Digital Commons Network^™

Prevention Of Child Abuse And Neglect Through Church And Social Service Collaboration, Erin Olson O'Neill, Jodi Gabel, Stephanie Huckins, Jeanette Harder

Social Work Faculty Publications

been a historic disconnect between the two institutions concerning child abuse prevention efforts. All too often, criticisms and mistrust tend to characterize the way in which the two interact. This qualitative investigation examines the perceptions of both Christian leaders and social service providers on the church’s role in preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect. Researchers interviewed 36 church leaders and social service providers of varying Christian congregations and specialties. Interviews focused on both current and potential church programming and activities, as well as beliefs and values held by both parties concerning child protection and real or potential collaboration. …

Strengthening Family Practices For Latino Families, Karen G. Chartier, Lirio K. Negroni, Michie N. Hesselbrock

Social Work Publications

The study examined the effectiveness of a culturally-adapted Strengthening Families Program (SFP) for Latinos to reduce risks for alcohol and drug use in children. Latino families, predominantly Puerto Rican, with a 9–12 year old child and a parent(s) with a substance abuse problem participated in the study. Pre- and post-tests were conducted with each family. Parental stress, parent-child dysfunctional relations, and child behavior problems were reduced in the families receiving the intervention; family hardiness and family attachment were improved. Findings contribute to the validation of the SFP with Latinos, and can be used to inform social work practice with Puerto …

Placing Children In Need With Gay & Lesbian Couples: Influences On Placement Decisions, Gayle Mallinger

Social Work Faculty Publications

Thousands of children throughout the United States are currently awaiting placement with adoptive families. The literature indicates that gay- and lesbian-headed households can well meet the needs of these children. Research suggests that sexual prejudice, religious fundamentalism and attitudes about gay and lesbian adoption may influence practice decisions regarding placement. This dissertation study examined the influences of religious fundamentalism, sexual prejudice, contact with sexually diverse individuals, and attitudes towards gay men and lesbians as adoptive parents on intent to place children in need with gay and lesbian couples. A random sample of National Association of Social Workers (NASW) members was …

Exploring Social Workers Beliefs And Practices When Working With Gay And Lesbian Youth, Ethan Brian Michaels

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to examine child welfare workers' beliefs and practices while working with gay and lesbian youth. This study surveyed forty-one children's social workers and their supervisors in Los Angeles County's Department of Children and Family Services.

Characteristics Of Families Who Succeed From Wraparound Services And Those Who Do Not, Jonas Caleb Nava

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics of families who successfully completed wraparound services to those families who did not through the Riverside County Children's Services Division.

Same Bang, Less Buck: A Cost-Benefit Analysis Of South Carolina’S Youth Courts, Holly Miller, J Mitchell Miller

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

While youth courts experience tremendous growth nationwide, their utility is largely unproven, particularly in state-level contexts. This study conducted a cost-benefit analysis of South Carolina's youth courts. The study found that while youth courts and family courts produced comparable recidivism rates, youth courts were substantially less expensive for comparable adjudications. The relative efficiency of youth courts, however, was neither monolithic nor guaranteed. Individual youth courts displayed considerable variation and some youth courts were not as efficient as their traditional family court counterparts. Inefficient youth courts had low caseloads, typically resulting from inefficient or immature referral systems and a reliance on …

Infusing Culture Into Practice: Developing And Implementing Evidence-Based Mental Health Services For African American Foster Youth, Harold E. Briggs, Bowen Mcbeath

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The lack of culturally appropriate health and mental health care has contributed to the large number of African American youth and families involved in the child welfare system. This article reviews the consequences of the insufficient access to culturally sensitive, evidence-supported interventions for African American foster youth. The authors describe a framework for the development of culturally appropriate mental health interventions responsive to the needs of African Americans.

