Faculty, Staff and Student Research Projects
Lee receives institutional K award
SSW assistant professor Hee Yun Leehas been named a Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) KL2 Scholar. This competitive award is supported by the National Institutes of Health and administered through theUniversity’s CTSI. The program supports new clinical and translational research investigators through a three-year mentored training program. It provides funds to secure protected research time for scholars to conduct research. Lee’s research will focus on developing an intervention to promote breast cancer screening among underserved minority women using mobile phone technology.
New Minn-LInK study of housing supports for children receives coverage
A recent Minn-LInK study on the effects of housing support for homeless children recently received coverage in MinnPost.
Edleson appointed to NIJ Scientific Review Panel
Professor Jeffrey Edleson has been appointed to the inaugural Scientific Review Panel on Crime, Violence and Victimization Research at the US Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice. The SRP is the first time NIJ has appointed a standing external peer review panel. It is made up of 12 scientists and 6 practitioners.
Researcher hopes mental health screening tool helps alleviate refugees' silent suffering
Patricia Shannon, assistant professor at the School of
Social Work, knew that nearly all refugees were screened
by public health officials when they first arrive. But
she also knew from her work at the Minnesota-based
Center for Victims of Torture, refugees are not screened
for symptoms of trauma due to the lack of culturally
appropriate screening tools. Shannon and her colleagues
are trying understand mental health needs in refugee
communities, to create a brief screening tool, and
eventually create culturally specific treatments. Tens
of thousands of refugees have made Minnesota their home
over the past two decades. “In working with refugee
torture and war trauma survivors for the past ten years,
I have been touched by the extent to which they suffer
in silence,” Shannon said.
more>>
Researchers asking whether death penalty gives victims' families closure
Does
the death penalty give victims a sense of justice and
closure? Restorative justice researchers Mark Umbreit of
the School of Social and Ph.D. alum Marilyn Armour, now
on the faculty at the University of Texas, decided to
find out by talking to homicide victims in Texas and
comparing their answers to victims in Minnesota where
there is no death penalty. Emerging findings will offer
new insights for anyone who works with victims of
man-made trauma, and may shed light on the notion of
“closure,” an age old justification for the death
penalty justification. “These people who have lived
through experiences that most of us don’t have to go
through give us amazing wisdom,” Armour said. “They can
be guideposts for clinicians and any human being.”
more>>
On a mission to change the way social workers understand diversity
Terry Lum, associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work, is on a mission to change the way social workers understand diversity. It’s simple, he says; immigrants are different than other minorities, and, as social workers, we need to take that into account. In a recent study, Lum analyzed a large data set comparing health outcomes for immigrant elders to those of native-born Americans. “I don’t think we [social workers] have enough sensitivity to the differences between immigrants and people of color,” said Lum, who grew up a refugee in Hong Kong, and later immigrated to the United States. more>>
A
new tool to collect better
data while helping youth reflect on risky
sexual behaviors
Getting youth to talk honestly about their sex lives is tough. Even in medical settings where youth are protected by privacy laws, nurses aren’t always sure that teens recall what they did over the last year. Colleen Fisher, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work, has developed a Sexual Health History Calendar that is changing the way nurses ask questions of youth. The calendar is helping Fisher collect better data, as well as helping youth reflect on their risky sexual behaviors. “My goal is to develop instruments which collect better data—but also engage youth, invite them to co-create the assessment process, and empower them to initiate their own behavior change plans,” said Fisher. more>>
Cultural
barriers to cancer screening among Asian immigrants
School of Social Work Assistant Professor Hee Yun Lee saw how Korean Americans in her community, including some of the people closest to her, were receiving cancer diagnoses and dying–quickly. Each time, the disease was caught too late. Why, she wanted to know, are some communities hit so hard by cancer while others get treatment? Her research has shown how some groups of Asian immigrants get screened but others don’t. Lee’s recent publications have stemmed from this question: Why do different groups of Asian immigrants fail to utilize cancer screening? “My goal is that every person in the world will know about cancer and cancer screening,” Lee said. more>>
The
unknown impacts of disability
in child welfare cases
Even though over one-fifth of children in child welfare
custody have a disability, child welfare authorities and
researchers pay little attention to disability. That
doesn’t sit well with Liz Lightfoot, associate professor
at the School of Social Work. Partnering with Traci
LaLiberte, director of the Center for Advanced Studies
in Child Welfare, Lightfoot is working on a series of
studies about disability and child welfare. Recently,
she published a prevalence study on correlation between
maltreatment and out of home placement, and she is
working on a study about supports for parents with
disabilities. “It has to be something child welfare
workers are dealing with everyday,” Lightfoot said.
