Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Jill Quadagno, Florida State University, College of Social Sciences, Dept. of Sociology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 20, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 126 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

TITLE: SEXUALITY WORKPLACE ISSUES AMONG DIRECT SERVICE PERSONNEL WORKING WITH POPULATIONS WHO ARE INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED IN COMMUNITY INTEGRATED LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: A CASE STUDY MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Roberta Ogletree Background: The purpose of this study was to explore DSP workplace experiences, preparation, employee training, emotions, and perceptions in regards to types of sexual and affectionate behaviors exhibited by intellectually disabled adults in their care in the CILA setting. The study focused on analyzing these topics in relation to sexuality/affectionate behaviors experienced in the CILA workplace using a qualitative case study method. This analysis provided an understanding of what ideas and values DSPs brought to their roles of guiding the sexuality/affectionate behaviors of residents in their care and identified additional training needs from the DSP perspective to help them better do their jobs. Methods: Principles found in qualitative evaluation research were used to examine the influence of sexuality and affectionate behaviors and training within its naturally occurring world. The case was comprised of DSPs from the selected organization, located in a rural college town of approximately 25,000 people. Nine DSPs from five different CILA homes participated in the study. Data were generated using semi-structured interviews, observation of behaviors on interview video tapes, observation of emotional verbal cues on interview audio tapes, document analysis, and field notes. Results: Major themes were identified from data and organized around the research questions. Common categories under affectionate behaviors were dating, flirting, friendship/socialization, holding hands/hugging, media/technology, and problematic behaviors. Common categories under sexuality behaviors were groping, masturbation/females, masturbation/males, and problematic behaviors. Less common categories were affectionate behaviors-attention seeking/ego, sexuality behaviors – sexual intercourse, and sexuality behaviors – dating and marriage. Once data were categorized, each category’s responses were sorted to identify overarching theme areas for recommendations. The themes were Employee Training and Development, Socialization Needs (Affectionate Behaviors, Sexuality, and Relationships), and Language Issues (Positive, Negative, and First Person). Primary strengths identified included thinking of residents as family, the feeling of strong management support, and lack of significant conflict within the CILA homes. Elements that detracted from the DSP experience included low rate of hourly pay, employee turnover among DSP supervisors, lack of specific sexuality education for both staff and residents, limited retention of mandatory training topics, and lack of communication of sexuality policies and procedures. Conclusions were a need for additional training for DSPs and staff on the topics of human sexuality and affectionate behaviors in CILA homes; examining DSP training to increase knowledge retention in the staff; better communication of policies, procedures, and protocols regarding sexuality and affectionate behaviors that pertain to how situations are handled in CILA homes; and ensuring all training materials use first person language.

abstract: Social learning theory has enjoyed decades of supportive research and has been applied to a wide range of criminal and deviant behavior. Still eluding criminological theorists, however, is a meaningful understanding of the causal processes underlying social learning. This lack of knowledge is due in part to a relative reluctance to examine value transmission as a process in the contexts of mentorship, role modeling, and social learning. With this empirical gap in mind, the present study seeks to isolate and classify meaningful themes in mentorship through loosely structured interviews with young men on the periphery of the criminal processing system. The purposive sample is drawn from youth in a Southwestern state, living in a state-funded, privately run group home for children of unfit, incarcerated, or deported/undocumented parents. The youth included in the study have recently passed the age of eighteen, and have elected to stay in the group home on a voluntary basis pending the completion of a High School diploma. Further, both the subjects and the researcher participate in a program which imparts mentorship through art projects, free expression, and ongoing, semi-structured exposure to prosocial adults. This study therefore provides a unique opportunity to explore qualitatively social learning concepts through the eyes of troubled youth, and to generate new lines of theory to facilitate the empirical testing of social learning as a process. Implications for future research are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Criminology and Criminal Justice 2012

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The present study examined the effects of group home staffing variables on the proportion of successful program completions by adjudicated juvenile delinquents. A survey questionnaire was sent to most small group homes serving this population in California. Respondents became the 114 participants. There were no significant relationships between the staff/resident ratios and successful completion, between the inconsistency measure and successful completion, or between staffing pattern type and successful completion. Homes that employed live-in part-time family counselors had the highest staff/resident ratios. Homes that employed family counselors working in shifts had the highest staffing inconsistency.

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Normalization of persons with mental retardation has been a national goal for the past twenty-five years, and deinstitutionalization is the driving force to the attainment of this goal. Small group homes, or community based facilities, are viewed as a viable alternative to institutionalization. The sponsors of group homes have encountered neighborhood opposition to such an extent that specialized approaches for neighborhood entry have been developed. However, the efficacy of these entry approaches has received little empirical attention. The purpose of this study was to investigate entry approaches employed by sponsors of group homes in their attempts to locate in local communities. Structured personal interviews were conducted with sponsoring agency officials, managers of the group homes, area housing authorities, and persons residing in neighborhoods where group homes for persons with mental retardation were located during the months of May, June, and July, 1985. Individual case studies regarding seven group homes established in a large county in the state of North Carolina have been presented. Grouped data have also been reported in the attempt to investigate the efficacy of entry approaches the literature is currently advocating. / Ed. D.

This study brings vocational career group counseling with moderately mentally retarded adults in focus as a viable method of increasing vocational awareness and performance. Recently, much of the literature in the field of the handicapped has had as a theme the issue of deinstitutionalization. The purpose of deinstitutionalization of moderately mentally handicapped adults is to return them to a meaningful lifestyle complete with a range of career choices based on a thorough assessment of their vocational or prevocational skills. Despite the many studies generated in the field of public education for the school-aged handicapped individual, relatively few research studies have undertaken vocational counseling with an adult mentally retarded population residing in group homes. This investigation sought to determine whether group vocational counseling has a significant effect on vocational behavior of moderately mentally retarded adults residing in group homes. This research project demonstrated, through the use of videotaped group vocational counseling, that exposure of a specific population of mentally handicapped adults to work-appropriate behaviors can then be carried over as behaviors at their present work sites. The study also compares residential group home counselors' perceptions of change with the perceptions of each resident's work supervisor over time. The essence of the problem deals with the appropriateness and effectiveness of group vocational counseling for retarded adults attempting to integrate themselves back into communities. The research design has as its component a pretest/posttest model including double criterion instrumentation. The instrument chosen is the AAMD Adaptive Behavior Scale. Multiple analyses of covariance were used to test for significance between pretests and posttests. Each videotape was analyzed according to specific observable behaviors on interaction analysis forms for both clients and group leaders. The data from such research may be generalized nationally to other transitional deinstitutionalization projects experiencing difficulty in placing mentally handicapped individuals in sheltered or competitive employment. / Ed. D.

Through a case study, this study examines the organizational structure of group homes for the mentally retarded. The case study is found to represent a new form of communal organization according to Hillery's theory of communal organization (1968; 1978). As a communal organization, the structural measures utilized to maximize freedom in this group home are examined. A discussion of the implications of this study towards community theory and the management of group homes follows. / Master of Science