Despite the growing interest and research on sexual violence, the topic of elder sexual abuse has received minimal attention in the literature. The data used in this study are from reports of substantiated elder abuse in Wisconsin between 1988 and 2003. This study examines the influence of a variety of predictor variables upon the likelihood of a case being identified as elder sexual abuse, where other forms of abuse may occur, as contrasted against those cases where elder abuse was substantiated but no sexual abuse occurred. This study utilizes a case-control forward stepwise logistic regression to develop a final parsimonious model. The presence of material abuse and/or self-neglect decrease the likelihood of a case being identified as elder sexual abuse. Findings suggest that women are more likely than men to be victims of elder sexual abuse. Social workers are often in a position to identify elder victims of abuse due to their work in hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, and private homes. Social work education should include information on elder abuse, highlighting elder sexual abuse. When conducting an adult protective services assessment, information should be gathered from every client concerning the possibility of elder sexual abuse. / A Dissertation Submitted to the College of Social Work in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2006. / March 17, 2006. / Elder Sexual Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Elder Abuse, Sexual Violence, Aging Individuals / Includes bibliographical references. / Robin E. Perry, Professor Directing Dissertation; Deborah Ebener, Outside Committee Member; Bruce A. Thyer, Committee Member.

Assessment is the key to identification of appropriate support and intervention in family health care. Current reviews of assessment tools and practice are being utilized in health prevention and intervention programs. The family, its function, structure, rules, and beliefs are known to have a significant relationship to the health behaviors and illness outcomes of family members (Gillis & Knafl, 1999; and Marmot & Wilkinson, 1999). Currently there is no standardized approach by which interdisciplinary health professionals are trained to conduct family health assessments. The University of Florida Health Science Center interdisciplinary team of health professionals conducted the initial development and administration of the FHS for the Interdisciplinary Family Health course. A 48-item health focused scale contained 11 social support items, 16 health behavior items, and 21 health belief items. This exploratory focus group study was designed to identify how the different health professions responded to the utility of the FHS as a measure for specific aspects of family centered health care assessment. The focus group included social work, medicine, dental, pharmacy, physical therapy, and interdisciplinary health professionals whose aims included: 1) The examination of the faculty's perceived usefulness of the FHS questionnaire for interdisciplinary health care training in family health assessment. 2) The exploration of the interdisciplinary collaborative team members' perspectives on family preventive health behaviors as identified by the FHS. 3) The identification of potential health and social problems that may impact health outcomes by using the FHS. The six health profession focus groups agreed that the FHS questionnaire was a useful tool for training interdisciplinary health profession students in family health assessment, but limitations of the survey tool existed for clinical practice. Responses suggested that using the FHS can identify a whole families health needs and inform the IFH students family health project planning. Issues related to improvement for the future re-design of the FHS were identified, and the challenges and opportunities for the interdisciplinary health professionals actively involved in the assessment process are recognized. / A Dissertation Submitted to the College of Social Work in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2006. / October 25, 2006. / Interdisciplinary Health Training / Includes bibliographical references. / Neil Abell, Professor Directing Dissertation; Marie Cowart, Outside Committee Member; Nicholas Mazza, Committee Member; Mary Ann Burg, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a family narrative/music therapy intervention (FNMT) on family functioning in families with children or adolescents who have experienced the death of a parent some time in the two years prior to the study. To accomplish this, two families participated in FNMT within the framework of a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design. Both families consisted of a single parent (one female, one male) and two daughters. Pretest/posttest measures were the Family Assessment Device (FAD) for adults and adolescents and the Children's Assessment of Family Functioning (CAFF) for children younger than 12. Baseline/postsession measures were a self-rating scale and open-ended questions designed for this study. All family members completed two pretest and one posttest measure and six weekly postsession measures. A random assignment resulted in Family 1 and Family 2 completing baseline measures for six and three days prior to the first session, respectively. In addition to these measures, the therapist completed a behavioral observation form following each session. FNMT involved the use of music listening, drumming exercises, and drawing to enhance emotional expression and facilitate discussion of loss issues and the writing of a story about each family's experience of the death. The six sessions took the family through the loss process and included such topics as facts about the death, first hearing about the death, the funeral, memories of the deceased, the family as it is now, and future plans. The primary intention of this intervention was to create an experience through which family members could process their loss experiences with each other and parents could learn about developmentally appropriate responses to loss. This combination was expected to improve family functioning (i.e., decrease parent-child conflict, increase parental nurturance) so that the family units would provide the emotional support necessary for the children to be able to progress in their emotional and cognitive development despite the major loss they had experienced in their family structure. Data analyses of the different measures showed mixed results. Mean FAD change scores for parents and adolescents showed a trend of improvement in overall family functioning from pretest to posttest. There was, however, no change in the CAFF scores of the younger daughter in Family 1 from pretest to posttest. Interestingly, this same participant who rated no change in family functioning according to the CAFF was the only one whose self-rating scale scores showed significant improvement in parental nurturance during the treatment phase according to the X-moving range-chart analysis. The results for her older sister's self-rating scale scores showed the opposite effect, indicating a significant increase in parent-child conflict and decrease in parental nurturance. Graphic analyses of the self-rating scales, supplemented by the calculation of an average effect size (ES) for all participants, indicated a small positive effect on parent-child conflict (ES = 0.28) and a small negative effect on parental nurturance, as measured by comfort with emotional expressiveness (ES = -0.31) and communicating about death (ES = -0.42). Therapist observations showed no change in the way parents expressed and handled disagreement in sessions but did show positive change in all family members' emotional expressiveness during sessions. A chi-square analysis of the ethnographic content analysis of responses to the open-ended questions revealed no statistically significant difference in the participants' description of sessions as being therapeutic or facilitative of therapeutic ends and a statistical significance in the description of behaviors in the family indicative of more nurturance. A discussion of limitations of this study, recommendations for future research, and implications for practice concludes this paper. / A Dissertation Submitted to the College of Social Work in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2006. / June 6, 2005. / Nonconcurrent multiple baseline design, Child development, Adolescent development, Intervention research, Adolescent grief, Child grief / Includes bibliographical references. / Nicholas Mazza, Professor Directing Dissertation; Clifford K. Madsen, Outside Committee Member; Ann K. Mullis, Committee Member; Ronald L. Mullis, Committee Member.

