Community Psychology Commons^™

Disparities In Patient Safety Events For Hospitalized Patients, Nnabuchi Anikpezie

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Background: Twenty years post IOM’s landmark publication, “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System”, still no consensus on case definition for patient safety events (PSEs). Available data on incidence and magnitude of PSEs are more than 10 years old, while data on disparities are ambiguous. Objective: To examine the racial and socioeconomic disparities in reported patient safety events (PSEs) among hospitalized individuals. Design, Setting, and Participants: Cross-sectional study of patient safety events using the 2016 National Inpatient Sample (NIS) from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). A total of 6,753,100 discharges were identified as being at risk …

Determining The Racial And Ethnic Differences In Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Admission Rates, Youngran Kim

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Background: Recent trends show that the utilization of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) has extended beyond severely ill infants and increased substantially across all birth weights. However, little is known about what drives the growth of NICU admission rates and whether these trends differ by race/ethnicity. Methods: The study used 2008-2018 Natality Files with restricted use of state and county-level information. Crude and risk-adjusted NICU admission rates, overall and stratified by birth weight group, were compared between black and white infants and between Hispanic and white infants. Kitagawa decomposition and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition analyses were conducted for the temporal increase in …

Causal Analysis Theory And Application To Alzheimer’S Disease (Ad) And Heart Failure (Hf), Shudi Li

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and heart failure (HF) are two complex diseases that are caused by the combination of genetic and epigenetic, environmental and other lifestyle factors. Understanding the relationships between genetic and epigenetic variants and other factors of such complex diseases could assist researchers discover disease mechanisms and develop targeted therapies. Much of the research in genetics/epigenetics studies regarding AD and heart diseases have been focused on association analysis. Many researchers have identified genetic/epigenetics variants and phenotypes that are significantly associated with disease pathology. While most of these studies utilize association analysis as the analytical platform, the signals identified by …

Heat Stress Related Symptoms And Pulmonary Function In Oil Spill Response And Cleanup Workers Following The Deepwater Horizon Disaster, Yiyou Li

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The objective of this study was to estimate the relationship between heat stress and pulmonary function among OSRC workers following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster. Methods: Pulmonary function test results were analyzed from a cohort of oil spill response and cleanup workers 1-3 years following the DWH disaster (N=5,131). Proxies for heat stress was employed by using information on heat stress-related symptoms as well as a questionnaire on stopping work due to heat reported during a structured telephone enrollment questionnaire. Associations between heat stress proxies and lung function were estimated using multivariable linear models and binomial logistic regression models while …

Epidemiology Of No -Syndromic, Orofacial Clefts In A Registry­Based, Birth-Cohort In Texas: Differences By Cleft Type And Presence Of Additional Defects, Maria Luisa Navarro Sanchez

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Although orofacial clefts, which include cleft palate alone (CP) and cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL±P), are among the most common birth defects, their etiology is complex and is generally not well understood. While some clefts are caused by rare syndromes, the majority occur in the absence of a syndrome, either in association with co-occurring defects or as isolated defects. Among these non-syndromic cases, epidemiologic studies have identified demographic variables that are associated with CP and/or CL±P, such as geographic location and infant sex, as well as several maternal characteristics, though some of these associations have been weak …

Heat Stress Related Symptoms And Pulmonary Function In Oil Spill Response And Cleanup Workers Following The Deepwater Horizon Disaster, Yiyao Li

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the relationship between heat stress and pulmonary function among OSRC workers following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster. Methods: Pulmonary function test results were analyzed from a cohort of oil spill response and cleanup workers 1-3 years following the DWH disaster (N=5,131). Proxies for heat stress was employed by using information on heat stress-related symptoms as well as a questionnaire on stopping work due to heat reported during a structured telephone enrollment questionnaire. Associations between heat stress proxies and lung function were estimated using multivariable linear models and binomial logistic regression models …

Area-Level Landfill Density And Asthma Prevalence In Urban Texas Areas, Jessica Meighan Herrin

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Environmental exposures, especially air pollutants, pose a threat for an increase in asthma prevalence. In particular, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas can cause severe health effects closely resembling asthmatic symptoms. Ambient concentrations of H2S gas correlates with the amount of solid waste found in landfills. The potential for adverse health risks associated with H2S emitted from landfills is of concern for those populations living in close proximity to landfills. Asthma is one of the adverse health effects that can occur due to H2S exposure. However, there is a lack of detailed studies characterizing possible associations between the density of landfills and …

Impact Of Substance Use In Social Networks On Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence For Hiv-Positive Younger Men Who Have Sex With Men, Natascha Del Vecchio

