Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Color Defined: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of How Race, Trauma, Gun Violence, And Grief Connect For A Black Mother, Kokita Dirton Wilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Black mothers are disproportionately affected by fatal shootings and the need for making meaning and finding purpose remains overlooked as a vital component of building resilience in their grief journey. The purpose of this study was to (a) reflect on being a Black mother of a fatal shooting victim; (b) understand the grief and healing process that follows; (c) connect my experiences to those within the larger Black grief community, and (d) by example, help other grieving mothers navigate through their grief struggles. I used two research questions: 1) How can I learn about my grief process by using personal …

A Bathroom Break For Teachers: An Institutional Ethnotheatrical Inquiry, Jonathan M. Coker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the teacher bathroom dilemma, a term I coined to describe teachers not having adequate access to the bathroom during their workdays. While this issue is widely known by those in the profession, only a handful of articles have been written on this topic. The teacher bathroom dilemma is part of a litany of working conditions that have intensified due to the neoliberal turn in education, forcing teachers to perform precarious actions that endanger their physical and psychological health. This dissertation explored how the teacher bathroom dilemma impacted teachers’ work and personal lives. …

Examining The Social Validity Of Parent Training: Post-Participation Parent Perceptions And Reflections Of Group Triple P, Nycole C. Kauk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Child behavior problems are highly prevalent and impactful on the child and their family system, bringing both short-term and long-term consequences (Sanders, 2012). Many risk factors for child behavior problems are modifiable via the use of Behavioral Family Interventions, such as behavioral parent training programs (Kazdin, 1991). Behavioral Family Interventions (BFI) modify factors within the family system to minimize modifiable risk factors and engineer protective factors to produce behavior change (Kazdin, 1991). While several manualized behavioral parenting interventions exist, the Triple P parenting program is one of the most researched and effective programs used internationally, particularly the Level 4 package; …

Approach And Avoidance Food Craving: A Dual Cue Reactivity Investigation, Christina Lee Verzijl

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent research suggests that food craving is a motivational process underlying the full spectrum of disordered eating behaviors. The ambivalence model of craving, originally applied to substance use craving, provides a framework through which the push-pull motivational process of food craving and its relation to the range of disordered eating behaviors can be understood. In this perspective, food craving is a multi-dimensional motivational process that involves an individual’s competing desires to both consume (i.e., approach) and not consume (i.e., avoid) certain food. Building on previous literature, the current study tested whether behavioral measures of approach and avoidance food craving (i.e., …

The Making Of Microcelebrities On Douyin: Multimodal Design And Online Identities In Informal English Instruction Videos, Yaqian Jiang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the online education market continues to expand globally, teaching and advertising have converged in digital spaces in unprecedented ways. Driven by the attention economy, independent online educators must compete to cultivate a consumer base. To attract followers, they must engage not only in online teaching activities but also in self-branding practices. This dissertation explores how microcelebrities who teach English on Douyin utilize linguistic and other semiotic resources for both instructional and self-branding purposes.

To address this topic, I collected 84 informal English language instruction videos created by 14 different Douyin microcelebrities. Taking a social semiotic approach to multimodal discourse …

Florida Punks: Punk, Performance, And Community At Gainesville’S Fest, Michael Anthony Mcdowell Ii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fest is an annual punk rock music festival held in Gainesville, Florida. At Fest, participants engage in aesthetic creation and participation, negotiate identities, participate in political discourse, and forge communities. In this dissertation, I use theories of performance, framing, and culture to understand Fest. To do so, I theorize Fest using three approaches to performance: performance as an object of study, performance as a metaphor for everyday life and identity, and performance as a method of inquiry. Using these three approaches to performance, I understand Fest as performance, as a site that permits and constrains performances of self, identity, and …

Ethnographic Insight On The Construct Of Blackness: Heritage, ‘Home,’ Community, And Reality In Carver City-Lincoln Gardens, Tampa, Florida, 1928-2021, Lisa Katina Armstrong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is a community-engaged investigation of the experiences and impacts of Black people living in the segregated space called “Carver City-Lincoln Gardens.” This study aims to advance scholarly and mainstream conversations about one racialized community; it is a significant space because the Lincoln Gardens Area was explicitly designated by the Department of Defense as a residential space for Black veterans after World War II to purchase homes. By exploring this housing arrangement through an anthropological lens, the findings indicate that a mixed-method, collaborative ethnography reveals nuances that might be glossed over when communities are racialized. This study also seeks …

Crafting A Scene: The Nexus Of Production And Consumption Of Tampa Bay Craft Beer, Russell L. Edwards

