Social work research (Soc Work Res)

Publications in this journal

• Article: Client participation and the outcomes of intensive family preservation services

  Julia H. Littell
  Social work research 02/2013; 25:103-113.
• Article: Young men's use of aggressive tactics to avoid condom use: A test of a theoretical model.

  Kelly Cue Davis, Patricia Logan-Greene
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  ABSTRACT: Although research has demonstrated that men's aggression against women and inconsistent condom use are related phenomena, it is little is known as to what factors increase risk for aggression to avoid condom use. The present article tests a theory-based model of condom avoidance through sexual aggression. Adult male participants (N=289) were recruited nationally through online advertisements. Aggressive tactics to avoid condom use was measured using an adapted version of the revised Sexual Experiences Survey (Abbey et al., 2005) and assessed a variety of aggressive behaviors spanning coercion to physical force. 100 participants (35.3%) reported at least one instance of coercion or aggression to avoid using a condom. Structural equation modeling indicated that, attitudes towards women, inconsistent condom use, and number of sexual partners were significant predictors of aggressive tactics to avoid condom use. A better understanding of the attitudinal and behavioral pathways through which men avoid condom use through aggressive and coercive means will ultimately result in improved education and prevention efforts for at-risk men and women.
  Social work research 09/2012; 36(3):223-231.
• Article: Build it together and they will come: The case for community-based participatory research with military populations

  DeVoe, E.R, Ross, R. (2012). Build it together Paris, Special Issue on Research with Military Populations
  Social work research 01/2012; 13(1).
• Article: Personality and Parenting Processes Associated with Problem Behaviors: A Study of Adolescents in Santiago, Chile.

  Cristina B Bares, Fernando Andrade, Jorge Delva, Andrew Grogan-Kaylor
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  ABSTRACT: Considerable research in the U.S. has established that adolescent antisocial, aggressive, and attention problems have a negative influence on adolescents' ability to become productive members of society. However, although these behaviors appear in other cultures, little is known about the development of these problems among adolescents in countries other than the U.S.. This study contributes to our understanding of personality and parenting factors associated with adolescent problem behaviors using an international sample. Data are from a NIDA-funded study of 884 community-dwelling adolescents in Santiago, Chile (Mean age=14, SD=1.4, 48% females) of mid-to-low socioeconomic status. Results revealed that rule-breaking and aggressive behaviors were both associated with greater levels of adolescent drive but lower levels of parental monitoring and positive parenting by both parents. Adolescents who reported more attention problems were more likely to exhibit driven behavior, more behavioral inhibition, to report lower levels of parental monitoring, and positive parenting by mother and father. Results of interactions revealed that the influences of positive parenting and parental monitoring on adolescent aggressive behaviors varied as a function of the gender of the adolescent. Helping parents build on their parenting skills may result in important reductions in adolescent problem behaviors among U.S. and international adolescents.
  Social work research 12/2011; 35(4):227-240.
• Article: Religion and Substance Use among Youths of Mexican Heritage: A Social Capital Perspective.

  David R Hodge, Flavio F Marsiglia, Tanya Nieri
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  ABSTRACT: Despite elevated levels of substance use among many Latino youths, there has been little research on protective factors against such use. In keeping with federal commitments to address health disparities, this prospective study examined the protective influence of religion on substance use among a school-based sample (N = 804) of youths of Mexican heritage in the American Southwest. Drawing from the social capital literature, the authors posited that both integration into religious networks and trust in religious values at time 1 (Tl) would predict less likelihood of using substances at time 2 (T2) but that exposure to religious norms at Tl would not predict subsequent substance use at T2. The hypotheses regarding religious networks and religious norms were largely confirmed, whereas little support emerged for the hypothesis regarding religious values. The results are discussed in light of the various pathways through which religion may exhibit a protective influence.
  Social work research 09/2011; 35(3):137-146.
• Article: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Home Environment and Home Social Behavior Data from the Elementary School Success Profile for Families.

  Kate M Wegmann, Aaron M Thompson, Natasha K Bowen
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  ABSTRACT: The purpose of the current study was to test the factor structure and scale quality of data provided by caregivers about the home environment and child behavior at home using the Elementary School Success Profile (ESSP) for Families. The ESSP for Families is one component of the ESSP, an online social-environmental assessment that also collects information from students and teachers. Confirmatory factor analyses with Mplus and weighted least squares means and variances adjusted estimation took into account the hierarchical nature and ordinal level of the data. The sample comprised caregivers of 692 third- through fifth-grade students from 13 elementary schools in four districts. A primary model and an alternative model were tested. Models were tested on a random calibration sample and validated with another sample. A nine-factor first-order solution demonstrated superior fit to the data. Scores from the nine scales also demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability. Implications for practice and further research are presented.
  Social work research 06/2011; 35(2):117-127.
• Article: Children with Disabilities in Poor Households: Association with Juvenile and Adult Offending.

