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Findings From Seven Years Of Child Welfare Workforce Interventions, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development (Qic-Wd)

Other QIC-WD Products

The Quality Improvement Center for WorkforceDevelopment (QIC-WD) operated for seven years and worked with 57 distinct public and tribal child welfare jurisdictions to address workforce issues. We used agency data, an evidence-based management approach, and were supported by site teams that included human resources (HR) and child welfare professionals.

We engaged in in-depth, multi-year projects in eight of the sites, and highlights from those experiences are featured in this short video. A consistent approach to implementation was applied and rigorous evaluation methods were used in those workforce intervention sites, with the goals of improving worker performance, well-being, and retention. Interventions …

Poverty And Commercial Surrogacy In India: An Intersectional Analytical Approach, Sheela Suryanarayanan

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The destination and source countries for commercial surrogacy match world patterns of inequality. India, Nepal, Thailand, Mexico, and Cambodia banned commercial surrogacy, moving the market to other less-developed countries in South Africa and South America. India had a commercial surrogacy boom until exploitative factors led to the passage of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill in 2019, which banned the practice. This paper examines surrogacy's monetary, health, and emotional effects on 45 surrogate mothers in Gujarat State, India. The study revealed that a majority (63%) of the very poor women remained very poor post-surgery. Surrogate mothers in poor households had to do …

Nursing Perspectives On Intimate Partner Violence Screening In The Emergency Department, Justin Cabrera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using descriptive and quality descriptive (QD) analysis, emergency department nurses from around the country completed a modified version of the Physician Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey (PREMIS) tool to gain insight on their attitudes, knowledge, and preparedness about working with patient survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) regarding their willingness to and comfort in engaging in IPV screening practices. In total, 1,523 responses were received from emergency department nurses currently or formerly in practice.

Findings show that there was no correlation between emergency department nurses’ education and training on IPV and willingness and comfort with IPV screening with …

Experiences Of Professionals Of Color In The Child Welfare Workforce, Nina Williams-Mbengue, Anita Barbee

Other QIC-WD Products

“Entrenched disparities in our laws and public policies, and in our public and private institutions, have often denied that equal opportunity to individuals and communities. Our country faces converging economic, health, and climate crises that have exposed and exacerbated inequities, while a historic movement for justice has highlighted the unbearable human costs of systemic racism.”

- Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government, January 20, 2021

Many Americans are currently engaged in a painful examination of the nation’s history of individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural racism. Leaders within the child welfare system …

Transforming Impossible Into Possible (Tip) For Financial Capability: Application Of Practice-Based Program Theory And Measures In Intervention Design, Philip Young P. Hong, Alanna Shin, Maria V. Wathen, Theresa Gibbons

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Purpose

Financial knowledge often does not translate into financial well-being. This study looks at how knowledge might be converted to well-being for people living in low-income environments, based on a theory called Financial PSS.

Methods

The study tests the validity of the two scales that make up Financial PSS: Perceived Financial Barriers and Financial Hope. Then it examines how these measures along with an intervention measure called TIP are associated with financial capability.

Results

Results validated the Perceived Financial Barrier Scale and Financial Hope Scale. Next, the study found that the Perceived Financial Barriers Scale and the Financial Hope Scale …

Process And Structure: Service Satisfaction And Recommendation In A Community-Based Elderly Meal Service In Shanghai, Lin Chen, Minzhi Ye, Eva Kahana

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Informed by Donabedian’s quality-of-care framework, this study aims to examine elderly clients’ service satisfaction and service recommendation for community-based meal services in Shanghai. We analyzed secondary survey data from randomly sampled elderly clients of a community-based meal service in the old Jing’an District in Shanghai (N= 690). Quality of food and caregivers’ attitudes were key to respondents’ service recommendation while tidiness of tableware and interactions with caregivers were positively related to their service satisfaction. Overlaps and differences between structure and process factors are discussed. We also provide tailored policy recommendations.

Applying Structural Equation Modeling To Better Understand The Relationship Between Stressors, Social Support And Wellbeing In The Lives Of Spouse Dementia Caregivers, Craig Holden

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Applying Structural Equation Modeling to Better Understand the Relationship Between Stressors, Social Support and Wellbeing in the Lives of Spouse Dementia Caregivers considers the utility of Pearlin et al.’s (1990) stress process model in understanding the needs of spouse caregivers. Data were drawn from eight biennial waves of the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The final study sample comprised 774 spouses, average age 73, who were categorized based on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) and non-ADRD caregiver status. Results showed that for the study sample as a whole, social support …

A Blackgirl Artivisionary Mosaic: Art-Based Participatory Refusals To School Punishment, Tyese A. Brown

