Digital Commons Network^™

Personalizing The School Environment: Teacher-Based Advisory Programs That Support Student Adjustment And Academic Outcomes, Caroline Johnson Caswell

Open Access Dissertations

This study attempts to look at middle school teacher-based advisory programs in sixteen states across the nation. Over 200 schools were surveyed with analyses from administrator, teacher, and student responses. Regression analyses were conducted on a hierarchical basis with respect to school location, advisory structure (length and duration of advisory programs), advisory practices (academic and career issues, parental contact, individual meetings with students, study hall projects, linkages to guidance and health, leadership, and adjustment and health issues), teacher attitudes (job role strain, job satisfaction, parental contact, burnout total, and school climate), and student experiences (anxiety, depression, recognition, school transition, teacher …

Elementary School Children's Stigmatization Of Children With Mental Illness, Yvonne M. Fausett

Open Access Dissertations

Stigmatization of those with mental illness, while well-researched among the adult population, has not received as much empirical attention in relation to children as the targets of stigmatization or as the perpetuators of stigmatization. It has been speculated in the adult literature that the stigmatization of adults with mental illness by other adults is a product of childhood socialization. This study seeks to investigate the developmental trajectory of stigmatization, beginning in childhood. To this end, the Children's Stigmatization Measure (CSM) was generated as a self-report measure consisting of 4 clinical vignettes (e.g., Anxiety, Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, Depression, Normal), with 10 …

Attribute-Level Interactivity, Satisfaction, And Loyalty In The Online Environment, Miao Zhao

Open Access Dissertations

Websites are a composite of multiple attributes, each of which has certain characteristics. One such characteristic is interactivity. This dissertation research focused on the impacts of a website's attribute-level interactivity on users' satisfaction with and loyalty to the website. Although some researchers have addressed interactivity of overall websites, there is little research focusing on interactivity of attributes within a website and the consequences on users' satisfaction with and loyalty to the site. This dissertation research examined the impacts of website attribute-level interactivity on user satisfaction with and loyalty to the site from different perspectives. First, this research tested the effects …

The Relationships Between Metacomprehension Strategy Awareness, Student Reading Performance And Comprehension Strategy Instruction, Diane Elliott Kern

Open Access Dissertations

This study examined relationships between comprehension strategy instruction, reading comprehension, and metacomprehension awareness. The study occurred in four phases. In Phase 1, third grade teachers participating in the Rhode Island Reading Excellence program (REA) administered pre- and posttests of the Metacomprehension Strategy Index (MSI) (Schmitt, 1990). Teacher groups were determined as "high gains" or "less gains" based on MSI results. In Phase 2, teachers were observed. In Phase 3, "high gains" teachers completed structured interviews. In Phase 4, third grade students (N = 414) completed pre- and post testing of the MSI. Findings suggest the MSI may help to identify …

Performing Texts; Playing With Jazz Aesthetics, Richard (Rick) Walters

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite all the critical attention jazz has received in recent years from scholars in other fields---literature, history, political science, cultural studies---very little headway has been made in understanding what jazz aesthetics are and how they might inform other forms of cultural and artistic expression. Part of the difficulty lies in the time-bound, performative nature of the artform and the fact that it is primarily a non-discursive means of expression; that is to say, jazz does not translate well.

This dissertation attempts to evoke and inhabit jazz aesthetics rather than trying to define, categorize or delineate them. Alternating between close reading, …

Impact Of Assistance Programs In The Adjustment Of Refugees Resettlement Fleeing Situations Of Duress To The United States: Three Family Profiles From Sierra Leone, Iraq And Bosnia, Faridha Adel Salama

All Volumes (2001-2008)

In the year 2002, the borders of countries are becoming blurred as people are forced to migrate due to internal and boundary wars that affect entire regions. Refugees are people who have fled their homes with minimal or no personal possessions due a fear of persecution by the situations occurring in their home countries. Over 20 million people have been classified as refugees.
The areas to which these people first flee for refuge are neighboring poor countries. Hence, the living conditions in refugee camps lack prospects for a future with any semblance of normalcy. Less than one percent of refugees …

Self-Esteem, Sex Differences, And Self-Disclosure: A Study Of The Closeness Of Relationships, Christien Marie Seamon

All Volumes (2001-2008)

