Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Perceptions Of People's Experiences Regarding Gun Violence, Charles M. Ndikum

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Gun violence is a problem in many communities across the United States that are characterized by poverty, and lack of quality education, yet little is known about the experiences of victims of gun violence in these places. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to better understand how people who have been victims of gun violence perceive problems and solutions associated with the production, distribution, and ownership of guns. Based on the theoretical framework of Rousseau's social contract theory, this study explored gun violence from the perspectives of 10 victims whose lives were directly or indirectly affected by gun violence …

Shortage Of Licensed Independent Social Workers With The Training Supervision Designation, Justa Link

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a shortage of Licensed Independent Social Workers with the Training Supervision Designation (LISW-S) in a county in rural Ohio. If there are not enough LISW-Ss, social workers may not have the ability or opportunity to work independently or gain the supervision needed to become more competent in specific areas of practice. The purpose of this project was to gain a better understanding of why some social workers in rural Ohio decide not to pursue an LISW-S credential, as well as whether there are resources or incentives that might prompt individuals to pursue this credential. This action research project …

Stress And Coping Abilities Of Swat Personnel In A Metropolitan Area Of Florida, Pedro Corpas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

For decades, stress has been scientifically studied and found to have effects on the law enforcement community. Furthermore, scholars have thoroughly studied the correlation between stress and the law enforcement occupation which has been proven to affect their well-being. Although there is currently ample literature on stress and police officers, to date there has been little research on factors associated with stress and SWAT police officers. Using Lazarus and Folkman's cognitive theory of stress and coping as the foundation, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how SWAT police officers cope with stress while on duty and off …

The Adoption And Diffusion Of The Air Taxi/Air Charter Travel Innovation, Joseph Paul Leader

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The inefficient use and knowledge of direct, on-demand air taxi/air charter flights in the United States was the topic of this dissertation. The general problem studied was the inefficient use of air transportation options by business travelers in the United States. The specific problem was how business travelers in the United States learn of and thereby elect to embrace a newer air travel option. Using Rogers's diffusion of innovations theory as the framework, the dissemination of air travel choices made by business travelers using ImagineAir air taxi service in the United States was explored via a qualitative case study research …

Changes In Beliefs About Aggression In Baton Rouge Youth Peace Olympics Participants, Shonta Manuel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Youth violence in the Baton Rouge inner-city area continues to create heightened concerns for the communities as well as the financial and healthcare systems. Even though violence prevention programs are in place in the area, no decline has been recorded in those who are being affected by violence. Due to lack of research in this field, a need for a sound research study exists to understand how Youth Peace Olympics (YPO) community-based program may be related to changes in attitudes about aggression and violence. A correlational cross-sectional research design was used to evaluate participants' beliefs about aggression, measured using the …

Type 2 Diabetes Management For Geriatric Veterans, Fachecia L. Fort

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Managing diabetes in the geriatric long-term care population can be challenging, yet important because diabetes is a chronic, progressive disease. The purpose of this project was to identify clinical practice guidelines for managing Type 2 diabetes in geriatric veterans and to develop a class to educate providers on diabetes management in the geriatric long-term care population at a community living and rehabilitation center. The practice focused question asked if providing education to providers about the clinical practice guidelines for managing Type 2 diabetes in geriatric long-term care veterans would improve knowledge as measured by a pre- and posttest. The project …

The Role Of Organizational Justice In Police Interaction Decisions With Citizens Post-Ferguson, Joshua Lee Adams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Recent negatively publicized police-citizen interactions in the media, followed by a subsequent rise in crime rates in the United States, has been named the Ferguson Effect. The Ferguson Effect has been explored by prominent scholars in the criminal justice community; however, little is known about how police officers in small police agencies perceive the Ferguson Effect. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions and lived experiences of police officers regarding the Ferguson Effect in small police agencies, as well as police officers' perceptions of their own organizational justice. The theoretical framework for this study was …

Social-Sexual Autonomy, Person-Centered Planning, And Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities, Earlie Simone Brown-Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract

