Social Work Commons^™

Childhood Abuse, Religiosity, And Opioid Use: Findings From The National Epidemiologic Survey On Alcohol And Related Conditions Data, James E. Lewis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Religiosity is adopting a belief system surrounding concepts of purpose, meaning, and value through an institution that has already defined these concepts prior to the individual member attending and that member’s degree of participation. Religiosity does have protective factors against negative health outcomes. This protective influence was evaluated in this study. Data from Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions were examined to learn about the relationship between protective effects of religious participation on substance abuse, and whether this association weakened for individuals who have experienced higher levels of childhood abuse. A binary logistic regression …

Study Protocol: A Multisite Trial Of Work-Related Cognitive Behavioral Therapy For Unemployed Persons With Social Anxiety, Joseph A. Himle, Richard T. Lebeau, Addie Weaver, Daphne M. Brydon, Deborah Bybee, Amy M. Kilbourne, Raphael D. Rose, Katherine M. Tucker, Richard Kim, Marcelina Perez, Fonda N. Smith, Brandy R. Sinco, Scott Levine, Nicole Hamameh, Monique Mckiver, Paul T. Wierzbicki, Anni M. Hasratian, Michelle G. Craske

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Faculty Scholarship

This paper provides a methodological description of a multi-site, randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a cognitive-behavioral intervention for enhancing employment success among unemployed persons whose employment efforts have been undermined by social anxiety disorder (SAD). SAD is a common and impairing condition, with negative impacts on occupational functioning. In response to these documented employment-related impairments, in a previous project, we produced and tested an eight-session work-related group cognitive-behavioral therapy provided alongside vocational services as usual (WCBT + VSAU). WCBT is delivered by vocational service professionals and is designed in a context and style that overcomes accessibility and stigma-related obstacles with …

Gender Differences In Rates Of Anhedonia And The Effect Of Menstrual Cycles In University Students, Arianna Rueda

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

Anhedonia is the lack of experiencing pleasure from pleasurable experiences (D'haenen, 1996) and is associated with the reward pathway in the brain (Langvik et al., 2016). Anhedonia can be further broken down into physical or social (Martino et al., 2018).

• Physical anhedonia is the absence of pleasure from eating, drinking, or physical touch.
• Social anhedonia is a lack of pleasure derived from social experiences.

Previous research has looked at gender differences in anhedonia with conflicting results.

• One measure of anhedonic subtype of depression found a relation with positive affect and gender differences more than other measures of anhedonia (Langvik et …

Body Language "Says" More About Whether A Person Is Lying, Emily Scheiwiller, Shelbie Weightman

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

The wording of a question can bias someone's perception of another person (Questionnaire design; Ulatwski, 2013).

• Direct Questions
• Indirect Questions
• Social Awareness

Social Awareness Inventory (SAI) assesses individual differences in social awareness of emotion demonstrated by others (Sheldon, 1996).

Hypothesis 1:Indirect questioning as compared to direct questioning when evaluating an interviewee's dishonest responses will produce more accurate determinations of dishonesty that correspond with research-supported correlates of dishonesty.

Hypothesis 2: Questions designed to detect observer bias related to dishonest behaviors, compared to those related to interviewee verbal and nonverbal characteristics, as well as the observer’s expectations of interviewee behaviors will …

The Effect Of Therapy Dogs And Meditation On Student Stress, Nicole L. Beasley

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

Students experience many stressors throughout the semester. Student stress may arise from various facets of academic life (e.g. academics, financial, and relationship) (Dusselier et al., 2005). Most students report chronic stress (Pierceall & Keim, 2007).

Therapy dogs may lessen student stress. However, research on how therapy dogs reduce stress is mixed. Some research suggests therapy dogs only reduce psychological perception of stress while other research suggests physiological stress reduction.

Barker et al. (2016) measured stress with both psychological tests and physiological markers in students. Interacting with therapy dogs reduced the perceived stress but did not change the physiological markers of …

The Correlation Between Children's Executive Functioning And Their Academic Performance And Social Competence, Melissa Budisch, Erin Collins

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

We want to see if there is a positive association with Conscious Discipline, or Social-Emotional Learning, and improved EF skills in children.

Composure: The adult provides children with techniques, such as active calming, to regulate their emotions. (Brain Smart Start and Safe Place)

Adult Assertiveness: The adult is assertive, which provides the structure a child needs to be successful. We would argue that if an adult is assertive and give5 concrete instructions to the children, it can help them better understand self-control and how to effectively achieve a goal. (Visual Routines, Visual Daily Schedule, and Time Machine)

Choices: When a …

Sleep On It! Sleep Consolidation Produces Strong Delayed Memory Retrieval Much Like Immediate Retrieval, Gabriella Silone, Carolina Vázquez, Sarah Lawson, Victoria Karpuszka, Madeline Nash

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

Research Question: Can sleep consolidation reduce the effects of an interruption during encoding, leading to improved accuracy on a delayed recognition task?

