Social Work Commons^™

Postpartum Depression And Military Women, Jessica Edwards

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Military serving women and veterans are a vulnerable population that has a history with mental health issues. Military women who experience postpartum depression (PPD) must deal with outside factors such as family, deployment, and expectations from the military for their soldiers.

This study focused determining what factors have impacted the severity of postpartum depression in military service women who have had children while in service. Data was drawn from 4 respondents that were obtained using a mixture of purposive and snowball sampling. The severity of the participant’s postpartum depression was obtained through the use of the Edinburgh Perinatal Depression Scale, …

Employee Turnover: The Unknown Effects On Client Engagement And Outcomes, Brenda Martinez, Peraza Peraza

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Employee turnover in community-based mental health services is an important yet understudied topic in relation to client engagement and client progress with treatment goals. This study sought to investigate the relationship between an agency’s rate of employee turnover, patient engagement, and patient progress with their treatment goals. This study sought to investigate the relationship between an agency’s rate of employee turnover, patient engagement, and patient progress with their treatment goals. The study utilized a quantitative design using secondary data on employee turnover and client engagement and progress collected from a community mental health provider’s database. A correlation analysis indicated whether …

Examining Formerly Homeless Senior’S Experiences Transitioning Into Permanent Housing, Elizabeth N. Collins

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study used a post-positivist approach and asked seniors to reflect on positive and negative factors regarding their adjustment to living in permanent housing. This study aimed to provide an understanding of the unique experiences of seniors and gain additional insight into formerly homeless individuals’ experiences adapting to life in permanent housing. The participants for this study were recruited from a non-profit organization in Northern California. This qualitative study collected data in the form of six semi-structured individual interviews. Interviews were conducted over the phone, audio recorded, and then transcribed for data analysis. Findings from this study indicated that the …

Exploring Interventions Related To Caregiver Burnout, Vanessa Leanete Gonzalez, Jakob R. Mccarthy

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The aging population is rapidly growing within the United States and with advanced age comes an increased likelihood for the need of assistance in completing various activities of daily living. The caregiving literature has thoroughly documented causes and manifestations of caregiver burnout, but there is little mention of interventions for this population. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey of current caregivers to identify sociodemographic factors and descriptive characteristics related to how each respondent fulfills caregiver duties. The survey also measured personal affect, as operationalized by the Negative and Positive Affect Scale (NAPAS) and level of burnout, as measured by the …

Life Through The Eyes Of An Undocumented Immigrant In The United States, Yesenia Torres

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research project focused on how undocumented immigrants experience their lives in the United States, taking in mind the multiple barriers that prevent them from integrating into the community. This research project surveyed the California State University of San Bernardino School of Social Work students who work or engage with undocumented immigrants. A positivism paradigm research design was used to obtain quantitative data of participant's knowledge of immigrants' past and present experiences while living in the United States. The study's goal was to bring mental health awareness to the well-being and emotional experiences during the resettlement and acculturation of undocumented …

Mental Health, Substance Abuse And Recidivism: Perceptions Of Key Justice System Stakeholders In Southern California, Tabari Zahir

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Despite the 2011 landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court ordering the California authorities to address prison overcrowding, the Golden State still faces significant challenges dealing with the size of its correctional population. Recidivism plays a preponderant role in slowing down the momentum toward overcoming relatively high rates of incarceration across the state. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of key human services stakeholders about the intersection of three major challenges in the California criminal justice system: mental health, substance use, and recidivism. Embracing a continuum of care approach, this study ultimately attempted to explore …

Learning About Healthy Relationships And Sexuality For Adults With Disabilities, Vanessa Karjack

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Many adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities receive little to no sex education; as a result, they often struggle to have fulfilling and healthy relationships, experience limitations in physical interactions, and are at risk of being taken advantage of by others. Sommaro et al. (2019) explained that individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) and developmental disabilities (DD) are often placed into one of two categories: they are treated as either eternal children or sexual deviants. These ideas are based on old knowledge and are known to be inaccurate. However, current systems of care struggle to move forward from these notions. A …

Increasing Post-Incarceration Education Within Juvenile Detention Centers, Michela M. Peterson

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Juvenile offenders often lack support for developing post-incarceration plans such as college or career options, which can lead to higher recidivism and escalation to becoming long-term, adult offenders. While some juvenile detention centers have on site schools, the curriculum neglects discussing future goals and career planning. In order to address this problem, I created a three day presentation for incarcerated youth at the Napa County Juvenile Detention Center in Napa, California about college majors and careers that do not require higher education.

