Counseling, Higher Education & Special Education Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2757
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Item SHATTERING THE COLLEGIATE GLASS CEILING: UNDERSTANDING THE EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN STUDENT GOVERNMENT PRESIDENTS(2019) Davis, Kristen Rupert; Griffin, Kimberly A; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the last few decades, leadership skills have arisen as a core part of undergraduate education. The general outcomes associated with leadership skills in college include decision-making skills, increased cognitive complexity, and navigating group dynamics and relationship building (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). While leadership skills are derived from a variety of experiences on campus, positional leadership experiences help students develop concrete and specific outcomes associated with self-confidence, the development of a sense of competence higher levels of psychosocial development, a stronger ability to clarify their purpose in life, and greater aptitude for career planning and life management (Astin & Leland, 1991; Foubert & Grainger, 2006). In particular, serving as the president of a student organization has been associated with increased self-efficacy and growth in perceived leadership ability specifically for women (Bardou, Bryne, Pasternak, Perez, & Rainey, 2003; Dugan, 2006; H. S. Astin & Kent, 1983). However, women less likely to reap these gains, as they are less likely to take on positional leadership roles in college (Stevens, 2011). This is especially apparent in high-ranking leadership role like student government president. The purpose of this study was to better understand women college students’ journey to and through being a student government president, and whether and how gender and sexism influenced their presidential experiences. Case study methodology and a narrative approach to data collection was used to answer four research questions. Participant interviews garnered 5 themes including: (a) Systemic Issues of Diversity and Inclusion on Campus, (b) Catalysts, Influencing Factors, and the Impact of Identity on Running for Office, (c) Impact of Leadership Style, Assumed Biases, and External Feedback on Women Leaders, (d) External Expectations of Image and Presentation, and (e) Relationships with Administrators. Findings from this study suggest that more research on women in leadership in both college and in the workforce is necessary. They also suggest that administrators and campus community members need to be cognizant of bias and stereotypes when engaging with women student leaders. Lastly, findings indicate that issues of inclusion and diversity on campus impact how women engage in leadership roles on campus.Item TRANSFER EFFICACY: EXPLORING A SUCCESS ORIENTED NARRATIVE OF THE TRANSFER STUDENT EXPERIENCE(2019) Hayes, Shannon; Cabrera, Alberto; Park, Julie; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this dissertation study is to understand the extent to which self-efficacy is present in the transfer process for community college students from different racial and sociocultural backgrounds. Specifically, this research borrows from Bandura’s (1994) construct of self-efficacy in order to introduce Transfer Efficacy, which is a framework developed to describe the way in which students’ develop self-efficacy beliefs around their ability to transfer and navigate the transfer process. This study employed a nested qualitative case study methodology, which took an in-depth look at 15 community college students who had transferred from a two-year to a four-year institution. The student participants in this study, who served as the nested cases, were interviewed individually in order to understand their transfer experiences. In addition to the individual interviews with student participants, the other data collected included the analysis of various documents and interviews with four administrators who worked on the two-year and four-year campus. Findings from this study provide a number of implications for future consideration. In particular, this dissertation suggests that Transfer Efficacy may be a useful framework for understanding transfer student narratives. Further, the findings point to the importance of internship experiences for students while enrolled in community college, the significance of pre-transfer advising, and the need for stronger transfer articulation agreements. Also worth noting is the possible connection between institutional commitment, the development of self-efficacy for transfer, and transfer student identity. This study is significant in three main ways. First, this study contributes to the transfer student narrative by providing a new perspective regarding the positive outcomes of transfer. In particular, this study contributes to current transfer student research by unpacking the role of self-efficacy. Second, this research provides practical implications for higher education practitioners so that the transfer student pipeline may become a more solid path for students seeking to graduate with a baccalaureate degree. Finally, this research will shed light on the contextual nature of the transfer process.Item Worry Intensity about Situations Experienced by Student Teachers(2019) McCurdy, Kelsey