Social Work Commons^™

Trauma Exposures Across The Life Course For Individuals Who Experience Incarceration, Maria Morrison

Brown School Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, with 2.2 million people currently behind bars, 60% of whom are people of color. At the same time, there is an unprecedented political consensus to develop strategies for reducing the incarcerated population and safely returning the majority of incarcerated individuals to society. While there has been a substantial research focus on the potential of this population to commit acts of violence post-release, this tells only half the story. This dissertation hopes to provide a more complete picture of the role of violence in the lives of individuals released …

Racism-Based Trauma And Policing Among Black Emerging Adults, Robert Motley

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Community violence exposure (CVE) among Black emerging adults ages 18-29 in the United States is a major public health concern. However, an unknown is the nature of the relationship between Black emerging adults CVE and substance use when the perpetrator(s) of the violence are the police and the violence is experienced as a race-based traumatic event. The Classes of Racism Frequency of Racial Experiences (CRFRE) measure assesses individuals’ exposure to perceived racism-based events. However, the CRFRE hostile-racism scale does not capture the range of police violent events that are most salient for a population. To fill the noted gaps in …

Social Engagement Among Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment And Conversion To Dementia, Takashi Amano

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Promoting social engagement is a promising approach to prevent or delay conversion from cognitive impairment no dementia (CIND) to dementia. However, little is known about social engagement among people with CIND. This dissertation project aimed to improve understanding of social engagement among people with CIND by addressing gaps in the literature. It had three specific aims including: to describe and identify factors associated with heterogeneity of social engagement among older adults with CIND, to assess the association between heterogeneity of social engagement and conversion from CIND to dementia, and to investigate the relationship among heterogeneity of social engagement, other types …

Self-Employment In Later Life: Implications For Financial, Physical, And Mental Well-Being, Cal Halvorsen

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

More than one in five working Americans aged 50 and older are self-employed, yet scholarship that examines the relationships between self-employment and personal health and financial well-being is limited. Using data from six biennial waves of the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally-representative panel study of Americans past 50 years of age, this quasi-experimental dissertation documents the characteristics of self-employed older adults in comparison to wage-and-salary workers, as well as compares self-employed and wage-and-salary workers in later life on a set of financial well-being and personal health outcomes. This study incorporates inverse probability of treatment weighting (also referred to as …

Black Males, Trauma, And Mental Health Service Use: A Systematic Review., Robert Motley, Andrae Banks

Brown School Faculty Publications

Objective: To systematically review the evidence of and synthesize results from relevant studies that have examined barriers and facilitators to professional mental health service use for Black male trauma survivors ages 18 and older.

Methods: A thorough search of selected databases that included EBSCO, ProQuest, and Web of Science Core Collection and careful consideration of inclusion and exclusion criteria yielded a final six studies for detailed review.

Results: Black male trauma survivors were significantly less likely to be utilizing mental health services than other sex-ethnic groups. High levels of daily crises, a lack of knowledge of steps to …

Transitional Care For Older Adults With Dementia: Variation Across Patients And Providers, Patricia Prusaczyk

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Older adults with dementia are particularly vulnerable to negative outcomes and adverse events when they transition between healthcare settings such as being discharged from the hospital. However, little is known about how healthcare providers help patients prepare for a care transition – known as transitional care – among older adults with dementia. Therefore, this study sought to understand the transitional care currently delivered by hospital healthcare providers to older adults with dementia, how it compared to that received by older adults without dementia, and how it varied across different patient and provider characteristics. Guided by key provider/informant interviews and theory, …

No Father Left Behind: Exploring Positive Father Involvement As A Protective Factor In The Prevention Of Neglect And Promotion Of Child Well-Being, Ericka M. Lewis

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the growing evidence highlighting the relationship between positive father behaviors and child development, fathers still receive less research attention than mothers. As a result, little is known about the direct effects of positive father involvement on child neglect risk and child well-being. This dissertation study used data from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) and applied longitudinal structural equation modeling to examine the role of father involvement in the reduction of neglect risk and adverse child outcomes among low-income families. The specific aims guiding this dissertation study are (1) to test the direct and indirect relationships …

Factors Influencing The Implementation Of A Brief Alcohol Screening And Educational Intervention In Social Settings Not Specializing In Addiction Services, David A. Patterson Silver Wolf (Adelv Unegv Waya) Phd

Brown School Faculty Publications

Although alcohol use continues to be a major problem, when high-risk users enter social services, they are not provided with empirically supported treatments (ESTs). This study investigates predictors of successful implementation in agencies not specializing in addiction services. Fifty-four frontline workers in six organizations were enrolled in the study. After completing self-administered surveys of organizational culture and climate and attitudes toward ESTs, workers were trained to implement a brief intervention. The results indicate that organizational factors and attitudes may not be related to implementation. Although high implementers had similar traits, further research is needed to characterize successful EST implementers.

