Digital Commons Network^™

Core Values In Higher Education: Students, Faculty, Staff, And Administrator Alignment At A Midwestern Research University, Rodney Deshan Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

A growing body of research exists on core values. However, limited scholarly research exists on core values in higher education institutions that operate in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments. And yet, society entrusts higher education with our nation’s most important resource—our future leaders. University adopted core values serve as guideposts for institution stakeholders. Core values are important for an organization’s identity by providing concise and powerful guidelines for collective stakeholder action. Core values provide a true north values vector, especially when ambiguity and uncertainty exist. This, in turn, helps increase judgement and decision-making skills that are clearly aligned …

Educator Perceptions On Equity And Inclusion In The Classroom, Brittany N. Melfi

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study is to identify solutions that can improve equity and inclusion measures in the educational classroom settings for all school community members. This qualitative research explores educators’ perceptions of solutions and barriers to improving equity and inclusion in education. Currently, there is limited research from this stakeholder perspective. This bottom-up research approach aims to determine the needs of those stakeholders in the immediate environment and what supports they feel are necessary to make immediate and lasting change. The qualitative research study took place in a small Pennsylvania school with an enrollment of 387 students and …

Self-Regulation And Goal Orientation In Physician Assistant And Medical Students, Jay Ryan Metzger

Theses and Dissertations

Self-regulation and goal orientation both play a crucial role in how medical providers learn and master the knowledge and skills that they will use throughout their careers. It is crucial that practicing physician assistants (PAs) and physicians know how to self-regulate their thoughts and actions and when to use resources such as research and peer advice (Ericsson, 2015). This research investigated self-regulation and goal orientation in the clinical training of PA and medical students, examined differences between PA and medical students, and provided insight into how goal orientation and self-regulation play a role in the education of these professionals. It …

Building A Better Teacher Evaluation System, Amanda Melsby

Theses and Dissertations

The teacher evaluation process has been an area of study for decades because of its complexity. Going back to one-room schoolhouses, teaching has always been an isolated profession—usually a room, a teacher, and students. Other colleagues or administrators are not participants in the classroom most of the time, which creates difficulties for effectively evaluating a teacher and providing feedback that will help a teacher grow and develop.This study explored the teacher evaluation process, how it can be more effective to teachers in building their capacity and improving their practice at the secondary level, and how the evaluation process can be …

Intergenerational Continuity Of Sexual Violence Victimization: A Socio-Ecological Examination Of Risk, Angela Hunter Minnich

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined intergenerational continuity of sexual violence victimization across the lifespan within mother-daughter dyads. Because increased risk for sexual violence in daughters is not the fault of the mother, this study examined risk factors across socio-ecological levels (i.e., individual, familial, and community risk factors) and the interplay across risk levels. Undergraduate and community dwelling mother-daughter dyads (N=202) completed self-report measures of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA), adolescent/adult sexual violence victimization (ASV), demographics, psychopathology, parenting, abuse and abuser characteristics, intimate partner violence (IPV), rape culture, and sexual education characteristics. Multiple mediation, moderation, and DYADIC analyses were implemented to test study …

The Impact Of Training Disruption On Commercial Certificate Attainment In Collegiate Aviation Programs, Jonathan Pearson

Theses and Dissertations

The aviation industry is currently recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and is forecast to continue to grow after returning to pre-pandemic levels of activity. As a result of retirements and growth, airlines are experiencing a large demand for qualified pilots. Collegiate aviation programs serve as a major source of training and recruitment, but it is unknown to what degree students in these programs were affected by the cessation of flight training during the pandemic. This study examined the impact of different variables, including training disruption, on commercial pilot certificate attainment and flight training hours in collegiate aviation flight training programs. …

