Social Work Commons^™

Role Of Civil Society Organizations In Conflict Resolution And Peacebuilding In Ghana, Abdul Karim Issifu Mr

Journal of Interdisciplinary Conflict Science

Ghana is both locally and internationally described as an oasis of peace and stability on a continent circumvented by conflicts. The country has not experienced any form of large-scale violence or civil war since independence in March 1957. Nevertheless, it is faced with pockets of relative violence, including chieftaincy conflict and land dispute, killing several people and destroying many properties. In an effort to help resolve these conflicts, the Ghanaian government ends up prolonging it due to its position in some of the conflicts. However, the review of secondary data revealed that many of the conflicts in Ghana have often …

Farming Between Love And Money: Us Midwestern Farmers' Human-Nature Relationships And Impacts On Watershed Conservation, Yuki Yoshida, Courtney G. Flint, Mallory K. Dolan

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

US Midwestern farmers are direct actors in managing nitrogen fertilizers and key to remediating water quality problems in agricultural landscapes. As farmers’ relationships with nature offer insights into their decisions and conservation practices, surveys and interviews with farmers in two Illinois watersheds explored their human–nature relationship perspectives and linkages to conservation practices. While domineering “Master” perspectives theorized as a cause of human-induced environmental problems were found, farmers spoke of obligations to the land and closeness to nature, emphasizing ecologically oriented partnership and stewardship ideals as motivating their conservation efforts. However, production-oriented pressures of the agricultural industry and livelihood and humanitarian …

A Model Integrating Social-Cultural Concepts Of Nature Into Frameworks Of Interaction Between Social And Natural Systems, Andreas Muhar, Christopher M. Raymond, Riyan J.G. Van Den Born, Nicole Bauer, Kerstin Böck, Michael Braito, Arjen Buijs, Courtney G. Flint, Wouter T. De Groot, Christopher D. Ives, Tamara Mitrofanenko, Tobias Plieninger, Catherine Tucker, Carena J. Van Riper

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Existing frameworks for analysing interactions between social and natural systems (e.g. Social-Ecological Systems framework, Ecosystem Services concept) do not sufficiently consider and operationalize the dynamic interactions between people's values, attitudes and understandings of the human-nature relationship at both individual and collective levels. We highlight the relevance of individual and collective understandings of the human-nature relationship as influencing factors for environmental behaviour, which may be reflected in natural resource management conflicts, and review the diversity of existing social-cultural concepts, frameworks and associated research methods. Particular emphasis is given to the context-sensitivity of social-cultural concepts in decision-making. These aspects are translated into …

An Analysis Of Oregon Youth Authority Populations: Who Receives Treatment And What Factors Influence Allocation Of Treatment Resources?, Rebecca Arredondo Yazzie

Dissertations and Theses

Service provision in both adult and juvenile correctional settings is an understudied phenomenon. Research has evaluated the use of evidence-based practices (EBP) in the treatment of mental health and substance abuse among adults and juveniles. Young, Farrell, Henderson and Taxman (2009) highlight the role of organizational factors including climate and culture, opportunities for staff training, resources, administrator attitudes and interagency collaboration in the application of EBP in correctional settings. The Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) aims to provide services to youth under the guise of EBP. Literature in the field of juvenile justice is limited in scope in areas of organizational …

Letter To The President: Longitudinal Critical Discourse Analysis Of Academic And Hip Hop Genres In A Rap Narrative Program, Debangshu Roygardner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this study was to examine an in-school rap narrative workshop through critical discourse theory (Bamberg, 2012; Daiute, 2014). Twelve youth from a public school serving youth in urban Houston, TX were recruited from an in-school and after-school Hip hop/Rap narrative program to participate in a two-year cohort research study. The primary research question guiding the study was “How do young people participating in a school-based Hip hop/Rap program use a wide range of narrative genres for literacy and psycho-social development over two years in the program?”

The data-intensive study involved assessments of literacy and psycho-social development via …

Book Review: Prostitution Narratives: Stories Of Survival In The Sex Trade, Edited By Caroline Norma And Melinda Tankard Reist, Abigail Bray

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Adolescent Girls Offered Alternatives To Commercial Sexual Exploitation: A Case Study From The Philippines, Christopher A. Bagley, Susan Madrid, Padam Simkhada, Kathleen King, Loretta Young

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Background: Up to 2% of adolescents and young women are subjected to commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) in the Philippines, an economically poor country that earns considerable revenue from “sex tourists.” Earlier research, in the 1990s in Metro Manila, described the living conditions of adolescents whose CSE was influenced by family poverty, their so-called “sex work” becoming a major source of income for families left behind in rural and provincial areas of Luzon. Recent research (up to 2014) indicates that conditions for adolescents experiencing CSE have, if anything, worsened.

