<p> The purpose of this research was to investigate how parental stress is related to student behavior and the impact of the family system on student behavior. Bronfenbrenner&rsquo;s (1994) ecological model was used as the theoretical framework with a focus on relationships within the family and direct links to student behaviors. The sample size (n) was small equaling 10 parents and 10 students. The study investigated two groups of parents and children, one group consisted of five students identified as typically developing students with behaviors and numerous office referrals of more than five visits per year. The second group of five students received special educational services and had medically diagnosed behavior disorders. This study used the Parent Stress Index (PSI-4) survey to measure parental pressures and the direct influences on the parent to gain insight into four main domains: Total Stress, Life Stress, Child Domain, and Parent Domain. Interviews of both parents and children offered insight to the social occurrence of behaviors and the relationship between the parent and child. The study revealed themes describing a relationship between parenting stress and child behavior that were representative of a bi-directional relationship between a parent and child reflective in the influence of one&rsquo;s direct environment within the family unit. This research adds to the body of literature looking at parenting stress and the effect on child behavior.</p>

<p> Today's nurse leaders face many challenges and concerns that require a new type of leadership &mdash; authentic leadership. Nurse leaders who are authentic are behaviorally altruistic, transparent, have personal integrity, possess attributes of caring, ethical moral values, shared and balanced decision making, effective communication, and integral relationships. The purpose of this research was to explore, develop and validate an instrument measuring perceived authentic leadership, by staff nurses, that is grounded in a nursing theoretical framework that supports clinical practice and knowledge development. In addition, to validation of the instrument, hypotheses investigated in this research examined the extent in which the Authentic Nurse Leadership Questionnaire, is supported by the Authentic Nurse Leadership conceptual framework, and its relationship between authentic nurse leaders' attributes, nurse engagement, and nurse work-life. The methodology included Polit and Beck's method of multi-item scale development. A cross-over design was employed to compare the Authentic Nurse Leadership Questionnaire, this new instrument, with Authentic Leadership Questionnaire was implemented in the pilot and full study phase. Sample included: an expert panel (n =19) which included clinical nurse leaders, faculty and researchers, pilot study (n = 20) registered staff nurses and full study (n = 309) registered staff nurses who provide 50% or more direct patient care. Study results indicated: the average Content Validity Indices (CVI) for the final 29-item scale, its subscales and individual questions, all surpassing the .9 bench mark. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from .89 to .99, and the Intra Class Coefficients (ICCs) for 3 week test-retest reliability from 0.87 to .94. Findings indicated the ANLQ was reliable and valid instrument to measure authentic nursing leadership. Overall the ANLQ demonstrated better nursing values as indicated by a stronger relationship with nursing areas of work-life and nurse engagement than what ALQ did. The ANLQ concepts were statistically supported by both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Nurse leaders who incorporate Authentic Nurse Leadership into their practice are uniquely positioned to influence nurse work-life environment and nurse engagement.</p>

<p> This doctoral project focuses on the effectiveness of Relational Spirituality training administered to the direct support professionals at Cedar Lake Lodge, an intermediate care facility for adults with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. The effectiveness was tested through administration of a survey prior to and following a professional training session offered by the researcher. The results seem to demonstrate an increase in spiritual integration for direct support professionals who participated. The reframing of spiritual life supports as an element of recognizing the individuality of each person supported at Cedar Lake Lodge seemed to have a positive effect on professionals of various age, religious, and cultural affiliations. The expanded perspective of spiritual support holds the potential for cultivating rich, person centered care that is mutually beneficial to the people offering and receiving care in the intermediate care facility setting.</p>

<p> Discovering the relationship between the occupational stress of community supervision officers (CSO), their supervision orientation and community supervision outcomes will improve the field of community corrections with respect to CSO job satisfaction, work performance, turn-over rates, workload distribution and training officers in evidence based practices. It also expands already rich research on offender recidivism. An ex post facto non-experimental quantitative design was used to describe the relationship between the independent variables (IV) under observation: the occupational stress level and supervision orientation of CSOs, and the dependent variables (DV): the number of client arrests on the caseloads of CSOs, the offenders&rsquo; successful completion of community supervision, the offenders&rsquo; unsuccessful completion of community supervision, and the number of violation reports a CSO sends to the releasing authorities for offenders on their caseloads. Two survey instruments called the Job Stress Survey (JSS) and the Revised Community Corrections Officer Orientation Scale (RCC) were used to collect data from CSOs. Multiple regression analyses of the IVs and DVs concluded that there was no statistically predictive relationship between the occupational stress and supervision orientation of CSOs. Additionally, there was no statistically predictive relationship between the occupational stress of CSOs, their supervision orientation, or community supervision outcomes. This research began a valuable discussion about the influence of stress on CSO interactions with their offenders, which may influence offender noncompliance with community supervision. Further research should include a larger representation of CSOs, so that more variables can be incorporated into a study for a more robust analysis.</p>

