Social Work Commons^™

Taking Child Development Accounts To Scale: Ten Key Policy Design Elements, Michael Sherraden, Margaret M. Clancy, Sondra G. Beverly

Center for Social Development Research

The United States subsidizes asset accumulation for middle- and especially high-income families through the federal income tax system. Low-income families are much less likely than high-income families to benefit from these policies. The vision for Child Development Accounts (CDAs) has been for a universal and progressive policy aimed at long-term asset building for all. Bringing CDAs to scale nationwide in a sustainable manner will require a national policy structure, so that all children can build assets. This brief aims to advance universal and progressive CDAs by identifying 10 key design elements that can be implemented and sustained at scale.

Ethical Issues In Conducting Community-Based Participatory Research: A Narrative Review Of The Literature, Crystal Kwan Ms., Christine A. Walsh

The Qualitative Report

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a methodology increasingly used within the social sciences. CBPR is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of research methodologies, including participatory research, participatory action research, feminist participatory research, action research, and collaborative inquiry. At its core, they share five key attributes: (i) community as a unit of identity; (ii) an approach for the vulnerable and marginalized; (iii) collaboration and equal partnership throughout the entire research process; (iv) an emergent, flexible, and iterative process; and (v) the research process is geared toward social action. While there is no shortage of literature that highlights the benefits …

Patriarchal Culture's Influence On Women’S Leadership Ascendancy, Jose Carbajal

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Biblical interpretations (hermeneutic) have influenced women’s ascension to leadership positions. A patriarchal societal framework that most Judeo-Christians have accepted as a norm often includes biased biblical interpretations regarding women. These interpretations are taken out of context, which reinforces old patterns that are incompatible with true leadership. This paper provides a literature review on women and leadership, with the literature indicating that a prevalent patriarchal perspective has influenced the portrayal of leadership roles in society. The literature on women leadership shows that many women might not be becoming CEOs or ascending to other high positions because of gender inequality in the …

Evaluating The Process Of View And Tanf Case Managers In Prince William County's Department Of Social Services, Morgan Lawson

Undergraduate Research Symposium

This project goes through the process of conducting an evaluation on the VIEW and TANF caseworkers for Prince William County's Department of Social Services. This process goes from developing an evaluation question to designing an evaluation protocol, and then using that protocol to do the evaluation. The evaluation was centered around the question, “How effectively are PWC's TANF caseworkers being prepared to handle their cases in a way that helps the Department of Social Services fulfill their mission of enabling their clients to live self-reliant lives?”. Based on the nature of this question, the evaluation conducted was a process evaluation, …

A Lumberjack Sunflower, Blooming From Undergraduate Research, Robert J. Hurt, James Morris

Student Publications

It was one year ago in spring 2017 when I did not understand how to write research, let alone be confident in it. In the fall 2016 semester, I was part of a class project that worked to provide donations to families affected by flooding in Louisiana. In the following spring 2017 semester, I worked to present my own findings and practice from that project towards a research paper. From that paper I earned the opportunity to be part of an Undergraduate Research Conference. In the timespan of one year from that conference to spring 2018, I worked harder in …

Women Agricultural Landowners—Past Time To Put Them “On The Radar”, Peggy Petrzelka, Ann Sorensen, Jennifer Filipiak

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

While women own 25% of the acres rented out for farming, little has been done in terms of federal policy that focuses on these women. In this policy analysis, we detail how (1) lack of data on these women landowners and (2) the invisibility of these women to federal natural resource and agricultural agency staff contribute to women nonoperating landowners (WNOLs) not being on the federal policy radar. We discuss how the persistence of these factors continues to marginalize WNOLs in federal agricultural policy, despite the mandate of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies to be serving underserved populations such …

Alliances For 2018 Colombia’S Presidential Elections Can You Trust The Candidates?, Juan Luis Suárez, Yadira Lizama Mué

CulturePlex Lab DataPoints

Semana’s most recent poll puts Gustavo Petro clearly in the lead for voting intentions (23.4%), followed closely by Fajardo (21.6%) and with Vargas Lleras (14.8%) a distant third. De la Calle (10.6%) is fourth, and Marta Lucía Ramírez (7.8%), fifth. Many commentators try to figure out how these results will facilitate alliances after the March vote to Congress, and in the second round of the Presidential election. To test possible scenarios, we have analyzed Twitter conversations from January through the lens of relationships between candidates. That is, we are interested in who talks to whom, not only because elections are …

Barriers And Facilitators To Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence Among Peruvian Adolescents Living With Hiv: A Qualitative Study, Jerome Galea, Milagros Wong, Maribel Muñoz, Emiliano Valle, Segundo R. Leon, Dayana D. Perez, Lenka Kolevic, Molly F. Franke

