Social Work Commons^™

Exploring Barriers To Inclusion Of Widowed And Abandoned Women Through Microcredit Self-Help Groups: The Case Of Rural South India, Margaret Lombe, Chrisann Newransky, Karen Kayser, Paul Mike Raj

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Microcredit programs have been applauded as the magic bullet for the poor, especially women with limited financial resources. Building on previous research, this study examines effects of a microcredit self-help group (SHG) program on perceptions of social exclusion among widowed and abandoned women who participated in groups established after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami in Tamil Nadu, India (N=109). Data were collected on key aspects of the program such as loan amount and investment patterns, group experience, demographics, and perceived barriers to inclusion. Results indicate that investment patterns and group experience impacted the women's perception of barriers to social inclusion. …

Substance Abuse Treatment Stage And Personal Networks Of Women In Substance Abuse Treatment, Elizabeth M. Tracy, Hyunsoo Kim, Suzanne Brown, Meeyoung Oh Min, Min Kyoung Jun, Christopher Mccarty

Social Work Faculty Publications

This study examines the relationship among 4 treatment stages (i.e., engagement, persuasion, active treatment, relapse prevention) and the composition, social support, and structural characteristics of personal networks. The study sample includes 242 women diagnosed with substance dependence who were interviewed within their first month of intensive outpatient treatment. Using EgoNet software, the women reported on their 25 alter personal networks and the characteristics of each alter. With one exception, few differences were found in the network compositions at different stages of substance abuse treatment. The exception was the network composition of women in the active treatment stage, which included more …

Keeping Them In Their Place: Migrant Women Workers In Spain’S Strawberry Industry, Susan E. Mannon, Peggy Petrzelka, Arash Garrossian, Claudia Radel

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The idea of guest-worker migration has resurfaced in recent decades as the global agri-food industry has confronted a shortage of workers willing to take low-wage and often seasonal jobs. To date, there have been very few cases studies of these twenty-first century guest-worker programs and their role in managing contemporary labor migration. This article examines guest-worker migration in the strawberry industry of southern Spain. In this case, guest-worker programs at- tempt to regulate and enforce the circular migration of foreign workers in Spain. By making future work contracts contingent on migrants’ return to their country of origin, by recruiting migrant …

Food Stamps And Dependency: Disentangling The Short-Term And Long-Term Economic Effects Of Food Stamp Receipt And Low Income For Young Mothers, Thomas P. Vartanian, Linda Houser, Joseph Harkness

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The Food Stamp Program (FSP) remains one of the most widely used of all U.S. social "safety net" programs. While a substantial body of research has developed around the primary goals of the program- improving food access, nutrition, and health among lowincome families-less attention has been paid to the broader goals of hardship and poverty reduction. Using 38 years of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we examine several immediate and longer-term economic outcomes of early adult FSP participation for a sample of3,848 young mothers. While FSP participation is associated with some negative outcomes in the immediate future …

New Hope For Women Newsletter (Fall 2011), New Hope For Women Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Understanding Mesosystemic Influences On Reported Health Among Rural Low-Income Women: A Structural Equation Analysis, Tiffany Wigington

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While ensuring access to health insurance and health care services is important, emerging research indicates that individual health and well-being result from a complex array of environmental, social, and psychological factors. The delineation of how factors of health and well-being unfold and impact rural low-income women is particularly salient for social workers who provide services to rural residents and who work within a rural context. Utilizing components from the ecological systems perspective, this study explored how the factors associated with health risk influenced reported health and mesosystemic processes among rural low-income women. This sample (n=304) for this study was drawn …

New Hope For Women Newsletter (Spring 2011), New Hope For Women Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Effective Trauma Assessment Tools For Women With Severe Mental Illness, Heather A. Bangu

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Minnesota Security Hospital (MSH) serves individuals under civil commitment as Mentally Ill and Dangerous by the State of Minnesota. MSH is evaluating its practices to ensure the treatment environment encompasses a recovery oriented, person-centered, and trauma-informed program. Understanding and assessing trauma will assist clinicians in providing patients with the most effective and efficient treatment (Carlson, 1997). Long term negative outcomes exists for individuals with severe mental illness who have experienced trauma including more severe psychiatric symptoms, substance abuse, and homelessness (Mueser, Salyers, Rosenberg, Ford, Fox, & Carty, 2001). The purpose of this Capstone project was to identify and recommend evidence-based …

