M Candace Christensen
Biographic Data
| ID | 190022 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Candace Christensen |
| GIVEN NAMES | M Candace |
| FAMILY NAME | Christensen |
| SIGNATURE | CHRISTENSEN M C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0013-5813 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 45 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
“I felt represented”
Latino adolescents experience high rates of multiple forms of dating violence (e.g., emotional, sexual, physical) both in-person and online. However, few interventions have been designed or adapted for Latino youth populations and is it critical that youth’s own voices translate to programming efforts. In this study, we explored Latino adolescents’ perceptions of a dating violence theatre intervention and solicited input on how the play may be ad…
Preventing vicarious trauma through the research process as healing justice praxis
This article explores how our research team integrated abolition feminism (Davis et al, 2022), critical inquiry, embodiment and praxis-based knowledge into a four-year process investigating transformative justice (TJ) and restorative justice (RJ) remedies for gender-based violence. To generate insights, we used an iterative approach that involved reflective memo writing, team dialogue and engagement with relevant literature on gender-based violen…
Research recruitment methods when participant safety and stigma are concerns
Facilitating leadership exploration in MSW students through community-based participatory photovoice project
While a wealth of conceptual literature attempts to describe the relationship between leadership and social work, there is a dearth of empirical research on teaching leadership skills to emerging social workers. This qualitative study focuses on the impact of using a community-based participatory project—photovoice—as a method to teach specialized community practice in graduate social work education. The study participants consist of masters of s…
Transformative justice and restorative justice approaches to campus sexual assault
Transformative justice and restorative justice approaches to campus sexual assault: a scoping review Campus sexual assault (CSA) remains a persistent public health problem on U.S. college campuses. Changes in U.S. federal law have highlighted the need for responses to campus sexual assault (CSA) that meet the needs of persons harmed, increase meaningful accountability for persons responsible, and engage the whole campus in prevention efforts. The…
Community-Based Intervention for Sexual and Gender Minority Youth in Central Texas
This study evaluated the psychosocial outcomes of sexual and gender minorities (SGM) youth attending a community social support group in Central Texas from October 2019 to October 2020. SGM youth are at an increased risk of experiencing depression and social challenges due to hetero and cis-normative social norms. This study examined the efficacy of a group intervention for addressing the challenges of 128 SGM youth who participated in this study…
Enacting Social Justice
Revealing white supremacy culture in an organization that supports queer and trans youth
Purpose This study aims to illustrate how white supremacy culture can be produced within nonprofit organizations with a mandate to serve marginalized communities and provide practical suggestions for preventing oppression. Design/methodology/approach The site of inquiry was a nonprofit organization in south central Texas that provides social support to queer and trans youth. Through critical ethnography, the researchers evaluated the organization…
Facilitators and barriers to sexual and gender minority youth development
A constructivist examination of using photovoice as a teaching method with MSW students and involving the larger community
Although scholars identify critical consciousness as an outcome of photovoice research, few studies specify the form in which the critical consciousness takes shape. This study analyzes the coursework from 55 Masters of Social Work (MSW) students who implemented and evaluated three photovoice projects. Using Charmaz's Constructing Grounded Theory, we find that the students learned how to de-center the social worker and critique resistance to the …
Mormonism and Becoming a Social Worker
This article demonstrates how to apply intersectionality as a lens during qualitative data analysis of a collective autoethnography study conducted by five social work practitioners and researchers who no longer religiously identify with the Mormon faith in which they were raised. The article presents methods and provides examples of analyzing the intersectionality of a phenomenon, using gender as the primary positionality. This intersectional an…
Awakening the Antiracism Collective Through Transformative Organizational Praxis
Dismantling structures that impede social work professional and organizational growth begins with social work educational institutions. In 2020, the convergence of three pandemics - COVID-19, economic injustice, and, notably, structural racism, catalyzed a group of social work staff and faculty at a public Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in the Southern U.S. The group relied on community organizing and organizational change strategies to form …
Integrating Critical, Engaged, and Abolitionist Pedagogies to Advance Antiracist Social Work Education
