Social Work Commons^™

The Drugs/Violence Nexus: Theory Testing And Behavioral Health Factors Among Justice-Involved Appalachian Women, Grant Victor

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

This study examined the relationship between drug use and violence among justiceinvolved women in Appalachian Kentucky. Goldstein’s (1985) conceptual framework was used as a theoretical guide in formulating the drugs and violence relationships. Therefore, three types of drug use and violence relationships were explored, including: 1) psychopharmacological violence; economic-compulsive violence; and 3) systemic violence. Although these drug-related violence typologies have been investigated, little research has been devoted to rural justice-involved women. Moreover, to date no studies have examined how these drug/violence relationships might be associated with behavioral health factors. Ergo, there were three aims of the current study. First, to …

Veterans' Treatment Courts In Kentucky: Examining How Personal Characteristics And During-Program Occurrences Influence Program Completion And Criminal Recidivism, Monica Lynn Himes

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Military veterans are disproportionately represented in United States (U.S.) jails and prisons, with nearly 10% of current inmates being veterans. Veterans’ criminal justice involvement is often precipitated by underlying mental health and substance abuse that are connected to their military service. Veterans’ treatment courts are the judicial response to a need for more coordinated provision of mental health and substance abuse services to veterans involved in the criminal justice system. Modeled after drug courts and mental health courts, veterans treatment courts are a judicial innovation that aim to honor the service of veterans by providing them an alternative to incarceration. …

Social Workers’ And Teachers’ Feelings Of Self-Efficacy In Dealing With School Bullying, Sharon Lynn Simmons

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Bullying continues to be a serious problem in schools. School social workers and teachers face challenges daily to deal with bullying. This author examined school social workers’ and teachers’ perceptions about their feelings of efficacy to deal with bullying and what may account for those feelings in a population of 71 teachers and 26 social workers employed in Kentucky schools. Research was gathered using a self-report, electronic survey consisting of subscales of the Teachers’ Attitudes about Bullying Questionnaire (Beran, 2005), the School Bullying Questionnaire (Nicolaides, Toda & Smith, 2002), the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (Spreng, McKinnon, Mar & Levine, 2009) and …

Suicide Attitudes And Terror Management Theory, Athena Kheibari

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Virtually every mental health problem carries stigma, but suicide appears to run so counter to our accumulative, achievement-oriented society, that it poses even greater threat of stigma. While suicide is inherently troubling in that it opposes the fundamental human instinct for self-preservation, the tendency to stigmatize and reject individuals affected by suicide appears to be counterproductive and excessive. Hence, the purpose of this three-manuscript dissertation is to gain a more nuanced understanding of suicide attitudes from an exploratory and terror management theory perspective. More specifically, this dissertation attempts to answer three general questions: (1) how do suicide attitudes differ from …

Does Childhood Psychological Abuse Strengthen Or Weaken Msw Social Workers And Allied Professionals’ Compassion Fatigue And Compassion Satisfaction?, Andy S. C. Reynolds

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors of social worker and allied professional’s professional quality of life, particularly the impact of the professional’s childhood psychological abuse on compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction scores. Variables such as perceived resilience, social support, childhood psychological abuse, evidence-based practice training, years of experience, percentage of clients with trauma narratives, and case-load number are explored both conceptually and as risk or protective factors to social worker and allied professional’s compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. A conceptual model is provided to visually show the direction of the proposed research.

The sample to be …