Social Work Commons^™

Fostering Success Through Coaching: Perspectives Of Help Seeking Within A Coaching Relationship With Post-Secondary Students From Foster Care, Jamie L. Bennett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coaching, a humanistic approach to growth, has recently been utilized on college campuses as an alternative to standard student service strategies to address the needs of students from foster care. For this dissertation, I have collected interview data from four coaches and five college students who had spent time in the foster care system to explore the perceptions of help-seeking behaviors and coaching within a campus-based university program. The goal was to understand the role of coaching in the students’ help-seeking behaviors. The theories of self-determination and survivalist self-reliance were used to conceptualize my literature review, research design, and data …

United States Police & Society Reform, Madisen Sterner

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

For many years, people of color have had an unsteady relationship with police departments and law enforcement due to police misconduct, use of force, and police brutality. We’ve had many of the same conversations over and over again about what we can do to bring upon change within our departments, but no true, consistent action has been taken. In this paper we discuss multiple solutions to help address the issue of police misconduct, the need for police and society reform, and ways we can work towards mending the relationship between citizens and our police departments. In today’s society, change is …

Breaking The Cycle: Interrupting Generational Incarceration In Maine, Jillian Foley Mppm, Erica King Msw, Casey Benner

Justice Policy

Parental incarceration is a known Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) which affects a large number of children nationwide. Research shows that children who experience parental incarceration are more at risk for trauma, mental health problems, and juvenile justice system involvement. The goal of this report was to further our understanding of the scale of parental incarceration and the impact on the children in Maine. This report provides a snapshot of the number of children who were impacted by parental incarceration in the state system over a 5-year period (2015-2020). The findings show that for the majority of these parents, there is …

Caring For Children In Foster And Kinship Care During A Pandemic: Lessons Learned And Recommendations, Hilda Loria, Jill Mcleigh, Erinne Conner, Valerie Smith, Rachel Keefe, Christopher Greeley, Kristin Wolfe

Health Status, Outcomes, and Literacy and Healthcare Utilization

Through qualitative feedback from professionals in healthcare, mental health, and child welfare, this study explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and well-being of children in the child welfare system. Positive outcomes and challenges related to the care of children in foster or kinship care in Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic are described. Themes identified included disparities in the child welfare system; utilization of telehealth; cross-sector communication and collaboration; safety considerations; and placement stability and support. The article concludes with recommendations in each of these areas for ensuring the health and well-being of children in foster and …

Queerview: Protocol For A Technology-Mediated Qualitative Photo Elicitation Study With Sexual And Gender Minority Youth In Ontario, Canada, Shelley L. Craig, Andrew D. Eaton, Rachael Pascoe, Egag Egag, Lauren B. Mcinroy, Lin Fang, Ashley Austin, Michael P. Dentato Phd, Msw

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Background:The experiences of resilience and intersectionality in the lives of contemporary sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) are important to explore. SGMY face unique experiences of discrimination in both online and offline environments, yet simultaneously build community and seek support in innovative ways. SGMY who identify as transgender, trans, or gender nonconforming and have experiences with child welfare, homelessness, or immigration have been particularly understudied. A qualitative exploration that leverages technology may derive new understanding of the negotiations of risk, resilience, and identity intersections that impact the well-being of vulnerable SGMY.

Objective:The objectives of the QueerVIEW study were to (1) …

Financial Capability And Asset Building In Social And Economic Development: Advancing The Sustainable Development Goals, David Ansong, Moses Okumu, Jin Huang`, Margaret S. Sherraden, Lissa Johnson, Li Zou

Center for Social Development Research

The concern for economic well-being undergirds most of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This Perspective articulates an agenda for advancing those goals in resource-constrained countries by leveraging financial capability and asset-building (FCAB) strategies. It also specifies a role for financial technology (commonly called “FinTech”) in this work. The authors conclude with a call for better integrating FCAB and FinTech into plans for advancing the SDGs.

