Identity Shifting Behaviors, Perceptions Of Diversity, And Perceived Discrimination In South Asian Employees, Himali Bhandari

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Workplace discrimination is a significant issue in the workplace for minority racial and ethnic groups, especially for South Asian employees in the US. This study investigated the relationship between perceived workplace diversity climate and identity shifting behaviors (manifestation and suppression behaviors of group identity) that South Asian employees might display at work. Furthermore, it was also expected that perceptions of racial discrimination experiences would mediate this relationship. It was hypothesized that perceived diversity climate will be negatively related to suppression behaviors and positively related manifestation behaviors, mediated by perceptions of racial discrimination. Participants were recruited from social media, Prolific, and …

Length Of Stay, Social Support, And Sex Differences In Recovery, Elizabeth K. Garrity

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The Oxford House model is an expanding network of sober-living houses that aid individuals struggling with substance use disorders. Research exploring sober-living environments can be essential in understanding the factors that relate to sustained addiction recovery. This study examined whether sex differences were present within the relationship between perceived social support and recovery outcomes, to which no significant results were found. These findings contributed to existing research that seeks to understand whether gendered differences exist in recovery outcomes. This study also investigated whether length of stay within a recovery home mediated the relationship between perceived social support and one’s recovery …

A Qualitative Analysis Of White Nationalist Patriotic Discourse, Miguel Angel Vazquez

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

In the last decade, the U.S. has seen a significant uptick in White nationalist ideology, particularly because individuals espousing these extremist ideologies believe their group and the U.S. are under attack by non-White groups (Osborne et al., 2019). As a result, there are prevailing narratives that are used as patriotic rallying cries that center around the desire to progress the country towards White nationalist ideals (e.g., a country for a by White people), to regress the country back to a time where White people had their own eco-system of Whiteness (i.e., the golden days), and to protect and fight for …

Social Support As A Moderator Of Life Stress And Alcohol Consumption, Paige Patano

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Heavy alcohol use in emerging adults has several consequences, including increased risk-taking behaviors, cognitive deficits, and alcohol use disorder (AUD). Thus, it is important to understand risk factors and protective factors to heavy drinking. Experiencing life stressors may be associated with higher alcohol use in emerging adults, especially for historically marginalized populations. General social support, which may mitigate the impact of life stressors, tends to be a protective factor against drinking, although the literature is mixed on which types of relationships are considered protective. Between the support of family, friends, and significant others, it is unclear which relationships are associated …

Explaining The Paradox Of High Self-Esteem In Black Youth Exposed To Stress: The Protective Role Of Kinship And Spirituality, Takayla Christine Towns

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents are exposed to many stressful life experiences, such as major illnesses, the death of a family member, school stressors, peer pressures, conflict with parents, and more. Minoritized youth are exposed to even greater numbers of stressors, including those connected to racism, segregation, and poverty. This study aims to examine the relationship between stressful life experiences and self-esteem and explore protective factors that may protect minoritized individuals from the negative effects of stress on self-esteem. This study also builds upon literature that shows that Black youth report higher self-esteem than White youth, even while being exposed to higher levels of …

Talking To Strangers: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation Study Of An Intercultural Intervention, Andrew Peter Camilleri

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The globalized nature of the world we live in, and the rapidly evolving technologies we have become accustomed to, have resulted in a highly interconnected worlds where meeting persons hailing from different cultural backgrounds is not only possible but highly probable. Consequently, intercultural communication is an important and prized competence which allows for meaningful encounters that lead to better relationship outcomes. An important context wherein these dynamics often play out are educational institutions given their active recruitment of international students. Despite such a trend and the resulting greater likelihood of intercultural encounters, most students lack intercultural communication and relationship building …

Empowerment As A Predictor Of System Justification Moderated By Race, Nicole Belcher

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The attitudes people hold about the social structure around them have varying explanations in the field of psychology. System justification represents the idea that people will accept and enforce the social structures that exist because of the underlying need for consistency (Jost et al., 2004). Also central to this theory is the idea that people will legitimize structures because of a desire for the status quo to remain (Jost, 2001). These ideas seek to explain the problematic ideologies that maintain unfair social structures and why people allow them to remain. Studies have found individuals will support unjust systems because either …

Counting On The Family: Family Cohesion And Its Relationship To Ptg, Edgar Ivan Gandara

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The current study aimed to understand how an adolescent’s perceived family cohesion predicts post-traumatic Growth (PTG). Although relatively new to Psychology, there is extensive literature on PTG and its relationship with social support. However, there is not as much research exploring family cohesion as it relates to PTG. A cohesion focus provides insight into the importance of emotional connectedness in social support and its impact on adolescent PTG. Moreover, we investigated the relationship family cohesion has with PTG across Hispanic and non-Hispanic adolescents to see if there was any significant variance given cultural differences in the role of family. Our …

