Social Work Commons^™

Navigating Homelessness And Housing Accessibility: An Ethnography Of Guests At Operation Nightwatch, Chase Kawika Patton

Dissertations and Theses

In 2025, over 7,000 individuals in Portland, Oregon experiencing unsheltered homelessness are without access to shelter or transitional housing. In this resource gap Operation Nightwatch (ON) provides material support for people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in the University District neighborhood of downtown Portland. This study focused on the experiences of chronically homeless guests of Nightwatch as they navigated homelessness and housing access. The study relied on semi-structured interviews with staff and guests and on-site participant observation to determine the availability of support to access housing in a system governed by Coordinated Access and the Housing First model. Primary research took place …

"I Know Who I Am": Draw-And-Tell Conversations With Gender-Creative Children, Eline Leemans Lenne

Dissertations and Theses

A growing number of children identify in various gender-creative ways, likely due to broader social awareness and affirmation of transgenderism. Gender-creative children face higher risks for adverse social, academic, mental health, and healthcare outcomes compared to non-transgender peers. Support from loved ones along with guidance from pediatric providers can mitigate poor outcomes and ensure that gender-creative children live healthy and happy lives. Young gender-creative children's perspectives about the aforementioned topics are markedly absent from the literature, which instead highlights adolescent and adult proxy perspectives.

In this participatory arts-based study anchored by a constructivist epistemology and informed by post-structuralist, queer, and …

Examining Drug Policy In Portugal And Greece, Collin Fernandes

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the divergent drug policies implemented in Portugal and Greece, analyzing why Portugal's comprehensive decriminalization model has been more successful than Greece's partial approach. Since 2001, Portugal has pioneered a drug policy that decriminalizes all drugs for personal use while investing in harm reduction services, rehabilitation, and social reintegration. In contrast, Greece maintained criminalization while implementing more limited harm reduction measures, particularly through OKANA (the Organization Against Drugs). The research highlights how economic factors, particularly the 2008 financial crisis and austerity measures, negatively affected both countries' programs but hit Greece's initiatives with greater severity. Portugal's programs have remained …

Social Justice In Social Work: A Critical Discourse Analysis, Erica Fonseca

Dissertations and Theses

Social justice is central to social work and guides the profession's ethics, educational standards, and practices. It is aspirational and actionable, ideological and practical, and is simultaneously shaped by, and shapes in turn, social work. Consequently, this study understands social justice to be a discourse. Despite its ubiquity throughout the profession, what constitutes social justice, how it should (or could) be practiced, and what epistemologies orient social work to the concept continue to be debated. Given social work's express promotion of social justice and the myriad ideas and practices that follow from this critical value, the concept and the foundational …

Living On The Outskirts Of Things: Women And Nonbinary People Of Color With Cognitive Disabilities Describe Their Employment Experiences, Laura Spura Rodriguez

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines the experiences of discrimination and the strategies used to navigate employment for women of color and nonbinary people of color (POC) with cognitive disabilities (CD) through their own narratives. Using Dis/ability Critical Race Theory and an interpretive description methodology, this study engaged 10 women of color and/or nonbinary POC with CD in semi-structured interviews in order to answer the following research questions: 1) What stories do women of color and nonbinary POC with CD tell about their experiences seeking employment? 2) What are the narratives of women and nonbinary POC with CD about their experiences of racism, …

Understanding The Other: Mentor Ethnocultural Empathy And Relationship Quality And Duration In Youth Mentoring, Miriam Miranda-Diaz

Dissertations and Theses

Given the positive youth outcomes associated with participation in mentoring programs, there is growing interest to explore factors associated with mentoring relationship quality and duration in formal youth mentoring programs. In comparison to the majority of volunteer mentors, many young people participating in formal mentoring programs are of a racial-ethnic minority group and tend to be economically disadvantaged. This study investigates factors associated with these socio-cultural background differences between mentors and mentees. More specifically, this study investigates the association between a mentor's level of ethnocultural empathy, as reflected in empathic perspective-taking and acceptance of cultural differences, and the quality and …

