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open access

The Local Organization of Refugee Service Provision: A Qualitative Comparison of Two Resettlement Cities in Texas

Description: This comparative case study examines the organizational variations in refugee services in Dallas and Amarillo, Texas. Engaging sociological theories of organizations, migration, and the state, this study conceptualizes immigrant-serving organizations as brokers that operate within fields of similar entities that channel resources and services to refugees. Drawing on 60 in-depth interviews and over two hundred hours of participant observation, this study finds two distinct models of resource bro… more
Date: December 2023
Creator: Fessenden, Deborah June
open access

The University for Who? Student Narratives of Native Identity, Belonging, and Navigating a Racialized Organization

Description: This qualitative case study aims to understand the ways in which students identifying as Native American, American Indian, and Indigenous navigate attending a university informed by their identities. Through semi-structured interviews with Indigenous students and participant observation with a Native American student organization, this study identified how this demographic of students navigate and conceptualize their identities as Native and Indigenous peoples, the benefits of joining a Native … more
Date: July 2023
Creator: Gaston, Emilia Morgan
open access

The Cost of Higher Education: Impacts of Student Loan Debt on the Life Course for Hispanic Americans

Description: Student loan debt continues to be an issue in the U.S., with potential long-term effects on loan repayment and potential wealth accumulation. In particular, minorities face barriers in the educational system and accruing wealth. Hispanics occupy a middling position in the U.S. racial hierarchy. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 geocode data, in this study I examined how Hispanic-White differences in student debt change over time and how student debt influences wealth. In … more
Date: August 2022
Creator: Knudsen, Jennifer L

Public Opinion and Maintaining Political Power: The Case of AKP Government and Social Media in Turkey

Description: This dissertation consists of three chapters, aiming to analyze, understand and discuss how Turkish public opinion fluctuates on social media based on governmental actions and how that fluctuation affects the society and politics in Turkey. Using textual data from social media, I combined natural language processing techniques with statistical methods, to study how Turkish public opinion is shaped by governmental actions in various scenarios. In the first chapter, I created a social network of … more
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Date: May 2022
Creator: Demirhan, Emirhan
open access

"What we know is how we've survived": Tribal Emergency Management and the Resilience Paradox

Description: In order to more fully inform moves toward equity in emergency management (EM), this research seeks to describe a general landscape of professional Tribal EM, and in particular, to examine how Tribal emergency managers and Tribal Nations are situated in relation to the EM enterprise (EME), and how they are doing resilience in their Tribal Nations. The findings presented in this dissertation reflect efforts to explore and document Tribal emergency managers' descriptions of their work and their p… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Dent, Lauren
open access

Herb Users' Nondisclosure of Complementary-Alternative Medicine Use to Health Care Providers

Description: Various forms of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) are increasingly being used in the United States and globally over time. Among CAM, natural products, including herbal medicines, are the most used type. However, the increase in the use of CAM has gone on with minimal or without a corresponding increase in the rate of disclosure of use to the health care providers. The theories of care-seeking behavior and the behavioral model of health services use guided most of the study. Data fr… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Obiora, Justice Echezona
open access

Artificial Intelligence at Home: Alexa, Are You Influencing My Family?

Description: The purpose of this research is to measure the social shifts that take place in a home where artificial intelligent (AI) devices like Echo Dot and Google Home are fully integrated into their everyday life. Research is currently limited, being that the widespread use of these devices is roughly seven years old. Three main outcomes of this study were related to how often Alexa is being used in homes to solve everyday problems, the lack of overall privacy and security concerns users had, and the l… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Ra'oof, Jameelah
open access

Does Experiencing Discrimination in the Workplace Change Opinion? A Mediation Analysis of Identity and Support for Affirmative Action

Description: Affirmative action policies have been a popular topic in U.S. media since their inception in the Civil Rights Act 1964. Previous studies note that race, gender, and political identity are known influencers of support for affirmative action policies; however, this dissertation analyzes the mediating effects of perceived experiences of discrimination in the workplace on a person's level of support for the preferential hiring and promotion of Black Americans based on the intersection of the race,… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Jefferies, Shanae S
open access

Perdóname, Madre, ¿he pecado? An Investigation of Hispanic Catholics in the United States and Their Attitudes toward Women being Allowed to Enter the Priesthood

Description: Hispanic American Catholics are a growing immigrant population in the United States, with Hispanic cultures and Catholicism woven together in unique ways. This situation presents a window through which can be examined the dynamic between individualism and religiosity. Four logistic regression models were estimated utilizing data from the Pew Research Center 2013 Survey of U.S. Latinos, in order to investigate the correlates of Hispanic American Catholic support for women in the Catholic pries… more
Date: August 2021
Creator: Kilgore, William S
open access

Increasing Mother and Child Safety: Social Factors Influencing Help Seeking Behaviors amongst Child Welfare-Involved Women Experiencing Family Violence

Description: The purpose of this study is to determine social factors that influence help seeking behaviors by mothers who are concurrently involved in two social service systems: Child Protective Services (CPS) and family violence advocacy programs. Through the application of the behavioral model (of service use) for vulnerable populations, this study seeks to determine predisposing, enabling and need characteristics that impact help seeking behaviors at a family violence agency after participation in an … more
Date: August 2021
Creator: Baker, Cassidy A.
open access

Not Just About a Piece of Cloth: Three Content Analysis of an Online Anti-Mandatory Hijab Movement in Iran

Description: This dissertation investigates the My Stealthy Freedom (MSF) movement, an online movement against mandatory hijab laws in Iran, building on two leading lead social movements' theories, political processes and framing processes theories. Study 1 explores the utility of a tactical approach for explaining the movement's pace of insurgency. I employ a conceptual repertoire focused upon the political process model's core concepts of tactical innovation and tactical adaptations, supplementing these o… more
Date: May 2021
Creator: Basmechi, Farinaz

