School of Public Health
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1633
The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
Note: Prior to July 1, 2007, the School of Public Health was named the College of Health & Human Performance.
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Item A Healthy Relationship? The Entanglement of State, Corporate, and Labor Interests in Gender-based Violence Sport Policies(2023) Drafts-Johnson, Lilah; Jette, Shannon; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Gender-based violence (GBV) within professional sports made headlines in 2014 following the Ray Rice domestic violence incident, prompting a Congressional hearing with the four major men’s sports leagues in the United States. This hearing resulted in the implementation of several sport industry-wide policies addressing off-field conduct for players and employees, including ones specifically focused on interpersonal relationships. Despite the cultural prominence of corporate sport entities such as the National Football League, National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball, in addition to the fervor for institutional accountability in the wake of the #MeToo movement, there has been limited academic scholarship examining the scope and efficacy of these policies (see Brown, 2016; Augelli & Kuennen, 2018) Drawing upon the findings of a thematic analysis of Senate Hearing 113-725: Addressing Domestic Violence in Professional Sports, this thesis utilized a governmentality analytic to critically analyze the motivations, assumptions, and tensions which underpinned the institutionalization of GBV policies in corporate sport. The findings demonstrate that while the parties present at the hearing problematized sport culture at large as a producer of GBV, their remarks characterized professional male athletes as perpetrators, reifying the idea of the “violent (Black) male athlete” and violence as an inherent trait in professional sport more generally. Instead of critically interrogating the structure of professional sport, legislators instead focused on expanding the governing capacity of sport leagues, and effectively the state, to discipline and punish perpetrators of GBV by encouraging the implementation of new extra-legal policies. I argue that this hearing reinforced the neoliberal entanglement of state, corporate, and non-profit actors in the movement to reduce GBV in society, strengthening the dependency that the state has on corporate social responsibility to solve leading public health issues, and compelling GBV advocates, activists, and scholars to engage with corporations in order to receive critical funding and legitimacy in their work. Meanwhile, suggested legislation to improve economic and workplace conditions for survivors was ignored as labor issues were positioned as oppositional to GBV accountability efforts. Through articulation and radical contextualism, this thesis sheds new insight into the origins and methods of corporate GBV policies in sport as well as the intricacies of contemporary neoliberal governance, and ultimately argues that the state response to GBV must shift from one of punishment and surveillance to one of preventative care through improved economic and labor conditions for all workers.Item MEDICAL STUDENTS' BELIEFS TOWARDS SCREENING FOR INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE: A QUALITATIVE STUDY(2012) Aluko, Oluwatoni Eniola Moronke; Beck, Dr. Kenneth H.; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Researchers have found that medical students receiving training on intimate partner violence (IPV) report greater comfort with screening for IPV, and improved IPV interviewing skills than their counterparts. However, more information is needed about medical students' intention to screen, and beliefs towards screening for IPV. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to qualitatively assess these beliefs by conducting semi-structured interviews with medical students (N=15) using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) as theoretical frameworks for the interview instrument. Most students felt that screening for IPV could help to identify victims, but also offend patients. Reported barriers included time, while reported facilitators included receiving IPV training. Interviewees identified physicians as both supporters and non-supporters of IPV screening. Behavioral intention scores ranged from 17 to 50. Findings from the study can help inform the IPV training needs of medical students.Item THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COUPLE PSYCHOLOGICAL AGGRESSION AND PARENTING BEHAVIOR(2012) Duffy, Katelyn; Epstein, Norman; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined the relationship between received couple psychological aggression and use of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting practices. Previous research examining couple aggression and parenting ignored psychological aggression and fathering, and found depression to be a mediator of the relationship. The current study aimed to determine the relationship between received psychological aggression and parenting (compared by gender), and to identify whether the relationship between received aggression and parenting is mediated by depression. Secondary analyses were conducted on pre-treatment data collected from couples seeking therapy at the Center for Healthy Families at University of Maryland, College Park. Results revealed a significant relationship between received aggression and authoritarian parenting for fathers, but not for permissive or authoritative behaviors. No relationship was found between mothers' received aggression and any parenting dimension. Depression partially influenced the relationship between received aggression and authoritarian parenting for both mothers and fathers, but not permissive or authoritative parenting.Item DIRECTION OF PARTNER PSYCHOLOGICAL AGGRESSION AND OUTCOMES OF COUPLE THERAPY: MODERATING EFFECTS OF CLIENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF THERAPEUTIC GAINS(2012) Childers, Morgan Anne; Epstein, Norman; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research has consistently found that contrary to longstanding beliefs, partner aggression, both in psychological and physical forms, is primarily perpetrated bidirectionally. This study compared conjoint therapy treatment outcomes (dyadic satisfaction, changes in communication patterns, and reductions in physical aggression) for bidirectionally psychologically aggressive couples and couples in which only one partner primarily perpetrated psychological aggression. In addition, the clients' perceptions of therapy were measured continuously over the course of therapy; this factor was examined as a moderator variable. A MANOVA was run on the sample of 64 heterosexual couples, but no significant main effects were found. However, this study and past research on this sample show that these couples did improve on outcome measures. This suggests that regardless of the pattern of aggression perpetration, psychologically aggressive couples may benefit from conjoint therapy. Additionally, post hoc exploratory analyses found significant correlations between reductions in aggression and changes in negative communication patterns.Item The Association of Socio-Economic Resources and Perceived Social Support with the Occurence of Physical and Psychological Aggression in Heterosexual Clinical Couples(2006-07-24) Alexander, Rachel Erin; Epstein, Norman B; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined the interaction between relative socio-economic resources, such as income and level of education, and level of perceived social support on couples' levels of physical and psychological abuse. It was hypothesized that individuals with fewer resources than their partner would utilize more aggression, individuals with higher perceived social support would exhibit less aggression, and perceived social support would moderate the relationship between personal resource discrepancy and aggressive behavior. The findings of the current study suggest that the impact of partner resource discrepancies and perceived social support depend on the gender of the perpetrator and the type of abuse considered. The findings also have clinical implications for the importance of gathering information about couples' resources and social support. Implications for future research include analyzing the effects of different types of social support on coping in a sample that includes wider ranges of personal resources and severity of abuse.