Digital Commons Network^™

Social Disorganization Theory And Crime In West Virginia, Billy Crum

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to test the social disorganization theory by determining how a community’s ability to maintain social control effects crime rate, especially in areas of West Virginia that are experiencing rapid social change. Do lack of social controls and rapid social change effect crime rates in rural areas, and if so, what kinds of crimes are likely to be effected? This study is going to attempt to answer this puzzling question. This study uses poverty rate, unemployment rate, and high school dropout rate as the independent variables, and crime rate as the dependent variable.

Marital Satisfaction Among Adult Children Of Divorce: The Connection To Poor Conflict Resolution Skills, Deanna Michelle Graham

Theses Digitization Project

The focus of this study is on marital satisfaction among adult children of divorce and how they address conflict in their marriage.

Nsucommuniversity Link - January 2003, Nova Southeastern University

NSU Digital: Communiversity

No abstract provided.

Ua56/1 Fact Book, Wku Institutional Research

WKU Administration Documents

Statistical and demographic profile of WKU.

Cache Countycommunity Survey Of Future Landfill Alternatives, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, A. Caplan, T. Jones, T. Grijalva

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

State University in the spring of 2003. The purpose of this survey was to gather scientific information regarding the concerns, perceptions, and preferences of Cache County adults related to various future landfill siting options. The survey was conducted at the request of local officials, the Countywide Service District, and various advisory committees established to make recommendations on a future Cache County landfill site.

Cache County, Utah Agricultural Landevaluation And Site Assessment Handbook, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, G. Busch

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Urban encroachment on farmland has serious implications for the farm sector. As the county’s economic base and population has grown, important agricultural lands have been converted to urban uses. Since 1986, Cache County has lost 8,884 acres of prime and statewide important farmland - nearly 14 square miles - to urban development. The current rate of development is consuming over 600 acres of prime and statewide important farmland each year. As we plan for the future and the most cost efficient means for housing this population growth, it is important to note two things: 1) Housing is most affordable in …

A Workplace Study Of Four Southern-Ontario Children’S Aid Societies (Summary Report), Cheryl Harvey, Deena Mandell, Carol A. Stalker, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Children’s Aid Societies have experienced extensive change since the implementation of recent child welfare reforms in Ontario. Agencies are facing a number of challenges including recruiting and retaining staff, high workloads, extensive requirements for documentation and administration, and less time to serve families and children. This paper explores employee experiences as service providers in child welfare. A survey was distributed to employees of four Children’s Aid Societies and employees participated in a series of focus groups. The paper discusses how workplace experiences contribute to job satisfaction, to stress and burnout, and to staff turnover. Actions organizations can take to improve …

The Meaning Of Care For Older Chinese Caregivers : An Exploratory Model Of Positive Caring, Cheung Ming, Alfred Chan, K. M., Carmen Ng, C. K., Liliane Chan, David Rosser Phillips

APIAS Working Paper 工作論文

Caring is often a highly personalized and individual activity. Through in-depth and searching interviews with two older care-givers, this study explored the determinants that help to sustain cares in their long-term care role and proposes an explanatory model for sustaining care. Attempts were made to uncover those meanings held by Chinese care-givers in interpreting their roles in a positive way despite the enormous demands placed on them by care-giving or, if they interpreted their care giving negatively, the attitudes that sustained their giving of care. Narrative accounts were obtained through separate interviews (conducted by two experienced social workers) asking open-ended …

Improving The Well Being Of At-Risk Families: Exploring Clients’ Perceptions Of Preventative Services, Lenore M. Mcwey

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Low income and working poor families are exposed to tremendous stressors, which in turn can impede their ability to care for their children (Dyk, 2004). In 2000, reports of abuse and/or neglect of over five million children were made to Child Protective Services (CPS) Agencies (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002). These families are often termed “at-risk” because of the possibility that the children could be placed in foster care. One prevention strategy used to help at-risk families is in-home family therapy. The Young Investigator Award through the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research (UKCPR) enabled me …

Aids, Orphans, And Development In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review Of The Dilemma Of Public Health And Development, Joe Lugalla

