Digital Commons Network^™

Special Recreation: A Manual For Theraputic Riding Programs, Robin R. Ryan

All Graduate Projects

Recreational opportunities are limited to individuals with disabilities. Recreation and learning how to utilize leisure time can be more important to individuals with disabilities than to others. Therapeutic riding was studied as a means to meet this perceived need. A manual was developed describing a professionally directed service designed to meet the recreational needs of individuals with disabilities in a therapeutic riding program.

A Discerning Heart: The Core Of Psycho-Spiritual Healing, Dudley Mendonca

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Community Participation In Health, Family Planning And Development Activities: A Review Of International Experiences, Abbas Bhuiya, Fatima Yasmin, Farida Begum, Ubaidur Rob

Reproductive Health

The family planning (FP)/maternal and child health (MCH) program in Bangladesh has achieved success in the recent past, mostly through a large-scale government service-delivery system with support and cooperation from donors and nongovernmental organizations. There is concern about the financial and social sustainability of the program. Other issues include achievement of replacement-level fertility within a stipulated period and improvement of MCH-FP service quality. It is widely believed that most of the concerns will be taken care of with effective community participation. Before activating community initiatives, it is worth carrying out action research. A literature review was completed from July to …

The Relative Effectiveness Of Face-To-Face And Telephone Contact By Community Mental Health Workers During Psychiatric Inpatient Treatment Of Children And Adolescents, Bruce Patrick Hackworth

Dissertations

Problem. With the advent of managed care has come the increasing necessity to provide effective and efficient services to children and families experiencing severe emotional disturbances. The use of cost-effective and therapeutically effective services is at the crux of an effective service delivery system. Few studies have considered the usefulness and comparative effectiveness of face-to-face versus telephone interventions in therapeutic situations. This study considered the clinical value of face-to-face community mental health worker involvement during and after psychiatric inpatient hospitalizations of children and adolescents ages 11-17. The study also considered the comparative value of this follow-up when using master's-trained, mental …

Contributing Factors In Medication Nonadherence In Schizophrenic Clients: A Descriptive Study, Sharron E. Howarth

Masters Theses

Medication nonadherence in schizophrenic clients is a major issue for psychiatric nurses. The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore factors identified by the schizophrenic client and the client's primary nurse that contribute to medication nonadherence. The Health Belief Model and Peplau's Model were the theoretical frameworks used. The sample included 20 schizophrenic clients with a history of medication nonadherence and 20 primary psychiatric registered nurses.; Face-to-face interviews using the Compliance Interview Questionnaire were conducted with the psychiatric client and the primary nurse. Results indicated a difference between nurses' and clients' perceptions of the reasons for medication nonadherence. Most …

The Impact Of Psychological Trauma On Learning And Functioning In Women Wit Learning Disabilities: Looking At Classroom Trauma, Jane Utley Adelizzi

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigates women and learning disabilities and the impact of psychological trauma.

Needs Assessment In Mental Health Care In General Practice, Samar Aoun

Research outputs pre 2011

Current practices in mental health care among general practitioners (GPs) servicing part of the rural South West region of Western Australia were ascertained in a survey on psychosocial morbidity in rural general practice (Aoun et al 1995a,b). The survey identified the patient and illness profiles and the patterns of treatment and referral to mental health services...

The Kinetic Family Drawing As A Measure Of Minuchin's Structural Family Concepts Among Hispanic American Families With Substance-Abusing And Nonsubstance-Abusing Adolescents, José Osorio-Braña

Dissertations

Problem. There is a need for validation of new cultural-sensitive tests for assessing the Hispanic population in the United States that will take into account their cultural competence in the psychological evaluation practice. The purpose of this study was to explore the suitability of the Kinetic Family Drawings as a measure of Minuchin's Structural Family Theory among Hispanic American families with substance-abusing and nonsubstance-abusing adolescents.