Sexual autonomy is the right and capacity of each individual to decide and make choices

about whom, when, and how they express themselves sexually. Individuals with

intellectual disabilities have frequently been marginalized, oppressed, and left out of

discussions about sexuality placing them at risk of abuse, unsafe sex practices, and

unplanned pregnancies. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the

usefulness of person-centered planning techniques in the development of an individual

service plan that address the social-sexual needs of individuals with intellectual

disabilities. Purposeful sampling was used to select 8 participants for this study. Specific

participants were …

Relationships Between Transformational Leadership And Organizational Citizenship Behavior In Ghanaian Organizations, Adjoa Randy-Cofie

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The recent global financial crisis prompted organizations to search for effective ways to minimize loss of revenue due to settlement of organizational scandals. Transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) are known to affect employees and subsequently organizational productivity. However, little is known about the relationship between transformational leadership and the OCB of employees of multinational corporations (MNCs) in Ghana. The purpose of this quantitative study was to bridge the gap in knowledge by examining the relationships between transformational leadership and the OCB of employees of MNCs in Ghana. The theoretical frameworks for this study were Bass' transformational leadership theory …

Frequency Of Cell Phone Texting And Social Competency In Adolescents, Anita Marie Phillips

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is no current research on the relationship between texting frequency, social competency development, and the moderating effect of gender in adolescents. A quantitative study involving a moderation design using multiple regression assisted in determining the relationship between cell phone texting and gender and whether or not the interaction of these variables predicted social competency development. The theoretical base that grounded this study was the taxonomic model of social competence, which identified the importance of examining social awareness abilities such as communication, an essential component for the development of social competency. The study included 74 participants. The participants were parents …

Police Culture And Decision-Making, Larry D. Anthony

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Decisions made by street-level police officers during encounters with the public have an immediate and long-lasting effect. Bad choices can cause a loss of trust, respect, and legitimacy for the police in a community and lay a foundation for violent confrontations between officers and citizens. Layers of culture that shape human decisions consist of social and institutional culture, including interactions that shape an individual's culture and beliefs and demographics and technology that affect cultural development. Police culture (which includes these layers of culture and factors like rank, units, and history) shapes attitudes and opinions about communities and people in a …

Correlating Residual Stress With Personal And Professional Characteristics In Aircraft Pilots, Erik Eckblad

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Every day aircraft pilots must successfully resolve significant inflight situations and then manage the possibility of residual psychological and physiological stress. Previous research has shown primary attention is given to presignificant event training and stress management, however there remains an important gap in the current literature regarding postsignificant event stress within the aviation profession. The purpose of this cross-sectional quantitative study was to use the observational lens of stress theory and survey U.S. pilots who have experienced an inflight emergency, looking for correlation between factors such as age, gender, flight experience, and training against a pilot's self-reported level of residual …

Trauma And Juvenile Justice In Carson City, Nevada, Ali M

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Nevada State Juvenile Justice and School systems do not currently screen or treat juveniles for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Left untreated, PTSD may contribute to behaviors that can lead to engagement with the juvenile justice system and contribute to high rates of recidivism and possible future engagement with the adult justice system. Using Erickson's theory of psychological development as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to explore whether, from the perspectives of key stakeholders whether interventions and prevention services for juvenile justice clients in Carson City met the needs of youthful offenders also diagnosed with PTSD. …

Perceptions And Experiences Of Students Who Withdrew From College Prior To Degree Attainment, Enedine B. Andre

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nationally an estimated 41% of traditional students who begin seeking an undergraduate degree do not persist through degree attainment. Guided by Tinto's theory of student departure and the theory of social integration, the purpose of this study was to identify the reasons students withdrew from college prior to degree completion. A qualitative case-study design was implemented, and 13 former college enrollees were purposefully selected for individual semistructured interviews. The students graduated from one high school in the Southeastern United States. Data analysis was conducted using open coding procedures with iterative recategorization to identify key themes. Findings indicated that inadequate preparation, …

Managing Supply Chain Disruptions In Nigerian Seaport Companies, Henry Oguche

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In Nigeria, seaport companies have lost significant revenue since 2000 because of supply chain disruptions. If not mitigated, supply chain disruptions at Nigerian seaports will significantly affect organizational output and profitability. The purpose of this research was to explore strategies some seaport business leaders use to mitigate supply chain disruptions in Lagos, Nigeria. Supply chain management theory was the conceptual framework for this single case study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with 4 participants from a Nigerian seaport company tbat adopted successful strategies to mitigate supply chain disruptions and review of company documents for methodological triangulation. Using thematic analysis, …

Predictors Of Conviction: An Examination Of Arson Trial Outcomes In Florida, Timothy York

