1825 research outputs found
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Shades of Discipline: A Narrative Inquiry Exploring Black Girls’ Experiences of Colorism and Exclusionary Discipline through the Lens of the Domains of Power
Full text linkBlack girls are the fastest-growing group facing exclusionary school discipline, including suspensions, expulsions, and law enforcement referrals. National data reveals that Black girls are significantly more likely to be suspended than white girls, yet little research has explored how skin tone influences these disparities. This qualitative narrative inquiry examined the role of colorism in the discipline of Black girls by expanding on Patricia Hill Collins’s Matrix of Domination framework. Through the voices of five Black girls with varying skin tones and eight school leaders involved in disciplinary decisions, the study explored how the intersections of race, gender, and skin tone shaped school discipline outcomes. Findings revealed that darker-skinned Black girls were more likely to be labeled as aggressive and faced harsher consequences for subjective infractions like defiance, receiving fewer second chances than their lighter-skinned peers. Implicit biases and stereotypes contributed to these patterns, with darker-skinned girls experiencing more hostility and less empathy, while lighter-skinned girls were more often perceived as compliant and worthy of support. School leaders showed varying levels of awareness, some acknowledging systemic biases while others attributed disparities to individual behaviors. The research demonstrated how structural, cultural, disciplinary, and interpersonal power dynamics intersect to criminalize the lived experiences of Black girls. It calls for culturally responsive policies, implicit bias training, restorative justice practices, and addressing disciplinary disparities through leadership awareness and accountability. These efforts are essential to fostering equitable learning environments and ensuring that all Black girls receive fair, supportive, and just treatment in schools. This dissertation was available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu)
Pick Up a Frog, or Pet a Dog; Animals are our First Teachers
Full text linkThis dissertation’s goal was an attempt to answer the question: What are the emotional, cognitive, and/or spiritual effects of children’s relationships/interactions with animals that potentially impact their development? By utilizing autoethnography, I analyzed instances from my own life where interacting with animals changed me permanently; my thinking, my knowing, my feeling, my judgement, my empathy, my attitude, and my ethics. With a standpoint rooted in the research of experts from the fields of psychology and education, I combined my personal knowledge gained over a lifetime, to grant merit to the profundity of children’s relationships with animals. With the analyzed data, I make suggestions for future research which includes proposing the topic be studied by people in indirect fields of academia and professional occupations. If children can learn to respect the feelings of creatures deemed inferior, they have a better chance of developing into adults who can respect, or at least tolerate, each other. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive (https://aura.antioch.edu/) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu)
Exploring the Use of Somatic Skills and Techniques in Clinical Supervision
Full text linkThis study explores the lived experiences of clinical supervisors who engage in somatically oriented supervision. Informed by relational-cultural theory and polyvagal theory, the research employs a grounded theory methodology to investigate the potential development of a somatic supervision framework. Eleven participants completed semi-structured interviews and data were analyzed using both thematic analysis and grounded theory techniques. Eleven core themes emerged: (a) conceptualizations of somatic supervision, (b) integration of somatic techniques in supervisory practice, (c) theoretical foundations for somatic supervision, (d) attunement to countertransference, (e) the supervisory relationship, (f) trauma-informed approaches, (g) somatic techniques and practices, (h) initiating and structuring somatic supervision, (i) ethical and gatekeeping considerations, (j) supervisor development and competency, and (k) cultural responsiveness and social justice orientation. Findings contribute to the development of a grounded theory of somatic supervision and highlight its potential as an embodied, relational, and socially conscious supervisory model. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu)
Reassessing Criminogenic Risk: How Trauma-Informed Assessment More Accurately Predicts In-Prison Behavior than Traditional Models
Full text linkCriminogenic risk-needs assessment is the cornerstone of recidivism reduction models in the correctional sector. Despite decades of using criminogenic risk-need tools, recidivism outcomes remain stubbornly high in the U.S. This non-traditional dissertation explored how traditional criminogenic assessments could be improved with the addition of measures of childhood adversity and maltreatment. This study found that the prevalence of ACEs was significantly greater in an adult prison population of 1,522 in a rural, western state than in the general public. Utilizing logistic regression, this research also found that ACEs were better predictors of in-prison misconduct than traditional criminogenic risk-needs assessments, although traditional risk-needs tools outperformed the ACE survey when predicting reincarceration. This dissertation is a portfolio of four works that explore traditional criminogenic risk and needs assessment and call for a trauma-informed evolution. The first article serves as an introduction, outlining the rationale for the project and identifying the research questions. The second article is theoretical and includes a review of the relevant literature, specifically criminogenic risk-needs assessment, childhood adversity, and the impacts of maltreatment on neurodevelopment. The third article summarizes my quantitative study examining the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and serious misconduct in prison and reincarceration. The final work synthesizes the research and provides recommendations for correctional leaders to implement a trauma-informed approach, including the addition of assessments of maltreatment and trauma for justice-involved individuals. This dissertation is currently embargoed
Initial Validation of the Measure of Practical Existential Wellbeing
