Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Caregiver's Perceptions Of The Ability Of Orphanages To Meet Child Development Needs: A Polish Case Study, Marta Zych

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the perceptions of caregivers in a Polish orphanage about how well orphanages support child development. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with eleven caregivers, I explored their opinions about what does and does not work well to support a child’s developmental needs in the areas of physical growth and health, cognitive growth, emotional development and in particular the ability to form secure attachments, and the development of life and social skills. This case study also involved observations of children in an oprhange setting and a document analysis. The aim of this study was to …

The Influence Of A School-Based Substance Abuse Prevention Program In Reducing Smoking Among Sixth Grade African American Students In Louisiana, Alan J. Nichols

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Youth tobacco smoking is one of the major public health problems of this society. Although, by some reports, adult cigarette smoking has been declining, teen smoking rates continue to remain unacceptably high. Current data indicates that smoking rates among minority youth which had declined in the past few years are beginning to rise again. The current increase in teen smoking and subsequent health dangers associated with smoking demonstrates a need for more effective, empirically based youth smoking prevention strategies. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a substance abuse prevention program in reducing smoking among sixth …

Investigating The Influence Of Anti-Racist Education In Achieving Prejudice Reduction Among Secondary Education Students, Joseph Edward Wilson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the influence of participation in an anti-racist educational (ARE) program upon the perceptions of, critical assessments of, and self-reported behaviors toward institutional racism in a sample of 11th-grade students enrolled in a public school district that had recently undergone compulsory, court-ordered desegregation. This quasi-experimental study measured hypothesized differences between the scores of a group of high school students on a quantitative data-gathering instrument before their participation in an Undoing Racism curriculum, with their scores on that same instrument re-administered three months after their completion of that course. It then compared the degree of pre-intervention/ post-intervention changes in …

Correlates Of Housing Stability Among Psychiatric Consumer/Survivors, Stephanie Anne Brown

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Deinstitutionalization, lack of affordable housing, and the rise in shelter use and homelessness highlight the need for housing stability among psychiatric consumer/survivors. This secondary analysis was carried out with three goals: (1) to determine the relationship between the utilization of health and social services and housing stability, (2) to determine the relationship between housing stability and quality of life, and (3) to compare three continuums of housing stability. Data collected through the Utilization of Hospital and Community Services Form, Brief Version of the Lehman Quality of Life Interview, and Housing History Form from 601 psychiatric consumer/survivors in London, Ontario were …

Developing Practice Or Management Struggle? Barriers To Effective Youth Work Practice With Young Women Living With Violence [Thesis], Judith Kulisa

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The research process described in this thesis brought to consciousness, for myself, the researcher, and for the youth work practitioners involved, the limitations placed upon their ability to practice effective youth work by the divergent understanding of `youth work' held by those responsible for either managing or funding the services in which they worked. The study set out to discover why youth work practitioners were not identifying or responding to the needs of young women living with violence at home. The study sought to identify the problem and then to formulate practical strategies to enhance youth worker knowledge and skills …

Social Work, Independent Realities & The Circle Of Moral Considerability: Respect For Humans, Animals & The Natural World, Thomas D. Ryan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Social work's conceptualization as to what it is that entitles an individual or entity to moral consideration, or as having moral status, is thoroughly anthropocentric, and is articulated in complete disregard of the context of our fundamental evolutionary continuity and our embeddedness within an evolving natural world, and flies in the face of the reality that we already inhabit mixed communities and a wider household. It is deemed to be obvious that we are islands of moral value in an otherwise valueless natural world.

Book Review: Taking A Stand: A Guide To Peace Teams And Accompaniment Projects, Jeanette Harder

Social Work Faculty Publications

This easy-to-read book presents the “nuts and bolts” of participating on a peace team or accompaniment project in a violence stricken area of our globe. If you’re looking for an introduction to a very “gutsy” kind of peacemaking, then this is the book is for you. If you’re a firm supporter of U.S. policies, then this book may not be so palatable. Written by a Quaker and long-time peace activist, this book outlines many of the questions that may arise for someone considering participation on a peace team or accompaniment project, with a motivational bent towards encouraging this type of …

Parents As Navigators: How Caregivers Of Children With Mental Health Difficulties Find Supports In The Workplace, Eileen M. Brennan, Marlene Penn, Katherine J. Huffstutter, Jennifer R. Bradley, Julie M. Rosenzweig

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Presentation given at the 19th Annual Research Conference: A System of Care for Children's Mental Health: Expanding the Research Base, Tampa, FL, February 2006.

