This study investigated the effectiveness of providing a Gottman-based group therapy using art-based interventions to adjudicated male adolescents ages 14-18. The group provided structured interventions based on Gottman's Sound Relationship House Theory for five consecutive weeks at a Department of Juvenile Justice residential program. The first hypothesis was that by attending the group, the adolescents would experience a change in their communication, social, self-regulatory, and problem-solving skills. If these self-regulatory skills were improved, the adolescents would report a decrease in mental health symptoms. The second hypothesis was that by attending the group and completing art-based interventions, the adolescents would report a change in the parent/child relationship. Two mental health measures were collected at pretest and posttest: the Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers (POSIT), which has 10 subscales and the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), which has nine subscales. Three outcome measures for the parent-child relationship were administered. These were the POSIT, the Parent-Child Closeness (PCC) questionnaire with two scales for mother and father, and the Quality of Relationships Inventory (QRI), which has three subscales for the mother and father. All measures were analyzed utilizing a Wilcoxin Signed Ranks test. Based on the 10 subscales measured by the POSIT, adolescents reported fewer family, vocational, social, and leisure problems. Based on the nine subscales measured by the SCL-90, adolescents reported fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Parent-Child Closeness measures for mother and father were significant, indicating a closer parent-child relationship with fewer parent-child conflicts. No statistical significance was found for the QRI measure. The results of the study offer a preliminary finding to support the use of a Gottman relationship-based adolescent group therapy, utilizing art-based interventions within a Department of Juvenile Justice residential program. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2007. / June 28, 2007. / Gottman's Sound Relationship House Adolescent Grou / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary Hicks, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Gussak, Outside Committee Member; Marsha Rehm, Committee Member; Nicholas Mazza, Committee Member.

A basic principle found in attachment theory is that the relationship a young child shares with his or her primary care provider supplies the prototype for later relationships into adulthood and throughout life. Working within the framework of attachment theory and combining a constructivist perspective, this study explored the life story narratives of selected missionary couples. The research questions guiding this study were: How are themes of attachment evident in the life stories of missionary couples? How are patterns of attachment evident in the current relationship? Are self-reported categories of attachment in romantic relationships the same as self-reported attachment to God? Data collection was accomplished by conducting open-ended, semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Interviews focused on life history and lived experiences. Beginning with each participant's earliest memory surrounding family of origin, the life story interview continued through current life experiences as a missionary and on to future goals. Two self-report attachment measures were utilized in the study. These measures assessed romantic attachment and attachment to God. The data was analyzed by fully transcribing participants' audio taped interviews. An interpretive approach was utilized. Life stories evoked rich accounts of participants' attachment relationships, which further reflected individual attachment styles. Some of the themes that were revealed included: significant difficulty in childhood, an individual who encouraged his or her faith and commitment to God, a sense that God was directing, commitment to marriage, and learning a better way. All participants offered suggestions for improved member care, which was found to be the most urgent need of the missionaries in this study. Participants in this study demonstrated that they were able to increase security, from insecure to a more secure attachment, with prolonged secure and committed experiences in marriage. Participants also changed attachment because of attachment to God. All participants found security in their marriage covenant and felt secure that their spouse and God would never leave them. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2009. / December 5, 2008. / Attachment Theory, Missionary Couples, Life Stories / Includes bibliographical references. / Marsha Rehm, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ralph Brower, Outside Committee Member; Mary Hicks, Committee Member; Christine Readdick, Committee Member.