It was hypothesized that self-esteem, sex, and relationship closeness would affect self-disclosure. Participants imagined either a best friend or a casual acquaintance while completing a modified version of the Marital Self-Disclosure Questionnaire (MSDQ; Waring, Holden, & Wesley, 1998). The MSDQ measured four facets of self-disclosure: relationship, sex, money, and imbalance. Self-esteem was assessed using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (1965). In general, self-disclosure was greater for females than for males and in close relationships than in distant relationships. There were no differences in self-disclosure between high and low self-esteem individuals. In close relationships, females disclosed more than did males; in distant …

Health-Related Quality Of Life As Predictor Of Adherence With Antiretroviral Medication, Rakesh Joshi

Open Access Master's Theses

Title of the Study: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as predictor of medication adherence in patients infected with Human Immune-deficiency Virus (HIV).

Summary: Quality of life (QoL) is a broad term which involves evaluation of all aspects of life including, health, education, family life, housing, friendship, marriage, standard of living, and work. Health is one of the domains that affect our quality of life. The measurement of HRQoL is becoming an increasingly common activity in healthcare systems around the world. Health-related quality of life or biological outcome of treatment might predict adherence to HIV medication. This research is …

Coping With Human Immunodeficiency Disease As Predictor Of Adherence With Antiretroviral Medication, Saurabh Mistry

Open Access Master's Theses

Infection by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a multifactor disease process in which the patient must confront an array of physiological, sociocultural, economic, and psychological stressors that have the collective potential for triggering major stress responses and psychological dysfunction. People's reactions to and the outcomes of traumatic events are mediated by their subjective style of coping. Coping is defined as a person's "constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of a person". Coping, an important psychological construct has been shown to affect outcomes such as …

Self-Concept, Self-Monitoring And The Relationship Of Human Social Interaction, Crystal Rose Fonseca

Open Access Master's Theses

Self-monitoring research has developed into a significant literature that spans across disciplines. However, little research has examined the influence of self-monitoring on the development of the self-concept, which sets the stage for the current research endeavor. In the first study, it was hypothesized that directional questions “Are you extraverted?” would influence a self-concept of self-monitors to a greater extent, as they would be more likely to generate supporting thoughts which would mediate this effect. Findings generally supported the end effect of the hypothesis, but not the mediating process with high self-monitors reported a greater change in self-ratings after receiving a …

Subversion, Demystification, And Hegemony: Fight Club As A Postmodern Cultural Text, Matthew Ortoleva

Open Access Master's Theses

This thesis questions whether the film Fight Club, as a postmodern text, reaches a rhetorical goal of critical subversion, and if so, how does it reach this goal? Using a method of postmodern critical theory, this thesis argues that Fight Club does reach a goal of critical subversion by parodically installing and subverting modern hegemonic assumptions and challenging hegemonic cultural practices.

Longitudinal Study Of The Acquisition Of Locomotion, Motor Activity, And Infant Development, Janette Baird

Open Access Dissertations

This study explored the relationship between the age of development of 5 locomotor behaviors, the level of infant activity for the locomotor behaviors, and the performance of the sample of infants on standardized indices of infant development (Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence, FTII; Bayley Scales of Infant Development, BSID-II). A total of 157 infants were assessed at 6, 9, and 12 months for their activity levels on the 5 locomotor behaviors of interest, and the age at which each locomotor behavior occurred was obtained through records maintained by each infants' caregiver. The results of the regression path analysis indicates that …

Development And Validation Of Transtheorectical Measure For College Student Spiritual Expression, John A. Ward

Open Access Dissertations

The study of the use of religious techniques in counseling and religious/spiritual expression has gained increased attention in research literature over the last 15-20 years. Psychologists are becoming increasingly accepting of the role of religious techniques in counseling and the role of religious/spiritual expression in human development. However, most agree that the research base needs to be more inclusive and expanded. When religion is the focus of investigation in college student populations, most attention is focused on religious beliefs and practices, and changes in beliefs over the course of the college experience.

