Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study aims to examine American Muslim well-being and social capital in the face of Islamophobia. Ecological frameworks and social capital theory were synthesized to provide an approach for research, analysis, and social work practice. A mediation analysis was conducted to test the mediating effect of cognitive social capital on the relationship between structural social capital and distress. The paths of structural social capital, cognitive social capital, and distress were conceptualized using the ecological framework of Berkman and colleagues. Special attention was paid to how experiences of Islamophobic discrimination affect cognitive social capital and distress. Structural social capital was operationalized as the number of active memberships in civic organizations; Cognitive social capital was operationalized as trust in major institutions such as schools and the local police and Distress was operationalized using the Kessler Distress Scale. It was hypothesized that an increase in structural social capital would show a decrease in distress with cognitive social capital mediating the path. Results showed that cognitive social capital mediates the relationship between structural social capital and distress. However, an inconsistent mediation was found where an increase in cognitive social capital shows a decrease in distress, but higher levels of structural social capital show an increase in distress. Lastly, the results of the analysis were interpreted to inform current interventions with the American Muslim community through a social work lens.

In this thesis I look at five YouTube videos recommending lesbian literature within the YouTube sub community known as BookTube, with the purpose of exploring how BookTube creators mediate lesbian literature and stimulate a reading desire among lesbian readers through their recommendation videos. Using a deductive content analysis, I analysed the BookTube videos to gain an understanding of why and how the video creators recommend lesbian literature to their viewers. This was then followed by a thematic analysis of each respective videos commentsection, to explore the responses left by the commenters and understand what they gained out of the videos and how it has affected their desire to read, using the literature stimulating theories of subjective relevance along with personal/impersonal experiential/instrumental reading. I also explored the identity strengthening opportunities regarding the lesbian literature and community offered through BookTube. The theory of Compulsory Heterosexuality and the Lesbian Continuum have been used when discussing the lesbian angle of this thesis and connects to the reading stimulation through subjective relevance. The last theory used when analysing the comments of the video is the digital closet, which refers to when people use the selective anonymity of the internet to determine how much of their sexual identity they share.The study found that lesbian literature had a positive effect on the identity building of both the people making the video as well as on the commenters commenting on the video. The videos also had a literature stimulating effect on the commenters, with many commenters reporting they put the recommended books on their own to-be-read list, or recommending more books to the video creator and other commenters. Furthermore, the anonymity of the internet appears to give commenters who are not out with their sexual identity in real life the security to come out to the other people within the lesbian BookTube community.

Parental psychological control has been found to be associated with both internalized and externalized problems for youth and adolescents. Research contributing to an understanding of the possible antecedents of parental psychological control is both limited and of need; specifically regarding parents' psychological attributes. This study sample included 323 two-parent families and an identified target child from each family. Bowen's theory of family systems, [chronic] stress, and differentiation of self and its relation to parental psychological control was examined. Differentiation of self was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between chronic stress and parental psychological control. Differentiation was conceptualized and measured using two subscales assessing emotional reactivity and emotional cutoff. Fathers and mothers were included in the same model to assess for potential partner influences as well possible gender differences. Parental age, parental education, and family income were also included as control variables. Study analyses included bivariate correlations, independent T-tests, and structural path models; all based on study variables constructed in a structural equation measurement model. To test for mediation by differentiation of self, an initial structural model examining the relationship between levels of parental chronic stress and parental psychological control was utilized. Only paternal chronic stress and paternal education predicted child-reported levels of parental psychological control. Parent-reported levels of differentiation of self, when included in a structural path model, did not mediate the relationship between chronic stress and psychological control but did have a significant indirect effect on this relationship. Both maternal and paternal chronic stress significantly predicted individual parental levels of emotional reactivity and emotional cutoff. Systemically, maternal levels of emotional cutoff predicted paternal levels of parental psychological control and paternal levels of emotional reactivity predicted maternal levels of parental psychological control. No control variables other than paternal education had a salient, significant, or interpretable effect on endogenous study variables (differentiation of self and parental psychological control). Paternal and maternal levels of emotional reactivity appeared to partially mediate the relationship between paternal education and maternal psychological control. Interpretation for results, study limitations and future directions, and clinical implications are discussed.

