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Recent Dissertation Abstracts
Ideology Made Flesh:
A Study of Political Culture Within the Irish Republican Army
Mick Beyers
2007
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) serves as the case study for
this research which links anthropologically informed methods with
a social welfare perspective to explore atypical political culture.
The person-environment formulation provides a conceptual orientation
to ideology and class consciousness that emphasizes the social
ecology of revolutionaries with a focus on the interrelations
and processes that shape political culture. Ethnographic methods
pay attention to language, meanings, and sentiments whereas political-anthropological
theory examines the material basis of life and culture. This framework
sensitizes the text to the particulars of the subjective everyday
experience of individuals situated in community and wider contexts;
the role of language, meaning, and emotions in shaping ideology
and class experience; and the material determinations of social
relations, context, and agency.
To understand more fully the politic and ideology of modern republicanism
this analysis relies on two primary sources of data: a bank of
political narratives from prominent IRA agents and deeply immersed
community ethnography (embeddedness). The research utilizes an
integrative, multi-method qualitative approach, combining analysis
of oral narratives from prominent IRA volunteers with embedded
ethnography to delve into the narrator’s experiential world
in order to understand a distinct form of political culture from
the viewpoint of the activist
The distinctiveness of the research stems from its attempt to
explore ‘atypical’ political culture, utilizing the
voices of revolutionary agents, to bring to light the worldview
and critical ideology that shape a revolutionary persona. From
this ‘indigenous’ perspective republicanism is a community-based
response to social injustices informed by the distinct analysis
of individuals who self-identify as political activists adept
at community organizing and multiple, simultaneous strategies
for change. The study privileges this perspective and the actual
lived experience of revolutionary agency as a salient source of
knowledge.
Disciplining Through the Promise of “Freedom”:
The Production of the Battered Immigrant Woman in Public Policy
and Domestic Violence Advocacy
Rupaleem Bhuyan
2006
In the context of U.S. public policy, battered immigrant
(and associated terms battered alien or battered nonimmigrant)
signifies a person who is eligible to suspend or amend the conditions
of their status under immigration law if they can demonstrate
they have suffered domestic violence. Among community organizers,
battered immigrant women refers to a broader range of
people for whom legal immigration status plays a role in their
experience of domestic violence, including options for safety
planning, the potential threat of deportation, and eligibility
for public benefits. Battered immigrant woman, is also used within
women’s rights discourses to call attention to the social
political interests of marginalized women. This dissertation focuses
on how the difference in signification has direct social and political
consequences, with regard to who is recognized by the state and
thus may access the benefits and protection offered by the state
with regard to legal rights awarded to battered immigrants.
I analyze the production of the battered immigrant in public policy
and legal advocacy through the lens of neoliberal governmentality
and intersectionality. I call upon conceptualizations of governmentality,
introduced by Foucault and taken up in a broad range of studies,
to interrogate how the regulatory modes of government extended
beyond the state, through social actors at all levels of society
(Sharma 2006). Theories of subjectivity and discourse complete
my analytic frame in providing theory to explore how subjectivities
are produced through legal discourse. When immigration lawyers
and domestic violence advocates take up the legal discourse of
the “battered immigrant” in their advocacy, they are
at once, inheriting the complex tensions and hierarchies within
the existing discourse, while participating in its potential transformation.
Multi-Level Factors Related to Deficiencies in Psychosocial
Care in Washington State Skilled Nursing Facilities
Robin P. Bonifas
2007
Persons living in skilled nursing facilities (SNF) have extensive
psychosocial needs, yet the services provided to meet those needs
appear insufficient. Facility social workers are recognized as
the primary providers of psychosocial services in SNFs, but often
report barriers interfering with their ability to furnish services
to all residents who need them. This study utilizes a three-category
quality assessment framework to assess specific factors that either
enhance or hinder the provision of effective psychosocial services
in Washington State SNFs.
A cross-sectional research design was employed merging two sources
of data: an investor-developed questionnaire administered to Social
Services Directors (SSDs) in participating SNFs (N = 121) and
resident-centered state survey outcomes in psychosocial care-related
areas obtained from the Online Survey and Certification Reporting
(OSCAR) database. Ordinary least squares regression was utilized
to assess the ability of facility structural factors, process
factors, and SSD characteristics to predict the frequency of psychosocial
services in five diverse service domains: care planning, resource
and referral, administration and advocacy, assessment, and intervention.
