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The purpose of this study was to measure the influence of teacher preparation experiences, collegial support, and principal support on new teachers' decisions to remain in the teaching profession. Quantitative research was conducted using data from an electronic survey to examine the impact the three predictor variables had on the likelihood of a new teacher remaining in the profession beyond five years. Research explored the precipitating theory based on scholarly literature, that teachers who are well prepared with practical experiences, and who feel supported and valued by their colleagues and principals, reflect the highest level of job satisfaction and potential to remain in the teaching profession. Five findings emerged from this study. Two findings indicated that collegial support and principal support, both had a statistically significant influence on new teacher retention. In addition, the study found that nearly 75% of new teachers showed some level of job satisfaction with the teaching profession. Participants in the survey included one hundred and eighty-four teachers with 0-5 years experience, representing teachers from 21 secondary schools within one school district. Participants were asked to respond to questions based on their personal experiences and feelings related to the teaching profession and their overall satisfaction level. / Ed. D.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationships between physical and emotional peer victimization, parental and peer support and depressive symptoms. The moderating role of parental and peer support and gender differences in such moderation were the focus of the study in examining the association between peer victimization forms and depressive symptoms. Two hundred and sixty one youths (ages 10-14) completed self report measures of parental and peer support and depressive symptoms and were interviewed about their victimization experiences. Physical victimization rates were higher for boys whereas girls reported higher emotional victimization experiences and higher peer support than boys did. Correlations indicated that the experience of physical and emotional victimization by peer is linked to depressive symptoms. For boys, but not for girls, a significant moderation effect indicated that physical victimization was significantly related to depressive symptoms among youths with low peer support whereas physical victimization was not related to depressive symptoms among youths with high peer support. There were significant main effects of parental and peer support for both genders suggesting the importance of such support against depressive symptoms. The study's findings contribute to the literature regarding peer victimization's effects on mental health by illustrating the beneficial effect of parent and peer support during adolescence. / Master of Science

Efforts to increase enrollment in engineering and enhance the participation and proficiency of engineers have long been priorities, as emphasized by the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Engineering. This imperative underscores the need for both a greater quantity and a higher caliber of engineers—colleges and universities are charged with helping students successfully progress through their programs to earn a degree. Existing research predominantly focuses on specific academic interventions or discrete support factors in attempts to understand how to best support academic success. My work, on the other hand, takes a comprehensive examination that quantifies students' perceptions of support across a wide range of sources and explores the relationship between these perceptions and student engagement in different activities. Utilizing student support data collected from undergraduate students in Engineering, Science, and Mathematics at nine institutions during the spring of 2019, the study embarks on a multifaceted exploration that unfolds in three interconnected parts. The first part employs multiple comparison analyses to unveil distinct differences in perceptions of support among different student subpopulations. The second part delves into the relational dynamics between support perceptions and students' participation in co-curricular activities using binomial regression. The third part, employing multiple linear regression, scrutinizes this relationship from a reverse perspective, acknowledging the potential bidirectional nature by examining how the level of student engagement in a range of co-curricular activities relates to their perceptions of support. The findings continue to establish further validity evidence for the newly developed STEM-SPSI tool. It also has the potential to offer valuable insights for educators, administrators, and policymakers intent on enhancing the inclusivity and efficacy of their programs. This study's potential implications underscore the importance of targeted support factors in fostering a more enriching and equitable co-curricular experience for undergraduate students. Embracing a more integrated perspective, this research contributes to evidence-based practices aimed at fostering the success and retention of students in STEM fields. / Doctor of Philosophy / Efforts to increase the number of engineers and improve their preparedness are a national priority, as emphasized by organizations like the National Academy of Engineering. Colleges and universities play a critical role in helping students succeed in their programs and earn degrees in engineering. Although most research has focused on specific academic programs or single support services, my study takes a broader look at how students perceive support from multiple sources and how these perceptions relate to their participation in activities outside the classroom. Using data from undergraduate students in engineering, science, and mathematics at nine universities in 2019, the research examines three key areas. First, it compares how different groups of students perceive support in their academic institutions. Second, it looks at how students' participation in co-curricular activities relates to their feelings of support. Lastly, it explores the reverse: how students' levels of engagement in these co-curricular activities relates to their support perceptions. The findings provide additional evidence of validity of the newly developed STEM-SPSI questionnaire, which measures student support. This research can help educators, administrators, and policymakers create more inclusive and effective programs that enhance students' overall experiences. By examining support and student engagement together, this study contributes to practices that can improve student success and retention in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