The intersecting coronavirus, racism, and economic pandemics electrified U.S. social work organizations into creating long overdue antiracism initiatives. This necessary shift includes the Council on Social Work Education specifying that curriculums must consist of frameworks and practices that eliminate racism. Social work educators will need to incorporate antiracism into their teaching. We argue that critical, engaged, and abolitionist pedagog…
Engaging photovoice to complement on sexual assault climate research
Through the implementation of three photovoice projects, we discovered how photovoice method complements sexual assault climate survey research. Scholars have recently asserted that qualitative and participatory research methods are necessary to conduct a holistic sexual assault climate evaluation. Nevertheless, an in‐depth analysis of how photovoice complements sexual assault climate research is missing. To fill this gap, we examine photovoice s…
Bridging the Grey Gap
This article provides a social work approach to reviewing the grey literature as part of a scoping or systematic review that attends to all layers of the social ecology through a person-in-environment framework. Little guidance exists on how to conduct a grey literature review specific to social work. Yet, consulting the grey literature—which often includes knowledge generated by practitioners and community members outside of academia—aligns with…
Photovoice as a Multilevel Tool for Gender and Sexual Identity Exploration
Gender and sexual identity exploration (GSIE) consists of engaging in activities that allow an individual to discover their values, preferences, and boundaries related to gender and sexuality. Photovoice is a participatory research method that incorporates an intrapersonal, interpersonal, communal, and political approach to engaging with a given topic. The purpose of this article is to use existing research to illustrate how using photovoice meth…
Contextualizing Barriers to Help-Seeking After Sexual Violence
This article is a critical feminist study focusing on illustrating how college students who identify as Latinx and women perceive barriers to help-seeking should they experience sexual violence. With this study, we address a gap in the research on help-seeking after sexual assault. The majority of research on this topic focuses on the experiences of European American women and is based on survey data. This study focuses on the perceptions and exp…
Centering Minoritized Students in Campus Interpersonal Violence Research
Using Photovoice to Address Gender-Based Violence
The purpose of this article is to examine how photovoice research addresses gender-based violence (GBV) among individuals and communities that experience and witness GBV. Photovoice action research (PVAR) methods act as both an intervention and a research method by engaging participants in using photography to depict a topic of concern and in developing potential solutions. To date, there is not a published review of PVAR publications that focus …
Using photovoice to treat trauma resulting from gender‐based violence
The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how photovoice action research (PVAR) aimed at addressing gender‐based violence (GBV) also responds to trauma resulting from GBV. I conducted a content analysis of 17 publications that use PVAR to address GBV to assess for how the PVAR projects also treat trauma symptoms. Briere and Scott's (2015) philosophical approach to trauma therapy is the conceptual framework for data analysis. I developed a pri…
Fostering Critical Feminist Multicultural Qualitative Research Mentoring
Qualitative research mentorship is essential to the development of counseling psychology as a field that supports socially just and multicultural inquiry. This type of research aligns with the core values proposed by the American Psychological Association. However, the governing beliefs and practices of neoliberal structures in higher education challenge critical qualitative research mentorship in counseling psychology. Namely, the values of econ…
"I didn't raise a d#@k!" How parents perceive and address gendered bullying with children
This is an exploratory study that uses a critical feminist approach to examine how parents perceive and respond to gendered bullying with children. Past research conceptualizes bullying from a feminist perspective and previous studies examine how parents perceive bullying. This study moves beyond earlier investigations by integrating these sites of inquiry. The author engages five fathers and eight mothers to participate in this study (n = 13). D…
It's awkward stuff’
The purpose of this study was to explore how parents navigate sex‐related concepts with their young children. This study used feminist phenomenological research methods for data gathering and analysis. Social development theory and a positive sexuality framework were also used in the study design. The participants included 13 parents (mothers and fathers) of at least one child aged 3–11 years old. The researchers performed semi‐structured, indivi…
Technology Access and Use, and Their Associations With Social Engagement Among Older Adults
This study supports the expansion of the successful aging model by incorporating ICT access and use. Further, it assists in the identification of specific technologies that promote active engagement in later life for women and men
