Master of Public Health, The Ohio State University, 2023, Veterinary Preventive Medicine

Compassion fatigue and burnout are mental health issues that are being recognized in animal shelter workers much more frequently. These are major public health concerns because they can cause long-term physical and mental health side effects. Experiencing long-term compassion fatigue and burnout can also lead to decreased satisfaction at work and high rates of employee turnover. A better understanding of potential contributors to compassion fatigue and burnout in animal shelter employees would allow animal shelters to improve their recognition and response. For this study, a national cross-sectional survey was performed, asking participants about their own experience with compassion fatigue and/or burnout. Additional questions were asked to help identify potential risk factors, including demographics, decision-making, workplace activities (animal intake, cruelty/neglect cases, and euthanasia), and coping mechanisms. Univariable logistic regression analyses were performed for each of the survey questions against compassion fatigue and burnout separately to determine which variables were statistically significant at contributing to currently experiencing compassion fatigue and burnout. It was determined that age, adequate time to complete work, enough staff, effective coping mechanisms, helping with animal intake, working with individuals surrendering animals or facing difficult life situations, assisting/performing euthanasia, and euthanizing for space were statistically significant when compared to currently experiencing compassion fatigue. It was determined that age, not having effective coping mechanisms, not being compensated appropriately, and not having adequate time to complete work were statistically significant when compared with currently experiencing burnout. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were also performed to investigate qualified variables and compassion fatigue and burnout. When looking at the multivariable logistic regression ana (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jeanette O'Quin (Advisor); Jeanette O'Quin (Advisor) Subjects: Public Health

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2023, Social Work

Domestic violence is a prevalent issue with extensive impacts. For some, abuse greatly threatens immediate safety and survivors are forced to flee their homes to seek refuge in domestic violence shelters. These shelters address immediate environmental, social, and emotional concerns, helping guide survivors through recovery. Like all people, survivors encompass a wide range of intersecting identities and backgrounds, inevitably making their recovery experience individualized. In particular, mother-survivors staying in domestic violence shelters face unique challenges as restrictions are placed on them which make parenting more difficult and in turn hinder parts of their recovery. Through qualitative interviews conducted with mother-survivors and staff members of domestic violence shelters, this study examines the unique challenges and strengths of mothers recovering from abuse in a domestic violence shelter. Findings reveal that the shelter supervision and discipline policies inhibit the recovery of mother-survivors. Despite these struggles with child-related policies, however, findings also show that motherhood is an important source of strength in recovery for survivors. Recommendations include promoting survivor-centered, trauma-informed care in shelters, being sympathetic and flexible when communicating and enforcing parenting policies, continuously building up a mother-survivor's self-image, and, if possible, expanding interventions and programming to address the specific needs of mother-survivors.

Committee: Rebekah Crawford (Advisor) Subjects: Social Work

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2020, Accounting

America has one of the highest levels of voluntary income tax compliance in the developed world. This runs contrary to economic calculations of what expected tax compliance should be, a difference credited to the ethos related to paying taxes – the feeling of a civic duty, the morality of tax compliance, the social norm of tax compliance, etc. This study analyzes how the social and psychological costs of tax avoidance affect individuals and how individuals internalize these costs and influence corporate tax strategy accordingly. I examine three contexts – family business, inverted companies, companies shamed as tax avoiders in recent data leaks – and test whether the associated social and psychological costs of tax avoidance influence networked companies with interlocked directors. First, I find that reputational costs associated with corporate tax avoidance are more salient to a family member CEO such that family firms with a nonrelated CEO practice significantly higher tax avoidance than family firms with a related CEO. Second, I find that directors of companies which inverted to decrease the U.S. tax burden of the company evidence knowledge-sharing of tax strategies and thus increase the tax avoidance of interlocked companies where they also function as directors. Third, I find that directors of companies leaked in offshore data leaks increase tax avoidance of interlocked companies where they also function as directors, despite the intended public shaming of such leaks.

