Sarah Dow-Fleisner, PhD

(She, Her, Hers)

Associate Professor (Tenure)

Social Work

Office: Landmark
Email: sarah.dow-fleisner@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Development trajectories and resilient functioning of children and families in high-risk contexts; Parent-child and sibling relationships in families experiencing parental mental illness and substance use; Intervention and prevention programs for families and children; Utilization of advanced statistical methodology to examine complex social phenomenon.

Courses & Teaching

Courses:
SOCW525: Human Development for Clinical Social Work
SOCW553: Research Methods and Evidence in Clinical Social Work Practice
SWK382: Social Work Research Methods II
SWK707: Research for Social Work Practice

Directed Studies:
SOCW541: Directed Studies in Human Development in the context of forced family separation
SOCW541: Directed Studies in Research Methods and Statistical Analysis in Child Welfare Research
PSYO509: Directed Studies in Applied Mixed Methods Research
HMKN 545: Special Topics in Health and Exercise Sciences: Resilience and quality of life among survivors of intimate partner violence related brain injury

Websites

Centre for the Study of Services to Children and Families: https://csscf.ok.ubc.ca/

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah_Dow-Fleisner

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=5l9ldKQAAAAJ&hl=en

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2414-5856

Degrees

PhD in Social Work, Boston College
MA in Child Development, Tufts University
BSc (honours) in Child Development, Colby-Sawyer College
BA (honours) in Psychology, Colby-Sawyer College

Research Interests & Projects

Co-Principal Investigator (May 2023 – April 2024) Engaging in Critical Conversations to Transform Child Welfare Praxis in British Columbia (BC)
(SSHRC Connection Grant)

• This project is a series of four virtual dialogue circles, culminating in an in-person colloquium, which will bring together academics, researchers, and policymakers to foster critical reflections on the state of child welfare in the province and engage in conversation about how to mobilize research to facilitate positive transformative change. A primary outcome of this initiative is the establishment of a provincial child welfare research network that is essential in developing and sustaining transformative connections and initiatives.

Principal Investigator (September 2021 – August 2026) The ADAPT Project: Adaptation, Development, and Positive Trajectories in the context of childhood adversity (Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award)

• This project utilizes a mixed-methods approach to explore pathways to wellbeing in the context of CA, focusing on the timing and type of protective factors. To fully understand how socio-environmental and biological factors contribute to health and wellbeing inequity due to CA, we must examine the pathways to impairment and wellbeing using a developmentally informed framework.

Principal Investigator (September 2021 – August 2022) Examining the Mental Health Impacts of COVID-19 in Canada: A Combined Statistics and Machine Learning Equity-Informed Study (IURC BC Interior Region Seed Grant)

• This project aims to explore the changes in behavior and wellbeing related to COVID-19, examine how these changes differ among people in equity-denied groups, identify important factors influencing mental health conditions, and make recommendations on effective, equity-informed policy strategies. We will integrate statistics and machine learning methods to robustly analyze available Canadian datasets.

Principal Investigator (July 2017 – March 2022) Child Protective Services Organizational Environment, Practice, & Outcomes (SSHRC Insight Grant)

• The purpose of this project is to determine the relationships among organizational environment, approach to practice, and case outcomes in a diverse array of CPS delegated Indigenous agencies in British Columbia.

 

Selected Publications & Presentations

Dow-Fleisner, S., Gregoire, N., Stager, M, Woodmass, K, More, J & Wells, S. (2023). Measuring organizational environment in Indigenous child welfare agencies. Child and Youth Services Review, 156, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107329

Dow-Fleisner, S. J., Stager, M., Gregoire, N., Woodmass, K., More, J. W., & Wells, S. J. (2023). Development of a Measure of Child Welfare Practice Excellence. Research on Social Work Practice. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497315231180296

Dow-Fleisner, S. J., Baum, C., Pandey, S., & Hawkins, S. S. (2023). Parenting While Depressed: The Influence of Interpersonal Supports and Community Resources for Mothers. Journal of Family Issues. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X231181369

Dow-Fleisner, S, Leong, A. D. & Lee, H. (2023). The interaction between peer bullying and school connectedness on youth health and wellbeing. Child and Youth Services Review, 155, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107147

Dow-Fleisner, S. J., Pandey, S., Baum, C., & Hawkins, S. S. (2021). Heterogeneity in Child Health and Well-Being in the Context of Maternal Depression: A Latent Profile Analysis. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 12(1), 131-154. https://doi.org/10.1086/713569

Stene, K. L., Dow-Fleisner, S. J., Ermacora, D., Agathen, J., Falconnier, L., Stager, M., & Wells, S. J. (2020). Measuring the quality of care in kinship foster care placements. Children and Youth Services Review, 116, 105-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105136

Struik, L. L., Dow-Fleisner, S., Belliveau, M., Thompson, D., & Janke, R. (2020). Tactics for drawing youth to vaping: Content analysis of electronic cigarette advertisements. Journal of medical Internet research, 22(8), e18943. https://doi.org/10.2196/18943

Dow-Fleisner, S., & Hawkins, S. S. (2018). Child physical well-being in the context of maternal depression. Social Work Research, 42(2), 95-105. https://doi.org/10.1093/swr/svy006

See Google Scholar for Full List of Publications: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=5l9ldKQAAAAJ&hl=en

Selected Grants & Awards

Co-Principal Investigator (May 2023 – April 2024) Engaging in Critical Conversations to Transform Child Welfare Praxis in British Columbia (BC)
(SSHRC Connection Grant)

Principal Investigator (September 2021 – August 2026) The ADAPT Project: Adaptation, Development, and Positive Trajectories in the context of childhood adversity (BC Health Research Scholar Award)

Principal Investigator (July 2021 – August 2022) Centre for the Study of Services to Children and Families (CSSCF) (Collaborative Research Mobility Award)

Principal Investigator (April 2020 – March 2022) Using Linked Data to Examine the Impact of Family Adversity on Academic Wellbeing (Collaborative Research Mobility Award)

Principal Investigator (July 2017 – March 2022) Child Protective Services Organizational Environment, Practice, & Outcomes (SSHRC Insight Grant)

Co-applicant (January 2019 – January 2022) – Rural Health Equality Research Cluster (UBC Eminence Fund)

Co-Principal Applicant (January 2020 – January 2021) – Youth Vaping Assessment, Prevention and Early intervention (Y-VAPE): A combined policy and intervention approach to curb youth vaping. (CIHR Planning and Dissemination Grant)

Media

Meet Your Professor: Sarah Dow-Fleisner (youtube.com)

It’s all about the questions you ask: https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2022/02/21/its-all-about-asking-the-right-questions/

The impact of COVID19 on youth development: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/students-mental-health-pandemic-1.5906929

Kinship foster care placement: https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2020/10/29/standardized-measures-needed-to-screen-kinship-foster-placements/

Vaping advertising and youth e-cigarette use: https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2020/08/11/ubco-researchers-link-advertising-to-uptick-in-youth-vaping/

Tool for measuring racial socialization practices among lesbian, gay, and heterosexual adoptive parents: news.ok.ubc.ca/2019/03/12/research-suggests-adoption-assessment-tool-lags-behind-societal-changes/

E-cigarette advertising and youth vaping: https://globalnews.ca/news/7282663/ubc-okanagan-vaping-study/