Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Scholarly Communications Newsletter, Georgia Southern University

Library Publications (1999-2023)

• Upcoming Workshops for Faculty and Graduate Students September Theme: Plan and Propose Your Research

• Data Management Planning for Research & Grant Funding

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• Library Resources & Tools

• Updates from ICPSR

Esg And Corporate Financial Performance: Empirical Evidence From China's Listed Power Generation Companies, Changhong Zhao, Yu Guo, Jiahai Yuan, Mengya Wu, Daiyu Li, Yiou Zhou, Jiangang Kang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Nowadays, listed companies around the world are shifting from short-term goals of maximizing profits to long-term sustainable environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. People have come to realize that ESG has become an important source of the corporate risk and may affect the company's financial performance and profitability. Recent research shows that good ESG performance could improve the financial performance in some countries. Yet, the question of how does ESG affect financial performance has not been thoroughly discussed and studied in China. In this article, we study China's listed power generation groups to explore the relationship between ESG performance and …

Women's Education, Intergenerational Coresidence, And Household Decision-Making In China, Cheng Cheng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

ObjectiveThis study examines how intergenerational coresidence modifies the association between women's education and their household decision‐making power in China.BackgroundPast research on how married women's education increases their decision‐making power at home has focused primarily on nuclear families. This article extends prior research by examining how this association varies by household structure. It compares women living with their husbands with those living with both their husbands and parents‐in‐law.MethodThis article used data from the China Family Panel Studies in 2010 and 2014. It employed marginal structural models to address the concern that certain characteristics selecting women of less power into coresidence with …

Vietnam Series: Four Key Features Of The Commercial Mediation Framework, Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In the first few months of this year I found myself returning to Vietnam a number of times thanks to Vietnamese initiatives in commercial mediation. Most recently I was involved in workshops hosted by the Vietnam Business Lawyer’s Club, the Judicial Academy and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Given the mediation activity in Vietnam and previous Kluwer posts on aspects of Vietnamese mediation, this post offers an overview of the main features of Vietnam’s legal and institutional framework for commercial mediation.

Commitment Readiness And Relationship Formation, Benjamin W. Hadden, Christopher R. Agnew, Kenneth Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The concept of being ready for a relationship is pervasive in popular culture, but theoretical and empirical research on readiness is lacking. We offer a conceptualization of commitment readiness and provide some of the first empirical work examining readiness among single individuals—specifically how this construct shapes various aspects of relationship formation. Using data from five independent samples of individuals not involved in romantic relationships, we first establish that commitment readiness is associated with more interest in developing a close romantic relationship (Studies 1a, 1b, 2) and with active pursuit of relationship initiation (Study 2). We then test whether readiness among …

Collating Historic Weather Observations For The East Asian Region: Challenges, Solutions, And Reanalyses, Fiona Williamson, Rob Allan, Guoyu Ren, Tsz-Cheung Lee, Wing-Hong Lui, Hisayuki Kubota, Jun Matsumoto, Jurg Luterbacher, Clive Wilkinson, Kevin Wood

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Historic instrumental weather observations, made on land or at sea from as early as the 17th century (e.g., Camuffo etal., 2010), are integral to extending our understanding of the decadal and centennial variations of Earth’s climate and forcomparison with paleo-proxy data. The potential of such data is shown to best effect when used in dynamical 4D globalreanalyses to reconstruct climate patterns and fluctuations over more than 250 years, improving climate projections and con-tributing to climate change detection and attribution studies. This longer temporal dimension permits the resolution of morerealizations of decadal to multi-decadal climate variations (Bengtsson et al., 2007). The …

Tax Knowledge Diffusion Through Individual Auditor Network Ties: Evidence From China, Chee Yeow Lim, Terry Shevlin, Kun Wang, Yanping Xu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates whether network ties via sharing the same individual auditor influences the diffusion of tax avoidance knowledge. We find that firms with greater connection to low-tax firms through audit partners have lower effective tax rates (ETRs), consistent with tax avoidance knowledge being shared among firms through individual auditor network. The influence of audit network ties on tax avoidance at focal firms is stronger when partners’ tenure in low-tax firms is longer, and when partners have social connection with the top executives of focal firms. In addition, audit fees of focal firms with auditor network ties to low-tax firms …

