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 The Predictors of Family Cohesion and Conflict in Transracially Adoptive Families(2010) Jackson, Dawnyea Dominique; Leslie, Leigh A; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Transracial adoption in the United States has a short, but controversial history. Between 1971 and 2001, U.S. citizens adopted 265, 677 children from other countries. The increased prevalence and controversial history of transracial adoption makes it very important to learn more about the well being of transracially adoptive families. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the extent to which the diversity of the community in which a family lives and the parent's multiethnic experiences are predictors of family cohesion and conflict in transracially adoptive families. This relationship was examined for a sample (N=47) of Asian (n=24) Black (n=12) and Latino (n=11) participants. Results yielded no significant results, except for one interesting finding for the Latino racial/ethnic group. The results indicated that for the Latino racial/ethnic group the higher the parent's multiethnic experiences the lower the level of family cohesion, which was not in the predicted direction. The empirical implications of these findings are discussed.Item WHO SERVES IN COLLEGE?: EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BACKGROUND, COLLEGE ENVIRONMENTS, AND COLLEGE COMMUNITY SERVICE PARTICIPATION(2009) Gasiorski, Anna Louise; Jones, 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 examine demographic characteristics, background experiences and environmental influences for their ability to predict college community service participation. Additional analyses looked at college community service participation to determine in what type of service students were participating and for how long. Astin's Inputs-Environments-Outcomes (1991, 1993) conceptual model provided the framework for how the variables were entered into a logistic regression analysis. A logistic regression analysis was chosen because the outcome, college community service participation, was measured as a dichotomous variable. Data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership were used to answer the research questions. Results from the logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the proposed set of predictors significantly increased the odds of predicting community service participation in college from 53.1% to 73.2%. Each of the seven blocks was significant, but the blocks that improved the fit most were the college involvement experiences, high school experiences and characteristics, and pre-tests. Of all significant predictors, frequency of volunteer work in high school, low college grades, participation in a Greek organization, participation in a service organization, involvement in college organizations or off campus organizations, and socially responsible leadership capacity were the strongest predictors of college community service participation. Additional analyses described the outcome variable, college community service participation. Out of the sample of 47,230 students, 25,059 or 53.1% indicated that they regularly participated in community service. Most students were participating in community service either through a student organization or on one's own instead of through class or federal work study. Also, students were generally participating in community service for less than 20 hours each term (67.6%), and less than 1% of students were contributing more than 75 hours each term. Overall, the findings from this study support the notion that background characteristics and pre-college experiences alone do not predict college community service participation. A student's involvement while in college as well as socially responsible leadership capacity, both areas which interventions can be designed to address, greatly increase the likelihood of participation in community service.Item The Associations Among Youth Characteristics, Secondary School Experiences, and Enrollment in Two- and Four-Year Colleges Among Youth with Disabilities(2008-09-22) Miceli, Meredith Anne; McLaughlin, Margaret J; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to explore the associations between school program and services, high school achievement characteristics, and individual and household characteristics and enrollment in two- and four-year colleges among youth with disabilities. Variables related to youth characteristics and secondary school experiences were identified from the first 5 data collection points of the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2 (NLTS2) database. Chi-squares, t-tests, and logistic regression analyses were used in this study. The results in this study showed that individual and household, high school achievement, and school program characteristics significantly predicted college enrollment among youth with disabilities. The model of variables including individual, household, parental, high school achievement, self-determination, and school program characteristics correctly classified 86.4% of the college enrollers in the analytic sample. These findings confirm the appropriateness of categories included in the NLTS2 Conceptual Framework. Additionally, the study found that high school achievement characteristics such as graduating from high school, participating in extra curricular activities, and experiencing financial management/ responsibility had the most consistent, positive impact on the probability of enrolling in two- and four-year colleges. Additionally, youth characteristics such as disability category, household income, and parental level of education significantly impacted the probability of enrolling in colleges. Finally, participating in vocational education, having a postsecondary goal to attend college, and taking a leadership role in one's transition planning process significantly increased the probability of the youth enrolling in college. The findings emphasize the importance of obtaining a high school diploma, participating in organized activities outside of the classroom, experiencing a level of autonomy or independence, and taking a leadership role in the transition planning process while in high school for youth with disabilities.Item Examining and Explaining Racial/Ethnic Variation in Men's and Women's Household Labor Participation(2007-04-30) Hunt, Kristin Reid; Bianchi, Suzanne M; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Using American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data from a national sample of 3,641 married dual-earner men and 4,440 married dual-earner women interviewed in 2003 and 2004, I examine racial/ethnic variation in men's and women's time spent doing housework and its covariates. The ratio of women's to men's total housework time is greatest for Asians and Hispanics and smallest for whites and blacks. Household composition variables are good predictors of white and Asian women's housework time; resources are good predictors for Hispanic and black women; relative resources have some predictive power for white, Hispanic, and Asian women's housework time. For men, own work hours are negatively associated with housework time for white and black dual-earner men; for Hispanic men, having a wife who works more, as compared with a wife who works less, is associated with an increase in housework time. Resources show some predictive power for all dual-earner men across race/ethnicity.