Mary RauktisUniversity of Pittsburgh | Pitt · School of Social Work
Mary Rauktis
PhD.
About
78
Publications
17,525
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957
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
October 2007 - present
October 2007 - present
Education
January 1988 - April 1993
Publications
Publications (78)
Social isolation has been recognized as a social problem with negative health consequences. Using data from three waves of the Health and Retirement Study, this study aimed to examine the long-term impact of social isolation on loneliness and depressive symptoms and to explore the moderating effect of resilience. This study comprised 3,681 U.S. adu...
Kinship care, as supported by the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018, is a preferred placement for children who cannot reside with their birth families and has deep roots in African American communities. Much kinship care is provided by grandparents. To date, we know little about the experiences of grandparents who are serving as formal k...
Introduction: This qualitative research article examines the nature of the decision-making processes used by people to acquire dogs in low-income communities compared to how people in middle and upper socioeconomic communities make this decision. Methods: We explored the preferences, thoughts, and concerns that influenced decisions of a convenience...
Background and Objectives
Social isolation has been recognized as a social problem with negative health consequences. Using data from 3 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, this study aimed to examine the long-term impact of social isolation on loneliness and depressive symptoms and to explore the moderating effect of resilience.
Research Des...
Resilience plays a significant role in buffering the negative effects of parenting stress among custodial grandparents. Using a sample of 76 custodial grandparents, this study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties and factor structure of the 10-item Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale and to examine the predictors at individual level (demog...
The COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken to decrease the spread impacted youth in foster care and foster parents in a myriad of ways. One critical yet unexplored area is how educational changes during the first 2 years of the pandemic impacted this specific group of youth in foster care and foster parents. This exploratory study used three methods:...
Some studies have documented cognitive health among older immigrants in the United States; however, little is known about how the life-course immigration experiences were associated with cognitive trajectories among older Chinese immigrants. This study filled the research gap by identifying the patterns of cognitive change trajectory among older Ch...
Background:
Stress can lead to adverse physiological and psychological outcomes. Therefore, understanding stress during pregnancy provides insight into racial disparities in maternal health, particularly Black maternal health.
Objectives:
This study aimed to describe (1) daily exposure to self-reported stress levels during pregnancy, and (2) sou...
Objectives
Although a number of studies have documented cognitive health among older immigrants in the U.S., little is known about how the life-course immigration experiences are associated with cognitive trajectories among older Chinese immigrants. We assess patterns of cognitive functioning and change over time and examine whether age at migratio...
An increasing number of custodial grandparents are raising grandchildren, and intensive childcare is stressful with many negative personal, interpersonal, economic, and health implications. Grandparents' strengths, including resilience, positive caregiving appraisal, and social support should be considered in the face of parenting stress and advers...
Few studies have focused on activity engagement among older immigrants. We aim to map the patterns of activity engagement and examine the associations with social-ecological factors in a sample of older Chinese immigrants. Participants were from the Population Study of Chinese Elderly in Chicago (PINE). Four patterns of activity engagement were ide...
Activity engagement is a major component of well-being in later life. However, very few studies have focused on older immigrants who are often at risk for social isolation and psychological distress. We aim to map the pattern of activity engagement and examine its variations in relation to immigration-related factors and social aspects of neighborh...
Objectives: The present study aims to identify distinct types of relationships between grandparents and their adult children, measure the associations between these relationship types and depressive symptoms among grandparents, and determine whether these associations vary by grandparent status.
Method:This study uses data from a sample of 1,196 gr...
Family engagement conferences are a commonly utilized strategy in child welfare to empower families to make decisions for the safety and well-being of their own children. However, there is mixed evidence about their effectiveness, in large part due to the lack of detail about what is actually occurring in those conferences. Using data from a Title...
Objectives
This study examined the longitudinal association of depressive symptoms with grandchild care intensity and whether the association varies by household structure, residential area, and gender for Chinese grandparents.
Methods
Using data from three waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, 2011–2015), we applied...
Poor sleep quality is prevalent in professional graduate school students due to academic- and work-related stress. In addition, it has been found that high levels of perceived stress, including lifetime traumatic stress, are significantly associated with poor sleep quality. This study surveyed 196 MSW students from a university in the United States...
While there is a substantive body of research on benefits conveyed via the human–animal bond (HAB), less is understood about disruptions to HAB and how to potentially prevent such. The construct of commitment can elucidate such scenarios and may also help inform related interventions; however, there are few empirical measures of commitment to a com...
The chapter provides: (1) an overview of family meetings, including the origins of family meeting practice in child welfare; (2) a theoretical framework on how family meetings can impact racial disparities and disproportionality in child welfare systems; (3) an exploration of how family meetings can fit within a larger system reform context; and (4...
Pets play an important role in older adults’ lives, as people treat pets as their companion and family members. Owning a pet has been believed to be beneficial; however, previous literature demonstrated mixed results of the effects of pet on people’s well-being. Using data collected from 392 food pantry users in Pittsburgh, this study examined the...