Hierarchical linear regression methods were utilized to assess
the ability of structural factors, process factors, and SSD characteristics
to predict the scope and severity of survey deficiencies in psychosocial
care. Interaction terms were also included in the regression model
to determine the potential moderating effect of service delivery
on predictive multi-level factors.
Results indicate that structural factors, process factors, and
SSD characteristics play only a limited role in predicting service
frequency, although the size of the SSD’s caseload is associated
with frequency of care planning and intervention services. Four
multi-level factors are associated with positive psychosocial
care outcomes: low ownership turnover, more years of SSD experience
in SNF social services, stronger SSD identification with the helper
role, and paradoxically, lower priority attributed to residents’
individualization needs at the facility level. This surprise finding
is possibly explained by a stronger focus on assessment services
in lieu of intervention services within high individualization
priority facilities. An additional finding is that the frequency
of assessment services appears to moderate the impact of both
ownership turnover and role identification on outcomes in psychosocial
care.
Social Services in Rural Alaska: An Ethnography
of Service Provision in a Yup'ik Eskimo Village
Tracey Burke
2003
This dissertation is an ethnography of the lived experience of
contemporary social work in a Yup’ik (Eskimo) village. Despite
efforts to increase “cultural competence,” there has
been little systematic investigation of the everyday meaning of
formal social work/social services in the lives of rural Alaska
Natives. This research addresses that gap by examining current
service systems and local, culturally-informed perceptions of
need and appropriate responses.
I conducted fieldwork in one Bering Sea village. I used participant-observation
and multiple conducted ethnographic interviews with various community
members, especially the local social service providers and others
involved with specific cases. Data consist of field notes, interview
transcriptions, and pre-existing documents. I adapted grounded
theory and discourse analysis techniques for analysis. I returned
to the village to conduct follow-up interviews and to present
the initial findings to key informants, and I presented the elaborated
findings to the tribal Human Research committee.
I developed a schema of how the community thinks about “social
problems” and responses to them, with an emphasis on the
roles of formal professional (typically Anglo) and paraprofessional
(typically Yup’ik) service providers. I used a composite
case study to elaborate the schema and discuss issues of fit between
the service systems and local culture; in particular, how responses
internal to the village and interventions that require leaving
the village are activated and utilized.
Though a white woman reluctant to make declarative statements
about what “should” happen with social services practice
or organizational policy, I suggest issues worth focused discussion
by community members, tribal agency staff, and social work professionals.
Sexual Assault Perpetration among Adolescent and Adult Males:
Ecological Approaches to Conceptualizing the Etiology and Prevention
of Rape
Erin Casey
2006
Significant gaps remain in our understanding of the etiology
of sexually aggressive behavior among adolescent and young adult
men. To speak to these gaps, this dissertation describes results
from two analyses of data from the National Longitudinal Study
of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative study of U.S.
teens. The first analysis examined childhood and adolescent predictors
of sexually coercive behavior in early adulthood among males in
the sample. A path analysis suggests that experiencing sexual
abuse as a child has both a direct effect on sexual aggression
in adulthood, and an indirect effect through sexual aggression
in mid-adolescence. Perpetration of sexual assault in adolescence,
and involvement in delinquent activities are the only two additional
significant predictors of later sexually coercive behavior. The
second analysis examined social network correlates of sexually
aggressive behavior among adolescent boys, and added significant
social network factors to the predictors identified in the first
analysis. Findings from the full model suggest that having friends
who engage in delinquent behavior, perceiving peer pressure to
have sex, feeling uncared for by friends, and participating in
delinquent conduct are significantly correlated with sexual aggression
during adolescence. The final chapter of this document incorporates
this evidence of multi-level predictors of sexual aggression with
previous research documenting the ecological nature of risk factors
for sexual assault perpetration to argue for a renewed focus on
using a multi-level approach to conceptualizing and implementing
sexual violence preventionprogramming.
The Structure of Opportunity:
Child Care Subsides and Employment-Family Balance
Lucy Porter Jordan
2006
Women’s employment following childbirth depends, in part,
on the cost and quality of available child care arrangements.
High cost and lower perceived quality may depress employment,
particularly for lower-income women, who typically spend a larger
proportion of their earnings on child care then do women with
higher skills and education. One policy tool, child care subsidies,
may shorten the time between the birth of a child and the entry
to employment and facilitate family-to-employment balance among
low-income mothers by (1) reducing the costs of employment relative
to earnings and (2) facilitating stable child care arrangements.
However, the child care subsidy system operates within a context
of limited funding and local policy discretion. States use various
strategies to manage scarcity resulting in regional variation,
and these tradeoffs in policy choices that may have unintended,
or even offsetting consequences, for subsidy program participation.