Over the past four decades, the rate of incarcerated for US women has increased more than 700%. Although the rate of incarceration for US men has also increased dramatically, incarcerated women differ from their male counterparts in several key ways. Incarcerated women are more likely than incarcerated men to have less than a high school diploma (or equivalent), to be under- or unemployed, to have experienced homelessness, to be living in poverty at the time of their arrest, to have custody of minor children, and to come to prison with untreated physical and mental health issues (Bloom et al., 2004; DeHart, 2008). The largest disparities are reported on measures of drug use and drug crimes and experiences of interpersonal victimization (Belknap, 2007). The Gendered Pathways Perspective (GPP) identifies victimization as an important pathway to criminal behavior for women and girls, as approximately half of incarcerated women report being first arrested as juveniles, many of whom were running away to escape abuse. Incarcerated women and girls also indicate that they use drugs and alcohol, in some measure, to cope with their experience of violence (DeHart, 2009; Fuentes, 2014; Messina & Grella, 2006). Incarcerated women report much higher rates of victimization than women in the community, with estimates suggesting that more than two-thirds of incarcerated women have experienced either physical or sexual abuse in childhood (e.g., Kennedy, Tripodi, et al., 2015). However, there is evidence that experiences of victimization are rarely mutually exclusive, but rather that victimization tends to cluster for some individuals and in some environments (Finkelhor et al., 2007b). Although robust relationships between childhood polyvictimization (defined as multiple, cumulative forms of direct and indirect interpersonal violence) and a variety of criminal offending, re-victimization, mental health, and substance misuse outcomes are reported using samples of youth (e.g., Cyr et al., 2012; Ford et al., 2010), our understanding of how polyvictimization relates to these outcomes for incarcerated adult women is less clear. The current project examined polyvictimization and five interpersonal and behavioral health outcomes among a probability sample of 39 incarcerated women held in a state prison in Florida. The outcomes of interest were intimate partner violence victimization (IPVV), current incidence of dissociation, psychosis, and posttraumatic stress, and substance misuse in the year prior to incarceration. These outcomes were chosen because they are associated with women's crime, increase the risk for suicide attempts and interpersonal conflict during custody, and have been linked to recidivism after release (DeHart, 2008, 2009; Dowden & Brown, 2002; Lord, 2008; Salisbury & Van Voorhis, 2009; Wright et al., 2007; Zust, 2009). A cross-sectional survey design was used and all data was gathered via self-report during face-to-face interviews. For women in the sample, an increase in the number of cumulative victimization domains experienced in childhood was statistically significantly associated with increased dissociation and meeting criteria for a substance use disorder in the year prior to incarceration. Further, sexual assault statistically significantly moderated the relationship between polyvictimization and both dissociation and substance misuse for women in the sample. A positive effect was noted when looking at IPVV, psychosis, and posttraumatic stress, although the relationships in the current sample were statistically non-significant. Although the data did not permit precise estimates of the effect, the confidence intervals suggested moderate to strong effects that indicated concern about the relationship between polyvictimization and subsequent challenges. Understanding experiences of polyvictimization for incarcerated women, and how polyvictimization relates to subsequent IPVV, dissociation, psychosis, posttraumatic stress, and substance misuse, is of particular importance to the social work profession, as social workers provide the majority of behavioral health services in the US (Proctor, 2004). Social work is well positioned to lead community-based prevention efforts which address how experiences of violence and victimization can influence a woman's sense of herself in relationships and can serve to alienate her from family, school, and employment. If drugs and alcohol are used to cope with experiences of violence, social work prevention and intervention can highlight how substance misuse perpetuates experiences of victimization for at-risk women and girls, increasing risk for arrest and incarceration. Further, over the past decade, comprehensive mental health services have become increasingly available in women's prisons across the country (e.g., Daroowalla et al., 2005; Teplin et al., 1997; Wright et al., 2007). Social work professionals are well equipped to take a leadership role in therapeutic service delivery. More research is needed to examine polyvictimization among incarcerated adult women and evaluate the predictive utility of polyvictimization on negative outcomes among this population. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Social Work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / April 11, 2016. / Childhood victimization, Incarcerated women, Intimate partner violence, Polyvictimization, Serious mental health, Substance misuse / Includes bibliographical references. / Stephen J. Tripodi, Professor Directing Dissertation; Eric Stewart, University Representative; Tomi Gomory, Committee Member; Lisa Schelbe, Committee Member.