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the construction of a local craft beer scene, from perspectives and behaviors of both producers and consumers. It is situated within the Greater Tampa Bay area, and as such offers an ethnographic account of this phenomenon at a community level. Participant observation across a wide range of spaces and events across several years were combined with semi-structured interviews from 27 consumers and 17 producers in the local area to investigate how the scene is constructed and maintained and what consumers do within it. These ethnographic insights were combined with the results of structured methods, such as: freelisting …

The Integration Of Positive Psychology And Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports To Improve Minoritized Students' Social, Emotional, And Behavioral Outcomes, Jasmine L. Gray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a culturally adapted 9-session group positive psychology intervention with and without an added peer reporting intervention on student levels of social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. Many studies have evaluated either school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) or positive psychology interventions (PPIs) in isolation, but very few studies have examined the extent to which combining these interventions and approaches may promote complete mental health. The Well-Being Promotion Program is a multitarget positive psychology intervention that has been evaluated in both elementary and middle school populations (Roth et al., 2017; Lenz et al., …

The Experiences Of Black And Hispanic Males Retained Through Florida’S Mandatory Third Grade Retention Law, Sophia Mcmorris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There has been a constant argument that if students cannot read by third grad, then they will have an uphill struggle for the rest of their educational journey. Researchers have provided evidence signaling some truth to this claim and efforts have been established to ensure that all students receive high-quality instruction (Tweed, 2001). Many states have struggled with policies on how to correct this problem, and they have been challenged to answer whether students who cannot read proficiently by the third grade should be promoted, or if they should be pertained and provided with intensive interventions before moving on to …

Hope 4 Boys: The Impact Of A Youth Diversion Program, Justine C. Connolly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) is developing programs targeting first-time nonviolent offenders who might benefit from community-based treatment and positive youth development to prevent these individuals from becoming adult criminals. Thus, the DJJ seeks new and innovative ways to prevent juvenile delinquency and reduce recidivism among first-time nonviolent offenders. The present study aimed to evaluate the Hope 4 Boys program, a juvenile diversion program that addresses the academic and social-emotional needs of juvenile delinquents. The study examined how participation in the program is associated with changes in participants’ levels of hope for the future, life satisfaction, and resiliency …

Organizing Economies: Narrative Sensemaking And Communciative Resilience During Economic Disruption, Timothy Betts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation unites organizational communication, and economic theory to understand how individuals make sense of economic crises, imbed power and logic in those understandings, and construct new economic realities in the aftermath of crisis. Contra economic orthodoxy, this project conceives of economy and economics as a social construct. As a social construct, individuals organize economy and economics through discourse, make sense of through narrative, and rebuild through communication. This dissertation combines different theoretical perspectives—actor-network theory, antenarrative organization theory, and the communication theory of resilience—to recenter social scientific accounts of economic reality around communication, story, and power.

Specifically, I focus on …

Two Essays In Applied Microeconomics: Retirement, Income Inequalities, And Other Economic Indicators Of Health And Life Satisfaction, Zahra Akbari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following proposal includes two essays in applied microeconomics. The first essay studied the relationship between income differences among siblings and the health outcomes of the individuals. Health inequalities and the factors associated with them have been a significant interest of health economists. Among those factors that can lead to health differences in adulthood, many studies have studied financial status. There are still many questions about these factors which should be answered in this area, especially about the adulthood income relative to a reference group and how it can be related to differences in adulthood health. The main goal of …

Equitable Implementation Of The Good Behavior Game, Faith D. Reynolds

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Exclusionary discipline actions in schools (e.g., suspension, expulsion) are related to short- and long-term negative outcomes for students. For the past several decades, Black students have received disproportionate disciplinary actions in schools compared to their peers. Classroom behavior interventions are an alternative practice to traditional disciplinary actions and are important tools for reducing overall levels of exclusionary discipline. It is imperative to ensure equitable implementation is being used within these behavior interventions to support all students in the classroom. The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a widely used classroom behavior intervention that has been described as a universal behavioral vaccine. …

Characterizing And Explaining Prevalence And Factors Associated With Non-Fatal Opioid Overdose In Florida, Jesse M. Bell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many factors contribute to the opioid epidemic in Florida, including, but not limited to, physician over prescribing, opioid manufacturer malfeasance (direct marketing to physicians, hospitals, and universities, as well indirect political contributions, and deliberately obfuscating the impact of the addictive properties of their various drugs), and as the epidemic approaches its 25th year, sociodemographic characteristics. This body of work examines three of these. First, because an opioid naïve persons’ typical initial encounter with the drug is through a physician, we sought to shed light on the impact of direct pharmaceutical marketing to physicians. We identified opioid providing physicians from the …

Prevalence And Predictors Of Careless Responding In Experience Sampling Research, Alexander J. Denison

