Digital Commons Network^™

Development Of A Resilience-Oriented Stress Management Group Intervention For Mothers Experiencing Homelessness, Lily Danielle Rowland

Theses and Dissertations

Family homelessness, particularly of mothers and their children, continues to remain an unfortunate epidemic throughout the United States. Personal, relational, and systemic adversity and trauma leave this population at high risk for instability, physical and mental health challenges, and impaired wellbeing. However, despite these difficulties, research strongly suggests that positive functioning can remain in families experiencing homelessness and that many go on to leave shelters and maintain stability, particularly when mothers have effective strategies to manage stress in contexts of adversity. In addition to identifying the needs of mothers experiencing homelessness, the literature also has highlighted factors of individual and …

Talent Investment And Nonprofit Pay: A Study In The Arts Community, Sally E. Loftis

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore employee perceptions of pay as part of a talent investment strategy at Penland School of Craft, the largest non-academic craft school in the United States. The study outlines action research completed when funds from a transformational endowment gift were used for employee needs. Study data reflected that structural and pay changes increased employee engagement. Study findings also informed recommendations for a nonprofit strategy to pay living wages connected to costs of living and a pay raise framework that supports different levels of employee development.

Climate Change, Social Media, And Generation Z, Melanie Morris

Theses and Dissertations

Recent publications report that adults known as Generation Z, between the ages of 18 to 23, increasingly rely upon social media to gain knowledge of social issues. Given social media's embeddedness in Generation Z's life, this study sought to understand if or how social media has influenced and possibly empowered Generation Z to act on social issues, particularly global climate change. This study used a phenomenological research method, which focused on the commonality of Generation Z's lived experience. Emerging themes collected through a literature review and data portray Generation Z as maturing into adulthood as tech-savvy, diverse, and inclusive self-starters. …

Homeless With Breast Cancer On Skid Row, Los Angeles: A Review Of Services For Women, Eva Dittrich

Theses and Dissertations

This study reviews the literature on breast cancer in general and narrows to within the context of the homeless population of Skid Row, Los Angeles, positing that the experience of breast cancer while homeless is a compounded traumatic experience with complex and numerous practical challenges. It poses the following question: What services are available to homeless women on Skid Row, Los Angeles, the information about which can be found online? Which and how many services are dedicated to breast cancer screenings and treatment? Are other types of cancer screening and treatment services advertised on the included service organizations' websites? A …

Special Education Disparities Are Social Determinants Of Health: A Role For Medical-Legal Partnerships, Karen Bonuck, Leah Hill

Faculty Scholarship

Problem: Education is a key social determinant of health. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) purportedly affords children the right to a free and appropriate education. Yet, racial, ethnic, and economic disparities exist regarding appropriate identification and classification of children with needs for special education, and access to services.

Purpose: This article first highlights gaps and disparities in special educational services, and their structural linkage to poverty. The second section describe the first years of a medical–legal collaboration between a University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) and Fordham University, focused on special education.

Key Points: The …

Integrating Technology Acceptance Model And Health Belief Model Factors To Better Estimate Intelligent Tutoring System Use For Surge Capacity Public Health Events And Training, Sarah Matthews

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The U.S. public health system is continually challenged by unexpected epidemiological events that pose significant risks to the health of the community and require a commensurate surge in the public health system capacity to stem the spread of the disease. The complexity and even changing nature of funding and surge events drives agencies to innovate in order to maintain and support a competent workforce as well as update, or evolve the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) necessary to prevent, mitigate, or even eliminate the health crisis arising from a disease. This research investigates the capability of an agent-based, online personalized …

Patients With A Left Ventricular Device And Factors Affecting Readmission, Diana Pitcher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Patients with a left ventricular assist device have a high rate of hospital readmissions after their index (placement of left ventricular device) discharge. With these devices becoming more common providers of care must understand why this population is being readmitted in order to promote well-being and keep patients out of the hospital. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe characteristics of the hospital readmission. This research study was a retrospective analysis of aggregate data from 2013-2019 with a sample size n = 32. The summary of data was described with descriptive statistics. The data was grouped and …

Does Context Matter? A Multilevel Analysis Of Neighborhood Disadvantage And Children's Sleep Health, Carlyn Graham, Eric N. Reither, Gabriele Ciciurkaite, Dipti Dev, Jamison Fargo

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Objectives: To determine how demographic, socioeconomic, and neighborhood characteristics are associated with bedtimes among US kindergarteners.

