Childhood exposure to family violence is a risk factor for dysfunctional intimate relationships in adulthood (e.g., Fagan & Browne, 1994). Family violence research has commonly utilized Social Learning Theory to explain cross-generational patterns of family violence. However, not all individuals who experience a violent home environment become abusers or victims in their parental or marital roles (e.g., Duffy & Momirov, 1997), which illustrates resiliency - positive adaptation or development in spite of serious threats or significant adversity (Masten, 2001). Considering strengths and resources, rather than risks and vulnerabilities, is relatively new in the field of family violence. Consequently, a basic interpretive qualitative research design (Merriam, 2002) was utilized to investigate the experiences of three heterosexual women who self-identified as (a) having observed a pattern of interparental violence in childhood and (b) currently being in non-violent intimate adult relationships. The studys purpose was to describe and understand this phenomenon, with special attention given to identifying possible resiliency and protective factors. Interviews were conducted on multiple occasions and transcripts were analyzed in terms of Kearneys (2001) shared meaning and descriptive categories. The shared meaning involved the role of emotional work required, and the descriptive categories included five themes (i.e., Diverse Experiences of Family Violence, Family Violence is Always with You, Complex Daughter-Mother Relationships, Understanding and Making Sense of Healthy Relationships, and Sources of Strength and Positive Influences). Findings are described alongside implications for counselling practice and future research.

Research continues to substantiate the influence of social, economic and family characteristics on students’ scholastic achievements. For example, children who are born in economically disadvantaged circumstances are more likely to score lower on tests that measure academic abilities than their same age economically advantaged peers (Brooks-Gunn and Markman, 2005; Rothstein, 2004). This dissertation examines the relationship between parenting interactions and young children's school readiness and initial academic success for a low-income, at-risk population in Georgia. The inter-disciplinary concept resiliency, defined as a process that encompasses positive adaptation within the context of significant adversity, frames the research (Arnold and Doctoroff, 2003; Henry et al 2005; Luthar, Cicchetti, and Becker (2000), p. 543). This dissertation utilized a subsample from a larger evaluation project, The Georgia Early Childhood Study, which looked at the effects of a state-funded universal Pre-K program. Participants in this study were at-risk children who attended either state lottery funded Georgia Pre-K or federally funded Head Start. Both qualitative and quantitative data were used. Quantitative data included norm-referenced test scores, teacher ratings, and parental surveys. Results show that at-risk children categorized as non-resilient scored lower on standardized assessments over a three-year period and were more likely to attend preschools of lower quality than their similarly economically advantaged counterparts. Qualitative data were used to gain an understanding of parental involvement that is not generally captured with traditional survey methods. The qualitative study encompassed in-depth interviews with parents of children classified as at-risk. The results show that parents report involvement in their child’s schooling, but that involvement among the non-resilient populations was more peripheral. Parents of children from the resilient group were more likely to use language that indicated involvement as a partner in their child’s education than parents from children in the non-resilient group. Parents from both groups, however, reported the difficulties they face in raising their children and were cognizant of the ways that being from a lower socio-economic group translates into parenting difficulties.

Childhood exposure to family violence is a risk factor for dysfunctional intimate relationships in adulthood (e.g., Fagan & Browne, 1994). Family violence research has commonly utilized Social Learning Theory to explain cross-generational patterns of family violence. However, not all individuals who experience a violent home environment become abusers or victims in their parental or marital roles (e.g., Duffy & Momirov, 1997), which illustrates resiliency - positive adaptation or development in spite of serious threats or significant adversity (Masten, 2001). Considering strengths and resources, rather than risks and vulnerabilities, is relatively new in the field of family violence. Consequently, a basic interpretive qualitative research design (Merriam, 2002) was utilized to investigate the experiences of three heterosexual women who self-identified as (a) having observed a pattern of interparental violence in childhood and (b) currently being in non-violent intimate adult relationships. The studys purpose was to describe and understand this phenomenon, with special attention given to identifying possible resiliency and protective factors. Interviews were conducted on multiple occasions and transcripts were analyzed in terms of Kearneys (2001) shared meaning and descriptive categories. The shared meaning involved the role of emotional work required, and the descriptive categories included five themes (i.e., Diverse Experiences of Family Violence, Family Violence is Always with You, Complex Daughter-Mother Relationships, Understanding and Making Sense of Healthy Relationships, and Sources of Strength and Positive Influences). Findings are described alongside implications for counselling practice and future research.

