Digital Commons Network^™

Why Do We Buy What They Recommend? Investigating The Effects Of Fashion Influencers’ Source Factors On Consumer Attitudes And Purchase Intentions, Faren Karimkhan, Sindy Chapa

Journal of Applied Marketing Theory

This study examined the effects of source factors (trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, similarity, and likability) among Social Media Fashion Influencers (SMFIs) on consumers’ attitudes toward SMFIs and attitudes toward endorsed products, as well as the influence of these attitude variables on consumers’ purchase intention. A one-shot single-group case study was conducted (n=440). PLS-SEM was used to analyze the data. Results indicated that trustworthiness, attractiveness, and likability influence attitudes toward SMFIs but not the product. Expertise, similarity, and likability influence attitudes toward the product but not attitudes toward SMFIs. Attitudes toward the product and similarity with SMFI significantly influence purchase intentions. Attitudes …

The Importance Of Voice: American Indian Experiences With Their Healthcare, James Zimmer

Doctor of Social Work Capstone Projects

American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AIAN) have faced inequity and discrimination since colonization. Specifically, within the healthcare system, AIAN individuals have experienced maltreatment, poor quality services, and the dismissal of cultural and personal practices. Health disparities among this population have led to the highest prevalence in many chronic disease categories nationwide (Laffey et al., 2021). A qualitative study with nine respondents was conducted using virtual interviews. Respondents were recruited through healthcare agencies and snowball sampling. Interviews focused on the experiences of American Indians in the Midwest United States with their primary care provider or in a hospital within the last …

Exploring Organizational Responses To Secondary Traumatic Stress In Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Agencies In North Carolina., Kristin Cline

Doctor of Social Work Capstone Projects

Secondary traumatic stress (STS) is an ongoing concern for advocates working with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. This study examines the prevalence of STS among domestic violence and sexual assault advocates in North Carolina and explores organizational strategies for lessening its effects. Using a mixed-methods design, data was collected from three agencies through a survey, resulting in a sample of 25 advocates. The study measured levels of STS and allowed advocates to voice their needs and perspectives on the support they require from their agencies. Results indicate that STS is a significant concern for advocates and that organizational …

Home For The Brave: Housing Program, Amanda Jabr

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Veteran homelessness remains a critical issue across the United States. Since 1996, the Veterans Transition Center (VTC) of Monterey County has been at the forefront of addressing this crisis by providing comprehensive services, housing, therapy, addiction recovery, job training, healthcare, and support for families and pets to homeless and formerly incarcerated veterans. Guided by its mission of “Veterans Supporting Veterans,” VTC has achieved a notable 0% recidivism rate among program participants. This project evaluated the effectiveness of VTC’s housing program through a survey of 40 alumni veterans. The findings indicate that the majority of respondents found the program effective, credited …

Educate, Empower, Prevent; A Harm Reduction Approach To Youth Substance Abuse Prevention, Bernee M. Aguilar

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Youth who are at risk of substance abuse often lack the correct preventive awareness that takes into account the lived experiences of those same adolescents. When these at-risk youth lack proper substance use education and are just told to ‘say no,’ they often experiment with illicit substances such as alcohol or drugs without having the tools to be able to evaluate the risks at hand. Once adolescents effectively learn about substance abuse prevention, they can make a conscious choice based on the risks and rewards of such actions given their biology, family history, vulnerability to addiction and their lived experiences. …

How Can Coalitions Positively Impact Michigan’S Rural Communities And Influence Local Policies: A Comparative Case Study, Amanda Bonesteel-Kratt

Master of Public Administration Capstone Papers

This research explores the impact of coalitions on communities and their influence on local and state policies in rural agricultural communities in Michigan. Nonprofit organizations often utilize coalitions to strengthen their outreach efforts and impact, and in this paper, the author focuses on Farm-to-Power (FTP), a new nonprofit organization in Michigan. FTP advocates for landowners’ rights regarding renewable energy, specifically wind and solar, on a utility scale. This paper explores the best practices concerning effective coalition-building that have the capability to impact policy changes that benefit farming communities through improved economic stability. Access to renewable energy leases for Michigan farmers …

Clinical Nurse Civility And Professional Identity Formation In Nursing Students, Janet Elaine Weeda

Dissertations

Professional identity (PI) formation is an essential objective for nursing education. In 2010, Benner et al. published a landmark document titled Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation, which included a transition from teaching roles and developing professionalism to professional identity formation. In 2018, a ‘Thank Tank’ meeting occurred at the University of Kansas to explore professional identity in nursing, which developed into the International Society for Professional Identity in Nursing (ISPIN; Brewington & Godfrey, 2020). The American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (AACN, 2021) The Essentials included a core competency that called for the “formation and cultivation of a …

Development And Validity Analysis Of The Pragmatic Assessment Of Role Transition And Onboarding For Midwives (Parto-M) Instrument: An Exploratory Study, Erin Mary Morelli

Dissertations

This exploratory study addressed the significant gap in research regarding the transition of newly qualified midwives to practice. The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to identify the areas of strength and domains of challenge for new graduate midwives in their role transition to independent practice. The study sought to answer the following research questions:

Q1 What is essential to measure in an instrument assessing what is necessary for a new midwife to successfully bridge from education to orientation and onward after evaluation by new graduate midwives and subject matter experts?

