Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2014, Sociology

The transition into young adulthood is an important period of change for adolescents during which young individuals enter into adult roles that impact their future trajectories (Arnett 2000). It is also during this developmental period that involvement in alcohol use and crime/delinquency reach their peak (Casswell, Pledger & Pratap 2002; Gottfredson & Hirschi 1990; Hirschi & Gottfredson 1983; Johnston et al. 2013; Lauritsen 1998; SAMHSA 2012) and have been found to be associated with one another (Barnwell, Borders & Earlywine 2006; Bonomo et al. 2001; Felson et al. 2008; Ford 2005; Parker & McCaffree 2013; Schulenberg et al. 1996; Wechsler et al. 1994). Alcohol use and its covariates are often studied cross-sectionally and have yet to be studied over time with a focus on the emerging adulthood period. Thus, the patterning of heavy alcohol use in connection with its covariates is yet to be fully understood. Here, Sampson and Laub's Life Course Theory of Crime (Laub & Sampson 2003; Sampson & Laub 1993) and the life course perspective are used as a lens to examine the relationship between alcohol use and its covariates during emerging adulthood. This dissertation addresses major gaps in the literature by examining violence, non-violent crime and delinquency, sex and gender role orientation, social support, and life transitions in conjunction with heavy alcohol use during the transition from adolescence into young adulthood. Life course theoretical perspectives of alcohol use are expanded by incorporating sex and gender orientation parameters which have largely been absent from Sampson and Laub's theory. Alcohol use trajectories were estimated with group-based trajectory modeling in secondary analysis using four waves of the public-use National Longitudinal of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data. Four distinct alcohol use trajectory groups were identified: infrequent heavy drinkers, increasing seldom heavy drinkers, seldom heavy drinkers, and increasing occasional heav (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Robert Peralta Dr. (Advisor); Cheryl Elman Dr. (Committee Member); Adrianne Frech Dr. (Committee Member); Richard Adams Dr. (Committee Member); Dawn Johnson Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Sociology

Health promoting behaviors such as adequate exercise and sleep, eating breakfast, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking or binge drinking are associated with positive health outcomes during adolescence and higher levels of healthy behaviors during adulthood. These healthy behaviors are major contributors to preventable illnesses and chronic conditions during adulthood, such as cardiovascular disease, onset of disability, Type-II diabetes, obesity, and some cancers. These preventable conditions were the cause of nearly one-half of all deaths in 2000.Given the importance of healthy behaviors across the life course, it is surprising that few studies document the ways that healthy behaviors change across life course stages. I draw from a life course perspective, the social stress model, and emerging adulthood literature to argue that adolescence (ages 13-17) and emerging adulthood (ages 18-24) are unique life course stages associated with rapid social environmental and developmental changes that have important implications for healthy behavior trajectories during adulthood. I use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to address three research questions. First, what are the effects of adolescent household characteristics on healthy behavior trajectories between adolescence and emerging adulthood? Second, do early life course transitions, especially forming a family, alter healthy behavior trajectories? Third, does race-ethnicity moderate the effects of adolescent household characteristics on healthy behavior trajectories? I find that healthy behaviors decline rapidly between adolescence and emerging adulthood, but that this decline is not experienced similarly among all emerging adults. Specifically, living with non-smoking and non-binge drinking parents, as well as marrying or marrying and having children during emerging adulthood are associated with reduced rates of healthy behavior decline. Girls experience less rapid rates of healthy behavior (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kristi Williams PhD (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Menaghan PhD (Committee Member); Zhenchao Qian PhD (Committee Member); Cynthia Colen PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2018, Sociology

