Research has documented that Episodic Heavy Drinking (EHD), defined as consuming four or more and five or more alcoholic drinks per drinking episode among females and males, respectively, is a prevalent risk behavior among undergraduate college students throughout the United States. Moreover, studies have shown that EHD is the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality among college students as unintentional injuries, sexual assaults, and unsafe sexual behaviors among this population have been linked to this risk behavior. Illicit substance use, although often portrayed as a separate risk behavior, is also associated with EHD. Nationally, the most frequently used illicit substance among college students is marijuana. Research suggests that college students who engage in EHD are several times more likely to be current marijuana users or to have used marijuana during their lifetime. Furthermore, EHD has been identified as a predictor of marijuana use and other substances, illicit or otherwise. With regard to this particular investigation, three specific risk behaviors among undergraduate students at Western Kentucky University (WKU) were the primary foci: 1) the prevalence of alcohol use and episodic heavy drinking (EHD), 2) the prevalence of illicit substance use, particularly marijuana use, and 3) concomitant EHD and marijuana use. In addition, WKU students' personal characteristics and certain behaviors were examined to determine their association with alcohol and marijuana use. This study was a secondary analysis of data gathered through the Western Kentucky Student Health Assessment (WKU-SHA 2002)administered during the fall semester of 2002. The WKU-SHA 2002 utilized the American College Health Association's (ACHA) National College Health Assessment (NCHA) survey instrument to investigate overall health status and health risk behaviors of WKU undergraduate students. It used a cross- ectional, random cluster sampling of 100, 200, 300 and 400 level undergraduate classes held on WKU's main campus. Results of this investigation were similar to findings reported in current literature. Seventy-three percent of respondents reported consuming alcohol during the last 30 days. Fortysix percent reported engaging in episodic heavy drinking the last time they "partied" and approximately 20% reported using marijuana during the last 30 days. Episodic heavy drinkers were more likely to report 30-day marijuana use than students who did not engage in EHD. Significant associations were reported between risk behaviors and respondents' characteristics. It is anticipated that the information provided through this investigation may be particularly useful to the planning of future health programs and services designed to address EHD and marijuana use among WKU undergraduate college students.

<p>Back pain has been reported to be the most common type of discomfort in all occupational groups. Studies have shown that dentists experience more neck, shoulder and back pain than practitioners in other occupational groups. This has caused an increase of social and economic costs of healthcare and increased frequency of sickness absenteeism in Western countries. About 72% of dentists experience back pain according to studies done in Western countries thus showing a very high prevalence among dentist. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of back pain among dentistry undergraduate students. As there have been reports of high prevalence of back pain among dentistry students in<br /> Western countries.</p>

Magister Scientiae (Physiotherapy) - MSc(Physio) / Back pain has been reported to be the most common type of discomfort in all occupational groups. Studies have shown that dentists experience more neck, shoulder and back pain than practitioners in other occupational groups. This has caused an increase of social and economic costs of healthcare and increased frequency of sickness absenteeism in Western countries. About 72% of dentists experience back pain according to studies done in Western countries thus showing a very high prevalence among dentist. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of back pain among dentistry undergraduate students. As there have been reports of high prevalence of back pain among dentistry students in Western countries. / South Africa

An analogue study examines the acquisition and generalization of problem identification and remedial plan skills following client-centered, school case consultation. Nine trained consultants interacted with 35 undergraduate female consultees in one of three intervention conditions. Conditions involved the consultants either viewing the same problem as consultees, not viewing the problem, or attention control. Consultees viewed ten minute video tapes of a problem student in a classroom, then provided written problem descriptions and remedial plans. They then received twenty minutes of consultation or control, and again wrote descriptions of the problem and remedial plans. The same procedure was repeated two day later. One week later, subjects viewed another video tape of a problem student, provided written problem descriptions and remedial plans, but received no interventions.

The Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale (SCBCS) is a brief measure of compassion, created in English and translated into Brazilian Portuguese. Nonetheless, to date, no study has assessed the psychometric evidence of its Spanish translation. This study examines the evidence of validity, reliability, and factorial invariance according to the gender of a Spanish version of the SCBCS. Participants included 273 Peruvian university students (50.9% women) with an average age of 21.23 years (SD = 3.24); divided into two groups of men and women to conduct the invariance factor analysis. Other measures of mindfulness, well-being, empathy, and anxiety were applied along with the SCBCS. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicated that a unifactorial model adjusted significantly to the data (χ2 = 12,127, df = 5, p =.033, χ2 /df = 2.42, CFI =.998, RMSEA =.072 [CI90%.019,.125]; SRMR =.030, WRMR =.551) and presented good reliability (α =.90 [95%.88–.92]; ω =.91). Moreover, correlations between the SCBCS and other measures of mindfulness (r =.53, p <.05, cognitive empathy (r = 55; p <.05), affective empathy (r =.56, p <.05), well-being (r =.55, p <.05), and anxiety (r = −.46; p <.05) supported the convergent and discriminant validity. Likewise, the multiple-group CFA supported the factorial invariance according to the gender of the SCBCS. Results indicate that the SCBCS possesses evidence of validity, reliability, and invariance between men and women for measuring compassion toward others in Peruvian undergraduate students. SCBCS is expected to be used by researchers, healthcare professionals, teachers, and others as a useful measure of compassion in college students.