Picturing Forgotten Filipinx: Family Photographs And Resisting U.S. Colonial Amnesias, Stevie Cadiz, Alma M.O. Trinidad

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

U.S. imperialism in the Philippines has led to the multiple generations of diasporic conditions of colonial amnesia and systematic forgetting of history. Its impact on the Filipinx community has left unrecorded memories and voices of immigrants silenced, and considered lost to history. This study examines the relationship between U.S. colonialism and imperialism in the Philippines and the experiences of Filipinx immigration to the U.S. through a critical Indigenous feminist lens of visual imagery and storytelling. Given that many of the experiences within the Filipinx diaspora in relation to the American Empire have been systematically forgotten and erased, this study utilizes …

Public Housing With Services For Older Adults With Developmental Disabilities: Differences In Efficacy Among Asian And White Communities, Junghee Lee, William Donlan, Paula C. Carder, Leigh Grover, Insik Hwang, Younghwan Kim, Gretchen Luhr

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study examined the efficacy of a culturally responsive housing with services model for Asian-American older adults and persons with developmental disabilities separately, and with both for an interaction effect. Study participants, including 278 Whites and 75 Asian Americans, lived in 10 properties of public housing with services in Portland, OR. All Asian-American participants (except four) were immigrants from China, Korea, and Vietnam, and were well connected through community-based health and social services that were delivered onsite and at a nearby center by staff members who were also immigrants from these three countries. Asian-American participants were older, very poor, with …

Recovery From Relinquishment: Forgiving My Birth Mother. My Journey From 1954 To Today, Christian L. Anderson

The Qualitative Report

Adoptees carry the burden of shame for being “given up, abandoned, unwanted, not right,” and birth mothers carry the weight of shame for succumbing to external pressure to relinquish their children. There is ample literature addressing recovery for both adoptees and birth mothers (Buterbaugh & Soll, 2003; Franklin, 2019; Lanier, 2020; Soll, 2005, 2013, 2014); however, there is little recognition of the co-shame and need for forgiveness. Utilizing autoethnographic methodology, I discuss the issues of misogyny prevalent in the 1950s, the “Baby Scoop Era [BSE],” and my ongoing process of forgiving my birth mother after five decades of rage. This …

Assessment Centers, Tara Myers, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What are assessment centers?

Assessment centers measure knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics by assessing participants’ responses to job-related simulations. Assessment centers can be used for hiring, placement, and career and skill development (Gaugler, Rosenthal, Thornton, and Bentson, 1987). Typically, participants complete a combination of in-basket, leaderless group discussion, role play, case analysis, and oral presentation exercises (Hoffman, Kennedy, LoPilato, Monahan, and Lance, 2015). Within each exercise, participants review job-relevant information and complete tasks. For the in-basket, participants are presented with documents (e.g., emails, memos, reports, requests—things that might be in an inbox) to which they provide responses and about …

Human Rights And Social, Economic, & Environmental Justice: Ethics Of Samfundssind & Agape, Claire L. Dente

Sustainability Research & Practice Seminar Presentations

No abstract provided.

Milwaukee Progress Update- Identifying Barriers & Working Through Solutions, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Staff voice is an important element of organizational culture, or the behavioral norms and expectations that characterize a work environment. According to the developers of the Availability Responsiveness Continuity (ARC) model, these norms and expectations direct the way employees in a particular work environment approach their work, specify priorities, and shape the way work is done. The Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services (DMCPS) is a child welfare agency that experienced significant leadership change in recent years and, like other agencies nationwide, has struggled with a decade of staff turnover. In partnership with the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development …

Identifying Families Who May Be Struggling After Adoption Or Guardianship, Nancy Rolock

Faculty Scholarship

Targeted prevention efforts after adoption or guardianship from foster care are intended to help families most at-risk and prior to the onset of significant issues. Most adoptive and guardianship families adjust well with supportive services in place; only a small proportion have difficulties that result in children returning to foster care after adoption or guardianship. This study examined the use of administrative data to identify families at-risk for post-permanency discontinuity. Administrative data have some utility for identifying families that may struggle, however, they provide a limited representation of risk. Caregiver survey responses in four states (n=1,670) found that families with …

Forgotten Frontline Workers: A Snapshot Of Family Child Care And Covid-19 In New York, Mark Nagasawa, Kate Tarrant

Straus Institute for Thriving Children & Families

This the third report from the New York ECE and COVID-19 Survey, which focuses on both the unique challenges faced by the family child care (FCC) providers who participated in the survey, as well as their particular resilience. At the time of the survey (May 2020), this group of participants was the most physically open form of ECE and was significantly more affected economically than their other ECE colleagues. Interestingly, several of the survey respondents (in different geographic locations) spoke of organizing efforts for mutual support and collective action, which may be a promising development for reducing social isolation, increasing …

