Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A User Needs Assessment For Snowvision/World Engraved, Sam Toren Mcdorman

Theses and Dissertations

Paddle stamped pottery has a long history in what we now call the southeastern United States. From 100-800 CE, intricate curvilinear designs were carved into paddles and impressed in ceramic vessels in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Called Swift Creek Complicated Stamped, this type has been long recognized by archaeologists for its uniqueness. Artists Bettye J. Broyles and Frankie Snow reconstructed hundreds of paddle designs from sherds and modern archaeologists use these designs to study the movements and connections of the people who made the pottery. The Snowvision team has developed a machine learning computer vision algorithm to …

Archival Research In The Time Of Coronavirus, Kelly K. Hudson, Heather Gilbert

South Carolina Libraries

Two Special Collections directors explore the challenges and strategies of delivering archival services during a global pandemic at their respective academic repositories: Special Collections at the College of Charleston and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.

The Parental Well-Being Gap Before And After The Covid-19 Pandemic, Morgan Renee Koziol

Theses and Dissertations

Prior research has examined the emotional costs and benefits associated with parenting. In general, this body of literature finds that parents experience lower levels of subjective well-being compared to non-parents—a phenomenon referred to as the parental well-being gap. There is evidence that this parental well-being gap has narrowed or disappeared altogether in more recent years. However, the COVID-19 pandemic presented unprecedented challenges to parents that may have resulted in a widening or reopening of this gap once again. This project aims to test this possibility by drawing on data from The General Social Survey that capture the survey year prior …

“It Looks Like The Future But Feels Like The Past”: Oral (Hi)Stories Of Appalachia As Covid-19 News Stories, Ashley Reid Mcgraw

Theses and Dissertations

Oral historians have often felt obligated to collect stories during disasters and crises, to preserve recollections of experiences and trauma of those affected. During the onset of COVID-19 in the United States, this surge was certainly present. Appalachia, although its boundaries are contested, has a strong association with oral histories, and thus was the focus of one project in particular: a collaboration with the Blue Ridge Public Radio and the Foxfire Appalachian Heritage Museum to collect, curate, publish, and broadcast oral histories of "local" individuals. But what does it mean to be local, in a region as broad as Appalachia? …

The Perfect Storm: Strategies For Weathering Change In Technical Services, Rebecca L. Mcclure

South Carolina Libraries

This paper describes the approach to three simultaneous problems faced by technical services at the College of Charleston Libraries: the retirement of the department head, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the migration to a new library management system.

Share Your Story 2021, Virginia Cononie

South Carolina Libraries

100+ libraries from South Carolina's 7 congressional districts join in a collaborative library advocacy campaign to share their services and experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Forwards written from SCLA, the South Carolina Association of School Librarians, Friends of South Carolina Libraries, and the Association of Public Library Administrators.

Spatial And Age Disparities In Covid-19 Outcomes, Qian Huang

Theses and Dissertations

COVID-19 has caused significant social, economic, environmental, and political impacts globally and affected communities unequally in the U.S. The pandemic has also sparked interest in age-specific manifestations of infection, for example, studies confirmed the risk of increasing age with COVID-19 severity. However, the nonstationarity effects of health determinants among age groups have not been well examined. This study aims to explore the nonstationarity effects of social, behavioral, environmental, health care access, and political contexts on COVID-19 outcomes. This study poses three broad questions: 1) how did COVID-19 vaccinations align with COVID-19 daily cases and deaths in the United States; 2) …

An Intersectional Lens To Covid-19: Promoting Youth Well-Being In The Midst Of Social-Political Stressors, Magdalena S. Moskal

Theses and Dissertations

Guided by interpretative phenomenological methodology and intersectionality theory, this thesis aims to uncover the mental health experiences of youth surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also seeks to situate these experiences with the subsequent stressors that young people face in the current social-political context (e.g., witnessing trauma in the media, uprisings to address racism and the resulting backlash, rhetoric of the 2020 presidential election). Furthermore, this thesis aims to give insight and voice how intersectionality shapes the COVID-19-related experiences of youth in South Carolina. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 23 participants aged 16-21 years old in South Carolina. …

