Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

The Hapless State Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis In India: A Comprehensive Look At Life And Medical Services For Als Patients In Rural Himachal Pradesh, Carson J. Bergström

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to paralysis. The disease requires a high amount of medical intervention and interdisciplinary focus to achieve quality of life for patients. This study looks at ALS patient’s lifestyles, their access to these medical devices, Indian therapeutic approaches and policy that impacts patients in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. As caretakers have a critical part in the care for this disease, their lives were also considered in the case studies. It was found that ALS patients are not experiencing access to medical devices necessary for life because of physical …

Intersections Between Health And Disability: A Case Study At Disha Centre, Jaipur, Rajasthan, Finnian Brokaw

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study investigated intersections between health and disability by asking the question: how do community perceptions of disability at Disha: A Resource Centre for the Disabled in Jaipur, India relate to health and quality of life for a person with multiple disabilities? This study utilized a case study methodology. The researcher took qualitative interviews from six respondents in the immediate educational and familial support network of a 27-year-old man with multiple disabilities. An interview based, qualitative methodology was important for investigating the complexity of perceptions of multiple disabilities and health as intersecting identities. The responses were analyzed and reflected upon …

La Ciudad Versus El Campo: La Calidad De Vida De Los Adultos Mayores Aymara Entre Arica Y Putre, Clare Rogowski

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The elderly population in Chile is increasing rapidly. In indigenous villages in the interior of Chile, like Putre, the younger generation is leaving to pursue education and employment opportunities in cities, in this case Arica. In many cases no one stays to take care of the elders. As the elderly begin to grow older and require greater support, the younger generation seeks to move their family members to the city so that they can care for them. While this provides for greater connection to family and access to medical care for the elderly relatives, the elderly loses their connection to …

La Pertinencia Cultural De Los Proyectos Relacionados A La Planificación Familiar De Las Ongs En El Distrito De Acomayo, Sadie Traylor

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación identifica y analiza la pertinencia cultural de los esfuerzos de ayuda ambos de una ONG local (Kallpa) y de una ONG internacional (Plan International), examinando específicamente el proyecto de cada ONG vinculado al aumento del acceso y uso de la planificación familiar en el Distrito de Acomayo en la región de Cusco para evaluar cómo opera (o no opera) cada ONG con una pertinencia cultural. Además, esta investigación explora la forma en que las estrategias de cada ONG mantienen un enfoque intercultural, y también analiza las percepciones de los beneficiarios del proyecto como testimonios de cómo este método …

Conflict Between Religious Beliefs And Sexuality: An Autoethnography, Carlos E. Gerena

The Qualitative Report

Despite the shift in attitudes in religious institutions toward homosexuals in the United States, there are some religions that continue to view same-sex behavior as a deviant and damning sin. For many, religious beliefs and values provide meaning and impact personal identity. Using autoethnography, I will explicate my own experiences with religious institutions and the ongoing conflict between religious beliefs and sexuality. I will discuss messages received from the Pentecostal church, family, and Latino community, and how these messages influenced my human development and emotional well-being. I show that internalization of the principles taught by the Pentecostal Church triggered a …

Change In Motherhood Status And Fertility Problem Identification: Implications For Changes In Life Satisfaction, Arthur L. Greil, Julia Mcquillan, Andrea R. Burch, Michele H. Lowry, Stacy Tiemeyer, Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Objective: To determine whether the association between changes in life satisfaction and becoming a mother (or not) depends on fertility problem identification status.

Background: Evidence and symbolic interactionist theory suggest that, for women who initially perceive a fertility barrier, gaining the valued identity “mother” should be associated with increases and continuing to face a blocked goal (i.e., not becoming a mother) should be associated with decreases in life satisfaction.

Method: This study used the nationally representative two-wave National Survey of Fertility Barriers to conduct a change-score analysis with chained multiple imputation. The focal dependent variable was change in life satisfaction. …

Does Ethnic Identity, In-Group Preference, And Acculturation Protect Latinas With A History Of Interpersonal Trauma From Developing Symptoms Of Ptsd?, Evelyn M. Ramirez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous research suggests ethnic identity, a sense of belonging to a particular cultural group, may be protective against symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the role of ethnic identity, in-group preference (i.e., an individual’s preference for interactions with members of their own ethnic group) and acculturation (i.e., the level of comfort with the mainstream culture) have not been investigated as protective factors for Latinas with a history of interpersonal and sexual trauma. In this study, ethnic identity, in-group preference and acculturation were assessed via self-report on the Scale of Ethnic Experience in two samples of undergraduate Latina and non-Latina …

