Michael E Woolley
Biographic Data
| ID | 140728 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael E Woolley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael E |
| FAMILY NAME | Woolley |
| SIGNATURE | WOOLLEY M E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0965-7175 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 124 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Interracial and Interethnic Marriages: Given Recent History, Have Things Been Getting Better
Interracial and interethnic marriages have been increasing in the United States, growing from 7.4 percent in 2000 to 10.2 percent by 2016. Given the growing number of such marriages, more research is needed to inform social work practice, policy, and programming to effectively serve these couples, and their multiracial families. The current research reports on findings from a 2022 survey of 413 partners in interracial or interethnic marriages. Re…
Views of Intermarried Couples: Implications for Social Work Practice
Intermarriage, defined here as the marriage between people of different races or different ethnicities, is on the rise in the United States, with one in six newlyweds intermarrying. While public opinion approval of interracial marriage is at an all-time high, racial and ethnic hate crimes are also on the rise, which can affect spouses differently based on their identity. Drawing on a 2022 Qualtrics sample of 287 spouses who intermarried and have …
Social Spheres of Protection and Threat: The Experiences of Black Men Married to White Women
The number of interracial marriages in the United States has increased to one-in-six among recently married couples. Therefore, researchers and clinicians need the knowledge and skills to effectively serve such families. The current qualitative study, part of a larger mixed-methods project, reports on findings from interviews with 10 Black men married to White women. A central theme emerged related to experiences of these Black men of safety, thr…
Black women married to White men: What the women see as the challenges
With interracial marriages on the rise, a need exists to learn more about what challenges spouses in these marriages may face, especially during a period of U.S. history when race is increaingly becoming a part of the national conversation following the election of Donald Trump and the 2020 protests. While marriages between Asians, Blacks, Latinx populations, and Whites have all increased, Black-White marriages, in particular, have been in the cr…
Clinical Suggestions for Family Therapists Based on Interviews with White Women Married to Black Men
The ties that bind: An exploration of son-in-law and father-in-law relationships in Black families
Expanding after School Program Access for Vulnerable Students: Examining the Efficacy of Federal Policy and Funding
After school programs provide low income students and students of color with learning opportunities across both academic and non-academic domains that such students would otherwise not get. In this study, we examined the intersection of school characteristics (e.g., enrollment size, percent minority enrolled, and percent eligible for FARM) and the types of after school programming schools offered (e.g., fee-based, 21st CCLC, and other types) usin…
Measuring adult sibling communication comfort about sensitive issues
The current study examined the relation between two sets of survey scale measures of adult sibling relationships. The first set of three scales assesses what adult siblings feel about, think about, and how they behave toward their siblings. These three subscales of the Lifespan Sibling Relationship Scales have established validity and reliability, with those psychometric properties confirmed in the current sample of 262 adults. The second set of …
Special issue: Siblings across the life course
Welcome to this special issue of JFSW on Siblings Across the Life Course. Special issues can be motivated by divergent rationales, such as catching a wave of new, expanding, or interesting research
Women and Their Mothers-in-Law: Triangles, Ambiguity, and Relationship Quality
Each marriage is the beginning of multiple intergenerational in-law relationships. Drawing on a survey of 351 women about their relationships with their mothers-in-law (MILs), this article reports on the impact of family triangles and boundary ambiguity on the quality of the relationship. In a three-block regression analysis, predicting a seven-item relationship quality scale, the first block included six demographic variables. The second and thi…
A preliminary look at relationships between married gay men and lesbians and their parents-in-law: Five case studies
With marriage between lesbians and between gays now legal in the United States, it is important to gain an understanding of how in-law relationships function for this population. Five case studies, part of a larger study of in-law relationships, are presented that help further knowledge of the potential obstacles that some couples may face in relation to their in-laws. Common experiences include relationships improving over time; struggling with …
Mother-in-Law Reports of Closeness to Daughter-in-Law: The Determinant Triangle with the Son and Husband
For a mother-in-law (MIL) and daughter-in-law (DIL), the benefits of maintaining a close relationship weave through other central family relationships. Those relationship triangles start with one's son, who is the other's husband, and echo through the raising of any grandchildren from the marriage. The current study examined the factors that related to MIL reports of having a close relationship with her DIL. Using survey data gathered from 267 MI…
The Father-in-law’s Relationship with His Son-in-law: A Preliminary Understanding
Little information is available about fathers-in-law and their relationship with their sons-in-law. The authors draw from a mixed-methods study of 35 fathers-in-law to describe how three fathers-in-law with highly positive son-in-law relationships and three fathers-in-law with difficult son-in-law relationships talk about those relationships. All three fathers-in-law with positive relationships are married, had good relationships with their paren…
