This three-paper dissertation investigates current applications of intersectionality in social work research and explores the utility of intersectionality in uncovering the complexity of teen pregnancy involvement. To illustrate the current methodological and theoretical applications of intersectionality in social work research, the first paper presents a systematic review of the literature. As shown in this paper, while intersectionality is underutilized as a theoretical concept in social work research, the potentialities of intersectionality to examine the complexity of social locations and identities is manifest. The second and third papers employ intersectional approaches to uncover the complexity of teen pregnancy involvement in New York City. The second paper examines quantitatively the interaction of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation on teen pregnancy involvement among a representative sample (N=176,289) of New York City public high school students. Findings from this paper reveal new patterns of disparities in teen pregnancy involvement based on the interactive effects of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation. The third paper captures qualitatively the interactions of social locations that contribute to perceptions about teen pregnancy among 24 sexual-minority female youth of color who participated in focus groups at a community-based organization in New York City. This paper examines the heteronormative assumptions underpinning teen pregnancy involvement and provides a different story about teen pregnancy "risk."

Located at the intersection of poverty and the New Testament, "Will ‘The Poor Be With You Always’?: Towards a Methodological Approach of Reading the Bible with the Poor" examines how the Bible has been used to justify and condemn poverty and how poor people are coming up against and simultaneously using the Bible in their quest to end poverty. By gathering and analyzing the perspectives of Poverty Initiative Poverty Scholars—grassroots anti-poverty organizers and leaders—who are working to build a social movement to end poverty, led by the poor, this work offers these interpretations as revealing, legitimate and important for scholars, religious leaders, and others in our communities to hear. Through an evaluation of biblical and theological obstacles to end poverty, and a reinterpretation of the passage “the poor are with you always” and the larger context of Matt 26 from which it comes, it describes and further develops a biblical hermeneutic that we have termed, “Reading the Bible with the Poor.” This hermeneutic includes drawing parallels between New Testament stories and contemporary stories of poor people surviving and organizing and investigating important social issues, both historical and contemporary (including taxation, debt, infrastructure and development, charity and patronage, poverty, wealth, and political power). Finally, this dissertation establishes that the messiah Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew is a leader of a social movement of the poor who works to reign in God’s Kingdom and establish an end to slavery, debts, and poverty on earth.

In recent years, racial and ethnic disparities in mental health service access, utilization and outcomes has been well documented. Specifically, African Americans are underrepresented as consumers of formal mental health treatment. While the literature reveals that clergy are often the first choice for African Americans who do seek mental health assistance, it also documents that little is known about how clergy specifically address the mental health needs of help-seekers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of a group of clergy in the Coney Island community of Brooklyn, NY, regarding their role in mental health service delivery and how they address the mental health concerns of help-seekers--particularly African Americans. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted in person with 10 Protestant clergy. Four overarching themes emerged from the data: (1) beliefs about pastoral role, (2) views on mental health need, (3) views on mental health service delivery, and (4) barriers to mental health service utilization. Findings revealed that most clergy believed that the direct provision or referral of mental health services for help-seekers was an integral part of their pastoral duties. Implications for social work practice, education, and future research are discussed.

A nationally drawn sample of 228 clinical social workers made clinical judgments on three case vignettes that represented typical cases involving children of alcohol abusers. Each vignette contained parental alcohol abuse, adult mental health problems, child behavior problems, and problems in family functioning. Respondents were classified as specialists in children and youth, families, mental health, or alcohol/drug abuse, generalists (three or more specialization areas), or non-specialists (no specialization areas) on specialization scales. Scales measuring case problem perceptions, referral patterns, and treatments were developed from factor scores of responses to vignettes. Construct and content validity were established. The primary hypothesis was that specialists would assess and develop treatment plans that were congruent with their specializations. Differences among groups in case problem perception, referral pattern, and treatment scales were analyzed via analyses of variance. Hierarchical regressions were employed to determine whether particular specialization groups developed congruent case perceptions and treatment plans. Some systematic differences in clinical judgments among specialists were found, primarily in predicted directions. Generalists were the most likely to make comprehensive clinical judgments. Regressions partially supported the main hypothesis. Specialization accounted for modest portions of the variance. Case perceptions accounted for little of the variance in referrals but for none of the variance in treatment. It was concluded that specialization interacts with other contextual factors to influence clinical judgments. Implications included the necessity for broad assessments that are connected to treatment plans and broader training for clinicians to better address the complex nature of these cases.