This study examined the possible mediating role of the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive components of self-regulation as they relate to adolescent intrinsic religiosity and the internalizing problems of teen depression and anxiety. The sample included 459 adolescent respondents from one wave of the Flourishing Families Project, an ongoing longitudinal study. Through the use of Structural Equation Modeling, results showed that cognitive self-regulation partially mediated the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and adolescent depression. Additionally, emotional self-regulation, but not behavioral self-regulation was found to be negatively linked with both depression and anxiety. These findings provide clinicians with greater direction when working with depressed or anxious teens who also have a religious/spiritual framework.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Public Administration)) -- University of Limpopo, 2023 / Over the years, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has been recording the highest number of employee grievances in comparison to other government institutions in South Africa. Some of the grievances reported by employees remain unresolved. For these reasons, the primary aim of this study was to determine the causes of the high rate of grievances in the Pretoria policing area of the SAPS. To achieve the primary aim of the study, concurrent mixed methods were applied, in particular the survey questionnaire, interviews and document study. On the one hand, the SPSS version 26 software was used to analyse quantitative data collected through a survey questionnaire. On the other hand, qualitative content analysis was used to analyse data collected through interviews. The findings of this study illustrate that the common sources of grievances in the SAPS are promotions, unpaid leave, unfair treatment and rejection of application for transfers. The findings of this study confirmed that autocratic supervisory behaviour as a management factor is among the major factors that account for the high rate of grievances in the SAPS. The study has found that in the process of applying the grievance procedure to address grievances, the SAPS complied with timelines linked to each grievance phase only to a slight extent. In relation to the causes of unresolved grievances, the study found that the involvement of legal representatives in grievances, lack of impartiality of the part of grievance officers, the grievants’ failure to provide testimony and failure to gather adequate evidence pertaining to grievances contributed to the high rate of unresolved grievances. This study has, however, concluded that despite the challenges experienced in grievance handling, the SAPS has the capacity and resources to turn the situation around thereby ameliorating the current situation pertaining to grievances.

Conflict resolution theory and practice have been increasingly criticised for ignoring the centrality of culture in their attempts to find theories and models that are applicable universally, not only across cultures but also across levels of society. Mediation is one form of conflict resolution, which has come to occupy a central position in the resolution of disputes both at international and local levels. At the level of family disputes, family mediation has failed to engage users from different ethnic groups in England and Wales. This thesis explores the hypothesis that culture and, in particular, culturally defined concepts of gender are the important factors determining the success or failure of mediation in divorce disputes. / J. A. Clark Charitable Trust

Depression is a common psychopathology that causes affective, behavioral, and cognitive dysfunction and is present across cultural identities. To reduce the dysfunction and treat the symptoms that arise from depression, researchers have created positive psychological interventions (PPIs), which are empirically supported interventions that cause a positive change by targeting a positive variable. In the current study, I created a new PPI, the Best-Self PPI, that draws from elements of optimism, coherence, and character strengths PPIs. Specifically, I hypothesized that the Best-Self PPI would work by positively biasing self-referential processing, which may predict depression and psychological well-being. Participants (n = 133) were undergraduates between the ages of 18 and 32 (M = 19.97, SD = 1.66). Participants were primarily female (n = 85; 63.91%) and White (n = 87; 65.41%) and completed either the Best-Self PPI or wrote about a childhood memory (T1, +0 Days), completed the Self-Referential Encoding Task (T2 +1 Day), and then completed a set of outcome measures (T3, +8 Days). Although the intervention appeared to have no effect on depression, well-being, or affect compared to the control group, I found that: 1) self-referential processing bias partially mediates the relationship between self-critical rumination and depression, 2) self-referential processing bias and state self-esteem fully explain the relationship between self-critical rumination and depression, and 3) self-esteem fully explains the relationship between self-critical rumination and psychological well-being. The results provide new empirical evidence for why some interventions may reduce depression and promote psychological well-being through changes in self-evaluations. I encourage researchers to use the evidence in the current study that modifying self-referential processing and state self-esteem may affect depression and psychological well-being to improve existing interventions and create new interventions to promote psychological well-being above and beyond the elimination of suffering.

