Social Work Commons^™

Predicting Positive Education Outcomes For Emerging Adults In Mental Health Systems Of Care, Eileen M. Brennan, Peggy Nygren, Robert L. Stephens, Adrienne Croskey

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Emerging adults who receive services based on positive youth development models have shown an ability to shape their own life course to achieve positive goals. This paper reports secondary data analysis from the Longitudinal Child and Family Outcome Study including 248 culturally-diverse youth ages 17 through 22 receiving mental health services in systems of care. After 12 months of services, school performance was positively related to youth ratings of school functioning, and service participation and satisfaction. Regression analysis revealed ratings of young peoples’ perceptions of school functioning and their experience in services added to the significant prediction of satisfactory school …

The Cumulative Impact Of Trauma Exposure And Recidivism After Incarceration Among Black Men, Johanna E. Elumn Madera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The United States incarcerates people at a higher rate than any other nation in the world. It is estimated that 14 million people will be incarcerated at some point in their lives in the United States. Ninety-five percent of incarcerated people will return to the community. Persons who have been incarcerated often have experienced higher rates of trauma than the general population. The symptoms associated with exposure to trauma may interfere with a person’s ability to reconnect with family, interact with parole/probation, stay free from drugs/alcohol, or find and maintain stable housing and employment after they are released from prison. …

The Rest Of The Story: A Nepalese Village Remind That There Often Is A Different Reality Behind The Romantic Narrative, Abukar Adan

Colby Magazine

The rural excursion was part of my semester abroad in the IHP: Human Rights Program, which is intended to give us insight into the rhetoric and reality of human rights through an interdisciplinary, issues-based approach. Over the course of four months, we travel to New York City, Nepal, Jordan, and Chile and learn from a diverse set of individuals and institutions, from academics to indigenous activists, grassroots movements to international aid organizations. Through our visit to this tight-knit village in the hills of the Kathmandu Valley, we were given the opportunity to hear people’s personal narratives.

From Mass Incarceration To Effective And Sustainable Decarceration: Conference Report, Carrie Pettus-Davis, Matthew W. Epperson

Center for Social Development Research

All signs indicate that the United States is leaving an era of mass incarceration and is on the cusp of an era of decarceration. However, the challenge of decarceration is far greater than simply reducing the use of incarceration; it involves building an array of policy and practice innovations that replace incarceration. We have a unique opportunity to rethink, redefine, and reimagine the criminal justice system and shape the emerging decarceration movement. The challenge of decarceration is far greater than simply reducing the use of incarceration; it involves building an array of policy and practice innovations that replace incarceration. To …

Ptsd From Childhood Trauma As A Precursor To Attachment Issues, Christy Owen

Fidei et Veritatis: The Liberty University Journal of Graduate Research

The past 20 years have been turbulent regarding Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), with conflicting research about its causes, effects, treatment, and prognosis. The current diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5 fails to adequately address this disorder. A number of deviant and maladaptive behaviors common amongst children with RAD are not even mentioned in the diagnostic criteria. As such, the diagnostic definition is almost unidentifiable or incompatible with real-life conduct manifestations of the disorder. Rather, this author contends that RAD is foundationally a unique and extreme form of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from Early Childhood Trauma. The child endured unspeakable neglect and/or …

How Do Children Become Workers? Making Sense Of Conflicting Accounts Of Cultural Transmission In Anthropology And Psychology, David F. Lancy, Christopher A.J. Little

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This article uses children’s work as a lens to examine methodological concerns in the study of cultural transmission and children’s learning of useful domestic and subsistence skills. We begin by providing a review of the relevant literature concerning cultural transmission in the context of the ethnographic record, as well as more recent studies originating largely from psychology. We then offer an ethnographic case study concerning Asabano (PNG [Papua New Guinea]) childhood to make an important methodological contribution in the interdisciplinary study of cultural transmission. The case study centers on the paradox that Asabano parents, in interviews, claim that their children …

The Relationship Between Life Stressors And Drug And Sexual Behaviors Among A Population-Based Sample Of Young Black Men Who Have Sex With Men In Chicago, Dexter R. Voisin

Faculty Scholarship

Younger Black men who have sex with men (YBMSM) have the highest rates of HIV incidence in the U.S. and are also exposed to high life stressors (e.g., unemployment, incarceration, and exposure to communality). This study assessed whether life stressors were related to drug use and sexual risk behaviors among a representative sample of YBMSM. The South Side of Chicago and selected adjacent suburbs represents the most populous contiguous Black community in the U.S. Over 10% of the estimated YBMSM population in this geographic region were sampled. Major findings indicated that higher life stress was significantly associated with greater odds …

Women At Work: Why Mentoring Is Good But Sponsoring Is Even Better, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

It can take proactive support and influence to open doors to opportunities

From The Editor, Peggy Pittman-Munke Ph.D.

