<p> The relationship between international development and psychological aid is a very complex one. The conversations regarding societal restoration, restorative justice and healing are full of theoretical frameworks aimed at centering on a plan for rehabilitation. The Great Lakes Region of Africa has endured longstanding conflict, famine and poverty and has been the focus of both psychological aid and international relief efforts. While much research focuses on the needs of the communities within the Great Lakes Region, there is a need for the voices of those who are carrying out the restorative work on the ground to be heard. This dissertation focuses on acknowledging the voices of those trauma counselors in Gulu, Uganda and Nakivale Refugee Settlement who have been trained to carry out a specific form of trauma counseling called Scripture Based Trauma Healing. These words reflect their stories.</p>

<p> Faith-based school-family-community partnerships have been a federal mandate over the past decade, yet little has been written about the outcomes of these faith-based partnerships. A need exists to understand if the potential in these faith-based partnerships is indeed realized in positive outcomes for students and schools. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a faith-based school-family-community partnership, Just Love. Just Love is a faith-based school-family-community partnership between a large suburban church and a Title 1, urban elementary school, Charisma Elementary School (Charisma ES), implemented in what is considered a "failing school". Just Love's purpose was to have the volunteers from the church provide love, care, supportive adult relationships and service to the teachers, students, and parents of Charisma ES through a comprehensive, systemic program: <b>Just Mentor</b> (i.e., a school-based mentoring program), <b>Just Connect</b> (i.e., a classroom adoption program), and <b>Just Rewards</b> (i.e., a school wide student incentives/rewards and parent involvement program). The Bryan and Henry (2012) School-Family-Community Partnership Process Model was used in developing Just Love.</p><p> The Model for Collaborative Evaluations (MCE) was used in this evaluation to actively engage stakeholders during the evaluation process and to answer the evaluation questions. A mixed methods research design was used. Differences in student outcomes (i.e. academic, behavior and attendance) were examined between Charisma ES and another matching school without a faith-based school-family-community partnership were analyzed with descriptive statistics, paired T-tests, and mixed ANOVAs. Student outcomes were also investigated relevant to different aspects of the Just Love programs including adopted classrooms compared to non-adopted classrooms and mentored students compared to non-mentored students. </p><p> In addition, this study gave 20 children (i.e., mentees) who had experienced all aspects of the Just Love programs an opportunity to share their perceived satisfactions, experiences, challenges and recommendations regarding Just Love through the method of photo elicitation including picture selection and interviews. The transcribed data from the interviews and the pictures used in the photo-elicitation process were analyzed using thematic analysis with a focus on capturing the voices of the students.</p><p> Student outcome data were collected for three years from 2010-2013, with 2009 as a baseline year. The findings from the quantitative aspect of this study revealed that students in Charisma ES made significantly greater gains in reading than students in Joseph ES following the implementation of the partnership. Further, number of disciplinary referrals decreased dramatically at Charisma ES in contrast to Joseph ES whose disciplinary referrals increased. Attendance rates differed significantly between the two schools with students in Joseph Elementary School having higher attendance rates than students in Charisma Elementary School.</p><p> On average, both adopted and non-adopted classes made gains in reading in each of the three years although adopted classes appeared to have higher reading scores in 2011-2012 than non-adopted classes. The average number of disciplinary referrals per class was lower for adopted classes than for non-adopted classes in 2011-2012, one academic year after the Just Love partnership program was implemented. Concerning attendance, there were no significant differences in attendance rates between students in adopted and non-adopted classes at Charisma ES.</p><p> Mentored students at Charisma made significant improvements in reading. They also had a dramatically lower average number of disciplinary referrals than non-mentored students in 2012-2013, just two years after the Just Love partnership was implemented. When compared to non-mentored students, mentored students had significantly higher attendance than non-mentored students in 2011-2012, just one year after the Just Love partnership began. Further, attendance appeared to have a positive relation to the number of years students were mentored.</p><p> Findings from the qualitative aspect of this study were captured using thematic analysis of the children's perceived satisfactions, experiences, challenges and recommendations concerning Just Love. The six categories that emerged from the data were (a) perceptions of Just Love, (b) positive feelings, (c) positive relationships and connectedness, (d) classroom and school climate, (e) experiences, and (f) support and resources. Each of these categories comprised a number of themes that aligned with identified protective factors and developmental assets necessary for the resiliency of and successful outcomes for children. </p><p> Taken together, the findings reveal that Just Love, a faith-based school-family-community partnership contributed to improved student outcomes in reading achievement, behavior and attendance and provided important protective factors and developmental assets for the children in Charisma ES. The Just Love partnership program presents a viable model for schools, school districts, and faith-based and community organizations that have a desire to foster resilience in children at-risk, generate positive academic, behavior, and attendance outcomes for children and decrease the chances of children growing up and developing risky behaviors. Implications for practice, training, evaluation, policy, and future research are discussed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

