Social Work Commons^™

A Study Of The Decision To Remove Children From Their Parents By Child Welfare Supervisors, Charles F. Lorbeer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A STUDY OF THE DECISION TO REMOVE CHILDREN FROM THEIR PARENTS BY CHILD WELFARE SUPERVISORS

by Charles F. Lorbeer

Dissertation Chair: Dr. Aqueil Ahmad

Committee Members: Dr. Aqueil Ahmad, Dr. Robert Butters, and Dr. Ashakant Nimbark,

The goal of this study was to analyze the decision by child welfare supervisors to remove children from their parents. This was accomplished by studying the effect that three specific factors have on that decision. The three factors were 1) physical abuse, 2) domestic violence and substance abuse, and 3) availability of services to help the family.

Decision theory provided the conceptual framework for …

Investigating The Influence Of Anti-Racist Education In Achieving Prejudice Reduction Among Secondary Education Students, Joseph Edward Wilson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the influence of participation in an anti-racist educational (ARE) program upon the perceptions of, critical assessments of, and self-reported behaviors toward institutional racism in a sample of 11th-grade students enrolled in a public school district that had recently undergone compulsory, court-ordered desegregation. This quasi-experimental study measured hypothesized differences between the scores of a group of high school students on a quantitative data-gathering instrument before their participation in an Undoing Racism curriculum, with their scores on that same instrument re-administered three months after their completion of that course. It then compared the degree of pre-intervention/ post-intervention changes in …

Research Into Integrated Crime Prevention Strategies For Rail Station Environs: Final Report, Trudi Cooper, Terence Love, Erin Donovan

Research outputs pre 2011

The initial impetus for this project arose from concerns about responses to ‘anti-social behaviour’, especially by young people, in and around rail stations. The primary goal of the research was to develop a collaborative approach that provided a more constructive and integrated response that would produce benefit for local communities, for the Public Transport Authority, and for the young people themselves. In practical terms, this involved:

• Development of interagency collaboration processes to support agencies with diverse goals to participate constructively without loss of autonomy;

• Identification at a local level of the common issues of concern, their causes, and …

Developing Practice Or Management Struggle? Barriers To Effective Youth Work Practice With Young Women Living With Violence [Thesis], Judith Kulisa

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The research process described in this thesis brought to consciousness, for myself, the researcher, and for the youth work practitioners involved, the limitations placed upon their ability to practice effective youth work by the divergent understanding of `youth work' held by those responsible for either managing or funding the services in which they worked. The study set out to discover why youth work practitioners were not identifying or responding to the needs of young women living with violence at home. The study sought to identify the problem and then to formulate practical strategies to enhance youth worker knowledge and skills …

Child Care Decision Making Among Parents Of Young Children: A Constructivist Inquiry, Kathleen Albright Didden

Theses and Dissertations

In order to understand parents' child care decision making for young children (under 6), this interpretive research interviewed 24 parents and 7 child care professionals from a mid-sized region in Virginia. Using a constructivist research design, the research question explored how parents make child care decisions. Working hypotheses focused the data collection on the role of experience in shaping parents' preferences, the relationship between family needs and child care decisions, and the interactions with family and child care services. The research product is a narrative case study. Child care decision making is conceptualized as an ongoing process bounded by the …

Conceptualizing Hoarding Behavior Among Elderly Women: A Mixed-Methods Approach, Susan Jan Murdock

Theses and Dissertations

Hoarding in the community involves substantial cluttering and impaired functioning, often exposing the hoarder to extensive health and safety risks. This research, based on Functionalism social theory, explores the three elements of hoarding—relentless acquisition, intense possessiveness of objects, and a reluctance to discard possessions—as a sociocultural phenomenon. The mixed methods methodology entailed a quantitative study involving a survey completed by 134 adult protective services workers throughout Virginia and a qualitative study of five randomly-selected adult protective services workers who volunteered for in-depth interviews.Findings revealed that adult protective services workers come in contact with very severe cases of hoarding, with over …

Awakening Social Work To The Human/Nature Relationship: A Proposed University Education Framework, Seth M. Koplowitz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The social work profession has traditionally concerned itself with a wide variety of issues pertaining to human health and well-being. However, the importance of the human/nature relationship has long been ignored, despite the field’s purported dual commitment to both ‘person’ and ‘environment.’ While recent literature challenges this tendency, minimal attention focuses on the role of social work university education in making a paradigm shift toward natural-environmental concerns. This thesis is a theoretical examination of how existing social work university education could be re-envisioned to more fully integrate natural-environmental values and issues into its core curriculum and overarching educational philosophy. Several …

Caregiver's Perceptions Of The Ability Of Orphanages To Meet Child Development Needs: A Polish Case Study, Marta Zych

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the perceptions of caregivers in a Polish orphanage about how well orphanages support child development. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with eleven caregivers, I explored their opinions about what does and does not work well to support a child’s developmental needs in the areas of physical growth and health, cognitive growth, emotional development and in particular the ability to form secure attachments, and the development of life and social skills. This case study also involved observations of children in an oprhange setting and a document analysis. The aim of this study was to …

Correlates Of Housing Stability Among Psychiatric Consumer/Survivors, Stephanie Anne Brown

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Deinstitutionalization, lack of affordable housing, and the rise in shelter use and homelessness highlight the need for housing stability among psychiatric consumer/survivors. This secondary analysis was carried out with three goals: (1) to determine the relationship between the utilization of health and social services and housing stability, (2) to determine the relationship between housing stability and quality of life, and (3) to compare three continuums of housing stability. Data collected through the Utilization of Hospital and Community Services Form, Brief Version of the Lehman Quality of Life Interview, and Housing History Form from 601 psychiatric consumer/survivors in London, Ontario were …

Trends In Family-Centered Early Intervention, Jody Lee Albertson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Family-centered early intervention services have been evolving for quite some time, and the role of the family in intervention for children with disabilities has changed drastically. Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandated the family-centeredness of early intervention services, which is evident in the services and supports a family receives, the Individualized Family Services Plan document, and service coordination activities. The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) then conducts compliance monitoring to gauge whether states are in compliance with IDEA. State monitoring reports are available to the public online.

The purpose of this study was to …