Digital Commons Network^™

Patterns Of Violence: Gendered Variations In Reported Abuse In Ex Parte Civil Protection Order Cases, Aimee Yearwood

Undergraduate Research Symposium

A comparative analysis was conducted to assess differences in the types of abuse reported by male and female petitioners in ex parte civil protection order cases. From a dataset of 487 CPO cases filed in 2022 in Minnesota, a sample of 200 cases was utilized, including 100 from male petitioners and 100 from female petitioners. Results indicate that female petitioners report higher levels of psychological/emotional and sexual abuse along with harassment than male petitioners. Also, female petitioners reported slightly higher levels of verbal abuse. There were few notable differences in the reporting of physical abuse, property damage, child abuse/neglect, and …

Gender Differences In The Association Between Marriage And Epigenetic Age, Theo O. Moran, Alina M. Kushner, Theodore F. Robles, Jennifer W. Robinette

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Introduction:

Being married is related to better health, but many studies reveal greater health benefits among men relative to women. Some research has indicated that married individuals exhibit decelerated epigenetic age relative to individuals who are not married, but questions remain regarding gender differences therein. The purpose was to investigate gender differences in associations of marital status to epigenetic age (ing) assessed on three clocks/algorithms (PhenoAge, GrimAge, and DunedinPACE).

Methods:

Data from 762 participants in the national Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS II; men N = 382, women N = 380) were used. Weighted linear regressions were conducted …

Cognitive-Affective And Somatic Depressive Symptom Domains Related To Psychological Mechanisms And Sociodemographic Factors, Danielle B. Hazeltine

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Major depressive disorder is prevalent, chronic, and heterogeneous, including cognitive- affective (e.g., maladaptive beliefs or thinking patterns and sad mood) and somatic (e.g., fatigue, appetite, or sleep changes) symptom domains. While depression domains have been long theorized, research examining psychological mechanisms underlying this distinction is limited. Preliminary research suggests cognitive-affective symptoms relate more strongly to cognitive mechanisms (cognitive bias, perseverative thought), somatic symptoms relate more strongly to behavioral mechanisms (behavioral inhibition/activation), and gender, race, and ethnicity moderate these relationships. This study examined whether cognitive-affective and somatic symptom domains differentially relate to cognitive and behavioral mechanisms, and whether these relationships are …

Level Of Discrimination Experienced By Gender In Athletic Trainers And Professional Athletic Training Students, Emily Ghaussy, Seungyeon Kim, Jennifer Xu, Emily Madrak

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Context: Although women make up the majority of the athletic training field, gender-based discrimination continues to exist in the profession. Previous research exists; however, more current research on gender discrimination in the workplace is limited. This cross-sectional study examined level of perceived gender-based discrimination experienced by credentialed women athletic trainers and athletic training students in comparison to men athletic trainers and athletic training students. Four hundred forty-six cisgender men and women athletic trainers and athletic training students participated in our study. The median age was 28 years among cisgender women and 35 years among cisgender men.

Methods: Participants completed a …

Caveats For The Forensic Use Of The Pcl-R With Antisocial And Psychopathic Women, Carl B. Gacono, Ted B. Cunliffe, Jason M. Smith, Enna E. Taylor

Archives of Assessment Psychology

Special considerations are necessary when assessing antisocial and psychopathic women.  Evident throughout the evaluation process (Cunliffe et al., 2016; Gacono, 2016; Gacono & Meloy, 1994; Gacono & Smith, 2021; Smith et al., 2014, 2021; Taylor, 2015), gender differences suggest the need for modified approaches, shape the transference/countertransference between examinee and examiner, and affect the administration, scoring, and interpretation of psychological tests. In this article we summarize Rorschach findings that support the underlying dynamics in antisocial and psychopathic women, discuss the unique aspects of evaluating the female psychopath, and present eight PCL-R items in need of modification for assessing women.

