Follow

• 

  La Unión Hace la Fuerza: The Power of Parental Involvement in the Emotional Well-Being of Hispanic/Latinx Youth

  Ana McCarl

  The present study seeks to answer how parental involvement impacts the emotional health of Hispanic/Latinx youth, a population known for disproportionately experiencing high rates of mental health disorders in the US.

  Data were taken from 373 parent-child dyads from every state in Mexico, and a linear regression model was run to assess if parental involvement predicts emotional well-being while controlling for age, marital status, education, and gender.

  The results showed that parental involvement predicted child emotional well-being, with each unit increase in parental involvement representing a 7.98 increase in child emotional well-being.

  Given the prevalence of negative mental health outcomes among this population, culturally-tailored interventions should seek to incorporate parental involvement as an essential part of individual and family therapy.

• 

  From Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue: The Kevs to Voter Turnout

  Abigail McDaniel and Sydnee Beck

  The most influential elections are arguably those at the local level. Local elections allow for a more representative government as smaller groups are better heard in local elections. However, most voter turnout occurs during general election years when the president is elected, and local as well as congressional elections see consistently lower voter turnout. With our research, we are aiming to understand the reasoning behind the disparity between local election turnout versus general election turnout. Specifically, we want to understand what factors have not been implemented or utilized which can help increase voter turnout at the local level. Our findings are based off of data collected from a survey in which we asked respondents about the effectiveness of different canvassing efforts on getting them to vote, as well as questions which help us profile what type of voter they are. Our findings indicate that "Get Out the Vote" methods do tend to increase voting more on the national level, but have little effect on the local level. Additionally, we found that the perceptions of local elections are generally more thought about in terms of civic duty rather than the belief of influencing the outcome. From these findings, we can learn that people tend to favor national elections and tend to view them as the elections which will play a larger role in influencing their day-to-day life, which is likely the reason they are more inclined to turnout for national elections as opposed to local elections.

• 

  Bigger Than the Whole Sky: Taylor Swift's Impact on American Culture, Politics, and Economics

  Mary Moody

  Traditionally feminine interests are often dismissed as trivial, while male-dominated pursuits are widely accepted. However, "feminine" interests shape culture, politics, and the economy in profound ways. Focusing on Taylor Swift and the Eras Tour, my research examines how one woman—and her brand—significantly influence the United States across multiple spheres, challenging the perception of what constitutes impactful culture.

• 

  Making the World a Happy Place

  Noah Passey

  This study investigated different possible causes of happiness as is is measured by the World Happiness Survey. Country-level measurements of GDP, life expectancy, social support, and government trust all have significant positive relationships with happiness, even when controlling for region. Region fixed-effects and time analysis further supports those relationships.

• 

  From Ballot Box to Mailbox: The Effect of Vote-by-Mail in Municipal Elections in Utah

  Asia L. Reid

  This study examines the impact of vote-by-mail (VBM) on voter turnout in Utah from 2010–2020, focusing on municipal elections. VBM increased turnout by approximately 10 percentage points (p < 0.001), with the strongest effects in mayoral and special elections, nearly doubling turnout in some cases. While VBM’s impact on national elections is negligible, it plays a crucial role in increasing participation in local elections, where turnout is traditionally lower. These findings highlight VBM’s potential to enhance civic engagement in municipal contexts.

• 

  Overnight Shifts and Poverty: A Look at How Money Affects Sleep

  Jared Scott

  Overnight shift work has been clearly linked to overall poorer sleep. Additionally, socio-economic status (SES) is a strong predictor of many health outcomes, including sleep health. This study looks at the intersection of shift work and SES as they relate to sleep health.

  Data on 9,210 workers aged 18 years and older were acquired from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. These workers self-identified their typical shift as overnight, evening, daytime, or rotating. Data on poverty income ratios (PIR) was also collected and was used to generate SES groups of poverty (PIR ≤ 1), below median (PIR ≥ 1 and ≤ 3), and non-poverty (PIR ≥ 3). Membership within SES groups, shift work groups, and interaction terms between shift and SES groups were regressed on the likelihood of short sleep (sleep ≤ 6 hours). Additionally, kernel density distribution plots for overnight workers and all other workers were generated for each SES group.

  A significant interaction was found between overnight shift work and short sleep (p < 0.001). Those in the below median SES group had the largest likelihood of short sleep (p < 0.02). African American individuals were more likely to have short sleep (p < 0.001), while being Hispanic had no significant impact on sleep. The interaction terms between SES and shift work were not statistically significant.

