Social Work Commons^™

Does Household Food Insecurity Affect Parental Characteristics And Child Behavior?: Evidence From The Panel Study Of Income Dynamics (Psid), Jin Huang, Karen M. Matta Oshima, Youngmi Kim

Center for Social Development Research

This study examines the link between household food insecurity and child behavior problems mediated through parental characteristics (parenting stress, parental warmth, psychological distress, and parent’s self-esteem) using two waves of data from the Child Development Supplement in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Analyses of fixedeffects models are conducted on a low-income sample of 416 children from 249 households. This study finds that the effects of food insecurity on child behavior problems are mediated by parenting stress. However, two robustness tests show different results from those of the fixed-effects models. This inconsistency suggests that the complicated relationship between household food …

Governance In Motion: Service Provision And Child Welfare Outcomes In A Performance-Based, Managed Care Contracting Environment, Bowen Mcbeath, William Meezan

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Examining the linkage between service provision and client outcomes is important in performance-based human service environments. Since most performance initiatives reward agencies for improving client outcomes rather than providing specific services, managers may have incentives to streamline workers’ efforts and reduce resources devoted to services considered nonessential. This article uses data from a performance-based child welfare initiative to examine the relationship between child permanency outcomes, the services provided by caseworkers, and the environment surrounding frontline service provision. Findings indicate that greater service efforts are required to reunify children with parents than to reach other outcomes, including adoption and placement with …

Mei Guo De Zi Chan Jian She: Zheng Ce Chuang Xin Yu Ke Xue Yan Jiu [Asset Building In The Us: Policy Innovation And Scientific Research], Michael Sherraden, Li Zou

Center for Social Development Research

Mei Guo De Zi Chan Jian She: Zheng Ce Chuang Xin Yu Ke Xue Yan Jiu [Asset Building in the US: Policy Innovation and Scientific Research]

Working Report #5: Child Welfare Jobs (Service Provider Perspectives), Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report compares how service providers experience their employment realities across central, integrated, and accessible service models. Differences in job satisfaction, worker retention, and feelings about the work itself are examined.

Life Domain Research Report Series: Family (2010 Update), Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

A key consideration in understanding the long term community adaptation of children and youth involved with residential treatment or intensive family services is the role that family plays in sustaining or eroding gains made by children and youth in treatment (Frensch & Cameron, 2002). This report includes a summary of family descriptive information, the nature of family relationships, and indicators of family functioning for children and youth who have participated in children’s mental health services.

Data were collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family service programs (IFS), designed as an …

Life Domain Research Report Series: Youth And Parent Health And Well Being (2010 Update), Michele Preyde, Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Children and youth who have participated in children’s mental health services often continue to live with a variety of emotional and behavioural challenges after service involvement has ended (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003). A key consideration in understanding the long term community adaptation of these children and youth is the ongoing management of emotional and behavioural challenges and the impact these challenges have in the daily lives of youth and their families. Several standardized measures of mental health, physical health, stress, and quality of life were used to assess parental and youth functioning in the life domain of …

Working Report #3: Use Of Legal Measures And Formal Authority (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

The focus of this report is, across service delivery models, how front-line protection workers viewed their formal authority role and the extent to which they relied on legal measures in order to achieve protection goals. The analysis is guided by several overarching questions including (1) how does each model view the use of legal measures and formal authority? (2) How does each model impact service providers’ actual use of legal measures? (3) What value do workers place on the authority figure role? And (4) how effective is the use of formal authority in reaching child protection goals?

Type of program …

Working Report #1: Service Model Accessibility (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report examines the differences in service accessibility across central, integrated, and school/community based child welfare service delivery models including geographic proximity to families, acceptability of the setting to families, and accessibility expectations of service providers. Results suggest that accessibility characteristics of the model can make a significant difference to front-line service delivery from the perspective of front-line protection workers.

A defining feature of the community and school based child welfare models was increased accessibility for families and workers. Through making themselves more accessible, the community and school based settings had some significant service delivery advantages including more regular, varied, …

Working Report #2: Client And Community Relations (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report addresses two important questions: how much emphasis is placed on building positive relationships with families and communities across agency based, integrated service, and community and school based models of service delivery? And, how successful is each model at building relationships, minimizing stigma for families, and improving the image of child welfare in the community?

