Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Exploring Social Hierarchy Computationally To Further Our Understanding Of Social Organizations Within Their Environments, Stanley L. Rhodes Jr.

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Hierarchy is ever-present across countless human societies, a seemingly inescapable reality of small organizations and national governments. However, there is a lot about hierarchy we don’t understand, and if we want to make better organizations and better society, it is crucial we learn more about it. This dissertation investigates three questions: 1) “What is hierarchy?” 2) “How is hierarchy useful?” 3) “How does hierarchy vary?” I find that social scientists do not all mean the same thing by hierarchy, even within the same fields; yet, they do consistently write of hierarchy as control (like boss-employee relations), hierarchy as rank (like …

Navigating Roadblocks In Utah's Path Towards Curbing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Emily K. Fletcher

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

In places where discussions about climate change have become highly political and divided, community groups have attempted to connect rival political parties by focusing on improving air quality. This topic is often less politically charged. The effects of climate change have been disproportionately felt by marginalized communities around the world. In the west side of the Salt Lake Valley, many communities are more likely to experience the negative consequences of a drying lake, a problem that Utah and other regions are currently facing, compared to others in the valley. This research focuses on the individuals who have signed the Utah …

The Intersectional Experiences Of Young And Educated Latine Men's Masculinity: An Exploration Of Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Skin Tone, Sexual Orientation, And Region Of Origin, Juan Estrada

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Latine masculinity is often looked at through simplistic concepts like machismo or caballerismo, which fail to fully consider the different aspects of Latine men’s identities. For example, how might a cisgender, gay, dark skinned, Latine man understand his masculinity as he moves between Latine and United Statesian cultures. In this study, we wanted to do two things: first, we wanted to understand how the cultural and intersectional aspects of their lives shape how Latine men see their masculinity. Second, we wanted to celebrate the diverse ways in which they express their masculinity, considering things like their skin color, region …

Essays On The Economics Of Hurricanes, Haishan Yang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This dissertation explores how Hurricanes Katrina and Rita affected the economy in New Orleans and nearby areas in Louisiana. Using a variety of econometric techniques, my dissertation aims to understand the effects of these storms on employment, wages, and housing prices.

In the first essay, I focus on employment in New Orleans. I find that Katrina led to significant and lasting job losses in nearly every sector, while the construction sector stood as an exception, recovering within just three months. Interestingly, wages increased in most sectors. This suggests that with fewer workers available, those who remained became more valuable, leading …

Provoking Gut-Level Reactions: A Study On Journalistic Framing During The 2020 Meatpacking Crisis, Michelle Rossi, Patrick Ferrucci

Journalism and Communication Faculty Publications

This study investigates news frames used by mainstream news media in the United States to portray the 2020 meatpacking crisis. By integrating framing and animal standpoint theory, it reveals the mechanisms that perpetuate social ignorance about daily practices within the meat industry, particularly those that exclude the perspectives of farmed animals. Through an engagement with intersectional ecofeminism and Critical Animal and Media Studies (CAMS), the investigation probes the cyclical patterns of violence inflicted upon farmed animals in the meat industry as portrayed by news outlets, a phenomenon that simultaneously impacts marginalized human communities. The inclusion of farmed animals as news …

What Iron County Leaders And Residents Can Do To Strengthen The Impact Of Girls And Women In Their Area, Deborah Lin, Susan R. Madsen

All Current Publications

This fact sheet is part of a series from the Utah Women & Leadership Project. This idea sheet is based on a 2023 gathering of 33 leaders in Iron County. Girls and women face challenges unique to the area in which they live, and the goal of this gathering was to identify those barriers and determine strategies and initiatives that local leaders and residents can implement to address them. This document includes recommendations in the following areas: home and family, education, community engagement, business and economics, and culture.

Fire Regimes Of Utah: The Past As Prologue, Joseph D. Birch, James A. Lutz

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

(1) Background: Satellite monitoring of fire effects is widespread, but often satellite-derived values are considered without respect to the characteristic severity of fires in different vegetation types or fire areas. Particularly in regions with discontinuous vegetation or narrowly distributed vegetation types, such as the state of Utah, USA, specific characterization of satellite-derived fire sensitivity by vegetation and fire size may improve both pre-fire and post-fire management activities. (2) Methods: We analyzed the 775 medium-sized (40 ha ≤ area < 400 ha) and 697 large ( ≥ 400 ha) wildfires that occurred in Utah from 1984 to 2022 and assessed burn severity for all vegetation types using the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio. (3) Results: Between 1984-2021, Utah annually experienced an average of 38 fires ≥ 40 ha that burned an annual average of 58,242 ha with a median dNBR of 165. Fire was heavily influenced by sagebrush and shrubland vegetation types, as these constituted 50.2% (17% SD) of area burned, a proportion which was relatively consistent (18% to 79% yr^-1). Medium-sized fires had higher mean severity than large fries in non-forested vegetation types, but forested vegetation types showed the reverse. …

