Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Refuge And A Bridge: Native American Women's Tribal College Experiences, Morgan Duffy

Theses and Dissertations

This study, which focuses on the experiences of Native women attending a tribal college of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, responds to the call by Baird-Olson and Ward (2000) and Almeida (1997) for research that allows Native women, or the "hidden half," to tell their stories. Scant research has examined the value of tribal schools for Native American women and the experiences they have had in relation to their reservation and college lives. Providing narratives of women's experiences can illuminate how higher education in tribal college settings holds multiple values for Native women students as it acts as a refuge and …

Women's Response To Spousal Pornography Use: A Grounded Theory, Misha Duncan Crawford

Theses and Dissertations

Empirical research suggests that married women may more commonly experience spousal pornography use as a relational attachment threat and are more likely to experience negatively associated relational outcomes such as distress and loss of trust. The purpose of this study was to develop a grounded theory of women’s response to concealed spousal pornography use. This study included the experiences of 30 women who reported spousal pornography use as a threat to relational attachment and demonstrated evidence of individual and relational healing thereafter. The research question, “How do women describe the experience of learning of their spouse’s pornography use and the …

Let Us Reason Together: Female Voices In Religious Deliberation, Rachel Finlayson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines deliberation within ward councils of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My findings suggest ward councils can fall short of the democratic ideals articulated by church leaders. This ideal is captured in Jane Mansbridge’s conception of unitary democracy, which emphasizes friendship, equality, and consensus in decision-making regarding common goals. Ward council members report feeling friendship and unity, but reserve authoritative executive power for the bishop alone. This hybrid dynamic creates potential challenges and tensions with the unitary ideal as participants seek to both express their unique perspectives and defer to one authority.

My interviews show …

"Camouflaging" In Women With Autistic Traits: Measures, Mechanisms, And Mental Health Implications, Jonathan S. Beck

Theses and Dissertations

Autistic traits are associated with frequent psychological distress and everyday functional challenges. Some individuals with autistic traits “camouflage” these traits during social interactions by effortfully engaging in “typical” social behaviors. Camouflaging seems to be especially common in autistic girls and women. Emerging evidence proposes a role for camouflaging behaviors in poorer mental health and daily functioning. Furthermore, camouflaging efforts may delay receipt of a proper diagnosis and access to appropriate mental health care. Despite their clinical significance, camouflaging efforts remain difficult to quantify, and the mechanisms and impacts of camouflaging are poorly understood. This study aimed to compare multiple methods …

Sexual And Gender-Based Violence Against Arab Women Refugees: Yazidi Minority In Northern Iraq, Amanda Solomon

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In addition to being at risk of violence from war and conflict, Arab refugee women also have an increased vulnerability to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Aspects inherent to the refugee experience such as a breakdown of the legal system, camp environments, and economic challenges exacerbate the already-pervasive phenomenon of SGBV. This human rights violation is physically, mentally, socially, and economically harmful to women. This thesis utilizes a case study specifically looking at the Yazidi ethnoreligious minority population in northern Iraq, which has been targeted for genocide by Islamic State forces since August 2014. To address the continuing trauma and …

Look Again—Traditional Women As Nontraditional Students: A New Face In Higher Education, Candi Jones Newell

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the experiences of 13 culturally traditional women who returned to higher education as nontraditional students. An individual unstructured interview, with guiding questions, was held with each woman. This provided the opportunity for these women to articulate their experience. The interviews were transcribed and interpreted using a synthesis of qualitative methods based upon Kvale's method. Seven themes emerged: (a) participants would tell a woman considering a return to school to "do it!" (b) participants saw spousal support as significant in their ability to return to school, (c) participants saw their families as generally supportive of their return to …

The Impact Of Gap Years On Academic Outcomes For Women: A Case Study From The Missionary Age Change, Margaret Marchant

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Young adults throughout the United States and other countries participate in “gap years,” or time away from school, often for travel, work, or volunteering. This practice is promoted as a way to mature and refocus. However, some worry that it lowers the likelihood of college completion. Previous literature has investigated the academic, social, and personal benefits of gap years with mixed results; however selection into gap years confounds the true impact with unobservable personal characteristics. To overcome selection issues, I exploit an exogenous policy change that lowered age requirements for missionary service, a unique type of gap year, resulting in …

