Digital Commons Network^™

Gay And Bisexual American Men In South Korea Who Reported Testing Hiv Negative, Tony Lionel Sessoms

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Gay and bisexual men in the United States and South Korea have some of the highest HIV rates in their countries, and both have the fewest sex education programs and policies for gay and bisexual males in secondary and postsecondary school systems. Consequently, many South Koreans do not view HIV as a South Korean problem, and with American gay and bisexual men living in this type of environment, their HIV sexual protection knowledge and practices may be compromised. The purpose of this study was to gain more understanding and insight into the sex education experiences and sexual practices of gay …

Colorism And The Law In Latin America—Global Perspectives On Colorism Conference Remarks, Tanya K. Hernandez

Faculty Scholarship

Today, persons of African descent make up more than forty percent of the poor in Latin America and have been consistently marginalized and denigrated as undesirable elements of the society since the abolition of slavery across the Americas. However, Latin Americans still very much adhere to the notion that, because racial mixture and the absence of Jim-Crow racial segregation are such a marked contrast to the United States’ racial history, the region is what I term “racially innocent” and thus resistant to proposals that institutions use public policies of inclusion to address the entrenched racial disparities. This resistance exists despite …

Characterization Of The Effect Of Anti-Nogo-A Antibody Treatment On Sensorimotor Recovery After Traumatic Brain Injury, Stephen Nawara

Dissertations

Estimates indicate that over 5 million Americans are currently living with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) related disability. Much effort has been put into enhancing functional recovery with physical therapy and other rehabilitative approaches. These strategies are thought to function by facilitating the brain’s innate capacity for neuroregeneration and neuroplasticity. However, the success of these strategies may be limited due the presence of growth- and plasticity- inhibiting factors expressed in the adult brain.

The presence of the membrane protein Nogo-A has been associated with reduced neurite outgrowth in vitro, identifying it as one such molecule. In addition, rodents treated with antibodies …

A Meta-Analysis Of Association Between One-Carbon Metabolism Gene Polymorphisms And Risk Of Prostate Cancer, Mahmood Tazari

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. The purpose of this quantitative, meta-analysis study was to examine one-carbon metabolism gene polymorphisms in a group of genes to determine their association with prostate cancer risk. The genetic epidemiology theory provided the framework for the study. The data collected were from published articles. From over 2,800 individual studies, 20 articles were retained for results and data abstraction, following the title, abstract screen, and full text screening in the second phase. The data were analyzed by a meta-analysis statistical method, combining the results from selected studies to estimate the overall association. …

Female Parents' Attitudes, Beliefs, And Perceptions About Youth Gun Crimes, Karen Annmaurisa Sylva-Givens

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Youth gun crime is an important public health issue that affects many communities in the United States. Since 2012, there were over 30,000 gun-related deaths in the United States. Gun violence remains the leading cause of death for young people ages 15-24. This phenomenological study examined single female parents' attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of the influences and causes of youth gun crimes. The purposive sample drew from 10 single female parents of youth ages 14-17 charged with gun crimes. Sutherlands' (1974) differential association theory provided the theoretical framework for the study. The mothers participated in a series of in-depth, face-to-face …

The Design And Implementation Of A Relationship-Based Care Delivery Model On A Medical- Surgical Unit, Paula Ann Rodney

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Design and Implementation of a Relationship-Based Care Delivery Model on a Medical- Surgical Unit

by

Paula A. Rodney

MSN, California University of Pennsylvania, 2011

BSN, University of Virginia, 1979

Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Walden University

April 2015

Patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes have become important issues in healthcare since the introduction of the Value Based Purchasing Program. Patient satisfaction, as measured by Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, was declining and hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPU), falls, and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) were …

The Effect Of Confirmation Bias On Criminal Investigative Decision Making, Wayne A. Wallace

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Confirmation bias occurs when a person believes in or searches for evidence to support his or her favored theory while ignoring or excusing disconfirmatory evidence and is disinclined to change his or her belief once he or she arrives at a conclusion. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether emotionally charged evidence and evidence presentation order could influence an investigator's belief in a suspect's guilt. The study included 166 sworn police officers (basic training recruits, patrol officers, and criminal investigators) who completed online surveys in response to criminal vignettes across different scenarios to record their measure of …

Individual And Work Related Factors Of Burnout Among Direct Care Staff, Jamie Roberts

