The present study analyzes cranial nonmetric traits used in forensic ancestry estimation on contemporary skeletal remains of modern European Americans in order to determine if there are statistically significant differences between males and females in trait expression. Research on cranial nonmetric traits for ancestry estimation has largely ignored the effects of sexual dimorphism on trait expression; however, there is growing evidence that some traits may be impacted by sex, among other variables. The 17 macromorphoscopic traits described in Hefner and Linde (2018) and the six mandibular morphoscopic traits described in Berg (2008) were scored on 97 females and 113 males from the Texas State University Donated Skeletal Collection in San Marcos, Texas. Chi-square tests were used to analyze if there are statistically significant cranial nonmetric trait expressions between males and females. From these tests, the results indicate that 14 out of the 23 cranial and mandibular nonmetric traits are statistically significantly different between the sexes, with a p-value less than 0.05. Gonial angle flare is the most significant feature, while the zygomaticomaxillary suture is the least significant feature. Additionally, correspondence analyses (CA) show the relationship between each cranial nonmetric trait score, that demonstrated significance, and both sexes. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that several nonmetric traits used in ancestry estimation are affected by sex; thus, it may be beneficial to develop sex-specific ancestry models for nonmetric traits.

Although psychologists and sociologists have studied the origin and nature of European American children’s racial biases for decades, relatively little is known about the role of European American families in shaping their young children’s understanding of and attitudes about race. The primary goal of the current study was to examine European American mothers’ approaches to race-related issues with their children, with particular interest in exploring the ways mothers may influence their young children’s racial attitudes. I explored these questions by completing a multi-method study of 84 European American mothers and their four- to five-year-old children. Mothers read two books with race-related themes out loud to their children and then completed surveys concerning their race-related attitudes and behaviors while their children worked with a researcher to complete measures of cognitive skills and racial attitudes. Results indicated that European American mothers provide few race-related messages to their preschool-aged children. Specifically, mothers’ self-reports of their racial socialization strategies and their behaviors during the book reading session indicated that they are reluctant to discuss race explicitly. Furthermore, neither mother’s self-reported racial socialization strategies nor their behavior in the lab predicted their children’s racial attitudes. Instead, children’s racial attitudes were related to their mothers’ friendships. Those children whose mothers had a higher percentage of non-European Americans friends showed lower levels of racial biases than those children whose mothers had a lower percentage of non-European American friends. This study suggests that children’s racial attitudes are unaffected by mothers’ vague messages about diversity; instead, it seems that mothers need to engage in intimate, cross-race relations and send explicit, frequent race-related messages if they hope to influence their children’s racial attitudes. / text

This study examines the possible correlations between vertebral osteoporosis, spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis, Schmorl’s nodes, vertebral osteoarthritis, osteophytosis, and laminal spurs. Further, this study examines the effects of sex, age, ancestry, and occupation on the vertebral pathologies. A total of 238 individuals (54 African Americans and 184 randomly selected European Americans) from the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, were analyzed. Vertebral pathologies and anomalies were assessed using visual morphometric scoring methods outlined in previous research. It is hypothesized that positive correlations exist between osteoporosis and other vertebral pathologies and a positive correlation exists between vertebral pathologies and strenuous occupations. It is also hypothesized that there is a difference in the prevalence of vertebral pathologies between European American and African American ancestries due to African Americans generally showing higher bone mineral density than European Americans (Aloia 2008). The results of this research demonstrate numerous relationships: females are correlated with more severe osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and spondylolisthesis, while males correlate with Schmorl’s nodes; European Americans are correlated with osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, osteophytosis, and Schmorl’s nodes, while African Americans are correlated with laminal spurs; individuals 40 years or older are correlated with osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, Schmorl’s nodes, and laminal spurs; and lastly, labor intensive occupations (i.e., construction worker) are correlated with osteoarthritis, osteophytosis, and Schmorl’s nodes, all with p-values less than 0.05. The majority of the pathological conditions also correlate with each other, for example, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. This research demonstrates how pathological conditions correlate with sociodemographic risk factors and with other pathological conditions, which can help with the identification process of skeletal remains in archaeological and forensic contexts.

African Americans do not seek mental health help at the same rate, as do European Americans; furthermore, African Americans who do seek help tend to leave therapy prematurely. A poor therapeutic alliance between African American clients and European American clinicians may be one reason that African Americans do not seek therapy or leave prematurely. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experience of African American clients in therapeutic relationship with European American clinicians. Rogers' theory of therapeutic alliance, which included empathy as a key concept, served as the conceptual framework of this study. Through purposeful sampling methodology, 10 participants were invited to participate, based on self-report of being African American and having had therapy with a European American clinician. Participants were interviewed regarding their lived experiences in therapy with a European American clinician. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. There were 13 thematic findings. Findings revealed that more participants reported positive experiences in therapy than did participants who reported negative experiences. Empathy, therapeutic alliance, and trust were key factors to positive outcomes. Knowing and implementing what factors lead to positive alliance has valuable social change implications for European American clinicians and their African American patients. Clinicians should be trained in the importance of empathy, therapeutic alliance, and trust, especially when working in mixed racial therapeutic dyads.

