Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Mental Health Epidemic: The Case For Mental Health Programs On College Campuses And How To Increase Awareness, Connor Deason

Senior Theses

This senior thesis project focused on the problem of mental health on college campuses. Specific interest was placed on students at the University of South Carolina. In the end, the goal was to create a product that could be used by the Counseling and Human Development Center to help increase the use of student mental health services and reduce levels of stigma surrounding mental health problems. In talking with staff members of the Counseling and Human Development Center, staff members shared a desire for a video that would advertise the services of the Counseling Center. Thus, the true purpose of …

Early Life Rainfall And Later Life Human Capital Outcomes In Bangladesh, Thomas Dreesen

Master's Theses

How does early life rainfall impact later life human capital outcomes in Bangladesh? This paper examines the effect of exogenous rainfall shocks that occur during individuals early-life on later life health, wealth and education outcomes of Bangladeshi women born between 1952-1988. I link historical rainfall for each woman’s birth year and Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) cluster of birth with current outcomes from the 1999/2000, 2004 and 2007 survey rounds of the DHS. This study finds that rural women with 20% higher than mean rainfall in their year and cluster of birth are on average 0.24 cm taller and score …

A Longitudinal View Of Primate Life In Two American Laboratories, Jonathan Balcombe

Experimentation Collection

If representative of other facilities, our findings uncover serious welfare concerns for the wellbeing of primates kept in American research facilities. These animals face regular or chronic sources of pain and distress including noxious experimental and non‐experimental events and illness and injury; and severe and prolonged social disruptions. Pain relief is meager by comparison to that normally provided to humans, despite legislative requirements to minimize pain and distress and assume similarity to humans in terms of ability to experience pain and distress. Living environments are usually confinement indoors to a metal cage, often alone, and often with a minimum of …

Fearless Friday: Chelsea Broe, Chelsea E. Broe

SURGE

Consistently speaking up for social justice issues around campus, finding innovative ways to promote peer understanding, and making our campus a more welcoming, accepting, and open place, Chelsea Broe ’14 is a fearless leader who advocates for others.

Examining Effects Of Anticipated Stigma, Centrality, Salience, Internalization, And Outness On Psychological Distress For People With Concealable Stigmatized Identities, Diane M. Quinn, Michelle K. Williams, Francisco Quintana, Jennifer L. Gaskins, Alefiyah Pishori, Giselle Perez Lougee

Open Access Author Fund Awardees' Articles

Understanding how stigmatized identities contribute to increased rates of depression and anxiety is critical to stigma reduction and mental health treatment. There has been little research testing multiple aspects of stigmatized identities simultaneously. In the current study, we collected data from a diverse, urban, adult community sample of people with a concealed stigmatized identity (CSI). We targeted 5 specific CSIs – mental illness, substance abuse, experience of domestic violence, experience of sexual assault, and experience of childhood abuse – that have been shown to put people at risk for increased psychological distress. We collected measures of the anticipation of being …

Assessing The Potential Impact Of The Affordable Care Act On Uninsured Community Health Center Patients: An Update, Peter Shin, Jessica Sharac, Sara J. Rosenbaum

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

No abstract provided.

Engaged Citizenship: A Longitudinal Study Of Student Engagement And Early Adulthood, Jennifer Rau

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Higher education has been called upon to validate its contribution to society. With its purpose of the public good, higher education must to show its ability to benefit individuals and society beyond graduation rates and employment statistics. Preparing students to be engaged citizens is critical in continuing to improve society and our communities. Recent initiatives, including the American Democracy Project of the AASC&U and Campus Compact (2010) have focused on encouraging and teaching undergraduates to be engaged citizens. It is important to assess student engagement, participation in educational activities and experiences during college, as it relates to an individual becoming …

Influence Of Entrepreneurship Education On Entrepreneurship Development In Post-Secondary Education, Kenneth Newbold

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Entrepreneurship education programs have expanded across post-secondary education in the past thirty years, leading to an increased need to further understand the impact entrepreneurship education has along the construct of entrepreneurship development. Three related studies comprise this research and were conducted to investigate the effect entrepreneurship education has on entrepreneurship development. Students, existing entrepreneurs, and alumni were surveyed in these three studies to compare differences between participants and non-participants in educational experiences. The present research builds upon the existing body of knowledge and seeks to provide research and psychometric contributions to the field by studying specific educational interventions and modifying …