Via-Is-M And Latinx Cultural Strengths: A Study Validation & Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Caroline Perez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study, and its focus on Latinx adults is two-fold: to validate the VIA-IS-M in a US-Latinx sample, and to explore whether Latinx cultural values of personalismo, familismo, and religiosity converge conceptually with the virtues within the VIA-IS-M. The proposed survey uses positive psychology as the theoretical basis (Parks & Biswas-Diener, 2013). A pull within the positive psychological research is addressed, specifically the merits of cultural transcendence or cultural integration (Jeglic, Miranda, & Polanco-Roman, 2016). For many years now, a flagship survey tool by Peterson and Seligman (2004) called the Values-in-Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) has been …

Assessing Neuropsychological Changes Post Covid-19 Infection Using The Global Neuropsychological Assessment, Jeremy M. Raines

Theses and Dissertations

COVID-19 is characterized by a respiratory syndrome with severity ranging from mild upper respiratory tract illness to severe interstitial pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Although physical symptoms are most common in those infected with COVID-19, patients may present with several neuropsychiatric sequelae caused by direct central nervous system infection, neuroinflammation, and/or prolonged hypoxia encephalitis. Though extent literature on COVID-19 related cognitive decline is still in its infancy, it has been suggested neurological impairment is most common in those with severe symptom presentation, requiring hospitalization and among those who have experienced hypoxic events. In the current study, sixty-two healthy controls …

Cognitive Decay And Memory Recall During Long Duration Spaceflight, Terry E. Rector

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to advance the efficacy of Long-Duration Space Flight (LDSF) pre-flight and in-flight training programs, acknowledging existing knowledge gaps in NASA's methodologies. The research's objective is to optimize the cognitive workload of LDSF crew members, enhance their neurocognitive functionality, and provide more meaningful work experiences, particularly for Mars missions.The study addresses identified shortcomings in current training and learning strategies and simulation-based training systems, focusing on areas requiring quantitative measures for astronaut proficiency and training effectiveness assessment. The project centers on understanding cognitive decay and memory loss under LDSF-related stressors, seeking to establish when such cognitive decline exceeds acceptable …

Factors That Influence Decision-Making In Insanity Cases, Destinye Runions

Theses and Dissertations

The insanity defense has been one of the most hotly debated issues in criminal law for centuries. Jurors are generally hostile to the insanity defense and people with psychological disorders and often fail to find defendants insane even when an insanity verdict is warranted. The current study attempted to determine why jurors are hostile to the insanity defense and people with psychological disorders. Participants read one of two case vignettes depicting a defendant suffering from paranoid schizophrenia who committed murder. The vignettes differed in how sympathetic the defendant is in the vignettes, and how dangerous the defendant is to society. …

Parental Involvement For Spanish-Speaking English Learners: Teachers’ Perspectives, Olawumi Oluranti Salako

Theses and Dissertations

The benefit of parental involvement (PI) cannot be underestimated, most specifically, the PI that operates on mutual trust and respect, and balancing of power between homes and schools. It is particularly beneficial to students who are learning English as a second language because their parents can partner with educators to close the achievement gap. However, literature has revealed that most schools have operated using the unidirectional approach in which parents and family members are being alienated from their children’s education due to several factors like an imbalance of power between home and school (Cooper, 2009; Ishimaru et al., 2016). Hence, …

Application Of Artificial Intelligence And Multi-Omics To Understand The Effect Of Heavy Metals Exposure On Human Health, Sonalika Singhal

Theses and Dissertations

IARC classified arsenic (iAs) as “carcinogenic to humans”, but despite the health consequences, there is no molecular signature available yet to predict when exposure may lead to the disease development. In this study, a three-step analysis was employed: (1) the gene expression profiles obtained from diverse arsenic-exposed populations were utilized to identify differentially expressed genes associated with arsenic exposure in human subjects, (2) the gene expression profiles induced by arsenic exposure in different myeloma cancer cell lines were used to define common genes and pathways altered by arsenic exposure,(3) the genetic profiles of human bladder cancer studies were used to …

