Social Work Commons^™

Service Providers Perspective On The Unique Needs Of Sexually Exploited Women And Children In The Inland Empire, Ruth Harrison

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore and expose the needs of sexually exploited women and children. The participants were recruited from a few non-profit agencies in the Inland Empire area. This study found one of the most underlying challenge facing the participants when working with sexually exploited victims was the unavailability of resources, particularly, shortage of transitional housing for them. Another finding that featured prominently in the study was related to a need for continuous training and education for the service providers in order to stay current with trends. The study also identified the rapport building …

The Effectiveness Of Disciplinary Interventions In School-Based Counseling, Dakota Blue Bates

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project discusses the effectiveness of disciplinary interventions in school-based counseling. Participants were selected from elementary and middle school sites in a school district in Southern California. Qualitative interviews were conducted to give this researcher additional knowledge in the field of school-based counseling. The audio of the interviews that were conducted were recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed by this researcher. The knowledge of the participants and their unique experiences operating with a wide range of students in many years of experience allowed for a more comprehensive understanding of what intervention strategies are most beneficial to students and where schools and …

The Systemic Issues Associated With Violent Crime In Predominantly African American Communities, Abraham Coles

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the issues associated with violent crime in African American communities. The study discusses the theory of racism as a key factor in the societal conditions African Americans live in the United States. The researcher explains the methodology used. The study is a qualitative study, based on interviews of eight participants answers to twenty questions. The study discusses the research sites, who participated in the research study, and how the participants were selected. The study outlines the sampling method and why this method was chosen. The descriptive statistics of participants in the study …

Master Of Social Work Student Competency In Spanish Skills And The Support They Receive, Giselle Sanchez, Shizatiz Gioconda Guerrero

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

With the growth of the Latino population in the United States on the rise and the limited number of bilingual Spanish social workers, it is critical to explore the Master of Social Work student’s self-perceived competency in Spanish skills and the support they receive. These are the emerging professionals that will be interacting and providing services for Latinos in our communities. Exploring and understanding the challenges students encounter, their self-perceived competency, and how students can be supported, will be beneficial not only to them but also to Latino clients seeking services in Spanish. Providing appropriate services in Spanish may alleviate …

Team Decision-Making And Child/Family Team Meetings: A Social Workers Perspective, Marian Buzga

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This qualitative study was conducted with participation from social workers employed at a Southern California child welfare agency and researched whether the use of Child/Family Team-Decision Making meetings were a benefit to social workers’ practice. Furthermore, the study examined social workers’ beliefs about the meetings’ impact on foster children and their families in connection with the outcomes of safety, permanence and well-being. Safety, permanence and well-being are the three domains used to evaluate the success of foster children and their families.

Family team-decision making meetings have the common goals of safety, permanence and well-being through promoting shared decision-making, empowerment and …

Challenges For Male Therapists Working With Commercially And Sexually Exploited Female Adolescents, John Caballero

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The commercial and sexual exploitation of children has become a global multi-billion dollar industry over the past several decades. Throughout history, therapists from various backgrounds have not only advocated against child trafficking but also provided therapeutic services to victims of such an inhuman crime—most of whom are female adolescents. Compared to their female counterparts, male therapists have been assigned CSEC cases involving female clients in excessively lower ratios. Researchers, however, have not fully captured what has prevented the female CSEC population from drawing interests from male counselors. This study explored potential reluctance in male therapists with regard to working with …

Perceptions About Disproportionality And Disparity Among Black Families Within The Child Welfare System, Kania Alexince Long

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The over-representation of Black children within the child welfare system has been an ongoing topic of discussion for decades across the country. The common theme, across the United States, is that Black children are entering the child welfare systems at disproportionate rates compared to their counterparts and they tend to experience disparities in outcomes including higher recidivism rates and lower reunification rates. Although many studies examine the factors that contribute to this alarming trend, the problem still exists within child welfare systems across the country. This quantitative study’s purpose was to examine the perceptions of MSW Title IV-E students related …

African American Perceptions And Experiences On Preventive Family Therapy And Help-Seeking Behaviors In The Inland Empire, Nathnael Estifanos, Brandon Daniel Farmer

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study seeks to understand the perceptions of African American parents on preventive family therapy and their help-seeking behaviors. Specifically, this study aims to identify the factors that influence African American families in engaging in preventive family therapy and the barriers to accessing treatment. The data was collected through two group interviews that consisted of a total of 11 African American parents residing in Riverside County and San Bernardino County. The findings indicate that: (a) African American parents sought therapy primarily for crisis; (b) Alternatives to therapy were viewed as being just as effective; (c) Barriers to treatment include institutional …

