Communication Studies Department Theses and Dissertations

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About the Program...

The IUPUI Master's of Arts in Applied Communication focuses on the application of communication theories in various settings.

Classes are small and interactive with emphasis on application of theory. Opportunities for multidisciplinary and independent study are available. The program readies the advanced student for professional career paths and future academic pursuits. Its logistical flexibility allows students to meet their academic and career goals.

The graduate faculty has a wide range of academic expertise and applied experiences with regional and national institutions and organizations and is engaged in a variety of applied research projects in which students have the opportunity to participate.

For more information about the program visit: http://www.iupui.edu/~comstudy/gradprogram.htm

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 87

Assessing the Mental Health of Student-Athletes
(2024-08) Barnes, Jordan Ann; Brann, Maria; Head, Katharine J.; Parrish-Sprowl, John
Mental health has become a major topic of discussion in recent years. Open conversations about one’s mental well-being have become a new norm. That said, there has been a rapid spike in the declining mental well-being of student-athletes at the collegiate level. Professionals urge those involved with athletes to act to improve their overall well-being. Despite the grave concern, there has still been little action taken towards bettering the mental health of athletes. Most existing studies have focused on the collegiate coach-athlete relationship and the athletic performance of athletes rather than the psychological health of athletes. One factor that may affect athletes’ relationships and mental health is how well communication is enacted. To address this gap, 77 current student athletes were surveyed to assess their communication satisfaction, coach confirmation, and mental well-being. Results from Pearson’s correlations demonstrated a relationship between communication satisfaction and reported mental health scores; however, there was no significant correlation found between confirmation and reported mental health scores. This suggests that communication satisfaction can affect student-athletes’ mental well-being, but there may also be other factors that have more of a significant effect than confirmation on the reported mental health of student-athletes. Future research should explore other potential contributing factors.
Instructional Messaging to Support Diet Management in Young Adults with Type 2 Diabetes: A Text Message Intervention
(2024-07) Madsen, Emilie Refsbol; Brann, Maria; Head, Katharine J.; Longtin, Krista; Yeager, Valerie A.
Previously considered a disease that afflicted adults over the age of 45, Type 2 diabetes has become a major health problem for younger age groups in recent decades, specifically young adults. The disease is often attributed to lifestyle choices, such as poor diet and inactivity. Conversely, lifestyle choices can contribute to improvement in its management and subsequent health outcomes. Through multiple research phases, I developed and employed instructional text messages to support diet management in young adults (18-45) with Type 2 diabetes. This study aimed to address the effectiveness of instructional text messages in increasing self-efficacy, health literacy, and dietary adherence over standard of care text messages in young adults with Type 2 diabetes over a two-week intervention period. The study design involved a two-arm text message intervention (comparison and intervention), wherein participants received daily text messages about diet. Formative research for the development of instructional text messages included expert interviews and panels, cognitive interviews, and pre-testing. Prior to, and following, the intervention, participants completed scales assessing health literacy, self-efficacy, and diet adherence, and responded to open-ended questions. Eighty-five participants enrolled in the intervention. I analyzed quantitative data using repeated measures ANOVAs and qualitative data using a priori and thematic analysis. Quantitative results indicated no statistically significant effect of instructional text messages over standard of care text messages in increasing health literacy, self-efficacy, and diet adherence. However, findings illustrate a remarkable main effect from receiving text messages on self-efficacy, suggesting that receiving text messages, regardless of design, may support increased self-efficacy in young adults with Type 2 diabetes. Qualitative data showed a sizable number of intervention group participants emphasized the value of the instructional design in offering actionable steps and behaviors to engage with. Most recommendations for message improvements were noted by the comparison group, many of which were implemented in the instructional messages, supporting the use of instructional design to produce engagement and behavior change. Implications of this study reflect the novel implementation of instructional design to support diet management in Type 2 diabetics and the uses of health literacy and self-efficacy to inform and evaluate diet-oriented communication interventions.
"A Lot of People Want to Know, They Just Have No Idea How to Ask": A Needs Assessment of a Reproductive Health Peer Education Program
(2024-07) Comer, Anna Catherine; Bute, Jennifer J.; Brann, Maria; Head, Katharine
