Community Psychology Commons^™

Female Genital Mutilation In The United States: Estimating The Number Of Girls At Risk, Phyllis Chesler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Female genital mutilation (FGM) destroys the capacity of women to experience sexual pleasure. It causes serious medical complications such as bleeding, painful urination, cysts, dangerous and recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, the growth of scar tissue that make marital intercourse a nightmare and that turns childbirth into an experience of danger and torture. Due to immigration, FGM now poses a potential health crisis in the West, both in Europe and in the United States. To estimate how many girls who live in the West are at risk, one can measure the prevalence of FGM in the non-Western countries where …

The Impact Of Extracurricular Leadership Activities On Adolescent Life Satisfaction, Brittany Bearss, Nicholas P. Palumbo

McNair Scholars Program

Little research has explored the role of different leadership activities on the psychological well- being of adolescence. However, previous research has shown that leadership development along with the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs: autonomy, relatedness, and competence; and experiencing feelings of vitality lead to optimal functioning and development and positive life satisfaction (Ryan & Deci, 2000; 2001). The current study uses Self Determination Theory (SDT) and Authentic Leadership Theory (ALT) as guiding frameworks to examine the relationship between leadership activities and adolescent life satisfaction. The study aimed to explore how the three basic psychological needs, feelings of vitality, …

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Homeless Chronicity, And Age At Onset Of Homelessness, Joseph T. Tucciarone Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Childhood adversity is associated with numerous negative outcomes across multiple domains, including mental and physical health, interrelationships, and social functioning. Notably, research suggests that childhood adversity has a dose-response relationship with these outcomes; that is, greater numbers of adverse experiences in childhood are associated with worse outcomes. These outcomes overlap with many risk factors of homelessness. This study sought to address two questions: 1) Does a dose-response relationship exist between childhood adversity and chronic homelessness? 2) Does childhood adversity negatively predict the age at which homelessness first occurs? Adults experiencing homeless who are accessing homeless services in the Tri-Cities area …

Illusory Boundaries And Perceived Access To Rural Mental Health Care, Caitlin M. Shelby

Honors College Theses

This study examined the potential effects of illusory boundaries (in the form of county lines on a map) on distance judgments, specifically distance to mental health care (therapy) and perceived accessibility to said mental health care. 47 undergraduate psychology students completed our study through SONA on Qualtrics. Participants were presented with a series of 10 maps. Each map had two pins, one labelled “you are here” and the other labelled “therapy location” with a key on the bottom for reference (however, participants were instructed to not use their fingers as a measurement tool to keep the distance judgment a perceived …

Won't You Be My Neighbor, Christian Campbell, Elizabeth Sullivan

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

Social identity is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership(s). The groups which people belong are an important source of pride and self-esteem. Groups give us a sense of belonging to the social world. Neighborhood communities like Pittsburgh’s Hill District can foster social identity for members. However, when the group we belong to is heavily judged and scrutinized our sense of identity can be affected. The current study aims to understand how personal attitudes and perceived external attitudes of one's community effects the same individual’s communal identity and personal identity. …

Creating Better Roommate Dyads: The Rold Of Optimism, Pessimism, And Preception Within College Roommate Relationships, Madison A. Murphy

Selected Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to address the relationship between optimism/pessimism, perception and roommate relationships in college students. Participants were conveniently pooled from Southeastern University and were assessed via an online survey. Literature was compiled supporting the hypotheses that the researcher created. After analysis, it was found that optimism/pessimism correlated with roommate relationships and perceived similarity of optimism and pessimism correlated with roommate relationships. These results supported some of the researcher’s hypotheses but not all of them

The Impact Of The Aca Cost-Sharing Elimination Provision On The Utilization Of Breast, Cervical, And Colorectal Cancer Screening Services Among Insured Individuals In The United States, Sara Salah Atallah

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Preventive cancer screenings are essential to early detect cancer and subsequently save lives. However, out-of-pocket expenditures for cancer screening services deter individuals from obtaining them. In an effort to improve the utilization of cancer screening, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) implemented a cost-sharing elimination provision that removes all forms of cost sharing including copayments, co-insurance and deductibles from certain preventive care services that are recommended by widely known scientific figures such as the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). This study evaluated the impact of the ACA cost-sharing elimination provision for preventive care services from 2008 through 2016 using …

Spatial Analysis Of Exposure To Soil Heavy Metals, Oral Bioaccessibility And Risk Assessment In Houston, Texas, Tsai Shu Chu

