Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Multiple Determinants Of Sexualized Behavior In Middle Childhood: A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective, Natasha Elkovitch

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In order to adequately and appropriately intervene with children exhibiting problematic sexual behaviors, a comprehensive understanding of etiology is imperative. Although sexually abused children are observed engaging in more problematic sexual behaviors than their normative or psychiatric counterparts, it is clear that such behaviors may be the result of factors other than, or in addition to, sexual abuse. The goal of the present study was utilize a developmental psychopathology perspective in broadening our understanding of mechanisms associated with the development of problematic sexual behaviors in childhood. Participants for the study include 1, 149 children (51.8% female) drawn from the Longitudinal …

Social Cognition And Interaction Training (Scit) For Individuals With Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders In Outpatient Treatment Settings, Petra Kleinlein

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The role of social cognition in severe mental illness (SMI) has gained much attention, especially over the last decade. The impact of deficits in socio-cognitive functioning has been found to have detrimental effects on key areas of day-to-day functioning in individuals with SMI, such as gaining and maintaining employment and overall experienced quality of life. Treatment of individuals with SMI is challenging, as the presentation of individual signs and symptoms is rather heterogeneous. There are several treatment approaches addressing deficits ranging from broader social and interpersonal functioning to neurocognitive and more intrapersonal functioning. As research in the domain of social …

The Experience And Expression Of Emotion Within Stepsibling Relationships: Politeness Of Expression And Stepfamily Functioning, Emily Lamb Normand

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While scholars agree there are emotional challenges associated with the divorce and remarriage process, little is known about how stepsiblings interact and manage the experience and expression of emotion within their stepfamily. The current investigation examined the frequency of experience, intensity, and expression of positive, strong negative, and weak negative emotion within stepsibling relationships over time. Using Politeness Theory as a framework, the study also investigated if an association existed between stepsiblings’ use of politeness strategies during the expression of emotion and stepsiblings’ perception of the quality of their relationship and their perception of the entire stepfamily. Participants were 187 …

American Petroleum Institute Research Project 44: Description And Analysis, Richard E. Voeltz

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: White Papers

The American Petroleum Institute, in cooperation with the National Bureau of Standards, initiated its Research Project 44 in 1942. The project was designed to provide reliable information on the thermodynamic and thermophysical properties of selected hydrocarbons and their sulfur-containing derivatives. This information was needed to support the massive demand for fuel, lubricants, and other petroleum products during World War II. The tables containing this information were originally produced in loose-leaf form for refineries, chemical companies, and universities. The tables were subsequently issued in book form in 1948. A newer edition, Selected Values of Physical and Thermodynamic Properties of Hydrocarbons and …

When Governments Break The Law: The Rule Of Law And The Prosecution Of The Bush Administration., David P. Forsythe

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

This edited collection by Austin Sarat and Nasser Hussain starts by noting that during the George W. Bush administration, there were charges of violation of law regarding domestic surveillance, the invasion of Iraq, and the policy toward enemy prisoners. It then examines the question of why prosecutions and/or a truth commission have not occurred on any of these subjects, given that the United States is supposedly committed to the rule of law in which protection of human rights is supposed to loom large. The editors themselves do not take a clear position on these matters but say rather that they …

Pregnancy Intentions Among Women Who Do Not Try: Focusing On Women Who Are Okay Either Way, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil, Karina M. Shreffler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Objectives: Are women who are intentional about pregnancy (trying to or trying not to get pregnant) systematically different from women who are “okay either way” about getting pregnant?
Methods. We use a currently sexually active subsample (n = 3,771) of the National Survey of Fertility Barriers, a random digit dialing telephone survey of reproductive-aged women (ages 25–45) in the United States. We compare women who are trying to, trying not to, or okay either way about getting pregnant on attitudes, social pressures, life course and status characteristics using bivariate analyses (chi-square tests for categorical and ANOVA tests for continuous variables). …

The High-Risk Environment Of Homeless Young Adults: Consequences For Physical And Sexual Victimization, Kimberly A. Tyler, Morgan R. Beal

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Little is known about how the social environment of homeless youth contributes to their risk and how it varies for different types of victimization. As such, the current study examines the constructs of victimization theories in order to investigate the potential risk for physical and sexual victimization among homeless young adults. Results revealed that running at an earlier age, running more often, sleeping on the street, panhandling, deviant peers associations, and not having a family member in one’s network are associated with more physical victimization. Being female, a sexual minority, having an unkempt physical appearance, panhandling, and having friends who …

The Experience Of Infertility: A Review Of Recent Literature, Arthur L. Greil, Kathleen Slauson-Blevins, Julia Mcquillan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

