2007 Conference Abstracts
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Abstracts 49th Annual Conference Western Social Science Association WSSA 49th Annual Conference Abstracts i Abstracts 49th Annual Conference Western Social Science Association CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA April 11 to April 14, 2007 Abstracts are organized by section. Within Sections, the abstracts appear alphabetically by the last name of the first author. A Table of Contents appears on the next page. WSSA 49th Annual Conference Abstracts ii Section Coordinators Listing ...................................................................................... iii African American and African Studies ........................................................................ 1 American Indian Studies .............................................................................................. 4 American Studies........................................................................................................ 15 Anthropology............................................................................................................... 18 Arid Lands Studies...................................................................................................... 19 Asian Studies .............................................................................................................. 20 Association for Borderlands Studies ........................................................................ 27 Canadian Studies ........................................................................................................ 58 Chicano Studies/Land Grants .................................................................................... 70 Chronic Disease and Disability (& RC-49, Research Committee on Mental Health and Illness of the International Sociological Association) ...................................... 75 Criminal Justice and Criminology ............................................................................. 80 Economics (Association for Institutional Thought) ................................................. 84 Economics (Business and Finance).......................................................................... 96 Economics (General) .................................................................................................. 97 Environmental Policy and Natural Resource Management ................................... 108 Geography and Arid Land Studies .......................................................................... 114 History........................................................................................................................ 119 Human Communications .......................................................................................... 120 Latin American Studies ............................................................................................ 122 Mass Communications ............................................................................................. 130 New Zealand and Australia Studies......................................................................... 137 Political Science........................................................................................................ 140 Public Administration ............................................................................................... 149 Public Finance and Budgeting................................................................................. 154 Rural Studies ............................................................................................................. 165 Slavic Studies............................................................................................................ 170 Sociology and Anthropology ................................................................................... 175 Urban Studies............................................................................................................ 182 Women’s Studies ...................................................................................................... 186 WSSA 49th Annual Conference Abstracts iii Section Coordinators Listing African-American and Criminal Justice and New Zealand and Australia African Studies Criminology Studies Theodore Ransaw Dennis W. Catlin William C. Schaniel University of Nevada, Las Vegas Northern Arizona University University of West Georgia and American Indian Studies Eileen Luna-Firebaugh Philosophy Jaime Kathleen Eyrich University of Arizona Paul Tang The University of Arizona and California State University Long Steven Patrick Beach American Studies Boise State University Daniel J. McInerney Political Science Utah State University Economics (Association for Theo Edwin Maloy Institutional Thought) West Texas A&M University Anthropology Eric R. Hake See Sociology and Anthropology Eastern Illinois University Public Administration Victor L. Heller Arid Lands Studies Economics The University of Texas at San Conrad Moore (Business and Finance) Antonio Western Kentucky University Kashi Nath Tiwari and KNT's Academic Financial Research Nathan A. Heller Asian Studies Tarleton State University Walter Y. Kiang Economics (General) Los Angeles County Jack Hou Public Finance and Budgeting Dept. of Children and Family California State University Deborah Carroll Services Long Beach University of Georgia and and C. W. Kenneth Keng Environmental Policy and Justin Marlowe Chief Advisor-Greater China, Natural Resources University of Kansas Canadian Securities Institute Management Dwight C. Kiel Rural Studies Association for Borderland University of Central Florida Anthony Amato Studies (ABS) Southwest Minnesota State Manuel Chavez Geography University Michigan State University John C. Stager and Claremont Graduate University Suzzanne Kelley Canadian Studies North Dakota State University Diddy R.M. Hitchins, Ph.D. MBE History University of Alaska-Anchorage T. H. Baughman Slavic Studies University of Central Oklahoma Evguenia Davidova Chicano Studies/Landgrants Portland State University Gabino Rendón Human Communication Northern Research Group, Inc. Gayle Houser Social Psychology and Northern Arizona University Marvin G. Bulgatz Lynda Smith and Montana State University Northern Research Group, Inc. Richard A. “Tony” Parker Northern Arizona University Sociology and Anthropology Chronic Disease and Disability Heather Albanesi (& RC-49, Research Latin American Studies University of Colorado-Colorado Committee on Mental Ignacio Medina Springs Health and Illness of the ITESO Jesuit University International Sociological and Urban Studies Association) Ramon Gomez Thomas Sammons J. Gary Linn University of Guadalajara University of Louisiana at Lafayette Tennessee State University and Mass Communication Women's Studies Steven Brown Gil Fowler Diane Calloway-Graham The University of Hawaii at Manoa Arkansas State University Utah State University and Debra R. Wilson Tennessee State University WSSA 49th Annual Conference Abstracts 1 AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES Theodore Ransaw, Community College of Southern Nevada Janet Awokoya University of Maryland “Of my color, but not of my kind: Cultural identity negotiations of 1.5 Nigerian youth” As the number of Nigerian immigrants increase in the United States, questions of cultural identity and belonging become pressing for their children. Many Nigerian youth who were born in Nigeria but are raised outside of the country, commonly known as 1.5 immigrants, find they are often placed in the center of several conflicting cultures. Research shows that living, learning and working in multiple cultural worlds is the experience of many minority youth (Cooper, Jackson, & Azmitia, 1998; Raible & Nieto, 2003). However, it is uniquely challenging for black immigrant children as both their Blackness and immigrant status make negotiating their cultural identity more challenging, than is typically the case for non-Black and non-immigrant minority youth. Using existing literature on black immigrants, the central purpose of this study is to understand the factors that affect the cultural identity negotiations of West African youth, particularly 1.5 Nigerian adolescents. Participants will have an opportunity to engage in this research endeavor and share their professional expertise. Deryl F. Bailey University of Georgia “The impact of an African American-centered enrichment program on the academic achievement of African American Adolescents” This presentation will be based on a research study conducted in the US that was designed to investigate the impact of an African American centered enrichment program, Empowered Youth Programs (EYP), on the academic achievement of African American children and adolescents. EYP aims to develop and nurture the academic achievement and social skill development for children and adolescents in grades k- 12. To evaluate the impact of the program, a case study was performed in an attempt to answer the following questions: 1) does EYP influence the academic achievement of African American adolescents in the areas of math, science, and social studies and 2) does EYP impact the attitudes of African American adolescents towards academic achievement? In this study, the mean of students’ grades, based on School Progress Reports (SPR), over a five-year period (2001-2006) were compared in order to study program participants’ academic achievement. To evaluate the impact of EYP on students’ attitudes, the Academic Monitoring Form (AMF) completed by teachers weekly, and parents and teachers’ answers to Empowered Youth Program Impact Questionnaire