Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Awareness Of And Value Placed On School Social Work: A Study Of Pennsylvania’S Public School Administrators, Jen Marshall

Social Work Doctoral Dissertations

Social workers have been a part of the school community for over 100 years and, although they have proven integral in the lives of students and families, their roles and functions are not clearly understood by their chief school administrators. Administrators’ awareness of the role and function of school social workers holds implications for the delivery of these services. This study explored administrators’ level of awareness and the level of value placed on the role and function of school social workers based on the three components of the School Social Work Practice Model developed by the School Social Workers Association …

Public Speaking As Advocacy: Formulating Your Group Advocacy Presentation, Dawn Daniels

Open Educational Resources

The slide presentation guides the students in presenting their final assignment to their classmates. The purpose of this lecture and assignment is to prepare them for advocacy work on behalf of marginalized and oppressed populations.

Mentoring Students With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities: Evaluation Of Role-Specific Workshops For Mentors And Mentees, Rumi Agarwal, Laura Heron, Mitra Naseh, Shanna L. Burke

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Transitioning to post-secondary education is often challenging for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities ( IDD ) . To address this, Florida International University, specifically FIU Embrace, piloted the Embrace Mentoring Program ( EMP ) , which provided unique role-specific workshops to both faculty/staff mentors, and student mentees with IDD. A mixed-method design was used to analyze knowledge acquisition and participant perceptions of the workshops. Quantitative findings indicated knowledge improvement in a key area for mentors, while qualitative data demonstrated a positive response to workshop content, and highlighted areas of improvement for future workshops. Ultimately, the results from the pilot …

Criminal Mental Health, Tabitha Oliver

Senior Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to assess and address the prevalence of mental health issues among incarcerated individuals in America. There are multiple internal and external contributing factors to the disproportionately high numbers of mentally ill inmates. Comparing the United States prison system with other countries such as Norway allows for possible paths to improving the mental health crisis that we are currently experiencing. This thesis looks at the principles and practices used in Norway's prisons as well as how they affect inmate's mental health. By comparing Norway's prison policies and design, this thesis will suggest changes in staff …

The Benefits And Barriers To Receiving Medication-Assisted Treatment Inside And Outside Of Prison And Its Implications For Louisiana, Jennifer Johnson

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Patterned Adolescent Socially Deviant Behavior, Raymond B. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that most adolescent youth AY (AY) will engage in socially deviant behavior (SDB) beginning from ages 10-14, peak in rate of participation at 16-17, and begin to desist thereafter (ages 17 and older). AY participation in SDB varies by frequency and severity, ranging from minor acts such as smoking cigarettes to behaviors that threaten the safety of self and others. Most AY do not participate in SDB to harm, however, but instead are attempting to express autonomous function from parental and adult oversight. During adolescence, youth become aware of their physical transformation to adulthood and growing sense of …

Compassion Fatigue In Students Completing Fieldwork, Darcy Walker

Honors Projects

This project was completed for students who are entering or actively completing fieldwork in the helping professions. It includes a pamphlet, annotated bibliography, and reflective essay. The pamphlet includes information on the signs of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue, as well as ways to prevent and combat them. The annotated bibliography summarizes and analyzes the importance of the sources used to complete the pamphlet. The reflective essay is an honest account of the author's own struggles with secondary traumatic stress and burnout, and the process of combating them while simultaneously completing this project.

A Long-Term Experiment On Child Development Accounts: Update And Impacts Of Seed For Oklahoma Kids, Jin Huang, Sondra G. Beverly, Margaret M. Clancy, Mark Schreiner, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

How does a Child Development Account (CDA), opened for an infant at the time of birth, shape that child’s trajectory as he or she grows? For 12-year-old children and their families, the CDA in SEED for Oklahoma Kids had very large positive impacts on financial outcomes and some positive impacts on nonfinancial outcomes, even though the experiment had little intervention over the past 9 years.