Methods: Following the original study, the researchers were able to offer scholarships …

Insights In Depression Screening At A Latino-Serving, Integrated Fqhc Clinic, Jacquelyn Stephenson

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Depression manifests differently in Latinos when compared to other racial-ethnic groups, but little is known regarding linguistic differences among Latinos. This mixed methods study explored the depression screening processes among patients and medical providers at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) through an ethnic-linguistic lens. Binary logistic regressions were performed to determine the effects of ethnicity and language on PHQ-2 screening rates for 10,285 adult patients seen during a primary care medical visit from 2014 to 2015; of these 4,745 (46%) patients were screened for depression. Spanish-speakers were screened for depression more often than non-Latinos and Latinos who were English-speakers. …

An Examination Of Foster Youth Socialization To Dating And Sexual Behaviors, Rhoda L. Smith

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Foster youth reportedly face unusual and negative life circumstances and outcomes due to being placed in out-of-home care. Foster care provides a resource for substitute caregiving which can range from archaically institutional to warm and familial. Foster care is a transient system which alters what is normative for youth relative to what mainstream youth experience, especially in adolescence. Being out of control of their lives and futures serves to create vulnerability for foster youth in the area of sexual and reproductive health. Lack of clarity within the child welfare agency regarding responsibility for imparting necessary, relevant information to foster youth …

The Role Gender Plays For Heterosexual Single Parents Interacting With Social Workers, Andreanna Royelle King

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Social workers interact with a variety of individuals in the field. In their profession social workers are to adhere to a Code of Ethics that ensure every client is treated equally. There are some under-represented populations that do not receive the same services when they interact with social workers in various systems; heterosexual single fathers are amongst this group. This study was conducted to identify if there was a gender bias amongst social work students working with heterosexual single parents. The researcher hypothesized that the participants in the study would favor single mothers and inadvertently offer more services to them. …

Native American Tribal Child Social Workers' Experiences On Co-Occurrences Of Domestic Violence And Child Maltreatment, Elaine Brown

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Native American women and children suffer from domestic violence at an alarming rate on and off Indian reservations in the United States. Often these families that are impacted by domestic violence are involved in the state/county child welfare system. This study was to gain knowledge about Native American tribal child social workers experiences and challenges with co-occurrences of domestic violence and child maltreatment cases. This study used an exploratory, qualitative design with a phenomenological approach by collecting data through face-to-face and over the phone interviews with four Native American tribal child social workers from four different tribes across the nation. …

Practitioners' Views On Service Needs For Justice Involved Youth, Juan C. Llamas, Robin L. Chandler

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess practitioners’ views of service needs for juveniles involved with the justice system. In the United States, every year there are thousands of youth committed to detention institutions for delinquent acts. As a result, children as young as nine years of age up until adulthood have a difficult time integrating back into the community. In many instances, youth who have been involved with the justice system have a greater likelihood of recidivism due to their inability to adapt to their environment. Further, when youth enter the system, many times they are not receiving …

The Challenges That Promotores Face When Implementing Their Programs, Alejandra Santana

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines the challenges that community health workers or Promotores face when implementing their programs to produce better outcomes in the Latino community. Data collection was derived from five local promotores with an adequate knowledge base of expertise in promotores programs. Study themes focused on how promotores implement their programs, the challenges they face and providing professional and personal insight on working with the Latino community. Present day research emphasizes that promotores or the community health worker model approaches have been promoted as a strategy to address health disparities experienced by Latino communities in the U.S. These programs …

Exploring The Relationship Between Occupational Burnout And The Behavioral Well-Being Of Social Workers, Damian A. Pisapia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between occupational burnout and the behavioral well-being of social workers. Burnout is a multidimensional syndrome where workers experience feelings of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment as a consequence of work related stress and overwhelming job demands. Burnout can negatively affect organizational functioning, work performance, and pose significant health risks to workers. There are a limited number of studies focusing on the impact of occupational burnout on the behavioral well-being of workers. The findings of this study indicated that there was a significant relationship between burnout …

