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- All Subjects: Social Work
- All Subjects: GLBT Studies
- Creators: Segal, Elizabeth
- Creators: Ferguson-Colvin, Kristin
- Creators: Jackson, Kelly F
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
The current study sought to reevaluate Cass' Theory of sexual identity formation in terms of lesbian identity development over the past twenty years and how media acts as mediation in lesbian identity development. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with only nine useable transcripts analyzed for this thesis. This study is an explanatory investigation into linear stage theory, specifically Cass' theory, as well as the impact of media as a mediator during lesbian identity development. This study had three objectives 1) to gain an understanding of the theory and its components related to lesbian identity development 2) to understand the lesbian identity formation process and 3) to understand the impact and influence if any, media has had on lesbian self-reported identity development. Qualitative methods were used to obtain information and analyze the responses. Results indicate that the participants in this study believed that the coming out process was important. This study's results showed that several of the participants entered each stage of the theory, while others did not. Media had little influence on the identity development, and the participants had mixed reviews of medias portrayal of lesbians. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.
ContributorsHaseley, Hilary (Author) / Lacasse, Jeffrey R (Thesis advisor) / Segal, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Rounds, Tamara (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This study aimed to fill the gap in research with regards to how individuals who define themselves as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) and devoutly religious (either currently or in the past) manage the interaction between these two conflicting identities. The researchers conducted 8 semi-structured qualitative interviews to examine how these individuals manage this conflict and what affects these individuals experience internally and externally. To analyze the interviews, researchers used an open coding method to determine the common themes amongst the participants. Results indicated that these participants traveled a similar path when attempting to manage the conflict between their religion and sexuality and similar internal and external affects were experienced amongst the participants.
ContributorsWheeler, Heather (Author) / Gerdes, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Klimek, Barbara (Committee member) / Segal, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
African American students are one of the historically disadvantaged groups by the public education system. Related to this phenomenon is the overrepresentation of African American children in special education due to disability diagnoses, which has been referred to as disproportionality. It has been hypothesized that disproportionality is due to poverty or a cultural mismatch between primarily white, middle-class teachers and African American students. Using a sample of African American children in special education from Memphis, Tennessee, this secondary data analysis explored the relationship between children's behavioral and educational outcomes and their environment, efficacy beliefs, and the impact of an intervention, the Nurse-Family Partnership. This study also explored differences in children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors by self-report, children's mothers and children's teachers. Using multiple imputation and regression analyses, the results indicated the following: 1) children's self-efficacy and number of hours in special education were associated with children's academic achievement, 2) mothers' and teachers' ratings of children's behaviors differed from children's self-report of their behaviors, 3) African American boys are more likely to experience acting-out behaviors, while African American girls are more likely to experience anxiety and depression, 4) children were less likely to experience anxiety and depression if their mother believed that she had control over circumstances in her life. These findings are discussed in light of Brofenbrenner's ecological systems theory and Bandura's social cognitive theory.
ContributorsBean, Kristen (Author) / Segal, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor) / Arcoleo, Kimberly (Committee member) / Gerdes, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Black queer women and nonbinary people (BQWNB) living with mental distress are an important sub-group in the Black community in need of greater attention in mental health research. However, the majority of health research about the Black community focuses on Black cisgender men who have sex with men and people who have or are at risk of having HIV/AIDS. To expand the knowledge about BQWNB, I applied critical and transformative approaches to understand mental distress. Using a Black queer feminist mental health framework and transformative healing justice lens, this phenomenological qualitative study set out to explore and describe how BQWNB living with mental distress navigated their mental health and wellbeing with a sample of 17 participants. Data were collected using one-on-one audio-recorded semi-structured interviews. There were three major findings that emerged from participants’ narratives: (1) contributors to mental distress, (2) impacts of mental distress, and (3) positive responses to mental distress. Contributors to mental distress included individual and collective trauma experiences, embodying strength and independence, and experiencing stereotypes about their sexual and multiracial identities. The impact of mental distress resulted in lowered quality of life and reported self-harmful thoughts and behaviors. Finally, positive responses to mental distress included body, mind, and spirit and community-centered responses as well as resistance to cultural norms and expectations and non-disclosure as a form of self-preservation. These findings led to an integrative (not) being-in-distress framework and a new critical approach to mental health and healing that informed anti-oppressive social work research, practice, and education.
