Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Covid-19 Lockdowns And Social Isolation On Adolescence, Madeleine J. Bakken

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents around the world were impacted by social isolation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Students experienced sudden school closures and isolation from classmates resulting in increased screen time, the erosion of social skills, lower academic motivation, and a period of unstructured and unfamiliar learning (Hong et al., 2022; Kannan & Veazie, 2023; Leventhal & Morishta, 2024; Menzies et al., 2024; Warford, 2019). Current research is working to measure the impact and severity of these factors. Early findings suggest that students are academically and emotionally behind where their predecessors were pre-COVID (Menzies et al. 2023; NWEA Connection, 2024). Educators and mental …

Covid-19 Taking Aim At The Heart Of Public Education, Jeremy James Pyle

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The COVID-19 pandemic, distinguished by both its duration and widespread impact, stands apart from other crises typically faced by schools, such as natural disasters, school violence, or isolated traumatic incidents. Unlike these shorter-term events, the pandemic fundamentally altered the educational landscape, reshaping both school climate and instructional practices. This non-experimental, descriptive study employed a phenomenological research approach to examine the lived experiences of teachers during and after the pandemic. The central aim was to explore how pandemic-related stressors influenced teachers’ decisions to remain in or leave the profession, as well as to identify the supports educators perceived as necessary for …

Neighborhood Context And Covid-19 Mortality, Patrick Dawid

Theses and Dissertations

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected racial and ethnic minority populations in the U.S., with disparities in infection rates and population-level mortality. Research on racial/ethnic differences in case fatality rates (i.e., mortality per diagnosed case) has yielded mixed results, with some studies finding higher mortality for racial/ethnic minority patients and others showing no differences. These inconsistencies may stem from context-dependent factors including neighborhood characteristics. One potential neighborhood variable which may affect health is ethnic density—the concentration of a racial/ethnic group within a neighborhood—which has shown protective, detrimental, and neutral effects in prior studies. Ethnic density may influence health outcomes through …

Social Comparison And Pressure: Examining The Roles Of Sex And Rank, Ashley East

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Faculty in academia face intense competition and growing expectations, often shaped by perceptions of others’ performance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these dynamics were magnified, making social comparison a critical factor in understanding academic workplace pressures. The purpose of this study is to examine the changing work pressures and social comparison tendencies among academics during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is hypothesized that social comparison tendencies will be positively related to time pressure (H1a) and telepressure (H1b), with moderation by sex (H2a and H2b) and organizational rank (H3a and H3b). Using a panel survey of 197 tenure-track and tenured faculty members in …

Covid-19 In The History Of Capitalism, Victor Wallis

Faculty Works

The obvious role of capital in generating poverty, war, and environmental breakdown has not led to a parallel recognition of how deeply it shapes the ideology and practice of healthcare. Progressives view access to healthcare as a matter of “right,” but with rare exceptions they do not focus attention on the wider determinants of health policy – from the life-conditions that shape public health to the prevalence, in capitalist countries, of market-inspired remedies. Looking at the US experience and noting how capitalist priorities have permeated official policies toward Covid-19, this essay discusses how medical objections to these policies have been …

A Teacher Preparation Program's Stakeholders' Perceptions Since Campus Closure Due To Covid-19, Laurie J. Mccormick

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

COVID-19 closed colleges and forced faculty and students to learn a new way of teaching and learning. Like most institutions, Marshall University’s College of Education and Professional Development struggled to provide the practicum experience required for teacher preparation when most public schools shifted to remote learning. This qualitative study investigated the reactions of, and ongoing impact on, a university’s college of education’s administrators, faculty, undergraduates, the institution’s instructional designers, and the Counseling Center’s director when the campus closed spring of 2020 due to the pandemic. Initial and ongoing challenges faced, and strategies implemented were categorized by the four themes that …

An Exploration Of Teacher Exodus In Predominantly African American Secondary Public Schools Amid Covid-19, Keith Demond Ford

