Social Work Commons^™

Executive Summary: Midwest Evaluation Of The Adult Functioning Of Former Foster Youth: Outcomes At Age 21, Mark E. Courtney, Amy Lynn Dworsky, Gretchen Ruth Cusick, Judy Havlicek, Alfred Perez, Thomas E. Keller

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (Midwest Study) is a longitudinal study that has been following a sample of young people from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois as they transition out of foster care into adulthood. It is a collaborative effort involving Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago; the University of Wisconsin Survey Center; and the public child welfare agencies in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. This executive summary report concentrates on the outcomes of 21 year old youth as they "age out" of the child welfare system and transition to adulthood.

Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: An Evaluation Tool Kit, Kathy S. Hepburn, Roxane K. Kaufmann, Deborah F. Perry, Mary Dallas Allen, Eileen M. Brennan, Beth L. Green

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

For states, communities, agencies and programs investing in early childhood mental health consultation and committed to quality data. This web-based resource combines a brief review of the literature and current research addressing the effectiveness of early childhood mental health consultation with guidance for designing and implementing program evaluation. It will help states, communities, and programs increase their capacity for high-quality evaluation of early childhood mental health consultation in community-based settings. Researchers, policy makers and program evaluation teams will find: A brief review of the evidence base, current issues, and questions; Defining characteristics of early childhood mental health consultation; Components of …

Approaching The Transition To Adulthood: Distinctive Profiles Of Adolescents Aging Out Of The Child Welfare System, Thomas E. Keller, Gretchen Ruth Cusick, Mark E. Courtney

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The transition to adulthood is marked by new roles and responsibilities in such interrelated domains as education, employment, and family formation. This study investigates the capacity of adolescents on the verge of emancipation from the child welfare system to navigate this transition. To explore heterogeneity in adolescents' preparation for independent living, person-oriented methods are applied to a large, representative sample of youth about to exit foster care. The analysis suggests four subpopulations defined by distinctive profiles on indicators reflecting multiple domains of life experience. Identifying the particular needs and challenges of subpopulations has implications for efforts to match adolescents aging …

Determinants Of Substance Abuse Among Incarcerated Adolescents: Implications For Brief Treatment And Crisis Intervention, Stephen J. Tripodi, David W. Springer, Kevin Corcoran

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study assessed the determinants of substance abuse among incarcerated youth. Because substance abuse is a predictor of incarceration and conduct disorder is known to increase the chances of youth abusing substances, the purpose of this study was to determine what seminal symptoms of conduct disorder seem to be the risk factors for substance abusers among incarcerated youth. Data were collected on 83 youth in southern Oregon, 74 males and 9 females. Logistic regression found the overall model containing 6 symptoms of conduct disorder to be significantly related to substance abuse (p , .001). When looking at the 6 symptoms …

Parents As Navigators: How Caregivers Of Children With Mental Health Difficulties Find Supports In The Workplace, Katherine J. Huffstutter, Jennifer R. Bradley, Eileen M. Brennan, Marlene Penn, Julie M. Rosenzweig

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

For some parents, the gap between the demands of work and family and the resources they have available to meet these responsibilities is too great, particularly for employed parents of children with emotional or behavioral disorders (Brennan & Brannan, 2005). While responding to the increasing demands of the workplace for dedicated performance and significant facetime, parents must also arrange for their children's treatment, see that their educational needs are met, and provide enrichment opportunities in the community (Huang et al., 2005). Despite challenges, these parents have used creative approaches to "cobble together" flexible arrangements that work for both their families …

How Human Resource Professionals Manage Diversity: Decisions On Flexible Work Arrangements For Parents Of Children With Disabilities, Julie M. Rosenzweig, Eileen M. Brennan, Katherine J. Huffstutter, Daniel Coleman

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

PDF version of a presentation given at the Community, Work and Family II International Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, April 2007.

