Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons^™

Counselor Preparedness When Working With Survivors Of Human Trafficking, Jenise Wilson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Human trafficking is a social epidemic that impacts people globally. Human trafficking survivors are often left with a variety of physical and mental health concerns that need to be addressed by counselors. Due to the complex nature of the trauma, counselors may be unprepared to work with survivors. Using a qualitative transcendental phenomenological approach, this study looked at counselors’ perceived preparedness to work with human trafficking survivors by asking what counselors’ experience had been when working with survivors, and what information they would need to know to feel better equipped to work with such survivors. Seven licensed counselors who worked …

Key Inhibitors To Ex-Offenders Obtaining Permanent Housing, Jennifer Bernard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a problem with the availability of permanent housing for ex-offenders, which increases the number of homeless ex-offenders, increasing the potential for recidivism that leads to inflated federal, state, and local incarceration budgets and higher taxpayer burdens. However, not much is known regarding the barriers ex-offenders face when seeking permanent housing in Anchorage, Alaska. Narrowing this knowledge gap was the purpose of this study, which was guided by Schneider and Ingram's social construction framework theory. The research goal of this study was to examine how the perception of ex-offenders and the external environment affect the ex-offender's ability of obtaining …

Mediating Effect Of Transformational And Servant Leadership On Perceptions Of Management Bullying, Wilsa Desir

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Bullying by workplace organizational leadership will continue to present challenges until organizations adopt tools to identify feasible policies, programs, and solutions that can bridge the gap between oppressed employees and their organizations. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to examine the effects of transformational and servant leadership on organizational commitment and the mediating effect of management bullying in the workplace. The investigation was guided by the 3-component model (TCM) of organizational commitment, Burns's conceptual framework on transformational leadership, and Greenleaf's theory on servant leadership. Survey data were collected from 134 participants recruited via social media and snowball sampling. …

Strategies To Reduce Voluntary Employee Turnover, Patricia M. Alexander

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High voluntary turnover negatively impacts an organization's profits, resulting in high expenses for businesses. The findings contribute to practical ways for small business leaders to maintain long-term employees, minimize operational costs, and enhance local economic stability. Grounded in the concept of transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies small business leaders use to reduce voluntary employee turnover. The participants comprised 5 private industry leaders in the state of Virginia, who were successful in reducing voluntary employee turnover. Data collected through semistructured face-to-face interviews and analysis of company documents. Based on Yin's …

Differences In Turnover Intentions Between Nonmillennials And Millennials In Nonprofit Organizations, Kevin Allen Dennis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The consequences of turnover in nonprofit organizations can be costly. Grounded in the person-organization fit theory, the purpose of this cross-sectional survey study was to investigate turnover intentions among generational cohorts in nonprofit organizations. The research questions addressed whether differences in turnover intentions existed among generational cohorts and whether job satisfaction and organizational justice perceptions influenced turnover intentions in nonmillennials and millennials working in nonprofit organizations. Survey data were collected from 192 employees from nonprofit organizations. The survey included the Perceived Overall Justice scale, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, and the Intent to Stay scale. Data were analyzed using t tests …

Risk Factors Of Infant Mortality Disparity In Indian River County, Florida, Cecilia Miguelina Escorbore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Infant mortality in the United States is a great concern to families, communities, and professionals in the public health field. More concerning is the infant mortality racial disparity, prevalent throughout the United States. The purpose of this study was to explore risk factors of infant mortality disparity in Indian River County (IRC), Florida. Using socioecological theory as the theoretical framework, this study explored whether there is an association between infant mortality among Black infants and geographic location as well as measures of socioeconomic status (age, educational level, health insurance status, and marital status) associated with infant mortality among Black infants …

Experiences Of Long-Term Stay Among Homeless Millennials In New York City Shelters, Xellex Z. Rivera

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The number of homeless millennials seeking shelter in New York City (NYC) increases

nightly. Aside from seeking shelter services, millennial adults are also staying in shelters longer than the time allotted by the city. Their extended stay places a burden on city resources and taxpayers. Although there is research on the millennial generation and homelessness in NYC, more research is needed on the experiences of single, millennial adults who stay in shelters for extended periods of time. The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to explore the experiences of 4 long-term-stay millennials, 25 to 34 years of age, …

Experiences Of Jamaican Adult College Students In Counseling, Pamela Victoria Gray