Reproductive health education is an important part of having a comprehensive understanding of health as a whole and sexual health specifically; however, reproductive health is often overlooked in university health education. Peer education initiatives have long been used in sexual health to create a comfortable environment for peer learners, while teaching valuable information that impacts both peer educators and peer learners. Students and peer educators are the primary stakeholders in a university reproductive health education program and can provide insight into topics and delivery that are most salient to them. Using a needs assessment framework, I conducted focus groups with stakeholders (n=10) to understand what information participants found important and how they wanted that information to be presented to them. I analyzed the data using thematic analysis and the social ecological model (Stokols, 1996) to better understand what levels of influence where impacting participants’ access to reproductive health education. Results provided practical applications related to content and method of delivery of reproductive health education as well as theoretical applications in regard to the explicit inclusion of communication within the social ecological model.
Development of a Theory-Informed Patient Decision Aid to Facilitate Consent to Genetic Testing in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
(2024-05) Higley, Keeley; Head, Katharine J.; Brann, Maria; Bute, Jennifer J.
Genetic testing is an essential diagnostic tool in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) that can shorten infants’ stays, improve accuracy and effectiveness of medical care, and overall improve quality of life. However, there are challenges involved in the process of recommending life-saving and care-changing genetic testing in the NICU, including parental concerns around issues of paternity, guardians’ decisional anxiety, low health literacy, limited understanding of genetic testing, and receiving conflicting information from different healthcare providers. These challenges are exacerbated by the urgency guardians face in the NICU; guardians’ first exposure to genetic testing often occurs immediately before they are asked to decline or consent to it while in an extremely emotional state and fraught environment, creating a sense of urgency that affects decision-making. Current patient-provider communication practices in the NICU could benefit from improved, streamlined communication tools to help guardians make thoughtful decisions about genetic testing for their hospitalized infants. One potential strategy to streamline communication about genetic testing in the NICU is incorporating self-determination theory into patient decision aids. A series of three iterative interview rounds with NICU guardians and new guardians of infants younger than three years old were conducted. Following each round of interviews, recordings were transcribed, and feedback from participants was used to revise a patient decision aid guided by self-determination theory. After completing all three rounds of interviews and revisions, thematic analysis was conducted on all transcribed interviews to identify salient themes to NICU genetic testing decision-making. The final version of the patient decision aid developed from this study will serve as a starting point for integrating this important tool into the NICU.
"Every Interaction is an Intervention": A Case Study Employing a Communication Complex Approach to Addressing Community Mental Health in a Low-Middle Income Country
(2024-03) Goodin, Lisann Renee; Parrish-Sprowl, John; Longtin, Krista; Goering, Beth; Schwebach, Gary
Historically, community engagement projects have been addressed from traditional approaches of looking at physical, mental, and social health separately instead of seeing how they are intertwined elements in making up a person’s whole health. Implying the systemic connection between all health and not just the absence of disease engages the World Health Organization’s definition of health. There is a need to shift to a complex approach known as communication complex that better supports complex environments like Low-Middle Income Countries. Communication complex is a meta-perspective that helps design a quantum complexity framework that engages the bioactive nature of communication and the systemic interconnection of everything. When communication complex is applied to the context of health, this is known as Communication for Whole Health which is an interventional framework. This approach informed the development of the following research questions: RQ1: How might researchers meld into a community to promote CWH? RQ2: How can the shifting trajectory from a culture of reactivity to one of receptivity be assessed? The methodological approach for this study is looking at a case study as an ethnographic participant observer within participatory action research to observe and understand where interventions have occurred within the community. This study found that researchers can meld into a community through a relational multi-interventional process by focusing on building healthy relationships with Communication for Whole Health practices. Further findings discovered that to assess how a culture shifts from a culture of reactivity to receptivity, this occurs through an evaluative approach that is not traditional of being done to an organization but rather observing how relationships change in conversation. In conclusion, using a Communication for Whole Health approach for community engagement that moves from object to relational provides a better framework to respond to a complex environment with minimal resources.
