Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Assessing Farmers’ Perceptions Of Best Management Practices: An Exploration Of The Viewpoints Of Cotton And Peanut Farmers In Georgia Using Q Methodology, William R. Taylor, Abigail Borron, Jessica Holt, Scott Monfort

Journal of Applied Communications

While Georgia is one of the top producers of cotton and peanuts in the Unites States, much attention has been centered on ensuring sustainability in the production of these crops. The need to understand what drives farmers’ decision to utilize voluntary best management practices is critical for the improvement of strategies focused on increasing farmers’ adoption of these practices. Empirical evidence that identifies influential factors in farmers’ decision to adopt best management practices have yet to produce consistent predictors of adoption behavior. This has led to increased calls for unique approaches examining how farmers’ views and motivations impact their adoption …

Business Operators’ Perception Of The Impact Of The Portuguese Way Of St. James, Paula Remoaldo, Eduardo Duque, Vítor Ribeiro, José Cadima Ribeiro, Hélder Silva Lopes, Sandro Ferreira, Cátia Faria

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This research aims to analyse business operators’ perception of the impact of the Portuguese Way of St. James and to assess the landscape situation along a total section of 115 kilometres. Perceptions were collected in a survey of 112 small operators between 2020 and 2021. The diversity and singular components of the landscape make it a pleasant route to experience, where pilgrims have the possibility to improve wellbeing, and enjoy the landscape. Operators have profited from the significant increase in the number of pilgrims walking along the Way and claim that they aim to continue their operations.

Exploring Identities Of Extension Faculty And Educators As Science Communicators, Klae O'Brien, Carrie N. Baker, Sarah A. Bush, Maggie Elliot, Kattlyn J. Wolf

Journal of Applied Communications

This research explored the relationship between University of Idaho (UI) Extension educators and faculty’s social identity as science communicators and their most-used communication type. This non-experimental, sequential, mixed-method study with a qualitative priority utilized surveys and interviews to gather data. This paper will focus on the qualitative and mixing components of the study. We used stratified purposive sampling based on location and most used communication type to select participants for interviews and conducted interviews to understand their social identities as science communicators. We identified five main themes: continual development, technology, research dissemination, evaluation for motivation, and community relationships. We employed …

American Perspectives On The Legitimacy Of Transgender Identities, Sethe Zachman

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This mixed-method project examines how Americans’ and Nebraskans’ perceptions of the validity of transgender identities varies by the demographic characteristics of respondents, and how these perceptions are justified. Two representative surveys are used to examine demographic associations with opinion on the cisgender and transgender binary: the 2023 American Values Atlas (AVA) from the Public Religion Research Institute (N=4,788) and the 2022 Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS) (N=934) from the Bureau of Sociological Research. A measure from the AVA data examines the degree to which respondents believe there are only two genders versus a range of gender identities. The NASIS …

Strategies For Educators To Teach Mixed Methods Research: A Discussion, Ahtisham Younas, Angela Durante Dr., Sergi Fàbregues Feijóo Dr., Elsa Lucia Escalante-Barrios

The Qualitative Report

Mixed methods research has become increasingly popular in multiple disciplines. Teaching mixed methods is critical to prepare students for using and evaluating the quality of published mixed methods research to inform practice. However, there is limited knowledge about instructional and pedagogical approaches to teaching mixed methods. The purpose of this paper is to outline strategies for educators on how to effectively teach mixed methods research. Teaching mixed methods requires educators to use multifaceted teaching and learning strategies targeting reflective, experiential, collaborative, and inquiry-based learning domains. Including case studies, games, and critical appraisal exercises can result in a more engaging and …

The Cultural Relevance Of The Well-Being Promotion Program, Gabrielle Francis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Schools are well-situated to be a primary setting to provide mental health services to youth. In fact, most minoritized students who receive mental health services do so through school (Ali et al., 2019). However, even school-based mental health services are not equitably accessed and provided for diverse populations of students, and minoritized students are less likely to have their mental health needs met in schools (Gudiño et al., 2009; Thomas et al., 2011). There are several reasons for the disparity in mental health services amongst students including the cultural relevance of interventions (Santiago-Rosario et al., 2021) and the early departure …