This report presents findings from the long-running SEED for Oklahoma Kids experiment, a randomized Child Development Account experiment. Launched in 2007 with a representative sample of newborns, the experiment provided CDAs with substantial …

Barriers To Post-Secondary Success, Douglas Swanson, Najeana Henderson, Maritza Sloan

Dissertations

This study reviews factors that prior studies have identified or failed to consider as barriers to post-secondary success. The three main areas include academic success for Latinx students after high school, organizational systems and their impact on African-American students’ postsecondary readiness, and what workers think of their high school education with regards to career preparedness.

Five factors are identified as major barriers for Latinx students to continue in a higher education system. A survey of former students from Saint Louis, Missouri, and Dallas, Texas, metroplex area identified 56 Latinx students that participated in an initial survey. This led to a …

Modeling Cumulative Risk During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Psychosocial And Socioeconomic Factors For Older Minority Adults, James F. Osborne Iv

LSU Master's Theses

Continued response to the sum consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic has disparately affected the physical and mental health of older minority adults in the United States. SARS-CoV-2 created an acute epidemiological crisis of public health coinciding with a chronic pandemic of accentuated psychosocial stress. Biological and socio-economic risk of morbidity and mortality follow a demographic gradient of subjectively constructed social status that disproportionally threatens older adults and minority racial/ethnic communities. Pathways to increased socio-economic and psychosocial vulnerability are multifactorial and complex. Factors of race, socio-economic status, gender, and age, each contribute to individualized profiles of vulnerability to risk exposure.

The …

Teaching Artists’ Adaptability In Group-Based Music Education Residencies, Brian L. Kelly, Jonathan Neidorf

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

Art and music-based activities have played an important role in social work with groups since the origin of the profession. These activities continue to be used, yet less in known about how they are facilitated and led. This International Association for Social Work with Groups SPARC endorsed and funded study responds to this gap in the literature by examining the development and implementation of group-based music education residencies. Classically trained teaching artists (TAs) from a Chicago-based music ensemble led and facilitated a series of residencies at one agency with a drop-in center and a transitional living program for emerging adults …

Data Visualization (Video), Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Workforce Analytics Resources

Data visualization can communicate data in a clear, concise, and engaging way that is easy for us to understand. During the convening of the Institute, the QIC-WD Data Visualization Team lead, Robert Blagg, conducted a presentation on data visualization that addressed the following:

How to make data visualizations useful?

• How can you better collect and organize data to support visualization?
• How can you develop visualizations that respect visual perception of information?
• How can you better focus users on actionable findings?

To learn more about data visualization, watch Dr. Blagg’s 9-minute presentation.

Dr. Blagg’s Data Visualization Resource summarizes key …

The Tipping Point: A Faith Perspective, Osaro Airen, Lakia M. Scott, Gwendolyn C. Webb, Norvella P. Carter, Patricia Larke, General C. Johnson

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

The Journal of Faith Education, and Community’s (JFEC) Special Issue entitled, "The Tipping Point: A Faith Perspective," features articles written from a first-person point of view and faith perspective. The articles focus on the authors’ feelings, emotions, and/or experiences surrounding critical and impactful diversity-related events (i.e. the horrific death of George Floyd, protests for equity and the eradication of hate, etc.).

The Work Is Within: My Buddhist Faith As I Reckon With Police Shootings & Racial Unrest, Vicki Mokuria

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Based on the author’s life story in which her husband was shot and killed by police officers in front of her and their two young children, she provides a first-person narrative of her experience, linking the ways her Buddhist faith and practice have sustained her over the years. She recounts snippets of her privileged childhood growing up Jewish in the South before meeting and marrying her Ethiopian husband and beginning a family with him, along with beginning their Buddhist practice. Specific aspects of Buddhist philosophy are incorporated in this piece to provide insights into a Buddhist lens on our current …