The Ray Rice Domestic Violence Case
This case study used concepts associated with Black masculinity to critically analyze newspaper depictions of the Ray Rice Domestic Violence Case (RRDVC). The pattern matching and content analysis revealed the following themes: colorblindness, binary depictions, and commodification. This article used the RRDVC to establish a persistent pattern of public discourse that situates Black male athletes accused of committing crimes within a series of co…
Contextualizing Barriers to Help-Seeking After Sexual Violence
This article is a critical feminist study focusing on illustrating how college students who identify as Latinx and women perceive barriers to help-seeking should they experience sexual violence. With this study, we address a gap in the research on help-seeking after sexual assault. The majority of research on this topic focuses on the experiences of European American women and is based on survey data. This study focuses on the perceptions and exp…
Centering Minoritized Students in Campus Interpersonal Violence Research
Technology Access and Use, and Their Associations With Social Engagement Among Older Adults
This study supports the expansion of the successful aging model by incorporating ICT access and use. Further, it assists in the identification of specific technologies that promote active engagement in later life for women and men
The Ray Rice Domestic Violence Case
This case study used concepts associated with Black masculinity to critically analyze newspaper depictions of the Ray Rice Domestic Violence Case (RRDVC). The pattern matching and content analysis revealed the following themes: colorblindness, binary depictions, and commodification. This article used the RRDVC to establish a persistent pattern of public discourse that situates Black male athletes accused of committing crimes within a series of co…
Fostering Critical Feminist Multicultural Qualitative Research Mentoring
Qualitative research mentorship is essential to the development of counseling psychology as a field that supports socially just and multicultural inquiry. This type of research aligns with the core values proposed by the American Psychological Association. However, the governing beliefs and practices of neoliberal structures in higher education challenge critical qualitative research mentorship in counseling psychology. Namely, the values of econ…
Using photovoice to treat trauma resulting from gender‐based violence
The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how photovoice action research (PVAR) aimed at addressing gender‐based violence (GBV) also responds to trauma resulting from GBV. I conducted a content analysis of 17 publications that use PVAR to address GBV to assess for how the PVAR projects also treat trauma symptoms. Briere and Scott's (2015) philosophical approach to trauma therapy is the conceptual framework for data analysis. I developed a pri…
"I didn't raise a d#@k!" How parents perceive and address gendered bullying with children
This is an exploratory study that uses a critical feminist approach to examine how parents perceive and respond to gendered bullying with children. Past research conceptualizes bullying from a feminist perspective and previous studies examine how parents perceive bullying. This study moves beyond earlier investigations by integrating these sites of inquiry. The author engages five fathers and eight mothers to participate in this study (n = 13). D…
It's awkward stuff’
The purpose of this study was to explore how parents navigate sex‐related concepts with their young children. This study used feminist phenomenological research methods for data gathering and analysis. Social development theory and a positive sexuality framework were also used in the study design. The participants included 13 parents (mothers and fathers) of at least one child aged 3–11 years old. The researchers performed semi‐structured, indivi…
Bridging the Grey Gap
This article provides a social work approach to reviewing the grey literature as part of a scoping or systematic review that attends to all layers of the social ecology through a person-in-environment framework. Little guidance exists on how to conduct a grey literature review specific to social work. Yet, consulting the grey literature—which often includes knowledge generated by practitioners and community members outside of academia—aligns with…
VIII. New tools
I am the product of a second-wave feminist. Towards the late 1970s my mother left the Latter Day Saint Church (the Mormons), divorced my father, and became a feminist. I remember my mother picking me up after school one day and wearing a button on her tweed jacket, ‘‘ERA, Yes!’’ I asked my mother ‘‘What is ERA?’’ And she responded, ‘‘Equal Rights Amendment, honey, Equal Rights; that is what we are asking for.’’ She emphasized the ‘‘we’’ meaning ‘…
Using Theater of the Oppressed to Prevent Sexual Violence on College Campuses
Using theater of the oppressed as a practice method in sexual assault prevention interventions with college students is gaining in popularity. Theater of the oppressed interventions aims to change values and norms that perpetuate the acceptability of sexual assault and teach college students how to intervene in situations where sexual violence may occur. In this review, the author reviews the literature on using theater for social change as a pre…
