Examining Mental Health in Boston College Undergraduates

Thesis advisor: Sara MoormanThesis advisor: Lacee SatcherThe well-being of students is pivotal to the success of higher education institutions, yet students are experiencing an unsettling rise in mental health issues. This study aims to examine the mental health status of Boston College undergraduates and how different institutional and social factors shape variance in mental health. Undergraduate students (N=919) completed an anonymous online survey asking about mental well-being, campus attitudes/culture, and support resources on campus. significant relationships between mental health outcomes and self-rated mental health, feeling tired or having little energy, poor appetite or overeating, thoughts of self-harm, and seeking support for mental health difficulties. Additionally, There are statistically significant relationships between the prevalence of mental health diagnoses and school, race/ethnicity, and sex. Attempting to access University Counseling Services also varies by sex, race/ethnicity, and graduation year. I provide strategies to improve future research, support the well-being of undergraduates, and increase student engagement with mental health resources and practices.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Sociology

Let The Boys Play: Omission Bias in MLB Umpires

Thesis advisor: Christopher MaxwellThis paper investigates the existence of omission bias in Major League Baseball’s home plate umpires. Omission bias describes the human tendency to prefer harm caused by inaction, or acts of omission, over equal harm caused by action, or acts of commission. For umpires, I define an act of commission as a call made by the umpire that ends the at-bat and an act of omission as a call that does not end the bat. By analyzing over 1.5 million pitches thrown between the years 2018 and 2022, I find that MLB umpires display omission bias by systematically increasing the size of the enforced strike zone on three-ball counts and shrinking the size of the enforced strike zone on two-strike counts. Further, I find that omission bias exists separately from and is not impacted by other biases present in MLB umpiring, such as the biases favoring home batters and star batters.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Economics

A Love-Hate Relationship: The Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage and the Number of Reported Anti-LGBT+ Hate Crimes in the United States

Thesis advisor: Geoffrey SanzenbacherOddly, as acceptance of LGBT+ individuals continues to rise in the United States, the number of reported anti-LGBT+ hate crimes also rises (McCarthy 2022, Author’s calculations from Uniform Crime Reporting data). Could this be the result of a violent backlash against the legalization of same-sex marriage? This paper investigates this love-hate relationship using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’s Uniform Crime Reporting system. Utilizing a collection of difference-in- differences regressions, this analysis compares the number of reported anti-LGBT+ hate crimes in a state before and after that state’s legalization of same sex marriage. The results suggest that states have a higher number of reported hate crimes per month after their legalization of same-sex marriage when controlling for population. A placebo regression shows that this effect is not found with other kinds of hate crimes. Two potential explanations for this finding are explored: firstly, that reporting of anti-LGBT+ hate crimes in a state becomes more reliable after that state’s legalization of same-sex marriage or, alternatively, that the number of hate crimes committed against LGBT+ individuals rises.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Economics

" Our Own Language, Our Own Voice, Our Own Art”: The Second Wave Feminist Media in Boston

Thesis advisor: Martin SummersThe second wave feminist media, defined as ideological contributions via the written word, played an essential role in the second wave by sharing radical ideologies and bringing women into a feminist consciousness. This study examines the herstory of three groups in Boston at the time: the Second Wave magazine (1971-1983), the Combahee River Collective (1974-1980), and Persephone Press (1976-1983). Each group had different motivations yet remained dedicated to the radical feminist media and various methods of societal upheaval. As a radical feminist magazine, a black feminist organization, and lesbian-feminist publishing house respectively, the women behind the three entities aspired to alter the face of second wave feminism. Each had several commonalities: including a commitment to the feminist media, factionalism and ideological strife, difficulties in balancing beliefs with harsh systemic realities, and a great connection to coalitions and the greater feminism community. The Second Wave, the Combahee River Collective, and Persephone Press may appear conflicting at first glance but shared a great commitment to facing sexist oppression through the written word.Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: History

Solidarity with Grieving Farmers in India: An Ethical and Pastoral Approach in the Context of Increasing Suicides Among the Farmers

Thesis advisor: James F. KeenanThesis advisor: Melissa KelleyThis thesis examines the diverse challenges that confront Indian farmers and delves into the biblical and ethical resources at our disposal for recognizing and responding as disciples of Christ. Additionally, it provides recommendations and suggestions based on successful modes and best practices from various regions for bringing hope, healing, and transformation to the lives of farmers in India.Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology

Bearing One Another's Burdens: Synodal Trauma-Aware Relational Pastoral Caregiving Ministry for Families in the Local Church

