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Factors Influencing the Choice of Pension Distribution at Retirement
Get PDFOne of the most important financial decisions that pension participants make concerns how they access their pension assets when they terminate employment with their plan sponsor. Their choices depend both on own preferences and the options offered by their retirement plan. This paper examines both past and future pension withdrawal choices for those with defined benefit and defined contribution pensions, separately. Our data are drawn from a set of pension distribution questions we fielded in the Understanding American Study. Results show significant differences in distribution choices based on the type of retirement plan, with individuals covered by defined benefit plans significantly more likely to select annuities compared to similar employees covered by defined contribution plans. We also find differences in how higher annual income affects annuity choices based on coverage by DB plans. Individuals with lower levels of financial literacy and lower annual income have less knowledge of basic pension characteristics
Development of the Go Girls- e-Huddle Practice Manual - A Culturally Competent Online Group Intervention for Enhancing Resilience and Self Esteem of Adolescent Girls Raised in South Asian Families
Get PDFThe South Asian patriarchal and socio-cultural environment adolescent girls are raised in may disempower them, creating a perception of them being social and economic burdens (Theerthaana & Manzoor, 2018). South Asian American youth born of immigrant parents also face this gendered double standard and patriarchal attitude (Ragavan et al., 2018). Prevention and promotive-based programs for adolescents is a protective factor, as it supports and builds resilience, self-esteem and acts as a buffer against the potential occurrence of a mental illness (Martyn-Nemeth et al., 2009; WHO, 2020). The adolescence period provides a significant and dynamic developmental opportunity (Morton & Montgomery, 2013; Steinberg, 2014) to positively influence and foster strengths, skills, and attitudes. Despite South Asia having the largest population of adolescent girls worldwide (UNICEF, 2011), there is a paucity of such initiatives. This dissertation aimed to fill this gap. The development of the Go Girls- e-Huddle practice manual is presented as a culturally competent online group intervention for enhancing the resilience and self-esteem of adolescent girls raised in South Asian families (AGRSAF). It is developed as a digital resource that allows for increased accessibility and is designed for a non-clinical population that is led by a culturally responsive facilitator. The content, pedagogical design, intervention strategy, and methodology of the Go-Girls e-Huddle program was grounded and informed by four sources of information- evidence-based research, sound theoretical frameworks, focus group discussions (FGD) that captured the lived experience of AGRSAF, and consultations with subject matter experts. A qualitative thematic analysis of the FGD data was conducted to identify key content and design elements that were meaningful and culturally relevant. The Go-Girls e-Huddle practice manual is submitted as a ready-to-use, comprehensive yet flexible resource guide, that includes sections on effective facilitation skills, seven detailed session plans, digitally available worksheets, and supporting PowerPoints
TEAM-CBT for Adolescents and Young Adults with Depression and Anxiety: Testing Short-Term Impact and Within-Session Change
No full textABSTRACT
Background and Objective
Increasing numbers of adolescents and young adults suffer from serious mental health conditions with onset primarily in childhood or early adolescence. Anxiety and depression have significant negative and long-term effects that interfere with developmental tasks if not successfully treated. Research indicates that approximately 50% of youth suffer from a mental health disorder and approximately half experience remission in psychotherapy (Blanco, 2008; James, 2020; Kessler, 2005). An evidence-based model, TEAM-CBT, was designed to improve outcomes in psychotherapy by incorporating empirically-supported treatment components including: Testing, Empathy, Agenda Setting, and Methods. It was expected that youth treated with TEAM-CBT would experience significant reduction in depression and anxiety symptoms from pre-test to post-test. The second hypothesis predicted that patients completing more sessions would have better outcomes. The third hypothesis was that within each session, post-session levels of depression and anxiety would be significantly lower than pre-session levels. It was also expected that therapists who were perceived as more empathic by their patients would have better outcomes. Finally, two exploratory questions were included: 1) Is there a correlation between age and treatment outcome and 2) What is the pattern of treatment response over sessions?
Methodology
This naturalistic, retrospective study used brief assessment data for 116 adolescents and young adults treated on an individual basis in a group psychotherapy practice. An intention-to treat model was used to compare pre-test and post-test scores on mood levels and within-session change in symptoms. Treatment outcomes were measured as changes in depression and anxiety levels as assessed by the Brief Depression and Anxiety subscales of the Brief Mood Survey (BMS) which were self-administered before and after each therapy as part of routine treatment (Burns, 2010, 2011). T-tests and ANOVAs were used to test treatment effects, including changes between the first and final sessions, within-session change, and the pattern of treatment response. Correlation analysis was used to test the association between age and treatment outcome.
