Social Work Commons^™

Policy Practice Of Master Of Social Work Students: An Analysis Of A Policy Practice Intervention, Wright Sarah

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a significant difference in the levels of political engagement from a University in Southern California Master of Social Work (MSW) students that participated in the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) -CA Lobby Days and students who do not participate. This study examined the NASW- CA Lobby Days as an intervention of experiential learning as existing literature explains experiential learning to be an effective method for learning policy practice. Using a quantitative approach by looking at student scores from the Political Activities Survey (PAS) which was distributed to MSW …

Child Welfare Social Workers’ Perspective On Factors That Influence Longevity, Veronica Betancourt-Perez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The child welfare sector has been dealing with the issue of turnover for many years and it has yet to implement effective solutions to mitigate the problem. In this study, the researcher used a post-positivist approach to examine contributing factors that affect job longevity in child welfare. The researcher reviewed literature as well as used motivation and organizational support theory to determine what potential factors influence job longevity among child welfare social workers. The researcher gathered demographic information and qualitative data from ten interviews with child welfare social workers employed by the County of Los Angeles Department of Children and …

Adverse Childhood Experiences And Coping Methods For Social Work Students, Treyveon Parks, Alex Hernandez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of the following study was to explore and examine the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and coping methods among social work students at a Southern California university. The literature on ACE scores suggests that higher levels of ACE can impact well-being and functioning in adults, yet, provides limited information relating to social work.

A quantitative survey instrument constructed by Felitti and colleagues (1998) and two additional questions relating to coping methods and strategies were constructed by the researchers were used to gather data for the purpose of this study. Data for the following study was collected through …

Latino Parent School Involvement: Do Parents Read And Respond To Teacher Invitations?, Celia Marquez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Latinos are the second largest ethnic group after Whites in the education system, yet there is still a large gap between Whites’ and Latino’s graduation rates. Research indicates that parental involvement in children’s education plays a significant role in children’s academic success. For this reason, this study aims to understand Latino parents’ perspectives on their participation in their child’s school. More specifically, how often Latino parents receive invitations from the school and whether or not they respond to these invitations. The research design for this study is exploratory and qualitative and uses one-on-one interviews with Latino parents. The central themes …

Volunteer Service As A Coping Strategy For Social Workers Against Professional Burnout, Jessy Jean Salloum, Francesca Maria Augusta Twohy-Haines

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Burnout is a prominent issue among the social work profession. Methods to mitigate the effects of burnout have received considerable attention in social work research. This study focuses on a potential method of coping with burnout; volunteerism. While literature is scarce regarding the effects of volunteerism on burnout rates among social workers, studies in related fields such as nursing, public-sector public administrators, and nonprofit workers indicate that volunteerism has potential benefits against burnout. This study’s purpose is to determine whether involvement in volunteer service is related to lower rates of burnout among social workers. This quantitative study uses data from …

Incarcerated Mothers Achieving Reunification: Providing Support To Child Welfare Social Workers, Francesca Villarreal

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project explores the barriers to reunification with their children for incarcerated mothers in an effort to provide more support to child welfare social workers who engage with this population. Project participants were selected from one regional office of a child welfare agency in Southern California to complete qualitative interviews. Participants included seven Social Service Practitioners (SSPs), two Supervising Social Service Practitioners (SSSPs), and one Data Analysist. Each participant’s interview was digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed following the systematic manual coding method with the assistance of Microsoft Word (Ose, S, 2016). Five common barriers were identified: child visitations with incarcerated …

Social Work Students’ Knowledge Of And Attitudes Towards Working With Transgender Clients, Devin Hoff, Edgar Camacho

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Over the past few decades, there has been an increase in literature on social work practice with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community, with a strong focus on the LGB portion of the community. Due to the lack of literature in social work practice with the transgender population, this study was designed to assess bachelor and master levels social workers’ knowledge, attitudes and preparedness for working with the transgender community. This study is significant to the field of social work as it evaluates if students can provide comprehensive services to transgender clients. The study uses a quantitative survey …

Parent Partners' Perceptions Of Reunification Celebration And The Impact On Reunified Parents, Marley Leila Walker, Tre'nise Jemel Anderson

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In the study, the researchers explored parent partners’ perceptions on reunification celebration events and the impact the event has on fostering reunified parents’ use of positive parenting skills. A qualitative design was completed using convenience sampling. The researchers studied previous research that focused on the reunification process and the general importance of celebrations in child welfare as a precursor to their study. The researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with nine parent partners from one child welfare agency in Southern California. Our findings revealed four major themes of the study. First, we learned of the importance of recognizing reunified parents’ for their …

Social Media's Influence On Young Adults From The Perspectives Of Mental Health Clinicians, Natalie Aliana Valdepeña, Ulises Ivan Lozano

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Social Workers make up a significant portion of mental health clinicians providing services to clients or young adults, and in today’s day and age, the popularity of social media use is increasing within the young adult population. Young adults spend hours on end on many different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and/or Snapchat. Therefore, this study asks, what are clinician’s perspectives about social media influencing young adults with mental health concerns? This study utilized a qualitative, content analysis approach in interviewing clinicians to draw from their experience with clients who have used and interacted with social media.

This …

Effectiveness Of An International Social Work Course, Hazel Aguilar, Celeene Moreno

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study measured the effectiveness of an international social work course in increasing MSW students’ understanding of global interconnectedness and cultural competence utilizing an exploratory quantitative research design. Data were collected from twelve participants from a social work school in the west coast who completed a survey prior to beginning the course and again after completing the course. The study found that participants had an increase in both cultural competency and global interconnectedness after the course. The results of this study correlate with the limited literature available on the topic of international social work and supports the expansion of study …

Childhood Risk Factors That Impact The Likelihood Of Becoming A Victim Of Domestic Violence, Mallory Ann Gers, Daniela Paola Gomez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this research project was to identify risk factors for becoming a victim of domestic violence. Demographic and qualitative data were collected through in-person interviews with 8 female survivors of domestic violence from San Bernardino County. These interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed to determine risk factors that could lead women to becoming a victim of domestic violence and what helped them get out of their relationships. The use of interviews allowed the researchers to connect with the survivors and gain in-depth information about their experiences.