Adult Sibling Relationships
Considering Adult Siblings in Substance Abuse Treatment
In the United States, illicit drug use among people between 50 and 64 years old more than doubled between 2002 and 2013 to 6 percent (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014). Not only is substance abuse on the rise, this significant public health issue often goes undiagnosed in older adults (Cooper, 2012). When substance abuse is diagnosed, many treatment protocols only focus on the individual patient (see, for example, O…
Advancing Academic Achievement Through Career Relevance in the Middle Grades: A Longitudinal Evaluation of CareerStart
Research and theory suggest that students learn more effectively when they perceive course content as relevant to their futures. The current research assessed the impact of CareerStart, a middle grades instructional strategy designed to advance the occupational relevance of what students are being taught in the core subjects—math, science, language arts, and social studies. CareerStart was introduced randomly in 7 of 14 middle schools in a divers…
Exposure to violence, student fear, and low academic achievement: African American males in the critical transition to high school
The Social Ecology of Race and Ethnicity School Achievement Gaps: Economic, Neighborhood, School, and Family Factors
This study used a nationally representative sample of middle and high school students to examine the degree to which economic, neighborhood, school, and family factors contributed to three points on a proposed school outcome continuum: (1)avoidance of problem behavior, (2)sense of school coherence, and (3)grades. Multilevel models were employed to account for the clustering of students inside schools. Results suggested that though family and neig…
The Social Context of School Success for Latino Middle School Students: Direct and Indirect Influences of Teachers, Family, and Friends
Youth's social relationships at school and at home have been shown to predict a wide variety of school outcomes, such as behavior at school and academic performance. Specifically, relationships with teachers, parents, and peers have all been shown to affect student performance. The current study utilized data collected from 848 Latino middle school students to examine direct and indirect linkages of students' relationships with teachers, parents,…
Cognitive Processing of Self-Report Items in Educational Research: Do They Think What We Mean?
Techniques emerging from the considerable research on cognitive aspects of survey methodology include various forms of probing and cognitive interviewing. These techniques are used to examine whether respondents' interpretations of self-report items are consistent with researchers' assumptions and intended meanings given the constructs the items are designed to measure. However, although informal procedures are common, such developments have not …
In the Context of Risk: Supportive Adults and the School Engagement of Middle School Students
Many students in the United States, particularly those from lower income or racially/ethnically diverse families, are exposed to clusters of risk factors that have a negative impact on school success. This study examined the association between the number of supportive and caring adults in the home, school, and neighborhood and the school engagement of students in early adolescence. Results revealed that students who reported such supportive adul…
Neighborhood research from a spatially oriented strengths perspective
Research investigating neighborhood effects on children and families has been largely deficit and individual‐focused, investigated structural variables, and has typically produced equivocal findings and small effect sizes. We suggest an approach focused on community strengths and resources that stresses the role of measures of social interaction variables and the utilization of analytic strategies that model the spatial and nested nature of conte…
The Development and Evaluation of Procedures to Assess Child Self-Report Item Validity Educational and Psychological Measurement
Cognitive pretesting (CP) is an interview methodology for pretesting the validity of items during the development of self-report instruments. This article reports on the development and evaluation of a systematic method to rate self-report item validity performance utilizing CP interview text data. Five raters were trained in the application of that system, resulting in acceptable to substantial levels of interrater agreement. Results from this s…
Predictors of Neighborhood Satisfaction
Insufficient attention has been devoted to an examination of the factors that predict the level of satisfaction that community residents have with the neighborhoods in which they live. In this paper, we describe a program of research to examine the predictors of neighborhood satisfaction. Data on neighborhoods and individuals in Flint, Michigan were obtained from the 2000 Census and a citywide survey of neighborhood residents. Multilevel models w…
Cognitive Pretesting and the Developmental Validity of Child Self-Report Instruments: Theory and Applications
OBJECTIVE: In the context of the importance of valid self-report measures to research and evidence-based practice in social work, an argument-based approach to validity is presented and the concept of developmental validity introduced. Cognitive development theories are applied to the self-report process of children and cognitive pretesting is reviewed as a methodology to advance the validity of self-report instruments for children. An applicatio…
The Social Context of School Success for Latino Middle School Students: Direct and Indirect Influences of Teachers, Family, and Friends