  Overnight shift work was found to be predictive of shorter sleep. While SES does seem to impact sleep, there appear to be no compounding effects with overnight shift work. Research looking into the quality of sleep across these groups as well as why African American individuals seem to get less sleep may be beneficial.

• 

  Does Internalized Weight Bias Affect Reported Physical Activity in Adolescents?

  Caroline Simmons, Brennen Till, Chad Jensen, and Monica Martinez

  Background: Negative internalized weight bias is associated with poorer mental health, while physical activity (PA) has been shown to have protective mental health benefits. Previous research with teens has not explored whether weight bias predicts PA participation. We evaluated weight bias internalization as a predictor of total minutes of PA, hypothesizing that greater weight bias would predict less PA participation.

  Methods: One hundred participants ranging (14-18 years) have completed the study. Participants completed the Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS) and the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A). Linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between scores on the WBIS and PAQ-A.

  Results: PA did not significantly increase when participants reported higher WBIS score. Linear regression analysis revealed there was no significant increase in PA with higher WBIS scores (t(79) = 1.62, p = .11), suggesting adolescent weight bias does not significantly affect PA

  Conclusion: Contrary to our hypothesis, weight bias internalization does not significantly influence teen’s self-reported physical activity. More research is warranted to examine this relationship further to see if acquiring the full data set will affect the results, and more work needs to be done to see what variables influence PA in adolescents. Linear regression analysis revealed there was no significant increase in PA with higher WBIS scores (t(79) = 1.62, p = .11), suggesting adolescent weight bias does not significantly affect PA. Further research is needed.

• 

  Bigger Than The Whole Sky: Taylor Swift's Impact on American Culture, Politics, and Economics

  Mary Singer

  Traditionally feminine interests are often dismissed as trivial, while male-dominated pursuits are widely accepted. However, "feminine" interests shape culture, politics, and the economy in profound ways. Focusing on Taylor Swift and the Eras Tour, my research examines how one woman—and her brand—significantly influence the United States across multiple spheres, challenging the perception of what constitutes impactful culture.

• 

  Lack of Quality Media Representation for Transgender Women

  Seth Ririe

  “Transgender” is a term used to describe people whose gender identity is incongruent with their sex assigned at birth. This brief discusses transgender women (that is, transgender people whose gender identity is female) and their experiences with popular narrative media representation. Transgender women are improperly or under-represented due to a lack of transgender media creators, the American public opinion of transgender women, and audience fragmentation, which keeps media featuring transgender women away from wider audiences. As a result of the lack of quality media representation for transgender women, stereotypes surrounding transgender women become more prevalent and transgender women may experience increased internalized transphobia or other mental health issues. Social media is a viable alternative to popular media representation in that it provides visibility and inclusion, but comes with risk of hostility and harassment found online.

• 

  Pronouns on Resumes and the Perceived Hireability of Transgender and Non-binary Candidates

  Seth Ririe

  Transgender and non-binary (TGNB) individuals are more likely to be in poverty and be unemployed than cisgender individuals. This study seeks to understand if placing one’s pronouns on their resumes creates a barrier to equal employment for the TGNB population. I do so through two means: surveying TGNB individuals (n=63) on their worries and experiences with placing their pronouns on their resumes and conducting an RCT (n=654). The RCT assigned participants to 1 of 8 pronouns which shared all information save the candidates’ name (either masculine or feminine) and pronouns (he, she, they, or no pronouns). I find that TGNB individuals worry about including pronouns on their resumes and that doing so could create employment barriers to non-binary individuals. Results indicated that those using they/them pronouns were most likely to worry about gender identity-based discrimination; treatments using they/them pronouns were most likely to be rated negatively by RCT participants. I provide several recommendations for further research and policy implications, including the codifying and enforcing of Bostock v. Clayton County.

• 

  Pronouns on Resumes and the Perceived Hireability of Transgender and Non-binary (TGNB) Candidates

  Seth Ririe

  Transgender and non-binary (TGNB) individuals are more likely to be in poverty and be unemployed than cisgender individuals. This study seeks to understand if placing one’s pronouns on their resumes creates a barrier to equal employment for the TGNB population. I do so through two means: surveying TGNB individuals (n=63) on their worries and experiences with placing their pronouns on their resumes and conducting an RCT (n=654). The RCT assigned participants to 1 of 8 pronouns which shared all information save the candidates’ name (either masculine or feminine) and pronouns (he, she, they, or no pronouns). I find that TGNB individuals worry about including pronouns on their resumes and that doing so could create employment barriers to non-binary individuals. Results indicated that those using they/them pronouns were most likely to worry about gender identity-based discrimination; treatments using they/them pronouns were most likely to be rated negatively by RCT participants. I provide several recommendations for further research and policy implications, including the codifying and enforcing of Bostock v. Clayton County.

