Browsing by Subject "Social Work"

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Battered women’s help-seeking: a turning point from victimization to readiness.
(2009-05) Park, Eonju
This exploratory qualitative study investigates battered women's help-seeking on the continuum of their victimization and readiness. This study starts with a conceptualization of battered women's help-seeking strategies and identifies positive and negative help based on twelve women's perceptions of those services. Finally, this study suggests a conceptual model for battered women's help-seeking from formal social services. In-depth interviews with twelve survivors of domestic violence revealed that these battered women sought help from formal social services toward the end of their abusive relationships, and utilized diverse help-seeking strategies from various help sources including but not limited to seeking protection from the criminal justice system. They especially perceived formal social service agencies and personnel as positive if the personnel valued self-determination, validated that the abuse was not the women's fault, and provided resources to (re)build their self-sufficiency. In addition, formal social services were often able to protect them from the abuse. In this regard, positive help from formal social services influenced the women's readiness to change by affecting the construction of a turning point. Negative help from formal social services kept battered women in the status quo only before they approached their turning point. Not wanting to minimize the importance of the criminal justice system's response in fostering the batterer's accountability, this research found that it is also essential to focus on battered women's varied and self-identified needs and to increase their accessibility to these resources. This study suggests that formal social services help women end the abuse by respecting women's self-determination and promoting women's readiness to reach a turning point.
County Exemption from Social Work Licensure in Minnesota: Understanding the Past and Present to Affect the Future
(2021-12) Goodenough, Karen
This three-paper dissertation discerns the current landscape surrounding county exemption from social work licensure in Minnesota and whether additional repeal efforts are timely and necessary. It outlines the purpose, critiques, and history of social work licensure in Minnesota and analyzes how the literature describes the reasons for and against licensing county social workers and the gaps remaining in the literature. It then describes the results of a mixed methods study to: 1) ascertain the number of current Minnesota county employees would need to be licensed should the exemption be eliminated, how the number has changed since 2007, and the number of licensure supervisors currently available within the MN county public service agencies; and 2) to understand the connection between having the resources in place to support licensure and the decision to become licensed when an exemption is in place.
Creating opportunities for all: a qualitative study of the reintegration of students with emotional/behavioral disorders to the mainstream environment.
(2011-07) Rinkel, Michaela
Reintegrating students with emotional and behavioral disorders from alternative school settings to the mainstream school environment presents significant challenges. Students are frequently unsuccessful when they return to home districts. Most researchers address the problem in a variable-centric manner, and explore specific student, teacher, and system attributes that lead to failure. Research needs to focus on the overall process of reintegration and the interactions that create conditions for success or failure. This study analyzed the perspectives of students, mainstream and special education teachers, administrators, peers, and parents when six middle and high school students with emotional and behavioral disorders moved from self-contained settings to placements in the mainstream environment of two Midwestern suburban school districts. Data were collected over one school year using semi-structured interviews, as well as student records and observations. Data were analyzed utilizing inductive case study and grounded theory methods. Four major findings emerged from the data. First, the desire of students to fit in influenced their use of the important skills of self-advocacy and self-regulation. Second, having and seeking out an understanding of the student's disability influenced the provision of support to students. Third, parents used advocacy to increase systemic understanding of the student's disability. Finally, attributes of communication within the system and a lack of understanding of student disability created a problematic reliance on student self-advocacy. These findings suggest school policy and practice should be directed toward improving educators' understanding of student disability, supporting parental advocacy, and increasing the use of self-advocacy in the classroom for students with emotional and behavioral disorders.
Discharge planning with older adults in Minnesota hospitals.
(2012-07) Eaton, Charissa K.
