Social Work Commons^™

Small-Dollar Children's Savings Accounts, Income, And College Outcomes, William Elliott, Hyun-A Song, Ilsung Nam

Center for Social Development Research

In this paper, we examine the relationship between children’s small-dollar savings accounts and college enrollment and graduation by asking three important research questions: (a) are children with savings of their own more likely to attend or graduate from college, (b) does dosage (having no account; having basic savings only; or having savings designated for school of less than $1, $1 to $499, or $500 or more) matter, and (c) is designating savings for school more predictive than having basic savings alone? We use propensity score weighted data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and its supplements to create …

Reducing Student Loan Debt Through Parents’ College Savings, William Elliott, Ilsung Nam

Center for Social Development Research

One policy rationale for promoting Child Development Accounts (CDAs) is that they may help reduce college debt, but no research provides evidence of this. Research does suggest that high-dollar student loans ($10,000 or more) can reduce the probability that lower income students in particular persist in and graduate from college. In this study, we find evidence to suggest that parents’ college savings may reduce the probability that students accrue high-dollar student loan debt across all income levels with the exception of high-income students. Based on this and evidence from separate research on small-dollar children’s savings accounts, we suggest that it …

Parental Involvement And Academic Performance In Ghana, Gina Chowa, David Ansong, Issac Osei-Akoto

Center for Social Development Research

Parental Involvement and Academic Performance in Ghana

Truancy In San Bernardino: What Is It And How Should We Respond, Susan Elizabeth Kennedy

Theses Digitization Project

The focus of this study was to gain an understanding of truancy. Familial factors are frequently blamed for attendance issues, but research shows that the reasons for truancy are oftentimes more complex. The study was conducted using the constructivist paradigm, and key stakeholders were interviewed to discuss their experience with truancy. The study's findings will influence social work practice by providing guidance to create effective truancy programs in San Bernardino. The study site for this research project was the San Bernardino Public Defender's Office. The research project was conducted in the Juvenile Division of the office. The participants were selected …

Racial And Ethnic Diversity In Undergraduate Social Work Programs: How Are Programs In Rural Areas Faring?, David L. Beimers, Brian Warner, Paul Force-Emery Mackie

Social Work Department Publications

Social work programs have a long-standing commitment to recruiting and educating racially and ethnically diverse students. However, some programs in rural areas have greater difficulty meeting this commitment. This study examined racial and ethnic diversity within baccalaureate social work (BSW) programs, focusing primarily on student enrollment, faculty, perceptions of diversity, and interventions to attract students. Program directors of BSW programs from 10 Midwestern states were surveyed. Forty-two programs responded. The results indicate that as a whole, social work programs differ in their levels of racial and ethnic diversity. However, BSW programs in rural areas tend to have fewer students and …

Needs Of Transitional Age Youth, Evelyn Kelli Ensman

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into needs of transitional age youth by interviewing experts in this field. The study participants for this research study are the employees that work with the transitional age youth population. The study participants consisted of: Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Masters level Social Workers (MSW), and Marriage and Family Therapists (MFT). The research site for this study was Bilingual Family Counseling Service, INC located in Ontario, California. It is a non-profit behavioral health-care organization that provides a wide range of services to individuals and families. This study used a post positivist methodology. …

The Effects Of An Experiential Learning And Mentorship Program Pairing Medical Students And Persons With Cognitive Impairment: A Qualitative Content Analysis, Darby J. Morhardt

Dissertations

The United States population is aging rapidly and with it a tremendous rise in the number of people with dementia. In the future, as now, physicians and other health care professionals will likely provide the majority of health care for older people and those with dementia. The non-geriatric trained workforce must have the attitudes, knowledge and skills needed to provide high quality care for this aging and increasingly cognitively impaired population. There is evidence that prevailing stigma regarding older adults can be modified with experiential opportunities early in students' career. Few of these programs are aimed at persons with dementia. …

Learning To Vote: Informing Political Participation Among College Students, Suzanne Pritzker, Melanie J. Springer, Amanda Moore Mcbride

