NYU Silver at CSWE 2021
NYU Silver Presentation Schedule
The following schedule of faculty and doctoral student presentations is self-reported and up-to-date as of October 25, 2021. All sessions will be held at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort hotel in Orlando.
Friday, November 5, 2021 | 10:30am
Panel
The Field Seminar - A New Field Contingency Model During COVID-19
Presentation Location: Dolphin, Walt Disney World Resort, Europe 7, Lobby/Third Level
Presenters: Juhi Malhotra, Clinical Assistant Professor; Anne Dempsey, Clinical Assistant Professor; Nicholas Lanzieri, Clinical Associate Professor; Virge Luce, Assistant Dean for Field Learning and Community Partnerships; Clinical Associate Professor
Seminar in Field Instruction (SIFI) - A Tool for Changing Conversations
Background: The COVID-19 public health crisis caused the Field Department of a large northeastern university to suspend in-person field learning for approximately 1000 students and move to remote learning. The sudden switch to remote field engagement could not be maintained by agencies that lacked the infrastructure and resources to support students.. Consequently, a large number of students were instantly displaced from their internships. This disruption compelled faculty to design the Field Seminar, an innovative class with a unique pedagogical approach that provides exposure to practice and promotes reflection, and critical thinking. In this way, faculty assumed responsibility for the learning while traditional field placements were inaccessible (Farber & Reitmeier, 2019).
Although the scale of the field displacements caused by COVID-19 had never occurred during the School‘s history, field disruptions are common for field faculty. Disruptions are linked to various sources including students or agency parameters not meeting expectations, and the disillusionment with the work. (Parker, 2010). Indeed, some of these disruptions may also be linked to the failure of educators to successfully manage conversations related to race and bias in field situations (Burghardt et al., 2017; Masocha, 2015). Furthermore, the replacement process within field coordination is complicated. Some have referred to field coordination as the negotiated pedagogy due to the complex nature of the process (Asakura et al., 2018).
Objectives: Building on Practice class objectives, and the School’s anti-racism initiatives, the Field Seminar aims to address practice via virtual simulations, webinars, and highlighted prototype agencies. Best practices are taught, including therapeutic communication, assessment, and a variety of treatment modalities. The Field Seminar purposely used pedagogical scaffolding strategies to construct each module. Reflective exercises are included to target critical thinking through an anti-racism and equity lens.
According to Kumar and Behar (2019), equity refers to providing equal opportunities for success to a diverse group with different abilities. The Field Seminar allows students to engage in field education, and adjust to the impact of pandemic life by affording students more flexibility and accessibility. The Seminar promotes community and connectivity with field learning, maintenance of field credit sanctioned by accrediting bodies, and exposure to an experienced Field Instructor.
Implications: Preliminary student feedback on the Field Seminar has been primarily positive. Students expressed enthusiasm in remaining connected to learning opportunities amidst field displacement. As with any new initiative, challenges have been encountered in operationalizing the Field Seminar. The Seminar itself requires a fluid internal administrative structure to ensure that students are enrolled and disenrolled in a timely manner once replacement is completed. Some students voiced frustrations that the Field Seminar did not fulfill all the parameters that an authentic placement could provide.
In implementing the Field Seminar, faculty have gained a better understanding of students’ learning needs, and the communicative structures required to operationalize initiatives. Student evaluations and additional data will inform best practices for future improvements in addressing the needs of the learner, while accommodating curriculum in a post-pandemic landscape.
Friday, November 5, 2021 | 10:30am
Poster
Parenting and Adolescent Subjective Well-being: The Missing Voice of Fragile Families
Presentation Location: Dolphin, Walt Disney World Resort, Atlantic Hall- Monitor 17/First Level
Presenter: Ning He, PhD Student
Background: Parenting has significant impacts on the well-being of adolescents, especially their subjective well-being. Evidence has shown that parenting behaviors, such as negative parenting, authoritative parenting, parental attachment, and strength-based parenting, were important predictors of adolescent subjective well-being (Dou, Lin, & Wang, 2020; Jiang, Huebner, & Hills, 2013; Waters, 2015). However, most of the previous studies measured parenting by one or two proxy parenting behaviors. There is a lack of examination on how various parenting behaviors may affect adolescent subjective well-being differently. More importantly, adolescents from fragile families, such as single-headed households and low-income households, were always underrepresented in the conversion. This group of adolescents has been historically marginalized due to their unique family structure and impoverished household economic condition. Besides, parenting behaviors in immigrant families may have different influences on adolescent subjective well-being. However, little is known about how parenting is associated with adolescent subjective well-being in fragile families and whether immigration status moderates the association.
Objective: This study evaluated the relationships between parenting and the subjective well-being of adolescents in fragile families. This study further explored if the associations vary by family’s immigration status.
Methods: This study used the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW) year 15 (wave 6) data with all the children at the age of 15 years old (N = 3,400). Univariate analysis, bivariate analysis, and a series of regression models were conducted. Parenting was measured from five aspects: parental monitoring, parental non-violent discipline, harsh parenting, parent-child closeness, and parenting stress. Adolescent subjective well-being was measured by EPOCH Measures of Adolescent Well-being (Kern, Benson, Steinberg, & Steinberg, 2011) which conceptualized adolescent well-being by five domains: engagement, perseverance, optimism, connectedness, and happiness.
