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Full-Text Articles in Social Work

How To Help Kids Succeed - School-Based Programs And Social Mobility, Theresa Bell Aug 2018

How To Help Kids Succeed - School-Based Programs And Social Mobility, Theresa Bell

Honors Theses

Education is the key to Social Mobility and unless children from poor families get a college degree, their economic mobility is severely restricted (Tough, 2016 pg 2). In November of 2005, the City unveiled a college tuition incentive to Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) graduates, The Kalamazoo Promise. According to the Kalamazoo Promise website (2017), the purpose of the Promise is to, “provide a real meaningful and tangible opportunity for all students,” as “education is an important key to financial wellbeing.” Though access to an affordable college education is possible for Kalamazoo students eligible for The Promise, the numbers show that …


Addiction Treatment Outcomes And Religiosity: What Is The Relationship?, Sidney Harrington Smith Iii May 2018

Addiction Treatment Outcomes And Religiosity: What Is The Relationship?, Sidney Harrington Smith Iii

Honors Theses

This study examines how religiosity, specifically, church attendance, prior to admission into an addictions treatment facility (Teen Challenge) is related to the treatment outcomes of completing the program and the participants’ length of stay in treatment. Additionally, the study investigates how other factors such as marital status, ethnicity, alcohol and drug use, and level of education may be related to treatment outcomes. Using archival data of 388 enrollees in a Teen Challenge program in southern United States, the results show that religiosity prior to treatment admission is significantly related to program completion. However, the second outcome variable, length of time …


Improving No-Show Rates In A Community Health Center, Erin Boshers May 2018

Improving No-Show Rates In A Community Health Center, Erin Boshers

Honors Theses

Community health clinics have surfaced to provide primary care to low-income individuals, but they are currently hurting due to an overwhelmingly high no-show rate. (Population Reference Bureau, 2016; Nowacki, 2013). While there is extensive research on how to overcome no-show appointments in private medical clinics, clinics that serve a low-income clientele cannot succumb to the same methods of intervention due to the financial and physical barriers community health centers face (Nowacki, 2013). The purpose of this project was to extend upon previous studies on strategies to improve the no-show rate at a local community health center by doing a mixed-method, …


Foster Parent Disciplinary Strategies And Child Behaviors, Tamarah Taylor May 2018

Foster Parent Disciplinary Strategies And Child Behaviors, Tamarah Taylor

Honors Theses

Foster parents are tasked with creating a safe and stable environment for the youth while also trying to parent and address challenging behaviors (Elgar, Mills, McGrath, Waschbusch, & Brownridge, 2007). Although these behaviors can also be found in youth in the general population, they are more common among foster youth (Van Holen & Vanschoonlandt, 2017). This mixed-methods study involved using an Internet questionnaire to measure influential factors of parenting (i.e. stress, satisfaction, involvement) and the qualitative questions explored foster parents’ experiences with behaviors and which parenting strategies have been helpful and non-helpful. The quantitative results of this study concluded that …


Adverse Childhood Experiences, Resilience, And Coping Of Foster Parents, Jacqueline Rush May 2018

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Resilience, And Coping Of Foster Parents, Jacqueline Rush

Honors Theses

Foster parents are people who are caregivers for children in foster care. Resilience is a trait that is developed by the exposure of stress, and adversity (Cicchetti & Garmezy, 1993). Some foster parents remain resilient and others do not. The purpose of this study was to examine whether or not Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) has any impact on foster parents’ resilience, coping, satisfaction, and intent to continue fostering. This study included 114 current foster parents from across the United States. The study at hand found that 59.6% of foster parents experienced one ACEs or more, which is lower than the …


Mental Disorders As Brain Disorders: The Impact On Stigma Of Neuroscience-Based Mental Health Education, Katherine Tighe Mar 2018

Mental Disorders As Brain Disorders: The Impact On Stigma Of Neuroscience-Based Mental Health Education, Katherine Tighe

Honors Theses

Stigmatization of mental illness is undoubtedly detrimental to those with mental health concerns as it limits employment, self-esteem and social support (Markowitz, 1998). In effort to combat the issue of stigma, previous research has evaluated the effectiveness of education as a method to reduce stigma in a college sample; finding that peer-led presentations are effective in reducing stigma (Kosyluk et al., 2016). The current study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of neuroscience-oriented presentation for reducing the stigma of mental illness among college students. Researchers asked 53 Union College students to complete seven-item Social Distance Scale (SDS; Penn et al., 1994) …