The objective of this study was to generate a deeper understanding of the influence of pre- and post-migration traumatic experiences on refugees’ psychological distress, including historical, political and social factors. This dissertation used a multi-method design to examine the impact of trauma on the psychological well-being of refugees. Further, the design included a qualitative component to provide a contextual framework for understanding refugee psychological distress that is not limited to an analysis of a disease model alone but by also making connections to important historical, social and political events. Post-Colonial, Refugee, Trauma and Feminist theories are used as analytic lenses to explain the social structures and events contributing to refugees’ pre- and post-migration traumatic events, and psychological distress. This was an international study that spanned two continents. Sampling included 50 Sri Lankan Tamil refugee participants who lived in Chennai, India and 50 Sri Lankan refugees in Toronto, Canada. Inclusion criteria included a residency period of the last 12 months in either of the sampling sites, and participants 18 years of age or older. Participants from Toronto were recruited through social service agencies and associations, and participants from Chennai were recruited from refugee camps, and the Organization for Elam Refugee Rehabilitation. Tamil versions of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, the Post-Migration Living Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Symptoms Check List – 90R were utilized to measure participants’ pre- and post-migration traumatic events and psychological distress. The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire contained qualitative open-ended questions to triangulate the quantitative data in identifying and exploring the impact of contextual influences. Results showed that post-migration traumatic event scores positively predicted psychological distress, and refugee claimants living in Canada had the highest scores on pre-migration and post-migration scores. The qualitative analysis revealed themes related to civil war and resettlement as significant issues. Implications of these findings support the development of a multi-level approach within social work practice which emphasizes contextual issues, focuses on individuals, and promotes social advocacy. Recommendations for future research point to conducting longitudinal studies to assess the cumulative effects of historical, social and political factors on refugees and identify resiliencies that mobilize their capacity to survive.

The objective of this study was to generate a deeper understanding of the influence of pre- and post-migration traumatic experiences on refugees’ psychological distress, including historical, political and social factors. This dissertation used a multi-method design to examine the impact of trauma on the psychological well-being of refugees. Further, the design included a qualitative component to provide a contextual framework for understanding refugee psychological distress that is not limited to an analysis of a disease model alone but by also making connections to important historical, social and political events. Post-Colonial, Refugee, Trauma and Feminist theories are used as analytic lenses to explain the social structures and events contributing to refugees’ pre- and post-migration traumatic events, and psychological distress. This was an international study that spanned two continents. Sampling included 50 Sri Lankan Tamil refugee participants who lived in Chennai, India and 50 Sri Lankan refugees in Toronto, Canada. Inclusion criteria included a residency period of the last 12 months in either of the sampling sites, and participants 18 years of age or older. Participants from Toronto were recruited through social service agencies and associations, and participants from Chennai were recruited from refugee camps, and the Organization for Elam Refugee Rehabilitation. Tamil versions of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, the Post-Migration Living Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Symptoms Check List – 90R were utilized to measure participants’ pre- and post-migration traumatic events and psychological distress. The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire contained qualitative open-ended questions to triangulate the quantitative data in identifying and exploring the impact of contextual influences. Results showed that post-migration traumatic event scores positively predicted psychological distress, and refugee claimants living in Canada had the highest scores on pre-migration and post-migration scores. The qualitative analysis revealed themes related to civil war and resettlement as significant issues. Implications of these findings support the development of a multi-level approach within social work practice which emphasizes contextual issues, focuses on individuals, and promotes social advocacy. Recommendations for future research point to conducting longitudinal studies to assess the cumulative effects of historical, social and political factors on refugees and identify resiliencies that mobilize their capacity to survive.

In the wake of a rescaling of national state welfare responsibilities, urban centres, like the city of Toronto, have become new governance sightlines for managing the deleterious effects of a globalised restructuring of capitalist economies. Toronto is now trafficking its multicultural and “creative city” flare in regional and global markets to secure capital investment necessary to float its newly acquired fiscal responsibilities, including welfare and social services provisioning. And a host of local private-public partnerships have appeared as “shadow state” actors to assist in the suturing of disenfranchised communities to the operative logics of neo-liberal governance and globalised city aspirations. Social welfare and urban studies literature has not been attentive to the increasing reliance on visuality and the “aesthetic” more broadly in securing these desired social and economic outcomes. My ethnographically based dissertation picks up this analytical slack by inciting a two-fold intervention: First, I hone in on the efficacious properties of visual images produced within 3 different social policy spaces and their presumed roles in constituting the domains of social interaction and production. This analysis illustrates that different policy crafting experts understand the “aesthetic” as a remunerative technology of governance - for regulating the problematics of socio-economic and racialised difference, and for mediating rifts in the social fabric as fallout from welfare retrenchment. Second, I examine the ways in which certain normativised aesthetic sensibilities connected to neoliberal urbanism serve as both a calculative resource for re-defining certain spaces and subjects as problematic and thus controllable, and an interpellative mechanism for assembling moralized subjects around the dictates of responsibility and (self) empowerment. The dissertation argues that although these aesthetic governance strategies are resulting in a depoliticisation of communities, and a moralised segregation of compliant and non-compliant subjects played out along racialised /economic lines, there exists a level of disruption transpiring in the spaces of policy implementation. In situ attention to these disruptions, layered with a reflexive analytical restaging of these events and a critical analysis of deployed governance strategies are proposed as a grounding for social work, research and social policy praxis.

