Social and Behavioral Sciences

Social condition may predict alcohol consumption in both humans and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). A recent (unpublished) study in our lab showed that rhesus macaques who are living in social groups drink significantly less alcohol when compared to subjects drinking alone; furthermore, social setting modulated biological and social risk factors associated with increased alcohol consumption (i.e. serotonin transporter genotype, rearing, etc.). This project aims to further investigate the role of peer influence within rhesus macaque social groups on individual rates of alcohol consumption. Specifically, this project proposes that the quantity of alcohol consumed by an individual rhesus macaque may be influenced by the amount of alcohol consumed by their peers. Data were collected from 109 socially-housed adult rhesus macaques (37 males, 72 females) over 7 years. An aspartame-sweetened 8.4% alcohol-water solution and its sans-alcohol vehicle were available for subjects to consume for 1 hour a day over 5-7 weeks. The serotonin transporter genotype (LL and LS) for each monkey was determined using polymerase chain reaction followed by gel electrophoresis. Within-rearing group z-scores were calculated for each peer-reared and then each mother-reared monkey, thus giving a standardized measure of whether individuals were below or above their rearing group mean. The relationship between an individual monkey’s alcohol consumption z-score and peer influence was the chief interest of to this study. Peer influence according to rearing was measured by calculating the percentage of social-mates who were peer-reared (typically known to consume more alcohol) within each social cohort. Analyses were performed to assess deviation from the overall rearing group mean alcohol intake as stratified by the percentage of peer-reared subjects within each social cohort. A similar set of analyses were also performed using within-serotonin-transporter-genotype (i.e. LL or LS) group z-scores and the percentage of LS-genotype (typically shown to consume more alcohol) social mates to assess the relationship between individual alcohol intake and peer influence according to genotype. Simple linear regressions were performed using the alcohol consumption z-scores and social-mate percentages. No significant relationship was found between the percentage of LS monkeys and alcohol consumption z-scores. There was, however, a significant relationship (p = 0.003, r = 0.477) between the percentage of peer-reared social-mates and the alcohol consumption z-scores. In other words, as the percentage of peer-reared social-mates increased, so too did the relative consumption of alcohol comparative to the average of other socially-caged monkeys.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a measure of holistic quality of narrative abilities aligns with scores obtained on a standardized measure of narrative proficiency in typically developing children. Scores on the Holistic Assessment of Narrative Discourse (HAND; Holbrook, Beck, Reische, Froerer, Mumford, & Gillam, 2017) rubric were compared to scores on the Test of Narrative Language- Second Edition (TNL- 2; Gillam & Pearson, 2017). The results of this study may help us to inform our assessment of children with developmental language impairment by understanding how methods for quantifying narrative proficiency differ qualitatively and quantitatively. The rubric used in the current study was designed after one proposed by McFadden & Gillam (1996) who used a holistic quality rubric to characterize stories of students with and without language impairments. A total of 260 typically developing children participated in the study. There were 42, 4 year olds, 57, 5 year olds, 68, 6 year olds and 93, 7 year olds. The children were part of the normative sample for the Test of Narrative Language-2 (Gillam & Pearson, 2017). The children were asked to retell a story after a sample narrative, tell a story based on sequenced pictures after a sample narrative, and develop a story based on a picture following a sample narrative. Stories were transcribed by Utah State University research assistants using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT; Miller, 2002). The holistic scoring procedure was modeled after the McFadden & Gillam rubric in which narratives were independently rated by two reliable team members into six holistic quality categories. The HAND was created to measure overall aesthetic quality of narratives told by children as an adjunct to the TNL-2. The rubric uses a like scale of 0-5. We hypothesize that the HAND will correlate with the TNL-2 for stories that score 4s and 5s or 0s and 1s. Stories that score 2s and 3s may not correlate highly with the TNL-2, and as such, the HAND may provide additional, useful information for clinicians to use in intervention planning. Aspects related to these scores indicate that the stories are incomplete, contain weak causal relationships, don’t contain endings, are boring, disorganized, confusing, contain too much detail or too little detail. These elements are not explored in detail on the TNL-2 and have been shown to be contributing factors to narrative proficiency in children with language impairments, or Autism Spectrum Disorders.

