Sociology Commons^™

Impact Of The Built Environment On The End-Of-Life Journey, Kelechi Akwazie

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

Several research studies and personal anecdotes show that home-based hospice care patients report better quality of life than their inpatient care counterparts – suggesting that the location of care/built environment is a critical component of hospice care. As a result, other research studies have attempted to provide evidence-based design recommendations for inpatient hospice facilities; however, several of these recommendations either conflict with each other or are vaguely prescribed – which may dull any attempts to implement them.

This literature review takes a unique approach to the provision of evidence-based design recommendations for inpatient hospice facilities by holistically assessing hospice care, …

The Influence Of Invasive Species On Fishers’ Satisfactions, Caroline M. Laplante

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Invasives species are prevalent and widespread in North America. Outdoor recreational activities, such as fishing, introduce a point in which humans may interact with invasive species and have to adapt their own behaviors. Bigheaded carp in the Missouri River below Gavin’s Point Dam are a group of invasive fish species that were thought to be negatively relating to recreational fishers’ satisfactions. Using a content analysis and an importance-grid, we conclude that invasive species do not strongly relate to recreational paddlefish fishers’ satisfactions. Paddlefish fishers represent a small sub-set of recreational fishers in Nebraska and South Dakota. The content analysis revealed …

Early Childhood Language Gains, Kindergarten Readiness, And Grade 3 Reading Achievement, Jessica A.R. Logan, Shayne B. Piasta, Kelly M. Purtell, Robert Nichols, Rachel E. Schachter

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

In this preregistered study, we used latent change score models to address two research aims: (1) whether preschool-aged children's language gains, over a year of early childhood education, were associated with later performance on state-mandated, literacy-focused kindergarten readiness and Grade 3 reading achievement assessments, and (2) whether gains in language, a more complex skill, predicted these outcomes after controlling for more basic emergent literacy skills. There were 724 participating children (mean = 57 months; 51% male; 76% White, 12% Black, 6% multiple races, and 5% Hispanic or Latino). We found that language gains significantly predicted kindergarten readiness when estimated in …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On The Well-Being Of People Incarcerated In United States Prisons, Kimberly Rivera

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the population as a whole. However, the incarcerated population (which also experiences a variety of health disparities) has been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Due to overcrowding, poor ventilation, and lack of resources, the incarcerated population already is at a heightened risk for negative health outcomes, made worse by the recent pandemic. To adapt to the rapidly changing conditions during the pandemic in 2020 and into 2022, new safety measures were implemented, but the unintended consequences associated with the implementation of these procedures have yet to be examined empirically. I conducted a qualitative content …

Agriculture And Community Well-Being: A Review Of Three Research Studies, Marilyn R. Schlake

Cornhusker Economics

Personal observations are often obscure to the facts. For instance, recently I worked at a booth at Husker Harvest Days. The booth focused on rural community development. My observations were that many of the agricultural producers decided to not stop at our booth or for those who did stop, conversations showed a disconnect of the importance of their local community to their farm operations. Similarly, when working with communities, I have observed the lack of understanding of the importance of the agricultural producers to the local community’s well-being. Why the disconnect between these two very important components of our rural …

An Analysis Of Racially Disparate Impacts On Housing For The City Of Tukwila, Washington, Neil Tabor

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

The housing crisis within the Pacific Northwest of the United States has prompted action from Washington legislators, resulting in Governor Inslee identifying housing as a key priority and the legislature passing a number of forward-thinking bills in the last half decade, requiring the allocation of more resources, and asking more of jurisdictions to address current housing needs and anticipated future growth. Layered within the planning efforts for future growth are concerns and considerations for the potential of new housing development to perpetuate and exacerbate societal inequities built on discriminatory housing policies and practices of generations past and present. In an …

Perceptions Of Childcare In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska, Rebecca J. Vogt, Heather Akin, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Bradley D. Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer, Steven A. Schulz

Nebraska Rural Poll

Lack of childcare is an issue in many rural Nebraska communities. According to a report from Voices for Children, most counties in the state (91%) do not have enough available licensed childcare slots to meet the current demand there. Furthermore, 11 counties in the state have no licensed childcare facilities. Many communities are exploring options of how to address these shortages to maintain their current residents or to be able to attract new residents. Given these challenges, what types of childcare are rural Nebraskans currently using? How far do they drive to get to their childcare? And how do rural …

Attitudes Towards Public Basic Needs Programs: An Analysis Of Question Order Effect, Period And Cohort Changes, And Differences Across Religious Traditions, Jamy Rentschler

