American families moving abroad are often informed of the initial difficulties they will encounter as residents in a new culture; however, they may not recognize the possible subsequent effects on their children, when returning home to their native cultures during the repatriation process. The children who experience the effect of living in a new culture and eventually repatriating are known as Third Culture Kids (TCK). As globalization and expatriate populations increase, it is important that society becomes aware of the Third Culture community. This qualitative research study focused on analyzing the repatriation transition process of four Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCK) and explored the relationship between their emotional intelligence and their third culture and repatriating experiences. This dissertation provides a profile for what type of citizen a TCK may become upon repatriation. Framed within a narrative inquiry approach this study utilized the Listening Guide method of analysis in order to capture the participants’ final narrative portraits. Storied themes emerged from the final narratives providing evidence for this research study’s five main conclusions: (a) home is not defined by one physical location, (b) assimilation and repatriation do not equate, (c) emotional intelligence may be a factor in repatriation success, (d) Third Culture experiences influence civic engagement, and (e) there is one incident that is perceived as signifying the completion of repatriation. These findings offer a new perspective of the repatriating experience and provide insight for families entering the expatriate culture and returning home.

This research applies C. Wright Mills’ theory of vocabularies of motive to reveal the collective narratives, which were used to justify the atypical founding of an urban Jewish congregation in the 1970s. Prior to and during this period, US Jewish communities were migrating out of city centers into their surrounding suburbs. Most Jewish congregations followed their congregants and moved into the suburbs. This study identifies the collective justifications within the Hatchala Chadasha community, which are the accepted reasons for the organization’s atypical urban location and organizational structure. The findings of this research are based in the examination of interviews with individuals who were community members during the earliest years of Hatchala Chadasha’s existence. Patterns of similar accounts across the interviews revealed the collective narratives that defended four of the congregation’s fundamental decisions: why the congregation was founded, where the congregation chose to locate, how the congregation acted politically, and what organizational structure the congregation employed. These justifications are further examined, in relation to the behavior and values common within the broader Jewish community and other contextual components, to theorize why certain accounts became the accepted narrative within Hatchala Chadasha. Fundamentally, this research examines informants’ motive statements to discern and analyze the collective narratives formed in a community, which justify the community’s atypical behavior in the context of a predominant, external culture.

For birthing parents, the quality of care falls flat in the United States relative to other developed countries as rates of pregnancy-related deaths (PRD) continue to rise. California has in recent years made extraordinary progress in decreasing birthing parent mortality across the board. Yet, health disparities remain between race/ethnicities as Black birthing parents die at three to four times the rate of white birthing parents. In comparison to white Americans marginalized ethnic/racial groups in the United States have less access to quality care, experience and receive lower quality of health care and have less access to quality care, with few exceptions. Intersecting factors such as education, socioeconomic status and acculturation are investigated. Implicit bias, or racism is often overlooked within the medical professions that has real implications on the above-mentioned sociological factors and in turn birthing mortality rates. Institutional and grassroot methods to bring attention to these factors should be referenced for a more intentional approach to solving this social problem historically engrained in our medical institutions.

Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking is a crime happening right in our own backyards. Social Workers are seeing this vulnerable population fall through the fingers of social services and into the clutches of traffickers at alarming rates. This research project analyzed San Bernardino and Riverside County Foster Family Agency Social Workers' Awareness of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking. This project was a quantitative exploratory research design. A paper survey was distributed to Foster Family Agency Social Workers within San Bernardino and Riverside County, California using a snowball sampling. A bivariate analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationship that social work experience in the field and the amount of DMST trainings attended have on social work awareness of DMST. The results of this research show that high number of DMST trainings result in a lower level of DMST awareness. Data also showed no significant relationship between how participants scored on the Awareness of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking survey and years of social work experience. The results of this research can be used as a baseline to study Foster Family Agency Social Worker awareness with San Bernardino and Riverside County, California and how to best implement effective DMST trainings; as federal and state laws are predicted to make Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking training mandatory within social service fields.