Attachment And Resilience: The Mediating Effect Of Coping, Michelle Soans

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between attachment security, coping strategies, and resilience among university students, focusing on the mediating role of problem-focused coping. We hypothesized that higher attachment security would be associated with greater resilience, that problem-focused coping would positively predict resilience, and that problem-focused coping would mediate the relationship between attachment security and resilience. A sample of 177 students completed measures of attachment security, coping strategies, and resilience. Mediation analysis revealed that higher attachment security significantly predicted resilience and problem-focused coping, while problem-focused coping also significantly predicted resilience. The indirect effect of attachment security on resilience through problem-focused coping …

First-Generation College Students’ Sense Of Belonging During Covid-19, Yesenia Garcia

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

First-generation college students (FGCSs) make up one-third of all college students in the U.S. (Whitley et al., 2018). Yet, retention of FGCSs continues to fall behind that of their non-first-generation peers (Act, Research and Policy, 2012; Cataldi et al., 2018). Understanding FGCSs’ sense of belonging, and its predictors, is a key component to helping promote retention. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought many shifts and adaptations to education that impacted the overall college experience for students (Burki, 2020). This adaptation strained opportunities for social engagement, which deterred students’ abilities to feel a sense of belonging at their institution. The …

Historical Trauma In Context: Perceived Effects Among Second Generation Cambodian Americans On A Personal, Family, And Community Level, Linda Toch

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Although there is significant literature regarding Cambodian refugees and trauma, less is known about their U.S.-born children, many of whom are now adults. Literature suggests that second-generation youth are more susceptible to traumatic exposure and community violence compared to their White counterparts. However, there is little understanding of how second-generation Cambodian Americans contextualize the impacts of the Khmer Rouge genocide, and whether they perceive connections between historical trauma and their personal, family, and community experiences. This study utilized critical-constructivist grounded theory to explore perceived effects of historical trauma across domains of personal, family, and community. The recruitment process included e-mail …

Exploring Advocates’ Perceptions Of Rural And Urban Sexual Assault Survivors’ Experiences Seeking Civil Protective Orders, Hannah C. Samuels

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Civil protective orders (CPOs) are one of the most utilized legal remedies that exist for sexual assault survivors. While they are available for every survivor in Illinois, a survivor’s community context can impact their experience petitioning for a CPO. Prior research with domestic violence survivors suggests that the rurality and urbanicity of a community may impact a sexual assault survivors experiences seeking a CPO, but little research has been conducted with sexual assault survivors specifically. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of rape crisis center advocates from rural and urban counties across the state of Illinois …

Clutter And Control: A Regional Analysis Of The Effect Of Decluttering On Women During The Pandemic, Zachary Henry Ellis

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The Covid pandemic impacted the whole nation, with 72% of Americans reported disruption in their everyday lives, and 45% of Americans reported negative health impacts in response to the pandemic (Kirzinger et al. 2020). However, there are some populations of citizens that are more vulnerable to the negative mental health effects of the pandemic (Czeisler et al. 2020). Fear and psychological reactance, triggered when individuals feel their freedoms are threatened, surged during the pandemic (Taylor and Asmundson, 2021; Wortman & Brehm, 1975). Yet, little research explores how decluttering projects affect this behavior.

The current study explored the impact of successful …

Parent-Child Cultural Values (Mis)Matches And Youth Mental Health Among Latinx Families, Jesus Eduardo Solano-Martinez

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

When compared to youth from other ethnic backgrounds, Latinx youth present with higher levels of mental health problems (e.g., internalizing). Various heritage cultural values, such as affiliative obedience, have been found as protective against mental health problems in Latinx youth. These findings, however, have not been ubiquitous, have not often included parent or combined parent and child perspectives, and have been limited by design and methodological shortcomings (e.g., single reporters, difference scores). The Acculturation Gap Distress – Expanded (AGD-E) model was used as the guiding theoretical framework to examine parent-child heritage cultural value endorsement patterns and their association to youth …

The Role Of Team Sports, Coping, And Friendship In Reducing Depressive Symptoms In Youth, Abigail K. Bushnell

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The prevalence of depression in adolescents has increased in the last decade. Minority and low-income youth face additional barriers to accessing mental health services leading to a significant proportion of adolescents going undiagnosed and untreated. Participation in multiple team sports may offer an additive protective effect for youth mental health, yet how and for whom this relation occurs is unclear. The current study aimed to examine how coping strategies and friendships interact with team sports participation to reduce depressive symptoms in youth. Self-report data was collected from 196 urban youth across two time points. Moderated moderation analyses were conducted …