What Parents Value Matters: Examining The Association Between Cultural Values, Parenting Styles/Practices, And Child Outcomes, Chen-Yun Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have identified significant relationships between parenting styles and child outcomes. However, these associations might vary in different cultures because parenting behaviors could link to cultural values. Additionally, understanding the cultural values of parents would help researchers better understand the reasons of parents’ behaviors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between parental Asian values, parenting styles, parenting practices, and child outcomes. Parents of preschool-age children (N = 273) from Taiwan completed a series of parenting values and parenting behaviors questionnaires. Teachers rated child prosocial behaviors, modesty, sociability, and impulse control. Results revealed that some domains …

The Mother Domain: A Mediated Model Of Maternal Gatekeepers And Depressed Fathers Among Newlyweds With Children, Clare R. Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Paternal depression is an understudied topic and research connecting it to maternal gatekeeping is still in its infancy. Research has found that the marriage relationship can be associated with both depression and maternal gatekeeping. This study focuses on how these three areas are related. A subsample of the CREATE project was used including 216 couples, or 432 married parents. Two separate SEM mediational models were tested to examine father depression as a predictor of maternal gatekeeping, with marital instability as the mediator in one model and partner connectedness as the mediator in the other model. Both parent reports were used …

Social Withdrawal And Indices Of Adjustment And Maladjustment In Adolescence: Does Parent Warmth And Extraversion Matter?, Mallory Abigail Millett

Theses and Dissertations

Social withdrawal is often associated with a number of indices of adjustment and maladjustment, but little research exists that attempts to uncover potential protective factors. This study longitudinally examined the moderating role of parent extraversion and parent warmth on the association between two types of social withdrawal (shyness and unsociability) and later indices of adjustment and maladjustment. Participants were 463 families from the flourishing families project. Results showed no longitudinal associations between social withdrawal and later indices of adjustment or maladjustment. However, when parent extraversion was added as a moderator, shyness was positively associated with prosocial behavior for those with …

Coding Rupture Indicators In Couple Therapy (Crict): An Observational Coding Scheme, Annalisa Ward Carr

Theses and Dissertations

The therapeutic alliance, a construct representing agreement and collaboration on therapy goals, therapy tasks, and the emotional bond between client(s) and therapist, is a robust predictor of therapy outcomes in individual, couple, and family therapy. One way to track the therapeutic alliance is through ruptures and repairs. Ruptures are breaks, tensions, or tears in the therapeutic alliance. Ruptures and repairs influence the therapeutic alliance and consequently therapeutic outcomes. Currently, there is a lack of research addressing ruptures and repairs in couple therapy. The first step in researching alliance ruptures is to have a reliable way to assess alliance ruptures. This …

The Need To Codify Roe V. Wade: A Case For National Abortion Legislation, Kathryn N. Peachman

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

Youth-Sized Lab Coats: When Children Become Doctors Through Adolescent Healthcare Brokering, Lindsey Russell

Social Sciences

Child language brokering refers to the practice of children acting as linguistic and cultural mediators in general settings like school, stores, banks and other personal uses. The primary focus of this paper is “adolescent healthcare brokering,” a term coined in 2016 by researchers Jennifer R. Banas, James W. Ball, Lisa C. Wallis and Sarah Gershon, to refer to the use of children as interpreters for family and community members, specifically in the healthcare setting; these cross-lingual communications may occur during regular physician appointments, trips to the emergency department or at specialized visits in fields such as obstetrics or oncology.

This …

Illness And The American Workplace: Issues And Implications For Employers And Employees, Victoria R. Dolan

Student Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to identify American employee experiences and existing workplace policies and cultures surrounding illness, disability, and sick leave. This approach was taken in order to closely examine what looks to be working well for companies and workers, and what could benefit from a more human centric approach in regards to workplace policy and employee support programs. The study of employee experiences in particular represents a gap in the current scholarly literature regarding illness and illness policy in the American workplace, and more accurately represents the experiences for both employees and employers. Furthermore, it assists with distinguishing the types …

Implementation Of An Advance Care Planning Protocol To Increase Advance Directive Completion Rates, Christine Engle

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Advanced directives (AD) allow an individual to retain autonomy in end-of-life decisions and can prevent unnecessary costs and treatments associated with aggressive life-prolonging measures. As of 2017, only an estimated 36.7% of the United States adult population had a form of advance directive documented (Yadav et al., 2017). The purpose of this evidence-based project was to determine if implementation of an advanced care planning (ACP) protocol would increase ACP discussions, AD completion, and result in a modification in stage of change or behavior. The Transtheoretical Model (TTM) and Stetler Model of evidence-based practice were used as the framework to guide …

An Introduction To Transformative Inquiry: Understanding Compelling And Significant Relationships For Personal And Societal Transformation, Mark L. Mccaslin, Kelly A. Kilrea

