Social Work Commons^™

Can People Experiencing Homelessness Acquire Financial Assets?, Allison De Marco, Molly De Marco, Alexandra Biggers, Maggie West, Jonathan Young, Rachel Levy

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Through an innovative Individual Development Account (IDA) program run by the Community Empowerment Fund (CEF), individuals at risk for or experiencing homelessness receive financial education, access matched savings accounts, and have saved a total of $89,831.55. This is notable as low-income individuals often lack access to the means to build assets, which can moderate financial distress. In this mixed-method study we examine the program's impact through administrative data, surveys, and qualitative interviews. Of the 17 interview participants, 15 opened an account, saving an average of $1,356.24 toward housing, emergency savings, cars, education, and computers. Few U.S. IDA programs have served …

A Heated Debate: Theoretical Perspectives Of Sexual Exploitation And Sex Work, Lara Gerassi

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The theoretical and often political frameworks of sexual exploitation and sex work among women are widely and enthusiastically debated among academic and legal scholars alike. The majority of theoretical literature in this area focuses on the macro perspective, while the micro-level perspective regarding causation remains sparse. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the philosophical, legal, and political perspectives pertaining to sexual exploitation of women and girls and addresses the subsequent controversies in the field.

Review Of The End Of Normal: The Great Crisis And The Future Of Growth. James K. Galbraith. Reviewed By Charles Levenstein, Charles Levenstein

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

James K. Galbraith, The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth. Simon and Schuster (2014), 304 pages, $26.00 (hardcover), $16.00 (paperback).

Mental Illness, Poverty And Stigma In India: A Case–Control Study, Jean-Francois Trani, Parul Bakhshi, Jill Kuhlberg, Sreelatha S. Narayanan, Hemalatha Venkataraman, Nagendra N. Mishra, Nora E. Groce, Sushrut Jadhav, Smita Deshpande

Brown School Faculty Publications

Objective: To assess the effect of experienced stigma on depth of multidimensional poverty of persons with severe mental illness (PSMI) in Delhi, India, controlling for gender, age and caste.Design: Matching case (hospital)–control (population) study.Setting: University Hospital (cases) and National Capital Region (controls), India.Participants: A case–control study was conducted from November 2011 to June 2012. 647 cases diagnosed with schizophrenia or affective disorders were recruited and 647 individuals of same age, sex and location of residence were matched as controls at a ratio of 1:2:1. Individuals who refused consent or provided incomplete interview were excluded.Main outcome measures: Higher risk of poverty …

Measuring Participation For Persons With Mental Illness: A Systematic Review Assessing Relevance Of Existing Scales For Low And Middle Income Countries, Ganesh M. Babulal, Parul Bakhshi, Sunyata Kopriva, Sarah A. Ali, Susan A. Goette, Jean-Francois Trani

Brown School Faculty Publications

Background: Participation is increasingly becoming an important outcome for assessment in many fields, including development, disability and policy implementation. However, selecting specific instruments to measure participation has been a significant problem due to overlapping conceptual definitions and use of different theories. The objective of this paper is to identify participation instruments, examine theories/definition supporting their use and highlight scales for use in low and middle-income countries for persons with mental illness. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify instruments intended to measure participation for individuals with severe mental illness. The search was limited to peer-reviewed articles published in …

Development And Validation Of The 34-Item Disability Screening Questionnaire (Dsq-34) For Use In Low And Middle Income Countries Epidemiological And Development Surveys, Jean-Francois Trani, Ganesh M. Babulal, Parul Bakhshi

Brown School Faculty Publications

Background: Although 80% of persons with disabilities live in low and middle-income countries, there is still a lack of comprehensive, cross-culturally validated tools to identify persons facing activity limitations and functioning difficulties in these settings. In absence of such a tool, disability estimates vary considerably according to the methodology used, and policies are based on unreliable estimates Methods and Findings: The Disability Screening Questionnaire composed of 27 items (DSQ-27) was initially designed by a group of international experts in survey development and disability in Afghanistan for a national survey. Items were selected based on major domains of activity limitations and …

A National Scan Of Psychiatric Involuntary Hold Policies, Evan D. Peters

Undergraduate Research Posters

Psychiatric involuntary holds are initiated when an individual suffering from mental illness is deemed a danger to themselves or others. Each state and the District of Columbia has its own legislation outlining the process for involuntary holds and the assessments that take place during a hold. A variety of individuals, professional and non-professional, can be involved in the process. Each state also sets a time limit during which a person can be held, and specific language that details the behavior of individuals that are eligible for psychiatric involuntary holds. This information was gathered by examining each states' codes involving psychiatric …

