Digital Commons Network^™

Public Satisfaction With Forest Management In Western Montana: An Evaluation Of Trust And Public Engagement, Haley R. Hodge

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Trust is an integral component of the public engagement process involving land management agencies and local stakeholders. Traditional methods of public engagement, such as public meetings and comment periods, often result in low public satisfaction with the participation process and management outcomes. Two components of public engagement, process control and decision control, are critical for successful engagement processes and satisfaction with management decisions. Process control requires providing opportunities for public input, whereas decision control involves the public perceiving influence over management decisions. While recent studies have examined the relationships among process control, decision control, and public satisfaction, trust in a …

Muscle Soreness And Damage During Wildland Firefighter Critical Training, Katherine Sue Christison

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Introduction: Wildland firefighters (WLFF) undergo a critical training (CT) period immediately before the firefighting season. The intensity of CT exercise could lead to muscle damage, as previously reported cases of rhabdomyolysis in WLFFs have been documented. This study established the effects of activities performed during a two-week CT period on acute markers of muscle damage in WLFFs.

Methods: 18 male and 3 female Type I Interagency Hotshot WLFFs were studied during a 14-day critical training period. Upper- (US) and lower-body (LS) muscle soreness and daily body weight (BW) scales were collected. Venous blood was collected on Days 1, 4, 8, …

College Athletes And Alcohol Use: The Need For Effective Prevention/Intervention Programs, Paige M. Craig

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The literature review investigates the relationship between alcohol and college athletes. College athletes are a high-risk drinking group; alcohol use amongst collegiate athletes is a major concern due to the consequences associated with use. It is important to review student-athlete behavior and influences that contribute to alcohol use in order to design a program that effectively prevents use and intervenes use when it occurs. Results from original articles were used to support the need for effective prevention/intervention programs for this population based on the severity and frequency of use, negative effects of alcohol, and lack of effective prevention/intervention programs. Coaches, …

Who Did You Tell? College Women’S Perceived Helpfulness Of Formal And Informal Support Sources After Victimization: Sexual Assault, Intimate Partner Violence, And Stalking, Nora G. Uhrich

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Violence against women is recognized as a serious public health concern in the United States. The prevalence and rates of victimization occurring on college campuses is problematic and has captured the attention of researchers and campus officials nation-wide. Research has shown that women ages 18 to 24 years old are at a particularly high risk of experiencing sexual assault, intimate partner violence (IPV), and stalking (Breiding et al., 2011). Despite the negative outcomes associated with victimization, many victims, particularly college students, do not seek help for these crimes. There is already a considerable body of literature that explores the reasons …

The Role Of Experiential Learning In Developing Multicultural Competence, Kaoru Allison Powell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Although much importance has been placed on training programs to develop multiculturally competent service providers, the question remains as to when and where clinicians acquire their multicultural competence (MCC). Currently, most training programs appear to focus on the development of multicultural awareness and knowledge, without adequate focus on skills. However, experientially based learning exercises are associated with skills development in many areas, including general clinical skills development. Thus, students who engage in higher levels of experiential learning in their multicultural training may rate themselves as more competent with multicultural skills than students with less frequent experiential learning. I hypothesize that …

Ethical Eating: Overcoming Alienation In The Industrial Food System By Aligning Our Practices With Our Principles, André Kushnir

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis arose out of a moment of discord, while an environmental philosopher was eating blackberries in the middle of a blizzard in Missoula, Montana. What follows is an attempt to bridge the gap between our principles and our practices, by asking the questions: What does ethical eating look like? Is it possible within our current industrial food system? and If not, what needs to change? Responding to the publication of the 2019 EAT-Lancet report, this essay moves beyond thinking of ethical eating as “healthy” and “sustainable” and challenges the networks of suffering and labour that we take for …

Down The Deer Path: Reflections On The Future Of Hunting In America, Jackie A. Bussjaeger

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This collection of chapters delves into the dramatically shifting landscape of hunting sports from a personal perspective of a young hunter. As older hunters age out of the sport, hunter-funded conservation initiatives are in danger of losing support. This work examines the nature of relationships between hunters, their prey, and their worldview, as well as the elements of hunting that appeal to new hunters, and the challenges they may face as they become the hunters of the future.

