Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

What Can We Learn About Teaching Excellence From Our Students? Lessons From Six Years Of Teaching Award Data, Christopher Shortell, Kris Henning, Carl Christiansen

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Teaching excellence in higher education can be defined and studied in different ways, but research efforts to date have often focused on institutional or instructor perspectives. This article uses a data set of over 500 open-ended comments submitted by Political Science undergraduates as part of a teaching award process to identify themes that matter most to students. We find that being supportive, bringing humor, enthusiasm, and passion to the classroom, and engaging students with relevant, challenging, and exciting activities are what defines teaching excellence from a student’s perspective. Building on these themes and using quotes to illustrate key concepts, we …

The Complexities Of Irrigation Efficiency: Groundwater Data, Agro-Hydrology, And Water Decision-Making In Central Oregon, Rebecca Anderson, Alida Cantor

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Irrigation efficiency projects aim to conserve water for in-stream flow and agricultural use by reducing water losses throughout the system. Piping irrigation canals is a common irrigation efficiency method that results in trade-offs: while it increases efficiency of irrigation water conveyance, it reduces incidental groundwater recharge. This paper focuses on the data and decision-making of canal piping, focusing primarily on understanding the potential impacts of reduced canal leakage on shallow wells. By conducting a spatial analysis of shallow wells in the basin at risk of being impacted by canal piping, and combining this with interviews with water managers in central …

Effect Of Company-Driven Disability Diversity Initiatives: A Multi-Case Study Across Industries, Brian N. Phillips, Teresa A. Granger, Chase Ochrach, Kathryn A. Thomas, Antonio Reyes, Rachel F. Kesselmayer, Catherine A. Anderson, Katherine B. Friedman, Multiple Additional Authors

Counselor Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

OBJECTIVE: In this article, we share insights emerging from case studies conducted across seven companies.We illustrate the motives, processes, and outcomes of these initiatives. METHODS: This study is built on the previously published case studies conducted across seven companies. We applied elements of consensual qualitative research (CQR) for the data collection and analyses before performing an in-depth qualitative content analysis using the data coded for each company, looking for commonalities and differences. RESULTS: Although practices differed, all companies experienced noted benefits. Committed leadership and complementary company values facilitated successful outcomes for initiatives. The strength or salience of disability-inclusive actions and …

Becoming And Acting As An Ally Against Weight-Based Discrimination, Christopher J. Waterbury, Larry R. Martinez, Liana Bernard, Nicholas A. Smith

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We appreciate and agree with the importance of the Best Practices for Weight at Work Research outlined by Lemmon et al. (Reference Lemmon, Jensen and Kuljanin2023). To help further contribute to this body of literature, we connect the scholarship related to weight-basedFootnote1 discrimination to contemporary allyship scholarship. Allyship support and advocacy behaviors improve employee experiences on day-to-day and long-term bases, and are therefore critical to research about weight at work. It is critically important to examine the development of allies against weight-stigma for two reasons.

An Evaluation Of The Federal Transition Incentives Program On Land Access For Next-Generation Farmers, Megan Horst, Julia Valliant, Julia Freedgood

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Next-generation farmers face immense challenges in securing land. In recent years, some state- and federal-level land access policy incentives (LAPIs) have been implemented to address these chal­lenges. In this paper, we assess the Transition Incentives Program (TIP), an initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program that is funded by Congressional farm bills. TIP offers landowners two years of financial incen­tives for leasing or selling to a beginning or socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher (categories of farmers defined by the U.S. Department of Agri­culture). In our study, we characterize TIP partici­pants to understand where and how TIP assists …

Drivers Of Tree Canopy Loss In A Mid-Sized Growing City: Case Study In Portland, Or (Usa), Yunjae Ock, Vivek Shandas, Fernanda Ribeiro, Noah Young

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The benefits of the urban tree and tree canopy (UTC) are increasingly crucial in addressing urban sustainability. Yet, increasingly evident from earlier research is the distributional inequities of UTC and active efforts to expand tree plantings. Less is known about the dynamics of UTC loss over time and location. This study aims to understand the dynamics of UTC change, especially canopy loss, and to investigate the drivers of the loss. This study draws on a high–resolution dataset of an urban canopy in Portland, Oregon, USA, assessing changes in UTC from 2014 to 2020. By integrating demographic, biophysical, and policy data …