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

For some time, K-12 teachers across America have been resigning from classrooms in large numbers. Like many of the nation’s communities, schools in American neighborhoods of color have seen an overwhelming amount of teacher resignations amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to existing literature, education’s traditional systemic norms and health protocols which were initiated during COVID-19 motivated classroom teachers to leave their jobs. This qualitative study uses a phenomenological methodology as it discovers that an interrelatedness of factors influences six participants to resign from their classroom teaching roles at predominantly African American middle and high schools during and immediately following …

Nursing Workplace Rituals: Communication Before, During, And After Covid-19, Angel Infante

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

ABSTRACT

NURSING WORKPLACE RITUALS: COMMUNICATION BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER COVID-19

Angel Infante, PhD

The University of Texas at Arlington, 2025

Professors: Dr. Deborah Behan (Committee Chair), Dr. Yungfei Kao (Committee Member), and Dr. Jessica Grace Smith (Committee Member)

Background: According to Griner et al. (2021) many disruptions caused confusion for healthcare workers during the pandemic. Communication is imperative when dealing with everyday disruptions in a hospital setting. However, it is even more important to learn about the different types of communication and what is communicated during a past pandemic to know how and what to communicate in a future pandemic. …

Personal Wisdom And Coping: Insights From The Covid-19 Pandemic, Noah Ringler

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Much of personal wisdom research has focused on the relationship between personal wisdom and difficult life events (DLEs). Research indicates that those high in personal wisdom cope more effectively with DLEs. However, these studies primarily focused on older adults and assessed coping through well-being measures. Seeking to address these limitations, Ringler (2021) found that mindfulness partially mediates the relationship between personal wisdom and coping with DLEs (measured through meaning-making) in a more age-diverse sample. Despite this progress, several gaps in knowledge remain. For example, there is still a lack of understanding about how wisdom relates to the use of specific …

Creating & Validating A Teacher Resilience Scale In The U.S. Context, Joy Mccreary

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The teaching force faces significant challenges, including high attrition rates and an aging workforce, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior research highlights teacher resilience as a critical factor in addressing these challenges, emphasizing its multi-dimensional and contextual nature. While several international scales have been developed to measure teacher resilience, none exist tailored to the unique educational landscape of the United States. This study developed and validated a U.S.-specific Teacher Resilience Scale (USMTRS), confirming its strong reliability and multidimensional structure. Findings showed that teacher resilience is widespread and most strongly tied to job satisfaction, while only weakly related to burnout. Results …

Trends In Science Outreach Research Through Social Media (2000-2023): A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis, María Del Pilar Quezada Castro, Marco Antonio Rodríguez Vega, María Del Pilar Castro Arellano, Guillermo Alexander Quezada Castro

Health Professions Education

Purpose: Scientific dissemination is key to transmitting specialized knowledge to society, using social networks and digital platforms as essential tools. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to identify trends, key themes, and collaboration networks in scientific outreach research.

Methods: A bibliometric analysis of 1577 papers indexed in the Scopus database between 2000 and 2023 was conducted using advanced tools such as Biblioshiny and VOSviewer. The analysis focused on co-authorship patterns, citation networks, and emerging thematic trends.

Results: The findings showed exponential growth in scientific output over the last four years, shaped by the impact of the COVID-19 …

Description Of Implementing A Mail-Based Overdose Education And Naloxone Distribution Program In Community Supervision Settings During Covid-19, Carrie B. Oser, Margaret Louise Mcgladrey, Douglas Oyler, Hannah K. Knudsen, Sharon L. Walsh, Susannah Stitzer, Michael Goetz, Marisa Booty, Erica Hargis, Sarah Johnson, Michele Staton, Patricia R. Freeman

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

Introduction: This study uses the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation , and Sustainment (EPIS) model to retrospectively describe the mail-based overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) program developed in collaboration with the Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC) for use in the HEALing Communities Study in Kentucky (HCS-KY) and details the reach of this innovative delivery model.

