Social Justice Commons^™

Exploring The Covid-19 Experience Of Young Adult Latinos In Rural California: Insights Into Mental Health & The Immigrant Health Paradox, Vivianna Plancarte

Pomona Senior Theses

This study expands the COVID-19 and Latino Immigrants in Rural California (CLIMA) Study at UC Merced by exploring how the mental health of young adult Latinos in rural CA has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and comparing the experiences of US-born Latinos to those of Latino immigrants to investigate an Immigrant Health Paradox. A convergent mixed methods design was first employed whereby qualitative and quantitative data was collected concurrently, and then merged. Then, the data collected from young adult Latinos was compared to that from Latino immigrants collected by CLIMA Study to explore the Immigrant Health Paradox in the …

Medical Knowledge As A Recalcitrant Epistemological System: An Application Of Standpoint Epistemology In The Analysis Of Marginalization Within U.S Healthcare, Abby Deshazo

CMC Senior Theses

Research on healthcare disparities outside the field of epistemology tend to miss the true origins of oppressions imposed on marginalized individuals by the U.S healthcare system. This happens because of the false belief that these oppressions are reducible to social or political oppressions. By employing the perspective of a standpoint epistemologist, we can better identify the origins of these oppressions and subsequently consider more appropriate solutions. The standpoint epistemologist’s perspective (1) provides an intuitive case for the role individuals’ schemas play in the evaluation of what healthcare professionals know; (2) situates medical knowledge within epistemology, leading us to …

After The Protests: A Campus Racial Climate Case Study Of The Perception And Curricular Responses For Institutional Reforms, Following The Black Students’ Demands For Interventions At The University Of Missouri-Columbia, Bruce E. Mitchell Ii

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This qualitative method single case study explores the phenomenon of a racially tense campus climate at the University of Missouri Columbia, a Predominantly White Midwestern Institution. At the forefront of the media regarding student and athlete protests, leading to the resignation of senior level administrators, African American students put forth eight demands to their administrators. Included, was the creation and implementation of a required racial awareness and inclusion curriculum. The study explores the perceptions of the institutional response to an exceptional campus racial climate issue and the process of formulating and participating in a diversity training course and a semester …

Development Of A Resource Manual For Working With Latino Parolees, Abner Flores

Theses and Dissertations

The standard psychological treatment available for Latino men who are newly released from prison has remained unchanged for over thirty years and focuses on decreasing recidivism through cognitive-behavioral interventions by managing and decreasing law-breaking behaviors. However, clinical experience with inmates suggests that personal experiences, cultural values, and intergenerational trauma along with the long-term impact of poverty, gang ties, and repeated incarceration will all influence post-release behavior. Understanding these areas could help draw out protective factors and innate resiliency, therefore informing treatment and helping newly released inmates from becoming repeat offenders. In this dissertation, I developed a resource manual for service …

Himpathy? The Impact Of Defendant Social Status On Perceptions Of A Rape Legal Case, Andrea Pals

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

There is limited work regarding multiple indicators of social status in the legal system (e.g., power and SES). The present study investigated the influence of defendant social status on case judgments in a first-degree rape case. The experiment used a 2 (defendant power: high vs. low) x 2 (defendant SES: high vs. low) x 2 (participant gender) between-subjects design. A sample of 282 community members were recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants were presented with a case summary, asked to make guilt and credibility judgments, complete the system justification gender scale (gender SJ: Jost & Kay, 2005), and answer standard …

Altering The Distance: Using Construal Level Theory To Examine Conciliatory Policy Support, Brandon Reinkensmeyer

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Distancing—a cognitive reappraisal strategy—increases conciliatory policy support (i.e., policies redressing inequity) by reducing anger. Related but distinct research has used construal level theory (CLT), which explains the relationship between psychological distance and mental representations (e.g., events and attitudes), to explore intergroup relations. CLT demonstrates increased psychological distance induces abstract thinking, which leads to high-level construal (HLC) mindsets. HLC mindsets, like distancing, decrease political polarization and prejudice toward out-groups. As both distancing (an appraisal technique) and HLC mindsets (a potential outcome of appraisal techniques) may decrease political polarization and prejudice toward outgroups, across two experiments, the present work investigated whether …

Now You See Me — Now You Don’T: An Investigation Of Hair Alterations Effects On Face Identification In Own- And Other-Race Faces, Maresa A. Tate

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

How/Can Gestalt Therapy Promote Liberation From Anti-Black Racism?, Michelle Billies