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

HIV/AIDS is having devastating consequences on families, young children, and other vulnerable social groups. In this paper, I review the impact of HIV/AIDS on families and development in sub-Saharan Africa. I begin by showing the magnitude of the problem and the factors that have led to rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in this sub-continent. I discuss gender inequality, poverty, social inequality, and globalization, and show how these facilitate the rapid spread of the epidemic. I show how AIDS is creating a mass of orphans on the one hand, and how it is impacting development and creating new public health contradictions on …

Children’S Sociable And Aggressive Behaviour With Peers: A Comparison Of The Us And Australia, And Contributions Of Temperament And Parenting Styles, Alan Russell, Craig H. Hart, Clyde C. Robinson, Susanne F. Olsen

Faculty Publications

Links between both temperament and parenting, and children’s sociable and aggressive behaviour with peers (physical and relational), were examined. The research was undertaken in two Western cultures (the United States and Australia) assumed to be similar in socialisation practices and emphases. The moderating effects of parent sex and child sex were also examined. Parents completed questionnaires on parenting styles and child temperament. Preschool teachers rated children’s aggressive and sociable behaviour. US children were rated higher on both types of aggression by teachers and on sociability, activity, and emotionality by parents. Girls were rated as more relationally aggressive and more prosocial …

Senior Capstone Faculty Handbook: A Resource Guide For Psu University Studies Capstone Faculty, Portland State University

Guides

This resource guide contains:

• What is the Senior Capstone?
• Teaching the Capstone Course: Most Commonly Asked Questions
• Combining Service and Learning: Essential Elements
• The Community Partner's Role in Capstone
• Clarifying Service and Learning Goals: The Use of Learning Agreements
• Sample Leaming Agreement
• Legal Issues in Community-Based Courses
• Student Safety in CBL
• Student Responsibility in Community-Based Leaming
• Combining Service and Leaming: Some Notes from Capstone Faculty
• Strategies for Student Support
• References and Resources
• Appendix

Reform Of Juvenile Criminal Justice: A Special Focus On The Effectiveness Of Correctional Treatment In Approved Schools, Phaik Kee Chong

Student Works (2000-2009)

It is now an old adage that juvenile justice reform is no sport for the short-winded. Juvenile law reform is both an incomplete achievement and an ongoing process, where the more progressive and the regressive forces of the different professionals and citizen groups skirmish between soft-line and hard-line extremes, contesting the need for further legal checks and balances. The violence of some juvenile offenders in this country is arousmg growing concern. Concerns about the welfare of the young have too often been seen as in conflict with the aims of protecting the public, punishing offences and preventing offending. This confusion …

"You Just Give Them What They Want And Pray They Don’T Kill You”: Street-Level Sex Workers’ Reports Of Victimization, Personal Resources And Coping Strategies, Rochelle L. Dalla Dr., Yan Xia, Heather Kennedy

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

Using both qualitative (in-depth, personal interviews) and quantitative (self-report survey indices) techniques, data were collected from 43 women involved in streetwalking prostitution. The purpose of the investigation was to examine exposure to violence and victimization among a particularly vulnerable female population across the life span. A secondary goal was to apply stress theory as an organizing frameworkfor examining personal resources (e.g., social support, locus of control) and coping behavior. Results from both data collection strategies are presented, and implications for intervention are described.

Do Public Expenditures Improve Child Outcomes In The U.S.? A Comparison Across Fifty States, Kristen Harknett, Irwin Garfinkel, Jay Bainbridge, Timothy Smeeding

Center for Policy Research

Our paper utilizes variation across the 50 U.S. states to examine the relationship between public expenditures on children and child outcomes. We find that public expenditures on children are related to better child outcomes across a wide range of indicators, including measures of child mortality, elementary-school test scores, and adolescent behavioral outcomes. States that spend more on children have better child outcomes even after taking into account potential confounding influences. Our results are robust to numerous variations in model specifications and to the inclusion of proxies for unobserved characteristics of states. Our sensitivity analyses suggest that the results we present …

Intimate Partner Abuse Could We Have Known? A Qualitative Analysis Of Data From Women Who Survived An Attempted Homicide By An Intimate Partner, Christina Nicolaidis, Maryann Curry, Yvonne Ulrich, Phyllis Sharps, Judith Mcfarlane, Doris Campbell, Faye Gary, Kathryn Laughon, Nancy Glass, Jacquelyn Campbell

