Search Results

open access

Factors Associated with Risky Sexual Behavior Among Homeless Youth

Description: Homeless youth face numerous risks. Data on 602 homeless youth from the Midwest Homeless and Runaway Study and binary logistic regression were used to identify factors associated with their participation in risky sexual behaviors. Specifically, the effects of abuse/neglect and three potential moderating resiliency indicators, namely self-esteem, parental warmth, and parental monitoring, on having sex before adulthood and thinking about trading sex for food or shelter were examined. While none o… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Cooksey, Christy
open access

Factors Influencing Psychological Empowerment of Nurse Aides in Nursing Homes

Description: The purpose of this study is to identify predictors of psychological empowerment among nurse aides in nursing homes. Five structural factors (information exchange, decentralization of resources, co-worker support, supervisor support, and availability of training) and four control factors (age, sex, level of education, and race) are analyzed using multivariate linear regression to examine their effects on psychological empowerment. Two of the five structural factors, decentralization of resour… more
Date: August 2012
Creator: Steinberg, Jonathan J.
open access

Family Structure and Marijuana Use Among Adolescents

Description: Family structure as a predictive variable of juvenile delinquency has been studied for the last hundred years. This relationship originated due to societal belief that divorce was detrimental to adolescents. Due to the changing societal roles in the United States, family structure has been changing. More children are growing up in non-intact families, such as single-parent households, households with stepparents, cohabitating families, and households without a parent present. To study the effec… more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Aguilar, Jamie M.
open access

Female Adolescents and Death: a Qualitative Analysis

Description: The purpose of this research design is to explore the meaning of death for the female adolescent. A qualitative design was used as the method of research. Twelve participants were selected from a snowball sample ten females and two males. Four participants reported witnessing the death of an individual, five reported a moderated death experience in which they were not present but were told after the fact and three reported no significant experience with death. The study indicated relationships … more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Jackson, Wendy L.
open access

The Function of Social Structure in Controlling Violent Crime in Turkey

Description: This dissertation examines the relationship between social structural factors and violent crime rates in Turkey. The relationship between social structural characteristics and violent crime is worth exploring in areas that have attracted little academic attention, such as violent crime in Turkey. In order to understand and prevent the occurrence of crime, researchers have long investigated possible factors related to crime. Examining how crime varies across different regions can help us to und… more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Guclu, Idris
open access

Geographic Distance, Contact, and Family Perceptions of Quality Nursing Home Care

Description: The effect of frequency of nursing home contact on family perceptions of quality care is the focus of this research. A family member characteristic, such as geographic distance from the nursing home, affects his or her frequency of contact with the nursing home. Frequency of contact, in turn, affects family perceptions of the care his or her loved one receives in the nursing home. The theoretical framework for this study is based on Allport's intergroup contact theory, which posits that when fo… more
Date: May 2010
Creator: Dillman, Jennifer L
open access

The "Good" Mother: Ideology, Identity, and Performance

Description: The purpose of this study is to understand the power and influence of the institution of motherhood and how it is shaped by culture. More specifically this research explores the ideology that shapes our understanding of the good mother in the contemporary United States; how this ideology affects the way mothers view their identity; and how both the ideology and identity shape actions and performance. Twenty women were interviewed in North Texas and the results were: first, this group of mothers… more
Date: December 2012
Creator: Vigil, Jennifer M.
open access

Health-related Quality of Life and Social Engagement in Assisted Living Facilities

Description: This research project aims to clarify the factors that impact successful aging in Assisted Living facilities (ALFs) in Denton County, Texas. We hypothesize that social disengagement decreases physical and mental components of quality of life. This exploratory research project employed standardized questionnaires to assess residents in the following domains; HRQOL, social engagement status, level of cognition, depression, and the level of functioning. This study collected data from 75 participan… more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Amini, Reza
open access

Healthcare Utilization and Health Outcomes: US-born and Foreign-born Elderly Asian Americans