Consolidation: During sleep, memories acquired earlier are processed at a deeper level and strengthened by creating associations with previously-stored information (Rasch & Born, 2008). This process helps better integrate new information into existing long-term memory storage systems. Research indicates that the consolidation process can also prevent the effects of interference during memory retrieval (Robertson, 2012).

Present Study: The present study was designed to examine the effects of sleep consolidation after an interruption of encoding had …

Cross Validation Of The Environmental Attitudes Inventory: Plans To Assess Attitudinal Changes In Workers At A Shelter Farm In A Food Desert, Amanda Barry, Alea Albright

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

Within the context of an ongoing participatory community action research project that implements behavioral activation in homeless shelters, an urban farm was implemented. Behavioral activation provides opportunities to engage in productive activities that yield response-contingent reinforcement, which increases productive behavior and leads to improvements in a sense of mastery, quality of life, mood, and cognition.

The project represents a collaboration between Dr. Roger N. Reeb (Professor of Psychology) and St. Vincent de Paul. Among our many community partners, we developed a collaboration with the Ohio State University Agricultural Extension of Montgomery County in 2017 to establish an urban farm on …

Halloween, Superstition, And Black Cat Bias, Brianna Gavin

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

Black Cat Bias (BCB): “Cats with black coats are viewed more negatively, adopted less often, and euthanized more often than lighter colored cats” (Jones & Hart, in press)

Shelter records of 2170 cats showed black cats stay in shelter about one month longer than non-black cats (Kubesova, Voslarova, Cecerek, & Vucinic, 2017)

Length of stay in shelter positively correlated with risk of contracting URI (Dinnage, Scarlett, & Richards, 2009) and coronavirus (Pedersen, Sato, Foley, & Poland, 2004)

Jones and Hart (in press) found black cats were perceived as more aggressive and less friendly than non-black cats

Jones and Hart (in …

Measuring Gender Equity At Ud Among Faculty, Staff, And Leadership, Mary Mcloughlin, Josh Segalewitz

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

The purpose of this report card is to be transparent around the representation of women across the UD workforce and in leadership roles.

Our goal is to annually evaluate progress toward increasing institutional diversity and promoting equity for women-identified staff and faculty. In doing so, the report identifies areas where progress is being made and areas where more work is needed.

Impact Of In-Depth Storyline On Children’S Math Skills In Adaptive E-Book, Shelbie Weightman

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

The percentage of homes tablet computers and children under age 8 has increased from 8 percent in 2011 to 78 percent in 2017 (Zippert, et al.).

E-books for literacy have been shown to be beneficial for young children, but less is known about math-focused e-books.

Parent-child interaction about math story problems, even just once a week, showed improved math achievement in the child by the end of the school year. The benefits of occasional math-related interactions are especially apparent for children whose parents are anxious about math. Providing a math app that allows math-anxious parents to more easily engage in …

Associations Between Decision Making And Hedonic Responses To Odor, Madison E. Degnan

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

Olfaction, or the sense of smell, is facilitated by specialized sensory cells, called olfactory sensory neurons, which are directly connected directly to the brain.

The limbic system is a set of brain structures located on both sides of the thalamus.

The limbic circuitry supports a variety of functions, including emotion, behavior, motivation, long-term memory, and olfaction.

The olfaction bulb is connected to the amygdala and the hippocampus.

The anterior limbic and related structures including the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala are involved in emotion, reward valuation, and reward-related decision-making (but not memory), with the value representations transmitted to the anterior cingulate …

Liar Liar: Gender Differences In Deception Detection, Jake Avendano, Kelly Boris, Faith Plummer

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

The present study explores the relationship between social awareness, type of questioning, gender effects, and deception detection. Following are important definitions of concepts and tools used in this research:

• We can bias someone's perception of another person by the way a question is worded (Questionnaire design; Ulatwski, 2013).
• Direct Question: An explicit measure of deception detection. Direct questions focus on personality characteristics associated with deception (DePaulo, 2018).
• Indirect Question: Lie detection does not access implicit knowledge but focuses the perceiver on more useful cues. Indirect questions focus on biases, and verbal and body language (Street & Richardson, 2015).
• Deception Detection …

Stress Reduction After Visiting Cats In A Cat Café, Nicole L. Beasley

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

Research has attempted to induce stress and has been unsuccessful at demonstrating the efficacy of stress reduction. This may indicate that animal interaction is more beneficial when reducing longer-term stress rather than short-term stress, like what has been studied in the past. Additionally, animals may be more effective at reducing life stress as opposed to artificially produced stress.

Past research has limited the time participants may spend interacting with the study animals. The current study will allow participants to spend as much time as necessary with the café cats.

