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Abstract: In 2001, African American minors comprised 30 percent of children living below the poverty threshold. High poverty environments tend to intensify feelings of hopelessness, powerlessness, depression, and high levels of stress among such youth. Yet, few studies have examined the perceptions of hope and hopelessness among poor African American adolescents. Furthermore, children and adolescents have not historically co-constructed research. This study explores the constructs of hope and hopelessness from the viewpoint of research participants utilizing photographs taken by research participants and in-depth interviews. The following questions guided the research study: a) How do low-income African American adolescents perceive and experience hope? b) How do low-income African American adolescents think about goals, future orientation and hope? c) How do low-income African American adolescents experience and perceive hopelessness? In-depth interviews were conducted and photographs representing hope and hopelessness were taken by 16 African American adolescents ages 13-17. Constant comparative analysis was employed to analyze interviews and photographs. Qualitative analysis software Nvivo9 was utilized to assist in data reduction and for the generation of themes across the data. The use of photovoice with such populations offers unique perspectives and allows for expression of sensitive topics. The analyses yielded important information about how hope and hopelessness are experienced and perceived in the everyday lives of the youth. Hope generated five themes including caring connections, spirituality, education, "basic needs," and "gonna make it mentality." Perceptions of hopelessness were connected to negative attitudes and beliefs, external constraints, negative behaviors, and deleterious environmental conditions. This study reshapes the constructs of hope and hopelessness beyond the cognitive process related to goal attainment. It provides specific factors that promote hope and factors that impinge upon hope in low-income African American adolescents. This study also gives new insight to culturally relevant ways in which hope is defined and maintained among African American adolescents. This study highlights the use of culturally sensitive research methods with populations that have been historically understudied and marginalized. Findings from the study provide important implications for social work practitioners, researchers, and educators in understanding the perceptions of children and adolescents.
Adopting ethnography as a meta-framework for social work research, this pocket guide provides a detailed, step-by-step approach for integrating cultural components and cultural awareness into the research process.
Schools are facing increasing numbers of homeless students and school social workers and other related professionals are often at the front line of addressing the negative impact homelessness brings to individual students and the school overall. School social workers and other school-based personnel must contend with a myriad of policies and other factors related to homelessness to help students obtain an education. School-based Practice with Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness is one of the first books to focus on this topic in the context of our social work practice. This book guides practitioners through the conceptualization of homelessness, how experiencing homelessness impacts the children we serve, the policies that govern us, and finally a practice perspective. Written with practitioners in mind, School-based Practice with Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness is loaded with case studies and practice examples and is an accessible handbook to addressing homelessness in our schools.
In the world, many women are at risk of being exposed to economic, physical, sexual, psychological, and emotional violence, or even intentional homicide. They might also be exposed to discrimination based on their socio-demographic characteristics, such as their ethnic background, religion, and educational level. The purpose of this book is to bring together academics and researchers working in the fields of applied econometrics and applied statistics as they pertain to women’s issues. The twelve-chapter book includes insights on present econometric and statistical methodologies on women’s issues, as well as a better understanding and evaluation of contemporary policy implications, initiatives, and procedures pertaining to women.
The number of children living in families with incomes below the federal poverty level increased by 33 percent between 2000 and 2009, resulting in over 15 million children living in poverty. Some of these children are able to overcome this dark statistic and break the intergenerational transmission of poverty, offering hope to an otherwise bleak outlook, but this raises the question--how? In Fostering Resilience and Well-being in Children and Families in Poverty, Dr. Valerie Maholmes sheds light on the mechanisms and processes that enable children and families to manage and overcome adversity. She explains that research findings on children and poverty often unite around three critical factors related to risk for poverty-related adversity: family structure, the presence of buffers that can protect children from negative influences, and the association between poverty and negative academic outcomes, and social and behavioral problems. She discusses how the research on resilience can inform better interventions for these children, as poverty does not necessarily preclude children from having strengths that may protect against its effects. Importantly, Maholmes introduces the concept of "hope" as a primary construct for understanding how the effects of poverty can be ameliorated. At the heart of the book are interviews with family members who have experienced adversity but managed to overcome it through the support of targeted programs and evidence-based interventions. Student leaders provide unique perspectives on the important role that parents and teachers play in motivating youth to succeed. Finally, professionals who work with children and families share their observations on effective interventions and the roles of culture and spirituality in fostering positive outcomes. Excerpts from these interviews bring research to life and help call attention to processes that promote hope and resilience. This book will be invaluable for policymakers, educators, and community and advocacy groups, as well as scholars and students in family studies, human development, and social work.
Abstract: While there are several instruments that have been developed to measure hope in adults, adolescents, and children, little research has been done with culturally specific instruments in regards to the construct of hope. As hope is a construct whose definition appears to vary across cultures with different emphasis placed on such things as faith, individualism, and success, it follows that instruments to measure hope should be attuned to those cultural nuances. The African American Adolescent Hope Scale (AAAHS; Moore, 1998) was developed specifically to measure hope in African American adolescents. The instrument was designed with content that was thought to be specific to the culture, needs and environment of the African American adolescent. This study examined the factor structure and reliabilities of the AAAHS, the Hope Scale (Snyder, Harris, et al., 1991), a popular measure of the construct of hope, and the Cultural Mistrust Inventory (CMI; Terrell & Terrell, 1981), a measure of the presumably related construct of cultural mistrust. It was hypothesized that the AAAHS would show a significant positive correlation with the Hope Scale and would show a significant inverse correlation with the CMI. One hundred seventy-four African American college students completed an internet survey that included a revised version of the AAAHS, the Hope Scale, and the CMI. They were asked to answer questions regarding their beliefs, opinions, and attitudes about themselves, their culture, and African Americans. Principal components analysis yielded two-factor structures for the AAAHS and the Hope Scale, and a four-factor structure for the CMI. Full-scale and factor score internal consistency estimates demonstrated moderate to strong reliabilities for each measure. Consistent with hypothesized results, analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between the AAAHS and the Hope Scale. A significant inverse relationship was found between the AAAHS and the CMI. Additional findings yielded no significant relationship between the Hope Scale and the CMI.
This inspiring resource presents theories, findings, and interventions from Positive Suicidology, an emerging strengths-based approach to suicide prevention. Its synthesis of positive psychology and suicidology theories offers a science-based framework for promoting wellbeing to complement or, if appropriate, replace traditional deficit-driven theories and therapies used in reducing suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Coverage reviews interpersonal, intrapersonal, and societal risk factors for suicide, and identifies protective factors, such as hope and resilience, that can be enhanced in therapy. From there, chapters detail a palette of approaches and applications of Positive Suicidology, from the powerful motivating forces described in Self-Determination Theory to meaning-building physical and social activities. Among the topics covered: Future-oriented constructs and their role in suicidal ideation and enactment. Gratitude as a protective factor for suicidal ideation and behavior: theory and evidence. Considering race and ethnicity in the use of positive psychological approaches to suicide. The Six R’s framework as mindfulness for suicide prevention. Community-based participatory research and empowerment for suicide prevention. Applied resiliency and suicide prevention: a strengths-based, risk-reduction framework. Psychotherapists, counselors, social workers, psychiatrists, and health psychologists, as well as educators, clergy and healthcare professionals, will find A Positive Psychological Approach to Suicide an invaluable source of contemporary evidence-based strategies for their prevention and intervention efforts with suicidal clients.
In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.