This dissertation explores how middle-class black women narrate race, class, and gender as shaping the experience of recreational running and the development of a runner identity. Theoretically, I approach this study from both a life course and black feminist perspective. The former emphasizes trajectories over time, the process of moving through life's institutionalized stages, and the significance of contextualizing individuals' lives within particular social settings. The latter is an intersectional perspective that acknowledges the power in centering black women's voices and learning about their experiences in their own words. Both of these theoretical perspectives complement my goal of eliciting storytelling that is illustrative of development and change over the course of my participants' lives. Based on multiple life story interviews with 25 middle-class black women between the ages of 26 and 59, my findings focus on three themes that emerged from their narratives. First, I argue that running can be understood as a cultural routine that is engaged in as a means for successfully operating in middle-class, dominant institutions. Running is a middle-class leisure sport and cultural practice for which participation is a marker of status, a means for connecting with others of similar status, and a vehicle for promoting intergenerational social mobility. Second, I identify several mechanisms for enabling or hindering the ability to have a salient, “thick” runner identity in order to better understand how health lifestyles such as running can be better routinized by members of racial minority groups with suboptimal health outcomes. Third, I argue that Black Girls Run!—a fast-growing recreational running group for black women in the United States—facilitates efforts in racial uplift, provides an outlet for escaping racial tokenism, and gives middle-class black women a unique sense of like-minded community. This study makes contributions to our understandings o (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mary Patrice Erdmans (Committee Chair); Dale Dannefer (Committee Member); Cassi Pittman Claytor (Committee Member); LaShanda Korley (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Gender; Health; Recreation; Social Research; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2015, Population and Social Gerontology

Current research on intimate relationships of older adults in the U.S. is predominantly focused on marriage. Furthermore, gender relations in later life relationships have historically been studied within long-term marital relationships, which show patterns of high gender conformance earlier in family life, especially with young children, and less so later in life. Demographic and socio-cultural changes are transforming the ways in which people partner across the life course, including later life. Women's increasing education and workforce participation has helped alter family and household composition, giving rise to different partnership forms including cohabitation, divorce, remarriage, and living apart together (LAT), an intimate relationship in which the couple maintains separate residences. Very little is known about this type of relationship in the U.S. Using a life course framework I examine how gender is manifested in the formation and maintenance of LAT relationships in later life using social constructivism and the theory of gender as social structure. A grounded theory qualitative study with 13 women and 7 men age 59 to 89 reveals patterns of “doing” gender as well as “doing” family earlier in life. LAT relationships in later life appear to be an opportunity to “redo” family in an individualized way, with the men and women both valuing and maintaining the autonomy and freedom that comes in a life stage with lessening work and family responsibilities. Additionally, LAT allows the women in the study to continually “redo” gender by actively resisting doing gender in ways such as being submissive to men, catering to men's needs and wants, and taking on caregiving duties. This study demonstrates how LAT meets the individualistic needs of both men and women in later life. It is also an intimate relationship that provides the opportunity to exercise agency to act outside of gender norms and expectations present in earlier life, especially for women.

Committee: Jennifer Bulanda (Committee Chair) Subjects: Aging; Families and Family Life; Gender; Gender Studies; Gerontology; Individual and Family Studies; Personal Relationships

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Education : Criminal Justice

As a discipline, criminology has long focused its attention on explaining crime and has thus placed crime almost exclusively as an outcome. As a result, little attention has been paid to the effect that criminal involvement has on other social domains, such as education, work, and relationships. To do so, criminal behavior must be understood as one of several social domains that interact within the broader context of social development. Grounded in this developmental perspective, this research used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997, to examine the consequences of adolescent criminal involvement on social development in early adulthood. The results provide substantial support for the suggested relationships. That is, measures of adolescent delinquency, drug use, and gang membership were found to have significant impacts on adult social outcomes. Adolescent delinquency in particular was shown to have the most consistent effects on measures from the domains of education / employment, health, and social activities. Adolescent criminal involvement, however, had little influence on measures from the domain of social relationships. Support was also shown for indirect effects of adolescent criminal involvement because of associations between social outcomes. That is, criminal involvement in adolescence impacted adult social outcomes through its effect on other social outcomes that existed earlier in the developmental sequence. The results suggest that adolescent criminal involvement has a detrimental impact on a variety of social outcomes in early adulthood. The data also suggest that social outcomes are interrelated and that criminal involvement is better viewed as one of a variety of social domains which are connected within the context of general social development.