Adult Transracial Adoptees' Childhood Experiences And Decision-Making In Forming Families Of Creation, Sarah J. Gray

MSU Graduate Theses

This study examined adult transracial adoptees’ (TRAs) childhood experiences and determined how specific factors influenced their likelihood to choose biological procreation, adoption, fostering, a combination of these options, or the choice to be child-free when forming their own families. These adoptees were Black, Indigenous and people of color adopted by white parents in the United States through domestic or international adoption. Childhood experiences included the TRAs’ sense of belonging, cultural socialization, and preparation for bias. The only dependent variable option predicted by a childhood experience was the preference to be child-free. TRAs who experienced higher levels of belonging were less …

Trauma-Sensitive Training For Yoga Teachers Serving Individuals Experiencing Incarceration, Roberta Hines

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Yoga For All Movement is a non-profit agency that facilitates yoga programs in underserved communities. This project delivered a trauma-sensitive training for yoga teachers to learn how to best serve individuals experiencing incarceration. The macro-level social problem is that the justice system perpetuates trauma for incarcerated individuals. The agency problem is that yoga teachers are untrained and unprepared to work with this population. The project purpose was to increase yoga teachers’ knowledge and skills to prepare them to lead effective yoga classes in an incarcerated environment such as in jails and prisons. Participants in the training reported that they increased …

Using Facebook Live To Raise Awareness About Abuse And Available Resources, Claudia Ramirez Garcia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Community Solutions is a non-profit organization that works with victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. The agency provides programs and support for children, individuals, and families in San Benito and Santa Clara counties. The macro level problem is people lacing education and awareness of the types of abuse which can potentially increase the abuse rates in the community. The micro level problem is cases or incidents of abuse or assault are unreported. The project purpose is to provide the community with an online resource where people can educate themselves and increase their awareness on topics …

Diseño De Un Modelo De Alternativas Para El Aprovechamiento De Residuos Orgánicos Provenientes De Plazas Mercado. Estudio De Casos: Plazas De Mercado De Fontibón, Las Ferias, Doce De Octubre Y Restrepo, Leidy Vanessa Martinez León, Daniela Sofia Fuquene Santafe

Ingeniería Ambiental y Sanitaria

El problema de residuos sólidos es una cuestión que aumenta con el tiempo no solo en Bogotá sino en Colombia, es uno de los aspectos que requiere mayor importancia debido a los grandes volúmenes de generación. Aunque los avances en disposición final de residuos son significativos, no suplen las necesidades por el incremento en la producción, la falta de conciencia ciudadana y si bien los rellenos sanitarios son la tecnología que en la actualidad se utilizan en el país para la eliminación de los residuos, su construcción y operación requiere de múltiples esfuerzos y genera diversos impactos ambientales y sociales. …

School Social Workers And Threat Assessment Teams: Exploring Roles, Perceptions, And Outcomes, Alicia Chico

Social Work Doctoral Dissertations

The sordid history of school shootings has changed the school environment and the education system forever. While school shootings are considered a rarity, violence in schools is not. Many entities and agencies work to create safety techniques, procedures, and protocols to keep all students safe, the goal of threat assessment teams is to prevent school violence while supporting the students. In many states, school social workers operate on the fringe of school safety and threat assessment teams. The purpose of this mixed-methods, descriptive study, was to assess the roles of school social workers on threat assessment teams through a researcher-generated …

Sexual Abuse In The Protestant Church, Madeline Grace Knight

Honors Theses

Sexual abuse is a tragic reality of living in a fallen world. Though abuse of any kind is inexcusable, Christians know that it is the product of the evil, sinful hearts of mankind. Unfortunately, churches have not escaped the grasp of this evil; sexual abuse is as much a reality for God’s people as it is for the rest of the world. No one is untouchable, and everyone must be aware of the truth; however, I will caution readers that this paper discusses dark, horrible practices that can bother anyone, especially survivors and others with firsthand experiences of abuse. I …

Corazonar Y Escuchar Para Construir Memoria Desde La Interculturalidad Y El Territorio: Voces De Maestras En Escuelas Rurales., Valentina Dalmau Corredor, Laura Valentina Arévalo Lozano

