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Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Social Work
Does Gottman’S Marital Communication Conceptualization Inform Teen Dating Violence? Communication Skill Deficits Analyzed Across Three Samples Of Diverse Adolescents, Heidi Adams Rueda, Monica Yndo, Lela Rankin Williams, Ryan C. Shorey
Does Gottman’S Marital Communication Conceptualization Inform Teen Dating Violence? Communication Skill Deficits Analyzed Across Three Samples Of Diverse Adolescents, Heidi Adams Rueda, Monica Yndo, Lela Rankin Williams, Ryan C. Shorey
Social Work Faculty Publications
Communication skill deficits are thought to contribute to teen dating violence (TDV), parallel to the inclusion of these throughout prevention curricula. Communication research among adolescents is highly underdeveloped, although a preliminary study utilizing Gottman’s marital communication conceptualization found that a majority of negative communication behaviors predictive of marital distress were also associated with relationship aggression among primarily White college students. Our aim was to replicate this study with diverse samples of adolescents (50.3% Latino, 23.5% Black; Mage = 16.06). Urban high school youth, pregnant and parenting youth in residential foster care, and youth in urban after-school programs self-reported on …
Texas Foster Care Service Providers’ Awareness And Perceptions Of Human Trafficking And Related Risk Factors Among Child Welfare Involved Youth, Kennedy Morrison
Texas Foster Care Service Providers’ Awareness And Perceptions Of Human Trafficking And Related Risk Factors Among Child Welfare Involved Youth, Kennedy Morrison
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The purpose of the study is to explore foster care service providers’ levels of awareness of human trafficking, exploitation, and related risk factors as experienced by foster youth, and to explore what factors influence those levels of awareness. The study entailed distributing a digital survey to foster care service providers in a snowballing method and encouraging them to send the survey to others. The survey found a statistically significant relationship between awareness/identification of risk factors and identification of exploitation, and the respondent’s previous human trafficking training. This supports the literature which indicates trafficking specific training is necessary to identify trafficking …
Ideals And Reality: Perceptions Of Healthy And Unhealthy Relationships Among Foster Youth, Bradley Forenza, Autumn Bermea, Briana Rogers
Ideals And Reality: Perceptions Of Healthy And Unhealthy Relationships Among Foster Youth, Bradley Forenza, Autumn Bermea, Briana Rogers
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
Exploring romantic relationships is a hallmark of adolescence. As dating relationships are often new during this development trajectory, learning how to be in a relationship (e.g., learning healthy communication skills, etc.) is necessary to facilitate positive partnerships during the transition to adulthood. However, foster youth are a group routinely overlooked within the literature on developing positive and healthy relationships. This formative, exploratory study utilizes focus groups and in-depth interviews to understand foster youth perceptions of healthy and unhealthy dating relationships through a social learning theory lens. Findings explore foster youth perceptions of ideal relationships, the realities of their lived relational …
Former Foster Youth Perspectives On Strengths And Needed Services Of The Foster Care System, Cynthia Huizar, Judy Andrea Lawrence
Former Foster Youth Perspectives On Strengths And Needed Services Of The Foster Care System, Cynthia Huizar, Judy Andrea Lawrence
Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations
This study examined former foster youth’s perceptions of the skills and services they received while they were in the foster care system. More specifically the efficacy of these services, and what services and skills they believed would have been helpful to assist them in their transition into independent living. A qualitative design was used, and semi-structured face-to-face and telephone interviews were conducted with ten former foster youth who aged out of foster care at age eighteen through twenty-one. Two males and eight females from diverse backgrounds participated in this study. Participants were recruited through availability and snowball sampling at community …
Child Welfare Workers’ Perspectives On Placement Instability And The Impacts On Foster Youth, Steven Joseph Delgado, Amanda Marie Fuerte
Child Welfare Workers’ Perspectives On Placement Instability And The Impacts On Foster Youth, Steven Joseph Delgado, Amanda Marie Fuerte
Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations
In this study, the researchers explored child welfare workers’ perceptions on placement changes for youth in foster care and the impact these changes had on youths’ overall outcomes. Using a Post Positivist paradigm, qualitative research was completed using snowball-sampling procedures. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with sixteen members from their personal networks of child welfare social workers that have direct contact with foster youth. The research participants included current child welfare social workers from two counties in Southern California. The study’s findings suggest that children’s behaviors and foster parents’ reactions to those behaviors impacted placement changes. Further, participants felt that …
Barriers To Recruiting Native American Foster Homes In Urban Areas, Shirley Mae Begay, Jennifer Lynn Wilczynski
Barriers To Recruiting Native American Foster Homes In Urban Areas, Shirley Mae Begay, Jennifer Lynn Wilczynski
Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations
The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the current practice of and barriers specific to recruiting Native American foster homes in urban areas. The literature review suggested that historical, cultural, and bureaucratic barriers to recruitment existed. The study used a qualitative, exploratory design. The data was obtained from in-depth interviews with 10 individuals whose job it is or has been to recruit Native American foster homes. The participants were employed with either a foster family agency, county child welfare agency, or a supporting organization servicing Los Angeles County and/or the San Francisco Bay Area. The …
Trauma-Informed Care For Youth In Foster Care, Jordyn Hubin
Trauma-Informed Care For Youth In Foster Care, Jordyn Hubin
Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers
Annually, in Minnesota, thousands of children enter the foster care system. The objective of this study was to use a trauma-informed lens to explore supports that are available to children, biological family members, and foster providers. Questions regarding the strengths and limitations of particular supports were also explored. This study used a qualitative design with five semi-structured interviews of mental health professionals. The main themes that were identified were: trauma-informed care, positives and challenges of formal and informal supports, involvement of biological and foster parents, differences in service to a child in foster care, and building a better system. The …
