Social Work Commons^™

Alcohol Screening And Brief Intervention As Standard Practice In Indian Country, David A. Patterson Silver Wolf (Adelv Unegv Waya) Phd, Bonnie Duran, Catherine N. Dulmus Phd, Amy R. Manning

Brown School Faculty Publications

Alcohol use and the resulting problems associated with high-risk drinking in the American Indian/Native Alaskan (AI/NA) population are well-documented, as alcohol misuse has taken an incredible toll on many AI/NA communities. Presently, both overall health issues and alcohol use occur disproportionately within this population. This article provides an updated overview of the impact of alcohol use in the United States and within AI/NA communities specifically. It also provides recommendations for an alcohol-related screening and brief intervention instrument that social workers can begin using in their practice and can be utilized within the AI/NA community.

An Evaluation Of Youth In(Vol)Ved: Impact On Participants' Attitudes Toward Volunteerism, Kelsey G. Steines

Honors Program Projects

Youth In(VOL)ved is an 8 week youth volunteer program directed by the Grant Wood Area American Red Cross, which is located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The purpose of the program is to contribute to the American Red Cross’ goal of motivating and recruiting a new generation of volunteers, which supports the organization’s mission of alleviating human suffering in the face of emergencies. This paper examines the impact of Youth In(VOL)ved on participants’ attitudes toward volunteerism, which is information that can be used by the American Red Cross to apply for grant funding and to improve the program in future years. …

Direct Human Service Experience And Its Effect On Volunteers' Self-Perceived Generosity And Meeting Volunteer Expectations, Emily M. Borger

Honors Program Projects

A study using participants (n=61) from a small liberal arts college was conducted to analyze the effect of direct human service on volunteers’ self‐perceived generosity, expected versus actual appreciation, expected versus actual satisfaction in work, and expected versus actual value of work. An experimental group (n=31) was given pre‐ and post‐surveys evaluating these dependent variables using a Likert scale. Between the surveys the experimental group received treatment of direct human service at a free community lunch program. The control group (n=30) was given the same pre‐ and postsurveys without treatment.

It was hypothesized that …

Poverty Knowledge, Coercion, And Social Rights: A Discourse Ethical Contribution To Social Epistemology, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In today’s America the persistence of crushing poverty in the midst of staggering affluence no longer incites the righteous jeremiads it once did. Resigned acceptance of this paradox is fueled by a sense that poverty lies beyond the moral and technical scope of government remediation. The failure of experts to reach agreement on the causes of poverty merely exacerbates our despair. Are the causes internal to the poor – reflecting their more or less voluntary choices? Or do they emanate from structures beyond their control (but perhaps amenable to government remediation)? If both of these explanations are true (as I …

Age-Friendly Environments And Self-Rated Health: An Exploration Of Detroit Elders, Amanda J. Lehning, Richard J. Smith, Ruth E. Dunkle

Social Work Faculty Publications

While a number of organizations and government entities have encouraged the development of more “age-friendly” environments, to date there has been limited research linking these environment features to elder outcomes. Using a representative sample of older adults living in Detroit, this study examined the association between age-friendly environment factors and self-rated health. Results indicated that access to health care, social support, and community engagement were each associated with better self-rated health, while neighborhood problems were associated with poorer self-rated health. Moreover, individual-level income and education no longer predicted self-rated health once age-friendly environment factors were taken into account. These findings …

Review Of 'How We Die Now: Intimacy And The Work Of Dying,' By Karla Erickson, Jennifer Davis-Berman

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

How We Die Now: Intimacy and the Work of Dying takes the reader on an engaging journey through the terrain of aging in America, with an emphasis on how our ideas about aging itself have changed the way we view death in the United States and even the way we actually die. This book has an authenticity to it, as Erickson admits that her own experience with aging and death compelled her to enter this world and study from the perspective of insiders, those who care for older adults and the actual elders themselves. Based on hundreds of hours of …

“IʼM A Leader Of All Of Them To Tell The Truth”: Participatory Action Principles For Uplifting Social Work Research Partnersʼ Identities, Katherine Mccrea

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

Identity, understood from many vantage points, is continually evolving based on relationship experiences, including those relationships established in social and behavioral research. Whether rendered anonymous in large quantitatively-studied samples, or intimately known in qualitative studies, those contributing to science in a role termed “subject” receive, through the research, definitions of their identities. Because those identities are part of published social research, identities created in the research process become part of the public discourse about persons in the “subjects’” situations, and also influence policies that in turn influence persons’ lives. For their part, the identities of social and behavioral researchers also …

