The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to determine the relationship between retention and academic success of students who participated in a First-Year Experience (FYE) course and students who did not participate in a FYE course within a southeastern community college in the United States. The impact of the relationship was to inform an understanding of how a FYE course influences student success. Archival data were collected from the southeastern community college’s student information system, Banner, Data for first-time full time students were gathered, including whether or not the individuals enrolled in a FYE course. Other data included the student’s gender, at-risk status, and non-traditional student status. Retention data of the first-year full-time students were collected and measured in accordance with enrollment requirements of the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR). Data for academic success were collected and measured by first-year student’s cumulative GPA. Chi-square tests of independence and independent sample t tests were used to examine the relationship of the FYE course with outcomes that measured student success. Results from the chi square tests indicated, overall, the participants of the FYE course had significantly higher retention rates than those students who did not participate in the FYE course. The independent sample t test indicated students who participated in the FYE course had significantly higher cumulative GPA scores than those who did not participate.

According to the Center for American Progress, women make up 52% of all professional-level jobs, however, they only make up 14.6% of executive officers, 8.1% of top salary earners, and only 4.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs. Considering this disparity in leadership, it brings to question if women are generally taking on leadership throughout their lives. The purpose of this study was to examine how mentorship affects first-time female freshmen’s willingness to take on leadership opportunities. Data were collected from three mentees and three mentors through an initial interest survey, semi-structured personal interviews, and the 3D Wisdom Scale Assessment. Data were analyzed using a ground theory approach which consisted of open, axial, and selective coding; leading to a discursive set of theoretical propositions. Interviews focused on the mentee’s experience through the mentorship program, and the mentor’s perspective of the mentorship program on their mentees. Additionally, the 3D Wisdom Scale developed was utilized to evaluate growth in wisdom dimensions which directly correlated to personal construct corollaries. The findings of the study included: 1) The mentees and mentors expressed growth in their self-esteem and self-confidence. This increase in self-awareness led to a willingness to take risk and face potential failure; 2) Leadership development took place on several levels; 3) The mentees had a realization of the impact of their gender; 4) Two-thirds of the mentees showed a substantial understanding and practice in all three of respective corollaries; and 5) The mentees and mentors displayed general development and growth. The substantive theory that emerged from this grounded theory study was: ‘Through proper mentorship, a first-time female freshman’s’ self-esteem and willingness to take on leadership opportunities will increase.’ Unlike the majority of upperclassmen who have had a mentor, all of the freshmen participating never had a mentor prior to their participation in the program. Mentors played a substantial role in the development of these freshmen and their willingness to take on leadership opportunities. Recommendations for further research include a longitudinal study examining if these freshmen continue to involve themselves in leadership opportunities throughout their college career.

The literature suggests that a correlation exists between visitor satisfaction and a visitor's choice to re-experience a product. The higher one's satisfaction level, the more likely he/she is to experience the product again and/or provide positive word-of-mouth advertising to friends and family. The Tian-Cole and Crompton model was chosen because of its acknowledgment and explanation of the differences between Visitor Satisfaction (VS) and Service Quality (SQ) and how their relationship influences satisfaction and contributes to Future Destination Selection. In addition to identifying a theoretical framework that explains why visitors return, it was necessary to identify a survey methodology to be used in developing the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve (MPRFR) visitor satisfaction surveys. It was determined that a combination of the Relative Performance Assessment (RPA) and Customer Service Questionnaire (CSQ) was an appropriate survey framework for a visitor satisfaction survey. As a result of the research, two visitor satisfaction surveys were developed: Intercept Survey and Mail-back Survey. The Intercept Survey will be administered at a MPRFR site. It was designed to be concise and not take much of the visitor's time. This survey will be used to gather general information about visitor characteristics and level of satisfaction while at a site. The Mail-back Survey will be sent to the visitor after their trip so more time can be devoted to answering a more detailed visitor satisfaction survey. This survey asks visitors to indicate what site characteristics are important to them and then rate their satisfaction with each item. Instruments from the report entitled "A Front Country Visitor Study for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument" were used as an example of how to format a visitor satisfaction survey and how to use the collected data as a managerial tool. The two main objectives of this research were accomplished and have established a foundation upon which subsequent research efforts will begin. This work serves as a catalyst to improving Belizean site planning, design, and management by better understanding what site characteristics contribute to visitor satisfaction.

