Community Psychology Commons^™

Apoyo Deseado: The Role Of Parental Support For Latinx First-Generation College Students, Grevelin Ulerio

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Underrepresented groups, including ethnic and racial minorities as well as first-generation college students (FGCS), are less likely to attain a four-year college degree than their white counterparts. This is particularly true for Latinx youth that are often the first in their family to go to college. Existing research on the role of parental support in promoting retention among Latinx college students is mixed. The current study used a qualitative, longitudinal method to examine the perceptions of parental support among nine (9) Latinx FGCS attending a medium-sized private university in the Midwest region of the United States. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) …

Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Neighborhoods, Stroke Risk, And Cognition In Older Adults: A Focus On Violent Crime, Linda D. Ruiz

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods, i.e., neighborhoods with lower incomes, lower education/occupational levels, and/or higher crime, increases one’s risk of developing chronic health problems, including cardiovascular disease risk factors and stroke. These health problems are associated with reduced cognition and dementia and may help to explain disparities in brain aging. We investigated the association of neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics on stroke risk and cognitive outcomes hypothesizing that stroke risk mediates the association between the socioeconomic environment and cognitive functioning. Participants were non-demented community-dwelling older adults (N=121), ~67 years of age (50% male, 44% non-Latino Black) who underwent cognitive and medical assessments. …

How Women Navigate Safety In The Dominican Bateyes, Mary Margaret Tull

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Research has demonstrated that individuals of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic are at high risk of violence and experience multiple levels of structural oppression. However, less research exists specifically for women of Haitian descent, who are at unique risk of violence due to the complex political history between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as structural and gendered violence. I use frameworks of socio-ecological systems, intersectionality, structured violence, and gendered violence to consider how women of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic construct safety and prioritize different needs for their survival. I used thematic analysis to analyze life …

Understanding The Impact Of Social Location And English As A Second Language On Service Needs And Outcomes Of Intimate Partner Violence Victims, Christina Vosky Soibatian

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Victims of intimate partner violence have various needs due to abuse (e.g. safety, housing, gaining employment). Domestic violence programs play a crucial role in helping victims address their complex needs through services such as advocacy, legal support, counseling, and immediate housing. In an effort to better understand diverse victims’ needs and help-attained in domestic violence program settings, a study was conducted of 464 female victims across 15 domestic violence services agencies throughout a major Midwestern metropolitan area. Victims completed surveys six months after beginning services. The current study examined victims’ profiles across various needs upon their entry to services to …

Chasing The White Whale: Capturing The Relation Between Parent Educational Involvement And Student Socioemotional Difficulties Over Time, Samantha Irene Reaves

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Early childhood socioemotional difficulties are of increasing concern due to their impact on later functioning, particularly in the academic environment. A large body of research highlights the relation between parent educational involvement and student academic success, such that more involvement is associated with better grades, retention, and graduation. It is praised as a protective factor for those students at risk for poor outcomes. An under-researched area of the parent educational involvement literature is the construct’s relation to student socioemotional functioning, which also affects success in the academic environment and predicts long term functioning. This study seeks to longitudinally investigate these …

The Ecology Of Educational Attainment: Resilience Among Black High School Students, Jacqueline O. Davis

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Achievement gaps among students of color in the United States are pervasive and persistent. Identifying trajectories of resilience among Black teens is an important step toward promoting their educational attainment. This study identified risk and protective factors at the individual, family, and school levels hypothesized to influence Black high school students’ attainment. The effects of these risk (behavior problems, lack of college planning, and school problems) and protective factors (academic self-efficacy, parent involvement, and academic climate) on Black students’ educational attainment at 10-year follow-up were assessed. The sample included 2,423 Black 10th-grade students who participated in the Education Longitudinal Study …

An Exploration Of The Psychometric Properties Of The Self-Sufficiency Matrix Among Individuals And Families Currently Or At Risk Of Experiencing Homelessness, Camilla Cummings

