Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Post-Divorce Visitation Of Minor Children: An Exploratory Study, Barbara Griffith

Dissertations and Theses

ORS 107.100 gives the court broad powers to secure the "best interests" of minor children as third parties to a divorce. Further, the Oregon Supreme Court has ruled in Tingen vs. Tingen that the best interests of a minor child involve a complex constellation of factors pertaining to the parents, the environment, and the adjustment of the child. It has been assumed in case law that "reasonable visitation" of the minor child by the non-custodial parent is usually in the best interests of the child and is a right" of the non-custodial parent.

Most judges order reasonable visitation as part …

Changing The Custody Of Children Whose Parents Have Been Divorced: A General View Of The Process, Dorothy E. Bateman

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this project was to obtain a preliminary description, through study of the legal files, of that group of persons who appear before the Court of Domestic Relations for a reconsideration of the custody decision made initially, at the time of divorce. A sample of 92 cases heard in Multnomah County in 1965 was obtained.

A survey of the literature revealed that much of what has been written on the subject of divorce and custody is primarily from a statistical or legalistic standpoint and very little bears directly on the granting or obtaining of custody or the problems …

Factors In Evaluation Of Student Performance In A Graduate School Of Social Work, Sharon J. Copeland, Gerald E. Warner

Dissertations and Theses

This study refined the criteria for the measurement of graduate student performance in a school of social work.

By using present criteria from other studies and general student performance criteria from school brochures a questionnaire was constructed. This questionnaire was administered to a. sample of students, faculty and field instructors from Portland State University School of Social Work. The data from the completed questionnaires were then processed by computer to determine the means, standard deviations of the items, and the correlations between items and between raters.

Through the computed correlations, means, and standard deviations the acceptability and reliability of the …

Factors In Assessing Effectiveness Of Orientation Programs For Public Welfare Caseworkers, Clyde Ferguson

Dissertations and Theses

A study done in 1968-1969 by students at Portland State University School of Social Work at the request of the Oregon State Public Welfare Commission Staff Development Division sought to devise an instrument for assessing the effectiveness of teaching the casework principles of Felix P. Biestek to casework trainees in the public welfare's orientation program. The test instrument developed was found to have low, but acceptable, internal reliability.

Building on the previous year's work, this 1969-1970 study sought to determine the validity of the test instrument by relating test scores to two measures of job performance, namely the latest supervisory …

Attitudes Of Youth Toward Social Institutions: A Comparative Study, Connie Mcgonigle, James F. Bakke

Dissertations and Theses

In August, 1968, after a series of confrontations in the city parks between young dissidents and the police, the Mayor of Portland called upon the Metropolitan Youth Commission to form a special study committee to explore the areas of conflict and to recommend ways in which municipal government might constructively respond to the young people in the community. The independent research project on the alienation of youth, the results of which are reported here, was an outgrowth of the interest generated by the request from the Office of the Mayor. Under the auspices of the Metropolitan Youth Commission (MYC), a …

The Relative Effectiveness Of Three Educational Programmes In Promoting Academic Achievement Among Latency Age Emotionally Disturbed Boys Residing In Treatment Institutions, Denis Quinn

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Several years ago, a small group of men entered what appeared to be an ordinary house in suburban Toronto. These men continued their visits, day after day, for months on end. The outcome of their persistent visits was “Warrendale”—a feature length film which violently jarred open one of the mental closets into which we, as a society, sweep away our most perplexing problems. “Warrendale” dramatically thrust into the public eye a speck of life that could no longer be blinked away. The millions who saw the film had their social blinders rudely removed by the extraordinary residents of that “ordinary” …

Follow-Up Survey Into The Residential Needs Of The Physically Disabled Of Waterloo County: Participation In An On-Going Research Study, Larry Elgin Brigham

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Social Planning Council of Kitchener-Waterloo had appointed a committee to investigate the needs of the physically handicapped in Waterloo County. A detailed account of the evolution of this committee can be found in a paper by my classmates, Edward Mavor and Judy Rees-Thomas.