This project will present personal ethnographic research, which is the investigation of a culture through thorough study of its members, from my time among the Himba, a remote native tribe in Namibia Africa. This project will help provide a different perspective on suffering so that Western cultures might obtain a more empathetic view toward different cultures and societies. This research will be most beneficial for humanitarian organizations that are working in third world countries. For many generations, humanitarian organizations have had an attitude that all third world countries are suffering and the only way to help them is to provide modern technology from more developed countries. There is a discontinuity between the ideas of these organizations and the desire and needs of the people they are helping. This project will help reinforce the idea that most of these third world countries are not suffering or helpless, but instead are in need of support to achieve their own goals. The majority of humanitarian projects have failed after the first couple years because of lack of planning. They have also failed because of the mentality that the aid providers are the saviors of these helpless societies. If the mentality changed to see these societies as people rather than lesser, underdeveloped societies, then more good would actually be accomplished. The way that the word 'suffering' is used disconnects people rather than connects them. Joel Robbins, in his recent published article, Beyond the suffering subject: toward an anthropology of the good, expressed the flaws of this perspective of suffering. I hope to elaborate on his idea and present practical approaches on how we and organizations should perceive suffering and support third world countries. Many humanitarian organizations use this idea of suffering to make a false empathy that unknowingly assigns these societies thoughts, beliefs, and behavior patterns that the organization has which the other society does not share. This new outlook would help people be empathetic towards third world countries and see the world from the point of view of that country so that they can receive the proper support that these countries need to achieve their goals.

ENP Abstract The purpose of this study was to analyze and help us better understand the use of Elaborative Noun Phrases (ENP) in typically developing children between the ages of four and seven. ENPs can be used as an indicator of literate language development. As children grow, their use of ENPs mature until they reach about age 11 at which point their use of ENPs plateaus as curriculum emphasis changes from narrative to expository discourse. In order to measure ENPs story retells and stories made up on the spot by the child are used. These stories typically include picture prompts to help the child create the story. Some evidence suggests that one detailed picture elicits greater productions of ENPs than a simple sequence of pictures. In this study the narratives of 42, 4 year olds, 57, 5 year olds, 68, 6 year olds and 93, 7 year olds who participated in the normative sample for the TNL-2, were used. Children were asked to produce stories in three different settings, a story retell after a clinician model, a story based on a picture sequence, and a story based on a picture. Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) was used to transcribe these stories, which were then coded for ENP use. This coding included counting and analyzing the number of descriptors used before or after a noun. Phrases that only included a determiner and noun were coded as PRE1 and are referred to as simple designating noun phrases. Noun phrases that included a determiner as well as a modifying agent, such as a modifying noun or an adjective were coded as PRE2 and are called simple descriptive noun phrases. Complex descriptive noun phrases included two or more descriptors and a determiner before the noun and were coded as PRE3. Lastly complex noun phrases with post modification were coded as POST. These typically were seen through the use of prepositional phrases or clauses. Through this study we hope to gain a better understanding of how children use ENPs by analyzing the differences in ENP use both qualitatively and quantitatively. This will allow us to better serve and assess children with developmental language impairment.

