Search Results

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

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
open access

In Loco Parentis: How Social Connections Beyond Families Affect Children's Social Adjustment

Description: This study explored the relationship between characteristics of children's families and their social adjustment and how extra-familial connections affect this relationship. According to human ecological theory, children who are in jeopardy through higher-risk family systems and other social forces were expected to be protected from sociocultural risks by social connections in such settings as school, church, kin groups, and neighborhood.
Date: May 1997
Creator: Davy, Rhett A. (Rhett Arawa)
open access

Income Inequality and Racial/Ethnic Infant Mortality in the United States

Description: The objective of this study was to examine if intra-racial income inequality contributes to higher infant mortality rates (IMRs) for African-Americans. The conceptual framework for this study is derived from Richard Wilkinson's psychosocial environment interpretation of the income inequality and health link. The hypotheses examined were that race/ethnicity-specific IMRs are influenced by intra-race/ethnicity income inequality, and that these effects of income inequality on health are mediated b… more
Date: December 2008
Creator: Jesmin, Syeda Sarah
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

Individual Resources, Social Environment, and Flood Victimization

Description: The study is a contextual analysis of flood victimization. Victimization is defined as the social, psychological, and physiological aftermath experienced by victims of a disaster. Disaster researchers concentrate on the victims' characteristics to explain the varying degrees of their victimization, providing only ambiguous results. Theorists such as Kreps, Wildavsky, and Douglas contend that the outcomes of disasters are contingent upon social structure. This analysis treats victimization as on… more
Date: May 1990
Creator: Rossman, Edwin J. (Edwin John)

Inequality in Access to, and Utilization of, Health Care - The Case of African American and Non-Hispanic White Males

Description: Using data from the Household Component of the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, the study compares (1) the accessibility, and (2) the predictors of health care services utilization among African American and non-Hispanic White males, 18 to 65 years old in the United States. Using ANOVA procedure in comparing the means for use of physicians, hospitals, doctors, and difficulty obtaining care, seven hypotheses were tested in the study. First, it was hypothesized that African American men of… more
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Date: May 2001
Creator: Sakyi-Addo, Isaac
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

The Influence of Spousal Expectations, Interaction, and Bonding on Marital Quality: a Study of Selected Factors Affecting Individuals' Self-Reported Evaluation of their Marriage

Description: This investigation explored the relationship between married individuals' self-reports of their expectations, interaction, spousal bonding, and marital quality. From two universities, two hundred and thirty-seven currently enrolled and married students volunteered to provide the information on these factors via a semistructured self-administered questionnaire. The typical respondent was a female between 31 and 35 years old who had been married 8 years to her first spouse, had one child at home;… more
Date: May 1996
Creator: Kettlitz, Robert E. (Robert Edward)
open access

Instructor immediacy and presence in the online learning environment: An investigation of relationships with student affective learning, cognition, and motivation.

Description: Bivariate correlation was used to examine possible relationships between instructor immediacy and instructor presence, and a statistically significant correlation was found. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine whether the linear combination of instructor immediacy and presence caused significant variance in student affective learning, cognition, and motivation. For all three of the latter dependent variables, the linear combination of instructor immediacy and presence was … more
Date: December 2008
Creator: Baker, Credence
open access

International Economic Dependency and Human Development in Third World Countries

Description: This study empirically tested the two competing development theories--modernization and dependency/world-system. Theoretical and methodological approaches suggested by these two paradigms offer opposing interpretations of the incorporation of the Third World countries into the world capitalist system. Therefore, they provide conflicting and, at times, confusing guidelines on the ways available to enhance the well-being of the general populations in these countries. To shed light on the subject … more
Date: August 1996
Creator: Javidan Darugar, Mohammad Reza
open access

International Tourism in Developing Nations: An Empirical Study

Description: Theory: The literature on volume of tourism in developing nations, does not provide empirical measures necessary for rigorous hypotheses testing. While there have been ample studies on volume of tourism among developed nations, very little has been done regarding developing nations. Several theories from the dependency school, world systems and modernization offer theoretical explanations, but these explanations have not been adequately translated into empirical models, for studying the volume … more
Date: August 2002
Creator: Sinha, Sangeeta
open access

Internet and U.S. citizen militias

Description: Smelser's theory of collective behavior holds that people join radical social movements because they experience strain. Among the most serious strains are anxieties that relate to one's social status and the roles that correspond to it. A social movement arises as a means of coping with these anxieties. Militia presence and activity on the Internet (especially Usenet) is a phenomenon that can be studied within the framework of Smelser's theory. Militia watchers contend that those who join the … more
Date: May 2000
Creator: Weeber, Stan C.
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

Intrinsic Religious Orientation and Mental Health in Later Life

Description: This dissertation research project was conducted to investigate religion as a coping resource in later life. The major proposition of the study was that intrinsic religious orientation is positively associated with mental health in late life. A forty three-item questionnaire was distributed to residents of four independent retirement communities resulting in a sixty-six percent return rate. The convenience sample of 214 individuals, with a mean age of 81.94 years, consisted of 156 female and 58… more
Date: December 2002
Creator: Pruett, Charlie D., Jr.
open access

Juvenile Substance Abuse and Criminal Career Continuity

Description: The issue of juvenile drug abuse and criminal career continuity has become a nationwide concern in the last 3 decades. Social scientists and policymakers alike are concerned with the plausible relationship between juvenile drug abuse and adult crimes of high seriousness. This study represents an effort to examine the connection between juvenile drug abuse and criminal career continuity. This study has been conducted to examine the life course of the individual. The data came from Lyle Shannon's… more
Date: August 2000
Creator: Langsam, Adam H.
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

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

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

Marxian and Weberian theory as explanations of the effects of industrialization on town development: A case study; Denison, Texas.

Description: While a great deal of historical literature has concentrated on the effects of industrialization on town development, most of the accounts relate to the introduction of industrialization into an established town. This study attempts to analyze, in sociological terms, the effects of industrialization (in this case, the emergence of the railroad) on the social structure of Denison, Texas which was created by industrialization. It is an attempt to combine Marxian and Weberian theory to produce a m… more
Date: May 2002
Creator: White, Jack A.
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

The medicalization of oral aesthetics: an application of structuration theory

Description: Medicalization has been discussed at length in the sociology of health and illness literature. Typically, dialogue has centered on the effects of medicalization and the process as a phenomenon in professional fields alone. This work is an attempt to study medicalization using a theoretical model, structuration, that allows for inclusion of the larger social system in understanding health system changes and to include consumers of health services in the process as active agents. The example of o… more
Date: December 2000
Creator: Freeland, Lisa New
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