Coping With Interrole Conflict: A Mixed-Method Study Of Students In A Master Of Social Work Program, Mireya Torres

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to assess how social work students cope with interrole conflict. This study attempted to capture the depth and breadth of this issue by adopting a mixed-method research design. The quantitative aspect to the study involved the assessment of coping mechanisms among participants with different levels of interrole conflict. For the qualitative portion of the study, the participants were asked to identify their ways of dealing with interrole conflict. All participants in this research were graduate students from a master’s of social work program in a large, Hispanic-serving institution in Southern California. A non-parametric …

Active Shooter Preparedness Training, Berenice Dougherty, Nyemal Thuok Chuol

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study examined the effectiveness of active shooter preparedness training on students for the purpose of assessing whether or not undergoing such training helps ease students’ level of anxiety, sense of preparedness in the event of a mass shooting attack at their California State University campus, or an attack occurring at their place of internship. This data was collected by offering an active shooter training to student participants, facilitated by the Risk Management department, at a large University in Southern California. Following the training, first-year Bachelors and Masters students within the School of Social Work were given a self-administered questionnaire. …

Cultural Competence Training From A Master Of Social Work Student’S Perspective, Wesley Williams

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The Masters in Social Work (MSW) program at California State University of San Bernardino utilizes a substantial portion of lecture hours bringing attention to areas in which racial disparities exist, as well as the negative impact that these racial disparities have on certain cultures and communities. This project focuses on the disparities involving African-American families in the public child welfare system and how cultural competence trainings may impact this overrepresentation. This research project consists of the exploration of past research relevant to this project, which pertains to cultural competence, the overrepresentation of African-American, and trainings on cultural competence. In addition, …

Social Service Workers Knowledge On The Use Of Technology For Human Trafficking, Raquel Monique Holguin, Athena Noel Barber

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Human Trafficking is the modern-day equivalent of slavery. Those who perpetuate it do so because it is lucrative to invest in a product that can be resold multiple times (Ellis, 2017). The recent advancement of technology has tremendously helped traffickers thrive in the illicit business of Human Trafficking. Social media websites, online classifieds, and mobile applications are quickly becoming some of the major mediums perpetrators utilize to traffick their victims (Latonero, 2012). The purpose of this study was to examine social service workers’ knowledge on the use of technology for Human Trafficking. Face-to-face interviews were conducted and the participants were …

Residential Counselors And Dual-Status Youth Challenges And Resiliency, Kenny Gallegos, Leslie Stephanie Romero-Gallegos

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study explored the common challenges that residential counselors face when working with dual-status youth, which we defined as any youth with at least one open case with the child welfare system or juvenile justice system (or both) and who have previously had a case with the latter in their lifetime. Data were collected through qualitative interviews with their residential counselors across five different residential treatment centers in southern California.

The most common challenges reported by the residential treatment counselors included multiple roles, role limitation, dual-status youth behaviors, deficiency in training, management, and preparation when working with dual-status youth in …

Knowledge Of School Resource Officer's Roles And Their Perceptions On School Social Worker's Roles, Cynthia Crystal Cervantes, Vanessa Vazquez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The study examined the perception of school resource officers (SROs) role in a school setting, the training they received prior to working in a school setting, their interaction with students, and their relationship with school administration, staff, and school social workers. Previous studies discussed SROs’ roles to be ambiguous and their primary focus of a school resource officer to maintain school safety, while other studies discussed the criminalization in schools due to the placement of law enforcement in the school settings.

The study employed a qualitative design with face-to-face interviews with seven participants who serve or have served as a …

Does Resilience Occur From Predisposed Characteristics, Or From Experiences, Moments, And/Or People The Individual Encounters Throughout His/Her Childhood, Marlene Anceno

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study explores how resilience is gained in childhood. Therefore the question becomes does resilience occur from predisposed characteristics or does it occur from experiences, moments, and people the individual encounters during their childhood. This project presents the results of a qualitative study of 15 master degree student participants that gave responses based on their childhood experiences. One of the requirements for this study, was that each participant had to have suffered from being at risk of factors that could have decreased their resilience, called contextual risks. There were three themes that emerged from this study and they are strengths, …