Description: In order to better understand variations of health behaviors between US-born and foreign-born elderly Asian Americans (65+) in the United States, the research aims to explore relationships among health outcomes, healthcare utilization, and sociodemographic characteristics. Data from the National Health Interview Survey 1998-2012 is used to construct structural equation models for the US born group and for the foreign born group. The results found that there is a reciprocal relationship between… more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Huang, Jacob Chao-Lun
open access

How eHealth Literacy Impacts Patient-Provider Relationships: A Study on Trust, Self-Care, and Patient Satisfaction

Description: It has been well established, in the literature, the association between low health literacy rates and poor health outcomes. With the increase of technology dependence, more people are using the internet to look up health information. Research has shown that shared decision making between providers and patients can improve patients' health outcomes. This research aims to examine whether electronic health (eHealth) literacy impacts patient-provider relationships. This research will also examine … more
Date: August 2017
Creator: Cheun, Jacquelyn Joann
open access

The Impact of Commuting on Mental Health

Description: The purpose of this research is to explicate the relationship between commuting behavior, stress, and mental health. The overall results from the regression analysis turned out to be inconclusive given the researcher's initial hypothesis. The commute time reported by respondents did not have a statistically significant bearing on mental health outcomes. This was true for both the normal sample, and the sample that was split by gender.
Date: August 2017
Creator: Malek-Ahmadi, John H.
open access

Impacts of Postmodernity Factors on the Association Between Maternal Distress and Children's Delinquency Among Low-income Families

Description: This study investigates the effects of postmodern factors on the relationship between maternal distress and children's delinquency. It seeks to understand the factors associated with distress levels of mothers whose children exhibit delinquency in order to potentially decrease the cost associated with mental health problems especially in mothers. Another goal of this study is to contribute to the sociological analysis of mental health problems which seem to be the reserved domain of the discipl… more
Date: December 2012
Creator: Bessa, Yawo
open access

Influence of Alevi-Sunni Intermarriage on the Spouses’ Religious Affiliation, Family Relations, and Social Environment: A Qualitative Study of Turkish Couples

Description: What influence Alevi-Sunni intermarriage has on spouses’ individual religious affiliation after marriage was the initial research question addressed in this study. No official or unofficial data exist regarding the Alevi-Sunni intermarriage in Turkey. This study responded to the need to describe extant relationships by using a qualitative approach to gather detailed information from a sample of married couples in Corum city, Turkey. A case study method was applied to a sample of ten couples. Co… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Balkanlioglu, Mehmet A.
open access

The Influence of Social and Cultural Factors on Alcohol Use and Abuse among a Sample of Young Males in the Army

Description: The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the social, cultural, and structural factors that contribute to or inhibit alcohol use and abuse in the Army among young males, unmarried or married without a present spouse. Seventeeen single, or separated, young male soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg Army Base were interviewed to provide insight into the research questions. Soldiers were largely located through face-to-face canvassing. The interviews, which lasted from 45 to 90 minutes… more
Date: August 2017
Creator: Short, J. Rollin
open access

Intimate Partner Homicide Rates in Chicago, 1988 to 1992: a Modified General Strain Theory Approach

Description: Using data from the Chicago Homicide Dataset for years 1988-1992 and the Chicago Community Area Demographics, multiple regression and mediation analysis are used to examine various community level factors’ impact on Intimate Partner Homicide (IPH) rates per Chicago community area. The relationship between the percentage of non-white and IPH rate per Chicago community area is significant and positive, but disappears once economic strain is taken into account, as well as when family disruption i… more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Johnson, Natalie Jo
open access

Light, Bright, and Out of Sight: Hollywood’s Representation of the Tragic Mulatto

Description: The purpose of this research is to examine the longevity of the stereotype of the tragic mulatto in American film history. Specifically, my research focuses on the portrayals and perceptions of biracial actresses. Media informs, entertains, and influences how we, and especially youth, self-identify and interact with others. This research focuses on the portrayal of biracial actresses throughout film history. It is also important in its investigation of the perpetuation of the one-drop rule. I… more
Date: December 2013
Creator: Brunson, Alicia
open access

