Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Blessing Or Burden? The Impact Of Ptsd Service Dogs On Military Families, Elise A. Miller, Leanne O. Nieforth, Shelley M. Macdermid Wadsworth, Marguerite E. O'Haire

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

While PTSD service dogs are specifically trained to interact with their veterans, emerging evidence suggests that service dogs may also have an impact on other members of veteran households. To our knowledge, only one study quantifies these effects focused on veteran spouses (McCall et al., 2020). Our study aimed to quantitatively measure the impact of PTSD service dogs on military family wellbeing. Data was collected from survey responses of 88 veteran spouses who rated their experiences on standardized outcome measures. Each spouse answered the surveys at two time points: (1) baseline, and (2) three months post-baseline (follow-up). Spouses in the …

Milked Dry: A Framing Analysis Of How Mass Media Helped Reframe The Public's Perception Of The Dairy Industry, Sequoia West

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

This thesis investigates three documentaries (Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, The Milk System, and What the Health?) on the topic of the dairy industry and animal agriculture. A thematic analysis was conducted by using Erving Goffman’s Framing Theory to examine how dairy consumption has been framed over the past decade by the media, and how three documentaries contributed to a shift in the public’s perception and an overall decline of the dairy industry. The analysis consists of primary data (three documentaries) and secondary textual data from 45 social media posts culled from Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook. A consistent theme …

Preventing Secondary Traumatic Stress In Social Workers: How To Protect Helping Professionals, Carmen M. Ortega

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Social workers are often asked to put the needs of others above their own. This, coupled with a propensity for social workers to engage with clients’ trauma, can lead to secondary traumatic stress (STS) disorder. This thesis explores how to better support social workers at individual, environmental, and organizational levels to predict and prevent STS. Based on a review of the literature, recommendations are made to improve social work policy, practice, and research. This analysis suggests that combatting STS must begin with social work students and continue through an individual’s career. Further research is required to inform the implementation of …

Gender Non-Conformity In The Appearance Of Political Candidates And Its Effect On Voters, Megan Amanda Holmes

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

In this time of political uncertainty and shifting cultural norms, it has become challenging to rely upon our preconceived notions of what makes a good political candidate. This research was conducted for the purpose of deepening our understanding of the relationship between politics and the nonverbal communication of gender norms, and to shed light on how a candidate's gender presentation influences voters. Through examining the ways in which political candidates conform to or deviate from gender norms in their physical appearance, we begin to discover the impact of non-conformity on voters’ evaluations of candidates. In this study, respondents were shown …

Recognize Fish As Food In Policy Discourse And Development Funding, Abigail Bennett, Xavier Basurto, John Virdin, Xinyan Lin, Samantha J. Betances, Martin D. Smith, Edward H. Allison, Barbara A. Best, Kelly D. Brownell, Lisa M. Campbell, Christopher D. Golden, Elizabeth Havice, Christina C. Hicks, Peter J. Jacques, Kristin Kleisner, Niels Lindquist, Rafaella Lobo, Grant D. Grant, Michelle B. Nowlin, Pawan G. Patil, Douglas N. Rader, Stephen E. Roady, Shakuntala H. Thilsted, Sarah Zoubek

Faculty Scholarship

The international development community is off-track from meeting targets for alleviating global malnutrition. Meanwhile, there is growing consensus across scientific disciplines that fish plays a crucial role in food and nutrition security. However, this ‘fish as food’ perspective has yet to translate into policy and development funding priorities. We argue that the traditional framing of fish as a natural resource emphasizes economic development and biodiversity conservation objectives, whereas situating fish within a food systems perspective can lead to innovative policies and investments that promote nutrition-sensitive and socially equitable capture fisheries and aquaculture. This paper highlights four pillars of research needs …

Payday Myopia: Effects Of Income Receipt On Risk-Taking And Decision Making, Jacob Breaux

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Trail Marker Trees, Kaleigh Edwards

Buder Center for American Indian Studies Research

For arborists and others who study forests and plant life, “Indian trail trees” or “trail marker trees” are an intriguing way to mark a path. But, for Native American people, the trees provided a trail marker that led to essential resources. According to Guy Sternberg (2015), there are several criteria for a tree to be defined as a trail marker tree; such standards are that the “species is Native to the area, long-lived, and point towards a significant location” (Sternberg, 2015). Through traditional deformation, white and red oak trees were the primary species of trail marker trees because of their …

Cswe Recommendations For Social Work Educators And Social Workers, Kaleigh Edwards

Buder Center for American Indian Studies Research

Poster summary of Council on Social Work Education's statement of accountability and reconciliation for harms done to Indigenous and Tribal Peoples