Neglected tropical diseases (NTD) in low- and middle-income countries are still not on target per the World Health Organization's (WHO) elimination goal of 2020. Mass drug administration (MDA) is one of the effective strategies supported by the WHO for the control and subsequent elimination of NTD. This quantitative study explored how supply chain logistic capacity may be hampering MDA coverage in countries in which the diseases are endemic. The study examined secondary data from WHO data bank for MDA coverage, to quantify the relationship between supply chain logistics capacity, as measured by the World Bank's logistics performance index (LPIs), and the control of NTD using MDA. The ecological theory of health behavior was the theoretical framework for this study. The research questions explored whether a low- and/or middle-income country's supply chain infrastructure, logistics services, customs and border procedures, and supply chain reliability, predict the coverage of MDA in controlling NTD. A multiple regression model determined the linear relations between each predictor: supply chain infrastructure (H1), logistics services (H2), custom and border procedures (H3), and supply chain reliability (H4) and the control of neglected diseases as determine by MDA. Results indicated that supply chain capacity, custom and border processes, and supply chain reliability are statistically significant in predictors of MDA coverage in the control of NTD in developing countries. This study may enhance social change by improving supply chain capacity for more effective distribution of PCT drugs, thus helping with the elimination of NTDs and improved health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries.

This dissertation explores gender codes within the intersection of two American pop culture staples, video games and rock music, by conducting a feminist analysis of two video games (Rock Band and Rocksmith). Both video games and rock music have had their share of feminist academic critique: Musicologists point out how lack of canonical inclusion, gendered attitudes towards instruments, and messages from supporting media create an unwelcome environment for women to pursue a rock music career. Game studies scholars have examined similar attitudes, including a lack of women represented in both the video games and the studios that create them. Through a mix of creator and player interviews, participant observation, content analysis, and autoethnography, I look at the intersection of these two literatures (the rock music video game) to see how gender is hard-coded into the game, and what opportunities, if any, exist for subversion of societal and industry gender norms. Through not just looking at the game as text, I present a more “thick description” of a video game that takes into account the creators of the games, the players that play them, and a researcher that occupies multiple identities within the space. I argue that, in an effort to replicate an authentic rock musician experience in a video game, Rock Band and Rocksmith often replicate a lot of these gendered messages. The games’ text and set list emphasize a male-centric rock music canon. Rocksmith’s original whiskey-soaked visual design and marketing skew heavily towards an older male demographic. However, resistances to these codes exist in both the players who defy expectations by showing up to perform and compete, as well as the creators who actively work to make these games more inclusive via changes to future games as well as inclusive hiring practices, marketing, and music sourcing (with varying degrees of success).

In this piece of literature, storytelling is used as a method towards understanding, knowing, and validating the experience of the “other”, in this case Mexican immigrants of all shapes and colors, sexual preferences, and diverse socioeconomic standing. I would like to shift the discourse from their potential as socioeconomic assets towards a recognition of their essence as participating members of our community. Immigrants are artists, they are intellectuals, they are leaders. They are simply not given the space in American society to develop their potential without being chained down to the “immigrant” label. I would like to stress the recognition of fluidity and diversity within this marginalized group, in the sense that to assume a homogeneous experience for this population aggravates the gap of understanding, tolerance, acceptance, and celebration of this rich community. Hegemonic forces have kept immigrants in the shadows, blinded, and hidden from the rest of society. My ultimate goal is to promote an idea of fearless engagement in active, undisciplined, self-determined embracement of the hybrid culture that remains buried under layers of socially constructed self-disciplining forces of domination.

