Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Critical Look Through The Eyes Of Youth : A Study Examining High School Student Experiences Of Disrespect From Teachers In Relation To Race And Anxiety And Depression, Annika L. Marques Yokum

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study examined high school students’ experiences of perceived disrespect enacted by a teacher. The study was grounded in a critical race theory approach that informed data collection and results. Quantitative and qualitative reports were evaluated to determine possible relations between race, non-clinical reports of anxiety and depression and teacher-disrespect in high school. Participants were recruited from East Coast and West Coast regions and included current high school students and emerging adults creating a final sample size of 20 participants. Findings revealed that most participants discussed racial microaggressions when asked about disrespect and experienced significant symptoms of anxiety and depression …

Patient Perspectives On Mental Health Therapy For Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (Me) And Chronic Fatique Syndrome (Cfs), Brooke Denmark

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study explored perspectives on mental health therapy of individuals with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and/or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). ME/CFS can lead to major reduction in quality of life; however, due to limited knowledge about etiologies or effective medical treatments, symptoms may be deemed psychosomatic and patients are referred to mental health treatment. This mixed methods study gathered responses from 169 individuals who identified as having ME, CFS, and/or ME/CFS from ten reported countries. Some of the common themes for what participants found most helpful from therapy were validation, help adjusting to the changes in their lives, and processing grief …

Social Climate In Social Work Training : The Influence Of The Learning Environment On The Emerging Social Worker's Professional Identity As An Agent Of Social Justice, Tatiana MartíNez

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

In Master of Social Work programs, one of the objectives of the field practicum is the development of a professional self. A field placement agency may encourage, discourage, and/or limit the student’s ability to implement social justice interventions in their work with clients which may impact their development of a professional identity as it relates to social justice. In this exploratory study, qualitative data was obtained through eight semi-structured interviews. The findings confirm that the social climate of a field placement agency influences the student’s ability to develop aspects of their professional identity dedicated to engaging in social action activities. …

"A Whole Lot Of Conscious Effort" : Exploring How Protective Factors Contribute To Resiliency In Parents Who Have Experienced Traumatic Events In Childhood, Annelies J. Spykman

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

The purpose of this research project is to address the multiple variables that contribute to trauma exposure in childhood and how it manifests in the traumatized person’s later parenting styles. The over-arching research question is: do protective factors provide sufficient supports to parents who were subjected to traumatic experiences in childhood in order to lessen the transmission of trauma to their own children? This qualitative study is an assessment of interviews with 18 participants who identify as parents who have experienced at least one traumatic event in childhood. Findings of this study implicate a high level of resilience that has …

Patients' Perceptions Of Stressors In The Intensive Care Unit : A Meta-Analysis, Nancy Sohier Welch

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study reveals what intensive care unit (ICU) patients from different countries consider most stressful about the ICU experience. A review of 16 independent studies on patients’ perceptions of ICU stressors yielded 10 data sets from seven countries that met criteria for inclusion in a meta-analysis. Stressors were categorized according to three types – bodily, psychological, and physical environmental – and were selected for comparison based on their frequent appearance among the top 20 stressors in each study selected. Findings showed considerable agreement between studies. Being in pain, Having tubes in the nose and mouth, and Being thirsty were …

The Problem Of Evidence : Philosophy Of Science And Evidence Based Practice In Clinical Social Work, Bronwyn DepréS

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

Evidence Based Practice is one of the most prevalent concepts in social work today, guiding social workers across the world. This theoretical thesis examines Evidence Based Practice, its theoretic foundations, and its application in social work, using the theories of Logical Positivism and Critical Rationalism from Philosophy of Science. Philosophy of Science is a branch in Philosophy that studies and theorizes about precisely what science is, how science works, the implications of science, and the logic behind it. This thesis argues that Logical Positivism is the scientific foundation that Evidence Based Practice rests on, and uses Critical rationalism to dispute …

Limiting Food Waste In Child Care Facilities Through Implementation Of Portion Sizes, Margaret E. Wright, Kelly A. Way

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Food waste in child care facilities is both a monetary waste and a danger to the environment. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of portion control in a child care facility on the amount of food wasted and the costs associated with food waste. It was hypothesized that establishment of portion control will result in a reduction in the amount of food waste of lunches and afternoon snacks generated by preschool children attending the University of Arkansas Bumpers College Jean Tyson Child Development Study Center (JTCDSC). A four-week study was conducted where two trials were introduced: …

Video Based Intervention And Backward Chaining: Teaching Children With Autism, Philip Ross Richard