Living arrangements of elderly widows in India: Family convention, bad luck and abandonment

Description: In India, issues of gender discrimination and female empowerment have become more prominent in the last several years. Elderly women, specifically widows, are often abandoned or not well cared for by family members and are typically marginalized within Indian society, vulnerable, and susceptible to poverty. This is an exploratory analysis with a research hypothesis asking, who are the caregivers of elderly widows? Statistics indicate that women may be taking on more of a care giving role with e… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Wilder, Ann C.
open access

Macro Level Predictors of Community Health Center HIV Testing Approach

Description: Using a logistic regression model, this dissertation employed a macro level Gateway Provider Model to explore eight factors that may influence community health center HIV testing approach. The logistic regression model indicated that three variables related to community health center HIV testing approach. First, all else equal, the odds of offering routine HIV testing for community health centers that perceived their patients and community to be at average risk for HIV were 3.676 times the odd… more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Patty, Lyndsay
open access

Mediational Pathways between High School Extracurricular Participation and Young Adult Educational Attainment: A Structural Equation Analysis

Description: Little is known about the mechanisms by which extracurricular participation in high school influences educational attainment in young adulthood. Also limited is an understanding of the different types of extracurricular participation and how various activities may manifest within the relationship. The purpose of this study was to examine the link between high school extracurricular participation and educational attainment, with social capital, parental expectations, and academic achievement pre… more
Date: December 2017
Creator: Long, Roxanne
open access

Microcredit, Women, and Empowerment: Evidence From India

Description: Microfinance programs, by providing financial services to economically disadvantaged individuals, generally women, are intended to help poor self-employ and become financially independent. Earlier research in India has documented both positive and negative consequences of microfinance programs on women, from financial independence to domestic abuse. However, most of the research has been geographically limited to the southern states of the country, with a matured microfinance industry, and has … more
Date: December 2014
Creator: Singh, Swati
open access

Migration Information Gathering by Mexican-origin Immigrants in the Pre-migration Phase

Description: U.S. immigration procedures are complex and may elude the average individual seeking admission to the United States. Understanding this, the current study investigates how information resources are used by potential migrants to learn about the migratory process. Using a mixed-methods approach, I interviewed 30 Mexican immigrants with unauthorized immigration experience about the process of gathering migration information in the pre-migration phase. Qualitative data were coded using seven themes… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Hudson, Cassie
open access

Modeling Place Vulnerability of HIV/AIDS in Texas

Description: This study provides a measurable model of the concept of place vulnerability for HIV/AIDS that incorporates both community and structural level effects using data provided at the ZIP code level from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Sociological literature on the effects of place on health has been growing but falls short of providing an operational definition of the effects of place on health. This dissertation looks to the literature in medical/health geography to supplement so… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Harold, Adam F.
open access

Negotiating Work-life Balance Within the Operational Culture of a Chaebol in the Southeastern United States

Description: The purpose of this study is to examine the work life balance negotiations of three distinct culture groups employed by South Korean conglomerates located within the southeastern United States. These three cultural groups are: Korean nationals, Korean Americans, and non-Korean Americans. It is proposed that each culture will negotiate work life balances in their own manner based upon their specific inherent cultural understandings. This study is a cross-cultural examination through thirty-tw… more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Pulliam, Wheeler D.
open access

Our Own and the Others: What Happens to Perceptions of Immigrant Threat when Value Priorities Collide?

Description: With immigration controversies increasingly found at the forefront of the European public arena, understanding the social and cultural forces driving negative perceptions of immigrants becomes a pressing task of academic scholarship. Situated within the broader theoretical framework of group-conflict theories, human values theory and social identity theory encourage different interpretations of how our interest to the welfare of the people closest to us (benevolence) and the broader human commu… more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Grigoropoulou, Nikolitsa
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