In many professional practice settings, it is very likely that social workers will work with female clients who identify as lesbian or bisexual. These sexual minority females are more likely to be overweight or obese, have a history of childhood sexual abuse, and have more positive attitudes toward overweight and obesity than heterosexual women. In this study, the author sought to identify the relationship between childhood sexual abuse, obesity, (specifically, body mass index [BMI]), and attitudes toward obesity among lesbian and bisexual women. Eighty-five sexual minority females completed a survey. Childhood sexual abuse was found to be positively correlated with BMI. However, lesbians attitudes toward obesity were not associated with childhood sexual abuse nor were they found to be associated with BMI. Additionally, lesbians did not report significantly different attitudes toward BMI based on their own BMI and history of childhood sexual abuse. These findings are further discussed in the context of previous research, limitations, and implications for direct practice.

May 14, 2013 marked the 10 year anniversary of the creation of the Louisiana Recovery School District (RSD), the turnaround intervention for low performing public schools. Since 2003, the RSD has grown to include over 80 schools across the state. The purpose of this multilevel longitudinal study was to examine the relationship of the Louisiana Recovery School District to student and school outcomes including risk of dropout and standardized test scores. The dissertation measured these influences over time (2007-2010). The data collected were derived from Louisianas Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) and quantitative data on dropout status from the Louisiana Department of Education Student Information System (SIS) database. To explore the RSDs relationship to risk of dropout and student achievement scores over time, two analyses were conducted. First, to examine the relationship between student and school level predictors and the risk of dropout, a multilevel discrete-time survival analysis was conducted. The level 1 analysis included time and student level covariates, while level two included school level covariates. The results of the this analysis indicate that when controlling for student level covariates, RSD students are at a 3.25 times greater risk of dropout than traditional public school students. Next, in the study of the RSDs relationship to student achievement, a three-level hierarchical linear model was run to account for repeated measures and nested data. The level one analysis examined the influence of time on LEAP/iLEAP scores. The level two analysis examined the influence of student characteristics including race, gender, and free and reduced lunch status on student scores. The third level examined the influence of aggregated school level predictors including school type (RSD versus traditional public school) on student scores. Results indicate that student characteristics of disadvantage including minority status and low socioeconomic status are linked to lower test performance over time. For Sample A, the school level covariate, school type, was significant in each model, suggesting that even when controlling for student and other school level factors, school type accounted for variation in student scores over time. RSD students performed significantly lower than TPS students in both ELA and math over the 4 year period of the study. The school level covariate, school type, was also significant for Sample B indicating that students in RSD schools perform lower on ELA and Math portions of the LEAP/iLEAP/GEE than their TPS counterparts. When controlling for other school level covariates in Sample B, the effect for school type was no longer significant. No other school level covariates were significant in the models suggesting that variation in outcomes was accounted for by student level characteristics and time rather than by school level characteristics

With increasing numbers of Americans engaged in unpaid, informal caregiving for adults over the age of 18, there is a need for research that investigates caregivers experiences, with particular emphasis on their health and well being. This is the first known study to examine the experiences of social workers, engaged in direct practice, who are also managing responsibilities related to informal caregiving. The study examined interrelationships among social workers caregiving characteristics, burden of caregiving, depressive symptomology, physical health, self-care, life satisfaction and social support. Hypotheses included: (1) Burden of caregiving is positively correlated with depressive symptomology. (2) The burden of caregiving is negatively correlated with physical health, self-care and life satisfaction. (3) Amongst social workers with additive caregiving characteristics, social support is positively correlated with both self-care and life satisfaction. Gender differences were examined ad hoc. An anonymous Internet-based survey instrument was distributed to 1,869 Licensed Clinical Social Workers working in a southern state. Among 657 respondents, 120 were unpaid caregivers and comprised the final study sample. Study sample participants were primarily middle-aged Caucasian women who had an average of 23.5 years of social work experience. Over half of all respondents provided informal care for a parent, while others reported caregiving for adult children, relatives, spouses, or friends. The majority of participants devoted fewer than 20 hours per week to caregiving in their own home, the care recipients home, or another setting. Results showed that the burden of caregiving was significantly and negatively associated with participants self-perceived health. Intercorrelations emerged among social support, self-care, and life-satisfaction. Results also showed significant gender differences in the practice of self-care, specifically female social workers engaged in self-care more regularly than male social workers. The current study may inform practice by providing social workers and their employers with greater insight regarding issues related to training and supervision, and has the potential to positively impact agency policies that are responsive to high-risk employees, such as those engaged in informal caregiving.

Approximately 1.3 million students drop out of school each year (National Guard Youth Foundation, 2012). The Youth ChalleNGe Program, which caters to at-risk youths who have dropped out of high school, utilizes a mentoring program. This study examines the relationship between the youth having regular contact with a mentor and the youths placement outcomes. The sample of this study included 215 youths who graduated in September of 2008 from the Youth ChalleNGe Program (YCP) at the Gillis W. Long Center in Carville, LA. Data regarding each youths placements during the post-residential phase and the number of contacts with his or her mentor were collected by secondary data analysis. The major finding of this study reveals that there is a statistically significant relationship between regular contact with mentors and placement outcomes for at-risk youths. Being the first study that empirically examined the mentoring aspect of YCP, this study advances the field of youth services in an important way.

