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"He's Not Mr. Right, He's More Like Mr. Now"* Patrifocal And Matrifocal Discourses Among Homeless Mothers In Kentucky, Joanna M. Badagliacco

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

What strategies do homeless mothers use to cope with their situations? In-depth interviews in Kentucky of 68 homeless mothers with children revealed similarities and differences among the women, as well as a con tinuum of approaches to gender relations. Although differing in race/ethnicity and place of origin (rural vs. urban) among other factors, the overwhelming majority of the women experienced unstable and abusive households and social relationships while growing up. Most did not complete high school and had their first births while still teenagers. Moreover, two primary approaches to gender relations were observed. These approaches delimit a continuum along which …

Low-Income Fathers’ And Mothers’ Perceptions Of The Father Role: A Qualitative Study In Four Early Head Start Communities, Jean Ann Summers, Helen Raikes, James Butler, Paul Spicer, Barbara Pan, Sarah Shaw, Mark Langager, Carol Mcallister, Monique K. Johnson

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

A qualitative inquiry in four Early Head Start Research sites explored the question of how low-income mothers and fathers view the role of fathers in their families. Role perceptions were gathered from a total of 56 parents of infants and toddlers across the four sites, using multiple data collection methods that included focus groups, open-ended interviews, and one case study. The data were analyzed to identify common themes across sites. The participants identified roles that included: providing financial support, “being there,” care giving, outings and play, teaching and discipline, providing love, and protection. Implications of these qualitative findings are discussed …

Review Of Social Work With Children And Their Families: Pragmatic Foundations. Christopher G. Petr. Reviewed By Dorinda N. Noble, Louisiana State University., Dorinda N. Noble

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Petr, Christopher G. (1998). Social Work with Children and their Families: Pragmatic Foundations. New York: Oxford University Press.

Already Hit Bottom: General Assistance, Welfare Retrenchment, And Single Male Migration, Thomas Vartanian, Joe Soss, Sanford Schram, Jim Baumohl

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The claim is often made that welfare recipients move to states where benefits are more readily available in more generous amounts. To test that claim, this study uses data on state General Assistance (GA) programs, as well as data on single men from the Public Use Microdata Set of the 1990 U.S. Census. We find only slight evidence that men who lack access to GA seek it elsewhere, and overall we find that the availability of GA has no more than a marginal effect on the location decisions of the men we studied. It seems that poor people, like other …

Student Stress: An Analysis Of Stress Levels Associated With Higher Education In The Social Sciences, Darcy A. Keady

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A university sample of 238 undergraduate and graduate students between the ages of 19 and 58 completed the Student Stress Measure. Specifically, upper-division undergraduate students and clinical/nonclinical graduate students in social science programs (FHD, Social Work, Sociology, Psychology) were measured for stress level differences due to their particular academic requirements.

Results indicate that, overall, graduate students are more stressed than undergraduate students. Of the graduate students, Sociology students were most stressed in terms of Lifestyle stress scores. The comparison of clinical and non-clinical graduate students shows that there is no difference in stress levels. The Psychology and MFT graduate student …

Factors Affecting Participation In Senior Center Programs, Betty J. Jefferson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study investigated whether the factors of relationships, recreation, relatedness, and reward would affect participation in senior centers. Demographic variables of age, sex, and socio-economic status and enabling variables of health, transportation, and income were also investigated. Data were collected from a sample of 57 older adults (aged 55 and over) from three Las Vegas Senior Centers using an instrument developed by the investigator. Findings revealed that relationships, recreation, and relatedness contributed to reasons for participation. Rewards did not seem to affect participation. In terms of demographics, more participants tended to be older, female, and educated. Enabling variables revealed participants …

A Comparative Assessment Of The Status, Structure And Process Utilized By Nevada's Family Support And Preservation Consortia To Achieve Collaboration, Marlys A. Morton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper presents a framework for understanding inter-organizational collaboration and describes and analyzes how collaboration was used as a method to build new service networks, the characteristics of the consortia, and the status of the collaborative processes.

