Joint PhD Program News

Joint PhD student Yun Chen and Kathleen Pottick, visiting scholar and professor of social work at Rutgers University, are both recipients of an honorable mention for the 2019 Society for Social Work and Research Excellence in Research Award. The award recognizes the article “Conceptualizing Culturally Infused Engagement and Its Measurement for Ethnic Minority and Immigrant Children and Families, Clinical Children and Family Psychology.” In conferring the honorable mention, the Society recognized outstanding social work research that represents the highest of scientific standards and advances social work knowledge.

A new study from researchers at the University of Michigan School of Social Work is the largest to date to examine associations between parental spanking and child well-being. The results of this study suggest that the use of spanking is detrimental to children across cultural contexts. Specifically, this study used data from 62 countries, representing nearly one-third of the world’s countries, and demonstrated that caregivers’ reports of spanking of children in the household were associated with lower socioemotional development of 3- and 4-year-old children. "Spanking may do more harm than good," said Garrett Pace, the study's lead author and a doctoral student of social work and sociology. 

The results of this study suggest that bans are warranted and likely benefit child well-being in the long term. In addition, caregivers can be supported in their efforts to change parenting behaviors through culturally competent parent education as well as the use of evidence-based practices that promote alternatives to physical punishment.  The study was published in Child Abuse and Neglect The International Journal. Additional authors include Associate Professors Andrew Grogan-Kaylor and Shawna Lee.

Huiyun Kim successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Housing Insecurity and Low-Income Housing Policy in the United States". His committee consisted of Kristin Seefeldt, Sarah Burgard (co-chairs), Richard Tolman and Rachel Best.
He has accepted a postdoctoral associate position from Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota.

Matthew Bakko, Joint PhD student in Social Work and Sociology has been selected for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Policy Research Scholars program.

The program supports and connects emerging scholars who are committed to bringing about meaningful change and building a national Culture of Health. Participants build the interdisciplinary skills and relationships necessary to extend their influence and impact, break down silos, address health disparities, and make our communities healthier.

His research will explore how new philanthropic and service delivery models and tools reconfigure organizations, engage with diverse communities, alter power dynamics and blur sector boundaries to affect the capacity building and social change process.

The Robert Woods Johnson Health Policy Research Scholars program supports underrepresented scholars, including first-generation, low-income background and students of color.

Assistant Professor Shanna Kattari is Bakko's Institutional Mentor for the Healthy Policy Research Scholars Program.

Jessica Wiederspan, PhD '17 dissertation research, "How the Ideology of the American Dream Persists in an Era of Economic Insecurity" is cited in The Washington Post, "Donald Trump's grotesque fraud". Wiederspan is a researcher studying basic income with the Y Combinator.

Rick Rodems successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Hidden Hardship: Three Essays on Poverty and Material Welfare in the United States."  His committee consisted of Luke Shaefer, Fabian Pfeffer (co-chairs), Sandra Danziger and Greta Krippner. Rodems has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at U-M Poverty Solutions.

Rick Rodems successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Hidden Hardship: Three Essays on Poverty and Material Welfare in the United States."  His committee consisted of Luke Shaefer, Fabian Pfeffer (co-chairs), Sandra Danziger and Greta Krippner. Rodems has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at U-M Poverty Solutions.

Charity Hoffman successfully defended her dissertation "The 21st Century Mother: How New Moms Navigate Work, Family and the Struggle to Have it All” and obtained her PhD in Social Work and Sociology. Her committee consisted of Karin Martin, Katie Richards-Schuster (co-chairs), Fatma Muge Gocek and Mary Ruffolo. Hoffman has accepted a Research Project Coordinator position at UM's Women & Infants Mental Health Program in the Department of Psychiatry.