The importance of housing has been discussed in several disciplines as a basic need, a fundamental human right, and a source of economic and social security; but the social housing system in Ontario has been downloaded from higher levels of government to municipalities with little to no increase in funding or program governance. In this thesis, I argue that the policies and programs that govern the social housing system in Ontario focus on a service provision perspective that maintains the status quo, particularly the stigma attached to social housing projects and homeless people. Using interviews with activists and a review of the literature, I suggest that activists have a role in changing the way this service-oriented perspective works by bringing forward the realities of homelessness in the public realm to alter social thought, agendas, and actions.

Attention is an acknowledged component of the therapeutic relationship that is the heart of clinical work and the base of competence. The centrality of the therapeutic relationship itself has been recognized throughout the history of clinical work. The clinician’s work is based, in part, in attending to the client by actively and openly listening to the client with attention and engagement. However, attention has been lacking within mental health disciplines to what occurs within the process of clinical attention. As a result, little knowledge exists about the structure of clinical attention itself. This dissertation studied the structure of clinical attention to understand what occurs when clinicians attend to their clients in sessions. The thesis focused on the internal processes occurring within the clinician, not on actions or interventions taken in sessions. The literature review grounded the study theoretically in mind science and contemplative science, the study of reality grounded in both objective and subjective experience. The literature review also conceptualized attention in its sub processes of mindfulness, meditation, reflective practice and affect regulation, examining literature relevant to those constructs as well as to the history, philosophy and psychology of attention. The literature revealed a lack of knowledge of the structure and process of clinical attention. Using the extant literature, a new theoretical framework of attention was constructed. Attention was conceptualized as composed of levels of pre-reflective and reflective attention as related to the attention sub processes. A phenomenological methodology was used to study the structure of clinical attention in relation to holistic competence. Fourteen clinicians, all of whom met the criteria for attaining expertise in the use of attention in their clinical work, participated in an explicitation interview. Data analysis followed a modified phenomenological methodology in a series of steps as the data were grouped in invariant constituents, reduced to emergent themes and analyzed for a textural structural description from which a structural description was constructed. From the structural description was distilled the essence of clinical attention. Clinical attention was seen to consist of a dynamic and iterative process of intention and intuition. Intention and intuition were seen to be based in different attentional levels, both of which were recursively and iteratively related to attention’s construction as a process grounded in inner awareness providing the potential abilities to reflect on experience and regulate affective experience. The study concluded with a discussion of the relationship of the skill of clinical attention to a holistic competence based in levels of procedural capability focused on concrete behavioural action and meta competence focused on clinical judgment, self-awareness and self-reflection on the actions taken. The implications of the study’s findings for training clinicians in attention were discussed.

Attention is an acknowledged component of the therapeutic relationship that is the heart of clinical work and the base of competence. The centrality of the therapeutic relationship itself has been recognized throughout the history of clinical work. The clinician’s work is based, in part, in attending to the client by actively and openly listening to the client with attention and engagement. However, attention has been lacking within mental health disciplines to what occurs within the process of clinical attention. As a result, little knowledge exists about the structure of clinical attention itself. This dissertation studied the structure of clinical attention to understand what occurs when clinicians attend to their clients in sessions. The thesis focused on the internal processes occurring within the clinician, not on actions or interventions taken in sessions. The literature review grounded the study theoretically in mind science and contemplative science, the study of reality grounded in both objective and subjective experience. The literature review also conceptualized attention in its sub processes of mindfulness, meditation, reflective practice and affect regulation, examining literature relevant to those constructs as well as to the history, philosophy and psychology of attention. The literature revealed a lack of knowledge of the structure and process of clinical attention. Using the extant literature, a new theoretical framework of attention was constructed. Attention was conceptualized as composed of levels of pre-reflective and reflective attention as related to the attention sub processes. A phenomenological methodology was used to study the structure of clinical attention in relation to holistic competence. Fourteen clinicians, all of whom met the criteria for attaining expertise in the use of attention in their clinical work, participated in an explicitation interview. Data analysis followed a modified phenomenological methodology in a series of steps as the data were grouped in invariant constituents, reduced to emergent themes and analyzed for a textural structural description from which a structural description was constructed. From the structural description was distilled the essence of clinical attention. Clinical attention was seen to consist of a dynamic and iterative process of intention and intuition. Intention and intuition were seen to be based in different attentional levels, both of which were recursively and iteratively related to attention’s construction as a process grounded in inner awareness providing the potential abilities to reflect on experience and regulate affective experience. The study concluded with a discussion of the relationship of the skill of clinical attention to a holistic competence based in levels of procedural capability focused on concrete behavioural action and meta competence focused on clinical judgment, self-awareness and self-reflection on the actions taken. The implications of the study’s findings for training clinicians in attention were discussed.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / Young women are influenced by a variety of different messages as they are transitioning from being viewed as little girls to being viewed as young women. While women of all ages can experience dissatisfaction with their bodies and appearance, this is especially common during the time when girls are entering into adolescence, adjusting to their changing bodies, and trying to develop a sense of who they are as an individual. Our society today has placed a significant importance on thinness and young women are bombarded with messages presenting them with an unattainable level of thinness as society‘s ideal. This paper describes adolescent development, looks at the sociocultural influences (family, peers, and media) that impact young women‘s body image, presents prevention and intervention programs that have been used with young women, and provides recommendations for family life educators on how to educate parents on the messages their daughters are being sent and provides them with suggestions on how to talk with their daughters about these messages.

