Digital Commons Network^™

Built Different: Place, Identity, And The Holistic Well-Being Of Female Student Athletes, Jaye Mack

Theses and Dissertations

This research furthers the conversation surrounding holistic female student-athlete wellness, recognizing that their experiences can be inequitable – influenced by the intersectionality of race, gender, and athletic identity (Armstrong et al., 2018; Druckman et al., 2018; Neeley et al., 2021). This research accredits the physical environments where athletes train, recover, and connect as an underexplored factor in holistic well-being.

The Indivisible Self Model of Wellness (IS-WEL) was used to (1) explore the influence of physical design features on female student athletes' holistic well-being and (2) understand how their identity shapes how they experience and attach meaning to their team environments. …

Leading The Temporary Workforce: Leadership Communication And Adaptation Among Seasonal Employees, Alfred Kwabena Obiri

Theses and Dissertations

Seasonal employees constitute an essential yet understudied workforce sustaining organizational operations during peak demand periods across industries. Despite the growing organizational reliance on temporary employees, organizational communication studies have primary focused on permanent employees with extended socialization periods, leaving important questions about how leadership communication operates in compressed timeframes inadequately addressed. This qualitative study examined how leadership communication practices shape seasonal employees’ adaptation, belonging, and morale within the temporal constraints characteristic of temporary employment. Drawing on organizational socialization theory, leader-member exchange theory and cultural dimensions, this study employed semi-structured interviews with 19 seasonal employees across hospitality, camp, retail, and education …

What Does It Takes To Develop Game Changers? An Evaluation Of Sport-Based Youth Development Program, Jorge Adriel Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined mentor development within the Game Changers program, a sport-based youth development (SBYD) intervention designed to promote emotional flexibility, mental fitness, and personal growth among young men. Grounded in mentorship theory and positive youth development frameworks, the purpose of this study was to evaluate how participation in the program influenced mentors’ psychological development, perceptions, and leadership approaches.

A mixed methods design was employed. Quantitative data were collected through repeated surveys administered across four time points to assess changes in mentors’ knowledge, self-awareness, confidence, emotional awareness, mental health, and masculinity ideology. Qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured focus group …

Comorbidity And Violence: What Role Does Resilience Play In Preventing Violent Acts?, Madeline J. Petit

Theses and Dissertations

The conjunction of substance use disorders, mental illnesses, and violence has been shaped through traditional risk-centered models, yet these approaches fail to explain why most individuals do not engage in violent behavior despite being high risk. This study aims to investigate how resilience may buffer the criminogenic effects of comorbidity and help understand the majority of those at risk who remain nonviolent. The data for this study is drawn from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study, which consisted of 2.255 person-waves, as the data examined comorbidity across 5 waves, consisting of 451 participants in each wave.Each participant in each wave …

Turnover Talk: Organizational Turnover Communication And Its Effects On Turnover Intention, Organizational Identification, And Job Satisfaction, Ethan L. Carroll

Theses and Dissertations

Employee turnover intention has been a focus of organizational research within the field of communication. Communication can affect organizational culture, relational dynamics, and even information flow throughout organizations, which all have influence over employee decisions. The body of literature that pertains to turnover is vast; however, the gap that this study aimed to fill was looking at communication about turnover. The purpose of this study was to investigate and explore communication related to turnover within organizational practices and interactions. This study used a mixed methods approach that first explored the concept of turnover talk and, second, investigated the impact of …

Fostering A Growth Mindset In Mathematics: Faculty And Student Experiences, Yolanda G. Rush

Theses and Dissertations

According to the Center for Community College Student Engagement (2019), many students attending two-year institutions need productive persistence strategies, including the development of a growth mindset. Although some growth mindset interventions have been effective in improving academic achievement among students (Boaler, 2016; Canning et al., 2024) and persistence (Lewis, 2019) among students, especially those with developmental needs (Suh et al., 2019) and those in mathematics, little is known about the experiences of students and teachers (i.e., students’ perceptions of teachers’ intentions and implementation) as teachers work to foster a growth mindset culture (Murphy et al., 2021). In this dissertation, I …