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Burnout is the response to prolonged emotional, situational, and interpersonal stress of one's job. Direct care staff, who work with challenging populations, are at increased risk for burnout. Maslach's and Leiter's multidimensional model of burnout posits that the relationship between an individual and his or her occupation leads to either engagement or burnout. This study aimed to determine if the associations between the 6 areas of worklife (workload, control, community, reward, fairness, and values) and the 3 aspects of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment) identified in this model are moderated by age and gender. The study included 117 …

A Phenomenological Study Of High School Teachers' Motivation As Related To Teacher Performance Management, Richard Hugh Wildman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Teacher motivation factors prominently in the sustainable development of educational institutions, and relate to self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and retention. Prior motivational research in education has addressed factors relating to teacher motivation, but there is a dearth of research into the impact of performance management on motivation. This phenomenological study examined the lived experiences of 5 teachers in relation to the performance management process in the selected school. The project study was guided by Bandura's social cognitive theory, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory. In-depth, semistructured interviews were used to extract the essence of the lived experiences as expressed …

Health Care Reform And The Transition From Volume To Quality Payment Models: A Primary Care Focus, Kevin Lee Jackson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) resulted in providers and health care organizations conforming to new payment models that connect reimbursement to patient outcomes. Primary care providers (PCPs) are tasked to provide new quality provisions as chronic disease management is a key focus to improve outcomes. The purpose of this study was to understand the transition to new payment models and determine whether care is improved. The conceptual framework is grounded in health care access models geared towards the improvement of quality outcomes including the chronic care model (CCM). The research questions were designed to understand providers' …

Aligning Sales Promotion Strategies With Buying Attitudes In A Recession, Paulin Adjagbodjou

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some managers lack an effective strategy for aligning sales promotion strategies with consumers' buying attitudes in a recession. The intent of this comparative design was to determine the most effective sales promotion strategy for sales improvement and business sustainability during a recession. The theories of (a) sales promotions, (b) consumer behavioral metrics, (c) price reductions, and (d) strategy in a competitive environment represented the theoretical framework that grounded and complemented this research. Using a confidential paper-based survey and random sampling method, preference data were obtained from 287 consumers in retail stores located in a city in the southern United States. …

Enhancing Workplace Productivity And Competitiveness In Trinidad And Tobago Through Ict Adoption, Kennedy Jerome Swaratsingh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The productivity of Trinidad and Tobago's public sector workplaces is related to their absorptive capacity for technological adoption. Guided by the technology acceptance model, which suggests that individuals' and institutions' use of technology increases in relation to perceived ease of use and apparent value, this case study explored how Trinidad and Tobago used information and communications technology from 2001 - 2010 to improve public sector workplace productivity. Study data were collected from 22 individual interviews with senior executives from the government of Trinidad and Tobago, members of the e-business roundtable, and local industry experts, and from reviewing the archives of …

The Influence Of School Leadership Practices On Classroom Management, School Environment, And Academic Underperformance, Lorna Novlette Wilson Morgan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Influence of School Leadership Practices on Classroom Management, School Environment, and Academic Underperformance

by

Lorna Novlette Wilson Morgan

MSc, Florida International University, 2006

BSc, University of Technology, 2000

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Walden University

April 2015

School leadership requires the collaborative efforts of principals, teachers, parents, students, and other community members to achieve academic success. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the influence of school leadership practices on classroom management, school environment, and academic underperformance in Jamaica. The research was based upon distributive leadership theory. …

General Education And Special Education Teachers' Attitudes Toward Inclusion, Carmen Yvette Charley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Educational reformers have mandated inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom. However, general education teachers often do not regularly receive training in inclusive practices, and this lack of training can affect teachers' attitudes and levels of self-efficacy, which may ultimately affect their ability to successfully teach students with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine the difference in general education and special education teachers' attitudes towards inclusion of students with disabilities and if levels of self-efficacy (overall and 3 subscales), gender, education level, teacher type, and grade level taught were predictors of Teachers' Attitudes Toward …

Productivity Standards, Marriage And Family Therapist Job Satisfaction, And Turnover Intent, Gilbert Ernest Franco

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Turnover among mental health professionals is high, which can have a direct impact on access to services and continuity of care. Informed by goal-setting theory, social-cognitive theory, and self-efficacy, this quantitative study investigated how California community mental health agency productivity standards were related to self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and marriage and family therapist (MFT) turnover intent among 141 MFTs. Participants completed a Demographic and Productivity Questionnaire, Job Self-Efficacy Scale, Job Satisfaction Scale, and Turnover Intention Scale. The relationship between participant age, gender, experience, number of work hours, licensure status, and job site with job satisfaction and turnover intent were assessed using …