Sexual violence is a major issue among students in college. In the past 20 years, researchers have made great strides contributing to the knowledge base of sexual violence and have begun discussing the myriad of outcomes and associations seen in victims/survivors of sexual violence. The present study, guided by stress and coping theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), adds to the growing body of research attempting to understand the scope of sexual violence in higher education by looking at sexual violence broadly and in a more nuanced way. Further, the present study examined the relationships among specific high-risk behaviors (heavy drinking, purging, suicide attempts, and deliberate self-injury) in a large, national sample of U.S. college men and women who have experienced different types of sexual violence (sexually touched without consent, attempted sexual penetration without consent, and sexual penetration without consent) in the last 12 months. Additionally, the study explored whether sexual violence has a differential impact on male and female college students. Further, acknowledging the history of rape in the U.S. as intertwined with the oppression of black individuals, this study explored the role of race in the associations between sexual violence and high-risk behaviors. A secondary analysis of National College Health Assessment data collected annually from 2011 to 2014, resulted in sample of 96,977 male and female college students. Four research questions (resulting in 32 hypotheses) were examined. A series of analyses (independent samples t-test, ANOVAs, and logistical regression) were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results suggested that students in this sample who reported experiencing broad sexual violence were more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors (i.e., heavy drinking, purging, attempted suicide, and deliberate self-injury) when compared to those who did not report experiencing sexual violence, supporting all related hypotheses. Further, as the degree of sexual violence increased, so did the odds of engaging in three of the four high-risk behaviors (purging, attempted suicide, and deliberate self-injury). The effect of gender was examined to determine whether men and women who experienced sexual violence had similar behavioral associations. It was hypothesized that being male would moderate the relationship between sexual violence and each high-risk behavior. These hypotheses were largely unsupported; however, there were a few instances where the more nuanced definition of sexual violence provided insight into male and female differences. Men who experienced sexual violence were more likely to engage in purging behaviors, and men who experienced severe sexual violence were more likely to engage in suicide attempts. Finally, the effect of race was examined to determine whether black individuals who experienced sexual violence were more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors than white individuals and other racial minorities. It was hypothesized that identifying as black would moderate the relationship between sexual violence and each high-risk behavior. These hypotheses were not supported, suggesting that being black did not significantly increase the odds of any high-risk behaviors compared to other minority and white individuals. The present study adds to the body of literature of sexual violence on college campuses and provides further evidence that examining sexual violence in a more nuanced way has merit. Comparing the outcomes between sexual violence broadly and as the degrees of sexual violence provided insight into the relationships between each high-risk behavior and the impact that different types of sexual violence can have on an individual. Understanding that there are individual differences in reactions to diverse types of sexual violence has clinical implications. Victim advocates working with individuals immediately after and/or in the months to follow the sexual violence incident are in a particularly special position to assist victims in the coping process. This study demonstrated that generally, the likelihood of engaging in problematic coping increased as the severity of sexual violence increased. The study also provided valuable information regarding gender differences in associations between sexual violence and high-risk behaviors. To date, most of the research regarding male victims of sexual violence has a primary focus on documenting its existence. A strength of the present study is that it moved beyond reporting prevalence and demonstrated that male victims of sexual violence also have increased high-risk behaviors. Acknowledging the problem of sexual violence in our society has been the first step. Understanding the specific behavioral associations of individuals who have experienced sexual violence is the second step. This is essential in order to help to effectively and responsibly inform victim advocates, health and mental health professionals, campus police, and Title IX investigators how to respond to victims of sexual violence given their unique needs and vulnerabilities. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Social Work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / April 19, 2016. / heavy drinking, higher education, purging, self-injury, sexual violence, suicide attempt / Includes bibliographical references. / Tomi Gomory, Professor Directing Dissertation; Pamela Keel, University Representative; Dina J. Wilke, Committee Member; Stephen Tripodi, Committee Member.

Youth with disabilities are overrepresented among youth “aging out” of the child welfare system (Hill, 2012), yet few studies specifically examine the needs of youth aging out with disabilities as they transition into adulthood. Addressing this gap, the current study provides a more nuanced account of youth with disabilities’ recent transitions out of the child welfare system. Using two national databases, this secondary data analysis investigates differences in educational and employment outcomes between youth aging out with and without disabilities and across youth aging out with different types of disability (i.e., distinguishing emotional from non-emotional diagnoses). Additionally, this study identifies services that improve these outcomes among youth aging out with disabilities. These lines of inquiry provide information about the experiences and needs of youth aging out with disabilities so that services aimed toward improving educational and employment outcomes can be appropriately tailored to this substantial population of youth aging out of care. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Social Work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2016. / June 27, 2016. / child welfare, disabilities, foster care, independent living services, transition to adulthood / Includes bibliographical references. / Karen A. Randolph, Professor Directing Dissertation; Deborah Ebener, University Representative; Melissa Radey, Committee Member; Dina Wilke, Committee Member; Lisa Schelbe, Committee Member.

