Via Sapientiae: The Institutional Repository at DePaul University
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Get PDFBuilding Talent: Coach Stubblefield brings energy and momentum to men\u27s basketball team; Doug Bruno court rededicated at Wintrust Arena; Aneesah Morrow receives honors; Freya Jupp plays with England U19 national team; Olivia Borowiak makes DePaul history; men\u27s soccer sets attendance record; Rachel Krasowski surpasses 1,000 career digs
The Sanctity of Human Life: An Examination of the Effects of Education and Training of Less-lethal Force Option Devices in the Royal Thai Police
Get PDFUnder Article III of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security. It is the duty of law enforcement to protect and respect these rights. The Royal Thai Police (RTP) patrol officers carry firearms as lethal weapons on their duty belts, similar to police officers in the United States (US). However, firearms are the only force option available to the RTP in stark contrast to the options police officers in the US have when they encounter resistance from suspects. For the RTP, conducted energy devices (CED) and oleoresin capsicum (OC) sprays are not readily available to use, if necessary, as less-lethal force options before resorting to firearms. This study utilized classic experimental research to determine if a specific intervention had an effect on the RTP participants\u27 behaviors and attitudes in the use of less-lethal force options during virtual use of force simulation scenarios. The 8-hour intervention course provided the RTP with knowledge and skills to improve officers\u27 decision-making and understanding of less-lethal force options. In pre- and post-intervention virtual use of force simulation scenarios, CEDs and OC spray were available on the officers\u27 duty belts when they encountered threats. This quantitative research study utilized an experimental design, survey, and evaluation process. The research questions examined changes in officers\u27 behaviors and attitudes in the use of less-lethal force options between pre- and post-intervention simulations. The results indicated a statistically significant difference in the officers’ behaviors and attitudes in the use of less-lethal force options, emphasizing the principles of the sanctity of human life
“Young, Gifted, and Black”: Understanding the Complex Experiences of High-Achieving Black Students in AP Classes at a Diverse Suburban High School
Get PDFThe purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the social and academic experiences of Black students in AP English classes at a diverse suburban high school. This study aimed to illuminate their experiences while giving voice to this traditionally marginalized group. Students provided recommendations for increasing academic success and belonging for future students as schools continually work toward gender and racial equity in the AP classroom. In this Critical Race Theory (CRT) oriented study, I sought to understand the essence of the Black experience in predominantly White academic spaces through a phenomenological methodology. I analyzed the significant moments and statements that the participants shared about their experiences with the curriculum, grading, and social interactions in the classroom. The presence and absence of belonging are fundamentally related to the students’ racial identity and to students’ academic success. The participants revealed the hardships that they endured, like invisibility, isolation, silence, and fear, while sharing how those experiences impacted their academics and social-emotional well-being. They also revealed the moments of social-emotional connection and joy that they felt with their teachers and peers
Monitoring Personal Exposure to Air Quality Gradients while Biking on an Elevated Urban Trail
Get PDFAir pollution is a major global health concern, specifically as it relates to the human exposome. The EPA criteria pollutants, including particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and NOx can have severe impacts on respiratory and cardiovascular health, particularly in populations with chronic illnesses such as asthma, those facing economic hardships and individuals who frequently spend time outdoors, such as bicyclists and runners. To understand the impact of air pollution on human health, it is essential to assess personal exposure. This study aimed to investigate personal exposure to air pollution levels while biking along a former elevated railway, now urban trail, in Chicago, Illinois due to the east trailhead’s proximity to the I-90 highway, a significant source of PM, NOx, CO, and CO2. Ozone (O3), a secondary air pollutant, was also monitored, but was not statistically analyzed. During summer months of 2022, portable sensors were attached to a bike rack for data collection, and GPS-captured datasets were analyzed for statistical significance between longitude, which describes the location along the east-west path, and criteria air pollutants using linear regression in RStudio. The findings from the linear regression analyses revealed that longitude had a significant, strong positive association with carbon monoxide across three datasets, making longitude an appropriate predictor. However, CO2, PM1, PM2.5, and PM10, only showed a significant association with longitude on one day. O3 concentrations displayed sudden increases near the west trailhead on four out of six collection datasets observed. These spikes consistently exceeded 50 ppb, indicating a persistent source of ozone. Further investigation is necessary to understand the reason for the variation in significance of the criteria air pollutants and the potential source of ozone
Strengthening higher education for displaced students from Burma in Thailand: identifying collective interest and expanding value across diverse stakeholders
Get PDFThe United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) lists three “durable” pathways for displaced persons to address global displacement: “voluntary repatriation,” “local integration” into the initial host community, or third-country “resettlement.” At present, 78% of refugees displaced worldwide remain in a protracted refugee situation, indicating shortcomings in these three pathways. As global displacement surges and the current refugee protection regime fails to offer timely pathways out of displacement, alternative solutions via complementary pathways are critical. Higher Education (HE) pathways, such as scholarships to study at universities, can be one option, and the UNHCR has committed to expanding complementary HE pathways as part of its Refugee Education 2030 strategy.