Where Numbers Meet Narratives: An Examination Of Joint Displays In Mixed Methods Evaluation, Natalie D. Jones

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The use of Mixed Methods (MM) in evaluation has increasingly become a valuable asset in evaluators' methodological toolbox. Despite prolific research on various aspects of mixed methods, from typologies to ontological debates, there remains a dearth of empirically derived evidence on effectively communicating MM findings. This lack of empirical research is compounded by criticism regarding the integration in MM studies. A prominent means of addressing both integration of data strands and communicating findings in MM studies is through joint displays.This study presents a multiphase exploration into how evaluators communicate MM findings and the visual efficiency of joint displays compared to …

Frozen By Worry And Fatigue? A Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding The Lived Experiences Of Freezing Of Gait, Sarah M. Ghose

Theses and Dissertations

This study utilized a mixed methods emergent, phenomenological approach to (1) understanding the lived experience of freezing of gait for individuals diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and (2) determining the role of anxiety and sleep in freezing of gait outcomes. Participants included 13 adults diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (N=14 for qualitative data, N=13 for quantitative data; 23.1% female-identifying, 76.9% male-identifying) who were predominantly white (92.3%) with an average age of 69 years (SD = 6.73 years). Data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews, self-report measures, actigraphic sleep data, and salivary alpha amylase biomarker collection. Results are organized into …

Ain’T I A Survivor Too: Contextualizing Black Women’S Experience Of Sexual Trauma And Healing, Danielle Alyssa Samuel

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The double bind of Black womanhood has been long documented in Black feminist literature. This dissertation seeks to greatly contextualize how Black women experience make sense of, and heal from, sexual trauma given the nature of gendered racism in the United States (U.S). Utilizing a convergent parallel design grounded in Black Feminist Theory and hermeneutic phenomenology, the lived experiences of 98 Black women from across the U.S. were investigated. Regression analyses revealed that the frequency of gendered racial microaggressions and the associated appraisal were not significant predictors of participants’ PTSD symptoms. Additionally, PTSD symptoms were inversely predictive of current perceptions …

Examining Systemic And Dispositional Factors Impacting Historically Disenfranchised Schools Across North Carolina, Raketa Ouedraogo-Thomas

Dissertations

This mixed method sequential explanatory study provided analysis of North Carolina (NC) school leaders’ dispositions in eliminating opportunity gaps, outlined in NC’s strategic plan. The study’s quantitative phase used descriptive and correlation analysis of eight Likert subscales around four tenets of transformative leadership (Shields, 2011) and aspects of critical race theory (Bell, 1992; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 2006) to understand systemic inequities and leadership attitudes.

The qualitative phase comprised three analyses of education leadership dispositions and systemic factors in NC schools. The first analysis of State Board of Education meeting minutes from 2018–2023 quantified and analyzed utterances of racism …

Beyond Dystopia: The Effect Of Reading Hopeful Climate Fiction On Climate Anxiety And Environmental Self-Efficacy, Brandon Mcwilliams

WWU Graduate School Collection

Climate communication and climate storytelling have thus far been unrelentingly bleak. However, growing evidence suggests that the barrage of negative, technical communication may result in negative mental health impacts and doesn’t necessarily translate into climate action. Rather than continuing to focus on technical and fear-based communication, there are calls to shifts towards narrative communication and hopeful communication frames. In this study, I investigate what effect hopeful climate fiction has on readers through three related avenues of inquiry using the popular solarpunk novella A Psalm for the Wild Built as an experimental text. I examined (1) what effect, if any, the …

A Checklist To Design And Evaluate Systems-Informed Wellbeing Initiatives: A Mixed Methods Validation Study, Jaclyn Gaffaney

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic shed light on global mental health struggles, underscoring the need to prioritize wellbeing. Many disciplines currently research aspects of wellbeing, ranging from psychology, behavioral economics, public health, and public policy, to prevention, evaluation, and education. However, researchers have rarely integrated insights across disciplines or extracted meaningful nuance from real-world applications. Many wellbeing interventions can also fall short due to poor design and execution as well as inadequate application of systems thinking and culturally responsive lenses. This dissertation addressed these gaps by creating a structured framework for crafting and assessing systems-informed wellbeing initiatives in the form of the …

