Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

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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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    The Challenge of Teen Nutrition: An Ecological View of Sociocognitive Influences on Urban, African-American Adolescent Diet Quality
    (2010) Wrobleski, Margaret Mary; Atkinson, Nancy L.; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The routine food choices that adolescents make impact their nutritional status, health, and their risk of developing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis in the future. Nutrient requirements during adolescence are comparable to those in early infancy, emphasizing the importance of a high quality diet for healthy growth and development. A myriad of personal, social, and environmental factors influence adolescents in shaping their dietary intake and quality of diet. Low-income, African-American adolescents in Baltimore were identified as having sub-optimal nutritional intake compared to national dietary recommendations. This study explored the dynamic and relative contributions that factors within three environmental levels (personal, social, and community) made as predictors of diet quality in a sample of low-income, urban African-American adolescents using an integrated Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) / ecological theoretical framework. It was hypothesized that 1) the personal, social, and community environmental levels of dietary influences would all significantly contribute to diet quality, with community environment making the largest relative contribution; 2) self-efficacy for healthy eating moderated the relationship between parental beliefs about nutrition and diet quality; and 3) self-efficacy for healthy eating moderated the relationship between peer eating behaviors and diet quality. There have been very few studies using an integrated SCT/ecological model to explore the dietary influences on adolescent nutrition, especially on this demographic. The significant influence the SCT construct of observational learning has on adolescents was evidenced in this study by the positive relationship found between diet quality, parental beliefs about nutrition, and peer eating behavior. Younger participants in early adolescence and females were predominately guided by their parents' beliefs about nutrition, while males in this study appeared to identify more with their peers' nutrition-related behaviors. This study revealed that parents and peers play important roles in African-American adolescents' food choices and subsequent diet quality. Nutrition interventions should focus on parent-teen interactions and on improving the dietary habits of parents so they may be more effective role models for youth. Nutrition promotion research targeting young African-American men may consider using group interactive behavioral interventions with peers that build and reinforce peer modeling of positive nutrition behaviors.
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    A Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Student Support Services Program
    (2009) Pacchetti, Ed M.; Rice, Jennifer K.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    ABSTRACT Title of Document: A BENEFIT-COST ANALYSIS OF THE STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES PROGRAM Ed M. Pacchetti, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Dissertation Directed by: Jennifer K. Rice, Ph.D. This study extends previous research on the Student Support Services program, a federal program that works to ensure college retention and graduation for low-income and first generation students, by examining the benefits and the costs of higher-impact SSS projects. Higher-impact SSS projects are defined as such because the graduation rates of their participants exceed the national graduation rate for other low-income and first generation students who have not participated in the SSS program. Applying a methodology used in other benefit-cost analyses of education programs, this study explores how the benefits over 40 years following participation in higher-impact SSS projects exceed the costs of these projects. This study focuses on benefits and costs to society. The benefit measures utilized in this study include higher income, lower health care costs and lower costs of crime. The cost measures include grant award costs, institutional project contributions, Pell Grant costs and the costs of Stafford Loan subsidies. The findings show that at three discount rates of 3%, 7% and 10%, the benefits of higher-impact SSS projects consistently exceed their costs. In addition, in most estimates of the future value of benefits generated by higher-impact SSS projects, the benefits generated by these projects are significant enough to provide for the grant award costs of all SSS projects at 4-year colleges and universities in project year 2005-2006, the year that is the focus of this study. This study's findings have implications for future research. Because the benefits of higher-impact SSS projects are significant, future research should focus on identifying the components of these projects responsible for success and incorporating these components into less successful projects in an attempt to increase the college graduation rates of all SSS projects. However, this study emphasizes that benefit-cost analysis should be one of many measures used to evaluate SSS projects and determine program success.