The Interaction Effects Of Subjective And Structural Factors On Crime Among Formerly Incarcerated Males, Christopher Alvin Veeh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The high rate of recidivism in the over 600,000 individuals who return from incarceration each year is an important social problem facing U.S. society and the criminal justice system. Efforts undertaken so far early in the 21st century to address the problem of recidivism in the formerly incarcerated, particularly prison reentry programs, have produced disappointing results at reducing the rate of recidivism. Therefore, there is a need to identify new ways for prison reentry programs to reduce recidivism among individuals recently returned from prison, and social work with its person-in-environment perspective can make an important contribution through conducting research to …

Racism Vs. Social Capital: A Case Study Of Two Majority Black Communities, Bruce W. Strouble

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Several researchers have identified social capital as a means to improve the social sustainability of communities. While there have been many studies investigating the benefits of social capital in homogeneous White communities, few have examined it in Black homogeneous communities. Also, there has been limited research on the influence of racism on social capital in African American communities. In this dissertation a comparative case study was used within a critical race theory framework. The purpose was to explore the role of racial oppression in shaping social capital in majority African American communities. Data were collected from 2 majority Black communities …

The Impact Of Crisis Alleviation Lessons And Methods Program On Injuries In Healthcare, Andra Lynn Ferguson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to examine whether Crisis Alleviation Lessons and Methods -© (CALM), as a behavioral crisis management program, was effective in reducing patient and healthcare professional injuries in a long-term residential care setting. This research was needed due to the lack of peer-reviewed scholarly literature on the effectiveness of behavioral crisis management programs, especially on programs using both nonphysical and physical de-escalation techniques, such as CALM. An auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) time series analysis was performed to examine the effect the implementation of the CALM program (independent variable) had on the rate of injuries to …

Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare Vol. 42 No. 1 (March 2015)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Table of Contents

• SUCCESSFUL APPROACHES TO ENDING FEMALE GENITAL CUTTING - Kay Young McChesney
• THE 47 PERCENT: U.S. TRENDS IN INCOME MAINTENANCE AND MEDICAID SPENDING, 1990-2011- Elgin Mannion and Gordon C. Chang
• UNDERSTANDING FRINGE ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR: A BOURDIEUSIAN-INFORMED META-ETHNOGRAPHY - Peter A. Kindle and Mary A. Caplan
• TACTICAL DECISION-MAKING: COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS DESCRIBE ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN SOCIAL ACTION CAMPAIGNS - Donna Hardina, Mathew Ari Jendian, and Catherine Garoupa White
• RELIEVING HUMAN SUFFERING: COMPASSION IN SOCIAL POLICY - Mary Elizabeth Collins, Sarah Garlington, and Kate Cooney
• SELF-EMPLOYMENT AND PUBLIC EMERGENCY WORK IN URBAN LABOR MARKETS DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION: THE CASE OF …

Tactical Decision-Making: Community Organizers Describe Ethical Considerations In Social Action Campaigns, Donna Hardina, Matthew A. Jendian, Catherine G. White

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social work curriculum on social action-oriented organizing methods is often devoid of content on the day-to-day role of the organizer in recruiting diverse participants, facilitating group decision-making, and planning and implementing campaigns. Little attention is paid to how tactical decisions are made and how the ethical implications of these decisions are weighed. In this study, professional organizers were interviewed about how they viewed their work, their relationships with their constituents, and the values and ethical principles used to make tactical decisions.

Understanding Fringe Economic Behavior: A Bourdieusian-Informed Meta-Ethnography, Peter A. Kindle Phd, Cpa, Lmsw, Mary Caplan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper is a meta-ethnography of four low-income communities in order to explore fringe economic behaviors. Rejecting the interpretation of fringe economic behaviors as irrational, we affirm these behaviors as viable alternatives for people marginalized in the mainstream economy. Using a meta-ethnographic method and employing the concepts of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, we identify the habitus and social capital values of each community as distinct Bourdieusian fields and conclude that an awareness of the localized development of a fringe economic cluster with distinct goals and rules undermines one-size-fits-all social welfare programs.