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 …

Alcohol Screening And Brief Intervention As Standard Practice In Indian Country, David A. Patterson Silver Wolf (Adelv Unegv Waya) Phd, Bonnie Duran, Catherine N. Dulmus Phd, Amy R. Manning

Brown School Faculty Publications

Alcohol use and the resulting problems associated with high-risk drinking in the American Indian/Native Alaskan (AI/NA) population are well-documented, as alcohol misuse has taken an incredible toll on many AI/NA communities. Presently, both overall health issues and alcohol use occur disproportionately within this population. This article provides an updated overview of the impact of alcohol use in the United States and within AI/NA communities specifically. It also provides recommendations for an alcohol-related screening and brief intervention instrument that social workers can begin using in their practice and can be utilized within the AI/NA community.

What Are The Ideal Characteristics Of Empirically Supported Treatment Adopters?, David A. Patterson Silver Wolf (Adelv Unegv Waya) Phd

Brown School Faculty Publications

There has been a clear and consistent shift in social work practice from offering treatment as usual to implementing empirically supported treatments (ESTs). As social work researchers and practitioners continue to evaluate the effectiveness of ESTs, their impact on clinical outcomes, and the various obstacles to their adoption, a developing literature could offer some guidance on characteristics of EST adopters. This paper provides a beginning discussion of the ideal characteristics of EST adopters both at the organizational and individual-levels. While this is a developing area of study, there are some important findings that could better serve community-based organizations, its work …

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 …

Do Organizational Culture And Climate Matter For Successful Client Outcomes?, David A. Patterson Silver Wolf (Adelv Unegv Waya) Phd, Catherine N. Dulmus Phd, Eugene Maguin Phd, Maria Cristalli

Brown School Faculty Publications

Objectives: The existing literature on the impact of workplace conditions on client care suggests that good cultures and climates provide the best outcomes for clients. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between organizational culture and climate and the proportion of children and youth successfully discharged from a large organization in New York State. Method: Thirty-three child and youth programs with existing culture and climate data evaluated outcome information from 1,336 clients exiting its services. Results: Programs reported as having bad culture and climate yielded superior client outcomes, measured as discharge to a lower level of …

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Contribute To Human Development In Developing Countries? Evidence From Nigeria, Kevin Lompo, Jean-Francois Trani

Brown School Faculty Publications

Oil companies have been facing criticism linked to their activities in developing countries from various human rights organisations as well as NGOs and the media. To change this negative perception, companies have been increasingly promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, which aim at improving living conditions of local communities in oil exploitation areas. In this paper, we explore the impact on the well-being of communities of two kinds of CSR initiatives implemented in two areas of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Using multidimensional exploratory methods and checking for robustness using binary logistic regression, we investigate the outcome of CSR …

Poverty And Disability: A Vicious Circle? Evidence From Afghanistan And Zambia, Jean-Francois Trani, Mitchell M. Loeb

Brown School Faculty Publications

Disability and poverty have a complex and interdependent relationship. It is commonly understood that persons with disabilities are more likely to be poor and that poverty may contribute to sustaining disability. This interdependency is revealed not only through an examination of poverty in terms of income but also on a broader scale through other poverty related dimensions. Just how robust is this link? This paper compares data collected from household surveys in Afghanistan and Zambia, and explores the potential link between multidimensional poverty and disability. We find evidence of lower access to health care, education and labour market for people …

Extending The Capability Paradigm To Address The Complexity Of Disability, Jean-Luc Dubois, Jean-Francois Trani

Brown School Faculty Publications

Amartya Sen looks at people’s well-being in terms of functioning and freedom, rather than in terms of the amount of goods or services consumed. The capability approach developed by Sen deals with what people are able to achieve by using these commodities. Concerning disability, he wrote: “We must take note that a disabled person may not be able to do the many things that an able-bodied individual can, with the same bundle of commodities” (Sen, 1985 p.7). The capability approach makes it possible to analyse the economic situation of people with disabilities in a different way. What becomes important is …

Lack Of A Will Or Of A Way? Taking A Capability Approach For Analysing Disability Policy Shortcomings And Ensuring Programme Impact In Afghanistan, Jean-Francois Trani, Parul Bakhshi, Ayan A. Noor, Ashraf Mashkoor

Brown School Faculty Publications

The present paper attempts to analyse some of the shortcomings that have impeded efforts in the field of disability in Afghanistan. After an overview of recent disability initiatives, this article presents elements that have contributed to the limited impact. The context of a Conflict Affected Fragile State (CAFS) makes particularly intricate the development of state-capacity as well as the delivery of basic services for the population. To overcome identified gaps, it is argued that Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach (CA) constitutes a relevant framework for designing disability policy and implementation. While the definition of human development has evolved considerably over the …