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
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Item CHILD ABUSE HOMICIDE INFLICTED BY A CHILD'S CARETAKER: A POTENTIALLY PREVENTABLE TYPE OF CHILD MURDER(2009) Rezey, Maribeth Lorraine; Simpson, Sally S; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Child abuse inflicted by caretakers has been reported the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children. Although researchers have attempted to estimate the rate of child abuse homicide nationwide, its true scope is unknown. Quantifying child abuse homicide is important since this type of homicide is arguably preventable. This study utilizes the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) to analyze child abuse homicides inflicted by the child's caretaker across 17 U.S. states during the years they participated from 2003 to 2005. The NVDRS reports violent death data from multiple official sources, providing this analysis with a more accurate number of child abuse homicides than previously available. In this thesis, I established if the NVDRS ascertains more abuse or non-abuse homicides than death certificates. I reviewed ascertained and misclassified deaths to assess whether a common set of victim or incident characteristics exist across these homicides. A logistic regression was also conducted to examine the probability of child abuse homicide given these characteristics.Item Baseball, Citizenship, and National Identity in George W. Bush's America(2008-11-21) King-White, Ryan E; Andrews, David L.; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The four separate, but related, studies within this research project seek to offer a critical understanding for how American national identit(ies), and particular forms of (cultural) citizenship are discursively constructed and performed in and through the sport of baseball. More specifically, this dissertation will utilize and expand upon critical theories of neoliberalism, citizenship, whiteness, and (physical) cultural studies to engage various empirical sites, which help provide the context for everyday life in contemporary America. Each chapter looks at various empirical aspects of the Little League World Series and the fans of the Boston Red Sox (popularly referred to as Red Sox Nation) that have historically privileged particular performances and behaviors often associated with white, American, heterosexual, upper-middle class, masculine subject-positions. In the first instance this project also attempts to describe how 'normalized' American citizenship is being (re)shaped in and through the sport of baseball. Secondly, I aim to critically evaluate claims made by both Little League Baseball, and the Boston Red Sox organization, in response to (popular) criticisms (Bryant, 20002; Mosher, 2001a, 2001b, 2001c) of regressive activity and behavior historically related to their organizations, that they are striving for a more culturally diverse and welcoming condition for all through their tournament and fan community respectively. To best articulate this critical understanding of the cotemporary moment I analyzed the production of the 2003 Little League Worlds Series, the (multi)media discourses surrounding Dominican star/villain, Danny Almonte, the filmic rendering of 'normalized' members of Red Sox Nation within Good Will Hunting and Fever Pitch, and finally an ethnographic study of Red Sox Nation throughout the 2007 baseball season. In following Andrews (2008) suggestive outline for a Physical Cultural Study I used a multi-methodological, qualitatively based, study to gather evidence through which to best understand the socio-political context of the contemporary moment. In so doing, I hope to clarify the dangerous way neoliberal capitalism is practiced and experienced in America.Item Family Structure and Income Redistribution: Comparing Child Poverty Outcomes in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States(2007-06-14) Grutzmacher, Stephanie; Anderson, Elaine A.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The United States has greater income inequality and higher child poverty than any other industrialized, wealthy nation, which greatly impacts opportunities for American children. Given that social and economic institutions are predicated on the breadwinner-homemaker family structure as the ideal family, family formation and living arrangements also appear to create disadvantages and high poverty risk for some children. Government income redistribution policies have varied success in reducing child poverty, especially among children living in vulnerable family structures. Cross-national comparisons may provide useful information for improving the effectiveness of antipoverty policies. This study used data from Wave V of the Luxembourg Income Study to comparatively analyze income redistribution and relative child poverty in various family structures in nationally representative samples from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Single mother, single father, two-parent, single grandmother, single grandfather, and two-parent grandparent families with children under the age of 18 were analyzed. Structural functional theory is used as a guiding conceptual framework. Results indicate that income from government programs is differentially redistributed across various family structures in all three countries, often with smaller child poverty reductions among more vulnerable family structures. Single mother families have the highest child poverty rates at each phase of income redistribution, while two-parent families have the lowest rates. Children living in grandparent-headed families experience the largest reductions in poverty through income redistribution. Children living in households with young children have higher poverty rates at each phase of income redistribution than children living in households with no young children, yet they experience smaller reductions in poverty across all three countries. The United States has the highest child poverty rates in all examined structures at each phase of income redistribution, while the United