Hmong Parent Engagement: The Need To Provide Basic Needs Services In Hmong Charter Schools To Increase Parent Engagement, Kevin Xiong

Theses and Dissertations

The Hmong diaspora and settlement in the United States have a direct impact on how Hmong parents engage in their children’s academic journey. With the viewpoint of traditional Westernized parent engagement, Hmong parents may be perceived as engaging too little. However, in order for Hmong parents to be involved in their children’s educational journey as part of this Westernized concept, it is imperative that the families’ basic needs are met. Otherwise, they will primarily focus on meeting their fundamental basic needs rather than being engaged in their children’s academic progress. This research explored two Hmong charter schools in the Twin …

Beyond Local Food Consumption: The Impact Of Local Food Consumption Experience On Cultural Competence, Eudaimonia And Behavioral Intention, Bingna Lin, Saerom Wang, Xiaoxiao Fu, Xiaoli Yi

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the relationships among local food consumption experience, cultural competence, eudaimonia, and behavioral intention. Building upon acculturation theory, need hierarchy theory and self-determination theory, the current study develops a conceptual model of local food consumption as international tourists' acculturation process.

Design/methodology/approach: This study collects data from 305 Chinese outbound tourists and uses partial least squares-structural equation modeling to examine the developed model.

Findings: The findings reveal a significant effect of the local food consumption experience, consisting of novel, authentic, sensory and social dimensions, on cultural competence, which subsequently evokes eudaimonia and behavioral response toward local …

Impacts Of Eating Disorder Recovery On Communication Of Identity Through Food, Rosemary Willett Jeter

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Using the Communication Theory of Identity as a framework, the purpose of this thesis was to investigate how the experience of eating disorder recovery (EDR) impacts one’s communication of identity through and about food, and perceptions of others’ communication about and through food. Purposive sampling yielded 20 adult participants who self-identified as having been in EDR for at least one year. Results from a phronetic iterative data analysis of semi-structured interviews yielded several themes. When considering how EDR influences personal communication through food, main themes include: (a) the inability to share meals creates a gap between the enacted and relational …

The Effect Of Place Attachment And Leisure Identity On Stewardship Participation In The Rattlesnake National Recreation Area And Wilderness, Elena Rene Thomas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As outdoor recreation participation increases in the U.S., and many communities in the American West are experiencing rising amenity migration, park and protected area managers face significant challenges to balance both providing for visitors’ desired experiences and protecting the natural resources on which these experiences depend. Confronted with declining management capacity, agencies are increasingly looking to engage both newer and established recreationists in stewardship behaviors to help maintain these areas and improve human-environment relationships. One barrier to community involvement in stewardship efforts is the need to better understand the connection between recreationists’ antecedent conditions and their motivations to steward. Past …

Understanding Trauma Awareness And Communication Competency In Athletic Training: A Mixed Methods Inquiry, Adrienne Anne Tauses

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

There has long been a link between stress and injury in athletes. Even so, athletic injuries are often viewed as primarily performance issues which ignores potential underlying psychological contributors to the injury. Research has shown that while athletic trainers have some training in psychological competencies, they lack awareness of trauma and self-efficacy in engaging in difficult conversations with athletes. Review of the literature will address the gaps in athletic training, and the potential of athletic trainers in supporting physical and mental health outcomes in athletes (Cormier & Zizzi, 2015; Cutler & Dwyer, 2020). Addressing the whole person within a sample …

Promoting Well-Being In Schools: The Effects Of A Happiness Workshop On Educators And Other School Personnel, Robert J. Ryan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Educators throughout the United States report high levels of mental distress, anxiety, depression, and stress and difficulties with physical health. Educational systems have limited ability to address the well-being of faculty and staff in primary and secondary schools. Existing interventions are not always adequate and often do not reach the majority of educators who are facing challenges in the aforementioned areas of wellness. Positive psychology interventions and workshops have demonstrated their efficacy in promoting well-being with different populations. In this quantitative, quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest study, I studied the effects of a brief happiness for educators workshop on participants’ well-being. The happiness …

