Sociology Commons^™

The Effects Of School Safety Strategies On K-12 Schools: Armed Civilians, School Resource Officers, And Metal Detectors As Contributors To The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Rebeca Petean

Dissertations and Theses

In recent decades, K-12 public schools have introduced get-tough measures ostensibly to improve school safety through punitive responses to misconduct and delinquency--expanding from traditional security measures to more punitive, zero-tolerance policies and surveillance-based approaches. Academic literature and media accounts highlight that such efforts continue to proliferate and extend across our nation's school spaces. This three-paper dissertation examines how specific safety practices--namely, the presence of armed civilians, School Resource Officers (SROs), and random metal detector checks--influence student outcomes and contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline. Rooted in Becker's (1963) and Lemert's (1967) labeling theory, as well as Sampson and Laub's (1997) cumulative …

Their Voices, Their Work: The Challenges And Experiences Of Resettled Female Refugees In West Michigan, Cristhel Vanessa Morlidge

Masters Projects

Resettled female refugees often hope to improve their life in the country and community that they settle in. However, they can instead face multiple challenges due to their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and language. The objective of this qualitative study is to identify the unique experiences and challenges of female refugees as they enter the formal workforce in the United States. Participants in this research are from two different countries in Africa, and all currently reside in West Michigan. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and a small-focus group to learn about their experiences through their own words. While generalizations …

Illustrative Storytelling And Social Sciences: Reconsidering Boundaries, Extensions, And Meanings Of Qualitative Research, Veronica Moretti, Francesco Della Puppa

The Qualitative Report

Comics are increasingly recognized as a flexible and multimodal medium capable of eliciting, constructing, analyzing, and disseminating qualitative data. Far from being merely illustrative or humorous, comics offer complex visual-narrative forms that can reflect and critique social realities, stimulate reflexivity, and engage diverse audiences. This approach highlights the scientific, ethical, and epistemological implications of using comics in research, particularly in relation to representation, positionality, and the visual construction of meaning. Comics can serve as tools for pedagogy, public sociology, and participatory inquiry, especially in areas such as health, gender, and digital cultures. From autoethnography and zine-making to the co-production of …

Gender Myths & Colonial Lies, Sophie Camilleri

Honors Papers and Posters

The gender binary is deeply ingrained in today's society, despite a general lack of knowledge on where this system originates from. It is crucial to counter misinformation stemming from propaganda and fear campaigns surrounding the gender binary. This research sheds light on the oppressive roots of gender, as well as its role in the colonization of marginalized individuals around the globe. This paper will make connections to present day systems of oppression and the long-term effects of colonization on Black and Hispanic women.

Hindsight Is 20/20: Epilepsy Is Not One-Size-Fits-All, Raika Kim

Northwestern University Law Review

For many, epilepsy is one of the first conditions that come to mind when thinking of a disability, and for good reason: over 50 million people in the world live with epilepsy. Yet misunderstandings about epilepsy have perpetuated social stigma surrounding the disability for centuries. Ableist beliefs led to the passage of laws in the 1900s condoning—and in some cases, requiring—sterilization of individuals with epilepsy and restriction of their right to marry. Even today, state driving laws, justified as promoting public safety, categorically prevent anyone diagnosed with epilepsy from driving unless they are seizure free for an arbitrary, nonuniform period …

Queerly Writing, Queerly Researching: Using Art-Based Research To Re-Examine My Past And The Imagined Future Of Queer Educators, Matthew Panozzo

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

Through my own coming out process, I turned to LGBTQ+ books as mentors and guides on how to live authentically. These texts shaped my time as a middle and high school English teacher, as well as my time as a doctoral student. This article uses excerpts from Caught Between Closets (Panozzo, 2020), a social fiction written as my doctoral dissertation, to explore and highlight the way queer K-12 educators navigate personal and professional closets. These excerpts were written using a reiterative process (writing to research; researching to write) to re-examine personal experiences, empirical research, multimodal texts, and grey literature. This …

Belonging Among Lgbtq+ Students At Hope College, B Schultz

24th Annual A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2025)

At Christian Colleges and Universities (CCUs), studies estimate that approximately 12% of a given college's student population identifies as LGBTQ+ (REAP, 2021). Unfortunately, research literature also indicates that LGBTQ+ college students experience significant challenges, including, but not limited to, discrimination from peers and staff, alienation from the wider campus environment, and inhospitable housing conditions (REAP, 2021; Rankin et al. 2019; Kortegast, 2017; Craig et al. 2017; Wolff et al. 2016, Christie, 2021). Academic research on LGBTQ+ students at CCUs is somewhat limited, even more so research that uses a qualitative orientation, attempting to gain in-depth insights into LGBTQ+ students' experiences. …

