Social Work Commons^™

“Everything Has Changed”: Narratives Of The Vietnamese American Community In Post-Katrina Mississippi, Yoosun Park, Joshua Miller, Bao Chau Van

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

In this qualitative study of the Vietnamese American community of Biloxi, Mississippi, conducted three years after Katrina, we attended not only to individual experiences but to the relationship of individuals to their collective and social worlds. The interlocked relationship of individual and collective loss and recovery are clearly demonstrated in respondents’ narratives. The neighborhood and community of Little Saigon was significant not only as a symbolic source of identity but as a protected and familiar space of residence, livelihood, and social connections. The post-Katrina changes in the neighborhood are, in multiple ways, changing participants’ experience of and relationship to their …

Promoting Fathers' Engagement With Children: Preventive Interventions For Low-Income Families, Philip A. Cowan, Carolyn Pape Cowan, Marsha Kline Pruett, Kyle Pruett, Jessie J. Wong

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

Few programs to enhance fathers' engagement with children have been systematically evaluated, especially for low-income minority populations. In this study, 289 couples from primarily low-income Mexican American and European American families were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and followed for 18 months: 16-week groups for fathers, 16-week groups for couples, or a 1-time informational meeting. Compared with families in the low-dose comparison condition, intervention families showed positive effects on fathers' engagement with their children, couple relationship quality, and children's problem behaviors. Participants in couples' groups showed more consistent, longer term positive effects than those in fathers-only groups. Intervention …

Patient Initiation Of Information: Exploring Its Role During The Mental Health Intake Visit, Ora Nakash, Sarah Dargouth, Vanessa Oddo, Shan Gao, Margarita Alegría

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

Objective: Describe the role of patients' initiation of information in patient-provider communication during mental health intake visits. Methods: One hundred and twenty-nine mental health intake visits of diverse racial/ethnic patients were videotaped. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients and providers following each intake visit. We qualitatively analyzed the interviews to identify themes related to patients' initiation of information. We quantitatively analyzed the videos of the intake visits utilizing a checklist that identified whether the patient or the provider initiated the information exchanged. Results: Patient initiation of information affected providers' evaluation of the credence of the information, assessment of rapport and …

Discourses For Social Justice Education: The Web Of Racism And The Web Of Resistance, Lisa Werkmeister Rozas, Joshua Miller

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

This article presents two conceptual frames to help with teaching about issues of race and racism. First the concept of the web of racism describes a matrix that helps students understand the depth of damage racism has instilled in contemporary U.S. society. Second, the web of resistance offers a model of anti-racist activities to help students participate in the fight to end systemic racism. The importance of placing racism in a historical context is emphasized as are the differential reactions of white students and students of color to this material.

An Approach To Preventing Coparenting Conflict And Divorce In Low-Income Families: Strengthening Couple Relationships And Fostering Fathers' Involvement, Carolyn Pape Cowan, Philip A. Cowan, Marsha Kline Pruett, Kyle Pruett

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

In the context of current concern about levels of marital distress, family violence, and divorce, the SFI study is evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention to facilitate the positive involvement of low-income Mexican American and European American fathers with their children, in part by strengthening the men's relationships with their children's mothers. The study design involves a randomized clinical trial that includes assignment to a 16-week couples group, a 16-week fathers group, or a single-session control group. Couples in both group interventions and the control condition include partners who are married, cohabiting, and living separately but raising a young child …

The Social Ecology Of Hurricane Katrina Re-Writing The Discourse Of “Natural” Disasters, Yoosun Park, Joshua Miller

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

It is increasingly difficult to distinguish natural events from those influenced by human actions. Furthermore, researchers in various fields have established that the level of devastation and the predicted likelihood of recovery of neighborhoods and communities correspond with the amount of political and socioeconomic capital held by neighborhoods and communities prior to disasters such as the Hurricane Katrina. In this paper we analyze the significance of the discourse of “natural disasters” through the framework of social ecology. We contest the neutralist discourse of “natural disasters” by underscoring the numerous interdependent sociopolitical forces, which shape the context in which disasters occur.

Talking When Talking Is Tough: Taking On Conversations About Race, Sexual Orientation, Gender, Class, And Other Aspects Of Social Identity, Joshua Miller, Susan Donner, Edith Fraser

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Race, Menopause, Health-Related Quality Of Life, And Psychological Well-Being In Obese Women, Blandine Laferrère, Shankuan Zhu, Jennifer R. Clarkson, Marianne R.M. Yoshioka, Katherine Krauskopf, John C. Thornton, F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

Race, menopause, health-related quality of life, and psychological well-being in obese women. Obes Res. 2002;10:1270 –1275.

Objective: To investigate the health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) in African-American (AA) and white (W) obese women.

Research Methods and Procedures: Participants were 145 obese women (80 AA and 65 W; 87 premenopausal and 58 postmenopausal) who completed the Medical Outcomes Study short form, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Life Distress Inventory, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale before entering a weight-loss study. The mean age of the subjects was 46.3   11.1 years and the mean body mass index was …

The Discourse Of Denigration And The Creation Of “Other”, Joshua Miller, Gerald Schamess

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

This paper attempts to reduce the distance between intellectual frameworks that inform different fields of social work practice by exploring the relationships between intrapsychic mechanisms, family dynamics, small group processes and such society wide phenomena as public denigration, scapegoating, and the systematic oppression of politically targeted population subgroups. Clinical theories are used to explore disturbing social trends such as the redistribution of wealth while cutting services to the needy, the growth of prisons and disproportionate numbers of incarcerated people of color, societal retreat from social obligation and commitment and divisive political rhetoric. Suggestions are made about how clinical social workers …

Only God Decides': Young Children's Perceptions Of Divorce And The Legal System, Kyle D. Pruett, Marsha Kline Pruett

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

Objective: To describe research on perceptions of children aged 6 and younger from 21 families of their parents' divorce, of its impact on their families, and of legal officials. Method: Semistructured play interviews were conducted during home visits as parents were conjointly interviewed as part of a larger study on divorce in legal context. Results: Children had much misinformation about divorce as an event and process. What they did know was often inappropriate, frightening, and confusing. They resented how the process 'ruined their parents' being friends any more' and proposed reforms based on their wishes and observations. Conclusions: Greater awareness …

Spouse Enabling Of Alcohol Abuse: Conception, Assessment, And Modification, Edwin J. Thomas, Marianne Yoshioka, Richard D. Ager

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

This article presents a conception of spouse enabling of partner alcohol abuse, a review of its dysfunctions, and an approach to assessment and modification to reduce spouse enabling behavior. Based on experience with its use in unilateral family therapy with many spouses of treatment-refusing alcohol abusers, procedural guidelines, treatment methods, two case examples from a crossover experimental dyad, and clinical results for the two cases in the dyad are described. Also presented are practice issues, characteristics of spouse enabling as the), relate to disenabling intervention, and areas of possible application of the disenahling program.

Nagging And Other Drinking Control Efforts Of Spouses Of Uncooperative Alcohol Abusers: Assessment And Modification, Marianne R. Yoshioka, Edwin J. Thomas, Richard D. Ager

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

This article presents a conception of spouse drinking control and an approach to assessment and modification to reduce the customary drinking control efforts of spouses of alcohol abusers unmotivated to enter treatment. Modification of the nonalcoholic spouse’s customary drinking control is offered as an important early step in helping to prepare him or her to become a positive rehabilitative influence. Based on its use in unilateral family therapy with 68 spouses of uncooperative alcohol abusers, procedural guidelines, criteria for use, and two case examples from a crossover experimental dyad are described. Also presented are clinical results illustrating the success of …