Digital Commons Network^™

Implicit Biases And Attitudes On Decision Making Among Child Protection Workers, Demetria Turnage

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Racial disproportionality remains a historical issue in child welfare systems. It was important for this research to focus on characteristics, professional qualifications, and racial attitudes of those in child welfare decision-making roles to examine how they contributed to racism. To address the gap in the literature, the relationship between years of experience, race/ethnicity, risk of harm, advocacy, racial attitudes, and decision-making among child protection were examined to develop a greater understanding of the ongoing issues and development of reforming the child welfare decision-making process to capture racism among child protection workers. Increasing equality in the child welfare system will benefit …

Implicit Biases And Attitudes On Decision Making Among Child Protection Workers, Demetria Turnage

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Racial disproportionality remains a historical issue in child welfare systems. It was important for this research to focus on characteristics, professional qualifications, and racial attitudes of those in child welfare decision-making roles to examine how they contributed to racism. To address the gap in the literature, the relationship between years of experience, race/ethnicity, risk of harm, advocacy, racial attitudes, and decision-making among child protection were examined to develop a greater understanding of the ongoing issues and development of reforming the child welfare decision-making process to capture racism among child protection workers. Increasing equality in the child welfare system will benefit …

Streaming Colors Of The Youth: A Textual Analysis Of Lgbtq+ Animated Netflix Original Cartoon Series Of The Generation Alpha, Candice Margareth G. Aguila

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

With the evolving technological advancements, media can now be consumed on multiple platforms. Netflix is the top platform with the highest number of users, with around 38.1% dedicated to streaming. In addition, LGBTQ+ media consumption has contributed to the increasing number of people identifying as LGBTQ+ in recent times. Ensuring that the next generation of young, impressionable youths would have a better identity formation and social acceptance, it is suggested to create more child-oriented cartoons filled with positive LGBTQ+ representation to pave a path for more inclusive and diverse outlooks – mending the gap of the current disconnection between the …

An Evaluation Of The Boys & Girls Clubs Teen Programs, William Walker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This evaluation study addressed the need to increase the participation of teenagers in the Youth Service Agency ABC (YSA ABC). ABC offers positive, powerful, and empowering experiences for area teens. These programs help them with character development, financial literacy, emotional intelligence, healthy well-being, and many other skills and tools to help teens reach their full potential. The organization was faced with decreasing teen participation and a lack of knowledge about the teen programs and services that would attract them to ABC. The purpose of this evaluation was to learn from ABC staff who worked closely with teens (Club site directors/unit …

An Evaluation Of The Boys & Girls Clubs Teen Programs, William Walker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This evaluation study addressed the need to increase the participation of teenagers in the Youth Service Agency ABC (YSA ABC). ABC offers positive, powerful, and empowering experiences for area teens. These programs help them with character development, financial literacy, emotional intelligence, healthy well-being, and many other skills and tools to help teens reach their full potential. The organization was faced with decreasing teen participation and a lack of knowledge about the teen programs and services that would attract them to ABC. The purpose of this evaluation was to learn from ABC staff who worked closely with teens (Club site directors/unit …

Tsunami Exposure And Mental Health Consequences: Protective Role Of Cultural Coping Strategies, Thulitha Wickrama, Michael J. Merten, K. A.S. Wickrama, Amanda Terrell

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

There is a knowledge gap regarding the link between disaster exposure and adolescent mental health problems in developing countries. This study examines the case of Sri Lanka to investigate (a) the immediate and long-term mental health impact of the 2004 tsunami disaster on adolescents and (b) the potential moderating effects of unique cultural and family practices that prevail in Sri Lanka. This study used a random sample of 160 adolescents (ages 12–19) and their mothers who were exposed to the tsunami disaster while living in a southern Sri Lankan village and provided prospective data immediately after the disaster (2005) and …

