Browsing by Author "Yi, Eun-Hye"

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    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 Medicine
    BACKGROUND: 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.
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    Comprehensive assessment of youth violence in five Caribbean countries: Gender and age differences
    (Taylor & Francis, 2017) Gentle-Genitty, Carolyn; Kim, Jangmin; Yi, Eun-Hye; Slater, Douglas; Reynolds, Beverly; Bragg, Natasha; School of Social Work
    Differences in gender and age have been established in the context of crime, violence, and prevalence of risk and protective factors. These studies are often notable only in the Western Hemisphere. Despite growth in crime and violence in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), relatively little understanding of violence in CARICOM member states exists. In light of these concerns, the major purposes of this study include: (1) comprehensively assessing the scope of the four behaviors (i.e., engagement, victimization, witness, and report) in relation to violence and youth’s perceptions of risk and protective factors in family and school domains, and (2) examining how they differ by youth’s gender and age. This study draws on assessment data on youth violence in five CARICOM Member States: Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago using a completed 51-item quantitative questionnaire from approximately 512 students. The results suggest that violence engagement, victimization, witness, and report significantly differed by gender and age. Male students were more likely to engage in violence, but less likely to report such violence to adults. Similarly, older students reported that they were more likely to engage in and witness violence. For risk and protective factors, female students reported significantly higher scores on domestic violence, whereas male students had higher scores on the access to drugs/weapons. Older students also tended to report higher levels of some school risk factors and lower levels of some protective factors in both family and school.
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    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.
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    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 Work
    This 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.
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    Using Technology to Enhance the Well-Being of Caregivers of Persons with Dementia: Implications for Social Work Practice and Policy
    (2020-12) Yi, Eun-Hye; Adamek, Margaret E.; Hong, Michin; Wilkerson, David; Lu, Yvonne
    Difficulties caring for people living with dementia (PWD) contribute to their family caregivers’ diverse unmet needs and adverse outcomes in health and well-being. This dissertation research explored the influence of macro systems on individual caregivers' well-being reflecting on the prevalence of online use among caregivers. Caregivers have migrated to online platforms to seek support. However, there is limited understanding of how online social support [OnSS] compares to offline support [OffSS] in terms of caregivers’ well-being. The first study examined the associations of OnSS and OffSS with the psychological well-being [MH] of caregivers. A subsample of the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) from 2017 to 2018 (n=264) was analyzed. The data indicate that OnSS supplemented rather than replaced OffSS. Emotional support delivered offline had a positive direct association with MH, while OnSS did not. OffSS interacted with caregiving stressors while OnSS interacted with life stressors. Caregivers who are in less favorable situations, such as working part-time while caring for a PWD, living with economic hardship, and being unhealthy, tended to be significantly affected by OnSS. The results suggest that practitioners need to incorporate caregivers’ OffSS into OnSS to maximize the available support resources, specifically for those who are in less favorable conditions. There is limited understanding of caregivers’ experiences within the complex health care system, especially after the significant policy changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The second study analyzed caregivers’ perceptions of and experiences with the ACA using national online forum data posted in 2011-2017 (n=514 posts). Text-mining thematic analysis method was used to analyze the posts. Three overall themes emerged: (a) concern about cost implications of placement decisions for care recipients, (b) skepticism about government and healthcare system support of their caregiving roles, and (c) caregivers’ own well-being and concerns about health insurance. Efforts are needed to enhance clear and effective communication among policymakers and health professionals serving service users, including caregivers of PWD. The present dissertation provides preliminary evidence to increase understanding of the complex contexts that affect the overall well-being of caregivers. Implications and suggestions for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers are discussed.