This mixed methods study utilizes data collected through telephone interviews with hospital administrators and health care professionals who assist elders with planning for post-acute care and secondary data from the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Hospital Association website to examine the discharge planning process in all hospitals serving older adults in Minnesota. It addresses two research questions: 1) How, if at all, decision-making help for hospitalized seniors is structured and what predicts that structure? and 2) To what extent, do professionals who help with decisions deliberately engage in processes that help elders and their families explore alternatives and reach decisions consistent with their own values, and what predicts whether that process takes place? Quantitative analyses determined that the majority of hospitals in Minnesota serving that serve older adults are small, rural hospitals with critical access designations, are private nonprofit, and are affiliated with a health care system. Social workers are primarily responsible for discharge planning in half of the hospitals, nurses in a quarter and either a nurse/social worker team or both nurse and social workers separately in a quarter. Multinomial logistic regression determined that in critical access hospitals nurses are more likely than social workers to be the profession primarily responsible for discharge planning. The majority of professionals who assist elders in making decisions about post-acute care, decision counselors, were female, in their 40s, and social workers who have received a bachelor's degree. The majority of decision counselors reported typically using a deliberate approach to their work. Multivariate analysis suggests that social workers score higher than nurses on the deliberate decision counseling scale based on Janis and Mann's (1977) framework. The qualitative method, conventional content analysis, was used to analyze open ended responses by decision counselors when asked to describe a recent case of an elder who presented the most decision challenges related to discharge planning. Decision counselors do not use a consistent process in assisting elders make decisions about post-acute care. Instead, decision counselors vary in their practice due to influences from the medical model and ethical dilemmas concerning the values of safety and self-determination.
The effects of facilitation management on interorganizational coordination and trust in an Anti-Iraq War political advocacy nonprofit network in the Twin Cities.
(2010-04) Hansen, Toran Jay
This study is a communications network evaluation of the organizations in the Twin Cities opposing the current Iraq War. The theoretical framework, testable hypotheses, and research questions drew from social network, social movement, empowerment, and group facilitation scholarship. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses that relationships existed between the independent variable `facilitation management' (including the facilitation functions of: logistical arrangements for communications, social support, participatory discussion, conflict resolution, and participatory decision-making) and the dependent variables trust and coordination. These relationships were confirmed, though facilitation management had a larger effect on coordination. The study also investigated how concentrated responsibility was for the various facilitation functions among the network members. Facilitation functions that were found to be more concentrated (logistical arrangements (including: organizing and information dissemination), participatory discussion, and participatory decision-making) were considered facilitated in the network. Data were collected for this study in three phases. A background questionnaire collected information about the organizations that were represented in this study, as well as the study participants' perceptions of whether they felt that their network was expanding or contracting over the year prior to the study. A primary questionnaire was then utilized to collect data concerning the study participants' demographic information, their perceptions of their facilitation functions, trust, and coordination, their perceptions of their accomplishments and challenges, their perceptions of the worthwhileness and effectiveness of their activities, and their perceptions of the network's context over the previous three-month period. Finally, the study participants were invited to a focus group meeting to discuss their impressions of the research process and the study's findings, after they were given a report detailing the findings and insights that emerged from the literature review. The report included a discussion of findings coming from formative evaluation questions designed to determine specific ways that the communications network could be enhanced. Thus, this study was also a form of action research that accorded with the principles of empowerment theory.
Evaluation of consumer directed community supports for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Minnesota.
(2010-07) Bogenschutz, Matthew David
Self directed support options for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), such as the Consumer Directed Community Supports (CDCS) Program in Minnesota, have become increasingly viable and common in recent years. Despite the fact that such programs continue to grow, systematic, independent study of their uses and effectiveness has remained sparse. Using an extant data set that includes data from a survey of 112 randomly selected CDCS users from across the state and 29 county developmental disabilities services administrators, this dissertation offers a comprehensive study of Minnesota's self directed supports program for people with IDD. Specifically, this study looks at CDCS usage patterns, including the testing of a model that aims to explain why some individuals remain on the self directed program, while others depart, presumably in favor of traditional service models. In addition, this study examines the characteristics of the direct support workforce that supports persons with IDD in self directed supports. Two main hypotheses were tested in this research, both using binary logistic regression, with additional descriptive analysis coming from chi-squared analyses and descriptive statistics. Binary logistic regression analysis suggests that CDCS users are more likely to be current users when they are under the age of 22, living in the metropolitan area of the state, and have higher than average individualized budgets. This is an important finding since it supports findings from the initial study using this data set, which descriptively found discrepancies in CDCS usership that may be linked to paternalistic attitudes among county administrators in non-metropolitan areas of the state. The second hypothesis, which tested the predictive utility of wage rates, fringe benefit provision, training opportunities, and worker relationship to the CDCS user on the length of worker tenure, did not yield statistically significant results, leaving questions about the character of the direct support workforce in CDCS. These findings, as well as others from this study, suggest implications for policy development, future research, and social work practice, which are discussed at some length, as are the limitations of this research.