Close Encounters: Mass Incarceration Tactics, Kevin L. Jones

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

As a Black man living in America, my Christian faith walk began at an early age. Growing up in a suburban environment, I had several encounters with law enforcement that shaped my belief system. These encounters were and still are a stark reminder that Black boys and men are under attack. Policing negatively impacts Black boys and men when compared to other races of people. I realized that I was in their cross hairs and I was almost consumed by the criminal justice system on many occasions. Through the lens of Critical Race Theory, this work focused on the centrality …

An Open Letter To My White Christian Friend, Norvella Carter

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Abstract

As human beings, our world revolves around relationships. As Christians, we are charged to have positive relationships that can grow into friendships. The importance of friendships is infused throughout scripture, because they allow us to bring others to Christ, encourage and uplift the soul and bear each other’s burdens. Without deep discussions, relationships cannot grow. As an African American, when I consider my friendships, I am finding an emotional need to share my feelings more deeply with White friends, who sincerely want to know the truth about my views on important social ills, particularly racism. Given the state of …

Family Caregiving During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sharon Milberger, Christina Marsack-Topelewski, Elizabeth Janks, Preethy S. Samuel

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Background: The Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll on people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) as well as their family caregivers. This is especially true for older family caregivers, many of whom assume dual or compound caregiving roles, and provide care as they undergo their own aging experiences. This research brief presents findings from family caregivers of adults with I/DD to better understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their lives. Method: Thirty family caregivers from across the state participated in a one-hour special COVID-19 virtual discussion group. All participant identifiers were deleted from a …

Using Quality Improvement (Qi)-Focused Evaluation To Redesign Direct Home- And Community-Based Services During The Covid-19 Public Health Emergency:, Marcia Moriarta, Anthony Cahill, Heidi Fredine

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Like many UCEDDs in the Developmental Disabilities (DD) network, the Center for Development and Disability at the University of New Mexico offers direct service programs in home and community settings. Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, services were delivered in-person to about 1,000 families across the state including clients with intellectual or developmental disabilities and/or from at-risk communities. In March 2020, due to the spread of COVID-19, a public health emergency was declared in New Mexico and home and community services were stopped throughout the state. This meant direct service programs at the Center had to turn to telehealth …

Connection, Involvement, And Modeling: Co-Constructing A Story Of Resilience Despite Early Parental Loss, Erin E. Silcox

The Qualitative Report

The use of oral history and narrative inquiry to investigate factors of resilience in the face of parental death is absent from the literature. Also, researchers have not linked factors that support resilience against trauma and that lead to positive change in residential treatment with the role of educators. In this study, my father-in-law, Norman, and I answered the research question: What factors in Norman’s adolescent life supported his resilience in the face of an early parental loss? I analyzed Norman’s oral history using narrative analysis methods. Findings include factors that led to Norman’s resilience including his connection to a …

The State Of Immigration: An Analysis Of Attitudes Towards Immigration Policies, Economic Context And Political Ideology, Heather Kuntz

LSU Master's Theses

Division of attitudes towards immigration policy is more polarized than ever (Public Religion Research Institute, 2018). Historically, restrictive attitudes towards immigration policies have been highest in times of rising nationalist ideals and economic vulnerability (Jaret, 1999; Ngai, 2004). Primarily a federal responsibility, immigration enforcement was decentralized and that power shared with individual states (Pantoja, 2006), leading to policy disparities among states (Butz & Kehrberg, 2019; Gulasekaram et al., 2015; Johnson, 2019). Studies focusing on the relationship between state economic context and immigration policies, found that states that are more economically vulnerable had higher numbers of restrictive immigration policies (Ybarra et …

Training Tests, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What are training tests?

For this purpose, training tests include any form of knowledge assessment intended to gauge learning from training. Tests can be of varying lengths, formats (e.g., true/false, multiple choice, short answer), or labels (e.g., quiz, learning checks). The important feature is that they require learners to practice retrieving training-related information from memory. Thus, the focus here is on knowledge and understanding, versus skill acquisition.

Why are training tests valuable?

