IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks :: Browsing by Author "Pierce, Barbara"

Browsing by Author "Pierce, Barbara"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 18

Barbara Pierce and Wanda Thruston Project Introduction
(Center for Translating Research Into Practice, IU Indianapolis, 2021-03-08) Pierce, Barbara; Thruston, Wanda
2020 Bantz Community Dialogue.
Competency Curriculum Intervention: Student Task Self-Efficacy and Attitudes in Child Welfare
(Indiana University School of Social Work, 2017-12-17) Pierce, Barbara; Park, Taekyung
Three cohorts of BSW and MSW Title IV-E and NCWWI student scholars (n= 125) were educated using a university-agency developed competency-based curriculum and field placement. In order to determine if this curriculum and field placement would improve perceived competence and attitudes toward child welfare work, pre and post-field placement surveys were used. Statistically significant change was demonstrated for most competencies. Attitudes toward child welfare work demonstrated no change from the favorable attitudes students had before entering their field placements. There were no statistically significant differences between BSW and MSW students. Students who had higher perceived competence endorsed motivation and intent to remain in child welfare. Based on the findings, we recommend key strategies to keep up the morale of BSW and MSW graduates in child welfare agencies: transition-to-work initiatives by schools, mentoring programs by agencies, manageable caseloads, and the application of skills and knowledge learned.
Effective workload management in child welfare: Understanding the relationship between caseload and workload
(Wiley, 2019-12) Kim, Jangmin; Yi, Eun-Hye; Pierce, Barbara; Hall, James; School of Social Work
A common assumption in public social service organizations is that workload may be positively associated with caseload. However, few empirical studies have examined what specific characteristics of caseload affect caseworkers' workloads in the child welfare system. This study attempts to address this gap by identifying specific individual and regional factors that influence both subjective and objective dimensions of workloads. Survey data were collected from 1,244 caseworkers at one public child welfare agency in a Midwestern state in the United States. The data indicated that both perceptions of unmanageable workloads and self‐reported overtime work were significantly higher when caseworkers had a greater number of cases than the state caseload standard for the investigations units and worked with at least two different types of cases simultaneously (e.g., working with both investigation and ongoing service cases). Additionally, sufficient staffing numbers to meet caseload demands at the regional level significantly decreased the odds ratio of having to do overtime work. The major findings suggest that the objective and subjective dimensions of workload vary by individual‐ and regional‐level variables. Practice implications are discussed for effective and efficient workload management in the public child welfare system.
Examining Collaboration Within Child Welfare Multidisciplinary Teams: How Home-Based Therapists Respond to Conflict
(2020-05) Walsh, Matthew A.; Pierce, Barbara; Seybold, Peter; Starnino, Vincent; Victor, Bryan
When the child welfare system becomes involved with a family in need of services it does so with the goal of concluding its involvement by finding a safe and permanent placement for the children, ideally with their parents. This challenging and complicated work often has many issues that need to be addressed before a successful closure can occur. To achieve this goal, multiple service providers with various backgrounds, degrees, and professions are tasked with working with each other and the family through a collaborative team called a multidisciplinary team (MDT). However, collaboration is not always guaranteed, and conflict can emerge as the team attempts to best serve the family. This conflict may emerge among professionals and between professionals and the family. Although the underlying factors of collaboration and conflict have been documented and studied, research on the process of resolving conflict when it occurs in MDTs is severely lacking in the literature. Furthermore, MDTs specific to the child welfare system also lack the focus they deserve within the child welfare literature. This grounded theory study addresses the gap by focusing on child welfare MDTs and specifically on home-based therapists (N=20) to determine not only their perceptions of facilitators and barriers to collaboration but also the process that they and their fellow service providers engage in when addressing and resolving conflict. In conducting this qualitative study, this researcher used grounded theory to construct a theory outlining the processes that home-based therapists utilize to resolve conflict within MDTs, starting with the emergence of the conflict and detailing the decision making process through the team’s reaction and the ultimate decision or final result. In the future, these findings could be used to aid and train other MDT members as they face their own conflicts with the hope that a more efficient conflict resolution process will lead to a more effective MDT that keeps its focus on the family and provides the needed treatment and services in a timely manner.