A Narrative Review Of Military Reverse Triage., Daniel J Hurst

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

INTRODUCTION: Military reverse triage has been described at several points in the literature. However, an extensive review of the concept and any gaps that may exist has not been conducted. This narrative review seeks to understand how reverse triage is used in the military literature and how it might be implemented in practice, as well as the documented historical applications of reverse triage.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four databases were searched manually for English-language articles: PubMed, SCOPUS, JSTOR, and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. In addition, a manual search of references, U.S. DoD, and NATO doctrine, as well as other published works …

Everyone Gets Bored Sometimes: Effects Of Boredom And Burnout In A Longitudinal Study On Pre Health Undergraduate Students, Josie Oostindie

24th Annual A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2025)

For some time now, medical education research has documented increased levels of undesirable outcomes as a byproduct of professionalization, such as decreased mental health and increased burnout. We introduce to this literature the concept of boredom proneness that taps into students' adaptation to a sense of the flow of time and outline how this affects their health throughout undergraduate. Trait measures of boredom tap into not merely a momentary discomfort with a context or flow of time, but a deeper existential challenge that indicates a possibly socially-induced discordance with a self in time. Additionally, a challenge of past research is …

The Emotions Of Uncertainty: Science, Politics, And The Social Dynamics Of Decision Making, Alisa N. Rogers

Sociology ETDs

This dissertation examines how social and emotional factors influence attitudes toward science and decision making regarding science-based policy recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic. I examine boundary work practices among the public as they evaluate experts during the pandemic and the social sources of information people used to construct knowledge. Then I examine the social and emotional factors that participants indicated influenced their own attitude formation and decisions to act regarding public health recommendations during the pandemic. I find that emotions influence each element of the decision process: information gathering, information evaluation, attitude formation, and decisions to act. Affective commitment and …

Whole Genome Sequencing Analysis Of Body Mass Index Identifies Novel African Ancestry-Specific Risk Allele, Xinruo Zhang, Jennifer A Brody, Mariaelisa Graff, Heather M Highland, Nathalie Chami, Hanfei Xu, Zhe Wang, Kendra R Ferrier, Geetha Chittoor, Navya Shilpa Josyula, Mariah Meyer, Shreyash Gupta, Xihao Li, Zilin Li, Matthew A Allison, Diane M Becker, Lawrence F Bielak, Joshua C Bis, Meher Preethi Boorgula, Donald W Bowden, Jai G Broome, Erin J Buth, Christopher S Carlson, Kyong-Mi Chang, Sameer Chavan, Yen-Feng Chiu, Lee-Ming Chuang, Matthew P Conomos, Dawn L Demeo, Mengmeng Du, Ravindranath Duggirala, Celeste Eng, Alison E Fohner, Barry I Freedman, Melanie E Garrett, Xiuqing Guo, Chris Haiman, Benjamin D Heavner, Bertha Hidalgo, James E Hixson, Yuk-Lam Ho, Brian D Hobbs, Donglei Hu, Qin Hui, Chii-Min Hwu, Rebecca D Jackson, Deepti Jain, Rita R Kalyani, Sharon L R Kardia, Tanika N Kelly, Ethan M Lange, Michael Lenoir, Changwei Li, Loic Le Marchand, Merry-Lynn N Mcdonald, Caitlin P Mchugh, Alanna C Morrison, Take Naseri, Jeffrey O'Connell, Christopher J O'Donnell, Nicholette D Palmer, James S Pankow, James A Perry, Ulrike Peters, Michael H Preuss, D C Rao, Elizabeth A Regan, Sefuiva M Reupena, Dan M Roden, Jose Rodriguez-Santana, Colleen M Sitlani, Jennifer A Smith, Hemant K Tiwari, Ramachandran S Vasan, Zeyuan Wang, Daniel E Weeks, Jennifer Wessel, Kerri L Wiggins, Lynne R Wilkens, Peter W F Wilson, Lisa R Yanek, Zachary T Yoneda, Wei Zhao, Sebastian Zöllner, Donna K Arnett, Allison E Ashley-Koch, Kathleen C Barnes, John Blangero, Eric Boerwinkle, Esteban G Burchard, April P Carson, Daniel I Chasman, Yii-Der Ida Chen, Joanne E Curran, Myriam Fornage, Victor R Gordeuk, Jiang He, Susan R Heckbert, Lifang Hou, Marguerite R Irvin, Charles Kooperberg, Ryan L Minster, Braxton D Mitchell, Mehdi Nouraie, Bruce M Psaty, Laura M Raffield, Alexander P Reiner, Stephen S Rich, Jerome I Rotter, M Benjamin Shoemaker, Nicholas L Smith, Kent D Taylor, Marilyn J Telen, Scott T Weiss, Yingze Zhang, Nancy Heard-Costa, Yan V Sun, Xihong Lin, L Adrienne Cupples, Leslie A Lange, Ching-Ti Liu, Ruth J F Loos, Kari E North, Anne E Justice