The sub-committee to which I will be referring throughout this paper is the sub-committee on the residential needs of the physically disabled. This sub-committee was formed as it was felt that there were too many facets to the problems facing the physically disabled to be handled easily by one committee. In order to organize most efficiently, …

An Analysis Of Dr. Malik’S Study Of School Performance Of Children In Families Receiving Public Assistance In Canada, Thomas Robert Mccoll

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The central questions in the Study were: a) how public assistance children compare with those of unassisted families in the same social stratum, both as to their school performance and their potential for it; and b) whether public assistance families differ from unassisted families in the same stratum with respect to goals and values that have a bearing on educational attainment.

The three main hypotheses of the study are that:

1. recipients of public assistance are characterized by goals and values that differ from those of non recipients of some social stratum
2. these goals and values are transmitted to the children …

Social Adjustment, Personality And Behaviour In Training Schools In Ontario, Jerome Caron

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This report was chosen for analysis as we had, while working in the Children’s Aid Society worked with wards who were to be sent to training schools or who were discharged, needing foster homes. Experience during our first field placement, at Madame Vanier Children’s Services, in London, was also gained, as we daily came in contact with children who could be potentially admitted to training school. The positive response of these children to considerate and fair treatment was very evident in this setting. The social policy implications of this report, in which Dr. Grygier emphasizes the need for fair laws …

A Behavioral Therapy Program With Chronic Mental Patients: An Experimental Demonstration Proposal, Bryon Bonell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of The Personality Trait Of Dependence As A Factor Influencing Social Work Practice, Evelyn J. Eisenberg

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Study Of Foster Homes And Group Homes, William Benbow

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

Evaluation By Foster Parents Of Services Received From The Children’S Aid Society Of Metropolitan Toronto, Barbara Allen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The problem area is evaluation of service by foster parents. My concern with this problem stems first from a general concern for what recipients of service value or devalue in that service. There is sparse available data in this area. John E. Mayer and Noel Timms state that “For many years caseworkers have experimented with different ways of helping people. Curiously, the resultant innovations have stemmed not from the client’s perception of what is helpful, but from the practitioner’s. Moreover, with few exceptions, the effectiveness of help has been judged by the persons offering, not receiving, help. In a word …

A Study Of The Amphetamine Abuser: Personality Characteristics And “Meaning To Life”, Terrence L. Esch

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This paper will review the literature on amphetamine abuse after which I will discuss some implications for treatment. I will propose an empirical study that should help clarify a major assumption that is apparent in the literature. This study will then point out the possibility of a method of treatment that can be effective in helping amphetamine abusers.

The papers consists of three major themes: (a) Review of the Literature, (b) Implications for treatment, and (c) a proposed empirical study questioning the difference of personality traits and “meaning to life” between amphetamine abusers and youth who are considered to be …

Barriers To Attainment Of Health Care In West Central Maine : A Critique By The Poor, Health Facilities Planning Council

Maine Collection

Barriers to Attainment of Health Care in West Central Maine : A Critique by the Poor

"Conducted by the Health Facilities Planning Council, 11 Parkwood Drive, Augusta, Maine under contract to Maine Department of Health and Welfare, June, 1969."

Contents: Foreword / Table of Contents / Introduction / Map / Franklin County / Housing / Dental Rot / Franklin County Memorial Hospital / Family Planning / RN's / State Public Health Nurses / Unmet Health Needs / The Last Outpost / Home Visit in Farmington Falls / Home Visit in Industry / Home Visit in Rangeley Area / Conversations on …

Verbal Accessibility And Authoritarian Family Ideology: A Study Of 50 Graduate Social Work Students And Their Spouses, Linda Louise Metz

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is the fourth in a series of empirical investigations concerned with symbolic interaction in marriage. Its basic assumption is that personal predispositions of marital partners as well as the social context of their marriage influences marital intimacy particularly the partner's readiness to communicate verbally with each other about important attitudes and feelings.