This is an exploratory study of the practice of case advocacy on behalf of children. The objectives of the study were to identify and classify the major components of case advocacy, to generate hypotheses describing the basic dynamics of this process, and to analyze the implications of these findings for the theory and practice of advocacy. The study was carried out during 1972-1973. Data were collected from 39 practitioners of child advocacy who had varying levels of education and work experience and were employed in eight different types of agencies located throughout the country. The respondents submitted 163 incidents of case advocacy over a five-month data collection period. The critical incident technique was the primary research instrument. Respondents were asked to submit brief written questionnaires describing the first incident of case advocacy they engaged in each week. Data collected in this manner were supplemented by site visits to each of the sample agencies, background information questionnaires on the respondents, and findings from a baseline study of child advocacy. The incidents were analyzed in an inductive manner to identify the major components of case advocacy and to develop a classification scheme delineating these variables. The incidents were then coded by the conference method so that frequencies and associations among variables could be computed. Finally, these findings were analyzed to generate hypotheses describing the major dynamics of the advocacy process. Case advocacy was revealed in this study as a complex, dynamic process in which there are a number of interrelated variables. To describe this process briefly, the study identified five major modes of direct intervention in child advocacy: intercession, persuasion, negotiation, pressure, and coercion. In addition, it was noted that indirect modes of influence are employed frequently. The advocate's use of one or more of these modes of intervention is determined by his analysis of the problem, objective and sanction for the intervention; his resources; and the receptivity of the target system. These variables also influence his decision as to the level and object of his intervention. It appears, however, that there is constant interaction and feedback among these components of the advocacy process so that the change agent constantly reassesses his approach in relation to his changing understanding of these various factors. And after the initial intervention has been completed, the advocate's evaluation of the outcome influences his decision as to whether to terminate his activity, adopt a different strategy, or initiate additional advocacy. It was noted that the advocates were reluctant to employ adversarial techniques, making extensive use of collaborative and mediatory strategies. Also, the respondents tended to employ a rather limited interventive repertoire and to engage in a relatively low level of intervention. The change agent and the target system appeared to be the primary determinants of the advocacy process. However, it was noted that the stronger the sanction for a particular intervention, the more options the advocate had in regard to object, level, and method of intervention. Although there was no conclusive evidence, it seemed that the resources of the change agent and the receptivity of the target system were the primary factors related to outcome. The findings have implications for the organization and practice of child advocacy. Also, it is hoped that the conceptual framework presented here will contribute to the development of a theory of advocacy practice.

