Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Designing Effective Messages To Promote Future Zika Vaccine Uptake, Jeanine Guidry

Theses and Dissertations

The Zika virus is associated with the devastating birth defect microcephaly, and while a vaccine was not yet available in early-2017, several were under development. It is imperative to identify effective communication strategies to promote uptake of a new vaccine, particularly among women of reproductive age. Moreover, though the Zika outbreak has received much social media attention, little is known about these conversations on Instagram. The purpose of this dissertation, therefore, was to understand current Zika-focused communication on Instagram and to inform effective communication strategies to promote future Zika vaccine uptake intent.

The study aims were: (1) explore Zika conversations …

Recognizing Her Characteristics As A Leader: An Examination Of The Self-Assessment Of Women Leaders As Shaped By Social Identity Theory And The Concept Of Double Consciousness, John C. Gregory

Theses and Dissertations

Women leaders are grossly underrepresented in police and Army organizations and relevant research suggests that women face the most significant challenges in reaching leadership positions in male dominant organizations. Although there have been recent policy changes to increase opportunities for women in police and Army organizations, women are still barely represented in senior command and primary staff positions in police and Army organizations. When women are underrepresented, particularly at the most senior ranks, there are implications regarding cultural, structural, and attitudinal challenges that simply should not still exist in these organizations. Using qualitative methods, this study examined the experiences of …

Depressive Symptoms Among College Students: An Exploration Of Fundamental Cause Theory, Peter A. Carrico

Theses and Dissertations

Fundamental Cause Theory suggests that socioeconomic and demographic factors are causal to various illnesses, including depression. However, no known previously existing research has used Fundamental Cause Theory to create a model of depression among college students. To do this, the present study conducted a stepwise binomial logistic regression to examine how socioeconomic status and the sociodemographic variables of Gender, Race, and Sexual Orientation, and others predict depressive symptoms in a large sample of undergraduates when controlling for stressful life events and social support (N = 2,915). Results support the hypothesis that socioeconomic disparities in depressive symptoms are the result …

The Tea Party Versus Planning: A Study Of Tea Party Activism And Its Impact On Local Government Planning, Spencer A. Norman

Theses and Dissertations

The Tea Party movement’s effect on local and regional planning in Virginia has received little study. This work identifies how conservative political activism has impacted planning in the Commonwealth and how planners have responded. The study relies on a qualitative approach involving 22 semi-structured interviews with activists, planners, and citizens, as well as textual analyses of planning documents, local and regional news reports, and Tea Party social media. The resultant findings show that Tea Party activism is rooted in deep seated ideals about private property rights and individualism. It also reveals that planning processes that increased the amount of public …

Self-Forgiveness In Romantic Relationships: The Impact On The Perpetrator And The Relationship, Jaclyn M. Moloney

Theses and Dissertations

Two studies were conducted to determine how self-forgiveness and other perpetrator reactions influence the perpetrator and the victim after a romantic relationship transgression. Study 1 used a longitudinal design to determine how guilt and shame predicted the trajectory of self-forgiveness, self-excusing, and self-punishing in participants who had recently been the perpetrator of a romantic relationship transgression.

Those experiencing higher guilt at baseline had higher self-forgiveness starting out and those lower on guilt starting out had a greater change in self-forgiveness. Those experiencing more guilt at baseline experienced less change in self-forgiveness over time. Shame was not significantly related to self-forgiveness …

Affordability, Utilization And Satisfaction With Care: A Policy Context For Improving Health Care Experiences, Anushree M. Vichare

Theses and Dissertations

Disparate healthcare experiences continue to pose a challenge; vulnerable populations such as low-income and racial and ethnic minorities may not be able to afford or utilize care when needed or receive quality care. The sources of disparities are complex and multi-factorial, which include health care system-level factors such as insurance and health care workforce. It is relatively less known to what extent these contribute to disparities related to a patient’s overall health care experience across three important domains – affordability, utilization and satisfaction with care.