In the Mountain West Census Region of the U.S., suicide rates are significantly higher than any other region in the U.S. The causes as to why have been sought after and studied numerous times throughout recent history. This study looks at religiosity and how it affects suicide rates by State in the Mountain West region. The importance of this particular study is that of prevention. Suicides can be prevented if the causes are made known. In this instance, more emotional counseling could be provided in areas with higher rates as well as more awareness about the effects of depression. The main goal of identification is prevention. Suicide rates by county were collected from the CDC website, and all Religiosity data was collected from the ARDA religious census of 2010. By using regression modeling, the effects of religiosity can be studied by state to determine whether or not there is a significant effect on suicide rates in that particular area. To provide a wider scope of just who and what it affects, other variables such as age group, congregation size, attendance and population were examined in regression models. After running regressions in each state and determining statistical significance, areas with a higher level of religiosity do indeed have a higher suicide rate than areas with lower religiosity. Higher attendance rates were significantly related to suicide rates, meaning that the more regular attendees an area had, the higher the suicide rate. Using these findings, we can make steps towards bringing more awareness in the necessary states about depression, anxiety, and the effects that they have on suicide rates. Prevention efforts can be increased and counseling can be provided. In todays society, religion can be a difficult subject for many, but the fact of the matter remains that it is in any way contributing to higher suicide rates, it needs to be addressed in a timely manner in order to save lives. Now speculation can be made about exactly why religion affects these rates, things such as pressure to act a certain way or to become a certain person. Feeling trapped if you do not live up to the standards shown around you, and many see suicide as the only way out. This need not be the case, and these issues can be changed and need to be changed based on the findings of this study.

It is well known that in some instances, only one scope relation is possible for a sentence, irrespective of the context (see Szabolcsi 2010 for constraints on scope). Von Fintel and Iatridou 2003 (vF&I) however, describe a novel restriction on scope the Epistemic Containment Principle. It involves epistemic modals (verbs that express the speaker’s level of certainty that something is true, e.g. may, might, must) and a quantifier subject. Consider the following scenario: You and a friend are standing in front of a student residence. In some of the rooms the light is on, in other rooms it is off. Every room is equipped with a special device that automatically switches off the light if a student leaves his/her room. Thus, we know that some students are home, because some lights are on. Your friend then says: (1) Every student may have left. vF&I’s central claim is that quantifiers cannot scope over epistemic modals—in (1), Every student and may respectively. For (1) to appear congruent with its context, the subject must be the element taking wide scope, though due to the ECP we cannot get access to this scope configuration which is why it fails to sound acceptable. The focus of my research is to investigate whether or not marked intonation on either the subject or the modal may provide access to this restricted scope configuration, an idea that was explicitly noted in vF&I 2003 (footnote 7). If marked intonation does have such an effect it would warrant revisiting our fundamental understanding of the interaction between the sound and meaning components of language known to linguists as PF (phonological form) and LF (logic form) respectively. Specifically, the intonation I am investigating involves two prosodic patterns: nuclear stress and the rise-fall contour with neutral intonation used as a control condition. I have created an online survey which asks respondents to give acceptability judgements of sentences similar to (6) on a Likert scale 1-5. The survey contains 12 items and 10 fillers. Each item contains one of five conditions, the type of prosody placed on either the modal or the subject. The ordering of items and fillers is varied across the subject pool to control for carry-over effects. We intend on collecting data from approximately 50 participants. Some statistical method, for example ANOVA, will be used to determine the existence of an effect.

