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Nearly 50 students receive cash prizes for research presentations

May 22, 2023

A student presents her research in poster form at the Fulton conference

Over 500 students working with 107 mentors submitted more than 300 posters to present their social science research at the Mary Lou Fulton Mentored Student Research Conference on April 13, 2023.

Students who work with faculty mentors in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences are invited to share their research. Cash prizes were awarded to students in undergraduate and graduate categories for each department, as well as for research related to civic engagement, gerontology, western studies, and diversity, collaboration, and inclusion. Four additional awards were determined by voting from conference attendees. All participating students are also eligible to apply for a grant to cover graduate school application fees.

Listed below are the winning posters in each category with the students’ and mentors’ names. To view individual posters, visit fulton chair.byu.edu.

A student presents his research

Anthropology

1st Place, graduate

Plant Identification from Absorbed Lipids in Ceramics from Petra, Jordan

Jake Hubbert with mentor Cynthia Finlayson

1st Place, undergraduate

Visual Depictions of Cotton Armour in the Late Aztec World

Josiah Abram Jensen with mentor Zach Chase

Economics

1st Place, undergraduate

Broken Heart Syndrome: Isolating the Causal Effect of a Spouse's Death on Lifespan

Hannah Hammond and Katharine Wilson with mentors Joe Price and Sven Wilson

2nd Place, undergraduate

Strength in Numbers: Gender, Influence, and Group Dynamics

Katelyn Cranney and Boston Kelley with mentors Olga Stoddard, Chris Karpowitz, and Jessica Preece

Family Life

1st Place, graduate

Boys Want Sex, Girls Want Relationships: Gendered Sex Scripts and Parent-Child Consent Communication

Corinne Archibald-Sato with mentor Jocelyn Wikle

2nd Place, graduate

Why Should I Care? Parental Factors Found to be Predictive of Empathy in 3-year-old Children

Anna S. Calley with mentor Jocelyn Wikle

1st Place, undergraduate

Examining Subjective Burden Among Spousal Cancer Caregivers: The Impact on Marital Quality

Jasmine Espinoza and Rebekah Case with mentor Jeremy Yorgason

2nd Place, undergraduate

How Effective is Premarital Education? An Analysis of Anxiously Engaged

Sidney Higgins, Nicole Vest, Rebecca Pierson, and Caroline Glissmeyer with mentor Alan Hawkins

3rd Place, undergraduate

Is Premarital Education Associated With Better Conflict Resolution and Lower Psychological Abuse?

Emma Howlett, Leah Meredith Simpson, and Claire Keller with mentors Jeremy Yorgason and Alan Hawkins

4th Place, undergraduate

How Does a Relationship with God Impact Conflict Resolution for Women of Faith?

Christina Cooper, Tamara Chamberlain, Eliza Madsen, Sidney Higgins, and Kaelie Wagner with mentors David Dollahite and Loren Marks

Geography

1st Place, undergraduate

Dendroarchaeology: Building a Millennium-Length Climatic Context for the Fremont Culture

Kyle Bird with mentor Matt Bekker

History

1st Place, undergraduate

Vanguards of Change in the "Georgia of the North": Youth Activism in the New Jersey Civil Rights Movement, 1935-1955

Emily Peterson with mentor Rebecca De Schweinitz

2nd Place, undergraduate

Finding Women in History: Jury of Matrons 1655

Keylla Ortega with mentor Amy Harris

3rd Place, undergraduate

WWII Propaganda Through Small Artillery:​ What We Can Learn About Psychological Warfare Leaflets in Europe ​From J Malan Heslop's Photographic Collection

Annalee Dahl, Jared Thurston, and Joshua DeLaigle with mentor Aaron Skabelund

4th Place, undergraduate

Information at War: The Letters of Corporal William ‘Billy’ Lloyd Casper

Joseph Bradford Hovey, Gaby Anderson, and Mikelle Andersen with mentor Aaron Skabelund

Political Science

1st Place, undergraduate

The Politics of DACA: Explaining variation among Republicans’ support for DACA

Diana Gonzales with mentor Alejandra Aldridge

2nd Place, undergraduate

Native American Individualism: A Unique Concept

Anna Nakaya and Naabaahii Tsosie with mentor Kelly Patterson

AND

Americans' Trust of Large Language Models

Adam Hubbs and Anna Nakaya with mentor Ethan Busby

3rd Place, undergraduate

Party Preferences and City Deferences: How Partisanship of City Officials and Voters affects Spending & Taxes

Bethany Pearson and Joshua Herrera with mentor Adam Dynes

4th Place, undergraduate

Female Support for Fundamentalist Islam

Julia Chatterley with mentor Jay Goodliffe

Psychology

1st Place, graduate

Estimating Hemispheric Specialization in Neurotypical Adults: A replication of Wange et al. (2014)

Madeline Peterson with mentor Jared Nielsen

1st Place, undergraduate

Self-Compassion Among Male College Students Can Lead to Improved Sleep Quality Through Fulfillment of Their Basic Psychological Needs

Unurzaya Amarsaikhan with mentor Sandie Sephton

2nd Place, undergraduate

Body Image and Self-Esteem in Midwestern Latino Youth: Associations with BMI, Gender, and Parental Perceptions