The Impacts of Urban Sustainability on Economic Prosperity: Sustainability in the Spotlight

Description: City officials are in the position to adopt and implement policies within their jurisdiction that can have lasting impacts for businesses, people, and the environment. Sustainability research has highlighted the need to protect the environment by adopting policies which support the three E's of sustainable development (environment, equity, and economy). Stepping aside from the traditional mechanisms for building a successful city focused on economy first can be challenging for policy makers. Th… more
Date: December 2020
Creator: Cooksey, Christy

Embodied Acts of Resistance: Portraits of Urban Breastfeeding Mothers

Description: This dissertation examines how breastfeeding mothers develop distinct geographies due to the stigma, symbolic and structural violence they encounter while breastfeeding if different spaces. I utilize multiple in-depth semi-structured interviews, participant observation and photo elicitation to develop portraits of four urban mothers. My findings highlight the complexity of motherhood and demonstrate how distinct socio-spatial power dynamics situate and contextualize the experiences of breastfee… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Veselka-Bush, Alexandra V.
open access

Unpacking Asylum: Participatory Online Platforms in the Information-Seeking Phase

Description: In the last few years, the world has been gripped by a crisis of forced migration and displaced persons. Being forced migrants, asylum-seekers are a unique and diverse population, originating from many countries with different backgrounds and experiences. This makes fulfilling the information needs of the asylum community difficult. Online participatory platforms, such as blogs and discussion forums, are flexible, adaptive information resources that could be used to meet the diverse needs of th… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Hudson, Cassie
open access

Stepparent-Child Relationship Quality and Young Adult Outcomes

Description: This study set out to test the effects of relationship quality with a stepfather on other familial relationships, romantic relationships, and usual outcome measures for products of parental divorce. OLS regression tests were conducted using responses from over a thousand participants from the New Family Structures Study (N=1,696). Respondents were organized by self-reported level of relationship quality with their stepfathers. Various qualities of stepfather families were then regressed agai… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Underhill, Marissa M
open access

When Women Swipe Right and Men Swipe Left: An Exploration of the Online Dating Preferences and Desirability of African American Women

Description: The purpose of this research study was to conduct an exploration of the dating preferences of African American women and U.S. men between the ages of 30-74 years old. This research focuses on the dating preferences and desirability of African American women and if they are influential on the high unmarried rates of African American women. A weighted stratified sampling of 2,800 personal advertisements of African American, Asian, Latino and White men and women from Match.com were collected to co… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Ford, Stacey L
open access

As the Need Presents Itself: Social Identity Theory and Signaling in Online Crowdfunding Campaigns

Description: As social interactions increasingly become exclusively online, there is a need for research on the role of identity and social identity in online platforms. Drawing on Symbolic Interactionist approaches to identity, namely Social Identity Theory and Identity Theory, as well as Signaling Theory, this study argues that actors will selectively use religious language to signal their credentials to an audience for the purpose of garnering prosocial behavior in the form of donations to their fundrais… more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Hamilton, Scott J
open access

Participatory Management and Absenteeism and Turnover of Nursing Assistants in Nursing Homes

Description: Nursing assistants (NAs) provide the majority of daily care to older adults in nursing homes (NHs); NAs working in NHs are the focus of this study. This study examined the influence of participatory management (the independent variable), and mediating variables, burnout – measured as emotional exhaustion, task performance, and affective organizational commitment, on NA withdrawal behaviors (the dependent variables absenteeism and turnover). Most of the data come from a 113-item self-administe… more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Hughes, Susan 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

Cesarean Section Delivery and Exclusive Breastfeeding in Pakistan: Emerging Challenges

Description: This research examined two interrelated issues relevant to maternal and neonatal health in Pakistan, namely, the rising rates of C-section delivery and low rates of exclusive breastfeeding. By using the Andersen's health behavioral model to frame two empirical studies, the data from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2012-13 was used. The first empirical study examined the correlation between place of delivery and the odds of cesarean section in Pakistan. Not all Pakistani women … more
Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.
Date: August 2019
Creator: Nazir, Saman

The Role of Male Fashion in Protests against the Majority Culture: An Exploratory Study

Description: Throughout history, the Black Diaspora has used fashion as a form of protest. The element of fashion is often overlooked when considering the history and struggle for Black equality, because it is less tangible or definable in terms of its influence and effect, but it is still important because Black males resist the dominant culture via dress by dressing in military uniforms, creating their own style, and using different colors in their dress. Studying the Black struggle in American history du… more
Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.
Date: August 2019
Creator: Greenidge, Giselle C. M.

Turkish Gazis' (Injured Veterans) Transition into Civilian Life

Description: The aim of this study was to describe the dimensions of Turkish Gazis' transition to civilian life, to explore the main factors that make this process easier or more difficult, and their psychological integration, that is, specifically, satisfaction with their life. To that end, this study examined the impact of combat-related traumatic stressor (e.g., functional limitations), personal resources (social support, sense of mastery), perceived mental health on Turkish veterans' adjustment into civ… more
Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.
Date: August 2019
Creator: Celebi, Mehmet
open access

Suicidality among Turkish Adolescents: Comparing Durkheim's and Tarde's Perspectives

Description: Suicidality is an important problem among adolescents. This study compares Durkheim's and Tarde's perspectives on suicide. While the Durkheimian perspective alleges that integration, regulation, and anomie play the major role on adolescent suicidality, Tarde's theory considers imitation as the most important factor affecting suicidality. Durkheim suggests that individuals with higher integration and regulation are less likely to commit suicide. Individuals with less integration and regulation, … more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Gurbuz, Suheyl
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
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