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The study participants were co-research partners and engaged in a Project Based Learning six-week summer project in an urban northeastern metropolis community-based non-profit where they received stipends for participation. This dissertation explored how Blackgirls (aged 14 -21) express their experiences with disparate school punishment through community-based participatory artmaking. We called the photos, poems, collages, sculptures, storyboards, digital art, visual art, songs, spoken word, and videos Artivisions (art I vision). In the Jam Sessions, a subset of the partners we called curators discussed the pieces, shared their experiences, and offered insight into Blackgirls’ responses, coping skills, and decision-making regarding school punishment. …

Mexican American Adolescents’ Conversations About Goals: The Centrality Of Financial Aspiration To Career And Educational Pursuit, Heidi Adams Rueda, Qihao Zhan, Lela Rankin, Deaven Greenberg

Social Work Faculty Publications

We explored Mexican American adolescents’ goals as discussed with a romantic relationship partner. Thirty-four Mexican American hetero-dating couples aged 15 to 17 (M = 11.71 months dating) from an urban city in a Southwest border state participated in a video-taped discussion. Drawing on Social Cognitive Career Theory, we inductively coded for themes and found that youth prioritized career, education, family planning, travel, and relationship goals. We were sensitized to the centrality of financial aspiration to each of these themes, and further operationalized youth’s level of financial aspiration as either modest, ambivalent, or high. Applying this template, we analyzed the …

How Do We Teach Social Justice? A Cross-Disciplinary Synthesis Of Social Justice Andragogy, Bagmi Das, Isabel Farrell, Kriti Vashisht, Alexandra Gantt, Elisabeth Simpson, Adrianne Johnson

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Social Justice is a critical component of many of the helping disciplines. Similar goals govern these different disciplines, which are reflected in the scholarship of their professional training. However, the crossover in scholarship is limited. This review of social justice andragogy literature from various fields in the United States creates a conversation among these helping disciplines so that they may be able to learn from each other. From these separate realms of scholarship, the authors have derived terms and recommendations of what these disciplines may learn from one another through their shared obstacles and through processing of their work.

A Tale Of Two Situations: A Case Report Of The Merger Between Dermatology Outcomes And Prescription Drug Access, Kara Ye, Yasseen Amellal, Will Evans, Theresa Rohr-Kirchgraber

Cooper Rowan Medical Journal

This case report illustrates a case of guttate psoriasis in a young adult and the logistical role dermatologists can play in patients acquiring their prescriptions and improving the quality of their care.

When Kinship Caregivers Became Teachers: Role Stress And Strain From Remote Learning During Covid-19, Amanda Klein-Cox, Angela Tobin, Ramona Denby

Social Work Faculty Research

For caregivers of school-age children, schooling at home was a significant stressor during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research demonstrates the emotional burden of taking on the role of teacher while trying to balance responsibilities related to work, household, and childcare. Yet little is known about the well-being of kinship caregivers during this time, although this population is at heightened risk for role stress and strain and emotional distress. This article shares the results of focus groups conducted as part of a larger qualitative study, the purpose of which was to understand the factors that influenced the well-being of kinship families during …

Job Crafting, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is job crafting?

Job crafting is defined as “the physical and cognitive changes individuals make in the task and relational boundaries of their work” (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001, p. 179). Job crafting is a proactive work behavior by which individuals adapt their job or their perceptions of their job in order to change their identity, shape their job tasks to their liking, and alter the meaning of their work (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001).

Job crafting is most often conceptualized along four categories of increasing structural job resources (i.e., expanding one’s autonomy or variety of resources), increasing social job resources …

Job Design, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is job design?

Every job has an inherent design—the collection of duties, responsibilities, required competencies, environment, relationships, and resources involved in the job. This design may be intentional or unintentional. The concept of job design, however, is a more purposeful process of shaping a job’s characteristics with the goal to increase employee motivation, performance, and job satisfaction as well as lower turnover and absenteeism in the workplace (Hackman & Oldham, 1976). According to Job Characteristics Theory, this is done through enhancing the five core job dimensions of skill variety, task identity, task significance, job autonomy, and feedback from the …

Human Needs: Overview, Michael A. Dover

Social Work Faculty Publications

Human need and related concepts such as basic needs have long been part of the implicit conceptual foundation for social work theory, practice, and research. However, although the published literature in social work has long stressed social justice, and has incorporated discussion of human rights, human need has long been both a neglected and contested concept. In recent years, the explicit use of human needs theory has begun to have a significant influence on the literature in social work.

Meaningful Work, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is meaningful work?