Facing The Climate Crisis: The Plaintiffs Of Held V. Montana Find Agency And Voice, Richard H. Forbes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

16 young people, in a lawsuit titled Held v. Montana, are suing the state of Montana on the grounds that its state energy policy contributes to climate change, harming them physically and psychologically and violating their constitutional rights to a clean and healthful environment. This project explores the plaintiffs’ perspectives on the lawsuit, describes how their involvement is changing their relationships to their own climate-related mental health and explains how their psychological concerns reflect larger societal issues related to climate change.

The Ally Librarian, Marissa Mcclintock

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

To The Land Of Opportunity: Leadership Journeys Of Persian Immigrant Women In The United States, Shaima Khinjani

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

How have barriers shaped the experience of Persian women holding leadership positions in the United States? Using a qualitative approach, this research studied the lived experience of immigrant women from Persian-speaking countries and the challenges of their leadership journey in the United States. The data from the lived experiences of twelve women in leadership positions with one-to-one Zoom meetings were collected using interactive interviews. Raw transcriptions of their experiences were analyzed using the descriptive phenomenological approach outlined by Giorgi (2009). This approach allowed for the data to be reduced into a single narrative description shared by all participants indicating the …

An Examination Of The Food System, Foodscape, Dietary Patterns, And Accolated Health Outcomes Of Salish People Within The Confederated Salish And Kootenai Nation, Joshua William Brown

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Often an individualistic, consumerist strategy is promoted as the solution to decrease the growing prevalence of diet-related diseases. Unfortunately, this logic is ahistorical and apolitical while privileging pathological individualism, capitalistic consumerism, and prevalent diets within the United States. This reasoning fails to recognize diet construction across time by ideologies, policies, and practices. Such an outlook misses the reality that many people cannot escape the grip of the modern, pervasive, ultra-processed food system.

Several Native American populations find themselves plagued with high rates of diet-related diseases. Standard mantra shoulders these communities with their plight, often framing the discourse as personal responsibility …

The Lonely Battle: Women’S Journey Through The Nicu, Molly Kay Murphy

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

One in ten pregnancies end with placement of an infant into the NICU (NCHS, 2021). NICU mothers experience increased rates of PTSD, anxiety, and depression, (Lefkowitz et al., 2010; Lotterman et al., 2019) and little is known about their lived experiences in the NICU. To gain a better understanding of the stressor’s women face, this research asked: How do women with infants in NICU care make meaning of their NICU experience? Using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (Smith et al., 2009), two rounds of semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants. The results revealed women’s emotional experiences while having an infant in …

Evaluating Nurse Engagement With And Opportunities For Human Papillomavirus (Hpv) Vaccine Promotion In Montana, Juthika Jayendra Thaker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Purpose: Parental vaccine hesitancy is a known driver of sub-optimal vaccine uptake in the United States.1 Even though a study analyzing parental responses in National Immunization Survey-Teen found that HPV vaccine hesitancy has slightly declined (69% in 2010 v/s 63% in 2019) over the years, only about 52.6% of adolescents in Montana had received all the required doses of the HPV vaccine series in 2021.2,3 Nurses are at the forefront of healthcare provision and possess a unique ability to influence parental vaccine decisions.5 By listening to and addressing parents' concerns about immunizations, nurses can dispel misinformation and help change parents' …

Perspectives Of Foster Parents And Former Foster Children Surrounding Emancipation And College Supports And Barriers, Ashlyn Maize Kincaid

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The current study had two aims. The first aim was to explore and compare the perspectives of former foster youth and foster parents surrounding the emancipation process. The current study aimed to uncover what information is being shared with foster children when approaching the age of emancipation about life choices such as college, careers, housing, finances, and social support, as well as who is sharing this information and how accurate and helpful it is for the foster youth. Foster parents were asked questions pertaining to their level of training, knowledge of available resources, and experiences with transitioning foster children out …

