Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Investigating The Construct Validity Of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo In Children, Kristin L. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

The term Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) refers to attention difficulties that are characterized by a constellation of symptoms ranging from excessive daydreaming to drowsiness, sluggishness, and lethargy. Although several SCT scales have been developed in recent years, researchers have yet to agree upon an ideal set of symptoms. In addition, it remains unclear whether SCT consists of a single dimension or if it is a multidimensional construct. The first aim of this study was to extend research related to SCT symptomatology and measurement by conducting a comprehensive investigation of SCT symptoms. A 25-item scale was developed to include each of …

Judicial Legitimacy And The Dearth Of State Supreme Court Knowledge, Tj Kimel

Theses and Dissertations

As western democracies face challenges unseen since the Cold War ended, understanding the correlates of legitimacy for democratic institutions has grown in importance. While scholars have well-developed theories and empirical evidence of Supreme Court support, we know far less about state supreme court legitimacy. This is despite the fact that these courts hand down 100,000 legal decisions annually. Relying on an original survey conducted with participants in 46 states, I develop and test a theory that respondents rely on the Supreme Court as a cue when deciding whether they should extend legitimacy to state supreme courts they know next to …

Prototyping A Social Media Flooding Photo Screening System Based On Deep Learning And Crowdsourcing, Huan Ning

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to implement a prototype system to screen flooding photos from social media. These photos, associated with their geographic locations, can provide free, timely, and reliable visual information about flood events to the decision makers. This system is designed for the application to the real social media images, including several key functions: tweets downloading, image downloading, flooding photo detection, and human verification via a WebGIS application. In this study, a training dataset of 5,000 flooding photos was built based on an iterative method; a convolutional neural network (CNN) was then trained and applied to detect flooding photos. Also, …

An Investigation Of The Impact Of A Supervision Intervention On Secondary Traumatic Stress Responses Among Counselors Treating Child Survivors Of Sexual Abuse, Brooke Wymer

Theses and Dissertations

Novice counselors who have high trauma caseloads are at risk for secondary traumatic stress (STS) responses, which can impact their ability to function effectively in professional counseling roles. Supervision is one factor frequently conceptualized to have an impact on STS responses in counselors; however, there is a dearth of literature regarding specific supervision interventions that are evidence-based to reduce or prevent STS responses among counselors treating trauma, specifically child survivors of sexual abuse (CSSA). Due to the absence of supervision intervention studies among counselors working with this population, the current study implemented an experimental single case research design to measure …

Essays In The Economics Of Education, Breyon J. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

I examine, separately, the impact of three education programs on student achievement, using difference-in-differences and difference-in-difference-in-differences designs. First, I examine whether spillover benefits on achievement exist from preschool. I estimate the effect of exposure to a South Carolina preschool program that targets disadvantaged four-year-olds on students’ test scores in grades 3 through 5, where exposure means residing in a school district once the program was made available and disadvantaged students are those eligible for free or reduced-price lunch or Medicaid. I find that exposure to the preschool program not only increases the math and reading scores of targeted students, but …

Effectiveness Of A Brand’S Paid, Owned, And Earned Media In A Social Media Environment, Anan Wan

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explored how a brand’s paid, owned, and earned media (POEM) influence and engage its audience in the social media environment where consumer engagement is stressed. This dissertation used an online experiment (N = 250) to explore the effectiveness of applying earned media within an advertising context, The findings indicated that positive earned media was more effective on people’s consumer engagement intention and download intention than paid media, but it did not work on perceived credibility of the post or product attitude. Positive earned media was found to be less credible than owned media. Among all the five …

Minimum Wage And National Culture, Zhongyu Cao

Theses and Dissertations

Minimum wage adjustment affects economic agent behaviors and leads to an unintended side effect s. The first chapter of the dissertation studies the impact of the minimum wage level on the college enrollment. Using institution-level data from IPEDS, the results show that the real minimum wage level has significant and diverse effects on different types of enrollment. The results are robust using several alternative specifications and individual level analysis. The second chapter of the dissertation addresses another side effect of the minimum wage law: crime. Using U.S. state-level arrest and offense data and agency-level offense data, this chapter provides empirical …

Public Debt, High Inflation And Economic Depression: A Survival Analysis Approach, Minjie Guo

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the association between public debt, high inflation and economics depression by using the survival analysis approach.

In the first chapter, I use non-parametric survival analysis to check the association between high debt episodes and high inflation episodes. Both the Kaplan-Meier estimate and the Nelson-Aelon analysis indicate that the existence of an overlapping high inflation episode is correlated with longer duration of high debt episodes. The reverse is also true: the existence of a high debt episode overlap is associated with longer duration of high inflation episodes. Whether or not the country is a member of the OECD …

Behavioral And Voltammetric Analysis Of Chronic Escitalopram Treatment To The Hiv-1 Transgenic Rat: Implications For Comorbid Hiv-1 And Clinical Depression, Adam R. Denton

Theses and Dissertations

HIV-1 infection is a serious condition affecting approximately 37 million individuals. Between 30% and 60% of seropositive individuals will develop symptoms of clinical depression. These individuals are five times more likely to commit suicide than non-seropositive clinically depressed patients. Dysfunction in serotonergic and dopaminergic transmission has consistently been implicated in the pathogenesis of depression. Specifically, dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex and in the nucleus accumbens core region have been shown to be underlying factors in the trajectory of depression. Given these underlying neurological features, the present research employed behavioral testing and electrochemical recording in an attempt to elucidate the therapeutic …

