Social Work faculty members at the University of New Hampshire are actively engaged in research that informs their teaching, enhances client services, and contributes valuable knowledge to the profession. Social Work faculty research findings are regularly published in leading social work and interdisciplinary journals, including Administration in Social Work, Affilia, Children & Schools, Children & Youth Services Review, Journal of Gerontological Social Work, Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, Journal of Poverty, and Social Work. Here are some of our latest research projects/publications:

Pablo Arriaza, Ph.D., M.S.W., L.C.S.W., is an assistant professor of social work. His research focuses on the professional and ethical needs of bilingual and bicultural social workers; The intersection of death and dying, grief, and bereavement with cultural factors; Fear of death among social workers; Psychosocial functioning of children of military parents; and Rural social work practice. His research and findings on the subject of bilingual social work practice has been followed by national academic and private organizations. Dr. Arriaza is independently licensed as a clinical social worker and has practiced macro and micro social work for the past 20 years with the last 16 years providing direct services to military families both in the U.S. and abroad. He has published and presented with national and international leaders in the field of social work and nursing. His current research focuses on assessing the end-of-life care and bereavement services in rural America. He is also collaborating on an international study comparing fear of death and emotional intelligence among social work and nursing students.

Selected publications include:

Arriaza, P., & Cornelissen, K. (In press). Grief among children of military families. Illinois Child Welfare Journal. 

Arriaza, P., Martin, S., & Csikai, E. (2011). Bereavement services for Hispanics: an exploratory study of Florida hospices. Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care, 7(2-3), 121-138.

Arriaza, P., Cancino, G., & Sanhueza, O. (2009). Pertenecer a Algo Mayor. Experiencias de Pacientes y Cuidadores Durante el Cuidado Paliativo en Chile.  Ciencia y Enfermeria, 2(15), 95-106.

Manuscripts in progress include:

Arriaza, P., Nedjat-Haiem, F., Lee, H., Martin, S., & Shibusawa, T. Enhancing rigor and transparency in conducting qualitative research in diverse cultural contexts.

Arriaza, P., & Palacios, F. Self-perceived language abilities and professional needs of Spanish-speaking social workers.

Palacios, F., & Arriaza, P. The meaning of being bilingual in contemporary society.

Arriaza, P. The intersection of rural inequities, end-of-life care, and the practice of rural social work. Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care.

Mary Banach, DSW, ACSW has two research interests. Her past research examining the effectiveness of follow-up services for families who receive a diagnosis of autism or other neurological challenges for a child has resulted in both journal publications and national presentations. This area of research has expanded both to examine the benefits of interdisciplinary co-leadership of groups for parents of children with disabilities and to explore factors leading to sustainability of support groups for parents.  The results of this research has also led to national presentations and published articles. Future plans entail developing and investigating mentoring programs for parents who have a child with a disability. The other area of research focuses on social work pedagogy. Specifically, she is exploring the effectiveness of using standardized clients to teach interviewing skills in social work practice classes. This research is being conducted in association with the UNH theatre department and uses theatre students as standardized clients.  

Gretchen Bean, MSW, has a strong interest in adolescent development and adolescent program evaluation. Ms. Bean has been involved with evaluating the Connect Suicide Prevention Project of NAMI-NH for several years and has co-authored 2 articles on the program. She is currently working with Dr. Melissa Wells on a research project that seeks to understand financial aid and mental health utilization among students who were formerly in out -of-home placement and their transition to post-secondary education. Ms Bean is also working with Dr. Patrick Shannon to develop and pilot an assessment tool for use in therapuetic riding programs.

L. Rene Bergeron, PhD, has a research focus is in several areas relating to elder maltreatment, neglect, and exploitation on both the state and national levels. Her primary focus is on the physical abuse of community dwelling elders and the accompanying practice dilemmas of servicing this population. Her research includes analyzing the decisional factors used by protection workers when they intervene in suspected cases of maltreatment. She is particularly interested in the ethical conflict between the principles of client’s self-determination and the worker’s duty-to-protect. The use of risk-factors as a method to assist in the practitioner’s critical thinking is woven into this research agenda. She suggests that some cases of elder maltreatment by family members would benefit from a family preservation approach, suggesting that many cases of elder abuse may fall into the category of domestic violence. Currently her research focus is on the analysis of state laws and their varied definitions of key terminology and how this lack of conformity is a confounding factor in conducting national surveys and studies on elder maltreatment. She continues to present her work at national and international conferences and she is published in various journals such as Social Work, Gerontological Social Work, and Families in Society. Additionally, she has authored chapters in several books such as the Encyclopedia of Domestic Violence, Health Consequence of Abuse in the Family, and Family Poverty in Diverse Contexts.  She is an active reviewer on the editorial board of the Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect.

