Sociology Commons^™

Comparison Of Food Security Status, Nutrient Intakes, Body Mass Index, And Multiple Diseases Among Self-Reported Depressed And Non-Depressed Female Food Stamp Recipients In Southeast Louisiana, Yifang Bai

LSU Master's Theses

The objectives of this study were to explore the relationships among depression and food security status, dietary nutrient intakes, sociodemographic characteristics, body mass index (BMI), and the presence of chronic diseases in a female food stamp recipient population (n = 66) in Southeast Louisiana. Women were dichotomized by stated depression and descriptive statistics on socioeconomic characteristics and mean nutrient intakes were presented for each group. Logistic regression models were used to determine the relationship of stated depression with food security status, selected sociodemographic characteristics, nutrient intakes, body mass index, and the number of chronic diseases reported. The percentage of women …

Efficacy Of Nutrition Education Lessons Targeting A Group Of Low-Income Elderly, Gabriela M. Viteri

LSU Master's Theses

Nutrition education has the potential not only to increase nutrition knowledge and, potentially, healthy behaviors, among the elderly, but also to reduce the need for health and social services. The nutrition component described herein is part of an overall wellness program that focuses on increasing physical activity and healthy dietary behaviors among participants. We completed a four month nutrition intervention in a group of 33 low income elderly at the Leo Butler Center (LBC) (n=20) and Catholic Presbyterian Apartments (CPA) (n=13) in the fall of 2005 in Baton Rouge, LA. The Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) was used as the theoretical …

The Cost And Availability Of The Thrifty Food Plan In Southeast Louisiana, Blair Suzanne Buras

LSU Master's Theses

Low-income individuals in Southeast Louisiana consume poor quality diets and have high rates of nutrition-related health problems such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obesity. The United States Department of Agriculture created the Thrifty Food Plan to help food stamp recipients consume a minimal cost, nutritious diet. It is unknown whether the food lists designed to support the Thrifty Food Plan are affordable and available to the food stamp reliant population in Southeast Louisiana. In 29 supermarkets and large grocery stores located in East Baton Rouge Parish and seven surrounding parishes, the cost and availability of two weekly …

Nutrient-To-Cost Comparisons Of Daily Dietary Intake, Food Security Status, And Body Mass Index In Female Food Stamp Recipients Residing In Southeast Louisiana, Shanna Lundy

LSU Master's Theses

Diets are typically poorer and risk of chronic disease is greatest in low-income populations. A relationship has been established in the literature between food costs and diet quality, where lower cost diets are generally those of the poorest quality. Food group intake, energy/nutrient intake, and diet cost were assessed in 64 female food stamp recipients in Southeast Louisiana. From one 24-hour dietary recall collected at the beginning of the monthly resource cycle (Day 1) and one at the end (Day 2), nutrient intakes and diet costs were able to be analyzed between different time frames. Participants were divided among food …

Voluntary Childlessness In The United States: Recent Trends By Cohort And Period, Laurie Chancey

LSU Master's Theses

Most large-scale studies on voluntary childlessness since the waning of the baby boom provide cross-sectional estimates for a single time period. They cannot be synthesized to estimate change because of the varied definitions used to operationalize voluntary childlessness. In this study, I use data from the 1973-2002 cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to estimate change in voluntary childlessness using a consistent definition by period and birth cohort. I find that voluntary childlessness stayed relatively constant through the seventies and eighties, but showed a large increase from the mid-nineties to 2002. I show that voluntary childlessness increased …

Literacy Behaviors Of Preschool Children, Angela Wayne

LSU Master's Theses

Research on emergent literacy states that young children learn about reading and writing through experiences with oral and written language. The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency that individual preschool children voluntarily engaged in literacy behaviors during free choice in the classroom. The sample consisted of nine preschool children from low-income families enrolled in three classrooms in an urban preschool program. The classroom environment was assessed using the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO - Smith & Dickinson, 2002), which provides infor- mation on how well the classroom environment supports early literacy development. Literacy behaviors were …

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of A Body Mass Index-For-Age Percentile Health Report In Raising Parent Awareness Of Their Child's Weight Status, Anantha Padmaja Lakkakula

