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Family support, both financial and social, can impact the educational aspirations of youth. Studies have shown gender also plays a role in those educational aspirations. While there has been some research done on the educational aspirations of youth in Appalachia, the research on female youth Appalachia is less explored. This study looks at the educational aspirations of female youth in Appalachia by surveying a group of young women who belong to the Robinson Scholars at the University of Kentucky. Participants completed a brief, one time survey answering questions about the types of social support received and the providers of that support. Preliminarily data supports the literature; in the absence of financial capital, social capital may be used to empower young women. The data also supports the idea that most females are impacted by their mothers’ influence more than other members of their family or community. Conclusions and discussions will include a plan for further research, as well as the implications for educators and students throughout Appalachia.

No description available.

Adverse childhood events (ACEs) are associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes, and youth in rural Appalachia have been shown to experience disproportionately more ACEs compared to youth elsewhere. During the spring of 2020, our community partners in Johnson County, Tennessee expressed concern for the mental health of youth and educators in their community and identified a need for information on coping skills and stress reduction. With input from local stakeholders, we created a Calm Corner Kit and a Coping Skills Resource Guide with specific coping strategies, stress reduction techniques, and support programs for students, parents and caregivers, and school personnel in the community. An IRB-approved survey of school personnel who utilized our tools found them to be useful, convenient, and easily accessible resources. These positive results warrant future studies to investigate student and parent perceptions of the value of similar interventions in supporting their mental and emotional health.

Transgender individuals experience a number of barriers to access to care including lack of availability of competent healthcare providers and stigma in healthcare settings. This is especially true in rural South Central Appalachia, where access to care for the general population is already limited. However, to date, little research has been done assessing the extent to which and reasons for lack of physical and mental healthcare access for transgender and other gender minority populations in this region. In this mixed-methods study we surveyed 155 healthcare providers and conducted focus groups and interviews with 18 patients in order to gain a better understanding of the obstacles to care that local gender minority patients experience. Results indicate that providers have a lack of training and a general lack of knowledge about these populations and their health needs and that many patients have difficulty identifying friendly and competent providers, have experienced stigma in healthcare settings, and often find themselves educating their own providers about their basic health needs. There is a clear need for training of currently-practicing primary care providers in South Central Appalachia on basic gender minority health needs and a need to train providers-in-training about the needs of LGBT patients.

The opioid epidemic is an issue that has ravaged much of the United States, and specifically Appalachia. Many different academic disciplines have attempted to provide a solution to no avail. This ethnographic study investigates the social nature of addiction & recovery related to problematic opiate use. Through semi-structured interviews and participant observation with clients at a drop-in mental health and addiction services center, the study explores the social conditions which facilitate problematic substance use in addition to vetted strategies to reach and maintain active recovery from opiate misuse. The conclusion focuses on how addiction and recovery are inherently social exercises that are heavily influenced by one's social network and the social contexts they live or have lived in. Using an anthropological perspective, this study shows the value that social science and an anthropological perspective in particular, can provide on such a pervasive and unsettling issue.

Though some research exists related to career choices among Appalachian youth, and literature exists which broadly examines choices to pursue engineering degrees, information specifically related to Appalachian students' career choice toward engineering is limited. Engineering typically represents high paying, stable jobs so it is particularly important to understand what attracts students to, or deters them from, engineering careers in the Appalachian region, which is beset by poverty and low representation in higher education. The purpose of this research was to explore what influences students from the Central Appalachian region of Virginia in choosing their career goals, in particular, relative to engineering careers. Therefore, the overarching research question was: How are Central Appalachian high school students influenced as they choose their career goals, especially with respect to engineering? In this qualitative study, I used semi-structured interviews and case study methods, guided by Lent and Brown's Social Cognitive Career Theory, to explore career choice goals of high school participants in Southwest Virginia. The twenty-four high school participants and twelve college engineering student participants represented a diverse sample with respect to school and county demographics. Through thematic coding, the data revealed patterns relative to 1) reasons students chose their career goals, and 2) variation in factors contributing to career goals. Specifically, I identified six high school categories of reasons and only three reasons for college engineering students. High school students' career choice reasons, while related to interests, were largely influenced by critical life events. Additionally, patterns emerged based on whether or not the student was a continuing generation Appalachian (CGA), parent/guardian educational attainment and place of employment, and the location of the high school relative to college resources. This is consistent with previous literature, which points to the importance of parental education and student interests as factors for determining a student's career choice, and STEM literature, which often links interests in math, science, or engineering activities as key influencers. However, this research also revealed that critical life events, a student's family background (First Generation College and CGA), and parental job location are patterned with career goals. / Ph. D.

Uneducated working-class individuals in the United States are dying from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholic-related liver disease at unprecedented rates; a phenomenon economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton describe as deaths of despair. This paper focuses on deaths of despair in the Appalachian region, where mortality rates from these types of deaths are disproportionately higher than the rest of the country. Marxism and intersectionality are two philosophical frameworks that I will apply to Appalachian despair to test the adequacy of their explanatory power. By placing Marxism and intersectionality in the context of the data surrounding deaths of despair, I can test their capability to accurately diagnose and understand this health issue.

Purpose: Forgiveness is associated with a variety of health-related outcomes; however much of this work has been in the context of forgiveness of others, direct associations and otherwise healthy samples. This study examined associations involving multiple dimensions of forgiveness, including indirect effects through health behavior, among outpatients receiving physical therapy. Methods: Participants from southern Appalachia (n=141) completed cross-sectional self-report measures of forgiveness, lifetime religiousness, health behavior, health status and pain. Mediation analysis was employed to examine the direct and indirect relationships between forgiveness and health. Results: Forgiveness of self was associated with: (i) overall health status, physical health status and current pain in an indirect-only fashion and (ii) mental health status and chronic pain in a direct-only fashion. Feeling forgiven by God was associated with health-related social functioning in a direct-only fashion. Forgiveness of others was not associated with the health-related outcomes. Conclusions: Forgiveness of self appears to be the most important to health, yet the most difficult to achieve. Religious culture may influence whether feeling forgiven by God is also important. Forgiveness-based intervention may be useful in the context of rehabilitation, in general, and physical therapy, in particular.

No scale provided. Researched by Dr. Nat E. Hyder and Midred Kozsuch. Cartography and illustration by Alan Park in 1980. Overmountain Press. Indicates mills, forges, and places of interest. / https://dc.etsu.edu/rare-maps/1120/thumbnail.jpg