Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Effect Of Communication And Time Spent With Children On The Parenting Difficulties Of Single Parents In Korea, Ki Jeong Park

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

This research aims to analyze the effect of the time spent with children and the degree of communication with children on the difficulties of parenting children by single parents in Korea. As for the single parents' parenting difficulties, economic hardships have been widely discussed. However, not many studies examined other psychosocial factors between single parents and children, such as the problem of communication between parents and children and the lack of time spent with parents and children, despite their importance in parenting children. This study claims that the focus of public policies, governmental support, and non-profit organizations' roles to resolve …

A Multiple Goals Perspective On Burnout Disclosure And Support Among Attending Physicians, Alison N. Buckley

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Burnout is a common experience among physicians and has been identified as a precursor to substance abuse and suicide ideation. When not addressed, burnout can have many negative personal, relational and professional consequences. Research about the burnout experience is limited due to the taboo nature of the topic. The present study used a multiple goals theoretical perspective to examine how physicians disclose burnout in order to access social support. Attending physicians from various specialties (N = 30) participated in one-on-one interviews and were asked to discuss their burnout experience, conversational goals during burnout disclosure, catalysts and barriers for disclosure, and …

Integrating Persuasive Messaging Strategies Into Higher Education Early Alert Interventions To Improve Student Academic Behaviors, Joseph Gayheart

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Higher Education is at a critical juncture as both public and private institutions seek to attract, retain, and graduate students. Institutions of higher education have traditionally developed communication and engagement strategies that become part of early warning/alert systems intended to increase student positive academic behaviors and improve student success. Persuasion can be a powerful tool in improving communication—especially when persuasive messages are deployed within the complex and ever-changing media landscape. Communication and persuasion scholars, for example, have applied persuasive messaging interventions in a variety of contexts but have yet to substantially apply these persuasive tactics in a higher education setting. …

Building Communication, Collaboration, And Self-Efficacy Among Elementary School Counselors Through Communities Of Practice, Garrett Rimey

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

There are few life-changing experiences like transitioning from elementary school to middles school. A new setting, new peers, new teachers, and new structures have been shown to elicit a myriad of emotions from students as they transition into middle school. A student’s academic record, accommodations, and other pertinent academic information follow a student into middle school; however, their social and emotional portfolio does not. Research has shown that students who are negatively impacted the most by transitioning into middle school also show their academics are negatively impacted, with title 1 students showing to be even more negatively impacted. However, school …

Gay Men And Satisfaction With Health Care Interactions, Michael Huggins

Theses and Dissertations--Nursing

The purpose of this research was to determine relationships among depression, anxiety, self-rated physical and mental health, self-advocacy, internalized homophobia, and quality of patient-provider communication to satisfaction with health care interactions. These were measured while controlling for select demographic variables: age; ethnicity; urban or rural domicile; relationship status; household income; highest educational attainment; health insurance; disclosure to health care provider as a gay man; reason for last healthcare visit; and, general health self-rating. The specific aims of this study were to: 1) identify general characteristics of gay men in this sample; 2) examine how levels of satisfaction with health care …

Budweiser In The 2017 Super Bowl: Dialectic Values Advocacy And The Rhetorical Stakeholder, Benjamin P. Windholz

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Organizational-public relations discourse is changing given the advent of social media, and corporate statements are evaluated under different criteria in the digital age. Grounding Budweiser’s response to controversy over their 2017 Super Bowl advertisement in terms of consumer expectations for corporate social responsibility provides a new perspective for approaching Bostdorff and Vibbert’s (1994) conceptualization of values advocacy. This study recognizes the power of the rhetorical stakeholder, a discursively created public, and demands re-evaluation of the values common to society from a co-creational OPR perspective. Conceptualizing dialectic values advocacy outlines the changing values among contemporary, common stakeholders as well as the …

Going Gaga: Pop Fandom As Online Community Of Practice, John D. N. Carter

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

Among various fan sites dedicated to pop stars, GagaDaily is one prominent online collective that centers around Lady Gaga. This study is a piece of ethnographic research focused on two claims – GagaDaily constitutes a Community of Practice (Eckert, 2006) in an online setting, and the regular use of humor by users fulfills social and pragmatic roles in the discourse. Communicative phenomena (both textual and graphic) that characterize the linguistic repertoire of GagaDaily members were catalogued from the first 100 pages of one thread within the forums. These data were grouped into categories corresponding to different dimensions of language use …

Communicating Social Support: Understanding Complexities Of Breastfeeding Communication Among African American Mothers, Nicole Rachael Peritore

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Breast milk is the best choice for meeting the nutritional needs for an infant whenever possible. Despite the knowledge that this nutritional choice is the best choice for an infant, data demonstrates that there is a sharp decline in the rates of breastfeeding mothers. Among African Americans, breastfeeding rates are significantly lower than the national averages. Despite many of the applications of social support in communication research, there is a gap in knowledge on the social support systems in the context of breastfeeding, especially for African Americans. With the social ecological model as a framework, social support theory provides understanding …

