Purpose: As a group, adults who stutter (AWS) are vulnerable to experiencing distress and other negative psychological health outcomes. However, not all AWS experience elevated levels of distress, and little is known about why some people are resilient while others struggle to cope. In the current study, stuttering was conceptualized as a type of concealable stigmatized identity (CSI). The purpose of this study was to determine if stigma-identity constructs that contribute to variability in distress among groups of people with other types of CSIs also contribute to psychological health outcomes among AWS. The specific stigma-identity constructs that were examined include salience (the extent that a person thinks about stuttering), centrality (how much a person defines themselves by stuttering), concealment (the extent that a person attempts to keep stuttering a secret from others), and disclosure (the frequency in which a person tells others about stuttering). Methods: A sample of 505 AWS completed an online survey that included measures of salience, centrality, concealment, disclosure, demographics, self-rated stuttering severity, psychological distress, and adverse impact of stuttering on quality of life. Correlational and hierarchical regression analyses were performed to (1) determine the extent that stigma-identity constructs explain variability in psychological health outcomes among AWS and (2) identify unique relationships between each of the stigma-identity constructs and psychological health outcomes. Additionally, self-rated stuttering severity was investigated as a potential moderator of the relationships between stigma-identity constructs and psychological health outcomes. Results: Together, the stigma-identity constructs accounted for a significant proportion of the variability in distress (~25%) and adverse impact of stuttering on quality of life (~30%) among AWS. Salience, centrality, and concealment were positively associated with and predictive of distress and adverse impact of stuttering on quality of life after controlling for demographics and neuroticism. Further, self-rated stuttering severity moderated the relationship between centrality and adverse impact of stuttering on quality of life. Specifically, high centrality was only associated with more adverse impact of stuttering on quality of life among people with moderate and high self-rated stuttering severity. Disclosure did not have a consistent reliable relationship with either psychological health outcome. Conclusions: The results from this study provide evidence that it is both appropriate and useful to conceptualize stuttering as a type of CSI. That is, variability in psychological health outcomes among AWS can be explained to a large extent by individual differences in the ways people think about and behave in relation to their stuttering identity. Speech-language pathologists should be aware of the relationships that salience, centrality, and concealment have with psychological health outcomes among AWS and should consider the implications for stuttering intervention.

Sustainability within the spheres of environmental and social awareness have become increasing salient issues in the world today. This is addressed within the corporate world through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure and reporting. However, the reporting and disclosure surrounding such issues remains at a disadvantage in comparison to that of financial reporting. These issues not only govern sustainability and awareness itself but increasing investor and stakeholder decisions concerning firms connected to these issues. This thesis aims to explore the issues encountered today in CSR reporting. It reviews current literature on regional differences, current methods of CSR disclosure, and the drawbacks of current reporting standards. To address these topics, there is a review of the definition of a stakeholder, its development over time and how stakeholders are prioritized and affected by the actions of firms. With the definition of a stakeholder established, the thesis reviews the relationship between different stakeholders and CSR disclosure and how this can be applied in order to increase the quality and consistency of CSR reporting. Finally, trends in CSR and differences within sectors and regions are considered and it is determined that there has to be a development of standardization through a current reporting standard, in order to ensure congruency of information across nations and sectors, allowing investors and stakeholders to make better informed decisions through the provided sustainability information.

Previous studies evaluating the impact of trauma history and PTSD on pain sensitivity yield inconsistent findings; the presence of trauma-related negative affective states may account for these discrepancies. Therefore, the proposed study aimed to evaluate the effect of trauma-related negative affect and PTSD symptoms on sensory and affective components of pain sensitivity among trauma-exposed women. Adult women (N = 87) with low and high PTSD symptoms underwent an emotional disclosure paradigm, during which they wrote about a traumatic event or a neutral topic. Participants then completed a pain induction procedure. Compared to women with low PTSD symptoms, women with high PTSD symptoms demonstrated increased time to pain detection (e.g., threshold) and ability to withstand pain (e.g., tolerance), as well as increased pain intensity and when accounting for relevant covariates. Women with high PTSD symptoms who wrote about their worst traumatic experience reported higher pain unpleasantness relative to women with high PTSD symptoms who wrote about the neutral topic and women with low PTSD symptoms who wrote about either topic. Results suggest that PTSD symptoms and trauma-related negative affect may facilitate alterations in pain sensitivity in trauma-exposed women, but this relationship is complex and requires further exploration.