<p> This is an interpretative phenomenological study examining the lived experiences of five long-lasting, self-report satisfied, German-American military couples, using semi-structured interviews. Each bicultural couple that participated was married thirty years or longer and consisted of one German native wife and one American veteran husband. Eight themes emerged from the data: (a) tri-cultural marriage experiences; (b) faith, religion, belief systems; (c) intimacy; (d) overcoming: good coping, commitment, and humor; (e) respect and appreciation systems; (f) trust and fidelity; (g) communication and the need to improve; and (h) keeping things alive.</p><p> <b>Keywords:</b> Bicultural marriage, Long-lasting marriage, Phenomenology, and Veterans</p>

<p> The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine, from a constructivist career development perspective, the factors of well-being and vocational identity that emerged among a diverse sample of upper-division undergraduate students. This study also examined which factors of vocational identity predicted well-being and which factors of well-being predicted vocational identity. Participants included 411 diverse, upper-division health science students from a public university in Southern California. The first two research questions that guided this study were designed to explore emergent factors of well-being and vocational identity using items from the PERMA Well-Being Profiler (PERMA) and the Vocational Identity Status Assessment. The final two research questions were designed to examine the best predictors of well-being among the factors of vocational identity and the best predictors of vocational identity among the factors of well-being. To address the research questions, data obtained from surveys was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and multiple linear regression analysis.</p><p> The findings of this study demonstrated that PERMA theory and Vocational Identity Status theory explained the constructs of well-being and vocational identity among the diverse sample with few exceptions. Further, the PERMA and VISA instruments proved valid and reliable among the diverse sample. In-depth career exploration, identification with career commitment, and career self-doubt were the vocational identity factors that best predicted well-being. Meaning, accomplishment, and engagement were the well-being factors that best predicted vocational identity.</p><p> Recommendations based on the findings of this study included revisiting performance based funding policies to incorporate the measurement of well-being and vocational identity as metrics of student success alongside more objective measures like retention, GPA, and time to graduation. Further, recommendations were offered for integrating well-being and vocational identity enhancing activities and interventions into current practices in classroom, counseling, and advising settings. Recommendations for qualitative, experimental, and longitudinal research designs were offered based on the findings of this study.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to locate a potential funding source and write a grant for the funding of a program for significant others of sexual violence victims. Based on the literature review, individuals who interact with primary victims may be impacted by the sexual violence experience, making them secondary victims. A psychoeducational group will be developed to meet the needs of secondary trauma victims. This group will take place at Peace Over Violence, in Los Angeles, California. The selected funding source for this project will be the Marisla Foundation which takes a special interest in human services programs.</p><p> The project goals include networking with community organizations, engaging families or significant others who are experiencing challenges related to the sexual violence experience, and to reduce secondary trauma symptoms among secondary trauma victims. Actual submission and/or funding of the grant proposal was not required for successful completion of this project.</p>

<p> Depression is a serious mental disorder with prominence in the literature, but information on its manifestation in males has been overlooked until fairly recently. Attention should be paid to depression for several reasons, including the risk of suicide. The presentation of depressed males differs from that of depressed females. They may display additional symptoms not typically associated with depression, such as anger, hostility, withdrawal and substance abuse, and may not show sadness or tearfulness. Men's reluctance to seek help, and the strong association between shame and depression, make detection even more difficult. Research suggested that families in which fathers display negativistic parenting practices, such as hostility and low levels of warmth, suffer undesirable outcomes. Conflict resolution strategies may be impaired in depressed men, and there is research available showing that depression is correlated with marital discord. Men with depression may also be at risk for substance abuse disorders, intimate partner violence, and child maltreatment. Cultural factors may affect manifestation of depression, and cultural background and adherences should be considered when working with depressed men.</p>

