Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Policy Update: Federal And State Legislation To Support Grandfamilies, Ana Beltran

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

Building on the progress of the last 20 years, helpful federal and state legislation continues to be pursued on behalf of grandfamilies. This update summarizes policy efforts during the last year and looks ahead to what is on the horizon. At the federal level, legislative efforts are focused on grandfamilies who are involved with the child welfare system. States are responding to federal activity by enacting policies to place more children with relatives and better serve grandfamilies who come into contact with the system, including “family finding” laws and including fictive kin as “relatives.” State policymakers are also striving to …

Assessing The Fit Between Child Welfare Information Systems And Frontline Workers: Development Of A Task-Technology Fit Instrument, Kurt William Heisler

Health Services Research Dissertations

States and the federal government continue to invest heavily in child welfare information systems (CWIS) to improve caseworkers' performance, but the extent to which these systems meet caseworkers' needs is unclear. In the field of child welfare there are no reliable user-evaluation measures states can use to assess the degree to which a CWIS meets caseworkers' needs, and identify which specific features of the CWIS most need improvement. The study developed such a measure based on the task-technology fit (TTF) framework, which posits that users will evaluate the usefulness of a technology based on how well it meets their tasks …

Organizational Leaders’ And Staff Members’ Appraisals Of Their Work Environment Within A Children’S Social Service System, David A. Patterson Silver Wolf (Adelv Unegv Waya) Phd, Catherine N. Dulmus Phd, Eugene Maguin Phd, John Keesler, Byron James Powell

Brown School Faculty Publications

Several studies have demonstrated the effect of an organization’s culture and climate on the delivery of services to clients and the success of clinical outcomes. Workers’ perceptions are integral components of organizational social context, and in order to create a positive organizational culture and climate, managers and frontline staff need to have a shared understanding of the social context. The existing literature does not adequately address that discrepancies in perceptions of culture and climate between frontline staff and managers impact the implementation of policies and services. The purpose of this study is to compare the workgroup-level culture and climate of …

Experiences Of Young Adults In Extended Foster Care: An Explortive Study, Elaine Marie Contreras

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Currently, there are thousands of foster youth in the child welfare system. When they reach the age of 18, some of these youth emancipate from the system, while some of them participate in extended foster care. The extended foster care system was implemented to support and provide services to young adults passed the age of 18, to provide them a couple more years to obtain stability in their lives. In order to participate in extended foster care, they have to meet a few requirements, and sometimes this is the minimum level of commitment and effort they contribute. These requirements include: …

Designing A Measure: Measuring Social Workers' Attitudes Toward Lgbt Youth In Child Welfare, Christi E. Bell, Raul A. Salcedo

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study reports the results of an exploratory factor analysis conducted to analyze the reliability of a pilot instrument created to evaluate social workers’ attitudes toward LGBT youth in the foster care system. The sample (n = 60) included social workers, supervisors, and staff from the County of San Bernardino Children and Family Services. Data were collected from February 2011 to March 2011. A two factor solution yielded the best results; Chronbach’s alpha for factor one yielded a strong result for internal consistency reliability (α = .777) and for factor two yielded a less strong result (α = .628). Strategies …

The Impact Of Electronic Communication And Social Media On Child Welfare Practice, Sarah K. Breyette

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

The present literature regarding the intersection of technology and child welfare practice has primarily focused on the impact of these technologies on youth and families. There has been very little research that has focused on how child welfare workers perceive the direct impact that electronic communication and social media use has had on their practice. The research questions guiding this exploratory study asked child welfare workers whether or not the use of electronic communication and social media has made working with youth easier, if use of these technologies has introduced any difficulties, and if any challenges and/or benefits of using …

Refining The Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (Ebpas): An Alternative Confirmatory Factor Analysis, David A. Patterson Silver Wolf (Adelv Unegv Waya) Phd, Catherine N. Dulmus Phd, Eugene Maguin Phd, Nicole Fava

Brown School Faculty Publications

Barriers to adopting evidence-based practices into real-world mental health organizations have received considerable attention and study. One particular attempt is Aarons’s Evidence- Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS), which measures a worker’s attitudes toward adopting new treatments, interventions, and practices. This study follows Aarons’s work by conducting a confirmatory factor analysis of the EBPAS administered in a large child and family human service agency in New York state (N = 1,273). Replicating Aarons et al.’s four-factor model of the EBPAS, the authors found that, within the model, the pattern of factor loadings that was apparent in previous investigations held for their …

Put Him In Grandma's House: Investigating Variation In Kinship Policy And Procedure Across Ohio's County-Based Child Welfare System, Andreja M. Siliunas

Senior Independent Study Theses

Since 1980, the U.S. child welfare system has exhibited an increasing reliance upon kinship caregivers as a resource for children who have been removed from the homes of their birthparents due to allegations of abuse or neglect. Literature suggests that agencies differ considerably in their treatment of kinship care providers; however, limited research has been conducted examining the causes and implications of this variation, especially in the case of Ohio’s county-based system. The current study thus aims to define the distinguishing characteristics of kinship policies and procedures of child welfare agencies across Ohio, and to consider the impact of various …

Information And Communication Technology In Child Welfare: The Need For Culture-Centered Computing, Richard J. Smith, Tara Eaton

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article discusses the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) in the California child welfare system. Drawing from anthropological literature, the authors emphasize the role of work practice and context associated with new ICT implementation. This case study uses a documentary- historical approach to analyze interviews with 386 workers who used the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS) between 1997 and 2005. Data show the implementation of CWS/CMS impacted the work practice of the welfare system. The authors recommend culture-centered computing for future developments and upgrades of ICT in child welfare.

Sibley County Children’S Collaborative – Supporting Child Welfare Through Collaboration, Jade Blekestad-Kral

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The Sibley County Children’s Collaborative meets the definition as a collaborative “organizational and interorganizational structure(s) where resources, power, and authority are shared and where people are brought together to achieve common goals that could not be accomplished by a single individual or organization independently” (Daka-Mulwanda, Thornburg, Filbert, & Klein, 1995, p. 219). Its functioning depends on members working together, sharing their time, skills, resources and the common goal of providing community support for children and families in Sibley County. However, effective collaboration does not come easily. In fact much of the literature regarding collaboration suggests that while collaboration is the …

Mental Health Services Among Children Involved In Child Welfare: Identifying Parental Views And Barriers To Accessing Services, Katrina Ohmann-Thai

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

• In the child welfare field there is an growing need for mental health support for children. This need is due to exposure to or victimization of abuse and neglect. On average only 15-25% of children identified as needing services are actually participating in some type of mental health support. This may be due to the many barriers that exist when seeking mental health support.
• This research project surveyed parents in Independent School District (ISD) 196 regarding potential mental health services offered through the School-Linked Mental Health Services grant. Information was collected through a survey of parents from two schools within …

Developing Trauma-Informed Practice In A Community Mental Health Clinic: In The Child Welfare Context, Kelly Froehle

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

• This project provides direction for working with clients who present at First Street Center for mental health services with a trauma history.
• As child welfare staff work to develop trauma-informed practice, having similar procedures and services at First Street Center may complement services families are receiving from the county as a whole.