A Page Of Her Own: How Women Navigate The Public And Private Facets Of Blogging, Emily Marie Flinders

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the complexity of the texts women create through blogging and their inherent value. I seek to explore how the mothers who blog are constructing online identities for their family units and family members in this space and how those constructions affect and inform the mothers' construction of their personal identities online. I analyze how perceptions of gender norms and practices of gender performance may affect and inform the identities thus constructed, and further complicate the liminal nature of blogging spaces. I begin with the sociological framework of Erving Goffman, which is commonly used to deconstruct identity performance …

Barriers To Native American Women Veterans’ Health Care Access On Tworeservations: Northern Cheyenne And Flathead, Luma Issa Al Masarweh

Theses and Dissertations

Little research has addressed the needs of Native American veterans. This study aims to provide a better understanding of Native American women veterans’ experiences using data from the Veteran Administration and Indian Health Services. Fifteen interviews were conducted with special attention to quality and quantity of health and mental health care services available to veterans, the barriers and local contextual factors in accessing and utilizing services, and potential solutions to service gaps for women veterans from two Montana reservations, the Northern Cheyenne and Flathead Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. American Indians and Alaska Natives serve at a higher rate in …

Stability And Change In Women's Personality Across The Life Course, Carly D. Lebaron

Theses and Dissertations

The current study sought to examine change and stability of personality in a sample of women over the course of 35 years. Existing research is mixed regarding whether or not personality changes over time or whether it remains stable. Using a sample of 187 women tracked over four time points (approximately 10 years between each time point), change and stability in openness to experience, extraversion, and neuroticism was tested using a stacked multilevel growth curve analysis. Four life course events (transition to parenthood, change in marital status, wife entering or leaving the workforce, and husband retiring) were added as predictors …

Qualitative Analysis Of Women Who Make Motherwork A Career Choice: Religious Minorities, Karen Adell Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

Interviews were conducted with 44 highly religious women from three demographics: Mennonite, Evangelical Christians and Cajun Catholics. The results provide insight into the reasons that faith appears to play a part in making motherwork a deliberate choice for many women. Comparing and contrasting the interviews within and between demographics as well as allowing for the influences of modern academia and media on attitudes toward motherwork grants voice to these often marginalized religious minorities. The resulting analysis shows that all of these women, to varying degrees, find value in motherwork. Each group seemed to have a perspective of this work which …

Desire And Opportunity To Marry Among Black South African Women, Colleen Rebecca Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how demographic and attitudinal variables are associated with Black South African women's desire to marry. Data from the South African Social Attitudes Survey are used to measure the impact of age, education, living standard, religiosity, urbanicity, cohabitation, and attitudes towards woman's careers, the acceptability of cohabitation, gender roles, unwed childbearing, and the financial and emotional security marriage provides on the desire to marry. Analyses indicate the following are associated with the desire to marry among Black South African women: age, cohabitation, attitudes towards cohabitation, and attitudes towards the financial and emotional security marriage provides. Secondly, data from …

Time Out For Women Magazine: A New Magazine Prospectus Informed By A Historical Review And Qualitative Study On The Media Uses Of Mormon Women, Maurianne Dunn

Theses and Dissertations

This project uses a qualitative research approach to understanding Mormon women's uses and gratifications of magazines. The first study provides a retrospective look at the uses and gratifications of readers of the Relief Society Magazine (1915–1970) in order to understand where media targeted to Mormon women has been. Through interviews, focus groups and questionnaires, the study finds the main reasons Mormon women read the Relief Society Magazine was to provide (a) a handbook for daily life, (b) a community, (c) intellectual stimulation, (d) an aspirational ideal, and (e) an escape from daily life. When the magazine ceased publication, readers felt …

The Correlation Between The Eating Attitudes Test And Body Shape Questionnaire, Maren L. Kanekoa

Theses and Dissertations

This research examined the relationship between eating attitudes and body image dissatisfaction using the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) and the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ). Three cohorts of almost 2,000 undergraduate females from Brigham Young University were given the EAT and BSQ twice a year for two to four years, depending upon their year of entrance to BYU. The data collected were analyzed using correlational statistics. Results indicated that a high positive correlation between the EAT and BSQ existed across semesters and cohorts.

