Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Sustaining Critical Support Services For Relative Caregivers Through The Covid-19 Pandemic And Beyond, Shelly Willis Mrs, Lori Latimer, Rolanda Pyle

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

This practice brief outlines model practice strategies for building and sustaining critical support services for kinship caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. While the long-term impacts of COVID-19 were still unfolding, research increasingly showed the profound effect the pandemic had on family well-being worldwide. Already managing the trauma that necessitated the placement of most children, kinship families faced additional challenges, including the fear and uncertainty surrounding health risks and the complete upheaval of community resources as schools, state offices, and social service agencies limited or closed their operations. This led to unprecedented levels of economic, housing, transportation, and food …

Learning From Experience: What Is Successful Respite During And Post-Pandemic?, Jennifer A. Crittenden, Darlene Sansone, Kristina Brant, Jennifer Odum, Caitlin O'Brien, Lisa Mccormick

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

The COVID-19 pandemic had immediate and long-lasting impacts on both kinship families and the organizations that serve them. During the pandemic, as families navigated health challenges, economic consequences, and school and daycare closures, relatives as parents programs (RAPPs) were challenged to surmount staffing and programming hurdles to meet family needs. Despite the difficulties posed by the pandemic, RAPPs developed creative solutions to offer respite programming. Some of these programs continue to be used today, over four years after the start of the pandemic. This article describes the presentations and discussions that took place during a 90-minute workshop at the 2023 …

Curriculum For Kinship Caregivers: Evaluating The Feasibility Of Implementing Across Different Service Settings, Joseph Crumbley, Sierra Wollenhall, Angelique Day

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

This localized program evaluation provides an example of how to determine the feasibility of utilizing a kinship parent training across different service settings. A total of seven facilitators taught the curriculum in different service settings including structured in-person and online training classes, support groups, and the utilization of training by tribal kinship navigators as part of individual service delivery. The fidelity tracking process provided a venue for each of these service provider types to document the strengths and challenges of implementing each of the components of the Inherent Strengths curriculum across these different service settings with the kinship populations they …

Comfort With Technology And Its Association With Depression Of Custodial Grandparents During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sarah Pace, Yanfeng Xu, Theresa Harrison

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

During the COVID-19 pandemic, custodial grandparents faced heightened risks of depression due to increased social isolation and caregiving responsibilities. This study examines the association between comfort with technology and depression among custodial grandparents. Cross-sectional data were collected from 287 custodial grandparents across the United States between May 2021 and February 2022. Logistic regression analysis revealed that custodial grandparents’ higher comfort with technology was significantly associated with lower odds of depression (OR = 0.68, p < .001). Additionally, those who had reliable access to the internet had significantly lower odds of experiencing depression (OR = 0.78, p = .039). Furthermore, the need for telemental health services was associated with increased odds of depression (OR = 3.18, p = .003). These findings highlight …

Generations United & The Brookdale Foundation Group: An Overview Of Progress In Support Of Grandfamilies Over The Last Decade, Ana Beltran, Jaia Lent, Melinda Perez-Porter

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

Strategic partnerships and collaborations enable organizations that serve grandfamilies to address service gaps and facilitate the development or enhancement of services tailored to support their needs. These collaborative partnerships empower organizations to provide comprehensive support to caregivers and children and also play a crucial role in enabling organizations to create, expand, and maintain supportive services. By fostering strong relationships with a diverse range of partners, organizations can ensure that grandparents and other relative caregiver families receive information, assistance, and support. The authors, representing a national organization and a private foundation, have collaborated for more than 25 years to support grandfamilies. …

What Lies Ahead? Future Directions For Grandparent Caregiving Research, Bert Hayslip

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

Clearly, as a perusal of the literature will support, interest in the lives of grandparents raising grandchildren among practitioners and researchers has increased dramatically over the last decade. As we approach 50 years since the appearance of Meredith Minkler and her colleagues’ classic work on grandparent caregivers raising their grandchildren amid the crack cocaine epidemic, I take this opportunity at the 10th anniversary of GrandFamilies to reflect on what directions grandfamily research might take in the future.