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Journal of Contemporary Rural Social Work

Special Issue, Volume 8, Number 1

2016

From the Editor: Peggy Pittman-Munke, Murray State University

Building The Health Capability Set In A Purépecha Community To Assess Health Interventions, Marco Ricardo Téllez Cabrera

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Health capabilities can be viewed as the ability and opportunity to achieve health states according to the different styles of life valued by people. This paper contrasts and explores the dimensions that could be included in the health capability set to assess health interventions in Cuanajo, Mexico, expanding upon a previous work and using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Cuanajo is a semirural indigenous Purépecha community located in western Mexico. While the final objective is to generate measures of outcomes in economic evaluations of health interventions to be carried out in this community, this study reinforces the dimensions that could be employed …

Impact Of Education On Poverty Reduction In Costa Rica: A Regional And Urban-Rural Analysis, Rafael Arias, Gregorio Giménez, Leonardo Sánchez

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

In this article, we analyze the relationship between levels of education and poverty for the different planning regions and also according to urban and rural areas. For the purposes of the study, we use the methodology of Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) to measure poverty in a multidimensional way: access to decent shelter, access to health, access to knowledge, and access to other goods and services (consumption capacity). Based on empirical evidence that uses data from the Population Census of 2011, we conclude that achieving greater levels of education helps people from rural and urban areas and people living in the …

Colonial Subjugation And Human Rights Abuses: Twenty-First Century Violations Against Brazil’S Rural Indigenous Xukuru Nation, Marcia Mikulak

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

This article addresses the struggle of the Xukuru do Ororubá indigenous people in rural Pernambuco, Brazil as they organize to stop historical violence against them and work to regain their constitutional right to their ancestral lands. Since Portuguese colonization and throughout Brazil’s nation-building, the Xukuru have been particularly at-risk for human rights abuses. With the creation of the United Nations in 1945 and the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) in 1948, member states have often provided rhetorical validity to human rights documents and conventions – rhetoric that is often ignored upon return to their sovereign territories. …

Ideas For Capacity Building And Educational Empowerment Of Female Children In Rural Butaleja, Uganda: Applying The Central Human Capability Approach, Renuka Mahari De Silva

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Building upon the concepts of Capability Approach, this paper discusses how these ideas can be effectively utilized within the setting of a small rural village in Uganda, Africa to empower female children to create a valuable life that affects positive social change. Colonization left a devastating blow to the socioeconomic conditions among many ethnic communities in Uganda. However, Uganda’s political outlays and social constructs further deepened the inequity gap between female and male children. This paper explores ways in which female children may be given the capacity to create agency for themselves as a stepping stone towards building a life …

Book Review: Latino Heartland, Annah K. Bender Postdoctoral Fellow

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Book Review: Latino Heartland Sujey Vega 2015 New York, NY: New York University Press 263 pages Softcover: $29.49 US ISBN-13: 978-4798-9604-2

Book Review: Rural Social Work: An International Perspective, Peter A. Kindle Ph.D.

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Book Review: Rural Social Work: An International Perspective Richard Pugh & Brian Cheers 2010 Bristol, UK: The Policy Press 254 pages Softcover: $34.95 US ISBN-10: 1861347200 ISBN-13: 978-1861347206

Contemporary Rural Social Work - 2016 (Volume 8, Number 1)

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Contemporary Rural Social Work - 2016 (Special Issue, Volume 8, Number 1)

Full issue

Visible And Invisible Battles On The Boarder, Danielle Beazer Dubrasky

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Poem.

Professional Detachment, Curtis L. Todd

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Poem.

How To Make A Ghost Town, Ross Howerton

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Poem.

Family In Arms, Treri Lynn Cummings

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Poem.