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The homeless service sector has moved toward the implementation of assessment tools to better understand the support service needs of individuals and families. While a variety of assessment tools are available, their psychometric evidence base is limited. The Self-Sufficiency Matrix (SSM) is one assessment that holds promise with regard to its reliability, validity, and potential use as an instrument for triaging services. However, research examining the factor structure of the SSM has been inconsistent across samples. Moreover, it has never been tested among a broad population of both those currently experiencing and at-risk of experiencing homelessness, or examined unaccompanied adults …

The Lived Experience Of Recovery Home Residents: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Dina Chavira

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Substance use disorders have had an enormous impact on individuals, families, and communities in the United States. The societal cost of substance abuse in terms of health care, crime, and lost wages is over $700 billion annually. Despite advances in evidence-based treatments, the chronicity of substance use disorders underscores the need to explore and expand long-term aftercare options to prevent relapse after acute residential treatment. Oxford Houses offer an affordable alternative to more costly and limited forms of transitional housing. These self-sustaining, democratically-run recovery homes provide a safe and sober living environment with peer support and no professional staff. Provided …

Investigating Post-Exertional Malaise As A Core Symptom Of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis And Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Meta-Analytic Approach, Abigail A. Brown

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Efforts to establish a reliable and valid case definition for myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME and CFS) have been complicated by an over-reliance on clinical consensus, and inconsistent application of established case definitions by researchers across study sites. This has resulted in the absence of an empirically-based case definition for ME and CFS, as well as failed replication studies on potential diagnostic tests and biomarkers. One step toward an empirically-driven case definition is determining which symptoms best discriminate between patients with ME and CFS versus controls. Post-exertional malaise (PEM) is considered a cardinal symptom of ME and CFS …

An Examination Of Depression And Social Support Among African American Women In Substance Use Recovery, Jocelyn Rose Droege

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Depression is responsible for widespread functional impairment and disability in 16 million individuals across the United States, as well as societal costs that exceed $36 billion. There are numerous risk factors for depression, such as female gender, ethnic minority status, poverty, incarceration, and comorbid substance use disorders. Thus, low-income, criminal-justice-involved African American women in recovery from substance use problems represent a population that is particularly vulnerable to depression. Social support has been established as a protective factor against depression; however, the relationship between social support and depression has been understudied in such high-risk African American populations. The present study examined …

Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) And Its Impact On Actions: Exploring Social Change Through College Students, Rachael Leigh Suffrin

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The present study has three goals. First, it validates a new Sensitivity to Employer Social Responsibility Scale, used to help understand how undergraduate students perceive their values related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) impact their prospective employment decisions. Second, this study examines whether students value working for a socially responsible employer and third, how (a) social justice experiences in college and/or (b) social justice attitudes and beliefs may predict how students perceive the impact their CSR values have on their prospective employment decisions. Results indicate that students who participated in the study overall positively endorsed a degree of sensitivity to …

A Reexamination Of The Cognitive Behavioral Model Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Investigating The Cogency Of The Model’S Behavioral Pathway, Madison Sunnquist

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Cognitive behavioral theories of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) assert that cognitions and behaviors perpetuate the fatigue and impairment that individuals with CFS experience (Wessely, Butler, Chalder, & David, 1991). Vercoulen and colleagues (1998) utilized structural equation modeling to empirically develop a cognitive behavioral model of CFS. The resulting model indicated that attributing symptoms to a physical cause, focusing on symptoms, and feeling less control over symptoms were associated with increased fatigue. Additionally, individuals who attributed symptoms to a physical cause reported lower activity levels and more fatigue and impairment. However, in an attempt to replicate this model, Song and Jason …

The Role Of School Climate In Mitigating The Effects Of Neighborhood Socio-Economic Status And Violence On Academic Achievement, Linda D. Ruiz

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

In recent years the quality of education available to children has become increasingly dependent on the social and economic demographics of neighborhoods in which the children live. This study assesses the role of community violence in explaining the relation between SES and academic outcomes and the potential of positive school climate to promote academic achievement. With a sample of 297 Chicago public elementary schools, we test the hypotheses that violent crime mediates the relation between SES and academic achievement, and school climate has a direct effect on achievement and moderates the relation between SES and academic achievement. Results support the …

