Social Work Commons^™

Fathers And Child Welfare: Stories Of Men’S Everyday Life Experiences, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report explores the life experiences of fathers involved with child welfare services and acts as both a stand-alone document and a companion document to the research report on father’s service experiences with child welfare. This report is intended for multiple audiences including child welfare service providers, community organizations working with men, students and instructors interested in men’s issues, and fathers. A summary of all the men's stories that were analyzed for these two reports are captured in the Fathers and Child Welfare (Story Volume).

Focal Point, Volume 24, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

The articles included in this inaugural issue of the "new" Focal Point address "Transitions to Adulthood" from the perspectives of researchers, youth, family, and professionals. [This is the first issue of Focal Point as published by the Research and Training Center for Pathways to Positive Futures; previous issues had been published under the preceding RTC for Family Support and Children's Mental Health.]

Counselor Attitudes Toward The Harm Reduction Approach In Substance Abuse Treatment, Nicole Marie Kyser

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

In the United States, the preferred method for treating alcohol and drug addictions is the abstinence based approach. While most American mental health professionals use this approach, studies over time have demonstrated that relapse rates remain high. In Europe, the harm reduction approach, in which the primary goal is to decrease the harms associated with substance use, is beginning to be implemented as an additional approach to abstinence. Although the outcomes of the harm reduction approach are not yet clear, countries that utilize harm reduction have seen a decrease in crime, wages lost, and hospitalizations due to alcohol and drug …

Does Context Matter In Determining Psychological Abuse? Effects Of Pattern, Harm, Relationship, And Norms, Dana D. Dehart, Diane R. Follingstad, Alice M. Fields

Faculty and Staff Publications

This study explored contextual influences in determining whether psychologically aggressive actions constitute abuse. One hundred and thirty-one undergraduates completed measures of key experiences, attitudes, and traits, and rated abusiveness of behaviors in a series of vignettes. Vignettes varied contexts in which behaviors occurred, including whether the behavior was a pattern, whether there was harm to the recipient, characteristics of the initiator-recipient relationship, and whether behavior was normative. Results showed no effects for participants' gender, past experiences with psychological aggression, and traits or attitudes. Findings indicated that behaviors were rated as more abusive when harm to recipient was evident. Findings regarding …

Supporting Transition-Aged Youth: One State's Efforts, L. Kris Gowen

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Young adults need specialized services as they age out of children’s mental health care and into adult services. Starting in 1997, Connecticut began to address this need by creating a Young Adult Services (YAS) program, designed to assist those over 18 who had moderate to severe symptoms of mental illness. YAS provides comprehensive service delivery that includes clinical, residential, case management, vocational, and social rehabilitation supports. Major principles that guide the YAS program include: (1) services must be comprehensive and integrated—focusing on one issue without supporting a young adult in other aspects of his or her life is ineffective; (2) …

Edwin E. Witte, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Edwin E. Witte was a Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin and Chairman of the Committee on Economic Security, which oversaw the drafting of the original Social Security Act. Witte is generally acknowledged as the principal author of the Social Security legislation as it went to Congress. In later years, he consulted on the National Labor Relations Act and continued to teach and supervise Ph.D. students.

The Vital Role Of Social Workers In Community Partnerships: The Alliance For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender And Questioning Youth, Michael P. Dentato, Shelley L. Craig, Mark S. Smith

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

The account of The Alliance for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (GLBTQ) Youth formation offers a model for developing com- munity-based partnerships. Based in a major urban area, this university-community collaboration was spearheaded by social workers who were responsible for its original conceptualization, for generating community support, and for eventual staffing, administration, direct service provision, and program evaluation design. This article presents the strategic development and evolution of this community- based service partnership, highlighting the roles of schools of social work, academics, and social work students in concert with community funders, practitioners and youth, in responding to the needs …

Seoul Hope Plus Savings Accounts: Asset-Building Program For Low-Income Households In Seoul, Mihyun Kim, Jisung Kwon, Sunwook Chung, Hyunmira Hong, Yunju Nam, Youngmi Kim, Eunlye Lee

Center for Social Development Research

Seoul Hope Plus Savings Accounts: Asset-Building Program for Low-Income Households in Seoul

The Basics Of Progressive 529s, Center For Social Development

Center for Social Development Research

The Basics of Progressive 529s

Experiences With Infant Mortality As Reported By Middle Class Black Women In Their Own Words, Lisa Paisley-Cleveland

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Black Middle-Class Women and Pregnancy Loss: A Qualitative Inquiry is the first qualitative research case study of its kind on Black Infant Mortality (BIM) to focus on a target group of black American-born middle-class professional married women who have all lived through the experience of infant loss. This target group allows Lisa Paisley-Cleveland to examine the BIM phenomenon outside the poverty paradigm and issues attached to teenage pregnancy, as well as to explore contributing factors attached to the persistent black and white disparity in infant mortality rates, which according to CDC’s January 2013 report are 12.40 and 5.35 respectively.