Longitudinal Associations Among Individual Factors, Parenting Behaviors, And Medical Responsibility In Youth With Spina Bifida: Mediation, Moderation, And Growth Analyses, Alexa R. Stern

Dissertations

The objective of this research was to examine how youth individual factors (neuropsychological functioning and depressive symptoms) and maternal and paternal acceptance, behavioral control, and psychological control were associated with child medical responsibility among youth with spina bifida (SB). These longitudinal studies examined multimethod, multi-informant data from families of youth with SB, their parents, and teachers. The first study used bootstrapping methods to examine two competing, mediational pathways through which depressive symptoms, executive functioning, and attention were associated with medical responsibility over time. The second study used moderation analyses to examine how parenting behaviors moderated the relationship between these cognitive …

Perceptions Of Funder-Mandated Performance Metrics On Nonprofit Service Provision, Melissa Iverson

Dissertations

Nonprofit organizations provide essential services to diverse client populations that often address complex and multifaceted personal and social issues. As part of the nonprofit funding process, organizations receive financial support from external sources, such as foundations, government contracts, or corporate giving, and often have to engage in performance evaluation, a process frequently driven by funder priorities or evaluation requirements. As agencies continue to navigate these funder expectations and requirements, understanding nonprofit staff perceptions on the influence of funder-mandated metrics upon service provision becomes more relevant. This qualitative study utilized a grounded theory methodology to explore the perceptions of administrators and …

Effects Of Facility Dogs On Emotional Wellbeing Of Pediatric Hospital Personnel, Abhinav Ramesh

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

Healthcare is one of the most demanding professions, and approximately 45% of physicians experience job-related burnout (Dyrbye et al., 2018). While previous research has shown that working with facility dogs in hospitals may improve job satisfaction (Jensen et al., 2021), little research has been done on specific observed factors related to emotional wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to examine effects of working with facility dogs on emotions using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). One advantage of EMA over traditional assessments is the elimination of temporal bias, by asking participants about their current state rather than asking them to recollect …

Medical Library Association Diversity And Inclusion Task Force Report, Jane Morgan-Daniel, Xan Y. Goodman, Sandra G. Franklin, Kelsa Bartley, Matthew Nicholas Noe, J. J. Pionke

Library Faculty Research

© 2021, Medical Library Association. All rights reserved. The Medical Library Association (MLA) appointed a Diversity and Inclusion Task Force (DITF) in 2017. Sandra G. Franklin, AHIP, FMLA, chaired the task force and guided initiatives. From 2017 to 2020, the task force completed a review of MLA defining documents—including the mission, vision, values, and code of ethics— resulting in language updates to these documents. As MLA transitioned through the communities process, the DITF contributed to the transition. Other recommended essential changes to MLA profiles to promote awareness included updating pronouns to promote gender inclusivity and suggestions for the Annual Meeting …

Fair Innings? The Utilitarian And Prioritarian Value Of Risk Reduction Over A Whole Lifetime, Matthew D. Adler, Maddalena Ferranna, James K. Hammitt, Nicolas Treich

Faculty Scholarship

The social value of risk reduction (SVRR) is the marginal social value of reducing an individual’s fatality risk, as measured by some social welfare function (SWF). This Article investigates SVRR, using a lifetime utility model in which individuals are differentiated by age, lifetime income profile, and lifetime risk profile. We consider both the utilitarian SWF and a “prioritarian” SWF, which applies a strictly increasing and strictly concave transformation to individual utility.

We show that the prioritarian SVRR provides a rigorous basis in economic theory for the “fair innings” concept, proposed in the public health literature: as between an older individual …

Life Without Parole Sentencing In North Carolina, Brandon L. Garrett, Travis M. Seale-Carlisle, Karima Modjadidi, Kristen M. Renberg

Faculty Scholarship

What explains the puzzle of life without parole (LWOP) sentencing in the United States? In the past two decades, LWOP sentences have reached record highs, with over 50,000 prisoners serving LWOP. Yet during this same period, homicide rates have steadily declined. The U.S. Supreme Court has limited the use of juvenile LWOP in Eighth Amendment rulings. Further, death sentences have steeply declined, reaching record lows. Although research has examined drivers of incarceration patterns for certain sentences, there has been little research on LWOP imposition. To shed light on what might explain the sudden rise of LWOP, we examine characteristics of …

Regulating Financial Guarantors, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

To improve financial regulation, scholars have engaged in extensive research over the past decade to try to understand why systemically important financial firms engage in excessive risk-taking. None of that research fully explains, however, the unusually excessive risk-taking by financial guarantors such as bond insurers, protection sellers under credit-default-swap (CDS) derivatives, credit enhancers in securitization transactions, and even issuers of standby letters of credit. With tens of trillions of dollars of financial guarantees outstanding, the potential for failure is massive. This Article argues that financial guarantor risk-taking is influenced by a previously unrecognized cognitive bias, which it calls “abstraction bias.” …

