Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effectiveness Of Sexual Assault Services In Multi-Service Agencies, Debra Patterson

Social Work Faculty Publications

Sexual assault is a pervasive social problem with 18% of women and 3% of men experiencing a completed or attempted assault during their lifetime. More than half of victimizations occur before the survivor reaches the age of eighteen (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). Research also shows that twothirds of sexual assaults are committed by someone known to the survivor, such as an acquaintance, friend or intimate partner. In fact, approximately 15% of sexual assaults are committed by an intimate partner. Many sexual assault survivors experience multiple negative outcomes such as psychological distress, physical health problems, and difficulties in life functioning (Gutner, …

Transforming Front Line Child Welfare Practice: The Impacts Of Institutional Settings On Services, Employment Environments, Children, And Families, Non-Retrospective Technical Report: Accessible Program And Agency Based Program Parent Survey Results From Case Opening And Follow Up, Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Outcomes of accessible and central service models are assessed in this non-retrospective technical report using three criteria: (1) impacts on parent, child and family functioning; (2) impacts on system functioning (e.g. child placements, court involvements); and (3) impacts on parent and community attitudes towards child protection organizations.

Retrospective Technical Report: Accessible Program Parent Survey Results From Case Opening And Follow Up (Using Retrospective Data), Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This retrospective technical report supports the summary of outcomes of accessible and central child protection service delivery as found in the Synthesis Report (Cameron, Hazineh & Frensch, 2010): Transforming Front-Line Child Welfare Practice: The Impacts of Institutional Settings on Services, Employment Environments, Children, and Families. The focus of this and other working reports is on the inclusion of all information relevant to the specific topic of investigation. The intent of working reports is to inform the synthesis report and include more information than what appears in the synthesis report. Less emphasis, however, is placed in the working reports on style …

Colorado Training Needs Assessment, Helen Ward Jd, Michelle Lamm Msw, Kimberly Pukstas-Bernard Phd

Children, Youth, & Families

The Colorado Department of Human Services (CO DHS) has contracted with the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy to assess the professional development needs of child welfare caseworkers, case aides, and supervisors. This needs assessment will help guide the development of the new Child Welfare Training Academy established by Governor Bill Ritter in May 2009. The Academy will provide child welfare professionals across the state with the training, skills and knowledge to better protect the state's most vulnerable children from abuse and neglect.

Living In A Mixed-Income Development: Resident Perceptions Of Benefits And Disadvantages, Mark L. Joseph

Faculty Scholarship

This brief focuses on early resident experiences in two mixed-income developments, Oakwood Shores and Westhaven Park, which are part of the City of Chicago’s Plan for Transformation. We investigate how diferent residents—relocated public housing renters,2 afordable and market-rate renters, and afordable and market-rate owners—perceive the early benefts and disadvantages of living in a mixed-income development. Respondents’ refections about their early experiences in the new mixed-income developments focus on the following four areas: Physical environment and quality of life; Emotional health and stress; Social relations among residents; Financial implications

A Bottom-Up Definition Of Self-Sufficiency: Voices From Low-Income Jobseekers., Philip Young P. Hong, Vamadu A. Sheriff, Sandra R. Naeger

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

Self-sufficiency (SS) is the epitome of America’s ‘reluctant’welfare state. It is generally accepted in social welfare policycircles as a concept related to independence and financialstability. Nevertheless, SS is not a term agreed upon inpractice by policymakers, researchers, or service providersand is frequently used without a clear common definition.In this sense, the purpose of this study is to explore the extentto which the top-down definition of ‘economic’ SS as thesocial policy goal is consistent with how the clients of job training programs perceive the term. Using a groundedtheory approach, a bottom-up definition of SS was derivedfrom a focus group of low-income …

Creating And Sustaining Successful Mixed-Income Communities: Conceptualizing The Role Of Schools, Mark L. Joseph, Jessica Feldman