This …

When Nurture Becomes Nature: Ethnocentrism In Studies Of Human Development, David F. Lancy

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This commentary will extend the territory claimed in the target article by identifying several other areas in the social sciences where findings from the WEIRD population have been over-generalized. An argument is made that the root problem is the ethnocentrism of scholars, textbook authors, and social commentators, which leads them to take their own cultural values as the norm.

An Examination Of Caregiving Dyads: Community Dwelling Chronically Ill Older Adults And Their Caregivers, Jessica E. Haxton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increases in life expectancy among older adults raise important concerns about the availability of resources for an aging population living with chronic and debilitating illnesses. Living longer is complicated by the fact that many elders prefer to reside in their homes until medical or other conditions require an alternative living arrangement. The strong desire to remain at home expressed by older persons in the United States has in turn created an increased demand on informal caregiving. Consequently, adult children often bear the burden of providing care to their aging parents. In view of this demand it is critical that research …

An Investigation Into Associations With Attachment, Companion Pet Attachment, Empathy, And Prosocial Behaviors In 18–20 Year Old College Students, Christian Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines empathy, parental attachment, companion pet attachment and social behaviors in a sample of 120 students between the ages of 18-20 enrolled at Front Range Community College in Westminster CO during the fall semester 2008. The study is based on the research questions posed by Thompson and Gullone (2008) but pays particular attention to the relationships between and among variables measured in that study as well as their association with variables indicating companion pet companionship. The research questions are: (1) does parental empathic attachment predict prosocial and antisocial behaviors during older adolescence or young adulthood? And (2) does …

Skew Selection Theory Applied To The Wealth And Welfare Of Nations, Susan F. Allen, Deby L. Cassill

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

According to skew selection theory, working citizens who build wealth and, at the same time, share portions of their wealth with those in need are more likely to survive economic downturns than citizens who hoard wealth. In this article, skew selection is employed as a theoreticalframework to support governmental efforts to develop social policies that protect the income of working citizens and, at the same time, provide for vulnerable, non-working children and elders. To illustrate its applicability, the social policies of Japan, Sweden and the United States-all of which are challenged by decaying ratios of working to non-working citizens-are compared …

Preventing Violence In Low-Income Communities: Facilitating Residents' Ability To Intervene In Neighborhood Problems, Mary L. Ohmer, Barbara D. Warner, Elizabeth Beck

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The violence found in low-income communities, including areas of concentrated poverty, is often extensive and can involve illegal drugs, juvenile delinquency, and even homicide. A large body of research has emerged which points to the positive effects of informal social control and social capital in preventing violence in lowincome communities, including neighbors taking leadership roles by intervening themselves. This article contains a description of an exploratory study ofa pilot training program the authors developed to facilitate residents' ability to intervene in neighborhood problems in a low-income community in Atlanta, Georgia. The training incorporated concepts from restorative justice, peacemaking criminology, and …

Liminal Living At An Extended Stay Hotel: Feeling "Stuck" In A Housing Solution, Terri Wingate-Lewinson, June Gary Hopps, Patricia Reeves

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

As a result of unaffordable housing, many of America's working poor are forced to seek shelter in hotels to avoid homelessness. The concept of liminality has been used in discussions of place to describe the subjective experience of feeling in-between two states of being. Research is scant on the liminal experiences of low-income hotel residents, who are culturally invisible in society. This paper draws from data qualitatively collected via semi-structured interviews from ten low-income residents living in an extended-stay hotel. Descriptions of these residential experiences are presented along with recommendations for social workers practicing with families in this liminal situation.

Review Of Towards Positive Youth Development: Transforming Schools And Community Programs. Marybeth Shinn And Hirokazu Yoshikawa (Eds.). Reviewed By Amy D. Benton., Amy D. Benton

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Marybeth Shinn and Hirokazu Yoshikawa (Eds.), Towards Positive Youth Development: Transforming Schools and Community Programs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. $49.95 hardcover.

Review Of The Politics Of Exclusion: The Failure Of Race-Neutral Policies In Urban America. Leland T. Saito. Reviewed By Jaehee Yi., Jaehee Yi

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Leland T. Saito, The Politics of Exclusion: The Failure of Race- Neutral Policies in Urban America. Stanford, California: Stanford, 2009. $60.00 hardcover; $22.95 paperback.

Review Of Women's Health And Social Change. Ellen Annandale. Reviewed By Marcia Russell., Marcia Russell

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Ellen Annandale, Women's Health and Social Change. New York: Routledge, 2009. $45.95 papercover.

Review Of Homelessness In America (3 Volumes). Robert Hartman Mcnamara. Reviewed By John Q. Hodges., John Q. Hodges

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Robert Hartman McNamara, Homelessness in America (3 Volumes). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2008. $300.00 hardcover.

Review Of The Delinquent Girl. Margaret A. Zahn (Ed.). Reviewed By Cara Pohle., Cara Pohle

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Margaret A. Zahn (Ed.), The Delinquent Girl. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2009. $54.50 hardcover, $31.95 papercover.