Learned Helplessness: Some Observations of Women in the Labor Force and Their Implications for Social Work.
(1974) Wattenberg, Esther
Long-term effects of Head Start enrollment on adulthood educational attainment and economic status: a Propensity Score Matching approach.
(2009-06) Ju, Eunsu
In 1965, the Head Start program was introduced as part of War on Poverty. There was a hope that intergenerational transmission of poverty could be broken down by a comprehensive preschool program for low income children and their families. Since then, a number of studies have explored the impact of the program. The majority of those studies have focused on cognitive development and educational outcomes, and they generally suggest that the program produces short-term effects, but that most of them disappear in the long-term. However, most previous studies suffered from comparability problems (i.e. different background characteristics) between program participants and non-participants. Further, although the main purpose of the program was to reduce poverty in the long run, confirmation of the idea has been almost ignored from the research for the last 40-plus years. The main purpose of this study is to conduct a more rigorous evaluation in regard to the long-term effects of the Head Start participation on adulthood educational attainment and economic status (as measured by personal earned income, the family income to poverty ratio, and welfare dependency). This study utilized data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) from 1970 to 2005. To examine the effects of Head Start participation on adulthood income, a total of 1,765 young adults (aged 19 to 35 in 2005) were selected from the original PSID sample: 161 with long-term Head Start participation, 171 with short-term Head Start participation, 611 with other preschool participation, and 822 with no preschool participation. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) analysis was employed to control preexisting differences that might have an influence on preschool experience. To ensure whether the findings are consistent regardless of how control groups are matched, four matching models were examined: one-to-one matching without replacement, one-to-one matching with replacement, two-nearest neighborhood matching, and radius matching. Using the matched samples, a series of multivariate analyses were conducted: ordered logistic regression for educational attainment, Tobit analysis for personal earned income, OLS regression for family income to poverty ratio, and logistic regression for welfare dependency. To control the influence of other factors, a variety of variables at the community, family, and child levels were also included in the analyses. Most of the pre-existing differences between groups were sufficiently controlled by the PSM. According to the results of the following multivariate analyses, Head Start provided sizeable gains to its participants in terms of educational attainment if they attended the program at least one year. Long-term Head Starters were more likely to have higher level of educational attainment by approximately 1.5 to 2 times than no preschool children, 2 to 3.2 times than other preschool children, and 1.9 to 2.1 times than short-term Head Starters. However, no significant effects were found among short-term Head Start participants. Regarding the effects on economic status, long-term Head Start participation had indirect effects on personal earnings and family income to poverty ratio through higher educational attainment as compared to short-term Head Start participation or no preschool experience. However, the effects on welfare dependency were not clear. Although some studies have questioned the long-term effects of Head Start participation, this study confirmed that Head Start had provided long lasting effects to its participants on their adulthood educational attainment and economic status. Consequently, more efforts should be made to minimize the barriers that interfere for low income children to attend the program. The programs’ coverage should be expanded and the quality of the program increased to reduce intergenerational poverty.
Miracle Survivors (Pisatsikamotaan): an indigenous theory on educational persistence grounded in the stories of Tribal College Students.
(2009-04) HeavyRunner, Iris
For the last two hundred years, higher education for American Indians has been an Anglo institution involving compulsory Western methods of learning, reoccurring attempts to eradicate tribal culture, and high departure rates for American Indian students at mainstream institutions. In direct response to this history, American Indian leaders drew upon the philosophical framework of the “self-determination” movement of the 1960s to rethink the role of higher education. These leaders recognized the importance of post-secondary education and fostered among themselves the awareness that American Indian colleges could strengthen reservation economies and tribal culture without forcing the students to accept acculturation. In 1968, the Navajo Nation created the first tribally controlled community college - now called Dine’ College in Tsaile, Arizona. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching reported in 1997, “[w]ithout question, the most significant development in American Indian communities, since World War II, is the creation of tribally controlled colleges.” The purpose of this study was to develop an Indigenous theory on educational persistence for American Indian students. This indigenous theory emerged from the stories of tribal college students, faculty, and staff. This qualitative study is twopronged: (1) what constitutes educational persistence in a tribal college setting and (2) how students believe they came to “persist” in the tribal college.
