This dissertation examined social persuasion's influence on leader efficacy. Hannah, Avolio, Luthans, and Harms (2008) proposed that the levels of leadership self-efficacy held by a leader are critical in promoting heightened levels of leader adaptability, positivity, and performance. Consequently, Hannah et al. proposed a framework for leader and leadership efficacy. Included in the model was a dyadic behaviors linkage between leader efficacy and follower efficacy. The linkage reflects Bandura's (1997) conception of self-efficacy being subject to influence by four methods, one of which is social persuasion. Scholars have conducted little empirical work to validate Hannah et al.'s framework for influencing leader efficacy. However, this dissertation empirically tested Hannah et al.'s framework by crafting an experiment designed to isolate social persuasion's influence on Generalized Leader Efficacy (GLE). GLE is conceptualized as a dynamic self-concept based structure representing leaders' (and followers') level of efficacy for self-regulation, action and means across a span of leader tasks. Drawing on self efficacy, leader efficacy and mentorship literatures, a model and methodology were proposed to examine the effect of social persuasion on GLE.

This study examined the influence of: 1) research experience; 2) knowledge and education; and 3) agency characteristics on providers' willingness to be involved in research and DEBI use. Grounded in an integrated theoretical framework of organizational and behavioral theories, this study used concurrent mixed methods for a secondary analysis of 20 in-depth interviews and cross-sectional surveys from 141 providers in New York City. Content analysis identified specific research tasks/procedures employed by providers involved in collaboration with researchers, according to whether they do or do not resemble service provision ("proximal") or ("distal"). Multivariate linear regression was applied to determine the influence of these tasks/procedures on willingness to be involved in research and use of DEBIs. The study showed that having been involved in proximal tasks was positively associated with providers' willingness to collaborate with researchers and with their use of DEBIs. Having been involved in distal tasks was negatively associated with providers' use of DEBIs. Providers' level of education, attitudes toward research, and agency capacity were positively associated with willingness to be involved in research. Providers' level of education, knowledge of DEBIs, and agency capacity were positively associated with use of DEBIs. This study demonstrates how proximal tasks/procedures and other modifiable factors (e.g., education, agency capacity, knowledge) may influence providers to use DEBIs. The findings may help inform: 1) best practices for research collaboration; 2) funding to involve providers in research; and 3) training for researchers and providers to collaborate.

This study explores the lived experiences of foster youth in participating in decisions about their lives while in care. Using a research methodology grounded in hermeneutic phenomenology, the study sought to identify the "essence" of this experience through careful analysis of the self-reported experiences of eight former foster youth. Fifteen themes emerged from the interviews with those young adults: (1) No Control; (2) Being Voiceless; (3) A Focus on Now; (4) Not Being Heard; (5) Settling; (6) Living a Public Life; (7) I Can Talk for Myself; (8) Being Spoken For; (9) Powerlessness; (10) Not Knowing; (11) No One Cares; (12) Alone; (13) Confidence; (14) Broken Promises; and (15) Acting Out. Some of these themes -- such as "No Control," "Being Voiceless," "Not Being Heard," "I Can Talk for Myself" and "Being Spoken For" -- echo findings from earlier literature that identified a lack of meaningful opportunities for foster youth to participate in important decisions about their lives while in care. A second group of themes -- "Settling" and "Acting Out" -- captured the study participants' experience in reacting to having few opportunities to contribute to decisions about their lives while in care. The themes in the final group -- "A Focus On Now," "Living a Public Life," "Powerlessness," "An Unclear System," "No One Cares," "Alone," "Confidence" and "Broken Promises" -- provide a more nuanced understanding of the experience of being involved in decisions about one's life while in foster care. Findings from this study suggest that foster children would benefit from having increased opportunities to be involved in decisions about their lives while they are in care. Such opportunities can be facilitated by ensuring frequent, meaningful interaction between foster children and their caseworkers and law guardians; encouraging foster children to attend court proceedings; moving toward a child-centered practice paradigm in child welfare services; respecting the due process right of children; and improving legal representation in dependency cases.

