Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Burning Community Integration And Disability, Christopher Shane Brace

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with anxiety and depression have always been marginalized and stigmatized. Individuals with “hidden” disabilities are encouraged by society to keep them hidden, or face ridicule and persecution. Society decreases their sense of self-worth, and self-efficacy by destroying any perception of normalcy. Social support resources are vital for individuals with anxiety and depression’s continued mental health. As time goes on the individuals experience a decrease in the amount of available resources, at the same time the need for them increases. These individuals need a way to quickly replenish their social resources and the Burning Man regional network creates a unique …

Strongly Bonded Supervisory Relationships: Demystifying The Bond Aspect Of The Supervisory Working Alliance, Melissa Heinrich

Dissertations

The current study explores the bond aspect of the supervisory working alliance through the lens of relational-cultural theory (RCT). Previous research posits a quality supervisory relationship is important for effective supervision and clinical outcomes. The Supervisory Working Alliance (SWA; Bordin, 1983) is a pan-theoretical model for the growth process in supervision including (a) mutual agreement on goals for supervision, (b) mutual agreement on associated tasks for accomplishing the goals, and (c) the emotional bond in the supervisory relationship. The process for mutual agreement of goals and tasks seems clear, the bond aspect of the SWA seems less clear. Research concerning …

Factors That Contribute To The Process Of Reporting Concussion Symptoms Experienced By Canadian Football League Players, Daryl W. H. Stephenson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background: Concussions continue to be at the forefront of research today and are still an ongoing problem for athletes across sporting domains. Further investigation is warranted to achieve a greater understanding of concussions. Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation was to explore research related to sports-related concussions, how concussions affect athletes and those surrounding the athletes at all levels of sport, with a particular focus on Canadian Football League players and the underreporting of concussions. This dissertation also reviews qualitative research methodologies, and how they are applied within concussion research. Research Questions: a) What is my own personal relationship with …

What About Us? For Girls Between Worlds: How Black Girls Navigate White High Schools, Cryslynn C. Billingsley

Dissertations

This qualitative study is about the experiences and challenges Black girls have while attending predominantly White high schools and what they are doing to navigate that particular space. The purpose of this study was to explore and understand more about how Black girls navigate White space as minority members of a system that was not originally intended for them. Through semi-structured interviews, Black girls were asked directly to share their lived experiences. This study hopes to illuminate and amplify the voices of Black girls and help others see them by giving them a platform to discuss and tell their stories. …

The Intervention Path: The Experiences Of Mothers Seeking Help For Their Child With Atypical Behavioral Development, Renee Hoopes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pre-school aged children experience challenging behaviors at a relatively common rate. Research shows that approximately 10–25 % of preschool-aged children engage in challenging behaviors to a greater degree than would be expected for their age (Lavigne, Gibbons, Christoffel, Arend, Rosenbaum, Binns, Sawon, Sobel & Isaacs, 1996). Problem behaviors are often the result of a child not following a typical developmental trajectory. Atypical development appears when a child either lags behind or jumps ahead of typical peer progress in physical, cognitive, behavioral, and social development or in adaptive life skills. When children with challenging behaviors are left untreated, their everyday functioning …

Personal Growth Following The Challenge Of Becoming A New Parent While Working As A Mental Health Clinician: A Narrative Study, Amie L. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Becoming a new parent can cause both immense joy and immense stress that leads to increases and decreases in a new parent’s feeling of life satisfaction. In addition, working as a mental health clinician is a frequently challenging career. Given that many clinicians also become parents while working during the course of their careers, it is surprising that there is not more research on the experience of clinicians who become new parents. More research is needed to find out how people balance the stresses of new parenthood and their emotionally challenging jobs. There is some research on “stress-related growth” that …

Trans Masculine Identities: Making Meaning In Gender And Transition, Nickolas Hollis Lambrou

Theses and Dissertations

Perspectives on transgender identity have evolved through time, and various models of transgender identity development are emerging from multiple fields of study. However, little is known about what gender identity means to self-identified trans masculine individuals. Additionally, across existing transgender identity development stage models, the concept of transition is often assumed to include some form of medical intervention, with the acquisition of such interventions playing a key role in one’s developmental trajectory. Furthermore, current literature often implies transition is an end goal in the path toward integrating one’s core identity. However, there is little to no research exploring how trans …

Uniting And Dividing Influences Of Religion On Familial Relationships, Heather Howell Kelley