Anne Broussard, Ph.D., studies structural inequities that affect women and children in health care and academic settings. Recent articles and national/international presentations address the health needs of unique populations of adolescents (Social Work in Health Care, 2011, with SW Professor, P. Shannon) and single mothers’ mental and physical health (Journal of Poverty, 2010). Her books include Family Poverty in Diverse Contexts (Routledge, 2009, coauthored with A. Joseph) and Social Work and Social Welfare: An Introduction (Pearson/Allyn & Bacon, 2011) coauthored with J. Marx, F. Hopper, & D. Worster. Currently she is working on three projects: a qualitative analysis of stressors and coping strategies of single mothers living in poverty (with 2 recent MSW program graduates), a quantitative analysis of national data to examine racial/ethnic disproportionality in the child welfare system (with SW Professor V.B. Carter), and a comparison of school social worker roles in the U.S. and South Korea. Professor Broussard has served on several journal editorial boards including Family Relations, Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, Journal of Poverty, and Marriage and Family Review and she is Principle Investigator of the Title IV-E collaborative grant project with the NH Department of Children, Youth, and Families. Recent journal publications include:

Broussard, C. A., Joseph, A. L., & Thompson, & M. (In press). Stressors and coping strategies used by single mothers living in poverty, Affilia.

Joseph, A., Slovak, K., Broussard, C. A., & Webster, P. (In press). School social workers and multiculturalism: Changing the environment for success, Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work.

Shannon, P. & Broussard, C. A. (2011). Assessing the health needs of unique populations of adolescents: A focus group study. Social Work in Health Care, 50, 183-198.

Broussard, C. A. (2010). Research regarding low-income single mothers’ mental and physical health: A decade in review. Journal of Poverty, 14(4), 443-451. 

Joseph, A., Slovak, K. & C. A. Broussard. (2010). School social workers and a renewed call to advocacy. School Social Work Journal. 35, 1-20.

Vernon Brooks Carter, Ph.D., studies the removal of Native American and Alaskan Native (NA/AI) children from their homes, which has been a concern for child welfare workers and policy makers for many years. The numbers of NA/AI children in out-of-home care is significantly greater when compared to Non-Indian children. This disproportion of NA/AI children in out-of-home care has persisted almost 30 years after the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) of which a major objective was to decrease the number of NA/AI being placed into the foster care system (Donald, 2003). There is very little in the literature looking at this issue on the national level. The focus of his current research is to examine significant variables that are associated and may predict placement of children into out-of-home care. One of those variables is domestic violence: active domestic violence and families with a history of domestic violence. A second variable of interest concerns the impact of race/ethnicity: placement of Latina/o children into kinship care. These areas of interest are being explored through secondary analysis of The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), a national longitudinal dataset.

Susan Lord, Ph.D., LICSW, is interested in integrating social constructionist, systemic and psychodynamic ideas and practices into trauma work, and the cultivation of mindfulness practices in psychotherapy and in education. Her work focuses on examining aspects of categorization, labeling, power differentials and organized inequities of all kinds. Recent publications include: “Meditative dialogue: Cultivating sacred space in Psychotherapy - An intersubjective fourth?” which appeared in Smith College Studies in Social Work in 2010, “Lessons from our students: Unsung heroes in a time of global relational warming,” which appeared in International Social Work in 2011, and “Social workers in private practice: A descriptive study of what they do,” which was co-authored with John Iudice and appeared in the Clinical Social Work Journal in 2011. Current projects include “Meditative dialogue: Tuning in to the music of family therapy,”  “Meditative dialogue: Cultivating compassion and empathy in therapeutic work with survivors of complex childhood trauma,” and “Theatre as therapy: Therapy as theatre.’’

Jerry Marx, Ph.D., is a tenured, Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of New Hampshire. Before earning his Ph.D., he served as Executive Director of a community-based agency in Portland, Maine.  Dr. Marx’s research interest is community and administrative practice. In this context, he has published journal articles on such topics as human service volunteerism, online giving, and the charitable giving patterns of corporations, women, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans. Marx’s scholarship resulted in a college research award in 1999 and an invitation to the first White House Conference on Philanthropy in 1999. His textbooks are Social Work and Social Welfare: An Introduction, co-authored with Anne Broussard, Fleur Hopper, and Dave Worster and published by Pearson/Allyn & Bacon (2011) and Social Welfare: The American Partnership, published by Allyn & Bacon in 2004. Dr. Marx’s current research projects include a national survey of university-state child welfare training partnerships.

