Digital Commons Network^™

Supporting First-Generation College Student Success Through Increased Participation In High-Impact Academic Practices, Michael Daly

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

First-generation college students, those with neither parent having earned a bachelor’s degree, represent approximately one-third of all students attending college in the United States. Many enter college not fully prepared for success and, despite decades of research and the development of a variety of student support interventions, substantial and lasting improvements in their institutional retention and graduation rates on a national level have been elusive. This persistent issue creates a variety of negative consequences for the students, the institutions they attend, and society. The purpose of this action research study was to develop recommendations for improving the practice of supporting …

A Qualitative Case Study Exploring The Processes And Criteria For Presidential Leadership Selection In Three United States Higher Institutions Of Learning, Gabriel Kofi Boahen Nsiah

Dissertations

Background of the Problem

Today, research on U.S. higher education presidential search processes is limited, and existing literature characterizes these searches as reactive postures that are secretive, closed-door practices that have not adapted to the early signals of external seismic change. According to Quincy Martin (2021), “the world has evolved (p. 99).” Therein lies the problem. Quincy Martin insists, “Higher education has entered a period of upheaval, aided by new technologies, but hampered by political and cultural shifts. These are only amplified by modern, warp-speed information-sharing practices. All of this has exacerbated the consequences of scandals that threaten the stability …

Examining Preoperative Health And Lifestyle Risk Factors In Patients Awaiting Surgery During Covid-19 In Western Australia, Nadine Radin

Theses

This study investigated the prevalence of modifiable preoperative lifestyle risk factors among patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal and colorectal surgery at a metropolitan hospital in Perth, Western Australia (WA). It aimed to characterise behaviours such as smoking, alcohol and drug use, nutritional risk, physical fitness, frailty, and body mass index (BMI), and to examine whether these changed during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 compared to 2019.

A retrospective audit of 2,340 patient medical records was conducted, with data extracted from routinely collected preadmission documentation. Regression models compared the prevalence of risk factors across matched calendar periods, adjusting …

Thistlebloom Moondog, Gary W. Jensen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

An aging grieving artist decides to write a memoir as part of a self-healing process, using samples of song lyrics from his extensive collection of original Americana songs as narrative prompts.  Steeped in wanderlust, aspiration, paradox and dysfunction, his is a tale of vexing sub-clinical troubles rooted in the mire of developmental and religious trauma.

Title: The Impact Of Intergenerational Program Participation On First-Year Physical Therapy Students’ Beliefs, Attitudes, And Anxiety About Aging And Older Adults: A Mixed Methods Study, Catherine Staloch

Dissertations and Theses

As the aging adult population continues to grow, the utilization and need for medical services for this population are increasing. These trends have raised concerns about the impact of ageist beliefs among health care providers on the health and well-being of older adults. Physical therapists are health care providers who care for aging adults across health care settings. Given the large percentage of physical therapists who care for older adults and the known negative health implications of ageist beliefs among providers, it is imperative that educators in physical therapy programs use learning activities that positively influence students’ beliefs, attitudes, and …

3 Years Of School In 30 Hours, Nicholas Thanh Morrow Nguyen

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The academic, professional, and personal development throughout the Master of Social Work program within the University of Montana demonstrates natural progression when getting a masters degree early in the years of professional development. The portfolio examines how coursework, field practicums, supervision, and critical self-reflection contributes to individual development as a social worker professional. Through these experiences, the portfolio demonstrates the development of knowledge and skills related to ethical practice, advocacy, assessment, intervention, evaluation, research, policy, and leadership. The different practicum experiences provided opportunities to apply concepts learned within the classroom to real-world situations while working with individuals with different needs …

Msw Portfolio, Marcus Chiaretto

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

The Golden Rule: An Msw Portfolio Narrative, Russell Jared Jacobs

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The experiences and research behind Russell "Jared" Jacobs' MSW journey that showcases his abilities in the field of social work.

