There are different reasons why women enter the sex industry; many of them were sexually abused as children and have been psychologically deceived, which is indicative of their vulnerable state and complex needs. Today, many studies show that the amount of women involved in sex work continues to rise. As a result more strip clubs have surfaced in the United States, and more and more females continue to obtain employment from these adult establishments. The purpose of this study is to get more information about the recovery process for women who have exited the sex industry. The methods used for this study were qualitative in-depth interviews with ex sex workers. Six participants were recruited through a snowball method, and after interviews were recorded, they were transcribed and analyzed using Grounded Theory Approach. The findings indicated that sexual abuse, and drug and alcohol abuse had been experienced at very high rates by women in the sex industry. The findings also revealed that the participants in study displayed a great amount of resiliency, as five out of six participants had obtained higher education degrees at the bachelor’s and master’s level after exiting the sex industry. In addition, the study found that there was a serious lack of social services being offered to this population of women, which if offered services, women transitioning out of the sex industry could have benefited from mental health services, housing, and career planning. In the area of policy recommendations, social work school students and faculty are encouraged to advocate for classes on sexuality to prepare students to deal effectively with sexual abuse and sex workers, considering we are in a time where more women earn a living by working in the sex industry. It is also recommended that social workers develop ways to reach out to this disenfranchised population.

This study explored the common challenges that residential counselors face when working with dual-status youth, which we defined as any youth with at least one open case with the child welfare system or juvenile justice system (or both) and who have previously had a case with the latter in their lifetime. Data were collected through qualitative interviews with their residential counselors across five different residential treatment centers in southern California. The most common challenges reported by the residential treatment counselors included multiple roles, role limitation, dual-status youth behaviors, deficiency in training, management, and preparation when working with dual-status youth in a residential treatment facility. This study also found that counselor resiliency served as a buffer against these common challenges. Findings from this study highlight the importance of considering the challenges residential counselors face while working with their dual-status youth clients in residential treatment facilities because it may affect their clients overall treatment. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of continuing to conduct research on short-term residential therapeutic center policy changes; as well as, the experiences of social workers with dual-status youth clients in residential treatment facilities who are served by residential counselors.

Children of Holocaust survivors are vulnerable to experiencing secondary trauma which typically manifests in emotional and psychological difficulties. Despite,their exposure to a traumatized family environment, many children of Holocaust survivors do not develop emotional or adaptive difficulties. Some demonstrate psychological resilience, reflected by their ability to adapt,to adversity and problems. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into how well-adjusted,middle aged children of Holocaust survivors developed and maintained resilience.In line with resilience theory,which explains how an individual bounces back from negative circumstances, the research questions for this study examined the factors that the participants used to develop and maintain tesilience. The sample for this study included 13 middle aged children of Holocaust survivors who described themselves as well-adjusted. The researcher collected data by conducting in-depth interviews and qualitatively analyzed the data using the modified van Kaam method of phenomenological analysis. Results showed that well-adjusted children of Holocaust survivors managed and maintained resiliency through middle age by incorporating lessons learned from their parents, including the notion that nothing can keep a person down. These findings contributed to the body of knowledge on trauma prevention and may be useful to social service providers and organizations that seek to aid individuals' development of resiliency in the,wake of traumatic experiences.

Nearly 50% of children younger than 18 years will be raised by a single parent at some point prior to adulthood. Of developed countries, the United States currently has the highest percentage of single parents. Although much research has examined factors that contribute toward the negative outcomes of single parents, few studies have focused on factors that contribute toward positive outcomes for single parents. Using the strength-based construct of resiliency as a theoretical framework, this study examined whether gender, age, income, and perceived familial social support individually or in linear combination could predict resiliency in single parents. This study involved 138 single parents and a correlational, nonexperimental design was used. The Resiliency Scale-25, a 25 item self-report measure of five resilience principles; purpose, perseverance, self-reliance, equanimity, and existential aloneness, was used to measure resilience. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) a 12-item self-report measure of perceived social support from family, friends, and a significant other, was used to measure perceived social support. Results from a multiple linear step-wise regression showed none of the predictor variables were significantly related to the outcome variable of resiliency. A lack of diversity in the sample, an internet-only recruitment design, instrumentation issues, and failure to include additional predictive factors may have contributed to the lack of statistically significant findings. However, the results of this study highlighted the need for additional research on factors that promote resiliency in single parents, which could then be incorporated into improved services for this growing demographic.

