Sociology Commons^™

The Relationship Between Women’S Clinics And Hospitals Offering Women’S Services 1960-2000, Hayley Darchuck

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The 1960s showed marked improvements in the realm of decreasing the inequality gap between men and women. For example, government acts called for equal pay and protected women against discrimination. However, in the area of healthcare, women felt that there was a disconnect between themselves and the way that their bodies were being treated. For instance, doctors were mainly male at this time, and in 1970, women only made up 7.6% of doctors in the United States (Weisman 1998). These doctors spent little time with their patients and did not believe in sharing vital health information with their patients; doctors …

Maternal Education And Child Nutritional Status In Africa: Mediating Mechanisms, Kiira Fox, Dr. Renata Forste

Journal of Undergraduate Research

While previous research indicates child stunting rates have decreased in the aggregate over the last few decades, malnutrition continues to account for over half of annual child deaths and the stunting of 226 million (Neumann et al.). As national inequality persists, even increasing in certain areas, higher rates of stunting have become concentrated within already disadvantaged populations (Minujin and Delamonica, 2004). Africa, for instance, has particularly low educational attainment, high rates of poverty, a lack of infrastructure and experiences stunting rates as high as 60% in certain areas (Neumann et al.). Although earlier studies have identified many dimensions of disadvantage …

What’S Moral About Moral Reasoning: Dealing With Personal Versus Contrived Dilemmas, Lacey Nielson, Dr. Terry Olson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Moral reasoning is commonly assessed using the Defining Issues Test (DIT) by James Rest which correlates with Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. The DIT presents contrived moral dilemmas with issue statements. In our study, we wanted to see if moral reasoning in real life situations, or lived experience, was qualitatively different in content from moral reasoning regarding DIT dilemmas.

Transformative Processes In Marriage: Effects On Father-Adolescent Relationships, Brandon Mcdaniel, Dr. Erin Holmes

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Researchers suggest that marital processes and the father-child relationship are linked (Holmes, Duncan, Bair, & White, 2007). Unfortunately, much of this work focuses on negative marital processes. For example, low marital satisfaction, emotional distance between spouses, and high marital conflict undermine father involvement by increasing risk for divorce (Clements, Stanley, & Markman, 2004), lowering parenting quality (Erel & Burman, 1995), and decreasing child adjustment (Grych & Fincham, 2001).

Parental Stress As A Mediator For Relationship Satisfaction And Child Well-Being Between Two Adult Developmental Groups, Heather Perkins, Dr. Brian Willoughby

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the last 15 years, a new body of research has emerged looking specifically at the development of individuals between the ages of 18 to 25. Historically, this developmental period has been marked by the emergence of new responsibilities such as marriage and parenthood that are much less likely to occur for individuals of that age group today. Recent trends have shown that people are getting married and having children at later and later ages; using this time period instead as a time to gain an education, and form a self-identity (Arnett, 2010; Arnett, 2000; Arnett, 2007; Tanner book). Although …

Two And A Half Men In A World Of Warcraft: Sexual And Violent Media’S Influence On Relationship Outcomes, Kaylee Dunn, Dr. Dean Busby

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this study was to discover whether viewing higher levels of sexual and violent television and video games, negatively influences relationship quality with a significant romantic partner. Additionally we addressed the mediating effects of pornography behaviors and attitudes and individual characteristics to this association.

The Use Of Antimicrobial Textiles In Heath Care, Mary Kent, Dr. Catherine Burnham

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Antimicrobial textiles are on the cutting edge of fiber nanotechnology and are a new concept in the textile industry. Antimicrobial textiles are fabrics covered in a unique silver finish that helps to prevent infection. Research has repeatedly shown their effectiveness to prohibit growth of microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, and algae. This particular effect makes them applicable and very useful in the healthcare industry, and several different products such as dressings, masks, and gowns have been developed for healthcare use. Despite their shown effectiveness, before I started my own research, there was a dearth of information showing whether health care …

Implications Of The Ratification Of The Convention On The Rights Of The Child, Alyssa Brown, Dr. Jenet Erickson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is a United Nations treaty declaring the government’s duty to protect children and to provide for their material and immaterial needs, essentially seeking to protect children’s rights. On a worldwide scale this treaty has been greeted with open arms as it has been ratified by 193 UN States Parties. Surprisingly, only two countries, the United States and Somalia,1 have not ratified the CRC so there is considerable international pressure for the United States to increase its involvements in human rights through ratification.