Capitalizing on regional policy variation, a set of original
policy indicators for state and local welfare and child care subsidy
programs are combined with micro data from two waves of the Fragile
Families and Child Well-Being Study to (1) characterize child
care policy strategies in twenty cities across U.S.; (2) examine
the effects of these policies on child care subsidy receipt; and
(3) evaluate the role of subsidy receipt in maternal employment
and employment-family balance following the birth of a new child.
Instrumental variable procedures are used to address concerns
of endogeneity and sample selection.
The key findings include: (1) characterization of four different
types of policy strategies adopted by the study cities; (2) the
important contribution of individual characteristics and Temporary
Aid to Need Families (TANF) welfare policies to predicting subsidy
receipt among low-income mothers in urban centers; and (3) significant
effects of predicted subsidy receipt on several employment outcomes
including a positive relationship with breakdowns in child care
arrangements and a negative relationship with family-to-employment
spillover. A discussion of historical and current relationship
among the market, the family and the state frames the research
study, and in the conclusion suggestions for addressing enduring
legacy of gender and class inequities are presented.
Immigrant Cultural Citizenship:
Construction of a Multi-ethnic Asian American Community
Hye-Kyung Stella Kang
2006
This dissertation examines the role of cultural citizenship in
the construction of immigrant community identity. Immigrant cultural
citizenship is the process by which immigrant individuals create
a legitimized social space for themselves while contesting and
negotiating hegemonic discourses that seek to define and limit
their subject positions. This study explores immigrant community
identity development by examining discursive constructions of
the International District (ID) of Seattle, WA. Applying post-structural
and post-colonial theoretical frameworks, this study investigates
the particular social, political, and historical contexts within
which the discourse of a "multi-ethnic Asian American community"
arose through an example that is located in specific geographical
and historical positions.
This study traces the intertextual chains through which the subject
position of the ID was and is produced, deployed, and changed
via a critical discourse analysis of mainstream and community
newspapers, in-person interviews with community members, community
history archives, and government documents. The data illuminate
three major challenges that impact the evolving process of community
identity development. The population changes, influenced by immigration
policy changes, resulted in the influx of new ethnic groups in
the ID. The urban development boom in Seattle which swept through
many traditionally ethnic communities changed local geographies.
Forces of globalization bring increased transnationalism and may
alter the ways that capital is invested in the community and used
by its members.
The analysis of data suggests that the ID as a subject is produced
and sustained not through a consistent and stable articulation
of a singular identity but through multiple, contested, and contingent
articulation of history, contribution, and change. Similarly,
the ID is not produced through unilateral regulatory control of
the government or other regimes of a civil society; nor is it
completely produced by the inventions of the community members
‘outside’ those controls. Rather, it is constructed
through constant processes of engagement, contestation, and negotiation
between the community and the various larger social and political
structures, as well as among community members themselves. The
discursive changes produced by such processes illuminate the possibility
that immigrant communities may be able to change the discourses
that produce them.
Community-Based Care Management:
Aligning Services to the Risks
for Community-Dwelling Chronically-Ill Elders
Chan-Woo Kim
2003
This study utilized an innovative approach to evaluating the
responses of community-dwelling frail elders to three different
community-based care management models, based on analysis of heterogeneous
patterns of long-term care risk, using data from a sample of 540
frail elders living in Southern California. Combining both bio-medical
and social care frameworks, long-term care risk in this study
was constructed from the baseline data by examining medical risk,
physical functioning, caregiving conditions for functioning, and
psychological risk prior to the care management interventions
taking place. Latent Mixture Modeling Analysis resulted in the
identification of 3 risk subgroups. The effects of three different
care management models were evaluated through outcome data on
functioning, caregiving scores, depression, perceived health and
caregiver burden at 12 months past baseline across the three groups.
This study demonstrated that it is possible to identify sub-groups
within the elderly population with heterogeneous patterns of risk
that reliably predict both health related outcomes and varied
response to different models of care management. In addition,
factors associated with increased risk of nursing home entry in
this study were distinctly different from those factors typically
addressed by medical and long-term care providers in the community.
This suggests that one of the main limitations of current community-based
long-term care programs is a failure to match interventions to
the specific needs of sub-populations of community dwelling elders.