Belonging In Context: An Exploration Of Sense Of Belonging Among College Students, Ladonna L. Gleason

Theses and Dissertations

Feeling a sense of belonging is essential to human health and functioning and has been well documented in the literature. However, questions of context remain. Research in belonging has focused on social aspects of belonging, leaving broader contextual frames unexplored. There has been little work in identifying and differentiating the contexts in which belonging is experienced or in developing an understanding of how the experience of belonging differs across contexts. Current belonging theory lacks this important contextual perspective that could inform the ways in which belonging is constructed and reconstructed through disruption. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, new …

Cognitive Consequences Of Covid-19 Infection And Quarantine-Induced Social Isolation: Hope For The Young And Mildly Infected, Kristin Nickole Kirchner

Theses and Dissertations

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has infected over 539 million individuals worldwide, and initial research supports the possibility that COVID-19 may damage the central nervous system either directly or indirectly. Neurological signs and noted cognitive deficits observed in even mildly infected patients are a cause for concern for those infected by COVID-19; the effect of social isolation on the central nervous system is also of interest. The present study sought to determine the extent of these potential cognitive deficits in a young and mildly infected sample of college students. Participants completed an extensive survey assessing their experience with COVID-19 and any …

A Mixed Method Study Of Teachers’ Appraisals Of Student Wellness Services And Supports During Covid-19, Tasha M. Childs, Elizabeth Levine Brown, Naomi Brown, Aidyn Iachini Ph.D., Kate Phillippo, Linda Galib, Audra Parker, Ken Fujimoto

Faculty and Staff Publications

BACKGROUND: Understanding teachers' appraisals of student wellness services and supports during COVID-19 is essential to strengthening services and improving student health outcomes. This mixed-method study aimed to examine US PK-12 teachers' appraisals of student wellness services and supports during COVID-19.

METHODS: This study focuses on qualitative data from 291 teachers' open-ended responses to the question: “What do you wish your school leaders knew about this (wellness support) aspect of your work?” and whose responses described wellness services and supports. A qualitative content analysis was conducted by an interdisciplinary research team using open- and axial coding.

RESULTS: Three …

Covid-19 & Mental Health: The Impact On The Future Of Younger Generations, Greyson A. Fox Tran

Senior Theses

The aim of this research is to identify any existing correlations between the COVID-19 pandemic and negative mental health outcomes in younger populations. This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of those younger than 25 years of age, specifically focusing on students. It will investigate how various factors of the pandemic have affected people and how they have coped with psychological distress induced by the pandemic. Through a review of scientific data and scholarly literature, the impacts of the pandemic on mental health will be assessed. Coping mechanisms and the effects of physical activity …

Life In The Time Of Covid-19: The Everyday Impacts Of The Pandemic In Amman, Jordan, Patrick Mckenzie

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic and the responses taken to combat it caused enormous changes to the everyday lives of people around the world. Jordan, in its early success against the virus and with its large refugee population, represents a unique country in which to study these everyday impacts. From May to August of 2021, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the Jordanian capital city of Amman while working with the refugee nongovernmental organization the Collateral Repair Project. In this thesis, I explore the COVID-19 Spectacle, examining the ways in which policies and discourses at the national and international scales bled into the …

The Importance Of Social Support Networks On Mental Health Status Of Custodial Grandparents, Deborah Whitley, Youjung Lee, Yanfeng Xu Ph.D.