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The community of young men who have sex with men (YMSM) has higher rates of substance use than the general population and the use of alcohol, cannabis, and illicit drugs has been shown to have a negative impact on the HIV care continuum. Our first aim was to understand the prevalence of substance use in the community through the use of self-reported, RDS-II, and RDS-SS estimates. We used multivariable logistic and negative binomial GEE with QIC selection to determine the factors important to having a prescription and staying adherent, respectively. Selected variables were included with a subset of substance use …

Effect Of The Expanded Prospective Payment System On Dialysis Initiation, The Usage Of Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents, And Medicare Expenditures, Lu Zhang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

In January 2011, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the expanded prospective payment system (PPS) for financing the management of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Expanded PPS may not only change healthcare providers’ decisions about patient care by removing the financial incentives associated with the previous composite rate payment methodology, but also change the Medicare expenditures associated with various treatment patterns by using a constant base rate for all dialysis modalities. This study aimed to examine the effect of the expanded PPS on providers’ decisions on timing of dialysis initiation and ESA utilizations in ESRD patients as …

Hospital Market Analysis Using A Cohort Of Privately Insured Patients With Total Hip And Knee Replacement Procedures, Elifnur Yay Donderici

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Background: Several recent studies have analyzed the contribution of hospital inpatient prices and utilization to variation in medical spending. However, it is still unknown how the drivers of spending for specific procedures differ within privately insured patients. Next, the market concentration of hospitals has been a matter of concern for several decades. However, researchers usually calculate Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI) as a measure of market concentration or power, but there is a drawback of using this measure. Hospitals sell differentiated products, and the HHI measure does not take this differentiation into account in its formulation (Gaynor and Town, 2011). Objective: First …

The Multilevel Factors Facilitating Or Impeding Healthcare Access Among Refugees Residing In Bexar County Texas, Howaida Werfelli

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The goal of this study was to increase understanding of healthcare access among refugees by investigating the multilevel factors that facilitate or impede healthcare access among refugees who have resettled in Bexar County, Texas. The multilevel factors facilitating or impeding access to healthcare for refugees resettled in Bexar County were identified as follows: health literacy, level of educational attainment, proficiency (reading, writing and, speaking) in English, proficiency (reading, writing and speaking) in native language, translation services, public transportation, income level, a shortage of healthcare providers, navigation of the healthcare system, the fragmentation of the healthcare system, insurance status, staff shortages …

Health Disparities Across Funcitonal Disability Groups, Katherine Sanches

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Background: People with disabilities experience higher rates of chronic disease and poor health status compared to those without disability. People with disabilities do not participate in community health programs to the same degree as those without disability due to social, programmatic, and environmental barriers. The Community Health Inclusion Index (CHII) is a community health assessment tool which evaluates the degree to which community-level health promoting opportunities to promote nutrition and physical activity are inclusive and accessible to people with disabilities. The CHII assess barriers to inclusion across five domains: build environment, equipment, program/services, staff, and policies. Objective: The purpose of …

Protecting Healthcare Workers From Violence, Terry L. Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Growing violence in the community increases the risks of injuries to healthcare workers. This project assessed the levels of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and acknowledgment of professional accomplishments in healthcare workers in the community who were responsible for the care of confused and combative clients. The community healthcare workers were assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey-Medical Personnel. An intervention was then presented, which focused on self-awareness, including mood assessments, soothing rhythmic breathing, compassionate focused imagery, and the creation of a safe place to process criticism compassionately. The participants were resurveyed after 30 days by repeating the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human …

Migrant Dreams, Egyptian Workers In The Gulf States, Rania M Rafik Khalil

English Language and Literature

Migrant Dreams is about the hopes and aspirations on which migrant workers thrive to achieve their goals. The first version of this book was published in 2017 in Arabic with the title Hatta yantahi al-naft (Until the End of Oil). Based on over a decade of fieldwork, observations and conversations, Samuli Schielke gives a detailed overview of the life of low-income Egyptian migrant laborers who relocated to the Arab Gulf States on temporary contracts, returned, then migrated again. The book focuses mostly on the story of Tawfik, an intelligent Egyptian young man from rural backgrounds who is compelled to achieve …

Teaching (And Learning) In The Time Of Coronavirus, Kathryn Kozak

Pedagogy and the Human Sciences

This paper includes reflection and suggestions for practice related to the hasty shift to virtual instruction prompted by the CoViD19 outbreak in the United States. The author uses their positioning as developmental psychology graduate student and lecturer to explore current challenges for students and educators. Suggestions include reflecting on one's own philosophy of pedagogy, and rooting educational practices in a commitment to humanity and justice.