ContributorsThomas, DeShay (Author) / Holley, Lynn C (Thesis advisor) / Jackson, Kelly F (Committee member) / Mendoza, Natasha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Approximately 89 million Americans will be age 65 and older by 2050 in the United States. This older adult population is especially vulnerable to loneliness as a result of numerous age-related risk factors including loss of social support and declining health. In addition to these common risk factors, refugee older adults may face increased loneliness as a consequence of war-related trauma, loss, and marginalized cultural values in their host country. Despite their heightened vulnerabilities to loneliness, the experiences of refugee older adults remain understudied.
This is the first study aimed at understanding the loneliness experiences of community-dwelling Hmong older adults, an ethnic group resettled in the United States as refugees over 40 years ago. A constructivist grounded theory method guided by an intersectionality framework was used to address three aims: 1) to understand the concept of loneliness among community-dwelling Hmong older adults, 2) to explore the premigration, displacement, and postmigration experiences of loneliness among community-dwelling Hmong older adults, and 3) to examine how community-dwelling Hmong older adults cope with loneliness. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 17 Hmong older adults age 65 and older residing in Sacramento and Fresno, California. Analysis of the data was an iterative process between coding the data, generating focused codes, and connecting the categories to establish a conceptual pattern.
Participants conceptualized loneliness as a negative experience represented through physical and emotional expressions and intensity, which were influenced by an intersectional identity. Factors that influenced their experiences of loneliness in the premigration, displacement, and postmigration phase were discussed as trust, loss, aging-related issues, isolation, sense of community, access to cultural community, instability, violence, and cultural adjustments. Their narratives offered several coping mechanisms including religious and spiritual beliefs, social support, wandering, activity engagement, and control and avoidance. These findings informed a conceptual model of loneliness that incorporated an intersectional identity, influencing factors, and coping mechanisms. Overall, the results provide nuanced cultural meanings and insight into the loneliness experiences of Hmong older adults. Implications for social work research, practice, and policy suggests the need for greater culturally- and linguistically-competent services informed by Hmong older adults.
This is the first study aimed at understanding the loneliness experiences of community-dwelling Hmong older adults, an ethnic group resettled in the United States as refugees over 40 years ago. A constructivist grounded theory method guided by an intersectionality framework was used to address three aims: 1) to understand the concept of loneliness among community-dwelling Hmong older adults, 2) to explore the premigration, displacement, and postmigration experiences of loneliness among community-dwelling Hmong older adults, and 3) to examine how community-dwelling Hmong older adults cope with loneliness. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 17 Hmong older adults age 65 and older residing in Sacramento and Fresno, California. Analysis of the data was an iterative process between coding the data, generating focused codes, and connecting the categories to establish a conceptual pattern.
Participants conceptualized loneliness as a negative experience represented through physical and emotional expressions and intensity, which were influenced by an intersectional identity. Factors that influenced their experiences of loneliness in the premigration, displacement, and postmigration phase were discussed as trust, loss, aging-related issues, isolation, sense of community, access to cultural community, instability, violence, and cultural adjustments. Their narratives offered several coping mechanisms including religious and spiritual beliefs, social support, wandering, activity engagement, and control and avoidance. These findings informed a conceptual model of loneliness that incorporated an intersectional identity, influencing factors, and coping mechanisms. Overall, the results provide nuanced cultural meanings and insight into the loneliness experiences of Hmong older adults. Implications for social work research, practice, and policy suggests the need for greater culturally- and linguistically-competent services informed by Hmong older adults.
ContributorsVang, Cindy (Author) / Jackson, Kelly F (Thesis advisor) / Lee, Serge (Committee member) / Lopez, Kristina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
A child’s death evokes intense and long-lasting grief in parents. However, few interventions exist to address the needs of this population. This mixed methods project used secondary data to evaluate the impact of a four-day, grief-focused mindfulness-based retreat on bereaved parents.