"Come Pick Up Your Child!" Integrating Work And Family Life For Parents Of School-Aged Children With Mental Health Challenges, Eileen M. Brennan, Ana Maria Brannan, Judy Kendall, Jennifer R. Bradley, Katherine J. Huffstutter

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Our research team sought to discover the factors that lead to the unemployment of parents of children with mental health disorders. Our preliminary analyses and findings are reported in this presentation. We controlled for factors that affect participation in the paid workforce for parents in general: (a) child age, (b) level of caregiver education, and (c) the number of children in the household. We also introduced factors that pertain specifically to families that have children with emotional or behavioral disorders: the level of the child's internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and the number of child absences from school. Our research was …

Managing Employees Dependent Care Challenges: Human Resource Professionals' Perspectives, Jennifer R. Bradley, Katherine J. Huffstutter, Eileen M. Brennan, Julie M. Rosenzweig

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

PDF version of a presentation given at the 86th annual meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Palm Springs, CA.

Families Challenged By Children's Mental Health: Employment And Community Integration, Eileen M. Brennan, Katherine J. Huffstutter, Julie M. Rosenzweig, Jennifer R. Bradley

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Slides of a presentation given to the conference 'Work, Stress, and Health 2006: Making a Difference in the Workplace' held in Miami, FL, in 2006.

Self-Injury: An Analysis Of The Behavior, Causes, And Effective Treatments, Lindsey Huyser

Honors Program Theses

Society has also become obsessed with the quest for a perfect body (Lader & Conterio, 1998). Often, this causes great damage for the self-esteem of women because they are pressured to live up to these high expectations. Self-injury is a way to make women feel better. There has been a rise in women working outside of the home as well, making latchkey children a normal occurrence. Children are often home by themselves when they return from school in today's world, which leaves them with nobody to talk to when problems arise. Self-injury can become a way to heal these issues.

The Effects Of Divorce On Children And Interventions For All Members Of The Family Unit, Laurie Arieux

Honors Program Theses

ln 1989 more than 1 million children, on average, were affected by divorce in the United States and this number has risen to over 40% of the population under 18 in recent years (Amato & Keith, 1991 a). The assumption is that this number will continue to grow. When one considers that there are also parents who suffer from these stresses the number grows substantially into something worthy of much consideration. With so many people being affected by this growing trend the desire to understand the differences it has on families is growing. Divorce changes children in many ways including …

Egyptian Social Services, Miriam Abouzahr

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Decision To Remove Children From Their Parents By Child Welfare Supervisors, Charles F. Lorbeer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A STUDY OF THE DECISION TO REMOVE CHILDREN FROM THEIR PARENTS BY CHILD WELFARE SUPERVISORS

by Charles F. Lorbeer

Dissertation Chair: Dr. Aqueil Ahmad

Committee Members: Dr. Aqueil Ahmad, Dr. Robert Butters, and Dr. Ashakant Nimbark,

The goal of this study was to analyze the decision by child welfare supervisors to remove children from their parents. This was accomplished by studying the effect that three specific factors have on that decision. The three factors were 1) physical abuse, 2) domestic violence and substance abuse, and 3) availability of services to help the family.

Decision theory provided the conceptual framework for …

Trends In Family-Centered Early Intervention, Jody Lee Albertson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Family-centered early intervention services have been evolving for quite some time, and the role of the family in intervention for children with disabilities has changed drastically. Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandated the family-centeredness of early intervention services, which is evident in the services and supports a family receives, the Individualized Family Services Plan document, and service coordination activities. The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) then conducts compliance monitoring to gauge whether states are in compliance with IDEA. State monitoring reports are available to the public online.