Mental Health And Well-Being Of Survivors Of Torture As They Seek Asylum, Samantha L. Nau

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to explore experiences of asylum seekers, who are also sruvivors of torture, as they go through the immigration process. Using semi-structured interviews, this study examined how mental health and well-being are impacted by post-migration stressors associated with the process of seeking asylum and by perceptions of the sociopolitical climate in the United States. Six asylum seekers who have received services from the Marjorie Kovler Center for Survivors of Torture were interviewed. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted to explore how participants make meaning of their experiences and to identify themes that were shared across participants. Findings from …

Can We Help You With Your Bootstraps? How First-Generation Graduate Students Can Use Relationships To Transform Universities, Brianna N. Mabie

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

As a result of the abundance of literature on first-generation undergraduate students, several support programs and resources have been developed to assist this population throughout their undergraduate career. However, graduate school can pose a whole new set of challenges for first-generation graduate students, which can result in poor outcomes (Martinez et al., 2009; Wilcox et al., 2021). It is therefore necessary to increase attention on first-generation graduate students. An explanatory-sequential mixed method research design, with an intersectional lens, was used to answer how first-generation graduate students rely on university relationships to be well and what institutional barriers exist to achieving …

The Effects Of Chronic Stress On Predictors Of Academic Learning, Gabriel Mcnair

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Executive functioning, goal orientations, and intrinsic motivation in education have shown to predict outcomes in academic learning. Research has shown that for students in chronically stressed environments, the development of all three may be influenced by their ecological contexts. The current study examines how chronic stress at the systems level impacts the development of adaptive learning approaches, specifically mastery goal orientation and intrinsic motivation, among diverse youth. Further, this study seeks to examine the role of executive functioning in the relationship between systemic stress—a conceptualization of chronic stress at the systems level—and mastery goal orientation and intrinsic motivation.

The study …

Personality Pathology As A Self-Regulating Dynamical System, Haya Fatimah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With mounting evidence that personality is both stable and variable, personality scientists have called for comprehensive approaches that integrate stability and dynamics. Dynamical systems theory offers concepts and tools to systematically integrate the stable and dynamic components of personality while identifying the relationship between these components. This study extends the dynamical systems approach to personality pathology and investigates how pathological personality states vary in a patterned manner in relation to their equilibria or attractors, as opposed to random noise. Furthermore, I test if these patterned dynamics may describe important individual differences and predict behavioral outcomes. Using daily data pertaining to …

The Institutional Challenges Of A Quantified Self Study: An Attempt To Ascertain How Data Collected From A Mobile Device Can Be An Indicator Of Personal Mental Health Over Time, Julian Lazaras

University Honors Theses

The adoption of an application of new technology always comes with a bias, this is never more true for the case of human behavioral analytics within higher education. While movements such as the quantified self movement make strides to reinterpret the realm of data analytics, psychology, and computer science, there are inevitably limitations to the adoption and application of such approaches within the standard realm of research. Herein is presented a case where an effort to evaluate the prospect of use of mobile phone data as secondary indicators of personal mental health through the lens of data analysis was put …

Neverland Theory: An Introduction To A Childish-Positive Framework, Daniel M. Gardner

University Honors Theses

Proposes, defines, and defends the beginnings of an original theoretical approach (Neverland Theory) which advocates for the revitalization of psychotherapy through embracing and incorporating more of the "Childish" in clinical practice. Three formal aspects of Childishness are proposed and briefly defined. A literature review of three existing psychotherapies which effectively incorporate the proposed Childish aspects are highlighted and shown to be effective and efficacious. It is argued that prioritization of these aspects contributes to treatment outcome in a way which goes beyond what can be empirically evidenced.

Elementary School Teachers’ Lived Experience Teaching Remotely During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Natasha Gorman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Teaching experiences changed during COVID-19 from face-to-face to online, and teachers encountered numerous challenges. Considerable research has been conducted on many of the issues that teachers at different grade levels faced in this transition. The experiences of elementary school teachers, however, have not received much attention. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experiences of elementary school teachers who taught remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding their challenges may lead to the development of appropriate resources and specific training for teachers in these early grades. The theoretical foundation that grounded this study was Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems …

Elementary School Teachers’ Lived Experience Teaching Remotely During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Natasha Gorman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Teaching experiences changed during COVID-19 from face-to-face to online, and teachers encountered numerous challenges. Considerable research has been conducted on many of the issues that teachers at different grade levels faced in this transition. The experiences of elementary school teachers, however, have not received much attention. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experiences of elementary school teachers who taught remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding their challenges may lead to the development of appropriate resources and specific training for teachers in these early grades. The theoretical foundation that grounded this study was Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems …

Exploring Cultural, Health, And Technology Intersections: A Focus On Migrant Experiences, Merna Mina, Sahij Gill

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

Despite the plethora of theories and frameworks addressing culture, health, and technology adoption, there remains a notable absence of a unifying theory that comprehensively encompasses all three aspects, particularly concerning newcomers. The Health Belief Model, for example, underscores individual perceptions and attitudes toward health yet fails to consider the intricate interplay between cultural factors and technology adoption among immigrant populations. The Healthy Immigrant Effect, which posits that immigrants often exhibit better health outcomes than native-born individuals, does not mention the role of technology on health outcomes. Acculturation theories, while shedding light on the adaptation process, often fall short of explaining …

Making Sentencing Meaningful: How Victims Find Justice In The Sentencing Process, Melissa Handford

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

This article examines the role of victims in the criminal justice system, and how victims find justice through the sentencing process. It examines the role that providing a victim impact statement, receiving information about typical sentencing practices, and restorative or traditional sentencing play in how victims perceive justice in sentencing. Quantitative analyses were conducted analyzing the aforementioned variables and their relationship to participant perceptions of sentence effectiveness, anger, sentence harshness, and happiness, as well as their propensity to obedience. Qualitative analyses were conducted to better understand the reasoning behind victim perceptions and preferences in relation to restorative and traditional sentencing …

Exploring The Relationship Between Organized Sports Participation And Alcohol Experimentation In Children Aged 9 And 10, Kristina Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Children experimenting with alcohol is a phenomenon that has been occurring for decades, with the assumption that most children begin to experiment during adolescence. Research has addressed children over the age of 12 in numerous studies; however, little research has been directed at children between the ages of 9 and 10. In this study, the relationship between alcohol experimentation and sports participation was explored in children between the ages of 9 and 10 years old through a social learning theory lens. The study sample consisted of children aged 9-10 from across the country participating in the ABCD study. Many factors …

Mean Affect Moderates The Association Between Affect Variability And Mental Health, Brooke N. Jenkins, Lydia Q. Ong, Anthony D. Ong, Hee Youn (Helen) Lee, Julia K. Boehm

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Increasing evidence suggests that within-person variation in affect is a dimension distinct from mean levels along which individuals can be characterized. This study investigated affect variability’s association with concurrent and longitudinal mental health and how mean affect levels moderate these associations. The mental health outcomes of depression, panic disorder, self-rated mental health, and mental health professional visits from the second and third waves of the Midlife in the United States Study were used for cross-sectional (n = 1,676) and longitudinal outcomes (n = 1,271), respectively. These participants took part in the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE II), …

Exploring The Relationship Between Organized Sports Participation And Alcohol Experimentation In Children Aged 9 And 10, Kristina Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Children experimenting with alcohol is a phenomenon that has been occurring for decades, with the assumption that most children begin to experiment during adolescence. Research has addressed children over the age of 12 in numerous studies; however, little research has been directed at children between the ages of 9 and 10. In this study, the relationship between alcohol experimentation and sports participation was explored in children between the ages of 9 and 10 years old through a social learning theory lens. The study sample consisted of children aged 9-10 from across the country participating in the ABCD study. Many factors …

Implicit Biases And Attitudes On Decision Making Among Child Protection Workers, Demetria Turnage

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Racial disproportionality remains a historical issue in child welfare systems. It was important for this research to focus on characteristics, professional qualifications, and racial attitudes of those in child welfare decision-making roles to examine how they contributed to racism. To address the gap in the literature, the relationship between years of experience, race/ethnicity, risk of harm, advocacy, racial attitudes, and decision-making among child protection were examined to develop a greater understanding of the ongoing issues and development of reforming the child welfare decision-making process to capture racism among child protection workers. Increasing equality in the child welfare system will benefit …

The Extent That Self-Compassion And Well-Being Predict Burnout In Online Clinical Psychology Phd Students, Tiffany Thompson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Online clinical psychology doctoral students simultaneously experience stressful environments while managing school and life. These stressful experiences can lead to burnout. The concepts of self-compassion and well-being are intertwined with success and burnout. Previous research has indicated that burnout is likely to occur; however, a lack of research has identified specific factors that collectively predict burnout in online clinical psychology doctoral students. Thus, a gap in the current literature regarding burnout using these variables and within clinical psychology PhD students remains to be addressed. This quantitative study investigated the impact of self-compassion and well-being on burnout levels among online clinical …