Making Space For Dying: Portraits Of Living With Dying, Elise Lark

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In Making Space for Dying: Portraits of Living with Dying, I describe the everyday lived experience of dying and the care culture within freestanding, community-based, end-of-life residences (CBEOLR) utilizing portraiture and arts-based research. I craft four case studies into “portraits,” based on interviews, on-site visits, up-close observation, and field notes. In the person-centered portraits, I reveal the inner landscape of two terminally ill women, with data represented in poetry. In the place-centered portraits, I “map” the social topography of two CBEOLRs to illustrate how lives and care of the dying are emplaced, from the perspectives of community leaders, …

Testing Pathways Linking Exposure To Community Violence And Sexual Behaviors Among African American Youth, Dexter R. Voisin

Faculty Scholarship

Exposure to community violence and HIV sexual risks are two major public health concerns among youth. This study tests various pathways linking exposure to community violence and sexual behaviors among African American adolescents. Using a sample of 563 (61 % females) African American youth attending high school we examined whether problematic psychological symptoms, low school engagement, and/or negative perceptions of peer norms about safer sex functioned as pathways linking exposure to community violence and sexual behaviors. Major findings indicated that, for boys, the relationship between exposure to community violence and sexual début and sexual risk behaviors were linked by aggression. …

Toward A Client-Centered Benchmark For Self-Sufficiency: Evaluating The ‘Process’ Of Becoming Job Ready., Philip Young P. Hong

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

The purpose of this study is to evaluate how service providers, clients, and graduates of a job training program define the term self-sufficiency (SS). This community-engaged, mixed method study qualitatively analyzes focus group data from each group and quantitatively examines survey data obtained from participants of the program. Findings reveal that psychological transformation as a ‘process’ represents the emic definition of SS—psychological SS—but each dimension of the concept is reflected in varying degrees by group. Provider and participant views are vastly different from the outcome-driven policy and funder definitions. Implications for benchmarking psychological SS as an empowerment-based ‘process’ measure of …

Milking The System: Do Poor People Deserve Fresh Food?, Melanie M. Meisenheimer

SURGE

Poor Americans are all lazy, selfish people who must first prove their worth as human beings if they want to be able to feed their children.

It sounds harsh, stereotypical, and judgmental when you put it like that, and few people would feel comfortable saying that exact phrase. However, it’s a perception of poverty in America that I’ve found still has a strong grip on our way of thinking. [excerpt]

Do Age-Friendly Characteristics Influence The Expectation To Age In Place? A Comparison Of Low-Income And Higher Income Detroit Elders, Amanda J. Lehning, Richard J. Smith, Ruth E. Dunkle

Social Work Faculty Publications

Currently there is limited evidence linking age-friendly characteristics to outcomes in elders. Using a representative sample of 1,376 adults aged 60 and older living in Detroit, this study examined the association between age-friendly social and physical environmental characteristics and the expectation to age in place, and the potential differences between low- and higher-income elders. Based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) age-friendly guide, we identified six factors reflecting age-friendly characteristics. Logistic regression models indicated that regardless of income level only neighborhood problems were significantly associated with expecting to age in place. Low-income elders were more likely to expect to age …

The Impact Of Home Visitor Relationship Quality On Parenting And Child Outcomes: Does Maternal Age Matter?, Elizabeth A. Colsey

Senior Honors Theses

Early Head Start (EHS) is an early intervention program that seeks to mitigate the effects of risk for those families with young children. Consistent with attachment theory, the home visiting component of EHS targets parent-child relationships in order to combat negative child outcomes. Research indicates that children of adolescent mothers are susceptible to poor outcomes both in childhood and adulthood. The current study utilized EHS data from 1198 parent-child dyads to assess the indirect relationship of home visitor quality on child aggression through parent quality, as moderated by maternal age. Findings indicated that home visitor quality may have a greater …

Community Violence Exposure And Adolescent Delinquency: Examining A Spectrum Of Promotive Factors, Dexter R. Voisin

Faculty Scholarship

This study examined whether promotive factors (future expectations, family warmth, school attachment, and neighborhood cohesion) moderated relationships between community violence exposure and youth delinquency. Analyses were conducted using N = 2,980 sixth to eighth graders (Mage = 12.48; 41.1% males) from a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse sample. After controlling for demographic factors, delinquency was positively associated with community violence exposure and inversely associated with each of the promotive factors. When interaction effects between all promotive factors and community violence exposure were examined simultaneously, only future expectations moderated the relationship between community violence exposure and delinquency. Specifically, community violence exposure …