Trabajo Social

La presente investigación da cuenta de la relación que se teje entre memoria colectiva y territorial desde la perspectiva de la interculturalidad decolonial en las Escuelas Normales Superiores (ENS) de Sibundoy-Putumayo y Pupiales-Nariño. Este documento fue escrito involucrando las voces de las maestras rurales, quienes, desde su trayectoria de vida, resignifican la labor docente en un país marcado por la desigualdad social, política y cultural como lo es Colombia. En estos territorios del sur del país, las maestras rurales hacen escuela desde sus resistencias y luchas cotidianas contra la estandarización y uniformidad que propone el sistema educativo. Por ello, busca …

Five Love Languages: Assessment Of Marital Satisfaction In African American Couples, Freddricka C. Lee

LSU Master's Theses

This mixed-methods study examined marital satisfaction among five (n = 10) heterosexual, African American married couples. In particular, this study examined how acknowledging a partner’s love language (Chapman, 1995) can affect these couples’ level of marital satisfaction. The participants were native to the South and ranged from 26-55 years of age. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data revealed couples were satisfied with their marriages. Although only marginally significant, the findings also revealed acknowledging a spouse’s love language was positively related to higher levels of marital satisfaction. Seven themes emerged throughout the interviews, namely communication; financial stability; understand a spouse’s …

An In-Depth Look Into A Career As A Social Worker With The Massachusetts Department Of Children And Families, Ryleigh Barrucci

Criminology Student Work

No abstract provided.

The Benefits And Barriers To Receiving Medication-Assisted Treatment Inside And Outside Of Prison And Its Implications For Louisiana, Jennifer Johnson

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Patterned Adolescent Socially Deviant Behavior, Raymond B. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that most adolescent youth AY (AY) will engage in socially deviant behavior (SDB) beginning from ages 10-14, peak in rate of participation at 16-17, and begin to desist thereafter (ages 17 and older). AY participation in SDB varies by frequency and severity, ranging from minor acts such as smoking cigarettes to behaviors that threaten the safety of self and others. Most AY do not participate in SDB to harm, however, but instead are attempting to express autonomous function from parental and adult oversight. During adolescence, youth become aware of their physical transformation to adulthood and growing sense of …

Awareness Of And Value Placed On School Social Work: A Study Of Pennsylvania’S Public School Administrators, Jen Marshall

Social Work Doctoral Dissertations

Social workers have been a part of the school community for over 100 years and, although they have proven integral in the lives of students and families, their roles and functions are not clearly understood by their chief school administrators. Administrators’ awareness of the role and function of school social workers holds implications for the delivery of these services. This study explored administrators’ level of awareness and the level of value placed on the role and function of school social workers based on the three components of the School Social Work Practice Model developed by the School Social Workers Association …

Barriers To Post-Secondary Success, Douglas Swanson, Najeana Henderson, Maritza Sloan

Dissertations

This study reviews factors that prior studies have identified or failed to consider as barriers to post-secondary success. The three main areas include academic success for Latinx students after high school, organizational systems and their impact on African-American students’ postsecondary readiness, and what workers think of their high school education with regards to career preparedness.

Five factors are identified as major barriers for Latinx students to continue in a higher education system. A survey of former students from Saint Louis, Missouri, and Dallas, Texas, metroplex area identified 56 Latinx students that participated in an initial survey. This led to a …

Modeling Cumulative Risk During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Psychosocial And Socioeconomic Factors For Older Minority Adults, James F. Osborne Iv

LSU Master's Theses

Continued response to the sum consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic has disparately affected the physical and mental health of older minority adults in the United States. SARS-CoV-2 created an acute epidemiological crisis of public health coinciding with a chronic pandemic of accentuated psychosocial stress. Biological and socio-economic risk of morbidity and mortality follow a demographic gradient of subjectively constructed social status that disproportionally threatens older adults and minority racial/ethnic communities. Pathways to increased socio-economic and psychosocial vulnerability are multifactorial and complex. Factors of race, socio-economic status, gender, and age, each contribute to individualized profiles of vulnerability to risk exposure.