Juvenile offenders have a number of factors that contribute to their delinquency including family dysfunction, substance abuse, negative peers, and limited education and employment opportunities. The focus for juvenile delinquency research has historically been focused on the youth's behavior in the community and crimes against the "public". The behavior of the youth while in the custody of the juvenile justice system is critically important to the safety of all youth. Self-mutilation by youth in juvenile justice custody is a behavior that elicits fear, frustration and consternation from staff. The incidence rate in juvenile settings and possible indicators that may influence a youth to self-mutilate have had limited attention from researchers and none from the State of Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. The purpose of this dissertation research is to explore self-mutilation to determine if specific aspects of demographics, substance abuse, mental health or criminal behavior influence the likelihood of self-mutilating. A purposive, non-random sample was obtained (N=261) composed of youth residing in juvenile detention and residential programs in the State of Florida. Incident reports of self-harm were collected over a six-month period and examined by two raters. The incidents were classified into three categories, angry/impulsive self-harm, self-mutilation, and suicidal behavior. Far fewer than expected reports of self-mutilation were found. Subtle differences were found between the three groups using chi square, ANOVA and logistic regression analyses. Specific variables that appeared to influence group membership included race, program type (detention or residential), mental health issues and substance abuse. / A Dissertation Submitted to the College of Social Work in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2005. / August 2, 2005. / Juvenile Justice, Adolescence, Suicide, Self-Harm, Self-Mutilation / Includes bibliographical references. / C. Aaron McNeece, Professor Directing Dissertation; Marc Gertz, Outside Committee Member; Bruce Thyer, Committee Member; Laura Bedard, Committee Member.

Relationships between family values, perceived family social support, and stress appraisal among Black and White College students were examined in this study. A total of 200 male and female undergraduate students complete a demographic/background questionnaire, a culturally oriented measure of family values (Family Allocentrism Scale), a perceived family social support measure (Social Supportive Behavior Scale), a perceived stress measure (Perceived Stress Scale), a daily stress measure (Inventory of College Students Recent Life Events Scale) and a coping measure (Coping in Stressful Situations). Results revealed no significant differences among Black and White students in terms of family values, perceived family social support, perceived stress and coping style. However a significant difference was found in daily stress among Black and White students, with Black students reporting more daily stress. In addition, perceived family social support was associated with daily stress and perceived stress for White students. However, only family values were associated with perceived stress for Black students. These findings suggest that Black students may place greater value on family values/family connectedness in the appraisal of certain types of situations whereas White students' perceived availability of social support may be of greater value to them. Implications for future research include further examination of the impact of culturally oriented family values on stress appraisal and the examination of more complex models of stress among racially heterogeneous groups. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2004. / October 28, 2004. / Stress and Family Values, Stress, Stress and Social Support / Includes bibliographical references. / Ronald L. Mullis, Professor Directing Dissertation; Kaisheng Song, Outside Committee Member; Marsha Rehm, Committee Member.