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

OBJECTIVE: To examine in-depth the lives of women whose partners attempted to kill them, and to identify patterns that may aid in the clinician’s ability to predict, prevent, or counsel about femicide or attempted femicide. DESIGN: Qualitative analysis of 30 in-depth interviews. SETTING: Six U.S. cities. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty women, aged 17–54 years, who survived an attempted homicide by an intimate partner. RESULTS: All but 2 of the participants had previously experienced physical violence, controlling behavior, or both from the partner who attempted to kill them. The intensity of the violence, control, and threats varied greatly, as did the number of …

"Active Living": Transforming The Organization Of Retirement And Housing In The U.S., Paul C. Luken, Suzanne Vaughan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

We examine the transformation of the social institutions of retirement and housing in the US in the latter part of the 20th century. Using institutional ethnography we explicate a woman's experience relocating to an age segregated community. Her relocation is predicated upon ideological practices that reconceptualize retirement as "active living" and the construction of a setting in which retirees engage in this new lifestyle. We demonstrate the textual mediation of this ideological and organizational reformation through an examination of an advertising campaign undertaken by the Del Webb Development Corporation in the marketing of Sun City, Arizona. The advertising texts provide …

Lists: Starting Points For Researching And Writing The Histories Of Academic Departments, Michael R. Hill

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The discovery, imaginative construction, and methodical compilation of lists is a productive initial strategy for researching and writing the histories of academic department and small professional organizations. When purposefully conceptualized as inclusive, list construction provides a methodological framework that curtails the seemingly inherent tendency of historical writers to overlook the contributions and participation of minority members of professional organizations – I use the term “minority” here in the widest possible sense, to indicate virtually anyone who by one criterion or another has come to be defined or perceived as somehow “marginal” or “unimportant” to the historical record you are documenting.

Times They Are A' Changin': Effects Of Social Structural Positions And Network Characteristics On Changes In Gender-Role Attitudes Among Returning Women Students, Rachel Maher Reynolds

LSU Master's Theses

Since the 1960’s men and women’s gender-role attitudes have become increasingly nontraditional. The shift in attitudes has been attributed greatly to changes in women’s educational attainment and labor force participation. This thesis builds upon this line of work by exploring the effects of returning to school on women’s gender-role attitudes. Specifically, I use quantitative and qualitative data collected on 44 married mothers across a ten-year period beginning with their return to school in the early 1980s, focusing on the way in which women’s gender-role attitudes were affected by their increased educational attainment and their post-enrollment labor force experiences. As part …

The Role Of Stereotypes In Age Discrimination In Hiring: Evaluation And Intervention, Eyal Gringart

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

As the number of older adults grows, governments find it increasingly harder to support them through social and health care services. One solution to this problem is for older adults to remain in paid employment longer. However, older workers are discriminated against due to negative stereotyping by employers. Previous research has found that older females experienced greater discrimination than did older males. In order to address the issue of hiring discrimination against older adults a progressive two-stage research project was conducted. Using a questionnaire that was developed especially for this project, Study One explored the stereotypes held about older workers …

The Martin County Project: A Student, Faculty, And Citizen Effort At Researching The Effects Of A Technological Disaster, Stephanie Mcspirit, Sharon Hardesty, Robert Welch

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This research note describes two simultaneous events: the Martin County coal waste disaster of October 2000 and our own research efforts in Martin County, Kentucky, in studying the effects of the disaster on the impacted community. Our research was unique in that we involved a large team of undergraduate students in our field and data collections efforts. We also applied more democratic and participatory methods than has been typical in the "techno-disasters" research. We believe that our expanded method has allowed us to glean insights and understanding into the effects and political dynamics of the Martin County coal waste disaster. …

Social Capital, Structural Conditions, And Mortality: A Study Of Nonmetropolitan Counties In Mississippi, Domenico Parisi, Steven Michael Grice, Michael Taquino, Duane A. Gill