Faith; Teglasi, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Student teachers are often overlooked in discussions about teacher burnout, attrition, and turnover despite evidence that burnout may begin to develop during student teaching (Horgan, Howard, & Gardiner-Hyland, 2018). High rates of teacher turnover and attrition are costly and detract from the quality of education (Alliance, 2014). This study examines four questions related to student teachers’ experience with worry and stress: how much do student teachers worry about common teaching situations, to what extent is worry intensity situational, how do student teachers describe their experiences with worry, and is worry intensity related to perceived stress reactivity? Results demonstrated that person differences accounted for relatively more variation in worry intensity than did situations. Further, results demonstrated that worry intensity was significantly related to perceived stress reactivity to social evaluation. Implications for understanding how individuals reason about worry intensity and implications for teacher preparation programs are discussed.Item Relations Among Peer Victimization, Aggression, And School Climate in Elementary School Students(2019) Sullivan, Kathryn; Wang, CIxin; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Peer victimization in schools is a growing concern in China, where prevalence rates range from 22-26.1% (Han, Zhang, & Zhang, 2017; Cheng et al., 2010). Peer victimization is linked to many negative outcomes, including increased aggression (Arsenault et al., 2006; Averdijk et al., 2016). A positive school climate, which includes factors that support learning, physical and emotional safety, connection, support, and engagement, may serve as a protective factor against both peer victimization and its negative outcomes. This study examined the longitudinal relations between peer victimization, aggression, and school climate by examining self-report survey data collected from 800 3rd to 6th-grade students in China. Results indicated that a positive school climate was a significant moderator of the positive relationship between peer victimization and later aggression. These findings have important implications for the role of school climate as protective against later behavioral difficulties for victimized students.Item Exploring Identities and Relationships: Narratives of Second-Generation, Black, West Indian College Students From Boston(2019) English, Shelvia R.; Griffin, Kimberly A; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the collegiate experiences of second-generation, West Indian college students from Boston. Too often, Black students are treated as a monolith in education research and practice. This study provides new knowledge regarding how second-generation West Indian college students communicate and enact their racial, ethnic, and immigrant identities in their relationships with faculty, staff, peers, and family while in college. The theoretical framework guiding this study was Communication Theory of Identity, which centered the connection between identities and relationships. Through the use of narrative inquiry, seven West-Indian participants from Boston completed a demographic questionnaire and shared their narratives through two, semi-structured, in-person interviews. Through hand coding methods and inductive and deductive analysis of the data, five themes emerged: (a) Proving Cultural Authenticity, (b) Defining a West Indian Identity, (c) Differences Exist, but Race Still Matters, (d) Homophily in Friendships, and (e) Representation Matters: Faculty and Staff Relationships. The findings offer insight of how participants viewed themselves, communicated their identities to others, and whether their relationships affirmed who they viewed themselves to be. Participants encountered disparate messages about their race, ethnicity, and generation status, compelling them to respond depending upon their audience and context. In particular, the shift from and contrast between participants’ Boston neighborhoods to predominantly white campuses across Massachusetts contributed to a difference in how participants perceived themselves. In college, participants confronted the racialized component of their ethnicity and grappled with how they were viewed as Black and West Indian. Friendships provided the optimal space and relationship in which participants most easily navigated their racial, ethnic and immigrant status identities. In contrast to their friendships, participants minimally shared about themselves outside of close relationships with Black faculty or staff. The shifts in the racial composition of participants’ environments, coupled with the types of messages they received in their interactions and relationships, demonstrates the connection between relationships, context, and identities.Item Stress and achievement in elementary school students: The mediating role of growth mindset(2019) Babaturk, Leyla; O'Neal, Colleen R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The achievement gap is one of the most pernicious education problems in the United States, and stress has a negative impact on achievement. Growth mindset may explain how stress impacts achievement. This study used a short-term longitudinal design (n = 251; 36% DLL) to evaluate growth mindset as a mediator of the negative impact of stress on literacy achievement