PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / School of Biomedical Sciences

In nonhuman primates, the adrenal gland serves an important function in the stress response and as an additional source of steroid hormones: estrogens and testosterone. Therefore, the measurement of these adrenal steroids can provide valuable information regarding the relationship between stress and reproductive fitness. This research documented the hormonal maturation of the adrenal gland in small apes and explored how environmental, reproductive, and social changes influence adrenal hormone secretions in primates. The first objective was to determine the presence and pattern of adrenarche in the small apes. This objective collected cross-sectional fecal samples from 64 (35F, 29M) zoo-housed small apes and longitudinal fecal samples from 7 female zoo-housed small apes and measured dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEAS) by enzyme immunoassay to determine the pattern of hormone secretion characteristic of the activation of the adrenal gland, or adrenarche. This study tested the effects of age, sex, and genus on fecal DHEAS levels using generalized linear mixed-effects models (GLMM). The results showed that age was positively correlated with a pre-pubertal increase in fecal DHEAS across all genera in the study (Hylobates spp., Hoolock spp., Nomascus spp., Symphalangus syndactylus) indicating that the small apes exhibit delayed adrenarche similar to the great apes. The second objective was to examine how reproductive state and social dominance impact fecal androgens and the glucocorticoid metabolite (GCM) to DHEAS ratio (GCM:DHEAS) in free-ranging Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) considering environmental factors (season and ambient temperature) and social behaviors (i.e., aggression, and affiliation) as potential variables influencing these steroid hormones. This objective measured fecal GCM and DHEAS in 354 samples by enzyme immunoassay in 11 female macaques (7 pregnant/lactating, 4 nonpregnant/nonlactating). Using GLMM, the results showed that pregnant and lactati (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Rafaela Takeshita (Advisor); Richard Meindl (Committee Member); Mary Ann Raghanti (Committee Member); Wilson Chung (Committee Member) Subjects: Animals; Behavioral Sciences; Biology; Developmental Biology; Ecology; Endocrinology; Evolution and Development; Physiology; Social Structure; Welfare; Zoology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Political Science

Much political science has studied how governments choose to spend money, largely through a literature on the rise of the welfare state. In turn, many study (I) how much revenue must be raised in taxes and (II) from whom, across the income spectrum, these funds must come from. In contrast, this paper studies the political determinants of tax-mix. Decisions to use some tax-instruments over others – be it the income tax or property tax, Value-Added Taxes (VATs) or corporate taxes – not only implicate vertical redistribution within society (redistribution across income-levels), but also horizontal redistribution (redistribution within income-levels) and taxation's efficiency. In turn, tax-mix decisions implicate such vitals as: whether a society raises public revenues in a manner consistent with distributive justice; how much revenue a government is able to raise; and the extent to which raising government revenues will harm the private economy. This dissertation project offers a theory and, consequently, tests by which to understand how tax-mixes are determined across societies. Central to my claim, much political science literature on taxation can be reoriented around the concept of elasticity. Implicitly, many studies argue that citizens prefer taxes that they can most easily avoid paying – either by opting for taxes they believe they can most easily cheat-on without getting caught; selecting taxes on behaviours that they do not engage-in; or pursuing taxes that implicate behaviours from which they can easily “shift away.” In all of the above cases, I make explicit the under-girding concept at play, elasticity. Elasticity informs an individual's preferences over tax policy. These preferences interact with a society's institutions, which determines who has the necessary political power in society so as to attain their (elasticity-driven) tax policy preferences in the form of tax policy outcomes. Understanding why governments pick certain tax-mixes will, then, a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jan Pierskalla (Committee Chair); Philipp Rehm (Advisor); Sara Watson (Advisor) Subjects: Economics; Political Science; Public Policy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Political Science