Methods: HCS-KY is a community-engaged cluster-randomized trial assessing the effects of implementing evidence-based practices, including OEND, on overdose death reduction across 16 communities highly impacted by the opioid epidemic in Kentucky. ⁶ The study launch coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. All coalitions in the 16 HCS-KY …

Representative National Survey On Drug Use During The Covid-19 Stay-At-Home Order In The Usa, Soo-Hoon Lee, Bernadette Cullen, Alidon Athey, Calliope Holingue, Michelle R. Kaufman, Paul Nestadt, Jack Samuels, Tracy Vannorsdall, Phillip Phan

Management Faculty Publications

Objectives This study explores the drug use behaviour in the US general population in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on the relationship between sociopsychological factors, mobility restrictions from March to June 2020 and mental health conditions.

Design A retrospective anonymous online survey representing a cross-section of the US population in 2020.

Setting A qualified panel of 500 000 Qualtrics participants stratified by gender, race, age and geographical region to represent the US population.

Participants 3340 participants voluntarily consented to respond.

Measures Outcome measure for illicit and non-medical use of prescription drugs based on the National …

Addressing Barriers To Racial Health Disparity Policy Change Advocacy: Exploring White Defensiveness Strategies, Mary Beth Deline, Mary Katreeb, Emily Mj Mason, Laura N. Richard, Ertemisa Godinez, Kajsa E. Darlymple

Faculty Publications - Communications

Efforts to effect racial health disparity (RHD) policy change are urgent, necessary, and subject to a key barrier: defensiveness among White privileged audiences. Within the literature to date, such defensiveness is under-investigated, and when examined, is typically conceived of as an individual cognitive outcome—a message effect—rather than a communication interaction. Yet policy change advocacy efforts, ranging from community organizing to change campaigns, necessitate communication interactions between advocates and privileged policy change audiences, such as neighborhood groups or policymakers themselves. This defensiveness conceptualization, focused on individual cognitions, therefore limits our understanding of interactive communication barriers in RHD policy advocacy processes. To …

11. Me-Search Research: The Use Of A Self-Study Methodological Approach To Teaching Documentation, Cynthia Korpan

Documenting Teaching Excellence

As teaching in higher education becomes increasingly complex (De Courcy, 2015), documenting one’s teaching practice requires instructors1 to take a more nuanced approach. The diversity associated with teaching today, impacted by COVID (Scholkmann et al., 2024), the various teaching modalities now available (McManus et al., 2024), and the introduction of artificial intelligence into academia (Li, 2025; Sok & Heng, 2024), has created a concoction of elements available to each instructor. This means that every instructor, bringing their own philosophical and ontological approach to teaching, has a myriad of decisions to make about how to best teach each course to students. …

Design And Implementation Of An Evidence-Based Pilot Program To Support New Graduate Nurses' Transition To Professional Practice: Application Of Soft Skills Education In An Associate Degree Program, Torri Crosby-Martin

All Capstone Projects

Problem Statement:
Post-pandemic nurse graduates experienced difficulty transition to professional practice due to limited focus on soft skills acquisition in pre-licensure nursing curricula.

Background:
Faculty characterized graduates as underprepared for professional practice, stating concerns affecting retention, patient outcomes, and work satisfaction.

Aim:
The quality improvement project goal was to address the transition to practice readiness by providing soft skills education to associate degree students.

Theoretical Framework:
This project applied Benner's Novice-to-Expert MOdel and Duchscher's Stages of Transition.

Methods:
Utilizing a mixed methods approach, March-April 2024, a sample size of 28 participants completed both pre- and post-Casey-Fink Readiness for Practice Surveys …

The Effect Of Inclusive Leadership By Pastoral Leaders On Catholic Parish Vitality, Matthew F. Manion

Dissertations

Catholic parish life in the United States has passed the point of decline where minor changes will enable it to grow again. Church leaders need a new missionary culture and outward-focused approaches to reach people today with the timeless truths of the faith. The old mindset of putting all the responsibility on the shoulders of the clergy to solve problems no longer works. Since heterogeneous groups make better decisions than homogeneous groups in complex, adaptive situations, this study explores the hypothesis that inclusive leadership by Catholic parish leaders leads to more innovation and better solutions to the challenges of church …

Association Between Lifetime Interpersonal Violence And Post– Covid-19 Condition Among Women In Kentucky, 2020-2022, Ayşe Güler, Heather M. Bush, Katie Schill, Nurlan Kussainov, Ann L. Coker

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic increased the risk of interpersonal violence. We investigated the association between lifetime interpersonal violence experience and risk of post–COVID-19 condition (the persistence of symptoms of COVID-19 and severity of health problems associated with COVID-19 that last a few weeks, months, or years) among women with lifetime interpersonal violence experience.   Methods: Women participants aged ≥18 years in Kentucky’s Wellness, Health & You—COVID-19 study completed online quantitative surveys about the impacts of the pandemic, developing COVID-19, and symptoms of post–COVID-19 condition. We conducted cross-sectional analyses estimating rate ratios of developing COVID-19 and symptoms of post–COVID-19 condition during the …

Assessing The Impact Of Medicaid Expansion On The Labor Market, Healthcare Access, And Health Outcomes During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kaavya Narayan

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the impact of Medicaid expansion status on labor market outcomes, healthcare access, and health outcomes during COVID-19. Using data from the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) model, I estimate the effects of Medicaid expansion on unemployment, financial barriers to care, obesity, and poor health before and after the pandemic. The analysis also accounts for state-level political and demographic characteristics, gender, marital status, and education level. My results show that non-expansion states, relative to expansion states of similar political and demographic breakdowns, are significantly more disadvantaged in terms of obesity, poor health, financial …

Cause Of Death? -- It's Probably Not What's Reported On The Death Certificate, Lauren R. Roth

Lewis & Clark Law Review

In the age of big data, this country has a data problem—inaccurate and incomplete information in death certificates. The problem has long been hidden by the numbers reported—as have the people whose deaths go uncounted, but the COVID-19 pandemic unveiled the scope of the issue. Since the beginning of the pandemic, “excess deaths” (i.e., any deaths above the number predicted by existing mortality models) have increased significantly. Most of these excess deaths are likely attributable to COVID-19 because the decedent was never tested for COVID-19 or it was one of multiple factors contributing to their death. Other deaths are uncounted …

A Comparison Of Involved And Uninvolved College Students' Stress And Coping During Covid-19, Abbie Alsene

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I compare the stress and coping of involved students and uninvolved students at liberal arts colleges during COVID-19. The study seeks to understand if there are differences between the two student populations. Three research questions guide the study. First, how has COVID-19 affected the stress levels of involved students compared to uninvolved students at liberal arts colleges? Second, how do involved students cope with their stress related to COVID-19 compared to uninvolved students at liberal arts colleges? And lastly, what is the relationship between how involved college students view COVID-19 and their levels of stress in comparison …

"The Perfect Storm": Weathering Black Racial Trauma Across The Lifespan And The Impact Of Covid-19, Taryne M. Mingo, Kiauhna Haynes

Adultspan Journal

Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States (DAEUS), who lived in the South prior to 1965 and experienced decades of legalized discrimination, were found to have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Arline Geronimus (1992) coined the term “weathering” to acknowledge the accumulation of racial trauma stored within the body over extended periods of time. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study, aligned by the tenets of Critical Race Theory, explores how continuous racial trauma impacted DAEUS citizens’ well-being and trust in the COVID-19 vaccine. Three Group Experiential Themes emerged during this study, all connected with the experiences …

Resilience And Its Effects On Psychological Well Being During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Taylor Reinsel

Honors Theses

Stressors and trauma in life are unavoidable. However, the way we respond and adapt to them can be within our control. This response differs from person to person, but there are factors that can influence the likelihood of an individual rebounding from a crisis, as well as factors that can put them at a higher risk of developing mental illness. One of the main factors that influences Psychological Well Being is the presence of Resilience.

