Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Bridging The Gap: Exploring Social Work Student Preparedness For Working With Children Who Have Developmental Disabilities, Shauna Lei De Jesus, Mariela Licon

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Abstract

Children with developmental disabilities are a particularly vulnerable population with complex, unique needs. In order to ensure that these clients are achieving the best quality of life possible, they typically require an array of community support services where social workers will often intersect with them in a variety of settings and roles. Therefore, there is a substantial need to ensure that student’s entering the workforce as newly qualified workers have some familiarity and exposure to what presenting issues these children are facing as well as the different techniques and tools available to engage with and assess them.

This study …

Cross - Professional Comparison Of Social Work Burnout, Heather Lynn Schaal

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Burnout in the social work field is becoming increasingly common due to the emotional intensity of the client-social worker relationship and job demands. Research has shown that burnout has detrimental effects not only on the social worker themselves but on clients and agencies as well. Limited research exists examining which professional setting of social work experiences the highest level of burnout. This study used secondary data collected by, Dr. Lizano in 2016 from the 4^thAnnual California State University, San Bernardino BASW and MSW Field Instructor Training. A quantitative method was used to analyze which setting of social work …

Barriers To Recruiting Native American Foster Homes In Urban Areas, Shirley Mae Begay, Jennifer Lynn Wilczynski

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the current practice of and barriers specific to recruiting Native American foster homes in urban areas. The literature review suggested that historical, cultural, and bureaucratic barriers to recruitment existed. The study used a qualitative, exploratory design. The data was obtained from in-depth interviews with 10 individuals whose job it is or has been to recruit Native American foster homes. The participants were employed with either a foster family agency, county child welfare agency, or a supporting organization servicing Los Angeles County and/or the San Francisco Bay Area. The …

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy And Resilience Within Child Welfare, Katelyn Blair

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Children in foster care and their substitute caregivers (i.e., foster parents) lack access to evidence-based interventions designed to 1) mitigate the effects of maltreatment on child behavior and 2) strengthen parenting skills needed to effectively care for children with a history of maltreatment. Previous research has established that Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based intervention for children with a history of maltreatment. Yet, PCIT’s broader impact on child welfare outcomes (i.e., placement and permanence) and the implications of adapting PCIT for foster families remains largely unknown. Furthermore, intervention effects on children’s resilience remain largely unstudied, although interventions that …

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 …

Inequalities In Us Child Protection: The Case Of Sex Trafficked Youth, Lisa Werkmeister Rozas, Jason Ostrander, Megan Feely

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

This article demonstrates how structural social work theory and critical consciousness development can be used to help facilitate a transition from a deficit model approach to an inequities perspective in a child welfare system that was working to improve the identification of and services for domestic minor sex trafficked youth (DMST). The response of Connecticut’s child welfare system to the issue of DMST is provided as an example of how a child welfare systems could apply an inequities perspective to a population involved in and at risk for exploitation. Structural social work theory helps illustrate how neo-liberalist social structures in …

Understanding E-Learning As Professional Development For Rural Child Welfare Professionals, Linda S. Kingery

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ongoing professional development is an integral part of a child welfare agency's strategy toward the provision of services to children and families involved with a child welfare intervention. Electronic learning (E-Learning) is popular as a fiscally responsible and flexible way to deliver such trainings. There is a gap in the research addressing the problem of how child welfare professionals are motivated to engage in the E-learning process. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of child welfare professionals regarding their motivation to use an agency provided E-learning program. Eight child welfare professionals employed by a …

Long-Term Retention Among Child Welfare Workers In Michigan: A Phenomenological Study, Andrea Vajdic-Pena

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High turnover of child welfare workers is a problem to the children and families that receive services and the child welfare organizations that lose their staff. For children and their families, turnover of their assigned worker may interrupt their ability to achieve their permanency goals. Child welfare organizations encounter high costs for hiring staff due to the turnover and the staff that remain suffer with higher caseloads and not being able to provide the quality of services that they should be able to offer. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of child welfare workers …

Effectiveness Of Practice Change From Risk Model To Safety Model At Dhs, Shirlana Norene Dash

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported an estimated 686,000 victims of child abuse and neglect. Forty-nine states reported a total of 1,593 fatalities. This quantitative research study examined the relationship between the variables: age of child, gender of child, age of parent/caregiver, prior substantiated reports of abuse, and incidents of abuse in Philadelphia at the Department of Human Services using risk practice model (RPM) and safety practice model (SPM). Although child welfare practitioners have examined the relationship between family and societal factors that affect child abuse; few researchers have examined the correlation between service delivery …

Evidence-Based Child Welfare Screening And Assessment Practices, Melissa Hardin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this action research project was to examine the screening and assessment behaviors of child welfare workers in the southwestern region of the United States. The study addressed whether social workers' knowledge of evidence-based practice influenced their implementation of evidence-based practice in child welfare screening and assessment, and whether the agency environment affects evidence-based practice implementation and use. The family systems theory was used to evaluate child welfare practitioner work and systems theory was used to evaluate the child welfare system in the region of the study. A focus group comprised of seven social workers practicing in the …

Examining Trauma Exposure, Organizational Climate, And Job Outcomes In Child Welfare, Shano Rodgers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Exposure to traumatic situations is routine for child welfare workers in California, and the attrition rate for newly hired social workers in some states is estimated to be nearly 50% in the 1st year of employment. Prior research has indicated that reasons for dissatisfaction included dysfunctional organizational climate and culture. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which trauma exposure contributed to secondary traumatic stress and intent to quit and to examine the degree to which organizational climate moderated the exposure among direct service child welfare employees. Kurt Lewin's field theory, Figley's theory of secondary traumatic …

An Exploration Of Caregiver Engagement In Residential Treatment For Youth, Raquel Moriarty Derrick

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Support for caregiver engagement in their child’s residential treatment is widespread and growing because of the benefits of caregiver engagement to a youth’s treatment process. This dissertation explores the construct of caregiver engagement, defined as caregiver motivation and expectation for their child’s treatment, caregiver bond with staff and caregiver collaboration on treatment goals and tasks among a cohort of 101 caregivers with a child in a Residential Treatment Center (RTC). Mixed methods were used to qualitatively and quantitatively explore caregiver perspectives and experiences that contribute to or detract from their level of engagement in their child’s treatment process. Findings reveal …