Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Beauty Isn't Always Better: How Salesperson Attractiveness Affects Consumers' Approach Behaviors, Veronica L. Thomas, Stephanie M. Mangus, Dora E. Bock

Marketing Faculty Publications

This research examines how a consumer's committed romantic relationship influences their decision to approach an attractive salesperson in a retail environment. To date, the majority of research espouses the benefits of salesperson attractiveness in enhancing consumers' perceptions of the salesperson and the represented retailer. This is problematic because it creates a managerial bias toward attractive salespeople and, as we propose, provides an incomplete view of the effect of salesperson attractiveness on consumers' behavior. Drawing on the interpersonal relationship literature on commitment, we propose that consumers in committed relationships activate relationship-maintenance motives that override the beauty bias when a salesperson's attractiveness …

Exploring Bonding Through Outdoor Recreation In Foster Care Utilizing Attachment Theory, Casandra L. Barnes

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

As of 2024, there are over 328,000 children in foster care in the United States (AFCARS, 2024), many of whom experience disrupted attachments and trauma that hinder their ability to form healthy relationships. Drawing from attachment theory, this study explores how outdoor recreational activities can facilitate bonding between foster parents and their foster children. Using a mixed method approach this explorative research project consisted of two phases: a pilot study at the Virginia zoo involving foster families participating in a cooperative outdoor activity and completing post event surveys, and semi-structured interviews with foster parents to examine lived experiences of bonding …

Investigating Gender Differences In Intimate Partner Violence Using Gendered General Strain Theory, Stephanie Victoria Dragon

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health concern impacting communities and criminal justice systems. Nationwide IPV prevention and reduction policies were emphasized in the media during the aftermath of COVID-19 specifically regarding the identification of IPV offending behaviors through law enforcement screening tools. Research on IPV offending has clearly established a link in offenders exerting methods of power and control to harm an intimate partner through verbal abuse, coercion, sexual violence, and physical violence. Further, research also identified significant disproportional experiences of lethality in female victims at the hands of an intimate partner. However, criminological theories outside of control-based …

A Kind Of Goodness, Marianne Chan

English Faculty Publications

[Introduction]At the playground, my mother hid from me, I couldn’t find her, and I called her name a thousand times.

And when she reappeared, I ran to her, and she ran to me, and I clenched her neck, and I put my hands on her face, and I said, Where were you? Where were you? and she said, I’m so glad you found me. And we hugged, and she smiled as she cradled me, and I howled, like a gibbon, at her shoulder.

Family And Peer Social Capital And Child Behavioral Outcomes In Japan, Jared M. Poff, Jonathan A. Jarvis, Mikaela J. Dufur, Shana L. Pribesh

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Background/Objectives: Child problem behaviors have been linked to immediate and long-term negative outcomes. Research has found that family and peer social capital have a strong influence on child behavioral outcomes. However, most research about social capital and child behavior problems has been conducted in Western contexts. Social capital may influence child behavior problems differently in non-Western sociocultural environments due to different family and peer dynamics. Methods: Using a sample from the Japan Household Panel Survey and Japan Child Panel Survey (N = 182), we expand this literature on various forms of social capital to the Japanese context with data that …

Family Structure, Family Transitions, And Child Overweight And Obesity: Comparing Australia, The United Kingdom, And The United States, Sadie A. Slighting, Kirsten Rasmussen, Mikaela J. Dufur, Jonathan A. Jarvis, Shana Pribesh, Alyssa J. Alexander, Carolina Otero

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Growing rates of childhood obesity globally create concern for individuals' health outcomes and demands on health systems. While many policy approaches focus on macro-level interventions, we examine how the type of stability of a family structure might provide opportunities for policy interventions at the micro level. We examine the association between family structure trajectories and childhood overweight and obesity across three Anglophone countries using an expanded set of eight family structure categories that capture biological relationships and instability, along with potential explanatory variables that might vary across family trajectories and provide opportunities for intervention, including access to resources, family stressors, …