About 10 years ago Greil published a review and critique of the literature on the socio-psychological impact of infertility. He found at the time that most scholars treated infertility as a medical condition with psychological consequences rather than as a socially constructed reality. This article examines research published since the last review. More studies now place infertility within larger social contexts and social scientific frameworks although clinical emphases persist. Methodological problems remain but important improvements are also evident. We identify two vigorous research traditions in the social scientific study of infertility. One tradition uses primarily quantitative techniques to study clinic …

The New Homelessness Revisited, Barrett A. Lee, Kimberly A. Tyler, James D. Wright

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The new homelessness has drawn sustained attention from scholars over the past three decades. Definitional inconsistencies and data limitations rendered early work during this period largely speculative in nature. Thanks to conceptual, theoretical, and methodological progress, however, the research literature now provides a fuller understanding of homelessness. Contributions by sociologists and other social scientists since the mid-1990s differentiate among types of homelessness, provide credible demographic estimates, and show how being homeless affects a person’s life chances and coping strategies. Agreement also exists about the main macro- and micro-level causes of homelessness. Active lines of inquiry examine public, media, and governmental …

The Life Course Perspective And African American Adolescent Development In The Family, Bridget J. Goosby

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

African Americans remain disproportionately represented in the low-income population, and there is a sizable literature addressing the influence of these circumstances on family well-being. There is, however, an increasing need for the integration of the life course perspective into research on economically disadvantaged African American families as they continue to be vulnerable to deleterious mental health outcomes and lower life chances. This article discusses the tenets of the life course perspective followed by a summary of the research on economically disadvantaged African American families and their adolescent youth’s developmental outcomes. In addition, new emerging areas of research are discussed. In …

Assessing Key Informant Methodology In Congregational Research, Philip Schwadel, Kevin D. Dougherty

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Surveying key informants is a common methodology in congregational research. While practical and cost-effective, there are limitations in the ability of a single informant to speak for an entire organization. This paper explores potential limitations empirically. Using the 1993 American Congregational Giving Study, we compare demographic descriptions provided by pastors to demographic information taken from random samples of members in the same congregations. Significant differences in congregational profiles appear along dimensions of gender, age, race/ethnicity and, most notably, education and income. The amount of discrepancy between pastor and member profiles varies by congregational factors such as denominational affiliation and employment …

Jewish Teenagers’ Syncretism, Philip Schwadel

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

With the rapid rise of Jewish interfaith marriage and the migration of Jews away from traditional Jewish neighborhoods, many Jewish teenagers in the U.S. have little interaction with other Jews and little exposure to the Jewish religion. Here I use National Study of Youth and Religion survey data to examine Jewish teenagers’ syncretism or acceptance of different religious forms. The results show that Jewish teens are more syncretic than other teens, and that variations in religious activity, an emphasis on personal religiosity, and living in an interfaith home explain some of the difference in syncretism between Jewish and non-Jewish teens. …

Age, Period, And Cohort Effects On U.S. Religious Service Attendance: The Declining Impact Of Sex, Southern Residence, And Catholic Affiliation, Philip Schwadel

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

I use repeated, cross-sectional data from 1972 to 2006 to analyze age, period, and cohort effects on Americans’ frequency of religious service attendance with cross-classified, random-effects models. The results show that the frequency of religious service attendance is relatively stable, with a modest period-based decline in the 1990s and little overall cohort effect. Although aggregate rates of attendance are stable, there are large changes across cohorts and periods in differences in attendance between men and women, southerners and non-southerners, and Catholics and mainline Protestants. These results serve as a reminder that aggregate trends can mask substantial changes among specific groups, …

Tribal Vs. Public Schools: Perceived Discrimination And School Adjustment Among Indigenous Children From Early To Mid- Adolescence, Devan M. Crawford, Jacob E. Cheadle, Les B. Whitbeck

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to assess the differential effects of perceived discrimination by type of school on positive school adjustment among Indigenous children during late elementary and early middle school years. The analysis utilizes a sample of 654 Indigenous children from four reservations in the Northern Midwest and four Canadian First Nation reserves. Multiple group linear growth modeling within a structural equation framework is employed to investigate the moderating effects of school type on the relationship between discrimination and positive school adjustment. Results show that students in all school types score relatively high on positive school adjustment at …

Thomas Carlyle’S Lost Translation Of Saint-Simon’S Nouveau Christianisme: An Epistolary Account, Michael R. Hill