Identifying And Promoting Qualitative Methods For Impact Assessment, Heidi Walker, Jenny Pope, Angus Morrison-Saunders, Alan Bond, Alan P. Diduck, A. John Sinclair, Brendan Middel, Francois Retief

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Qualitative methods for impact assessment (IA) represent a broad spectrum of approaches that are important for realising effective IA practice. The purpose of this paper is to identify and promote qualitative methods that are available for use in contemporary and future (next-generation) IA processes. From an extensive literature review, an international survey (145 responses), expert interviews (48 interviewees), and a workshop attended by 27 IA practitioners, 17 qualitative method categories were identified. These were further subdivided into three classes: conventional qualitative methods, highly participatory methods, and mixed methods. Each method is described, and an indication given of how each can …

Functional Cynicism, Michelle Fried

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Trait cynicism, or “cynical hostility” as measured by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory’s Cook-Medley Scale, is defined and studied as characteristics associated with psychopathology, interpersonal conflict, and negative health outcomes including heart disease and cognitive decline. Likewise, “organizational cynicism” is operationalized in industrial/organizational psychology for the purpose of describing and identifying an undesirable employee type in the workplace. This research proposes an alternative assessment. It reconnects cynicism with its roots in ancient philosophy by asking if cynical attitudes, despite their negative valence ascribed in the modern literature and conventional opinion, may serve a practical purpose. This study of Functional Cynicism …

Open Educational Resources (Oer) Efficacy And Experiences: A Mixed Methods Study, Jennifer Mayer

University Libraries Publications

This study compared course passing and completion rates of undergraduate students to determine if there was any relationship between use of open educational resources (OER) and these two outcomes. Students who took OER courses and faculty who taught with OER shared their perceptions of the impact of such resources on learning outcomes and teaching methods.

The quantitative analysis revealed that using OER had a positive impact on course passing rates (7 percent increase) and completion rates (10 percent increase) for all students. The qualitative analysis revealed the student perception that OER had some positive impact on their course participation and …

Analyzing African American College Student Willingness To Participate In Clinical Trials, Caitlin B. Ulmer

Senior Theses

Previous studies regarding African American participation in clinical trials have found that African Americans participate at a significantly lower rate than other ethnic/racial groups. Scholars argue that this lack of participation in clinical trials is a direct result of historical trauma linked to unethical experiments and African American distrust in the healthcare system. However, there is a gap in the literature because these studies focus on African American individuals above the age of 30. This study aimed to fill the gap by examining clinical trial participation among African American college students within the ages 18 to 23. This study also …

Investigating The Specific Links Between Adverse Childhood Experiences And Vulnerability To Suicide: A Mixed Methods Study, Priyata Thapa

Dissertations, 2020-current

Suicide is among the leading causes of death in the U.S. and it is imperative to improve prevention efforts (CDC, 2021). Previous research has demonstrated a strong association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and suicide risk (e.g. Felitti et al., 1998; Hughes et al., 2017), and the need for deeper understanding of these associations utilizing developmental and relational perspectives (e.g. Angelakis et al., 2019; Hjelmeland and Knizek, 2020). This study investigated the associations between ACEs, interpersonal learning history in early attachment relationships, and suicidality using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design. The Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB; Benjamin, 1979) …

Does Media Facilitate Parent-Child Race Discussions? A Mixed-Method Study Of White Families, Children's Media, And Implicit Bias During Early Childhood, J. Andan Sheppard

Theses and Dissertations

The study aimed to investigate through mixed methods how White parents approach race discussions with their children, the factors influencing the discussions, and the implications for promoting constructive conversations. The qualitative analysis of the race discussions revealed that White parents preferred ambiguous or scientific language and diverted the discussion to topics other than race, such as gender or general body characteristics. Discussions often involved referencing personal examples of individuals from racial minority backgrounds, even if they were not personally acquainted. The quantitative analysis expanded and clarified these findings, with parent characteristics, such as education level and the frequency of color-evasive …