A quasi-experimental design with two nonequivalent groups (intervention group n = 25, comparison group n = 41) and three observations (pretest and two posttests) was used. Mixed-model repeated-measures analyses of variance were used to assess change over time for the intervention group and relative to a no-intervention comparison group. Outcome measures were depressive and anxious responses, measured by the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25); trauma responses, measured by the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R); mindfulness, measured by the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ); and self-compassion, measured by the Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF). The intervention group was expected to show significant decreases in psychological distress and significant increases in mindfulness and self-compassion over time and relative to the comparison group.
The qualitative component consisted of semi-structured interviews with nineteen retreat participants using a constructivist phenomenological approach in order to obtain a richer understanding of the retreat’s impact on participants’ lives.
There were significant time by condition interactions with small to medium effect sizes for the IES-R and its subscales, the HSCL-25 and its depression subscale, and three FFMQ scales (describe, act with awareness, and nonjudge), all favoring the intervention group. However, not all benefits were maintained at follow-up.
Psychoeducation and relationships emerged as key qualitative themes. Psychoeducation included benefits related to present-moment awareness, fully inhabiting grief, self-compassion, emotional equanimity, and reduced distress or judgment of distress. Relationships included benefits related to giving and receiving social support, emotional expression and sharing, validation and normalization of grief-related experiences, resonance and self-other awareness, self-appraisal, changes in relationships, and connection to a deceased child. Mindfulness seemed to be a key component in reducing trauma responses. Relationship factors, combined with psychoeducation and present-moment awareness, seemed responsible for increasing participants’ capacity for nonjudgmental acceptance of experiences.
The retreat may be an effective intervention for helping parents cope with and express their grief and warrants further study.
A quasi-experimental design with two nonequivalent groups (intervention group n = 25, comparison group n = 41) and three observations (pretest and two posttests) was used. Mixed-model repeated-measures analyses of variance were used to assess change over time for the intervention group and relative to a no-intervention comparison group. Outcome measures were depressive and anxious responses, measured by the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25); trauma responses, measured by the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R); mindfulness, measured by the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ); and self-compassion, measured by the Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF). The intervention group was expected to show significant decreases in psychological distress and significant increases in mindfulness and self-compassion over time and relative to the comparison group.
The qualitative component consisted of semi-structured interviews with nineteen retreat participants using a constructivist phenomenological approach in order to obtain a richer understanding of the retreat’s impact on participants’ lives.
There were significant time by condition interactions with small to medium effect sizes for the IES-R and its subscales, the HSCL-25 and its depression subscale, and three FFMQ scales (describe, act with awareness, and nonjudge), all favoring the intervention group. However, not all benefits were maintained at follow-up.
Psychoeducation and relationships emerged as key qualitative themes. Psychoeducation included benefits related to present-moment awareness, fully inhabiting grief, self-compassion, emotional equanimity, and reduced distress or judgment of distress. Relationships included benefits related to giving and receiving social support, emotional expression and sharing, validation and normalization of grief-related experiences, resonance and self-other awareness, self-appraisal, changes in relationships, and connection to a deceased child. Mindfulness seemed to be a key component in reducing trauma responses. Relationship factors, combined with psychoeducation and present-moment awareness, seemed responsible for increasing participants’ capacity for nonjudgmental acceptance of experiences.
The retreat may be an effective intervention for helping parents cope with and express their grief and warrants further study.
ContributorsThieleman, Kara (Author) / Cacciatore, Joanne (Thesis advisor) / Segal, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Hodge, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
On a given night in 2018, over half a million people were experiencing homelessness in the United States, and of those, about 36,000 were youth under the age of 25. Music is an indispensable part of young people’s identities and cultures, and understanding the ways in which homeless youth define their own musical preferences and use of music can help music therapists intervene effectively in youth homelessness as part of an interdisciplinary care team. The purpose of this project was twofold: 1) to conduct a descriptive research project pertaining to homeless young adults’ use of music and 2) to develop recommendations for music therapists based on research findings from the descriptive project and extant literature. Thirty-one homeless young adults (ages 18-26) were recruited for interviews from two resource centers serving homeless youth in a large metropolitan city in a southwestern state. Template analysis was used to systematically analyze and code participants’ verbatim transcripts from the interviews into a codebook. Quotes from the interviews were used to illustrate themes. Findings included that homeless youth used music, especially metal and rap, for coping and mood regulation, and that youth are also engaged in creative music making, especially singing and songwriting for self-expression. For some youth, certain music can be identity-forming (for better or worse) and certain other music can be triggering. Results are integrated with a review of literature and recommendations for practicing clinicians are presented. Music therapy with this population would likely yield best outcomes by using short-term interventions and culturally competent application of clients’ preferred music.
