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This study examines the lived experience of the perinatal population to understand how they can be supported from the lens of different ecological systems and what counselors can do to better serve people with uteruses during their perinatal experience. Furthermore, this study aims to utilize an inclusive framework for capturing the perinatal experience of people with uteruses and to explore barriers and facilitators to care through an ecological systems framework. Fifteen participants who have experienced infertility, conception, pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, stillbirth, and postpartum were recruited through various means throughout the United States. Thematic analysis was used, with semi-structured interviews and photovoice, to gather and analyze participant narratives through oral and visual means in two phases. The first phase resulted in eight themes: (1) social and cultural influences, (2) navigating transitions and changes, (3) support networks and resources, (4) discrimination and stigma, (5) advocacy and empowerment, (6) mental health and well-being, (7) interactions with medical systems, and (8) impact of systems and policies. The themes identified in phase two were: (1) meaning making, (2) the emotional impact of perinatal experiences, (3) navigating roles and identities, (4) pressure and expectations, (5) advocacy and empowerment, (6) social support and community, (7) prevalence of infertility and miscarriage, and (8) challenges in healthcare. Implications of this study indicate a need for collaborative, interdisciplinary communication among providers interacting with the perinatal population and perinatal mental health competency training. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

While severe mental illness (SMI) is extensively studied, less attention focuses on the relationship between people with SMI and their families and the impact this may have on treatment. Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory conceptualized the treatment and recovery of people with SMI and their families. This study proposes that if family members getting social support contribute to a person's treatment plan, the individual's treatment outcome will improve rather than the individual enduring the treatment process individually. By applying ecological systems theory, mental health professionals and policymakers can better grasp the systemic nature of individuals, their family members, and surrounding external circumstances. Future research implications and recommendations aim to increase knowledge and awareness of family involvement during SMI treatment approaches.

This study utilizes an intersectional ecological systems theory to explore social support network formation amongst Black women cancer patients and survivors though the use of critical ethnography. Critical ethnography is employed to discover the lived experiences of this demographic as it impacts the unique needs they require in a culturally responsive support program. Black emancipatory action research is utilized as a framework to propose an intervention aimed at improving the mental well-being and increasing the social support experienced by this demographic. Results indicate that shared community reflective of their cultural experience, an open conduit of information, and kinship with individuals who have shared a similar burden of critical illness, are key elements necessary in providing a culturally responsive intervention.

The purpose of this quantitative, predictive correlational study is to determine if school climate (SC) factors can accurately predict teachers' self-efficacy (TSE) in Oregon public schools. Using social cognitive theory and ecological systems theory as theoretical frameworks for this study, the importance of this research includes, adding Oregon data to the body of knowledge, narrowing the research gap, and a better understanding of SC and TSE that may be applied to improving a school’s climate, school planning, increasing TSE, and retaining teachers. The sample for this study were Oregon public school teachers, 69 of which participated in the study. Two instrumentations were used to collect data, School Climate Index and Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale surveys. The instrumentations were distributed to the teachers by the districts’ superintendents using email. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the collected data. Although SC factors’ collegial leadership, teacher professionalism, and academic press were not significantly correlated to TSE, community engagement was significantly correlated. The statistics show that together, the combined SC factors were significantly correlated to TSE. In conclusion, this study replicated previous studies examining the relationship between SC and TSE and that more research is needed to narrow the research gap. Limitations to this study include improving sample size and diversity. A few recommendations for future research are replicating this study in another state, using different instruments, and examining a reverse relationship to see if SC can be predicted by TSE factors.

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to describe the experiences of African American males who graduated from faith-based schools in Virginia. At this stage in the research, faith-based schools will be generally defined as educational institutions that are “guided by missions that are informed and motivated by their faith convictions”. The theory guiding this study is Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory as it explores four environmental levels and how they each uniquely impact the development of an individual. The central question for this research is What are the experiences of African American males who graduated from faith-based private K-12 schools or high schools in Virginia? The participants included African American males who attended a faith-based private school from at minimum grades 10-12 and graduated from said school. Data was collected using face-to-face or online interviews, online focus groups, and reflective journal. As per Moustakas’ modified approach the data analysis will be conducted through coding, peer review, and enriched description. This research sought to reveal relevant information that can be utilized by educators and administrators in both private and public schools to improve the academic achievement of African American males. The experiences shared by the participants from this study will prove to be relevant to parents of African American males as they make educational decisions for their children by providing insight into their viewpoints of faith-based private schools.

