Digital Commons Network^™

Approaching Autism: A Qualitative Review Of Maternal And Familial Adaptation Among Families Of Children With Autism, Stephanie A. Williamson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to serve as an exploration of family experiences in relation to a child's autism diagnosis. Specifically, it focuses on family adaptation as explained by McCubbin, et al.'s Double ABCX Model (1983). Given that mothers play a crucial role in the family system and are often the primary caregivers for children with disabilities, maternal adaptation is also investigated. This study employs qualitative methods, including in-depth personal and group interviews. Mothers shared their perceptions and experiences surrounding children's autism diagnoses, including initial recognition of atypical behavior and development, the formal diagnosis process, and subsequent transitions within …

Helping Our Toddlers, Developing Our Children’S Skills (Hot Docs): An Investigation Of A Parenting Program To Address Challenging Behavior In Young Children, Jillian Leigh Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated outcomes of a parent training curriculum: Helping Our Toddlers Developing Our Children's Skills (HOT DOCS), using secondary analyses of existing data collected between May 2007 and March 2009. The evaluation studied the impact of specific components of the parent training program on both participants' knowledge and attitudes and their perceptions of target children's behavior. Caregivers (n = 334) of children between the ages of 18 months and 5.11 years of age who were participants in the parent training program were included in the study. Measures included a pre/post knowledge test, pre/post rating scales of child …

Evaluation Of A Social Support Measure That May Indicate Risk Of Depression During Pregnancy, Lori Spoozak

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Kendler Social Support Interview modified for administration to pregnant women and to assess the relationship between social support and depression in the first trimester of pregnancy. Subjects were administered the Modified Kendler Social Support Interview (MKSSI) and the Composite International Diagnostic Index to diagnose depression. Principal components analysis was employed to construct the MKSSI score. Cronbachs coefficient alpha and principal factor analysis were run for items included in the MKSSI score. The relationship between a depressive diagnosis and the MKSSI score and subscales was assessed by logistic …

National Health Reform: How Will Medically Underserved Communities Fare?, Sara J. Rosenbaum, Emily Jones, Peter Shin, Leighton C. Ku

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

This brief examines the factors underlying medical underservice. It finds that the number of Americans living in communities at risk for medical underservice is more than double the number of persons who are uninsured. The report notes that even with health insurance reform, these communities and providers that serve them will continue to be affected by elevated numbers of low income uninsured persons, as well as persons who may be seriously under-insured because of poorer health status and lower family income.

Describing health insurance expansion as the single most important strategy to alleviate medical underservice, the Brief also identifies a …

Chimeras And Jagunços: Positivist Discourse In Euclides Da Cunha's Os Sertões, Justin Barber

History ETDs

The present study elucidates the discursive practice of positivism, as particularly manifested in late nineteenth-century Brazil. Founded in 1889, the Republic of the United States of Brazil was constructed as a positivist state by republican idealists and pragmatic oligarchs; the political embodiment of ordem e progresso (order and progress). It was a form of government meant to overcome Brazils imagined and concrete backwardness by strictly adhering to the Natural Laws identified by Auguste Comte, Charles Darwin, and, in particular, Herbert Spencer. Positivist progress was, however, contingent upon the elimination of the pathological, amorphous 'savage lower races. Non-white degeneration in Brazil, …

Daily Eastern News: July 09, 2009, Eastern Illinois University

July

No abstract provided.

Negotiating Power, Identity And Mutuality: Graduate Students In Relation With Faculty, Administrators And Each Other, Donald Halquist

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

While the collaborative practices of classroom teachers, teacher educators and preservice teachers have been well documented, less is known about the collaborative experiences of graduate students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to (a) describe and systematically analyze the collaborative and shared experiences of four graduate students who worked together for two and one-half years as part of a technology professional development project, (b) describe, through the voice of the graduate students, learning experiences that ran parallel to their formal doctoral education, and (c) demonstrate ways to link practitioner research and critical incidents. Through the study, I explored aspects …

