Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Educational Experiences And Goals Of Homeless Youth And Barriers To Reaching These Goals, Rachel Peterson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The cost of homelessness is high, not only in terms of the array of traumatic experiences of those who are homeless, but in monetary terms for society as a whole. It costs between $20,000 and $40,000 annually for one homeless individual to cycle through public service systems such as emergency rooms, jail, mental health care facilities, and shelters. This annual cost can add up quickly with long periods of homelessness. For half of homeless youth (age 14-24), homelessness will not end during adolescence. Lack of steady employment is one of the largest barriers for youth experiencing homelessness to become permanently …

A Vision-Based Bee Counting Algorithm For Electronic Monitoring Of Langsthroth Beehives, Sai Kiran Reka

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Forager traffic is the number of bees entering or exiting the bee hive over a given period of time. To estimate forager traffic, beekeepers typically take a stopwatch and count the number of bees manually over a set period of time. Forager traffic is an important health indicator of the hive. Sudden changes in forager traffic levels show that there may be an anomaly inside the hive or in the environment. There have been several attempts to automate the estimation of forager traffic in Langsthroth hives with custombuilt hardware devices. In this thesis, we argue that bee counting can be …

The Impact Of Social Comparisons On Stereotype Threat For Black College Students Attending Predominantly White Colleges And Universities, Odessia Knowles

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Despite increasing college enrollment rates for Black individuals, college completion rates remain dismal, thus the achievement gap between Black and White students remains in effect. One reason which may contribute to low completion rates for Black college students is stereotype threat. Stereotype threat is when an individual is at risk of confirming a negative stereotype about their group membership. For Blacks attending college, the threat would be related to academic underachievement. However, the impact of stereotype threat is highly individualized and an individual’s Black racial identity may impact stereotype threat for certain individuals.

Social comparison theory suggests that to gain …

The Role Of Sexual Communication In Committed Relationships, Adam C. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this Master's thesis, I describe a study to understand the role that sexual communication plays within committed couple relationships. I used data from a sample of 142 couples who completed an online survey consisting of a battery of quantitative assessments measuring relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, communication processes, and sexual communication.

Through path analysis, a statistical tool that tests relationships between variables, I observed the impact that sexual communication has within couple relationships. In my findings, I highlight the differences between the "what" and "how" behind couples' communications about sex. I examined these findings by gender and found important differences …

Socialization Of Respeto In Immigrant Mexican Families, Marsha Tafoya

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Respeto is a cultural value considered to be essential in Latina/o families. Latina/o parents endorse respeto as being an important to teaching to their children. Mental health professionals argue that it is important to understand cultural values in delivering appropriate and relevant services to ethnic and culturally diverse clients. Some experts argue that such focus on cultural context also improves the effectiveness of interventions. The current study examined the cultural value of respeto in immigrant Mexican parents with a child between 4 and 9 years of age. Two scales were developed to examine the behavioral displays of respeto in boys …

Three Essays On Us Agricultural Insurance, Taehoo Kim

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Agricultural insurance programs such as crop insurance and Dairy Margin Protection program (MPP-Dairy) are managed by United State Department of Agriculture (USDA). The objective of these programs is to help farmers manage their financial risk. Agricultural insurance programs have played an important role for farmers in terms of maintaining farm profitability. There are several potential problems with insurance programs, such as moral hazard and adverse selection, which make them inefficient.

With respect to these problems, three research gaps are identified: i) moral hazard in prevented planting (PP), ii) choice of PP and planting a second crop, and iii) selecting margin …

Lived Experience Of Young Widowed Individuals, Eunicia Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Young widowhood is a unique experience that has received little in-depth attention in research and clinical settings. Their experiences may differ from other types of losses, particularly from losses that are typically expected to happen later in life. The present study treated the lived experiences of young men and women who have experiences the loss of a spouse. Eleven men and women between the ages of 18 and 49 were interviewed about their experiences post-loss using phenomenological methods. After coding for similarities and differences between the experiences, five themes emerged in all eleven interviews: (1) relationship, (2) first reactions, (3) …

Effects Of Acceptance And Commitment Therapy On Impulsive Decision Making, Kate L. Morrison

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For some people, decision making is more often influenced by immediate gratification, rather than what is best for them in the long term. This study intended to change how those people made decisions, in order to help them live meaningful lives. This was done through eight sessions of a treatment called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; in comparison to no treatment). Forty adults were randomly assigned to either treatment or a no treatment control. The treatment did not change the way people responded on the decision making measures, although the treatment reduced problematic behaviors and obstacles to living a meaningful …

The Effects Of Familism And Sibling Relationships On Mexican-Origin Adolescents' Intentions For Alcohol, Tobacco, And Other Drug Use, Molly Mechammil

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The aim of this study was to investigate whether and how sibling relationships and family values intersect to influence Mexican origin youth’s intentions to use substances. Previous research with European-American families has indicated that the nature and quality of sibling relationships in particular plays a large role in whether or not youth will engage in substance use behaviors. In addition, high levels of family and cultural values have also been found to be strong protective factors for substance use in Latino youth. A better understanding of the relation between family values and sibling relationship processes is important in order to …

The Ideal Educator: Investigating Teaching Culture And Teaching Styles Through Teacher Self-Efficacy And Social Acceptance, Jared R. Glenn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Previously collected data from the Teaching and Learning International Study (TALIS 2013) is utilized to examine two hypotheses. First, I investigated whether teachers who perform well in their jobs also tend to be popular friend choices among colleagues and administrators. Second, if there were evidence to support the first hypothesis, I examined whether these popular teachers also had a particular style of managing their classrooms.