VIII. New tools
I am the product of a second-wave feminist. Towards the late 1970s my mother left the Latter Day Saint Church (the Mormons), divorced my father, and became a feminist. I remember my mother picking me up after school one day and wearing a button on her tweed jacket, ‘‘ERA, Yes!’’ I asked my mother ‘‘What is ERA?’’ And she responded, ‘‘Equal Rights Amendment, honey, Equal Rights; that is what we are asking for.’’ She emphasized the ‘‘we’’ meaning ‘…
It's awkward stuff’
The purpose of this study was to explore how parents navigate sex‐related concepts with their young children. This study used feminist phenomenological research methods for data gathering and analysis. Social development theory and a positive sexuality framework were also used in the study design. The participants included 13 parents (mothers and fathers) of at least one child aged 3–11 years old. The researchers performed semi‐structured, indivi…
Technology Access and Use, and Their Associations With Social Engagement Among Older Adults
This study supports the expansion of the successful aging model by incorporating ICT access and use. Further, it assists in the identification of specific technologies that promote active engagement in later life for women and men
The Ray Rice Domestic Violence Case
This case study used concepts associated with Black masculinity to critically analyze newspaper depictions of the Ray Rice Domestic Violence Case (RRDVC). The pattern matching and content analysis revealed the following themes: colorblindness, binary depictions, and commodification. This article used the RRDVC to establish a persistent pattern of public discourse that situates Black male athletes accused of committing crimes within a series of co…
Using photovoice to treat trauma resulting from gender‐based violence
The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how photovoice action research (PVAR) aimed at addressing gender‐based violence (GBV) also responds to trauma resulting from GBV. I conducted a content analysis of 17 publications that use PVAR to address GBV to assess for how the PVAR projects also treat trauma symptoms. Briere and Scott's (2015) philosophical approach to trauma therapy is the conceptual framework for data analysis. I developed a pri…
Fostering Critical Feminist Multicultural Qualitative Research Mentoring
Qualitative research mentorship is essential to the development of counseling psychology as a field that supports socially just and multicultural inquiry. This type of research aligns with the core values proposed by the American Psychological Association. However, the governing beliefs and practices of neoliberal structures in higher education challenge critical qualitative research mentorship in counseling psychology. Namely, the values of econ…
"I didn't raise a d#@k!" How parents perceive and address gendered bullying with children
This is an exploratory study that uses a critical feminist approach to examine how parents perceive and respond to gendered bullying with children. Past research conceptualizes bullying from a feminist perspective and previous studies examine how parents perceive bullying. This study moves beyond earlier investigations by integrating these sites of inquiry. The author engages five fathers and eight mothers to participate in this study (n = 13). D…
Using Photovoice to Address Gender-Based Violence
The purpose of this article is to examine how photovoice research addresses gender-based violence (GBV) among individuals and communities that experience and witness GBV. Photovoice action research (PVAR) methods act as both an intervention and a research method by engaging participants in using photography to depict a topic of concern and in developing potential solutions. To date, there is not a published review of PVAR publications that focus …
Photovoice as a Multilevel Tool for Gender and Sexual Identity Exploration
Gender and sexual identity exploration (GSIE) consists of engaging in activities that allow an individual to discover their values, preferences, and boundaries related to gender and sexuality. Photovoice is a participatory research method that incorporates an intrapersonal, interpersonal, communal, and political approach to engaging with a given topic. The purpose of this article is to use existing research to illustrate how using photovoice meth…
Contextualizing Barriers to Help-Seeking After Sexual Violence
This article is a critical feminist study focusing on illustrating how college students who identify as Latinx and women perceive barriers to help-seeking should they experience sexual violence. With this study, we address a gap in the research on help-seeking after sexual assault. The majority of research on this topic focuses on the experiences of European American women and is based on survey data. This study focuses on the perceptions and exp…
Centering Minoritized Students in Campus Interpersonal Violence Research
Engaging photovoice to complement on sexual assault climate research
Through the implementation of three photovoice projects, we discovered how photovoice method complements sexual assault climate survey research. Scholars have recently asserted that qualitative and participatory research methods are necessary to conduct a holistic sexual assault climate evaluation. Nevertheless, an in‐depth analysis of how photovoice complements sexual assault climate research is missing. To fill this gap, we examine photovoice s…