Design: Parents reported bedtimes of their children as well as personal, household, and residential characteristics via interviews in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K) Class of 1998-1999. The ECLS-K links individual households to US Census tracts.

Setting: A random selection of 1,280 schools and surrounding communities in the US.

Participants: A random selection of 16,936 kindergarteners and their parents.

Measurements: The 2 outcomes were regular and latest weekday bedtimes of kindergarteners. Through a series of nested multilevel regression models, these outcomes were regressed on …

Emotional Support And Mental Health Among Somali Men In A Rural Midwestern Town, Julie A. Tippens, Gilbert R. Parra, Patrick Habecker, Kimberly Gocchi Carrasco, Arthur R. Andrews Iii, Angela L. Palmer-Wackerly, Virginia Chaidez, Jordan Soliz, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Kirk Dombrowski

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Perceived social support has been correlated with refugees’ positive mental health outcomes; yet, little is known about the perceived sources of support after secondary migration to new-destination rural towns. Somali refugee men (n _ 49) residing in a rural Midwest United States community were recruited using respondent-driven sampling to complete a self-administered structured survey in English or Somali using audio computer-assisted self-interview software. Questions assessed perceived sources of support, psychological distress, and happiness. Somali participants reported low utilization of both informal (30.4%) and formal (24.4%) supports when sad, stressed, or worried. Two thirds of participants reported low levels of …

Does Context Matter? A Multilevel Analysis Of Neighborhood Disadvantage And Children's Sleep Health, Carlyn Graham, Eric Reither, Gabriele Ciciurkaite, Dipti Dev, Jamison Fargo

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Objectives: To determine how demographic, socioeconomic, and neighborhood characteristics are associated with bedtimes among US kindergarteners.

Design: Parents reported bedtimes of their children as well as personal, household, and residential characteristics via interviews in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K) Class of 1998–1999. The ECLS-K links individual households to US Census tracts.

Setting: A random selection of 1,280 schools and surrounding communities in the US.

Participants: A random selection of 16,936 kindergarteners and their parents.

Measurements: The 2 outcomes were regular and latest weekday bedtimes of kindergarteners. Through a series of nested multilevel regression models, these outcomes were regressed on …

I Would Just Want To Leave This World: Women's Experiences Of Domestic Violence In Northern Namibia, Belinda L. Selebano, John D. Matthews

All Works

Background: Domestic violence (DV) is a traumatic experience that is influenced by a complex interplay of intrinsic and extrinsic factors and which exists worldwide. Namibia, located in Southwest Africa, is no exception to this as local media continuously report incidences of physical and sexual violence committed against women throughout the country. Materials and Methods: Using a qualitative design, twelve (N=12) female participants who experienced first-hand the effects of DV provided extensive insights into this phenomenon and its causal factors and offered suggestions as to what can be done to address this issue. Results: The results from this inquiry detail the …

A Supply Chain Equilibrium Model With General Price-Dependent Demand, Younes Hamdouch, Kilani Ghoudi

All Works

The concept of supply chain equilibrium has been widely employed to solve real-life cases. Under this concept, decisions makers move simultaneously and compete in a noncooperative manner to achieve a supply chain network equilibrium. This paper proposes a supply chain network equilibrium model consisting of multiple raw material suppliers, manufacturers and retailers. Unlike previous studies, we assume that the demand for the product at each retail outlet is modeled as general stochastic functions of price that encompass additive-multiplicative demand models used in previous studies. Under general price-dependent demand functions, we derive the optimality conditions of suppliers, manufacturers and retailers, and …

Somebody Told Me You Died, Barry E. Maxwell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Somebody Told Me You Died is a sampling of works exploring the author’s transition from “normal” life to homelessness, their adaptations to that world and its ways, and their eventual efforts to return from it. The collection dovetails into a final essay examining the struggle to comprehend and rise above a racist upbringing.