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    The Impact of Child Care Subsidies on Child Care Problems, Child Care-Related Work Disruptions, and Mothers' Desire to Switch Care
    (2007-06-15) Forry, Nicole DeSanctis; Hofferth, Sandra L.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Work requirements implemented through welfare reform have led to a focus on moving mothers into employment. As a consequence, the labor force participation rates of single mothers have increased dramatically in the last decade, increasing the importance of child care policies. Although numerous studies have examined the impact of child care subsidies in assisting parents to obtain employment, very few have examined the impact of subsidies on maintaining employment. This study sought to determine whether families with a child care subsidy differed from families without a subsidy on three child care-specific variables assumed to affect a mother's ability to maintain employment: child care problems, child care-related work disruptions, and a desire to switch care arrangements. The mediating roles of child care costs and type of care on the relationships between child care subsidies and these variables were also examined. Data for this study come from two samples of low-income single mothers. The first was a study of 40 mothers in a mid-Atlantic county interviewed before and after receiving a child care subsidy. The second was a subsample of 658 mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being study. Data were analyzed via multivariate techniques and path models on both static and dynamic models, including comparing changes by the same parents over time. Receipt of a child care subsidy was found to be a significant predictor of experiencing fewer child care problems and child care-related work disruptions across datasets and using multiple methods. Parents were also less likely to report desiring to switch their care arrangement when they had a child care subsidy compared to when they did not have a subsidy. Finally, the use of formal child care was found to mediate the relationship between child care subsidy status and child care-related work disruptions for parents in one of the samples. Policy and program recommendations for assisting low-income families balance work and family by minimizing experiences with child care-related work disruptions are discussed.
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    Marital Relationship Status, Social Support, and Psychological Well-Being Among Rural, Low-Income Mothers
    (2004-04-29) Islam, Jokena Charisse Smith; Braun, Bonnie; Family Studies
    This study examined the relationship between marriage, social support, and psychological health among impoverished, rural mothers. While research suggests marital status and social support are negatively correlated with depression, research investigating such relationships and effects on poor, rural mothers over time is scant. To examine the roles of marital status, social support, and time on depression, mean comparison and analysis of variance were run for depression levels across time, categories of partnership, categories of social support, and categories of change in marital status over time. While findings revealed that marital status had little effect on depression levels, social support appeared to be negatively correlated with depression. Furthermore, mothers who maintained marital status and reported high social support reported the lowest depression levels. Findings contribute to the limited body of research focusing on health in rural areas and yield valuable knowledge about the experience of psychological health among impoverished, rural mothers.
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    Literate Behaviors in African American Head Start Families: A Multiple Literacies Perspective
    (2004-04-30) Daniels, Janese Kerr; Jones-Harden, Brenda; Human Development
    Low literacy and illiteracy have been documented among low-income African American children. The problems associated with low literacy and illiteracy often extend into adulthood, with potentially devastating consequences. Low-income African American caregivers are frequently portrayed as devoid of any interest in their children's literacy development and achievement. Additionally, it has been suggested that these caregivers provide homes that are literacy impoverished, often without any literacy activities (e.g. shared book reading, visits to the library) occurring on a routine basis. Qualitative researchers have documented specific literacy practices in which low-income families engage. Frequently, these literacy practices are a function of the context in which the family is currently embedded. Although a qualitative literature exists regarding these literacy practices, its utility is limited due to small sample sizes and lack of quantitative documentation on their contribution to children's language and literacy development. This study attempted to bridge the gap between the qualitative and quantitative literatures. Fifty-one low-income African American mother-child dyads participated in this exploratory family literacy study. The contribution of multiple literacy practices, both traditional and non-traditional, was examined in relation to child language and literacy outcomes. It was found that most low-income African American families engaged in multiple literacy practices. Analyses revealed that although the quality of the home literacy environment contributed to children's language and literacy development, child receptive language explained most of the variance in children's preschool literacy development. Recommended areas for future research directions included standardization of an instrument to capture literacy practices that have been highlighted in both the qualitative and quantitative literatures. Additional recommendations for practitioners included providing parent training that encouraged families to use non-traditional literacy practices to help facilitate their children's literacy development.