<p> Non-monogamous partnerships were vulnerable to jealousy and envy, although aspects that contributed had not been described. This qualitative phenomenological study examined jealousy and envy in non-monogamy using equity theory. The purposive sample drawn from Loving More Nonprofit, and 19 participants were interviewed. Transcripts were analyzed using NVivo for Mac using the modified van Kaam method. Study results included four major themes for research question 1: (a) agreements reduced jealousy, (b) boundary violations increased jealous, (c) communication mitigated jealousy, and (d) time allocation fueled jealousy, and three minor themes: (a) willingness to end problem relationships, (b) acceptance and reframing mitigated jealousy, and (c) NRE fueled jealousy; and three minor themes for research question 2: (a) challenges to partner choices fueled by envy, (b) resources allocation influenced by envy, and (c) self-comparison to metamours magnified by envy. Implications of themes were that agreements were used by the non-monogamous to manage jealousy and enhance equity perceptions but when boundary violations related to jealousy occurred and boundary turbulence and distrust often resulted. When jealousy arose the non-monogamous relied on communication strategies, such as acceptance and reframing and willingness to end relationships to preserve existing relationships through reciprocal altruism, and to mitigate jealousy and rebalance equity due to concerns of scarcity. Additionally, self-comparison to metamours&rsquo; attributes stimulated envy and appeared to magnify jealousy. Recommendation for professional practice included the importance of agreements for non-monogamous relationship maintenance, use of equity to manage boundaries, and the role that boundary turbulence plays in perceptions of fairness. Recommendations for further research included (a) a replication of the current qualitative phenomenological study using participants from outside of organizations to include a more diverse a sample to explore consistency of themes across a broader demographic of non-monogamous people (b) a quantitative descriptive study to operationalize jealousy and envy, (c) a quantitative correlational study to assess relationships between agreements, boundary violations and jealousy, and (d) a qualitative multiple case study to explore explicit versus implicit agreements.</p>

<p> Abstract of Dissertation The Power of Peers: Do Deviant Peers Facilitate or Suppress Genetic Contributions to Externalizing Behavior During adolescence, children&rsquo;s social norms are increasingly established and enforced by peers. Affiliation with deviant peers at this time is an established risk factor for externalizing behavior, presumably because peers model, encourage, and permit antisocial behavior. What is unclear however is the degree to which deviant peers facilitate the expression of genetically influenced predispositions to externalizing behavior (contextual triggering), or whether peers socialize behavior and suppress genetic predispositions (social control). To examine these questions, a biometric moderation model was employed to examine the degree to which peer deviance moderates genetic and environmental contributions to externalizing behaviors during adolescence. </p><p> Analyses used archived data from the Nonshared Environment and Adolescent Development (NEAD) project. NEAD included a national sample of 708 same sex sibling pairs from never-divorced families and stepfamilies from the USA: monozygotic twin (N=93), dizygotic twin (N=99), and full sibling (N=95) pairs from never-divorced families, and full sibling (N=182), half sibling (N=109), and unrelated sibling (N=130) pairs from stepfamilies. The mean ages of Sibling 1 and Sibling 2 were 14.52 and 12.91, respectively. Mothers and fathers reported on their own perceptions of their adolescents&rsquo; involvement with deviant and prosocial peers (Perceptions of Child&rsquo;s Peers) and on their adolescents&rsquo; engagement in externalizing behavior (Zill Behavior Inventory). </p><p> Analyses indicated that peer deviance moderates genetic and nonshared environmental contributions to adolescent externalizing behaviors. Specifically, at higher levels of peer deviance, genetic contributions to externalizing behavior were stronger, while nonshared environmental contributions were weaker. Shared environmental contributions were significant, but not moderated by peer deviance. These findings are consistent with a contextual triggering model of gene-environment interaction: within the context of deviant peers, the heritability of externalizing behaviors was higher, while nonshared environmental contributions were lower. Therefore, deviant peers appear to enhance the expression of genetic predispositions to externalizing behaviors rather than exert social control. These findings provide insight into the process through which deviant peers affect the development of externalizing behavior.</p>