Shifting Tides: The Evolution Of Racial Inequality In Higher Education From The 1980s Through The 2010s, Byeongdon Oh, Ned William Tilbrook, Dara Shifrer

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Amid the proliferation of state-level bans on race-based affirmative action in higher education, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on June 29, 2023, dismantled race-conscious college admission policies, intensifying concerns about the persistence and potential increase of racial inequality in higher education. The authors analyze four restricted-use national survey datasets to investigate racial disparities in college attendance outcomes from the 1980s through the 2010s. Although college entrance rates increased for all racial groups, Black and Hispanic youth became increasingly less likely than their White peers to attend four-year selective colleges. In the 2010s cohort, Black and Hispanic youth were 8 and …

Judgment, Shame, And Coercion: The Criminal Legal System And Reproductive Autonomy, Ginny Garcia-Alexander, Melissa Thompson

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

A growing body of research has called attention to limitations to reproductive autonomy in both women who are socially disadvantaged and in those who have had contact with the criminal legal (CL) system. However, it is unclear whether CL system contact influences contraceptive use patterns and how these processes unfold. We utilize a mixed-methods approach to investigate whether history of arrest is associated with receipt of contraceptive counseling, use of long-term contraception, sterilization, and subsequent desire for reversal of sterilization. We further consider how agents in and around the CL system may influence women’s reproductive decisions and outcomes (856 …

A Theory Of Change For One-On-One Peer Support For Older Adolescents And Young Adults, Janet S. Walker, Vanessa V. Klodnick, Brianne Lapelusa, Shannon M. Blajeski, Alex R. Freedman, Shannon Marble

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Peer support has become increasingly available as a formal mental health service. However, high quality research and implementation of peer support has been hampered over the years by the lack of theory that clarifies peer support roles and explains exactly how these roles foster positive outcomes for peer support users. Observers have noted that theory is particularly sparse in regard to peer support for older adolescents and young adults, and they have called for theory that not only clarifies roles and mechanisms of impact, but also identifies how peer support for young people might differ from peer support for …

Measurement Matters: A Commentary On The State Of The Science On Patient Reported Outcome Measures (Proms) In Autism Research, Hillary Schiltz, Zachary J. Williams, Shuting Zheng, Elizabeth A. Kaplan-Kahn, Hannah E. Morton, Kashia A. Rosenau, Christina Nicolaidis, Alexandra Sturm, Multiple Additional Authors

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

High quality science relies upon psychometrically valid and reliable measurement, yet very few Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) have been developed or thoroughly validated for use with autistic individuals. The present commentary summarizes the current state of autism PROM science, based on discussion at the Special Interest Group (SIG) at the 2022 International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) Annual Meeting and collective expertise of the authors. First, we identify current issues in autism PROM research including content and construct operationalization, informant-structure, measure accessibility, and measure validation and generalization. We then enumerate barriers to conducting and disseminating this research, such as …

The Meteorology And Impacts Of The September 2020 Western United States Extreme Weather Event, Emma N. Russell, Paul Loikith, Idowu Ajibade, James Done, Chris Lower

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

In September 2020, Western North America was impacted by a highly anomalous meteorological event. Over the Pacific Northwest, strong and dry easterly winds exceeded historically observed values for the time of year and contributed to the rapid spread of several large wildfires. Nine lives were lost and over 5000 homes and businesses were destroyed in Oregon. The smoke from the fires enveloped the region for nearly two weeks after the event. Concurrently, the same weather system brought record-breaking cold, dramatic 24-h temperature falls, and early-season snowfall to parts of the Rocky Mountains. Here we use synoptic analysis and air parcel …

A Framework For Deepening Racial Equity In Prenatal-Grade Three Systems: Lessons From A 10-Year Reflective Case Study, Beth L. Green, Lindsey B. Patterson, Caitlin R. Houser

Center for Improvement of Child and Family Services Publications

This paper uses a reflective, retrospective case study methodology to analyze data from a 10-year University-Community partnership focused on supporting implementation and improvement of a Prenatal-Grade 3 (P3) system in an elementary school. Using a framework for centering equity in Collective Impact approaches, we analyze the steps we took as research partners/program evaluators to address racial and other inequities while highlighting missed opportunities to better center racial equity in the evaluation and P3 Initiative work. Through our analysis, we seek to identify where and how racial inequities surfaced, to describe how systemic racism influenced the evaluation and P3 Initiative process, …

