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.

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    An Examination of the Narratives of Men in Power-Sharing Marital Relationships: A Feminist Perspective
    (2008-12-04) Ades, Alisa Joy; Fassinger, Ruth E; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    One of the distinguishing characteristics of the late 20th and early 21st century is the dramatic change in the work and family roles of mothers in the United States. Despite evidence indicating that managing the multiple roles of work and family is healthy for both men and women, and that couples in equitable marriages report higher levels of relationship satisfaction and stability, marital partnerships often fall prey to traditional roles. In the vast majority of heterosexual marriages, men continue to hold the power. For true equality to exist, men and women need to share roles and, ultimately, power. The present study examined the lives of men in power-sharing marriages. The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for understanding what motivates men to pursue a non-traditional path and engage in power sharing marital relationships, where partners hold mutual status, actively negotiate roles, share decision-making and provide mutual attention to family and household tasks. This research was a qualitative study of 13 men in this type of power-sharing marital relationship. These men self-identified as power-sharing and eligibility was confirmed by the primary researcher. Data were gathered through semi-structured in-person interviews. The emerging theoretical framework suggests that the participants followed a complex path that led them to a power-sharing marital relationship. The path was composed of contextual spheres of influence (the sociopolitical context, the family of origin, the community and the academic environment) which worked together to foster the development of societal (justice, gender equality, equity) and interpersonal (mutual respect, reciprocity, family-first, complex connection with partner) values. In turn, the theory proposes that these values inspired the men to embrace a power-sharing orientation. The path did not end for these men with the initiation of the power-sharing marriage because the men in this study constantly confront challenges and rely on facilitators in order to maintain their power-sharing status.
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    Institutional Involvement and the Mental Health Effects of Perceived Neighborhood Disorder in Old Age: The Role of Personal and Divine Control
    (2007-04-23) Bierman, Alex; Milkie, Melissa A.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Previous research has shown that perceptions of neighborhood disorder are related to increased levels of psychological distress. Neighborhood disorder may be especially salient for older adults because the transitions associated with aging heighten the salience of the neighborhood as an arena for social interaction. A stress-process perspective suggests that the effects of neighborhood disorder on mental health may be indirect, and mediated through harm in elders' self-concepts, but also that the structural arrangements in which individuals are embedded may protect elder's mental health by protecting the self. I add to this perspective by focusing on engagement in family and religious institutions as primary indications of enmeshment in the structural arrangements of society. Using a longitudinal study of older adults, I examine whether marriage prevents the mental health effects of perceived neighborhood disorder by protecting mastery, and whether attendance at religious services and prayer protect elders' mental health by preventing loss of a second type of perceived control, sense of divine control. Results show that marriage prevents the effects of neighborhood disorder on depression and anger by preventing a loss of mastery. Further, losses in mastery strengthen the effects of neighborhood disorder on mental health, but only for women and the less educated. Neighborhood disorder is also related to loss of sense of divine control, but only for elders with greater levels of education, and religious involvement helps prevent these effects. However, this moderation provides no mental health benefits, and change in sense of divine control does not alter the relationship between neighborhood disorder and mental health. A primary contribution of this dissertation is that it places the effects of perceived neighborhood disorder in a larger structural context by demonstrating that they are contingent on engagement in the social structures which pattern human behavior and sustain the structure of society.
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    THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF AMERICAN INDIAN CASINOS
    (2006-08-07) Kim, Wooyoung; Evans, William N.; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This dissertation analyzes the impact of American Indian casinos on social and economic outcomes of reservation residents using restrict-use data from 1990 and 2000 census long form. Federal legislature in 1988 allowed Indian tribes in certain states to open casinos and since then, over 400 casinos have opened, 240 of which have Las Vegas-style games. I demonstrate that casino operations increased employment rates and wages. The impact was primarily for Indians and larger for low-skilled workers among Indians. Employment rates of Indians increased by 6.0 percentage points for those with less than high school degree and by 5.5 percentage points for those with high school degree. Young Indian adults responded by dropping out of high school and not enrolling college even though many tribes had generous college tuition subsidy programs. High school enrollment rates fell by 4.8 percentage points for 18 year old Indian males, by 5.1 and 8.7 percentage points for Indian females aged 17 and 18. The high school graduation rate of those aged 20-24 fell by 9.6 percentage points and by 11.5 percentage points for Indian males and for Indian females, respectively. College entrance rate fell by 5.3 percentage points and by 8.8 percentage points for young Indian males and Indian females, respectively. Economic changes on gaming reservations also altered the incentives to marry and have children. Ever married rates of males increased by 2.6 to 5.0 percentage points for those aged 18 to 21. Ever married rates of females did not show any statistically significant changes except among 24 year old Indians. The fraction of females (aged 18 to 25) having children fell for both Indians and non-Indians by 3.4 to 3.7 percentage points.
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    EMPLOYMENT AND MARRIAGE: PATHWAYS OFF OF WELFARE?
    (2005-02-01) Roberts, Tracy Elizabeth; Martin, Steven P; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Does the way women exit welfare affect their probability of returning to welfare? Using data drawn from the 1979 - 2000 National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, I examine the effect of marital and employment transitions on recidivism rates. I find that women who combine employment and marriage after exiting welfare, in that order, have significantly lower risks of recidivism than other women. Women who marry but do not enter employment have higher recidivism rates than women who combine employment and marriage, but they are less likely to return to welfare than women who are only employed. The data suggest that simply encouraging marriage or women's employment may not reduce welfare recidivism. The best policy strategy to reduce welfare dependence and encourage healthy marriages may be to strengthen work support programs and improve the circumstances of employment (and opportunities for strong marriages) for low-income men and women.
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    "Your garbe makes me I knowe you not": The Cavendish Family and the Literary Transformation of Marriage Practices
    (2004-08-09) Wells, Christina M.; Donawerth, Jane L.; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    In this dissertation, I examine Jane Cavendish, Elizabeth Brackley, and their father, William Cavendish, as a literary coterie, asserting that comparisons between the generations are necessary to a full understanding of their literature and its historical context. Each family member authored texts that examine the role of women in marriage, and each of their analyses places the English Civil War in the forefront. This conjunction between marriage and war preoccupies the Cavendish family with conflations of domestic and state business. I argue that each member of the Cavendish family portrays a war where noblewomen's marital choices influenced who would--and who would not--join the power structure, hoping to regain authority for the monarchy and its followers. Father and daughters address marriage and the nobility in different ways, but in each case, marriage is a device to explain larger social conditions and choices by women. The family was at the center of dialogue concerning women's marital and martial roles in the English Civil War. With my introduction, I provide an overview of the Cavendish family's historical circumstances in the war, examining the relationship between Royalism and the aristocratic household. In Chapter 2, I use the <I>Book of Common Prayer</I> and sources on monastic community to situate Jane Cavendish's poetic threat to become a nun to avoid marriage, and I place in context the sisters' <I>Concealed Fancies</I>, a household drama in which women employ a variety of techniques--including the threat to be a nun--to postpone marital decisions. Chapters 3 and 4 each concern the family's use of the pastoral to dramatize Civil War nobility. Cavendish and Brackley's <I>A Pastorall</I> rewrites pastoral tradition as a feminist endeavor, one that gives shepherdesses a vocal demonstration against marriage during war. William Cavendish's "Parte of a Pastorall" and its supporting texts attempt to recreate history, uplifting the defeated Royalist, while claiming marriage as a way to restore Royalist plentitude. With each chapter, I maintain that the Cavendish family sought to define home, looking at marriage with a new sense of purpose because of the war surrounding them.