Abstracts of Master's Theses, 2007

Let's Talk About Sex: Sexual Education and Adolescent Sexual Behavior Stephanie Grace Agnew The study was undertaken to look at adolescents' experiences in school sexual education programs, to examine how abstinence‐only and comprehensive sexual education programs affect adolescent sexual behavior, and to explore whether there is a correlation between adolescents' sexual behavior and their satisfaction with their sexual health education. This study also set out to examine where adolescents turn for more comprehensive sexual health information when they are not satisfied with what they are receiving in school. This study surveyed 56 college freshmen about their middle school and high school sexual education experiences and their attitudes toward sexual health. Participants provided demographic information and answered questions about their values, beliefs, and attitudes; sexual education experience; sexual health knowledge acquisition; and personal sexual experience. The major findings of this research showed that adolescent satisfaction with sexual education classes was directly related to how contraception was portrayed in those classes, that adolescents whose classes portrayed contraception as highly effective were much more likely to use condoms for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and that adolescents would like to get more sexual health information from their parents and other significant individuals in their lives than they currently receive. Trading Places: Perspectives on the Impact of Personal Therapy on the Management of Countertransference Sarah Straus Albert This qualitative study explores how therapists believe their personal therapy has affected their professional work, especially regarding their awareness and management of countertransference. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 clinicians (11 clinical social workers, and 1 master's in psychology). Three major open‐ended questions regarding personal therapy were asked regarding the impact of personal therapy on the awareness and management of countertransference, the impact of personal therapy on professional work, and the usefulness of personal therapy as part of clinical training. All but one participant stated that they believe personal therapy with awareness and management of countertransference. All of the participants reported positive experiences with personal therapy, and all of the participants stated that they thought their personal experiences with therapy had professional benefits. Participants most often cited self‐awareness as key in management of countertransference, and many of the participants thought personal therapy was an excellent way to develop self‐awareness. Some participants, however, reported other ways of developing self‐awareness, aside from personal therapy. Most of the therapists stated that their own therapists offered modeling, and many believed that personal therapy provided them with an understanding of what it is like to be a client. Participants also reported that they utilize therapy as part of self‐care. All of the participants believed that personal therapy should be strongly encouraged during training, and more than half of participants believed it should be required or mandatory. How White Non‐Latino/a Therapists Perceive and Address Racial and Cultural Differences when Working with Latino/a Clients Lisa C. Amato This study is intended to deepen and expand upon existing literature on cultural competence by offering a look at the views of White clinicians in the field who are working with communities of color, but who might not otherwise have thought about how they were engaging their clients and accounting for racial and cultural differences in their work. The project poses challenging questions and invites White clinicians to think honestly about salient issues around race, racism, culture, and ethnicity. One of its objectives is for the participants themselves, other clinicians, and readers of the thesis to think about how these issues might affect their work. For instance, whether or not taking an active stance around cross‐cultural and racial matters has the potential to improve clinical practice and open dialogue as opposed to denying the presence of tensions that are considered by many to still be a very real impediment to cross‐cultural and racial relationships in the United States in and out of the therapeutic context. The project is also meant to promote the notion that the responsibility for antiracism and antioppression work lies with the oppressor or those who benefit from unearned privileges and argues that this begins with building internal awareness as a step toward ameliorating these endemic problems. It is rare that readers and students of cross‐cultural practice get an opportunity to hear the anecdotal and raw stories and thoughts of those who the field entrusts to practice cross‐culturally. Through revealing the real practices of real clinicians we can understand how to build on and improve curriculum and research to better serve clients of color. This particular study focuses in on these issues as they pertain to the Latino community and therefore folds in a host of other issues such as the impact of language difference and immigration experience. Significant increases in the Latino population in the United States are reflected in the mental health client population. Yet currently there is not a sufficient number of Latino/a therapists to accommodate the number of Latino/a clients in need of services, and these clients are frequently being paired with non‐Latino/a therapists. The implications of this are that cross‐cultural and racial therapy is inevitable. Restorative Justice: Including Victims, Offenders and Communities in Criminal Justice Dialogue Jessica Ames Restorative justice (RJ), an alternative to the dominant retributive justice system, is a more holistic approach that encompasses the victim, offender, and the community. This study supplemented existing research by exploring the perceptions of RJ experts and facilitators on the impact of RJ practices on offender reentry, as well as victim and community satisfaction. The study addressed the following questions: What is restorative justice? What are the major outcomes and challenges? What is the role of social work? The review of the literature compared the retributive justice model with a restorative justice framework for responding to crime. As restorative justice is a relatively new area of research, the study used a flexible research design to understand the emerging phenomenon. Data were gathered through narrative interviews with 10 RJ experts and facilitators, including several pioneers in the field. Restorative justice is not simply victim–offender mediation, although they often get confused. Fully restorative practices, which involve the victim, offender, and community, have several different applications including victim–offender meetings for less serious crime, serious and violent crime dialogue, circle processes, and community accountability boards. Partly restorative practices, which do not include all the stakeholders, include contacting victims, community service, and defense outreach. The study's most significant finding, however, was that specific programs are far less important than the philosophy and principles associated with restorative justice. Study participants reported several outcome criteria including victim and community satisfaction, offender recidivism rates, offender satisfaction, restitution payment, and story‐telling. Seven out of 10 noted that restorative justice interventions were mostly positive and struggled to come up with a single negative example. The two factors most likely to contribute to negative outcomes were lack of preparation on the part of the facilitator(s) and inappropriateness of a participant. Although funding was seen as a major challenge, the most significant challenge participants noted was creating a paradigm shift in the way criminal justice is viewed. The U.S. justice system is based largely on a punitive approach, whereas restorative justice requires systems thinking in which the offender, victim, and community all play an important role. Participants felt that a balanced approach—top‐down and bottom‐up—was needed to grow and sustain the restorative justice movement. Created largely through grassroots, volunteer efforts, field workers need to collaborate more to share best practices, advocate for greater funding, and educate the public. At the same time, if restorative justice is going to have lasting impact on the justice system, it needs government involvement to provide additional legitimacy, funding, and support. Additional research is also needed, along with clearer benchmarks of successful outcomes. Restorative justice values greatly mirror social work values of self‐determination, individuality, acceptance, and accountability. To keep ordinance with the Social Work Code of Ethics, social workers should be aware of this philosophy so they may positively advocate for clients as well as more just and principled statewide and national policies. At the same time social workers should be aware that mixing the roles of therapist and restorative justice facilitator could be detrimental to restorative justice outcomes. Those who wish to facilitate victim–offender dialogue should do so carefully. “I'm Not Afraid of Storms, for I'm Learning to Sail My Ship”: Building Resilience and Therapeutic Community with the Tall Ship Semester for Girls Claire Marie Arbour This mixed methods study explores psychological resiliency, social support, and community development in adolescent girls who completed an adventure program at sea (Tall Ship Semester for Girls or TSSG). Individuals from two graduating classes, 2005 and 2006, responded to an online Resiliency Scale survey and participated in an in‐person interview. Thirteen individuals responded