The purpose of this study was to understand how faculty and staff at Catholic institutions navigated interfaith in light of the Catholic mission. It advances our understanding of the efforts of faculty and staff toward the integration of interfaith into their work. The theoretical framework of ecological systems theory was used to contextualize and analyze the data from multiple environmental perspectives related to culture, programming, and individual integration of interfaith. This study employed qualitative content analysis (Krippendorff, 2019) and a priori structural coding (Saldaña, 2016) to explore a secondary data set of interview transcripts from faculty and staff within four Catholic colleges and universities originally collected as part of the qualitative case study component of the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey. The four key findings of this study are: 1) faculty and staff at Catholic institutions rely on Catholic Church authority (i.e., documents from Vatican II) to justify interfaith engagement on campus, 2) faculty and staff organizationally locate responsibility for interfaith externally, 3) faculty and staff integrate interfaith work into their individual ministry in a cyclical manner, and 4) time plays an important role in creating environments conducive to interfaith engagement. These findings are relevant to research because they advance the use of ecological systems theory into the exploration of interfaith on Catholic campus environments. Furthermore, the findings revealed that individual programmatic efforts, i.e., interfaith dialogue, cannot be utilized in isolation to promote pluralism. Rather, a demonstration and acknowledgement of the successes and challenges related to interfaith across multiple environments should be embraced on campus. The findings of this study provide context and implications for faculty, staff, and leaders on Catholic campuses who wish to develop intentionally inclusive climates toward worldview minority students, educate Catholic students on the necessity of interfaith work, and combat politically and socially divisive environments.

Gender Dysphoria was introduced as a new mental health diagnosis in the Diagnostic Statistics Manual-5 (DSM-5) as of 2013 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). As a result of this addition and the lack of attention to identities other than transgender, there is a paucity of data related to the lived experience of the broader category of other than cisgender inmates. An estimated an approximate number of 1.4 million transgender individuals in the United States and other than cisgender individuals make up between 25-35% of the transgender population (Herman et al., 2016; Webb et al., 2016). Additionally, 16% of gender minorities have reported spending time incarcerated as opposed to only 3% of the general population (Bourcicot & Woofter, 2016). Counselors should expect to work with other than cisgender clients with Gender Dysphoria, in a culturally competent manner, as issues of gender are viewed as universal (American Counseling Association, 2014; Dupkoski, 2012). The primary researcher conducted a one-time, semi-structured interview with three formerly incarcerated individuals who identified as other than cisgender. The resulting primary themes dealt with issues of safety, human dignity, conformity to gender norms, intersecting gender identity and treatment, and experiences with law enforcement/facility staff. Participants’ lived experiences and resulting themes identified in this study allowed the researcher to identify several implications to help counselors work in a more culturally competent manner, assist counselor educators in better preparing future counselors to work with this population, and inform future researchers looking to conduct studies within a correctional setting. Keywords: Gender Dysphoria, prison, Ecological Systems Theory, other than cisgender

Abstract: One of the most important responsibilities parents take on is deciding where their children will be schooled. Alberta offers the most choices of schooling types in Canada, including public, separate, charter, private and homeschooling (Bosetti & Gereluk, 2016). Parents engage in information seeking to make school choice decisions for their kindergarten- and elementary-aged children. Researchers have looked at why parents choose particular types of schooling, but how parents make school choice decisions is less well-known. I interviewed 10 parents with elementary school-aged children to gain insights into what information they sought when choosing their children’s schools. The purpose of my qualitative case study was to explore: 1. What information do parents obtain about school choice? 2. From where and from whom do parents derive information about school choice? 3. How do parents use this information in making school choice decisions for their children? I used Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1979) as a theoretical framework. This framework guided my analysis of sixteen interview transcripts. I structured the information sources and types used by parents into four themes that matched with Bronfenbrenner’s four systems of influence: emotional factors/microsystem; social factors/mesosystem; material factors/exosystem; and cultural factors/macrosystem. As the decision makers, parents were at the center of these four spheres of influence. Parents were active information seekers. They filtered information through their family values when making decisions. Emotional information was the most influential force on parental decision making. These findings are important for educational stakeholders, who want to ensure that information is accessible by and useful to parents.

