Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item Essays on Mental Health, Education, and Parental Labor Force Participation(2024) Nesbit, Rachel; Kuersteiner, Guido; Pope, Nolan; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation consists of three chapters in empirical microeconomics. The first chapterfocuses on mental health in the criminal justice system. I show that mandated mental health treatment during probation decreases future recidivism and further that paying for these probationers to receive treatment would be a very cost-effective program. The second chapter focuses on the labor supply of same-sex couples. My coauthors and I document the earnings patterns in same-sex couples after the entrance of their first child and contrast them with the earnings patterns in opposite-sex couples. The third chapter evaluates state-level policies to offer a college admissions exam (either the SAT or ACT) free to all high school students. I estimate precise null effects of the policies on future college attendance. The three chapters are described in further detail below. Chapter 1. Mental health disorders are particularly prevalent among those in the criminaljustice system and may be a contributing factor in recidivism. Using North Carolina court cases from 1994 to 2009, this chapter evaluates how mandated mental health treatment as a term of probation impacts the likelihood that individuals return to the criminal justice system. I use random variation in judge assignment to compare those who were required to seek weekly mental health counseling to those who were not. The main findings are that being assigned to seek mental health treatment decreases the likelihood of three-year recidivism by about 12 percentage points, or 36 percent. This effect persists over time, and is similar among various types of individuals on probation. In addition, I show that mental health treatment operates distinctly from drug addiction interventions in a multiple-treatment framework. I provide evidence that mental health treatment’s longer-term effectiveness is strongest among more financially advantaged probationers, consistent with this setting, in which the cost of mandated treatment is shouldered by offenders. Finally, conservative calculations result in a 5:1 benefit-to-cost ratio which suggests that the treatment-induced decrease in future crime would be more than sufficient to offset the costs of treatment. Chapter 2. Existing work has shown that the entry of a child into a household results in alarge and sustained increase in the earnings gap between male and female partners in oppositesex couples. Potential reasons for this include work-life preferences, comparative advantage over earnings, and gender norms. We expand this analysis of the child penalty to examine earnings of individuals in same-sex couples in the U.S. around the time their first child enters the household. Using linked survey and administrative data and event-study methodology, we confirm earlier work finding a child penalty for women in opposite-sex couples. We find this is true even when the female partner is the primary earner pre-parenthood, lending support to the importance of gender norms in opposite-sex couples. By contrast, in both female and male same-sex couples, earnings changes associated with child entry differ by the relative pre-parenthood earnings of the partners: secondary earners see an increase in earnings, while on average the earnings of primary and equal earners remain relatively constant. While this finding seems supportive of a norm related to equality within same-sex couples, transition analysis suggests a more complicated story. Chapter 3. Since 2001, more than half of US states have implemented policies that requireall public high schools to administer either the ACT or SAT to juniors during the school day free of charge, making that aspect of the college application process less costly in both time and money. I evaluate these policies using American Community Surveys (ACS) from 2000 to 2019. I augment ACS data with the Census Master Address File to precisely identify the state in which individuals took the exam. Exploiting variation in policy implementation across state and time, I find across all specifications that increased access to standardized college entrance exams has no effect on subsequent college attendance. It also does not shift students between public and private colleges or between two- and four-year programs. The results of this chapter suggest that, to the extent that these policies were introduced to encourage college-going among marginal students, they did not accomplish their goal. This provides evidence about the kinds of support necessary to influence educational outcomes for students from disadvantaged families.Item Trangender-Inclusive Health Care Services Among College Health Centers in the United States(2019) Messman, Jenna Beckwith; Leslie, Leigh A.