Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing Cultural Receptivity In Fostering: Scale Development And Validation, Tanya M. Coakley

Doctoral Dissertations

A shortage of foster parents of diverse cultures coupled with the problem of an overrepresentation of children of minority cultures in the child welfare system has resulted in a dire need to place children in families that do not share cultures (i.e., transcultural placements). Children in foster and adoptive placements suffer the loss of their birth families and are at risk for losing knowledge about their past generations (Deberry, Scarr, & Weinberg, 1996; Thoburn, Norford, & Rashid, 2000). Children in transcultural placements are further at-risk for consequent loss of their cultural heritages. Therefore, it is imperative for transcultural foster parents …

The Quest For Housing, Leslie Moore

Theses and Graduate Projects

What are the factors that affect the ability of a person with serious and persistent mental illness to maintain stable housing? People with serious and persistent mental illness face many challenges to find and/or maintain stable housing. Interviews were conducted with 12 individuals with serious and persistent mental illness. Structured individual interviews concentrated on each participant's ability to find housing, how the participant found current and past housing (past two years), if he or she was assisted in the process, and identified any difficulties encountered while seeking housing. A second aspect of the study focused on the challenges each individual …

Evaluation Of A Court-Ordered Divorce Education Program In A Suburban Minnesota County, Solveig Erickson

Theses and Graduate Projects

Minnesota requires divorcing parents to attend education programs that increase their awareness of relevant laws and court processes, the effects of divorce on children and the importance of communication skills in divorce. The purpose of this program evaluation was to explore participants' reactions to the court-ordered divorce education classes in a suburban Minnesota county. A systematic random sample of 70 exit surveys collected in 1999 was selected for the second class, focusing on needs of children in a divorce, in a series of three classes that comprise the program. The survey questions focused on what participants found most helpful, what …

Recipes For Reform: Americanization And Foodways In Chicago Settlement Houses, 1890-1920, Stephanie J. Jass

Dissertations

During the late nineteenth century as tens of thousands of immigrants flooded American cities, public debate among reformers--who tended to be middle-class, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants--began to center on the best ways to assimilate these foreigners into American society. Although some Americanization groups stressed language and citizenship training, two major reform movements focused on foodways as an important tool of assimilation.

This dissertation examines how both the home economics and settlement house movements attempted to Americanize ethnic food practices. It describes why reformers saw foodways as a viable and meaningful avenue for reform, as well as the varied responses that reformers …

Frame Analysis Of The Living Wage Campaign And Social Work Implications, Katherine Ann Mcclernon-Chaffin

Masters Theses

The general aim of this study was to examine the living age movement and how frame alignment fits into social work practice. This research was developed from a limited empirical and theoretical base surrounding the living wage as a social movement. Frame alignment is becoming a tool that more and more people should know how to use. Frame alignment has been a key component in propelling social movements into society in order to effect change. This research is an examination of frame alignment, specifically the living wage movement and how it fits into effective social work practice.

The data were …

An Examination Of The Psychometric Properties Of The Casey Foster Applicant Inventory – Worker Version (Cfai-W), Gary S. Cuddeback

Doctoral Dissertations

Foster family applicants form the pool from which caregivers are selected for the day-to-day care of the many vulnerable children placed in foster care, but limited research exists concerning the reliability and validity of standardized measures for assessing the potential of foster family applicants to provide successful foster care. This dissertation examines the psychometric properties of the Casey Foster Applicant Inventory – Worker Version (CFAI-W), a paper and pencil tool designed to assess the strengths and training and service needs of family foster care applicants.

Retrospective data were collected from 208 foster care workers who had at least one year …

Spirituality And Self-Efficacy In Counseling And Social Work Trainees, Pam J. Matthews

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships of the counseling/social work trainee spirituality and religion/spirituality awareness to trainee self-efficacy in counseling clients with religious/spiritual issues or backgrounds. In addition, the study explored the influence of demographic variables on spirituality, religion/spirituality awareness, and self-efficacy including: (a) religious/spiritual affiliation (Christian, Non-Christian), (b) ethnicity (Caucasian, Non-Caucasian), (c) training/accreditation program affiliation, (d) gender, and (e) age.

Bullying: What Is It, Who Is Involved And Why Should We Care?, Jeffrey A. Schoeberl

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact that bullying has had on 5th at one suburban school. Using a self-administered survey on a population of 55 students (n = 55), approximately 17% of students report being the victim of a bully and nearly 8% report bullying others. Over 7 percent of subjects reported missing a day of school or avoiding other parts of the school for fear of encountering a bully. In addition, victimized students reported substantially more fear in the school environment than non-victimized students. This study suggests that a substantial proportion of students in our …

Low Self-Esteem As It Relates To Anxiety And Depression, Joel B. Makowski

Masters Theses

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the relationship between low self-esteem and anxiety and/or depression. Participants were selected based on their subjective experience of having high or low self-esteem. Low self-esteem participants were then selected on the basis of their subjective assessment of attributing anxiety/and or depression to their low self-esteem experience. Two high self-esteem and two low self-esteem participants were interviewed.

