Social Work Research

Fortune, Anne E.

doi: 10.1093/swr/23.1.2pmid: N/A

Rosen, Aaron; Proctor, Enola K.; Staudt, Marlys M.

doi: 10.1093/swr/23.1.4pmid: N/A

This article reports a study assessing the contribution of current social work journal publications to a cumulative body of research that is capable of informing interventions. Thirteen journals published from 1993 to mid-1997 were reviewed. Analysis was guided by the view that the focus and design of studies should correspond to and supply the knowledge needed to perform different practice tasks. Accordingly, journal research articles were classified by their potential contribution to practice decisions requiring descriptive, explanatory, or control knowledge. Research aiming at control knowledge, informing the selection and implementation of interventions, was further evaluated by whether the interventions and outcomes studied were sufficiently specified to permit reliable research replication and application in practice. Very few of the published articles were found to report research on interventions, and even fewer used designs that enable replication. Factors affecting the rate and quality of research and interventions are also discussed.

Stern, Susan B.; Smith, Carolyn A.; Jang, Sung Joon

doi: 10.1093/swr/23.1.15pmid: N/A

The study discussed in this article investigated the effects of social and economic disadvantage on parent distress, family processes, and adolescent mental health in a longitudinal, multiethnic sample of 800 urban adolescents and parents. The findings support the hypothesis that poverty, life stressors, and isolation affect parent mood and disrupt family processes, which, in turn, are linked to adolescent externalizing and internalizing problems. The findings illustrate the importance of integrating an understanding of family processes and context in assessment and intervention directed at adolescent mental health problems.

Benda, Brent B.

doi: 10.1093/swr/23.1.28pmid: N/A

The study discussed in this article is the first theoretical study of young people entering boot camp. The sample in the present study consisted of 326 males, ages 15 to 24, in the only boot camp in Arkansas. The purpose of the study was to test the problem syndrome argument by factor analysis of items measuring drug use, property crimes, and crimes against people to see if they loaded onto one factor or syndrome as proposed by the argument and examination of the same theoretical model to determine if it sufficed to explain these three types of problem behavior as assumed in the argument. The model consists of reciprocal relationships and represents an elaboration of social control theory with elements from social learning theory.

Potter, Cathryn C.

doi: 10.1093/swr/23.1.42pmid: N/A

As mental health systems respond to policy definitions of serious emotional disturbance and the need to prioritize and evaluate mental health services, there is an increasing need for multidimensional measures of children's mental health functioning. The Colorado Client Assessment Record (CCAR) is one of two multidimensional measures currently in use in state systems. The validity of the dimensional structure of the CCAR was assessed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis with a sample of child mental health service recipients. The nine-dimension conceptual model that undergirds the CCAR was found to fit the data well.

Rubio, Doris McGartland; Berg-Weger, Marla; Tebb, Susan S.

doi: 10.1093/swr/23.1.54pmid: N/A

Relatively little is known about the psychometric properties of measures that assess the constructs of caregiver strain and well-being. Using structural equation modeling, the authors validated two scales used in the caregiving literature: Caregiver Well-Being Scale and Caregiver Strain Index. Two models were generated for the Well-Being Scale that demonstrate the measure's validity and reliability. Nineteen of the 45 items on the Well-Being Scale validated the scale. Of the original 13 items on the Strain Index, 11 are valid indicators of their respective factors. Structural equation modeling is a useful technique to evaluate these measures, because it identifies the most reliable and valid items for each scale.