"Aren't You Old Enough To Know Better?": Judgments Surrounding Infidelity As A Function Of Age And Gender, Josephine Kirby

Theses and Dissertations

Relationships are often deeply affected by infidelity on several indicators such as marital satisfaction, forgiveness, and relationship longevity. With older adults often stereotyped as being asexual and women often being judged more harshly due to a sexual double standard, how do people perceive these groups in the context of infidelity? The purpose of my study was to investigate whether perceptions and judgments surrounding infidelity are affected by the age and gender of the person who committed infidelity. Using an experimental vignette method, participants were randomly assigned one version of a hypothetical couples’ counseling intake assessment form that, in part, described …

Rhetoric Of Realignment: An Analysis Of Trump's 2024 Campaign Rhetoric, David Valadez

Theses and Dissertations

When political coalitions include groups with opposing policy goals, leaders face a challenge: satisfying all constituencies without making commitments that alienate essential supporters. The present study examines strategic ambiguity in the form of deliberately vague political messaging as a tool for managing this challenge. Combining rhetorical analysis with selectorate theory, which explains how leaders achieve and maintain power through reward distribution, the research analyzes Donald Trump’s 2024 Republican National Convention acceptance speech, focusing on immigration rhetoric.

The analysis reveals that Trump’s ambiguity was selective rather than habitual. On immigration, where tech/corporate interests wanting skilled workers clashed with nationalist groups demanding …

The Role Of Non-Academic Staff In First-Year Retention At Regional, Comprehensive Universities, Marco A. Krcatovich Ii

Theses and Dissertations

Regional comprehensive universities (RCUs) serve a large share of U.S. undergraduates, yet the role of non‑academic staff in shaping first‑year retention remains understudied. This dissertation examines how staff diversity and staffing structures relate to student persistence using seven years of IPEDS panel data and Linear Mixed‑Effects Models. Analyses were conducted separately for residential and commuter RCUs to reflect their distinct engagement environments. Findings show that staff diversity is significantly associated with retention, though the direction and magnitude vary by campus type and staff role. Staffing structure also matters as higher proportions of full‑time staff are positively associated with retention at …

Pathways Through Barriers: A Qualitative Study Of Career Advancement Among International Graduates Of Illinois Public Higher Education Institutions, Tieola Lambey Requena

Theses and Dissertations

International students represented an important sector of the United States higher education and labor force ecosystem, contributing significantly to academic innovation, institutional diversity, and economic growth. Illinois, which is a major educational and industrial hub, attracted thousands of international students annually and played a critical role in the development of global talent essential to both the state and the national economy. Despite these contributions, international students faced persistent challenges when navigating career advancement in the United States. Recent immigration policy shifts intensified national security concerns and employer reluctance to sponsor visas, reframing international students from valued contributors to perceived labor …

Refusing To Die On The Vine: Black Women's Survival, Resistance, And Dei Labor In Historically White Institutions, Senesta D. Howard

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the lived experiences of Black women in non-diversity, non-faculty roles at historically White institutions (HWIs) who engage in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) advocacy beyond their formal job responsibilities. Grounded in Black Feminist Thought and guided by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the study explores how race and gender shape invisible labor expectations, emotional and psychological burdens, and strategies for safety and meaning-making. Semi-structured interviews with 12 Black women staff members yielded seven interrelated themes, including invisible DEI labor, hypervisibility, emotional exhaustion, sisterhood as a form of resistance, respectability politics, self-constructed safety, and purpose rooted in legacy and spirituality. …

Exploring Culturally Responsive Faculty Practices That Support Student Success In Community College Classrooms, Mary Catherine Flynn

