One in five undergraduate students in the United States is also a parent raising at least one child (Gault et al., 2014), but few will complete a bachelor's degree within six years. Using Greene's (2014) Ecological Resiliency Model as a conceptual framework, this phenomenological study examines the persistence of 38 single mothers in the latter…

This thesis consists of two projects I worked on simultaneously throughout my PhD. Although neither project builds on the other, both investigate social systems as networks, and draw on a common set of statistical tools and methods.In the first project, I analyse the academic employment and doctoral education of tenure- track faculty at all…

Using descriptive statistics and logistic regressions, this study compared U.S. Census data from 22-24-year-old women in 1980 and 2020 to determine the individual and contextual variables most predictive of bachelor's degree attainment. The regressions were conducted for women overall, women who have ever enrolled in college, mothers, and mothers…

There are numerous widely recognized advantages to pursuing post-secondary education. Yet colleges offer students different resources and educational experiences, which may introduce inequality in the returns to college enrollment. This dissertation uses nationally representative data from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS:2002) and the 1997…

In this study, I investigated marriage and family therapy (MFT) accredited graduate programs' utilization of social media as a platform to educate the public about the MFT profession's unique systemic relational orientation. This study also explored MFT graduate programs' representation on social media and highlighted the issues of public…

Translanguaging research among multilingual students has received considerable attention across different contexts of practice. The most robust contexts in translanguaging research have been the classroom contexts between teacher and students. This study examined the affordances of translanguaging spaces "between class sessions" in…

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the interaction between the constructs of spirituality and religiosity of Orthodox Judaism with marriage. Eight participants were selected to be interviewed for this study. All of the participants were from the Greater Cleveland area and considered themselves to be members of the Orthodox Jewish…

This dissertation is related to the areas of labor, education, and health economics. In a dramatic reversal from the recent past decades, more women than men now attend college in the U.S. and worldwide. Meanwhile, both male and female marriage rates have declined, especially for younger cohorts. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the implications of the…

Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) are historically disadvantaged communities that face discrimination on the grounds of their lower social positioning in society. This dissertation comprises 5 Chapters. Chapter 1 provides a brief outline regarding the stratification in India based on Caste and illustrates the importance of studying…

In the first chapter titled "Cognitive Ability, Education, and Fertility Risk", I explore the role of cognitive ability in fertility timing. Women in the bottom quartile of the cognitive ability distribution are nine times more likely to have their first child as a teenager. First, I document the differences in age at childbirth by…

Using data from a statewide couple relationship education (CRE) program efficacy study, this implementation science study considered whether and how classmates influence gains from CRE exposure. We pursued a theoretically and empirically supported model to explore whether class climate, indicated by classmate characteristics, influenced change in…

This dissertation comprises essays focused on women's development issues. Specifically, it discusses minimum marriageable age policy, early marriage, and female education in Nigeria. Essay 1 discusses the factors that affect state adoption of the minimum marriageable age policy in the 2003 Child Rights Act (CRA), a policy aimed at eliminating…

This dissertation aimed at examining the predictors of HPV vaccination intentions of college students in a Kenyan university and those in a Midwest university in the United States of America (USA). Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the dissertation investigated the most salient factors that predict the vaccination intentions of college…

Junior enlisted Marines are getting married at a faster rate than their civilian counterparts and nearly twice that of senior personnel (Gomulka, 2010; Cohen, Passel, Wang, & Livingston, 2011). With the high rate of marriage, these same junior Marines have a disproportionately high divorce rate. While the high rate of divorce is a significant…

The growing trend of adult learners in Christian universities offers an opportunity to enrich their marriages and spiritual formation. A marriage enrichment seminar was presented to sixteen adult and graduate students enrolled in the Adult Graduate Studies program at Evangel University, and their spouses, in a two-day, eight-hour relationship…