a reading methodology for the chivalric combat scene that appropriately situates it in its cross-textual context and so reveals the nuance of its expression and the value in its study.

Despite the volume of surviving combat descriptions in medieval literature, they remain underrepresented in the scholarship due to their apparent repetitious and …

Public And Self-Stigma Toward Mental Health Among Individuals Of Mexican Heritage, Mitzi Escalante

Theses & ETDs

There are rising concerns about social isolation and declining mental health that have prompted increased attention to the role of culture in shaping mental health experiences, particularly through stigma. Although prior research suggests that mental health stigma varies across and within cultural groups, limited work has focused specifically on Mexican American populations. The present study examined the relationship between Mexican American cultural values and both public stigma and self-stigma toward mental illness. Measures included the Mexican American Cultural Values Scale (MACVS), the Community Attitudes toward the Mentally Ill scale (CAMI) to measure public stigma, and the Internalized Stigma of Mental …

The Co-Development Of Espn+ And College Sports: A Case Study, Eric Bohannon

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

In 2018 ESPN debuted its national streaming service ESPN+. This profoundly changed the way sports fans watch college sports as well as other professional sporting events. Prior to ESPN+, a limited number of college sports games appeared on linear channels such as ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, and occasionally a few other channels. Since 2018, ESPN+ streamed thousands of events per year ranging from college soccer to college softball and everything in between, including the qualifying and early rounds of professional tennis and golf tournaments from around the country. This case study describes the impact of ESPN+ on a college conference, …

Examining Transcultural Approaches In Art Education: Transversality, Identity Formation, And Intercultural Understanding, Alexandra Grace Parsons

Master's Theses

Art education is often treated as marginal within formal schooling, valued as enrichment rather than recognized as a vital contributor to students' intellectual, cultural, and emotional development. Funding and policy decisions made by state and local bodies produce significant regional disparities in access to art education across the United States. This thesis examines how transcultural approaches to art education can respond to increasingly diverse, post-migrant school communities. Using a comparative qualitative case study design, the study analyzes program structures, partnership models, and pedagogical practices at Birmingham Arts School in the United Kingdom alongside schools within Fulton County and Atlanta Public …

Lgbtq People's Lives Post-Incarceration: A Multi-Method Study, Hayley Jackey

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

LGBTQ people are disproportionately targeted by the criminal legal system and overrepresented in the carceral system. Despite current research in queer criminology examining the impacts of the carceral system on the community, there is a dearth of literature examining LGBTQ people’s experiences or identity disclosure once released from the Prison Industrial Complex and into the Prisoner Reentry Industry. Using unique methodologies of photo-elicitation interviews and in-depth interviews, the current study examines how ten formerly incarcerated LGBTQ people navigate returning to society post-incarceration. The study found two distinct experiences. The first group was selective about who they shared their LGBTQ identity …

From Words To Form: Disability In Contemporary Italian And Italian American Literature, Arianna Salomon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This dissertation traces nearly fifty years of representations of disability, understood as a cultural category, from the late 1970s to the early 2020s, in two interconnected traditions: Italian and Italian American literature. In particular, it explores how disability reshapes the act and aesthetics of writing in contemporary Italian and Italian American novels and memoirs. Given the field’s relative newness, the substantial groundwork still required, and the many connections between literature and disability, this dissertation uses nine case studies with a balanced pairing of Italian and Italian American works in each chapter: Carmelo Samonà’s Fratelli (1978) and Tina De Rosa’s Paper …

Selective Factors Impacting Charter High School Enrollment, Nathan Marshall

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined factors influencing high school choice among Utah families, comparing parent priorities between charter and traditional public high schools. Using one-way ANOVA with Tukey honestly significant difference (HSD) post hoc comparisons, parental priorities were analyzed across personal, school community, and academic factors. Parents choosing traditional public high schools rated personal and school community factors significantly higher, emphasizing relationships and school climate, while charter high school parents rated academic factors significantly higher, favoring rigor and instructional quality. Charter parents' priorities were not uniform, however, but varied significantly by school model, suggesting that the charter-versus-traditional divide masks meaningful differences within …

Perceptions Of Speech-Language Therapy Among Generations Of One Mexican-American Family, Sabrina A. Macias

Master's Theses

This research is a modified replication of Salas-Provance et al. (2002) and analyzes the perceptions of speech-language therapy among one Mexican-American family. It investigates opinions about causes of speech-language disorders, for whom speech therapy can be helpful, characteristics and stereotypes about people with hearing and speech disorders, and the influence of education level on such opinions. With the assistance of three family members and two cultural informants, an online survey was developed consisting of demographic factors, Mexican folk and medical beliefs, and potential stereotypes of people with speech, language, and hearing disabilities. Twenty-three family members (response rate = 76.7%) completed …

Childbirth Experiences Of The Bangladeshi Immigrant Women In South Florida, Tahsina Ferdous

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This qualitative research was conducted among Bangladeshi immigrant women living in South Florida who have given birth here. Twenty Bangladeshi immigrant women were selected using the snowball sampling method from various cities in South Florida. The unit of analysis was the individual Bangladeshi immigrant woman, focusing on her experiences and behavior during pregnancy and childbirth. Semi-structured interviewing and case study methods were used for data collection. The results reveal the coping strategies and the navigation process of socio-cultural transition from non-mother to mother, and the Bangladeshi traditional views regarding beliefs, rituals, and practices of Bangladeshi immigrant women regarding their pregnancy …