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation examines public opinions towards public basic needs programs (PBNPs), focusing specifically on differences in attitudes towards spending on assistance to the poor (ATP) and welfare. To do this, I use two different approaches, one focusing on survey methodology and the other looking at social change across time and religious tradition. The first research question addresses potential survey question order effects based upon which question came first, ATP or welfare, and examines how other federal spending priorities may impact opinions towards welfare. I do find question order effects, some of which vary based on the respondent’s race, but the …

Housing Discrimination And Negative Attitudes Towards Ex-Offender Parents, Julie Wertheimer-Meier

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While the Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination because of race, gender, religion, sex, disability, family status, and national origin, it allows housing providers to discriminate on the basis of criminal history. Prior research shows that housing providers disproportionately deny housing to ex-offender applicants and single parent applicants with young children. An ex-offender parent’s inability to acquire safe and affordable housing decreases the potential for reunification with their children and increases the risk of lost custody or parental rights termination. This dissertation consisted of two experiments that examined the effects of negative attitudes towards ex-offender parents on those parents’ ability …

Development And Psychometric Validation Of The Pandemic-Related Traumatic Stress Scale For Children And Adults, Courtney K. Blackwell, Phillip Sherlock, Kathryn L. Jackson, Julie A. Hofheimer, David Cella, Molly A. Algermissen, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Lyndsay A. Avalos, Tracy Bastain, Clancy Blair, Michelle Bosquet Enlow, Patricia A. Brennan, Carrie Breton, Nicole R. Bush, Aruna Chandran, Shaina Collazo, Elisabeth Conradt, Sheila E. Crowell, Sean Deoni, Amy J. Elliott, Jean A. Frazier, Jody M. Ganiban, Diane R. Gold, Julie B. Herbstman, Christine Joseph, Margaret R. Karagas, Barry Lester, Jessica A. Lasky-Su, Leslie D. Leve, Kaja Z. Lewinn, W. Alex Mason, Elisabeth C. Mcgowan, Kimberly S. Mckee, Rachel L. Miller, Jenae M. Neiderhiser, Thomas G. O’Connor, Emily Oken, T. Michael O’Shea, David Pagliaccio, Rebecca J. Schmidt, Anne Marie Singh, Joseph B. Stanford, Leonardo Trasande, Rosalind J. Wright, Cristiane S. Duarte, Amy E. Margolis

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

To assess the public health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, investigators from the National Institutes of Health Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) research program developed the Pandemic-Related Traumatic Stress Scale (PTSS). Based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) acute stress disorder symptom criteria, the PTSS is designed for adolescent (13–21 years) and adult self-report and caregiver-report on 3–12-year-olds. To evaluate psychometric properties, we used PTSS data collected between April 2020 and August 2021 from non-pregnant adult caregivers (n = 11,483), pregnant/postpartum individuals (n = 1,656), …

A Brief Comparison Of Two Early Neighborhoods: Consumerism And Social Class In 20th Century Lincoln, Nebraska, Mariska Molnar

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

In the Fall of 2018, Matthew Hansen monitored the destruction of a parking lot two blocks north of the Capitol Building in Lincoln, Nebraska for the subsequent building of a geothermal system. During this period, and excavation was conducted with the aid of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Campus Archaeology Project, and 12 features were identified. Five features produced artifacts, with Feature 11, a cistern, being the most fruitful. The collection was named the Capitol Wellfield, and a portion of the artifacts, which includes diagnostic glass and ceramic pieces, are housed on campus for studying.

Most research and publication have been …

Amultidimensional Examination Of Children’S Endorsement Of Gender Stereotypes, Cindy Faith Miller, Lorey A. Wheeler, Bobbi Woods

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

The present research applied a multidimensional framework to the study of gender stereotypes by investigating whether elementary school children display different levels of endorsement when considering distinct gender stereotype constructs (ability, category, and interest) and feminine versus masculine stereotypes. Study 1 (N = 403) compared children’s ability and category beliefs using a set of gender-neutral skill items. Study 2 (N = 539) extended this research by examining whether children showed different patterns of ability and category decisions for feminine versus masculine occupational items. Study 3 (N = 974) furthered our understanding of the construct dimension by comparing …

Moral Narratives Of Sobriety: A Qualitative Study Of A Lived Religion Framework Of Alcoholics Anonymous, Maia C. Behrendt, Kelsy Burke

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This study examines how Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) can be understood as a “lived religion” that seeks to legitimize and moralize certain experiences and beliefs through narratives that are affirmed by the substance abuse recovery community. Through a qualitative analysis of 20 in-depth interviews with both actively recovering and non-actively recovering participants of AA, we identify three distinct moral narratives described by participants related to the construction of spiritual beliefs, individual health, and social belonging that highlight how the structure of AA reifies stories of addiction recovery as morally charged. We contribute to sociology of religion and addiction studies by examining …