Kingdom reduces child poverty by the largest proportion. While income is redistributed differentially by family structure, the utilization of structural characteristics for policy development is questioned. Policy implications for improving child poverty reduction efforts in the United States through labor market regulation, caregiving relief, and caregiving support are discussed.Item The Impact of a Correctional Boot Camp on Social Bonds: A Randomized Comparison of a Therapeutic Boot Camp and a Traditional Prison(2007-05-17) Rocque, Michael Ansel; MacKenzie, Doris L; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This paper examines the relationship between a correctional program and social bonds. Research in the field of criminology has demonstrated the importance of adult social bonds with regard to reductions in criminal behavior. However it is unclear if correctional policies can influence social bonds. This study conducts an evaluation of a correctional boot camp (CBC) in relation to its effect on commitment and attachment of incarcerated offenders, using data from the on-going Randomized Study of a Maryland boot camp. The findings show that the particular CBC studied has a weak effect on the measured social bonds. An age interaction is examined to determine if there is a greater treatment effect for older offenders. Results indicate a weak age interaction for one of the measured bonds. Overall correctional boot camps do not appear to help form or enhance social bonds. Implications and directions for future research are discussed in the conclusion.Item Internalizing and externalizing behaviors of adolescents in kinship and foster care: Findings from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being(2007-05-07) Kaye, Sarah; Hofferth, Sandra; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The mission of the United States child welfare system is to promote safety, permanency and well-being for children and youth. The underlying assumption of out-of-home placement is that kinship and foster families provide a safer, better quality care environment than biological families. Yet, decades of research have found out-of-home placement to be associated with negative child outcomes. This study answers the question, "What is the effect of out-of-home placement in kinship or foster care on adolescent behavior?" It contributes to previous findings using a series of hierarchical linear regressions in an improved research design. Data are drawn from a subset of 839 adolescents in the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW). Measures at baseline, and 18 and 36 months after baseline allow for a longitudinal examination of the development of problem behaviors over time. After correcting methodological shortcomings in previous research, this study finds no negative effects of kinship and foster care on behavior. Kinship care has a direct protective effect on girls' externalizing behavior and foster care has an indirect protective effect on girls internalizing and externalizing behavior. Selection effects are corrected by considering the influence of pre-placement circumstances on post-placement outcomes. Outcomes for youth placed out-of-home are compared to the best available comparison group of youth that are investigated by Child Protective Services, but not placed. This study also advances our theoretical understanding of how placements affect child outcomes. Results suggest that the current care environment, as measured by child/caregiver relationship and parental monitoring, is a better predictor of adolescent behavior than the out-of-home placement experience. Foster caregivers provide more parental monitoring than biological parents, but the child/caregiver relationship might not be as good in foster placements as it is in the biological family. There is no difference in child/caregiver relationship quality in kinship families relative to biological families and there is a trend toward increased parental monitoring from kinship caregivers compared to biological parents.Item Adolescents and Antidepressants: Analyzing a Social Scientific Controversy(2007-02-19) Nelson, Amber Dawn; Mamo, Laura; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis analyzes the scientific controversy over giving antidepressant medications to adolescents as it unfolded in a U.S. Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hearing. Using the FDA hearing held on February 2, 2004, convened in response to a "crisis" evolving around the safety of antidepressant use among adolescents, this paper analyzes the unfolding response. This study utilizes social world's analysis, a qualitative methods approach designed to uncover the multiple stakes and claims of the problem as understood by each person at the hearing. I identified four distinct social worlds: 1) Adolescents, family and friends, 2) Independent professionals, 3) FDA, and 4) FDA-summoned professionals. Findings revealed that 103 actors came together around the crisis and each defined the problem of the controversy through one or more of the following four distinct frames; (1) side effects, (2) data, (3) practices and policies and/or (4) a lack of access to informed choice.Item An Exploration of Victim-Initiated Interventions and the Duration of Stalking(2006-12-11) Acevedo, Summer Anne; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The concept of duration has been relatively unexplored in the stalking literature. This study examines the relationship between several victim-initiated interventions and the duration of stalking. The objective was to determine which, if any, interventions used by victims against their stalkers led to a decrease in the length of time they were stalked. Continuous survival analysis was used on a voluntary sample of victims that reported duration of their stalking in monthly intervals. Only a single intervention was associated with a significant reduction in the length of stalking cases. Duration was then recoded into years and compared to data from a national, random sample to determine if similar results occurred in a more generalizable sample. Discrete survival analysis produced inconsistent results between the two samples. These findings demonstrate the need for an updated national survey of stalking victims, as well as caution researchers against relying on small, geographically unique samples.Item Formalizing the Informal: A Network Analysis of an Insurgency(2006-06-27) Reed, Brian; Segal, David R.