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research demonstrates that transgender people face significant health disparities compared to their cisgender peers, experience harassment and mistreatment in health care settings, and that many health care facilities are ill-equipped to competently treat them. While there has been some evaluation of trans-inclusive services provided in large health care facilities, there has been no formal assessment of the competencies of college health care facilities to meet the needs of transgender students. A 43-item survey tool operationalizing the American College Health Association’s (ACHA) Guidelines for Trans-Inclusive College Health Programs was developed and sent to representatives of ACHA’s membership (n=1,005). The degree to which college health centers are meeting these 32 recommended guidelines was assessed. The data show that college health centers are overwhelming providing some degree of trans-inclusive health care and that the provision of such services varies greatly based on six institutional characteristics: control of institution (public vs. private); religious affiliation (yes vs. no); transgender-inclusive laws and policies by state (low inclusion vs. high inclusion); size of institution (<1000, 1000-4999, 5000-9999, 10000-19999, 20000+); locale (city, suburban, town, rural); and region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West). These findings are notable in that many college health centers are providing more trans-inclusive care than most large health care facilities and are positioned to be leaders in trans-inclusive health care. Despite the provision of such services on college campuses, transgender students still face significant health disparities compared to their cisgender peers and more research is needed to better understand what colleges and communities can do to improve their health outcomes.Item Race, Politics, and Structural Diversity: How Hate Crimes, Discrimination, White Supremacy, and Art Shape Social Identities During College(2020) Buck-Coleman, Audra; Ray, Rashawn; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation offers a longitudinal in-depth view into how students respond to a structurally diverse campus, a series of hate crimes and incidents of racial discrimination and bias, and a distinct set of creative engagement diversity activities. With a focus on racial and political identity differences, I employ social identity theory and symbolic interactionism to look at how these three aspects shape their social identities, their opinions of diverse others, and their opinions of diversity in general during their undergraduate career. To explore this, I engage members of the 2015 incoming freshman class and then analyze results from three data sources administered to them: a four-year online survey (n=170), a paper questionnaire (n=537), and two sets of in-depth interviews (n=62). My findings run counter to those of Pettigrew with and Tropp and others (2015, 2011, 2000, 2006): for this cohort intergroup contact does not reduce prejudice. Students in this study are on the leading end of Generation Z, which looks to be the most accepting of diverse others generation to date. Although this cohort and this campus satisfy Allport’s (1954) conditions for prejudice reduction, this does not occur based on my data. Further, a series of distinct creative engagement diversity training activities has no long-term positive effect on their opinions of diversity and diverse others. Diversity and inclusion endeavors without multifaceted, dedicated efforts do not necessarily lead to positive changes in students' attitudes, identities, behaviors, and experiences. This research holds potential to contribute to the canon of social psychology and diversity training practices.Item More useful, or not so bad? Evaluating the effects of interventions to reduce perceived cost and increase utility value with college physics students(2017) Rosenzweig, Emily Quinn; Wigfield, Allan; Ramani, Geetha; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the present study I developed and evaluated the effects of two interventions designed to target students’ motivation to learn in an introductory college physics course. One intervention was designed to improve students’ perceptions of utility value and the other was designed to reduce students’ perceptions of cost. Utility value and cost both are central constructs from Eccles and colleagues’ expectancy-value theory of motivation (Eccles-Parsons et al., 1983). Students (N = 148) were randomly assigned to receive the cost intervention, the utility value intervention, or one of two control conditions. Compared to a survey control condition, neither intervention impacted overall students’ motivation, measured at 3 time points over the semester, or their course outcomes. In moderation analyses, neither intervention impacted any students’ perceptions of utility value. However, both interventions impacted some students’ perceptions of cost, competence-related beliefs, and course outcomes positively while impacting these variables for other students negatively. The cost intervention benefitted consistently and in different ways students who had low baseline competence-related beliefs, low prior achievement, strong malleable beliefs about intelligence, or who were female. However, the intervention showed consistent undermining effects on motivation and/or achievement for students with strong fixed beliefs about intelligence. The utility value intervention benefitted consistently the course outcomes of students who had low baseline competence-related beliefs, low prior achievement, or who were female. The intervention showed less consistent undermining effects on motivation for students with strong fixed beliefs about intelligence, high baseline competence-related beliefs, or high prior achievement. Prior researchers have shown that utility value interventions improve course outcomes for some students who are at risk for underachievement. The present study extends prior work by showing that utility value interventions benefit similar students in college physics courses. It also demonstrates that a cost intervention is a viable way to impact at-risk students’ physics course outcomes. Future researchers should consider carefully moderating variables and how to mitigate potential undermining effects for some students