Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Amber V. Vennum / Patterns in, and quality of, early romantic relationships have been found to impact future relationship outcomes (Donnellan et al., 2005; Overbeek et al., 2007). Commitment and satisfaction with sacrifice have been cited as important constructs in relationship health and stability as they indicate investment in the relationship (Stanley & Markman, 1992; Rusbult, 1983). Little research has been done on the bi-directional relationship of these two constructs. Many authors indicate that commitment predicts sacrifice (e.g. Van Lange, Rusbult, et al., 1997), but others argue that sacrifice predicts subsequent commitment (e.g. Kelley, 1979). The purpose of this study was to explore the time-ordering of these constructs and whether a history of relationship breakup and renewal (termed cyclicality) moderated this relationship in an emerging adult population (n = 246). Using a cross-lagged model over three time points, the present study found support for a bi-directional relationship between commitment and satisfaction with sacrifice that was not moderated by a history of cyclicality. However, partners with a history of breakup and renewal did report lower dedication at Time 3, indicated by a group mean difference. Implications for theory, research, and intervention are discussed.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen Myers-Bowman / Nonrelationship sex is quite common on college campuses despite the number of risks involved. This report provides a review of the nonrelationship sex research literature and focuses on definitions, prevalence, predictive factors and influences, potential negative outcomes, and gender differences surrounding nonrelationship sex. The Nonrelationship Sex Emphasis Checklist (NSEC) was created for college sex educators in response to this review. This report provides an evaluation of the Sexual Health Awareness Peer Educators program at Kansas State University using the NSEC and a general curriculum assessment. Based on this evaluation, recommendations are given for SHAPE. Recommendations for future programming and research also are given.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Jared A. Durtschi and Sandra M. Stith / Early binge drinking (i.e., five or more drinks on a single occasion) is associated with a greater risk of later substance abuse or dependence, and other non-alcohol related problems in adulthood, (e.g., adult civil or criminal convictions). Identifying alcohol use trajectories has mainly been limited to within single developmental periods (i.e., adolescence or emerging adulthood) or between developmental periods up until around the legal drinking age. Using N = 1,864 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) dataset, this paper sought to identify trajectories of binge drinking beginning in adolescence and into adulthood using growth mixture modeling. Family factors (e.g., parent-child communication, shared activities, connectedness, and parental control) were used to predict the various trajectories. Two class trajectories were identified, a low initial-escalating group (87%), and a high initial-deescalating group (13%). Being male and having more close friends using alcohol were predictive of a greater likelihood of being in the high initial-deescalating group. Results can inform therapeutic interventions in an effort to affect an adolescent’s trajectory of use and reduce the risk of long-term heavy alcohol use.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen Myers-Bowman / The reciprocal interaction between children and their environment can affect their development. Certain environmental interactions such as problematic parent-child relationships or peer rejection in school are associated with the development of emotional and behavioral disorders. Children with emotional and behavioral disorders experience difficulties in a variety of areas including academics, social relationships, behaviors, and life outcomes. These emotional and behavioral disorders can progress or regress depending on relationships occurring within the child’s environment. Positive, healthy, and caring parent and teacher involvement in the lives of these children is an important factor. When parents and teachers become involved, especially when they work together to set mutual goals to help with success, children with emotional and behavioral disorders may see improvements in their problem behaviors, experience more successful achievement in academics, and develop in a direction that is more normative rather than problematic. This information can be applied through an online educational module for parents of children with EBD that aims to educate these parents on the avenues to and importance of involvement.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / Rudabeh Nazarinia-Roy / Racial identity of mixed race individuals is important to understand because of the growing proportion of the population with parents from different racial groups. Having more than one racial heritage has a direct impact on how these children are seen by others as well as how they understand and encounter the world around them. Parents socialize their children in matters of race and discrimination that can impact their racial identity development, which is a component of their overall identity development. The aim of this study was explore how multiracial children are socialized and the impact of that socialization on racial identity formation from a heuristic perspective. Heuristic inquiry is a facet of phenomenology that seeks to understand the researcher’s experience of the phenomenon; therefore, I provided data on my experiences with raising a mixed-race child in a monoracial family. Two other families experiencing the same phenomenon were also interviewed. Themes related to racial profiling, parental perception of the mixed race child’s personality, skin tone, level of respect, and parenting were identified through the five-step analysis process recommended by Moustakas for heuristic inquiry, including immersion, incubation, illumination, explication, and creative synthesis. This study highlights relevant aspects in the lives of mixed-race children, how that impacts the way society views mixed-race individuals, and how those individuals encounter the world around them.