Other Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Michael Oakeshott: Lectures In The History Of Political Thought Study Guide, 2012, Steven A. Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Are Subcompact Cars Driving Consumers Towards Sustainable Transport, Enda Mcgovern

WCBT Faculty Publications

Access to private transport is a critical component of the modern industrialized world but it is also recognized as a major source of carbon dioxide emissions, one of the global warming gases contributing to climate change. This paper looks at increased use of subcompact cars as a key component in developing a sustainable transport policy. These cars benefit the environment by emitting reduced levels of carbon emissions due to their smaller engines. This empirical research explores the opinions of Smart car owners in a focus group study. Smart car owners are primarily focused on reducing their costs due to difficult …

Impacts Of A Parenting Newsletter On Fathers Of Kindergarten Children, Sean E. Brotherson, Erin Kramer Holmes, Christopher J. Bouwhuis

Faculty Publications

This study is the first assessment of the perceived effectiveness of a parenting newsletter written specifically for fathers or father figures. The Father Times newsletter was distributed weekly for six weeks to all families of kindergarten children at a local school. Once hundred seventy-seven fathers responded to a self-report questionnaire regarding usage of the parenting newsletter, perceptions of the newsletter as a resource, and impacts of fathers' attitudes, knowledge, behaviors, and father–child relationship quality. Two-thirds of fathers in the sample reported changing at least "somewhat" in all nine outcomes explored. Neither father age nor number of children in the home …

Community-Based Programs Serving Fathers, Erin Kramer Holmes, Sean Brotherson, Kevin Roy

Faculty Publications

Community-based programs have been an important vehicle for the promotion of father involvement in the lives of children over the past decade. There is little available research, however, on the effectiveness of these programs in promoting involvement, or on the experiences of men and staff in building such programs. Despite the emergence of a new generation of federally-funded, state-funded, and locally-funded programs for the fathers and families, a lack of available research means researchers and practitioners run the risk of losing valuable insight to inform better practices for fathering. Devoting a special issue of Fathering to these efforts is our …

Speech And Language Therapy Service Evaluation Policy Brief, Noirin Hayes, Siobhán Keegan, Eimer Goulding

Reports

Based in Tallaght West, CDI is the result of the professionalism, passion, and persistence of a group of 23 concerned individuals and organisations living and working in the community who had a vision of a better place for children. Through innovation partnerships, they brought together an approach which drew on both the science and the spirit of best practice in order to meet the identified needs of children and families. A partnership was agreed between the Government and The Atlantic Philanthropies, and the consortium's first piece of work was a needs analysis entitled How are our Kids (CDI, 2004). A …

Beyond Practice And Constraint: Toward Situating Female Sexual Agency On St. Croix, Usvi, Jamae F. Morris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Women are shaped by the social structure, but they are not simply passive products. They act. They respond. They pursue. This holds true for many aspects of women's complex and dynamic lives, including their sexual health. Daily, women negotiate social expectations, individual proclivities and desires, and the need to provide for themselves and their families. Through the use of ethnographic methodology, focusing on three major social pillars--the regulation of the female body, the organization of social space, and the structuring of gender--this investigation, based on the island of St. Croix, USVI, seeks to offer an ethnographic assessment of women's attempts …

Selling Masculinity And Profiting From Marginality: Sex Work And Tourism In A Jamaican Resort Town, Lauren C. Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography explores the practice of sex tourism in Negril, Jamaica, and its sociocultural, economic, and health impacts on the popular tourist destination. Transactional sex with female tourists has become a popular income generator for some young Caribbean males who are excluded from formal employment in the region's leading industry. Like other resort locales, Negril draws both men and women from various parts of the country who choose to engage in sex work in order to benefit from the tourist dollars spent in Jamaica's third most popular resort area. Through the analysis of observations, interviews with residents, tourists, government officials, …

