This dissertation documents my active involvement in anthropological research on elder well-being in Comitan, Chiapas, Mexico, and how my research was a springboard for local dialogue on the need for primary health care for the elderly, an issue with global significance. I describe my work as part of a larger process, still unfolding, that I helped initiate and continue to trace as an ethnographer engaged in participant observation. My long-term residence and applied health research in Chiapas, graduate training in medical anthropology, and institutional backing from the Comitan Center for Health Research (an NGO where I have worked since 1994) equipped me to catalyze engagement around elder health in Comitan. To do so, I drew on formative research, a multi-stage participatory process that is iterative and draws upon multiple methods and actors to identify and define a problem, then develop, monitor, and assess locally-congruent interventions. Specifically, I conducted: 1) ethnographic research on middle and lower class elders living alone and with family; 2) an elder health needs and resources survey of 300 households; 3) interviews with elders, home-based caregivers, and formal care providers; 4) an interinstitutional elder health conference and 5) a strategic planning meeting, which spawned 6) an independent working group that is currently exploring potential elder care strategies, with 7) my ongoing facilitation. In detailing elders' lives, problems, and care, I at once address the specific issue of elder well-being in Chiapas as seen by elders, caregivers, and providers, and describe the social relations of community action to provide basic elder care. I take stock of historical factors that have altered family relations and elder care dynamics in Chiapas, including structural adjustment, epidemiological and demographic transitions, globalization, and migration, as well as resultant local and regional socio-political struggles. I give special consideration to the household production of health, gendered differences in elder health and care resources, and the social relations of health care-seeking and therapy management. My findings challenge popular misconceptions regarding elder entitlement and access to economic, cultural, and social capital, and indicate potential solutions. This dissertation, then, illuminates how anthropological research can facilitate community-based problem solving.

Guided by the reasoned action approach, this two-fold research first used an online open-ended elicitation survey to identify beliefs held by undergraduate students (N = 397) pertaining to offering social support to depressed friends or peers. Then, these findings were included in a closed-ended survey study to assess the influence of intention on the social support behavior among students (N = 509). Additionally, the influence of the antecedents of intention (i.e., attitude, perceived norms, perceived behavioral control) on behavioral intention was explored. Next, the study examined whether beliefs predicted the antecedents of intention. Last, the influence of background factors (depression status, depression actual and perceived knowledge) on beliefs was investigated. Study one findings revealed salient behavioral beliefs focused on the depressed person's feelings and well-being. Normative beliefs involved participants' friends and family approving and the depressed person disapproving of the social support behavior. Control beliefs indicated being close to the depressed person and knowing they wanted to be helped would facilitate engaging in the social support behavior. Study two findings revealed instrumental attitude, perceived injunctive norms, and capacity accounted for 51.4% of the variance in intention with capacity being the strongest predictor. Further, instrumental attitude, perceived injunctive norms, capacity, descriptive normative beliefs, facilitators, and depression knowledge predicted 55% of intention to offer social support. Most beliefs influenced the antecedents of intention. Last, depression status and knowledge influenced beliefs. Findings of the present research may help inform future campaign messages promoting undergraduate students' offering of social support to depressed friends or peers.

The steady and consistent growth of online learning and the rapid development of Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis and blogs have led to innovative methods of training and instruction. As a result, continuing research is needed to develop and validate instructional design theories and models that support teaching and learning in today's technology-rich learning environment. The goal of this research was to refine the Creating Online Learning Communities for Adults (COLCA) instructional design (ID) theory by using the theory to design an online faculty development course. A formative research design guided the investigation. Formative research seeks to identify improvements for an instructional design theory based on a designed instance of the theory, in this case an online faculty development course in Web 2.0 tools and techniques. This research is a designed case applying the COLCA instructional design theory to an online faculty development course. Data sources included course documents and observations, email messages, and participant interviews. These data were used to determine which methods prescribed by the COLCA ID theory work well, what methods could be improved, and in which specific situations each method works best. As an original contribution to the discipline of information technology as applied to teaching and learning, this study sought to improve upon an instructional design theory currently in its early stages of development and informs the design of online learning communities for adults. This research is important to continued growth and advancement of contemporary instructional design theories that provide support for emerging technologies, adult learners, and online learning methods that facilitate the development of online learning communities and communities of practice.