While popular opinion often suggests that education is a one-size-fits-all method of sharing knowledge, actual educational methods actually change from place to place and country to country (Ho and Hau, 2004; Malinen et al, 2013). …

Utilizing Act Daily As A Self-Guided Mobile App Intervention For Depression And Anxiety In A College Counseling Center, Jack A. Haeger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

College counseling centers (CCCs) have experienced funding and staffing setbacks in recent years, resulting in higher caseloads, counselor burnout, and bloated waitlists. Mobile Health (mHealth) interventions may offer a cost-effective and innovative solution. The authors developed ACT Daily, a prototype mHealth app based in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). This study examined the feasibility and possible efficacy of ACT Daily as a brief intervention for individuals placed on CCC waitlists.

A sample of 11 depressed/anxious clients waitlisted at a local CCC enrolled in the study, which followed a pre-post, open trial design. Participants received a brief online training that covered …

Review Of Archives In Libraries: What Librarians And Archivists Need To Know To Work Together, Amber D'Ambrosio

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Archives in Libraries: What Librarians and Archivists Need to Know to Work Together.

We Have Only Scratched The Surface: The Role Of Student Research In Institutional Repositories, Becky Thoms, Betty Rozum

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Student research, in the form of theses and dissertations, is nearly ubiquitous in institutional repositories (IRs) across the US. However, students at many institutions contribute far more to the scholarly landscape of their communities. This presentation will explore this untapped well of potential material, report on survey data about perceptions of possible benefits of archiving this student work, and encourage discussion of this exciting new avenue of opportunity for libraries.

A Population-Based Analysis Of Increasing Rates Of Suicide Mortality In Japan And South Korea, 1985–2010, Eric N. Reither, Sun Jeon, Ryan K. Masters

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Background: In the past two decades, rates of suicide mortality have declined among most OECD member states. Two notable exceptions are Japan and South Korea, where suicide mortality has increased by 20 % and 280 %, respectively.

Methods: Population and suicide mortality data were collected through national statistics organizations in Japan and South Korea for the period 1985 to 2010. Age, period of observation, and birth cohort membership were divided into five-year increments. We fitted a series of intrinsic estimator age-period-cohort models to estimate the effects of age-related processes, secular changes, and birth cohort dynamics on the rising …

Ideal Elves? Expressing A 3-Dimensional Personality In A 2-Dimensional Space, David Tauber, Joshua Wanner

Student Research Symposium

Published in 2007, the Ideal Elf is a classic article studying character creation in Online Games. It used quantitative methods to address the difference between the idealize self of individuals surveyed, and the online characters they create. In their survey they found the difference between an individuals ideal self and the traits of the character they created was considerably smaller than the difference between the difference between the individual’s ideal self and their actual self. From this they suggested the creation of characters in game is partially a way for individuals to express their ideal selves. Our research attempted to …

Implementing A Measurement Feedback System In A Psychology Graduate Training Clinic, Elizabeth Wynn, Molly Mechammil, Michael Levin, Rick Cruz

Student Research Symposium

Measurement feedback systems (MFS’s) are software tools that help behavioral health clinicians routinely track their clients’ symptoms and collaborate with their client to make decisions concerning treatment. Research has shown that the use of MFS’s may improve clinical decision-making and that it is correlated with greater treatment gains and lower dropout rates when compared to the use of clinicians’ judgement alone. However, there are various factors that can impede the efficacy of these tools. One of these factors is the attitudes of clinicians toward MFS’s. Clinicians have been found to hold predominantly negative attitudes towards MFS’s which poses a major …

Optimizing Delay Discounting Procedures, Jodi Siri, Jillian M. Rung

Student Research Symposium

The purpose of the current research is twofold: 1) to identify the causes and typical frequencies of nonsystematic data in three commonly used discounting tasks, and 2) to test and optimize these delay discounting procedures to reduce the amount of non-systematic data that is produced. Experiment 1 will be the first study to explicitly examine the frequency of nonsystematic data obtained across these three procedures, which will identify which method is the most reliable procedure for producing systematic data. While many of these procedures have been widely used, the procedural parameters (e.g., delay range, monetary amounts) have varied greatly across …

Liberalis, Spring 2016, Utah State University

Liberalis

Freedom to Think, Discover, and Create. The alumni magazine for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Utah State University.