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the current study we examine the prevalence and several predictors of careless responding to an experience sampling (ESM) study. While careless responding has been noted as a potential problem in ESM research, few studies have examined the prevalence of this behavior (Beal, 2015; Berkel et al., 2017; Eisele et al., 2020; Gabriel et al., 2019; Jaso et al., 2021). Using statistical methods of careless response classification, we derive cut scores from data simulation and graphical examination of item correlations, and flag 44.98% of response episodes as careless. A majority of these flagged episodes were the product of overly consistent …

An Analysis Of International Soccer Fans’ Knowledge Of Qatar, Perceptions Of Qatar’S Country Image, And Intention To Support The 2022 Fifa World Cup, Taleb Al-Adbah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

International sporting competitions have become an essential tool for countries to promote a favorable image of themselves around the world. This study focuses on the FIFA 2022 World Cup, which will be hosted by Qatar - the first Arab country ever to host the event. Since 2010, when Qatar was awarded the FIFA 2022 World Cup, several studies have shown that soccer fans are hesitant to attend matches in Qatar. This study investigates the correlations between soccer fans’ level of knowledge, soccer fans’ perception of Qatar using a 4D model of country image, and soccer fans’ behavioral intention to support …

The Tesla Brake Failure Protestor Scandal: A Case Study Of Situational Crisis Communication Theory On Chinese Media, Jiajun Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this thesis is to test how Tesla handles a protestor in Tesla’s booth in Shanghai. This thesis evaluated the effectiveness and acceptance of Tesla’s public relations and crisis communication through analyzing domestic Chinese official news articles and consumers’ attitude on China’s most used social media platform, Weibo. The electric vehicle industry is relatively a newer industry than traditional automobile manufacturing industries. Therefore, the immaturity of the industry could bring different types of crises, and traditional vehicle problems could also be the problems of electric vehicles, such as engine failure, brake failure, safety concerns and security threats, and …

Influences Of Sentence Context And Individual Differences In Lexical Quality On Early Phonological Processing During Silent Reading, Sara Milligan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current thesis investigates the role of sentence context and individual differences in the quality of sub-lexical representations of words in activation of phonological forms during silent reading. More specifically, this study aims to determine how these situational and participant-level factors influence the use of phonology to aid word recognition during parafoveal processing, before a reader directly fixates the word. Therefore, I manipulated sentence constraint in two eye tracking during reading experiments (one using real-word and one using pseudoword parafoveal previews) that utilized the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm (Rayner 1975) and measured individual’s scores on assessments of spelling ability, phonological decoding …

Examining The Relationship Between Racial Respect Among Black Early Childhood Professionals And Their Perceptions Of Black Children, Kayla Nembhard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Black children are exposed to the highest rates of negative teacher perceptions and punitive consequences. Healthy People 2020 acknowledges the significance of the first five years of child development and the various factors that promote or hinder health outcomes during this time. Furthermore, it highlights the significance of quality relationships between children and their caregivers, including their ECE teachers. Overall, Black children tend to fare better academically when they are able to engage with Black educators and other ECE professionals. However, there is recent evidence Black educators in ECE settings, specifically, also uphold racialized negative perceptions of Black students that …

“Even If You Have Food In Your House, It Will Not Taste Sweet”: Central African Refugees’ Experiences Of Cultural Food Insecurity And Other Overlapping Insecurities In Tampa, Florida, Shaye Soifoine

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, resettled African refugee populations experience food insecurity at rates up to seven times higher than those of the general population. In Tampa, Florida, anthropologists have documented high levels of food insecurity among Central African refugee households since members of this population began to be resettled in the area in 2016. Utilizing an intersectional lens and drawing upon theoretical concepts such as cultural food security, navigational capital, and social reproduction, this thesis examines how Central African refugees, particularly women, experience food (in)security and other overlapping forms of (in)security as they integrate into US systems of structural inequality …

The Use Of Social Media By Leaders In Times Of Crisis: 2020–21 United States Election Protests, Cagdas Yuksel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the Facebook posts made by presidential candidates Donald J. Trump and Joe Biden during the crisis that emerged after 2020 presidential election. The purpose of the study is to gain a better understanding of how crisis response is enacted via social media. This study's conceptual basis is the Social Crisis Communication Theory. The crisis, which is the focus of the study, was limited to the post-election process, which started with the allegations of Donald Trump alleged fraud in the election, after the 3 November 2020 US presidential elections, and especially to the process that resulted in the …