The Mirror Project: Reflections On The Experiences Of African-American Female Adolescents Experiencing Foster Care, Bahia Anise-Cross Degruy Overton

Dissertations and Theses

As the author Zora Neale Hurston says, "If you're silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it." The Mirror Project (MP) aims to break this silence by giving voice to Black women who have experienced foster care in Portland, Oregon during their adolescence. In focus groups and interviews, participants shared their stories. Racial identity development theory, phenomenology and Afrocentric feminist epistemology provided lenses for gaining insight into their experiences in a predominantly white city. The MP revealed six themes: lack of youth engagement in foster care decisions, the need for a cultural lens in social work, …

Prosecutors Or Helpers: An Institutional Ethnography Of Child Protective Services Casework, Anna Maria Rockhill

Dissertations and Theses

The mission of child welfare is to strengthen the ability of families to care for their children and to protect children and provide aid, services, or referrals to families where maltreatment is said to have occurred. The vast majority of the families who become involved with child welfare are multiply disadvantaged and child welfare is a key feature of the array of public supports for struggling families. However, the institution fails many of the families it serves. Despite recent efforts by those in the field to promote collaboration and engagement, many parents experience child welfare as neither empowering nor helpful …

Does Structural Racism Influence How Black/African Americans Define Memory Loss And Cognitive Impairment? An Africana Phenomenological Study, Andre Pruitt

Dissertations and Theses

With the variety of research about dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD), few studies have explored the effect of social structures, such as racism, on how Black/African Americans conceptualize memory loss, dementia, or AD. Furthermore, limited within the scholarship are the environmental factors and structural racism that are thought to influence cognitive impairments and meaning making about cognitive decline impacting Black/African Americans.

Most U.S. research centers on methodologies and epistemologies grounded in Eurocentric ways of knowing (objectivity, individuality, either/or logic). However, Eurocentric methodologies fail to acknowledge the cultural experiences with memory loss, cognitive impairment, dementia, and AD, as well as the …

Health Literacy And People Diagnosed With Mental Illness, Beckie Child

Dissertations and Theses

Health literacy is a well-studied concept that has a large literature base. Yet, little is known about health literacy and people diagnosed with mental illnesses, and even less health literacy research speaks to people diagnosed with mental illness. I used a framework and approach of lived experience of psychiatric diagnosis and psychiatric survivor research to conceptualize and inform the study. It explores health literacy with people diagnosed with mental and physical health diagnoses using a small quantitative survey, focus groups, and an individual interview. The findings suggest that health literacy is a dynamic and complex construct that interacts with the …

A Typology Of Foster Home Quality Elements In Relation To Foster Youth Mental Health, Paul Sorenson

Dissertations and Theses

Foster care has been one of the primary interventions in society's efforts to address child maltreatment. The foster parents and foster homes follow a process of certification intended to ensure that maltreated children be placed in substitute care that supports and encourages positive outcomes. One of the outcomes of principle concern is mental health. Few studies have been conducted that explore the makeup of certified foster homes with respect to the cumulative impact of multiple indicators of quality on mental health outcomes of foster youth.

This study sought to identify a typology of foster homes based on theorized indicators of …

Examining Demographic And Environmental Factors In Predicting The Perceived Impact Of Cancer On Childhood And Adolescent Cancer Survivors, Nazan Cetin

Dissertations and Theses

Cancer survivors' perceptions on how cancer has impacted their lives has been identified as a "critical predictor" of psychosocial well-being and quality of life outcomes. Given the dramatic increase in survival rates and the long-term health and psychosocial challenges, as well as survivorship care barriers, this study focuses special attention on childhood and adolescent cancer survivors and is guided by Tedeschi and Calhoun's theory of posttraumatic growth and Hammond's theory of distinctiveness. This study aims to examine the influence of demographic (i.e., age at diagnosis, biological sex, race/ethnicity, type of cancer) and environmental factors (i.e., geographical location and insurance type), …