This dissertation has three objectives. First, to assess how insurance benefit design affects health care …

Undocumented Students In Higher Education: A Case Study Exploring Street-Level Bureaucracy In Academic Advising, Fai Howard

Theses and Dissertations

Immigration is arguably among the most divisive global and national issues at present. In the U.S., undocumented persons (the DREAMers) who arrived to the U.S. as children have been the central focus of legislation and debate. As of 2013, the undocumented population has increased from less than a million in 1980, then reaching 12.2 million in 2006, to an estimated population of 11.3 million (Passel, Cohn, Krogstand, & Gonzalez-Barerra, 2014) just a few short years ago. For the numerous undocumented students who have excelled academically and socially, and make positive contributions to their communities, the goal of obtaining a college …

Mechanisms Of Motivational Interviewing In A Parent-Focused Pediatric Obesity Intervention, Nadia Islam

Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric obesity is a major public health epidemic with serious physical and psychological consequences. Difficulty engaging families in treatment is a significant obstacle in addressing pediatric obesity, especially among underserved populations. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a collaborative, person-centered communication style that has been shown to reduce attrition, increase attendance, and improve patient treatment adherence; however, little is known about the process of MI and how it improves treatment engagement. This study examined clinician and parent language in a pre-treatment MI session that increased initial engagement in a parent- focused pediatric obesity intervention (N= 81). Results showed that increased parent change …

Assessing The Implementation Of Campus Safety Policies In Virginia Community Colleges: An Analysis Of The Forces At Play In Higher Education Institutional-Level Policymaking, Steven T. Keener

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which community colleges have implemented major post-Virginia Tech campus safety recommendations. In addition to gaining a comprehensive overview of the safety policies and practices in place, this study assessed if campus safety policy implementation levels at the community colleges correlated with institutional characteristics, and the internal and external forces that helped drive the implementation of these policies. Focusing specifically upon the Virginia Community College System, data on the policies and practices in place at each of the 23 Virginia community colleges were collected from institutional websites and through follow-up …

Health Aid In Africa: Placement, Service Utilization, And Benefit, Carrie Dolan

Theses and Dissertations

While the health sector has attracted significant foreign aid, evidence on the effectiveness of this support is mixed. This dissertation examines the allocation of health aid within the context of placement, service utilization, and benefit. The first paper examined the sub-national allocation of Chinese development aid projects across Africa. I determined how political preferencing of Chinese aid specifically, allocating aid to the birth region of the current political leader differs across sectors such as health, education, and transportation. I find some evidence that aid, more broadly defined, is subject to political preferencing in recipient countries, which could potentially limit its …

The Development Of The Treatment Integrity - Efficient Scale For Cognitive Behavioral Treatment For Youth Anxiety (Ties-Cbt-Ya), Meghan Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Brief, easy to use, psychometrically strong (i.e., pragmatic) instruments are needed to support implementation research; the current study assessed whether it was possible to develop a pragmatic observational treatment integrity instrument and reduce the amount of time coders spend making treatment integrity ratings (while maintaining score validity) of therapists delivering two protocols of individual cognitive-behavioral treatment (ICBT) for youth anxiety in research and practice settings. The 12-item instrument was derived from four observational treatment integrity instruments with promising score reliability and validity that assess adherence, competence, differentiation, and alliance. A sample of 106 youths (M age = 10.12, SD …

Exploring The Role Of Motivational Interviewing In Adolescent Patient-Provider Communication About Type 1 Diabetes, Laura J. Caccavale

Theses and Dissertations

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is one of the most common pediatric chronic illnesses. Glycemic control among patients with T1D often deteriorates during adolescence; yet little is known about the most effective way for providers to communicate with adolescents to prevent this decline. Given the importance of effective communication, examination of effective patient-provider communication strategies is needed. The current investigation used Motivational Interviewing (MI) as a framework to help characterize naturally-occurring adolescent patient-provider communication in medical encounters and examined the relations between provider communication and T1D self-management and control.