ContributorsSample, Katherine Elizabeth (Author) / Belgrave, Melita (Thesis advisor) / Glidden-Tracey, Cynthia (Committee member) / Ferguson-Colvin, Kristin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Using integrated threat theory as the theoretical framework, this study examines the impact of perceived realistic threats (threats to welfare) and symbolic threats (threats to worldview) on anti-immigrant sentiment among a nationally representative sample in the U.S. Analysis of the antecedents of prejudice is particularly relevant today as anti-immigrant sentiment and hostile policies toward the population have risen in the past two decades. Perceived discrimination has also become salient within immigrant communities, negatively impacting both mental and physical health. Using logistic ordinal regressions with realistic threat, symbolic threat, and immigrant sentiment scales, this study found that both realistic and symbolic threats increased participants' likelihood of selecting a higher level of anti-immigrant sentiment, suggesting both are predictive of prejudice. However, symbolic threats emerged as a greater predictor of anti-immigrant sentiment, with an effect size over twice that of realistic threats. Implications for social work policy, practice, and future research are made.
ContributorsKiehne, Elizabeth (Author) / Becerra, David (Thesis advisor) / Segal, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Androff, David K. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The number of interracial marriages and multiracial individuals continues to increase rapidly in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Black Female (BF) /White Male (WM) marriages are increasing, but not as quickly as other interracial marriages (Wang, 2012) leaving this population void in social science literature available to social workers. Consequently, there is a lack of information available to understand factors that contribute to these couple identities and how they navigate in the monoracialized systems they encounter. This qualitative study explored how BF/WM partners married in different generational cohorts experience and navigate race and identity as a couple through video recorded interviews where couples shared their narrative as a dyad. The secondary data analyzed was originally collected through snowball and convenient sampling to find BF/WM married couples that were married different generational cohorts living in the Phoenix area. Couples were asked to respond to starter questions (Linhorst, 2002) that encouraged them to share experiences as a couple interacting with community, social, and family systems. Ecological systems framework and social construction were used to guide analysis. Results from the multimodal transcript analysis and detailed review of the video data found themes of invisibility of the couples' relationships from community and family. Differences between cohorts were identified with movement from separation of racial identities within the couple identity to an infusion of both identities represented within the couple. Additionally, insights into the benefits of videography as a data collection method and its usefulness in to connecting social work research to practice were identified and align with the NASW Cultural Competence standards (NASW, 2001).
ContributorsCrudup, Chandra (Author) / Jackson, Kelly F (Thesis advisor) / Gerdes, Karen (Committee member) / Guevarra Jr., Rudy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The Arizona legislature has enacted a number of anti-immigrant policies which negatively impact Latino immigrant families. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of Latino parents on how anti-immigration policies emotionally impact their children and how they believe they can protect their children from the harmful effects of such policies. Secondary data analysis was conducted based on in-depth semi structured interviews completed with a sample of 54 Latino immigrant parents residing in the state of Arizona. Grounded theory methods informed the analysis process. A constant comparative approach was used to complete initial and focused coding. Findings indicate that Latino immigrant parents observed a range of behavioral changes in their children following the passage of anti-immigrant legislature. Parents reported that the emotional impact they observed stemmed from children's social interactions in their home, school, and community environments as well as through their exposure to the media. Latino youth experienced emotional impact is summarized in the following themes, concern and sense of responsibility; fear and hypervigilance; sadness and crying; and depression. Findings further demonstrated that parents protected Latino youth from anti-immigration policies directly and indirect ways by focusing on children's safety and well-being (let children live their childhood, be prepared, send messages), building parents capacity (pursue education, obtain papers), and engaging in change efforts at the community level (be proactive). Parents indicated that by engaging in these efforts they could protect their children, and counter the negative effects of anti-immigrant policies. Implications for social work practice to better advocate and serve Latino youth at the individual, family, and community level are discussed.
ContributorsRubio-Hernandez, Sandy (Author) / Ayón, Cecilia (Thesis advisor) / Bacallao, Martica (Committee member) / Segal, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015