Digital Commons Network^™

Relational Spirituality And Maternal Coping In Carceral Contexts: A Participatory Action Study Of Meaning-Making And Mental Health Among Formerly Incarcerated Mothers, Jessica Peters

Dissertations and Theses

Maternal incarceration carries significant psychological, familial, and community consequences, yet limited research centers the mental health experiences of mothers themselves. This study explored how religious and spiritual engagement shape mental health and coping among formerly incarcerated mothers using a participatory action research framework. Guided by this, small groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 mothers in collaboration with a community-based organization. This approach prioritized lived experience and aimed to reduce barriers to participation among a population often mistrustful of research institutions. Data were analyzed thematically to identify patterns in psychological distress, coping strategies, and meaning-making. Findings revealed pervasive and …

Shared Burden, Potential Space: A Qualitative Study Of How Psychodynamic Therapists Work With Intergenerational Transmission Of Historical Trauma, Shaun J. Halper

Dissertations and Theses

The intergenerational transmission of trauma (ITT) has been investigated since the 1960s, beginning with research on the descendants of Holocaust survivors. Few qualitative studies, however, have taken up how psychodynamic therapists experience their treatments with adult patients with ITT. This study uses Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (APA) to analyze adult ITT treatments from the perspective of psychodynamic psychotherapists. Ten licensed clinicians in the NYC tri-state area participated in semi-structured interviews, which were organized around three research aims: how clinicians conceptualized and identified ITT, what effective clinical interventions they used, and how they understood the impact of therapist-patient sameness or difference (regarding …

Risk And Releasability: Rethinking “Suitable” Support Networks For Former Foster Youth In Ontario Bail Courts, Marsha Rampersaud

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Contemporary societal trends indicate many young adults rely on their families for financial and other support for longer than in the past, often well into their 20s. Youth leaving the child welfare system, however, do not have similar supports to rely on when they reach the age of majority (eighteen in Ontario). In bail court, the experiences of those who have familial support differ markedly from those who do not. Qualitative interviews with youth, lawyers, and social workers illuminate the experiences of young adults (ages eighteen to twenty-four) who have exited the child welfare system and come into conflict with …

The Closed Door At 301 Wellington Street, Tom Nichini, Kim Brooks

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Although women and racialized lawyers comprise significant proportions of the Canadian bar, they and other equity-deserving lawyers remain markedly underrepresented among counsel making oral submissions before the Supreme Court of Canada. This article presents findings from a five-year empirical study (2017–2021) examining who appears before the Court through an observational analysis of 273 cases and a survey of 279 counsel. The research reveals that presenting counsel are predominantly white, cis-male, and have extensive experience at the bar: e.g., women account for only 26.9% of appearing counsel, while racialized lawyers comprise 12.8%. After evaluating whether this gap can be attributed to …

Discrimination And Stress Recovery In Romantic Couples: A Dyadic Analysis Of Vagal Rebound And Stress Appraisal, J. Doris Chi

Public Health Theses

Background: Perceived discrimination is a chronic stressor linked to adverse psychological and physical health outcomes, yet less is known about how it shapes parasympathetic recovery after acute stress within close relationships. The present study examined the direct and vicarious effects of discrimination on vagal rebound and stress appraisal following a social-evaluative speech task, and whether these associations varied by identity attribution.

Methods: Data were drawn from 188 romantic couples (N = 376) from the New Haven area. Participants completed measures of everyday discrimination prior to the laboratory visit and stress appraisal before and after the speech task. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia …

Intergenerational Meaning-Making In Cambodian Americans, Caitlin Gojuk

Public Health Theses

Background: Cambodian Americans face high psychological distress yet remain underrepresented in research, especially second-generation individuals. Intergenerational trauma, stigma, and family dynamics shape mental health understanding and expression. Objective: This study examines how Cambodian American young adults make sense of mental health and distress through cultural identity, family relationships, and inherited meanings of trauma. Methods: In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with six second-generation Cambodian American young adults residing in Massachusetts, United States. Participants completed brief measures of depression and anxiety symptoms (PHQ-8; GAD-7) to provide a descriptive context. Interviews were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis informed by relational, narrative, and ecological …

