Jodi A. Ross Ms. Ross is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology. Her dissertation title is, “We’re Not Gonna Take IT…” Neighborhood Gentrification and Informal Social Control.
The specific purpose of this study is to understand the social and cultural influences on neighborhood informal social control and the local production of collective efficacy. The project will utilize ethnographic methods to produce a detailed analysis of the ways in which local neighborhood context (e.g. social, cultural, material, political) shapes the proximate mechanisms of informal social control. The specific research questions are designed to engage directly with the key findings, gaps and underspecified constructs in the literature. These questions include:
a) How is the “crime problem” described and defined in this neighborhood?
b) What are the “common goals” of the neighborhood with respect to crime control and how are they produced, articulated, and achieved?
c) In what ways does the gentrification of the neighborhood contribute to this definition, these “common goals” and to social control efforts in the neighborhood?
d) How do these processes produce collective efficacy at the local level?
Lisaann Gittner Ms. Gittner is a doctoral student in the Department of Public Administration and Urban Studies.
Her dissertation title is, “From Farm to Fat Kids: The Intersection of U.S. Health and Agricultural Policy”
The study addresses a gap in the evidence because it looks at the intersection of childhood obesity and the nation’s diet during the 20th century.
The study will describe from 1900 to 2000:
1) change in pediatric body mass overlaid with the composition of the U.S. food supply;
2) trends in children’s weight following adoption of different federal agricultural policies;
3) trends in children’s weight following adoption of significant U.S. health policies and medical practices (confounders); and
4) patterns of change in pediatric body mass overlaid with previous generations’ pediatric body mass patterns.
The Research Questions are:
RQ1 - The aggregation of U.S. Agricultural and Nutrition policies throughout the past century has created a selection process for phenotypes that are ‘thrifty’ (i.e. have metabolic settings that support obesity).
RQ2 – The expression of the ‘thrifty’ phenotype coupled with the change in the food environment has created the large spike in obesity that has been seen in the last 30 years in the United States.
Margaret C. Baughman Ms. Baughman is a doctoral student in the Department of Public Administration and Urban Studies.
Her dissertation title is, “Citizen Participation in Identifying Barriers to Ohio’s Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Treatment Services."
The proposed study will determine if consensus exists regarding Ohio’s adolescent alcohol and drug treatment system among the stakeholders who participated in the Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Coordination Project. The purpose of this study is to test the validity of the assumption that policymakers and program implementers know the service delivery needs of their clientele (consumers of adolescent alcohol and drug treatment services) by conducting Factor Analysis, Analysis of Variance, and Multiple Regression statistical techniques. Specifically, this study will determine if citizens (program users) identify the same barriers to accessing adolescent substance abuse treatment as the providers of these services.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2009 Barbara J. Stephens Dissertation Award.
2008 WINNER OF THE BARBARA J. STEPHENS AWARD
Lee Thibodeaux
 The 2008 Barbara J. Stephens Dissertation Award goes to Lee Thibodeaux.
Mr. Thibodeaux is a doctoral student in Public Administration and Urban Studies. His dissertation title is Measuring the diffusion of a Federal Drug Policy: Implementation of evidenced-Based substance Use Prevention Programs in Ohio Public School Districts
Mr. Thibodeaux dissertation is an examination of school-based substance use prevention in Ohio. The study seeks to address two research questions. 1) the extent to which Ohio public school districts have implemented each of the four principles of effectiveness; and 2) the relationship of the 5 independent variables to the implementation of the principles. The organizational variables of size, complexity and centralization, and the population variables of poverty and population density will be examined in the analysis.
Congratulations to the future Dr. Lee Thibodeaux.
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