Dreamchasers: Examining the Organizational Structure of Social Institutions Across Communities & the Inevitable Cultural Influences which Comprise One’s American Dream
(2023-09) Hibbert, Karl Roy; Parrish-Sprowl, John; Karnick, Kristine; White-Mills, Kim
In a nation indoctrinated with the notion that civil liberties are an expected set of rights, along with policies, presumably made to ensure the equality of all citizens; the idea of egalitarianism, (the belief that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities) it is critical to pose the question: how equally accessible is the American Dream for all Americans? Our predisposed congenital qualities such as gender and ethnicity, along with socioeconomic status, all contribute to the ‘societal blueprint’ which dictates one’s social reputation, educational rank, and financial reach in this American nation. More specifically, we find that the journey to achieve the American Dream varies by community and major obstacles that impede on the access to key developmental resources. Often minorities and those who do not fit into the static image of ‘The American Dream’ exhaust most of their time trying to bridge the gap, rather than focusing solely on community advancement. In other words, those who live in communities lacking proper infrastructure essential to modern growth and development are forced to play the hand their dealt, while still being expected to attain the heights of their privileged counterparts. The organizational structure of a community’s social institutions will inevitably influence the resources, motivations, and competence of its members. With this, viewing all American’s as having the same access to the ‘American Dream’ is unreasonable. Through comparing the background and livelihoods of characters from four different movies, I examine the depiction and actuality which media uses to highlight the American Dream; and how the challenges inhibit in the journey looks different across cultures.
Navigating the Mental Healthcare Network through a Communication Complex Perspective: An Autoethnography
(2023-08) Seifert, Jorge; Parrish-Sprowl, John; Goering, Elizabeth; White-Mills, Kim
Mental illness is one of the largest health problems in the world and it has grown worse due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Every nation, across all demographic categories, has experienced growth in mental health issues. In many countries there is a serious shortage of mental health professionals to serve the population. While we are relatively better off in the US, the next level question that arises regards service quality. The availability of treatment does not serve well if it does not serve to heal. The problem under investigation examines the interrelationship of mental illness and communication. More specifically, the focus will be on mental illness treatment from an emic perspective. The analysis is framed from a communication complex perspective which treats communication as a dynamic process that is both bioactive and systemic. The method of study is autoethnography and with detailed stories that the author has gone through in their own mental health journey. Autoethnography is a method that seeks to provide evocative and rich description of an individual within an ethnographic setting. The autoethnography will look at four stories that have occurred in the past about mental healthcare networks and problems inherent within them. A discussion on key takeaways from the events described illuminates the limitations and challenges of the current mental healthcare network as well as how a communication complex perspective can enable system improvement.
Testing the Effect of Culturally Targeted, Normative Messaging on Black Women's Intentions to Participate in a Breast Cancer Clinical Trial
(2023-07) Ridley-Merriweather, Katherine Ellen; Head, Katharine J.; Ashburn-Nardo, Leslie; Brann, Maria; Côté, Michele L.; Longtin, Krista
Despite increasing disease incidence and remarkably high mortality rates, Black women are underrepresented in breast cancer (BC) clinical trials (CTs), likely limiting the generalizability of BC research findings to Black patients. Evidence demonstrates that the BC research community could exert more effort to ensure the recruitment of Black women into CTs. Although Black and white women have similar BC incidence rates, Black women are 40% more likely than all other races and ethnicities to die of the disease. Clear disparities exist even after controlling for socioeconomic inequalities. Black participation in CTs has been declining, which is particularly unfortunate given the increasing health problem of a lack of Black representation in medical research. Successfully swelling the percentages of Black women who participate in BC research is important and likely reliant on increasing group members’ motivations to surmount existing historical, cultural, and social barriers. Guided by normative and cultural theoretical frameworks, this study examined the effects of culturally informed messaging on Black women’s intention to participate in a CT focused on BC prevention. Six hundred thirty-five Black women aged 18 and over were recruited through Qualtrics to participate in an online, posttest only, control-group design message testing study using random assignment to condition (the control or one of