A Systematic Review of Literature: Synthesizing Bullying and Extracurricular Activity Participation Correlations Among Students With and Without Disabilities

Social issues about bully victimization are a topic receiving national attention in social work literature. Therefore, social workers must establish potential predictors of bullying victimization to eliminate them among at-risk populations, such as students who have disabilities. Adolescent and teenage students with disabilities are an oppressed population at risk of experiencing higher levels of bullying victimization. In addition, this population also experiences harsher socio-emotional outcomes because of bullying. The purpose of this study was to synthesize past literature relating to the direct relationship between extracurricular involvement and bullying victimization. Research articles were retrieved across eight databases to assess past research and literature published on this topic. Due to the limited number of articles examining this topic, two separate analyses are provided. The first analysis assesses literature specific to students with disabilities. The second analysis includes literature not specific to students with disabilities. Finally, providing implications for future social work practice and research based on the results

Housing Cost Burden and Maternal Stress among Very Low Income Mothers

As the affordable housing shortage proliferates, more American households struggle with high housing cost burdens. Grounded in Belsky’s (1984) parenting stress framework, we use a weighted low-income sample from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study of mothers who rent their homes (N=388) to investigate a relationship between housing cost burden, or paying a substantial portion of income toward housing, and higher rates of reported maternal stress. Findings of the linear regression indicate that younger mothers and those paying 30% or more of their income each month toward rent have higher reported maternal stress scores. These findings are discussed with attention to practice and policy implications

Above-Average Student Loan Debt for Students with Disabilities Attending Postsecondary Institutions

Black students with disabilities face more hurdles to academic success and completion than do their non-Black non-disabled peers. With an increased reliance on student loans to finance higher education, this double-at-risk population is even more vulnerable than either Black or disabled students individually. This study examines whether there is an additional debt burden to this intersectional population. The Baccalaureate and Beyond public dataset was used to explore student debt for students who graduated in 2017. This analysis found that Black students with disabilities graduated with significantly higher debt burdens than either non-disabled Black students or students with disabilities from other racial backgrounds. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed. Importantly, Black student veterans with disabilities were found to have student debt even with the assistance of the G.I. Bill

Is the GI Bill Enough? An Exploratory Analysis of Student Veteran Borrowing in College

In the United States, many student veterans use their GI Bill benefits to help fund their postsecondary education; however, when the GI Bill is not enough, student veterans may turn to grants and loans to subsidize their financial needs. This study examines the degree and extent to which Pell Grants and student loans are being used by student veterans using data pulled from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Baccalaureate and Beyond dataset. We found that Pell Grant awards were higher for student veterans with disabilities as well as Blacks and that a student’s age contributed to the overall amount of federal student loans borrowed. Implications, future directions, and a discussion of the results are provided

Limitations When Conducting Quantitative Disability Research

Research of issues related to disability is consistently evolving in several social science related fields such as social work, psychology, sociology, and education. Disability research often employs large public datasets for researchers to conduct secondary analysis. However, these datasets come with many limitations that can impact the overall results. The purpose of this article is to discuss the limitations that occur when conducting a quantitative analysis for disability research from a secondary dataset