Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item CREATING A SOCIALLY JUST KINESIOLOGY: ADDRESSING ANTI-BLACKNESS IN THEORY, RESEARCH, AND PEDAGOGY(2024) Justin, Tori Alexis; Jette, Shannon; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Currently, the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK) is striving to create a socially just kinesiology (DePauw, 2021). The NAK call to action is informed, in part, by emergent scholarship that examines how dominant approaches in kinesiology often discount the importance of developing anti-racist, critical, and equitable pedagogy (e.g., Armstrong, 2022). While this scholarship brings attention to kinesiology’s centering of whiteness and the persistent stereotyping of (in)active Black bodies, what is missing is an examination of how/if anti-Black explanations of corporeality manifest across differing spaces in contemporary kinesiology and, if present, what form(s) they take. My dissertation addresses the above-identified gap by using a three-manuscript model to examine three 'spaces’ of kinesiology: theoretical, research, and pedagogical.In manuscript 1 (Chapter 2), I engage Black feminist theory to critically evaluate the tenets of Physical Cultural Studies (PCS). In doing so, I identify a significant theoretical and empirical oversight in PCS scholarship, namely the tendency to reify white Eurocentric epistemo-logics and disregard Black feminist thought by emphasizing Black masculinity and white feminist imperatives in examinations of race and gender. To disrupt this practice, I propose a Black feminist informed reconceptualization of four principal PCS tenets (pedagogical, political, qualitative, and theoretical). Manuscript 2 (Chapter 3) delves into research spaces by investigating how notions of “race” and “racial difference” are constructed in cardiovascular health (CVH) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) research. I conducted a scoping review to systematically identify original research articles (N=236) that included “race” in their examinations of CRF and CVH and then analyzed the sample to ascertain how each article approached “race” and “racial difference”. Key findings include: the majority (77.5%) of the studies did not define race; more than half of the studies (58.6%) compared Black and white racial groups in their examinations; 45.2% of the studies positioned white research participants as the ‘average’ or ‘normal’ in comparison to other racial groups; and only one article discussed the possible role of racism in relation to their identification of racial difference in an outcome of interest. These findings illustrate the need for CRF and CVH examinations to engage scientific best practice on how to research “race” and “racial differences” in ways that avoid reproducing racialized stereotypes. Manuscript 3 (Chapter 4) considers how Black women doctoral students experience pedagogical spaces of kinesiology departments. By conducting semi-structured open-ended interviews (N=10) with current and former Black women graduate students in kinesiology, I examine participants’ perspectives on how/if anti-Black explanations of corporeality inform kinesiology research practice and curriculum, and how the participants experience these pedagogies. Key themes identified are: kinesiological research tends to employ “colorblind research methods”; these methods contribute to monocultural and ahistorical understandings of (in)active bodies and health; and participants experience resistance to institutionally-backed attempts to disrupt white normativity. For kinesiology to transform into the socially just field that NAK is advocating, kinesiologists must consider how anti-Blackness can inadvertently manifest in their theories, research practices, and pedagogies. I provide practical suggestions throughout the dissertation on how to move toward change in each of these spaces.Item EVALUATING THE EFFECTS OF MODIFIABLE LIFESTYLE AND CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH FACTORS ON DIABETES LIFE EXPECTANCY IN NHANES AND BRAIN AGING IN UK BIOBANK(2024) Feng, Li; Lei, David K.Y. DL; Ma, Tianzhou TM; Nutrition; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explored the impact of lifestyle and cardiovascular health factors on aging, particularly focusing on individuals with diabetes, the effects of blood pressure on brain aging, and the influence of cardiovascular health and genetic predispositions on brain white matter aging.The first study examined the trends in lifestyle quality among US adults with type 2 diabetes from 1999 to 2018 using NHANES data, involving 7,410 participants. A healthy lifestyle score encompassing smoking, drinking, physical activity, and diet showed a slight increased over the years. Notably, disparities remained significant by socioeconomic groups. The study found that adherence to low-risk lifestyle factors was associated with a 55%-57% lower risk of all-cause mortality, emphasizing the importance of lifestyle modification in diabetes management, and it was independent of cardiovascular risk control. The second study investigated the causal effect of elevated blood pressure on white matter brain aging in a cohort of 228,473 European ancestries aged 40-69 from the UK Biobank by using two-sample Mendelian randomization. Our result revealed that high blood pressure, particularly diastolic, accelerated the machine-learning-derived white matter brain age gap, based on white matter microstructure integrity measured by fractional anisotropy derived from diffusion tensor imaging data, with a causal effect evidence found in late middle-aged women. This underscores the importance of blood pressure control in preventing brain aging, especially in post-menopausal women. Lastly, the impact of Life's Essential 8 (LE8), a comprehensive measure of cardiovascular health (lifestyle part: diet, smoke, physical activity, sleep; health part: BMI, blood sugar, blood pressure, blood lipid), on white matter brain aging was assessed, with a particular focus on how the APOE4 genotype modifies the relationship. Analyzing data from 18,817 European ancestries aged 40-60 from the UK Biobank, the study revealed that higher LE8 scores correlated with a younger brain age. Interestingly, the effect varied significantly with APOE4 status, highlighting the need for personalized health strategies based on genetic profiles. In conclusion, these studies collectively highlight the crucial role of modifiable lifestyle and health factors in managing chronic diseases, controlling blood pressure, and maintaining brain health, with an emphasis on the integration of genetic profiles for personalized healthcare.