The present study is an existential phenomenological investigation of the experiences of maternal guilt of five first-time mothers with infant children. Maternal guilt is a powerful, pervasive, and complex phenomenon that effects and is experienced by mothers in different ways. This research explores the experiences of these five mothers in feeling guilt related to being a mother and, using an adapted research methodology utilizing Focusing Technique (Gendlin, 1981), their embodied reflections about a particular memory of feeling maternal guilt. This study utilizes procedures explicated by Colaizzi (1978), Giorgi & Giorgi (2003), Todres (2007), von Eckartsberg (1998), Walsh (1995; 2004) and Wertz (1984). All participants provided data via a written account of a particular memory of feeling a sense of guilt related to being a mother, an individual interview which incorporated a modified Focusing component, and written and verbal feedback related to the write-up of the provisional thematic analysis of the interview. The interpreted analyses of the five interviews indicate seven formulated themes; physical and emotional connection to their babies, intense feelings of responsibility, feelings of being divided, multi-dimensionality of guilt with other emotions, pre-verbal miscommunication, anxiety over the unknown in the beginning, and social expectations and comparisons. The findings suggest that the process of embodied reflection regarding a new mother's emotional experiences of guilt can foster important awareness for how she can care for her own and her child's needs. Relationships between contemporary cultural discourses on motherhood and philosophical interpretations of guilt are discussed. Implications for creating networks of support and community for new parents are also explored. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Clinical Psychology / PhD; / Dissertation;

Skuldsättningsgraden hos svenska hushåll ökade stadigt från i mitten av 1990-talet fram till 2008. För att hejda denna utveckling införde finansinspektionen i oktober 2010 ett allmänt råd om begränsning av säkerhet i bostad vid upptagande av lån, det så kallade bolånetaket. Innebörden av detta är att 15 procent av bostadens marknadsvärde i kontanta medel krävs vid upptagande av bostadslån. För en förstagångsköpare som skall köpa bostad i Göteborg betyder det att en betydande summa pengar skall ha sparats ihop. Eller så blir alternativet att ta ett dyrare blancolån om inte kapitalet finns. För att undersöka hur förstagångsköpare i Göteborg har löst det ekonomiska genomfördes en enkätundersökning bland studenter på Chalmers Tekniska Högskola, Göteborgs Universitet och Högskolan Väst. Här undersöktes även hur de som har köpt före samt efter oktober 2010 har löst det ekonomiskt. Banktjänstemän och fastighetsmäklare intervjuades för att få en inblick i hur de ser på bolånetaket, samt hur de tror förstagångsköparna påverkats. Enkätundersökningen visade att majoriteten av de som skall köpa sin första bostad planerar att spara ihop till kontantinsatsen. Hälften av de tillfrågade förstagångsköparna beräknar att kunna spara ihop till kontantinsatsen på 1-3 år. De tillfrågade banktjänstemännen och fastighetsmäklarna ser samtliga att lösningen efter bolånetakets införande blev att föräldrar fick hjälpa till ekonomiskt. Detta genom att gå in som borgenär, pantsätta sitt boende som säkerhet eller hjälpa till med kapital. Förstagångsköparna har i större utsträckning behövt hjälp utifrån för att klara av de ekonomiska kraven från bankerna. I Göteborg där bostadsbristen är stor finns inte alltid något annat val än att köpa en bostad. Lösningen blir ekonomisk hjälp från föräldrar. Undersökningen tyder även på att andragångsköpare i Göteborg har det svårt att byta bostad till något större eller köpa bostad som dyrare än den bostad de äger. Möjligheten finns att det är en fördröjning på bolånetakets effekter, och att bosparandet inom de närmsta åren kommer att öka. Förhoppningsvis kommer förstagångsköpare inte behöva ekonomisk hjälp från föräldrar. / Indebtedness in the Swedish market had steadily increased from the mid-1990s until 2008. For this reason, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen) in October 2010 introduced a general advice on the restriction in the pawn of your property when applying for a mortgage, the so-called mortgage ceiling. This means that the buyer requires 15 percent in capital for the admission of mortgage. For a first-time buyer to buy a property in Gothenburg, this means that a significant amount of capital should be accumulated beforehand. The alternative, if assets are absent, is to take an unsecured loan, which is more expensive. To examine how first-time buyers in Gothenburg have solved the economic situation, a survey among students at University of Chalmers, University of Gothenburg and University West was conducted. It also examined how those who bought their first property respectively before and after October 2010 found a financial solution. Bank employees and real estate agents were interviewed to obtain their opinion on the mortgage ceiling, and how they think the first-time buyers were affected. The survey showed that the majority of those who plan to buy their first property are planning to save up for down payment. Half of those surveyed first-time buyers expects to save up for the down payment in 1-3 years. Respondent bankers and estate agents have seen that the solution for introduction of the mortgage ceiling was that parents had to help financially. This was done by becoming a creditor, pledging their homes as security or helping with financial assets. First-time buyers have in greater extent needed help from outside to meet the financial demands of the banks. In Gothenburg, where the housing shortage is high, there is not always another choice but to buy a home. The solution is to get financial help from parents. The study also suggests that second-time buyers in Gothenburg find it difficult to buy something bigger, or buying a home that is more expensive than the home they live in. There might be a delay in the mortgage ceiling effects, and that savings will increase within the next few years. Hopefully first-time buyers in the future will be able to stand on their own without parental financial assistance.