Access To Child Care For Children With Emotional Or Behavioral Challenges: An Essential Element Of Family Support, Eileen M. Brennan, Julie M. Rosenzweig, Anna M. Malsch, Katherine J. Huffstutter, Lisa Maureen Stewart, John Conley

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Parents don't always feel they can disclose the special needs of their children to other families or even caregivers unless it is obvious they have had the training and skills to handle the situation. They also may not disclose their children's special needs to their employer, unless difficulties arranging and keeping child care make disclosure necessary. Major policy issue but unknown to public because many families do not disclose. Reality is that 1 in 5 families have a child with special needs. Research implications---parents develop strategies to keep their jobs and keep child care. Parents often have to choose between …

Taking It On: Disclosure, Stigmatization, And Self-Esteem, Eileen M. Brennan, Julie M. Rosenzweig, Anna M. Malsch, Lisa Maureen Stewart, John Conley

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

PDF version of a presentation given at the Building on Family Strengths: State of the Science Conference, Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health, Portland, OR, in May 2007.

Assessing The Business Case For Flexible Work Arrangements, Eileen M. Brennan, Julie M. Rosenzweig, Katherine J. Huffstutter, Lisa Maureen Stewart, Daniel Coleman

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

PDF version of a presentation given at the 87th Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association. Vancouver, BC, May 2007.

What Makes Mentoring Effective? How Research Can Guide You In Selecting A Program, Julia M. Pryce, Michael Stokely Kelly, Thomas E. Keller

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article focuses on how mentoring can be made more effective through research which would allow a better means for evaluating various mentoring programs

Program Staff In Youth Mentoring Programs: Qualifications, Training, And Retention, Thomas E. Keller

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Considering the many ways in which program staff may influence the experiences of mentors, youth, and parents in mentoring interventions, the author advocates that greater attention be devoted to the recruitment, training, and retention of qualified and competent program professionals in the field of youth mentoring. Research from similar fields is informative, but inferences and implications drawn from these studies may not translate directly to the realities of youth mentoring programs. The investigation of staffing issues in youth mentoring presents an opportunity to guide investment in the infrastructure of the youth mentoring movement and to ultimately improve the quality and …

Partner Interference With Health Care: Do We Want One More Piece Of A Complex Puzzle?, Christina Nicolaidis

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

As I sit down to write, scattered images of former patients fill my mind: a well-educated, elderly woman presenting to the hospital 2 days after having a large myocardial infarction; a young diabetic woman with erratic blood glucose control; one of my colleague’s “frequent flyers” coming in to see me on a Friday afternoon, panicked, asking for yet another early refill of her hydrocodone; a very ill, middle-aged woman whose doting husband kept immaculate notes on her many medical issues and 12 medications. Each of these women has her own, complex story. Each had a partner who negatively interfered with …

Best Practices For Increasing Meaningful Youth Participation In Collaborative Team Planning, Janet S. Walker, Barbara J. Friesen, Rujuta Gaonkar, Beckie Child, Laurie E. Powers, Ariel Holman

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Human service and educational agencies and systems often convene teams to work collaboratively on plans for serving children or youth. This is particularly true for children and youth who are involved with multiple systems or who are felt to be in need of intensive intervention. hese kinds of planning teams include IEP (Individualized Education Plan) teams, wraparound teams, foster care Independent Living Program teams, transition planning teams, youth/family decision teams, and other teams that create service or treatment plans. Unfortunately, it is often true that these plans are created for youth, with little input or buy-in from the young people …

Book Review Of, Foundations Of Evidence Based Social Work Practice, Daniel Coleman

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Foundations of Evidence Based Social Work Practice", by Albert R. Roberts and Kenneth R. Yeager

Relationship Between Resident Workload And Self-Perceived Learning On Inpatient Medicine Wards: A Longitudinal Study, Elizabeth M. Haney, Christina Nicolaidis, Alan Hunter, Benjamin K. Chan, Thomas G. Cooney, Judith L. Bowen

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Despite recent residency workload and hour limitations, little research on the relationship between workload and learning has been done. We sought to define residents' perceptions of the optimal patient workload for learning, and to determine how certain variables contribute to those perceptions. Our hypothesis was that the relationship between perceived workload and learning has a maximum point (forming a parabolic curve): that either too many or too few patients results in sub-optimal learning.

Methods: Residents on inpatient services at two academic teaching hospitals reported their team and individual patient censuses, and rated their perception of their learning; the patient …

Parents As Navigators: How Caregivers Of Children With Mental Health Difficulties Find Supports In The Workplace, Eileen M. Brennan, Marlene Penn, Katherine J. Huffstutter, Jennifer R. Bradley, Julie M. Rosenzweig

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Presentation given at the 19th Annual Research Conference: A System of Care for Children's Mental Health: Expanding the Research Base, Tampa, FL, February 2006.

"Come Pick Up Your Child!" Integrating Work And Family Life For Parents Of School-Aged Children With Mental Health Challenges, Eileen M. Brennan, Ana Maria Brannan, Judy Kendall, Jennifer R. Bradley, Katherine J. Huffstutter

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Our research team sought to discover the factors that lead to the unemployment of parents of children with mental health disorders. Our preliminary analyses and findings are reported in this presentation. We controlled for factors that affect participation in the paid workforce for parents in general: (a) child age, (b) level of caregiver education, and (c) the number of children in the household. We also introduced factors that pertain specifically to families that have children with emotional or behavioral disorders: the level of the child's internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and the number of child absences from school. Our research was …

Managing Employees Dependent Care Challenges: Human Resource Professionals' Perspectives, Jennifer R. Bradley, Katherine J. Huffstutter, Eileen M. Brennan, Julie M. Rosenzweig

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

PDF version of a presentation given at the 86th annual meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Palm Springs, CA.

Families Challenged By Children's Mental Health: Employment And Community Integration, Eileen M. Brennan, Katherine J. Huffstutter, Julie M. Rosenzweig, Jennifer R. Bradley

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Slides of a presentation given to the conference 'Work, Stress, and Health 2006: Making a Difference in the Workplace' held in Miami, FL, in 2006.

Patterns Of Risk And Trajectories Of Preschool Problem Behaviors: A Person-Oriented Analysis Of Attachment In Context, Thomas E. Keller, Susan J. Spieker, Lewayne D. Gilchrist

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

A small proportion of children exhibit extreme and persistent conduct problems through childhood. The present study employed the multiple-domain model of Greenberg and colleagues as the framework for person-oriented analyses examining whether parents' child attachment combines with parenting, family ecology, and child characteristics in particular configurations of risk that are linked to this problematic developmental pathway. Using prospective data from a community sample of adolescent mothers and their children, latent variable growth mixture modeling identified a normative trajectory with declining problem behaviors during the preschool period. Consistent with research on early-starter pathways, a distinct group of children featured a higher …

Men As Caregivers At The End Of Life, Erik K. Fromme, Linda L. Drach, Susan W. Tolle, Patricia Ebert, Pamela Miller, Nancy Perrin, Virginia P. Tilden

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Few studies have focused on men as caregivers at the end-of-life. The objective of this secondary data analysis was to examine the experiences of men involved in end-oflife caregiving, focusing on caregiver strain.

Methods: We used a random sample of Oregon death certificates to telephone survey family caregivers of Oregonians who had died 2 to 5 months earlier in private homes, nursing homes, and other community-based settings. Measurements included single-item indicators and embedded scales to measure caregiver strain and perceived decedent symptom distress. For the 25 husbands, sons, wives, and daughters who reported the highest levels of strain, we …

Health Care Workers' Expectations And Empathy Toward Patients In Abusive Relationships, Christina Nicolaidis, Maryann Curry, Martha Gerrity

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose: To understand attitudes that may affect health care workers' ability to provide appropriate long-term care for patients who stay with abusive partners.

Methods: We surveyed 278 health care workers in 31 primary care practices before their participation in an educational intervention.

Results: More than half of participants (51% to 60%) found it easy to empathize with a patient who decided to remain in an abusive relationship if the patient was described as poor or disabled, but few (25% to 39%) could empathize if the patient was described as educated or financially secure. A majority (57% to 59%) agreed with …

Management Of Menopause-Related Symptoms, Heidi D. Nelson, Elizabeth M. Haney, Laura Humphrey, Jill Miller, Anne Nedrow, Christina Nicolaidis, Kimberly K. Vesco, Miranda Walker, Christina Bougatsos, Peggy Nygren

