Digital Commons Network^™

Immigration Stress & Maternal Sensitivity In Mexican American Mothers: The Role Of Parasympathetic Activity & Cultural Resiliency Factors, Annabelle Armah

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The immigration process is associated with a host of cultural stressors that may impact family and parental wellbeing. The present study examined whether immigration stress was related to reduced maternal sensitivity, and whether lower PNS activity would account for their associations. A secondary aim was to test the buffering effect of cultural resiliency factors (i.e., familism values, cultural orientation) on maternal PNS activity. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of Mexican American mothers (N = 322; M age = 27 years). Contrary to hypotheses, higher immigration stress was significantly associated with higher maternal resting RSA (B = 0.15, SE …

Perspective Taking And Imagination: The Role Of Episodic Processes In Contemporary Perspective Taking Effects, Cody Gilbert

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Perspective taking has been the subject of considerable psychological research for decades. Numerous empirical articles provide evidence for a wide range of perspective taking effects across a variety of contexts. However, the role of imagination in these effects has not been sufficiently considered. With three studies, we demonstrated an influence of episodic processes in a recent experimental design which increases individuals’ willingness to help others (Study 1), a seminal perspective manipulation which enhances empathy (Study 2), and a further replication of the results found in the second study (Study 3). These findings strengthen current conceptualizations of these two psychological processes, …

The Legislative Impacts Of The Trafficking Victims Protection Act And The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act Of 2017, Kathryn Thompson

ALL - Honors Theses

In the past two decades, the issue of human trafficking has grown more prominent around the world (Mollema, 2015). According to the Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting human trafficking as well as educating the world on the dangers of human trafficking analyzed data from the Human Trafficking Hotline found that in the year 2021, there were roughly 10,359 cases of human trafficking in the United States with about 16,554 victims (Polaris Project,2022). Out of these cases, approximately 72% (7,498) of them were related to sex trafficking, with the top type of trafficking out of all cases being …

Camouflaging And Identity Development Among Autistic Female And Gender Diverse Youth: A Qualitative Exploration, Krista Nicole Drapalik

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Adolescence is a vulnerable developmental period for autistic female and gender diverse youth. Many autistic youths use camouflaging to combat social challenges, perceived differences, and stigmatization. Although adolescence is an integral time for identity development, integration of these topics remains understudied among autistic female and gender diverse youth. The present study seeks to qualitatively explore first-person, youth-perspectives on the topics of camouflaging and identity formation. Ten autistic female and gender diverse youth aged 11 to 16 years (M = 13.1, SD = 1.52) and their caregivers were enrolled in the present study. Youths completed semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. …

Toward A Process-Based Account Of Mental Health Self-Stigma And Distress: Elucidating The Contribution Of Psychological Inflexibility And Its Six Component Subprocesses, Sara V. White

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Background: Stigma about mental health and illness remains a pervasive public health concern. Moreover, stigmatizing oneself for experiencing a mental health disorder is associated with further psychological distress. Yet, processes that may account for this relation remain unclear. Thus, the present study aimed to elucidate processes that may account for this relationship, with specific attention to psychological inflexibility as a transdiagnostic mediator between self-stigma and psychological distress. Methods: Undergraduates (N = 486, Mage = 18.68, SDage = 1.31, 66% Female) completed a battery of measures assessing self-stigma, psychological inflexibility, and psychological distress. We tested psychological inflexibility and its six subprocesses …

Adverse Family Experiences And Ethnicity As Risk And Resiliency Factors In The Link Between Psychological Distress And Perception Of Academic Stress In Undergraduate Students, Teresa Mejia

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Mental health problems have been associated with lower academic performance amongundergraduate students. In addition to individual well-being, environmental and cultural factors may contribute to greater academic stress. Specifically, early adverse family experiences (e.g., abuse, neglect, and family conflict) can have deleterious impacts on an individual’s emotional adjustment and perception of academic stress. However, the influence of ethnicity on the link between early family adversity and later academic stress has been largely understudied. Objective: This study examined whether adverse family experiences and ethnicity moderate the link between psychological distress and academic stress. Methods: Participants (N = 284, 38.4% male, 59.5% female, …

Prescription Opioid Misuse Among High School Students In The United States, By Sex And Race/Ethnicity, In 2019 And 2021, Deepika Reddy Kandhi

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Background: Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. have been increasing and are primarily related to opioid use. In 2019, an estimated 7.2% of US high school students reported misusing prescription opioids in the past 30 days. Prescription opioid misuse in adolescents may lead to development of a substance use disorder, overdose, or other serious harms. Some researchers have observed sex and race differences in prescription opioid use. This study aimed to identify patterns of prescription opioid misuse among adolescent subgroups categorized by both sex and race/ethnicity, to provide insight into intervention development and targeting.Methods: We analyzed data from the Youth …

