The Annual Mary Lou Fulton Mentored Research Conference showcases some of the best student research from the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences. The mentored learning program encourages undergraduate students to participate in hands-on and practical research under the direction of a faculty member. Students create these posters as an aide in presenting the results of their research to the public, faculty, and their peers.
If you are submitting your poster, please do so via the Submit Research link in the left sidebar on this page, and not on the main Submit Research page.
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Symbols of the French Revolution
Bill Cichoski, Angela Rice, Philip Greenan, and Elisa Visick
During the French Revolution, France as a nation did not exist yet. There were many different ethnic and linguistic groups that had to be united in order to form the France that we know today. To bridge the divide between the different regions of France and the different classes involved in the Revolution, symbols were used to convey certain ideals. The liberty cap, the tricolor flag, Marianne, and other symbols became important in the spread of Revolutionary ideas. Our research aims to show that these symbols served an important role in creating a national identity in France.
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To Stay or to Leave: Factors Which Predict Women's Tolerance of Abusive Relationships
Melinda Cook, Lauren Woodward, and Bert Burraston
This study focuses on domestic violence victimization, specifically partner abuse towards women. Domestic violence is a major problem in the United States with far reaching consequences. Some estimates have shown that nearly 2 million women in the United States are severely assaulted by their significant others each year. A major problem that researchers face is, why do these women stay? If they are in an abusive relationship, why would they not end it? There is no definitive answer presented in prior research as to why women choose to leave or to stay in abusive relationships. This study seeks to identify characteristics among abused women that allow women to end abusive relationships, so that initiatives may be taken to provide women with the skills or resources necessary to leave abusive situations when they wish to do so.
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The Relationship between Women’s Clinics and Hospital-Based Women’s Health Services, 1980-2000
Hayley R. Darchuck, Jessica Callahan, and Marie Cornwall
The United States women’s health movement began in the 1960s as women throughout the country decided to take control of their bodies and their health care in the form of women’s clinics. These clinics were based on “for women, by women” health care, emphasizing self help, education and birth control. Since the creation of clinics, their growth has appeared to fluctuate substantially by the effects of outside factors such as presidential impacts and antiabortionist vandalism. For example, during the Reagan administration, funding for women’s clinics decreased due to staunch “Reaganomics,” and block funding (Morgen2002) and later increased after Clinton’s entrance into office due to his more liberal tax policies (Moss 1996). Further, many clinics floundered financially due to increased vandalism costs from antiabortionist defacement. Throughout this time, women became the major health consumers in the United States. In 2002, for example, women controlled 66% of health care spending in the country, being responsible for both the health needs of themselves and of their families (Scalise2003). Hospital administrators appeared to recognize that if they enticed women into their hospitals to seek medical care, the women would also bring their sick family members. This led to the co-optation of women’s health care and the shift in women’s care from clinics into hospitals. This shift also inspired the change from traditional feminist clinic services offered, such as abortion and birth control, to the new services offered by hospitals today, such as mammography, plastic surgery, and mental health treatments (Thomas and Zimmerman 2007). Because of the increased marketing opportunities for hospitals, we hypothesized that there would be a visual relationship between women’s health care services offered in clinics as compared to hospitals. We hypothesized that our findings would reflect a general trend of decrease in clinics and subsequent increase in hospital numbers. We also proposed that the services offered in 2000, in both clinics and hospitals, would substantially differ from those offered in 1980, including an increased number of services offered and a variety of “new” services entering the women’s health market.
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Human Trafficking and Prostitution: A Comparative Review of Swedish and Dutch Policy
Emilie Davidson, Kelsey Perry, and Jini Roby
1.2 million children are trafficked every year (UNICEF), and and the total number of prostituted children could be as high as 10 million (The Lancet). Trafficking is the second largest source of illegal income worldwide, exceded only by the sale of illegal drugs (Belser, 2005). A study of women trafficked to the European Union found that 95% of victims had been violently assaulted or coerced into a sexual act, and over 60% of victims reported fatigue, neurological symptoms... back pain, vaginal discharges, and gynecological infections (Zimmerman, 2006). Definitions: Trafficking refers to “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion... for the purpose of exploitation,” whereas prostitution refers to the sale of sex (UN, 2010).