Gender And Task Alignment Influences The Credibility Of Feminine But Not Masculine Ai Conversational Assistants, Joana Videira, David Deandrea

Human-Machine Communication

The present study investigated how the perceived gender of AI conversational assistants and the tasks they perform combine to influence perceptions of AI competence, trustworthiness, and goodwill (i.e., credibility). Participants evaluated AI assistants that appeared female or male and varied in the task they performed (stereotypically feminine or masculine task). Findings did not support an overall preference for female AI assistants over male AI assistants. Rather, perceived AI gender interacted with gender stereotypes associated with the task performed to affect perceptions of AI credibility. Notably, AI perceived to be very feminine had the highest credibility when performing stereotypically feminine tasks …

Non-Violent Re-Articulation Of Masculinities: Art, Youths, And Peace Preservation In Post-Conflict Ambon Island, Wening Udasmoro, Leo Marai, Russell Soaba, Philip Aratiso, Jemmy Talakua

Kritika Kultura

Art as a mechanism for fostering peace in conflict resolution and peace maintenance can be found in different social experiences. The Ambon conflict that occurred in 1999 following the fall of Indonesia’s New Order government ended in 2002, but the potential for inter-religious and inter-ethnic conflicts is still a concern for many members of the Ambon community in Maluku Province. In an effort to maintain peace, various elements of the Ambon society continuously engage themselves in various activities to preserve peace. One consistent element in these peace preservation efforts is the youth of Ambon, who employ art as a means …

"In Any Other Circumstance I Am Not In Work Mode. I Am Clocked Out": Chappell Roan And The Objectified Persona, Aubry Louise

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

It is known that celebrities have influence on their audience’s attitudes and behaviors. Within the last few decades, multiple celebrities have created distinctions between their public/stage self and their private self, however, less is known about the ways that they differentiate between the two. This paper looks at celebrity public persona’s and how these persona’s influence their audience. I use Kayleigh Amstutz, otherwise known as Chappell Roan, as my case study. This thesis offers an analysis of how Amstutz talks about Kayleigh differently than Chappell within social media posts, interviews, and commentary from media outlets. I use the concepts of …

Technical And Vocational High School Training And Graduates' Socioeconomic Insertion In Burkina Faso, Jacqueline Nikièma

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is widely promoted as a pathway to improving employment opportunities, supporting economic growth, and facilitating successful labor market transition. However, empirical evidence on its effectiveness remains limited in Burkina Faso. This study examined the relationship between TVET high schools and graduates’ socioeconomic insertion, with particular emphasis on employment in occupations related to the field of study (horizontal match) and examined the relationship between gender and this employment outcome. The study used descriptive statistics to summarize the characteristics of the sample, and logistic regressions to analyze the relationship between TVET training and employment in …

Home As A Workplace: Gender, Labour, And Domesticity In Homestays In Kerala, India, P P Anjusha, Prachi Thakur, Toney K Thomas

Journal of International Women's Studies

Tourism homestays are increasingly presented as an opportunity for women’s empowerment and inclusion around the world. However, this study argues that the focus on homestays as entrepreneurial opportunities for women obscures the persistence of patriarchal structures that limit women’s agency when their labour is commercialised. Grounded in theories of “doing gender” (West & Zimmerman, 1987) supplemented by role theory and critical feminist perspectives, the study highlights how gender is enacted and reproduced daily in homestays. This research draws on qualitative interviews with women hosts in the state of Kerala, India to explore how the gendered division of labour operates within …

Making Meaning Of Gendered Experiences: A Mixed Methods Analysis Among U.S. College Students, Andrea Bancroft

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Gender inequities rooted in patriarchal norms shape the experiences of college-going emerging adults across many domains, often to the detriment of young women. In this study, we applied a mixed-methods approach to analyzing how college students interpret and make meaning from gendered experiences, and how the meaning making process relates to these emerging adults’ sense of university belonging. Participants provided written narratives of a gendered experience and completed a survey about university belonging. Through our qualitative analyses of the narrative responses, we identified four themes that represent cultural socialization messages that these participants engaged with in their narratives: bioessentialism, expectations …

Sitting Together: How Proximity Impacts The Classroom Success Of Undergraduate Women In Engineering, Cassandra M. Savukinas, Kayla D. Taylor, Ashley Lear

Feminist Pedagogy

Despite increased efforts, the engineering field remains predominantly male, particularly within higher education environments. Seating arrangements in the classroom for female undergraduate engineering students can greatly impact their comfort, participation, and academic performance in the classroom. In a 2025 study, it was found that male and female students have differing experiences related to comfort, participation, and academic performance when seated near other students of the same gender (Savukinas et al., 2025). Faculty can help students succeed by understanding how seating dynamics impact students’ experiences in the classroom. By allowing students to choose their own seating arrangements and creating interactions in …

