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Essays on the Impact of Childbirth on Parenthood and Childcare
Full text linkThis dissertation studies the impact of childbirth and parenthood on the labor market outcomes and decisions of parents. Of the three chapters, the first two talk about how childbirth affects the labor supply decisions of the parents and the subsequent impact on earnings. The third chapter talks about the effect of disruption in the childcare arrangements on the employment outcomes of parents during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
The first chapter measures the short- and long-run declines (penalties) in annual earnings associated with the first childbirth for parents in the United States by exploiting the heterogeneity in their gender, educational attainment and the age at which they decide to have their first child. Childbirth induces a temporary/permanent transition out of employment and, with an increase in the number of households where both parents have to work to ensure a proper standard of living, deciding when to have the first child becomes important to understand the impacts on career path. There exists ambiguity regarding the potential role of delaying childbirth in affecting women\u27s earnings and other labor market outcomes. Overall, in the short run, women experience a larger and statistically significant pre-and post-childbirth earnings gap than men, irrespective of the timing of first childbirth and educational backgrounds. Less educated mothers with early childbirth are affected the most, relative to the more educated mothers (of all ages at first birth) and men of all demographic groups. More educated older first-time mothers face the largest long-run penalty, whereas more educated younger mothers recover in terms of mitigating their earning gaps. Their earnings surpass the earnings of men of similar demographic and educational backgrounds. In both cases, men experience almost zero (or very low) penalty, with younger fathers being slightly more affected than older fathers.
The second chapter measures the penalties from the perspective of employment participation associated with the first childbirth by exploiting similar heterogeneity in gender, academic backgrounds and parents\u27 age at first childbirth. As with earnings, women face larger decreases than men in terms of their employment participation due to parenthood. The short-run pre-and post-childbirth employment participation gaps are largest for the less educated younger mothers, relative to all other parents. In the long run, most women face larger employment participation gaps relative to men, with the exception of the more-educated younger mothers whose participation surpasses that of men of similar demographic and educational backgrounds. In both cases, men are least affected by the birth of the first child, although younger fathers are somewhat more affected than older fathers.
The third chapter studies the parents\u27 adjustments in their work patterns to accommodate childcare, specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. It studies how different demographic and socio-economic characteristics of households impacted their likelihood of facing childcare disruptions due to the pandemic in response to the new restrictions and regulations on in-person care. More adults in the household, being white, and being married lowered the likelihood of facing disruptions, while having more children, being a woman, receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, being black, etc., increased it. The household characteristics affected the responses to disruptions in childcare in different ways for different people. More educated parents, being married, and having more children increased the probability of taking paid leave. Women were likelier to leave their jobs and not look for new ones. More educated parents were more likely to supervise their children while simultaneously working. Families receiving SNAP benefits were more likely to lose their jobs than others. Having more children, being a woman and being black increased the probability that parents had to make some adjustments to their work patterns to cater for the children
How the Experienscape Influences Attendees’ Subjective Well-Being in a College Football Event
No full textSport events provide unique experiential environments that can significantly influence attendee well-being through social interaction, shared emotions, and meaningful experiences (Hardin, 2013; Inoue et al., 2017; Warner & Dixon, 2013). However, previous research has primarily focused on satisfaction and service quality outcomes (Lee et al., 2015; Prayag et al., 2018), with limited understanding of how specific experiential dimensions contribute to subjective well-being through emotional pathways. While recent studies have begun exploring connections between sport events and well-being (Armbrecht & Andersson, 2020; Nicole Yu et al., 2022; Tang et al., 2020), gaps remain in understanding the mechanisms through which experiential environments influence well-being outcomes, particularly in collegiate sport contexts.
This dissertation explores how Clemson football gameday experiences influence attendee subjective well-being through a sequential exploratory mixed-methods approach (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2017) grounded in Experienscape (Pizam & Tasci, 2019) and Stimulus-Organism-Response (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974) theoretical frameworks. The central research question, How do Clemson football gameday experiences impact subjective well-being? guided a comprehensive three-phase research design that bridges qualitative exploration with quantitative validation.
Phase one employed qualitative interviews to identify experiences characteristic of college football gamedays and examine how these experiences shape attendees\u27 subjective well-being. Eleven themes emerged across environmental, emotional, and well-being categories, including social interaction, natural campus aesthetics, cultural traditions, sensory elements, functional aspects, and hospitality culture as environmental stimuli, alongside collective emotion, identity/pride, memory/nostalgia, and sense of community as mediators of the affective dimension.