A Critical Discourse Analysis Of How Youth In Care Describe Social Support, Jared Israel Best

Dissertations and Theses

There are nearly 422,000 youth in foster care in the United States with 20,000 aging out each year. Youth who age out of care demonstrate worse outcomes in all areas (education, employment, homelessness, justice system involvement, and social support) compared to the general population. These outcomes represent an ideological production, or a production of knowledge regarding the discursive youth in care. Thus, dominant discourses of youth are informed and constitutive of these problematic outcomes. Similarly, youthhood is dominantly defined by risk and informed by peer groups and social relationships. This study presents findings from interviews with 22 youth preparing to …

The Mechanisms Connecting State Marijuana Policies To Parent, Peer, And Youth Drug Perception Leading To Youth Marijuana Use, Eunbyeor Sophie Yang

Dissertations and Theses

Youth marijuana use, which can lead to numerous health problems, is significantly associated with youth drug perception, which is greatly influenced by state marijuana laws such as medical marijuana legalization and penalty severity. The mediating impact of social drug perceptions on the association between state marijuana laws and youth drug disapproval is not well known. Based on theory of change and primary socialization theory, this study examined the impact of state marijuana laws on youth drug disapproval, the mediating factors of parent and peer drug disapproval, the direct effect of youth drug disapproval on youth marijuana use, and the moderating …

"I'M Very Enlightened:" Assisting Black Males Involved In The Criminal Justice System To Deal With And Heal From Racism, Darnell Jackie Strong

Dissertations and Theses

Black Males who have offended face major challenges stemming from their involvement in the Criminal Justice System. Once involved it is hard to get out, as exhibited by high recidivism rates and mass incarceration, issues that have plagued Black Males since slavery. There is little research on interventions to ameliorate the effects of racism on this population.

The aim of this research was to: a) create a training to help Black Males who have been involved in the Criminal Justice System deal with racism and b) evaluate the intervention. This mixed methods research utilized Constructivist Grounded Theory and Afrocentric theory …

Examining The Role Of Social Support And Neighborhood Deprivation In The Relationship Between Multiple Aces And Health Risk Behaviors, Marin L. Henderson-Posther

Dissertations and Theses

The accumulation of multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is associated with the disproportionate development of health risk behaviors (HRBs), such as smoking, substance use, physical inactivity, and risky HIV behaviors. The impact of neighborhood social inequities on the association between multiple ACEs and HRBs is not well known. This study aims to examine the impact of stressors associated with neighborhood deprivation on ACE-related HRBs, the potential protective factor of perceived social support (PSS), as well as better understand disproportionality experienced by racial/ethnic minorities. Through merging data from the 2010 Washington State Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey (n = …

E(Raced): Race And Use Of Self Amongst Bipoc Social Workers, Anita Reinette Gooding

Dissertations and Theses

Use of self is defined as the social worker's instrument, and involves an intentional engagement of one's personhood in ways that facilitate client change (Heyt & Sherman, 2005). This dissertation argues that race is one component of the social worker's self that is visible, and that can affect how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) social workers use self in their practice. Using Critical Race Theory, Social Identity Theory and an Interpretive Description methodology, this dissertation engages 27 BIPOC field instructors in semi-structured interviews in order to answer the following research questions: a) What are the components of use …

Examining The Narratives Of Military Sexual Trauma Survivors, Maria Carolina GonzáLez-Prats

Dissertations and Theses

Background: The return of military sexual trauma (MST) to the national spotlight has been fueled by a combination of continued reports of sexual assaults across the various military branches, increased visibility of sexual abuse scandals in the media, and mounting calls for accountability from veteran advocacy groups and legislators. Although there have been numerous reforms implemented by the military, there still exists a significant gap between the military's official efforts and the reality of the survivors' experiences. Consequently, more research is needed to understand how survivors perceive the military's efforts, how these efforts affect their experiences, and how future …