Thesis advisor: Jane E. ReganIn the contemporary United States, trauma is a significant disruptive force in the lives of families. By its nature, however, traumatic suffering isolates and marginalizes its victims, with the result that the pastoral caregiving needs of suffering people can go unrecognized and unmet. This dissertation proposes that caring for families who struggle to cope in contexts of traumatic suffering and chronic distress is a vital work of mission for the Catholic church in the twenty-first century. It further proposes that this work can best be enacted in the local church setting when configured as a synodal, trauma-aware, relational, caregiving community of practice (a STAR caregiving CoP) ministry. The ministerial model offered here is designed to enable parishes and dioceses to develop compassionate, competent ministerial initiatives that can meet the particular needs of families in their communities. Grounded in the theoretical discourses of theological anthropology, ecclesiology, situated learning theory, the ethic of care, and traumatology, the model also reflects insights drawn from the author’s qualitative doctoral research study of two pastoral caregiving ministries that serve men and women struggling with the personal traumas that erupt in family life. The STAR caregiving CoP model offers the local church a flexible, robust framework to employ in the construction and evaluation of familial pastoral caregiving ministries.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry

TheImago Trinitatis: Towards an Analogy of Interpersonal Mind

Thesis advisor: Jeremy D. WilkinsThis dissertation draws upon the work of Thomas Aquinas and Bernard J. F. Lonergan in order to put forward an integrated theorem of the imago Trinitatis. The theorem of the imago Trinitatis, in Catholic theology, is a theorem about how human persons imitate and reflect the triune God. In Aquinas and Lonergan, the imago Trinitatis is identified with the intelligent emanations of word and love that occur within the human mind. But, according to Aquinas, the imago Trinitatis can be considered in two respects: first, as a likeness by analogy—that is, an analogical likeness—and, second, as a likeness by conformity between the human and the divine. The first two chapters explain each of these likenesses in Aquinas, and the next two chapters explain each of these likenesses in Lonergan. The final chapter of this dissertation proposes a complementary analogical likeness of the Trinity in humans: an analogical likeness based upon shared intentionality. It further explains how this likeness is related to the analogical likeness based upon intelligent emanation in Aquinas and Lonergan. In doing so, this dissertation defends an integrated conception of the analogical likeness of the Trinity in human beings, as it unites the analogical likeness based upon intelligible emanation occurring in the human mind and the analogical likeness based upon shared intentionality as interpersonal, coordinated activity. The imago Trinitatis, then, is at once personal and interpersonal, and the analogues for the Trinity in humans are both psychological and communal.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Theology

Essays in Industrial Organization and Applied Microeconomics:

Thesis advisor: Michael D. GrubbThesis advisor: Julie Holland MortimerThis dissertation consists of three self-contained essays that explore industrial organization of the advertising agency and airline markets, as well as the role of local political environment in identification of treatment effects in minimum wage studies. In the first chapter, “Competitor Avoidance and the Structure of the Advertising Agency Industry in the United States,” co-authored with Sylvia Hristakeva, we develop an applied theory model to show that the tendency of advertisers to avoid sharing their agencies with product-market competitors may have led to creation of a unique organizational structure in the advertising agency market, known as a holding company (HC). HCs control multiple agencies and coordinate their bidding choices when competing for new clients. Although many other professional service markets, such as markets for legal and accounting services, feature competitor avoidance, HCs are forbiddingly costly in these markets due to restrictions on outside ownership. Using a theoretical model, we show that HC structure helps agencies manage client conflicts by allowing them to choose an unconflicted agency to bid for a client. We collect a novel dataset on identities of bidding agencies and estimate that serving an advertiser's competitor reduces an agency's odds to compete for the advertiser by 91.6 percent. We predict that the market concentration would increase by 35 percent if competitor avoidance was not a factor in this market. We also predict that banning bid coordination within HCs would increase the average number of bidders in an account review from four to nine. Auction theory predicts that an increase in the number of bidders would create a downward pressure on the mark-ups charged by agencies, however some of this pressure may be counteracted by increased costs of winning a client due to entering multiple bids. In the second chapter, “’Use It or Lose It,’ or ‘Cheat and Keep?’ The Effects of Slot Restrictions on Airline Incentives,” co-authored with Ratib Ali, we investigate the impact of slot control on competition in the domestic airline market. The Federal Aviation Administration manages congestion in high-density airports by capping the number of flights permitted in any given hour and allocating the rights (or slots) to a take-off or landing among airlines. Airlines must use their slots at least 80% of the time to keep them for the next season. This rule creates a perverse incentive for airlines to hold on to underutilized slots by operating unprofitable flights instead of forfeiting these slots to a rival. Using exogenous removal of slot control at the Newark Airport in 2016, we investigate the lengths at which airlines go to meet the minimum requirements that let them keep the slots while violating what a neutral observer might call the “spirit” of the regulation. In the third chapter, “Political Trends in Minimum Wage Policy Evaluation Studies,” co-authored with Andrew Copland and Jean-François Gauthier, we explore the role of local political environment in identification of treatment effects in minimum wage studies. The effects of minimum wage on employment in low-wage sectors have long been debated in the literature. Some economists find small disemployment effects, whereas others argue that these effects are close to zero and statistically insignificant. The core of the debate lies in establishing adequate control groups for areas that experience minimum wage changes. At the same time, minimum wage changes are almost always a consequence of a political vote. Our paper adds to the debate surrounding control group identification by highlighting the importance of accounting for underlying political trends. Failure to do so may result in a violation of the standard “parallel trends” assumption maintained in most of the literature. We illustrate this possibility by re-estimating Dube et al. (2010) on a sample of politically aligned and unaligned counties and controlling for state expenditures that may be used to finance confounding policies. We document that the sample of never politically aligned county pairs produces a positive and significant estimate of elasticity of employment (0.245), suggesting that the restaurant industry labor market may be non-competitive. In contrast, when we restrict the Dube et al. (2010) sample to perfectly politically aligned counties, we obtain a marginally significant estimate of employment elasticity of -0.145. These two estimates explain the seminal result in Dube et al. (2010) that the elasticity of employment with respect to minimum wage is zero.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Economics

