Debra J. Rog

The SAGE handbook of applied social research methods

INTRODUCTION WHY A HANDBOOK OF APPLIED SOCIAL RESEARCH? - Leonard Bickman & Debra J. Rog PART I. APPROACHES TO APPLIED RESEARCH 1. Applied Research Design - Leonard Bickman & Debra J. Rog 2. Design Sensitivity: Statistical Power for Applied Experimental Research - Mark W. Lipsey & Sean M. Hurley 3. Practical Sampling - Gary T. Henry 4. Planning Ethically Responsible Research - Joan E. Sieber PART II. APPLIED RESEARCH DESIGNS 5. Randomized Controlled Trials for Evaluation and Planning - Robert F. Boruch, David Weisburd, Herbert M.Turner III, Allison Karpyn & Julia Littell 6. Quasi-experimentation - Melvin A. Mark & Charles S. Reichardt 7. Designing a Qualitative Study - Joseph A. Maxwell 8. How to Do Better Case Studies (with Illustrations from 20 Exemplary Case Studies) - Robert K. Yin 9. Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches to Research - Abbas Tashakkori & Charles Teddlie 10. Organizational Diagnosis - Michael I. Harrison 11. Research Synthesis and Meta-analysis - Harris M. Cooper, Erika A. Patall & James J. Lindsay PART III. PRACTICAL DATA COLLECTION 12. Design and Evaluation of Survey Questions - Floyd J. Fowler Jr. & Carol Cosenza 13. Internet Survey Methods - Samuel J. Best & Chase H. Harrison 14. Concept Mapping for Applied Social Research - Mary Kane & William Trochim 15. Mail Surveys - Thomas W. Mangione & Janet H. Van Ness 16. Methods for Sampling and Interviewing in Telephone Surveys - Paul J. Lavrakas 17. Ethnography - David M. Fetterman 18. Group Depth Interviews: Focus Group Research - David W. Stewart, Prem N. Shamdasani & Dennis W. Rook Applied Research Design - Leonard Bickman, Debra Rog Designing a Qualitative Study - Joseph Maxwell Practical Sampling - Gary Henry Planning Ethically Responsible Research - Joan Sieber Randomized Controlled Experiements for Evaluation - Robert Boruch Quasi-Experimentation - Melvin Mark, Charles Reichardt Abridged Version of Case Study Research: Design and Method - Robert Yin Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis - Harris Cooper, Erika Patall, James Lindsay Design and Evaluation of Survey Questions - Floyd Fowler, Carol Cosenza Organizational Diagnosis and Assessment - Michael Harrison Mail Surveys - Thomas Mangione Methods for Sampling and Interviewing in Telephone Surveys - Paul Lavrakas Ethnography - David Fetterman Focus Group Research: Exploration andDiscovery - David Stewart, Prem Shamdasani, Dennis Rook Concept Mapping - Mary Kane, William Trochim Internet Data Collection - Samuel Best Mixed Methods - Abbas Tashakkori, Charles Teddlie Comparative Analysis - Benoit Rihoux, Charles Ragin

Applied research design : a practical guide

Foreword - Thomas W Cook The Nature of Applied Research Defining the Focus of the Research Selecting a Research Design Selecting Data Collection Approaches Resource Planning Making Trade-offs and Testing Feasibility

Permanent Supportive Housing: Assessing the Evidence

OBJECTIVES Permanent supportive housing provides safe, stable housing for people with mental and substance use disorders who are homeless or disabled. This article describes permanent supportive housing and reviews research. METHODS Authors reviewed individual studies and literature reviews from 1995 through 2012. Databases surveyed were PubMed, PsycINFO, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress, the Educational Resources Information Center, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. The authors chose from three levels of evidence (high, moderate, and low) on the basis of benchmarks for the number of studies and quality of their methodology. They also described the evidence of service effectiveness. RESULTS The level of evidence for permanent supportive housing was graded as moderate. Substantial literature, including seven randomized controlled trials, demonstrated that components of the model reduced homelessness, increased housing tenure, and decreased emergency room visits and hospitalization. Consumers consistently rated this model more positively than other housing models. Methodological flaws limited the ability to draw firm conclusions. Results were stronger for studies that compared permanent supportive housing with treatment as usual or no housing rather than with other models. CONCLUSIONS The moderate level of evidence indicates that permanent supportive housing is promising, but research is needed to clarify the model and determine the most effective elements for various subpopulations. Policy makers should consider including permanent supportive housing as a covered service for individuals with mental and substance use disorders. An evaluation component is needed to continue building its evidence base.

