Master of Social Work, The Ohio State University, 1976, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1984, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1982, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1981, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2008, Social Welfare

This study examines race as a moderating variable for the relationship between spirituality/religiosity and favorable drinking outcomes in an alcoholism treatment trial. A subset of the Project MATCH Public Use Data Set was used to explore this question (N=414). Three hundred twenty-four participants were white and 90 were black. Graphic depiction of data and binary logistic regression were used to test the moderation hypotheses. Graphic depiction of the data revealed purpose in life (the measure of spirituality) increased and religiosity decreased for both blacks and whites over time. Blacks had higher scores in purpose in life and religiosity than whites at all time points. Those whose purpose in life and religiosity increased over time achieved better drinking outcomes. The outcome variable for the binary logistic regression was a dichotomous variable indicating whether participants had achieved six months continuous sobriety or not. The binary logistic regression was first run with a set of covariates including education, race, site, baseline religiosity, baseline purpose in life, religiosity at month 15, purpose in life at month 15, and baseline drinking. This model showed that for every one-unit increase in 15 month religiosity, black and white participants were 1.067 times (6.7%) more likely to get sober. For every one-unit increase in 15 month purpose in life, black and white participants were 1.039 times (3.9%) more likely to get sober. In a second model, the interaction effect for race by purpose in life at month 15 was entered to test the moderation hypothesis. The interaction term was statistically significant at p=.049 (odds ratio 1.044) indicating that for every one-unit increase in 15 month purpose in life, blacks were 4.4% more likely to get sober than whites. The second model was then run to test the interaction between race and religiosity. This interaction term was not significant indicating race does not moderate the relationship between 15 month (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kathleen Farkas PhD (Committee Chair); Aloen Townsend PhD (Committee Member); David Miller PhD (Committee Member); Alice Bach PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Mental Health; Social Work

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1966, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Creative Writing

Furrows is a novel about the consequences of blood – blood both in terms of family and violence, and what it means to recover from family violence. The novel is set in Northern Minnesta, Chicago, and Central Ohio and told in two POVs with chapters spanning 1973-2003 – thirty years of the history of the Hartmann family. Paul and Harry are eight years and one father apart. Paul's alcoholic father created a tense childhood full of violence and fear, and when Paul's father is arrested, Paul, Harry, and their mom must attempt to remake “family,” while Paul and his mom struggle for the title of the head of the household and Harry pushes his physicality through sports to mask latent fears and insecurities. Fast forward to 2003, Harry is a firefighter in Chicago, battling a failing relationship with his girlfriend, Elise, and difficulties in balancing fear and duty at work. Paul now owns his maternal grandparents' ranch, the land his parents were supposed to take over before they eloped and before his mother's affair, while he struggles to determine how to move on from the land and his past and define what his future looks like when he's not acting out of a place of someone else's need. After an accident at work lands Harry in the hospital, his mom and Paul meet again for the first time in over ten years, reigniting past resentments and unresolved questions and revealing the possibility of reconnecting a broken family.

Committee: Pauls Toutonghi Ph.D. (Committee Member); Reema Rajbanshi Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Literature; Modern Literature

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2023, English: Creative Writing

My Mother's House is a hybrid memoir that follows the life of Katy Isaac and her troubled low-income family as they struggle to survive amidst turmoil and traumatic events. There is a long history of violence and mental illness. Generational trauma is implied through the repeated mention of how the grandmother and mother have houses with identical floorplan/layouts. All the men of the family take turns between drug abuse, physical violence, crime, and death. The local police come often and use excessive force. Katy turns to escapism in order to deal with the overwhelming aspects of her life. This leads to the development of her own creativity which is displayed throughout the thesis in the form of short comics and essays which are evenly dispersed and threaded throughout.