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Rio Drug Factions and the Children of the Favelas
Melanie Davies and Jini Roby
Rio de Janeiro, among other major cities in Brazil, has been surrounded with slums for over a hundred years. These slums, called favelasby the natives, began springing up in the 1850’s (Gay, 1994). Many people migrated to the city in search of a better life. Unable to afford a home, they built shelters on the illegally claimed hillsides of Rio de Janeiro, intending to improve their situation from there (Villareal & Silva, 2006). Instead, the number of favelas has drastically increased over the years. In Rio de Janeiro alone, there are currently over 1800 favelas housing about 2 million people, or one third of the population of Rio (Frayssinet, 2007a). Though stricken with poverty, the favelas became a place of culture and laughter. Festivities in the favelas would bring people from all over the city (Neate & Platt, 2006). Meanwhile, as the government completely ignored the plight of the favelas, drug gangs began to move in and take over. They took care of the favelados, or people of the favelas, and kept peace within the community; something the government had never done for them. However, over time the rule of the drug factions became much harsher and more violent (Neate & Platt, 2006). In 2006, the murder rate in Rio de Janeiro was 37.7 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, most of the victims being between 15 and 24 years of age and related to the drug trade in the favelas (Michel, 2008; Iyer, 2004). Comparatively, the murder rate in 2006 for the whole United States was 8.7 murders per 100,000 people (Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI], 2010). The violence brought to the favelas by the drug factions has become a major problem in Rio de Janeiro, especially in the impact it has had on children and teenagers in the favelas.
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Police Inspired Crime: The Effect of Corruption on Crime
Taryn W. Davis, Jeffrey Pett, and Stephen Bahr
Criminal behavior can be caused by strain produced from confrontation with negative stimuli. Corruption of public officials can act as a negative stimuli which creates anger and strain on the general public and leads to an increase in criminal behavior.
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Not All Aid Flows Are Created Equal: An analysis of the allocation of foreign aid to combat infectious diseases
Shane W. Dayton and Sven Wilson
The developing world is plagued by infectious diseases. Controlling infectious diseases will reduce suffering and promote economic development. Foreign aid donors fund projects for developing countries to help combat infectious diseases. However, foreign aid is not always allocated based on need. Often, it is given for political and strategic reasons1. With respect to aid for the health sector, the research has focused primarily on the global-disease level and not on the country-disease level. The limited research on the latter suggests that donors are responding to need2. The focus of my research is to examine the allocation of foreign aid specifically targeted at infectious diseases at the country-level to evaluate whether donors respond to countries’ level of need (as measured by disease burden).
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Legacy Parkway: Evaluating the effects of construction on wetland patterns
Nate Dorsey, Jillian Brandley, Joshua Fawcett, and Michael Johnson
The Legacy Parkway is a 14-mile highway that was built in 2008 to alleviate traffic congestion in Davis County, Utah. The parkway was built near the Great Salt Lake in an area with many wetlands. Prior to construction there was a great deal of controversy regarding how the parkway might negatively affect the wetlands. This research attempts to answer the following question: How did construction of the Legacy Parkway impact wetland patterns?
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Measuring Father Involvement with adolescents in Botswana
Kerianne Dyer and Jini Roby
Emerging research suggests that father involvement is a multifaceted concept, often driven by cultural mandates. In this study, survey data were collected from 704 adolescents aged 14-16 in Botswana. Fathers who provided both co-residence and financial support were perceived at the highest level of involvement. When considered separately, financial support rather than co-residence was associated with higher levels of perceived father involvement. Maternal gate keeping was also found to be a significant influence on perceived levels of father involvement. Implications for policy, practice and research are discussed.
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Grandparent/Grandchild Relationship: Linking Grandparent Involvement to Adolescent Pro-social Behaviors
Corey Ellis, Marinda Quist, Ruth Robinson, and Dara Peterson
Due to the changing dynamics of family life, there is a current need to understand the grandparent-grandchild relationship. Grandparents today are more involved in the lives of their grandchildren because of increased life expectancy, divorce rates, and dual working homes (Attar-Schwartz, Tan, & Buchanan, 2009).We examined how grandparents’ financial involvement with the family and their emotional closeness to the adolescent (Kemp, 2005) impacts behavioral outcomes. One study shows that a negative grandparent-parent relationship will negatively affect the grandparent-grandchild relationship (Attar-Schwartz, S., Tan, J., & Buchanan, A, 2009). We hypothesize that the financial support of grandparents, grandparent emotional closeness with their grandchildren, and the strength of the grandparent-parent relationship all lead to pro-social outcomes. We define pro-social behavior as positive interactions with strangers.
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Evidence of Opinion: A Critical Analysis of the Use of Empirical Literature in Controversial Topics
David Erekson, Sasha Mondragon, Kiley DeLange, and Amelia Leetham
The American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) use the same empirical sources as supporting evidence for differing views on the psychological treatment of sexual minorities. Given this discrepancy, we undertook a critical analysis of all sources commonly cited by APA and NARTH. We conclude that the sources have not been used consistently, and that this may be a product of differing beliefs surrounding a controversial issue.
