Do Marginalized Youth Experience Strengths in Strengths-Based Interventions? Unpacking Program Acceptability through Two Interventions for Sexual and Gender Minority Youth

ABSTRACT

Strengths-based interventions have potential to improve the wellbeing of sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY). This study examined the youth program acceptability of two strengths-based programs tailored for SGMY: ASSET (group counseling), and strengths first (SF) (care coordination). A mixed-methods approach was applied to secondary data extracted from client files (n = 247). Most participants were aged 15–18 (89%). Gender identities included woman (66%), man (30%), and transgender (<1%). Sexual orientations included bisexual (32%), lesbian (26%), gay (23%), and queer/pansexual (14%). Most participants identified as White, Hispanic (47%), Black, Non-Hispanic (17%), and Hispanic, No other race (19%). Program acceptability was measured using the 11-item Youth Acceptability and Strengths Scale. Quantitative analyses indicate program acceptability was high for SGMY participants and did not significantly differ across program type, gender identity, sexual orientation, or ethnoracial identity. There were no differences between strengths enhancement or client satisfaction between intervention types. Compared to group counseling, care coordination significantly increased problem-solving skills. Qualitative analysis identified that strengths-based interventions provided: (a) social support; (b) community; (c) confidence; and (d) positive mentors. Findings demonstrate the acceptability of strengths-based programming for SGMY. Strategies are provided to incorporate intervention program acceptability, yet future research is needed to explore youth acceptability.     

Searching for effective interventions for foster children under stress: a meta‐analysis

Foster children experience a lot of stress because of their life histories and changes in their family circumstances, such as foster care placement. It is important that foster parents recognize the early signs of stress in foster children and learn how to act in a non‐threatening and understanding manner. Family‐based interventions may help in this. In this paper, we report on a meta‐analysis of studies (n= 19) of the effectiveness of such interventions. All studies used a pre‐test/post‐test design. Both problem behaviour in foster children and the parenting skills of foster parents improved by 30%; however, none of the interventions were specifically intended to help young children (<4 years) to cope with stress. The importance of interventions for young foster children is discussed, as well as the necessary elements these interventions should include.     

Indirect effects of the Family Check‐Up on youth extracurricular involvement at school‐age through improvements in maternal positive behavior support in early childhood

Extracurricular involvement in the school‐age years has widespread potential benefits for children's subsequent socioemotional development, especially for low‐income youth. However, there is a dearth of research on interventions aimed at increasing school‐age extracurricular involvement in low‐income youth. Thus, the present study aimed to test the collateral effect of a brief, family‐focused intervention for low‐income families, the Family Check‐Up, on children's school‐age extracurricular involvement via improvements in maternal positive behavior support (PBS) in early childhood. The sample (n = 630, 50% female, 50% White, 28% Black/African American) represented a subsample of families from the Early Steps Multisite Study. At the age of two, families were randomly assigned to the Family Check‐Up or Women, Infants, and Children Nutritional Supplement Services as usual. Mother‐child dyads participated in observed interaction tasks at child ages 2 and 3 that were subsequently coded to assess PBS. Primary caregivers reported on children's school‐age extracurricular involvement at ages 7.5, 8.5, and 9.5. Results indicated that although there was not a direct path between intervention status and children's school‐age extracurricular involvement, a significant indirect path emerged from intervention group to changes in PBS between ages 2 to 3 to children's school‐age extracurricular involvement. The results are discussed in terms of implications for designing preventive interventions in early childhood that promote extracurricular involvement at school‐age, particularly for children at risk for maladaptive outcomes.     

The Application of Family Systems Theory to Geriatric Hospital Social Work

Integrating and applying Family Systems Theory principles into the assessment and treatment process of families of hospitalized high risk elderly is an area that has received little attention in health care literature. The multigenerational approach is a model that can be used as a clinical framework for guiding the social workers in developing intervention strategies when working with hospitalized high risk elderly and their families. This approach can be extended to clinical assessment techniques and psychosocial rationales for discharge planning. Three case examples are presented to illustrate how Family Systems Theory can be integrated into social work practice resulting in effective interventions for hospitalized high risk elderly and their families.     