Tilting The Playing Field: Executive Attacks On Big Law Firms As A Mechanism Of American Competitive Authoritarianism, Sajah Ali

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines how President Donald Trump’s executive campaign against elite law firms, collectively known as “Big Law,” serves as a concrete case study of competitive authoritarianism in action. Drawing on Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way’s framework in their work The Path to American Authoritarianism, this thesis applies their four pillars of competitive authoritarianism to the administration’s executive orders targeting major law firms and maps those pillars onto three distinct firm responses: fighting back, capitulation, and quiet retreat. Situating this case study within the broader political context of Trump’s second term, this thesis finds that while the United States has …

Utahns' Views On Data Centers, Jessica Schad, Gina Gilson, Stacia Ryder, Elizabeth Long-Meek, Alexandrea Sherman

Utah People and Environment Poll (UPEP)

Data center development is expanding across the western U.S., raising concerns about water, energy, land, and air quality, particularly in rural communities experiencing rapid growth. However, data center impacts are highly context-specific, depending on factors such as regional energy availability, cooling technologies, facility design, and state and local regulations. In Utah, policymakers are increasingly addressing data center resource use, but direct water-use reporting captures only part of the picture: the energy used to operate data centers can also have water demands. Greater understanding of this water-energy nexus and of community concerns can help inform decision-making. Using representative survey data collected …

Implementing Climate Remedies, Camila Bustos

Vanderbilt Law Review

Climate change litigation has emerged as a powerful tool for addressing the climate crisis, particularly in the face of executive and legislative inaction. Across jurisdictions, courts have issued landmark decisions mandating stronger mitigation targets and recognizing rights-based claims against governments and corporations. While recent scholarship has examined the trends, legal theories, and broader effects of this relatively new phenomenon, it has primarily focused on bringing and winning legal challenges. Less attention has been paid to a crucial phase: the implementation and enforcement of judicial rulings. A deeper understanding of how climate remedies are implemented can provide valuable insights for climate …

A Bibliometric Analysis Of Research On Cefr-Based English Speaking Pedagogy : Trends And Directions, Saima Khan, Azidah Abu Zidena, Zoofishan Khanb

PASAA

No abstract provided.

Heteronormativity And Gender Inequality In Three Esp Textbooks In Thailand : Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Akkasit Kathapant, Kriangkrai Vathanalaoha

PASAA

No abstract provided.

Comparative Rhetorical Analysis Of Discussion Sections In Chinese And English Research Articles Across Disciplines, Jingfen Jin, Angkana Tongpoon Patanasorn

PASAA

No abstract provided.

The Predictive Validity Of Ielts And Vietnam High School Graduation Examination English Test : Evidence From English Majors, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Hung Viet Nguyen

PASAA

No abstract provided.

Pragmatic Competence And Transfer In Requests And Refusals : A Study Of Efl University Students In Southern Thailand, Uraiwan Rattanapan Noonkong, Usa Intharaksa

PASAA

No abstract provided.

Gig Worker Social Referrals On An On-Demand Food Delivery Platform, Hai Wang, Hao Sun, Peter Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Social referral programs are commonly used by online labor platforms to incentivize labor supply by rewarding existing workers for successful referrals. This study investigates the impact of such programs on gig workers' labor supply in online labor platforms using data from an on-demand food delivery platform in Singapore. In particular, we analyze how gig workers' past labor supply and referral behavior influence the generation and value of social referrals. This research offers insights into the mechanisms that drive labor supply dynamics in the gig economy and highlights the effectiveness of social referral programs for shaping worker behavior and enhancing platform …

Can We Read Ai’S Mind? A Quest For Transparency, Santhosh Kumar Ravindran, Estera Kot, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are playing an increasing role in critical domains such as healthcare, finance, and autonomous systems, their decision-making processes remain largely opaque. This paper examines the challenges of AI transparency, addressing the “black box” problem using Explainable AI (XAI) techniques such as SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) and Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations (LIME). It also examines the ethical, regulatory, and societal implications of AI opacity and proposes a Comprehensive AI Observability (CAO) Framework that integrates deep explainability, provenance tracking, and real-time monitoring to enhance AI accountability. By bridging technical solutions with governance structures, this research emphasizes the …

