Research studies have pointed to specific challenges for undocumented Latino immigrants including exploitation in the workplace (Stoddard, 1976), denial of health care (Angel, Frias & Hill, 2005; Passel, 2005) and lack of access to higher education (Seif, 2004). In addition, fear is never far from their consciousness. Fear of being identified as illegal and faced with possible arrest and deportation are realities for undocumented Latino immigrants. Both work and home are unsafe, particularly because of immigration raids by federal agents. In addition they are stigmatized by mainstream society (Padilla & Perez, 2003). Even the word "undocumented" has been used interchangeably with words like "illegal" and "alien" suggesting criminal behavior. These hardships make it difficult for these immigrants to become part of mainstream society and create barriers to opportunities. All of these factors should logically discourage Latin Americans from immigrating to the United States. However, both the documented and undocumented Latino populations in the United States continue to increase. Although the situation of new Latino immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, seems extremely difficult, there is something unexplained occurring that has not been accounted for in current research that allows them to survive these hardships. In addition, there is a gap in information about the immigration process gathered from immigrants themselves. Therefore, this study uses a qualitative descriptive approach to learn from undocumented immigrants about their experiences when they first came to the United States and how they negotiate their situation while living in the United States. The major findings of this study offer an inside look into the world of undocumented Latino immigrants. The obstacles these immigrants face were language barriers, limited education and unfair wages at work. On the other hand, they also identify facilitators that were helpful during their initial transition into the U.S such as getting help in finding a job, knowing someone in the United States before immigrating, being connected to support networks, and receiving support from others who shared their struggles. However, these findings do not reflect the whole story. Even though most of these Latino immigrants underwent stress and adversity as new undocumented immigrants, the study shows how they transformed their suffering using their personal strengths and drawing on support from a close-knit community. At the same time they maintained their cultural identity both in their immigrant community and within the larger community where they resided. An additional factor which contributed to their survival was that this particular community is unique in preserving the different cultures of ethnic groups rather than fusing them into a "melting pot." Recommendations for practice include using a strengths perspective with clients and community; recommendations for teaching include using interdisciplinary educational strategies and involving students in experiential learning experiences with immigrants. Additional recommendation for policy and research are made.

Little research has examined the effect of non-cancer life stressors on psychological well-being and recurrence in patients with cancer, and results have been mixed. Furthermore, no studies have examined specific types of stress, including loss, danger, and entrapment in patients with cancer, utilizing data obtained from the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule. Given that specifics stressors have been associated with certain psychological responses, this study sought to obtain a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between life stress and psychological well-being. This was examined in a sample of 135 women with ovarian cancer prior to surgery and during the year after diagnosis using latent growth curve analyses. Models of protective psychosocial resources examining social support, mastery, self-acceptance, and purpose in life as potential moderators and mediators of the relationship between life stress and psychosocial outcomes were also evaluated. Results indicated that cancer-related losses were most closely associated with psychological well-being across several analyses, and non-cancer losses had the greatest impact on psychological outcomes when cancer-related loss was low. Non-cancer losses were significantly related to greater fatigue prior to surgery. Additionally, major non-cancer danger stressors were associated with greater distress prior to surgery. In this sample, no stressors were significantly related to cancer recurrence. Social support was the most consistent moderator of life stress on psychological well-being, and its effects on distress and depression at baseline were mediated through self-acceptance. These findings highlight the importance of both cancer- and non-cancer-related stressors on psychological wellbeing among cancer patients in their first year following surgery and furthers our understanding of the role of protective psychosocial factors. This study has significant implications for distress screenings in patients with cancer, psychological interventions, and future research.

Family resilience is bandied about construct that is used rather imprecisely, including with its measurement. Although family resilience is now in its third wave (Henry, Morris & Harrist, 2015), findings from qualitative research and case studies are as, if not more, plentiful than those from quantitative research (e.g., author cites; Anderson, Amanor-Boadu, Stith, & Foster, 2015; Jackson, Wolven, & Aguilera, 2013). Until the development of the Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire (WFRQ) in 2015, a family level resilience instrument based on Walsh’s theoretical framework (2003) was not readily available. Thus, the debate of qualitative versus quantitative measurement of family resilience continues. The purpose of the proposed roundtable is to continue the debate by discussing the relative merit of qualitative and quantitative approaches to the measurement of family resilience. The roundtable will conclude with a discussion about the importance of cultural competence in family resilience research (author cite; Walsh, 2015).