Committee: Francis T. Cullen PhD (Committee Chair); John P. Wright PhD (Committee Member); Pamela Wilcox PhD (Committee Member); David Maume PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

Master of Gerontological Studies, Miami University, 2011, Gerontology

The purpose of this narrative inquiry is to shed light into understanding how two ethnic Germans experienced expulsion, flight, or displacement at the end of the Second World War and how these experiences shaped their subsequent life course. I conducted in-depth interviews with two ethnic Germans aged 71 and 91 about these life course experiences. Their unique narratives show how events can be perceived differently due to age-period-cohort effects. The narratives give insight into how individuals overcome adversity and strive for opportunity. The results suggest implications for the conceptualization of the life course.

Committee: Kathryn McGrew PhD (Committee Chair); Glenn Muschert PhD (Committee Member); Jane Straker PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Gerontology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2011, Gerontology

This project examines the impact of health literacy on health and detects areas/individuals at risk of limited health literacy, which is known to be associated with a variety of health outcomes. Health literacy includes reading and writing skills but also sets of abilities necessary to make informed health decisions throughout one's life. This project includes three empirical studies. The first study uses data (the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey) from Canada, the U.S., Switzerland, Italy, Norway and Bermuda to examine the associations between literacy skills, education and health outcomes. The results show diverse impacts of health literacy skills across countries. In addition, the literacy skills have fair impacts on the established relationship between education and health. In light of a heath literacy theoretical framework, individuals' self-learning about health beyond formal education may be key to improve and maintain health over the life course. The second study employs geographic information system (GIS) to detect areas with high prevalence of limited health literacy and provide visualized map-format data to inform future policy planning and intervention program in the U.S. The county-level data are obtained from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Results show that a large numbers of individuals with limited health literacy are concentrated in major populous cities. Additionally, clusters of neighboring counties with high prevalence of limited health literacy are identified near the U.S. – Mexico border, and south-eastern parts of the U.S. The third study analyzes the only publically available nationally representative data of health literacy using a novel statistical technique, logistic regression tree-based method to identify sub-groups of individuals in Canada. The sub-group of individuals with older age, lower income, less frequent reading activities and less participation in recent adult education programs was at the highest risk of limit (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: J. Scott Brown PhD (Committee Chair); Suzanne R. Kunkel PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Robert A. Applebaum PhD (Committee Member); A. John Bailer PhD (Committee Member); John K. Maingi PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Epidemiology; Gerontology; Public Health; Sociology

Master of Gerontological Studies, Miami University, 2010, Gerontology

The majority of the literature on subjective wellbeing uses happiness and life satisfaction interchangeably, yet there is little evidence beyond empirical correlation to suggest that these two constructs are interchangeable. This study examines the relationship between happiness and life satisfaction through an absolute and relative perspective, which suggests that the comparability of the two measures should decrease over the life course. The present study utilizes data on happiness and life satisfaction from the General Social Survey, 1973-1994. I conduct an ordinary least squares regression analysis that respectively interacts age and cohort with happiness. I find both age and cohort effects. The age effects show that the comparability of happiness and life satisfaction actually increases with age. However, the most surprising finding is that the comparability of happiness and life satisfaction is subject to cohort effects, specifically for those whom were of impressionable age during the Great Depression.

Committee: J. Scott Brown PhD (Committee Chair); Jennifer Kinney PhD (Committee Member); Jennifer Bulanda PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Geotechnology; Psychology; Sociology

Master of Gerontological Studies, Miami University, 2009, Gerontology

This thesis is a qualitative study of twelve female university employees who are eligible for a tuition waiver as a benefit of their employment but have not used the tuition waiver to further their own educations. The women, ages 44-55, were interviewed to explore their individual stories and their perceptions of the personal value of the tuition waiver. Their histories are viewed through a feminist lens and the life course perspective as the life course is characterized by gendered cumulative advantages and disadvantages. Findings suggest that off-timing of this life chance, which was incongruous with the perceived trajectory of their lives, contributed to their inabilities to take advantage of it. There was a lack of incentive to motivate them since they are content and satisfied with their lives. However, membership in a cohort that grew up during the women‟s movement of the 1960s and 1970s has had an impact upon their roles as mothers in terms of the educational goals they have for their children.

