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Juvenile crime among females is on the rise in the United States and is currently at an all-time high. Girls who are at risk for committing juvenile crime are at greater risk than boys for experiencing sexual trauma and exploitation as well as depression. Additionally, adolescent females have a higher rate of status-offense reoffending than do adolescent males. Using Kubeka's conceptualization of trauma theory, the purpose of this case study was to determine whether Everlasting Peace (EP), an evidence-based counseling program in Georgia, successfully provided gender-specific treatment for female juvenile offenders. Data were collected through interviews with 20 parent/guardian of juvenile female offenders who had been referred to EP by the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice for treatment. These data were inductively coded and then subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. Results suggested that girls who received gender-specific treatment services from EP showed a positive change in behavior. EP addressed trauma, depression, and sexual abuse as seen in these female offenders. This study may contribute to positive social change by making direct policy recommendations to the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice to enhance and support programming options for girls who have experienced trauma in order to reduce opportunities for future delinquency.

Based on the fact that the number of second/foreign language learners diminishes as their study advances to a higher level, this study investigates how learnersâ?? motivation affects their persistence/termination of the learning of Japanese. The subjects are university students studying Japanese at two levels, elementary and intermediate, either as their major or as an elective in south-east Queensland, Australia. It was assumed that there are many motivational variables, such as the purpose of study, the strength of commitment, their attitudes towards the target language and languages in general, their cultural/linguistic backgrounds, their interest in Japanese language and culture, gender, and the learning environment, which may affect learnersâ?? persistence differently, depending on their level of study. Questionnaires were used as a tool to collect data and were conducted twice, at the beginning and at the end of their course of study. Learnersâ?? motivational traits were examined from the data in accordance with their intention of continuing or discontinuing the study to the next semester. The results show that motivation is not something fixed in the learnersâ?? minds, but may change during the process of learning, and that motivational factors vary according to levels of language proficiency. Based on the findings, this study claims five major points: 1) learnersâ?? sustaining motivation which is based on studentsâ?? continuous appraisal of their learning events may be important for their persistence/termination decision making, 2) one of the most important factors which affect sustaining motivation is the studentsâ?? sense of investment in their Japanese language study, 3) development of the culture-based intrinsic interest in Japanese may work strongly for the investment, and learning environment, especially foreign language learning environment, may play a significant role for studentsâ?? investment, 4) a large gap between learnersâ?? self-efficacy and the demands of real study weakens their motivation, which often leads to the termination of their study, especially at the elementary level, and 5) studentsâ?? cultural/linguistic distance from Japanese, educational background, and gender may affect their sustaining motivation, thus, they perform differently with regard to their persistence in Japanese as a foreign language study in Australian context.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of certification on women-owned construction companies in the United States. The primary objectives were to determine if certification has impacted accessibility to public (government) and private construction work as well as the financial performance of women-owned construction firms. The secondary research objectives were to determine what challenges these firms have encountered during the certification process and their perception of it.

The objectives of this research were to test treatment and survival differences between women and men with lung cancer as there is minimal investigation in the literature. Three research questions were developed with statistical testing for gender differences based on similar cancer type, stage, treatment assignment and survival. Data for 44,863 primary lung cancer cases were collected from eight U.S. state-based cancer registries to investigate the research questions. The lung cancer incidence data included the morphological cell-types of adenocarcinoma (AC); squamous cell carcinoma (SCC); large cell carcinoma (LCC) and small cell carcinoma (SCC). Stage, grade, treatment type, as well as, individual characteristics such as gender, age at diagnosis, marital status at diagnosis and race were other variables obtained to be included in the statistical models. Reporting the overall effect for lung cancer gender specific treatment differences or survival has not been demonstrated in the literature to the author's knowledge. By convention, main effects and interaction effects are reported in the literature; without including an evaluation the overall effect of a variable on the outcome, possible misinterpretations could be made. For example, utilizing the Cox's Proportional Hazards model when the interaction effect of gender and treatment type received was examined, females were at an increased risk for death by as much 29% as compared to males (HR = 1.18, 95% CI 1.09 - 1.29). But when the gender effect on survival was assessed, there was an increase in females survivorship as compared to males by as much as 28% (HR = 0.80, 95% CI 0.72 - 0.97 ). In conclusion, by using a unique statistical approach, statistically significant Odds Ratios and Hazard Ratios were demonstrated for the research data set when the overall interaction effect on the outcome was examined. Recommendations to health care practitioners include adhering to current guidelines, e.g. American Medical Association, for lung cancer treatments. Standard treatment protocols were not always followed for early stage disease, e.g. females versus males with stage I lung cancer were 1.71 times more likely to receive chemotherapy in combination with radiation therapy versus a standard first treatment course of surgery (OR = 1.71, 95% CI 1.06 - 2.78). Also, depending on the lung cancer morphology and lung cancer treatment, females as compared to males could exhibit an increase in survivorship by as much as 28%. To improve the results of medical care decisions for lung cancer, clinicians may find the information presented in this study useful and encourage further research on which treatment increases survival for both men and women.

Based on the fact that the number of second/foreign language learners diminishes as their study advances to a higher level, this study investigates how learnersâ?? motivation affects their persistence/termination of the learning of Japanese. The subjects are university students studying Japanese at two levels, elementary and intermediate, either as their major or as an elective in south-east Queensland, Australia. It was assumed that there are many motivational variables, such as the purpose of study, the strength of commitment, their attitudes towards the target language and languages in general, their cultural/linguistic backgrounds, their interest in Japanese language and culture, gender, and the learning environment, which may affect learnersâ?? persistence differently, depending on their level of study. Questionnaires were used as a tool to collect data and were conducted twice, at the beginning and at the end of their course of study. Learnersâ?? motivational traits were examined from the data in accordance with their intention of continuing or discontinuing the study to the next semester. The results show that motivation is not something fixed in the learnersâ?? minds, but may change during the process of learning, and that motivational factors vary according to levels of language proficiency. Based on the findings, this study claims five major points: 1) learnersâ?? sustaining motivation which is based on studentsâ?? continuous appraisal of their learning events may be important for their persistence/termination decision making, 2) one of the most important factors which affect sustaining motivation is the studentsâ?? sense of investment in their Japanese language study, 3) development of the culture-based intrinsic interest in Japanese may work strongly for the investment, and learning environment, especially foreign language learning environment, may play a significant role for studentsâ?? investment, 4) a large gap between learnersâ?? self-efficacy and the demands of real study weakens their motivation, which often leads to the termination of their study, especially at the elementary level, and 5) studentsâ?? cultural/linguistic distance from Japanese, educational background, and gender may affect their sustaining motivation, thus, they perform differently with regard to their persistence in Japanese as a foreign language study in Australian context.

Diese Arbeit besteht aus empirischen und methodischen Beiträgen zur Literatur über den deutschen Lohnunterschied zwischen Männern und Frauen. Bisher war es aus Mangel an geeigneten Daten nicht möglich, den potentiellen Einfluss von Arbeitgebern bzw. Firmen auf diesen Lohnunterschied zu untersuchen. Auf der Basis neuer Linked Employer-Employee Daten wird dies in drei empirischen Studien untersucht. Die erste Studie wendet sich dem innerbetrieblichen Lohnunterschied zu. Dabei zeigt sich, dass dieser stark über die Firmen schwankt. Demnach weisen Unternehmen mit einem Betriebsrat und solche, die Tarifverträge anwenden, geringere Lohnunterschiede auf. Firmen, die einem starken Wettbewerbsdruck ausgesetzt sind, nehmen weniger Entlohnungsunterschiede zwischen den Geschlechtern vor. In der zweiten Studie steht die Frage, wie viel des beobachteten Lohnunterschieds durch verschiedene individuelle Merkmale und wie viel durch die Selektion in unterschiedliche Betriebe erklärt werden kann, im Mittelpunkt. Dazu wird eine Zerlegung in vier Komponenten mit einem Verfahren von Machado und Mata (2005) über die ganze Lohnverteilung vorgenommen. Die Analyse zeigt, dass der Lohnunterschied am unteren Rand der Lohnverteilung am höchsten ist. Dies ist auf die Segregation von Frauen in weniger erfolgreiche und produktive Firmen zurückzuführen. Dagegen haben Unterschiede in der Humankapitalausstattung nur einen geringen Einfluss. In der dritten Studie wird die Beziehung zwischen dem Frauenanteil in Unternehmen und dem Lohn untersucht. Ein hoher Frauenanteil innerhalb von Unternehmen könnte eine für Frauen attraktive Arbeitsumgebung, geringe Qualifikationsanforderungen von Seiten der Arbeitgeber oder weniger Diskriminierung gegenüber Frauen widerspiegeln. Die Analyse zeigt, dass auch bei sukzessiver Berücksichtigung von individuellen und Firmenmerkmalen, der Frauenanteil einen negativen Einfluss auf den Lohn hat. Insbesondere eine attraktive Arbeitsumgebung führt zu einem geringen Lohn in frauendominierten Firmen. / This thesis consists of empirical and methodological contributions to the literature on the German gender wage gap. Due to a lack of appropriate data, previous studies have been unable to document the potential impact of employers and establishments on the gender wage gap. We investigate these issues using a newly available Linked Employer-Employee Dataset. The first study pays attention to the gender wage gap within establishments. We find that the gender wage gap varies tremendously across establishments. Establishments with work councils and those covered by collective wage agreements are found to have a smaller wage gap. Furthermore, establishments operating under strong product market competition behave in a more egalitarian way. In the second study, the key issue is to disentangle gender differences in human capital endowment and the segregation of men and women in different types of establishments as sources of wage inequality. Using an approach of Machado and Mata (2005), we apply a decomposition method extended to four terms across the entire wage distribution. The analysis shows that the gap is highest in the lower part of the wage distribution. This is largely explained by segregation of women into less successful and productive firms. Gender differences in the human capital endowment have a lesser impact upon the gap. The third study comprises an investigation of the relationship between the share of women in establishments and the wages of both sexes. For this correlation, hypotheses are formulated as to what a high proportion of women in an establishment can indicate: attractive working conditions for women, lower qualification requirements or less discrimination against women. The results show, that even when including worker and establishment covariates, a higher share of female employees reduces wages for both males and females. In particular, attractive working conditions lead to lower wages in female dominated establishments.

