In Madagascar, the barriers to persons with disabilities' employability are multifaceted and relate to accessibility, funding, attitudes, and policies. Managers lack knowledge on disability and still perceive disabled persons as incompetent and associate them with costly accommodation needs. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the management strategies and leadership styles that managers could use to enhance the employability chances of persons with disabilities. The conceptual framework featured the concepts of empowerment, employability, disability identity, and relevant transformational leadership theories. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 28 managers in private companies, institutions, cooperatives, and organizations in 3 regions of Madagascar. Data analysis was done with open hand coding and using NVivo 12 software. Key findings related to enabling management strategies that included promoting fair recruitment, tailoring jobs to disabled workers' competences and health conditions, ensuring communication and reasonable accommodation. The study revealed the merit of an inclusive transformational leadership in fostering the employability of persons with disabilities, through coaching, in-training supports, compassion and kinship, motivation, and trust building. The study benefits managers who could better attend to disabled workers' vocational needs. The study contributes to positive changes by influencing attitude change within the workplace and the community that could pave the way to an inclusive society in which disabled people could enjoy their rights to work.

Health inequality conflates a huge number of economic, social, and political issues. These issues, together described as social determinants, determine a population's health through influencing health status and life expectancy. The research purpose of this study was to examine how social determinants affected the life expectancy of the women of Edo State, based on secondary data from Nigeria's 2008 demographic and health survey (NDHS). The theories that guided the study were self-efficacy beliefs of the social cognitive theory and physical self-concept of the health belief model. This quantitative cross-sectional study examined the associations between socioeconomic status, nutritional status, literacy/educational attainment, access to household sanitation facilities, and life expectancy. The dependent variables were health status and life expectancy (assessed using parity and age at first delivery). The independent variables were employment, ability to read and write, listening to the radio, type of place of residence, and persons responsible for reproductive health decisions. The analysis was based on data from 950 completed face-to-face interviews in the 2008 NDHS covering 846 households in Edo State selected using a stratified 2-stage cluster sampling design. Regression analyses showed that listening to the radio, persons responsible for decisions on reproductive health issues, employment, and type of place of residence had significant positive effects on parity and age at first delivery. Employment was the best predictor of both dependent variables. Ability to read and write had a negative relationship with the age at first delivery. The social change implications include the attainment of longer lives in Edo State, Nigeria, through effective policies on employment and education.

Little published research has examined the post-implementation outcomes of public private partnerships for housing, specifically the Military Privatized Housing Initiative (MPHI) from the perspective of the end user, the Military Family Housing (MFH) resident. Using Mettler and SoRelle's conceptualization of policy feedback theory as the foundation, the purpose of this repeated cross-sectional study was to assess residential satisfaction pre- and post- implementation of the MPHI. The study also addressed the influence of sociodemographic factors on MFH residents' perceived residential satisfaction. Secondary data were collected using 2 Department of Defense surveys administered pre- and post-implementation. An independent-samples t test was used to examine residential satisfaction before and after implementation of the MPHI. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the influence of sociodemographic characteristics on residential satisfaction of MFH residents. Results indicated that privately-managed MFH residents were less satisfied than residents of government-managed MFH (p < .001). Results also showed that paygrade, branch of service, ethnicity/race, and having children or dependents in a household were significant determinants of residential satisfaction for government-managed MFH residents (p < .05). In privately-managed MFH, residents having children or dependents in the household was a significant determinant of residential satisfaction (p < .05). The positive social change implications stemming from this study include recommendations to policy makers to continue examination of MPHI outcomes and improve data collection consistency to ensure current housing policies are meeting the needs of military families.