Committee: TaraShea Nesbit (Committee Chair); Cathy Wanger (Committee Member); Brian Roley (Committee Member) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Mental Health

Master of Fine Arts, Miami University, 2023, English

1001 Nights Preparing to Die: Meditations in Song and Verse is a memoir in short essays that explores the transformative power of music, spirituality, and the indomitable human spirit. Born with a congenital heart condition obscured by the courts during her adoption, the author's life is marked by countless medical procedures, hospital visits, and the constant shadow of mortality. The author navigates the intricate worlds of chronic illness, adoption, substance misuse, and mental health while discovering the profound healing potential of Kirtan chanting—a form of devotional music originating from the ancient traditions of her husband's home country of India. Through personal anecdotes, introspection, and HinDruid spiritual practices, the memoir explores how the author's engagement with Kirtan becomes a lifeline that reconnects her to her body and provides solace, hope, and acceptance of her mortality. Shedding light on the broader significance of meditative practices in the context of chronic illness and the human experience—and providing a platform for raising awareness and fostering empathy—this work offers compassionate and insightful perspectives on the challenges faced by individuals who are adopted, who live with congenital heart disease, and who live with and love family members with substance misuse disorders.

Committee: TaraShea Nesbitt (Committee Chair); Joseph Bates (Committee Member); Diasy Hernandez (Committee Member) Subjects: Divinity; Earth; Environmental Philosophy; Families and Family Life; Fine Arts; Health; Health Care; Language Arts; Mental Health; Modern Literature; Music; Personal Relationships; Philosophy; Religion; Spirituality; Surgery

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Sociology

Despite extant knowledge about the LGBT community's susceptibility to mental health issues, violence, and traumatic experiences, health research lacks empirical research on drug and alcohol use among transgender people. In this paper I address the following: To what extent do transgender people drink heavily compared to cisgender people? How can we better measure heavy drinking in order to best capture transgender alcohol abuse? Using data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC)'s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), this paper reveals that trans people drink significantly more heavily compared to cisgender people, thus allowing for more targeted mental health interventions that center the distinct needs of trans people. In addition to this empirical endeavor, I aim to show the limits of the CDC's sex-based definition of heavy alcohol use. Here I ultimately reveal the limits of defining problematic drinking in relation to sex assigned at birth and propose an alternate analytic: comparing all respondents, regardless of sex assigned at birth, to the same heavy drinking threshold.

Committee: Rin Reczek (Advisor); Cindy Colen (Committee Member); Mike Vuolo (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

MA, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Anthropology

Researchers have examined the potential physical and behavioral effects in individuals diagnosed with alcoholism, a chronic disease in which an individual experiences intense cravings for alcohol, an inability to limit consumption, and a continuation of consumption despite negative legal, professional, interpersonal, or physical consequences (Michael and Bengston, 2018). This study aims to determine whether there are common indicators of pathology and associated morbidity in individuals with a cause of death reported as alcoholism verses those with a cause of death reported as pneumonia, by the presence of fractures, their states of healing, and also dental disease. We use this comparison of samples to assess whether there exists a difference between chronic stressors that affect morbidity verses the swift, fast-acting effects of infectious disease in a skeletal collection predating the advent of antibiotics and vitamin supplementation. This study was conducted using the Hamann-Todd Human Osteological Collection housed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the largest historical aggregation of modern human skeletons, comprised of individuals who likely lived through the 1918 Influenza pandemic, national Prohibition, rapid industrialization, and the start of the Great Depression. The results of this study have predominantly corresponded to previous research that examined the association between chronic alcohol consumption and fracture incidence: That chronic alcoholics are more likely to exhibit fractures than the control group, and these fractures are observed most often in the craniofacial region, ribs, upper limb, and vertebrae. There was a statistically significant association between cause of death and fracture incidence (individuals in the alcoholism group were over twice as likely to exhibit a fracture than individuals in the pneumonia group) and the association between ancestry and fracture incidence was also statistically significant (European-derived (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Linda Spurlock (Advisor); Richard Meindl (Committee Member); Evgenia Fotiou (Committee Member) Subjects: Human Remains; Pathology; Physical Anthropology

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2019, Antioch Santa Barbara: Clinical Psychology

