Although financial mistreatment is recognized as a significant threat to older adults' well-being, limited research has examined the psychosocial mechanisms through which these experiences may contribute to depressive symptoms in later life. Guided by the Stress Appraisal Model, this study examined the association between financial mistreatment and depressive symptoms among older adults and assessed the mediating role of perceived stress. As an exploratory objective, we also examined whether this indirect pathway differed by age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Data were drawn from Round 3 (2015-2016) of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project. The analytic sample was 1,751 adults aged 60 and older. Hierarchical regression, mediation, and moderated mediation analyses were conducted. Financial mistreatment and perceived stress were both associated with greater depressive symptoms. Perceived stress mediated this association, indicating that older adults who experienced financial mistreatment reported higher perceived stress, which in turn was associated with greater depressive symptoms. The indirect effect through perceived stress did not differ by age, sex, or race/ethnicity. Findings suggest that perceived stress is a pathway linking financial mistreatment to depressive symptoms in later life and underscore the need for mental health support to help affected older adults manage stress following financial mistreatment.
Interinstitutional coordination in responses to violence against women affects intervention quality and continuity and may increase secondary victimization. This article presents MaxApp, a web- and mobile-based prototype designed to support such coordination across services. The study adopted a qualitative tool-development design grounded in a participatory approach and comprised five phases: methodological planning, preliminary diagnosis, content development, tool design, and professional review. Two focus groups were conducted with 14 professionals from the social, healthcare, legal, and law-enforcement sectors in Pontevedra, Spain. The first identified coordination needs, barriers, and functional requirements; the second gathered professional appraisals of the tool's structure, clarity, perceived usefulness, and suitability for practice following its development. Findings revealed fragmented access to information, duplicated interventions, repeated recounting of traumatic experiences, difficulties in case monitoring, and the need to protect data while enabling selective information sharing. These findings informed MaxApp's design as a unified system for recording, monitoring, and sharing information among professionals. Participants considered that the tool could improve coordination, traceability, interdisciplinary communication, and documentation efficiency, while identifying areas requiring further refinement. As MaxApp remains a prototype, systematic usability testing and evaluation in real-world implementation settings are required to assess its functionality and practical impact in routine professional practice.
A more innovative methodological qualitative research approach was sought that would honor the lived experiences of older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) people as the experts on their own health narratives to improve health outcomes of this population. This research is pertinent, as older LGBTQIA+ populations often experience many health care services access issues such as discrimination, stigma, need to conceal their identities when seeking services, rejection from service care providers, limited aging care supports, social isolation, financial stability issues, and societal oppression. To uplift the voices of this population and understand these solutions to better health, a phenomenological lens and an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) plan were adapted for the seven focus groups (n = 33) in the study. Results of this qualitative approach helped to understand the lived experiences of older LGBTQIA+ participants, create context for these experiences, and derive shared themes for better understanding of what social services this populations needs to support better health outcomes. Implications suggest utilizing this research technique to improve practice and policy, with the aim of working toward bringing awareness to health disparities and improve social service usage for older LGBTQIA+ adults.
Victim advocates play a critical role in supporting victims throughout the criminal justice process and their work is often shaped by significant emotional, organizational, and systemic challenges. This qualitative study inductively examines how victim advocates describe and interpret the challenges and barriers they encounter in their work, as well as the strategies they use to cope with or navigate these circumstances. Guided by the research questions: How do victim advocates describe and interpret the challenges and barriers they face in their work?, and How do they understand the strategies used to cope with or navigate these challenges?, this study draws on 24 semi-structured interviews with victim advocates working in Florida collected using snowball sampling. Findings highlight how exposure to trauma, managing victims' expectations, and serving as a primary point of contact within the criminal justice system can contribute to emotional labor, stress, and burnout. Advocates also described organizational pressures such as high caseloads, limited time, and lengthy case processing times, alongside systemic constraints including rigid legal procedures and resource shortages. Future research should explore agency-specific contexts of challenges victim advocates face and include gender, racial, and institutionally diverse samples to provide a broader range of perspectives.
In resource-constrained settings like South Africa's informal settlements, adolescent boys and young men (ABYM) often navigate complex socio-economic and cultural pressures that shape their Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) behaviors, choices, and identities significantly. This study explored how ABYM perceived and experienced changes in their SRH behaviors and related psychosocial outcomes after participating in a Combination Social Protection programme (CSP) that integrated structural, interpersonal, economic, and behavioral components in resource-constrained settings of Gauteng, South Africa. The study adopted an exploratory qualitative design. A sample of 12 ABYM was purposively selected from NGOs in Gauteng that implemented the CSP. Data were collected through semi-structured qualitative interviews and analyzed using Creswell and Creswell's model of thematic data analysis. The findings indicate that the participants' sexual attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions of gender norms were shifted positively following their attendance of the CSP intervention. The CSP programme's apparent success in impacting sexual behaviors and gender norms among ABYM offers a critical entry point for rethinking adolescent programming at the policy level. However, the geographic limitation of the study underscores the need for future comparative studies across diverse settings using robust longitudinal Randomized Control Trial designs.