Self-Employment And Public Emergency Work In Urban Labor Markets During The Great Depression: The Case Of Industrial Cities, Robert Boyd

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Self-employment and public emergency work were frequent reactions to the economic dislocations of the Great Depression. Census data for men show that in urban-industrial centers, self-employment reduced the demand for public emergency work by absorbing displaced workers into the entrepreneurial sector. Census data for women reveal that, in these centers, self-employment and public emergency work coexisted due to mutually beneficial relations between women who were self-employed and those women who worked on government projects. The results suggest that, contrary to popular theoretical and ideological views, there is no inherent conflict between private- and public-sector responses to stagnant labor markets.

Health Status, Medicare Part D Enrollment, And Prescription Drug Use Among Older Adults, Jin Kim

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

To account for potential selection factors in the observed relationship between Medicare Part D coverage and prescription drug use, this study uses data from the 2010 and 2012 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to first examine the determinants of Medicare Part D enrollment, paying particular attention to the role of functional health status on the enrollment decision. Next, the study assesses whether and to what extent Medicare Part D coverage moderates the effect of functional health status on prescription drug use and monthly out-of-pocket spending among older adults. As prior studies indicate, the findings reveal that individuals …

Relieving Human Suffering: Compassion In Social Policy, Mary E. Collins, Sarah Garlington, Kate Cooney

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Human suffering is always present in society. There is general consensus that action should be taken to address suffering, but there are differing views as to the appropriate means of doing so. In this paper we utilize a classical understanding of the virtue of compassion to answer the research question: How does contemporary U.S. policy address human suffering through compassionate response? To answer this question, we conduct a critical analysis of three policy domains (hospice care, domestic violence, and disaster relief) to determine variation in response to human suffering. Comparisons among the domains suggest the various ways in which compassion …

Review Of Social Justice In Clinical Practice: A Liberation Health Framework For Social Work. Dawn Belkin Martinez And Ann Fleck-Henderson (Eds.). Reviewed By Nancy Feldman., Nancy Feldman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Dawn Belkin Martinez & Ann Fleck-Henderson (Eds.), Social Justice in Clinical Practice: A Liberation Health Framework for Social Work. Routledge (2014), 218 pages, $48.95 (paperback), $155.00 (hardcover).

The 47 Percent: U.S. Trends In Income Maintenance And Medicaid Spending, 1990-2011, Elgin Mannion, Gordon C. Chang

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

We analyze trends and variations in state-level expenditure growth for Medicaid, SSI, SNAP, and TANF. We explore three areas of interest: (1) How program structure impacts growth; (2) How programs responded to the 2008/2009 recession; and (3) How state preference for limited government, measured by Right- To-Work (RTW) status and political affiliation, impacts program expenditure growth. Findings show that program structure impacts expenditure growth: the state-matched programs like TANF and Medicaid grew slower from 1990-2011 than did open-ended federal programs like SNAP. OLS models found states with RTW policies and large Hispanic populations positively associated with higher income maintenance and …

Differences In Experiences Of Racial And Ethnic Microaggression Among Asian, Latino/Hispanic, Black, And White Young Adults, Shandra Forrest-Bank, Jeffrey Jenson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Racial and ethnic discrimination is a significant risk factor for health and mental health problems among non-White children, adolescents, and adults. Recent evidence suggests that a form of discrimination known as microaggression, characterized by subtle and often unintentional acts of discriminatory behavior, is associated with detrimental effects on the psychological and emotional wellbeing of non-White individuals. We examined differences in microaggression experiences among a sample of 409 Asian, Latino, Black, and White young adults. The Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions Scale (Nadal, 2011) was used to measure respondents’ experiences of racial and ethnic microaggression. Young adults in all the non- White …

Review Of Social Development Theory & Practice. James Midgley. Reviewed By Lynne M. Healy., Lynne M. Healy

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

James Midgley, Social Development Theory & Practice. Sage Publications, (2013), 296 pages, $40.00 (paper), $120.00 (hardcover.)

Review Of Creating Positive Systems Of Child And Family Welfare: Congruence With The Everyday Lives Of Children And Parents. Gary Cameron, Marshall Fine, Sarah Maiter, Karen Frensch, And Nancy Freymond (Eds.). Reviewed By David Tobis., David Tobis

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Gary Cameron, Marshall Fine, Sarah Maiter, Karen Frensch, and Nancy Freymond (Eds.), Creating Positive Systems of Child and Family Welfare: Congruence with the Everyday Lives of Children and Parents. University of Toronto Press, (2013), 352 pages, $56 cloth, $27.96 paperback.