Q2 What is the calculated content …

Secondary Traumatic Stress And Post-Traumatic Growth: The Moderating Effects Of Cognitive Flexibility And Compassion Satisfaction On School Personnel, Breanna King

Dissertations

Many students enrolled in the K-12 school system in the United States have experienced at least one traumatic event. School personnel working with students who have experienced trauma are at risk of developing secondary traumatic stress (STS), with symptoms mirroring those of post-traumatic stress disorder. Among educators, STS has been correlated with negative mental health outcomes and intent to leave the profession, further exacerbating educator turnover and shortages across the country. However, some individuals experience positive life changes following indirect trauma exposure, known as post-traumatic growth (PTG). The nature of the relationship between STS and PTG is inconsistent in the …

The Effects Of Retrieval Practice On Knowledge Acquisition And Durable Learning In Undergraduate Nursing Students, Jessica Everritt Gay

Dissertations

Recent reports of unpreparedness and failure to rescue incidents among new graduate nurses are concerning for nurse educators and health care. New graduates must retrieve and apply learned knowledge to make sound clinical decisions, emphasizing the need for durable learning and knowledge acquisition. Durable learning, which involves understanding and recalling learned information days, weeks, or months later is crucial for clinical judgment. Nurse educators should facilitate durable learning through effective, evidence-based learning techniques such as retrieval practice (RP), which has shown promise in health professions education but is underutilized in nursing education.

This study explored the impact of RP on …

Is There A Relationship Between Motivation And Nursing Student Engagement? A Quantitative, Cross-Sectional, Correlational Study, Angela Coes

Dissertations

Nursing education is concerned with helping to alleviate the nursing shortage in the United States; this can be done by graduating safe competent novice nurses. Motivation and engagement levels in nursing students have been tied to better academic outcomes including graduation rates, transition to practice, and first time National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses pass rates. There was a gap in prelicensure nursing education research in the United States concerning the relationship among motivation, engagement, and possible influential variables.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between motivation and academic engagement among prelicensure nursing students in …

Learning The Musical Elements From An Early Age Through The Use Of Traditional Folk And Popular Tunes In The Mother Tongue And A Compendium Of Music Resources In Spanish For General Music Classes, Román Orlando Carranza Zapata

Dissertations

This document intends to fulfill three primary purposes. One is to explore the principal characteristics of early music education methods regarding teaching and learning music from an early age through the mother tongue, also known as their native language. These methods may suggest other strategies such as: playing and singing children's games, singing traditional folk tunes, improvisation, dancing, or playing instruments for the general music classroom. The second purpose is to provide music educators with a compilation of various music resources written in Spanish, such as pedagogical books, workbooks, and online interactive musical platforms that can be used in the …

El Salvador’S Cultural Memory And María De Baratta’S Piano Music: Kushkatan, Nahualismo, And The Representation Of Indigeneity, Alejandro Jose Arroyo Alberto

Dissertations

Following independence from the Viceroyalty of New Spain between 1821 and 1823, the United Provinces of Central America entered a period of cultural redefinition, as emerging national frameworks sought to integrate diverse ethnic and historical legacies. After a century, in early twentieth-century El Salvador, a revival of Kushkatan—a pre-Hispanic Indigenous territory within present-day El Salvador—gained symbolic traction among intellectual elites during a politically volatile era marked by social upheaval and cultural realignment. Within this historical context, Cuzcatlán Típico (1951) by María de Baratta, published by the Ministry of Culture, stands as the first ethnomusicological study dedicated to Indigenous music in …

An Agrin-Yap/Taz Rigidity Sensing Module Drives Egfr-Addicted Lung Tumorigenesis., Reza Bayat Mokhtari, Divyaleka Sampath, Paige Eversole, Melissa Ong Yu Lin, Dmitriy A. Bosykh, Gandhi T. K. Boopathy, Aravind Sivakumar, Cheng-Chun Wang, Ramesh Kumar, Joe Yeong Poh Sheng, Ellen Karasik, Barbara A. Foster, Han Yu, Xiang Ling, Wenjie Wu, Fengzhi Li, Zoë Weaver Ohler, Christine Fillmore Brainson, David W. Goodrich, Wanjin Hong, Sayan Chakraborty