Youth's social relationships at school and at home have been shown to predict a wide variety of school outcomes, such as behavior at school and academic performance. Specifically, relationships with teachers, parents, and peers have all been shown to affect student performance. The current study utilized data collected from 848 Latino middle school students to examine direct and indirect linkages of students' relationships with teachers, parents,…
Predictors of Neighborhood Satisfaction
Insufficient attention has been devoted to an examination of the factors that predict the level of satisfaction that community residents have with the neighborhoods in which they live. In this paper, we describe a program of research to examine the predictors of neighborhood satisfaction. Data on neighborhoods and individuals in Flint, Michigan were obtained from the 2000 Census and a citywide survey of neighborhood residents. Multilevel models w…
Exposure to violence, student fear, and low academic achievement: African American males in the critical transition to high school
Neighborhood research from a spatially oriented strengths perspective
Research investigating neighborhood effects on children and families has been largely deficit and individual‐focused, investigated structural variables, and has typically produced equivocal findings and small effect sizes. We suggest an approach focused on community strengths and resources that stresses the role of measures of social interaction variables and the utilization of analytic strategies that model the spatial and nested nature of conte…
Cognitive Pretesting and the Developmental Validity of Child Self-Report Instruments: Theory and Applications
OBJECTIVE: In the context of the importance of valid self-report measures to research and evidence-based practice in social work, an argument-based approach to validity is presented and the concept of developmental validity introduced. Cognitive development theories are applied to the self-report process of children and cognitive pretesting is reviewed as a methodology to advance the validity of self-report instruments for children. An applicatio…
Mother-in-Law Reports of Closeness to Daughter-in-Law: The Determinant Triangle with the Son and Husband
For a mother-in-law (MIL) and daughter-in-law (DIL), the benefits of maintaining a close relationship weave through other central family relationships. Those relationship triangles start with one's son, who is the other's husband, and echo through the raising of any grandchildren from the marriage. The current study examined the factors that related to MIL reports of having a close relationship with her DIL. Using survey data gathered from 267 MI…
Clinical Suggestions for Family Therapists Based on Interviews with White Women Married to Black Men
Advancing Academic Achievement Through Career Relevance in the Middle Grades: A Longitudinal Evaluation of CareerStart
Research and theory suggest that students learn more effectively when they perceive course content as relevant to their futures. The current research assessed the impact of CareerStart, a middle grades instructional strategy designed to advance the occupational relevance of what students are being taught in the core subjects—math, science, language arts, and social studies. CareerStart was introduced randomly in 7 of 14 middle schools in a divers…
Black women married to White men: What the women see as the challenges
With interracial marriages on the rise, a need exists to learn more about what challenges spouses in these marriages may face, especially during a period of U.S. history when race is increaingly becoming a part of the national conversation following the election of Donald Trump and the 2020 protests. While marriages between Asians, Blacks, Latinx populations, and Whites have all increased, Black-White marriages, in particular, have been in the cr…
The Social Ecology of Race and Ethnicity School Achievement Gaps: Economic, Neighborhood, School, and Family Factors
This study used a nationally representative sample of middle and high school students to examine the degree to which economic, neighborhood, school, and family factors contributed to three points on a proposed school outcome continuum: (1)avoidance of problem behavior, (2)sense of school coherence, and (3)grades. Multilevel models were employed to account for the clustering of students inside schools. Results suggested that though family and neig…
Interracial and Interethnic Marriages: Given Recent History, Have Things Been Getting Better
Interracial and interethnic marriages have been increasing in the United States, growing from 7.4 percent in 2000 to 10.2 percent by 2016. Given the growing number of such marriages, more research is needed to inform social work practice, policy, and programming to effectively serve these couples, and their multiracial families. The current research reports on findings from a 2022 survey of 413 partners in interracial or interethnic marriages. Re…
The ties that bind: An exploration of son-in-law and father-in-law relationships in Black families
Expanding after School Program Access for Vulnerable Students: Examining the Efficacy of Federal Policy and Funding
After school programs provide low income students and students of color with learning opportunities across both academic and non-academic domains that such students would otherwise not get. In this study, we examined the intersection of school characteristics (e.g., enrollment size, percent minority enrolled, and percent eligible for FARM) and the types of after school programming schools offered (e.g., fee-based, 21st CCLC, and other types) usin…
Women and Their Mothers-in-Law: Triangles, Ambiguity, and Relationship Quality
Each marriage is the beginning of multiple intergenerational in-law relationships. Drawing on a survey of 351 women about their relationships with their mothers-in-law (MILs), this article reports on the impact of family triangles and boundary ambiguity on the quality of the relationship. In a three-block regression analysis, predicting a seven-item relationship quality scale, the first block included six demographic variables. The second and thi…
The Father-in-law’s Relationship with His Son-in-law: A Preliminary Understanding