Review Of Youth Work: An Institutional Ethnography Of Youth Homelessness. Naomi Nichols. Reviewed By Melinda Mccormick., Melinda Mccormick

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Naomi Nichols, Youth Work: An Institutional Ethnography of Youth Homelessness. University of Toronto Press, (2014). 158 pp., $24.95, paperback.

Introduction To The Special Issue: New Scholarship In Institutional Ethnography, Paul C. Luken, Suzanne Vaughan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Twelve years ago the Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare (JSSW) published a special issue devoted to institutional ethnography, “Institutional Ethnography: Theory and Practice” (Winfield, 2003). This alternative sociology, founded by Dorothy E. Smith, begins from the standpoint of the experiences of particular, active subjects and sets out to discover and describe the social relations shaping those experiences (Smith, 1987, 2005, 2006). JSSW, dedicated to publishing new, cutting-edge theoretical and methodological articles, was the first academic journal to devote a special issue to this new mode of inquiry used to investigate the social world. Over the ensuing years, the number …

Interrogating The Ruling Relations Of Thailand’S Post-Tsunami Reconstruction: Empirically Tracking Social Relations In The Absence Of Conventional Texts, Aaron Williams, Janet Rankin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper discusses methodological strengths and challenges in doing institutional ethnographic (IE) research in communities devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Southern Thailand. IE is a mode of inquiry used to describe institutional mechanisms of reconstruction, aid, and recovery and to show how recovery efforts affected real people and communities over time. The chaotic nature of a disaster zone, combined with the more common difficulties of conducting research in a developing region relying on a translator, posed various challenges in the conduct of this IE study. Textual data, one of the important tools used in IE research, were …

(Un)Safe At School: Parents' Work Of Securing Nursing Care And Coordinating School Health Support Services Delivery For Children With Diabetes In Ontario Schools, Lisa Watt

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Using institutional ethnography and its approach to mapping institutional sequences (Smith, 2005; Turner, 2006), this paper examines the social organization of School Health Support Services (SHSS) for children with diabetes in Ontario schools. The inquiry starts with my own situated experience as a mother of a child with diabetes starting kindergarten, and the trouble of securing the health supports necessary to care for my child’s health and safety while she is at school. The paper takes up two specific texts—the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) Referral Form and the CCAC Medical Orders for Services at School—to explore and describe how …

Review Of This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. The Climate. Naomi Klein. Reviewed By Sheila D. Collins., Sheila Collins

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. (2014). Simon & Schuster. $30 (hardcover), 576 pages.

Towards An Institutional Counter-Cartography Of Nurses’ Wound Work, Nicola Waters

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Under the banner of continuous quality improvement, process mapping has become an increasingly routine feature of healthcare administration. Driven by demands to improve efficiency through standardization, nurses’ knowledge of their often-unpredictable work is routinely changed to fit within graphical representations that depict it as objectively controllable. Tensions that arose as I attempted to apply my knowledge as a specialist nurse in the rapidly changing area of outpatient wound clinics formed the direction for my institutional ethnography (IE) inquiry. As a student new to IE, I encountered challenges as I tried to explain to my informants how Dorothy Smith’s alternative sociology …

Review Of Inequality In The Promised Land: Race, Resources, And Suburban Schooling. R. L'Heureux Lewis-Mccoy. Reviewed By Paul L. Tractenberg, Paul Tractenberg

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

R. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy, Inequality in the Promised Land: Race, Resources, and Suburban Schooling. (2014). Stanford University Press. $24.95 (hardcover), 232 pages.

Review Of Out In The Union: A Labor History Of Queer America. Miriam Frank. Reviewed By Ann S. Holder., Ann S. Holder

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Miriam Frank, Out in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America. (2014). Temple University Press. $54.50 (hardcover), $29.95 (paperback), 240 pages.

Review Of It's Not Like I'M Poor: How Working Families Make Ends Meet In A Post-Welfare World. Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Kathryn Edin, Laura Tach, & Jennifer Sykes. Reviewed By Vanessa D. Wells, Vanessa Wells

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Kathryn Edin, Laura Tach, & Jennifer Sykes, It’s Not Like I’m Poor: How Working Families Make Ends Meet in a Post-Welfare World. (2015). University of California Press. $29.95 (paperback), 304 pages.