Experiences Of Work/School/Family Conflict: A Qualitative Exploration, Sarah June Carroll, Dr. E. Jeffrey Hill

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Most college students take on responsibilities and roles beyond full-time school work. Nearly three quarters of undergraduates work an average of 25.5 hours a week while attending school (NPSAS, as cited by Dundes & Marx, 2006). Between work and school, the working hours of a student may be longer than working professionals. The relationship between paid work and personal life has been addressed as it relates to working professionals (see Byron, 2005). Few researchers, however, have examined the work-family interface among the unique population of students.

Predicting Dyadic Congruence In Retirement Plans Among Middle Aged Couples: Examining The Roles Of Marital Quality, Education, And Expected Reliance On Social Security, Benjamin Malczyk, Dr. Jeremy Yorgason

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Although there are many studies examining couple’s financial preparation for retirement, there are relatively few examining how couples expect to use their time in retirement. This does not undermine the importance of how coupes plan to use their time. Research has shown that leisure time usage was a bigger challenge than finances for retired couples (Henry, Milller, & Giarrusso, 2005). Our research examined how middle-aged couples planned to spend their time in retirement and to answer three specific questions: 1. What do midlife couples plan to do when they retire? 2. Do wives and husbands have the same plans about …

Analyzing The Gap Between Actual And Perceived Body Size And Its Association With Weight Control Among High School Aged Girls, Erin Moore, Dr. Renata Forste

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My ORCA grant was used in a statistical examination using data from the 2001-2002 Health Behaviors in School-age Children, a nationally representative survey measuring children and adolescents on a variety of health-related behaviors and attitudes. With these data, I explored the effects of a discrepancy between actual and perceived body size on various types of weight control behaviors. I also took into account the influences of the sociocultural pressures of family, peers, and media, and also the influence of pubertal development. This examination focused on adolescent girls in 9th and 10th grade in the United States; it yielded a number …

Aboriginal Cultural Resilience: A Community Ethnography In Utopia, Jaren Meldrum, Dr. Todd L. Goodsell

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Most rural indigenous communities in Australia have an abnormally high frequency of tobacco and alcohol use, domestic violence, and gambling, the prevalence of which can be seen as a result of an anomic loss of cultural identity in the postcolonial era (O’Connor 1984; Johnston and Thomas 2008). Decades of national-level statistics describe a shorter life expectancy, less education, and an overall decreased quality of life for indigenous Australians compared to their non-indigenous peers. Recently, the issue of Australian Commonwealth policy to close the “Aboriginal achievement gap” has gained increased attention, particularly due to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s 2008 landmark “Sorry …

Community Development In Rural Mexico: Observations On Leadership And Community, Matthew Cox, Dr. Ralph Brown

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Within the field of community development, there are various opinions of what qualities or characteristics define a developed community. Each of these definitions varies depending on the academic or professional sector in which it is found. This research began based on the hypothesis inherent in Flora and Flora’s Community Capitals Framework (CCF), which posits that a community’s connections to resources such as people, organizations, and physical resources within seven capital areas endows it with greater potential for development. Therefore, this research attempted to outline the connections present in a handful of rural communities in central Mexico, in order to determine …

The Growth Of Women’S Clinics And Hospital Based Women’S Services 1980-2000, Jessica Callahan, Dr. Marie Cornwall

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The 1960s showed marked improvements in the realm of decreasing the inequality gap between men and women. However, in the area of healthcare, women felt that there was a disconnect between themselves and the way that their bodies were being treated. Doctors spent little time with their patients and did not believe in sharing vital health information with their patients; doctors often thought that if they did so, their patients would fantasize health problems that they did not actually have as side effects of treatment (Morgen 2002).