No / Aims and objectives. The current study sought to identify how many mothers from 149 visits carried out by seven health visitors identified support as a feature of the visit, whether this type of support was unique to the health visitor and what support meant to them. These responses were then compared with the taxonomies of social support from the social support literature. . Some studies of client perceptions describe support as an element of home visits by health visitors. However, the importance, relevance and impact on the client of this support are not described in detail. Social support theory suggests that there are tangible benefits to people's well-being and their ability to cope with various challenges that may arise from individuals' perceptions of receiving support. Design. Qualitative study using semistructured interviews. Methods. Seven volunteer health visitors recruited 149 women into the study. These clients were interviewed by the researcher, usually within one week of the home visit by their health visitor. The discussions were audio-taped and the resulting transcripts analysed using content analysis. Findings. Thirty-seven women identified receiving support which they said was only available from the health visitor. The relevance of this support to the mother and the impact on her well-being varied within the group suggesting differing perceptions of support by clients according to their personal situation. There was a correspondence between the descriptions of support given by the women and the taxonomies of social support from the social support literature. Conclusion. For some interactions between clients and their health visitors the existing theory of social support may provide an explanation of how health visitors contribute to clients' perceived ability to cope and well-being. Relevance to clinical practice. Social support may be defined as a possible outcome of health visiting. This concept will have use within educational programmes to demonstrate to students how health visiting can have an impact on clients' well-being. Similarly, the concept could be used to investigate and record health visiting practice.

Yes / Aims: To determine who provides bereavement support in the community, what sources are perceived to be the most or least helpful and for what reason, and to identify the empirical elements for optimal support in developing any future compassionate communities approach in palliative care. Design: A population-based cross-sectional investigation of bereavement experiences. Sources of support (informal, community and professional) were categorised according to the Public Health Model of Bereavement Support; most helpful reasons were categorised using the Social Provisions Scale, and least helpful were analysed using inductive content analysis. Setting and participants: Bereaved people were recruited from databases of funeral providers in Australia via an anonymous postal survey (2013–2014). Results: In total, 678 bereaved people responded to the survey. The most frequently used sources of support were in the informal category such as family, friends and funeral providers. While the professional category sources were the least used, they had the highest proportions of perceived unhelpfulness whereas the lowest proportions of unhelpfulness were in the informal category. The functional types of helpful support were Attachment, Reliable Alliance, Social Integration and Guidance. The five themes for least helpful support were: Insensitivity, Absence of Anticipated Support, Poor Advice, Lack of Empathy and Systemic Hindrance. Conclusion: A public health approach, as exemplified by compassionate communities policies and practices, should be adopted to support the majority of bereaved people as much of this support is already provided in informal and other community settings by a range of people already involved in the everyday lives of those recently bereaved. This study has provided further support for the need to strengthen the compassionate communities approach, not only for end of life care for dying patients but also along the continuum of bereavement support. / Health Department of Western Australia.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychology / Donald A. Saucier / Research on contemporary sexism suggests that sexism has many different forms and they influence women differently. Evidence shows that women who experience subtle forms of sexism (e.g., modern and benevolent sexism) feel anxious and less competent, yet are less likely to identify these forms of sexism as prejudice against women. Because research suggests that social support is related to better psychological outcomes, we hypothesized that higher levels of perceived social support would be associated with better psychological outcomes among female participants who experienced sexism. In addition, receiving a supportive message after experiencing sexism would buffer the negative psychological effects of sexism, and thus the participants would perform better on a problem-solving task. However, the results only partially supported the hypotheses. Higher levels of perceived social support were indeed associated with better psychological outcomes, but participants who experienced sexism did not differ significantly from those who did not experience sexism regarding psychological outcomes. Further, receiving social support after experiencing sexism did not produce significant improvements on the problem-solving task, though participants who experienced modern sexism did report an increase in hostile affect if they did not receive social support. Possible reasons for the findings are discussed.

