Social Work Commons^™

Exploring Permanency Rates Within The Southern California Counties Of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino And San Diego, Karrene Turner

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The term permanency within child welfare is the right for all children to have a childhood with a nurturing and permanent family. For children within foster care, it means a permanent family-based living situation with one of the following: parents, permanent placement with relatives, reunification with parents or adoption (Freundlich et al., 2006). The purpose of this study is to examine the perceived differences in permanency rates within 12 months of entry in child welfare within the Southern California counties of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego within a 10-year time span. The study will use pre-existing data …

Prolonged Exposure To Congregate Care And Foster Youth Outcomes, Tiffany Acklin

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Long-term exposure to congregate care settings can place foster children at greater risk for negative life outcomes in adulthood such as homelessness, incarceration, and substance use. The significance of this quantitative study is found in the benefits to both the micro and macro fields of social work as well as the practical applications to child welfare practices regarding placing children in congregate care settings. These findings are essential for guiding and improving the already existing child welfare policies and practices regarding the length of stay in congregate care settings as well as providing supportive services to children who are already …

Social Workers Perspective On Barriers To Family Reunification, Laura Velasquez, Annamarie C. Merrill

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The focus of this study is social worker’s potential perspective on barriers to family reunification in a child welfare services agency located in Central California. A constructivist research paradigm was applied to this study as it permitted the researchers to use a subjective methodology for collecting qualitative data. The study gathered data using interviews with child welfare social workers to construct a joint understanding of social workers perspective on barriers they face when reunifying child welfare families. Child welfare social workers identified numerous barriers to effective social work both in practice and in policy. The barriers found were a lack …

Foster Care Experience, Group Support, And Life Outcomes: A Qualitative Study, Alameta James

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research study utilizes the perspectives of foster care alumni to explore the effectiveness of the child welfare system. Based on experiences with general and peer related services while in foster care, participants were asked to evaluate and discuss how interventions they received contributed to areas of their life, including adult independent living. The study used an exploratory method with a qualitative approach to search for categories and themes related to the services, interventions, and activities implemented with foster youth and the effect that had on their lives. Interviews were deduced into six categories: demographics, therapeutic services, education, social support, …

Former Foster Youth Who Become Child Welfare Workers, Candace Watts, Shantel Ortega

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Former foster youth who become child welfare workers are an asset to the child welfare system because of the combination of their lived experience and professional experience in child welfare, which allows them to understand the circumstances of their clients on a deeper level. This study seeks to uncover the reasons why former foster youth become child welfare workers. There are three main questions that our study seeks to know: What factors lead former foster youth to become workers in child welfare? Do these workers have any advantages because of their past personal experiences with child welfare? And do child …

The Impact Of Religion And Spirituality On County Child Welfare Workers, Celeste Ramos, Sonia Magdaleno Ayamel

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study aims to identify and analyze how county child welfare workers can utilize their own religious and spiritual beliefs to alleviate some of the work-related stress. In addition, the study will examine how participating in religious or spiritual support groups will benefit county child welfare workers. The findings may encourage social workers to rely on their respective religious and spiritual beliefs while dealing with difficult situations.

Self Care And Burnout Among Child Welfare Workers During The Coronavirus Pandemic, Stephanie Carranza, Claudia Castillo

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The study was designed to explore associations between burnout and self-care practices among child welfare social workers and how they were impacted during the Coronavirus pandemic. The researchers completed a qualitative study with research participants by completing interviews via Zoom. All research participants composed of current and former child welfare social workers. Through the data gathered, the researchers found that there were no associations between burnout and self-care practices during the pandemic. It was concluded that burnout has remained consistent regardless of self-care practices prior and during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Caregiver-Biological Parent Relationship’S Impact On Reunification, Karol Valencia Reynoso

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Child welfare cases that require the removal of children from the parents require court involvement. Children in foster care are placed in a foster home. Foster caregivers are responsible for the daily care of the court Dependent meanwhile their parent(s) is participating in Family Reunification services.