Although the literature on inter-organizational collaboration in the human services is increasing, little is known about how regional consortia view the process of working together towards a common purpose. The results reported in this paper are intended to help fill that gap.

The findings reported in this study are based on a survey process using a standardized questionnaire to study the collaborative status. …

The Developmental Implications Of Parental Loss During Adolescence, Dacni C. Jones

Graduate Research Papers

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature that relates to the death of a parent and how this experience influences an adolescent. This review will answer the question of how adolescent cognitive, emotional, and social development is affected when a parent dies. After a brief definition of the words "adolescence" and "loss," the focus of this paper will be on the areas of cognitive, emotional, and social development and the effects of grief on development after a parent dies. This information can help mental health professionals and school counselors understand the impact of living through the experience of …

A Look At Adoption Through Young Adult Fiction, Suzanne K. Duneman

Graduate Research Papers

This content analysis study examines adoptees and their families in nineteen young adult novels. An analysis was made of the adoptees sense of identity, the decision to search for their birth families, and their familial relationships. Sixty-three percent of the adoptees speculated about their birth families. Fifty-three percent of the characters did search for their birth families. Of that group, ninety percent had doubts during the search. In the conclusion of the novels sixty-three percent continued to have a relationship with both their adoptive and birth families, and thirty-seven percent maintained a relationship with only their adoptive family.

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between School Setting And The Self-Esteem Of Grade-Six Girls, Maureen Thoroughgood Kropf

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study had three purposes: 1) to explore the relationship of school setting and the self-esteem of grade-six girls, with setting defined in terms of elementary (K-6), middle (6-8) and combined (K-8); 2) to explore the relationship of school setting and the self-esteem of grade-six girls, with setting defined in terms of urban and rural; 3) to contribute Canadian knowledge to the predominantly American research on the relationship between self-esteem of students and school settings and transitions. Two major theories from this literature emerge. The first, a cumulative change theory, suggests that the cumulative effects of developmental changes and the …

Restaging The Welfare Diva: Case Studies Of Single Motherhood And Social Policy, Iara Lessa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The single mother has been an enduring and representative character in the development of social welfare. Casted as the embodiment of the various crises of the family which Western democratic nations have experienced throughout the twentieth century, she is the representative of what is outside the foundation of a desirable life: an economically dependent family unit without a male head. Nevertheless, the single mother is also an actual woman raising children alone struggling for survival under very adverse circumstances. In its materiality, it is this body, not the allegorical character, who is the subject of studies and interventions concerned with …

Impact Of Gender And Culture: Contributing Factors To Satisfactory Long-Term Marriages, Maria Yip Ling Cheung

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The constructs of gender and culture have been neglected in our understanding of marital relationships. With the recent upsurge of postmodernism, the two constructs have come into focus as essential to furthering our understanding of these relationships. My doctoral dissertation research is a cross-cultural comparative study of five Hong Kong Chinese immigrant couples in Canada and five Euro Canadian couples who were born in Canada I used a social construction perspective to examine the gender and cultural processes that evolve in the long-term satisfactorily married couples. Couples who have been married for thirty to thirty-six years were under study.

I …

On Whose Watch? The Silent Separation Of American Children From Their Fathers, Nancy S. Coney, Wade C. Mackey

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Within two generations, the primary reason that American children were deprived of a father shifted from a father's death to a woman's choice. That is, prior to the 1960s, the major cause of fatherlessness was the death of the father through illness or accident. After the 1960s, the children became deprived of fathers primarily because of women's decisions to petition for a divorce or to become a single parent mother. The path of the shift is examined, and the consequences writ small per child and writ large for the commonweal are examined.

A Study Of Child Abuse: Race Gender And Family Structure, Linda Wyatt Faircloth

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Using 1989-1994 data collected from the Portsmouth Department of Social Services in Portsmouth, Virginia, this study looked at severity and recidivism of child abuse in Portsmouth from 1989-1994. Analyses of data from the Portsmouth Department of Social Services indicated that children living in single parent families are more likely to be severely abused than children living in two parent families but no differences were observed for race and age.