Understanding Wage Theft: Beyond The Numbers Through Community Practice, Lived Experience, And Research, André Simões Da Silva, Lenita Reason, Cristina Araujo Brinkerhoff

Gastón Institute Publications

Wage theft is a widespread form of labor exploitation that disproportionately affects immigrant and other vulnerable workers. This report examines the scope and impact of wage theft in Massachusetts by analyzing case data from the Brazilian Worker Center (BWC) alongside wage and labor enforcement data from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (AGO). The analysis demonstrates how wage theft affects immigrant workers across industries, with particularly high numbers of cases in construction, cleaning, and hospitality. The data also reveal significant gaps in the reporting and enforcement of wage violations, particularly among domestic workers, whose cases are likely substantially underrepresented in available …

Mass Homicides And Mass Shootings: Comparisons, Trends, And Unpacking Further, Stefana E. Lotempio

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Mass shootings have garnered more public attention in recent years, in large part due to their increase in both frequency and lethality. Despite public concern, policy and prevention efforts have remained limited and have not yet resulted in a decrease in these events. Understanding mass shootings as a subset of mass murder will help identify how mass shootings are unique from other mass murders, which will help to identify more effective prevention tactics. Additionally, exploring mass shooting trends in the context of homicide trends and other crime trends will illuminate patterns that can be used to inform policy and prevention …

The Spectrum Of Limited Jurisdictions Courts: Exploring The City And Justice Courts In New York State, Alyssa Clark

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation is an investigation of decisions and outcomes in an important but seldom studied sector of the criminal justice system, the lower tiers of criminal courts (hereinafter referred to as LJCs). The LJCs in New York State (the subject of this dissertation) vary across two dimensions. The first dimension is court characteristics, which includes integration into a statewide court system (i.e., Justice Court vs. City Court). The second dimension is geodemographic characteristics (i.e., rural, suburban, and urban demographic characteristics). Recognizing this gap in literature, this dissertation provides an exploratory examination of the LJC’s patterns of case disposition and sentencing …

Llevándolas Con Calma: Latin American Migrant Worker Parenthood And Covid-19, Anthony J. Stronach

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

We have yet to fully understand what Latino migrant worker parents -a population invisible in many ways to much of society- have undergone since the onset and as a result of the COVID-19 health crisis. As such, grounded in the experiences and words of eleven migrants, this dissertation demonstrates (1) the shifting parameters of migrant parenthood during and after the pandemic, (2) how migrant working parents navigated such unprecedented times, and (3) their reflections as they looked back upon such experiences. These experiences include more than merely what happened to them; they encompass their thoughts, their emotions, their memories, their …

Constructing The Political “Other”: Affective Polarization And Cross-Ideological Portrayals On Instagram, Amanda M. Novellin

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Instagram has frequently been characterized by users as a platform that permits the circulation of hostile and adversarial political content due to comparatively limited moderation practices. In January 2025, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced changes to content moderation policies on Facebook and Instagram, including the removal of third-party fact-checking mechanisms. These platform-level changes further reshaped the political information environment in which online discourse occurs. However, even prior to these policy changes, Instagram had established itself as a prominent space for highly polarized political expression across the ideological spectrum.

This thesis examines how political polarization in the United States is reflected …

Wherefore Art Thou Competitors? How Situational Affordances Help Differentiate Among Prosocials, Individualists, And Competitors, Y. Liu, A.W. Stivers, R.O. Murphy, N.J. Van Doesum, J. Joireman, M. Gallucci, E. Aharonov-Majar, U. Athenstaedt, L. Bai, R. Böhm, N.R. Buchan, X.-P. Chen, K.B. Dumont, J.B. Engelmann, Li, Norman P., H. Euh, S. Fiedler, J. Friesen, S. Gächter, C. Garcia

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Triple Dominance Measure (choosing between prosocial, individualistic, and competitive options) and the Slider Measure (“sliding” between various orientations, for example, from individualistic to prosocial) are two widely used techniques to measure social value orientation, that is, the weight individuals assign to own and others’ outcomes in interdependent situations. Surprisingly, there is only moderate correspondence between these measures, but it is unclear why and what the implications are for identifying individual differences in social value orientation. Using a dataset of 8021 participants from 31 countries and regions, this study revealed that the Slider Measure identified fewer competitors than the Triple …