LSU Master's Theses

Overweight in children has become a major health concern. Research suggests that many parents may not be aware of their child’s actual weight status. The objectives of this study were to test the effectiveness of a body mass index (BMI)-for–age percentile report in raising parent awareness of their child’s weight status. Eighteen public elementary schools in southeast Louisiana were pair matched and divided into nine intervention and nine control schools. Children in the intervention and the control schools were divided into two groups 1) healthy weight (BMI ≥ 5th to <85th percentile) and 2) at risk and overweight (BMI ≥ 85th percentile). Forty children were randomly selected from each of the two weight groups from the intervention and the control schools. Parents of children in the intervention group received a BMI-for-age percentile health report along with a short questionnaire. Parents of children in control schools received the questionnaire only. Parents in the intervention group have 4.7 times more accurate perception about their child’s weight compared to the control group (OR: 4.7, 95% of CI: 0.89-24.86, p=0.00 ). After receiving the report, more parents of at risk or overweight children were concerned and only fewer parents of healthy weight children were anxious about their child’ weight. When parents were compared based on their child’s weight regardless whether they got the report, parents of at risk or overweight children were more than five times less likely to perceive the correct weight classification of their child (OR: 1.8, 95% of CI: 0.05-0.62, p=0.00) and less concerned about their child’s weight (OR: 0.98, 95% of CI: 0.32-2.93, p=0.00) when compared to parents of healthy weight children. All parents were willing to help their child follow healthy behaviors regard less of the report and their child’s weight status. A BMI-for-age percentile report appears to be an effective way to increase parent awareness and concern regarding their child’s weight status. With increased awareness, parents may be more likely to encourage their children to achieve a healthy weight.

Private And Public School Attendance Patterns Among New York City’S Racial/Ethnic Groups And Latino Nationalities In 2000, Cecilia Salvatierra

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines demographic and socioeconomic factors concerning New York City racial/ethnic groups in 2000 – particularly private and public school attendance rates.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Data indicated that total White educational enrollment for all grades was evenly divided between public and private education, with 49.6% of all students enrolled in public educational institutions and 50.4% enrolled in …

The Heart Of The Matter: Aligning Curriculum, Pedagogy And Engagement In Higher Education, Kevin Kecskes, Seanna Kerrigan, Judy Patton

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

This essay explores the themes of curriculum and pedagogy, as outlined by the editors of this special edition, in the context of Portland State University's institutional transformation. We elucidate select mechanisms that support curricular-community interactions, known at PSU as "community-based learning." In doing so we discuss how CBL and other civic engagement strategies relate to the disciplines, departments, and interdisciplinary work as well as how these various collaborative approaches affect pedagogy and epistemology at PSU.

Food Purchasing Behaviors, Dietary Energy Density, Perceived Health Status, And Perceived Nutrition Knowledge Of Female Food Stamp Recipients Living In Southeast Louisiana, Carrie Marie Elks

LSU Master's Theses

Purchase and consumption of energy-dense nutrient poor [EDNP] foods by low-income individuals contributes to the lower diet quality and increased risk of chronic disease (e.g. obesity, type 2 diabetes) in this population. Food purchasing behaviors, dietary energy density [ED], perceived health status, and perceived nutrition knowledge were assessed in 22 female food stamp recipients in Southeast Louisiana. Two 24-hour recalls (at the beginning and at the end of the month) and food expenditure receipts were collected; participants also completed several questionnaires. Fifty percent [%] (n=11) of study participants were food secure, and fifty percent (n=11) were food insecure. Sixty-four % …

Age-Phasing And The Use Of Life-Cycle Funds, Shelley Farr

Theses : Honours

The Superannuation Guarantee legislation has made many Australian employees compulsory investors. The reality that many Australian employees are failing to save adequate retirement benefits highlights the importance of selecting an appropriate superannuation investment strategy. With a majority of members having their employer-sponsored contributions in Defined Contribution Funds, it is ultimately members who are responsible for making investment decisions. Given that Australian employees are faced with myriad investment options, it is opportune to examine how members are exercising investment choice. A key factor for a member to consider is whether their investment strategy should be influenced by their age. Using the …

Addressing The Aggravated Meeting Points Of Race And Religion, David Keane

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Unemployment And Labor Force Participation Rates Among Racial/Ethnic Groups And Latino Nationalities In The New York Metro Area And The Five Boroughs, Laura Limonic

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This report details the unemployment rates among Latino origin groups and racial/ethnic groups in the New York Metro area. The data are broken down by boroughs and by the eight largest Latino origin groups in New York: Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Cubans, Colombians, Guatemalans, Peruvians and Ecuadorians.

Methods:

The data for this report were derived from the 2005 American Community Survey published by the U.S. Census Bureau. Data examined in this report are unemployment rates and rates of labor force non-participation rates. The U.S. Census classifies those not in the labor force as anyone who is not working nor …

Design In A Human Context, Lindsay Duffy-Smyth

Whittier Scholars Program

This project is a paper split into two sections, the first providing an in-depth look at what domestic abuse entails, how it happens, why it happens and its implications. The second half is taking the knowledge of abuse and creating a design proposal for an abused women’s shelter.

