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Offender Families As Victims And Their Role In Offender Reintegration, Catherine Warren Pfeiffer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ninety-five percent of all offenders are released, most of whom return to family members who have suffered greatly from their loved one's criminal behavior; yet, research on their victimization and trauma is rare. Additionally, families anticipate a role in the offender's reintegration; however, little research has explored their own recovery and insights on their reintegrative efforts. This qualitative phenomenological study sought to discover a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of 13 offender family members in Texas. Participants were recruited through community organizations and selected through a purposeful sampling strategy to ensure diversity. The data were collected through screening and …

Strategies To Reduce Maquiladora Employee Absenteeism In Mexico, Antonio Jose Cachazo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee absenteeism is a costly problem, affecting organizations' ability to deliver products and services. Finding strategies managers use to help reduce employee absenteeism is critical to sustain operational capacity, control labor costs, and to achieve organizational success. Drawing from the Herzberg 2-factors theory, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore strategies implemented by six business organizations to reduce employee absenteeism in the maquiladora industry in Mexico. Through semistructured interviews, 11 management participants shared strategies implemented to reduce absenteeism. In addition, other data sources, such as organizational policies, management graphs, and meeting minutes were used. Data were coded …

Effect Of Gender On Attitudes Toward Female Sexual Offenders, Heidi Senethavilay

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mental health professionals may lack the necessary knowledge and competency to work with female sexual offenders. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine whether gender influences attitudes toward sexual offenders and their treatment outcomes among psychology and mental health graduate students. This study was grounded in a dual form of deductive theory; alpha and beta bias was the primary theory and constructivism was the secondary theory. Data were collected from 186 graduate students in mental health programs from multiple universities. The Community Attitudes Towards Sex Offenders and the Attitude Towards the Treatment of Sexual Offender assessments were used …

Relationships Between Project Cost, Project Team Member Role, Project Schedule, And Burnout, Alan Lee Bundschuh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employees affected by burnout syndrome often experience reduced engagement and decreased

job performance, costing their organizations through lost productivity and profit. However, it is

not clear what causes employee burnout in working environments. The purpose of this

correlation study was to examine the relationships between project cost, project team member

role, project schedule, and project team member burnout. This study was grounded in the job

demands-resources theory, which states that all employees experience demands in their work that

may lead to long-term stress and eventually burnout syndrome if these demands are not mitigated

by job resources. The population for this …

Strategies For Sustainability In Multilevel Marketing Organizations, Nicole Renea Cordell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The number of entrepreneurs in the direct sales industry has steadily increased since 2010; however, the annual turnover rate is 56%. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore multilevel marketing (MLM) entrepreneurial leadership strategies implemented to help ensure sustainability of entrepreneurial MLM businesses for longer than 5 years. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 10 entrepreneurs who maintained an MLM business more than 5 years and used a hierarchical status that required a team. The transformational leadership theory constituted the conceptual framework for researching leadership as a concept of entrepreneurship and sustainability in MLM. Data were collected …

Employee Turnover At Community Banks, Cheryl J. Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some community bank managers do not possess the skills needed to retain employees, which increases employee turnover and decreases their competitive advantage. The purpose of this explanatory case study was to explore strategies community bank managers use to minimize employee turnover for their organization. The population consisted of 4 community bank managers in the Central Florida area who had at least 1-year of managerial experience evaluating employee retention. The conceptual framework was the jobs characteristics theory of Hackman and Oldham. Data were collected from semistructured face-to-face interviews and business documentation. Methodological triangulation was appropriate to validate the creditability and interpretation …

Childhood Verbal Abuse And Its Psychological Effects On Adults, Lani Thomason

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have documented an increase in child abuse in the past 50 years. Child abuse is associated with many adult physical, emotional, social, and cognitive impairments. To date, physical and sexual abuse have received more attention than verbal abuse. There is a gap in the literature on the effect of verbal abuse on mental health. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of verbal abuse in children on adult psychological functioning. A retrospective, casual-comparative design was used drawing a sample of adults (n = 224), ages 18 to 40, who reported verbal abuse as children as well …