Promises Fulfilled: 114-Year-Old Alelia Murphy’S Life Of Faith And Resilience, Jacqueline B. Koonce

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Alelia Murphy was the oldest living person in the United States, turning 114 in July 2019 until her death in November 2019. She and her family credit her longevity to her faith in God. This premise is explored through her words as she stated she had not seen everyone she needed to see and compared that statement to Simeon from the Bible who did not die until he saw the Messiah. Alelia Murphy also had not seen everything. She was seeing the relative success of her much admired, former President Barack Obama, and she had just met me, her great …

Exploring Gender Differences In Perceptions Of Ai's Impact On Social Media, Samkit Bothra

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly shaping social media through content personalization and moderation, raising questions about its influence on public opinion and trust in digital news. Gender plays a key role in shaping perceptions of AI’s impact, with men and women potentially viewing its applications differently. This study explored gender-based perspectives on AI’s role in social media, focusing on its effects on information credibility and privacy. Data from 155 participants, collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk, were analyzed using IBM’s SPSS. The first hypothesis proposed that women would be more skeptical than men about AI's use in news, citing greater concerns …

Tomboys In Dystopia: An Analysis Of Gendered Traits In Ya Dystopian Literature, Bethany H. Jenkins

English Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

This thesis explores the world of young adult dystopian literature. Katniss (Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games), Tris (Veronica Roth’s Divergent) and Tierney (Kim Liggett’s The Grace Year) are all tomboy protagonists living in a dystopian society. Apart from the expected challenges of living in a dystopia, being a tomboy means facing conflicts that are a result of their gender non-conformity. Drawing heavily from the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, each protagonist is analyzed within the context of their own story to identify feminine and masculine traits that they express. These traits’ impact on the events of the story is …

Intersectional Inequities In End-Of-Life Care Quality: The Roles Of Race, Ethnicity, And Gender, Jessica A. Yauk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Persistent gaps remain in end-of-life care quality (EOLCQ) in the United States. Structural factors within the health care system, as well as discriminatory practices, affect the quality of care received by at-risk populations. This dissertation uses a mixed-methods research design to examine perceived EOLCQ across racial/ethnic and gender groups. Study 1 and Study 2 were guided by the intersectionality and Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) frameworks, and examined ten EOLCQ outcomes: pain, dyspnea, sadness or anxiety, having personal care needs met, having decisions made about care without enough input from decedent or family, whether the proxy or family were kept …

Analysis Of Student’S Critical Thinking Skills In Science Learning : A Gender-Based Analysis, Evi Elisanti, Larassati Larassati

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

The lack of studies on the development of critical thinking skills based on students' gender and the limited thinking processes demonstrated by male and female students in science classes. The purpose of this study is to analyze students' critical thinking skills in science learning: a gender-based analysis. The research sample subjects were 4th grade 107 class V students in one of the public elementary schools in the city of Surakarta. This type of research used descriptive statistics and inferential statistics to analyze the data. The novelty of this study broadens the perspective that gender differences are not a matter of …

Forced Dependency: The Subjugation Of Women Through Medicine In Ancient Greece And Rome, Evelyn J. Polovich

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

In the ancient Mediterranean men were in charge of every facet of life, including women’s medicine. They forced women out of the oversight of gynecology and reformed it into a method of control that they could assert in order to force women into a position of submission. This paper aims to bring the ways in which ancient medicine was influenced by cultural ideas and worked to subjugate women and allow men to gain further control over their autonomy. This research was inspired by the works of ancient physicians like Hippocrates, Soranus, and Galen, as well as contemporary sources that critique …

Default Bodies: Challenging Gendered Norms In Fighting Games Through Participatory Design, Shalom Taiwo, Laura Pruszko

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The over-sexualisation of female characters in video games peaked in the 1990s and 2000s and fighting games have been slow to move away from it. Their reliance on visual exaggeration to convey identity and fighting style makes this harder to change. With 48% of players today being women, this raises questions about how these portrayals persist. This paper examines how participatory approaches can be used to explore how women players respond to these designs through a survey, a within-subject evaluation task, and a co-design workshop. Participants recognised exaggeration as part of the genre’s identity but criticised its association with sexualisation. …