Factors Moderating The Association Between Social Network “Drinking Buddies” And Personal Drinking, Karolina Kazlauskaite

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Peer relationships have been implicated as a salient factor on individual drinking outcomes. One specific subset of peers in one’s social network, identified as drinking buddies, have been associated with an elevated risk for harmful drinking in college students—beyond drinking peers in one’s network alone. Despite their salience on individual alcohol outcomes, little is known regarding what makes drinking buddies more or less influential. While moderators of peer influence have been examined, prior research on peer influence predominantly focuses on adolescent populations, presenting gaps in the literature regarding moderators of college student drinking buddies specifically. As such, the current study …

Socioeconomic Status, Cultural Values, And Elderly Care: An Examination Of Elderly Care Preference In Oecd Countries, Fang Fang, Xiao Yang

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background

With the rapid growing of the older population around the world, care for older adults is becoming a pressing public health issue. To find the optimum and sustainable balance of informal and formal involvement in senior care is urgently important. However, it is still unclear how older adults’ preferences for senior care are shaped by a range of factors at individual and country levels. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the roles of socioeconomic status (SES) and culture values in old adults’ attitude toward senior care.

Methods

The data from the International Social Survey Program 2012: Changing Family …

Family Structure And Child Behavior Problems In Australia, The United Kingdom, And The United States, Nina A. Stoddard-Bennett, Jordan Coburn, Mikaela J. Dufur, Jonathan A. Jarvis, Shana L. Pribesh

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

A large body of literature suggests that children living with two married, biological parents on average have fewer behavior problems than those who do not. What is less clear is why this occurs. Competing theories suggest that resource deficiencies and parental selectivity play a part. We suggest that examining different contexts can help adjudicate among different theoretical explanations as to how family structure relates to child behavior problems. In this paper, we use data from the Growing Up in Australia: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), and the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) …

Reevaluating The Factor Structure Of The Family Resilience Assessment Scale For African American College Students, Quandrea Rachelle Harper

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to reevaluate the initial validation process of the Family Resilience Assessment Scale (FRAS) and to validate the measure for use with African Americans. Although the FRAS has been previously validated using a sample from the general population in the U.S. and has demonstrated cross-cultural utility, its applicability for use specifically with African Americans is inconclusive, as demonstrated by preliminary research findings. In the current study, data were collected from a sample of African American college students to conduct an exploratory factor analysis using all 66 items initially included in Sixbey’s validation study, and a …

Contextual Factors Of Harsh Parenting: Investigating The Role Of Impulsivity And Parent Attribution Bias Under Conditions Of Household Chaos, Kelsey T. Ellis

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The use of harsh parenting strategies as a form of disciplining child misbehavior has been identified as an underlying factor for child abuse; thus, it is important to examine underlying causal factors for harsh parenting. While not originally formulated around harsh parenting, social information processing models of reactive aggression have highlighted internal attributions and impulsivity as key processes in social decision-making. Therefore, the current study integrated these theoretical models to explore how these processes are involved in harsh parenting behaviors and how these processes may interact in the context of environmental factors such as household chaos. Results revealed significant direct …

A Model Of Individual, Relationship, And Societal Factors And Mental Health And Well-Being In Partnered Sexual Minority Women: The Central Role Of Relationship Satisfaction, Charlotte A. Dawson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Sexual minority women (SMW) are at increased risk for mental health disorders, substance abuse, and physical health problems compared to heterosexual women. For heterosexual individuals, romantic relationships have been found to be protective against a variety of health issues. Less research, however, has focused on the association between romantic relationships and health in same-sex couples. The purpose of this study was to examine the potential protective nature of being in a relationship for SMW and to test a model investigating the central role of relationship satisfaction in the association between individual, relationship, and societal factors and mental health and well-being …

Family Communication Patterns During Recovery Maintenance: Relapse Prevention For Alcoholics & Addicts, Adam Pyecha