Exploring Stimulus Variability In Applicant Attractiveness, Robert L. Dipboye, Lyndsey Dhahani

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Previous research on physical attractiveness bias in job applicant evaluations has ignored three important issues. First, the sex-typing of the positions for which applicants are evaluated is usually weak despite the need to provide strongly male and female-typed positions in testing for beauty is beastly effects. Second, the samples of stimuli used in the manipulations of applicant sex, attractiveness, and sex-typing of the job are small. Third, the statistical analyses used in testing hypotheses fail to incorporate variability among both human participants and stimuli. The present research corrected for these three omissions in an experiment in which participants evaluated the …

The Effect Of Household Financial, Time And Environmental Constraints On Very Low Food Security Among Children, Helen H. Jensen, Oleksandr Zhylyevskyy

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Food insecurity is detrimental to children’s well-being. A better understanding of factors contributing to low and very low food security among children in the United States can guide the design of food assistance programs. We analyze the effects of household characteristics and local food environment attributes, including food prices and availability of food stores and eating places, on children’s food insecurity. We also investigate the effects of these characteristics and attributes on food preparation time. Using Becker’s household production approach, we propose an economic model that formalizes the use of constrained financial and time resources in the household. The model …

Out Of The Night, Riley Gryc

SURGE

I did not graduate.

After four years of college, waiting for the day I could shake President Riggs’ hand, receive my diploma, and depart our campus with pride and honor, that day never came. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was watch from the back row of the audience as everyone I had attended school with for the last four years, my classmates, my friends, all received their diplomas and moved on without me. The stares from teachers I knew, the surprised looks from underclassmen, the careful tact with which everyone avoided the subject of not …

Ready For Success: A Profile Of Youthbuild Mentoring Participants, Kathleen A. Tomberg

Publications and Research

The YouthBuild USA National Mentoring Alliance program (“YouthBuild Mentoring”) seeks to engage students with responsible, supportive, committed adult volunteers to help young people achieve success in education, employment, and social relationships. By matching students with adult mentors for a minimum of 15 months, YouthBuild Mentoring helps these youth form strong emotional bonds and continuing relationships that will ideally last for years beyond the end of the program. YouthBuild USA partnered with the Research and Evaluation Center of John Jay College of Criminal Justice to assess the attitudes of YouthBuild Mentoring participants on a variety of topics, including self-image, self-efficacy, perceptions …

An Autoethnographic Journey Of Intercountry Adoption, Prema Malhotra

The Qualitative Report

In this autoethnographic essay, the author explores her struggles and desires to learn about her life prior to adoption. She portrays her journey to search for her beginning pieces of her adoption narrative by an assessment of “narrative inheritance” (Goodall, 2006), attempts to reframe her adoption narrative, and reflects on how her adoption narrative changed over a period of time. The author highlights major events of her search and provides meaning and understanding to her experience. The author concludes by providing her reflections of her search and attempts to redefine her adoption journey and what it means to be an …

Using Participatory Action Research And Photo Methods To Explore Higher Education Administration As An Emotional Endeavor, Leslie D. Gonzales, Rodolfo Rincones

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, we build on Wood’s (2010, 2012) recent call to consider higher education as a work place that conjures emotion among constituents, particularly positional leaders, like department chairs. Using a participatory action research and photo - enhanced methodological approach, we illustrate the emotional labor that was poured into the work of one department chair. Consequently, our work yields three contributions. First, we counter the overly rationalistic depiction of organizational leadership research and thinking. Second, our work suggests that if we conceptualize and understand emotion and emotional labor as a form of labor compelled by organizational norms, rule s, …

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Focus Group Research But Were Afraid To Ask, Elisa Waingort

The Qualitative Report

In this review I provide a glimpse into the key elements critical to effective focus group research from the perspective of experts Martha Carey and Jo - Ellen Asbury. The authors ’ intent is to promote the value of focus group research as an effective and rigorous form of research, if done right.