This study examines the foreign-worker crisis in the United States Virgin Islands during the twenty-year period from its inception to 1976. The role of social workers in policy formulation is discussed in terms of the development and role of the Virgin Islands Department of Social Welfare, specifically this agency's response to the needs of the foreign workers and to the community in general. The author hypothesizes that the lack of appropriate and adequate responses sprang from (1) the federal government responding more to business interests than to the social needs of the foreign workers and their families; (2) the federal and local governments viewing the foreign workers as temporary and failing to envisage the emergence of critical social problems; (3) the federal government's disregard for whether or not the local government could deal with the socioeconomic consequences of migratory workers; (4) the local government's bypassing the needs of the foreign workers in order to preserve scarce services for the native-born and voting population; and (5) the local government's failure to develop adequate policies and programs to deal with the consequences of the foreign-workers program being directly related to the local government's inability to influence federal policies. Hypotheses one through four are supported by the study data, but the fifth was not supported. The author points to the Virgin Islands' territorial status, and the consequent prejudicial relationship vis-a-vis Washington as a dominating factor in both federal and local policy formulation and execution. United States citizenship in the Virgin Islands does not guarantee the same benefits as citizenship on the United States mainland. In particular, Virgin Islanders do not vote for the President and the Vice President nor do they receive Supplemental. Security Income (SSI). Only recently in fact have Virgin Islands secured representation in the federal Congress -- a non-voting delegate. The author traces the local government-federal government relationship from its earliest roots through 1976. Particularly important is the haphazard manner in which funds are provided for Congressionally mandated programs in the Virgin Islands. Policy implications and recommendations are based on the distinction between the cultural and socioeconomic characteristics of the Virgin Islands and the United States mainland and on the planning necessary when large numbers of migrants are introduced into a society. The author contends that (1) the migrant workers should become healthy, productive, and contributing. members of the Virgin Islands society, the basic goal of such a policy being successful integration into the community; (2) the local government must actively plan for the health, education, and welfare of the migrant labor force. In the final analysis, the local government is held responsible for the migrant work force; (3) local social service programs must fit local mores and cultural values; (4) the federal government must provide training and resources to effectively and efficiently carry new programs out. The Virgin Islands' ambiguous status has made this a major problem in providing adequate social welfare services. In order to implement policy successfully, clarification of the relationship between the Virgin Islands government and the United States government is necessary. Also necessary is evaluation of the cultural and socioeconomic differences of an island community with limited resources and different needs than the United States continent.

Social work practice theory has long been concerned with the issues of cause and responsibility inherent in efforts to define the unit of attention. This concern has focused, in part, on the potential for bias in the determination of causality, generally expressed in terms of a person-environment dichotomy. The present emphasis on an eco-systems framework for assessment in practice is viewed as an effort to respond to the debate which has resulted. These concerns of social work have been paralleled in attribution theory and it is suggested that this body of work provides an appropriate framework for an examination of the potential for causal and responsibility bias in the process of social work assessment. The present study employed a single factor completely randomized design to investigate the influence which information presented by the client with respect to the cause of and responsibility for the problem of marital separation would have on the social worker's (a) attributions of cause and responsibility for the client's problem, (b) evaluation of the potential efficacy of social work intervention (c) attraction to the client, and (d) belief in the veridicality of the client's statements. 77 experimental subjects were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions, with each condition representing one of four levels of a model of attributed responsibility. These are: (a) causal responsibility, (b) knowledge responsibility, (c) intention responsibility, and (d) coercive responsibility. The independent variable was manipulated through client statements in audiotaped interview analogues, and subjects were misled into believing that they were listening to an actual interview. Data analysis provided support for the hypothesis that the four treatment groups would significantly differ on the level of responsibility which subjects attributed to the client for the problem presented, indicating that worker's are differentially influenced by client information regarding the responsibility inherent in the problem which leads the client to seek help. It was also found that the treatment groups were differentiated on the basis of evaluations of the potential efficacy of social work intervention, indicating that the influence of attributional information presented by the client led subject's to differential conclusions about the potential for a successful treatment outcome.