Phase two utilized a modified Delphi approach with expert participants to validate and refine the proposed conceptual model derived from the Phase One findings. Expert consensus repositioned collective emotion from environmental stimulus to organismic mediator, clarified identity and pride as separate constructs, and validated the six-dimensional Experienscape structure for collegiate sport contexts, providing theoretical validation for quantitative testing.
Phase three quantitatively tested the expert-validated model using Structural Equation Modeling with gameday attendees. Results demonstrated that experiences significantly impact well-being both directly (β = 0.435, p \u3c .01) and through emotional mediators, with pride emerging as the strongest mediator (β = 0.180, p \u3c .01), followed by collective emotion (β = 0.150, p \u3c .05), while memory showed a significant effect on experiences (β = 1.047, p \u3c .01), it had no significant effect on well-being.
This research extends sport event experience frameworks by empirically validating collective emotion as a primary mechanism linking experiential environments to well-being outcomes. The findings demonstrate that attendee well-being emerges through shared emotions and institutional pride, providing universities and event managers with evidence-based strategies for enhancing attendee experiences through comprehensive environmental design that fosters collective emotional experiences
Empowering Employability: Voices of Black Women Leveraging Community Cultural Wealth in an Undergraduate Agricultural Program
No full textAcross the nation, agricultural industry professionals have bemoaned the shortage of qualified professionals, expressing an expanding need for graduates with a blend of discipline-specific and employability skills to advance the sector. Research indicates that the future of the US agriculture sector hinges on a diverse and skilled workforce. Yet, a paucity of literature exists on Black women\u27s enduring legacy, experiences, and how they understand and develop 21st-century critical transferable professional competencies needed to address complex challenges in modern agriculture. Black women have a long tradition in agriculture and a wealth of cultural knowledge, skills and innovations that are untapped. This cultural knowledge has been historically suppressed and disregarded in the Employability Skills framework, which many agricultural employers prioritize in hiring decisions of incoming graduates. The agriculture industry accounts for over $400 billion in U.S. GDP and employs more than 2.8% of the nation’s workforce. If America is to remain a competitive global leader, investing in all Americans, particularly Black women, must be an integral part of the US response to these challenges.
Much of the debate regarding employability skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills, has been addressed from a deficit perspective. In this research, I qualitatively examined the experiences of Black women enrolled in an undergraduate agricultural program at a predominantly white institution (PWI) to understand how they utilize community cultural wealth (CCW) to navigate their college experiences effectively. Specifically, I seek to identify the strategies and resources within CCW that contribute to developing employability skills essential for success in the dynamic and globally interconnected agricultural industry. The study uses a thematic inquiry to examine the experiences of 10 Black women enrolled in an agricultural program in the southeastern U. S. through a series of three semi-structured interviews, including card and photo elicitation activities. Findings revealed that these Black women drew on multiple forms of community cultural wealth (Aspirational, Familial, Navigational and Social capital) in different ways to support their persistence and development of employability skills in their agricultural programs. The findings also underscore the implications of mentorship and support, and how Black women voice the need for diverse institutional curriculum and assessment practices in agricultural programs. We found that preparing students to meet industry demands not only requires greater collaboration among stakeholders but also recognizing and valuing the skills students bring with them from their homes and communities to the learning environment. This study redirects the narratives about communities of color away from a deficit perspective to aid educators in recognizing how to leverage the various skills, talents, abilities and networks marginalized groups often bring, which frequently go unnoticed and uncredited in the classroom
Examining Student Critical Thinking Dispositions within the College and Career Readiness of Students Involved in FFA and 4-H in Georgia
Full text linkPreparing youth, primarily as they become high school graduates, to be ready to enter college and careers, has been a primary driving force in primary and secondary education for over 20 years. However, there lacks consistency in the definition and of the true idea of college and career readiness in the twentyfirst century. Additionally, there is a lack of research examining the impacts that student involvement in youth organizations has on the development of college and career-readiness skills. One facet of college and career readiness is the development of critical thinking skills and dispositions, which include enjoying solving problems, respecting the opinions of others, and a continual push to learn and acquire knowledge. Due to the limited understanding of the impact of youth organizations, the researcher sought to examine the influence that involvement in FFA and 4-H in STATE have on student college and