“It Brought A Lot Of Underlying Insecurity To The Foreground”: An Exploratory Investigation Into The Challenges Of Polyamory, Alexander K. Tatum, Sharon M. Flicker, Jessi Schroeder

Faculty Publications – Psychology

Previous research has demonstrated that people in polyamorous relationships report equivalent or better relationship quality compared to people in monogamous relationships. Yet, like any relationship, polyamorous relationships are accompanied by challenges, which may be compounded by the challenges associated with being a member of a stigmatized minority group. The purpose of the present study was to better understand challenges commonly experienced by a community sample of people engaged in polyamorous relationships. Sixty-three participants residing in the U.S. (M_age = 34.7 years; 82.5% White, 49.2% women, and 46% bisexual) completed an anonymous, open-ended survey. Six themes were identified through a …

Comorbidity Between Ptsd And Eds: Occurrence, Mutual Facilitation, And Integrated Treatment, Ava Avolio

Modern Psychological Studies

This article reviews literature related to comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and eating disorders (ED). Meta-analysis estimates that about one in five people who present with PTSD are also diagnosed with a comorbid eating disorder and about one in four people who present with an eating disorder are diagnosed with comorbid PTSD. However, despite the widespread occurrence, an integrated evidence-based treatment has yet to be established. Preliminary research proposes multiple theories for comorbidity rates. Some propose stress-induced glutamatergic dysfunction may facilitate both disorders, while others contend disordered eating behaviors are maladaptive coping mechanisms for negative affect. Regardless of the underlying …

Parenting For Autonomy: New Insights Into Warmth, Leniency, And Emotion Regulation, Elizabeth O. Arroyo, Ana Paula M. Constantino, Dolly P. Rojo

Modern Psychological Studies

Past parenting research has focused on Maccoby and Martin's (1983) two parenting qualities, Warmth and Demandingness. We know that these can affect several children's outcomes, including academic achievements (e.g., Pinquart, 2016) and self-esteem (Pinquart & Gerke, 2019). Still, we know less about the impacts of parental qualities on children’s autonomy, and even less about the impact that qualities of more modern parenting styles (e.g., emphasis on promotion of emotional regulation skills) might have on children’s outcomes. Our study explores the associations of parent’s Warmth, Demandingness, leniency, and promotion of emotional regulation skills on children’s autonomy. We predicted that parental Warmth, …

Values-Based Behavioral Frameworks As Contributors To Organizational Culture In Higher Education: A Literature Review, David J. Park Do

Papers

Colleges and universities almost universally publish statements of organizational values, yet a gap often persists between those stated values and the regularly observed behaviors. This review examines how that gap relates to culture in higher education institutions and specifically explores how translating values into observable behaviors contributes to organizational culture. This literature review used a structured, criteria-guided approach to source identification, selecting sources against three constructs: 1) institutional adoption of values-based behavioral frameworks, 2) organizational culture in higher-education settings, and 3) the perceptions through which organizational members perceive culture. The resulting corpus of 40 sources spans organizational culture scholarship, virtue …

Nonbinary Gender Performance And Self-Identification In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Lillian R. Durr

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein, a text informed by a rich Romantic era philosophical tradition, has produced an expansive contemporary body of transgender studies scholarship. Building on transgender literary studies of Frankenstein, my thesis analyzes the difference between the monster’s internalized self-perceived identity and their externally performed and perceived identity. I interpret the difference between the monster’s internal and external identity as an analogy through which to understand contemporary nonbinary experiences. The “performance” of gender that Judith Butler describes is a limited expression of an internal, inescapable, ontological experience of self-identification. The monster’s own social experience illustrates the …

Characterization Of The Effects Of Atp On Primary Brainstem Glial Cells, Donovan J. Aardema Faigh