University Scholar Series: Laurie Drabble, Laurie A. Drabble

University Scholar Series

Alcohol and Drug Addiction Among Marginalized Populations of Women

On September 29, 2010 Laurie Drabble spoke in the University Scholar Series hosted by Provost Gerry Selter at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Laurie Drabble is an associate professor in Social Work with her research focusing on understanding alcohol and drug-related problems among marginalized populations of women and she has conducted a number of studies exploring collaboration between addiction treatment and child welfare fields. She has worked as Executive Director of the California Women's Commission on Alcohol and Drug Dependencies and a consultant in prevention strategies, strategic planning, and …

New Hope For Women Newsletter (Fall 2010), New Hope For Women Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Self-Reported Family Income And Expenditure Patterns For A Cohort Of Tanf-Reliant African American Women: Outcomes From A Longitudinal Study In Miami-Dade County, Florida, Stacia Michelle West

Masters Theses

This mixed-method study was designed to analyze the impact of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 on a cohort of welfare-reliant African American women in Miami-Dade County. A snowball sampling technique was utilized to identify and conduct in-person interviews with women who were receiving welfare benefits from January 1997 to March 2000. The study intended to determine the participant characteristics, employment and wage histories, annualized income, and annualized expenditures over the time span. The results indicate that the average age of recipients was 34.5 years old with four children. The average educational attainment for the cohort …

"Like A Prison!": Homeless Women's Narratives Of Surviving Shelter, Sarah L. Deward, Angela M. Moe

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Relying on field observation and twenty qualitative interviews with shelter residents, this article examines how the bureaucracy and institutionalization within a homeless shelter fits various tenets of Goffman's (1961) "total institution," particularly with regard to systematic deterioration of personhood and loss of autonomy. Women's experiences as shelter residents are then explored via a typology of survival strategies: submission, adaptation, and resistance. This research contributes to existing literature on gendered poverty by analyzing the nuanced ways in which institutionalization affects and complicates women's efforts to survive homelessness.

Predictors Of Depressive Symptomatology In Family Caregivers Of Wom-En With Substance Use Disorders Or Co-Occurring Substance Use And Mental Disorders, David E. Biegel, Shari Katz-Saltzman, David Meeks, Suzanne Brown, Elizabeth M. Tracy

Social Work Faculty Publications

This study utilized a stress-process model to examine the impact of having a female family member with substance use or co-occurring substance use and mental disorders on family caregivers' depressive symptomatology. Participants were 82 women receiving substance abuse treatment and the family member providing the most social support for each woman. Greater caregiver depressive symptomatology was predicted by greater care recipient emotional problems, less care recipient social support, and poor caregiver health. Implications of findings for treatment and future research are discussed

Review Of “Sisters Outside: Radical Activists Working For Women Prisoners, By Jodie Michelle Lawston”, Lisa A. Leitz

Peace Studies Faculty Articles and Research

Book review of Jodie Michelle Lawston's "Sisters Outside: Radical Activists Working for Women Prisoners".

Cognitive Restructuring Through Dreams & Imagery: Descriptive Analysis Of A Women's Prison-Based Program, Dana Dehart

Faculty and Staff Publications

This report describes process and outcome evaluation of an innovative program based in a women's maximum-security correctional facility. Methodology included review of program materials, unobtrusive observation of group process, participant evaluation forms, focus groups, and individual interviews with current and former program participants. Findings indicate that program was a great source of emotional respite, release, and support for the women, with women describing increased insights into themselves, their traumas, and their crimes. Implications are discussed, including popular appeal of dream work and its potential clinical relevance to prisoners' inner conflicts.

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 …

New Hope For Women Newsletter (Fall 2009), New Hope For Women Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Emotional And Material Social Support On Women's Drug Treatment Completion, Cathleen A. Lewandowski, Twyla J. Hill

Social Work Faculty Publications

This study assessed how women's perceptions of emotional and material social support affect their completion of residential drug treatment. Although previous research has examined how social support affects recovery, few studies, if any, have examined both the types and the sources of social support. The study hypothesized that women's perceptions of the emotional and material social support they receive from family, friends, partners, drug treatment, child welfare, and welfare agencies will affect treatment completion. The sample consisted of 117 women who were enrolled in a women's residential treatment program. Data were collected in semistructured initial and follow-up interviews using a …

Women's Experiences Of Victimization And Survival, Margaret Severson, Judy L. Postmus, Marianne Berry

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In an effort to more fully understand the experiences and aftermath of girlhood and adult woman physical, sexual and psychological victimization, research was undertaken that explored the prevalence and the consequences of such victimization, and the survival strategies women activate at various points in their lifespan in the aftermath of that violence. Women participants were recruited from five different communities; three urban, one rural and the only correctional facility for women in a Midwestern state. These venues were selected as ideal sites in which to secure a racially, ethnically and geographically diverse sample of women age 18 and older. Findings …