Reconstructing Citizenship In A Global Economy: How Restricting Immigrants From Welfare Undermines Social Rights For U.S. Citizens, Rupaleem Bhuyan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Scrutiny of immigrants' use of public benefits is a reoccurring theme in U.S. politics. Yet while the tough stance on immigrants taps into popular anti-immigrant sentiment, the consequences of such scrutiny are shared by all welfare recipients. Drawing upon interpretive policy frames, I examine how new requirements to verify citizenship and identity for Medicaid directly impacts social entitlements for both citizen and non-citizen populations. Analysis of state reports and policy studies of citizenship verification requirements for Medicaid illustrate that verification costs may exceed the costs of fraudulent misuse by unqualified immigrants. I argue that devolutionary shifts in welfare and immigration …

Why You Should Care About The Threatened Middle Class, Jill Littrell, Fred Brooks, Jan Ivery, Mary L. Ohmer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the last two decades, the income and security of the individual middle class worker has declined and the gap between the middle class and the wealthy has widened. We explain how this is bad for democracy, the economy, and the aggregate health of the nation. We examine the governmental policies and interventions that increased the middle class following the depression and maintained its vigor through the post-World War II period. The impetus for these changes in governmental policies in the 1930s was to end the Great Depression. We pose the question of whether a nation can recover from a …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 37, No. 2 (June 2010)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• LIMINAL LIVING AT AN EXTENDED STAY HOTEL: FEELING "STUCK" IN A HOUSING SOLUTION - Terri Wingate-Lewinson, June Gary Hopps, and Patricia Reeves
• FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS, PUBLIC PROGRAM PARTICIPATION, & CIVIC ENGAGEMENT - Richard K. Caputo
• RECONSTRUCTING CITIZENSHIP IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY: HOW RESTRICTING IMMIGRANTS FROM WELFARE UNDERMINES SOCIAL RIGHTS FOR U.S. CITIZENS - Rupaleem Bhuyan
• WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THE THREATENED MIDDLE CLASS - Jill Littrell, Fred Brooks, Jan Ivery, and Mary L. Ohmer
• SKEW SELECTION THEORY APPLIED TO THE WEALTH AND WELFARE OF NATIONS - Susan F. Allen and Deby L. Cassill
• WOMEN'S RIGHTS=HUMAN RIGHTS: PAKISTANI …

Women's Rights=Human Rights: Pakistani Women Against Gender Violence, Filomena M. Critelli

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Gender-based violence constitutes a major public health risk and is a serious violation of basic human rights throughout the world. Counter to many Western images of Muslim women as passive victims, women's groups in Pakistan have begun to organize to respond to these conditions. This study is based upon in-depth interviews conducted with the founders and senior staff of Dastak (Knock on the Door), a shelter for women in Lahore, Pakistan that uses a human rights framework to provide services and advocate for public support for women's rights to safety and security. The study explores how Pakistani women are taking …

Review Of Both Sides Now: The Story Of School Desegregation's Graduates. Amy Stuart Wells, Jennifer Jellison Holme, Anita Revilla, And Awo Korantemaa Ayamda. Reviewed By Kala Chakradher., Kala Chakradhar

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Amy Stuart Wells, Jennifer Jellison Holme, Anita Revilla and Awo Korantemaa Ayamda, Both Sides Now: The Story of School Desegregation's Graduates. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2009. $24.95 papercover.

Review Of Indigenous Social Work Around The World: Towards Culturally Relevant Education And Practice. Mel Gray, John Coates, And Michael Yellowbird (Eds.). Reviewed By Jon K. Matsuoka., Jon K. Matsuoka

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Mel Gray, John Coates and Michael Yellowbird (Eds.), Indigenous Social Work Around the World: Towards Culturally Relevant Education and Practice. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008. $99.95 hardcover.

Review Of Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing Of Women's Reproduction In America. Jeanne Flavin. Reviewed By Debra Durham., Debra Durham

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Jeanne Flavin, Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing of Women's Reproduction in America. New York: New York University Press, 2009. $36.00 hardcover.

Review Of Children Families And Social Exclusion: New Approaches To Prevention. Kate Morris, Marian Barnes, And Paul Mason. Reviewed By James Midgley., James Midgley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Kate Morris, Marian Barnes and Paul Mason, Children, Families and Social Exclusion: New Approaches to Prevention. Bristol: Policy Press, 2009. $36.95 papercover.

Review Of Childhood, Youth And Social Work In Transformation: Implications For Policy And Practice. Lynne M. Nebell, Jeffrey J. Shook, And Janet L. Finn. Reviewed By Ann Reyes Robbins., Ann Reyes Robbins

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Lynn M. Nybell, Jeffrey J. Shook, and Janet L. Finn (Eds.), Childhood, Youth and Social Work in Transformation: Implications for Policy and Practice. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. $60.00 hardcover.