Configuration capabilities are important for modern advanced network services. Network conditions and user populations have been significantly diversified after decades of evolution of the Internet. Configuration capabilities allow network services to be adapted to spatial, temporal, and managerial variations in application requirements and service operation conditions. Network service providers need to decide on the best configuration. Ideally, a network service should have all of its components optimally configured to most effectively deliver the functionality for which it was designed. The optimal configuration, however, is always a compromise between different metrics. To decide on an optimal configuration, the prominent performance and cost metrics must be identified, modeled, and quantified. Optimization objective functions and constraints that combine these metrics should be formulated and optimization techniques should be developed. More important, in the scenarios where the application requirements and system conditions change over time, the service configuration needs to be dynamically adjusted and strategies that guide the reconfiguration decisions need to be developed. Because the actual process of configuring a network service incurs configuration costs, an optimal reconfiguration strategy should be one that achieves a tradeoff between the (re)configuration costs and static optimization objectives. Furthermore, such tradeoffs must be based on the consideration of long-term benefits instead of short-term interest. This thesis focuses on understanding the strategies for dynamic (re)configuration of advanced network services positioned above the Transport Layer. Specifically, this thesis investigates the configuration and more important dynamic reconfiguration strategies for two types of advanced network services: Service Overlay Networks, and Content Resiliency Service Networks. Unlike those network services whose configuration involves mainly arrangement of hard-wired components, these network services have the ability to change service configuration in small time scales. This makes the modeling of application requirements and system condition dynamics not only possible but also meaningful and potentially useful. Our goal is to develop modeling and optimization techniques for network service configuration and dynamic reconfiguration policies. We also seek to understand how effective techniques can improve the performance or reduce the cost of these advanced network services, thus demonstrating the advantage of allowing configurability in these advanced network services.

Guided by the positive youth development (PYD) framework and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, this dissertation project involved the performance of two studies that were designed to explore the multifaceted aspects of personal and environmental sources of support, positive emotions, stress, depressive symptoms, and resilience. Examined in Study I was the question of whether one's positivity would differentiate levels of personal and environmental resources. Examined in Study II were the association, if any, between stress and resilience on depressive symptoms and whether resilience would exhibit a moderating effect of stress on depressive symptoms. Multivariate analysis of covariance and hierarchical multiple regression were used to test the different models in these studies. A sample of 510 students at an all-girl public middle and high school completed the survey (75% response rate). Results showed that (a) the different categories of positivity distinguished levels of personal and environmental resources, (b) stress had a significant positive direct effect on depressive symptoms, (c) resilience had a significant negative direct effect on depressive symptoms, and (d) the interaction between stress and resilience had a significant buffering effect on depressive symptoms. While adolescence is a challenging time in particular for girls, findings from the present study support PYD and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions as advantageous frameworks for developing empirically based interventions. Strategies that increase students' positive emotions in schools, which in turn broaden their thinking, coping, and social interactions, would be efficacious. Further, the results from Study II suggest that students with higher levels of resiliency were protected from the impact of stress, thus potentially explaining their lower scores for depressive symptoms compared to those students with lower levels of reported resilience. This supports the significant role of individual resiliency as a personal resource against depressive symptoms when experiencing higher levels of stress. Given the seriousness of declining psychological well-being in young girls as a major public health concern, coupled with the compounding effects later into life, programs that provide opportunities for young girls to cultivated resiliency will be, theoretically, highly effective. / text

The literature has documented the disproportionate rate of HIV infection among women of color, mainly, African American women and Latinas. The current trend shows that the number of cases affecting these sub-populations will continue to increase. A gap exists in the literature in understanding the coping strategies of Mexican American women living with HIV. Using an ethnographic approach, this research answers the central question of how Mexican American women live with and make meaning of their HIV status. This researcher used a sample of 15 Mexican American women living with HIV who had participated in the Mujeres Unidas support group in San Antonio, Texas. The most common theme found was how the role of faith was central to their lives. It was clear that this belief served as their primary source of strength. The findings suggest the need for social workers to examine new paradigms, strategies, and interventions that focus on the broad social, economic, and community factors that put Mexican American women disproportionately at risk for HIV. These factors include poverty, income and wealth inequality, poor quality of life, racism, sexism, and low socioeconomic status, which are all major risk factors for ill health and health disparities. This research demands that social workers and other researchers examining coping skills address the issues of resiliency and strengths perspective in understanding the ways in which the life journey unfolds for Mexican American women living with HIV. Although, this study focused on Mexican American women, future research is needed to compare this group to other women living with HIV as there may be cultural differences that exist. Additional research is needed in studying the role that religion plays in the lives of Mexican American women living with HIV as many of the participants revealed that they left things up to “God’s will.” Among the unexpected findings, the theme of viewing their situation from the perspective of “Un dia a la vez” (One day at a time) suggests that the belief that the course of their lives is not necessarily under their control which could be related to fatalism (fatalism). / text