  Karen M Matta Oshima, Jin Huang, Melissa Jonson-Reid, Brett Drake
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  ABSTRACT: Disabled youths are arrested, adjudicated, and recidivate at higher rates than their nondisabled peers. Although multiple theories have been offered to explain the relationship between disability and delinquency, the empirical evidence is limited and contradictory. Little is known about how disability may be associated with offending once poverty and family risks like maltreatment are controlled for. Using administrative data from a Midwest state, this article discusses results from a Cox regression of juvenile and young adult offending outcomes for low income disabled compared with nondisabled youths (N = 1,568). Youths with disabilities had higher rates of juvenile court petitions than similarly low-income peers. In models of adult offending, there was no relationship between disability status and adult arrest, but youths who had received educational services for emotional disturbance or other categories of health impairment had higher risk of entering adult corrections.
  Social work research 06/2010; 34(10):102-113.
• Article: Influences of School Latino Composition and Linguistic Acculturation on a Prevention Program for Youth.

  Flavio F Marsiglia, Scott T Yabiku, Stephen Kulis, Tanya Nieri, Benjamin Lewin
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  ABSTRACT: This study examined how ethnic composition and linguistic acculturation within schools affected the efficacy of a youth substance use prevention model program. Data come from a randomized trial of the keepin' it REAL program, using a predominantly Mexican American sample of middle school students in Phoenix, Arizona. Schools were randomly assigned to a control group or to one of three culturally tailored intervention versions. We hypothesized that school ethnic and linguistic acculturation composition (percent Latino, percent non-English speaking at home) and individual level of linguistic acculturation jointly would moderate the efficacy of the prevention program, as indicated by students' alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use. Using multilevel linear modeling and multiple imputation techniques to manage clustered data and attrition, results showed that desired program effects varied by the linguistic acculturation level of the school, the program version, and individual acculturation level. The Latino intervention version was more efficacious in schools with larger percentages of non-English speaking families, but only among less linguistically acculturated Latino students. There were no significant school level program effects connected to the percentage of Latino students at school, the other versions of the program, or among more linguistically acculturated students.
  Social work research 03/2010; 34(1):6-19.
• Article: Defining Neighborhood Boundaries for Social Measurement: Advancing Social Work Research

  Kirk A Foster, J. Aaron Hipp
  Social work research 01/2010; 35(1):25-35.
• Article: Closing the Need-Service Gap: Gender Differences in Matching Services to Client Needs in Comprehensive Substance Abuse Treatment.

  Jeanne C Marsh, Dingcai Cao, Hee-Choon Shin
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  ABSTRACT: Despite the broad recognition in social work that services are more effective when they are tailored to individual client needs, we have only limited evidence of the impact that services matched to client needs have on treatment outcomes. This study examines gender differences in the impact of matched services, access services, and outcome-targeted services on substance abuse treatment outcomes by using data collected from 1992 through 1997 for the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study, a prospective, cohort study of substance abuse treatment programs and clients. The analytic sample consists of 3,027 clients (1,105 women and 1,922 men) who reported needed services from 59 treatment facilities. Findings from the study indicate that overall programs have only limited success in targeting services to client needs, but when they do, receipt of substance abuse counseling and matched services predicts both remaining in treatment and reduced posttreatment substance use for both women and men, but especially for women.
  Social work research 09/2009; 33(3):183-192.
• Article: Early Child Maltreatment, Runaway Youths, and Risk of Delinquency and Victimization in Adolescence: A Mediational Model.

  Min Jung Kim, Emiko A Tajima, Todd I Herrenkohl, Bu Huang
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  ABSTRACT: This article examines whether running away from home mediates the link between child maltreatment and later delinquency and victimization in adolescence. Specifically, the authors tested the hypothesis that childhood physical and psychological abuse increase the risk of a child's running away from home by the time of adolescence. Running away from home is, in turn, hypothesized to increase the risk of delinquency and victimization. Childhood sexual abuse, modeled independently of physical and psychological abuse, is hypothesized to have a similar effect on the intervening factor of running away, as well as the two adolescent outcomes: delinquency and victimization. The sample of 416 adolescents was drawn from the Lehigh Longitudinal Study conducted in a two-county area of Pennsylvania. Findings show that physical and psychological abuse predict a child's running away from home. Running away predicts later delinquency and victimization and partially mediates the effect of earlier abuse. Both child abuse and running away from home are adverse events that can be addressed through systematic prevention and intervention efforts tailored to those who have been victimized. Findings can support social workers in their efforts to advocate on behalf of child abuse victims in developing interventions and support services.
  Social work research 03/2009; 33(1):19-28.
• Article: Use of a Web-Based Data System to Conduct a Randomized Controlled Trial of an Intervention for Children Placed in Out-of-Home Care.

  Heather N Taussig, Edward F Garrido, Graig Crawford
  Social work research 03/2009; 33(1):55-60.
• Article: Keeping families engaged: the effects of home-based family therapy enhanced with experiential activities.

  Sanna J Thompson, Kimberly Bender, Liliane C Windsor, Patrick M Flynn
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  ABSTRACT: Engagement of high-risk adolescents and their families in treatment is a considerable challenge for service providers and agencies. Despite its importance, little research has been conducted that explores this important treatment process. To address this gap, a test of an innovative method to improve engagement in family therapy was undertaken. Findings of this study of 42 intervention group families and 41 comparison group families (N=83) suggest that augmenting in-home family therapy with short and creative experiential activities can significantly increase engagement and retention in treatment. Further research of engagement as a mechanism of change in family-based treatment is needed.
  Social work research 01/2009; 33(2):121-126.
• Article: Cognitive Testing and the Validity of Child-Report Data from the Elementary School Success Profile.