Title: Poverty Simulation: Students’ Impactful Moments Authors: Gaye Ray, MS, FNP-C, PH-C, Debra K. Wing Maj. USAFR, NC, MSNED, RN, CNE, Mike McNeil, SN, Camry Shawcroft, SN Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore nursing students’ impactful moments during poverty simulation and identify aspects of the simulation that prompt these experiences. Background: 62 undergraduate nursing students participated in a poverty simulation as part of a required public and global health nursing course and wrote reflection papers about their experiences. During the 3.5-hour simulation, students are assigned participant roles similar to those experienced in real life low-income families. Students develop strategies to prioritize and meet their family’s basic needs, including food, housing, living expenses, school, employment, and healthcare. Unexpected life challenges occur throughout the simulation, including financial predicaments, illnesses, and job loss. Participants are expected to cope with such challenges, with limited time and resources, as they uphold obligations and continue to care for their families. Participants interact with simulated community resource to meet needs. Sites include: grocery stores, banks, employment and social services, schools, police stations, childcare, and healthcare facilities. Students participate in debrief sessions following the simulation. Method: Qualitative data from the reflection papers was analyzed. The first-cycle coding process identified and labeled student statements that elaborated upon impactful moments in the simulation. Using focused coding, a second-cycle coding process was used to identify the origins of the impactful moments. Finally, origins of the impactful moments were grouped and categorized according to similarity. Results: Completed analysis of the student reflection papers reveals the origins of meaningful experiences in the simulation arose from (1) the particular role played during the simulation, (2) community resource interaction, (3) illegal activities that occurred in the simulation, and (4) post-simulation debrief groups. Conclusion: Impactful moments elicited by the poverty simulation are pivotal in furthering nursing student’s understanding of health inequalities, resource barriers, and poverty as a social determinant of heath. Additionally, impactful moments help motivate nursing students to aid in the reduction of health disparities among low income individuals and families.

Guo & Schneider (2016) explored different approaches to identifying grammatical impairments in 128 children developing typically (TL) and those with language impairments (LI) between the ages of 6 and 8. Their participants were 61 six-year-olds (50 TL, 11 LI), and 67 eight-year-olds (50 TL, 17 LI). The measures that they explored included: calculating the finite verb morphology composite (FVMC), the number of errors per C-unit (Errors/CU), and the percent of grammatical C-units (PGCUs) in narrative samples. Each outcome measure was evaluated for its sensitivity and specificity. They found that all three outcome measures provided acceptable diagnostic accuracy when applied to six-year-olds, but PCGUs were found to be the most accurate tool with eight-year-olds. The purpose of the current study was to analyze the narrative samples of 260 typically developing children ages 4-7 to determine typical scores for the previously listed grammatical measures at each age level. This knowledge may provide more information on the performance of typical children and how to accurately identify students with LI. This study extends the literature by testing whether the findings remain the same with addition data from children aged 6-7 and whether the findings extend to children aged 4 and 5 years. The participants in this study included 42 four-year-olds, 57 five-year-olds, 68 six-year-olds and 93 seven-year-olds. The participants were selected as part of the normative sample for the Test of Narrative Language-2. For the study, the children were asked to produce stories in three varying contexts. These contexts consisted of: a story retell after a model story, sequenced pictures were then provided for another story retell after a model, and lastly children were asked to produce a story based on a picture after a model. These stories were transcribed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT). The transcriptions were double coded for grammaticality by two separate research assistants. Reliability was calculated by a graduate research assistant. The utterances were designated as grammatical or ungrammatical. Ungrammatical utterances were coded for the type of grammatical error present. The same three grammaticality outcome measures used in Guo & Schneider (2016) were used in this study. Data analysis will include examination of each outcome measure by age. Conclusions and clinical implications will be discussed.

Children with Language Disorder tend to demonstrate significant difficulty using multiple clause sentences. They often have difficulty using relative clauses. Kim and O’Grady, (2015) compared 46 children ages 5;0 to 6;10 in their use of relative clauses. Findings revealed that children tended to favor subject relative clauses (i.e. the boy who has the bike is happy) over object relative clauses (i.e. the boy has a bike that is broken). Domsch et al., (2012) used conversational and narrative contexts to elicit discourse-level language from children to examine syntactic complexity for students with and without a history of late language emergence (LLE). They found that typically developing children outperformed children with a history of LLE in use of syntactically complex sentences during conversation, but not in narratives obtained from the contexts used in the standardized test (Domsch et. al, 2012). Our current study’s goal was to extend findings from previous research in typically developing children by using narratives as the context for eliciting and examining the use of complex syntax. We studied the syntactic complexity of narratives of 260 typically developing children ages 4 to 7. These children were given 3 narrative tasks during the TNL assessment which included retelling a story, composing a story from sequenced pictures, and producing a story from a single picture. All three tasks were used in order to explore potential differences in story contexts. The narratives were transcribed and coded by student researchers who were at least 90% reliable using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT; Miller, 2010). The syntactic complexity of these narratives was analyzed by coding for Subordination Index (SI) and the use of relative clauses. SI is a ratio of the number independent clauses to the number of C-units (i.e. independent main clauses and phrases/clauses subordinated to it) in each transcript. Subject and object relative clauses were identified and coded in each sample. It was expected that younger children would use fewer relative clauses than older children and prefer subject relative to object relative clauses. We hypothesized that children would use more complex syntax and relative clauses in sequenced scenes or retells as compared to those from a single picture. Implications for examining each context separately, rather than collapsing them are discussed. Data are discussed by age-group. Implications for how these data will inform our identification of students with language impairment by assessment of complex syntax will be discussed.