Postpartum Visitation Policies, Jenna B. Holderman, Morgan E. Matthews

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background: Continual support for the birthing person during labor improves delivery outcomes and overall childbirth experiences. How many support people are present and their relation to the birthing person varies based on individual preference, family dynamics, and sociocultural expectations. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many hospitals implemented a one-visitor policy for deliveries. With these new guidelines in place, the length of hospital stays significantly decreased, and there were a variety of opinions towards these restrictions.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore birthing persons’ overall sentiment towards visitors in the immediate postpartum period.

Methods: The current study analyzed …

Moral Distress In Critical Care Nursing: A Literature Review, Anna Tindell

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Moral distress is a pressing concern in the healthcare field with significant implications for all areas of nursing and patient outcomes. However, those within the specialty of critical care nursing experience moral distress more frequently than those in other specialties. It arises from the complex ethical dilemmas nurses in critical intensive care units face as they work in these high-pressure environments. The purpose of this literature review is to discuss moral distress in critical care nursing and how it affects a nurse’s ability to provide quality care. Furthermore, this review will determine factors contributing to moral distress and potential interventions …

The Dictator Novel In Ya Latinx Fantasy, Catherine Gallegos

English (MA) Theses

The Dictator Novel in YA Latinx Fantasy explores the power of the dictator novel in Latinx literature, specifically within the young adult fantasy genre. Drawing upon the work of Jennifer Harford-Vargas to examine the relationship between the forms of power and the power of the narrative form and how this creates ways to defy and rebel against repressive authoritarian figures. The young adult Latinx fantasy novel calls for a challenge to the authoritarian presence that occupies these imagined worlds that reach beyond the cycle of oppression and injustices that have silenced generation after generation. These YA Latinx fantasy novels use …

Mrs. Dalloway As A Window For Understanding Life, Kristen Venegas

English (MA) Theses

Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway may be dismissed as fiction, and fiction consequently is dismissed as fantasy. However, the novel enables readers to practice an intellectual exercise of meta-awareness that extends beyond the pages and onto real world phenomena. Under a cognitive neuroscience perspective, Mrs. Dalloway is a literary masterpiece due to its hyper- realistic execution of the intimacies of life. Through the narrative style of free-indirect discourse, Woolf illustrates what occurs in the minds of characters as they develop their own perceptions of reality and identity, exposes the fear and inadequacies of mankind’s distress in times of chaos and disorder …

Moral Virtues: A Quantitative Study On The Impact Of National Culture On Integrity, Andrew I. Ellestad

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Multinational corporations encounter numerous challenges in making ethical decisions as they navigate diverse factors in every country where they conduct business. Building on the theoretical work of Ellestad and Winton, this study tested a main component of their argument. This quantitative analysis looked at the relationship between the national culture an individual resides in and that individual’s level of integrity. Hofstede’s original four dimensions are used in conjunction with Schlenker’s Integrity Scale to explain and quantify those measures. This study examined 160 working and retired individuals in the United States. The findings demonstrate that national power distance and masculinity are …

Brain Dance And Brain Power: Impact Of Movement On Problem-Solving Skills For Exceptional Learners, Kristin Crain

Master's Theses

The goal of this research was to answer the question: Q1 In what ways do Brain Dance type movements impact problem-solving skills for exceptional learners? The research was completed within the public education setting with a group of volunteer participants including one cooperating teacher and six student participants identified as exceptional learners. The researcher focused on problem-solving skills including identifying a problem, showing work, implementing a solution, and identifying a solution. Research instruments were created based on these skills including a pretest, posttest, and teacher rubric. Student participants completed the pretest prior to being introduced to movement exercises. The researcher …

Dance And Emotional Intelligence: Mitigating Anxiety In The Modern Teen, Bridget Morris

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis study was to find if emotional intelligence could be increased through participation in dance classes, and if that increase of emotional intelligence could mitigate anxiety in teens today. The researcher held four dance classes with a total of five 15–16- year-old volunteer participants, all with dance experience. Two research instruments were used and data were analyzed quantitatively. The research questions explored were: Q1 What immediate effects do participating in a dance class have on emotional intelligence? Q2 Which components of emotional intelligence develop the most from participating in dance? The data demonstrated that participation in …

Exploring Moral Distress And Reflective Debriefing As A Potential Intervention Among Intensive Care Unit Nurses, Tegan Camille Jones

