The number of interracial marriages and multiracial individuals continues to increase rapidly in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Black Female (BF) /White Male (WM) marriages are increasing, but not as quickly as other interracial marriages (Wang, 2012) leaving this population void in social science literature available to social workers. Consequently, there is a lack of information available to understand factors that contribute to these couple identities and how they navigate in the monoracialized systems they encounter. This qualitative study explored how BF/WM partners married in different generational cohorts experience and navigate race and identity as a couple through video recorded interviews where couples shared their narrative as a dyad. The secondary data analyzed was originally collected through snowball and convenient sampling to find BF/WM married couples that were married different generational cohorts living in the Phoenix area. Couples were asked to respond to starter questions (Linhorst, 2002) that encouraged them to share experiences as a couple interacting with community, social, and family systems. Ecological systems framework and social construction were used to guide analysis. Results from the multimodal transcript analysis and detailed review of the video data found themes of invisibility of the couples' relationships from community and family. Differences between cohorts were identified with movement from separation of racial identities within the couple identity to an infusion of both identities represented within the couple. Additionally, insights into the benefits of videography as a data collection method and its usefulness in to connecting social work research to practice were identified and align with the NASW Cultural Competence standards (NASW, 2001).

Psychological distress occurs at disproportionate rates among minority groups and individuals with lower socioeconomic status. This dissertation focuses on the relationship between living in a disadvantaged neighborhood and distress among Latinos, the formal and informal organizations that mediate the direct and indirect relationship between disadvantage and distress in this population, and the differences of social stress processes based on aspects of Latino social status, linguistic acculturation status, and the percentage of residents in the neighborhood that identify as Latino. This dissertation focuses its investigation on Latinos living in Chicago, specifically asking: In a metropolitan city, can the presence of formal and informal community organizations protect Latinos living in disadvantage neighborhoods from experiencing psychological distress? The findings demonstrate an indirect association between disadvantage and distress though objective disorganization and perception of disorganization. Both the density of community centers and block watch had an indirect protective effect, mediating the relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and distress, but did not decrease the indirect effect of disadvantage on distress through objective or perceptions of disorganization. The results of this dissertation suggest that changes to a neighborhood's environment may decrease population rates of distress in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

This study aimed to fill the gap in research with regards to how individuals who define themselves as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) and devoutly religious (either currently or in the past) manage the interaction between these two conflicting identities. The researchers conducted 8 semi-structured qualitative interviews to examine how these individuals manage this conflict and what affects these individuals experience internally and externally. To analyze the interviews, researchers used an open coding method to determine the common themes amongst the participants. Results indicated that these participants traveled a similar path when attempting to manage the conflict between their religion and sexuality and similar internal and external affects were experienced amongst the participants.

African American students are one of the historically disadvantaged groups by the public education system. Related to this phenomenon is the overrepresentation of African American children in special education due to disability diagnoses, which has been referred to as disproportionality. It has been hypothesized that disproportionality is due to poverty or a cultural mismatch between primarily white, middle-class teachers and African American students. Using a sample of African American children in special education from Memphis, Tennessee, this secondary data analysis explored the relationship between children's behavioral and educational outcomes and their environment, efficacy beliefs, and the impact of an intervention, the Nurse-Family Partnership. This study also explored differences in children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors by self-report, children's mothers and children's teachers. Using multiple imputation and regression analyses, the results indicated the following: 1) children's self-efficacy and number of hours in special education were associated with children's academic achievement, 2) mothers' and teachers' ratings of children's behaviors differed from children's self-report of their behaviors, 3) African American boys are more likely to experience acting-out behaviors, while African American girls are more likely to experience anxiety and depression, 4) children were less likely to experience anxiety and depression if their mother believed that she had control over circumstances in her life. These findings are discussed in light of Brofenbrenner's ecological systems theory and Bandura's social cognitive theory.

ABSTRACT The massive number of baby boomers approaching retirement age has been termed the `gray tsunami.' As America's gray tsunami approaches, healthcare workers and social workers will become overwhelmed with requests for services and supports (St. Luke's Health Initiative, 2001; Bekemeier, 2009). This impact can be ameliorated by assisting aging individuals in maintaining or in some cases regaining independence. Individuals who live in assisted living facilities (AFLs) come from diverse backgrounds. Many of these individuals have lived in paternalistic environments such as prisons and mental health institutions. As a consequence of these disempowering conditions, residents of ALFs may experience increased depression, decreased self-esteem, and decreased locus of control (R. Hess, personal communication, September 30, 2010). These disabling conditions can severely limit residents' choice-making opportunities and control over their own lives. If programs can be created to provide empowering experiences and to teach self-advocacy skills, I hypothesize that residents will report an improved quality of life and display fewer depressive symptoms, increased self-esteem, and increased locus of control. Helping these individuals to maintain or regain independence will not only reduce the workload for care workers, it will enhance the lives of residents. The only hypothesis that was supported by the study was an improvement in residents' quality of life, and that hypothesis was only partially supported. Two of the five domains in the Residents' Quality of life questionnaire indicated an increase in quality of life. ii The Activities subscale of the Ferrans & Powers Quality also indicated that there was an increase in quality of life.