Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Analysis Of Government Stimulus During Covid-19 And The Bank Distress Of 2023, Kara Hagler

CMC Senior Theses

Due to the hardships that small businesses were facing from the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, the government created the Payment Protection Program (PPP). This program used banks as the initial lenders for small business loans to facilitate loans from the government to small businesses. In this article, I study how participation in the PPP lending program contributes to the Bank Distress of 2023 by using a bank-level quarterly panel data set from 2019-2023. Estimation of difference-in-difference specifications reveals banks that opted into the PPP program experienced an increase in held-to-maturity securities relative to non PPP banks. The mechanism …

More Moments With Others Matter For Emotion Regulation And Well-Being: A Study Of First-Year College Students’ Daily Life During Covid-19, Jaymes Paolo Delas Armas Rombaoa

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted emerging adult, first-year college students’ daily lives and well-being. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) recognizes that effective and adaptive emotion regulation can be improved by training skills for managing contextual (ABC) and physiological (PLEASE) factors. An ecological momentary assessment study collected 1,796 data points from 76 first-year students' daily usage of emotion regulation (ER) skills and momentary experiences of well-being (PERMA; Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationship, Meaning, Accomplishment) during COVID-19 in Spring 2020. Research questions explored: (a) Is usage of ER skills associated with elements of momentary PERMA above and beyond trait-level PERMA?; (b) Are lifestyle factors (e.g., …

Evaluative Thinking Amid Disaster, Phung Khanh Pham

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Evaluation and emergency medicine have appreciable parallels and are likely to intertwine as they each evolve, especially in response to disasters or other pervasive problems that can worsen into the future. Evaluative thinking—which largely involves critical thinking, valuing, and other dynamic processes—may be ubiquitously useful to practitioners, scholars, and others from both these fields of practice. In this dissertation, I referenced the dual systems theory of the human mind to conceptualize evaluative thinking as paradoxically fast (automatic) and slow (deliberate), and I characterized the COVID-19 pandemic as a disaster laden with societal games. Derived from game theory, societal games range …

A Comparative Analysis Of 14 Central Banks’ Monetary Responses Before And After The Covid-19 Pandemic In Relation To Central Bank Independence, Emelle Stottele

CMC Senior Theses

In theory, during periods of economic downturn, economic policy should follow a countercyclical pattern. In this light, following the recent COVID-19 pandemic, monetary policy is expected to be contractionary. However, prior research shows that the cyclical nature of monetary policy can vary significantly across different countries. Research also suggests that these monetary responses differ based on the level of independence a central bank has for decision-making from government influence. This thesis studies the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the monetary responses across a panel of 14 countries from January 2018 to August 2022, capturing the impacts of the pandemic. …

The Paycheck Protection Program's Effect On Real Estate Prices, Someswar Amujala

CMC Senior Theses

This paper investigates the relationship between the Paycheck Protec- tion Program (PPP) and real estate price increases. The Paycheck Protection Program was established by the Small Business Association in 2020 to pro- vide forgivable loans to businesses to aid with potential losses from COVID- 19 impacts. I leverage zip code level data across the United States and a fixed effects panel data model to quantitatively measure the PPP’s influence on housing and rental prices. I find a positive and significant relationship between the number of PPP loans disbursed and housing and rental rates. Specifically, a 1% change in the number …

Heterogeneity In The Covid-19 Pandemic’S Labor Market Effects, Carlos Montelongo

CMC Senior Theses

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, labor market outcomes in the United States drastically changed as the country entered its first recession since the Great Recession. The lives of millions of Americans became upended as economic shutdowns and lockdown orders spread across the United States. This paper attempts to quantify and examine the heterogeneity of employment trends before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic along the following four dimensions: race/ethnicity, gender, education, and age. By using cross-sectional data from the Current Population Survey, I gathered a representative sample of different demographic groups in the United States. My objective is …

The Development Of Adolescent Students’ Self-Directed Learning Skills Within A Montessori Program During Covid-19: A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Study, Elyse Laurelle Postlewaite