Little information is available about fathers-in-law and their relationship with their sons-in-law. The authors draw from a mixed-methods study of 35 fathers-in-law to describe how three fathers-in-law with highly positive son-in-law relationships and three fathers-in-law with difficult son-in-law relationships talk about those relationships. All three fathers-in-law with positive relationships are married, had good relationships with their paren…
Cognitive Pretesting and the Developmental Validity of Child Self-Report Instruments: Theory and Applications
OBJECTIVE: In the context of the importance of valid self-report measures to research and evidence-based practice in social work, an argument-based approach to validity is presented and the concept of developmental validity introduced. Cognitive development theories are applied to the self-report process of children and cognitive pretesting is reviewed as a methodology to advance the validity of self-report instruments for children. An applicatio…
The Development and Evaluation of Procedures to Assess Child Self-Report Item Validity Educational and Psychological Measurement
Cognitive pretesting (CP) is an interview methodology for pretesting the validity of items during the development of self-report instruments. This article reports on the development and evaluation of a systematic method to rate self-report item validity performance utilizing CP interview text data. Five raters were trained in the application of that system, resulting in acceptable to substantial levels of interrater agreement. Results from this s…
Predictors of Neighborhood Satisfaction
Insufficient attention has been devoted to an examination of the factors that predict the level of satisfaction that community residents have with the neighborhoods in which they live. In this paper, we describe a program of research to examine the predictors of neighborhood satisfaction. Data on neighborhoods and individuals in Flint, Michigan were obtained from the 2000 Census and a citywide survey of neighborhood residents. Multilevel models w…
Cognitive Processing of Self-Report Items in Educational Research: Do They Think What We Mean?
Techniques emerging from the considerable research on cognitive aspects of survey methodology include various forms of probing and cognitive interviewing. These techniques are used to examine whether respondents' interpretations of self-report items are consistent with researchers' assumptions and intended meanings given the constructs the items are designed to measure. However, although informal procedures are common, such developments have not …
In the Context of Risk: Supportive Adults and the School Engagement of Middle School Students
Many students in the United States, particularly those from lower income or racially/ethnically diverse families, are exposed to clusters of risk factors that have a negative impact on school success. This study examined the association between the number of supportive and caring adults in the home, school, and neighborhood and the school engagement of students in early adolescence. Results revealed that students who reported such supportive adul…
Neighborhood research from a spatially oriented strengths perspective
Research investigating neighborhood effects on children and families has been largely deficit and individual‐focused, investigated structural variables, and has typically produced equivocal findings and small effect sizes. We suggest an approach focused on community strengths and resources that stresses the role of measures of social interaction variables and the utilization of analytic strategies that model the spatial and nested nature of conte…
The Social Context of School Success for Latino Middle School Students: Direct and Indirect Influences of Teachers, Family, and Friends
Youth's social relationships at school and at home have been shown to predict a wide variety of school outcomes, such as behavior at school and academic performance. Specifically, relationships with teachers, parents, and peers have all been shown to affect student performance. The current study utilized data collected from 848 Latino middle school students to examine direct and indirect linkages of students' relationships with teachers, parents,…
The Social Ecology of Race and Ethnicity School Achievement Gaps: Economic, Neighborhood, School, and Family Factors
This study used a nationally representative sample of middle and high school students to examine the degree to which economic, neighborhood, school, and family factors contributed to three points on a proposed school outcome continuum: (1)avoidance of problem behavior, (2)sense of school coherence, and (3)grades. Multilevel models were employed to account for the clustering of students inside schools. Results suggested that though family and neig…
Exposure to violence, student fear, and low academic achievement: African American males in the critical transition to high school
Advancing Academic Achievement Through Career Relevance in the Middle Grades: A Longitudinal Evaluation of CareerStart
Research and theory suggest that students learn more effectively when they perceive course content as relevant to their futures. The current research assessed the impact of CareerStart, a middle grades instructional strategy designed to advance the occupational relevance of what students are being taught in the core subjects—math, science, language arts, and social studies. CareerStart was introduced randomly in 7 of 14 middle schools in a divers…
Adult Sibling Relationships
Considering Adult Siblings in Substance Abuse Treatment
In the United States, illicit drug use among people between 50 and 64 years old more than doubled between 2002 and 2013 to 6 percent (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014). Not only is substance abuse on the rise, this significant public health issue often goes undiagnosed in older adults (Cooper, 2012). When substance abuse is diagnosed, many treatment protocols only focus on the individual patient (see, for example, O…