The present study will record a physiological marker of stress and …

Using Technology To Reduce The Burden Of Paperwork: Preliminary Lessons Learned From The Qic -Wd Virginia Site, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) partnered with the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) in 2017 to conduct research examining the efficacy of technology interventions aimed at reducing child welfare staff turnover and improving child welfare outcomes. Virginia is a state-supervised, countyadministered child welfare system. The state elected to study the implementation of and outcomes from job modernization technology interventions in 18 localities. These 18 localities represent a workforce of approximately 450 of the state’s 2,200 frontline staff. The intervention is occurring in multiple phases: (1) transcription services; (2) a mobility technology application; and (3) a Comprehensive …

Baseline Trauma Symptoms: Residential And Non-Residential Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence, Brooke R. Jacobs

Dissertations

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a preventable public health problem that’s literature has documented the clinical presentations of those who have experienced IPV. These presentations include what is generally consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as a wide range of other symptoms including different medical comorbidities, defensiveness, difficulties in self-regulation, externalizing behavior, difficulties in relationships, withdrawal, and somatic preoccupations. These presentations are typically assumed to be symptoms of IPV but some argue that some of these, such as insecure attachment or trauma exposure, may be precursors to experiencing IPV. This has been discussed with great caution to avoid victim …

An Interprofessional Collaborative Approach To The Development Of A Content Valid Interview Questionnaire For Persons With Hearing Loss And Their Communication Partners, Nancy A. Delich, Stephen D. Roberts

JADARA

An assessment instrument needs to be valid in order for data to be accurately interpreted and applied. Currently, few rigorous content evaluations have been conducted on hearing-related questionnaires. This study describes a multiphase approach for obtaining content validity evidence in the development of a questionnaire that explores quality of life for persons with hearing loss and their communication partners. A panel of 15 interprofessional experts evaluated 41 questionnaire items for content relevance and content clarity. Findings revealed an overall scale of .99 for content relevance and .85 for content clarity, indicating high content validity for the revised 40-item questionnaire.

“Las Mamás No Son Putas”: Percepciones Y Experiencias De Embarazo Y Maternidad En Trabajadoras Sexuales En Buenos Aires / Mothers Are Not Prostitutes: Perceptions And Experiences Of Pregnancy And Motherhood Among Sex Workers In Buenos Aires, Fiona Kennedy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En Buenos Aires, la gran mayoría de las trabajadoras sexuales también son madres. Sin embargo, ha habido pocos estudios en Argentina sobre los vínculos entre el trabajo sexual y la maternidad y las experiencias de embarazo para las trabajadoras sexuales. Las trabajadoras sexuales en Buenos Aires experimentan estigmatización y violencia institucional en múltiples entornos, lo que afecta tanto el acceso a la salud como el bienestar general. Este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar cómo estas vías afectan a las trabajadoras sexuales en la maternidad y el embarazo, con el fin de encontrar áreas de intervención. La mayoría de esta investigación …

Trauma-Informed School Practices: Building Expertise To Transform Schools, Anna A. Berardi Phd., Brenda Morton, Edd.

Open Textbooks

This textbook represents the combined insight and experience of Morton, a k12 educator, and Berardi, a psychotherapist, both of whom are also university educators with extensive work experience serving districts and their teachers seeking to incorporate trauma-informed principles into their school culture and classroom. The authors identify that the field of education is now ready to deepen its level of response to the paradigm shift created by advances in neuroscience and traumatology. Hence, the primary focus is on identifying and applying trauma-informed educator competencies needed to transform districts, schools, educators, classrooms, and the field of education itself, while also including …

Introducing Virginia’S Mobile Solution, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) and the 18 local departments of social services (LDSS) identified the lack of technological supports to help child welfare workers complete the administrative tasks of their job as a cause of turnover. The Virginia site rolled out the first part of their intervention (transcription services) in 2018 and is now preparing to roll out a mobile application in late fall 2019. This one-page summary describes COMPASS, Virginia’s mobile app designed to make it easier for workers to manage the administrative aspects of their job.

Problem-Based Learning In Human Growth & Development Counselor Education, Javier F. Casado Pérez Ph.D. Ncc, Elliot Witherspoon Lpc

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

As a core curricular standard that applies to all Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP, 2015) accredited programs, human growth and development can present unique challenges for the teaching professional. In this article, we present an in-class activity grounded in problem-based learning that uniquely lends itself to the task of supporting medium-to-large classrooms in learning about human growth and development.