Committee: Kathryn McGrew PhD (Committee Chair); Jennifer Bulanda PhD (Committee Member); Stephen Lippmann PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Gerontology

Master of Gerontological Studies, Miami University, 2004, Gerontology

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the meaning of work to middle-aged women reentering paid labor. I conducted in-depth structured interviews with five women aged 44-52 who discussed their thoughts and feelings about their transition into paid labor. The roles the women held and how the roles influenced the paths of their lives can best be understood through a combination of the following theoretical frameworks: the social construction of gender, role theory, feminist life span perspective, and the life course perspective. Three major themes emerged from the women's narratives. These themes had to do with reasons for returning to work outside of the home; expectations of and for themselves, their families, and the job; and sources of job satisfaction. Particularly women with children gave unambiguous priority to their duties as homemakers and mothers. The women constructed their work trajectory to be parallel and secondary to their role as mother. The one woman who had no children still has primary responsibility for the household, but feels less constrained and was willing to reprioritize her obligations. These findings raise questions about the degree to which life course trajectories are a cohort effect.

Committee: Lisa Groger (Advisor) Subjects: Gerontology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Sociology

Criminologists have long observed that most criminally active individuals eventually terminate their offending (Laub and Sampson, 2001; Bushway and Paternoster; Rocque, 2017). Yet, despite decades of scholarship (see Rocque, 2017 for a thorough review), the causes of desistance remain poorly understood. As a result, scholars continue to study the myriad social and developmental factors that are theoretically related to desistance. One of these factors, employment, has received considerable attention within life-course criminology and recidivism research (Lageson and Uggen, 2013). The idea that acquiring and maintaining employment reduces offending is rooted in classic criminological theories, including Sampson and Laub's (1990;1993) age-graded theory of informal social control and rational choice theory. The former views employment as a form of “turning point” in the life course, while the latter conceptualizes employment and offending as trade-offs. Identity theories of desistance, on the other hand, view identity change as the most important cause of desistance and contend that employment likely plays a minor role in the process desistance (Giordano et al., 2002; Paternoster and Bushway, 2009). Leveraging rich data from the Pathways to Desistance Study (N = 1358), this dissertation advances research on desistance by scrutinizing these competing perspectives. Focusing on employment, chapter 2 explores whether employment must be of a certain quality to influence offending. Latent class analysis derives a typology of employment quality from nine measures capturing important aspects of employment quality, including wages, satisfaction, stability, and benefits. The best fitting solution distinguished four types of employment, categorized by various configurations of the nine employment characteristics. After weighting each case according to its propensity for selection into higher quality employment, these employment categories were used to predict self-reported offe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Paul Bellair Dr. (Advisor); Michael Vuolo Dr. (Committee Member); Steven Lopez Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Criminology; Sociology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice

Prior research has identified many collateral consequences people face after coming into contact with the criminal justice system. These consequences include negative outcomes in employment, education, physical and mental health, housing, and family relationships. One collateral consequence that has received less empirical attention is the impact of criminal justice contact on financial well-being. Financial well-being is a broad term that represents an individual's objective (e.g., amount of debt) and subjective (e.g., satisfaction with their financial situation) financial health. People with better financial well-being tend to experience more positive life outcomes (e.g., economic, health, social, familial) than those with poor financial well-being. Thus, financial well-being could be a key causal mechanism explaining the impact of contact with the justice system on adverse outcomes later in life. Drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, the current study sought to comprehensively examine the impact of criminal justice involvement on salient constructs of financial well-being (e.g., financial assets, debts, and satisfaction) over two decades of the life course. Although nuanced relationships emerged, the global conclusion from the study is clear: criminal justice contact, and more frequent and lengthier contact, harms financial well-being in both the short- and long-term.