The main goal of this study was to examine how factors of Resilience relate to Psychological Well Being and COVID-19 Well Being during the COVID-19 …

The Effect Of Alternative Work Regimes On Recruiter Productivity, Keith Sean Cogdell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation examines the impact of different work regimes, onsite, remote, and hybrid, on recruiter productivity within the staffing industry. As workforce models evolve, organizations encounter challenges in determining how these structural changes influence employee performance. Existing studies are often cross-sectional and rely heavily on self-reported data, limiting their capacity to capture long-term trends and contextual factors. To address this issue, the present research utilizes a longitudinal design with five years of recruiter-level performance data from a national staffing firm, which includes over 27,000 observations. Using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a framework, the study investigates how intrinsic motivation mediated by …

Predictors Of Mental Health Services Use In Integrated Primary Care During Covid-19, Joseph D. Harrison

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the predisposing, need, and enabling factors that predict mental health services use before and during COVID-19 in an integrated primary care network in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. This retrospective observational study examined a sample of primary care patients from January 2018 to February 2020 (i.e., pre-COVID-19) and March 2020 to December 2022 (i.e., peri- COVID-19) using electronic health record data. Mental health services use was defined as the number of appointments attended by patients. A hierarchical regression was conducted to identify predictors of mental health services use by sequentially adding sociodemographic predisposing …

Covid-19'S Impact On Grocery Expenditure Amid The Rise Of Social Media's Unattainable Wellness Culture Within Beverage Products, Ava Hinz

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper explores post-pandemic consumption through two different lens: economics and media studies. First, I will focus on COVID-19’s impact on the expenditure of grocery goods. Then I will explore how today’s wellness culture is made unattainable through social media by examining an organic grocery store and two beverage products. By examining these two areas of consumption, it provides critical information on an individual’s consumption during the unique shocks of the pandemic and the cultural context behind those actions.

Pandemics And Partisanship: The Impact Of Political Identity On Public Health Responses, Andy Tuholski

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This literature review examines the intersection of political partisanship and public health responses during pandemics, with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Historically, pandemics such as the Venetian plague (1575-1577) and the Great Plague of London (1665-1666) have elicited responses driven by socioeconomic and health factors. In contrast, the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. was distinctly shaped by pre-existing political affiliations, particularly between conservative and liberal factions. Applying Social Identity Theory (SIT), this review explores how group identity and partisanship influenced pandemic-related behaviors and attitudes. Empirical evidence indicates that Republican-leaning states experienced higher COVID-19 mortality rates, …

Exploring The Public Health Agency Of Canada’S And The Ontario Government’S Vaccine-Related Crisis Communication On X During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sheraza Burney, Lorie Donelle Phd, Rn, Fcan, Anita Kothari

Publications

Crisis communication strategies must be tailored to the unique nature of social media. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, public health agencies have widely used social media to address vaccine hesitancy and misinformation. This research utilized the social media pandemic communication model to describe the key themes disseminated through the Ontario government and the Public Health Agency of Canada’s vaccine-related crisis communication on X (formerly Twitter). Between 27 January 2020 and 6 April 2021, 1271 posts related to COVID-19 vaccination were collected from three official government X accounts——two from the province of Ontario and one from Canada. Posts were analyzed …

Patient-Clinician Discussions On Lung Cancer Screening In The United States Before And After 2021 Guidelines, Timothy J. Williamson Phd, Mph, Whitney M. Brymwitt Ma, Mckenzie T. Reese, Erin A. Hirsch, Lisa Carter-Bawa

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Background Screening for lung cancer via low-dose computed tomography of the chest can promote early detection and reduce mortality. However, since the United States Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) issued lung cancer screening guidelines in 2013, uptake has been low. The USPSTF revised the guidelines in 2021 to expand eligibility. Purpose To determine whether patient-clinician discussions about lung cancer screening differs from 2017 to 2022 following 2021 revisions to the guidelines for lung cancer screening. Methods Data were obtained from the Health Information National Trends Survey (2017, 2020, and 2022). Community-dwelling US adults (N = 2973) were in the eligible …

The Influence Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Student Engagement At A Historically Black University, John C. Travis

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined student engagement across three NSSE administrations at an HBCU—pre-COVID (2018), during COVID (2019), and post-COVID (2022). Engagement was analyzed across four themes: Academic Challenge, Learning with Peers, Experiences with Faculty, and Campus Environment. Results showed that Learning with Peers declined significantly over time, with the largest drop between 2018 and 2022, reflecting pandemic-related disruptions to peer interaction. No significant year effects emerged for the other themes. Two-way MANOVAs indicated that gender, first-generation status, and major did not significantly predict engagement, nor did they interact with year. In contrast, classification emerged as the most consistent predictor, with upper-division …