Center for Social Development Research

To inform universities’ capacity to encourage student political participation, we examine associations between four civic influences—civic instruction, deliberative course-based discussion, community service, and service learning—and youth participation during the 2008 presidential election. These four influences were selected because they are commonly integrated into higher education environments. Using an original survey, we employ a broad definition of political behavior to explore ways college students express themselves politically and to examine potential influences on their participation. We hypothesize that students exposed to civic influences are more likely to vote and engage in other participatory activities than those who lack such exposure. Findings …

Long-Term Follow-Up Of Individual Development Accounts: Evidence From The Add Experiment, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Michael Sherraden, William M. Rohe, William Gale, Mark Schreiner, Clinton Key

Center for Social Development Research

Long-Term Follow-Up of Individual Development Accounts: Evidence From the ADD Experiment

Social Capital, Human Capital, And Economic Well-Being In The Knowledge Economy: Results From Canada's General Social Survey, Robert D. Weaver, Nazim Habibov

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Beginning in the mid-1990s, the Canadian welfare state's devolutionary transformation ushered in an era which potentially increased the importance of social capital and human capital as mechanisms for promoting socio-economic advancement. In this study, the authors analyze data from Canada's General Social Survey to assess how social capital and human capital influence the reported incomes of the Canadian population. The primaryfindings were that both social and human capital influenced income and that human capital had a larger effect on economic mobility than did social capital. The implications the study's findings have for policy and programmatic interventions within the 21st century …

'Delivering' Education; Maintaining Inequality. The Case Of Children With Disabilities In Afghanistan, Jean-Francois Trani, Parul Bakhshi, Anand Nandipati

Brown School Faculty Publications

Education for children with disabilities in Afghanistan, particularly disabled girls, continues to lag behind despite laudable efforts of the Ministry of Education to promote universal access for all. The opportunity for education constitutes not just a means of achieving learning outcomes but also a space for social interaction, individual development and psychosocial support, which are paramount in Conflict Affected Fragile States (CAFS). However, many persisting barriers still need to be overcome in Afghanistan to allow education for all and change negative attitudes towards education of children with disabilities. In this paper we argue that viewing education as a basic commodity, …

Disability, Vulnerability And Citizenship: To What Extent Is Education A Protective Mechanism For Children With Disabilities In Countries Affected By Conflict?, Jean-Francois Trani, Maria Kett, Parul Bakhshi, Nicola Bailey

Brown School Faculty Publications

Humanitarian crises as a result of conflict are often characterised by failure of the social contract between the state and its citizens. For a variety of reasons, children with disabilities are often particularly vulnerable in time of humanitarian crisis. This paper draws on research undertaken by the authors in a series of countries affected by conflict, and looks at how the politics and policies of such countries, and the humanitarian and development agencies working in them, continue to exclude children with disabilities from formal and informal education structures. It will be argued that this exclusion not only impedes progress on …

Experience Corps: Pathway To New Engagement, Nancy Morrow-Howell, Stacey Mccrary, Yung Soo Lee, Amanda Mcbride

Center for Social Development Research

Experience Corps: Pathway to New Engagement

Evaluation Of The Effectiveneess Of Social Work Intervention In The "Making Attendance A Priority Program", Justine Beatriz Rangel

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to address the problem of truancy by looking at what types of effective interventions helped to decrease truancy within the preadolescent population. This study looks at the correlation between a social work intervention and attendence with 27 fifth grade students who were in the MAPP program (Making Attendance a Priority Program). An evaluation of the effectiveness of a social work intervention on truancy rates for students in the MAPP program.