The United States is in the midst of an opioid epidemic, which is leading to approximately 130 deaths each day. While research on family-based approaches for substance misuse prevention, such as alcohol and tobacco prevention, has been conducted, few if any studies have focused on prescription opioid misuse prevention. Previous literature suggests that a comprehensive family-based approach can be effective in preventing substance misuse at the family-level. Considering the multiple age groups the sandwich generation cares for, the sandwich generation may have greater access to reaching multiple age groups to prevent prescription opioid misuse. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to use formative research findings to inform family-based approaches focused on preventing opioid misuse. A dual method approach that includes qualitative focus groups and quantitative surveys is used to explore adults’ perceptions of prescription opioid misuse, factors perceived as influencing opioid misuse prevention, and perceived predictors of prescription opioid misuse prevention. Participants were adults, 30 to 59 years of age, which is the average age range of the sandwich generation. Extension agents recruited focus group participants (n = 55) and Qualtrics recruited survey participants (n = 335) for this study. Focus group transcripts were coded based on common ideas that arose during the focus groups, previous literature, and the PRECEDE-PROCEED model. Focus group findings indicate that participants view the opioid crisis as a family problem, in which they have a role in preventing, and identified predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling factors that influence whether family members take a role in preventing prescription opioid misuse. Univariate frequencies and multiple linear regression analyses results of the survey data indicate that Theory of Planned Behavior determinants are predictive of the intention to talk about opioids with friends and family. In addition, comfort predicts intention to talk about opioids with friends and family, suggesting that Theory of Planned Behavior determinants and comfort predict intention. Extension agents, family life educators, and other community-health professionals can collaborate and use these findings to develop family-based approaches, such as family communication training and brief strategic family therapy, combined with community-based approaches such as motivational interviewing and media campaigns.

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A lack of credible evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of play therapy and the use of therapeutic board game in play therapy exists (Phillips, 2010; Matorin, 1996). Parent involvement is a key variable in the effectiveness of play therapy (Kottman, Stother, and Deniger, 2001). Formative research was used in this study to evaluate of The Super Family Board Game™ (SFBG) in order to develop an effective therapeutic board game aimed at enhancing family cooperation and cohesion. As the first formative evaluation of a therapeutic board game, this study provides future research implications for developing and testing therapeutic board games.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-04T20:01:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 7 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O presente estudo problematiza a relação que professores de classes de Educação de Jovens e Adultos estabelecem com o saber e com o ofício docente. Tem como pressuposto que os saberes, as relações e os sentidos que os sujeitos-professores constroem e transformam ao longo de suas histórias de vida estão intrinsecamente relacionados com saberes, relações e sentidos que esses sujeitos-professores constroem sobre seu ofício docente. A pesquisa está fundamentada nos estudos desenvolvidos por Charlot (2000) sobre a noção de relação com o saber e teve por objetivos: identificar, na história pessoal e escolar, elementos constituidores da opção pela docência de professores de EJA; examinar a influência dos dados da história pessoal e escolar na relação que os professores estabelecem com o saber; problematizar a relação que professores de classes de EJA estabelecem com o saber e com o ofício docente e examinar a relação que os professores de classes de EJA estabelecem com o saber pedagógico. Metodologicamente trabalhou / The present master thesis examines the relationship that Adult and Youth Education establish with the knowledge and their profession. It is based on the premise that knowledges, the relationships and the meanings teachers build and transform throughout their lives are intrinsically related with knowledges, relationships and meanings that those teachers construct about their occupation. The research is based on the studies developed by Charlot (2000) about the notion of the relationship with the knowledge and has as its main objectives: identify in the personal and school history, constitutive elements of teacher’s option in the filed of adult and young education; examine the influence that personal and school history data have in the relationship that teachers establish with the knowledge and with their profession, and finally examines the relationship that adult and young education teachers establish with the pedagogic knowledge. From the methodological perspective, this work utilizes Baquero´s proposal of

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Explored and reported as three distinct but interrelated studies, this dissertation endeavored to develop a technology (i.e., process) to address the challenges faced by higher education faculty charged with updating or otherwise redesigning online courses. Considering the growing prevalence of online learning in higher education, calls on faculty with limited pedagogical training to design effective instruction are increasingly commonplace. Through a developmental research approach, these studies chronicled the Productivity in Online Course Redesign (POCR) model's construction via practical and theoretical means as well as its validation via expert review and field evaluation. The first of three contributing publications recorded the POCR model’s initial conceptualization and internal validation via review by an expert panel. Realized as a case study, the second contributing publication utilized field evaluation procedures to test the POCR model in a real-world setting, thus externally validating the model. The final contributing publication detailed a model refinement effort in which instructional design principles aligned with the Community of Inquiry framework were integrated to provide users with additional pedagogical support. The integration underwent internal validation via Delphi review. Deemed a valid model in both a conceptual and a practical sense, the POCR model shows promise as a tool for faculty who wish to engage with course design more efficiently and systematically.