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the culturally responsive teaching practices used by six community college faculty and instructors in their in-person courses. Faculty and instructors taught courses included in certificate and degree programs related to early childhood education, human services, and criminal justice at one midwestern community college. Specific content areas included sociology, political science, and child development. Data collection for this study included comprehensive interviews with each instructor, an analysis of documents including syllabi, student assignments, and assessments, and multiple classroom observations. This study was anchored in a theoretical framework based on the constructs of culturally responsive teaching practices. Each …

Reconciliation, Draper Matthews

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis exhibition, Reconciliation, examines how memory, loss, and lived experience shape personal identity over time. Through sculptural works composed of cast, blown, and hot-sculpted glass combined with mixed media, the exhibition explores the pressures that life events place upon individuals and the ways those pressures persist, transform, and become integrated into the self. The work considers identity not as a fixed state but as a continual process of negotiation between past experiences, present circumstances, and future possibilities.

Central to the project is the material analogy between glass and human experience. Glass, a material formed under extreme heat and pressure …

Staff Attitudes Toward Ai Adoption At A Private Research University, Ashley C. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses the limited research on university staff attitudes toward artificial intelligence use and adoption. Using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) research framework, the General Attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence Scale (GAAIS), and quantitative survey methodology, the study examines the attitudes of higher education staff toward AI, specifically examining whether demographic or professional characteristics are factors. The findings indicate that staff had moderately negative attitudes toward AI while also expressing some concerns. The results suggest that more resources and support for AI are needed for staff to address concerns. It also suggests that construct-level analysis …

Emotion Regulation Difficulties And Substance Use: The Role Of Conscientiousness, Caitlyn M. Donnelly

Theses and Dissertations

Difficulties in emotion regulation have been consistently linked to substance use among college students. However, individual differences may influence this relationship. Conscientiousness, a personality trait characterized by self-control, planning, and goal-directed behavior, has been proposed as a potential protective factor. The present study examined associations among difficulties in emotion regulation, conscientiousness, and substance use behaviors, as well as whether conscientiousness moderates the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and substance use. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional, correlational design, data was collected from college students recruited through a university participant pool. Participants completed self-report measures of emotion regulation difficulties, conscientiousness, and substance use …

Examination Of The Effects Aesthetic Enrichment And Music Have On Well-Being And Task Performance In A Workplace Simulation, Emily Budik

Theses and Dissertations

Workplace environments are often designed with a focus on efficiency, yet emerging research suggests that environmental features such as aesthetic enrichment and music may influence employee well-being and performance. The present study examined whether visual aesthetic enrichment and auditory stimulation through music could improve well-being, reduce stress, and enhance task performance within a simulated workplace task. Participants completed a 30-minute in-basket task under one of four conditions: a control environment, music only, aesthetic enrichment only, or a combined aesthetic enrichment and music condition. Measures of stress, well-being, and task performance were collected following task completion. Results indicated that neither aesthetic …

The Acculturation Of International-Born Student Affairs Administrators In The United States, Amber Joy Webb

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative narrative study explored how international student affairs administrators in the United States experience acculturation. Guided by Berry’s (1997) fourfold model of acculturation, the study examined how participants experienced assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization as they navigated their professional roles, institutional expectations, and cultural identities. Eight participants, representing diverse countries of origin, institutional types, and professional roles, were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's (2006) framework. Findings indicated participants employed multiple, context-dependent acculturation strategies rather than adhering to a single strategy. Assimilation emerged as a strategic process for establishing professional legitimacy, navigating …

First- And Second-Generation Immigrant Emerging Adults’ Career Aspirations, Laura A. Botros

Theses and Dissertations

Despite first- and second-generation immigrants making up 19.6% of the U.S. workforce (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024), research exploring their career aspirations is scarce. Studies show that individuals’ cultural backgrounds significantly shape first- and second-generation immigrants' career aspirations, values, and professional goals (Kao, 2004; Polenova et al., 2017). The purpose of the study is to examine how first- and second-generation immigrant emerging adults' cultural backgrounds inform their career aspirations. I utilized a qualitative approach by asking participants about their cultural background, career aspirations, and what influenced their career aspirations. Interviews and a cognitive map activity were conducted to investigate …