Bakgrund: Föräldragruppsutbildning, arrangerad av barnhälsovården, ska erbjudas alla nyblivna föräldrar. Region Skåne har 2011 infört en manual med rekommendationer för hur föräldragruppsutbildningen skall läggas upp i syfte att få en mer enhetlig föräldragruppsverksamhet. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka förstagångsmammors upplevelser av föräldrastöd i grupp. Metod: Öppna individuella intervjuer genomfördes med elva förstagångsmammor. Intervjumaterialet analyserades med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Resultatet visar att mammorna upplevde ett bristande engagemang och ett otydligt ledarskap från BHV-sjuksköterskan. De upplevde att mötet och gemenskapen med de andra mammorna var det som gav dem det främsta stödet. Resultatet sammanfattas i två kategorier; BHV-sjuksköterskans delaktighet och kunskaps- och erfarenhetsutbyte. Slutsats: För att kunna möta mammornas förväntningar och ge det stöd som de behöver bör BHV-sjuksköterskan vara lyhörd för och visa ett engagerat intresse för mammornas behov. Ett sätt att nå detta kan vara att fullt ut följa det upplägg som finns beskrivet i manualen. Det är begränsat med forskning angående förstagångsmammors upplevelser av stöd i föräldragrupp därför finns behov av ytterligare forskning. / Background: Parent education, organized by child health service, should be offered to all new parents. In 2011 Region Skåne introduced a manual with recommendations on how parent education can be organized in order to obtain a more uniform parent group activity. Aim: The aim of the study was to describe first-time mothers' experiences of parental support group. Method: Open individual interviews with eleven first-time mothers were conducted. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The result showed that the mothers experienced a lack of commitment and an unclear leadership from the nurses. They felt that the most important was being able to meet other mothers. The results are summarized in two categories; child health -nurses´ participation and knowledge- and experience exchange. Conclusion: In order to meet mothers' expectations and provide the support they need child health care nurses need to be responsive and interested in mothers' needs. One way to achieve this would be to follow the recommendation described in the manual. There is limited research on first-time mothers' experiences of support in parental support groups and therefore a need for further research.

