Community-Based Research Commons^™

Social Bonding In Social Isolation: Social And Religious Support For Substance Use Recovery During Covid-19, Lindsey Chapman

All Theses

The importance of social bonds in supporting those in substance use recovery is illustrious through applications of social bonding theory. However, the effect of COVID-19 restrictions on these essential relationships has not been widely studied. The initial survey instrument studying social support, religious support, and substance use patterns before, during, and after COVID-19 was met with methodological difficulty in reaching the target population through email. This instrument was adapted into a semi-structured interview guide and methodology evolved to include participation either in-person or over Zoom. Through 14 in-depth interviews with people in substance use recovery programs, themes of isolation, peer …

Unintentional Fatal Overdose Analysis In Orange County, Fl Yearly Trends 2018-2022, Alexandria Mcclarty, Amy Donley Phd

Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS)

This report aims to analyze yearly trends in unintentional fatal overdoses in Orange County, FL. Like many other parts of the country, the Central Florida area continues to suffer from a high number of overdose mortalities. As such, this report analyzes unintentional fatal overdoses across the years 2018-2022, focusing on the variables of sex, race, age, drug toxicology, victim residency information, and death location to draw conclusions on Orange County’s overdose climate and identify any changes over time. Additionally, we analyze quarterly trends within each calendar year, and estimate overdose rates in regard to county population by using publicly available …

Rethinking Resident Perceptions Of Tourism In British Columbia, Canada, Jarrett R. Bachman, Erin Hodgins, Michael W. Lever

ICHRIE Research Reports

This joint academic/practitioner report segments British Columbia, Canada residents to provide destination managers with new ways to better understand resident perceptions of tourism. The data collection was conducted in April and May of 2022 and had a total of 2,265 valid responses. It was also a practical objective to conduct this research in a manner that is repeatable in jurisdictions beyond British Columbia. This report has confirmed five distinct categories of residents’ perceptions toward tourism, including socio-cultural, economic, environmental, job/career, and Indigenous impacts. In addition to the categories of impacts, a cluster analysis has revealed six clusters of residents based …

The Red Ribbon And The Black Cross: A Qualitative Study Of The Relationship Between Social Activism And Contemporary Black Church Responses To Hiv In Oakland, Ca, Justise Wattree

McNair Research Journal SJSU

The Black Church as a social institution has been a source of social activism during racial crises, but there is a lacking social activist response by Black churches to HIV’s disparate impact on Black communities. Previous research does not adequately explore the influence of community-based organizations on Black church responses to HIV in the context of social activism. This study examines the relationship between social activism and contemporary Black church responses to HIV in Oakland. It considers community-based organizations (CBOs) as potential drivers of social activism. Semi-structured interviews with Black church leaders in Oakland were conducted and content analyzed along …

Citizenship Starts Here: A Community Engaged Approach To Civic Education, Grace Northern

Student Research – Stevenson Center

Abstract:

In 2015, Illinois legislators passed HB 4025 which required every public high school to include a civics course for students to complete before graduation. In 2019, this bill was expanded to include middle school students through Public Act 101-025. In this study, I investigate how the civic education standards as outlined by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and other school climate factors impacted middle school students’ civic engagement. I used data collected from the Center of Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) and the Illinois Civics Hub. The sample consisted of 497 middle school …

Neighborhood Disadvantage And Pediatric Inpatient Opioid Prescription Patterns, Ashley W. Kranjac, Dinko Kranjac, Zeev N. Kain, Louis Ehwerhemuepha, Candice Donaldson, Brooke N. Jenkins

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

To explore the role of children's residential environment on opioid prescribing patterns in a predominantly Latinx sample.

Methods

We connected geocoded data from electronic medical records in a diverse sample of pediatric patients to neighborhood environments constructed using latent profile modeling techniques. We then estimated a series of multilevel models to determine whether opioid prescribing patterns vary by residential context.

Results

A stepwise pattern exists between neighborhood disadvantage and pediatric opioid prescription patterns, such that higher levels of disadvantage associate with a greater likelihood of opioid prescription, independent of the patient's individual profile.