Children In Custody: A Study Of Detained Migrant Children In The United States,, Emily Ryo, Reed Humphrey

Faculty Scholarship

Every year, tens of thousands of migrant children are taken into custody by U.S. immigration authorities. Many of these children are unaccompanied by parents or relatives when they arrive at the U.S. border. Others who are accompanied by parents or relatives are rendered unaccompanied when U.S. immigration authorities separate them upon apprehension. Together, these minors are called unaccompanied alien children (UACs) and transferred to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), unless and until their immigration cases are resolved or until the children can be placed with a sponsor in the United States pending the adjudication of their …

Relationship Between The Broad Autism Phenotype, Social Support, Emotion Regulation, And Depression In Parents Of Children With Autism, Chelsey Vanness

Dissertations and Theses

Associations between the Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP) and depressive symptoms among parents of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been well established. However, the nature of this relationship has not been examined; emotion dysregulation and perceived social support could provide further understanding. This study aimed to explore the indirect association between BAP traits and depressive symptoms via emotion dysregulation and perceived social support. Participants were 219 parents of children with ASD, ages ranging from 22 to 69 years old (M = 38.37, SD = 8.72). Participants completed online questionnaires including the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ), Difficulties in …

Analysis On The Negative Emotional, Physiological, And Cognitive Responses Elicited From Of The Activation Of A Stall Alarm, Travis J. Whittemore, Sabrina Woods

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Failing to identify an aerodynamic stall can lead to the inability of an aircraft to sustain flight. To warn pilots of an impending or fully-developed stall, many aircraft have safety devices installed to provide visual, aural, and/or kinesthetic (haptic) indicators of the potentially unsafe situation. The stick shaker is one such warning device. Amygdala hijack is the disruptive emotional, physiological, and cognitive response that occurs as a result of stimulus. Colloquially known as a fight-or-flight trigger, amygdala hijack can cause a person to freeze-in-place or can disrupt cognitive function to the point where the person can no longer process available …

Aviation Human-In-The-Loop Simulation: Best Practices For Subjective Performance Measurement, John Kleber, Beth Blickensderfer

Aviation Weather Training Research

Subjective performance measurements are a useful tool for researchers and instructors to evaluate tasks that are difficult to quantify with objective data pulled from a simulator or the physiological data of pilots. Subjective performance measurements are non-intrusive measures typically conducted by human raters. Some recommendations for utilizing subjective measures include reducing the workload of the human raters, concealing the aim of the experiment from participants, utilizing multiple raters to evaluate each participant, providing raters with proper training, developing error-resistant rater forms and, including both subjective and objective measures when possible.

Work From Home, It Helps, Kendrick Ramos, Anthoni Reinhart, Anjana Mahesh, Joshiah Tan, Humna Amad

Introduction to Research Methods RSCH 202

The world's population was in lockdown due to COVID 19, accompanied by stringent social measures in 2020. Surprisingly, the outbreak's positive impacts outweigh its adverse effects in terms of environmental well-being as there has been a significant decrease in greenhouse gas emissions at an average of 8% around the world. This study focuses on the relationship between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the strictness level of lockdown measures across the 50 states of the United States of America for the years 2019 and 2020, as the data is retrieved from the U.S federal and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) websites. We …

Absorbent Household Materials For The Collection Of Ignitable Liquid Residues From Surfaces Of Varying Porosity, Jessica Carlotti

Online Theses and Dissertations

Ignitable liquids (ILs) are used as accelerants to burn items at a faster rate and the presence of an IL indicates that arson has occurred. Upon arrival to an arson scene, fire investigators access the scene and collect substrates containing ILs. The substrates, such as concrete and wood, are removed from the scene by methods that are time consuming, and require heavy machinery and tools. The evidence is transported in air-tight containers to the laboratory where analysts identify the chemical classification of the IL using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In this work, readily available absorbent household materials such as …

The Barriers Students Of Color Experience During The Online College Application, Tichaedza Stephen Chikuni

Online Theses and Dissertations

Recruitment of Students of Color (African American and Latino) is a growing obligation of colleges and universities around the United States (Bauman et al., 2019). Personally, the culmination of my passion for diversity recruitment and my experiences with information technology has led me to study why Students of Color encounter barriers during their online college application process. A vicious cycle of seeing Students of Color students not being able to access key resources during their college application process has frequently left me heartbroken. There are an abundance of excuses and I want to be a part of the solution.