Utahns' Wellbeing And Mental Health By Rural-Urban Location, Kristen Koci, Courtney G. Flint, Jessica Ulrich-Schad

All Current Publications

Many Utah residents experience poor mental health, with 1 in 5 Utah adults experiencing some form of mental illness and 1 in 20 experiencing serious mental illness (e.g., bipolar disorder or schizophrenia). Using data from the Utah Wellbeing Survey, this fact sheet explores wellbeing and mental health in Utah by rural-urban location, specifically highlighting differences between rural, growing, and urban places in the state.

Utahns' Wellbeing And Mental Health: Insights From The Utah Wellbeing Survey, Kristen Koci, Courtney G. Flint, Jessica Ulrich-Schad

All Current Publications

People in Utah face unique challenges today, including poor mental health. Using data from the Utah Wellbeing Survey, this fact sheet explores wellbeing and mental health in Utah, highlighting changes over time and emphasizing the increasing importance of mental health to overall personal wellbeing.

Utahns See Air Quality As A Problem, But Don't Feel They Can Do Much About It, Sydney O'Shay, Cris Meier, Bailey Hughlett

Utah People and Environment Poll (UPEP)

Air pollution is associated with 6.7 million premature deaths worldwide each year. Air pollution shortens Utahns’ life expectancy by two years, costs Utah’s economy $1.8 billion annually, and can cause and worsen many illnesses and conditions. Several factors play a role in people’s decisions or ability to act to reduce the harms of air pollution. This study investigated Utahns’ perception of risk around air pollution, confidence to enact behaviors to protect themselves against the effects of air pollution, and the actual protective behaviors in which they are engaging. Understanding how Utahn’s think about these factors is key for developing strategic …

Air Pollution Associated With Perception Of Increased Health Risks For People Living With Disabilities In Utah, Bosede Adejugbe, Gabriele Ciciurkaite, Sydney O'Shay, Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad

Utah People and Environment Poll (UPEP)

Air quality is one of the top environmental concerns for Utahns today¹. Health risks associated with air pollution can range from mild physiological impacts to death from cardiovascular and respiratory disease^2-4. Little is known about the ways that environmental risks impact people with disabilities because they are often excluded from clinical and social science research⁶. Gaining a more robust understanding of air pollution’s impacts on people living with disabilities (PLwD) is particularly important considering that PLwD comprise about 32.2%⁵ of the U.S. population and 22% of Utah’s population, the latter of which is …

How Affected Family Members Communicate About Their Loved One’S Non-Medical Opioid Use, Suzanne Brown, Sydney O'Shay, Emily Pasman, Danielle Hicks, Elizabeth Agius, Stella M. Resko

Publications

Family members of people who misuse opioids frequently experience stigma due to their association with non-medical opioid use (NMOU). Stigma may affect how family members communicate about NMOU and seek social support. Guided by communication privacy management theory, this study sought to understand how affected family members (AFMs) communicate about NMOU within and outside of the immediate family. In-depth interviews were conducted with 34 adults with an immediate relative with NMOU. Qualitative analyses utilized a common iterative approach. Findings identified complex dialectical tensions that families traverse in both wanting to conceal stigmatizing information while simultaneously wanting to disclose information to …

Unintended Effects Of Preferential Tax Assessment On Farmland Protection: Evidence From Utah's Farmland Assessment Act, Wai Yan Siu, Man Li, Arthur J. Caplan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

This study examines the effect of Utah's Greenbelt program, the state's preferential tax-assessment effort to protect farmland, using an instrumental variable-fixed effects strategy. We find that an unintended effect of the program leads to more conversion of agricultural land to development than the protection it provides. The protection effect is concentrated on parcels with smaller agricultural areas, while conversion occurs on parcels with larger agricultural areas. Our findings shed light on the rationale of a proposed amendment to the policy—Utah House Bill 25—which did not pass during the 2016 legislative session.

Psychosocial Development Measures Modification For Adolescents With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities, Myles Maxey, Troy E. Beckert, Diana Meter, Trenton Landon

Human Development and Family Studies Faculty Publications

Background: Although diagnosis and identification of IDD is improving, adolescents with IDD receive limited attention in research, particularly concerning their psychosocial development. Measures developed and normed with typically developing populations may not be appropriate for IDD populations and may result in biased assessment. Aim: This study aimed to develop and validate modified psychosocial development assessments for adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), addressing the absence of such assessments.