Faculty and Staff Publications

This symposium presents a collection of papers that examine the concept of social support and its effect on custodial grandparents’ (CG) mental health state. Each paper explores a different perspective about grandparents’ access to and/or use of social support networks and mental health outcomes; several papers view social support within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nadorff and colleagues explore social support by middle-generation family members and its effects on grandparents’ stress and depressive symptoms. Musil and colleagues report on psychosocial and social support predictors of self-appraised healthcare and financial security by CG during the Covid-19 pandemic. Whitley and Kelley …

Revealing Public Opinion Towards Covid-19 Vaccines With Twitter Data In The United States: Spatiotemporal Perspective, Tao Hu, Siqin Wang, Wei Luo, Mengxi Zhang, Xiao Huang, Yingwei Yan, Regina Liu, Kelly Ly, Viraj Kacker, Bing She, Zhenlong Li

Faculty Publications

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a large, initially uncontrollable, public health crisis both in the United States and across the world, with experts looking to vaccines as the ultimate mechanism of defense. The development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines have been rapidly advancing via global efforts. Hence, it is crucial for governments, public health officials, and policy makers to understand public attitudes and opinions towards vaccines, such that effective interventions and educational campaigns can be designed to promote vaccine acceptance.

Objective:The aim of this study was to investigate public opinion and perception on COVID-19 vaccines in the United …

Exposure To Covid-19 Is Associated With Increased Altruism, Particularly At The Local Level, Gianluca Grimalda, Nancy R. Buchan, Orgul D. Ozturk, Adriana C. Pinate, Giulia Urso, Marilynn B. Brewer

Faculty Publications

Theory posits that situations of existential threat will enhance prosociality in general and particularly toward others perceived as belonging to the same group as the individual (parochial altruism). Yet, the global character of the COVID-19 pandemic may blur boundaries between ingroups and outgroups and engage altruism at a broader level. In an online experiment, participants from the U.S. and Italy chose whether to allocate a monetary bonus to a charity active in COVID-19 relief efforts at the local, national, or international level. The purpose was to address two important questions about charitable giving in this context: first, what influences the …

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (Prep) Uptake Among Black Men Who Have Sex With Men (Bmsm) In The Southern U.S., Oluwafemi Atanda Adeagbo, Sayward Harrison, Shan Qiao, Xiaoming Li

Faculty Publications

Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) living in the United States (U.S.) South are disproportionately affected by HIV and experience significant disparities in HIV incidence, access to HIV care, and prevention across ages and socio-economic statuses. The aim of this commentary is to critically review current literature on the state of PrEP use among BMSM in the U.S. South, including identifying barriers and facilitators to PrEP use in order to inform intervention development. Extant literature shows that despite the documented benefits of PrEP as an effective HIV-prevention method, its uptake among BMSM is limited across the U.S. South. …

Using Mobile Device Data To Track The Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Spatiotemporal Patterns Of National Park Visitation, John A. Kupfer, Zhenlong Li, Huan Ning, Xiao Huang

Faculty Publications

Effective quantification of visitation is important for understanding many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on national parks and other protected areas. In this study, we mapped and analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of visitation for six national parks in the western U.S., taking advantage of large mobility records sampled from mobile devices and released by SafeGraph as part of their Social Distancing Metric dataset. Based on comparisons with visitation statistics released by the U.S. National Park Service, our results confirmed that mobility records from digital devices can effectively capture park visitation patterns but with much finer spatiotemporal granularity. In general, triggers …

Spatial Disparities Of Covid-19 Cases And Fatalities In United States Counties, Sarah L. Jackson, Sahar Derakhshan, Leah Blackwood, Logan Lee, Qian Huang, Margot Habets, Susan L. Cutter

Faculty Publications

This paper examines the spatial and temporal trends in county-level COVID-19 cases and fatalities in the United States during the first year of the pandemic (January 2020–January 2021). Statistical and geospatial analyses highlight greater impacts in the Great Plains, Southwestern and Southern regions based on cases and fatalities per 100,000 population. Significant case and fatality spatial clusters were most prevalent between November 2020 and January 2021. Distinct urban–rural differences in COVID-19 experiences uncovered higher rural cases and fatalities per 100,000 population and fewer government mitigation actions enacted in rural counties. High levels of social vulnerability and the absence of mitigation …

Using Mobile Device Data To Track The Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Spatiotemporal Patterns Of National Park Visitation, John A. Kupfer, Zhenlong Li, Huan Ning, Xiao Huang

