Ph.D., Antioch University, 2022, Antioch New England: Marriage and Family Therapy

This qualitative study of 6 Black single mothers utilizes a focus group format to explore their experiences in mental health treatment. The specific barriers they face to seeking treatment are reviewed, given that this particular population is substantially underrepresented in mental health therapy. The study seeks to gain a better insight of what factors contribute to attracting and retaining them in therapy for positive outcomes. Six emergent themes surfaced highlighting the fact that these women overcome numerous historical and cultural barriers to present for treatment to address serious issues of stress, grief, and loss, that they have a desire to receive allied treatment from Black clinicians or from non-Black clinicians who can provide culturally sensitive therapy, and that they are desirous of clinicians with an engaging style who provide active feedback and tangible resources and advocacy. The results provide clinical implications for practitioners to employ in their practice to best serve these women.

Committee: Kevin Lyness Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Denzel Jones Ph.D. (Committee Member); Janet Robertson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Behavioral Sciences; Counseling Psychology; Families and Family Life; Mental Health

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, Music

This dissertation revisited the Western contemporary theories of pulse and meter through an embodied perspective, holding that both pulse and meter are cognitive constructs based on the internal and external interactions, with the former universally perceived and the latter more culturally dependent. Contemporary Western metrical theories are based on a hierarchical structure, with pulse as a referential unit. Developed in a literary tradition, these theories are based on abstract principles rather than actual listening experiences and are therefore inadequate in most non-Western contexts, where oral traditions dominate. By critically reviewing the interaction between culture and meter, this study attempted to find a common ground for cross-cultural discussions of meter. In a behavioral experiment, 10 loops of Turkish rhythmic patterns (representing Middle-Eastern rhythms) were presented to three groups of subjects who had listening experience with 1) Middle-Eastern music (metrically and culturally familiar group), 2) Indian music (metrically familiar but culturally unfamiliar group), and 3) no experience with music of complex meters (unfamiliar group). The participants responded to pulse and meter, respectively, in the two parts of the experiment. All rhythmic patterns were presented at two tempi—one around 120 bpm (beat per minute; human's preferred tempo for pulse perception) and one in a double that tempo. The temporal difference was used as a variable to manipulate the participants' choice of reference level when responding to the stimuli. In addition to the behavioral responses, participants gave verbal feedback about their entrainment strategy and filled out a questionnaire about their musical cultural background at the end of the experiment session. This study examined whether and to what extent bodily responses to pulse and meter are influenced by cultural factors, with the former as a natural kind of mechanism and the latter a culturally dependent ab (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Udo Will (Advisor); Eugenia Costa-Giomi (Committee Member); Lois Rosow (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Ethnic Studies; Music

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2014, Sociology

With a high desired family size of 5 children (SSL and ICF Macro 2009), in a context of high fertility (Total fertility rate of 5.2 between 2005 and 2010), and a difference of less than a child for a period of three and a half decades (UN 2009; 2011), it is clear that Sierra Leone is among those countries that are experiencing stalled fertility decline. Stalled fertility decline has implications for high population growth and the potential to overwhelm existing child-related reforms. Using the 2008 Sierra Leone Demographic and Health Survey, a nationally representative cross sectional sample of 2,931 women aged 15 to 34 years, this study tests both the “economic” and “ideation/diffusion” theories on the desired family size by utilizing multivariate poisson regression analyses. The study finds support for both economic and ideation/diffusion theories, with exceptions. In addition to economic determinants such as household income, a woman's education, and occupation in agriculture, factors such as religion and child mortality, are all significant in determining desired family sizes. While a complete explanation is beyond the scope of this study, this study contributes to the existing literature on Sierra Leone by incorporating ideational/cultural/diffusion factors other than education in testing the demand for children and extending the sample to rural respondents.

