Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Post-Divorce Visitation Of Minor Children; An Exploratory Study, Barbara Griffith, Gladys Hack, Eileen Murphy, Allison Wieman, Adam Williams, Earl Vanlydegraf, Vincent Glaudin

Dissertations and Theses

ORS 107.100 gives the court broad powers to secure the "best interests" of minor children as third parties to a divorce. Further, the Oregon Supreme Court has ruled in Tingen vs. Tingen that the best interests of a minor child involve a complex constellation of factors pertaining to the parents, the environment, and the adjustment of the child. It has been assumed in case law that "reasonable visitation" of the minor child by the non-custodial parent is usually in the best interests of the child and is a right" of the non-custodial parent.

Most judges order reasonable visitation as part …

Changing The Custody Of Children Whose Parents Have Been Divorced: A General View Of The Process, Dorothy E. Bateman, Michael A. Comte, Kathryn S. Curry, Robert M. Fry, Patricia J. Sims, Elva J. Terry

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this project was to obtain a preliminary description, through study of the legal files, of that group of persons who appear before the Court of Domestic Relations for a reconsideration of the custody decision made initially, at the time of divorce. A sample of 92 cases heard in Multnomah County in 1965 was obtained.

A survey of the literature revealed that much of what has been written on the subject of divorce and custody is primarily from a statistical or legalistic standpoint and very little bears directly on the granting or obtaining of custody or the problems …

Factors In Assessing Effectiveness Of Orientation Programs For Public Welfare Caseworkers, Clyde Ferguson

Dissertations and Theses

A study done in 1968-1969 by students at Portland State University School of Social Work at the request of the Oregon State Public Welfare Commission Staff Development Division sought to devise an instrument for assessing the effectiveness of teaching the casework principles of Felix P. Biestek to casework trainees in the public welfare's orientation program. The test instrument developed was found to have low, but acceptable, internal reliability.

Building on the previous year's work, this 1969-1970 study sought to determine the validity of the test instrument by relating test scores to two measures of job performance, namely the latest supervisory …

Attitudes Of Youth Toward Social Institutions: A Comparative Study, Connie Mcgonigle, James F. Bakke

Dissertations and Theses

In August, 1968, after a series of confrontations in the city parks between young dissidents and the police, the Mayor of Portland called upon the Metropolitan Youth Commission to form a special study committee to explore the areas of conflict and to recommend ways in which municipal government might constructively respond to the young people in the community. The independent research project on the alienation of youth, the results of which are reported here, was an outgrowth of the interest generated by the request from the Office of the Mayor. Under the auspices of the Metropolitan Youth Commission (MYC), a …

Evaluation Of The Role Of Neighborhood Health Coordinators In A Comprehensive Neighborhood Health Services Project, Sharron Faye Easley, John Collins Flanagan, Janet Fredricksen, Linda Janice Johnson, Beatrice Hays Young

Dissertations and Theses

This study evaluates the role of the Neighborhood Health Coordinators (NHC's) within Kaiser Foundation's Comprehensive Neighborhood Health Services (CNHS) Project. This project was established in September 1967, under the provisions of the 1966 amendments to the Economic Opportunity Act, to provide and make readily available comprehensive medical care to low-income persons. In compliance with the stipulations of this Act, persons who reside in target areas, designated as depressed neighborhoods, were hired to serve as NHC's. These indigenous non-professionals serve as links or "gatekeepers" between the low-income persons enrolled in this program, and the Kaiser medical care facilities which include the …

The Complaint Process In Protective Services For Children, William L. Carey, Joann Day Delong, Barbara Lee Harris, Thomas E. Hogan, Ann Nelson, Jeannette Ruth Staebler

Dissertations and Theses

This is a descriptive study of the community process by which a complaint is made to a protective service agency. It is by this process that deviant child care is first identified and the decision to take action is made. The study develops a typology of the complaint process and identifies seven elements as significant in complaints that reach community agencies. The elements were: the complaint situation, the precipitating events that brought the complaint situation to the attention of someone outside the nuclear family, the relationship between the complainant and family, the complainant's motivation for responding to the complaint situation, …

Traits Associated With Choosing Social Work As A Career, Helen Ellsworth, James B. Epley, Carolyn Hanson, Robert L. Morasch, Roberta Roth, Norma Rowe, Richard H. Stowell, Fredrick H. Swan, Joanna M. Wadsworth, Aurita Zeigler

Dissertations and Theses

This was a study of traits associated with the choice of social work as a career. Two samples of people from the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon, who had shown an interest in social work, were studied, together with the factors that influenced this interest. The traits and factors considered were substantially those examined by Arnulf M. Pins in Who Chooses Social Work, When and Why? Traits measured by the Pins study of individuals who had gone on to graduate education in social work were held indicative of individuals most likely to become professional social workers. The Pins’ questionnaire was …

Assessment Of Subjective Experiences Of Boys Entering The Community From A Correctional School, Thomas W. Dejardin, Theresa F. Eubanks, Mary F. Hoyt, Steven J. Ickes, Carol W. Lane, David F. Staat

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore, classify, and evaluate the personal experiences of juvenile offenders following release from a state training school.