in 3rd - 5th grade students. Results confirmed that perceived stress was negative related to achievement. The present study also explored whether mediation model results differ between dual-language learning (DLL) and English-native students. Although growth mindset did not act as a mediator in the full sample, growth-minded attributions mediated the negative effect of stress on achievement for non-DLL students only. These results hold implications for understanding how to help students with the consequences of stress on their mindsets and academic performance.Item The Contributions of Temperament Traits to Regulatory Flexibility in Preschoolers: The Importance of Context(2019) Shoplik, Helena; Teglasi, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Regulatory flexibility is the ability to meet demands of a situation by modulating behavior, cognitions, or emotions. While flexibility has been studied in early childhood, the role of reactive and regulatory temperamental building blocks of flexibility to meet requirements of different contexts has not been investigated in preschoolers. Routine and novel contexts require very different skills to navigate appropriately. For example, different aspects of inhibition and modulation of behavior may come into play in familiar/routine and novel contexts such those that depart from expectations. The current study utilized a parent-report measure of temperament and of regulatory flexibility to address the unique contributions of selected temperamental attributes—including attention, sensitivity, and activity level—to regulatory flexibility. Because of its multi-faceted nature (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010), an in-depth examination of regulatory flexibility could provide a better understanding of how preschoolers meet the challenges that are introduced to them during this developmental period.Item "Wait, Are You Jewish?": Jewish Culture on Campus(2019) Reich, Madeline Brooke; Moore, Candace M; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)With a number of recent high-profile anti-Jewish hate incidents on college campuses and across the United States, a deeper understanding of Jewish student culture is necessary for practitioners and scholars to better understand Jewish students. The purpose of the study was to gain an understanding of Jewish college students’ perspectives on Jewish student culture during college. Two research questions were examined: 1) How does an undergraduate Jewish student’s understanding of self, context, and their pathway to Judaism influence their cultural tool kit during college? and 2) In what ways do Jewish students use basic knowledge as part of their tool kits? Five Jewish college students engaged in semi-structured interviews. Through dialogical narrative analysis, four story types emerged: pre-college Jewish experiences, connection to other Jews, rituals and religious services, and basic knowledge.Item WOKE LIKE ME: EXPERIENCES AND EXPECTATIONS OF WOKENESS AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS(2019) Zewdie, Hana; Moore, Candace M; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Woke, generally referring to awareness of social issues, has become commonplace language in American popular and political cultures. The lengthy and culturally embedded history of wokeness, and its implications for higher education reveal that this is not merely a fad. Using the framework of critical consciousness and intersectionality, the purpose of this thesis is to gain an understanding of the meaning of woke as understood by college students who identify as such, and to explore associated intra-group expectations and experiences. Five themes emerged describing how participants came to understand wokeness as a series of expectations through an internal process heavily facilitated by engagement with others. Students were willing to engage outside of their woke communities, but only so far, and often held different expectations for themselves than others.Item Secondary Traumatic Stress, Financial Stress, and the Role of Coping in Understanding Southeast Asian American Mental Health(2019) Truong, Nancy Nguyen; Miller, Matthew J; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study advances the literature by jointly examining two stressors (secondary traumatic stress and financial stress) hypothesized to impact the mental health of the Southeast Asian American (SEAA) community and focused on the experiences of generational stress with SEAAs. This study also examined how coping moderated the relationship between stress and mental health. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to test whether secondary traumatic stress, financial stress, direct and indirect coping (entered in Step 1), and the interactions between stress and coping (entered in Step 2) predicted mental health. Participants included 134 self-identified 1.5-generation and second-generation SEAA adults who completed an online survey. Consistent with emerging research, increased financial stress and secondary traumatic stress significantly predicted poorer mental health. Further, indirect coping significantly predicted poorer mental health. Contrary to expectations, none of the moderation effects were significant. Post-hoc analyses were also conducted. Limitations and implications for future research and practice are addressed.