Using Disaster Surveys To Model Business Interruption, Maria Watson, Yu Xiao, Jennifer Helgeson

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Business interruption after disasters is an important metric for community resilience planning because has both economic and social consequences. Each additional day that a business is nonoperational further compounds lost revenue, wages, and lack of access to goods and services needed for recovery. Therefore, the use of surveys has grown in the literature as a way to capture the diverse information needed for modeling business disaster outcomes. However, variable inclusion and measurement can vary widely across studies, and there is a lack of guidance on how to structure surveys most effectively to facilitate this effort. This study fills these gaps …

Gen Z And Millennials Have An Unlikely Love Affair With Their Local Libraries, Kathi Inman Berens, Rachel Noorda

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

A phone fixation may seem at odds with an attraction to books. But the latter may offer a much-needed reprieve from the former. In our recent study of American Gen Z and millennials, we discovered that 92% of them check social media daily; 25% of them check multiple times per hour. Yet in that same nationally representative study, we also found that Gen Z and millennials are still visiting libraries at a healthy clip, with 54% of Gen Zers and millennials trekking to their local library in 2022. Our findings reinforce 2017 data from the Pew Research Center, which showed …

Thorstein Veblen And His Underlying Philosophical Influences, John Battaile Hall

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This inquiry recognizes Thorstein Veblen first and foremost as a philosopher who advanced a literature in Social Sciences, generally, and Economic Science, in particular. Veblen’s thinking and writing were supported by rich traditions drawn from notable philosophers that included among several: Charles Sanders Peirce, Immanuel Kant, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Relying upon his strong background in Philosophy, he then sought to challenge mainstream, neoclassical economics, especially. As his career developed, he would turn his talents and energies towards advancing ideas that would ultimately prove foundational for heterodox economics and, relatedly, American Institutionalism.

Journal of Economic Literature Classification Codes:
B15 – Historical, …

Engaging With Nature And Work: Associations Among The Built And Natural Environment, Experiences Outside, And Job Engagement And Creativity, Rebecca M. Brossoit, Tori Crain, Jordyn J. Leslie, Gwenith G. Fisher, Aaron M. Eakman

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduction: There is substantial evidence that contact with nature is related to positive health and well-being outcomes, but extensions of this research to work-related outcomes is sparse. Some organizations are redesigning workspaces to incorporate nature and adopting nature-related policies, warranting a need for empirical studies that test the influence of nature on employee outcomes.

Methods: The present mixed-methods study tests and extends the biophilic work design model to examine associations among the built and natural environment at work and home, experiences of time spent outside (i.e., amount of time outside, enjoyment of time outside, outdoor activities), and motivational work outcomes …

Data From: Active Transportation Counts From Existing On-Street Signal And Detection Infrastructure, Sirisha Kothuri, Patrick Allen Singleton, Mahyar Vahedi Saheli, Elizabeth Yates, Joseph P. Broach

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Datasets

This study’s objective was to use data from existing traffic signal infrastructure to estimate pedestrian volumes. Pedestrian push-button actuations were collected from signal controller logs at 49 intersections in western Oregon and an additional 16 intersections in eastern Oregon. These actuations were then compared to observed pedestrian counts, totaling over 34,000 people, obtained from video recordings. After exploring various options, a simple quadratic relationship was modeled using a single measure of pedestrian signal activity: the number of push-button presses (filtered to remove multiple presses within 15 seconds). The model’s predictions showed a correlation of 0.86 with observed pedestrian volumes and …

What Drives Housing Choices Of Refugees And Immigrants?, Diane Mitschke, Anne Nordberg, Stephen Mattingly, Katherine Kitchens, Yasmin Al-Zubi, Farah Naz

TREC Project Briefs

When newcomers to the US initially settle, if their chosen location does not meet their expectations or needs, that often propels them to relocate. To determine what helps drive those transition decisions, the researchers interviewed people if they fulfilled one of these requirements:

• They were members of the Dallas County community who were planning to move in the next five years.