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Despite epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a pivotal oncogene for several cancers, including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), how it senses extracellular matrix (ECM) rigidity remain elusive in the context of the increasing role of tissue rigidity on various hallmarks of cancer development. Here it is shown that EGFR dictates tumorigenic agrin expression in lung cancer cell lines, genetically engineered EGFR-driven mouse models, and human specimens. Agrin expression confers substrate stiffness-dependent oncogenic attributes to EGFR-reliant cancer cells. Mechanistically, agrin mechanoactivates EGFR through epidermal growth factor (EGF)-dependent and independent modes, thereby sensitizing its activity toward localized cancer cell-ECM adherence and bulk rigidity …

The Impact Of Food Access Intervention Policy On Student Learning In Portland, Oregon, Sarah Frances Edgell

Master of Public Administration Capstone Papers

Food insecurity, a condition that disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, is a barrier to educational success. This study examines the impact of food access intervention policy on student learning through the implementation of the 2019 Oregon Student Success in Portland, Oregon. Findings reveal both an increased expansion of food access as well as modest gains in standardized testing scores. However, significant achievement gaps persist, especially among high-need areas and historically underserved groups. This capstone paper supports a hybrid approach to policy evaluation, wherein an integration of traditional and critical analysis methods provides a comprehensive understanding of policy outcomes while identifying areas …

How Alternative Sentencing Methods Can Reduce Recidivism And Incarceration Rates For Drug Offenders In Wisconsin, Mitchell D. Fugate

Master of Public Administration Capstone Papers

The criminal justice system in the U.S. has typically been focused more on punishment in the past, but in recent times has shifted more towards implementing rehabilitative measures as a means to reduce the recidivism rate, and thus decrease the overall incarceration rates for the U.S.. An area that is especially different is drug offenses, as many of those that are arrested are addicted, and punishment does not address that addiction directly. By using alternative sentencing as a means of rehabilitation for drug offenses, the criminal justice system can work to address the issues at the root causes as well …

Consideration Of A Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax In Michigan, Lindsay D. Reed

Master of Public Administration Capstone Papers

Gasoline tax revenue is becoming increasingly insufficient to fund road repairs and maintenance nationwide due to the increased fuel efficiency of gasoline-powered vehicles, increased sales of electric and hybrid alternatives, and overall construction cost inflation. Michigan’s solution to this problem, until now, has been to continually increase existing fuel taxes, which does little to address the aforementioned issues. Alternative policy options to supplement and eventually replace these traditional taxes include bridge and highway tolls, higher licensing and registration fees, and the Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). Several states in various stages of VMT tax implementation are examined through the lens of …

Evaluating Free Merchandise Use At Coastal Carolina University, Ally Murphy, Ciara Cassady, Joseph Dumars

Goal 13: Climate Action

No abstract provided.

Revisiting The Lasting Impacts Of Incarceration, John Eric Humphries, Cécile Macaire, Aurélie Ouss, Megan Stevenson, Winnie Van Dijk

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Using newly-linked administrative and commercial data from Virginia spanning 25 years, we study the consequences of incarceration. While previous research has examined labor market outcomes and recidivism, we focus on two of the primary channels through which low-income households build wealth: asset ownership (homes and cars) and human capital formation. To identify causal effects, we use a matched differencein-differences design. In line with much of the literature on the impact of incarceration in the U.S., we find no evidence of scarring effects on labor market outcomes or changes in recidivism beyond the incapacitation period. However, we find that incarceration leads …

Ethnic/Racial Representation In Leadership Positions In Us School Districts, 2002-2014: Are School Districts Achieving Parity?, Melissa A. Taylor, Larra Rucker, Valarie H. Hunt, Brinck Kerr

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective A representative public education workforce has substantive benefits for underserved groups. While research finds considerable differences in ethnic/racial representation among public bureaucrats, little research examines representation within the public education workforce. Methods We use US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EEO-5 data to measure the levels of representation in public school district jobs among Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites (non-Hispanic). Results Based on the analysis of 4253 US districts for 2002 through 2014, we find Hispanic and Black underrepresentation among administrators, principals, assistant principals, and classroom teachers. Based on new-hire employees, we observe improvement in Black and Hispanic representation. District size …

Kelsenian Originalism In Europe, Graziella Romeo, Andrea Pin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

No abstract provided.