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

The following thesis is research into the Family Communication Patterns (FCP) (McLeod & Chaffee, 1972) of “alcoholics and drug addicts” (ADA) with long-term recovery stages III and IV. Improving relapse rates of ADA in early recovery stage I and stage II may require knowledge about the family communication environment and family type of those ADA with extended recovery time. This is an exploratory descriptive of FCP and family typology of 81 ADA identifying as Twelve-step fellowship (TSF) members recovering from the disease of addiction (Jellinek, 1947; 1960). Data was collected via online questionnaire with adapted scales; AWARE 3.0 relapse awareness …

Racial Socialization In Non-Hispanic White American Families: An Exploration Of The Role Of Parental Racial-Ethnic Socialization, Julia C. Rodil

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Racial-ethnic socialization is a largely unstudied topic for White Americans. Most of the research on racial-ethnic socialization (RES) focuses on minority populations, but more literature is starting to focus on RES in White individuals. However, the mechanisms by which RES messages are transmitted are understudied. This study examined how prior parental RES strategies (i.e., egalitarianism, history of other groups, group differences, preparation for bias, general discrimination, and discrimination against other groups) impacted White college students’ own attitudes towards ethnic-racial minorities (i.e., racist, colorblind, and multicultural) and how these attitudes influenced inclusive (and non-inclusive) behavior, psychosocial costs of racism (White empathic …

The Relationship Between Age And Gender And Its Effect On Intergenerational Patterns Of Incarceration, Sominishia Wright

Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference

Mass incarceration has been a dominant concern within the criminal justice system since the 1970s. Criminologists and other researchers have looked at the effects crime has on the steadily increasing incarceration rate but to little avail. Intergenerational patterns of incarceration further oppress minority and low-income communities. Although researchers have been able to identify some forms of causation, much more research needs to be done to understand why certain people, according to race, age, gender, and socioeconomic status, are more likely to be incarcerated, arrested, and convicted than others. Current research identifies deviant parents and paternal incarceration as factors that increase …

Impacts Of Intersectionality In The Lgbtqiap+ Community, Sydney Inger

Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference

Intersectionality plays an integral role in how a family or society reacts to a youth’s identification within the LGBTQIAP+ community and their chances of overcoming societal challenges that may follow. The intersections of geographic location and religion are predictive of how accepting a family is toward an LGBTIAP+ child, but this is not correlated with every case. When a family is unaccepting, youth can find themselves running away, homeless, in the foster care system, or incarcerated. Beyond continuous rejection at home and in the community, youth are left with challenges finding accepting foster families and applying for jobs and homes …

Positive Communication Across The Lifespan: Early Childhood Aces To Vias, Adam Pyecha

College of Arts and Letters Posters

Felitti et al., (1985; 1998) developed Adverse Childhood Experiences test (ACEs), after researching adults suffering from obesity and addictive overeating. Positive correlations were linked with traumatic childhood experiences, such as severe physical, sexual and mental abuse with those participants struggling with obesity. ACEs is widely accepted in the field of psychology, proving individuals with higher ACEs scores indicate higher probability for mental illness and high risk deviant like substance abuse and felony crime. Identifying students with high ACEs before entering grade school may give educators and institutions the ability positively alter character and behavior outcomes of these victimized children. Nicholson, …

Healthy Foods In Schools: Communicating With Children, Carolina Rodriguez-Ospina

College of Arts and Letters Posters

“Eat well to grow up healthy” is the most memorable message that families transmitted to their children, but what happens with these words of wisdom when the kids have to face the world of school cafeterias? Do they have enough choices to follow these recommendations? Do they want to look for healthy food? These are some questions that can be answered through analyzing meals in school and the narrative related to it. Moreover, some strategies have been created to persuade kids to eat healthily. In the reviewed literature, a lot of sources and procedures are studied to improve choices that …

The Flow Of Family Transitions Of Australian Families, Shana Pribesh, Matthew Usevitch, Elizabeth Koch Sigler, Kaijsa Angerhofer Heninger, Yuanyuan Yue, Mikaela J. Dufur, Jonathan A. Jarvis