more>>
Uncovering
unintended consequences in an international child
abduction treaty
Thirty years ago, the Hague Convention created an orderly
path to return children to a custodial parent when an
abducting parent crossed international borders with his or
her children. At the time, governments were attempting to
protect mothers from kidnappings of their children by
noncustodial fathers. But School of Social Work Professor Jeffrey Edleson
found that the treaty that was supposed to protect mothers
and children had a flaw. Women fleeing domestic abuse across
borders were losing custody of their children as a result of
the treaty. Edleson undertook one of the first attempts to
interview mothers who fled with their children and to
investigate the aftermath of court decisions. What he found
was startling. "Judges mostly rule that domestic violence
isn't a future risk to the child, despite the research that
my colleagues and I have conducted over the past two
decades," Edleson said.
more>>
Aging GLB&T couples and the need for services
Jean Quam, Dean of the College of Human Development, has dedicated her career to
understanding what happens to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people as
they age. Quam and Ph.D. candidate Kelly Abel Knochel have collaborated on
several studies to understand everything from relationship outcomes for older
couples to the type of outreach offered by long-term care providers. How should
social workers treat them respectfully? Oftentimes, due to fears of
discrimination, couples will hide their relationships from professionals. Quam
says social workers should approach couples with an unassuming attitude when
asking about relationships. "What I do need to know is that you have somebody in
your life that you can rely on," Quam said.
more>>
Creating a new model for youth work
It used to be said "kids should be seen and not heard."
That sentiment may be out fashion these days, but do we
take young people's opinions seriously enough? Assistant
Professor Ross Velure Roholt has seen what would happen
if we listened to young people, and he believes that’s
the way forward. "What if we asked them 'what do you
want for your community?' " asks Velure Roholt
who is
developing a model to understand what it looks like to
truly engage with youth, and treat them as equal
partners. He calls the model youth civic engagement,
which he has found to fit with kids of all backgrounds
from Morocco to Northern Ireland to St. Paul, Minnesota.
more>>
Focus on the intersection of prison reentry and domestic violence
Since 2002, Professor Oliver Williams has sought out the
links between prison reentry and domestic violence.
Williams, who directs the Institute for Domestic
Violence in the African American Community, oversaw
focus groups across the country with victims, offenders,
and service providers for years. Williams said he there
are some clear needs for new protocols between service
providers, and parole officers. "Female partners or
former partners are usually not included in his
reentry/parole planning," Williams said. "I was
concerned with how the prison system, the parole system
and the domestic violence system could respond to these
challenges."
more>>
A Professor’s Search Into Why Perpetrators Commit Violence, and How Victims Build Resiliency
Since
Professor Jane Gilgun interviewed child sexual abuse
survivors for her dissertation in 1980, her career has
led her to create two manuals, three assessment tools,
and qualitative research that probes into the darkest
corners of the human mind. Her work has taken her into
prisons to interview offenders about what sexual
violence meant to them. Gilgun has also searched for
ways to identify resilience factors in children who have
suffered abuse. "I never knew years ago that I would be
so determined to understand the meanings of violence,"
she said. "My concern in the beginning was for survivors
and remains so." "
more>>
Creating an Index of Social Well-Being for Minnesota Counties
Professor
Dario Menanteau's research takes an in-depth look at how
systems affect social welfare. Trained as a sociologist,
he looks at concepts like sociocybernetics to understand
the systems that drive globalization both in his native
Chile, and in rural Minnesota. With a career spanning
four decades and two continents, Menanteau has recently
focused on inequality across geographic areas of
Minnesota by creating an index of social well-being
based upon public health and census data in each county.
"The first thing policy makers need to realize that
there is a substantial amount of inequality that has
been created by society," said Menanteau.
more>>
Building Knowledge to Support Non-Traditional Caregivers
In an ongoing study, SSW Associate Professor Priscilla Gibson is asking
one central question: What are the experiences of African American
caregivers with their children’s school suspensions? Researchers have
talked to children and school administrators about suspensions, but few
have asked children’s parents and caregivers about the problem. "We
don’t know about caregivers’ experiences except their characteristics
that are associated with the likelihood of their children getting
suspended—African American, single-parent households, and low-income.”
Gibson said. more>>
Sharing Administrative Data to Reveal Impact of Public Policies on Children and Families
By gathering data from state agencies serving children and youth from
schools to child welfare, Minn-LInK gets at some of the
thorniest public policy questions: Has school choice
(parents choosing their kids’ school) delivered better
results for “at risk” students from low socioeconomic
backgrounds? Which homelessness interventions delivered
the best outcomes for children? Do early childhood
programs really improve children's success in school?