“The only true voyage…would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to see the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them sees, that each of them is…” (Proust, 2003, p. 343). This wonderful quote from Proust seems like a fitting place to begin because I wish to take you on an autoethnographic journey of discovery so that you can see for yourself what it was like for the participants and me as we found ourselves in strange and sometimes frightening territory. We realized that we were, sometimes unexpectedly, in positions of support to our friends or lovers who were uncomfortable with the sex they were assigned at birth. Most of us would describe ourselves as lesbian and, when our partners began to explore the possibility of sex reassignment, struggled with our established identity. My friend Christopher was the inspiration for this exploration. We were domestic partners before and during his early transition from female to male. Both Christopher and I were public figures in the small town in which we lived and our lives were somewhat on display. Christopher founded an organization called Trans Connect to provide support to those who present their gender in alternate ways and to provide education to service providers as well as to schools with regard to transgender issues and is well known in that town as well as in the larger gender diverse community as a trans man. Because of this, he has agreed to waive anonymity. The body of this work includes the entire texts of three papers I have written during the course of my studies as I navigated the path to this research. All of these papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals. I have used these papers to illustrate my autoethnographic journey toward the discovery of diverse gender presentations, to describe the state of knowledge in the discipline of nursing regarding this issue, and to demonstrate how autoethnography works. The centre of the work is the novel I have written based upon the stories the participants and I have shared with one another. The novel is written in everyday language and aims to show, rather than tell, the stories of ten women who love and support trans men. In many parts of the dissertation I have used dialogue, both internal as well as conversation among created characters, as a way to bring to life concepts under discussion. This is in keeping with an autoethnographic style. The dissertation is organized into three parts. Part one is a description of the process and methods I undertook in order to arrive at the novel. It consists of eight chapters that are placed in a more or less linear way, although the process was not at all linear, from the beginning of my exploration, to a discussion of the overall voyage. Part two consists of the novel, which is the story of experiences of women living with trans men during their transition or consideration of transition, disguised as having been experienced by fictional characters. Part three contains four chapters that are the analysis, a description of how I managed the information gathered, a discussion of evaluation for such a work as this, and some consideration as to the distribution and future for the study. My research questions were: • What is it like to be in loving relationship with an FTM during and after some of his transition? • What are the effects on the relationship for the female partner during this time? • What happens to the supportive partner’s ideas of her own identity? • Does the balance of power shift during this transition, and if so, how? The novel poignantly addresses all these questions. To be in a loving relationship with a trans man in the early stages of transition can be very challenging, and for the participants and me, often ended in a breakdown of the relationship. It can be a difficult time for women supporters because their adjustments and struggles with identity and sense of self and community are frequently overshadowed by the enormity, and for some, curiosity of sex reassignment. Often the relationship shifts from egalitarian to one that resembles more of a male-female binary where the male exerts power over his partner. Half of the participants in this study said they would not enter into another relationship with a trans man. That leaves the other half who said they would. The novel might serve as a help to those considering such a relationship as well as to those already walking the sometimes slippery, sometimes exhilarating road of partnership with a trans man. There are no easy answers to these questions. My aim is to reveal a glimpse into the lives of people about whom not much is known. / Graduate / 0569 / merryfeather@shaw.ca