Discharge Calls And Avoiding Hospital Readmissions, Wanda Lee Cassavettes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Hospital readmissions are disruptive and costly for patients and hospitals. As hospital discharge instructions are a key nursing responsibility, this project implemented a nurse follow-up phone call intervention within 12-48 hours of patient discharge from an indigent care facility in the Great Lakes region of the United States. The project was designed to understand whether follow-up phone calls from nurses that clarified discharge instructions, symptom management, and medications would be associated with decreased readmission rates within 30 days post-discharge among chronic care patients. The theoretical framework was the health belief model, which proposes that the patient's knowledge of illness severity, …

Conceptual Framework For A Curriculum In Social Change, Iris M. Yob

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Colleges, universities, and many high schools are expressing their mission in terms of creating social change or contributing to the common good. Such a mission suggests that if they are going to graduate students who will fulfill this mission, they will need to consider how they will best prepare students to do this. The conceptual framework for a curriculum in social change in this article offers a holistic approach, taking into account what a student should know, be able to do, and what values and attitudes should be nurtured. To that end, the article identifies three competencies in the knowledge …

Correlations Between Current And Expected Relocation Quality Of Workplace Factors, Edward Rachny

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High-quality hospitality education is important to bring to international locations because it is a foundation for business and tourism. An international network of hospitality schools (HS) has a problem of convincing faculty to relocate to international locations, which limits expansion efforts and the quality of faculty available at less desirable locales. The purpose of this correlation study was to investigate the relationship between varies workplace factors that faculty expect to be of the highest quality, allowing senior management to ensure relocations. The theoretical foundation that grounded this study was Authors' expectancy theory, which stipulates that what people expect to occur …

Case Management And Social Work Practice In Public Schools, Grace Charriez Rivera

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, 66% of elementary and secondary school students experience academic difficulties. Evidence-based implementation and data-driven practices in the field of school social work to address these academic difficulties are lacking. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perceptions of school social workers in a public school division in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States regarding the use and effectiveness of case management strategies with at-risk students. Ecological theory and social constructionism theory provided the framework for the study. Qualitative focus group discussion involving 8 social workers in the division was used to collect …

Exploring The Multicultural Pedagogy Of Ces Faculty Through An Intersectional Lens, Jenae D. Thompson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Counselor education and supervision (CES) faculty members are responsible for adequately preparing counselors-in-training (CIT) for their work with diverse populations. Current literature explains traditional multicultural counseling education in this way; however, little research is available exploring faculty members' personal and professional experiences with intersectionality and how those experiences contribute to their pedagogy. In this dissertation, CES faculty members' experiences with intersectionality theory and how they could use this theory in their multicultural pedagogy were explored. Research questions exploring CES faculty use of intersectionality in their multicultural coursework, how their personal experiences contribute to their pedagogy, and their experiences with privilege …

Gender, Social Support, And Resiliency In Suicidal Ideation Among U.S. Army Soldiers, John Franklin Ambrose

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Suicidal behaviors have continued to increase in the United States (U.S.) Army population since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Suicide rates are higher in men compared to women; yet, the rate of suicidal ideation is higher in women than men. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a correlation between suicidal ideation and protective factors, if social support and resiliency are different for men and women within the U.S. Army population, and if gender acts as a moderating variable between suicidal ideation and protective factors. The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior was …

Practice Challenges Among Social Work Mitigation Specialists And Interprofessional Supervision Methods, Nicole Denise Jackson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Social work supervision is a core component of the social work profession that is often absent for social workers in interprofessional teams. In capital defense practice settings, social workers are hired as mitigation specialists to work as members of the legal team. Informed by systems theory, the purpose of this action research study was to explore the practice challenges of social work mitigation specialists (SWMS) and how an interprofessional-focused supervision approach could be applied to resolve those issues. Six SWMS employed with capital defense agencies in Georgia and Texas were interviewed. Using a thematic coding analysis, several key themes emerged: …

The Experiences Of Male Counselors Of Children Who Have Experienced Trauma, Kathleen Michelle Wallace

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Men are increasingly underrepresented in counselor education and in the counseling profession, with only 27% of members of the American Counseling Association reporting as men. Men in counseling often feel marginalized and isolated. Additionally, they are socialized to be independent, emotionally and physically strong, and to focus on success, while being discouraged from seeking help. Continual exposure to the trauma material of others can cause secondary trauma, with cumulative deleterious effects identified in this study using the Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of male counselors who primarily work with …

Implications For Public Policy Regarding Gay Seniors Living In Suburban Florida, Brian Fuss