Results: Results from the main effect regression model showed that immigration status was negatively associated with adolescent-reported EPOCH total score (b=-0.982, p=.005). Parental monitoring (b=0.408, p<0.001), non-violent discipline (b=0.552, p<.001) and parent-child closeness (b=0.325, p<.001) were positively associated with EPOCH score, whereas harsh parenting (b=-0.967, p<.000) was negatively associated with this outcome. Regression models with interactions indicated that immigration status moderated the relation between parental monitoring and adolescent subjective well-being (b = 0.526, p = .009), and between parenting stress and adolescent subjective well-being (b = -0.637, p = .017).
Conclusion and Implications: Parenting behaviors and parent-child closeness play important roles in adolescent subjective well-being in both immigrant and non-immigrant fragile families. However, the effects of parental monitoring and parenting stress were intensified by immigration status. Therefore, cultural sensitivity is needed for practitioners. However, COVID-19 has posed new challenges to adolescents and their parents in fragile families. Increased unemployment rate and economic hardship, as well as homeschooling, have added additional stress to parents and, in turn, greatly impacted their parenting. Social work practitioners and educators should prioritize practice, training, and curriculum that can improve social worker’s competency in addressing these new challenges. Continued policy efforts, such as adequate childcare support, parenting services, and economic support, are needed to strengthen the voice of this marginalized group of adolescents in matters that affect them.
Friday, November 5, 2021 | 3:00pm
Invited Partnership, Oral Presentation
North Korean Adolescents’ Interpersonal Relationships, Academic Stress, and School Adjustment
Presentation Location: Dolphin, Walt Disney World Resort, Europe 7, Lobby/Third Level
Presenters: Heejin Kim, PhD; Sejung Yang, PhD Candidate; and Daejun Park, PhD
Background and Purpose: With the increased number of North Korean refugees settling down in South Korea, a growing body of research has begun to examine their adjustment in South Korea. Nevertheless, relatively less attention has been paid to North Korean refugee adolescents, compared to North Korean refugee adults. The literature reviewed earlier has highlighted the dropout rate of North Korean youth is pretty higher than that of South Korean youth (Kim et al., 2018). Also, North Korean refugee students may encounter a wide range of issues to adjust to the South Korean school system; they reported language difficulties (Myeong et al., 2020) and the lack of access to education (Lee, 2007). Many studies examined that students’ positive relationships with teacher and peer have positive effects on school-related factors (e.g., Dwyer & Cummings, 2001; Rayle & Chung, 2007). In this regard, the current study aimed to explore the effect of interpersonal relationships on two important factors relating to school life—academic stress and school adjustment.
Methods: The data are driven from a survey conducted in 2017. We interviewed 610 youth (youth from South Korea = 325, youth from North Korea = 285) living in South Korea from juniors in middle schools to seniors in high schools. Dependent variables used in the current study are academic stress and school adjustment. We used the Korean academic stress scale (Min & Yoo, 1998) and the Korean school adjustment scale (Lim, 1993) to measure the level of academic stress and school adjustment, respectively. Interpersonal relations, which is used as a moderator, consists of relationships with teachers and peers. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were carried out to test the main effect of the interpersonal relationships and interactional effects, combining interpersonal relationships and nationality, on Korean adolescents’ academic stress and school life.
Results: As for interpersonal relationships, adolescents who were from North Korea, in middle school, and with low academic achievement were more likely to have better relationships with teachers or peers. However, adolescents with low academic achievement showed higher academic stress. In terms of school adjustment, adolescents who were from South Korea, in middle school, with very high levels of academic achievement reported higher levels of school adjustment. The outcomes from the hierarchical regression models revealed that nationality, self-control, child abuse, and interpersonal relationships were significantly associated with academic stress (F(12, 552) = 11.057, p < .000, R2 = .194) and school adjustment (F(12, 552) = 36.488, p < .000, R2 = .442). The interpersonal relationships was not significant for academic stress (B = -.036, p = .607), however, it was a significant contributing factor for school adjustment (B = .508, p < .001). Also, we found that the interaction between interpersonal relationships and nationality was statistically significant for both academic stress and school adjustment (B = -.361, p < 0.001 and B= -.214, p < 0.01, respectively).
Conclusions and Implications: The findings suggest the importance of interpersonal relationships to improve adolescents’ school adjustment. Also, the interaction shows that the effect of interpersonal relationships is important to North Korean refugees, compared to South Korean adolescents; the higher interpersonal relationships among North Korean students is more likely to reduce the academic stress and school adjustment than those of South Korean counterparts. The findings highlight the need of fostering more inclusive school environments enabling North Korean students to have positive peer relationships. Systematic efforts to cultivate academic and interpersonal competence among North Korean refugees need to continue (e.g., peer mentoring program and coordinator for North Korean students). In closing, we discuss the necessity for culturally sensitive social work practice and education programs.
Saturday, November 6, 2021 | 3:15pm
Oral Presentation
A Review of EMDR Research with Black Indigenous People of Color
Presentation Location: Dolphin, Walt Disney World Resort, Oceanic 1, Lobby/Third Level
Presenters: Rebecca Rio, DSW Candidate
Abstract: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a proven technique in treating PTSD, however it is not widely used in public health settings, which serve many of our populations’ most traumatized groups. Social workers, who make up the majority of mental health providers in the United States, often work with communities and individuals with high exposure to trauma. This paper will review the evidence base on EMDR with BIPOC, many of whom are immigrants, who rely heavily on safety-net facilities for their healthcare. Conclusions will detail how EMDR is being delivered with these historically disenfranchised groups and highlight the adaptations made in treatment delivery. Understanding the adaptations made when providing EMDR to BIPOC can expand access to effective treatment for PTSD and trauma, thereby addressing the mental health disparities of people with marginalized racial and ethnic identities.