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since the introduction of counseling services in Jamaica in the 1960s, young adults continue to encounter obstacles in utilizing the services made available to them. Some significant factors impacting how individuals use the professional counseling services are (a) the clients’ historical and political background, (b) the ill-treatment of people with mental illness, (c) cultural practices and values, (d) the stigma toward mental illness, and (e) knowledge deficiency concerning psychological issues and psychosis. This qualitative, hermeneutic phenomenological research describes the experiences of Jamaican adult college students in counseling with counseling professionals. Seven participants volunteered through the networking sample method from universities …

The Weaponization Of Poverty: An Investigation Into United States Military Recruitment Practices In High Schools Of Low-Income Communities In The Inland Empire, Michael Springer-Gould

Pitzer Senior Theses

Military recruitment in the United States is a highly contentious subject that has yielded a multitude of prior research across a variety of academic concentrations. To further the conversation, I narrow my focus to Southern California’s Inland Empire (IE) to explore practices of military recruitment in high schools that serve students in low-income communities. I begin with a general overview of life and labor in the Inland Empire before moving into prior research on military recruitment. My empirical research consists of five in-depth interviews documenting the lived experiences of individuals hailing from and attending high school in low-income communities of …

Transformation As Desistance Inside: Temporality And Identity Reconstruction Among Men With Life Sentences, Richard Stover

Honors Theses

This thesis is an investigation of destistance strategies among men sentenced to life in prison in a medium security prison in Pennsylvania. Desistance here is defined as the process leading to the cessation of formally deviant behavior. Drawing from life narrative interviews conducted among 22 men, I argue that desistance is intrinsically tied to how inmates conceptualize themselves within the institutional context of the prison and can be expanded to include people who are still incarcerated. I build off of Peggy Giordano and colleagues symbolic interactionist perspective on desistance and expand it to chart how men with life sentences order …

The Morphology Of Sex: Tracking Change In The Sex Discourse At Augustana College, Robert E. Burke

Audre Lorde Prize

Here, I track how the criteria for deeming sex as acceptable or unacceptable have changed over time at Augustana College. To do so, I apply two critical lenses to archived issues of the Augustana Observer. The first lens involves Rubin's concept of the "sex hierarchy," a variety of categories by which we may judge sex as good or bad. The second lens is related to Berlant and Warner's "national heterosexuality," a concept that claims that sexual norms are intrinsically elastic but politically, culturally, and economically firm under capitalism. Making use of a localized "snapshot" approach, I use recent Augustana history …

A Comparison Of Fully Labeled And Top-Labeled Grid Question Formats, Jolene Smyth, Kristen M. Olson

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The grid question format is common in mail and web surveys. In this format, a single question stem introduces a set of items, which are listed in rows of a table underneath the question stem. The table’s columns contain the response options, usually only listed at the top, with answer spaces arrayed below and aligned with the items (Dillman et al. 2014).This format is efficient for respondents; they do not have to read the full question stem and full set of response options for every item in the grid. Likewise, it is space efficient for the survey researcher, which reduces …

Is Lying Contagious? Spatial Diffusion Of High-Yield “Satellites” During China’S Great Leap Forward, Hongwei Xu, Geng Tian

Publications and Research

Situated in China’s Great Leap Forward (GLF) campaign in 1958, this study examines the spatial diffusion of “launching high-yield satellites”— exaggerating grain yields, which contributed to the 1959–61 GLF famine that claimed millions of human lives. The authors conceptualize exaggerating grain yields as a political innovation adopted by local cadres to endorse the GLF and signal political loyalty to their superiors. Using geocoded county-level event history data from historical newspaper archives, the authors found that the diffusion of exaggerating grain yields across the country was primarily driven by the interaction between geographic proximity and political proximity.

Thrown Together: Credit Union And Commercial Bank Regulation And Competition In The Consumer Finance Industry, 1960-2015, Grace Cale

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

This project seeks to assess whether there are meaningful differences between the stability of the Credit Union and Consumer Banking industries before the 1980s, and how both industries’ stability had been affected by subsequent political-economic changes. I also sought to assess if deregulation would make credit union behave at risk levels similar to banks. I initially observed that there was a strong inverse correlation between credit union size and failures, which I argue could be explained by regulatory change. This claim was strengthened by the observation that credit unions had benefitted from certain key forms of deregulation, they were still …

What Makes Collaborative Evaluation Approaches Collaborative? A Q Methodology Study On Program Evaluators’ Perceptions, Dax M. Weaver

