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- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
The research on female juvenile gang members is limited in scope and research has not yet examined mental health issues in this population. This study examines the case histories of 127 female juvenile gang members who were arrested by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. To add to the limited gender-specific research on female juvenile gang members, data are presented regarding this population's mental health problems, childhood maltreatment, substance abuse problems, age of contact with the juvenile justice system, and other factors salient to female juvenile gang members' prevention, treatment, and intervention needs. Female juvenile gang members who had a mental health diagnosis were significantly more likely to report childhood maltreatment. Female juvenile gang members who were younger at their age of first arrest were significantly more likely to report chronic substance use. Clinical levels of anger-irritability and depression-anxiety were found for approximately half of female juvenile gang members and suicide ideation was found for approximately one fourth. These findings have important implications for practitioners and gender-specific prevention, intervention, and treatment programs targeted specifically for female juvenile gang members.
ContributorsDowning, Leigh Anne (Author) / Roe-Sepowitz, Dominique (Thesis advisor) / Anthony, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Jackson, Kelly (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
All ethnic groups in the U.S. have suffered from elder maltreatment (EM), but literature on this topic among Chinese Americans is sparse. Only one group of researchers has exclusively focused on the EM experiences of Chinese Americans in the U.S. A recent study indicated the prevalence rate of EM was 24% among residential-dwelling Chinese American elders and the most prevalent forms of EM are psychological maltreatment (10%) and financial maltreatment (10%). However, the effect of family relationship and cultural factors on EM have not yet been explored. The traditional Chinese culture emphasizing family cohesion and filial piety, along with the acculturation stress and language barriers may increase the risks of EM in this population.
This exploratory research aimed to understand EM perpetrated by family members in residential settings among Chinese American elders and the risk factors of EM in this population, focusing on the Phoenix metropolitan area. Particularly, understanding EM through both a cultural lens and a legal lens shed light on the roles of socio-cultural variables (family support and cultural variables) associated with EM among Chinese American elders, one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the U.S.
To achieve these research aims, a larger quantitative component building on a small qualitative component was utilized. In Phase I, focus groups were conducted to ensure subsequent survey questions were culturally and linguistically appropriate. Feedback from the focus groups was used to refine the questionnaire designed for this study. In Phase II, revised questionnaires were distributed to 266 Chinese American older adults to detect EM prevalence and to identify the factors associated with victimization. The ecological theory provides guidance for the study.
In the end, one of ten Chinese American elders experienced general EM perpetrated by family members. The dominant forms of EM, elder neglect and emotional maltreatment, may have serious emotional outcomes and threaten the well-being of Chinese elders. To prevent the occurrence and recurrence of EM, service professionals and gatekeepers in the community need to work with Chinese American families to reduce elders’ depression levels, promote family cohesion and eliminate the intergenerational culture/acculturation differences.
This exploratory research aimed to understand EM perpetrated by family members in residential settings among Chinese American elders and the risk factors of EM in this population, focusing on the Phoenix metropolitan area. Particularly, understanding EM through both a cultural lens and a legal lens shed light on the roles of socio-cultural variables (family support and cultural variables) associated with EM among Chinese American elders, one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the U.S.
To achieve these research aims, a larger quantitative component building on a small qualitative component was utilized. In Phase I, focus groups were conducted to ensure subsequent survey questions were culturally and linguistically appropriate. Feedback from the focus groups was used to refine the questionnaire designed for this study. In Phase II, revised questionnaires were distributed to 266 Chinese American older adults to detect EM prevalence and to identify the factors associated with victimization. The ecological theory provides guidance for the study.
In the end, one of ten Chinese American elders experienced general EM perpetrated by family members. The dominant forms of EM, elder neglect and emotional maltreatment, may have serious emotional outcomes and threaten the well-being of Chinese elders. To prevent the occurrence and recurrence of EM, service professionals and gatekeepers in the community need to work with Chinese American families to reduce elders’ depression levels, promote family cohesion and eliminate the intergenerational culture/acculturation differences.
