Education Commons^™

Acculturation And Alcohol Drinking Behavior Among Chinese International University Students In The Midwest, Shuangshuang Cai

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between alcohol consumption and acculturation among Chinese international university students in the Midwestern part of the United States. A sample of 91 students from a university in the Midwest participated in the study. All were Chinese and included undergraduate and graduate students. Measures used included the General Ethnicity Questionnaire–Chinese Version (Abridged); the General Ethnicity Questionnaire–American Version (Abridged); the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ-3); the Alcohol Use Questionnaire, consisting of two subscales, drinking frequency and drinking quantity; and a demographic form created by the author. Results indicated that older Chinese international students …

Lest I Forget: Case Studies In Listening To High School Students Struggling With Academic Literacy, Lois M. Todd-Meyer

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Adolescents who struggle with the academic literacy demands of high school have often experienced years of frustration and even failure with literacy learning. School districts are now accountable for making sure all students achieve a prescribed level of proficiency as measured by standardized and performance assessments. How can educators best help adolescents who struggle with literacy reach a level of proficiency that will facilitate their success not only on standardized tests, but will also help them become engaged citizens of our democracy? The purpose of this study was to listen closely to high school students who were identified as struggling …

Latina/O First Generation College Students And College Adjustment: An Examination Of Family Support Processes, Patricia R. Cerda-Lizarraga

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

First generation Latina/o college students are at a higher risk for not completing their college degrees when compared to other ethnic minorities due to added barriers and challenges of being the first to go to college. Researchers reported that poor college adjustment is one of the factors contributing to the lack of college completion among Latina/o college students. A few studies exist on the role that family support has on the college adjustment of Latina/o students and these yielded mixed findings. The central role of the family among Latina/o students and their support during the college adjustment period merits attention. …

Evaluating Count Outcomes In Synthesized Single-Case Designs With Multilevel Modeling: A Simulation Study, Kirstie L. Bash

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Complex statistical techniques such as multilevel modeling (MLM) ideally require substantial sample sizes in order to avoid assumption violations. Unfortunately, large between-subjects sample sizes can be impractical and, in some cases, impossible in real-world applications. The use of single-case designs (SCD) allow researchers to overcome this issue. The ability to handle non-normal outcomes appropriately in such single-case designs, however, remains unclear, especially when the outcome reflects recurrent event (count) data.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the utility of MLM for evaluating recurrent event outcomes in synthesized single-case designs. More specifically, this study seeks to determine the effects …

Teacher Reaction To Change In The Lutheran Elementary School: A Grounded Theory Approach, Kim D. Marxhausen

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Schools, and the teachers and administrators who work in them, need the flexibility to adapt to current student needs. Past research has focused on organizations and plans for change; little research has been done on individual teacher reaction to change situations leaving a gap in the literature. The goal of this constructivist grounded theory study was to explore how individual teachers, in LCMS Lutheran elementary schools, react when presented with change. Data were collected through interviews involving an event history calendar to facilitate memory. A theoretical sampling process was used to collect and analyze data utilizing a constant comparative method. …

How A Healthy Population Acquires Nutrition And Exercise Information: A Mixed Methods Study, Sally J. Hillis

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Faced with an overwhelming amount of available sources and different perspectives, researchers in the field of Nutrition and Health Sciences continually strive to identify key factors that shape a healthy lifestyle. Employing an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, phase one of this research utilized a constructivist grounded theory approach to develop a model explaining the process by which healthy individuals acquire nutrition and exercise information. Interested is studying a population identified by good nutrition and daily exercise, the researcher set the participant criteria to include daily consumption of 2-3 balanced meals, 45-60 minutes daily moderate-intensity exercise, and a normal BMI. …

Using Group Video Self-Modeling In The Classroom To Improve Transition Speeds With Elementary Students, Matthew T. Mcniff

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Video self-modeling has been proven to be an effective intervention for individuals with a variety of disabilities and behavioral issues. Very few studies have addressed the impact of video modeling on behaviors that are displayed by groups of students and no studies have tackled the issue of group behaviors with video self-modeling as an intervention. This study focused on analyzing the effects of video self-modeling on students in an elementary classroom in order to increase the speed at which the students lined up and transitioned. Further, the study addressed the question of whether the intervention had a differential impact on …

Exploring Deployment And Resilience Through The Experiences Of Army National Guard Youth, Kerrie Joy Rosheim