Health Considerations With Grandfamilies, Susan Kelley

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

With four decades of accumulated evidence, we understand that despite the challenges they face, custodial grandparents (CGPs) demonstrate remarkable resilience. As a population, however, they are at increased risk of diminished health, both physical and psychological. Understanding the complex health-related factors frequently associated with CGP is crucial to devising and implementing effective interventions. CGP health status may be impacted by the demands of caregiving, demographics, trauma-induced stress, other factors, or a combination thereof. Underscoring this is the recognition that CGPs disproportionately experience cumulative demographic risk factors compared to their non-caregiving peers.

A Vision To Improve Policies For Grandfamilies, Kerry Littlewood

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

In 2007, my mentor, Anne Strozier, and I wrote an article about the various systems of care that were in place to help support grandparents and other relatives raising children in the US (Strozier & Krisman, 2007). We noted how difficult it was to completely understand the data related to the needs of grandfamilies, because they existed in so many siloed systems of care, including child welfare, aging, education, legal, health care, and others. Today is 17 years since that article was published and systems serving kinship families are just as segmented and siloed as ever.

In the 10 years …

Solving Old Cases With New Technology, Philip Hodapp

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

The State of Minnesota has seen a significant uptick in the homicide rate in the last ten years, and not all homicides are being solved. Due to a significant staffing shortfall across the state, but especially in the inner-city areas, police agencies are having a hard enough time keeping up with ongoing cases, let alone finding time to work on cold cases. With the advancement in DNA technology, including Forensic Genetic Genealogy, cases need to be re-examined to see if the new technology could spark life into older investigations.

Due to the rise in skepticism of policing today and the …

Experiences Of Former Foster Youths With Learning Disabilities Who Transitioned Into Adulthood, Phyllis J. Phillips

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Foster youths with learning disabilities face numerous challenges as they transition out of care, including housing instability, unemployment, and mental health issues. Despite these barriers, research focusing on this specific population is limited. Guided by Taormina’s adult personal resilience theory, this qualitative case study explored the experiences and perceptions of former foster youths with learning disabilities to inform interventions and improve service delivery and policy improvements. The research questions addressed the experiences of former foster youths with learning disabilities transitioning out of care, the unique challenges associated with transitioning out of foster care as experienced by former foster youths with …

Therapists’ Experiences In Cases Of High-Conflict Divorce Among Individuals With Personality Issues, Tamara Soal

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High-conflict divorce (HCD) involves prolonged conflict exceeding 2 years, persistent hostility, and extensive court involvement. Mental health professionals often participate as court-appointed expert witnesses or provide therapy at parental request. Therapists' roles become more complex when parents exhibit challenging personality traits. This descriptive qualitative study explored therapists’ experiences in treating children and families in HCD cases where one or both parents displayed complex personality issues or disorders. Greenberg and Gould’s model on mental health professionals in court cases and Freud’s countertransference theory provided the study’s conceptual framework. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with nine therapists, and thematic analysis was …

Archival Adventures: A First-Year Quest Through Campus History, Katie Strand, Kelly Rovegno, Katie Luder

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

University Archives endeavors to collect, preserve and make available the permanent historical record of Utah State University (USU). These records include published material, faculty papers, office files, and other historical material generated by the academic departments, extension offices, statewide campuses, research centers and institutes.

How Do Gender And Marital Status Impact High-Risk Polysubstance Use?, Kira England, Alexander Chapman

Population Health Research Brief Series

Drug overdose deaths in the United States increasingly include the use of multiple drugs, known as polysubstance use. These include opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, tranquilizers, and sedatives. Polysubstance use is considered high risk because it can cause dangerous synergistic effects and result in the ingestion of higher amounts of drugs. This brief summarizes findings from a study that used data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health on U.S. adults from 2002 through 2019 to examine gender and marital status differences in high-risk polysubstance use among U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The authors find that polysubstance use is …

Podcasting Towards Togetherness: Utilizing Podcasts To Improve Departmental Camaraderie And Well-Being, Michael Petrauskis, Colleen Gutman, Rosemarie Fernandez

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Physician burnout is on the rise, and this is of particular concern in emergency medicine. Burnout is associated with medical errors, adverse events, poor professionalism, and litigation. A sense of community can build engagement and mitigate workplace stressors on well-being. Emergency physicians may have trouble connecting due to the nature of shift-work and various practice settings. Communication technology, and particularly podcasting, has the potential to help overcome these barriers and positively impact relatedness and well-being.

