Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Self-Efficacy Of College Students With A Learning Disability During Freshman Year, Nicole Renee Adams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe current study sought to understand the phenomena of educational programming and academic self-efficacy. The conceptual framework for this study was based on social cognitive theories of academic self-efficacy and motivation. This qualitative study used interpretive phenomenological analysis to gain a broader understanding of experiences of academic self-efficacy and motivation in college students diagnosed with a specific learning disability. Ten participants were recruited with snowball sampling and semi-structured interviews were conducted to guide this research study. Results of this research support additional analysis as necessary to close the gaps presented in the college transition and campus life of students with …

Behavioral Strategies And Predicting Impulsive Aggression In Among Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Raul Alafa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have explored the relationship between the application of written attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) impulsive aggression (IA) behavioral intervention strategies with current public-school educational plans in reducing aggression and how exclusion of behavioral strategies may increase aggression and impact students’ long-term ability to control emotions. However, the social learning theory of aggression suggests that positive self-efficacy and modeling may improve effective coping. This study explored the relationship between aggression as measured by the modified overt aggression scale and the individualized education program (IEP)/504 Plan behavioral strategies’ effectiveness for ADHD aggression as measured by a repeated measured analysis of variance. Data …

Continuing Education And Predictors Of Self-Reported Professional Competency Among Trauma Counselors, Desiree Lynn Grin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractContinuing Education and Predictors of Self-Reported Professional Competency Among Trauma Counselors by Desiree Lynn Grin

MS, Walden University, 2019MA, Capella University, 2009 BS, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 2003

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Counseling Psychology

Walden University November 2021 Abstract Currently, there is limited research about outcomes for therapists who choose to engage in professional trainings for ongoing education. Although other professions track this kind of information, there is a dearth of information for mental health counselors. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of counselors’ motivations, …

African American Men’S Negative Personal Experiences With And Trust In Police, Cachet Dominique Burks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American men’s negative experiences with the police have impacted their trust of police. Many African American men have experienced psychological trauma, more specifically posttraumatic stress disorder, due to their encounters with police. As a result of these negative personal experiences, their reporting of crimes has decreased significantly, and gun-related violence is going unreported. There is limited literature on this topic. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis was to explore the negative personal experiences that some African American men have with police officers and their experiences of trust of law enforcement. Personal construct theory, which is a theory that …

Effect Of Human-Animal Interactions On Retail Employees’ Job Satisfaction And Job Performance, Michelle Elizabeth Davis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research has shown that companion animals can have a positive effect on people who suffer from mental and physical illnesses; however, few studies have considered the impact of human-animal interactions (HAIs) on employees in the work environment. This quantitative study investigated the effect of HAIs on 146 employees’ job satisfaction and job performance in three retail environments with a range of potential animal interactions: retail store with no animal presence (none), retail store with occasional animal presence (occasional), and retail store with persistent animal presence (constant). Retail employees’ job satisfaction and performance in each retail setting were assessed using the …

The Role Of Psychological Distress In Maintaining Exercise After Cancer Diagnosis, Patrick Tertulien

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractCancer affects the lives of thousands of people every day and is a leading cause of death. Exercise has been shown to yield mental and physical benefits for patients and survivors, but the experiences of cancer patients who face a multiplicity of psychological stressors have not been clearly described. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the psychological factors that are associated with continuing to exercise after cancer diagnosis, during and/or following their treatment. The focus was on how cancer survivors maintained a regular routine of exercise while experiencing psychological distress associated with cancer diagnosis, treatment, and concerns …

A Qualitative Phenomenological Study Exploring Aviation Communication Experiences Of North American Pilots, Sonia Fay Bush

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Human factors contribute to approximately 75% of aviation accidents. The lack of effective flight deck communication has caused numerous aviation accidents which has resulted in the loss of many human lives. The specific management problem was that standardized flight deck communication of airline pilots may not be sufficient to prevent aviation accidents. The focus of the study was the lived flight deck communication experiences of North American pilots. Using the Observer Model of Communicology formed the conceptual framework for this study, 15 participants were selected, using purposive sampling. Data collection was accomplished via one-on-one interviews. Coding and thematic analysis were …

School Social Work Leadership Self-Efficacy And Perceptions Of Multidisciplinary Collaboration, Megan Pendley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