The present study examines the joint roles of leadership and stressors for presenteeism of scientific staff. Leaders may have an impact on employees’ health, both directly through interpersonal interactions and by shaping their working conditions. In the field of science, this impact could be special because of the mentoring relationships between the employees (e.g., PhD students) and their supervisors (e.g., professors). Based on the job demands-resources framework (JD-R), we hypothesized that the pressure to be present at the workplace induced by supervisors (supervisorial pressure) is directly related to employees’ presenteeism as well as indirectly via perceptions of time pressure. The conservation of resources theory (COR) states that resource loss resulting from having to deal with job demands weakens the resource pool and therefore the capacity to deal with other job demands. Thus, we hypothesized that accumulation of work moderates the relationship between supervisorial pressure and time pressure, such that the relationship is stronger when accumulation of work is high compared to if accumulation of work is low. Cross-sectional data were obtained from 212 PhD students and postdocs of 30 scientific institutions in Germany. Analysis was performed using the SPSS macro PROCESS (Hayes, 2013). Supervisorial pressure was directly associated with higher presenteeism of employees and indirectly through increased time pressure. Moreover, supervisorial pressure and accumulation of work interacted to predict time pressure, but in an unexpected way. The positive relationship between supervisorial pressure and time pressure is stronger when accumulation is low compared to if accumulation of work is high. It seems possible that job stressors do not accumulate but substitute each other. Threshold models might explain the findings. Moreover, specific patterns of interacting job demands for scientific staff should be considered in absence management.

Prior research has established significant associations between regular physical activity and enhancements in well-being, quality of life, and self-regulation. Given that these benefits may extend to influence the quality of romantic relationships, the present study was the first to evaluate the relationship between exercise and romantic relationship satisfaction through the role of body image, drawing upon the Self-Determination Theory as the theoretical framework. Specifically, the current study aimed to achieve three objectives: (a) to investigate the impact of exercise on romantic relationship satisfaction, (b) to examine the effects of body image as a mediator in the exercise-relationship connection, and (c) to determine whether exercise motives moderate the mediating effect of body image. Data were gathered from an online survey completed by 392 cisgender women in heterosexual relationships and analyzed using PROCESS Macro for SPSS Model 4 and Model 7, respectively. The results showed that exercise frequency was not directly related to romantic relationship satisfaction. However, body image fully mediated this association, indicating that increased exercise predicted body satisfaction and subsequently contributed to individuals' perceived relationship quality. While exercise motivation did not emerge as a moderator of the mediation of body image, health/fitness and enjoyment/mood motives significantly predicted positive body evaluation and relationship quality. In contrast, concerns related to appearance were linked to higher levels of social comparison and negative affect. Therefore, these findings highlight the value of fostering a positive body image and reducing body-focused motivation, as well as prioritizing autonomous exercise for the quality of romantic relationships and overall well-being.

The recent societal development of highly specialized evidence has brought new problems to the forefront of the jury system. Because of the constitutional right to jury trials citizens of the United States and Florida have, it is imperative that the problems facing juries be discussed and explored. The question of whether or not juries can be trusted to comprehend highly technical evidence must be answered for the Florida jury to move forward into modern era. The subsequent question of what biases regarding highly specialized evidence have arisen must also be examined and addressed. Furthermore, solutions designed to increase a jury's comprehension and decrease their bias must be discussed and propagated. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the answers to those questions and provide potential solutions to the issues facing the modern Florida jury. Law journals, statutes, and case law all suggest that juror comprehension decreases substantially when faced with highly complex evidence. Biases are also commonly associated with these forms of evidence and are leading towards unfair verdicts. Despite these problems, there are solutions that are readily available in the areas of alternative dispute resolution. Further solutions may be created through a revision of the jury instruction process. This thesis seeks to raise awareness of the problems facing the Florida jury and contribute solutions that are practical and easily used.