PROBLEM: Limited understanding of factors that lead to placement disruption and entry into higher levels of care has been a longstanding problem in child welfare research and practice. While prior research has successfully identified some variables that are associated with placement instability, these findings are limited by methodological shortcomings and limited evidence of predictive utility. METHOD: This study attempts to use child, caseworker, and caregiver factors to predict placement type and change in level of care over an 18 month period using random forest modeling. Data from the NSCAW I LTFC sample were used to train and evaluate predictive models. RESULTS: Models predicting placement type performed fairly, while models attempting to predict changes in level of care were unsuccessful. CONCLUSIONS: Future research should continue to consider nonlinear methods for evaluating child welfare outcomes. Consideration of a broader range of variables, localized data, and alternative measurement approaches are suggested. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / March 23, 2017. / child welfare, placement outcomes, random forest, statistical learning / Includes bibliographical references. / Ming Cui, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carter Hay, University Representative; Lenore McWey, Committee Member; Francis Fincham, Committee Member.

The current study sought to examine inter-rater agreement between patients and their peer caregiver's assessments of patient quality of life (QoL) and to identify which caregiver service provision characteristics were associated with inter-rater agreement of patient QoL within prison healthcare settings. In light of the growing proportion of older adult offenders, many of whom face complex acute, chronic, and terminal illnesses, the current study sought to contribute to the social work literature by examining one component of prison healthcare service provision, peer caregiving and proxy ratings of patient QoL, and the potential factors associated with inter-rater agreement. Patient QoL is a multi-dimensional, holistic, and subjective barometer of well-being. It serves as an important indicator of patient sign, symptom, and pain management in both research and practice settings. A growing body of literature has revealed that proxy-ratings of QoL are used when barriers to self-assessment exist. However, the validity of such proxy ratings is unknown in as previous head-to-head studies have shown such assessments are often inaccurate, most commonly related to overestimation of negative symptomology when compared to patient self-reports. Using primary data collection strategies involving both face to face interviews with patients and peer caregivers (i.e., other offenders) and medical record reviews, the current study describes a small sample of patient-caregiver dyads within several prison healthcare settings in the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections (n=52). Univariate and bivariate statistics were used to describe the sample and measures. Bivariate statistics were used to identify meaningful, moderate-effects among patient, caregiver, and prison characteristics. Inter-rater agreement of patient QoL ratings was calculated at both the individual-level (dyad) and group-level (sample). Individual-level measures included raw differences, absolute differences, dichotomous agreement, and identified symptom agreement. Group-level measures included measures of association, rater consistency, and standardized mean differences of patient QoL. Bivariate statistics were used to identify potential correlates of inter-rater agreement prior to the use of inferential models and multiple OLS linear and binary logistic regressions were used to examine the capability of caregiver palliative care self-efficacy and understanding of preparatory grief to account for variation in patient-caregiver inter-rater agreement. Patients, on average, were roughly 61 years old. Patients most often self-identified as Black or African American (n=27, 51.9%), male (n=37, 71.2%), divorced or separated (n=23, 44.2%), and had a highest completed education at the high school level (n=27; 51.9%). On average, patients self-reported relatively low levels of physical symptom severity (M=2.53), moderate existential QoL (M=5.54), and moderate to high global and psychological QoL (M=6.12, M=6.70, respectively). Caregivers were markedly younger, approximately 44 years old and most often self-reported as Black or African American (n=14, 66.67%), male (n=14, 66.67%), divorced or separated (n=10, 47.60%), and had a highest completed education at the high school level (n=17, 81.00%). Caregivers average ratings of patient QoL were as follows: physical symptom severity (M=2.66), existential QoL (M=6.18), global QoL (M=6.91), and psychological QoL (M=6.51). More than 40% of both patients and caregivers were serving life without the possibility of parole, due to violent offenses, a lifetime length of incarceration hovering between 17 and 37 years, and an average age of first incarceration between 25 and 30 years old. Inter-rater agreement statistics revealed mixed-findings with individual- and group-level measures indicating caregivers were best able to approximate patients' ratings of physical symptom severity and psychological QoL and larger disparities (viz. patient-caregiver perception gaps) related to