Children/Youth With Disabilities: Their Parents Are Your Employees Training Manual And Workbook, Julie M. Rosenzweig, Anna M. Malsch, Eileen M. Brennan, Kathryn L. Mills, Lisa Maureen Stewart

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The training manual and workbook, including the survey, were originally designed as supplemental materials to a workshop delivered to human resource professionals by the Work-Life Integration Project. Once the materials were compiled and reviewed, we decided to make the document available as a printed resource for a more general audience. While the materials were initially developed for use with human resource professionals, they are readily adaptable for use with other groups of employees, such as supervisors, managers, or teams of co-workers. The manual is also suitable to be used by members of family support organizations and other individuals interested in …

Life Domain Research Report Series: Youth And Parent Health And Well Being (2010 Update), Michele Preyde, Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Children and youth who have participated in children’s mental health services often continue to live with a variety of emotional and behavioural challenges after service involvement has ended (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003). A key consideration in understanding the long term community adaptation of these children and youth is the ongoing management of emotional and behavioural challenges and the impact these challenges have in the daily lives of youth and their families. Several standardized measures of mental health, physical health, stress, and quality of life were used to assess parental and youth functioning in the life domain of …

Life Domain Research Report Series: Family (2010 Update), Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

A key consideration in understanding the long term community adaptation of children and youth involved with residential treatment or intensive family services is the role that family plays in sustaining or eroding gains made by children and youth in treatment (Frensch & Cameron, 2002). This report includes a summary of family descriptive information, the nature of family relationships, and indicators of family functioning for children and youth who have participated in children’s mental health services.

Data were collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family service programs (IFS), designed as an …

Parental Cognitive Disabilities And Child Protection Services: The Need For Human Capacity Building, Sandra T. Azar, Kristin N. Read

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Theories regarding the social cognitive origins of parenting risk have recently emerged. This work not only has implications for the nature of interventions with parents, but also for the approaches taken by the social service systems that work with them. This paper reviews the evidence that there is a significant number of parents with cognitive disabilities within child protection caseloads and outlines the types of human capacity building and organizational development that are needed to support the parents' needs. Such capacity building will not only increase the effectiveness of child protection interventions with parents with cognitive disabilities (PCD), but will …

Life Domain Research Report Series: Social Connections And Community Conduct (2010 Update), Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Understanding how youth participate in social networks with peers and friends, engage in social or leisure activities, and more generally forge healthy relationships with others are key considerations in assessing overall well being of youth. Among a variety of emotional and behavioural challenges faced by children and youth involved with residential treatment or intensive family services may be their ability to negotiate relationships within social contexts (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003).

Data were collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family service programs (IFS), designed as an alternative to …

Life Domain Research Report Series: School And Employment (2010 Update), Karen Frensch, Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Earlier research by the Partnerships for Children and Families Project on the daily living realities of youth and children involved with mental health services, particularly residential treatment, revealed the ongoing and pervasive nature of difficulties youth and children experienced in their academic functioning (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003). As the education experience is such a large part of youth and children’s lives, we sought to better document how children and youth were performing in school in the current study.

Data were collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family …

Rescuing Children And Punishing Poor Families: Housing Related Decisions, Corey Shdaimah

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Child welfare policy is not self implementing; an understanding of child welfare policy must therefore include the decision making practices by those whom Michael Lipsky (1980) has called "streetlevel bureaucrats." This article reports data from a qualitative study exploring perceptions of child welfare professionals about housing-related child welfare decisions. Interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 18 child welfare lawyers, judges, and masters level social workers from a large city in the mid-Atlantic U.S. All agreed that there is insufficient affordable adequate housing. They held conflicting views, however, on: 1) the standard for adequate housing in the absence of …

City And Community Innovations In Cdas: The Role Of Community-Based Organizations, Carl Rist, Liana Humphrey

Center for Social Development Research

In the SEED Initiative, twelve community-based organizations (CBOs) across the United States and its territories were chosen to offer CDAs, establish best practices in delivering CDAs and demonstrate “proof of concept.” Since the inception of the SEED Initiative, a second wave of CDA programs has emerged at the local level. The purpose of this paper is to analyze these community and city-wide CDA innovations in the U.S. and to examine the role that CBOs play in these innovations. First, this paper explores the theory behind CBO engagement in asset-building and the roles CBOs typically play at the local level. Second, …