This study examined whether social workers' clinical judgments reflect differences in the client's level of acculturation; or whether their judgments are influenced by the client's race/ethnic status, ignoring important differences in the client's level of acculturation. This study also examined whether the practitioner's race and years of clinical experience moderate these clinical judgments. Finally this study analyzed patterns of differences in the clinical judgments between various racial/cultural/-ethnic client groups. The primary statistical procedure used in this study was the univariate (mixed-model) ANOVA for repeated measures (mixed-model) designs. The instrument used in this study consisted of sets of questions (The Cross-Cultural Clinical Judgment Inventory), requiring the respondent to make judgments (perceived importance of cultural/ethnic issues) about eight analogues. Two analogues per ethnic group (i.e. Black, Puerto Rican, Polish and Jewish) were provided. The CJI scale had excellent internal consistency reliability, with Coefficients alpha ranging from.92 to.96 for each of the eight analogues. Results suggest that social workers are sensitive to the client's level of acculturation in their clinical judgments. However, specific comparisons within each of the ethnic group analogues reveal that this is not the case across all client groups. This is, there was an inability to distinguish between levels of acculturation within the two Black family case vignettes. The analysis also revealed that the practitioner's race did not have a significant effect on clinical judgments. However, the practitioner's years of clinical experience did have significant effect on clinical judgments. Finally, this study revealed significant differences between (high acculturated) racial minority and White ethnic family analogues; results were not significant with low acculturated analogues. The finding that the level of acculturation is not differentiated within the Black family analogues provides some empirical evidence to question whether Blacks are seen as a homogeneous group, and if ethnocentrism and stereotypical assumptions cloud systematic differential clinical decision making. This study also implies that highly acculturated racial minority clients are more at risk of being overassessed with reference to the assumption of the importance of cultural issues, and thus inappropriately served.

This dissertation aims to expand present state of knowledge regarding employee assistance programs (EAPs). The first phase of study consisted of identification of the universe of EAPs operational by June, 1982 in the New York City Metropolitan Area utilizing a typology comprised of program auspice (management or union); program sponsorship (individual or consortium); program model (in-house or contractual); and sector (public or private) of the company with EAP. A total of 125 EAPs were found in an area with over five and one-half million employees. Thus, despite their growth, EAPs are available to only a miniscule portion of the workforce. The second phase of study analyzed 23 private sector EAPs under management auspices selected on the basis of non-probability quota sampling technique stratified according to program model (in house or contractual), type of industry (finance/insurance; manufacturing; or service), and size of company (small; medium; large). Sixty seven respondents were interviewed utilizing structured and open-ended instrument examining over 200 variables. The study examined the current nature of these EAPs; ascertained the changes they experienced since inception; examined characteristics of program users; explored similarities and differences between in-house and contractual EAPs; examined their linkages with community; and explored the roles and perceived value of social workers in these programs. Data analysis revealed an increasing standardization with broad brush EAPs staffed by professional counselors becoming the norm. Comparative analysis of in-house and contractual EAPs found that in-house programs tend to reach employees with alcohol problems, males and minority workers. In contrast, contracted-out EAPs are used more by women, higher level white workers, and those with mental health and family problems--population resembling traditional users of community mental health and family agencies. Overall, the EAPs were utilized by 4.4% of workforce, at an average cost of $14.7 per eligible employee per year. They tended to maintain an unilateral linkage with community based agencies and referred out a high proportion of employees. Implications of these findings to program development, social policy and social work progression are discussed.

The main purpose of the present study was to examine the role of interparental positivity as an independent aspect of relationships and as a conflict management tactic in explaining the association between interparental conflict and negative conflict management of young adults. Based on social cognitive theory, it was hypothesized that exposure to interparental positivity would impact conflict management of young adults beyond the impact of exposure to interparental conflict. The findings partially supported social cognitive theory and suggested that there was a significant association between interparental conflict and conflict management of young adults. However, interparental positivity did not make an additional contribution to conflict management of young adults beyond that of interparental conflict. In addition, interparental positivity did not have a moderating affect on the intergenerational transmission of conflict behaviors. Lastly, although interparental conflict and parent-child relations were closely related, parent-child relations did not mediate the link between interparental relations and conflict management of young adults. Important contributions of the current study include a better theoretical understanding of positivity in relationships and evidence for the intergenerational transmission of positive and negative conflict management tactics. Implications for researchers, clinicians, and educators are presented. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2008. / Date of Defense: May 12, 2008. / Interparental Conflict, Intergenerational Transmission Of Conflict, Conflict Management, Dating, Young Adults / Includes bibliographical references. / Thomas Cornille, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ming Cui, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Karen Randolph, Outside Committee Member; Lenore McWey, Committee Member; B. Kay Pasley, Committee Member.