Comparing Consent Culture: Are Kinky People More Concerned About Consent?, Hannah Tarleton

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The BDSM community has become an increasingly popular subject of study in relation to consent culture; however, the bulk of this research has been qualitative and lacks comparison to non-BDSM practitioners. The theory of planned behavior was used to design a measure comparing consent culture across 668 BDSM practitioners and non-practitioners. As predicted, the relationships specified by theory of planned behavior was replicated for both BDSM practitioners and nonpractitioners. Contrary to predictions, no significant differences were found between BDSM practitioners and non-practitioners for norms or behavioral intentions; however, BDSM practitioners reported significantly higher perceived behavioral control. Within the BDSM community, …

Book Banning Bureaucrats: Grassroots Parents’ Groups Strategic Rationalization Of Book Bans In The 2020s, Ethan M. Forsberg

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Book bans in the 2020s have seen a dramatic increase across the United States, with a major contributing factor being Social Movement Organizations (SMO) led by parents. My research looks at these parents' rights SMOs’ online presence through their social media and websites by analyzing the frames, counter frames, and realignments in regard to the 2020s book ban issue. Through a content analysis of three prominent parent rights SMOs (Moms for America, Defending Education, Moms for Liberty), I collected and analyzed data from their X, Facebook, YouTube, and respective websites. Coding the data using grounded and visual grounded theory, I …

Photovoice Exploration Of Afghan Refugee Background Women's Food-Related Well-Being, Eileen C. Lindemann

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

More than 117,000 Afghans have been relocated to the United States following the U.S. military withdrawal in August 2021. Research indicates that Afghan refugees resettled in the U.S. are at increased risk of psychological distress, with Afghan women particularly susceptible compared with Afghan men, and diet-related chronic disease. However, research also shows that traditional food and eating customs foster cultural identity, social support, integration, and well-being. The purpose of this study was to collaboratively explore the food-related well-being and daily life contexts of resettled refugee participants through the photovoice method, a participatory research strategy in which participants photograph aspects of …

Behind The Curtain: A Literature Review Of Personal And Ecological Risk Factors And Current Multi-Level Interventions For Performing Artists, Christopher A. Robles

Social Work Theses

Performing artists experience psychological distress, including anxiety, depression, burnout, and substance use disorders, at rates significantly exceeding those of the general population. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (EST) and the Person-in-Environment (PIE) perspective, this structured literature review synthesizes research published between 2010 and 2026 to examine individual personality traits, environmental stressors across meso- and macro-systems, and existing multi-level mental health interventions for performing artists. Findings reveal that while traits such as high openness to experience, sensory processing sensitivity, and perfectionism foster artistic expression, they also heighten vulnerability to occupational stressors, financial precarity, social isolation, and venue-based substance exposure. Current …

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 …

Skeletal Dna Mapping Of The Post-Cranial Skeleton For The Identification Of Human Remains In A Modern Forensic Context, Mykala Denise Ward

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Human identification is a central goal of forensic anthropology and forensic molecular anthropology, particularly when remains are skeletonized, fragmented, degraded, or otherwise visually unidentifiable. Although skeletal elements such as teeth, the petrous portion of the temporal bone, and major long bones are commonly prioritized for DNA sampling, they are not always available, intact, or suitable for destructive analysis. This dissertation evaluates DNA preservation across the post-cranial skeleton to determine whether anatomical location, biological sex, and age-at-death influence DNA quantity and downstream forensic genetic success.

Surface cortical bone samples were collected from predetermined anatomical locations across four modern skeletonized individuals. DNA …

An International Framework For Marriage Promotion, Jessica Tueller

Faculty Articles

Governments across the globe lately have been raising the alarm about declining marriage rates and adopting a wide variety of measures to increase these rates. This article presents a framework, distilled from human rights law, for assessing whether such measures are in keeping with States’ international obligations to eliminate all forms of coercion and discrimination in their policies and practices concerning diverse family structure and composition. The framework draws clear boundaries between measures that are permissible under human rights law and measures that are prohibited by human rights law. It also provides a tool for evaluating marriage-promotion measures that, although …

“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 …