Committee: Timothy Fogarty (Committee Chair); Mark Taylor (Committee Member); Gregory Jonas (Committee Member); Christopher Burant (Committee Member) Subjects: Accounting

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2010, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

Man's relationship to nature has been mediated through the lens of technology since the advent of the first tools, which offered the first technical engagement of one's surrounding natural environment. These simple tools were transparent in character providing for a resonance between the physical energy embodied in their use and the resulting physical or phenomenal outcomes, thereby facilitating a dialog between man and the surrounding environment. This interaction between man and technology was determined by the specific nature of the place and the human activities involved. Everyday interactions with technology have since become more opaque. In the built environment this translates into an architecture, which offers little ability for a dialogue to be established between the occupant and the natural environment. If architecture is to become a transparent technology that aids in the creation of a dialogue between the occupant and the natural world the building itself must become a transparent machine. If we consider the building itself as a machine that will both facilitate the use of technology and one's engagement with the natural world, the building in Heidegger's terminology must ‘do something'. This must go beyond just providing shelter from the surrounding environment, and must facilitate the user's awareness of the natural world. The ability to physically move, adjust, and manipulate architectural elements, with site and activity as determinants, has the capacity to reconnect the occupant and building to the surrounding natural environment. More than simple operable architectural elements, these transparent technical devices allow for the surrounding natural environment to come to the experiential foreground. This concept will be explored through the examination of operable architectural elements, their ability to alter the occupant's experience of a place, and how these elements speak to a larger site context. Further, an exploration of specific movements, (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Patricia Kucker MARCH (Committee Chair); Michael McInturf MARCH (Committee Chair) Subjects: Architecture

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2003, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Architecture

In the 1970s, the feminist movement instigated a growing awareness of the dangers and suffering endured by victims of domestic abuse. This prompted a surge in the number of battered women's shelters and other services for battered women around the world. However, three decades later, shelters are seldom designed to specifically address the healing of survivors of domestic abuse. Studies in the field of environmental psychology show that spaces can evoke certain responses from occupants, ranging from inducing fear to producing calmness and relaxation. Using these findings, this investigation seeks to prove that careful design in the physical properties of a space, when partnered with efficient shelter services, can create a more complete healing environment for battered women than is found in most shelters today. An integral solution can be found by studying the plight of battered women, the history of design for battered women's shelters, and environment as it affects healing. The result will be an emotionally responsive haven for women in crisis.

Committee: Dr. Aarati Kanekar (Advisor) Subjects: Architecture; Women's Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 1993, Social Welfare

Homelessness has become a major problem in the 1980s. Society has responded to the problem with the creation of homeless shelters. Yet, no one describes how the homeless shelter should operate in order to address the problem of homelessness. This study was an exploratory study to begin to understand what shelters are doing to address the problem of homelessness. Two single adult shelters were selected. Both shelters defined themselves as emergency homeless shelters, yet the interventions performed by each were quite different. One shelter provided basic shelter, food, and linkage to other support services (house services) within the community. The other shelter addressed the problem through the creation of informal social supports among the guest. Through the development of the informal supports, the shelter was able to build a supportive environment which encouraged linkages to formal support systems. These services were referred to as home services. The author identified a number of factors which contributed to the development of home services. These were differences in each shelter's structure, policies, and staffing arrangements. The interaction of these factors led to the development of home services. The author also showed an inverse relationship between the use of informal social supports and homelessness. This suggested the need for further study on the development of informal social supports within the shelter setting to address the problem of homelessness

Committee: Arthur Naparstek (Advisor) Subjects: Social Work

PHD, Kent State University, 2013, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

Abusive relationships often minimize and devalue women's identities on a regular basis, leaving them with a diminished self-concept. As a result, domestic violence shelters have been recognized as sites of identity repair and construction, as well as an emergency refuge for women and their children. However, shelters are microcosms of the larger society, and the inequality and bureaucracy that exist in society are often replicated in the shelter community. It is within these complex communities that shelter residents and staff construct and maintain their identities. My research takes a symbolic interactionist approach to explore identity building and maintenance within domestic violence shelters, and considers how the delicate balance between ideology and practice, in addition to inequalities that exist within the shelter environment, influence identity construction. More specifically, I consider (1) How do inequalities of sex and gender, sexuality, class, and race and ethnicity, affect identity formation? (2) How does the balance between feminist ideology and the structure of formal organizations affect identity formation? (3) How does identity construction take place within the shelter setting? Which identities are constructed, and why? How are the identities constructed by shelter staff different from those of the residents? and (4) How do women in shelters manage stigmatized identities? Using a grounded theory approach, my data was collected at a domestic violence shelter in Ohio, where I engaged in participant observation for a period of three and a half years and interviewed 31 residents and 15 staff members. I found that while domestic violence shelters are sites of identity repair, the presence of inequality and the difficult balance between feminist ideology and practice influenced identity construction not only for residents, but for staff members as well. However, the type of interactions that occurred largely influenced the identities that were constru (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Clare Stacey Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Kathryn Feltey Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Tiffany Taylor Ph.D. (Committee Member); Claire Drauker-Burke Ph.D. (Committee Member); John Updegraff Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology