Valuing Ecosystem Services from Private Forests

Non-market valuation, ecosystem services, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Intergenerational Transmission of Violence: Parent-Child Profiles and Dating Violence in Latino Adolescents

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a critical public health problem that has a broad range of negative consequences on not only the individuals in the relationship but also on their children. Although Latino adolescents experience dating violence at a higher rate than White adolescents, little research has investigated the risk and protective factors associated with this group. Witnessing domestic violence has been associated to an increased risk in experiencing dating violence as adolescents. The pattern of IPV exposed youth to later experience violent relationships has been described as the intergenerational transmission of violence (ITV). Although youth exposed to IPV are at an increased risk for experiencing and perpetrating violence in their own relationships, not all do. This dissertation moves research on ITV beyond a deficit focus by using a resilience framework to investigate parenting relationships as protective factors for dating violence. A subsample of data Latino adolescents and their mothers’ were analyzed from a larger Welfare, Children, and Families (WCF) study. This study extends previous cross-sectional research by using longitudinal data to assess risk and protective factors when youth were 10-14 years old and its relationship to their own use of violence seven years later. Latent class analysis was conducted to understand the contextual and cultural factors related to the development of adolescent dating violence: acculturation, gender, and positive parent-child relationships were examined as influencing ITV. Three classes emerged that indicate unique combinations of risk and resilience. Two of these classes predicted differential associations with adolescent dating violence. A class indicating moderate-risk/low-protection and mothers with high acculturation was significantly related to increased odds of adolescents experiencing dating violence, both as victims and as perpetrators. A class indicating low-risk/high-protection and mothers with low acculturation significantly predicted increased odds of perpetrating dating violence but no significant relationship was found with victimization. Findings suggest that holistic family based approach to dating violence and adult domestic violence may be most effective for Latino adolescents and their IPV exposed mothers

Exploring Social Support in Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers in South Georgia

Migrant and Seasonal Farm Workers (MSFWs) in the United States live and work within ever changing contexts, which require researchers to take into account multiple environmental and psychosocial stressors influencing mental health. The current study examined factors of social support and social isolation for MSFWs in South Georgia. Social isolation and support characteristics were identified and examined in association with depression among 120 Latino, male, MSFWs in South Georgia. Several protective and risk factors for depression were identified. Depression symptoms varied based on MSFWs household composition, perceived social isolation stressors, the frequency in which they called home and having socially supportive relationships in the local area. Results highlight the importance of examining social support in the context of cultural and community fit

Many Loves

It seems we are always looking for love, many times in all the wrong places. We look to other people, material things or, social status to give us love. In writing this piece I explored the many aspects of love, external and internal, which touch a person. Love seems to be as important as food and water for one to thrive, and somewhat easier to give than receive. I have personally struggled with self-love and continue to remind myself that I am a unique, complicated person that contributes positively to society. As I stated in the piece, To love one\u27s self takes so much effort and pain, time, learning, and acceptance. Maybe we are the artist and the work in progress

Divergent Microbial Profiles in Tumor and Adjacent Normal Tissue across Cancer Types

Ph.D.Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 201