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Human Ecology-Personal Financial Planning / Kristy L. Pederson-Archuleta / The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the factors associated with students’ intentions to not possess and use a credit card. This dissertation focused on exploring a sample of undergraduate college students who do not possess a credit card. There is little known research on this group of students. The dissertation was directed by the following over-arching research question: The goal of this study was to explore college students’ beliefs about not possessing a credit card using the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). The research questions for this dissertation were: (a) How is personality (i.e., individual background factor) of undergraduate college students associated with their behavioral, normative, and control beliefs to not possess a credit card, (b) How are education level, age, gender, income level, religiosity, marital status, and ethnicity (i.e., social background factors) of undergraduate college students associated with their behavioral, normative, and control beliefs to not possess a credit card, and (c) How is financial knowledge (i.e., information background factor) of undergraduate college students associated with their behavioral, normative, and control beliefs to not possess a credit card. This study collected primary data. A pilot study was conducted to set the stage for the data collection of the current study. The data analysis methodology for this study consisted of the following four methods: (a) Factor Analysis, (b) Correlation Analysis, (c) MANOVA, and (d) Discriminant Function Analysis. Factor analysis identified questions were used to develop scales to measure the dependent variables. Strong reliability estimates were obtained, ranging from .84 to .94. The MANOVA test identified seven hypotheses with statistically significant results < .05. Control beliefs were significantly associated with personality. The five personality types, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness, were all found to be significantly associated with either behavioral beliefs, control beliefs, or injunctive normative beliefs. Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism were all found to be associated with control beliefs. While agreeableness was also associated with injunctive normative beliefs, openness was found to be associated with behavioral beliefs. Financial knowledge was found to be associated with control beliefs. Discriminant function analysis was performed as a confirmatory test of the results from the MANOVA test, and supported the results of the MANOVA for six of the hypotheses.

abstract: When my attention was brought to the overwhelming lack of family policy support in the United States, my curiosity led me to look into what other industrialized nations are doing to support growing families and find out what policies and programs have been put in place to better facilitate the work-home balance. I first provide a brief background context of family policy in the United States, leading up to the development and implementation of our nation's parental leave legislation, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). I present the crucial concerns of this provision, as well as the effects that policy has on children's well-being. The second major part of this analysis deals with child care programs and the myriad challenges so many families encounter in this realm. Specifically addressed are the topics of affordability, accessibility and quality of child care found in the U.S. After an in-depth look at U.S. policies, I transition to a comparative analysis of parental leave and child care provision in a range of other nations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), specifically Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden and Norway. I carefully chose these countries to offer a broad spectrum of family policies to compare to our own. I then return to a discussion of limitations of U.S. family policy and the values and ideology it represents, as well as the importance of strengthening such policies. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education 2012

Doctor of Philosophy / Personal Financial Planning / Sonya Britt / Health and financial resources may be two of the most important resources when individuals experience stress. As one of the most commonly cited theories in the organizational behavior literature over the last 25 years (Halbeslegen, Paustian-Underdahl & Westman, 2014), the conservation of resources (COR) theory will be used in this dissertation to view how health and financial resources relate to general life and financial stress. The data were collected from a convenience sample. Participants consisted of men and women between the ages of 19 and 65, and were primarily White, female, and averaged less than two dependents. Annual household income averaged between $50,000 and $100,000. Variables for this study were operationalized using established measurements where available, with sound psychometric properties. In order to assess resources, a measure for resources was developed using a principal axis factor analysis from the conservation of resources evaluation (COR-E), which is a list of 74 items identified as valuable resources by the COR theory’s author (Hobfoll, 2001). The relationships among these resources along with demographic characteristics on general life stress and financial stress were examined through ordinary least squares regression analyses. Results indicate that health resources, along with being white, as compared to non-whites, make significant contributions to the variance in general life stress. Financial resources, success resources, being white, as compared to non-whites, and level of household income make significant contributions to the variance in financial stress. This study’s results should help individuals better assess the priority and protection they give to their resources. Employers will likely see savings by designing and implementing properly targeted employer sponsored programs that address resource growth and conservation to help to reduce stress, which should result in reductions to health care costs, fewer lost work days, and increase productivity. Financial planners, and therapists will find the results useful in improving their efforts toward working with individuals on understanding, prioritizing, and growing their resources as a way to reduce stress. Researchers and educators will use the results of this study to gain a deeper understanding of the use of the COR theory.