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Students who develop and apply their self-directed learning skills have advantages in school over those who do not (Betts & Knapp, 1981; Candy, 1991; Guglielmino, 1977; Schunk & Zimmerman, 2012). This is because self-directed learning (SDL) skills enable autonomous learning where students self-initiate, solve problems, develop new ideas, and monitor themselves with minimal external guidance (Knowles, 1976; Zimmerman, 2000). Despite the importance of these skills, research shows that few students consistently engage in SDL (Dent & Koenka, 2016; Zimmerman & Schunk, 2001). Because of SDL's multi-faceted and complex nature, it is difficult to discern why this is the case (Dent …

Liquidity Outbreak: A 49 Country Analysis Of The Money Supply’S Effect On Stock Markets During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Dylan Porter

CMC Senior Theses

This paper compares the effects of monthly money growth on monthly stock market performance in 49 countries around the world before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries are grouped in aggregate, by continent, and development status. OLS panel regressions show that lagged monetary growth variables are better monetary indicators of stock market performance than contemporaneous values. Variables that measure the pandemic’s progress (infections/deaths and government responses) are included alongside macro-economic variables but are seldom significant. Monetary growth had less correlation with the stock market during the pre-pandemic period (January 2018 - December 2020), suggesting that the uncertain economic conditions of …

Conjecture And Evidence: Discovering The Costs Of Contemporary American Political Ideals, Joseph C. Immormino

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation offers an adaptation of the relative political capacity (RPC) research framework to domestic American politics, enabling a quantitative examination of the relative performance of state governments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Theoretically, I examine the notion that more politically capable states will be more effective in their efforts to mitigate mortality rates, and hypothesize that, in the United States, such a relationship is conditional upon the party identification of state leadership. The premise is tested by applying a series of multiplicative interaction models to a unique dataset spanning the first two years of the pandemic. Results confirm that measures …

Covid, Care, And The Carceral State: American Disposability Politics And The Selective Weaponization Of Public Health Guidelines During Covid-19, Uma Nagarajan-Swenson

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the American state's role in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on marginalized communities, arguing that the state used the frame of disposability politics to justify expanding its carceral capacities and withdrawing as a provider of welfare during the pandemic.

Social Support, Self-Esteem, And Levels Of Stress, Depression, And Anxiety During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Candace Ying Tsai

Scripps Senior Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unprecedented disruptions to daily routines and social connections, which negatively impacted the mental health and well-being of many. Unsurprisingly, the most utilized coping strategy during the pandemic involved social support. However, those low in self-esteem seem to question others’ positive regard and continued acceptance, and overall perceive others’ behavior more negatively than those with high self-esteem (Murray, Holmes, et al., 1998). The proposed correlational study will examine the effects of social support and self-esteem on stress, anxiety, and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as investigate whether one’s self-esteem affects the influence that social …

A Crisis Of Care: Effects Of Covid-19 On The Household Division Of Labor, Caroline Elliot Albro

Scripps Senior Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic brought monumental challenges to the lives of parents around the world. As schools shut down, children stayed at home, and employees worked from their living room couches or dining room tables, working parents struggled to balance paid labor, household labor, and childcare during this time. Working mothers faced particular challenges in reconciling household labor and employment due to the pressures of gender norms and the expectation for women to “do it all.” This paper explores the strategies that families utilized to deal with the household division of labor during the pandemic. Families employed a variety of strategies …

The Influence Of Political Party Affiliation And Park Accessibility On Covid-19 Case Incidence, Sascha Wolf-Sorokin

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the joint effect of political party affiliation and the urban landscape, as measured by access to parks, on case rates during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The 2016 and 2020 U.S. Presidential Election returns are used as a proxy for a county’s political party affiliation prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A county population’s spatial relationship to its parks encapsulates the green open space within an urban environment. The data set controls for features of the built environment, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics (race, gender, income, education), COVID-19 government regulations, and presidential election returns. Using …

Queer Survival Amidst Hiv/Aids, Covid-19 And Homelessness, Julia Young

Pitzer Senior Theses

The treatment and survival of a society's marginalized peoples reveal the true impacts of a pandemic. An analysis of homeless queer youth during the HIV/AIDS and SARS-CoV-2 crises lays bare the systemic failure of the United States government to provide equitable healthcare.

