Positions

Overview

  • Melissa Wells, Ph.D., LICSW, is interested in understanding adolescent victimization, both within family systems and over the Internet. Her current research projects examine outcomes for youth aging out of foster care and child welfare agency efforts to engage parents. Additionally, she and Kimberly Mitchell at the UNH Crimes Against Children Research Center collaborate on research related to online victimization of high risk youth. She serves as the program evaluator for the UNH/DCYF Child Welfare Training Project and is the Evaluation Coordinator for the Department of Social Work.

    • Selected Publications

    Academic Article

    Year Title
    2019 The Implicit Curriculum: Student Engagement and the Role of Social Media.  Journal of Social Work Education Journal of education for social work.  55:153-159. 2019
    2019 Peer Harassment among Youths with Different Disabilities: Impact of Harassment Online, in Person, and in Mixed Online and In-Person Incidents.  Social Work in Education Children and Schools.  41:17-24. 2019
    2017 Supervisor and policy roles in social media use as a new technology in child welfare.  Children and Youth Services Review.  78:1-8. 2017
    2017 Behavioral and Substance Use Outcomes for Older Youth Living With a Parental Opioid Misuse: A Literature Review to Inform Child Welfare Practice and Policy.  Journal of Public Child Welfare.  11:546-567. 2017
    2015 Child Welfare Agency Climate: Congruence with Practice Model Beliefs.  Journal of Public Child Welfare.  9:236-255. 2015
    2015 Engaging Parents: Assessing Child Welfare Agency Onsite Review Instrument Outcomes.  Families in Society Social casework Journal of social casework.  96:211-218. 2015
    2014 Exposure to websites that encourage self-harm and suicide: prevalence rates and association with actual thoughts of self-harm and thoughts of suicide in the United States..  Journal of Adolescence.  37:1335-1344. 2014
    2014 Patterns of Internet Use and Risk of Online Victimization for Youth With and Without Disabilities.  Journal of Special Education.  48:204-213. 2014
    2013 Testing the Index of Problematic Online Experiences (I-POE) with a national sample of adolescents..  Journal of Adolescence.  36:1153-1163. 2013
    2013 University-State Child Welfare Training Partnerships: The Challenge of Matching Dollar Contributions.  Administrative Sciences.  3:221-221. 2013
    2012 Reentry into Out-of-Home Care: Implications of Child Welfare Workers' Assessments of Risk and Safety.  Social Work Research.  36:181-195. 2012
    2012 Exploring the role of the internet in juvenile prostitution cases coming to the attention of law enforcement..  Journal of Child Sexual Abuse.  21:327-342. 2012
    2009 Index of problematic online experiences: item characteristics and correlation with negative symptomatology..  Cyberpsychology and Behavior Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.  12:707-711. 2009
    2009 Challenges and strengths among Chafee Education and Training Voucher eligible youth: The rural service providers' perspective.  Children and Youth Services Review.  31:235-242. 2009
    2008 How do high-risk youth use the Internet? Characteristics and implications for prevention..  Child Maltreatment.  13:227-234. 2008
    2007 Problematic internet experiences: primary or secondary presenting problems in persons seeking mental health care?.  Social Science and Medicine.  65:1136-1141. 2007
    2007 Defining Child Pornography: Law Enforcement Dilemmas in Investigations of Internet Child Pornography Possession1.  Police Practice and Research.  8:269-282. 2007
    2007 Youth Sexual Exploitation on the Internet: DSM-IV Diagnoses and Gender Differences in Co-occurring Mental Health Issues.  Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal.  24:235-260. 2007
    2007 Online mental health treatment: concerns and considerations..  Cyberpsychology and Behavior Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.  10:453-459. 2007
    2006 Making statistics "real" for social work students.  Journal of Social Work Education Journal of education for social work.  42:397-404. 2006
    2003 Improving data systems about juvenile victimization in the United States..  Child Abuse and Neglect.  27:77-102. 2003

    Conference Paper

    Year Title
    Families experiencing opioid use disorder and the child welfare system. “It Takes A Village,”
    Substance use disorder in child welfare: Practice implications.

    Teaching Activities

  • Program & Practice Evaluation Taught course 2021
  • Program & Practice Evaluation Taught course 2021
  • Data Analysis and Statistics Taught course 2020
  • Field Internship IV Taught course 2020
  • Program & Practice Evaluation Taught course 2020
  • Data Analysis and Statistics Taught course 2019
  • Rsrch Exp/Social Work Taught course 2019
  • Special Projects & Ind Study Taught course 2018
  • Data Analysis and Statistics Taught course 2018
  • Spc Top/Child Maltreatment Taught course 2018
  • Spc Top/Child Maltreatment Taught course 2018
  • Program & Practice Evaluation Taught course 2018
  • Special Projects & Ind Study Taught course 2018
  • Program & Practice Evaluation Taught course 2017
  • Spc Top/Child Maltreatment Taught course 2017
  • Program & Practice Evaluation Taught course 2017
  • Program & Practice Evaluation Taught course 2017
  • Special Projects & Ind Study Taught course 2017
  • Program & Practice Evaluation Taught course 2016
  • Program & Practice Evaluation Taught course 2016
  • Data Analysis and Statistics Taught course 2015
  • Program & Practice Evaluation Taught course 2015
  • School Social Work Taught course 2015
  • School Social Work Taught course 2015
  • Program & Practice Evaluation Taught course 2015
  • Data Analysis and Statistics Taught course 2015
  • Data Analysis and Statistics Taught course 2014
  • Spc Top/School Social Work Taught course 2014
  • Spc Top/School Social Work Taught course 2014
  • Res III-Prog & Practice Eval Taught course 2014
  • Res III-Prog & Practice Eval Taught course 2014

    • Education And Training

  • B.A. Spanish, University of New Hampshire
  • M.S.W. Social Work, University of Minnesota
  • Ph.D. Sociology, University of New Hampshire

    • Full Name

  • Melissa Wells