Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling Commons^™

Individuals With Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities And Meaningful Employment, Bethanie Hernandez, Angela Labrie Blackwell, Evan Edward Dean

Spring 2022 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

Individuals with disabilities tend to face poverty at a higher rate compared to those without disabilities (Kelley, 2016). Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) benefit from a variety of supports to work in their communities. Not providing services to address these needs can cause increased unemployment rates and dependence on others. Currently, there is a lack of attention by OTP on supporting individuals with IDD (14-26 years) when acquiring meaningful employment. Increasing OTP’s awareness about the relationship between self-determination and employment can promote more services. Self-Determination is about acting or causing things to happen in your life as you …

The Perceptions Of Educators On Transition Planning & The Postsecondary Transition Readiness Outcomes Of Students With Disabilities, Marisa Duarte

Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative descriptive research was to gain the perspective of educators on transition planning for students with disabilities in two public school districts in the state of Kentucky. The Individual Disabilities Education Act and Workforce Innovation Opportunities Act are laws requiring students with disabilities to be transition ready upon their graduation from high school. A sample of 12 educators, representing two Kentucky districts, who participate in transitioning students with disabilities, completed The Secondary Educator Transition Questionnaire survey. Data from the districts’ state report cards indicated students with disabilities were not transition ready in comparison with students without …

Post-Secondary Employment And Education Outcomes Of Young Adults Reporting Both Vision And Hearing Impairments In The High School Longitudinal Study Of 2009, Emily M. Lund

JADARA

This article reports the post-secondary education and work activities of 43 young adults who reported a history of both hearing and vision disabilities (i.e., deafblindness [DB] in Wave 4 of the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009. Most of the sample reported having worked, attended post-secondary education, or both since completing secondary education. Approximately half of the sample still lived with their parents, and most reported receiving financial support from their parents. Thus, although engagement in work and education was relatively high, most participants had not achieved financial independence.

Attrition In A Holistic Job Skills Training Program: A Qualitative Study, Jeaniece Silas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Today thousands of individuals and families are unemployed or underemployed and are seeking ways to combat poverty and become employed. One way that individuals seek to gain employment is by attending job skills training and adult education programs. However, there are barriers that hinder those individuals from successfully completing the programs. The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of applicants of a nonprofit job skills training program called FaithWorks and explore the reasons why applicants were not able to continue and, or complete the program. This study was conducted, through qualitative interviewing of four participants (N=4) utilizing …

New Perspectives On Faculty Stress: Its Relationship With Work Engagement, Teaching Effectiveness, And Program Preferences To Manage Stress, Rocio Alvarenga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to analyze faculty stress with three interrelated parts. First, the study examined the relationship between work engagement, stress factors, stress outcomes, and faculty characteristics. Next, the study analyzed the relationship between students' perception of faculty stress, faculty teaching effectiveness, class size, and student classification. Finally, the study investigated faculty preferences for health and wellness programs in the workplace. The study used two anonymous online questionnaires to collect data from 45 faculty participants and 119 student participants from a U.S. public, four-year research university. For faculty, the results demonstrated statistically significant strong relationships between all …

Using Data-Enabled Performance Feedback And Guidance To Assist Employment Consultants In Their Work With Job Seekers: An Experimental Study, John Butterworth, Alberto Migliore, Kelly Nye-Lengerman, Oliver Lyons, Amy Gunty, Jill Eastman, Paul Foos

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

BACKGROUND:The success of job seekers with disabilities in achieving their employment goals depends in large part on the quality of employment supports that they receive from employment consultants. OBJECTIVE:To test the effectiveness of data-enabled performance feedback to assist employment consultants in implementing standards of effective employment supports. METHODS:A total of 187 employment consultants in 30 states were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. The intervention group received data-enabled performance feedback and guidance for 12 months, whereas the control group continued with business as usual. Both groups completed baseline and quarterly surveys throughout the intervention. RESULTS:One year after baseline, the …

American Sign-Language (Asl) For Audiologists, Colette Vossler-Welch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The goal of this project is to provide a means for Audiologists, Speech-Language-pathologists and related personnel to improve their ability to communicate and connect with culturally Deaf individuals through the use of video-animated sign-language interpretations. Arguments for or against the bilingual approach of using ASL and the spoken language with regards to Deaf education will be discussed through both a personal memoir and a review of current literature. This study will also shed light upon the history of the American Deaf population, American Sign-Language (ASL) and will conclude with a training module in ASL. The training module will be available …

