Previous research has revealed that the experience of HIV-positive refugee women arriving from endemic countries is complicated by social, structural, and cultural issues. If and when they become pregnant, HIV-positive refugee women face a unique situation that is poorly understood by health care providers. The intersecting influences of HIV and refugee status in the context of pregnancy have been essentially unexplored in the Canadian context. The objective of this study was to describe the lived experience of pregnancy among HIV-positive refugee women; to explore the meaning of pregnancy from the perspective of HIV-positive women; and to understand the complexity of issues facing HIV-positive refugee women. An interpretive qualitative research design viewed through a critical post-colonial lens guided the study. Women were interviewed using a semi-structured in-depth approach. Four core themes emerged from the phenomenological analysis. The findings suggest that the experience of HIV and pregnancy among refugee women in Canada involves both disconnection and restoration. They must manage the dynamics of pregnancy, the impact of HIV and the cultural, political and geographic ‘newness’ of Canada. Noteworthy, are the efforts women take to conceal the HIV diagnosis. Additional insight was gained through an intersectional analysis of the data. The findings of this analysis suggest that women: 1) experienced alterations in identity 2) faced significant social disruption, and 3) are impacted by macro-level polices that influence both their initiation and access to the health care system. The lived experience of pregnancy among HIV-positive refugee women in Canada is analogous to moving through a liminal reality. HIV-positive refugee women work to restore a disrupted and “Othered” identity. Pregnancy is integral to that restoration. The results of the study have implications for nursing’s ability to support the transformative aspects of the liminal reality of pregnant HIV-positive refugee women. The potential for these transformations draw attention to nursing at practice, policy, education and research levels.

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of practitioners and scholars in the field of positive youth development through physical activity (PA-PYD) and gather what they have learned during their experience. The primary investigator conducted interviews with a purposeful sample of 10 expert practitioners (5 men and 5 women) in the field of PA-PYD that met inclusion criteria. Participants had a combined 162 years of experience running or researching 24 different PA-PYD programs that took place in 11 different countries. A semantic thematic analysis was conducted to systemically code, categorize, and distill the shared experiences of the participants. The results were organized into five primary themes according to what was shared: (a.) Participants’ journey (b.) Participants’ values (c.) Key factors to consider in perceivably effective programming, (d.) Common barriers, (e.) Strategies for navigating barriers. Finally, these results were then discussed within the scope of systems theory in an effort to propose strategies and future research directions that might better inform PA-PYD future practitioners that aim to achieve distal outcomes within complex systems.

Scholars have called for contextual based explorations of factors impacting implementation of integrated health care (IHC), yet IHC researchers agree that a paucity of research remains. (Kirschbaum, Rask, Brennan, Phelan, & Fortner, 2012; Miller, Kessler, Peek, & Kallenberg, 2011). Even less is known about the process of behavioral and physical health care integration in student health centers on university campuses (Alschuler et al., 2008). The purpose of this study was to address specific gaps in the literature of contextualized processes of integration (Kwan & Nease, 2013; Xyrichis & Lowton, 2008) by examining clinician, support staff, and administrator experiences with the process of integration at a student health center and to identify how values, principles, and attitudes impact this process. The results of a qualitative analysis of nine focus groups show the complexity associated with the process of integration as well as the factors impacting implementation at a university health center. Grounded theory methodology was used to analyze the data in three steps: (a) open-coding, (b) axial coding, and (c) selective coding (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). The analysis revealed three axial level categories comprised of 16 open-coding level categories and subcategories. A grounded theory model was developed and depicts how the various phenomena revealed at the axial level were interrelated in the early stages of the Student Health Center’s integration efforts.The conclusions of this study revealed that this organization’s integration was characterized by a collection of interacting Individual-Level, Organization-Level, and Communication variables, including barriers and facilitators of integration, which impact the process of integration. At the center of the theoretical structure was a co-constructed base of knowledge and attitudes from which staff approached and understood integrationa Shared Construct Representing Integration. However, since staff were at the beginning of the process of integration, the form of this construct had not yet come into focus. Therefore, the model is depicted as a “snapshot” in time. These conclusions have many implications for Administrators of student health centers who are considering integration. Prior to embarking on the integration process, interested parties are encouraged to seriously consider the many variables, processes, and strategies identified in this study.

Using qualitative methodology, the authors explored the experiences of 8 clients who received a 5-minute mindfulness meditation (MM) as implemented by 6 counseling students during a counseling session. Themes that emerged included (a) variations in individual experiences; (b) mental, physical, and emotional components of the experience; (c) perceptions of MM; (d) preferences for MM; and (e) implications for continued practice of MM.