Exclusionary Beliefs, Multicultural Ideology, Empathy, And Perceived Threat: A Comprehensive Model Of Anti-Immigrant Prejudice, Reigna El-Yashruti

Dissertations

Despite the increased movement of people across national borders, anti-immigrant sentiment continues to pose challenges to immigrant mental health and disrupt intergroup relations. In the USA, where over 14% of the population is comprised of foreign-born individuals, immigrants continue to face prejudice from both the public and political administration. Intergroup Threat Theory (ITT) explains this prejudice as stemming from the perception that the out-group poses a threat to the cultural purity, economic stability, or physical safety of the in-group. Traits that promote group exclusion, such as perceived group superiority (i.e. Right-Wing Authoritarianism; RWA, Social Dominance Orientation; SDO, cultural dominance; CD) …

A Logistic Regression Analysis Of Life Satisfaction Amongst African Immigrants In Hamilton, Canada, Boadi Agyekum

Societies Without Borders

Many minority immigrants currently face severe human rights violation through discrimination and racism, influencing how they rate their life satisfaction in their host destinations. This paper examines the factors that affect African immigrants’ life satisfaction in a mid-sized Canadian city. Using a combination of descriptive and multivariate methods applied on a sample survey (n=236) conducted in Hamilton, Ontario, this article investigates socio-demographic and health-related factors that predict life satisfaction amongst African immigrants, specifically, Ghanaians and Somalis. Findings suggest that Ghanaian immigrants reported greater life satisfaction than their Somali counterparts. People with residency in Canada over 10 years are more likely …

Using Spatial Methods To Better Understand Food Insecurity And Snap Under-Participation In Texas, Ryan Ramphul

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The overall objective of this research is to use spatial methods to better understand food insecurity and SNAP under-participation in Texas. Paper 1 assesses whether a sample of community dwelling Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, who screen positive for food insecurity at healthcare locations in Harris County, exhibit a spatial pattern in terms of where they live. In other words, it tests whether or not there are statistically significant neighborhood hot spots or cold spots of food insecurity against a null hypothesis of complete spatial randomness. This approach is novel because it uses address-level data on patients who report being food …

Physician Burnout: Slowing The Burn Through Positive Deviance Strategies, Swapna Reddy

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Introduction: Affecting 42% of physicians in the United States, “physician burnout” is considered a public health crisis with adverse impacts for personal providers, patients and organizations. Though much research has been devoted to the existence and causes of burnout, to date few studies have been conducted to identify factors associated with physician fulfillment. Aims: This dissertation research was intended to increase and improve knowledge of factors effective in contributing to physician professional fulfillment utilizing a Positive Deviance based approach. To that end, two studies were conducted: the first, a narrative review of the literature to identify specific correlates of physician …

Bayesian Modeling Of Censored Data With Application To Meta-Analysis Of Immunotherapy Trials, Xinyue Qi

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

My dissertation builds on a systematic review of 125 clinical trials reporting on treatment-related adverse events (AEs) associated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors published from 2010 to 2018. The motivating dataset contained the following study-level components extracted from each publication: trial name, number of treated patients, selected immunotherapy drug, dosing schedule, cancer type, number of AEs within each category, and the pre-specified criteria for AE reporting. The number of AEs were reported based upon all-grade (Grade 1-5) and Grade 3 or higher (Grade 3-5) severity. My overall objective was to increase our understanding of the toxicity profiles of five most common cancer …

Cultural Homelessness, Self-Esteem, And Skin Color Satisfaction Among Latinxs, Josephine M. Almanzar

Dissertations

This study explored feelings of cultural homelessness, self-esteem, and skin color satisfaction among Latinxs. A close interest was placed in examining responses of participants who identified as racially Black or Afro-Latinx. Through an electronic survey, the study aimed to answer the four research questions: (1) Is there a correlation between cultural homelessness, self-esteem, and skin color satisfaction; (2) Do participants of different self-perceived skin colors differ in self-esteem, cultural homelessness, and skin color satisfaction; (3) Does age moderate the relationship between self-perceived skin color and self-esteem; and (4) Does age moderate the relationship between self-perceived skin color and cultural homelessness. …

Does Expectation Influence Relationship? A Mixed Methods Investigation Of Parental Expectation And Parent-Child Relationship Among Chinese Family Groups 期望是否會影響關係？華裔家庭中父母的期望對親子關係的影響之研究, Sharon Chiang, Sharon Chiang, Sharon Chiang

Education Dissertations

Abstract

Parental expectation, particularly among Chinese family groups, is understood to be formative upon their children’s identity, behavior in family relationships, educational success and decisions in career choices. China's long history of traditionalism in its social values, heavily based on Confucian philosophy of the family, bears this out. Significant social changes have happened in recent years due to political shifts, modernization, capitalization, immigration, and government population control policies. However, expectation is an element on which both academic study and educational research are rather limited. Current study has touched on the topic of parental expectation and raised some awareness, but the …