The purpose of this applied study was to further understand the problem of teachers’ perceptions of school climate in low income schools and to formulate a solution to address the problem using both qualitative and quantitative data gathered from teachers. The problem was that factors outside of the scope of control of teachers and administrators have the potential to affect school climate because teachers use multiple factors to gather and make a decision on their perception of their building’s school climate, and educators and researchers must understand these multiple facets in order to suggest improvement. In Chapter One, the researcher provided the reader with a background of school climate, the relevance of the study, proposed research questions, and important definitions to understand when working with school climate. This research aimed to answer the central question of how to improve school climate at Yellow Lane Elementary School, a low income school. Sub-questions included factors that teachers use to determine school climate, proposed solutions by the teachers, and the teachers’ perception of the impact of the student population has on the school climate. Chapter Two provided a theoretical framework for the research and summarized and analyzed the current literature. Chapter Three proposed the research design for this applied study that includes quantitative survey administration and qualitative data collection of interviews and focus groups. Chapter Four analyzed and described the results of the data gathered from the qualitative and quantitative methods. Chapter Five presented a solution to address the problem of low school climate at low income schools.

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of rural veteran middle school teachers in Tennessee with low job satisfaction. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (EST) was the theoretical framework guiding this study. EST is composed of five environmental systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. This study included participation from 10 veteran teachers with 5 or more years of experience who demonstrated low job satisfaction in Tennessee according to the results of a questionnaire given prior to conducting the study. The central research question guiding this study was, What are veteran middle school teachers’ perceptions of job satisfaction as a lived experience in rural Tennessee? The four subquestions were designed to investigate how teacher workload, collegial experience, administrative leadership and support, and student behavior impact job satisfaction. Data for this study were collected through individual interviews, an online focus group interview, and a reflective journal, and produced four major themes: (a) unrealistic expectations, (b) middle school environment, (c) students, and (d) middle school teacher challenges. The findings revealed participants’ perceived administrators and policy makers had unrealistic expectations on their teachers due to being disconnected from their teachers. The findings also indicated participants’ environment at the middle school level was challenging as they dealt with the basic needs of students before educating them. Participants expressed that collegial support was vital to the profession and that they loved teaching but had negative perceptions about the challenges they often encounter on the job.

ABSTRACT When the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania revised its child protective services law (CPSL) in 2014 in response to highly publicized child abuse incidents, the impact on public child welfare agencies was often negative. The child welfare system faced increased referrals without enough staff to handle the workload and numerous caseworkers began to leave their jobs. Caseworker turnover has a negative impact on children and families because excessive workloads dilutes the quality of services clients receive. Turnover may have lifelong implications for children in the child welfare system, such as delaying family reunifications, adoptions, or other permanency options. Changes in the CPSL increased the number of mandated reporters required to make referrals of suspected abuse, and expanded definitions for injuries defined as child abuse and perpetrators, which increased the number child abuse investigations. With a goal of identifying factors contributing to caseworker turnover, this study examined survey responses from a secondary data sample from 511 child welfare caseworkers in Pennsylvania. Findings indicated that caseworkers want to stay in their jobs because of feelings of personal accomplishment, positive co-worker support, positive client relationships, and positive supervisory support. Reasons to want to leave the job included low salaries, high workloads, and emotional demands. Implications from an ecological systems analysis of the child welfare system suggest that regulations requiring matching county funds may be contributing to wide differences in salaries, a primary reason for turnover. The study recommended that legislative changes are needed to address systemic barriers that influence low salaries and are leading to excessive workloads that increase caseworker turnover. Key words: caseworker turnover, job retention, child welfare, supervision, management, ecological systems theory, Sandusky