Participants were five pediatric endocrine providers and 55 adolescents with T1D (49% …

In Your Experience: Pathways And Barriers For Female Students Of Stem, Elizabeth J. Hartnett

Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses the gender gap that exists in the STEM professions. The number of jobs in STEM is climbing rapidly, but participation by women is disproportionately low. Although they make up roughly half of the overall population, women account for only about one quarter of the STEM workforce. A similar gap exists among undergraduates majoring in STEM fields. This is an exploratory study intended to identify and explore factors contributing to this gender gap, as perceived by undergraduate students. Through an online survey and follow-up interviews of undergraduates at two universities in the southeastern United States, data were collected …

Broke But Not Without Hope: Exploring Exits From Housing First And Returns To Homelessness, Jennie Ann Cole

Theses and Dissertations

“…he succeeded in giving the impression of being broke but not without hope.”

Nels Anderson, The Hobo, 1923

Introduction: This research offers a thick and rich, multidimensional and situational look, into a Housing First program in Charlotte, North Carolina. This dissertation focuses on individuals who have experienced chronic homelessness who exit Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) programs that employ a Housing First (HF) model and return to homelessness. The ultimate goal of my research was to address the gap in knowledge service providers have in housing retention for the chronically homeless and to break the cycle of misunderstanding around why people …

Smartphone Use And Mindfulness: Empirical Tests Of A Hypothesized Connection, Darren Todd Woodlief

Theses and Dissertations

The current study is the first test of a newly developed conceptual model of the effect of smartphone use on mindfulness. Previous research has shown the capacity for mindfulness is strongly associated with increased psychological well-being (e.g. higher self-esteem and lower perceived stress, anxiety, and psychological distress). We argue that smartphones can be used in an automatic and mindless or experientially avoidant way, and that this use can lead to a decreased capacity for mindfulness, with adolescents being most vulnerable to this potential impact. Components of mindfulness, such as the capacity for sustained attention and the areas of the brain …

Cocoa And Carbon: Remedying Forest Governance Through Community Participation In A Redd+Pilot In Ghana, Manali Baruah

Theses and Dissertations

Global loss and degradation of forests are well documented, and the potential role of forests in climate change mitigation is widely recognized. While forests are key to human well-being, forest resource management in the developing world is fraught with governance challenges. Despite policy discourses that emphasize the importance of local participation in the management of forest resources, it is rarely practiced. Many national governments and non-governmental organizations have set up efforts around the collaborative management of forest resources with local communities to tackle forest loss. However, the operationalization of participatory principles and the effectiveness of these collaborative initiatives are not …

Governing Terrorism Through Preemption: A Comparative Analysis Of Radicalization In Three Western Liberal Democracies, Derek M.D. Silva

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, issues related to terrorism and counterterrorism are increasingly being understood through the construct of ‘radicalization.’ At its most basic level, radicalization is most often conceptualized as a transition from “normal,” conventional political, religious or otherwise ideological beliefs towards extremist views and ultimately violence. The process is now adopted by governmental officials and politicians, police authorities, journalists, and even scientists to justify various forms of governmental intervention, such as policing, social and public policy, education, and surveillance. Notably missing from the scholarly literature is a distinctly sociological understanding of the implications of the proliferation of radicalization discourse in …

Paleodemographic And Biochemical Analysis Of Urbanization, Famine, And Mortality, Brittany S. Walter

Theses and Dissertations

Urbanization is a transitional period often associated with deteriorating population health and increased mortality, as the rapid increase of population density in urban centers facilitates the transmission of infectious diseases, unsanitary living conditions, and precarious food supplies. Research on the transition to an urban environment in the past offers a temporal depth to our understanding of the consequences of urbanization that cannot be accomplished through examination of contemporary populations. This project integrates paleodemographic (hazard analysis) and biochemical (stable isotope analysis) approaches to examine the health and diet of inhabitants in late medieval England (c. 1120-1539 CE), specifically the relationship between …