Educating clients and the community about child welfare services was identified as an important role for workers in some sites and not in others. While families’ fears of child protection services were a concern, some workers also expressed a fear of their clients and …

Working Report #4: Range Of Services (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This working report examines the differences in range of services across central, integrated, and school/community based sites including referrals to other services, direct support, advocacy, and collaborative efforts to provide services to families. Which models provide the most service options for families? How do service providers view the service options available to them in their work with families? How helpful are services to families?

The range of services available within agency based settings seemed the narrowest in comparison to other types of service delivery settings. Integrated service models appeared to increase the range and access to many formal services. Community …

Working Report #7: Helping Relationships In Child Welfare (Parent Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report examines the nature of first contacts in child welfare, the level of contact between families and service providers, and the quality of relationships over time across central, integrated, and accessible service delivery models.

I. First Contacts Clarity, consultation, use of power, and positive shifts in perception were central issues identified by parents when discussing their experiences of first contacts with child welfare. More parents in accessible sites had experiences with workers who were clear and provided a sense that they would be supported. Within the accessible sites a strong philosophy of collaboration emerged between worker and participant. Participants …

Spirituality And Aging (Review), Holly Nelson-Becker

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Review of Robert C. Atchley 'Spirituality and Aging.'

Parental Income, Assets, And Borrowing Constraints And Children's Post-Secondary Education, Jin Huang, Baorong Guo, Youngmi Kim, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

This study is a test of two theoretical models linking parental economic resources to children’s post-secondary education, namely, short-term borrowing constraints and long-term family background. a series of structural equation models (SEM) are tested using data from a sample of young adults (N=650) in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). To further understand the role of parental resources in children’s education, analyses are conducted for both income and assets, with assets measured by liquid assets and net worth. Findings indicate that both income and assets have consistent long-term associations with children’s college entry. When measures of household wealth are …

Assets And Child Well-Being In Developed Countries, Trina Williams Shanks, Youngmi Kim, Vernon Loke, Mesmin Destin

Center for Social Development Research

Although there is no universal approach to offering Child Development Accounts (CDAs), this paper introduces a framework for an age-based conceptual model that describes how such accounts might influence indicators of child wellbeing. With a focus on optimal age-appropriate development beginning at birth and ranging through young adulthood, the model incorporates research from multiple disciplines to include direct effects, indirect effects and critical milestones. We review empirical evidence from national datasets (primarily from the United States, but including research from other developed countries) to provide a context for this framework. This conceptual and empirical backdrop provides a starting point from …

Streamlined Enrollment And Default Investment: Innovations In Alaska's College Savings Plan, Margaret M. Clancy, Terry Lassar, Rebekah Miller

Center for Social Development Research

As college savings plans have gained in popularity and matured over the years, states have developed a number of innovations to facilitate access to and participation in 529s. This paper examines innovations in streamlined enrollment, pre-selected investment, and default investment in Alaska’s college savings plan. These 529 innovations—intended to facilitate greater participation, especially amongst low- and middle-income families—could play a more important role in other states to encourage savings for postsecondary education.

Assets And Liabilities, Educational Expectations, And Children's College Degree Attainment, Min Zhan, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

Assets and Liabilities, Educational Expectations, and Children's College Degree Attainment

Low-Cost State Innovations To Help Families Save For College, Mark Huelsman, Margaret M. Clancy

Center for Social Development Research

While 529 plans are defined in the federal tax code, individual states have considerable latitude to innovate and make their plans more inclusive. Some states have undertaken large-scale initiatives, such as matching contributions or establishing accounts at birth. Other states have been exploring a number of smaller, lower- cost innovations to remove disincentives and increase savings. States are often the testing ground for future federal policies, and several of these initiatives could also be enacted at the federal level.

Life Domain Research Report Series: Social Connections And Community Conduct (2010 Update), Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Understanding how youth participate in social networks with peers and friends, engage in social or leisure activities, and more generally forge healthy relationships with others are key considerations in assessing overall well being of youth. Among a variety of emotional and behavioural challenges faced by children and youth involved with residential treatment or intensive family services may be their ability to negotiate relationships within social contexts (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003).