Mental health and risky health behaviors issues are a growing concern among Asian American adolescents in the United States. Prior studies have shown that Asian American adolescents are at greater risk for depressive symptoms and substance use, particularly when they face difficulties adjusting to a new or unwelcoming culture. Research has indicated that social cohesion, sense of belonging, and community safety are significant predictors for the level of immigrant adolescents’ depressive symptoms. A number of studies have found that depressive symptoms have a strong influence on substance use among Asian American adolescents. Therefore, the pathway of social cohesion, a sense of belonging, community safety, depressive symptoms, and substance use needs attention based on an understanding of unique Asian culture.This study tested the influence of social cohesion, sense of belonging, and community safety on depressive symptoms and substance use. A systematic scoping review of the impact of acculturation on depressive symptoms and substance use. And a hierarchical multiple linear regression was performed to examine the regression effect in the relationship of social cohesion and community safety to depressive symptoms. Lastly, structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to examine in the relationship of social cohesion, sense of belonging, and community safety to substance use mediated by depressive symptoms among Asian American adolescents.A systematic scoping review results showed that Asian American adolescents reported high depressive symptoms but low substance use. Family, school, peer relationships, and neighborhood and community environments were strong acculturation related protective factors for depressive symptoms and substance use. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis research result showed that higher social cohesion and community safety level is statistically significantly associated with Asian American adolescents’ depressive symptoms. Finally, the SEM analysis research result examined that social cohesion strongly negatively influences Asian American adolescents’ depressive symptoms and substance use. The findings in this study highlight that social cohesion, sense of belonging, and community safety are important factors in reducing mental health problems and risky health behaviors among the Asian American adolescent population. Furthermore, the current research contributes to ongoing policy, practice, and research discussions about mental health and behavioral health for Asian American adolescent populations. The significant impact of acculturation, other cultural and immigration influences, social cohesion, sense of belonging, and community safety on psychosocial behaviors in Asian American adolescent populations reflects the importance of addressing these issues in prevention and intervention efforts. Finally, these findings shed light on how to develop effective immigration and acculturation strategies from a positive perspective by treating Asian American adolescents as a new citizen group and by reducing discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity in the United States.

The purpose of this research was to study identity performance among undergraduate Muslim international women on college campuses in the U.S. Identity performance was defined as the way in which these women acted, engaged, interacted, behaved, and situated themselves in their various environments (Goffman, 1959). The conceptual framework for the study was Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory (1979) that identifies five environmental systems in which an individual interacts (microsystems, mesosystems, ecosystems, macrosystems, and chronosystems). This study focused on identity performance in microsystems. Narrative inquiry, a qualitative methodological approach, was utilized to pursue two research questions: (1) how do undergraduate Muslim international women describe their experiences of identity performance inside college environments; and (2) how do undergraduate Muslim international women describe their experiences of identity performance outside college environments? Two in-person interviews were conducted with eight participants representing six countries (Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia). Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and data were analyzed with four iterations of coding (narrative coding, refining narrative coding, pattern coding, theming the data) (Saldaña, 2015). Five themes emerged: Muslim identity performance in home country, Muslim identity performance and family, Muslim international identity consciousness, religious engagement on campus, and understandings of new Muslim international identity. The stories shared revealed that identity performance was a complex process; it was ever changing and evolving as Muslim international women navigated their way from a religiously homogeneous environment in the home country to a heterogeneous environment within the U.S. Their microsystems and interactions with various environments influenced their performances of their various identities. These influences were also related to contextual conformity, psychological awareness, agency, resilience, persistence, positivity and appreciation of their experiences in the ever-changing environments. The study has implications for faculty and university administrators who are seeking to create inclusive and encouraging academic and social environments. Findings also have implications for future research on identity performance, contextual conformity, and experiences of Muslim international students.