Care management with flexible financing was shown to have significant
impacts on increasing caregiving support for functioning and reducing
caregiving burden and depression status, particularly for the
low-risk subgroup. The approach used here is broadly applicable
to other studies attempting to evaluate efforts to match interventions
to specific patterns of long-term care risk. This study shows
that examining heterogeneous patterns of risk, especially taking
social as well as medical-related risk into account, can serve
as a basis for efficient targeting of resources. In order to sustain
frail elders in the least restrictive environment, the identification
of risk-based subgroups and the provision of targeted services
should be an integral part of gerontological care management.
Consumer Choice in Developmental Disability Services:
Assessing the Impact on Quality of Life Indicators
Susan Neely-Barnes
2005
Intervention approaches with people with developmental
disabilities have moved from a care model which emphasized medical
treatment and rehabilitation to a support model that emphasizes
consumer self-direction and choice (Mary, 1998). Despite this
shift in intervention approach, there has been a lack of theoretically-guided
quantitative research on the impact of consumer choice. This dissertation
study presents three papers which seek to add both to the conceptual
literature and to the empirical literature about the impact of
choice on quality of life outcomes for consumers and a final chapter
that addresses the practice and policy implications for local
agencies. It employs data from Washington State’s involvement
in the 2002 National Core Indicators Project consumer survey.
The first paper presents a conceptual model to explain the mechanism
through which choice predicts outcomes for consumers. The proposed
conceptual model draws from an integrative review of the independent
living perspective, empowerment theory, and social role valorization
to propose an explanation of how choice leads to positive outcomes
for consumers. The second paper is a study of heterogeneity in
the developmental disability population and the access of sub-groups
within the population to community-based, consumer-controlled
intervention. This study employs latent profile analysis, a mixture
modeling technique, to model sub-groups in the population. Two
sub-groups are examined: the first fitting a severe intellectual
disability profile (n=101) and the second group fitting mild intellectual
disability profile (n=220). Differences between the two groups
were examined. Results of this study indicate that individuals
with mild intellectual disabilities experience greater participation
in services that are community-based and consumer-controlled more
frequently than those with severe intellectual disabilities. The
third paper presents a study assessing the relationship between
choice and quality of life indicators. Using data from the 220
participants who fit the mild intellectual disability profile,
structural equation modeling was used to assess the influence
of type of living arrangement and choice on quality of life. Results
of the study indicate that consumers who lived in the community
and made more choices had higher scores on the quality of life
indicators.
The Process of Change in Helping Relationships
Deborah Nahom
2003
An understanding of the process of change is important to fulfilling
the primary mission of Social Work, as the field aims to attain
its mission by changing peoples’ behaviors. However, much
research investigating the effectiveness of social work interventions
focuses on behavioral outcomes and ignores the exploration of
processes by which interventions work. Therefore, the relationship
between intervention processes and client cognitive processes
operating within the process of change remain unexamined. This
dissertation seeks to fill this gap by proposing a model of the
process of change within helping relationships that includes intervention
processes (i.e., the humanistic environment) and client cognitive
processes (i.e., ambivalence, importance, readiness to change,
and confidence) and by empirically examining the relationships
between these constructs. A well-tested, cognitive-behavioral
intervention (Motivational Interviewing; MI), developed in the
addictions field, provided the context in which the model was
tested. Ninety-three participants of a larger clinical trial,
examining the efficacy of MI when implemented with crack cocaine
users who were neither in, nor seeking, formal treatment, were
included in this study. Using the proposed conceptual model and
the Process of Change Tape Rating Measure, intervention sessions
were rated in terms of the degree to which clinicians created
a humanistic environment, explored ambivalence with clients, and
assessed clients’ importance, readiness, and confidence
to change their drug use behavior and the degree to which clients
perceived and explored these same constructs. Client self-report
measures were used in combination with the observational measure
to test the predictive nature of model constructs on behavior
change. The effects of client characteristics (e.g., severity
of dependence, demographics), and clinician characteristics (e.g.,
the ability to create a humanistic environment) on the model were
also examined. Results provided partial support for the model,
and some client characteristics were related to the nature of
client-clinician interactions. Also, psychometric properties of
the Process of Change Tape Rating Scale suggest this measure can
be used reliably with multiple raters and over time, though more
work is needed to determine the scale’s underlying factor
structure and the relationship between observational and self-report
measures.
