published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

This institutional ethnographic textual analysis explores the impact screeninglintake assessment tool usage has on youth workers. Fourteen screeninglintake tools used by youth workers, transcripts from interviews with youth workers and accreditation manuals and public documents pertaining to the current political climate were collected and examined. The objective of the inquiry was to explore the role these tools play in linking the youth~worker1organizationa1 context and how these often "taken for granted" tools have the power to transport external and internal influences into the youth worker work process and shape their experience. Findings show that tools used have a great deal of power to shape the practice in various ways: they dictate how work processes happen, how clients are perceived, how practice decisions are made and who has the ultimate control over practice.

M.A. (Social Work) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This study compares the impact of group counseling with that of outdoor group experience upon institutionalized adolescents. Limited to subjects between twelve and sixteen years old, the study evaluates behavior, self-esteem, social and personal adjustment, and sociometric choosing. The object of these evaluations is to test the effectiveness of these two approaches to treating disturbed adolescents who had failed to function in a community setting and who might otherwise have lapsed into delinquency. Significant change following group counseling and following outdoor group experience as measured by accrual of points for behavior suggests that both approaches are effective, with group counseling having the greater impact. Also, younger subjects appear to profit more from both group counseling and outdoor group experience. The absence of significant change reflected by standardized instruments creates two questions. Are available instruments normed on basically normal groups appropriate for use with such a unique group of subjects as those in this study? Also, does the intense resistance these subjects demonstrated toward all pencil-and-paper activities negatively affect the accuracy of results from these standardized instruments?

No description available.

School of Social Sciences Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-300)

Thesis (Ph. D. (Curriculum Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 246-256).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 296-308). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1987.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983.