Social Saints In The City: Race, Space, And Religion In Chicago Women's Settlement Work, 1890-1935, Johanna Katherine Murphy

Dissertations and Theses

Many scholars on the settlement movement have mentioned Hull-House's interactions with the Catholic Church and/or the surrounding immigrant communities, but have failed to fully examine the dynamic between Hull-House women, Catholic laywomen who took up settlement work, and the various Catholic immigrant groups of Chicago. This research seeks to place these relationships within the context of space -- meaning physical space in the neighborhood, access to spaces, and space as influence. This lens acts as a thread connecting the tangled and fluctuating dynamics of race, ethnicity, religion, and gender surrounding the settlement house movement.

Hull-House residents and Catholic laywomen contended …

The Economically Disadvantaged Speak: Exploring The Intersection Of Poverty, Race, Child Neglect And Racial Disproportionality In The Child Welfare System, Angela Gail Cause

Dissertations and Theses

The relationship between poverty and child maltreatment has long been addressed in the literature. Disproportionally, children, especially those of color, are more likely to live in poverty than adults. It has been established that the risk of child maltreatment increases the longer impoverishment is experienced. Thus, the likelihood that racial disproportionality may have negative impact upon the child welfare system is potentially increased. Much attention has been given to the overrepresentation of certain children of color within the child welfare system when cared to their representation within the general population. This study explores the intersection of poverty and race upon …

A Colorless Nature: Exploring The Mental Health (Help-Seeking) Experiences Of Pre-Adolescent Black American Children, Christopher Ashley Burkett

Dissertations and Theses

Black American children and adults seeking help for mental health concerns face countless obstacles rooted in systematic oppression, institutional inequalities, and structural disparities; consequently, accessing essential services at much lower rates than their White American counterparts. The unidentified and untreated mental health issues of Black American children and youth can have catastrophic life outcomes for them. Some researchers cite barriers such as stigmatization, negative attitudes toward mental health services, and a lack of culturally relevant treatment models as explanations for these impediments to mental health (help-seeking). It is my contention that these analyses are arguably incomplete, despite having accurate elements. …

Organizational Risk In Multi-Sector Health Partnerships: A Case Study Of Oregon's Accountable Health Communities, Shauna Jean Nicole Petchel

Dissertations and Theses

The literature on collective action has documented that the perception of organizational risk -- both the uncertainty of potential outcomes and the meaning attached to them -- is an important factor in whether and how organizations engage in cross-sector collaborations. Yet there are few examples to date that document how health and social service leaders perceive organizational risks in cross-sector health partnerships focused on social determinants of health, or how their perceptions influence organizational commitment and willingness to engage in these partnerships over time.

This research aimed to fill this gap through a mixed methods case study of health and …

Support From Inside Out: Exploring Whether Various Social Supports Assist In Reducing Prison Rule Violations, Sarah Renee Lazzari

Dissertations and Theses

Scholars argue that prison rule violations are a way to assess whether individuals are engaging in prosocial behaviors. Individuals who engage in prosocial behaviors, during periods of incarceration, are less likely to engage in behaviors that result in official rule violations. Decreasing rule violations is one way to work towards a safer prison environment, while also preparing individuals for release. The current study uses cross-sectional data form the 2004 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Facilities, in order to examine whether multiple types of prisons programs, which will be framed as various types of social supports, influence the frequency …

Attrition And Psychotherapy, Jesse Barrington Homan

Dissertations and Theses

Attrition in psychotherapy, also known as dropout, is a problem that affects clients who terminate, their families, therapists, mental health systems, and the overall community. Research on attrition is vast. However, the majority of this research has been done post hoc, relied on quantitative methods, and looked primarily at client demographic variables as the predictors of attrition. This has resulted in inconsistent findings, offers little to no useful information about attrition, and appears to blame clients for failed therapy. There has been little research on attrition from the perspective of clients who terminate. This study was designed to answer the …

Interrogating The Construction And Representations Of Criminalized Women In The Academic Social Work Literature: A Critical Discourse Analysis, Sandra Marie Leotti