Using content analysis, the following themes arose: risk factors that involved absent …

Religion And Spirituality In Clinical Practice: An Exploration Of Reluctance Among Practitioners., David Drew, Jessica Banks

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Across the United States, an overwhelming majority of the population claim that religion and spirituality beliefs shape their worldview and assist in coping with life stressors. Yet, the literature has shown that mental health practitioners reported discomfort integrating religion and spiritually in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to explore whether license-holding mental health professionals in Southern California develop reluctance toward addressing religion/spirituality with their clients. Through snowball sampling, 52 clinicians composed of social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists, nurses, psychologists, and psychiatrists were recruited across Southern California (N =52). The participants were measured descriptively based on …

Exploring Knowledge In Sexual Assault Prevention Programs, Pammeli M. Carlos

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Campus sexual assault is a prominent social problem that has gained traction within recent years. It is prevalent among college students, with 26.1% women and 6.1% of men reporting experiencing an attempted or completed rape at some point during their college career (Graham et al., 2017). The purpose of this study is to help college students define and understand rape and consent to potentially lower sexual assault incidents. A quantitative research design was utilized with this research study. The study design used an online self-administered survey, with measures from established questionnaires and surveys. Towards the end of the survey, research …

Social Workers' Perception On The Needs And Services For Foster Children With Special Needs, Jessica Joanna Jimenez, Winnie Wing Yang Lee

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Foster children are already at a disadvantage given that they tend to live in a home without their parents. Social workers have direct interactions working with children with special needs, and through interviews with the workers, we aimed to understand whether or not the services available are able to meet foster children’s special needs. The research on special needs children in foster care is quite limited. The purpose of the study was to identify social workers’ perceptions of the needs of special needs foster children and their access to services.

This study used qualitative interviews with open-ended questions to gather …

Common Sources Of Anxiety For Students Who Experience Suicidal Ideation, Austin Nystrom, Fabian Ortiz

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study was conducted to identify what sources of anxiety are most closely associated with experiencing SI among students in a school district in Southern California. Anxiety and suicide rates in youth continue to grow and a need for preventative services is a must. The research design consists of qualitative, biopsychosocial assessments, and qualitative, utilizing the collected data. MSW interns at the district site conducted the assessments and the writers analyzed and reviewed the data to draw out an answer to the research question. Implications for social work practice include gaining a better understanding on the common sources of anxiety …

Social Work Perspectives On The Constraints Of Managed Care And Mental Health Treatment, Lana Kaissi

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Approximately 46.6 million adults in the United States live with a mental illness as of 2017. Therefore, managed care being the system that facilitates access to mental health treatment needs to be addressed. Managed care (such as healthcare plans) seeks to facilitate healthcare service delivery by providing direction and guidance to utilization and prevention of services. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore social work perspectives on the constraints of managed care as it impacts access to mental health treatment. This study conducted qualitative interviews through a non-random sample of professional colleagues of social workers in the in …

Understanding Social Support Among Dialysis Patients: A Study On Medical Social Workers Enhancing Social Support For Patients, Brandy Marie Covarrubias, Eloisa Cisneros Vizcaya

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Patients receiving dialysis treatment experience immense changes in their health and well-being, therefore receiving adequate social support services is an integral aspect of their care plan. Thus, the purpose of this study was to gain an understanding about social support services offered by social workers to patients receiving dialysis care. Furthermore, this study sought to develop awareness about additional services need to assist social workers in providing social, emotional, and physical support to patients. This qualitative study used data from a non-probability snowball sample of 10 social workers that work with patients receiving dialysis care. Findings of this study are …

Child Welfare: Trauma Informed Practice At Time Of Child Removal, Ester Garcia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

As of 2018, approximately 442,995 children are in the foster care system in the United States according to the federal statistics from the Children’s Bureau. Entry into the foster system involves the removal of children from their home, making it a traumatic experience. The purpose of this study was to examine social workers’ perceptions of what trauma informed practice means and what it looks like in child welfare removals. The study also clarifies what trauma informed practice (TIP) is and how it can be applied in child welfare’s organizational structure. This was a qualitative study in which child welfare social …

Empowering The Female Offender: Barriers And Perceptions Of Inmate Success, Joanna Delgado, Karina Barragan

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The study explored current organizational barriers and gaps in service delivery to incarcerated women to examine whether current services are meeting the needs of this population. The study is relevant to the social work profession due to a high likelihood of social service needs found amongst this population and their families within the community. Barriers to success were identified through the perspective of service providers (BSW, MSW, LCSW, LMFT’s) with current and/or past experience working with this population. Current service provisions in correctional facilities were examined to determine barriers or gaps in services in four key areas: communication, parenting services, …

Social Work Students Preparedness When Working With Mixed-Status Families, Delia Ann Pacheco, Brenda Carolina Pacheco

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study focuses on the preparedness, and perception of Bachelor and Master of Social Work students in a California State University when encountering with clients in mixed-status families. The students were contacted via school email and provided with a questionnaire that inquired their preparedness when assisting undocumented clients, and their families. The results of the study concluded that majority of the students have encountered working with mixed-status families either in a personal or professional setting. Though, the data collected indicated that there are several factors that have impacted their knowledge of how to assist and provide linkage to other resources …