Putting Programme into Practice: The Introduction of Concurrent Planning into Mainstream Adoption and Fostering Services

Originating in Seattle, USA, in the early 1980s, concurrentplanning aimed to speed the placement of children into permanentfamilies, either birth or substitute, and to reduce overallthe time spent in impermanent care. When the first pilot concurrentplanning project was introduced in the UK in 1998, independentevaluation was a requirement of government funding. The evaluationwas expanded to include two additional projects when the numberof initial referrals failed to meet the projected target. Thispaper looks beyond the successful outcomes of the pilot projects,focusing instead on the local authority context in order toexplore some of the difficulties in setting up such an innovativeprogramme, and to shed light on why concurrent planning appearedslow to take off. Based primarily on interviews conducted withsocial workers at different levels of responsibility, the researchersencountered a steep learning curve for all the professionals.The research findings indicated positive outcomes for the childrenplaced through concurrent planning, but limited understandingof the concept of concurrent planning, uncertainty in the divisionof responsibilities, and failure to take up preparation andtraining opportunities contributed to the initial slow progressin the incorporation of the programme.     

Developing Evidence-Based Interventions for Foster Children: An Example of a Randomized Clinical Trial with Infants and Toddlers

Children who enter foster care have usually experienced maltreatment as well as disruptions in relationships with primary caregivers. These children are at risk for a host of problematic outcomes. However, there are few evidence-based interventions that target foster children. This article presents preliminary data testing the effectiveness of an intervention, Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up, to target relationship formation in young children in the foster care system. Children were randomly assigned to the experimental intervention that was designed to enhance regulatory capabilities or to a control intervention. In both conditions, the foster parents received in-home training for 10 weekly sessions. Post-intervention measures were collected 1 month following the completion of the training. Outcome measures included children's diurnal production of cortisol (a stress hormone), and parent report of children's problem behaviors. Children in the experimental intervention group had lower cortisol values than children in the control intervention. Also, the experimental intervention parents reported fewer behavior problems for older versus younger foster children. Results provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of an intervention that targets children's regulatory capabilities and serve as an example of how interventions can effectively target foster children in the child welfare system.     

油田企业投资项目EVA评价研究

EVA的出现给企业带来了全新的成本理念,并可有效避免投资决策中的短期行为。油田企业投资活动具有高投资、高利润、高风险的特点,投资效果直接关系着其发展能力。利用《经济增加值考核细则》中的相关规定,构建油田投资项目EVA评价模型,并针对某油田区块的产能建设项目,计算EVA和传统评价指标。通过2012—2026年的预测数据分析得出,该项目抗风险能力较好,具有财务可行性,并且EVA在评价过程中提供了更全面的信息。     

Using Standardized Clients to Train Social Workers in Intimate Partner Violence Assessment

Evidence-based assessment in intimate partner violence (IPV) is critical to the accurate understanding of risk and to the development of interventions that increase safety. In this study standardized clients (actors) were used to train Army civilian social workers in evidence-based assessment of IPV and in the evaluation of the curriculum's effectiveness. Participation in this training curriculum increased the following: the participants' knowledge about the empirical basis for content areas explored in IPV assessment, their exploration of content critical to an IPV assessment interview, and their interviewing process skills. The results support the effectiveness of using standardized clients in IPV assessment training and evaluation.     

Social Work Practice in Higher Education

This article examines two cases of social work practice in higher education within the context of identifying a model of social practice for use in postsecondary educational settings. The case studies provide insight into a model of social work practice that reflects both the traditional clinical model, which focuses on individual change, and the school-community-pupil relations model, which focuses on system change. The author also discusses implications for social work educators who see college/university counseling centers as an arena for social work practice.     

Attitudes Toward Divorce and Their Relationship With Psychosocial Factors Among Social Work Students

This study aimed to explore attitudes toward divorce and their relationship with general satisfaction with life, spiritual beliefs, parental bonding, and depressive symptomatology among a sample of 210 social work students from two different universities in Florida. Results indicated that the majority of students had favorable attitudes toward divorce overall, perceiving divorce as a solution to unhappy marriage. Participants also reported strong feelings regarding marital obligation and the effect of divorce on children and society. Attitudes toward divorce were associated with spiritual beliefs and parental bonding.     

Challenges,Barriers, and Opportunities: Social Workers With Disabilities and Experiences in Field Education

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of social work students with disabilities in field education. This qualitative inquiry used semistructured interviews exploring inclusion and accommodations in field education. The 15 participants were graduates of accredited BSW or MSW programs and reported one to five disabilities each. Four themes emerged: different experiences with visible versus invisible disability, confusion about accommodation, field as a learning opportunity regarding disability, and a sense of isolation being a social worker with a disability. This study provides information valuable to social work educators and field instructors regarding strategies for improving opportunities for students with disabilities as future social workers, aligning with the mission and values of the social work profession.     

Math Anxiety

Social work students often complain and grumble about having to take courses in research methods and statistics. Do their complaints originate from deep-seated math anxiety? The current study investigated the math anxiety and math backgrounds of 163 undergraduate social work students and 256 non—social work majors. Social work majors were found to have much higher levels of math anxiety than a cross section of students enrolled in introductory statistics courses and found to have taken fewer math courses in high school and college.     

Predictors of Continued Conflict After Divorce or Separation: Evidence From a High-Conflict Group Treatment Program

High-conflict divorces appear to be different than other divorces due to the magnitude of ongoing hostile interactions and court involvement. This study assessed whether agreement, communication, and the beliefs that co-parents held regarding child welfare contributed toward conflict of divorced or separated co-parents. Results suggest that co-parents' communication and ability to agree with each other differed significantly based on the number of times they returned to court. Co-parents' agreement and their beliefs regarding child welfare predicted their perceived relationship quality. The findings indicate that these factors would likely be useful to address in treatment practices.