The Self-Percieved Grief Competency Of Masters Level Therapists, Emily Rae Devries

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Bereavement is an experience that most people will encounter multiple times across their lifetime. Some people who experience grief are going to seek support in this process from a therapist. The NASW Code of Ethics suggests that social workers only practice in fields in which they are competent. This study will look at the self-perceived grief competency of master’s level therapists. Demographic data and a survey designed to measure the competency of a master’s level therapist was utilized to collect data to measure the self-perceived grief competency. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-way between groups ANOVA, and correlation …

What Impact Does Religious Beliefs Have Among African Americans Attitudes Towards Getting Mental Health Services?, Vanessa House

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Mental Health in America is a continuous and on ongoing concern for families across the nation. For African Americans there are certain contributing factors that can increase the likelihood that an individual will suffer from a mental health disorder. African Americans have been identified as persons who are less likely to seek mental health services. By using the positivist paradigm, the research question, “What Impact Does Religious Beliefs Have Among African American Attitudes Towards Getting Mental Health Services? is explored. In order to conduct this study, the researcher constructed a survey of 16 questions for African American male and female …

Master Of Social Work Students' Perceived Preparedness To Address Mental Health Needs Of Caregivers Working Toward Reunification, Stephanie Ramirez, Vanessa Romero

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to assess Master of Social Work (MSW)

students’ perspectives on their preparedness to identify mental health needs of

caregivers that are working toward reunification. Research has established that

caregivers with mental illness have children removed by the child welfare system

at higher rates. In order to reunify successfully, it is critical that any mental health

needs are identified to provide appropriate linkage to services. This quantitative

study used a self-administered survey questionnaire with a case study vignette.

MSW students have some exposure to diagnosing during their MSW program,

however, the findings suggest that key …

The Impact Of Low Retention Of Nonprofit Organizations, Yolanda Phillips, Jessica M. Hernandez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study explored the impact of low retention rates in nonprofit organizations and review factors that are associated with this low rate. Nonprofit organizations are a crucial and integral part of our community, there are many factors that are influential in the retention of employees which impact the service that is available to those in need. The need for this study emerged from the researcher’s desire to raise awareness of the factors that lead to low retention rates in social service non-profit organizations and its effects on service provision This study allowed for administration to implement strategies that address the …

Mental Health Treatment Perspective Of Hispanic Population: A Community-Based Participatory Research Approach, Jesus Alfredo Serrato Vidal

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study’s purpose is to shed some light on providers perspective of Hispanics with mental health issues experience, explore providers experience, Hispanics reason for terminating treatment and review providers recommendation to maintain Hispanic individuals and families in treatment. Other studies have established that Hispanics disproportionately underutilize mental health services in comparison to other population. Assuming Hispanics continue to grow and maintain the majority minority in the region of focus in Southern California where the study was conducted, then the finding in this study may serve to improve both Hispanics access to services and agencies and providers improving services to this …

Resilience And Resistance: How The Inland Empire Transgender Community Thrives, Raul Angel Maldonado

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Society’s current focus on the transgender community is complicated, and further heightened by the lack of protections for the transgender community. Current studies only assess the hardships transgender individuals face and the impact they have on their well-being. This study sought to explore what effects the lack of resources and support have on the transgender community in the Inland Empire. This study utilized a qualitative approach incorporating semi-structured interviews of participants. The author also sought to explore how the transgender community in this area are able to mitigate any negative experiences. The qualitative data provided rich grounding in understanding the …

Social Work Students’ Attitudes And Beliefs About Mental Health Courts, Nicholas Bettosini, Conrad Paul Akins-Johnson

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Mental Health Courts (MHCs) are a diversion program for mentally ill offenders in lieu of incarceration. The Substance Abuse and Mental Services Administration (SAMHSA) developed these specialized court programs in the 1990’s to assist mentally ill offenders in overcoming barriers to treatment. While new laws have begun to change the way mentally ill offenders are viewed from a law enforcement standpoint, social workers’ attitudes and beliefs about these programs have not been studied. This quantitative study’s purpose was to examine Master of Social Work (MSW) Graduate students’ attitudes and beliefs of mentally ill offenders and MHCs. Social work student participants …

Identifying The Role Of Faith And Spirituality In The Recovery And Wellness Of Alcohol Abusers, Andrea Elisabet Masdeu