School social workers employ a variety of interventions to meet the needs of students, staff, and families. Serving as the vital link between the school, student, and community, school social workers are well positioned for leadership opportunities. Yet, school social workers continue to be marginalized and under recognized for their leadership capabilities and unique contributions to interdisciplinary collaboration in the school setting. Informed by transformational leadership theory and self-efficacy theory, this study was conducted to examine the relationship between leadership self-efficacy and perceptions of interdisciplinary collaboration of school social workers as measured by the leader efficacy questionnaire and the index …

Social Determinants Of Health And Health Behaviors Of Hispanics, Suheily Valderrama

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mexican Americans experience higher morbidity and mortality than non-Hispanic whites, a problem known as health disparities, which is often explained by differences in social determinants of health (SDH). SDH are social and economic conditions that influence health-related behaviors. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between SDH (income, education, neighborhood safety, and health care access), and health behaviors (diet, sleep, and physical activity) of Hispanics. The cumulative inequality (CI) theory was used to inform this study. A secondary data analysis of 37078 Hispanic adults who completed the 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey was conducted. …

Reduced Recidivism In Drug Offenders By Treatment Involving Motivational Interviewing, Meleeka Clary

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractIncarcerated substance users frequently recidivate because of a lack of substance treatment; it was not known whether motivational interviewing (MI) significantly reduces recidivism among substance users. The purpose of this quantitative study was to evaluate the effectiveness of MI as a treatment method for reducing recidivism among incarcerated individuals with substance use disorders. Social cognitive and extrinsic motivation theories served as the theoretical foundation for the study. Motivation is an important factor in offender engagement with treatment and has been linked to improved treatment outcomes. The research questions asked whether the availability of MI in detention facilities was significantly related …

Non-Governmental Organisations' Impact On Educational Policy In Rural Ghana, Sarah Ayikai Okine

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become an increasingly important factor in education globally. The social structure in developing countries such as Ghana has created a need for government to work with NGOs in the educational system to reach out to children and provide quality basic, primary education, especially in rural communities. However, there are still challenges in the discharge of their duties due to challenges in collaboration with all stakeholders. This case study addressed the perception of stakeholders regarding NGOs’ influence on Ghana’s educational system to better understand the influence and impact of NGOs on education in Ghana’s rural communities. …

Impact Of New York State Clean Energy Policy Initiative On Renewable Energy Generation, Barry Braimahsaliu Omo-Ikirodah

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The New York State renewable portfolio standard program failed to reach its successive targets and did not meet estimated percentage capacity in all program years. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between 6 predictors variables (policy standard and objective, resources and incentive, inter-organizational communication and enforcement activities, characteristics of the implementing agencies,economic,social, and political conditions and disposition of implementers) and implementation performance. Pressman and Wildavsky Implementation theory provided the framework for the study. Data were collected from 251 anonymous participants from the Qualtrics survey audience residents of New York City’s 5 counties. Multiple linear regression …

Role Of Nigerian Labor Force Demand In Domestic Child Trafficking, Muideen Adegboyega Salami

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractChild trafficking, especially internal trafficking of children, is increasing despite efforts by Nigerian federal, state, and local governments and agencies and other local and international organizations. Internal child trafficking has denied many Nigerian children access to quality education and human rights protections. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to investigate the perceptions of law enforcement officers and bureaucrats regarding the influence of domestic labor demand on internal child trafficking in Nigeria. The labor market segmentation theory and routine activities theory provided theoretical foundations to explore the demand or pull factor of internal child trafficking in Nigeria. Data were …

Experience Of Nigerian Female Prostitutes Who Are Victimized By Police, Anitha Scroggins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nigerian police are not trusted by the population they swore to protect because they often assault, manipulate, exploit, and humiliate citizens as a form of intimidation to achieve a personal gain, especially from those who are involved in illegal activities like prostitution. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the experiences of Nigerian prostitutes and learn how they use adaptive coping strategies to cope with the stress of police victimization. This study’s underlying theory was the distress tolerance theory, which was utilized to understand the emergence of adaptive coping strategies. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with …

Resilience As A Moderator Between Food And Housing Insecurity And Mental Distress, Denise Mchugh Loggie

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The prevalence of food insecurity (FI) and housing insecurity (HI) in college students has increased over the last decade along with an associated increase in mental health problems. Studies show significant increases in many markers for mental distress in this population including a higher prevalence of mood disorders, non-lethal self-harm, and attempted and completed suicides, particularly over the last decade. Compounding these challenges is the low level of resilience found in college-age young adults, potentially limiting their ability to cope with and recover from the hardship of FI and HI. This quantitative study, guided by resilience theory and Maslow’s hierarchy …