Committee: J.C. Barnes Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jillian Turanovic Ph.D. (Committee Member); Joshua Cochran Ph.D. (Committee Member); Christina Campbell Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Nursing

Introduction: Despite comprehensive fitness standards for those in the U.S. military, service members (SMs) and veterans have similar rates of high Body Mass Index (BMI) and depressive symptoms as civilians. This dissertation explores the relationship between the two conditions in Gulf War and Post-9/11 SMs and veterans compared to civilian peers by building trajectories for the conditions and their interaction. Literature Review: A literature review was conducted to examine high BMI and depressive symptoms among SMs and veterans of recent wars. The Life Course Health Development Model theoretically guided the review. Sixteen primary research studies met inclusion/exclusion criteria: nine studies uncovered heterogeneous relationships between high BMI and depressive symptoms; seven found no relationship. Wide-ranging definitions, measures, and timelines existed across the studies. Most of the veteran-only studies were program evaluations of the Veterans Health Administration's MOVE! program. Since there were no longitudinal studies evaluating the complexity within or between high BMI and depressive symptoms, research is needed to clarify how these conditions relate by comparing SM and veteran health across the life course, a secondary analysis study was conducted. Aim 1 tested for differences in BMI trajectories by veteran status. Aim 2 tested for differences in depressive symptoms trajectories by veteran status. Aim 3 assessed BMI's potential to affect depressive symptoms trajectories differently by veteran status. Methods: This secondary analysis fit multilevel model growth curves to explore BMI and depressive symptoms trajectories. The study sample included the 6,465 non-pregnant participants, 441 SMs and veterans versus 6,024 civilians, present in all waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (“Add Health”). Three iterative aims were tested for differences between group (veteran, civilian) trajectories from adolescence to middle ad (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Laureen Smith (Committee Chair); Sonia Duffy (Committee Member); Jodi Ford (Committee Member); David Melamed (Committee Member) Subjects: Health; Mental Health; Nursing

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Sociology

For a long time, research on parenting had focused solely on motherhood and its effects on family outcomes and positive child development. However, in recent years, fathers' role in family well-being has been recognized among scholars from various disciplines, such as demography, psychology, family studies, social work, and criminology. Becoming a parent is a major life transition, and how parents adapt to their new role is influenced by various factors. For fathers, these factors include the relationship with the child's mother, their family background, and how they are positioned within their social contexts. Yet having a history of antisocial behavior may hamper the ability of fathers to parent their children in entirely positive ways. Using Wave 6 of the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS), I examine the association between fathers' antisocial behavior and their involvement with their children, and the role of social support in facilitating father-child relationships. I also situate this study in a life course framework and examine whether the timing of fatherhood is a key factor that affects father-child relationships. This study contributes to criminology and family sociology by exploring the complex relationship between antisocial behavior, social support, and father involvement with their children.

Committee: Danielle Kuhl Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Monica Longmore Ph.D. (Committee Member); Wendy Manning Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Sociology

This dissertation consists of three studies of worker power and economic inequality. The studies extend inequality research by assessing the impacts of worker bargaining power on two less commonly examined outcomes: household wealth and employer-provided fringe benefits. I conceptualize and measure several types of worker power, spanning marketplace and associational forms, measured at the individual, local-regional, and institutional scales. The studies broaden theories of how worker bargaining power influences the wage and income distributions to the case of wealth and fringe benefits. In the first chapter, I examine the relationship between labor union coverage and household wealth accumulation and inequality. Informed by life course theories of cumulative advantage, I develop novel measures of cumulative exposure to unionization across the career. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 Cohort (NLSY-79) and fixed-effects regression, I find that cumulative career union coverage supports wealth accumulation. This positive association is driven by the influence of union coverage on the accumulation of savings and durable assets. Unconditional quantile regression models reveal that career union coverage is more strongly associated with increases in wealth for low- and middle- than high-wealth individuals. Results suggest worker power is associated with a more equal distribution of wealth and that deunionization contributed to rising wealth inequality among this cohort. The second chapter advances research on the determinants of job quality by considering the effects of worker power on fringe benefit offers. Using uniquely comprehensive data on benefits in the NLSY-79, I leverage changes in union coverage status due to involuntary job displacements (layoffs and business closures) to estimate the effects of unionization on the number of fringe benefits made available to workers by their employers. I find that transitioning to a union job i (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Rachel E. Dwyer (Advisor); Stephanie Moulton (Committee Member); Vincent J. Roscigno (Committee Member); Michael Vuolo (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Sociology

