Digital Commons Network^™

Resilency And Fatherless Households, Joshua Ellis-Kennedy, Crystal Angelica Orellana

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Fatherlessness is a complex and prevailing issue in society associated with many vulnerabilities and unfavorable outcomes. This study seeks to describe and identify the contributing factors to resilience among individuals who were raised in fatherless homes. Findings from this research would contribute to the body of knowledge that focuses on promoting resiliency and would specifically provide insight on contributing factors to resiliency that can help mitigate the negative consequences of fatherless homes.

Influences On Pregnancy: An Exploration Of Maternal Discrimination, An Alternative Model Of Prenatal Care And Health Information Online, Emily Doherty

All Dissertations

In the United States metrics of perinatal health lag far behind peer countries and is characterized by stark disparities. The studies that make up this dissertation seek to elucidate factors influencing perinatal health.

The first and second chapters provide an introduction and extensive review of the literature of factors contributing to perinatal health with specific focus on discrimination and perinatal health; group prenatal care and digital pregnancy health information. The third chapter introduces the methodology to be used by each of the following studies. Subsequent chapters are formatted as individual manuscripts, each presenting background, methodology, results, and discussion.

The fourth …

A Review Of Nebraska Public School Active Shooter/Armed Intruder Preparedness Requirements Compared To Other States, Anna Hansen

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Approximately 17% of mass shootings which occurred between 2000 and 2013 took place in the public school K-12 setting. The incidence of school shootings is on the rise, with a particularly concerning increase in annual incidents beginning around 2010. A review of legal requirements for public school active shooter preparedness in FEMA Region VII, which includes the states Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri, was conducted. While Iowa clearly requires an emergency operations plan including provisions for the active shooter scenario, Nebraska and Kansas do not clearly require such provisions in school emergency operations plans, and Missouri does not appear to …

Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory: An Analysis Of Teen Court Decision-Making By Youth Jurors And Adult Volunteers, Colette Briana Harris

All Dissertations

Few studies have explored the effects of emotional or rational stimulations concerning juror verdicts. There has yet to be a study to examine the impact of cognitive or experiential processing on teen juror decision-making in teen courts. The survey of teen court participants after the completion of teen court jury trials was used to gauge whether rational processing or experiential processing was triggered in selecting a verdict. Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory (CEST) and juvenile decision-making theories and perspectives (The Focal Concerns Theory of Sentencing, Attribution Theory, and Formal Legal Perspective) were used to explain teen jurors’ decision-making. A sample of 107 grade, …

Motivating Factors For Murder With Rape Of Minor Girls In India: A Study Using Systematic Content Analysis, Dayanand Sundaravadivelu

All Dissertations

Gender-related homicides of young women and minor girls have reached alarming proportions in India. The 2020 crime statistics reported 1,582 homicides of children, with 119 (7.5%) minor victims raped and murdered. However, no empirical studies address the motives nor offer incident-based details of the murders and rape/gang-rape of minors. The current study used systematic content analysis of news media sources published in India. The search included five primary print media—The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Indian Express, and The New Indian Express, published in English and reported from 2017 to 2018. The search also included digital news …

Developing A Risk Assessment Instrument For Immigration Cases Under Federal Supervision, Mayra Eydie Pacheco

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Mental Illness And Substance Use Disorder (Sud) Among Pregnant And Postpartum Women In A Women's Residential Treatment Center In El Paso, Texas, Adren Darius Warling

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: Substance use disorders (SUDs) and opioid use disorders (OUDs) are a major public health concern in the United States. SUD/OUDs are often linked to co-occurring physical disorders and serious mental illness (SMI). Stress and trauma are often contributing factors to the development of SUD/OUD and/or co-occurring SMI, which impact pregnant and postpartum women (PPW), who concurrently, may face specific risk factors and barriers to care for these conditions. These risk factors and barriers to care may be exacerbated by Hispanic/Latino identities. Studying social determinants of health based on a social ecological model approach can help increase knowledge about this …

An Exploration Of The Correlation Between Body Mass And Skeletal Measurements Of The Long Bone Joints And Diaphyses, Caroline Genius

Honors Theses

Body mass is a characteristic of the human body that can aid in narrowing down potential identifications of unidentified individuals. However, when faced with skeletal remains, body mass is not easily ascertained, especially when the remains are incomplete. This research explores the potential correlation between body mass and long bone dimensions in order to aid in identification efforts. The limited research done prior has been conducted almost exclusively on the lower limbs—therefore, one of the primary foci of this study is to assess the efficacy of using the joint surfaces and shaft measurements of the upper limbs. Five long bones …