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the theory and evidence behind the increased policy and scholarly interest in the role that schools might play in promoting neighborhood revitalization, focuses on the extent to which schools might be a key component in the growing efforts across the country to address urban poverty by creating and sustaining mixed-income neighborhoods, identifies five channels through which investment in high-quality public schools might help facilitate the types of neighborhood- and individual-level outcomes sought through mixed-income development, explores the theoretical arguments behind these pathways, and draws on research to assess the potential value of each. The article concludes that …

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, …

Financial Capability In Children: Effects Of Participation In A School-Based Financial Education And Savings Program, Margaret S. Sherraden, Lissa Johnson, Baorong Guo, William Elliott

Center for Social Development Research

A groundswell of interest in young people’s ability to understand and handle financial decisions has generated keen interest in financial knowledge and effectiveness of financial education. This study examines an innovative four-year school-based financial education and savings program, called “I Can Save” (ICS). Using a quasi-experimental design, the study examines quantitative and qualitative data to analyze program effects on financial knowledge. Children who participated in ICS scored significantly higher on a financial literacy test than comparison group students in the same school, regardless of parent education and income. Results suggest that children increase financial capability when they have access to …

Assets And Child Well-Being In Developing Countries: A Research Review, Gina A. N. Chowa, David Ansong, Rainier Masa

Center for Social Development Research

The impact of assets on child well-being in developing countries has received considerable attention in the last decade. Increased recognition of the critical role played by assets in enhancing children’s well-being has spurred efforts to study the relationship between assets and a range of outcomes for children. This chapter reviews current studies (i.e., conducted within the past 10 years) that explore the relationship of asset ownership and a range of outcomes. The studies we have included in this review illustrate the impact that assets can have on children’s outcomes in the area of health, education, and child labor. Overall, the …

Youth And Savings In Assetsafrica, Gina A. N. Chowa, David Ansong

Center for Social Development Research

As youth transition to adulthood, their ability to save and accumulate assets becomes very important as they begin to accept financial responsibilities and plan for the future. In this paper, we investigated the effects of an asset building intervention on youth asset accumulation in Masindi, a rural area in Uganda. Two waves of data were collected on youth, between 15 and 35 years of age, for both the treatment and comparison groups. We used a Propensity Score Matching (PSM) technique and Difference-in-Difference model to estimate the effects of the asset building intervention. We find that the mean difference in financial …

Measuring Volunteer Outcomes: Development Of The International Volunteer Impacts Survey, Benjamin J. Lough, Amanda Moore Mcbride, Margaret S. Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

Current research on international volunteering and service is largely descriptive but program administrators and policymakers seek information about outcomes. This article reports on a 90-item survey administered to 983 respondents. Using factor analysis procedures, we assess factor structure and reliability across a range of outcomes in an International Volunteer Impacts Survey (IVIS) instrument designed to measure IVS volunteer outcomes. Resulting outcome categories include international contacts, open-mindedness, international understanding, intercultural relations, global identity, social skills, life plans, civic activism, community engagement, media attentiveness, and financial contributions. In this article, we discuss research design, survey administration, and further development of the IVIS.

Fathers And Child Welfare: Fathers' Service Experiences With The Child Welfare System, Nick Coady

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This research report provides an overview of the findings about 18 men’s experiences of service involvement with a Children’s Aid Society in Southern Ontario. The data reported here are part of a larger study that also focused on these men’s daily living realities. Themes discussed in this report include positive aspects of men’s child welfare involvement such as worker characteristics men appreciated, as well as, negative aspects of services including formulaic interventions and anti-male biases. Service implications are discussed. This document is intended as both a standalone document and a companion report to the Father's Life Experiences report. This report …

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 …

The Impact Of Emotional And Material Social Support On Women's Drug Treatment Completion, Cathleen A. Lewandowski, Twyla J. Hill

Social Work Faculty Publications

This study assessed how women's perceptions of emotional and material social support affect their completion of residential drug treatment. Although previous research has examined how social support affects recovery, few studies, if any, have examined both the types and the sources of social support. The study hypothesized that women's perceptions of the emotional and material social support they receive from family, friends, partners, drug treatment, child welfare, and welfare agencies will affect treatment completion. The sample consisted of 117 women who were enrolled in a women's residential treatment program. Data were collected in semistructured initial and follow-up interviews using a …