The Effects Of A Work-Strengths Affirmation Intervention On Death Anxiety: Meaning And Self-Esteem As Mediators, Begüm Orhan

Theses and Dissertations

Death anxiety is a transdiagnostic construct and a universally experienced existential fear that has been linked to a wide range of psychological difficulties, including anxiety, depression, and impaired well-being. Despite its widespread impact, empirical research on targeted interventions for death anxiety remains limited. The present study aimed to address this gap by developing and evaluating an online, single-session, theory-based (i.e., Terror Management Theory, positive psychology) intervention focused on affirming personal strengths in the context of one's work. The intervention was designed to target work-strengths (i.e., leadership, adaptability)—an intersection of positive and vocational psychology.

College students from a large Midwestern university …

Raised On Ritalin - A Work For Concert Band Based On My Personal Experiences With Adhd Alongside A Graphic Novel By Tyler Page, Ethan Prado

Theses and Dissertations

During my time as an undergrad at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, I loved to read graphic novels, and their library had quite the collection. I lost track of how many times I made my way down to the third sub-level of the Undergraduate Library to go to the graphic novel section. In my last year at UIUC (2021-2), preparations were made to close the UGL in order for it to be renovated for their Special Collections. Essentially, they would be swapping the contents of the UGL and the Main Stacks. One time, while looking for graphic novels in …

Parental Behavior, Attachment, And Sibling Outcomes In Asd Families, Bridget W. Mwaura

Theses and Dissertations

Neurotypical siblings of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often experience unique challenges, including increased familial stress and differences in parental treatment, which may affect the sibling bond. Grounded in the Attachment Theory and Siblings Embedded Systems Framework, this study examined relationships among attachment security, parenting behaviors and sibling relationship quality. It was hypothesized that secure parental attachment and helpful parenting behaviors would predict greater sibling closeness and lower conflict, and that attachment security would mediate the relationship between parenting behaviors and sibling relationship quality. Results from a sample of emerging adults (N=91) partially supported these hypotheses. Bivariate …

Create Your Character: Application Of Identity Play Findings From Cosplay And Video Games Onto Tabletop Roleplaying Games, Farhia A. Osman

Theses and Dissertations

Tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) are collaborative, imaginative games in which players create and enact fictional characters within shared narrative worlds. Although research on roleplaying games has expanded in recent years, much of the empirical literature has focused on digital roleplaying games, particularly massively multiplayer online roleplaying games, leaving tabletop roleplaying comparatively understudied. I conducted a study with 173 adult TTRPG players to examine the relations among openness to experience, motivations for playing TTRPGs, and avatar identification. I also explored whether the individual facets to openness to experience predicted motivations for play and avatar identification, and whether players who had portrayed …

An Evolution Of Drag In Theatre: A Historical Reflection, Krista Peters

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will serve as an overarching analysis and historical discussion on the art of drag within the traditional theatrical space. By employing queer theory, I will analyze how the use of drag has evolved throughout the history of Broadway and the United States and how it is responding to the contemporary social attitude. Drawing from the arguments of Butler, Lorde, Rich, Foucault, and others, this thesis uses historical survey to examine the direct representation of drag in theatrical spaces in conjunction with each representation’s sociopolitical and cultural environments. Sociopolitical contemporary contexts of each representation influence not only the form …

The Effect Of Sex On The Signal Transmission Of Duetting Bay Wrens, Rachel C. Schinzler

Theses and Dissertations

During communication, senders send signals for their benefit to elicit a behavioral response from a receiver. Acoustic signals are efficient for long-distance signaling; however, they are influenced by environmental features, such as foliage density, humidity, temperature, and time of day. Individuals can overcome these challenges by using signals with a trajectory of peak frequency, frequencies, volumes, and timing best suited to signal transmission in their environment. Signal transmission has been studied at the species level; however, not much is known about sex differences within the same species. Duetting species provide a useful system for examining sex-specific challenges in transmission, as …