Immigrants’ Attitude Toward Immigration, Aflatun Kaeser

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This study analyzed the relationship between immigration attitudes and demographic and socioeconomic factors. It examined the difference in attitudes toward immigration in the immigrant population using General Social Survey 2021 data. The analysis with an ordered probit model reveals significant relationships between immigration attitude with several socioeconomic and demographic factors and how that differ between natives and immigrants. As age increases, support for limiting immigration increases, but this is not true for immigrants. With the increase of years of education, support for limiting immigration decreases; however, in the immigrant population, support for limiting immigration increases as the education level increases. …

Determinant Factors In Abortion Support Preceding Dobbs: Has Scotus Left Popular Opinion Behind?, Caden Hall

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

The present research analyzed the Wave 52 dataset of the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel to understand public opinions regarding abortion legality and the overturning of Roe v. Wade before the landmark case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Clinic. Previous literature has suggested a dissonance between the decisions of the Supreme Court in constitutional interpretation with respect to reproductive rights and the disposition of most Americans towards the subject. However, due to the recency of the Dobbs decision, the large gap in research is still developing. Regression models were run on key variables in tandem with two dependent …

Effects Of Witnessing Terrorist Attacks On Perceived Causes Of Terrorism And Support For Security Measures, Austin Trevor Sullivan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The following research aims to understand how individuals who were aware of, and affected by, terrorist attacks at the time they took place perceive the causes of terrorism and support security measures. It is hypothesized that the extent to which one â??witnessedâ?? attacks characterized by more traditional forms of terrorism, such as bombings and religiously motivated and affiliated perpetrators (Wave four), versus new forms of terrorism, such as shootings and lone wolves (Wave five), would be affected by the age of the witness. This research proposes an indirect pathway from age to "witnessing" terrorist attacks to attributions for the attacks …

Exploring The Mediating Link Between Stressful Life Events, Adverse Psychological Effects, And Ipv Victimization, Valeria Torres-Rivera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Purpose: Research has established that violent victimization is influenced by a variety of life events and psychological effects. However, limited research has examined this relationship with a specific type of victimization, such as intimate partner violence (IPV). To fill this gap in the literature, this study aims to test whether stressful life conditions induce adverse psychological effects on a person, which then may lead to IPV victimization. Methods: To test this, a series of regression analyses are conducted. Data from the American subsample of the International Dating Violence Study (n = 4,162) are analyzed to test the link between stressful …

Identifying Common Resources Teachers Use To Address Problematic And Challenging Student Behvior, Joseph Clint Nicholes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Problematic and challenging student behavior has a myriad of negative outcomes for both educators and students. Although the implementation of Evidence Based Practices for classroom management have decreased these negative outcomes, educators are not utilizing them. The purpose of this study was to investigate which resources K-6 General Educators and Special Educators access to find information on behavior management strategies and procedures, as well as, their perceptions on those resources. We surveyed teachers from fourteen states in regards to what resources they used and the level in which they trusted, could implement, could understand and could find information on behavior …

County Characteristics And Opioid Mortality Rates In The United States, Baksun Sung

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Opioid overdose deaths are not equally distributed across the United States. While some areas have a less severe problem with opioid abuse, others face serious challenges, which are affected by various social factors. To address that question, in Chapter 1, I investigate how opioid mortality trends differ according to opioid types, race, and region to identify susceptible populations and areas. In Chapter 1, I contend that synthetic opioid is a main trigger for the current opioid epidemic and that the epidemic is concentrated among blacks and in the Eastern United States. Next, the following studies examine how varying social vulnerabilities …

The Relation Between Racial Attitudes And Facets Of Impulsivity, Diana M. Perez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Racism is an ongoing issue in U.S. society. The present study examined the relation between racial attitudes and two types of impulsivity (i.e., behavioral inhibition and delay discounting). Prior research has not touched upon the relationship between impulsivity and racial bias; nonetheless, the factors that influence the ability to interfere with automatic thinking and bad decision making may be a way to address racial bias. One hundred eighty-seven White adult participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), an online survey taking website. The value participants place on future rewards (i.e., delay discounting) and the ability to stop their behavior …

The Sexual Objectification Experiences Of Non-Binary People, Lee R. Pradell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Transgender people are a historically marginalized and disenfranchised group, leading to discriminatory interpersonal treatment such as sexual objectification experiences (SOEs), a type of objectification. Women look at themselves the way men look at them, reducing themselves to objects for someone else’s viewing. This flattening of oneself to value your bodily presentation over functioning increases dissociative states and promotes disordered eating behaviors. Non-binary people experience additive stressors within objectification experiences as people with less social power than cisgender women. This thesis is composed of three separate studies aimed at understanding the SOEs of non-binary people.