I compare the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics in queer homeless youth to demonstrate the dangers of disease moralization via a sociocultural analyses of disease stigma and responsibility politics. Utilizing syndemic theory I draw on the synergistic relationship between disease and illness to describe the unique challenges queer homeless youth face. A syndemic framework is applied to address common …

Exploring The Politics Of Fear And Its Intersection With Anti-Asian Violence And Discrimination In The Context Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Madelyn Kwun

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the linkage between the politics of fear and anti-Asian sentiment and violence following the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada and Australia. While anti-Asian sentiment is not new, society does not always address it or educate people on the Asian experience. Throughout the history in which Asians arrived in both Canada and Australia, what started with Chinese exclusion in the late 1800s, led to further discrimination in society leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. The early foundations of mistrust and disgust towards Asians in Canada and Australia made the onset of the COVID- 19 pandemic worse …

Parental Stress In Asian American And Non-Asian American Families Of Children With Developmental Disabilities During Covid-19, Surina S. Bothra

Scripps Senior Theses

Past research has found higher levels of parental stress in Asian American families of children with developmental disabilities as compared to their non-Asian counterparts. This study examined whether this trend remains in the setting of the COVID-19 global pandemic, as well as considering the relationships between parental stress and COVID-19 stressors, the experience of discrimination during the pandemic, the type and severity of developmental disability, and child age. This study used a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach to quantitatively measure parental stress in 48 Asian American and 62 non-Asian American parents, and qualitatively collect data regarding the specific personal experiences …

Why Do You Wear A Mask? Children’S Conceptualizations Of Covid-19 And Contagion Avoidance Behaviors, Emily Hillman

Scripps Senior Theses

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a need has emerged for psychological research on children’s understanding of infectious disease transmission. However, little existing research examines the link between children’s cognitive reasoning about illness and their subsequent behaviors regarding its transmissibility. This study will examine children’s conceptualizations of contagious illnesses such as COVID-19 and their subsequent contagion avoidance. A mixed methods approach will be used to establish the content of children’s conceptualizations of contagion and level of causal reasoning related to illness transmission. Dyads will be constructed comprising 4-12-year-old children and their parents. It is expected that parental contagion avoidance …

A Network Pandemic: Exploring The Effects Of Social Connectedness On The Spread Of Covid-19 In The United States, Mrinalini Bhushan

CMC Senior Theses

Social interactions influence the way we think and act. Recent literature on COVID-19 and social connectedness explores how social interactions influence people’s perceptions of the risk from COVID-19 and their behaviors. This paper seeks to investigate how social connectedness, political ideologies, and physical interaction are associated with local COVID-19 case and death rates at the US county level. Social connectedness, as defined by (Bailey et al, 2018) measures connectedness between US counties based on Facebook friendship links. I examine whether a county’s average social connectedness to other counties, as determined by the Facebook index, has an impact on its own …

Zoom In, Class Out: An Event Study On Publicly Traded Ed Tech Firm Valuations During Covid-19, Matiss Ozols

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines how publicly traded Ed Tech firms reacted to negative announcements regarding COVID-19. Using an event study method, I document how an international portfolio of Ed Tech firms react across multiple event windows. The results show that Ed Tech firms reacted positively to the announcement of the first US death and negatively to the World Health Organization’s declaration that COVID-19 was a pandemic. Additionally, differences in geographical location did not impact cumulative abnormal returns across event windows. Finally, firm-specific characteristics such as volatility and financial leverage had little or no significance on stock returns.

Twin Threats: The Short-Sighted Us Response To Global Climate Change And Pandemics, Bryan Williams

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the failure of the United States government to mitigate global climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing poor public reactions and governmental administration between the two threats. Using developmental constructs to serve as a framework for assessing public reactions to climate change and pandemics, this thesis implements a content analysis study of American news media from 2000 to 2020; it identifies the rhetoric embedded in communications that has directed the US public’s focus of attention and shaped public opinion on these issues. The results indicate significantly less focus of attention on human health issues than economic …