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Articles 1 - 8 of 8
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Awareness, Analysis, Engagement: Critical Consciousness Through Foster Youth Advisory Board Participation, Bradley Forenza
Awareness, Analysis, Engagement: Critical Consciousness Through Foster Youth Advisory Board Participation, Bradley Forenza
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
Foster youth advisory boards provide child welfare-involved young people a forum through which to impact the policies, programs, and services that govern their care. In addition to facilitating policy change, these boards may also enable participating youth to cultivate a deeper understanding of themselves and their worlds. The present study utilized a strengths-based, critical consciousness framework to describe the ways in which 15 foster youth advisory board members in a single state reflect on, analyze, and respond to their socio-political worlds. To this end, the author aims to describe youth advisory board processes, while attempting to answer the question, “How …
Smoking Behaviors Among Adolescents In Foster Care: A Gender-Based Analysis, Svetlana Shpiegel, Steve Sussman, Scott E. Sherman, Omar El Shahawy
Smoking Behaviors Among Adolescents In Foster Care: A Gender-Based Analysis, Svetlana Shpiegel, Steve Sussman, Scott E. Sherman, Omar El Shahawy
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
Background and objectives: Adolescents in foster care are at high risk for cigarette smoking. However, it is not clear how their smoking behaviors vary by gender. The present study examined lifetime and current smoking among males and females, and explored gender-specific risk factors for engagement in smoking behaviors. Method: Data from the Multi Site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs was used to evaluate patterns of smoking among adolescents aged 12–18 years (N = 1121; 489 males, 632 females). Results: Males and females did not differ significantly in rates of lifetime and current smoking, or in the age of smoking initiation …
Societal Factors Impacting Child Welfare: Re-Validating The Perceptions Of Child Welfare Scale, Charles Auerbach, Wendy Zeitlin, Astraea Augsberger, Catherine K. Lawrence, Nancy Claiborne
Societal Factors Impacting Child Welfare: Re-Validating The Perceptions Of Child Welfare Scale, Charles Auerbach, Wendy Zeitlin, Astraea Augsberger, Catherine K. Lawrence, Nancy Claiborne
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
Objective: This research examines the psychometric properties of the Perceptions of Child Welfare Scale (PCWS) by seeking to understand the differences between workers' perceptions of how society views them based upon job title by revalidating the PCWS with a sample of administrators and clinicians. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis was utilized to analyze data on 165 administrators and 153 clinical child welfare workers. Results: The final model consisted of three latent variables with ten indicators related to stigma, value, and respect ([X2]=167.6, [p]=0.00; [RMSEA]=0.07; 90% [CI]: 0.06-0.09; [CFI]=0.95; [TLI]=0.95). Discussion: The factors found in the previous study were confirmed using an …
Validating The Psychological Climate Scale In Voluntary Child Welfare, Wendy Zeitlin, Nancy Claiborne, Catherine K. Lawrence, Charles Auerbach
Validating The Psychological Climate Scale In Voluntary Child Welfare, Wendy Zeitlin, Nancy Claiborne, Catherine K. Lawrence, Charles Auerbach
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
Objective: Organizational climate has emerged as an important factor in understanding and addressing the complexities of providing services in child welfare. This research examines the psychometric properties of each of the dimensions of Parker and colleagues’ Psychological Climate Survey in a sample of voluntary child welfare workers. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis was utilized to analyze data on 640 child welfare workers providing services directly to children and families. Results: Strong models were developed for each dimension. Each validated model was more parsimonious than in the original instrument but supported the theoretical underpinnings of each. Discussion and Applications to Social Work: …
A Critical Analysis Of Foster Youth Advisory Boards In The United States, Bradley Forenza, Robin G. Happonen
A Critical Analysis Of Foster Youth Advisory Boards In The United States, Bradley Forenza, Robin G. Happonen
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
Background: The enactment of the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Act brought welcome attention to young people aging out of foster care, and sought to include them in both case planning and policy dialog. Foster Youth Advisory Boards help to promote such inclusion, though the implementation of those boards has not been formally analyzed. Objective: This critical analysis of foster youth advisory boards in the United States answers the following questions: (1) What/where are each of the Youth Advisory Boards in the United States? (2) How is each board implemented? (3) How would a young person aging out of …
Functional Outcomes Among Sexual Minority Youth Emancipating From The Child Welfare System, Svetlana Shpiegel, Cassandra Simmel
Functional Outcomes Among Sexual Minority Youth Emancipating From The Child Welfare System, Svetlana Shpiegel, Cassandra Simmel
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
The heterogeneity of youth emancipating from the foster care system makes it difficult to establish the extent to which their functional outcomes are equivalent across different subgroups. In the present study, we use secondary data from the Multi Site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs (MSEYP) to explore the challenges faced by sexual minority youths in comparison to their heterosexual peers. We focus on measurements of key independent living outcomes at age 19 to obtain a broad picture of how sexual minority youth fare during the period of transition to adulthood. Bivariate results indicate that the deficits for sexual minority youth …
Organizational Climate Factors Of Successful And Not Successful Implementations Of Workforce Innovations In Voluntary Child Welfare Agencies, Nancy Claiborne, Charles Auerbach, Wendy Zeitlin, Catherine K. Lawrence
Organizational Climate Factors Of Successful And Not Successful Implementations Of Workforce Innovations In Voluntary Child Welfare Agencies, Nancy Claiborne, Charles Auerbach, Wendy Zeitlin, Catherine K. Lawrence
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
This study advances research on implementing innovations in child welfare organizations, confirming the association between a positive organizational climate and successful change initiative implementation. Administrators and child welfare workers from six agencies were surveyed using independent samples t-and OLS regressions. The organizational climate dimensions found significant were organization, job and role, indicating the three agencies that fully implemented a change initiative enjoyed a more positive organizational climate. The organization dimension was also significant for administrators, indicating a more positive climate perception than workers. Supervisor dimension was not significant, indicating no association whether or not the change initiative was implemented.
Factors Impacting Intention To Leave In Social Workers And Child Care Workers Employed At Voluntary Agencies, Wendy Zeitlin, Charles Auerbach, Junqing Liu, Gretta Fernandes, Brenda Mcgowan, Nancy Claiborne
Factors Impacting Intention To Leave In Social Workers And Child Care Workers Employed At Voluntary Agencies, Wendy Zeitlin, Charles Auerbach, Junqing Liu, Gretta Fernandes, Brenda Mcgowan, Nancy Claiborne
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
Introduction: To ameliorate high turnover in child welfare, researchers have attempted to identify factors that lead to undesirable turnover. While this has been studied extensively, little attention has been paid to turnover based upon job roles. Like social workers in child welfare, the field of child care also experiences high turnover. Child care workers employed in child welfare settings are no exception. The current study seeks to understand differential factors that impact intent to leave for preventive and child care workers employed in child welfare agencies. Materials and methods: Data for prevention workers (n = 538) were obtained from all …