Physical Abuse and Adolescent Sexual Behaviors: Moderating Effects of Mental Health Disorders and Substance Use.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the direct effects of child physical abuse on sexual behaviors and whether mental health problems and substance use moderated the associations between exposure to child physical abuse and sexual behavioral practices among adolescents who participated in the National Comorbidity Survey-Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). The data show statistically significant relationships between physical abuse and risky sexual behaviors for youth who met the clinical criteria for lifetime Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and reported marijuana use. Data from future studies can inform sexual health practice development with adolescents and emerging adults with a history of physical abuse, marijuana use/abuse and PTSD. These findings underscore the importance of exploring presence of symptoms associated with PTSD and marijuana use as part of a comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment for physically abused adolescents and emerging adults to determine if they are engaging in risky sexual behaviors.

Private vs public child welfare systems: A comparative analysis of national safety outcome performance.

BACKGROUND: Ensuring the safety of American children is one of the chief mandates of the U.S. Child Welfare System. Yet system differences, including privatization remain an area of concern for whether safety of children is achieved. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the effect of privatization policy on the performance of state child welfare systems in terms of achieving national safety outcome standards. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: N1 = 10 states systems (5 privatized and 5 public systems) with N2 = 118,761 foster care cases located throughout the U.S. METHOD: Using data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), safety outcome performance measures were assessed, as were child-/case factors to predict the likelihood of the system types meeting the national safety outcome standards. RESULTS: Logistic regression models of child, case, and system factors predicting the likelihood state systems met national safety outcome performance standards were statistically significant. Private systems, compared to non-private systems, were found to have lower odds of meeting the safety outcome 1 standard (OR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.40-0.42), but greater odds of meeting the safety outcome 2 standard (OR = 6.79, 95% CI = 6.56-7.02). CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of privatization policy in state child welfare/foster care service delivery was found to have mixed results in terms of the national safety outcome standards.

Associations between Adverse Childhood Experiences, Major Depressive Episode and Chronic Physical Health in Adolescents: Moderation of Race/Ethnicity.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are associated with health problems in adolescence. However, the moderating role of race/ethnicity is not well understood. The current study examines direct and indirect effects of ACE on major depressive episodes and chronic health outcomes, and the moderating role of race/ethnicity among adolescents who participated in the National Comorbidity Survey-Adolescent Supplement. Results show an association between ACE and both health outcomes. Race/ethnicity was associated with differential outcomes and indicated moderation. Results underscore the importance of examining associations between ACE and adolescent well-being by race/ethnicity. The need for trauma-informed and culturally responsive services for adolescents is discussed.

African American Faculty in Social Work Schools: The Impact of Their Scholarship.

PURPOSE: This study assessed the citation impact of scholarship of African American faculty in the top 25 ranked schools of social work cited in the 2012 U.S. News and World Report. METHOD: The citation impact scores (Hirsch h-index) of these scholars were examined. RESULTS: The overall mean h-index score for the top 25 ranked schools of social work and African American scholars was 6.62 and 12.14, respectively. The individual h-index for almost 80% of these scholars exceeded their respective school mean h-index scores. DISCUSSION: While the literature revealed long-standing systemic and structural barriers to research productivity for African American scholars overall, these faculty somehow found ways to circumvent these challenges. Future research calls for a more comprehensive exploration into the character and impact of scholarship produced by African American faculty to further expand the knowledge base about elements of research cultures in social work.

Examining the premises supporting the empirically supported intervention approach to social work practice.

Federal, state, and local policymakers and funders have increasingly organized human service delivery functions around the selection and implementation of empirically supported interventions (ESIs), under the expectation that service delivery through such intervention frameworks results in improvements in cost-effectiveness and system performance. This article examines the validity of four premises undergirding the ESI approach: ESIs are effective, relevant to common client problems and needs, culturally appropriate, and replicable and sustainable in community-based settings. In reviewing available literature, the authors found insufficient support for the uniform application of an ESI approach to social work practice in the human service sector, particularly as applied within agency contexts serving ethnic minority clients. The authors recommend that greater attention be devoted to the development and dissemination of social work interventions that respond to needs that are broadly understood and shared across diverse cultural groups, have proven clinical efficacy, and can be translated successfully for use across different agency and cultural environments. Such attention to the research and development function of the social work profession is increasingly necessary as policymakers and human service system architects require reduced costs and improved performance for programs serving historically oppressed client populations.