Measuring Multicultural Competencies With Sexual And Gender Minorities: A Study Of Therapy Dyads, Hillary Anne Powell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Although there have been targeted efforts to improve mental health care provision to SGM individuals in the last several decades, SGM mental health consumers report ongoing barriers to therapy, including providers' poor SGM-specific multicultural competencies. The current project examines (1) differences in perceptions of SGM-specific multicultural competence between providers and their clients, and (2) how perceptions of SGM multicultural competence are predictive of variation in treatment outcomes. To this end, 73 SGM mental health consumers and 53 of their therapists were recruited to independently evaluate the mental health provider's SGM-specific multicultural competence at two time points, with respective retention rates …

Belonging For Dementia Caregivers, Sabrina Singh

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Detecting Simulated Memory Impairment In College Students With The Progressive Visual Memory Test (Pvmt): Validation Of A New Test Of Performance Validity, Brook Elizabeth Clark

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The detection of exaggerated or feigned symptoms is a complex issue that neuropsychologists regularly encounter during neuropsychological evaluations. Thus, it is critical that tests that are capable of detecting false impairments continue to be developed. To that end, a new test of malingered memory performance was researched. The Progressive Visual Memory Test (PVMT) uses a forced-choice (2-choice) paradigm but adds to the literature by including 3-choice and 4-choice trials. A simulation design was conducted in which college students (N = 62) acted as uncoached simulators, coached simulators, and controls. A two-way ANOVA explored the impact of group and trial on …

The Home As A Site Of Family Communicated Narrative Sense-Making: Grief, Meaning, And Identity Through “Cleaning Out The Closet”, Kendyl A. Barney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study utilized communicated narrative sense-making theory to explore the process of sorting through a deceased loved one’s belongings and changing the home after loss (referred to as “cleaning out the closet”), as the site of family communication and storytelling. Through storytelling, families make order of the disordered experience that is bereavement by negotiating meaning, identity, and family. The stories told about and within the process of “cleaning out the closet” elicit rich insight on each family’s experience with bereavement, loss, and life with each other. “Cleaning out the closet” narratives shed light on the interactions that occur between family …

Rhetoric And Perception: A Case Study Of The Proposed Northmet Mine On Minnesota’S Iron Range, Sophia J. Frank

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Northern Minnesota is rich in natural resources, perhaps most uniquely the expansive mineral deposits of the Mesabi and Vermilion Ranges. The steel and taconite mining opportunities along these veins helped facilitate the rapid growth and infrastructure development of the area and is an important part of the identity of the region northwest of Duluth, aptly known as Iron Range. In addition to iron deposits, The Iron Range contains large deposits of copper and nickel. Recently proposed copper-nickel mining projects by PolyMet and Twin Metals have garnered a great deal of public controversy, especially around issues of economic revitalization of the …

Investigating Wildfire As A Catalyst For Community-Level Resilience, Lily J. Clarke

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Training In Evidence-Based Relationships On Counselor Self-Efficacy And Client Outcomes In Practicum, Kimberly K. Parrow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study evaluated the effects of an evidence-based relationship factors training (EBRFs) on the self-efficacy of counselors-in-training (CITs), the therapeutic relationship, and the mental health outcomes of clients. Participants included masters level CITs and their assigned undergraduate student clients (USCs). The USCs were a non-clinical sample enrolled in a course on intimate relationships. A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent pretest-posttest design was employed to measure the effects of the EBRFs training with the following assessments: Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scale (Lent et al., 2003), Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory OS-40, MO-40 (Barrett-Lennard, 2015), Outcome Rating Scale (Miller, Duncan, Sparks, & Claud, 2003), Session Rating Scale (Duncan …

Fostering Communities Of Practice In Comprehensive Sex Education: Evaluation And Recommendations On The Foundations Training, Shanay L. Healy

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sex education is not contained to the classroom, rather, it is a lifelong evolving experience for both the individual and their community, which continually influence one another. More specifically, sexual health is understood through communication with others – exemplifying learning as a truly social process. As such, Communities of Practice theory (CoP) is a useful lens to better understand how a community can develop through social learning in sex education training. This paper evaluates the Foundations Training, a widely adopted Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE) practitioner training, using Wenger-Trayner’s (2015) list of CoP activities as a guide for qualitative coding. This …

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.