The purpose of the current study is to examine the coping strategies of an often understudied, growing population of Alzheimers disease informal caregivers, male caregivers. Additionally, the current study measured the effects of three styles of coping (task-focused coping, emotional-focused coping, and avoidant-focused coping) on the reported burden of the male AD caregivers. The sample included 138 male AD caregivers. The male AD caregivers in the current study reported moderate to severe burden. Task-focused coping strategies were the most commonly used styles of coping. The use of task-focused coping had no effect on the burden reported by the caregivers in the study. Both emotion-focused and avoidant-focused coping, contributed to increased burden among the male AD caregivers in the study.

In the State of Louisiana, one of the major problems surrounding youth is juvenile delinquency. Several studies have been conducted regarding juvenile delinquency, however, actual research pertaining to recidivism among youth offenders who were later incarcerated as an adult vs. those who were not incarcerated as an adult are limited. For this study, chi-square analyses were conducted to analyze the association between six variables and recidivism. The age of first OJJ contact was the only variable that was not statistically significant. Such knowledge is crucial for research and policy formation at the local, state, and national levels for positive progression on this issue. Based on the chi-square analyses results, the researcher learned that majority of the independent variables (gender, race, supervision level, number of OJJ contacts, and gang affiliation) had a statistically significant relationship with recidivism.

This study utilizes data resources from three state-level departments in Louisiana, Department of Education (DOE), Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ), and Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DOC), during the period 1996-2008. The sample involves 7th- 12th graders in DOE who were born between 1980 and 1989, with a sample size of N = 408,700 in total. There are two major parts in this study: (1) examining the school-level risk factors among four different offending patterns and making two comparisons among them: the early starters of crime (n = 14,346) vs. late starters (n = 17,107), and the adolescent-limiteds (n = 10,126) vs. life course persisters (n = 4,220); and (2) examining the criminological risk factors for adult criminality and adult recidivism. The second part contains two substudies, with one examining whether previous juvenile justice contact increases the likelihood of adult criminality; and another examining criminological factors in OJJ that predict future adult recidivism. Findings from the first part of this study show that all the school-level risk factors, including problem behaviors in school, school engagement variables, and school performance variables, are significantly associated with the criminal outcomes across the four different offending patterns, but they show stronger associations with the young offenders and the life course persisters than other offenders in general. Basic demographics are included in the analyses. Being male, African American, and coming from a low socioeconomic status family were identified as significant risks for involvement in criminal activities, especially among the life course persisters. Previous OJJ contact increases the likelihood of adult criminality. In particular, the frequency and severity of the original crimes, incarceration placement in OJJ, and gang membership are significant predictors of adult recidivism. This study also included post hoc analyses on the criminal outcomes among the expelled students. The results showed the strong associations between out-of-school expulsion and each offending pattern, especially among the early starters. A cost analysis on the judicial cost per expelled student using Louisiana 2010 state budget showed the price the state paid for this high risk group.

Older adults participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at much lower rates than the general population. Possible explanations for this disparity include stigma, lack of information, and lack of transportation. However, past research focusing on SNAP use among older adults is limited and utilizes age cohorts in their analyses that may not accurately reflect actual age differences in SNAP participation. This study explored four different models of age categorizations as they relate to SNAP participation rates among older adults over 55. Using a sample of 10,116 from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the research used logistic regression analyses to test the four age categorization models. Results indicated that age added little predictive power to the SNAP participation model, and that no age categorization model predicted participation better than any other.

Research demonstrates a positive relationship between rape myth acceptance and sexist beliefs, as well as a negative relationship between rape myth acceptance and victim credibility. The current study assesses the interrelationships between rape myth acceptance, sexism, victim credibility, and victim empathy among law enforcement officers. Law enforcement officers individual characteristics are also assessed. An online survey was administered to 24 specialized sex crime law enforcement officers from a city in South Louisiana. There was no significant difference on measures of rape myth acceptance and sexism; however, individual items measuring victim credibility showed a distinct difference between law enforcement officers belief in credibility among traditional victims (i.e., professional women and virgins) and non-traditional victims (i.e., prostitutes and men). Due to the low sample size of this study, results must be interpreted with caution. Replication of this study is warranted with a larger and more diverse sample.

Children who live in poverty are more likely to suffer from avoidable illnesses, become teenaged parents, be involved in the criminal justice system, and mature into adults who live in poverty (Isaacs et al., 2011). This study examines the relationship between government spending as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 21 child well-being indicators. The samples in this study were collected from 30 Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries for the years 2009 and 2012. The major finding of this study reveals that there is a statistically significant relationship between government spending as a percent of GDP and percent of children living in poor homes, educational deprivation, overcrowding, youth NEET rates, physical activity, mortality, smoking, and teenaged birth rates. This study advances the field of child well-being by identifying the relationship between government spending as a percent of GDP and each of the 21 child well-being indicators.