Social Work Commons^™

Contributions To The Resilience Of Foster Care Graduates, Susan Esther Silva-Wayne

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation reports on a study undertaken to learn, from young adults doing well in the community after being graduate from lengthy periods of out-of-home-care, what these veterans named as contributions of the system to their resilience. In-depth interviews with nineteen successful long-term child welfare graduates have produced over five hundred pages of transcribed interview data, which has been coded, analyzed and the findings from which are presented in this report. The findings are necessarily based on a specific definition of “successful” employed in conceptualizing the project and gathering the sample which, although it attempts to minimize class bias nonetheless …

Engaging Denial Through Spirituality: An Ethnographic Study Of Caregivers Of The Elderly And Implications For Pastoral Care, Ian Elliott Gartshore

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The paper examines a number of studies conducted on caregivers of the institutionalized elderly, including a large qualitative research project conducted by the author and a hospital administrator. Finding that many professional caregivers of the aged continue to deny their own aging and death to some degree, this paper seeks to chart the relationship between such denial and spiritual wholeness. The facets of denial, both positive and negative, are examined in the light of the dual nature of spirituality. Midlife is viewed as being the crucial time for growth and well-being for oneself and for the wider community, including the …

Hearing Metaphor: A Study Of Clients' Use Of Language In A Family Therapy Situation, Christopher Allen Whynot

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Metaphor is defined as a central function of language by which different realms of experience are conjoined and which operates at the nexus of internal and social processes. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in an exploratory study of metaphor use by families in therapy. Significant differences were found in quantity of metaphor use along gender and generational axes. Content analysis also identified some suggestive differences with respect to issues of agency and imagery along lines of gender and parenting status. Categories nominated from the identified metaphors are also suggestive of the differential dilemmas faced by the clients. The study …

The Young Adult Substance Abuse Clinic. A Program Evaluation: Process And Immediate Output, Kimberly Calderwood

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

ln this program evaluation, I present the demographic characteristics and underlying problems of YASAC’s clientele. The clients’ level of satisfaction regarding the services provided is also examined. A comparison of the results with YASAC's implementation objectives as well as its current goals and objectives helps to determine some of the clinic’s strengths and weaknesses. An extensive literature review provides the basis for six hypotheses used to address the following three questions: (1) whether clients involved with probation and parole differ from other clients in terms of successful completion of the program, (2) whether clients’ attitudes toward their alcohol and drug …

Southeast Asian Refugees In Canada: Gender Differences In Adaptation And Mental Health, Roger Gary Edwards

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis involves secondary analysis of epidemiological data concerning a large cohort of Southeast Asian refugees resettled in British Columbia, Canada, who were surveyed three times over a ten year period. Male-female differences in the mental health impact of adaptational demands, such as the acquisition of host language skills and securing employment were the focus for the thesis. The psychometric properties of the mental health scales used in the study demonstrated high internal consistencies and construct validity in both male and female samples. There was evidence to suggest that the external validity of the study was somewhat compromised by the …

Canadian Social Work Education From The Standpoint Of Gay Men, Brian Joseph O'Neill

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study explores issues related to same-gender sexual orientation in social work education from the standpoint of gay men. The literature suggests that the effectiveness of social services is limited by social workers’ lack of knowledge and sensitivity regarding same-gender sexual orientation. This problem is significant because at least 10% of the population are sexually attracted to members of their own gender and because clients from this segment of the population may have service needs different than those of heterosexuals, particularly related to societal discrimination based on sexual orientation. The purpose of this inquiry is to identify changes needed in …

Boards Of Directors Of Social Service Agencies In A Government Planning System, David Clarence Este

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In theory, boards of directors of nonprofit organizations are thought to be instrumental in their agency’s effective functioning, and the available professional literature supports this perception. The board’s supposed duties are usually listed for members and others in the form of impressively-worded declarations of intent. Board members are expected to help formulate the organization’s mission statement, and provide a sense of direction. In an effort to ensure that their organization fulfills its mandate, board members are also expected to perform an array of internal and external functions designed to optimize the agency’s operation. This study presents the results of interviews …