Parental Divorce: A Protection From Later Delinquency For Maltreated Children, Christopher A. Mallett, Patricia A. Stoddard Dare

Social Work Faculty Publications

Family structure and maltreatment (abuse and neglect) have been identified as predictors of youth delinquency, although the relationship is not clear. This article furthers this research by studying a sample of maltreated children (n = 250) in one Midwest county, and through a multiple regression analysis of many risk factors, the study identified only one significant delinquency variable that made delinquency less likely—children who experience parental divorce. Some established risk factors were surprisingly found not to be predictive of later delinquency: minority race, one-parent families, youth substance abuse, recurrent maltreatment, and youth behind in academic grade level. Implications for the …

Disparate Juvenile Court Outcomes For Disabled Delinquent Youth: A Social Work Call To Action, Christopher A. Mallett

Social Work Faculty Publications

Current service delivery for at-risk youth is through four separate systems: special education; mental health and substance abuse; juvenile justice; and child welfare. Many youth (and their families) are involved with more than one of these systems, making early disability identification and subsequent systems coordination paramount in leading to more successful juvenile court outcomes. This coordination is an important and prioritized public policy concern because a majority of youth (disproportionately minority) within juvenile justice populations has been identified with mental health disorders, special education disabilities, or maltreatment histories. This study of a unique sample of probation-supervised delinquent youths ( n …

Mapping The Participatory Process, Barbara J. Friesen, L. Kris Gowen, Pauline Jivanjee, Abby Bandurraga

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation explores the use of Practice-Based Evidence methodologies to support social work with Native American youth. It is based on a five-year collaborative effort between the Native American Youth and Family Center, National Indian Child Welfare Association, and the Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health. The researchers aims were to develop strategies for documenting the effectiveness of services, and to develop a process for conducting evaluations based on known outcomes of community based programs.

Creative Therapy And Adolescents: Emotion Regulation And Recognition In A Psycho-Educational Group For 9th Grade Students, Stacey Smith-Israel

Social Work Theses

Adolescence is a great opportunity for researchers to examine emotion regulation because of the physical, psychological, and social transformations that occur during this developmental stage. Adolescents that lack emotion regulation capabilities are more prone to expressions of anger, which commonly yield further symptoms of aggression, depression, and drug use. Factors contributing to low levels of emotion regulation during adolescence include stress, influence of childhood, parental influence, and maltreatment. A pre and post test were used to examine the effects of anger in a seven week creative therapy group for ten 9th grade students in a small, public high school in …

Sexual Abuse In Preschool Aged Children: Teaching Childcare Professionals To Identify Signs And Symptoms, Kristin Pleines

Social Work Theses

Identifying sexual abuse in young children is difficult, but crucial to a child’s immediate well-being and long-term well-being. Because many children spend a large percentage of their day in childcare settings, the aim of this study was to help teach early childhood educators to identify and report sexual abuse. To accomplish this, the researcher designed a training program about sexual abuse and how to report it. The training program was then forwarded via e-mail to ten experts in the childcare field who had previously expressed interest in the study. These experts responded to a survey and provided many other suggestions. …

The Internal And External Affects Of A Governor's State Budget Cuts On The Department Of Child Welfare, Tara Albury

Social Work Theses

State budget cuts reduce the resources available to the Department of Child Welfare. The Child Welfare Unit has had an increase in caseloads and a decrease in workers, resulting in an increase in caseloads for the remaining workers. In January 2009, the Department of Child Welfare made a transition with a community wide initiative to a more family directed all inclusive, team approach to service provision. The State was divided into four Initiative Regions, with a lead agency in each. This research examines areas of success, changes in staff responsibilities, changes in clients’ participation in services and barriers to the …

An Exploration Of Morale And Decision Making Of Children And Youths In Foster And Residential Care, Kevin Stanford

Social Work Theses

Children who are forced into foster or residential care are one of the most vulnerable populations in the United States. Many of these children have not had the benefit of a positive adult role model in their lives and therefore lack social skills and self-esteem often resulting in criminal activity. Previous research indicates various positive and negative influences on morale and decision making of children and youths in both of these populations. This study aims to build upon previous research in an attempt to improve the lives of youths in foster and residential care by further delving into the influences …

