There is a paucity of research literature on the relationship between acculturation and positive indices of mental health for migrant populations. The objective of this study is to investigate the nature of this relationship for the Iranian migrant community of Canada. / Eighty-six Iranian migrants living in Montreal and Toronto filled a self-report questionnaire. Acculturation was measured through an acculturation attitude, overt behavioural and self-report Canadian contact scales. Positive mental health was measured through WHO's cross-culturally validated subjective quality of life (SQOL) scale and the level of psychological distress was measured with the SCL-25. Pertinent demographic variables were considered to control for intra-group differences. / Moreover, since data collection for this project occurred just after the events of September 11 we partially modified our research plan to include specific questions on the impact of this even. Because of its overt politicization and its salience to Iranian ethnicity we also sought to explore the effect of religiosity on mental health of this group. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

<p> As the workplace has diversified with the inclusion of women and minorities holding positions throughout all levels of the organization hierarchy, the question remains if gendered racism exists in the 2014 workplace for women managers with minority group background. Gendered racism, described by Philomena Essed in her 1991 book, <i>Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Theory,</i> is a unique female experience due to their race and being a woman. Visible at this intersection of race and sex, women of color may experience the sexist and racist stereotypes dually assigned to women and minorities. This research provides a qualitative view of the experiences of gendered racism using Moustakas' transcendental phenomenology method. Data were collected from eight women who self-identified as Hispanic (<i> n</i>=2) and Black (<i>n</i>=6). All the women with the exception of one were college graduates, managers in an organization of 50 or more employees, between the ages of 35 to 62 years old. The study findings validated the experiences of gender racism in the workplace through the lived experiences of women interviewed. The women revealed their experiences with gendered racism, which affected their workplace interactions with others, manifest psychological stressors, and tainted the vision of themselves. Additionally, all of the women developed coping skills to combat gendered racism, which allowed them to pivot their careers to higher levels in their organizations. The emerging themes revealed from the study's participants experiences of gendered racism are psychological effects, feeling discounted, acceptance or justification, disrespect, and self-confidence. This research provides a phenomenological description of the lived experiences of the gendered racism and the impact of these experiences in the workplace as reveal by women of color.</p>

<p> This quantitative study explored the perceived value of mentoring among mentors and mentees in the Partners for Success Program at California State University, Long Beach. Aspects of academic success were compared between mentees and randomly selected undergraduates not in the program. The sample size was 271 (27 mentors, 136 mentees, and 108 other undergraduates). A self-administered online survey measured values of mentoring, social support, and self-efficacy. GPAs were self-reported. Mentees valued career help significantly more than mentors. Both groups rated teaching, career counseling, and trust most highly. European Americans had significantly higher social support scores than Latino/Hispanics. Among mentees, self-efficacy was positively correlated with academic performance. It is recommended that academic mentoring programs focus their efforts on fostering trust and providing advisement. Special attention should be paid to the availability of social capital, especially among ethnic minorities. </p>

<p> L'&eacute;tude pr&eacute;sente se contre sur la question identitaire aux sujets de la langue et de la culture cadienne au sud de la paroisse Lafourche ; un paroisse du sud-est de la Louisiane. Donnant qu'il y avait peu de recherches venant de cette r&eacute;gion de la Louisiane fran&ccedil;aise, cela serait in&eacute;ressant de voir des avis aux sujets de la langue et la culture cadiennes de vue des gens de cette petite partie.</p><p> Des questionnaires a &eacute;t&eacute; distribu&eacute;s aux lyc&eacute;ens de South Lafourche High School, et des entrevues a &eacute;t&eacute; faits avec des locuteurs natifs du fran&ccedil;ais cadien de la meme r&eacute;gion. </p><p> Avec les r&eacute;sultats, l'auteure examine les r&eacute;ponses des questionnaires des jeunes lyc&eacute;ens et les r&eacute;ponses des entrevues avec les locuteurs du fran&ccedil;ais cadien sont consid&eacute;r&eacute;es s&eacute;par&eacute;ment. Aussi, les r&eacute;ponses des deux groupes sont consid&eacute;r&eacute;es ensemble pour trouver s'il y a des similarit&eacute;s ou des diff&eacute;rences.</p><p> Ce projet cherche de parler des sujets ou de r&eacute;pondre aux questions suivants : Pour les jeunes, Quel est leur niveau de contact avec le fran&ccedil;ais hors de la salle de classe, et Quel est le role du fran&ccedil;ais dans leur vie ? Quelles id&eacute;es et quelles connaissances ils ont du fran&ccedil;ais cadien ? Quels sont les aspects saillants de l'identit&eacute; et de la culture cadiennes pour ces lyc&eacute;ens ?</p><p> Pour les locuteurs natifs de fran&Atilde;&sect;ais cadien, quel est le role du fran&ccedil;ais dans leur vie pr&eacute;sente et pass&eacute;e ? Quels sont les aspects de l'identit&eacute; et de la culture cadiennes qu'ils trouvent le plus importants ? Et qu'est-ce que ces locuteurs pensent de l'enseignement du fran&ccedil;ais par rapport aux plus jeunes g&eacute;n&eacute;rations de la r&eacute;gion ?</p>