Psychometric Evaluation Of The Smartphone For Clinical Work Scale To Measure Nurses' Use Of Smartphones For Work Purposes, John Robert Bautista, Sonny Rosenthal, Trisha Tsui-Chuan Lin, Yin Leng Theng

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Objective: This study reports the development and psychometric evaluation of the Smartphone for Clinical WorkScale (SCWS)to measurenurses’use of smartphones for work purposes. Methods: Items were developed based on literature review and a preliminary study. After expert consultations and pilot testing, a 20-item scale was administered in January-June 2017 to 517 staff nurses from 19 tertiary level general hospitals in Metro Manila, Philippines. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to evaluate construct validity. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the predictive validity of SCWS on perceived work productivity. Results: EFA results show that 15 …

Out Now: Recognition And Enforcement Of Foreign Judgments In Asia, Adeline Chong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

A compendium of country reports on the law on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in ASEAN, Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea has been published by the Asian Business Law Institute, a research institute based in Singapore.

The Evolving Narrative On Home Ownership In Singapore, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan opined that the recent National Day Rally speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong should recalibrate HDB home owners’ expectations of their home as an ever-appreciating asset. While the recalibration of the HDB-as-asset message is welcome, Associate Prof Tan noted that more could have been done to raise some hard truths such as how upgrading costs for the HDB flats would be funded given an ageing population and a shrinking workforce.

China’S Changing Position Towards Marine Protected Areas In The Southern Ocean: Implications For Future Antarctic Governance, Nengye Liu, Cassandra M. Brooks

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The paper first briefly describes the negotiation process of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean. Then it examines China's changing position towards the establishment of a Ross Sea MPA, as proposed by the United States and New Zealand in the Commission for Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. Finally, the paper explores how China's position towards or against Southern Ocean MPAs implies China's future role in Antarctic governance.

Building Bigness: Reputation, Prominence, And Social Capital In Rural South India, Eleanor A. Power, Elspeth Ready

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Anthropologists have long been concerned with how reputations help people gain the support of others. Here, we study the support ties among adult residents of two Tamil villages, asking how reputational standing in each village mediates access to social support. We find that a reputation for influence has the weakest effect on support ties with others, while a reputation for generosity has the strongest. Further, a reputation for influence is not associated with greater connections to people of “high position” outside the village. Given the weak effects of a reputation for influence, we turn to a network measure of social …

Routledge Handbook Of Policy Design, Michael Howlett, Ishani Mukherjee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Uniting theoretical bases and advancements in practice, the Routledge Handbook of Policy Design brings together leading experts in the academic field of policy design in a pioneering effort of scholarship. Each chapter provides a multi-topic overview of the state of knowledge on how, why, where or when policies are designed and how such designs can be improved. These experts address how a new emphasis on effective policy design has re-emerged in public policy studies in recent years and clarify the role of historical policy decisions, policy capacities and government intentions in promoting a design orientation towards policy formulation and policy-making …

Policy Design And Non-Design: A Continuum Of Formulation Modalities, Michael Howlett, Ishani Mukherjee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Public policies are the result of efforts made by governments to alter aspects of behavior—both that of their own agents and of society at large—in order to carry out some end or purpose. They are comprised of complex arrangements of policy goals and policy means matched through some decision-making process. These policymaking efforts can be more, or less, systematic in attempting to match ends and means in a logical fashion or can result from much less systematic or rational processes. ‘Policy design’ implies a knowledge-based process in which the choice of means or mechanisms through which policy goals are given …

Gauging Effectiveness: First And Second-Best Policy Design, Ishani Mukherjee, Michael Howlett

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The essence of policy design resides in the articulation of policy options expected to meet government goals. Not all policies are as well or as carefully formulated as they could be, however, and policy studies has been interested for several decades in understanding why policy alternatives are developed, why some are successfully adopted while others are not and how some policies emerge from carefully crafted formulation processes while others are more heavily influenced by other processes such as political, partisan or electoral or legislative bargaining ( Howlett, 2011 ). Why design occurs and how superior designs can be achieved—either all …

A Content Analysis Of Section 1983 Litigation Against Reserve Police Officers, Michael Ryan Broadus