Foster Care And Education: Exploring The Success Of Interventions Aimed To Improve Academic Achievement Of Foster Children, Olivia Erickson
Foster Care And Education: Exploring The Success Of Interventions Aimed To Improve Academic Achievement Of Foster Children, Olivia Erickson
Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers
Foster care youth are faced with many academic difficulties throughout their childhood and adolescence such as an increased risk of academic failure, higher drop-out rates, special education placement, and grade repetition. The researcher identified six articles that explored various educational interventions aimed to improve the academic outcomes for foster care youth. This exploratory study evaluated the selected interventions research methods, measurement tools, and findings. The findings identified three common themes: tutoring interventions, school stability interventions, and exploratory interventions. These themes mirror the results of past literature regarding academic interventions for foster care students, demonstrating differing efficacy and results among all …
Awareness, Analysis, Engagement: Critical Consciousness Through Foster Youth Advisory Board Participation, Bradley Forenza
Awareness, Analysis, Engagement: Critical Consciousness Through Foster Youth Advisory Board Participation, Bradley Forenza
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
Foster youth advisory boards provide child welfare-involved young people a forum through which to impact the policies, programs, and services that govern their care. In addition to facilitating policy change, these boards may also enable participating youth to cultivate a deeper understanding of themselves and their worlds. The present study utilized a strengths-based, critical consciousness framework to describe the ways in which 15 foster youth advisory board members in a single state reflect on, analyze, and respond to their socio-political worlds. To this end, the author aims to describe youth advisory board processes, while attempting to answer the question, “How …
Investing In Adoption: Exploring Child Development Accounts For Children Adopted From Foster Care, Amy Conley Wright
Investing In Adoption: Exploring Child Development Accounts For Children Adopted From Foster Care, Amy Conley Wright
The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare
Adoption is arguably the most powerful intervention available for children in foster care who are unable to be restored to their birth families. Adoption promises stability and a family for life, in contrast to foster care or guardianship, which are expected to end when the child reaches adulthood. In comparison to foster care, adoption is associated with better educational, financial, and social outcomes. However, because children adopted out of foster care have had adverse experiences, they may have additional support needs in later years. These unknown costs can be off-putting to potential adoptive parents, who may not be in the …
Strengthening Social Networks Of Youth Aging Out Of Foster Care: Promoting Positive Adult Outcomes, Rachel D. Rosenberg
Strengthening Social Networks Of Youth Aging Out Of Foster Care: Promoting Positive Adult Outcomes, Rachel D. Rosenberg
Theses and Dissertations
During the transition to adulthood, youth often rely on the people in their life for support. However, for transition-aged foster youth, these supports may not be available or may look different than supports available to youth in the general population. Relationships with supportive adults have been found to help former foster youth transition to adulthood, but little is known about the adults youth have in their network. Foster youth who report increased levels of social capital have been shown to experience higher levels of success in young adulthood. However, as former foster youth transition to adulthood, a lack of in-depth …
A Phenomenological Study On The Challenges Experienced By Kinship Adopters, Allyson Foster Hamlin
A Phenomenological Study On The Challenges Experienced By Kinship Adopters, Allyson Foster Hamlin
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
This research addressed the social and emotional challenges kinship adoptive families have encountered when their adopted child's trauma symptomology surfaces. The unique relationship between the adoptive relative and the kinship child offered a different view on the coping techniques used by kinship families and uncovered areas where resources could support permanency. In this phenomenological study, 12 interviews with relative adoptive parents guided by the attachment and family system theories, offered insight to what fosters or degrades the bond with the adopted child. Using post-adoption resource events, service agencies, and community resources, this study recruited participants through flyers posted on websites, …
The Impact Of Caseworkers' Educational Background And Placement Outcomes For Foster Children, Katrina Haynes
The Impact Of Caseworkers' Educational Background And Placement Outcomes For Foster Children, Katrina Haynes
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Decades of data document that permanent placements of children in the welfare system has been a concern in Mississippi. As foster care rates increase, more children are awaiting placement. Researchers have linked child welfare workers' educational background to placement outcomes for foster care children; however, researchers have not addressed the relationship between child welfare workers' educational backgrounds and foster care placement outcomes in Mississippi. This quantitative study examined the educational backgrounds of social work and nonsocial work child welfare caseworkers and other factors such as children's gender and race as predictors in placement outcomes for children in welfare custody. Attachment …
Understanding Social Workers' Knowledge Of Foster Care Drift, Joey Gardner
Understanding Social Workers' Knowledge Of Foster Care Drift, Joey Gardner
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Foster care drift is the extended stay in foster care without attaining family reunification or permanency with another placement. When foster care youth experience foster care drift, they face the possibility of aging out of the foster care system. Interventions and policies have been implemented to aid family service workers during the process of permanency planning; however, a great number of foster care youth remain in care. This study explored the perceptions of social work professionals regarding foster care drift regarding issues and challenges that social workers engaged in foster care placement face regarding foster care drift. The ecological system …