Automating The Moderation Process In Geo Using Trust Metrics, Harihar Shankar

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Distributed knowledge bases offer novel and fascinating ways to build, integrate and process knowledge. In these distributed knowledge bases, many users collaborate and contribute content. Verification and validation of the user's contributions become imperative for the success of these knowledge bases, especially if it is a scientific knowledge base. However, manually verifying and moderating the contributions become a bottleneck for an up-to-date system. In this thesis, we propose an algorithm to automate the moderation process and we implement the algorithm in an open scientific knowledge base application called Global Energy Observatory (GEO). Using Trust Metrics, user's contributions can be automatically …

Contemporary Daughter/Son Adult Social Role Performance Rating Scale And Interview Protocol: Development, Content Validation, And Exploratory Investigation, Dana Everett Cozad

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop and content validate a Performance Rating Scale and Interview Protocol, enabling study of the social role performance of adult daughters and sons as they fulfill the societal norms and expectations of adult children. This exploratory investigation was one of 13 contemporary adult social roles completed by the University of South Florida Social Roles Research Group to update research of Havighurst in the 1950s.

The Daughter/Son Performance Rating Scale and Interview Protocol were created through a series of panel reviews and suggestions by experts drawn from adult education, human development, gerontology, and educational …

Participatory Development And Its Emergence In The Fields Of Community And International Development, Yossef Ben-Meir

Sociology ETDs

Since World War II, participatory development (PD), part of the alternative development movement, has evolved from a fringe approach to meeting basic human needs, to a globally recognized paradigm that is informing the strategic decisions regarding community and international development by governments and multi-lateral and indigenous NGOs, as well as management practices in the private sector. This is a study of 1) the evolution of this phenomenon since the 1940s in the context of historical events and dominant theories that inform most development (modernization-globalization and dependency-world-system), and 2) PD itself, including its basic features, methods, case examples, and roots in …

Asset Building Among Native Hawaiians: Lessons From The Kahikū Ida Program, David Rothwell

Center for Social Development Research

Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) are matched savings accounts that encourage asset development for individuals and families with low incomes. Unique program data from an IDA program serving 758 Native Hawaiians were used to model the probability of participating in and graduating from the IDA program. Multivariate logistic regression models show that children in the household, lack of vehicle ownership, and savings goal (education) were associated with a reduced likelihood of program participation. Participants who owned homes and had relatively high savings balances prior to starting the program were more likely to graduate. Additionally, Maui participants were more than three times …

The Human Side Of Change: Towards A Pragmatic, Evolutionary Conception Of Cognition And Emotion In Organizational Change, Jason Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation synthesizes and analyzes an emblematic sample of three prevalent psychological approaches to organizational change and learning, giving particular attention to the conception of cognition and emotion. It also explores some of the philosophical and psychological assumptions undergirding these approaches. A web model depicting various epistemological influences is offered as a tool for exploring influences on the psychological research within and beyond this study. A second conceptual model is also offered as a tool for considering the hierarchical treatment and preferential placement of cognition over emotion theory and practice. The project draws on general philosophy, psychology, evolutionary theory, and …

The Alestle - Vol. 61 No. 70 - 07/08/2009, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

The Alestle

Vol. 61 No. 70

Hardiness, Well-Being, And Health: A Meta-Analytic Summary Of Three Decades Of Research, Celina Marie Oliver

Dissertations and Theses

In recent decades, as scientific understanding regarding the effects of stress on health and well-being has grown, researchers have shown increasing interest in personal factors such as hardiness that may enhance one's ability to remain resilient under stressful conditions. Hardiness is a complex trait composed of three components (commitment, control, and challenge) that combine synergistically to increase stress tolerance. Over time, a large and complex body of research has accumulated, and while many qualitative reviews have been conducted, quantitative summaries remain rare. This study provides an empirical synthesis of research findings examining the relationships between hardiness and correlates related to …

Objectivist Problematics: Planning For Leisure From An Experiential Perspective?, Ross Neville

