This research explored the self-concept of Chicanas in terms of their lived experiences and how those experiences influenced the shaping of their identity. It examined the multiple labels Chicanas use to self-identify and the context or situations in which they use specific labels. Moreover, it took into account the influence...
Recent demographic studies have revealed a greater diversity in settlement patterns among Mexican immigrant families resulting in rapidly climbing populations of immigrants in new areas of the country, particularly in rural areas, while growth in established destinations has slowed. Host communities play an important role in families' acculturation processes and...
The purpose of the study is to explore the life experiences, identities, and self-esteem of a group of Mexican women who attend Even Start, a family literacy program. The study also focuses on the effect that the program has on the women's self-identities. I chose qualitative research considering I was...
This qualitative narrative inquiry study explored the experiences and perspectives of five Asian American females who have sought presidencies and/or vice presidencies in community colleges. All five of the participants are currently either a president or vice president in community colleges. This study found nine themes that capture the barriers...
This thesis presents the steps that were taken to develop thematic findings using data from a qualitative study. Using a grounded approach, the study focused on qualitatively exploring Mexican origin caregivers' conceptualizations of elder caregiving in terms of role functioning, social norms, cultural beliefs, and familial obligations. Data collected from...
One of the largely undetected and untreated health conditions affecting the Latino population in the United States is depression. Although the onset of depression can be influenced by a variety of factors that differ among individuals, Latinos in the United States are subject to certain cultural-specific social and environmental stresses...
In this thesis, I examine Johan Galtung’s theory of violence and discuss how his concepts of cultural and structural violence helps explain the problem of direct violence among Mexican American youth. I argue that cultural violence, mainly dominant narratives of colonialism and masculinity, cause some Mexican American youth to act...
Men are frequently left out of the picture in the study of family planning and sexual risk behavior. This approach means few programs and policies address men's family planning and sexual health issues. There is also a lack of understanding of the role fatherhood plays in men's development and in...
In the contemporary United States, the process of "coming out of the closet," or public disclosure of one's non-normative sexual orientation or gender identity, is ongoing and performative. Particularly within the context of dominant contemporary U.S. society, popular media favors a hegemonic set of defining characteristics, which thereby forces the...
This thesis describes how heteropatriarchal, settler colonialism impacted Indigenous communities' systems in power and control, particularly with the American Indian Movement during the 1960s-1970s. Further, the gendered divides this created within the American Indian Movement are described. The murder of Anna Mae Aquash is revisited as an act of gendered...
The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which an Immersion Bilingual Mathematics Institute (IBMI) can affect the mathematics achievement of entering seventh grade students of Mexican-American heritage. Mathematics achievement was defined as
mathematics skills measured by the Mathematics Computation and Mathematics Concepts and Applications tests of...
The purpose of this cross-cultural study is to improve the understanding of the educational experiences of immigrant students who leave postsecondary education prior to completion of a program in two traditionally immigrant-magnet countries. This research focuses on Bangladeshi immigrants in the United Kingdom and Mexican immigrants in the United States,...
This thesis is an arrangement of essays, poems, and journal entries expressing and
exploring experiences from the author's six years in a medium security women's
prison. They are collected around the themes of longing and grief, of despair, of
survival, of joy, and of the complexity of homecoming.
Previous reports on the state of the Latino/a-focused mental health literature suggest that the quantity of Latino/a-focused articles within the mental health field continued to be disproportionate to the growing percentage of Latino/as in the United States (Liang, Salcedo, Rivera, & Lopez, 2009). As such, Latino/a mental health experiences, needs,...
The environmental movement needs people from communities of color and the differing perspectives they provide. Latinas/os are one of the largest communities of color in the US, and their numbers continue to grow. However, mainstream environmental organizations have failed to engage this community in authentic ways. The lack of meaningful...
Academic achievement of adolescent children is directly associated with their success in adulthood. Little is known, however, regarding how adolescents in immigrant families academically grow over time and what factors influence the trajectories. Drawing on the National Educational Longitudinal Survey 1988 (NELS: 88), this study aimed to: 1) identify the...
This research examines women's magazine editors' perspectives of the relationship between editorial and advertising content in women's magazines. It specifically investigates how this relationship affects both general editorial content and more specifically, social topic stories. Mainstream women's beauty/fashion magazine editors—including editors-in-chief—were queried as to the nature of these relationships. Interviews...
The purpose of this dissertation is twofold; to review existing literature regarding the process of international student transition to the United States and to specifically increase the understanding of the experiences of a defined international student population through an original grounded theory study. Specifically, the study describes experiences of South...
In recent years, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPI) have become one of the fastest-growing racial groups within the United States, increasing by 40% between 2000 and 2010, and expected to nearly double in population size by 2030 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012; Empowering Pacific Islander Communities & Asian Americans Advancing...
Most aging individuals prefer to remain in a self-determined home environment, and generally aging adults want to remain in the same home or same community. The benefits of remaining in a self-determined private home environment while aging have been established. Because individuals present a diversity of needs, it takes interdisciplinary...
The purpose of this study was to describe Iranian immigrant
women's knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards breast cancer,
and their breast cancer screening behaviors. Specifically, this
research examined the predictors of age-specific breast cancer
screening participation among this population. The participants in
this study consisted (n=34 1) of self-identified first...
This research focused on the experiences of 15 low income Mexican women immigrants participating in MAS and Superando, two family literacy programs at the center of these women's sociocultural change. This research sought to understand the extent to which participation in these two programs empowers women to create change in...
Decreasing mortality rates and increasing life
expectancy are contributing factors in a trend currently
referred to as the "graying" of America. Some members of
this aging population will require caregiving support from
their families. Because women tend to outlive men, adult
daughters generally assume this important role for their
widowed...
Throughout society, many believe women are not succeeding professionally because of the institutional barriers created by men in the American workforce. However, women may be more competitive with other women than with men, especially when limited job positions are the goal. Competitiveness among women can be explained by a phenomenon...
White women’s experiences with major institutions, the church included, often are generalized to other women’s experiences, much like how the experience of men in often represented as the experience of all humankind. In 2001 Elaine Howard Ecklund studied white lay women in the Catholic Church and explored two questions: What...
Urban African American adolescents exhibit high levels of risk behavior, disproportionately high rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and are at risk for acquiring Human Immunodefiency Virus (HIV). To date, interventions that address the high rates of STIs in this population demonstrate only moderate efficacy. As researchers strive to develop...
This thesis explores the gendered histories of slavery through the concept of haunting in two neo-slave narrative novels: Toni Morrison’s A Mercy and Octavia Butler’s Kindred. I offer readings of these texts through slavery’s geographic and temporal implications, in order to argue that the logics of antiblackness remain a fundamental...