Africa has seen increased alcohol consumption and public health problems and alcohol has been identified as the “leading contributor to the burden of disease in Sub-Saharan Africa” (Limaye et. al. 2014). Malawi, a small, landlocked country in Sub-Saharan Africa, is at a pivotal moment with potential for progress as it just passed a National Alcohol Policy through Parliament this March 2017 (Malawi 2017). Much of the alcohol produced and purchased in Malawi is done through the informal economy, with women typically brewing alcohol as a means of economic sustainment. The Malawian policy document admits that “the informal production of alcohol offers huge health risks as it is hardly monitored to assure quality control in terms of alcohol volume and amount of impurities (Malawi 2017). Informal alcohol is often difficult to track, and the World Health Organization has little information on the production and usage of informal alcohol. The WHO stresses the importance of further study to understand both the composition and production of informal alcohol, along with its regulation, both legally and culturally, in low-income countries (Limaye et al. 2014 & WHO). As little research has been done with traditional brewers as the target population, I conducted interviews the summer of 2017 in Dowa District, Malawi, with 20 traditional brewers. This number constitutes the largest number of brewers interviewed in any research endeavor. I partnered with two local Malawian NGOs, The School of Agriculture for Family Independence and Drug Fight Malawi for local expertise advise and logistical assistance. The interviews included both quantitative and qualitative questions and was focused on understanding the components and brewing process that traditional brewers utilized. Other interview sections included alcohol selling, community alcohol usage, and personal/family alcohol consumption. This research found patterns in both alcohol production and consumption in this area of Malawi, granted understanding about the community position of local brewers, and identified local brewers as a key stakeholder in the attempts to stem the harmful effects of alcohol use.

As the most abused legal drug in the world, the prevalence of alcohol addiction indicates a need for change and the discovery of the processes that will enable researchers to break the cycle of addiction. Current dogma holds that dopamine (DA) release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) within the mesolimbic pathway is rewarding. Studying the effects of drugs on DA release sheds light on the mechanism of release and the possible discovery of treatment that might aid in the prevention and treatment of addiction. The relative dearth of animal studies conducted in females has led NIH to require researchers to consider sex as a variable in their studies in order to elucidate key sex related differences. However, despite these mandates, research has not been conducted on the effects of ethanol throughout the menstrual cycle. In human females, Ryback has determined that chronic alcohol consumption does disrupt the menstruation cycle in humans. (Ryback, 1977). This project’s purpose is to determine how the effects of alcohol on DA release in the NAc differ throughout the menstrual cycle thus improving our understanding of the neural substrates of alcohol addiction in women. Preliminary data has shown that while males show enhanced DA release by ethanol, females are characterized by a biphasic response consisting of enhancement followed by inhibition. Microdialysis trials are being employed in which a guide cannula is implanted in the NAc. A probe is inserted into the guide cannula and samples are taken by flowing artificial cerebral spinal fluid (aCSF) through the probe in order to collect dialysate samples every twenty minutes. After a baseline is established, ethanol is injected and samples are taken for the next three hours. Analysis is done using an HPLC to preform electrochemical separations. Using a variety of alcohol doses will create a dose response curve for alcohol in each phase of the menstruation cycle. The comparison of dose response curves throughout each phase will determine changes in alcohol mediated DA release. It is expected that preliminary conclusions can be reached regarding how DA release in response to alcohol is affected throughout proestrus, estrus, and diestrus in the female menstruation cycle. It is hoped that these conclusions will lead to better treatments for both men and women in conditions such as alcohol use disorder. Ryback, R. S. (1977). Chronic alcohol consumption and menstruation. JAMA, 238(20), 2143-2143.