Positionality Statement in Social Work Practice
(Journal of Opinions, Ideas & Essays (JOIE), 2025-02-01) Salimova, Leila
Positionality statements are crucial for researchers to effectively convey their perspective and message, providing context about their identity, experience, and epistemological standpoint. This review discusses the positionality statement in social work practice, based on the author's extensive work background and academic experience.
The resettlement of the Karen in Minnesota
(2015-01) Lytle, Kathleen J.
Minnesota has a long history of welcoming immigrants and refugees into its communities. Following the Vietnam War large numbers of Southeast Asian (SEA)refugees came to Minnesota. With the implementation of the Refugee Act of 1980, a formal refugee resettlement program was created nation-wide. As part of the Refugee Act of 1980 Voluntary agencies (VOLAGs), were established to help the refugees with their resettlement process. Soon after the arrival of refugees from Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, refugees from other countries began coming to Minnesota. In the 1990s refugees from the former Soviet Union began resettling in Minnesota. In the mid 1990s refugees from East Africa began arriving. In the early 2000s, large numbers of Karen refugees from Burma began coming to Minnesota. In order to help the Karen refugees in their acculturation, it is important for the community within which they are living to understand them and their culture. Using an ethnographic approach, this qualitative research project is aimed at understanding the lived experiences of the Karen and their resettlement. It describes sources of stress the Karen experience during their resettlement, and it describes the experiences of key informants who have worked in the resettlement of the Karen to Minnesota. This research suggests that, for the Karen, the development of a social capital network of community support, established prior to their arrival, has been an important part of their resettlement experience. Although the Karen have a well-established network of social support in Minnesota, they continue to experience significant acculturative stress in all areas of their lives.
Restraint and seclusion in American public schools: developing principles of appropriate use and identifying corresponding legal provisions.
(2010-10) Stewart, Daniel John
In the context of increasing numbers of children being subject to restraint and seclusion practices in school settings, this study proposes 14 principles of appropriate use for those practices. These principles were developed from the research literature and from the results of six interviews of school-based practitioners who have extensive experience with addressing restraint and seclusion use in their schools. The Principles are designed to ensure the appropriate use of these potentially dangerous interventions as well as to reduce the risks and other negative consequences to children, adults, and schools. Additionally, this study examines how 23 state laws correspond to the proposed principles. A review of the proposed federal law is also provided. This study presents a checklist for reviewing state laws and school policies as well as a model state law designed to promote the appropriate use of restraint and seclusion.
School social work with grieving children in the Twin Cities
(2009-11) Quinn-Lee, Lisa
A review of the literature reveals few articles that deal with social work with grieving children in the public school setting. The purpose of this research is to describe and analyze the services that school social workers provide to grieving children. Grieving children are defined as those who have experienced loss through death of someone significant (e.g., parent, sibling, grandparent, friend). This research addressed the following questions: 1) What are school social workers' experiences working with grieving children? 2) What services are provided? 3) Which interventions do school social workers utilize? 4) To what community resources do school social workers refer grieving students? 5) How prepared do school social workers feel to provide support to grieving children? 6) How and by whom are grieving children identified and assessed? 7) Are other disciplines providing services to grieving children in schools? If so, what services are they providing? and 8) Do barriers exist in providing school social work to grieving students? If yes, what are they? A purposive sample of 105 school social workers was selected based on the following criteria: (a) currently licensed in Minnesota as a school social worker, (b) currently employed as a school social worker in the Twin Cities, and (c) currently a member of the Minnesota School Social Workers Association. One hundred five school social workers were invited to participate in two parts of the study. Fifty-nine agreed to participate in the preliminary e-mail survey. Subsequently, of the 59, 22 school social workers were interviewed in-person for approximately 45-60 minutes. This exploratory study required an open-ended, inductive approach using qualitative methods. Interviews were transcribed and coded through NVivo qualitative analysis software. Major codes were developed using the guided interview questions. Constant comparison was also utilized. The data analysis identified four main themes in the responses: (a) barriers to helping grieving students, (b) limitations placed on how grief is defined, (c) social workers' wide range on preparation for dealing with grief and loss issues, and (d) referring grieving students to outside resources. Subthemes were developed under each theme. School social workers faced various barriers in helping grieving children, including parents' privacy and confidentiality concerns, teachers' lack of support, lack of time, lack of resources, being limited on what can be discussed in public schools related to religion and spirituality, and no private space to meet with students. School social workers reported that the definition of grief encompassed much more than grief over the death of a family member. Grief for children comes in many forms, including death of a parent, death of extended family member, student death, divorce, and pet loss. All school social workers interviewed recognized that they could not be available to students at all times and could not provide all the services that grieving students need. They realized that it was necessary for them to have good referral sources for the students, including various outside agencies and community resources. School social workers are not always receiving the type of training that is necessary to work with grieving students. They believed that they received little preparation in assisting children with grief and loss issues, and that they only received education on this topic if they sought it out themselves and took elective courses or continuing education. Implications for practice: (1) School social workers' education should include courses that look at the types of grief experienced by children and be provided specific training in how to deal with grief. (2) School districts need to reconsider the budget allotted to hiring school social workers and to the resources they need. School social workers' roles should be expanded so they can respond to new and emerging needs of grieving students. (3) Social workers in the community and social workers in the school should communicate more with each other about their roles in helping grieving children, and this could help decrease duplication of services.