Conclusion

In a largely Latinx sample …

Historical Trauma: Literary And Testimonial Responses To Hiroshima, Mariam Ghonim

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of trauma is controversial in literature. While one may be able to come up with ways to describe trauma in fiction, representing historical trauma is a hard task for writers. Some argue that trauma can not be described through those who did not experience it, while others claim that, provided some elements are added, one can represent trauma to the reader. This thesis focuses on twentieth-century historical traumas related to a nuclear catastrophe and explores the different literary and testimonial responses to the catastrophic man-made event of Hiroshima (1945). In this thesis, Kathleen Burkinshaw’s historical fiction The Last …

Scholars From Underrepresented Groups In Engineering And The Social Sciences (Surge) Capacity In Disasters: The Benefits And Challenges Of Mentoring For Racial And Ethnic Minority Graduate Students, Melissa Villarreal, Nnenia Campbell

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the mentoring program of the Minority Scholars from Under-Represented Groups in Engineering and the Social Sciences (SURGE) Capacity in Disasters initiative, a pilot program that aimed to address the challenges that graduate students of color face in academic programs. SURGE promotes mentoring and professional development through its mentoring program for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students.

Methods: Data collection involved distributing online surveys designed in Qualtrics to mentors and mentees five months after the SURGE program’s initiation. Separate surveys were created for student mentees and faculty mentors in order to …

Trans Futures In The Present Moment, Willow Grace Eckmayer

University Honors Theses

The current climate for trans folks in the U.S. remains increasingly hostile and many researchers have called attention to the "joy deficit" within the existing trans literature (Shuster & Westbrook, 2022). This study investigates what trans individuals are currently doing to survive, thrive, and resist in a belligerent socio-political climate. To answer this, five community conversations with 25 participants were held using a semi-structured conversation guide. Within the analysis, the central theme that emerged was that trans individuals are using their communities to create radical futures. Our communities are supporting us through mutual aid and radical acts of care, which …

Why Not Be Free: The Black Worldmaking Praxis, Research Method, & Manifesto For Developing Music Interventions Against Stress In Black Youth, Armond Epps Dorsey

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Why Not Be Free? is an interdisciplinary exploration of music intervention development demonstrating the application of my integrated research and artistic practices through an outlined antiracist method for designing music to reduce stress in Black college youth and a manifesto detailing the compositional process. I draw from Black feminist and womanist thought, music cognition, and public health literature to outline a framework for designing music interventions to reduce stress among Black populations: the Music Medicine Critical Race Praxis. I situate my work among Black speculative artists reimagining experiences in everyday Black life as well as music intervention researchers integrating …

Information Diffusion In Online Social Networks: A Simulation Experiment, Maxwell Jacob Blum

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

The advent of online social networks has completely transformed the way we communicate, with news, opinions, and ideas now spreading faster than ever before (Guille et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2022). That online social networks have a profound impact on the spread of information suggests further investigation of the relationship between network structure and information diffusion (Light & Moody, 2020). This honors thesis investigates degree assortativity – a measure of large-scale network structure that has often only been a footnote in relevant literature on infor- mation diffusion in online social networks – and its effect on the speed of …

Liquid Border, Yingfan Jia

Masters Theses

A River is a mighty and constantly-evolving force, leaving behind an intricately designed and constantly changing system. Not just a river, the Rio Grande stretches all the way from Colorado before intersecting with the US-Mexico Border in southern Texas - a point where the powerful forces of nature now merge with a clearly-defined political boundary. The outcome of this is a unique ecological niche, which may often go unnoticed despite its distinctiveness.

Texas is famous for its farms and ranches, and the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas was once an agricultural hub. However, urbanization and the depletion of water …

Aging In Brockton: A Community Needs Assessment, Caitlin E. Coyle, Setarreh Massihzadegan, Josef Kijewski, Ceara Somerville

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

This report describes research undertaken by the Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging (CSDRA) within the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston, on behalf of the City of Brockton. The goals of this project were to investigate the needs, interests, preferences, and opinions of Brockton’s residents age 60 or older by engaging the community regarding their experiences and needs relevant to the COA’s objective to identify and serve the needs of all Brockton citizens 60 and older. The contents of this report are meant to inform the City of Brockton, the Brockton COA, Senior Center, and …

"I Stayed There The Whole Night": Exploring Caregivers' Experiences With The Healthcare System When Caring For A Parent At The End Of Life, Lillian Mehran