The Implications Of Caring For Sexually Abused Girls: The Foster Parents' Perspective, Tracy A. Swan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

The Foster Care Crisis And Management Practices In Public Child Welfare Systems: An Issue Of Partnership. Philosophy And Practice In Temporary Foster Care, Kenneth A. Barter

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Temporary foster care is a vital and essential resource and service in facilitating the interventions on the part of public child welfare agencies when such intervention requires the temporary removal of a child from his/her natural family. Despite the necessity of having a comprehensive, viable, and responsive temporary foster care program in place, foster care continues to be fraught with problems. These problems are such that foster care is considered to be in a state of crisis. This crisis state poses critical challenges for public child welfare administrations. This thesis reviews the issues related to the crisis in foster care …

The Impact Of Social Support On Acculturative Stress, Depression, And Life Satisfaction Among Japanese Immigrant Women In Canada, Mariko Kimura

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Various aspects of social support appear to interact with acculturative stress, depression, and life satisfaction for Japanese post-war immigrant women. This study examined 1) the acculturation and level of stress experienced by Japanese immigrant women, 2) the mental well-being in relation to bouts of depression, 3) the life satisfaction, 4) the social support networks, and 5) the degrees to which perceived social support work to moderate the acculturative stress and depression and enhance life satisfaction in Canada. One hundred and twenty-one Japanese immigrant women, who immigrated to Canada after World War II, and living in Southern Ontario, were taken as …

An Investigation Of Transformational And Transactional Leadership Styles In Personal Social Service Organizations, Dieter Ernest Kays

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The dissertation examines the applicability of transformational and transactional leadership style to personal social service organizations. The Executive Directors and their subordinates from 92 Children’s Aid Societies and Children’s Mental Health Centres in Ontario participated in the study. The results indicate significant positive relationships between transformational leadership (TFL) and job satisfaction, commitment, leader effectiveness, and satisfaction with the leader. While not as robust, significant negative relationships were found between transactional leadership (TAL) and job satisfaction, commitment, leader effectiveness, and satisfaction with the leader. It is pointed out that TAL and TFL are derived by averaging eight discrete factors into two …

Four Decades Of Child Welfare Services To Native Indians In Ontario: A Contemporary Attempt To Understand The 'Sixties Scoop' In Historical, Socioeconomic And Political Perspective, Joyce Barbara Timpson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research seeks to understand the high rates of Indian children in the care of Ontario’s Childrens Aid Societies from the 1950s to the 1970s. It examines historically the interaction of public policy, child welfare services and First Nations’ social, economic and cultural change. The author uses interview data from Native persons, CAS workers and public servants. In addition, government archives and the records of one child protection agency are used as data sources. The research examines in-care rates of Reserve Status Indian children from 1955 to 1976 in Ontario and admissions rates in one agency. It uses financial reports …

Qualitative Evaluation Of Processes And Outcomes Of A Home Visiting Program For Developmentally Handicapped Preschoolers And Their Families, Nancy Lapointe

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A variety of programs reflecting a diverse array of philosophical approaches to early intervention for developmentally handicapped preschoolers have been developed over the past 30 years. Evaluations of these programs report that early intervention is effective for these children. Yet considerable controversy continues about the validity of most of these studies. A number of researchers have expressed the need for different methods of evaluation but to date few researchers have attempted to evaluate these programs with more appropriate methods or to examine aspects of the program other than child outcomes. This study assessed an early intervention program that involved home …

An Investigation Of The Ability Of Elementary School-Aged Children To Learn Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Concepts, Leslie Maureen Tutty

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The current research was designed to investigate a wide range of variables which could affect the ability of elementary school children to learn and to remember child sexual abuse prevention concepts. The major questions posed for the study were: how much do the children know about child sexual abuse before participating in a prevention program, do children learn the prevention concepts after participating in the program and do they remember the concepts over time (five months). Age was considered a critical variable, so three age groups were delineated: Grades 1, 3 and 6. A smaller sample of kindergarten children were …