Social Work Faculty Publications

AIDS deaths among adolescents are increasing globally. This qualitative study investigated the barriers and facilitators to cART adherence among Peruvian adolescents living with HIV. Guided by a social ecological model, we analyzed transcripts from 24 psychosocial support groups for HIV-positive adolescents aged 13–17 years and 15 individual, in-depth interviews with cART providers and caregivers to identify the barriers and facilitators to cART adherence at the individual, family/caregiver and hospital levels. Most barriers and facilitators to cART adherence clustered at the individual and family/caregiver levels, centering on support provided to adolescents; history of declining health due to suboptimal cART adherence; side …

Increasing Equity In Access To Mental Health Care: A Critical First Step In Improving Service Quality, Margarita Alegría, Ora Nakash, Amanda Nemoyer

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Psychosocial Correlates Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms And Well-Being Among Hispanic World Trade Center Rescue And Recovery Workers, Dianne Ciro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Thousands of first responders are estimated to have endured extremely distressing experiences during their recovery efforts at the 9/11 World Trade Center (WTC) site. While the effects of 9/11 continue to be studied, few studies have examined how rescue and recovery workers have been coping since 9/11 and how their coping is associated with their psychological well-being. Moreover, we do not know how distinct coping patterns may be associated with post-traumatic growth, experiences of positive emotion, or quality of life among WTC responders.

This study compared coping differences among Hispanic, Non-Hispanic White, and Non-Hispanic Black first responders. In addition, it …

Barriers And Facilitators To Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence Among Peruvian Adolescents Living With Hiv: A Qualitative Study, Jerome T. Galea, Milagros Wong, Maribel Muñoz, Emiliano Valle, Segundo R. Leon, Dayana D. Perez, Lenka Kolevic, Molly Franke

Social Work Faculty Publications

AIDS deaths among adolescents are increasing globally. This qualitative study investigated the barriers and facilitators to cART adherence among Peruvian adolescents living with HIV. Guided by a social ecological model, we analyzed transcripts from 24 psychosocial support groups for HIV-positive adolescents aged 13–17 years and 15 individual, in-depth interviews with cART providers and caregivers to identify the barriers and facilitators to cART adherence at the individual, family/caregiver and hospital levels. Most barriers and facilitators to cART adherence clustered at the individual and family/caregiver levels, centering on support provided to adolescents; history of declining health due to suboptimal cART adherence; side …

Crucial But Understudied: Incentives In Hiv Research, Brandon Brown, Jerome T. Galea, Karine Dubé

Social Work Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Use Of 'Eradication' In Hiv Cure-Related Research: A Public Health Debate, Karine Dubé, Stuart Luter, Breanne Lesnar, Luke Newton, Jerome T. Galea, Brandon Brown, Sarah Gianella

Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: The landscape of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) research has changed drastically over the past three decades. With the remarkable success of antiretroviral treatment (ART) in decreasing AIDS-related mortality, some researchers have shifted their HIV research focus from treatment to cure research. The HIV cure research community often uses the term eradication to describe the science, and talks about eradicating the virus from the body. In public discourse, the term eradication could be conflated with disease eradication at the population level. In this paper, we call for a reframing of HIV cure research as control, as it is a …

From 'Wonderful Americans' To The Ahca: Contrasting Trump's Nomination Acceptance Address And His Administration's Actions On Glbtq Health, Leland G. Spencer, Molly Malany Sayre

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

Donald Trump's 2016 Nomination Acceptance Address at the Republican National Convention explicitly mentioned GLBTQ people as Trump promised to “protect our LGBTQ citizens” and called GLBTQ people “wonderful Americans.” However, since Trump's inauguration, he has appointed anti-GLBTQ leaders, proposed cuts to HIV research, and offered his support for a ban on transgender recruits to the military. This article begins with a close reading of Trump's speech, showing how Trump expresses ostensible support for GLBTQ Americans, only to capitalize on the deaths of queer and trans people of color at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando mere weeks before the convention by …

Help-Seeking On Facebook Versus More Traditional Sources Of Help: Cross-Sectional Survey Of Military Veterans, Alan R. Teo, Heather E. Marsh, Samuel B.L. Liebow, Jason I. Chen, Christopher W. Forsberg, Christina Nicolaidis, Somnath Saha, Steven K. Dobscha

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The media has devoted significant attention to anecdotes of individuals who post messages on Facebook prior to suicide. However, it is unclear to what extent social media is perceived as a source of help or how it compares to other sources of potential support for mental health problems.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the degree to which military veterans with depression use social media for help-seeking in comparison to other more traditional sources of help.

