Community-Based Research Commons^™

2012 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium, Andrew Houtenville, Tony Ruiz

Institute on Disability

The Annual Disability Statistics Compendium is a publication of statistics on people with disabilities and government programs that serve the population with disabilities and is modeled after the Statistical Abstracts of the United States, published yearly by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Compendium is designed to serve as a reference guide to government publications. At the bottom of each table, the source of data appearing in each table is presented. These referenced sources contain additional statistical and information about the way the underlying data were collected and the statistics were generated. Each year, the Compendium is updated to reflect …

Addressing The Learning Needs At Occupy Dc, Andrew J. Batcher

Capstone Collection

The purpose of this paper is to examine how learning can help the Occupy movement in Washington DC. It explores three questions. What are the learning needs of the movement? What educational content can help meet those needs? And how can education be practiced in a way that most effectively addresses the learning needs within the real world circumstances of the movement? Research methods include participant observation, surveys, interviews, focus groups, literature review, and primary document review. Data was coded into 11 outcome oriented learning needs and 3 educational orientations which are geared towards meeting those needs. This paper is …

High School Graduation And Dropout Rates In Nevada, Tiffany G. Tyler, Sandra D. Owens

Social Health of Nevada Reports

The causes and consequences of high school dropout rates are multifaceted and of great importance to society, and that is why this problem has been the subject of close scrutiny by educators, researchers, administrators, politicians and laypersons. Experts do not always agree on the nature of this social problem, but they have pinpointed its economic and social costs, identified key risk factors, and outlined most promising policy options for improving high school graduation rates in our society.

Crime And Delinquency In Nevada, Brooke M. Wagner, Andrew L. Spivak, Stephanie L. Kent, Deborah Koetzle

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Crime and justice system have received much attention from American scholars and politicians in the last than 50 years, with issues in adult criminality, delinquency, and penology emerging at the center stage of criminological inquiry. While scholarly literature now includes many studies focused on different regions and cities, there are no large-scale empirical examinations of crime and delinquency in Nevada. One exception is the Social Health of Nevada report issued in 2006 by University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Center for Democratic Culture (CDC).

Teen Sexuality And Pregnancy In Nevada, Tiffany G. Tyler, Marie A. Wakefield, Sandra D. Owens, Lori Smith

Social Health of Nevada Reports

The proliferation of sexually explicit materials has been the hallmark of North American culture for decades. The arrival of the Internet made access to such materials all the easier, and not only for adults but also for teenagers who learn at ever-early age that romantic relations are exciting and sexual encounters are a welcome part of life. When such exposure to sensual images is not accompanied by appropriate sex education, the consequences could be dire for teenagers and society alike.

Addiction And Substance Abuse Among Nevada Youths, An-Pyng Sun, Chih-Hsiang Ho, Larry Ashley

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Adolescence is a critical stage for substance abuse initiation, as well as for substance abuse prevention, intervention, and treatment. This report presents tobacco product use, alcohol use, and illicit drug use rates of Nevada’s youths (aged 12-17) compared with youths nationwide as a whole. Most data were retrieved from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), including the 2008--2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data and Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), supplemented with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data. Substate data were taken from SAMHSA’s 2006-2008 …

Health Care Access And Insurance Availability In Nevada, Douglas L. Garner, Marie A. Wakefield, Tiffany G. Tyler, A. Dexter Samuels, Roger Cleveland

Social Health of Nevada Reports

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2012) defines healthcare access as “the timely use of health services to achieve the best health outcomes.” The Department specifies that efficient health care access is contingent on several steps, including (1) entry into the healthcare system, (2) availability of needed services, and (3) accessibility of providers with whom individuals can establish relationships founded on mutual communication and trust.

Suicide Trends And Prevention In Nevada, Matt Wray, Tatiana Poladko, Misty Vaughan

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States. In 2007, nearly 35,000 Americans took their own lives, a rate of 11.5 suicides per 100,000 (Xu et al. 2010). Among 15-24 year olds, suicide is the third leading cause of death and for those aged 25-34, it is the second leading cause (CDC WISQARS 2007).