Seventy-five percent of women offenders confined to prison, jails, or residential treatment programs are custodial parents of minor children at the time of their separation. Little is known, though, about how prosocial networks are used to address the effects of separation from children. Using Bui and Morash's conceptualization of the theory of gendered pathways, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to better understand, from the perspective of incarcerated women, the experience of using prosocial networks to cope with the effects of separation. Data were collected through interviews with 10 mothers from 2 residential treatment programs in Michigan. Interview data were inductively coded, then subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. A key finding of this study was that women experience remorse, embarrassment, helplessness, and a sense of failure with respect to providing adequate care for their children and rely on their mothers or other female family members as the primary prosocial influence. Findings also suggest that Child Protective Services (CPS) is viewed by participants as intrusive and outside the prosocial network, yet significant to family reunification and permanency planning for children. Implications for positive social change include recommendations to criminal justice policymakers and Child Protective Services to consider provisions for supportive services for gender-specific programs that build on the influence of other, prosocial, female family members and promote a clear pathway to permanency planning for families, particularly where minor children are involved.

Women in rural Nepal are heavily involved in management of energy resources particularly biomass, which constitute the main form of rural energy as is the case in most developing countries. Women's most time consuming activities in rural areas of Nepal are cooking, collecting firewood, and processing grain, all of which are directly associated with the rural energy system. Despite women's strategic interests in improved rural energy in Nepal, energy planners (normally male) rarely consider women's roles, needs, and priorities when planning any interventions on rural energy. This study targeted at rural women in the mid hill region of Nepal, has examined the socio-economic implications of alternative energy technologies (AETs) especially in terms of saving women's labor and time and increasing opportunities for them to participate in social and economic activities. The analysis indicates that there is a positive implication of AETs on women's workload especially with access to the micro hydro mills available in the villages. In general, women have been able to save their labor and time in collecting firewood, and milling activities, although this is not always apparent due to women using the saved time for other household chores. However, AETs were rarely used for promoting end use activities (such as, energy based small cottage industries) in order to enhance women's socio-economic status. In addition, AETs had rather limited coverage and were not able to fulfill the energy demands of all rural households. There were also limitations in the adoption of such technologies mainly due to financial, technical, and social problems. For instance, the solar photovoltaic system and biogas plants were still costly for the poorest households even with subsidies. Consequently, socio-economic gaps within small communities widened and became highly visible with access to such technologies. Women's participation was mainly in terms of their involvement in community organizations (COs) and representation in Village Energy Committees (VECs) rather than their active participation in planning and decision-making processes with regard to AETs. Nevertheless, women were actively involved in providing labor in construction work relating to AETs, and creating and mobilizing saving funds as a means to be involved in small income generating activities associated with AETs. This study ultimately suggests a framework for increasing women's participation in rural energy plans and programs at local and national level, and develops policy measures to enable integration of gender into energy planning and policies. This would help to address practical and strategic gender needs in terms of fulfilling basic energy needs managed by women, and providing them with opportunities to be involved in some social and economic activities, which lead towards the self-enhancement of women.