Improving School Safety and Student Well-Being Through the Grant Writing Process

Description
This thesis is a continuation of the Humanities Lab “Narratives of School Shootings” class, which analyzed the impact of school violence on students and communities and examined the narratives and factors that exist relating to school shootings. A primary focus…

This thesis is a continuation of the Humanities Lab “Narratives of School Shootings” class, which analyzed the impact of school violence on students and communities and examined the narratives and factors that exist relating to school shootings. A primary focus of the class was youth activism and advocacy. In collaboration with the Greenlights Grant Initiative, which was created to combat violence in schools, Barrett students were partnered with school districts to assist in grant writing. Using projects from “Narratives of School Shootings”, the team deduced which grants best supported each school district and worked with the districts to write and submit them. These grants are used for proactive and reactive measures to keep student emotionally and physically sound. Through this process, Barrett students analyzed the intricacies of grant writing and government funding, as well as how those contribute to cycles of inequality.
Date Created
2024-05
Agent

Improving School Safety and Student Well-Being Through the Grant Writing Process

Description
This thesis is a continuation of the Humanities Lab “Narratives of School Shootings” class, which analyzed the impact of school violence on students and communities and examined the narratives and factors that exist relating to school shootings. A primary focus…

This thesis is a continuation of the Humanities Lab “Narratives of School Shootings” class, which analyzed the impact of school violence on students and communities and examined the narratives and factors that exist relating to school shootings. A primary focus of the class was youth activism and advocacy. In collaboration with the Greenlights Grant Initiative, which was created to combat violence in schools, Barrett students were partnered with school districts to assist in grant writing. Using projects from “Narratives of School Shootings”, the team deduced which grants best supported each school district and worked with the districts to write and submit them. These grants are used for proactive and reactive measures to keep student emotionally and physically sound. Through this process, Barrett students analyzed the intricacies of grant writing and government funding, as well as how those contribute to cycles of inequality.
Date Created
2024-05
Agent

Mixed-Methods Examination of Socioecological Factors Associated with Black Youths’ Sense of School Belonging

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Description
School belonging is critical to well-being among youth. However, scholarship on school belonging among Black youth has largely used deficit perspectives. Furthermore, there is a lack of social, historical, and culturally informed perspectives to examine factors that may promote or…

School belonging is critical to well-being among youth. However, scholarship on school belonging among Black youth has largely used deficit perspectives. Furthermore, there is a lack of social, historical, and culturally informed perspectives to examine factors that may promote or prohibit school belonging. Currently, there is limited research about how factors across socioecological levels impact school belonging among Black youth, and how this relates to behavioral health. In this mixed-method dissertation, I used phenomenological perspectives (i.e., teachers, Black youth) to examine factors that promote school belonging while accounting for manifestations of racism, then link this process to marijuana use. In Study 1, I used interviews with racially-ethnically diverse teachers (n=15) in Arizona to examine their perspective on factors which promote or prohibit a sense of school belonging. Additionally, I used Brown’s (2007) framework to identify culturally responsive strategies for promoting school belonging. Findings demonstrated that cultural humility, human connections, diverse literature, culturally aware assignments, and extracurricular involvement are critical factors that promote school belonging, while racism evidenced by racial discrimination, colorblindness, discipline disparities, and systemic racism created significant barriers to belonging. The culturally responsive strategies demonstrate unified efforts school systems use to support school belonging among Black youth. In Study 2, I employed cross-classified hierarchical linear modeling with data from the Arizona Youth Survey and structural indicators of schools and neighborhoods to examine the association between school belonging and lifetime time marijuana use among Black youth (n=6120). Findings demonstrated that school belonging was associated with decreased marijuana use, which significantly varied across schools and neighborhoods. Specifically, Black youth that attended schools with higher percentages of certified teachers and resided in majority White neighborhoods reported greater decrease in the association between school belonging and marijuana use, while higher neighborhood educational attainment was related to increase in the association between school belonging and marijuana use. Integration of the findings from these two studies demonstrate promotive factors for Black youths’ sense of school belonging, while acknowledging how racism is embedded within their daily environments. Structural changes addressing racism and supporting Black youth are needed across contexts.
Date Created
2023
Agent

Thesis Defense Picture.JPEG

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Description
School-based mental health services aim to foster positive academic and behavioral outcomes in students, however families often are not directly involved in implementing these practices. Family engagement in schools should be an essential focal point in school-based mental health services,…