Combating Occupational Apartheid Plaguing Internationally Trained Professionals: A Mixed Methods Description Of Activist Entrepreneurship In Cross-Sector Partnerships, Stephen Wayne Lambert

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Individuals that were born in a foreign country, have a bachelor’s degree or higher from a foreign post-secondary education institution, and are not working at their full level of expertise, are referred to more concisely as “internationally trained professionals” (ITPs). Social workers have called becoming informed about immigrants’ integration needs a new frontier of social service and professional development. All fields of human services will benefit from any data resulting from descriptive exploration of the ITP integration issue. The bounded system that serves for this case study is the current limited response to the ITP issue seen in Virginia, USA. …

Predictive Modeling Of Alumni Donors: An Engagement Model For Fundraising In Postsecondary Education, Nicholas Rau

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Postsecondary education institutions only have a limited amount of time and resources to direct at acquiring new donors for private funding and support. More research is needed to better understand why an individual chooses to give, and to utilize that understanding to create an improved, more informed practice of donor acquisition. By using the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), student engagement and alumni activity are explored as possible determinants in predicting donors. Further testing of this predictive model via utilizing a telefund calling center to solicit individuals allows for testing of differential scripts when speaking with alumni. This study …

Lessons Learned From The Bosnian Conflict, Ahmed Saeed

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Utilizing the propositional inventory method, this thesis compares the propositions of various U.S. Government agencies, under the Clinton Administration, and the propositions of Richard Holbrooke, chief negotiator and architect of the Dayton Accords, regarding the Bosnian conflict. Recently, the CIA and the Clinton Presidential Library declassified numerous documents from various government agencies concerning the Balkan Crisis and this thesis focuses its scope on the Bosnian conflict that took place in the time period from 1992 through the Dayton Accords in 1995. By analyzing the differing propositions in contrast to the historical events, it was possible to assess the accuracy of …

Elevator Pitch: Open Access Talking Points, Andrée Rathemacher

Technical Services Faculty Presentations

Speaking notes and discussion questions for a facilitated networking session, "Elevator Pitch: Open Access Talking Points." The speaking notes outline the argument that "an Open Access future is inevitable," and the questions are geared to encouraging discussion among librarians about their roles in relation to Open Access.

The networking session was sponsored by the Special Interest Groups of the ACRL New England Chapter and was held during the ACRL/NEC Spring 2014 Conference, We’re All in This Together: Strengthening Librarians through Professional Development. The session took place on May 9, 2014 at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, …

Producing Population Health: Collective Action Requires Infrastructure, Incentives & Evidence, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Population health improvement strategies are collective action problems that require targeted infrastructure, incentives, and information to succeed. Research on collective action problems and solutions in public health and other spheres of practice offer insight for the successful scale and spread of population health innovations.

Forecasting Corn And Soybean Yields With Crop Conditions, Nicholas Jorgensen, Matthew Diersen

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

Crime In Game Theoretic Models: An Exploration Of The Rational Criminal In A Variety Of Frameworks, Benjamin A. Chalmers

Student Scholarship

There is as much contention over the cause of crime as there is about how to solve it, and the two issues are inextricable from one another. While the idea of studying such a deeply social and humanistic issue through the ‘cold lens’ of mathematics may seem unorthodox or even unproductive to the layperson, the practice has become commonplace since Gary Becker’s introduction of the ‘rational criminal’ model in his paper Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach in 1968. The rational criminal model is a method of explaining the actions of a criminal not by attributing them to an inherent …

The Writing Is On The Wall: Using Padlet For Whole-Class Engagement, Beth Fuchs

Library Presentations

Peer learning and class participation are essential components of the active learning classroom, so what can you do to promote full student engagement with your tried-and-true activities in a once-and-done information literacy session? Take them to the wall! Padlet (www.padlet.com) provides a free, multimedia-friendly wall which can be used to encourage real-time, whole-class participation and assessment. No special equipment or technical know-how required. Find out how one librarian has used Padlet to help students create memorable, collaborative artifacts of classroom learning experiences. This is student engagement as scholarly graffiti. Banksy, watch out!

PARTICIPANTS WILL:

• Be able to contribute to a …

Exploring The Factors That Influence And Motivate Female Students To Enroll And Persist In Collegiate Stem Degree Programs: A Mixed Methods Study, Rosemary L. Edzie

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nationally, the need for an increase in interest, enrollment, and degrees awarded from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degree programs continues to suffer. While students are enrolling in collegiate STEM degree programs, it is not occurring at a rate that meets the workforce demand. In addition to the concern that there is not a sufficient amount of collegiate STEM majors, there is a concern over too few females enrolling and persisting in collegiate STEM degree programs.

