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Gender Disparity in Studying Chemistry
(2021) Semerzier, Carlo
This applied dissertation was designed to determine if there is a difference between students’ gender, ethnicity, and age and their performance in General Chemistry I at a Christian University in Florida. Many scientific studies reveal the existence of a gender performance gap in chemistry: women mostly underperform men. Certain factors reported by researchers and cited in this study that might contribute to this gap include self-efficacy, math ability, prior conceptual knowledge in chemistry, attitude toward chemistry, spatial ability, discrimination, learning styles, and exam types. This quantitative research study used retrospective data from 113 students from eight sections (2016-2019) of a General Chemistry I course. Each participant was enrolled in one of the eight sections and was taught by the same instructor. The final course grade was the dependent numeric variable, and gender, ethnicity, and age were the independent categorical variables. For all statistical analyses, student's t-test and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used. Data analysis revealed a significant difference in the final course grade between gender who study General Chemistry 1 in higher education. There was no significant difference in final course grades between the ages categories: younger than 21 years old and 21 years old and older. Additionally, there was no significant difference in final course grades between ethnicities. The findings suggest that female students underperformed their male counterparts in general chemistry I in higher education, and the final course grade in General Chemistry I was not affected by students’ age and ethnicities.
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The Effects of Religiosity on Parent-Adolescent Communication about Sex and Sexuality: A Multiple Regression
(2017) Robinson, Marlon
Most studies on parental religiosity have focused on specific adolescent sexual behaviors (i.e. sexual initiation), family cohesion, greater supervision, and higher moral expectation while parent-adolescent communication about sexual matters remains understudied. The purpose of this study was to examine the relative influence of parent variables such as relation, education level, communication style (degree of openness, extent of problems), and religiosity (public, private) on sex communication and the age at which parents began conversations about sexual matters. A sample of 170 parents and caregivers from the Continental United States who had at least one adolescent 13-18 years old completed questions on demographics, religiosity, Parent/Adolescent Communication Scale (PACS), age of initial conversation about sexual matters, and The Sexual Communication Scale (SCS). Results indicated most parents initiated conversations about sexual matters by age 12. A multiple regression was used to investigate the influence of the parental variables on sex communication and the age at which parents began conversations about sexual matters. The results of the multiple regression analysis on the influence of the predictor variables on age of the initial conversation about sexual matters indicated that parental education level and degree of openness were negatively related to the age of initial parental conversation about sexual matters. A second multiple regression was conducted with the same predictor variables to determine if they had an influence on communication about sexual matters. These variables had no significant influence on conversations about sexual matters. In both multiple regression analyses, religiosity was not significantly associated with the age at which parents began conversations about sexual matters and sex communication in general. Discussion focused on implications for parents, educators, therapists, and future research.
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The Relationship Between Patients Experience of Nurse Caring and Patients’ Readiness to Transition from the Hospital to Home/Other Care Setting
(2022) Hernandez, Angelica C.
Quality nursing care has significant impact on patient outcomes. There are many factors that can affect quality nursing care like staffing shortages when the caring demands are high, which can affect patient care. Even though there are existing healthcare policies, evidence-based practices and incentives for healthcare settings who perform and meet the healthcare benchmarks, the United States healthcare performance is poor. The researcher aimed to conduct a study to understand the relationship between patients experience of nurse caring and patients’ readiness to transition from the hospital to home or other care settings. In addition, the predictors among the patients’ characteristics of patients’ readiness to transition from the hospital to home or other care settings were examined too. The research study was grounded in the Quality Caring Model (Duffy, 2018). Descriptive correlational research design was used in the study to examine the relationship between patients experience of nurse caring and patients’ readiness to transition from the hospital to home or other care settings. The study was conducted on one medical-surgical unit in an urban medical center in South Florida during a global pandemic. There were 103 participants who answered the demographic data survey, Caring Assessment Tool-V (CAT-V) and Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale-Adult Form (RHDS-Adult Form). Descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted using SPSS version 28. Based on data analysis, there was a significant relationship between patients experience of nurse caring and patients’ readiness to transition from the hospital to home or other care settings (p=<.05). Therefore, patients with positive experiences of nurse caring will be more likely to transition from the hospital to home or other care settings. In addition, among the patient characteristics, the marital status could predict patients’ readiness (knowledge, coping ability and expected support subscales) to transition from the hospital to home or other care settings. Therefore, paying attention to the value of support systems of the patients will determine the readiness of the patients to go home or to be discharged to other care settings (p=<.05). The limitations of the study were low generalizability, inability to recruit 135 participants and selection bias (threat to internal validity).
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Psychometric Properties and Descriptive Characteristics of Clients by Using Two Theory-based Assessments
(2014) Fan, Chia-Wei
In the field of occupational therapy, few studies have examined clients' experiences of rehabilitation from the perspectives of occupational participation and therapeutic communication (i.e., use of self). This dissertation explored these important aspects of therapy utilizing Kielhofner's (2008) Model of Human Occupation and Taylor's (2008) Intentional Relationship Model. The overarching purpose of this dissertation is two-fold. Firstly, it applies Rasch Analysis to examine the psychometric properties of two theory-based assessments- the Model of Human Occupation Screening Tool (MOHOST) and the Clinical Assessment of Modes (CAM). Secondly, this dissertation provides insight into the occupational and interpersonal characteristics of occupational therapy clients using these two assessments. Study I Methods Clinical information including the MOHOST, Health of Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) and Historical, Clinical, Risk-Management – 20 (HCR-20) were collected on 489 patients in low and medium secure units across six trusts in England. Seventy-eight occupational therapists participated in this study. The independent t-test and correlation analysis were employed to examine relationships between risk factors, symptom profiles, and occupational participation. The regression analysis was used to examine clients’ occupational participation changes over time. Results & Conclusions Clients in low security settings had higher occupational participation than clients in medium secure settings. Clients’ current risk factors and some items in HoNOS were associated with their participation. Findings in this study also indicated improvements in clients' occupational participation over time during the 2-year follow-up. These results can be used to inform occupational therapy pathways and protocols. Findings also confirmed that the MOHOST is a valid and reliable assessment for a forensic population. Study II Methods The CAM was administered to 110 neurological and orthopedic clients who were receiving rehabilitation services at the University of Illinois at Chicago Hospital and Health Care System (UICHHS). Thirty-eight therapists and students (including OT, PT and ST) participated in this study. Rasch analysis was used to examine the appropriateness of the rating scales and unidimensionality of the six modes in CAM. The internal consistency, targeting appropriateness and inter-rater reliability were analyzed as well. Results & Conclusions The Rasch analysis confirmed the item set in six modes meet the criteria of unidimensionality. The four version of CAM exhibited satisfactory construct validity and internal consistency. The CAM observational version demonstrated strong inter-rater reliability. Additionally, the CAM showed that clients and therapists differed in their perceptions on therapeutic communication modes. Findings from this study indicated that all four versions of the Clinical Assessment of Modes, a client and therapist self-report and observational measure derived from the Intentional Relationship Model, demonstrated strong validity and reliability.