This dissertation presents an exploration of anxiety for politics distinct from previous study in political psychology. Previous studies report on anxiety's potential to mobilize the electorate. Anxiety has been shown to bring political activation, to help sustain the collective action needed for civic and political participation, to increase willingness for compromise, to encourage political learning, and to increase trust in experts. But for many, the political world underlies much of their anxiety. Consider members of marginalized groups, many of whom are chronically taxed by politics, which can rewire neural networks in the brain and which leaves them with less available mental bandwidth to conduct themselves civically and politically. Taken together, I predict members of marginalized groups respond differently to anxiety than members of non-marginalized groups. While non-marginalized persons can muster their cognitive resources to channel anxiety into action, the precarious situations of many marginalized people merits devoting their cognitive resources elsewhere, leaving them demobilized by their anxiety. In Chapter 2 I lay bare this theory and annotate specific hypotheses. In Chapter 3 I launch a preregistered survey experiment to test my theory among a sample of Black subjects, White subjects, and Hispanic subjects, on welfare and off. Findings offer support for a heterogeneous understanding of anxiety's effects. Higher levels of anxiety caused the marginalized to be less likely to express an interest in voting than the non-marginalized. Furthermore, the interactive effect of race and welfare status inhibited participation the most among the intersectionally marginalized. In Chapter 4 I offer robustness tests for my hypotheses, testing for moderated mediation in particular. In Chapter 5 I conclude by discussing the broad implications of my findings, how government and politics can foster anxiety among the masses, but in particular the negative consequences i (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Thomas Nelson (Committee Chair); William Minozzi (Committee Member); Thomas Wood (Committee Member); Michael Neblo (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Cognitive Psychology; Political Science; Public Policy; Social Psychology; Social Research

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

Sociologists have raised questions about the utility of human rights to vulnerable or marginalized social groups. One group that experiences disadvantages when it comes to their human rights, particularly economic and social rights, is individuals who have disabilities, especially those living with spinal cord injury (SCI). These individuals experience difficulty navigating medical and social resources. In addition to learning how to live with a life changing injury, people living with SCI need to learn how to negotiate structures, institutions, and bureaucracies to obtain services, supports, and resources needed for improved quality of life. Unfortunately, the navigational path is not well-defined and contains obstacles imposed by inconsistent bureaucratic processes that govern health and social structures and institutions. Health professionals “responsible” for the care of people with SCI are well aware of the barriers people with SCI face, but have limited ability to address them due to the broad, seemingly immovable policies set in place. This study examines social challenges experienced by people with SCI through the lens of human rights, representing a dual focus on people living with SCI and health professionals who are a part of their care. The theoretical perspectives shaping this work include social oppression theory, which informs the social model of disability, and a more contemporary human rights-based theory of disability. Within these complementary paradigms exists an inclusive approach to conceptualizing disability in society, where dignity and autonomy of persons are valued over ableist perspectives and practices. Based on multiple interviews with twenty people navigating the first year of life after SCI, findings reveal significant injustices negotiating insurance and access to social resources; barriers accessing sufficient and appropriate health and rehabilitative care; and obstacles to resources that are necessary for independent (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brian Gran PhD (Committee Chair); Mary Erdmans PhD (Committee Member); Paul Ford PhD (Committee Member); Susan Hinze PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Public Policy; Rehabilitation; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, History

This dissertation argues that the ideology of "the non-communist left" played a key role in reshaping both American liberalism and the Democratic Party from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. It approaches this argument by exploring the ideas and activities of three liberals in the Democratic Party: Arthur Schlesinger Jr., John Kenneth Galbraith, and Chester Bowles. As intellectuals and policy advocates, this trio linked their party not only with the nation's liberal circle but also with various manifestations of the global noncommunist left, including democratic socialists, anticolonial nationalists, and other progressives of the "third force" in Europe and Asia. In so doing, the three helped change the Democratic Party's outlook on four major issues in postwar politics: the purpose of political reform, the meaning of the welfare state, modernization in noncommunist Asia, and coexistence with communist China. Their role as intellectuals and advisers was particularly significant during the 1950s, a decade their party spent primarily wandering the political wilderness. In search of fresh ideas amid the ideological doldrums, Democratic leaders actively sought these liberals' advice on foreign and domestic issues alike. In response, Schlesinger, Galbraith, and Bowles formulated a series of new visions for their party through in-depth participation in a series of controversies within the American liberal circle as well as active interaction with progressive political figures across the world. By examining how these liberals produced their visions through a transnational conversation, how their visions were reformulated into policies through discussions with other liberals, and how and why their policies were accepted or rejected by Democratic leaders, this dissertation demonstrates that these three liberals kept "the party of reform" moving during "the age of consensus."