Expanding Transmobilities: Understanding Genderdiverse And Transgender Travel Behavior Through An Art-Informed Methodology, Nicholas Michael Puczkowskyj

Dissertations and Theses

Transgender and genderdiverse people face discrimination and harassment in public when making trips in Portland, OR. People who identify as genderdiverse or transgender create unique travel behavior due to the influence of their internalized and expressed gender identity and through interactions in public. This dissertation examines how gender identity influences the travel behavior of genderdiverse and transgender people and how these experiences influence their subjective wellbeing when making trips in Portland, Oregon. Traditional one-on-one interviews were conducted in conjunction with allowing the interviewees to produce art as a non-verbal form of expression and communication of their experiences making trips in …

The Intersection Of Gender And Ecohorror In Poe’S Short Fiction, Ellie Dana

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

This article argues that Poe uses female characters to express ecohorrific anxieties and imagine posthumanist ways of being. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," Poe associates Madeline with nature's terrors by describing Madeline's disease as distinctly physical and coordinating her exit from her tomb with a raging storm. In "Berenice," Poe uses the violations of the titular character's body to enter into conversations about the rapid extraction of natural resources and the possibility of sentience beyond material existence. An ecohorrific reading of Poe’s texts reveals how Poe dismisses women as merely corporeal beings; however, ecohorror also reveals how …

Is It Still Gendered? Political Discourse Among Adolescent Legislators, Kevin G. Lorentz Ii, Stephanie Zarb, Connor J.S. Sutton, Mary Herring

Journal of Political Science Studies

More women are serving in American legislatures than ever before. However, research demonstrates that even when included, women’s formal political participation in legislatures often is undergirded by gender norms and forestalled by considerable institutional barriers, especially partisanship. Given the challenges of traditional gender norms and increasing numbers of women legislators over the past twenty years, our study examines whether political discourse remains gendered in a formal environment. Using a mock legislature of adolescents, we find that women still face substantial barriers that result in their taking fewer speaking turns than their male counterparts, although when women do participate, they act …

The Effects Of War Exposure On Psychological Well-Being And Social Preferences, Jacinta B. Duncan

Master's Theses

Using original survey and experimental data collected in Ukraine in 2023 and 2024, this paper estimates the causal impact of exposure to war-related violence on psychological outcomes, social preferences, and cognitive functioning. I combine a disaggregated war experience index with two incentivized economic experiments - a modified Dictator Game and an Emotional Stroop Test - and exploit randomized variation in task order as a priming treatment to establish causal identification. I find that war exposure has clear and consistently negative effects on psychological well-being, with direct personal experience producing the largest reduction in DASS well-being (β=−0.338 SD, p < 0.01), and that these effects are broadly distributed across demographic groups - though women report disproportionately higher psychological distress even at low levels of exposure. Social support emerges as the most effective buffer against war-related psychological harm, nearly eliminating the well-being gap between high- and low-exposure individuals, while economic hardship compounds distress and drives passive coping responses. In contrast, war exposure has limited and context-specific effects on social preferences: property loss and direct exposure increase prosocial behavior, but only when sharing is costless, consistent with solidarity norms operating within binding resource constraints. Cognitive task performance is largely unaffected by war exposure or emotional priming, with education emerging as the dominant predictor of Stroop performance across all specifications. Taken together, these findings support targeted, gender-sensitive mental health interventions and community-based support programs as high-leverage instruments for mitigating the long-term human costs of conflict.

A Pot Of Gold At The End Of The Assembly Line: Jewelry, Facture, And Alienation, Jonathon A. Zalakos

Masters Theses

A Pot of Gold at the End of the Assembly Line integrates icons of mass-manufacturing with signifiers of joyful work, stimulating a dialogue between industrial and craft labour. Visible traces of the making process left on these works conjure a spectral ‘maker’, implied by the fingerprints, toolmarks, assembly, and conspicuous decision making of an ‘other’. As we relate to these signifiers as opportunities for our own bodily action, this spectre speaks in our own voice. Possessed by this ghost, viewers are vicariously thrust into an imaginary context and made sensitive to the nature of this work — whether it validates …

