Browsing by Author "Wilkerson, David A."
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Item Adopting e-Social Work Practice: Pedagogical Strategies for Student Decision Making to Address Technology Uncertainty(Taylor & Francis, 2019) Wilkerson, David A.; Wolfe-Taylor, Samantha N.; Kinney, M. Killian; School of Social WorkStudent technology uncertainty was investigated in an introductory e-Social Work (e-SW) practice course. e-SW practice includes technology-mediated advocacy, research, and services delivery. A convergent parallel mixed methods design included pre- and post-test e-SW self-efficacy surveys and student reflections. There were significant measurable changes in the practice self efficacy scale and sub-scales. Thematic analysis demonstrated the course addressed student needs for increasing their knowledge and confidence prior to engaging in e-SW practice. Privacy and security regulation compliance showed the least increase in self-efficacy and should be an area for further development in future e-SW courses. The findings contribute to a growing literature supporting the need for investment in harnessing technology for future growth in the field of social work.Item Analysis of Social Work Theory Progression Published in 2004(IUPUI, 2007-04-30) Decker, Valerie D.; Suman, Philip D.; Burge, Barb J.; Deka, Ankita; Harris, Melanie; Hymans, Dwight J.; Marcussen, Michael; Pittman, Donna; Wilkerson, David A.; Daley, James G.The authors reviewed 67 articles that discussed and/or tested human behavior theories from social work journals published in 2004 in order to assess the level and quality of theory progression. The articles were further sorted into Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) Foundation Curriculum content areas of HBSE, practice, policy, field education, values & ethics, diversity, populations-at-risk/social and economic justice, and research for purposes of categorization. Results indicated that HBSE and practice were by far the largest group of articles reviewed.Also found was that social work has a limited amount of theory discussion in the content areas of field, values and ethics, diversity, and populations-at-risk/social and economic justice. Thirty-three articles were found to demonstrate theory progression, eight articles presented new/emerging theories, and 26 articles discussed or critiqued theories without presenting evidence of theory progression.Item Community Alternatives for Love and Limits (CALL): A community-based family strengthening multi-family intervention program to respond to adolescents at risk(IUPUI, 2005-11-30) Wilkerson, David A.; Ouellette, Philip M.Family strengthening has become a source of growing interest, research, and program design in the fields of prevention and treatment for problems of youth delinquency, school failure, alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse (ATOD). Despite many studies that illustrate the positive outcomes of family strengthening programs and family-focused interventions, their use in communities has not advanced commensurate with their promise. This article offers a rationale for why programming efforts should continue to be directed towards family strengthening efforts as opposed to youth-focused only interventions. In addition, a community-based, family-strengthening alternative is described that addresses issues of youth delinquency while reducing barriers associated with availability, accessibility, and cost.Item Comparing Crowdsourcing and Friendsourcing: A Social Media-Based Feasibility Study to Support Alzheimer Disease Caregivers(JMIR Publications, 2017-04-10) Bateman, Daniel Robert; Brady, Erin; Wilkerson, David A.; Yi, Eun-Hye; Karanam, Yamini; Callahan, Christopher M.; Psychiatry, School of MedicineBACKGROUND: In the United States, over 15 million informal caregivers provide unpaid care to people with Alzheimer disease (AD). Compared with others in their age group, AD caregivers have higher rates of stress, and medical and psychiatric illnesses. Psychosocial interventions improve the health of caregivers. However, constraints of time, distance, and availability inhibit the use of these services. Newer online technologies, such as social media, online groups, friendsourcing, and crowdsourcing, present alternative methods of delivering support. However, limited work has been done in this area with caregivers. OBJECTIVE: The primary aims of this study were to determine (1) the feasibility of innovating peer support group work delivered through social media with friendsourcing, (2) whether the intervention provides an acceptable method for AD caregivers to obtain support, and (3) whether caregiver outcomes were affected by the intervention. A Facebook app provided support to AD caregivers through collecting friendsourced answers to caregiver questions from participants' social networks. The study's secondary aim was to descriptively compare friendsourced answers versus crowdsourced answers. METHODS: We recruited AD caregivers online to participate in a 6-week-long asynchronous, online, closed group on Facebook, where caregivers received support through moderator prompts, group member interactions, and friendsourced answers to caregiver questions. We surveyed and interviewed participants before and after the online group to assess their