Superficial Self-Harm Behavior: Helping Young Women Who Hurt Themselves, Katherine D. Ryan

Theses and Dissertations

Roughly 1 to 4% of the population engages in self-harm. Superficial self-harm is reported by more young women, than young men. Appropriate responses from family, friends, and other important individuals are a key ingredient in facilitating recovery. Non-therapists, such as family, friends, and school personnel often wish to assist young women who self-harm, but the problem is complex and they are often unsure of how to respond. Current studies primarily focus on the clinical interventions for self-harm, while very few have investigated the perspectives of the individuals who self-harm. This study investigated the perspectives of young women who self-harm in …

Facing The Caree/Family Dichotomy: Traditional College Women's Perspectives, Lisa Michelle Leavitt

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the experience of 32 traditional college freshmen women as they sought to choose a career with the idea of balancing career and family in the future. A traditional woman was defined as a woman whose central value system and cultural mores emphasize homemaking and childrearing as their primary role. Guided interviews were conducted to obtain in-depth descriptions of participants' experience. The interviews were transcribed and interpreted using a synthesis of qualitative methods based on Kvale's method. The six themes were as follows: 1. The concept of balancing careers and family life is not being discussed or …

Women's Response To Spousal Unemployment: Economic, Labor Force, And Family Constraints, Elizabeth Miklya Legerski

Theses and Dissertations

Using data collected from 29 interviews with the wives of steelworkers who were forced into unemployment, I explore the conditions and factors that shape women's choices in response to their husbands' job loss. Access to a unique and under-studied sample of women married to unemployed working-class men necessitates the use of grounded theory research techniques that allow me to "give voice" to working-class women.

Community And Land Attachment Of Chagga Women On Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, Elizabeth Parnell Carr

Theses and Dissertations

Chagga women who control land on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, have a deep and profound sense of attachment to their lands and homes. This thesis compares their reasons for attachment to the systemic model. The systemic model states that community attachment is dependent on social ties and interactions. The three factors that lead to these ties are length of residence, social status, and age. In-depth interviews with women in 2002 and 2003, a survey from 2002, and field notes from 2002 and 2003 are used to explain the main factors of attachment of women in three villages on the mountain: Mbahe, …

"Woman Arise!": Political Work In The Writings Of Lu Dalton, Sheree Maxwell Bench

Theses and Dissertations

In 1872, Mormon plural wife, educator, and suffragist Lucinda Lee Dalton began writing fiery political essays and insightful poetry for the Woman's Exponent from her small community in southern Utah. Through her writings Dalton endeavors to shape the opinions of Exponent readers by working within public discourse toward the goal of equality for women. At times both optimistic and troubled, she uses the rhetorical strategies of humor, irony, reason, identification, and persuasion to educate men and women on disparities and to encourage women to participate actively in their own emancipation. She often engages in a dialogical process with other writers …

Utah's Anti-Polygamy Society, 1878-1884, Barbara Hayward

Theses and Dissertations

The Anti-Polygamy Society was established in 1878 to try to encourage Congress to abolish the practice of plural marriage tn Utah Territory. In the brief time that it existed, the women of this Utah-based group sent petitions, circulars, and letters to Congress and many leaders of the country urging that laws be passed to end polygamy. Much of their work was also carried out in the society's newspaper, the Anti-polygamy Standard.

By the time that laws were passed that restricted polygamy, the Anti-polygamy Society no longer existed. Nonetheless, the society was important in the anti-polygamy crusade because it was …

The Lord's Definition Of Woman's Role As He Has Revealed It To His Prophets Of The Latter Day, Mildred Chandler Austin

Theses and Dissertations

The Lord has not left women to wonder how to perform during mortality. The teachings of the ten presidents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have given very satisfying answers to most questions, and have invited women to ask God for inspiration of their own for further, personalized direction.

The counsel of the prophets gives women directions concerning whom, when, and where to marry. However, if the proper opportunities for a Church-recommended marriage don't present themselves, women are told to be patient and to spend their time giving one of the several services for which they are …