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Migraine and temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) are debilitating orofacial pain disorders that negatively impact one’s quality of life. These disorders are characterized by elevated levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and activation of central nervous system glial cells that promote and maintain central sensitization and enhance pain signaling in response to inflammatory stimuli. The goal of my study was to characterize the effects of the pro-inflammatory signaling molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) on intracellular calcium levels, mRNA levels, and protein expression in astrocytes, microglia, and oligodendrocytes to better understand the role of ATP in promoting central sensitization. To address this goal, primary …

Development And Validation Of The Ipip-Ocean: A Hierarchical Facet-Level Measure Of The Big Five, Caleb Niccum

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This study focused on developing a mid-range, hierarchical, five-factor, 20-facet personality inventory (the IPIP-OCEAN) composed of 100 items drawn from both the IPIP-NEO-300 and the Abridged Big Five Circumplex. Hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the factor structure. Depression and anxiety, measured with the PHQ-9 and GAD-7, were used to further validate the measure through discriminant and convergent validity by examining whether the domains and facets of the IPIP-OCEAN produced findings consistent with those reported for similar scales in prior depression and anxiety research. Numerous factor analyses were conducted on the IPIP-OCEAN dataset (N = 1,058), and a …

Operationalizing Cyber-Routine Activities Theory For Senior Cybercrime Prevention: An Evaluation Of The Shield Training-The-Trainer Program, Kyung-Shick Choi, Insun Park, Mijin Kim, Ji Yae Bong

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

Older adults face growing risks of cyber-enabled fraud, yet scalable, evidence-based prevention programs remain limited. Guided by Cyber-Routine Activities Theory (Cyber-RAT), this study evaluates the pilot implementation of the Seniors Harnessing Internet Education for Lasting Defense (SHIELD) Training-the-Trainer program, designed to prepare law enforcement officers and community leaders to deliver cybercrime prevention education to older adults. A key innovation of SHIELD is its integration of interactive game-based simulations, which allow participants to practice verification, refusal, and reporting behaviors in realistic cybercrime scenarios. Following the December 2025 pilot session in Boston, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants from law enforcement, …

Vishing And Smishing Perpetrators And Their Victims In Nigerian Slums, Lateef J. Adeyemo, Tirimisiyu Y. Olabulo, Idenyi G. Peter

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

This study investigates the personal accounts of both perpetrators and victims to better understand the techniques and strategies used in vishing and smishing schemes. It adopts a qualitative cross-sectional design across three Lagos slums (Ajegunle, Amukoko, and Ijora-Badia), using snowball sampling to recruit 20 victims and 10 perpetrators for in-depth interviews. Findings reveal that perpetrators impersonate trusted entities using low-tech tools (pre-registered SIMs, bulk SMS apps) to exploit trust. Selective morality emerges among offenders, with some repaying known victims due to guilt while exploiting strangers, alongside a mentorship culture where experienced scammers train newcomers. Poverty and peer influence normalize the …

The (Non) Numeric Truths Behind College And Career Aspirations: A Quantcrit Analysis Of The Precarious Pathways For Secondary Students Of Color, Norma A. Marrun, Danielle Mireles, Jori S. Beck, Christine Clark

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This article explored the college and career choices of 963 students across six urban secondary schools in a large public school district in the Southwestern United States. A Quantitative Critical Race Theory, or QuantCrit, analysis was applied to expose the false narrative of number neutrality and the systemic racism that belies it. Findings demonstrate how the myth of meritocracy through education (as ‘the great equalizer’) is perpetuated when educators hold onto racist and ableist beliefs about who can pursue college, and ignore the structural disadvantages underlying the college and career aspirations of students of Color juxtaposed with the reality of …

Methodological Insights And Trends: Participatory Positioning Of Children And Youth In Visual Art Education Research, Angela Eckhoff

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Participatory research methods have a focus on facilitating research processes that engage with participants and, as such, aim to promote individual voice, facilitate richer reflection and dialogue, and enable the articulation of participants' unique experiences. To explore the degree to which participatory practices are enacted in visual art education research, the present study critically examines the agentic positioning of children and youth in school‐based, visual arts experiences through a systematic, methodological literature review. Findings from this review serve to ground proposed recommendations for the inclusion of supportive research practices that carefully attend to the unique considerations that arise during participatory …