A Second Chance in Exile? German-Speaking Women Refugees in American Social Work After 1933
(2015-04) Louis, Barbara
This dissertation examines the trajectories of Austrian and German Jewish women refugees who established careers in American social work. It traces their lives and careers from ambitious and idealistic young women to their new beginnings in the unfamiliar professional landscape of the United States, and the interwoven, at times conflict-laden, dynamics of their ongoing development within their profession into the last quarter of the twentieth century. I argue that educated, political, Jewish emigre women created productive careers in American social work that enabled them to maintain their identities as intellectuals, emancipated, and activist women dedicated to social reform, albeit in modified ways. While social work as a typical female profession provided the opportunity for empowerment and success for emigre women, the social forces that structured gender relations in larger society reached into the presumed female domain and curtailed the women's options. Focusing on Elsa Leichter, Gerda L. Schulman, Gisela Konopka, Etta Saloshin, and Anne Fischer as major protagonists, this study illustrates various paths that exiles from war-torn Europe were able to pursue in the social work profession ranging from a caseworker in Richmond, Virginia, to innovators in family and group therapy at a large agency in New York City, to a highly decorated and internationally respected professor of social work at the University of Minnesota. Drawing on the historiographies of intellectual migration and exile, gender and science, as well as the history of the social sciences, the dissertation combines a transnational and comparative perspective with group biography to provide an inclusive account of the emigres' lives, careers, and migration paths, as well as the different contexts and circumstances they encountered. This study proposes to include peripheral actors and those in related applied fields instead of restricting the understanding of the social sciences to their purely academic realms in order to arrive at a more nuanced recognition of the complex forces and processes that shaped academia, the applied professions, and the population they served.
A secondary data analysis of young truants and the interaction of child protection intervention
(2011-06) Zuel, Timothy Brett
Young children who experience chronic truancy are associated with a greater risk of school dropout, adolescent delinquency, and very high adult social and financial costs (Bell, Rosen, & Dynlacht, 1994; Caldas, 1993; Hawkins, Herrenkohl, Farrington, Brewer, Catalano, & Harachi, 1998; Huizinga & Jakob-Chien, 1998; Lamdin, 1996; Loeber & Farrington, 2000; Robins & Ratcliff, 1980). Current law requires schools to report to the child protection system any students who have seven or more unexcused absences. Using administrative data and a quasi-experimental design that used propensity score matching to create a comparison group, this study examines the outcomes of students who have missed at least 10% of the school year (at least 18 days) and their associated interactions with the child protection system. Furthermore, this study examines the effect of the child protection process on these students’ attendance. The analysis found no significance for treatment effect of a child protection intervention on the attendance of the sample of chronically truant students. The study revealed that only 5% of the truant cohort had been involved with child protection over the two years of the study. Further, none of the child protection involvement was as a result of missing school. The study suggests a disconnect between the policy of child protection involvement in truant young children and the practice as revealed by the administrative data. Future research into child protection intervention with young truants would need to be carried out at a more local level due to the multiple factors making statewide data sources untrustworthy.
A social ecology of stress and coping among homeless refugee families.