Career Transitions Caused By Chronic Illness: A Career Construction Perspective, Julie Christine Hill

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

People living with chronic illness face significant challenges when it comes to finding and maintaining employment. There is ample research available that discussed the challenges and barriers to employment for this population. However, there is a lack of research devoted to interventions dedicated to assisting people with chronic illness in career exploration and development. This study attempted to address one possible intervention to assist people with chronic illness identify and pursue possible careers. The purpose of this research study was to explore the impact of participating in the Career Construction Interview on the career exploration of individuals facing a forced …

Characteristics, Services, And Outcomes Of Vocational Rehabilitation Consumers Who Are Deaf-Blind, Jennifer L. Cmar, Michele C. Mcdonnall

JADARA

Limited research has been conducted regarding the characteristics, services, and outcomes of consumers served by Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies in the United States who are deaf-blind. This article provides descriptive information about this population based on Rehabilitation Services Administration Case Service Report (RSA-911) data from fiscal years 2013, 2014, and 2015. The article also includes a discussion of inconsistencies in use of disability category codes to classify VR consumers who are deaf-blind, emphasizing the need for agencies to utilize a consistent classification system that reflects the diverse characteristics of this population.

A Thematic Analysis On How Forensic Psychologists Conduct Personal Injury Evaluations, Denise M. Autret

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Psychological evaluations administered by forensic psychologist in personal injury cases are surrounded by complex issues. Although empirically-based research has legitimized that psychological damages do exist in personal injury cases there is a missing link in the way forensic psychologists are conducting these evaluations. Prior researchers suggested that some personal injury evaluations had been dismissed or overlooked due to a lack of a standard of care. Addressing the current literature, this study examined how a diverse group of 14 licensed forensic psychologists, operating in different judicial jurisdictions (Daubert, Frye, and Independent) were conducting personal injury evaluations and their perspectives on the …

Relationships Between Vocational Identity, Substance Use And Criminal Thinking Among Emerging Adults, Eileen Marie Delzell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Successful formation of a self-chosen, purposeful identity in personal, social, educational and vocational areas is a primary task for emerging adults, with failure to do so often resulting in cycles of substance use, unemployment, and delinquent/criminal behavior. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine relationships between vocational identity, substance use, and criminal thinking within the population of emerging adults. The expectancy value theory of motivation, which states that identity may be a motivational construct between self-efficacy and subjective self-values, provided the foundation for the study. The online inventory platform PsychData was used to garner data from a sample …

The Effect Of Mindfulness Techniques On Teacher Resilience As Moderated By Conscientiousness, Aundrea T. Harris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Unmanaged stress in teachers often triggers burnout, which leads to a rise in healthcare costs and absenteeism. Therefore, teachers' resiliency needs improvement to lower the risk of burnout. The purpose of this cross-sectional design study was to examine the relationship between mindfulness techniques and resilience in high school teachers. An additional purpose of this study was to examine if the personality trait, conscientiousness, moderates the relationship between mindfulness techniques and resilience. The frameworks for this study were based on the self-awareness, -regulation, and -transcendence (S-ART) framework, theory of planned behavior, and the concepts of resilience and job burnout. Four surveys …

Well-Being And Readiness To Change Among Career Firefighters, Elizabeth R. Feinauer

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Science, Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Elizabeth R. Feinauer on June 12, 2018.

The Predictors Of Juvenile Recidivism: Testimonies Of Adult Students 18 Years And Older Exiting From Alternative Education, La Toshia Palmer

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative study was to identify and describe the importance of the predictors of juvenile recidivism and the effectiveness of efforts to prevent/avoid juvenile recidivism as perceived by previously detained, arrested, convicted, and/or incarcerated adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education in Northern California. A second purpose was to explore the types of support provided by alternative schools and the perceived importance of the support to avoid recidivism according to adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education.

