Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

This study examined associations between individual and neighborhood compositional characteristics for young black and white men who have sex with men (MSM), ages 15-25 years. Individual baseline data were collected during 1999-2000 as part of a 13-city randomized control trial. Neighborhood composition data at the zip code tabulation area were obtained from the 2000 US Census. Consistent with other studies, individual characteristics--including supportive condom use peer norms--were associated with any unprotected anal sex, HIV testing, having an HIV-positive/unknown test result, recent participation in prevention activities, and knowledge of antiretroviral therapies used to treat HIV. While young black men generally engaged in less risky sexual behaviors, they were more likely to test for HIV than were young white men but were also less likely to have recently participated in prevention programs or have knowledge of drugs used to treat HIV. Associations were also observed for neighborhood compositional variables and HIV risk. Neighborhood percentage of single-parent female-headed households and neighborhood population turnover were associated with reduced HIV risk; while neighborhood composition measures of poverty and socioeconomic status were associated with increased HIV risk. Neighborhood percentage of same-sex couples, also a measure of neighborhood gay presence, was associated both with factors that increase and factors that decrease risk for HIV transmission or acquisition. Young black men were more likely to live in neighborhoods characterized by increased risk while young white men were more likely to live in neighborhoods that were characterized by decreased risk. These findings suggest that HIV risk disparities experienced among black and white young MSM can be partially explained by the neighborhoods in which these men reside. As such, prevention efforts for MSM should focus on both individual characteristics of these men and the neighborhoods in which they reside.

This study examines the effects of family leave policy on eight child health outcomes - five age specific child mortality rates (infant, perinatal, neonatal, post-neonatal, and child mortality rates), low birth weight, and immunization rates for measles and DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) across 19 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1969 to 2010. In addition, this dissertation investigates the extent to which the effects of leave policy vary by period and across welfare regimes. This research contributes to the existing literature (Ruhm, 2000; Tanaka, 2005) by including one additional country, South Korea, a highly developed but considerably understudied country, and by incorporating data from 2001 to 2010. I use data on family leave policy from Ruhm (2000) and Tanaka (2005) and extend it using data from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Health Organization (WHO), International Labour Organization (ILO), and World Bank. Additional data sources include the United States Social Security Administration (SSA), International Social Security Association (ISSA), and various government sources. I estimate the effects of family leave policy (specially, number of weeks provided) - considering both job protected paid leave and other leave (unpaid or non-job protected leave) - on child health using ordinary least squares (OLS) models. I control for other relevant variables including gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, health expenditures, healthcare coverage, dialysis patients, and fertility and female employment rates. I also include: (1) country fixed effects; (2) year fixed effects; and (3) country-time trend interactions. Missing values are imputed 20 times using the predictive mean matching method. The results suggest job protected paid leave significantly reduces infant mortality (deaths less than 1 year of age) and post-neonatal mortality (deaths between 1 month and 1 year of age). In particular, the largest effects of job protected paid leave are found in reducing post-neonatal mortality; the effects are robust throughout all model specifications. Comparing the effects of other leave (unpaid or non-job protected) and job protected paid leave, other leave has no significant effects on any of the outcome indicators. This suggests that parents do not respond to leave provided without adequate payment benefits or job protection, and mothers may return to work early. As a result, other leave does not have any significant effects on infant health. When investigating the effects of family leave policy by period with models estimated separately by two time periods, somewhat larger effects of job protected paid leave on post-neonatal mortality are found in the earlier period (1969-1989) compared to the later period (1990-2010); however, the difference in the policy effects between the two periods is not statistically significant. This difference may be explained by the fact that it was during the earlier period when most OECD countries provided leave for the first critical weeks and months after birth. In addition, when examining the effects of leave policy by welfare regime type with models estimated separately by regime type, larger effects of job protected paid leave on post-neonatal mortality are found in the Social Democratic and Conservative regimes than in the other regime types; however, the difference in the policy effects across regime types is not statistically significant. This difference may be explained partly by the fact that overall Social Democratic and Conservative welfare state countries provide more generous payment benefits for parents on leave. The concluding section discusses how these findings compare to previous research and explores future research and policy implications.

This study explored the relationship between the severity and types of psychosocial stressors and three major mental disorders. The data were derived from the field trials of the third edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), in which over 12,000 patients from all over the country were evaluated by over 500 clinicians. Two hundred forty-seven patients with Major Depression and 247 with Schizophrenia were randomly selected for this study, along with all 112 patients given the diagnosis of Schizophreniform Disorder, a disorder similar to Schizophrenia except for its brief duration. The number of psychosocial stressors recorded by the evaluating clinician for each subject was examined, and each stressor was classified according to whether it represented an entrance into or exit from the social field of the subject, whether or not it was desirable, whether or not its occurrence had been under the control of the subject, the number of Life Change Units it entailed, and what area of the subject's life is affected. These variables were then compared across diagnostic groups, for individuals with and without associated Personality Disorders. In addition, for each diagnostic group, the relationship between the subjects' highest mean level of adaptive functioning and the mean severity of their psychosocial stressors was examined, using the multiaxial system of DSM-III. Major findings that replicated those reported in the literature include that a greater proportion of individuals with Major Depression were reported to have experienced a greater number of stressors, undesirable events, entrances, and uncontrollable events, than individuals with Schizophrenia. Significant new findings include that, for Schizophrenia, the highest level of adaptive functioning in the past year and level of severity of stressors experienced prior to episode onset are positively correlated, while for Major Depression these variables are negatively correlated. The results for Schizophreniform Disorder are equivocal, with similar results to Major Depression for some stressor dimensions, and midway between the other groups on others. The implications for social work practice of these findings and further study of life events are great, for primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of mental illness.