Interviewing social workers with family reunification case work experience allowed for identification of common barriers or commonalities caused by the relationship between foster caregivers and biological parents. Visitations between the children and bio-parents are a great indicator of reunification likelihood based on the child-parent bond. The study was centered on child welfare social worker’s …

Perception Of Parentification: A Qualitative Study Of Hispanic Families In Southern California, Kaylin Lopez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Previous research has not thoroughly studied parentification in California. This study seeks to fill this gap by exploring how is child parentification is perceived among Hispanic families in the High Desert region of California. Guided by the premises of Bowlby’s Attachment Theory and Erikson’s Psychosocial Development Theory and utilizing a qualitative approach, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with six Hispanic Americans residing in California’s High Desert area (N = 6). Thematic analysis of the data generated six major themes: (1) children as a resource in the household, (2) parentification requires parental consent, (3) parentification depends on child’s age, (4) parentification …

Working Effectively With Immigrant Families In The Child Welfare System, Angeles J. Tovar, Yvette Robles

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine what social work students and early career professionals need from their agencies, supervisors, and colleagues to work effectively with immigrant clients in child welfare. The literature on social work with immigrants suggests that this work is challenging due to a plethora of barriers related to language, culture, citizenship, eligibility, and organizational environment. The study uses in-depth, qualitative interviews with seven social work students and early career social workers who work in child welfare settings in Southern California, either as interns or full-time employees. These interviews were conducted by the researchers from Fall …

Emotional Exhaustion Among Child Welfare Social Workers In Southern California: A Qualitative Study, Irma Mondragon

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore emotional exhaustion among child welfare social workers in Southern California. Most of the research studies on this area have been conducted outside the southern region of the Golden State. Through semi-structured interviews with 12 current and former child welfare social workers, this study found three major themes: (1) child welfare social workers suffer from a multifaceted form of emotional exhaustion; (2) child welfare social workers believe that the benefits of child welfare ultimately outweigh its costs, and (3) child welfare social workers use a variety of ways to cope with work-related emotional …

Public Perception And Influential Sources Toward Child Welfare Services, Melissa A. Teague, Nicolas A. Hollis

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to answer the following questions: “What is the current public attitude toward public child welfare services and what sources of information have been used to formulate these attitudes?” In answering these questions, child welfare agencies would have a better understanding of what populations to promote public outreach, education, or further community involvement based on demographics and/or which venues to implement such outreach.

This study provides information on previous studies where researchers have looked at the general role of social work and used the gathered information to assess public sentiment. In past research there has …

Perspectives On The Barriers Encountered By Foster Youth At The Higher Education Level, Bianca J. Rivera, Aileen Ramirez Lopez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The foster youth is a population in the child welfare arena where social workers continue to work and engage in providing effective and supportive resources. This population already vulnerable due to traumatic experiences, continue to lift the veil and fight against all odds. As change agents, we recognize their perspectives are critical to understanding and creating changes that will grant these youth higher academic success rates. This qualitative research includes thirteen open-ended questions regarding the perspectives of eleven former and current foster youth participants. Participants were provided the opportunity to identify the barriers they have face or are facing while …

Bridging The Gap Between Foster Youth And Higher Education: Perspectives Of Social Workers, Marielena Lozano

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research examined the perceptions of child welfare social workers in their role of supporting foster youth. Specifically, this study will focus on factors contributing to support for foster youth to obtain post-secondary education or vocational training.

This study utilized a qualitative research design. Data were collected from individual, semi-structured interviews with six volunteer participants in Southern and Northern California using a snowball sampling method. Throughout the interviews, the researcher asked current or former child welfare social workers to describe their perceptions and experiences in supporting foster youth in obtaining higher education.

The study found several themes related to the …

Childhood Trauma Within The Child Welfare System, Valarie Schulz, Angelica Bautista

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Childhood trauma among children in foster care is a major concern in the child welfare system and its impacts often go unaddressed. The purpose of this study was to gain knowledge from a social worker’s view on early trauma intervention for children in foster care and their successful transition into adulthood. This study used an exploratory qualitative method to collect data through face-to-face interviews with 7 social workers who have experience working with foster children. This approach gained participant’s unique insights pertaining to their experiences working with children impacted by childhood trauma.

Data obtained from this study identified early trauma …

Domestic Violence In Rural Areas, Priscilla Ayala, Patricia Sanchez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Domestic violence (DV) negatively impacts individuals and families, including children, across the U.S. Yet, there is little research on the barriers and facilitators to services these families encounter, especially in rural areas. The goal of this study was to examine service availability in rural areas for families who have experienced domestic violence.

