Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Population Change And Life Course: Taking Stock And Looking To The Future, Beaujot Roderic, Zenaida R. Ravanera

Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster Discussion Paper Series/ Un Réseau stratégique de connaissances Changements de population et parcours de vie Document de travail

This paper takes advantage of the insights from the culminating conference of the Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster (PCLC), a collaborative network of academic researchers and policy people, in partnership with a number of Canadian federal agencies. The PCLC focused on strategic issues regarding population change, and on research that takes a life course perspective, with the central objective of sharing the associated knowledge.

We first summarize and note some important observations from the Conference sessions that were dedicated to “taking stock”, specifically on: Aging and paid work; Health over the life course; Immigrants and migrants; Population composition: …

Supporting The Threads Of The Family Tapestry : The Role Of Child Life In Adoption, Rachel N. Werner

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Explores the developmental, cultural and health related impacts of adoption along with effects of early adversity. The goal of this paper is to utilize existing research on adoption to argue the necessity for a child life specialist in the life of an adopted child and their family.

Support For Welfare, Matthew Reminick

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Although there is much debate over the effectiveness of social programs, there has not been much research attempting to discover who exactly supports spending government resources on welfare. Previous research suggests that the American people are divided over creating a welfare state. Many economic data shows that providing assistance is beneficial short-term, but can have varying effects in the future. The research I conducted attempts to define and analyze welfare while surmising which groups of Americans are most likely to back increased federal spending towards welfare. Using the ANES 2012 data, I evaluated voter responses to election surveys, paying close …

The Multiple Victims Of Rape, Maureen Azar

Audre Lorde Prize

No abstract provided.

Life History Theory And School-Age Pregnancy: Review And Application, Anna Rozman

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States currently holds one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the developed world, but many Americans, including policy makers, view adolescent childbearing as a societal problem that stems from negligence, promiscuity, and poor decision making. This project seeks to frame the institution of school-age motherhood through the lens of Life History Theory, which posits that early reproduction is an adaptation in the face of harsh conditions and high extrinsic mortality rates. This assertion is supported by evidence that adolescent childbearing has been the norm for most of human history, and continues to be practiced in natural fertility …

An Exploration Of The Motivations Behind School Shootings And A Discussion On How These Violent Trends Can Be Stopped, Maria Muscoreil

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

Autogenic massacre is a term used to describe the indiscriminate killing of multiple individuals in one isolated incident, where the perpetrator is motivated by a combination of personal problems and/or psychopathological issues. In the past two decades in the United States, this phenomenon has been experienced by families who are forced to grieve the loss of their loved ones as a result of these violent actions—specifically, as a result of school shootings. Using information derived from the disciplines of evolutionary psychology, social psychology, and general psychopathology, this paper endeavors to uncover factors that may contribute to the motivations behind, as …

Gender Differentiation In Paid And Unpaid Work During The Transition To Parenthood, Medora W. Barnes

Sociology

The transition to parenthood may be especially difficult because relationships need to be largely reorganized to meet demanding new challenges. For scholars interested in gender inequality, the transition to parenthood is a critical time in which gender differentiation is generated by both economic and cultural forces. Although newly married childless couples tend to share both paid and unpaid labor rather equally, when men and women become parents, their patterns become increasingly differentiated by gender. Cultural beliefs that emphasize mothers as the primary parent and fathers as secondary reinforce unequal patterns in housework and childcare. Time availability models, bargaining perspectives, and …

Meet Me At The Bar? A Comparison Of Gay And Straight Men And Their Utilization Of The Bar Scene, Jasmine M. Routon

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Traditionally, men are expected to arrange their lifestyle in a way that allows them to obtain the “package deal” of a career, becoming a husband, and fatherhood. This study quantitatively studies the effects of partnering on gay and straight men as mediated through the bar scene, aiming to explore how bar participation alters their social networks and their perceptions of social expectations. The ultimate goal is to determine if gay and straight men report differing social expectations such as becoming a husband and father. This investigation explores their beliefs on commitment, monogamy, and parenthood and seeks to determine whether these …