The Distribution Of [ʍ]: An Acoustic Analysis Of Sociophonetic Factors Governing The Wine-Whine Merger In Southern American English, Keiko Bridwell

Theses and Dissertations

In US English, the merging of the voiceless labiovelar glide [ʍ] and its voiced counterpart [w] has been an ongoing process over the past century, originating in central port cities on the Atlantic seaboard and gradually spreading to include the bulk of the continental US. While described by many sources as still present in Southern American English, the so-called wine-whine merger shows evidence of nearing its completion as its usage becomes increasingly rare even within the Southeast, even as the segment [ʍ] is interpreted as a feature of Southern speech. Despite this fact, very little research has been conducted on …

Providing Prevention Education About Child Sexual Abuse To Parents: Testing Media Effects On Knowledge, Behavioral Intentions And Outcomes, Jane Long Weatherred

Theses and Dissertations

For over thirty years, efforts have been made by child sexual abuse (CSA) advocates to attract and engage parents in child sexual abuse prevention education programs. This study provided parents with CSA prevention education about how to talk to their children about CSA and assessed their attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intentions to perform this behavior utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior. A follow-up survey was conducted to find out if the parents actually performed the behavior of talking to their children and what they talked to them about. The results were 1) that all of the …

Associations Among Parenting Style And Parental Feeding Practices On Adolescent Self-Efficacy For Diet And Obesity In African American Adolescents, Haylee Loncar

Theses and Dissertations

Previous literature has demonstrated relationships between parenting factors and child health. However, few studies have investigated such associations in African American and adolescent samples. The proposed study aimed to investigate the relationships between parenting factors (parenting style and parental feeding practices), and adolescent self-efficacy for diet, and adolescent body mass index (BMI) in African American families. Baseline data were collected from 241 African American parent- adolescent dyads enrolled in the Families Improving Together (FIT) for Weight Loss trial. Adolescents self-reported their perceptions of their caregiver’s parenting style and feeding practices, as well as perceptions of their own self-efficacy for diet. …

Examining Perceptions And Sensemaking Of Wellness Among African American Women Who Manifest The Archetype Of The Strong Black Woman, Donya D. Wallace

Theses and Dissertations

Furthering a strengths-based approach to mental health and wellness requires researchers to explore the role of cultural systems, sociohistorical factors and the intersectionality of race and gender as factors impacting wellness. To fill the existing gap in the literature describing perceptions of wellness through a cultural lens, I examined experiences of wellness among African American women who manifest the archetype of the Strong Black Woman. Working within the client’s perspective, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was employed to analyze data collected during semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus groups. I conducted the interviews to explored participant personal and social experiences with wellness. Super-ordinate …

Assessing Readiness For A Physical Activity Intervention In Positive Youth Development Afterschool Programs, Brittany Skiles Cook

Theses and Dissertations

Physical inactivity has been identified as a primary health threat to youth, and existing afterschool programs (ASP) are a promising context for implementing physical activity (PA) interventions. However, few PA interventions have been effective and generalizability of programs has been poor. Assessing organizational readiness during the testing of a PA intervention can help inform generalizability and sustainability. The R=MC2 heuristic separates readiness into motivation, innovation-specific capacity, and general capacity, each of which are further divided into subcomponents. The current multiple-case study pilot tests the feasibility and effectiveness/efficacy of a readiness assessment tool based on R=MC2 developed for the Connect through …

Dynamic Environments And Judicial Power, Monica Lineberger

Theses and Dissertations

The study of judicial independence in comparative environments is an increasingly important endeavor for scholars and policy-makers. Scholars seek to understand how an institution without any degree of enforceable power can leverage its position into an influential member of country politics. Policy-makers assume that a high degree of judicial independence correlates with the rule of law, and consequently, a respect for the outcomes from judicial processes. While in recent history the United States Supreme Court has enjoyed a relatively stable degree of judicial autonomy, courts in other countries are plagued by institutional weakness, attacks from other institutions, or corruption from …

Managing Negative Countertransference Utilizing An Integrated Counselor Mindfulness Training For Counselors Working With Children Exhibiting Externalized Behaviors, Jessie D. Guest

Theses and Dissertations

Using a multiple-probe, single case research design, this study investigated the effects of an integrated mindfulness intervention on counselors’ negative countertransference while working with children exhibiting externalized behaviors in session. More specifically, this study utilized a two-pronged intervention including mindfulness practices as well as the theoretical tenets of relating to children to assist counselors in managing negative countertransference as measured by the Countertransference Management Scale (Perez- Rojas, et al., 2017), reducing negative countertransference feelings as measured by Therapist Appraisal Questionnaire (Cooley & Klingler, 1989; Fauth et al., 1999), and improving the child’s perception of the counselor as measured by Young …

“Hiv Lives With Me”: An Intersectional Analysis Of The Successful Navigation Of Health Care Services By Sex Workers Living With Hiv, Kierra Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Sex workers living with HIV are affected by pervasive stigma across various life domains because they are situated between two stigmatized identities—their HIV status and as someone who exchanges sexual services for pay. Prior research suggests that not only can stigma hinder attempts to initially access health care services, but it can also foster strained and unwelcoming environments. The purpose of the present study is to illuminate the voices and experiences of sex workers living with HIV as they navigate their specific health care needs. Using an intersectional lens, the aim of this study is to understand the health care …