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Global War on Terror utilized Army National Guard soldiers at unprecedented rates, drastically changing their reserve role and the lifestyle of their families. This qualitative study explored what the adolescent children of Army National Guard soldiers experienced during the deployment of a parent and how they conceptualized and demonstrated resilience. Through individual interviews with nine participants, who collectively have experienced over 17 years of deployment during adolescence, and email survey results of their primary caregivers, the following three themes emerged to capture the essence of deployment for Army National Guard youth. Deployment can be viewed as “a mixed bag” …

The Impact Of Sexual Violence On Intimate Relationship Dynamics: A Grounded Theory Study, Nicole M. Lozano

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study intended to develop a theory that explains the relationship dynamics of opposite-sex couples in which the female partner has been sexually victimized as an adult outside of the couple relationship. Four couples participated in the study sharing their experiences of disclosing the assault, communicating about the assault, physical intimacy, and salience of the assault to the relationship. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach the model emerged from the data. Overall, the women decided to disclose because they felt secure in their current intimate relationship. Disclosure happened for one of two reasons: (a) either to test the relationship and …

Tacit Cultural Knowledge: An Instrumental Qualitative Case Study Of Mixed Methods Research In South Africa, Debra Rena Miller

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Notwithstanding the dramatic expansion of mixed methods research, research methodologies, methods, and findings are culturally situated. Problematically, studies conducted outside the global north often embrace canonical methodologies aimed at understanding concepts more explicit than tacit. Learning about the needs of researchers and participants in South Africa may bring to light taken-for-granted assumptions in Anglo-American orientations of mixed methods. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore aspects of tacit cultural knowledge that contextualize mixed methods research in South Africa.

In-person interviews among South African professors as well as a corpus of books, sections, journal articles, and theses informed the …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Their Interactions With Shy Preschool Children: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Sara Swenson

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study explored preschool teachers’ perceptions of their interactions with shy children in the classroom. A qualitative phenomenology was chosen to capture the experiences of the teachers and gain an understanding of the phenomena they experience in the classroom.

Shyness refers to an individual’s feelings of uneasiness or hesitation when faced with a novel or unfamiliar situation (Coplan and Armer, 2007). With about 40% of children being shy (Caspi, Edler, & Bem, 1988; Lazarus, 1982; Zimbardo, 1977) and with increasing numbers of children enrolling in preschool, looking at how shy children are perceived is key to beginning to understand how …

Children's Implicit Beliefs About Intelligence, Carly Champagne

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Young children are commonly perceived as highly optimistic and confident, and therefore seldom arouse concern as to how they are impacted by academic failure. However, there is evidence to suggest that young children can indeed be negatively affected by failure experiences. Implicit theories of intelligence can provide individuals with a framework by which to perceive failure, though little is known about when these theories begin to develop. The current study explores whether children as young as three and a half to four years of age demonstrate patterns indicative of incremental or entity theories of intelligence as a response to challenge …

Traditional Alcohol Use Among Rural Yi Minority In China: An Application Of Theory Of Planned Behavior, Yonghua Feng

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

It is estimated that 25% of the alcohol consumed in China as traditional alcohol. This study explored the drinking patterns and the motives to use traditional alcohol among a sample of the Yi minority in southern China. The Theory of Planned Behavior was used to explore motives.

Based on initial fieldwork among the Yi a questionnaire was developed to provide data to describe traditional alcohol use and to assess the constructs of attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control as expressed the Theory of Planned Behavior. The questionnaire was refined and the results served as an adequate measurement to explore …

Examining Sources Of Gender Dif Using Cross-Classification Multilevel Irt Models, Liuhan Cai

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A substantial amount of research has focused on the detection of differential item functioning (DIF) in the past. However, DIF detection and the estimation of DIF effect size do not explain why it occurs. Recent studies have investigated how or why DIF may occur. Improvements in DIF analysis models have made it possible to explore additional covariates as potential sources of DIF by measuring the extent to which these covariates account for variation in performance. The current study examines variability in math performance accounted for by gender, which is referred as gender DIF. This study then investigates how the presence …

Understanding Childhood Maltreatment: Literature Review And Practical Applications For Educators, Sarah E. Wright

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this thesis is to conduct a critical and descriptive review of the research related to children who experience trauma due to maltreatment—whether because of physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological abuse and neglect—their effects on children, and the potential impact in school and how educational personnel can support the needs of these students. An overview of child maltreatment and review of the literature related to children who have experienced maltreatment was provided including: (a) type of maltreatment, (b) prevalence of maltreatment, (c) effects of maltreatment, (d) treatment approaches, and (f) relevance for educators. The methods and results for …