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

Moral distress is recognized in the literature as a significant problem for nurses working in the intensive care unit (ICU). Moral distress occurs when one knows the right course of action but is unable to follow it due to team or organizational constraints. Moral distress may lead to physical and psychological symptoms resulting in burnout, job attrition, and a negative impact on patient care. While interventions for reducing moral distress among ICU nurses are limited in the literature, one potentially promising approach is reflective debriefing. This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) scholarly project aimed to explore the intensity, frequency, and …

Designing A Culturally Relevant Lifestyle Modification Guide For Primary Care Providers To Improve Diabetes Management In The Hispanic Population., Jesusita Elvira Tafoya

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

Diabetes mellitus type II (DMT2) affects the Hispanic population in the United States at an alarming rate, contributing to elevated morbidity and mortality. This growing ethnic group is also disproportionately at risk for obesity and being at a lower socioeconomic status, both of which contribute to DMT2 severity and prevalence. The provision of culturally competent care in the primary care setting using evidence-based lifestyle modifications has the potential to improve DMT2 outcomes among this socioeconomically disadvantaged population. Thus, the expert opinions of eight primary care providers in the Pueblo, Colorado community were sought where half of the patient population identified …

A Framework For Creating Systems Change, William Brown, Wynn Rosser

The Foundation Review

This article draws on a system-change framework developed by the Nicholson Foundation as part of a 20-year initiative to substantively change the state of New Jersey’s health and social welfare systems, and modifies and expands a single case study on system change to align with related ideas and concepts. A results-based accountability approach is integrated into the model to draw attention to the importance of monitoring and evaluation of population-based outcomes.

Drawing on extensive literature from systems change and performance management, the discussion provides insight and perspective on contemporary frameworks in systems change and the role of grantmaking foundations. The …

Restraining Chatgpt, Roee Sarel

UC Law Journal

ChatGPT is a prominent example of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) has stormed into our lives. Within a matter of weeks, this new AI—which produces coherent and humanlike textual answers to questions—managed to become an object of both admiration and anxiety. Can we trust generative AI systems, such as ChatGPT, without regulatory oversight?

Designing an effective legal framework for AI requires answering three main questions: (i) is there a market failure that requires legal intervention?; (ii) should AI be governed through public regulation, tort liability, or a mixture of both?; and (iii) should liability be based on strict liability or a …

Impact Of The Built Environment On The End-Of-Life Journey, Kelechi Akwazie

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

Several research studies and personal anecdotes show that home-based hospice care patients report better quality of life than their inpatient care counterparts – suggesting that the location of care/built environment is a critical component of hospice care. As a result, other research studies have attempted to provide evidence-based design recommendations for inpatient hospice facilities; however, several of these recommendations either conflict with each other or are vaguely prescribed – which may dull any attempts to implement them.

This literature review takes a unique approach to the provision of evidence-based design recommendations for inpatient hospice facilities by holistically assessing hospice care, …

Nchc Bibliography Of Journals And Monographs (December 1, 2023), National Collegiate Honors Council

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs

National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) Bibliography of Journals and Monographs (1 December 2023), 108 pages, alphabetical by author.

Respectful Research: Working With Indigenous Peoples In Psychological, Anthropological And Cross-Cultural Sciences, Gesa Solveig Duden, Daniel Bagheri Sarvestani

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Indigenous peoples today face a wide range of constantly evolving political, epistemic and socio-cultural forms of contemporary colonial violence. Modern discourses and research practices both continue to promote Eurocentric narratives while marginalizing non-Western Indigenous perspectives. In our research project focusing on Maya Ch’orti cultural identities in the context of Indigenous peoples’ rights movements, we aimed to follow Indigenous Rights guidelines on how to conduct respectful, collaborative research with instead of on or about Indigenous peoples, thereby exploring forms of subjective epistemologies. In the present article, we provide a description of our endeavour and practices as well as of the challenges …

The Longitudinal Associations Of Body Dissatisfaction With Health And Wellness Behaviors In Midlife And Older Women, Lisa Smith Kilpela, Savannah C. Hooper, Casey L. Straud, Victoria B. Marshall, Christina L. Verzijl, Tiffany M. Stewart, Taylur T. Loera, Carolyn Black Becker

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

Emerging research suggests that body dissatisfaction (BD) is prevalent among midlife and older women (i.e., upwards of 70%). Cross-sectionally, BD is associated with myriad poor health and wellness outcomes (e.g., depression, disordered eating, bad nutrition) in midlife/older women. However, relatively few studies have examined the longitudinal relations between BD and health outcomes in this population. This preliminary study investigated the longitudinal associations of BD with wellbeing and health-related quality of life (QOL) among midlife/older adult women over one year. Participants (n = 86, women aged 40–72 years, M = 51.49, SD = 7.34, 86% white) completed self-report measures of BD, …