Practical Recommendations For Mixed Methods Sampling In Psychological Intervention Research: A Mixed Methods Case Study, Analay Perez

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

Sampling is integral to the research process and, if not appropriately addressed, can affect the meta-inferences of the mixed methods study. Sampling is also closely related to recruitment, retention, and additional methodological components. Sampling issues are magnified in social and health sciences intervention research due to the temporal placement of data collection and analysis. Limited research has examined sampling based on researchers’ rationales and decision-making across mixed methods psychological intervention research. This study explored this phenomenon to develop and refine a list of practical recommendations for sampling in mixed methods that were tested using content validity.

Using an exploratory sequential …

A Case For Friendship: A Mixed Methods Investigation Of Close Friendships In Adulthood, Grace Kelly

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Social connections profoundly impact mental and physical health, identity development, and overall well-being. The landscape of personal relationships has changed dramatically over the past decades. Formalized connections and older social structures are evolving (Smock and Schwartz 2020). Loneliness and social isolation are at epidemic proportions and rising, posing widespread societal consequences (Buecker et al. 2021; Cacioppo and Cacioppo 2018). Sociologists have studied relationships like kinship and romantic partnership extensively but have devoted substantially less attention to friendship as a means of providing connection (Eve 2002). My dissertation investigates the importance of platonic friendship bonds in adulthood and explores how these …

Utilizing New Technologies To Measure Therapy Effectiveness For Mental And Physical Health, Jonathan Ossie

Dissertations

Mental health is quickly becoming a major policy concern, with recent data reporting increasing and disproportionately worse mental health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, increased substance abuse, and elevated suicidal ideation. One specific population that is especially high risk for these issues is the military community because military conflict, deployment stressors, and combat exposure contribute to the risk of mental health problems.

Although several pharmacological approaches have been employed to combat this epidemic, their efficacy is mixed at best, which has led to novel nonpharmacological approaches. One such approach is Operation Surf, a nonprofit that provides nature-based programs advocating the restorative …

Sex Trading, Exiting, And Interactions With Police: A Mixed Methods Study Of Women Engaged In Street Level Sex Trading, Daria J. Mueller

Theses and Dissertations

Street level sex trading is associated with multiple risks to health, safety, and well-being, thus many individuals who are currently engaged would like to exit and/or have attempted to do so. Multiple facilitators and barriers at all levels of a person’s ecology have been found to affect the exiting process, such as substance use, formal and informal social supports, and the collateral consequences of criminalization of sex trading. Yet, a more comprehensive examination of the complex interplay of these factors has been lacking. In addition, little attention has focused on women’s encounters with police and the ensuing effects on their …

Exploring Predictors Of Healing From An Expressive Writing Intervention About Heterosexism And Why Lgbtq+ Clients Might Withhold From Their Therapists, Ally B. Hand

Graduate Masters Theses

Heterosexism is a cultural system that impacts LGBTQ+ individuals internally, interpersonally, institutionally, and structurally. Exposure to these different levels of heterosexism, whether enacted overtly, covertly, intentionally, or unintentionally, contributes to the well-documented and disproportionate negative mental health outcomes experienced by the LGBTQ+ community (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine [NASEM], 2020). Subsequently, LGBTQ+ individuals seek out professional mental health services at higher rates than cisgender and heterosexual populations, though access to therapeutic care that addresses sexual minority specific stressors, such as experiencing heterosexism directly, is limited (Williams & Fish, 2020). The current study is a secondary analysis of a …

Modern Impressions: Getting To Know Your Library Website Users, Robin Naughton

Publications and Research

Academic library websites need to support a variety of users (student, faculty, staff, administrator, alumni, etc.) with intellectual pursuits related to research, teaching, and learning, in addition to being user-friendly, valuable and informative. Although the CUNY Queens College Library (QCL) website has been redesigned multiple times, there has not been a formal user research study of the website and its users to inform the redesign. Taking a user-centered approach, specifically the user-centered design (UCD) methodology, this study explores users of an urban academic library website in the United States through the use of triangulation, a mixed-methods approach that includes user …