A Policy Brief: Massachusetts (T)Afdc Case Closings, October 1993-August 1997, Donna Friedman, Emily Douglas, Michelle Hayes, Mary Ann Allard

Center for Social Policy Publications

When a DTA (Department of Transitional Assistance) worker assesses whether a family's (T)AFDC (Temporary Aid to Families with Dependent Children) case will be closed, s/he decides which one of 67 different codes best describes the reason cash benefits for the household will be stopped. To carry out the analyses, we sorted all of the 67 codes into clusters of codes that logically grouped together: Cluster I, Increased Income; Cluster H, Sanctions; Cluster III, Eligible Persons Moved; Cluster IV, Fraud; Cluster V, Client Request; Cluster VI, No Longer Eligible; Cluster VII, Other or Multiple Meanings. The Appendix displays a description of …

An Exploratory Study Of The Termination Process In Marriage And Family Therapy, Jennifer H. Childers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to explore and better understand termination in the field of marriage and family therapy, as well as to generate a working model of termination. Data were obtained from a total of 40 marriage and family therapists (MFTs) licensed in the state of Utah. Two research questions were posed about termination and how client type and treatment progress may influence the termination process: (1) Given that MFTs see individuals, couples, and families, are there differences and similarities across client types in regard to how therapy is terminated?; and (2) Does termination differ in regard to …

When Do Single Mothers Work? An Analysis Of The 1990 Census Data, Marta Elliott, John F. Packham

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study analyzes the relative effect of the amount of public assistance income received one year on the probability that a single mother is employed the following year compared to a variety of other determinants of employment status. The analysis is based on a national sample which was drawn from the Public Use Micro data 5 percent Sample (PUMS) of the 1990 U.S. Census. It consists of the 275,744female householders who were divorced, separated, widowed or never married, and living with their own children age 18 and under. Logistic regression was utilized to calculate the probability of being employed in …

Grandmothers Becoming Grandmothers Again, Bonnie Rentz Weathersby

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Examining The Demographic Characteristics Of Foster Children In The State Of California And The County Of San Bernardino, California Between July 1984 And July 1997, Bonnie Kay Rice

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Factors That Influence Decision-Making For Out-Of-Home Placement Of Alzheimer's Disease Patients By Caregiver Wives, Rebecca Ann Smith

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Ackerman Lecture, Suzanne Iasenza

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The First Annual Dr. John Patten Memorial Lecture was held November 14 at the Hunter College of Social Work. CLAGS agreed to cosponsor the lecture, developed to honor the life and work of Dr. John Patten, faculty member of the Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy, Medical Director of the Institute's AIDS Project, and co-founder and co-director f the Institute's Gay and Lesbian Family Study Project. Dr. Patten was also co-founder and senior editor of In The Family Magazine, a family therapy-oriented magazine for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and their relations. He died of AIDS on October 4, 1995.

Grandmothers Laughing: Intergenerational Transmission Of Cultural Beliefs About Pregnancy And Childbirth Among Native American Women, Claudia Robin Long

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation reports findings from a qualitative study of intergenerational transmission of pregnancy and childbirth information among Native American women. Proposed is a theory of intergenerational transmission that explains four pathways used by Indian women to gain information about pregnancy and childbirth. Antecedent, consequent, and core elements are associated with the transmission process.

Discriminant sampling was used to identify the middle generation of Indian mothers and grandmothers, between 36 and 65 years of age, residing on or near the reservation, with experience of assimilation policies that had moved off-reservation temporarily. The researcher used the grounded theory method to analyze responses …

The Commodification Of Caring : A Hospice Case Study, Tina Marie Alford Williams

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This paper discusses the process of commodification by a non-profit hospice as seen through informants and participant observation. The objective was to describe how an all-volunteer organization could transform into a business when reimbursement was introduced into the exchange equation, why it happened, and the effects the change had on the people involved. What emerged from the interpretations was a detailed description of the commodification process in four areas: a) the emphasis of the money factor in the delivery of care, b) a shift to high-tech care and sicker patients, c) a calling and its relationship to non-profit work, and …

Sexual Violence Within Marriage: A Case Study Of Rural Uttar Pradesh, M.E. Khan, John Townsend, Ranjana Sinha, Seema Lakhanpal