Mental Health Services for Homeless Mentally Ill Persons: Federal Initiatives and Current Service Trends.

Recent research suggests that approximately one third of the population of homeless single adults suffer from severe mental illnesses. Despite multiple health, mental health, and social welfare needs, this population is often unable to obtain necessary housing and community-based services. For this reason, since 1982, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has undertaken a number of federal initiatives to encourage research and assist states and localities in improving services focused on this vulnerable subgroup of the homeless population. This article describes the target population, NIMH research findings, and current mental health service trends--with particular emphasis on two mental health programs established under the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act. Proposed future directions for federal research and evaluation efforts in this area are also discussed.

The feedback research approach to evaluation: A method to increase evaluation utility

The utilization of evaluation results continues to be a great concern among professionals in the field. To increase the potential usefulness of evaluation, the feedback research approach is proposed as a method that is especially helpful in studies that fail to find program effectiveness. Going beyond the bounds of the evaluation framework and studying the problem for which the program was designed to ameliorate, evaluations that incorporate a feedback research component can provide clients with valuable information to guide further program development. This paper provides a description of the approach and an illustration of its use in an evaluation of a major international corporations health improvement/stress management program.

AN IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION OF COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS

This article describes an evaluation of the implementation of a community diversion program for nonviolent offenders in Virginia. The evaluation used a unique application of logit analysis to focus on the extent to which the program was serving the intended population, in this case, offenders who would have otherwise been incarcerated. Results indicate that at least 46% of the divertees would have been incarcerated if the program had not been available. Usefulness of a statistical technique for evaluating implementation and providing concrete results to policymakers is discussed.

Using Evaluation as a Tool for Treatment Improvement A Look Back at the Work of Carol Mowbray

Iwas privileged to know Carol Mowbray beginning in the late 1980s through shared professional interests in evaluation overall and in the evaluation of programs for the homeless among the mentally ill. She was a regular attendee at meetings of the American Evaluation Association as well as a regular contributor to evaluation journals. I was always inspired by her unyielding enthusiasm and dedication to her research, her sincere desire to improve the lives of persons with mental illness through her work, and her excitement in mentoring others. It seems fitting that the article in this issue would be one of Carol’s final writings. It intertwines three hallmarks of her work: the use of rigorous scientific methods, a focus on examining the integrity of treatment, and a focus on a key intervention area for individuals coping with severe mental illness. Carol’s work exhibited rigor in method and the use of a variety of methodological tools to meet the needs of the research situation. Carol and her colleagues were adept at using cuttingedge, sophisticated analytic tools such as hierarchical linear modeling to examine the fidelity of treatment, as in the current article, or cluster-analytic techniques to derive classifications and typologies for service and treatment planning (Greenfield, Mowbray, & Freddolino, 1993; Greenfield, Mowbray, Freddolino, & Smith, 1987; Herman & Mowbray, 1991). She also conducted qualitative studies, as in an ethnographic study of homeless women and children in Detroit (Thrasher & Mowbray, 1995). Like many evaluators, I knew Carol’s work in evaluation, especially her continuing efforts to improve fidelity assessment, exemplified by the article in this journal. In addition, among her contributions to evaluation are methods for reducing attrition in longitudinal studies involving persons with severe mental illness on the basis of an understanding and sensitivity to their particular circumstances and needs (BootsMiller et al., 1998; Cohen et al., 1993; Ribisl et al., 1996). Through her evaluations, Carol also contributed considerably to the development of a variety of interventions for individuals with mental illness, including consumer-operated services (this article; Holter & Mowbray, 2005; Mowbray, Holter, Mowbray, & Bybee, 2005; Mowbray & Tan, 1993), supported education (e.g., Mowbray, 2004; Mowbray, Megivern, & Holter, 2003), assertive community treatment (Mowbray, Plum, & Masterton, 1997; Mowbray, Collins, Plum, Masterton, & Mulder, 1997); outreach programs (Bybee, Mowbray, & Cohen, 1994, 1995), and supported housing (Yeich, Mowbray, Bybee, & Cohen, 1994). As head of the evalu-