needs, views on technology, and experience with the intervention. Caregiver questions were pushed automatically to the participants' Facebook News Feed, allowing participants' Facebook friends to see and post answers to the caregiver questions (Friendsourced answers). Of these caregiver questions, 2 were pushed to crowdsource workers through the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. We descriptively compared characteristics of these crowdsourced answers with the friendsourced answers. RESULTS: In total, 6 AD caregivers completed the initial online survey and semistructured telephone interview. Of these, 4 AD caregivers agreed to participate in the online Facebook closed group activity portion of the study. Friendsourcing and crowdsourcing answers to caregiver questions had similar rates of acceptability as rated by content experts: 90% (27/30) and 100% (45/45), respectively. Rates of emotional support and informational support for both groups of answers appeared to trend with the type of support emphasized in the caregiver question (emotional vs informational support question). Friendsourced answers included more shared experiences (20/30, 67%) than did crowdsourced answers (4/45, 9%). CONCLUSIONS: We found an asynchronous, online, closed group on Facebook to be generally acceptable as a means to deliver support to caregivers of people with AD. This pilot is too small to make judgments on effectiveness; however, results trended toward an improvement in caregivers' self-efficacy, sense of support, and perceived stress, but these results were not statistically significant. Both friendsourced and crowdsourced answers may be an acceptable way to provide informational and emotional support to caregivers of people with AD.Item Friendsourcing Peer Support for Alzheimer’s Caregivers Using Facebook Social Media(Taylor & Francis, 2018) Wilkerson, David A.; Brady, Erin; Yi, Eun-Hye; Bateman, Daniel Robert; School of Social WorkThis research piloted an e-health intervention that used social media to friendsource peer support for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) caregivers. Friendsourcing is a variant of crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing recruits online participants who share a characteristic that makes their volunteerism meaningful when they join to achieve an outcome. Friendsourcing recruits online participants who share membership in a social network that makes their volunteerism meaningful when they join to achieve an outcome. This article introduces our friendsourcing intervention research and examines the effects on the psychological well-being of AD caregivers. After a 6-week intervention, caregivers were found to have significantly decreased burden (Z = −2.01, p < .05) and perceived stress (Z = −2.95, p < .01). Emotional and informational support scores were significantly increased (Z = −2.32, p < .05). Qualitative data analysis of the intervention identified positive effects in new caregiving knowledge acquisition and application and reduced stress in the acceptance of the caregiving role. Joining social networks in support groups through friendsourcing was feasible for AD caregivers who were familiar with social media, and can provide another means of guiding the development of their personal support networks.Item Integrating individual and social learning strategies in a small-group model for online psychoeducational intervention : a mixed methods study of a parent-management training program(2014) Wilkerson, David A.; Kim, Hea-Won; Merrill, Henry S.; Westhuis, David J.; Ouellette, Phillip M.; Hall, James A., 1948-In the fields of formal and informal online adult education, the absence of a social context for instruction has been found to present significant limitations for learner persistence and retention. In the field of online psychoeducational intervention, self-administered and self-paced individualized prevention programs have been developed for delivery to large populations of anonymous users. These delivery models provide limited social context for instructional activities, due in part to the anonymity of their participants. When social interaction is included in their prevention programs through voluntary, asynchronous self-help/mutual aid discussion forums, anonymity may still limit social interaction, in favor of observational learning advantages for self-efficacy appraisals derived from "lurking". When these large-group models have been applied to online psychoeducation intervention programs for the purposes of encouraging mutual aid, interactive participation has been limited. This mixed methods study focused on a model for the design of an online small group psychoeducational intervention that integrated individual and social learning in a parent management training program. Self-paced participation was replaced with facilitator-led participation in an asynchronous discussion forum where topics were prioritized and sequenced with learning content from individual web-based training modules. Social interaction was facilitated through online problem-based learning discussion group. Despite assertions that interactive participation in online psychoeducational discussion forums may only be accomplished once a subscriber threshold of several hundred participants has been reached, this study