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Chronic exposure to heavy metals could lead to adverse health effects such as cancer, neurological development diseases and immunological diseases. The ingestion pathway has been considered the major exposure route for heavy metal contaminated soils. Heavy metals may be proportionally bioaccessible for the human body to absorb. There are no risk assessment studies done in Houston to evaluate health risks from exposure to heavy metals and no spatial analysis done yet. The aims of this dissertation are (1) to characterize 13 heavy metals: magnesium (Mg), vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc …

Stochastic Search Variable Selection Applied To A Bayesian Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model For Dyads, Adriana Lopez Ordonez

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

In behavioral science research, many outcomes of interest can be influenced by interpersonal relationships (Gyarmathy & Neaigus, 2007). To assess such outcomes, data can be collected using dyads. Each dyad has two elements, an actor, who responds to a stimulus and a partner, who can potentially influence the actor (Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006). One popular model for analyzing dyadic data is the Actor Partner Interdependence model (APIM). In this study, we proposed a variable selection method applied to a probit Bayesian Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model (Bayesian HGLM) to fit the APIM to dyadic data. The proposed method used stochastic …

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Type Tests Under Spatial Correlations, Wenjun Zheng

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is a non-parametric hypothesis test that measures the probability of deviations, that the interested univariate random variable is drawn from a pre-specified distribution (one-sample KS) or has the same distribution as a second random variable (twosample KS). The test is based on the measure of the supremum (greatest) distance between an empirical distribution function (EDF) and a pre-specified cumulative distribution function (CDF) or the largest distance between two EDFs. KS test has been widely adopted in statistical analysis due to its virtue of more general assumptions compared to parametric test like t-test. In addition, the p-value derived from …

Multiple And Intersecting Experiences Of Women In Prostitution: Improving Access To Helping Services, Kathryn Hodges, Sarah Burch

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

When women involved in prostitution experience multiple and intersecting needs, they may face barriers in accessing help and support. These barriers can include geographical location and opening hours of agencies, limited childcare support, and a lack of female-only provision. As a result, women are frequently disadvantaged, and their personal safety put at risk, as they become increasingly vulnerable to exploitation, particularly if they do not have access to secure accommodation. This research project seeks to understand the choices and decisions women make when they engage with helping services. The findings report on an in-depth qualitative study with 11 women involved …

The Need For Emotional Intelligence In The Workplace, Leah Davis

Senior Projects

This thesis explores why emotional intelligence is valuable in the workplace, arguing it helps to create positive employee morale. As our society becomes more diverse, so does the environment of the workplace. These developments place increased demands on employees, requiring skills of social and emotional intelligence to function in newly dynamic work environments. Findings and recommendations emerge from an analysis of peer-reviewed journal articles, literature reviews, books, and case studies from the fields of business and psychology. Results verify that emotional intelligence is beneficial in the workplace due to increased workplace demands, employee morale, and informational diversity. This analysis also …

Teaching English To Refugees Through Storytelling, Emily Camplejohn

Senior Honors Theses

Many refugees are trying to learn English while assimilating to a new culture. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has identified several needs and goals of refugees including competence in the language of the receiving culture and participation in a new, welcoming community. Storytelling, expressing or receiving a narrative through oral or written communication, can be implemented for teaching English to refugees with these goals and can link academic learning with real life experiences. In addition to using storytelling as a meaningful way to interact with language, storytelling also fosters a community within the classroom. The teacher is …

"Sometimes You Have To Be The Leader": A Minnesota Oral History On Fighting Sexual Exploitation, Trudee Able-Peterson

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Prostitution survivor Trudee Able-Peterson used oral histories to research and document the efforts of women and men to respond to the sexual exploitation of women and children in Minnesota. Her findings illustrate the leadership needed to overcome centuries of commercial sexual exploitation to obtain a beginning societal response. Respondents indicated the importance of their interaction with pioneer leaders in other locales. Their comments also illustrate the many issues and challenges still facing the community.

Reaching And Supporting Trafficked Women In Austria And Germany: A Call For Training On Attachment And Trust-Building, Silke Gahleitner, Katharina Gerlich, Roschan Heiler, Heidemarie Hinterwallner, Edith Huber, Mascha Körner, Josef Pfaffenlehner, Yvette Völschow

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Many victims of trafficking in women are not reached by the available support services despite numerous measures that have been put in place on both the national and international levels. This deficiency is due to the inadequacy of the support systems, which do not meet the needs of the women concerned. A bilateral Austro-German research project entitled “Prävention und Intervention bei Menschenhandel zum Zweck sexueller Ausbeutung (PRIMSA) [“Prevention and intervention in the trafficking of human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation”] was set up with the aim of developing ideas for a multidisciplinary prevention and intervention scheme. This article …

"I Assumed Chicago Would Be In The Forefront": Comments On The Movement To End Prostitution With Survivor-Leader Brenda Myers-Powell, Jody Raphael

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

For many years in the 2000’s, researcher Jody Raphael, teamed with prostitution-survivor Brenda Myers-Powell, undertook a myriad of speaking engagements in the Chicago metropolitan area, intended to raise awareness of the violence and coercion in the sex trade industry. Ten years ago, they were asked to make a video of their presentation. Recently, Dignity editors came across the video and asked for an update on the conversation. This piece is the result.

