Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Role Of The Sibling Relationship During Stressful Life Events, Brianna Weissel

Honors Theses

Siblings play a major role in each other’s lives. If a child has a sibling, they experience life together often going through similar struggles, events, or joys. As siblings grow up, they often disclose information to each other and why or how they disclose life events to one another can depend on many factors. The disclosure levels will likely shift as siblings grow older and move through life. The current study focused on levels of disclosure between siblings and how disclosure is related to the gender of the siblings and the degree of warmth and emotional support in their relationships. …

Small-Family Mindset: An Analysis Of The Impact Of China's Family Planning Policies On Family Culture, Sarah Ansley Croft

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the impact of China’s family planning policies on women’s attitudes towards family culture and the implications on China today. The family planning policies began in the 1970s as an emergency measure intended to create a short-term voluntary small-family culture by decreasing fertility rates. My research, comprised primarily of primary and secondary qualitative sources, discusses the development and implementation of the policies, the economic reforms beginning in the 1980s, and their joint effects on fertility rates, sex ratio at birth, women’s liberation, and changes in family culture, particularly in rural areas. This study found that the family planning …

A Rhapsody Wild, Corey Davis

Honors Theses

This thesis is a fictional novel which explores themes of morality and tragedy within the society of a crime-and-murder-ridden city called Spekender. The mayor, Ev Edison, has become a disgraced recluse as a result of the tragic deaths of his wife and unborn child a year and a half prior to when the story takes place. His remaining children (three boys and a girl named Nimble) are left to navigate their disaster-torn worlds in isolation from their father and from each other. All of this changes one day when Nimble encounters a dangerous supernatural character that seems to know everything …

"The Tyrant Father": Leslie Stephen And Masculine Influences On Virginia Woolf And Her Novel, To The Lighthouse, Anya Graubard

Honors Theses

This paper examines the volatile yet nurturing relationship between Virginia Woolf and her father, Leslie Stephen. It specifically considers the effects of three male “tyrants” in Woolf’s childhood, including not only her father but also her two half-brothers, who abused her sexually. Analysis of the dynamics of these relationships provides insight into Woolf’s lifelong battle with mental illness and helps us to understand the complicated relationships she had as an adult with men and women.

In her letters, diaries, and memoir essays, Woolf reveals how she drew from her own experiences of childhood to write her most famous novel, To …

Interparental Control During Pregnancy Predicts Parental Control Directed Toward Infants, Jaime Stephenson

Honors Theses

Numerous studies have found that the quality of the intimate relationship between parents significantly impacts the quality of the parent-child relationship which, in turn, has important implications for child psychosocial adjustment. Research calls to Enfger’s spillover hypothesis suggesting that discord or dysfunction in one family relationship (e.g., the interparental relationship) puts other family relationships (e.g., parent-child relationships) at increased risk for dysfunction. Examining the association between interparental respect and control dynamics during pregnancy and the parent-child relationship when the child is 1 year of age is important because (a) children’s social and moral adjustment is in a critical stage of …

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Domestic Violence In The Legal System: The Importance Of Victim Advocates, Joanna Chalifoux

Honors Theses

Domestic violence is an aspect of the legal system where there typically is a lack of communication among the institutions involved. Therefore, the benefit of an interdisciplinary approach to domestic violence in the legal system is assessed by emphasizing the importance of the presence of victim advocates in the courtroom. In this dissertation, the issue will be evaluated through a feminist point of view— with the belief that domestic violence is a gendered phenomenon in which the majority of the perpetrators are male and the victims are female. In order to research this, several judges, lawyers, and victim advocates who …

Becoming Our Parents: A Proposed Investigation Into Family Influence In Consumer Behavior, Katie E. Bowman

Honors Theses

Relationships between children and parents have been studied for years across multiple disciplines. Family ties affect countless decisions made throughout the world, making this study relevant to multiple researchers. The need to understand these family influences is particularly important within the business world. Because sales are the goal, being able to comprehend why a consumer purchases one product over the rest of its competition is crucial. This paper is focused specifically on the relationships between parents and their children and how that relationship affects the consumer behavior of the children. These relationships are being studied through intergenerational consumer patterns including …

Police Officer Stress, Loping Mechanisms, And Family Life, Maria Apruzzese

Honors Theses

Law Enforcement Officers experience stress for a variety of reasons that are related to both the nature and the organization of police work. Consequences of stress are felt by the police department, the individual, as well as their family. Building on previous research in this area, this project describes thirteen in-depth interviews with officers and their significant others in an effort to understand the impact of police stress on work and family life and vice versa. Officers were found to struggle between balancing their police role and home life. The family serves as both a coping resource for the officer …

Explorations In The Domestic Space: How Hollywood Made A Home In Film Melodrama, Elana Katz

Honors Theses

This thesis utilizes the Hollywood domestic melodramas and sex comedies of the 1950s as a lens to discover the evolution of family and home from Eisenhower’s America to modern day. As a mode of expression with roots in nineteenth-century theater, melodrama serves as a primary genre for tracking historical and social shifts in twentieth-century American society. However, as the narrative form has evolved over time, what satisfies melodrama is difficult to define as its boundaries have been redrawn. Historians and film scholars examine melodrama through three overarching schools of thought: melodrama as a genre, a mode, or both. Film melodrama …

Allies Or Rivals? The Study Of Sibling Closeness In Young Adulthood, Jennifer Silvershein

Honors Theses

This thesis explores closeness amongst sibling during their emerging adulthood focusing on the variations of sibling composition. Emerging adulthood (from the late teens to late 20s) is seen as an increasingly important stage of the lifecourse, but relatively little is known about the nature of sibling relationships at this age. A total of 54 young adults, 24 Union College students and their 30 siblings, completed surveys about their relationship with each other. In order to gain a full understanding of closeness siblings were asked questions focusing on similarities, intimacy, quarreling, affection, antagonism, admiration, emotional support, competition, instrumental support, dominance, acceptance, …

Una Perspectiva Multigeneracional En La Representación Teatral De La Familia Mexicana, Abigail Calish

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the representation of the Mexican family in plays from the three major generations of playwrights in contemporary Mexican theater. These generations are the Generation of 1950, the New Dramaturgy, and the New Theater. The family is a central unit in society, and so it is a recurring theme in many plays. Playwrights use their daily lives as inspiration for their works, and family is a constant in daily life; no matter where one lives, the family is an unavoidable part of their life. All audiences can relate to problems and issues that families experience, and so playwrights …

La Representación De La Familia En Épocas De Transformación: Un Análisis De La Carreta (1953) De René Marqués Y Noche Cubana (2009) De José Luis García Rodríguez, Alyssa Feldman

Honors Theses

This project investigates the dramatic works La carreta (1953) by René Marqués and Noche cubana (2009) by José Luis García Rodríguez to analyze the playwrights’ utilization of the family to represent the conditions of their respective nations. La carreta describes a Puerto Rican family during the island’s transition to a Commonwealth of the United States. Marqués uses the disintegration of the family to show his opposition to Puerto Rico’s colonial status and dependency on the United States. The struggles of the family in La carreta also express Marqués’ condemnation of Puerto Rico’s industrialization and abandonment of agrarian society. Noche cubana …