found that small group participation through the program's integrated design resulted large effects for increases in parent self-agency and reduction of over-reactive, coercive parenting behaviors. Participation in the online problem-based group discussion forum was found to have contributed to participant outcomes when posting characteristics revealed the presence of both mutual aid processes and the application of individual learning module content.Item Lurking Behavior in Online Psychosocial Discussion Forums: Theoretical Perspectives and Implications for Practice(Taylor and Francis, 2016-07-02) Wilkerson, David A.Improving outcomes of telebehavioral psychoeducation requires rethinking program design when delivered wholly or partially for self-directed participation. Discussion forum participation often follows the “90-9-1 Rule” where 90% of participants lurk, rather than contribute content. A theoretical perspective on the behavior can help explain its adaptive functions, as well as the threats that this behavior poses to the lurker. Implications for practice require program redesign that actively links individual skills training and group-based discussion. The proposed linking design can synergize individual and group participation to support the development of mutual aid, as well as greater interaction with psychoeducation content and materials.Item New approaches to research with vulnerable populations - interdisciplinary application of a framework for vulnerability and adolescent capacity to consent(2015-10-16) McGregor, Kyle A.; Hall, James A.; Bennett, Larry W.; Wilkerson, David A.; Ott, Mary A.Children's and adolescents' capacity to provide valid informed consent is one of the key ethical concerns in pediatric research, and the focus of this project. The original contribution to knowledge is the advancement of both conceptual and empirical bioethical approaches to research with vulnerable populations. First, a review of adolescent vulnerability is presented to highlight the complex interplay between capacity and other forms of vulnerability. This review is offered as an interdisciplinary analysis to better understand why the study of vulnerable populations is critical to the ethical advancement of clinical research. Results from this analysis suggest the need for enhanced screening techniques as well as the utilization of specialized staff to identify and reduce the impact of different forms of vulnerability. The primary tasks of the empirical portion of the dissertation were to: (1) Adapt a validated adult competency assessment tool for clinical research, the MacArthur Competency Assessment Tool for Clinical Research, to assess the capacity of children and adolescents to consent to clinical research; (2) Identify predictors that impact children and adolescents’ capacity to provide consent to clinical research; and (3) assess differences and similarities in capacity between healthy and chronically ill children and adolescents. Overall results suggest adolescent capacity to consent to research was similar to adults, and most strongly associated with their family's socioeconomic status as well as their level of health literacy. These findings contrast starkly with the age-based criterion for providing consent currently utilized in assent and consent determinations. These findings also provide insights into ways to ethically involve youth in complex biomedical research.Item Online psychoeducation with parent management training: Examining the contribution of peer support(Wiley, 2020) Wilkerson, David A.; Gregory Jr., Virgil L.; Kim, Hea-WonPsychoeducation is an empirically based intervention that is increasingly delivered online to individuals and groups. Low participation has been a problem for online designs that include peer support. New technology designs have been called for, and in response, we developed a model that synchronized the delivery of individual and group-based psychoeducational activities for parent management training. We used a problem-based learning strategy delivered to caregivers of youth demonstrating oppositional behaviours to encourage the development of helping processes and peer support. This mixed methods intervention study had high rates of participant retention and positive measurable changes for two of its three psychoeducational outcome measures. When we merged the study data, we observed that mutual aid—a frequently sought goal of group-based interventions—contributed to participant outcomes.Item A Social Work Distance Educator Community of Practice: Description, Outcomes, and Future(2021) Wilkerson, David A.; McCarthy, Katherine M.; School of Social WorkThe growth of social work distance education has increased the need for teaching faculty to develop as effective online instructors. We researched how faculty made use of an online practice community during a semester teaching in an online MSW program. Community of practice theory guided the development of a persistent community space for mentoring, support, and pedagogy building using moderated asynchronous discussion forums. Qualitative analysis provided a description of how faculty made use of the community, their needs for professional development, and the importance of peer support. Discussion considered motivation and the use of community for all faculty ranks.