Meaningful work is defined as “work experienced as particularly significant and holding more positive meaning for individuals” (Rosso et al., 2010, p. 95). In general, meaningful work is considered to be work and work accomplishments that are viewed as valuable, worthwhile, and aligning with one’s values (Allan et al., 2018). Current theory suggests that meaningful work tends to result from self-actualization or from working towards a higher purpose (Lepisto & Pratt, 2016). More specifically, meaningful work may come from feeling a sense of unity with other people, serving others, from developing oneself, or from working towards …

Personality Tests, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What are personality tests?

In an employment context, personality tests are tools that assess candidates’ or employees’ enduring dispositional traits, for the purpose of hiring, training, or employee development. Personality is generally thought to reflect one’s authentic personal disposition and lasting mental structure (Allport & Odbert, 1936). Although individuals may behave differently in different conditions and environments and may experience passing moods, personality is thought to be displayed through broad patterns of behavioral tendencies over time in each individual (Allport & Odbert, 1936). Though there are hundreds of individual personality traits and measures in existence, the majority of those that …

Assessing The Barriers To Reintegration Among Returnees In Nigeria, Itunu Ilesanmi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Reintegration for internally displaced returnees in Nigeria needs improvement due to the barrier returnees encounter when returning to their communities of origin. As a path to recovery following the unsettling experiences of generalized violence caused by Boko Haram terrorist attacks in Northeastern Nigeria, there is a need for best practices to mitigate challenges during reintegration for internally displaced returnees. With an estimated 2.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Northeastern Nigeria at the end of 2022, 1.98 million have returned to their prior residence, where they must cope and survive while attempting to reintegrate without effective and efficient support to …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Youth Experiencing Homelessness: A Qualitative Study, Bryan A. Pecoraro

Dissertations, 2020-current

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted youth experiencing homelessness (YEH). During the coronavirus outbreak, millions of people’s health worldwide was negatively affected. In addition to poor physical health, society’s mental health was affected by political discourse, viral mitigation factors, social distancing, and distrust of both the media and government. Decades of research with those experiencing homelessness suggest that the housing insecure suffer from a litany of poor outcomes. Their physical and mental health are negatively affected by traumas and illnesses suffered prior to, and during, their transience. This study takes a phenomenological …

Examining The Usefulness Of Interprofessional Education (Ipe) For Legal, Social Work, & School Psychology Student Training To Support Justice Involved Youth, Mary Comis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The school-to-prison pipeline is defined as a set of policies that contribute to the removal of students from the school environment and into the justice system (Justice Policy Institute, 2011). These students have unique and complex needs that include educational needs, legal needs, and community needs; however, these students often lack the support necessary to assist them when navigating the complexities of the educational and legal system. As a result, the complexity of the challenges these students face can be provided through a holistic legal representation team, where a school psychologist, social worker, and lawyer, can coordinate their efforts to …

Caregiver Burden: Support Needed For Those Who Support Others And The National Health Service, Michael Stephanou

Patient Experience Journal

This literature review focuses on the complexities and inequalities of informal caregiving in the UK and was inspired by the story of the following individual: EL is a 68-year-old Caucasian lady who attended Movement Disorder Clinic and was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease Dementia following many years of symptoms. The diagnosis came as a big relief to EL and her daughter (SL) who were eager to get treatment started as soon as possible. EL lives alone with SL and solely relies on her for care and support. SL does not have children and devotes her daily routine to looking after her …

Meaningful Work, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul, Danielle Crawford

Umbrella Summaries

What is meaningful work?

Meaningful work is defined as “work experienced as particularly significant and holding more positive meaning for individuals” (Rosso et al., 2010, p. 95). In general, meaningful work is considered to be work and work accomplishments that are viewed as valuable, worthwhile, and aligning with one’s values (Allan et al., 2018). Current theory suggests that meaningful work tends to result from self-actualization or from working towards a higher purpose (Lepisto & Pratt, 2016). More specifically, meaningful work may come from feeling a sense of unity with other people, serving others, from developing oneself, or from working towards …

Exploring The Intersectional Higher Education Experiences Of Latinx Students, Miguel A. Trujillo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The intersectional experiences of Latinx students in higher education have largely gone underexplored in the literature, particularly when it comes to Latino men. The current literature treats the experiences of the Latinx community as a monolith, when there are multiple potentially impactful intersectional aspects of identity that could influence our lived experiences, such as generational status, documentation status, country of origin, and gender. This three-manuscript dissertation addresses these gaps in the literature by both conducting research that is more descriptive of our respective within-group community and by focusing on the impact that gender may play in the experiences of Latinx …