Fearless: Nadejiah Towns, Nadejiah Z. Towns

SURGE

This week we would like to recognize Nadejiah Towns ’15 as a fearless fighter against poverty. This summer she has served as a Heston intern for the South Central Community Action Program (SCCAP) and has spent the majority of her time with the Work Ready program, a “welfare to work” organization that helps low-income community members gain the skills needed to by obtaining a reliable, professional job and become self-sufficient.

Why Occupy?: Principal Reasons For Participant Involvement In Occupy Portland, Danielle Filecia

Dissertations and Theses

Occupy Wall Street galvanized the country and attracted thousands of participants, who came to New York City in order to protest corporate greed. Occupy Portland, standing in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, began their encampment less than a month later and attracted more participants on its first day than did Occupy Wall Street. This grounded theory inquiry uncovers the principle reasons why individuals participated in Occupy Portland. The findings revealed that participants were (1) upset about the bank bailouts and corporate irresponsibility; (2) swept up by the size and organization of Occupy; and (3) looking to get some fundamental societal …

Systems Of Accountability For Abusive Men In A Domestic Violence Context: The Nature Of Abuse, Limited Effectiveness And Intervention Strategy Improvement, Carla Cezario

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The domestic violence movement had extraordinary success in enlightening society on the scope, predominance, and consequences of battering, but more limited ability in successfully intervening and preventing the abuse of women by their intimate male partners. Taking this perspective, the present study offers four main goals: 1) describe the theories of domestic violence causation and the evolution of the current strategies for intervening with abusive men and why men are abusive; 2) evaluate current domestic violence interventions to understand the rationale has produce the development of these strategies; 3) Describe and critically analyze the limitations of current domestic violence intervention …

The Forgotten "-Ism", Eric P. Harris

SURGE

“I’d rather not. I don’t like to talk to old people. They make me uncomfortable. They kind of smell weird and make me think about death. Some of them are even racist, so I’d just rather not.”

As part of my internship this summer, in which I helped to coordinate the Friday evening dinners at the Gettysburg Senior Center, putting out advertisements to “hang out with old people” wasn’t exactly an easy task. [excerpt]

The Intersecting And Integrating Identities Of Rural Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Christians, Brandi Woodell

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The majority of discussions of gay and lesbian experiences in the United States associate gay culture with urban areas. However, there is still a significant population of LGBT people living in the rural United States (Baumle et al 2009). Many of these individuals identify with rural spaces and seek to maintain “country” identities. As with rural spaces, there is an assumption that Christian identities directly conflict with those of non-heterosexual identities. This study examines the ways in which these individuals create and negotiate stereotypically conflicting identities regarding their sexuality, their rural identities and their religious identities. The goal of this …

The Privatization Of Hazard Mitigation: A Case Study Of The Creation And Implementation Of A Federal Program, Alessandra Jerolleman

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role of the private and public sectors in hazard mitigation, an important part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) performance requirements from the Stafford Act. Hazard mitigation is the effort to reduce societal impacts from natural disasters by reducing their risk to people, property and infrastructure; before hazards occur. The goal of the work is to contribute to the literature examining the national trend towards privatization and reliance on the free market economy for the provision of government social services, through such public management movements as the “New Public Management” (NPM) of the 1980s and …

A Gateway For Everyone To Believe: Identity, Disaster, And Football In New Orleans, Brandon D. Haynes

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to analyze the dynamic processes of collective identity by examining the relationship between New Orleans and its professional football team, the Saints, after Hurricane Katrina. Much of the discourse written on American professional sports focuses on economic transactions between player and franchise or franchise and city. This study explores sports from a cultural perspective to understand the perceived social values provided to the host community. This case study spans the years from 2006 to 2013 and discusses several major events, including the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the reopening of the Superdome, the Saints winning a …

Research - Back To The Future : Central And Western District Rehearses The Demographical Changes Of Older People 10 Years Later, Tony Lai

Asia Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies Newsletter 亞太老年學研究通訊

No abstract provided.

Research - Prevention Leads The Way : Evaluation On Fysk Primeval Elderly Depression Services, Emily Chan

Asia Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies Newsletter 亞太老年學研究通訊

No abstract provided.