Social Work Commons^™

Alzheimer's Disease Caregiver Burden: Does Resilience Matter?, Cathy B Scott

Doctoral Dissertations

Caring for an individual with Alzheimer’s disease is especially challenging and impacts every aspect of the lives of the informal caregivers. Informal caregiving is defined as unpaid care provided by family or friends to people with a chronic illness or disability (Young & Newman, 2002). Caregiver burden involves the physical, psychological, social and emotional problems experienced by a caregiver of an impaired loved one (Gwyther & George, 2006). Alzheimer’s disease caregivers report more depression than their caregiving and non-caregiving peers, experience increased physical decline, and often experience financial challenges. Evidence suggests Alzheimer’s disease caregiver burden is a result of both …

Stimulus, Fall/Winter 2010, Ut College Of Social Work

Stimulus Alumni Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Gender And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Screening In The Military: A Measurement Study, Mark Allan Oliver

Doctoral Dissertations

The Primary Care Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PC-PTSD) screen (Prins et al., 2003) is used by the Department of Defense to identify military members who are at increased risk of PTSD. This screen has been offered to all returning deployers since 2005. However, validation studies of PC-PTSD scores from military samples have seldom employed a significant number of female subjects and no published studies have examined it for gender bias. Ruling out bias is important because routine under-identification of PTSD risk in any group could result in hindered access to needed assessment and/or care. With the current proportion of military females …

Assessment Of Social Workers’ Attitudes Towards People With Physical Disabilities, Ann Charlotte Eubank

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes of social workers in Tennessee towards people with physical disabilities. A non-probability, convenience sample of social workers who were members of the National Association of Social Workers Tennessee Chapter (NASW TN), and accept email communication, were sent the on-line survey. Two hundred sixty five social workers responded to the survey and one hundred sixty eight respondents (N=168) completed the survey in its entirety and were included in analysis. The respondents’ attitudes were assessed as either empowering or oppressive based on concepts and constructs of empowerment and oppression identified by disability …

Childhood Perceptions Of Family, Social Support, Parental Alcoholism And Later Alcohol Use Among African American College Students, J. Camille Hall

Social Work Publications and Other Works

This study investigated differences in alcohol use, family of origin, and social support between a sample of adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs, 25 males and 25 females) and a sample of adult children of non-alcoholics (non-ACOAs, 25 males and 25 females). Participants completed a battery of tests: a demographic questionnaire, the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test, the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test, the Family of Origin Scale, and the Dimension of Social Support Scale. Analysis of variance revealed that the two groups differed on alcohol consumption and family of origin, with ACOAs reporting significantly less alcohol use, and non-ACOAs reporting healthier …

Human–Animal Relationships As Modulators Of Trauma Effects In Children: A Developmental Neurobiological Perspective, Janet G. Yorke

Doctoral Dissertations

Humans and animals interaction is showing promise as a way to provide complementary and alternative medicine for humans. Children have an affinity for animals that could be useful therapeutically. Emotional stress and trauma impacts the neurobiology of children, who are vulnerable given the developmental plasticity of the brain. Some research suggests that neuropeptides and neuromodulators in both humans and the animals are mutually altered through human animal interaction, resulting in the attenuation of stressful responses in both (Yorke, in press; McCabe & Albano, 2004; Uvnas-Moberg, 2009). Human or animal touch, proximity and mind body interaction has been found to contribute …

Listening To Undocumented Mothers: The Experiences Of Undocumented Mexican Mothers Of High School Students Living In The U.S. And Receiving Social Services, Maria Alejandra Lopez

Doctoral Dissertations

The present dissertation is based on a phenomenological study on undocumented Mexican immigrant mothers of high school students who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years and received social services. Most of these mothers have emigrated from rural areas of the central and southern Mexican States of Guanajuato, Michoacan, Queretaro, among others. According to the participants, socio-economic conditions forced them to leave their homelands hoping to find a better life in the U.S.

Ten undocumented mothers of high school students living in the U.S. were interviewed from a phenomenological perspective. They were monolingual Spanish speakers (only one …

Self-Reported Family Income And Expenditure Patterns For A Cohort Of Tanf-Reliant African American Women: Outcomes From A Longitudinal Study In Miami-Dade County, Florida, Stacia Michelle West

Masters Theses

This mixed-method study was designed to analyze the impact of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 on a cohort of welfare-reliant African American women in Miami-Dade County. A snowball sampling technique was utilized to identify and conduct in-person interviews with women who were receiving welfare benefits from January 1997 to March 2000. The study intended to determine the participant characteristics, employment and wage histories, annualized income, and annualized expenditures over the time span. The results indicate that the average age of recipients was 34.5 years old with four children. The average educational attainment for the cohort …

Everyday Conflict And Daily Stressors: Coping Responses Of Black Women, J. Camille Hall

Social Work Publications and Other Works

The purpose of this study was to explore how Black women cope with the impact of daily stressors in their lives. To understand stress and coping among Black women, it was necessary to explore the interlocking effects of race, gender, and social class on these stressors and their effects on the women’s ability to cope with the consequences for their health and emotional and psychological well-being. An exploratory design with grounded theory methods was used to develop a midrange theory about stress and coping among Black women on the basis of the women’s experience with sociocultural factors, namely, race, gender, …