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In less than 20 years over 6 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals will be over 65 years old designated as seniors according to the Older Americans Act. When public policies for the aging population are implemented, LGBT individuals are forgotten, especially those living in nonmetropolitan areas. Using a purposeful convenience sample and a phenomenological approach 7 gay seniors residing in Florida suburban areas were interviewed to explore their lives as they age. Aging policies were investigated through the social construction of deservedness lens to ascertain individual political power while exploring (a) the challenges of living in suburban …

Educational Training Of Staff Nurses For Evidence-Based Practice, Tina June Theriaque

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Translating research into practice takes 10 to 20 years or more. Evidence-based practice (EBP) integration remains at 10% to 20%, despite recommendations requiring EBP-guided decisions. Up to 30% decreases in health care system spending, improved quality outcomes, and increased staff satisfaction result from EBP integration. Nurse leaders, who rate quality and safety as the highest priority but EBP as the lowest, are accountable for EBP enculturation; a desire to support bedside registered nurses in EBP exists, yet this EBP use knowledge gap supersedes this goal. The purpose of this project was to provide an EBP education program introducing the use …

Implementation Of The Crafft Cannabis Screening Tool, Barbara Loeprich

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Cannabis use among teenagers in Canada is a concern because of the long-term and irreversible effects cannabis has on the developing body and mind. Nurses can be instrumental in screening for cannabis abuse by implementing a tool to assess for substance use disorder (SUD) and triage drug users to appropriate treatment. This project focused on how to implement the CRAFFT screening tool while gaining insight of the practitioner's knowledge base about the tool and how SUD is being screened for, currently. The CRAFFT screening tool aligns with the DSM-IV's SUD diagnosis criteria, allowing for efficient identification of those at risk …

The Novice Licensed Professional Counselor's Perceived Preparedness To Use Self-Disclosure, Nicole Pfaff

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Self-disclosure is used by feminist, humanistic, client-centered, and a variety of other counselors to build therapeutic alliances with clients. However, little research has been conducted on counselors' perceptions of their preparedness to use self-disclosure. This exploratory multiple-case study used attachment theory as a framework to explore the perceptions of novice licensed professional counselors' preparedness to use self-disclosure. The 12 participants who participated in face-to-face interviews practiced as licensed professional counselors in Delaware, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania. The participants described how they learned, practiced, and used self-disclosure. After analyzing interview data through cycle coding and peer review, themes emerged showing participants' …

Employee Turnover And Its Effect On Remaining Colleague Motivation, Glenn Eric Windom

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Voluntary employee turnover is damaging to the sustainability of child protective services (CPS) organizations, as 60% of social workers who contemplated leaving their organizations quit during the year of consideration. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to examine the strategies CPS leaders used to reduce voluntary employee turnover and motivate employees. The conceptual framework for this study included the motivational hygiene theory and the behavior engineering model. The target population consisted of 9 CPS leaders from a large metropolitan area in Southern California who had specific knowledge of voluntary employee turnover. Data collection involved face-to-face semistructured interviews, company …

Religious Orientation And Communication As Predictors On Military Spouses' Perception Of Marital Happiness After A Second Deployments, Stephanie Santana

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Military spouses are often left at home when their service member deploys to areas outside the United States. These deployments can have a lasting impact on the military spouses' perception of marital happiness. Communication problems can occur within the marriage and military spouses may use their religious orientation to alleviate the stress that comes from deployments. This quantitative study used an online survey method to conduct bivariate correlations and multiple regression analysis from a sample of 128 military spouses. This study focused on the family stress theory and used the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale, Extrinsic and Intrinsic Religious Orientation Scale, …

Relational Aggression Among Adolescent African American Females, Latoshia S. Daniels

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Relational aggression includes manipulative behaviors such as gossiping, spreading rumors, or practicing exclusion to intentionally destroy a peer's social reputation. Aggressive behaviors such as those found in relational aggression contribute to unsafe school environments. Research on relational aggression has increased in recent years, yet there is minimal research on relational aggression among African American adolescent females. The research questions were What is social workers' understanding of relational aggression? and How do social workers' cultural awareness and general understanding of African American females' relationships and interpersonal connections impact their ability to connect with their clients in the therapeutic relationship? The purpose …