Student Censorship In The Social Work Classrooms, Lisa Kozlowski

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Through the evolution of the field of social work, a divide in its ideologies has emerged and certain political and ideological groups such as the religious and conservatives have become underrepresented. As a result, over the years the liberal philosophies have emerged as the dominant group. This has led to a decrease in diversity within the field. Recognition of biases in the field of social work is difficult. Through a qualitative analysis method, this study was meant to explore if social work students feel they are free to share openly in the classroom, and if they are accepting of all …

A Descriptive Study Of The Elderly In California Substance Abuse Treatment Programs, David Berenschot

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

As gerontologists may know, there are a great deal of studies and a variety of academic literature on the misuse of alcohol and prescription medication amongst the elderly population. While there is a plethora of information on alcohol and prescription misuse, there is little reported data about the prevalence of other substance misuse experienced by this population. This study aims to help to fill that gap in the data by using quantitative methods to describe the scope of substance abuse of individuals 55-years or older. This study utilizes data from the Treatment Data Set Admission (TEDS-A). The TEDS-A is a …

Strategies And Substance Treatment: Perceptions Of Older Adults 60 And Over, Kim Malveo Jones

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gather the perceive strategies and substance treatment needs of adults 60 and over. To examine what recovery treatment models and strategies could be most effective for the age-related complex needs of the 60 and over population who are at risk for substance misuse, use or abuse. In the coming years, there will be a substantial increase in the numbers of older adults with substance misuse and abuse problems. Even though one in five individuals who experience substance abuse are older adults many clinicians remain ill equipped to serve older clientele, and particularly those …

The Power Of Prayer, Victoria Dawn Thompson

Capstone Collection

If words are arbitrary, how does prayer have power?” is the question of inquiry in this paper. An unobtrusive Content Analysis inquiry methodology was used to answer this question. The answer lies in the finding that words and thoughts are not the same thing, and our thoughts expand beyond the audible and visible. The implication for professional practice these findings present is that a deeper awareness of “Self” is needed to understand people’s miraculous way of resolving conflict via prayer.

End Of Life Care For The Incarcerated, Codie Robinson

Dialogue & Nexus

As the prison population ages, a new need has come to light – caring for those who are in the final stage of life. This paper will examine the current end of life services provided to those in prison throughout the United States. After a general awareness of the system is presented, a more complete discussion of end of life care for prisoners will be considered, in light of ethics, social justice, and the Christian perspective. The two care options presented, hospice care and compassionate release, are observed through these lenses. In order to make a decision on how to …

Waiting For The Wisdom To Drop: A Photovoice Exploration Of Menopause, Delinda L. Free

Student Research Symposium

The purpose of this study was to create a women’s menopause discussion group based on the Photo Voice method, to use a narrative approach to learn what is currently relevant in the experience of menopausal women, to reveal insights about menopause as a phase of psychological development, and to bring a visual representation together with narratives to tell a story about the collective psychological themes. Participants were asked to meet and reflect on what has changed in their values, attitudes, aspirations, goals, and outlook on life. Then participants were asked to take pictures over the course of a week, and …

Homo Faber Juvenalis: A Multidisciplinary Survey Of Children As Tool Makers/Users, David F. Lancy

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The overall goal of this paper is to derive a set of generalizations that might characterize children as tool makers/users in the earliest human societies. These generalizations will be sought from the collective wisdom of four distinct bodies of scholarship: lithic archaeology; juvenile chimps as novice tool users; recent laboratory work in human infant and child cognition, focused on objects becoming tools and; the ethnographic study of children learning their community’s tool-kit. The presumption is that this collective wisdom will yield greater insight into children’s development as tool producers and users than has been available to scholars operating within narrower …

Book Review Essay: Pimp State: Sex, Money, And Equality By Kat Banyard, Christopher Adam Bagley

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In this strongly recommended book, Banyard effectively demolishes six myths which defenders of unregulated commercial sexual exploitation of girls and women offer: 1) “Demand for sex work is inevitable; 2) Being paid for sex is regular service work; 3) Porn is fantasy; 4) Objecting to the sex trade makes you a pearl-clutching, sexually conservative prude; 5) Decriminalizing the entire prostitution trade makes women safe; and 6) Resistance is futile.” I add to Banyard’s analysis my views on the following topics: 1) the sexual exploitation of minors as an essential part of the commercial sex industry; 2) recent Canadian experience in …

The Impact Of High School Extracurriculars: Similarities And Differences In Sense Of Community Among Competitive, Performance, And Participatory Activities, Erica M. Hawvermale