Integrating Design Thinking In A Stem Methods Course, Demetrice Smith-Mutegi

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Design thinking, a problem-solving approach, has been offered as a strategy to address the challenges of growing and complex teaching expectations. In this narrative, I describe an adapted model of design thinking that was implemented in a secondary STEM methods course for teacher candidates in a graduate program. A description of the key activities, including the fundamental role of empathizing, is shared. Design thinking, when implemented by teachers and teacher candidates, allows the teacher to design and improve a lesson or unit based on student feedback and engagement. This is especially important in today's rapidly evolving educational landscape, where educators …

Secondary Teachers' Experiences In International Professional Development For Convergence Research In Stem And Tradition, Rachel Sparks White, Kristie S. Gutierrez, James K. Ferri

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Convergence education promotes learning experiences that integrate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to address complex real-world problems. However, secondary teachers often report limited access to professional development (PD) and curricular resources that support transdisciplinary instruction. This exploratory case study examines how four secondary teachers (three chemistry; one engineering) made sense of a transdisciplinary PD model, Convergence Research in STEM and Tradition (CReST), that leverages cultural heritage artifacts (Renaissance frescoes) as boundary objects to connect chemistry, engineering, world history, and technology. Teachers participated in a four-day immersive PD experience in Firenze (Florence) and Pisa, Italy, that included site-based learning, interaction …

Pre-Service Elementary Teachers' Science Content Knowledge And Confidence: Teaching Science Methods With Metacognitive Awareness Activities, Demetrice Smith-Mutegi, Erika Wise

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Few elementary teachers are confident in teaching science or in their science knowledge. This study sought to address this concern by investigating the impact of a science methods course on confidence and science knowledge for pre-service elementary teachers (PSETs). In this study, 23 participants enrolled in a teacher education program at a Midwest US university participated in a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design. The participants engaged in course content, including metacognitive awareness activities, for a full semester and qualitatively described their confidence within the pre-post assessment survey. Results were analyzed using an independent samples t-test, mean content assessment scores, and paired samples …

Girls Stem Institute: Impacting Black Girls' Self-Efficacy And Interest In Stem Careers, Crystal Morton, Demetrice Smith-Mutegi, Danka Maric, Vidushi Adlakha, Robin Jackson

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Nationally and globally, STEM serves as a gatekeeper to the labor market and higher education opportunities. Many Black girls find themselves locked out of the gate. Historically and contemporarily, Black girls are seldom viewed as capable or worthy of educational investment and face unique and ongoing challenges in K-12 STEM learning spaces due to their gender and racial identities. Research suggests that informal STEM learning spaces can serve as a counter to Black girls’ experiences in K-12 schools and help enhance Black girls’ self-efficacy and STEM career interests. This study explores the impact of a four-week informal STEM program, employing …

Lessons Learned Using Participatory Research To Develop Physical Education Resources And Recommendations For Blind Students, M. Ally Keene, Nina Marranca, Julia Lagrand, Andrews Mead-Colegrove, Angela Eckhoff, Justin Haegele

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Using a participatory action research (PAR) methodology, the purpose of this manuscript was to describe the experiences of co-constructing resources and recommendations for physical education (PE) teachers, with blind individuals as research partners, aimed at enhancing PE for blind students. Four blind young adults served as research partners within the project. The project consisted of 15 meetings over 19 weeks and two stages, and took place entirely on Zoom. Stage one consisted of four meetings and focused on exploring the needs of the partners and their experiences and opinions related to improving PE for future blind students. Stage two consisted …

Anti-Domestic Violence In China: Re-Accessing The Public Value Of Individual Experience, Xiaoran Tang

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

In December 2019, Kim Lee, a symbolic figure in China’s anti-domestic violence (ADV) movement, publicly stated on the Chinese social media platform Weibo that she forgave her ex-husband Li Yang, sparking widespread controversy.