This study was conducted using a qualitative research design. Researchers conducted face-to-face and phone interviews with nine human services professionals in one rural California community. The study used in-depth interviews with open-ended questions to encourage participants to share their views and experiences.

The findings were categorized into six …

Substance Abuse And Family Reunification: Perceptions And Potential Contributing Factors To Family Reunification, Ashley Odam, Tina Macmaster

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the contributing factors of family reunification (FR) according to social workers and other professionals working in child welfare. Existing research highlights the importance of the social worker’s relationship with the person with substance abuse as a contributing factor to FR; however, there is little research as to what influenced the social worker and other professionals from their perspective.

A quantitative self-administered survey was distributed to social workers and professionals in San Bernardino County and Riverside County that included questions about the participant’s background, experience, possible contributing factors, and influences potentially impacting family …

Child Welfare Social Workers’ Perspective On Factors That Influence Longevity, Veronica Betancourt-Perez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The child welfare sector has been dealing with the issue of turnover for many years and it has yet to implement effective solutions to mitigate the problem. In this study, the researcher used a post-positivist approach to examine contributing factors that affect job longevity in child welfare. The researcher reviewed literature as well as used motivation and organizational support theory to determine what potential factors influence job longevity among child welfare social workers. The researcher gathered demographic information and qualitative data from ten interviews with child welfare social workers employed by the County of Los Angeles Department of Children and …

Incarcerated Mothers Achieving Reunification: Providing Support To Child Welfare Social Workers, Francesca Villarreal

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project explores the barriers to reunification with their children for incarcerated mothers in an effort to provide more support to child welfare social workers who engage with this population. Project participants were selected from one regional office of a child welfare agency in Southern California to complete qualitative interviews. Participants included seven Social Service Practitioners (SSPs), two Supervising Social Service Practitioners (SSSPs), and one Data Analysist. Each participant’s interview was digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed following the systematic manual coding method with the assistance of Microsoft Word (Ose, S, 2016). Five common barriers were identified: child visitations with incarcerated …

Parent Partners' Perceptions Of Reunification Celebration And The Impact On Reunified Parents, Marley Leila Walker, Tre'nise Jemel Anderson

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In the study, the researchers explored parent partners’ perceptions on reunification celebration events and the impact the event has on fostering reunified parents’ use of positive parenting skills. A qualitative design was completed using convenience sampling. The researchers studied previous research that focused on the reunification process and the general importance of celebrations in child welfare as a precursor to their study. The researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with nine parent partners from one child welfare agency in Southern California. Our findings revealed four major themes of the study. First, we learned of the importance of recognizing reunified parents’ for their …

Adverse Childhood Experiences And Coping Methods For Social Work Students, Treyveon Parks, Alex Hernandez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of the following study was to explore and examine the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and coping methods among social work students at a Southern California university. The literature on ACE scores suggests that higher levels of ACE can impact well-being and functioning in adults, yet, provides limited information relating to social work.

A quantitative survey instrument constructed by Felitti and colleagues (1998) and two additional questions relating to coping methods and strategies were constructed by the researchers were used to gather data for the purpose of this study. Data for the following study was collected through …

Social Workers' Perception On The Needs And Services For Foster Children With Special Needs, Jessica Joanna Jimenez, Winnie Wing Yang Lee

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Foster children are already at a disadvantage given that they tend to live in a home without their parents. Social workers have direct interactions working with children with special needs, and through interviews with the workers, we aimed to understand whether or not the services available are able to meet foster children’s special needs. The research on special needs children in foster care is quite limited. The purpose of the study was to identify social workers’ perceptions of the needs of special needs foster children and their access to services.

This study used qualitative interviews with open-ended questions to gather …

Bridging The Gap: Exploring Social Work Student Preparedness For Working With Children Who Have Developmental Disabilities, Shauna Lei De Jesus, Mariela Licon

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Abstract

Children with developmental disabilities are a particularly vulnerable population with complex, unique needs. In order to ensure that these clients are achieving the best quality of life possible, they typically require an array of community support services where social workers will often intersect with them in a variety of settings and roles. Therefore, there is a substantial need to ensure that student’s entering the workforce as newly qualified workers have some familiarity and exposure to what presenting issues these children are facing as well as the different techniques and tools available to engage with and assess them.