Spoken Language To Be Embraced And Avoided Around Disability: Words That Impact Identity And Sense Of Achievement, Jessica M. Rodrigues

Capstone Collection

The focus of this capstone is verbal language spoken to or about persons with disabilities. Language in this case study is discussed as words and phrases that are supportive and less supportive of how students see themselves, their identity, and sense of achievement. Three focus groups were held with students at Landmark College in Putney, Vermont to collect samples of their experiences and input their voices into this case study, adding value and depth to the existing literature. Disability is looked at through the lens of multiculturalism; as experiences that people with disabilities have with others and their environment are …

“Architects Of Their Own Solutions:” A Comparative Study Of Gender In Environmental Justice Work, Ellen Olack

Honors Theses

Backgrounds, identities and beliefs of the people within a group can dictate the direction a movement takes and whether or not that movement will be able to endure. Using a series of interviews, I aim to determine how gender plays a part in shaping a person’s role within the environmental justice movement by studying if and how gender constructions influence the mindsets of not only the people working to end environmental injustice, but also of the community members living in zones affected by environmental injustice.

Family Resilience And Sojourning Japanese Families In The U.S., Mitsuyo Izumi

Dissertations

This study examined processes of family resilience sojourning Japanese parents reported using while raising children (between the ages of 4 and 8) in the U.S., the relationship between family resilience and child behavior and impact of stressful life events, and predictors of the impact of stressful life events and child behavior. Seventy mothers and 37 fathers from six Japanese educational institutions completed self-report questionnaires. Measures included Japanese translations of the Family Resilience Assessment (Duncan Lane, 2011), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997), the Impact of Stressful Life Events Scale (Hasui et al., 2009), the Kansas Marital Satisfaction (Schumm et al., …

An Exploratory Study Of Spending Patterns, Obstacles And Traditions Among Same-Sex Marriage Vs Heterosexual Marriage: Who's The Bigger Spender?, Lydia Perritt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated if there was a significant difference in the amount of money spent on same-sex weddings versus heterosexual weddings. The results of this study would assist both the wedding and hospitality industry by providing much needed financial and planning information.

A descriptive, four-section survey was distributed online via Qualtrics utilizing snowball sampling. A total of 152 respondents participated in the study; 84 heterosexual and 68 LGBTQ. The respondents completed the questionnaire that measured wedding traditions, wedding spending, obstacles and challenges faced during their wedding and wedding planning, and demographic information.

The results of this study indicated that same-sex …

A Study Of Life Skills From Traditional And Afterschool 4-H Participants, Julia M. Kreikemeier

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cooperative Extension has been serving youth and their families for over one hundred years. The total impact of this service has been measured on several occasions by many researchers, most notably in the research of youth development by Richard Learner; however, his research only took into account those who participated in traditional 4-H clubs. The purpose of this quantitative study was designed to examine which life skills youth participants in traditional and afterschool 4-H programs reported. Quantitative methodology was used to collect post-program survey data of youth participants. Qualitative informal interviews were conducted of Extension Educators and afterschool 4-H program …

Engagement And Global Learning Through Philanthropy: A Youth Philanthropy Council For International Baccalaureate Students, Erin Gorman

Capstone Collection

Unprecedented global migration and a flattened global economy have influenced the skills, knowledge, and competencies all high school youth need to be engaged participants and effective workers in the 21^st century global economy (Mansilla & Jackson, 2011). Research indicates that many youth, especially those at risk for dropping out of school or from minority and low-income backgrounds, do not have adequate opportunities to develop the global competence and 21^st century skills needed for engagement and success in the workforce of the 21^st century (Afterschool Alliance, 2010). This paper presents a replicable global learning afterschool program model that …

Who Chooses My Future?The Role Of Personality And Acculturation In First And Later Generation Immigrant College Students’ Career Decision Making, Gema Gutierrez Alcivar