This project examines the systemic causes of transfer shock, the phenomenon wherein students transitioning onto a university campus from a community college experience a drop in their grade point average (GPA) in their first semester of transfer. Previous research has focused on student characteristics that are predictive of transfer shock, but few researchers have approached this topic from the perspective of the students themselves. This study seeks to understand how transfer students experience the initial transition onto the four-year university campus and the interactions with managerial professionals, and how those interactions impact the likelihood of students experiencing transfer shock or not. I used the work of Tinto (1975) and Deil-Amen (2011), as well as interviews with 15 transfer students, to theorize that students' procedural interactions are significant for their socio-academic integration. This study demonstrates the process of socio-academic integration and highlights the ways that the institution can support or impede student academic performance and success.

The purposes of this study were to: 1) describe the effect of short-term separation on the behavioral health of military wives using a descriptive pre-test post-test design and 2) to examine predictors of depression among wives of selected active duty military personnel during short-term separation. Specifically, the research was guided by the following questions: 1) Does post-separation depression vary based on socio-demographic characteristics? 2) Do military wives have resiliency when separated from their active duty military husbands? 3) Is short-term separation associated with a decrease in relationship satisfaction among military wives of active duty military personnel? 4) Are stress levels in military wives in response to separation associated with levels of social support or resiliency? And lastly, 5) Do socio-demographic characteristics, social support, resiliency, perceptions of stress, and/or relationship satisfaction predict depression in military wives? The data in this study was gathered using a self-administered questionnaire using a combination of five standard instruments: Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Beck Depression Inventory II, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10, Perceived Stress Scale, and Relationship Assessment Scale. Thirty-two military wives of active-duty military personnel participated in the study. The typical military wife was in her early thirties, was white, had a college degree, was a homemaker and had a family income of greater than $100,000. Average length of marriage was 10 years with about two separations. The results indicated that there is no change in levels of resiliency and levels of relationship satisfaction pre- and post- separation. Sociodemographic, age, number of separations, length of separations, length of marriage, time living with the husband, and social support had no significant relationship with post-separation depression. The study revealed that resiliency is a significant predictor of stress scores, but social support was not a predictor of stress scores. Lastly, the study showed a strong relationship between stress and depression as predicted in the literature. Due to the small sample size typical of pilot studies and lack of power, findings should be interpreted with caution. The knowledge gained from this study will add to new findings about short-term separation.

This thesis is a content analysis of the first phase of Cherokee Phoenix, the first American Indian newspaper started during a time of turmoil--the era of Removal. The Cherokee Phoenix began publication in New Echota, Cherokee Nation on February 21, 1828 with Elias Boudinot as the first editor. Its last publication in this location was on May 31, 1834. The paper was re-enlivened later as the Cherokee Advocate and again as the Cherokee Phoenix. This paper was meant to be printed weekly (on Thursdays), but this did not always happen. A content analysis looking for themes of `assimilation,' endurance, `survivance,' resiliency, struggle, adaptation, and `peoplehood' was undertaken. The goal was to `re-write' the history that already exists about the Cherokee Phoenix and Cherokee people, by proposing and providing evidential support for a more complex and messy explanation as to why the Cherokee Phoenix started and continued to be published.

Forskning har visat att arbetssökandes motivation till att söka arbete påverkar deras hälsa och sociala liv. Tre motivationsteorier som utvecklats inom området och som ligger till grund i studien är Förväntning- och värdeteorin, Målsättningsteorin och Självbestämmandeteorin. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur positivt psykologiskt kapital, inskrivningstid på arbetsförmedling samt tillgång till jobbcoach eller inte inverkar på arbetssökandes inre motivation. En enkätstudie genomfördes där 154 arbetssökande, 83 män och 70 kvinnor deltog. De fick ta ställning till 50 påståenden gällande tron på den egna förmågan, hopp, hantering av motgång och inre motivation. Resultatet visade att den främsta variabeln som förklarar inre motivation hos arbetssökande är hopp, som innebär hopp om framtiden. Det visade sig att tiden som individen är arbetssökande och tillgång till jobbcoach, inte hade någon betydelse för inre motivationen. Slutsatsen är att trots att det råder lågkonjunktur så finns hopp om framtiden. Key words: length of unemployment, hope, intrinsic motivation