Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Although approximately 60%-80% of detained adolescents have a psychiatric disorder, little is known about their utilization of mental health and substance-related treatment services upon release from detention. Given that treatment can potentially reduce symptomology and recidivism, the study examined detained adolescents’ post-detention treatment utilization and longitudinal patterns of use. Data were abstracted from the electronic juvenile justice records and medical records of 9664 detained adolescents (62.7% male; 34.8% White, 65.2% Black; 72.6% with disorder) with Medicaid coverage held in a Midwestern detention center at some time during 1998-2011. A series of statistical tests (e.g., chi-square, ANOVA, logistic regression, Kaplan-Meier survival analyses, Cox regression) were conducted to identify group differences in treatment utilization during the 14-year follow-up period. Following detention release, approximately 66.2% of adolescents were re-arrested and 54.9% were re-detained/incarcerated. Treatment utilization within two years post-detention was 36.7%; 31.4% obtained mental health treatment, 10.4% obtained substance-related treatment, 36.0% obtained outpatient treatment, and 6.2% obtained non-outpatient treatment. Among treatment users, 22.5% dropped out of treatment within 1-3 sessions and 40.6% experienced gaps (>45 days) between treatment services. Treatment utilization was significantly higher among males, White (vs. Black) adolescents, younger adolescents, violent (vs. non-violent) offenders, recidivists (vs. non-recidivists), and adolescents with mental disorders (vs. substance-related disorders). Variables associated with increased likelihood of post-detention treatment included: male gender, psychiatric disorder(s), pre-detention arrest(s), charge severity, violent offender, incarceration, and pre-detention treatment; age and Black race were associated with decreased likelihood of treatment. As one of the only longitudinal studies to examine treatment utilization among detained adolescents upon community reentry, findings suggest limited service utilization, as well as treatment gaps and disparities. Future research should focus on the treatment needs of detained adolescents, factors associated with disparities, and programs/policies to ensure consistent identification, referral, and connection to care for detained adolescents.

A combined, multiple-methods action research strategy is constructed and used to assess teams of personnel working in and around group homes for mentally retarded adults and young offenders in the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador between August, 1983 and January, 1987. Grounded in the practise experiences and previous research of the author, the question "what works?" is developed both as a contextual framework for the examination of teamwork as a component of professional practise and as a contextual feature of group care. The question is used to guide categorization and organization of differences amongst 51 sample teams in order to isolate valid and reliable measures of team work functioning. Drawing from four distinct theoretical traditions comprising core knowledge of human behaviour in the social environment, multiple methodologies for differentiating within and amongst teams are combined to triangulate data around the central research question. A methodology for the collection and analysis of data which are thought to represent the "lived experiences" of sample subjects is developed and used to illuminate the phenomenological alignments of team members. Qualitative themes in the reports of on- and off-the-job satisfactions and frustrations for sample subjects are examined for teams and for occupational groupings. Separate measures of Level of Organizational Change and Prevalence of Stressful working Conditions are developed and used to examine the interplay between these variables and other preselected variables. The assessment procedures and the typology of team functioning developed by Fulcher (1983) are replicated. Specific flaws and limitations in Fulcher's methodology and design are overcome through the use of a different theoretical orientation, extensions and refinements of the methodology, changes in instrumentation and by replicating his findings with a more homogeneous sample. Four of the team styles of adaptation are empirically validated and their descriptions refined. Both linear and non-linear statistical analytic methods are used to test for correlation and association between and among preselected variables. The Heimler/Fulcher Work Orientation Schedule, which serves as the basis for Fulcher's interpretative categorization of teams, is subjected to tests of reliability and validity and found to meet predetermined expectations. Through the use of an international, comparative data base, norms for team satisfaction and ratio of frustration to satisfaction for this instrument are empirically validated. Further research using Fulcher's typology along with the Work Orientation Schedule is indicated. Field observation recordings, sample subjects' personal narratives, the social policy and corporate contexts in which the study takes place, and a mythical, yet ultimately necessary, experiment which takes place in the future are all used to illuminate and ground the findings in the action research process.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Psychology. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the research project reported below, the researcher investigates the shortterm effect. of a life skills program, Free to Grow, on the self-concept and locus of control of juvenile offenders in the Allandale-prison, by means of the following questionnaires: the Greeff Self-concept Questionnaire, the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children and the Desired-Undesired Eve.nts Locus of Control Scale. The life skills program is based on experiential learning principles and focusses on self-development and the acquisition of a wide spectrum of social skills. The 21 subjects participating in the project were divided into two groups: The experimental group consisting of 11 subjects participated in the program over a two week-period for altogether 32 hours, while the remaining 10 subjects formed the control group. The most important findings of the study were that the program participants' self-concept showed no statiscally meaningful improvement, but their locus of control as measured by the Nowicki Strickland Locus of Control Scale for children, made a statistically meaningful internal shift. The study concludes with important recommendations for follow-up studies. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In die onderstaande studie is die korttermyneffek van 'n lewensvaardigheidsprogram, Free to Grow, op die selfkonsep en lokus van kontrole van jeugoortreders in die Allandale-gevangenis ondersoek met behulp van die volgende vraelyste: die Greeffselfkonsepvraelys, die Nowicki-Strickland Lokus van Kontrole Skaal vir Kinders en die Wenslike en Onwenslike Gebeurtenisse Lokus van Kontrole Skaal. Die program is gebaseer op eksperensiële leerbeginsels en fokus op selfontwikkeling en die aanleer van 'n wye spektrum van sosiale vaardighede. Die 21 subjekte wat aan die projek deelgeneem het, is in twee groepe verdeel: Die eksperimentele groep bestaande uit 11 subjekte het oor 'n periode van twee weke vir altesaam 32 uur die program deurloop, terwyl die oorblywende 10 subjekte die kontrolegroep gevorm het. Die belangrikste bevindings van die studie was dat die programdeelnemers se selfkonsep nie statisties betekenisvol verbeter het nie, maar dat hulle lokus van kontrole, soos gemeet deur die Nowicki-Strickland Lokus van Kontrole Skaal vir Kinders, wel statisties beduidend meer intern geword het na afloop van die program. Die studie word afgesluit met belangrike aanbevelings vir opvolgstudies.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

'Community' has long proved an integral element in commonsense thinking about a range of social problems and experiences, and with respect to crime the general conclusion is that more community will mean less crime. This study comprises a critical exploration of the resonance of community to New Labour's youth justice policy and to the lives of young offenders. The concept of community is of particular interest, as since its election in 1997 New Labour has been committed to forge a new political ideology of the 'Third Way', wherein communitarian ideas have proved central to the government's ambitions to revive and emphasise individual's responsibilities and obligations to civil society. Thus evident in the array of civil and criminal orders, which constitute the youth justice system in England and Wales, are constructions of community as both a 'moral resource' and as a 4moral claimant'. The former assumes that communities have inherent capacities in preventing and controlling youth crime, while the latter prioritises the community's right to demand the punishment and exclusion of those young people who fail to live up to their communal responsibilities. Given that communitarian responses are but the latest manifestation of the constant search for solutions t o youth crime, consideration is initially accorded to the historical shifts and continuities in both youth justice and community safety policy and practices. It is argued that a movement towards increasingly punitive, exclusionary and defensive responses to crime and young offenders has prevailed in recent years, and it is within this context that New Labour's prioritisation of communitarian thought has occurred. Attention then turns to the specificities of the government's commitment to communitarianism,within youth justice. Not only do New Labour emphasise young people's responsibilities to the community - rather than the community's, or indeed, the state's responsibilities to the young person- but it has also demonstrated its willingness to define. legislate and sanction with respect to those responsibilities it considers essential to the membership rights of the 'law-abiding' community. As such it is contended that the government's vision of community is essentially narrow, defensive and divisive. The analysis then draws upon semi-structured qualitative interviews with a sample of young offenders and Youth Offending Team practitioners to explore the resonance of community to the lives of young offenders and to their experiences of youth justice supervision. It is argued that community is a salient feature of the lives of young offenders which often provides for inclusionary experiences. However, the government's faith in the community to act as a 'moral resource' in preventing and controlling crime does not adequately account for the complex, transitory and ambiguous nature of young offenders' experiences of communal life. Furthermore, the punitive repercussions of the government's commitment to honouring the community's role as a 'moral claimant' serve to undermine the practitioner's ability to exploit the resources the community may have to offer to with regard to encouraging and motivating young people to desist from offending. Additionally, the emphasis on intolerance is likely to promote the community's disapproval and hostility towards young offenders. It is concluded that New Labour's commitment to communitarianism, and its particular envisaging of community, conjures a powerful exclusionary potential which is unlikely to engender positive outcomes for either the young offender or the 'law abiding' community.