Method. The Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD), the Structural Family Interaction Scale-Revised (SFIS-R), and the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scales (FACES II) were administered to 141 families, 74 with an adolescent with substance-abusing problems and 67 …

A Dialogue Between Banyankole-Bakiga Peoples' Traditional Pre- And Marital Counseling Since 1870s And The Western Cognitive Behavior And Object Relations Therapies: A Reciprocal Challenge And Insight?, Cecilia Y. Nibyobyonka

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

A Competency-Based Art Therapy Approach For Improving The Self-Esteem Of A Pre-Adolescent Girl, Maria T. Papaluca

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The aim of the current study is to present multi-faceted instruments to measure the effectiveness of a competency-based approach to Art Therapy for improving the self-esteem of a pre-adolescent girl. The theoretical framework for this approach applies well established Art Therapy and Family Art Therapy theory and practice to contemporary clinical practices in individual Family Therapy. The Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC) (Harter, 1985b), House-Tree-Person Drawing Test (H-T-P) (Buck, 1970), the subject's self-ratings, ratings of the subject's competence by her mother and her teacher, and ratings of the subject's artwork by objective judges are employed in a Pretest-Posttest research design …

Nurses' Verbal Responses In Four Types Of Client Situations, Ann V. Dilbeck

Masters Theses

The purpose of the study was to determine to what degree nurses vary in their utilization of empathy when responding to patients experiencing different types of physical and emotional discomfort. Nurse participants ({dollar}N = 32{dollar}) worked primarily in a hospital setting. They were administered the Behavioral Test of Interpersonal Skills and responded to videotaped vignettes. Actors portrayed patients exhibiting pain, anxiety, depression, or anger. "Feeling", "Content", or "Don't Feel" were the three categories scored. "Don't Feel" responses negate or suppress patient's feelings.; A chi-square was done to compare "don't feel" responses to all other responses. "Don't Feel" responses were generally …

Exploring Infertility Through Art, Olga Gibson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study, entitled "Exploring infertility through art" focuses on researching the use of art to explore the psychogenic, psychological and physiological aspects of infertility and the psychosomatic avenues of expression possibly resulting in, or contributing to, infertility. The term psychogenic means "pertaining to disorders which are functional in origin" (Chaplin, 1973, p. · 391), or "term usually employed of disorders which originate in mental conditions, though they may come to involve physiological changes, as a result of these mental conditions" (Drever, 1978, p. 231). A psychogenic disorder is ''a functional disorder which has no known organic basis and is therefore …

Mmpi And Rorschach Findings Of Individuals Approved For Gender Reassignment Surgery, Gregory Ralph Caron

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Both clinical experience and empirical data from psychological tests present a picture of extreme clinical variation among those individuals who request gender reassignment surgery. Results of past empirical studies utilizing the MMPI and the Rorschach Test have tended to be equivocal regarding the level and nature of psychopathology associated with samples of gender dysphorics. These past studies are considered limited particularly in terms of methodological problems related to statistical power. This present study examined the nature and degree of psychopathology in a sample of candidates approved for gender reassignment surgery as reflected on their MMPI-2 clinical scale values and scores …

Views Of Feminist Family Therapy: A Q-Methodological Inquiry, Bronwen Cheek

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The feminist critique of family therapy has had a growing impact on theory and practice for almost two decades (Hare-Mustin, 1978; Bograd, 1990). Writings on feminist family therapy (FFT) reveal both common and diverse opinions about what FFT is. The present study examined how views of FFT are segmented using Q-methodology (Stephenson, 1953; Brown, 1980; McKeown & Thomas, 1988), a small-sample empirical technique for identifying emergent viewpoints and studying their similarities and differences. A Q-sort instrument of 60 statements was constructed to sample diverse discourse on FFT. Magraw's (1992) interviews with leading experts in FFT served as a primary source …

The Relationship Between Risk For Drug Abuse And Meaning In Life, Paul Turner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Drug abuse continues to be one of the most significant problems in the United States today. Attempts to understand drug abuse have produced numerous multidimensional prevention and treatment models. These models have resulted in the identification of psychological, social and biological risk factors related to drug abuse. In this study, the risk for drug abuse was assessed in 311 college students. A questionnaire was developed to measure risk. The questionnaire assessed risk for abuse predicted by the following factors: academic performance, coping and psychological health, religiosity, family and peer drug use, and the individual's past and current drug use. Based …