career readiness and the development of critical thinking skills and dispositions. From the results of the mixed methods study, the researcher determined that involvement in competitions and leadership events often provides students with resources to develop critical thinking skills, and involvement in the organizations seemingly fosters the perception of critical thinking disposition development. However, students were unable to articulate any other aspects of the organization that foster growth and struggled to understand the importance of many of the critical-thinking skills. Therefore, the researcher recommends further research examining the impact of involvement in FFA and/or 4-H longitudinally, as well as repeating this study in the southeast and across the country. Further, the researcher recommends additional support to practitioners from FFA and 4-H, to inform youth in FFA and 4-H why they are participating in events and programs
Culturally Responsive STEM Education: Integrating Mapping Techniques and Drone Technology for Youth
Full text linkIntegrating drone and geospatial technologies with participatory techniques offers a promising approach to culturally responsive STEM education. However, these areas are rarely combined in existing literature. Drone and geospatial education for youth generally focuses on technical skills, while participatory methods in youth-led initiatives often aim to foster community connection and a sense of place. Unfortunately, these approaches typically exist in isolation within youth programming. This disconnect limits the potential to engage underrepresented youth in STEM by not linking spatial data to local contexts and culturally meaningful narratives. By combining these approaches, both technical learning and personal engagement could be enhanced, fostering spatial awareness, cultural relevance, and critical thinking. This article introduces a series of learning activities designed for underserved youth, offering hands-on experiences that merge participatory mapping and drone science. Through community science techniques, youth engaged in activities focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, and environmental justice, linking their lived experiences to broader community and environmental contexts. Geospatial technology and drones connected realworld phenomena with digital tools, exposing youth to career opportunities and the practical applications of these technologies
Best Practices for Hybrid Positive Youth Development Programming
Full text linkCLOVER by 4-H is an online learning platform that creates a space for youth to explore interactive learning experiences across a range of 4-H program areas. This article provides an overview of a pilot conducted around the implementation of CLOVER by 4-H to provide positive youth-development experiences in 4-H programming. As a result of the pilot, three distinct models for hybrid program delivery and a set of seven best practices for hybrid positive youth development have been identified. This article outlines the hybrid models that were examined and discusses the best practices for hybrid PYD with examples from the pilot sites to illustrate how these best practices can be implemented in hybrid-learning programs
Item 5: Activity: Identifying Community Needs
Full text linkThis activity cultivates civic engagement and social responsibility. It guides students through community needs assessment, providing a framework to connect with their surroundings and become proactive contributors. The exercise involves students understanding “community,” prioritizing needs, and developing skills in observation, articulation, critical thinking, and decision-making
Item 1: Syllabus: English 3XX: Argumentation: “The Ballot of the Bullet”
Full text linkThis syllabus for an upper-level undergraduate course in argumentation, rhetoric, or communication contains a course concept, assignment descriptions, and a detailed course schedule with readings centering Malcolm X’s provocative ultimatum of “the ballot or the bullet” as the way forward for African American liberation and a functioning American democracy. The first half of the course provides students with a foundation in core theories and concepts of argumentation, and the second half of the course asks them to apply them by participating in public address, deliberation, and debate in the class and out in the world
Item 4: Activity 3: Your Declaration of Civic Engagement Values and Principles
Full text linkThe purpose of this activity is to help students develop critical thinking skills about civic engagement by analyzing both successful elements and limitations of common service approaches. Using Robert Egger\u27s story as an example, students share their own experiences with community engagement. Students identify positive elements and critiques of typical community engagement projects and collaboratively establish a statement of values and principles that address these concerns
Item 8: Activity 3: Civic Engagement in the News – A Scaffolded, Multimodal Discussion Assignmen
No full textThis civic inquiry activity invites students to select a recent news story and analyze how individuals or communities engaged civically in response. Students assess strategies, barriers, and power dynamics using a structured template. They may submit work in written, audio, or visual formats. Peer replies are scaffolded to support civic discourse and listening. Optional AI-supported paths allow students to brainstorm or organize their ideas using generative tools, followed by a required reflection on their AI use. Designed for asynchronous, hybrid, or in-person delivery, this assignment aligns with civic learning goals and general education outcomes