LSU Master's Theses

As we move further and further into the digital age, interventions that make use of advances in technology will become increasingly relevant. One example of the application of technology is Video Based Interventions (VBI). VBIs include interventions that utilize pre-recorded video footage to assist acquisition of functional life skills, social and play skills, and adaptive behaviors, among others (Rayner, Denholm, & Sigafoos, 2009). Due to the breadth of the term, there are many different types of VBIs that have been examined in research and practice. This study examined one type of VBI, video prompting, and its effectiveness when combined with …

A Comparative Study Of The Effects Of River Flow Rates On Decomposition, Maddisen Paige Neuman

LSU Master's Theses

While the general biological processes of decomposition are known to forensic anthropologists, data on aquatic decomposition is in need of refinement. Water composition varies in mineral content, temperature, flow rate, and scavengers; each of these elements can have an effect on the rate of decomposition. This study specifically focuses on the effects of river flow rates on decomposition by comparing the rate of decay of three feral pigs (Sus scrofa) on land (control specimen), in faster flowing water, and in slower flowing water. The hypothesis states that the pig placed in the faster section of the river will decompose more …

Developmental Functioning Of Infants And Toddlers With Autism And Cerebral Palsy, Xinrui Jiang

LSU Master's Theses

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often have one or more comorbid medical conditions including cerebral palsy (CP). Due to the overlaps between ASD and CP symptomatology (e.g., impairments in speech, repetitive movements, atypical sensory issues), co-occurring CP often leads to delayed diagnoses of ASD interfering with early interventions and subsequently affecting functional outcome. Utilizing the Baby and Infant Screen for Children with aUtIsm Traits-Part 1 (BISCUIT-Part 1) and the Battelle Developmental Inventory, Second Edition (BDI-2), this study assessed and compared ASD symptomatology and developmental functioning in three groups of infants and toddlers, namely, those with ASD only, those with …

Language Use In Forensic Settings, Emily Faith Wiegers

LSU Master's Theses

Understanding what constitutes proper communication is an important component of interaction for forensic science professionals. Using concepts from linguistic anthropology, this thesis recognizes patterns of discourse and register among individuals working within a forensic setting. Data collected from a survey distributed to members of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and from interviews with forensic professionals working in the state of Louisiana were used to analyze individual perceptions of language use in professional settings. Results show that variation among individuals within the forensic disciplines affects speech. Other determinants of proper speech include audience and the space within which the communication …

Crime Analysis In The City Of Baton Rouge And Brec Park Based On Crime Location Quotient And Hotspot Method, Anliu Jiang

LSU Master's Theses

City parks provide intrinsic environmental, aesthetic, and recreation benefits to our cities and their inhabitants. Some researchers indicate that City parks serve as places of reduced crime and actually increase the safety of the surrounding area. Other researchers claim that city parks have been seen as contested space. The purpose of this thesis research is to study the relationship between parks and crime or comparing crime types between parks and their cities. First, this thesis research address the difference between crimes in city parks compared to crimes in the entire city. The second research question addresses the impact that parks …

Disclosing The Truth About Instagram Endorsers: A Study Of The Effects Of The Use Of Material-Connection Disclosures On Instagram And Types Of Endorsers On Advertising Identification And Consumer Response, Lauren Francis Myers

LSU Master's Theses

This experiment studies the effects of the Federal Trade Commission’s material-connection disclosure requirement as it applies to Instagram, as well as consumer responses to the types of endorsers that advertise a product on their Instagram profiles. In this experiment, participants viewed the Instagram profiles of a social-media endorser or celebrity, followed by an Instagram posting of a product with or without a material-connection disclosure. Participants then answered a survey with questions referring to advertising identification, source credibility, message credibility, brand attitude, and purchase intentions. Results suggest that there are no significant effects of material-connection disclosures on the identification of a …

Feasting In Florida: Evidence Of Swift Creek Ceremonial Feasting And Multi-Group Interactions At Byrd Hammock South (8wa30), Wakulla County, Fl, Joseph Michael O'Keefe

LSU Master's Theses

During the LSU 2015 Summer Field School at the Byrd Hammock South site (8WA30) in Wakulla County, Florida, excavations uncovered a large stratified pit-fill feature (Length 78 cm x Width 65 cm x Depth 136 cm) associated with the Early Swift Creek culture (A.D. 0 – 500). The Swift Creek have been generally identified as a transegalitarian society, and are believed to have participated in the phenomenon known as the Hopewell Interaction Sphere. The feature, Feature 1 (F1), was located approximately 60 meters south of Burial Mound B on the western edge of a semi-circular midden that surrounded a clean …

