Behavioral & Community Health Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2802
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Item Sexuality Education, Sexual Communication, Rape Myth Acceptance, and Sexual Assault Experience among Deaf and Hard of Hearing College Students(2009) Francavillo, Gwendolyn Suzanne Roberts; Sawyer, Robin G; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Deaf and Hard of Hearing college students are at an increased risk of sexual assault in comparison to their hearing peers. Previous studies demonstrate that although sexual assault rates among college students are high, among the Deaf community, these rates are nearly double. Data suggest that between 50% and 83% of Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals will experience sexual assault in their lifetime, with Deaf and Hard of Hearing women more likely to experience sexual assault than Deaf and Hard of Hearing men. There exists only a small amount of published research regarding Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals and sexuality, and an even smaller amount of research has been conducted with Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals on the subject of sexual assault. The high sexual assault rates among Deaf and Hard of Hearing students may be partially attributed to their limited sexuality education and knowledge, most often as a result of communication, language, and cultural barriers. The purpose of this study was to 1) examine a possible relationship between levels of sexuality education, sexual communication, rape myth acceptance, and sexual assault experience, along with demographic variables, among Deaf and Hard of Hearing college students; and 2) examine differences between students previously educated in schools for the Deaf versus mainstream schools, with regard to their levels of sexuality education, sexual communication, rape myth acceptance, and sexual assault experience. The instrument was developed incorporating the Sexual Communication Survey (SCS), Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (RMAS), Sexual Experiences Survey (SES), sexuality education and sexual activity components. Two sets of hypotheses were examined via linear regression to ascertain significant relationships among the variables, with Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) constructs being used as the theoretical foundation of the study. Seven analyses were found to be statistically significant, with sexual communication, gender, and consensual sexual activity predictor variables explaining the outcome variable, sexual assault experience, at high percentages. The findings from this research have provided a greater baseline of data for future studies to investigate the factors influencing sexual assault among Deaf and Hard of Hearing college students.Item Relationship of Yoga Experience to Body Satisfaction and Eating Attitudes(2008-04-11) Lawlor, Carrie Jayne; Beck, Kenneth; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Yoga, a mind-body exercise, may improve body dissatisfaction and decrease eating disorder symptoms among females by addressing four theories of antecedents to body dissatisfaction: internalization of the thinness ideal, social comparison theory, self-ideal discrepancy theory, and objectification theory. This study used a cross sectional survey to investigate whether there is a relationship between yoga experience among women and levels of antecedents to body dissatisfaction, body dissatisfaction and eating disorders symptoms. The results indicate that frequency of yoga practice is associated with a lower tendency to self-objectify. The data also indicate that a greater magnitude of lifetime practice of yoga is associated with body satisfaction. The data suggest that there may be a marginal relationship between a greater magnitude of lifetime yoga practice and actual-ideal discrepancies. These findings support the notion that historical yoga experience and shorter term intensity of yoga practice may be related to how women view their bodies.Item Instrument Development For Continuing Medical Education Evaluation(2007-08-28) Tian, Jing; Atkinson, Nancy L; Portnoy, Barry; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to develop a valid, reliable and adaptable CME evaluation instrument to facilitate the future CME evaluation effort as well as contribute to the literature of CME evaluation studies. A generic instrument template was first developed addressing variables in the second evaluation level based on the TPB, i.e. attitude, behavioral belief, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention. The instrument was then adapted to a CME-related conference, Preoperative Therapy in Invasive Breast Cancer: Reviewing the State of the Science and Exploring New Research Directions. Data were collected at the conference. A total of 134 physicians returned their questionnaires. Principle axis factoring with oblique rotation was used to examine the underlying structure of the data and reduced the items in the instrument to six subscales: positive beliefs, negative beliefs, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention. Factor loadings supported the existence of six valid scales. The consistency between the a priori subscales and the factors emerged served as evidence for content validity of the instrument. Overall, all the subscales had sufficient reliability (alpha>= 0.70) for early stage instrument development showing the unidimensionality of the subscales. Scale modifications based on item analyses were conducted. The problematic items were eliminated, and the analyses were rerun. A 22-item instrument and a revised generic instrument template were finally developed. This study determined the adaptability of the theory based instrument template to the NCI CME conference and the feasibility of developing a content specific, valid and reliable CME evaluation instrument from the template assessing the changes in the concepts listed in the second evaluation level. The established and validated instrument could further be used to evaluate the effectiveness of other CME activities having the template adapted to different clinical domains addressed by each individual CME activity.