As of 2021, only five percent of refugee students globally attended a Higher Education (HE) institution compared to a thirty-nine percent global average. This statistic is sobering because HE is a “critical link between learning and earning, allowing young people to thrive and transition to the pursuit of sustainable futures.” In Thailand, displaced communities have developed education systems in camps, urban areas, and elsewhere along the border. In 2018, I taught 200 secondary-level Karen students in one of the camps in northern Thailand who expressed dreams of continuing their studies outside of the camp at universities. In this thesis project, I will explore how Higher Education (HE) pathways for displaced students can be utilized as one solution for protracted refugee situations (PRS) because it unites displaced communities and host nations based on common interests. I conducted my research in Thailand, the first country of asylum for many displaced persons from Burma/Myanmar.
I designed my research using a pragmatic approach driven by my hypothesis that HE can satisfy concrete interests across diverse stakeholder groups. Viable solutions for global displacement must stem from the aligned and complementary interests of key stakeholders in a particular displacement situation, such as the protracted displacement situation of communities from Burma in Thailand. During my research, I sought to understand stakeholders\u27 beliefs, needs, and concerns, which I label as their “interests,” to account for the social, political, and cultural dynamics at play.
In Thailand, there are strong and organized efforts from displaced community leadership, governing bodies, religious leaders, and ethnic education entities to develop a robust education system for students in the camps and those displaced students living outside the camps. There are also NGOs and foundations supporting the education system. These include systems of education within the camps run by entities such as the Karen Refugee Committee Education Entity (KRCEE), Migrant Learning Centers (MLCs) along the border outside of the camps, and a variety of other programs such as General Education Development (GED) programs and religiously-affiliated schools. The curriculum varies, and students desiring to go on to HE navigate this wide-ranging education system, often through winding paths, to pursue their education goals.
Thailand, a long-time host nation to displaced communities, has demonstrated a willingness and commitment to increasing access to HE for displaced students. However, their programs should be improved and expanded upon. In Thailand, as in any host country for displaced peoples, various stakeholders exist, including the host and displaced community governments and citizenry, NGOs, education institutions, the business and economic development sector, international agencies, and foreign aid departments. Therefore, I conducted research to understand stakeholder interests and analyzed their interests for existing synergy to ascertain the viability of HE as a solution for protracted displacement in Thailand.
My research methodology was primarily qualitative. I first examined what interests define the purpose and utility of HE for displaced students from Burma (Myanmar) residing in Thailand. I identified ten stakeholder groups as relevant to the Thailand-Burma protracted displacement context. Using a mixture of purposive and snowball sampling, I recruited representatives from each stakeholder group. During three months of field research in Thailand, I conducted thirty-four formal interviews with representatives across seven stakeholder groups to identify interests. Finally, I employed a combination of informal discussions, fieldwork, and secondary research to conclude some of the remaining three stakeholders’ interests.
Second, I examined the perceived value-add of HE programs for displaced students from Burma (Myanmar) in Thailand. During three months of field research in Thailand, I used a snowball sampling method to interview fourteen students who had completed a HE program in Thailand about their academic and post-graduation experiences. In addition, I used a combined approach of purposive sampling and snowball sampling to interview other closely connected stakeholders, such as professors, employers, and community leaders, to understand the value of a HE. Together, the results demonstrate that within Thailand, diverse stakeholders have a collective interest in increasing and improving higher education (HE) opportunities for displaced students from Burma (Myanmar). HE has contributed value to the lives of displaced students, their community, and the host country, but students face challenges that prevent the full value potential from being realized. Both an understanding of where stakeholder interests align and policy solutions are needed to realize the full value potential of higher education across diverse stakeholder groups. The remaining sections of my thesis will provide evidence for this stance and suggest several policy enhancements
Conceptualizing Positive versus Negative Awe: Do Connection and Self-Significance Interact to Determine Awe’s Valence?