Committee: David Stebenne (Advisor); David Steigerwald (Committee Member); Paula Baker (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Asian Studies; European History; History; Modern History; Pacific Rim Studies; Philosophy; Political Science

BA, Oberlin College, 2017, Sociology

Head Start, a federally-funded preschool program for low-income children which also provides social services to parents, has persisted since its founding in the 1960s. The program has also received consistent public support since its implementation. Head Start's popularity makes it unique in comparison to other welfare programs in the country. The United States' welfare state is weak and underfunded when compared to other countries; the US lacks a comprehensive national welfare system, and the existing system exacerbates inequalities based on gender and race.Despite the lack of support for welfare services, Head Start continues to serve children and families across the country. Head Start programs are available in every state, and 1,000 local agencies provide services to over 1 million children and their families yearly. The program has been shown to increase academic and social outcomes for low-income children well past the preschool years, and continues to endure in communities like Lorain County.I present the findings from 15 interviews with parents, preschool program and Head Start administrators, and coordinators of community agencies that collaborate with Head Start. I find that Head Start has persisted in Lorain County due to its adaptability to county-specific challenges surrounding the lack of public transportation, its degree of embeddedness in the community due to organizational ties, and its adherence to the growing prioritization of academic preparation for kindergarten during preschool. I conclude by suggesting future research to better understand the link between welfare services and public transportation, and by making policy recommendations.

Committee: Greggor Mattson (Advisor) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education; Sociology; Welfare

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1976, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1968, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1956, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Economics

BA, Oberlin College, 2016, History

In 1948, the composer Benjamin Britten inaugurated the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts in the provincial British town of Aldeburgh. My research explores Britten's attempt through the Festival to democratize culture and combat the alienation and consumerism of modernity by creating a vividly human community based upon shared, localized musical experience. Through amateur participation and interpersonal connection, Britten sought to affirm the social value of art in the modern era and make it available to all people, enacting the social ideals of the time in the realm of culture.

Committee: Annemarie Sammartino (Advisor) Subjects: History; Music

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Rural Sociology

Federal “welfare state” programs contribute to the development and well-being of communities across the U.S. by re-distributing tax revenue in the form of social programs and economic development programs. Income assistance programs like Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) transfer cash payments to families to subsidize household well-being. Federal programs also drive the development of places by investing in the building blocks of community economic development, which include infrastructure, environmental protection, community facilities, job training, public health, and business incubation. Public and scholarly interest in state-led development is growing, especially as recent civil unrest has highlighted the state's underinvestment in infrastructure, housing, and employment opportunities in communities of color. While many studies probe inequalities in the content and availability of social and community economic development programs at the state and county levels, few studies examine how the money associated with these programs is distributed sub-nationally. It is important to understand the fiscal distribution of social programs because inequalities in investment may impede the long-term economic development and well-being of under-served communities. This dissertation contributes to this area of the social policy literature by illuminating inequalities in the fiscal distribution of federal social programs and community economic development programs at the beginning of the twenty-first century. A number of studies investigating variation in social policies draw on the institutional politics approach to frame empirical analysis. Institutional politics is an amalgam approach that draws on Marxist perspectives characterizing the state as an arena of class struggle as well as Weberian perspectives situating the state as a semi-autonomous actor. The institutional politics approach holds that aspects of social policy vary with political-economic and instit (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Linda Lobao (Advisor); Jeff Sharp (Committee Member); Kerry Ard (Committee Member) Subjects: Social Research; Sociology; Welfare

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, History

This dissertation analyzes interactions between politicians, bureaucrats and diverse groups of women over the issue of maternity legislation in Norway between 1880 and 1940. It adds to a rich historiographic debate on welfare state development, women's roles in the creation of welfare policies, the Scandinavian model of welfare and the institutionalization of women's birth experiences. During the sixty years that this study encompasses, Norwegian maternity legislation underwent drastic and dynamic changes. From their initial implementation in 1892, maternity policies expanded in coverage, application and protections. This dissertation traces the history of this development along several lines, including local and national political processes and women's collective and individual influence. While women's access to maternity provisions steadily increased during this period, these achievements were fraught with struggles. Historical context shaped the types of arguments women could use to advance political debates about maternity. In many cases, these hindrances led to the creation of policies that promoted maternity legislation at the expense of certain groups of women's autonomy. Women did not act as a monolithic group when it came to maternity policies. Feminists, midwives and working women actively participated in the creation of Norwegian maternity policies and adapted them to fit their particular needs and interests. These groups of women transformed maternity leave from a mandatory, restrictive form of state control over women's reproduction to a benefit that all working women had a right to receive. In order to achieve more beneficial maternity policies, these groups of women embraced arguments that resonated with contemporary concerns. Late-nineteenth factory legislation had established maternity as an area of state intervention mainly because it fell in line with what other more industrialized countries were doing at the time. These early materni (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Birgitte Søland (Advisor); Robin Judd (Committee Member); Susan Hartmann (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; Gender Studies; Scandinavian Studies; Welfare; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, History