The Determinants Of Within Metropolitan Immigrant Moves, Richard J. Smith, Catherine Schmitt-Sands

Social Work Faculty Publications

While the role of immigration and neighborhood change has been studied since the days of the Chicago School of Sociology, recent restrictions to immigration in concert with state and local initiatives to both enforce immigration policy or welcome immigrants raises new questions about neighborhood sorting within metropolitan areas. Policy makers are interested in recruiting high skilled and wealthy immigrants to attract investment and create jobs for native-born citizens. Some have endorsed welcoming immigrants as a solution to regional economic development and to stabilize high poverty urban neighborhoods. Are these immigrant recruitment policies realistic given existing patterns of immigrant housing location …

Conceptualizing Age-Friendly Community Characteristics In A Sample Of Urban Elders: An Exploratory Factor Analysis, Richard J. Smith, Amanda J. Lehning, Ruth E. Dunkle

Social Work Faculty Publications

Accurate conceptualization and measurement of age-friendly community characteristics would help to reduce barriers to documenting the effects on elders of interventions to create such communities. This article contributes to the measurement of age-friendly communities through an exploratory factor analysis of items reflecting an existing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency policy framework. From a sample of urban elders (n =1,376), we identified six factors associated with demographic and health characteristics: Access to Business and Leisure, Social Interaction, Access to Health Care, Neighborhood Problems, Social Support, and Community Engagement. Future research should explore the effects of …

Yogahome: Emotional, Physical And Social Impacts Of A Yoga Program On Community Homeless Shelter Residents, Jennifer Davis-Berman, Jean Farkas

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

This article reports on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with 12 women and 2 men who participated in a community-based yoga program, run by a certified yoga teacher and a social worker, at a homeless shelter in a medium-sized city in the Midwestern United States. This restorative yoga program was developed in the shelter in response to the severe stress of being homeless and the chaotic nature of shelter life. Based on an analysis of transcribed interviews, the following themes were generated and discussed: Yoga as Relaxation, Stress Relief, Pain Relief, and Future Practice. The challenges and …

Social Work, Yoga, And Gratitude: Partnership In A Homeless Shelter, Jennifer Davis-Berman, Jean Farkas

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

This narrative explores the personal lessons learned about life and practice from YogaHome, a yoga program for homeless adults. The yoga program, taught in partnership by a social worker/professor of social work (Jenny) and a yoga teacher (Jean) with 17 years of experience, exemplifies the merging of social work and yogic practices , but also illustrates the evolution of these two professionals in their chosen fields as many of their traditional views, values, intentions, and expectations unraveled and led to a re-revaluation of their professional practices, transforming their personal perspectives on life. This reflection is based on the YogaHome program, …

Emotional, Psychological, And Behavioral Challenges Of Children With Incarcerated Parents, Starr Bailey, Marie Antoinette Wakefield

McNair Poster Presentations

Children of incarcerated mothers and fathers are at a high risk of developing emotion­al, psychological, and behavioral problems (Dallaire, 2000; Lotze, Ravindran, & Myers, 2010; Nurse, 2004). The literature review conducted for this study noted several problem­atic behaviors. Some children were at a high risk for delinquency and criminal activity. Others experienced several home displacements which led to foster care or grand parenting responsibilities (Belknap, 2006). Further, mental health issues and school behavior prob­lems were directly linked to parental incarceration (Arditti, 2012). Four main problems in children were identified, which included aggression, anxiety, poor concentration, and so­cial withdrawal. Some children …

Professional Deceit: Normal Lying In An Occupational Setting, Janet M. Ruane, Karen Cerulo

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Normal lies are those that social actors legitimate as appropriate means to desirable outcomes. Such lies have been acknowledged in the literature as tools for maintaining social order. Yet, little has been done to document the social structural sources of normal lying. This paper offers a first step in filling this research gap, examining aspects of occupational structure and their connection to the practice of normal lying. Specifically, we discuss four dimensions of occupational structure — occupational rewards and entry requirements, occupational loyalties, social control styles within an occupation, and an occupation's level of professionalization — and we explore the …

The Transition To Adulthood And Independence: A Study Of Young People Leaving Residential Care, Mary Kilkenny

Masters

The transition to adulthood is difficult for most young people. It is a time when young people make important decisions about their lives including their future education, career and living arrangements. Most young people have strong family and social networks to support them in these decisions. However, young people leaving residential care are often expected to make this transition abruptly and at a young age with no family or social networks to support them. The leaving and aftercare supports provided by the State are often not sufficient to provide for the needs of these young people leaving them at risk …

Homelessness: Causes, Culture And Community Development As A Solution, Kaitlin Philipps