• 

  Creating a Surname Lexicon for Historical U.S. Records

  Spencer Keith Timmerman

  We develop a method for creating a lexicon of all correctly spelled surnames in historical US records. We focus specially on the full-count 1850-1940 census records which include over 10 million unique spellings in the surname field. We use links across multiple census records to identify the correct spellings of the surname transcriptions.

• 

  Do Adverse Childhood Experiences Increase the Likelihood of High School Suspension?

  Ashley Kernan, Melissa Jones, and Hayley Pierce

  Scholars have found that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with a wide variety of negative health and behavior outcomes during adolescence. However, significantly less research has examined how ACEs may influence the risk of being suspended from school during high school. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between cumulative, cluster and individual adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and high school suspension. Data comes from the 2022 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS). The sample consists of 23,078 high schoolers from grades 9-12^th. Logistic regressions were run to examine the association between ACEs and school suspension. Overall, results suggest that exposure to ACEs is associated with a higher likelihood of experiencing suspension, with those who experience more ACEs at a greater risk of suspension. Our results point toward the importance of early intervention and prevention strategies in addressing exposure to ACEs.

• 

  Best Practices for Financial Success in the Nonprofit Sector

  Zach McKenzie, Benjamin Hendricks, Emily Foskey, Michelle Baria, and Gabriel Walker

  With the recent upturn in economic success over the past year, United States citizens are becoming more and more poised to contribute to nonprofits and philanthropic causes. The aim of this project was to establish the best practices for financial success in the nonprofit sector as nonprofits look for an increase of funding from this philanthropic surge. Using ratio and environmental analysis, we found several best practices that can be applied to other organizations.

• 

  A Closer Look at Nabataean Burials

  Anna Nielsen

  The ancient city of Petra is famous for monumental rock-cut tombs. These structures contain two little-understood mortuary types: primary burial, in which corpses were interred without alteration, and secondary burial, in which corpses were exposed and defleshed. This research explores the circumstances under which Nabataeans received primary or secondary burial.

• 

  Praise and Prejudice: American Attitudes Toward Japan in Uncle Ben

  Anna Nielsen, Rachel Baron, and Emily Orton

  Uncle Ben in Japan is a 1933 geographical workbook intended to teach American schoolchildren about Japan. This text highlights both positive and negative American attitudes towards Japan in the 1930s. Although this work expresses certain views progressive for its time, it also contains evident assumptions of American national superiority.

• 

  Nutraceuticals: An Alternative Treatment for Influenza Virus

  Siale Teaupa

  Influenza virus is a contagious respiratory pathogen that infects hundreds of thousands of people a year, making it a serious global health concern. The virus has a rapid mutation rate and has developed resistance to current antiviral agents, making it a difficult target for effective treatment. There is an increasing need to identify new treatments for Influenza. Recently, we have tested nutraceuticals as an effective alternative for blocking Influenza. We have tested Jamaican Sorrel, Black Currant Berries, and Manuka Honey paired with Bee Pollen for antiviral activity. We have demonstrated that these nutraceuticals block the 2009 Pandemic California Influenza strain between a concentration range of 1:8-1:16 dilution. Stock solutions of these nutraceuticals have been extracted with water to create a roughly 300 milliosmole solution. They are then neutralized with HEPES buffer, 1N HCl and1N NaOH.

• 

  Sex and Money: Exploring How Sexual and Financial Stressors, Perceptions and Resources Influence Marital Instability for Men and Women

  David B. Allsop, E. Jeffrey Hill, Ashley B. LeBaron, and Roy A. Bean

  This project explores how finances and sex relate to each other and to marital in-stability for men and women. Data come from the Flourishing Families Project (N = 301 couples) and are organized using the ABC-X model of family stress. Financial stress predicted sexual dissatisfaction for men but not for women. Parenting stress predicted sexual dissatisfaction for women but not for men. Financial dissatisfaction and sexual dissatisfaction predicated marital instability for both men and women. Financial and relational communication fully mediated all significant relationships with marital instability except in the mediational model, couple income still predicted marital instability for men.

• 

  American Prosperity Faces the Music

  Douglas E. Archibald

  If music influences people, what influences music? Intuitively, it is inspired by cultural traditions, changes in technology, and the zeitgeist of nations. On an even deeper level, it is inspired by demand. People will not buy music that does not give them utility. Now, how can someone know what type of music is in demand, or will be in demand? What factors influence music demand, and by studying these can future music trends be predicted? The purpose of this study is to discover how the economic well-being of a nation influences the demand for certain types of music, and if the measurements of economic well-being can be used to predict future music trends. The study uses date from the One Million Songs Database and the Federal Reserve Economic Data. Using Ordinary Least Squares regression, it determines the correlation between how upbeat music is with the fiscal health of the nation.