In view of the centrality of child-mother attachment to child well-being and in the context of the increasing participation of ethnically diverse groups in non-maternal care settings in the United States the purpose of this study was to investigate the contribution of ethnicity to toddler-mother attachment and identify the combination of non-maternal care and child and familial factors that best predict the development of attachment. A sub-sample of 817 Euro-American, African-American, and Hispanic 24-month-olds participating in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care was used. Small yet significant differences in toddler's attachment to their mothers as measured by the Attachment Q-Set (Waters & Deane, 1985) were associated with child ethnicity as indicated by Analysis of Variance. According to Post-Hoc comparisons using the Tukey test, Euro-American and Hispanic toddlers were observed to be more securely attached that African-American toddlers. No significant differences between Euro-Americans and Hispanics were found. Using a general lineal model, maternal sensitivity, social support, child gender, and African-American ethnicity were significant predictors of attachment. Higher levels of maternal sensitivity and perceptions of social support, as well as being a girl predicted more secure attachment; being African-American predicted less secure attachment. Furthermore, the relationship between social support and attachment was significantly moderated by toddler ethnicity and gender. Specifically, increasing levels of social support predicted more secure attachment among Euro-American boys. Although the amount of variance in toddler-mother attachment explained by these models was modest, the results of this study suggest that family factors and processes may exert more influence on toddler-mother attachment relationship than the non-maternal care factors available for examination. Cultural variations in parenting behavior and socialization goals as well as limitations of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care data set are suggested as factors that may explain these results. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2006. / October 27, 2006. / Culture, Child Care, Ethnic Minorities, Attachment, Children / Includes bibliographical references. / Christine A. Readdick, Professor Directing Dissertation; Vickie E. Lake, Outside Committee Member; Cynthia A. Lundeen, Committee Member; Ronald L. Mullis, Committee Member.

The National Center for Education Statistics reports that single mother college students are nearly three times as likely to drop out of college during their first year of study compared to single females without children. Qualitative studies on single mothers indicate that financial problems and demands of parenthood are reasons that precipitate voluntary withdrawal from college. These studies also indicate that being able to academically and socially integrate into the collegiate atmosphere increases the chance of completing a degree. Considering the various obstacles facing single mothers, it becomes important to examine why some single mothers graduate from college while others leave without degrees. Therefore, the focus of this study was to examine how potential factors impacted degree completion for single mothers. To understand the magnitude of how potential factors impacted degree completion, comparisons with married mothers were performed. Although vast amounts of higher education research have been conducted on degree completion, little attention has been given exclusively to student-mothers attending college, particularly those who are single. This study utilized data provided in the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:96/01 – restricted level) employing logistic regression to investigate the influence of the integration process (academic integration and social integration), degree type (certificate, associate, and bachelor), and pertinent external factors (age of child, financial difficulties, and family difficulties) on degree completion for single and married mothers as separate groups. Findings revealed that the proposed model of degree completion operated similarly for single and married mothers. This study validated concepts from Tinto's (1993) model of institutional departure for single and married mothers. With the exception of having a child under the age of five, degree type, the integration process, and external factors predicted degree completion as hypothesized. Results from this study filled the gap in knowledge by becoming the first to examine factors that impacted degree completion on nationally representative samples of student-mother undergraduates. Results from this study could inform educational administrators, advocates for single mothers, and educational policy makers about the on-campus and off-campus experiences of single mothers so that better educational and advocacy decisions can be enacted. This was significant, not only for single mothers but also, for the 73% of nontraditional students attending postsecondary institutions in America. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Social Work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2009. / October 21, 2008. / Vincent Tinto, Single Mothers, Higher Education, Secondary Data Analysis / Includes bibliographical references. / Dina Wilke, Professor Directing Dissertation; Xu-Feng Niu, Outside Committee Member; Melissa Radey, Committee Member; Karen Randolph, Committee Member.

Objective: Research with children has been hindered by the lack of standardized assessment instruments that address child emotional and behavioral problems. Very few self-report instruments have been developed focusing on harmful tendencies in children A measure that can capture a child's perceived propensity towards self-harm or harm to others, such as the LSIC, would fill the gap in clinical assessment and practice research. The LSIC can also be a useful medium through which child-related policies can be improved. This dissertation describes the development of the Level of Stability Index for Children (LSIC), a multidimensional, self-report, rapid assessment instrument to assess the harmful emotional and behavioral tendencies children may exhibit. The LSIC describes one's propensity toward depression, suicidal ideation, anger, and aggression. Method: Assessments were conducted with 426 children from various school and agency settings. Emotional and behavioral indicators were assessed using the LSIC and two measures for construct validation: The Children's Depression Inventory (CDI; Kovacs, 1992) and the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI; Spielberger, 1999). Results: Strong evidence was found for reliability, content, factorial, and construct validity. Factorial validity was tested using the multiple groups method and structural equation modeling. Convergent and discriminant construct validity were also examined. Conclusion: The LSIC shows great promise as a tool that can be used to assess harmful tendencies in children and youth. It showed strong evidence of reliability and validity for younger children (7-12 years of age) as well as adolescents (13-18 years of age). / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Social Work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2003. / November 4, 2003. / Rapid Assessment Instrument, Children, Depression, Suicidal Ideation, Anger, Self-Report, Aggression / Includes bibliographical references. / Neil Abell, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joyce Carbonell, Outside Committee Member; Nicholas Mazza, Committee Member.