Dissertations and Theses

In the United States today, there are 2.3 million people behind bars in jails and prisons. Mass incarceration has swept up the United States to such a degree that we are known globally for holding more people in correctional facilities than any other country in the world. Although women have always, and still do, reflect a smaller proportion of the correctional population, over the last 40 years, their rates of criminalization and imprisonment have far outpaced that of men's. Drastic increases in the criminalization of women are intimately connected to the entrenchment of social disadvantage enabled under neoliberal globalization. Neoliberal …

Physical And Emotional Sibling Violence And Child Welfare: A Critical Realist Exploratory Study, Katherine Elizabeth Winters

Dissertations and Theses

Sibling violence is a pervasive, yet poorly understood and substantially underreported phenomenon. Currently recognized as the most common form of intra-familial abuse, various estimates suggest that 30 percent or more of children in the general population experience severe acts of violence inflicted by a sibling each year.

Given that many young people in the child welfare system experience the family conditions associated with abusive sibling violence, recent publications have implored child welfare to embrace the notion that it is a form of child maltreatment. Practitioners and policymakers have yet to reach agreement on what constitutes physical or emotional abuse between …

Our Vision Of Health For Future Generations: An Exploration Of Proximal And Intermediary Motivations With Women Of The Choctaw Nation Of Oklahoma, Danica Love Brown

Dissertations and Theses

Health disparities and substance misuse are increasingly prevalent, costly, and deadly in Indian Country. Although women historically held positions of influence in pre-colonial Tribal societies and shared in optimum health, their current health is relegated to some of the worst outcomes across all racial groups in the United States. Women of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) have some of the highest prevalence estimates in physical inactivity and excessive drinking in the United States. Building on the Indigenous Stress Coping model of indigenous health, "Our Vision of Health for Future Generations" explores the intersection of a historical event, the Trail …

Investigating Time During Residential Program Until Transition For Adjudicated Youth: A Mixed Methods Study Using Event History Analysis With Follow-Up Interviews, Emily Carol Lott

Dissertations and Theses

Residential placement is considered the most severe sanction for adjudicated youth, yet there is little consensus on best practices and interventions in residential settings. Demographic trends in the juvenile justice system further exacerbate challenges in studying residential placements. Disparities among minority youth, diverging state definitions of juvenile sex offenses, discrepancies in recidivism measures, and variations in local and state juvenile courts have contributed to a convoluted system that has struggled to identify the meaning of "success" in residential settings.

Building on theories of engagement in residential care and program theory of change, this mixed methods study explores how various components …

The Intersections Of Good Intentions, Criminality, And Anti-Carceral Feminist Logic: A Qualitative Study That Explores Sex Trades Content In Social Work Education, Meg Rose Panichelli

Dissertations and Theses

This study uses anti-carceral feminist logic to explore the cultural meanings, criminal implications, and neoliberal influence that shape the landscape of social work education about the sex trades in the United States and transnationally. "What are social work instructors teaching students about the sex trades in coursework?" is the question that directs the study, which uses a feminist qualitative methodology inclusive of intersectional feminist epistemology as well as direct content analysis. To answer this question, I analyzed 20 social work course syllabi from sex trade related courses across the contiguous United States and interviewed 20 social work instructors from 14 …

A Foucaultian Discourse Analysis Of Person-Centered Practice Using A Genealogical Framework Of Intellectual Disability, Nick Winges-Yanez

Dissertations and Theses

A genealogical framework highlights the important role sexuality has played in constructing the current label of intellectual disability (ID). The genealogical framework is meant to replace the social, medical, and/or rights-based model(s) that have dominated social work and social services working in the disability field. With this framework, or perspective, I use a Foucaultian discourse analysis to read through seminal texts regarding person-centered practice.

Person-centered practice is the foremost intervention used in social work, and other disciplines, to work with people labeled with intellectual disability. My research questions focus on what is revealed about ID in PCP through a genealogical …