Methodology: This qualitative, descriptive research design identified …

A Comparison Of The Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test And The Wechsler Scales, Samantha Denhart

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

The present study was designed to determine the correlation between a commonly used cognitive ability test (i.e., Wechsler) and a verbal memory test (i.e., Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test) by analyzing archival data from a clinical sample of adults. Many researchers have continued to establish the relationship between cognitive ability, or IQ, and learning and memory skills; however, there is little research regarding when differences between IQ and memory scores are statistically significant. Results of this study indicated 17 of 20 IQ index/memory correlations were statistically significant and a series of simple regressions generated standardized residuals. These residuals generated confidence bands …

The Juvenile Addiction Risk Rating For Use In Vocational Rehabilitation, Paul Tyler Hickerson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The prevalence of substance use among adolescents warrants considerable concern since it often has detrimental effects on an individual’s physical and mental health, and correlates with worsened Social, physical, and employment outcomes. Research shows that adolescents with disabilities are especially susceptible to the development of substance use disorders. To address this concern and to ensure accurate rehabilitation service planning, effective screening for substance use risk is necessary. Unfortunately, the most common screening instruments for adolescent substance use rely on information obtained solely from self-report. This type of data, although useful, is also susceptible to inaccuracies due to such factors as …

Instilling Hope: Showing Individuals With New Disabilities Between The Ages Of 18 And 24 That Suicide Is Not The Answer, Christine Ann Whiting

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore what can be done to mitigate the onset of a disability for young adults aged 18-24 in order to prevent suicidal thoughts or actions. Research suggests that many factors play into suicidal ideation for this young population, including lost hope, lack of coping mechanisms, lack of financial security and bullying. The goal of this research is to determine what rehabilitation professionals can do differently that will hopefully eradicate suicide for this group.

Nurses' Occupational Trauma Exposure, Resilience, And Coping Education, Sherry Lynn Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nursing education courses and professional development (PD) do not include coping and resilience training for registered nurses (RNs) who work in emergency departments (EDs). Exposure to traumatic events, death, and dying may lead to health issues, substance abuse, stress symptoms, nursing staff turnover, and compassion fatigue among ED RNs. Without training, the pattern of adverse outcomes may continue. The purpose of this study was to explore ED RNs' experiences with occupational traumatic stress (OTS), and their recommendations for change to nursing PD programs, using a qualitative bounded intrinsic case study. The conceptual framework for this study included social learning and …

Data Note: Comparing Vr Outcomes For Individuals With And Without Intellectual Disabilities Who Receive Postsecondary Education Services, John Shepard, Frank A. Smith, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

This Data Note explores the provision of postsecondary education services to vocational rehabilitation customers with and without intellectual disabilities who exited the VR system in FY2014.

Intersection Of Career Counseling And Psychosocial Adjustment To Disability For Adults With Acquired Disabilities, Tina M. Anctil Peterman

Counselor Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

This program shares a theoretical and practical approach to career counseling with adults with acquired disabilities. Practitioners must possess a working knowledge of the adjustment to disability process as it relates to the client's career transition. Participants will learn how career interventions can facilitate the client's adjustment to their disability.

Transmedial Documentation For Non-Visual Image Access, Melody J. Mccotter

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In my doctoral studies on information accessibility for the individual who is blind or visually impaired, I’ve been exploring the ways we can make image documents more accessible. This requires using an alternative sensory modality, and translating the document into a different format. The questions that arise when we consider this process are many, but among them are:

• Is it the same document once we’ve converted it to an audio narrative about the work, or a 3D topographic map of an artwork, or a musical interpretation?
• If it is not the same document, how truthful can the “trans-medial” translation be …

Career Development And Employment Concerns Of Employment-Seeking Students With Psychiatric Disabilities, Sarah Charlotte Helm

Doctoral Dissertations

Although some literature chronicles the career development of college students with other types of disabilities, students with psychiatric disabilities have been practically invisible in research focused on this topic. Yet evidence suggests that the number of students with documented psychiatric disabilities attending institutions of higher education is on the rise. Thus, the purpose of the study was to describe the career development and employment concerns of employment-seeking students with psychiatric disabilities.

A qualitative research design was used to gain in-depth information from the perspective of students with psychiatric disabilities, specifically case study. The participants were seven undergraduate students from three …

Effect Of Political Skill On Perception Of Organizational Politics And Work Withdrawal Among Community College Employees, David John Ross

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Community college student support services are an important aspect of success among community college students. Theoretical and empirical models of organizational politics and withdrawal guided the expectation that community college employees who perceive their organizations as political may withdrawal from their organization, diminishing the services delivered to students at the institution. A multisite cross-sectional survey design was utilized to gather quantitative data via Survey Monkey from national professional organizations. Two-hundred seventeen usable surveys from community college administrators (executive, mid-level managers, and administrators) were gathered. Data were analyzed via correlation and regression models to examine if political skill reduced or moderated …