Dissertations and Theses

Background: In the United States, there are nearly 53 million individuals serving as caregivers to a loved one. Half of all caregivers are caring for a parent or parent-in-law, and 79% of caregivers are caring for a person aged 50 or older. In New York State, there are an estimated 4.1 million caregivers who collectively provide over 2.6 billion hours of unpaid care, with those caring for a person at the end of life providing twice as many hours of caregiving per week compared to other caregivers. The number of individuals requiring caregiving is expected to increase as a significant …

A Multifaceted, Non-Militarized Approach To Security Dynamics In Protected Areas: From Foot Patrols, To Tourism, And Local Communities, Monique Sosnowski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A wide range of interventions have been implemented to reduce wildlife poaching incidents across the globe. These include community-based strategies, such as the development of alternative livelihoods; legal strategies, such as the development of legal frameworks at local, regional, and international levels; and wildlife law enforcement efforts, such increasing patrolling efforts. While community-based and legal strategies generally attempt to reduce the motivating factors surrounding the commission of crimes, wildlife law enforcement further attempts to prevent crimes from happening, assuming that someone will always be inclined. Given this inevitability, the question is raised regarding how to best reduce the occurrence of …

Gambling Digital Tools Across The Player Spectrum: Promising Practices And Future Opportunities, Melissa Salmon Phd, Sasha Stark Phd

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

In our technology-focused culture, the supply and demand of digital information and support has skyrocketed. In the gambling field specifically, the number and breadth of available tools for the provision of support and information have increased greatly in the last few years. However, questions exist around the appropriateness, effectiveness, and implications of gambling-focused digital tools. The current program of work focuses on answering the question: How can technology be used to deliver information and support to those across the player continuum of gambling involvement and harm? To this end, we first describe the current ecosystem of digital tools (i.e., technology …

Ci Guardiamo Il Culo: A Phenomenology Of Relevance In Ancient Italian Cultural Heritage, Sophia Hudzik

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Relevance to the public has become critical for Italian cultural heritage institutions, as domestic visitation to archaeological parks and museums remains low while expectations to engage communities rise. This paper presents a phenomenological analysis of the experience of ancient cultural heritage through the lens of individuals located nearby the Villa of the Antonines Archaeological excavation, in Genzano di Roma, Italy. The findings conclude with a set of recommendations for ancient cultural heritage institutions to become more relevant to the existing needs and lived experiences of the community.

Dance/Movement Therapy Used As An Intervention To Heal Racial Trauma Within The Black Community: A Literature Review, Jennifer Noboise

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The history of dance within the black community has served an important role while living through a racist and discriminatory society. Dance has been used to express anger, grief, and joy during hardships and moments of rejoicing from the black experience. African American people have endured years of trauma and abuse from oppressive systems. Research has been conducted to demonstrate that dance/movement therapy has been effective in treating those who have experienced a form of trauma since the trauma is stored in the body. Examining trauma symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and substance use, the research found these symptoms diminished …

Community Gatekeepers: Power, Pitfalls And Possibilities When Recruiting And Researching Black, Asian, And Minority Ethnic (Bame) Participants, Nadia K. Bashir

The Qualitative Report

Using data from a large primarily qualitative research project on how people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities experience and access health services, this methodological article focuses on the role of the community gatekeeper – a role that has significance for research teams globally when attempting to involve those facing multiple forms of exclusion. Drawing on standpoint feminist principles and using a reflexive approach, researcher positionality, situated knowledges, and the power dynamics between researchers, participants, and community gatekeepers are reflected upon. Addressing a gap in the literature by providing real-life examples of the power and influence of gatekeepers …

Impact Of Nutritional Knowledge On Student Purchase Intention Of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, Mary Claire Ford

Honors Theses

The college years are a critical time in an individual’s life in which dietary habits are developed and will likely carry on for years to come. Mississippi has been ranked highly in health issues such as obesity for years; dietary decisions are one factor that can influence a person’s obesity risk. Therefore, it is imperative that changes be made to dietary decisions at a young age. With the proper adjustments made, preventable issues such as obesity can be avoided. Thus, research investigating how nutritional information affects college students’ purchase intention at the University of Mississippi is warranted. In this study, …