Academic Achievement And School Resources, Tiffany G. Tyler, Douglas L. Garner, Marie A. Wakefield, Roger Cleveland, Sandra D. Owens

Social Health of Nevada Reports

This chapter examines the national and local trends in educational policy, focusing in particular on Nevada’s academic achievement, standardized test performance, available school resources, and unmet needs. The discussion begins with the concept of academic achievement and the ways it is measured. After that, we analyze the policies impacting academic achievement, most notably the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Next, we suggest the strategies to improve academic performance in the Nevada K12 System and make recommendations to increase parental involvement in education and encourage culturally competent policies of bringing together children, families, and schools. Finally, we discuss the resources …

Child Abuse And Neglect In Nevada, Ramona W. Denby

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Child maltreatment in Nevada reflects the general social, economic, and health conditions within the state and its local communities. This chapter starts with various definitions of child abuse and neglect, focusing on the approach adopted by Nevada legislators and comparing it to competing definitions. Next, this report examines child abuse and neglect rates in Nevada and tracks the progress the state has made towards achieving its goals related to child welfare outcomes, including child protection and safety, child permanency, and child well-being. After that, the discussion moves to the most promising child welfare intervention practices and approaches. Finally, the chapter …

Disease Prevalence And Behavioral Risk In Nevada, Shannon M. Monnat

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Throughout the last several years, people living in the United States have engaged in intense debates about health care reform, costs, and mandates. What is often missing from these debates is arguably the key issue in American health: What is making us sick in the first place?

Disability Rights And Services In Nevada, Janet S. Belcove-Shalin

Social Health of Nevada Reports

For ages, people with disabilities faced hardship and condescension from the general public. As recently as the 19th century, individuals with serious physical or mental issues were singled out for pity, shunned by society, and urged to accept their afflictions as God’s will. The government offered no assistance to the impaired, relying instead on almsgiving by religious institutions and philanthropic organizations.

Environment And Sustainability In Nevada, Mark J. Salvaggio, Robert Futrell

Social Health of Nevada Reports

When the inaugural Earth Day launched the first environmental decade in the U.S. more than forty years ago, protecting our air, water, land and other natural resources seemed a relatively straightforward task. Environmental polluters and exploiters would be brought to heel by tough laws. The U.S. and other industrialized nations responded to quality of life concerns associated with environmental degradation by adopting dozens of major environmental and resource policies and creating new institutions such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to manage environmental programs. Following these national developments, states and local communities began systematic efforts to address environmental problems.

Prenatal Care And Infant Mortality In Nevada, Douglas L. Garner, Roger Cleveland, A. Dexter Samuels, Tiffany G. Tyler

Social Health of Nevada Reports

The U.S. outspends all other industrial countries on health care, and yet Americans hardly enjoy better health (Gorman 2010). An American baby born in 2006 can expect to live 78 years – two years less than a baby born across the Canadian border. The U.S. ranks 28th in infant mortality out of the 30 major industrial countries (Gorman 2010). A large part of the gap in infant mortality can be traced to high infant death rates in certain populations, particularly African-Americans who make up about 13% of the total population. In 2005, infant mortality for non-Hispanic blacks in the U.S. …

Aging Trends And Challenges In Nevada, Jennifer Reid Keene, Kathryn Mcclain, Jacqueline Ragin

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Societal aging is one of the most important social trends of the 21st century. It affects our political, social, and economic institutions and also the nature of our interpersonal and family relationships (Quadagno 2011). In the coming decades, both as individuals and as a society, we will have to make important decisions regarding the consequences of our aging population. Policy makers, families, businesses, local, state, and federal governments, health care providers will have to meet the growing needs of the older population in the U.S. and in Nevada.

Income Distribution And Poverty In Nevada, Danielle Ely, Christina Morales, David R. Dickens Jr.