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The first-known (and now lost) translation of Saint-Simon’s Nouveau christianisme was prepared by the well-known Scotch-born prose writer, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). Carlyle was considerably interested in the Saint- Simonian movement (Cofer 1931; Murphy 1936; Shine 1941) and undertook to translate Saint-Simon’s last work during the latter half of 1830. The following excerpts from Carlyle’s correspondence reveal that he was unable to find a willing publisher for his translation, and the manuscript subsequently disappeared, presumably in France. This unfortunate chain of events accounts in part for the circumstance that Nouveau christianisme was not better-known among Englishspeaking sociologists and lay readers. Although …

Self Injurious Behavior Among Homeless Young Adults: A Social Stress Analysis, Kimberly A. Tyler, Lisa A. Melander, Elbert P. Almazan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Although self-mutilation has been studied from medical and individual perspectives, it has rarely been examined within a social stress context. As such, we use a social stress framework to examine risk factors for self-mutilation to determine whether status strains that are often associated with poorer health outcomes in the general population are also associated with self-mutilation among a sample of young adults in the United States who have a history of homelessness. Data are drawn from the Homeless Young Adult Project which involved interviews with 199 young adults in 3 Midwestern United States cities. The results of our path analyses …

Time Perspectivism As Applied To Three Mennonite Cemeteries In York County, Nebraska, Tayrah Epp

Nebraska Anthropologist

Time perspectivism is a view in which time scales bring into focus different processes, which produces a need to use different concepts and explanatory variables (Bailey 1987, 2007). The three Mennonite cemeteries, Epp, Faith Evangelical and Bethesda, were analyzed using time perspectivism and are linked spatially and temporally to one another as indicated in the headstone inscriptions and decorative motifs. This case study provides an example of short-term scale change in which the Mennonites transition from Standard German to English. Much of this paper s focus is on the Epp cemetery, which when viewed as a palimpsest of meaning show …

Marital Satisfaction Across The Transition To Parenthood, Kayla M. Sanders

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Many studies have documented the decline in marital satisfaction following the birth of a child. This decline has been attributed to individual factors such as stress, role strain and tension, and an increased division of labor. The current study focuses on couple-level characteristics such as the duration of their relationship, religious frequency, and economic stability indicators. This study utilized the first two waves (1980 and 1983) of the Marital Instability over the Life Course study. Wave I (1980) was analyzed using OLS regression to predict scores of marital satisfaction at baseline. Several interactions were also run using data from Wave …

Fairness, Justice And An Individual Basis For Public Policy, Douglas R. Oxley

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Prior models of the policy process have examined how human characteristics can affect policy decision-making in such a way that it leads to aggregate effects on policy outcomes as a whole. I develop a model of the policy process which suggests that emotions related to fair and unfair experiences in the same policy domain are utilized by decision-makers as policy criteria. In the lab, I empirically tested this, and find that emotions and experience related to fairness do influence the policy decision to move away from the status quo alternative. Based upon this result, I simulated the evolution of a …

2010 Nebraska Wind Energy Legislation, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

In 2010 the Nebraska Unicameral enacted a major wind energy statute, LB1048, that will lead to significantly increased wind energy development in Nebraska. Nebraska has always had major wind energy development potential, but wind farm development has lagged far behind this potential. LB1048 changes this, and will allow Nebraska to increase wind energy development.

Identifying Profitable Characteristics Of Steer Calves To Be Retained, Matthew Stockton, Brian Williams

Cornhusker Economics

A recent study done by the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, investigates the predictive power of physical characteristics exhibited by steer calves, at and prior to weaning, on profits associated with weaned calf retention. Historically, retained ownership of beef cattle calves owned from birth through the finishing stage of production by a single owner, has been found to be a profitable endeavor for cow-calf producers. Despite these findings, observed evidence indicates many producers choose not to retain ownership. Three reasons that may explain this include tradition, cash flow needs of the business and risk. Producers who choose to …

Developing A Community Marketing Plan, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel

Cornhusker Economics

When you think of the word “marketing” what comes to mind? Do you think of advertising and promotional strategies in print, other forms of media or the internet? Maybe you think of direct marketing flyers, email blitzes or email newsletters?

Typically, individuals equate marketing with specific promotional tools, but in reality it is a much broader process. It traditionally starts with identifying consumer wants and needs and developing products or services to meet those needs. The next step for the business owner is to match up their product or service benefits with potential customers groups. Then one tries to find …

A Quick Look At Nebraska’S Youth Population Data From Recent Census Estimates, Randolph L. Cantrell

Cornhusker Economics

According to population estimates released by the Bureau of the Census, Nebraska’s population under 18 years of age grew between the years 2000 and 2009, but at a rate much below that of the general population and in a geographically very uneven fashion.

