The fundamental questions this study raised are whether variations in access to service delivery systems persist among Medicaid beneficiaries, and whether they contribute to inequitable medical care utilization. Theoretically, from a structural perspective, examining factors relevant to access to health care, this research attempts to demonstrate that equity in access to care can only be built on equity in access to service delivery systems and, moreover, to socioeconomic resources at the community level. / The study population is Persons With AIDS (PWAs) under the coverage of Florida Medicaid. Variations in their access to the home and community-based services (HCBS) program by gender and race, and its subsequent impact on medical care utilization are examined. / This study found that differentials in access to the HCBS program among the Medicaid recipients by gender, race, and socioeconomic conditions of PWAs' county of residence exist in Florida Medicaid; and gender, race, and the PAC program participation are significant factors influencing utilization of inpatient hospital and intensity of physician care for certain HIV/AIDS-related infections. It is the conclusion of this study that inequity in medical care stems from inequity in access to service delivery systems. A defacto separate health care system for women, blacks, or poor communities is very likely to result in unequal health care for these groups. / Theoretically this study highlights the complex relationship among gender, race, and health care in a society where economic means and health care facilities are unequally distributed. Universal coverage of health care services for all must be accompanied by changes in the organization of the health care delivery system and in the socioeconomic conditions of the low-income communities. Otherwise, the coverage will not only add more to the already spiraling health care cost, but also prove ineffective in providing health care to large segments of the most needy population. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-08, Section: A, page: 2584. / Major Professor: Isaac W. Eberstein. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

This dissertation examines the association between race and infant mortality in the United States in the most comprehensive manner to date. Beginning with a sociological conceptualization of race, a framework is developed which delineates six sets of individual-level factors thought to be instrumental in the continuing association between race and infant mortality. The specific objectives of the project are to test the ability of the framework to explain differential mortality across racial groups and to understand the effects of each set of factors on infant mortality by group. / The 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey (NMIHS) is used for the analysis. The NMIHS is the most comprehensive data set ever collected to study poor pregnancy outcome in the United States. Multinomial logit regression procedures are used to most appropriately model the effects of race and other independent variables on cause-specific infant mortality. / Descriptive findings illustrate that the racial gap in infant mortality is nearly identical for endogenous and exogenous causes of death, with the overall rate of infant mortality among African-Americans about 2.2 times higher than non-Hispanic Whites. The regression analysis confirms that the racial distribution of socioeconomic, demographic, health care, maternal health, and infant health factors are all instrumental in understanding the excess mortality experienced by African-Americans. The behavioral factors examined here do not account for any of the excess mortality among African-Americans. Separate analysis by group suggests that several of the variables work in unique ways to affect infant mortality by group. Theoretical and empirical contributions of the study are highlighted. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-02, Section: A, page: 0691. / Major Professor: Isaac W. Eberstein. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The present study examined African-American male college student's cultural/racial identity and commitment relating to their perceptions of a therapist's credibility and utility. / The research design consisted of three independent variables: (1) Level of cultural/racial identity; (2) Therapist Race (Black and White); and (3) Treatment Approach. / The dependent measure was the Counselor Effective Rating Scale, a 10 item, likert type instrument measuring perceived therapist's credibility and utility. After view a videotape of a "mock" therapy session, it was predicted that participants displaying a high level of cultural/racial identity and commitment would rate the Black and White non-traditional (culture-specific) therapists as more credible than the Black and White traditional (cognitive behavioral) therapists--a partially supported prediction. A non-supported prediction was that participants would be more willing to see a non-traditional versus a traditional therapist. / Regarding credibility, the Black non-traditional therapist was rated the most credible--rather than the White, as predicted. The White traditional therapist was rated as the second most credible, Black traditional therapist third, and the White non-traditional the least. / Regarding utility, the participants reported willingness to see the White traditional therapist, rather than Black, and the White non-traditional White therapist, rather than Black therapist--findings which were not in the predicted directions. Plausible explanations are: group differences in cultural/racial identity, background factors; and expectancy effects. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-12, Section: B, page: 6560. / Major Professor: Charles H. Madsen, Jr. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