Social Health of Nevada Reports

In his famous visit to the U.S. early in the nineteenth century, the French observer Alexis de Tocqueville was surprised by what he saw as “an equality of condition” in his travels around the country. Although he commented on the existence of wealth in the new nation, he was impressed by what he saw as its relative lack of concentration (de Tocqueville 1969). Recent studies by social historians, however, discovered that de Tocqueville was mistaken. Further research suggests that a pattern of highly unequal distributions of wealth and income persisted from the time of the Revolution up through the end …

Nonprofit Sector And Philanthropy In Nevada, Jessica K. A. Word, Shauna Davis

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Many scholars and community organizers believe that nonprofit organizations embody the collective will of the community and reflect the measure of support communities provide their members (Saxton & Benson 2005). The overall strength of the nonprofit sector reflects the health of the society that nurtures these organizations (Salamon 2002; DeVita, Flemming, & Twombly 2001). Since nonprofits are vital to service delivery in the United States, by studying nonprofits practices we can better understand the nature and intensity of the social problems in a given area and the effective ways by which resources could be allocated to address those problems (Gronbjerg …

Problem Gambling And Treatment In Nevada, Bo Bernhard, Sarah St. John

Social Health of Nevada Reports

For many years, it was moral experts, rather than medical and academic ones, who told us who gambled “too much.” Speaking from pulpits rather than podiums, church leaders informed us that gambling was uniquely subversive of the American way of life, for its something-for-nothing promise threatened to undermine the popular ethic of honest toil and gradual accumulation of goods. Samuel Hopkins, in an 1835 sermon on “The Evils of Gambling,” captured this sensibility: “Let the gambler know that he is watched, and marked; and that . . . he is loathed. Let the man who dares to furnish a resort …

Housing Availability And Homelessness In Nevada, Dahn Shaulis, Kathleen Fairchild, Kurt Borchard

Social Health of Nevada Reports

The first edition of Housing Availability and Homelessness in Nevada was written in 2005 amid economic boom times and rapid population growth. At the publication of this revision, in 2011, Nevadans face crisis-level economic conditions profoundly affecting how we evaluate housing conditions in the Silver State. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes and tens of thousands are jobless and without benefits, putting them at greater risk of homelessness (Associated Press, 2011, Silva, 2011, Sermons and Witte, 2011). Housing availability and homelessness are social concerns looming larger than six years ago.

Religion And Spirituality In Nevada, Ariane G. Mitchum, Michael Ian Borer

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Across the world, religion is integral to society insofar it shapes people’s thoughts, behaviors, and interactions. What exactly the term “religion” means, however, is far from clear-cut, as it continues to be a highly charged topic of discussion and debate, a subject that many hold dear and near to their hearts.

Sex Industry And Sex Workers In Nevada, Jennifer Heineman, Rachel T. Macfarlane, Barbara G. Brents

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Las Vegas has long been known as the symbolic center of the commercial sex industry. Nevada is host to the only legal system of prostitution in the United States. From the early legalization of quickie divorce and marriage to the marketing of its large resorts, sexuality has been a key component of Nevada’s tourist economy. If trends continue, for good or for ill, the sex industry will be an even larger part of the economy in the future.

Art And Cultural Participation In Nevada, Robert Tracy

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Pablo Picasso once famously observed that “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” As the second edition of the Social Health of Nevada report suggests, it certainly seems like the “dust of daily life” has descended on the souls of this State’s citizens and a thorough washing is necessary. With the economic collapse at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Nevadans found out very quickly they were neither “protected” nor “immune” from the financial maelstrom that had been unleashed. Having lived in Las Vegas since 1984, I had heard …

School Program Planning To Increase Active Transport To School, Brenda Aguilar

McNair Poster Presentations

Studies have shown that active transport is known to increase physical activity of children, decrease traffic congestion and the production of greenhouse gasses. This study examines active transport to school (ATS) [walking, biking, or other self-powered wheels to school] among elementary students. Through the Nevada Moves Day program an increase proportion of elementary students who use ATS was expected.