Overall, it is estimated that Nebraska’s population under 18 years of age grew by 0.31 percent between 2000 and 2009 (from 450,242 to 451,641), while the total population grew by 4.98 percent. However, young Nebraskans increased in number in only ten of the state’s 93 counties. Of the 83 counties that saw their youth decline in number, …

Economic Effects Of The Consumer-Oriented Gm Products In Markets With A Labeling Regime, Rim Lassoued, Konstantinos Giannakas

Cornhusker Economics

One of the most intriguing attributes of modern industrial society is its approach to nutrition. Humanity has moved from subsistence economies, where eating was a matter of survival, to economies characterized by the existence of an ever increasing variety of food products. An important recent addition to the types of food products included in our diet has been that of genetically modified (GM) products.

Despite their important agronomic benefits to agricultural producers (e.g., increased yields and/or reduced input costs), GM products have been facing a rather strong consumer opposition. Fears related to potential health and environmental effects of genetic modification, …

Sustainability Through Profitability: The Triple Bottom Line, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Cornhusker Economics

Today’s highly competitive, globalized world requires organizations and businesses to think differently about how they are going to stay in business. Businesses can no longer afford to focus on profits as their sole purpose for existence. Organizations must instead think about the “Triple Bottom Line” and its implications for their ability to grow their brand, customer loyalty and profits.

The three components of the Triple Bottom Line are: people and community (social responsibility), planet (environmental sustainability) and profit (the bottom line). Successful 21st century organizations must consider how they are going to actively engage in each of the Triple Bottom …

The Nebraska Citizen Initiative Process, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

Nebraska is one of about half of the states that allow its citizens to initiate new statutes (legislative laws) or constitutional provisions by way of the citizen initiative petition process. Since 1992, over 30 constitutional amendments have been voted on under these provisions. In Nebraska, citizen initiatives have dealt with corporate farming restrictions, term limits, gambling, government spending limits and antiaffirmative action requirements. There is a chance that an animal welfare provision may be on the November 6, 2012 general election ballot. This newsletter takes a quick look at the initiative process. For more detailed information, consult an attorney.

Understanding The Value Of Water In Nebraska: Future Expectations And Considerations, Christopher L. Thompson, Ray Supalla

Cornhusker Economics

Nebraska’s water resources are cost-effective insurance for harnessing the productive potential of cropland. During the last 30 years, intensive irrigation development in Western Nebraska has led to regulations to prevent or reduce the over-use of Nebraska’s share of both surface and groundwater. Despite regulations affecting the amount of available water, farmers have been able to manage water in ways that lead to an acceptable net return, with little impact on land values. However, as stricter regulations are put in place to limit the amount of water that can be withdrawn each year per irrigated acre, it is quite possible that …

Toward Sustainability In Business, Industry And Community: Empathy Tempered Choices, Prabhakar Shrestha, Gary D. Lynne

Cornhusker Economics

In today’s world of 24-hour news service on the internet, youtube, facebook, twitter, electronic newspapers, etc., there are many sources of information constantly seeking our attention, triggering our response and affecting our psyche. Where are such habits of tuning into internet services, mobile services, etc., leading us? Jeremy Rifkin in his new book, The Empathic Civilization talks about the dawn of a new Third Industrial Civilization. The main feature is the sharing of information among millions of people, which is shaping the spatial and temporal orientation of human civilization. This also leads to greater differentiation of skills, greater connectivity, extension …

Essays On Industrial Organization And Environmental Economics, Gibson Nene

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation studies environmental regulation issues in the hog production industry as well as forces behind the reorganization of the industry during the past two decades. Federal and State-level environmental regulations imposed on U.S. hog production during the year 2003 are examined in Chapter 1. Based on the number of regulations passed by the Federal government and states, the 2003 regulatory index is constructed. The regulatory stringency index suggests that state-level regulations vary across states and have increased over the years. In addition, state-level regulations are more stringent than federal regulations. Chapter 2 develops an empirically implementable theoretical model which …

“All The Men Here Have The Peter Pan Syndrome— They Don’T Want To Grow Up”: Navajo Adolescent Mothers’ Intimate Partner Relationships—A 15-Year Perspective, Rochelle L. Dalla, Alexandria M. Marchetti, Elizabeth (Beth) A. Sechrest, Jennifer L. White

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

In 1992 and 1995, data were collected from 29 Navajo Native American adolescent mothers. In 2007 and 2008, data were collected from 21 of the original 29 (72%). Guided by feminist family theory, this investigation sought to (a) examine Navajo adolescent mothers’ intimate partner relationships during the transition to parenthood, (b) identify themes in the young mothers’ intimate partnerships across time, and (c) assess participants’ psychosocial well-being in adulthood. Four themes emerged in the women’s long-term intimate relationships: limited support, substance abuse, infidelity, and intimate partner violence. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.