From Classroom To Workplace: Becoming A Social Worker, Sarah Louise Hessenauer

Dissertations

This exploratory qualitative study examines the key educational experiences that graduated bachelor level social workers identified as being most helpful to them in their current social work careers. Twenty traditional aged social workers who graduated from CSWE accredited, bachelor level, social work programs in the last 4 to 24 months and who had been working in a social work agency for a minimum of three months were asked to voluntarily participate in the study. The social workers participated in one-on-one interviews in which they were asked to describe their educational experiences and their beliefs about how those experiences supported them …

Do Parental Assets Matter For Children's Educational Attainment?: Evidence From Mediation Tests, Youngmi Kim, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

This study investigates (1) the effects of parental assets on children’s educational attainment from high school completion to college degree attainment, and (2) mediating roles played by parental involvement, child’s educational expectations, and child’s self-esteem. The study sample (N=632) is drawn from the Child and Young Adult data supplement to the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979. Results indicate that parental assets are associated with children’s later educational attainment. Financial assets and home-ownership are significantly associated with high school completion and college attendance. In addition, family income becomes non-significant when specific measures of assets and liabilities are taken into account. …

Advice From Teens To Teens About Dating: Implications For Healthy Relationships, Heidi Adams Rueda, Lela Rankin Williams

Social Work Faculty Publications

Seventy-five Mexican American and White male and female adolescents were asked in focus groups to offer advice to other adolescents pertaining to dating relationships. Across ethnicities and sexes, “Stay on your feet” was the most prominent advice given, followed by advice to “Know when it's right”. “Have good reasoning…especially about that was a prominent theme among females; Mexican American females focused more on pressure associated with sexual activity while White females embedded their advice more often within futuristic and long-term relationship goals. Females offered roughly three times more relationship advice than did males and dialogued collaboratively at greater length, enriching …

The Advantages Of Single-Sex Vs.Coeducational Environments For High School Girls, Kristen Hartman

Social Work Theses

100 female college students attending a small Catholic college in the Northeast were surveyed in order to find the relationship between attending single-sex high school and the females’ level of self esteem, motivation in the academic and career life, and gender role beliefs. Of the 100 female college students surveyed sixty attended coeducational high schools and forty attended single-sex schools. The survey questions were organized in a way which would ultimately help decide whether attending single-sex high school was more beneficial for high school girls than attending coeducational schools. The findings revealed that girls who attended single-sex high school have …

Assets And Liabilities, Race/Ethnicity, And Children's College Education, Min Zhan, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

This study examines the extent to which household assets and liabilities are related to disparities in children’s college attendance and college graduation among White, Black, and Hispanic families. Results indicate that, after household assets are considered, a substantial portion of the Black-White gap in college attendance and college graduation disappears, and a small portion of the Hispanic-White gap in college graduation also disappears. Separate analyses of children from each racial/ethnic group further indicate that family income and financial assets are related to White children’s college attendance and graduation, but nonfinancial assets and unsecured debt are associated with college attendance and …

The Impact Of Counselor Recovery Status, Disclosure, Education, And Experience On The Working Alliance In The Treatment Of Substance Use Disorders, Brian D. Roland

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Although evidence shows that between 30 and 75 percent of alcohol and other drug (AOD) counselors are themselves in recovery from a substance use disorder, dated research comparing the effectiveness of recovering and non-recovering counselors failed to control for education, experience, and use of disclosure. Given that the strength of the working alliance between client and counselor is highly predictive of outcome and utilizing interpersonal influence theory as an organizing framework, a path model was hypothesized which posited (a) counselor recovery status and its disclosure impact counselor attractiveness which, in turn, impacts working alliance; (b) counselor education impacts counselor expertness …

Parental Income, Assets, And Borrowing Constraints And Children's Post-Secondary Education, Jin Huang, Baorong Guo, Youngmi Kim, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

This study is a test of two theoretical models linking parental economic resources to children’s post-secondary education, namely, short-term borrowing constraints and long-term family background. a series of structural equation models (SEM) are tested using data from a sample of young adults (N=650) in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). To further understand the role of parental resources in children’s education, analyses are conducted for both income and assets, with assets measured by liquid assets and net worth. Findings indicate that both income and assets have consistent long-term associations with children’s college entry. When measures of household wealth are …