This is a study of Yellow Brick Road a paraprofessional volunteer training and group counseling program. The study was designed to help determine whether or not the program was meeting its own goals which are stated as: 1) to offer clients an experience which not only helps them to effect change in their lives, but to maintain those changes through healthy time-restructuring within a supportive environment; 2) to demonstrate that volunteers who are undergoing intensive training can provide quality counseling and other services; 3) to create a community environment supportive of healthy change. Toward evaluating these broadly stated goals, this study will specifically look at these factors: 1) client satisfaction, 2) internal program consistency, 3) activity group validity, that is, whether or not activity groups contribute to the change process.

Social service outreach workers serving homeless populations exemplify what Michael Lipsky calls street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) who exercise discretionary power in the performance of their professional roles. This dissertation draws on over 200 hours of ethnographic fieldwork in an urban center in the Mountain West to examine the challenges faced by homeless outreach workers and case managers in serving the needs of homeless clients and the practices they use to manage those challenges. Using a grounded theory analysis of participant observation and interview data, this dissertation focuses on what is termed “aggressive advocacy” in which social service SLBs creatively and actively pursue work arounds and solutions to potential barriers to homeless services for their clients. The analytic concept of “fitting stories” is used to describe the ways in which SLBs assist their clients in developing service-worthy narratives. They implement the Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool in ways that probe clients’ conditions and experiences to capture potentially missed vulnerabilities and enhance service-eligible vulnerability scores. Homeless SLBs also invoke discretionary power in negotiating with other agency gatekeepers and landlords, and they may go beyond their official job descriptions to spend time helping homeless clients who are resistant to services or at risk of losing them. In each of these aggressive advocacy activities, homeless SLBs demonstrate discretionary power in supporting their clients and fulfilling their agencies’ mission to serve homeless clients. Several implications of these findings for better understanding social services for the homeless are addressed as well as the broader implications of this study for understanding street-level bureaucracy more generally.

One of the current key challenges for nonprofit social service organisations is how to diversify resource mobilisation practices in order to build sustainable organisations that can innovatively achieve social mission. Two approaches to resource mobilisation that are promoted within Australia are social enterprise and partnering with business. Both of these approaches involve a re-orientation toward business, either in management practices or through an enduring relationship. Despite an increased interest in business-focused resource mobilisation strategies there are few successful examples of social enterprise and partnering with business emerging across the nonprofit sector. There is also scant empirically based research to understand what it takes to adopt these practices, what the consequences of adoption might be and how governments, nonprofits and business stakeholders might support their emergence. This research aims to build an evidence base to provide greater understanding of these issues. The thesis analyses data from fourteen organisational case studies of nonprofit social service organisations located across Australia. Seven of these organisations were selected because they had adopted an enterprising form of resource mobilisation and had been recognised for their achievements in this area. The other seven organisations matched these adopters in terms of mission, location, size and stage of organisational development, though had less diversified resource streams and had not attempted or successfully managed to develop a social enterprise or business partnership. Case-orientated research and qualitative comparative analysis was used in order to achieve causal complexity and a 'configurational' view of the cases (Ragin 1999). The thesis details the conditions that are both necessary and sufficient for business-focused resource mobilisation .processes to be adopted. Organisational capacity and self-efficacy are critical conditions that open up resource innovation possibilities; there is a range of other sufficient conditions that work in combination with these. There are value and ideological challenges to be negotiated by nonprofit social service organisations as they are called upon, both internally and from without, to reinvent the means with which they achieving organisational sustainability. This tension creates the need for new thinking atthe level of policy and practice - across all sectors - in order that these critical organisations that bear responsibility for the social good can successful organise within the contemporary context.

One of the current key challenges for nonprofit social service organisations is how to diversify resource mobilisation practices in order to build sustainable organisations that can innovatively achieve social mission. Two approaches to resource mobilisation that are promoted within Australia are social enterprise and partnering with business. Both of these approaches involve a re-orientation toward business, either in management practices or through an enduring relationship. Despite an increased interest in business-focused resource mobilisation strategies there are few successful examples of social enterprise and partnering with business emerging across the nonprofit sector. There is also scant empirically based research to understand what it takes to adopt these practices, what the consequences of adoption might be and how governments, nonprofits and business stakeholders might support their emergence. This research aims to build an evidence base to provide greater understanding of these issues. The thesis analyses data from fourteen organisational case studies of nonprofit social service organisations located across Australia. Seven of these organisations were selected because they had adopted an enterprising form of resource mobilisation and had been recognised for their achievements in this area. The other seven organisations matched these adopters in terms of mission, location, size and stage of organisational development, though had less diversified resource streams and had not attempted or successfully managed to develop a social enterprise or business partnership. Case-orientated research and qualitative comparative analysis was used in order to achieve causal complexity and a 'configurational' view of the cases (Ragin 1999). The thesis details the conditions that are both necessary and sufficient for business-focused resource mobilisation .processes to be adopted. Organisational capacity and self-efficacy are critical conditions that open up resource innovation possibilities; there is a range of other sufficient conditions that work in combination with these. There are value and ideological challenges to be negotiated by nonprofit social service organisations as they are called upon, both internally and from without, to reinvent the means with which they achieving organisational sustainability. This tension creates the need for new thinking atthe level of policy and practice - across all sectors - in order that these critical organisations that bear responsibility for the social good can successful organise within the contemporary context.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003.

Thesis (doctoral)--Columbia University, 1972. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [11]-[28] (2nd group)).