Child maltreatment often leads to negative health outcomes for men. While childhood sexual assault is more commonly studied, childhood physical and emotional abuse are often excluded. Sexual and ethnic minority status may further compound the risk of childhood maltreatment yet remain understudied. This study sought to expand the associations between childhood maltreatment, adult violence victimization, and sexual risk behaviors of a convenience sample of 125 gay and bisexual Hispanic men (GBHM). Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests examined associations between child maltreatment, adult violence victimization, and sexual risk behaviors. Nearly half (47.2%) of respondents reported one or more experiences of violence victimization and all reported at one or more sexual risk behavior. All three forms of child maltreatment were related to sexual risk behaviors, with childhood emotional abuse associated with the largest number of risk behaviors and adult sexual abuse. Social service providers should implement holistic assessments of childhood maltreatment at intake and periodic screenings for adult violence victimization. Sensitivity trainings and education surrounding sexual minority and Hispanic cultural norms are also needed to ensure an affirming healthcare environment for GBHM. Further qualitative or mixed-methods research is needed to explore and understand how and why these health disparities occur among GBHM.
Teen motherhood is a growing global problem that affects thousands of young girls annually, especially in developing countries. It causes complex challenges that can affect the future opportunities of teen mothers if strong coping strategies are not in place. This study aims to explore resilience and coping strategies of single teen mothers in the face of adversity. This study employed a qualitative research approach. Life story interviews were conducted with 10 single teen mothers, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with six mothers of these single teen mothers. Using thematic analysis, recurring themes and patterns were identified in the participants' narratives. Single teen mothers faced sleeplessness and energy loss, feelings of aimlessness and self-defeat, and limited social support networks as key hardships associated with early motherhood. Single teen mothers' agency and resilience were supported by both informal and formal social support systems that enhanced coping skills, optimism, and access to some opportunities. Single teen mothers face complex adversities, for which solutions require resilience-oriented interventions that can thus lead to sustainable solutions grounded in the strengths of single teen mothers. As such, future research should explore single teen mothers' perspectives on future opportunities by examining the long-term advantages of supporting interventions.
Social technology use can increase access and opportunities for social engagement, yet little is known about how these associations vary across racial/ethnic groups in late life. This study aimed to examine associations between social technology use and social engagement within each racial and ethnic group. Using data from the 2015 National Health and Aging Trends Study (N = 5,648), we conducted survey-weighted logistic regression analyses separately for non-Hispanic Whites (N = 4,147), non-Hispanic Blacks (N = 1,165), and Hispanics (N = 312). Non-Hispanic Whites reported the highest levels of social technology use and social engagement, but distinct social technology-social engagement patterns emerged within each racial/ethnic group. For both non-Hispanic Whites and non-Hispanic Blacks, email/texting was positively associated with visiting family/friends, going out for enjoyment, and attending clubs/organized activities. SNS use was positively associated with visiting family/friends and attending clubs/organized activities for non-Hispanic Whites, but with volunteering for Hispanics. These differential associations suggest that targeted interventions should consider group-specific preferences for social technology types and social activities, as they may reflect cultural, linguistic, or access-related differences. Future research exploring barriers to and opportunities for social technology use across racial/ethnic groups may help develop effective and inclusive interventions for older adults.
This study presents a scoping review of dementia risk among ethnoracial minorities in machine learning (ML)-based studies. While ML methods are widely used in dementia research, their benefits for ethnoracial minorities remain unclear. We conducted a systematic search using keywords related to ML, dementia, and ethnoracial minorities in major electronic databases. Of the 599 initially identified articles, 14 met the inclusion criteria after screening. Most studies relied on existing datasets, with ethnoracial minority representation ranging from 5 to 75% of the sample. Most studies categorized race as a predictor, aggregating it into broad groups. Among studies using racial minorities as a predictor, results consistently showed a lower dementia risk among non-Hispanic Whites compared to Hispanics and non-Hispanic Blacks. Various ML techniques were employed. Our review highlights the persistent underrepresentation of ethnoracial minorities in national datasets used in ML studies, limiting the understanding of racial disparities in dementia risk. By synthesizing existing ML-based dementia studies, this review identifies key methodological and data-related gaps in how ethnoracial minority populations are represented and analyzed. With the growing ethnoracial diversity, ML-based studies must prioritize representative datasets to accurately capture dementia risk across groups.
