Increasing Understanding Of Professor’S Adhd Knowledge And Perception Of Adhd And How This Informs Their Behavior Towards Students With Adhd, Rebecca Rosen

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent learning disability experience by 5.3% of students. The behaviors associated with ADHD (hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention) can impact a students’ ability to learn and their behavior and relationships in the classroom. Teachers can help to create a supportive or unsupportive learning environment for students with learning disabilities, specifically ADHD. Unfortunately, these needs are not always met for students in college. Previous research has uncovered primary and secondary teacher’s knowledge, perception, and behavior regarding children with ADHD, but little work has focused on college professors. College professors are likely to have significantly less …

Between Beeps: An Autoethnographic Study On Type 1 Diabetes, Intersectionality And The Body In Chaos, Cristal Llave

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This autoethnographic study examines Type 1 Diabetes through the lens of intersectionality framework, power and discipline, and the chaotic story of the body. As an Adult Type 1 Diabetic at diagnosis, I explore the tensions between my already established identities as an Asian American woman in academia attempting to incorporate and accept another identity, an identity of illness. This study utilizes sensory discourses and aesthetic arrangement of ten illness narratives to delve into my experience, placing the points of tension between my identities in conversation with my body’s silenced story of chaos as it undergoes acts of power and discipline. …

This Is Herpes: A Qualitative Investigation Of The Disclosure Patterns Of Hsv2 Individuals, Katrina Miles

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

It is estimated that by 2025, 49% of the female population and 39% of the male population, aged 15-39, will have contracted herpes simplex virus 2, or as it is more commonly known, genital herpes (Fisman, Lipsitch, Hook & Goldie, 2002). However, little is understood about the ways that those with genital herpes communicate their condition with potential partners, friends, or family members. Using in-depth qualitative interviews this research focuses on understanding the unique patterns that individuals with genital herpes engage to disclose their status to significant others. Utilizing the theories of Communication Privacy Management and the Disclosure Decision-Making Model …

#Zika #Olympics: The Use Of Dialogue In Tweets Regarding The Zika Virus And The 2016 Rio Olympics, Daniel W. Vieth

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Previous research has observed the use of social media by health organizations; however, few studies have addressed how health organizations use these media to build relationships with publics. This thesis addresses this gap by applying Kent and Taylor’s (2002) dialogic tenets to Twitter messages regarding the 2015-2016 Zika virus epidemic and the 2016 Rio Olympics. First a pilot study used a quantitative survey to find that individuals were using online media to seek information about Zika, and that the public generally had high threat salience toward the virus. Next, social network analyzer Netlytic was used to collect Tweets that mentioned …

No Stigma, No Shame: Reducing The Stigma Of Mental Illness In College Freshmen Dorms, Ashley R. Reynolds

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

With a rise in college students who report symptoms of mental illness and the high number of college students who do not seek professional help because of the stigma of mental illness, it is evident that the stigma of mental illness on college campuses needs to be addressed. A health campaign that seeks to reduce the stigma of mental illness on campus was designed, implemented, evaluated. The Model of Stigma Communication, which explains how stigma is developed and reinforced, is a sound framework for exploring the stigma of mental illness and was used to guide the campaign. First, a survey …

“Knee High To A Grasshopper”: An Exploration Of Appalachian Youth, Family Communication Patterns, And Depression, Cori Howard

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis examined factors related to family communication and the prevalence of depression in Appalachian youth. Two quantitative studies were utilized to gather data. The first study tested the measures on Virginia college students to determine if family communication and depressive symptomology were related. Study two took place in one Virginia high school and one North Carolina high school that were identified to be in the Appalachian region. Utilizing a conformity orientation family communication style was positively correlated with depressive symptomology in both the college sample and in the Appalachian samples.