Assessing Frustration Towards Venezuelan Migrants In Columbia: Path Analysis On Newspaper Coded Data, Brian Llinás, Guljannat Huseynli, Erika Frydenlund, Katherine Palacia, Jose Padilla

Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Student Capstone Conference

This study analyzes the impact of Venezuelan migrants on local frustration levels in Colombia. The study found a relationship between the influx of Venezuelan migrants and the level of frustration among locals towards migrants, infrastructure, government, and geopolitics. Additionally, we identified that frustration types have an impact on other frustrations. The study used articles from a national newspaper in Colombia from 2015 to 2020. News articles were coded during a previous study qualitatively and categorized into frustration types. The code frequencies were then used as variables in this study. We used path modeling to statistically study the relationship between dependent …

Psychosocial Outcomes Of African American Traumatic Race-Based Stress, Zenith Lamb

Senior Theses

Most research into trauma-related mental health concerns has focused predominantly on European American participants, leading to many African American individuals receiving inaccurate diagnoses, if they are able to receive diagnoses at all. This project sought to help fill that gap by identifying clear definitions and examples of “racial trauma” and “race-based stress” - as defined during participation in a focus group interview by the collective experience-based responses of two undergraduate African American students at a predominantly White institution - and identifying symptoms of posttraumatic stress and dissociation - measured by an online survey distributed to the participants that included questions …

A Mixed-Methods Exploration Of Quality Of Life In Forensic Inpatients With Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders On The Social Learning Program, Alexa Hutzenbiler

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This mixed-methods study explored the quality of life and lived experiences of adult individuals with diagnoses of schizophrenia spectrum disorders residing and receiving treatment on the Social Learning Program (SLP) at Fulton State Hospital, a high-security state forensic facility. Eleven participants completed the WHOQOL-BREF quantitative quality-of-life measure. Ten participants completed in-depth, semi-structured, qualitative interviews. Interviews were transcribed then analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. The major themes that emerged included “Working the Program,” “Relationship Dynamics with Self and Others,” “Meaning,” “I’ve Been Having Breakthroughs,” and “Areas for Improvement in the Program.” Combined, the findings of the present investigation demonstrate the utility …

Diving To New Depths: An Exploration Of Aquarium Visitors' Reflection At A Shark Exhibit, Nicole Leigh Conklin

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Zoos and aquariums (Z/As) are conservation-oriented free-choice learning institutions. In order to support their mission of advancing wildlife conservation, Z/As deliberately design opportunities and experiences to meaningfully engage visitors in understanding, caring for, and acting on behalf of exhibited species. Conservation psychologists and practitioners have applied values-based and models of human behavior to design and evaluate experiences aimed to influence myriad cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes. However, there is little research exploring the role of and opportunity for reflection within these institutions. Models of reflection and reflective practice, which are rooted in both theory and empirical data, stress the importance …

Forest Bathing Increases Adolescent Mental Well-Being And Connection To Nature: A Transformative Mixed Methods Study, Jennifer Keller

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Previous research has demonstrated that practicing forest bathing has significant positive effects on well-being. However, few studies have investigated whether forest bathing increases adolescent well-being despite the growing adolescent mental health crisis in the United States. Similarly, few studies have explored forest bathing’s impacts on connectedness to nature. Considering the ongoing environmental crisis, determining if forest bathing increases connectedness to nature is a critical expansion of forest bathing research, as connectedness to nature is linked to environmental care and concern. This study investigated the possibility that forest bathing, a nature-based mindfulness practice, could increase adolescent mental well-being and connectedness to …

Exploring The Definition Of Resilience: A Convergent Parallel Mixed Methods Study In Adults Over The Age Of 65, Sara J. Blessington

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The definition of a word helps us understand its context and how it is meant to be used in daily life or research. When a word lacks a universal definition, it is hard to know how to use it. “Resilience” is that type of word. The resilience community in psychological research does not have a concrete, universal definition for this word. It takes on whatever characteristics are useful to the investigator. This study began with seeking a universal definition for the domain known as resilience. This study used a convergent parallel design with adults aged 60 and older living independently …