Digital Archives: How Western Newspapers Frame Our Remembrance Of The Gezi Park Protest, Nihar Sreepada, Ahmet Aksoy

Faculty Publications

We analyze the coverage of the Gezi Park protests by two major Western newspapers - The New York Times and The Guardian - through the lens of media framing, rhetoric, and collective memory. We argue that these digital archives frame Turkey's Gezi Park protests as a challenge to an authoritarian government by promoting the themes of unrest as a conflict of ideologies, oppression of citizens, and the park as a site of memory. In a concluding section, we focus on the significance of digital archives as repositories of collective memory and the role of media framing in shaping these reconstructions …

Portraits Of Happiness (The Performance Of Happiness: A Cultural Critique), Meaghan Hibbs

Honors Theses

While happiness may be something seemingly everyone, or most, people wish for, what happiness consists of, how to obtain it, and how to determine if/when one is truly happy remains elusive. One may view happiness as a simple wish, but then arises the question: what exactly does one wish for in wishing for happiness? Or, moreover, what may a society wish for or wish to ensure through the imperative to be happy? My thesis will primarily involve an interpretation of philosopher Sara Ahmed’s book The Promise of Happiness, in which she offers a critique of “happiness,” or, moreover, the cultural …

Tales Of The Keyworld: An Examination Of The Study And Application Of Craft Theory For Writers, Lauren Bruce

Honors Theses

The following consists of a craft essay focused on character and close third-person narration and a novel excerpt. The craft essay begins with a discussion of what craft theory is and how it is useful to writers when used together with reading analysis. It then synthesizes the conversation around close third-person narration and character and applies it to a close reading analysis of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. The novel excerpt comes from the middle of a work in progress and concerns members of the Keyworld, a fantastical sub-layer of the modern world unknown to most humans.

Transitioning Into Kindergarten, Faith C. Dysard

Masters Projects

Historically, kindergarten is the place where many children receive their educational foundation. The current demand on children and educators has changed from play-based education to more of an academic focus, for which some children are not ready. At University Prep Art and Design Elementary School, incoming kindergartners are assessed when they are admitted and then invited to participate in a weeklong summer bridge program. This project will explain different factors that provide reasoning as to why children are not ready for kindergarten and give a layout of a transitional program that children, teachers, and families can participate in to better …

Analysis Of Online Platforms’ Free Trial Strategies For Digital Content Subscription, Li Chen

College of Business and Economics

Adopting subscription models has become a popular trend in e-commerce. Digital content platforms often use free trials to attract potential subscribers. However, rigorous research on platforms’ free trial strategies is lacking. Our paper aims to fill this gap using a horizontal duopoly framework. We investigate both the scenario of market symmetry and of market asymmetry. We study the benchmark case with no free trial for each scenario and derive equilibrium results with free trial promotion. We find that the platform will not benefit from free trials unless consumers’ learning rate exceeds a threshold. When a free trial is introduced in …

Outcomes For Binge Eating Disorder In A Remote Weight-Inclusive Treatment Program: A Case Report, Caitlin B. Shepherd, Rebecca G. Boswell, Jessica Genet, Wendy Oliver-Pyatt, Christine Stockert, Rebecca Brumm, Shaun Riebl, Elsbeth Crowe

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Background: There are no known published reports on outcomes for medically and psychiatrically compromised patients with binge eating disorder (BED) treated remotely in higher level of care settings. This case report presents outcomes of an intentionally remote weight-inclusive partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient program based on Health at Every Size® and intuitive eating principles. Case presentation: The patient presented with an extensive trauma background and long history of disturbed eating and body image. She was diagnosed with BED along with several comorbidities, most notably major depressive disorder with suicidality and non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. She completed a total of 186 …

Anxiety Screening At A Psychiatric Inpatient Facility: A Quality Improvement Project, Irene Akwitti

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Background. Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by persistent anxiety and uncontrollable worry occurring more days than not for a minimum of 6 months (Patriquin & Mathew, 2017). Presently, anxiety screening and evidence-based practice treatment for adults are suboptimal. It is impossible to overemphasize the importance of early diagnosis and prompt treatment of generalized anxiety disorder in patients. Purpose. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to implement the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) screening tool, a validated, evidence-based instrument, in a psychiatric inpatient facility to improve early detection and treatment of anxiety disorders in patients. Methods. Staff members were educated …

Jaepl - Volume 28, Wendy Ryden

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Full Issue of The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning Volume 28.