Master's Theses

Police studies have well developed a demonstrative framework for detailing risks which generate financially-detrimental civil litigation – particularly regarding 42 U.S.C. §1983. Conversely, though, police studies have given little attention to the often-used but differentially-trained reserve police officer. Primarily replicating the methodologies of Kappeler, Kappeler, and del Carmen (1993) and Ross (2000), this descriptive study sought to fill this void via a manifest content approach to purposively select a sample of Section 1983 cases decided by U.S. District Courts over a 16-year period (2001-2016) to determine: (1) if significant liability was generated by reserve officers, (2) the main basis for …

When Professional And Personal Values Collide: A Thematic Analysis Of Counseling Students' Developmental Journey Through An Ethics Course, Patricia Kimball

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Ethical practice is a foundational value in the profession of counseling. Ethics education is provided throughout graduate school and considered mandatory in most states to maintain a license. Even with this emphasis on ethics education, violations continue, putting the welfare of clients, communities, the profession and the counselor in jeopardy. One complicating factor in ethics is the difficulty found in addressing values, beliefs, and attitudes during graduate programs. These student dispositions are even more complex to address when values lie at the core of ethical dilemmas. This study examines the writings of master’s level counseling students at the end of …

Do Congressmen Really Drive Cars?, Tyler Brown

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

My research focuses on stock returns around term elections. I will be looking at the 50 most held stocks of congressmen, and taking the returns of these stocks against the market average during election season. I examine if there are Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CARs) that can be realized as a result of information about the elections. I want to find any possible trading strategy that investors could use to obtain returns that are in excess of the market average. I am attempting to discover how the market behaves when election season is occurring. This information could prove to be very …

The Effects Of Economic Policy Uncertainty On Common Stock And American Depository Receipts, Bradley David Zynda Ii

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Uncertainty can have profound implications on both firms and individuals who hope to optimally make decisions in their best interest. In this research, I seek to examine the impact that economic policy uncertainty has on domestic and foreign stock. In particular, I take a market microstructure perspective focused on stock liquidity and volatility measures in response to changes in economic policy uncertainty. Understanding the directional flow of economic policy uncertainty and the magnitude of the consequences at home and abroad can both help prepare agents to make good decisions about the future and exhort policy makers to be more efficient …

An Empirical Study Of The Impact Of The Change In Real Effective Exchange Rate On China's Inflow Of Foreign Direct Investment, Mingyu Niu

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

With the development of worldwide economic and globalization, China plays an important role in international trade. Since the "reform and openness" and "five years' plan", China’s economy became the second largest in the world. During the period of economic development, Foreign Direct Investment became an important part of improving market socialism in China. In this paper, I use monthly data on foreign direct investment (FDI) in China and the index of real effective exchange rate (REER) of the Chinese RMB for the period from Jan 2008 to Nov 2017. I develop a statistical model to test the causality between FDI …

Socioeconomic Status Influence On Mothers’ Interactions With Infants: Contributions To Early Infant Development, Krista L. Gurko

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Children from different socioeconomic backgrounds often have different long-term outcomes in terms of school, language, and emotional wellbeing. At this time, no reasons for these differences have been agreed upon by experts across disciplines. Parents with different personal characteristics and life situations use different types and amounts of interactions with their infants. The social interactions infants experience during their first year of life provide the start of their developmental path in the areas of language and executive control while also guiding their expectations for interactions with people around them.

This study used previously unpublished data from a sample of 79 …

Using Social Network Analysis To Examine The Intersection Of Adolescent Friendships And Health Behavior, Emily Long

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Adolescence marks a vulnerable developmental period for health behavior, and research demonstrates that social context and interpersonal relationships impact the health behavior choices of adolescents. In addition, theories of adolescent development suggest a bidirectional relationship between environmental factors, including social relationships, and health. Friendships are one of the most salient relationships during adolescence, and new methods from the field of social network analysis allow researchers to explicitly examine the mechanisms through which friends influence health behavior, and simultaneously, how health and health behavior impacts the formation of friendships. Importantly, social network methods (e.g., stochastic actor-based models, exponential random graph models) …