The Qualitative Report

Transformative inquiry is a theoretical model designed to facilitate the inquiry of important and meaningful relationships that transform and potentiate us. Creswell (2007) described the essential elements of a research agenda: the axiological, ontological, epistemological, methodological, and rhetorical. Each carries with it assumptions that hold implications for practice and research. Transformative inquiry addresses all of these elements through considerations given to deep ecology, transdisciplinarity, integral meta-theory, heuristic research, and eudaimonistic philosophy, respectively. Transformative inquiry is an approach to understanding and fostering the full range of deep and meaningful relationships from the personal to the political, and beyond. It is a …

“Flowing Along The Wall”: Anarcha-Feminist Bioethics And Resistance In Octavia E. Butler’S Dawn 2019., Theresa Mendez

Master's Theses

Science fiction (sf) texts conversant with the temporal play between past, present, and future push readers to imagine the extremes of human and environmental existence, interaction, and potential. Simultaneously, despite the sf genre’s tendency to traffic in extremes, these texts provoke readers to consider the ways in which these imagined worlds are grounded in history as well as in the contemporary social moment. As Donna Haraway has argued, “the boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion” (306). This illusory boundary must continue to be traversed in order to consider how sf literatures, particularly those which imagine …

“Greening” Worcester: Municipal Best Practices For Sustainability, Erin Mckeon, Charline Kirongozi, Jared Duval, Antannia Greene, Qianshu Sun, Zewei Yao

School of Professional Studies

In response to the urgent threat posed by climate change, more and more cities, including Worcester, are attempting to become more environmentally responsible and sustainable. Worcester is attempting to develop ways to become more sustainable; both to strengthen their communities and to protect the planet. The Green Worcester Working Group (GWWG) tasked the Clark Capstone Team with researching best practices for municipal sustainability. The GWWG has set the following priorities: climate change mitigation, resilience, open spaces, sustainable resource management, education and awareness. Taking these into account, the Clark Capstone Team researched the sustainability practices of cities in New England, across …

Worcester Chamber Of Commerce: Recruiting Minority Business Owners, Ryan Dimaria, Alexander Hull, Xikun Lu, Haopeng Wang, Jiacheng Hou, Danning Zhao

School of Professional Studies

Our capstone project was to help the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce identify how to re-frame their marketing so it would be appealing to immigrant and minority owned businesses. Based on interviews and external research, our group was able to create a tangible and resourceful data set that provided justified recommendations and ideas on how the Chamber could make adjustments to their marketing plan to attract more businesses of this particular demographic in the city of Worcester. By implementing these recommendations, we believe the Chamber has the opportunity to create a more diverse group of Chamber members, add value to …

Service Now: Cmdb Research, Monika Patel, Smita Patil, Katerina Tzanavara, Manish Chauhan, Yuhao Wang, Houmin Xie, Lei Shi

School of Professional Studies

The MAPFRE Capstone team has been tasked with reviewing and recommending roadmap on the existing CMDB configuration. Paper discusses the team’s overall research on ServiceNow CMDB, Client’s deliverables and introduction to the latest technological innovations. Based on given objectives and team’s analysis we have recommended key solutions for the client to better understand the IT environment areas of business service impact, asset management, compliance, and configuration management. In addition, our research has covered all the majority of the technical and functional areas to provide greater visibility and insight into existing CMDB and IT environment.

For One Child, Zion Bereket, Xin Huang, Yitong Lin, Ruobing Pei, Rachel White, Ziyuan Li

School of Professional Studies

The entirety of this project was completed on the foundation of the three focus areas, which were identified by our client as areas of high need. The client wanted to prioritize these three areas as they believed that these three areas were the most integral to the successful achievement of their mission, as well as to the overall health and longevity of the organization.

Hiv/Aids In The Latino Community Of San Francisco: Past And Present, Jessica Da Silva

School of Professional Studies

There are approximately 122,000 people of Latino origin in San Francisco, which account for 15% of the total population (Census, 2010). Historically, Latinos have and still face several barriers to access healthcare and improvements in health (Aguirre-Molina, Molina & Zambrana, 2001). When the world was exposed to the spread of a new and unknown virus, the broader population suffered from the epidemic. The Latino community in San Francisco was and still is one of the hardest hit by the virus.