High self-esteem participants were found to base their self-worth and respect on an internal locus of evaluation. They did not identify any notable anxiety or depression. Low self-esteem participants were found to base their worth …

Applying The Transtheoretical Model To Cigarette Smoking By Pregnant And Parenting Adolescent Females, Barbara Mary Sussex

Dissertations and Theses

An unacceptably high number of pregnant and parenting adolescent females smoke cigarettes, and the majority who quit during pregnancy relapse within six months postpartum. This dissertation examined measures from the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TMC) and variables associated with smoking behavior in a population of pregnant and parenting females 18 years-of-age and under. Data were from the baseline survey of 245 young women enrolled in a three-year randomized controlled trial through a teen parent program in Portland, Oregon. The objectives were: 1) to investigate whether factors identified in the literature as associated with initiating and quitting smoking were associated with …

Perceptions Of Motivation In The Recovery Process Among African American Women With Children, Raven Nicole Pagson

Theses Digitization Project

Substance abusing women with children are a diverse group, but some of them are among the most disadvantaged individuals in the United States. These women are in dire need of effective treatment modalities in order to sustain sobriety. Using a quantitative research design, this study examines the perception of motivation in the recovery process among African American women with children. Through research surveys these women identify the motivating factors necessary for successful treatment outcomes. Scales were created to measure extrinsic motivators, intrinsic motivators, and barriers to treatment. Factors examined included attendance at twelve step meetings, church attendance, court mandates, family …

Accepting Gay And Lesbian Children: A Parents Perspective, Lacee' Lanai Lanier, Julia Ann Larson

Theses Digitization Project

This study examined the relationships between parents' and their gay and lesbian children from the parents' perspective. Forty-seven questionnaires containing thirty-two questions were distributed and completed. This study sought to identify barriers parents experienced and the levels of acceptance prior to and after their child's disclosure, in order to assist families during the coming out process.

Interorganizational Collaboration: An Examination Of Factors That Influence The Motivation For Participation In A Collaborative Partnership Of Homeless Service Providers, Jan Marva Ivery

Theses and Dissertations

This project was a mixed methods study that examined the collaboration dimensions of Homeward's planning process and the factors that motivate organizations to participate. The study examined the collaborative strategy used by an organization called Homeward located in Richmond, Virginia. Homeward is a broker organization (Chaskin, Brown, Venkatesh, & Vidal, 2001) that was created in 1998 to mediate and nurture relationships among partnering organizations in order to facilitate the collaborative process required by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to receive Continuum of Care funding. During the quantitative component of the study, a survey was sent …

Evaluating A Day Treatment Program For Children With Serious Emotional Disorders, Nicole Lynn Lee

Theses and Dissertations

The current study used a longitudinal design to evaluate a day treatment program for children with serious emotional disorder located in Richmond, Virginia (N = 101). Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (Hodges, 1984, 1999) results were analyzed from children who had attended the program for at least six months. Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance tests indicated that children attending YDT for nine months improved their overall functioning F(2, 217) = 26.23, p = .01 as well as their functioning at school F(3,279)= 10.822, p =.01, home F(3, 244) = 6.120, p = .01, and in the community F(3, 238) …

Differentiating Beliefs Of Insured And Uninsured, Insurance-Eligible State Employees: A New Application Of The Health Belief Model, Jill Elizabeth Murray

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The increasing number of uninsured Americans is a crucial policy issue for the United States; however, there is a paucity of empirical social science research on the uninsured with which to guide the development of policy. Previous research indicates that when insurance is voluntary, whether offered through a state-initiated reform to reduce uninsurance or offered through an employer as a benefit, some people choose to remain uninsured. The literature calls for research to increase understanding of the factors that affect whether people offered insurance accept or decline that insurance. Research on the uninsured is lacking a theoretical framework to help …

Social Worker Perceptions Of Services Directed Toward Sexual Minority Youth And Their Families In Child Welfare Agencies, Travis James Webb

Theses Digitization Project

Sexual minority youth are coming out about their same-sex attractions earlier in recent years. Such youth and their families may experience a range of potential problems and concerns, suggesting that the child welfare system may need to do more to respond to the unique needs of this population. By employing a qualitative research design, this study, using face-to-face interviews with ten child welfare workers, examined child welfare agencies' ability to adequately render services to sexual minority youth and their families.

A Qualitative Study Of The Lived Experience Of Single, Gay Adoptive Fathers, John Daryl Matthews

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study expands the existing literature on fatherhood, single parents, and gay and lesbian adoption to include the unique experiences of single, gay men who became adoptive parents after "coming out", or establishing a gay identity. To illustrate these unique and common experiences, individual ethnographic interviews were conducted with 16 fathers residing throughout the United States, as well as internationally. Specifically, this study explored the participants' experiences through their reflections of the adoption process, and through their experiences after the family was established. The participants had experiences to those found in previous studies on gay and lesbian adoption and …

Utilizing A Structuration Perspective To Examine Perceptions Of Labor Market Opportunities & Constraints In A Distressed Urban Neighborhood, Sharon M. Mcdonald

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to understand how members of an urban extreme poverty neighborhood experience the labor market and how they perceive the role of social policies and institutions that attempt to facilitate or mediate employment opportunities.