College Students' Social Media Uses And Affective Correlates, Jennifer L. Lippold

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Given the high prevalence of mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety among college students, research on social media use, a salient feature of the modern college experience, is increasingly warranted. While research documents a link between negative psychological symptomology and social media use, few studies have examined what specific patterns of use may be more or less harmful than others. Therefore, the present study investigated whether specific types of social media use (socially oriented uses, information seeking uses, and entertainment uses) are more or less strongly associated with affective variables (depression, anxiety, positive affect, and negative affect). Utilizing …

Evaluation Of The Watershed Education Network's Fish Week Program, Rennie Ann Winkelman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Watershed Education Network (WEN) is a nonprofit environmental education program that aims to foster knowledge, appreciation, and awareness of watershed health through water-based education programs and field science experiences. Their Fish Week program for 7^th graders at Washington Middle School has an overarching theme of watershed and ecosystem health and includes an introduction to aquatic invertebrates, native fish, fish habitats, bugs and dry fly comparison, and an introduction to fly fishing. This is a formative, outcome-based evaluation of the Fish Week program. I used pre and post program survey data from 2017 and 2018 as well as survey …

School-Based Racial Microaggressions And Symptoms Of Depression Among Native American Young Adults, Olivia Grace Bridges Holter

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Native Americans continue to experience higher than average prevalence rates of mental health disorders, including depression. Current research on the risk factors for the development of mental health disorders among Native Americans suggests that the experience of prejudice is strongly correlated with the diagnosis of mental health disorders. Despite this knowledge, there is a current gap in the literature examining relationship between the experience of prejudice in schools and the development of mental health disorders for Native Americans. Given this dearth of research as well the importance of understanding the mental health needs of Native Americans, this research study examined …

Characterizing The Requirements For The Matricellular Protein, Dccn, In Nervous System Function, Elizabeth L. Catudio Garrett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The brain is organized as a complex network of specialized neurons that communicate via a combination of electrical and chemical signals. Our brains function to generate movement, control organ function, or direct complex behaviors; all of which requires the ability to regulate the flow of communication between circuits and networks. Work in this thesis addresses two areas of neuron communication: first, how does the release of more than one neurotransmitter from a single neuron impact behavior, and second, are matricellular proteins (MCPs) key contributors to synaptic transmission and neuron function? The conserved CCN family of MCPs have a …

Change Is The Only Constant: A Snowpack Retention Analysis And Climate Vulnerability Road Map For The Skalkaho Creek Sub-Basin, Zachary Freeman Goodwin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change is impacting the whole of North America, although the impacts differ depending on regional geography. In the Intermountain West, climate change is contributing to lower overall snowpack totals and diminished late season streamflows. These changes will likely contribute to vulnerabilities in how much water is available to irrigators, municipalities, and fisheries dependent upon a consistent yearly flow of meltwater. This paper explores how snowpack retention has changed via the NASA dataset Daymet, which provides gridded estimates of weather parameters including Snow Water Equivalent in the Bitterroot River Basin of western Montana. This analysis showed that snowpack retention from …

Teacher Support: A Study About Teacher Emotional Support And Engagement Among Middle School Boys, Melissa Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Engagement in school has been recognized as important for achievement in multiple ways, and yet adolescent boys have been observed to be less engaged in school than their female peers. Boys are less motivated than girls, spend less time on homework, and have lower expectations of themselves (Barber, 1996). Boys experience the following school and personal events at rates higher than girls: discipline referrals, suspensions, failing and near-failing grades, and also suicide. This study examined the differential responses between boys and girls in terms of perceived teacher support and student engagement.

The study began with an initial survey distributed to …

The Relationship Between Public School Principals’ Authentic Leadership And Implicit Theory Of Intelligence, Erica A. Zins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Public school principals are facing increasingly more demands and stressful environments. These leaders need tools to help with the overwhelming workload and building a healthy supportive school community. Principals require easy-to-access skills to build healthy strategies for working with these chaotic environments, which could include a growth mindset and authentic qualities of self-awareness, balanced processing, moral virtue and relational transparency.