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

Family structure disruption has been linked to negative child educational and health outcomes (Perales et al. 2016). Australia has relatively stable families, but income disparities between Australians are widening, and single-parent families make up a large proportion of families living in poverty. Cohabitation is also common in Australia with approximately three-quarters of marriages preceded by cohabitation. If substantial family structure churning affects Australian children this may expose a need for special policy interventions aimed at family creation and dissolution to ameliorate the negative effects of such stressful experiences. To highlight family structures and transitions Australian children experience, we use Sankey …

Harsh Parenting In Military Versus Civilian Families: Does Military Culture Moderate The Influence Of Socioeconomic Status And Race?, Tiren Antinette Parker

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Harsh parenting techniques such as yelling and spanking are commonly used in the United States to discipline children, despite the evidence that harsh parenting has a negative sequalae for children that can persistent into adulthood. Socioeconomic status (SES) and race/ethnicity have been identified as two key determinants of harsh parenting. The stressors associated with military service and parenting within military culture place families at increased risk for harsh parenting and child maltreatment. Having a better understanding of how sociodemographic factors influence parenting behaviors within the military culture may help to develop psychoeducational and parenting programs as well as therapeutic interventions …

Anticipated Vs Experienced Work-Family Conflict: Newcomer Expectations And Early Socialization Outcomes, Seterra D. Burleson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Applying met expectations and newcomer socialization theory, congruence and discrepancy between anticipated work-family conflict (AWFC) and experienced WFC were examined in relation to job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intent. It was hypothesized that when AWFC and WFC are in agreement outcomes are more favorable. Further, it was hypothesized that when the discrepancy is such that WFC is higher than AWFC outcomes are more favorable than vice versa. Data were collected from 205 adults, first as graduating seniors in college and again three months after starting their post-graduation jobs. Polynomial regression revealed that congruence between work interference with family (WIF) …

Families Communicating About Health: Conceptualization And Validation Of The Family Health Communication Quotient Scale, Erin E. Gafner

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

Research on family health communication is based in part on the assumption that families actually communicate about a wide variety of topics pertaining to their health and wellness (or lack thereof). However, whether they do communicate about health and wellness, and exactly what they communicate about concerning health and wellness as well as how often, remains undocumented. To begin to address this problem of documenting the extent to which families talk about health and wellness, this study adapted Warren and Neer’s (1986) Family Sex Communication Quotient to create and report the preliminary validation of a new measurement instrument called the …

Multilevel Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of The Family Adjustment Measure With Lower-Income, Ethnic Minority Parents Of Children With Disabilities, Vanessa Nicole Dominguez-O'Hare

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

The primary goal of this study is to add to the validation and psychometric development of the Family Adjustment Measure (FAM; Daire, Dominguez, Carlson, & Case Pease, 2014). The FAM is a treatment-planning tool to assist members of the helping profession assess four different areas in parental and family adjustment for parents of children with disabilities (i.e., parental distress, family-based support, social support, and positive coping skills). Previously, the FAM was normed on predominantly middle- to upper-class, Caucasian females. However, lower-income, ethnic minority families experience systemic prejudice and other contextual and social barriers in their experiences of raising a child …

Marital Satisfaction Of Turkish Individuals: The Role Of Marriage Type, Duration Of Marriage, And Personality Traits, Gökçe Bulgan, Gülşah Kemer, Evrim Çetinkaya Yıldız

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of marriage type (family-arranged versus self-choice), duration of marriage, and personality traits (i.e., agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and neuroticism) in predicting married Turkish individuals’ marital satisfaction levels. Participants were 288 (147 female and 141 male) married Turkish individuals living in urban cities in Turkey. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed significant results for the linear combination of marriage type and duration of marriage as well as personality traits in explaining individuals’ marital satisfaction levels. More specifically, duration of marriage, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism were found to have individual significant contributions to …