While psychiatric medications have been categorized as the same as substances of abuse in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), medications for common medical disorders were not affected by this disapproval of medication. It may be time for a new dialogue (Woody, 2015). According to Gjersing and Bretteville (2018), there has been a concerning increase in overdose deaths in the last decade. This includes a threefold increase in overdose deaths from prescription narcotics and six-fold increase in overdose deaths from heroin in the United States. When prescription opioid users find difficulty in obtaining pills, they may move on to heroin, which is much more readily available on the streets, in an effort to avoid painful opioid withdrawal. For this study, individuals who had previously achieved long-term abstinence from alcohol or substance use but relapsed after a significant amount of time sober were interviewed in order to better understand their experience with relapse as well as their experience returning to at least partial remission. Thematic analysis was conducted on interview data. The results from this phenomenological analysis of interviews with eight participants identified several themes regarding the experience of being a long-timer, relapsing after a substantial amount of time abstinent, and challenges to as well as factors in returning to AA. These themes are organized as long-term recovery, relapse, and a new beginning. Long-term recovery is further explored as acute treatment only, treatment did not utilize evidence-based interventions, treatment did not address emotional issues, contact with mental health, long-timer, and complacency and drifting. Relapse is further explored as medical issues, new trauma, and justification of the use of medication or marijuana. A new beginning is further explored as recovery challenges such as feelings of ostracism, age-related issues, and shame as well as recovery factors such as finding acceptance and love within the fellowsh (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brett Kia-Keating Ed.D (Committee Chair); Ron Pilato Psy.D (Committee Member); Janice Stimson Psy.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Clinical Psychology; Cognitive Psychology; Health Care Management; Medical Ethics; Mental Health; Psychology; Psychotherapy

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Creative Writing/Poetry

Sober is a collection of words ultimately dedicated to answering the question, what happens when we get sober? The poetry within explores pain and trauma, addiction and love, grace and betrayal through the lens of a semi-consistent speaker or variations thereof. The work is presented in the form of prose poetry, couplets, found poetry, free verse, tercets, quatrains, block poetry, and experimental poetry, and has been influenced by both traditional and contemporary writers. Fragments of absurdist humor posed as knock-knock jokes work as partitions to emphasize key themes of the thesis and provide comic relief. An author's note designed as a ten-minute play at the end of the thesis is included for the reader's benefit to assist in marrying the different versions of the same speaker. While Sober does tackle specific issues such as gun violence, alcoholism, sexual assault, and transphobia with nods to the 2016-18 political climate, it is cohesively much more than that: the collection speaks to the greater power of salvation through empathy. In essence, Sober is a love poem from a place of darkness to create a lighter gradation of suffering in the human experience.

Committee: Larissa Szporluk (Committee Chair); F. Daniel Rzicznek (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2017, Leadership and Change

The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about the relationship between sponsor and sponsee in Al-Anon Family Groups from the perspective of sponsors and sponsees in Al-Anon. The main question guiding my research is: What is the nature and quality of the sponsorship relationship as perceived by sponsors and sponsees? Nineteen men and women were interviewed and shared stories of their experience of being a sponsor and a sponsee in the Al-Anon program. I utilized a holistic-content approach to analyze the date from the interviews. To help situate the findings in current literature a discussion of sponsorship in Alcoholics Anonymous, therapy, mentoring, and other helping groups is provided. The findings suggest that there are similarities between Al-Anon sponsorship and mentoring in that both relationships progress through stages of development. The findings suggest that boundaries are an important aspect of Al-Anon that helps its members to healthily detach from other people. Al-Anon members are motivated to help based on the culture of helping found in the program as seen through its service structure and sponsorship. The leadership that Al-Anon sponsors provide finds connections with several leadership theories including, transformational, servant, relational, and authentic leadership. The electronic version of this dissertation is at AURA: Antioch University and Repository Archive, https://aura.antioch.edu/ and Ohio Link ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu

Committee: Elizabeth Holloway Ph.D (Committee Chair); Laurien Alexandre Ph.D (Committee Member); Mary Lee Nelson Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1992, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1987, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1973, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1987, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1986, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1986, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Psychology