Matching Items (8)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Immigration
- All Subjects: psychometrics
- Creators: Menjivar, Cecilia
Description
The purpose of this dissertation was to develop a Compassionate Communication Scale (CCS) by conducting a series of studies. The first study used qualitative data to identify and develop initial scale items. A series of follow-up studies used exploratory factor analysis to investigate the underlying structure of the CCS. A three-factor structure emerged, which included: Compassionate conversation, such as listening, letting the distressed person disclose feelings, and making empathetic remarks; compassionate touch, such as holding someone's hand or patting someone's back; and compassionate messaging, such as posting an encouraging message on a social networking site or sending a sympathetic email. The next study tested convergent and divergent validity by determining how the three forms of compassionate communication associate with various traits. Compassionate conversation was positively related to compassion, empathetic concern, perspective taking, emotional intelligence, social expressivity, emotional expressivity and benevolence, and negatively related to verbal aggressiveness and narcissism. Compassionate touch was positively correlated with compassion, empathetic concern, perspective taking, emotional intelligence, social expressivity, emotional expressivity, and benevolence, and uncorrelated with verbal aggressiveness and benevolence. Finally, compassionate messaging was positively correlated with social expressivity, emotional expressivity, and uncorrelated with verbal aggressiveness and narcissism. The next study focused on cross-validation and criterion-related validity. Correlations showing that self-reports of a person's compassionate communication were positively related to a friend or romantic partner's report of that person's compassionate communication provided cross-validation. The test for criterion-related validity examined whether compassionate communication predicts relational satisfaction. Regression analyses revealed that people were more relationally satisfied when they perceived themselves to use compassionate conversation, when they perceived their partner to use compassionate conversation, and when their partner reported using compassionate conversation. This finding did not extend to compassionate touch or compassionate messaging. In fact, in one regression analysis, people reported more relational satisfaction when they perceived that their partners used high levels of compassionate conversation and low levels of compassionate touch. Overall, the analyses suggest that of the three forms of compassionate communication, compassionate conversation is most strongly related to relational satisfaction. Taken together, this series of studies provides initial evidence for the validity of the CCS.
ContributorsRamos Salazar, Leslie (Author) / Guerrero, Laura (Thesis advisor) / Roberto, Anthony (Committee member) / Millsap, Roger (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of complex structure on dimensionality assessment in compensatory and noncompensatory multidimensional item response models (MIRT) of assessment data using dimensionality assessment procedures based on conditional covariances (i.e., DETECT) and a factor analytical approach (i.e., NOHARM). The DETECT-based methods typically outperformed the NOHARM-based methods in both two- (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) compensatory MIRT conditions. The DETECT-based methods yielded high proportion correct, especially when correlations were .60 or smaller, data exhibited 30% or less complexity, and larger sample size. As the complexity increased and the sample size decreased, the performance typically diminished. As the complexity increased, it also became more difficult to label the resulting sets of items from DETECT in terms of the dimensions. DETECT was consistent in classification of simple items, but less consistent in classification of complex items. Out of the three NOHARM-based methods, χ2G/D and ALR generally outperformed RMSR. χ2G/D was more accurate when N = 500 and complexity levels were 30% or lower. As the number of items increased, ALR performance improved at correlation of .60 and 30% or less complexity. When the data followed a noncompensatory MIRT model, the NOHARM-based methods, specifically χ2G/D and ALR, were the most accurate of all five methods. The marginal proportions for labeling sets of items as dimension-like were typically low, suggesting that the methods generally failed to label two (three) sets of items as dimension-like in 2D (3D) noncompensatory situations. The DETECT-based methods were more consistent in classifying simple items across complexity levels, sample sizes, and correlations. However, as complexity and correlation levels increased the classification rates for all methods decreased. In most conditions, the DETECT-based methods classified complex items equally or more consistent than the NOHARM-based methods. In particular, as complexity, the number of items, and the true dimensionality increased, the DETECT-based methods were notably more consistent than any NOHARM-based method. Despite DETECT's consistency, when data follow a noncompensatory MIRT model, the NOHARM-based method should be preferred over the DETECT-based methods to assess dimensionality due to poor performance of DETECT in identifying the true dimensionality.
ContributorsSvetina, Dubravka (Author) / Levy, Roy (Thesis advisor) / Gorin, Joanna S. (Committee member) / Millsap, Roger (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
United States and Mexico population statistics show clear evidence of return migration. This study uses qualitative data collected in a municipality in the State of Mexico during the summer of 2010 from families comprised of Mexican nationals and United States-born children post-relocation to Mexico. Using Portes and Zhou's theoretical framework on modes of incorporation, this study illustrates the government policy, societal reception and coethnic community challenges the first and second generation face in their cases of family return migration. This study finds that the municipal government is indifferent to foreign children and their incorporation in Mexico schools. Furthermore, extended family and community, may not always aid the household's adaptation to Mexico. Despite the lack of a coethnic community, parents eventually acclimate into manual and entrepreneurial positions in society and the children contend to find a place called home.
ContributorsMedina, Dulce (Author) / Menjivar, Cecilia (Thesis advisor) / Seline Szkupinski-Quiroga, Seline (Committee member) / Glick, Jennifer (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Mass media has played a central role in the construction of "illegal" immigration as a crisis, despite demographic trends suggesting otherwise, resulting in public concern and extreme policies. Additional coverage by local news has brought the issue closer to home, leading state legislatures to action. This project analyzes trends in a 10 year period in local news articles and state-level legislation about undocumented immigration in Arizona and Alabama. The representation of immigration as a threat has consequences for the lives of immigrants and what it means to be an American.
ContributorsGultz, Chrisanne Marie (Author) / Menjivar, Cecilia (Thesis director) / Doty, Roxanne (Committee member) / Diaz McConnell, Eileen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
This dissertation focuses on the incorporation of twenty first century mixed-status families, living in Phoenix, Arizona and Central Mexico. Using a combination of research methods, chapters illustrate patterns of immigrant incorporation by focusing on well-being, community reception, and national identity. First, results of mixed-method data collected in Phoenix, Arizona from 2009-2010 suggest that life satisfaction varies by integration scores, a holistic measure of how immigrants are integrating into their communities by accounting for individual, household, and contextual factors. Second, findings from qualitative data collected in Mexico during 2010, illustrate that communities receive parents and children differently. Third, a continued analysis of qualitative 2010 data from Mexico, exhibits that both parents and children identify more with the U.S. than with Mexico, regardless of where they were born. Together these chapters contribute to broad concepts of assimilation, well-being, community reception, and national identity.
ContributorsMedina, Dulce (Author) / Menjivar, Cecilia (Thesis advisor) / Glick, Jennifer (Thesis advisor) / Martin, Nathan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
The vigorous efforts of advocates to help victims of domestic violence have resulted in the criminalization of domestic violence in the United States and in various countries around the world. However, research studies indicate mixed success in the protection of victims through the use of the legal system. This study examines the experiences of 16 victims/survivors and their perspectives on the criminal justice system's (CJS) response to domestic violence through in-depth interviews throughout the state of Arizona. This comparative study analyzes the experiences of U.S. born non-Latinas, U.S. (mainland and island) born Latinas and foreign born (documented and undocumented) Latinas who are victims/survivors of domestic violence. The empirical cases reveal that at the root of the contradictory success of the criminal justice system are a legal culture of rationalization and a lack of recognition of the intersection of systems of power and oppression such as gender, class, race/ethnicity, and of essence to this study, legal status.
ContributorsSalcido, Maria Olivia (Author) / Menjivar, Cecilia (Thesis advisor) / Cruz-Torres, Maria L. (Committee member) / Varsanyi, Monica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Item response theory (IRT) and related latent variable models represent modern psychometric theory, the successor to classical test theory in psychological assessment. While IRT has become prevalent in the assessment of ability and achievement, it has not been widely embraced by clinical psychologists. This appears due, in part, to psychometrists' use of unidimensional models despite evidence that psychiatric disorders are inherently multidimensional. The construct validity of unidimensional and multidimensional latent variable models was compared to evaluate the utility of modern psychometric theory in clinical assessment. Archival data consisting of 688 outpatients' presenting concerns, psychiatric diagnoses, and item level responses to the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) were extracted from files at a university mental health clinic. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that models with oblique factors and/or item cross-loadings better represented the internal structure of the BSI in comparison to a strictly unidimensional model. The models were generally equivalent in their ability to account for variance in criterion-related validity variables; however, bifactor models demonstrated superior validity in differentiating between mood and anxiety disorder diagnoses. Multidimensional IRT analyses showed that the orthogonal bifactor model partitioned distinct, clinically relevant sources of item variance. Similar results were also achieved through multivariate prediction with an oblique simple structure model. Receiver operating characteristic curves confirmed improved sensitivity and specificity through multidimensional models of psychopathology. Clinical researchers are encouraged to consider these and other comprehensive models of psychological distress.
ContributorsThomas, Michael Lee (Author) / Lanyon, Richard (Thesis advisor) / Barrera, Manuel (Committee member) / Levy, Roy (Committee member) / Millsap, Roger (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The purpose of this research was to understand the migration process as experienced by unaccompanied immigrant minors (UIMs). That is, to form a better understanding of why they seek migration, what motivates their migration, what happens to them on their migration journey, and how they adapt to their new communities in the United States. Using qualitative research methods, 60 semi-structured in-depth interviews were collected, along with 12 ethnographic interviews, and participant observations. The immigrants’ narratives were rich with data, and capture the plight that UIMs undertake as they leave their home countries. This study analyzes the dynamic of age in all facets of the migration process, by taking into account that children are participants of the migration process just as much as adults.
The dissertation generated several findings; the first was to provide a profile of an Unaccompanied Minor, and for the sake of the study, only participants from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala were interviewed. From those interviewed, we learned that UIMs are a heterogeneous group. They come from diverse backgrounds in terms of household structures; (nuclear family structures, single-parent structures, extended-family structures, and migrant-family structures). Also, education levels varied; (some finished elementary or even secondary school, but for those living in rural areas it was harder to attend school due to the distance and availability of educational facilities). Many also worked in the labor force from an early age. One salient theme that UIMs talked about in relation to their home life was how the increase in violence in many Latin American countries was threatening their safety, especially for UIMs from El Salvador and Honduras. The next major finding was the ability to see the multiple stages UIMs experience, including: initiation/decisions to migrate, journey, arrival/adaptation and what takes place in each of these stages.
The dissertation generated several findings; the first was to provide a profile of an Unaccompanied Minor, and for the sake of the study, only participants from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala were interviewed. From those interviewed, we learned that UIMs are a heterogeneous group. They come from diverse backgrounds in terms of household structures; (nuclear family structures, single-parent structures, extended-family structures, and migrant-family structures). Also, education levels varied; (some finished elementary or even secondary school, but for those living in rural areas it was harder to attend school due to the distance and availability of educational facilities). Many also worked in the labor force from an early age. One salient theme that UIMs talked about in relation to their home life was how the increase in violence in many Latin American countries was threatening their safety, especially for UIMs from El Salvador and Honduras. The next major finding was the ability to see the multiple stages UIMs experience, including: initiation/decisions to migrate, journey, arrival/adaptation and what takes place in each of these stages.
ContributorsChavez, Lilian (Author) / Menjivar, Cecilia (Thesis advisor) / Lopez, Vera (Thesis advisor) / Santos, Carlos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016