Inferiority, Degeneracy, and Dependency: Problematizing the
Immigrant in Social Work Discourse, 1875-1952
Yoosun Park
2003
This is a work of discursive history which investigates a particular
set of theory-driven questions focused on the representations
of immigrants in social work discourse spanning the years 1882
to 1952. The study is founded on a poststructuralist conception
of discourse: a contra-modernist, anti-essentialist perspective
on language, identity, society, and social practices. Derrida’s
perspective on language and text provides the theoretical and
analytical tools for the deconstructive textual analysis of the
social work discourse on immigrants, and Foucault’s critique
of traditional social analysis situates the findings within a
broader examination of the constitutive power of a disciplinary
discourse. The study examines three publications: The Proceedings
of the National Conference of Social Work, The Survey, and the
Social Service Review, which recorded the public views of the
leaders of the emerging field of social work. They represent an
“elite” discourse—authorized and sanctioned
texts—which not only held significant sway in the constitution
of the mode and the course of social work with immigrants, but
upheld and facilitated the larger political and civic discourse
on immigration and immigrants. The year 1882 saw the passage of
the Chinese Exclusion Act, marking the “beginning”
of a period of race-based exclusion, and a general immigration
act, which expanded the categories of inadmissible aliens begun
in 1875, by adding “persons likely to become a public charge.”
The year1952 marked the enactment of an immigration act that “eliminated”
race as an exclusionary factor but concretized the “National
Origins Quota” restrictions introduced in 1924. Immigrants
are problematized in the discourse examined. Whether categorized
as the “alien problem,” the “foreign problem,”
the “Americanization problem,” the “citizenship
problem,” the “racial problem,” the “refugee
problem,” the “border problem,” or the more
specific “Mexican problem,” and the “oriental
problem,” immigrants are consistently conceived as problematic
entities whose presence, at best, complicates the smooth operations
of the nation-state and, at worst, imperils the physical, material,
intellectual, and moral integrity of its society. The cast of
characters problematized, the methods of problematization, and
the tenor of the voice with which they are problematized change
over the years covered, but the fact of the problematization does
not.
Living knowledge: Embodied health care research practice
Rachel Elizabeth Robinson
2006
The purpose of this dissertation is to re-examine the findings
from a research study I conducted in 2001. I examined the recollections
of three Somali women—hereafter referred to as F, Z, and
S—regarding their experiences of accessing and utilizing
prenatal health care services for their most recent live births
in the U.S. I used semi-structured in depth interviews to collect
and analyze narrative data that yielded valuable information about
the participants’ prenatal experiences. However, my analysis
led to my discovery of unexpected information that I felt merited
further exploration. I re-examined the 2001 study from a critical
theoretical perspective within which I used the discourse of multiculturalism
as a point of reference. By using multiculturalism in this manner
I attended to the range of culturally diverse issues that appear
to shape the challenges Somali women experienced within the U.S.
perinatal service delivery system. Additionally, using multiculturalism,
analyzed in a critical perspective, allowed me to conduct my re-examination
keeping in mind that similar challenges continue to be experienced
by women from many different cultural backgrounds. My re-examination
produced data that led to my discovery that 1) health care representatives
often function on the basis of unexamined biomedical assumptions,
2) effective research and clinical practices must include experiential
knowledge, and 3) such knowledge comes from an experience of the
professional self embodying a critical theoretical stance. My
findings do not represent new discoveries in that various scholars
have previously discussed similar conclusions in relation to health
care issues. However, they are highly relevant to perinatal social
work research and practice, and have not been previously applied
to widespread efforts to construct and evaluate culturally appropriate
perinatal social work and health care practices.
Health Care Provider Implicit and Explicit
Racial Bias and Medical Care
Janice Sabin
2006
There is speculation that physician implicit racial bias may
contribute to racial/ethnic health care disparities. This dissertation
presents three papers that investigate physician implicit and
explicit racial bias and the relation of bias to medical care.
Paper One presents results from a sample of test takers (n = 21,302)
who dropped in to a public web site and took the Race Implicit
Association Test (IAT). The data were analyzed by educational
attainment, producing a sub sample of MDs. The MD sample (n =
103) showed significant, strong implicit bias favoring White Americans
(M = 0.38, SD = 0.44, p = .001, Cohen’s d = 0.88). This
result was similar to all other test takers in the sample and
is true for a majority of Americans.
Paper two presents findings from an experiment that targeted
a physician sample (n = 95) from one department at a large research
university. This study aimed to measure pediatricians’ attitudes
about race and medical care. Three Implicit Association Tests
(IAT) were used; the Race IAT, Race and Patient Behavior IAT and
Race and Quality of Care IAT. Sample showed unexpected, weak bias
favoring white Americans (M = .18, SD = .44, p = .01) and a moderate
association favoring “compliant patient” and white
(M = .25, SD = .42, p = .001). The Race and Quality of Medical
Care IAT showed an unexpected, association between African Americans
and preferred medical care (M = -0.21, SD =0.33,p = .001).
