Early-life risk for domestic violence perpetration: Implications for practice and policy.

Research on risks and causes of domestic violence is hampered by a policy framework that not only does not fund but in some cases suppresses inquiry into those causes. This discussion, then, will be placed in the context of those policy frameworks that hamper and distort inquiry. This includes an overview of ideological, political, and historical issues that have shaped those frameworks. Related explanatory theories and theories of practice are summarized. The article will examine known early-life risk factors for those disorders and behaviors associated with domestic violence perpetration. Particular emphasis will be placed on maltreatment and attachment/bonding processes. Framed in broad perspectives of psychosocial theory, risk factors from related literature sources (e.g. general violence and criminality) will be included where risk profiles are substantially similar.

Longitudinal Trajectory of Adolescent Exposure to Community Violence and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents and Young Adults: Understanding the Effect of Mental Health Service Usage.

Research on the impact of exposure to community violence tends to define victimization as a single construct. This study differentiates between direct and indirect violence victimization in their association with mental health problems and mental health service use. This study includes 8947 individuals from four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and examines (1) whether sub-types of adolescent victimization are linked to depressive symptoms; (2) whether adolescent victimization is linked with mental health service use; and (3) the role of mental health service use in attenuating symptoms arising from victimizations. Adolescents witnessing community violence were more likely to experience depressive symptoms during adolescence but not during their young adulthood; direct exposure to violence during adolescence does not predict depressive symptoms in adolescence but does in adulthood. Use of mental health service mediates report of depressive symptoms for adolescent witnessing community violence.

Federal funding of social work research: high hopes or sour grapes?

Placed in the historical context of government funding ofacademic research, this critical analysis identifies the complexities and implications of schools of social work pursuing federal grants for research. Schools of social work with particular organizational characteristics are better able to compete for federal grants, incurring lower opportunity costs than others. The low probability of grant success for most schools, the organizational adaptations needed for success, and the narrow epistemology of many funding programs call into question whether federal funding of research should be considered the sine qua non for academic social work.

Providing therapy when managed care organizations deny reimbursement: are private practitioners and their clients taking the fall?

Sampled private practitioners from the Register of Clinical Social Workers, American Psychological and Psychiatric Associations were used to evaluate what percentage of these practitioners' caseloads are made up of clients who have been denied reimbursement by managed care organizations for ongoing therapy. The results indicate that 39% of the respondents' caseloads are of managed care insured clients, of whom nearly one-third have been denied reimbursement for ongoing therapy, and of whom 42% later reenter therapy with an acute exacerbation of symptoms. The results have potential ethical and legal complications for private practitioners treating clients insured by managed care organizations.