Despite known risk factors associated with families headed by single mothers such as delinquency, substance abuse, and early unprotected sex, researchers have rarely focused on how family relations positively shape the developmental trajectories of youth living in nontraditional families. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between the independent variables of ethnicity, parent-child relationship, and family interaction (including the relationship with important non-parental adults) and the dependent variables of developmental outcomes (social and emotional competence) for youth living in families headed by single mothers. The associations were investigated using data collected from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, a longitudinal cohort study. The relationships between variables were analyzed using a descriptive statistics method. The results of the study indicated no race-related differences in a child's closeness to mother in single-mother families. A significant positive correlation showed a difference in closeness to family members across ethnic groups, by age. Multiple regression analysis was employed to determine if there were statistically significant differences between closeness to the mother or family members, and the outcomes. The findings indicated that closeness to family was positively correlated to emotional outcomes for youth, and a significant positive correlation was found between family interaction and social outcomes. These results may have implications for positive social change by providing public health practitioners with strategies to support positive youth development, altering the future of youth, families, and society which will ultimately benefit from a stronger population of emotionally and socially competent young adults.

Abstract Adolescent males are being suspended or expelled at high rates. Faith-based organizations have developed programs to address these problems by using adult male volunteers to mentor high-risk youth; however, recruiting sufficient mentors is a problem because organizers lack an understanding of the factors that motivate men to volunteer. If this problem can be alleviated, then faith-based organizations will be better able to recruit volunteers to serve students. Guided by the functionalist theory, the purpose of this study was to determine what demographic characteristics and motivating factors discriminated between volunteers and non-volunteers. A causal comparative design was employed and the Volunteer Function Inventory was administered to determine differences between volunteers (n = 112) and non-volunteers (n = 202) in terms of motivating factors, demographic characteristics, and future intentions to volunteer. In alignment with the functionalist theory, multivariate analysis of variance revealed that volunteers were more motivated by social, value, understanding, and self-enhancement factors than were non-volunteers. Descriptive data analyses indicated that volunteers were older, unmarried, employed full time, and less educated than non-volunteers, and revealed no difference in future intentions to volunteer. Based upon the findings of this study, it is concluded that faith-based organizations recruit and retain adult males as role models who exhibit social, value, understanding, and self-enhancement factors to provide support for adolescent males. It is recommended that faith-based leaders use the Volunteer Function Inventory as a screening tool to identify volunteers who would mentor high risk male students. This practice may enable male at risk students to remain in school, graduate, and lead fulfilling lives, thus resulting in positive social change.

United States' policy makers have been challenged creating understandable nutrition labels and effective healthy food campaigns for consumers of mixed heritage. Previous studies explored the sociocultural factors that influence Hispanics' abilities to navigate consumer food education programs, but little was known about how Mexican culture impacts those programs. The purpose of this study was to better understand those factors. Research questions focused on the experiences of residents of a west Texas town regarding their food decision-making process about food choices and their understanding of food education information. The purpose of this phenomenological research was to explore how Mexican culture effected navigation through these programs. I used the theory of dietary acculturation, environmental theory, and advocacy coalition framework as the lenses to view this phenomenon. Data were generated from 9 interviews with primary decision makers concerning food choices for their households. Interview data were open coded to obtain themes suggested by study participants. Results indicated that participants considered healthy food and used varying approaches when selecting healthy food. Family time was an important factor in food choice. Healthy foods messages came from personal physicians, local marketing, and government agencies. The quality and cost of American products were often a consideration. Participants indicated that access to current health information and Mexican food products are integral to making future healthy food choices. The implications for positive social change may include raising awareness among state and federal policy makers of the factors influencing healthy food choices in effective nutrition labeling and healthy food education programs.

High turnover of child welfare workers is a problem to the children and families that receive services and the child welfare organizations that lose their staff. For children and their families, turnover of their assigned worker may interrupt their ability to achieve their permanency goals. Child welfare organizations encounter high costs for hiring staff due to the turnover and the staff that remain suffer with higher caseloads and not being able to provide the quality of services that they should be able to offer. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of child welfare workers who remained with the same employer for 3 years or more. The conceptual framework consisted of 2 theories: organizational climate and organizational culture theory. Two focus groups, consisting of 3 participants from an urban community and 5 participants from a rural community, were used. A snowball sampling method was used to obtain the sample. A content analysis was conducted to discover major and minor themes. This study revealed that 5 factors contribute toward retention: a) caseload size; b) educational background and training; c) recruitment, screening, and selection; d) supervisory support; and e) peer support were supported by all 8 participants. In addition, a new factor of self-care emerged as a result of this study. While all the child welfare workers experienced all the factors that could have resulted in their turnover, due to implementation of self-care techniques they ended up remaining from 3 years to 13 years. Exploring self-care as an answer toward retention is worth exploring and can contribute toward social change in the field of child welfare.