  Natasha K Bowen
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  ABSTRACT: The Elementary School Success Profile (ESSP) is a social environmental assessment tool that collects data from 3(rd), 4(th), and 5(th) graders, their parents/guardians, and their teachers. Ensuring the validity of the data collected with the child report component was a primary concern during the development of the ESSP. This article describes how cognitive testing was used to promote the validity of ESSP child report data. Four types of response problems were identified in data collected from 58 children. Strategies to address problems are described, and evidence of the association between item modifications and improved performance is presented. Cognitive testing is recommended as a standard procedure in the development of child report instruments.
  Social work research 01/2008; 32(1):18.
• Article: Pathways to Drug and Sexual Risk Behaviors among Detained Adolescents.

  Dexter R Voisin, Torsten B Neilands, Laura F Salazar, Richard Crosby, Ralph J Diclemente
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  ABSTRACT: PURPOSE: Among a sample of detained youth, to investigate pathways that link witnessing community violence, in the 12 months prior to being detained, to drug and sexual risk behaviors, in the two months preceding detainment. METHODS: Using A-CASI technology, data was collected from 559 detained adolescents on demographics, family factors, peer influences, religiosity, witnessing community violence, and drug and sexual risk behaviors. RESULTS: Controlling for demographics and family variables, findings indicated positive associations between witnessing community violence and drug and sexual risk behaviors. Witnessing community violence was directly linked to sexual risk behaviors, and indirectly associated with these risk behaviors, through gang membership and perceived risky peer norms. Additionally, witnessing community violence was indirectly linked to substance use through gang membership and perceived risky peer norms. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions targeting change in peer affiliations and perceived norms may be an effective strategy for reducing risky drug and sexual behaviors among detained youth.
  Social work research 01/2008; 32(3):147-157.
• Article: Foster Parent College: Interactive Multimedia Training for Foster Parents

  Caesar Pacifici, Richard Delaney, Lee White, Kelli Cummings, Carol Nelson
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  ABSTRACT: Foster Parent College was recently developed through Northwest Media, Inc. as an interactive multimedia training venue for foster parents. Users can take brief parenting courses, either online (http://www.FosterParentCollege.com) or on DVD, on a variety of topics dealing with serious child behavior problems. Currently, these problems include eating disorders, lying, sexualized behavior, anger outbursts, fire setting, sleep problems, soiling and wetting, stealing, running away, and self-destructive behavior. Soon the site will offer other courses on coping with systemic issues related to school, kinship care, and the courts, as well as courses on managing problems such as reactive attachment disorder, mood disorders, and ADHD. This study evaluated a course on dealing with serious anger problems. The course, titled Anger Outbursts, addresses four behavioral variations of anger: (1) temper tantrums; (2) assaultive behavior toward other children; (3) rage toward the mother; and (4) erratic or unpredictable anger. All the content was new and developed specifically for this course.
  Social work research 01/2005;
• Article: Single Mothers' Self-Efficacy, Parenting in the Home Environment, and Children's Development in a Two-Wave Study

  Aurora P. Jackson, Richard Scheines
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  ABSTRACT: Using data from a sample of 178 single black mothers and their young children who were ages three to five at time 1 and ages five to eight at time 2, this study examined the links between and among low-wage employment, mothers' self-efficacy beliefs, depressive symptoms, and a constellation of parenting behaviors in the preschool years to children's cognitive and behavioral functioning in early elementary school years. In general, the results supported a model in which the influence of mothers' employment on maternal parenting and child outcomes was largely indirect and mediated by perceived self-efficacy. Employment was related directly to higher self-efficacy, which in turn was associated with decreased depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms were associated with the quality of the mother-nonresident father relationship and the latter with the frequency of nonresident fathers' contacts with their children. More contact between nonresident fathers and their children predicted more adequate maternal parenting, which in turn was associated directly with the children's subsequent behavioral and cognitive functioning in early elementary school. The results are discussed in the context of social cognitive theory and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.
  Social work research 01/2005;
• Article: Testing models of justice and trust: A study of mediation in dependency disputes.

  Jose B. Ashford and Rodger Faith
  Social work research 01/2004; 28:18-22.
• Article: Evidence for practice: Challenges, opportunities, and access.

  Enola K. Proctor
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  ABSTRACT: Introduces the articles in this issue of Social Work Research. In this issue's lead article, Aaron Rosen addresses the challenges and promise of implementing evidence-based practice in routine practice. This article provides readers with content first presented in the inaugural Aaron Rosen lecture, delivered at the 2002 meeting of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR). This lecture provides a forum for a scholarship to advance the field in terms of integration of practice and research. Given the importance of the lecture's focus and its congruence with the purpose of this journal, Social Work Research welcomes papers from subsequent Rosen lectures at the SSWR. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
  Social work research 11/2003;