Social Work Commons^™

Are They Ready? Participants’ Perceptions Following A Cert Training And Disaster Simulation, Ronda Christman

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

The frequency of disasters is increasing and it is important that students and community members are trained to safely respond. Academy and University students along with community members experienced CERT training and disaster simulation. Learn how participants perceptions changed following a CERT training and disaster simulation.

Transformational Relationships: Re-Framing Impact In Faith-Based Social Service Organizations, Sonja E. Schappert

Master's Projects and Capstones

Theories of change and logic models are the industry standard foundation for impact evaluation. However, half of all nonprofits do not use these models due to resource constraints or the perception that their work does not fit into a model. This is especially true in relationship-based programs, such as those in faith-based social services. This Capstone examines the influence of relationship theory on a faith-based organization’s impact. The research methodology included deductive, action-based research with a foundational literature review focused on nonprofit planning and evaluation theory and social science theory. Then a total of 6 expert interviews were conducted, 3 …

The Relationship Between Substance Abuse, Intimate Partner Violence And Sexual Assault In College Students, Erin K. Deotte

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies demonstrate linkages between substance abuse, intimate partner violence (IPV), and/or sexual assault (e.g., Nabors, 2009; Rivera, Phillips, Warshaw, Lyon, Bland, & Kaewken, 2015; Santana, Raj, Decker, & Silverman, 2006). For ages, college students have been associated with substance abuse (e.g., Hingson, Zha, and Weitzman, 2009; O’Malley & Johnston, 2002). Substance abuse has been associated with IPV and sexual assault (Nabors, 2009; Rivera, Phillips, Warshaw, Lyon, Bland, & Kaewken, 2015; Santana, Raj, Decker, & Silverman, 2006). Although much research has been conducted on the relationships between substance abuse and intimate partner violence (including sexual violence), little research has been …

Perilous Times Call For Emergency Preparedness, Sonia K. Wrate, Ronda Christman

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

As disasters become more frequent it is important that people are ready to respond. University students along with community volunteers learn with and from each other during a disaster simulation. Learn how participant’s perceptions of spirituality and civic engagement has changed following a disaster simulation.

Thinking Outside The Box: Reaching Inner City Children, Desiree Davis

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Abstract: This is the story of how one church is working with the children in their inner city community. The outreach program started with the church providing transportation to the children for Vacation Bible School and now extends to the church members bringing the children to church each week.

Description: The black church has often been the focal point of the black community. It has been the training center for members who have later gone on to be community leaders as well a catalyst for social change. Black children in the inner city may not have the connection …

Growth Mindset And Effect On Black Students’ Academic Achievement In The Iowa City Community School District, Starr Davis

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

The purpose of this study was to examine how growth mindset affect’s Black students’ academic achievement in the Iowa City Community School District. Using survey data from the Iowa City Community School District, the researchers determined the students’ academic achievement by examining their mindsets. The findings of the study showed that fixed mindsets are detrimental to students’ academic achievement, while growth mindset enhances the achievement levels in Black students.

How Internalized And Externalized Behaviors In Adolescents Impact Academic Achievement In Faith-Based Institutions, Subira Brown, Chioma Tait, Jade Callahan, Deyana Cox

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

The purpose of this literature review is to address how internalized and externalized behaviors in adolescents impact academic achievement in faith-based institutions. This research intends to bring awareness to the prevalence of mental health concerns faced by adolescents, as well as the need for mental health services in the education system. This research will also identify the relationship between internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and academic achievement. Based on the findings, the next steps will be to evaluate the deficits within the Adventist school system and begin developing programs and resources necessary to support the mental health needs of children and …

Understanding College Student Mental Health: Stress, Depression, Stigma And Religiosity, Melissa Ponce-Rodas, Alina M. Baltazar, Nicolai Williams, Stacey Nicely

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

No abstract provided.

Descriptive Analysis Of Participation And Belonging Among People With Disabilities In The North American Division Of Seventh-Day Adventists, Shannon M. Trecartin, Curtis J. Vanderwaal

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

No abstract provided.

