Date of Award
Spring 4-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
D.S.W. Social work
Department
Social Work
First Advisor
Edward P. Hanna, DSW
Second Advisor
Yasoda Sharma, PhD
Third Advisor
Juliana Svistova, PhD
Abstract
Shame is a self-conscious emotion that has been referred to as both a master and a hidden emotion. Sociological and psychological researchers have neglected shame, although it has seen a resurgence in the past 20 years as a topic for research. Shame heightens during adolescence, a transitional period that bridges childhood and adulthood and involves psychological, social, physiological, and neurobiological changes. Adolescent substance use leads to academic, health and mental health, peer, and family difficulties. Additionally, adolescent substance use is associated with the leading causes of death, including suicide, unintended injury, and violence. Adolescent substance use disorders impact the individual, family, community, and larger society. Researchers have associated shame with the development and maintenance of adolescent substance use disorders and have positively correlated it with adolescent substance use disorders, yet there is a dearth of research in this area. Social workers reside on the front lines of assessment and treatment of adolescent substance use disorders, providing more of these services than any other profession. No research studies addressed social workers’ conceptualizations of shame in adolescents with substance use disorders. This study utilized a qualitative approach to gain rich accounts of licensed social workers’ conceptualizations of shame in adolescents with substance use disorders through the lens of hermeneutic phenomenology. The results have the potential to influence assessment and treatment of adolescent substance use disorders as well as undergraduate and graduate education in social work.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Basile, Brent A., "A Phenomenological Study of Licensed Social Workers’ Conceptualization of Shame in Adolescents with Substance Use Disorders" (2025). Social Work Doctoral Dissertations. 47.
https://research.library.kutztown.edu/socialworkdissertations/47