From Stage To Screen: Hamilton: An American Musical, Emotional Communication, And Digital Audience Discourse, Christopher J. O'Quinn Jr

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how musical theatre functions as a communicative and affective medium that extends beyond live performance into digital spaces where audiences actively construct and share meaning. Focusing on the Broadway musical Hamilton: An American Musical (throughout the thesis, I will refer to it as Hamilton), this research explores how audiences interpret, express, and create emotional responses through social media platforms. Using a modified digital ethnographic approach, data were collected from Instagram comments on posts from 2024 to 2026. Subsequently, a discourse analysis was employed to identify patterns in emotional expression, lived experience, meaning-making, performer appreciation, and shared …

Examining Incidental Remembering Of Object Properties Specified By Different Invariants, Sanako Hishinuma

Theses and Dissertations

The ecological approach to perceiving and acting hypothesizes that perceiving object properties requires selective detection of invariants – patterns in ambient energy arrays that persist across transformations. Whereas perceiving some properties of wielded objects, such as length and heaviness, requires detecting the moments of inertia, perceiving other properties, such as grasp position, requires detecting the products of inertia. Previous research has shown that when participants perceived the length of wielded occluded objects, they incidentally remembered the heaviness of those objects (Thomas & Riley, 2015). The researchers proposed this occurred because perceiving either property requires detecting the moments of inertia. The …

Children’S And Adult Perspectives On Mental Health In Children’S Youth Literature And Media, Edcel J. Cintron-Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation extends existing work on mental health in children’s literature to examine the different narratives strategies that text, film, and media for young audiences use to connect childhood, caregiving, and emotional wellbeing. Three areas of scholarship—children’s literature scholarship, health humanities work, and feminist care ethics—inform my project. Overall, I am interested in how a variety of genres for young readers represent mental health not only as an individual experience, but also as something shaped by family, culture, community, and adult-child relationships. It is therefore important to delineate the different concepts and frameworks that help make sense of how mental …

Why Make Books In Art Class Or Art In Reading Class? How Storytelling Impacts Youth Literacy And Cultural Dialogue, Holly Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

Given complex factors affecting reading literacy and students’ need for empowerment through creativity, this thesis project will investigate possibilities for combining artmaking with written narrative. Creative solutions, such as integrated and project-based learning activities, are documented as having some of the best positive impacts on overall learning growth (Laur, 2021; Aydin & Mutlu, 2023). Therefore, my thesis includes a discussion on Arts Integration initiatives and an illustrated book for students ages 10-15, which can be used as an example for their own studies into personal narrative. While the research presented here touches on multiple factors affecting students’ self-esteem and willingness …

Effects Of Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Strategies On Job Attitudes And Well-Being, Kara Cannon

Theses and Dissertations

Interpersonal emotion regulation involves using social interactions to influence their own or another’s emotions (Gross, 1998). Although previous research has examined the relationships between intrapersonal emotion regulation and workplace outcomes, there is a lack of research on interpersonal emotion regulation in the workplace context. The current study extends this research by examining the relationships between interpersonal emotion regulation strategies, co-rumination, well-being, and job satisfaction, and examines which interpersonal emotion regulation strategies are better predictors of the outcome variables than others. Positive correlations between interpersonal emotion regulation strategies and well-being and between co-rumination and well-being were found. Perspective taking and enhancing …

The Right To Read: Opposing The Censorship Of Young Adult Literature On Grounds Of Sexually Explicit Content, Kate Fortner

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I use intersections between sexuality studies, feminism, queer theory, and theories of children’s and young adult literature to examine and historicize the prevalence of book bans and challenges between 2020 and 2025 that target young adult literature on the basis of sexually explicit content. To understand the opposition to portrayals of underage heterosexuality, I analyze John Green’s Looking for Alaska, considering its history of censorship as well as the author’s response to those bans. To understand the challenges to depictions of LGBTQ+ identities aimed at young people, I look at Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer and Juno …