Effects Of Investor Sentiment Using Social Media On Corporate Financial Distress, Tarek Hoteit

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The mainstream quantitative models in the finance literature have been ineffective in detecting possible bankruptcies during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis. Coinciding with the same period, various researchers suggested that sentiments in social media can predict future events. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between investor sentiment within the social media and the financial distress of firms Grounded on the social amplification of risk framework that shows the media as an amplified channel for risk events, the central hypothesis of the study was that investor sentiments in the social media could predict t he level …

Factors Influencing Employee Participation And Nonparticipation In A Rural Hospital's Employer-Sponsored Wellness Program, Nicole Marie Kolacz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employer-sponsored wellness programs are important tools for keeping employees healthy, reducing an organization's healthcare expenses, mitigating risk factors, and promoting health and well-being. Little research is available on the factors associated with employees' participation in wellness programs in rural hospitals. Pender's health promotion model was used to determine how employees who participated in a rural hospital's wellness program differed from those who did not participate in terms of demographics, perceptions of personal health, general health behaviors, health locus of control, self-motivation, and situational barriers. A descriptive, correlational replication with the Hallion and Haignere questionnaire was used to survey employees. Of …

Women's Experiences With The Follow-Up System For Cervical Cancer In A Developing Country, Christine Carol Richards

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although Grenada has an extensive health care infrastructure and cervical cancer screening rates are relatively high, Grenada also has a disproportionate rate of morbidity and mortality from cervical cancer. The aim of this study was to explore factors that contribute to these disproportionate rates in Grenada. Using a phenomenological qualitative approach, Andersen's behavioral model of health care utilization and a systems based model for assessing care were used as a guide to explore Grenadian women's follow-up experiences with Pap test and cervical cancer screening. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 8 women for semi-structured in-depth interviews. Data were collected on …

Parents' Influence On Student Advanced Placement Class Enrollment, Alissa Denise Russell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Advanced Placement program allows high school students who pass an end of course Advanced Placement exam to receive college credit for college level courses completed during high school. The problem addressed by this project study is that, in the school under study, there is low enrollment in Advanced Placement classes even though many students qualify for these courses. Using a case study research design and collecting qualitative data, this study examined the influence parents have on student course selection. This study followed the theories of Epstein which indicate that involved parents positively influence their children's academic achievement. The research …

Resilience Among Immigrant Adult Learners: Experiences In Postsecondary Education--A Mixed-Methods Study, Sandra Lee Samuels

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A human being's resilience refers to his or her abilities to combine internal and/or external resources effectively in response to significant contextual challenges in order to best succeed in a given environment. As such, this concept is vital across the lifespan and has been widely researched. However, few researchers to date have studied resilience as it relates to adult learners, and, significantly, those with immigrant status. Immigrant adult learners are facing compounded risks, which create challenges in various societies to identify this group's unique needs and/or to fully understand their experiences in diverse contexts, such as the Cayman Islands. Informed …

Gender, Instructional Method, And Graduate Social Science Students' Motivation And Learning Strategies, Mae Lynn Spahr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of the current study was to learn how gender and learning method affect motivation and learning strategies in psychology, counseling, and social work graduate students. The variables of gender, learning method, motivation, and learning strategies are used by the self-regulation model to learning and the theory of independent learning to measure a student's academic success. Increasing the knowledge of these variables will be of interest to academic institutions and to the field of educational psychology because little is known about their interaction. The study's design was factorial quasi-experimental; it used a cross sectional survey consisting of a 2 …

Attitudes Of Returning Citizens In Government-Managed Post-Release Programming, Zachary D'Jon Weaver

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nearly 700,000 prisoners return to communities annually, and approximately two-thirds are rearrested within 3 years of release. The cyclic pattern of recidivism presents risks to both returning offenders and the communities that accept them. Reentry research tends to include the voice and experiences of juveniles, community members, and service providers, and narrowly focuses on the socioeconomic conditions of adult ex-offender populations pre- and post-release. Few researchers have explored the attitudes of those returning citizens or the perceived impact on treatment success, as related to employment-based, post-release reintegration programs. This study investigated the attitudes of 32 participants of Project Empowerment, the …

Self Esteem, Locus Of Control, And The Relationship With Registered Nurses' Experience With Workplace Incivility, Elizabeth Anne Berry