While the field of criminology has focused on turning points that could shift individuals away from crime, little research has examined how criminal offending shapes sexual behaviors, adult relationships, and achieved fertility. Those involved in criminal activity arguably could face worse outcomes in these behaviors, largely due to considerations of labeling theory, where stigma could result in difficulty finding relationship partners. Certain types of crime may also be more stigmatizing than others, making one less desirable as a partner. This effect may be gendered in nature, such that certain types of crime may be more damaging for women as opposed to men. My project draws on criminology literature on labeling theory, the age-graded theory of social control, and social homogamy to predict numerous sexual, relationship, and fertility outcomes. Using Waves I, III, and IV of the National Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), the following studies examine the impact of criminal activity on a variety of risky sexual behaviors, relationship type, and fertility outcomes. I find that both types of crime predict a younger age at first sex and more opposite-sex partners, though gender differences exist in how well the mechanisms included explain these relationships. While property crime initially decreases early union risk for women, this type of criminal behavior increases early union risk for men. Violent crime decreased early union risk for both gender groups, but the relationship only remained significant for women. Violent crime decreased the odds of Multiple-Partner Fertility (MPF), but only in reference to Single-Partner Fertility (SPF). Overall, linkages existed between the outcomes of all three studies.

Committee: Danielle Kuhl Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Lee Nickoson Ph.D. (Other); Karen Benjamin Guzzo Ph.D. (Committee Member); Stephen Demuth Ph.D. (Committee Member); Thomas Mowen Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology; Sociology

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Sociology

Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. Since then, over a million people have died in the United States from Covid-19. Fortunately, vaccination against Covid-19 has proven to be protective against the most severe outcomes, including death and hospitalization, especially for older adults. Despite the success of vaccines, levels of COVID-19 vaccination have been uneven in the United States and around the world. Studies on vaccine uptake find individual characteristics and geographic factors to be important determinants. However, fewer studies have assessed how the characteristics of family members might matter for vaccine decisions. This study employs a “social foreground” perspective to ask how the resources of adult children are associated with the health and wellbeing of parents in later life. Specifically, the study asks whether higher levels of schooling among adult children are associated with older parents' Covid-19 vaccine uptake. To address this question, this study draws on the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative survey of adults over 50 (N = 7,240). I find that having a most-educated child who completes a college education is positively associated with vaccine uptake when compared to having a most-educated child with only some college education or a high school degree or less. I also find that this association is driven by respondents who themselves have a high school education or less, supporting resource substitution theory. Findings from this study extend the social foreground perspective to offer new insight into the health behaviors of older adults during pandemics.

Committee: Jenjira Yahirun Ph.D. (Committee Chair); I-Fen Lin Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kelly Balistreri Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Demography; Gerontology; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Sociology

Despite the ubiquity of bereavement, few are prepared for the traumatic loss of a child. Child death is regarded as the most painful experience of family bereavement because it disturbs the natural order of life, leaving a lasting impression on bereaved parents and their families. Yet, most prior research has focused its attention on individual adjustment to child death with insufficient consideration of the impact of the loss on the family unit. Indeed, families are linked in life and death, so the individual and relational processes surrounding child death should be considered simultaneously. Drawing on data from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative survey of American adults over the age of 50 and their spouses and children, this dissertation attends to this supposition by exploring not only how the death of a child after age 50 impacts family functioning, but also how older parents' individual adjustment to a child's death is shaped by their family relationships. The first analytic chapter investigates whether child death in later life affects the risk of gray divorce, paying close attention to the buffering role of marital quality prior to a child's death and the role of parent-child genetic ties. The second analytic chapter turns the focus to parent-child relationship dynamics by mapping trajectories of older mothers' and fathers' relationships with their surviving children before, during, and after the death of a child. The final analytic chapter examines parents' dementia onset after losing a child in later life and the protective role of family relationships. This dissertation attempts to uncover the complex family processes surrounding the death of a child in later life, and in doing so, aims to impel bereavement theory and research to treat child death as a family-wide trauma with implications for individual family members, their relationships to one another, and the family unit as a whole.