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research suggests that religion can be both helpful and harmful. However, much of the research on religion and families has employed relatively simple, distal measures of religion and has predominantly focused on only one side of the dualistic nature of religion. Drawing upon interviews with 198 religious families (N = 476 individuals), the purpose of this study is to better understand how religion can have both a unifying and a dividing influence on familial relationships. Three overarching themes are presented, accompanied by supporting primary qualitative data from participants. These themes include: (1) How religious beliefs unite and divide families; …

Article 1- "God Will Glorify Your Marriage": Marital Satisfaction And Relational Spirituality In Religious Black Couples Article 2- "A Godly Man": A Qualitative Exploration Of The Influence Of Religion On Black Masculinity And Fatherhood, Travis James Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggest that Black couples tend to marry later, with less frequency, have marriages that do not last as long, and are more prone to divorce than other racial categories. However, religion may play an important role to counteract the negative marriage trends among Black heterosexual couples. As a growing subfield of family psychology this study examines the influence of religion on marital sanctification and relational spirituality among 33 Black married couples (N = 66). In-depth qualitative interviews with Black married couples were analyzed to see how religion informed and shaped perceptions of marital sanctification as well as unique relational …

Anticipated Therapist Absences: The Therapist’S Lens, Graham Gardner Knowlton

Dissertations (1934 -)

Over the course of a therapist’s career, absences from work are inevitable. Although therapist absences undoubtedly impact the therapy process, the topic has not received sufficient attention to produce helpful guidelines. Instead, clinicians looking to the literature for recommendations find less in peer-reviewed journals regarding therapist absences than they would if they were to turn to popular media geared toward a client audience (Barchat, 1988). This study sought to begin to remedy this research gap using a Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) research design focusing on anticipated therapist absences. Ten therapists with at least two years of experience post-licensure were asked …

The Experience Of Coparenting Within The Parameters Of Divorce: Perspectives From Parents Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Nycole C. Kauk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a disorder that includes persistent impairment in verbal and nonverbal communication, social interaction, and restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities. The purpose of this study is to capture the perspectives and experiences of parents who are divorced but are still coparenting their child with ASD. Current literature gives insight into how ASD affects the family system, but there is no literature to date that examines how parents coparent their child when the family system is split. ASD is a lifelong and impactful disorder impacting not just the individual’s adaptive functioning, but also …

Interracial Dating On Campus, Marisa Andersen

Social Sciences

The purpose of this study is to use mixed methods research and grounded theory to determine what obstacles a predominantly White university contains for interracial couples. Previous research involving interracial couples on college campuses has only focused on quantitative surveys. A sample size of 234 students from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo participated in a quantitative survey as well as 12 interracial couples that were separately interviewed. This data was used to gain insight on interracial couples’ experiences on campus. The data revealed that Cal Poly students felt interracial couples were generally supported on campus. However, the racial or ethnic …

“Se Van A Trabajar, Pero Se Quedan A Vivir”: A Qualitative Exploration Into The Subjective Well-Being Of Mexican Women In A Migrant-Sending Community, Vanessa Saldivar

Master's Theses

The study of subjective well-being and migration are two fields that have increased in prominence in recent decades. However, in the area where the two fields intersect, significant gaps exist. Meanwhile, the majority of research on migration ignores those who stay, resulting in an unbalanced and incomplete understanding of the phenomenon of migration. Using an ethnographic and life history approach, this study explores the subjective well-being of women residing in the migrant-sending community of Tlachichila. Narratives from semi-structured interviews and participant observation field notes were analyzed thematically and emergent themes were identified. Findings suggest that despite the hardship that underscores …

Money Matters: Exploring The Financial Resources For Sports Medicine Programs In Public And Private Secondary Schools--A Qualitative Study, Natalie Mercedes Aviles Flores

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Context: Institutional funding and strained school budgets are a barrier to placing certified athletic trainers (ATCs) in secondary schools. The size and location of a school appear to be coinciding limitations (Mazerolle et al, 2015), but what is lacking in the literature is an

evaluation of how schools manage to provide adequate medical coverage. Resources are available, but there is question as to whether these schools consider or even utilize them.

Objective: The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the funding techniques and budget sources of high school athletic training clinics from the perspective of both private and …

Understanding Biracial Women's Identity Formation, Tinesha Zandamela

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This qualitative study study seeks to identify themes and patterns concerning biracial women’s experiences in the U.S. It is intended to help expand what researchers currently know about what it means to be biracial in the U.S. If society at large has not dictated a script for multiracial persons because they are not even fully recognized as a racial group throughout the US, what can the experiences of these biracial women tell us about the current sociological theories of identity construction? Utilizing six interviews with half-black women and three sociological theories, this paper seeks to answer that question. Ultimately, this …

Envisioning A Future For Professional Counseling: A Qualitative Study Of Counselor Educator Perspectives On Professional Distinction, Michael Horst

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how counselor educators in Virginia define and describe Counseling as a distinct profession in light of the ACA’s 20/20 consensus definition. This research focused on directors and core faculty members (n=8) of eight separate counseling programs in Virginia. Participants engaged one 60-minute semistructured interview with the researcher. Member checking and bracketing were used to bolster the study’s trustworthiness. A priori coding using codes from the ACA’s 20/20 project (Kaplan, Tarvydas, & Gladding, 2014) and emergent coding processes were used separately to see if the data that emerged from the interviews mirrored …

Killing Martin County : Resiliency In A Central Appalachian Community., David Adam Sizemore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Environmental stressors, anything that poses a threat to human and environmental health, are disproportionately located in marginalized communities. Coal extraction companies produce and concentrate environmental stressors in Central Appalachia, a sub-region of Appalachia with high poverty rates and economic hardship. Through destructive coal extraction methods, the coal industry has jeopardized Central Appalachian health and environmental quality. The coal industry’s power to cause destruction in Central Appalachia is a product of historical strategic initiatives. Since the late 1800s, the coal industry has forcefully altered the culture and ideology of Central Appalachians and developed relationships with local, state, and federal policymakers to …

The Socialization Of Financial Giving: A Multigenerational Exploration, Ashley Brooks Lebaron

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has found that family socialization influences financial giving behaviors and that financial giving predicts personal wellbeing. However, little research since the early 1980s has explored this phenomenon, and virtually none of the research has been qualitative in nature. As part of the Whats and Hows of Family Financial $ocialization project, this study employs a diverse, multi-site, multigenerational sample (N = 115) to qualitatively explore the following research question: how do children learn about financial giving from their parents? In other words, how is financial giving transmitted across generations? From interviews of emerging adults and their parents and grandparents, …

The Digital Self: A Qualitative Approach To Studying Female College Students' Use Of Social-Networking Platforms, Megan Christine Gore

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to understand how female college students make use of social networks, specifically how they use the medium to connect with others. Researching socialnetworking use pertaining to the phenomenon of connection will give a richer understanding of female students’ lived experience of social networking. Many quantitative studies have been conducted about social networking, but more qualitative measures are needed to explore social networking. With the continuously changing social-networking platforms, there is little research that sheds light on social-networking use among female college students. My goal was to conduct a qualitative research study that examined female …

Workplace Bullying From A Nurses Perspective, Dawn Reid White

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Bullying has long been associated with school children. In recent years, however, more attention has been paid to the bullying that has reached beyond the playground and into the workforce. One population facing this problem is staff nurses. To date, no one has found an effective way to address workplace bullying in the healthcare field, nor have effective methods been found for retaining trained nurses affected by this problem. The focus of this dissertation was on understanding nurses' lived experiences and how nurses decided to remain in their current working position despite these problems. Taking a phenomenological approach and using …

Burnout In Social Work Case Managers In Urban Northeast Ohio, Daniel Claude Colegrove

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Burnout in case managers is a social problem affecting the field of social work. This research project explored the causes and effects of burnout on the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of social work practice. The research study focused on how social work case workers coped with stress in urban northeastern Ohio, and how case work managers addressed burnout. The Maslach multidimensional theory on burnout was applied to gain an understanding of the causes and effects of social work case manager burnout. The qualitative research study involved interviewing 8 Ohio social work case managers working in community mental health who …

Implications For Public Policy Regarding Gay Seniors Living In Suburban Florida, Brian Fuss

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In less than 20 years over 6 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals will be over 65 years old designated as seniors according to the Older Americans Act. When public policies for the aging population are implemented, LGBT individuals are forgotten, especially those living in nonmetropolitan areas. Using a purposeful convenience sample and a phenomenological approach 7 gay seniors residing in Florida suburban areas were interviewed to explore their lives as they age. Aging policies were investigated through the social construction of deservedness lens to ascertain individual political power while exploring (a) the challenges of living in suburban …