In this student presentation, the focus is on resilience in cross cultural contexts as experienced by foster and adoptive families. The topic is explored from the point of view of the child primarily, and the parents welcoming that child into their family system secondarily; it is a bidirectional interaction. By reviewing literature on childhood turbulence, blogs written by foster/adoptive parents, and considering personal experiences, several distinct challenges stood out. Resilience is strengthened by mutual support to handle challenges constructively. The entire system can collaborate to facilitate and maintain resilience from a family systems perspective. A children’s book was written to illustrate a family’s transitional process in foster care/adoption. Stemming from unique personal perspectives on cross-cultural fostering/adoption, paralleled with a desire to make this information child friendly, this short story was told from the viewpoint of a young child learning to manage expectations and challenges while gaining a new sibling through adoption.

Climate patterns over the past century served to amplify the frequency and intensity of environmental hazards, including flooding, wind and heat. While indicators like SoVi and BRIC begin to characterize how people and places fair against hazards, they can be limited in scope. Through the administration of household surveys, I investigate the usefulness of such indicators by examining the roles communication, infrastructure, institutional efforts, financial independence, knowledge, mobility and social capital play in producing resilience within the Estates of Fort Lauderdale Community in Dania Beach, FL. While results confirm BRIC’s Medium-High Resilience community classification, they push beyond Census data to pinpoint underlying resilience processes. Responses indicate community classification, they push beyond Census data to pinpoint underlying resilience processes. Responses indicate that place attachment and community connectedness encourage weather-related information sharing, limited experiences and skills impede weather preparedness and response actions, and weather preparedness and response experiences are associated with less evacuation than expected. Findings prove to be richer and more policy and program actionable. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Homeless youth face numerous risks. Data on 602 homeless youth from the Midwest Homeless and Runaway Study and binary logistic regression were used to identify factors associated with their participation in risky sexual behaviors. Specifically, the effects of abuse/neglect and three potential moderating resiliency indicators, namely self-esteem, parental warmth, and parental monitoring, on having sex before adulthood and thinking about trading sex for food or shelter were examined. While none of the three resiliency indicators had the hypothesized moderating effects, controlling for abuse/neglect and various sociodemographic characteristics, parental monitoring had a direct, negative effect on having sex before adulthood, and self-esteem and parental warmth had direct, negative effects on thinking about trading sex for food or shelter. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.

In this research, I explore the changes in the functional diversity of herbivorous fishes in zones of coral reefs with different benthic composition: a zone dominated by corals, a zone dominated by algae and a transition zone in between the previous two. I choose to use functional traits which explain the feeding mechanics of this group of fish, as well their feeding rates and their previously established functional groups to understand how different assemblages of this fishes could affect their environment in different ways. I found clear differences in the functional diversity by calculating five indexes, functional dispersion (FDis), functional richness (FRic), functional divergence (FDiv), functional evenness (FEve) and functional specialization (FSpe). Each zone showed different species composition with different abundances; both parameters contribute to obtaining different values of the indexes. The coral-dominated zone showed the biggest multidimensional functional trait space (MFTS) with a value of FRic equals to 1 which means that its assemblage occupies 100% of the MFTS, while the transition zone assemblage occupied 83% and the algae-dominated zone occupied 16% of it. Thanks to this index I identified three functionally redundant species in the coral-dominated and the transition zones. The algae-dominated zone showed the lower FDis explained by the high abundance of grazers individuals. FDiv did not vary significantly between the three zones. FEve was higher in the algae-dominated zone; the index value decreased in the transition and coral-dominated zones, a similar tendency was shown by FSpe. Finally, to explore the importance of including functional diversity I made a comparison between the taxonomic and functional β-diversity. This research showed close relations of herbivorous fishes with their environment, but I could not establish if the benthic composition shapes the herbivorous fish assemblage or the other way around. This research can be a baseline to start working in functional diversity in the Red Sea coral reefs, can help to understand what to expect in the evaluation of reefs in different health state and to identify which herbivorous fish species or groups are more vulnerable and more important according to their function for coral reefs.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the experiences of single mothers raising rebellious adolescent boys. A qualitative methodological design was followed. Thirteen single mothers were interviewed, as well as five clergies and six social workers. An in-depth qualitative analysis was undertaken, in order to investigate the subject of single mothers raising adolescent boys. The study results are presented in an integrated and descriptive tabula format. The participant’s stories were re-encountered through the researcher’s own frame of reference in which common themes of the single motherhood and adolescence were constructed. They were elaborated on and a comparative active analysis was undertaken to link them with the available literature. This information gained from the research could contribute to the existing body of knowledge; on the impact of the rebellious behaviour of the adolescent boys on the single mother, by offering a new perspective. The project was done within The Chief Albert Luthuli Municipality under the Gert Sibande District of Mpumalanga Province. It was found that most single mothers were suffering silently as there is no adequate support either from the community or the church. The study found that the behaviour of girls reflected better on their mothers compared to their counterparts who are boys. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Practical Theology / PhD / Unrestricted