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Obesity is a major public health crisis associated with high mortality rates. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) investigating body mass index (BMI) have largely relied on imputed data from European individuals. This study leveraged whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from 88,873 participants from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program, of which 51% were of non-European population groups. We discovered 18 BMI-associated signals (P <  5 × 10

An Investigative Analysis Into The Correlation Between Police Department Budgets And Violent Crime Rates., Julie Schwartz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Criminal justice reform and calls to defund the police have become more prevalent since the unrest that occurred in 2020. Research to date has looked at criminal justice reform, crime causation, and discussions surrounding defunding the police. Previous research has looked at police funding conceptually but not from a quantitative lens. The purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental study was to provide an investigative analysis into police department funding and the effect of the funding on violent crime rates using strain theory as its foundation. The research question addressed the relationship between police department budgets, specifically the criminal investigations unit, and …

Practicing Community, Cultivating Democracy -- Lessons From Professional Power Shifters, Sylvia Gale

Other Publications

Below I describe five intentional practices people working in human-facing professions can employ in order to create the conditions for a healthy democracy.

These practices were originally distilled from my observations at the Deaconess Foundation’s Helsinki D-Stations and from my interactions and discussions with professionals across the Foundation’s Civic Action and Community Programs team from January-June 2023, when I was hosted by the Deaconess Foundation on a Mid-Career Professional Development Award from the Fulbright Finland Foundation. Since then, I have augmented and clarified these practices through observation and reflection with colleagues in my American context, where I am the executive …

Casar Student Discussion Series #7: Censored Classrooms - Should Parents And Community Members Have A Say In Restricting Certain Books In Schools, Based On Factors Such As Religion, Age Appropriateness, And More?, The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

Every semester, CASAR AUC holds miscellaneous student debates discussing the hot controversial topics in the US, Egypt and from around the world in hopes of raising awareness about these topics & broadening the perspectives of our students as they learn to engage in fruitful discussions as they share different opinion on the topic being deliberated.

On April 10th 2025, at this CASAR Student Discussion event #7 in light of the current book bans in the US happening from Trump's administration, we debated this question: 'Censored classrooms: Should parents and community members have a say in restricting certain books in schools …

Young Children's Responses To Socioeconomic Status In Peer Reward And Punishment, Joshua R. Namingha, Peter Reschke Dr.

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

This research aimed to determine whether children's understanding of socioeconomic status influences their tendency to reward or punish their peers. The experimenters used the "dictator task" to evaluate children's (ages 7-8) assessments of hypothetical scenarios with participants punishing/rewarding poor and rich children. The results indicate no significant difference in punishment based on socioeconomic status, suggesting limited social class bias at this age.

Talking Shame With Boys & Girls: How Gender Shapes Parent–Child Conversations About Self-Conscious Emotions, Ashton Allen, Peter J. Reschke, Jocelyn Wikle

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

This study examines how child gender predicts parents’ use of emotion labels during a storybook task. Prior research suggests that parents may socialize emotions differently based on child gender, potentially shaping children’s emotional development. However, limited work has specifically examined gender differences in parent emotion labeling, particularly within the context of self-conscious emotions. The study utilized a sample of parent–child dyads (N = 95) from the 2023 wave of Project M.E.D.I.A., a longitudinal dataset analyzing parent emotion labeling during a shared storybook task. OLS regression models were employed to examine the association between child gender and parents’ use of emotion …

Asking The Right Questions: How Parent Question Type Shapes Children's Emotion Label Use Across Early Childhood, Ashton Allen, Peter J. Reschke

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Parent questions facilitate children's emotion label learning during parent–child conversations (Ruba et al., 2022), yet limited research has examined how different question types influence this process. Parent–child dyads (N = 296, 136 girls) were observed discussing a picture book depicting self-conscious emotions (shame, guilt, embarrassment, awe, pride) annually for five years starting at age 2. Parent-child conversations were transcribed and the frequencies of parent yes/no questions, parent open-ended questions, child emotion labels, and total word count were coded from transcriptions (mean interrater reliability ICC = .90). Five separate regression models (one per wave) predicting children’s emotion labels revealed significant effects …

Environmental Racism: The Role Of Racism In The Unequal Distribution Of Environmental Hazards And Resources In Urban Areas, Acadia Petersen

Student Research Symposium

Introduction

There is a large difference in the number of environmental hazards and environmental resources that people live with depending on their race. This is very damaging as certain minorities are being provided with fewer resources and more polluted areas, leading to worse health outcomes.