Studies have examined the causes and impacts of terrorism in Nigeria; however, no known research has documented the psychological impacts of witnessing ongoing Boko Haram terrorist violence based on the lived experiences of Nigerian children. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the psychological consequences of the Boko Haram insurgency based on the lived experience of Nigerian children exposed to terrorism in Nigeria. The study's theoretical framework combined Piaget's theory of cognitive development and punctuated equilibrium theory. The central research question examined the adverse psychological effects of the Boko Haram insurgency for Nigerian children residing in Nigeria. Data for this study were collected through interviews from a purposeful sample of 8 participants who were exposed to the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria and a review of literature that primarily included peer-reviewed articles and studies relevant to the psychological theories. Colaizzi's method of phenomenological analysis was employed for data analysis. Results showed that all the participants reported negative symptoms of mental health disorders, which did not lead to permanent mental health illnesses. Among the participants, the primary factors that moderated the symptoms, preventing progression to permanent mental health illnesses, were fasting and religious support. Implications for positive social change include giving voice to voiceless Nigerian children and providing the Nigerian populace, multilateral and bilateral organizations, and the Nigerian government with information necessary to understand the effects of terrorism on children and promote resilience in children who have experienced terrorism.

Compassion fatigue is a secondary stress reaction that results from providing care to those undergoing traumatic life events. Frequent exposure to dying patients with complex medical concerns has been identified as a contributing factor to compassion fatigue and resultant turnover among hospice nurses. The purpose of this project was to assess whether the provision of education to hospice nurses regarding compassion fatigue resulted in a demonstrable improvement in their levels of compassion fatigue. Watson's theory of human caring and Roy's adaptation model provided the theoretical foundation for this project. The practice-focused question for this project asked whether a reduction in compassion fatigue among hospice nurses would result after providing them with educational material focused on compassion fatigue. Twenty-three hospice nurse participants were administered Stamm's Professional Quality of Life Scale to measure their compassion fatigue levels before and after being presented with an educational booklet. Scores for this project were compared using a before-and-after quality improvement design and percent difference to measure the impact of the educational offering. Results demonstrated an 8.6% reduction in compassion fatigue among the hospice nurse participants, indicating that educational interventions support a positive effect in reducing compassion fatigue. Positive social change might result from this project by improving nurses' awareness of the need for self-care that contributes to resiliency and prevention of compassion fatigue.

The retail food safety chain is vulnerable to deliberate contamination, yet food safety professionals and emergency managers typically respond to intentional contamination in different ways. Little is known about the practices of environmental health food safety professionals (EHFSP) as compared to emergency managers and whether those approaches can be combined to more successfully impede intentional food contamination. The purpose of this narrative policy analysis was to use routine activity theory to compare the narratives of EHFSPs and emergency managers to determine whether there are opportunities to better understand the relationship between vulnerability and resiliency of the retail food safety chain. Data were primarily collected through interviews with 5 EHFSPs and 5 emergency managers from various regions in the United States. Interview data were inductively coded and then subjected to Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis procedure. Key findings indicate that EHFSPs generally are ill-suited to meet resiliency goals, ambivalence voiced by EHFSPs results from a lack of continual preparedness training, and neither EHFSPs nor emergency management officials' familiarity with the social dimensions of resiliency is at a point where they can design adequate measures for a resilient retail food system. Therefore, recommendations to policy makers focus on a need for an enhanced training that is inspired by principles of emergency management so that they are better able to respond to acts of intentional contamination, thereby building a resilient retail food chain with economic and social benefits.