Strategies For Establishing A Diverse Workforce Within A University Health System’S Department, Shanee Chantel Morgan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Balanced diversity in health care promotes patient satisfaction and enhances innovation. Obtaining a culturally balanced workplace requires recruitment strategies that encourage inclusiveness among team members from various backgrounds. The purpose of this doctoral study was to explore the issue of lack of diversity in a behavioral health organization’s (BHO’s) student intern program and identify strategies for creating greater diversity in the workplace. The Baldrige excellence framework, the conceptual framework that guided the research, was designed to help BHOs to improve their overall business performance to accomplish goals and increase organizational sustainability. Three themes emerged from the data analysis: diversity training, …

The Role Of Organizational Socialization On The Ethical Orientation Of Male Police Officers, Megan Marie Bessey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A gap in literature exists surrounding years of service, training, and ethical attitudes within the law enforcement industry. The proposed hypothesis was that years of service in law enforcement and hours of in-service training were interactively related to an officer's ethical attitudes as related to ethical orientation. The purpose of this study was to examine organizational socialization within the law enforcement profession, specifically as demonstrated through the interaction effects of factors relating to ethical orientation and scores measured by the Ethics Position Questionnaire of male Northern Kentucky and Southern Oregon police officers. The major theoretical propositions for this study came …

How Women Who Have Recidivated Describe Their Readiness For Employment After Release From Prison, Simba Kathleen Fox

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since the 1980s, the population of women prisoners incarcerated in the state of California had significantly increased by 500% more than that of the male prisoners. The United States had more incarcerated women than any other country. Along with this alarming rise in female incarceration, recidivism rates were also higher among female inmates. This problem has negatively affected women in California; whereas 57% of the women released from prison were rearrested within three to seven years. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological research study was to investigate how 18 women who had recidivated with the same or a different criminal …

Retrospective And Forecasting Analysis Of Increased Long Term Care Demand In Niagara, Breanne Alissa Hines

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A problem exists within the Canadian healthcare system as many patients experience longer lengths of stay (LOS) in acute care (AC) and complex care (CC) beds within hospitals because of a lack of long term care (LTC) facilities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extra days patients wait for placement and assess the benefits of increasing the number of LTC beds. The theoretical framework used was the four-level model of the health care system. Research questions involved 2017-2019 data for the number of LTC beds required to eliminate waits and evaluate beds needed in the future. This …

School Personnel’S Perceptions Toward Transfer Versus Nontransfer Students In A Borderland School, Maria Isabel Quiñones Velez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

School personnel serving highly transient student populations in borderland schools in the southwestern United States may have different perceptions toward transfer students and nontransfer students. Few quantitative studies have measured the perceptions that arise as school personnel confront the unique challenges of providing services to transfer students. Research-based evidence of the perceptions of school personnel in a southwestern border town is needed. The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the presence, or not, of different perceptions of school personnel toward students who transfer from other school systems due to specific circumstances versus the perceptions toward nontransfer students who …

Ghanaian Immigrant Women In The United States Beliefs About Maternal Nutrition And Fetal Development, Yassi Azhdari

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ghanaian women, in their native country, experience a high rate of anemia, malaria, and malnutrition while pregnant. Poor health outcomes for mother and child are caused by a lack of protein in their diet, food taboos, consumption of nutrient-poor foods, and infections. These conditions may cause pregnancy complications such as premature birth, or maternal or fetal death. There is little known about, the differences between the Ghanaian and U.S. birth experience, and foods used by Ghanaian immigrant women while pregnant. The biopsychosocial model was used in this descriptive qualitative study to examine how Ghanaian immigrant women are impacted by pregnancy …

Lived Experiences Of Parents Regarding Their Elementary-Age Child’S Exclusion From School Due To Behavioral Problems, Lauren Claire Ferber

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractDisciplinary exclusion, particularly school expulsion, presents a significant challenge to school-age children and their families. Although the impacts of disciplinary exclusion from school on children are well-known, less is known about how this phenomenon affects their parents. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of parents who have a child who has been subjected to disciplinary exclusion due to behavioral problems in the classroom. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory provided the framework for this study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 12 parents of children who faced exclusion. Four themes emerged from coding analysis: …

