Applying Evidence-Based Practice in Group Work at an Alternative High School

Social workers often are reluctant to use evidence-based practice in group work. Part of this reluctance is because of the perceived rigidity of the process and its emphasis on research. However, social workers can rely on the four cornerstones of evidence-based practice—research, clinical experience, personal views, and client’s perspective—to provide an evidence-based group intervention. In this article, the authors illustrate how social workers used the four cornerstones at one alternative high school to provide an evidence-based group intervention. These cornerstones were used from the beginning of the process, which started with choosing the type of intervention, through the end of the process, which concluded with assessing the intervention. In this article, the authors show that it is possible for social workers to provide an evidence-based group intervention, while remaining flexible, thereby contributing to social workers’ knowledge of how to use evidence-based practice with groups.     

How schools can do better: fostering stronger connections between teachers and students

Teachers are a centrally important yet often overlooked resource in the lives of youth. Teacher-student relationships, when properly harnessed, may emulate mentoring at its best. This chapter explores the teacher-student relationship and examines ways in which it can be enhanced to the benefit of youth and adults.     

Care Proceedings under the 1989 Children Act: Rhetoric and Reality

Correspondence to Bridget McKeigue and Chris Beckett, School of Community Health and Social Studies, The Old Gym, Anglia Polytechnic University, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK. E-mail: b.m.mckeigue{at}apu.ac.uk Summary Among the most important changes that it was hoped would flowfrom the 1989 Children Act were, first, a reduction in delaysin care proceedings, since this was recognized to be harmfulto children and, second, a shift away from the use of compulsiontowards working in partnership. In this article, Bridget McKeigueand Chris Beckett demonstrate that, in both respects, the Acthas not only failed to deliver, but has been followed by rapidchange in the opposite direction to the one hoped for. However,many commentators, both within and outside of government, continueto speak of the Act as if it had been a success. The articleconsiders a series of characteristic rhetorical manoeuvres,which seem to allow the Act’s failings to be passed overin much of this discourse. They conclude that progress is morelikely to be made if the Act’s failure to deliver is franklyconfronted.     

Integrated logistics-call in the revolutionaries!

This paper argues that the ability of logistics to achieve its aim of efficient and effective interfunctional co-ordination is hindered by the particular paradigm to which it unwittingly adheres. We begin by defining and setting out the objectives of both ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’ forms of logistics, and demonstrate that there is doubt about whether even the newer form can achieve proper interfunctional co-ordination or gain widespread acceptance in the practitioner community. In order to understand why, it is suggested that an analysis is required of the theoretical assumptions upon which contemporary logistics is based. Despite recent developments in logistics it may be that it is some unquestioned paradigm, upon which all logisticians hitherto have relied, which is preventing genuine progress being made. A paradigm analysis is conducted which reveals that both traditional and non-traditional logistics are ‘functionalist’ in nature. It is argued that the main problems faced by logistics derive from this. Logistics suffers from the failings of functionalist thinking and its ambitions will continue to be frustrated unless it is able to achieve an ‘epistemological break’ from functionalism. Logisticians must look towards other paradigms in order to progress. Logistics is in need of its own revolutionaries.     

Gender and the Mental–Physical Health Connection Among U.S. Adults

Using data from the 1995, 1998, and 2001 panels of Aging, Status, and Sense of Control (ASOC) Survey, we examine gender differences in the relationship between self‐rated physical health and mental health over time (n = 2,543). Gender‐stratified path models highlight how the nature of the mental–physical health relationship changes when we use indicators of mental health that have traditionally been labeled as female sensitive (depression) or male sensitive (heavy drinking). Results show that women and men are similar in that mental health has a stronger effect on physical health than the reverse. However, this is only the case when we use gender‐sensitive measures of mental distress: Men who drink heavily and women who are depressed report poorer self‐rated physical health over time, while heavy drinking for women and depression for men have no significant effects on their self‐rated physical well‐being. These results provide evidence of a health process that is gendered in its expression but more universal in its outcome—the exact measure might vary, but men and women alike are physically harmed by mental health problems.     

Development of Shyness: Relations With Children's Fearfulness,Sex, and Maternal Behavior

The relations of childhood fearfulness (observed and adult reported) and adult‐reported shyness at 18 (n = 256) and 30 (n = 230) months of age were assessed. Fear was positively related to shyness concurrently and longitudinally, but slightly more consistently at 18 months. The moderating roles of observed maternal sensitivity and children's sex in the relation between 18‐month fearfulness and 30‐month shyness, and between 18‐ and 30‐month shyness, were tested. The positive relation between mother‐reported fearfulness and shyness was strongest for sons of insensitive mothers but was not significant for daughters of sensitive, average, or insensitive mothers. The positive relation between mother‐reported 18‐ and 30‐month shyness was strongest for sons of insensitive mothers and for daughters of sensitive mothers. Moreover, when using scores of fear or shyness that were independent of each other, 18‐month mother‐reported fearfulness continued to interact with sex and sensitivity to predict 30‐month shyness; however, the positive relation between Time 1 and Time 2 shyness was consistent across sex and levels of sensitivity.     

Family Structure and Self-Rated Health in Adolescence and Young Adulthood

While the relationship between family structure and child well-being is well-established, little is known about the specific impact of family structure on health in adolescence and young adulthood. Using data on 12,737 respondents from Waves I and III of Add Health, we examine the association between family structure (two biological/adoptive, stepfather, and single mother families at Wave I) and self-rated health in adolescence (Wave I) and young adulthood (Wave III). We build on previous literature by investigating whether the relationship between family structure and self-rated health is mediated by demographic background, socioeconomic status, parent–child relationships, external social support, and health characteristics and behaviors, and whether the influence of these factors endures into adulthood. Overall, we find that self-rated health is reduced for respondents who lived in stepfather or single mother families during adolescence, although this effect is attenuated in young adulthood. Family structure effects at both waves are explained by socioeconomic status, social support and competence, and health characteristics and behaviors. We find little evidence that demographic background or mother–child relationships mediate the relationship between family structure and self-rated health. By young adulthood, effects of most adolescent predictors are attenuated, but health assessments are largely influenced by changes in health characteristics and behaviors, and in family type.

Exposure to Violence,Coping Strategies,and Diagnosed Mental Health Problems Among Adults in a Migrant-Sending Community in Central Mexico

Deadly violence has spread throughout Mexico, affecting the well-being of citizens. What is the impact of this violence on the daily lives of Mexican adults? Building upon the stress process model, we used a mixed-methods approach to examine relationships between multiple indicators of exposure to and fear of violence and four diagnosed mental health outcomes, as well as self-rated mental health, in a Mexican community using the Survey of Health and Mexican Migration (456 surveys; 49 interviews). The multivariate models provide evidence that perceptions of insecurity are associated with diagnosed depressive episode, agoraphobia, alcohol abuse, a total count of mental health conditions, and poor self-rated mental health. Past victimization is associated with anxiety. Stress and coping behaviors did not formally mediate these violence–mental illness associations. The qualitative results confirm that residents fear violence and cope by adjusting their personal behaviors. These results foreshadow the emergence of mental health conditions as a critical public health concern for Mexicans living under the threat of violence.