Drawing on Joan W. Scott’s method of examining experience, this study analyzes Kim’s case within the broader historical development of China’s ADV movement. It traces how Kim’s personal experiences and public images were continuously constructed, interpreted, and reshaped across different stages of the movement. This study finds that Kim’s experiences became public knowledge through the social, legal, and institutional processes that framed her as a domestic violence …

Reward-Based Gamification: Evaluating Game Mechanics That Promote The Implementation Of Personal Device Security Measures, Leah Lynne Branstetter

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Many everyday computer users lack the cybersecurity knowledge and motivation necessary to secure their personal devices. To better understand these barriers, we conducted an initial study with nine participants who were asked to complete simple laptop security tasks, such as reviewing firewall settings. We found two primary challenges: participants were unfamiliar with basic security features, and many expressed low motivation to engage in security practices even after learning about them. To address the motivational barrier, we developed a beginner-friendly cybersecurity game designed to reward users for completing real device security tasks. We compared this reward-based game to a version of …

Lens: Llm-Enabled Narrative Synthesis For Mental Health By Aligning Multimodal Sensing With Language Models, Wenxuan Xu

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Multimodal health sensing offers rich behavioral signals for assessing mental health, yet translating these numerical time-series measurements into natural language remains challenging. Current LLMs cannot natively ingest long-duration sensor streams, and paired sensor–text datasets are scarce. To address these challenges, we introduce LENS, a framework that aligns multimodal sensing data with language models to generate clinically grounded mental-health narratives. LENS first constructs a large-scale dataset by transforming Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) responses related to depression and anxiety symptoms into natural-language descriptions, yielding over 100,000 sensor–text QA pairs from 258 participants. To enable native time-series integration, we train a patch-level encoder …

From Physical Correlation To Emotional Connection: The Role Of Passive Haptics On Empathy In Virtual Reality, Jemely Robles

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Virtual reality is increasingly explored as a tool for cultivating empathy, and haptic feedback as a tool for enhancing immersion. This paper investigates the effects of combining the two.  Fifty-two participants experienced a custom-built VR scene in which a character was shown packing up a room. Participants were assigned to either a haptic condition, receiving passive haptic feedback corresponding to the character's actions, or a non-haptic control condition that did not receive any haptic input. Trait empathy was measured beforehand, and state empathy and engagement were measured after the experience. Thematic analysis was conducted on post-study interviews, and headset recordings …

An Experimental Investigation On The Influence Of Emotion On Craving And Alcohol Consumption Among Women, Melissa C. Rothstein

Open Access Dissertations

A burgeoning literature suggests that alcohol use, rates of binge drinking, rates of alcohol use disorder, and experiences of alcohol-related consequences are increasing among women in comparison to men (Adams et al., 2022; Baraona et al., 1991; Peltier et al., 2019; White, 2020). As such, alcohol use among women is a growing public health concern, but historically, most existing research, including interventions, has focused on men (Agabio et al., 2017; Holzhauer et al., 2020; Maxwell et al., 2022; Verplaetse et al., 2021; White, 2020). Although there is a large literature on the role of negative emotion in alcohol use (Austin …

Languages Of Marginalization: Educational Inequality And Identity Formation Among Rohingya Refugees In Bangladesh, Md Khalid Rahman

Sustainability and Social Justice

This research paper investigates how language-of-instruction policies shape educational inequality and identity formation among Rohingya refugee children living in protracted displacement in Cox’ Bazar, Bangladesh. Analyzed from a human right–based framework, the study examines whether existing educational policies align with international legal standards on the right to education, including the UDHR, ICESCR, Child Convention and SDG 4. While these frameworks guarantee non-discriminatory and inclusive access to education, the reality in Cox’s Bazar reveals a persistent gap between normative commitments and policy implementation. Moreover, the study explores how the exclusion of both the host language (Bangla) and the native Rohingya language …