Framing Marijuana: A Study Of How Us Newspapers Frame Marijuana Legalization Stories And Framing Effects Of Marijuana Stories, Hwalbin Kim

Theses and Dissertations

The current study was initially designed to look at how the issue of marijuana legalization was presented in U.S. newspapers and how news frames could influence the audiences’ attitudes or behavioral intentions. To investigate these questions, two different types of research methods were employed: content analysis and experiment. Using framing theory as a theoretical framework, this study found that marijuana legalization has been largely described as a legislation issue or a law enforcement issue, and medical benefit and medical risk were most frequently mentioned attributes to support and oppose marijuana legalization. Findings indicated that news frame could influence the public’s …

Adult L2 Processing And Acquisition Of The English Present Perfect, Christopher J. Farina

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the second language (L2) processing and acquisition of the English present perfect via two features: boundedness and current relevance. Boundedness indicates whether an action reaches an endpoint (Smith 1997; Verkuyl 1972); it divides the functions of the present perfect into sets that denote completed situations or ongoing/iterative ones (Bybee et al. 1994; Housen 2002). Current relevance indicates the present importance of a past situation (Siemund 2004); it differentiates the present perfect from the simple past (Bardovi-Harlig 2002). Previous research has relied on offline methods (that evaluate metalinguistic knowledge); no research in SLA has investigated the acquisition of …

“Bajan To Gullah” Cultural Capital: Wood, Stone, Iron, And Clay 1670 To 1770, Ramona Arlen La Roche

Theses and Dissertations

British planters, merchants and other non-landholding persons from Barbados owned and transported enslaved persons to the South Carolina colonial settlement as early as 1670. However, there is minimal specific information about Africans or Barbadian Creoles selected for these voyages. To date, no empirical research has examined any data on African or African descended artisans (enslaved or free) who accompanied their owners or authorized travelers to the New World. Such historical lack provides negligible if any recognition of the skillsets rendered by specific artisans that significantly enhanced the economic development of both Barbados initially, and later during the early development of …

Emergence Of Stranger Fear In Preschoolers With Fragile X Syndrome And Idiopathic Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jessica Scherr

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated multiple behavioral indicators of social fear and their relationship to symptoms of autism in preschool boys with atypical and normative development using a stranger approach design. Participants consisted of 101 male preschoolers that were categorized into four groups: boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS; N= 29), FXS with elevated autism symptoms (fxASD; N = 25), idiopathic autism spectrum disorder (iASD; N = 11), and typically developing boys (TD; N = 36). Results indicated specific behavioral responses to a stranger differentiated preschoolers with more severe symptoms of autism (e.g. fxASD and iASD groups) from those with low autism …

African American End-Stage Renal Disease And Medication Adherence: What Are The Effects Of Everyday Racism?, Tamara Estes Savage

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explored the racial medication adherence disparity in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Prior research suggests that there are poor rates of medication adherence in the African American ESRD population. However, the reasons for this racial inequity are not understood. This dissertation explored the impact of everyday racism in the healthcare system in general and dialysis centers in particular on medication adherence. To gain an understanding of the possible contribution of everyday racism to medication nonadherence, Critical Race Theory (CRT) was used as the theoretical foundation of the study.

A total of 46 African American ESRD patients participated in …

Contesting The Generic Refugee: Siv Identity, Community, And Agency During Resettlement, Benjamin J. Sylvester

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the complexity of identity and community formation by Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders during resettlement in Columbia, South Carolina. It explores the ways in which identities coalesce around various themes, such as religion, gender, and military service, how these identities serve to create, expand, and claim membership in communities, and how SIVs exercise agency throughout these processes. Through semi-structured interviews with 9 SIVs in Columbia, SC, this qualitative study highlights the unique, highly individualized ways in which a select group of refugees experience resettlement, how they negotiate their placement within socio-economic hierarchies, and exercise agency to obtain …