This dissertation explores roots of the current urban crisis in the United States. Most scholarly explanations associate the problem, particularly of high levels of African-American poverty, with deindustrialization, which has stripped cities of the factory jobs that once sustained working-class communities. My account deviates from the standard tale of black male unemployment by focusing on shifting patterns of African-American women's labor—both paid and unpaid. Using Baltimore as a case study, it argues that public rather than industrial-sector employment served as the foundation of Baltimore's post-World War II African-American middle and working classes. Women outpaced men in winning government jobs. Concentrated in social welfare agencies, they used their new influence over public policy to improve the city's delivery of public services. Black women's efforts to build an infrastructure for sustainable community development put them at odds in municipal policy-making battles with city officials and business leaders intent upon revitalizing Baltimore through investment in a tourism industry. The social services workers scored some important victories, helping to alleviate poverty by shifting to the government some of the responsibility for health, child, and elder care women earlier provided in the private sphere. The conservative ascendancy of the 1970s and 1980s, reversed many of the gains African-American public-sector workers had won. Intent upon resuscitating the United States' status in the global economy, American presidents, influenced by conservative economists and their elite backers, made macroeconomic and urban policy decisions that justified extensive public-sector retrenchment and cuts or changes to social programs. Public-sector workers and their unions, most notably the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), fought with limited success to prevent the transformation of American public policy. Neoliberal policies ero (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kevin Boyle (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, History

This dissertation is a study of women who faced trial for reproductive crimes, including abortion and infanticide, in France between 1901 and 1940. It adds to an already rich historiography on the French demographic transition, the development of the welfare state, and the history of working class women by illuminating the relationship between women, their sexual and reproductive decision-making, and French society at the beginning of the twentieth century. This study examines women's individual reproductive decisions within the larger historical context of a France that was modernizing, urbanizing, and embracing demographic theories that warned that a falling birthrate would lead to the decline of the nation. Within this context of change for France, women's reproductive options also changed, as attitudes towards sexuality and family planning slowly shifted and as the safety and accessibility of clandestine abortion improved. Using methodologies of cultural and social history, this dissertation aims to uncover popular attitudes towards reproductive morality, the rights and duties of female citizens to be mothers, and the role of public authority in private lives during the French Third Republic. It begins in 1901, the year the French legislature eliminated the death penalty for infanticide in an effort to reverse decades of refusals by juries to convict obviously guilty but sympathetic women. This study ends in 1940 when France fell to Nazi invasion and the democratic Third Republic was replaced by the authoritarian and paternalist Vichy regime. While the changes that took place for women in France were significant, the continuities were also striking. Social attitudes towards unwed mothers changed slowly, but this did not necessarily mean that all unwed pregnant women were ostracized. Public sympathy for women who committed reproductive crimes after being abandoned by uncaring men remained constant from 1901 until the outbreak of the Second World War and juries co (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Birgitte Soland (Advisor) Subjects:

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2009, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

Due to continued fragmentation and gaps in mental health services and the increase in the prevalence of mental health problems for children, youth, and their families, these populations remain underserved. In 2003, the federal New Freedom Commission (Commission) responded by publishing policies to address these concerns. As directed in 2005, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funded planning incentive grants to states to transform their delivery of care.The study reviewed the federal policy, specifically the recommendations of the Commission's Subcommittee on Children and Families, and Washington State's policy and implementation actions of its five-year SAMHSA incentive grant. The method included searching, reviewing, and analyzing the literature on the topic published since approximately 2002. The analysis distilled the recommended determinants in children's mental health care transformation: prevention, early intervention, and screening in child welfare (juvenile justice and foster care) strategies; evidence-based practices; geographic disparities; workforce barriers; cultural competence aspirations; and consumer, schoolbased mental health, and primary care providers' role expectations. Despite innumerable studies, policies and services remain fragmented with gaps. The following topics from the outcome data require continuing attention: increasing the 2 cultural competency of professional services that are efficacious, and designing and promulgating measures for evidence-based practice specific to children. Three themes emerged regarding how to serve children's mental health needs in Washington State in a more efficacious manner. Within the penumbras of cultural competency and outcome-based measures, constructs for evidence-based practice for children need to be age-developmentally appropriate. Simultaneously, both the family role and venues of service delivery need to be considered, e.g., schools, out-of-home placement, and c (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Liang Tien Psy. D. (Committee Chair); Margaret Heldring Ph.D. (Committee Member); Molly Reid Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mental Health; Psychology