The higher the level of information asymmetry between a firm and its investors, the higher is the firm’s reluctance to raise money externally, potentially leading to investment distortions. An improved disclosure system reduces information asymmetry and therefore, lessens the adverse selection effects of external financing, thereby moderating investment inefficiencies. In this paper, we examine the impact of potentially improved transparency stemming from stricter disclosure requirements (Clause 49) on financing and investment decisions of Indian firms. The results show that reliance of Indian firms on internal financing in the pre-reform period gives way to greater use of external financing in the post-reform period, and alleviation in financial constraints. While expanded funding sources do not seem to improve investment unambiguously, firms that suffered under-investment prior to the reform show a significant improvement in investment post-reform. Firms also increase their financial slack making it possible for them to engage in acquisitions within India as well as abroad.

Sexual victimization is experienced by about 20% of women and two percent of men (Black et al., 2011). Disclosure of these incidences is high, with about 90% of survivors speaking out at least once about their assault (Ullman & Peter-Hagene, 2014). Though disclosure rates appear high, common reactions given by formal (e.g. law enforcement) and informal (e.g. a friend) sources are negative and counterintuitive to survivor growth (Ullman & Brecklin, 2002). Often studied with military veterans and suicide, perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belonging are tied to social disconnect and perceived rejection from interpersonal support systems, and often follow stressful life events such as trauma (Hill & Pettit, 2014; Ford & Collins, 2010; Van Orden, Cukrowicz, Witte, & Joiner, 2012). Negative reactions to disclosures, and the consequent rejection, can lead to diminished mental health, including depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Ullman & Peter-Hagene, 2014; Starzynski, Ullman, Filipas, & Townsend, 2005). Furthermore, shame has been researched as a possible emotional response to experiencing a traumatic event (La Bash & Papa, 2014), and this may play a role in people’s likelihood of experiencing distress following the receipt of negative social reactions. To explore the underlying processes and outcomes related to negative social reactions upon disclosure, the following hypotheses were proposed. First, the five negative social reactions (i.e., control, blaming, distracting, egocentric, and treating differently) would be positively associated with psychological distress (i.e., depression and PTSD symptoms). Next, the five negative social reactions subscales were predicted to be positively associated with state shame, perceived burdensomeness, and thwarted belonging. Finally, it was predicted that the relationships between the five negative social reaction subscales and psychological distress would be mediated by state shame, perceived burdensomeness, and thwarted belonging. Though all five negative reactions were associated with PTSD, blame and distraction were not associated with depression. Further, blame and treating differently were associated with perceived burdensomeness, however the other negative reactions and outcome associations varied. Surprisingly, an intervening relationship of the five negative reactions, shame, perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belonging, and psychological distress was not established. Implications of this study may provide important insight into relationships previously not examined with sexual assault and mental health outcomes.

The study of self-disclosure has been developed and elaborated mainly in the United States, and only a few studies have directly examined self-disclosure in the Japanese cultural context. This study was designed to extend the study of self-disclosure to Japanese culture, and using the concept of ingroup and outgroup relationships, examine the relationship between the level of self-disclosure and perceived social attraction in initial interaction between Japanese strangers. Based on the literature on self-disclosure and features of Japanese culture and communication, two hypotheses were constructed: Hl: For the ingroup members, the high discloser will be perceived to be more socially attractive than the low discloser. H2: For the outgroup members, the low discloser will be perceived to be more socially attractive than the high discloser. As respondents, a total of 328 Japanese college graduate and undergraduate students living in the Kansai area in Japan participated in the research. The data collection instrument consisted of McCroskey and McCain's (1974) social attraction scale and a culture-specific scale of social attraction constructed by the researcher. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and ~ tests were used to test the two hypotheses and interaction between the two variables. In addition, to test gender effects, the data were analyzed by using three, three-way ANOVAs. The results of the data analyses revealed that in initial interaction between Japanese strangers, the level of self-disclosure was a main factor in determining the stranger's perceived social attraction. Low self-disclosure led to positive evaluation of perceived social attraction, and high self-disclosure led to negative evaluation of perceived social attraction. The results also suggested that the stranger's group identification mediated the relationship between the stranger's level of self-disclosure and perceived social attraction. Ingroup membership produced greater perceived social attraction than did outgroup membership. Thus, the highest perceived social attraction was produced by the low disclosing stranger identified as being an ingroup member. Further, Japanese subjects distinguished ingroup and outgroup membership for low self-disclosure, but not for high self-disclosure. No significant effects due to gender were found in this study.

Previous research has produced heterogeneous findings regarding the effectiveness of expressive writing in reducing grief symptomatology among the bereaved (e.g., Collison, 2016; Lichtenthal & Cruess, 2010; Stroebe et al., 2006). The purpose of this study was to address these mixed results by exploring the effects and linguistic characteristics of a novel writing task (i.e., the acrostic poem) among bereaved undergraduates, using an innovative data analysis technique (i.e., Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count). The current study recruited 68 undergraduates who had lost a loved one. Participants were randomly assigned to write over multiple days using the acrostic poem, emotional disclosure prompt, or a control writing prompt. Consistent with previous research, the results indicated no significant differences in grief between conditions over time; however, there were key group differences in linguistic content. Further, while all participants endorsed improvements in grief one week following the intervention, the participants returned to baseline one month later. Patterns of writing, coping, religiosity/ spirituality, physical symptoms, and grief in bereaved emerging adults were also assessed. The results suggest that while expressive writing might not be an effective intervention for the bereaved, the content of writing might provide clinicians some insight on psychological and spiritual processes at play in bereaved emerging adults.