Method: It involved two phases: modifying existing instruments and validating the revised versions. Four stakeholder groups participated: adolescents with IDD, parents, and scholars in adolescent developmental and disabilities. Validation included two …

Preparing Youth For Civic Life And Leadership: Evaluating The Washington County 4-H Youth Officer Program, Paul A. Hill, Katarina J. Aikens

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

The Washington County 4-H Youth Officer Program was designed to address youth preparedness for civic life in a democratic society. This program is targeted to students in grades 6-8th, who are at a critical stage in their development as citizens. The program emphasizes experiential learning, which allows youth to learn by doing as they deliver public speeches, visit with elected officials, and facilitate business meetings using Roberts Rules of Order. A total of 24 youth participants completed the program over two years. Evaluation results showed the program was successful in achieving student learning outcomes, with significant improvements in citizenship knowledge …

Reaping The Harvest: Developing The Idaho Harvester, Robert Perret, Michelle Shannon, Amy Thompson, Courtney Berge, Devin Becker

Journal of Western Archives

Social media platforms like Tumblr offer a quick, easy, and popular way for archives to conduct outreach and engage users with collections without requiring technical expertise like computer programming and web design. However, as the University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives Department discovered after years of using Tumblr for online outreach, there are significant disadvantages to using a third-party social media platform. Unable to control the discoverability, display, and preservation of blog posts, it became clear that Tumblr was no longer serving the department’s evolving needs, necessitating an alternative solution moving forward. Special Collections & Archives partnered with …

Development And Initial Validation Of Scales For Coming Out Vigilance And Positive Coming Out Responses, Samuel J. Skidmore, G. Tyler Lefevor, Kiet D. Huynh, Connor O. Berg

Psychology Faculty Publications

Coming out involves sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) disclosing their identity to others, and is often related to improved health, well-being, and social support. However, coming out is not always perceived as a positive event, and outcomes of identity disclosure may vary depending on how coming out is approached and how others respond. The present study reports on the development and validation of the Coming Out Vigilance (COV) and the Positive Coming Out Responses (PCOR) measures. Two subsamples of SGMs with varying degrees of outness— totaling 399 individuals—were utilized in the development and validation of these measures. Exploratory and confirmatory …

Dietary Patterns Of Children From The Amazon Region Of Ecuador: A Descriptive, Qualitative Investigation, Kristin N. Murphy, Lisa Boyce, Eduardo Ortiz, Marcela Santos, Gloria Balseca

Human Development and Family Studies Faculty Publications

Many young children in Ecuador suffer from high rates of malnutrition and stunting that affect their long-term growth and development. Little is known about the dietary patterns of children from the Amazon region who experience some of the highest rates of stunting (height-for-age) within Ecuador. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 50 mothers of young children living in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In addition to descriptions of overall dietary patterns, three themes emerged from the interviews relating to strengths mothers have in feeding their children healthy diets: knowledge, autonomous and independent children, and supportive and responsive parenting. Five themes were found relating …

Making Hay While The Sun Shines: Answering The Urgency In Audiovisual Preservation, Benjamin Harry

Journal of Western Archives

Many twentieth-century audiovisual formats are becoming obsolete and/or the physical carriers are deteriorating, warranting the need to digitize this content as soon as possible. Balancing efficiency and urgency with digitization and digital storage resources is a challenging endeavor. This article documents the efforts of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections (LTPSC) at Brigham Young University to begin a systematic effort to digitize audiovisual content found in manuscript collections.

Assessing Capacity In Rural Nonprofits, Jayme Walters, Aaron R. Brown, Dorothy Wallis, Janice Snow

Social Work Faculty Publications

Organizational capacity is necessary for nonprofits to meet their missions and contribute to society. Less is known about rural nonprofits’ organizational capacity and characteristics, as most research focuses on urban nonprofits. The present study first considers the utility of an organizational capacity assessment and identifies pertinent areas of organizational capacity in rural nonprofits. The second objective of the study is to examine relationships between areas of organizational capacity and organizational-level characteristics. In May 2019, nonprofits (n = 290) from persistently poor, rural counties in 14 southern states participated in a survey providing organizational characteristics and assessing organizational capacity. An …

Environmental Conditions And The Fertility Intentions Of Utahns, Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed, Jennifer E. Givens

Utah People and Environment Poll (UPEP)

One of the most important decisions a person may make in their lifetime is whether to have children. Many factors shape fertility intentions and outcomes. A better understanding of individual reproductive intentions can shed light on current fertility patterns, enable more accurate population projections^1-2 and planning efforts, and improve our ability to address environmental drivers and implications.

Cmst 2110: Finding And Using Peer Reviewed Articles (Library Module), Usu Libraries

All E-Learning Resources

Attention: As of 2026 updated versions of this module will no longer be available on Digital Commons. Please contact [email protected] for more information.