The Impact Of Teacher Collaboration In A Professional Learning Community On Teacher Job Satisfaction, Donna V. Ackerman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A dilemma in some local educational institutions is the lack of a supportive teacher community which could lead to decreased teacher job satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to describe to what extent teacher collaboration in a professional learning community (PLC) impacts teacher job satisfaction. Theoretical foundations by DuFour, Eaker and DuFour supported the relationships between PLC and teacher collaboration. Herzberg's theory of motivation and Maslow's hierarchy also served as frameworks in this study. An interpretive, qualitative research design was used to explore potential connections between collaboration and job satisfaction. Research questions addressed how scheduled school day collaborative time …

Effectiveness Of The Whytry Curriculum With Adults Participating In A Vocational Training Program, Erika Kern

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this research project is to evaluate the effectiveness of the WhyTry curriculum with adults participating in a vocational training program specifically to develop retail skills. WhyTry is an interactive, multisensory program used to motivate participants to change patterns of indifference by using analogies, videos, and music to stimulate and inspire them to succeed. The curriculum has elements of Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Social and Emotional Intelligence, and multi-sensory learning (WhyTry, 2011). My research question is as follows: Is the WhyTry curriculum effective in increasing self-esteem and self-efficacy with adults who are participating in a vocational training program? …

Vipassana Meditation And Teacher Decision-Making, Jeffrey Ronald Glogowski

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to build a theory about the process and function teachers construct around the effect Vipassana meditation has on stress, teaching, and decision-making. This study addressed the problem of how teachers respond to daily tasks and demands that can negatively impact their longevity in the profession. The starting point was the conceptual framework, including resolving cognitive dissonance, choice theory, mindfulness, and the perspective of Vipassana meditation. The research questions addressed how Vipassana meditation influences a teacher's daily routine, decision-making, classroom management, general procedures, and stressful situations. The data collection was done in 2 …

Faces In The Mirror: Exploring Conflict Styles Of Adults In School Communities Using The Face -Negotiation Theory, Christine D. Gross

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This correlation study focused on the lack of understanding of the relationship between social self-image "face" and conflict styles among adult employees on school campuses. An individual's social self-image may involve concerns for the social representation of oneself, another individual, or a relationship. Limited research pertaining to the degree face concerns affect conflict styles within school communities is a problem for school administrators because conflict styles can influence conflict outcomes and impact workplace quality on school campuses. This study relied on Ting-Toomey's face-negotiation theory, which proposes that individuals prefer conflict styles based upon face concerns. Research questions explored correlations between …

Factors Affecting Retention Of Veteran Classroom Teachers: A Q -Method Study, Theresa Hollingsworth Hafen Corry

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Teacher attrition compromises efforts to provide a quality teacher in every classroom, and attrition brings high financial and organizational costs to school districts. Yet, there are few studies on retention of veteran teachers. Within a framework of economic, organization, and attrition theories, the purpose of this study was to provide a clearer focus on factors that contribute to the retention of veteran teachers using Q-methodology. The independent variables were 49 participants from a large school district in the southwest United States. The dependent variable was the Q-sample of multiple factors. Using previous literature, a concourse was developed. The P-sample of …

Personality Traits, Self -Efficacy Of Job Performance, And Susceptibility To Stress As Predictors Of Academic Performance Of Nurse Education Programs, Nancy Wilson-Soga

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States is experiencing a shortage of registered nurses, and institutions of higher education are unable to graduate enough prepared nurses to reduce this employment shortage. A significant relationship between personality traits and academic performance has been found; however, how personality traits combine with students' self-efficacy of job performance and stress susceptibility to impact nursing students' academic performance has yet to be demonstrated. This study, grounded in the five-factor model (FFM) of personality traits, self-efficacy, and stress theories, sought to determine whether self-assessments of the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, the Nursing Practice Self-Efficacy survey, and the Susceptibility Under Stress Survey …

Building Collaborative Capacity Across Institutional Fields: A Theoretical Dissertation Based On A Meta-Analysis Of Existing Empirical Research, Vivian Hernandez Carrasco

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation study folds the existing empirical literature across a broad spectrum of disciplines with the experience of a national collaboration between Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies and the United States Army to explore the capacity and key competencies required to support successful interorganizational collaboration (IOC) at the individual and organizational level. It explores the evolution of collaboration and maps the continuum of related concepts, illustrating their distinction in a spectrum of IOC. It presents the collaboration process as a dialectic model within a Systems Psychodynamic Perspective, detailing the necessary ingredients for increasing collaborative capacity within individuals and organizations. The …