The Effects Of Partial Hospitalization On Acute Psychiatric Hospital Readmission Days, William E. Turner Iii

Health Services Research Dissertations

Using the theoretical construct of recidivism and pathway and gatekeeper variables associated with it, this study compared the effects of a combination of partial and acute psychiatric hospitalization and only acute psychiatric hospitalization on the total number of acute hospital readmission days over a 12 month period using a causal-comparative design. Two hundred and forty cases were randomly selected from an existing database which contained information on a population of urban insurance beneficiaries who had accessed psychiatric care during a two year period. The group accessing a combination of acute care and partial care had significantly higher readmission days. Age, …

The Association Between Perceived Family Support And Psychological Well-Being In Infertile Couples, Linda Marquardt Mintle

Health Services Research Dissertations

A correlational research design utilizing a cross-sectional survey methodology was used to investigate the association between perceived family support and psychological well-being in infertile couples. Family stress theory and the construct of boundary ambiguity were conceptual frameworks applied to the developmental family life cycle. Respondents were 35 married infertile couples with primary infertility recruited from a private For-profit infertility clinic located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Responses on the Moos and Moos (1984) Family Environment Scale and from the SCL-90-R developed by Derogatis (1977) measured perceived family support and psychological distress respectively. Major findings indicated that infertile couples rated their families …

Ethnic Minorities And Mental Health: Ethical Concerns In Counseling Immigrants And Culturally-Diverse Groups, Gemima M. Remy

Trotter Review

Between 1980 and 1990 nearly 9 million foreign-born individuals migrated to the United States. In 1993, the Immigration and Naturalization Service recorded the entry of over 900,000 immigrants and refugees. This figure is believed to be higher given the estimated 1.5 to 2.5 million people who enter this country illegally each year. Currently, ethnic minority groups make up one-fourth of the United States population. It is estimated that by the year 2000, one-third of the U.S. population will be comprised of ethnic minorities. As the population of the United States becomes increasingly diverse, considerable attention is being directed to a …

The Multicultural Mental Health Research Center (Mmhrc), Castellano Turner

Trotter Review

African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and Native Americans have had relatively less access to the resources of society compared to white Americans. These resources include such things as educational and employment opportunities, political and economic power, and the goods and services that a prosperous society can produce. Health care is an important resource to which access is not equal for all groups. African Americans and other ethnic minority groups are, by most indices of health care access and utilization, underserved. Mental health services, in particular, have been shown to be less available to ethnic minority populations. Jones and Korchin, …

Informational Supports For Caregivers Responsible For Spouses With Alzheimer's Disease, Janet Lynn Mathews

Dissertations and Theses

Alzheimer's disease currently affects four million Americans and is increasing as "America grays." Although health complications can cause death within the first two to ten years, some persons with Alzheimer's disease live twenty years. Because three times as many persons with the disease live at home instead of in institutions, caregiver researchers have investigated caregiving in the home environment, focusing on caregivers' perspectives. Surprisingly, many caregivers reported that they did not receive the information or support they needed to manage home care from the traditional information resources, family and medical providers. The purpose of this study was to explore what …

Feminization Of The Aids Epidemic, Mark S. Kaplan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Although males still constitute a substantial number of persons with AIDS, it is becoming clear that this is a disease affecting women and minority populations more adversely. Today women, while representing approximately 16 percent of all AIDS cases nationwide that are reported to the Centers for Disease Control, make up the fastest-growing segment of the population with AIDS. This article contends that AIDS is increasingly afflicting women who have little economic, political, or social power. Furthermore, misdirected public policy has been partly responsible for the greater incidence of the disease in certain regions and populations.