Approach: We developed an inward-facing podcast, “The ER Break Room” within the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida. Through the …

Physical And Mental Health Experiences Of Obese Men Living In The United States During The Covid-19 Pandemic, James Cunningham

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to public health worldwide, significantly impacting vulnerable populations like obese men in the United States. This qualitative descriptive study involved exploring how these men perceived the pandemic’s impact on their physical and mental health, addressing a critical gap in existing literature. The research question that guided this study was: How did obese men living in the United States perceive the stressor that was the COVID-19 pandemic on their physical and mental health? Guided by the biopsychosocial model, the study involved using semi-structured interviews with 15 participants who were recruited online through social media. Thematic …

Reach And Utility Of The New Hampshire Child Care Scholarship Program, Harshita Sarup, Jess Carson

Carsey Publications

In this primer, authors Harshita Sarup and Jess Carson describe the New Hampshire Child Care Scholarship Program after recent policy changes. The authors find that while an estimated 55,000 children are eligible, only 7 to 8 percent are enrolled. Scholarships can represent significant savings for families, particularly with multiple children, although reimbursement rates can leave gaps for providers. The authors conclude by discussing some potential strategies for increasing the reach and efficacy of the program.

Editorial: On Social Fiction And The 2025 Special Issue Of The Qualitative Report, Patricia Leavy

The Qualitative Report

In this editorial Patricia Leavy situates her work in the context of writing as inquiry. She discusses coining the term “social fiction and her fictional story-worlds. The piece ends with an invitation to the story.

Celebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy’S Body Of Work: An Introduction To This Special Issue, Laurel Richardson, U. Melissa Anyiwo

The Qualitative Report

In this article Laurel Richardson and Melissa Anyiwo detail Patricia Leavy’s contributions to qualitative inquiry. After providing background information, they provide a thematic look at Leavy’s contribution in the areas of innovation and trailblazing, paradigm shifts, border crossing, creativity and artistry, and social justice and humanitarianism. They conclude with remarks about Leavy’s enduring legacy in the field of qualitative research.

Cover And Forewords, C. Nicholas Raphael

The Geographical Bulletin

Cover and Forewords

The Geography Of The European Dreadnought Race: 1884-1919, William D. Walters, Jr.

The Geographical Bulletin

The launching of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 is sometimes regarded as the start of the warship building race preceding World War One and is often seen as one of the causes of that war. In fact, the European battleship building race goes back to the 1880s. Most of the countries of Europe participated in some way in this race, which involved significant transfer of technology from the more developed to the less developed countries of Europe. Spain, Italy and Russia received significant aid from armaments firms in northern and western Europe. During the period before the war, battleships dominated naval …

Volume 34-1 Complete Issue, C. Nicholas Raphael

The Geographical Bulletin

Volume 34-1 Complete Issue

Late Holocene Coastal And Estuarine Environments Of The Shanghai Area, People's Republic Of China, Li Jinan, Yan Qinshang

The Geographical Bulletin

Four major sedimentary environments have been identified in the Shanghai area which were deposited over the past 7,000 years, 3 to 20 meters above a Pleistocene basal clay. These are marsh, lagoon, recurved spit and tidal flat. The morphology west of Shanghai is a fresh water marsh since it was not transgressed by rising Holocene sea levels. In the central area, a recurved spit and lagoon had developed from 6,500 years B.P. to 3,500 years B.P. However, the tidal flat has characterized coastal sedimentation in the eastern part of Shanghai since 3,000 years B.P.