Providing For Rhode Islands Juvenile Delinquents: Community Based Services Vs. Incarceration, Shannon Fitzgerald

Social Work Theses

National research has shown that high quality, alternative community based diversionary programs for delinquent youth are both more effective at reducing recidivism and less expensive than incarceration. As the state of Rhode Island faces budgetary issues, not unlike the issues the United States is facing on the national level, they have begun to move toward this model as a way to address juvenile delinquency. But the question is, does Rhode Island have the available resources to provide a better alternative for these youths than incarceration? This exploratory study’s objective was to explore if Rhode Island’s juvenile delinquents will be better …

Intake Decision Making In Child Protective Services: Exploring The Influence Of Decision-Factors, Race, And Substance Abuse, Michael Howell

Theses and Dissertations

Child protective services begin with an intake (screening) decision to accept or reject maltreatment reports. This crucial decision may lead to significant positive or negative outcomes for children and families. Little is known about characteristics that intake decision-makers share or factors that influence the decision-making process. Racially-biased intake practices have been blamed for contributing to African American children’s disproportionate overrepresentation in the child welfare system. Concerns have emerged that social workers may hold negative stereotypes about African Americans and parents who use drugs. Stereotypical biases may influence decisions in reports alleging parental drug use and/or involving African American families. This …

Barriers To Utilization Of Prenatal Care For Low Income Women Living In Rhode Island: Impact Of The Client-Service Provider Relationship, Nicole Lescarbeau

Social Work Theses

Federal legislation was enacted in the 1980’s to expand Medicaid eligibility of prenatal care coverage. Despite this focus however, many women still continue to not utilize care early or adequately (Regenstein, Cummings, & Huang, 2005, p.1). This study examines how barriers to utilizing early and adequate prenatal care, such as a lack of transportation and/or childcare, affect women of low income living in Rhode Island. Specifically, the focus is on the clients’ perceptions of the client-prenatal service provider relationship. This study also examines the impact of utilization of early and adequate prenatal services, and of substance use, on birth outcomes …

Evidence Matters (Spring 2009), Center For Evidence-Based Practices

Evidence Matters

Newsletter of the Center for Evidence-Based Practices at Case Western Reserve University

Substance Abuse Program Availability And Child Maltreatment, Cindy Juby Ph.D.

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

The objective of this study was to examine the relationships between substance abuse treatment availability, drug and DUI arrests, and child maltreatment across metropolitan, nonmetropolitan/adjacent, and nonmetropolitan/nonadjacent counties in Iowa. County-level data from Iowa between 2002 and 2005 were analyzed for associations between the selected variables. Regression and a path model were the methods of analysis and minority and poverty status were included in the design as control variables. The results revealed that counties with further proximity from metropolitan areas, those with increased drug arrest rates, and those with the highest poverty rates had positive and significant impacts on child …

Promoting Positive Outcomes For Healthy Youth Development: Utilizing Social Capital Theory, Julie Anne Laser, George Stuart Leibowitz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article discusses the central tenets of the theories of social capital, which include exchanges, trust, obligation, bonding, bridging, and issues concerning the marginalization of certain groups. Included is an exploration of the limitations of the approaches of the key theorists, followed by the presentation of a theoretical framework and model of the development of social capital among youth. Additionally, the article discusses the relevancy of social capital for social work practice.

Welcome To The Neighborhood: Does Where You Live Affect The Use Of Nutrition, Health, And Welfare Programs?, Molly De Marco, Allison C. De Marco

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Despite the recent upsurge in neighborhood effects research, few studies have examined the impact of neighborhood characteristics on the use of nutrition, health, and welfare programs. To explore these issues, this study used data from Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study, a longitudinal dataset comprised of low-income neighborhoods in Boston, San Antonio, and Chicago (n=1,712). Using hierarchical linear models, the results indicated that both individual (education, employment, and marriage) and perceived neighborhood disorder factors were related to social service use.

The Effects Of Different Types And Patterns Of Services On Successful Reunification, California Social Work Education Center (Calswec), Amy D'Andrade

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.