Thousands of children throughout the United States are currently awaiting placement with adoptive families. The literature indicates that gay- and lesbian-headed households can well meet the needs of these children. Research suggests that sexual prejudice, religious fundamentalism and attitudes about gay and lesbian adoption may influence practice decisions regarding placement. This dissertation study examined the influences of religious fundamentalism, sexual prejudice, contact with sexually diverse individuals, and attitudes towards gay men and lesbians as adoptive parents on intent to place children in need with gay and lesbian couples. A random sample of National Association of Social Workers (NASW) members was surveyed; 1000 surveys were distributed and 303 usable surveys were returned. Religious fundamentalism was measured using the Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale (Altemeyer & Huntsberger, 2004), sexual prejudice was measured using the Attitudes toward Gay Men and Lesbians (Herek, 1994) and attitudes towards gay and lesbians as adoptive parents was measured using Attitudes toward Gay Men and Lesbians as Adoptive Parents scale (Ryan, 2000). To assess willingness to use gay or lesbian couples as adoptive parents, respondents were asked to rank first and second choices on ten scenarios; two scenarios reflected easy to place children and eight hard to place children. A sizable minority of respondents failed to respond to the scenarios. Those opting out tended to score lower on religious fundamentalism, sexual prejudice, and held more positive attitudes towards gay and lesbian adoption. Further, some respondents never included gay or lesbian couples; these respondents tended to score higher on religious fundamentalism, sexual prejudice, and negative attitudes to gays and lesbian couples as adoptive parents than those choosing at least one gay/lesbian response. Religious fundamentalism predicted sexual prejudice, which predicted negative attitudes towards gays and lesbians as adoptive parents. Religious fundamentalism also directly influenced attitudes towards gay and lesbians as adoptive parents. In addition, personal contact with sexually diverse individuals partially influenced sexual prejudice. Overall, the results indicate that some professionals are inappropriately influenced by their personal values.

The gap between knowledge about psychotherapy generated in laboratory settings and its application in routine treatment settings prevents consumers from receiving state-of-the-art, evidence-based care, prolongs their suffering, and underutilizes economic resources supporting efficacy trials. Family therapy has strong evidence for treating children's behavioral health needs, yet few studies have examined its effectiveness in the real world. Further, family therapy provides an opportunity to address the demonstrated link between maternal and child mental health symptomatology in a way likely to engage untreated mothers and their presenting children. However, only one study has examined the impact of family therapy on maternal mental health symptomatology and very few have addressed maternal functioning. This mixed methods study examined the effectiveness, acceptability, and sustainability of Structural Family Therapy for mothers and their presenting children seeking care at a semi-rural community mental health clinic. Results suggest some support for the effectiveness of family therapy. Mothers' mental health symptomatology and mothers' ratings of children's impairment improved with time spent in family therapy; however, mothers' self-ratings of their functioning and children's ratings of their own mental health symptomatology did not change. Results also suggest that mothers found family therapy acceptable, as they reported gaining skills to more effectively manage their children's behavioral challenges as well as strategies for their own self-care. In addition, mothers' perceptions of family treatment glean insight to its sustainability in routine settings. Language used by mothers suggests that therapists adhered to core aspects of the Structural Family Therapy model. However, mothers indicated their children's severe behavioral challenges and the inconsistency of sessions influenced their treatment outcomes. Findings from this study suggest that family therapy may provide an innovative, empirically supported approach to engage and treat mothers with mental health needs whose children present for community treatment. Additionally, findings from this study offer insight to implementation challenges within this real world setting that may have impacted children's outcomes. Results of this study provide a number of implications for social work practice and suggestions for future research.

The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence of depressive symptoms among the elderly Kurdish immigrant and refugee population living in the greater Nashville, Tennessee area. Nashville has the largest population of Kurds living outside of Kurdistan (Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, 2004), but as is the case for many immigrant and refugee groups, little empirical research exists to aid social service practitioners in addressing the unique needs of this population (Williams & Westermeyer, n.d.). The investigator draws on the limited research about mental health in other immigrant and refugee populations as a basis for the rationale and design of the proposed study. Using a nonrandom sample of Kurds aged 50 or over living in metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County, the study collected information about participant demographics and measured depressive symptoms using oral administrations of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) (Brink et al., 1997) and the Migratory Grief and Loss Questionnaire (MGLQ) (Casado & Leung, 2001). A significant minority of the study sample tested within the range of mild depression, and an additional one-quarter had scores placing them in the range for severe depression. There was a significant but limited correlation between GDS scores and total scores on the MGLQ. Further analysis, however, revealed a slightly stronger correlation between GDS scores and the MGLQ subscale of disorganization. Female subjects’ depression and grief scores were consistently higher than males, regardless of the scale or subscale used. Composite English scores revealed low proficiency within the sample, with no significant differences between males and females. Results indicated a significant negative correlation between composite English scores and total scores on the GDS, the MGLQ, and the MGLQ disorganization subscale. Due to the nonrandom sample and other study limitations, it would be inappropriate to generalize the results too broadly across the Kurdish immigrant and refugee population. The information gathered, however, will serve as a glimpse into the needs of this unique population and assist social service providers as they develop programs to most effectively meet the population’s needs.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1991. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-88).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2000. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2753. Typescript. Copy 2 in Main Collection. Includes "Glossary of Terms" (p. 87-88). Includes "Techniques and safety quizzes" (p. 89-105).

Thesis (M.S.)--B.Y.U. Dept. of Sociology. / Electronic thesis. Also available in print ed.

Thesis (M.A.)--Denver Seminary, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-168).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of chicago. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-72).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Disputats, Göteborg University, 2004. / Leaf with title, thesis statement, and abstract in English inserted. "ISSN 1101-718X"--T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references.