Bridging the Grey Gap
This article provides a social work approach to reviewing the grey literature as part of a scoping or systematic review that attends to all layers of the social ecology through a person-in-environment framework. Little guidance exists on how to conduct a grey literature review specific to social work. Yet, consulting the grey literature—which often includes knowledge generated by practitioners and community members outside of academia—aligns with…
A constructivist examination of using photovoice as a teaching method with MSW students and involving the larger community
Although scholars identify critical consciousness as an outcome of photovoice research, few studies specify the form in which the critical consciousness takes shape. This study analyzes the coursework from 55 Masters of Social Work (MSW) students who implemented and evaluated three photovoice projects. Using Charmaz's Constructing Grounded Theory, we find that the students learned how to de-center the social worker and critique resistance to the …
Mormonism and Becoming a Social Worker
This article demonstrates how to apply intersectionality as a lens during qualitative data analysis of a collective autoethnography study conducted by five social work practitioners and researchers who no longer religiously identify with the Mormon faith in which they were raised. The article presents methods and provides examples of analyzing the intersectionality of a phenomenon, using gender as the primary positionality. This intersectional an…
Awakening the Antiracism Collective Through Transformative Organizational Praxis
Dismantling structures that impede social work professional and organizational growth begins with social work educational institutions. In 2020, the convergence of three pandemics - COVID-19, economic injustice, and, notably, structural racism, catalyzed a group of social work staff and faculty at a public Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in the Southern U.S. The group relied on community organizing and organizational change strategies to form …
Integrating Critical, Engaged, and Abolitionist Pedagogies to Advance Antiracist Social Work Education
The intersecting coronavirus, racism, and economic pandemics electrified U.S. social work organizations into creating long overdue antiracism initiatives. This necessary shift includes the Council on Social Work Education specifying that curriculums must consist of frameworks and practices that eliminate racism. Social work educators will need to incorporate antiracism into their teaching. We argue that critical, engaged, and abolitionist pedagog…
Revealing white supremacy culture in an organization that supports queer and trans youth
Purpose This study aims to illustrate how white supremacy culture can be produced within nonprofit organizations with a mandate to serve marginalized communities and provide practical suggestions for preventing oppression. Design/methodology/approach The site of inquiry was a nonprofit organization in south central Texas that provides social support to queer and trans youth. Through critical ethnography, the researchers evaluated the organization…
Facilitators and barriers to sexual and gender minority youth development
Transformative justice and restorative justice approaches to campus sexual assault
Transformative justice and restorative justice approaches to campus sexual assault: a scoping review Campus sexual assault (CSA) remains a persistent public health problem on U.S. college campuses. Changes in U.S. federal law have highlighted the need for responses to campus sexual assault (CSA) that meet the needs of persons harmed, increase meaningful accountability for persons responsible, and engage the whole campus in prevention efforts. The…
Community-Based Intervention for Sexual and Gender Minority Youth in Central Texas
This study evaluated the psychosocial outcomes of sexual and gender minorities (SGM) youth attending a community social support group in Central Texas from October 2019 to October 2020. SGM youth are at an increased risk of experiencing depression and social challenges due to hetero and cis-normative social norms. This study examined the efficacy of a group intervention for addressing the challenges of 128 SGM youth who participated in this study…
Enacting Social Justice
Preventing vicarious trauma through the research process as healing justice praxis
This article explores how our research team integrated abolition feminism (Davis et al, 2022), critical inquiry, embodiment and praxis-based knowledge into a four-year process investigating transformative justice (TJ) and restorative justice (RJ) remedies for gender-based violence. To generate insights, we used an iterative approach that involved reflective memo writing, team dialogue and engagement with relevant literature on gender-based violen…
Research recruitment methods when participant safety and stigma are concerns
Psychology (21 works) · Sociology (21 works) · Political science (16 works) · Gender Studies (10 works) · Medicine (10 works) · Social science (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Pedagogy (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Criminology (7 works)