Moral Injury Among Professionals In K–12 Education, Erin Sugrue

Faculty Authored Articles

This article presents the quantitative portion of a mixed methods study of moral injury among professionals in K–12 public education. Using a cross-sectional correlational survey design, 218 licensed K–12 professionals from 68 schools in one urban school district in the Midwest completed an on-line survey that included measures of moral injury and emotional and behavioral correlates. The K–12 professionals exhibited levels of moral injury similar to those experienced by military veterans. Correlational analyses found that experiences of moral injury were associated with feelings of guilt, troubled conscience, burnout, and the intention to leave one’s job. Linear regression analyses demonstrated that …

Creating A Paradigm Shift: Culture Change Around Dementia, Ahna H. Soli

2019 Symposium

A Culture Change Presentation about Creating Dementia Friendly Communities that support residents who are affected by Dementia remaining integrated in their community through supports and community trainings. According to the Dementia Action Collaborative of Washington State, over 100,000 people live with Dementia’s or Alzheimer’s in Washington with that number continuing to grow. Our society and culture is not equipped with the tools to help them lead productive, purposeful lives. Currently, the population affected by Dementia is placed in institutional care communities where they are considered safe and well taken care of. Using the behavior strategies and culture change tools presented …

A Formative Assessment Of The Vulnerability Context Of Three Indigenous Communities In Rural Ecuador For Improved Intervention Design, Ivy Blackmore

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Nearly 20 % of the current world population are small-scale producers living in rural areas who rely on agriculture and related activities to support their families (IFAD, 2016; World Bank, 2008). Despite the almost 76 billion USD of official development assistance committed to agriculture improvement projects and associated activities over the past decade, many of the intended beneficiaries remain poor and struggle to meet their basic needs. The lack of success in addressing rural poverty highlights the need for quality research focused on understanding what type of intervention/s could help rural communities sustainably improve their livelihood security.The goal of this …

Outcomes Of Mental Health Crises When Mental Health Professionals Partner With Mental Health Deputies, Melissa Kay Murray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Law enforcement has historically been on the frontlines of the mental health crisis. This expected role is difficult as police officers are not trained as mental health professionals. Collaboration between police officers, mental health professionals, and mental health authorities have produced integral models to assist with the mental health crisis. Crisis intervention teams (CIT), mobile crisis units, and street triage models are highlighted to gain understanding of the components of these models. This study desires to examine a collaborative, recently implemented mental health deputy grant program aimed at diverting mentally ill individuals in crisis from contact with the criminal justice …

“You Have To Want It”: A Pervasive Mental Model Of Addiction Recovery And Its Implications For Sustaining Change, Erin Stringfellow

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Background: Addiction to illicit drugs is a complex phenomenon characterized by cyclical patterns of relapse, remission, and, for some, a full recovery. People who use drugs (PWUD) and their loved ones form ‘mental models’ of recovery that develop over time through experience and observation. The role of these mental models and how they interact to undermine or support recovery is poorly understood. Therefore, this study asks: 1) What do people who use drugs and their loved ones believe it takes to successfully recover from addiction? and 2) Given these beliefs about recovery and the available evidence on remission, relapse, and …

Implementation And Evaluation Of Mindfulness-Based Interventions To Improve Mental Health And Overall Wellbeing Of College Student-Athletes, Haley Katherine Brock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Athletes have several challenges and demands that increase psychological distress

and disturbances to overall wellbeing. Currently, more research is being done to identify issues that college athletes face by not receiving mental health services. College athletes are now being identified in the literature as a vulnerable population. This pilot study looked at a possible mindfulness-based intervention by incorporating yoga sessions. The research hypothesis proposed that the participants who partake in the yoga sessions have a decrease in depression and anxiety, and overall wellbeing. This increase was measured using the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), PHQ-9, and the Behavioral Health Measure …

Promoting Child Behavioral Health In Homeless Services: A Community-Based System Dynamics Approach, Katherine Marcal

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Families with children comprise one-third of the entire homeless population (Henry, Watt, Rosenthal, & Shivji, 2017). Homelessness exposes children to chaotic, unsafe living environments that pose threats to healthy development; unsurprisingly, children in homeless services display high rates of mental health disorders compared to stably housed children (Bassuk et al., 2015; Buckner, 2008). Despite concerted efforts at the state and local levels to end family homelessness by 2020, rates have remained largely unchanged over the past decade (Henry et al., 2017; U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, 2015). Additional indicators such as increasing wait times, average length of stay, and reentry …