Critically And Creatively Engaging With Trauma-Informed Mental Health Research And Treatment Of Lgbtqia+ Communities As Expressive Arts Therapists: A Literature Review, Kelli Lavallee

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Expressive Arts Therapists are uniquely situated as both artists and mental health counselors working in psychological pedagogy rooted in systems of oppression. Given the arts-based approaches to the therapeutic relationship, it can be unethical to offer these approaches without acknowledgement of the ways in which the arts intersect with social justice, and justice is only viable if practitioners critically review the clinical mental health education they are consuming from the institutions they learn in, specifically trauma-informed mental health research assimilation and treatment approaches for Expressive Arts Therapists in training, practice, and education. A review of the literature in this paper …

Relationships Between Ethnicity, Attitudes Toward Institutional Authority, And Hope In The African American Community, Garnadette Stuckey

Dissertations

Abstract

A set of two mixed method studies were conducted to examine attitudes toward institutional authority and to understand how the presence of societal authority and oppression can impact individual and community capacity for hope and full freedom. Researchers have discussed concepts such as attitudes to authority, suggesting that some individuals are naturally more resistant to authority (Rigby, 1985). However, in the United States, racial disparities are great, particularly when the “authority” is a police officer in an urban community and the individual is African American. In African American communities in the U.S., interactions with authority figures begin in childhood. …

Father's Perception Of Roles And Personal Growth: A Mixed-Methods Study Assessing Positive Fatherhood Development In Chicago, Sandra Crittle

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a father involvement intervention on fathers in the Chicago area and what encourages fathers to be involved with their children. This study explored what factors are most predictive of involvement in their child's life. Overall, the study uses secondary data from a sample of existing survey and focus groups with men of mostly lower income status that may or may not be incarcerated. Study 1 included 41 men over the age of 18, who participated in programs provided by the Salvation Army in the Chicago area. Study 1 found …

Work–Family Conflict In Low-Income Households, Maritza G. Hiciano Ramos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The United States is the only country not offering paid parental leave. Paid leave is left at the discretion of employers and only a few states offer Paid Family Leave benefits. The FMLA was established to protect workers from losing their jobs in case they needed to care for an elderly person or for their children. However, since value is not placed in family structures there has not been much development in that area. The FMLA fails to account for the grand majority of people in the U.S., especially those of lower socioeconomic status. Moreover, the vast inequalities that exists …

A Literature Review Of Community Art Therapy With Youth In Inner City Communities Of Color, Jennifer Habeeb

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This literature review was developed to synthesize the research surrounding community-based art therapy with youth who reside in inner city communities of color. Youth of color in inner city communities face a number of different challenges such as low socioeconomic status, social inequality, discrimination, and lack of political representation. There is currently little research on the impact of art therapy and expressive arts interventions with this population, however; these interventions have shown to be effective in a number of different areas. Literature revealed that community-based art therapy with inner city youth of color has shown to increase self-esteem, decrease symptoms …

A Way Of Life: Trauma And Resilience Among Muslim Sexual Minorities In Cape Town, South Africa, Afshan Kamrudin

Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

Ask any Cape Town Muslim “what is Islam?”, and the first words that will come out of their mouths will be, “Islam is a way of life”. Among Muslim sexual minorities, the answer is resoundingly the same. Stating that Islam is a way of life indicates there are prescribed rules and codes of conduct that one must follow in order to be a Muslim. As such, the experience of these prescriptions and expectations are culture specific and context-dependent. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the ways in which Muslim sexual minorities living in Cape Town, South Africa experience …

Nature As Metaphor In School Art Therapy: Development Of A Group Method, Jordan Struckman

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This group method was developed to observe the impact of bringing nature materials indoors to be utilized in school art therapy sessions. Little research exists on the impacts of natural materials being used therapeutically and expressively in a school setting. This study was conducted throughout the course of one week of therapeutic homeroom with three female high school students aged 15-17. Sand, shells, leaves, flowers, seaweed, sea grapes, driftwood, prickly seeds, and berries were gathered from a beach pathway by the researcher and presented in organized piles on a large classroom table. Students responded to a different prompt for four …

Dance/Movement Therapy And Its Implications In A Studio-Based Dance Program: A Community Engagement Project, Akeila Sharp

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Adolescent females often struggle with emotional regulation, developing relationships, and poor body image. Research indicates that taking dance classes or participating in dance movement therapy sessions can be an effective technique to improve in these areas. However, there is limited research on the use of both in one setting. Therefore, this capstone explored the impacts of dance on adolescent females and the implications of dance/movement therapy (DMT) in a studio-based dance program. The objective of this project was to examine how restructuring a dance class using DMT interventions could improve problem areas such as low self-esteem, lack of communication skills, …