Adolescent emancipation from foster care

This demonstration project tested the degree to which a short-term, competence-oriented service delivery model prepared 31 older adolescents to move into responsible independent living upon termination of foster home placement. The adolescents achieved significant growth as measured by independent living, employment, and social network skills but not in level of psychosocial functioning.     

Child abuse and neglect: Perspectives on a national emergency

Hundreds of thousands of children are being abused and neglected in the United States annually. The structures devised to respond to this abuse and neglect have been unsuccessful. The United States government continues to spend billions of dollars on programs to deal with the effects of these unsuccessful responses. Child abuse and neglect in the United States now represent a national emergency. In this article, we will provide a historical, cultural, and contemporary perspective on child abuse and neglect. This perspective throws light on the complexity of the national emergency and provides a context for further exploration of the issue.     

Ethical assessment and moral reasoning in child therapy

Social workers find it hard to operationalize the profession's Code of Ethics, and few professionals even rely on the Code, as a point of reference in making judgments when faced with ethical dilemmas. Children and adolescents hold a special position in clinical practice. Issues requiring ethical judgments are more complex, because any intervention involves people other than the child. How the professional meets the interests of the parents and those of the child, is frequently a cause for conflict. This article presents philosophical models of moral reasoning, and ethical assessment, to assist clinicians in identifying and resolving frequently faced practice dilemmas, with the goal of improving the quality of patient care, in terms of both the process and the outcome. Emphasis is not only on the ethics of the actual decision but also on the ethics of the decision-making process itself.This article is based on the author's unpublished dissertation, seminars, and grand rounds presentations on applied ethics in clinical social work. Additionally, this author has had consultative and collaborative contact with the Hastings Center, Institute of Society, Ethics and Life Science.     

Parental abandonment: A unique form of loss and narcissistic injury

This paper presents an overview of the effects of parent loss, looking initially at the voluminous and significant research regarding institutionalized children, and children who have lost a parent by death> In contrast to the considerable literature and information about these child populations, less has been written regarding the abandoned child. Otto Kernberg's and Heinz Kohut's newer theories of the psychology of the self, and narcissistic personality disturbances are viewed as providing useful new insights about the abandoned child population. Two cases are presented, followed by application of Kohut's and Kernberg's treatment approaches. These newer treatment interventions offer more optimism for work with abandoned children, who are an ever increasing population.     

Applicability of multiple matrix sampling to estimating effectiveness of educational programs

When evaluating the effectiveness of an educational program, a sampling strategy known as “multiple matrix sampling” is particularly effective and efficient when the goal of the evaluation is estimating group (as opposed to individual) performance. Although this technique involves sampling both program participants and items and, subsequently, different participants being assessed over different sets of items, the results may be used to estimate those which would have been obtained had all participants been administered all items. The technique is here described in some detail, with advantages and disadvantages discussed, and examples of its application are given.     

Therapeutic challenges in clinical work with adolescents

Clinicians are besieged by an array of personal responses to the hard-to-reach, acting-out adolescent of the 1990s. Practice principles are presented with special emphasis on the necessary modifications for effective work with teens. Countertransference, counter-reactions, alliance, misalliance and pseudo-alliance are defined and illustrated in a case vignette demonstrating the therapeutic challenges and precarious outcome of a fragile alliance. Empathy, self-awareness, insight and the real relationship are designated as key components for a safe holding environment in clinical work with vulnerable adolescents.Presented at the keynote address at the March 14, 1995 conference titledThey're So Different: Strategies For Counseling Adolescents, sponsored by Arms Acres and Student Assistance Services, held at the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, White Plains, New York.     

Exclusion From School: A First Step in Exclusion From Society?

SUMMARY. In recent years increasing concerns have been expressed about the behaviour of young people in Britain and responses to it. Within schools this has focused on the nature and incidence of violent and disruptive behaviour displayed by children and levels of exclusion. Perceptions that ‘too many children’ are excluded from school have prompted inquiries by the government, professional teaching associations and independent researchers and generated considerable media interest. This paper analyses existing evidence and identifies remaining gaps in knowledge concerning exclusion from school. In conclusion the authors argue that an adequate understanding of exclusion from school can only be achieved by locating it within the wider debate concerning social control and civic exclusion.