Housing And Social Support For Current And Former Psychiatric Patients: A Process And Outcome Evaluation Of Supportive Community Living, Janice E. Mccarthy

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In the current era of deinstitutionalization, community-based residential programs for people with chronic psychiatric disabilities have mushroomed in Canada and the United States. While many researchers have documented the beneficial effects of supportive housing programs on resident’s work productivity and length of community tenure, few evaluations have included an examination of resident’s housing environment and the quality of life in the community, particularly from the perspective of the residents themselves. This paper describes such an evaluation. The study’s first objective was to ascertain those housing environment characteristics that are most strongly related to residents’ perceived quality of life. To accomplish …

Quality Of Life For Persons With Disabilities, Akiie H. Ninomiya

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The praxis of Christian social work in Japan needs to find a new direction due to social changes such as industrialization and technological development. Liberation theology has been responding to the critical stance toward the existing order and identifying with new movements for emancipation and justice. This paper analyzes the ethics of liberation theology and adapts it to the real life situation of people with disabilities in Japan. Chapter I deals with liberation theology and its ethics concerned with disabilities. It defines the measurement of ethics as a quality of life, so that the ethics can be examined in context. …

Leisure Lifestyle And Perceived Social Support Of Older Adults In A Rural Environment, Elizabeth Dow Pittaway

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the leisure lifestyles of rural older adults and specifically to determine whether a relationship existed among leisure lifestyle, perceived social support, and well-being. Control variables included socio-demographic factors, value of leisure, satisfaction with life domains, length of residency, ethnicity, religion, and personal and structural barriers. The theoretical framework included social exchange theory and social support perspectives. A descriptive correlational research design was utilized and a mail survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to people 55 and older. Rural older adults spent more time on indoor leisure compared to outdoor …

Community Residential Environments For Mentally Retarded Adults: Staff Attitudes And Practices Regarding Resident Dependence And Independence, Diane Conway

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A study was conducted to investigate staff attitudes and everyday behaviors and their relationship to the independence of mentally retarded adults in four community residences. Questionnaires administered to 15 front-line staff persons measured their perceptions of the amount of external control (situations in which staff assume control over residents’ environments), personal control (situations in which staff encourage of allow residents to exert control over their own environments), and shared control (situations in which staff encourage shared responsibility between staff and residents in exerting control over the environment). The questionnaires tapped staff perceptions of the degree to which each of these …

Research In The M.S.W. Curriculum: Correlates Of An Effects On Student Attitudes And Knowledge, Daniel Filliol

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

To determine the effect of graduate social work research courses on student research knowledge and attitudes towards research and to find predictors of these, two groups of social work students—one tested prior to and another tested following their social work research courses—were measured on several antecedent variables and on a test of research knowledge, attitude and interest in research as a career. Having an undergraduate major in psychology was predictive of high research knowledge and having had prior research work experience was indicative of a positive attitude towards research. Post-research course students demonstrated greater knowledge of research and a stronger …

An Evaluation Of A Family Life Education Program, Anne Westhues

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study has two distinct objectives: to evaluate how effectively the family life education program at Sir John A. Macdonald High School in Hamilton, Ontario is meeting its stated objectives and to evaluate the relative effectiveness of a traditional teaching method and an annovative teaching method with this family life education program. There are three groups in this study. The first group took the family life education program taught with the innovative method, the second group took the family life education program taught with the traditional method,a nd the third group did not take a family life education program.