Examination Of The Predictive Validity Of Risk Assessment Screening, Patricia Mary Morressy

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Child Protective Services ( CPS) have been under growing pressure to implement risk assessment systems over the past ten years (Dueck, H. J., English, D.J., Depanfilis, and Moote, G.T. (1993). This emphasis has come largely from the increasing number of reported allegations of child abuse and neglect (Doueck, et. al.) However, increasingly individuals involved in custody battles use the CPS reporting system to retaliate against one another. Because these reported cases require the action of CPS, the increase in allegations has overburdened the system. As a result, resources have diminished and challenges to screeners to make accurate risk assessments have …

Attention Deficit Disorder And Case Management: Infusing Macro Social Work Practice, Dennis D. Long

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Intervention with children with attention deficit disorders is complex and requires change at multiple system levels using a social work perspective. Case management, macro social work practice, time allocation issues, the structure of a professional self, constraints in expanding a narrow definition of the social worker, and specific macro level intervention areas for social workers are examined in this context.

Crisis Of Infertility: Effects Of Length Of Treatment On Emotional And Marital Adjustment, Christie L. Markestad

Graduate Theses

Twenty infertile couples participated in the present study to investigate whether infertile couples receiving medical treatment experience changes in their emotional, marital and sexual adjustment as a result of the length of time they have been in treatment. The couples were divided into three groups based on how long they had been seeking medical attention for infertility. The instruments administered were: SCL-90-R (Symptom Checklist), Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) and Index of Sexual Satisfaction (ISS). It was predicted couples who were in the initial stages of treatment would experience increased levels of emotional, marital and sexual distress, however those levels would …

Factors Which Predict The Initiation And Use Of Alcohol In Rural Adolescents, Charlotte Swint

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this research was to determine whether a selected group of factors are significant when trying to predict the use of alcohol by adolescents who live in rural areas. This research is important because most of the studies concerning drug and alcohol use in adolescents have focused on adolescents who live in urban areas. The results of such studies may not be generalizable to rural populations. The factors investigated included the following: availability of alcohol, peer influence, parental influence, tobacco use, gender, and grade level. These factors were chosen based on their inclusion in four prominent theories regarding …

Use Of A Structured Interview To Evaluate The Validity Of The Alcohol And Drug Dependence Scales Of The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory Ii, Bert Van Hoek

Dissertations

This is an external validation study of the Alcohol and Drug dependence scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory II ([MCMI-II], Millon, 1987). The Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-III-R ([SCID], Spitzer, Williams, Gibbon, & First, 1990) was administered to a sample of 73 adults who presented for treatment at a substance abuse facility to establish all possible substance abuse diagnoses based on the nosology of the revised Diagnostic Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (3rd ed. [DSM-III], American Psychiatric Association, 1980). Subsequently, scores on the Alcohol and Drug Dependence scales of the MCMI-II for the present sample were compared to …

Development Of A K-Correction Factor For The Mmpi-A, Jody Jacobson Alperin

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

In 1992, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - Adolescent (MMPI-A) was developed to meet the unique experiences and needs of adolescents. Despite evidence that adolescents often demonstrate response biases in taking the MMPI-A, currently there is no method to systematically "correct" for the effect of test-taking attitude on profile configuration with this age group. The K-correction factor has been widely used to correct for defensiveness or underreporting of symptomatology on the MMPI among adult respondents, although results of cross-validation research on the effectiveness of the K-correction factor have been inconclusive. The present study derived age-appropriate K-weights to determine the degree …

Psychosocial Predictors Of Health Risk Factors In Adolescents, Steve Sussman, Clyde W. Dent, Alan W. Stacy, Dee Burton, Brian R. Flay

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Previous research has confirmed the role of problem-behavior theory constructs as predictors of nonconventional behaviors such as adolescent drug abuse. No prospective study, however, has examined this theory's relevance to less extreme nonconventional adolescent behaviors, such as poor health practices. In the present study, an attempt was made to predict an index composed of seven health risk factor items measured in 8th grade from numerous variables measured in 7th grade selected to reflect personality, perceived environment, and behavior systems of problem-behavior theory. In addition, problem-behavior theory was compared in predictive efficacy to a wellness notion. Factor analysis did not support …

The Relationship Between Family Structure And Removal Rates, Kathrene L. Dumas

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

A Biopsychosocial Perspective On Alcohol Use And Abuse On The College Campus, Carol Ann Davis

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.