• 

  Reconciliation in Religious Families

  Betsy Hughes Barrow, David C. Dollahite, and Loren D. Marks

  How do religious families resolve conflict and heal relationships? Through an in-depth study of interviews with 198 highly religious families, we explored motivations, processes, and outcomes of reconciliation. Through this analysis we have identified spiritual, relational, personal and practical processes, in the context of everyday family life, that help families strengthen relationships and resolve differences.

• 

  Sexual Dimorphism in 2D:4D Digit Ratio is Linked to Anxiety in Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)

  Alexander Baxter, E. K. Wood, J. P. Capitanio, and J. D. Higley

  In humans, administering androgens exogenously reduces anxiety. Because prenatal androgen exposure (PAE) has organizational effects on the brain, and because it is higher in males, this may explain why, on average, females are more likely than males to develop anxiety. To assess PAE, the pointer-to-ring-finger digit ratio (2D:4D ratio) is frequently used. Though this phenotype is sexually dimorphic across primate species, preliminary research in a small number of species indicates that PAE's effect on digit ratio may be in the opposite direction when comparing nonhuman primates and humans. in humans, males typically show lower 2D:4D ratios than do females, whereas in nonhuman primates, males exhibit a high 2D:4D ratio. We investigated whether this nonhuman primate digit ratio pattern is present in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), and whether individual difference in 2D:4D ratio predicts infant anxiety. At 3-4 months of life, infant monkeys (n = 156) were separated from their mothers to assess temperament using a standardized test, the Human Intruder Paradigm. Subjects' 2D:4D ratios were measured between 3-17 years of age (M = 7.91). A t-test confirmed that teh 2D:4D ratio in rhesus monkeys is consistent with the nonhuman primate pattern, with males exhibiting a higher left-hand 2D:4D ratio than females (t₍₇₄₎ = -2.01, p = .049). Controlling for weight and sex, regressions revealed that lower right-hand 2D:4D ratio predicted infant anxiety (as measured by teeth grinding and yawns) (R = .39, p = .022), suggesting that higher PAE may mitigate threat-induced anxiety.

• 

  Scourge on American Society: Are Refugees Increasing Violent Crime in the United States?

  Rehtaeh Beers

  President Trump and many citizens in his wake have called for a decrease in the number of refugees in America. Many claim that refugees are a “Scourge on American Society” and that refugees are “dangerous” and likely to commit violent crimes.

  The total number of reported refugees in the world has been growing at an alarming rate since 2006 following the the Lebanese Crisis. Despite the growing number of refugees, the United States of America has kept the number of refugees located in the states relatively stable since 2007.

• 

  Evaluating Fall-of Curves with Straight-line or Least Cost Path Distance

  Robert J. Bischoff

  A fundamental part of interaction is distance. Interaction can be modeled by plotting distance against the frequency of an object. My purpose it to evaluate whether straight-line distance is an acceptable proxy for actual distance or whether using more realistic distance measures is required. In this poster, I use the distribution of San Juan Red Ware in a portion of the southwestern United States to examine the differences between straight-line distance, the length of least cost paths (LCP), and the time to travel the LCP between points. San Juan Red Ware was produced in southeastern Utah between approximately A.D. 750 and 1100 and was widely traded.

• 

  Family Educational Backgrounds Variations in Student Attitudes and Experiences using the SHARPs Utah data, 2015

  Mandy Chidester

  This research analyzed 150 variables within the SHARPS 2015 data to find the majority of differences that are coming between those grade school students who live with adults who have an education level of high school or less compared to the those who live with an adult who has completed college. The analyzed variables showed three main themes of major differences: monitoring of the student’s actions, neighborhood the student lives in, and student’s perception of drug risk. Also included is those variables who showed significant differences, but did not fall into any particular category. This categories show us areas of risk that should be focused on within the state of Utah.

• 

  Infant Siblings of Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder Have Higher Perseveration

  Katherine Christensen, Allison Garner Kotter, Rachel Nuttall, Bread Iverson, and Taylor Bayles

  ● Children with ASD have difficulty with social cues, repetitive behaviors, and restricted interests

  ● Many of these signs show up after a diagnosis and many children remain undiagnosed until school-age

  ● We want to demonstrate the utility of a screening tool to identify infants at risk for ASD

  ● This tool could enable earlier identification and treatment for those who have unknown risk for ASD