<p> Although evidence-based practices (EBPs) have been identified in the literature, insufficient information exists about how to successfully implement them. As a result, implementation efforts have been met with failures. Little is currently known about what affects the success of implementation efforts for best practices such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy for adolescents (DBT-A) in an acute inpatient psychiatric setting (AIPS). A longitudinal multiphase mixed methods case study examined an implementation effort to provide DBT-A in an AIPS over a 24-month period. The process of implementation was investigated through in-depth interviews, a focus group, and field observations. Six categories were identified that affected the DBT-A implementation in an AIPS: appeal of DBT as a treatment modality, impact on patients, implementer characteristics, the implementation process, organizational dynamics and structure, and staff support. Implications for implementing EBPs within organizational environments are discussed. This study represents the first attempt to use qualitative and mixed methodology to examine the process of DBT implementation in an AIPS. </p>

<p> This study explored the influence of supervisee intrapersonal and interpersonal regulatory characteristics on supervisor-rated evaluation of supervisee performance given within the context of a counseling supervision relationship. A sample of 60 counseling supervisee and supervisor dyads from University Counseling Centers were surveyed, both electronically and in paper form. By examining the most frequently studied correlates to performance within counselor trainee supervision, the study aimed to address a gap in the research literature understanding of the self-regulatory influences on performance evaluation. Regression analysis was used to address the hypothesis that the independent variables of emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, working alliance, and attachment orientation would account for a significant portion of the variance in total performance scores of the dependent variable of supervisee performance.</p><p> Results of this study indicated that the independent variables did not have a significant relationship with the outcome variable of performance evaluation. Post hoc analyses found that supervisor attractiveness did have a significant relationship with performance. Organizational literature has long advanced theories that attachment and emotional intelligence are integral to the supervisory relationship. Previous research has found independent relationships between emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and working alliance and performance; however, this was the first study that looked at their collective influence on performance with the additional influence of attachment orientation. The results of this study suggest that the strength of the relationship of emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, working alliance, and attachment orientation to performance is not as great as previously reported. Additionally, and more importantly, the data suggest that references to attachment and emotional intelligence in organizational theory may be misguided or at best optimistic. The supervisory relationship, while complicated, may not be as interpersonally influenced as hypothesized, but post hoc analyses confirm that attraction does influence performance evaluation. These results suggest a possible new direction for future research.</p>

<p> Identifying adolescents at risk for re-offense, specifically among a predominately Hispanic population, is rarely empirically examined (Cintr&oacute;n, 2006). The Hispanic population comprises the largest minority population in the United States, and accounts for over 60% of the population in Nueces County (US Census Bureau, 2011). The purpose of this study was to explore the boundaries and utility of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument Version 2 (MAYSI-2) through its subscales, specifically in a predominately Hispanic population. A binary logistic regression was conducted to explore the extent to which MAYSI-2 subscale scores, demographic variables, and offense information predict re-offense. </p><p> A sample of 884 adolescent offenders from Nueces County was utilized to examine factors that are predictive of recidivism. The regression analysis included all offenders from the year 2010. A listwise deletion was conducted to remove offenders with multiple offenses, and missing MAYSI-2 scores, or missing data. Data were collected ex-post facto and analyzed using a hierarchical logistic regression. </p><p> The results of the logistic regression indicated all three domains (MAYSI-2 subscale scores, demographic variables, and offense information) were statistically significant predictors of juvenile re-offense. Three of the MAYSI-2 subscales, Alcohol/Drug Use, Angry-Irritable, and Somatic Complaints, were significant predictors of re-offense. Additionally, six of the demographic variables were found to be predictive of recidivism: juvenile age, number of siblings, Hispanic adolescents, gang affiliation, type of school, and legal guardian. Significant variables identified as predictive of re-offense from the offense information included misdemeanors and prior violent offenses. </p><p> Overall, each of the three domains provides statistically significant contributions to the prediction of the dichotomous dependent variable, re-offense. The most powerful contribution for predicting juvenile recidivism is from the demographic variables, age and legal guardian (i.e., coming from a home with an absent biological parent). The results of this study imply that personal interactions with offender may be more helpful than psychometric measures at identifying adolescents at risk to reoffend. Although attempting to categorize adolescents merely based on demographic information can result in biases, and steoreotyping, the information can be used to identify risk factors that may impede an adolescent's success. Identifying adolescents that present with characteristics indicating higher risk for re-offense, can assist clinicians in developing treatments.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to develop a potential psycho-education group for trans gender and gender variant (TGV) adolescents in need of services based on the most recent literature. A search for a funder was conducted using the Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership Library and the local LGBTQ Center of Long Beach. The grant-funded support group will target TGV adolesents age 13 to 17 in need of resources including, but not limited to a safer environment, social and medial transition support, legal aid, and mental health support. The goals of the project include increased support, increased mental health, and increased community outreach. The actual submission and funding of this grant was not a requirement for the successful completion of the thesis project. </p>