Methods: Cross-sectional self-report survey of 270 adult military veterans with probable major depression. Help-seeking intentions were measured with a modified General Help-Seeking Questionnaire. …

Comprehensive Plan For Prevention Of Abuse And Neglect Of People With Disabilities: Report, Nancy M. Fitzsimons

Social Work Department Publications

Victimization of people with disabilities (here forward ‘abuse and neglect’) is a serious, persistent, and pervasive problem. While Minnesota is taking steps to improve its reporting and response systems, similar efforts have not been made to prevent abuse and neglect. This Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention of Abuse and Neglect of People with Disabilities contains powerful examples of the problem and describes potential remedial actions. But the Plan goes further, by outlining promising actions that can be taken before the abuse and neglect occurs.

This report and the subsequent work on prevention of abuse and neglect for people with disabilities …

Inductive And Deductive: Ambiguous Labels In Qualitative Content Analysis, Mohammad Reza Armat, Abdolghader Assarroudi, Mostafa Rad, Hassan Sharifi, Abbas Heydari

The Qualitative Report

The propounded dualism in Content Analysis as quantitative and qualitative approaches is widely supported and justified in nursing literature. Nevertheless, another sort of dualism is proposed for Qualitative Content Analysis, suggesting the adoption of "inductive" and/or "deductive" approaches in the process of qualitative data analysis. These approaches have been referred and labelled as "inductive" or "conventional"; and "deductive" or "directed" content analysis in the literature. Authors argue that these labels could be fallacious, and may lead to ambiguity; as in effect, both approaches are employed with different dominancy during the process of any Qualitative Content Analysis. Thus, authors suggest more …

The State Of State Eitcs: An Overview And Their Implications For Low- And Moderate-Income Households, Genevieve Davison, Stephen P. Roll, Samuel H. Taylor, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Center for Social Development Research

The success of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has prompted numerous states to develop and administer their own EITC programs. This brief presents the results of analyses that used data from a large sample of low- and moderate-income households to learn more about the relationship between state and federal EITCs as well as about their relationships, respective and combined, with financial behaviors and the experience of financial and material hardship. Given that many EITC beneficiaries face substantial risk of experiencing income volatility and financial shocks, insights gained from this brief can assist policymakers in understanding the importance of …

When Pedagogy Is Painful: Teaching In Tumultuous Times, Marisela Martinez-Cola, Rocco English, Jennifer Min, Jonathan Peraza, Jamesetta Tambah, Christina Yebuah

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

What happens when the outside world begins to affect the classroom? Is the classroom supposed to be neutral, objective, and devoid of feelings? Or is it a space where students and teacher meet for healing, understanding, and critical thinking? From news reports of police brutality to highly publicized acts of racial aggression, students are inundated with examples of intolerance, hatred, and racial inequality. Those committed to critical pedagogy and social justice invite, embrace, and use these events to enhance classroom materials. What happens, however, when pedagogy is painful for both the student and the teacher? Several articles address the teacher’s …

Living With 'Risky' Bodies, Simanti Dasgupta

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

In Kolkata, female sex workers’ well-being is overshadowed by practices and conceptions around HIV/AIDS. This article describes an outreach program designed to prevent the spread of HIV infections through condom programming based on a public health initiative, Sonagachi HIV/AIDS Intervention Program (SHIP). However, the identification of female sex workers as a high-risk group for HIV has compounded their existing struggle in which the state medical regime now construes and constructs the women as "risky" bodies in need of targeted intervention. High-risk group status has conferred a kind of hyper-visibility on female sex workers -- unthinkable were it not for the …

Responses To And Repercussions From Income Volatility In Low- And Moderate-Income Households: Results From A National Survey, Stephen P. Roll, David S. Mitchell, Krista Holub, Sam Bufe, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Center for Social Development Research

This is the second in a series of briefs that the Center for Social Development has produced in partnership with the Aspen Institute’s Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative (EPIC) and the Intuit Tax and Financial Center. Thefirst brief highlighted new data on the prevalence of income and expense volatility in low- and moderate-income households. This second brief examines income volatility’s effects on Americans’ financial lives, showing that it is associated with dramatic increases in the likelihood of experiencing several hardships. The findings have broad implications for future research and policy.