This mixed methods sequential exploratory research study considered the factors that influence and motivate undergraduate female students to enroll and persist in collegiate …

Identifying Determinants Of Migration For Alumni Of The Nebraska Human Resources Institute, Jack Ehrke

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Many Midwestern and Nebraska communities are experiencing a net out-migration of citizens, with a particular decline among college graduates. As older generations begin to retire in the next few decades, many management occupations will be transferred to a younger generation, making it vital to retain young leaders in Nebraska communities. The current study focuses on young adult leaders who would be perhaps prime candidates to fill this impending leadership void. One hundred nineteen alumni of the Nebraska Human Resources Institute (NHRI), a leadership mentoring program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who graduated college between 2007-2014 rated various migration, community, and …

The Effects Of Having Teachers Implement Teacher Child Interaction Training On Language And Communication Development, Chelsea Ann Rainear

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Prevention and intervention programs for language and communication skills are important, and should be implemented early to gain the maximum benefits. There is evidence that verbal modeling and adult verbal imitation of children may enhance these skills. Teacher training programs have been shown to be effective in modifying students’ behaviors. Speech and language are also forms of behavior, thus the same principles should apply to coaching teachers how to modify verbal behavior to improve their communication skills. McIntosh, Rizza, and Bliss (2000) discussed a need for empirically supported treatments in schools and a need for treatment manuals in order to …

Training Graduate Clinicians To Implement Speech Language Pathology, Occupational Therapy And Applied Behavior Analysis Goals In Their Treatment Sessions, Heather B. White

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Past literature indicates an interest in collaborative treatment for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and names several therapeutic interventions. Effective treatments include Occupational Therapy, Speech Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis. All three fields value best practice and, with differing perceptions and emphasizes, translate evidence into clinical practice. The current investigation used scientific literature and interdisciplinary collaboration to train graduate students from each field to integrate techniques from the other two fields into their own, supervised treatment sessions. Training was introduced serially across participants in a concurrent multiple baseline design. Instruction, rehearsal, modeling and feedback were used in training. …

How Do We Conceptualize Depression?: A Mixed Methods Study, Mariafé Taeví Panizo

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Despite being extensively discussed, the concepts of mental disorder in general and depression in particular remain unclear and no consensual definitions are yet established. Empirical research on how professionals and laypeople think about depression also points to tensions and lack of consensus. However, there still remains much work to be done in order to more effectively and clearly elucidate how depression is conceptualized. Specifically, there has not been an in-depth analysis of the beliefs, values, and justification that guide practitioners in their everyday work regarding mental disorders in general and depression in particular. The purpose of the current mixed methods …

Assessing Ethical Reasoning Skills: Initial Validity Evidence For The Ethical Reasoning Identification Test, Kristen Lynn Smith

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Employers, policymakers, parents and other stakeholders value ethical reasoning (ER) skills. Thus, to help students actively engage in the ER process, stakeholders at James Madison University (JMU) redefined ER, implemented campus-wide ER interventions, and created the Ethical Reasoning Identification Test (ERIT-1) to measure students’ ability to engage in a lower-level step of the ER process. The current study examined the factor structure and reliability of the ERIT-1. Confirmatory Factor Analysis results provided support for a unidimensional factor structure, meaning stakeholders can report and analyze total scores for the ERIT-1. ERIT-1 scores also demonstrated good reliability. Correlation analyses provided initial external …

Using Microsoft Powerpoint© To Conduct A Paired Stimulus Preference Assessment, Andrew M. Tiry

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

There are two categories of preference assessments, indirect (e.g., student and teacher surveys) and direct (e.g., multiple stimulus, multiple stimulus without replacement, paired stimulus and single stimulus) preference assessments. Although indirect assessments are less time consuming, direct assessment methods are better predictors of both preference and reinforcing value. While there is a growing body of research demonstrating the advantages of direct preference assessments, little has been done to incorporate technology efficiently into the preference assessment process. The present study proposed the use of PowerPoint© as a way of use efficiently use technology in the preference assessment process. To validate the …

Towards Construct Validity: Investigating The Structure Of The Mental Toughness In Sport Questionnaire (Mtsq-32), Kelly Jane Foelber