How Teachers Use Data: Description And Differences Across Prek Through Third Grade, Amanda Witte, Lisa Knoche, Susan Sheridan, Natalie A. Koziol

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

The use of data to inform instruction has been linked to improved student outcomes, early identification of intervention needs, and teacher decision-making and efficacy. Additionally, data are used as a means of accountability within educational settings. However, little is known about data use practices among early grades teachers. The purpose of the current study is to describe the data use of PreK to third grade teachers and to investigate differences in data use and support across grade levels. Participants were 307 early childhood teachers in PreK and early elementary school. Analysis of survey data revealed, overall, most teachers across grade …

Community Well-Being And Civil Discourse In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska, Rebecca J. Vogt, Heather Akin, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Bradley D. Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer, Steven A. Schulz

Nebraska Rural Poll

Rural Nebraskans are more positive about the current change in their communities this year but are less positive about its future. Starting two years ago, the proportion believing their community changed for the worse was more than the proportion believing it had changed for the better (similar to what occurred in 2003 and 2009). However, this year that trend reversed back to the typical pattern. This year, more believe their community has changed for the better than has changed for the worse. When asked about what they expect ten years from now, this year more people believe their community will …

Les Pollinator Habitat, Chloe Herbert, Dillon Richert, Melissa Landis

Environmental Engagement in the Community (ENVR 319): Student Projects

Environmental Engagement in the Community projects, fall 2023

A poster titled LES Pollinator Habitat for client Lincoln Electric System (C. Herbert and D. Richert with M. Landis).

Nine Mile Prairie Environs 2020 Master Plan Implementation Assessment, Tessa Fiore, Cole Brady, Miles Godfrey

Environmental Engagement in the Community (ENVR 319): Student Projects

Environmental Engagement in the Community projects, fall 2023

A poster titled Nine Mile Prairie Environs 2020 Master Plan Implementation Assessment for client Nine Mile Prairie Working Group (prepared by T. Fiore, C. Brady, and M. Godfrey).

Lincoln Business Sustainability Assessment And Incentive Strategies For Emission Reduction, Jacson Farho, Moira Gonzales, Isabella Mccollum

Environmental Engagement in the Community (ENVR 319): Student Projects

Environmental Engagement in the Community projects, fall 2023

A poster titled Lincoln Business Sustainability Assessment and Incentive Strategies for Emission Reduction for client Coalition for Environmental Improvement (C. Eichorn and G. Hanlon).

Local Energy For Local Water: Developing Off-Grid Backup Power For Rural Communities In Nebraska, Brian Mock, Michael Ryan, Clement Konmegne Magaptche, James Persson

Environmental Engagement in the Community (ENVR 319): Student Projects

Environmental Engagement in the Community projects, fall 2023

A poster titled Local Energy for Local Water: Developing Off-grid Backup Power for Rural Communities in Nebraska for clients Nebraska local water operators (prepared by B. Mock, M. Ryan, and C. Konmegne Magaptche with J. Persson).

Organic Waste In Lincoln: Drop-Off Program, Alora Schneider, Olivia Miller, Carter Probst

Environmental Engagement in the Community (ENVR 319): Student Projects

Environmental Engagement in the Community projects, fall 2023

A poster titled Organic Waste in Lincoln: Drop-Off Program for client Uribe Refuse, Waste to Energy LLC (Mellissa Mercier).

Key Findings From The Qic-Wd At Various Stages Of The Employee Lifecycle, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development (Qic-Wd)

Other QIC-WD Products

Employee_Lifecycle_Additional_Resources.pdf

The Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development: Bridging The Research–Practice Gap In Child Welfare, Sarah Layman, Jen Harvel, Apryl Brodersen, Michelle Graef, Megan Paul, Robert Blagg

Other QIC-WD Products

The QIC-WD used research and best practices from Industrial-Organizational Psychology (I-O) to improve workforce outcomes across our partner child welfare agencies. This article shares our insights on how we were able to bridge the research-practice gap through the team’s work to develop and test workforce interventions, use organizational data to improve workforce outcomes, and share knowledge and resources from I-O to advance practice in child welfare organizations.