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

In this study, we examine the extent to which structural conditions that favor investment in social capital affect mortality across nonmetro counties in Mississippi. To this end, we focus on four county structural conditions: (1) place of residence within county boundaries, (2) civic infrastructure, (3) economic conditions, and (4) county regional location. The results clearly indicate that structural conditions that favor investment in social capital lead to lower mortality. Specifically, concentration of disadvantage conditions has an independent effect on mortality. That is, its effect operates independentIy of other structural conditions. In contrast, the effects of place of residence and civic …

The Presentation Of Paradise: Impression Management And The Contemporary Nursing Home, Jason S. Ulsperger, John Paul

The Qualitative Report

This report discusses dramaturgical perspectives, organizational impression management, and the history of the nursing home industry. Through participant observation, it uses a critical dramaturgical analysis to examine social interaction in three for-profit nursing homes. It explores how employees in these facilities create impressions of affective care in the face of negative publicity and long-term care competition. Specifically, the article examines four impression management tactics related to nursing home environments, concluding with suggestions for future research relating to organizational deviance.

Post-It Notes: Social Workers And Research Participants Sticking Together, Judy Heitzman

The Qualitative Report

This autoethnography reflects the author's perceptions of a collaborative social work process called qualitative inquiry. Using a quiltmaking metaphor, the author creates a recipe for collaborative learning between qualitative researchers and study participants. The metaphors associated with quiltmaking reflect a participatory action research model, and encourage qualitative researchers to stretch their creativity and collaboration skills.

Anorexic Eating: Two Case Studies In Hong Kong, Zenobia C.Y. Chan, Joyce L.C. Ma

The Qualitative Report

Little attention has been paid to the eating experience of anorectic females during the course of their illness. In order to enrich this understanding, two adult anorexics were selected and their emails were collected and analyzed. Analysis of these emails reveals the patients' experiences with and feelings about eating, which can provide an in-depth understanding of their circumstances and family dynamics. The paper ends with a discussion of the results, limitations, and implications of using emails as the data source of a qualitative study, and how they can reveal the informants' inner landscapes.

Course Content Of Sociology Of Aging And Social Gerontology Syllabi: Interdisciplinary Relations, Paula Newby

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The United States is undergoing a major increase in a segment of the population we socially define and understand as aged. By the year 2030 approximately one in every five Americans will be 65 years or older. Because the concept of age is encompassed in our everyday world of social reality, it is a subject matter for the discipline of sociology. Aging is also recognized as a subject matter for courses in social gerontology, which incorporates a multidisciplinary approach with material from social, psychological, and biological areas. This research endeavor constitutes a content analysis of course syllabi found in the …

"For Their Own Good?": Sex Work, Social Control And Social Workers, A Historical Perspective, Stéphanie Wahab

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article provides an overview of the social responses to prostitution since the mid 1800s and how the responses of social workers have been shaped by shifting social contexts. Understanding the complex interplay of these forces is key to mapping out the divergent social work practice approaches with sex workers and their influence over time. The article presents three main constructs which have influenced social work responses to sex work; 1) the notion that women needed to be protected for their own good, 2) competing class values and, 3) social control.

Review Of Preserving Privilege: California Politics, Propositions, And People Of Color. Jewelle Taylor Gibbs And Teiahsha Bankhead. Reviewed By Devon Brooks., Devon Brooks

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Jewelle Taylor Gibbs and Teiahsha Bankhead, Preserving Privilege: California Politics, Propositions, and People of Color. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001.

The New Poverty Studies: The Ethnography Of Power, Politics And Impoverished People In The United States. Judith Goode And Jeff Maskovsky (Eds.).

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for Judith Goode and Jeff Maskovsky (Eds.), The New Poverty Studies: The Ethnography of Power, Politics and Impoverished People in the United States. New York: New York University Press, 2001. $55.00 hardcover, $19.50 papercover.

Indiana Women And Their Roles In The Works Progress Administration: Familiar Roles, New Opportunities, Tamara S. Ayer

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For American women, the 1920s were a time of advancement in several areas. They enjoyed a greater role in public life through their involvement in social issues of the day and their fights for the right to vote, and they were seeking and attaining higher education in greater numbers than ever before. Most importantly, though, were the steps American women took toward more representation in the world of work. On the cusp of the Great Depression, more women entered the work force than ever before. They secured jobs in fields traditionally deemed "women's work" such as social workers, teachers, nurses …