Changing The Current Perception Of Affordable Housing In Worcester, Simone Mcguinness, William Roberts, Vaske Gjino, Tong Zhou, Mengxin Ma, Sarawadee Sonpuak

School of Professional Studies

One of Worcester Interfaith’s goals is to eradicate the stigma of affordable housing in Worcester. Currently, the perception of affordable housing is of an image of unkept and old residences filled with destitute citizens who cannot afford basic needs to live in a city, let alone housing. This image is perpetuated by media, stigma, and a lack of education of the true reality of affordable housing and who its recipients are. Affordable housing-qualified citizens represent a range of educations, professions, age, race, and income levels. Affordable housing units, too, represent a variety of homes, many of which are extremely well-kept …

Factors Associated With Food Insecurity Among Individuals, Aged Sixty And Older, In Clark County, Nv, Lisa M. Segler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Food insecurity is defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. In Nevada, an estimated 80,000 individuals, aged 60 years or older, were food insecure in 2016. The primary aim of this study was to identify factors that are associated with food insecurity in older adults, aged sixty and older, in Clark County, NV. The secondary aim of this study was to identify which factors interact with each other to explain food insecurity among individuals aged sixty and older, in Clark County, NV. A secondary data analysis was conducted using data collected by …

Female Genital Mutilation In The United States: Estimating The Number Of Girls At Risk, Phyllis Chesler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Female genital mutilation (FGM) destroys the capacity of women to experience sexual pleasure. It causes serious medical complications such as bleeding, painful urination, cysts, dangerous and recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, the growth of scar tissue that make marital intercourse a nightmare and that turns childbirth into an experience of danger and torture. Due to immigration, FGM now poses a potential health crisis in the West, both in Europe and in the United States. To estimate how many girls who live in the West are at risk, one can measure the prevalence of FGM in the non-Western countries where …

More Kindergarteners Are Exempted From Required School Vaccinations Than In The Past, Kent Jason G. Cheng

Population Health Research Brief Series

The percentage of kindergarteners being granted exemption from vaccination is growing across the U.S. as parents increasingly request exemptions for philosophical reasons. During the 2017-18 school year, 2.2% of kindergartners were exempted from vaccination. This is up from 1.6% during the 2011-12 school year.

Child Poverty, Physical & Mental Health In Maine, Katelyn Malloy

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Children who live below the national poverty line account for nearly one fifth of Maine’s overall population. Child poverty is a determinant of health that can lead to negative health outcomes that affect childhood development, educational achievement, as well as physical and mental health. The purpose of this study was to identify five Maine counties with the highest rates of child poverty according to the national average. Comparison of poverty rates between counties were analyzed along with two leading health indicators – mental and physical distress. This study used 2016 county-level childhood poverty estimates, assessed by the American Community Survey …

Dampak Bumdes Terhadap Kesejahteraan Masyarakat Di Desa Aik Batu Buding, Kabupaten Belitung, Provinsi Bangka Belitung.

Jurnal Ilmu Kesejahteraan Sosial

Village development is a priority in national development, because it is closely related to the third point of the President's Nawacita which states that it is developing Indonesia from the periphery by strengthening regions and villages within the framework of a unitary state. This study aims to describe the impact of BUMDES on the welfare of rural communities. BUMDES is one of the programs to strengthen the role of the region. village aik batu buding, Belitung Districts, Bangka Belitung Islands Province has become one of the best BUMDES in the Province in 2016, because it is interesting to see the …

“Oh Lord, Save Us From Such Monsters:” Maternal Impression And Monstrous Births In The Eighteenth-Century Netherlands, Sara Hollar

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This historical survey focuses on the memoirs of Catharina Schrader, a Frisian midwife in the eighteenth century, as a lens into beliefs about maternal impression and monstrous births during the early modern period. The then popular theory of maternal impression, where pregnant women could impact their gestating fetus’s appearance or characteristics through their behavior, thoughts, and feelings, was used to explain many instances of monstrous births. Monstrosity, now understood as congenital defects or disabilities, was seen as a result and marker of pregnant women’s moral failings. Using examples of monstrous births from Schrader’s memoirs, I analyze the threat of maternal …

Kontribusi Pengasuh Di Panti Asuhan Muslimin Dalam Pemenuhandimensi Emosional Warmth Berdasarkan Kerangka Perlindungandan Kesejahteraan Sosial Anak, Fatiyah Rahmadiana, Dwi Amalia Chandra Sekar

Jurnal Ilmu Kesejahteraan Sosial

This study aims to provide an overview of the caregiver's contribution in fulfilling child welfare in orphanages as a substitute for parents who are needed to fulfill children's development needs. This study uses the UNICEF Child Welfare and Protection Framework, namely Parenting Capacity and limits the discussion on one of the indicators, namely Emotional Warmth. This study uses a qualitative approach with a type of descriptive research. Data collection methods used are literature studies, observations and in-depth interviews. The results of this study illustrate the efforts of caregivers in fulfilling emotional warmth by showing their affection first getting closer to …