School-based mental health services aim to foster positive academic and behavioral outcomes in students, however families often are not directly involved in implementing these practices. Family engagement in schools should be an essential focal point in school-based mental health services, as the partnership between families and schools has been shown to lead to positive student outcomes. This study used an evaluation tool known as the FAMSET to examine the PFS CARE intervention, a trauma-informed and culturally responsive intervention measuring family engagement in schools, which operates from an MTSS-framework. Specifically focusing on trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, administrators and staff members were asked a series of thirteen questions regarding the construct. This study aims to examine the construct of trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, to analyze administrator and staff differences, and to create a consolidated scale. Results showed that overall, the scales were efficient in capturing the construct of trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, and the scales should be analyzed separately for administrators and staff members; additionally, several questions should be omitted or reworded in the administrator survey in future administrations. Family engagement in schools is an understudied topic, and one with promising future implementations – this study is one of the first to evaluate the FAMSET tool. In future studies, this preliminary data can be used to create a validated scale, and it is recommended that future samples are larger and expand to other faculty positions as well.
Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Kulkarni_Spring_2023.pdf

Description
School-based mental health services aim to foster positive academic and behavioral outcomes in students, however families often are not directly involved in implementing these practices. Family engagement in schools should be an essential focal point in school-based mental health services,…

School-based mental health services aim to foster positive academic and behavioral outcomes in students, however families often are not directly involved in implementing these practices. Family engagement in schools should be an essential focal point in school-based mental health services, as the partnership between families and schools has been shown to lead to positive student outcomes. This study used an evaluation tool known as the FAMSET to examine the PFS CARE intervention, a trauma-informed and culturally responsive intervention measuring family engagement in schools, which operates from an MTSS-framework. Specifically focusing on trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, administrators and staff members were asked a series of thirteen questions regarding the construct. This study aims to examine the construct of trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, to analyze administrator and staff differences, and to create a consolidated scale. Results showed that overall, the scales were efficient in capturing the construct of trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, and the scales should be analyzed separately for administrators and staff members; additionally, several questions should be omitted or reworded in the administrator survey in future administrations. Family engagement in schools is an understudied topic, and one with promising future implementations – this study is one of the first to evaluate the FAMSET tool. In future studies, this preliminary data can be used to create a validated scale, and it is recommended that future samples are larger and expand to other faculty positions as well.
Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Evaluating an Intervention for Family Engagement in Schools through a Trauma-Informed and Culturally Responsive Lens

Description

School-based mental health services aim to foster positive academic and behavioral outcomes in students, however families often are not directly involved in implementing these practices. Family engagement in schools should be an essential focal point in school-based mental health services,…

School-based mental health services aim to foster positive academic and behavioral outcomes in students, however families often are not directly involved in implementing these practices. Family engagement in schools should be an essential focal point in school-based mental health services, as the partnership between families and schools has been shown to lead to positive student outcomes. This study used an evaluation tool known as the FAMSET to examine the PFS CARE intervention, a trauma-informed and culturally responsive intervention measuring family engagement in schools, which operates from an MTSS-framework. Specifically focusing on trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, administrators and staff members were asked a series of thirteen questions regarding the construct. This study aims to examine the construct of trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, to analyze administrator and staff differences, and to create a consolidated scale. Results showed that overall, the scales were efficient in capturing the construct of trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, and the scales should be analyzed separately for administrators and staff members; additionally, several questions should be omitted or reworded in the administrator survey in future administrations. Family engagement in schools is an understudied topic, and one with promising future implementations – this study is one of the first to evaluate the FAMSET tool. In future studies, this preliminary data can be used to create a validated scale, and it is recommended that future samples are larger and expand to other faculty positions as well.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Risk and Protective Factors in the Mental Health and Substance Use of Opportunity Youth

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Description
The transition from adolescence to young adulthood is an important developmental period, as youth experience rapid changes in many domains of their lives (Settersten & Ray, 2010). These transitions have been linked to both positive and negative turning points in…