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

There is extensive literature available on the topic of recovery from alcohol abuse. The research focus of this study explores diverse ways in which the practice of faith and spirituality in any form have affected individuals’ recovery and wellness from a post-positivist perspective. The following question is addressed: How does faith and spirituality impact the recovery process and wellness of alcohol abusers? The study was conducted by interviewing volunteer members of three Alcoholics Anonymous mutual-help groups located in Southern California. Participants were asked 15 open ending questions interview. The study uses open and axial coding for analysis. The indirect variables …

Hospice Social Workers’ Attitude On Physician-Assisted Suicide And Practice Under California’S End Of Life Option Act, Veronica Lorraine Fausto Melchor

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Currently in the United States, five states have enacted physician-assisted suicide as a legal end of life option for terminal patients. Research indicates that most patients who have died under this mean have been enrolled in hospice services. With the recent enactment of California’s End of Life Option Act, hospice social workers will find themselves educating and assisting patients and/or their families with this and other end of life decisions. Research has thoroughly examined physician and nurses’ involvement and attitude in the matter, but little has been researched regarding social workers. This study aimed to identify the factors that affect …

The Effectiveness Of Domestic Violence Trainings On Helping Professionals, Paula Virginia Preciado Romero

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research project examined the effect of domestic violence trainings on helping professionals. This research project sought out to measure differences in pre-test and post-test scores from study participants to assess the participants’ beliefs and knowledge regarding the dynamics of domestic violence.

The research project gathered quantitative data from a convenience sample of 28 helping professionals who participated in a domestic violence training. A series of paired samples t-test were conducted to assess differences in the pre-test and post-test scores to determine if our hypothesis was confirmed. Key findings from this study revealed that the domestic violence training was quite …

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (Cbt) For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd) On Veterans And Its Relationship To Suicidal Thoughts, Peggy Erwin

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research project demonstrates the importance of the use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and its relationship to the frequency of suicidal thoughts in veterans through the use of the positivist paradigm. The correlation that was found showing that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy does reduce the frequency of suicide ideation through the collection of quantitative data, and the understanding of Cognitive Learning Theory it is this study offers clinicians another tool to combat suicide in veterans.

Mental Health Intervention: Does An Expedited Process Increase Access To Mental Health Services For Children?, Desiree Lin Morris

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Child maltreatment negatively impacts physical, emotional, and the health and well-being of a person, often with lifelong implications. The importance of this study derives from the very necessity of mental health services for children who have suffered trauma. Children’s Assessment Centers (CAC) assess and refer children who have experienced abuse to a therapist in the community. This study examines the use of an enhanced referral process used to connect some CAC clients more quickly to therapeutic services in the community. The study examined whether children who received this expedited referral service were more likely than children who received the standard …

Muslim American’S Understanding Of Women’S Rights In Accordance To The Islamic Traditions, Riba Khaleda Eshanzada

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Islam is the most misrepresented, misunderstood, and the subject for much controversy in the United States of America especially with the women’s rights issue. This study presents interviews with Muslim Americans on their narrative and perspective of their understanding of women’s rights in accordance to the Islamic traditions. Utilizing a post-positive design, a qualitative data was gathered to compare Quranic text, and the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad to daily practice of Muslim Americans in a Western democratic society. Participants acknowledged that although Islam as a religion has given women rights more than any other world religion and nation, practicing …

Perceptions Of Service Related Trauma In Female Service Members, Reservists, And Veterans, Sara Cathryn Klepps

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to explore female service members, reservists, and veterans feelings regarding service related trauma and what they want clinicians to know regarding treatment. This was a qualitative study that used a snowball sample to interview seven women; data collected was transcribed from recordings, analyzed, and categorized into themes. Qualitative themes included vulnerability, connection to clinician, and mental health stigma. Potential changes endorsed included understanding gender roles, clinician’s ability to build better therapeutic relationships, and decreasing mental health stigma. Limitations included not being able to generalize the study as service members, reservists, and veterans were …

Social Work Services: How Can Social Workers Improve The Healthcare Experience For People Who Are Homeless?, Mckinsey Kemp

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research project focuses on how social workers can improve the healthcare experience for people who are homeless. The twelve participants in this study were recruited from a homeless shelter located in Southern California. Data was collected for this study using qualitative methods by means of interviews. Interviews were conducted in person, audio recorded, and then transcribed for data analysis. Findings from this study indicated that the concepts of time, perception of needs being met, service connection, staff interaction, social work intervention, and potential social work intervention were all connected to whether participants viewed their healthcare visit as a negative …