Get PDFIn this dissertation, I adopted an appraisal theory approach to differentiating positive and negative experiences of awe. In addition to assessing traditional appraisal dimensions, I focused on self-diminishment and connectedness as the appraisals hypothesized to best differentiate awe by valence. I predicted that self-diminishment and connectedness would interact to determine whether awe is experienced as positive or negative, arguing that feeling “small” can be positive if paired with feeling connected but that feeling small can be negative if paired with feeling isolated. An exploratory study (n = 742) induced participants to feel an emotion (positive awe, negative awe, joy, or fear) before rating the descriptiveness of 24 appraisals of the emotion-inducing experience (including self-diminishment and connectedness). Compared to positive awe, negative awe was associated with greater appraisals of need for accommodation, self-diminishment, and isolation, and lower appraisals of connectedness and certainty. Five pilot studies were conducted to validate a video awe induction of awe and essay-based manipulations of self-diminishment and connectedness manipulations. Finally, Experiment 2 (n = 309) tested the theorized model that self-significance and connectedness interact to differentiate positive and negative awe; Experiment 2 also included an exploratory eye-tracking sample (n = 62). Although the predicted interaction was not significant, connectedness was associated with experiencing awe as more positive and less negative. Additional analyses suggested that whether one feels connected or isolated may change whether feelings of significance are experienced positively or negatively. Together, the studies are a further step in using appraisal theory to understand awe’s variants
All Bi Myself: The Relationship Between Bisexuality and Self-Essentialism
Get PDFWith growing positive representation of sexual minorities in psychological research, it is important to consider how differing identities in the LGBTQ+ community might reflect varying relationships with the self. Bisexuals might especially experience poor self-images, due to prejudice experienced both in LGBTQ+ spaces and cishet spaces (Roberts et al., 2015). There is evidence that essentializing the self has a positive relationship with emotional wellbeing (Dulaney et al., 2019). Due to the essentialist belief that an individual can only experience attraction to one gender (Roberts et al., 2015), it is possible that people with multigender attraction struggle to self-essentialize. The current study questions if those who experience bisexual attraction also have lower levels of self-essentialism, and that self-stigma could contribute to these levels. We examined orientation, self-reports of multigender attraction, self-stigma, self-essentialism, and emotional-wellbeing to explore potential relationships between these constructs. Using a mediated regression model, we measured varying levels of self-essentialism across indications of bisexual attraction. Results suggested that bisexual participants experience lower levels of self-essentialism and wellbeing compared to straight participants. We also observed a weak positive correlation between self-stigma and self-essentialism and weak negative correlations between self-stigma with wellbeing and multigender attraction. These results provide a profound lens into the wellbeing of bisexuals and uncover how orientation can influence one’s sense of self. This study also emphasizes the role self-stigma plays in one’s sense of self and offers a framework for illuminating self-stigma unique to multigender attraction
The Cellie Coping Kit for Kids with Craniofacial Conditions: Developing a Culturally Sensitive Psychosocial Support Tool and Coping Resource for Families with School Age Children with Craniofacial Conditions from Diverse Backgrounds
Get PDFThe current project aimed to develop and pilot test a psychosocial support tool and coping resource: the Cellie Coping Kit for Craniofacial Conditions (Cellie Kit). We adapted a cognitive behavioral theory-based tool that promotes resilience and coping, the Cellie Coping Kit, to be appropriate for families of children with craniofacial conditions. Adaptation was guided by an integration of the Cellie Kit adaptation process with heuristic and ecological validity frameworks to increase cultural sensitivity for Hispanic/Latinx families. Kit adaptation and current pilot testing are part of a larger project that includes kit translation, production, and pilot testing of a bilingual Spanish-English Cellie Kit, in addition to the English Cellie Kit development and pilot testing focused on within the current study. Presently, six English speaking families were enrolled and four completed the Cellie Kit Intervention Program, pre- and post-measures, and semi-structured satisfaction interviews and questionnaires at the end of their participation. A mixed-methods approach including descriptive statistics and codebook thematic analysis, were utilized. Study feasibility and acceptability aims were explored through examining researcher fidelity forms, and quantitative and qualitative review of verbal and written participant reports. We found evidence for the feasibility of the coping intervention based on intervention implementation metrics, and both feasibility and acceptability based on participant-reports. Findings will inform future modifications to enhance kit materials and intervention program design as well as guide future evaluation, and potential for integration into routine clinical care