<p>This research examines racially biased crimes across US cities, utilizing social threat and a general criminality perspective based on social disorganization and strain theories. Racially biased crime is compared to violent crime in general and to unbiased racially disaggregated homicide to further examine the effects of social threat and general crime variables on different forms of violent crime. Data is compiled mainly from the 1990 and 2000 US Censuses, the 1996&ndash;2000 Uniform Crime Reports and the 1996&ndash;2000 Supplemental Homicide Reports. The research shows bias crimes cannot be explained utilizing general crime predictors. In particular, anti-Black violent bias crimes committed by Whites are mainly driven by economic forces, though not necessarily economically threatening conditions. Anti-White violent bias crimes committed by Blacks are more similar to homicides of Whites committed by Blacks, which is consistent with prior research. Additionally, the research shows the importance of complying with hate crime reporting requirements and region, again consistent with prior research. That is, the more frequently a city reports data, the higher the counts of bias crimes. Cities located in the South are less likely to have high counts of bias crimes, suggesting a lack of compliance with reporting requirements. These findings pertaining to reporting compliance offer support for social constructionist perspectives in the study of bias crimes. </p>

<p> From the perspective of acculturation stress theory, the historical background of Iranian immigrants is visited in this dissertation, as well as different types of acculturation strategies that are being utilized by immigrants. This research study addresses the impacts of inadequate access to and underutilization of mental health services on the psychosocial wellbeing of Iranian families, and the lack of appropriate interventions due to ongoing stress, such as economic hardships. Furthermore, the usefulness of several inexpensive and accessible stress-reduction techniques in reestablishing psychophysiological relaxation is examined. It is noted that, in spite of their long history, such techniques are not widely recognized as effective coping skills in response to stress-inducing immigration experiences. In addition, the relaxation qualities of music are reviewed, revealing consistent therapeutic effects and significant relaxation responses elicited in the listeners. The purpose of this applied research study was to develop a proposed Hindustani music-assisted multimodal guided relaxation intervention designed to lower stress and particularly, acculturation stress experienced by Iranian families. An evaluation of the program's efficacy by validity judges concluded that this program is potentially effective for inducing relaxation responses in the listeners.</p>

<p> The purpose of this descriptive, case study was to explore how servant leadership influenced employee engagement within the United States offices of an international engineering consulting firm. An additional purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which the factors of race, gender, or tenure were related to employee engagement. Leaders in the firm completed the Revised Servant Leadership Profile (RSLP). The Revised Servant Leadership Profile (RSLP) 360&deg; was then administered to the staff of self-identified servant leaders. Once identified, servant leaders were then compared against the engagement scores of divisions and units within the firm under investigation, based on results from their biannual employee engagement survey. The second part of this research involved structured, survey interviews with self-identified servant leaders and their staff. Results showed partial support for servant leadership effect on employee engagement and no support for matching perceptions of servant leadership between leaders and their employees. Structured survey interviews revealed that both leaders and followers were unfamiliar with the term, servant leadership. However, both groups reported employee empowerment, employee development and a strong sense of teamwork in the organization, indicating some similarities in the perceptions of the two groups. There was partial support for claims that gender and ethnicity were relevant to servant leadership and employee engagement. Conclusions drawn from this research were that servant leadership was not conclusively linked to employee engagement. Further research is recommended.</p><p> <i>Keywords</i>: Employee Engagement, Servant Leadership, RSLP. </p>