Sociodemographic, Health, Health-Related, Health Risk, Psychosocial, And Treatment-Related Characteristics Associated With Retention Among Community Mental Health Clients In An Integrated Health Program, Katherine Anne Thomas

LSU Master's Theses

Individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) have higher rates cardiometabolic conditions than the general population, which put them at increased risk for early mortality. Treatment retention is especially important as it may prevent worsening of mental and physical health symptoms and lower such risks. Models of integrated primary and behavioral health care (PBHC) are promising for treating co-morbid mental and physical health conditions common to individuals with SMI. Previous research identified that individuals with SMI drop out of care at higher rates than other individuals with mental illness. Past studies on treatment retention with this population have been qualitative and …

Unlikely Allies: A Case Study On Cross Class Protest In Guatemala, Daniel B. Bollich

LSU Master's Theses

Cross-class mobilization in developing countries can be a powerful force for precipitating political change, but the literature on cross-class protest movements in developing countries has focused almost exclusively on democratization movements and has not dealt adequately with cross-class protest in other contexts. Additionally, the literature on protest movements typically focuses on the lower classes, while the upper classes are either ignored or assumed to be one-dimensional, uniform, self-interested actors who only protest when it is in their own best economic and political interest. These deficiencies in the literature have been illuminated by the massive protests that occurred in Guatemala in …

In-Group Effects Of News Use On African Americans, Folasade A'Lyce Adesanya

LSU Master's Theses

The topic of this thesis is how frequent news exposure affects the Black community’s perceptions of the world and trust in institutions. The purpose of this thesis is to uncover whether African Americans with more news exposure are more likely to view the world with skepticism and fear when compared to those with less news exposure. My hypotheses predicted that African Americans who have had frequent exposure to news will perceive the world as a meaner and scarier place (H1), will exhibit less trust in police officers (H2), and will exhibit less trust in news media (H3) than those who …

Composting The Garden: Hybrid Geographies Of Baton Rouge Urban Gardens, Lauren Hull

LSU Master's Theses

Home gardens are intimate spaces of interaction between humans and the natural world. This study examines how relations and practices within gardens both perpetuate and disrupt perspectives on human separateness from nature. Nine Baton Rouge gardeners participated in this study, sharing stories about their lives and garden through interviews and garden walk-throughs. By adopting more-than-human social theory, this study explores these stories to answer three questions: (1) What types of relationships are found between garden inhabitants in Baton Rouge? (2) How do these relationships influence garden practices? And (3) How do relationships and practices create hybrid garden spaces? Garden inhabitants …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Seizures And Autism Symptomology In Young Children, Claire O. Burns

LSU Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a condition that consists of deficits in social communication as well as restricted, repetitive interests or behaviors. Individuals with ASD also often have comorbid psychiatric and medical disorders. One such concern is high rates of seizures and epilepsy. Researchers have found that rates of seizures tend to be higher in individuals with ASD who also have more impaired functioning. However, few studies have examined how the presence of seizures is related to symptoms of ASD. The current study aimed to expand the extant literature by investigating whether a history of seizures is associated with ASD …

Ancient Maya Obsidian Trade: Arvin's Landing And Foster Farm, Belize, Kelsey Paige Johnson

LSU Master's Theses

Arvin’s Landing and Foster Farm are ancient Maya settlements located on Joe Taylor Creek near Punta Gorda in southern Belize. The abundance of obsidian and the number of sources in the artifact assemblage at Arvin’s Landing and Foster Farm indicate the inhabitants of these settlement participated in long-distance trade with other Maya communities. The research was developed to examine the different geographic sources of obsidian as well as the distribution of these sources at both sites. The goal of this research is to determine whether these sites fit with existing trade patterns established by previous research over decades of obsidian …

Pots, Pans, And Politics: Feasting In Early Horizon Nepeña, Peru, Kenneth Edward Sutherland

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis explores Early Horizon (900 – 200 BCE) feasting practices visible through the pottery assemblage at three archaeological complexes in the lower Nepeña Valley, north-central coast of Peru. Ceramic vessels were used for production, transportation, and storage of foods consumed for daily subsistence and during feasting events at the settlement of Caylán, a large town or city interpreted as the primary center of a multi-tiered polity. Secondary settlements at Samanco, a small coastal town, and Huambacho, an elite ceremonial center, indicate the complexity of this polity. Analysis of ceramic rim sherds reveals the types of vessels used at these …