Humans As Sensors: The Influence Of Extreme Heat Vulnerability Factors On Risk Perceptions Across The Contiguous United States, Forrest Scott Schoessow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Extreme heat events are the deadliest natural hazard in the United States and will continue to get worse in the coming years due to the effects of climate change. As a result, more people will experience deadly heat conditions. This highlights the need for decision-makers to develop better strategies for preventing future losses. How badly individuals are affected by extreme heat depends on many circumstances, such as how high temperatures actually are, weather conditions, and location. For example, a dry 90 °F day in Phoenix is probably more tolerable than a humid 90 °F day in New Orleans for most …

Survey On Services Provided To Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder In U.S. Public Schools, Kendra Mcpherson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

It is of utmost importance that students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the public school setting across the United States are receiving the best, most researched services and treatments. This study aimed to find out what services and treatments are most commonly being used for students with ASD in the public schools, to see whether or not those practices are supported by research, and to discover how involved parents and families are in the services being provided to their students. This study found that of the top 25 most commonly used practices, 17 of those were supported by …

What Resources Do School Librarians Use When Developing New Programming: A Qualitative Inquiry, Jennifer Hansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For this qualitative analysis, I analyzed observational and interview data from two middle school librarians setting up new active learning programs. I focused my research by analyzing the preliminary data gathered in field notes from observations at the different library sites to determine what programming resources the librarians were using. A secondary consideration was drawn from preliminary evidence, which indicated the librarians turned to many on and offline information resources, including the social curating site Pinterest. After gathering initial data from observations, I gathered additional data from two interviews: the first interview focused on where the librarians find information and …

Investing In Agribusiness Stocks And Farmland: A Boom Or Bust Analysis, Asif Rasool

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As intelligent investors, we should always consider holding assets of different classes. Investing in assets from various classes allows us to minimize portfolio risks. In this paper, we recommend a better way of devoting money, especially for the investors who are interested in the agricultural sector. Historically fund managers use Markowitz framework to create financial portfolios. However, that framework has some fundamental limitations. A copula is a modern approach that counters the disadvantages of the Markowitz framework, to deal with portfolio construction. Copula also identifies the downside risk (the maximum amount of money you can lose) of a portfolio.

We …

Gene-Environment Interaction: Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (Bdnf) As A Moderating Factor For The Effects Of Exercise And Diet On Cognitive And Mental Health: The Cache County Study On Memory In Aging, Chelsea L. Sanders

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Cache County Study on Memory in Aging, funded by the National Institute on Aging, studied longitudinal changes in memory and aging over 12 years’ follow-up in a population-based sample of 5,092 older adults in semirural Cache County, UT. Among the extensive interview procedures, researchers collected information regarding the participants’ demographics, health, genetic factors, diet, physical activity, and cognitive abilities. This study has allowed researchers to investigate how genetic and modifiable lifestyle factors interact to predict health, cognitive function, and psychological wellbeing in older adults.

Diet and exercise are important lifestyle factors in maintaining cognitive health and psychological wellbeing throughout …

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 …

Putting Weight In Context: Acceptance And Commitment Therapy (Act) Guided Self-Help For Weight Self-Stigma, Sarah A. Potts

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Obesity is a serious public health issue within the U.S. and minimal long-term success is found with standard behavioral weight-loss treatments. Typical weight-loss interventions do not acknowledge psychological factors, such as weight-related stigma, which may play a role in the development and maintenance of poor coping behaviors, such as unhealthy eating patterns. Individuals who are obese may often experience weight-related stigma present in society and are ultimately at risk for weight self-stigma, which is related to poor health behaviors and increased psychological distress. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), can be effective for treating numerous mental health presentations, might also be …

The Culture Of Sexuality: Identification, Conceptualization, And Acculturation Processes Within Sexual Minority And Heterosexual Cultures, Joshua Glenn Parmenter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study aimed to provide insights into the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) people within LGBTQ+ culture, and to explore how they disclose or conceal their sexual identities within different social environments. A qualitative study enabled me to become immersed within the stories of LGBTQ+ people, in order to better understand the construct and importance of LGBTQ+ culture. Through in-depth interviews and focus groups, 14 members of the LGBTQ+ community from around the nation volunteered to share their experiences with LGBTQ+ culture and their negotiation of identity within heterosexual culture.

From participants’ stories, key themes were …