Findings
A total of N = 116 patients’ data was included in the analysis. Both depression and anxiety scores were significantly lower at post-test compared to pre-test. Pair-wise t-tests found that anxiety scores were, on average, 5.67 points lower at post-test (p \u3c 0.0001) which equates to a large effect (Cohen’s d = 1.10). Depression scores were, on average, 5.39 points lower at post-test (p \u3c 0.001), which also equates to a large effect (Cohen’s d = 1.17). The majority of adolescents and young adults achieved clinically significant improvement, with 87% of youth no longer meeting criteria for clinically significant symptoms of anxiety and 80% of youth for depression symptoms. There was no correlation found between the number of sessions received and the treatment outcome. Within-session symptom reduction was clinically significant in each of the 10 sessions.
A test of normality was run for hypothesis four suggesting that nine out of 10 therapeutic empathy scores were not normally distributed. Values were skewed to the right of the mean. Due to the skew the therapeutic empathy scores could not be used in hypothesis testing. Finally, an ANOVA analysis demonstrated a curvilinear pattern of treatment response in which the largest symptom reductions occurred over the first five sessions followed by a plateau from session five to six and smaller significant change from session seven to session 10.
Implications
These results suggest that the TEAM-CBT framework is highly effective for youth seeking treatment for mood disorders in an outpatient group practice setting where treatment is delivered one-on-one in person and/or virtually. Significant gains occurred early in treatment and in each of the 10 sessions indicating that recovery is rapid and therefore optimal for a young population. An interesting finding is that treatment response is curvilinear; therefore, more research needs to be done to understand more about patterns of treatment response in psychotherapy. The majority of therapists in this study were given intensive, interactive training at the start of their employment, and weekly interactive TEAM-CBT training for a minimum of one year, with ongoing individual and group consultation/supervision. Future research should focus on well-designed trials to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in other treatment settings, such as community mental health clinics, schools, college counseling centers, and hospital settings where brief or time-limited treatment is necessary. In addition, studies of baseline training requirements for clinical staff would need to precede replication studies. Finally, future studies could examine the impact of pre-treatment screening on outcomes
Playing With Pride: LGBTQ Identities In Athletic Spaces
Get PDFHistorically, individuals identifying as LGBTQ have experienced higher levels of discrimination, stigmatization, and harassment compared to their non-LGBTQ peers. This holds especially true in the world of sports, where increased levels of competition, stress, and conformity often leave queer athletes feeling hopeless, isolated, and separate from their teammates, coaches, and training personnel. However, little scholarship regarding the intersection of LGBTQ identities and experiences in athletic spaces exists. The primary objective of this study is to explore the positive, negative, and neutral narratives of LGBTQ collegiate athletes in an attempt to decipher the true experience of performing at the highest level while supporting the socioemotional needs of an evolving queer identity. Forty-nine participants were recruited from 48 undergraduate and/or graduate academic institutions across the United States and represented more than 15 different sport types. Participants were allowed to report more than one affiliated institution and more than one sport type. Through the use of a qualitative survey and ethnographic interviews, this research adds to an increasingly growing understanding of LGBTQ individuals in sporting spaces and what it means to play with pride. Results from these methodologies identified several key elements that contribute to a culture of ostracization and exclusion for queer athletes, including homophobic language use and humor, the stigmatization of LGBTQ people in sports culture, and a lack of programming and structural support for members of this marginalized community on teams and in athletic departments. Furthermore, analysis of both the survey and interviews identified several factors crucial to LGBTQ athlete comfortability, safety, and security, including the presence of fellow queer teammates and coaches, team participation in conversations and educational opportunities related to visibility and representation of sexual minorities, and active allyship by non-LGBTQ peers and mentors. The implications of this research can have far-reaching influence on queer athlete programming, advocacy, and representation in collegiate athletic departments across the nation and better inform non-LGBTQ allies on how to support and serve their queer friends, family, and peers
The Young Millennial Corporate Experience: Using a Positive Psychology Framework to Impact Future Organizational Culture
Get PDFIn this final paper for course DYNM668, I will lay out the framework, theoretical underpinnings, and research objectives for my qualitative research study which aims to understand the young millennial experience at work. This paper will provide a foundation of current research, why I have been drawn to explore this topic, and what this research will add to the current literature. As humans, work is a substantial part of our adult lives; having a fundamental understanding of work and its role in an individual’s life is essential to helping people (Flores & Ojeda, 2009). Understanding how people can best work and live is critical to enhancing personal wellbeing, performance at work, in life, and benefits the health of our society (Flores, Ojeda, 2009). With millennials now the majority age group in the workforce (Gallup, 2016), I want to better understand a younger subset of this generation’s motivations for staying within an organization and explore the role that prioritizing employee wellbeing and utilization of strengths plays within organizational commitment in order to positively impact and reshape the future of organizational culture