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Predictors of Performance Monitoring Abilities following Traumatic Brain Injury: The Influence of Negative Affect, Cognitive Dysfunction, and Injury Severity
Joseph E. Fair and Michael J. Larson
Survivors of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) often demonstrate impairments in cognitive control and performance monitoring. Performance monitoring is a cognitive control process modulated by both cognitive and affective variables. Performance monitoring functions can be evaluated using the error-related negativity (ERN) and post-error positivity (Pe) components of the event-related potential (ERP).
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Does Democracy in the Home Create Democracy in the Nation?
Aimee Farnsworth and Valerie Hudson
While the rise of liberal democracy has usually been linked to the growth of capitalism and the rise of the bourgeoisie, a fairly new theory claims that democracy in the state began with democracy in the home (Hajnal1982; Hartman 2004). That is, as the relationship between husband and wife became more equal, a mini-democracy was created in the home which promoted liberal democracy on a larger scale, first in the community, and then the nation. Those promoting democracy might therefore find it beneficial to first, or at least concurrently, promote equality between husband and wife. Increased equality between spouses will not only allow families to flourish, but communities and nations as well. This project is a preliminary examination of the supposed causal relationship between democracy in the home and democracy in the nation.
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The Realty of Inequality
Aimee Farnsworth and Valerie Hudson
Although women’s property and inheritance rights are recognized in international law, women in many countries still lack the ability to own or inherit property, either by law or by the trumping of law in practice. The increasing number of women as heads of household who are in critical need of land and property for economic security is a particular concern in the developing world, and a major factor for the progress of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (United Nations 2009). Even where laws are present, the rift between property rights and actual ownership is immense. Discrepancies between statutory and customary law as well as a multitude of diverse socio-cultural practices serve to confound women’s access to property in many regions of the world (Deere & Leon 2001). Because gender issues traverse virtually all aspects of culture, researchers have found that, among other things, property plays a central role concerning women’s vulnerability to HIV and AIDS as well as domestic violence (Gable et al. 2007, 136). For example, the loss of property upon divorce or widowhood may force a woman with HIV into unsanitary living conditions, which can undermine her health significantly. In some cases, women with no property or job prospects may resort to sex work to support themselves, increasing their risk of contracting and spreading HIV. Unequal property rights can also weaken a married woman’s bargaining power within her relationship, increasing her risk of HIV infection because she cannot negotiate safer sex (Gable et al. 2007, 136). Because property ownership is directly related to women’s bargaining power within the household and community, the need to explore gendered access to property within cultural and social systems is imperative (Patel 2007). As a cross-national survey of women’s property rights has never been performed, this project has the potential to make a very important contribution to the fields of gender studies and international development.
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Effects of Breadwinner Status on Marital Satisfaction: How Income Disparity Between Spousal Partners Affects Happiness
Matthew Field, Allison Wolfe, Eric Davis, and Nicole Park
Previous research shows mixed results when it comes to the effect of the breadwinning status on marital satisfaction. Our purpose is to examine whether who has the higher income in a marriage, the man or the woman, has an effect on the reported marital satisfaction of the couple. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (2000) we examined this question. We found that who the breadwinner is has no effect on marital satisfaction. These results are encouraging for women who aspire to high-status, high-paying careers. Our findings indicate that women should not hold back from these aspirations on account of a concern for jeopardizing their chances of marital satisfaction.
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Self Indulgence...Competition for the Relational Dollar
Jeff Finch, Keshia Lai, and Ivan Beutler
Little is known about the development and the possible malleable nature of adolescent money and relational aspirations. This research examines the patterns and tradeoffs observed between money aspirations of youth from two disparate communities: Alaska—Prince William Sound, Utah—Wasatch Front
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Gender Differences: The Impact of Hours Worked on Marital Satisfaction
Patrick Frost, Arturo Morales, Jackie Freeman, and Anna Nelson
As work hours increase, marital satisfaction decreases. For married females, we hypothesize that when work hours increase over 40 hours per week, marital satisfaction decreases. We further hypothesize that as work hours increase over 60 hours per week for married males, marital satisfaction decreases.
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Differential Effects of the Discrete Options Multiple Choice Test Format on Test Takers Assesment and Scores
Ryan Funk, Tamarin Hooper, Emily Hadlock, and JeLyn Whicker
Multiple-choice tests have not sufficiently evolved to counter test-wise individuals. By offering the discrete-option multiple-choice format (DOMC) as an alternative to the traditional format, educators can counter “extra-test” competency. That is, the DOMC format may be fairer. The new format may encourage more thorough study of assigned material. The DOMC format only displays one answer option on the screen at a time. In this case, “29” was the first randomly selected option. Test taker identifies option as correct or incorrect. Not all options appear.
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Moral Conceptions and Parent-Adolescent Congruence: What does it mean to be a moral person?