Refugee youth face several sexual health challenges, and research investigating contributing factors has primarily focused on identifying contextual barriers. However, it is also important to investigate protective factors, as well as how both risk and protective factors work together across contexts. The present study explored facilitators and barriers to refugee youth sexual health and how they combine to predict behavior using thematic text analysis and narrative analysis of twelve in-depth interviews with female refugees ages 18-24. Findings revealed four primary themes: sex/relationship restrictions, judgment/disapproval, support, and youth reactions. The first three factors were present across multiple ecological levels, such as parents, peers, and culture. Furthermore, these contextual factors were related to one another, such that youth who violate sociocultural sex/relationship restrictions experience actual or anticipated judgment from others, which leads to fear, embarrassment, and risky sexual behavior. These findings have important implications for sexual health education interventions with refugee youth.

This study used a correlational, explanatory, longitudinal design with quantitative methods to predict the percentage of students who will score at or above Goal. Archival data from Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) Math and Reading scores from 2011, 2012, and 2013 in conjunction with five-year estimates of the U.S. Census data were examined. The study focused on 21 out-of-school demographic variables, grouped by family human capital and community social capital, to predict the percentage of students in Grade 6 who scored at or above Goal, the district level, on the CMT. The study examined 130 school districts in Connecticut who took the CMT in Grades 6 during the 2011, 2012, and 2013 testing cycles. Through simultaneous and hierarchical linear regression, between 70.7% and 73.7% of the variance in district, Grade 6 Math CMT scores were accounted for by out-of-school factors and between 64.6% and 72.7% of the variance in district, Grade 6 Reading CMT scores were accounted for by out-of-school factors. Two community variables, families earning under $35,000 per year and percentage of individuals 25 and older with a high school diploma, were identified as statistically significant predictors for all testing years. Using a predictive algorithm, the percentage of students performing at or above Goal on the Grade 6 2011, 2012, and 2013 CMT Mathematics was accurately predicted in 72.4% of Connecticut districts and in 68.2% of Connecticut districts in Reading. These findings strongly suggest that standardized tests are not assessing student achievement; they are more accurately assessing family and community demographic factors. This study calls into question the use of federal and state mandated standardized test scores, like the CMT, to drive school reform decisions. Key words: high-stakes testing, school reform, Connecticut Mastery Test, socioeconomic status, Ecological Systems Theory, human family capital, community social capital, trauma, toxic stress

Child sexual abuse is a prevalent problem in the United States and is associated with revictimization: a victimization episode perpetrated by a different individual and occurring subsequent to initial abuse experiences (Barnes, Noll, Putnam, & Trickett, 2009). While evidence shows that 20-39% of sexual abuse victims report revictimization within childhood or adolescence, much of the research to date has focused on its occurrence in adulthood. Thus, there is a limited understanding of the pathways to revictimization and its associated outcomes for youth. The present study examined predictors of sexual revictimization within childhood and adolescence using ecological theory, which includes individual, family, and community-level factors. Records of 1,915 youth presenting to a Child Advocacy Center (CAC) between 2002 and 2014 were reviewed to identify individual, familial, and community factors as well as initial abuse and investigation characteristics that are associated with risk for subsequent victimization. Results showed that 11.1% of youth experienced sexual revictimization prior to reaching adulthood and that the risk for subsequent abuse was predicted by factors across levels of the social ecological model. At the individual level, younger children, girls, and youth with an identified mental health problem were most likely to experience revictimization. Aspects of the youth’s immediate context that increased vulnerability for revictimization included the presence of a non-caregiving adult in the home and domestic violence in the family. Finally, the collective educational attainment of one’s neighborhood, measured as the proportion of adults with a high school diploma or GED, seemed to protect youth from revictimization. Findings from this study provide valuable information for CACs, including patterns of revictimization as well as static and dynamic risk factors that may contribute to repeat victimizations. The implications for assessing and monitoring youth following discovery of sexual abuse are discussed. Adviser: David J. Hansen