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This thesis seeks to explain the reasons that homelessness occurs, and how it is currently being dealt with in public policy. Triggers and predictors of homelessness are explored and it is shown that triggers are almost always compounded, indicating a multitude of factors that lead to homelessness. The culture and community surrounding the homeless lifestyle is seen as playing a significant role in how the individual copes with their homelessness. The norms and values of their culture are investigated and its role in rehabilitation is explored. Current institutions for helping the homeless are analyzed for different success rates. Additionally, initiatives …

Toward A Conceptual Model Linking Community Violence Exposure To Hiv-Related Risk Behaviors Among Adolescents: Directions For Research, Dexter R. Voisin

Faculty Scholarship

Purpose: To present a conceptual framework which accounts for the relationship between community violence exposures (CVEs) and youth HIV risk behaviors. Methods: This article provides an overview of existing research on the links between CVE and HIV risk for youth and offers a conceptual framework for clarifying how CVE might contribute to HIV sexual risk behaviors. Results: Increasing empirical findings substantiate that the links between CVE and HIV risk behaviors among youth are mediated by psychological problem behaviors, low school success rates, and negative peer influences. Conclusions: Researchers have identified the behaviors that place teens at risk for becoming infected …

Homelessness: A New Culture Of Poverty In The Streets Of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lindsay Lanteri

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El problema de las personas que viven en situación de calle no es un fenómeno nuevo en la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (CABA) ni en las otras grandes urbes de América Latina. Sin embargo, se torna necesario explorar las características que este problema va configurando en relación a la “nueva cultura de la pobreza” instaurada en el país y los vínculos entre sus componentes intergeneracionales y crónicos. Con un enfoque localizado en la CABA este ensayo investiga cómo el problema ha evolucionado durante las tres últimas décadas y además provee al lector un análisis en profundidad a través de …

Appraising Chicago's Homeless Policy: Interviews With Chicago's Homeless Population, Center For Urban Research And Learning, Christine George, Susan Grossman, Michael Sosin

Center for Urban Research and Learning: Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Exploiting Borders: The Political Economy Of Local Backlash Against Undocumented Immigrants, Jamie Longazel, Benjamin Fleury-Steiner

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

Four years prior to Arizona's passage of one of the most far-reaching pieces of anti-Latino immigrant legislation signed into law in decades,3 demands to "seal off the border"4 were being made thousands of miles from the U.S.-Mexico divide. In 2006, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, passed equally harsh legislation aimed at keeping undocumented immigrants out of their community. During this time, commentators described the local backlash in Hazleton and other small cities across the United States as akin to "the opening of a deep and profound fissure in the American landscape" 5 wherein "all immigration politics is local." 6 Yet, as the so-called …

Community Violence And Health Risk Factors Among Adolescents On Chicago's Southside: Does Gender Matter?, Dexter R. Voisin

Faculty Scholarship

We assessed community violence, school engagement, negative peer influences, mental health problems, and human immunodeficiency virus risk among 563 black adolescents. Boys reported higher rates of community violence exposures and gang involvement, while girls reported higher mental health distress. In the presence of multiple risk factors, negative peer norms were the strongest correlate of human immunodeficiency virus risk behaviors.

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 …

The Great Condom Adventure: Analyzing College Students’ Narratives Of Buying Condoms, Leslie H. Picca, Kristin E. Joos

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

This project analyzes college students’ narratives buying condoms. Research suggests young persons do not consistently use condoms, and this study will provide an in-depth analysis to students affect toward condoms. We analyzed narratives written by 115 undergraduate students of their condom buying experiences. The vast majority of the students’ narratives about their condom buying experience fit a common framework, with elements including: preplanning, walking in the store, looking inconspicuous while wandering, finding the “hidden” condom location, making their selection, carrying and hiding the condoms, selecting a cashier and rushing through checkout, anticipating ridicule, and walking out of the store. Research …

Pathways To Drug And Sexual Risk Behaviors Among Detained Adolescents, Dexter R. Voisin

Faculty Scholarship

This study recruited 559 youths from detention centers (mean age was 15.4 years; 50.1% of detainees were girls) to investigate pathways that link witnessing community violence in the 12 months before detainment to drug and sexual risk behaviors in the two months preceding detainment. Through the use of audio-computer-assisted technology, data were collected on demographics, family factors, peer influences, religiosity, witnessing community violence, and drug and sexual risk behaviors. When controlling for demographics and family variables, the authors found positive associations between witnessing community violence and drug and sexual risk behaviors. Witnessing community violence was directly linked to sexual risk …