The …

The State Of Immigration: An Analysis Of Attitudes Towards Immigration Policies, Economic Context And Political Ideology, Heather Kuntz

LSU Master's Theses

Division of attitudes towards immigration policy is more polarized than ever (Public Religion Research Institute, 2018). Historically, restrictive attitudes towards immigration policies have been highest in times of rising nationalist ideals and economic vulnerability (Jaret, 1999; Ngai, 2004). Primarily a federal responsibility, immigration enforcement was decentralized and that power shared with individual states (Pantoja, 2006), leading to policy disparities among states (Butz & Kehrberg, 2019; Gulasekaram et al., 2015; Johnson, 2019). Studies focusing on the relationship between state economic context and immigration policies, found that states that are more economically vulnerable had higher numbers of restrictive immigration policies (Ybarra et …

Transport-Related Social Exclusion In East Baton Rouge Parish, Andrew Dietz

LSU Master's Theses

Transportation systems are powerful tools, capable of entrenching existing inequalities or facilitating the pursuit of a more equitable society (Wellman, 2015). This is particularly true for urban areas that are plagued by sprawl, congestion, and racialized poverty like East Baton Rouge Parish. Transport-related social exclusion (TRSE) provides a framework for understand the relationship between access to transportation (or lack thereof, known as transport disadvantage) and individuals’ ability to participate in the economic, social, cultural, and political aspects of life (Kamruzzaman, Yigitcanlar, Yang, & Mohamed, 2016) Transport-related social exclusion is associated with numerous negative outcomes including poor mental and physical health, …

Preventing School Absenteeism: The Case For Relationships, Rachel Denise Pounders

LSU Master's Theses

Chronic absenteeism affects nearly 20% of high school students every year (ED, 2016). It is an indicator of students at-risk and the strongest indicator of student dropout. Poor outcomes and risk indicators associated with chronic absenteeism are well established, but little is known about factors that could mitigate chronic absenteeism among vulnerable high school students. This study explored the potential influence of teacher, counselor, and peer relationships on chronic absenteeism in students, after controlling for sex, race, and socioeconomic status. The nationally representative sample came from the National Longitudinal Study of 2009 (NSLS:09) and included 17,777 students. Data were collected …

Cooper Neurological Institute, Kayla Cupano

Department of Occupational Therapy Entry-Level Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Moth To A Flame: An Investigation Of The Personality Traits And Early-Life Trauma Histories Of Women Who Have Survived Adult Relationships With Men With Pathological Narcissism, Michelle D. Roberts

Dissertations

Although emotional and psychological abuse, in addition to physical assault, are now commonly accepted as aspects of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), narcissistic abuse as a subset of IPV is not widely recognized or understood. Due to the extremely debilitating, chronic mental health effects of narcissistic abuse (Bremner, 2008; Campbell, 2002; Yoon et al., 2009), this study sought to explore the experiences, personalities, early-life (childhood) trauma histories and mental health outcomes of heterosexual women who self-identify as having been in an adult romantic relationship with a man with pathological narcissism. Specifically, this study aimed to identify the nature and frequency of …

Larc Pass Long-Acting Reversible Contraception For Public Transit Users, Samantha Ellsworth

MSW Capstones

Abstract

An individual’s control over their reproductive future is essential. The creators of the LARC pass program were motivated to create an anti-poverty and anti-racist approach to providing the best methods of contraception after witnessing the many systemic inequities exposed by the tumult of 2020. Research has shown that many marginalized Americans, including teens and young adults, people of color, those living in poverty and those experiencing homelessness utilize government subsidized clinics to attempt to meet their health and reproductive needs. Promising research shows that when access to free or low-cost contraception (LARC) is provided, abortion and maternal mortality rates …

Data Collection & Aba Therapy With Disability & Child Welfare, Elizabeth Hamre

MSW Capstones

This proposed intervention explains the need for both data collection on children with developmental disabilities in child welfare and how it will benefit future work, as well as a proposal of an evidence-based intervention using Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy for children with developmental disabilities. The goal is to work towards improved outcomes for children with developmental disabilities and to create equity for these children in the child welfare system. The population focus of this project are children with developmental disabilities, specifically, children who are involved with the child welfare system. This will also include biological family and foster family …

Mental Health Group For Elementary-Aged Children, Rachel Greene

MSW Capstones

Children learn many skills during their time in elementary school. One important area that is not sufficiently addressed in curricula is student mental health. Allowing students to address their mental health needs in the classroom improves their overall outcomes. This intervention is a short weekly group completed within the classroom by the classroom teacher and the school’s counselor. Implementing this low-cost, short mental health group in classrooms can help to address this gap in student learning. In this group, the children will have the opportunity to gain a stronger relationship with an adult and learn to cope with loss. The …