In the wake of a rescaling of national state welfare responsibilities, urban centres, like the city of Toronto, have become new governance sightlines for managing the deleterious effects of a globalised restructuring of capitalist economies. Toronto is now trafficking its multicultural and “creative city” flare in regional and global markets to secure capital investment necessary to float its newly acquired fiscal responsibilities, including welfare and social services provisioning. And a host of local private-public partnerships have appeared as “shadow state” actors to assist in the suturing of disenfranchised communities to the operative logics of neo-liberal governance and globalised city aspirations. Social welfare and urban studies literature has not been attentive to the increasing reliance on visuality and the “aesthetic” more broadly in securing these desired social and economic outcomes. My ethnographically based dissertation picks up this analytical slack by inciting a two-fold intervention: First, I hone in on the efficacious properties of visual images produced within 3 different social policy spaces and their presumed roles in constituting the domains of social interaction and production. This analysis illustrates that different policy crafting experts understand the “aesthetic” as a remunerative technology of governance - for regulating the problematics of socio-economic and racialised difference, and for mediating rifts in the social fabric as fallout from welfare retrenchment. Second, I examine the ways in which certain normativised aesthetic sensibilities connected to neoliberal urbanism serve as both a calculative resource for re-defining certain spaces and subjects as problematic and thus controllable, and an interpellative mechanism for assembling moralized subjects around the dictates of responsibility and (self) empowerment. The dissertation argues that although these aesthetic governance strategies are resulting in a depoliticisation of communities, and a moralised segregation of compliant and non-compliant subjects played out along racialised /economic lines, there exists a level of disruption transpiring in the spaces of policy implementation. In situ attention to these disruptions, layered with a reflexive analytical restaging of these events and a critical analysis of deployed governance strategies are proposed as a grounding for social work, research and social policy praxis.

The optimal model to support adolescent sexual health is the concurrent use of hormonal birth control and condoms. This dual protection approach prioritizes protection against unplanned pregnancy as well as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In order to explore individual, interpersonal and structural factors that influence adolescent protection use, multivariate Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID) analysis was completed with a national sample of adolescents (n=2320) from the 2002 Canadian Youth, Sexual Health, and HIV/AIDS Study. CHAID is a decision tree method which assesses interactions between significant independent variables to optimize prediction of the dependent variable (i.e. safer-sex protection method). Among adolescent females, the following factors were associated with dual protection use: high condom intentions; having lived with both biological parents; having accessed a medical professional or media as the primary source of HIV/AIDS information; having utilized a medical professional as the primary source of sexual health information; having never had unwanted sex; having not consumed alcohol and/or drugs before sex; frequent sexual activity; having identified a medical professional as the primary source of STD advice; having been tested for STDs; and having supported the importance of talking about condoms with a partner. Among adolescent males, dual protection was associated with: high condom intentions; frequent sexual activity; the belief that both partners are responsible for condom use; having been born in Canada; having noted uncertain or high levels of religiosity; having been older than 14 at first sexual intercourse; having been able to speak with their father about sex; having accessed a medical professional or media as the primary source of HIV/AIDS information; and having reported a peer group that did not use tobacco. The results indicate that structural factors, in concert with individual and interpersonal factors, play a vital role in understanding adolescent safer-sex practices. Policy and practice implications include revisions to sexual health curricula, sexual health service accessibility for all adolescents, and targeted prevention programming for adolescents at highest risk. Further research into the sexual health of male adolescents and the influence of structural factors on sexual health among diverse samples should be prioritized.

The objectives of this study are two-fold: (a) to delineate the factors that guide Ontario social workers’ decision-making when rendering judgments on the mandatory reporting of child maltreatment and (b) to understand how social workers maintain the therapeutic alliance with children and families following the decision to report suspected child maltreatment. The study is informed by two distinct bodies of literature: the decision-making theoretical literature within the fields of medicine, psychology, social work, and marriage and family therapy and the therapeutic alliance theoretical literature. Harnessing the advantages of online survey technology, the study surveyed registered members (n = 480) of the Ontario Association of Social Workers who provide direct service to children and families. Participants responded to prepared vignettes of suspected child maltreatment followed by Likert-scale questions (strongly agree to strongly disagree) and open-ended questions on strategies to maintain the alliance. Open-ended questions allowed respondents to offer further commentary regarding their opinions on mandatory reporting and on maintaining the therapeutic alliance. These comments added a rich source of information to the quantitative data. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that social workers’ ethical responsibility to the College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, their legal responsibility to the provincial mandatory reporting laws of Ontario, and consultation with peers or eliciting direction from a supervisor comprised the main factors in their decision-making around reporting suspected child maltreatment to the Children’s Aid Society. Qualitative analyses showed that social workers employ a plethora of strategies to repair the alliance following a disclosure of child maltreatment including reporting strategies, information strategies, affect regulation strategies, advocacy strategies, and resource strategies. The major limitation of the research design was the use of vignette research, which in proscribed circumstances may not reflect what the social worker does in actual practice. Design features that compensate for this limitation include (1) use of a 5-point Likert-item response of strongly agree to strongly disagree to allow respondents a range of responses; and (2) use of open-ended questions to allow respondents the opportunity to express their opinions on the issues.

