Browsing by Author "Walsh, Matthew A."

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Paradigms Found in Reunification Research
(University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, 2016) Walsh, Matthew A.
When children are removed from their parents by the child welfare system, reunification is almost always the initial goal and is actually the most likely scenario (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2014). It is not surprising, then, that the process of reunification is an important area of focus within child welfare research. As with all research topics, child welfare literature is shaped by the studies and the researchers that contribute to it. Those researchers, in turn, are shaped by their own individual paradigms or frameworks in that these paradigms influence the type of research questions that social work researchers attempt to answer and the sources of data they use to do so. The paradigms of positivism, constructivism, and critical theory can be found in much of the reunification literature. The purpose of this paper is to highlight that, while each paradigm has its own strength, a combination of all three provides the best research for explaining, understanding, and addressing the reunification process as a whole. Individual studies are used to highlight this point.
Perspectives on Social Work Volume 12 (Spring 2016)
(University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, 2016) Walsh, Matthew A.; Holman, Elizabeth G.; Paceley, Megan S.; Peterson, Heather Leona; Thomas, De'Shay; Lateef, Husain; Cronin, Travis W.; Moon, Ingyu
This is the full-text volume of Perspectives on Social Work, vol. 12 (Spring 2016).