This study …

Barriers To Recruiting Native American Foster Homes In Urban Areas, Shirley Mae Begay, Jennifer Lynn Wilczynski

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the current practice of and barriers specific to recruiting Native American foster homes in urban areas. The literature review suggested that historical, cultural, and bureaucratic barriers to recruitment existed. The study used a qualitative, exploratory design. The data was obtained from in-depth interviews with 10 individuals whose job it is or has been to recruit Native American foster homes. The participants were employed with either a foster family agency, county child welfare agency, or a supporting organization servicing Los Angeles County and/or the San Francisco Bay Area. The …

Cross - Professional Comparison Of Social Work Burnout, Heather Lynn Schaal

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Burnout in the social work field is becoming increasingly common due to the emotional intensity of the client-social worker relationship and job demands. Research has shown that burnout has detrimental effects not only on the social worker themselves but on clients and agencies as well. Limited research exists examining which professional setting of social work experiences the highest level of burnout. This study used secondary data collected by, Dr. Lizano in 2016 from the 4^thAnnual California State University, San Bernardino BASW and MSW Field Instructor Training. A quantitative method was used to analyze which setting of social work …

Information And Communication Technologies In Public Child Welfare: A Systematic Literature Review, Stephanie K. Schneider

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This systematic literature review synthesizes findings from empirical studies published between 1989 and 2016 to examine types, use, purpose and implementation of information and communication technology in public child welfare to determine if there are thematic reoccurrences in these arenas. Study results yielded information to the field of social work and public child welfare by determining themes in successful usage, purpose and implementation of information and communication technology in public child welfare to better serve those vulnerable populations. This systematic literature review contextualizes and identifies these themes across the literature. Studies included in this review were analyzed and categorized to …

Beliefs About Substance Abusing Parents Among California State University Master Of Social Work Students, Angela R. Golden

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the beetles about substance abusing parents from California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB) NEW students. The biases that human device professionals hold toward substance abusers have the potential to negatively impact clients' health, well- being, and access to services. Understanding future social workers ' biases towards substance abusing parents is key as these future professionals are likely to serve families impacted by substance abuse in their future roles. This quantitative study used a self-administered, online survey to assess the beliefs of foundation and advanced-year MSW students from CSUSB. In general, the findings …

The Insight And Factors That Promote Job Longevity For Child Welfare Social Workers, Dakota Caitlin Meza, Loretta Reyes Broadnax

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The high turnover rate of child welfare social workers has been a chronic issue that society has yet to mitigate. To understand this problem, the researchers looked at contributing factors in comparison to the factors that promote job longevity. The researchers reviewed the multidimensional theory of burnout, to explore the ongoing issue of high turnover rates. Also, organizational support theory was examined to determine if support from organizations contributed to job longevity. The post-positivist approach was used to gather qualitative data from this study as to the potential factors promoting job longevity through individual interviews with seasoned child welfare social …

Post-Adoptive Services' Impact On Adoption Outcomes, Sarah E. Cantino

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Adoption is a common occurrence within the field of social work, yet adoptees and their adoptive parents grapple with a multitude of challenges unique to this population. The needs of these children and families are continually scrutinized by social service professionals prior to adoption, but less is known of the needs and services available to this population after adoption is finalized. This study addressed the question: Does adoptive families’ use of post-adoptive resources increase positive adoption outcomes? Ten adoptive parents participated in semi-structured interviews as part of this study. Most participants felt they had access to adequate services, and struggled …

Correlation Between Use Of Family Visitation Centers And Family Reunification, Teri Posey, Cynthia Ann Munn-Haywood

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of San Bernardino County’s Family Visitation Centers (FVC) and their effect on improving rates of reunification in families that use the visit centers, as opposed to those families who do not use the visit centers. The FVC were developed out of the Department Human Services Redesign to enhance the visitation experience for families, staff and others involved in the process. The FVC centers are a place to provide safe visits, in a non-sterile environment, for children to maintain the bonds with their parents that they have been removed from by …