Honors College Theses

Career choice is often reflected by a student’s choice of major. Personality, vocational interests, and cultural influences are also significant factors in the process of choosing a major. For Latino students, maintaining cultural norms is an important part of career choice, although the influence of cultural norms tends to decrease from first to later generations. The current study examined the influences of acculturation and personality (introversion/extraversion) among 57 Latino/Hispanics students: first-generation immigrant students, those who migrated to the US during childhood/adolescence, and later generation students. We hypothesized that later-generation students are more likely to major in business and social sciences, …

They Tried To Make Me Go To Rehab: A Study Of Rehabilitation In United States Corrections, Kayla J. Toole

Senior Honors Projects

Rehabilitation has been a staple of the prison system in the United States since the 1700s. The idea that a criminal could be resocialized into a functioning individual in society has been the basis of the prison systems since they first began. Rehabilitation is always evolving in the criminal justice system and being improved to have more impact on recidivism rates. In this project, I examine the cultural and structural explanations for different forms of rehabilitation over time. I found that rehabilitation at various points has been influenced by religious, medical, psychiatric, and sociological understandings of crime.

Currently, rehabilitation combines …

Associations Between Family Functioning And Adolescent Health Behaviors, Megan S. Fleming

Senior Honors Projects

Background: The obesity epidemic has been a concern across the globe, affecting about 20% of adolescents in the U.S. Physical activity and nutrition-related behaviors that develop during adolescence carry through into adulthood. Adolescents’ perceptions of how their family functions may be associated with health behaviors, including physical activity and diet.

Objective: To determine whether there is an association between perceived family functioning and adolescent health behaviors among a national sample of adolescents aged 11 to 16 who participated in the 2009-2010 Health Behaviors of School-Aged Children survey.

Methods: Participants reported on demographics and measures of family function, which included …

Exploring The Social Integration Of Sexual Minority Youth Across High School Contexts, Alexa Martin-Storey, Jacob E. Cheadle, Julie Skalamera, Robert Crosnoe

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Mental health disparities between sexual minority and other youth have been theorized to result in part from the effects of the stigmatization on social integration. Stochastic actor-based modeling was applied to complete network data from two high schools in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (mean age =15 years, n=2,533). Same-sex attracted youth were socially marginalized in a smaller predominantly White school but not in a larger, more racially diverse school. For both schools, homophily was a critical network feature, and could represent social support for and social segregation of such youth. These findings emphasize school context in studying …

Does Parental Mediation Of Media Influence Child Outcomes? A Meta-Analysis On Media Time, Content, Aggression, Substance Use, Sexual Behavior, And Health Outcomes, Kevin Matthew Collier

Theses and Dissertations

As the world evolves into a media saturated environment, the focus of many studies have been the negative effects of media on children and adolescents. For at least the past two decades, researchers have explored how parental involvement in their child's media consumption can influence child outcomes. Parental mediation of media includes restrictive mediation, active mediation, and co-viewing. Three meta-analyses, one for each type of mediation, reviewed a total of 69 studies. Each analysis assessed the effectiveness of parental mediation of media on five pertinent child outcomes: media use, aggression, substance use, sexual behavior, and negative health outcomes. The overall …

Too Materialistic To Get Married And Have Children?, Norman P. Li, Amy J. Y. Lim, Ming-Hong Tsai, Jiaqing O

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We developed new materials to induce a luxury mindset and activate materialistic values, and examined materialism’s relationship to attitudes toward marriage and having children in Singapore. Path analyses indicated that materialistic values led to more negative attitudes toward marriage, which led to more negative attitudes toward children, which in turn led to a decreased number of children desired. Results across two studies highlight, at the individual level, the tradeoff between materialistic values and attitudes toward marriage and procreation and suggest that a consideration of psychological variables such as materialistic values may allow for a better understanding of larger-scale socioeconomic issues …