Achoo! Three Major Us Newspapers Reporting On The Flu Before And After H1n1, Philip A. Harris

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The flu is the most common and also the most preventable health risk and crisis in the United States. This research is a quantitative content analysis of flu coverage appearing in 102 articles from The Washington Post, USA Today, and The New York Times. It examines the differences in the coverage three years before and after the H1N1 pandemic and evaluates them for the use of fundamental constructs in health, risk, and crisis communication theories such as severity, susceptibility, efficacy, excuse, justification, intention, expertise, and trustworthiness. Most significant differences were found between excuse and justification as well as with …

Padded Assumptions: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Patriarchal Menstruation Discourse, Kathryn M. Lese

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

In 2015, Rupi Kaur’s photography project featuring a menstruating woman was censored on Instagram, a photo sharing social media platform. The menstruation censorship created a surge in public media discourse about what is and is not appropriate to discuss about menstruation. Menstruation communication is often discrete or invisible in dominant discourse and focuses of medicalization rather than the social norms of “performing menstruation”. This thesis explores menstruation communication in public media discourse and examines how it empowers and disempowers the menstruating female body. Themes including the everyday language of menstruation, patriarchal censorship of women’s bodies, shame and stigma in menstruation …

Contesting “Obligation”: Memory, Morality, And The (Re)Construction Of Divestment Narratives, Christina Quint

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Leaders in the medical field representing organizations abroad such as the British Medical Association (BMA) and MedAct have called for health care organizations to divest from fossil fuels, on the grounds that it is hypocritical for health care leaders to take the Hippocratic Oath and be implicated in the health impacts for which the burning of fossil fuels is responsible. The emerging discourse highlighting the imperative to divest draws parallels to the health care sector’s leadership in divesting from tobacco in the 1990s on the grounds of its health implications. Even before the current fossil fuel divestment movement and the …

My Body, Our Illness: Negotiating Relational And Identity Tensions Of Living With Mental Illness, Erin E. Casey

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis uses an autoethnographic methodology informed by narrative theory to interrogate my experiences of relational and identity tensions as both a consumer of mental health services and an advocate for the care, autonomy and acceptance of those who identify with concepts of mental illness recovery. In doing so I am using my personal diaries and medical records from the past seven years as archival data to assist me in recovering and reconstructing narratives that represent meaningful truths about these experiences. I also call on heavily what Carolyn Ellis (2004) calls "relational ethics" because I know that while I am …

Identity Disclosure In Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Patient-Provider Communication, Nicole Hudak

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals have encountered barriers in accessing healthcare. Barriers to accessing medical care can stem from discrimination within healthcare, which includes the medicalization of homosexuality. Literature demonstrates that both providers and LGB patients recognize that there are inefficiencies in the current healthcare system for LGB patients. This thesis sought to find how LGB individuals navigated the disclosure of their sexual identities with their providers and what types of communication barriers existed between them. Qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 LGB identified participants. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a constant comparative method. Four themes …

Let’S Chat: Willingness To Communicate And The Development Of A Destigmatizing Campaign, Ethan D. Smith

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Abstract

Low treatment rates for depression are commonly observed among young adults of typical college age in particular. Fear of social judgement makes stigma a commonly identified barrier to depression treatment. What is unclear is how the willingness of university students to communicate about depression may influence or be influenced by stigma. Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Health Belief Model, the present thesis investigates the stigma attitudes of students toward depression, as well as their willingness to communicate about depression. To do this, an online survey was conducted with depression stigma scales and adapted willingness to …

The Sentence Continues: Breaking Silences And Becoming Authors Through The Semicolon Project, Brooke E. Covington

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Through its many digital platforms, The Semicolon Project, a suicide and self-harm prevention initiative, offers its users a creative means of using writing to heal. As its name suggests, the semicolon is an essential mark for this group—grammatically a semicolon represents a place in the sentence that an author could have ended and for the members of this prevention initiative, the semicolon acts in a similar way. By tattooing or drawing a semicolon on the body, the semicolon bearer embody a sense of authorial agency, positioning herself as author and using the semicolon as a representation of her dedication to …