Meditation Program Enhances Self-efficacy and Resilience of Home-based Caregivers of Older Adults with Alzheimer’s: A Five-year Follow-up Study in Two South Asian Cities

This article reports a five-year follow-up study in two South Asian cities on the impact of a long-term meditation program in enhancing self-efficacy and resilience of home-based caregivers of older adults with Alzheimer’s. Intervention group caregivers (pre-test N = 96; post-test N = 78) reported lower perceived caregiving burden, higher self-efficacy in obtaining respite, responding to disruptive patient behaviors and controlling upsetting thoughts, and greater resilience, post-test, in comparison to the control group (pre-test N = 89; post-test N = 67). Gender and relationship with the patient were two strong moderators determining program impact. Caregiver women, spouses, Hindus, middle class, with college and higher education, homemakers, who attended at least 75% of the meditation lessons and regularly practiced at home (i.e. once weekly for at least 75% of the weeks) reported lower post-test perceived caregiving burden, higher self-efficacy, and resilience. Results of the Tobit regression models confirmed the meditation-related moderators and indicated that home practice was the strongest predictor of post-test scores. Overall the meditation program is an effective intervention, however, would need to be refined for specific caregiver subgroups such as men, children and children-in-law and those working outside the home, to suit their realities.     

Home-Based Practice with Older Adults

Abstract

Social work with older adults frequently occurs in the client's home. Although practitioners and the professional literature acknowledge the existence of differences between agency-based and home-based practice, little attention has been given to the way the home environment impacts on the intervention process. This exploratory study examined practitioner-identified events that impact on the intervention process in home-based practice. The events elicited two general categories, the context and the process of interventions. Factors subsumed under intervention context are situational and geographic factors, such as practitioner and client comfort, and differences in urban and rural environments. Examples of intervention process categories include setting up home visits, assessment, boundaries, common distractions, and termination in home-based practice.     

Choice Functions: Rationality re-Examined

On analyzing the problem that arises whenever the set of maximal elements is large, and a selection is then required (see Peris & Subiza 1998), we realize that logical ways of selecting among maximals violate the classical notion and axioms of rationality. We arrive at the same conclusion if we analyze solutions to the problem of choosing from a tournament (where maximal elements do not necessarily exist). So, in our opinion the notion of rationality must be discussed, not only in the traditional sense of external conditions (Sen 1993), but in terms of the internal information provided by the binary relation.     

Integrated Group Program for Improving Sleep Quality of Elderly People

ABSTRACT

This article reports an exploratory study on the effects of an integrated group program for improving the sleep quality of elderly people in Hong Kong. Elderly people aged over 55 who had obtained a Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score >5 were recruited as subjects of the study. While 19 subjects of the treatment group were taking part in an integrated group program involving social group work intervention as well as Chinese medicine therapeutics, 9 subjects of comparison group received no intervention. Using a pretest and posttest design, the study revealed positive effects of the integrated group program. It has added knowledge serving the development of interventions that can help to improve the sleep quality of elderly people.     

The Moderating Effect of Living with a Child Before Incarceration on Postrelease Outcomes Related to a Prison-Based Parent Management Training Program

ABSTRACT

With the rapid growth in incarceration in the United States over the past few decades came dramatic growth in the number of the incarcerated parents with at least one minor child. Parental incarceration places extra stresses and strains on families and children. Almost all of those incarcerated will eventually be released. However, the majority of those released from prison will be rearrested within a year. Finding interventions that can decrease the likelihood of returning to crime and to incarceration are of utmost importance. Using a social bond theory framework, the authors examine the moderating effect of living with a child before incarceration on program outcomes related to a prison-based parent management training program. A significant effect was found. Implications for these findings are discussed for future research and practice.     