Full text linkAccording to the theory of existential psychology, all humans experience existential anxiety, a negative feeling that results from the understanding of certain unavoidable truths. If left unchecked, existential anxiety can lead to symptoms of mental illness. Much work has been done to explore and measure existential anxiety, but little has focused on protective factors within existential theory. This dissertation proposes the construct of existential wellbeing, representing protective factors corresponding to different existential domains. To assess this construct, a new instrument, the Measure of Practical Existential Wellbeing (MPEW), was developed, distributed, and analyzed in relation to other established measures. The MPEW was distributed to adult participants (n = 514) from Unitarian Universalist congregations alongside a measure of existential anxiety, symptom screeners for depression and clinical anxiety, and a general wellbeing scale. Utilizing Pearson correlations, existential wellbeing was found to have significant negative correlations with existential anxiety, depressive symptoms, and symptoms of clinical anxiety, as well as a significant positive correlation with general wellbeing. Simple mediation analysis supported the theory that existential wellbeing mediates the role between existential anxiety and depressive symptoms. However, this result was not found for the relationship between existential anxiety and clinical anxiety. This suggests that existential wellbeing may serve to protect against depression, but more research is needed to determine why the same cannot be said regarding clinical anxiety. Factor analysis and reliability analysis demonstrated the general psychometric strength of the Measure of Practical Existential Wellbeing, but there are notable points for revision on one of its subscales. Overall, the MPEW may be a useful new tool for assessing whether people regard themselves as having the resources necessary to combat existential anxiety. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu/) and Ohio Link ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu)
Why Men Join the Incel Community: A Thematic Analysis
Full text linkIncels have gained mainstream attention in recent years because of increasing sexism and hatred that have manifested as violent acts committed towards women in the real world. This has led to growing research and discussion on social and political culture. The goal of this study is to understand why men join the incel community, to find ways to mitigate the need for men to join such communities. A theoretical thematic analysis was conducted using a survey to gain a deeper understanding of why men choose to join the incel community. A decolonial feminist interpretive framework was used to analyze the collected data in this study. Themes of Hierarchical Perspectives Guiding Individual Beliefs, Dysconsciousness Privilege, Ambivalent Sexist Attitudes, and Belongingness emerged from the analysis of the responses provided by participants. The sub-theme under Hierarchical Perspectives Guiding Individual Beliefs was Desire for Hegemonic Masculinity. Two sub-themes emerged under the theme of Dysconsciousness Privilege, called Experiences of Victimization and Externalization of Blame. Implications for clinical psychology, research, and public policy are discussed at the end
Experiences of Civilian Mental Health Providers Who Work With Military Clients: A Dissertation
Full text linkUsing a qualitative survey design, this study sought to understand the experiences of fully civilian providers who had achieved self-perceived military cultural competence when working with military or veteran clients or their families. This study also sought a better understanding of what pathways fully civilian providers took in this process, as well as their perceptions of how to better equip other fully civilian providers for work with military and veteran clients and their families. The results of this study yield recommendations for changes in graduate training programs; for example, through more inclusion of the military as a culture in cross cultural competency classes, as well as changes in resources and trainings offered to postgraduate clinicians when working with this particular population. This study contributes to understanding both resources and deficits in the process of fully civilian practitioners developing self-perceived competence with military clients, as well as identifying what could be done so that others can operate similarly when working with the same population. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu)
Becoming and Belonging: Exploring Teachers’ Insights on Community Interest and Engagement in Waldorf Middle School Students
No full textThis research explores how Waldorf middle school teachers experience, perceive, and support the development of community interest, engagement, and belonging among the early adolescence years of middle school. Adolescence, particularly ages 11 to 14, is a period of profound developmental transition characterized by intense emotionality, evolving identity, increased peer influence, and growing social complexity. Rudolf Steiner’s philosophical and pedagogical framework positions this stage as a time that leads to the birth of the astral or feeling body, contributing to new levels of self-awareness and the emergence of individuality, the beginning of critical thinking, and moral judgment. This period is also marked by volatility, social sensitivity, and vulnerability. Using an interpretivist paradigm and an exploratory qualitative methodology, the research explores the experience of 17 middle school Waldorf teachers from independent Waldorf schools in North America. Data were collected via Zoom through interviews that employed eight open-ended questions. A thematic analysis identified eight central “meta-learnings” that articulate how Waldorf teachers intentionally cultivate classroom communities during the middle school years: 1. Understanding of adolescent inner transformation; 2. Modeling social forces; 3. Developing trust through long-term teacher-student relationships; 4. Cultivating belonging; 5. Navigating the challenges of digital culture; 6. Listening to the spontaneous and unplanned; 7. Cultivating inclusion as an active practice; and 8. Employing rhythm and ritual as anchors for individual and group development. According to findings, Waldorf teachers view themselves as central to creating places where students feel seen, valued, and capable of being meaningful members of their community. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu)
Reimagining Care: Experiences of Trauma-Informed Approaches and Deinstitutionalization in Caribbean Child Welfare
Full text linkThis study explored the perceptions and experiences of child welfare professionals on trauma-informed care and implications for deinstitutionalization in Trinidad and Tobago. The qualitative study utilized research interviews from 21 participants to inform findings. The participants included professionals from various agencies who work with children in care and protection. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data, yielding six overarching themes (1) the need for training and capacity building in child protection, (2) systemic and organizational challenges to trauma informed care, (3) cultural and community factors impacting child protection, (4) the need to support family units as a pathway to deinstitutionalization, (5) evaluating and sustaining effective child-centered interventions, policy and systemic approaches, and (6) emphasizing well-being and sustainability. These themes showed that systemic, cultural, and individual factors play significant roles in the utilization of trauma-informed care. Training in trauma-informed care, awareness initiatives, and systemic reform were identified as opportunities for the use of trauma-informed care with child protective systems. Implications for child welfare practice and recommendations for counselor education are also discussed