The first of three studies recruited …

Queer Need In The Natural State: An Exploratory Needs Assessment Of The 2slgbtqia+ Community In Northwest Arkansas, Leea Jean Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the current needs of the 2sLGBTQIA+ community in Northwest Arkansas between the ages of 18-40 and what their experiences have been attempting to get their needs met. Eight semi-structured interviews were completed with members of the 2sLGBTQIA+ population, and ethical considerations were made throughout the process. The findings of this study were expansive and included six overarching themes with various subthemes. The findings report on the specific needs outlined by participants, how participants found the resources to meet their needs, and common positive and negative experiences that participants identified in the process. Findings showed that intersectional identities …

The Perceived Needs Of First Responders To Identify And Support Sex Trafficking Victims: A Case Study, Raja Kumar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have found that sex trafficking in the 21st century is a growing human rights atrocity. This qualitative case study investigates law enforcement professionals’ perceived needs as first responders to identify and support sex trafficking victims. Specifically, this study examines resources, training, and support that they perceive to be critical to their success. The primary research question that guides this study is what do first responders need to identify and support sex trafficking victims? To answer this question, the following sub-questions facilitate the inquiry: A) What resources do law enforcement professionals need to identify and support victims of sex trafficking? …

A School To Probation Pipeline: Examining The Perceptions Of Juvenile Justice Personnel With Youth In Harris County, Gloria Okere

Dissertations (2016-Present)

The school-to-prison pipeline represents a perspective in the administration of justice, where youths in an educational environment are funneled out of the public school system into the correctional institutions. There is a dearth of knowledge in the literature regarding the net-widening effects on youths brought into the juvenile and the criminal justice system that otherwise would have remained in their educational institutions without the criminal justice intervention. The expansion of the justice system's reach to the youths has become so prevalent, raising concerns that research has yet to illustrate what happens before a youth goes from school disciplinary measures and …

Supervision In The Digital Age: Online Sexual Solicitation Of Children And Youth, Kaitlyn Taylor Swanberg

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since the creation of the internet, offenders have been using cyberspace as a means to solicit children and adolescents for sexual content. With children having unrestricted access to the internet at an earlier age than ever before, it is crucial for academics to better understand the digital world in order to protect children online. This study aims to understand the relationship between internet activities, age, and online sexual solicitation largely using an environmental criminology framework, utilizing the Routine Activities Theory by Cohen and Felson (1979) and Target Congruence Theory by Finkelhor and Asdigian (1996). The sample of this study consisted …

The In/Visible Stockade: Sex Offender Management, Governmentality, And The Search For Normal Life, Christopher Wakefield

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Over the past thirty-five years, the United States has seen a dramatic expansion of regulatory policy around individuals convicted of sexual offenses. Sex offender management policies include national and state registries, notification laws, treatment mandates, residency restrictions, and numerous exclusions from institutions. A growing body of research from sociologists and criminologists has tracked the effects of this sex offender regime by measuring recidivism and collateral consequences among released offenders. Less attention has been paid to how sex offenders adapt to their regulator context—especially the selective public visibility that the registry generates. Furthermore, sociological scholarship has not yet developed strong theoretical …

Finish This Over Drinks? A Study Of Sexual Harassment Perceptions, Hannah E. Barti

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The awareness of sexual harassment has been growing within the workplace, in the home, and within public areas. The #MeToo movement has shined light on this issue in recent years. This study aimed to understand how college students perceive sexual harassment within three scenarios: a music student and their teacher, two coworkers, and between an academic advisor and an adult student. This study included 531 responses from a diverse student population at a Southwest university. Consistent with previous findings, women were more likely to recognize sexually harassing behaviors. There were no significant gender differences in blame attribution in any of …

Perceived Effectiveness Of Mental Health Rehabilitation On Recidivism, Sydni Spradlin