Using administrative data from multiple state agencies
allows researchers to conceptualize child welfare
research in a new way, explains Traci LaLiberte, who
oversees the Center for Advanced Studies in Child
Welfare at the School of Social Work. "We've started to
think more broadly about children and families beyond
child protection, towards families’ well being," she
said. more>>
Research to Support Native American and Urban Youth
SSW Assistant Professor Katie Johnston-Goodstar knows
from personal experience that Native American and urban youth of color youth
are intelligent, strong, engaged and resilient, but the literature,
statistics, and school data on these kids often say otherwise. Social
work research often measures risks or interventions with problems,
impacting policy, program development and practice with Native American
youth. It also impacts how these kids are treated, and how they see
themselves. Johnston-Goodstar hopes that her Participatory Action
Research can show a more realistic portrait of these young people, and
help them become change agents in their communities. "I want these kids
to imagine themselves—see themselves as more than just problems," she
said. more>>
Research Posters Online
View recent posters on research at the SSW. Be sure to look at this page!
Fisher publishes on HIV and YMSM
Fisher, C.M. (2011). Are Information, Motivation, and Behavioral Skills Linked with HIV-Related Sexual Risk Among Young Men Who Have Sex with Men? Journal of HIV/AIDS and Social Services, 10(1), 5-21.
Lee receives National Cancer Institute R21 Grant
Assistant Professor Hee Yun Lee received a R21 research grant totaling $400,000 from the National Cancer Institute to study the use of technology in promote Korean American women to participate in cervical cancer screening.
Shannon and colleagues receive multiple grants to support refugee mental health research.
Assistant Professor Patricia Shannon and her colleagues have received the following grants to support their ongoing research on refugee mental health screening and intervention, titled the Healing in Partnership Project: $120,000 from Huss Family Foundation (over 3 years); $50,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation (1 year), $50,000 Medica Foundation (1 year), and $50,000 St. Paul Foundation (1 year).
Lee receives pilot grant with colleagues on cancer screening
Assistant Professor Hee Yun Lee and two other University faculty (Yeazel and Tran) have received funding for a planing grant from the Medical School's Program in Health Disparities Research. The project is titled Motivating Underserved Vietnamese Americans to Obtain Colorectal Cancer Screening: A Culturally Tailored Video-Based Intervention
Wells, LaLiberte and Ramsey County receive $2 million federal grant to study comprehensive family assessments in child welfare
Traci LaLiberte
In 2007, Professor Susan J. Wells and Dr. Traci LaLiberte led a proposal team in collaboration with Ramsey County Community Human Services submit a proposal to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on the topic of Using Comprehensive Family Assessments to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes.
In September, the grant was awarded to Ramsey County with the School of Social Work as the evaluator for the 5-year project. The total value of the grant is $2 million with the University receiving half of the total grant amount over the life of the project to evaluate its impact. Dr. LaLiberte, director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare, is heading up the evaluation. Visit the Project website.
MinnLiNK and CASCW participate in two Hennepin County-University Partnership projects
(1) EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT: Increasing high school graduation rates is considered one of the most effective ways to improve the wellbeing of the community. Major public policy question: What role should the County play in increasing high school graduation rates? Example research questions: What’s being done in other parts of the state/country to increase graduation rates? What predicts drop-out behaviors? Is there a link between truancy and dropping out? What specific actions can the County take to make an impact on graduation rates? How do we measure various strategies to assess their effectiveness? Work to date: A group of Hennepin and University staff and researchers have been identified and are beginning work on 1) clearly articulating the issues; 2) assembling existing research and work done on issues of educational achievement; and 3) identifying and prioritizing key research questions. Next steps: Continue work to identify and prioritize research questions with the goal of developing a plan for conducting research to address major policy questions.
(2) CHILD WELL-BEING: Programs for children whose parents cannot take care of them too frequently do not achieve the goal of providing a stable and secure place where such children can thrive. In particular, adoptions often "fail," and children placed in foster care do not develop a healthy attachment to an adult caregiver. Major public policy question: How can the County increase successful outcomes for children placed in foster care? Example research questions: What are the needs of children who must be removed from the home, or for whom no home exists and how do these needs vary depending on a child’s age? How does the length of time in foster care affect outcomes for children? Are there programs that have shown better outcomes than we experience in Hennepin County? Can these be replicated here? Work to date: A group of Hennepin and University staff and researchers have been identified and are 1) assessing research questions in light of existing University research and capacity; 2) sharing existing research. Research about to begin: It is increasingly important to have a multi-faceted and more complete understanding of how youth fare in young adulthood as they exit foster care. To date, much of the research on this population has been based on sample groups and qualitative data. Anita Larson from the U’s Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare, and former Hennepin County staff person, is launching a new study on the status of youth who age out of foster care in Minnesota. Three different studies of this population are planned: a statewide descriptive study; a Hennepin County-specific study, and a study of the outcomes of disabled youth who age out of care to support a dissertation research project. The long-range goal is to follow these youth as they
Lum and Lee hosted May 2009 conference on health and mental health literacy among immigrants and refugees
Associate Professor Terry Lum and Assistant Professor Hee Lee were two of the hosts of a recent conference. The focus for the conference was on health and mental health literacy and its impacts on disparities in immigrant and refugee communities. The primary goal of this conference was to bring together researchers, community practitioners and community members to share knowledge and information and to engage in partnerships in order to adopt culturally appropriate approaches to deal with health and mental health disparities, especially among immigrants and refugees in Minnesota.