Parenting can be difficult when parents are dealing with their own childhood issues such as childhood sexual abuse. Cohen (1995) stated that a possible long-term consequence of child sexual abuse is its effect on the survivor's future ideas about parenting, as well as her functioning in this role. "Parenting is a challenging process made complicated by the interaction of individual characteristics and perceptions of parents with the behavior and development of the child" (Crnic & Booth, 1991, p. 1042). This study built on previous research in the area of parenting efficacy of women who were sexually abused in childhood by attempting to improve the regression model found in the original study entitled, Parenting among women sexually abused in childhood conducted by Benedict (1998) by adding child temperament to the model. In order to fulfill the purpose of the study, the secondary dataset consisting of 265 women sexually abused and not sexually abused in childhood from a prenatal clinic at The Johns Hopkins Hospital were examine using a two-stage least squares regression. The theoretical framework that guided this study is attachment theory, because it helped to explain the connections between parenting attachment and behaviors and their offspring's attachment and behaviors. The findings were that payment source, hassles, current violence, and child temperament were all statistically significant to parenting efficacy. In conclusion, there is a relationship between how mothers' view their children's temperament and their view of their parenting efficacy. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2006. / October 26, 2006. / Parenting, Child Temperament, Sexual Abuse / Includes bibliographical references. / Ann K. Mullis, Professor Directing Dissertation; Sande D. Milton, Outside Committee Member; Patrice M. Iatarola, Outside Committee Member; Christine A. Readdick, Committee Member; Marsha L. Rehm, Committee Member.

Obesity and associated chronic conditions are endemic among the American population with rates disproportionately high among ethnic minorities and the economically disadvantaged. If current trends continue, every adult in the United States will be considered obese by the year 2030. Not only do overweight and obesity pose significant physical health risks, persons of overweight and obese status often encounter forms of bias, including stigma and appearance discrimination and are subject to negative myths and stereotyping. The causes of obesity are complex, and include biological, behavioral, and environmental factors. Historically, cultural and social mores have considered overweight and obese individuals the victims of faulty decision-making, impulsive behaviors, or flawed psychosocial development. However, obesogenic environments, or the physical settings that promote population-level obesity by encouraging increased food intake of non-healthful foods and physical inactivity are ubiquitous in the United States. The pervasive nature of obesogenic environments in the U.S. is evidenced by the fact that nearly seven out of every ten Americans are overweight. In fact, for most people, it is difficult NOT to become overweight. Minority, poor, and otherwise under-resourced communities share a disproportionate burden of obesogenic environments, including the phenomenon of food desserts, or areas with severely limited proximal or financial access to healthy foods. For example, fast-food restaurants tend to be more heavily concentrated in lower-income and minority neighborhoods than in high-income and predominantly White neighborhoods, and the availability of supermarkets in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods is lower than in predominantly White neighborhoods. This research study examines environmental sprawl, one facet related to obesogenic environments. Sprawl is a comprehensive measure of an area's accessibility and has been shown to have significant associations with overweight and obesity. The purpose of this research study is to examine the effects of sprawl and energy intake on BMI while assessing the impact of demographic factors. The methods included traditional measures of association and correlation to describe the relationship between sprawl and BMI, as well linear regression methods to estimate the hypothesized predictive effect of sprawl score on BMI score and fruit and vegetable consumption. The sample consisted of adults living in the US who participated in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey and also resided in areas for which sprawl scores were calculated (n= 122,265). A total of 63% of respondents in the sample were overweight or obese, consistent with the current U.S. trends indicating a shift in the population weight distribution towards higher weight categories. Significant differences in BMI scores were noted based on education level, race, income, marital status, and sex, with minorities, and those with lower education and income levels having higher BMI scores and consuming fewer fruits and vegetables. In addition, a significant correlation exists between sprawl scores and BMI scores, with residents of more sprawling areas having higher BMI scores. The multivariate analyses also confirmed significant effects of sprawl and region of residence on BMI, even when accounting for the relationship of other significant variables. / A Dissertation Submitted to the College of Social Work in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2011. / March 18, 2011. / Obesogenic Environments, Obesity, Body Mass Index, BMI, Environmental Sprawl, Food Environment, Food Desert, Sprawl Index, Health Behavior, Behavioral Ecological Model, Health Belief Model, Fat Discrimination, Fat Stereotypes, Standard American Diet, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, Obesity Comorbidities / Includes bibliographical references. / Melissa Radey, Professor Directing Dissertation; LaTonya Noel, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Lisa Jordan, University Representative.