Data were collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family service programs (IFS), designed as an alternative to …

When Personal Dreams Derail, Rural Cameroonian Women Aspire For Their Children, Akuri John, Susan Weinger, Barbara Barton

Social Work Faculty Publications

Data gathered from a convenience sample of 36 women who reside in rural villages lying on the outskirts of Buea, Cameroon is not consistent with the "culture of poverty" proposition which states that personal characteristics of the poor tie them to a life of poverty. These findings run counter to an assumed "culture of poverty" in which persons do not hold career aspirations and socialize their children with attitudes that assure the generational transmission of poverty. Respondents, as a case vignette illustrates, conveyed that besides marriage they had wanted a career in order to achieve a living wage. After their …

Account Monitoring Research At Michigan Seed, Vernon Loke, Margaret Clancy, Robert Zager

Center for Social Development Research

Account Monitoring Research at Michigan SEED

The Southern Regional Asset Building Coalition Survey, Gena Gunn, Jennifer Heffern

Center for Social Development Research

The Southern Regional Asset Building Coalition Survey

Assets And Liabilities, Educational Expectations, And Children's College Degree Attainment, Min Zhan, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

This research examines relationships among household assets and liabilities, educational expectations of children and parents, and children’s college degree attainment. Special attention is paid to influences of different asset types (financial vs. nonfinancial assets) and liabilities (secured vs. unsecured debt). Results indicate that, after controlling for family income and other parent/child characteristics, financial and nonfinancial assets are positively related to, and unsecured debt is negatively related to, children’s college completion. Furthermore, there is evidence that financial assets are positively associated with the education expectations of parents and children. Policy directions are suggested.

Life Domain Research Report Series: School And Employment (2010 Update), Karen Frensch, Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Earlier research by the Partnerships for Children and Families Project on the daily living realities of youth and children involved with mental health services, particularly residential treatment, revealed the ongoing and pervasive nature of difficulties youth and children experienced in their academic functioning (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003). As the education experience is such a large part of youth and children’s lives, we sought to better document how children and youth were performing in school in the current study.

Data were collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family …

Child Welfare Intervention In Visible Minority Immigrant Families: The Role Of Poverty And The Mothering Discourse, Ferzana Chaze

Faculty Publications and Scholarship

This paper explores the relationships between barriers to employment for visible minority immigrants, poverty, Mothering Discourse and child welfare intervention. It is argued that the barriers that visible minority immigrant face in securing suitable employment is the main factor contributing to the poverty of these groups in Canada. The stressors associated with lack of financial security and its associated problems, combined with perceptions regarding cultural norms related to parenting within visible minority populations make the children in these families at risk of child abuse and neglect. The North American Mothering Discourse and the manner in which it causes visible minority …

Phase I Final Evaluation Report – Santa Cruz County Roots And Wings Initiative, Amy D'Andrade, Kathy Lemon Osterling

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Children On The Margins: A Case Study Of I Care's Hope Centre For Street Children In Durban, South Africa, Morgan Sullivan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Seeing street children was a new concept to me, but all too familiar to Durban, South Africa. It is something that had struck me and bothered me from my arrival here in South Africa and an issue that will trouble me for a lifetime. Working with I Care at the Hope Centre allowed me to get an inside look at the lives of some of these street children while building positive relationships with both the staff and the children alike. I began to see the children as children and saw past their rugged, stone-faced exteriors deep down to their desperate, …

Commercialism, Materialism And The Drive To Fulfill Beauty Ideals In The United States, Katie Hickey

Social Work Theses

I surveyed 90 students on the amount of money they spend on beauty products and procedures and simultaneously tested their level of body dissatisfaction.

A Daily Reminder, Deanna Doran

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

The Seed For Oklahoma Kids Experiment: Comparison Of Treatment And Control Groups, Youngmi Kim, Yunju Nam

Center for Social Development Research

The SEED for Oklahoma Kids Experiment: Comparison of Treatment and Control Groups

Improving The Quality Of Spiritual Care As A Dimension Of Palliative Care: The Report Of The Consensus Conference, Christina Puchalski, Betty Ferrell, Rose Virani, Shirley Otis-Green, Pamela Baird, Janet Bull, Harvey Chochinov, George Handzo, Holly Nelson-Becker, Maryjo Prince-Paul, Karen Pugliese, Daniel Sulmasy

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

A Consensus Conference sponsored by the Archstone Foundation of Long Beach, California, was held February 17–18, 2009, in Pasadena, California. The Conference was based on the belief that spiritual care is a fundamental component of quality palliative care. This document and the conference recommendations it includes builds upon prior literature, the National Consensus Project Guidelines, and the National Quality Forum Preferred Practices and Conference proceedings.