In Their Own Words: Participants' Perceptions of the Impact of Adult Day Services

Despite the growth in the number of adult day services programs providing long-term care in the United States, researchers have struggled to consistently identify the benefits of the services to older adult participants. Instead of identifying participant outcomes driven by administrative databases, funding requirements or accreditation expectations, this study attempted to identify outcomes through the lived experiences of the older adult participants through one-on-one interviews after 3 months of attendance. The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain an understanding of the experiences of older adult participants and to build theoretical understandings that connect experiences with outcomes. Twenty-eight semistructured interviews were conducted with older adults attending 4 day health programs administered by 1 organization in a large mid-west City. Three main program experiences were identified: social connections with participants, empowering relationships with staff, and participation and enjoyment of activities and services. These experiences seemed to be associated with perceived improvements in psychosocial well-being and a perceived decrease in burden or dependence on the caregiver. The findings provide theoretical connections that are helpful for exploring the impact of adult day services based on participant perspectives. Results suggest a need for further examination of the role social workers play in supporting psychosocial services within adult day programs.     

Is brief daily body–mind–spirit practice desirable for staff who provide services for elderly people? Two pilot studies with care and professional workers

A symptoms-focused approach had only limited short-term effects in addressing burnout. A new trend is toward a positive approach in fostering well-being in the workplace. The current study piloted a daily body–mind–spirit practice programme which provided a 15-minute small-group meeting with staff who provide services for elderly people, towards the end of every workday for one month at two study sites. Repeated measures of burnout, daily spiritual experience (DSE) and engagement were taken at pre-intervention, post-intervention (the intervention lasted for one month) and one month after intervention. The two groups, home help workers and professional staff respectively, showed different patterns in burnout reduction and increase of DSE.     

Trauma and Stress Among Older Adults in the Criminal Justice System: A Review of the Literature with Implications for Social Work

The purpose of this article was to review the empirical literature that investigated trauma and stress among older adults in the criminal justice system. Nineteen journal articles published between 1988 and 2010 were identified and extracted via research databases and included mixed age samples of adjudicated older and younger adults (n = 11) or older adult only samples (n = 8). Findings revealed past and current trauma and stress, consequences and/or correlates, and internal and external coping resources among aging offenders. The implications and future directions for gerontological social work, research, and policy with older adults in the criminal justice system are advanced.     

Perceptions of Parental Intimate Relationships and Their Affects on the Experience of Romantic Relationship Development Among African American Emerging Adults

The quality of romantic relationships that parents maintain has an impact on their children. Emerging adult children base their relationships on similar values and/or opposing beliefs of their parental romantic relationships. This phenomenological study aimed to identify how African American emerging adults experience their parental romantic relationships and how they find meaning in the romantic relationships of their parents. Results suggest that African American emerging adults develop both positive and negative perceptions about romantic relationships from their parents’ relationships, which affect the way these adults perceive, develop, and maintain their own romantic unions. African American emerging adults also find meaning in their parental couple relationships as they share similar experiences in their relationship quality, mate choice, and/or personal or mate characteristics and personality traits as their parents.     

Managing moods and parenting: Perspectives of former system youth who struggle with emotional challenges

Young adults who were served in public systems of care as children are much more likely than their peers to be parenting in adolescence and young adulthood. They are also more likely than their counterparts to have a history of mental health problems. This study examined the perspectives of young adult parents with mood problems who had been involved in public systems of care before age 18. Qualitative interviews with twenty-eight participants were analyzed to examine the experience of managing moods and parenting. Young parents described how their symptoms impact their parenting and how parenting impacts their coping. They also described the strengths and challenges of using mental health services while parenting. Findings highlight the need to provide interventions that include supports for both parenting and symptom management and for providers to include both tangible and emotional support in their interventions.     

The Development of a Screening Tool for the Adult Children of Alcoholics Traits (STACAT)

In order to develop a valid tool for screening the traits of adult children of alcoholics (ACOA), this study focused on finding common characteristics among ACOA and developing a tool based on those characteristics. An item pool was generated targeting three distinct characteristics discussed in the alcohol literature related to ACOA, and the items were reviewed by a panel of experts. Using data from the sample, a confirmatory factor analysis, t -test and correlation analysis were conducted to gather various validity evidences for the screening tool. Cronbach's coefficient alpha test was used to check the internal consistency of the tool. The evidence of the reliability and validity for the ACOA traits screening tool provide the social work practice with an empirically validated method of measuring these traits in the children of alcoholics.     

Using Distance Learning to Increase Literacy Among TANF Participants

Technology and Education for Career Heights (Project TECH) was designed to help Temporary Assistance to Needy Families participants enhance their literacy through distance learning as a means to promote job retention and career advancement. The evaluative research presented in this report was intended to gather information from the participants of Project TECH about their experience with distance learning training curriculum. The report describes Project TECH and what happens when participants who are low-income workers are given a computer, basic training software, Internet access, and training coupled with instruction form a instructor who met with them face to face weekly and provided daily online coaching and instruction. It highlights participants' experience with online instruction and the use of computers in their homes, and it concludes with lessons learned from the project. The information is useful for those wanting to design and develop a distance learning program to increase adult literacy for families that needs to comply with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families work requirements and other demands.     

Research on Divorce: Continuing Trends and New Developments

Research on divorce during the past decade has focused on a range of topics, including the predictors of divorce, associations between divorce and the well‐being of children and former spouses, and interventions for divorcing couples. Methodological advances during the past decade include a greater reliance on nationally representative longitudinal samples, genetically informed designs, and statistical models that control for time‐invariant sources of unobserved heterogeneity. Emerging perspectives, such as a focus on the number of family transitions rather than on divorce as a single event, are promising. Nevertheless, gaps remain in the research literature, and the review concludes with suggestions for new studies.     

Using social support levels to predict sexual identity development among college students who identify as a sexual minority

This study examined the impact of five domains of social support (a campus group for individuals who identify as a sexual minority, family, friends, significant others, and faith communities) on eight aspects of sexual minority identity development (identity uncertainty, internalized homonegativity, identity affirmation, acceptance concerns, identity superiority, concealment motivation, identity centrality, and difficulty in the identity development process). Support from a sexuality-specific campus group was the strongest predictor, followed by support from family members. Supports from friends and significant others had no significant impact on any aspect of sexual minority identity development, while faith community support was not correlated with identity development. Identifying as lesbian, bisexual, or as another sexual minority compared to identifying as gay also impacted sexual minority identity development.