Schooling, Community, And Identity: The Perspectives Of Muslim Girls Attending An Islamic School In Florida, Vanessa Martinez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the number of Islamic institutions increases in America, the need for greater understanding of the Muslim community, and the challenges faced by this minority, increases as well. This project seeks to provide such knowledge by exploring one of these rapidly growing institutions founded and funded by Muslims, private Islamic schools. Absent from media and literature is an understanding of Islamic schools and the experiences of youth as their attendees. This project addresses this gap through an ethnographic focus on female students at one Islamic school. Data was collected via interviews, focus groups, observation, and participant observation. This student-centered approach …

Parental Leave: Policy And Practice, Amanda Parr

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Parental leave is a broad term that encompasses maternity and/or paternity leave to care for an infant. Parental leave provides job protection for workers and may be paid or unpaid, with provisions varying throughout the world. Every industrialized nation offers some form of paid parental leave, with the exception of the United States, whose only federal policy regarding parental leave is the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a law that allows eligible workers to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job protected leave for the birth or adoption of a child.

This research project explored how parents understand …

Deconstructing Sex: An In-Depth, Qualitative Exploration Of Women’S Sexual Experiences And Difficulties, Madalena Grobbelaar

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Epidemiological research on sexual difficulties in women has reported high rates of sexual problems and dissatisfaction across the lifespan. Nevertheless, feminist scholars and social science researchers argue that an absence of research exploring women’s subjective interpretations of their sexuality and sexual difficulties exists, since prevalence studies do not address how the range of diverse socio-cultural, relational, biological and psychological processes interact to influence women’s sexuality across the lifespan. The current study aimed to narrow this research dearth by presenting an in-depth, qualitative exploration of heterosexual women’s accounts of their sexual experiences and their perceived sexuality. A phenomenological approach was utilised …

The Role Of Mothers And Media On Emerging Adults’ Religious Faith And Practices By Way Of Internalization Of Prosocial Values, Carolyn Mcnamara Barry, Laura M. Padilla-Walker, Larry J. Nelson

Faculty Publications

In the current study, we investigated the role of emerging adults’ internalization of prosocial values as a mediator between maternal relationship quality and two types of media use (positive and negative) and religious faith and practices. Participants included 500 undergraduate students (ranging from 18 to 26 years; 75% European American) from five American universities. Structural equation modeling results indicated that both maternal relationship quality and positive media were related positively and indirectly (by way of prosocial values) to religious faith, and maternal relationship quality was related positively and directly to religious faith. In contrast, negative media use was related negatively …

Understanding Barriers And Facilitators To Participation In People With Aphasia: A Qualitative Approach, Elisa Garcia, Lisa Tabor Connor

Center for Social Development Research

Aphasia is an acquired communication disorder that currently affects about one million people in the United States. Although people with aphasia receive rehabilitation services, they often return to the community with barriers that impact participation in activities that are meaningful to them. Few research studies have investigated factors influencing participation in aphasia and people with aphasia are often excluded from research due to their language impairment. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to identify the most common barriers and facilitators to community participation, as perceived by people with chronic aphasia following stroke. Method: Five participants with mild to …

The Changing Geography And Fortunes Of Dublin Haute Cuisine Restaurants, 1958-2008, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

Articles

This paper considers the changing geography and fortunes of Dublin’s haute cuisine restaurants over the last half century, placing them within both a national and international context. Ireland’s place within the global story of food is discussed, and the paper illustrates links between Dublin and European and global trends. The paper points out that Dublin in the 1950s could be seen as the gastronomic capital of the British Isles. The leading restaurateurs are briefly profiled, and the decline, stagnation, and gradual re-birth of Dublin’s haute cuisine restaurants over the 1958-2008 period is charted and discussed. The paper combines data from …

Participant Satisfaction With The Mission Continues Fellowship Program For Post 9/11 Disabled Veterans, Monica M. Matthieu, Michael J. Pereira, Ian D. Smith

