Enhancing Social Work Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding Substance-Using Clients Through SBIRT Training

ABSTRACT

Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based protocol that addresses both moderate-risk and high-risk substance use problems for individuals. In an urban college’s master’s and bachelor’s social work programs with 218 students, SBIRT training was introduced into core course curricula, with many students subsequently using SBIRT in their field placements. Evaluation of the initiative demonstrated increases in the students’ knowledge and favorable attitudes regarding working with substance using clients. Students’ ratings of the usefulness and effectiveness of SBIRT were high. In response to studies indicating the lack of preparedness of graduating social work students to work with substance users, this study demonstrated the effectiveness of SBIRT training to educate students to work with this population.     

EMOTIONALLY FOCUSED COUPLES THERAPY: AN OUTCOME STUDY*

In a within-subjects design in which couples acted as their own controls, assessment was completed at four times: at the time of intial contact, after an eight-week waiting period, after eight sessions of Emotionally Focused Marital Therapy, and at an eight-week follow-up. Couples reported no significant changes on measures of dyadic adjustment, intimacy, target complaint reduction and goal attainment after the waiting period, but significant changes were found after treatment.     

RELATING PROCESS TO OUTCOME IN MARITAL THERAPY

Although there are a growing number of outcome research studies in marital therapy, there is a complete absence of research on change processes, and how such processes relate to outcome. This study attempts to analyze the process of change in the "best" sessions of Emotionally Focused Marital Therapy (EFT) (Greenberg & Johnson, 1986). Client performance in therapy was rated on depth of experiencing and the quality of interpersonal interactions. The occurrence of particular change events arising from the theoretical principles of EFT was also noted. Results confirmed hypotheses that higher levels of experiencing and more autonomous and affiliative interactions characterized "best" sessions of couples who were successful in therapy. The implications for treatment are discussed.     

Explaining variation in the effects of welfare-to-work programs

Evaluations of government-funded training programs often combine results from similar operations in multiple sites. Findings inevitably vary. It is common to relate site-to-site variations in outcomes to variations in program design, participant characteristics, and the local environment. Frequently, such connections are constructed in a narrative synthesis of multisite results. This article uses findings from the evaluations of California's Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) program and the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS) to illustrate why it is important to question the legitimacy of such syntheses. The discussion is carried out using a simple multilevel evaluation model that incorporates models of both individual outcomes within sites and variation in program effects across sites. The results indicate that tempting generalizations about GAIN and NEWWS effects are statistically unjustified but that significant progress might be made in identifying the determinants of program effects in future demonstrations with some changes in evaluation strategy.     

Responses of children and adolescents to a fire in their homes

House fires are a common occurrence in the United States, often happening as isolated, personal disasters. This qualitative study examines the responses of 12 children, ages 6 to 17, who were survivors of 12 separate home fires in a Mid-Atlantic city. Two thirds of the families involved were single-parent families receiving public welfare. Children were interviewed between three and four months after the fire. Nine categories concerning the fire experience and its aftermath were identified: exposure, loss, displacement, attribution, stress responses, changes in relationships, self-report of changes in behavior, child's perception of parent's stress and child's view of adulthood and the future. Psychosocial themes that emerged included a sense of fear and blame, sleep disturbances, and a sense of vulnerability. Parents rated their children on a quantitative measure of behavior and social competence. The behavior rating scale revealed that half of the parents rated their child's adjustment after the fire as not normal. Children's reactions to larger-scale disasters are indicated. Implications of these findings for social work practice are discussed.This study was supported by a grant from the Hassel Foundation, Philadelphia, PA.     

Profiles of Financial Stress Over Time Using Subgroup Analysis

This study modeled latent classes of perceived financial stress over a 6-year period in samples of African-American (N = 323) and White (N = 345) mothers. Results of latent class growth analyses (LCGA) indicated there was variability in financial stress trajectories. Four common classes were identified in both samples; however, larger proportions of African-American mothers reported moderate to very high levels of financial stress over time compared to White mothers. Conditional LCGA models indicated that income was negatively related to financial stress in both samples consistently over time. Mothers’ reports of social support and depressive symptoms were also used to predict membership in the latent classes of financial stress, controlling for income, with little demonstrated effect.     

Early childhood education and care use: Differences by race/ethnicity and age

This article describes factors that predict the use of early childhood education and care among Latino families, as compared to non-Latino black and non-Latino white families in the United States in two age groups (0–2 and 3–5 years old). Using National Household Education Survey data, this study presents a framework and examines the association of numerous child and family characteristics with the number of hours children spend in care, the number of care arrangements, and the type of care used. Multinomial logit results show that once preexisting differences between Latino and black families and between Latino and white families are equalized, differences in the type of care are often eliminated. Findings suggest that the observed enrollment patterns of Latino children are due in part to their over-representation in families that are poorer, have lower levels of maternal education, and have lower levels of maternal employment.