Students …

Residential Care For The Mentally Retarded: A Systemic Analysis Of The Creation Of A Community Residence And How Its Development Was Viewed By Members Of The System, David G. Hallman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present study, placed in an historical context of care for the mentally retarded, examines the creation and development of a Community Residence for retarded adults. The Residence is described as a system of interrelating groups (the retarded adults, the director and staff, the parents, the Advisory Committee members) whose patterns of communication and interaction affect the nature of the program. The primary sources of data are the observations of the author who was a participant in the develop[ment of the facility and the results of a survey of each of the system’s groups. The survey results indicate some differences …

A Study Of The Amphetamine Abuser: Personality Characteristics And “Meaning To Life”, Terrence L. Esch

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This paper will review the literature on amphetamine abuse after which I will discuss some implications for treatment. I will propose an empirical study that should help clarify a major assumption that is apparent in the literature. This study will then point out the possibility of a method of treatment that can be effective in helping amphetamine abusers.

The papers consists of three major themes: (a) Review of the Literature, (b) Implications for treatment, and (c) a proposed empirical study questioning the difference of personality traits and “meaning to life” between amphetamine abusers and youth who are considered to be …

Social Adjustment, Personality And Behaviour In Training Schools In Ontario, Jerome Caron

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This report was chosen for analysis as we had, while working in the Children’s Aid Society worked with wards who were to be sent to training schools or who were discharged, needing foster homes. Experience during our first field placement, at Madame Vanier Children’s Services, in London, was also gained, as we daily came in contact with children who could be potentially admitted to training school. The positive response of these children to considerate and fair treatment was very evident in this setting. The social policy implications of this report, in which Dr. Grygier emphasizes the need for fair laws …

Follow-Up Survey Into The Residential Needs Of The Physically Disabled Of Waterloo County: Participation In An On-Going Research Study, Larry Elgin Brigham

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Social Planning Council of Kitchener-Waterloo had appointed a committee to investigate the needs of the physically handicapped in Waterloo County. A detailed account of the evolution of this committee can be found in a paper by my classmates, Edward Mavor and Judy Rees-Thomas.

The sub-committee to which I will be referring throughout this paper is the sub-committee on the residential needs of the physically disabled. This sub-committee was formed as it was felt that there were too many facets to the problems facing the physically disabled to be handled easily by one committee. In order to organize most efficiently, …

A Behavioral Therapy Program With Chronic Mental Patients: An Experimental Demonstration Proposal, Bryon Bonell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of The Personality Trait Of Dependence As A Factor Influencing Social Work Practice, Evelyn J. Eisenberg

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Study Of Foster Homes And Group Homes, William Benbow

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

Evaluation By Foster Parents Of Services Received From The Children’S Aid Society Of Metropolitan Toronto, Barbara Allen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The problem area is evaluation of service by foster parents. My concern with this problem stems first from a general concern for what recipients of service value or devalue in that service. There is sparse available data in this area. John E. Mayer and Noel Timms state that “For many years caseworkers have experimented with different ways of helping people. Curiously, the resultant innovations have stemmed not from the client’s perception of what is helpful, but from the practitioner’s. Moreover, with few exceptions, the effectiveness of help has been judged by the persons offering, not receiving, help. In a word …

The Relative Effectiveness Of Three Educational Programmes In Promoting Academic Achievement Among Latency Age Emotionally Disturbed Boys Residing In Treatment Institutions, Denis Quinn

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Several years ago, a small group of men entered what appeared to be an ordinary house in suburban Toronto. These men continued their visits, day after day, for months on end. The outcome of their persistent visits was “Warrendale”—a feature length film which violently jarred open one of the mental closets into which we, as a society, sweep away our most perplexing problems. “Warrendale” dramatically thrust into the public eye a speck of life that could no longer be blinked away. The millions who saw the film had their social blinders rudely removed by the extraordinary residents of that “ordinary” …

An Analysis Of Dr. Malik’S Study Of School Performance Of Children In Families Receiving Public Assistance In Canada, Thomas Robert Mccoll

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The central questions in the Study were: a) how public assistance children compare with those of unassisted families in the same social stratum, both as to their school performance and their potential for it; and b) whether public assistance families differ from unassisted families in the same stratum with respect to goals and values that have a bearing on educational attainment.

The three main hypotheses of the study are that:

1. recipients of public assistance are characterized by goals and values that differ from those of non recipients of some social stratum
2. these goals and values are transmitted to the children …