The purpose of this study was to …

Research Into Integrated Crime Prevention Strategies For Rail Station Environs: Final Report, Trudi Cooper, Terence Love, Erin Donovan

Research outputs pre 2011

The initial impetus for this project arose from concerns about responses to ‘anti-social behaviour’, especially by young people, in and around rail stations. The primary goal of the research was to develop a collaborative approach that provided a more constructive and integrated response that would produce benefit for local communities, for the Public Transport Authority, and for the young people themselves. In practical terms, this involved:

• Development of interagency collaboration processes to support agencies with diverse goals to participate constructively without loss of autonomy;

• Identification at a local level of the common issues of concern, their causes, and …

Child Care Decision Making Among Parents Of Young Children: A Constructivist Inquiry, Kathleen Albright Didden

Theses and Dissertations

In order to understand parents' child care decision making for young children (under 6), this interpretive research interviewed 24 parents and 7 child care professionals from a mid-sized region in Virginia. Using a constructivist research design, the research question explored how parents make child care decisions. Working hypotheses focused the data collection on the role of experience in shaping parents' preferences, the relationship between family needs and child care decisions, and the interactions with family and child care services. The research product is a narrative case study. Child care decision making is conceptualized as an ongoing process bounded by the …

Conceptualizing Hoarding Behavior Among Elderly Women: A Mixed-Methods Approach, Susan Jan Murdock

Theses and Dissertations

Hoarding in the community involves substantial cluttering and impaired functioning, often exposing the hoarder to extensive health and safety risks. This research, based on Functionalism social theory, explores the three elements of hoarding—relentless acquisition, intense possessiveness of objects, and a reluctance to discard possessions—as a sociocultural phenomenon. The mixed methods methodology entailed a quantitative study involving a survey completed by 134 adult protective services workers throughout Virginia and a qualitative study of five randomly-selected adult protective services workers who volunteered for in-depth interviews.Findings revealed that adult protective services workers come in contact with very severe cases of hoarding, with over …

Social Impact: Parents As Teachers: A Force For Good: Alum Leads Growing National Program Aimed At Helping Preschoolers Reach Their Potential, Betsy Rogers, Geoff Story

Social Impact Publication

Imagine a network of 10,000 trained educators who meet individually every month with families of preschoolers to maximize every child's readiness for school. Imagine the opportunity these educators have to foster literacy, learning, emotional health, sound nutrition, and an appreciation for human diversity. Imagine the promise for every child fortunate enough to participate.

Social Impact: The Globalization Of Social Work: How Flat Are We?, Rick Skwiot

Social Impact Publication

In this book, the World is Flat, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman posits that a global technological revolution has increased economic opportunities and create a world that is more connected than ever before. But does a flatter economic world equal a more just world? Are the benefits resulting from greater connectivity distributed in a way that everyone can share in newfound prosperity? The answer is an unequivocal no.

Social Impact: Productive Aging: Tapping Into Energy Of Older Americans, Janet Edwards

Social Impact Publication

Welcome to the new era of "Productive Aging." As the first wave of baby boomers turns 60 this year, the typical retirement scenario of softening 60-somethings retreating into a vacation-like vacuum is passé. Healthier, wealthier, and better educated, this new generation of older adults seeks—perhaps “demands” — ongoing productive roles in mainstream society.

SOCIAL IMPACT | Spring 2006 | FEATURE STORY Productive Aging

Social Impact, Edward F. Lawler, Tonya E. Edmonds, Luis H. Zayas, Enola K. Proctor, Ellen Rostand, Julie Kennedy, Jessica Martin, Toky Branding + Design, Donna Boyd

Social Impact Publication

From The Dean: Celebrating Social Work's Impact;

Perspectives: In the News & Bookshelf;

Making a Medicare Part D Decision;

Three Quarters of Americans Will Experience Poverty in Their Lives;

Interview: Q&A with Kristal Brent Zook;

Perspectives: Before Disaster Strikes with David Gillespie;

The Globalization of Social Work: How Flat Are We? Researchers and practitioners explore underlying social conditions that keep many left behind;

Parents as Teachers: A Force for Good: Sue Stepleton leads growing program aimed at helping preschoolers reach their potential;

