Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Bipolar Disorder: Implications for Clinical Social Workers

ABSTRACT

The purposes of this review article are to orient clinical social workers to cognitive-behavioral theory, intervention, and research on bipolar disorder (BD); identify pros and cons of applying cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to social work clients with BD; and identify specific implications for clinical social work practice. Of the 545 articles that were obtained via the systematic review, 18 studies were identified as being potentially eligible for inclusion, and 9 of those studies ultimately satisfied the inclusion criteria. The results of each study were summarized via identifying statistically significant (p< .05) differences that existed between experimental cohorts who received CBT (plus pharmacotherapy) and control cohorts who received treatment as usual. Outcomes showed CBT cohorts as having significant improvement over their respective control groups. The review's implications for clinical social workers and the need for future research are discussed.     

Forging Diaspora: Afro-Cubans and African Americans in a World of Empire and Jim Crow

ABSTRACT

Drawing on social histories of rumour, this article challenges notions of white and Afrikaner homogeneity which persist in the scholarship on late and post-apartheid South Africa. In so doing, it demonstrates the revisionist potential of rumour as a historical source, while reinserting class in a scholarship which privileges race as salient historical feature. The article focuses on Arrie Paulus, apartheid South Africa’s most prominent white trade unionist, infamous as the personification of working-class racism. Yet this defender of race-based privilege and staunch Afrikaner nationalist was haunted by a rumour: Paulus, it was whispered, was not actually white. The rumour circulated in reform-era South Africa and persists in the post-apartheid present. By examining the rumour surrounding Paulus’s racial and ethnic origins in terms of the functions it fulfilled within the particular contexts in which it appeared, this article exposes longstanding tensions around the politics of class characterizing Afrikaner society since the 1970s.     

European‐American and African‐American Mothers' Emotion Socialization Practices Relate Differently to Their Children's Academic and Social‐emotional Competence

The current study examines whether the relation between mothers' responses to their children's negative emotions and teachers' reports of children's academic performance and social‐emotional competence are similar or different for European‐American and African‐American families. Two hundred mothers (137 European‐American, 63 African‐American) reported on their responses to their five‐year‐old children's negative emotions and 150 kindergarten teachers reported on these children's current academic standing and skillfulness with peers. Problem‐focused responses to children's negative emotions, which have traditionally been considered a supportive response, were positively associated with children's school competence for European‐American children, but expressive encouragement, another response considered supportive, was negatively associated with children's competence for African‐American children. The findings highlight the need to examine parental socialization practices from a culturally specific lens.     

THE PROCESS OF CHANGE IN COUPLES THERAPY: A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION

Open-ended interviews with 24 couples therapy clients regarding their experience of the process of change revealed shifts in clusters of affect, communication, and cognition. Six additional contextual preconditions for change were also identified. The change process within couples was uniformly reported to be gradual.     

The Courtship Dance: Patterns of Nonverbal Synchronization in Opposite-Sex Encounters

This study examines the existence of behavioral correlates of synchronization on different levels of analysis and methods. We were unable to demonstrate a relation between synchronization defined in terms of movement echo or position mirroring and subjective experience of pleasure and interest in opposite-sex encounters. Significant results were found for a phenomenon we describe as hierarchically patterned synchronization. These patterns were identified with the help of a newly developed search algorithm. If a female is interested in a male, highly complex patterns of behavior with a constant time structure emerge. The patterns are pair-specific and independent from behavioral content. This rhythmic structure of interactions is discussed in functional terms of human courtship.     

Caregiver substance abuse among maltreated children placed in out-of-home care.

Child protective services (CPS) case records of 639 children placed in out-of-home care due to maltreatment were reviewed, and substance abuse by the child's caregiver prior to the child's placement was evaluated systematically. Based on several different sources of information, 79% of the caregivers were found to meet the criteria for caregiver substance abuse (CSA). Children with and without evidence of CSA differed on age, ethnicity, family composition, and type of maltreatment. The importance of operational specificity in defining CSA and implications for policy and service delivery are discussed.     

Managing urban wetlands for multiple use: research,restoration, and recreation

Conservation of urban wetland habitat is challenging, because multiple uses must coexist. We use examples from California and Wisconsin to describe potential synergies among recreation, restoration and research activities (the 3 R's). Allowing passive recreation is often essential to garner public support for habitat protection, restoration, and research. In turn, restoration activities can improve the appearance of degraded sites, and designing the work as a research experiment can serve the scientific community. Two projects at Tijuana Estuary support the 3 R's. (1) Oneonta Tidal Linkage is a 0.7-ha tidal channel and salt marsh that was excavated from disturbed upland to bring wetland habitat closer to the Visitor Center (thereby reducing visitor intrusion into natural marsh habitat, where endangered species would be disturbed). It supports an ambitious field experiment that is testing the importance of species diversity in restoration; it also includes a bridge that serves the interpretive program, and it adds 0.7 ha of wetland habitat that helps restore regional biodiversity. (2) A larger excavation (8 ha) of former tidal wetland will soon add wetland habitat, while testing the importance of tidal creek networks in ecosystem functioning and offering views and interpretive opportunities. A third situation, at the 485-ha University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum, concerns restored wet prairies, which provide habitat for native species and serve many hikers. Urban stormwater flows into and degrades the Henry Greene Prairie, allowing aggressive plants to invade. Research and restoration efforts are planned to sustain the habitat and recreation functions. These three models suggest that recreation, restoration, and research are compatible uses of urban wetland habitats.