Spatial and Temporal Preposition Comparison Alexander J. Cipro Prepositions are hard to define and often have multiple definitions, which are fairly abstract. In short, a preposition describes the relationship of a phrase or element to another phrase or element in a sentence. A phrase is a group of words working as a single unit in a sentence, such as “a man” or “running fast”. In the sentence “The cat is in the yard.” The preposition ‘in’ describes the relation between “the cat” and “the yard”. The two prepositions I will be looking at are ‘in’ and ‘within’. I will be using the definitions from Merriam-Webster’s 11th collegiate edition. Spatially, ‘in’ and ‘within’ are defined: ‘in’ (a function word to indicate inclusion, location or position within limits) and ‘within’ (used as a function word to indicate enclosure or containment). With prepositions having such similar definitions and uses is there an environmental reason we don't have just one of these preposition or is it purely a stylistic difference? Thus far I have found the 'in' seems to be generally acceptable when dealing with full or partial containment, while 'within' seems to only be acceptable under certain conditions. 'In' appears to be generally accepted as long as the container is supporting the object in some way. Example: "The apple is in the bowl" sounds much better than "the apple is within the bowl", but imagine if the apple I was mentioning was atop other apples and sitting above the lip of the bowl. 'In' is still an acceptable description, while 'within' goes from a marked sentence to an ungrammatical one. Depending on which of them is used with plural nouns, they can redefine the scope of the sentence. Example: "There is unrest in the tribe" vs "There is unrest within the tribe". The use of 'in' has a unifying connotation as if the tribe in a state of unrest due to an outside entity. While the use of 'within' gives a sense that the unrest is coming from the tribe itself. Using BYU's Corpus of Contemporary American English, I found both 'in' and 'within' dropped in frequency after 1994. While 'in' seemed to level off between 1995-2009, 'within' continued to decline until 2010 where it rose 19% in frequency, compared to 'in' which only had a 17% increase. Data analysis will be added after publishing the survey. The survey is pending IRB approval

As urban populations throughout the world continue to grow, a deeper understanding of water use behavior and the performance of water- saving fixtures is needed to plan for future water demand and ensure adequate provision of safe and clean water. Many residential water use studies have been conducted, but fewer studies have focused on identifying patterns of water use for specific socio-demographic groups or for specific water end uses (e.g., toilets, showers, etc.). Our current understanding of the water saving potential of fixtures that require voluntary action to decrease water usage such as dual-flush toilets is limited. Most current methods of metering water usage are focused on providing information for billing purposes and typically involve infrequent measurements (e.g., monthly) that cannot support inference of the timing of water usage patterns, identification of specific end uses, and potential opportunities for water conservation. It is also difficult to identify demographically and structurally homogeneous study areas for which data can be collected to characterize the water use of specific groups given that most residential areas or multi-family residential buildings house diverse populations within and may contain similar water-saving mechanisms between buildings. In this study, we quantified differences in toilet usage and its associated water consumption between men and women and between buildings both equipped and unequipped with dual-flush toilets by collecting high frequency water use data. Data were collected within two residential buildings segregated by gender and in two buildings similar in structure and appliances but differing in possessing dual-flush toilets versus single-volume, flushometer toilets. We used simple disaggregation methods to determine differences in the volume and timing of toilet usage by gender, volume of water consumed by both normal toilets and dual-flush toilets, and the proportion of low-flushes to high flushes before and after the residents of the buildings were exposed to an informational campaign tailored to conserving water. These results provide a greater understanding of water demand through toilet usage by gender, identified structural changes that could be made to conserve water, and may assist water managers in more accurately projecting future water needs.