Sharon Murphy, Ph.D., ACSW, has focused her work on violence against women for the past 25 years. Most recently her research has crystallized around the criminal justice response to adult female sexual violence. Her research on sexual assault and the New Hampshire criminal justice system was the focus of the NH Attorney General’s press conference (2011), which garnered the attention of NH Public Radio, the Boston Globe and USA Today. Her current research involves tracking NH sexual assault cases across law enforcement, through prosecution and the courts to better understand factors related to case attrition. Her work is a collaborative project with the NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, the Governor’s Commission, the NH Attorney General’s Office and UNH faculty from the Departments of Psychology, Sociology, Women's Studies and the the Sexual Harassment and Rape Prevention (SHARPP) program. In addition to her professional colleagues, Dr Murphy’s current work includes students from the BSSW and MSW programs, as well as graduate students from Justice Studies and Psychology. Dr Murphy also provides expert testimony on intimate partner violence in criminal and civil cases.

Patrick Shannon, Ph.D. MSW, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work. Patrick is also a faculty member for the New Hampshire Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (NH-LEND) program. His academic preparation includes a BA in Human Services and a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York and a Ph.D. in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond Virginia. Patrick’s practice interests include supporting children with developmental disabilities through advocacy, family support, program evaluation research, and analysis of disability related policy. His research focuses on systemic barriers to services for children with developmental disabilities such as access to early intervention services, health care, behavioral supports in schools, and juvenile justice. His current research is focused on the child welfare systems ability to respond to and support children with developmental disabilities. He has numerous publications that focus on children with developmental disabilities who have been maltreated in child welfare, disability, and social work journals.  Recent publications include:

Shannon, P., Kim, W.S., & Robinson, A. (In Press). Implementing a service learning model for teaching research methods and program evaluation. Journal of Teaching in Social Work.

Shannon, P., & Tappan, C. (In Press). Identification and assessment of children with developmental disabilities in child welfare. Social Work.

Shannon, P., & Broussard, A. (2011). Assessing the health needs of unique populations of adolescents: A focus group study. Social Work in Health Care, 50, 183-198.

Shannon, P. & Tappan, C. (2011). A qualitative analysis of child protective services practice with children with developmental disabilities. Children and Youth Services Review, 33(9), 1469-1475.

Shannon, P. (2011). Medical conditions present at birth. In N. Boyd-Webb (Ed.), Helping youth and families cope with acute and chronic health conditions: A collaborative strengths-based guide to practice.  New York: Guilford Press.

Shannon, P., & Rawding-Anderson, P. (2008). Developmental screening in community health care centers and pediatric practices: An evaluation of the baby steps program. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 46, 281-289.

Shannon, P. (2009). Childhood disability, poverty, and family life: A complex relationship. In C. A. Broussard & A. L. Joseph (Eds.). Family poverty in diverse contexts. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.

Anita R. Tucker, Ph.D., is involved in multiple research projects investigating the effectiveness of adventure and wilderness therapy programs. As one of the researchers that works closely with the National Association for Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP)’s Practice Research Network (PRN), she is part of an ongoing study on the outcomes of youth who participate in NATSAP’s therapeutic boarding schools, wilderness programs and residential treatment centers. The most recent findings from this PRN were incorporated in the recent article by Tucker, Zelov and Young in the Journal of Therapeutic Schools and Programs. In addition, she continues to collaborate with Dr. Christine Norton and Dr. Joanna Bettman, fellow clinical social works in the field of adventure therapy. Bettman and Tucker’s recent article looking at the impact of wilderness on attachment was published in Child and Youth Care Forum and they are currently collaborating on a study that looks at the issue of gender and race in wilderness programs on which they will present at the 39^th Annual Conference of the Association for Experiential Education in November 2011. Dr. Norton and Dr. Tucker have collaborated on two projects looking at the use of adventure therapy by clinical social workers in an educational setting published in Groupwork, and in a clinical setting, the findings which are under review for publication. In addition, Dr. Tucker has been selected as one of 7 research scholars for the Outdoor Behavioral Health Research Cooperative (OBHRC) due to the contributions she continues to provide the field.

Melissa Wells, Ph.D., LICSW, is interested in understanding adolescent victimization, both within family systems and over the Internet. Her current research projects examine the transition to post-secondary education for youth aging out of foster care. She has worked with the New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth and Families on a longitudinal analysis of adolescents’ length of stay in foster care. Additionally, she and Kimberly Mitchell at the UNH Crimes Against Children Research Center collaborate on research related to online victimization of high risk youth. She serves as the program evaluator for the UNH/DCYF Child Welfare Training Project and is the Evaluation Coordinator for the Department of Social Work.