Paper three presents findings from a survey using clinical case
vignettes, manipulated by patient race, to assess pediatricians’
treatment recommendations. The relationship between implicit and
explicit racial attitudes and treatment was explored. Predicted
that if bias exists, would find bias favoring whites and, a relationship
between recommendations and implicit and explicit bias. Pediatricians
identified optimal treatment recommendation for three of four
cases irrespective of patient race. Non-significant differences
for optimal recommendations for African American vs. white patients
for pain management (56% vs. 39%), management of IV antibiotics
(71% vs. 54%) and asthma care (51% vs. 39%). Relationships found
between implicit bias scores and medical care.
Human subjects regulations and the ethical review process:
Conventional social science and community-based participatory
researchers’ perceptions and recommendations for change
Nancy Shore
2004
University-based researchers are required to seek Institutional
Review Board (IRB) approval when their project meets the human
subjects regulations’ definition of research. The IRB process
aims to strengthen the ethical design of research and to assure
that study participants are not exploited. The federal regulations
guiding this approval process, however, have been critiqued for
their use of a clinical or biomedical framework to assess ethical
concerns. The intent of this dissertation was to examine whether
social science researchers with research and ethical assumptions
more similar to the clinical or biomedical model encounter fewer
(or different) challenges with the review process as compared
to a more alternative methodology.
Interviews were conducted with ten community-based participatory
researchers (CBPR) and seven conventional social science researchers
(CSSR). Selection of CBPR was primarily in response to the National
Bioethics Advisory Commission’s (2001) claim that community-based
research presents unique challenges to the regulatory oversight
system. CBPR is a participatory research process that often entails
building community-university partnerships to address community
concerns. CBPR is typically applied to non-clinical questions.
CSSR was selected as the comparison group as it represents the
social science approach most closely aligned to the human subjects
regulations’ clinical emphasis. Grounded Theory (Glaser
& Strauss, 1967) was used to analyze the interview data.
In comparison to the CSSR interviewees, the CBPR interviewees’
conceptualizations of research and ethical concerns were less
closely aligned with the human subjects regulatory framework.
The CBPR and CSSR interviewees, however, shared similar views
regarding the benefits and challenges with the IRB process. For
example, the CBPR and CSSR interviewees believed that the IRB
process encourages researchers to conceptualize their projects,
and provides protection for study participants, researchers, and
the institution. Shared challenges included problems associated
with IRB procedures and problems due to IRB committees not fully
understanding either a proposed project’s methodology or
relevant risks. Challenges with the IRB were not expressed in
terms of differences in ethical assumptions between researchers
and the human subjects regulations. The dissertation concludes
with reflections on ethical decision-making processes and recommendations
to enhance the relevancy of the IRB process for CBPR and CSSR
researchers.
The effects of community level adoption of a risk- and protection-focused
prevention framework on school-based prevention activities
Brian Smith
2005
Youth in the United States experience problem behaviors such
as interpersonal violence, delinquency, substance use, and school
failure at high rates. One strategy to address these problems
is to reduce their prevalence through the use of prevention programs
that have been tested and proven effective. In recent years research
has shown that increasing numbers of prevention programs successfully
reduce risk factors associated with substance abuse, violence,
and delinquency, increase protective factors that buffer exposure
to those risks, and reduce the levels of youth problem behaviors.
Although numerous interventions that effectively prevent youth
problems exist, youth are still more frequently exposed to interventions
that are ineffective or untested.
The most common site for implementation of prevention interventions
is schools. This dissertation examines the relationships between
community and school-level factors and the school-based use of
tested, effective prevention programs and effective prevention
approaches. One approach to increasing the diffusion of tested
and effective prevention programs to schools and other settings
is through community-level integration of the findings of prevention
science into efforts to support the healthy development of children
and youth.
This dissertation research specifically examines whether community-level
adoption of a prevention science-based community planning model
is associated with increased use of tested, effective prevention
programs and increased use of effective prevention approaches
in schools. In addition, this dissertation research examines whether
school-level factors are associated with increased school-based
use of tested, effective prevention programs and effective prevention
approaches.
The results of this dissertation research may contribute to more
effective efforts to disseminate tested, effective prevention
programs to schools. The findings also highlight several important
roles that social workers can play in both school and community
settings to increase the prevalence of effective school-based
prevention efforts.
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