Youth At Work: Adolescent Employment And Sexual Harassment, Susan Fineran, James E. Gruber

School of Social Work

An examination of the frequency and impact of workplace sexual harassment on work, health, and school outcomes on high school girls is presented in two parts. The first compares the frequency of harassment in this sample (52%) to published research on adult women that used the same measure of sexual harassment. The second part compares outcomes for girls who experienced harassment versus those who did not.

Promoting Fathers' Engagement With Children: Preventive Interventions For Low-Income Families, Philip A. Cowan, Carolyn Pape Cowan, Marsha Kline Pruett, Kyle Pruett, Jessie J. Wong

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

Few programs to enhance fathers' engagement with children have been systematically evaluated, especially for low-income minority populations. In this study, 289 couples from primarily low-income Mexican American and European American families were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and followed for 18 months: 16-week groups for fathers, 16-week groups for couples, or a 1-time informational meeting. Compared with families in the low-dose comparison condition, intervention families showed positive effects on fathers' engagement with their children, couple relationship quality, and children's problem behaviors. Participants in couples' groups showed more consistent, longer term positive effects than those in fathers-only groups. Intervention …

Us Foreign Trade Zones As The Secret Lover: Is Uncle Sam Faithful To Tariff Elimination?, Richard J. Smith

Social Work Faculty Publications

For centuries the nations and principalities of the world have engaged in trading schemes to boost exports. Conquest, protection of domestic supply through tariffs and eroding domestic currency are all part of the historic policy harem. The United States has a foreign trade zone program. Who knew? FTZs evoke images of women locked inside a dark sweatshop in a jungle making hoodies for football fans. While these "developing" countries have unambiguously embraced FTZs as an export strategy, Uncle Sam has played the unwilling suitor to the concept, making the FTZ a common law revealed preference while engaged with but not …

Building Community In Mixed Income Developments: Assumptions, Approaches And Early Experiences, Mark L. Joseph

Faculty Scholarship

As an urban-redevelopment strategy, the goals of mixed-income development are often talked about in terms of building “community”—the shaping of environments, opportunities, and social arrangements that promote healthy neighborhood life, particularly for the low-income people who live there. This article explores the strategies engaged, expectations for, and early responses to efforts to build “community” in three mixed-income developments being built on the footprint of former public housing developments in Chicago. In doing so, it investigates the expectations among residents and stakeholders, distills and explores three major strategic orientations being engaged by developers and their partners, and examines how these strategies …

Is There Really A Problem With Hiring Rural Social Service Staff? An Investigation Of Rural Minnesota Social Service Supervisors, Paul Force-Emery Mackie

Social Work Department Publications

This study was designed to further investigate concerns about hiring social service staff in rural areas. Surveyed rural-based social service supervisors across Minnesota.

Youth Saving Preferences In Sub-Saharan Africa And The Potential For Asset Accumulation, David Ansong, Gina Chowa

Center for Social Development Research

As youth transition to adulthood, their ability to save and accumulate assets becomes very important as they begin to accept financial responsibilities and plan for the future. This paper uses data from Masindi, a rural area in Uganda, to (a) investigate the savings preferences of youth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), (b) examine the relationship between an asset-building intervention for youth and higher savings, and (c) determine whether gender and marital status interact in their effect on young people’s savings in SSA. Univariate statistics, independent sample t-test and factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) are used to address the study’s three goals. …

State-Level Asset-Building Coalitions: Origins, Operations, And Achievements, Naomi Warren, Gena Gunn

Center for Social Development Research

State-Level Asset-Building Coalitions: Origins, Operations, and Achievements

Asset Building Among Native Hawaiians: Lessons From The Kahikū Ida Program, David Rothwell