Elder abuse and neglect among veterans in Greater Los Angeles: prevalence, types, and intervention outcomes

This study examined the prevalence, types, and intervention outcomes of elder abuse/neglect among a veteran population. A review of medical records of 575 veterans who had received services from the Veteran's Affairs Geriatric Outpatient Clinic in Los Angeles during a three-year period found 31 veterans (5.4%) who had an elder abuse report filed on their behalf. Prevalence of elder abuse/neglect was higher among older (80+) and Caucasian and African American veterans. Eight of 31 victims suffered from more than one type of elder abuse including self-neglect. Financial abuse and self-neglect were the most commonly reported types. Family members were perpetrators in the majority of the cases, excluding self-neglect. However, three-quarters of financial abuse cases were committed by non-family members. Almost one-half of the victims had dementia and eight were clinically depressed. The most common intervention was to move victims from their unsafe home into a nursing home or board and care facility, followed by conservatorship arrangement. These interventions were most frequently used for victims with dementia, and conservatorship was often arranged with another type of intervention, such as a move to a nursing home. Victims who remained at home received conservatorship or outside supportive services or a combination of both. This study calls for more comprehensive and systematic research on elder abuse/neglect at multi-settings in order to generate useful information for prevention and detection of, and effective intervention in elder abuse and neglect in the veteran population.     

Toddler risk and protective characteristics: Common and unique genetic and environmental influences

The goal of this study was to disentangle the common and unique genetic and environmental influences on social–emotional competence, problem behavior, physiological dysregulation, and negative emotionality (NE) in toddlers. The sample consisted of 243 twin pairs (mean age =31.94 months) rated by primary caregivers (>95% mothers) on the Children's Behavior Questionnaire and the Infant‐Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment. A multivariate Cholesky Decomposition revealed three shared environmental factors, with one set of environmental influences common to competence, problem behavior, and physiological dysregulation, a second common to problem behavior and physiological dysregulation, and a third common to physiological dysregulation and NE. Also, there were two additive genetic factors, with one explaining variance in competence, NE, and a small amount of variance in problem behavior, and a second explaining variance in problem behavior and NE. Given the common shared environmental factors across outcomes, these results suggest that toddlerhood could be a particularly important time to intervene, as interventions could simultaneously improve competencies and reduce problem behaviors. This study also highlights the need for genetically informed research to examine the etiology of multiple outcomes and address overlap.     

What do children think about their social worker? A Q‐method study of children's services

Understanding how children experience social work interventions is an important part of gauging whether what is provided is genuinely helpful. In this paper, we describe the findings from a research project using Q‐method, aimed at understanding what children involved with statutory services think about their social workers and how they experience the time they spend together. Using a pre‐existing practice framework, we explored skills including empathy, collaboration, and purposefulness from the point of view of children and young people. The participants in our study (n = 22) were insightful observers of social work practice, able to describe not only how they experienced time spent with their workers but also inferring differences in motivation and approach. In addition, workers who were described in similar terms by different young people were nevertheless experienced differently. This suggests not an archetypal “good social worker”—instead, there are skills that are good for specific children at specific times within the context of specific relationships.     

Family treatment of childhood anxiety

Anxiety in childhood and adolescence can cause serious impairment across many settings in a child's life. Childhood anxiety may be impacted by parent‐child attachment and by three specific parenting characteristics: acceptance, control and modelling of anxious behaviours. We review two evidence‐based family interventions for childhood and adolescent anxiety problems. Cognitive behavioural treatment is currently the most commonly used form of psychotherapy to treat specific anxieties. Global or diffuse anxiety, however, may be better suited to experiential interventions such as communications approaches to family treatment. Experiential therapists examine how dysfunctional family roles exacerbate childhood anxiety. These intervention techniques and their implications for social work practice were discussed.     

Diversity Training and Intergroup Contact: A Call to Action Research

Diversity training is a type of prejudice reduction and social inclusion intervention in need of "action research"—an integration of research and theory with practice ( Lewin, 1946 ). Hundreds of workplaces and schools use some form of diversity training, but most interventions are not grounded in theory and there is little evidence of program impact. A recent study of a school diversity training program illustrates how action research can address theoretical issues using experimental methods and unobtrusive outcome measures. For future research, the literature on intergroup contact ( Pettigrew, 1998 ) can provide theoretical guidance while testing and refining its principles in the application and investigation of diversity training. Action research will benefit diversity training and the broader theoretical and applied project of prejudice reduction and the promotion of social inclusion.     