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research project applies Social Network Analysis to Saddam Hussein's network and demonstrates how network analysis techniques uncovered a web of family and tribal linkages that resulted in the ousted dictator's capture. I use Simmel's approach to affiliations and interactions among consensual actors as the frame in which to view why and how warfare operates the way it does in the present context of an insurgency, and what difference it makes for states (and non-states) that war is waged in this particular manner. This project adds to the emerging sociology of war that is not primarily concerned with why wars start or why some states wage war against others, but rather with how wars work once opponents are engaged. I used two mapping networks and six associated sub-networks - trust (immediate family, extended family, close friendships, bodyguards) and strategy and goals (money and resources, insurgent operations) - to identify the structural and relational characteristics of the network. Network concepts allowed me to highlight the structure of the previously unobserved associations by focusing on the pre-existing relationships and ties that bind together such a group. By focusing on the roles, organizational positions, and those actors who are prominent and/or influential, I was able to get a sense of how the associations were structured and how the group functioned, how members were influenced and power was exerted, and how resources were exchanged. I found that insurgent members co-opted pre-existing ties to facilitate their operations. Roles are defined according to these pre-existing ties - primarily familial ties, but also those linked by previous political, tribal, or organizational association. Key individuals are connected to one another, thus forming a domain for each that gives them a high status in terms of prestige and influence. Those that are not part of this core group and who sit on the periphery of these critical task relationships extend the network and allow it to operate at a far greater distance. In short, social network analysis allowed me to formalize the informality of the insurgent network by visualizing the structure of one that we did not readily observe.Item RACE, GENDER, AGE AND THE US NURSING SHORTAGE(2005-08-09) Alvarez, Wilmer; Landry, Bart; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explores the demographic make up of nurses who have considered leaving the profession, those who have left, and the reasons cited for leaving. Data from the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses and the Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals were used to examine the demographic characteristics of two nurse populations, explore demographic differences in the reasons nurses leave, and the degree of nurse job dissatisfaction. It was found that nurses who have considered leaving or have left the field have similar demographic characteristics as those currently in the field. It was also found that differences in the reasons cited for leaving exist by age and by the presence of children in the home among nurses who are no longer in nursing, but not among nurses who have considered leaving. Nurse job dissatisfaction was also determined to decrease with age. This research underscores the importance of developing multi-pronged and multi-level remedies to combat the consequences of the nursing shortage.Item The Private Life of Public Health: Managing Chronic Disease in an Era of Neoliberal Governmentality(2005-04-11) Glasgow, Sara Mae; Pirages, Dennis C.; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease and cancer account for over half of the global mortality burden, and are the leading cause of death in every region of the world except Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this, they remain off the analytical radarscope in political science. This silence has been coupled with the tendency of public health researchers to frame NCDs as apolitical--largely a product of an individual's risk behaviors. Such an accounting depoliticizes NCDs, as well as public health approaches to their analysis and prevention. This project's central aim is to introduce a political analysis of chronic disease, demonstrating that public health approaches to NCDs exhibit political rationality. To that end, I explore several questions. How are NCDs accounted in behavioral terms, and how are their risks constructed as apolitical in the public health discourse? Additionally, if public health is presented as a domain of neutral science, how is it that its practices increasingly display market values, including a limited role for the state, a preoccupation with cost efficiency and choice, and the cultivation of the entrepreneurial self who sees her health as a site of investment? To answer these, I employ a discursive approach, specifically Foucault's framework of government rationality, or "governmentality." It is through the deployment of neoliberal governmentality in three spheres - knowledge, power, and subjectivity - that public health reveals itself not a neutral science, but rather one brimming with the values and logic of the private sector. I develop this argument through a critique of the discipline and practices of public health in three cases: the United States, United Kingdom, and Sweden. Despite exhibiting historically different approaches to health and social welfare, all three show a marked manifestation of neoliberal rationality in public health approaches to chronic disease. The consistency of these findings, in addition to the more general features of the public health discourse, thus allow a conclusion that public health approaches to NCDs are not value-neutral, and are indeed a political phenomenon.