With the entrepreneurial milieu in Linnaeus University (Växjö), students are encouraged to get involved in entrepreneurial activities. The number of student entrepreneurs has been increasing recent years. However, there is a blank in the study of student entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial education system and the features of student entrepreneurs are the focus of the research about student entrepreneurs. At the same time, no sufficient study has been done about student entrepreneurs’ usage of the business support that could be offered to them. By studying student entrepreneurs’ situation, their relationship with support agencies, their selection of business support and the way they use the support, the research question ”how do student entrepreneurs use support agencies” will be answered by the end of this thesis.

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of parents of children with autism during the transition from preschool to school within an Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention (EIBI) program. Qualitative interviews within grounded theory framework were conducted to gain a better understanding about parents’ perceptions of the social supports they received during the transition period. Data collection involved semi-structural interviews with six families whose children completed EIBI program at St.Amant and were enrolled in school. Due to the small sample size, a metasynthesis of five qualitative studies about the transition experiences of families with children with autism was added. This metasynthesis provided additional information to the data collected from interviews in order to strengthen the trustworthiness of the current study. All data collected from the interviews were coded, categorized and analysed using a constant comparative method. Findings from both data collection components emphasize the importance of parents’ involvement in the transition process and suggest that an effective partnership between the home, the EIBI program and the school is a significant factor to a successful transition. The findings also highlight the need for strategic planning of the transition process that is family-focused and involves an active role of a facilitator, who can offer practical guidance and support to children and their families. Practical implications and recommendations for future research 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 / 2015-06-05 / 0569 / merryfeather@shaw.ca

ABSTRACT THE EFFECTS OF HOSPITAL UNIT NURSE LEADERS’ PERCEIVED FOLLOWER SUPPORT ON NURSING STAFF PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES by JOY BAILEY Hospital unit nurse leaders are increasingly expected to deliver high quality patient outcomes at less cost yet very little is known about how they accomplish these goals while meeting work force demands and the needs of the organization. Whereas the literature is replete with studies about the work environment of nurses in general, very little has been published that examines the work environment of unit nurse leaders even though, by virtue of their role, they are inextricably linked to both staff performance and patient outcomes and ultimately the success of hospital organizations. The purpose of this study was to examine nursing support relationships (unit nurse leaders’ perceived follower support (PFS), nursing staff perception of leader supportive supervision (SS) and unit nurse leaders’ perceived organizational support), unit nurse leaders’ work stressors (role conflict, workload and span of control) and nursing staff outcomes of work team cohesion (WTC), job satisfaction, absenteeism and turnover intent on the acute care hospital nursing unit. Thirty-two unit nurse leaders from nine urban hospitals, along with 397 of the staff they supervised were surveyed. Seventy-seven percent (n = 305) of the nursing staff were registered nurses; the remaining 23% (n = 92) were nursing assistants and unit secretaries. The average nurse leader’s span of control was 41staff members (SD=43.5; range: 24-135). Most nurse leaders were affiliated with academic medical centers. Results showed that leaders with higher levels of PFS were more likely to display higher levels of SS of their staff and that higher levels of SS were associated with greater WTC, higher staff job satisfaction and increased staff intent to remain with the organization. Supportive supervision mediated the relationship between PFS and staff work team cohesion, job satisfaction and turnover intent. Also the negative effects of nurse leader role conflict on SS weakened with higher PFS. This preliminary study lays the ground work for more expansive studies on supportive interactions between unit nurse leaders and their staff, with potential to inform nurse administrators about the importance of the unit leader/staff relationship and its influence on nursing staff performance outcomes and ultimately patient outcomes.

The purpose of this research is to explore how people make sense of the word feel in their communication across different social relationships and contexts. Assuming the use of the word feel is linked to the act of emotional expression, a secondary purpose is to examine how the perceived management of the word feel may be linked to well-being. Fifteen individual participants shared their perceptions about how they use the word feel over eight types of interpersonal relationships. Discourse analysis revealed that the function of the word feel was to self-disclose emotions or to inquire about them in others. The word feel emerged as a tool that can be wielded to achieve catharsis, intimacy, or social support while framing several subject positions within a discourse of emotional disclosure. When the word feel was reciprocated with others, participant perceptions showed how social status influenced how it was managed in relationships. In particular, the vulnerable disclosing parties were required to take risks in order to achieve the benefits of disclosure. Ruptures in the discourse occurred when participants who did not have opportunities to self-disclose experienced an unwanted emotional tension, an interest in receiving social support, or a drive to find closeness. These instances led to a use of the word feel outside of its emergent social rules. Finally, the beliefs of participants showed it was not just status that played a role in its management but gender as well. The findings show that although the deployment of feel requires judicious management of the risks inherent in emotional self-disclosure, the use of this can indicate the exchange of social resources known to have positive effects on well-being.