Adolescents’ Tsunami Exposure And Mental Health Consequences: Protective Role Of Cultural Coping Strategies, Thulitha Wickrama, Michael J. Merten, K.A.S. Wickrama, Amanda Terrell

Human Development and Family Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is a knowledge gap regarding the link between disaster exposure and adolescent mental health problems in developing countries. This study examines the case of Sri Lanka to investigate (a) the immediate and long-term mental health impact of the 2004 tsunami disaster on adolescents and (b) the potential moderating effects of unique cultural and family practices that prevail in Sri Lanka. This study used a random sample of 160 adolescents (ages 12–19) and their mothers who were exposed to the tsunami disaster while living in a southern Sri Lankan village and provided prospective data immediately after the disaster (2005) and …

Collaboration, Relationships And Fleeting Opportunities: Growing The Future Early Childhood Music Education Workforce, Karen Wickett, Jane Parker

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

The aim of, Jane’s, Soundwaves Early Childhood Music lead, and Karen’s, Early Childhood Studies lecturer, inquiry is to encourage new insights into how multiple relationalities and learning play out, throughout Soundwaves, an early childhood music education (ECME) programme. We work with Barad’s diffractive methodology to shape our auto-ethnography. With pens, sparkly bits, ribbons, glue and paper, we map the Soundwaves narrative. Caring ethics, for the human and more-than-human, runs throughout our research practices. (Re)turning, the data, posthuman and critical new materialist theory, the Soundwaves narrative is (re)told. Concerns the neo-liberal narrative had played us, were replaced, when noticing the gap …

Forced Family Separation: U.S. Crimes Against Indigenous Peoples, Lauren Heidbrink, Giovanni Batz, David W. Barillas Chón

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Forced family separation under the U.S. Zero Tolerance policy is not only a crime against humanity, but also a crime against Indigenous Peoples, which includes the Maya. Rooted in white supremacist ideologies and settler colonialism, contemporary forced family separation continues historical violence inflicted upon Maya Peoples by the U.S. government. Submitted to the International Criminal Court, this amicus brief contends that the Court should investigate and hold the U.S. accountable for crimes against Indigenous Peoples under the U.S. Zero Tolerance policy. The amicus brief begins with an overview of Maya Peoples in present-day Guatemala and the meanings and practices of …

Racial And Gender Bias In Child Maltreatment Reporting Decisions: Results Of A Randomized Vignette Experiment, Ian Ayres, Sonia Qin, Pranjal Drall

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

In this randomized vignette experiment, we asked 4,000 respondents through a YouGov survey to decide how likely they would be to report potential instances of child maltreatment to authorities. We used racialized and gendered names to suggest the identities of the parents and children in each of the ten vignettes that were based on real-life events. We find that respondents were less likely to report potential child maltreatment when the vignette used non-white names to describe the family participants. Respondents were less likely to report when a male child was involved, and more likely to report when a male parent …

Maine Regional Care Teams: Collaborating To Improve Youth Wellbeing In Maine, Emma Schwartz, Jillian Foley, Jill Ward, Ahmen Cabral, Timothy Atkinson

Justice Policy

This report provides a look back at the past three years of the Regional Care Team initiative, which helped connect 165 youth to community-based resources in those first three years through a collaborative multi-systems model. The report details the extent of cross-system collaboration that continues as a part of this initiative and summarizes feedback from partners, examines data on youth referrals, their histories of system involvement, and funding. The report recommends next steps to expand prevention, community intervention, and reintegration supports for youth.