Biomass contributes to several renewable energy technologies. This project will explore the use of fast pyrolysis to produce fuels and marketable materials in Malawian villages. Currently, the Malawian people harvest firewood from the forests, which is a major contributor to deforestation. Furthermore, they convert some of it to charcoal with about 10-15% efficiency to sell to city dwellers. The project will enable herbaceous fuels to replace wood, increase charcoal yields and create new products. Firewood and charcoal produce smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) that compromises the villagers’ health. This project will address deforestation problems, improve sustainability, decrease health hazards and improve the local economy. This project will increase the yield by a process called pyrolysis. Fast pyrolysis produces bio-oil in addition to charcoal from biomass. This project will investigate ways that fast pyrolysis can be implemented, using cornstover or any other accessible biomass such as sausage fruit and plants. We hope to develop a prototype fast-pyrolysis experiment that will be replicable in environments like the villages of Malawi. Prior experiments indicate that corn stalk can form bio-oil with up to 60% yield under laboratory conditions (Pittman 8). We will explore ways of doing this under Malawian village conditions. The research is relevant because it will help improve the energy yield from biomass, decrease deforestation, decrease health effects from using wood, and improve the village economy. The fast-pyrolysis process produces pyrolysis oil that that can be used as a fuel or sold. It also produces charcoal that can be substituted for wood charcoal or can be used to reintroduce carbon nutrients back in the soil. The project will address whether fast-pyrolysis process could be implemented specifically in Malawi, how that oil could be used for the benefit of the people, and if this solution can be extended to other subsistence farmer cultures. Long term, this process could open up business opportunities in the villages. The revenue from that could be used to improve livestyles in the village. The process, if implemented, will help empower the villages, will help educate and encourage sustainable projects in many other villages. That is the exciting aspect; the opportunity to not only help one village but to affect multiple villages starting with one or two. After reviewing the resources listed below and with my personal experience in Malawi, I am very excited and hopeful about the research.

In the early twentieth century, Charlotte Mannya Maxeke was the most eminent female leader in the South African resistance movement. As a prominent female member of the South African Native National Congress, the founder of the Bantu Women’s League in 1918, and the first black female South African to earn a bachelor’s degree in 1901, Maxeke labored unceasingly in the struggle for equal rights for both black Africans and women. Despite her leading role, relatively little scholarly research has focused on Maxeke and her life. The first dedicated biography of Maxeke was not published until 2016 by South African journalist Zubeida Jaffer. Among the great deal of scholarly work dealing with the history of the women’s resistance in South Africa, Maxeke’s contributions have only been lightly explored, leaving a great deal of Maxeke’s activism and legacy unexplored. The aim of the research was to use Maxeke’s own words to analyze her personal beliefs and construct a nuanced narrative of Maxeke’s intentions as an African woman as she struggled for justice and equality. Although Maxeke advocated for women’s rights and equal treatment for black South Africans, her Christian faith played a leading role in shaping her intentions for South Africa. Maxeke served selflessly to promote the ideas of dignity, family values, and faith in society. While Maxeke’s Christian emphasis often led to disconnect between her goals and those of other South African feminists, her position as a champion of women’s rights is undisputed. Ultimately Charlotte Maxeke’s life illustrates the variety of perspectives and goals within both women’s and African’s struggles for liberation in the twentieth century. To construct a narrative of Charlotte Maxeke’s intentions, research was undertaken to find her own words. The time period of the research spanned from the formation of the South African Native National Congress in 1912 to Maxeke’s death in 1939, focusing on sources from within the South African Colony. Using Newspaper articles written by Maxeke herself from Umteteli Wa Bantu and Abantu Batho, transcripts of Maxeke’s speeches, and meeting minutes from the SANNC and Bantu Women’s League, a clear picture of Maxeke’s motivations and contribution to the resistance movement was constructed. The sources were analyzed with the context of concurrent events in mind to understand the effect that oppressive state policies and resistance efforts had on Maxeke’s intentions and emphases as a leader.