Individuals who are facing death today are doing so in an environment that is significantly different than it was in the past. Medical technology is increasingly able to keep people alive even with multiple complex chronic conditions. While these advances in medicine are beneficial to many, it can also unnecessarily prolong inevitable deaths. Concerns over the ability to have a death that is in alignment with personal values has increased the interest in the use of formal end-of-life planning including writing an advance instructional directive and assigning a durable power of attorney for health care. Although research has indicated that the use of these formal planning strategies is beneficial, not everyone completes them. Using a current nationally representative sample, the three specific aims of this study were to examine whether there are racial and ethnic differences in formal end-of-life planning done by older African American, Hispanic, and White adults; to examine socioeconomic factors including education and income in formal end-of-life planning as well as assess the contribution of these factors in explaining racial and ethnic differences in formal end-of-life planning; and to examine the role of religiosity in formal end-of-life planning and to assess its influence on racial and ethnic differences in explaining formal end-of-life planning. Logistic regression was run on data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in order to analyze the completion of formal end-of-life plans by African American, Hispanic, and White decedents. Exit interviews conducted with knowledgeable proxies in 2008 or 2010 were combined with data from earlier waves of the HRS survey in order to analyze the completion of formal end-of-life plans, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and religion. Both Blacks and Hispanics were less likely to complete a written advance directive, assign a proxy, or complete both forms of formal planning than were Whites. Group differences remained after controlling for region of death and cause of death. Both Blacks and Hispanics were less likely to complete any form of formal planning than Whites. Group differences remained after additionally controlling for gender, age, marital status, whether the decedent had children, income, education, religious preference, importance of religion, and frequency of attending religious services. Higher levels of income and education both increased the odds that formal advance planning would take place. Religious preference was not significant, but decedents who had stated that religion was very important were less likely to plan while those that attended services frequently were more likely to plan. I speculate that the role of cultural capital may partially explain the persistent racial and ethnic disparities and the importance of income and education. Additionally the dominant religious doctrines of Christianity may have a greater influence than the different religious teachings of Protestant and Catholics around end-of-life medical care. Contrary to expected findings, reference groups of those who attend religious services frequently may assist in formal planning. These finding may help guide interventions that can diminish disparities in the end-of-life experience. Understanding who are completing formal plans can help ensure end-of-life care that is in alignment with personal beliefs and values.

<p>This dissertation is based on four years of ethnographic research of contemporary women-only social formations. Two women-only leisure activities, women’s flat track roller derby and women-only home improvement workshops, were selected as sites through which to explore the research problem: problematizing contemporary women onlyness. The research problem is developed in direct contrast to the dominant (naturalized, essentialized, assumed) approach to women onlyness in the literature. Specifically, taking a fresh look at women-only social formations by problematizing women onlyness, through exploring women’s experiences of and meaning making about women onlyness, calls critical attention to women onlyness. The analysis, informed by a conceptual framework that draws on Connell’s concept of ‘gender regime’ and a CCCS-inspired approach to cultural production, reveals the ways that women participants are active in the production of women onlyness gender regimes. Specifically, women’s flat track roller derby skaters and women-only home improvement workshop participants consistently and constantly negotiate essentialized stereotypes of gender as they “win space” for themselves in traditionally male-dominated and masculine defined activities and settings, and make meaning of their involvement in these women-only leisure activities. Women participants produce women onlyness gender regimes in the ways they make time and space for and gender mark these activities, and in social interactions with each other, men, and other women. They work to produce women onlyness gender regimes that are experienced as welcoming, supportive, and comfortable, and encourage women to develop expertise and relationships with other participants. Emphasizing these processes of production reveals that these women onlyness gender regimes are not the natural result of a women-only group or the exclusion of men. These findings contradict the tendency in the existing literature to naturalize women onlyness, and contribute to our understanding of contemporary women-only social formations.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The research on siblings of individuals with disabilities has rarely addressed the perceived benefits of having a sibling with a disability. The existing research on the experience of siblings of persons with disabilities is also limited to European American families (Sage & Jegatheesan, 2010). With families from different cultures, I sought to capture the experiences of brothers and sisters who have siblings with disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships of siblings with disabilities and typical developing siblings, and present a holistic picture from the perspective of the typical developing siblings. These gaps in the literature will be addressed by interviewing siblings about their experiences of coping with adversity, the perceived benefits of having a sibling with a disability, and how the perceptions of the person with a disability by professionals, parents, and other family members has impacted their experiences. Participants were recruited from a pool of persons already known to the researcher and through a “snowball” approach (Hays & Singh, 2012), resulting in a heterogeneous group of eight participants. Interpretive phenomenology was the theoretical lens used for this study, as the purpose of it is to interpret and understands one’s described experiences. A semi-structured interview protocol was used to interview each of the participants three times. Themes emerged in the areas of the challenges of having a sibling with a disability, coping with those challenges, and perceived benefits of having a sibling with a disability. Lastly, messages for families, educators, professionals and future researchers are shared.