four injunctive-, descriptive-, and/or legacy norm-focused messages). They answered survey questions designed to measure the messages’ effects on the women’s intention to participate in the CT. The study employed univariate and multivariate logistic regression and yielded statistically nonsignificant results; none of the four hypotheses were supported. However, the findings trended overall toward having higher probability of intending to perform the behavior (overall intention M = 3.35). All conditions had means higher than three (out of a five-point scale). A practical implication is that message content is affected by the medium through which it is delivered. Theoretical implications include the importance of overlaying cultural factors onto normative theories. Given that previous successful recruitment methods to this CT for this population were grounded in research practices involving face-to-face, interpersonal interactions, future research should consider employing a multi-level approach in testing these messages.
At a Loss for Words: Using Performance to Explain How Friends Communicate About Infertility
(2023-06) Binion, Kelsey Elizabeth; Brann, Maria; Beckman, Emily; Bute, Jennifer J.; Longtin, Krista J.
In the United States, approximately one in five women are unable to get pregnant after one year of trying. Due to the pervasiveness of pronatalism in Western society, having a child is widely assumed to be a natural and expected part of womanhood. Society’s master narratives reinforce these ideals and stigmatize the experiences of women who have infertility. This multi-phase research study examined how women discuss their infertility journey with their friends. The study’s aims were to understand friendships within the context of infertility, how the relationship affects a woman’s identity, and the communicative behaviors used in conversations. Fifteen interviews were conducted with women who experienced or are experiencing infertility and had discussed their past or current challenges with a friend. Results of a phronetic iterative analysis suggested that women who have personal experience with infertility (a) disclose to close/best friends, (b) communicate their identity as “broken,” (c) desire emotional support, and (d) strategically navigate conversations as they encounter positive and negative messages. These results were transformed into a performance, which included six monologues and a talkback. The purpose of the arts-based methodology was to disseminate results and assess the performance’s impact. Seventy-three individuals attended one of the two performances in April 2023, and 50 attendees completed the post-performance evaluation. The quantitative results suggest that attendees felt informed about the complexities of infertility, gained a new perspective, received advice about how to have future conversations, and did not feel offended by the content. Through a thematic analysis, four themes emerged from the two talkback sessions and evaluation comments: being informed about infertility as a health condition, appreciating the theatrical format to learn, connecting to the performance to understand the illness experience, and feeling comfortable navigating conversations about infertility. Despite the variance in infertility experiences, friends are essential social support figures as women navigate infertility, and there are best practices when having a conversation, as demonstrated in the performance. This study’s implications include providing communication strategies to support women with infertility and recognizing that an arts-based methodology can highlight counterstories, inform about a stigmatized health issue, and engage the community.
"I'm Spoon-feeding him my Trauma": An Analysis of Sexual Assault Survivors' Privacy Management in Romantic Relationships
(2023-05) Unruh, Margret; Bute, Jennifer J.; Brann, Maria; Longtin, Krista
Survivors of sexual assault make difficult privacy management decisions regarding their experiences, particularly in romantic relationships where physical intimacy makes these sensitive disclosures even more complex. As fever is an indicator of illness and a part of healing from the illness, disclosure can be an indicator of underlying disturbance and a part of the restorative process. Additionally, communication privacy management (CPM) theory considers ownership, control, and turbulence to illustrate how private information is regulated. Through qualitative, semi-structured interviews (n=19) and a phronetic iterative approach to data analysis, I examined the ways survivors of sexual assault managed their private information regarding their experiences in a romantic relationship and if disclosure relieved any psychological distress of the survivor. Results of this study offer insight into the ways participants controlled their personal information through the privacy management process; the establishment of boundaries surrounding ongoing disclosures; and the emotional effect of various privacy management strategies on participants, their partners, and the relationship. Reaching across theoretical concepts, this research offers a comprehensive understanding of the factors salient when managing private information regarding sexual assault. This research also provides practical applications for considering the influence of various privacy management approaches and their influence on the physical and psychological health of the survivor and the health of the relationship.

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