When romantic partners provide support to one another, their attempts are not always successful in relieving the distress of the support recipient. While unsuccessful support transactions are sometimes caused by insufficient skills on the caregiver’s part, research has also shown that certain individuals struggle to feel better regardless of the quality of support that they receive. The overall goal of the present set of studies was to examine how individuals who are inconsolable (i.e., who typically do not feel better when they receive support) impact the self-esteem and relationship satisfaction of their romantic partners, as well as the likelihood that their romantic partners will continue to provide support to them in the future. Study 1 showed that individuals who perceived their romantic partners to be more inconsolable were less likely to be satisfied with their romantic relationships, particularly if they were male, or high in rejection sensitivity. These individuals were also less likely to report engaging in actual support behaviours toward their romantic partners, and in contrast to the finding pertaining to relationship satisfaction, this result was stronger among individuals low in rejection sensitivity. Study 2 showed that when individuals imagined themselves as the support provider in a vignette where the support recipient was inconsolable, they predicted that they would experience lower state self-esteem and romantic relationship satisfaction, and that they would be less likely to provide the partner with support in the future. Conversely, in Study 3 participants who recalled and wrote about a time in which their romantic partner was inconsolable did not predict providing their partners with less support in the future, however, they did report lower state self-esteem, and among individuals who were high in rejection sensitivity, lower relationship satisfaction. Overall, these findings suggest that inconsolable individuals negatively impact the self-esteem and romantic relationship satisfaction of their partners, particularly if their partners are high in rejection sensitivity. Further, inconsolable individuals may also be at risk for receiving less support over time.

This critical ethnographic study explores couples experiences of spousal support during the transition to first-time parenthood and the organization of paid and family work. How first-time parents manage paid and family work is central to the experience of support and critical to an ongoing nurturing relationship. Seven couples were selected from the principal study, Mobilizing Intergenerational Social Support during the Transition to Parenthood, and were interviewed prior to the birth and again when infants were nine months to one year of age. On the whole, first-time parents reported positive support experiences with their spouses. Nonsupport occurred most often when parents were required to manage the interface between family work and paid or student work. The exchange of support between first-time parents may be strengthened by offering flexible work options and enhanced access to and provisions in parental leave policies. Prenatal education highlighting the common concerns of first-time parents may further strengthen support.

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Employee support is a key factor in creating more welcoming and accepting work environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in sport. As such, organizations need to understand what factors encourage employees to display attitudes and behaviors that support inclusion. Thus, the purpose of my dissertation was to advance the literature by examining antecedents and outcomes related to employee support for LGBT inclusion and equality in the workplace. In Study 1, I provide LGBT employees the opportunity to share their perceptions of support for LGBT inclusion, particularly how the attitudes and behaviors of their coworkers foster or inhibit acceptance in the workplace. Results indicate that various micro-level (demographics, personality, experiences with LGBT individuals) and meso-level factors (organizational culture for diversity, support of relevant others) influenced the level of employee support for LGBT inclusive policies. Furthermore, power meaningfully influenced these dynamics, such that individuals in low status positions within the athletic department were hesitant to show support for LGBT equality. However, those who did champion LGBT inclusive initiatives successfully modeled supportive behaviors and positive attitudes toward LGBT individuals, vocally opposed discriminatory treatment, and provided sexual minorities with a safe space at work. In Study 2, I develop a multilevel model that addresses factors at the macro-level (i.e., mass media, inclusive community), meso-level (i.e., sexual orientation diversity, presence of other allies), and micro-level (i.e., personality, personal values, attitudes toward LGBT individuals, contact with LGBT individuals) that influence ally support. In addition, I differentiate between attitudinal and behavioral support for LGBT equality, and discuss various factors that may encourage allies to engage in more active ally behaviors. In Study 3, I drew from the multilevel model to examine how micro-, meso-, and macro-level factors influence attitudinal support for sexual LGBT inclusion among sport employees, and determine if these attitudes affect behavioral support for LGBT inclusion in the workplace. The results from the study offered support that multilevel factors relate to support for LGBT inclusion. Specifically, sex, supervisor support, and typed of media consumed were related to attitudinal support for LGBT inclusion, and these attitudes positively associated with championing behaviors.

Patients with severe back deformities can greatly benefit from customized medical seating. Customized medical seating is made by taking measurements of each individual patient and making the seat as per these measurements. The current measuring systems employed by the industry are limited to use in clinics which are generally located only in major population centres. Patients living in remote areas are severely affected by this as the clinics could be far away and inaccessible for these patients. To provide service of customized medical seating requires a new measurement system which is portable so that the system could be transported to the patients in remote areas. The requirements for a new measurement system are analysed to suite the needs of Equipment Technology Services of the Cerebral Palsy League of Queensland. Design for a new measurement system was conceptualised by reviewing systems and technologies in various scientific disciplines. Design for a new system was finalised by optimizing each individual component. The final approach was validated by measuring difficult models and repeating the process to check for process variances. This system has now been adopted for clinical evaluation by ETS Suggestions have been made for further improvements in this new measurement approach.