Browsing by Subject "college"
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Item ATTACHMENT STYLES AND PERCEPTIONS OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IN A COLLEGE POPULATIONWalker, Jordan Lane; Eoff, Shirley M; Kreitler, Crystal M; Brewer, Steven TThe investigators sought to explore the correlation between attachment style and alcohol consumption that has been highlighted by previous researchers (McNally, Palfai, Levine, & Moore, 2003; De Rick, Vanheule, & Verhaeghe, 2009; Tops, Koole, Ijzerman, & Buisman-Pijlman, 2014). Specifically, the current study measured factors such as current alcohol use levels, estimated alcohol use levels of peers, motivations for consuming alcohol, and self-esteem in a college population. The current study was not able to reestablish the correlation between insecure attachment styles and increased alcohol consumption. However, alcohol consumption was found to have several significant positive correlations with social motivations, coping motivations, enhancement motivations, and estimated alcohol use of peers. Additionally, the current study found that, on average, participants estimated their peers’ levels of alcohol consumption to be almost five times higher than the amount of alcohol that they personally consumed. Among other implications discussed, the results could guide university staff members in creating underage drinking prevention initiativesItem Dietary, Physical Activity, and Sedentary Behaviors and Their Relationship to Weight Gain in a College Age Population(2012-10-19) Lee, Faegen DillonWeight gain affects all living beings and excessive weight gain can lead to obesity and comorbidities linked to obesity. In order to better understand how the college student population gains weight and increase in BMI, data collected under the Council of Environment and Dietary Activity (CEDA) at Texas A&M University was examined and analyzed in order to understand how physical activity, sedentary behavior, and dietary activity affect weight gain or weight loss. The college population was divided into BMI categories, gender, and where they lived on campus at Texas A&M University. The data shows that physical activity was associated with loss of weight and BMI in females. Sedentary behavior was associated with weight gain in males but also weight loss in females. Meat consumption was associated with weight gain in males. Fish consumption was associated with weight loss in females. Pastries consumption was associated with weight gain in females. Physical activity appeared to have a stronger effect on weight than dietary behavior even though both can interact to affect weight for females. Speed of service and location have a significant effect on where students would eat. In conclusion, physical activity and sedentary activity have an effect on weight and BMI. Diet can also have an effect on weight and BMI. More specifically, sugar snacks affect weight in females and meat affects weight and BMI in males. However, physical activity appears to have a larger on weight and BMI than diet. Location also affects where a student will eat.Item Everything But: Exploring Definitions of Sexual Outercourse Among Undergraduate Students(2011-02-22) Menn, Mindy AlisonThis thesis analyzed if undergraduate students at a Southern university use the term outercourse to describe sexual behaviors that exclude penile-vaginal intercourse. A literature review revealed that no universal definition of outercourse exists and no forward progression toward a more cohesive definition was observed. Furthermore, 22 various sexual behaviors were recognized as possible outercourse behaviors. Following the literature review, a quantitative study with a minor qualitative component was conducted at a large Southern university. For this phase, 426 students responded to a 34-item online survey. After providing basic demographic information, students were asked to select the single term to describe sexual behaviors that do not include penile-vaginal intercourse. Furthermore, students were asked to determine whether or not they would classify 28 various sexual behaviors as outercourse. The respondents were provided space after each behavior to qualify or elaborate upon any uncertainty they had about the classification of a behavior. Frequencies were tabulated for the qualitative responses to each behavior. The number of comments ranged from 2 to 85 and sadomasochistic activity garnered the most comments (85). Frequency statistics were computed for all quantitative variables. Crosstabs were calculated to determine the demographic characteristics of respondents and non-respondents for each behavior. The results revealed that a majority of the respondents were female (67.4%) and heterosexual (95.5%). Respondents preferred the term "fooling around" (63.4%) instead of outercourse (3.4%) to refer to sexual behaviors that exclude penile-vaginal intercourse. The respondents determined ten behaviors to be outercourse, five behaviors to not be outercourse, and 13 behaviors could not be classified due to the lack of a majority response. For each of the sexual behaviors, approximately 25% of the sample did not provide a response. Crosstabs revealed that freshmen students were more likely than their upperclassman counterparts to omit a response to a behavior. In contrast, juniors were most likely to respond to the sexual behavior questions. The findings from this thesis have provided a catalyst for future interdisciplinary research endeavors and practical implications for health educators and medical professionals who work with undergraduate students.Item Life events and their impact on the mental health of young black men: a qualitative and quantitative study(Texas A&M University, 2007-09-17) Watkins, Daphne CharleneAlthough it is presumed that men who acquire a college education will also achieve middle-class status, middle-class status does not provide Black men with the anticipated reductions for some health risks. Black men who attend predominately white