Introductory Mathematics And Stem Persistence: Examining The Differences Between Online And In-Person Performance At A Hbcu, Wendy Dixie

Online Theses and Dissertations

The United States is losing its position as an innovative global leader because of a shortage of skilled workers in STEM. This decline is due in part to the US producing a lower number of graduates from STEM related fields. One reason for the shortage is that US students are selecting or graduating with STEM majors at a lower rate than those of competing countries. As a result of these shortages, the US has undertaken several initiatives to increase public awareness of and training in STEM that will ultimately produce STEM degrees.

The purpose of this research was to examine …

Individualism And Collectivism: Well Being Within The African American Community, Tajana Graves

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study is to examine how cultural values are linked to well being among African Americans and the generational differences that moderate those links. It is hypothesized that a) that the older generation of African Americans will score higher on allocentrism than idiocentrism, younger generation of African Americans will score higher on indiocentrism than on allocentrism, b) the older generation of African Americans will score lower on well-being than younger generations of African Americans,c) allocentrism will be a stronger predictor of well-being than indiocentrism, d) the link between allocentrism and well-being will be stronger for younger …

“Basic Stuff I Should Know About My Kids, I Don’T Know”: Incarcerated Mothers’ Perception Of Incarceration’S Effects On Mother-Child Relationships, Narissa Haakmat

Online Theses and Dissertations

Tougher sentencing policies have resulted in a dramatic increase in the jail and prison populations in the United States over the past few decades. The number of women who are spending time behind bars have vastly increased as a result of this. Despite increased interest in this area of research, a variety of questions remain as to how women experience incarceration. Most women who are incarcerated are mothers, but few criminologists have explored how imprisonment affects motherhood and mothers’ perception of the mother-child relationship during incarceration. The research presented here contributes to this body of literature by exploring the effects …

Forgotten In Local Jails: A Carceral System Created To Fail Women., Hayley Jackey

Online Theses and Dissertations

The United States has seen an influx of incarcerated women since the 1980s with a 750% increase between 1980 and 2017. There is a substantial amount of literature about how women experience prison and the unique challenges they face as they reenter society such as motherhood, previous abuse, mental health, and housing. Conclusions drawn suggest that the current structure fails to prepare women for a society that denounces women who have been incarcerated. What is less known is how this research translates to the jail environment. For reasons to be discussed, it is likely that local jails are even less …

Effect Of Digital Advertising On Website Traffic At A Kentucky Comprehensive Regional University, Brandon Lee Moore

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to quantify differences in key performance indicators between paid and organic (not paid) website traffic over a one year period of time at a regional comprehensive university in Kentucky, which is located in the southeastern United States. Two distinct sources of website traffic can be measured: paid traffic and organic traffic. Using data from website traffic analytics, this study employed multiple linear regression analysis and time series methods to understand the similarities and differences between key performance indicators of paid traffic and organic traffic as they relate to key performance indicators. Data from Google …

Examining Cpe's Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Policy And Its Impact On Hr Directors To Recruit And Hire Faculty Of Color At Associate-Level Colleges In The Commonwealth Of Kentucky, Dr. Adarrell Lafawn Owsley

Online Theses and Dissertations

Strategies to recruit and hire faculty and staff of color to the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s population levels have continued for 57 years. From Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the Kentucky Plan in 1982 to the Strategic Plan for Kentucky Higher Education from 1982 to 1995, to the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education’s 2010-2015 Policy and Framework for Institution Diversity Plan to its current 2016-2021 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy. Despite five policy implementations, a problem still exists in recruiting and hiring faculty of color at associate-level colleges in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.The need for public …

Effective Strategies For Recruiting African American Males Into Teacher Education Programs, Fredrick Wellington Snodgrass

Online Theses and Dissertations

In today’s society, the teaching workforce should be more diverse. However, it still consists of majority white females. From a survey reported by Education Week in 2017-2018, the teaching workforce consisted of 79.2% white teachers. The same data reported that the teaching workforce consists of 7% African-Americans (Will, 2020). From that 7% of African-Americans, African-American males consists of 2% of the teaching workforce (Bell, 2017). Some school districts are seeking to attract more minority teachers to reflect their student demographics. In 2018, data reported from statista.com shows the following student demographics in K-12 public schools across the U.S.: 47% White, …

Special Considerations In Gifted Identification: Increasing Access And Equitable Practices For Underrepresented Populations In An Urban School District, Veda Stewart

Online Theses and Dissertations

Low-socio economic and/or minority students are substantially unidentified for gifted education programs. The disparities in gifted education for underrepresented students persist despite the growth in schools across the country of low income and minority students. Despite efforts to tackle equity issues in gifted education the large gaps of disproportionality persist. Explanations for this occurrence of underrepresentation is linked to the general processes for identifying gifted students, which are based largely on norm referenced standardized tests, with a single score criterion and a referral process that relies heavily on teacher and parent nominations. These identification processes tend to overlook the cultural …