Magister Scientiae (Physiotherapy) - MSc(Physio) / Clinical reasoning is the central aim of student health professionals’ education. However, educators still find it challenging to teach, and students still struggle to demonstrate clinical reasoning abilities. Various teaching strategies are used by educators to facilitate the development of clinical reasoning abilities, but it is unclear whether educators utilise robust theories to underpin their teaching strategies. Theories can assist with the conceptualisation, simplification and improvement of information. The aim of this study was to explore the use of theory to inform the teaching strategies which develop clinical reasoning in undergraduate health professional students.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Clinical reasoning is enigmatic; however, students need to learn how to do it, educators need to be able to develop it, and experts need to explain how they do it. Health professions educators have described clinical reasoning as a skill required for health professionals. Clinical reasoning has been used synonymously with terms such as clinical judgement, critical thinking and clinical decision-making. Broadly speaking, clinical reasoning refers to the thought and decision-making processes associated with clinical practice and particularly choosing a course of action for a patient. Possible strategies for developing clinical reasoning and the use of certain learning tasks in the development of clinical reasoning in undergraduate health professions students have been highlighted. However, there are still areas of research to consider.

Magister Commercii - MCom / In this thesis I explored the teaching of debt literacy, a sub-topic of Financial Literacy Education. To do this, I used an arts-based framework to experiment with teaching debt literacy using poetry. Prior to the main poetry intervention, I explored several arts-based approaches such as frozen scenes, image theatre and drama-based pedagogies but I eventually settled on using poetry. Poetry as an arts-based approach to research within the field of financial literacy education is the research design. These two poems are produced as knowledge artefacts that can be used in further research studies or even by current students as teaching aids.

Earning a college degree yields many benefits. In addition to an increased income, college degree earners generally have greater job satisfaction, make healthier life choices, are better communicators, and have greater social mobility. Even with all of these benefits, however, some colleges are seeing graduation rates as low as 32%. One of the greatest contributing factors affecting the dropout rate of undergraduate college students is poor academic performance in their courses. In this study, we sought to identify several academic resources, study behaviors, academic self-confidence scores, and demographic information to assess what types of behaviors and resources may lead to higher academic performance. There were 148 undergraduate student participants, out of 696 possible students (21.3%), from three sections of Introductory Psychology courses at Utah State University. They participated in a multi-phase survey to assess study habits, and resources that they used when preparing for their psychology course exams. Statistical analyses identified several significant differences between men and women, and between first generation and non-first-generation students. Women studied almost twice as much, compared to men, in terms of hours spent, and course content covered. Academically, first-generation students struggled in almost every way, compared to non-first-generation students. After identifying how the study behavior and resource variables influenced each other, we also identified which variables were the most influential on the students’ final course grades. We found that a student’s GPA (grade point average) was the most important factor, followed by their self-confidence in their academic abilities, followed by their class attendance, followed by how many hours they work outside of school. All of those variables likely affect a student’s final grade, and it is important that college students are informed about which study resources and behaviors they should utilize, to be as successful as possible.

abstract: Functions represented in the graphical register, as graphs in the Cartesian plane, are found throughout secondary and undergraduate mathematics courses. In the study of Calculus, specifically, graphs of functions are particularly prominent as a means of illustrating key concepts. Researchers have identified that some of the ways that students may interpret graphs are unconventional, which may impact their understanding of related mathematical content. While research has primarily focused on how students interpret points on graphs and students’ images related to graphs as a whole, details of how students interpret and reason with variables and expressions on graphs of functions have remained unclear. This dissertation reports a study characterizing undergraduate students’ interpretations of expressions in the graphical register with statements from Calculus, its association with their evaluations of these statements, its relation to the mathematical content of these statements, and its relation to their interpretations of points on graphs. To investigate students’ interpretations of expressions on graphs, I conducted 150-minute task-based clinical interviews with 13 undergraduate students who had completed Calculus I with a range of mathematical backgrounds. In the interviews, students were asked to evaluate propositional statements about functions related to key definitions and theorems of Calculus and were provided various graphs of functions to make their evaluations. The central findings from this study include the characteristics of four distinct interpretations of expressions on graphs that students used in this study. These interpretations of expressions on graphs I refer to as (1) nominal, (2) ordinal, (3) cardinal, and (4) magnitude. The findings from this study suggest that different contexts may evoke different graphical interpretations of expressions from the same student. Further, some interpretations were shown to be associated with students correctly evaluating some statements while others were associated with students incorrectly evaluating some statements. I report the characteristics of these interpretations of expressions in the graphical register and its relation to their evaluations of the statements, the mathematical content of the statements, and their interpretation of points. I also discuss the implications of these findings for teaching and directions for future research in this area. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Mathematics 2019