Thematic Innovation On The North American Colonial Frontier: Comparisons Of The Four Historic Maps Of Fort Michilimackinac, Michigan 1749-1769, Richard Alan Sambrook

The Geographical Bulletin

To date, four historic maps of Fort Michilimackinac, Michigan are recognized: de Lotbiniere's Plan and Description (1749), the Magra Map (1766), the Nordberg Map (1769), and the Crown Collection Map (circa 1766-1769). These maps are all different in a number of important map features, including scale, style, technique, and portrayal of the type and detail of information included on the map, especially the accuracy of the location and size of structures within the fort. This paper also demonstrates the wealth of social, cultural and architectural information contained within the four existing historic maps. In conjunction these maps have both aided …

Planning With Place: Sense Of Place In Berlin, New Hampshire, Brooks Preston

The Geographical Bulletin

This study applies a phenomenological framework to the study of place in Berlin, New Hampshire. The results of Berlin's efforts to identify sense of place are compared with the findings generated by a phenomenological approach to the study of place. It is shown that the attributes and qualities of place that are most important to the people of Berlin are mentioned in the phenomenological interviews but sometimes overlooked or misinterpreted by the city's efforts. Sense of place is not embodied purely in the landscape or heritage, but exists in the minds of the people. Sense of place is a dynamic …

Projections And Perceptions-Editorial Comments. The Good Fortune Of Being A Geographer, Charles F. Gritzner

The Geographical Bulletin

How refreshing it is to see this brief and very upbeat reference to being a geographer in "Notes from Ptolemy" (January 1992 AAG Newsletter). Extremely fortunate we are indeed to be geographers! Being a geographer and " doing geography" are challenging, meaningful, satisfying, and fun. Geographic knowledge can be a marvelous source of intrinsic satisfaction; increasingly it also can offer substantial vocational rewards. During most of more than three decades in academe, an aura of gloom and doom prevailed for all but a select few young students aspiring to become geographers. Employment opportunities were sparse. Geography languished in the elementary …

Volume 34-2 Complete Issue, C. Nicholas Raphael

The Geographical Bulletin

Volume 34-2 Complete Issue

Cover And Forewords, C. Nicholas Raphael

The Geographical Bulletin

Cover and Forewords

Climatic Trends And Variability During Winter And Summer In Central Montana, Elizabeth G. Lowell, Philip W. Suckling

The Geographical Bulletin

Seasonal values of maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation were examined in a study of climatic trends and variability for winter and summer in central Montana. Regional trends for the three climatic elements were graphed for the period 1949- 1986. A Student's T-test was utilized in order to detect significant changes. For winter, temperature declined significantly from the 1960s into the 1970s while snowfall increased slightly followed by a slight decrease during the 1980s. For summer, although maximum temperatures were significantly cooler during the 1950s, very little change in temperatures generally occurred. Although rainfall fluctuations were observed, no distinct trends …

News From The Chapters1991-1992, C. Nicholas Raphael

The Geographical Bulletin

The 1991-1992 school year for the Alpha Chapter of GTU was truly a successful one with 25 active members participating in quite a few events. During National Geography Awareness Week we sold world T-shirts at the student union, held a geography quiz contest, and had our annual Geography White Elephant Auction which brought in over $350.00. We had our Christmas Party at the local Best Western with great food and happy spirits. Throughout the year members participated in the " Return to Prairie at Funks Grove" where we cleaned out bushes and burned grass. We also had weekly Thursday Happy …

Terrain Influences On Total Length Of Snow-Avalanche Paths In Southern Glacier National Park, Montana, Jay K. Gao

The Geographical Bulletin

This research was designed to determine the impact of topographic variables on the total length of avalanche chutes in southern Glacier National Park, Montana. Seventy-eight snow avalanche paths were manually interpreted from aerial photographs within the study area, and their outlines were delineated on U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps with a scale of 1 :24,000. Terrain variables were either measured directly from the maps or derived from the original ones. Terrain parameters were first analyzed by using the descriptive statistical method. Total path length was then regressed against the independent variables elevation, orientation, and slope gradient. We found that: (a) …