School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) are an integral part of schools across the United States. When implementing SWPBIS, academic achievement, emotional regulation, prosocial behavior increases while behavioral problems, bullying, exclusionary discipline teacher stress and teacher burnout decrease. Despite the…

Purpose: This quality improvement (QI) project evaluated the effectiveness of an educational intervention to enhance adult ADHD patients' understanding and acceptance of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) as an augmentative treatment. The goal was to encourage participants to pursue an MBCT referral from their provider. This initiative was…

Empathic design involves two social practices -- one is collaboration with users to elicit and make a meaning of user experiences, and another is intrateam collaboration to develop a mutually understood, agreed-upon interpretation of user experiences among team members. This study is focused on the latter phenomenon, conceptualizing this social…

Parasocial Relationships can mirror social relationships, particularly to individuals in isolation. Student Affairs practitioners were enormously impacted by the conditions of the Great Distress Era (the period that included the COVID-19 restrictions, racial violence and protests in response, political unrest). Many engaged in parasocial…

This applied dissertation was designed to improve the effectiveness of professional educators in using the methodology of functional behavior assessment (FBA) and function assessment-based intervention (FABI) to reduce challenging behaviors exhibited by students with Down syndrome (DS), or a dual diagnosis of Down syndrome and autism spectrum…

Supervision is critical to the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) because it improves the quality of services provided to the recipients of behavioral services which in turn increases client protection and helps to portray the field of ABA as one that is committed to socially significant behavior change (Britton & Cicoria, 2019; Brodhead…

The volunteer workforce is the backbone of any nonprofit organization. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, however, even though many people have returned to work, leisure, and volunteering, there are others that have not, leaving many volunteer positions empty. As organizations return to the basics of recruiting, leading, and retaining the volunteer…

This mixed methodology phenomenological case study, which included an explanatory sequential research design, explored the behaviors principals employ when promoting fidelity to universal Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior (MTSS-B), otherwise known as Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). The target population consisted of…

This dissertation aimed to explore the use of machine learning (ML) models in in-patient clinical settings. A literature review was conducted to identify existing guidelines and frameworks for such models, and an in-depth study was conducted on ML-based models to understand their behavior and implications on patient outcomes. A conceptual…

This study examines the effect of increasing literacy skills during incarceration to improve adult inmate behavior, defined as a reduction in disciplinary reports received by participants. Male offenders, 18 years or older, housed in the Iowa Department of Corrections between July 1, 2017-June 30, 2019 who completed two or more TABE Reading…

Digital phenotyping is defined as the "moment-by-moment quantification of the individual level human phenotype in situ using data from personal digital devices". The passive data collected by smartphone devices, including GPS, accelerometer and communication logs, can provide insights on users' behaviors that could be related to various…

This program was developed to offer caretakers information and support in their role as gatekeepers for their children and preadolescent's consumption of technology. Information is offered via psychoeducation, research, and statistics concerning the trajectory and effects of unsupervised, passive, excessive, and/or counteractive interaction of…

The leadership styles and behaviors of supervisors preferred by pharmaceutical sales professionals during periods of varied sales performance were explored in this qualitative study. A phenomenological approach was used to address the gap in research on how the leadership styles of the supervisors of pharmaceutical salespeople affect the…

Previous research indicated teachers' attitudes significantly impact the success of inclusion programs for students with disabilities. In this quantitative, correlational study, the capability of cultural dimensions (Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions) to predict components of urban, secondary inclusion teachers' attitudes (the Tripartite Model of…

This qualitative transcendental phenomenological study describes the lived experiences of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II (DII) women's soccer coaches during preseason. A two-pronged conceptual framework that includes path-goal leadership theory and sensemaking theory guided the inquiry, and data was collected through…