This study investigated views, beliefs, and values about extracurricular activities of two sets of parents, Korean immigrant parents and American U.S. born parents, both groups of middle or higher class socioeconomic status with above college degrees. By examining how parents perceive their own involvement in their children’s extracurricular activities and how differently parents of recent immigration from Korea or of established European American descent become involved with their children’s activities, parents’ motivation and their role emerged using self-determination theory as a basis to explain the internalization underlying self-determined motivation. Participants in this study were 31 parents (approximately10 each from 3 activity groups) associated with three extracurricular activities for young children. This study used a mixed-methods approach. First, the degree of to which parents perceived their involvement based on parental support or pressure, the two factors from Anderson et al. (2003), were surveyed. Second, semi-structured face-to-face interviews were used to elicit in-depth information from three parents for each activity, selecting them based on their responses to the survey. The findings suggested that parents expect their children to find their own interest, build competence, and ultimately acquire autonomy by engaging in extracurricular activities. In terms of cultural differences, the results revealed that though there are cultural differences in their involvement, these parents were aware of possible gaps and strove to close these gaps to help their children. / text

xv, 97 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Emotion experiences such as internalized distress have been described mostly in European Americans and adults in the psychological literature and less in Asian American children. Associations between emotion experience and expressivity have been established mostly through samples of European American children. Finally, the functionality of emotion experience and expressivity across cultural norms has not been examined thoroughly, especially in ethnic minority or bicultural children. This is of concern given that cultural ideals for emotion differ across cultural groups. This dissertation incorporates a cultural perspective to understanding the emotion experience while also relying on the functionalist approach as an organizing framework to understand expressivity in children from an Asian background. This study examined 70 Chinese American and 71 European American mothers and their 5 to 7 year old children. Mother and child reports of children's internalized V experience were obtained. Observers also rated children's expressivity in a frustration- eliciting task, alone and in the presence of their mothers. The first objective of the dissertation was to characterize the emotion experiences of Chinese American and European American young children, in particular, internalized distress. The second objective of this dissertation sought to observe children's expressivity in response to a frustrating situation, with and without their mothers. As a whole, Chinese American children experienced greater internalized distress than European American children based on mother and child reports. Contrary to hypotheses, Chinese American children were just as expressive as European American children during the frustration eliciting task, especially when mothers were present in the room. Furthermore, it appeared that European American children with greater child-reported anxiety and mother-reported depression showed less increase in their expressivity than all the other children when their mothers entered into the room. This study explored the role of culture in the socialization of emotion and the functionality of expressivity in solitary and social situations. Overall, this dissertation suggests that cultural, situational, and internal emotion experience are factors which concurrently play a role in children's emotion expressivity. / Adviser: Jeffrey Measelle

To date, there has not been research that disaggregates the experiences of Asian American and international Asian college students seeking psychotherapy in college campus settings. We examined archival data collected over the course of a 17-year period that focused on experiences of Asian American, international Asian, and European American students at a large university in the intermountain west, US. More specifically, we used archival data to identify differences between the aforementioned groups of students in regard to psychotherapy utilization, presenting concerns, distress levels endorsed at intake, and distress levels endorsed at termination. Results were calculated based on findings from the Family Concerns Survey (FCS), Presenting Problem Checklist (PPC), and Outcome Questionnaire 45 (OQ-45). Results indicate no significant differences between these three groups in terms of the maximum number of psychotherapy sessions attended. Cox Regression analyses showed no significant differences between these groups of students in regard to their likelihood for treatment discontinuance. Odds Ratio analyses yielded little statistical difference between groups in terms of likelihood of attending therapy. We found significant differences between these groups of students on a number of items related to their presenting concerns. Additionally, we found a significant difference between students in these three groups in regard to the severity of their presenting distress (as measured by the Outcome Questionaire-45), with international Asian students presenting with the most distress followed by Asian American students and finally European American students. We also found a significant difference between these groups of students in treatment improvement as measured by change scores on the Outcome Questionaire-45 with European American students experiencing the greatest change, followed by Asian American students, followed by international Asian students. Given the nature of these results, practitioners are admonished to attend to initial distress levels upon intake as well as Asian American and international Asian students' experience of racism and discrimination. Practitioners are also encouraged to align treatment recommendations with the specific world view of the client they are meeting with.

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