Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item WHAT HAPPENS WHEN STUDENTS KNUCK AND BUCK SYSTEMS OF INJUSTICE? A MULTIMETHOD STUDY EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENT ACTIVISM AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING(2022) Smith, Samantha Alyce; Arria, Amelia M; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In recent years, college students' declining mental health status has garnered the attention of public health and educational professionals. Mental health is a complex construct influenced by biological, behavioral, social, and environmental factors. One critical dimension of mental health is emotional well-being, representing the positive and negative emotions one experiences. Little research exists regarding the relationship between activism, a possible social influence, and mental health. This multimethod dissertation study focuses on the relationship between college student participation in activism and contemporary social movements, including the Black Lives Matter movement, and different dimensions of emotional well-being, including depressive and anxiety symptoms, level of optimism, and sense of belonging. Framed by the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping, the qualitative portion of the research involved in-depth interviews among 18 students aged 18-25 who participated in 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. The purpose of these interviews was to examine the short-term impact of protest participation on student emotional well-being and how activism was related to coping. Findings revealed that the sociopolitical climate negatively impacted student emotional well-being, and those associated negative emotions acted as a motivator to participate in protests. Conversely, participating in protests garnered sense of belonging and empowerment. Protest participation appeared to serve as an emotion-focused coping strategy among these students. The quantitative analyses conducted in this dissertation utilized secondary data from the 2019 Wake Forest Well-being Assessment to investigate the motivators (Aim 2) and emotional well-being correlates (Aim 3) of activism participation. For both analyses, two forms of activism were studied – disruptive (e.g., protests) and persuasive tactics (e.g., digital activism). Civic morals identity centrality and discrimination were examined as possible motivators. Multivariate and multinomial logistic regression models developed for Aim 2 held constant other potential confounding variables (i.e., gender, sexual orientation, parental education and race/ethnicity) and revealed positive associations between discrimination experiences and civic moral identity centrality and disruptive activism (p<.001) and persuasive tactics (p<.001). Regression models for Aim 3 that examined the relationship between activism participation and emotional well-being revealed that disruptive activism tactics were positively associated with depressive symptoms (p<.001), anxiety symptoms (p<.001), and sense of belonging (p<.05). A negative association was observed between disruptive activism and optimism (p<.05). All of these associations were robust to the inclusion of demographic covariates. Coping did not appear to moderate any of the relationships observed. Taken together these finding begin to elucidate the nuanced and complex relationship between activism and emotional well-being. Given that a significant proportion of college students studied participated in some form of activism, our understanding of the impact of activism on student emotional well-being is an important area that warrants additional investigation in future studies. The findings of this study can be used to support ongoing intervention development that addresses the mental health needs of college students, specifically those engaged in activism work. Additionally, these findings can be used to support mitigating health disparities that are the result from sociopolitical factors such as racism and discrimination.Item Exploring the civic potential of places: Place-based education as a tool for youth civic engagement(2019) Sinclair, Kristin; Malen, Betty; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This qualitative case study examined how place-based education (PBE) (e.g. Gruenewald, 2003a, Sobel, 2004), might provide opportunities for young people from marginalized backgrounds to develop civic engagement attitudes, behaviors, commitments and skills. This study investigated personally responsible and participatory civic engagement (e.g., Westheimer & Kahne, 2004), but focused on critical or sociopolitical action and justice-oriented civic engagement (Watts & Flanagan, 2007). Grounded in a conceptual framework encompassing PBE’s theory of change, critical theories of place, and youth sociopolitical development (Watts & Flanagan, 2007) this study drew on documents, observations, student work, and interviews with administrators, teachers and 11th grade students at Greenfields Public Charter School during the three month long food justice project (FJP). The FJP was an interdisciplinary, experiential project wherein students researched a local food justice issue through community- and school-based fieldwork. Teachers’ goals for the FJP included that students would gain data analysis and research skills, understand the impact of their individual choices, and develop a set of skills and dispositions for engaging in critical social action, specifically a “sense of their own agency.” Even with a favorable school environment, supportive and flexible administrators, and dedicated teachers, the FJP’s outcomes were ultimately disappointing. Findings suggest that while most students gained research skills, only some developed a sense of agency and civic engagement attitudes, behaviors, and commitments. Students who completed projects that investigated school-based issues demonstrated participatory behaviors and skills. Students who studied neighborhood-based issues, however, were the only ones who demonstrated gains in justice-oriented civic engagement. They reported changes in their attitudes towards other marginalized groups, a greater awareness of structural explanations for injustice, and expressed newfound commitments to “be more active” in their communities. This study identifies conditions under which PBE might foster youth civic engagement. Primarily, it argues that the spatial context of PBE – defined as the arena (i.e., school, neighborhood, or city) in which projects are situated and the meanings of place a project invokes (e.g., place-as-container versus place-as-content and context) – may mediate PBE’s impact on civic engagement. Implications for practice, suggestions for future research, and potential refinements to the conceptual framework are discussed.Item Exploration of Communicative Social Capital, Civic Engagement and Political Engagement of the Korean Diaspora(2012) Jang, Ahnlee; Toth, Elizabeth L.; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to examine qualitatively how members of the Korean diaspora in the Washington, DC, area make meaning of ethnic community, social capital, and civic and political engagement. More specifically, the study examined how communicative social capital influences civic and political engagement as well as other factors that influence or inhibit civic and political engagement of the Korean diaspora. Previous communication scholarship has under-examined social capital of ethnically diverse publics in relation to these aspects. Literature