School of Public Health

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1633

The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.

Note: Prior to July 1, 2007, the School of Public Health was named the College of Health & Human Performance.

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    Brief Report: Perspectives of Foster Care Alumni on COVID-19 Vaccination: Key Findings and a Call to Action
    (2021-06) Shpiegel, Svetlana; Aparicio, Elizabeth M.
    The United States recently surpassed 32 million cases and 570 thousand deaths due to COVID-19. Vaccination of the general population is critical to ending the pandemic, and several highly effective vaccines have now received emergency FDA approval. Young adults are a key group to target for vaccination, as they may be asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 and unknowingly spread the virus to others. However, recent research suggests that young adults have concerns about COVID-19 vaccination, particularly if they belong to racial and ethnic minority groups or other marginalized populations. Young people with foster care backgrounds are predominantly Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), and their hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccination may be exacerbated by public systems mistrust and ineffective messaging channels. To better understand vaccination attitudes among this population, we conducted focus groups and individual interviews with 23 young people ages 18 to 26 who had recently aged out of foster care. All young people in our sample were parents of young children; thus, their attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination have relevance for their own as well as their children’s likelihood of getting vaccinated. As part of this project, participants described their attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination and their reasoning for either accepting or declining a vaccine. Interview audio files were transcribed verbatim and rigorously analyzed using a structured approach to thematic analysis.
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    Storms and blossoms: Foster care system alumni parenting during the COVID-19 pandemic
    (2021-05) Martínez-García, Genevieve; Sanchez, Alexander; Shpiegel, Svetlana; Ventola, Marissa; Channell Doig, Amara; Jasczyński, Michelle; Smith, Rhoda; Aparicio, Elizabeth
    Our team conducted this PhotoVoice project from January to March 2021. Parenting foster youth and foster system alumni aged 18-26 met for three sessions to use photography to explore their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This photobook was designed as a keepsake for PhotoVoice group participants to be able to share their photographs, experiences, captions, and stories with one another as well as with researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Names used in the book are pseudonyms.
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    Ambiguous loss, number of foster care placements, child age and child sex as the predictors of the behavior problems and posttraumatic stress symptoms of children in foster care
    (2006-12-12) Benson, Lisa; Wallen, Jacqueline; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study examined four factors that may predict the behavior problems and posttraumatic stress symptomatology of children in foster care: ambiguous loss, number of foster care placements, child age, and child sex. Participants included 74 predominantly African American 6 to 15 year old children in foster care and their foster caregivers. Foster caregivers completed the Child Behavior Checklist and Parent Report of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, and children completed the Psychological Presence Questionnaire. Regression analyses revealed that number of foster placements was a significant predictor of posttraumatic stress, with more placements linked to more stress symptoms. Child age, child sex, and ambiguous loss were not significant predictors of internalizing problems, externalizing problems, or posttraumatic stress symptoms. Implications of the findings for child welfare professionals and policy makers are discussed.