Social Work Commons^™

Lines In The Sand: Social Representations Of Substance Use Boundaries In Life Narratives, K. F. Trocki, L. O. Michalak, Laurie A. Drabble

Faculty Publications

This study identifies social representations in interviews about alcohol and substance use in the discourse of 129 young adults, who were interviewed for 2.5 to 3.5 hr each for their life histories and use or nonuse of alcoholic beverages and drugs. Respondents spontaneously delineated their substance use boundaries, creating a continuum of behaviors with boundary points separating acceptable from unacceptable behaviors. They used signaling expressions to indicate go and stop signs and movement along the substance use continuum and reported negotiating substance use boundaries both internally and with peers. A ubiquitous narrative element was the cautionary tale, in which a …

Healthy Aging And Older Asian Indian Immigrants: A Key Informant Survey Of Seven Ethnic Community Centers In Santa Clara County, Sadhna Diwan, Sharvari Dixit

Faculty Publications

This study is an examination of the present status of healthy aging programs and services provided to older Asian Indian (AI) immigrants in Santa Clara County. The primary goals of the study were to develop a profile of programs being offered to AI seniors at various ethnic community organizations; and to determine the met and unmet needs for programs and services that promote healthy aging in the AI senior population. A key informant survey was conducted with leaders of seven different organizations in Santa Clara County known to currently provide some services to AI seniors. These seven organizations are estimated …

Understanding The Gendered Patterns Of Substance Use Initiation Among Adolescents Living In Rural, Central Mexico, Stephanie Ayers, Flavio Marsiglia, Steven Hoffman, Zhyldyz Urbaeva

Faculty Publications

Background: Little is known about the age of initiation and gender differences in substance use among adolescents in rural, central Mexico.

Methods: The cross-sectional data were collected from students enrolled in the Videobachillerato (VIBA) (video high school) programme in Guanajuato, Mexico. Questionnaires asked students about the age at which they had used alcohol, cigarettes, or cannabis for the first time. Kaplan–Meier Survival Functions were used to estimate if males and females were significantly different in their cumulative probabilities of initiating substances over time.

Results: On average, alcohol is initiated at 14.7 years of age, cigarettes at 15.1 years of age, …

Mexican Adolescents' Risky Sexual Behavior And Migration Intentions, Stephanie L. Ayers, Flavio F. Marsiglia, Steven Hoffman, Jildyz Urbaeva, Jaime Booth

Faculty Publications

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to identify the association between risky sexual behaviors and migration intentions among adolescents living in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected by self-administered questionnaires to students enrolled in an alternative schooling system in Guanajuato, Mexico, during the school year of 2006-2007. The sample size for this study includes 538 unmarried students, 35 percent male, ages 14-19. Ordinal logistic regression is used to estimate the odds of engaging in risky sexual behaviors.

Findings - The results reveal that male adolescents with higher intentions to migrate have significantly higher odds of engaging in …

Reunifying From Behind Bars: A Quantitative Study Of The Relationship Between Parental Incarceration, Service Use, And Foster Care Reunification, Amy C. D’Andrade, M. Valdez

Faculty Publications

Incarcerated parents attempting to reunify with their children in foster care can find it difficult to complete the activities on their court-ordered case plans, such as drug treatment services and visitation with children. Although much has been written regarding the obstacles that are likely to interfere with reunification for incarcerated parents, very little quantitative research has examined the topic. This study uses secondary data to examine the incarceration experiences and reunification outcomes of a sample of 225 parents in one large urban California county. In multivariate analysis controlling for problems and demographics, incarcerated parents were less likely to reunify with …

Parental Problems, Case Plan Requirements, And Service Targeting In Child Welfare Reunification, Amy C. D’Andrade, R. Chambers

Faculty Publications

Only about half of parents attempting to reunify with their children in foster care succeed in their efforts. Parents are ordered by the court to use treatment services in order to resolve their problems. These treatment services thus play a critical role in reunification, and in fact the use of services appropriately matched to parents' problems has been found to be associated with a greater likelihood of reunification. However, there is little in the literature regarding the specific requirements of reunification case plans, and whether they are accurately targeted at reunifying parents' problems. This mostly descriptive study uses case file …

Essential Ethics Education In Social Work Field Instruction: A Blueprint For Field Educators, Frederic G. Reamer

Faculty Publications

Ethics content in field instruction is a vital component of social work education. Ethical standards and knowledge have expanded significantly in recent years. The author provides a comprehensive overview of core ethics content that should be incorporated into students’ internships, and also highlights key themes that should be addressed. Essential ethics content addresses core social work values, students’ personal and professional values, ethical dilemmas in field placements and social work practice, ethical decision-making frameworks and strategies to manage ethics risks.