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The influences that crime control, due process factors, and individual demographic characteristics have on the criminal trial outcomes of accused arsonists was unknown. Absent this knowledge, it was not clear if public policy ensures justice for the accused, particularly for the disadvantaged. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate, using Packer's due process and crime control model as the theoretical framework, the relationship between time to trial, number of defense and prosecution witnesses, access to fire origin and cause experts, legal representation type, age, race, education, and gender and criminal arson case outcomes. A sample size of 165 …

Probation Officers' Attitudes On Illinois Electronic Monitoring Program For Drug Offenders, Erika J. Jones-Dilworth

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Probation Officers' Attitudes on Illinois Electronic Monitoring Program

For Drug Offenders

by

Erika Jones-Dilworth

MPA, Governors State University, 2009

BS, Governors State University, 2007

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Public Policy & Administration

Walden University

November 2018

An Evaluation Of Juvenile Lifers In Pennsylvania Pre And Post Act 33 Of 1995, Kieshia Martin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Act 33 of 1995 is an amendment to Pennsylvania's Juvenile Act (2008). This amendment changed jurisdictional boundaries for juvenile offenders who committed violent crimes with weapons. As a result, youth who committed violent crimes with weapons were automatically transferred to the adult criminal justice system. Using punctuated equilibrium as the theoretical foundation, the purpose of this study was to determine if Act 33, as a punctuating event, resulted in an increase in the number of youth transferred to the adult criminal justice system and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in an urban county in Pennsylvania. Secondary data …

Advocating Ideal Type Policy For Police Officer Wellness Based On Body Mass Index As A Predictor Of Self-Reported Occupational Stress, Louis Chiappetta

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Scholars have validated both the damaging presence of police officer stress and separately, their increasing obese condition in the United States. Previous studies of police officers focus on stress or body weight, but not these variables conjointly. The purpose of this study was to inform policy creation by examining the problem of officer stress in relation to the calculated body mass index (BMI) values and to gain insight into stress outcomes. Lazarus and Folkman's stress-coping theory served as the research lens to examine if BMI would significantly contribute to the percent change of R2 variance accounted for in the predictive …

Relationship Between Victims Of Urban Violence And Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Jashon Anthony Banks Sr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Urban violence has become common in lower-income communities that have high rates of shootings and African-American victims. Urban violence causes victims and their family and friends to experience trauma and puts them at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) injuries. However, there is a gap in knowledge in the framework of urban communities and their range of needs to address PTSD. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether a relationship exists between reinforcement of needs, membership, influence, shared emotional connection, and post-traumatic stress symptomology (PTSS) of urban violence victims in a large metropolitan city. Albert Bandura's self-efficacy …

Sexism, Just-World Beliefs, And Defensive Attribution: Relationship To Online Discourse And Child Sexual Abuse, Andrea M. Barbis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research has shown that individuals' willingness to believe a disclosure of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is related to just-world beliefs, ambivalent sexism, and defensive attribution. However, researchers do not know whether these variables relate to posts made in response to online articles describing CSA. Negative or disbelieving posts may impact not only the author, but also readers who view these comments via hindrance of disclosures, increased self-blame, and avoidance of help seeking. In this quantitative study, just-world, ambivalent sexism, and defensive attribution theories provided the theoretical basis used to determine whether just-world beliefs, ambivalent sexism, and defensive attribution influenced comments …

The Need For De-Escalation Techniques In Civil Disturbances, George Raymond Mccord Jr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The response to civil disturbances has historically been the aggressive use of force or escalation with tactics such as the use of police dogs, armed federal troops during war protests, and police field forces. These types of tactics can escalate tensions between protestors and police and only add to the violence and destruction of the incident. To reduce the violence between protestors and the police and the destruction often associated with civil disturbances, it is necessary to examine the need to include de-escalation techniques in the responses. This study utilized 3 theoretical frameworks, the chaos theory, the behavioral decision theory …

The Lived Experiences Of Counselors Who Work With Female Intimate Partner Violence Victims, Lekesha Levette Thomas-Davis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global health concern that affects victims, families, and the communities. Master's level counselors, who work in mental health settings, are in key positions to provide identification and intervention services to female victims of IPV with mental health issues. This study explored the lived experiences of master's level counselors who worked with female victims of IPV to gather a deeper meaning into the values, attitudes, and beliefs that master's level counselors hold in working with female victims of IPV. This study was conducted as a hermeneutic phenomenological study through a feminist poststructuralist lens to guide …