Faculty Publications

Effective quantification of visitation is important for understanding many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on national parks and other protected areas. In this study, we mapped and analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of visitation for six national parks in the western U.S., taking advantage of large mobility records sampled from mobile devices and released by SafeGraph as part of their Social Distancing Metric dataset. Based on comparisons with visitation statistics released by the U.S. National Park Service, our results confirmed that mobility records from digital devices can effectively capture park visitation patterns but with much finer spatiotemporal granularity. In general, triggers …

Spatiotemporal Patterns Of Human Mobility And Its Association With Land Use Types During Covid-19 In New York City, Yuqin Jiang, Xiao Huang, Zhenlong Li

Faculty Publications

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted every facet of society. One of the non-pharmacological measures to contain the COVID-19 infection is social distancing. Federal, state, and local governments have placed multiple executive orders for human mobility reduction to slow down the spread of COVID-19. This paper uses geotagged tweets data to reveal the spatiotemporal human mobility patterns during this COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. With New York City open data, human mobility pattern changes were detected by different categories of land use, including residential, parks, transportation facilities, and workplaces. This study further compares human mobility patterns by …

The Effect Of Covid-19 On The Mental Health Of College Athletes, Molly Mcardle

Senior Theses

This research aimed to explore how the mental status of student athletes at the University of South Carolina has been affected by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 61 student athletes between the ages of 17 and 24 participated in the study and completed a series of questions including the Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale 21 (DASS-21) and the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ). Independent samples t-tests and descriptive analyses were used for comparisons between gender and age. The results showed that female athletes reported statistically significantly higher levels of anxiety and stress than male athletes (p = 0.049 and p = …

Essays In The Economics Of Tournaments, Eren Bilen

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays that focus on tournaments, incentives, and performance. The first essay presents evidence of cheating that took place in online examinations during COVID-19 lockdowns and proposes two solutions with and without a camera for the cheating problem based on the experience accumulated by online chess communities over the past two decades. The best implementable solution is a uniform online exam policy where a camera capturing each students computer screen and room is a requirement.

The second essay investigates the "superstar effect" using observations from chess tournaments. Superstars exist in many places. In competition, they might …

The Effects Of Source Cues And Issue Frames During Covid-19, Chandler Case, Christopher Eddy, Rahul Hemrajani, Christopher Howell, Daniel Lyons, Yu-Hsien Sung, Elizabeth C. Connors

Faculty Publications

The health and economic outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic will in part be determined by how effectively experts can communicate information to the public and the degree to which people follow expert recommendation. Using a survey experiment conducted in May 2020 with almost 5,000 respondents, this paper examines the effect of source cues and message frames on perceptions of information credibility in the context of COVID-19. Each health recommendation was framed by expert or nonexpert sources, was fact- or experience-based, and suggested potential gain or loss to test if either the source cue or framing of issues affected responses to …

"Who Can Help Me?'': Knowledge Infused Matching Of Support Seekers And Support Providers During Covid-19 On Reddit, Manas Gaur, Kaushik Roy, Aditya Sharma, Biplav Srivastava, Amit Sheth

Publications

During the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, subreddits on Reddit, such as r/Coronavirus saw a rapid growth in user's requests for help (support seekers - SSs) including individuals with varying professions and experiences with diverse perspectives on care (support providers - SPs). Currently, knowledgeable human moderators match an SS with a user with relevant experience, i.e, an SP on these subreddits. This unscalable process defers timely care. We present a medical knowledge-infused approach to efficient matching of SS and SPs validated by experts for the users affected by anxiety and depression, in the context of with COVID-19. After matching, each SP to …

Covid-19 Vaccine And Social Media In The U.S.: Exploring Emotions And Discussions On Twitter, Amir Karami, Michael Zhu, Bailey Goldschmidt, Hannah R. Boyajieff, Mahdi M. Najafabadi