This study was done at two elementary schools, one being the intervention school that participated in the Nevada Moves Day, and a control school, which did not participate. Data was collected over a three week period. Students using active transport and …

Evaluating The Convergent Validity Of The Measure Of Emotional Connotations, Daniel N. Erosa

McNair Poster Presentations

The Measure of Emotional Connotations (MEC; Barchard, Kirsch, Anderson, Grob, & Anderson, 2012) is a new test that has been developed to measure the ability to perceive the emotional connotations of written language. To examine its convergent validity, the MEC will be correlated with the two emotion perception tasks on the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT; Mayer, Salovey, Caruso, & Sitarenious, 2003). These MSCEIT tasks are valid tests of emotion perception; thus, strong correlations would provide support for the MEC as a valid test of emotion perception.

Utilizing Technology In A Randomized Pilot Study For A Smoking Cessation Intervention: An Innovative Approach Using Sms Messaging Systems, Elise Garcia

McNair Poster Presentations

Objective: Previous randomized controlled trials of Short Message Service (SMS) technology in smoking cessation interventions have been proven to be effective. Upon the completion of our pilot study, we will investigate the combined effects of delivering self-help SMS text messages with candidates that rate < 8 on the Contemplation Ladder (intention to quit scale)in natural-based setting.

Method: A sample of (N=60) adult smokers from the Eugene Community intending to quit will come in our lab for two sessions (baseline and follow-up) where physiological tests and selfreports will be measured. Smokers will be allocated to one of three condition groups where they will be sent 6 text messages per day for …

Predictors Of Parental Involvement In Immigrant Chinese American Families, Pamela Cornejo, Cathy Anicama, Qing Zhou

McNair Poster Presentations

Parental involvement (PI) relates to children’s positive outcomes but few studies have examined factors of PI, particularly among immigrant families. The current study examines how contextual characteristics influence PI behaviors within Chinese immigrant families and potential mediating factors. Percentage of Asian students in schools and Parents’ report of education. English and Chinese proficiency, employment status and income were analyzed as predictors of PI behavior (i.e., parental involvement- home (PIH), parental involvement- School (PIS), parent-teacher contact (PTC)), based on parent and teacher report. Parental beliefs such as parent and teacher roles, perception of impact and ability, and endorsement of school were …

Creating New Stories, Creating New Lives: Applying Narrative Therapy To Survivors Of Human Sex Trafficking, Paige Espinosa

McNair Poster Presentations

The effects of trauma experienced by survivors of sexual human trafficking has been an under-researched topic in the psycho­logical community. This study will review the current literature on the psychological and emotional implications associated with human sex trafficking, and analyze the components of narrative therapy and its previous application in treating domestic abuse trauma. This paper will explore the viability of narrative therapy as a method to treat the complicated traumas and stress developed as a victim of sexual trafficking. The ultimate goal of this literature analysis is to propose a study that utilizes narrative therapy as an approach that …

Health Status Effects On Human Female Mate Preferences And Sociosexuality, Tiffany Alexandra Alvarez

McNair Poster Presentations

Much literature suggests that the sociosexual strategies of females are highly sensitive and consequently responsive to change and its parameters. Through the investigation of an unexplored contextual variant—health status—this study aimed to broaden the understanding of the facultative nature of human female sociosexuality and mate preferences paradigms. We recruited normally cycling women between the ages of 18 and 30 when they were sick (A) had them complete a questionnaire designed to obtain, among other things, measures of their symptom severity and sociosexuality (B) had them evaluate the appeal of two computer manipulated markers of sexual dimorphism (those present in the …

Recipes Of Resolve: Food And Meaning In Post-Diluvian New Orleans, Jessica Claire Menck

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In 2005 the city of New Orleans experienced catastrophic flooding as a result of the failure of the federal levee system following Hurricane Katrina. This was an immediate disaster that evolved into a longer-term crisis as the city, state, and national government struggled to respond to the event. This study focuses on one part of managing crisis: meaning making. Specifically, the study investigates meaning making within the food community of New Orleans, asking the questions: is food a way for individuals and groups to make meaning following critical change events such as the failure of the federal levee system in …