The process of natural gas recovery by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, is a major scientific advance in unconventional energy development. Attention has largely been focused on its economic advantages and potential negative environmental repercussions, while less consideration given to its social dimensions. The purpose of this study was to explore the social consequences of fracking for communities in the Appalachian Basin's Marcellus shale. Research questions focused on the role of stakeholders and the resource needs of localities in shaping public policy. This study was guided by the tenets of the Boomtown theory along with key issues in fracking research such as environmental impacts, water resources, public health and safety, economics, and ethical concerns. An embedded case study research design was employed, using a purposive sample of 8 economic and policy subject matter experts from the 3 most prolific drilling counties in Pennsylvania. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews and were analyzed using open and axial coding with cross-case comparison. Results suggested that positive economic social consequences of fracking involved sustainability in providing generational and employment stability. Negative consequences, such as traffic, damaged infrastructure, and housing shortages, were temporary and manageable. Logistical and demographic information were valuable resources for community leadership, and stakeholders favored autonomy in decision making. The implications for social change include informing policy makers how to prepare the local workforce to be adaptable, establish sufficient infrastructure to support change, and educate communities to leverage opportunity in advance of new industry.

In the United States Armed Forces, 30% of women in the military suffer physical assault each year; in 2009, there were 22 reported cases of sexual assault in the U.S. Central Command. Aggravated assault, gang violence, sexual assault, homicide, and suicide can damage the morale of military personnel at a deployed site and collectively cost millions of dollars over time. Interpersonal violence in the United States military is destructive to the military system and directly diminishes mission readiness. This study was designed to illuminate the environmental, cultural, and political influences that affect interpersonal safety among military women in the deployed environment of Afghanistan with the goal of discovering mechanisms to improve interpersonal safety for that population. Grounded theory was used to analyze data obtained from U.S. military women in Bagram, Afghanistan and their environment concerning interpersonal safety. This information was used to generate a relational social theory based on themes, patterns, and relationships; the theory of US Military Interpersonal Safety, Violence Prevention, and Response. This theory is intended to improve interpersonal safety as well as prevent and counter violence in the deployed setting. Applying this theory is expected to promote better assessment, development, implementation, and evaluation of violence prevention and response healthcare programs meant to mitigate violence and assist military members who have been victims of violence. This study promotes positive social change by identifying precursors of interpersonal violence in a deployed environment and creating a strong foundation for understanding how to prevent interpersonal violence and create response programs to address this issue.

Research has shown that individuals' willingness to believe a disclosure of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is related to just-world beliefs, ambivalent sexism, and defensive attribution. However, researchers do not know whether these variables relate to posts made in response to online articles describing CSA. Negative or disbelieving posts may impact not only the author, but also readers who view these comments via hindrance of disclosures, increased self-blame, and avoidance of help seeking. In this quantitative study, just-world, ambivalent sexism, and defensive attribution theories provided the theoretical basis used to determine whether just-world beliefs, ambivalent sexism, and defensive attribution influenced comments made in response to an online article about CSA disclosure. Eight-hundred twenty participants read the article where the author discloses she was sexually abused as a child. Response comments were coded negative, neutral, or positive. Participants also completed demographic questions, the Global Belief in a Just World Scale, the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, and questions regarding their similarity to the offender and victim. Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed relationships between negative posts and hostile sexism, perceived similarity to the perpetrator, frequent involvement in online discourse, and, to a lesser extent, belief in a just world. Parenthood and perceived similarity to the author increased one's odds of posting positively. Responses of CSA survivors resulted in unexpected findings. Study findings may be used to challenge stereotypes and vitriol often used to silence survivors in public discourse, for thought challenging in psychotherapeutic settings, and for future public education and research to increase support for CSA survivors.