regarding the diaspora, ethnic identity, social capital, and civic and political engagement contributed to this study. From the literature, four research questions were posed: How do members of the Korean diaspora make meaning of the Korean community? How do members of the Korean diaspora make meaning of social capital and create opportunities for social capital? How do members of the Korean diaspora make meaning of civic and political engagement? and, How does social capital influence civic and political engagement? To best illustrate and describe how members of the Korean diaspora experience the phenomena of the diasporic community, social capital, and civic and political engagement, I chose a qualitative research method, which utilized 42 in-depth, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with members of the Korean diaspora in the Washington, DC, area, guided by an interview protocol. I utilized a grounded theory approach to data analysis. From the data, several themes arouse regarding ethnic community, social capital and civic and political engagement. Results suggested that members of the Korean diaspora made meaning of ethnic community in relation to ethnic identity, and there were varying perceptions of the Korean community, drawbacks as well as reasons to keep the community, which varied depending on the generations. Social capital was found to be plentiful in the churches, but not so much in the community at large, and church capital was not equally available or accessible to all members. Some participants were more concerned about social capital, hoping to contribute or give back to the community rather than receiving the community social capital. Results suggested that weak consciousness and lack of ownership, language and cultural barrier, lack of resources and motivation discourage civic engagement while church activities and parental status encourages civic engagement. In terms of the political engagement, misunderstanding and the operationalization of the term political engagement, lack of strong ownership, misperception on politics across generations, gender, language and cultural barrier as well as the tension between church and politics discouraged members of the Korean diaspora from engaging in political activities. Results also suggested that religious social capital and community social capital have a strong influence on civic and political engagement of the Korean diaspora. The data extend our understanding of ethnic community, communicative social capital and civic and political engagement. Evidence suggests that ethnic community, social capital, and civic and political engagement intersect in the meaning-making of the members of the Korean diaspora and that future research must focus on examining these aspects to better understand communicative social capital to empower ethnic communities and strengthen democracy.Item Undergraduate College Students' Perceived Sense of Civic Responsibility and Social Change Behaviors in the Context of Service, Advocacy, and Identity-Based Student Organizations(2010) Chowdhry, Chetan; Quaye, Stephen J; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study utilized data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL) to explore the differences between college students involved with service, advocacy, and identity-based student organizations, as well as those not involved in any of these organizations, in their perceived sense of civic responsibility, as well as their frequency of engagement in social change behaviors. In addition, it explored the relationship between students' perceived sense of civic responsibility and their frequency of engagement in social change behaviors. The researcher utilized two one-way ANOVAs to see if there were significant differences in perceived sense of civic responsibility and frequency of engagement in social change behaviors among students who were involved exclusively in service, advocacy, or identity-based organizations, as well as students who were involved in a combination of these organizations, and students who did not participate in any of these organizations. The researcher found significant differences between students in the different organizations, with students in a combination of organizations and students involved exclusively in advocacy organizations having the highest mean scores on perceived sense of civic responsibility and frequency of engagement in social change behaviors. Students in identity-based organizations and those not involved in any of the organizations had the lowest mean scores on these two variables. In addition, the researcher found a positive, medium strength correlation between students' perceived sense of civic responsibility and frequency of engagement in social change behaviors among all of the involvement categories. Overall, this study provides important initial findings regarding the civic engagement characteristics of students involved in particular student organizations.Item Communities of Practice for the Development of Adolescent Civic Engagement: An Empirical Study of their Correlates in Australia and the United States(2009) Homana, Gary; Croninger, Robert; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The relationships between a multidimensional model of school community and civic engagement were examined using survey data collected for the 1999 IEA Civic Education Study from large, nationally representative samples of adolescents in Australia and the United States. This study extends previous research by considering the extent to which multiple dimensions of communities of practice influence the development of various civic capacities, and by utilizing multilevel regression techniques. The investigation also examined the extent to which the various dimensions of communities of practice are related to more equitable civic outcomes, and how these associations vary in Australia compared to the United States. All schools have some form of social and cultural context that influences learning. This study examined the influence of three specific dimensions of communities of practice in school, the discourse community, the collaborative community, and the participatory community on three capacities for civic engagement (civic knowledge, norms of democracy, and expectations for informed voting). Other measures of school structure, including individual socioeconomic background and school size and composition were also used in the analyses. The results of the analyses suggest that important, yet subtle, distinctions exist between the association of the various dimensions of communities of practice and civic capacities in Australia and the United States. The findings from the fully conditional models, for example, indicate that both student level and school level perceptions of the communities of practice can help to shape adolescent civic capacities, although the patterns of relationships vary by dimension of communities of practice and measure of civic engagement. This study offers support for the role of communities of practice in the development of student civic outcomes. Individual student participation in and supportive school contexts for positive communities of practice influences the development of adolescent civic engagement. Learning more about communities of practice and its influence on a broader range of civic capacities, especially in terms of the quality and the extent that communities of practice exist in schools, will help educators and schools to strengthen these connections.