This study represents an analysis of a child care agency's experiment with early adoption placements. It aims at exploring principally the question of reliability of early assessment of infants' potentialities for adoption. Evaluation of a child's potentialities has been recognized as an essential step in any good and successful adoption practice.

Battery is a major health care issue that, despite increased recognition, fails to be detected in health care institutions. Without adequate detection, referral to social and community services are less likely to occur, rendering women victims vulnerable to continued risk physically, psychologically and medically. This study seeks to describe actual detection and referral practices in an emergency department at a large teaching hospital in Quebec, as well as explore health care professionals' knowledge about and practices regarding the detection and referral of battered women. Its aim is to better understand the pathways and barriers to detection and referral of abused women in order to enhance current practice responses in emergency departments. To examine detection and referral rates and predictors of battery, 200 medical charts from the emergency department were reviewed. Supplementing analyses of the charts were in depth interviews with ten health care professionals working in the emergency department. From these sources of data, it became apparent that neither detection nor referral occur in any systematic fashion. Whereas health care professionals seem to know a great deal about battery, their actual practice appears to be contradictory. Gynecological problems and woman's age were not found to be related to detail in charts but physical injuries were. Whereas a positive relationship was found between detection and referral in the chart reviews, everyday practice showed inadequacy in both areas. Implications for social work contributions to health care practice related to battery are offered.

This thesis presents a study about the experience of becoming a nursing home resident as it affects the identity and self-esteem of very old persons. / In a qualitative study with six female residents of an English-speaking Centre d'Acceuil in Montreal, themes are explored in the light of theory about the effects of institutionalization. Consideration is given to the dynamics of relationships with family, friends, peers and staff. Loss of autonomy is singled out as the factor having the most impact on the individuals in the study. / As life draws to a close, each of the women interviewed struggles in her own way with conflict between the value of self-determination and the value of acceptance of dependence on others. The author suggests that the attempt to reconcile these two values may be a "life-task" for very old institutionalized persons. Questions are raised at the level of planning for institutional policy and a direction is indicated for the education of social workers planning to work with an elderly clientele.

Intercountry adoption (ICA) is growing in controversy as it grows in popularity. While heart-warming stories of families with babies from abroad dominate the media coverage on this subject, this represents only a small segment of the entire situation. Using Korea and China as case examples, this thesis extensively reviews and analyzes policy and the cultural, social, economic and political layers of the ICA mechanism from a political-economy perspective and argues that children are treated as commodities in both supplying and receiving countries. ICA is used by governments to solve internal social problems while promoting international relations. The thesis concludes that only a small number of children and parents actually benefit from ICA and the majority of persons involved--unadopted children in both countries, birth parents and some adoptive applicants--do not gain from ICA and may actually experience suffering as a result of it.

The development of pre-conception and post-conception reproductive technologies has substantial implications and consequences for women. To better establish the impact of the eugenic and sexist traditions which support the elimination of disability/defect and the propagation of "designer babies," a survey of literature outlining the scientific, feminist, legal, cultural, and social perspectives regarding new reproductive technologies was undertaken. Three conclusions of this review are that while new reproductive technologies are not responsible for the environment which fosters bias and intolerance towards oppressed members of society, they have created eugenic demands by supporting genetic perfection; they have informally displaced women's rights to bodily autonomy in favour of the fetus' or potential future person's rights by supporting fetal personhood; and they have perpetuated sexism within the Indian community in Canada by supporting patriarchal institutions.

Bullying within our schools is a serious social problem requiring extensive and holistic prevention programs to effectively address the problem. This present study set out to gain a better understanding of the child's experience after participating in a Friends and Neighbours (F.A.N.) Club puppet show on bullying. Eight children were interviewed and the results indicated that the program is well received by the children but the F.A.N. Club needs to be more systemic in its approach to include more school and parental involvement. In addition, further focus is needed on the role of bystanders to bullying. The F.A.N. Club is effective in teaching assertiveness skills to the victims of bullying but is missing a teaching opportunity with the bullies and the bystanders to bullying. Further findings are discussed with reference to the ecological perspective and the implications for social work.

In recent years there has been a notable increase in the number of suicides amongst South Asian youth in the Region of Peel in Ontario. Using a six-page questionnaire, an exploratory descriptive study was conducted with 104 participants. The purpose of the study was to inquire into the number of South Asian youth that had ever considered committing suicide; determine whether there were any predicting factors; and gain insight as to "why." It was found that close to 30% of the sample had considered suicide and that gender, place of birth and a self-rating scale of depression were significant variables. Of those who had admitted to having considered suicide, 'family pressures' was cited as the number one reason.

Research studies that have already been conducted on the problem of child soldiers and child conscription have focused mostly on psychological trauma. Less attention has been paid to social, economic, and political processes in Africa. The goal of this thesis is to explore perceptions of professionals from various disciplines working in different organizations and government institutions (N = 207) concerning the causes, effects, and solutions to child conscription in Africa. / These professionals perceived that poverty, lack of educational resources, lack of community resources, economic hardships, dictates of international funders, corrupt governments, and unemployment were the major causes of child conscription into armed conflicts. With respect to the effects, the respondents perceived that physical and psychological issues, witnessing atrocities, and exposure to violence were the most important effects of participating in the armed conflicts. / In order to prevent or stop further recruitment of children into armed conflicts, the professionals working in the field thought that more educational programs should be initiated, community resources should be mobilized, prevention programs should be established, employment and training opportunities programs should also be provided, strong international laws drafted, advocacy and empowerment promoted, support for families provided, and awareness campaigns facilitated. / A striking result of this study is that professionals perceived counselling as a relatively unimportant solution to the problem of child conscription. Results are discussed in terms of the contrast between past research in the field, which has focused on individual-level effects and counselling solutions, and the societal-level effects, and solutions that professionals perceive are central to the problem.

This thesis is designed to examine the effects of discrimination on its target. It aims to investigate the psychological, physical, perceptual and behavioral responses that individuals exhibit when faced with racist, sexist and heterosexist as well as other types of discriminatory acts. Through meta-analytic procedures, findings from existing studies investigating the impact of discrimination on the target were gathered and their average effect sizes calculated. A total of 50 empirical studies were identified, from which 84 effect sizes were derived. Using homogeneity analysis techniques, the studies' effect sizes were compared and analyzed. The results show significant heterogeneity in the overall mean effect size (0.38) of discrimination. Subsequent moderator variable investigations indicated that among discrimination acts, sexism had the highest mean effect size (0.64), while among the responses to discrimination, the perceptual factor showed the highest mean effect size (0.65). Additional moderator variables' investigations resulted in significant differences between Canadian and American settings in terms of discrimination acts and responses.

Ninety-six child protection files were scrutinized according to the Holland Complex Care Case Review Data Collection Instrument in order to verify the applicability of the instrument to determined the variables influencing social workers in the determination of bringing an adolescent in need of protection into care. Results show that school related issues seem to influence workers in determining the need to remove the child from the family. Statistical analyses indicated numerous correlations supporting the link between case complexity and the need to bring an adolescent into care.