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood is an important developmental period, as youth experience rapid changes in many domains of their lives (Settersten & Ray, 2010). These transitions have been linked to both positive and negative turning points in youths’ behavior and psychosocial wellbeing (Elder & Shanahan, 2007). Being disengaged from work and school, two important social institutions involved in the transition to adulthood (Havighurst, 1972), has been associated with poorer mental health and increases substance use; in this literature, there is still a dearth of research among youth in the United States of America and on the developmental implications of disengagement (Hilley et al., 2019). Therefore, this dissertation includes two studies to address these gaps with respect to mental health and substance use. Study 1 explores the heterogeneity in youths’ engagement and disengagement from work and school at two developmentally relevant time points across the transition to adulthood rather than impose a priori definitions of disengagement. Next, this study explores whether risk and protective factors predict membership in these subgroups. Finally, this study examines subgroup differences in problematic substance use concurrently and longitudinally. Study 2 investigates the cross-lagged associations between opportunity youth (or youth who are neither in school nor working) status and mental health over the transition to adulthood and explores whether familial social support and socioeconomic status mitigate or exacerbate the influence of opportunity youth status on mental health. Findings from these studies support the developmental nature of disengagement (despite its heterogeneity) and its connection with mental health and substance use, as well as suggest the need for additional research into risk and protective factors.
Date Created
2020
Agent

An Investigation of Gender Norm Resistance

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Description
The aim of this dissertation was to explore the construct and experiences of gender norm resistance (GNR) using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The purpose of Study 1 was to standardize and universalize what is already known about GNR by…

The aim of this dissertation was to explore the construct and experiences of gender norm resistance (GNR) using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The purpose of Study 1 was to standardize and universalize what is already known about GNR by creating a quantitative GNR measure. In so doing, I operationalized the implicit and explicit GNR framework described by Way and colleagues (2014). On a sample of adolescents (484 6th grade students; girls = 234; 10-13 years old, Mage = 11.44 years, SD = .56) the GNR measure was tested for gender differences and to explore how GNR aligns with and differs from other constructs related to gender identity and peer relations. The results supported the two-factor model (implicit and explicit forms of GNR), supported convergent and discriminant validity, and identified mean level differences depending on GNR form, gender, ethnic identity, and gender typicality. The purpose of Study 2 was to explore why young men resist gender norms, what motivates their acts of resistance, and how they understand those motives. I expected that implicit GNR would be motivated by the pursuit of authentic nonconformity and would involve an awareness of norms, feeling gender atypical, and authenticity. I expected that explicit GNR would be motivated by a dislike of gender norms, and that it would involve an awareness of, dislike of, and pressure to conform to gender norms. The results supported these expectations and indicated a subtype of GNR, activist GNR, defined by the desire to change gender norms to benefit the social group. Both studies rely on the resistance/accommodation framework to describe the balance of conformity and resistance as individuals navigate systems of power and oppression.
Date Created
2020
Agent

State-Level School Resource Officer Programs and Their Relationship to Student Demographics

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Description

As a result of recent public attention on school resource officers (SROs), concerns regarding the effects of police presence in America’s schools have emerged. Despite this, little is known about how SROs and SRO programs function within the U.S. This…

As a result of recent public attention on school resource officers (SROs), concerns regarding the effects of police presence in America’s schools have emerged. Despite this, little is known about how SROs and SRO programs function within the U.S. This project uses qualitative and quantitative methods to describe the six state-level programs that exist to regulate and fund SROs, as well as analyze the relationship between the schools that receive funding and their student demographics. Program elements were inconsistent among states, though some commonalities were found, such as the usage of the triad model, training sources, usage of a memorandum of understanding (MOU), and lack of regular evaluations or assessments. No relationship was found between student demographics and SRO-funded schools when compared to the overall state. The findings highlight a need for regulation and consistency among SRO programs, as well as more reliable publicly available information regarding these programs.

Date Created
2019-05
Agent

Relations between Race/Ethnicity and Peer Relationships during Early Adolescence

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Description
I investigated if race/ethnicity was associated with self- and peer-reported victimization and aggression in a sample of 5th through 8th graders (N = 383, 51% males) from two schools in which Hispanic/Latino students were the ethnic-racial majority. Self-reported victimization did…

I investigated if race/ethnicity was associated with self- and peer-reported victimization and aggression in a sample of 5th through 8th graders (N = 383, 51% males) from two schools in which Hispanic/Latino students were the ethnic-racial majority. Self-reported victimization did not differ between races. In contrast, White students often had higher peer-reported victimization relative to Hispanic and Multi-racial students. Few significant associations were found for aggression. There was some, albeit inconsistent, support for the idea that power imbalance based on race/ethnicity is shifted by numbers. In the future, researchers should conduct studies aimed verifying this notion and that are tailored toward answering questions of mechanism.
Date Created
2018-05
Agent
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