Examining The Role Of Behavioral Inhibition In Harsh Parenting Preferences: An Analog Study, Kelsey T. Ellis

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Understanding the cognitive processes involved in harsh parenting behavior would have broad implications for parenting interventions and training programs. Few studies have addressed how parental stressors, specifically infant crying, can influence individuals’ self-regulatory cognitive capacities and ultimately their preference for harsh parenting strategies. Furthermore, little research has explored the link between these cognitive processes and harsh parenting preferences; thus, little work has been done to establish a true causal relationship. This study examined the role of behavioral inhibition in harsh parenting preferences when individuals were exposed to an infant crying noise.

Participants (n = 129) were undergraduate students (Mage = …

Attitudes And Actions That Adoptive Parents Perceive As Helpful In The Process Of Raising Their Internationally Adopted Adolescent, Marina V. Kuzmina

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

This phenomenological dissertation study explored the lived experiences of adoptive parents in the process of raising their internationally adopted adolescents. The researcher interviewed 9 participants. Criteria for selection of the research sample included having personal experience with parenting one or more international adolescents adopted at age 10 or older and raising these adolescents for at least two years following such adoption. Data analysis included steps suggested by Moustakas (1994) and the participation of a research team and external auditor. According to the recommendations of Lincoln and Guba (1985), several strategies for trustworthiness were implemented during this course of the study. …

Facilitating A Whole-Life Approach To Career Development: The Role Of Organizational Leadership, Michael L. Litano, Debra A. Major

Psychology Faculty Publications

This article focuses on the whole-life approach to career development. A review of the ways in which career paths have been conceptualized over time demonstrates that increasing consideration has been given to nonwork factors (i.e., personal life and family life) in defining careers. The whole-life perspective on career development acknowledges that employees are striving for opportunities for professional development as well as individualized work-life balance, which changes over the life course. Although the careers literature has emphasized interorganizational mobility as the primary mechanism for achieving these goals, whole-life career development can also be achieved within a single organization when organizational …

A New Way To Estimate The Potential Unmet Need For Infertility Services Among Women In The United States, Arthur L. Greil, Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins, Stacy Tiemeyer, Julia Mcquilan, Karina M. Shreffler

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Background: Fewer than 50% of women who meet the medical/behavioral criteria for infertility receive medical services. Estimating the number of women who both meet the medical/behavioral criteria for infertility and who have pro-conception attitudes will allow for better estimates of the potential need and unmet need for infertility services in the United States.

Methods: The National Survey of Fertility Barriers was administered by telephone to a probability sample of 4,712 women in the United States. The sample for this analysis was 292 women who reported an experience of infertility within 3 years of the time of the interview. Infertile women …

Work Across The Generations: Communication Narratives Of Stay-At-Home Fathers In Early And Middle Adulthood, Alice L. Jones

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

The notion of work whether it is done inside or outside the home represents a complex and shifting pattern of social relationships, gender role identities, and ideologies. For an increasing numbers of men, who represent the population of fathers labeled as "stay-at-Home Dad" [SAHD] or "stay-at-home father" [SAHF], these changes have created special challenges, controversies, and raised questions about cultural expectations concerning the transition from that of a stigmatized role to that of a "new, involved father" (Eranta & Moisander, 2011; Rochlen, 2008). Increased participation by men in roles that challenge traditional and long standing gender role norms and expectations …

Predictors Of Self-Esteem In Children Exposed To Potentially Traumatic Events, Colleen Michelle Ray

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Self-esteem is not only important for the well being of a child, but the effects of low levels of self-esteem can continue well into adulthood. Past research identifies many possible predictors of self-esteem including: age, gender, Ethnicity, interpersonal relationships, parenting techniques and locus of control. One downfall of previous literature is the lack of exploration performed with high-risk samples. This study aims to begin to fill this void.

Utilizing data from the INVEST project, the current analysis examines predictors of self esteem among 161 children and adolescents aged 8-17, referred to a hospital based Child Advocacy Center due to exposure …