<p> Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a noted deficit in executive function which concurrently employs multiple systems in the brain to complete complex tasks. Executive function skills begin developing around the age of four years and continue developing throughout life, potentially impacting the entire life span of an individual. Service providers need cost effective and efficient strategies to address executive functioning disorders in preschoolers with ASD in typical educational settings by school personnel. Using a multiple baseline design across behaviors, this research compares the use of Power Cards, video modeling, and Social Stories&trade; to: 1) teach early executive function behaviors; 2) generalize behaviors to a Pre-Kindergarten setting; and 3) maintain the behaviors after one and two months following the withdrawal of intervention materials. Results indicate all three strategies were effective in increasing executive function behaviors, although the strength of the strategies varied among the five preschoolers who participated. Three of five students were able to generalize the behaviors when instructed utilizing Power Cards and video modeling, while two of five were able to generalize to the new setting after instruction using Social Stories&trade;. Maintenance results proved to stratify the efficacy of the strategies showing four of five students maintained above intervention levels after instruction using Social Stories&trade;, three of five maintained utilizing video modeling and zero of five students maintained following the Power Card strategy.</p>

<p> The CDC (2016) recommends children engage in 60 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily to achieve health benefits. Recess in school settings can provide opportunities for children to try and meet these guidelines. However, research suggests that recess alone does not increase physical activity levels. To combat this problem, antecedent manipulations (e.g., manipulating the physical environment or introducing planned activities) are commonly implemented as an intervention to increase physical activity. These interventions, however, do not provide salient consequences for physical activity to ensure the likelihood that these behaviors will occur again in the future. A more promising approach might be to develop interventions that assess the use of group contingencies in an effort to increase physical activity during recess time. The purpose of the current study was to implement the Step it UP! game (a modified version of the good behavior game) in three different classrooms during their recess periods and to evaluate the effect of group contingencies on physical activity levels in elementary school-aged children. The Step it UP! game was compared to traditional recess periods (i.e., without the game) in an alternating treatment design. The overall results of the study indicated that the Step it UP! game engendered higher mean step counts than traditional recess periods. These results suggest that schools should provide contingent reinforcement for children&rsquo;s increased physical activity during recess.</p>

<p> This study examined the relationship between employees&rsquo; Organizational Commitment and the perception of the management of deviant behavior and examined if Organizational Culture moderated the strength of the relationship between Organizational Commitment and the perception of the management of deviant behavior. Three assessments were administered either electronically or in hardcopy form and were completed by 114 participants who were employed adults ages 18 and above, managed by someone else, in the southeastern U.S. The Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) developed by Cooke and Lafferty (2013) measured overall Organizational Culture of employees at an individual level of assessment. The instrument used to measure employee Organizational Commitment was the TCM Employee Commitment Survey (Wellspring Worldwide, LLC, 2010). The instrument used to measure the perception of the management of deviant behavior was derived from a non-self-report measure created by Stewart, Bing, Davidson, Woehr, and McIntyre (2009). A moderated multiple regression analysis determined that the relationship between the perception of the management of deviant behavior and organizational commitment was not predicted by a constructive, aggressive/defensive, or passive/defensive culture style. The study found that the perception of the management of deviant behavior did not have a statistically significant predictive relationship with regards to organizational commitment, nor did workplace culture moderate the perceptions or attitudes of employees. The empirical evidence provided in this study enhanced the body of knowledge related to workplace culture. Specifically, the results of the study provided quantitative information, which provided a valuable understanding that a macro-variable such as workplace culture does not necessarily attenuate the relationship between perception of management and organizational commitment within certain diverse workplaces. </p>

<p> This transcendental phenomenological study sought to understand how the followers of authentic leaders in a multi-national healthcare organization experienced well-being. Twenty followers of 5 authentic leaders participated in the research and shared their lived experiences. Followers reported they experienced workplace well-being by maintaining work-life balance, feeling fulfilled/doing meaningful work, and feeling appreciated/recognized for their contributions. Workplace well-being was experienced as a result of their perceptions of feeling trusted and cared about as a <i>whole being</i> and not just an employee by their leaders. Followers also reported that the organizational culture provided support for leaders to demonstrate behaviors of authentic leadership, caring, trust, appreciation, respect, valuing others, openness, honesty, and transparency, which led them to feel an attachment to their leaders and organizations. Followers were motivated to exhibit organizational citizenship behaviors by providing extra or discretionary effort beyond their expected role requirements. These findings indicate that authentic leaders can provide value by cultivating well-being in the workplace. Findings also suggest recommendations for establishing organizational best practices.</p>