Building A Foundation For Racial And Ethnic Equity: Estimated Impacts Of Massachusetts Legislation To Expand Affordable Quality Child Care And Early Education, Randy Albelda, Alan Clayton-Matthews, Anne Douglass, Christa Kelleher, Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson, Songtian Zeng

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

A multi-disciplinary UMass Boston team of researchers through the Early Education Cost and Usage Simulator Project (CUSP) seeks to better understand some of the impacts of expanding financial assistance to families for child care and early education. The team has developed and uses a statistical model that simulates parents’ decisions about care usage to estimate how much more licensed care might be needed in Massachusetts and what employment and income changes may take place with increased utilization of affordable licensed quality child care and early education. The team’s October 2023 brief provided findings for all families and children in the …

Provisioning The 21st Century City: Community And School Gardens As Food Centers, Charleen L. Kepner

Anthós

This essay explores the potential impact of urban agriculture and community gardens as sources of education and sustainable and environmentally-sound food production. Using an analysis of case studies and academic research, I argue for the viability of community gardens and urban agriculture as educational hubs and future food production sources. I examine previous research which shows that small scale effort can make lasting impacts in communities. I argue that the research is promising as it highlights that the efforts of people in their everyday lives, can and do contribute to positive change. This essay contributes to the ongoing discussion of …

Transforming The Welfare State, One Case At A Time: How Utrecht Makes Customized Social Care Work, Charles F. Sabel, Jonathan Zeitlin, Jan-Kees Helderman

Faculty Scholarship

Advanced welfare states are under pressure to customize services, promptly enough to prevent a cascade of harms. With these goals, the Netherlands in 2015 decentralized social care services to municipalities, and within municipalities to neighborhood teams in continuing contact with clients. The overall results have been disappointing. But the experience of Utrecht, the Netherlands’ fourth-largest city, has been strikingly different. By using hard-to-resolve cases to signal conflicts in rules, obstructive jurisdictional boundaries, and the shortcomings of private service providers, Utrecht is learning to customize and speed delivery of social care through incremental steps. This article explains how Utrecht’s success addresses …

"Your Food Is Who You Are": Food Sovereignty Within A Native Urban Community Garden, Zoe Buhrmaster

University Honors Theses

This paper explores the concept of food sovereignty within the context of a community garden managed by the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) in Portland, based on interviews with key garden coordinators and community members. The garden, initiated in 2019, emphasizes the cultivation of First Foods and traditional medicinal plants, serving as a space for cultural revitalization and community health. Food sovereignty, as defined by interviewees, encompasses a relational approach to plants as relatives, community control over food systems, and access to healthy, ancestral foods. The garden's history highlights its development amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and its role …

Gathering Gardens: Identifying Land For Community Gardens In Portland, Aswatha Raghunathasami, Gail Chastain, Alan De Anda-Hall, Tyler Smith, Elias Peters

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The project’s ultimate goal was to create at least 5 new community garden sites in the city of Portland for people to grow their own culturally relevant foods. To focus on parts of the city with some of the highest equity and food security needs, Agate chose to narrow the project scope to neighborhood areas located east of SE 57th Ave. Through direct engagement with the community, the team developed a site inventory for new potential community garden locations, as well as recommendations for optimal garden management, inclusion, and longevity. The community gardens are expected to be established by APANO …

Community Policing And Meta-Stereotypes: Improving Citizenry-Police Relations In A Large, Multicultural Urban Area, Through A Participatory Action Research Community Safety Workshop, Cornelius Darnell Davis

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

The Term Policing and its surrounding themes are complex and deserve adequate attention. Since the early 1900’s, citizenry and police have had mistrustful relationships. Over the span of three eras, both positive and negative citizenry-police relations have been highlighted. In more recent years, the timely capturing of videos of over-policing and excessive use of deadly force incidents (mainly in BIPOC communities) have exacerbated negative citizenry-police relations, resulting in the lack of procedural justice and police legitimacy. Excessive policing and the seemingly constant deaths of unarmed African Americans undoubtedly contribute to the lack of confidence in police to effectively ensure all …

The Path To Rehabilitation?: A Policy Analysis Of Juvenile Isolation And Room Confinement In Washington State, Trevor Buchan

SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal

Throughout the United States, the practice of isolating and confining youth for hours at a time is commonplace in juvenile facilities. The use of isolation in Washington State’s juvenile system is no exception. Washington recently acknowledged the dangers of juvenile solitary confinement but continues to utilize the similar practices of isolation and room confinement today. Isolation and confinement require further examination as they can cause significant harm to a youth’s social, physical, and educational development, increase youth aggression, and increase recidivism rates. Washington should reconsider whether to permit such a damaging punishment in a system purportedly committed to the rehabilitation …

The Use Of Music Therapy To Improve Relationships And Increase Bonding And Connectedness Between Adopted Children And Their Adoptive Parents, Hannah Appleyard

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Children who are adopted may face greater difficulty in developing secure attachment with their adoptive parents. Music therapy is one treatment method that could be used to improve relationships between adopted children and their adoptive parents.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the use of music therapy to improve relationships and increase bonding and connectedness between adopted children and their adoptive parents. Four research questions were addressed in this study: (1) How can music therapy improve the relationship between adopted children and their adoptive parents? (2) What is the frequency of behavioral indicators of bonding and connectedness …

Uniqueness Of Parent Advocates: The Power Of Lived Experience, Marina Lalayants, Jovonna Frieson

Journal of Family Strengths

Abstract

This study highlighted the unique elements of the role played by parent advocates (PAs) with lived child welfare experience in supporting families affected by the child welfare system. These elements set PAs apart from other professionals and included non-professionalized peer support, experiential expertise, a strong sense of identification, authenticity, legitimized empathy and understanding, and critical consciousness. As parent peer support programs gain popularity in child welfare services, it is imperative to understand and define these distinctive elements that underpin the PA role, as they serve as the foundation for novel approaches to working with, supporting, and empathizing with parents …

Feeling Otherwise: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Of Queer And Trans Youth Of Color Who Create And Embody Fursonas, Hazel Ali Zaman

Dissertations and Theses

Queer and trans youth of color are often the target of surveillance, bullying, discrimination, and abuse. However, in an attempt to navigate such violent and discriminatory circumstances, the queer and trans youth of color in this dissertation found refuge in furry art and performances, both online and offline, where they were able to express themselves freely and thus acquire a sense of belonging among others with similar experiences. In this dissertation, "a furry" is used to refer to an individual who self-identifies as one who has an affinity for anthropomorphic animal characters. A common practice among furries is creating a …

Nou Rive La Ak 2 Pye Nou: Exploring Creative And Expressive Movements With Recently Arrived Haitian Migrants Through A Community Engagement Project, Sahita Pierre-Antoine

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Haitian individuals and families constitute a large portion of the recently arrived migrants in Massachusetts. As the State struggles to respond to the logistics of the migration crisis, migrants are grappling with the mental health sequelae of their long and traumatic journeys: post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms are the top diagnoses among this population. Offering mental health services requires culturally-centered and trauma-informed methods that can respond to the needs of this population. Dance/movement therapy is an expressive modality that can be rooted in the rich cultural symbols and practices of the migrants to support them as they …

The Challenges Of Meeting The Needs Of Virginia Students With Disabilities Through Individualized Education Programs, Hank Bostwick, Courtney Pugh, Latonya Slade, Sara Platenberg, Melissa Waugh

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

The authors were honored to participate in a panel on “Understanding the IEP” at the Richmond Public Interest Law Review’s Symposium on October 27, 2023. The recommendations and strategies in this article are rooted in decades of combined experience and anecdotal observations from two special education attorneys and three special education advocates who serve Virginia’s children and families and help to develop appropriate Individualized Education Programs (“IEPs”) pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”). Recent criticism of Virginia’s system of special education and related services by state and federal agencies has laid bare deep-seated inconsistencies in how schools …

2024 Commencement Program For The School Of Nursing And Health Sciences, Merrimack College

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Perceptions Of Adolescents And Young Adults With Sickle Cell Disease Regarding The Use Of A Mhealth Technology App To Support Their Transition From Pediatric To Adult Care And Adult Self-Management Practices, Jamillah Mansaray

