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This qualitative study investigated principals' experiences with gifted students who have dropped out of school or are at risk of dropping out of school. The research was guided by the following research questions, 1.) What do high school principals indicate are their experiences with gifted dropouts? 2.) What interventions or supports do high school principals indicate were offered to gifted dropouts? and 3.) What interventions or supports do high school principals indicate are being provided to gifted students at-risk of dropping out? The researcher sought to answer these questions by administering a qualitative survey to high schools' principals in southeastern Virginia. The survey was administered via Qualtrics utilizing the Qualitative Survey Questionnaire designed by the researcher. Responses were coded by the researcher and organized by themes. The information derived from this study may assist administrators in identifying the efforts of building leaders to support gifted students who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out and how to support gifted students before they reach the point of dropping out. The findings of the study indicate that principals have varying experiences with gifted students who have dropped out and gifted students at risk of dropping out. Principals identified academic and non-academic interventions. Principals identified building-level, school division-level, and community-based staff as providing interventions to those students.

Chronic disease including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are responsible for most of the deaths in the United States. Over 25 percent of adults (65 years of age and older) have diabetes. Medication adherence and controlling blood glucose are central to diabetes management. Non-adherence to recommended therapies contributes to adverse health outcomes, complications, and death in older adults with diabetes. Among older adults with diabetes, a highly functional social network is associated with their increased health-promoting self-management behavior. Strong social support is a positive predictor of medication adherence.Guided by the Social Cognitive Theory, this study aimed to determine whether personal factors and social network characteristics as, environmental factors predict diabetes self-care in adults 55 years and older. This cross-sectional study collected and analyzed quantitative survey, and qualitative interview, data using a non-experimental approach. A convenience sample of 129 older adults with diabetes from 10 of the 12 states in the Mid-West Region of the United States was identified through the Qualtrics recruitment platform to participate in this study. Participants were asked to provide information related to their socio-demographic characteristics, including their diabetes diagnosis, reported health status, other diabetes-related conditions, and diabetes control. Participants were also required to provide information on their diabetes self-care, and their interaction with individuals in their Ego social networks. Most of the participants were female (51.9%), White (93.6%), diagnosed with diabetes for more than three years, and reported other diabetes-related health conditions (80.6%). A sub-sample of self-selected participants completed an interview to determine how the individual with the strongest tie in their social network influenced their diabetes self-care.Based on the statistical analyses, including regression analyses, diabetes control and reported health status were statistically significant predictors of older adults’ diabetes self-care. Social network composition (specifically, the Dietician and Caregiver) and the importance of communication between older adults and individuals in their social network were also found to be statistically significant predictors of their diabetes self-care. The qualitative analysis found that most individuals who represent the strongest ties, and the weakest ties, in the social networks of older adults encouraged or promoted their diabetes self-care practices. Also, for the majority of older adults, their diabetes self-care practices positively affected their relationships with the individuals in their social network. Results of this study indicate that based on the constructs of the Social Cognitive Theory, improving personal factors such as supporting older adults’ diabetes control, and their health status could lead to improved diabetes self-care. Additionally, adjusting for adjusting the environmental factors by providing access to healthcare practitioners such as Dieticians, and to Caregivers in older adults’ social networks, and communication with social network members might improve their diabetes self-care. The theoretical implication for health education includes encouraging positive health behavior through the modifiable personal and environmental factors that influence older adults’ performance of daily diabetes self-care regimens. Additionally, expanded opportunities for social interaction of older adults in health education programs could lead to positive health outcomes in older adults.

While current criticism has discussed various versions of the “Beauty and the Beast” tale individually, none have traced any particular trends that have emerged within the tale as it has been revised over the centuries. One particular trend began in the eighteenth century, when Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont streamlined the tale from the oral tradition in order to utilize it for the moral education of young French girls. Along with this pedagogical goal, Beaumont also managed to critique Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and the abuse Pamela often suffered at the hands of Mr. B by revising her Beast character to act much kinder to Beauty. Beaumont’s intentional revisions then set in motion a similar utilization of this particular tale by many later authors and even filmmakers: Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film La Belle et La Bete, Disney’s 1991 film Beauty and the Beast, and even Disney’s most recent live-action take on Beauty and the Beast. In each case, these versions not only revise advice to women about “beastly” men, but they each appear to resist other social elements, whether they be the expansion of the British Empire and the presence of the “other,” the trend towards realism in Post-WWII French film, hyper-masculine men of 1980s entertainment, or myriad ideologies and beliefs that still persist today. Essentially, Beaumont’s revisions of the tale served as a catalyst for those who later revise the tale to employ it as a vehicle of resistance against contemporary people or events that they personally find “beastly.”