St. Teresa of Jesus's Self-understanding through the Humanity of Christ

Thesis advisor: André BrouilletteThesis advisor: Colleen GriffithThesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology

Forming Agents, Forming Families: Moral Agency in the Context of Procreation

Thesis advisor: Lisa S. CahillWeaving qualitative interview analysis together with ethical inquiry, this project traces the trajectories of Catholic women and couples who hope to form families but contend with infertility and consider whether and how to treat it. Motivating this study is the challenge of balancing individual agency with the role of powerful social forces that shape agency. Examining and critiquing the social forces that shape the circumstances in which Catholic women and couples in the U.S. contend with infertility, this dissertation demonstrates how agential freedom is conditioned by familial, clinical, and ecclesial cultures and structures. It harnesses sociological tools and theological resources to argue for an account of agency that prioritizes critical engagement of contextual factors and suggests that the Church as a moral teacher ought to support the cultivation of this agency. Chapter one challenges the model of moral agency found in magisterial teachings that oppose the use of contraception and reproductive technologies, which suggests that lay Catholics ought to obey magisterially prescribed norms regardless of context. The chapter argues that the magisterial model of moral agency does not adequately account for the role of context in shaping agency, and it instead proposes an account of contextually situated agency that resonates with Pope Francis’ prioritization of contextual realties in his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The second chapter demonstrates how various social forces, including structures supporting heterosexual marriage, cultural ideals related to biological childbearing, and ecclesial structures of marital formation all contribute to U.S. Catholic couples’ family formation choices and can intensify burdens of infertility. The chapter proposes a reorientation of Catholic support for families centered on justice in relationships and Christian discipleship instead of family structure. The third chapter examines how cultural ideals related to childbearing, the medicalization of infertility, and social location all contribute to shaping how Catholic women in the U.S. make sense of infertility. Contesting the cultural notion that women are responsible for infertility with reference to a criterion of justice, it describes infertility as a kind of biological bad luck also shaped by systemic forces. Structural injustices related to sexism and racism in healthcare function to distribute the bad luck of infertility unjustly based on societal vulnerabilities, which constitutes a kind of social sin. The fourth chapter considers how two different understandings of Catholic identity shape treatment trajectories of Catholics contending with infertility toward either secular fertility clinics or Catholic clinics. It then examines these two clinical settings, demonstrating how contextual pressures shape how Catholics make treatment choices and underscoring how Catholic moral commitments can support moral agents’ resistance to these pressures. Its final section considers the social forces at work in adoption and fostering. The final chapter turns to the role of the Church in supporting the moral agency of Catholics making decisions regarding family formation and infertility treatment. After analyzing and critiquing the dominant ideals found in Catholic and secular support group settings, it suggests that synodal commitments of mutual listening and inclusive dialogue can support the development of new structures of moral discernment in the Church. It concludes by considering how the social witness of the Church can contribute to the transformation of sinful social forces that constrain the freedom of women and couples contending with infertility.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Theology