Using A Multicomponent Intervention To Increase Appropriate Transitions To School, Laura Catalina Dimas Agudelo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School attendance is important for the social and academic development of children. Therefore, appropriate transitions to school are a necessary skill for students. Differential reinforcement of other behaviors (DRO) is a non-intrusive procedure used to decrease undesired behaviors. Likewise, differential reinforcement of alternative behaviors (DRA) is a widely used procedure to increase appropriate alternative behaviors while reducing inappropriate behaviors. This procedure has been assessed throughout behavior analytic literature alongside other behavioral components. The use of DRA without extinction has been shown to be an effective procedure to increase appropriate behaviors and decrease disruptive behaviors without completely withholding reinforcement for behaviors …

Japan’S Covid 19 Infection Rate: A Focus On Tokyo Neighborhoods, Lauren Koerner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis asks, are neighborhood demographic and economic variables connected to COVID-19 infection rates in Tokyo, Japan? I hypothesize that variation in urbanization and neighborhood demographics account for Japan’s low, though not uniform COVID-19 infection rates. This thesis applies several anthropological perspectives: The biocultural perspective because I look at epidemiology of COVID 19 considering socio-cultural, economic, and ecological factors as well as biological susceptibilities. The critical biocultural perspective because I look at how structures of power and inequality may impact health and healthcare access. Biomedical/applied anthropology, well placed to study the current epidemiologic situation of COVID 19 in Japan and …

The Use Of Acceptance And Commitment Training To Improve Teacher Interactions With Students, Taylor Raaymakers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teachers in classrooms with students who engage in challenging behavior often experience high levels of stress and may leave the profession. Few research studies have evaluated interventions to decrease teacher stress. Therefore, this study assessed the use of Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACTr) with teachers for decreasing stress and increasing positive interactions with students. The ACTr intervention consisted of both a one-time training and subsequent activities throughout the intervention phase of the study. Two self-report measures were administered during baseline and post follow-up observations. These self-report measures provided information on the levels of psychological distress the teachers were experiencing and …

"Are We Done?": The Minimization Of Covid-19 And The Individualization Of Health In The United States, Cassidy R. Boe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the death toll from Covid-19 in the United States exceeds 1 million in just over two years, more variants continue to emerge, threatening more waves of Covid-19 and ultimately, more deaths. Despite this, mask use continues to decline, and one third of Americans say that the pandemic is over. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been central in publicly disseminating biomedical knowledge using Twitter. The CDC’s Twitter account (@CDCgov) shares information related to the spread of Covid-19, including mitigation measures such as mask recommendations and vaccine information. I have conducted a narrative analysis of the replies …

Health And Friendships Of Lgbtqia+ College Students, Komal Asim Qidwai

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and Others (LGBTQIA+) college students continue to face discrimination in seeking healthcare, having to navigate lack of access, heteronormative practices and protocols, and biased attitudes, even when accessing university health services. Moreover, LGBTQIA+ college students are unlikely to be able to rely on traditional sources of support such as family, and have a need to create a sense of home, by making friends. In this thesis, I explore friendships as an avenue through which these students seek health information and knowledge. I argue that health and friendship intersect in the lives of LGBTQIA+ …

The Effect Of Racial And Ethnic Identity Salience On Online Political Expression And Political Participation In The United States, Jonathon Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

How close an individual identifies with their race or ethnicity can affect how individuals behave as political actors. Racial identity can affect how individuals express their political beliefs on social media sites or participate in political activities. However, does political expression on social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, affect levels of political participation? The purpose of the project is to examine the relationship between racial and ethnic identity, online political expression, and political participation among the three largest racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Specifically, this project aims to answer whether online political expression mediates the relationship between …

Using Differential Reinforcement To Reduce Diurnal Bruxism, Stephanie Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The field of Applied Behavior Analysis is often used to intervene in dangerous or harmful behaviors to the benefit of service recipients. Many children engage in diurnal bruxism which can cause damage to their teeth, gums, and jaws. Tooth gnashing, which is a movement of the jaw that results in high impact between the lower and upper teeth, is a specific and damaging behavior which is included under the label of diurnal bruxism. This study examined the impact of using differential reinforcement of alternative behaviors to decrease the percentage of words spoken while gnashing teeth to reduce the long-term damage …

Depersonalized, Dysregulated, And Demanded: The Impact Of Burnout On Appraisal And Emotional Events, Katrina M. Conen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A widely studied construct, burnout is a chronic disease that is considered to develop over time (Maslach et al., 2001). Burnout has been related to a number of pertinent outcomes including increased job turnover, decreased job satisfaction, and poor mental and physical health outcomes (Ahola, 2007). However, little work has yet to be done concerning the role burnout may play in the appraisal of work events and the subsequent psychological construction of emotional episodes. The current study addresses the tension between the chronic affective dysregulation associated with burnout and the acute construction of an emotional episode. Results support the idea …