Committee: I-Fen Lin PhD (Committee Chair); Dawn Anderson PhD (Other); Susan Brown PhD (Committee Member); Wendy Manning PhD (Committee Member); Jenjira Yahirun PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2022, Sociology

The growing prevalence and severity of both clinical and subclinical eating disorders resulted in the inclusion of a Healthy People 2020 objective aimed at reducing the proportion of individuals who engage in disordered eating behaviors. At the same time, survivors of intimate body trauma (childhood abuse, sexual assault, dating violence, etc.) are coming forward with their own violence narratives at unprecedented rates thanks to global support movements such as #MeToo. Research on the development of disordered eating behaviors after the experience of recurrent intimate body trauma (IBT) over the life course is limited but has been linked in compensatory &/or coping mechanistic ways. This dissertation explored the relationships that may exist between poor body image, a range of maladaptive eating behaviors, comorbid mental health issues, and experiences of IBT over the early life course. This research specifically utilized secondary data analysis from a large, nationally representative sample of U.S. men and womxn followed over 24 years (1994-2018) to expand on the methodology and findings from previous clinical, small-scale studies. Drawing on sociological theories related to cumulative disadvantage, stress proliferation, and toxic socialization this dissertation systematically explored the impact(s) of IBT over the early life course. A sociological understanding of the cumulative impact trauma has on the body is necessary to evaluate who may be at most risk for future revictimization and their associated mental health outcomes. Findings from this dissertation revealed that survivors of recurrent IBT experiences are roughly 2 to 4 times more likely to suffer from a range of mental health issues as compared to those who have not experienced sexual violence. Additionally, according to analysis results, queer IBT survivors are at risk of developing maladaptive mental health outcomes at a rate of 2 to 3 times that of heterosexual survivors. Analysis results al (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brian Gran (Committee Chair); Eileen Anderson (Committee Member); Jessica Kelley (Committee Member); Susan Hinze (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Criminology; Gender; Gender Studies; Health; Mental Health; Personal Relationships; Psychology; Public Health; Social Psychology; Social Research; Social Work; Sociology; Statistics

PHD, Kent State University, 2022, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

Sexual violence is a prevalent subject that many women learned since childhood. Throughout their life course development, many women learn about sexual violence from childhood through explicit or implicit messages from family, school, peers, and media. This dissertation aims to bridge how learning various pre-victimization messages about sexual violence influences sexually victimized women's post-victimization decisions and actions. To achieve this goal, I examined qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 41 sexually victimized women, including (1) 20 who were born after 1990, (2) 12 who were born from 1975 to 1990, and (3) nine who were born before 1975. I used the life course perspective (LCP) as the theoretical framework to demonstrate how messages about sexual violence reflect the popular discourses about sexual violence at different socio-historical contexts. These messages shaped victimized women's perceptions, which become the basis of their reactions after suffering victimization experiences. The analysis reveals three themes of pre-victimization messages victimized women learned: (1) definitions, (2) risk, threat, and preventive measures, and (3) accountability and blame. Based on these messages, victimized women develop pre-victimization schemas to view sexual violence. Eventually, these existing schemas affect victimized women's perceptions of their experiences and lead to different post-victimization decisions and actions.

Committee: Christopher Dum (Committee Chair); Molly Merryman (Committee Member); Angela Neal-Barnett (Committee Member); Tiffany Taylor (Committee Member); Suzanne Holt (Committee Member); Clare Stacey (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology; Gender; Sociology