Designing Rigorous Tests Of Workforce Interventions In Complex Environments, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Public child welfare agencies continually struggle with how to address issues of staff recruitment and retention. Furthermore, very little evidence exists regarding what works to attract, select, and retain talented staff. Much of what agencies do to address workforce issues is never formally evaluated and successes are not published widely. Thus, agencies confronted with urgent retention needs have little to go on to identify an intervention that is likely to succeed. The Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) was funded by the Children’s Bureau to begin to address this issue, in part through carefully selected, and rigorously evaluated interventions …

Does Ethnic Identity, In-Group Preference, And Acculturation Protect Latinas With A History Of Interpersonal Trauma From Developing Symptoms Of Ptsd?, Evelyn M. Ramirez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous research suggests ethnic identity, a sense of belonging to a particular cultural group, may be protective against symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the role of ethnic identity, in-group preference (i.e., an individual’s preference for interactions with members of their own ethnic group) and acculturation (i.e., the level of comfort with the mainstream culture) have not been investigated as protective factors for Latinas with a history of interpersonal and sexual trauma. In this study, ethnic identity, in-group preference and acculturation were assessed via self-report on the Scale of Ethnic Experience in two samples of undergraduate Latina and non-Latina …

Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Child Welfare Workers, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

There is growing evidence to suggest that child welfare workers are experiencing high levels of secondary traumatic stress (STS) as a result of exposure to traumatized clients in crisis (e.g., Barbee, et al, 2018). The Quality Improvement Center on Workforce Development (QIC-WD) surveyed 1,113 front line child welfare workers in 13 jurisdictions between November, 2017 and March, 2018 using the Bride (2007) Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale as part of a comprehensive workforce needs assessment. An average of 54% of participants reported clinical levels of STS. When these elevated numbers are compared to the original Bride research of social workers, they …

Effectively Using & Sharing Data, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development (Qic-Wd)

Other QIC-WD Products

The QIC-WD recently had the opportunity to talk with a group of human services training evaluators in Baltimore about how to effectively use and share data. The QIC-WD has a dissemination plan and data visualization experts (learn more here) to help our team and our sites use and share data for a variety of purposes. We shared the following tips to help evaluators determine what to share, when, and why.

• Plan for dissemination – that is, identify who needs the information and how best to get it to them.
• Consider who is in your target audience and how they …

Using A Logic Model To Guide Workforce Interventions, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The QIC-WD uses logic models—visual representations that depict the resources that go into and expected results that will come out of the implementation of a program—to guide the implementation and evaluation of the selected interventions. A logic model is developed after the intervention is selected and must fit within the overall theory of change, as part of the exploration phase of the project. Read this summary (originally developed on behalf of the Center for States) by Dr. Megan Paul, the QIC-WD Workforce Team Lead, to learn more about why a jurisdiction should create a logic model and see what a …

Conducting Comprehensive Workforce Needs Assessments In Child Welfare, Megan Paul, Courtney Harrison

Other QIC-WD Products

Staff recruitment, selection, and retention are persistent challenges for many child welfare agencies. Agency directors recognize these challenges but often lack the capacity or strong relationships with human resources (HR) to hire and keep the right child welfare staff. The lack of evidence-based practices to address child welfare workforce issues compounds the situation. The Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) was created through a 5-year cooperative agreement with the Children's Bureau to advance knowledge about evidence-informed workforce interventions, test a variety of interventions in real-world settings, and examine how workforce stability is related to outcomes for children.

The QIC-WD …

Bound By Silence: Psychological Effects Of The Traditional Oath Ceremony Used In The Sex Trafficking Of Nigerian Women And Girls, Jennifer Millett-Barrett

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Nigerian women and children have been trafficked to Italy over the last 30 years for commercial sexual exploitation with an alarming increase in the past three years. The Central Mediterranean Route that runs from West African countries to Italy is rife with organized crime gangs that have created a highly successful trafficking operation. As part of the recruitment process, the Nigerian mafia and its operatives exploit victims by subjecting them to a traditional religious juju oath ceremony, which is an extremely effective control mechanism to silence victims and trap them in debt bondage. This study explores the psychological effects of …

Understanding Trauma And Victimization In Women's Incarceration: California's Treatment Response, Marissa Tuttle-Roache

Social Sciences

The purpose of this review is to provide an exploration of past research on women's pathways to incarceration, specifically discussing how this problem affects California women. Using research from various case studies, both quantitative and qualitative, this review examines the correlation between life experiences and incarceration for women. California laws and policies that mitigate the impact incarceration has historically had on women will be discussed. This research provides a better understanding of the treatment needs of incarcerated women and the programs that could provide them with some positive resources to succeed post incarceration and avoid recidivism.

Describing A Workforce Intervention, Anita Barbee

Other QIC-WD Products

For the purpose of the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD), a workforce intervention is a structured set of activities aimed at solving an identified cause of frontline worker turnover. Some interventions, or parts of interventions, have been created in other settings and are being adopted or adapted for the QIC-WD program. Other interventions are being developed collaboratively by the QIC-WD and site implementation teams. All include the four key components that are the hallmark of strong interventions. The four key components of strong interventions include:

1) A description of the theoretical base upon which the actions in the …