Publications and Research

Anti-Black racism is an interruption of contact that often takes place out of awareness, and is continuously enacted through innumerable fixed gestalts at every level of human experience. Gestalt therapy as a movement does not leverage its great potential for undoing fixed gestalts of anti-Black racism, or supporting fluid gestalts of racial liberation; this article explores GT theories and practices that do so. I first discuss how concepts of the field, ground, awareness, consciousness, and contact can be informed by ideas such as intersectionality and double consciousness from Black liberation history as well as theorists such as Crenshaw, DuBois, Fanon, …

The Effects Of Racial Capitalism On Poor White Laborers, Amy Whittaker

Liberal Studies (MA) Final Essays

While always remembering that racial capitalism’s very nature ensures that non-white Americans suffer incomparable racial oppression, this paper will endeavor to expose the devastation caused to American society as a whole by explaining the ways in which racial capitalism destroyed poor white labors ability to participate fully in the economic system and strangled its chances of living the American dream. It is my hope that by discussing the missing piece of the poor white laborers’ experience under racial capitalism will unite poor white laborers and poor black laborers to work together to end racial capitalism, policing, and the carceral system. …

Investigating Body Dissatisfaction, Obesity, & Eating Pathology: African American Adolescent Girls & Mothers, Samantha Ronderos

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Body dissatisfaction is a globally prevalent issue among adolescents, particularly for those living in industrialized societies (Griffith et al., 2017). Body dissatisfaction is considered a central component of obesity intervention (Huh et at., 2011; Mitola et al., 2007) and eating disorder etiology (Kelly et al., 2005; Saunders & Frazier, 2016). It predominantly effects females and is commonly found among those with eating disorders and those who struggle with obesity or have higher BMI (Kelly et al., 2005; Saunders & Frazier, 2016). However this is contradicted in African American females, the majority of research has found low levels of body dissatisfaction, …

Rainbow Writes: Peer-Led Creative Writing Groups’ Potential For Promoting 2slgbtq+ Youth Wellbeing, Ceilidh Harrison

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Though mainstream acceptance for the 2SLGBTQ+ community is on the rise, elevated risks of mental health challenges still pervade this community, particularly for youth growing up in this changing environment. Based on previous literature citing the benefits of creative interventions and youth autonomy, the current study sought to explore the implementation of an online, peer-led creative writing program as a possible means to increase emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing in 2SLGBTQ+ youth. Twenty self-identifying 2SLGBTQ+ youth from across Canada were recruited to form two 10-week, online peer-led creative writing groups titled “Rainbow Writes”. Based on Lerner et al.’s (2003) “Five …

Softening Resistance Toward Diversity Initiatives: The Role Of Mindfulness In Mitigating Emotional White Fragility, Vatia P. Caldwell

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

When examining racial equity within organizations, a common theme is the failure of many organizations to address whiteness in their organizations (i.e., White supremacy, White privilege, White dominant culture). Decentering whiteness is key in racial equity work (Grimes, 2002). However, the process of decentering whiteness often results in backlash from Whites also known as White fragility (DiAngelo, 2011). This backlash impedes the organization from moving towards racial equity by upholding the racial status quo. The purpose of the current study is to further explore the role mindfulness plays in racial-equity work within organizations. Specifically, a mindfulness intervention was tested for …

A Mule For The Patriarchy: Waking Up To The Harm Of Prostitution To Wives And Families, Andrea Heinz

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

I exited from commercial sexual exploitation eight years ago. Here, I share my reflections on how my actions directly impacted other women. I describe how my participation in the sex trade adversely affected the wives and girlfriends of sex buyers. I posit that sex sellers negatively impact these vicarious victims by subscribing to and endorsing “sex work” ideology. I assert that the collective good of all women is diminished by viewing sexual services as a market commodity. I stress that the collective good of all women is enhanced by assuming responsibility and compassion for one another.

Cuban Immigrants’ Experience With Acculturation And How They Cope In The United States, Lourdes Araujo

Dissertations

Objective: This research examines how Cuban immigrants experience cope and adapt to the United States. Cuban immigration is associated with specific stressors related to the immigration experience and the necessary process of acculturation and assimilation. These major stressors can result in mental health concerns among Cuban immigrants; however, no studies have examined how acculturation may influence Cuban immigrants’ coping skills and resultant mental health concerns. This unique study is the first to examine the coping skills Cuban immigrants use during acculturation and the effects of these skills on Cuban immigrants’ mental health. Methods: Seventeen participants completed a semistructured interview and …

Seeing The Shadow Women: The Hidden Victims Of Prostitution, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