The Experience of Burmese Refugee Students in Higher Education: Blooming out of Concrete
(2022-09) Lim, Minyoung; Adamek, Margaret E.; Pierce, Barbara; Lee, Jessica E.; Huber, Lesa
The United States is the world’s top resettlement country for refugees and the third largest community of Burmese refugees lives in the state of Indiana. Many refugee families look to their college-age youth to enhance their well-being. This study explored the lived experiences of Burmese refugee college students’ resettlement and the role that social support plays in that approach. In order to explore the refugee students’ resettlement experiences and the role of social support, social support theory and conservation of resources theory were used to explain the importance of social support for refugee students’ successful resettlement. A qualitative study using thematic analysis was conducted using 32 in-depth individual interviews with Burmese refugee students in higher education. Through an indepth examination of the lived experiences of Burmese refugee college students’ resettlement, four main themes were identified: challenges of resettlement, resettlement needs, the resources of social support, and resettlement experiences. Refugee students actively cultivated their life and showed aspirations of being successful members of this new environment. Even though they faced many challenges and needs identified through interviews, the participants overcame these barriers including a different culture and language and prosper in their lives in the host country. The social support from the coethnic community and people in the host country both affected the participants’ successful resettlement. Co-ethnic community also plays an important role to pursue higher education. The study findings will be used by social work practice, programs, and policies to improve the success of Burmese refugee students' resettlement. This study would serve as a foundation for enhancing refugee students’ resettlement and understanding the critical role of social support resources during the resettlement period. Burmese refugee students would be an important avenue to develop international relations and achieve social justice. In spite of a variety of barriers and prejudices, Burmese refugee students bloom and flourish in their new environment in the United States. They are beneficiaries but also currently benefactors. The perspectives on refugees need to change and move from victims to the citizens of the world.
Former Foster Youths’ Perceptions of Their Acquisition of Sexual Health Information While in Foster Care
(The 6th Annual Riley Maternal and Child Health Partners in Leadership Education Excellence, 2016-04-15) Brandon-Friedman, Richard A.; Kinney, Marea K.; Pierce, Barbara; Fortenberry, J. Dennis
In response to disproportionately high rates of pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and engagement in sexual risk behaviors, a qualitative pilot study of eight former foster youth was conducted. Semi-structured interviews explored relationships with caregivers, opportunities for sexual health information, and comfort making decisions with current sexual health knowledge. Multiple themes were identified and implications for child welfare systems were discussed.
From Clinician to Community-Engaged Translational Practitioner: Building Social and Mental Health Programs for Children, Families, and Practitioners
(Center for Translating Research Into Practice, IU Indianapolis, 2024-01-26) Pierce, Barbara
Lack of mental health professionals and economic and geographic barriers to care are common in the United States. Overcoming these barriers means providing affordable services in places where there are children. This conversation focuses on work centered on a new grant to increase the ability of school districts to provide preventive and interventive mental health services by educating trauma-responsive social work students and practitioners who can recognize social inequality and help connect children and families to services and care. In this video, Dr. Pierce, her community partners and students share how they are working to support the mental health of children and adults.
The Impact of Sexual Identity Development on the Sexual Health of Youth Formerly in the Foster Care System
(2019-02) Brandon-Friedman, Richard A.; Pierce, Barbara; Fortenberry, J. Dennis; Thigpen, Jeffrey; Wahler, Elizabeth