Fifty married graduate students attending Portland State University School of Social Work and their spouses comprised the sample. The subjects responded to three instruments: (1) a personality scale (Authoritarian Family Ideology – AFI) developed by Jane Loevinger, (2) a measure of verbal accessibility (VA), and (3) …

Evaluation Of The Role Of Neighborhood Health Coordinators In A Comprehensive Neighborhood Health Services Project, Sharron Faye Easley

Dissertations and Theses

This study evaluates the role of the Neighborhood Health Coordinators (NHC's) within Kaiser Foundation's Comprehensive Neighborhood Health Services (CNHS) Project. This project was established in September 1967, under the provisions of the 1966 amendments to the Economic Opportunity Act, to provide and make readily available comprehensive medical care to low-income persons. In compliance with the stipulations of this Act, persons who reside in target areas, designated as depressed neighborhoods, were hired to serve as NHC's. These indigenous non-professionals serve as links or "gatekeepers" between the low-income persons enrolled in this program, and the Kaiser medical care facilities which include the …

Judging Development And Sexual Identity In Children's Art, Susan Lathrop Dietsche

Dissertations and Theses

This study identified selected characteristics of sexual identity and artistic development using 481 pictures from a collection of 1,008 pictures drawn by first through fourth grade males and females. The pictures were collected by the E. C. Brown Trust Foundation to study children's concepts of reproduction.

Three general hypotheses were developed: I. Sex differences are observable in children's art; II. There are observable differences in artistic development as grade level changes; III. Observations by social workers of content in children's art are reliable. From a search of the literature, certain variables were identified, including content, use of color, and aspects …

The Complaint Process In Protective Services For Children, William L. Carey

Dissertations and Theses

This is a descriptive study of the community process by which a complaint is made to a protective service agency. It is by this process that deviant child care is first identified and the decision to take action is made. The study develops a typology of the complaint process and identifies seven elements as significant in complaints that reach community agencies. The elements were: the complaint situation, the precipitating events that brought the complaint situation to the attention of someone outside the nuclear family, the relationship between the complainant and family, the complainant's motivation for responding to the complaint situation, …

Measuring Trainee Comprehension Of Casework Relationship In A Public Welfare Orientation Program, Margaret Berweger

Dissertations and Theses

This study was undertaken as a first step in measuring effectiveness of the Oregon State Public Welfare Orientation Center program in teaching principles of the casework relationship as conceptualized by Felix P. Biestek. This anticipated the development of a reasonably reliable instrument, improvement and validation of which would be undertaken in a subsequent study.

The population tested was made up of male and female college graduates, newly hired by the State, who were then entering a four week orientation program for caseworkers. Their education and experience varied, but all had passed the State Civil Service examination for this position.

Learning …

Some Interrelationships Between A Community Work And Training Program And Selected Indices Of Family Functioning, Audrey K. Arnst

Dissertations and Theses

This was an exploratory study of some of the relationships between a Community Work and Training Program and the family functioning of certain participants in that program. The CWT projects studied were those operated by the Public Welfare Departments of Clackamas and Marion Counties, Oregon during the three-year span between January 1, 1965 and December 31, 1967.

Participants' names were randomly selected from the records of the two welfare offices and the respondents interviewed during the summer of 1968. A questionnaire was developed which consisted of twenty primarily open-ended questions and this was administered to a total of sixty couples. …

Model Neighborhoods: A Research Note, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Cities, like people, age. In the United States the aging process for cities has, in many ways, been less than graceful. As a result, there is great concern in this country today with the “decline” of our cities. This note considers the elderly population of south Minneapolis Minnesota and makes recommendations for the adaptation of the Model Cities program to better meet their needs.