The transtheoretical model (TTM) is an integrative model …

Constance Cary Harrison, Refugitta Of Richmond : A Nineteenth-Century Southern Woman Writer's Critically Intriguing Antislavery Narrative Strategy, Gaillynn Marie Bowman

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Although often maligned by literary scholars, Constance Cary Harrison, nineteenth-century novelist, journalist, essayist, and short-story author, achieved popular success with her subtle, but often radical, explorations of gender, and slavery during the antebellum and post-Civil War years. Furthermore, Harrison developed innovative characterizations of African-Americans while seeking nineteenth-century southern and northern readership through conciliatory prose. In particular, Harrison characterized a slave who gained his freedom and maintained a successful, independent life, without white assistance. This unique perspective for a Southern writer of her era stemmed from the war time destruction of her homestead, Vaucluse, which compelled Harrison to recreate an idealized …

Validity Of The Boston Qualitative Scoring System As A Measure Of Executive Functioning In Pediatric Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Performance, Marlana Joyce Borgos

Open Access Dissertations

This study aimed to assess the Boston Qualitative Scoring System (BQSS; Stern et al., 1999) as a measure of executive functioning with a pediatric clinical sample (N = 157), replicating an earlier study with adult patients (Somerville, Tremont, & Stern, 2000). Male and female participants, representing diverse diagnostic categories, were examined across three age groups. Correlational analyses (to examine the convergent/divergent validity of the BQSS) revealed that median correlational coefficients were low across age groups. Relatively high correlations were not found between BQSS selected scores and convergent tasks, and low correlation coefficients were found between BQSS selected scores and divergent …

Client Perceptions To Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Symptoms And Responses Over Time, Mary Findeisen

Open Access Dissertations

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major public health problem that affects millions of Americans. Adherence to treatment regimens is of critical importance to reduce disease progression and disability. This is particularly true in the early stages of COPD when symptoms are insidious not only in the late stages when symptoms are severe. Health care providers generally assume that once a treatment regimen is prescribed it will be followed. Yet it is not uncommon, particularly in chronic illnesses, for individuals to ignore or abandon treatment regimens. The purpose of this study was to: (1) describe and explore the process …

Relationship Of Early Intervention Service Coordination Model To Quality Of Transition And Family Empowerment, Candace Adams

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship that variability in early intervention service coordination model has with the quality of transition from early intervention to preschool special education services and with the degree to which families feel empowered to advocate for their child and families' needs. Eighty-five service coordinator and family pairs in the state of New York were recruited for the study based on their adherence to one of two service coordination models: (1) dedicated service coordination or (2) service coordination plus provision of other developmental services (dual role model). Both service coordinators and families rated …

Prevalence And Risk Factors Associated With Substance Use And Abuse By Rhode Island Health Care Professionals, George Anthony Kenna

Open Access Dissertations

The major goals of this study were to address: (1) some of the key gaps in knowledge that can best be investigated by simultaneously examining the epidemiologic prevalence of alcohol, tobacco and other substance use by dentists, nurses, pharmacists and physicians; (2) methodological shortcomings of previous healthcare professional surveys. The method consisted of a seven page mail-survey sent to a random sample of 697 Rhode Island healthcare professionals (HCPs) during 2002. After three waves of surveys, 479 usable surveys were returned (68.7% response). The results of this study suggest HCPs are at slightly higher risk to use prescription drugs than …

The Personalization Of The School Environment: The Relationship Of Students' Access To Support From An Adult With Student Adjustment Outcomes And Experiences Of School Climate, Arthur William Lisi Jr.

Open Access Dissertations

Although personalizing the school environment is increasingly at the center of many calls for school reform, there has been little empirical data actually provided to substantiate claims that having an adult in the school who knows a child well--often the operational definition for such personalized communities--are actually associated with or have a positive impact on students' views of their schooling, their own feelings of self-worth and adjustment, and academic performance. The current study sought to examine the critical role an adult in the school can have in providing such instrumental and affective support. Data were collected from 27,604 middle school …

Globalization Of Innovations: A Multilevel-Multimethod Framework To Explain Diffusion And Adoption Of The Internet, Nir B. Kshetri

Open Access Dissertations

Little research has been conducted to understand the factors influencing the global diffusion of information and communications technologies (ICTs) such as the Internet. Moreover, the existing literature has a severe lack of studies dealing with the diffusion of ICTs in developing countries. The developing countries' increasingly important roles in international relations and global e-commerce make research focusing on Internet diffusion in these countries still more important. A focus on the developing world--home to 80% of humanity--is also an antidote to the tendency in the field of consumer research of becoming "increasingly isolated and of marginal relevance". To fill these research …