The Intersection Of The “Opioid Crisis” With Changes In Us Immigration Policy: Contextual Barriers To Substance Abuse Research With Latinx Communities, Micki Washburn, Luis R. Torres-Hostos, Nicole Echeveria Moore, Alberto Mancillas

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

One of the 12 Grand Challenges facing contemporary social work is to close the health gap experienced by those in historically marginalized communities (Uehara et al., 2013). As social workers, we seek to understand the individual, interpersonal, social, and environmental factors along with the structural inequities leading to initiation and continuation of substance misuse. We are constantly contextualizing the circumstances under which substance misuse occurs, as well as contextualizing our approaches to addressing this issue from both a public health and social justice perspective. In order to adequately meet this challenge, considerably more research-based knowledge on the substance use treatment …

Spiritual Diversity, Spiritual Assessment, And Māori End-Of-Life Perspectives: Attaining Ka Ea,, Holly Nelson-Becker, Tess Moeke-Maxwell

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

The contemporary world is endowed with increasingly diverse spiritual and cultural perspectives, yet little is known about the spiritual concerns and spiritual resilience of Māori from Aotearoa New Zealand at the end of life. A context is provided for the value of spiritual assessment and identification of spiritual needs or concerns. Spiritual concerns and the desire to attain a state of ka ea (fulfillment, gratitude, or peace) may point to interventions, helping activities, or referrals that guide treatment. We reflect on qualitative findings from the 2017–2020 Pae Herenga study of 61 caregiving families, their helping professionals, and religious/spiritual leaders. We …

Parenting Stress And Risk Of Child Maltreatment During The Covid- 19 Pandemic: A Family Stress Theory-Informed Perspective, Qi Wu, Yanfeng Xu Ph.D.

Faculty and Staff Publications

The risk of child maltreatment is heightened during the pandemic due to multiple COVID-19 related stressors, such as physical and mental health concerns, economic stress, challenges in homeschooling, marital conflicts and intimate personal violence, and intensified child–parent relationships. Both parental internal (e.g., parenting styles) and external resources (e.g., social support), and parental perceptions toward stressors will affect how parents cope with these stressors, which may exacerbate or mitigate the risk of child maltreatment. Guided by family stress theory, this article identifies COVID-19 related stressors at the family level, and further elaborates on how these stressors are associated with child maltreatment …

Toward A Defined Role For Occupational Therapy In Foster Care Transition Programming, Amy Armstrong-Heimsoth, Molly Hahn-Floyd, Heather J. Williamson, Catherine Lockmiller

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Youth who age out of the foster care system and transition to adulthood face challenges that are exacerbated by a history of trauma, severed relationships, and instability of living and educational placements. A review of the literature demonstrates poor outcomes overall for this population. Occupational therapists are positioned to meet the needs that arise during this time; however, a review of emerging roles for occupational therapists is necessary to describe how occupational therapists can best fulfill gaps in current programming. Through a review of the literature and a preliminary mixed-methods study, this paper establishes a direction for the inclusion of …

Perspectives On Multi-Intervention, Multi-Design Evaluation For The Child Welfare Workforce, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The QIC-WD is working with eight sites and the Children’s Bureau in a participatory fashion (Fetterman, 2014) to implement utilization-focused (Alkin & Vo, 2017; Patton, 2008) site-specific and cross-site evaluation strategies. The goal of this research is to build knowledge of interventions to improve child welfare workforce retention, and ultimately outcomes for children and families. A complex systems approach (Westhorp, 2012) is being taken to identify how factors such as organizational structures and culture, staff workload, supervision, and caseworker values influence outcomes, including safety and permanency of children. The QIC-WD team has extensive experience conducting rigorous evaluations within and across …

Coworker Influence, Megan Paul, Lauren Sparks

Umbrella Summaries

What is coworker influence?

Coworkers are the individuals in an organization that regularly work with a given employee, often performing similar tasks or collaborating in some way. Coworkers are typically in a similar hierarchical position in the organizational structure, differentiating them from subordinates, supervisors, or managers. Coworker influence is about how coworkers impact a given employee’s work experiences. There are two facets of coworker influence—coworker support and coworker antagonism (Chiaburu & Harrison, 2008). Coworker support is a positive influence, including desirable actions and behaviors. More specifically, there are two types of coworker support—instrumental and affective (Chiaburu & Harrison, 2008). Instrumental …