Online Communities For Information Sharing And Mutual Support For Health Professionals, Meghan Budvarson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This study was conducted to explore the use of online communities for information sharing and mutual support by health professionals, in this case, oncology social workers (OSW). The characteristic traits of individuals using online listservs and reasons for use is largely under researched. The main objective of this research is to explore the nature of social exchange and use of a professional online community that occurs on the Social Work Oncology Network (SWON) listserv and the characteristics of those OSWs using the listserv. Using a researcher developed survey, associations between characteristics of listserv users and reasons for use were explored. …

Holding The Therapeutic State At Bay? Balancing Autonomy And Protection In Singapore's Vulnerable Adults Act, Wing Cheong Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Abuse, exploitation and neglect of adults raise complex issues on the freedom of the individual to choose for themselves versus the powers of the State to intervene. The law has traditionally limited the scope of compulsory intervention to extreme situations only which can frustrate social workers who deal with such cases. On the other hand, it would be unacceptable to allow intervention simply because it is assessed to be in the adults’ best interests. A balance therefore has to be struck between autonomy and protection. This paper examines how Singapore’s Vulnerable Adults Act identifies the point for intervention and embodies …

The Influence Of Prior Military Service In Biasing Employee Selection, Cristina Rosario Dipietropolo

Dissertations from the Executive Doctorate in Business Administration Program

This study is aimed at investigating the relationship between conscious, social, and unconscious biases and the employment offer decision to add a new understanding of interviewer bias for or against military veterans by assessing the degree to which military service experience influences hiring managers’ selection decisions in U.S. organizations. The importance of this study is to add new practical and theoretical understanding to interviewer bias for this segment of the population. An experimental study was utilized for this research, which included a scenario-based experiment to investigate how different treatments, curriculum vitae (CV), influenced hiring managers’ employment offer outcomes. Specifically, this …

The Good Lawyer: State-Led Professional Socialization In Contemporary China, Lawrence J. Liu, Rachel E. Stern

Scholarship@WashULaw

How do authoritarian states define and communicate notions of appropriate work conduct and professional excellence? This article examines three channels of communication used by the Chinese state to signal professional expectations to the bar: the bar exam, the administrative rules governing lawyers, and the state-sanctioned National Outstanding Lawyer Award. We find that China’s state narrative about “the good lawyer” celebrates lawyers willing to work closely with the authorities and asks more stringent critics to separate private beliefs from public behavior. In contrast to assumptions often made in research on authoritarian law, this article highlights how lawyers can participate in politics …

Quality Improvement Of Substance Misuse Screening Of Older Adults In Primary Care Using Evidence-Based Training, Kelly Lopez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background

The largest increase in preventable overdose deaths from 1999-2017 occurred among adults 50 and older, yet substance misuse among older adults is often not screened for or recognized in primary care settings. This oversight has been attributed to many factors, including age-related biases, unrecognized psychosocial and physiological differences, stigmatization, and a rapidly growing geriatric population.

Objectives

A quality improvement program using evidence-based educational training was implemented in a primary care setting with the intention to expand care knowledge and ultimately improve screening practices of older adults, especially those suffering from substance misuse.

Design

This quality improvement (QI) project used …

Best Therapeutic Practices For First Responders, Hannah Debellis

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The purpose of this study is to provide a condensed, concise list in which first responders can see the best therapeutic practices for them at this time. At this time, the rate of suicide for firefighters is approximately eight times higher than that of the average person. Given this rate, I am interested in doing a metanalysis to find which techniques and therapeutic methods are most effective and to find the empirical data to support their success. I will be gathering data from various sources such as the APA, Medical Journals, International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), etc., and use SPSS …

Kenyon College Course Catalog 2020-2021

Kenyon College Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Sowing The Seeds Of Growth: A Study On Schenectady, Ny’S Food Desert, Kelsey M. Ling

Architecture Theses and Projects

Humanity, it seems has always struggled to find a balance between human comfort and other factors, such as environmental and political factors. Sometimes even when our intentions are good, they are not enough to meet basic human needs. A common worldview of many living in the United States is that a lack of food is a third-world problem, but this is some- what of a falacy. Food availability varies greatly from one part of the US to another.