There is “A strong association between non-white and poor communities and the location of hazardous waste sites…Studies on air quality have documented that minorities and the poor face higher levels of air pollution than other groups” (Pinderhughes 1996).

Are Logan Police Officers Equipped To Deal With Domestic Disturbances Effectively, Jaden Baugh

Student Research Symposium

If officers do not have proper training to deal with domestic violence, then they become ineffective tools to help the public. We as the public need officers to keep the peace but if there is improper training they are ineffective

Child Protective Services Accountability And Reform: The Role Of Judicial Oversight, Caseworker Training, And Systemic Failures In Protecting Vulnerable Children, Amiah Kuykendall

Student Research Symposium

Introduction

What is the purpose of this project?

▪ Investigate systemic failures

o Research question:

▪ How does judicial oversight influence CPS caseworker accountability in child abuse cases, and what legal measures can be taken to ensure policy enforcement?

How Does Social Media Influence Gen Z'S Perception Of American Politics?, Payden Dalley

Student Research Symposium

This study examines whether social media influences Gen Z voters depending on which app they use and their political affiliation. Specifically, it explores how social media platforms shape perceptions of the American political system by analyzing survey responses from Utah State University students regarding the most recent election. Understanding this influence is crucial, as social media plays a central role in shaping political information, particularly for young voters. The findings will help determine whether social media can be used in future elections and which platforms are the most reliable for each party. Given the limited research on the role of …

From Vulnerabilities And Concern To Action: How Perceived Climate Vulnerabilities And Concern For The Great Salt Lake Desiccation Shape Utahns’ Migration Intention, Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed

Student Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Pinkwashing Palestine: Exploring The Perceptions Of Utah College Students, Addison Fish

Student Research Symposium

The United States' role in the escalation of the Israeli occupation of Palestine has become a subject of heated political debate, especially on college campuses.

• This project investigates college students’ perceptions of pinkwashing and Israel

• Aims to understand how their perceptions affect their stance on the occupation

• Goal is to provide insight into how we can understand and critically engage with pinkwashing narratives and support Utah-local advocacy movements, as well as broader political campaigns in the U.S

Religious Trauma And Young Adults: What Is Their Perspective?, Ethan Lefevre

Student Research Symposium

How does religious trauma influence young adults' perspectives on organized religion and spirituality?

Effects Of Cbt For Anxiety On Sleep Quality (A Proposed Study), Brin Bement

Student Research Symposium

Good sleep has consistently been associated with good mental and physical health, yet nearly 1 in 5 Americans report sleep disturbances. Sleep-related problems (SRPs) are highly comorbid with anxiety, and the two variables have a bidirectional relationship.

How Has Lgbtq+ Representation In Media Influenced The Perceptions And Identities Among Both Lgbtq+ And Non-Lgbtq+ Individuals Ages 18-24?, Miki Beckstrom

Student Research Symposium

The modern era has allowed for a new age of storytelling. As our society continues to diversify, the question we must ask ourselves, how is the media we consume reflective of our society? Internet discourse surrounding representation of race, sexuality, and gender have continued to infiltrate our community and be a topic of contention. This study hopes to explore both the positive and adverse effects that LGBTQ+ representation in media can have.

How Do The Implications Of A Juvenile's Surroundings Genuinely Affect Them And Their Upbringing?, Ramon Ramirez

Student Research Symposium

Traditional theories assume that socioeconomic status and residential mobility in a neighborhood are linked to criminal behavior, but the findings showed that variations in ethnic composition didn’t have a significant effect.

Digital Audience: The Bystander Effect On Social Media, Riley Carlisle

Student Research Symposium

In the United States, cyberbullying is a massive problem that shows no sign of slowing down. - Cyberbullying effects 46% of teens aged 13-17 (Vogels, 2022)

- We are more connected than ever before

- Cyberbullying will only increase as we become more connected over social media

How Are Mental Health Professionals Impacted By Their Personal Religious Beliefs Within A Client-Interaction Setting?, Olivia Kenney

Student Research Symposium

Understanding how mental health professionals’ personal religious beliefs influence client interactions is important to ensuring ethical, productive, and effective care.

Soc 3110 Presentation, Eduardo Valles

Student Research Symposium

Introduction

What do you think is the percent of inmates in jails/prisons that have a mental illness?