Mariah Dean, Kathleen Ririe, Katherine Tanner, Melanie Gurrusquieta, Elise Glover, Aubrey Chartier, and Wei (Victoria) Zhang with mentor Blake Jones

3rd Place, undergraduate

The Influence of Retrieval Practice in the Form of a Writing Intervention on Undergraduate Grades 

Samuel Paul Chipman with mentor Chelsea Romney

4th Place, undergraduate

Functional Connectivity of Stroke-Induced Aphasia; A Lesion Network Mapping Analysis

Shea Stratford (Jensen) and Owen Benzley with mentor Jared Nielsen

Social Work

1st Place, graduate

Attitude of Gratitude: Protective Factors For Suicidality from Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

Paul Coyne with mentor Annie Carter

2nd Place, graduate

What if our concern for maternal anxiety was as important as planning the baby shower?

Shara Jackson Harper with mentors Sarah Coyne and Steven Hoffman

3rd Place, graduate

The Impact of Eating Disorders on Treatment Outcomes for Substance Use Patients

Mia Greer with mentor Cory Dennis

4th Place, graduate

Predicting Body Image in LGB Adolescents

MarjAnn Ober with mentors Sarah Coyne and Annie Carter

Sociology

1st Place, undergraduate

Legacies of Hardship: A Gendered Analysis of the Relationship Between Financial Hardship in Early Childhood and Adolescent Psychological Distress

Abel Huskinson with mentor Melissa S. Jones

2nd Place, undergraduate

The Criminalization of Female Genital Mutilation in Ohio: A Social and Political Analysis

Madsyn Selph with mentor Jane Lopez

3rd Place, undergraduate

What's Gonna Happen With Us? How Friendship Networks Change After Marriage

Madeleine Meldrum with mentor Jonathan Jarvis

Civic Engagement

1st Place

Strength in Numbers: Gender, Influence, and Group Dynamics

Katelyn Cranney and Boston Kelley with mentors Olga Stoddard, Chris Karpowitz, and Jessica Preece

2nd Place

I Care For Myself: Does Individualism Overshadow the Effect of Fear on COVID-19 Response?

Hyrum Devenport, Allie McBride, and Alex Acosta-Rubio with mentor Kelly Patterson

3rd Place

Vanguards of Change in the ‘Georgia of the North’: Youth Activism in the New Jersey Civil Rights Movement, 1935-1955

Emily Peterson with mentor Rebecca De Schweinitz

4th Place

Belonging in a Predominant Culture

Rod Hernndez, Julia Plantz, and Jalyse Ortiz with mentor Jane Lopez

Diversity, Collaboration, and Inclusion

1st Place

The Politics of DACA: Explaining variation among Republicans' support for DACA

Diana Gonzales with mentor Alejandra Aldridge

2nd Place

It’s Not About Success. It’s About the Message. Elite Messaging and Xenophobic Hate Crimes in the EU

AnneMarie Ackerman with mentor Quinn Mecham

3rd Place

Depression and Parent Socialization of BIPOC Teens: Implications for Ethnic Identity

Emily J. Takamasa with mentors Ashley Fraser and Adam Rogers

Gerontology

1st Place

In Silico Screening to Identify Potential Positive Allosteric Modulators of α3β2 Neuronal Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors 

Matthew Rasmussen, DeLaney Anderson, Dalton Tanner, Casey Callison, Jed Christensen, Stephen Harmon, Daniel-Luke Isemonger, Jacob Jackson, Daniel Mikulecky, Jessica Ranger, Breanna Rodriguez, Amelia Steed, Rebekah Torgesen, Carson Ulrich, Carter Ulrich with mentor Scott Steffensen

Redd Center for Western Studies

1st Place

The Disappearing Lake:  Investigating the Shrinking of the Great Salt Lake and Links with PM2.5 and PM10 Air Pollution

Kirsten Sanders, Abigail Henrie, and Autumn Welling with mentor Ruth Kerry

2nd Place

Dendroarchaeology: Building a Millennium-Length Climatic Context for the Fremont Culture

Kyle Bird with mentor Matt Bekker

3rd Place

Murky Water: Investigating Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Turbidity of Strawberry River and Reservoir using Landsat and Drone Imagery

Sierra Cutler, Hannah Johnston, and Adam Chilvers with mentor Ruth Kerry

4th Place

Investigating the Toxic Heavy Metal Content of Soils and Grass in Urban Parks using Hyper-spectral Analysis

Abigail Henrie and Kirsten Sanders with mentor Ruth Kerry

Students’ Choice Awards

Timeliest Topic

Group Therapy Interventions for Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA)

Julia Elmber, Jamon Jex, Anthony Salas, Mattayha Whipple with mentor Gary Burlingame

Best Presenter

The More You Know, The More Your Child...Won't Get Help?

Alyssa Black with mentor Steve Hoffman

Most Relevant Research

The Disappearing Lake:  Investigating the Shrinking of the Great Salt Lake and Links with PM2.5 and PM10 Air Pollution

Kirsten Sanders, Abigail Henrie, and Autumn Welling with mentor Ruth Kerry

Most Eye-Catching Poster

La Virgen & La Malinche: Reflections of Mexican Womanhood 

Sarai Silva and Joanna Hildreth with mentor David-James Gonzales