Center for Social Development Research

Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) are matched savings accounts that encourage asset development for individuals and families with low incomes. Unique program data from an IDA program serving 758 Native Hawaiians were used to model the probability of participating in and graduating from the IDA program. Multivariate logistic regression models show that children in the household, lack of vehicle ownership, and savings goal (education) were associated with a reduced likelihood of program participation. Participants who owned homes and had relatively high savings balances prior to starting the program were more likely to graduate. Additionally, Maui participants were more than three times …

Second Thoughts: Who Almost Participates In An Ida?, David Rothwell, Chang-Keun Han

Center for Social Development Research

Self-selection into social intervention programs may bias the estimates of treatment impact. Data from an Individual Development Account (IDA) program (N = 758) are used to examine the self-selection process. Persons who applied but did not enroll are assumed to have had “second thoughts” about program participation. Multivariate logistic regression predicted second thoughts and showed that having children in the household and negative net worth, along with not owning a vehicle, were positively related to having second thoughts. Those saving for an education were more likely than those saving for a home or business to have second thoughts. Implications for …

Low School Engagement And Sexual Behaviors Among African American Youth: Examining The Influences Of Gender, Peer Norms, And Gang Involvement, Dexter R. Voisin

Faculty Scholarship

This research examined whether negative peer influences (i.e., norms favoring risky sex and drug use and gang involvement) mediated the relationship between school engagement (i.e., grade point averages [GPAs] obtained from school records and student-teacher connectedness) and sexual behaviors (i.e., sexual début, sex without condoms, group sex, and sex while using drugs) among African American high school adolescents, and whether these relationships varied by gender. Five hundred sixty-three high school adolescents (ages 13 to 19) completed self-administered questionnaires that assessed school engagement markers, peer influences, sexual début, and risky sex. Major findings for boys indicate that GPA was negatively associated …

Focal Point, Volume 23 Number 02, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

This issue of Focal Point highlights a number of successful and innovative efforts to promote youth voice and youth empowerment. Many of the articles are authored by or include contributions from youth who are directly involved in the featured programs.

Evaluation Of Adult Lucas County Treatment Alternatives To Street Crime, Inc. (Tasc): Outcomes Related To Program Completion, Melissa W. Burek, Christine M. Englebrecht

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The central purpose of this research was to evaluate the Lucas County, Ohio Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime (TASC) program for adult clients. The principal investigator was Associate Professor of Criminal Justice Melissa W. Burek, Ph.D. from Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in conjunction with Stacey Rychener, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Evaluation Services and associates at BGSU. Co-author of the report that follows was Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Christine Englebrecht, Ph.D., also of BGSU. Data collection for the project began in January 2009 and completed in late March of same year.

We had three general objectives for …

Evaluation Report Of Vital Visionaries: Medical Student And Older Adult Outcomes, Ernest Gonzales, Nancy Morrow-Howell

Center for Social Development Research

Evaluation Report of Vital Visionaries: Medical Student and Older Adult Outcomes

Creative Partnerships Between Gear Up And State College Savings Plans: Experience And Policy Potential, Margaret M. Clancy, Rebekah Miller

Center for Social Development Research

This brief provides examples of how GEAR UP and state College Savings Plans are working together to provide information and resources to low-income and at-risk students. To illustrate experience and potential, the Center for Social Development documents and assesses four existing partnerships between College Savings Plans and GEAR UP. State-level experiences to date suggest several policy implications.

Extending The Capability Paradigm To Address The Complexity Of Disability, Jean-Luc Dubois, Jean-Francois Trani

Brown School Faculty Publications

Amartya Sen looks at people’s well-being in terms of functioning and freedom, rather than in terms of the amount of goods or services consumed. The capability approach developed by Sen deals with what people are able to achieve by using these commodities. Concerning disability, he wrote: “We must take note that a disabled person may not be able to do the many things that an able-bodied individual can, with the same bundle of commodities” (Sen, 1985 p.7). The capability approach makes it possible to analyse the economic situation of people with disabilities in a different way. What becomes important is …