Therapists' Comfort Level In Providing Psychotherapy In Home-Based Therapy Settings, Jacqueline A. Ramirez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Home-based psychotherapy has expanded in the mental health community; however, little was known about the therapists' comfort level in a home-based venue. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess therapists' comfort level (TCL) in providing psychotherapy in a home-based setting and how therapeutic competency (TC), therapeutic relationship (TR), and advanced therapeutic training (ATT) related to the comfort level. The social-ecological systems theory and the theory of comfort served as the theoretical frameworks. The present study used the Therapist Comfort Scale, Counseling Competencies Scale-Revised, the Scale to Assess Therapeutic Relationship in Community Mental Health Care-Clinician, and a demographic questionnaire. …

Custodial Parental Perceptions And Experiences Of Noncustodial Parents And Child Support, Breanne Marie Nguyen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Child support is a means to financially support children, yet fewer than half of children eligible for child support receive full payment, with many receiving none. Child support nonpayment is a national concern that has led to negative repercussions for non-intact families, the community, and economic system. In some cases, noncustodial parents have an inability to pay. The purpose of this descriptive, phenomenological study was to understand custodial parental perceptions and experiences of noncustodial parent's inability to pay their child support. Social learning theory served as the conceptual framework for the study. In-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of …

Understanding Social Workers' Knowledge Of Foster Care Drift, Joey Gardner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Foster care drift is the extended stay in foster care without attaining family reunification or permanency with another placement. When foster care youth experience foster care drift, they face the possibility of aging out of the foster care system. Interventions and policies have been implemented to aid family service workers during the process of permanency planning; however, a great number of foster care youth remain in care. This study explored the perceptions of social work professionals regarding foster care drift regarding issues and challenges that social workers engaged in foster care placement face regarding foster care drift. The ecological system …

"Strategies For Inclusive And Responsive Police Accountability", Lonzale Ramsey (Sr.)

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States of America today, there are concerns regarding the appropriate functioning of the police service and a lack of effective police accountability. African Americans have often been victims of unprofessional police conduct; however, their views have rarely been found adequately represented in the literature on the subject. The purpose of this case study was to fill this identified gap in the academic literature. A conceptual framework composed of the afrocentric, environmental contingency, and conflict theories was used to guide and inform this inquiry. The main research question focused on discovering which form of police oversight is seen …

Factors Impacting The Financial Independence Of Women Who Were Teenage Mothers, Jeanette Parker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Teenage pregnancy in the United States is a national concern because of negative outcomes for teen mothers and their children of teen mothers. There is ample research on the negative outcomes associated with teen pregnancy: however, there is little research on the success of teenage mothers. This transcendental, phenomenological study examined how former teenage mothers overcame challenges of teen pregnancy to become financially independent adults. The research question for this study was: What factors enabled former teen mothers to overcome challenges of teen pregnancy to become financially independent adults? Principles from social learning theory and resilience theory provided the conceptual …

Generational Homelessness In New York City Family Homeless Shelters, Deborah Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Homelessness has been a problem in New York City (NYC) for decades. Part of the problem is children who grew up in the shelter system and then returned as adults, a phenomenon known as 2nd-generation homelessness. Literature indicates that no researchers have interviewed second-generation homeless adults about their experiences. The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of 2nd-generation homelessness from the perspective of homeless adults returning to the shelter system. The sample included 1 second-generation homeless adult and 10 case managers at Tier II homeless shelters. Interviews were conducted and data were analyzed using hand coding to …

The Impact Of Caseworkers' Educational Background And Placement Outcomes For Foster Children, Katrina Haynes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Decades of data document that permanent placements of children in the welfare system has been a concern in Mississippi. As foster care rates increase, more children are awaiting placement. Researchers have linked child welfare workers' educational background to placement outcomes for foster care children; however, researchers have not addressed the relationship between child welfare workers' educational backgrounds and foster care placement outcomes in Mississippi. This quantitative study examined the educational backgrounds of social work and nonsocial work child welfare caseworkers and other factors such as children's gender and race as predictors in placement outcomes for children in welfare custody. Attachment …

Social Inclusion Outcomes For An Organization's Adolescent Parent Intervention, Anayra Ivette Tua

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The study institution is a non-profit organization with a model developed from the continuous implementation of needs assessments of the families of adolescent parents in Puerto Rico, with the purpose of increasing their social inclusion potential. Addressing social exclusion and stigmatization of adolescent parents is vital because it generates a dual benefit for social interactions and growth. The social inclusion concept used and further elaborated for adolescent mothers is described by researchers as the level of access to engaging with institutions and societal relationships. This program evaluation was developed to understand the outcomes and effectiveness of the organization's social inclusion …