The United States continues to be polarized by debates concerning the relationships between institutionalized inequality, race and ethnicity, and orientations toward life (e.g., behaviors, values, and outlooks). Drawing on three theoretical frames—Social Structure and Personality (SSP), Ecological Systems theory, and Broken Windows theory—I explore the empirical associations between neighborhood conditions, discrimination, self-efficacy, and future orientation among urban youth. I suggest that the daily realities of institutionalized racism, embodied in the physical conditions of neighborhoods, shape the way that racial and ethnic minorities envision the contours of their futures and the control they have over their lives. Specifically, I argue that 1) institutionalized inequality manifests in the conditions of neighborhoods in the form of visible disorder—e.g., more trash, dilapidated buildings, vacant lots, and other physical signs of disorder and disinvestment; 2) neighborhood physical disorder is likely to serve as a daily reminder (or proxy) for institutionalized racism and/or generally constrained life chances; 3) neighborhood physical disorder should bear on the way that adolescent neighborhood residents envision their futures (future orientation) and perceive the amount of control they have over their lives (self-efficacy); and 4) physical neighborhood disorder should exacerbate the potentially negative relationships between perceived discrimination and both future orientation and self-efficacy. I utilize multilevel modeling to examine how both individual and neighborhood level predictors shape the future orientation and self-efficacy of adolescent residents in Chicago.

This embedded case study of an eighth-grade English language arts reading classroom employed an ecological perspective based on Ecological Systems Theory (EST) to examine the ways in which a myriad influences, often conflicting and originating in a variety of settings external to the classroom, intersected in that classroom. The findings from this research point toward the reality of literacy classrooms buffeted by conflicting Discourses around writing that originate in official school structures, as well as the difficulty students and teachers have navigating the tensions created by those conflicts. The focal teacher for this study, a master teacher, navigated these conflicting discourses by being thoughtfully adaptive and balancing policy mandates with her own knowledge of and beliefs about literacy instruction, though she often made instructional decisions at odds with her knowledge and beliefs because she feared lack of compliance with administrative or district mandates risked her job. In this contested atmosphere, the teacher supported students in navigating the myriad literacy practices within the classroom, and the literacy practices from their lives outside of school, using writer's notebooks. These notebooks served as boundary objects because they incorporated a variety of influences and Discourses in a single tool. Even in creating a robust literacy ecology in her classroom through the use of writer's notebooks, thoughtfully adapting to the myriad policy mandates, and having departmental and professional support for her work, she left the school at the end of the year because she could not be the type of teacher she wanted to be in that school. The broader implication of her decision, and the research more generally, is that classrooms are not isolated from the settings within which they are embedded, and those settings often influence the classroom in ways that conflict and create tensions. Teachers and students, then, must make decisions about how to navigate those tensions, often at odds with their knowledge or beliefs. These conflicts and tensions within a classroom can be reduced, or mitigated through communicating, building trust, working toward consensus, and avoiding exercises of power.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill on students of two coastal Louisiana secondary schools. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory was used as a framework to understand how exposure, gender, socioeconomic status, and resilience interact to influence the impact of the spill on students. Cross-sectional questionnaires were administered to 155 high school students in May 2012 and 225 middle school students in January 2013 out of 1247 possible for a return rate of about 30%. Results showed that exposure groups differed significantly on students’ Impact of Event Scale (IES; Horowitz, Wilner, & Alvarez, 1979) scores. Students with high exposure to the oil spill had significantly higher IES scores than those with no exposure and low exposure. Logistic regression results indicated that exposure was a significant predictor of higher IES scores and as exposure increased by 1, students were 1.46 times more likely to experience higher impact. Males were found to have significantly higher IES scores than females, with a low effect size. Students did not differ significantly across resilience levels. In the entire sample, lower-SES students did not score significantly different on IES scores than higher-SES students. However, in the high school significant differences were found between SES groups and SES was a significant predictor of higher IES scores. Implications are provided for counselor educators interested in disaster mental health. Conclusions include suggestions for counselors servicing areas affected by the oil spill and how individual and environmental characteristics of students can influence risk factors. Keywords: Disaster mental health, crisis intervention counseling, ecological systems theory, BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, secondary school students, resilience, risk factors