Entrepreneurship As Empowerment: How Women Are Redefining Work, Charlynn Odahl

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The number of women who are entrepreneurs in the United States has steadily risen since the 1970s and today women found almost half of all new companies. For women, creating their own companies through entrepreneurship may be a way to reject existing work settings, where existing setting and gender dynamics may limit their advancement, creativity, or flexibility. Indeed, entrepreneurship may serve as a form of empowerment to enable women to pursue greater control over their lives. Yet research on the lived experience of this population is limited, with few studies examining the lived experience of this important group. Also, existing …

Onset Patterns Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome And Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: A Mixed Method Approach, Meredyth Evans

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) refer to a debilitating illness without a universally accepted or well-understood etiology. Some experts have suggested that there are multiple pathways to the development of ME and CFS, which may also indicate multiple onset patterns. Due to unanswered questions regarding etiology, the onset of ME and CFS is considered a key area of inquiry.

Case criteria for ME and CFS and much of the academic literature suggest that patients typically experience one of two possible onset patterns: sudden or gradual. Many experts consider the mode of ME …

The Role Of Guilt, Shame, And Self-Compassion In Promoting Racial Justice Engagement For White Students, Elizabeth A. Mcconnell

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Diversity courses and activities are a part of the multicultural mission of many institutions of higher education. However, universities, colleges, and diversity educators continue to grapple with how to increase participation and student engagement in these courses. The lens of privilege studies provides an important perspective for thinking about how to achieve this goal for White students learning about systems of racial inequity. In the current study, we conducted four studies to better understand how to decrease resistance to reflecting on White privilege (e.g., defensive affect or withdrawal) and to promote racial justice engagement (e.g., willingness to take diversity courses …

Examining The Pathway From Maternal Criminal Involvement To Adolescent Delinquency, Dina Chavira

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

As incarceration rates across the United States have continued to rise, there has been growing concern with the unintended consequences that have resulted. This has prompted researchers across multiple disciplines to study the effects of incarceration at the individual, family, community, and societal levels. An important but overlooked factor pertains to extensive multiple social service agency involvement and missed opportunities for intervention. Families involved with the criminal justice system (CJS) are often at risk of involvement with other human service agencies, one agency being the child welfare system (CWS). Little is known about families who fall within these two systems, …

The Role Of Multicultural Competence, Privilege, Attributions, And Team Support In Predicting Positive Youth Mentor Outcomes, Rachael Leigh Suffrin

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

In the current study we use Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological theory to guide an inquiry into how the social environment surrounding mentors’ matters in regards to mentor outcomes of satisfaction, retention, and extra-role pro-social behavior (i.e., mentors willingness to go above and beyond for their mentee or the mentoring program). Mentors are sampled from mentoring organizations across the United States. Drawing from Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory (1979), we examine mentors embedded in distinct micro- and macrosystems. At the microsystem level we explore how the relationship between the mentor and the (a) mentee, (b) mentees’ family, and (c) the mentoring team may predict …

Gender Role Ideology And Major Choice Of Students In College Religious Groups, Charlynn Anne Odahl

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

In the present study examined students who attend college religious groups to better understand how religious conservatism, religious commitment, and gender may shape gender role ideology and college major choice. A focus on these outcomes of gender role ideology and college major choice is important given the continued persistence of sexism and gender inequality. We examined how personal characteristics and characteristics of the group (i.e., defined by peer and leader attitudes) may shape personal gender role ideology and major choice. We tested how personal, peer, and leader religious conservatism may predict more traditional gender role ideology and the choice of …

Ideal Dating And Sexual Partners For Low-Income Heterosexual African American Adolescents, Darnell Nathaniel Motley

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Dating and sexual relationships among adolescents have been identified as both normative and beneficial. However, the research examining the dating and sexual relationships of African American adolescents has been narrow in scope, focusing primarily on risks of intimate partner violence, pregnancy, and STI/HIV transmission. This myopic focus has left a gap in the literature as it relates to the normative aspects of dating and sexual relationships for these youth.

The present study sought to better understand the dating and sexual partner preferences of 51 African American adolescents (male = 32, female = 19) recruited from Chicago and San Francisco. The …