Perceptions Of Justice : Views Of Jailed Defendants On Procedural And Distributive Justice, Kirstin Anne Morgan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The current study examines defendant perceptions of their recent experiences in one of two criminal courts in an urban-suburban county. Forty-three interviews were conducted with jail sentenced participants, during which they were asked about the perceived fairness of the case process and outcomes, as well as their relationship with their defense attorney for the case. This study was undertaken to answer four research questions: 1) Are the concepts of procedural and distributive justice related from the defendant perspective? 2) Are perceptions of procedural justice related to satisfaction with case outcomes? 3) Are perceptions of procedural justice related to satisfaction with …

Personal Meanings Of Restricted And Repetitive Behaviors Among Midlife Adults With Asperger Syndrome, Leila Marie Shirley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) are some of the hallmark features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptomatology. There is a knowledge gap on RRBs in adults with ASD because most of the research has focused on children and adolescents. The few studies conducted on adults with ASD have included conflicting results and variable information, especially regarding the developmental trajectories of RRBs. Therefore, this study was designed to address the lived experiences of RRBs in midlife adults with Asperger syndrome. This study was guided by the conceptual frameworks of Dunn's model of sensory processing, the 2-factor model of RRBs, and phenomenological …

Strategies Hospitality Leaders Use To Reduce Employee Turnover, Borislav Perev

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover is a global problem with adverse effects on financial performance and sustainability of organizations. In the hospitality industry, employee turnover levels increased to 58.8%, and the associated cost of turnover may be more than 100% of an employee's yearly wage, with a total loss of over $25 billion a year. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies used by hospitality leaders in the southeastern United States to reduce employee turnover. The conceptual framework was the transformational leadership theory. Purposeful selection of participants included leaders with experience in developing and implementing strategies for reducing employee …

Individual Growth Through Forgiveness: A Multiple Case Study On The Process Of Forgiveness, Bianca Kazoun

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Psychology researchers have been gathering information regarding the positive effects of forgiveness, demonstrating that they contribute to better overall physical and emotional wellbeing. Individuals who have suffered a transgression can remain in a place of destructive anger and resentment for years. Long-term, these negative states can have deleterious effects emotionally, physically, and socially. Understanding how to help those who are suffering move past their victimization can have a positive impact. It is therefore important to conduct research to better understand forgiveness through the lived experience of individuals who have experienced some form of victimization. Using evolutionary psychology as the theoretical …

A Phenomenological Analysis Of Formerly Incarcerated Women's Perceptions Of Successful Reentry, Angela Martilik

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Female offenders are distinctly different from male offenders, and present with their own gender-specific needs and issues both in and out of the correctional setting. Most approaches to treatment and programming for female offenders are currently based on research involving males and approaches designed for males. Inquiry regarding the gender-specific needs of female inmates as they pertain to treatment and reentry programs is necessary so professionals can better understand how to serve this population. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 8 women who were formerly incarcerated in the United States, this phenomenological study was used to examine the perceptions of successful …

Caregiver Experiences Of A Therapeutic Nursery Program : An Exploratory Study, Jaimie Tyler

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory study was to increase our understanding of caregiver experiences whose children use the services of early-intervention programs. The primary value of this study is a better understanding of caregiver perceptions of program aims (how they understand the program), program impact (what they feel or believe it has done/ is doing for them), and program relationships (how they view their family’s relationships with staff). The goal was to add to the limited body of literature on the therapeutic nursery programs by seeking to better understand overall caregiver perceptions and experiences of one such program located …

Exploring The Social Construction Of Masculinity And Its Differential Expression In Culturally Different Populations Using A Mixed Method Approach, Bryan Davis

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Previous research on gender conflict and strain quantitatively measured traditional masculinity ideology from western societal norms. The current study added to the previous research and qualitatively studied masculinity performance in men from different cultures: Black, Asian, Latino. Results from this study added to masculinity research due to the mixed method approach of both quantitative and qualitative research in males from diverse groups. Information gained from this study enabled masculinity to be operationally defined by different cultural focus groups and compared in order to explore distinct masculinity expression. Information was gained by measuring traditional masculinity ideology quantitatively on the Male Role …

Attending To The Needs Of Inuit Inmates In Canada: Exploring The Perceptions Of Correctional Officers And Nunavut Officials, Kosta H. Barka

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

On March 10, 2015, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada released a performance audit concluding that the Nunavut Department of Justice did not adequately plan for and operate facilities to house inmates and did not adequately manage inmates in compliance with key rehabilitation and reintegration requirements. Given the room for improvement and my prior experience working with Nunavut Corrections, I embarked on a qualitative research project that sought to interview inmates in Nunavut Corrections about their perceptions of rehabilitation programs offered in Makigiarvik Healing Facility. Although university ethics approval was received for the research, I encountered resistance when …