The aims of this study were to examine the relations among social capital, human capital, economic capital, and children’s socioemotional well-being during the transition from late childhood to early adolescence and to test an ecological-transactional model of children’s social capital. This work was informed by sociological and economic theory on social capital, human capital, and economic capital (e.g., Becker, 1993; Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1988; Foster, 2002) and two principal frameworks in developmental psychology: ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998) and the transactional model of child development (Sameroff, 2009). Social capital was conceptualized as both a family-level and a community-level phenomenon, distinguishing between family social capital and community social capital. A major hypothesis was that family social capital and community social capital, alongside family-level human capital and economic capital, are associated with low levels of socioemotional problems. Family-level variables were considered to be nested within the more distal ecological context of community social capital, and the indirect relation of community social capital to socioemotional well-being through family social capital was also considered. Another postulation was that children’s socioemotional well-being and the social capital that inheres in family relationships (i.e., family social capital) are mutually influential, changing over time in a transactional manner. In this vein, children were regarded as agents of social capital, both “creating” and utilizing it to their developmental benefit (or detriment as the case may be). These family-level transactional processes were nested within the context of community social capital. Results indicated that community social capital had little association with family social capital and children’s socioemotional well-being as indexed by internalizing and externalizing problems. However, caregivers’ human capital and economic capital were significant predictors of family social capital. In turn, family social capital was strongly related to socioemotional problems. Notably, harsh parenting behavior, a measure indicative of the health of the caregiver-child relation and thus the potential for social capital to be realized in their interactions, was the strongest predictor of socioemotional well-being.

A large number of the nation’s youth live on the streets, with estimates of up to 2.8 million. Homeless youth face numerous challenges including substance abuse and mental and physical health problems. Homelessness is embedded in a social system. Regardless of this, interventions for homeless youth have focused on individual characteristics associated with homelessness. The current study proposes to develop and evaluate an intervention for homeless youth, namely the Fogo process. Fifteen youth (between the ages of 18-24 years) were recruited from the streets and homeless service agencies in the Columbus area. Questionnaires were administered and a life history interview was conducted with youth. Information from interviews was used to develop a video. Three groups of two to four youth per group participated in approximately five sessions of video making. During the final video-making session, questionnaires were administered and a focus group interview was conducted with youth. The video was shown to five policy makers and a focus group interview was conducted afterwards. The purpose of showing the video to policy makers was to provide homeless youths’ voices to policy makers. The findings of this study suggest that a variety of factors in homeless youths’ ecological environment influence the onset and maintenance of homelessness. In addition, this study found that youth experience homelessness not only as a material loss but also as a loss of self. Further, the study details the strategies youth utilize in order to persevere under adversity. Finally, this study found the significance of the video in influencing policy makers’ perceptions about homelessness. This finding supports a bottom-up approach rather than a top-down approach to policy making.

Using examples from community nutrition, this project shows that health is best understood through an ecological systems model. Furthermore, this model contains both an ethical and epistemological imperative to generate health-related knowledge through participatory action research. First the ecological systems model of health is simultaneously described and illustrated with examples from nutrition. This model is one that understands individual well-being as the result of complex interactions within and among nested systems of environmental influence. Thinking about health this way acknowledges the impact of stress, social support, membership in community organizations, the built environment, agricultural subsidies, genetically modified organics and more on the health outcomes of individuals. Also, this model of health highlights a number of the positive, multi-level effects that could come about if local food systems were comprehensively integrated into nutrition assistance programs. The analysis next examines the implications of such a model that acknowledges the agency of individuals to impact both their physical health and larger systems of which they are a part. These elements of ecological systems theory demand research that is both participatory, so that the divisions between researchers and subjects are renegotiated, and action-oriented, so that research actively works for systemic change. Finally, my work evaluating the Oxford Farmers Market Uptown's (OFMU) Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) federal food assistance program is presented as a case-study. Using Empowerment Evaluation (EE), a participatory research technique, to identify and address barriers toward using EBT at OFMU, it became clear that OFMU could provide nutritious, affordable, and culturally appropriate foods to low-income members of the Oxford community, given more targeted advertisement and outreach. EE provided flexible and effective tools for evaluation but fell short of comprehensively incorporating consumers into the evaluation. My own position as a learner who was eager to embrace the “researcher as subject” model enriched and informed the results. Taken seriously, the lessons of ecological systems theory and participatory action research offer a paradigm-shift in health promotion that truly works for the well-being of the whole individual and the transformation of the environments that they call home.