abstract: This study investigated how young adults communicate their decision to religiously disaffiliate to their parents. Both the context in which the religious disaffiliation conversation took place and the communicative behaviors used during the religious disaffiliation conversation were studied. Research questions and hypotheses were guided by Family Communication Patterns Theory and Face Negotiation Theory. A partially mixed sequential quantitative dominate status design was employed to answer the research questions and hypotheses. Interviews were conducted with 10 young adults who had either disaffiliated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the Watch Tower Society. During the interviews, the survey instrument was refined; ultimately, it was completed by 298 religiously disaffiliated young adults. For the religious disaffiliation conversation’s context, results indicate that disaffiliated Jehovah’s Witnesses had higher conformity orientations than disaffiliated Latter-day Saints. Additionally, disaffiliated Jehovah’s Witnesses experienced more stress than disaffiliated Latter-day Saints. Planning the conversation in advance did lead to the disaffiliation conversation being less stressful for young adults. Furthermore, the analysis found that having three to five conversations reduced stress significantly more than having one or two conversations. For the communicative behaviors during the religious disaffiliation conversation, few differences were found in regard to prevalence of the facework behaviors between the two groups. Of the 14 facework behaviors, four were used more often by disaffiliated JW than disaffiliated LDS—abuse, passive aggressive, pretend, and defend self. In terms of effectiveness, the top five facework behaviors were talk about the problem, consider the other, have a private discussion, remain calm, and defend self. Overall, this study begins the conversation on how religious disaffiliation occurs between young adults and their parents and extends Family Communication Patterns Theory and Face Negotiation Theory to a new context. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication 2015

abstract: Culture informs ideas about healthy and acceptable body types. Through globalization the U.S.-European body model has become increasingly significant in local contexts, influencing local body models. While Puerto Ricans have historically valued plump bodies - a biocultural legacy of a historically food scarce environment - this dissertation investigated shifts in these ideals across generations to a stronger preference for thinness. A sample of 23 intergenerational family triads of women, and one close male relative or friend per woman, were administered quantitative questionnaires. Ethnographic interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of women from 16 triads and 1 quintet. Questions about weight history and body sizes were used to address cultural changes in body models. Findings indicate the general trend for all generations has been a reduction in the spectrum of acceptable bodies to an almost singular idealized thin body. Female weight gain during puberty and influence of media produced varied responses across age groups. Overall, Puerto Ricans find it acceptable to gain weight with ageing, during a divorce, and postpartum. Thin bodies are associated with beauty and health, but healthy women that do not resemble the thin ideal, submit themselves to dangerous weight loss practices to achieve self and social acceptance. Further research and direct interventions need to be conducted to alter perceptions that conflate beauty with health in order to address the `normative discontent' women of all ages experience. Weight discrimination and concern with being overweight were evident in Puerto Rican everyday life, indicated by the role of media and acculturation in this study. Anti-fat attitudes were stronger for individuals that identified closely with United States culture. Exposure to drama and personal transformation television programs are associated with increased body image dissatisfaction, and increased exposure to variety shows and celebrity news shows is associated with increased anti-fat attitudes and body dissatisfaction. In sum, the positive valuation of fat in the Puerto Rican cultural body size model in the 1970s has shifted toward a negative valuation of fat and a preference for thin body size. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Social Science and Health 2013