Larson and Zuel explore prevention of educational neglect
Anita Larson who heads the SSW's Minn-Link Project and doctoral student Timothy Zuel co-presented their findings from state administrative data on child welfare and school attendance at the National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect in Atlanta. Click here to view their PowerPoint slides. A final report is to follow soon.
VeLure Roholt's research explores youth participation
Assist. Prof. Velure Roholt
The ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) transformed youth programs and youth work practice across the globe. Increasingly, youth programs and youth work practices aim to invite and support young people’s participation and contributions to organization, program, and/or community outcomes. Assistant Professor Ross Velure Roholt research involves several projects to explore, describe, and understand participatory youth programs and participatory youth work practice. Of special interest is how young people’s involvement in programs, organizations, and communities influences and shapes their development.
Currently as part of a larger evaluation project, Assistant Professor Velure Roholt, and M.A. student Brice Dixon, and undergraduate Anna Horner are working on an evaluation of Neighborhood Learning Community (NLC) on the West Side of St. Paul. A major emphasis of NLC is to increase and create sustainable programs and practices for youth participation. The University of MN team is conducting observations and focus group interviews and contributing to a larger evaluation project that includes community members and professional evaluators.
Hollister & Walvig Begin Research on Reducing Disparities for Immigrants in the Minnesota Family Investment Program
Dave
Hollister
Tasha Walvig
The compulsory work requirements established by the federal government and the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) mandate clients to participate in work activities to prepare them for leaving welfare for the labor market. Research comparing welfare-to-work outcomes reveals disparities between native born and immigrant families attempting to transition from welfare to work in Minnesota (Shelton & Owen, 2003; Hollister, Martin, Toft, & Yeo, 2005). We have initiated a research project that involves collaborating with the Ramsey County Community Human Services Department and several social agencies to administer in-depth interviews to service providers who work with immigrants receiving MFIP. In particular, we will consider how immigrants' needs are addressed in the context of meeting the federally mandated work requirement of MFIP, with the intent of identifying needed changes in policy and service delivery that would reduce disparities between immigrant and native- born MFIP participants.
Research Teams Focus on Juvenile Justice and Sexual Abuse
Alankaar Sharma, Valandra and Jane Gilgun
Professor Jane Gilgun and Ph.D. students Valandra and Alankaar Sharma are developing a theory of change for the All Children Excel (ACE) program of the Ramsey County Human Services and Public Health Departments, the goal of which is to divert children from the juvenile justice system and to promote child and family well-being. A theory of change is a form of program evaluation that documents pathways children and families take as they participate in social programs. The research team is using ethnographic methods to look at factors that lead to enhanced well-being and factors that lead to involvement with juvenile justice. The project was sponsored by juvenile justice funds and is now funded through the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station.
Professor Gilgun is working with StopItNow! Minnesota on a new project on mothers of child survivors of child sexual abuse. The purpose of the research is to identify what family life was like for them while their husbands or partners were sexually abusing children. StopItNow! is a child sexual abuse prevention program and will use the results of this research in social marketing campaign to educate family members about the signs of child sexual abuse. Professor Gilgun will use the material in journal articles, teaching and training, and in a book she is writing with Ph.D. student Alankaar Sharma on child sexual abuse. The Ms. Foundation has funded this project.
LaLiberte and CASCW staff evaluate online foster care provider training on disabilities
The Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) at our School has partnered with staff at the Research and Training Center on Community Living (RTC/CL) in the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) at the University of Minnesota and staff at McStrategies in Knoxville Tennessee to evaluate disability training delivered to foster, adoptive and kinship care providers in the state of Minnesota. Project staff include Traci LaLiberte, Heidi Wagner, Jamie Schwartz and Adam Leonard. Training will be delivered through the College of Direct Support curriculum that is and interactive, multimedia, competency-based online disability training. The training pilot is scheduled to begin in May 2008 and continue through May 2009. The effectiveness of internet based training with this population of caregivers will be evaluated in addition to the changes in caregiver’s disability knowledge. Future studies are planned to evaluate outcomes for children related to caregiver’s increased knowledge base.