Limited empirical research has examined field supervisors' perceptions of online education within the helping professions, particularly their willingness to offer field placements to online students or the challenges encountered by field directors of online programs. Accordingly, this study investigated how field supervisors in human and social service organizations perceive online social work programs, as well as online students' knowledge and skill development. Thirty-one valid responses were collected via an online survey tool and analyzed using descriptive statistical methods. Survey findings revealed that some social workers held unfavorable views of online education and were reluctant to accept online students for internship placements. These findings offer important implications for online programs in the helping professions by informing strategies to strengthen field placement opportunities and enhance the competitiveness of online students relative to those in traditional, in-person programs.
NGOs in T & uuml;rkiye play a critical role in providing gender-responsive services and policies for women refugees. Social workers encounter challenges in advocating for these women's rights due to state relations and funding constraints. These challenges underscore the importance of understanding the experiences of social workers seeking to empower refugee women. This study aims to understand how social workers interpret the concept of empowerment and to explore how they are currently shaping their professional practices within NGOs in T & uuml;rkiye, with the intention of enhancing the effectiveness of empowerment-focused social work with refugee women. This study uses a phenomenological qualitative research approach to explore the experiences of professionals working with refugee women in T & uuml;rkiye. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 professionals selected via purposive and snowball sampling. Thematic analysis highlighted two main findings: professionals define empowerment as the intersection of personal values and professional expertise, and the empowerment journey unfolds in a cyclical, interdependent sequence. Building on these findings, future research should examine how professional satisfaction, burnout, and institutional barriers influence the long-term sustainability of cyclical empowerment practices among social workers in practice.
Evidence-based interventions to prevent and address homelessness are increasingly well-documented. Yet the demand for services far exceeds dedicated resources. In this context, prioritization strategies, such as the Vulnerability Index and Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT), have been used to assess need and distribute limited resources. However, communities are phasing out the VI-SPDAT due to embedded biases. We asked how homeless service providers conceptualized and distinguished between their clients' needs and service utilization. Using template analysis to analyze focus group transcripts from 58 Arizona homeless service providers and administrators, we integrated Critical Race Theory and an equity lens and developed the Need/Use Framework. Our findings highlight that need and use are not synonymous and that assuming a direct association risks obscuring important disparities in access and outcomes. Systemic barriers, eligibility criteria, and system responses shape access to and engagement with services. The Need/Use Framework is a practical tool for communities that can support more equitable prioritization strategies. We suggest future research: (1) offer practical examples of the Need/Use Framework in use, and (2) gather perspectives of people experiencing homelessness on the distinctions between their needs and service use and what more should be done to align the two.
The impact of technology on all aspects of life is a topic of growing academic relevance. Social services, because of their unique characteristics, present a distinct context that warrants a detailed analysis of the digitization process and technological impacts. This study addresses two research questions: (1) How is digitization developing in social services? and (2) What forms of inequality are emerging in access to and use of technologies among people involved in the provision and development of social services? In order to achieve these objectives, a systematized literature review was carried out using the main databases (WOS, Scopus and Social Services Abstracts) resulting in a final corpus of 23 articles published between 2020 and 2024. The results indicate an accelerated digitization of social services since 2020 indicating an ongoing and likely durable transformation. This transformation poses challenges that require an effective and equitable strategy, adaptable to the specific needs of service users and professionals, in order to address them effectively. Looking ahead, it is considered necessary to further analyze how the technological adaptations introduced during the pandemic have evolved, as well as to distinguish between modern technologies (already consolidated and integrated into social services) and emerging technologies (whose long-term impact still needs to be assessed). It is also important to promote research aimed at identifying and analyzing the risks and benefits, as well as to advance in the operationalization of the concept of digital capital.
This study was conducted following a time of rapid change in the U.S. refugee resettlement program to advance empirical understanding of compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress (STS), and burnout in the U.S. refugee resettlement workforce in 2023. With approval from Institutional Review Boards, data were collected using a self-administered online survey based on a cross-sectional design. Univariate analyses produced rates and levels of compassion satisfaction, STS, and burnout, and structural equation modeling examined associations between socio-demographic, personal, and work-related factors and the three outcomes. The sample comprised 472 respondents, predominantly female (83.3%). Nearly all (99%) of survey respondents reported moderate and high levels of compassion satisfaction, while 56 and 58% of scores fell into the categories of moderate STS and burnout, respectively. Being in a management role, resilient coping, compassion, turnover intention, and client connection were all associated with compassion satisfaction; while self-efficacy, quality of work-life, and client connection were significantly associated with both burnout and STS. Study results reiterate the importance of examining both demands and resources, as well as positive and adverse outcomes, in the refugee resettlement workforce. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed.