The transition to adulthood can be a difficult process for any youth. This paper explores an outcome-impact assessment of the Intensive Transitions Treatment (ITT) Program. This service system works with youth facing the challenges of mental illness, substance abuse, and involvement with CYS or Court Supervision Services, with little, if any, suppo...
Purpose
Do pets provide benefits or risks for low-income individuals in regards to food security?
Method
Surveys of food security were administered to 392 low-income adults utilizing food pantries. Data collection included a self-administered questionnaire about demographics, food security, health and well-being, and for those with pets, animal at...
This manuscript reports the implementation and the six-year outcomes of the SURF.ART program, a youth development intervention developed by Pressley Ridge Portugal. The program has multiple components including a “life project”, support for crises, psychoeducational workshops, engagement with parents and surfing instruction and practice for youth....
Background Human-animal interaction (HAI) offers benefits across physical, emotional, psychological, and social spheres of human functioning. The aim of this paper is to delineate how animal companionship, via provision of HAI benefits, offers vital support to people experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic and associated stressors. Method Each of the em...
Restriction of living environment refers to limits, rules, and structures in place in an out‐of‐home residential placement for children/youth. This article describes the process of revising a measure of out‐of‐home living restrictiveness to be culturally congruent for Portugal, providing preliminary data on validity and reliability, and discusses t...
This study aims to assess racial differences in subjective wellbeing (SWB) and to examine whether the pathways of social support and social engagement to SWB vary by racial groups in the United States of America. Using a local sample (N = 1,035) and a nationally representative sample of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 7,718), we compared life...
National estimates of household food security fail to take into account the animals in the household, and studies conducted by animal welfare, veterinary, and pet product associations have not estimated the extent to which pets experience food insecurity. Yet the proliferation of dedicated pet food pantries and the addition of pet food to existing...
This article proposes and examines a parsimonious framework for assessing quality in therapeutic residential care. The synthesized conceptual framework includes four potentially critical domains of quality: setting, staffing, safety, and treatment. Data from a recently completed quasi-experimental study of group homes were used to examine prevalenc...
Most of the extant social work research on biracial children and families has focused on the experiences of transracially adopted black or biracial children and their white parents or Afro-Caribbean/white children and their white mothers in the United Kingdom. This study adds to the body of knowledge by using focus group interviews analyzed through...
Child welfare involved youth are frequently referred to group home care. One common intervention utilized in group home care is behavior management systems. This intervention is operationalized as points, token economies, and level systems. Grounded in social learning and behavioral theories, the objective is to reinforce-pro-social behaviors and t...
Amidst concerns about percentages of households that remain unbanked or underbanked, policy endeavors have emerged to promote financial inclusion by making financial products such as savings accounts readily available. While these endeavors have primarily concentrated on households, young people may be the front lines of financial inclusion because...
Adolescents constitute a large proportion of youth in foster care, but few foster care models specifically concentrate on their developmental or treatment needs. This study examined outcomes for an agency-developed, theoretically based treatment foster care (TFC) model using de-identified administrative data from 612 youth discharged from care over...
The child welfare system usually becomes involved with families when there are child safety concerns as a result of child abuse or neglect, serious parent–child conflict, physical or behavioral health conditions, or family violence. As part of their practice, child welfare workers must make every reasonable effort to safely maintain children within...
The professionals who work in the child welfare system make critical decisions that have long-term impacts on the lives of children and families, and these case-level determinations must be made with careful consideration. Given the high stakes nature of child welfare work, there is tremendous pressure to “do” something at all times. There is a dem...
The conventional models used for preparing youth for emancipation from child welfare emphasize independent living services in which youths learn how to find an apartment, apply for jobs or college, and manage money and budget for household expenses. Yet the focus on “independence” for youth leaving the child welfare system does not fit with the dev...
The number of people identifying as biracial is rapidly growing, though little is known about the experiences of interracial families. Previous work indicates that biracial children may be at elevated risk of entering the child welfare system. This could underscore additional risks faced by these families. This document includes data from the Longi...
While there are several measures of living environment restrictiveness, none has used the youth perspective in conceptualizing and operationalizing restrictiveness. The purpose of this qualitative study was to obtain the perspectives of child welfare involved youth who have lived in out-of-home care. Using focus group methodology, 40 youth were ask...
This study explored the perceptions of fidelity to family group principles using comparative information from family, friends, and professionals, taking into account race and gender. White respondents felt there was a greater degree of fidelity than did the African American respondents, with other race respondents sometimes rating similarly to both...
ABSTRACT In the USA, African-American children are overrepresented in the child welfare system. However, little is known about the child welfare system experiences of biracial children, who are predominately both White and African-American. To better understand this population, data from public child welfare in a US county were used to examine bira...
This paper explores what system factors influenced the adoption of Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) in Pennsylvania and what the perceived barriers and facilitators of adoption and sustainability are according to the individuals involved in FGDM. A mixed methods design is employed, using geographic autocorrelation modeling and analysis of qualit...
Using three waves of data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, this study examines differences in cognitive, academic, and affective well-being of youth first placed in nonkinship foster care (N = 259) and youth first placed in group care (N = 89). To compare nonrandomized groups, propensity score matching was used. Results...