Associations Among Parenting Style And Parental Feeding Practices On Adolescent Self-Efficacy For Diet And Obesity In African American Adolescents, Haylee Loncar

Theses and Dissertations

Previous literature has demonstrated relationships between parenting factors and child health. However, few studies have investigated such associations in African American and adolescent samples. The proposed study aimed to investigate the relationships between parenting factors (parenting style and parental feeding practices), and adolescent self-efficacy for diet, and adolescent body mass index (BMI) in African American families. Baseline data were collected from 241 African American parent- adolescent dyads enrolled in the Families Improving Together (FIT) for Weight Loss trial. Adolescents self-reported their perceptions of their caregiver’s parenting style and feeding practices, as well as perceptions of their own self-efficacy for diet. …

Assessing Readiness For A Physical Activity Intervention In Positive Youth Development Afterschool Programs, Brittany Skiles Cook

Theses and Dissertations

Physical inactivity has been identified as a primary health threat to youth, and existing afterschool programs (ASP) are a promising context for implementing physical activity (PA) interventions. However, few PA interventions have been effective and generalizability of programs has been poor. Assessing organizational readiness during the testing of a PA intervention can help inform generalizability and sustainability. The R=MC2 heuristic separates readiness into motivation, innovation-specific capacity, and general capacity, each of which are further divided into subcomponents. The current multiple-case study pilot tests the feasibility and effectiveness/efficacy of a readiness assessment tool based on R=MC2 developed for the Connect through …

Team Characteristics As Predictors Of Collaboration On Sexual Assault Response Teams (Sarts), Anna Wegrzyn

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Sexual Assault Response Teams (SARTs) are collaborative multidisciplinary groups designed to coordinate the response to sexual assault. SARTs were created through efforts to address issues related to sexual assault response, such as negative treatment of survivors by responders, low prosecution rates, and disorganized relationships among responders. The goal of SARTs is to improve cross-system collaboration in the response to sexual assault in communities. Although SARTs tend to have similar goals and foci, teams vary in the formal structures and the collaborative activities they adopt. Therefore, it is important to examine the characteristics of SARTs and how they relate to collaboration …

How Media Impact Race Relations: Positive And Negative Historical Examples And Applied Psychological Principles, Sophia Nocera

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis sought to examine how media influenced interracial relations in the 1920s and 1930s. It starts by defining necessary terms like media, race, racism, and stereotypes. Afterwards, studies which demonstrate that media reflect society are analyzed as well as studies which determine the extent of media influence on society. Media are the most influential on people who agree with the content provided and those who have no specific opinion on the issue at hand.

Next, psychological studies which determine the circumstances in which racist ideology is accepted the most are analyzed. This analysis determined that in-group versus out-group sentiments …

Dynamic Prediction Of Survival Data Using Single Or Multiple Longitudinal Markers, Xuehan Ren

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Recurrent events and time-to-event data occur frequently in longitudinal studies. In large clinical trials with survival endpoints, researchers collect a multitude of longitudinal markers. There is a growing need to utilize these rich longitudinal information to build prediction models and assess their prognostic performance. In this dissertation research, I propose a novel approach of integrating longitudinal markers in modeling the recurrent event or terminal event data, and conduct dynamic prediction of event risks. Under joint a model framework, I jointly model a longitudinal outcome and a recurrent event process with the two process correlated via shared latent function. The probability …

미투 운동은 성매매도 포함하여야 한다 (#Metoo Must Include Prostitution), Melissa Farley

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Strategies Employed By Community-Based Service Providers To Address Hiv-Associated Neurocognitive Challenges: A Qualitative Study, Renato M. Liboro, Sean B. Rourke, Francisco Ibanez-Carrasco, Andrew Easton, Daniel Pugh, Claudia Medina, Allan Rae, Paul A. Shuper, Lori E. Ross

Psychology Faculty Research

Background: HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders and other causes of neurocognitive challenges experienced by people living with HIV (PLWH) persist as public health concerns in developed countries. Consequently, PLWH who experience neurocognitive challenges increasingly require social support and mental health services from community-based providers in the HIV sector. Methods: Thirty-three providers from 22 AIDS service organizations across Ontario, Canada, were interviewed to determine the strategies they used to support PLWH experiencing neurocognitive difficulties. Thematic analysis was conducted to determine key themes from the interview data. Results: Three types of strategies were identified: (a) intrapersonal, (b) interpersonal, and (c) organizational. Intrapersonal strategies involved …