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Extant research links high sense of community in adolescence to adaptive outcomes such as enhanced motivation, self-efficacy, and coping ability (Battistich, Solomon, Watson, & Schaps, 1997; Vieno, Perkins, Smith, & Santinello, 2005; Henry & Slater, 2007), as well as reduced stress, anxiety, and depression (Chipuer, Bramston, & Pretty, 2002). In light of these findings, the present study was designed to assess the relationship between high school students’ participation in extracurricular activities and their perceptions of sense of community, enjoyment, and commitment, as well as the aspects of these organizations that help to facilitate feelings of community. Study 1 participants (N= …

Connecting Beyond The Circle: A Restorative Approach In Co-Creating A Safe Space For Social Justice Education At Utec, Nikki F. Pelonia

Capstone Collection

“Social justice is both a process and a goal. The goal of social justice education is full and equal participation of all groups in a community that is [co-created] to meet the members’ needs. Social justice includes a vision of a community that is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure” (Adams, Bell, & Griffin, 2007, p. 1). In the process, one is used to going straight to issues of social justice before connecting by building trusts and relationships. This Course-Linked Capstone in Training focuses on SIT Graduate Institute coursework from Training Design in Experiential Learning …

Sustainable Tourism Study Through Solimar International, S Silongwengjia

Capstone Collection

This inquiry explores a pragmatic approach of sustainable tourism and its application as a transformative development instrument. It seeks a general understanding of the global tourism sector, looks specifically at an individual tourism enterprise, Solimar International, and examines rural tourism, and its proposed standards. It discusses the opportunities and threats to the culture, ecology, and livelihoods of the residents of destination tourism and the unique experience to geotravelers. It analyzes the theoretical development history of tourism and the integrated approach of Solimar International as a leading agency in the tourism industry sector. And it seeks to understand a new type …

A Study Of Innovation In Model Project Design: Addressing Mental Health Symptoms Among Co-Occurring Substance Use And Mentally Ill Clients Who Are Homeless In A Local Community Clinic Setting, Isis Dian Martel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Homeless persons with co-occurring substance use combined with mental illness constitute a particularly vulnerable subgroup with complex service needs. Unfortunately, the capacity to deliver critical treatment services has been extremely limited causing many from this population to remain untreated. Untreated co-occurring disorders can lead to a host of difficulties for both the individual and the community (Bouchery, Harwood, Sacks, Simon, & Brewer, 2011). Developing community based intervention services in Arkansas is a key activity necessary in strategically addressing this problem (Barbee, Gonzales, & Shelor, 2016). In partnership with the Arkansas Division of Behavioral Health Services, a local community treatment provider …

Older Adults And Mobile Technology: Factors That Enhance And Inhibit Utilization In The Context Of Behavioral Health, Alexis Kuerbis, Adina Mulliken, Frederick Muench, Alison A. Moore, Daniel Gardner

Publications and Research

While numbers and proportions of older adults with behavioral health issues are expected to substantially increase, there is also a widening gap in available services for older adults. Mobile health interventions (mhealth) are a way to address existing barriers to treatment, provide frontline assessment and increase access to services for older adults. Due to perpetuated stereotypes, many assume that older adults do not utilize mobile technology nor will they accept a mHealth intervention. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize contemporary literature from information technology and healthcare regarding: (1) current mobile technology utilization by older adults, particularly in regards …

From The Father’S Heart To Our Hands: Christian Responsibility In The U.S. Foster System, Amelia Tam

Selected Honors Theses

Nearly half a million children are currently served by the child welfare system in the United States. This overwhelming strain on state departments and non-profit placement agencies is compounded by the fact that there are not enough available homes. There appears to be a shortage of capable and resilient foster and adoptive parents. Thousands of children who are ready to be adopted do not have anyone to take them in, and thousands more float in the system until new families agree to foster. This seeming shortage of homes is absurd considering the wealth of compassion and capability within the American …

Support Experiences Of Church-Going Christian Foster And Adoptive Families Of Children With Special Needs, Taylor Weaver

Senior Honors Theses

Much research is done on the populations of families of children with special needs, church-going Christian families, and foster and adoptive families, but little exists on the families who fall into all three categories. This thesis seeks to help remedy this problem by studying the support experiences of these families. Existing research on foster and adoptive families, families with special needs, and disability in the church is reviewed. A phenomenological study of five parents’ lived experiences was completed through interviews, where three main themes emerged: the importance of informal support, the need for formal support, and the integral role of …

The Impact Of Incarceration For Women Who Have Children: A Phenomenological Study, Chelsea White

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

To address this gap in the literature, this phenomenological study will investigate the lived experience of incarcerated mothers to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be separated from their child due to incarceration.