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore program evaluators’ perceptions about what they consider to be the essential practices, elements, or attributes of collaborative evaluation approaches (CEAs). This topic was investigated because of the increasing use of CEAs within the field and the ambiguity about what does and does not constitute a CEA. Several researchers have proposed frameworks that attempt to define the essential elements that distinguish CEAs from other evaluation approaches; however, the literature still lacks consensus on their exact nature. It was through an examination of evaluators’ viewpoints on the subject using Q Methodology that this study …

Social Connectedness And Financial Independence Strategies Supporting Nonprofit Sustainability, Christopher Edmund Maylor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) often lack strategies to ensure the sustainability of their organizations beyond initial funding, resulting in significant risk to program continuity. Grounded in social entrepreneurship theory, the purpose of this qualitative single-case study was to explore strategies used by 3 leaders of a small NPO in the southwest region of the United States. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and a review of organizational documents. Through thematic analysis, 6 social themes emerged: optimization of business strategies, income and donor growth, program cost management, funding diversification, program licensing, and public awareness of NPO programs. The contributions to …

The Experience Of Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder In The Workplace, Josephine Laverne Harris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been associated with children for many decades, but it can continue into adulthood. However, little research has focused on adults with ADHD or the specific processes through which such adults mitigate the challenges they face, especially in the workplace. The purpose of this qualitative, grounded theory study was to provide a better understanding of the strategies and support systems adults with ADHD use to overcome workplace challenges. Self-efficacy theory grounded the study, allowing for an understanding of the lived experiences of adults with ADHD in the workplace. The researcher conducted 12 semistructured interviews with adults with …

Exploring Fathers' Perception Of Their Reading And Math Skills And Paternal Involvement, Vielka C. Massenburg

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many children in the U.S. public education system at the elementary and secondary levels are below proficiency in reading and math. Parental involvement within the home and school context is important to children's overall and academic success. The purpose of this basic, qualitative study was to explore fathers' perception about their self-efficacy, reading and math skills, knowledge of and accessibility to educational and community resources, and their involvement in the academic lives of their elementary school-age children. Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory provided the theoretical framework of social interrelatedness. Semistructured interviews were conducted to collect the data from 7 fathers with …

Exploring The Impacts Of Workplace Loneliness On Criminal Justice Senior Leaders, Johanna Papa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This phenomenological qualitative study aimed to explore the impacts of workplace loneliness on senior leaders of various criminal justice organizations. The theoretical framework used was Descartes' views of the self-concept theory, which explained how individuals defined and described themselves within a social context. Using purposive sampling and semistructured telephone, and email interviews of 16 criminal justice senior leaders from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, this research was conducted to answer the overarching question of this study. Workplace loneliness was a professional hazard. The key findings revealed that at least 87% of the criminal justice senior leaders reported feeling or have …

Perception Of Stress Observed By Family Members Of Dentists Who Have Committed Suicide, Lillian D. Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research aimed at the observed stress from being a dentist, and how it may have

impacted the occurrence of their suicide did not appear to be prevalent among empirical

suicide studies. The purpose of this basic, qualitative study was to explore how the

family members perceived occupational stress as precursor events in dentists who

committed suicide. Using the interpersonal theory of suicide as the conceptual basis, 4

family members of dentists who committed suicide were interviewed to understand how

family members perceived occupational stress in the dentist using semi structured

interviews. Through a series of precoding and recoding, interview data …

Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, Zero-Tolerance Discipline, And The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Lois V. Woods

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Zero-tolerance discipline policies led to the introduction of police on school campuses and has resulted in a disproportionate number of in-school arrests and referrals of Black middle-school students, subjecting them to the school-to-prison pipeline. An abundance of data suggest the negative effects of zero tolerance; however, less is known regarding alternative evidence-based strategies such as the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI). Grounded in stage environment fit and labeling theoretical frameworks, the purpose of this study was to examine if JDAI status (pre-JDAI and post-JDAI) could predict arrests and referrals, while controlling for race, gender, and age. Secondary data were collected …

The Summer Treatment Program’S Effect On Behaviorally Challenged Orthodox Jewish Children, Dovid Rudomin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Summer Treatment Program (STP) is an 8-week, research-based, behavior modification approach utilizing a unique point system that has been shown to improve the noncompliant behavior of children in a day camp setting. Due to religious reasons, the children of the Orthodox Jewish (OJ) community are unable to attend the original STP. Guided by behaviorism, the purpose of this research study was to assess whether a faith-based STP is effective in improving the noncompliant behavior of OJ behaviorally challenged children. In this study, the relationship between the completion of the STP and the behaviors of hyperactivity, aggression, conduct, anxiety, attention, …

Intercultural Communication Between African American Managers And Hispanic Workers With Esl, Reva Ann Stanton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