• They had recently (within the past five years) moved from their initial residence following their arrival in Dallas County.
• They also had to be immigrants to or refugees in the US who were at least eighteen years old. Out …

Housing Choice, Transportation Equity, And Access To Opportunities In Refugee And Immigrant Communities, Diane Mitschke, Anne Nordberg, Stephen Mattingly, Katherine Kitchens

TREC Final Reports

Mobility directly impacts access to opportunities for all protected classes; however, transportation planning and public transit agencies and housing authorities rarely coordinate affordable housing and the transportation system planning decisions. This lack of coordination often leads to mismatches between access to opportunities and affordable housing. Safe access to employment, quality schools, and healthcare represent a few of the many factors that may influence housing choice. For most households with budget constraints, all of these factors may not be achievable. While existing research documents the mismatch between affordable housing and access to opportunities, the role that mobility plays in residential selection …

A Framework For Protecting And Promoting Employee Mental Health Through Supervisor Supportive Behaviors, Leslie B. Hammer, Jennifer K. Dimoff, Cynthia Mohr, Shalene Joyce Allen

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The attention to workplace mental health is timely given extreme levels of burnout, anxiety, depression and trauma experienced by workers due to serious extraorganizational stressors – the COVID-19 pandemic, threats to climate change, and extreme social and political unrest. Workplace-based risk factors, such as high stress and low support, are contributing factors to poor mental health and suicidality (Choi, 2018; Milner et al., 2013, 2018), just as low levels of social connectedness and belonging are established risk factors for poor mental health (Joiner et al., 2009), suggesting that social support at work (e.g., from supervisors) may be a key approach …

Urban Streetscape Changes In Portland, Oregon: A Longitudinal Virtual Audit, Tomoya Hanibuchi, David Banis, Hunter Shobe, Tomoki Nakaya, Shohei Nagata

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Streetscape imagery has considerable potential for observing urban change. The literature lacks sufficient longitudinal studies, however, on urban change considering human perception and activities. We conducted a longitudinal virtual audit to observe the change in urban liveliness, human activities, and built environment by examining streetscape imagery taken in the late 2000s and the late 2010s in Portland, Oregon. Eleven untrained crowd workers were recruited to provide liveliness ratings of 24,242 streetscape images for both periods. Tabulation, mapping, and multilevel regression analyses were conducted to observe the distribution, changes in liveliness, and the factors affecting these changes. The results confirmed that …

Patient Perspectives On Chronic Rhinosinusitis In Cystic Fibrosis: Symptom Prioritization In The Era Of Highly Effective Modulator Therapy, Christine Liu, Ethan J. Han, Jakob L. Fischer, Jess C. Mace, Jose L. Mattos, Karolin Markarian, Jeremiah Alt, Todd Bodner, Naweed I. Chowdhury, Multiple Additional Authors

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is common in people with cystic fibrosis (PwCF). Rhinologic symptom prioritization and areas that influence CRS treatment choices, including pursuing endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS), remain understudied.

Methods

Adult PwCF + CRS were enrolled at eight centers into a prospective, observational study (2019–2023). Participants were administered the 22-SinoNasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22) survey and a modified SNOT-22 instrument examining symptom importance. We determined importance rankings for individual symptoms and SNOT-22 symptom importance subdomains in two sets of subgroups—those pursuing ESS versus continuing medical management (CMT), and those on elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor (ETI) versus not on ETI.

Results

Among 69 participants, …

App-Based Data Collection To Characterize Latent Transportation Demand Within Marginalized And Underserved Populations, Noelle L. Fields, Courtney Cronley, Stephen Mattingly, Nicole Iroz-Elardo, David Levine, Nithisha Gudipati, Cristine Highfill, Mary Kris Stringfelllow, Anna O'Dell, Rebecca Cole, Melody Huslage

TREC Final Reports

Our interdisciplinary team refined an app prototype, MyAmble, to gather data related to quantity of transportation disadvantage and latent demand, and to identify psycho-social-economic corollaries. MyAmble utilizes a traditional travel diary format but expands the type of trips measured to include 1) completed trips, 2) missed trips, and 3) latent travel demand. The app also measures the real-time perceived impact of transportation behaviors (realized and latent) on participants’ physical health, mental health, social engagement, and employment/academics. Finally, the app has a text-messaging feature, Travel Buddy, that is used to increase participant engagement and retention over longitudinal data collection. The project …

Spatially Allocated Population Characteristics For Oregon Counties From The 2017-2021 Acs Pums, Version 1.0" [Computer File], Population Research Center, Portland State University