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Background and Purpose of the Study: The transition from pediatric to adult self- care management practices for Adolescents and Young Adults (AYAs) with SCD is a pivotal period in their life. According to the literature, there is a positive interest and intention toward utilizing mHealth technology apps to support the transition and adult self-management practices. However, mHealth technology apps with appropriate SCD transition and adult self-management features does not currently exist for the AYA population and has not been reported on in the literature. The purpose of thisembedded mixed method study is to explore in AYA’s with SCD, …

An Ethical Analysis Of Sports Specialization And The Harms It Poses To Youth Athletes, Caleb Bohannon

Honors Theses

Whereas youth sports in the United States were once commonly funded by local or state park and recreation commissions, current commercialization trends within the industry have caused youth sports to become increasingly commodified. Now, youth sports use private pay-to-play, or “competitive” sports models. Attempting to maintain a competitive advantage over their peers and further their athletic pursuits in this context, more youth now seek to specialize in their respective sports. When youth specialize, they focus their participation on a single sport for most of the year, which interferes with their participation in other sports and activities. This thesis explores neglected …

Case Manager Perceptions Of Trauma-Informed Practice And Policy In Human Service Organizations, Lachandra Brooks Prim

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

One of the goals of human service organizations is to provide help to victims of trauma, but they are often the cause of retraumatization to those individuals. The problem that was addressed in this study was the negative repercussions of retraumatization such as feelings of being unsafe, anger, guilt, shame, depression, and secondary trauma due to human service organizations not being based in trauma-informed approaches. The purpose of this generic qualitative research study was to describe and understand case managers’ perceptions of trauma-informed practices and policies across organizations and services. Ecological systems theory served as the theoretical framework for this …

Ndls Communicator: Week Of 05.06.24, Notre Dame Law School

NDLS Communicator

The Latest News

• Faculty profile: Professor Paolo Carozza, leading expert in international human rights and comparative constitutional
• Notre Dame Law School's three 2024 Bank of America Foundation Fellows to address a wide range of social issues
• ND Law’s 2024 Shaffer Fellow will focus on international humanitarian law research
• ND Law Graduate Justice Fellows Lead Charge for Justice Research at the Center for Social Concerns
• ND Law 3L Jack Ferguson receives University of Chicago Federalist Society Eaton Award
• ND London Law Professor Katherine Reece Thomas publishes pioneering book on state immunity
• Apache Stronghold seeks full-court rehearing to save sacred land

Faculty …

Lifecourse Patterns Of Productive Engagement Among Rural And Urban Older Adults, Peter C. Sun

Brown School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Many older adults are engaged in productive activities that have important ramifications for health in later life. However, little is known about rural-urban patterns of productive engagement across the lifecourse. This dissertation used six waves (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) of the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study to identify patterns of working, volunteering, and caregiving activities over a ten-year period using multichannel sequence analysis and cluster analysis. The antecedents of the patterns were studied using multinomial logistic regression, and the associations of the patterns with longstanding rural-urban disparities in cognitive functioning and self-rated health were studied using multiple …

De La Escuela Al Hogar: Centering Latine And Hispanic Student Perspectives On Caregiver Involvement In The Well-Being Promotion Program, Nicole G. Pacateque Rodriguez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Latine students often face systemic barriers to accessing appropriate mental health support, highlighting the importance of culturally responsive school-based interventions to address mental health disparities (Gonzalez et al., 2022; Jackson, 2021). Although many interventions incorporate caregiver involvement, limited research has explored how Latine youth experience and make meaning of caregiver engagement in school-based mental health programs (Hansen et al., 2021; Wildmon et al., 2024). This mixed-methods study centers Latine student voices by examining how Latine students experienced and interpreted caregiver engagement in the Well-Being Promotion Program (WBPP), a school-based positive psychology intervention implemented during the 2023–2024 school year across six …