Zero Waste Initiatives Across Three Institutions: Local Government, An Academic Institution, And A Retail Business, Soren G. Gray

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Comparison On Family-Based Rehabilitation And Individual Based: Effect On Children And Families, Ashleigh Thatcher

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This proposed research aims to discover the success of sobriety with rehabilitation programs, specifically those that are family based as compared to individual based. This research will also investigate the measures taken within these rehabilitation programs to prevent generational substance abuse problems. Social workers will benefit from this research by discovering how these programs are successful and if any changes could be made to increase the success rates for those struggling with substance abuse. This research will also allow social workers to develop new strategies to assist in preventing generational substance abuse within families. This study will include interviewing individuals …

Perception Of Mental Health Among Students In Higher Education, Kasibah Baig, Leia Aguilar

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Mental health in higher education environments is a topic that has the need for exploration and discussion. Students with poor mental health face additional stressors and challenges in their academic and personal areas of life. It is critical for colleges and universities to address the topic of mental health and understand how it can affect students, as well as to be able to provide the proper support and services. By having more conversations about mental health on campus and providing easily accessible and inclusive resources for students, it can create a comfortable environment on campus for students to be able …

Bridging The Gap For Parents Seeking Mental Health Services For Children, Emmary Yolanda Taylor

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The rising statistics of adolescents suffering from concerns of mental health in all its various diagnosis, is an increasing problem for the community. The understanding of mental health in adolescents is now continuously being explored due to the rise of concerns. Although professionals continue to research and address the rise of mental health, parental literacy regarding addressing mental health concerns constitutes as one of the number one factors in prevention. The research presented in this paper uses a qualitative approach to study parental literacy and culture regarding mental health in adolescents within the San Bernardino County community. The qualitative research …

Student Mental Health Challenges Vs. The Role Of School Counselors: Addressing The Gap In Mental Health Treatment, Victoria Sic Ms, Cynthia Lizaola Ms

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study examines the role of academic counselors in providing mental health support for K-12 students. Using a post-positivist approach, the research explores how counselors navigate their dual responsibilities of academic guidance and mental health intervention within school settings. A literature review highlights the evolving role of school counselors, the growing mental health needs of students, and the impact of external factors—such as the COVID-19 pandemic—on their work.

The study was conducted in two Southern California counties and involved 17 experienced, primarily bilingual academic counselors recruited through snowball sampling. Data collection included in-depth interviews to investigate counselors’ roles, training, and …

Do Lgbtq+ Latinos Experience Higher Levels Of Depression Compared To Heterosexual Latinos?, Oscar Moreno-Castro

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study examines depression levels in both LGBTQ+ and Heterosexual Latinos. Quantitative data was collected using Qualtrics, an online survey data collector. The data collected from Qualitics will provide an insight regarding mental health among participants and examine depression levels amongst both groups. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS, a software program tool that helps analyze and manage data. To measure the severity of depression, the researcher will utilize the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, a 17-questionnaire instrument for assessing symptoms of depression and compare the level of depression amongst both groups. Key findings from the research revealed slight differences in …

Cultural Risk Factors For Teen Pregnancy In Hispanic/Latina Women: A Qualitative Study, Nia Saldana

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Teen pregnancy remains a significant social issue in the United States, disproportionately affecting Hispanic/Latina adolescents. Research is highly needed to understand the factors contributing to high rates of teen pregnancy among Hispanics/Latinas. In 2020, Latina teen birth rates (25.3 per 1,000 females) exceeded that of White teens (11.4 per 1,000 teens) by a large margin (CDC, 2020). The purpose of this study is to explore the cultural factors, particularly religion and familial influences, on the high rates of teen pregnancy among Hispanics/Latinas. Qualitative data was collected using in-depth interviews with seven adult Hispanic/Latina women who have experienced teen pregnancy. …

Poverty In Ethnic Minority Children: Social Workers/Social Work Students’ Perceptions Of Effective Interventions, Danielle Nicole Davis

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Racial and ethnic minorities experience poverty at rates significantly higher than the rest of the United States population, especially when considering children. This disparity leads to decreased positive outcomes for children growing up in impoverished ethnic minority households. By examining the interventions utilized to address childhood poverty and how social workers and social work students create targeted interventions for this population, the current study provides insight into effective methods for addressing childhood poverty in ethnic minority populations. The current research expands on information gathered regarding effective interventions for minority children in poverty. This is an exploratory study that used a …

Practices And Policies Within The Child Welfare System To Reduce The Risk Of Child Sexual Exploitation, Areli Vega, Guadalupe Ibañez De Molleti

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research project examined current child welfare system policies and practices that may be indirectly contributing to the risk of commercial sexual exploitation of children. This qualitative study gathered data using interviews of past and current child welfare case workers who have experience with CSEC cases. Key findings highlighted several themes within the participants’ answers, and using this data we propose feasible recommendations, such as increased CSEC training for case workers, provide proactive education, and strengthening existing collaborations.