global and existential QoL. Group-level measures revealed similar findings as caregivers were again most adept at matching patient physical symptom severity and psychological QoL ratings. Though physical symptom severity was hypothesized as most likely to demonstrate increased inter-rater agreement across individual- and group-level measures, psychological QoL ratings were not anticipated to be closely matched by caregivers. Examination of correlates of inter-rater agreement revealed few bivariate relationships as both moderate and meaningful in effect, though patient characteristics accounted for 17 of the 23 moderate relationships (74%)—findings, again, in contrast to the larger body of perception gap literature indicating that caregiver characteristics are more commonly associated with rating disparities. Results of both linear and logistic regression models emerged as null indicating that neither of the hypothesized caregiver service provision characteristics accounted for variation in rater-agreement or perception gaps of the single-item indicator of QoL and MQOL-CSF subscales. Limitations of the current study were numerous and included concerns related to bias associated with self-report, cross-sectional data collection, small sample size and subsequent power, and measurement. Limitations notwithstanding, the current study reveals that inter-rater agreement among patients and peer caregivers within the sample prison healthcare settings is greater than similar studies completed with both professional and significant-other proxies in community healthcare settings, most notably for psychological QoL ratings. Three reasons for the increased rater-agreement globally and for physical and psychological QoL, more narrowly, are described related to social role-taking competency, homophily, and shared negative attitudes. Directions for future research including the use of larger, random samples, longitudinal data collection strategies, multi-level modeling techniques, and additional correlates of inter-rater agreement and rater-disparities (e.g., patient education) are noted. Discussed are implications for social work practice within prison healthcare settings, as well as areas for caregiver training and continuing education to reduce of the perception gap. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Social Work in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / March 7, 2017. / Caregiving, Healthcare, Prison, Quality of life / Includes bibliographical references. / Stephen J. Tripodi, Professor Directing Dissertation; Kevin Beaver, University Representative; Jeffrey R. Lacasse, Committee Member; Jean C. Munn, Committee Member.

Bibliography: leaf 124-126. / The author wished to study a community and chose Nyanga, a Black township near Cape Town. As a student from Zululand he was at first a stranger to Nyanga, but learned something about it from direct observation. He then decided that his study should use the Method of Survey, that the sur- vey should be socio-cultural, and that it should provisionally be a survey of Nyanga as a community. He believed that whether a township like Nyanga ought to be called a community or a new kind of neighbourhood was an uncertain question on which his research might shed some light. The author did not intend to add to his research a full study of the history and geography of Nyanga. That would be out of the question for a single research student. But he studied its situation to decide the geographical boundaries of his survey and read enough of its history to understand how its people came to be living there. Using established community survey methods, the author determined the scope, dwelling units, sampling technique, interviewing techniques, and procedures for editing, coding, and tabulating his field data. The formal work in the field began with a Pilot Survey in 1980 and was completed with approximately 200 household interviews in the summer of 1980-1981. Bus and school boycotts and serious unrest on the Cape Flats added to the difficulties of the field work, which was nevertheless persevered in and accomplished according to the research design. The household investigations were concluded with the aid of a 22-item field schedule comprising the open-ended questions and other questions listed on page 42 of the dissertation. Thinking mainly in Zulu, the author initially found interviewing in Xhosa somewhat difficult, and the translation of his records into English was also a complication. With much help from the people of Nyanga, from his Xhosa-speaking wife, and with guidance in supervision at the University, these difficulties were surmounted. The data were hand-tabulated by the author rather than having that work performed through a computer service, for detailed scrutiny of the data at every stage and for self- education. The results of the simple classifications are reported in Chapter 6 and a series of 45 bivariate frequency distributions is presented in Chapter 7 and commented upon in Chapters 7 and 8. The author's conclusions are summed up in Chapter 8, in terms of the relative proportions of key opinions expressed, the very pronounced majority opinions, the possible significance of minority opinions, and the status of Nyanga as a community in the light of six criteria from P.V. Young.

Note: Some text in spine could not be scanned.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.