The purpose of this meta-analysis is to assess the degree to which multicultural competency impacts the effectiveness of psychological interventions of culturally diverse clients. As a construct, multicultural competence refers to the professional skill sets that promotes efficacious interventions of clientele with diverse ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds. Research has clearly demonstrated that disparities exists in terms of access, utilization, and overall outcomes when therapies are applied to culturally diverse patients. It is the goal of this meta-analysis to provide an empirical basis for clinical practice, future research, and methods that effectively meet the needs of these minority populations. We identified 27 studies containing data on 3,314 clients’ experiences in mental health treatments as a function of their therapists’ level of multicultural competence. The studies were evenly divided between published articles (52%) and unpublished dissertations (48%), with the bulk of the research being conducted after the year 2000 (93%). Three aspects of client treatment were considered: (a) client perceptions of therapists and treatments; (b) client participation in treatment; and (c) client outcomes (i.e., symptom reduction). We analyzed outcomes across these three aspects of client treatment separately and as an aggregate statistic. The result of the random effects weighted correlation with therapist multicultural competence was r = .57, with differences among these three types of outcomes reaching statistical significance (Q = 13.3, p = .001). An important factor that moderated the association was the measure used to assess multicultural competency, considering its respective psychometric properties. The distribution of effect sizes did not indicate that a publication bias affected the analysis of the data. When competencies are measured by the client, the results indicate that client participation and client outcomes significantly improve as a function of therapists’ multicultural competency. Although the overall variance is relatively moderate, it is comparable to other known predictors of change in therapeutic settings.

Erin Kaseda, Brigham Young University Background: It is estimated that between 5-10% of children and adolescents in the United States have been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). For adolescents with ADHD, parent-child relationships experience increased conflict and poorer parenting practices. Interpersonal difficulties among both peers and family members put children with ADHD at risk for comorbid disorders, including depression and anxiety. Very little research has been done on children’s own perception of parental support or on the strength of parent’s marital quality as mediating factors on the negative symptomology of ADHD. The project will bridge this gap in the current literature. Methods: 10 adolescents aged 14-19 (M=17, N= 7 female, 3 male) with an official diagnosis of ADHD completed surveys and participated in a semi-structured interview. Participants were asked questions about self-control in school and in home settings, how their relationship with their parents influence their self-control, and their overall perceptions of their parent-child relationships. The interviews were transcribed and coded for factors that improve or hinder adolescents’ comfort in confiding in or sharing their feelings with their parents. Results: Participants were mostly white (50%) or Latino/a (40%) and from middle to high income families (100%). When asked how comfortable they felt sharing their feelings with or confiding in their parents, 33% of subjects reported feeling very comfortable, 40% somewhat comfortable, and 27% as not comfortable. When asked who they tend to go to for advice or support, 30% of subjects reported that there is no one that they are likely to go to. Participants also reported on specific actions their parents take that make it more difficult for them to confide in them. Responses included, ÛÏI can’t tell them the things I feel guilty aboutÛ_it’s scary;Û ÛÏIf they give me advice that I think [was] a little bit too judgmental, I’ll probably not come back to them;Û and ÛÏThere’s just kind of a difference in perspective.Û Conclusions: Understanding adolescents’ own perception of parental support and factors that make it difficult for them to confide in their parents has significant potential for clinicians in creating family-based interventions and therapies for adolescents with ADHD. Additionally, the finding that a third of subjects do not have peers or other adults that they feel comfortable going to for support is significant for school-based interventions. Further research needs to be done on the differences in social network size between adolescents with ADHD and their typically developing peers.