Center for Social Development Research

Participant Satisfaction With the Mission Continues Fellowship Program for Post 9/11 Disabled Veterans

Social Ecological Constraints To Park Use In Communities With Quality Access, J. Aaron Hipp, Ravikumar Chockalingam, Deepti Adlakha

Center for Social Development Research

Evidence correlates physical activity, psychological restoration, and social health to proximity to parks and sites of recreation. The purpose of this study was to identify perceived constraints to park use in low-income communities facing significant health disparities, with access to underutilized parks. We used a series of focus groups with families, teens, and older adults in neighborhoods with similar demographic distribution and access to parks over 125 acres in size. Constraints to park use varied across age groups as well as across social ecological levels, with perceived constraints to individuals, user groups, communities, and society. Policies and interventions aimed at …

Affording Emerging Adulthood: Parental Financial Assistance Of Their College-Aged Children, Laura M. Padilla-Walker, Larry J. Nelson, Jason S. Carroll

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine parents’ attitudes about and patterns of providing financial assistance to their children during college, and how varying levels of parental financial support were related to children’s beliefs (e.g., perceptions of adulthood), behaviors (e.g., work hours, drinking, and drug use), and identity development. The sample consisted of 402 undergraduate students (62% women) recruited from four college sites across the United States (M age = 19.89), and one of their parents (310 mothers and 92 fathers). Using cluster analysis, results suggested four distinct approaches to parental financial involvement and found that emerging adults’ …

New Mothers And Media Use: Associations Between Blogging, Social Networking, And Maternal Well-Being, Brandon T. Mcdaniel, Sarah M. Coyne, Erin K. Holmes

Faculty Publications

Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory and prior empirical research, the current study examines the way that blogging and social networking may impact feelings of connection and social support, which in turn could impact maternal well-being (e.g., marital functioning, parenting stress, and depression). One hundred and fifty-seven new mothers reported on their media use and various well-being variables. On average, mothers were 27 years old (SD = 5.15) and infants were 7.90 months old (SD = 5.21). All mothers had access to the Internet in their home. New mothers spent approximately 3 hours on the computer each day, with most of …

Asset Poverty In Urban China: A Study Using The 2002 Chinese Household Income Project, Jin Huang, Minchao Jin, Suo Deng, Baorong Guo, Li Zou, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

Defining asset poverty as insufficiency of assets to satisfy household basic needs for a limited period of time, the study examines asset poverty rates in urban China using the 2002 survey data from the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP). We find that asset poverty rates in urban China are lower than those of developed countries, in part due to Chinese households’ strong commitment to precautionary savings and the low poverty standards. However, the liquid asset poverty rate is five times that of the income poverty rate in urban China. Notably, the asset-poverty-gap ratio shows that most households in asset poverty …

A Representation Of Selected Nonmanual Signals In American Sign Language, Jerry C. Schnepp

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

Computer-generated three-dimensional animation holds great promise for synthesizing utterances in American Sign Language (ASL) that are not only grammatical, but believable by members of the Deaf community. Animation poses several challenges stemming from the massive amounts of data necessary to specify the movement of three-dimensional geometry, and there is no current system that facilitates the synthesis of nonmanual signals. However, the linguistics of ASL can aid in surmounting the challenge by providing structure and rules for organizing the data.

This work presents a first method for representing ASL linguistic and extralinguistic processes that involve the face. Any such representation must …

Sustainability Leader Competencies: A Grounded Theory Study, Pamela G. Schwalb

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this critical qualitative study was to develop a theory of the competencies of a sustainability leader, grounded in research. A sustainability leader is generally described as an individual who creates profit for his/her stakeholders, while protecting the environment and improving the lives of those for whom he/she impacts as a result of his/her leadership. Nearly 60 individuals familiar with sustainability were asked to characterize an effective leader of a sustainability initiative or a sustainability organization.

The study revealed there is more than one way to be a sustainability leader—different paths can result in decisions and actions that …