Social Work Commons^™

Obtaining Genuine Family Involvement: Unpacking The System Of Care Values And Principles, Deborah A. Cohen

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Despite the federal government’s $1.5 billion investment between 1993 and 2010 to fund 164 separate community-based systems of care, there has been an extremely limited attempt to measure the impact of system of care. The impetus for this research is the struggle for how the value based concept of system of care is communicated within a community. While child mental health services researchers have published a number of randomized control trials to explore individual level supports for youth served in a system of care community, researchers have struggled to devise a way to measure system of care philosophy diffusion.

While …

Identity Making Process Of Individuals With Mild Intellectual Disabilities, Carolee Kamlager

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

The shadow of stigma theory typically surrounds the research investigation of the lives of individuals with mild intellectual disabilities. McAdams’ life story theory and methodology provide a human development framework as an alternative to the prevailing framework in the field of disability. This study moves out of the shadow of otherness and examines the personal identity making process of twelve individuals with mild intellectual disabilities in the light of human development theory. Findings dispel the assumption that individuals with mild intellectual disabilities construct their lives solely through their disability. Rather, the identity making process includes the influences of socio-cultural events, …

Assessing Self-Efficacy Of Cultural Competence With Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Clients: A Comparison Of Training Methods With Graduate Social Work Students, Steven D. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Graduate social work students are mandated to be cultural competent to work with lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) clients. This exploratory study examined how best to teach graduate social work students to be culturally competent in working with LGB clients by assessing their perceived competence of attitudes, knowledge and skills as well as their demonstrated competence through case vignettes.

The study compared a current pedagogical method of infusing LGB material across the curricula with two types of brief trainings (didactic lecture and experiential) . This mixed methods study utilized a pretest/posttest design to examine the effects of the trainings as …

Rampage School Shootings: A Content Analysis Of Media And Scholarly Accounts Of Perpetration Factors Associated With The Phenomenon, Philip Mongan

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

When school shootings occur in primary or secondary schools they draw a massive amount of media attention. Frequently, after the shooting stops, the media begins to prognosticate about the factors that led to the occurrence of the tragedy. However, there is a dearth of research examining those factors that are perpetuated by the media, as well as the factors that are most discussed in scholarly publications. Therefore, the aim of this research project was to explore the perpetration factors that have been perpetuated by the media, and compare those to the perpetration factors that are most frequently discussed by researchers. …

Factors Affecting End Of Treatment Symptom Severity For Children Receiving Trauma-Informed Evidence-Based Treatment, Jessica G. Eslinger

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

The purpose of this project is to examine how the factors of gender, placement status, type of treatment, the number of different types of trauma experienced, and a child’s age at the start of treatment may influence end of treatment symptom severity scores for children ages 2-12 years who received trauma-informed evidence-based treatment for trauma. Method: Caregivers and children receiving outpatient services (N=134) completed the Child Behavioral Checklist, Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children, and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children-Alternate Version at baseline and end of treatment. Hypotheses were tested with a series of ANCOVA analyses, Independent t-Tests, …

Acculturative Stress And Depressive Symptoms Among Korean Immigrant Elders Residing In Non-Korean Ethnic Enclaves, Stephanie Lyu Rhee

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Few studies have examined the relationships among personal factors, acculturative stress, coping resources, and depression of Korean immigrant elders residing in areas without any Korean ethnic enclave. Based on the stress and coping model and the sociocultural model of stress, coping, and adaptation, this cross-sectional study examined the relationships among acculturative stress, coping, and depression in 111 non-institutionalized Korean immigrant elders aged 60 and older residing in areas without any Korean ethnic enclaves in three neighboring states of Southwestern Ohio, North Central Region of Kentucky, and Southern Indiana. A majority of convenience and snowball sample participated in self-administered mailed surveys, …

Human Capital, Mental Health, Substance Use And Social Support Among Low-Income Women, Sarabeth Leukefeld

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Low-income women, including women who receive welfare, are some of the most misunderstood citizens in the U.S. Low-income women often live in extreme situations that are complicated by poverty and multiple issues related to human capital, social support, mental health, and substance use. These factors make low-income women unique in that they contribute not only to the women’s current situations, but to their potential for future self-sufficiency. The majority of previous studies have described these factors as barriers to self-sufficiency. This study explored these factors differently by examining the extent to which human capital is associated with mental health problems …

The Relationship Of Social Stress, Economic Hardship, And Psychological Distress To Addiction Severity Among Kentucky Substance Abuse Treatment Participants, Elizabeth A. Wahler

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Stress is associated with poor mental health, specifically anxiety and depression, and stress and mental health problems are predictors of substance dependence and relapse. Social characteristics, such as racial/ethnic minority status, female gender, and low socioeconomic status, are often associated with increased psychological distress and substance use disorders. Pearlin’s social stress theory postulates that this association is due to increased exposure to stress and subsequent experiences of distress related to social disadvantage and decreased access to resources for coping with stress. This project uses a social stress theoretical perspective to examine predictors of substance use after treatment entry and follow-up …

Examining Chronic Non-Cancer Pain Among A Sample Of Individuals In Opioid Treatment Programs, Erin Stevenson

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

National rates of chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) are rising alongside increasing reports of prescription opioid abuse and mortality. Associations between the rise in CNCP and in opioid abuse seem logical, yet research on CNCP among individuals with opioid dependence is currently limited due to the complicated nature of comorbid conditions in research and treatment. This study aims to expand the CNCP knowledge base by responding to the question: Do individuals with CNCP participating in an opiate treatment program have better or worse treatment outcomes than individuals without CNCP?

This study used a secondary dataset including 483 adults from Kentucky’s Opiate …