Latent Transition Analysis As A Sensitive Outcome Analysis For Longitudinal Data, Rosemarie Ann Martin

Open Access Dissertations

Three secondary data analysis studies were conducted to provide methodological and theoretical examples of the application of Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) to three studies of smoking cessation among adults. Each study was designed to evaluate an interactive expert system intervention for smoking cessation in three different populations of smokers: (1) Chapter 2 evaluated the expert system intervention versus assessment only in smokers from the state of Rhode Island (N = 4,144); (2) Chapter 3 evaluated the expert system intervention versus a non-interactive manual-based intervention in a managed care setting (N = 2,882); (3) and Chapter 4 examined the expert system …

Stress Management During Pregnancy: An Investigation Of The Psychosocial, Behavioral, And Cognitive Correlates, Leanne Marie Mauriello

Open Access Dissertations

Health professionals recognize and study the multitude of health risks initated by the occurrence of stress during childbearing months. However, very few researchers have examined how women cope with or manage stress during pregnancy. In this study preliminary measurement and prediction analyses were conducted to initiate research on stress management during pregnancy using the framework of the Transtheoretical Model. A sample of 156 pregnant women was recruited from waiting rooms at midwife and obstetrician offices. Measures of decisional balance, confidence, stress, and coping specific to a pregnant population were developed. Exploratory measurement analyses produced relatively brief and internally consistent instruments …

Parenting The Child With Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, Sandra Ruth Mott

Open Access Dissertations

What is it like to parent a child born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS)? Until recently these children did not live beyond infancy so the question was mute. With the advent of new technologies and care these infants are surviving and thriving. However, they require intense care during their first few years of life. A literature search revealed many publications related to the infant's physical care before, during and between surgeries but little that addressed parenting expectations or concerns. To discover what it was like to be the parent of a child, who was living with a reconstructed heart, …

Self-Organization, Hierarchy, And Task Structure In Workgroups: An Empirical Study Of Complexity Theory, Matthew G. Paldy

Open Access Dissertations

Complexity theorists argue that an optimal organizational form results from the interactions of individual agents in the absence of an imposed management hierarchy (Anderson, 1999; Begun, 1994; Berreby, 1998; Coveney & Highfield, 1995; Guastello, 2002). There have been few empirical studies to support this claim. This research investigated the effects of self-organization and task interdependence types on group effectiveness and member satisfaction. Results show that groups allowed to self-organize had greater member satisfaction in sequential and reciprocal task structures, shorter task completion times in sequential task structures, and lower satisfaction in pooled task structures versus comparable groups with hierarchy imposed. …

Latent Transition Ananlysis As A Sensitive Outcome: Analysis For Longitudinal Data, Rosemarie A. Martin

Open Access Dissertations

Three secondary data analysis studies were conducted to provide methodological and theoretical examples of the application of Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) to three studies of smoking cessation among adults. Each study was designed to evaluate an interactive expert system intervention for smoking cessation in three different populations of smokers: (1) Chapter 2 evaluated the expert system intervention versus assessment only in smokers from the state of Rhode Island (N=4,144); (2) Chapter 3 evaluated the expert system intervention versus a non-interactive manual-based intervention in a managed care setting (N=2,882); (3) and Chapter 4 examined the expert system intervention versus assessment only …

The Courts Determine The "Best Interest" Of A Child, Karine Polis

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Adult Guardianship: Protecting The Elderly Or Shielding Abusers?, Marguerite Angelari

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Ohio's Patient-Physician Privilege: Whether Planned Parenthood Is A Protected Party, Melissa O'Neill

Journal of Law and Health

This article will suggest that under Ohio's patient-physician privilege, the results of pregnancy tests that are administered at Planned Parenthood clinics will not be considered privileged or confidential information, unless the test is administered by a physician and is later used by a physician in treatment of the woman. In particular, this article will briefly examine the history of a right to medical privacy, the development of the patient-physician privilege and the origin of Planned Parenthood . The notion of very intimate details of a person's health, including diseases, conditions, diagnoses and prognoses being readily available to whoever would like …

The Changing Shape Of The American Electorate: Suffrage Laws And Turnout, Richard M. Valelly , '75

Political Science Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Mind And Heart 2003, Whitworth University

Mind and Heart Newsletter

No abstract provided.