Family Dinner Across Generations: My How Times Have Changed?, Dayna E. Parrett

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

In an effort to determine differences between family dinners across generations, this study examined typical family dinners of participants and how they have changed across the four generations addressed. Previous qualitative research has been conducted to determine communication frames that occur during family dinners and the effect of parenting styles on family dinners, but little research connecting generational differences to family dinners has been published. Data were collected from a homogeneous sample of twenty-four women living in three counties across the Commonwealth of Kentucky. By asking open ended questions during interviews, similarities and differences between family dinners across generations were …

Communication During First-Time Multidisciplinary Clinic Visits: Navigating Parental Decision Making And Uncertainty Management In Pediatric Chronic Illness, Anna M. Kerr

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Individuals with chronic illnesses must manage long-term uncertainty and decision making as they cope with the ways the illness influences almost every aspect of their lives. In the context of pediatric illnesses, parents assume the burden of uncertainty management and decision making during the diagnosis and treatment of their child’s illness. It is common for children with complex chronic illnesses to see multiple specialists for the treatment of their condition. The first visit to a specialist is often more elaborate than a routine primary care visit. While previous research has explored parents’ decision making and uncertainty management during a child’s …

The Nature And Perceived Influence Of Lifestyle Discussions With Older Adults In Primary Care, Shoshana H. Bardach

Theses and Dissertations--Gerontology

The Nature and Perceived Influence of Lifestyle Discussions with Older Adults in Primary Care Rationale: A healthy diet and physical activity help with disease prevention and disease management and can promote quality of life regardless of the age at which an individual begins engaging in these behaviors. Despite the value of these health behaviors, many older adults do not follow lifestyle recommendations. Given that older adults frequently interact with the healthcare system, primary care providers are well situated to counsel older adults to improve their health behaviors. Unfortunately, we do not know how to most effectively engage in this counseling. …

The Role Of Acculturation On Bosnian Refugee Adult Child Mate Selection, Emina Herovic

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Forced by the atrocities of war from their native country, Bosnian families came to United States seeking refuge and a new life. Immigrating to a new country, however, involves the process of acculturation which can dilute many native practices. Like many refugees that immigrated, Bosnians sought to adapt to the American way of life, while keeping their traditional ethnic customs, practices, and religion (Val & Iain-Walker, 2003). Many Bosnian refugee parents worked to keep the Bosnian practices prevalent in their first and second generation Bosnian American children. By doing so, Bosnian parents imbedded into their children the original customs, practices, …

Improving Communication Skills Among Nursing Students: Assessing The Comfort Curriculum As An Intervention, Rachel Steckler

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Effective communication is just one of the many skill sets nursing students must master to be effective in their field. A nurse’s role goes far beyond that of medical care. In addition, Today’s nurses should be equipped with a working knowledge of medical management, communication skills, ethical/legal issues, end-of-life care, and team collaboration, among others (e.g., Ferrell, Dahlin, Campbell, Paice, Malloy, & Virani, 2007).Wittenberg-Lyles, Goldsmith, Sanchez-Reilly, and Ragan (2010) contend nurses need to have specialized training protocols focused on developing effective communication skills . The current study employed one such protocol, the COMFORT curriculum, as a tool to teach nursing …

What Now? What Next? A Narrative Analysis Of Cross-Cultural Adaptation And College Student Retention, Jason Matthews Martin

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

First year college student retention is important to colleges and universities nationwide (Bean, 2005). Most of the research on retention focuses on self-report data collected from students after they withdraw from the institution. The present study focuses, instead, on student stories about school, as well as at and about “home” during their first semester.

The experiences of students who transition from high school to college are sometimes likened to those of individuals who enter a new culture for the first time. Thus, this dissertation is grounded in cross-cultural adaptation theory (Kim, 1988, 2001), which posits that successful adaptation occurs via …

Cultivating Miracle Perceptions: Cultivation Theory And Medical Dramas, Rachael A. Record

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

This thesis reports the results of a study designed to investigate the influence of exposure to televised medical dramas on perceptions of medical miracles. Four hundred and eighty-one college students participated in a survey in which they responded to different questions about their medical drama viewership and their different beliefs with regard to medical miracles. Results found that heavy medical drama viewers perceived belief in medical miracles to be less normal than non-viewers. Similarly, heavy viewers perceived medical miracles to occur less often than non-viewers. Interestingly, heavy viewers perceived medical dramas to be less credible than non-viewers. In addition, this …

An External Communication Audit Of The Kentucky Arts Council: An Analysis Of The Publications Distributed By A State Agency, Jess N. Kropczynski

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Problem

The specific objective of the audit is to conduct a formal examination of how the Kentucky Arts Council (KAC) is communicating with target authorizing groups outside of KAC, such as artists, arts administrators, educators, media and legislators.

Research Strategy

The external communication audit is an instrument used to gauge authorizers’ feedback on the publications distributed regularly by the agency. This audit is designed to paint a picture of the current communication patterns, policies, practices, capabilities and needs in order to make informed recommendations for the improvement of communication. The specific research question guiding this audit is: How effective are …