Committee: Karen Guzzo Ph.D. (Advisor); Kelly Balistreri Ph.D. (Committee Member); Alfred DeMaris Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African Studies; Demography; Families and Family Life; Sociology

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2003, Education : Literacy

The present case study investigated students' perceptions of factors affecting their acquisition of a second language. The purpose of the study was to better understand Japanese women's cultural and identity issues in second language writing opportunities and how such issues may impact the student as a second language writer. The results indicated that: 1) the students experienced identity and cultural conflicts. The first language identity is threatened, the new second language identity feels strange, and issues of group identity and individual identity exist; 2) as second language writers, the students experienced problems in conflicts with protecting the first language self; 3) the students experienced conflicts between language one and language two's (English) cultural writing norms; 4) certain classroom tasks presented conflicts to the English as a second language student and educators in the field need to be aware of the nature of the conflicts students face.

Committee: Dr. Mary Benedetti (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2006, Agricultural Education

HIV/AIDS has affected women from sub-Saharan Africa in disproportionate numbers more than anywhere else in the world. Women are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection in Kenya as a result of powerful patriarchal influences that permeate women's lives leading to marginalization and disempowerment in social, cultural, and economic avenues. To address the research questions, secondary analysis of data from the 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey was utilized. In this study, it was expected that the demographic variables of age, education, religion, ethnicity, region of residence, marital status, and employment were the independent variables that would influence HIV vulnerability among women. A dependent variable, HIV vulnerability was conceived of a larger concept comprised of powerlessness, AIDS-related knowledge, cultural practices, sexual behavior, and perception of HIV risk. A one-way analysis of variance, ANOVA was performed to test if significant relations existed between the independent variables and dependent variable. Between-subject effects were identified and multiple comparison tests (Bonferroni) were conducted for these variables; plots were also used to visually present the mean scores. The tests of between-subject effects showed that age (F = 78.848, p = .000), region of residence (F = 21.452, p = .000), education (F = 130.088, p = .000), ethnicity (F = 13.276, p = .000), marital status (F = 39.002, p = .000), and employment (F = 216.592, p = .000) were all statistically significant. However, religion (F = .730, p = .572) was not statistically significant. It had been hypothesized that religion would play a significant role in HIV vulnerability. However this was not the case, and was in contrast with the hypothesis. In this study, the data strongly suggest that women in Kenya are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS when they are younger, have low levels of education, are from different ethnicities and from certain regions, are unmarried, and not employed. The (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Theresa Ferrari (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2007, Leadership Studies

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between pre-kindergarten student test scores on a kindergarten readiness assessment, the Developmental Indicators for Assessment of Learning (DIAL-3), and test scores for the same students four years later on the mathematics and reading sections of the Ohio Fourth Grade State Achievement Test. Determining if the DIAL-3 readiness assessment had long-range predictive validity was the goal of this dissertation study. The design of the study was correlational. The researcher used historical data from at least 48 students from each of three district types (rural, suburban, and urban) as the sample for this study. Utilizing a sampling method of stratified-cluster, 208 students were randomly selected for inclusion in this study. In addition, the researcher analyzed and discussed influential variables, which affected the results. Age, ethnicity, gender, district type, half-day programs were among the variables analyzed. The targeted population was diverse in socio-economic status, race, and gender and consisted of students in Northwestern Ohio. To address the premise of this study, three research questions were developed and analyzed. Utilizing a Pearson Correlation Coefficient to calculate the relationship between the variables, the researcher was able to identify practical significance in many analyses. Although a low correlation existed in regards to the White, rural population, an increase in relationship existed among urban, children of color. Additionally, gender was analyzed to influence the correlation between the DIAL-3 and the OAT in Reading and Math. This study revealed large variances between district type, gender, and ethnicity in regards to correlational patterns. Close examination confirms that the variables in this study significantly influence one another and provide an opportunity to predict future achievement. Specifically, according to this research data, educators in urban districts can use th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Judy Jackson May (Advisor) Subjects: