Social Work Commons^™

Evaluating A Day Treatment Program For Children With Serious Emotional Disorders, Nicole Lynn Lee

Theses and Dissertations

The current study used a longitudinal design to evaluate a day treatment program for children with serious emotional disorder located in Richmond, Virginia (N = 101). Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (Hodges, 1984, 1999) results were analyzed from children who had attended the program for at least six months. Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance tests indicated that children attending YDT for nine months improved their overall functioning F(2, 217) = 26.23, p = .01 as well as their functioning at school F(3,279)= 10.822, p =.01, home F(3, 244) = 6.120, p = .01, and in the community F(3, 238) …

Interorganizational Collaboration: An Examination Of Factors That Influence The Motivation For Participation In A Collaborative Partnership Of Homeless Service Providers, Jan Marva Ivery

Theses and Dissertations

This project was a mixed methods study that examined the collaboration dimensions of Homeward's planning process and the factors that motivate organizations to participate. The study examined the collaborative strategy used by an organization called Homeward located in Richmond, Virginia. Homeward is a broker organization (Chaskin, Brown, Venkatesh, & Vidal, 2001) that was created in 1998 to mediate and nurture relationships among partnering organizations in order to facilitate the collaborative process required by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to receive Continuum of Care funding. During the quantitative component of the study, a survey was sent …

A Qualitative Study Of The Lived Experience Of Single, Gay Adoptive Fathers, John Daryl Matthews

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study expands the existing literature on fatherhood, single parents, and gay and lesbian adoption to include the unique experiences of single, gay men who became adoptive parents after "coming out", or establishing a gay identity. To illustrate these unique and common experiences, individual ethnographic interviews were conducted with 16 fathers residing throughout the United States, as well as internationally. Specifically, this study explored the participants' experiences through their reflections of the adoption process, and through their experiences after the family was established. The participants had experiences to those found in previous studies on gay and lesbian adoption and …

A Constructivist Inquiry Of Church-State Relationships For Faith-Based Organizations, Jon Eric Singletary

Theses and Dissertations

Faith-based initiatives have the potential to alter church-state relationships as they remove barriers to the public funding of human services in organizations that promote the role of values, beliefs, and other characteristics of faith. In seeking to "level the playing field" for these faith-based organizations, faith-based initiatives suggest moving away from past practices, where "religious" organizations utilized public funding for the delivery of "secular" human services, and toward the public funding support of organizations whose human service activities are based on faith in a more thoroughgoing manner.This research inquires into meanings assigned to opportunities and risks related to the public …

Family-Centered Practice In Early Intervention Services For Infants And Toddlers: The Experience Of Families And Professionals In One Local Interagency Coordinating Council, Patrick Shannon

Theses and Dissertations

Part H [recently reauthorized as Part C] of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates the application of family-centered practice principles to early intervention services. There has been a considerable amount of literature published in early intervention journals related to family and professional relationships in early intervention and its connection to family-centered care in early intervention services. There is very little literature, however, that examined the implementation of family-centered principles from a perspective that transcended the relationship between families and early intervention providers.

This inquiry was a constructivist policy analysis of the implementation of the family-centered intent of Part …

The Relationship Between Employers' Perceived Organizational Context And Their Impressions Of The Employability Of Job Applicants With Either A Severe Psychiatric Or Physical Disability, John Constantine Bricout

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the relationship between favorable employability ratings of hypothetical job applicants with a severe disability and two aspects of employers' perceived organizational context: organizational climate and negotiation latitude, using a cross-sectional, correlational design. A survey including a hypothetical job applicant vignette in one of three conditions: non-disabled, severe physical disability (acquired brain injury), severe psychiatric disability (schizophrenia) was mailed out to a random sample of 1,000 employers selected from a national human resource membership list. Responses were received from 248 employers. The chief purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between employers' perceived organizational context and …

Factors Affecting Social Workers' Political Participation: Resources, Professional Associations And Perceived Efficacy, David Henry Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

Research has indicated that social workers are more politically active than the general public (Wolk, 1981; Parker and Sherraden, 1991), but their effectiveness has been questioned (Mathews, 1982). There are differences among social workers, but explanations of differences between "very active" and "inactive" have relied primarily on practice setting or method. However, research in political science has shown that income, education, involvement in associations, and perceived political efficacy, are significant predictors of who does not participate (Verba, Schlozman, and Brady, 1995).

Five hundred certified social workers were surveyed regarding how often they engaged in political activities (e.g., voting and campaigning) …

The Relationship Between Task Performance And Perceived Quality Of Life Of Families With Adopted Special-Needs Children, Bibhuti Kumar Sar

Theses and Dissertations

A correlational approach was utilized in this study to investigate the relationship between adoption related task performance and perceived quality of life of families with an adopted special-needs child. Additionally, a set of contextual variables suggested by the literature to influence family functioning with an adopted special-needs child were also studied. Purposive and availability sampling approaches were employed to identify the sample of special-needs adoptive families (N = 289) to whom a survey questionnaire was sent. Both mothers and fathers were asked to complete the Survey.

Eighty-six mothers and 53 fathers completed and returned the survey questionnaire ( N: 91 …

Adult Sibling Loss: Family Dynamics And Individual Adult Sibling Loss: Family Dynamics And Individual Characteristics, Stephen D. Stahlman

Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigated family, individual and sibling relationship variables of adult sibling loss, using a cross-sectional survey design. A purposive sampling procedure was used to recruit adult subjects that had experienced the death of an adult sibling within the last five years. Ninety-four subjects responded to the initial request with 84 subjects returning questionnaires for an 89% response rate. Family variables of communication, cohesion, and adaptability and individual variables of individuation, self esteem as well as level of grief were operationalized using standardized instruments through a mailed questionnaire.

It was predicted that significant relationships would be found between family …

Stress And Social Support Of Parents With An Adult Mentally Retarded Child, Nancy Patricia Kropf

Theses and Dissertations

Parent-child caregiving is the most basic caregiving situation. However, parents who continue to provide care to an adult mentally retarded child have been an unexamined group of caregivers. This study compared stress levels and social support constellations among these caregivers and two other groups of parents.

The study tested two major hypotheses. Parents who were caregivers for an adult child with mental retardation were predicted to report higher stress levels and smaller social support constellations than the other groups. Two comparison groups were included in the study. One group was parents of an mentally retarded child who did not live …

National Certification As A Performance Measure: Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, 1977-1982, Barbara Hall Dunn

Theses and Dissertations

This research involved an analysis of data for 3,387 candidates who took the National Qualifying Examination for pediatric nurse practitioners/associates between 1977 and 1982. Those data were available from the National Board of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners and Associates, which administers the examination, and its testing agency, the National Board of Medical Examiners. Included in the data were sociodemographic characteristics of examinees, characteristics of their nurse practitioner educational programs, and their composite examination scores.

The purpose of the research was to determine the ability of these sociodemographic and educational program variables to predict examination performance. Sociodemographic variables included: examinee age; highest …

Social Support Systems Of A Selected Sample Of Older Women, Carol Thorpe Tully

Theses and Dissertations

In an effort to examine social organizational structures and support systems in the social world of the older lesbian woman, 73 self-identified lesbian women fifty years of age or older provided data on their personal interactions with the economic, political, educational, religious, social welfare and familial social systems of the heterosexual culture and the homosexual subculture. Results from this cross-sectional survey depict the sample as well educated, professional, financially secure, politically liberal women in good health who are selective with whom they reveal their sexual orientation. The knowledge of their lesbianism is shared more with female friends than with family …

A Follow-Up Study Of Fifty-Two Richmond Public School Pupils Given Psychiatric Staffing During The 1966-1967 School Year, David F. Hopkins, James A. Ryan, Sandra Laverne Wright

Theses and Dissertations

This research study is a descriptive study of the effectiveness of the psychiatric staffing as determined by a follow-up study of fifty-two Richmond Public School Pupils given such staffing during the l966-67 school year. The review of pertinent literature reveals what others have contributed to the knowledge of the nature and function of the school helping team. The teamwork approach, which involves the efforts of several professions and disciplines working closely together, is seen as the best present method to meet the complex, overlapping needs which have been found to affect students' learning.

As a means of establishing guidelines and …

Implementation Of The Economic Opportunity Act Of 1964 As Evidenced By A Community Action Program In Baltimore, Maryland, Maria M. Carroll

Theses and Dissertations

This research is directed to a rough and beginning evaluation of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 as evidenced through one Community Action Program, the Neighborhood Development Program, in Baltimore, Maryland during the late fall of 1966. In this study the implementation of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 is evaluated according to the perceptions of the Neighborhood Development Assistants who are the indigenous workers in the program. The purposes of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and each Community Action Program were taken directly from the Act itself, and then various phrases were operationally defined.

The data was collected …