By 2050, individuals of Hispanic descent will represent nearly 30% of the total American population with English as a second language (ESL). The problem addressed the lack of strategies being used by African American Managers on communicating with Hispanic workers with ESL. The purpose of the study was to explore what communication strategies African American managers can use when managing Hispanic workers with ESL in a government agency in Illinois. The importance of this study is exemplified in the findings; the results provided a new way of thinking about the social world that is interwoven in an intercultural environment. The …

Acculturative Experiences Of African American Military Wives In An Arctic Environment, Demetria Roshan White

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

United States military wives typically relocate every few years with their active-duty husbands. But little is known about the acculturative stress and stressors associated with relocating and reestablishing a military home in an Arctic environment. This qualitative research focused on African American women who were also military wives and the acculturative stress they encountered in relocating to an Arctic environment. Face to face interviews provided a platform for 10 military wives to share their personal experiences. The acculturative stress that African American military wives’ acculturative stress and stressors encountered in relocating from a non-Arctic to an Arctic environment are not …

Risk Perception Of Terrorism And Individual Preparedness In Thailand, Pinida Neenlapathna

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since 2001, terrorist incidents in Thailand have caused more than 6,600 deaths and nearly 13,000 people have been injured. The Thai government has employed various counterterrorism measures, but there is little attention paid to terrorism awareness and preparedness. Following the tenets of social cognitive theory, the purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the predictive relationship between the risk perception of terrorism (i.e., perceived probability, perceived seriousness, perceived impact, perceived coping efficacy, perceived government preparedness, and perceived frontline responder preparedness) and individual preparedness among Thai people. The study was conducted with a convenience sample of 327 Thai adults who …

Sanctuary: Understanding Immigrant Victimization Reporting, Jonathan Joseph Niksarian

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the criminal justice system, the victim possesses the power to determine if crime goes unreported. The problem addressed by this study is if sanctuary type policies have an effect on victimization reporting by immigrants. The theoretical framework was based on Appleton-Dyer and Field’s interpretation of social exclusion theory. The key research question was focused on the perception of legal aid providers’ perception of immigrants’ victimization reporting determination. This qualitative phenomenological study included interviews with 4 legal aid providers who worked for an organization designed to serve victimized immigrants seeking relief. The data were coded and analyzed manually. Findings revealed …

Reducing Payment-Card Fraud, Chares R. Ross

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Critical public data in the United States are vulnerable to theft, creating severe financial and legal implications for payment-card acceptors. When security analysts and managers who work for payment card processing organizations implement strategies to reduce or eliminate payment-card fraud, they protect their organizations, consumers, and the local and national economy. Grounded in Cressey’s fraud theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies business owners and card processors use to reduce or eliminate payment-card fraud. The participants were 3 data security analysts and 1 manager working for an international payment card processing organization with 10 …

Foster Parents’ Perceptions Of Services Needed To Help Manage Foster Children’S Emotional And Behavioral Issues, Timothy A. Lance

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Children entering the foster care system in the United States have higher rates of behavioral and emotional issues than children in the general population. Research has revealed that foster parents need to be trained in how to manage the emotional and behavioral problems of children placed in their care. However, there is a gap in knowledge regarding foster care providers’ perceptions of services they may need to assist them in managing their foster children’s behavioral and emotional problems. A generic qualitative approach was used to address the question: What are foster parents’ perceptions of services they need to effectively manage …

Perceptions Of The Reentry Process Among African American Male Ex-Offenders With Multiple Incarcerations, Chanae Latrice Lumpkin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Within 3 years of their release from the criminal justice system, almost 7 out of 10 released African American males go back to. There is limited social science research into how these ex-offenders perceive their lived experiences after release. The research questions that guided this inquiry related to understanding the post-prison experiences of African American males with a history of multiple incarcerations. The conceptual framework was guided by Tajfel’s social identity theory and Becker’s social reaction theory. Interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 6 African American males with a history of multiple incarcerations who had been released from …

High Tech, High Risk: Tech Ethics Lessons For The Covid-19 Pandemic Response, Emanuel Moss, Jacob Metcalf

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic has, in a matter of a few short months, drastically reshaped society around the world. Because of the growing perception of machine learning as a technology capable of addressing large problems at scale, machine learning applications have been seen as desirable interventions in mitigating the risks of the pandemic disease. However, machine learning, like many tools of technocratic governance, is deeply implicated in the social production and distribution of risk and the role of machine learning in the production of risk must be considered as engineers and other technologists develop tools for the current crisis. This paper …