This dissertation examines youth participation in child welfare decision-making in the context of permanency planning family team conferences. It explores the factors that influence youth attendance and participation in decision-making opportunities. It also examines the strategies conference facilitators use to engage youth in decision-making in permanency planning family team conferences. The study employed a focused ethnography design, characterized by relatively short-term field visits, intensive data collection and intensive data analysis. Data collection included observations of permanency planning family team conferences, followed by in-depth interviews with young people and conference facilitators. Grounded theory conventions for data analysis, including initial coding, focused coding, theoretical coding, and analytic memos, were used. Data analysis focused on gaining a deeper understanding of how youth are incorporated into decision-making procedures, including a comparison of youth and conference facilitators' perceptions and experiences. It also explored the specific strategies facilitators used to engage youth in decision-making at the family team conference. The study findings demonstrate that youth attendance and participation in child welfare decision-making opportunities are influenced by the degree of relationship between youth and agency staff. Youth in the study valued workers who provided them with a combination of instrumental and emotional support. Factors that facilitated the development of a positive relationship with agency staff included, case continuity, non-judgmental listening, establishing trust, and transcending roles. Regarding facilitator engagement strategies, findings revealed two different facilitation styles: adult centric and youth centric. Adult centric facilitation placed adults at the center of decision making by failing to engage youth, silencing the youth voice, adopting the adult narrative, and going through the motions. Youth centric facilitation placed youth at the center of decision making by establishing trust, encouraging youth to speak, adapting the youth narrative, and demonstrating genuine care and concern. The facilitation styles are demonstrated through case illustrations and examples. The study's policy and practice implications, limitations and areas of further research are presented.

The elderly population is rapidly growing in all nations. With advanced age comes the risk for age-associated illnesses, such as disorders of dementia. People with neurocognitive disorders of dementia experience impaired cognition and require increasing support and care. They also experience numerous behavioral and psychiatric syndromes as these disorders progress. Their care needs are complex and multidimensional, causing great difficulty and high rates of burnout among informal and formal caregivers and subsequent premature institutionalization. Yet research aiming to discover methods for delaying costly institutional care of people with neurocognitive disorders has focused primarily on bolstering family caregiver capacities. Knowledge gaps pertaining to the use of formal services raise serious concerns. The capacity of the home health care service industry to adequately meet the needs of people living with cognitive impairment is highly questionable. This study adapts the Anderson-Newman Health Services Utilization Model and uses newly available health services survey data to make novel comparisons of service use and cost between consumers with moderate-to-severe cognitive impairment and those with little-to-no cognitive impairment. Previously unstudied agency characteristics are also examined in relation to service utilization, and multilevel analyses examine agency characteristics that influence the relationship between consumer cognitive impairment and service use. The findings of this study demonstrate that home health care consumers with moderate-to-severe cognitive impairment, as compared to consumers with little-to-no cognitive impairment, are less likely to have a spouse, their informal caregivers are more likely to be other family members, and they are more likely to be enrolled in health insurance programs for people living in poverty. They typically have more needs for care, more co-occurring illnesses, greater medical needs, and disabilities that are more severe and long-lasting. Home health care consumers with moderate-to-severe cognitive impairment receive services for many more days, including more medical and non-medical service visits, and are more likely to be readmitted to home health care as compared to their less impaired peers. Excess costs of service associated with significantly higher durations and intensities of service are more likely to be expended on multiple occasions because of readmission. This study also identifies compelling factors that significantly influence the relationship between cognitive impairment and service volume and cost. The most influential factor in determining service costs is the insurance program used to pay for services. Several other characteristics of provider agencies found to significantly influence the relationship between consumer cognitive status and service volume include the number of annual admissions, the size of the array of referral sources, the number of years in business, the provision of care, counseling, health, and social services, the number of full-time employees providing care services and health services, entry-level wages for home health aides, instrumental incentives offered to direct care workers, and retention rates for home health aides and personal care aides. These findings are used to inform recommendations for future research and policy efforts.

Foster care parents are key members of the foster care system and have an immense responsibility to provide a new home, and a healthy, clean and nurturing environment for children who have been removed from their own homes. Several studies have been conducted that discuss the risks and protective factors of foster care children, parenting skills and training, as well as retention strategies. However, only a few studies focus on the experience of foster care parents, specifically mothers, and what prompts them to take care of this defenseless population. A qualitative phenomenological study of 30 foster care mothers served by Episcopal Social Services of New York City was conducted to attempt to understand the unique experience of this group by identifying sources of support, family environment, experiences, satisfaction and cultural socio-environmental factors that have an impact on their role. This research included a first qualitative phenomenological study interviewing fifteen non-kinship foster mothers and a second qualitative phenomenological study interviewing fifteen kinship foster care mothers about their experiences. The interview questions and themes of these two studies are informed by an ecological systems framework. A caregiver stress and coping model, as well as role theory, were applied to understand foster mothers' and their view of their role versus the reality of what they experience, taking into consideration the influence of their non-kinship or kinship status. Among this group of foster care mothers, 20 foster care mothers identified as Latina encompassing the sub sample that was analyzed for the third study. The aim of this study was to understand how culture manifests among Latina foster care mothers. The research evaluates the role of empowerment theory and cultural constructs for this subgroup of Latina foster care mothers, and how both can be integrated into practice within the foster care system. The knowledge of the experience, challenges and views of foster care mothers elucidate important information for the provision of services and aid in the recommendation of interventions and future research for this population. Additionally, this research leads to suggestions to enhance recruitment and retention strategies within the foster care system. By studying foster care mothers, the researcher addresses an important gap in the literature and enhances current understanding of this population.