The purpose of this study was to research the relationship between Montana K-12 public school principals’ authentic leadership theory and their implicit theories of intelligence. This non-experimental quantitative study utilized a survey method to gather self-report information. The voluntary sample …

The Effects Of Resiliency Training On Self-Reported Compassion Fatigue And Compassion Satisfaction In Mental Health Professionals And Counselors-In-Training, Julie Kay Ballew

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Compassion fatigue (CF) is a pervasive problem in all caring professions, including counseling. The combination of secondary traumatic stress (STS) and burnout (BO) can lead to an overabundance of negative symptoms decreasing both professional and personal quality of life, perhaps resulting in career attrition. However, this does not have to be the case. CF experiences have been shown to be malleable to interventions like those offered through the Accelerated Recovery Program (ARP) and subsequent resiliency workshops. While yielding non-statistically significant results, this quasi-experimental control time series design found support for the reduction of self-reported CF in the short term and …

Crisis As A Constant: Understanding The Communicative Enactment Of Communities Of Practice Within The Extension Disaster Education Network (Eden), Danielle Maria Farley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Crisis is a constant of our reality. We are caught in the continual and inevitable cycle of crisis development. Whether it is a natural disaster, international conflict, or disease outbreak; knowledge is central to our ability to prepare for, respond, and recover from crisis. Knowledge is a social process that requires active participation (Wenger, 1998). CoP theory explains how knowledge is accomplished through the communicative practice of mutual engagement, negotiation of a joint enterprise, and shared repertoires (Iverson & McPhee, 2008). The Extension Disaster Education Network is a CoP that is longstanding, enacts knowledge, and is focused on preparing for, …

Family Environment And Attachment In Relation To Complex Trauma And C-Ptsd, Susan Elizabeth Ocean

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Childhood traumatic experiences occurring during critical developmental stages are strongly linked to poor mental health outcomes during adulthood, including PTSD. Yet, individuals who have experienced multiple traumas (and across developmental stages) report a profile of symptoms that is not well-represented by traditional PTSD diagnostic criteria. Recent research suggests that resulting post-traumatic stress after the experience of complex trauma should be considered a separate, yet related, disorder from the well-established PTSD. Since traumatic experiences are commonplace and often detrimental, establishing which factors contribute to risk and resilience is of great importance. Having secure attachment to a primary caregiver and family cohesion …

An Exploration Of The Adaptive Capacity Of Community-Based Organizations In Northern Botswana In Response To A Hunting Ban, Katherine Kellam Coe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Trophy hunting serves as a large economic sector in several African countries and has been considered important for wildlife conservation and local rural development. In many parts of Africa, local communities’ attitudes and decisions can affect the fate of conservation efforts outside of protected areas and it is thought that benefits from trophy hunting tourism can influence pro-conservation behavior at local scales. In Botswana, recent mandates, such as a 2014 nation-wide hunting ban and a 2019 lifting of the ban, have disrupted the relationships between wildlife conservation and rural livelihoods, resulting in adverse economic, social, and ecological impacts at various …

Binegative Minority Stress, Psychological Processes, And Disordered Alcohol Use: Disparities Among Sexual Minority Womxn, Kinsie Jean Dunham

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sexual minority womxn (i.e., woman-identified persons) tend to report more harmful alcohol use and more negative alcohol use outcomes than heterosexual women—a pattern not consistently observed in man-identified populations. Further, bisexually-oriented, hereafter called nonexclusively-oriented, womxn (NOW) report more negative alcohol use outcomes and meet criteria for alcohol use disorder at higher rates than both lesbians and heterosexual women (or exclusively-oriented womxn; EOW). These disparities require further investigation to explicate the antecedents and mechanisms impacting alcohol use for this at-risk population. This project examines the incremental negative effects of binegativity as a specific minority stressor and antecedent of disordered alcohol use. …

A Conservation Marketing Toolkit: Systematic Literature Mapping, Microtargeting Conservation Easements, And Conservation Corridor Prioritization, Hannah Josie Leonard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In a changing world with limited resources for conservation efforts, conservationists, wildlife managers, and land managers must look for creative ways to realize conservation goals. A new wave of conservationists is investigating how other disciplines, namely psychology and marketing, might improve our ability to understand and change conservation-related human behavior. In this thesis, I review existing applications of “conservation marketing” and apply a subset to advance two specific conservation challenges. In Chapter 1, I present a systematic mapping of the conservation marketing literature to understand the lay of the land in how conservationists have already applied marketing techniques to conservation, …

Hear Me Roar, Abigail R. Seethoff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hear Me Roar, a compilation of personal essays interspersed with short forms, grapples with the nuances of compliance versus autonomy in the context of the male gaze, beauty standards, and pop culture. The collection also explores what it means to treasure something—another person, an object—and how to express and deepen that affection.