Subtypes Of Neglect In Relation To Reporting Practices, Safety Outcomes Among Known Cases, And Risk And Protective Factors, Chien-Jen Chiang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: The overall objective of this dissertation is to build knowledge about the phenomena of neglect subtypes to better guide prevention and child welfare intervention efforts in the future. The first aim focuses on how we come to officially identify cases of child neglect and its relationship to policies that set definitions for what is reportable in a given state. The second aim highlights whether or not there appear to be differences in safety and permanency outcomes for children known to CPS for different forms of neglect. The third aim focuses on why families may develop specific neglecting behaviors that …

Social Engagement Among Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment And Conversion To Dementia, Takashi Amano

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Promoting social engagement is a promising approach to prevent or delay conversion from cognitive impairment no dementia (CIND) to dementia. However, little is known about social engagement among people with CIND. This dissertation project aimed to improve understanding of social engagement among people with CIND by addressing gaps in the literature. It had three specific aims including: to describe and identify factors associated with heterogeneity of social engagement among older adults with CIND, to assess the association between heterogeneity of social engagement and conversion from CIND to dementia, and to investigate the relationship among heterogeneity of social engagement, other types …

Segregation And A Path Forward To Inclusion In St. Louis, Henry S. Webber

Center for Social Development Research

Segregation and a Path Forward to Inclusion in St. Louis is adapted from an address given during Facing Segregation: Building Strategies in Every Neighborhood, the 2019 annual conference of the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council, on April 12, 2019, at Central Baptist Church, St. Louis, Missouri. This Perspective is presented here through a partnership between the Center for Social Development and the council.

Cultural Models Of Raça: The Calculus Of Brazilian Racial Identity Revisited, Henri J. François Dengah Ii, Jason A. Gilmore, Marcus Brasileiro, Anna S. Cohen, Elizabeth Bingham Thomas, Jenni Budge Blackburn, Mckayle Law, Jae Swainston, Richard Thomas

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Nearly 50 years ago, Marvin Harris published a seminal paper that examined how Brazilians create taxonomic categories of racial identity. In the intervening decades, new cognitive theories and analytical approaches have enabled researchers to investigate cultural domains with increased sophistication and nuance. In this paper, we revisit, replicate, and extend Harris’s research by utilizing modern cognitive anthropological approaches such as multidimensional scaling and cultural consensus analysis. Utilizing the same facial portraits as in the original study, we ask a contemporary sample of 34 Brazilians to identify and sort these images by racial identity. We then compare Harris’s original data, reanalyzed …

The Medicalization Of Sleeplessness: Results Of U.S. Office Visit Outcomes, 2008–2015, Mairead Eastin Moloney, Gabriele Circiurkaite, Robyn Lewis Brown

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Previous analysis of U.S. physician office visits (1993–2007) indicated that the medicalization of sleeplessness was on the rise and had potentially negative implications for population health. Our study asks if the medicalization of sleeplessness at the level of patient-physician interaction has persisted over time. Using the most recent years available (2008–2015) of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey we calculated nationally representative estimates for four sleeplessness-related outcomes of physician office visits: sleeplessness complaint, insomnia diagnosis, and prescription of benzodiazepine and non-benzodiazepine sedative-hypnotics (NBSH). To test for the significance of the linear trajectory, we ran a series of bivariate linear models. …

Assessing Social Integration Of African Refugee Students Resettled In Abilene Texas: A Comparative Analysis, Hayven Tudman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to assess perceived social and cultural integration among African refugee students participating in the IRC’s youth programs and those students who do not. The study looks at refugee students from a local high school in a small rural town. The sample population (n=20) were from four different Sub-Saharan African countries: Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. The data were collected using an online survey that consisted of two scales, one for measuring social support and one for measuring acculturation. An Independent Samples t-test analysis was run to compare the IRC participants …

The Impact Organizational Factors Have On Role Ambiguity Amongst School Social Workers, Melissa Kichura

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore what organizational factors increase or decrease role ambiguity amongst school social workers. This study attempted to provide practical information for schools on the influence of specific organizational factors on role ambiguity so that they can provide a supportive work environment for school social workers and students. A cross-sectional survey design was used to provide a snapshot of the current organizational factors impacting the ambiguity of school social work roles from a sample of 73 members of the School Social Work Association of America. Some findings were not congruent with the literature. The …

