UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item Addressing Unsubmitted Sexual Assault Kits and Reforming Processes Going Forward: Burnout and Vicarious Trauma Among Staff Working the Cases(2019) Meadows, Kristi; Curbow, Barbara; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Burnout and vicarious trauma continue to be high priority topics in healthcare and law enforcement research, but there is a sizeable deficit within the literature among professions working directly with sexual assault cases. Generally, burnout and vicarious trauma among specific professions within the justice system including attorneys, victim advocates, and sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE) have been significantly understudied. Additionally, reforms are currently underway to address the problem of unsubmitted sexual assault kits stored in warehouses across the United States. However, implications for the employees have not been studied by researchers to understand potential consequences in working with these cases nor the added stress of reforms. Secondary qualitative analysis was conducted using data from a sample of interviews with key informants (n=135) who are victim-facing and involved in processes to address both unsubmitted sexual assault kits and current cases of sexual assault. Informants were more likely to focus on facilitators and challenges in their daily work than to discuss the outcomes of burnout and vicarious trauma. Insufficient access to resources and increased workloads were the most significant challenges discussed among key informants, although, emotional labor and other difficult aspects of the job were also a common theme throughout this population. Social support including support across agencies, as well as supervisory support, were the most discussed potential protective factors of burnout. This study contributes information regarding key challenges faced by individuals working on sexual assault cases and has direct implications for employees in the field as well as those undergoing reform on sexual assault kit processing. These findings should be used to understand potential contributors to burnout and vicarious trauma in order to better mitigate negative outcomes associated with this work.Item Using Mindfulness to Reduce Occupational Stress and Burnout in Music Teachers: A Randomized Controlled Trial(2019) Varona, Dana Arbaugh; Hewitt, Michael P; Prichard, Stephanie; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on K-12 music educators' self-reported responses to occupational stress and burnout. Secondary purposes were (a) to explore the experiences of K-12 music educators who underwent a four-week web-based MBI; and (b) to determine if there were any potential relations between participants' demographic and descriptive data and their pretest levels of self-reported responses to occupational stress and burnout. Two hundred fifty in-service music teachers were randomly assigned to either the treatment or waitlist-control group. Treatment group participants (n = 90) underwent a four-week online MBI known as the Mindfulness Training for Music Educators (MTME). Waitlist-control group participants (n = 160) were not provided with any mindfulness training but were given full access to the MTME following completion of the study. All participants completed assessments of self-reported responses to occupational stress and burnout at pretest, midpoint, and posttest. Following completion of the MTME, treatment group participants provided data regarding their experiences with the MTME and its feasibility. Results of mixed effects regression suggested that treatment group participants reported significantly steeper decreases in responses to occupational stress and burnout than waitlist-control group participants. Cross-sectional analyses at pretest indicated that age, female gender, salary dissatisfaction, perceived lack of administrative support, and perceived lack of parental support were significant predictors of increased responses to occupational stress, while teaching secondary school, salary dissatisfaction, perceived lack of administrative support, and perceived lack of parental support were significant predictors of increased responses to burnout. For each additional extracurricular hour worked beyond the school day, there was small but significant decrease in burnout. During the intervention period, the treatment group participants experienced a variety of occupational stressors including managing students, major events, interpersonal conflict, scheduling issues, and illness. Participants primarily responded to occupational stress with emotion-focused coping strategies such as breathing and meditation. Overall, treatment group participants found the MTME to be feasible for reducing stress and burnout while working as a music teacher and would recommend it to a fellow music educator.Item Locked Up: Exploring the Complex Nature of Conflicting Values Systems and Their Effects on Work Attitudes(2007-08-06) DeCelles, Katherine A.; Tesluk, Paul; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Values are individuals' enduring perspectives on what is fundamentally right or wrong (Rokeach, 1973). These perspectives affect how people interpret their surroundings and interactions with others; individuals act in accordance with, and judge others' behavior by, what they believe is right (Bandura, 1991). Values have been studied extensively in the organizational literature, focusing on how individuals' values (such as honesty or achievement) affect their job attitudes (such as organizational commitment and job satisfaction; Ravlin & Meglino, 1987). While values and their effects on employees have been widely studied (Braithwaite, 1994; Cable & Edwards, 2004; Judge & Bretz, 1992; Rokeach, 1973; Ravlin & Meglino, 1987; Schwartz, 1992, 1994; Tsui & O'Reilly, 1989), they are often categorized into competing or conflicting frameworks (e.g., Cameron & Quinn, 1999; Schwartz, 1994). However, emerging evidence suggests that some competing values might actually be held simultaneously by individuals (Braithwaite, 1994; El-Sawad, Arnold, & Cohen, 2004; Kerlinger, 1983; Tetlock, 1986). If this paradoxical scenario is true, these values may actually interact, rather than displace one another. While cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957) and balance theory (Heider, 1946) --- central in psychology and organizational literature --- predict that individuals cannot hold conflicting values simultaneously without suffering from negative consequences like stress, I argue otherwise. This dissertation examines the extent to which individuals can hold conflicting values simultaneously rather than dichotomously, explores the mechanisms through which they do so, and also examines the effects of such value composition on employee attitudes. This is accomplished through two studies: first, a survey-based examination, and second, an in-depth inductive study. Both of these studies investigate these questions about conflicting values in a sample of correctional officers, and their values towards crime (punitive and rehabilitative ideals). Results indicate support that conflicting values can be simultaneously held by individuals, and that they interact to produce positive, rather than negative, job attitudes. More specifically, I find that correctional officers who hold both of these values have higher levels of perceived fit with their organization, higher levels of organizational commitment, and lower levels of burnout than officers of other value combinations. Inductive results of the qualitative portion also add explanatory value to the question of why and how this can happen; qualitative results show that correctional officers often draw from both value-perspectives in order to complete their difficult job duties in effective and balanced ways.