ContributorsGao, Xiang, Ph.D (Author) / Sun, Fei (Thesis advisor) / Bonifas, Robin (Committee member) / Marsiglia, Flavio (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This study situated a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) softball league within the logic of homonormativity and queer futurity and explored how community and identity were constituted, practiced, negotiated, and problematized. The project endeavored to address the questions: What is the meaning and significance of community for the League participants? To what extent and how does participation in the League affect gender and sexual identity discourse and practice? And, in the context of the League, how are dominant ideologies and power structures reinforced, disrupted, and produced? A critical ethnography was undertaken to render lives, relations, structures, and alternative possibilities visible. Data was collected through participant observation, interviews, open-ended questionnaires, and archival document analysis. A three stage process was employed for data transformation including description, analysis, and interpretation. LGBT identified sports clubs, formed as a result of identity politics, are understood to be potential sites of transformation and/or assimilation. Although the League was imbued with the discourses of inclusion and acceptance, the valorizing of competition and normalization led to the creation of hierarchies and a politics of exclusion. The League as an identity-based community was defined by what it was not, by what it lacked, by its constitutive outside. It is possible to learn a great deal about community by looking at what and who is left out and the conspicuous absence of transgender and bisexual participants in the League highlights a form of closure, a limit to the transformative potential of the League.
ContributorsMertel, Sara (Author) / Bortner, Peg (Thesis advisor) / Allison, Maria (Committee member) / Mean, Lindsey (Committee member) / Kivel, Dana (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
School failure among children and adolescents has long been a serious issue in Myanmar. The recent statistics indicate that a large number of adolescents do not complete high school. As a consequence, they lose prosperous work opportunities and ability to earn an adequate income. These outcomes highlight a need to study the factors that hamper academic success of adolescents in Myanmar. Academic success is a complex concept and needs a multidimensional perspective to gain an accurate understanding of factors associated with it. Therefore, this study used an ecological risk/protective model and identified risk and protective factors that contribute to academic success of adolescents through five ecological systems of an adolescent: individual, family, peer, school, and community. This study was conducted at one government and monastic school in Myanmar. The data was collected from a sample of 50 high school students, parents and teachers through interviews and focus group discussions. This study reviewed and analyzed the data by using constant comparative method. A total of 27 distinctive ecological risk and protective factors that contribute to adolescents’ academic success in Myanmar emerged from the study. The findings of this study provided important recommendations to inform policy and practice interventions for adolescents to improve their academic performance. The findings also highlighted the influence of schools, families and communities on academic success of adolescents and a need of school social work services in Myanmar to address school failure of adolescents. Last but not least, this study contributed to the local literature by expanding the knowledge base on the concepts of ecological model and strengths-based perspective which are very new for educators and social workers in Myanmar.
ContributorsLynn, Zayar (Author) / Krysik, Judy Lynn (Thesis advisor) / Klimek, Barbara G (Committee member) / Morales, Joanne Elisabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
One in five college women report being sexually assaulted (National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2015) with college being the time when men are more likely to commit a sexual assault (Burgess, 2007). Victimization detracts from their college experience, leading to poor academic performance or less institutional commitment. College women who are victims of sexual assault are also at a higher risk of participating in risky sexual behavior. To reduce the prevalence of sexual assault at universities, it is important to develop effective prevention programs that can target and change attitudes and beliefs that contribute to the continued perpetuation of sexual violence on college campuses. Although there are multiple studies that examine the perspectives of sexual assault among college students, specifically rape myths, the majority of that research is quantitative and does not provide an in depth understanding of their beliefs and the potential factors that contribute to those beliefs. The purpose of this study was to provide an in depth analysis of the attitudes and beliefs about sexual assault among college students.
Twenty-five female and 20 male college students participated in semi-structured focus groups or interviews. Open coding was used to gain an understanding of their beliefs concerning sexual assault. Results demonstrated that students possess multiple and often contradictory beliefs about sexual assault and issues that contribute to those beliefs that can be addressed and changed using sexual assault prevention. Three of those broad themes included barriers to talking about sexual assault, social and cultural norms that contribute to sexual assault and how college students communicate their sexual needs and desires, including consent. This research reveals that researchers and advocates do not have a complete understanding of perspectives of sexual assault among college students. Prevention programs may have been developed based on incomplete information and assumptions about what college students believe. Therefore, this study provides information that can be used to develop intervention programs that specifically target the most relevant ideas about sexual assault that are most relevant to the experiences of college students.
Twenty-five female and 20 male college students participated in semi-structured focus groups or interviews. Open coding was used to gain an understanding of their beliefs concerning sexual assault. Results demonstrated that students possess multiple and often contradictory beliefs about sexual assault and issues that contribute to those beliefs that can be addressed and changed using sexual assault prevention. Three of those broad themes included barriers to talking about sexual assault, social and cultural norms that contribute to sexual assault and how college students communicate their sexual needs and desires, including consent. This research reveals that researchers and advocates do not have a complete understanding of perspectives of sexual assault among college students. Prevention programs may have been developed based on incomplete information and assumptions about what college students believe. Therefore, this study provides information that can be used to develop intervention programs that specifically target the most relevant ideas about sexual assault that are most relevant to the experiences of college students.