Articles

Despite the fact that the experiential perspective has had a profound impact on the way we view leisure behaviour, experiential matters have been renounced for being overtly subjective. As a corollary, experiential matters have been castigated for their inability to offer concrete criteria for leisure policy and the provisions of services. This paper argues that this dismissal of experiential matters is based on an overinflated dichotomy – the fact/value dichotomy – and that, by valorising objectivist approaches to managing leisure resources, experiential matters have become nothing more than a policy-making faux pas. The paper argues that while experiential matters bring …

The Importance Of Using Sem When Studying Multiple Dimensions Of Marital Satisfaction: Measurement Invariance Across Relationship Length And Gender, Eric C. Walker

Theses and Dissertations

Satisfaction is one of the most common dependent variables in the research of adult intimate relationships. Research has demonstrated that length of time married and sex of participants influence the characteristics of marriage, yet little research has been done to determine the characteristic changes in relationship satisfaction over time and across sexes. A review of theory and research suggests both the manners and specific items of satisfaction that vary between groups. RELATE data was used to uncover significant differences in the importance of specific items of marital satisfactions between groups based on relationship length, and between husbands and wives.

Russian Parenting: Interactions With Relational Aggression Over Time, Emily Kim Keister

Theses and Dissertations

The current study considers Russian parenting (psychological control) and child relational aggression across a decade. We used parent and child driven path analyses to test whether peer-directed and romantic relational aggression is associated with psychological control both concurrently as well as longitudinally. Using AMOS, parent and child driven models were compared and the parent driven models were found to have more significant concurrent and longitudinal linkages. Maternal psychological control was significantly stable over time; relational aggression was also stable over time for girls. Maternal psychological control at Time 1 was associated with relational aggression for girls at Time 1 and …

The Effect Of Celebrity Endorsements On Gift-Giving Purchases: An Application Of The Elaboration Likelihood Model, Christine Anghel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine how effective celebrity endorsements are in regards to the type of gift purchase one decides to make (i.e., buying for someone who has a high significant meaning to the buyer, such as a best friend, versus buying for someone who has a low significant meaning to the buyer, such as a casual friend). The study seeks to extend upon the anthropology research exploring gift-giving and marketing research exploring celebrity endorsements by applying the tenants of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). This study uses an experimental procedure in order to determine the effect …

Triangulation Process: An Examination Of Differentiation And Family Stress As Indicated By Bowen, Michael Robert Whitehead

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the Bowenian notion that triangulation is precipitated by the interaction between a person's level of differentiation-of-self and the amount of chronic familial emotional anxiety. Another aspect of this study was to examine the relationship between marital quality and child triangulation. The sample for this study was taken from the Flourishing Families project and included only the families that indicated marriage as their relationship status, resulting in a total of 336 families with a target child between the ages of 11 and 14. Initial bivariate analysis indicated that differentiation-of-self, and family stress would be associated with child triangulation. …

Premarital Couple Predictors Of Marital Relationship Quality And Stability: A Meta-Analytic Study, Jeffrey Brown Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the most important premarital couple protective and risk factors associated with marital relationship quality and stability by utilizing meta-analytic procedures to calculate standardized effect sizes for each factor. Extant research was identified and evaluated using the following inclusionary criteria: the dependent variables had to measure some form of marital quality or stability, the independent variables had to be premarital in nature, the participants had to have married after 1969, and the statistics necessary for the computation of a zero-order correlation effect size had to be available. Meta-analytic procedures were then utilized to …

Low School Engagement And Sexual Behaviors Among African American Youth: Examining The Influences Of Gender, Peer Norms, And Gang Involvement, Dexter R. Voisin

Faculty Scholarship

This research examined whether negative peer influences (i.e., norms favoring risky sex and drug use and gang involvement) mediated the relationship between school engagement (i.e., grade point averages [GPAs] obtained from school records and student-teacher connectedness) and sexual behaviors (i.e., sexual début, sex without condoms, group sex, and sex while using drugs) among African American high school adolescents, and whether these relationships varied by gender. Five hundred sixty-three high school adolescents (ages 13 to 19) completed self-administered questionnaires that assessed school engagement markers, peer influences, sexual début, and risky sex. Major findings for boys indicate that GPA was negatively associated …