WOMEN’S HEALTH AFTER ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES: EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN NEIGHBORHOOD AND HEALTH BEHAVIOR
No full textBACKGROUND: Despite all that is known about the importance of preventative healthcare, over one-third of American women do not receive recommended screenings for breast and cervical cancer in the form of mammograms and pap smears. In recent decades, the original Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Study put forth by Kaiser Permanante and The Center for Disease Control has shed light on the strong relationship between ACEs, negative health behavior, and poorer health outcomes later in life. The ACE study has been replicated numerous times since its inception, including by The Philadelphia Urban ACE Survey, which sought to better understand how ACEs specific to urban environments might also impact adult health outcomes and health behaviors. An integration of the Andersen behavioral model of health utilization and trauma theory was used to guide this study. METHODS: This study sought to determine whether an association existed between adverse neighborhood experiences in childhood and adherence to recommended mammogram and pap smear guidelines in adulthood by analyzing secondary data collected from The Philadelphia Urban ACE Survey. A logistic regression model was used after controlling for several factors known to influence mammogram and pap smear utilization. RESULTS: No association was found between community-level ACEs and mammogram and pap smear adherence. Other findings, based on current literature, included both expected and unexpected results. Interpretation, discussion, and implications of the study are discussed, along with suggestions for future research. KEYWORDS: ACEs, expanded ACEs, urban ACEs, community ACEs, mammograms, pap smear
Runaway Advertisements from Jamaica, 1782, 1813, 1816, 1822, and 1823
Get PDFNewspaper advertisements written and published by enslavers seeking the capture and return of enslaved people who had escaped. Published in the Royal Gazette April 1781 to January 1782, January to December 1813, July to October 1816, February to October 1822, and February to March 1823
The Digital Compilation and Restoration of Herculaneum Fragment P.Herc.118
Get PDFAncient documents pose many challenges for the scholars who painstakingly study and elucidate them. Natural deterioration occurs over time, erasing words and sentences that were once apparent. Water and fire damage can render text completely unreadable. Wrinkles and folds obscure content essential to meaning. Thankfully, old and new imaging methods can today be combined to rescue “lost” text and make it once again accessible to scholars. Using computer vision techniques like registration, historical images that often represent the most faithful record of the original content of a document can now be combined with those produced by newer technologies, like spectral imaging and 3D modeling. The result is a diachronic digital compilation that enables new scholarly discoveries. Using the collection of fragments from an opened ancient scroll from Herculaneum, PHerc.118, the work outlined in this paper prototypes a process that capitalizes on the best of old and new images to create a single, definitive digital model for scholarly study
A New Model for Manuscript Provenance Research: The Mapping Manuscript Migrations Project
Get PDFSince it was awarded a Round 4 Trans-Atlantic Platform Digging into Data Challenge grant in 2017, the Mapping Manuscript Migrations project has been working to develop and test a methodology to link disparate datasets from Europe and North America with the aim of providing large-scale analysis and visualizations of the history and provenance of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts. Guided by a set of research questions identified at the outset of the project, MMM developed an innovative Linked Open Data model and dataset which unifies three separate manuscript-related databases in a semantically consistent way, together with the workflows for transforming the institutional data contributions into the common structure. The dataset has been made available through a Linked Open Data service hosted by the Linked Data Finland platform and the MMM semantic portal. The aggregated data can be queried and visualized at scales ranging from a single manuscript to a total of more than 216,000 manuscripts as a group. Visualization tools developed in the portal show how the manuscripts have traveled across time and space from their place of production to their current locations, where they continue to find new audiences. The following report summarizes our methodology and results, and lays the groundwork for further research using our processes
Carolingian Structures of Logic and Learning: The Evidence of University of Pennsylvania Libraries LJS 101
Get PDFThis paper presents preliminary research into how manuscript LJS 101, held in the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, represents a collective enterprise in its making and in its contents. The evidence of the texts, script, and decoration show that the manuscript was not only made, but also used within a larger community over an extended period of time. The inclusion of Boethius’s early sixth century translation of and commentary on Aristotle’s De Interpretatione alongside shorter texts, such as a sample letter and definitions of words, transforms the manuscript into a useful handbook for studying the first three subjects of the medieval liberal arts – grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic – within an instructional environment of teachers and students. The making of the manuscript also reflects the work of several individuals. At least two distinct phases of work can be identified, the hands of several scribes can be distinguished in the text and annotations, and the diagrams and decoration reflect diverse sources that may relate to the varied visual vocabulary of different artists. In these ways, the texts, script, and decoration of LJS 101 exemplify the community and combined efforts involved in Carolingian systems of education and manuscript production