ContributorsBaldwin-White, Adrienne (Author) / Messing, Jill (Thesis advisor) / Williams, Lela R (Committee member) / Elias-Lambert, Nada (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
The United States resettles more refugees each year than any country, yet little is known about the influence that the Refugee Resettlement Program has on our communities. Program evaluation in the United States is primarily concerned with outcomes and efficiency; while there has been an absence of collecting data to measure the impact that social programs have on communities. This study explores the impact of refugee resettlement on a metropolitan area by surveying professionals with experience working or volunteering with refugee populations. These professionals rate the extent to which they believe refugee resettlement influences social, economic, and environmental variables in the community, and explain the nature of the influence they believe the program has on the community. The data collected from these surveys will introduce the perceived impact of refugee resettlement from the perspective of those with professional experience in the area. By exploring the effects that the Refugee Resettlement Program has on Phoenix, this data can assist in the creation of community assessments for refugee resettlement and comparable social programs.
ContributorsMody, Elizabeth Hatch (Author) / Klimek, Barbara (Thesis advisor) / Morales, Joanne (Committee member) / Brown, Mary-Ellen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This dissertation details a study of wide-bandgap molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown single-crystal MgxCd1-xTe. The motivation for this study is to open a pathway to reduced $/W solar power generation through the development of a high-efficiency 1.7-eV II-VI top cell current-matched to low-cost 1.1-eV silicon. This paper reports the demonstration of monocrystalline 1.7-eV MgxCd1-xTe/MgyCd1-yTe (y>x) double heterostructures (DHs) with a record carrier lifetime of 560 nanoseconds, along with a 1.7-eV MgxCd1-xTe/MgyCd1-yTe (y>x) single-junction solar cell with a record active-area efficiency of 15.2% and a record open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 1.176 V. A study of indium-doped n-type 1.7-eV MgxCd1-xTe with a carrier activation of up to 5 × 1017 cm-3 is presented with promise to increase device VOC. Finally, this paper reports an epitaxial lift-off (ELO) technology using water-soluble MgTe for the creation of free-standing MBE-grown II-VI single-crystal CdTe and 1.7-eV MgxCd1-xTe solar cells freed from lattice-matched InSb(001) substrates. Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy measurements comparing intact and free-standing films reveal the survival of optical quality in CdTe DHs after ELO. This technology opens up several possibilities to drastically increase cell conversion efficiency through improved light management and transferability into monolithic multijunction devices. Lastly, this report will present considerations for future work in each of the study areas mentioned above.
ContributorsCampbell, Calli Michele (Author) / Zhang, Yong-Hang (Thesis advisor) / Chan, Candance K (Committee member) / King, Richard R (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Nearly 11 million immigrants in the United States, three-quarters of which are Latino, lack legal authorization to live and work in the country; nonetheless, the majority of these individuals have resided in the U.S. for a decade or more and have profound social, emotional, cultural, and economic ties to the country (Passel & Cohn, 2018). Despite being deeply embedded in their communities, the dominant policy response involves increased immigration enforcement and advancing a hostile socio-political context (Gulasekaram & Ramakishnan, 2015). This policy approach comes at a great cost to immigrant and Latino communities throughout the U.S. and is largely ineffective. Accordingly, many advocates and stakeholders, including the National Association of Social Workers (2017), argue for policies that integrate “unauthorized permanent residents” (Martínez, Slack, & Martínez- Schuldt, 2018).
The primary purpose of this study was to understand strategies that can be leveraged to build support for integrationist policymaking. Among a sample of U.S.-born white college students (n=708), intensive, community, and college contact with Latino immigrants and people of color were assessed; the relationships between intergroup contact and support for integrationist policymaking were examined. To better understand the contact-policy attitudes relationship, the deprovincialization hypothesis of the intergroup contact theory (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2011) and the Latino threat narrative (Chavez, 2013) were merged and tested as a serial pathway by which contact and policy attitudes may be related.
Findings revealed intensive and community contact with Latino immigrants and people of color related to more support for integrationist legislation. In most cases, these effects were direct as well as indirect through the ethnocentrismthreat attitudes pathway. Ethnocentrism fully accounted for the relationships between intensive and community intergroup contact and threat attitudes. These findings have several implications for intervention. First, in the long-term struggle for immigrant integration, intergroup interaction between whites and people of color should be promoted, and the importance of casual intergroup contact should not be dismissed. Interventions that reduce social segregation are needed, as well as efforts to effectively harness the ethnic-racial diversity that presently exists. Cross-group exposure interventions that aim to overcome ethnocentric tendencies should be implemented.