An Exercise In Rigor: A Review Of Robert K. Yin’S Case Study Research Design And Methods, Crystal Daughtery

The Qualitative Report

In his fourth edition of Case Study Research Design and Methods, Robert K. Yin continues to encourage the formation of better case study research. The text provides a technical yet practical guide to aid the committed researcher. It is an effort to promote rigor and to encourage the recognition of the limitations and awareness of the strengths of case study research. Throughout the text, Yin forthrightly addressed criticisms of the method and provided a solid defense of case study research and its breadth as a research method. An unexpected bonus of the text is found in the cross reference table …

Take Pride In America In Southern Nevada: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Covering April 6, 2009 – July 5, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Anti-littering Programs

• Exploratory development of an adopt-a-block program was initiated to address the litter and desert dumping problems that exist in the urban-public land interfaces throughout Clark County began.
• Draft of SNAP recycling feasibility report was completed.
• Preliminary field data form was revised for GIS database project.
• Phase III media campaign began.
• Ten clean-up events were conducted this quarter.
• The team provided 534 cubic yards of roll-off space for clean-ups.

Erving Said That The Rigor And Formal Nature Of Linguistics Could Add Status To The Just-Beginning Study Of Social Interaction, Deborah Schiffrin

Bios Sociologicus: The Erving Goffman Archives

Dr. Deborah Schiffrin, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, wrote this memoir for the Erving Goffman Archives and approved posting the present version on the web.

Adebaran Vol. 7, Issue 2

Aldebaran

No abstract provided.

Central Florida Future, Vol. 41 No. 57, July 2, 2009

Central Florida Future

UCF cutbacks result in fewer speech classes; Uncover Thursdays; Wonder Girl; Plus: Fireworks, music and parties, oh my!; Facebook files: horror stories from the Web; Students struggle as majors face cuts; Religious studies: teachers not preachers; SGA makes plans for fall semester.

Erving Should Not Be Judged In Any Way And Certainly Not By Students Who Saw Or Knew Very Little Of Goff, Meyer Brownstone

Bios Sociologicus: The Erving Goffman Archives

Myer Brownstone wrote this memoir at the request of Dmitri Shalin and approved adding the present version to the Erving Goffman Archives.

Wmu Board Of Trustees Formal Session July 2, 2009, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

Minutes of the WMU Board of Trustees July 2, 2009 meeting include:

• Recommendation re 2009/10 Tuition & Required Fees
• Estimated Beginning Board Budget
• Personnel Report

Meta-Analysis Using Bayesian Hierarchical Models In Organizational Behavior, Michael David Ulrich

Theses and Dissertations

Meta-analysis is a tool used to combine the results from multiple studies into one comprehensive analysis. First developed in the 1970s, meta-analysis is a major statistical method in academic, medical, business, and industrial research. There are three traditional ways in which a meta-analysis is conducted: fixed or random effects, and using an empirical Bayesian approach. Derivations for conducting meta-analysis on correlations in the industrial psychology and organizational behavior (OB) discipline were reviewed by Hunter and Schmidt (2004). In this approach, Hunter and Schmidt propose an empirical Bayesian analysis where the results from previous studies are used as a prior. This …

A Reprise, Or Round Three: Using A Database Management Program As A Decision-Support System For The Cancellation Of Serials, Judith M. Nixon

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Annual journal inflation rates of eight percent or higher have compelled libraries to cancel journals. Since 1992 Purdue Libraries have had three major cancellation projects. This article reviews how the Humanities, Social Science and Education Library approached this task in 2009 and developed a database management program to identify titles based on two criteria: low use and the availability of the title in full text in one of three aggregator databases. The education and humanities departments reached the cancellation goal, but several social science departments had to transfer funds from the book budget to accommodate their journal subscription costs. This …