Youth in the foster care system receive less sexual and reproductive health education, experience higher levels of negative sexual health outcomes, and engage in more risky sexual behaviors than peers not in the foster care system. Counteracting these concerns requires understanding the processes that contribute to these outcomes. A conceptual model interfacing traditional identity development theories and social constructionist theories of social sexualization was developed that posited sociosexual input factors of sexual education and socialization, sexual abuse history, and adverse childhood experiences affect youths’ sexual identity development, which then impacts youths’ level of sexual health. Hierarchical linear regression determined the level of impact of sexual socialization on sexual health within a sample of youth formerly in the foster care system (n = 219). Whether sexual identity development level mediated the relationship between sexuality-related discussions and sexual health was tested as well as how relationship quality moderates the effects of sexuality-related topic discussions on sexual identity development. Further analysis explored differences between the experiences of youth who identified as sexual minorities and their peers who identified as heterosexual. Results indicated that gender identity, sexual orientation, adverse childhood experiences, sexual abuse history, and sexuality-related discussions with foster parents and with peers all impact sexual health. All four dimensions of sexual identity development significantly contributed to sexual health outcomes. Mediation occurred with two of the four sexual identity development dimensions, whereas no moderation effects were indicated. Youth who identified as sexual minorities and youth who identified as heterosexual had significantly different scores on three of four sexual identity development dimensions and youth who identified as sexual minorities had worse sexual health outcomes. Results indicate the importance of the sexual identity development process on sexual health and that youths’ sexual orientation identity must be considered when designing interventions to improve sexual health outcomes.
Organizational justice and secondary traumatic stress among child welfare workers: The moderated mediation model
(Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy (American Psychological Association), 2023-10-25) Kim, Jangmin; Choi, Mijin; Pierce, Barbara
Objective: Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) is documented as a common occupational hazard among child welfare workers. We examined the moderated mediation effects of distributive, procedural, and interpersonal justice on child welfare workers’ STS. Method: We analyzed survey data collected from 1053 child welfare workers in a Midwestern state in 2018. Participants were asked to rate their STS and perceived organizational justice using valid scales. Hypotheses were tested using multiple regression and the PROCESS macro. Results: Distributive justice was a stronger factor associated with STS. The direct effect of procedural justice was not significant. However, it was associated indirectly with STS through distributive justice. Interpersonal justice was associated directly with STS. Furthermore, it moderated the association between distributive justice and STS. Conclusion: Findings suggest that the different types of organizational justice have different functions in reducing child welfare workers’ STS. This study can contribute to developing justice-oriented and trauma-informed organizations that prevent child welfare workers’ STS and reduce its negative effects on themselves, organizations, and children in the child welfare system.
Perspectives of transformational leadership by child welfare workers : impacts on turnover inention
(2018-04-23) Park, Taekyung; Vernon, Robert; Pierce, Barbara; Hong, Michin; Walk, Marlene
It is not a new phenomenon that there is a high turnover rate among social workers. In particular, child welfare has shown the highest rates of staff turnover. To address the issue, turnover and retention of child welfare workers have been studied for decades. The history of research produced a long list of determinants for child welfare worker turnover, more than 20 factors, and showed conflicting findings with the same variables. Moreover, the long list of factors for workers’ decisions to leave has poorly contributed to organizational practices for retaining child welfare workers. Therefore, this study aims to examine organizational factors, particularly leadership, for child welfare worker turnover intention, in order to help child welfare agencies to invent a practice model to prevent qualified worker’s turnover. To do so, it is important to examine the effect of organizational commitment on employees’ turnover intention. Therefore, following is the primary research question: Does the use of transformational leadership style in social work organizations explain child welfare worker turnover intention? A cross-sectional survey research was employed among workers in public child welfare agencies in a Midwest state, United States (N=214). Five models were examined in terms of the direct and indirect effects of transformational leadership on turnover intention of child welfare workers using STATA ver. 15. The study finding showed that transformational leadership styles of local office directors had a direct and negative effect on child welfare workers’ turnover intention. As a result, this study recommends that child welfare provide local office directors with leadership training to reduce preventable turnover of child welfare workers. However, the findings should be cautiously interpreted due to the sampling strategy used in this study.

Browsing by Author "Pierce, Barbara"

Results Per Page

Sort Options