The Transition To Fatherhood: Exploration Of Fathers' Understandings And Perceptions Of Their Experiences Of Fatherhood, Yael S. Abitbol

Theses : Honours

At the beginning of the 21st century, the face of fatherhood is a dynamic and complex reality. The aim of this study was to explore father's perceptions regarding their own experiences during the transition to fatherhood. More specifically, this study aimed at exploring the adjustment to fatherhood and the resources and support systems that the fathers utilised in managing their adjustment to fatherhood. A qualitative research design, specifically an approach based on grounded theory was employed. A total often white Caucasian fathers, with own biological children under the age of five participated in this study and were interviewed using a …

Relationship Violence Among College Students: The Predictive Power Of Sociodemographic Characteristicsand Domestic Violence Beli, Erin Nabors

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines relationship violence among college students, focusing on the predictive roles of their sociodemographic characteristics and domestic violence beliefs. College students experience an extremely high level of abuse among intimate partners, with prevalence rates ranging between 20 and 50%. Since relationship violence among college students is such a widespread problem, it is important to understand what lies at the foundation of this type of abuse. Findings from previous studies demonstrate correlations between sociodemographic characteristics and perpetration of relationship violence as well as correlations between beliefs supportive of abuse among intimate partners and perpetration of relationship violence. However, research …

Engagement, Trust, And Reciprocity: Exploring The Relationship Between Social Captial And Participation In Nonprofit Organizations, Rebecca Feiler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the extent to which various forms of social capital impact participation in nonprofit organizations. Previous research has focused on the importance of trust and engagement among social and political networks to form strong community ties that can cultivate the growth of social capital and promote participation in nonprofit organizations. The data analyzed in this study were derived from the Central Florida Social Capital Benchmark survey, collected at the University of Central Florida's Institute for Social and Behavioral Sciences. To represent social capital, related variables from the survey are combined to create indices that represent civic engagement and …

Involvement In Early Head Start Home Visiting Services: Demographic Predictors And Relations To Child And Parent Outcomes, Helen Raikes, Beth L. Green, Jane Atwater, Ellen Kisker, Jill Constantine, Rachel Chazan-Cohen

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

One strand of home visiting research investigates effi cacy while another investigates under what conditions programs achieve outcomes. The current study follows the latter approach. Using a within-program design in a sample of 11 home-based sites in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation study, this study found that three components of home visits (quantity of involvement including number of home visits, duration in the program, length of visits and intensity of service; quality of engagement including global ratings of engagement by staff and ratings of engagement during each home visit; and the extent to which home visits were child …

Child Care For Children With And Without Disabilities: The Provider, Observer, And Parent Perspectives, Lisa Knoche, Carla A. Peterson, Carolyn P. Edwards, Hyun-Joo Jeon

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

This three-phase study, part of a larger study conducted by the Midwest Child Care Research Consortium (MCCRC), investigated the characteristics of child care providers in inclusive and non-inclusive center-based classrooms and family child care homes, the observed quality of care in a subset of these programs, and families’ perceptions of quality and satisfaction with child care services. A telephone survey of 2022 randomly selected Midwestern providers, 36% of whom provided inclusive services, revealed that inclusive providers rated themselves higher on most quality-related indicators. Inclusion status was related to observed quality in family childcare homes (n = 132), with non-inclusive homes …

The Relationship Between Parenting Stress And Family Cohesion In Non-Abusing Parents Of Sexually Traumatized Children, Danielle Marie Bronk

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Political Will As A Determinant Of Health In Ontario: Implications For Progressive Human Services, M. Anthony Hutchinson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The social determinants of health (SDOH) are the broad range of societal factors such as income and its distribution, education and literacy, (un)employment, health care, and so on, that contribute to the overall (aggregate) health, well-being and quality of life of our society as a whole (vis-a-vis, population health). Central questions in this thesis are: "Is political will a determinant of health?" and if so, "How is political will a determinant of health?" In responding to these questions this study analyzes a never-before-assembled Province of Ontario data set (1980 through 2000) rigourously operationalized as ten indicators of political will and …