institutions (PWIs) are reported to face many obstacles such as racism, isolation, alienation, and lack of support compared to Black men who attend historically Black colleges/universities (HBCUs). Formative research methods were used to obtain information about stressors of Black college men and how these stressors influence their mental health and health behaviors. Focus groups captured men's understanding of mental health and their stressful life events while a questionnaire was used to obtain general health information, including depressive symptoms (i.e. feeling sad, nervous, hopeless, and worthless). Results suggest that there are no major differences between the health of Black college men at a PWI and a HBCU; however, men at each institution experience different levels of psychosocial stress as a function of their academic settings. Future research should explore the mental health of Black college men more thoroughly and include an in-depth exploration of their health practices.Item Predictors of complementary and alternative medicine use among Texas university undergraduates(Texas A&M University, 2006-10-30) Versnik Nowak, Amy L.Research regarding use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among all populations in America is needed to understand what seems to be an increasing trend. Education has been shown to be a significant determinant of CAM use, therefore, college students are likely to be CAM users. Little research has addressed the prevalence and predictors of CAM use among this population, so the purpose of this study was to: (1) measure the prevalence and type of CAM use among a sample of college undergraduates; and (2) test the significance of select social-cognitive constructs and demographics as predictors of CAM use. A random sample of undergraduate students within the Texas A&M University System was solicited via email to complete a web-based survey. Findings show high rates of CAM use. Gender, attitude toward CAM, outcome expectancies regarding the health care encounter, and social network use of CAM were shown to be significant predictors of CAM use. Results can inform health care and health education professionals interested in improving health care processes and addressing positive and negative issues related to CAM use.Item Sister Act: Understanding Sorority Women's Communication About Condom Use(2011-10-21) Hernandez, Rachael A.Young women?s sexual health is declining. Sorority women face an intersectionality of risk for the negative consequences of sexual activity because of college attendance, sex, and age. The influence of peer communication about condom use can provide a buffer to the risk these women face. I investigated this communication through focus groups, using the theory of communication privacy management and grounded theory to understand focus group findings. The results revealed themes regarding characteristics of communicators and context of communication including communication topic and setting. The women use strategies, boundaries and rules to negotiate communication privacy and engage in comfortable communication. Additionally, the women seek to maintain a good reputation for their social group, and follow explicit and implicit rules to do so. The implication of this analysis includes improvements in sorority and college student sexual health programming and continued research on communication in social support organizations like sororities.Item The effects of a computerized-algebra program on mathematics achievement of college and university freshmen enrolled in a developmental mathematics course(Texas A&M University, 2007-04-25) Taylor, Judy M.We face a world in which a college degree increasingly dictates the likelihood of life success. At the same time, there has been an ever-increasing population of students who have not been prepared adequately through their high school education to meet the rigors of college/university-level content. This problem can be seen in the number of students needing Intermediate Algebra. Students who complete remedial courses with a grade of C or better are more likely to pass their first college-level mathematics course and continue their education until they have completed all coursework needed for a degree. Students entering colleges and universities underprepared for collegiate mathematics, reading, and writing have reached epidemic proportions, with 30% of the students needing remediation in one of these areas. A portion of this problem has been identified as mathematics anxiety. Because students have habituated mathematics failure, they are aware of their deficiencies, but still desire a college education. They bring with them years of negative emotions from repeated mathematics failures. These years of negative feelings about mathematics precipitated by repeated failures are often manifested as mathematics anxiety that must be addressed in order to improve students?????? content knowledge. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a web-based technology centric course, Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS), on the remediation of college freshmen enrolled in an Intermediate Algebra class as compared to college freshmen enrolled in an Intermediate Algebra class taught using a traditional lecture method. Mathematics anxiety and attitude toward mathematics will also be investigated to determine if ALEKS can lower the anxiety associated with mathematics, as well as improve attitudes. An algebra test, mathematics anxiety rating scale, and mathematics attitude test was given to both groups of students at the beginning of the semester and at the end of the semester. The overall findings of this research suggested that ALEKS Intermediate Algebra students performed as well as the Control group taking a class in Intermediate Algebra taught by lecture. The anxiety of the Experimental group decreased more than the Control group, and the Experimental group??????s attitude toward mathematics increased at a greater rate than did the Control group.