California’S Prisoner Rehabilitation Effort: Ex-Lifers’ Perceptions On Achieving Sustainable Social Reintegration, Kimberly L. Martin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Prisoners sentenced to a life term in California’s state prisons are being found suitable for parole at record-high rates. Although macro-level policy guides California’s prisoner rehabilitation process, a specific policy does not exist to guide the rehabilitation of the lifer population. Research shows a compelling relationship between public safety resulting from reduced recidivism and an inmate’s participation in rehabilitative programming during incarceration. There is a gap in the literature about ex-lifers and their ability to achieve sustainable social reintegration upon release from incarceration. Ostrom’s institutional analysis and development framework guided this study’s examination of the gap in literature and the …

Exploring The Customization Of Lean Six Sigma For Adoption In Public Organizations, Jeffrey Allen Farrell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Lean Six Sigma is a hybrid process improvement strategy employed to increase quality, speed, and efficiency in business processes. However, over 60% of organizations that attempt to adopt Lean Six Sigma fail, leading to a loss of resources and reluctance to engage in future improvement efforts. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study was to understand how leaders customize Lean Six Sigma for organizational factors found in public agencies in the United States. This study was framed first by a definition of Lean Six Sigma that distinguished four separate elements and then the contingency theory of organizations. Semistructured …

Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards In Washington, Wade W. Gough

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The federal government created the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program in 2007 to keep terrorists from weaponizing hazardous chemicals. The CFATS program did this by targeting high-risk chemical facilities and adding additional regulations, but this has added an additional burden on the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) that could negatively impact their capacity to prepare and collaborate to prevent chemical disasters. The present study was conducted to evaluate the CFATS program from the perspective of LEPCs to fill an existing gap in the literature. The study was conducted using the theoretical frameworks of contingency theory of organizations by Donaldson, …

Citizens' Perspectives On Accountability Of Nongovernmental Organizations Providing Drinking Water In Northern Ghana, Abdul-Nashiru Mohammed

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractAccountability is an important concept in public administration and across multiple sectors. NGOs work towards achieving their social purpose and yet, they are perceived to be accountable only to their donors but not to citizens. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore perspectives of citizens in three districts: Bongo, Wa, and Sagnarigu in Northern Ghana on how NGOs demonstrate accountability in fulfilling their commitments in drinking water provision. It specifically investigated the lived experiences of citizens: local government authorities, traditional authorities, and individual citizens from the districts. Research literature emphasized upward accountability resulting in a gap observed …

Social Support Of Caregiver Sons Of Parents With Dementia, Ralph Callanta Pascual

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite the growing number of male caregivers, few researchers have examined social supports for caregiver sons of parents with dementia. The purpose of this qualitative interpretative phenomenological study was to contribute to the empirical literature on the social support of caregiver sons of aging parents with dementia. The research question centered on the lived experience of social support of caregiver sons of parents with dementia. The theoretical framework was the social role theory. The sample consisted of eight caregiver sons of parents with dementia. Participants were interviewed using semi-structured, researcher-developed questions. The results were generated from coding and thematizing processes, …

The Association Between Teacher Attachment Style And Student Engagement, Susan Bonnell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The teacher-student relationship is an important dynamic in student engagement. Higher education retention strategies include the teacher-student relationship as a focus. The present study focused on the attachment style of the teacher and the impact that it has on student engagement. The theoretical basis for this study was Bowlby’s attachment theory. Student engagement, both behavioral and academic, was measured after 9 weeks of a semester in general education classes. A quantitative design was used to determine the relationship between the teacher’s attachment style and student engagement. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyze the results. Significant differences …

New York City Police Officers’ Experiences Of 9/11, Christine Fiore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractPolice officers were some of the first responders to the World Trade Center bombings on September 11, 2001. Longitudinal studies have revealed that some New York City (NYC) police officers were better able to cope than others, yet the long-term effects of officers’ coping strategies are unknown. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the coping strategies used by NYC police officers during 9/11 and how these police officers continue to cope with their experiences today. Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional model of stress and coping provided the foundation for this study. The participants included nine NYC police …

Substance Abuse Disorders And Veteran Homelessness, Donald Rufus Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Veterans constitute a significant proportion of the homeless population in the United States. Studies indicate that substance abuse is a major issue these veterans face that can result in homelessness. Despite improvement since 2009, substance abuse among this population remains a significant problem. The objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of the experiences of homeless and substance-abusing veterans to provide information to government agencies that may help them develop a practical approach for addressing the issue. The social cognitive theory and Lowry's dimension on federalism provided the theoretical framework for this study. A general qualitative research …