Tapping into Energy of Older Americans: New retirement scenarios shift toward service;

Notebook: Partnerships and Research School of …

Patterns Of Risk And Trajectories Of Preschool Problem Behaviors: A Person-Oriented Analysis Of Attachment In Context, Thomas E. Keller, Susan J. Spieker, Lewayne D. Gilchrist

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

A small proportion of children exhibit extreme and persistent conduct problems through childhood. The present study employed the multiple-domain model of Greenberg and colleagues as the framework for person-oriented analyses examining whether parents' child attachment combines with parenting, family ecology, and child characteristics in particular configurations of risk that are linked to this problematic developmental pathway. Using prospective data from a community sample of adolescent mothers and their children, latent variable growth mixture modeling identified a normative trajectory with declining problem behaviors during the preschool period. Consistent with research on early-starter pathways, a distinct group of children featured a higher …

How The Justice System Responds To Juvenile Victims: A Comprehensive Model., David Finkelhor, Theodore P. Cross, Elise N. Cantor

Crimes Against Children Research Center

The justice system handles thousands of cases involving juvenile victims each year. These victims are served by a complex set of agencies and institutions, including police, prosecutors, courts, and child protection agencies. Despite the many cases involving juvenile victims and the structure in place for responding to them, the juvenile victim justice system model presented in this Bulletin is a new concept. Although the juvenile victim justice system has a distinct structure and sequence, its operation is not very well understood. Unlike the more familiar juvenile offender justice system, the juvenile victim justice system has not been conceptualized as a …

Evaluation Of An Online Substance Abuse Prevention Exercise, Bhavana Pahwa

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an online prevention exercise. The rigorous evaluation of one online exercise using controlled school environment was seen as the first step in understanding the potential of online activities to help teens prevent substance abuse. This study assessed changes in knowledge, attitudes, normative beliefs, perceived behavioral control, and intention to change behavior produced by exposure to a Web-based anger management exercise. Results showed significant changes in knowledge after exposure to the teacher led online exercise and the teacher led supplemented by homework groups, but not the other measures. This was …

The Roles Of Buddhist Temples In The Treatment Of Hiv/Aids In Thailand, Tomoko Kubotani, David Engstrom

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Although efforts are being made to decrease the number of new HIV infections in Thailand, less support is give to the growing population that is already affected by the disease. This qualitative study explores the roles of Buddhist temples in the treatment of AIDS in Thailand, specifically the perspectives of both Buddhist monks and persons who are living with AIDS on HIVIAIDS and the care provided at the temples. Three major themes were derived from the interviews: (1) temple as a last choice; (2) temple as a support group; and (3) the role of Buddhism and monks at the temple.

An Exploratory Study Of Neighborhood Choices Among Moving To Opportunity Participants In Baltimore, Maryland: The Influence Of Housing Search Assistance, James X. Bembry, Donald F. Norris

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study examined the neighborhood choices of 150 families who participated in the Moving To Opportunity Program (MTO) in Baltimore, Maryland. The MTO program, utilizing an experimental design, provided intensive housing search and counseling services to the experimental subjects. This study found that the counseling services were instrumental in altering the subject's cognitive maps, and they were more likely to move to neighborhoods that were more racially integrated, safer, and, also, had higher levels of satisfaction with their new neighborhood. The authors conclude that the MTO program in Baltimore represents a clear case of public policy that, at least in …

Hate Crimes Against The Homeless: Warning-Out New England Style, Sandra Wachholz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article reports on the hate crime victimization experienced by thirty individuals over the course of their homelessness in a New England city. Indepth interviews were conducted with the participants in order to provide a detailed, contextual account of the nature and forms of their hate crime victimization in public and semi-public spaces. Central to the article is the argument that hate crimes against homeless people function as informal social control mechanisms that impose spatial constraints, not unlike the character and objectives of the warning-out laws that were used to exclude homeless people from the public and private space of …

Review Of One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All. Mark Robert Rank. Reviewed By Joel Blau., Joel Blau

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Mark Robert Rank, One Nation Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. $29.95 hardcover.