Mother-in-Law Reports of Closeness to Daughter-in-Law: The Determinant Triangle with the Son and Husband
For a mother-in-law (MIL) and daughter-in-law (DIL), the benefits of maintaining a close relationship weave through other central family relationships. Those relationship triangles start with one's son, who is the other's husband, and echo through the raising of any grandchildren from the marriage. The current study examined the factors that related to MIL reports of having a close relationship with her DIL. Using survey data gathered from 267 MI…
The Father-in-law’s Relationship with His Son-in-law: A Preliminary Understanding
Little information is available about fathers-in-law and their relationship with their sons-in-law. The authors draw from a mixed-methods study of 35 fathers-in-law to describe how three fathers-in-law with highly positive son-in-law relationships and three fathers-in-law with difficult son-in-law relationships talk about those relationships. All three fathers-in-law with positive relationships are married, had good relationships with their paren…
Women and Their Mothers-in-Law: Triangles, Ambiguity, and Relationship Quality
Each marriage is the beginning of multiple intergenerational in-law relationships. Drawing on a survey of 351 women about their relationships with their mothers-in-law (MILs), this article reports on the impact of family triangles and boundary ambiguity on the quality of the relationship. In a three-block regression analysis, predicting a seven-item relationship quality scale, the first block included six demographic variables. The second and thi…
A preliminary look at relationships between married gay men and lesbians and their parents-in-law: Five case studies
With marriage between lesbians and between gays now legal in the United States, it is important to gain an understanding of how in-law relationships function for this population. Five case studies, part of a larger study of in-law relationships, are presented that help further knowledge of the potential obstacles that some couples may face in relation to their in-laws. Common experiences include relationships improving over time; struggling with …
Measuring adult sibling communication comfort about sensitive issues
The current study examined the relation between two sets of survey scale measures of adult sibling relationships. The first set of three scales assesses what adult siblings feel about, think about, and how they behave toward their siblings. These three subscales of the Lifespan Sibling Relationship Scales have established validity and reliability, with those psychometric properties confirmed in the current sample of 262 adults. The second set of …
Special issue: Siblings across the life course
Welcome to this special issue of JFSW on Siblings Across the Life Course. Special issues can be motivated by divergent rationales, such as catching a wave of new, expanding, or interesting research
The ties that bind: An exploration of son-in-law and father-in-law relationships in Black families
Expanding after School Program Access for Vulnerable Students: Examining the Efficacy of Federal Policy and Funding
After school programs provide low income students and students of color with learning opportunities across both academic and non-academic domains that such students would otherwise not get. In this study, we examined the intersection of school characteristics (e.g., enrollment size, percent minority enrolled, and percent eligible for FARM) and the types of after school programming schools offered (e.g., fee-based, 21st CCLC, and other types) usin…
Clinical Suggestions for Family Therapists Based on Interviews with White Women Married to Black Men
Interracial and Interethnic Marriages: Given Recent History, Have Things Been Getting Better
Interracial and interethnic marriages have been increasing in the United States, growing from 7.4 percent in 2000 to 10.2 percent by 2016. Given the growing number of such marriages, more research is needed to inform social work practice, policy, and programming to effectively serve these couples, and their multiracial families. The current research reports on findings from a 2022 survey of 413 partners in interracial or interethnic marriages. Re…
Views of Intermarried Couples: Implications for Social Work Practice
Intermarriage, defined here as the marriage between people of different races or different ethnicities, is on the rise in the United States, with one in six newlyweds intermarrying. While public opinion approval of interracial marriage is at an all-time high, racial and ethnic hate crimes are also on the rise, which can affect spouses differently based on their identity. Drawing on a 2022 Qualtrics sample of 287 spouses who intermarried and have …
Social Spheres of Protection and Threat: The Experiences of Black Men Married to White Women
The number of interracial marriages in the United States has increased to one-in-six among recently married couples. Therefore, researchers and clinicians need the knowledge and skills to effectively serve such families. The current qualitative study, part of a larger mixed-methods project, reports on findings from interviews with 10 Black men married to White women. A central theme emerged related to experiences of these Black men of safety, thr…
Black women married to White men: What the women see as the challenges
With interracial marriages on the rise, a need exists to learn more about what challenges spouses in these marriages may face, especially during a period of U.S. history when race is increaingly becoming a part of the national conversation following the election of Donald Trump and the 2020 protests. While marriages between Asians, Blacks, Latinx populations, and Whites have all increased, Black-White marriages, in particular, have been in the cr…
Psychology (25 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Developmental psychology (12 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving (10 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Law (6 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (5 works)