Food Insecurity Rudimentary Education For Local Youth, Nam-Anh Nguyen, Quynh Nguyen, Ellisa Defur, Daniel Lin, Jennifer Mansfield, Jane Krause

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Choice Architecture In Promoting Saving At Tax Time: Evidence From A Large-Scale Field Experiment, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Cynthia Cryder, Mathieu R. Despard, Dana C. Perantie, Jane E. Oliphant, Dan Ariely

Center for Social Development Research

This paper presents the findings of a large-scale field experiment (N = 646,16) from the Refund to Savings Initiative. The experiment tested a choice architecture and persuasive messaging intervention that increased saving among low-moderate income (LMI) consumers by approximately 50% during tax refund time. Two follow-up experiments parsed components of the intervention. The first follow-up experiment (N = 569) tested the messaging and choice architecture interventions separately, finding that each can increase savings. a final follow-up experiment (N = 554) tested individual elements of the choice architecture intervention, demonstrating that mere mention of savings within choice options was not sufficient …

The Evolution Of Challenges For Adoptive Families: The Impact Of Age As A Framework For Differentiation, Nancy Rolock, Joan M. Blakey, Megan Wahl, Amy Devine

Journal of Adolescent and Family Health

This exploratory study examined issues parents (n=20) experienced after adoption through the child welfare system. The findings suggest that the primary differences between struggling and non-struggling families was whether the family was internally-protected or externally-focused. Internally-protected families were able to insulate and protect their family from many outside forces and meet their children’s needs. In contrast, externally-influenced families tended to have negative involvement with the school, community, and/or law enforcement, often resulting from children’s disruptive behavior. The parents had limited choices as to whether outside entities were involved in their children’s lives. Participants reported that sustained support after adoption is …

The Experience Of Volatility In Low- And Moderate-Income Households: Results From A National Survey, Stephen P. Roll, David S. Mitchell, Sam Bufe, Gracie Lynne, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Center for Social Development Research

This is the first in a series of briefs that the Center for Social Development has produced in partnership with the Aspen Institute’s Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative (EPIC) and the Intuit Tax and Financial Center. It highlights new data on the prevalence of income and expense volatility in low- and moderate-income households.

Self-Care Among Social Workers Employed In Rural Settings: A Cross-Sectional Investigation, Diane N. Loeffler, J. Jay Miller, Theresia M. Pachner

Social Work Faculty Publications

Despite growing recognition about the importance of self-care for social work professionals, research related to the topic has not kept pace with the changing landscape of the profession. Particularly, self-care practices among rural social work professionals have been overlooked in the research. Rural social work practice is, in many ways, decidedly different from practice in more urban areas. Thus, the primary aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the personal and professional self-care practices of rural social workers. Specifically, the study sough to better understand how often social workers engage in self-care and whether or not there are associations …

Understanding The Impact Of Childhood Sexual Abuse On Men’S Risk Behavior: Protocol For A Mixed-Methods Study, Martin J. Downing Jr., Dominique Brown, Jeffrey Steen, Ellen Benoit

Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) remains a critical public health issue among black and Latino men who have sex with men (MSM), as it is associated with multiple negative outcomes including substance misuse, poor mental health, revictimization, and high-risk sexual behavior. Most CSA research with MSM relies on quantitative assessment that often precludes consideration of cultural variations in how formative sexual experiences are understood and is based on inconsistent or overly restrictive definitions of abuse, and therefore may fail to detect certain abusive experiences (eg, those involving female perpetrators), which can have harmful health consequences if they remain unrecognized. …

Countering The Norm, (Re)Authoring Our Lives: The Promise Counterstorytelling Holds As A Research Methodology With Lgbtq Youth And Beyond, M. Alex Wagaman, Rae Caballero Obejero, James S. Gregory

Social Work Publications

Counterstorytelling, a methodology that is rooted in critical race theory, is undergirded by principles that are beneficial to understanding the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identified (LGBTQ) young people from an intersectional perspective. Counterstorytelling holds promise as a method that creates opportunities for individual transformation and resistance to dominant narratives among young people facing systemic oppression. This article outlines the design and implementation of a counterstorytelling study with LGBTQ youth and reflects on the value and associated challenges of counterstorytelling as a participatory research method.

Is Counseling Integral To Buprenorphine-Assisted Opioid Addiction Treatment? Examining Counseling Participation And Treatment Retention At A Richmond, Virginia Clinic, John R. Gyourko, Hilary Colin King

Social Work Student Works

Treatment providers in Virginia are required by law to offer counseling or referrals to all clients receiving medication-assisted opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment (American Society of Addiction Medicine, 2016; Medical Society of Virginia, 2018). Prescribing physicians widely regard counseling as a critical component of medication-assisted OUD treatment (Lin, Lofwall, Walsh, & Knudsen, 2019), and clients perceive counseling to be among the most important factors promoting recovery from opioid dependence (Hay, Huhn, Tompkins, & Dunn, 2019). Research investigating the efficacy of counseling as an OUD treatment component, however, has been equivocal to date (Brown, 2018; Dugosh et al., 2016). The current …

How Does Incarceration Affect The Likelihood Of Reunification?, Amy D'Andrade

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.