Master of Science / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / F. Todd Goodson / This study analyzes the power of rhetorical forms from a historical perspective. Ronald Reagan's presidency (1981-1989) will serve as the historical time period used for analysis. By looking at President Ronald Reagan‘s ―War on Drugs, this study provides historical research on the legislative initiatives leading up to this war, as well as on the various aspects of Reagan‘s drug policies. In addition, this study also outlines concurrent educational policies respectively. This background information provides a foundation for examining the role of education within the -War on Drugs, as well as how rhetorical similarities between Reagan‘s drug and education policies are indicative of his administration‘s larger aims and beliefs.

This study uses latent class analysis and latent transition analysis to model and compare patterns of offending over time for males and females by: (1) identifying qualitative dimensions of offending; (2) modeling how patterns of offending change over time; and (3) exploring factors related to patterns of offending. This is a secondary analysis of data from the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transition and Crime, a longitudinal study consisting of a cohort of about 4,000 young people from secondary schools in the City of Edinburgh who responded to questionnaires administered between 1988 and 2001, when they were about 12, 13, 14, and 15 years old. Previous studies of offending have used trajectory modeling to explore the course of offending from onset to termination, but the models are generally based on a count of types of offences aggregated across individuals over time, making it difficult to determine whether individuals exhibit more versatility or specialization in offending or switch offences from one point in time to another. In addition, most of the studies on patterns of offending have focused primarily on males. An understanding of patterns of offending over time for both males and females is important for the design and selection of developmentally appropriate prevention/treatment strategies. The present study adds to the literature by (1) further exploring the small and understudied literature on offence transitions; (2) examining more closely the development of female offending separately from and in relation to male offending; and (3) exploring a range of factors (criminogenic and non-criminogenic) related to the development of offending for both males and females. While the same number of qualitative dimensions (latent classes) characterised male and female offending in this study, there were some structural differences. There was also evidence of shifts in the qualitative dimensions for males and females over time. Finally, those factors classified as criminogenic were more likely to differentiate among the latent classes than those classified as non-criminogenic.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Jared A. Durtschi / Many individuals in their teens and twenties believe achieving financial self-sufficiency is an important part of becoming an adult (Arnett, 2000); yet the research on this topic is very limited. The level of general responsibility a young adult obtains is related to their general level of self-confidence (e.g., Shim, Serido, Bosch & Tang, 2013). However, the relationship between financial responsibility and self-confidence is currently unknown. Additionally, the relationship between self-confidence and annual income among young adults is largely unknown. This is the first study to advance current knowledge with a large (N = 474) and longitudinal dataset of emerging adults. The goal of this study is to test the underlying process that may explain variation of annual income among emerging adults from the Transition to Adulthood Supplement, a subset of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The study used a structural equation model (SEM) to test three waves of data across four years. Results from the SEM analysis demonstrated that higher levels of financial responsibility were associated with higher levels of self-confidence two years later. Additionally, the findings showed that higher levels of self-confidence were associated with higher levels of annual income after an additional two years. The results suggest the importance of building financial responsibility and self-confidence in emerging young adults.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen Myers-Bowman / Female adolescent sexual behavior has several potential negative life consequences including: pregnancy, sexually transmitted infection, and HIV/AIDS. Educating parents on how they play a role in the decision-making process regarding the sexual behavior of their adolescent daughters has important implications for Family Life Educators. This thesis explores maternal influence on the risky sexual behavior of female adolescents related to age at first sexual intercourse, contraceptive use, and number of partners. ANOVA was used to explore the relationships between a variety of aspects in the mother-daughter relationship. Findings show there are associations between time spent together, perceptions of closeness, and communication in mother-daughter relationships, and contraceptive use at first and most recent intercourse and total number of partners.

Master of Science / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Kevin Roberts / Distance programs in higher education have become commonplace in the United States because of developments in technology. Despite these advancements, hospitality programs have been reluctant to create fully online offerings for undergraduate students. This study wanted to focus on understanding the attitudes of undergraduate hospitality students about online learning. Specifically, the objectives of this study were to determine the attitudes of hospitality students about online learning, to analyze which technologies they have used during their academic careers, and to analyze which technologies are perceived as most useful to facilitate learning. Focus groups were conducted with a select group of students to better understand their attitudes and experiences with online learning and learning technologies. An online survey was distributed to undergraduate hospitality management students at five Midwestern universities. Means and standard deviations were used to measure overall student attitudes about online learning and to measure ratings of effectiveness and past use of selected technologies for online learning. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the relationships between educational levels of students and perceptions of online technologies, as well as the relationship between experience with online courses and attitudes towards online learning. A t-test was used to determine if a relationship existed between gender and attitudes towards online learning. Results from this study revealed that respondents preferred to use more familiar technologies such as slideshow presentations and email for online learning. Students reported that they would miss the interaction with their professors if they took an online course and would receive less help. Females and males differed in their attitudes about online learning. Results from this study will assist hospitality curriculum developers to better understand the attitudes and needs of undergraduate hospitality management students in the online learning environment.

Community food security (CFS) is a new, community-based, collaborative approach to achieving food security. CFS seeks to merge social justice and environmental sustainability goals in the pursuit of food-secure communities. The Good Food Market (GFM) is a new CFS initiative wherein a subsidized community food market operates in a food desert. Through a qualitative case study approach, I examine and evaluate the programmatic design of The Stop’s Good Food Market, and explore its contribution to community food security. The research is framed within a larger study of food security. Research findings are based on semi-structured and structured interviews with GFM coordinators and customers, as well as participant observation and literature reviews.