The present study explored the experiences of victimization and immigration among immigrant youth in the Peel region in Ontario, Canada. Victimization included the experiences of bullying and ethnic discrimination in the school environment. The study utilized a phenomenological approach to investigate how immigrant youth interpreted their experiences and whether they identified victimization as bullying, ethnic discrimination or both. The effects of victimization on adaptation and acculturation were also explored. Results from individual interviews of six youth (ages 16 or 17) indicated that immigrant youth viewed bullying and discrimination as separate constructs. Themes that emerged from the interviews included the importance of language proficiency; the role of peer affiliations; and factors associated with resiliency. It was evident through their descriptions that immigrant youth face unique challenges, which include adjusting to a new culture and country of residence, establishing a new social circle, and gaining comfort in utilizing the English language.

The present study explored the experiences of victimization and immigration among immigrant youth in the Peel region in Ontario, Canada. Victimization included the experiences of bullying and ethnic discrimination in the school environment. The study utilized a phenomenological approach to investigate how immigrant youth interpreted their experiences and whether they identified victimization as bullying, ethnic discrimination or both. The effects of victimization on adaptation and acculturation were also explored. Results from individual interviews of six youth (ages 16 or 17) indicated that immigrant youth viewed bullying and discrimination as separate constructs. Themes that emerged from the interviews included the importance of language proficiency; the role of peer affiliations; and factors associated with resiliency. It was evident through their descriptions that immigrant youth face unique challenges, which include adjusting to a new culture and country of residence, establishing a new social circle, and gaining comfort in utilizing the English language.

The concepts of risk and safety are central to social work practice with survivors of violence against women, especially within the child protection system. Recent studies have highlighted how discrepancies between client and worker perceptions may create problematic conditions for developing effective intervention strategies (Dumbrill, 2006; Jenney, Alaggia, Mazzuca, & Redmond, 2005). In addition, tensions exist between movement toward improving worker-client interactions through collaboration and the use of standardized risk and safety assessments as a means of improving practice. The purpose of this research study was to explore how women’s narratives of domestic violence (DV), expressed within the context of child protection services (CPS), become translated into CPS workers’ assessments of risk and need for safety planning. Using Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM), this qualitative study used focus group and interview data to explore how both workers and clients’ experiences of the process of risk assessment and safety planning influenced the course of the intervention. What emerged is that workers and clients held similar representations about the social construction/collective representation of woman abuse and the work of CPS. For both worker and client participants the concept of ‘doing the right thing’ presented itself as an over-arching theme. This theme implies that there is a perceived ‘right way’ of addressing DV cases within CPS work and enhances understanding about the ways in which social workers and clients interact. These findings illustrate how narrative structures shape interactions that take place within the context of care and prevention, manifesting themselves in complex ways that can lead to misunderstanding the impact on children, the (un) conscious subjugation of women victims, and the absence of dialogue about the role of men in addressing DV at a system level.

The optimal model to support adolescent sexual health is the concurrent use of hormonal birth control and condoms. This dual protection approach prioritizes protection against unplanned pregnancy as well as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In order to explore individual, interpersonal and structural factors that influence adolescent protection use, multivariate Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID) analysis was completed with a national sample of adolescents (n=2320) from the 2002 Canadian Youth, Sexual Health, and HIV/AIDS Study. CHAID is a decision tree method which assesses interactions between significant independent variables to optimize prediction of the dependent variable (i.e. safer-sex protection method). Among adolescent females, the following factors were associated with dual protection use: high condom intentions; having lived with both biological parents; having accessed a medical professional or media as the primary source of HIV/AIDS information; having utilized a medical professional as the primary source of sexual health information; having never had unwanted sex; having not consumed alcohol and/or drugs before sex; frequent sexual activity; having identified a medical professional as the primary source of STD advice; having been tested for STDs; and having supported the importance of talking about condoms with a partner. Among adolescent males, dual protection was associated with: high condom intentions; frequent sexual activity; the belief that both partners are responsible for condom use; having been born in Canada; having noted uncertain or high levels of religiosity; having been older than 14 at first sexual intercourse; having been able to speak with their father about sex; having accessed a medical professional or media as the primary source of HIV/AIDS information; and having reported a peer group that did not use tobacco. The results indicate that structural factors, in concert with individual and interpersonal factors, play a vital role in understanding adolescent safer-sex practices. Policy and practice implications include revisions to sexual health curricula, sexual health service accessibility for all adolescents, and targeted prevention programming for adolescents at highest risk. Further research into the sexual health of male adolescents and the influence of structural factors on sexual health among diverse samples should be prioritized.