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The study's purpose is evaluating the relationship between locus of control and selfesteem

in relation to the registered nurse's experience and perception with lateral and

vertical incivility. There is a lack of research concerning nurse-to-nurse incivility within

the nursing profession. The hypothesis examined whether dynamics of locus of control

and self-esteem could provide insight into the personality dynamics influencing incivility

in the workplace. This non-experimental quantitative study used 2 self-evaluation tools

and 1 demographic survey tool to collect data via Survey Monkey, a commercial data

collection company. Participants were 65 randomly selected faculty (n = 36) and

graduate students (n …

Mental Health Professionals' Attitude And Perception Of Their Role In Tackling Substance Abuse And Related Disorders In Nigeria, Olubusayo Ruth Akinola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mental health professionals (MHPs) play a pivotal role in enhancing treatment outcomes for drug-using populations and minimizing their harm to the public. In response to a gap in the literature, this study sought to (a) assess MHPs' attitudes about the use and abuse of substances and their perception of their role in tackling substance abuse and related disorders in Nigeria, (b) identify predictors of perception, and (c) explore regional variations in attitude. Based on the validated drug and drug users' problems perception questionnaire and the substance abuse attitude survey, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in a randomized sample of 292 …

Understanding The Lived Experiences Of Women With Spinal Cord Injury Who Undergo Urinary Diversion Surgery, Sukhpinder K. Dhillon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Following spinal cord injury (SCI), bladder management is of primary importance. As an activity of daily living (ADL), it affects community integration and quality of life (QOL). Women with SCI have neurogenic bladders that require self-catheterization, but they are unable to catheterize the native urethra, thus making bladder management physically and emotionally challenging. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of women with SCI who undergo urinary diversion surgery for bladder management. Qualitative data were collected using semistructured interviews from 10 women with SCI after urinary diversion surgery for bladder management. Qualitative Nvivo analysis of interview data …

Reform Through A Student Lens: The Experience Of Latino A Students In An International Baccalaureate Diploma Program In Chicago, Sandra Arreguin

Dissertations

This dissertation is a study of Latinos participating in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program in Chicago. Phenomenological interview techniques were used to explore the experiences and perceptions of Latino students in IB. By looking at Latino/a students separately the study captured the strengths, challenges, and needs unique to this group, which will inform the future of this rapidly growing curriculum reform effort.

Decision Making Of Building Level Administrators And Their Perceptions On Groupthink, Julie Ann Flitcraft

Dissertations

This research study examined how groupthink affects educational decision making for building level administrators by identifying the most prominent symptoms of groupthink and by exposing the characteristics that create an increase of vulnerability to groupthink.

Participants for this study included building level administrators of 25 public high schools in a Midwest suburban county. These volunteers completed a three part survey which addressed the central research questions for the study:

1) What perceptions do current building level administrators have about the shared system of belief within their institution?

2) Among the administrators that believe they were hired because they share the …

The Influence Of Nursing Home Administrator Turnover On Resident Quality Of Life, Juliet Iheoma Madubata

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

By 2040, 79.7 million older adults will live in the US, and nearly 40% will need nursing home services that are primarily funded by Medicare and Medicaid. Researchers have underscored the importance of leadership in quality healthcare care delivery, suggesting that nursing home administrator turnover could influence resident quality of life, causing ill-health for the residents and preventable medical costs for taxpayers. In spite of the suggested association, little research has specifically examined the role of administrator turnover on resident quality of life. As such, the purpose and central research questions of this case study were designed specifically to address …

Elementary (K-5) Teachers' Perceptions Of Differentiated Instruction, Christopher Maddox

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Differentiated instruction is a pedagogical method used by classroom teachers to enhance student learning. Researchers have described how students benefit from differentiated lessons, but have not explored the relationship between teachers' perceptions of differentiation and student success. This gap is problematic because teachers' instruction directly affects student achievement. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore how elementary (K-5) teachers define, familiarize, use, and perceive differentiation. The conceptual framework was rooted from a synthesis of ideas found in current refereed literature, and the educational concepts and constructionist theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. Purposeful sampling identified 12 participants for …

A Comparison Of Regional Health Care Structures For Emergency Preparedness, Leslie Porth

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since 2001, increased policy attention and federal funding mechanisms have required more effective disaster response by government actors and private sector organizations, including the health care system. However, there is limited scholarly evidence documenting which structural elements have been associated with efficacious regional coalitions. This study addressed the gap by examining whether the number of different participating disciplines (a proxy for coalition roles), community setting, and prior weather-related disaster declaration influenced the number of activities (a proxy for coalition responsibilities) conducted by the health care coalition. Social network theory was the theoretical lens with which the study results were used …