Formerly trafficked people frequently face substantial economic challenges upon community reintegration. Research pertaining to the experiences of formerly trafficked people following community reintegration is, however, very limited in scope. This dissertation consists of three studies that collectively describe the economic challenges faced after reintegration by women who were formerly trafficked into sex work in Cebu City, Philippines. The first study speaks to the context in which formerly trafficked women make intra-household financial management decisions in the Philippines. In this study, propensity score matching is used to ascertain whether women in the Philippines who manage household finances independently are more likely to experience IPV than women who manage household finances jointly with their partners. The second study, a grounded theory study, explores the process of managing family financial pressures among trafficked women in the Philippines. The third study, a financial diaries study, provides a descriptive overview of the roles that formerly trafficked women play in the financial wellbeing of their households after community re/integration, as well as challenges they experience in fulfilling these roles. Implications for social work practice with this population are discussed.

This three-paper dissertation investigates current applications of intersectionality in social work research and explores the utility of intersectionality in uncovering the complexity of teen pregnancy involvement. To illustrate the current methodological and theoretical applications of intersectionality in social work research, the first paper presents a systematic review of the literature. As shown in this paper, while intersectionality is underutilized as a theoretical concept in social work research, the potentialities of intersectionality to examine the complexity of social locations and identities is manifest. The second and third papers employ intersectional approaches to uncover the complexity of teen pregnancy involvement in New York City. The second paper examines quantitatively the interaction of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation on teen pregnancy involvement among a representative sample (N=176,289) of New York City public high school students. Findings from this paper reveal new patterns of disparities in teen pregnancy involvement based on the interactive effects of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation. The third paper captures qualitatively the interactions of social locations that contribute to perceptions about teen pregnancy among 24 sexual-minority female youth of color who participated in focus groups at a community-based organization in New York City. This paper examines the heteronormative assumptions underpinning teen pregnancy involvement and provides a different story about teen pregnancy "risk."

Located at the intersection of poverty and the New Testament, "Will ‘The Poor Be With You Always’?: Towards a Methodological Approach of Reading the Bible with the Poor" examines how the Bible has been used to justify and condemn poverty and how poor people are coming up against and simultaneously using the Bible in their quest to end poverty. By gathering and analyzing the perspectives of Poverty Initiative Poverty Scholars—grassroots anti-poverty organizers and leaders—who are working to build a social movement to end poverty, led by the poor, this work offers these interpretations as revealing, legitimate and important for scholars, religious leaders, and others in our communities to hear. Through an evaluation of biblical and theological obstacles to end poverty, and a reinterpretation of the passage “the poor are with you always” and the larger context of Matt 26 from which it comes, it describes and further develops a biblical hermeneutic that we have termed, “Reading the Bible with the Poor.” This hermeneutic includes drawing parallels between New Testament stories and contemporary stories of poor people surviving and organizing and investigating important social issues, both historical and contemporary (including taxation, debt, infrastructure and development, charity and patronage, poverty, wealth, and political power). Finally, this dissertation establishes that the messiah Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew is a leader of a social movement of the poor who works to reign in God’s Kingdom and establish an end to slavery, debts, and poverty on earth.

In recent years, racial and ethnic disparities in mental health service access, utilization and outcomes has been well documented. Specifically, African Americans are underrepresented as consumers of formal mental health treatment. While the literature reveals that clergy are often the first choice for African Americans who do seek mental health assistance, it also documents that little is known about how clergy specifically address the mental health needs of help-seekers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of a group of clergy in the Coney Island community of Brooklyn, NY, regarding their role in mental health service delivery and how they address the mental health concerns of help-seekers--particularly African Americans. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted in person with 10 Protestant clergy. Four overarching themes emerged from the data: (1) beliefs about pastoral role, (2) views on mental health need, (3) views on mental health service delivery, and (4) barriers to mental health service utilization. Findings revealed that most clergy believed that the direct provision or referral of mental health services for help-seekers was an integral part of their pastoral duties. Implications for social work practice, education, and future research are discussed.