From The Guest Editors, Dheeshana S. Jayasundara, Randall Nedegaard

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Journal of Contemporary Rural Social Work

Special Issue, Volume 8, Number 1

2016

From the Guest Editors: Dheeshana Jayasundara and Randall C. Nedegaard, University of North Dakota

Impact Of Flood On Rural Population And Strategies For Mitigation: A Case Study Of Darbhanga District, Bihar State, India, Vikash Kumar, Suk Yin Caroline Cheng, Ajit Kumar Singh

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Floods are one of the most disastrous acts of nature and impact human life in multiple ways. Damages by floods in rural areas are more severe compared to urban counterparts due to poverty, limited infrastructures and access to resources and health care services. The Province of Bihar in India, with a population of 104.1 million, has 76 per cent of the population living under recurring threat of floods. In 2008, Bihar experienced severe floods in the northern region that affected more than 2.3 million people; and in 2013, they affected more than 5.9 million in 3768 villages across 20 rural …

Book Review: Planning For Rural Resilience: Coping With Climate Change And Energy Futures, Kala Chakradhar

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Book Review: Planning for rural resilience: Coping with climate change and energy futures Wayne. J. Caldwell (Ed.) 2015 Winnipeg, Canada: University of Manitoba Press 165 pages Softcover: $31.95 US ISBN-13: 978-0-88755-780-4

From The Editor, Peggy Pittman-Munke Ph.D.

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Journal of Contemporary Rural Social Work

Volume 8, Number 2

2016

From the Editor: Peggy Pittman-Munke, Murray State University

Over The Hill To The Poor Farm: Rural History Almost Forgotten, Michael R. Daley Ph.D., Peggy Pittman-Munke Ph.D.

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Poor farms were important rural institutions that cared for a wide range of poor and dependent people in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet today they are little remembered. This manuscript discusses these poor farms, their function, operation, who they served, and how they relate to modern day social welfare.

Investigating Students' Experiences With Sexual Victimization And Their Perceptions Of The Overall Campus Climate At A Rural Institution, Jordana N. Navarro, Shelly Clevenger

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

This study examined sexual assault of both females and males attending a mid-sized rural southern college campus with fewer than 12,000 students. The online survey (N = 659) included questions to measure attempted and/or completed rape, sexual coercion, and sexual contact. We investigated whether perceptions of the overall campus climate differed between student survivors and student non-victims. Findings indicated that sexual victimization occurred at this university, and that this social problem is not limited to large urban schools.

Systematic Review Of Veterans' Coping Strategies: How Can Rural Veterans Improve Their Quality Of Life?, Tracey Marie Barnett, Alexa Smith-Osborne, Freda Barnett-Braddock

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

This systematic review examines the empirical literature on an emerging body of coping strategies (CS), both civilian readjustment and health-risk related, experienced by United States military veterans exposed to combat stress and other military lifestyle stressors. Studies that met inclusion criteria were selected among quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies published in peer-reviewed journals. Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (PICO) criteria and Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) were applied to all studies. Seventeen reports meeting a priori inclusion criteria were extracted from 107 studies accessed through 9 electronic databases. Data were synthesized to investigate two research questions informing …

Reinventing Social Work Education And Service Delivery In Rural Areas: An Interdisciplinary Model For Serving Vulnerable Populations, Wayne R. Moore, Fran Pearson, John C. Rife, K. Jay Poole, Lelia S. Moore, Antonia M. Reaves

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

This article presents an interprofessional case study approach to serving the social service and health needs of vulnerable persons living rural communities. This project, the Congregational Social Work Education Initiative (CSWEI), is funded by a health care foundation. Persons in rural areas are often at risk for poverty, homelessness and lack of access to needed health and social services. The case study demonstrates the opportunities for collaboration between professional social work, religiously affiliated organizations (RAOs) and nursing in order to reduce health and mental health disparities among residents in rural areas.

Project Empower: An Innovative Approach To Community Behavioral Health Service Delivery, Saundra H. Starks, Elizabeth L. Jones, Suzie T. Cashwell, Karissa Stokes

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Project EMPOWER was a grant funded initiative designed to positively impact a rural community by providing behavioral health services and case management to low-income families. An interdisciplinary service team comprised of behavioral health specialists and graduate level interns in the fields of social work, psychiatric nursing, and counseling worked to provide services under the supervision of a doctorate level clinical social work professor. Community partnerships were forged to increase opportunities for community members to have accessible, affordable services. Using an empowerment model rooted in systems and integrated practice, the services included assessments, referrals, group, individual and family counseling, child care, …

Social Work Leadership: Emotional Intelligence In A Rural Bsw Program, Edward N. Randle

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Social work leadership is valuable to the existence and future of the profession. Equally important is leadership within academia. Leadership in academia is impelled and obligated to the historical leaders, agency organizations, communities, and individuals influenced by the profession to lead, provide vision, and educate tomorrow’s leaders. Mary Richmond and Edward Devine assembled social work education in the 1900's and were pioneers significant in shaping the vision of social work. However, there is a scarcity of empirical research regarding social work leadership within academic settings. More specifically, limited literature is available that discusses the philosophical prisms, perceived realities, and behavior …