(2011-08) Im, Hyojin
Refugee families undergo multiple challenges and hardships that tend to cause tremendous psychological distress in the migration and resettlement processes. This dissertation research was designed to explore refugee families' mental health in the social ecological contexts of displacement and homelessness and to investigate stressors and coping in relation to transition of resources including social capital of refugee families. With three theoretical frameworks, a social ecology theory, stress and coping theory, and social capital theory, the author developed a series of hypothetical statements as well as research questions to modify and refine hypotheses on stress and coping processes of refugee families. A modified analytic induction method was adopted for analysis of interview data from 26 Hmong and Somali families in Twin Cities area. The findings of this study revealed that psychological distress was deeply associated with challenges and transition in resources at various levels. Rearrangement of resources (cultural resources in particular) occurred after resettlement, which tended to impede coping capacity of refugee families and cause acculturation stress. Social capital, both bonding and linking, functioned as a critical form of resource for refugee families to resettle and adjust to the host community by supplementing personal, family, and cultural resources that are often sparse in refugee communities. The results of the current study imply that it is a critical coping strategy for refugee families to build or increase social capital, which sometimes leads families' secondary migration in search of better bonding social capital. This study also demonstrated high levels of psychological distress among refugee families, ranging from traumatic experiences before migration to acute stress after homelessness. Exposure to traumatic events before and during migration was salient in refugee families, while a lack of resources and frustrated coping strategies contributed to tremendous distress, which has been a chronic condition for the refugee families. This dissertation underscores the importance of social work practice focusing on culturally responsive resettlement services considering various challenges and cultural coping of refugee families. Policy interventions promoting family and bonding social capital are also critical to improve resettlement outcomes as well as refugee mental health.
The transition of youth with disabilities from the child welfare system: an analysis of state administrative data.
(2010-11) Hill, Katharine Miller
Youth with disabilities are disproportionately represented in the child welfare system (Crosse, Kaye, & Ratnofsky, 1992; Sullivan & Knutson, 2000). Although research on this topic is limited, youth with disabilities who are emancipating from foster care are at risk for particularly poor outcomes, experiencing even lower rates of employment, educational attainment, and economic stability than their non-disabled peers who are aging out of care (Anctil, McCubbin, O'Brien, & Pecora, 2007a; Anctil, McCubbin, O'Brien, Pecora, & Anderson-Harumi, 2007b; Zetlin, 2006). Using state administrative data, the study compares youth with disabilities emancipating from foster care to their non-disabled peers, examining prevalence and demographics, as well as differences between the two groups in key education, child welfare, and disability-specific variables. It examines how transition outcomes in the areas of secondary and postsecondary education and adult corrections differ for youth with and without disabilities who have aged out of foster care. Finally, it examines the relationship between the identified transition outcomes and the key predictor variables in the areas of education, child welfare, and disability-specific services. Analysis found significant differences between youth with disabilities and their non-disabled peers who have aged out of foster care. Youth with disabilities are more likely to be male, Native American, or Asian than their non-disabled peers. They experience different permanency plans and are less likely to access child welfare transition services. All of the youth experienced high rates of placement instability, and youth with disabilities appeared to experience slightly higher rates. Youth with disabilities were placed in juvenile corrections and/or residential treatment prior to finishing high school in greater numbers than their non-disabled peers. However, they were also more likely to attend school regularly. Youth with disabilities were less likely to graduate from high school, less likely to be enrolled in postsecondary education and training, and more likely to appear in the adult correctional system. Additionally, child welfare transition services were associated with negative adult school completion outcomes, such as increased risk for drop out for youth both with and without disabilities. Thus, it is critical that researchers, policymakers, and practitioners improve their expertise, programming, and focus on older youth with disabilities in the child welfare system.