Ryan J. Funk and Sam Hardy
In recent years scholars have argued for the importance of greater understanding naturalistic conceptions of moral maturity (Walker & Pitts, 1998). However, given the limited work done thus far in this area, we still know very little about how these conceptions of morality develop. Further, most prior studies of lay conceptions of morality have involved adults (e.g., Smith, Smith, & Christopher, 2007; Walker & Pitts, 1998). Thus, the purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship between adolescent’s conceptions of morality and how it relates to their parents’.
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Marriage, Coparenting, & Family Work Over Time: A Latent Growth Curve Analysis
Adam M. Galovan and Erin K. Holmes
Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1024 couples), we examined the associations between parenting, similarity in parenting, and emotional intimacy. Mothers’ initial level of family work responsibility was the most significant predictor of emotional intimacy for both Fathers and Mothers. More traditional, adult-centered parenting beliefs were also associated with decreased emotional intimacy for Mothers. Similarity in family work and parenting beliefs showed stability overtime. In general, similarity in parenting and consensus in family work activities was not as significantly associated with emotional intimacy as the individual parenting constructs.
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The Effect of Positive Affect on Memory
Jenna Gardner, Jeremy Ashworth, Brittney Rasmussen, and Erin D. Bigler
The majority of positive affect research has been studied in relation to mental flexibility and creative thinking, with a smaller emphasis in the area of memory recall. Studies have specifically looked at the influence of positive affect as it relates to the following: creative problem solving (e.g., Mikulincer, & Sheffi, 2000, Estrada, Young, & Isen, 1994; Greene & Noice, 1988; Isen, Johnson, Mertz, & Robinson, 1985), improves recall of neutral and positive information (Isen, Shalker, Clark, & Karp, 1978; Nasby & Yando, 1982; Teasdale & Fogarty, 1979), promotes mental flexibility (Carnevale & Isen, 1986; Estrada, Isen, & Young, 1997; Isen & Geva, 1987; Isen & Means, 1983; Isen, Nygren, & Ashby, 1988; Murray, Hirt, Sujan & Sujan, 1990), improves the speed of conscious perception (Kuhbandner, Hanslmayr, Maier, Pekrun, Spitzer, Pastötter, Bäuml, 2009), improves text processing and recall (Egidi, 2007), improved peripheral vision detail recall (Talarico, Berntsen, & Rubin, 2009), information retrieval (Ellis, Thomas, McFarland, & Lane, 1985), free recall (Hill, Van Boxtel, Ponds, Houx, & Jolles, 2005). There is very little research on the effects of a positive mood and delayed memory recall, and none that specifically looks at delayed verbal memory recall. We have designed our study to determine if a relationship between positive affect and memory recall exists, specifically related to delayed verbal memory recall.
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Positive to Negative Affect, Forgiveness, and Relationship Quality in Married Couples
Rebekah M. Gardner and James Harper
Gottman (1999) proposes that a 5:1 ratio of positive to negative behaviors is related to relationship quality. Current study examines forgiveness as a mediating variable. Halchuck et al. (2010) found that couples who recovered from attachment insecurities reported significantly higher levels of forgiveness.
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Do the insured make greater use of medical services?
Gregg Girvan and Sven Wilson
Conventional wisdom states if policy-makers set the goal of increasing the number of patients with health insurance, visits to the emergency room (ER) will decrease while visits to a usual source of care (USC), such as a general practitioner, will increase. In examining year 2007 of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, this study seeks to test this hypothesis by answering two questions: 1. Whether having insurance affects ER and USC utilization, and 2. Whether greater USC utilization affects ER utilization. The analysis accounts for endogeneity issues with insurance and USC utilization. In order to account for the discrete, non negative nature of the dependent variable as well as endogenous regressors, a Poisson regression within an instrumental variable framework is utilized. The results confirm the notion that, in general, the insured have lower ER utilization but higher USC utilization, but only USC utilization is statistically significant. Also, when considering the effect of USC visitation on ER visitation, ER visits increase, albeit slightly, with an increase in USC visits.
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African Americans in Politics: What Factors Lead to the Election of African American Representatives
Keith D. Gonzales and Sven Wilson
African Americans have triumphed over a difficult history in the United States. They have had to overcome prejudices in education, the workforce, and politics. Today, we have an African American president and many African Americans hold office on every level of government. It seems to be a good time to evaluate the political environment for African Americans. Data from Congressional districts has been gathered and evaluated. The data has shown three significant factors affecting the chances of African Americans to be elected as a representative from any district. The results hint that there may still be work to be done in race relations in the United States.
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Effects of Mood on Error Processing
Alexander Gray and Michael J. Larson
In mood-induced states, anxious participants were most attentive, happy and calm participants were intermediately attentive, and sad participants least attentive. This study investigates if participants in mood-induced states will demonstrate ERN amplitudes that correspond to the outcomes demonstrated in the above study in which greater attentiveness should correspond to larger ERN amplitudes and visa versa.