Faculty Publications

The understanding of the public response to COVID-19 vaccines is the key success factor to control the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand the public response, there is a need to explore public opinion. Traditional surveys are expensive and time-consuming, address limited health topics, and obtain small-scale data. Twitter can provide a great opportunity to understand public opinion regarding COVID-19 vaccines. The current study proposes an approach using computational and human coding methods to collect and analyze a large number of tweets to provide a wider perspective on the COVID-19 vaccine. This study identifies the sentiment of tweets using a machine learning …

Risk And Protective Factors Associated With Custodial Grandparents’ Psychological Distress In Covid-19, Yanfeng Xu Ph.D., Merav Jedwab, Qi Wu, Sue Levkoff, Ling Xu

Faculty and Staff Publications

The fear and anxiety of COVID-19 and its related policy measures have increased individuals’ psychological distress. The objective of this study was to examine relationships between material hardship, parenting stress, social support, and resilience and custodial grandparents’ psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and further investigate the moderating role of kinship license status. A cross-sectional survey was administered to collect data from custodial grandparents (N = 362) in the United States. T-tests, chi-square tests, and logistic regression models were conducted using STATA 15.0. Results indicated that material hardship (OR = 1.77, p < 0.001) was associated with higher odds of psychological distress, whereas custodial grandparents’ resilience (OR = 0.08, p < 0.001) and social support (OR = 0.39, p < 0.001) were associated with lower odds of experiencing psychological distress. Increased parenting stress in COVID-19 was not significantly associated with psychological distress. Kinship license status moderated the relationships between social support (OR = 0.23, p < 0.05), resilience (OR = 5.06, p < 0.05) and psychological distress. To address custodial grandparents’ psychological distress, more allocated emergency funds and tailored financial services should be provided to meet material needs, and interventions with a focus on resilience and social support are particularly needed. Although licensed custodial grandparents were more likely to experience psychological distress due to their pre-existing vulnerability than unlicensed counterparts, parallel services should be provided to all kinship caregivers.

Parenting Stress And Risk Of Child Maltreatment During The Covid- 19 Pandemic: A Family Stress Theory-Informed Perspective, Qi Wu, Yanfeng Xu Ph.D.

Faculty and Staff Publications

The risk of child maltreatment is heightened during the pandemic due to multiple COVID-19 related stressors, such as physical and mental health concerns, economic stress, challenges in homeschooling, marital conflicts and intimate personal violence, and intensified child–parent relationships. Both parental internal (e.g., parenting styles) and external resources (e.g., social support), and parental perceptions toward stressors will affect how parents cope with these stressors, which may exacerbate or mitigate the risk of child maltreatment. Guided by family stress theory, this article identifies COVID-19 related stressors at the family level, and further elaborates on how these stressors are associated with child maltreatment …

Predictors Of Perceived Social Support During The Covid-19 Pandemic Among College Students At The University Of South Carolina, Erin Godfrey

Senior Theses

Introduction: The emergence of COVID-19 has rapidly transformed the framework of our world in immeasurable ways. Social distancing and online learning have seemingly had a negative effect on students’ mental health amidst the rising stress of life during a global pandemic. Higher levels of perceived social support have been shown to have a buffering impact on the negative effects of stress. Therefore, the present study seeks to investigate how these effects differ among college students during their return to school in the Fall of 2020.

Method: A convenience sample of 257 students from the University of South Carolina …

Covid-19 And The Black Death: Nutrition, Frailty, Inequity, And Mortality, Katherine D. Van Schaik, Sharon Dewitte

Faculty Publications

Introduction: COVID-19 has challenged governments, healthcare systems, and individuals, drawing attention to the limits of modern technology and the extent of social inequity. Such challenges have directed attention to historical epidemics as repositories of data that could contribute to effective public health strategies and prognostic modeling. In light of the well-established correlation between frailty and mortality from COVID-19, this paper investigates the relationship between frailty, inequity, and mortality in the setting of the Black Death of 1346 – 1353, in order to identify trends over time in populations at the greatest risk of mortality during pandemics.

Methods: A comparative review …