Residents of extreme poverty neighborhoods have been the subject of numerous public policy efforts designed to ameliorate the geographic concentration of poverty as well as strategies to promote work participation based on existing theoretical models of how work participation can be induced. It is argued that the predominant theoretical models that shape inquiry and the development of policy recommendations are incomplete …

Current Adaptive Functioning Of Battle Of The Bulge Combat Veterans, Christopher Bradford Gates

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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An Assessment Of The Capacity Of The Red Cross National Societies To Address The Psychological And Social Needs Of Survivors Of Disasters And Complex Emergencies In Central And South America, William C. Walters

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This qualitative evaluation examines the capacity of the Red Cross National Societies in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Peru and Argentina to address the psychological and social needs of the survivors of disasters and complex emergencies. Specifically, the study explored how individuals working with the Red Cross perceive the services that are currently being offered, what are the strengths and limitations of these services, and what they believe the Red Cross can do to enhance its capacity to effectively assist vulnerable populations to deal with the traumatic effects of disasters and complex emergencies? Field research was carried out over a …

Parents' Perceptions Of The California High School Exit Exam And Some Social Implications, Susan Leigh Jennings, Deborah Kay Perry

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to explore the awareness and feelings of parents and their perceptions about the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) and the impact on their children. Also, it looked at the social implications from an ecological perspective.

What Are The Experiences Of Foster Parents Who Are Raising Special Needs Children In Accessing Services Needed, Loretta Jean Isaacson, Robbie Palmer Thomas

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of the study is to explore the difficulties and experiences that foster parents have in accessing services and what can be done to alleviate some of these obstacles.

The Perceived Influence Of Spirituality In Adolescent Residential Group Homes, Karima Aisha Deadrick-Boone

Theses Digitization Project

This qualitative study explores the perceived influence of spirituality on ethnic minority adolescent's outcomes in faith-based residential group homes. Study results offer a deeper understanding of the influence and implementation of spiritual practices among children impacted by child welfare.

Women's Perception Of Substance Abuse Treatment And How It Affects Compliance, Jessica Lynn Watkins

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to investigate how women's perceptions of the helpfulness of services received at a substance abuse treatment clinic affected their compliance with the treatment program. The study surveyed thirty-two women who were receiving treatment from Inland Behavioral and Health Services. The study investigated the efficacy of these elements: parenting classes, health classes, substance abuse therapy groups, group therapy, drug screening, health clinics, Narcotics Anonymous meetings, Dual Diagnosis Anonymous meetings, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, homeless support services, individual therapy, case managers, daycare, transportation.

Comparison Of Self-Determination Between Verbal And Non-Verbal Residents Of Intermediate Care Facilities, Karen Anne Mahon

Theses Digitization Project

This study compared verbal and nonverbal residents of Intermediate Care Facilities-Developmental Disabilities-Habilitative type (IFC-DD-H) on self-determination. The residents were compared using an adapted version of the Association for Retarded Citizen's (ARC) Self-determination scale.

Correlations Between Self-Esteem And Self-Efficacy Among Master Of Social Work Students And Bachelor Of Social Work Students, Sheila Joy Umeda, Amy Marie Edmonds

Theses Digitization Project

This purpose of the present study is to examine the correlations between self-esteem and self-efficacy among undergrade and graduate level social work students in order to determine how perceived self-esteem affects student's ability to perform job tasks.

School Counselors' Perceptions Of Effective Components In Adolescent Suicide Prevention Programs, Janet Marlene Jackson

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project was to explore perceptions of effective components in adolescent suicide prevention programs among San Bernardino school counselors. The stress model and the mental health model are the two models implemented in suicide prevention programs.

Perception Of Domestic Violence Among Nigerian Immigrants In The United States, Francis Ikefule Nwagbara

Theses Digitization Project

Nigerian immigrants have been largely excluded from studies on issues relating to immigrants living in American society. This study examines the perception of domestic violence among Nigerians and their help seeking counseling for behavior problems.

Attitudes Of African American Women Toward Marriage-Related Issues, Andrew Lewayne Williams

Theses Digitization Project

This study presents results from a survey of 108 African American women. Survey questions covered attitudes towards marriage, qualities of an ideal spouse, and opinions of African American men in general.

An Examination Of Social Workers' Knowledge Of Family Preservation Services In Child Welfare, Kathryn Irene Turnbull

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of the study was to determine how knowledgeable the San Bernardino County Department of Children's Services (DCS) social workers were about Family Preservation Services has been to determine if that intervention works to alleviate out-of-home placements.