Brand Strength Evaluation Of Goodwill-West Texas, Cailyn Byrd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this evaluation is to identify the ways in which Goodwill-West Texas could improve their marketing efforts in order to increase service delivery and community support. Goodwill’s career center is underperforming in comparison to other Goodwill career centers in similar communities. Two surveys were used to assess the beliefs and attitudes towards Goodwill held by members of the community who are often in contact with Goodwill-West Texas’s target market. Participants were more likely to know about Goodwill’s retail sales rather than their social service efforts. This could be contributing to Goodwill-West Texas’s service delivery, but more research is …

Measuring Current Knowledge Of Students At A Faith-Based University About Title Ix And Sexual Assault, Hannah Louise Harrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sexual assault is a worldwide issue that has affected colleges and universities for years. Regardless of the barriers, given the seriousness of sexual misconduct and the prevalence of sexual misconduct on college campuses, more should be done to address the issue. The purpose of this study is to investigate the current knowledge of sexual misconduct and Title IX among the community members of a faith-based university. The results of this study could make significant contributions to practice and policy by providing useful information for Title IX offices and designated coordinators. This study was analyzed as a descriptive study, and used …

Social Work’S Contribution To Research Regarding Suicide Among African Americans, Darius Reed

Social Work Doctoral Dissertations

Suicide among African Americans has increased significantly in the past 15 years, yet it remains a neglected topic in social work research. Social workers are the largest direct provider of mental health services in the United States. However their valuable person-in-environment perspective has not been incorporated into research to provide insight on ways to decrease incidents of suicide among African Americans. This systematic review examines social work’s contribution to suicide research while focusing on the social context in which African Americans live. The systematic review also examines protective factors specific to African Americans that can be used to mitigate suicide …

Intervention Research For The Education And Empowerment Of Families Experiencing Homelessness: Exploring Knowledge Of Tenant Rights And Perceptions Of Personal Empowerment, Diane J. Irish

Social Work Doctoral Dissertations

Family homelessness emerged as a social issue in the United States in the 1980s and has since established itself as a pervasive social problem. The issue of family homelessness is complex and multifaceted with multiple social, political, and economic contributing factors. Historically, society at large has been apt to attribute homelessness to individual faults and deficits, but the fact that family homelessness has only emerged and persisted as a notable social problem in recent decades hints at political and economic mechanisms at work that serve to complicate and perpetuate the problem. Tenant eviction is one such mechanism that appears to …

Factors Contributing To Successful Completion Of A Holistic Job Skills Training Program, Renee Paul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Job skills training programs are one way to address barriers to employment. As is important with any program that is implemented, it is important to evaluate its effectiveness. Existing literature contains several examples of job skills training programs that measure success by looking at outcomes such as employment rates post-program completion. Another way to measure success, which very few studies report, is to look at program completion rates. This study sought to fill that gap by reporting completion rates and factors that contribute to completion for a holistic job skills training program in West Texas. This study tested five variables …

Food Insecurity And Mental Health Correlations And Barriers On A College Campus, Alexandria M. Bisson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Food insecurity is defined by the U.S Department of Agriculture as “the uncertain or limited ability to get adequate food due to lack of financial resources” (Watson, Malan, Glik, & Martinez, 2017, p. 130). It tends to go unnoticed, and the size of the vulnerable population cannot be fully depicted because of stigma in seeking help. One study could only estimate from findings that 14% to 59% of students will be food insecure at some point throughout their college years (Henry, 2017). Food insecurity is affecting students’ social and mental health, diet choices, and physical well-being. Food insecurity is only …

Examination Of Coalition Sustainability Factors In Texas Human Trafficking Coalitions Through The Lens Of The Community Coalition Action Theory, Bryn Stonehouse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The state of Texas ranks number two in the nation for the highest volume of human trafficking, at an estimated 313,000 victims in the state. As awareness of this issue in both Texas and the United States increases, efforts to educate communities, advocate for new policies, and provide services to survivors are on the rise. One strategy utilized by organizations, agencies, and individuals across Texas serving survivors of human trafficking is the use of coalitions. Limited research addresses coalition sustainability within the context of issues outside healthcare initiatives facing communities, including human trafficking. Due to the limited research surrounding community …