Attachment Representations In Mothers Of Young Children With Developmental Delay: Relations With Concurrent And Later Maternal Depression, Mary Catherine Hutchinson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Despite the importance of early parent-child attachment and maternal depression to child development and the vulnerability of children with developmental delay, maternal attachment representations and their relation to depression have not been studied in this population. In this study, I examined attachment representations (i.e., internal working models) in 47 mothers of 4- to 8-year-old children with developmental delay and explored the relation between these attachment representations and maternal depression assessed concurrently and again one and two years later. The Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI) was used to classify representations as balanced (i.e., secure) or non-balanced (i.e., disengaged or …

Does Hope Vi Deep-Six The Poor? Analyzing The Effects Of Displacement Former Residents Of Distressed Public Housing In A Mid-Sized Southern City, David Zeller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Do downtown revitalization efforts detrimentally affect people who are displaced? HUD's HOPE VI grant program provides local housing authorities with funds to leverage private investment to demolish blighted, severely distressed public housing units and replace them with mixed-use, mixed-income units. In 2002, the OHA secured an $18 million grant to redevelop a public housing project then known as Carver Court. 212 units of public housing were razed and former public housing residents were displaced to make way for redevelopment. Interviews with 55 former residents of Carver Court are analyzed to determine the self-reported effects of the local implementation of federal …

Their Fear - Our Fear, Anne Aly

"Exploding Media Myths : Misrepresenting Australia?" - Forum

No abstract provided.

Body Matters In Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, C. Jason Smith

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

The virtual body is already here. Though not as “seamless” as the virtual body envisioned in cyberpunk literature and made popular in films like The Lawnmower Man (1992), hundreds of thousands of people in over 114 countries (“Visitor Center”) daily log into massively multiplayer online role-playing games like Everquest, Ultima Online, Anarchy Online, and Earth and Beyond. These massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs or MMOs for short) [1] combine the extensive rule systems of traditional role-playing games (or RPGs) such as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons with computer graphic technology and online chat. In these computer …

Explaining Older-Patient And Doctor Relationship Through Negotiation, Hok Ka, Carol Ma

Lingnan Theses

This thesis attempts to explain the older-patients and doctors’ relationship through negotiation. The relationship between older-patients and their doctors is important because, first, the patient-doctor relationship is basic to the health care system and is a foundation for all patient care; second, populations are ageing and this group often has a higher incidence of chronic illnesses. Therefore, the older patient-doctor consultation becomes of paramount importance in enabling patients and the health care system to manage their illnesses effectively.

This thesis describes a negotiation process (from reception, consultation, to outcome) and outcome patterns between older patients and doctors in medical consultation. …

Cultivating Identities And Differences : A Case Study Of The Hong Kong Junior Secondary Economic And Public Affairs Curriculum, Yuen Fun, Muriel Law

Lingnan Theses

This thesis studies the junior secondary EPA curriculum and the complex cultural process of teaching and learning of the curriculum. It draws on theoretical frameworks developed in the field of cultural studies and critical pedagogy, particularly works by Michel Foucault, Stuart Hall, Lawrence Grossberg and Paulo Freire. It investigates how the EPA curricular texts attempt to produce the identity characteristic of "rational, sensitive and active citizens" in contemporary Hong Kong through constructing differences that negate the Other. Through analyzing classroom discursive practices, the thesis examines how the curricular knowledge "interpellates" teachers into subject position to talk about the "rational, sensitive …

The Role Of Volunteering In Successful Ageing : Impacts On Psychological Well-Being Of Older Persons, Sin Yui, Sharon Chan

Lingnan Theses

The thesis looks at volunteering, an activity in which time is freely given as a gift to benefit other people, groups and society. Formal volunteering, as opposed to informal helping, entails stronger commitment via organisations that offer more or less organised assistance often on an individual basis. The thesis suggests that older retired persons provide an invaluable pool of formal voluntary workers amidst the growing need for social services and fewer resources for social welfare expenditure. This pool will grow even more in the future. Moreover, the research looks at the experiences of social engagement in older and associations between …

Falling Down: The Influence Of Traffic Patterns And Availability Of Emergency Medical Service Personnel On The Lethality Of Violent Encounters, Nicholas Libby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the impact of traffic patterns and the availability of emergency medical services on the lethality of violent interpersonal encounters. Key situational and contextual factors are controlled using the criminal events perspective. Data were taken from the 2002 National Incident-Based Reporting System of the FBI, as well as from fire/rescue and EMS services of Memphis, TN, Cincinnati, OH, and Richmond, VA. Additive models of logistic regression analysis revealed that fire/rescue availability, firearm use, incidents arising out of arguments, outdoor locations, and victim gender are the most consistent predictors of whether or not a violent incident will result in …

Front Matter

The Bridge

No abstract provided.