In this module you'll learn:

• What a peer-reviewed source is and why you'll want to use them for your research assignment
• How to avoid paywalls and get full access to peer reviewed sources for free
• How to break your research topic into keywords for database searching
• How to cite your sources using APA citation style

Mrs. His Name: Reparative Description As A Tool For Cultural Sensitivity And Discoverability, Elspeth A. Olson

Journal of Western Archives

Reparative description, a term coined by La’el Hughes-Watkins to describe the role of revising archival metadata in social justice, becomes a tool of both practical discoverability and cultural sensitivity toward the past when applied to the issue of married women’s names in legacy metadata in finding aids. The Mrs. His Name Project at the University of Nevada, Reno, represents a case study in balancing the practical with the ethical in identifying married women formerly identified solely by their husband’s names in finding aids. The project further suggests methodology which may be applied to other reparative description projects in archives, and …

Affordable Learning Resources With Usu Libraries: Oer, Course Reserves, And Ebooks, Stephanie Western

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

What is OER?

"Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium--digital or otherwise--that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation, and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions."

How Teachers Conceptualise Shared Control With An Ai Co-Orchestration Tool: A Multiyear Teacher-Centred Design Process, Luettamae Lawrence, Vanessa Echeverria, Kexin Yang, Vincent Aleven, Nikol Rummel

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance teachers' capabilities by sharing control over different parts of learning activities. This is especially true for complex learning activities, such as dynamic learning transitions where students move between individual and collaborative learning in un-planned ways, as the need arises. Yet, few initiatives have emerged considering how shared responsibility between teachers and AI can support learning and how teachers' voices might be included to inform design decisions. The goal of our article is twofold. First, we describe a secondary analysis of our co-design process comprising six design methods to understand how teachers conceptualise sharing control with …

How Do Different Market-Oriented News Organizations Portray News Coverage About The Cares Act?, Michelle Rossi

Journalism and Communication Faculty Publications

Drawing from CARES Act news coverage, this study investigated how different market-oriented news organizations modulated the debate on the most expansive stimulus bill in modern U.S. history, released in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. A comparative approach was used, between news articles produced by a strongly market-oriented and a weakly market-oriented news outlet, both national news outlets, based in the United States. Using market theory as a guide to explore published news content, this study focuses on showing the range of debate, news sources, and journalistic role performances employed in coverage of the same topic, coming from differently funded newsrooms. …

Community Space Planning And Design Guide For Enhanced Wildfire Resilience In Heber, Utah, Devin Macfarlane

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The wildland urban interface (WUI) is the fastest growing land type in the conterminous United States. These areas are prone to catastrophic wildfire events. In response to rapid population growth, Heber City, Utah is planning a significant amount of development within the WUI. This thesis project is aimed at proactively addressing wildfire risk in the WUI of Heber through two main strategies: regional geospatial planning and public space design to create wildfire resilient communities. Researching principles of wildfire adaptive practice and planning for defensible space led to the development of a list of criteria. This list was developed in the …

Are There Differences In Household Borrowing Across Religions?, Seth Dunn

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This study explores the relationship between religion and economic behavior, specifically asking whether variations in household borrowing can be attributable to identification with different Christian religious traditions across the United States. The hypothesis of different borrowing behaviors across religions is motivated historically and theoretically. Historical data from l967 and 1971 are used in ordinary least squared and logistic regression analyses. Density of religious affiliations and relevant controls are used to predict households’ debt and attitudes towards different reasons for borrowing. Some differences across religions are found. This research contributes to a broader literature exploring the impact of religion on economic …

Navigating Cultural Identity In The Classroom, Caroline V. Phillips

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

As of 2016, ~25% of children in the United States are the children of immigrants (Nibbs & Brettell). Many of these youths struggle with the feeling that they belong neither to their parents’ cultural community nor to the locality in which they have been raised (Brockett, 2018). Furthermore, little academic research exists wherein these students share their experiences and engage in the processes of meaning making. This knowledge is essential for multicultural scholars and also for the (overwhelmingly white) population of K-6 teachers who help these youth construct personal identities. This project accomplishes the following:

1. I interview second-generation immigrants …

Evaluating The Effects Of A Teacher-Implemented Mindfulness-Based Intervention On Teacher Stress And Student Prosocial Behavior, Mary L. Phan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

High levels of teacher stress have a negative impact on teacher performance, maintenance, and student outcomes. Given the escalation in teacher stress levels, it is important to decrease teacher stress to improve their wellbeing. One intervention that has received growing attention in reducing teacher stress is mindfulness training. However, few studies have focused on teachers implementing mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) both with themselves and with school-age children within their classrooms. Additionally, few studies have examined the fidelity, feasibility, and social validity of teacher-implemented MBIs in a classroom setting. Through a single-case multiple baseline design across four teachers, the current study evaluated …