A Match Made In Data Heaven: Libraries Partnering With The Office Of Research, Betty Rozum, Becky Thoms

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

As requirements for data capture and sharing increase, offices of research are looking for partners in providing these services. Guess what? They are looking for you. They are looking for your repository services. You, in turn, find a valuable partner in identifying faculty data and research needs and embed yourself more deeply into the research ecosystem.

At Utah State University, Betty Rozum, Data Services Coordinator, and the repository team, led by Becky Thoms, have worked with their Office of Research and other campus stakeholders, such as Central IT, to provide exemplary data support services to USU faculty. During the webinar, …

Enhancing Teaching & Learning: Libraries And Open Educational Resources In The Classroom, Erin Davis, Britt A. Fagerheim, Becky Thoms, Dory Cochran

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Academic libraries continually adjust services to adapt to the ever-changing landscape in higher education. In response to the broken textbook market, libraries are becoming actively involved in the open educational resources (OER) movement. Although there is not a formal program in place, librarians at Utah State University explored a collaborative approach to integrate OER in faculty members' courses. One goal of the effort was to work closely with faculty to consider course objectives and learning outcomes when evaluating and incorporating OER. This article identifies a streamlined process for targeting courses most suited for OER adoption and outlines a process of …

Memeing Grandma: Bridging The Gap Between The Archives And Pop Culture Through A Historical Photograph Meme Contest, Clint Pumphrey, Darcy Pumphrey

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Libraries At The Hub As The Federally Funded Research Wheel Turns To Open, Kipphut-Smith Shannon, Betty Rozum, Becky Thoms

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Libraries are strong partners in supporting researcher compliance with both funder public access policies and institutional open access policies, and are increasingly involved in research data management activities. The 2008 National Institutes of Health(NIH) Public Access Policy, requiring researchers to deposit copies of all NIH‐funded publications in PubMed Central, provided an opportunity for academic librarians to use their expertise in education and training, copyright, and author rights issues to assist with policy compliance. At the same time, many institutions began conversations about management of research data and adoption of institutional open access (OA) policies,requiring faculty to place copies of their …

Review Of Rights In The Digital Era, Tammy Lau

Journal of Western Archives

Book review of Rights in the Digital Era.

Making Strategic Decisions: Conducting And Using Research On The Impact Of Sequenced Library Instruction, Kacy Lundstrom, Pamela N. Martin, Dory Cochran

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

This study explores the relationship between course grades and sequenced library instruction interventions throughout psychology students’ curriculum. Researchers conducted this study to inform decisions about sustaining and improving program integrations for first- and second-year composition courses and to improve discipline-level integrations. Researchers began with transcript analysis but soon incorporated student surveys and a faculty focus group to supplement the data and influence future directions. Findings confirmed that students benefit from meaningful collaborations with the library at strategic, sequenced points in their curriculum, including at the discipline level. This research also provided concrete information that brought about change at the classroom …

Experience And Worker Flows, Aspen Gorry

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper studies the role of worker learning in a labor market where workers have incomplete information about the quality of their employment match. The amount of information about the quality of a new match depends on a worker’s past job experience. Allowing workers to learn from experience generates a decline in job finding probabilities with age that is consistent with patterns found in the data. Moreover, workers with more past experience will on average have less wage volatility on new jobs, which is also consistent with the data. In contrast to the fact that the cross-sectional wage distribution fans …

Extending The Benefits Of Ebis To Marginalized Populations: Technology As A Powerful Ally, Melanie M. Domenech-Rodriguez

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Intersection Of Culture And Ethics: Updates From The Ethnic Minority Psychological Groups, Melanie M. Domenech-Rodriguez, Gayle S. Morse, Nabil Hassan El-Ghoroury, Helen H. Hsu, Kevin Washington

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Measuring The Effectiveness Of Experiential Date Nights: A Qualitative Study, Naomi Brower, Linda Skogrand, Kay Bradford

Human Development and Family Studies Faculty Publications

This qualitative study examines the experience of 13 couples who attended a relationship education date night in two metropolitan areas in a western state. The intent of these date nights was to reach audiences that may not attend traditional classroom relationship education. Reasons for, benefits of attending, and impacts were explored with participants. Findings indicate that the majority of participants had fun and enjoyed spending time together, learned qualities and skills of healthy relationships, and had positive learning experiences with other couples. Additionally, while most individuals’ reason for attending was to have fun, the majority experienced a positive impact on …

Review Of Encoded Archival Description Tag Library – Version Ead3, Jodi Allison-Bunnell

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Encoded Archival Description Tag Library – Version EAD3.

The Role Of Family-Led Disability Organizations In Supporting Families With Hearing-Related Concerns, Diane D. Behl, Janet Desgeorges, Karl R. White

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

A survey was conducted with state level chapters from Family Voices, Parent Training and Information Centers, and Parent–to-Parent USA to understand their current activities support families of children with hearing-related concerns and to identify gaps in their ability to support families of children who are D/HH. these organizations reported that they are contacted with parent requests for information in regard to family support opportunities, early intervention, referral sources pertaining to hearing concerns, financial help, and providing information about legal rights. Results showed that the greatest challenges for these organizations were related to needing to connect families to financial resources pertaining …