“Walk The Walk”: A Narrative Inquiry Of Social Work Educators’ Participation In Social Movements For Racial Justice, Jessica R. Williams

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

The profession of social work has a long-standing history of social movement contribution, including in recent times. The May 2020 murder of George Floyd was an international flashpoint for global protests demanding racial justice, including within the US criminal justice system. Using Narrative Inquiry, the present study explored the stories of social work educators’ participation in current social movements for racial justice. Results from this study indicate that contemporary social work educators value a variety of social movement contributions, including protesting, community organizing, and incorporation of anti-racism in social work education. The participants of this study highlighted the importance of …

The Impacts Of Tf-Cbt For Child And Adolescent Survivors Of Sexual Abuse: A Systematic Review, Melissa Leap

Social Work Theses - Archive

The purpose of this systematic review is to expand on previous literature by examining the treatment impacts of TF-CBT on the specific population of child and adolescent survivors of sexual abuse. The review analyzed peer-reviewed journal articles from the years of 1991-2023. Using the software tool Covidence, 551 studies were initially imported, following thorough review by the first author, the final sample consisted of 16 studies. The results of the review are presented in three categories: studies without comparison groups, studies with comparison groups, and studies analyzing treatment components. All three categories reported significant improvements for outcome measures such as …

Reentry Services In Non-Urban Counties In Texas: A Directed Content Analysis Of Reentry Provider Websites, Monica Canizares

Social Work Theses - Archive

Health, social, and justice outcomes for returning residents after incarceration are concerning, with implications for service providers, especially in non-urban areas. Texas has made efforts to reduce its incarcerated population, but more attention is necessary to improve outcomes for returning residents. The state is only able to offer services to a small number of returning residents, and non-profit organizations are filling the gap of reentry service provision. This study aimed to understand what services are being offered by non-governmental reentry providers in non-urban areas of Texas through a mixed-methods, directed content analysis of reentry providers' websites. The results summarize features …

Towards A Social Justice Model Of Inclusion For University-Community Engagement, Dalon Taylor

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Faculty Publications

University-community engagement often professes to center the shifting needs and issues that communities face but these are often pushed to the periphery in knowledge creation. The methods of engagement, research agenda, outcomes, as well as the measures of success are typically grounded in the academe and universities can almost always pinpoint immediate benefits for the co-creation of this knowledge. Universities are usually able to secure funding and gain prestige to undertake these engagements and projects are put forth as testaments of universities commitments to social change. Communities often struggle to do the same and many are often not equipped with …

Converging And Diverging Outcomes Of Posttraumatic Growth (Ptg) And Posttraumatic Depreciation (Ptd) In Combat Veterans: A Case Study, Dayton Williams

Social Work Theses - Archive

Upon examining combat veterans’ psychological responses to combat-related trauma, two emerged for consideration: posttraumatic growth (PTG) through making meaning out of a traumatic experience and a positive outcome or change, and posttraumatic depreciation (PTD) an inability to make meaning of a traumatic experience and a negative outcome or change. Understanding how PTG and PTD converge, diverge, and impact an individual is crucial in supporting a veteran’s journey to health and well-being. A comparative study of the cases of two Marine combat veterans who served during OEF/OIF offers numerous similarities: both are in the millennial cohort; both are part of a …

An Examination Of Power In A Triadic Model Of Parent–Child–Pediatrician Relationships Related To Early Childhood Gender Development, Eline Lenne, Christina J. Sun, Susanne Klawetter

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, the authors introduce the Triadic Model of Pediatric Care, an innovative conceptual framework for pediatric practice with transgender and gender diverse children. The Triadic Model of Pediatric Care consists of three experts—pediatricians, primary caregiver(s), and children—who each possess unique insights, knowledge, and decision-making power. This model guides pediatricians to provide gender-affirming care that acknowledges children as experts of their own experience and worthy of bodily autonomy, while also working to ensure primary caregiver(s) have the information and support necessary to provide a safe and nurturing developmental environment for their child. The authors provide a recommendation for how …

Elucidating College Students’ Stressors: Photovoice As A Pedagogical Tool And Qualitative Methodology, Deanne Priddis, Heather L. Hundley

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Traditional research examining student stress relies on surveys using pre-determined categories. This study diverts from that approach by adopting a Communication in Conflict class assignment over seven classes (N = 115) using photovoice to determine if results fluctuate by using a different methodology. Additionally, we sought to understand if the sources of stress vary by gender and semester. The data revealed seven categories as the main stressors of student conflict: 1) time management, 2) mental health, 3) finding oneself, 4) future uncertainty, 5) other, 6) financial, and 7) past mistakes. Regardless of participants’ sex/gender or semester in which the data …