The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between cognitive style, ethnicity, and level of educational attainment for women on welfare as they compared with women employed by agencies receiving government funding. / Theories of cognitive style and moral development reviewed included those of Perry (1970), Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger and Tarule (1986), Kohlberg (1968), Gilligan (1982), Shade (1991), and Dixon (1976). / The sample was comprised of one hundred Project Independence participants who attended the Career Quest Workshop at Florida State University. Additional data were collected from a comparison group of one hundred women employed by agencies receiving government funding. / The S-N and J-P factors of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (1992) were used to measure cognitive style. No statistically significant differences were found between the cognitive styles of women on welfare and employed women. Both groups tended to score toward the S and J ends of the continuum. Although both African-Americans and Euro- Americans scored predominantly at the S and J ends of the scales, contrary to theory, Euro-Americans tended to score significantly farther toward the N. / Although differences in cognitive style were not apparent between women on welfare and employed women, there were other notable differences between the groups which carry implications for welfare reform. Women on welfare had twice as many children as employed women, had their first child at an earlier age, and completed less years of education. Education on the far-reaching effects of early childbirth is vital to prevent teenage pregnancy, which interrupts the educational process and leaves these women with limited ability to support their children. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-08, Section: A, page: 3058. / Major Professor: James P. Sampson, Jr. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

Homelessness and substance abuse commanded the attention of both politicians and the general public in the 1980s. Although this concern proved to be short-lived, these social problems continue to contribute to the deteriorating quality of contemporary urban existence. While the connection between homelessness and substance abuse is not new, its significance has grown because of the relationship between drug abuse, risky sexual behaviors, and a number of public health problems including unwanted pregnancies, the rampant spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and the proliferation of HIV infection. Research investigating effective drug treatment approaches (particularly on crack-abusive samples which have only recently emerged) can inform policy initiatives designed to ameliorate these difficulties. Unfortunately, knowledge of treatment process and effectiveness among homeless samples participating in diverse treatment modalities is virtually non-existent. Therefore, this dissertation explores questions surrounding characteristics of clients, program theory and project services, implementation processes and barriers, and treatment outcomes among homeless crack abusers participating in the New Orleans Homeless Substance Abusers Project (NOHSAP). The NOHSAP was a federally-sponsored, multi-year randomized experiment designed to bring together clinicians and researchers to (a) provide and document expanded treatment services; (b) assess cooperation and coordination among public and private sector organizations serving the target population; and (c) evaluate the effectiveness of a three-phase intervention in helping clients achieve programmatic objectives including reduced substance use, improved employment and residential stability, and enhanced social relationships. Despite theoretical shifts and operational challenges which emerged during implementation, findings indicate that (a) homeless crack abusers can be retained in treatment as well as other treatment-seeking samples; (b) treatment is effective in reducing substance abuse as well as other negative outcomes; and (c) time-in-treatment is predictive of successful outcomes with longer stays conferring stronger benefits to clients across multiple areas of functioning. This research concludes with the observation that if success is measured by distance traveled, then what the NOHSAP intervention accomplished was much more surprising than anything that it failed to do / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

New Orleans's extreme flood risk is not entirely inherent in its physical site. Rather, the city's flood vulnerability has been manufactured over time via the efforts of its growth machine to expand the Port of New Orleans and the city's footprint via a series of drainage and shipping canal megaprojects. These canals were created largely at the behest of elite members of the Levee and Dock Boards, who sought to capitalize on New Orleans' strategic location during wartime---particularly World War II---in order to further their own business interests by creating an 'Inner Harbor' facility out of the swampland between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. Unable to pursue their desired 'improvement' projects with local resources alone, these elites lobbied for and eventually won authorization and funding for their projects from the state and federal governments, with help from allies throughout the Mississippi Valley. As a result, the city's outfall canals along with the Industrial Canal, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet have repeatedly allowed flood waters to penetrate the city during hurricanes. While New Orleanians properly blame the Corps of Engineers for the levee and floodwall failures during Hurricane Katrina, the impact of this catastrophic storm cannot be completely understood without an acknowledgment of the role that local elites of decades past have played in continually putting economic growth ahead of public safety, a process which has created New Orleans' near-complete dependence on structural mitigation flood control projects that are never enough to truly protect the city / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-11, Section: A, page: 4529. Adviser: Paula Treichler. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 276-304) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Sociology, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-08, Section: A, page: 3111. Adviser: Arthur S. Alderson. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 5, 2006).