My study forms part of a bigger project, Resilient Youth in Stressed Environments (RYSE). The purpose of this study of limited scope was to explore the community supports that enable the resilience of adolescents living in the petrochemical-affected community of eMbalenhle in Secunda, South Africa. A number of resilience studies have been conducted both locally and abroad, but none of these has focused on the resilience of youth in petrochemical-affected communities. Since resilience is a complex process that results from individuals’ interaction with their social environments, my study was grounded in the Social Ecology of Resilience Theory (SERT). As an educational psychologist, I employed a phenomenological design with 30 participants (17 males and 13 females) aged 15 to 24 who were selected through purposive sampling from eMbalenhle community. Among these participants, 10 attended school, 2 were at the tertiary educational level and 4 were employed part-time. For this qualitative study I undertook an interpretivist approach to make sense of participants’ interpretations of their experience of living in a petrochemical-affected community. The data was generated by the RYSE team. A variety of arts-based /visual participatory methods (draw-talk-and-write, body theatre, and clay modelling) were used for generating data. I analysed the secondary data by means of inductive thematic content analysis where recurring themes were identified from the data. The main themes that emerged as community supports for adolescent resilience included support from Sasol (jobs, bursaries, learnerships, housing loans etc.), having positive relations with, and drawing support from, other community members and having access to health services and education. These themes indicate that although the petrochemical industry may affect the adolescents negatively it also constitutes their biggest support. The themes also indicate the importance of the social contexts in enabling adolescent wellbeing (as the theory behind SERT suggests should be the case). Therefore, when working with vulnerable adolescents from a petrochemical-affected community, any educational psychologist needs to partner with other role players from the community. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

Although a large body of research on financial management in marriages and conflict/divorce as outcomes of financial problems exists, the topic of how individuals describe the communicative processes leading to positive outcomes regarding financial conversations remains understudied. Because financial conversations emerge as a strong “tug-of-war” opponent to the successful partnership couples hope to achieve, this study sought to understand how romantic pairs talk about money in ways that lead to positive results. By using an interpretive approach, this study used online, open-ended survey questions to gather stories to better understand how married couples effectively discuss finances. The participant stories explained how individuals in committed romantic partnerships described successful conversations they had with their partner about money. The data were thematically coded using Spradley’s (1979) taxonomic coding categories. The stories from the 100 participants revealed specific strategies that couples used during positive financial conversations that led to positive relational outcomes. This study first reveals a taxonomy of tactics that individuals use in positive conversations about finances. Second, this study supports and offers new contributions to relational maintenance literature (Canary & Stafford, 1992; Stafford, 2011; Stafford & Canary, 1991; Stafford et al., 2000) regarding how maintenance strategies are used when talking about money. Finally, this study offers a taxonomy of reported relational outcomes for couples who have positive financial conversations. The knowledge gained from this study will be helpful to all couples who wish to positively navigate financial matters.