Social Work Commons^™

From Muhammed To The Jobup: Engaging Malemployed Immigrants Through Journalism, Tiziana Rinaldi

Capstones

I focused my graduate work on the local community of malemployed immigrants. They are foreign-educated newcomers — medical doctors, pharmacists, teachers, lawyers and engineers, to name a few of their professions — who lack the resources to find skill- appropriate work in the U.S. They end up either unemployed or working at "jobs for which they’re overqualified or overeducated or both,” I wrote for NJSpotlight in 20171.

Using the social journalism method2 of engaging members of a chosen group to fill important if not crucial information gaps, I developed The JobUp, a series of free, offline educational events, as my …

Place-Making By Black And Latinx Students In Predominantly White Institutions: Participatory Design And Meaning Making Through A Social Enterprise, Joshua P.H. Livingston

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Black and Latinx male retention in post-secondary institutions, particularly predominantly white institutions (PWI), remains a critical social problem. Even though many PWIs set up structures to welcome and support Black and Latinx males, those structures are defined and created through dominant cultural norms. They have been challenged to mitigate the individualized facets of disengagement. A social innovation, proof of concept model was conceptualized, designed, and developed alongside Black and Latinx males in college. Social innovation is defined as a new way of approaching long standing and complex problems. Proof of concept (PoC) helps to validate that processes and designs are …

Does Ethnic Identity, In-Group Preference, And Acculturation Protect Latinas With A History Of Interpersonal Trauma From Developing Symptoms Of Ptsd?, Evelyn M. Ramirez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous research suggests ethnic identity, a sense of belonging to a particular cultural group, may be protective against symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the role of ethnic identity, in-group preference (i.e., an individual’s preference for interactions with members of their own ethnic group) and acculturation (i.e., the level of comfort with the mainstream culture) have not been investigated as protective factors for Latinas with a history of interpersonal and sexual trauma. In this study, ethnic identity, in-group preference and acculturation were assessed via self-report on the Scale of Ethnic Experience in two samples of undergraduate Latina and non-Latina …

Exploring Narratives Of Adolescent-To-Parent Abuse, Sofia Oviedo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Adolescent-to-parent abuse (APA) is an often hidden form of family abuse that evidences a breakdown in the parent-child relationship with damaging effects on the physical and emotional well-being of parents and youth. This study aimed to examine the experiences of parents affected by APA, the effects on the parent-child relationship, and on parent identity. It also explored how APA influenced the relationship dynamics during conflicts, how parents managed these conflicts, and how parents viewed their power within these interactions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 parents who resided in two major cities in the US (Seattle, WA and New York …

Adults Formerly In Foster Care Narrate Schooling Experiences, Danielle Walker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Roughly 400,000 children are in foster care in the United States (Lash, 2017, p. 5). These youth are less likely to graduate high school than their non-foster peers (Barnow et al., 2015). While several barriers contribute to the poor educational outcomes for children in foster care, research has noted that the label “foster child” is associated with negative connotations and differential teacher treatment (Altshuler, 2003; Finkelstein, Wamsley, & Miranda, 2002). In spite of such observations, little research has emphasized the perspectives of those in foster care. To fill this gap, this qualitative study posed the following question: How do adults …

The Implementation Fidelity Of The Family Finding Intervention Through The Lens Of Permanency Specialists, Liat L. Shklarski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Family Finding intervention is a six-stage intervention that aims to improve the well-being of youth lingering in foster care by searching for and engaging adults who can provide them with permanent relational connections (Campbell, 2010). Preliminary research on fidelity to the Family Finding intervention indicated gaps in its implementation (Malm, Vandivere, Allen, Williams, & McKlindon, 2014; Vandivere & Malam, 2015). This study sought to explore how implementation fidelity occurs in real-world settings and the factors that promote implementation fidelity for the intervention.

An explanatory sequential mixed methods inquiry was employed to examine permanency specialists’ perceptions of the implementation of …

The Moving On Program And Supportive Housing Residents With Histories Of Homelessness, Kimberly Livingstone

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Supportive housing is the main strategy assisting formerly homeless people to live in the least restrictive settings and as independently as possible. There has been a greater focus on efforts towards homelessness prevention and remedies to minimize the experience of homelessness, which have been further fueled by the demand for supportive housing and a drive for cost effectiveness. Meanwhile, there have been attempts to ensure that those living in supportive housing are only those who continue to need comprehensive long-term support to live independently in the community. To accomplish this, and in line with the Recovery Movement, programs assist people …

Intimate Partner Violence Among Expectant Adolescent Couples: Psychological And Relational Predictors And Sexual Risk, Jessica Lewis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent and tends to be bilateral in adolescent relationships. Expectant adolescent couples are at even higher risk. Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM), this study sought to: (1) describe the patterns of physical/sexual and psychological IPV victimization of women and men in expectant adolescent couples from pregnancy through twelve months postpartum; (2) examine the associations between psychosocial and relational factors during pregnancy and postpartum IPV; and (3) investigate the relationship between IPV victimization and later sexual risk across the perinatal period.

METHODS: Data were collected from pregnant adolescents and their male partners (N=296) recruited …

Guilty By Association: A Critical Analysis Of How Imprisonment Affects The Children Of Those Behind Bars, Whitney Q. Hollins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As 2.2 million individuals in the United States are currently incarcerated and an additional 5 million are under some form of correctional surveillance, the push for prison reform has reached new heights. Intimately and inextricably connected to mass incarceration and the push for its reform (and in some cases abolition) are the children have been impacted by incarceration. About half of the individuals currently incarcerated are parents to at least one child under the age of 18. Current estimates suggest that 2.7 million children currently have an incarcerated parent and that 10 million children in the United States have experienced …