The Green Thumb Program, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The Green Thumb program was a prominent national feature of the rural “war on poverty” beginning in early 1966. A public works outdoor beautification program to employ low income older workers. It was modeled on the 1930s era Civilian Conservation Corps, and funded under contract to the National Farmers’ Union by the U.S. Labor Department. By the 1980s, when it was eclipsed by an experimental computer-based video text information delivery system for farmers of the same name Green Thumb had largely disappeared from public view. Today, a Google search with the phrase “Green Thumb program” turns up dozens of references …

Requests By Married Parents For Adoption Placement Of Their Children: An Analysis Of A Research Study, With Some Observations On The Relevance Of The Study For Social Work Practice, Olive E. Bolton

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present study has been undertaken as a result of the reviewer’s interest in the problem of married parents requesting adoption placement of their children, based on her experience in giving service to a small group of these parents at the Children’s Aid Society for the County of Waterloo.

An analysis of the research project of Evelyn McCorkell is the focus of this study. Her project appears to have marked the beginning of an examination of the problem.

Since her study was completed in 1957, there has been additional examination of the problem in the literature, indicating its relevance for …

An Exploration Of Utilization Of College Graduates In Social Work: An Innovative Approach To The Manpower Crisis In The Profession Of Social Work, Doris Jane Baker

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The researcher’s interest in the professional manpower shortage in Social Work (i.e. the MSW) has been generated by the belief that Provincial and Canadian Associations of Social Workers have not been sufficiently concerned with the agency employed by B.A. level of social workers who are eager to attain professional status, if they are given the appropriate opportunity. This researcher believes that many such social workers do not make application to Graduate Schools and conversely, are not recruited by the Graduate Schools as some members of both groups have a suspicion that the present curriculum is not in keeping with the …

An Investigation Of Background Factors And Selected Personality Correlates Of Achievement Motivation, Ernest T. Rivait

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In January of 1962, Lewis Arnold Koenigsberg, in completing the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology in the Graduate School of Syracuse University, submitted his dissertation entitled: Achievement Motivation. This particular essay is an analysis of that dissertation.

The purpose of Koenigsberg’s study was to examine the influence of certain child training practices in the development of the need for achievement and also the relationship between achievement motivation and intra-family interaction and selected personality traits. Thus, the relationship between certain dependent variables, such as—home background, personality characteristics and relationships with other family members—and, the independent variable—need achievement—was studied. …

A Social Rehabilitation Program Implementation And Analysis: A Demonstration-Experimental Proposal, William Becks

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The intent of this proposal is to institute a social rehabilitation program on a ward of approximately 40-50 patients and then to assess and analyze the results of the program. Evaluation is to be undertaken through the utilization of a control group of approximately the same size, composition, and general philosophy located within the same hospital.

In designing a research proposal for such a hospital, three important issues must be addressed as the effects of the program have ramifications that radiate throughout the hospital structure. The three issues, in the order of the manner they will be outlined, are operational …

Social Worker Efficacy In Changing School System Policies, Joan E. Smith

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The policies of an organization are the most important component in defining its purpose and setting its priorities. The public school system in Ontario is no exception to this rule. In the past century education in the public domain has made no major changes in its policies. The present authoritarian, tightly constricted, vertical hierarchy is the same organizational structure introduced by Ryerson in the 1850’s. At that time, such a system reflected the prevailing societal purposes and needs. But today the public school system does not function in such a manner as to fill its role in 20th century Canadian …

School Performance Of Children In Families Receiving Public Assistance In Canada, Margaret Stephenson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The choice of this particular piece of research for analysis was to some extent influenced by the experiences of my field placements in a Children’s Aid Society and in Provincial Welfare. In both settings I worked with families receiving public assistance and became concerned about the generally poor performance and adjustment in school of many children in these families. Increasing emphasis is being placed on the need for education. It is important to examine the situation in order to see why these children are not successful, so that changes can be brought about to meet their educational needs. Without adequate …

Infant Day Care And The Working Mother: A Proposal For Reducing Maternal Anxiety, David W. Adams

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

My interest in the day care of children of working mothers was stimulated by my recent involvement in a study of the need for day care facilities in Kitchener-Waterloo. During this study it became apparent that most of the facilities and the interest in day care programs was related specifically to the care and education of children ages three to five. In reviewing the findings of a questionnaire used in the study however, it was readily determined that another problem existed. A total of 75 of 170 working mothers from industry stated that they placed a total of 84 infants …