Search Results

An Explanation of Racial Attitudes Utilizing Intergroup Threat Theory and Group Empathy Theory

Description: This project examined the effects of threat perceptions and group empathy on racial outgroup attitudes. The relationship between threat perception and increased racial prejudice has been well established within the literature, but the effect of group empathy within this dynamic has been largely undocumented. The following study utilizes data from the American National Election Study 2020 Time Series to analyze racial outgroup attitudes among subsamples of Blacks (n = 726), Hispanics (n = 762), … more
Date: August 2022
Creator: Larrison, KayLynn Marie

Latinos for Trump? National Origin, Nativity Status, and Favorability for Trump in 2016

Description: In this study, I examine the relationship between national origin, nativity status, and favorability toward Donald Trump among Latinos in 2016. In particular, I examine the relationship between Cubans, Dominicans, and "other" Latinos to understand how differences in national origin and nativity status influence Trump favorability. The term "Latino" is a pan-ethnic term used to describe individuals with ancestry from Latin America who share a common language, religion and culture. However, studi… more
Date: August 2022
Creator: Moreno, Vianni Alyssa
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
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.

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

Exploring the Transnational Meaning of Home Amid Insecure, Hazardous Housing

Description: This project examines refugees' experiences of insecure housing and perceptions of home in the U.S. Many scholars of migration have focused on the resettlement experiences of refugees, including access to housing, yet refugees' experiences with housing in the U.S. remain largely undocumented. The following analyzes a case study of an apartment fire that displaced 16 refugee families in Dallas, Texas. Based on 18 in-depth interviews with tenants and members of refugee support organizations and n… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Fessenden, Deborah June
open access

Resettled: How Refugees Experience Employment and Unemployment in the United States

Description: Research on immigration in the United States has commonly studied the employment experiences of refugees. Few studies on refugees have focused on both, refugees' employment and unemployment experiences in the United States. This article draws on twenty in-depth interviews with refugees, along with ethnographic observation at a local refugee resettlement agency, to investigate how refugees make sense of their employment and unemployment experiences in the United States. I find that refugee men a… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Mumtaz, Mehr

Off the Gender Spectrum: Exploring Agender Experience

Description: With the proliferation of gender identity labels in the last twenty years, more individuals are identifying outside of a binary understanding of gender. Agender individuals are among this group, but we know very little about their experiences. Gender theorists have examined the ways that gender is performative and structural, but present theory does not provide the tools to understand the experiences of those outside of the binary, and even more so those who identify outside of gender altogethe… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Clupny, Loren

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
open access

Educational Degree and Career Satisfaction: Moderating Effects of Educational Expectations

Description: Prior research supports the relationship between education and status attainment, mobility, and occupational attainment. Today, within an increasingly bifurcated labor market, where education is important for occupational attainment and the associated income and benefits, understanding the processes of status attainment is important. Educational expectations shape educational attainment, while educational attainment influences occupational attainment and satisfaction. Utilizing the National Lon… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Knudsen, Jennifer

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

Religious Identity and Interreligious Communications: Predicting In-Group and Outgroup Bias with Topic-Sentiment Analysis

Description: Intergroup relations and the factors affecting them constitute a subject of recurring interest within the academic community. Social identity theory suggests that group membership and the value we assign to it drives the expression of in-group favoritism and outgroup prejudice, among other intergroup phenomena. The present study examines how (ir)religious identities are related to topic-sentiment polarization in the form of positive in-group and negative outgroup bias during interreligious deba… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Grigoropoulou, Nikolitsa
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

Religiousness and Spirituality: How Are They Related to Moral Orientations?

Description: This dissertation examines correlations between religiousness and spirituality, to moral orientations using moral foundations theory as a framework. Using the 2012 Measuring Morality dataset, which provides a representative sample of the population of the United States, I create linear regressions which test associations between religiousness, spirituality, and each of the five moral foundations ((harm/care, fairness, in-group loyalty, respect for authority, and purity). I find that religiousne… more
Date: August 2017
Creator: Gabhart, Elizabeth 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

Using Topic Models to Study Journalist-Audience Convergence and Divergence: The Case of Human Trafficking Coverage on British Online Newspapers

Description: Despite the accessibility of online news and availability of sophisticated methods for analyzing news content, no previous study has focused on the simultaneous examination of news coverage on human trafficking and audiences' interpretations of this coverage. In my research, I have examined both journalists' and commenters' topic choices in coverage and discussion of human trafficking from the online platforms of three British newspapers covering the period 2009–2015. I used latent semantic ana… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Papadouka, Maria Eirini
open access

Dimensions of Acculturation and Sexual Health among U.S. Hispanic Youth

Description: Hispanic youth living in the U.S. share a disproportionate burden of risk for HIV, other STIs, and teen pregnancies. They also tend to report lower rates of condom use and higher rates of inconsistent condom use than other racial/ethnic groups. Furthermore, immigrant Hispanic adolescents experience a unique burden of sexual risk compared to their non-immigrant counterparts. These negative sexual health outcomes can severely derail the overall health, social mobility, and life opportunities of t… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Driver, Nichola D.
open access

Sociological Applications of Topic Extraction Techniques: Two Case Studies

Description: Limited research has been conducted with regards to the applicability of topic extraction techniques in Sociology. Addressing the modern methodological opportunities, and responding to the skepticism with regards to the absence of theoretical foundations supporting the use of text analytics, I argue that Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), complemented by other text analysis techniques and multivariate techniques, can constitute a unique hybrid method that can facilitate the sociological interpreta… more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Zougris, Konstantinos
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
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