Promoting Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem for Multiethnic Sexual Minority Youth: An Evidence-Informed Intervention

ABSTRACT

Sexual minority youth face multiple challenges, yet research regarding evidence-informed practice strategies for this population is limited. This study describes the pilot efforts of Strengths First, the first strengths-based intervention created specifically to promote self-esteem and self-efficacy among multiethnic sexual minority youth. A pretest–posttest design was used to gather preliminary data from program participants (n = 162) about the potential effectiveness of the program during a 2-year period that ranged from the inception of the program in June 2008 to September 2010. Significant increases in self-esteem and self-efficacy were found. Implications for social service research and practice are discussed.     

Has the Targeted Poverty Alleviation program improved household welfare in rural China?

China's government launched the Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) program in 2015 as a part of a multipronged framework to lift every Chinese above the national poverty line by 2020. This study is devoted to examining the effects of the TPA program on household welfare indicators. To this end, the China Family Panel Studies data for the period 2010–2018 are analyzed. The propensity score matching and difference-in-difference (PSM-DID) method is employed to address the sample selection bias and endogeneity inherent in program participation. The results show that TPA program participants earn significantly higher incomes than non-participants. However, the program's effect on consumption expenditure is insignificant, suggesting that the program has contributed to lifting people out of poverty mainly by increasing incomes. Furthermore, even though the program seeks to deliver precisely targeted interventions, it is more effective in some regions than in others. Removing regional disparities is an area of opportunity for improving the efficacy of the TPA program.     

Addressing common forms of child maltreatment: evidence‐informed interventions and gaps in current knowledge

This paper reviews interventions for preventing the occurrence and recurrence of major types of child maltreatment. We begin with an overview of the challenges of establishing evidence‐based interventions to prevent child abuse and neglect in many countries, and underscore the importance of this need with child maltreatment incidence rates in the USA, and how much each type and subtype contribute to child out‐of‐home placement. Next, we identify the well‐supported, supported and promising interventions for each child maltreatment type and subtype, according to their level of research evidence using an evidence‐based clearing house. The paper closes with a discussion of the implications for practice, evaluation, policy and agency management, including intervention knowledge gaps that showcase areas that need additional practice research.     

A review of the research priorities of practitioners working with children in social care

It has been argued both that research in social care is insufficiently relevant to practice, and that a clearer steer is needed from the social work community in shaping national research priorities. The work reported here systematically searched for and analysed findings from studies that asked practitioners working with children for their suggestions for research. Eight studies were found, and authors gave us access to the primary data from four of these, to which we added responses from the What Works for Children? website survey of practitioners’ research priorities. Responses were analysed in terms of both topic and type of research. Family support, parenting and child protection research were among the most frequently requested child‐focused topics. In terms of question type, almost half the research suggestions concerned the effectiveness of interventions. These findings suggest that a commitment to outcomes, and to robustly researched interventions to attain those outcomes, are increasingly important to practitioners. These views from the front line may well be useful in assisting decision‐makers in social work, and research funders, to set priorities.     

Professionals' understanding of partnership with parents in the context of family support programmes

Partnership has become a dominant concept in current thinking about the parent–professional relationship within a variety of interventions aimed at child welfare, including family support practice. However, despite the burgeoning policy and research attention, the meaning of partnership in practice remains unclear. Based on interviews with professionals in a family support intervention in Flanders (the Dutch‐speaking part of Belgium), this paper offers an insight into professionals' daily interactions with parents. The analysis reveals a tension between professionals' commitment towards parents on the one hand, and the way professionals take up this commitment in an expert role on the other. Consequences for professionals' relationships in child and family welfare interventions are discussed, as well as some implications for the realization of proper partnerships that acknowledge the power imbalances that exist in such partnerships.