Subjective Religiosity And Organized Religiosity As A Predictor Of Sexual Affect Among African Americans, Janelle B. Grant, Kyla Day Fletcher

The Hilltop Review

Historically, religiosity and attendance at a church with a majority African American or Black population was of practical value for African Americans, these branches of practicality extended to sexual health, such as delayed sexual intercourse and higher instances of using contraception. Overall, however, public sexual discourses show some African American communities as “at risk” regarding sexual health, which can make an African American individual feel negatively about their sexual experiences. The current study aimed to understand how subjective religiosity and organized religiosity influenced African Americans to experience a positive, negative, or shameful sexual affect, We found that higher levels of …

Supporting Marin County Youth Suffering From Anxiety And Depression, Victoria L. Grajeda

Student Research Posters

This toolkit was created to help shed light on the impact a stressful high school environment can have on today’s youth, and provide teachers and parents with up-to-date information on what resources are available within the county of Marin. When working with adolescents, it is important to consider environmental threats to their mental health (i.e., lack of sleep) in order to make proper referrals and treatment plans. A study done by Kelley, Lockley, Kelley, & Evans (2017) implemented a 10:00 a.m. start time at an urban school in England. By delaying school start times, Kelley et. al found that absences …

The Short Dark Triad And Giving To Nonprofits, Austin N. Prewett, Charles Elliott, Paul A. Story

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

The present study examines whether “demonstrable utility,” the belief that giving provides immediate or future tangible benefits (Sargeant, Ford, & West, 2006) significantly correlates to the adverse personality traits Machiavellianism and narcissism as they are defined in the Short Dark Triad (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Two-hundred and twelve participants were gathered from Kennesaw State University to participate in a 20-minute online survey. While other factors were tested, attention was placed on demonstrable utility. Simple linear regression models were used to determine the relationship between demonstrable utility, Machiavellianism, and narcissism. A post-hoc Sobel’s mediation test was used to establish the different …

What Makes You Happy? Predicting Wellbeing In Nicaraguan Adolescents And Young Adults, Daniel A. Rodriguez

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

The present study sought to identify significant predictors of wellbeing within a sample of 2,764 high school and university students in Nicaragua, a country where significant stressful events and suicide are common. Ages ranged from 11-22 years (M = 16.63, SD = 2.85), and 60.3% identified as female. Measures used include the Personal Wellbeing Index, the Child and Youth Resilience Measure, the Patient Health Questionnaire-4, and demographic questions. Parent occupations were coded using the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08). A multiple regression was conducted to identify five core variables that combined to predict approximately 30% of the variance of …

The Effects And Experiences Of Stigma In The Minneapolis Strip Club Industry, Machensey Shelgren

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Utilizing participatory action research with dancers in the Minneapolis strip club industry, the present study examined current dancers’ experiences with stigma, its effects on their quality of life, and stigma management techniques. The present multi-methods study involved an initial survey and follow-up interviews with approximately 60 current dancers within Minneapolis strip clubs. Participants reported experiencing stigma in personal relationships and in the workplace, discrimination by landlords and future employers. Through thematic analysis, seven key themes were identified: dancer identity, assumptions made, loss of social support, profession weaponized against them, housing discrimination, lack of employment mobility, and identity concealment as stigma …

Schadenfreude: The Impact Of Another's Misfortune On The Mood Of College Students, Erin A. Chalmers

Theses and Dissertations

The present study was focused on determining if positive affect scores increase after viewing an example of misfortune which would demonstrate the psychological phenomenon of schadenfreude-defined as a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction when something misfortunate happens to someone else. Measures used in the study included the Positive and Negative Affect inventory (PANAS; Watson et al., 1988) and a modified version of the Velton mood induction procedure developed by Seibert and Ellis (1991) which was used to measure and manipulate students’ mood, respectively. Students enrolled in a psychology research pool at Columbus State University participated in the study (N=46). …

An Exploratory Study Of The Relationship Between Community Involvement And Lgb Identity, Jenna Collins

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Found families are common within the LGBT community, and many models of LGB identity development include contact with other same-sex attracted individuals, or involvement in the LGBT community as important to identity development. However there has been little research investigating the connection between community involvement and identity development or acceptance. This exploratory study will compare LGB identity, measured with the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Identity Survey, to respondents’ answers to open-ended questions about their LGB community involvement. Open-ended questions will be coded by the researcher using content analysis to find commonalities between responses. Comparisons will look for any relationships between stages …