Voices Of Women In Rural India: Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, And Education, Joanne Riebschleger Ph.D., Lmsw, Brittany Fila Basw

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Women self-help group participants in rural northern India described living with social and economic challenges, including persistent poverty and discrimination. Self-help group participants, teachers, administrators, and parents discussed rural education. Stakeholders talked with a social work student serving an intensive internship in a grassroots non-governmental organization. A grounded theory approach guided data collection, coding, and analysis. Self-help group participant data themes included the empowerment of women and development of entrepreneurship. Education stakeholders revealed a need for increased access to education, especially for girls and young women. Therefore, recommendations centered on “3 E’s” – empowerment, entrepreneurship, and education. American and Indian …

New Hope For Women Newsletter (Spring 2009), New Hope For Women Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

New Hope For Women Newsletter (Fall 2008), New Hope For Women Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Women's Lives And Poverty: Developing A Framework Of Real Reform For Welfare, Mary Gatta, Luisa S. Deprez

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The historic 1996 welfare reform is typically regarded as a successful public policy. Using the limited success metric of "reducing welfare rolls," welfare evaluations and analysis have obscured the lived experiences of recipients, particularly among women, who are disproportionally represented among welfare recipients. While it is true that welfare numbers are down, those women who have been forced off or left behind are not doing well. In this paper we seek to explore and critically evaluate the lived experiences of women, to challenge mainstream understandings of women's "success" post-welfare, and propose a theoretical and methodological framework, based on an intersectional …

New Hope For Women Newsletter (Spring 2008), New Hope For Women Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

New Hope For Women Newsletter (Fall 2007), New Hope For Women Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Economic Well-Being And Intimate Partner Violence: New Findings About The Informal Economy, Loretta Pyles

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between intimatep artnerv iolence (IPV) and women's participationin the informal economy (both legal and illegal) and their impact on economic well-being. This research was part of a National Institute of Justice (NIJ) study that was concerned with women's survival of childhood and adult abuse. For the 285 women that were in this sample, there were positive, medium correlations between IPV and various types of informal economic activity. Illegal informal economic activity, institutionalized informal economic activity, incarceration and physical abuse negatively impacted women's economic well-being.

A Comparison Of Hiv Stigma And Disclosure Patterns Between Older And Younger Adults Living With Hiv/Aids, Charles Emlet

Social Work & Criminal Justice Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between age, HIV-related stigma, and patterns of disclosure. Previous literature has suggested that older age is associated with increased HIV stigma and less disclosure of HIV status. Eighty- eight individuals, 44 between the ages of 20-39 and 44 aged 50 and over were recruited for the study through an AIDS service organization in the Pacific Northwest. Subjects in each group were matched as closely as possible by gender, ethnicity, HIV exposure and diagnosis. In a comparison of sociodemographic characteristics, older adults (50+) were significantly more likely to live alone, and …

Book Review: Taking A Stand: A Guide To Peace Teams And Accompaniment Projects, Jeanette Harder

Social Work Faculty Publications

This easy-to-read book presents the “nuts and bolts” of participating on a peace team or accompaniment project in a violence stricken area of our globe. If you’re looking for an introduction to a very “gutsy” kind of peacemaking, then this is the book is for you. If you’re a firm supporter of U.S. policies, then this book may not be so palatable. Written by a Quaker and long-time peace activist, this book outlines many of the questions that may arise for someone considering participation on a peace team or accompaniment project, with a motivational bent towards encouraging this type of …

For The Children: Accounting For Careers In Child Protective Services, Joan M. Morris

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper analyzes autobiographical essays from women who work as social service workers in child-protection agencies. Working long hours in relatively low-paying jobs, these women have limited prestige and autonomy and increasingly, come under close scrutiny and public criticism. They are clearly exploited in terms of the emotional and "mothering" labor they are expected to perform and are held personally accountable for daily decisions that could have dire consequences for the children they serve to protect. This paper is an investigation of how their narratives explain and justify their willingness to continue working in these situations and how their professional …

Comorbid Childhood Sexual Abuse And Substance Abuse Among Women: Knowledge, Training, And Preparedness Of Graduate Counselor Education And Social Work Students, Laurie Elizabeth Pennington

LSU Master's Theses

This descriptive-correlational study examined the knowledge, training and perceived preparedness of graduate social work and counselor education students in the area of comorbid childhood sexual abuse and substance abuse among women. Participants were 71 graduate social work and approximately 12 counselor education students scheduled to graduate in the spring semester of 2005. The study was analyzed using univariate and bivariate statistics. No significant differences emerged between graduate counselor education and social work students using independent-samples t-tests and a Fisher’s exact test on the measure of knowledge and training. Using a Mann Whitney U test, significant differences emerged between counselor education …