This study investigated the utility of applying the social constructionist perspective to adolescent sexual minority identity development, disclosure, and identity explorations. Differences between middle and late adolescents and male and females were examined. No differences were found between middle and late adolescents on measures of identity development and identity exploration; however, differences in identity disclosure were found regarding history of accidental discovery of sexual orientation. Biological sex differences were found for identity development, disclosure, and exploration. Relationships between same- and opposite-sex attractions, behaviors, romantic experiences, and self-labels are presented. Trends in intentional disclosure patterns and unintentional discovery identify predicted reaction as a primary motivator in disclosure. Finally, different relationship styles in which sexual minorities engage are presented. Outcomes of relationship styles show better psychosocial outcomes for those engaging in different relationship styles compared to those who do not participate in relationships.

This study examines the role of three institutional factors (regulative; normative and cultural-cognitive pillars of institutions) in addressing agency problems of Australia. In the wake of the series of corporate collapses of current decade, director and executive remuneration was identified as one of the major causes behind these scandals. The Australian government and other related organisations made both regulative and non-regulative institutional reforms to manage this agency conflict. These reforms, encapsulated in Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (CLERP) Act 2004 demanded an increased level of disclosure of director and executive remuneration particularly, the disclosure of performance based salary. Subsequently, these amendments provided an opportunity through a non-binding vote to shareholders to participate in executive remuneration decisions. This study proposes a new synthesis of institutional and agency theories by examining how institutional interventions addresses agency conflicts in the Australian context. A conceptual model is developed to measure both the conjoined and distinctive institutional impact on the disclosure level of director and executive remuneration in Australia. To measure and quantify the aforementioned impact a mixed method research strategy was used. First, content analysis as an investigative tool was used to develop a disclosure index which determined the level of disclosure of director and executive remuneration from top 100 Australian listed entities. Second, a conceptual model, positing the relationships between independent and dependent variables was verified through an econometric analysis of collected data, performed through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 15. The findings of this research reveal that there exists a significant difference between the levels of disclosure in the pre and post stages of the introduction of the CLERP Act 2004. This result highlights the significance of regulatory intervention in addressing agency conflicts. The study also indicates that regulative and normative pillars have a higher impact than the culture-cognitive pillar on disclosure practices of Australian firms. In light of these results, the new blend between agency and institutional theories highlight the role of different institutions, particularly the government, in stabilising the organisational practices for good governance and creating national competitive advantages.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The rapid pace of growth in the field of human genetics has left researchers with many new challenges in the area of security and privacy. To encourage participation and foster trust towards research, it is important to ensure that genetic databases are adequately protected. This task is a particularly challenging one for statistical agencies due to the high prevalence of categorical data contained within statistical genetic databases. The absence of natural ordering makes the application of traditional Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC) methods less straightforward, which is why we have proposed a new noise addition technique for categorical values. The main contributions of the thesis are as follows. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the trust relationships that occur between the different stakeholders in a genetic data warehouse system. We also provide a quantifiable model of trust that allows the database manager to granulate the level of protection based on the amount of trust that exists between the stakeholders. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that trust has been applied in the SDC context. We propose a privacy protection framework for genetic databases which is designed to deal with the fact that genetic data warehouses typically contain a high proportion of categorical data. The framework includes the use of a clustering technique which allows for the easier application of traditional noise addition techniques for categorical values. Another important contribution of this thesis is a new similarity measure for categorical values, which aims to capture not only the direct similarity between values, but also some sense of transitive similarity. This novel measure also has possible applications in providing a way of ordering categorical values, so that more traditional SDC methods can be more easily applied to them. Our analysis of experimental results also points to a numerical attribute phenomenon, whereby we typically have high similarity between numerical values that are close together, and where the similarity decreases as the absolute value of the difference between numerical values increases. However, some numerical attributes appear to not behave in a strictly `numerical' way. That is, values which are close together numerically do not always appear very similar. We also provide a novel noise addition technique for categorical values, which employs our similarity measure to partition the values in the data set. Our method - VICUS - then perturbs the original microdata file so that each value is more likely to be changed to another value in the same partition than one from a different partition. The technique helps to ensure that the perturbed microdata file retains data quality while also preserving the privacy of individual records.