The Current Status Of Utah Women & Girls: A Research Synopsis: 2026, Susan R. Madsen, Corinne Clarkson

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

In 2025, U.S. News and World Report rated each state using 71 metrics across eight categories. Utah was rated the #1 “Best State Overall” for the third year in a row, ranking first in fiscal responsibility and third in both the economy and infrastructure categories and fourth in education.¹ Utah was also ranked number one for “Economic Outlook” by Rich States, Poor States in 2025, a forward-looking forecast that is based on 15 state policy variables.² WalletHub ranked Utah as the second “Most Charitable State” and the number one state for volunteering and service.³ In addition, ConsumerAffairs …

A Quantitative Study Examining The Impact Of Gender On Covenantal Empowerment And Mental Health Quality Of Life Among 911 Dispatchers, Michael Ryan Udriét

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative correlational study examined factors affecting the mental health quality of life (MHQoL) of 911 dispatchers in Greater Richmond, Virginia. Dispatchers frequently experience psychological strain due to exposure to traumatic calls, demanding workloads, and inconsistent organizational support. Leadership is a crucial factor in shaping well-being, yet the influence of covenantal empowerment (CE)—a model emphasizing mutual support, shared accountability, and relational trust—on dispatcher mental health remains underexplored. This study examined the relationship between CE and MHQoL, explored gender as a moderator, and considered additional demographic and work-related factors including age, years of experience, work shift, length of shift, marital status, …

Girls On Screens And Boys In The Streets: Afrobeats Dance, Gender, And Waithood In Lagos, Nigeria, Gali Kinkulkin, Moshe Morad, Lynn Schler

Journal of International Women's Studies

The global success of the musical genre of Afrobeats has generated substantial scholarly interest in the experiences of singers and musicians within the industry. Scholars of this genre have examined an array of topics, including cultural identity, gender disparities, socioeconomic impact, and the global music industry. However, few studies focus on the experiences of Afro dancers despite the critical role of dance in the genre’s international popularity; those that do centralise dance concentrate primarily on how women dancers navigate an industry that both empowers and objectifies women. This study departs from these earlier studies by examining the lived experiences of …

From Anxiety To Resilience: A Case Study Of Female-Identifying Middle School Students At A Math Summer Camp, Elizabeth Teixeira

Educational Studies Dissertations

Mathematics anxiety, defined as a fear that hampers engagement in mathematical tasks (Richardson & Suinn, 1972), affects nearly 50% of students (Johnston-Wilder et al., 2014) and has a disproportionate impact on female students (Devine et al., 2018; Stoet et al., 2016). Math anxiety is often treated in the research literature as a relatively stable trait. This perspective may not fully capture how anxiety manifests in specific moments of mathematical engagement or account for the role of environmental conditions that can both precipitate and mitigate anxious responses. In response to these gaps, this study investigates how mathematics anxiety manifests in …

From Your Pov: Using Narrative-Focused Methodology To Study Psychological Correlates Of Sexual Health Behaviors, Zoë E. Sweaney, Stephanie Afful

The Confluence

How far would you go (or not go) to protect yourself from risky sexual behaviors? Additionally, what influence does our gender identity and socialization have on these decisions? In the current series of studies, a story-driven safe-sex behavioral assessment was developed and administered to participants to assess the relationships amongst psychological indices, personal values, and sexual health. This research confirms the validity of an instrument that queries sensitive data while controlling for social desirability concerns. The applications of this research are especially pertinent to improving upon interpersonal communication, sexual health education, and women’s sexual health advocacy.

"The One Neglect": Lysol Feminine Hygiene Products And The Gendered Body, Katherine Blandford

Madison Historical Review

This paper investigates the gendered history of cleanliness and advertising through Lysol feminine hygiene advertisements in the United States from 1936-1950. Lysol, the disinfectant, was once sold as a feminine hygiene douche up until the 1960s. Lysol douches were promoted to women, specifically married women, through advertisements that focused on portraying the female body as dirty and unclean. Moreover, the advertisements promoted the idea that women who did not use Lysol to douche were solely responsible for any marital problem that arose, like cheating or divorce. These Lysol advertisements showcase a dark history of the pervasive nature of sexist rhetoric …