Many issues can contribute to a lack of food. For example, out west water shortages sometimes create crop shortages. Cities such as …

Psychiatric Comorbidities Increase Cost And Length Of Hospitalization In Adolescents And Young Adults With Chronic Medical Conditions, Reem Hasan, Christina Nicolaidis

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Patients with chronic conditions of childhood experience exacerbations during adolescence and young adulthood, leading to higher rates of hospitalizations and burden of disease compared to earlier childhood or later adulthood.1-3 Little is known about the epidemiology of hospitalization of adolescents and young adults with childhood-onset chronic medical conditions. We describe the impact of psychiatric comorbidity on the length of stay and cost of hospitalization.

Rebuilding Lives Post-Disaster, By Julie L. Drolet, Lucas Prieto

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Julie L. Drolet, Rebuilding Lives Post-Disaster. Oxford University Press (2019). 258 pages, $39.95 (Paperback).

Traditional Narratives Of Higher Education: Cultural Tensions And Ethical Considerations In Adult Learning, Maryann Krikorian

School of Education Faculty Works

This reflective article is inspired by excerpts of the author’s personal journal. The author experienced 12 years of higher learning in both public and private institutions of higher education. She often reflects on her higher education experiences as a first-generation, working-class, multiracial, woman, and the first in her family to speak English as a first language. During her academic journey, she found it challenging to integrate her cultural background with traditional narratives based on Eurocentric values in higher education culture. Her lived experience inspires the promotion of a more holistic approach to teaching and learning, raising awareness of cultural differences …

Research And Graduate Studies Annual Report, 2020, Office Of Research And Graduate Studies, Illinois State University

Research and Graduate Studies Annual Report

No abstract provided.

Examining The Experiences Of Homicide Co-Victims To Inform A Survivor’S Guide To Healing, Grae Pollard

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The traumatic and unexpected death of a loved one, such as suicides, homicides, and traffic fatalities, is one of the most difficult experiences a person may go through. In Summit County, Ohio, bereaved families are served by Victim Assistance Program (VAP), who help promote the healing process through education, advocacy, and crisis intervention. VAP identified a need for a workbook to assist families with navigating the days and weeks that follow the death of their loved one. In order to create a brochure considerate of the possible needs of families grieving the tragedy, various aspects of their experience were researched. …

Home Health Care Resource Binder: A User-Friendly Guide For Crossroads Hospice And Palliative Care, Deanna Eder

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Patients and families searching for home health care need accurate information regarding the community resources available to them to promote aging in place and to maintain their quality of life. In connection to the social workers at Crossroads Hospice and Palliative Care, the researcher identified a need for a centralized source of up-to-date information regarding local home health care agencies due to the current resource deficit. Social workers and other health care professionals are expected to benefit from a concise list of resources readily available to provide their patients and families with adequate support to make informed decisions about a …

Creating An Accessible Campus Environment, Megan Parker

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project consists of a series of journalistic articles pertaining to the level of accessibility for current students, faculty, and/or visitors with physical disabilities and/or impairments at The University of Akron. Journalistic articles were selected as a method of investigating and increasing awareness of accessibility in the given situation. Interviews were conducted with members of the campus and those, in addition to press releases, were used as the basis of the content within each article. The conclusion drawn from this journalistic inquiry is that while the level of accessibility at The University of Akron is not optimal for current students, …

Harm Reduction Through Effective Volunteer Training, Rebecca Hohman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Through a combination of business education and social work competencies, an in-depth analysis of volunteer training was created from existing data and applied to qualitative survey data of nonprofit leaders in the local city of Akron, Ohio. The overall aim of the project was to base volunteer training on evidence, as evidence-based practice is a hallmark of social work practice. In doing so, the training would also aim to build connections among volunteers and between volunteers and the organization to retain the volunteers who were trained and increase the efficiency of the training. Thus, the project sought to reduce two …

The Relationship Between Intensity Of Fitness Tracker Usage And Motivation, Rachel Cannata, Abigail C. Daugherty, Madison O. Dirocco, Julianne Green, Pial Dasgupta

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Many college students engage in unhealthy behaviors which may contribute to diseases. Additionally, some students may lack motivation to rectify these behaviors to improve their long-term health. This study assessed the relationship between intensity of fitness tracker usage and motivation among health professions students at a large, public Midwestern university. This non-experimental, correlational study used convenience sampling and a theoretical framework based on Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory. Online recruitment announcements were emailed and included links to the consent form and survey. Motivation was measured with Deci and Ryan’s modified self-determination tool. Intensity of tracker usage was measured using a scale …