An Evaluation Of The Impact Of A Couples Enrichment Program On Relationship Satisfaction, Communication, Conflict Resolution, And Forgiveness, Chelsi A K Davis

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Relationship enrichment programs serve to promote the development of healthy intimate relationships (Halford, Markman, Kling, & Stanley, 2003). There are hundreds of relationship enrichment programs available in the United States, alone (smartmarriages.com, 2013). Weekend to Remember is a faith-based relationship enrichment program which has not yet been the subject of empirical evaluation. This is not unusual. A select few of these types of interventions have received research attention, and little of this research has been published in peer reviewed journals. This study aims to contribute to this small body of existing literature by examining the effectiveness of the Weekend to …

The Effects Of Expository Text Structure Instruction On The Reading Outcomes Of 4th And 5th Graders Experiencing Reading Difficulties, Janet J. Bohaty

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a standard protocol supplemental expository text structure intervention (i.e., Structures) on 45 4^th and 5^th graders experiencing reading difficulties. Students were enrolled in six K-8 parochial schools located in a Midwestern suburban city. Within classrooms, students were randomly assigned to Structures intervention or a business-as-usual control condition. Students in the Structures condition were taught to identify and discriminate among the five text structures used by authors of expository text (Meyer, 1975, 1985): description, sequence, cause/effect, compare/contrast, and problem/solution. Students in the business-as-usual control condition participated in the …

Parent-Teacher Relationships Across Community Types, Amanda Witte

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Children with social-behavioral problems are at high risk for developing long-term, pervasive adjustment problems. Home–school relationships may be critical to alleviating the negative effects of behavior problems and to fostering student success. The environment or community in which homes and schools are situated represents an important influence on the home–school relationship. Despite the evidence supporting positive parent–teacher relationships and the association between community context and educational practices and student outcomes, little is known about the relation between community context and parent–teacher relationships. The manner in which cumulative risk factors and child behavior problems influence the link between community type and …

A Study Of Life Skills From Traditional And Afterschool 4-H Participants, Julia M. Kreikemeier

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cooperative Extension has been serving youth and their families for over one hundred years. The total impact of this service has been measured on several occasions by many researchers, most notably in the research of youth development by Dr. Richard Learner; however, his research only took into account those who participated in traditional 4-H clubs. The purpose of this quantitative study was designed to examine which life skills youth participants in traditional and afterschool 4-H programs reported. Quantitative methodology was used to collect post-program survey data of youth participants. Qualitative informal interviews were conducted of Extension Educators and afterschool 4-H …

Trajectories Of Anxious Withdrawal In Early Childhood, Irina Kalutskaya

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to examine the developmental trajectory of anxious withdrawal in a group of 3-year old children in transition to kindergarten. This study also examined the role of high quality classroom environments for children, and the role of multiple risk factors for parents on development of children’s anxious withdrawal. The current sample consisted of 1938 3-year old children (49% female) followed across four time points (Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, and Spring 2012) as a part of the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES 2009), 20% of the children were White, non-Hispanic, 35% …

A Comparison Of Population-Averaged And Cluster-Specific Approaches In The Context Of Unequal Probabilities Of Selection, Natalie A. Koziol

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Sampling designs of large-scale, federally funded studies are typically complex, involving multiple design features (e.g., clustering, unequal probabilities of selection). Researchers must account for these features in order to obtain unbiased point estimators and make valid inferences about population parameters. Single-level (i.e., population-averaged) and multilevel (i.e., cluster-specific) methods provide two alternatives for modeling clustered data. Single-level methods rely on the use of adjusted variance estimators to account for dependency due to clustering, whereas multilevel methods incorporate the dependency into the specification of the model.

Although the literature comparing single-level and multilevel approaches is vast, comparisons have been limited to the …

Conjoint Behavioral Consultation Via Distance Delivery (Cbc-D): An Evaluation Of Efficacy And Acceptability, Michael J. Coutts

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Despite greater prevalence rates of child mental health and behavior problems, rural areas are often overlooked by researchers in favor of urban areas that provide larger, more diverse samples. However, rural children’s problems manifest differently across home and school than what is seen in urban and suburban contexts. Conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC; Sheridan & Kratochwill, 2008) is an evidence-based family-school partnership intervention wherein families and schools collaborate with a consultant to address child concerns. In its traditional format, the time specialized nature of delivering CBC and time and travel commitments needed by participants limits the feasibility of CBC as an …