A group of hidden victims of prostitution has been brought to light by Ingeborg Kraus, a trauma therapist in Germany, and Andrea Heinz, a woman with experience in the sex trade in Canada. Dignity has published four articles by these two writers in the last year. Their nascent body of work is uncovering important new information and perspectives on prostitution. Through their own experience and interviews with wives of sex buyers and women with sex trade experience they show us a more holistic view of the harm of prostitution. They write about the wives and families of men who are …

"My Head Was Like A Washing Machine On Spin": (Improving) Women’S Experiences Of Accessing Support, Jo Neale, Kathryn Hodges

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This paper draws on data collected as part of two larger studies to set out the differences, according to women seeking support, between the feminist responses of the specialist women’s sector and the issues-led responses of other agencies. The first study examined the processes by which women enter, endure, and exit relationships with abusive men. The second study explored the barriers to help-seeking for those accessing a service for women involved in prostitution. Taking a feminist poststructuralist approach, the authors point to the gendered nature, both of the experiences that propel women toward help-seeking and of the responses they receive …

Women Exiting Prostitution: Reports Of Coercive Control In Intimate Relationships, Tammy Schultz, Aimee A. Callender, Sally Schwer Canning, Jacey Collins

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

There is burgeoning research on intimate partner violence (IPV) experiences among women globally. However, there is a dearth of research on IPV experiences among marginalized populations in Western countries. Over the past decade, IPV research has shifted from a focus only on physical and sexual violence to include coercive control experiences. These include a continuum of nonviolent behaviors centered on maintaining dominance over one’s partner. However, the empirical literature on examining coercive control among women in prostitution within non-commercial intimate partners is lacking. In this study, we analyzed interviews with 17 women exiting prostitution and examined reported IPV sexual, physical, …

Who Are We Missing? The Impact Of Requiring Parental Or Guardian Consent On Research With Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Two-Spirit, Queer/Questioning Youth., Eli Cwinn, Courtney Cadieux, Claire V Crooks

Education Publications

PURPOSE: The purpose was to examine whether a requirement for parental or guardian consent systematically limits which lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, two-spirit, queer/questioning (LGBT2Q+) youth participate in research.

METHODS: A total of 60 LGBT2Q+ youth (aged 14-18 years) completed measures assessing gender and sexual minority identity, depression and anxiety, help-seeking intentions, and social support.

RESULTS: A substantial proportion (37.6%) of youth reported that they would not have participated in the research if parental or guardian consent was required. Those who would not have participated had more negative attitudes about their sexual and gender identity, less family support, lower levels of …

Introduction To The Dignity Memorial Issue On Kate Millett, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Cyber Social Threats 2020 Workshop Meta-Report: Covid-19, Challenges, Methodological And Ethical Considerations, Ugur Kursuncu, Yelena Mejova, Jeremy Blackburn, Amit Sheth

Publications

Online platforms have been increasingly misused by ill-intentioned actors, affecting our society, often leading to real-world events of social significance. On the other hand, recog-nizing the narratives related to harmful behaviors is challeng-ing due to its complex and sensitive nature. The Cyber SocialThreats Workshop 2020 aimed to stimulate research for thechallenges on methodological and ethical considerations indeveloping novel approaches to analyze online harmful con-versations, concerning social, cultural, emotional, commu-nicative, and linguistic aspects. It provided a forum to bringtogether researchers and practitioners from both academiaand industry in the areas of computational social sciences, so-cial network analysis and mining, natural language process-ing, …

Caregivers’ Expectations, Reflected Appraisals, And Arrests Among Adolescents Who Experienced Parental Incarceration, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Melissa Noel

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

This research sought to identify a potential process by which intergenerational crime occurs, focusing on the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ subsequent arrests. We drew from Matsueda’s work on reflected appraisals as an explanatory mechanism for this effect. Thus, the present research examined whether caregivers’ and adolescents’ expectations for adolescents’ future incarceration sequentially mediated the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ actual arrest outcomes. Propensity score matching was used to examine this effect in a sample of 1,735 15- to 16-year-olds using NLSY97 data. Parental incarceration was positively related to caregivers’ expectations of adolescents’ future arrest. Moreover, caregivers’ expectations …

A Call To Revitalize Mental Health Wellness Practices For Black, Indigenous, & College Students Of Color, Tyra Jean

Population Health Research Brief Series

Given the challenges faced by the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities within the U.S. this year, it is more important than ever to ensure BIPOC college students are provided with access to mental health care.

