Adolescence is an important period of scaffolding for educational attainment, which is among the strongest predictors of outcomes in multiple domains. Parents who encourage academic success and promote self-regulation may enhance their offspring’s educational attainment. However, parents with externalizing disorders present a complex constellation of risk factors, including low educational attainment and poor parenting, and are more likely to have children with high levels of disinhibition. Previous research has identified low parental education, poor parenting and adolescent impulsivity as threats to educational attainment, but has not examined risk factors for discrepancies in educational attainment among siblings of the same family. Furthermore, studies have not examined the between- and within-family mechanisms that may explain why adolescents with externalizing parents have low educational attainment. The current study addressed these gaps by testing between- and within-family predictors of educational attainment using data from a longitudinal, multigenerational study that oversampled families at risk for alcohol use disorder. The sample consisted of 555 biological siblings within 240 families. We tested whether parental externalizing predicted lower educational attainment through parents’ own lower education, parents’ differential treatment of offspring, and impulsivity. Results suggested that between families, parents with externalizing disorders had lower educational attainment and more impulsive offspring, but did not exhibit increased differential parenting. Within families, siblings with greater impulsivity had lower educational attainment, whereas receiving more preferential maternal treatment than one’s siblings predicted higher educational attainment. Low parental educational attainment mediated the relation between parental externalizing disorders and low offspring educational attainment.

Driver’s licenses are central to many people's livelihoods, allowing us the ability to travel for work, education, healthcare, and all other essentials of life. Often, however, driver’s licenses are suspended as a means of enforcing traffic violations. About two years ago, Arizona significantly changed the civil traffic enforcement landscape in the state as it passed a law—S.B. 1551—that, in part, made it so individuals could no longer receive driver’s license suspensions for failing to pay a civil traffic fine. This study aimed to examine how this legal change has impacted civil traffic enforcement in Tempe, Arizona. As part of this work, I helped my thesis supervisor with overseeing student groups in one of his online courses in a research project that centered around studying the community impacts of driver’s licenses suspensions. I met with my thesis supervisor to coordinate how the project would be implemented, assisted students with learning how to use data analysis and visualization tools, and edited the paper of the student group selected as the top team so that they could share their findings with members of the Tempe Municipal Court. Coinciding with the research done by these student groups, I also conducted my own analysis, using traffic data provided by the Tempe Municipal Court to be able to determine how the passage of S.B. 1551 was affecting civil traffic trends related to failure to pay dispositions, if at all. Overall, I found that S.B. 1551 presented implications for both accountability and equality related to civil traffic enforcement. To the enforcement concerns, the number of failure to pay dispositions rose after the passage of SB 1551. With traffic fines being a central means for punishing and deterring traffic violations, people no longer being compelled to pay them may present issues for regulating traffic safety. However, this study also demonstrated that, had S.B. 1551 not been implemented, driver’s license suspensions for failure to pay dispositions may have disproportionately and adversely impacted communities in Tempe by socioeconomic status and race. Hopefully, this project can guide policymakers in setting civil traffic enforcement policy, taking into account both the enforcement and equitability implications, as well as to serve as a starting point for future research on the topic.

The Starbucks Workers United Movement emerged in late 2021 and quickly spread to 290 stores in at least 40 states. SBWU cuts against the decades-long trend of decline in the US labor movement, and many hope that it signals its revitalization. I conducted interviews in Arizona's first SBWU location to investigate why workers organized, why they chose to act now, and what obstacles lie ahead of the movement. I found that the movement is driven primarily by young workers (Gen Y and Z) motivated by factors other than pay like toxic management, scheduling concerns, and dignity at work. Findings indicate that the conditions which brought about SBWU will increase in a future of climate change and economic instability.

This thesis explores the potential reasons individuals may romanticize violent serial killers and seeks to eradicate the idea that this phenomenon is due to any singular reason alone. In light of the recent explosion of interest surrounding serial killers and other true-crime genre media, this work aims to help the general public understand, not only the reasons that we may feel inclined to romanticize such evil individuals, but also the potential dangers behind such romanticization. This research led to the conclusion that a fascination for media or entertainment surrounding and related to this topic has been long standing in human history. Additionally, it was concluded that, while the personal reasons each individual may have for romanticizing serial killers may vary, today’s media representations of violent serial killers (both fictional and not) appeal to these reasons by subtly portraying killers as more palatable to the public. Ultimately, this project compiled numerous potential causes of romanticizing serial killers in order to conclude that no single reason is the source for this phenomenon, but that it is rather a complex culmination of factors.