Framing Perceptions Of Justice In A Public Goods Dilemma, Hatice Atilgan

Theses and Dissertations

Provision of public goods often requires sufficient contributions from group members, and improper contributions are likely to produce feelings of injustice. Building on previous research, I develop a justice theory that explains how framing social comparisons in particular ways will make actors more or less sensitive and reactive to departures from fair contributions. In turn, this is predicted to impact justice-restoring behaviors such as reducing subsequent contributions to a public good, punishing group members, or exiting the group. This integrated theory shows how varying the way key pieces of information are framed affects fairness perceptions and subsequent behaviors in social …

Understanding The Relationship Of Contextual Support, Peer Risk Trajectories, And School Outcomes For At-Risk Youth, Emily B. Mancil

Theses and Dissertations

High school dropout (HSDO) is associated with poor life outcomes across many domains. As such, it is crucial to understand and identify the factors that contribute to HSDO risk early to increase the chance of positive student outcomes. Because students at-risk are heterogeneous, researchers recommend using pattern-centered approaches to identify subpopulations with similar risk profiles to better understand various typologies of risk. This may be a more comprehensive and accurate way to understand students atrisk for HSDO and may facilitate the development of more effective interventions. To date, seven empirical studies have used a pattern-centered approach to examine HSDO. However, …

Spatial Optimization Methods And System For Redistricting Problems, Hai Jin

Theses and Dissertations

Redistricting is the process of dividing space into districts or zones while optimizing a set of spatial criteria under certain constraints. Example applications of redistricting include political redistricting, school redistricting, business service planning, and city management, among many others. Redistricting is a mission-critical component in operating governments and businesses alike. In research fields, redistricting (or region building) are also widely used, such as climate zoning, traffic zone analysis, and complex network analysis. However, as a combinatorial optimization problem, redistricting optimization remains one of the most difficult research challenges. There are currently few automated redistricting methods that have the optimization capability …

Partisan Polarization, Social Identity, And Deliberative Democracy In The United States, Ryan Strickler

Theses and Dissertations

As of late, political theory, research, and practice have taken a deliberative turn, extolling the benefits of public discourse guided by norms such as inclusion, respect, and open-mindedness. Can these ideals, though, be approximated in the current era of partisan polarization? If so, what factors contribute to high quality, productive discourse?

These are the questions this project addresses, assessing how partisanship and polarization impact the public’s propensity to adopt the key deliberative attitude of reciprocity (or mutual respect) towards political argumentation. Drawing on social identity theory, the project conceptualizes partisan attachment as containing interrelated, yet separate ideological and social identity …

Hope And Social Support: What Types Of Parent, Peer, And Teacher Support Matter To Early Adolescent Females And Males?, Kristin Otis

Theses and Dissertations

In the past decade, researchers in psychology have paid increased attention to identifying psychological qualities in individuals that indicate positive mental health and flourishing. Hope has been proposed to be one of these qualities (Day, Hanson, Maltby, Proctor, & Wood, 2010; Marques, & Lopez, 2014). The majority of the hope literature has concentrated on the outcomes of differing levels of hope, but has not thoroughly examined the antecedents of hope differences. The current study provides a unique investigation of hope that looks at hypothesized antecedents of positive hope development in adolescents. For example, this study looks at the relationships among …

Implementing Integrated Care In Family Medicine: Description And Outcomes In An Underserved Population, Zach Radcliff

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Family physicians provide access to medical and behavioral healthcare for many underserved populations. Integrating behavioral health clinicians into primary care practices has been proposed as one of the most effective ways to increase access to necessary behavioral health services for many Americans. Integrated behavioral healthcare (IBHC) has begun to be implemented in family medicine practices but there is limited research examining the impact for patients and clinic staff. This study begins to fill this gap in the literature by examining the effects of implementing integrated behavioral healthcare in an urban family medicine clinic in a medically underserved area.

Objective: …