Reproductive Health

Until recently the study of sexual behavior, despite being a very important area of human behavior, has remained an untouchable subject. The sensitivity of the subject and difficulties collecting required information discouraged social scientists from venturing into this area of human behavior. However, the advent of AIDS and its rapid spread in India has changed the scenario. Today the study of sexual behavior is an important subject and both national and international agencies, as part of the AIDS control program, are encouraging research on the subject. This paper addresses a totally neglected area, which is sexual coercion within marriage. The …

As If Born To: The Social Construction Of A Deficit Identity Position For Adopted Persons, Lise M. Beauchesne

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Many adopted persons report experiencing ongoing problems with identity, often resulting in feelings of personal deficiency to imprison their sense of self. The dominant position of the literature eon adoption individualizes and problematizes “identity” issues by locating the source of difficulties to individual traits of the adopted person and his/her adoptive family. Consequently, the struggle associated with the identity “adopted” is typically constructed as an individual struggle.

Drawing on my own lived experience as an adopted women, I have been engaged in a critical inquiry of the traditional view of adoption in order to understand the problem of identity not …

The Effects Of Race And Socioeconomic Status On The Acceptance Of Biracial Individuals, Erika Lela Gilyot

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study investigated the effects of race and socioeconomic status on the acceptance of biracial individuals having one Black and one White parent. A sample of 153 Black and 114 White college students were divided into high- and low-socioeconomic status based on demographic information. Acceptance of biracial individuals was measured by 2 modified versions of the Social Distance Scale (SDS1 and SDS2) developed by Bogardus (1928), a shortened version of the Scale To Measure Attitudes Toward Defined Groups (AS) developed by Grice (1934), and a measure of Perceived Commonality (PC) developed by Feather (1980). The Marlowe-Crowne (1960) Social Desirability …

Level Of Adaptive Behaviour According To The Occupational Status Of Foster Adolescents In Independent Living, Marissa Dionne Amoroso

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This is a quantitative study that describes the profile of adolescents in independent living in Halton Region by their occupational status. Occupational status is a variable that ranges along a continuum, from adolescents who are in school fulltime & working part-time, in school fulltime, working fulltime, in school part-time & working part-time, in school part-time, working part-time, and not in school or working. Information for adolescent profiles was obtained from case files, as well as from the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scale which was completed by adolescents’ social workers. It is expected that these profiles will assist social workers in identifying …

Children: America's Greatest Natural Resource, Don P. Diffine Ph.D.

Belden Center Books

This book deals with two profound questions: First, "what can we do, in the name of Godly charity and true religion, to keep on providing help, assistance, support, love, care and nurturing for birthmothers? And second, "what can we also do to keep finding ways, in these complex legal times, that such children can continue to fill the aching voids in the hearts of other childless couples?"

Ecological Approach In Practice: A Case Study Of The Ounce Of Prevention Fund, Marilyn Fernandez, Laura Nichols

Sociology

In an attempt to suggest ecologically sensitive program models which are developmentally responsive to the needs of adolescent parents and their children, this paper reviews existing research to identify the critical ecologies in their lives, evaluates existing program models for their ecological sensitivity, and presents a case study of the ecological approach in practice. Drawing from Bronfenbrenner's ecological perspective and typology of systems, the paper identifies family, partner, school, work, health care, neighborhood, poverty, and ethnicity as critical ecological systems in the lives of the adolescent and her child. Many existing program models do not systematically address all of these …

The Work-Family Needs Of Single Parents: A Comparison Of American And Swedish Policy Trends, Lena Lundgren-Gaveras

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper compares recent policy trends affecting the work-family needs of women heading households, a population that has increased dramatically in both America and Sweden. Unlike existing American policy debates that largely discuss single mothers as a public welfare dependent population, this paper addresses female-headed householders as high-level users of policies and programs aimed at integrating work life and family life.

Most cross-national research and policy debate efforts argue that Swedish policy, in stark contrast to American policy, promote women combining employment with parenting responsibilities. This study argues that policy developments directly targeted to enhance an employee's ability to combine …