Training tests are valuable because the act of taking a test improves subsequent learning outcomes. More specifically, people who take a test perform better on later assessments of …

Treating Suicidal Ideation On College Campuses: An Evidence-Based Practice Guide For Counselors On Campus, Lexi Sherwood

Evidence-Based Social Work Practice Guide Series

The suicide rate on college campuses is rising. These 5 evidence-based practices can help therapists and counselors address suicidal ideation and treat the causes.

Working With Substance Use Disorder: An Evidence-Based Practice Guide For Practitioners Working With Sud Clients, Joe Kotynek

Evidence-Based Social Work Practice Guide Series

Counseling individuals with substance use disorder using mindfulness based practice.

Transport-Related Social Exclusion In East Baton Rouge Parish, Andrew Dietz

LSU Master's Theses

Transportation systems are powerful tools, capable of entrenching existing inequalities or facilitating the pursuit of a more equitable society (Wellman, 2015). This is particularly true for urban areas that are plagued by sprawl, congestion, and racialized poverty like East Baton Rouge Parish. Transport-related social exclusion (TRSE) provides a framework for understand the relationship between access to transportation (or lack thereof, known as transport disadvantage) and individuals’ ability to participate in the economic, social, cultural, and political aspects of life (Kamruzzaman, Yigitcanlar, Yang, & Mohamed, 2016) Transport-related social exclusion is associated with numerous negative outcomes including poor mental and physical health, …

Preventing School Absenteeism: The Case For Relationships, Rachel Denise Pounders

LSU Master's Theses

Chronic absenteeism affects nearly 20% of high school students every year (ED, 2016). It is an indicator of students at-risk and the strongest indicator of student dropout. Poor outcomes and risk indicators associated with chronic absenteeism are well established, but little is known about factors that could mitigate chronic absenteeism among vulnerable high school students. This study explored the potential influence of teacher, counselor, and peer relationships on chronic absenteeism in students, after controlling for sex, race, and socioeconomic status. The nationally representative sample came from the National Longitudinal Study of 2009 (NSLS:09) and included 17,777 students. Data were collected …

Moth To A Flame: An Investigation Of The Personality Traits And Early-Life Trauma Histories Of Women Who Have Survived Adult Relationships With Men With Pathological Narcissism, Michelle D. Roberts

Dissertations

Although emotional and psychological abuse, in addition to physical assault, are now commonly accepted as aspects of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), narcissistic abuse as a subset of IPV is not widely recognized or understood. Due to the extremely debilitating, chronic mental health effects of narcissistic abuse (Bremner, 2008; Campbell, 2002; Yoon et al., 2009), this study sought to explore the experiences, personalities, early-life (childhood) trauma histories and mental health outcomes of heterosexual women who self-identify as having been in an adult romantic relationship with a man with pathological narcissism. Specifically, this study aimed to identify the nature and frequency of …

Cooper Neurological Institute, Kayla Cupano

Department of Occupational Therapy Entry-Level Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Suicide In College: An Evidence-Based Practice Guide For Social Work Practitioners, Hailey Bowler

Evidence-Based Social Work Practice Guide Series

After steadily increasing rates of suicide in colleges each year, this article was produced in order to gain a deeper understanding of prevention and intervention practices as clinicians. Through evidence-based research, this article allows for possible solutions to such as devastating issue.

Covid Realities & Opportunities For Rural Behavioral Health Services, Paul Force-Emery Mackie

Social Work Department Publications

No abstract provided.

Family-Based Caregiving: Does Lumping Asian Americans Together Do More Harm Than Good?, Suryadewi E. Nugraheni, Julia F. Hastings

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Asian American family caregivers have gained increased attention due to the need to provide life-sustaining aid at home given the rising numbers of older adults. This article reflects upon caregiving-related research studies that have overlooked the circumstances Asian American caregivers bring to the home-care context. Policies written to address community needs tend to omit the social circumstances many Asian American caregivers must face when trying to take advantage of programs and services. For example, the eligibility requirements fail to recognize distinctive cultural values embedded within the caregiving processes. Further, most Asian American data is aggregated. Aggregating data by ethnicity limits …