During a two month period beginning in the fall of 1967, a group of twenty-three releasees from the MacLaren School for Boys in Woodburn, Oregon were interviewed on a weekly basis in the Portland metropolitan area. The boys, ranging in age from thirteen to seventeen were contacted in their homes, schools, and other settings to learn of positive, negative, and critical experiences encountered in the community.

Open ended questions based upon a twenty- seven item schedule …

Child Care Arrangements In Affluence And Poverty, Josephine Jeannette Gurrola, Joan Beck Hansen, Ruth Townsend Hardy, Donna Mae Landye, Sandra Mae Poirier

Dissertations and Theses

A study of the attitudes of 40 mothers toward their child care arrangements tested hypotheses concerning the conditions of economic and child care necessity under which mothers of two socio-economic groups would be satisfied with their arrangements. It was hypothesized that the satisfaction with an arrangement would be associated inversely with economic necessity and child care necessity. A prediction was also made that the mothers' expressive satisfactions with the child care arrangements (benefits to the child and relationship to the sitter) would only be realized after the instrumental necessities of convenience and dependability of the arrangement were met.

Interest in …

A Comparison Of Characteristics Of Terminated Afdc Cases With Cases Remaining Active From The June 1966 Afdc Load In Linn County, Oregon, William Everett Lowther

Dissertations and Theses

A study of the characteristics of AFDC cases active in Linn County, Oregon in June 1966 and of the difference in characteristics between those cases closed by September 1, 1967, and those cases remaining active on that date. The source of data was the case records of the Linn County Department of Public Welfare. There were 212 cases in the study with 200 suitable for full analysis.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that there is a difference in selected characteristics between cases remaining active and cases that close. Case records were read and then characteristics …

The Use Of Self-Determination And Confidentiality In Casework And Group Work Practice: An Exploratory Study, George A. Fisher, James M. Hanson, Frances Peterson, Helen Phillips

Dissertations and Theses

This study is the seventh in a series begun in 1957 to relate social work theory to general systems theory. The purpose of this study was to assess, through the judgment of professional social workers, the use of the two concepts, self-determination and confidentiality, in casework and social group work situations. The two concepts were operationalized by construction of five practice principles for each concept. An instrument was developed in which a critical hypothetical situation exemplified each principle for both methods with a forced choice of four actions evidencing the degree of self-determination and confidentiality. Forty randomly selected trained social …

Constructing A Tool For Measuring Common Social Work Activities, Patricia M. Armstrong, James A. Brown, Robert L. Roy, Edward R. Walker, Donald G. Welch

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is one in a series of studies concerned with the interrelationship of General Systems Theory and social work knowledge. The purpose of this particular study was to develop a questionnaire to test the generic quality of the actions performed among the three traditional specialties of social work -- casework, group work and community organization.

The universe from which the sample of concepts was obtained were the acts performed by people in behalf of others. Specifically, the 421 concepts in the sample were obtained from literature in the fields of social work, sociology, psychology, and counseling and guidance. These …

Development Of A Tool To Measure Applicability Of The General Systems Theory To Generic Social Work, Richard L. Decristoforo, Justus H.G. Freimund, Lewis G. Hahn, Herbert J. Hansen, Arne O. Henifin, June Hohensee Kalogeratos, Hyung Bok Kim, Richard S. Peterson, Louise Smith, Lewis L. Winchester Sr.

Dissertations and Theses

The goal of this project was to test the applicability of the General Systems Theory to the traditionally held concept of generic social work If an applicability existed, a direct survey of the field would be feasible. This could lead to the development of a general or a core conceptualization of social work practice.

General Systems Theory was extended to include the properties of the open organismic human group system. There were twenty-one categories at this level of abstraction. Internal consistency of the General Systems Theory model was tested and related to social work treatment concepts. To do this, 427 …

Christie School: The Evolution Of A Social Institution, Bertha A. Roth, George Brock, Theodore Drahn, J. Bruce Hult, Janice Norbeck, Phyllis Donohue, Wayne Hinrichs, Ruth Nisly, Charles M. Smiley, Dorothy Wittmeyer

Dissertations and Theses

The first of a series of studies of social agencies in Oregon. aimed at collecting and presenting data through the use of a sociological model, this project represents a beginning effort to assess the social welfare resources of the State.

Christie School, a small nucleated institution, was examined in terms of its evolution from an orphanage to a treatment-oriented care facility . Particular attention was given to the impact of historical events and analysis of these in terms of the institution’s life cycle. Impetus was given to the study by the crisis of impending closure of the school and events …