Understanding an Action Research Process in a Youth Sport Organization
(2021-07) Okamoto, Katlin
Youth sport is often considered a setting for ‘youth development’ and for young people to acquire ‘life skills’. In shifting from a sole focus on physical fitness and sporting competence to a more complex understanding of young person and ‘life skills’, the coach becomes a youth worker. Yet, to claim that youth sport can play a role in youth development is complex and dependent on the theoretical and practical chosen frames of youth development and their corresponding goals and values. When ‘life skills’ are presumed to be acquired- these too have social meaning- they are often done within an adolescent and/or ‘positive youth development’ frame and are obtained inequitably across age, social class, ethnicity, gender, geography, and the like. This suggests existing understandings of ‘youth development’ and ‘life skills’ in youth sport are narrow and inadequate, in social terms and of themselves, without full recognition of social class, ethnicity, gender, and other social demographics. Thus, an opportunity to expand the embodied meanings of ‘youth development’, and what outcomes are desired, in youth sport exists- both those of adults and those of youth players. One possible approach is through democratic process embedded in a civic youth work orientation and potentially overlapping classic youth coaching strategies and carried out through an action research process, one more common in other areas of education practice.This dissertation sought to understand action research as an individual, team, programmatic, and organizational change process in a youth sport organization in an upper-middle class, suburban, Midwest community. To do this, an action research project was developed, implemented, and assessed in a new youth soccer club. The study had two levels- the action research project focused on exploring the core values with youth players (Level I), and a self-reflection on the process of doing action research (Level II). The project consisted of twenty four, one-hour sessions with ~ twenty eight youth- boys and girls from two soccer teams- a co-facilitator, and myself. The project took place over a period of five months and was informed by community youth development and social justice youth development theories, a civic youth work orientation, and the researcher’s expertise as a licensed soccer coach. Data were collected before, during, and after the project in the form of interviews, field notes, observations, artefacts, documentation, a learning journal, archival records, and dialog with ‘critical friends’ and were analyzed for qualitative themes. Several findings emerged at Level I and Level II of the study. Youth players shared a commitment to and were able to live out the soccer club’s core values (teamwork, respect, leadership, ownership) in their everyday soccer lives, and sometimes in other youth life realms, and enjoyed the experience. Parents and club directors expressed their satisfaction with the project. I learned about my ability to create a democratic youth work space in a youth sport organization (Level I) within my coach training and also with the young people and with my co-facilitator. The action research project showed itself as possible in the youth sport club and trust and relationship building emerged as essential to the project’s start, implementation, and completion in the youth sport organization. These findings suggest youth sport can be amenable to a civic youth work practice and a democratic process is possible in U.S. youth sport clubs, albeit with difficulty, patience, skill, and fortuitous conditions. This study has implications for exploring youth sport as a place for youth work and it provides evidence of specific “life skills” that can be achieved through such practice. For those youth workers who utilize theories of community youth development or social justice youth development, or for social workers who identify as youth and community workers, these findings can be read to encourage further consideration of the ways economic inequality influences outcomes and opportunities and/or the way that cultural differences may alter taken-for-granted values and practices. Finally, this study can inform youth sport policy to better align with desired coaching practices, and for action research as a coach development process within sport. However, given the realities of the club and the youth and families included in this study, it is vital that civic youth development work also be undertaken with young people, families, and communities from a wider array of social class, ethic/racial background, and geographic communities in order to understand the cultural and social contexts of such goals and practices. My professional development brought into personal tension the differences, as well as similarities, between my coaching training, orientation, and practice and that school of youth work called community youth work. This should be explored more deeply across social class, gender, ethnicity/race, and geographic spaces. Keywords: Youth sport, youth work, action research, social work
Understanding social and cultural differences in perceiving child maltreatment.
(2009-06) Shanalingigwa, Oswald Abel
Abstract This cross-cultural study sought to examine how parents from other parts of the world and who differ in culture, evaluate practices that are, or might be, harmful to children. The objective was to examine respondents' judgment of acceptability of the behavior, perception of severity and their attitudes toward reporting such situations. The study focused on thirteen (13) categories of child maltreatment as evaluated by parents born and raised on the African continent and parents born and/or raised in the United States. The responses of the two groups of parents were then compared and contrasted with the responses of child welfare professionals in Minnesota. This study is, in part, a replication of Giovannoni and Becerra's [Giovannoni, J., & Becerra, R. 1979 research on defining child maltreatment, Defining child abuse: New York: The Free Press]. It expands Giovannoni & Becerra's 1979 study, which examined how health and welfare professionals defined child abuse and neglect and rated the severity of specific instances of maltreatment. Participants for the study were drawn from the metropolitan area of St. Paul, Minnesota. Data for the cross-cultural study were collected by means of a self-administered vignette questionnaire that was distributed to the three key groups: parents born and raised on the African continent, parents born or raised in the U.S., and child welfare professionals in Anoka and Washington Counties in Minnesota. From the various findings of this study it is established that respondents' culture contributed significantly to the perceptions of child maltreatment situations. Respondents differed in their definitions, perception of seriousness and reporting potential abusive situations. Implications of the findings are discussed.

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