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although many measures have been developed to assess menopausal symptoms, few demonstrate standardization, validity, or reliability. Some measures are based on self-reports of the presence, severity, and frequency of individual symptoms, such as hot flashes. Others utilize cumulative or global scores based on lists or scales of symptoms attributed to menopause, such as mood, cognition, quality of life, sexual function, and somatic symptoms. Many studies base their measures on study-specific checklists, questionnaires, or scales. Ninety-two measures of menopausal symptoms were reported by studies included in this evidence review. This systematic evidence review focuses on five Key Questions relating to symptoms …

The Impact Of Domestic Violence On Depression In Teen Mothers: Is The Fear Or Threat Of Violence Sufficient?, Barbara Mary Sussex, Kevin Corcoran

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this study was to assess whether the fear or threat of intimate partner violence (IPV) impacted depression and peer support among a population of pregnant and parenting female adolescents, and whether cessation made a difference. The sample consisted of 286 teen mothers participating in a substance abuse prevention intervention. Data were self-report assessed at 6-month intervals from entry through 18 months. IPV was defined by a report of avoidance of another within the past 6 months out of fear or threat of violence and was also assessed for those aged 18 and older with measures from the …

Adolescents Growing Up In Stressful Environments, Dual Diagnosis, And Sources Of Success, Albert R. Roberts, Kevin Corcoran

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article considers the social and psychological challenges to youth in contemporary society. The authors examine the variety of social impediments that face youths in most of our social institutions, from schools and the juvenile justice system to the family. They underscore the need for prevention, health promotion, and comprehensive assessment. Further, they assert that ‘‘dual diagnosis’’ needs to be considered not as a ‘‘special population’’ but as the typical or common experience of at-risk youths once they are diagnosed at mental health centers or juvenile justice reception and diagnostic centers. They conclude that evidence-based assessment, intervention, prevention, and health …

The Oregon Mental Health Referral Checklists: Concept Mapping The Mental Health Needs Of Youth In The Juvenile Justice System, Kevin Corcoran

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article summarizes the development of checklists to identify the mental health needs of youth in the juvenile justice system. With concept mapping as its base, a 31-item checklist was developed in three parallel forms and assessed on three samples: youth in a locked correctional facility and parents and juvenile justice professionals of adjudicate youth who were sentenced to community service. The instruments appear to have acceptable to very good internal consistency and moderate to strong coefficients of equivalence. Total symptoms were associated with internal and external problems for youth, suggestions from a trusted friend that one might have a …

Midwest Evaluation Of The Adult Functioning Of Former Foster Youth: Outcomes At Age 19, Mark E. Courtney, Amy Lynn Dworsky, Gretchen Ruth, Thomas E. Keller, Judy Havlicek, Noel S. Bost

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (Midwest Study) is a longitudinal study that has been following a sample of young people from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois as they transition out of foster care into adulthood. It is a collaborative effort involving Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago; the University of Wisconsin Survey Center; and the public child welfare agencies in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. This report concentrates on the outcomes of 19 year old youth as they "age out" of the child welfare system and transition to adulthood.

Participation In The Paid Labor Force By Caregivers Of Children With Emotional And Behavioral Disorders, Eileen M. Brennan, Ana Maria Brannan

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

We explored the relationship between school-age children's emotional and behavioral symptoms and workforce participation of their family caregivers using structural equation modeling. Secondary analysis of data from the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program was performed with a subsample of 2,585 caregivers. Findings from structural equation modeling indicated that higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms were significant predictors of more frequent school absences, less adequate childcare, and greater caregiver strain related to missing work. In turn, more adequate childcare and greater caregiver strain from missed work were associated with lower …

Work-Life Integration For Families Having Children With Mental Health Disorders, Eileen M. Brennan, Julie M. Rosenzweig, Barbara J. Friesen

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

PDF version of a presentation given at the 37th World Congress of the International Institute of Sociology, Stockholm, Sweden, July 2005.

Families In Context: Work-Life Integration Experiences Of Parents Of Children With Mental Health Disabilities, Julie M. Rosenzweig, Jennifer R. Bradley, Katherine J. Huffstutter, Eileen M. Brennan

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

PDF version of a presentation given at the Community, Work and Family Conference, Manchester, UK, March 2005.