Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Public Health

In order to help reduce low-birth weight among infants born to African-American women, public health advocates and officials must investigate innovative public health strategies that target these groups of people. Resource mother/lay health advisor type interventions may be a source for reducing low-birth weight among African- Americans. This study aimed to investigate whether and how the Resource Mothers Program reduced low- birth weight among low-income African- American women by comparing women in the Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC) in Atlanta, Georgia. The study used both qualitative and quantitative research. This study used the following risk factors for reducing low-birth weight among African- American infants: (1) access to and quality of prenatal care; (2) prenatal smoking, drinking, and substance abuse; (3) pregnancies among adolescent mothers and women age 35 years and over; (4) nutritional status; and (5) social support. The two groups studied were women at the Southside Medical Center WIC Clinic (mothers exposed to the Resource Mothers Program) and the Grady Memorial Hospital WIC Clinic (mothers unexposed to the Resource Mothers Program). The quantitative analyses showed that in most categories women at Southside had lower rates of low (or very low) birth weight, than those at Grady. Logistic Regression Model 1, found that mothers at Southside were one-third (OR = .34; 95% CI = 0.16, 0.73) as likely as those at Grady to have a low-birth weight infant. The qualitative analyses showed that nutritional education and social support were the foundations of the Resource Mothers Program. Clients improved their nutritional habits and depended on the resource mothers for social support. Both clients and resource mothers agreed that the program worked, and was an asset to the community. For two reasons, the data supported that the Resource Mothers Program worked. First, after controlling for possible confounders in the logistic regression analyses, the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kenneth Steinman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor (Advisor) Subjects: Health Sciences, Public Health

PHD, Kent State University, 2011, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Health Sciences

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between resource loss, social support, self esteem, and the sexual risk behaviors of low income urban African American women with abuse histories. The present study was a secondary data analysis from an experimental HIV prevention intervention with low income urban women with abuse histories in a mid-western US city and only examined data collected from African American women at pretest and posttest between 2002 and 2004. Participants in this sample (n = 442) were sexually active low income urban African American women between ages 16-29 with histories of abuse (adult rape, childhood physical abuse, and childhood sexual abuse). Participants were recruited from two women's health clinics serving low income urban women and answered questions about their levels of resource loss, social support, self esteem, sexual behaviors, childhood and adult abuse histories, drug and alcohol use, their perception of AIDS risk, levels of depression and post traumatic disorder, and socio demographic characteristics. SPSS was used to analyze the data in this study. The instrument data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression and binary logistic regression. Eight predictors were used to predict sexual risk behavior represented by percentage condom use and having a recent STD in the past three months. Hierarchical regression results indicate that the overall model failed to predict the percentage of times condom were used with vaginal sex. No statistically significant differences were found between groups on any of the measures. For the logistic regression, the overall chi-square test for was not significant indicating that there were no differences between the two groups on the eight predictors. However, results indicate that child physical abuse was the strongest predictor of percentage condom use. In summary, the findings although not significant highlight the need for continued investigation into the relationship (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: R. Scott Olds HSD (Committee Chair); Kele Ding PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Diane Kerr PhD (Committee Member); Stevan Hobfoll PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Health Sciences

Doctor of Education, Ashland University, 2009, College of Education

Although some school improvement literature has suggested that schools will improve when unions are removed from the school system, unions have rarely been isolated in the research. This study involved a mixed method case study approach to explore whether support of the local teacher union affected perceptions of school climate, as measured by the Organizational Health Inventory. The study found that teachers who supported the union had more positive perceptions on several of the organizational climate dimensions than teachers who were not supportive of the union.

Committee: Carla Edlefson PhD (Committee Chair); Judy Alston PhD (Committee Member); Howard Walters EdD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Evaluation; Labor Relations