The primary purpose of this study was to understand strategies that can be leveraged to build support for integrationist policymaking. Among a sample of U.S.-born white college students (n=708), intensive, community, and college contact with Latino immigrants and people of color were assessed; the relationships between intergroup contact and support for integrationist policymaking were examined. To better understand the contact-policy attitudes relationship, the deprovincialization hypothesis of the intergroup contact theory (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2011) and the Latino threat narrative (Chavez, 2013) were merged and tested as a serial pathway by which contact and policy attitudes may be related.
Findings revealed intensive and community contact with Latino immigrants and people of color related to more support for integrationist legislation. In most cases, these effects were direct as well as indirect through the ethnocentrismthreat attitudes pathway. Ethnocentrism fully accounted for the relationships between intensive and community intergroup contact and threat attitudes. These findings have several implications for intervention. First, in the long-term struggle for immigrant integration, intergroup interaction between whites and people of color should be promoted, and the importance of casual intergroup contact should not be dismissed. Interventions that reduce social segregation are needed, as well as efforts to effectively harness the ethnic-racial diversity that presently exists. Cross-group exposure interventions that aim to overcome ethnocentric tendencies should be implemented.
ContributorsKiehne, Elizabeth (Author) / Becerra, David (Thesis advisor) / Stalker, Katie C. (Committee member) / Androff, David K. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
The effects of an internet-based self-compassion writing intervention for adults with mental illness
Description
Multiple studies have found that writing with self-compassion about a difficult event helps promote mental health and improve affect in college students and non-clinical populations (Johnson & O'Brien, 2013; Leary et al, 2007; Shapira & Mongrain, 2010). This study investigated whether a self-compassion writing intervention would lead to increases in self-compassion and proactive coping and reductions in depression and physical symptoms in a sample of individuals with different types of mental illness. This study also looked more broadly at the feasibility of conducting an online randomized trial on individuals with mental illness, including psychotic disorders, on Amazon MTurk. Individuals with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder and/or depression on Amazon MTurk were recruited and randomly assigned to either a (1) treatment condition in which participants wrote with self-compassion or a (2) neutral condition in which participants wrote about how they spent their time. Participants were asked to write for 20 minutes each day for three consecutive days. Outcome measures were administered at baseline, after the three-day intervention, and one month later. Computerized linguistic analysis (LIWC; Pennebaker et al., 2015) was also used to analyze participants' writing to determine if the intervention had the intended effect. Both the treatment and control groups showed significant improvements in self-compassion, proactive coping, general mental health and physical health following the intervention and both groups showed significant improvements in self-compassion, proactive coping and general mental health between the post-test and 1-month follow-up. In addition, the self-compassion writing group's positive affect improved significantly more than the control group after the wave 1 writing intervention and the control group's negative affect improved significantly more than the self-compassion writing group after the wave 2 writing intervention. Overall, the results suggest both self-compassion writing and writing about how one spends one's time may be beneficial for individuals with mental illness with different needs. Moreover, it was found Amazon MTurk may not be a reliable platform for recruiting individuals with psychotic disorders, and that the prevalence of individuals with any mental illness on MTurk may be equal or greater than the prevalence of any mental illness in the general population.
ContributorsUrken, Debra (Author) / LeCroy, Craig W. (Thesis advisor) / Holschuh, Jane (Committee member) / Stalker, Katie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Previous studies about well-being have examined either gratitude’s or social connectedness’ relationship to subjective well-being. The aim of this randomized control trial was to examine the efficacy of a gratitude-based writing micro-intervention in enhancing felt social connectedness and well-being between young adults and their parents. The trial tested the impact of engaging in gratitude-based writing about family members or enhanced caretakers on measures of social connectedness and well-being between grown children and their parents. Data from a pool of social work students in the Southwest (N=148) were used. Results revealed within-subject effects and between subject effects for psychological well-being from pretest to one month follow-up, with the intervention group reporting significantly higher psychological well-being than the control group. Results also revealed slight mean differences from pretest to posttest for perceptions of family relationships, with the intervention group reporting approaching significant better perceptions of family relationships than the control group at posttest. Findings from the study indicate that engaging in gratitude-based writing about family can improve perceptions of psychological well-being and may improve social connectedness to family.
ContributorsKaplan, Tamar (Author) / LeCroy, Craig W. (Thesis advisor) / Williams, Lela R (Committee member) / Brown, Mary Ellen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018