Social Influences Of Suburban Black Residents Food Purchasing Decisions Using Snap Benefits, Carolyn Mccummings

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In low-income, suburban Black communities, the prevalence of diet-related chronic illnesses is alarming. Various influences often increase diet-related illnesses among this population. One influence is the use of SNAP benefits to purchase food. In this study, the influences of SNAP as well as other influences affecting food purchase decisions among the study population was examined. A qualitative multicase study approach was used and, face-to-face interviews were conducted, to understand the experiences of 20 low-income, current recipients of SNAP who were Black and lived in suburban, New York. The data indicated the most significant influence, communicated by the participants, was that …

Long-Term Retention Among Child Welfare Workers In Michigan: A Phenomenological Study, Andrea Vajdic-Pena

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High turnover of child welfare workers is a problem to the children and families that receive services and the child welfare organizations that lose their staff. For children and their families, turnover of their assigned worker may interrupt their ability to achieve their permanency goals. Child welfare organizations encounter high costs for hiring staff due to the turnover and the staff that remain suffer with higher caseloads and not being able to provide the quality of services that they should be able to offer. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of child welfare workers …

Government And Nongovernmental Collaboration To Build Community Resiliency Against Terrorism In Oklahoma City, Kimberly K. Heltz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The way communities build resiliency and prepare for acts of terrorism is ambiguous in the United States; best practices remain unclear. Due to mobility and advancements in communication technologies, individuals and organizations share information, incite anger, recruit, and act on ideological grievances with ease. Such grievances are bolstered by the political and social exclusion of disparate groups through poorly designed policies and ineffective government structures. Using a combination of social constructivism and systems thinking theories, this case study explored collaboration efforts between government agencies and nongovernment experts in Oklahoma City, OK, identifying best practices as a result of lessons learned …

Perceptions Of Obese African American Women Regarding Altering Traditional Soul Food Preparation, Patricia A. Young

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The obesity epidemic continues to be a major concern in the United States. The World Health Organization reported that 1.4 billion adults were either obese or overweight. African American (AA) women have the highest incidence of obesity worldwide. The obesity rate among AAs has continued to rise over the past 2 decades. The problem is that AA women prepare and consume high caloric foods that contribute to obesity. This qualitative descriptive study explored the perceptions that obese AA women have about altering how they prepare soul food to make it a healthier soul food. The empowerment model and the health …

Marital Status And Burdensomeness As Risk Factors Of Suicide Ideation In Poststroke Patients, Froso Andreou

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Suicide ideation, suicide attempts, and suicide (SISAS) are increased in poststroke patients, yet not everyone who has suffered a stroke is at risk for SISAS. Two risk factors for SISAS, marital status and burdensomeness, may be of particular relevance to poststroke patients. The majority of poststroke patients have a disability that may require help from a family member with basic functions such as dressing and bathing. It was not known if being married decreases risk of SISAS for stoke victims as shown in studies with nonpoststroke subjects or increases risk for SISAS due to its influence on feelings of burdensomeness. …

The Effects Of Academic Parent Teacher Teams On Latino Student Achievement, Barbara Dee Bench

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Decades of research have noted the importance of parent involvement in students' academic success. Less is known about parent engagement models that aim to increase Latino students' reading achievement. This project study examined the effectiveness of a 2-year parent engagement program implemented to address poor reading achievement of Latino elementary school students in a small urban district. The purpose of this study was to determine disparities in student scores between those parents who participated in the program and those parents who did not participate. The research questions examined parent engagement levels in comparison to increased summative reading scores. Based on …

United States-Mexico Dual Resident's Perceptions Of Heritage And Acculturation, Alisia N. Muir

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

United States' policy makers have been challenged creating understandable nutrition labels and effective healthy food campaigns for consumers of mixed heritage. Previous studies explored the sociocultural factors that influence Hispanics' abilities to navigate consumer food education programs, but little was known about how Mexican culture impacts those programs. The purpose of this study was to better understand those factors. Research questions focused on the experiences of residents of a west Texas town regarding their food decision-making process about food choices and their understanding of food education information. The purpose of this phenomenological research was to explore how Mexican culture effected …