when implementing future expectancy-value-theory-based interventions in college physics courses.Item PERSPECTIVES OF VETERANS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: EXPLORING THE TERM "STUDENT VETERAN" AND THE IDENTITY SHIFTS BETWEEN MILITRAY AND COLLEGE(2014) Hernandez Baron, Paola Maria; Griffin, Kimberly; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Given changes in the G.I Bill, warfare, and higher education, post 9/11 veterans are a unique and expanding college student population. The purpose of this narrative inquiry study was to better understand how post 9/11 student veterans perceive and identify with the term "student veteran." The findings suggest that "student veteran" is more than a label and shares some qualities of a social identity. The participants wanted to be treated as "regular students," but also valued what the term "student veteran" signifies including a unique sociohistorical, cultural, and personal context and history that framed their academic experience. Participants described the term as a way to uphold military culture amidst the more ambiguous college culture. Participants felt the term carries imposed meanings and judgments different from that which participants themselves attribute to it. Findings suggest both theoretical and applied implications for expanded cultural competency around interacting with heterogeneous student veteran populations.Item DEMOCRATIC IMPLICATIONS OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION THROUGH GRADUATES WHO WENT ON TO NONPROFIT WORK(2012) Kiesa, Abigail I; Paoletti, Jo; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Three trends have been evident in civil society for at least the past two decades: a gap in civic participation between young people with college experience and those without; increasing investment in college student civic participation by higher education institutions; and a narrowing of opportunities for all Americans to participate in civic life. This last point, some believe, is leading to a smaller, more homogenous and privileged group directing civic life, particularly nonprofit organizations, jeopardizing their democratic role. No research has attempted to bring all of these dynamics into conversation. This exploratory research begins to fill this void. By interviewing participants in one multi-year collegiate civic engagement program, we learned the skills, values and identity as "active citizens" graduates took into nonprofit work. Results suggest that lessons from trainings and civic activities within the program impacted the career choices that graduates made and how they conceive of their work.Item The Lived Experience Of Latina/o Peer Mentees: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Approach(2012) Gomez Riquelme, Luis Angelo; Hultgren, Francine; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research is about the peer mentee experience of Latina/o students. For this purpose, a group of nine participants were selected, who were part of a peer mentoring program in a Mid-Atlantic public university. The experiences they shared were interpreted through the methodological lens of hermeneutic phenomenology. The purpose of this study is to begin filling in one of the voids in the mentoring practice, which is the experience of peer mentees, and what this study reveals is that the peer mentee experience is the result of loneliness and prejudice that Latina/o students are able to overcome when they have a good peer mentoring experience. This interpretation is done following Clark Moustakas' philosophy of being. Peer mentees receive guidance and help alleviating their solitude, which in this study is interpreted as being-with. Consequently, peer mentees find purpose and are reminded of the reason why they stay in college, which herein is interpreted through the existential concept of being-for. Finally, this study also reveals that being a peer mentee can help finding or making sense of being in college and recovering a sense of belonging, which is interpreted through the phenomenological concept of being-with. The recommendations of this study to improve this practice involve fostering community, creating a sense of belonging, and advocating for a pedagogical experience that is liberated of prejudices and assumptions about Latinas/os, in addition to continuing the support of peer mentoring.Item Exploring the effects of social perspective-taking and socio-cultural issues discussions on college students' civic identity(2012) Johnson, Matthew Robert; Komives, Susan R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Colleges and universities have a long-standing tradition of preparing students to be civically engaged (Colby, Beaumont, Ehrlich, & Corngold, 2007; Jacoby, 2009; Kezar, 2002). In response to a decline in civic engagement among college students and the greater American public, colleges and universities began offering a wide array of civic engagement efforts designed to increase students' involvement in civic life (Jacoby, 2009). These efforts, such as service-learning, volunteering, and community service opportunities are prolific within higher education. However, the extent to which these civic engagement efforts effectively engage elements of diversity remains mostly unexplored (Dunlap & Webster, 2009; Hero, 2007; Hurtado, 2001, 2003, 2006). The primary research question in this study examined the role of social perspective-taking and socio-cultural issues discussions on college students' civic identity, while the secondary research question examined whether these relationships varied by race. Using 45,271 cases from the 2009 Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership, structural equation modeling was used to explore a model that included four latent variables: social change behaviors, socio-cultural issues discussions, social perspective-taking, and civic identity. Results from the primary research question showed positive, moderate relationships of social change behaviors on civic identity, social change behaviors on socio-cultural issues discussions, socio-cultural issues discussions on social perspective-taking, and social perspective-taking on civic identity. Weak, positive relationships were found for social change behaviors on social perspective-taking and socio-cultural issues discussions on civic identity. These results indicate that the direct effect of the relationship between engaging in social change behaviors on students' civic identity is much stronger than the indirect effects derived from including socio-cultural issues discussions and social perspective-taking. In addition, engaging in social change behaviors did not predict social perspective-taking and engaging in socio-cultural issues discussions did not predict civic identity. The secondary research question explored the differences by race in the structural paths in the model. This analysis showed significant variant paths between students of color and White students on every path except social change behaviors to socio-cultural issues discussions.Item BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE: AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND MIDDLE SCHOOL CULTURE ON EIGHTH GRADERS' ACADEMIC PREPAREDNESS FOR COLLEGE BY THE TWELFTH GRADE(2012) Bibo, Erin Ward; Cabrera, Alberto F; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study used a general two-level model to explore data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988-1992 to determine the extent to which student-level (parental involvement) and school-level (school culture of college preparedness) factors individually and collectively influenced eighth grade students' eventual academic preparedness for college by the time they reached the twelfth grade. The study's models supported my foundational hypothesis that the middle school years play a critical role in preparing students for college. That said, the impacts of both parental involvement and school culture, at the middle school level, appear to have a very trivial influence, on average, on students' eventual levels of academic readiness for college. The study's models' random effects results, however, paint a slightly more complex picture. These resulted indicated that, at some schools within the study, some or all of the four parental involvement variables had a statistically significant impact on students' eventual ACRES scores. While I was unable to determine whether these significant effects were mostly positive or negative, it certainly supports the notion that parental involvement indeed plays an important role in preparing students to be academically prepared for college. Additionally, the study determined that students' middle school grades had the most positive influences on ACRES scores, and student poverty levels and first-generation status were associated with the most negative impacts on students' academic preparedness for college. The study concludes by calling on policymakers, educational leaders, teachers, and parents to focus their time, attention, and resources on the middle school years to improve students' eventual academic readiness for college.Item Examining Developmental Stages of Leadership for College Students: A Validation Study of the Leadership Identity Development Model(2011) Wagner, Wendy; Komives, Susan R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to confirm or disconfirm the leadership identity development (LID) model (Komives, Longerbeam, Owen, Mainella, & Osteen, 2006). The LID model identified six stages in the development of a leadership identity. Although used widely to inform the design of leadership development programs, it has not been validated by further research. This study used Q methodology to classify subjects with similar views of leadership into groups. The resulting groups were congruent with the stages of the LID model that are most frequently experienced during the college years. Thirty-nine subjects described their points of view about leadership and themselves as leaders through a 64-item card sort, placing the cards into piles along a continuum from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Principle components analysis was used to classify subjects into groups based on similarities in the card sorts. The way each of the four resulting groups described leadership was interpreted by examination of an aggregate card sort representing the views of the students in that group. These descriptions were compared to the stages of the LID model. Factor one from this study was similar to stages four through six of the LID model. There was no evidence distinguishing these three stages from each other in this subject sample. Factor two was similar to stage three with an independent view of self with others. Factor three was similar to stage three with a dependent view of self with others. Factor four had only a single subject, whose description did not readily fit into the LID model. Further research is needed to examine the LID stages experienced pre-college, as well as further exploration into whether LID stages four through six are truly distinct. However, the findings of this study do provide support for the existence of the stages of development most often experienced during the college years (stages three and four) as described in the LID model.