You Are Resilient: Trauma-Informed, Strengths-Based Treatment For Low-Ses, Urban Youth, Courtney Molina

Dissertations

The focus in this review was to explore the benefits and optimal use of trauma-informed, strengths-based care for the therapeutic treatment of low-socioeconomic status (SES), urban youth. Specific focus was given to evidence-based research on the treatment of emotional and behavioral dysregulation among low-SES, urban youth. The review was guided by the following research questions: How can emotional and behavioral dysregulation be symptoms of trauma among low-SES, urban youth; What makes trauma-informed and strengths-based care optimal for the treatment of low-SES, urban youth with dysregulation; and What are clear guidelines for providing trauma-informed, strengths-based care to low-SES, urban youth with …

A Review Of Spiritual Development And Transformation Among College Students From Jesuit Higher Education, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The college experience can be a critically important and enriching time for personal as well as academic growth and development. For many students, college is their first foray into a more independent world and lifestyle no longer under the careful, and sometimes critical, eyes of their parents, families, and schoolteachers. When students go far away from home to attend college, they need to find ways to live independently, manage their many needs, and attend to the rigors of academic life in higher education. Additionally, the college years offer a unique and important period for spiritual growth, development, and transformation. The …

Womanism & Wellbeing: A Manuscript Dissertation Exploring The Effects Of Shame, Loss And Gender Issues, Christy Angelle-Vidrine Bauman

Education Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the research on gender issues and psychological well-being across the adult lifespan utilizing qualitative research examining factors (e.g., societal influences, sexual objectification, shame, loss, meaning-making, and internal identity) in developing resilience and mitigating mental health issues. This paper discusses the importance of addressing well-being through expression of loss, meaning-making, and social impact. This manuscript style dissertation will review publications in such areas as sexuality, spirituality, grief, shame, intimacy, social, and interpersonal relationships. The exploration of biopsychosocial impacts as it relates to meaning-making, resilience, and communal involvement. The three publications will be …

Clericalism Contributes To Religious, Spiritual, And Behavioral Struggles Among Catholic Priests, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The Roman Catholic Church has received a remarkable amount of press attention regarding clerical perpetrated sexual abuse with child victims as well as other clerical behavioral scandals in recent years. Much has been reported in both the popular and professional press about the various aspects and elements of priestly formation and ministry that might contribute to behavioral problems among clerics. Additionally, much has also been written and discussed about the challenging religious, spiritual, and behavioral struggles among clerics when clerical misbehavior significantly contradicts expected behavior in terms of sexual, behavioral, and relational ethics. Since Catholic priests are dedicated to chastity, …

St. Ignatius As Psychotherapist? How Jesuit Spirituality And Wisdom Can Enhance Psychotherapy, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The great wisdom traditions associated with various religious and spiritual practices and institutions have offered a variety of helpful strategies for more effective living and coping with life’s many challenges. In most recent times, efforts to secularize these strategies have been made in order to appeal to the general population as well as to secular mental health professionals as tools for their clinical practices. Although mindfulness meditation and yoga are perhaps the most notable examples, many other intervention strategies have been and can be borrowed from various religious and spiritual traditions to use in a secular manner if so desired. …

1990s Grunge And Its Effect On Adolescents, Bailey Gomes

Conspectus Borealis

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Unm's Parental Leave Policy, Julia Fulghum, Karlyn A. Edwards, Charlie Christian, Steven Verney, Lisa A. Marchiondo, Teagan Mullins

ADVANCE Reports

Experiences with UNM’s parental leave policy C215 have been evaluated using the ADVANCE 2018 Main Campus Faculty Climate Survey, a series of junior faculty interviews, and concerns brought to the ADVANCE leadership. Key findings are:

• Women and STEM faculty are more hesitant to use family-leave policies, and perceive greater disadvantage in using them than men and non-STEM faculty
• Sharing of information about, and implementation of, parental leave varies significantly between units
• The attitude of the department chair and senior faculty strongly influence the experience of faculty who use parental leave
• Appropriately implemented, the parental leave policy contributes to faculty recruitment …

The Role Of Occupational Therapy For Homeless Women And Women At-Risk Of Homelessness, Kelcey Storkersen

Student Capstone Papers

This paper seeks to identify the occupational barriers and needs of homeless women and women at risk of homelessness. A qualitative research study was performed to learn more about the lived experience of two women at-risk of homelessness. Themes uncovered in this study are described in order to provide more understanding and advocacy for this population. A program proposal was delivered for future fieldwork students to provide occupational therapy students at this resource center.