Computer-aided architectural design (CAAD) programs represent architectural design at a low level of spatial abstraction. While this representation model allows CAAD programs to capture the precise spatial characteristics of a design, it means that CAAD programs lack the underlying computational apparatus necessary to reason about design at a conceptual level. This thesis is a first step towards building a framework that bridges the gap between the conceptual aspects of a design and its low level CAAD-based spatial representation. Specifically, this thesis presents a new framework, referred to as the Conceptual Requirements Reasoner (CRR), which provides an architect with a framework to validate conceptual design requirements. The CRR will demonstrate how qualitative spatial representation and reasoning techniques can be used as the link between a design's conceptual requirements and its underlying quantitative spatial representation. A museum case study is presented to demonstrate the application of the CRR in a real world design context. It introduces a set of museum design requirements identified in research and shows how these requirements can be validated using the CRR. The results of the case study shows that the CRR is an effective tool for conceptual requirements reasoning.

Thesis advisor: Michael G. Pratt / Persistence, continuing effort in the face of challenges over time, can have clear benefits for creativity. At the same time, abandonment, stopping effort toward a course of action, is often necessary to help creators move forward towards their best ideas. Creative workers, and the organizations that employ them, thus face a dilemma between forces for persistence and forces for abandonment in developing ideas and projects, what I refer to as the persistence dilemma. Existing theory provides some clues about this dilemma (e.g. theories of motivation or escalation of commitment), but a lack of holistic theorizing leaves many questions outstanding. Through a longitudinal qualitative study of four organizations, I set out to explore how creative workers managed the persistence dilemma. I found that the organizational context shaped how project teams responded to the dilemma. Teams within the startups I studied managed the dilemma with a process focused on commitment. Leaders helped team members transform the ambivalence that resulted from the dilemma into commitment to the organizations core project. Teams in the established organization, by contrast, managed the dilemma with a process focused on balance. The organization focused on balancing forces for abandonment and forces for persistence since both were perceived as necessary and beneficial in their own way. My work has implications for understanding the persistence dilemma, as well as for theories of creativity more generally. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Management and Organization.

Pornography is becoming more and more accessible to society and the pornography industry brings in billions of dollars each year. Research is now starting to focus on the effects of pornography use within the marital context. The effects on the spouse of the pornography user are beginning to show that pornography use can be damaging to marriages, how one views one's partner and how one views oneself. Within the LDS Church, pornography has been considered a violation of their beliefs about chastity and moral cleanliness. With the rise of the use of pornography within the membership of the LDS Church, it is important for the ecclesiastical leadership of the Church and clinicians alike to understand the experiences of LDS spouses of pornography users. One LDS woman, married 18 years, white, participated in a 60 minute interview. Using a qualitative method and phenomenological lens, this study explores what is like for a married woman in the LDS Church to find out that her husband is viewing pornography, and being in direct violation of the Church's stance on sexual cleanliness. Themes found include emotional/psychological processes, spiritual processes and trying to make sense of these two processes in tandem. Aspects of the LDS Church that were not helpful were identified as well as aspects of the LDS Church that were helpful are outlined. Advice for Church leaders (local and general) was provided and advice for clinicians that may work with couples that find themselves in this situation is described. / Master of Science

Regardless of culture or nation, students today are experiencing bullying via technology. With the rise of technology, this abuse has the ability to become more far-reaching, and more pervasive than ever. These students face oppression, and in some cases severe imbalances of power. Current research is being conducted and laws created based on varying operational and conception definitions of the term "cyberbullying." This study aims to analyze and provide a coherent definition for the term "cyberbullying" as it is used in research and legislation, especially in the context of today's educational environments. The results help shed light on the large variances in the term and suggestions are made to clarify the definition as the field continues to move forward.

The purpose of this study is to identify novice teachers’ perception of their preparedness to teach a class designed for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) after graduation from a traditional university-based special education program or from a special education alternative certification program. Teacher preparedness and the need for highly qualified teachers of students with ASD are relevant topics, as the prevalence rate of ASD continues to increase. This phenomenological qualitative study explores novice teachers’ perceptions of preparedness to teach students with ASD and their knowledge about teaching students with ASD. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with six novice special education teachers of students with ASD. Results indicated that novice teachers of students with ASD have knowledge of autism and evidence-based practices (EBP), which they ascertained primarily through experiences such as; working directly with students with ASD, however, preservice education programs provided the participants with cursory information related to knowledge of ASD and EBP.

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