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

As the American criminal justice system moves towards rehabilitation over punishment it is important to see if rehabilitation of mental illness reduces recidivism rates on a large scale. As established by previous research (Gonzalez & Connell, 2014; see also, Osher, et al, 2003), people with mental health issues are notoriously ignored or not provided the proper treatment during incarceration and it is necessary to examine this connection so new policies can be implemented to help incarcerated Americans. By reducing recidivism the amount of people incarcerated is lowered, because most people incarcerated are repeat offenders (Bureau of Justice Statistics), saving America …

The Effect Of Social Influence, Patient Type, And Treatment Type On Ethical Medical Decision Making, Kessa Romero

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Laws are set into place in order to guarantee proper rights for U.S. citizens in need of medical care. Previous research suggests that public opinion of mental health influences the treatment of vulnerable populations diagnosed with mental illness. This study explored the ways in which social pressure to conform influences policies regarding prison inmates, children, and adults. It concludes with suggesting changes to existing policy. The present study was a 3x3 factorial design. The independent variables were public opinion (pro-issue, anti-issue, and no opinion) and type of ethical dilemma (forced medication on children, forced medication on prison inmate adults, involuntary …

Unlawful, Unjust, And Unchanged; A Thesis Of Racial And Socioeconomic Disparities In Criminal Sentencing, Jessica Cochrane

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Black people and people of low socioeconomic status are disproportionately incarcerated in the United States of America. For a country that prides itself on being a “melting pot” of people and cultures, this is an extremely impactful issue. One of the byproducts of the disproportionate incarceration that occurs is that Black people and/or people of low socioeconomic status are also given longer sentences than their White and upper-class counterparts. This is a problem because those who have certain traits that they cannot change or would have a hard time changing are being negatively affected by implicit bias held by others …

Police And Their Relationship With The Public, Kevin Hebri

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This research essay aims to understand some of the social themes relevant to issues present between the public and the police institutions of the United States. Existing literature about this topic has noted the decentralized nature of law enforcement in the United States and the differences in policies and procedures used by different police departments and agencies. The existing literature has also cited the importance of police officer discretion and the situational factors that contribute to their decision-making. Occupational stress, and characteristics of a civilian involved in a police interaction, influence the decision-making process for police officers. This research is …

Understanding And Preventing Burnout Among Behavioral Health Workers, Jafar Almukdadi

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project aims to address burnout among behavioral health workers through research and survey development. The research component involves reviewing existing studies and conducting interviews with staff members of Valley Health Associates to identify key factors contributing to high burnout rates and their consequences. Contributing factors researched include organizational culture, increasing workloads, and demand for behavioral health workers, and organizational climate. The consequences of burnout include physical and emotional health impacts, overwhelming caseloads, and low retention rates. The research findings inform the development of an employee satisfaction and engagement survey that includes questions related to burnout, workload, company culture, …

Reforging The Master’S Tools: Critical Race Theory In The First-Year Curriculum, Benjamin M. Gerzik

SMU Law Review Forum

This Article examines why and how critical race theory (CRT) should be taught as a mandatory component of the first-year law school curriculum. Learning the fundamentals of critical race theory is not only important to empathetically understand and serve those around you, but necessary to understand the law as it is. The law’s past and future require this. This Article first makes the positive argument for critical race theory’s necessity in legal education, showing that it rises above normative (albeit virtuous) justifications. It then briefly summarizes what critical race theory is by outlining its central tenets, as well as what …

Opioid Prescribing Practice & Policy – A Study Of Medicaid Pediatric Population In South Carolina, Laksika Sivaraj

All Dissertations

Opioids are widely used as analgesics in different clinical settings, but they are also highly criticized for their downsides. Among the adult population, the addictive nature of opioids continues to be the main concern, while among young children, there are other adverse health outcomes that opioids can cause. These concerns have led the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other professional bodies to discourage opioid prescribing for children. Nevertheless, opioids continue to be prescribed for children for contraindicated health conditions. The goal of this research is to assess opioid prescribing practices for the pediatric population in South Carolina (SC). …

Understanding Job Satisfaction In The National Park Service, The Needs Of Black Employees, And The Decision-Making Of Managers, Akiebia Hicks

All Dissertations

According to the 2020 U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, the National Park Service (NPS) was ranked the 353rd best place to work out of the 411 government agencies surveyed, with an engagement score of 61.3%, which was lower than the 69.0% average amongst government agencies. This survey is performed annually and asks employees to score their employer in the following categories: leadership, empowerment, pay, teamwork, innovation, recognition, response to COVID-19, and work-life balance. The scores are divided by a quartile key. In every category except “innovation,” the NPS landed in the lower quartile, causing the need …