Publications, Reports and Presentations

A novel dataset and documentation containing spatially allocated estimates based on analysis of the 2017-21 ACS PUMS for counties in the State of Oregon. Analysis was performed by iterative adjustment to the ACS weights such that results were consistent with selected tables generated from the full ACS sample published by the US Census Bureau. The data are delivered in two pipe-delimited text files. Each row represents one county, and columns represent standard data fields described in the codebooks. Oregon Department of Human Services supported the analysis and selected the indicators for production; race/ethnicity are reporting in a manner consistent with …

Producing Knowledge Together: A Participatory Approach To Synthesising Research Across A Large‑Scale Collaboration In Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Health, Kathleen P. Conte, Alison Laycock, Jodie Bailie, Emma Walke, Leigh-Ann Onnis, Lynette Feeney, Erika Langham, Multiple Additional Authors

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

Background

Despite that stakeholder participation in evidence synthesis could result in more useful outcomes, there are few examples of processes that actively involve them in synthesis work. Techniques are needed that engage diverse stakeholders as equal partners in knowledge co-production. The aims of this paper are to describe an innovative participatory process of synthesising a large body of academic research products and compare the findings of the participatory process against two traditional approaches to synthesis: a rapid review and a structured review.

Methods

First, a rapid synthesis of all research outputs (n = 86) was conducted by researchers with …

2023 Oregon Statewide Homelessness Estimates, Jacen Greene, Franklin Holcomb Spurbeck, Marisa Zapata

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

Executive Summary excerpt:

The Point-In-Time (PIT) count is a census of people experiencing both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness on a single night in January. The federal government requires this as a condition of funding it distributes to Continuums of Care (CoCs), networks of government agencies and service providers that manage homelessness services and funding in specific regions. Oregon has eight CoCs, five of which manage their own PIT count, which leads to variation in methodology and completeness. The PIT count’s accuracy is further reduced because it only captures homelessness on a single night, missing changes throughout the year, and uses …

Alternative Shelter Evaluation Report, Jacen Greene, Todd Ferry, Emily Leickly, Franklin Holcomb Spurbeck

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

This report summarizes research by Portland State University’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative for the Joint Office of Homeless Services on the cost, participant experiences, and client outcomes in village-style and motel shelters as compared to each other and to traditional, congregate shelters.

Fight, Flight, Freeze: How Access To Support Shapes Tenant Responses To Eviction In Multnomah County, Natalie J. Cholula, Lisa Bates, Alex Farrington, Marisa Zapata, Colleen Carroll, Jacen Greene, Hadley Bates

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Facing eviction is a traumatic event that forces tenants into a fight, flight or freeze response. Our focus groups with Multnomah County tenants reveal that their responses to eviction are directly shaped by their access to support. Many tenants are unable to access formal support and therefore respond to eviction by freezing up or fleeing their home. Conversely, tenants who can access formal support—including rental assistance or legal assistance—exhibit a fight response, leveraging external support to challenge or avoid their eviction.

Scales Of Connectivity Within Stream Temperature Networks Of The Clackamas River Basin, Oregon, Michael Krochta, Heejun Chang

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Water quality varies along the stream network; thus, considering the directional, dendritic nature of stream networks with surrounding landscape variables is essential in explaining spatial variations of water quality. Using a spatially extensive stream temperature monitoring effort in the Clackamas River Basin in the United States, we first compare spatial scales of analysis of atmospheric, landscape, and in-stream explanatory variables through their correlation with summer stream temperatures. We then derive a predictive stream temperature model with factors representing the spatial variation of local climate, recent wildfire effects, and discharge. Finally, we compare nonspatial multiple linear regression to a spatial stream …

Enrichment-Planting With Pines Alters Fuel Amount And Structure In Endangered Araucaria Araucana Forests In Northwestern Patagonia, Argentina, Sofia Cingolani, Ignacio A. Mundo, Ivan Barbera, Andrés Holz, Thomas T. Veblen, Juan Paritsis

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The introduction of non-native tree species for large-scale afforestation may alter the fire regime of native ecosystems by modifying fuel proprieties. We quantified changes in fuel abundance and structure resulting from the establishment of commercial Pinus spp. plantations in Araucaria araucana ecosystems in northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. Specifically, we assessed the amount, distribution, and condition (live/dead) of surface and standing fine fuel in A. araucana stands with mature pine plantations (i.e. > 20 cm dbh) and in stands dominated only by A. araucana (control). Our study shows that both types of stands are prone to wildfires, but pine plantations have fuel characteristics …