The Hispanic population continues to rapidly increase within the state of Texas as well as the nation. However, the Hispanic population educational attainment level lags behind that of the general population. Hispanic males are the lowest educated segment of society averaging less than a high school diploma. The negative long-term economic impact of such low educational attainment levels coupled with the rapid increase of the Hispanic population has been documented by Texas state demographers as well as the U.S. Census Bureau. The researcher conducted a qualitative study to inform a deeper understanding of the experiences that facilitated the persistence of 18 Hispanic male first-time-in-college students through the official reporting date of their fall first termat a community college in South Texas. An asset model and related conceptual framework, which recognized students as experts, were utilized. Focus group interviews, semi-structured interviews, and existing data were analyzed utilizing qualitative research methods. The researcher identified six overarching themes that significantly influenced the students? ability to persist. In addition, analysis of the data produced five barrier themes that these students overcame via the utilization of corresponding knowledge and actions themes. Finally, students provided recommended college changes for mitigating the barriers faced by future Hispanic male students. The researcher provided conclusions regarding Hispanic male students, recommendations for students, recommendations for colleges and universities serving Hispanic male students, recommendations for the focal community college, and implications for the theoretical model utilized. The researcher recommended expanding this research to other institutions of higher education and notes the national implications for increasing the educational attainment level of Hispanic male students.

Deeper understanding of family health and support after childbirth from the perspective of first-time parents and their informal support network is needed. Postpartum experiences and health concerns of first-time mothers and fathers and, discourses on sexuality and informal support after childbirth were explored in low-income, suburban areas in Ilala, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Individual qualitative interviews with first-time mothers (n=10) and fathers (n=10), and 14 focus group discussions with first-time parents (n=40) and informal support persons (n=42) provided the data, which were analyzed through qualitative content and discourse analysis. First-time parents’ areas of concern were newborn care and hygiene, infant feeding, handling crying infant, maternal nutrition and hygiene, uncertain body changes for the mother and, sexuality. The mothers were burdened with caring responsibilities and fathers felt neglected and excluded from the care of the mother and infant after childbirth, both by the families and the health care system. Sexuality after childbirth created tension between new parents due to the understanding that abstinence would protect child health during the breastfeeding period, which could be several years. Women’s adherence to sexual abstinence was more emphasized compared to men’s. Men’s engagement with other sex partners and the risk of contraction HIV was a threat to family health. First-time parents drew on support from both informal and formal sources. Informal support networks played a major role in providing information, materials, guidance and supervision while conveying stereotypic gender norms. Contradictions in the messages to parents within and between the support systems created uncertainties that might have negative implications for family health. Poor parents and those who did not adherence to the social norms were less likely to get informal support than others were. There is a need for information and practical guidance on basic aspects of care for the mother and infant, male involvement, and the importance of social support to first-time parents, as new parents face physical, social and relational challenges after childbirth. The link between the health care system and informal networks need to be strengthened to enable them to complement each other in promoting family health after child health.

A big problem in the world today is vaccine hesitancy (VH), a tool to combat this could be to use serious games (SG) as a tool for education. There has been some research into this field, these studies have mainly used a single game or looked at a series of games, and they have required quite a lot of interaction. A trivia can allow the player to focus on thinking rather than performing various tasks; even if both can be equally educational. In this work a platform game was developed and used together with a questionnaire to test the knowledge of the common person in regard to vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases. 20 people participated in this study, 10 in a control group and 10 in the game group. The results in this study show that there was no significant statistical difference between a serious platform game and a compendium when it comes to learning.

Using data of first time fund in venture capital in United States from 1995 to 2015, I explore characteristics of the funds in relation to the fund performances. Three groups of characteristics that examined are fund characteristics, manager characteristics and limited partners’ characteristics. The paper also incorporates the time effects to show if market cycles have influences in these relationships. Some of the critical findings include that fund sizes have essentially zero impact on the fund return. In manager characteristics, it is very helpful to have a lead manager with MBA or equivalent degree. For limited partners, it is useful to have school endowments as limited partners which could influence the funds’ return positively. Both general partners and limited partners could learn from this paper and be more mindful of certain factor when investing in first time fund.