Non-Metric Cranial Differentiation Between Asian And Native American Populations For Ancestry Assessment, Dominique Marie Bodoh

LSU Master's Theses

Assessing ancestry from skeletal remains provides important information to aid in personal identification. However, trying to specify ancestry for Native American and Asian populations in the United States is a current challenge in laboratory analyses. Both Native American and Asian populations are still often combined in research for a variety of reasons: small sample sizes, skeletal similarities and less emphasis in contemporary literature. Historically, Carlton Coon, in 1939, and Riesenfield, in 1956, refer to this combination of both Native American and Asian populations as “Mongoloid,” a term which is deemed by many as an offensive and inaccurate categorization of both …

National Electoral Winners And Losers: Satisfaction With Democracy Predicated On Institutional Context, Casey Newman Knott

LSU Master's Theses

How does being an electoral winner or loser shape a citizen’s satisfaction with democracy? More importantly, how does the voter’s institutional context moderate this relationship? In this paper, I demonstrate that the institutional context of a democracy interacts with a citizen’s national- level electoral loser status to moderate the relationship between the individual’s status as a loser and her satisfaction with democracy in her country. I also explore the way winning and losing at different levels of representation interact to formulate satisfaction with democracy. Using cross-sectional survey data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems nested in 75 different country-election …

Love-Bombing: A Narcissistic Approach To Relationship Formation, Claire C. Strutzenberg, Jacquelyn D. Wiersma-Mosley, Kristen N. Jozkowski, Jennifer N. Becnel

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

The current study examined the relationship between attachment style, self-esteem, and narcissism as they pertain to behavioral tendencies, termed love-bombing behaviors, among a sample of young adult millennials. Love-bombing was identified as the presence of excessive communication at the beginning of a romantic relationship in order to obtain power and control over another’s life as a means of narcissistic self-enhancement. Millennials have shown a drastic increase in narcissism compared to generations prior, and the need for psychological services on college campuses has also increased. This study sought to establish empirical evidence for the presence of love-bombing behaviors amongst millennials as …

[Social Work] Newsletter, 2017, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Social Work.

Social Work Newsletter

Inside This Issue:
--2017 Year In Review
--Professor Spotlights
--Professor Highlights
--Alumni Highlights
--Student Highlights
--Student Services
--Awards Ceremony
--In the Field
--Agency Highlights

Designing Urban Policy For A Thriving New Jersey • New Jersey Urban Mayors Association Addresses Policy Priorities, Thomas Edison State University, Evan Weiss, New Jersey Urban Mayors Association

Urban Mayors Policy Center

Cities are the Solution, Not the Problem:

While decades of suburban development might suggest otherwise, New Jersey is at its core an urban state. It is dense, covered by one of the largest transit networks in the country and incredibly diverse. Every region of the state has great livable cities, with small, midsized and large cities all represented — most states are lucky to have just a handful. But, for decades, new jersey cities have too often been portrayed as problems that need to be fixed. As the economic and lifestyle preferences of future generations shift back toward cities and …

Many Hats, One Head: Considering Professional Identity In Academic Library Directorship, Maura A. Smale

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

A Major Renovation And Addition -- The Wolf Law Library, College Of William & Mary, Stephen G. Margeton, James S. Heller

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Understanding Math Anxiety In Children: Deciphering The Contribution Of Math Achievement, Working Memory, And General Anxiety, Emma Kate C. Wright

Theses and Dissertations

Children with learning disabilities frequently have comorbid anxiety, with some experiencing Math Anxiety (MA). Presently, research on MA in children with a math learning disability (MLD) is limited, and there are no childhood electroencephalography (EEG) studies of MA exploring the neurobiological basis of MA. The current study sought (1) to examine the relationship between MA and math achievement, working memory (WM), and EEG variables; (2) to clarify the distinction between MA and MLD by controlling for GAD; and (3) to examine if WM mediates the relationship between MA and math achievement. The study included 30 children with MLD and 29 …

Experiences Of First Generation College Students, Eleanor Grace Stulting Bradley

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

The fact that a significant number of first-generation students drop out of college within the first year speaks to the unique struggle that these students face. Although previous studies have looked at this phenomenon, not many have purposefully explored the experiences of the students themselves. This study sought to change that by interviewing 12 first-generation students on their experiences of college and what they believe has helped them to thrive. Several themes emerged throughout the study, including: 1) the idea of shared experiences and peer contact providing a sense of understanding as well as community; and 2) the idea of …