<p> Currently, a mismatch exists between the race and ethnicity of the U.S. physician workforce and the patients it serves. The federal government, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), individual medical schools and other organizations are addressing this mismatch in part by focusing on increasing the numbers of racial/ethnic minorities who matriculate into medical schools. However, it is unclear how minority students navigate the medical school admissions process. This study used a grounded theory approach to explore the medical school admissions experiences of a sample of Black/African-American and Hispanic/Latino students. The study developed and proposed elements of an emerging conceptual model for understanding the reasons why participants applied to medical school, as well as the facilitators and barriers they encountered in the admissions process. Participants were purposively selected Black/African-American and Hispanic/Latino medical students who attended 25 U.S. allopathic medical schools nationwide. Phase 1 included 29 telephone interviews with individual participants and four in-person interviews in groups of two students each. Phase 2 consisted of feedback sessions with five of the original participants to verify four emergent themes: 1) reasons for applying, 2) participants' perceptions of navigating the admissions process, 3) the role and sources of information, guidance, and support, and 4) other forces affecting how participants navigated the admissions process. Reasons for applying to medical school included: perceived fit; prior experience or knowledge; encouragement and role models; desire to help others; perceived benefits; and interest in science. In addition to information, guidance, and support, other forces influenced how participants navigated the admissions process. These forces included: information, guidance and support; finances; preparation; extra programs; extracurricular activities; and attitude. Study findings connect to theories of student college choice and academic capital formation. Findings have implications for research and practice related to advising; reviewing admissions practices; outreach and recruitment; extra programs; mentoring; improved provision of information; and data collection.</p>

<p> This dissertation presents a collection of personal stories collected by the author from the lobster fishermen of Meteghan, Nova Scotia. This corpus is not a complete inventory, but it helps us to begin to understand the evolution of this Acadian village. The author wondered: Since fairy tales no longer exist in their current repertoire, why not give value to the life histories that exist? This research required an observational transformation in order to notice, preserve and present the treasure that is the oral tradition in this region.</p><p> The author presents the fishermen's stories based on the concept of the <i> ethnotexte,</i> generating the sense of a written discussion between all the participants. The author uses a minimal level of interpretation of her own, allowing the voices of the informants to shine. This allows the text to be more faithful to the experience, since without sound, there is already a deviation of a natural phenomenon, the performance. The protocol used for the transcripts balances between the fidelity of the recordings and the text's accessibility, while preserving the maritime vocabulary and archaic words. </p><p> The author presents eleven themes, ranging from old fishing techniques, to tricks and superstitions. Since fishing is the main industry in this francophone minority community, the author reveals the cultural importance found within the stories, like the testimonies of the old ways of living and fears for the future, which represent a poetic mix between tradition and modernity. </p><p> Having conducted extensive field work, the author concludes that Acadian folklore in the area is not threatened, but has instead evolved. The author has succeeded in letting these fishermen speak, which helps to illuminate the enigma of the modern Acadian identity. Although subject to the imposed imperatives of modernity, Acadians are pragmatic, and at the end of the day, they honor family and the stability of the village first.</p><p> This is a region rich in heritage. The importance of ethnology seeks not to find solutions but to preserve this information. With a sense of urgency to capture the oral histories, this kind of research enriches this community's culture.</p>

<p> In this dissertation, I analyze the historic and present social conditions of The United Methodist Church within the context of American culture. I also present strategies for reconciliation among estranged Black and White race groups, socioeconomic class groups, gender erotic predisposition groups, and ethnic groups other than Black and White. I use the theoretical lens of Black church interpretive traditions intersecting with Wesleyan theology. J. Deotis Roberts (1971/2005) proclaims, <i>"The black church, in setting black people free, may make freedom possible for white people as well. Whites are victimized as the sponsors of hate and prejudice which keeps racism alive" </i> (p. 33). The Black church is distinct from mainstream American church in that the Black church offers more upbeat and up-tempo worship, rhythmic preaching, gospel songs and spirituals through choirs with improvisational lead singers, call and response interaction between the preacher and the congregation, sermons that held justice and mercy in tension through hope, and worship experiences that are not constrained by time limits. From the Black experience in America, the Black church offers a profound response for existential predicaments related to "life and death, suffering and sorrow, love and judgment, grace and hope, [and] justice and mercy" (McClain, 1990, p. 46). I draw from the statements of priorities of United Methodist theorists (seminaries and theological schools) and practitioners (annual conferences) to critique collective expressed values and behaviors of United Methodists. Also, from congregations in the Western North Carolina (Annual) Conference of The United Methodist Church, I analyze narratives from personal interviews of pastors of congregations that have a different majority race composition than their own, of pastors of multi-ethnic congregations, and of congregants from multi-ethnic congregations. I suggest that the social history and present social conditions of The United Methodist Church are perplexing, particularly concerning Black and White relations. However, The United Methodist Church has the mandate, heritage, responsibility, organizational structure and spiritual capacity to contribute to substantive and sustainable reconciliation in the Church and in American society.</p>