READ THE ARTICLE

Secondary Traumatic Stress: Definitions, Measures, Predictors, And Interventions, Anita Barbee, Lisa Purdy, Michael Cunningham

Other QIC-WD Products

Child welfare professionals are exposed to a lot of traumatic events. They may experience trauma first-hand witnessing the negative experiences of children and families on their caseload or it may be experienced second-hand through the stories shared by clients or co-workers, or information being read in a file. The research has a variety of terms for this phenomenon (as described in this brief) but the evidence is clear: child welfare workers experience trauma as an occupational hazard and that exposure can manifest itself in ways similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (e.g., disrupted sleep, difficulty concentrating). In fact, a survey of …

Undernutrition In Older Children And Adolescents In Peri-Urban Zambia, Shela Sridhar, Janella S. Kang, Isabel Madzorera, Ethan Zulu, Joyce Makasa, Sally Bell Cross, Davidson H. Hamer

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Background: Adolescents make up roughly a quarter of the population in Zambia; however, most nutrition-related programming is targeted at the underfive population. Understanding the scale of undernutrition in older children and adolescents is fundamental to alleviating food insecurity and addressing undernutrition across all age groups.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was performed in four low-income, peri-urban compounds in Chilanga District which included anthropometric measurements of children between ages 6 months-19 years and a household-level diet diversity and food security questionnaire. Wasting was used for children under 5 and thinness for children 5–19 years. Descriptive analysis and multivariate logistic regression …

Social Networks And Violence Victimization And Perpetration Among Youth: A Longitudinal Analysis, Natira Mullet, Emily A. Waterman, Katie M. Edwards, Victoria Banyard, Thomas W. Valente

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Interpersonal violence (IV) is a serious concern for adolescents in the United States that has devastating impacts for individuals and communities. Given the increased importance placed on friendships during adolescence, the purpose of the current study was to examine the extent to which IV experiences cluster within youths' friendship networks. Participants were students (N = 1303) in grades 7th to 10th who completed surveys at the beginning and end of an academic year. Results showed that friends' average perpetration (i.e., the percentage of the friends they nominated who perpetrated IV) was strongly associated with likelihood of individual perpetration at …

Findings From Seven Years Of Child Welfare Workforce Interventions, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development (Qic-Wd)

Other QIC-WD Products

The Quality Improvement Center for WorkforceDevelopment (QIC-WD) operated for seven years and worked with 57 distinct public and tribal child welfare jurisdictions to address workforce issues. We used agency data, an evidence-based management approach, and were supported by site teams that included human resources (HR) and child welfare professionals.

We engaged in in-depth, multi-year projects in eight of the sites, and highlights from those experiences are featured in this short video. A consistent approach to implementation was applied and rigorous evaluation methods were used in those workforce intervention sites, with the goals of improving worker performance, well-being, and retention. Interventions …

Remote Work Is Not Going Away: How Can Rural Communities Take Advantage Of This Opportunity?, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel

Cornhusker Economics

Since the COVID-19 pandemic as of 2020, are we looking at a national remote work “new normal” with a hybrid office and remote work combination as an additional option? This is an important question for rural areas. Discusses remote work trends and steps needed to leverage remote work in the rural context.

Contextual Determinants Of Re-Reporting For Families Receiving Alternative Response: A Survival Analysis In A Midwestern State, Jianchao Lai, Michelle Graef, Todd Franke, Toby Burnham

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

Differential response (DR) has been widely adopted in over 30 states to address shortcomings of the traditional approach to child maltreatment reports in complex family and case circumstances. However, despite continued evaluation efforts, evidence of the effectiveness of DR remains inconclusive. The current study aims to assess the impact of a DR program and potential predictors, including service match and number of family case workers, on maltreatment re-reports in a Midwestern state. The study utilized a randomized control trial and assigned eligible families to either the Alternative Response (AR) track or Traditional Response (TR) track. The enrollment was implemented in …

Perceptions Of Well-Being And The Economy In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska, Rebecca J. Vogt, Heather Akin, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Bradley D. Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer, Steven A. Schulz

Nebraska Rural Poll

This year, rural Nebraskans are more pessimistic about their current situation than they’ve been in the past ten years. The proportion believing they are worse off than they were five years ago was 27 percent, up from the 21 percent last year and 11 percent in 2021. This is the highest level since both 2003 and 2009, when 28 percent believed they were worse off. This increase in pessimism was matched with a decrease in optimism. This year, less than onehalf (45%) of rural Nebraskans believe they are better off compared to five years ago, down from 50 percent last …

Protective Factors In The Relationship Between Perceived Discrimination And Risky Drinking Among American Indian Adolescent, Ying Guo, Randall C. Swaim, W. Alex Mason

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Introduction: The relationship between perceived discrimination and risky drinking among American Indian (AI) youth is understudied, and the potential protective factors that may buffer this association are unknown. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine protective factors across individual, family, school, peer, and cultural domains of the social ecology that might attenuate the relationship between perceived discrimination and risky drinking among AI adolescents.

Method: Data were from the Substance Use Among American Indian Youth Study (Swaim and Stanley, 2018, 2021). AI youth who have used alcohol in their lifetime (n = 2516 within 62 schools) …