Suicidal behaviors have continued to increase in the United States (U.S.) Army population since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Suicide rates are higher in men compared to women; yet, the rate of suicidal ideation is higher in women than men. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a correlation between suicidal ideation and protective factors, if social support and resiliency are different for men and women within the U.S. Army population, and if gender acts as a moderating variable between suicidal ideation and protective factors. The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior was used as the foundation for this study. Secondary data were collected from the U.S. Army Public Health Center. After removing missing responses, the total sample size for this study was N = 3,446. Chi-square, independent samples t test, and multiple logistic regressions were used to determine the relationship between gender, suicidal ideation, resiliency, and social support in the U.S. Army active duty population. The percentage who reported suicidal ideation was 3.6% versus 4.9% for males and females, respectively. Social support was statistically significantly correlated with suicidal ideation (p = 0.002) while resiliency was not statistically significantly correlated with suicidal ideation (p = 0.68). Neither scale was effective in detecting differences among gender groups. Refined instruments are needed for evaluation of small changes in regard to protective factors. To promote social change, this study can be used to enhance knowledge about protective factors and gender in the context of the suicidal process, thus furthering the knowledge about how to prevent suicide in the U.S. Army population.

Faults and failures in system components are the two main reasons for the instability and the degradation in control performance. In recent decades, fault-tolerant control (FTC) approaches were introduced to improve the resiliency of the control system against faults and failures. In general, FTC techniques are classified into two major groups: passive and active. Passive FTC systems do not rely on the fault information to control the system and are closely related to the robust control techniques while an active FTC system performs based on the information received from the fault detection and isolation (FDI) system, and the fault problem will be tackled more intelligently without affecting other parts of the system. This dissertation technically reviews fault and failure causes in control systems and finds solutions to compensate for their effects. Recent achievements in FDI approaches, and active and passive FTC designs are investigated. Thorough comparisons of several different aspects are conducted to understand the advantages and disadvantages of different FTC techniques to motivate researchers to further developing FTC, and FDI approaches. Then, a novel active FTC system framework based on online FDI is presented which has significant advantages in comparison with other state of the art FTC strategies. To design the proposed active FTC, a new FDI approach is introduced which uses the artificial neural network (ANN) and a model based observer to detect and isolate faults and failures in sensors and actuators. In addition, the extended Kalman filter (EKF) is introduced to tune ANN weights and improve the ANN performance. Then, the FDI signal combined with a nonlinear dynamic inversion (NDI) technique is used to compensate for the faults in the actuators and sensors of a nonlinear system. The proposed scheme detects and accommodates faults in the actuators and sensors of the system in real-time without the need of controller reconfiguration. The proposed active FTC approach is used to design a control system for three different applications: Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), load frequency control system, and proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system. The performance of the designed controllers are investigated through numerical simulations by comparison with conventional control approaches, and their advantages are demonstrated.

Despite substantial existing evidence that sexually diverse populations are at increased risk for mental health concerns due primarily to minority stress, how the underlying mechanisms of minority stress lead to specific psychological syndromes among these populations is not adequately understood. On the other hand, sexologists have been encouraged to shift the focus of their work towards understanding the specific characteristics or experiences that facilitate individuals' capacity to adapt and thrive within an oppressive and marginalizing society in order to "depathologize" nonheterosexuals. In attempts to address existing limitations and further the existing body of mental health risk and resiliency research among sexually diverse populations, three studies were conducted that sought to (a) examine how specific aspects of minority stress were individually and collectively associated with depression; (b) develop a new quantitative assessment tool used to evaluate the positive aspects of nonheterosexuality; and (c) explore levels of "outness" within various social contexts, as it relates to individuals' perceptions of the positive aspects of being nonheterosexual. Additionally, sociodemographic differences (e.g., gender, sexual identity, and level of affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [LDS]) were explored with regard to each study's aims, respectively. Findings for Study 1 indicated that all minority stress factors examined were individually predictive of depression. When collectively examined, needs for others' acceptance was found to be the strongest predictor of depression, followed by internalized homophobia. Associations between specific stressors were moderated by level of affiliation with the LDS Church. Psychometric evaluations of the newly developed measure (Study 2) supported use of the measure by researchers and practitioners to evaluate positive aspects of nonheterosexuality. Finally, Study 3 demonstrated positive associations between perceived benefits of being nonheterosexual and disclosure of one's nonheterosexuality in all four social contexts examined. Results further indicated that levels of "outness" were moderated by gender. Implications for research and practice are discussed for each study.