This study was an attempt to contribute to a better understanding of elderly Chinese immigrants' information needs, their implications for improved information services, and for the purpose of collecting baseline data about elderly Chinese immigrants' information seeking behavior. The study was exploratory and descriptive. / The subjects for this study consisted of 180 foreign-born Chinese immigrants, aged 60 or over, living in Los Angeles Chinatown, Monterey Park and some cities in the San Gabriel Valley. Data was collected by means of personal interviews in order to answer the research questions. Data were tabulated by frequency and percentage distribution and tested with Chi-square at the.05 level to identify the association that may exist between dependent and independent variables. Discriminant analyses were used to compare the ability of the combined variables to distinguish between users and non-users of specific types of information sources. / The findings reveal that the information needs of elderly Chinese immigrants were diverse. News and information about health issues, hobbies or interests, cultural or religious activities were the most often identified information needs. The most frequently used information sources were newspapers, television, and family/friends. Newspapers, family/friends, and social workers were the most helpful sources of information identified by elderly Chinese immigrants. / The information needs and information seeking behavior of the sample population as related to age, gender, educational level, language abilities, living arrangements, residential area, length of residence in L.A. and frequency of library use are also analyzed. Implications for information services and recommendations for future study are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-10, Section: A, page: 3624. / Major Professor: Charles Conaway. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The first purpose of the present study was to investigate differences between Asian-American and Caucasian mothers' psychological adaptation to having a child with developmental disabilities. A number of variables (initial stress, social support, coping strategies, value orientation, time since diagnosis of the child's disability, and socioeconomic status) thought to contribute to the adaptation were taken into account. The second purpose was to assess the relative contribution of each of the variables to maternal adaptation in each ethnic group. Finally, the unique effect of value orientation as a predictor of maternal adaptation was examined. / The subjects consisted of 37 Asian-American and 51 Caucasian mothers of children with developmental disabilities. They completed several self-report measures that were used to assess the variables of interests. / The results indicated that the Asian-American mothers of children with developmental disabilities were less well-adapted; experienced higher initial stress; received less support from persons outside the family; were more likely to accept the problem of having a child with developmental disabilities as a fact of life; and were less likely to express their emotions as a way of coping with the problem. The results further indicated that different variables were predictive of adaptation in the two ethnic groups. For the Asian-American mothers, value orientation, initial stress, and acceptance coping were the three predictors of maternal adaptation; for the Caucasian mothers, social support, value orientation, socioeconomic status, and distraction coping were the four predictors of adaptation. Finally, value orientation, a neglected element in the prevailing adaptation paradigm, turned out to contribute substantially to maternal adaptation even after several other variables that had previously been found to be more important in determining adaptation were statistically controlled. Implications of the findings for future research and social work interventions are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-11, Section: A, page: 4261. / Major Professor: Stanley Witkin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Determining how prospective and enrolled students perceive an institution can be of significant importance for institutions of higher education, especially if enrollments are low or if efforts are being made to recruit specific groups of students. In recent years, Florida State University (FSU) has had a relatively higher percentage than other Florida public universities of first-time-in-college (FTIC) Hispanic students who were admitted but failed to enroll. The number of Hispanic transfer nonmatriculants also increased between 1985-87. / This study investigated the perceived factors that influenced enrollment decisions of Hispanic students at FSU. A comparison was made between enrollment factors identified by Hispanic student nonenrollees with enrollment factors identified by enrollees. Both FTIC and transfer students from Florida's public community colleges were included in the sample which covered academic years 1987-88 and 1988-89. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire and telephone interviews. The response rate was 45 percent for nonenrollees and 68 percent for enrollees. / Results of the survey showed that the most important factors influencing Hispanic students not to enroll at FSU were that FSU was not their first choice, that financial assistance was not received,and that students could not afford to attend. For enrollees, the most important factors were that they had received prompt information about FSU's programs, that FSU fulfilled the students' preference for a large institution, and that they had been accepted to the program of their choice. Data from open-ended questions in the survey and interviews provided additional information about students' perceptions of the university, in areas of recruitment practices, role models, campus environment, and others. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-03, Section: A, page: 0758. / Major Professor: Louis W. Bender. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

This study investigated the extent to which the literature of adult education either perpetuated or challenged oppressive educational theory and practice relevant to gender and race issues. A review of ten years of the professional literature of adult education was conducted to locate published work in the areas of civil rights, feminist pedagogy, literacy programs, career education, re-entry programs, and other appropriate topic areas related to the focus of this study. These sources were examined to determine in which theoretical way they addressed current radical thought on cultural and political victimization through education. That is, the validity of the position that American schools victimize rather than liberate disenfranchised people was extended to the adult education enterprise and considered by analyzing the content and direction of the discussion in its contemporary literature. The ways in which social control became a factor in the implementation of adult education was also a focus of this investigation. More specifically, published work which reflected both social thought and practice in relation to people of color and women was critiqued for its ideological perspective. / Three socio-political perspectives were employed in this review of adult education literature. Terry's (1974) model of institutional oppression was central to the detailed analysis of racism and sexism undertaken. This particular model enables one to observe institutional behavior and practice from distinct vantage points involving access to power and resources, and control over culture and policy making. A socialist feminist perspective which complements the institutional approach delineated in Terry's model was also used. Through the use of this theoretical base, not only race and gender were considered, but class as well. Finally, Ryan's (1971) work on the ideological process of victim blaming was applied throughout the social critique in this study. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-09, Section: A, page: 2494. / Major Professor: Sydney R. Grant. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

The purpose of this study was to explore the differences between Jews who intermarry and Jews who marry other Jews by examining family of origin relationships at the time of leaving home. The Parental Relationship Inventory (Lich & Silver-Stutman, 1986) measuring the differentiation process at the time of leaving home, the Parentification Questionnaire (Goglia, Jurovic, Wolkin & Sessions, 1985) focusing on family roles, and a background questionnaire exploring the ethnic and religious identification of the family experience of the subjects were used. Intermarried subjects (n = 103) were compared to homogamously married subjects (n = 113) utilizing both bivariate and multivariate analyses. While results indicated that the intermarried group was more parentified and married substantially later, the differences were most apparent when the groups were compared by sex. T-tests, chi-squares, and step-wise discriminant analyses revealed significant differences between intermarried men and homogamously married men on autonomy, respect for intergenerational boundaries, relatedness, mutuality, self-focus and supply-seeking and also parentification indicating that the former group was less differentiated from their families of origin at the time they left home and played a more parentified role. Differences between the groups on ethnic identification and religious observance in the families of origin were insignificant. The implications of the findings are that family of origin factors are influential in the mate selection process and that for the intermarried men in this study their intermarriages were related to being less differentiated and more parentified in relation to their families of origin. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-03, Section: A, page: 1016. / Major Professor: Eileen M. Earhart. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

The question of discrimination in sentencing is an issue that continues to be a source of controversy in the social sciences. Authors such as William Willbanks (1987) have concluded that after controlling legally relevant variables there is no significant effect of race on sentencing. Other researchers such as Hagan and Bumiller (1983) have noted that the relationship between race and sentencing may be dependent on context. This research is the first to apply a contextual analysis to examine possible racial discrimination in the application of the habitual offender statute in Florida. The sample consists of 9,645 male inmates sentenced to the Florida Department of Corrections in fiscal year 1992-1993, who were eligible for habitualization. / Logistic regression models show a strong and significant impact of race (black) on the odds of being sentenced as an habitual offender. This significant impact became stronger under a variety of economic and structural controls. The impact of race was significant both as a main effect and in interaction with other variables, especially drug offenses. The Ordinary Least Squares analysis for sentence length did not show a significant impact of race, as demonstrated in previous research (Chiricos and Crawford, 1995). The theoretical implications of the context of sentencing are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-02, Section: A, page: 0871. / Major Professor: Theodore G. Chiricos. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

This dissertation is a study of the events that brought about the systematic, mass exodus of over 14,000 children from Communist Cuba to the United States between December 1960 and October 1962. It also provides an account of the federally-sponsored and privately managed system of providing foster care for around half those children. / The dissertation's chapters include sections on: parental motives for sending their children unaccompanied to the United States; the role of the U.S. government, the Cuban anti-Castro underground, and the Catholic Church in facilitating the exodus; the actions of the private, local Miami agencies that cared for and relocated children in the Cuban Children's Program; and the overall experiences of the children who passed through the programs. / For this dissertation, a variety of sources were utilized including taped interviews with those who took part in facilitating the exodus, individuals who participated in providing care for the children in the United States, and a number of people who were participants in the program. Also used were Congressional hearings, articles, government reports formulated by social workers and other observers of the time, personal letters written by the children while in the program, statistical reports prepared for the Catholic Welfare Bureau, and informational pamphlets put together by Operation Pedro Pan Group, Inc. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-12, Section: A, page: 4920. / Major Professor: William W. Rogers. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.