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

In effort to gather construct validity evidence for a new measure of mental toughness, the Mental Toughness in Sport Questionnaire (MTSQ-32), confirmatory factor analyses were performed to examine the plausibility of competing theoretical models. This was done in accordance with Benson's (1998) strong program of construct validity. Four primary models were tested: a unidimensional model, a five-factor model based upon social-cognitive personality theory, a five-factor model based upon the commonly identified attributes of mental toughness, and a 10-factor multidimensional model combining the two five-factor models. Further models were tested that expanded upon the four former by including a reverse coding …

Auditory Masking In Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat: An Examination Of The Continuum Of Impulsivity, John Joseph O'Malley

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Signal detection theory can measure impulsive behavior. To further examine this paradigm, the researcher attempted to replicate previous findings with more experimental control and examine impulsive behaviors in a putative model of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat. Four strains of rats attempted to discriminate between the presence and absences of a 3 kHz tone within a 5-6 kHz masker; however, only one rat reached stabilization. To aid in training and reduce difficulty of the task, the researcher presented the rat wit forced-choice trials. Although the additional training increased their variability of correct responses, rats were unable to reach …

Effect Of Temporal Parameters On The Perception Of Foreign Accent In Synthesized Speech, Ashley Assgari

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Previous research investigating the parameters that affect accent have concentrated mainly on talker characteristics (e.g Flege, 1988). Those studies that do attempt to investigate acoustic parameters rely on post-hoc analysis of signals already judged to be accented. Any acoustic differences between these signals are said to be the basis of accent judgments. The current investigation attempts to rectify this methodological flaw by manipulating acoustic parameter previously implicated in perceived foreign accent within synthesized speech. In a two experiment study we investigate the effect of consonant duration and consonant initial frequency (Experiment 1) along with voice onset time, vowel duration and …

Investigating The Discrepancies Between Student Perceptions And Faculty Expectations Of Graduate-Level Statistics Preparation, Devon Hopkins Whetstone

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This study investigated the discrepancies between students’ perceived preparation for graduate-level study in statistics and faculty expected levels of preparation for incoming graduate students. Two 25-item surveys on a 6 point Likert scale were developed and administered to a faculty sample and a student sample for comparison. Overall results showed that students’ perceived level of preparation were equal to faculty expected levels of preparation with respect to statistical knowledge. That is, both groups endorsed the middle of the scale indicating that students generally felt somewhat prepared for graduate-level statistics and faculty generally expected students to feel somewhat prepared for their …

The Effects Of Chronic, Partial Sleep Deprivation On Risk-Taking Behavior In Rats, Ashley Marie Shemery

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The effects of sleep deprivation on risk-taking behavior have been minimally investigated, observing only the effects of total sleep deprivation in human models. Additionally, the research has shown mixed results. In a chronically sleep deprived society where many people (e.g. military, medical doctors) require rapid decision making to ensure the safety and welfare of others, it is of interest to investigate the effects of chronic partial sleep deprivation on risk-taking behavior in a rodent model. The current study examined the effects of 5 days of partial sleep deprivation on risk-taking behavior in Wistar Han rats as measured by the Rodent …

Merge Of Behavior Analysis Procedures Into A Speech-Language Pathology Autism Clinic, Elizabeth Simons

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This study developed applied behavior analysis skills in a different discipline through training and coaching speech-language pathology graduate students providing therapy services in a program for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Two graduate students in applied behavior analysis trained 9 graduate students in speechlanguage pathology in 3 concepts: function of behavior, positive reinforcement and differential reinforcement. These trainings occurred within the framework of a systematic multiple baseline design. After training, each participant received bug-in-theear coaching on the use of positive reinforcement daily for 5 days during therapy delivery. At the end of each day therapists developed a list of …

Self-Reported Practices Of And Attitudes Toward Reading Among Elementary-Aged English Language Learners, Sarah M. Akers

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of self-reported attitudes toward and practices of at-home reading on English reading abilities in English Language Learners in 3rd through 5th grade. Students' English reading abilities were measured in terms of fluency, vocabulary/background knowledge, and comprehension. Scores from the school district's reading benchmarks and English language mastery test were also obtained. Attitudes toward both academic and recreational reading were assessed, and a survey was administered to obtain information regarding students' self-reported at-home practices of reading and access to reading materials. Data was collected in early spring and again in late …