Child welfare caseworkers, the individuals charged with protecting the safety and welfare of children, work in highly bureaucratic systems, managing large caseloads of families, all the while attempting to obtain and analyze complex information in order to make decisions about child safety. Although much attention has been focused on major decision...
The Restrictiveness of Living Environment Scale has long been the primary way to conceptualize the “restrictiveness” of a child’s living situation. However, changes in systems of care and other factors have created a need to revisit how restrictiveness is conceptualized and measured. A measure was created to assess an environment’s level of restric...
The Restrictiveness of Living Environment Scale (ROLES) has served since 1992 as the primary way of conceptualizing the restrictiveness of a child's living situation. It is a key performance dimension used by many mental health, child welfare and juvenile justice agencies in helping children move to and function in less restrictive settings. Howeve...
Group/residential care (hence GRC) care costs about ten times as much as foster care (FC) and may have adverse effects because of the aggregation of youth with intense problems. Yet, there are almost no direct comparisons between group care and (non-treatment) FC.. Also, some new information is emerging to suggest that G/RC is improving and that so...
This exploratory study used qualitative methods to better understand how youths in a residential setting perceive their relationships with the counselors. Using focus group methodology, the study focused on how youth describe the relationship, what staff qualities the youth are able to identify as important in engaging and maintaining the relations...
Trilhos Alternativos (Alternative Paths) is a community-based program that aims to integrate African-Portuguese urban youth from low-income families into Portuguese society. This article describes the first year of the program and presents formative data about effectiveness of the program. The motivation system seems to be an indirect variable that...
Residential treatment centers (RTCs) for children in the United States face growing pressures to engage in research and to
conduct scientifically rigorous studies demonstrating treatment effectiveness and outcomes. At the same time, the existing
research suggests that evidence regarding the effectiveness of residential treatment is limited and, mor...
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Therapeutic alliance (TA), the helping relationship that develops between a client and clinician, has received little attention in child treatment studies until recently, though it is the factor found to be most predictive of clinical outcomes. Furthermore, TA is cited as one of the most important components to effective therapy according to practi...
This study reports 12-month outcomes for a cohort of 41 geriatric patients who were discharged into community placements during a state hospital reduction project in southwestern Pennsylvania. Mortality, functional and psychiatric status, and patient satisfaction were examined along with the pattern of critical incidents. Several methods were used...
This article uses a case example to describe how focus group interviews were utilized in evaluating mental health services for individuals with a serious and persistent mental illness. The method, questions, and recruitment process are summarized along with a description of the focus group interaction. Modifications of logistic procedures and moder...
Investigated both positive and negative social interactions and their effect on mental health for 106 individuals caring for a seriously mentally ill family member. Results from mixed-model (hierarchial and stepwise) multiple regression analyses in which caregiver age, socioeconomic status, caregiving demand, and severity of patient symptoms was co...
Nothing is as central to the work lives of social workers or as important to an organization's effective use of personnel as the satisfaction staff derive from their employment. The present study presents a short (14-item) facet-based, direct measure of job satisfaction that can be used by researchers and administrators. The scale was developed and...
Questions
Questions (5)
What is the hive thinking about incentives for subjects who are in multiple states and can be disbursed easily and leave an audit trail.
I am doing some background work on this for a colleague. She is reimbursing people small amounts for taking a survey. these are individuals with lived experiences of mental illness, on disability, or lower income. It would need to be something electronic --don' t wish to mail gift cards again-- and something that an IRB and university office of research would approve as it leaves an audit trail.
I've been thinking Amazon, e card but know that that is not always what people like. I've thought Target since target is across the US, ditto walmart, although walmart is hard to get to for some people in the city to get to.
It would be nice to have options so that people can buy food.
We may be able to offer more than one type e.g. amazon or target or wall mart, but not sure.
thanks in advance for thoughts. I find this stuff to be the bane of being a PI on any project.
I have a student using Nvivo and I am not an expert in this software. I can do the basics.
If you have a node "leadership" and you want to compare the responses of men and women on this node, how do you identify the women or men? create a node for women and then code the entire transcript under this node "woman" and then run the query of Leadership + woman?? I believe that it is creating a case but it has been a long time since I have done cross tabs in nvivo.
I have a presentation to an audience which will glaze over at a table. I'd like to be able to show findings in a more visual way than a table. ideas? thoughts? a book or journal that has suggestions?
Hello,
Has anyone used SMS in data collection for program evaluation? I am working on an evaluation and we have had little success in getting youth to attend focus groups: incentives helped a little, food not at all, ditto for location and time. Even when we have people driving them to group, they don't show up. These are youth involved in the foster care system, a difficult to engage group. We did some phone interviews and they all have mobile numbers so I'm wondering if anyone else has used text messaging. Most of the published literature is on public health or medical intentions. Thanks in advance for any information.
I am working in a team with four other researchers. We all have nvivo on our laptops as single licenses (we don't have a server version). All four of us will be coding transcripts.