Parental Assets And Children's Educational Outcomes, Vernon Loke, Paul Sacco

Center for Social Development Research

Several countries, including Canada, Singapore and the United Kingdom, have enacted asset-based policies for children in recent years. The premise underlying these policies is that increases in assets lead to improvement in various child outcomes over time. But little existing research examines this premise from a dynamic perspective. Using data from the NLSY79 mother and child datasets, two parallel process latent growth curve models are estimated to examine the effects of parental asset accumulation on changes in children’s math and reading achievement over six years during middle childhood. Results indicate that the initial level of assets is positively associated with …

Experience Corps: Effects On Student Reading, Nancy Morrow-Howell, Stacey Mccrary, Yung Soo Lee, Ed Spitznagel, Melissa Jonson-Reid

Center for Social Development Research

Experience Corps: Effects on Student Reading

Evaluation Of Experience Corps: Student Reading Outcomes, Nancy Morrow-Howell, Melissa Jonson-Reid, Stacey Mccrary, Yungsoo Lee, Ed Spitznagel

Center for Social Development Research

Evaluation of Experience Corps: Student Reading Outcomes

Child Safety And Children In The Education System: Prioritizing The Need For Statewide Anti-Bullying Policies, Angelique Day

Social Work Faculty Publications

This study was conducted to explore the responses of 380 students enrolled at Michigan State University who had experienced bullying in high school as victims, perpetrators, and witnesses. Findings included significant predictors of bullying behavior. For example, male students were more likely to bully than their female counterparts; and bystanders who witnessed bullying incidents were more likely to become both victims and/or perpetrators of bullying. The MSU students offered recommendations for policymakers to create anti-bullying legislation with enforcement guidelines and other methods of improving school culture to reduce future bullying incidents.

Taking It To The Streets! Engaging In The Praxis Of Community Organization, Paul Force-Emery Mackie

Social Work Department Publications

This grassroots action focused on excessive property development of affordable, single-family homes against aggressive property developers. This presentation traces the author's involvement with a variety of neighborhood stakeholders, socio-political entities, and BSSW students to work for real, positive, sustainable social change to improve their local community.

Exploring The Impact And Implications Of Residential Mobility: From The Neighborhood To The School, Robin L. Ersing, Richard D. Sutphen, Diane N. Loeffler

Social Work Faculty Publications

This cross-sectional study examines residential relocation among a cohort of 495 fifth graders in one urban community in the Southeastern U.S. The impact of residential mobility is discussed in relation to student/family outcomes as well as the stressors placed upon schools. Results support previous findings which suggest residential relocation is correlated with academic problems. In addition, highly mobile students are twice as likely to be referred by teachers for disciplinary intervention and families are five times more likely than their residentially stable counterparts to be involved with child protective services. Implications from this study address the need for school systems, …

Minnesota Health Care Programs: Renville County Human Servics Outreach Project, Bethany Leindecker

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Purpose:

To develop an outreach program for use by Renville County Human Services staff to educate potential service recipients and other community residents about Minnesota health care programs.

To assist outreach staff in gaining skills and knowledge necessary to effectively conduct the outreach.

In Step With Our Parents: 3-Part Educational Series, Kate Boisen-Macdonald

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this project is to educate adult children caring for their parents, so they can identify as caregivers so they can better cope with, identify with, and/or navigate the role of care giving, and be aware of the resources available to them.

Program Approach For Childheaded Households In Zambia, Samson Chama

Theses and Dissertations

Using an emergent design, this study developed a program approach for young people in the child headed households of Zambia. Phase I dealt with prior ethnography, Phase II focused on independent living services, and Phase III concerned translation to Zambia. A total of 36 participants from Richmond, consisting of 20 Richmond Department of Social Services workers and youth and 16 Africans, were recruited. Three major themes emerged: feasibility, content, and quality. Lessons learned about translational research highlight the need for uniformity in a cultural screen’s composition. This might enhance the richness of perspectives on young people. Lessons for the Department …