Expectation for college attendance in the United States continues to rise as more jobs require degrees. This study aims to determine how parental expectations affect high school students in their decision to attend college. By examining parental expectations that were placed on current college students prior to and during the application period, we can determine the positive and negative outcomes of these expectations as well as the atmosphere they are creating. To test the hypothesis, an online survey was distributed to current ASU and Barrett, Honors College students regarding their experience with college applications and their parents' influence on their collegiate attendance. A qualitative analysis of the data was conducted in tandem with an analysis of several case studies to determine the results. These data show that parental expectations are having a significant impact on the enrollment of high school students in college programs. With parents placing these expectations on their children, collegiate enrollment will continue to increase. Further studies will be necessary to determine the specific influences these expectations are placing on students.

Executive functioning (EF) is the cognitive processing of goal-oriented actions that are predictive of important life functioning skills. Middle childhood is an important time for academic achievement and social development. Positive and negative parenting practices were examined in the prediction of several child executive functioning outcomes in middle childhood, this thesis further examined whether early life socioeconomic status moderated such associations. This sample consisted of 708 twins (32% monozygotic, 36% same-sex dizygotic, and 32% opposite-sex dizygotic) with ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds at two age points, 12 months old (M = 12.5 months, SD = 1.06) and 8 years old (M = 8.41, SD = .40).There was a significant negative main effect between negative parenting and CPT. Further, positive parenting interacted with SES to predict CPT and Digit Span Forward. A significant positive effect was identified between positive parenting and CPT in low SES families, but not high SES families. Interestingly, greater positive parenting was associated with lower Digit Span Forward in high SES families, but not low SES families. These findings suggest that while negative parenting was associated with worse EF across the entire sample, the relationship between positive parenting practices and executive functioning outcomes differed based on early life socioeconomic status. Future research should examine whether various domains of executive functioning may follow different developmental patterns.

Brundtland’s definition of sustainability is the ability to “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” (IISD, 2021). But what if there are no future generations? Social sustainability, the sector of sustainability that foregrounds the well-being and livelihoods of people (and thereby continuation of humanity), is included in definitions within the sustainability field, but less developed in sustainability practice. In an effort to bridge this gap of knowledge, 14 U.S. cities and over 100 sustainability policies were analyzed for their social sustainability performance. An eight-item analytical framework that deals with differing areas of social equity guided the analysis. Results found that most cities’ sustainability departments fell short of truly addressing social sustainability concerns. Out of the eight items, the most frequently addressed were housing security and racial and gender equality whereas few, if any, cities addressed the more specific social concerns of immigration, technology and media, or arts/cultural preservation. Future research is recommended to gain a better understanding of the ways existing cities can improve in this area.