Overgeneral Memory: An Investigation Of The Defensive Exclusion And Functional Avoidance Hypotheses, Mark David Primosch

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

and PTSD generate overgeneral autobiographical memories. It has been proposed that this phenomenon is the result of functional avoidance—actively avoiding thoughts that would elicit unwanted negative affect. Curiously, the functional avoidance hypothesis of overgeneral memory (OGM) overlaps conceptually with attachment theory’s concept of defensive exclusion. The current study tests whether a model of defensive exclusion predicts the presence of OGM and whether variables underlying the functional avoidance hypothesis (i.e., trauma exposure, PTSD, and depression) account for a significant amount of variance in OGM above and beyond the defensive exclusion model. Threehundred and thirty adults completed an untimed version of the …

“Frozen”: Tonic Immobility And Posttraumatic Outcomes Among Survivors Of Sexual Assault, Nora Grace Halverson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tonic immobility (TI), a temporary, involuntary state of paralysis marked by motor inhibition and vocal suppression, has been a well-documented occurrence among animals. Humans also experience TI, which has previously been referred to as trauma- or rape-induced paralysis and freezing. TI among survivors of sexual assault has been associated with greater PTSD and increased risk of depression. Existing studies have not adequately explored additional posttraumatic outcomes of TI beyond PTSD diagnostic criteria, nor has prior research sufficiently tested the mechanistic relationship between TI and PTSD. The objective of the current study was to integrate and expand upon prior research regarding …

Suppress Not: Examining The Relationship Between Prospection And Emotional Suppression In A Depressed Population, Chelsey M. Maxson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The aim of the present study was to elucidate the relationship between two transdiagnostic mechanisms of psychopathology: prospection (i.e., one’s ability to imagine the future), and emotional suppression, a maladaptive emotion regulation (ER) strategy. Specifically, we proposed that when individuals engage in emotional suppression, it interferes with prospection, which might then contribute to the development of depressive symptoms.

To assess the relationship between emotional suppression and prospection in individuals with depression we used an online experimental paradigm with an MTurk sample of 128 participants (64 depressed; 64 non-depressed) randomly assigned to one of two conditions: the depressed suppression induction condition …

#Therapy: Social Media Video Interventions And Help Seeking Intentions Among College Students, Jennifer Leigh Lippold

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite evidence of rising mental health concerns among college students, treatment utilization among this population remains low (ACHA, 2020). While there are many barriers that impact help seeking among students, some of the most commonly cited include stigma, treatment fearfulness, and low mental health literacy (e.g., Czyz et al., 2013; Ebert et al., 2019b; Eisenberg et al., 2007, Vogel et al., 2013). In order to promote help seeking among students, many colleges have made efforts to address these barriers through outreach interventions, such as educational presentations, on-campus advertisements, and campus fairs (Betton et al., 2015; Gruttadaro, & Crudo, 2012; Pescosolido …

Queering Adolescent Ecology: A Minority Stress-Informed Exploration Of Risk And Protective Factors Related To Anxiety Symptoms In Gender And Sexual Minority Adolescents, Kinsie Jean Dunham

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Substantial epidemiological research (Talley et al., 2016; Burton et al., 2013; Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2011) indicates that gender and sexual minorities (GSM; non-cisgender and non-heterosexual, respectively) disproportionately experience health disparities, including anxiety disorders (e.g., panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder; Cochran et al., 2003; Gillman et al., 2001). Disparities in anxiety symptoms and disorders for GSM adults may begin to emerge in adolescence (Fish & Pasley, 2015; Needham, 2012; Ueno, 2010). In particular, GSM adolescents report higher rates of anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders (Kosciw et al., 2014; Mutanski & Liu, 2013) than heterosexual, cisgender adolescents. Minority …